Chapter 7
The air had grown cold not long after Tamsin had left Jack O'Meara's immense property. It seemed the warmth of the day was held in a bubble over the grounds, but once out of its short range, the weather grew bitterly cold again, as it had been earlier that day, when she'd only just left the precinct.
So Tamsin had been forced to roll the window back up. The late afternoon sunlight glinted blindingly against her side and rearview mirrors. She was almost back in the city now, and on her way to Bo's, with nothing to show for her efforts. Jack O'Meara's mansion, and his grounds, had yielded her no answers.
It was a truly beautiful building. Tamsin had started her tour in the small guest room that had branched off from the hallway, the one she'd passed when Walter had led her down to O'Meara's study. It was designed in a similar fashion to O'Meara's office, the carpet and walls a warm, earthy brown, and its furniture waxed dark wood and bright burnished bronze. Books lined its walls, parchment and quills and fresh ink was in ready supply, and a small chess board waited patiently for its players to use it in a far corner of the warm, welcoming room. It had, like nearly every other room, as Tamsin discovered, its own little fireplace.
This guest room led to a small guest dining room, which led to an enormous kitchen, still hot and smelling of the day's light lunch. Hot roast beef sandwiches, tomatoes and a cold, hoppy beer. The last especially made Tamsin's mouth water. Here were two more doors that stood shut, denying her prying eyes access.
To Tamsin's count, these were now four doors through which Tamsin could not pass. The first were the double doors in the foyer, then another in the left hallway, before the guest room, and two more in the kitchen. Walter informed her that the building had been constructed well before refrigerators had been invented, but Tamsin didn't see a need for two doors to lead down to the same cold salt cellar, or two cellars that served the same purpose.
The kitchen had a third door, which was open, and led to another, less formal dining room. And, going in a complete circuit, with two more closed doors along the way, Tamsin saw the building's massive library and informal living room. Everything looked spotless, the design of each room was ornate without feeling crowded, with a palette of browns, bronzes and golds clearly in mind. While old-fashioned, none of it seemed out of fashion.
It did seem somewhat unlived in, however.
Tamsin's exploration of the ground floor of the mansion took up almost half the time she'd been allotted for her search. She was a little too in awe of the Narnian design of the house to feel truly disappointed, and still had the entire second story and garden to explore before she could call the trip a wash, however. So she urged Walter on, though the man seemed to need no urging. He led her up the fine staircase that spiraled from the lobby. Here was a straight hallway, with four doors opposite the canopy and two more on either side of the wall that extended past the railing. These were all open, and held inside guest bedrooms with their own bathrooms, reception rooms and small kitchenettes. Walter referred to them as 'apartments' and Tamsin could easily see why. Upstairs, the décor was given a lighter, cooler feel. The bedrooms were awash in bright buttercup yellows and soft baby blues. Polished silver and eggshell white were also common. Some of the guest rooms smelled faintly of lavender.
There had been two more doors upstairs that Tamsin had been denied access to, and these were situated on opposite ends of the hall. One led to Jack O'Meara's own 'apartments', according to Walter. But try as she might, she could not convince him to tell her what lay behind the other. Eventually, with only twenty minutes left for her hunt, Tamsin asked the butler to show her around outside.
Tamsin sighed as she drove, pale green eyes searching the sides of the highway for even a hint of the brilliant colors she'd been exposed to in Jack O'Meara's garden. Black walnut and red maple trees swayed in the breeze, the only remainder of the regal woods that surrounded the wealthy man's property.
The garden had been almost magical. Thousands of different species of flowers grew there. Small ironwood trees scattered among the wildly growing flora. Stone benches lounged under the cool shade they offered, surrounded by the rich crimson of roses just beginning to bud, by the deep blues, yellows, and purples of a dozen kinds of flowers Tamsin could not begin to put a name to. Endless shades of an endless variety of plants had almost dizzied the usually stoic Valkyrie. A little brook had tinkled its meandering way at the deepest heart of the garden, and butterflies had frolicked beside dragonflies over its cool, glittering surface.
