Ghost Light

Chapter 10

The kidnapped fae children had been as different from one another as night and day, but every one of them had left their homes while chasing balls of light. In every vision the glowing orbs danced and twinkled enticingly, just out of reach.

I rubbed my face and stretched cramped muscles. After subjecting myself to over two-dozen visions, I’d agreed to a shower and a nap. The visions the children left behind may have been mild compared to some I’ve experienced, but the vast number of them left me exhausted. The sleepless night hadn’t helped matters either.

I wasn’t sure if the hour of sleep had done me any good, but the shower had felt divine. Wrinkled, sweat stained clothes had been replaced with a clean pair of jeans, black tee, my spare pair of leather gloves, and black Doc Martens. My knives were already strapped into forearm sheaths, and my leather jacket, which would keep the weapons concealed in public, was tossed over the chair to my right.

Ceff sat to my left, not daring to enter the kitchen while Jinx prepared a makeshift breakfast. My roommate was as territorial as a hearth brownie and hostile as a pixie. It was best to avoid the kitchen when Jinx was cooking, especially when she was armed with a spatula.

I slouched against the kitchen counter, the smell of eggs, toast, and fresh brewed coffee bringing a smile to my face. A smile that was gone the moment Jinx opened her mouth.

“So, you think wisps kidnapped all those kids?” she asked.

I let out a heavy sigh. It was the one thought I’d tried to block out during my one hour respite. But now all of my worries came rushing back.

“I think they’re involved, yeah,” I said. I took a bite of toast, giving myself time to think things over.

“I agree, your description does match what we know of wisp physiology and behavior,” Ceff said.

He’d also showered—the heady mix of bath gel and his own scent of salt and sea strong on his skin. Ceff smelled more delicious than breakfast. I drew in the scent of him and sighed.

“If it’s wisps, then all the more reason to stop them,” I said. “I’m not going to let my people go around kidnapping little kids, not if I can help it. Once we find and rescue the children, I have some new rules to enforce.”

“Dude, are you serious?” Jinx asked. “You’re going to come out of the faerie closet?”

“Yes,” I said.

And I knew exactly the place to do just that.

A trip to Club Nexus was definitely in my future. I needed to gain control over the wisps that were currently running amok in my city. I also wanted to warn the faeries of Harborsmouth about the threat to their children. Ceff had a network for contacting water fae, but so far all the kidnappings had occurred on dry land. The fastest way to spread the word was to speak with local fae leaders and Kaye had said that the club was their gathering place. I guess what she’d said about the convergence of power was right—all roads did lead to Club Nexus.

And something that the cat sidhe, Torn, had said still niggled at me. He mentioned the dead rising from their graves to haunt the streets of Harborsmouth. I thought it was idle gossip at the time, my mind focused on Melusine and the potential threat she posed, but what if the sightings were more than rumors? Torn made it sound like harmless ghost sightings, but what if it had been something else?

If specters of the dead had not risen, then what was wandering city graveyards and cemeteries? Unfortunately, none of the possibilities were good. Graveyards attract all kinds of supernatural nasties. Vamps, ghouls, voodoo priests, black dogs, spriggans, even wisps were known to lurk in burial grounds.

What if the ghost sightings had something to do with the wisps? If the two were connected, then tracking the reported ghost sightings may lead us to the children. I had to find this guy Torn and drill him for details.

“Announcing your royal status will be dangerous,” Ceff said. “The wisps may have gone without an official leader since your father’s disappearance, but that does not mean someone hasn’t filled the power void in his absence. Your very existence will alter the current wisp hierarchy, and that is bound to anger some.”

“Noted,” I said. “But if wisps are kidnapping children, then someone needs to shake that hierarchy up a bit. And, with my deadbeat dad in hiding somewhere, I’m the only one suited for the job. The wisps will have to listen to their princess.”

“You said this might piss people off,” Jinx said. She turned to Ceff and crossed her arms. “What exactly do you mean by that? Are we talking stacks of complaint letters, or ninja faerie assassins?”

“Assassins are a distinct possibility,” he said. “Though some faeries prefer the more honorable practice of declaring a duel.”

Assassins? Duels? I was in way over my head.

“We can worry about rogue wisps later,” I said. “According to Kaye, Club Nexus is only open from twilight until dawn. I won’t be announcing my reign until tonight. That leaves me with a few hours to check out another potential lead.”

“What lead would that be?” Jinx asked.

“Something Torn said,” I said. “The cat mentioned ghost sightings in graveyards and cemeteries around Harborsmouth. If humans saw unglamoured wisps floating around a graveyard, it’d make sense they’d think it was ghosts.”

