Spliced

Further inland, and not far to the south of Wolf’s cabin, Coal was returning to his large stone built multi-story country home. Natasha Crimson had pulled up just as he was opening the front door. He didn’t wait for her but he left the door ajar, knowing she would follow him in.

He removed his suit jacket and hung it on the hook in the hallway. He briefly debated stopping by the lounge bar for a drink. Instead, he headed into his office. He paused, noticing that his chair was turned sideways, not at all how he’d left it. His eyes swept the room but he saw no one. He listened but heard no sound. Walking behind the large mahogany desk he saw nothing else amiss.

As Natasha entered the room he decided whoever had been in his office could wait for now. He gave Natasha a pleasant smile as she entered, his eyes drawn first to her dark brown eyes and then to the manilla folder that she clutched in her slender hands.

“My sources tell me your friends are searching the house tonight, something about a missing coworker and lost will.”

“So I’m aware,” he replied.

She raised her eyebrows. Obviously she had been expecting to be the the first to tell him.

That pleased him. He didn’t mention that it was Cat who had informed him, with an offhand comment when she’d stopped by earlier that day. Let Natasha think he had other sources as well.

Noticing his eyes had returned to the folder she was holding, Natasha pulled a photograph from it’s center. She held it close to her body so that Coal couldn’t see what it was of yet. She met his eyes. “I brought you the information on the house remember, filled with treasures.”

“And curses.” Coal sat down in the leather chair behind his desk.

Natasha nodded. “Curses you can worry about later. I made sure Kass got pulled on to that case. She’ll get photos of the contents in the house, then my contact can get them for you. Once you see what’s in there then you can decide if it’s worth acquiring.”

Coal nodded, still waiting for her to reveal the photo she clutched in her hand. “Why send Kass and the others?”

“Well it’s not just any old house, photos of the inside are rare. They say you take a photo of the wrong thing you don’t come back out.”

“Rumours.”

“Well-founded ones, anyway I didn’t actually expect her to drag the others in.” Natasha trailed off for a second and Coal wondered if he detected some worry there. Natasha didn’t know Kass very well but she and Cat had been friends for awhile. “I figured Kass had a good chance of survival, crazy telekinetic powers and with the rest of her history... well even if she tore the house apart getting out as long as she gets some photos then you’ll see you have value and then you’ll owe me.”

“Something small you said, because you know how I feel about unnamed favors,” Coal interrupted.

“You love them when they're owed to you,” Natasha quipped before continuing. “But yes, something small. You’ll have the whole rest of house, all I want is this. It’s one of the items in the house.”

She laid the photo on the desk.

Coal leaned forward to look. It was a picture of a red vase coated in white symbols of some language he wasn’t familiar with. A spell probably.

“Not taken from inside the house?”

“No, a snap taken by a previous owner.”

“What’s it do?”

“That’s my business,” Natasha replied. “That house is filled with things just as valuable and more so and that particular item isn’t valuable to anyone who isn’t a necromancer.” She fixed him with a firm look that said she wasn’t going to give him anymore information than that.

Coal nodded. “Fine.”

Natasha sat back with a satisfied smile. She put the photograph away.

“You didn’t expect them to all be dragged in?” Coal asked as she stood to leave.

She studied his face for a moment. “I’m sure they’ll be fine.” She sounded like she meant it.

Coal gave another nod and Natasha turned and left. He waited until he heard the front door close before he rose from his chair.

“You should stay away from that house,” a soft voice said as Coal rounded the corner into the bar and dining area. A petite blonde woman with eyes as blue as Coal’s own, just a little darker, perched on one of the bar stools. Behind her, glass doors gave a view out on to the large lawn at the back of the house. In her left hand she held what looked like a margarita, in the correct glass and all. She’d obviously helped herself to Coal’s liquor, but he didn’t mind. She was after all the one who got him a good deal on it. They had a unique arrangement.

“So you were the one sitting in my chair?”

“I figured you knew that.”

Coal smiled. “I did suspect.”

“I thought you might come through for a drink.”

Coal chuckled. “Did you? Some physic you are,” he mused.

“You didn’t offer Natasha a drink.” Stella replied simply noting that Coal had avoided bringing her through to the kitchen.

His lips curved up slightly. “I didn’t,” he confirmed understanding now his actions, or lack thereof, had been her known to her after all.

“Your daffodils are looking lovely.”

“I don’t grow daffodils.”

“Oh, I must have mixed them up with something else. Whatever they are, they’re looking very sharp.” Her tone emphasised the last word as if it were the most important word in the world. Then she sipped her drink and looked up at him through her eyelashes with those pretty blue eyes.

Coal waited patiently for her to explain further, at her own pace. It was no good trying to hurry Stella or make her speak straight unless she wanted to. Psychics had their own way of talking. It made it easier to ensure certain futures.

“You should stay away from the house,” she repeated again. “Or if you’re going to let them explore it and you want everyone to walk away from this alive then you might consider helping out.”

“I should stay away from it?” Coal asked with a raised eyebrow, asking for more information.

Stella sighed and shifted in her seat slightly. She closed her eyes obviously weighing up whether and what she should tell him, trying to see the different outcomes. When she met his eyes again Coal knew she had come to a decision. “There’s nothing in that house you want. When Tasha says curses and treasures she misunderstands. It’s not curses and treasures, it’s cursed treasures with prices you wouldn’t pay if you knew what they were.”

