This choice: No, you'll keep your secrets • Go Back...Chapter #29The Third Partner by: Seuzz   Joe clasps his hands over yours. "Do you trust me, Melody?" he asks, and gazes deeply into your eyes.
No, you don't. If he's really mixed up in magic, he'll just try taking your new position and possessions from you. Probably he'll try doing to you what you did to Blackwell.
He laughs softly when you don't answer. "I know, I'm a smooth talking son of a bitch. And I haven't been completely honest with you." From his satchel he draws a leather ID case. "My partner and I have been interested in Professor Blackwell for a little while now. We noticed you at his place, and that got us worried. Girls seem to disappear around him."
You look at the ID with a feeling of astonishment. "Is this genuine? You're FBI?"
"I know, I look young. So does my partner. The fresh-faced guys draw the assignments when it's a college case." His manner grows subtly more adult even as his smile remains puckish. "But I'm older than I look. I mean, come on, Melody. How many twenty-year-olds could talk to you about the Regency in languages other than English?"
You hand back his ID. "What's this about girls disappearing around Blackwell?" Did somebody notice you getting rid of Lucy's SUV?
"Well, we don't have anything nailed down," Joe says. His smile falls into a frown. "Mostly it's just a hunch. He's had a bad odor for a long time. It's not just an antiquarian interest in witchcraft that attracts him. Don't tell me you haven't noticed it. That faint air of the Satanic that lingers about him?"
"I don't believe in all that Satanist bullshit," you say, channeling Melody's own skepticism.
"Of course not, a level-headed girl like you. But it's not a question of whether you believe in the devil, or whether I believe in the devil. The question is whether Professor Blackwell believes in the devil, and what he might do to people if he thinks the devil of his imagination demands it."
"And he's hurt girls?" you ask.
He leans back in his booth. "We're not sure. But we know he likes to, ah, profile girls, and some of those girls have disappeared under some rather spooky circumstances. I'm afraid my little interrogation earlier--" He gestures at that placemat. "It was the kind of questionnaire that he likes to give people, and your answers were the kind of answers that are unhealthy to give him."
You swallow. "Is it for my own safety that you want me going back to your place?"
He reads the skepticism in your question. "No," he replies. "I wouldn't mind talking to you there, and I'd really like to keep you safe. But I won't ask you to do anything that will make you uncomfortable." He gives you an appraising look. "But here's one thing you can do for me. I'd like to get in his house and look around."
"Don't you need a search warrant?"
"Eventually. But I can do a recon first. Visit while pretending to be your boyfriend? You could go out there tomorrow, pretending to show him some of your research, and I could tag along?"
That certainly seems safer than going home with him. And you'd like to get a closer look at him, so you agree.
"Awesome. What time?"
"Tomorrow afternoon?"
He agrees, and raises your hand to kiss it. "Everything will be alright, Melody," he says. "You can trust me."
* * * * *
But he can't trust you. Naturally, you're worried about being followed, so you go to Melody's dorm, where you do some hard--and slightly frightened--thinking.
FBI? Fucking Bullshit Instead. Blackwell, you know from your time inside him, has only victimized Lucy Vredenburg. Blackwell can't have been the only magician in the world, and you'd bet large sums of money that Joe is either a rival, or is working for a rival. That "poltergeist" activity is probably just a trick he's rigged up to put Melody into a receptive state of nerves. You want to learn everything there is to know about Joe. You could get a mind-band onto him; you could get a mask onto him. But the most thorough way, it occurs to you--
You call Blackwell's. Someone with Melody's voice answers. "Can you make up another anima band?" you ask her.
"Sure," she says. "I'm not a golem, so it shouldn't be a problem. What's up?"
"Just make another one," you say. "I won't be coming home tonight--"
"Taking things to the next level with Joe?"
"In a manner of speaking. I'll tell you tomorrow. But have it ready. Go to school tomorrow as Blackwell--"
"Ugh."
"--and tell Prescott to stay away. I'll stop by Blackwell's office in the morning to explain."
You're nervous when you hang up, and work it off by doing some of Melody's schoolwork before going to bed at two.
* * * * *
"Is there a family crypt under this place?" Joe asks as you lead him up to Blackwell's front door the next day.