But the garden held no secrets other than those of thriving plant and insect life. Neither had the small pond, hidden by a copse of yet more ironwood trees. They followed the same red-bricked path that led them to it to the property's nursery, where bees buzzed busily over the wild, sweet, blueberry honey the mansion's silent employees harvested for Jack O'Meara's fine, selective tastes.
The trip had not been totally in vain. Tamsin turned into the exit that would take her directly back into the city, a frown furrowing her brow as she considered everything she'd learned at Jack O'Meara's mansion. While she was there, she'd been captivated by the grandeur of the fairy-tale castle he ruled over, it had dulled her senses, given her a sense of awe that distracted her from what she should have understood right from the beginning. Jack O'Meara wasn't just a wealthy, influential man. He was a wealthy, influential Fae. And one that had not been a resident of his beautiful home for a substantial amount of time. And he had been trying to impress and intimidate her, not to turn her away.
Jack O'Meara was most certainly Dark.
Bo puffed an errant lock of hair from her face, straightening for a moment over the sink and the dishes she'd been scrubbing diligently. The thick strands of brown hair fell back again within moments, forcing the Succubus to shove them behind her ear irritably.
While she had busied herself with chores and cleaning, Vex and Kenzi had opted to play an FPS not unlike Black Ops on Kenzi's stolen console. Both had been cheering and groaning intermittently as they went through the game, neither of them taking any interest in their guest, who flinched visibly at the realistic violence depicted on the large flat screen TV. This wasn't unusual in Vex, whose compassion seemed to extend no farther than his own self-interest. But it was a little odd in Kenzi, who was normally more socially and compassionately inclined than her Dark Fae friend. Instead, she showed a total lack of interest in their new case, and Bo's new charge, and ignored the beaten girl, choosing to play a video game that obviously disturbed the curly-haired brunette.
Bo wondered for a moment if Kenzi might have been angry or resentful that Maia had rebuffed not only her offer to play a video game the day before, but if she'd also been feeling guilty that she hadn't managed to convince the curly-haired brunette to stay, thereby saving her from her tragic experience. It made her wonder, though, if staying at the clubhouse would have stopped the Redcaps from coming at all, or if it would have only delayed them. And if Maia had stayed at the clubhouse, and the Redcaps had come after her anyway, what would have happened to Kenzi?
Bo's useless musings were broken by a series of sharp, heavy knocks on the door. Her brown eyes darted to the entrance hall, and she took a deep breath. It must be Tamsin with some news, finally.
The Succubus spared a glance at Maia as she dragged her hands through a towel and strode to answer the rapid, urgent knocking. Maia had chosen to help Bo with her chores, and raised her head from where she slouched over a broom, trying one-handedly to manipulate the awkward wooden appliance into pushing around the dirt and dust bunnies into a tidy pile. Her small, sharp brown eyes met Bo's for an instant before the older woman disappeared behind the badly damaged wall that separated the kitchen from the door.
Tamsin burst through the moment it was opened, pushing past Bo roughly, chattering away on her phone. A glower marred the blonde's pretty features, and her faded green eyes glittered with her irritation.
"Yes, Sir." The tinny, staccato voice on the line was muted by the sound of Tamsin's high-tops as she stalked into the clubhouse, and by the muffled sounds of screaming and gunfire that came from Kenzi's video game. "Well I certainly know that now," Tamsin's voice was sharp with her annoyance. She stopped at the island in the kitchen, green eyes settling on Maia's brown ones thoughtfully. The human turned with a grimace to face the Valkyrie and settled her broom against the island's edge.
"Yes! Got that whoring bastard!" Kenzi shrieked in delight, an avatar dressed in army fatigues fell with an exaggerated cry on the TV screen. Tamsin waved her arm behind her in an attempt to quiet the unmindful human.
