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  I'd regained my independence over time but that part remained. I would never seek out Almushil or any knowledge of him.

  Nomia had been the one to put me back together. Her and the other dryads of the glade. It had taken weeks for me to stop laughing at everything and another half year for the nightmares to stop – for the most part anyway. Nomia's had blocked out parts of my damaged mind – put a bandaid on the blistering wound. The damage was still there, hidden and waiting for a chance to be dragged back up to the surface. I knew that at any moment, I was a few mental clicks away from shutting down.

  I departed. Skitter had given me some information but the price left a bitter taste in my mouth.

  My mutt greeted me at the car with tail wagging and barking through the window. I didn't drive away immediately and sat there for a time just petting his soft coat.

  Bucket was nice. He didn't judge me. Some days I wouldn't leave my room at all and would just stay curled up with him while I tried to find the strength to do anything. It had been Nomia's idea. She said that Bucket would help me connect with my humanity and, as always, Nomia had proven correct. Once more I considered her offer to became one of the fey. I decided against it. Pride or maybe arrogance kept me from making the easy choice.

  “Alright buddy,” I said while pushing the mutt into his side of the car, “Enough self loathing for the day. We got a monster to hunt.”

  The car ride home was a short one but it felt like an eternity. Speaking of those events had made them clear in my mind. It made focusing on anything, even the road, a hard prospect. A headache began to boil in the back of my mind. This was all a distraction I could ill afford.

  Tracking spells were rather complex stuff. The spell itself was easy enough but it required focus to maintain if you wanted more than a few moments worth of information. Master trackers, the types the justicars employed, could hold a tracking spell for hours, but I doubted I'd have more than thirty minutes. That was assuming I got my idle mind under control. A stray thought about Almushil would be enough to waste hours of effort.

  After parking my car, I went into the lobby of my apartment.

  On my way in I saw just the person I was looking for; a scrawny sort of young man that stood behind the counter. He lowered a newspaper he was pretending to read from behind the desk.

  “Evening, Miss Vane.”

  “Ben! Just the person I was hoping to see,” I hoped my enthusiasm wasn't too fake.

  He didn't seem to notice, that or he noticed and didn't mind. Ben was a hard person to read, his face being a constant grimace of annoyance that didn't match his easygoing personality.

  He folded the paper on the desk and sighed at me, an exaggerated gesture, “Something I can help you with? So long as I'm not cleaning up blood again.”

  “Blood?” I shook my head, “Where'd you get that idea?”

  He leaned in a bit so that he could speak in a whisper, “Mainly from you being carried through the lobby at midnight by two men the other day. Wanted to call the hospital but they paid me a small fortune to look the other way.”

  “I'm impressed,” I said, “Most people aren't smart enough to just take the bribe.”

  “Heh, they don't pay me enough to stop folks like that,” he gave a shrug, “Besides, figured if they wanted to harm you they wouldn't have brought you back to your room. One of them even had scrubs. Don't know what type of business you got going on Miss Vane and that's how I like it. Less blood next time though, hell of a mess and I only make minimum wage.”

  I gave a good laugh at that, “No promises.”

  He shifted ever so slightly, “Um, not that its my business but ah...are you alright. Looked ugly the other night. You weren't even awake.”

  “That man in the scrubs. Works wonders. Slept like a baby, been running around all day, no issue,” I said incorrectly. I was anything but fine.

  “Hmph, if you say so,” in his eyes I could see a certain bit of doubt but Ben knew me. Not in a overly friendly way, but he knew when to drop an issue, “You said you were looking for me. Something broken in your room?”

  “Actually,” I nodded my head toward Bucket.

  Ben frowned, “You want me to watch it for you?”

  “It isn't an 'it', Bucket is a he and yes I was wondering if you might be able to watch him for a little bit,” I gave him my most promising smile, he sighed, “Just until later tonight. I promise.”

