Stepping through the back door of the house was hard to do. AJ had to force his spine stiff just to take that step in. He knew what he would find in there. Had sensed the currents in the air and knew intimately what created that kind of aura. It was why he’d shielded Brian and why he’d extracted that promise from him. AJ knew, beyond a doubt, what he would find here. The only matter was, how bad would it be? That would decide how long he’d allow Brian to stay in here with him.
Everything downstairs seemed to be in perfect order. Nothing really felt out of place down here. Still maintaining the shield on Brian, he didn’t want his lover feeling this yet, AJ kept the bond closed as well while he opened his senses to the rest of the house and searched for the threat.
There was no magical beings still here, thank the Gods. No one here to attack them. On the other hand, AJ almost wished that there was. At least then he would be doing something; have someone to vent his spleen on. Not this chasing and wondering and waiting.
“There’s no one here.” He said softly to Brian. His lover’s eyes were bright with worry and fear. AJ sighed a little. “I wish I could convince you to stay here.”
“You can’t shelter me forever, Alex. I need to know. I deserve to know.”
The silent observation made AJ sigh again. Yes, he was right. But it didn’t stop AJ’s heart from aching. He led Brian toward the stairs, following the trail of magic. It had left behind a thick feeling like slime in the air. The whole way up the stairs he debated what to do. At the top of the landing he stopped again. He’d been praying that somehow his senses had been wrong, as frivolous as that was. But there was no denying it now.
How could he say this? How could he prepare Brian for what was down this hall? He raised one hand to Brian’s cheek and saw that it was trembling. It took everything he had to force his own pain, his own heartache, to the background. “Brian…”
“It’s bad, isn’t it?” Brian cut in.
There was no way that AJ could lie to him. “Yes.” He answered softly.
“Take me.”
“Brian, it’s….”
But again Brian cut him off, this time shaking his head. “No, Alex. I can’t hear it right now, please. Just…just let me see. I don’t think I could handle hearing what I’m afraid you’re going to say. I need to see it with my own eyes.”
AJ stroked over the cheek he was still touching. “Is there anything I’d deny you?” He whispered. After another moment’s pause, the two headed down the hall. Every step was difficult, like his feet were made of lead. When they reached a door, AJ stopped. He looked to Brian one last time. “Are you sure?”
With one shuddering breath, Brian nodded. Closing his eyes, AJ let their bond open back up, but kept the shield in place as he used air to open the door. He didn’t look at what was on the other side. All his attention was focused on Brian and only Brian. He watched the shock and pain flash over Brian’s face. Felt the pulse of magic against his shield that told him it was a damn good thing he’d left it in place. Pain, hurt, agony, all of it flowed over their bond.
Reacting to it, AJ grabbed Brian and pulled him close. Enough was enough. “Step back, Brian.” He said, kissing his lips briefly. It looked like Brian was going to protest, but AJ shook his head. “You promised me. Now, step back against the wall, out of sight of the door. You don’t need to see this and you aren’t magically stable enough to read the room. I am. Now, go.” Deliberately he made his voice hard, something to reach through Brian’s shock.
It worked. His lover stepped to the other side of the hall, leaning against the wall. It put him out of view of the open door. AJ paused before reaching into his pocket. He grabbed the bundle there, holding their key, and tossed it to Brian, who caught it easily. “Hold this until I come out. I don’t want to mix the magic’s and misread things.”
Confident that Brian would stay there, AJ braced himself and turned to face the room. He shut down the bond again. He didn’t want what he saw or felt to pass over to Brian. What he’d already seen was bad enough.
Blood was everywhere in the room. The floor, the bed, the walls. Things were tossed here and there. Signs of a struggle. At the very center of it all lay the most horror. Harold and Jackie lay arm in arm, their bodies huddled close together in the center of the floor, their unseeing eyes locked on to one another. Blood pooled around them, staining the carpet, their clothes, their skin.
Years of war and death had taught AJ to lock a part of himself away when he dealt with the death of those he loved. There had been plenty in his millennia on earth. It never dulled the pain when it happened, but it helped him to cope. He forced his heartache down, forced away the cries that wanted to fall from his lips. Stepping into the room, he extended his senses, trying to feel the magical current in the room and read from it what he could. There was so much that it was all jumbling together.
