Keeper of the Dawn

Chapter 3

Mark Valiente figured they were incredibly lucky that Bryce Edwards, a very, very old werewolf, had been transferred over to become their lieutenant in the robbery homicide division. He’d been in Vice for many years, but after some of the recent disturbances in the Otherworld, he’d finessed a transfer.

They didn’t take long at the station. They explained what had happened, and Bryce put in a requisition for Mark to get another car.

“I’d been expecting you earlier,” Lieutenant Edwards told them. The werewolf looked like someone’s grandfather or a lean, beardless version of Santa Claus. But he was sharp, and he was in the right position, because he knew the law, people—and Others—through and through. “But now I see what caused the delay.” He studied Mark. “Pretty lucky you were able to fight him off. Were you seen?”

“The good thing is, if we were and someone called it in, 911 would just chalk it up to a movie being filmed or an overdose of something at a Hollywood party,” Mark told him. “Why? Any wacky calls to the station?”

“No, except for the one I’m about to get to—which wasn’t wacky, just preemptive,” Edwards said. He slid over a piece of paper. “Alan Hildegard called—he’s representing his kin. Naturally he was extremely disturbed to hear that his family’s vault was used by ‘such maniacs’ for their evil purposes. He wants to cooperate with the police in any and every way possible in regard to shutting down this occult group dedicated to raising his great-grandfather from the grave.”

“Alan Hildegard,” Mark mused. “He’s running the family interests now? Aren’t there several brothers, sisters and cousins?”

Edwards shrugged. “Alan is the self-professed head of the family. The oldest son of the oldest son or whatever. He owns the estate. I think one of the sisters lives there, too, and maybe their cousin. I thanked him for his cooperation and told him you were on your way or would be soon. He’s expecting you.”

“Lieutenant,” Mark said, “we found a screenplay on one of the old soundstages—a new screenplay. We’re going to go and see the author, Greg Swayze—because who knows what it was doing there. He could be involved. At the very least, maybe he has some insight. Additionally, now that it’s been confirmed that Others are involved, we’d like to take over as lead detectives on the murders of Leesa Adair and Judith Belgrave.” He leaned forward. “The media has speculated about a serial killer, of course, but we—the police—haven’t made an official statement. However, with what we know now...it seems that these deaths were at the hand of the same killer or killers. There’s a young Elven woman missing still, and we’re racing against time, hoping to find her before it’s too late. Were Adair and Belgrave here for the Hollywood dream? Would they have been actively auditioning? We need to know this stuff, and it will be a lot easier if they’re our cases.”

“Way ahead of you.” Edwards picked up two files from his desk and opened one. “Leesa Adair, twenty-nine, graduate of Carnegie Mellon’s theater school.” He flipped open the other folder. “Judith Belgrave was a waitress in Ramsay, New Jersey, before picking up and heading out here. Hang on, let me check the family interviews....” He skimmed through the file and then looked up at them. “She told her sister she planned on being discovered. Said that in acting, a degree was a bunch of bull—you could act or not, and if you got the break, you could learn while doing. The camera would like you or it wouldn’t. So, yes, it seems that both girls were here following the age-old Hollywood dream.”

“And,” Brodie said, “Regina and Alessande met on a film set, so—”

“So someone seems to be targeting actresses,” Edwards said. “But things aren’t always what they seem,” he warned them. “The percentages of actresses out here is sky-high. Every waitress you meet is an actress—along with every female bartender and half the hotel clerks.”

“Yes, but the women’s descriptions...” Mark said, remembering the briefing they’d all received on the cases. “Tall, blonde and blue- or green-eyed.”

Elven or Elven-looking actresses.

“All right, well...I’ll speak with Harvey Olstein and Myra McQueen, and get both cases transferred over to you. I don’t think they’ll mind. They’ve got plenty of other cases on their plates. Then I’ll call over to Missing Persons and tell them you’re pretty sure that the murders and the disappearance need to be seen as a serial event. Homicide feels they’re at a dead end as far as clues go, and Missing Persons has followed every lead, as well. No one knew about the old Hildegard Studio until you two walked in.”

