Life After Death
Chapter 6
"Harry Dresden is dead."
Thomas's words were not so much a declaration of fact as an accusation that he suspected that I was up to something. It did not help that he had shared a soulgaze with me and therefore knew that I was prone to being less than totally truthful if I felt it was one of those rare situations where the need called for it. Of course having an irritated vampire staring at me whose face is covered with lipstick kisses and who is being forced to brace my hospital room door shut to keep him from being mobbed by a handful of sex crazed nurses and medical assistants might be one of those rare situations that I would qualify as 'needing it.'
From Denny's, I had chased after Thomas in my Mustang and while he had nearly a two minute advantage in getting to the hospital. I made up for much of that delay though because I knew at night I needed to enter by the emergency room whereas Thomas had parked in the normal visitor's parking area, which of course led to doors that were closed this time of night. He then had to drive around while I was just reaching the doors.
Still even this slight knowledge advantage barely gave me a chance to stay ahead of him and while my leg was capable of handling me walking on it somewhat normally, running on it in this condition was a completely different thing. And of course my room was situated in a completely different wing of the hospital where Thomas would have more than ample opportunity to catch up. Therefore I needed time, and as I entered the oddly mostly calm waiting area around the ER and scouted out what resources might be available to me, I improvised a quick means by which I could buy myself a little breathing space without anyone getting hurt.
I cast a quick illusion on myself converting the leather duster and Stetson and made it appear I was dressed in regular jeans and a movie poster sweatshirt that proclaimed my loyalties to my 'team.'. My hair took on its natural blonde appearance and I added a bit of a glassy look to my eyes that screamed I was not an applicant for Mensa award. But for the plan I had in mind that was absolutely perfect.
"Oh my god do you know who I saw in the parking lot?" I said with a squeal that might have cracked glass if I kept it going any further. It drew everyone's attention to me and more importantly to the Twilight sweatshirt I was wearing that glowed just enough to catch the eye without anyone realizing the effect.
"Young lady this is…" The oldest nurse on duty, not behind the desk itself but close enough to supervise what was going on, starting to dress me down for inappropriate tones of voice in a hospital. If I let her finish it would totally detract from my plans.
"Edward!" I squealed even louder. "I mean in the parking lot I saw him! It was really Edward! And he even bit me on the neck!" I said showing a fake hickey to my unsuspecting audience as I made my way through the crowd toward the other hallway that led deeper into the hospital. "Oh my gosh he is sooooo dreamy." I wondered if girls ever really talked like this or it was some 1950's myth.
Yeah this scheme had about as much chance of being believed as saying Santa Clause was here, except of course the perky storyteller in this case had access to subtle magic that lent strength to the story. I also figured that it did not hurt my chances that the other four nurses on duty were all in their mid-twenties and that there were also two girls of about fourteen years of age waiting with their family on word about their brother's obviously broken wrist. I tossed forth a nice push of emotions that said 'trust me' and a sense of pure excitement that put a charge in the air. All in all the magic was enough to move the female members of my audience from skeptical column and into the realm of I will believe it when I see it; otherwise known as Edward fantasy agnostic. Hey fantasy is something I can play with!
"And he was signing autographs and giving vampire kisses wherever you ask for them." In fairness the latter half of that comment was supposed to reflect the autographs portion but hey if they misconstrued it to mean the kisses well that would only work to my advantage. I guess it just sucks sometimes being a handsome White Court vampire.
I stepped to the hallway and cast a veil on myself just as Thomas got to the sliding doors; the noise of these were absolutely perfect to draw everyone's attention away from me and to him allowing me to disappear without anyone noticing. Not that it would have mattered. A mostly physically restored Thomas was romance novel cover dreamy and drew young women's (and older women's, and a fair number of men's) attention to himself like fire hydrants attracted random dogs.
