Author's Note: This is a revamp of my earlier Tara Chronicles. You don't need to know anything about them to read this.
Chapter One
The thing Vicki kept forgetting was that Henry was fallible.
He made it easy to forget, usually. Protective without smothering her, charming without being too smooth, flirting without intent or hurt feelings, reeling off information about their supernatural opponents. It was easy to forget, in the midst of all that, that even Henry didn't know everything; that even five hundred years hadn't shown him everything the world contained.
It didn't happen often, of course. Henry had travelled the worlds, both human and supernatural, and he had at least a superficial knowledge of most things—knowledge Coreen was always happy to build on.
But just occasionally, even five hundred years of experience wasn't enough.
It wasn't even a case, at first. The winter weather seemed to have frozen most of the supernatural community along with the streets and water pipes. Vicki's caseload shifted away from demons and towards missing persons and adulterers; there were whole cases she worked without Henry ever becoming involved.
Celebrating the closing of one such case, she let Henry take her out to dinner. The meal passed with nothing more dangerous than a little light flirting, so naturally disaster had to strike.
On the way back to Henry's car he stopped suddenly, head tilted to one side.
"What?" Vicki murmured, glancing around.
"Blood," he muttered. "A fight." He vanished abruptly towards the nearest alley; Vicki followed, flicking out her baton as she heard a crash.
"Careful." Henry was suddenly at her shoulder. "It's wall to wall ice down here."
"What's going on?" She peered past him, trying to sort out the shadows.
"Mugging."
"Victim?"
"He's breathing."
"And the perp?"
She could hear the smirk when he answered. "Also breathing."
Vicki stepped past him, crouching by the victim. "God, he's just a boy."
"He's losing blood," Henry pointed out. "Maybe you should call for help?"
"Yeah." She pulled out her phone, squinting as she hit the speed dial.
"Tao!" A woman in her early twenties barrelled around the corner into the alley, skidding wildly. Henry automatically caught her arm to steady her.
There were several very blurred seconds; Vicki was fairly certain she didn't really want to remember any of them. When her vision steadied she was crouching on one side of the alley, Henry standing protectively over her; the woman was standing in front of the boy, watching them, while between them Mike yelled uselessly from her phone.
"Vicki," Henry said; vamped, he was vamped, and why wouldn't her thoughts settle? "Move towards the street."
She took one step and almost went down, the ice too thick for her. Henry steadied her without looking away from the girl in front of them. "What are you?" he demanded.
She laughed softly. "Oh, is that ever the wrong place to start." Crouching, she scooped up Vicki's phone and hung up on Mike, tossing it to Henry. He caught it without looking and passed it back to Vicki, watching as the stranger laid a hand on the boy's arm.
He gasped in a sudden breath, arching off the ground, and she pushed back to her feet. "Tao?"
"Yeah," he murmured, running a shaky hand through his hair. He flinched when he hit the lump; she glanced down at him for an instant, sympathy twisting her face before she looked back at Henry. "What's going on?" Tao added.
"We're leaving." She held out a hand, pulling him effortlessly to his feet and bracing him until he got his balance. "Don't worry," she added more loudly, the words aimed at Henry this time. "We're not hunting anything here."
"Henry," Vicki said softly. His hand tightened warningly on her arm.
Tao looked up, seeming to register them for the first time. "What's…"
"Shush. We have to go." Shifting her grip on Tao's arm, she pushed him gently towards the street.
The phone in Vicki's hand rang suddenly; she glanced down, frowning, and when she looked back up they were alone. Even the mugger had vanished at some point.
"Answer it," Henry told her, crossing the alley. "Tell the good detective you're alright."
It only took a minute to get rid of Mike—sorry, Mike, I must've hit the button by accident; no, I'm not drunk dialing—and she joined Henry. "What's going on?"
Henry caught her wrist, tugging gently until she crouched and then pressing her hand against the ground. "Feel that?"
"It's warm," Vicki said with a frown. "There are no pipes here. Why would it be warm?"
"This is where Tao was lying." Henry let go of her wrist, dipping his finger in a spot of blood.
"Ok." Vicki leaned on his shoulder as she stood. "Want to tell me what's going on?"
"That creature was magic. Not a magic user, not a witch. Magic in human form." He took her elbow, leading her out of the alley.
"Creature. You mean the boy or the girl?"
"It's not a girl. I don't know what it is, but it's no more a girl than you are a vampire."
The street was deserted. Vicki collapsed the baton she'd somehow managed to hold onto through everything. "What about the boy?"
He unlocked the car, holding the door for her. "The boy was human. Although there's something off about him, too."
She shifted as he got in. "Do you think she knew what you are?"
He sat for a moment, staring through the windscreen. "She definitely knew what I am."
***
Coreen was, for once, late coming in the next morning. Vicki didn't blame her; they hadn't exactly been rushed lately.
"Hey! Sorry. I practically had to skate here."
"Not a problem." Vicki passed her a coffee. "That might be cold by now, though. Listen, I need you to look something up for me."
"Sure. A case?"
"No. Call it idle curiosity."
"Alright. What do you know?"
"Not much." She summarized the encounter.
Coreen nodded slowly when she was done. "You said she called the boy Tao?"
"Yeah. He wasn't really a boy, though, more like nineteen or twenty. Why?"
"Not sure yet. It rings a bell, though. Let me work on it?"
"Sure." Vicki glanced at the window; it was sleeting heavily. "Take your time. I don't think we're going to be busy."
Coreen was still studying when Henry arrived that evening, stalking past her without speaking. Alarmed, she went after him in time to hear him say angrily, "It's all gone."