“We didn’t know about it until we took Alessande to the House of the Rising Sun and got to talking,” Brodie explained.

Edwards shook his head. “And that girl was in here—being interviewed—half the night and morning!”

“In her defense, Lieutenant, I don’t think she knew the head of Robbery Homicide is an old werewolf,” Brodie said. “She wouldn’t have known to ask to speak with you.”

“Old werewolf?” Edwards demanded.

“Experienced werewolf,” Mark said quickly.

“Humph,” Edwards said. “Get going, then. Oh, and, Mark, you can pick up another car tomorrow. I’ve asked the auction guys to scrounge around for something you’ll like—can’t guarantee another vintage Mustang, though.”

Mark nodded. “Yeah, well...hey. It’s just a car, right?” He knew that Brodie was laughing at him. Too bad. He really did like vintage Mustangs.

“We’ll go to the Hildegard estate,” Brodie said.

“You’d better get this one solved quickly,” Edwards told them. He shook his head. “I hate it when Others cause trouble. So messy. Damn.” He pointed a finger at them. “Move it!”

* * *

By the time the Gryffald cousins, accompanied by Declan Wainwright and Mick Townsend, made it up to the guest room in response to Alessande’s summons, the “change” that had taken place had already diminished.

“I’m completely confused,” Barrie said. “You changed? Into what?”

“A giant! An angry giant!” Merlin exclaimed.

“Elven don’t shift,” Sailor said flatly.

“You are Elven, right?” Rhiannon demanded.

“You know I’m Elven!” Alessande said. “And I didn’t change into an angry giant.”

“Okay, so—” Barrie continued.

“Angry giant,” Merlin insisted.

“All right, I’m worried—obviously, or I wouldn’t have called you up here. I...got bigger,” Alessande admitted.

“Fat?” Sailor asked.

“No—all of me. I was about seven feet tall...and I did look a little peeved,” Alessande said.

Declan spoke softly. “Baby shapeshifters and occasionally even shapeshifter Keepers do it sometimes,” he said softly. “When they’re hungry, scared...they suddenly appear bigger. Not giant, but...bigger,” he repeated. “As infants, they can’t control their shifting.”

They were all staring at her. “I’m not a shifter! I remember my mother, and she was Elven.”

“But your father died when you were very young,” Barrie said. “Are you just as sure about him?”

“Stop staring at me, all of you. I feel like a sideshow at the circus,” Alessande said.

“If we have children,” Sailor said, looking at Declan, “they’ll be...mixed.”

“Mixed Keeper—fairly common,” Declan said.

“Who was your father?” Rhiannon asked speculatively. “If he were a shifter Keeper, that might explain why you never showed the ability until now. Think about it. Every living creature—human, Other, animal—gets a quarter of his or her DNA from each grandparent. Sometimes a brown-eyed parent and a blue-eyed parent have a blue-eyed baby, and sometimes they have a brown-eyed one. And sometimes our Otherworldly powers come out later in life,” Rhiannon said.

“She can’t be half Keeper,” Barrie said. “She’s Elven—we all know Elven when we see one. Besides, if she’d been born to be a Keeper, she’d have the birthmark,” Barrie said. “We’re all born with the mark of the race we’ll grow up to manage and whose talents we’ll share.”

“There! I have no birthmark!” Alessande said. “And I’m not stripping to prove it.”

Declan laughed. Mick, a shapeshifter himself, studied Alessande. “Half-breed,” he told her. “You must have the mark somewhere. Somewhere you don’t see.”

They all stared at her as she insisted, “Hey, I meant it. No pat downs, no body inspections.”

“Where do people never see themselves?” Rhiannon asked, looking at Barrie.

“Um, the butt?” Barrie suggested.

“Stop!” Alessande protested.

Rhiannon laughed. “I wasn’t thinking of anything quite so—well, quite so whatever. I was thinking the bottoms of the feet.”

“It wouldn’t be too intimate or personal a question if we were to ask to see the bottoms of your feet, would it?” Declan teased.

“Knock yourselves out,” Alessande said, sitting at the foot of the bed and lifting her legs.

They all stared.

And then they looked into her eyes.