Upon seeing Harry's brother who is of an unnaturally pale complexion and almost seemed to sparkle based upon the neon lights, and a slight help from magic, the nurses, especially the elderly one, all made a collective gasp. Based on their emotions that I was reading, they first registered surprise that my story had been true, and then upon seeing him closer, absolute wanton lust. For the record this is a very natural reaction that many women have to Harry's brother, especially if he is so distracted thinking about something that he is not trying to tap down his natural White Court vampire charm. And thinking he was about to catch me in a grand lie, Thomas was not thinking about how he looked at that moment to those standing around him.
"EDWARD!" The oldest nurse screamed and threw herself toward Thomas who only registered the words though his self induced singular focus at the last possible second. Normally a White Court vampire is fast enough to avoid a clumsy grab like the head nurse was making but right upon the heels of the old nurse's exclamation the rest of the room exploded with more screams of 'Edward' as well which distracted him at the crucial moment. The sexy White Court vamp fell beneath the white uniformed nurse and before he could find his feet the rest of the nurses and teenage girls were upon him. I can only say with some certainty in seeing their initial actions that if they had been cannibals there would have been one less White Court vampire in the world that night. Unfortunately his fate was far worse than just death.
I made it to my room, dismissed the wards, stuffed the duster and the Stetson into a closet and donned my gown, and got myself back into the bed just as the screams of high speed foot pursuit began to draw closer and closer. I flipped on the newly replaced television to the news and tried to look interested when my door was flung open by Thomas seeking the last bastion of refuge against his crazed admirers. The glare he tried to give me of anger only lasted to the first beating upon the door when his survival instinct got the better of him and he focused instead on the more immediate danger.
"Harry Dresden is dead." He said holding the door braced with his shoulder against it. I had seen Thomas go toe to toe with some pretty nasty things that were way stronger than the average biker gang member. Keeping the door secured against a horde of kiss crazy females was probably even more of a test of his physical prowess than dealing with the ancient Mayan beast we had all fought outside a dirty Internal Affair cop's home about a week or so ago that left us trashed.
"I know." I said looking at him but not offering any help in his present predicament. Hey I was an injured apprentice with her leg in a sling; what was he expecting me to do, get up and hold the door with him? "You told me that a few days ago."
"Then why…" The door and the frame buckled nearly a full inch inward as nearly a half ton of hormone induced flesh pushed against it screaming 'Edward' and asking him to bite them. Only with a focused effort was he able to get the surprisingly strong door back into position and even then it still caused him to momentarily interrupt what he was saying so he could ensure the latch was still seated in the correct position. "…then was Harry Dresden talking to my lovely sister Lara tonight?"
As an interrogation technique the whole fighting to keep the horde from consuming him raw really did not put all that much pressure on me to have to answer his questions or explain anything quickly. Nor did it really give him enough time to read my face and try to tell if I were lying in anything I said. But it was not like he was going to leave without some sort of answer and judging by the way he was using his vampire energy to hold back the lusty females I grudgingly decided that I needed to calm this situation down before he used up so much that he had to feed.
I cast a veil on him and ordered Thomas to go stand in the far corner of my room that was an open space and without anything to hide behind. Thankfully being a vampire he can move much faster than the average person so by the time the door slammed open and nine women charged in, I guess he had seemingly added two patients to his list of hospital based admirers somewhere along the way, he was already where I had directed him to be. The Amazon horde entered my room in a rush, clawing one over the other to find their quarry, but seeing instead only me lying in my bed and no place for a hunky and glittery vampire to be hiding from them. That did not stop them from scanning each and every direction to figure out where he could have gone.
"He was behind the door and now is out in the hallway." I said casting just a bit of an illusion in their minds that made them think they may have seen him pass. "Help me up now so I can have a part of him too!" I said trying to toss off my covers but they all ignore my pleas.
Like a school of sharks driven to frenzy by catching scent of blood from their prey, the lust crazed women all spun around and raced back out the same doorway they had just come through, splitting up into two groups to head in opposite directions down the corridor in pursuit. Their pitiful screams of 'Edward, I love you Edward' were probably the human evolutionary equivalent to how wolf packs communicate through howling in a forest to trap their prey between them. I will have to ask Will's wife Georgia if this is true and she understand both wolf calls and lust.
