This was the man Ivy had mentioned! "Are you the one who brought me this?" I held out the slip of blank paper from the graveyard.
"Aye, I put it out for you to find."
"Good lord, she really did visit you," Elyssa said.
"Fine, I'll take the ASE," I said, holding out a hand for it and hoping I didn't have to touch Bigglesworth's icky skin.
He dropped it into my palm. A smiled crossed his lips briefly before he straightened them. "It's real urgent, sir."
I tucked it into a pocket, unwilling to view it here where everyone could see it. "Where's my sister? What are the Conroys doing to her?"
He shook his head. "It ain't for me to say, no sir. Miss Ivy tells me what to do and I does it, no questions asked."
I stepped toward him, tempted to grab him by the collar despite his revolting skin. "Where do the Conroys keep her?"
Again, he shook his head. "I've done my duty, sir and I can't do no more." He tipped his hat. "G'day to you both." He winked at Elyssa and smirked. Turned on his heel and headed back toward the alley we'd come through a few minutes earlier.
I started after him. "Oh, no, you don't."
The chubby man increased his pace. I jogged after him, not wanting to make a scene. When he reached the alley, Bigglesworth turned. Tipped his cap at me and chortled. His body, clothes, everything, melted into a puddle of pale goop. Elyssa gasped behind me. I watched in utter disgust as the goop funneled into a drainage grating on the side of the alley floor and vanished inside.
Chapter 4
"What," I said, "in the hell was that thing?"
Elyssa shook her head. "Some kind of shifter, but one I'm not familiar with."
I looked at the marble-sized ASE, almost expecting it to melt into goop as well. Thankfully, it seemed quite solid. Still, just knowing Bigglesworth had held it made me want to scrub it and my hands with bleach and steel wool. "How do I turn this thing on?"
"Maybe you should wait until we're somewhere private," Elyssa said.
I turned back toward Founder's Square and noticed horns slowly growing from the forehead of the giant demon spawn statue. "Yeah, you're probably right."
After threading our way through congested afternoon traffic, we reached Decatur and parked behind a donut shop. A red X next to a smelly dumpster marked the spot.
"He chooses the loveliest locations," Elyssa said, holding her nose.
"Better than the one downtown." My nose wrinkled at the memory of the stained mattress in the abandoned building above that hideout.
I turned back to the red X. Imagining a set of stairs in the place of the mark, I said, "Open up, you green-blooded son of a bitch." As usual, my words alone had no effect. I blew out a disgusted breath and made a chalk circle around me. The static feel of trapped magical energy pressed against me. I repeated the spell. The concrete faded away to reveal a set of stairs leading down into a lit hallway.
"Shelton uses some whacked-out pass phrases," Elyssa said as we walked down the stairs.
"You'd have to be a nerd to appreciate it." I hurried down the narrow corridor and entered a large space the size of a school gymnasium, eager to look at Ivy's message. Shelton had partitioned the area into testing grounds, creating a magical gauntlet I hoped to eventually emerge from victorious. At the rate of my learning, that happy occasion probably wouldn't be for another century or so.
On the other side of the testing grounds, we entered a hall and the residential part of his hideout. Shelton had told me he'd carved this entire place out himself with magic. Elyssa and I passed through the hall and found Bella and Shelton lounging at the kitchen table, drinking tea and playing Scrabble.
Shelton groaned as Bella formed the word zygote on the board. "Saved by the bell," he grumbled, standing up.
Bella, a petite Arcane I'd met during my time in Colombia, smiled sweetly at him. "And to think, English isn't even my first language."
"Whatever, woman. You've been playing Scrabble a couple hundred years longer than I have."
Bella's violet eyes widened with hurt. "Harry, you should never call a woman out on her age."
Shelton snorted. "Cry me a river, princess. I give you a place to live so we can teach Junior here how to use fairy dust, and you kick my ass at every board game I own."
"Except Candy Land," she said, grinning.
Shelton seemed to bite back a response with visible effort. He blew out a breath and looked at me. "Candy Land my ass. You got the phone, bucko?"
I showed him Nookli. "Yeppers. But first, I need to watch this." I pulled the ASE from my pocket and held it in the palm of my hand."What in blazes are you doing with an all-seeing eye?" he said, taking it and holding it up to the light.
"It's a message from Ivy. Some dude named Bigglesworth gave it to me."
His eyebrows pinched. "What kind of stupid name is that?"