“What?” Alessande cried.

“Shapeshifter,” Barrie said softly. “You may be Elven, but you were also born to be a Keeper for the shapeshifter community.”

“She’s right. It’s faint, but the mark is there,” Declan said.

They all backed away, still staring at her. “Your mother never told you that your father was a shapeshifter Keeper?” Sailor asked her.

“No! I thought it wasn’t even acceptable for Others to...well, you know, have relationships with different races of Others until just recently,” Alessande said.

“Acceptable or not, I’m sure it’s happened throughout time,” Rhiannon told them. “People have always intermingled—whether it was socially acceptable or not.”

“And,” Sailor added thoughtfully, “while we may all want to believe we’ve magically become open-minded, the play Avenue Q has it right. Everyone is a little bit racist.”

Alessande winced, her lashes veiling her eyes. Yes, she admitted to herself, it was true. She herself had been down on Mark Valiente for being a vampire.

“Do you think they hid their relationship, afraid of what other...Others might think?” Barrie asked.

“My mother died when I was seven. Maybe she meant to tell me when I was older,” Alessande said. “Maybe she didn’t want me knowing—afraid of how I’d be accepted in the Elven world if I let it slip.”

“If you think about it, this is really a great thing,” Barrie said. “You have the power of the Elven and the power of shifting, too.”

“I can’t shape-shift. Whatever happened was a total accident. And that’s bad—really bad,” Alessande said.

“No, we’ll work on it. You need to practice, learn to concentrate,” Mick told her.

“You have Mick, Declan and me. We’ll help you,” Barrie assured her.

Alessande looked at them. And then the magnitude of what was happening slowly swept over her. She hadn’t known how to mind read or teleport as a small child; she’d learned from her mother and then from her stepparents. It was like learning to walk, to talk....

“You won’t be a shapeshifter,” Mick said.

“You’ll still be Elven,” Sailor assured her.

“You’re just destined to be a Keeper, as well,” Rhiannon said.

“Which means that you can master the ability to shift,” Barrie assured her.

And if she could do that, Alessande thought, how much more effective would she be to enter the world of illusionists—and the bizarre cult that had grown up around Sebastian Hildegard?

* * *

The Hildegard estate was a relic of old Hollywood, set on a hill and guarded by heavy iron gates—much like the House of the Rising Sun.

Sebastian Hildegard had built the place with materials brought over from the Bavarian section of Germany and had filled it with antiques from the same region. It looked like a truly Gothic version of one of Mad King Ludwig’s fairy-tale castles.

As Brodie maneuvered the car toward the drive, his phone rang. “Rhiannon,” he told Mark briefly, pulling over to take the call. He frowned as he listened, occasionally asking cryptic questions. “Really?...Is that possible?...What does it mean?”

When he hung up, he was silent.

“Well?” Mark demanded.

“It’s Alessande.”

“Is she all right?” Mark asked, wondering why his heart had started pounding so suddenly when he found her to be such a nuisance.

“She’s fine. She—she changed.”

“Changed clothes? Changed religions? Political parties? What do you mean, she changed?”

Brodie turned to stare at him. “Apparently she was talking to Merlin and became very upset. When she did, she suddenly grew a foot taller and looked like an angry giant—Merlin’s words, according to Rhiannon. Anyway, they discovered a birthmark on her foot.”

“What?” Mark demanded. Keepers were born with birthmarks. “The woman is Elven. I’ve never seen anyone who looks so Elven in my whole life.”

Brodie nodded. “I know, but...she’s mixed.”

“She can’t be,” Mark argued. “It was forbidden until this generation. The Others barely got along with each breed, which is surely why the Ultimate Power—God, if you want—created Keepers. We Others can be nasty bloodthirsty monsters when we’re not kept in check.”

“So can human beings,” Brodie reminded him. “Anyway, Alessande never knew her real father, because he died when she was a baby. Her mother remarried, and then her mother and her stepfather died—”

“I know that. And I’m sure that’s why she feels so responsible for Regina,” Mark said.

“The point is, she didn’t know her father. And the evidence says he must have been a shifter Keeper.”