As he sensed around him, his body moved forward until he was kneeling by his heart song’s parents. He paid no attention to the blood that stained his clothes. Habit had him checking for pulses, though he knew he would find none. Quickly he scanned their bodies. Revulsion shuddered inside of him. This hadn’t just been murder. It had been a massacre. A slaughter. The ones who had done this had enjoyed it. That was evident both in the room’s aura as well as in the wounds on their bodies. They had been stabbed, multiple times.
His indifferent shield cracked for a moment. Softly, AJ spoke a prayer over them. He took two coins from his pocket, placing one on each of their tongues before gently closing their mouths. Though he knew those old beliefs were mostly superstition, it felt good to honor them. In Greek he murmured the appropriate words, asking Χάρων to carry their souls across the river Styx and Acheron and take them to Ἀϝίδης.
A piece of paper caught his attention. Looking down, AJ saw that there was a small piece of parchment lying between them. Even as he read the words his hand moved down to pick the parchment up. ‘This is your warning. We hope you understand the message.’
The instant his hand closed over the paper, magic exploded in the air. AJ felt it pulse in the room. He shot to his feet, his senses reaching out to read what had been done even as he moved to the door to make sure that Brian was ok. Right at the doorframe he hit something solid, almost bouncing backwards.
Brian had moved on the other side, coming over to him. He put his hands up when he saw AJ collide with the air. At the door his hands met the solidness there. A shield. There was a shield around the room. Shit! AJ probed at it, but it was unlike anything he had ever seen.
“Can you break it?” Brian asked him. There was a note of panic in his voice.
Damn it! “Maybe. I think there’s a spot here…but I don’t know. I can read what it did.” AJ scowled, closing his eyes. “It was made to trigger when I touched the note. Anyone with magic in them can’t pass in or out of this room. Any mortal will walk through just fine. If I break it, though, I don’t know what it’ll do. The way it feels, I’m afraid it might destroy the entire house, maybe the houses around us. I have to figure out something!”
A sudden sound in the distance reached both their sensitive ears at the same time. AJ realized what it was first. His eyes snapped open wide. Even as he realized it, his thought slid across the bond so that Brian realized it too. “Cops?” Brian exclaimed. “Cops are coming?”
Oh, God, this was not good. “Quite a few, I think.” What the hell was he going to do? If they came here, if they found him like this in here… “Brian, I need to call on that promise now. Listen to me!” AJ put both his hands on the shield of air. Brian did the same on the other side. “Do not waste time asking questions. Get out of here, now. Protect that key. Don’t go far. I’ll try to get out of here. But if I fail, if things go wrong, you take that key home, you hear me? I’ll keep the bond open to talk to you, but you have to go. Now!”
There was no time to waste. The sirens were getting closer. Brian pressed a kiss to his fingertips, then pressed those to the air shield for a second before he turned and darted down the hallway, fast as the wind. Before he was even out of sight, AJ turned back to the room and tried to figure out how to get out. He tested the mundane ways, trying the windows first. But the shield covered the room in a perfect square. All sides were blocked, even the floor and the ceiling.
He was well and truly trapped. Breaking the shield would shatter the house, that he could feel. God, how stupid was he, picking something up without even testing it first? His grief had gotten in his way.
The sirens wailed as cars screeched to a stop outside. This was not what he needed. Looking down at himself, AJ knew how this would look. He was glad he’d left his weapons hidden outside. There was no doubt they were coming here, or that they’d find him. He couldn’t destroy a whole block, potentially, just to escape. There were better ways.
A part of his mind ran through the logical things for the moment. One of which was his looks. He had to look the part of who he was. Divorcing his mind from his body, AJ let the logical part take over for a minute so that he could think. That logical part of him wrapped his hair in air, holding it tight and using another weave of air to slash it off close to his scalp, leaving him with almost a buzz cut. The rest, he quickly burned away with fire, then smothered with more air until there was no signs left of the hair anywhere. Brian was going to freak out over that, but it was part of blending in. It had to be done. He also spun the glamour to shield his eyes and his ears so that they looked normal.
Meanwhile, his mind raced over what he needed to do. He felt Brian’s thoughts meshing with his so that they were thinking together, as one unit. But AJ had to pull back to himself when he heard feet thundering up the stairs.
Quickly he dropped down to his knees, bending over the bodies of Jackie and Harold. Maybe, if he was lucky, he could convince them that he’d stumbled over them this way. He didn’t think that luck was going to be on his side.
He was right. The footsteps stopped at the door for a moment, it sounded as if one person had actually hit the shield. Part of his mind filed that away. One of the cops was a magician. But then other footsteps were rushing in and suddenly AJ felt the shield pop and dissipate.