“You think the wisps are hiding out in a graveyard?” she asked.

“Wisps are attracted to hidden treasure and places of death,” Ceff said. “Your burial grounds qualify.”

“It’s a long shot,” I said. “But until I can question Torn, this is our best lead.”

“I didn’t really dress for traipsing around old graveyards,” Jinx said. She looked down at her platform shoes and frowned. “Eat up. I’ll go change.”

“No,” I said around a mouthful of eggs. “We need you here to man the phones and meet with clients. There may be parents only now realizing that their children are missing. If more families come seeking our services, there’s a chance someone saw or heard something useful. Maybe we’ll catch a break.”

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll hold down the fort. If I learn anything new, I’ll text you the info.”

“And Jenna?” I asked. Jinx had phoned our Hunter friend while I was unconscious. She’d mentioned their conversation earlier, but I was fuzzy on the details.

“She’s willing to work as backup so long as you find the kids in the next nine hours,” she said. “After that, she’s on official Hunter business. They’re sending her to deal with some fuath infestation out in the suburbs.”

I glanced at the Felix-the-Cat clock hanging on the kitchen wall. It was already past 3 o’clock. Nine hours wasn’t a large window of opportunity, but my goal was to find the children before midnight. If we didn’t reach them soon, chances were good that we wouldn’t find them at all. Or if we did, that they wouldn’t be alive—and that was unacceptable.

All the more reason to start casing local graveyards and cemeteries. I wasn’t going to sit around doing nothing while I waited for Club Nexus to open its doors. I washed the last bite of toast down with coffee and slid my plate across the counter.

Break time was over.

“Can I get a printout of all the victim’s street addresses?” I asked.

Jinx nodded, wiped her hands on her apron, and slapped a folder down in front of me. Not only was my roommate a great cook, she was also the most organized office assistant on the planet. Just don’t make the mistake of calling her a secretary or you could end up with a split lip.

She slapped my phone down on top of the folder. The last time I remembered seeing my phone, it had been sitting on my office desk. Jinx must have picked up my phone and the case files while Ceff helped me up the stairs to our apartment. She tapped a nail on the screen, bringing up a map of Harborsmouth.

“I programmed the victims’ addresses into your phone,” she said. “You can see the locations in relation to other points of interest…”

“Like local graveyards?” I asked.

“Exactly,” she said.

Ceff leaned in, though careful not to touch, and we studied the map. Each address was marked by a small red pin on the screen. Tapping the pin opened a window with the full name and address of the victim’s family.

“You’re a genius,” I said.

“I know,” she said. Jinx flipped her hair and grinned. “You can use Flyover to see the sites in relation to landmarks. Tap this to add field notes.”

When Jinx had first insisted I upgrade my phone, I resisted. Using a touch screen was difficult while wearing gloves, but this little app had me glad I’d finally caved. This morning while talking to clients, I’d assumed the abductions were scattered randomly around the city. But the pins on the map told a different story. Fae in all city districts had been targeted, but the locations were not completely random.

The kidnappings were clustered around graveyards and cemeteries.

“Your theory appears to be correct,” Ceff said. “The children who were taken all lived within walking distance of a burial ground.”

The major difference between graveyards and cemeteries was that graveyards are often small and located beside a church. Cemeteries are larger, public burial places. The primary difference for supernaturals was that graveyards were always on hallowed ground. Large cemeteries, on the other hand, often had unconsecrated land where criminals were typically buried. Traditionally, this area was at the rear of the cemetery, but as cities grew so did the number of deceased. Most cemeteries now encompassed land not part of the original. If hallowed ground had been a problem for our kidnappers, then they would have stuck to the large cemeteries.

But that train of thought was a dead end. The pins indicated activity around both cemeteries and graveyards.

“Yes and our kidnappers don’t have an aversion to hallowed ground,” I said. I pointed to two church graveyards marked by a cross. “That rules out any demon involvement.”

Some demons have a taste for human flesh. It was rumored that human children were a sought after delicacy. Knowing demons weren’t involved was a relief, but it didn’t bring us any closer to catching the kidnappers.

Harborsmouth was a huge, old city. There had to be hundreds of graveyards and cemeteries. Even using the app to focus on the most concentrated areas of kidnappings, we were left with too many locations to search.

I growled and slammed my fist on the counter.

“I know,” Jinx said. “I spent forever dipping crossbow bolts in holy water. Why can’t it ever be demons?”

My roommate was pouting because she wasn’t going to get the chance to hurt some demons on this case? Some things never change. I ducked my head and stifled a laugh.