I shrugged. "Get this—the dude melted into some kind of pale goo and went down a sewage drain when I tried to chase him down."
Bella gasped. "Are you quite certain?"
I nodded and gestured at Elyssa. "We both saw him do it. Why?"
"If this creature is what I think it is, then you have witnessed a very rare breed of supernatural."
"Yeah, well what is it?" Shelton said.
She shook her head. "I do not know if they even have a classification."
"He looked like a creepy version of the Pillsbury Doughboy," I said, shuddering at the thought of his rubbery, doughy skin. "Can he morph into any shape?"
"It sounds to me as though he wasn't trying hard to appear authentic," Bella said. "From the little I know about the species, they often assume the appearance of their last victim."
"Victim?" Elyssa said uneasily.
Bella nodded. "They encase their victims with their bodies—the pale goo you mentioned—and consume the poor soul."
I threw up a little in my mouth at the thought. "On another subject," I said, indicating the ASE, "can you operate the thing?"
"I can do that," Elyssa said, taking it from Shelton and setting it on the table. She tapped the marble three quick times. It started to spin, slowly at first, building momentum until it made an audible hum against the wooden top.
A holographic image sprang into the air above it. Ivy's head crowded the scene, a look of fear emblazoned on her face.
"Justin, I need your help." Tears trickled from her eyes.
The loud clang of metal on metal gonged through the air. Ivy shrieked.
"Let us in you little brat!" Someone shouted, sounding as if they were on the other side of a wall or thick door.
Ivy looked back at me. "Vampires attacked us. I don't know what happened to Mom or Grandma and Granddad." She sniffled and wiped her runny nose with a hand. "I'm in the panic room, but they'll break through any minute. Mr. Bigglesworth is the only person who can get this message to you."
"Why don't you let us in, little girl," said a familiar voice.
A chill prickled down my spine. "Maximus," I growled.
"Come on, sweetness," Maximus said in a sugar coated voice. "We're going on a little trip. You'll love it."
"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Ivy screamed. She turned back to the ASE again. "Please, Justin, help. I don't know when you'll get this or where they're taking me, but nobody else can help me now. I think the vampires killed them all."
A shuddering crack rocked the view and Ivy screamed again as chunks of concrete and white dust filled the air. The holograph blinked out. The rotating ASE slowed to a stop and rolled against a teacup on the table with a plink.
Anger and despair welled in my chest, lodged in my throat, and all that emerged was a choked sound. I backed away from the table, my eyes darting back and forth between the concerned faces looking at me. I wanted to rush to Ivy's aid. Do something, anything to save her right this instant. Had Maximus taken her to Colombia? Or was he keeping her here and somehow making the Templars think he was in South America? Come to think of it, I didn't even know when this had happened. Yesterday? Today?
Elyssa seemed poised to pin me to the floor if I decided to do something rash and make a break for the door. God knew I'd done such a thing plenty of times. Uncertainty, however, rooted me to the spot. I needed information and Bigglesworth was the only one who had it. Why had he been so casual and mocking when handing it to me? The guy certainly hadn't seemed like someone on a mission of mercy. His relationship to Ivy was unclear to me. Was he a pet? A protector?
"Now don't freak out, Justin," Shelton said. "We'll find her, I promise."
Bella touched my arm. "When did this happen, Justin? Did Bigglesworth say anything more about it?"
"He was a jackass," Elyssa said. "He didn't even say what was on this recording. In fact, he didn't seem particularly concerned about anything."
"It could be due to what he is," Bella said. "Little is known about his kind, but anecdotal evidence would point to them as inhuman in the way they experience emotion, almost like a psychopath. It's highly unlikely he's a friend to Ivy, at least in his view. Ivy, however, may feel quite differently. She is a little girl after all."
I balled my hands into knuckle-cracking fists and stormed away from the table. I wanted to hit something. Break it. Find Maximus and pound him into toothpaste. I took a deep breath. And another. It did little to curb my murderous rage, but the juvenile desire to smash one of Shelton's tables faded. I could do this. I'd faced rough odds before, and when I wasn't jumping headfirst without thinking, I could usually figure my way out.
My gaze went automatically to Elyssa. Her bright eyes met mine. Fierce determination blazed within and she set her jaw in a grim line. She was my strength. My love. Confidence surged within my chest, pushing out the helplessness I'd felt. With her and my friends, I would find Ivy and save her. And if I got to break Maximus's teeth along the way, so much the better.