《Adventures of Alex Blackwell》


 Chapter Three

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    I left Susan¡¯s house and the goal in my mind was simple Find Ethan Parker and hopefully he wasn¡¯t hurt. I didn¡¯t like giving people bad news. That was the somewhat simple part but it was the actions afterwards that always left me in a bind.


    I got in my car and drove off. It was simply a black ford. I had gotten it as a gift for my sixteenth birthday from my teacher. It would be seven years ago exactly in a couple of weeks. I did not like change so as long as it still worked well enough I would keep it. I was heading to my house. That would be the first step into solving what happened to the boy Ethan Parker.


    Other detectives, mortal detectives without magic would have stayed to look around the boy¡¯s room and try to find some clue or lead. Something that would show where the boy had planned to go. If that didn¡¯t work, they would try to find his friends and people he spent time with.


    I didn¡¯t do any of those things because with magic I wouldn¡¯t need to. For me all that effort was unnecessary. All I needed to do was use a locator spell on him and I would have his location. I rarely worked this fast however as I usually just wasted time and charged extra. However every time I even thought of doing that this time all I could see was Susan¡¯s face.


    I would do this as fast as I possibly could.


    Driving through the city I took in my surroundings as I passed them. There were many trees all around and as many building and people. I wasn¡¯t overly fond of any of it. I wasn¡¯t a big fan of nature on this world or any other. I was happier inside a building with a book. I was fine with leaving nature to the animals and to the people that enjoyed that type of thing. I was raised in the city and hated the idea of hiking or simply being in nature. Going outside was something I did because I had no choice due to my work. If possible I would love to stay inside all day.


    I was relieved when I finally arrived at my house and went inside. The house was two floors if you did not count the basement. The living room, dining room, and kitchen were connected to each other and the upper floor had my room, a guest room, and the bathroom. It would have probably been easier renting an apartment but that would mean more people making noise around me and that would have been a nightmare.


    I was better in a house by myself even if it cost more at least I wouldn¡¯t have annoying neighbors above, below, and around me. To me that would have been a prison. It may have cost more but I considered the peace and quiet worth it. It also was about only thirty minutes away from my office.


    The basement was my goal as that was the door that I used as the main door to my workshop. A wizard¡¯s or witch¡¯s workshop is the place where he or she keeps all their spell books and research. The place where they brew their potions and practices their spells.


    Mine was an extra dimensional space where I could practice freely without worrying about the surrounding area. It was like my sanctuary. A space separated from the world that holds all the people and the noise. It was also where I kept my coolest stuff.


    It could in truth be connected to any door that was open to me that I trusted and had access to but it was just the fact that I like to use my basement as the entrance because it was cooler. The reverse was also true. I was very much a fan of the old Scooby doo cartoons where shaggy and Scooby hid in one door and appeared out of another when running from monsters. When my teacher taught me the spell I used it for weeks just to move around his house.


    He had created the spell and while I was unsure if others knew of it I didn''t properly care at the time to ask as I moved from one room to another. I heard that others use basements, attics, storage units, and sheds for a workshop so I was very happy my teacher didn¡¯t follow the normal methods that they did.


    ¡°Absconde eos revelare.¡± I chanted three times as I traced a path with my wand over the door and watched as behind the wooden door a white light was shining.


    When it was finished I opened the door and walked down the steps. Instead of the normal white paint walls and wooden steps I traveled down stone steps with my hands against stone walls. My workshop was a space where all noise from the outside world was shut out.


    It was a place of quiet and peace. It was my favorite place in the world. Which was funny because it did not exist in the world. I had designed it the way I wanted it so of course I would love it but the point was still valid. It was a room that you could simply lose track of time on the outside if you weren¡¯t careful. I had plenty of experiences with that.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    It was a big room since time and space weren¡¯t limitations that you had to consider when working with magic, you could make it as big and as distant if you wanted. You could make it stretch as long as you wanted. In practice it was similar to the hyperbolic time chamber from Dragon Ball Z. Time and space didn¡¯t have to be equal with that of the outside world. My version the effect was in similar. Two hours on the inside was one hour on the outside.


    The workshop allowed you to fill it with stuff and still have room for even more things. I had rooms dedicated just to keeping my books. Books that I had read countless times, books I had yet to read, and books that I didn¡¯t think I would ever read but kept since they were gifts. There were also rooms filled with projects of mine some finished and some just getting started. It was my dream to one day read all the books that I had and complete all my projects. I had an entire room filled with books that were just fiction about magic and adventure.


    It played a huge part in why I was a detective. I had spent most of my life reading books about amazing adventures and brave heroes and I realized that I wanted to live a life like that. With magic in my life I figured why not try to live like that. I had seen what happens to people working in regular jobs and I doubted I could work a regular job with regular people with my level of people skills.


    Finding the crystal and map that I needed I began my search for Ethan. Magic made life easier in my opinion. People struggle so hard to do what magic can accomplish with less effort. Unless you were messing around with dark magic or doing something that was beyond your level it rarely failed you.


    Magic was a mystic force of energy generated by the universe and the things in it. Wizards and witches broke that force down into two categories. We labeled them Prana and Mana. Prana is the energy that is in the atmosphere and the universe that exists in all dimensions and it feeds magical beings like gods, demons, spirits, and ghosts. It gives them their power and it is generated by the universe and refueled by the life energy given off by living and nonliving things.


    Mana or aura or qi or chi or chakra depending on a person''s definition is the magical energy created by the soul. When people are born the prana of the universe grants them a soul and a portion of that goes to give their body the energy it needs to live. Wizards and witches and magical beings that have a physical body and manipulate magic like elves however have a magical core.


    The core is a metaphysical organ similar to a jar inside of their soul that generates, contains, and converts their excess life energy or mana into magic power which lets them perform magic. The core was created as a result by an overlap of the soul and the body. For mortals however the soul laid inside the body and granted them emotions and a conscience.


    Even if you didn¡¯t have a core and couldn¡¯t use magic you still had mana and a soul but each person¡¯s mana signature was different. Wherever you went you left traces of it behind. Prana helped created the soul which generated mana and mana became prana when it left a person or cast as a spell. It was like being a Jedi if you used the original definition of the force, it was everywhere connecting everyone and everything but not everyone could use it.


    Using magic however was complicated. It required knowledge and training, insight and creativity, and just a little bit of luck. Lots of people who can do magic either require a teacher to protect them from going too far or being too reckless and trying to do too much too soon. Even so there are still many who tried just that and it ended up destroying them. Sometimes literally.


    Magic wasn¡¯t contained to certain families and while it is more likely to have magic if you are descended from a family of Witches and Wizards you can be born with the ability to use magic even if no one in your family before you could. It also wasn''t contained to certain ages. Magical talent could be awakened at any age but more often in young people but it was more likely to awaken in youths..


    Using magic to locate someone whose location you didn¡¯t know was a simple thing. There were many types of locator spells but my favorite method was scrying because I got the location and there was no mess to clean up afterwards unlike if I used something like salt or blood. Just a crystal tied to a piece of string and a map of Philadelphia.


    There were no words required to do this. I just spun the crystal all over the map and if he was still in the city I would find him. There was a chance that the kid might have run away. He looked to be about seventeen and teenagers rarely thought things through.


    The crystal eventually landed on the map. It was centered on the Northwood Park. This was why I loved magic, everything in life just became easier. Normal detectives would have spent days searching for him and questioning people on where he might be hiding and why he has been missing. With magic however I could skip all that effort and get results.


    It would take less than an hour to get to the park. As I drove there I couldn¡¯t help wondering why Ethan didn¡¯t call his aunt to pick him up instead of waiting in a park. There were tons of possible reasons but they weren¡¯t that important to me.


    However I had made a promise to find the kid and I was going to keep it. I grabbed the crystal and ran outside to my car. The crystal would point me in the direction of Ethan no matter how where he was or how hard he tried to hide. That was another mistake and led to my next major problem and me being arrested.


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 Chapter Five

    Well apparently I was out long enough for them to have found out about Ethan I really hoped they hadn¡¯t talked to the aunt yet or I wouldn¡¯t get paid the rest of my money. I gave variable rates depending on who was hiring me and the job but I still wanted to be paid.


    ¡°That my metal detector needs to be repaired.¡± I said. I really couldn¡¯t help that one. I had kept silent for most of the day and it figuratively hurt to keep quiet when I was set up with great lines like that.


    He didn¡¯t like that answer at all and he slammed his hands on the table shouting ¡°Do you think this is a joke?¡± I was torn between continuing and trying to act solemn over what happened.


    The fact that a kid was dead was sad sure but I didn¡¯t like dwelling on emotions like that so I buried them deep down and tried to ignore them whenever they showed up until they were gone.


    ¡°No I do not think it¡¯s a joke.¡± I told them. I would have made a no game no life joke but I don¡¯t think he would have gotten the reference and first one aside I thought it might have been too soon to be making jokes out of Ethan¡¯s untimely demise.


    ¡°If I was making a joke I would have asked you if your family was still fighting mummies or stealing diamonds with Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny.¡± After my mouth closed I realized what I said. People have often told me I don¡¯t know when to stop talking apparently they were right.


    His eyes began to narrow and I could tell he knew what I referencing and while that usually made me happy this was not such an occasion. Langdon interfered before he was able to say anything.


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t look good for you; you have got to admit that you standing over the corpse makes you look guilty.¡± Detective Langdon said calmly. I wondered if I was in the good cop/bad cop routine now and on the side of the suspect. It may have been their true personalities but you could never be sure.


    ¡°It might look that way but there is a perfectly rational explanation that will prove my innocence¡± was my response and it with that it was time to begin my first part of the plan. All that was left to see was if they would play along or if I would have to direct the conversation.


    ¡°Oh really I would love to hear it. What possible explanation could you possibly give?¡± O¡¯Connell asked in clearly in doubt of me.


    ¡°I am going to reach in my pocket for my business card¡± I said making sure they had no reason to think I would pull a weapon out on them. There was time for seriousness and time for drama and it would do me no good if I did either too early or too late.


    The card was placed on the table. It was purple, on the back was a picture of an open eye in black ink with my number on it. On the other side was my business information. I already knew what it said so I gave it to them to look over.


    Alex Blackwell ¨C Psychic Detective


    Investigations, Charms, S¨¦ances, Item recovery, Exorcisms, Fortune telling, Telepathy, Aura Reading, Bounty Hunter.


    Consulting, Reasonable rates


    There were tons of these back in my office enchanted to turn up when people needed help. I enchanted the cards to give people with problems the impulse to call me. I had to stay in business and I wanted to help people so using magic on the cards made sense at the time. This way was easier than putting flyers around town and ads on the internet. They still haven¡¯t let me down.


    Enchanting was my specialty. It was the skill that I was the best at. Infusing magic into items and giving them each different effects. My coat was an example of this and so was the pens that I carried around with me constantly.


    ¡°Psychic, is that the answer you¡¯re going with?¡± O¡¯Connell scoffed at my card and while on the outside I was calm on the inside I was grinning he had taken the bait.


    ¡°Yes, it is true after all.¡± modern science couldn¡¯t prove me wrong as far as I knew. The fact of the matter was the only reason psychics were doubted was because people were more cynical as they grew older and lost all sense of wonder and mystery. I think it was the fact that their reality crushed their sense of wonder was the reason.


    ¡°Unless you are pleading an insanity defense, I don¡¯t think anybody will buy that.¡± he said and had turned my card over.


    ¡°What like that show Psych?¡± Langdon said somewhere between mockery and concern and I froze and turned towards her.


    ¡°I get asked that question so many times. No I am a real psychic detective¡± I sighed and tried to sound really insulted and depressed but on the inside I one day hoped to be able to be as convincing as him when convincing people that I was psychic. His acting skills were far beyond mine. I still was barely able to fake emotions I actually felt.


    ¡°So Alex you think you are psychic?¡± she said and I could tell she was trying to humor me and see how crazy I must be in her opinion. I wondered how use to this style they were. Langdon was the kind cop, the one who made you think she was understanding you while O¡¯Connell was there to be the rough and angry detective who looked like he would love nothing more than to beat the answers out of you.


    ¡°Come on Langdon he¡¯s clearly a few colors short of a crayon box.¡± he said talking like I wasn¡¯t here. If he was to be compared with the police academy characters he would be lieutenant Harris.


    ¡°Hey be nice. Words hurt, don¡¯t you policemen have to do sensitivity training or something?¡± I had no clue but when life gives you openings to insult someone I don¡¯t take them for granted.


    ¡°I¡¯ll prove it.¡± I said and got relaxed in the metal chair in the room. I wasn¡¯t sure if anybody else was watching us since the window I was facing was only one way. It allowed others to see me but not the reverse.


    ¡°How¡¯s that?¡± he questioned me.


    ¡°I will tell you your future.¡± That brought a raised eyebrow. I didn¡¯t actually have the ability to do it and I was glad. Being able to see the future meant that life had no surprises anymore and while the being able to see the bad surprises would be a good thing but it would also mean you ruin the good surprises and make life boring. That didn¡¯t stop me from making something up. Especially if I knew that it would be coming true soon enough.


    ¡°Oh yeah? Well go on and tell me.¡± He said in response. We were ignoring Langdon presence at the moment. For me it was because I had already had O¡¯Connell taking the bait and for him it was because he was hoping to get me to focus on him and make mistakes they could take advantage of.


    He only got half of his wish but it wasn¡¯t the part that he wished for though. I was trained to run circles around people like him and I will admit at the time a part of me enjoyed it. It wasn¡¯t because he was a cop or because I didn¡¯t like him the reason I was doing it was simple it seemed like fun at the time.


    ¡°I see you full of anger and at the sight of me getting out of here completely innocent.¡± I told him I wished that I had some tarot cards just to make it more mysterious but the only reason they let me keep my coat was they believed nothing was in it and if I started pulling stuff out I would be searched more thoroughly.


    ¡°Really now because what I see for you is life in prison with no chance for parole involved in it.¡± He interrupted me his expression at the time was a deep scowl that just seemed like it¡¯s purpose was to radiate anger and fear and cause me to become scared. It didn¡¯t seem to work on me however and seeing my face seem not scared by him only seemed to make O¡¯Connell even madder. My earlier assumption proving truer as time went by and we continued talking.


    It was like he was a black hole trying to suck all the joy out of me and leave me a shattered husk full of angst and regret. This was a result of working in their world. The world the mortals lived in was a world of greys that just had lighter and darker shades. I on the other hand worked in a world of color. There were reds, blues, greens, yellows, and more. It was like a Crayola box. There were so many colors that shaded my world that they were completely blind to.


    ¡°This is ridiculous.¡± he said in response to my actions.