Mark mulled that over. “She won’t know what she’s doing,” he said quietly. “This could mean even more trouble for her.”

“A Keeper’s job is trouble,” Brodie reminded him.

“But she’s not a Keeper—yet. Not really. A Keeper is assigned to a certain area. Rhiannon is the Keeper of—”

“The canyon, yes,” Brodie finished for him. “But there are all kinds of areas around L.A. where she might belong. Or maybe she’s meant to be somewhere else altogether. Only time will tell.”

This isn’t good; it isn’t good at all, Mark thought. The woman is already headstrong and...

“Let’s get through this, then we’ll head back to the House of the Rising Sun,” Brodie said.

He pulled the car into the Hildegard drive and announced the two of them into the guardhouse speaker. A moment later the giant iron gates swung open. They navigated the long drive and parked in front of the house.

Mark stared up at the facade. It was a fitting home for a line of illusionists—and shapeshifters. It was like Cinderella’s castle gone over to the dark side. Giant gargoyles sat guard above the porch and window ledges.

The day itself seemed to darken as they rang the bell.

A butler admitted them.

Human, Mark thought.

They were led down a dark hallway with ancient chandeliers and stands with armor from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. A doorway led to the study where Alan Hildegard was waiting to speak with them.

He seemed to be a surprisingly small man, but then Brodie was Elven and six foot four, and Mark, though a vampire, was his equal in height.

Mark had known the Hildegard name most of his life. His mother had been a working character actress, and she still emerged from her Arizona retirement now and then to play someone’s mother or grandmother. He’d grown up hearing about the famous inhabitants of L.A.

He knew all the legends about old Sebastian Hildegard. He’d just never had occasion to be at the Hildegard estate or meet the current generation.

Alan Hildegard did not fit the house, and not only because he was slight. He was in a navy blue suit that made him look like a stockbroker. He was about five foot eleven and had sandy hair. While his clothing gave him the appearance of a businessman, his casual haircut and deep tan made him look like a surf bum gone Wall Street.

Shapeshifter, most likely, Mark presumed, given the Hildegard lineage.

“Good to see you—I’ve been waiting for L.A.’s finest,” he told them, offering his hand to each man in turn.

“Yes, thank you for seeing us,” Mark told him. “I’m Detective Mark Valiente, and this is Detective Brodie McKay.”

“Can I get you gentlemen something? I realize you’re on duty, so...coffee? Water? A soda?”

“I could definitely go for coffee,” Brodie said.

“Sure. Have a seat. I’ll call Jimmy, and he’ll take care of us,” Hildegard told them.

He indicated a group of chairs arranged on three sides of a lion-legged coffee table that faced a giant tiled and marble hearth. They sat while Hildegard moved to a phone on a side table and spoke with Jimmy.

Then, flipping the tails of his jacket, Hildegard joined them.

“I understand that a group of...thugs has been using my family tomb for some brand of cult nonsense,” he said, irritated. “And that you two broke them up and got them the hell out of there—something for which I’m eternally grateful. I can’t believe that the family sold off the cemetery—before my time, I assure you. It’s disgraceful.”

“We caught a number of people—but, sad to say, none of them were the ringleaders,” Mark said. “They claimed there wasn’t going to be a sacrifice, that—”

“I don’t care! Charge them with trespassing. With desecrating a grave,” Hildegard said impatiently. “I want them jailed. We may not own the cemetery any longer, but we have a contract that guarantees perpetual care of the family vault.”

“Mr. Hildegard—” Mark began.

“Vampire, right?” Hildegard demanded suddenly.

“Yes.”

“And Elven?” he asked, turning to Brodie.

“Yes,” Brodie told him.

“At least this time I don’t have to mess with idiot human beings who have no idea what they’re up against with some of these—creatures!”

“A werewolf runs our robbery homicide division,” Brodie told him.

“Yeah, I talked to him today. I was impressed,” Hildegard said.

“All right, well, we don’t mean to be offensive in any way,” Mark said, “but, you understand, we have to ask you some questions.”

“Me?” Hildegard didn’t appear to be offended, just surprised. “I certainly wasn’t there when my family’s vault was being so shamefully used.”