Coal wanted to argue that people got stuff for free all the time. Not everything great came with something negative. But he knew Stella wasn’t being general, she was being specific. This house. So all he said was, “Why?” as he sat down on one of the other bar stools. And without saying any more Stella knew what he meant.

“Anything powerful comes with risk, risk of misuse. People see these great gifts, creations others have made, tools that can help or harm and either they don’t like the risk or they don’t think we should and so they make sure no one else will.”

“They make sure no one informed will,” Coal argued. “Unless they are also skilled.” Curses could be broken. Like any booby trap you just had to be careful.

Stella just stared into his eyes and repeated in carefully formed emphasized words. “Not this house.”

As Coal studied her face he found himself distracted by her big eyes and small pouty lips. He longed to kiss her, just as he had the last time he’d seen her. But he held himself back and instead offered, “Have dinner with me tonight.” He tried to make it a statement more than a question. He wasn’t sure if he succeeded.

Stella held his gaze a moment longer and for a second Coal thought she was considering it but then she stood and shook her head. “I’ve told you what I came here to tell you. What you do next is up to you but tonight I have other engagements.” She walked past him and stopped only when she got to the edge of where the hallway started. There she turned and paused a moment. “Happy Birthday by the way.”

Coal turned at her words and watched her for a second or two before turning back around to think on what she had said. He didn’t see as she slipped into and then back out of his office on her way out of the house. He had a decision to make.

Truth be told her last words had distracted him a little. It wasn’t often he saw Natasha and Stella in the same day. Both woman he had a relationship with, if you could call it that. Like house cats they came and went as they pleased. Sometimes he didn’t see them for months. Natasha he could always get in contact with. Stella was harder. He had her number but she rarely answered. Sometime she was just there. Usually when Natasha wasn’t and he wondered if she planned it that way. They’d go out to dinner, to a concert or a show, then back to his. Have a whirlwind of a weekend and then she’d be gone again. He hadn’t expected to see Stella today, not until he’d walked into the house, and then somehow he’d known. It hadn’t just been the chair. Perhaps it was a smell, although he wouldn’t have been able to pick it if you’d asked. He’d half hoped Natasha would remember his birthday, since he had for once. The years that he forgot completely were the best though.

He shook his head to clear it and got up from his stool. He paced back and forth beside the bar thinking. He and Stella had an arrangement. She gave him information, things she saw in her visions put in whatever way she thought would most benefit him. In return he gave her a house, a castle actually, half a continent away but it was remote and that he knew she liked. He didn’t go there, that was hers. She had other places too but he knew she appreciated that one. It was a retreat. In addition he paid for the butler and any food she may need while she was there. How often she came and went and how long she stayed was up to her. One did not trap a physic.

He didn’t always follow her advice and many people would have questioned that, not following advice from a physic, a real physic at least, and Stella was one of the best. Better even than the other physic he had on his payroll, a woman who, if the rumours were correct, had been around long enough to serve his great grandfather. She certainly looked it.

Like Stella he paid for her living in return not for questions answered but for whatever information she considered worth giving. There was an element of trust there but Coal considered it a worthy investment. It was one of the few things he went with his gut on. And he figured if he offered protection in return, as well as kindness then it was in their interest to help him keep what power and influence he had.

So it may seem on the surface that ignoring their advice would be a mistake but Coal had always just seen it as information more than direction. If he didn’t see a reason to do something other than because a physic had told him then he wouldn’t do it. What they told him was merely added weight to what he already knew, that or a tipping point. Stella had once told him that his method actually helped her see the future. If his decision was certain in spite of what she told him and only small nudges could be made then what she saw would be clearer and more certain. It made him, she had said, much easier to work with than others.

So given what she had told him this afternoon did it change his mind? He hadn’t had time after Natasha’s conversation to think through her words or worry. It seemed in this case he hadn’t yet made a decision. There was something about the way Stella had said her words that gave him a chill. He knew that was intentional. The timing, the tone, she meant to influence his actions. But she’d also left him two options. Call the whole thing off or join them in the house.

Truth be told when Natasha had first told him about the house he had considered just going in himself. He’d been busy at the time though and Natasha seemed to have a plan. But now he had the evening free. Stella had turned him down for dinner. Had that been intentional too? Or perhaps she really did have another appointment? He shook his head. That wasn’t the right thought path to go down.

On the other hand he could call Amanda. It would have to be her. She would hear his tone and she had influence over the others. That would be admitting to some knowledge of the place though. A place that might hold a large quantity of very expensive items. Cursed yes but still valuable at an auction. There was always someone willing to take the risk. Sometimes mentioning a curse only drove the value up. Stella was right, it was usually only the powerful items that anyone bothered to curse.

Or he could leave them? Let them explore for him. Ignore Stella’s warning. Hope it didn’t cost him. And go and... do what? What did he have to do tonight? Did he really want to spend the evening in his house alone, on his birthday? He’d done it before. He thought again of Stella’s words and shivered. And the look on Natasha’s face when she’d mentioned all of them being dragged in. No. He stopped his pacing and headed towards the back rooms of the house. He’d made a decision.