    ¡°What do you want to know then?¡± I asked curious if we could move past this and continue on with my interrogation. I wondered how far we could get before Marcus got here.


    ¡°What I would like to be told is why this kid had to die!¡± O¡¯Connell shouted at me his face red and a vein bulging on his forehead. I always wondered how people did that and how it felt like.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know that when I find the killer I will ask him for you¡± I told him point blank. I expected answers sooner than that but I couldn¡¯t explain my methods to them.


    ¡°I¡¯m looking right at him.¡± he said with full confidence.


    ¡°Really because I don¡¯t see a guy here besides you and me in here and I know I didn¡¯t do it.¡± I stated. O¡¯Connell was about to say something else but there was a knock at the door that interrupted him.


    We all turned and in walked two people and the sight of them put a smile on my face. One was a person I had never seen before and the other was the reason I was smiling the person that I had been waiting for had finally arrived. Marcus was here.


    He was taller than me standing at a good six foot three with short dark hair and brown eyes, He looked to be twenty-five, He had a dark suit on with a silver watch on his wrist and had a brown briefcase when he walked in. his black shoes were shiny yet barely made a sound when he walked. On his right hand he was wearing his ring on his middle finger. It was silver on the outside and on the inside was a red gem.


    It was one of my better enchantments in my opinion. It was in the top hundred in my opinion.


    I will admit when I told him to look like a lawyer when he picked me up I did not expect that he would actually go this far. Knowing that he did not own suits I wondered where he got it from and what happened to its original owner.


    The other man that came in was a guy that looked to be in charge. He had a fat face with black hair and hazel eyes. He had mutton chops stretched past his ears and reached to the middle of his face, his mustache stretched from his nose and covered his top lip but was parted down the middle like a greater or less than sign but going down.


    ¡°Captain what is going on?¡± Langdon asked. I wanted to ask about cop hierarchies since I was never studied that but figured the time wasn¡¯t right. I would have to look it up on Wikipedia when I got home.


    ¡°This is his Lawyer Marcus Johnson we are letting him go.¡± The Chief said and I nodded getting up out of the chair.


    ¡°All right if you are his lawyer how did you even know that he was here?¡± O¡¯Connell asked Marcus still being suspicious as possible. I assume he was thinking that we were accomplices for the murder after all how could he have known I was arrested if I hadn¡¯t made a phone call here even after they read me my rights.


    The only way this was possible was if he was at the crime scene and saw me be arrested. I however had planned for this event when I told him to come.


    ¡°I called him while I was in the police car. The arresting officer was so busy calling in for backup that he stopped paying attention to me.¡± I told them. None of that was true at all but they didn¡¯t need to know that.


    I pulled out my cell phone that was in my pocket. They had searched me when I was in the precinct but unless you had magic you wouldn¡¯t find any objects in my pockets. It was a safety precaution I made for events just like this.


    Chapter Six


    So after Captain Bennet had let me go I took a look around the police station and saw people typing on their computers not paying me any attention. The station was the same as every other police station showed on television. Following after me were the detectives and they did not look happy that was being released.


    ¡°Captain why are you letting him go?¡± Langdon asked and I could understand I did look suspicious as possible and maybe a little insane to them but I had a vampire that could hypnotize people in my corner and that beat all other possible arguments.


    ¡°The evidence we have over him is circumstantial at best.¡± The Captain said answering her and that made O¡¯Connell explode in anger.


    ¡°Circumstantial? We have him standing over a dead body with a shovel!¡± it looked my prediction of the future was coming more and more accurate. What shocked me was that no one turned around at the angry shouting old man. I had wondered if they were used to it happening.


    ¡°Psychic.¡± I broke into the conversation with a sing-song tone and the glare that he sent me had so much heat I bet he could have boiled eggs with it.


    ¡°Yes Circumstantial.¡± He said making sure they knew the conversation was finished. Marcus had then walked up and turned to the captain grabbed his shoulder and his attention and spoke his next commands.


    ¡°Now I want to you to go away and if there are any recordings of my client¡¯s interrogation I want you to get rid of them and then forget even meeting us but you will always answer my request when I call.¡± With that the captain nodded and walked away. This saved so much time and effort I am glad I didn¡¯t decide to go with the fighting my way out plan. Mind control was so much better than violence.Stolen story; please report.


    ¡°What are you doing!¡± O¡¯Connell shouted at his chief who was going along with Marcus¡¯s order


    ¡°You don¡¯t have time to worry about him.¡± Marcus said looking at the detectives.


    ¡°What did you just do?¡± Langdon asked and O¡¯Connell drew his gun. When that happened Marcus rushed him at a speed that only another vampire could follow and knocked him on his back taking his gun.


    ¡°If you want to follow his example I can take your gun too.¡± Marcus told Langdon and it looked like she was going to listen Marcus turned around but before he could take a step she drew and shot him three times in the chest. Marcus only staggered forward but given that those bullets were made of silver and steel not wood so it didn¡¯t kill him.


    He spun around but he didn¡¯t look mad he just sighed and his brown irises turned red. Next he took a deep breath calming down before he focused on those two detectives.


    ¡°All right if you want to be that way I order both of you to walk to the chief¡¯s office and after that don¡¯t move till I tell you.¡± He said and they nodded no longer in control of their bodies and she and O¡¯Connell got up and they walked together to the aforementioned office.


    ¡°What took you so long?¡± I asked him it didn¡¯t seem possible that it took him so long to find a suit.


    ¡°Finding an outfit that said I was a lawyer was not easy.¡± He told me and that just made me wonder who he targeted that was difficult to steal from for a vampire.


    ¡°How?¡± I questioned unless he was really unlucky no human could possibly fight Marcus he was supernaturally fast and strong and when you throw in hypnotism there should be no mortal person capable of fighting him.


    ¡°It took a while to find a guy who wore a suit that in my size and fit my style okay.¡± I nodded it did make sense. Marcus was really picky on what he would wear and he did not like things that didn¡¯t agree with his tastes. Suits and ties were clothes that Marcus rarely wore.


    That did make sense in a way that was only possible for Marcus and I have learned to just go along with his weirdness. There was still one thing that I wanted to figure out and that was why was no one reacting to anything that just happened. Waving my hand in front of an officers face I saw that no matter how hard I tried to get their attention it wouldn¡¯t work.


    ¡°Don¡¯t bother I told them to focus on nothing but their work for the rest of the day so no matter what you do they won¡¯t notice you.¡± Marcus explained.


    Giving up I went to the captain¡¯s room with Marcus following behind me since he was going to erase the memories of everyone here of the events tonight the only thing left to do was make sure Marcus didn¡¯t do anything too damaging to the detectives.


    Walking in the room I saw the two of them standing still and not moving. It was creepy the only thing they were doing besides breathing was staring of into nothing. Marcus took the captain¡¯s seat and began spinning around enjoying the chair''s wheels.


    ¡°All right now you can wake up but don¡¯t move from where you are.¡± Marcus told them and I watched as their eyes became focused and they realized where they were.


    ¡°What is going on?¡± O¡¯Connell asked us and I decided to be kind to the man.


    ¡°Well you and your partner decided to shoot a vampire and the result wasn¡¯t in your favor.¡± I told them laying on a couch.


    ¡°Vampire?¡± he questioned me and with that cue Marcus stepped in.


    ¡°Yes and before you make a twilight joke know I can and will make your life a thing of eternal misery and unending torture.¡± He said and I winced at the things he could come up when he was truly motivated to cause someone pain. Vampires truly were a sadistic species.


    ¡°You are just as insane as your friend I don¡¯t know what drug you put me and my partner on but be sure I will make sure you both end up in an insane asylum.¡± He declared. He didn¡¯t remember anything after this and so when we met him later remembering this promise made me laugh.


    Marcus didn¡¯t say anything he just revealed his vamp-face. The face that vampires had when they were going to bite someone. It was like his regular face except his irises was completely red, his veins were more obvious and his canine teeth extended into fangs.


    All I heard was a whoosh and the next thing I saw was Marcus holding him several feet off the ground with one hand around his throat. He tossed him into a wall and watched him fall before he turned to Langdon.


    ¡°Do you have any doubts about what I am now?¡± he asked his face normal and she shook her head no I guess she didn¡¯t feel like crashing into the wall like her partner


    I saw his suit and saw where she had shot him and it looked like those bullets earlier had pierced his chest and so I came into the conversation


    ¡°She shot you through the heart?¡± I asked him and I wondered if she knew Bon Jovi¡¯s song and how she felt about the idea of love.


    ¡°Yeah. Can you believe it I was all nice and when I turn my back she shot me?¡± he sounded so offended at what happened I couldn¡¯t help but laugh at the time. He had no clue that it wouldn¡¯t be the last injury his heart would take this week.


    ¡°Well you did knock my partner down.¡± She said boldly without a hint of fear in her voice that she might die. She was lucky that it was Marcus she was talking that way to as other vampires might not respond to that so well. They were known for not being the most conversation friendly people.


    ¡°That is true but it was still rude.¡± he countered like there was still some way that he was in the right.


    ¡°How did you do that?¡± O¡¯Connell asked as he began to get up while keeping his distance.


    ¡°I gave you the answer already. I know the idea of an African-American vampire is a rare thing but get it through your thick heads.¡± He said.


    ¡°No I think he means how is it possible that Vampires are real?¡± Langdon asked.


    ¡°Well you know the saying the good die young. Well what isn¡¯t told to people is that sometimes they come back.¡± I could tell he had prepared that line in case they asked.


    Marcus has been a vampire for six years if what he told me was the truth. I wasn¡¯t told the reason that he was turned but I knew Marcus wasn¡¯t busy hunting down the vampire who turned him so that ruled out cliche reasons like love or hate.


    I had known him for about half that time and he still hadn¡¯t told me why he was turned. He enjoyed being a mystery and I didn¡¯t care enough to push the issue. It didn¡¯t really affect me.


    ¡°How do you become a vampire?¡± Langdon asked. I couldn¡¯t help but picture her as a vampire with dark red hair and pale skin. She would probably be even more beautiful and deadly. It worked wonderfully for Willow Rosenberg and Harmony. Though that may have been due to the fact that I didn¡¯t like most characters on the show and saw the scooby gang as annoying.


    ¡°Oh it¡¯s simple. You die with vampire blood in you and then when you come back you drink human blood.¡± He said nonchalantly.


    ¡°Basically it follows vampire diaries rules.¡± I told her. He glared at me but that did nothing.


    ¡°So if he¡¯s a vampire what are you? Werewolf? Zombie? Ghoul?¡± O¡¯Connell asked me both seriously and mockingly. That was also an impossibility given that the werewolves had left this world along with the ghouls and the vampyr but the vampires and wolfmen were still here. The zombie thing though depended on if there were any necromancers on the planet.


    ¡°I am a wizard.¡± I told him and I pulled my wand out of one of my coat¡¯s pockets.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe I am being held hostage by a vampire and a discount Harry Potter.¡± He said and I felt my eye twitch.


    Marcus was no help at the time he was just laughing and moved back to the desk he was borrowing.


    ¡°He¡¯s got you there.¡± Marcus said and I truly felt like cursing him there but he was still needed so I picked a different target


    ¡°Leave if you want.¡± I told O¡¯Connell and watched as he tried only to remember that he was stuck in here and when he glared at me I felt a great sense of pride.


    I could tell Marcus was getting bored and that meant we were about to leave so I got up from the couch and began to walk to the door.


    Leaning against the door I waited for Marcus to get up. I couldn¡¯t trust their safety with him alone as the role model Marcus had for his life was Lestat de Lioncourt and that made him unpredictable. Marcus was a vampire who was always searching for something to excite him. His impulse control varied depending on his mood and the goal he was aiming for.


    ¡°Detectives my prediction is about to come true.¡± I watched as Marcus picked O¡¯Connell up again and as the red in his eyes began to turn mostly back to normal and then he hypnotized him. The detective¡¯s face was full of fear and anger.


    Langdon tried to intervene drawing another gun from her ankle but given that we were close by and the fact that I didn¡¯t want tinnitus I had to intervene. I spun my wand in my hand and pointed at her.


    ¡°Lignum Ligaveris.¡± The wood rose up from the floor and wrapped itself around her not allowing her to fire her gun due to the fact the only person she would be shooting is herself.


    ¡°You are going to go home and forget you ever met us. You will believe that Alex is just a psychic detective helping you on the case and you will definitely not remember what we talked about in this room.¡± Marcus told them.


    It was his preferred style. Marcus was all for being fun and reckless but he was paranoid of what would happened if people found out he was a vampire.


    He wasn¡¯t fond of the idea of people hunting him down for revenge or hate like Frankenstein¡¯s monster or because he killed somebody they knew or they had a problem with vampires. It was why he didn¡¯t drink blood from the neck and tried really hard not to kill people. He was too fond of his immortal life to spend it running and hiding.


    He still drank human blood it was just that the people he drank from were hypnotized into putting the blood into bags for him. He stored them in a fridge in his house. I released Langdon and we left before they came back to consciousness.


    Chapter Seven


    Walking outside the building I took a look at the moon in the sky. There were no stars due to the city lights and the only blinking in the sky was either due to radio towers or airplanes. Besides the street lights it was the only source of light in the sky. It might be cold for other people but thanks to my coat I never felt it.


    The coat was layered with enchantments. From simple ones that either kept me warm or cold depending on the weather to complex ones like my pockets which connected to my workshop and protection against theft.


    I gave a yawn. I had been in that building way too long and I still had yet to go back and get my car.


    ¡°So what are you going to do now?¡± Marcus asked as he stood on the sidewalk¡¯s edge and walked on top of it trying to keep perfect balance.


    ¡°I¡¯ll need to restart this entire investigation.¡± I told him and planned to do just that after I got something to eat and took a nap. There were pieces missing from my puzzle box and I disliked that.


    Ethan Parker looked to be a completely average kid. Went to school, hung out with friends I¡¯m assuming and was murdered. These were all the facts that I know but the method is what is bothering me the most.


    The fact of the matter is Ethan was killed by an object that was full of dark magic. That type of magic only comes from a person who was intending to kill or injure someone.


    All magic can be used to kill. Basically magic is a supernatural force that can alter the fabric of reality at fundamental levels. Magic like the universe was and is relatively neutral. It had it¡¯s good parts and it¡¯s bad part. Magic could be used to help or to hurt depending on the person using it and their desires.


    The thing that killed Ethan was an item cursed with dark magic. It was powered by death and its aim was to grow stronger and hurt others. It was the opposite of enchanting which filled an item with light and or neutral magic. If death was what powered the object than it was likely not going to be content with just Ethan.