"Oh no, darling. I'm afraid that kill was all mine!" Vex crowed. The score counter must have confirmed his statement, Kenzi squalled at him and would have argued, but for the sponge that flew between their faces. Dish water sprayed as the sponge splattered into the bottom right corner of the TV screen and fell with a wet thud to the floor.
Four sets of eyes settled on Maia, who winced visibly with the effort it took her to reach across the counter, snatch the sponge and throw it across the room.
"Shut up!" she whispered fiercely, scowling at Kenzi and Vex. Bo took the opportunity to lean over and snatch the remote from Kenzi's lap, turning the TV off with a final, soft click and ensuring Tamsin had the quiet she needed to finish her phone call.
"Yes, I understand, Sir," Tamsin all but growled into her phone before ending the call and stuffing the device into her coat pocket. The Valkyrie paused a moment, collecting herself, and knelt against the island again, her elbows braced against the tiled surface and her chin settled against her knuckles. She stared thoughtfully at Maia, who returned her glare unflinchingly, then broke eye contact and sighed. She sounded exhausted.
"Did you find it?" Bo prompted, hardly giving the blond a chance to speak.
"I found it. I followed the signal to a mansion outside the city – "
"Wait, you followed it?!" Bo's voice was incredulous, "I thought you were going to call me when you managed to trace it?"
Tamsin's eyes flared in anger. She shoved herself away from the island to confront the irritable Succubus.
"Wait a tick, you're the one who said we weren't partners, remember?"
"Enough!"
Maia's bellow came as a surprise to everyone in the room. Tamsin and Bo turned to face the broken human, whose bruised face was a mask of irritation and impatience. "Ya'll can decide who the alpha dog is later, okay? There are more important things to do right now." Maia glared at the bickering women until they shrugged their shoulders in submission, and Tamsin turned again to face her, pointedly ignoring Bo while she continued her explanation.
"I followed the signal to a mansion outside the city. Place belongs to a dude called Jack O'Meara. He's Dark Fae. Really well connected. I can't touch him." Tamsin watched Maia as she settled herself onto a stool, flinching at the obvious pain her splintered ribs, shattered wrist and beaten shoulder caused her. If the severe beating she'd been dealt the night before had been intended to scare her, or slow her down, it hadn't, and only seemed to spur her even more.
"So, dead end then?" Kenzi chirped from the couch where she twisted around to watch the adults discuss their case. She sounded strangely nonchalant about it, it brought a frown to Bo's face.
"I guess so," the Succubus answered quietly, shooting her best friend a dark, pensive look.
"But you think that's where Seth is? That this Jack O'Meara guy has her?" Maia looked from Bo to Tamsin. It was obvious she didn't care if Jack O'Meara was god himself, she was that determined to bring Seth home. It seemed to Maia that now, it really boiled down to which of these women had the guts to help her.
A sudden, tiny surge of respect for the unyielding determination in the badly abused human blossomed in Tamsin. True, unyielding loyalty was hard to come by, few people offered it to such a degree when the object of their loyalties was gone, even possibly dead. And the girl showed a tough streak that seemed to have little to do with her physical prowess, or lack thereof.
Then again, perhaps such qualities were only missing among the Fae. Tamsin spared a quick glance at Kenzi, her pale green eyes thoughtful and her brow wrinkled into a deep-lined frown. Kenzi had shown remarkable loyalty towards Bo since the day they'd met, had displayed the same towards Dyson not a year ago, when he'd been left behind in the Garuda's den. Her resourcefulness, and aforementioned loyalty, had earned her a place among the Fae she called family.
Lauren, also, had earned her standing with the Light. Tamsin knew that even the Morrigan coveted the doctor's intelligence and work ethic, and her loyalties toward both the Light and to Bo were well tested and widely known.