Once they were gone I dropped the veil I had lain Thomas who was at that moment of appearance splitting his time between staring at me for answers and looking for any lingering lone female vampire hunters still stationed patiently at my door. As these two required quick turns of the head I noted that he also caught a glance of himself in the mirror, to include the rather overtly sexy fingernail shredded silk shirt and the island-like smears of lipstick that dotted his sculpted and waxed body.
"Now I understand why you did not come back to visit me after you left." I said as emotionless as I could manage. He looked at me just long enough that I had to crack a smile at his expense.
"I suppose you think you are funny?" He asked seriously. "That this is all a big joke."
"Come on!" I said. "You can't be blaming me for those girls. I have seen you swarmed like that before."
"I'm not talking about that." He said though he did cock his head in for an instant of wondering if perhaps I had actually played some part in this. Sorry Thomas that is a secret I will take to my grave.
"What are you talking about then?" I asked trying to project a sense of confusion.
"Molly my sister Lara is not stupid." He said in a deadly serious tone. "If she suspects that someone used her for their own purpose, she will take that as a personal insult to her authority and seek to even the score and ensure the person behind it never has such an opportunity to do so again." Thomas explained. "Being manipulated by someone is the deadliest form of insult among my kind because we relish doing such things to each other as a means of showing our superiority."
I thought on this and knew he was probably right. Hell he lived with Lara where I had just met her, though I have to admit we had gone a lot further on our first date than I had planned to. The question was though if I should admit my duplicity and my whole plan to imitate Harry to Thomas or deny it completely. I had fought beside him and in a way even owed him for not being dead. He would therefore make a powerful ally in both keeping Harry 'alive' to the general public and helping me track down what was really going on in Chicago at the moment. Of course that was only if he was of a mind to agree with my plan and be willing to do so. If not, then I had someone who knew my secret and served as a potential source of information for others and therefore a rather large liability to my scheme.
"What do you think Margaret?" I asked the shade within me. I figured what was the point of having someone in your head if you could not go to them for the occasional request for advice? And the fact that it was Thomas's mother in this case probably did not hurt the situation and might lend some insight that I had otherwise not considered.
"Child, in life, especially toward the end, I was never one for allies." Margaret's mother admitted rather blatantly and surprisingly. "I found that my vision of the world and what I thought the White Council's role in it should be, while many tended to agree with it in our private discussions, was not one that they would willingly stand behind when those higher up the chains in power took this as a challenge to their authority."
"People tend to want the world to operate within the parameters that they have developed for themselves." Margaret explained. "When they are driven out of their comfort zone they often act unpredictably." She said with a strong undercurrent of warning.
"So you do not trust your own son?" I asked somewhat shocked to hear that suggestion.
"It is not that I do not trust Thomas Molly." Margaret said. "It is that I understand far too well what he is going through and therefore I am unsure of how he would react."
"What do you mean?" I considered Thomas a friend and could not see him doing something to harm me.
I sensed a delay in Margaret's thoughts, not because she did not trust me to explain things but rather because of regrets she still maintained from when she was alive. Finally she built the courage to explain. "Molly, you must understand Thomas is in a very dangerous place right now. He has in the past few years seen his entire world turned upside down and for all practical purposes destroyed. He fears that he is becoming the very monster that he has rallied against his entire life. And as a strictly outside observer both you and I know that concern is not completely unfounded."
"You mean all because of what happened to Harry?" I asked sensing this was tied to his death.
"Not only that child." Margaret explained. "In Thomas's eyes there is a long list of personal tragedies that he has been forced to overcome. You saw the sadness and loneliness within him that I am speaking of when you shared your soulgaze just a few days ago."