"I don't know. What makes you think--?"
"It just feels like the kind of place where vampires would live," he says. "Don't you feel it?"
"That's just Blackwell," you say, and make a face.
"Exactly. I think a smart girl like you would've seen the signs."
"I don't believe in that kind of thing, Joe."
"We'll see if you do after we talk this evening," he says as you rap at the door.
We certainly will, you think to yourself.
Blackwell opens it, and smiles in an oily way. "Ah, Ms. Weiss, thank you for coming out."
"I'm sorry I didn't have it with me when I stopped by your office today," you say. You put your hand into your satchel and grasp the anima band that Blackwell had given you when you'd met him a little after noon.
"Do come in," he says, opening the door wider. "I'd like to look it over before accepting it, if you don't mind." He casts a quizzical glance at Joe.
"This is my, uh, new boyfriend," you say, and put your other arm around Joe's waist. You thrill as he reciprocates.
"Oh, how delightful. Please." Blackwell ushers the both of you in. "Your money for the last two weeks is on the table there."
You pause to scoop up the envelope. Blackwell himself continues into the library, nonchalantly skirting the rug that is draped just inside the entrance. Joe gives you a quick glance, but does a double take as he looks into the library. With an eager step he follows Blackwell--
And fetches up short as he hits the rug, tumbling forward: his feet are stuck to it.
Blackwell catches him as he falls. "Oh my dear fellow, do be careful."
Before Joe can reply, you leap behind him, reaching around to put the anima band to his forehead. He slumps into Blackwell's arms.
You bend and murmur the release spell over the sigil hidden beneath the rug--it's another of your designs; the "bear trap", you call it--and Blackwell, huffing heavily, hauls Joe into the library and drops him into a chair. Joe's face has gone chalky beneath his golden tan, and his eyes roll in his head. "Is he alright?" Blackwell asks anxiously.
"I hope so," you mutter. "Melody-- I mean, you were already unconscious when I put the first one on you."
Blackwell leans against the desk while you crouch at Joe's feet. Despite his pallor, he's a healthy-looking specimen. Your psychological twin had grumbled at finding itself inside Melody Weiss, but you doubt this twin--this triplet--will complain about--
Joe takes a deep breath and raises his head. He blinks furiously a few times and looks around. You'd finished making the anima band inside Blackwell's office, taking Melody's mask off long enough to press it to your forehead, so your new twin might be momentarily disoriented at finding himself in a room that he won't remember returning to. But after a few seconds he lets out a breath and relaxes. "Done and done," he says, and a wide grin splits his face. "Cool!"
"Everything okay in there?" you ask.
"Better than okay." He raises a clenched fist toward the ceiling, and a hard flash of gold comes off his hair. He opens his fist, and you stumble back as a flame like that of a torch blazes out of his palm. "Dudes, we have scored the jackpot!"
* * * * *
"I'm not really too keen on your taking it off me," Melody Weiss says with a frown. She looks more than a little ridiculous in Blackwell's clothes.
"We need to secure Frank," Joe says impatiently. "Leave that to me. And trust me, you'll like being there."
"Yeah, but--"
Joe's hand is a blur, and before she can finish she has slumped over, and Joe is fingering the anima band he's pulled from her.
"Shouldn't you ask me permission before doing stuff like this?" you demand.
"Okay," he drawls. "Can I take that band off her?"
"Fine. Look, I know you're not a golem--"
"Damn straight, I'm not. Good thing, too. Golem couldn't do what I can do, and you'll be glad I can. And don't think about trying to get my anima band offa me." He points to his temple. "Aside from the fact that guys wearing them don't like parting with them--" He jerks a thumb at Melody. "You don't want Joe and Frank on the loose."
"Who are these guys?"
"I'll tell you later. Right now, I think you better get out of Melody's face. I'm betting the real girl's gonna remember everything she was doing while under our influence."
Our influence?
You don't have time to say it aloud, for Joe's hand moves faster than you can see, and a moment later the world goes dark.
* * * * *
You have a headache when you wake, and are grateful for Melody's proffered hand. "What--? Where's Joe?"
"Gone," she says. "Honestly, boss, I'm not sure I like this new partner."   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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