“Put your hands in the air!” A voice shouted.
God, luck was nowhere to be found. AJ raised his hands up as non-threateningly as he could. He heard the sound of guns cocking behind him. Whoever had done this had set it up nicely. They had done a tidy job. ‘Don’t panic, song of my heart. I can still get free from this. Do not panic yet.’ AJ sent warningly over the bond.
“Lace your hands behind your head.” That same voice ordered. When AJ did as commanded, someone suddenly was grabbing his hands, pulling them behind his back and cuffing them. Then he was being grabbed on his arms and yanked roughly to his feet.
One cop stepped toward him, an older gentleman with silver streaked in the black at his temples. He looked close to fifty, with that toughened look that some cops get. His sharp blue eyes locked on to AJ, full of anger and disgust. “You, AJ Mclean, are under arrest for the murder of Harold and Jackie Littrell and for the kidnapping and alleged murder of one Brian Littrell.”
The last charge so shocked him that AJ didn’t even hear as they read him his Miranda rights. Murder of Brian? Kidnapping? Silent, he let them take him to the car. What the hell was he going to do now?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One hour later, AJ was sitting in the small metal chair in an interrogation room. He had to work to keep himself under control. They had stuck him in here, deliberately giving him a chair made to make him feel uncomfortable, leaving his hands cuffed. He’d been given no water to drink, offered no phone call. They’d even lowered the temperature in the room so that a normal mortal would have been shivering. They had no idea what they were dealing with. He had sat for hours perched on a small rock without feeling a sign of discomfort! He had walked barefoot through the snowy mountains and not been frozen.
No, becoming furious with them wouldn’t help matters. He needed to keep that under control. The bond was helping him with that. Feeling Brian’s presence with him was soothing. They’d meshed together so closely that they were almost merged. The whole time the cops had left him in here to wait, AJ had been silently conversing with Brian, discussing what they’d found at the house, what magical shields they’d felt.
The pain was still there for Brian, but rage had helped take the edge off, as had this whole situation. He focused on the problem with AJ, pushing his pain back to be dealt with at another time. The both of them did. Inside, AJ grieved as if they were his own parents. He had offered Brian comfort and it had been taken, but they had now moved on to practical matters.
‘I still say you should let me come to the station. Or let me be seen somewhere! Then they’d know I wasn’t dead or kidnapped.’ Brian insisted.
AJ shifted his position, not because of discomfort, but to try to look like a normal mortal. No mortal would sit there without moving for hours on end. ‘Not yet. You’re my ace in the hole, love. I want to save that card until it’s absolutely necessary. Remember, they can’t hurt me. If push comes to shove, I will escape out the bars of my cell. But we need to try to clear this up or every move we make will be hunted for the rest of the time we’re here. I have more stops to make before we head home and it would be difficult if I’m a fugitive.’
The mental growl he got in response would have made him chuckle under other circumstances. But that wouldn’t look good now. He had to look the part of AJ Mclean. That thought trigged one in Brian that AJ had known was coming. ‘Yes, you knew I’d say it. I hate that you cut your hair! That short look does not work for you, Alyck Tuian. You are not meant to have short hair.’
‘It’ll grow back. I’m blending, Bri. That’s important, remember?’
‘Oh, I understand. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.’
‘Shut up, song of my heart.’
The door opened suddenly, pulling AJ out of his thoughts. Though the man walking in didn’t realize it, two men watched from AJ’s eyes as the cop walked over and sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the table. It was the same man who had told AJ the charges against him at the scene.
The man, his nametag read Officer Johnson, laid a folder on the table in front of him. AJ had all his attention focused on Officer Johnson, but he felt another presence coming in the door that drew his eyes like a magnet. This was the cop that had hit the shield. This was the cop who had magic in him, whether he knew it or not.
This cop was younger looking, with red hair and green eyes. Easily AJ read the Irish ancestry in his features. Officer Donnelly, his tag read. Shamelessly, AJ peeked into the man’s mind, using the ability in a way he typically did not. With the strength of his powers, he could delve into another’s mind if he so chose, sifting through what he found there. It was just something that he rarely, if ever, chose to do. Most mortals had no defense against it; elves and other magical beings had instinctual defenses.
In the quick moment he allowed himself to look, AJ saw a short history of this fellow. He came from a long line of magic users, dating back quite a while. It was a common thing in the family, as well as a source of pride for this young one. At one time his family had been called the Ó Donnghaile clan. In his travels in Ireland, AJ had even met a few. He wondered if there was any connection.