"His life is one disappointment after another with no hope, in his mind, of turning for the better. I left him when he was a child, and in doing so left him with a father who not only refused to show the boy any sense of love, but actively tried to kill him as he grew older. His sisters never showed him true affection, most dismissing him completely in pursuit of their own agendas, though a few like Lara showing the caring as one would for a potentially useful future tool which is how she saw and sees him today. He had Justine for a brief period of time who he truly loves and who loves him back, yet now because of his nature and the diametrically opposite effect of that love they share he cannot touch her without being tortured by excessive burns from this simple contact of compassion that his soul cries out for."
"He tried to honor her love by changing from the monster he saw in the mirror." She continued. "He stopped feeding on others except for his little sips from his customers to both protect them and demonstrate to others and himself that he could control the demon within him. But the skinwalker striped that sense of control away from him and fed that demon that Thomas had so long tried to keep starving and contained. And now on the heels of all this, the younger brother who Thomas had so long admired as someone who always tried to do the right thing has been gunned down and stripped from his life completely. The last pillar Thomas felt he could lean upon has been taken away from him forever. He has no one left in his life to help him battle the demon who seeks every moment of the day and night to make him the very monster that Thomas fears becoming." Margaret finished.
"But you are still here." I thought with hope. "Or at least a part of you is. Thomas would love to know a part of you is still around and that you still care for him."
"NO!" Margaret's voice pleaded as loudly as possible. "Please no Molly. That would be the final nail in his coffin and surely push him completely over the edge as seeing himself only as a monster."
"Why?" I asked in total confusion.
"Because, as I said, I was the first one to abandon him." The shade of Thomas's mother explained to me with pained regret. "Instead of being pleased that I still exist in some form, since I have returned to you and not to him, he will see this as the final proof that he is unworthy to be anything but a monster. It will send him into the abyss of his soul from which he will never escape and likely Lara or even you yourself, would have to hunt him down and kill him sometime in the very near future as he accepts this false destiny and goes forth to feed wantonly as the demon within him desires." She explained with an image that made me shudder.
"So then I cannot tell Thomas what I am doing." I reasoned. "There is no way I could explain it all without him eventually learning about you." I knew that was true.
"I am afraid you are correct." Margaret's spirit voice said with deep regret as well. "For now at least that is the best." She offered. "Perhaps in the future once he has dealt more with his grief then you can be honest with him." From the way she said that I doubted she ever expected that particular future would materialize. I hoped that her vision of Thomas's path ahead was not how things would actually play out for him. He deserved so much better than what each expected from him.
I returned to answering his question, thankful for the speed of thought. "I don't know what you are talking about Thomas." I said aiming for a convincing voice. I did not want to leave suspicion in his mind or add anything he might take as a challenge.
I must have struck the right tone because he actually paused to consider my words and seemingly ran through things in his own mind. "It had to be you." He said aloud but I knew he was not actually talking to me as much as working things out in his own head. "It had to be someone close enough to Harry to know he deals with Lara and the White Court and at the same time it must be someone like a wizard with the ability to cast illusions."
I let him stew over this for a few moments as I tried to get comfortable in my bed and inadvertently grimaced as I twisted my injured leg the wrong way. I could also feel a very slight trickle of blood staining my bandages. I guess I had pushed myself a little too hard tonight and so I would need a bit of chi healing to help patch me up some more before I tried anything that stupid again. On the bright side unless something new broke open in my investigations all I really needed to do was check in by phone with both Stallings and Justine tomorrow anyway, and I could use any payphone here in the hospital for that chore if I chose to.
Thomas had noted my grimace of pain and perhaps his acute vampire senses even could catch a whiff of fresh blood. Either way that seemed to add to his momentary confusion. It probably did not help that he was also so emotionally screwed up by his grieving that he was questioning himself on every level. Like I said I felt bad for him, but without coming totally clean, which Margaret had begged me not to, there really was not a whole lot I could do for Thomas at this point.
"Has that other warden friend of Harry's been to see you?" Thomas asked me with a hint of suspicion in his voice.
"Captain Luccio?" I asked not sure what he was getting at. "Yes, she came by a few days ago."
"No I was talking about Carlos Ramirez." He corrected me.