    There were either more dead bodies not found or it was just beginning its murder spree. I assume from the wound that the weapon is a blade type. Either from a knife or a dagger.


    So I had to stop the person using the cursed blade from killing any more people. I just had to figure out the method he was using to kill and the reasoning behind it and that wasn¡¯t such an easy thing.


    Dark magic originated from dark feeling like anger, hatred, envy and all the other emotions people feel when they have the intent and desire to kill a person and doing so only makes it stronger and easier to do it again. It was drawn from darkness to spread darkness.


    Light magic was what was created and gathered by all the positive emotions created by living beings in all the worlds in creation and while it was still possible to kill and maim with it if you so desired but that wasn¡¯t it original purpose. It was also a lot more complicated to do so and required such effort and creativity that it was easier just using dark magic.


    Neutral magic was magic which could kill if so desired but was not born from light or dark emotions. All you needed was the intent and desire to use it. There were many sub categories that descended from these three main branches and many styles that were developed from them.


    My personal and prefered style was neutral natural magic. It was the practice of using only the magic you were born with to create spells and potions. Each time you cast a spell you were using your own energy to cause something to happen. I preferred this method as it meant I depended on myself and my natural talents and abilities. I disliked drawing power from others.


    The magic that was used to kill Ethan looked to be more of a sacrificial type. The symbols on his arms and forehead could mean that it was part of a ritual and that meant the killer had to spend time with his victims in a place that he or she felt was safe and could be sure that no one would find him.


    There was only one way to find out however and that was to go to the one person that I hoped had the answers that I was looking for and could make this mystery simple. Unfortunately for me he didn¡¯t and I had to work from scratch which led to my current problem in the alley.


    I had to ask Ethan himself.


    ¡°Hello are you listening?¡± Marcus asked bring me out of a daze and I stopped right before I walked into his outstretched fist.


    ¡°What¡¯s the big idea?¡± I asked him.


    ¡°You were in your own world I wondered if you would notice it but you didn¡¯t so I had to warn you.¡± Marcus said and I glared at him which he just laughed at. There were times I really found him annoying but I figured if you have a friend that is an immortal that means you always have a friend you can use as a meat shield.


    ¡°So what is your plan?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Simple I am going to summon a spirit.¡± I told him I would have to get my car back first but after that it was pretty simple summoning ghost and I was used to the spell.


    ¡°Do you need help with anything?¡± he asked and I shook my head. My version was a simple enough spell and I didn¡¯t doubt my ability so there was no point for him to show up.


    ¡°I might need you to check up on someone.¡± I told him and gave him the aunt¡¯s address it would be good for someone to check up on her and I was way too busy to do it myself.


    I watched him walk off the street sidewalk a care. A car was driving up and it stopped just before it hit what they must have assumed was a crazy person standing in the street.


    ¡°Move out of the way!¡± the driver shouted honking his horn three times his face was tense and he looked like he was wanting to run Marcus over. He probably should have because when Marcus walked up to him there was a grin on his face.


    I couldn¡¯t hear what was being said but I knew what was happening. Marcus didn¡¯t like driving if he didn¡¯t have to. He preferred forcing someone to do the driving for him so that way he didn¡¯t have to pay more than the barest amount of attention possible. Being a vampire was something that Marcus loved. He didn¡¯t have to work and he was immortal if there wasn¡¯t the fact that I might lose my magic I would like to be a vampire.


    I called him not soon after I summoned Ethan. If I was fighting someone that was doing sacrificial magic I was going to need backup that was stronger and faster than me to help. Him being immortal probably would not hurt. It turns out I shouldn¡¯t have asked because he wasn¡¯t much help and we hadn¡¯t even get to the dark wizard yet.


    There was too much distance between here and Northwood Park to simply walk just for my car and I was not in the mood to see if I was going to be robbed by walking alone at night. I was tired and hungry and still had work to do so I used magic. Teleportation was another magical ability like astral projecting that I was taught that I was truly fond of.


    As a kid I didn¡¯t like walking long distances and as an adult I still don¡¯t so when I learned that teleportation was an actual possibility from then on I put a lot of effort into figuring out how to do it.


    Using magic to move from one place to another was simple. All you had to do was think of your destination take a deep calming breath and flood your body with mana and there you appeared in the blink of an eye. All you felt was yourself disappearing from one place and reappearing in another. When I last timed myself it only took about three seconds to do the entire process. First though I had to get some food to eat. It had been a long day and it was still not over.

 Chapter Seven

    Walking outside the building I took a look at the moon in the sky. There were no stars due to the city lights and the only blinking in the sky was either due to radio towers or airplanes. Besides the street lights it was the only source of light in the sky. It might be cold for other people but thanks to my coat I never felt it.


    The coat was layered with enchantments. From simple ones that either kept me warm or cold depending on the weather to complex ones like my pockets which connected to my workshop and protection against theft.


    I gave a yawn. I had been in that building way too long and I still had yet to go back and get my car.


    ¡°So what are you going to do now?¡± Marcus asked as he stood on the sidewalk¡¯s edge and walked on top of it trying to keep perfect balance.


    ¡°I¡¯ll need to restart this entire investigation.¡± I told him and planned to do just that after I got something to eat and took a nap. There were pieces missing from my puzzle box and I disliked that.


    Ethan Parker looked to be a completely average kid. Went to school, hung out with friends I¡¯m assuming and was murdered. These were all the facts that I know but the method is what is bothering me the most.


    The fact of the matter is Ethan was killed by an object that was full of dark magic. That type of magic only comes from a person who was intending to kill or injure someone.


    All magic can be used to kill. Basically magic is a supernatural force that can alter the fabric of reality at fundamental levels. Magic like the universe was and is relatively neutral. It had it¡¯s good parts and it¡¯s bad part. Magic could be used to help or to hurt depending on the person using it and their desires.


    The thing that killed Ethan was an item cursed with dark magic. It was powered by death and its aim was to grow stronger and hurt others. It was the opposite of enchanting which filled an item with light and or neutral magic. If death was what powered the object than it was likely not going to be content with just Ethan.


    There were either more dead bodies not found or it was just beginning its murder spree. I assume from the wound that the weapon is a blade type. Either from a knife or a dagger.


    So I had to stop the person using the cursed blade from killing any more people. I just had to figure out the method he was using to kill and the reasoning behind it and that wasn¡¯t such an easy thing.


    Dark magic originated from dark feeling like anger, hatred, envy and all the other emotions people feel when they have the intent and desire to kill a person and doing so only makes it stronger and easier to do it again. It was drawn from darkness to spread darkness.


    Light magic was what was created and gathered by all the positive emotions created by living beings in all the worlds in creation and while it was still possible to kill and maim with it if you so desired but that wasn¡¯t it original purpose. It was also a lot more complicated to do so and required such effort and creativity that it was easier just using dark magic.


    Neutral magic was magic which could kill if so desired but was not born from light or dark emotions. All you needed was the intent and desire to use it. There were many sub categories that descended from these three main branches and many styles that were developed from them.


    My personal and prefered style was neutral natural magic. It was the practice of using only the magic you were born with to create spells and potions. Each time you cast a spell you were using your own energy to cause something to happen. I preferred this method as it meant I depended on myself and my natural talents and abilities. I disliked drawing power from others.


    The magic that was used to kill Ethan looked to be more of a sacrificial type. The symbols on his arms and forehead could mean that it was part of a ritual and that meant the killer had to spend time with his victims in a place that he or she felt was safe and could be sure that no one would find him.


    There was only one way to find out however and that was to go to the one person that I hoped had the answers that I was looking for and could make this mystery simple. Unfortunately for me he didn¡¯t and I had to work from scratch which led to my current problem in the alley.


    I had to ask Ethan himself.


    ¡°Hello are you listening?¡± Marcus asked bring me out of a daze and I stopped right before I walked into his outstretched fist.


    ¡°What¡¯s the big idea?¡± I asked him.


    ¡°You were in your own world I wondered if you would notice it but you didn¡¯t so I had to warn you.¡± Marcus said and I glared at him which he just laughed at. There were times I really found him annoying but I figured if you have a friend that is an immortal that means you always have a friend you can use as a meat shield.


    ¡°So what is your plan?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Simple I am going to summon a spirit.¡± I told him I would have to get my car back first but after that it was pretty simple summoning ghost and I was used to the spell.


    ¡°Do you need help with anything?¡± he asked and I shook my head. My version was a simple enough spell and I didn¡¯t doubt my ability so there was no point for him to show up.


    ¡°I might need you to check up on someone.¡± I told him and gave him the aunt¡¯s address it would be good for someone to check up on her and I was way too busy to do it myself.


    I watched him walk off the street sidewalk a care. A car was driving up and it stopped just before it hit what they must have assumed was a crazy person standing in the street.


    ¡°Move out of the way!¡± the driver shouted honking his horn three times his face was tense and he looked like he was wanting to run Marcus over. He probably should have because when Marcus walked up to him there was a grin on his face.


    I couldn¡¯t hear what was being said but I knew what was happening. Marcus didn¡¯t like driving if he didn¡¯t have to. He preferred forcing someone to do the driving for him so that way he didn¡¯t have to pay more than the barest amount of attention possible. Being a vampire was something that Marcus loved. He didn¡¯t have to work and he was immortal if there wasn¡¯t the fact that I might lose my magic I would like to be a vampire.


    I called him not soon after I summoned Ethan. If I was fighting someone that was doing sacrificial magic I was going to need backup that was stronger and faster than me to help. Him being immortal probably would not hurt. It turns out I shouldn¡¯t have asked because he wasn¡¯t much help and we hadn¡¯t even get to the dark wizard yet.


    There was too much distance between here and Northwood Park to simply walk just for my car and I was not in the mood to see if I was going to be robbed by walking alone at night. I was tired and hungry and still had work to do so I used magic. Teleportation was another magical ability like astral projecting that I was taught that I was truly fond of.


    As a kid I didn¡¯t like walking long distances and as an adult I still don¡¯t so when I learned that teleportation was an actual possibility from then on I put a lot of effort into figuring out how to do it.


    Using magic to move from one place to another was simple. All you had to do was think of your destination take a deep calming breath and flood your body with mana and there you appeared in the blink of an eye. All you felt was yourself disappearing from one place and reappearing in another. When I last timed myself it only took about three seconds to do the entire process. First though I had to get some food to eat. It had been a long day and it was still not over.Well apparently I was out long enough for them to have found out about Ethan I really hoped they hadn¡¯t talked to the aunt yet or I wouldn¡¯t get paid the rest of my money. I gave variable rates depending on who was hiring me and the job but I still wanted to be paid.


    ¡°That my metal detector needs to be repaired.¡± I said. I really couldn¡¯t help that one. I had kept silent for most of the day and it figuratively hurt to keep quiet when I was set up with great lines like that.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    He didn¡¯t like that answer at all and he slammed his hands on the table shouting ¡°Do you think this is a joke?¡± I was torn between continuing and trying to act solemn over what happened.


    The fact that a kid was dead was sad sure but I didn¡¯t like dwelling on emotions like that so I buried them deep down and tried to ignore them whenever they showed up until they were gone.


    ¡°No I do not think it¡¯s a joke.¡± I told them. I would have made a no game no life joke but I don¡¯t think he would have gotten the reference and first one aside I thought it might have been too soon to be making jokes out of Ethan¡¯s untimely demise.


    ¡°If I was making a joke I would have asked you if your family was still fighting mummies or stealing diamonds with Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny.¡± After my mouth closed I realized what I said. People have often told me I don¡¯t know when to stop talking apparently they were right.


    His eyes began to narrow and I could tell he knew what I referencing and while that usually made me happy this was not such an occasion. Langdon interfered before he was able to say anything.


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t look good for you; you have got to admit that you standing over the corpse makes you look guilty.¡± Detective Langdon said calmly. I wondered if I was in the good cop/bad cop routine now and on the side of the suspect. It may have been their true personalities but you could never be sure.


    ¡°It might look that way but there is a perfectly rational explanation that will prove my innocence¡± was my response and it with that it was time to begin my first part of the plan. All that was left to see was if they would play along or if I would have to direct the conversation.


    ¡°Oh really I would love to hear it. What possible explanation could you possibly give?¡± O¡¯Connell asked in clearly in doubt of me.


    ¡°I am going to reach in my pocket for my business card¡± I said making sure they had no reason to think I would pull a weapon out on them. There was time for seriousness and time for drama and it would do me no good if I did either too early or too late.


    The card was placed on the table. It was purple, on the back was a picture of an open eye in black ink with my number on it. On the other side was my business information. I already knew what it said so I gave it to them to look over.


    Alex Blackwell ¨C Psychic Detective


    Investigations, Charms, S¨¦ances, Item recovery, Exorcisms, Fortune telling, Telepathy, Aura Reading, Bounty Hunter.


    Consulting, Reasonable rates


    There were tons of these back in my office enchanted to turn up when people needed help. I enchanted the cards to give people with problems the impulse to call me. I had to stay in business and I wanted to help people so using magic on the cards made sense at the time. This way was easier than putting flyers around town and ads on the internet. They still haven¡¯t let me down.


    Enchanting was my specialty. It was the skill that I was the best at. Infusing magic into items and giving them each different effects. My coat was an example of this and so was the pens that I carried around with me constantly.


    ¡°Psychic, is that the answer you¡¯re going with?¡± O¡¯Connell scoffed at my card and while on the outside I was calm on the inside I was grinning he had taken the bait.


    ¡°Yes, it is true after all.¡± modern science couldn¡¯t prove me wrong as far as I knew. The fact of the matter was the only reason psychics were doubted was because people were more cynical as they grew older and lost all sense of wonder and mystery. I think it was the fact that their reality crushed their sense of wonder was the reason.


    ¡°Unless you are pleading an insanity defense, I don¡¯t think anybody will buy that.¡± he said and had turned my card over.


    ¡°What like that show Psych?¡± Langdon said somewhere between mockery and concern and I froze and turned towards her.


    ¡°I get asked that question so many times. No I am a real psychic detective¡± I sighed and tried to sound really insulted and depressed but on the inside I one day hoped to be able to be as convincing as him when convincing people that I was psychic. His acting skills were far beyond mine. I still was barely able to fake emotions I actually felt.


    ¡°So Alex you think you are psychic?¡± she said and I could tell she was trying to humor me and see how crazy I must be in her opinion. I wondered how use to this style they were. Langdon was the kind cop, the one who made you think she was understanding you while O¡¯Connell was there to be the rough and angry detective who looked like he would love nothing more than to beat the answers out of you.