“I understand that,” Mark said. “But it’s become clear that someone out there is making use of your great-grandfather’s legend. They’ve put together some kind of cross-species blood cult—there were human beings, shapeshifters, vampires... We’re not sure just how many Other races were involved.”

“They worship Sebastian Hildegard’s memory and are convinced they can raise him from the grave to be some kind of god,” Brodie said.

“Trust me,” Hildegard said, and he grinned, “I’m not behind any faction that wants to make a god out of my great-grandfather. I like being the head of the family.”

“You are in the magic business, aren’t you?” Brodie asked.

Hildegard laughed at that. “No—or rather, only in the typical Hollywood sense. I’m a producer. I put together packages for that new cable channel—Horrific. They’ve just started airing original movies, although we’re still pulling cheapies from the studio vaults, mostly.” He gave them a wry look that made his opinion of those cheapies quite clear. “Next original—Slasher and the Sleaze. Thing is, you can make those pictures ridiculously cheaply, and they sell like hotcakes on DVD all around the world.”

“So, these movies you’re producing,” Brodie said, “are you using the old family studio at all?”

Alan Hildegard’s features tightened as if he’d just been attacked by a sudden jolt of extreme indigestion.

“As you know, the fate of the studio is still in dispute,” he said angrily. “It’s the land I want. Nothing on those old soundstages is worth two cents. The equipment is older than Moses. No, Horrific has brand-new, state-of-the-art soundstages in Universal City. And I don’t really like hanging around the studio all day anyway. I’m a moneyman. I invest my own funds in prime projects and raise more as needed—and I confess I like wielding power. I love having the right and the ability to fire idiots at will.” He glanced at Brodie and half smiled, tilting his head at a curious angle. “That’s where I’ve seen you before—you were an actor! I saw you on stage in—”

Brodie shook his head firmly. “I was undercover at the time. I’m not an actor. I’m a cop. I like being a cop. I’m good at it. It’s what I was born to be.”

“Then you understand how I feel,” Hildegard said. “When you’re born a Hildegard, everyone thinks you have to be a magician. Well, I’m not. So, back to the vault. Just why were you there, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“The department received an anonymous tip,” Mark said, “and we went in to investigate. We discovered a young woman, who we later found out had been kidnapped, being held captive and apparently unconscious on top of your great-grandfather’s sarcophagus. We believe that the head priest or whatever he calls himself was going to sacrifice her in the mistaken belief that her death could bring Sebastian back to life.”

“Thank God you saved her,” Hildegard said.

“Mr. Hildegard,” Brodie said, leaning forward. “Two women mysteriously disappeared in what we believe was the vicinity of your old family studio and later showed up dead. Another woman is missing in similar circumstances. If you can think of anyone who might believe they can bring your great-grandfather back to life or is simply fixated on him in some way, we’re on a desperate hunt to find the missing girl before she, too, winds up dead.”

Hildegard looked confused. “This is L.A. County. It’s sad, but women come here all the time, drawn by the desire for fame. And even sadder, some of them die. We do have crime—despite your best efforts.”

As he spoke, a woman suddenly came sweeping into the room. She was small, perhaps five-two or five-three, slim, well built and very pretty, with huge blue eyes and golden-blond hair worn to her shoulders.

“Alan! Jimmy told me that the police were here.” She paused, looking at Brodie and Mark, who both rose.

“My sister, Brigitte,” Alan Hildegard said. “Brigitte, these are Detectives Mark Valiente and Brodie McKay.”

Brodie and Mark both murmured polite greetings.

She walked over and shook hands with a surprisingly strong grip for someone so small. “Are you here about that awful business in the cemetery?” she asked.

“Yes,” Mark said.

“I do hope you catch and prosecute those—defilers to the full extent of the law,” she said.

“The detectives believe we have a bigger problem, my dear,” Alan Hildegard said. “Two women have died—and another is missing. Their fates seem to have something to do with the fool who’s creating a religion around Great-Grandfather.”

Brigitte looked at Mark and Brodie in horror. “Someone is killing people over Sebastian? How horrible—and ridiculous. But...what makes you think there’s a link to Sebastian?”