"No." I said as I understood just what Thomas was thinking. Carlos had been with Harry and helped fight some rogue members of the White Court in the past. He had also met Lara and the two had some sort of serious confrontation between them at that first meeting. Carlos was also a wizard, which meant he could likely cast illusion spells too, certainly not as well as your currently bedridden perky wizard apprentice I knew, but Thomas would not likely know how strong Carlos was in these areas.
"No, Carlos has not been by to see me." I said truthfully. "Last I heard he was still in Edinburgh causing trouble with the supports of Wizard Cristos about the whole peace treaty with the Red Court." At least that is the last thing that Harry had been able to tell me. Perhaps Carlos was back in Los Angeles by now and had reassumed his normal Warden duties, but if so he had not made an attempt to call me.
"But you had said Captain Luccio came by a few days ago." Thomas countered. "Having met her I doubt she would leave Edinburgh in the midst of a crisis between factions of the White Council just to come check up on the health of an apprentice. So that means that most likely the situation has been resolved. And if that is indeed so, that means therefore Carlos may be here in town." Thomas said speculating aloud.
I did not want to explain to Thomas that Captain Luccio's purpose was more likely to see if she needed to carry out my death sentence rather than check up on my health. If he knew that information he might just reverse course in his thinking because he understood that I had much more motivation to keep Harry alive than Carlos did. I was not lying to him, but I must admit I did not feel good letting Thomas deceive himself either.
"It is for his own protection child." Margaret's voice tried to comfort me in my head but I ignored it.
"I gotta go." Thomas said all of a sudden and was nearly out the door before my call stopped him.
"Thomas wait." I said with a tone of indecision. He stopped and turned to look at me. "This thing with Harry…" I said.
"I understand." Thomas nodded.
"You do?" I asked confused.
"Sure." He replied. "You want me to keep you informed on what is happening."
He came over to the small night table beside my bed and grabbed a piece of scratch paper and a pen. He first jotted down the phone number listed on my room and put that note in his pocket before writing his own number on the paper. "I am leaving you my cell number Molly." Thomas said and then began to make a list. "If you hear anything about Harry Dresden's death or sightings of him, Carlos Ramirez, the White Council, or even other vampire sightings call me at this number." He said showing me the number and the list of requirements. "So you won't forget." He said with that killer smile of his.
"I won't." I said resigned to the idea that he was going to leave without me telling him the truth.
He sensed my obvious discomfort but attributed it to the wrong thing. "Molly the last thing Harry ever asked me to do was to watch out for you." He said with just a hint of the true smile of the old Thomas. "As a last request I guess I need to take that seriously and I guess it pretty much remains open ended. So if you need anything, call me." He said not knowing his polite words were twisting a knife of guilt in my stomach.
"I will." I said not even trying to hide the pain since he would attribute it to my leg.
"Rest up." He said. "I want to see you walking around in the next week or so." I did not reply as he took that as his sign to leave.
I tried to go to sleep, I really did, but I could not get to that level of relaxation as my mind kept jumping from thought to thought. How would I get the information I needed from Stallings without giving Murphy too much false hope? Would Thomas get himself in trouble search for a White Council Warden rather than knowing the truth of my impersonation of his brother? Was I doing the right thing? Had I created an enemy out of the leader of the White Court by deceiving her? And of course the most important, where was Harry Dresden; was he actually dead?
I was surprised that while all these thoughts danced through my mind that the spirit voice of Margaret Dresden did not pipe up and try to provide any answers. I suspect she heard all my ramblings, as she had demonstrated an ability to respond to me even if the question was not directed at her. That meant she was likely giving me my space and merely listening as I worked things out for myself.
I guess I should be blessed that the spirit my soul was invaded by was female. Had it been a male spirit like Harry, then I probably would have had him trying to offer me suggestions for all these problems. Guys are like that; see a problem fix a problem. They just don't understand that women many times are merely venting when they talk about problems, not seeking someone else to come in and solve them all.