    ¡°Come on Langdon he¡¯s clearly a few colors short of a crayon box.¡± he said talking like I wasn¡¯t here. If he was to be compared with the police academy characters he would be lieutenant Harris.


    ¡°Hey be nice. Words hurt, don¡¯t you policemen have to do sensitivity training or something?¡± I had no clue but when life gives you openings to insult someone I don¡¯t take them for granted.


    ¡°I¡¯ll prove it.¡± I said and got relaxed in the metal chair in the room. I wasn¡¯t sure if anybody else was watching us since the window I was facing was only one way. It allowed others to see me but not the reverse.


    ¡°How¡¯s that?¡± he questioned me.


    ¡°I will tell you your future.¡± That brought a raised eyebrow. I didn¡¯t actually have the ability to do it and I was glad. Being able to see the future meant that life had no surprises anymore and while the being able to see the bad surprises would be a good thing but it would also mean you ruin the good surprises and make life boring. That didn¡¯t stop me from making something up. Especially if I knew that it would be coming true soon enough.


    ¡°Oh yeah? Well go on and tell me.¡± He said in response. We were ignoring Langdon presence at the moment. For me it was because I had already had O¡¯Connell taking the bait and for him it was because he was hoping to get me to focus on him and make mistakes they could take advantage of.


    He only got half of his wish but it wasn¡¯t the part that he wished for though. I was trained to run circles around people like him and I will admit at the time a part of me enjoyed it. It wasn¡¯t because he was a cop or because I didn¡¯t like him the reason I was doing it was simple it seemed like fun at the time.


    ¡°I see you full of anger and at the sight of me getting out of here completely innocent.¡± I told him I wished that I had some tarot cards just to make it more mysterious but the only reason they let me keep my coat was they believed nothing was in it and if I started pulling stuff out I would be searched more thoroughly.


    ¡°Really now because what I see for you is life in prison with no chance for parole involved in it.¡± He interrupted me his expression at the time was a deep scowl that just seemed like it¡¯s purpose was to radiate anger and fear and cause me to become scared. It didn¡¯t seem to work on me however and seeing my face seem not scared by him only seemed to make O¡¯Connell even madder. My earlier assumption proving truer as time went by and we continued talking.


    It was like he was a black hole trying to suck all the joy out of me and leave me a shattered husk full of angst and regret. This was a result of working in their world. The world the mortals lived in was a world of greys that just had lighter and darker shades. I on the other hand worked in a world of color. There were reds, blues, greens, yellows, and more. It was like a Crayola box. There were so many colors that shaded my world that they were completely blind to.


    ¡°This is ridiculous.¡± he said in response to my actions.


    ¡°What do you want to know then?¡± I asked curious if we could move past this and continue on with my interrogation. I wondered how far we could get before Marcus got here.


    ¡°What I would like to be told is why this kid had to die!¡± O¡¯Connell shouted at me his face red and a vein bulging on his forehead. I always wondered how people did that and how it felt like.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know that when I find the killer I will ask him for you¡± I told him point blank. I expected answers sooner than that but I couldn¡¯t explain my methods to them.


    ¡°I¡¯m looking right at him.¡± he said with full confidence.


    ¡°Really because I don¡¯t see a guy here besides you and me in here and I know I didn¡¯t do it.¡± I stated. O¡¯Connell was about to say something else but there was a knock at the door that interrupted him.


    We all turned and in walked two people and the sight of them put a smile on my face. One was a person I had never seen before and the other was the reason I was smiling the person that I had been waiting for had finally arrived. Marcus was here.


    He was taller than me standing at a good six foot three with short dark hair and brown eyes, He looked to be twenty-five, He had a dark suit on with a silver watch on his wrist and had a brown briefcase when he walked in. his black shoes were shiny yet barely made a sound when he walked. On his right hand he was wearing his ring on his middle finger. It was silver on the outside and on the inside was a red gem.


    It was one of my better enchantments in my opinion. It was in the top hundred in my opinion.


    I will admit when I told him to look like a lawyer when he picked me up I did not expect that he would actually go this far. Knowing that he did not own suits I wondered where he got it from and what happened to its original owner.


    The other man that came in was a guy that looked to be in charge. He had a fat face with black hair and hazel eyes. He had mutton chops stretched past his ears and reached to the middle of his face, his mustache stretched from his nose and covered his top lip but was parted down the middle like a greater or less than sign but going down.


    ¡°Captain what is going on?¡± Langdon asked. I wanted to ask about cop hierarchies since I was never studied that but figured the time wasn¡¯t right. I would have to look it up on Wikipedia when I got home.


    ¡°This is his Lawyer Marcus Johnson we are letting him go.¡± The Chief said and I nodded getting up out of the chair.


    ¡°All right if you are his lawyer how did you even know that he was here?¡± O¡¯Connell asked Marcus still being suspicious as possible. I assume he was thinking that we were accomplices for the murder after all how could he have known I was arrested if I hadn¡¯t made a phone call here even after they read me my rights.


    The only way this was possible was if he was at the crime scene and saw me be arrested. I however had planned for this event when I told him to come.


    ¡°I called him while I was in the police car. The arresting officer was so busy calling in for backup that he stopped paying attention to me.¡± I told them. None of that was true at all but they didn¡¯t need to know that.


    I pulled out my cell phone that was in my pocket. They had searched me when I was in the precinct but unless you had magic you wouldn¡¯t find any objects in my pockets. It was a safety precaution I made for events just like this.

 Chapter Nine

    We were standing in Wissinoming park and we all had shovels. It was the next closet spot on the map that I had found traces of the dark magic that the killer had used. I was really not fond of digging up another corpse so soon. I preferred to not see another dead body for a long time.


    This time however was different I didn¡¯t have to do any digging at all.


    ¡°Ethan phase through the ground and see if there is anything there.¡± I commanded him it was really time he did something if I was going to keep him here until we caught his killer.


    After all, how many people say they have got revenge on their killer from beyond the grave.


    ¡°What why do I have to do it?¡± he questioned me like he could change my mind if he argued enough.


    ¡°Because you¡¯re the ghost and can phase through the ground without getting exhausted or covered in dirt.¡± I told him


    ¡°I think it¡¯s because I¡¯m the youngest and you¡¯re just lazy.¡± He complained and while some of it may be true I was not going to tell him that.


    ¡°You going or not.¡± I waved him onwards and he spent a few minutes grumbling before he got to work with the disappearing underground.


    ¡°So did you tell him about his aunt.¡± Came from right behind me and I turned and was prepared to blast the person that snuck up on me when I saw that it was Marcus. Gripping my chest until I calmed back down until my heart was back to its normal rhythm I glared at him even harder when I saw the amusement he was taking in my pain.


    ¡°Sorry didn¡¯t mean to scare you.¡± He apologized but I could see his eyes still glittering in amusement over what happened even if he looked apologetic.


    ¡°What did you want?¡± I asked I didn¡¯t remember as I was focused on blasting whatever it was that was sneaking up on me.


    ¡°You need to stop living in your dream world and pay attention, I walked up right behind you not even trying to be sneaky.¡± He saidThis narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    ¡°You wanted something.¡± I asked him there was nothing else to do while we waited for Casper the brooding ghost to return.


    ¡°I wanted to know if you told him about his aunt.¡± He said and I remembered what he told me earlier about no one being at her house.


    ¡°Not yet. I still haven¡¯t figured out how to say it without hurting the kid.¡± I told him and he nodded. We had barely waited ten minutes before Ethan came back.


    ¡°Did you see any bodies down there?¡± I asked him hoping that the answer was no and that I wouldn¡¯t have to dig up anyone up. I had dug one body up recently and that was too exhausting for me to even finish I did not plan on trying it again. I had to give it to gravediggers they were a lot stronger than most people give them credit for. Grave digging is hard work.


    ¡°Yeah at least twenty.¡± He said and I was horrified both at the number of graves that would have to be dug and by the number of people that were killed already.


    I had hoped that Ethan had been the first victim and that whoever was doing this magic had just begun that way I could have stopped him before he got too strong but this changed things.


    Now I was just hoping that the killer was just very weak and needed just this many deaths to get the same amount of power that a regular caster would have normally. This amount of sacrifices either meant he was very weak and wanted to get stronger or more likely and the idea I liked less was he was already strong but needed more to do something seriously big.


    I was going to have to go with the second option though given by the fact that the universe doesn¡¯t like me and enjoys my suffering and torment. I had planned to have a mug made at the end of this job. All I want at this current moment is to live to see to see the end of the job.


    ¡°So who is going to do the digging?¡± Ethan asked showing us his transparent hands implying that it wouldn¡¯t be him.


    ¡°Him.¡± Marcus and I pointed at each other simultaneously.


    ¡°I¡¯m not doing it.¡± I told him and meant it. There had been enough digging in my opinion and I was not going to do it again.


    ¡°Well I¡¯m not doing it.¡± Marcus said leaning on a tree looking at his nails. I always found it weird that he let his nails grow but he refused to cut them. They would grow back but according to him he liked them that way and refused to shorten them down.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to do any digging, you aren¡¯t going to dig, and Ethan can¡¯t do it so who will?¡± I questioned him and he pulled out a cellphone in response and dialed a number.


    ¡°Captain Bennet this is Marcus.¡± He said with a grin. I understood his plan and shared that grin. I knew there was a reason that the two of us were still friends. His personality was similar to mine except he was more outgoing while I was introverted.

 Chapter Eleven

    We were driving to the last the spot on the map that I had marked that had the residue of the killer¡¯s mana. This was the strongest source so we had avoided it until we couldn¡¯t anymore. It wasn¡¯t wise to come to a killer¡¯s lair unprepared after all.


    I was now fully paranoid and on guard. In horror movie lots of white people died because they made stupid mistakes and I wasn¡¯t going to add myself to that list. I would not separate from the group or go to the attic or the basement by myself.


    Marcus was going to be walking ahead of me though. He could take countless injuries and he would be fine I on the other hand wasn¡¯t that durable. The pain threshold of a vampire was an incredible thing.


    We pulled up at the place and saw it the house. The duo of Marcus and Ethan were thrown off by how normal the house looked. It was a single building that looked to have three floors given by the windows. There was an iron fence and a driveway that was missing a car. Well at least whoever was living here wasn¡¯t home at the moment.


    It was made of brown bricks and a roof that was painted white that were beginning to peel off. There was a tree in the yard. All in all, it looked like a regular house. The size depended on how many people were living in it.


    The moment I saw it I became suspicious. I had seen to many movies and read too many books to not be suspicious of something that looked that normal. The houses and cities that looked like nothing bad could ever happen were the places where the craziest things were found. If you read any book from Stephen King that involved Maine, you would be suspicious of normal places as well. That was one of the reasons I planned to never visit that state.


    I pulled my wand out of my coat¡¯s pocket on the right side and was prepared for anything.


    ¡°How do you fit all that stuff in there?¡± Ethan asked and I decided to show him. I pulled pens from my pockets and switched where I put them and where I pulled them from. We ignored the sounds happening around us of someone fighting with a door and loosing.


    ¡°How did you do that?¡± he asked completely curious and I tried hard to keep the grin off my face. I had created it just so someone would ask that question. This enchantment was similar to the one in my workshop. It connected all the pockets to a room inside the workshop and I could pull out anything with just a thought. I had five coats that had the same enchantment in case something happened to the coat and it couldn¡¯t fix itself for some reason. If it was stolen, then it was designed to turn into a normal coat and turn to dust. Being a wizard meant you had to think ahead.


    ¡°My coat¡¯s enchanted. The pockets are all interconnected to a pocket dimension that is bigger on the inside than the outside.¡± I told him. It taken me months to get the spell work on this thing right and it was one of my greatest creations.


    ¡°Open the door¡± Marcus told me sulking by the door. While I had been explaining to Ethan he had been trying to get in for the last five minutes and nothing he was doing was having an effect. He first tried opening the door and when that didn¡¯t help he began trying to break down the door with brute force. After his third try the door began to bounce him back more painfully each time.


    Looking at him I could see that the suit that he was wearing was covered in dirt and the sleeves were ripped. I wondered how hard his falls were and then I felt a sense of satisfaction that he was getting beaten up by a door.


    ¡°All right wait for a bit.¡± I told them and headed back to my car. I had plenty of ways around a ward that was created to keep unfriendly people out but for the quickest way I needed things that were in my car.


    Opening the trunk and the suit case that was in it I grabbed a few slips of paper and brought them back to the others. These slips of paper were enchanted to both stick to whatever surface I chose and depending on the type of spell infused into it they had many purposes. I had based them off talismans that eastern Wizards and Witches liked to use.


    They didn¡¯t last long but we would not require that much time to walk through the door.


    ¡°What are slips of paper supposed to do?¡± Ethan asked full of doubt even after seeing so much magic. He should know better than to doubt me.


    ¡°Watch.¡± And they watched as each talisman was attached to a side of the door and it glowed blue before a portal opened that showed the inside of the house.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    ¡°Now we can pass.¡± I told them and waved them through feeling smug that I got through the wards of the killer¡¯s house.


    ¡°Alex is the Anti-Gandalf.¡± Marcus said jokingly as we had passed the door. It was at times embarrassing to admit that I knew him.


    ¡°After you¡± I let Marcus walk in front of me just in case that there was some type of spell to harm intruders and when nothing happened to him Ethan and I followed him. I would have sent Ethan in front of me too but there was the whole thing with him not being solid.


    ¡°This place looks so normal.¡± Marcus complained the entire way he had been talking about how he had been planning to storm the killer¡¯s lair and confront him like he was the main character in a horror movie.


    He would not stop talking of how ugly and dark the place had to have been and how it would just show how evil the killer was.


    ¡°Hey guys look at this!¡± Ethan brought our attention to a table that had mail on it and a wallet.


    ¡°Let¡¯s find out who this killer is.¡± All I knew about the murderer was that he was a guy and he had a murder weapon that was cursed.


    That is why this was no longer the case of the missing nephew but the search for the cursed blade.


    We flipped open and saw the killer. His name was Bryan Mercer. He had neatly combed brown hair and hazel eyes. According to his wallet he was five foot seven.


    ¡°Well know we know who he is now what?¡± Marcus asked now we were in the home of the killer but we had no clue when or if he was going to be back.


    ¡°Let¡¯s look around some more.¡± Given that there were no traps and it didn¡¯t look like Bryan was home we were now free to separate and go our separate ways. I went upstairs, Marcus went towards the dining room and kitchen, and Ethan went wherever we weren¡¯t. He tried to knock things over but given that he was a spirit and not a ghost it didn¡¯t work.