"What is?" Vicki asked warily.
"Everything. The blood, their scent, all of it. It's as if they were never there."
"We saw them," Vicki protested.
"Yes. But now there's nothing there." He dropped onto Vicki's couch.
Vicki looked past him. "Coreen?"
"It's not much," she said apologetically, leaning backwards to snag the book she'd been reading off her desk. "Tao is a hereditary name, applied to the…well, the nearest translation is something like high priest."
"High priest of what?" Henry asked, sitting forward.
"Well, that's the problem. It doesn't say. There's no name, no description of rituals or powers, nothing. It just says that Tao is the…" She gestured vaguely. "High priest figure. The group doesn't even have a name. But it does say the group is ancient and the being they serve is older than that, so…"
"Group?" Vicki repeated. "There are others?"
"Titles." Coreen flipped the book, passing it to Henry.
"Warrior, Mage, Hunter," he read. "Bard, Councillor."
"Well, you wouldn't want to be a maladjusted secret group," Vicki muttered.
"Not that kind of councillor. More like an advisor." He kept reading, but if there were other names he didn't call them out.
"Henry, it reads like the jobs list at your father's court." Henry shrugged, closing the book and laying it aside. "That's all you found?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry, but whoever these guys are they're not big on advertising."
Vicki started to answer and cut herself off when Henry rose. "Where are you going?"
"Out."
"Henry…"
"I have to talk to some…people."
"Oh? The kind of significant pause people who might know something about our mysterious group?"
Henry sighed. "I don't suppose there's any point in asking you to stay here?"
"You're learning," Coreen murmured.
"No," Vicki said evenly, ignoring Coreen.
"Then listen to me. The…" He smirked. "Significant pause people we're going to see are dangerous, so you'll need to listen to me. If I say don't speak, you don't speak, if I say run, you'll run. Understand?"
"Yes."
He caught her wrist, studying her. "Yes?"
"Yes, Henry. I hear you." She twisted out of his grip. "Coreen, keep trying, ok?"
Coreen nodded quickly, skipping back out of the doorway as Henry brushed by. Vicki followed on his heels, determined not to be left behind.
***
Despite his words Henry refused to let her join him at their first stop, a cemetery just within the city limits. Vicki leaned against the car, waiting semi-patiently until he came back to join her.
"Well?" she demanded.
"Come on. We have more places to visit."
The second time he stopped she got out of the car before he could tell her to wait. Henry smirked, leading her into a bookshop, but the conversation with the old man at the counter was in French and she couldn't follow it.
"Are you going to tell me anything?" she asked when Henry took her arm to guide her back out.
"Safer if I don't. The less you know about these people, the better." He glanced at the sky. "Come on. One more visit tonight."
"Then what?"
"Then we do it again tomorrow."
"Oh, joy," she muttered, sitting into the car.
Henry slammed her door more sharply than necessary. "You don't have to come," he reminded her. "I'm perfectly capable of doing this on my own."
"Yeah, but I'm bored."
"And nosy."
"What are you gonna do." She shrugged lightly.
"Get yourself killed, if you're not careful. Vicki…" He sighed, gripping the steering wheel more tightly.
Vicki touched his shoulder, mildly surprised when he didn't shrug her off. "Hey. I'm staying quiet, right? Come on. One more visit, remember?"
***
"Ok. Not what I was expecting."
Henry smiled faintly. "What were you expecting?"
"Not a church."
He touched the statue in front of him, eyes distant. "Places like this…there's a lot of power here, Vicki."
"There's no one here."
He looked up at her. "We're here."
"Yeah. Speaking of, we're doing what here again?"
"Leaving footprints. Light a candle, please."
"A…"
"Candle," he repeated patiently. "There." He pointed to a rack of candles, mostly burned down.
Vicki threw up her hands. "Sure. Why not. Candle."
"Here." He tossed her a coin, turning back to the statue.
Vicki lit the candle, wedging it carefully in the bottom row, and turned to survey the church. "Why is it even open this late?"
"Should God keep office hours?" Henry didn't turn.
"That's not what I meant." She turned away again, studying the windows.
"You know, you two are making a lot of noise."
Both turned, Henry sliding neatly in front of Vicki, to see Tao standing by the main door. "You're upsetting a lot of people," he added. "It's unnecessary. I was going to come to you tomorrow."
"Oh?" Henry took a step forward.
"You make a lot of noise." Tao looked past him to Vicki. "Everyone in this town knows you. Victory Nelson."
"Everyone?" she repeated.
"Well, everyone we care about." He looked back at Henry. "You're making a name, too."
"Fills me with joy. What's it like, being her lackey?"
"Lackey?" Tao took a step away from the door, leaning on the back of the nearest pew.
"Isn't that what you are? I'm sorry, is 'High Priest' the correct term nowadays?" Vicki asked brightly.
"High priest. Is that the reference you're using? I thought that book was destroyed years ago. I'm not a lackey, nor a priest."
"What are you, then?" Henry asked.
"Hers. But I'm interrupting, how rude of me. Ms Nelson, I will see you soon."
"Wait," Vicki said quickly. Tao hesitated, looking over his shoulder. "Who are you?"
"Tao."
"That's not what I meant."
"It's what you get, for now. We hear things from both sides." He looked back at Henry, eyes darkening. "We hear things about you."
"What kind of things?" Henry demanded.
Tao smiled again. "All kinds of things. We'll be in touch."
He was gone before either of them could stop him; the door creaked slowly closed behind him.