The phone beside my bed rang startling me out of my recollections and making me look at the battery operated clock on the wall. Who the heck was calling me at three in the morning? I had to assume that it could only be Thomas, but he had only left less than three hours ago so that meant either he was in trouble or he had found something really important and had to tell me immediately.
"Hello?" I picked it up after only the second ring. I did not sound like I had been woken up from a dead sleep, but I likely still had a definite wasted tone in that single word. Hell it was three in the morning, what would any normal person expect from the person they had woken up at this ungodly hour?
"I assume I am speaking with Margaret Katherine Amanda Carpenter?" The voice on the other end asked. What the hell? A wizard's true name is supposed to be a very closely guarded secret. Now here was another person who had access to mine. This rapidly increasing list becoming a trend did not bode well for my long term future. However I did note the voice was female and very childlike.
"You are speaking to her though my friends actually call me Molly." I said hesitantly. "And who is this?"
"I only have one friend, though he is someone close to you as well." She said. "He like to call me Ivy."
Holy crap! Okay I will do penance for that later. Anyway Ivy is the pet name that Harry gave to The Archive, who is like a living Wikipedia of all human knowledge. I don't actually fully understand the details of this except that I knew she literally knew pretty much everything about everything. If it was written down or electronically recorded somewhere, in any language, then The Archive knew it and could add these details together to get as close to full understand of reality as any mortal or most immortals could. This put her on a knowledge par with most of the major players. She did not have God's Omni Sentience of knowing everything, but she was pretty darn close.
Usually this power was handed off from mother to daughter, in most cases when the daughter reached their mid-thirties or so. In the case of Ivy, however, her grandmother had been The Archive and had been killed rather young therefore automatically transferring this power to her own daughter who at seventeen was emotionally unable or unwilling to handle this responsibility. Ivy's mother thereafter committed suicide right after gaining these powers causing all that knowledge to transfer to her own infant daughter who now seemingly decided for some reason to call me out of the blue. And let me be clear for those of you who do not understand sarcasm, someone like Ivy doesn't ever call you out of the blue.
"Um…what can I do for you?" I asked since my protocol lessons with Harry had not covered this particular scenario.
"You can do nothing at all." She said. "This call is based solely upon what I can provide to you." Having a pre-teen girl sounding like the Godfather at the day of his daughter's wedding is more than enough to jolt a person into full consciousness.
"Margaret, how did she know my name and where I was?" I asked inside my head sensing that the shade was just as intrigued by this call as I was. I hoped she could give me some answers to better prepare me for dealing with this situation.
"She likely knows your name from your birth certificate." Margaret responded almost immediately. "You location and likely room number were on file with the hospital computers so that would not take long to retrieve either." The shade's quick explanation made complete sense of how but not why, which she realized as well. "But the real question is why would she make this call? The Archive is supposed to maintain neutrality. A call to you and an offer of information is outside of that common definition."
"Ivy I thought you were neutral in all things." I said repeating Margaret's point. I remembered that Harry had tried to get The Archive's help to rescue his daughter just last week and that she had explained that she was limited in what she could provide even to the person she herself considered as only real friend in the world.
"That is true." Ivy confirmed. "But recently my neutrality in these events was compromised by another. A being of sufficient power found a means to extract information from me in order to serve her own purposes." Ivy said in a neutral tone but with words that nearly blew my mind at their deeper implication; especially 'sufficient power' and 'extract information.'
A dozen or more fallen angels, called the Denarians, had tried this once before and nearly succeeded if not for the actions Harry had taken in The Archive's defense. During that attempt however, Ivy had battled eight of these nigh immortal beings by herself, even with limited magic available, and destroyed more than a few in the process until the rest finally found a means to take the child down. The thought that someone, perhaps some of the surviving Denarians such as that psycho Tessa who was just cruel enough for repeating this type of thing, might have made another attempt and succeeded in some small way filled me with anger and with fear. My magic powers may be growing, but I knew I was not in the Denarians' league by any stretch of the imagination yet. Harry where are you?
"Who attacked you?" I asked fearing the answer in actuality but at least then I would have a name to put with my problems.