Mark and Brodie didn’t look at one another; they both knew they had no intention of explaining anything about Alessande’s involvement.

“I’m afraid we can’t go into the details of an ongoing investigation,” Mark said.

“I’m sure you understand,” Brodie added.

“So why on earth do you think we can help?” Brigitte asked.

“Perhaps someone has been hounding your family—or maybe bothering you for details about Sebastian that only the family might know,” Mark said.

Just then Jimmy came into the room carrying a silver tray. “Coffee, sir,” he told Alan.

He set the tray on the table before the fire, turned and left.

“Sit down, please, sit down—Jimmy makes excellent coffee,” Brigitte said, her tone distracted. She herself perched on a chair by the coffee service, as if aware, in a corner of her mind, that no one would sit until she did.

“Sugar, cream?” she asked, filling two cups.

They both demurred.

“Then it’s true,” she said, a twinkle in her eyes. “Cops drink their coffee black.”

“Not all of them,” Mark assured her.

She looked over at her brother and then at the two detectives. “My cousin Charlaine is our family historian, and she lives here, but she’s not in right now.”

Mark produced a card from his pocket and handed it to Brigitte. “Would you ask your cousin to call us when she can, please?”

“Of course. I’m sorry—but I knew nothing about any of this.”

“I hate to say it, but bad news is so common these days—I didn’t even realize that two young women had recently been found dead,” Alan Hildegard said. “But if you need our help in any way, you only need to ask.”

They were being dismissed, Mark realized. Alan Hildegard had spoken, and that was the end of things.

Mark rose again. “Thanks for the coffee, and for your time.”

“Yes, thank you,” Brodie said.

The two of them left and were soon back in the car. When they drove toward the gate to leave, it opened automatically. Either that, or someone was watching and was anxious to see them leave.

“What do you think?” Brodie asked.

“I think they’re shapeshifters,” Mark said.

Brodie grinned. “Don’t go doing Other profiling, now.”

Mark grinned at that. “No, I mean that, as shapeshifters, they can give pretty much any impression they choose.”

“Alan seemed sincerely upset by the deaths and the connection to the family.”

“As did his sister.”

“Let’s hope the cousin contacts us soon,” Brodie said. “For now, I don’t know about you, but I have to get some sleep.”

Mark glanced at him. “I’d like to go back to the House of the Rising Sun with you. I want to hear more about Alessande being a Keeper now.”

“Sure. You can have the car if you want to go home afterward—or you can stay over at Pandora’s Box. Rhiannon has a nice guest bedroom.”

“Maybe I will crash there.”

* * *

Brodie had a remote in his car and opened the large gate at the Keepers’ estate. Wizard, Rhiannon’s massive wolfhound mix, followed as they headed up the drive and parked.

The minute they stepped out of the car, Wizard barked happily, seeing friends. “Don’t jump!” Brodie said.

But Wizard was already up, his giant paws on Brodie’s shoulders.

“We’re not doing so well with the dog training,” Brodie said.

Mark grinned. “He’s a good dog.”

As if aware of the compliment, Wizard came running over to greet him.

Mark was prepared for the dog’s embrace and the sloppy kiss on the cheek he received.

“Sorry—he’s kind of slobbery,” Brody said.

“He’s fine,” Mark said, wiping his face.

Brodie headed toward Castle House, where the others were still gathered. Mark started to follow him but was stopped by a loud “Psst!”

He paused, looking around. There was no one in sight.

He heard a self-satisfied giggle. Frowning, he spun around. He still didn’t see anyone.

Then a mourning dove came sweeping out of the nearest tree to land on the sidewalk before him.

The bird suddenly morphed right in front of him.

And there was Alessande, looking very proud of herself, tossing back a strand of white-blond hair and staring at him with defiance.

“I can’t believe I never knew about this! Shifting is amazing!” she said. “I’m well on the road to joining the ranks of the Keepers.” Despite her ongoing impudent look, she spoke with gentle amusement. “Mark, please don’t be offended, but I hope you know that now no one can tell me to stay out of any situation where shape-shifting is involved.”