  “Mhm. Just like that last month. One day to most people doesn't mean a week you know,” he looked over the counter at Bucket. The mutts tail began to swipe back and forth, “Ah, fine. But you're paying for his food this time. The thing eats like a monster.”

  I reached into my pocket, pulled out a few bills and handed them over to him. His eyes widened a bit in surprise, “Keep whatever you don't use.”

  It was far more than needed but I liked Ben. He was nice and quick with a joke.

  Besides, the elder's stipend was far more than I used on personal matters while also being just shy of useful enough to get anything of true value. The elders had decided that things like housing and water bills were something wizards shouldn't have to deal with. They figured it was worth it to pay everyone to be researching full-time instead of working in retail. It also cut down on the number of rogue wizards screwing with the economy through mind magic.

  “Um...yeah, thanks,” he held the money, no doubt wondering if it was real, “What exactly is it you do anyway?”

  “Hunt monsters. More of a hobby though,” I replied with a smile, knowing he wouldn't believe me. He raised an eyebrow, shrugged and went to grab Bucket.

  By the time I got to my apartment, the arm had thawed out. Mostly, anyway. Figuring that I only needed a bit of it for the spell, and wanting a backup, I cut off the thumb, a chunk of flesh, and the pointer finger. It was enough that I should be able to get a signal on the tracking spell but I'd also have enough for another chance if something went wrong. Using less also meant that I'd be able to have the remains for alchemy later.

  Yummy.

  Before I went ahead and committed myself to a showdown with the monster, I went over what Skitter had told me. He thought it was an eater, a human possessed by a dark spirit after having committed some kind of atrocity. Particularly, he thought it was an eater of family. A creature of betrayal than turned against its loved ones in life. The spirit would sustain the body even when the flesh was ripped away. It made more sense in terms of how it managed to completely ignore pain. The thing was just a meat puppet.

  The actual threat was the spirit. So long as it was sticking around in the body, I didn't have much of a chance to put it down for good.

  A circle of power would be needed. Circles were the groundwork for many spells. I'd used one when summoning Almushil, but that was just one of many uses. The circle itself was just a foundation upon which any number of templates could be applied – the Swiss army knife of the magical world.

  I'd need to make one before I confronted the creature. A simple barrier against spirits would likely rip the eater out of the body. I'd need to trick it into crossing it first, but I figured I'd be able to do that easily enough. It was smart but only in a animistic manner. Traps tended to work well on animals.

  It took me a few minutes to sketch out a rough design on paper. I used a number of references from my library and double checked it by activating it with a small amount of will. Energy flickered in the circle, confirming that a spell was in effect. I stuffed the design into my pocket, it was too small to hold back a spirit as strong as an eater but I'd use it as a reference later.

  From my closet I grabbed a heavy duty combat knife, the type used by professional thugs. If I needed to carve out a circle it would help to have. It also never hurt to have a knife when fighting monsters.

  With my preparations concluded I began the ritual itself.

  First I took a shower. Water was something of a purifying element. We used it to wash away the grim of the day and face a new one fresh. It was ingrai
ned in us from the earliest age and wizards were no exception. A dozen lines of thoughts were put to rest under the water, the joy of using hair care products and a gentle massage that all showers proved to be. The day had been tiring, but I was alive and I still needed to make sure others would be.

  I stepped out refreshed and ready for magic. Wrapping myself up in a comfortable bath robe, I went to the center of my room where I'd set up the ritual. The lights were extinguished save for few candles on my dinning room table. They were laid out in a circular pattern and within were the bloody remains of the monster. These elements would serve as my focus, tracking back to the body they'd once belonged. All it would take is a proper incantation and a bit of luck.

  I didn't have much luck these days but I'd always been rather disciplined when it came incantations.

  Theron had taught me through some rather unorthodox methods. Briefly, I remembered balancing on a beam while he tossed a number of force spells at me. They were harmless in theory but falling from the high beam had left a number of marks, but I'd be damned if I hadn't learned to be cool under pressure. Nothing taught a child like the threat of a seven foot fall.