Sometimes, it seemed to Tamsin that the humans that had immersed themselves in the world of the Fae often rose to the challenges presented to them with a relentless vivacity that she'd had to admit many of the Fae she'd known throughout her many lifetimes had seemed to lack.
"I know that's where Seth is." Tamsin straightened again and shook herself of her inner musings. She looked back at Maia, noting the hard edge to the human's bruised and swollen features. She wouldn't be pleased to discover that Tamsin's hands had been proverbially tied: there was nothing the Valkyrie could 'legally' do to help her at this point.
Tamsin's phone vibrated in her pocket, and it flashed wildly behind her fingers as she pulled it out and frowned down at the screen. "What I need is a warrant, but the judges and Elders keep shutting me down." That was half the truth. The Valkyrie swiped her thumb across the screen and raised the phone to her ear, effectively putting the whole discussion on hold.
"Dyson," she greeted, a cool smile crossing her lips. She'd been wondering when the Wolf would start really nosing into her business.
The smile fell almost as soon as it had come, however. Tamsin's eyebrows knit together in a frown and her lips pursed together, "No, I haven't." The Succubus' expression was grim, she touched her fingers to Maia's hand reassuringly. Obviously, the Succu-let was still gung-ho about playing 'hero'. Being unaligned certainly had its perks. Bo's dark brown eyes rose to meet Tamsin's searching gaze. "Hold on."
The receiving end of her phone dropped from her face. The concern in Tamsin's expression made Bo's heart freeze in her chest.
"Lauren didn't happen to decide to play hooky today and play nookie instead with you, did she?" Tamsin's voice was soft, gentler than it had been all day, especially when directed at Bo. The Succubus felt her stomach drop, the blood drained from her face.
"No," she croaked. Maia's earlier anxiety over leaving Lauren at home alone returned to Bo suddenly, flooding her with cold fear and dread.
"Shit. I'll meet you there," Tamsin ended the call in a hurry and stuffed the phone back into her pocket. "Lauren's missing, her apartment's empty. The door's busted open, but there's no sign of struggle," she explained, not giving the Succubus a chance to interrogate her. Tamsin was already on her way out the door, and Bo grabbed her jacket and started to follow suit.
"No. Bo. You have to stay here," Tamsin's words were sharp. She grabbed Bo by the elbow, knuckles turning white with the strength of her grip.
"Like hell I do! That's my girlfriend that's just been kidnapped!" Bo snarled, struggling to free her arm. Her eyes flashed blue for an instant, Tamsin's nostrils flared and her lips curled in a responding snarl.
"We can't keep separating like this! You have to stay with Maia and Kenzi, Bo! Dyson and I will handle this!" Tamsin shook Bo's elbow roughly, trying, literally and quite badly, to knock some sense into the frightened woman.
"Bo, she's right, we have to stick together." Maia eased off her stool and settled a hesitant hand on the small of Bo's back. Her small brown eyes searched Tamsin's while she rubbed deliberate circles soothingly into Bo's skin, "we'll come with you."
"No." Tamsin spared a quick glance at Maia, then stared resolutely again at Bo. The Succubus' eyes flashed blue again, her lips peeled back in another snarl. "It's too dangerous," Tamsin gave Bo another, gentler shake, "Dyson and I will find her, Bo. We'll bring her back. But right now, I need you to circle the wagons, OK?"
The two women glared at each other intensely for a few minutes, Bo's eyes undulating a slow, unsteady blue. A muscle in Tamsin's jaw twitched. For a moment, Tamsin was sure that Bo was going to completely lose her shit.
Then Bo's eyes flashed a deep, cold blue one last time, and settled back on their normal dark brown. Her lip quivered, her eyes flooded with desperate fear and resignation.
"Fine," Bo's words were weary, and as resigned as the frightened look in her eyes, "go."
An unreadable expression crossed Tamsin's face for an instant before the Valkyrie spun on her heel and dashed out the door. Kenzi leapt over the couch and rushed at Bo, gathering the crumpling woman into her small arms and crooning consolingly at her.