I took a deep breath and looked up into Ceff’s handsome face. He tilted his head to the side and blinked at me, fork paused halfway to his mouth.

“You wish for demon involvement?” he asked.

He gave a slow, disbelieving shake of the head and this time I did laugh. Ceff wasn’t aware of Jinx’s love hate relationship with demons. She loves to hate them, especially one demon in particular.

“No, I’m glad we’re not dealing with demons,” I said. “But if Jinx is going to fight something, she’d prefer it had pointy horns and a forked tail. You should see her at target practice.”

It was true. Stick horns on the target and Jinx nailed it every time.

“You never know when a demon might walk through your door,” she said, eyes gleaming. “It’s best to be prepared.”

Jinx patted her back where a crossbow was slung over her shoulder. The weapon looked incongruous with her frilly apron, but then again, that was Jinx all over.

“Yes, but we don’t shoot clients, right?” I asked. “That was the deal.”

Jinx shrugged one shoulder and cleared our plates off the counter, dumping them into a sink of soapy water. One of these days Forneus, a demon attorney and sometimes client, and Jinx were going to kill each other. I couldn’t always be around to break up their fights.

I just hoped the demon didn’t pick today to come through our doors. Jinx was tired, hung over, and heavily armed.

I yawned and stretched. It was time to get back to work, but where to start? I flipped through the case file one more time. Nothing helpful there. If only I could narrow down the most likely burial grounds for a wisp hideout.

“Perhaps our theory is flawed,” Ceff said. He was still looking at the map displayed on my phone. “We know that the wisps acted as bait, luring the children away from their beds, but we haven’t asked why. What motivation would they have to bring them to a cemetery? There are many stories of your people tricking foolish travelers, leading them deep into bogs and over cliffs, for their amusement, but why capture so many young faeries? Once at the cemetery, what do they do with the children?”

It was a good question, one I had no answer for. I sighed and ran my hands through damp hair.

“I don’t know,” I said. “There’s too much I don’t know about wisps. I’ve read everything I can get my hands on, and those stories involve either treasure or trickery, sometimes death, but nothing about kidnapping.”

“Wisps don’t eat kids, do they?” Jinx asked. “You know, like ghouls. No offense, Ivy.”

I sure hoped wisps didn’t feast on little kids. It was hard enough getting used to the idea of having faerie blood running through my veins without being related to cannibals. I placed a hand on my stomach, wishing I hadn’t eaten an entire plate of toast and eggs.

“No, wisps are not child eaters,” Ceff said. “It would seem that these wisps are either stealing children for monetary reward or amusement.”

“Reward?” I asked. “As in, working for someone?”

“Yes, it’s a possibility,” he said. “Wisps are attracted to treasure. With your father gone, and no one to tell them differently, it’s possible these wisps may have bargained their services for gold.”

My chest tightened, as if a crushing weight had settled there, and I curled my hands into fists. If I had found my people and assumed my role as princess sooner, this mess may never have happened. Those children would be home safe with their families instead of huddled somewhere scared, or worse.

“So who would want a bunch of faerie children?” Jinx asked.

I shook my head. Who indeed.

Feeding on children went against vampire law, but I didn’t trust bloodsuckers. For the long-lived undead, the blood of faerie children would be a potent delicacy to break the boredom of immortality. I wouldn’t put it past a hungry vampire to use hired help as bait, if they had the means. And most of the dust bags I’d met were loaded. I’d have to pay a visit to the head of the local vamps. Oh. Joy.

As for fae who may wish to steal a bunch of kids, I was stumped. Faeries were known for abducting human children, not their own. The victims included both Seelie and Unseelie fae, so it wasn’t a case of one court attacking the other, and the list of fae races represented by our clients was vast. I couldn’t see how kidnapping such a diverse group of kids would aid in any political maneuvering, but with the fae nothing was as it seemed. I’d have to ask around, just in case. Kaye said local fae leaders gathered at Club Nexus. Maybe things would seem clearer after a trip to the club.

But I’d have to wait until dusk to interview any vamps or fae royalty. That left searching the homes where the children were abducted and nearby burial grounds. I picked up my phone and scanned the map. A large number of faeries who live in Harborsmouth reside on Joysen Hill. Many of these families were targeted by the kidnappers, and there are two large public cemeteries and three small graveyards on The Hill. With its close proximity to Club Nexus and the entrance to the head vamp’s lair, it seemed like a good place to start.

I was going back to Joysen Hill. Hopefully this time I could avoid the attentions of deadly fae and a run in with the law. With my track record, I wasn’t so sure of that.