    I stepped into Bryan¡¯s room and took a look around there were only two bedrooms upstairs but I doubted that he would leave any evidence of what he did in his guest room so I went straight for his bedroom and as I walked in I immediately felt that something was wrong but I couldn¡¯t figure out what it was and that it was throwing me off in a way that annoyed me.


    The room was common enough it had all the regular things you would expect to find in an adult¡¯s room. A television on a dresser, a king sized bed, a closet full of clothes, a chest by the bed filled by albums with tons of pictures of him. They looked like happy times. I wonder what happened to change this guy into a killer.


    I scratched my head. There was something in this room that was bugging me and I would not calm down until I figured it out.


    Marcus and Ethan came upstairs and when they saw me pacing around the room scratching my head they asked if I was alright.,


    ¡°I¡¯m fine just trying to figure something out.¡± There was something obvious that I had noticed but I couldn¡¯t figure it out.


    ¡°Do you want to know what we found?¡± Marcus said holding up envelopes and coming closer into my personal space. It was at that moment that I figured out what was bugging me.


    There was no doubt about it. There had been something wrong with the room and my mind had been trying to tell me.


    I pulled out a pair of sunglasses from my coat and put them on looking around the room.


    ¡°Why are you putting on sunglasses indoors?¡± Ethan questioned me but I was ignoring him completely grinning and I am sure that from the outside I must be looking pretty crazy.


    These glasses were designed to let me see mana and magic which was normally invisible and looking around the room I could see what had been bugging me. The entire room was covered in magic especially the wall that was behind the bed.


    ¡°Tell me later.¡± I told them and aimed my wand at the bed.


    ¡°Levo¡± and the bed began to float and I moved over by the dresser and looked at the wall that was the source of my issues.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Marcus asked clearly wondering what the point of that was.


    ¡°Conteram Seosum¡± when the spell was finished we watched as the wall fell apart and revealed that behind the wall there was another portion of the wall. Apparently Brian had extended the space of his room to use it as a workshop and a place where he kept his magic books.


    ¡°What in the world?¡± Ethan asked completely lost.


    ¡°This is like the place where I summoned you for the first time.¡± I told him and searched the desk that held what looked like a couple journals and research paper.


    ¡°What did you guys want?¡± I asked them no longer having to deal with my issues I was willing to listen to them.


    ¡°Why are your hands wet?¡± I asked looking at Marcus who was wiping his hands on the wall


    ¡°I had to wash them after I found a clue¡± he told me and Ethan pointed to the envelopes that they had placed on the chest. Looking over them I could tell that they were medical bills.


    They were addressed to Brian but looked to have been crumpled up.


    ¡°They were in the trash.¡± Marcus said and that explained a lot. Marcus didn¡¯t have a fear of germs but he was really uncomfortable with anything that wasn¡¯t clean. It wasn¡¯t that hard for him to deal with but he still hated it and would wash his hands first chance he got if he touched anything he thought was unclean.


    ¡°Guys we have a problem¡± Ethan said looking out the window. They had no blinds but were far enough away that we hadn¡¯t been seen yet. Ethan wasn¡¯t seen due to the fact that he was looking while hiding near the wall.


    ¡°What is it Bryan?¡± I asked getting ready to head downstairs and start a magic battle with him the moment that he opened the door.


    ¡°No it¡¯s those detectives¡± He answered and I nodded and begun to think of what to do next.


    Things just got a lot more complicated.

 Chapter Thirteen

    Too busy reading so for dinner all I had was a bagel. There I was on my dining room table minding my own business reading and looking at the journal deep in thought when I was given a fright that had me drooping my bagel and sending it to the floor.


    ¡°How far did you get?¡± Ethan had appeared and asked me and my hand jumped up and had to grab my heart which was beating like I was running for my life from a lion in the jungle.


    ¡°Don¡¯t do that!¡± I shouted at him gripping my chest and taking deep breaths wishing that I had one of those paper bags people breathe into on airplanes in television to calm down people who have panic attacks. I truly regretted what happened to my bagel.


    ¡°Sorry but seriously what have you learned?¡± he questioned me again sitting on my desk kicking his feet looking both solemn yet bored in a way that only a teenager can.


    ¡°Apparently Bryan turned towards sacrificial magic to become an immortal.¡± I told him but he had no idea what I was talking about given that he only recently learned about magic so he didn¡¯t get the importance and the dangers of this.


    I was right about the type of magic that was being used but I had not thought that he had gotten this deep into it. Sacrificial magic was a banned magical practice. It required power from sacrifice like the name implies but ironically given since you aren¡¯t sacrificing anything you care about but the lives of other things. There was an altered version that was created when the council of magic altered the spells and rituals that the Witches and Wizards used because the world was changing.


    Spell and rituals had to be changed so that we could blend in. The fact was the deaths and sacrifices of people were starting to be noticed more and more and eventually if we hadn¡¯t changed we would have gone to war with the people who couldn¡¯t use magic so disappearing into the shadows seemed like a better option.


    For the current version the power is temporary and there is a limit to how much a person could have so it wasn¡¯t worthwhile to kill dozens of living creatures. Bryan was using the older version and unfortunately the power was indeed permanent. His power was amplifying with each death like a guitar being plugged in a generator that was continually getting amped up.


    The original was decreed forbidden when the world entered the age of enlightenment. The council had been created just a decade earlier and when they had agreed to let magic become a less obvious fact of the world the ways we did magic had to change so that we could hide better. Styles of magic were lost, destroyed, and banned. Places were created to store all that information and then they were sealed so that no one could use that type of magic ever again.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ¡°Well how did he learn it then?¡± Ethan questioned me when I told him all this and I shrugged and turned him to the page that I was currently reading. it was a more recent passage in the journal.


    ¡°I finally found a way to become immortal, the answer is Sacrificial magic. With this I can finally have everything that I want and I will never have to die!¡± the passage was two months old and probably when he first began his murder spree.


    The page before was littered with symbols that caused age suspension magic when placed on a person¡¯s skin. So apparently his immortality was not linked with stopping age like a vampire¡¯s was. So he had to resort to getting a tattoo on his back to stop aging.


    ¡°Why is he doing all of this?¡± Ethan asked I guess he was hoping that I had an idea of why he and all those other people had to die. He was correct. Given what I know now I am ninety percent sure why this was happening.


    ¡°According to this he was sick with something fatal. What it was I don¡¯t know since he didn¡¯t write about it but almost all modern diseases can be cured with magic.¡± I told him.


    ¡°If he was cured then why is he doing all of this.¡± Ethan asked


    ¡°He may have been cured but he did not forget what it felt like to be told you were going to die and how scared it made him. So someone as clearly smart as he was so clearly he went on to research how to become immortal but no one would share the instruction¡­¡± I began and watched as Ethan nodded along. Glad to see he was still paying attention I continued on.


    ¡°They wouldn¡¯t because they were afraid of what would happen if their methods were learned.¡± Ethan supplied the answer and I nodded glad he was keeping up.


    ¡°So he found a new way one to give him immortality since no would help him.¡± I finished taking a deep breath. The motive was clear but we still had to find him and bring him to justice and get revenge for his victims.


    ¡°Are we too late to stop him?¡± Ethan questioned me and I shook my head. Assuming the journal was still accurate Bryan was still just improving his blade and he had still had yet to get his actual target. I told him as much.


    ¡°If we weren¡¯t his true target who was?¡± he questioned me and I pulled out a picture from the journal. It was a man with light brown hair with dark shades covering his eyes.


    ¡°What¡¯s so special about this guy that he was being targeted by our guy?¡± Ethan questioned me. It was understandable that he was confused he hadn¡¯t read the journal so he didn¡¯t know who this was.


    ¡°This is Geoffrey Keller and he is a vampire.¡± I told him and he nodded urging me to continue and ruining the dramatic mood that I was trying to set.


    He would not get his wish because as I was only explaining this once to both him and Marcus and I was too tired to give a proper explanation so I simply pulled him back into the necklace conjured myself a pillow and with a grin I went to sleep and I didn¡¯t plan to wake up until twelve hours at least past.


    We were hunting a vampire and they were creatures of the night so to match his pattern of activity I would have to sleep the entire day. This was the first part of the case that I actually enjoyed.


    I had no idea the danger I was putting myself in by hunting down Geoffrey Keller and how much pain I would be put through. Both before and after we had found him. I would have to wait for tomorrow night to explain though.

 Chapter Fifteen

    There we were in the back alley. A wizard, two vampires, and a ghost trapped in a necklace. I really was regretting not making a joke when we walked into the club. Like A wizard, a ghost, and a vampire walk into a bar. I don¡¯t know how I would have ended it but I am halfway sure it would have been funny.


    ¡°What did you want to tell me?¡± Geoffrey asked us as he put his hands in his pockets urging us to tell him what we wanted with him and so I told him the story of how a dark wizard was after him and planning to use him in a sacrifice. When he heard that though he only chuckled and chuckled. Marcus and I turned towards each other both uncomfortable and unsure of what was going on.


    ¡°What is so funny?¡± Marcus asked him as I wondered if this guy was insane because out of all the reactions I imagined him having laughing wasn¡¯t one of them.


    ¡°How far did you get in Bryan¡¯s journal?¡± he asked us and we froze because we had never told him that the killer was named Bryan we only told him we copied the killer journal.


    ¡°How did you know his name?¡± I asked him and all he gave me was a smug grin hearing a click behind me. Geoffrey nodded and pointed behind me and there was Stephanie with a gun pointed at me. I didn¡¯t know much about them besides that they hurt when you were hit and they were deadly if shot in the certain areas. There was an insane look in her eyes that showed she would shoot me without hesitation.


    ¡°Do it.¡± Geoffrey said and she pulled the trigger and bullets came flying at me. I would have tried teleporting but that wasn¡¯t safe given my lack of focus and with Geoffrey¡¯s speed the moment I reappeared he would snap my neck faster than I could blink.


    I had forgotten Marcus in the equation however. The minute the girl had fired he had rushed right between the bullets and me. I mean I brought him along for this purpose but I was still grateful that he actually did it. It wouldn¡¯t kill him so I wasn¡¯t that worried.


    Getting shot so many times in the same week though Marcus was not in the mood for that. The moment he healed you could hear him growl and charge at Stephanie. He was there one moment then all you heard was the crack of a neck and when he reappeared he was behind Stephanie and then you just saw her falling down.


    Turning back to Geoffrey we wondered how he would react to this would he be angry or sad. Depending on the response it would change how we fought this guy. The problem was that the guy looked happy that Stephanie was dead he had a grin on his face like we had just solved all his problems for him.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    While he was thinking of whatever I conjured a wooden spear in my hand and tried to move it into his heart with my mind but the blasted spear wouldn¡¯t travel fast enough and he grabbed it right when it reached his arms grasps. It was there one moment and gone the next. Hearing a body drop I turned behind me and saw the spear stabbing Marcus and as his body fell I saw it turning grey and his veins became more obvious.


    Now it was me and a psychotic Vampire alone in an alley. I had no wand and no coat full of enchanted items but he had all his strength and speed and was completely unpredictable.


    The odds weren¡¯t in my favor of coming out ahead in this.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± I questioned him as I tried to turn and run and get more distance between him and us for whatever good that would do but when I turned he was already there and same if I turned back. He could run faster and reach each end of the alley before I would even get half way.


    ¡°Dealing with a pest.¡± he answered and appeared in front of me before shoving me onto the ground and when I tried to get back up he did it again. It was like we were in elementary school and he was the bully. Except when he was done playing I would be dead. It continued on for a while and I was tossed through the alley and through crates. It really hurt. I was going to have bruises and those bruises would have bruises. There was no time to focus on that however at the moment.


    ¡°You looked happy when she died so why are you doing this?¡± I questioned him trying to make sense of his actions. He was killing people trying to save his life but he had aveneged his girlfriend though he seemed happy that his girlfriend had died.


    ¡°Oh I had been wondering how to kill her for a while without her coming back and hating me but your friend did the work for me.¡± He said and I remembered the red running down her lips when we first met. I thought it was wine at the time but if it wasn¡¯t that meant it was his blood.


    ¡°Yes see you get it.¡± He said as if he could feel I made the connection over what happened. If that was true that meant I was going to be dealing with two vampires that wanted me dead. One that was starving and stronger than me and one that was psychotic and stronger than me also. It did not look good for me. I pushed him off and began to stand up. I would have to win this fight and get my answers as apparently I didn¡¯t have the whole picture yet either.


    ¡°Yes! I love it when prey fights back.¡± He said excited as he backed up and looked excited over what was going to happen. I had to beat him before the girl woke up or I was going to lose this fight. It was hours away from sunrise so even time was against me but that just meant that I would have to fight even harder. I refused to be killed in an alley after all I hadn¡¯t gotten Ethan his vengeance or gotten paid and that was all the motivation I needed.

 Chapter Seventeen

    After telling Ethan what happened I was at the table looking over the journal that I got from Bryan¡¯s house and this time I went deeper into the more recent entries and felt like smacking my head. Apparently a few week backs he had made a deal with Geoffrey that he would help him with spells if he made Bryan a vampire that he could sacrifice for his ritual. If I had read that far ahead then we wouldn¡¯t have almost died trying to save a vampire that was in no danger at all and we wouldn¡¯t have tipped Bryan off that a Wizard was hunting him.


    Now we had to deal with all of this before Bryan became an Immortal and decided to come after me and Marcus. We would also need a plan for if we failed and how we were going to deal with that.


    ¡°So have you learned anything?¡± Ethan asked floating and I nodded showing him the passage while eating my cereal and thinking of my next plan.


    ¡°Where did he learn this type of magic if it¡¯s forbidden?¡± he asked me and I moved the journal several pages to where Bryan talked about a man in a black and blue mask in the cloak that approached him and told him of a way to become immortal.


    ¡°Does it say anything more about him?¡± he asked and I shook my head I had searched the entire book but besides this passage and calling him the man in the cloak he is not mentioned in any of Bryan¡¯s books.


    ¡°I have nothing on this guy or why he is helping Bryan get his desired immortality or how it would be accomplished at all.¡± I muttered stabbing my spoon into my cereal and that was frustrating me more. I had gone in on faulty information before and it almost killed me so I wasn¡¯t fond of a repeat performance as I got lucky last time and unless I was going to be lucky twice in a row the next time I might actually die. And that isn¡¯t something I was ready to experience.


    I knew that there weren¡¯t any more clues available and that I was approaching the finish line so there was only one option left to me and that was face off against Bryan and come out victorious otherwise I would have to give up and I was too far in to give up now.


    Getting ready I grabbed my cellphone. It was in a red and black case. It was a metro pcs and had trouble holding a charge but it was mine and given the fact that I didn¡¯t like change so I kept it no matter the headaches it gave me.