  Shaking my head, I dismissed the memory and refocused myself. Those stray thoughts were exactly the sort of thing I couldn't afford once I began the spell.

  My eyes closed and I began a series of steady breaths. With each one I blocked out another absent thought. Until there was nothing left but my mechanical knowledge of the ritual I needed to perform.

  “Here goes nothing,” I raised my hand, channeled my will, and began, “Flesh that had been one, seekith that to which you belong. Allow this vessel to see the path and rejoin that which had been lost!”

  A ripple of energy filled the room and a slight smell of burning flesh became unpleasantly clear. The thumb and finger burned into ashes though no fire could be seen nor did I feel heat. That was the nature of this spell. It consumed the lost and gave insight to the origin. When the last bit of the thumb was burned away, an imagine entered into my head. A vacant, large room that was filled with dozens of wrecked cars and shattered metal frames. A warehouse of some kind.

  It wasn't the most useful information by itself but it was accompanied by a strong since of direction. I now knew what it felt like to be a magnet. The spell hadn't given me an exact location but I had a method of finding the warehouse. I knew it would fade quickly. It was time to hunt.

  Chapter Twelve

  The spell began to wane as soon as it had begun. It was still there but was less a magnetic attraction and more a slight tug. In time it would only become weaker and weaker until the spell finally ended.

  Given the rate that it had already deteriorated, I figured I had at most forty minutes to locate the beast. A doable task assuming it was staying in place and not running about the city looking for more victims. I didn't think that very likely as the beast had only killed during the night. This led me to think it was a nocturnal hunter, something I should have confirmed with Skitter.

  My driving was terrible at the best of times but became a dangerous thing when I was in a hurry. I also had to focus on maintaining the spell while speeding through the snowy roads.

  After I nearly slid into the third intersection I decided to slow down. Being in an accident wouldn't help me stop the monster. It was hard to resist pushing the car to its limits. At every stoplight I saw that frightened look of Miss William, the look she'd worn before she was taken.

  Skitter's words came to mind, reminding me of why an eater might abduct someone. To torture and kill. For pleasure or substance, I didn't know, but I was certain her time was limited.

  Ten minutes into my roaring drive and I managed to get to one of the western most wards. It seemed that the creature had taken refugee somewhere along the city docks which made a good deal of sense. There were a number of small places that one could hide away. Given the brief moment of insight I had been given into the creatures location, I figured it must have made its lair in a warehouse. There were certainly plenty of those in the industrial district shoved between Elliott Bay and the Duwamish, a river that ran through the city.

  I got on the highway. It was the quickest way to split up the sections of the industrial district into four corners. The signal was becoming more faint, the spell failing, but it I managed to isolate the eater to the upper right ward.

  “Sorry,” I yelled out my window as I cut off some poor soul in order to make the exit. I breathed a sigh of relief when they managed to react cleanly.

  A quick drive around and I found the right bit land on Massachusetts street. I sensed the beast was lurking in one of the warehouses. A quick drive around the building confirmed the sense of direction. No matter what side I was on, the pull directed me to the building.

  It was surrounded by a chain link fence, the top of which was laced with barbed wire, a sign read 'No Trespassing' in big red letters. For good reasons, the building looked as though it would collapse at any minute. Across the lot, a sister building had done just that with sheet metal and bricks being piled up into a mess of rubble. Within the clearing, between the buildings, were a few dozen shipping crates of all colors.

  Someone had bribed the building inspector one too many times. A stiff wind would collapse the place.

  The street was rather busy given the time of day and location within Seattle's industrial heartland. All manner of goods were stored on their way too and from the ships that made port each day. It was a mad house at the best of times and this was rush hour. Cars packed the roads and sidewalks possessed a handful of people at any given time. Not ideal for a showdown.