Officer Donnelly’s magic wasn’t immensely strong, but it was there and it was active. Less than what Howi had possessed, but still strong for a mortal.
All of this took only a moment. By the time the man reached the other side of the table, AJ had pulled back out of his mind and went back to watching the two. He needed to do something. Sitting here silently was not what a normal person would do. If he didn’t act normal, he was going to start to scare them or worse, convince them that he was crazy.
Letting his annoyance creep out a little, showing just slightly on his face, AJ shifted again in his seat and prepared to become AJ Mclean.
“About time you guys came in here.” He snapped at them. “What the hell is going on here?” Deliberately he let his voice tremble just a little, conveying the image of anger yet showing the pain underneath it. This wasn’t lying, not at all. He had always hated lies before, but coming fully into his elvish heritage, to lie was not an option anymore. But that didn’t mean that he couldn’t twist things around to suit what he wanted and convey a totally different meaning without ever actually lying.
Officer Johnson glared at him. “As I said at the scene, we placed you under arrest for murder, Mr. Mclean. I thought that charge was pretty obvious.”
AJ let some of the grief he felt flood forward; it would lend a hint of truth to his words. “You think I killed Harold and Jackie? Seriously? I went there to meet up with Brian, he was supposed to be there.”
“But he wasn’t. Where is he?”
“I don’t know! He never showed or else he would have been there when you guys arrived, obviously.” He snapped furiously. In the back of his mind, Brian’s voice floated in softly ‘Cautious, song of my heart. Do not anger them unduly.’
‘I have to be me for this. Or, AJ. You’re used to who I am now so much so that you’ve forgotten the attitude I displayed in public as AJ. Even back then, you knew the me behind private doors. Remind yourself how I was in public and with figures of authority. I have to act right or I could blow this whole thing. I have to fully slide into the part to make sure I do it right.’
The little interaction between them was so normal for AJ that it didn’t even distract him. He was paying close attention as Officer Johnson sneered at him. “So you were supposed to meet him there and when you found he wasn’t home, you want me to believe you just went inside?”
Sneering right back at him, AJ shifted again in his chair. “Don’t have any close friends, do you?” He taunted the Officer. “Every guy in our group has an open invitation, both at our own houses and at our parents. The Littrell’s always said that their doors were wide open to any of us. Jackie would say that family didn’t knock on doors. They just walk on in.” A shaft of real pain speared AJ’s heart. How many times had Jackie said that to him? She had been such a beautiful soul. They both had been.
“Listen here, you little punk…” Officer Johnson leaned forward, ready to snarl. It was Officer Donnelly who grabbed Johnson’s arm and pulled him back into his chair. “Officer Johnson, please! Let him have his say.” The lilting brogue was like music in the air and another knife to AJ’s heart. It sounded so reminiscent of Isleen that he felt the loss of her all over again.
Those misty Irish eyes turned toward AJ. In them there was magic for those who were trained to see it. The man was using his gift to test the words that AJ was saying. “Tell me, lad, what happened when you went into the house.”
Oh, this was priceless! Internally, AJ gave a pure mental chuckle. ‘They’re trying to play good cop/bad cop with me!’ he sent to Brian. ‘This is hilarious. Do they think I’m a fool?’ On the outside he let his anger crack away to show the grief underneath. He chose his words carefully. “I…I went upstairs. Everything was so quiet.” Pausing, he looked down at the table; let the tears build in his eyes. “I could smell something in the air. I didn’t want to look, but I had to. I just…I had to. So I opened the door. They were lying there.” A sob broke past his words, ruthlessly cut off. “I checked for a pulse, I had to. I knew they were gone, but I had to be sure. Oh God…”
The words broke way under tears. Keeping to the role, AJ tried to hide his head, to act as if his grief weighed him down, as if he couldn’t continue on. He forced the tears not to fall, knowing that most mortal men were ashamed of their tears.
“Oh God.” Johnson said scathingly. “Spare us the theatrics. We know better.” With a gesture, Johnson signaled someone. A minute later a young man came in and set something on the table before leaving. Looking down, AJ saw it was a tape recorder. Confusion marred his face and his mind for a moment. What on earth was this about?
Johnson leaned forward and pressed the play button. The last voice that AJ had ever expected to hear again filled the interrogation room. Gods above, that was Howi.