    Calling Marcus wasn¡¯t hard he was in my most recent contacts and I had to wait for a couple rings before he answered but before he even got to ask what was going on I cut to the chase.


    ¡°Do you still want revenge on Geoffrey?¡± I asked him and when he said yes I told him to come to my house. It was time to plan this thing out and hopefully finish it once and for all.


    I had to change out of my pajamas and get changed into a black shirt and blue jeans with black and blue sneakers. Ethan was a ghost so he was frozen in the moment he died. He didn¡¯t get dirty or sweaty so he was always ready to go.


    All that was left was to grab my coat and change it to black to make a statement of how serious this job was to me. I had grabbed some talismans and a few potions and I was ready to go.


    It took a thirty a little over an hour for Marcus to arrive. He was serious about this too. For him this was clearly about revenge. He would accept nothing less. Marcus was a handful when he was playful but when he was in vengeance mode he could be downright cruel I was just glad his hate was focused on Geoffrey right now. Him and Bryan. He was clearly not over being staked in the heart and being shot.


    ¡°Do you know where they are?¡± he asked me and I nodded I had used translocation to steal his wallet from his pocket when he had been fighting the bouncer. He had never noticed the object being teleported from his pocket into my hand. With the right locator spell on the wallet I should be able to find him due to the connection between him and it.


    ¡°Invenimus.¡± I chanted and I could feel the connection between the Geoffrey, the wallet, and me. I pointed the direction which Marcus nodded and followed. The driver was given the directions and off we went. Our reasons might not be the best but we were determined. That would have to be enough.


    ¡°What are you planning on doing when you catch the guy?¡± Ethan asked me as we got closer and closer to the destination. I had been holding the answer out on him long enough and he must be wondering why I am still doing this even after his aunt went missing given that I wasn¡¯t being paid.


    ¡°The Council of Magic has a bounty on all Dark Wizards and Witches.¡± I told him. one of the reasons that I was still doing this job. I would probably be paid very well for catching Bryan.


    ¡°Yeah okay but what happens after?¡± he questioned clearly curious. The cat was already dead so I figured why not just tell him.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    ¡°We have a prison set up that makes it impossible to use magic. We¡¯ll send him there.¡± I told him and waited for the Harry potter reference. It did not take not long.


    ¡°Like Azkaban?¡± He asked and the fact that I knew he would say that shows how despite how short I have known him I knew that he would ask that question. That or it was an obvious reference.


    ¡°Yes but we have actual people that guard the prison.¡± I told him looking as the we got farther and farther out of the city and got further and further into the countryside. I felt more and more uncomfortable as we became surrounded by trees. According to the signs we were heading into Lancaster County.


    ¡°How did you become a Vampire?¡± Ethan asked Marcus who was starting to fall asleep. Marcus ignored him trying to get back to sleep. Ethan however would not be dismissed he kept calling him trying to get him to wake up and I believe that if it wasn¡¯t the fact that he couldn¡¯t touch anything he would be shaking Marcus right now to wake him up.


    Ethan could keep annoying Marcus for the rest of the trip and they both knew it and all Marcus could do was try to ignore him because for all his strength he could not punch or kill a spirit. Marcus was trapped in the car. He couldn¡¯t hurt Ethan and Ethan wouldn¡¯t leave him alone until he was told the answer. This was a living example of the phrase stuck between a rock and a hard place.


    ¡°I drank vampire blood. I died. I came back and ate a person.¡± He said finally giving in and answering the boy without giving a real answer. I had to admit the reason that I hadn¡¯t sent Ethan back to the necklace yet was that I was curious about the reason too and Marcus was just making me want to find out more and more.


    It was funny if Marcus had gone on with a huge speech filled backstory that explained what happened to him I probably wouldn¡¯t care and would have just tuned him out. The fact that he wouldn¡¯t tell me only made me want to find out more and more.


    ¡°Why do Vampires say they eat people when they drink their blood?¡± I asked. That had always been something that bugged me. I guess saying you drink people would just be as confusing as the person was still there after their blood was drained.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, maybe because it sounds better than saying you have to suck people to live.¡± He said with a grin on his face which Ethan caught on to and started laughing. I just sighed at the idiots that I was stuck with. The universe clearly hated me if these were people I willingly hung out and worked with.


    ¡°So do you eat people?¡± Ethan asked and Marcus sighed because he realized that he wasn¡¯t going to be getting any sleep.


    ¡°No I don¡¯t eat people.¡± Marcus said while he was stretching out his legs and his arms while still sitting down.


    ¡°Then do you eat animals?¡± Ethan asked him and was about to say something when Marcus shook his head.


    ¡°It is possible to survive on that stuff but no I drink human blood.¡± Marcus said confusing Ethan as he tried to think how he could drink blood without killing people.


    ¡°Then how do you survive if you don¡¯t eat people?¡± he asked him.


    ¡°Killing people for blood only makes Vampire hunters and I am not going to spend my immortal life running from someone who wants revenge on me.¡± He told him. It was true that it was one of the major fears that Marcus had about his immortal life that he told me about. The chance that someone might become a vampire hunter and track him down for revenge was something that Marcus wanted to avoid very much. It was why he focused so much on his hypnotism.


    With the way that everything is being monitored by technology it was very hard for Vampires to stay in the shadows. And so because of that the council made a deal with the vampire species as a whole. If they blended into the shadows if they remained just superstition and did not form massive groups that we would help them blend in with the world.


    ¡°Why do all that work just to stay hidden?¡± Ethan asked simply not getting what would happen if Vampires and Humans were revealed to exist to each other even if all the other magical races stayed secret.


    ¡°It is like if zombies and humans lived together. The zombie would require brains to live but the people wouldn¡¯t want to give the zombie the brains it needs.¡± I told him simply. People weren¡¯t like animals they could not live safely knowing that there were creatures that would hunt them like prey if they weren¡¯t lucky.


    ¡°Alright so how do you get blood then?¡± he asked Marcus. I was getting more stressed the further we got into the country and there was more and more distance between buildings.


    ¡°I get it from people.¡± Marcus said purposefully trying to get Ethan confused by his choice of words. It looked like it was working. Ethan was thinking deeply over how Marcus could get blood from people without biting them and draining them in the regular way like on television.


    Ethan could have asked for Marcus to give him the answer but it looked like he was trying so hard to figure it out on his own and not give Marcus the satisfaction of what was going on in his head.


    Marcus seeing that he finally got Ethan to shut up he laid back down to get some rest. Marcus was truly skilled at sleeping. There were very few places that could bother him when he took a nap.


    ¡°Hey Alex what¡¯s the answer?¡± he asked me once he was sure that Marcus was sleeping. I truly hated Marcus right now he had to confuse the kid than leave me to be the one to answer him.


    ¡°He has people donate him blood.¡± I gave in and told him. Marcus preferred to let his food come to him and Hypnotism let him do that. It was his most practiced skill. He had groups of people purely hypnotized just for the purpose of putting their blood in bags and bringing them to him. he had different people for every day of the week just so he never got bored on one flavor.


    ¡°Wow I don¡¯t know if that is pure genius or just lazy.¡± For Marcus it was both. He was not a fan of hard work and if there was any way that he could figure out a way to work around it he would find it.


    ¡°How close are we?¡± Ethan asked and I told him if we kept going at this pace that we would arrive at the location in about ten minutes.


    ¡°I would ask if you are ready but that would probably be stupid right?¡± he asked I wondered if he was trying to ask me without asking me or if he was being serious.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± I told him and close my eyes focusing trying to focus on nothing else but I couldn¡¯t help imagining what would happen when we showed up at the place where everything was going down and if I would be coming back in one piece.

 Chapter Nineteen

    ¡°What do you mean there was a complication!¡± I shouted at him in a whisper really trying to avoid the crazy person who was wetting forest fires. I would have to fix this all when I was done with this current problem.


    ¡°We found the bodies but we can¡¯t touch them.¡± He said and I was wondering why nothing could be easy.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked as I was crouching close to the ground and letting the trees hide me while trying not to inhale any of the smoke around me.


    ¡°We found the bodies but we were too late to stop them from being sacrificed.¡± He said and I was shocked so apparently he had turned on Geoffrey. Wondered if he regretted not taking our warning seriously.


    ¡°Alright so what do you mean you can¡¯t touch the bodies?¡± I asked as I began to improvise a new plan. It is true plans never survive contact with the enemy but this was too much. We were too late he had sacrificed both vampires already. That probably explained why he was so strong and fast and was casting sells so strong and quickly that I couldn¡¯t even hear his chanting.


    Magic was generated by the universe and the things that existed within it but that was still only a finite amount of power for each person or thing. The more spells you cast the more energy would be lost. People would need time to regain the energy they had lost. To deal with this others sources were created to hold magic so that when you needed to cast you could tap into these places to amplify your power without wasting your own energy.


    The magic Bryan was using let him increase his power by the sacrifices that were made and how magically powerful they were. Bryan had been killing people left and right to increase his strength to subdue the vampire that was his target. The fact that he got another vampire out of the deal to make him even stronger was probably a nice bonus. What I didn¡¯t get is how sacrificing Geoffrey or his girl would let him become immortal.


    There was only one way to get my answers and that was to bring Bryan to the ground and question him.


    ¡°Manus Terrae¡± I watched as from the earth rose giant hands that tried to grasp at Bryan. He began to fly around as the hands tried to capture him. It was like watching a fly trapped in a jar.


    I was enjoying seeing him struggle. After being threatened with electrocution and almost being set on fire like a hamburger on a barbecue I found his pain to be soothing to all the bruises and aches I had gotten since I was first tasked with Finding Ethan earlier this week.


    ¡°Hurry up and do something.¡± Ethan commanded me. I was really tempted to send him back into the necklace and enjoy this for a little bit more but I had to get to get serious when he crushed the hands that were chasing him with a stream of lightning coming from his hands.


    ¡°Calm down it¡¯s not like you are in any danger.¡± I was not about to be rushed by a ghost who was in relatively little danger of death. Shaking out my hand and twirling my wand I jumped into the open.


    ¡°You finally decided to stop hiding.¡± Bryan said as he landed on the ground. He was panting in exhaustion so I felt a little bit better. If he was exhausted that meant my chances had just gotten better.


    ¡°Sure I mean it wouldn¡¯t be interesting if I beat you while hiding behind a rock.¡± I said as I pointed my wand at him. Now that I knew he was immortal I could go all out without worrying about him dying.


    I would get paid whether he was alive or dead but if he was dead then I wouldn¡¯t be able to make his life miserable and gloat about it. And if you couldn¡¯t do that to your enemy than what was the point of this in the first place.


    ¡°You sound like you truly believe that you are capable of doing that.¡± He mocked me curving his hand outwards and just like before there were two fireballs that looked like they were just waiting to come flying at me.


    ¡°Come on man, you are using fire again. Don¡¯t you have any other tricks¡± I complained at him. I was really getting tired of fire. Couldn¡¯t he throw boulders at me again or even trees.


    ¡°It¡¯s not broke so I won¡¯t fix it.¡± He said shooting one hand at me at me which I had to duck and roll and when I unfurled I shouted ¡°Ventus turbinis vasti.¡± And a huge tornado began to surround him. If he was going to use fire, I was going to use wind. Either combustion would make him explode or the tornado would suck away all of his oxygen.


    ¡°Is this all you got!¡± he shouted at me as he flew above my tornado. It only took a glance for him to set the wind on fire and send it after me. If that wasn¡¯t trying to kill me I would appreciate how cool that looked.


    ¡°That is not cool!¡± I shouted at him and cast ¡°Nunc tellus murum.¡± And watched as layers of earth rose up to protect me from the flaming tornado that promised only death and pain.


    Looking at the devastation that was being caused I winced. There were scorch marks were the fire was spreading and scars created by the movement of the wind. I really had to fix this when we were done.


    ¡°Where is all your boasting now!¡± He shouted down at me the glee in his eyes visible only by the low light given by the fire as it danced around us.


    ¡°Do you have a plan?¡± Ethan asked me. He was staying close and acting as an extra pair of eyes for me and given that he could not be hurt by normal means I felt pretty safe leaving that job to him.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry more is coming!¡± I shouted and waved my wand conjuring twenty swords that flew right at my target.


    Impetus Gladiorum was a spell I didn¡¯t get to use on people often as unless you were immortal being stabbed by a swarm of swords usually resulted in the death of regular people. Bryan even if he wasn¡¯t immortal was a person that I believe I could use this on and I wouldn¡¯t feel bad at all.


    He didn¡¯t even look troubled he just stopped flying and let himself fall to the ground but stopped before he crashed into the ground. He gave me a grin as he thought he had escaped my spell and showing me how smarter he was than me.


    I just shook my head and pointed up and as he looked up at all my swords that were pointed down towards him. I let out a laugh at his face. As the swords fell down at him he used the earth to create a shield to protect himself from the swords falling down and piercing him and turning him into a game of pin the tail on the donkey that when it was done would spray blood instead of candy.


    I was already moving towards him when he was doing that. His attention was divided and he was focusing on what he assumed was the more important threat.


    When he turned to me to brag he was shocked at how close I was to him and even more shocked when I thrusted a sword I had conjured into his stomach.


    The blood was running down to the ground and both from his stomach and his mouth. Given the fact that he was immortal however that meant that the injury I gave him wouldn¡¯t put him down so I had to back up to a distance that I was comfortable with.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    ¡°I will kill you in the most painful way that is possible.¡± He growled at me. I could tell that if he beat me that it was a promise that he was not going to break. He was no longer in any mood to play around.


    ¡°Really because you were going to let me off so easy before?¡± I gave him a dubious glance to show how much of that I actually bought. Maybe being set on fire would have been a better death than whatever he was planning now but I wasn¡¯t a fan of any death of mine that wasn¡¯t old age.


    ¡°You are really depressing you know that?¡± I questioned him and watched as he pulled the sword out of his chest. The wound on his stomach was sealing up and healing quite nicely now that there was no longer a weapon sticking out of it.


    ¡°You want to have a sword fight?¡± I asked him as I conjured another sword in my hand. We were even now in my opinion, he had a sword and so did I.


    He did not take that suggestion well. I had to duck a telekinetically flung sword. I looked behind me and saw that the sword was embedded very deep in a tree. I frowned at him.


    ¡°That was close you could have taken my head off.¡± I complained at him rubbing my neck.


    ¡°That was the idea!¡± He shouted at me and began tossing more of my sword at me. It wasn¡¯t enough that he had stolen my tornado he was now trying to kill me with my own weapons that I threw at him. There had to be a limit to how rude a person could be. When I asked him that he didn¡¯t take it so well. With a scream of frustration, he charged right at me with a sword in hand.