"Oh, Bo-Bo. It's all gonna be OK! …"
Vex sighed, doing his best to appear bored, and snatched the remote from its resting place and flipped the TV back on.
Maia took a step back, feeling suddenly uncomfortable and out of place while Kenzi rocked and cuddled her distraught best friend. She bit her lip, watching them with a mixture of longing, fear, and overwhelming guilt, until she thought she saw a cruel, selfish smile flash across Kenzi's lips. A frown suddenly furrowed itself onto Maia's face. It must have simply been her imagination.
With a heavy sigh, Maia shuffled across the room to her sponge's landing place and knelt with a painful grimace to pick it up. Until Tamsin called, again, with any news, there was only one thing that could distract her from the powerful anxiety and guilt that washed through her: chores.
The sound of Jack O'Meara's expensive black loafers pattering against rock echoed in the cold silence as he led the way down the stone staircase. Dolph's hand clutched painfully at Lauren's elbow, he gave her a little shake to indicate he wanted her to move faster, and she nearly tripped down the steps trying to keep up. They'd made the hour-long car drive in complete silence, and their journey to the bowels of the mansion was no different. She hadn't been given any opportunity to look about at the surroundings Tamsin had found so charming mere hours ago, only kept her eyes locked tightly to the back of Jack O'Meara's head, her lips twisted into a snarled line.
The bottom of the stairs ended abruptly in a T-section. A cool draft from the right hallway brought with it the faint scent of fragrant wines, but O'Meara led them down the left. Torches burned in sconces in the narrow hall, spluttering weakly against the darkness that threatened to sweep through. Shadows gathered in the corners, pooled around Lauren's feet as she followed unwillingly to a heavy unfinished doorway. O'Meara fit a large key into its lock, the tumblers groaned and spat against it as he twisted it. The door, in stark contrast, swung open silently.
The stench of disease and decay hit the doctor like a fist to the gut. She coughed and spluttered against it, hands immediately rising to her face in a weak attempt to block out the vile stench. They turned sharply to the right, and through eyes blurred with tears that gathered with the reek that threatened to choke her, Lauren could see they'd come to another, shorter hallway. Heavy iron bars extended to her left and right, broken by narrow expanses of stone wall. Torches sputtered along the broken wall here, and where the shadows leapt and recoiled in the corners, she could see moss and mold creeping along.
Even Lachlan's dungeon was not quite as damp and dreadful as this. O'Meara led them to the furthest cell on their left, and with a smile that looked more mad than cheerful to the terrified doctor, turned another key into its lock and slid the gate open with a tired, dying shriek.
Dolph's painful grip on her elbow finally slackened, Lauren felt O'Meara's solid hand at the small of her back, pushing her almost gently into the cell. The gate cried shut behind her. She turned slowly, not bothering to hide the hatred and disgust that twisted her face into a furious grimace, and glared at her jailor.
"Make yourself comfortable, my dear. You may or may not be here for some time," O'Meara chuckled and straightened his jacket compulsively. "Rather depends upon how soon your darling Bo comes for you, doesn't it?"
"I think we went a little off target for a short while there," his dark gaze drifted from Lauren's fierce expression to the darkness that pooled and curled in on itself in the furthest corners of Lauren's new prison, then slowly flicked back again, and he tutted softly. "It was surprising, that the human creature allowed another of the Dark to continue the investigation, considering the consequences. Still," O'Meara reached between the bars of the cell, his fingers outstretched to brush gently along Lauren's cheek and jaw. She recoiled from his touch, disgust flooding her expression and an angry light sparking in her eyes. O'Meara allowed his hand to drop by his side again, his tone thoughtful as though he only thought aloud to himself, "this will bring the Succubus back on track."
O'Meara's eyes focused on Lauren's once again, and a clever, cold smirk crossed his thin lips, "won't it, my dear?"