"Providing that answer would violate my neutrality for she who attacked me does not know that you are actively trying to stop her even if you do not yet know it either?" The Archive responded like an annoying computer. Plus it showed that she had a lot more information on my current activities than I thought was possible.
"What do you mean I am actively trying to stop her?" I asked. "I am a patient in a hospital bed."
"That is true but according to my files you are also currently imitating Harry Dresden." Ivy responded. "The Chicago Police Department's reports on the shooting at the marina list Harry Dresden as the likely victim of the shooting and that due to the amount of blood loss found at the scene, he is likely dead even though no body has been recovered.
"Just this morning, Officer John Stallings who has dealt with Harry in the past wrote a classified Special Investigations memo that he saw someone he thought was Harry Dresden last night asking about the current Komodo dragon case in the Chicago zoo. These reports are kept locked in a safe for those who might follow in case the investigating officer turns up dead."
"The gangster John Marcone has issued written orders for his agents to keep an eye out for 'someone who may or may not be' Harry Dresden and report what he appears to be up to." Ivy continued.
"Lara Raith had her assistant Justine, who writes everything down, issue orders that White Court vampires were to report to Justine any possible encounters with Red or Black Court vampires and that Justine was to pass this information along to Harry Dresden when he calls."
"And a White Council report was recently completed by Captain Anastasia Luccio concluded that Harry Dresden's death cannot be confirmed as of this point, therefore the Warden's will place a continuing stay upon carrying out your execution until such time as the issue of Wizard Dresden's status is fully confirmed." Ivy surmised a list of data elements that when put together made it seem like someone was indeed impersonating Harry Dresden and the White Council report certainly made me the one with the most means, motive, and opportunity, hospital bed not withstanding.
"Wow, you would be a great character for appearing on CSI." I said not willing to quite admit she was right.
"Personally I prefer to watch ICarly." Ivy responded reminding me she was only eleven or twelve years of age regardless of how much information the child had at her disposal.
"Let's assume for the moment you are correct." I said. Hard to argue with a child information protégé I figured. "If you cannot tell me who it is that attacked you then what can you tell me that would not violate your neutrality?" I asked skeptically.
"I can provide you the information she obtained from me." The Archive responded. "In that way, since both sides have it, the balance will once more be established." She paused in her words and then added something additional that was also surprising to me. "I also know of the kindness you showed me with the Denarians. To pay you back in part for that, I will even translate the information for you because it was originally in Latin." She said making me immediately realize she was offering me Stallings's evidence.
"Hold on and let me write this down." Hell I did not trust my memory to this even if I did have Margaret's shade listening in as well. Thankfully the scratchpad and pen were still where Thomas had left them when he was done making his own notes.
"Okay I am ready." I said referring to the pen in my hand and not my mental state.
"How to Achieve Bloody Vengeance." The Archive said as I began to scribble furiously. Yeah if that were the title then I was not sure I wanted to hear the rest even though I knew I had to.
"You start with the blood from a child generations removed." Ivy spoke making me shudder at the thought of blood of a child. I wondered if this were tied to Harry's daughter. I was in a hospital based upon someone wanting the blood of that particular child and it had not worked out so well for them; or eventually for her parents either.
"Then you feast with the bloody decadence of a baron of avarice." I scribbled on and was forced to stop when Ivy informed me that she had said the word 'avarice' as in greed rather than Avalon as in the resting place of King Arthur that I had mistakenly written. It was odd learning through this that Ivy could correct my homework just as I was doing it.
"You must view the bloody visions of what the future holds." She said and I copied this down without a problem this time. Small words work so much better in a crisis.
"While you listen to the bloody secrets whispered by the spirits." Have I mentioned the inflection she placed on the word bloody was a bit distracting when copying this all down?
"Know the scent of blood from an eternal loved one's death." Ivy continued as if reading from a card, which is probably how it appeared in her mind.
"Bathed within the blood drenched by the hand of God over sinners." She continued.