  I pulled into a nearby alleyway and circled the building till I found a somewhat isolated section between the warehouse's wall and another, not quite so ruined, building.

  With my car stashed by the side of a dumpster, I began my operation.

  The chain link fence proved to be a great barrier against the strength of my arcane power. It took nearly three seconds for me to shatter the metal. A quick blast of freezing energy followed by a thwack of my staff, and bam! The frozen, brittle metal broken into tiny chunks and gave me enough room to squeeze through.

  I might not have been very strong, the antithesis really, but it didn't matter much when your target was frozen to such an extreme degree. A smile was on my face as I fulfilled a childhood wish and broke into warehouse.

  Screw the rules, I have magic.

  That act was enough to sever the already faint tracking spell. I got a final sense of direction towards the building and it was gone. Just me, an abandoned warehouse and an evil spirit inhabiting a nearly unbreakable body. Good times.

  I made my way forward with a cautious eye towards the massive windows. No dark figures lurked in them but that didn't mean there wasn't anything there.

  It also didn't mean that I hadn't been noticed or that I wasn't being watched. Baddies like the eater tended to have certain instincts that went beyond mortal means. It wouldn't surprise me if it was tipped off the moment something with a good deal of arcane power, such as a wizard in over her head, who came stumbling into its domain.

  With that thought in mind, I went ahead and raised my ward with a rapt of my staff. Last thing I needed was to be taken unaware. Something like the eater would down me in a second if it got the drop on me. Even when it hadn't had the drop on me it'd still slammed me aside like I was a minor inconvenience.

  In reality the battle between use would likely come down to who struck first, and if I'd have time to set up my spirit barrier. If I didn't manage that, I didn't like my odds.

  No monster jumped out at me from the shadow of the warehouse, but as I looked in through a window, I confirmed this was the right place.

  The outline of an inhuman form was lurched upon the ruins of a car. The eater was there.

  On all sides, similar scrap metal wrecks were scattered about in half destroyed states. It must have been storage for wrecks and scarp metals. They were packed so densely that I doubted I'd be a
ble to make my way to the eater without cutting myself on some protruding sharpness. No, it would be impossible to fight within the warehouse itself. The eater wouldn't even need to put me down, I'd likely trip and slice my throat just trying to navigate the wrecks.

  A snarl erupted from the shadowy figure, followed by a bestial force that seemed more like a growl than language, “Why must you persist?”

  I thought about making some witty retort but found myself standing stunned.

  Thank the gods for being caught unaware, as it turned out I hadn't been the focus of the conversation. In the darkened corner of the room, from where the voice originated, there was another figure.

  I blinked, it was baldy.

  The vampire was standing there, casually as could be, while the eater began to circle him from atop the metal wrecks, “I'm no longer bound by the obligations of that mortal. He does not command this body.”

  The vampire spoke, “You think that turning yourself into a monster will get you out of deal? You made a contract, Ethan, no matter what form you take, you will repay what is owed to me and mine. If you insist on being so troublesome, perhaps I'll drag you back myself.”

  The eater lurched forward with a sudden speed. It came within inches of Erik, his teeth bared and mouth screaming but the vampire didn't draw his blade. He didn't even move, “I will rip your cold guts from your stomach, dead one.”

  A tisking sound came from baldy who just looked mildly offended, “Dead one? Bit of a low insult. How is it the mortals say, 'Pot calling the kettle black?' If you wish to insist on this line, stomping about like a child, I will tell my master that is your answer.”

  That gave the beast pause.

  Blood knights were serious business. They were vampiric enforcers chosen from the best of their bloodthirsty kind and given power by their patron.

  That patron being the dragon Eristehen who I knew precious little of besides that he was a player in the Americas – the new world. If he was heavily involved in this than I was going to need a good deal of backup before things were done. One didn't tango with a dragon's enforcers without an organization such as the elders having your back.