The cruel smirk, the fact that he'd kidnapped her for bait to get to the woman she loved, and the confident manner in which he turned and stalked out of the dungeon, with Dolph close at his heels, sent the typically calm and collected Lauren into a frenzy of panic and rage. She slammed her palm into one of the bars, light brown eyes ablaze, as she screamed after them, "leave her alone!"
"You leave her alone!" she cried, choking back a furious sob. The door slammed heavily behind them, and Lauren sank to the floor in a haze of shock and terror. Hot tears spilled down her cheeks, an anguished groan fell from her lips as she curled into herself and leaned heavily against the bars of her cage.
"Lauren…" a weak voice croaked from among the shadows, accompanied by the sharp, wracking coughs of the terminally ill. Lauren whirled around, honey eyes searching the corners of her prison apprehensively. She swiped the tears from her face and stood, her legs trembling with the effort.
A dark, dejected shape shifted in the furthest, darkest corner. Pale fingers flashed wanly in the shadows. The shape shook with the wrenching coughs that seized it, and Lauren took a cautious step towards it. With every step, the shape solidified into that of a small woman, dressed in the rags of what had once been a very fine two piece skirt-suit. She was covered from neck to ankles in raw sores that seeped blood and a green-yellow pus.
Eventually, the coughs subsided. Lauren knelt beside her, fingers reaching to brush sweat-soaked silver hair from the petite Fae's face.
"Lauren," the woman croaked again, a tired smile breaking the sores that swelled along her graying lips. Dark brown eyes searched Lauren's own for confirmation, though she seemed quite confident that she had put the right name to Lauren's face.
Lauren nodded. The poor woman's skin burned with fever, her skin, and breath, stank of disease and death.
"Seth?" Lauren ventured. This was the woman Maia was looking for, the woman she'd risked her life, and now Bo's, to find. Pity and compassion swelled in Lauren's heart – after everything Maia had gone through, she would find nothing more than a diseased corpse at the end of her terrible search. The bedraggled creature nodded weakly and covered one of Lauren's hands with a trembling, icy one of her own.
Lauren brushed Seth's hair away from her eyes, fighting against the flinch the radiating heat brought to her lips. Thick strands of the damp silver hair came away in her hand. She pressed her fingers against Seth's palm.
"Can you squeeze my fingers?" she asked, voice soft, ever the doctor.
"This is no illness you will recognize, Doctor Lewis," Seth murmured, though she curled her frigid, stiff fingers around Lauren's. There was a weak, pitiful pressure before Seth's strength failed her and her hand fell away. More dry coughs racked the tiny decaying bundle. Lauren pulled her coat off and settled it around Seth's shoulders, lifting her gently to tuck the warm leather around as much of Seth's body as she could manage.
Eventually, the coughing subsided again.
"Thank you," Seth rasped, and sighed wearily as she slumped further against the wall. The Seer's dull brown eyes brightened for a moment, and her lips curled a little at the corners in a weak attempt to smile, "how's my Maia?"
Lauren grit her teeth against the dread question. Her fingers circled Seth's limp wrist to check her pulse while she considered her answer. It was weak and faint, but still unrelenting.
"She's strong," Lauren pressed her lips together in a supportive smile and settled herself close to Seth's shivering body, "she's looking for you." Her fingers searched for Seth's hand lying slackly between them, and slipped reassuringly into its damp, cold grasp.
"That's my girl," Seth coughed, "that's my Maia." The Seer closed her tired eyes, a shadow of regret passing over her pale features, aged and twisted by pestilence and fatigue. "Fates be damned. If only she loved me less."
Author's Note: Just wanted to give a quick shout out to my reviewers, followers and 'favorite-ers' (I'm making it a word, mm'kay? ;D), thanks so much for your spoken and unspoken appreciation/support. It makes my day to see that I have new readers and new reviews. So thank you!