"Steal the final drops of blood from the Angel of Death." She said. I was distracted for a second as I realized this whole Scooby Doo mystic mystery was really not so cool when you have to live it.
"And when all steps are joined into bloody vengeance then the one who is dead shall be restored to life." Ivy said with the sounds of finality that let me know that her information for me was at its conclusion. I wrote this all down and looked at it, knowing she was somewhere doing the very same thing in her own mind. The implications that someone wanted to bring someone dead back to life, and that Harry's daughter may be a part of this was just a little too much of a coincidence for me.
"Did I get it all correct?" I asked just for confirmation since I know she could not tell me much more.
"You did." Ivy confirmed. "And I must say your penmanship in a crisis is better than most doctors writing out prescriptions." She noted though I did not know if this was meant as an honest observation or some type of The Archive inside joke.
"Okay, is there anything else?" I asked since I knew what she would willingly tell me was completely up to her to decide and would not change based upon any pleas I might make.
Ivy paused in her thoughts and I could almost feel her debating over what to say or not to say. Finally she broke through. "Yes I have three more pieces of information that you will need to know."
Wow that seemed a lot from someone who was neutral. "First of all, my guardian Kinkaid took the attack on me as a personal insult to his reputation. He is therefore making his way to Chicago to assist you in your endeavor. Please try to ensure he makes it back to me as he is the only one able to make up good bedtime stories that I have never heard before." I had heard Harry talk about Kinkaid's killing prowess. The fact that he was a good storyteller for a child did not seem to match the mold.
"Second, to pay off the rest of my debt to the kindness that you show to children such as me I tell you that when you reach points of doubt, if you follow the Path of the Eagles as it will lead you to your enemy." She said. I scratched down the words 'Path of the Eagles' on the notepad as well.
"Last, I suggest you check out the breaking news on television right now." She finished. "You have my admiration Molly. Please take care of yourself and Harry's friends." Before I could even answer her I heard the telephone line on the other side disconnect.
I calmed myself down as much as I could through the chi meditation that Hisha had taught me and even started more of my body's healing before I reached for the remote and turned on the television. Had I grabbed for it first I had no doubt that in my emotionally tumultuous state I would have fried both it and possible even the television by trying to turn it on. Thankfully the tv was still tuned to the local news channel so I saw what Ivy was directing me to as soon as the picture came up.
The scene was one of destruction and mayhem in one of the downtown business areas of Chicago not far from the university where Will and Georgia lived. A sporting goods store appeared to be burning out of control and fire trucks were on the scene battling the blaze and trying to keep it from being spread to adjoining buildings. On the street cars were either crushed or burning as well. And of course even at three in the morning the noise and flames were enough to draw a small crowd of onlookers, mostly the same college kids, likely coming home from parties or racing over from the dorms to see what was happening. I turned up the volume to hear what was being said.
"Updating our breaking news story." The desk reporter said. From the look of her she was not anyone important and probably had the late night slot for these types of one in a million events so that the big named, and even bigger pay checked, anchors could sleep at home at night. Well now this intern was getting her fifteen minutes of fame it seemed.
"A third possible terrorist attack has occurred in the City of Chicago in little over a week." She said professionally without emotion. "Last week's bombing of an office building and the attack upon the FBI's Chicago office has now been repeated by what appears to have been a combination bombing and arson attack on a sporting goods store. Thankfully, the fire department reports that it appears no one was in the store at the time of the attack, and only one passing car was overturned by the explosion."
The on scene camera man panned to the overturned dark BMW. I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach of déjà vous. I knew that car even before the reporter continued her story.
"The driver of that car was rescued by firefighter and emergency medical personnel earlier tonight and was caught on camera by some of the first witnesses on the scene." She said playing some tape of the driver getting placed onto a stretcher and then four of the emergency workers straining to lift the gurney and get it into the ambulance. While the video footage was a bit grainy, probably from someone's video cell phone, and being taken at night, and along with the dancing lights from the burning building, I still was pretty certain I recognized the individual being carried out. I mean really, how many drivers are the size of a gorilla and have red hair?