Spliced

Wolf was silent for the rest of the drive and to her credit Indi didn’t say anything more either until they’d pulled up in front of Agatha’s house at the edge of suburbia.

“There’s Zeph,” Indi remarked as they stepped out of the car. She gave Wolf such a vibrant smile that it made him think she’d already forgotten their conversation in the car.

“Hey guys,” Zephyr greeted them as he came over. He was dressed in jeans, brown boots, and that woolen grey jersey he was so fond of.

Indi wrapped him tightly in a hug. He hugged her back before the two separated and then both turned to look at the house.

“So, what’s our game plan here?” Zephyr asked.

“Um,” Indi hesitated. Evidently she still hadn’t thought of anything.

Wolf had no ideas either. He didn’t usually go door knocking. If it hadn’t been for Amanda thinking it was a good idea he probably wouldn’t have come at all.

But Zephyr was quick thinking in addition to quick on his feet. “We can probably just say it’s a quick welfare checkup, to see how Agatha’s going which is technically what we are doing.”

“What if she doesn’t want to be reminded of it?” Indi asked.

Wolf was half hoping they’d change their mind and then they could go and check out the crime scene, do the spell, which probably wouldn’t find anything, and then he could go back home and... and what? There was still the vase that he was half way though analysing. He’d started another spell running on it this morning. It was currently in a bucket under a draining deer out the back of his cabin. There wasn’t much more to do on that for a few hours yet and he had been planning to get the dreamwalking working better. He had kind of been hoping Amanda would help.

Zephyr easily set Indi’s worries to rest. “I doubt she’s forgotten and the opportunity to talk about it in a different context often does more good than harm. We just have to be careful what we say. We’ll just ask her how she is and let her do the talking. Reassure her that it wasn’t her fault.”

Wolf’s ears picked up at those words, ‘wasn’t her fault,’ and at first he thought that was an obvious thing to say but the longer he thought on it the more he wondered about it. The girl had gone into the house after all, someone else’s private abode. Wasn’t it her fault what had happened? Just as it was theirs for letting the dreamweaver out. He frowned and followed Indi and Zephyr up the pathway toward the house.

They knocked on the door and waited but there was no answer.

Wolf hung back a little his mind whirring. He thought about the girl in the newspaper clipping, the one he’d left at Cat’s place, he thought about the facility and the experiments, all the videos Indi had shown them, the werewolves that had been there, those who had been sacrificed for the ritual for Lily, the issue with Lily herself and the danger there. He did no doubt that Amanda had told no one about the girl’s regression. Maybe not even Sirius? He glanced at Indi and he was reminded of the man he’d killed to save her life. He didn’t regret that. He was glad she was okay. Glad that someone, even in this world, seemed to find a reason to smile.

Wolf loved that smile. He hoped she would always be like that. He worried with what they were doing He had almost been too late then. He'd let her go off and she'd almost gotten killed. And Zephyr too. The guy was not meant for work like this. He wanted to help people. He was nothing but kind. Wolf felt if anything happened to them he would be responsible. Neither of them should be out here.

“Maybe they’re not home,” Indi wondered.

“Maybe.” Zephyr frowned. He knocked on the door once more.

“It is the middle of the day,” Wolf reminded them. “They could be at work and school.”

Indi shook her head. “Jewel said that Agatha hadn’t been in school all week.”

“How far apart are they in years?” Zephyr asked.

“Agatha’s a couple years older, but Jewel always knows the school rumors,” Indi told him.

“Well maybe she heard wrong,” Wolf suggested. He was more than ready to return to the car and get all of this over with so he could get back to his experiments without having to worry about involving others. Cat and Amanda didn’t count. They could take care of themselves.

“Their car’s in the garage,” Zephyr pointed out.

“How do you know?” Indi asked.

“I just checked.” Evidently he’d used his abilities to do a quick look in the garage window before they’d even had time to notice him move.

“Oh.” Indi considered it. “Well, maybe they have two cars.”

“In Little Rock?” Wolf gave her a look. “Most people don’t even have one car, except Cat and the aristocrats.”

“The aristocats!” Indi proclaimed with glee.

Wolf gave her a questioning look.

“It’s a movie,” Indi explained. “And a pun. You know what puns are right?” she teased playfully.

Wolf just sighed.

Indi cocked her head. “Are you alright Wolf?” she asked.

“Yeah, you do seem a bit not yourself,’ Zephyr remarked

“I’m fine,” Wolf told them but he didn’t miss the glance the pair shared with one another, neither of them believed him. “Look they’re obviously not home. We can come back later.” Wolf turned and started to walk back down the path.

Zephyr hesitated. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

Indi nodded in agreement but it didn’t seem like there was much to be done and so they followed Wolf back toward the car.

They’d gotten maybe half way along the hedge that separated this house from the neighbours when a head suddenly popped up alongside Wolf. He jumped half a mile in the air and swore. Then he glowered at the older looking woman wearing a wide brimmed hat and inwardly cursed himself for letting his guard down.

“Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” she remarked. “Are you looking for the Turners?”

“We were just here to check in on their daughter Agatha. See how she’s doing after her ordeal,” Zephyr offered. Sometimes providing information netted some in return.

“It’s such a pity what happened to her, first her being kidnapped like that and now her poor parents. And so young too.”

“Her parents?” Wolf asked.