    ¡°See all you had to do was agree not throw my own swords at me.¡± I told him and had to jump back as he took a wide swing at me. There was a lot of rage in this one.


    ¡°Do you ever shut up!¡± he raged against me and took a few wild swings that were closer yet so obvious that I was truly in no danger.


    ¡°You need to calm down and maybe talk to a therapist about your issues.¡± I commented and was rewarded with a swipe at my throat.


    ¡°Before I kill you I am going to sew your mouth shut!¡± he shouted at me. I could tell that he was close to exploding. I was really glad that he hadn¡¯t gotten used to the speed and power of the vampires he was absorbing. If he had truly mastered their power, I would have been dead before I even got down three feet away from the cabin¡¯s door.


    ¡°I have never met someone as annoying as you!¡± he was now having a temper tantrum. He was clearly losing control and was lashing out due to it. I wondered how long it would take before it happened. When I saw his house and the pictures in the album I realized that the man had major control issues and when you take the control away from someone like that they could only go so far before they began to have a mental breakdown and go on a rampage.


    ¡°What is your problem?¡± I asked him as I swung my sword at him. I wished that we could have done this on a pirate ship but conjuring something that big would have led me to being exhausted and then dead. He was on the defensive now blocking and moving back with each strike.


    ¡°My problem is you!¡± he shouted his rage was giving him extra strength but it was also slowing him down.


    ¡°Do you know how long I have been working on this! I won¡¯t be stopped by some man-child with the personality of a five-year-old!¡± he charged at me and was surprised when the sword he was using shattered in his arm and was even more surprised when I punched him in the face and since it was strengthened with magic it hurt more than it normally would have.


    ¡°Well I say that you have to accept that it is happening.¡± The look on his face was something that I hoped would last for a long time. He fell back on the ground knocked off balance and in a daze. It was time to get some payback for earlier.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡¯ Ethan asked me as I put my wand into my coat and approached Bryan¡¯s body.


    ¡°Getting some revenge.¡± I will admit that I enjoyed the idea of revenge. The petty part in me found something therapeutic about it. And after the week that I have had because of Bryan I felt that I was entitled to it.


    ¡°Fulgur manus.¡± I sent streams of lightning from my hands and watched as he began to twitch as he was shocked with the voltage equivalent of a taser. I wasn¡¯t fond of using lightning from a wand it just looked weird in my opinion.


    ¡°Is he going to be okay?¡± Ethan asked with little to no sympathy. That was understandable given the man who killed him he would probably like revenge for it.


    I watched as he began to try to get up. His skin and bruises were starting to heal. I was not going to torture the dude because that was way too much even for this guy and I had other things to worry about.


    Grabbing his body and dragged him to a tree and a sword. Like he did earlier I buried the sword through him and into the tree. If he tried to get out it would probably take a while and hurt a lot so I was content.


    ¡°Come let¡¯s go.¡± I told Ethan as we walked back to the cabin.


    ¡°Duck!¡± Ethan shouted and instead of following his instruction I jumped out of the way and saw a fireball hit the area where I would have been. Turning around I saw Bryan trying to pull the sword out of his stomach.


    ¡°Really accept that you lost man.¡± I complained. I had beaten him fair and square so why couldn¡¯t he just accept the fact that he was going to have to spend the rest of his life in a cell.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± I called to Ethan and Teleported us back to the cabin. It was a stereotypical log cabin on the outside. It looked really cramped so I wondered what was the point of hiding out here.


    ¡°Is this it.¡± I complained. It had been clear that Bryan was an overachiever so why was he hiding in a cabin like that. It was kind of disappointing. I saw the grin on the Ethan¡¯s face and wondered what he had found so funny and why Marcus couldn¡¯t have come and helped me. I knew he could hear what was happening with those vampire senses of his.


    Entering the cabin, I could say that this was more like what I was expecting. While on the outside the cabin looked small and unassuming if you got past the illusion magic on the inside however was something much different.


    The space on the inside was much bigger than what would have been allowed by normal physics. The building inside was as large as a townhouse. It was like he had combined two building. One was huge and towering and another was small and cramped. This was powerful space warping magic on a scale I had never seen before. I really wanted to read his magic books now.


    ¡°Marcus we¡¯re here!¡± Ethan shouted and the echoes travelled a long way before they began to die down.


    It took somewhere between ten to fifteen minutes before Marcus appeared. He looked exhausted and angry. Like he had been trying to punch one of those blow up clowns that people beat up for helping with stress but no matter how much he had tried to hurt it the thing would still be okay.


    ¡°What happened to you?¡± so naturally I asked about it. I was too tired to tired make jokes and due to the fact that Bryan was probably following us and heading back here meant that we were on a timetable.


    ¡°What took you so long.¡± He demanded of me like I wasn¡¯t in a fight for my life while all he had to do was look around a house for two undead bodies.


    ¡°Distracting a powerful immortal wizard isn¡¯t easy.¡± I was in no mood for any of this I gave them one job. Prevent Bryan from becoming immortal and they had failed so as backup they were to rob him of his immortality and they failed at that too.


    ¡°Whatever we need your help.¡± He said and went down into the basement. I turned to Ethan only to find him already phasing through the floor leaving me alone in the room that probably in a normal house would be the dining room.


    Walking down a door that led underground I found the problem the bodies of Geoffrey and the girl that shot me were surrounded by a magic circle. It was spray painted on the wooden floor. They both had the markings but the blade was sticking out of Geoffrey¡¯s chest. Marcus tried to cross the circle but just like at the door at his house he was bounced back and crashed against the wall. I understood the problem immediately. In case we had managed to track him down Bryan had set up a boundary circle to prevent us from moving his sacrifices.


    It was a type of barrier spell and it was the opposite of a ward. Wards were created to keep things out that were dangerous and you considered unfriendly. Boundary spells were created to keep something trapped inside the circle so that it could not leave.


    ¡°How are we going to get past this?¡± Ethan asked and all I did was conjure a chair and sit down and took a deep breath.


    The adrenaline from earlier was wearing off and I could feel myself getting tired and when I felt my eyes closing I wanted to make sure that if I did fall asleep it wasn¡¯t goting to be on the floor.


    I needed just five minutes of rest. This single case required more effort than any other case I have worked on so far.


    ¡°Wake up!¡± Marcus said shouting at me and not letting me get any sleep and for that I felt no regret as I waved my hand and watched him crash into the wall. He was grumbling but I wasn¡¯t interested in anything but getting my rest.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t help I promise to knock you out and let you wake up in a nightclub again!¡± Marcus shouted at me and that made me jerk up and glare at him. He promised that he would never do anything like that again.


    ¡°Yes I will so stop being lazy and help.¡± Apparently he wasn¡¯t going to let me get any peaceful sleep until I helped him. Pulling out my laser pointer I aimed it at the circle and watched as the light traveled along the path and as it past the part of the circle it was at the paint began to disappear and the spell began to weaken.

 Book 2 Chapter One

    At some point you just had to ask the universe if there was someone out to ruin your life. That somewhere out there for whatever reason someone has dedicated their life to making yours a trial of never ending misery and anguish. To cause you pain and bother you until you are a creature that only feels despair and torment.


    I felt like that desribed my life percetly right now. I had planned to do nothing today besides read my books and watch television and eat a cheese steak. That was what I had con sidered a perfect day. Food, Television, books, and with me having to do nothing.


    Then the universe decided that this would bring me too much joy and so my work phone began to ring. I could have ignored it and just went on my way and continued with my planned day off. It would have been an easy thing to do just put the phone in another room and ignore it for the next couple hours it would have stopped ringing eventually.


    Unfortunately, the twelve years my parents raised me before the accident that took them from me had managed to instally a conscience inside of me that the next six years of being raised by a wizard with a lot less morals and a curiosity for magical experemints hadn''t managed to cure.


    I truly hated that fact as it has been the source of a lot of my problems in the past. With a sigh I picked up my phone and saw that it was Marcus. While I had made sure that he could survive in the the sunlight why couldn''t he be a normal vampire and wait until night to call.


    "It better be important since you called me so early." I said as I looked at the unwrapped cheese steak that I had just bought. I bet that it would have been delicious. Now I would have to rush as I ate it.


    "Yes we have got a case. So get ready and head to the office." Marcus said while ignoring the fact that it was my office and that my name was on the door. I knew having my office phone forward it''s messages to his phone would come back to be a pain for me.


    I had chosen to be a private detective so that I could chose my own hours and pick the cases that I wanted but now it was more like the office would call me and I had to stop everything I was doing and comply.


    I grabbed my coat and my wand and all the other things I needed for work and then grabbed my cheese steak and I was out the door. My house was twenty minutes from the office so it didn''t take long to arrive. The office was in Frankford and I lived across the Boulevard. I parked my car on the same street but tsill far away enough to not be seen and just looked at the office that was ruining my day.


    It was a red building with a laundromat on one side of it and a thrift shop on the other. There were two windows that let you see in and out of and the door was white and on it was the sign Blackwell Investigations. I was Alex Blackwell and I was the wizard that rented this building. Of course I didn''t advertise this since magic is supposed to be a secret so I claimed to be a psychic detective.


    I could go into the olffice and figure out what the latest problem that was showing up on my doorstep was or I could eat my cheese steak and try to get a few minutes of peace.


    So I chose the secoind option. sitting in my car with my cheese steak I decided to let Marcus wait for a while before I got involved. Petty I know but that was who I was. There was pain that came with this decision. The cheese steak was hot and becuase I was rusing I did burn my tounge and mouth a couple of times. Still this was my choice and I would not regret it.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Walking in the building I looked around and saw that it was still the same. In the back behind the archway that seperated it from the front there was my desk and Marcus''s desk each a while a way from each other with a trash can and a refrigerator each. The building was bigger than normal because I expanded the space with magic. Like a tardis it was bigger on the inside than the outside.


    In the front and on the carpet that extended from the door to the back sitting in a chair there next to the table was Marcus who turned towards me when he saw me I saw the grin on his face I wanted to conjure a pen and stab him in the throat. He was a vampire it wouldn''t kill him or even hurt him for long but it would make me feel better.


    Sitting across from him was probably the client. He had pale blond hair and looked to be a little shorter than me which made me more favorable to help him. He was skinny wearing a red shirt and black jeans with red sneakers with black highlights.


    "Who is this?" I asked Marcus as he got up and the guy on the table turned around to look at me. I would have focused on that but I was glaring at Marcus who stood over me by being taller than me by four inches.


    "This is our client Zachary Maxwell." Marcus said as I looked at our possible client. He was indeed shorter than me and that did improve my mood.


    Zachary looked to be in dire need of food. He was skinny and looked to be in need of a very large buffet. I would believe that he would get knocked over on a windy day very easily.


    "Okay Zachary what do you need help with?" I questioned him trying to get to the point of why my day was ruined. My color changing trench coat was a deep red and that should tell Marcus how annoyed I was with this situation.


    My coat was enchanted to do many things. One of them was so that it could tell the emotions that I was too lazy to tell and the othjers I had trouble emoting.


    "I need your protection." He said looking in my blue eyes with his green to try to prove how serious his problem was.


    "You do know that I am a psychic detective and not a bodyguard right?" I questioned him. I didn''t know if he had read the sign or my business card but it did not include bodyguard. Bounty hunter maybe but definitely not bodyguard.


    "Yes but it does say bounty hunter right?" he questioned me sliding my card towards me on the table. I took a seat at the table but didn''t take the card since I already knew what it said.


    "Yes it does say that." I answered wondeirng where he would take this to convince me to help him. Also maybe it would explain why he had come to hire me. It would also explain why he came to me because while the cards were enchanted to appear before troubled people and send them to me it was still only a suggestion.


    "A bounty hunter is the opposite of bodyguard and if you really are psychic you can see the dangers I never could." He explained to me and I had to admit his logic was sound. There was only one flaw in it though. I wasn''t truly psychic. I mean there were psychics in this world and the many others in the Alter-Plane I just wasn''t one of them.


    I could do what he wanted me to do just not the way he expected. However there was still both the matter of my pay and the reason his life was in danger. I had to be sure of who I was dealing wih and why he was in danger.


    He could just be a crazy person. I dealt with lots of those in my work but there was the chance he was being on the up and up and telling me the turth. I would have to check on the story he was telling me but if it was true I would indeed help him. My conscience would bug me for years if I ginored someone who truly needed my help.


    "What is your problem that you need a bodyguard for?" I asked trying to show patience on my face and not boredom and tiredness. That was the state my face was in normally and it did not help me when I first began this job.


    "I need your help because my siblings are trying to get rid of me." He said and I blinked at that wondering what kind of mess I was getting into right now.

 Alchemists Desire Chapter One

    Alchemist''s Desire


    Chapter One


    There were times when you were stuck between a rock and a hard place, when you were convinced that the universe was out to ruin your life. There were choices to be made but each of them had consequences that were unknown at the time but probably spectacular.


    I was in such a situation right now. I was lying in bed pleasantly asleep dreaming of a sky that rained doughnuts down onto me when an annoying ringing sound began to appear and bring me back to the land of the living and awake.


    There was the option where I could go back to sleep and hope that the dream would not have changed or the other where I could answer the phone and face the fact that I was more than likely going to be involved in something that would require a lot of work and effort. That was how my life worked and I doubted it would change without making me even more miserable.


    The universe truly hated me. It gave me enough luck to survive encounters with dangerous people and monsters but it did not give me the chance to do nothing and just sleep. I had the whole day planned out too. It was to begin when I woke up a few hours later from now, I would have a plate of pancakes, sausages, and bacon. Read a couple of my books and watch television.


    The chances of that happening now where less than likely as I looked at the number calling me. I groaned as I fell back in my bed wondering what Marcus wanted with me at twelve in the afternoon. I really hoped it was not work as this was my day off and since I was the boss and owned the office my opinion should matter more on when we or more likely I was working.


    With a sigh that held all my annoyance at the situation I answered the phone.


    "What do you want?" I questioned hoping that while it would be something stupid it would also be something that could be resolved quickly hopefully without requiring me to leave my house and more specifically my bed.


    "I just met our next client." He said and I could feel my sense of despair increase. I knew that I wouldn''t be able to stop him from doing this but I truly hoped his need for adventure wasn''t going to ruin a vacation that I believed I truly deserved.


    "Can you do it without me?" I complained and if I wasn''t both so proud and stubborn I would have been begging. I knew no matter what I said he would continue. He was the type of person that hated to be bored and would constantly seek out trouble if left alone. It was one of the reasons he agreed to become a detective and work for me. As long as it was interesting he would stay but the minute he was bored he would be gone.