“Oh, you don’t know?” She looked around and then leaned in closer with widened eyes. “They both died, just a few days ago. And it was Agatha that found them of course. Oh my heart bleeds for her.”

“How’d they die?” Indi asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Heart attacks I suppose. I heard they went in their sleep. That’s some consolation at least.”

“The both of them at the same time?” Wolf asked.

The lady shrugged. “Well why not, happens to animals. There’s that one deer I once read about that kills itself if its mate dies. Maybe one of them sensed the other’s death and that was it, or they woke up and got a shock. It’s just a pity they left the poor kid, what with all she’s been though.”

“Do you know who she’s staying with now?” Zephyr asked.

The lady shook her head. “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t a clue. With relatives I’d guess.”

“Well, thank you for you time anyway,” Zephyr told her.

“Your’e welcome. I was just out here doing some gardening when I saw you coming down the path.” She raised a hand and stroked a plant. They watched as right before their eyes the bush grew more vibrant and lively. “Are you with child services?”

“Oh, no we’re an independent company. Child therapy. Someone probably forget to update us on her status.” Zephyr told her. It wasn’t exactly a lie. Some of his patients were teenagers.

“Oh.” She nodded and seemed to relax a whole lot more. “I used to work for the council, in accounts.” She hook her head. “So trust me I know how bad they are at notifying different departments of changes in things. And external contractors even worse.”

“Anyway, thank you very much for your help. We’ll let you get back to your gardening.”

The lady nodded again, gave them a smile and then disappeared among her plants.

Indi remarked to the other two with a frown, “There’s no way they both died of a heart attack on the same night or even one of them. I looked them up, they were young, not even in their 60s yet. Nobody gets heart attacks until they’re in their second century at least, except humans but that’s only cause they don’t live very long anyway.”

‘Well sometimes young people do,” Zephyr replied with some hesitation. He glanced at the bushes where the neighbour had disappeared. Then he pulled them away and added. “Two at once is a bit weird though.”

“It’s got to be the dreamweaver. It has to be,” Indi exclaimed, “Right Wolf?”

“Huh? Oh right, yeah.” Wolf nodded.

Zephyr frowned at him. “You sure you’re alright, Wolf?”

“Yeah, I was just thinking.” He had been thinking, thinking about how he’d almost given up on searching for the thing. He had that infusement that Amanda had brought him this morning but he’d intended that to be his last attempt, and he hadn’t really expected it to work anymore than the previous failed attempts but now he was certain that it was still in town, and killing people. Was this his fault? Maybe if he’d just tried a little harder earlier? “Indi, when did you say those other people died?”

“Um, so a day or two ago I guess. This one wasn’t in the police system. The other one was.” She nodded at Agatha’s house. “Do you think Agatha’s in danger?”

“Not if we can find the dreamweaver,” Wolf told her, “But that makes this the most recent crime scene.” He followed Indi’s eye line back toward the house.

“So should we start looking for it here?” Zephyr asked.

Wolf could hear the hesitation in his voice. A slight shakiness, and he was reminded again how neither of those two were really cut out for this kind of thing. Both of them were too nice for this. But he hadn’t brought any blood. Not that it was strictly necessary. A talented witch could cast using an infusement directly and if what Amanda had said was true even without the raw infusement magic as long as they had an infusement itself. Wolf wasn’t sure how she had achieved that and he was no witch either, although even for a witch, using a separate blood supply was far safer and far easier. The separate blood supply defined spell-craft but other than safety and power it wasn’t that different from using an infusement on its own was it? Truth was he didn’t really know. He’d observed differences. He’d heard stories. But even now he wasn’t really sure how it worked. He was half convinced that some infusements were made with spare energy stored within them which would imply using them was a form of spell-craft or blood magic and not just infusement magic. One thing he did know was that magical talent mattered and he didn’t think any of the three of them had enough of it. He certainly didn’t and Indi was only half witch herself. None of them were very experienced. But he didn’t want to disturb Amanda now, as much as he’d been hoping she’d help. She’d killed a client’s unicorn and she was busy trying to wrangle him a replacement from another breeder in exchange for what work he wasn’t sure but she had seemed pretty stressed this morning.

Indi interrupted his thoughts. She clapped her hands together. “Shall we do some magic here then? Like a locating spell or something? Like that one we did in the house.”

Wolf frowned. He shook his head. “That spell locates people, not dreamweavers.”

“Okay, how do we locate dreamweavers then?”

“With dreamwalking magic,” Wolf replied. He looked between the two of them. Indi looked excited. Zephyr had gone quiet and a little pale.

“Should we wait for the others?” Zephyr asked.

Indi shook her head. “I already tried calling people and I know Amanda said she was busy. I don’t think we should wait because then it will have been longer since it’s been here, right Wolf?”

“Mmm.” He didn’t answer fully. She was sort of right but at the same time it was possible it had already been too long.

“What is it?” Zephyr asked.

“If it’s already been a few days...”

Indi interrupted before Wolf could finish. “Ooooh, what if we lured it to us? Like there must be people who it’s more attracted to right?”

Wolf nodded. She was right but that was also the most dangerous option. He had wanted to find the dreamweaver rather then have the dreamweaver find them. But if it had already killed four people maybe he needed to stop messing about.

“So who does it go for then? What’s its prey?” Indi pressed.

Wolf answered. “People who have nightmares.”