    A part of me wished that he would get bored and move on to whatever he wanted to do next so I could go back to sleep. I did not give that immortal pain in the neck the ability to survive and move around during the daylight if I knew he was going to torment me and ruin my days off.


    This was a great reminder of why I only made and sold defensive magical weapons to other people. There was always a chance of your creation coming back to make you regret ever making it. I should have remembered that lesson from Marry Shelley and her book on Dr. Frankenstein and his monster.


    "Can''t you do it yourself?" I asked trying to save the hopes that I might be able to save at least some of my plans.


    "No the clients only wants help from the "psychic" detective himself." Marcus said and I groaned normally I was fine scamming people into thinking I was psychic so I could charge more but I really was in no mood today.


    "Tell him the psychic is in contact with the spirit world and can''t be reached." I said and turned around to go back under my covers and sleep. I laid my head on the pillow and was close to drifting unfortunately that wouldn''t happen.


    "The client''s rich and really needs your help. He''s meeting us in two hours" Marcus said and I froze before rolling out of bed and began to get dressed. Rich and needs help were two words that never failed to get me to act and for two separate reasons.


    The fact that the client had money meant that I could charge them for a lot compared to the poorer people that came to me as I just didn''t feel good charging them more than they could afford to pay but rich people had a lot of money and in my opinion they spent it on very stupid things. That money was wasted on them.


    It would do me a lot better to have it than them. True I made money from my side job but as it was forbidden to reveal magic to regular people I could not list it for the government. It is true I did use it to buy things I needed like food and books but more money was always helpful.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    People needing help was another habit with me. I did it both out of a desire to help people and the fear that my conscience wouldn''t allow me to forget if I ignored them. Despite the six years that were spent learning magic under a wizard that cared little for normal people and was fine with reckless magical experiments the morals my parents had left me with hadn''t managed to fully vanish.


    Sometimes I truly hated that fact. If I had magical powers and the ability to not feel guilt or remorse I knew my life would be very different that it is now.


    "I''ll be there in an hour." There was no way I was going to be able to go back to sleep now so I began to get ready for work. Rolling out of bed and getting ready took about an hour itself. Forty five minutes for a shower and all the other bathroom necessities. It took fifteen minutes to get dressed. Grabbing my wand off of the table near my bed I stretched out my arms and neck getting all the kinks out and got ready to cast.


    "Speculum." and a mirror was created. I truly loved magic. It was a part of me and had been since the accident which had taken away my parents. It had been the only reason I had survived all the adventures I had after I was adopted. Despite all the trouble that got involved in my life I just couldn''t blame it.


    Others however I had no trouble was the current source of my anger. My business card''s enchantment had changed to list his number first. That meant that when the card''s effect activated they would call him first and he would deal with the problem. I would get the finder''s fee for setting the meeting up. I was also not to be called on when it was his day off. It was in the contract that I had given him.


    The remaining fifteen minutes was to get dressed. Wearing a a black short sleeve T-shirt and blue jeans dark with blue sneakers. The sneakers were enchanted to make him jump higher and run faster. I called the enchantment Magic Sneakers: swift wind. Enchanting was the skill I was best at. Adding magic to items to create a permanent effect that didn''t originally exist to the item.


    My trench coat was put on next and I watched as it changed colors. it was the Magic Coat: Chameleon Cloak. My friends told me the names sounded terrible but I enjoyed them. So I ignored any and all comments and criticisms about it. My wand was put in one of the pockets and I watched as it disappeared in to the pocket dimension I had my cloak enchanted with.


    Watching the coat turn to the tan brown that I usually had it in when I worked as I considered it to be the most professional color I walked down the stairs and out of the house locking the door behind me. My office was in Frankford and that was about Fifteen to thirty minutes away depending on traffic. That still left me a lot of time to get some food. I wasn''t the type to work a case on an empty stomach no matter how much money was involved.


    Driving across from Roosevelt boulevard I couldn''t help but wonder what I was getting into. I hoped it did not take too long. It was a hot day and even though my cloak would keep me cool due to the enchantment that made it the opposite temperature of whatever the weather was outside it was still a hot day for September. The transition from summer to fall was still happening. The leaves had yet to even begin to change colors.


    The only consolation there was for this job potentially ruining my day off was that it wasn''t during winter. Philadelphia winters were something that he hated as he got older. It was fun when he was younger and snow days meant that school was canceled but now that I had to work they became a punishment that I would love to avoid if I could.


    Parking down the street from the office I got out of the car with my breakfast consisting of cheese fries and a cheese steak in a plastic bag I walked to my office and opened the white door that held in black bold words Blackwell Investigations. I was about seventeen minutes early before the others were supposed to arrive.


    I turned the lights on and sat at my desk just trying to get calm enough that I didn''t drive away the client. I was going to charge him enough that for the entire winter I could sleep and not have to do any work. Just the thought of sleeping in for those three months brought me joy.


    I was so deep into eating my cheese fries that It took me a while to hear the knocking on the door.


    "Come in." wiping my face of my breakfast I faced the two people walking in. Walking in wearing both a grey hoodie and a black leather Jacket was my friend/employee/ eternal punishment Marcus. His shades hid his brown eyes and the hood covered his black hair.


    Walking behind him was the man who was going to be our client. He was skinny, awkward looking, and tall. He was the dictionary definition of the word gangly. With one look at him I could tell that if he went to public school he would be the type to be picked on. He was wearing tan pants and a blue shirt underneath a tan jacket. He had short blonde hair and blue eyes. He was also shorter than me which was a point in his favor. I didn''t tend to like people taller than me. Marcus was both the reasonn and the example


    "Are you the Psychic detective Alex Blackwell?" he asked me. I nodded to him when in truth the answer to the question was more like yes and no. I was a private detective but I was not a psychic. I had run into some true psychics in my life and I could do some of the things people believed psychics could but I wasn''t one of them. However given that it was forbidden to reveal magic to regular people I had to give a reason for why I could do what I did.


    Most people didn''t believe thinking it to be a gimmick and I let them. As long as people believed I was just very observant and clever they would never jump to the idea of magic existing and that meant the Council of Magic would never come after me.


    "Who are you and what do you need?" That was my question. I wondered what could be so important that it had to ruin my day off.


    "My Name is Zachary Taylor and I need your help." he said and I will admit to being partially curious to what type of help he needed.

 Alchemists Desire Chapter Two

    "Okay Zachary what do you need help with?" We were sitting around the table. Part of me was focusing back on my table where I had my cheese fries and half eaten cheese steak.


    "I need a bodyguard to protect me." he looked completely serious while saying that. Truly rich people got into a mess in ways that regular people would never be able to understand. Or at least in ways that didn''t make sense to me.


    "What makes you think that I could fulfill this role for you?" If he came here than that meant he had my business card and on it and those listed the exact services that I did and being a bodyguard was not one of them. Bounty hunter that was one of the skills listed on the card. Exorcists were another but there was no bodyguard listing on the card.


    ¡°Yes I read the card and I know it does not say bodyguard.¡± So if he understood all of that I couldn¡¯t understand what he was asking of me.


    ¡°The thing is being a bounty hunter is like being a reverse bodyguard.The skills are just opposites. Like direct opposites and It¡¯s even better because you¡¯re psychic.¡± he was really pushing this. Truly he must be really desperate and in need of my help.


    ¡°What is it you need protection from?¡± Depending on the answer and how much money he was willing to pay me however might have been enough to change my mind. It was probably something simple liked he owed someone money or he got someone real dangerous angry enough to come after him.


    ¡°I think my siblings are trying to get rid of me and plan to split my inheritance.¡± Well that was a new one. Siblings getting ¡°rid¡± of each other for money was a first world problem that only rich people had.


    ¡°That is definitely a rich white person problem.¡± Marcus said sitting at his own desk while reading one of my books that he had gotten from my bookshelf. It was an a Song of Ice and Fire book. He was paying the least amount of attention possible but given his supernatural hearing it did not really matter.


    How I wished I did not have to deal with this either.


    ¡°How much would they get from you if you ¡®disappeared¡¯?¡±  I believed that he believed that he was telling me what he believed to be the truth. Television and books had not led me wrong so far and it had raised me to believe that people were not rational people. However in the case of people spouting out conspiracy theories there was always the chance they were telling the truth.


    ¡°Two million dollars.¡±  If I had been wearing sunglasses they would have dropped to the table. Hearing the book slam behind me was the sign that Marcus was interested in the case now. If he was getting that much I could charge him a lot for this job. Enough that I could actually accomplish my goal of hibernating through the winter.


    ¡°I will take the case.¡± Money was always a weakness of mine. That fact had led me into trouble on previous cases but it still wasn¡¯t enough to make me change.


    ¡°You will? Thank you.¡± he started shaking my hand very quickly. Eventually I just yanked it back out of his grip.


    ¡°Sorry.¡± he said placing them back on the table. It was circular and very wide. You would need four song of ice and fire books to reach from one end to the other.


    Thanks to magic my office was a lot bigger than it would have been if I left the building as it was originally and let the laws of physics dictate the space.


    The outside was a red bricked building connected to a laundromat on the left and thrift store on the right with the Frankford transportation center train rail over the street. The inside was like a tardis. The inside was bigger than the outside but a carefully placed ward dealt with the problem.


    Usually they are created to create a barrier around a place to keep people away from a place either by causing an effect that stops them from entering either by turning the place invisible, creating an uncomfortable feeling, or just creating a barrier people can¡¯t walk through.


    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    Mine couldn¡¯t do that however as I wanted and needed clients to come into my office. So I had altered it to make it so that all guests could come inside but they would not really think too hard about it once they did and started looking around. The ward was an effect of an enchantment. It originated from the bookshelf and spread outward until it covered the whole building.


    The building was double the space of normal. It was the double the space with an archway separating them. The front half was where I held my meetings. Our desks were in the back half and behind them was a room that held a hammock.


    Whenever I didn¡¯t have the energy to go home I would crash here and sleep. It had both a television and a refrigerator.


    ¡°Do you have a place to stay?¡± I needed him in a single place. Both to keep him out of trouble and time to do a proper background search on this guy. It was better to play it safe than sorry. Many noir mystery novels happened because the detective did not do a background check on their client.


    ¡°Yes. The place I live isn¡¯t too far from here.¡± Once he had written down his address and the address of his siblings I told him to pack a bag of clothes as I planned to have Marcus pick him up and keep him at his place. It was an area that his family did not know of and if his story did not check out I would know where Zachary would be.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± he said one more time before actually leaving.


    ¡°So what do you think?¡±  Marcus asked as I approached my desk and tried to enjoy my interrupted breakfast. That meeting was the longest twenty minutes of my life.


    ¡°Interesting story.¡± That was truly how I felt. Whether he was telling the truth or merely spinning a story he saw on television I would look into it all the same.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you glad I called you today?¡± Marcus had a grin on his face as he began to walk over to my desk.


    ¡°We have no idea how this will turn out, do not gloat yet.¡± The only good thing so far to come out of this meeting was that my cheesesteak was cool enough to eat and not worry about burning my tongue.


    ¡°Did you bring me anything?¡± he asked.


    ¡°No.¡± my answer was short and quick. One of the reasons that I had bought it was to watch him suffer as I ate it. It was a petty thing but pettiness just like caring too much was one of my stronger personality traits.


    ¡°That is so cold.¡± he said as he grabbed his heart and fell back. Drama was something that Marcus was fond of. Usually I played along but today was not that day.


    ¡°Like an iceberg.¡±  Walking out of the office I paused. The sun was very bright. If I had walked out of there right now I would have to wait and let my eyes readjust to the sun.


    Luckily I had another option. Reaching into a pocket on the inside of my trench coat I pulled a pair of sunglasses out and put them on my face. They were enchanted to let protect me eyes but let me see everything as if I was not wearing them.  I had stolen them off of a vampire a four months back on a case that involved a ghost and a cursed blade.


    As I walked out and wasn¡¯t blinded by the light of an afternoon sun I once again was extremely thankful for magic.


    Getting into my black ford car I drove off to the area where my client and his siblings lived.


    Chestnut Hill was about an hour and ten to twenty minutes away if you went there by bus from Frankford. A car drive there however would only take about thirty minutes tops.


    Driving to Chestnut Hill however brought to mind some memories that I wished that I had forgotten. Passing Northwood Park reminded me of how I discovered Ethan¡¯s body which led to me later summoning his spirit to solve his murder.


    The fact that I still could not find his Aunt bugged me. It was like she just vanished off of the face of the Earth.  No matter what way I scryed for her either will spells or with crystals. I just could not find her. She wasn¡¯t hidden and she wasn¡¯t dead. If she was dead I would at least have found a body.


    There was just nothing.


    Whatever Bryan or his teacher in the mask had done with the old lady it had made me unable to find her. That annoyed me as I had promised Ethan I would try to find his Aunt.


    I didn¡¯t like putting too much effort into any task but this was personal. Both since I had promised and because I had spent so much time searching. I was too determined to quit and soon I would move to different methods to find her.


    As the light changed I drove past the park trying to clear my head. At a time like this I would have preferred Marcus to hypnotize a random person to drive me to my destination so I could take some time to get my thoughts in order.


    Being unbalanced mentally would not help when I started questioning the people who knew Zachary. Checking his story against people who actually knew them was the first step. The siblings would be next but I would have to be discreet.


    As I arrived at the house of his neighbor I clenched my hands on the wheel and took a deep breath. These meeting were the make or break moments of this case. If he had the money I would still take the case whether he was right or just paranoid and crazy.


    If he did not have the money than I may just conjure a fork and stab it into Marcus¡¯s hand. He was a vampire. The pain would not be permanent with his healing factor. The pain would be temporary but it would satisfy his need for revenge.


    Walking up to the huge house I knocked three times and waited for someone to answer. It took about five minutes for me to decide to ring the doorbell when I was given no response.


    That took a lot less time to get a response. I had a suspicion that they knew I was there but had waited for me to ring the doorbell before opening the door.


    ¡°Good evening.¡± the butler said to me as he held the door open but stood in the threshold to prevent me from coming inside.


    ¡°Hello I am a private detective and need to speak to the owner of the house.¡± Showing him my badge I tried honesty for the first approach. The owner was  not involved in this in any way so they should be willing to speak.


    However if that did not work then I would move onto my second option. That option was using magic to get what I wanted. Treating people with kindness was always my first choice. It was only when they declined to tell me the truth of their own free will did I use other methods.


    Those usually got me the answers I needed. I really hoped that Zachary¡¯s neighbors were the type that would stick their noses in the business of others.


    As a detective when questioning people these type were my favorite even though as an introvert I did not like interacting with people.