I stared at the phone on the desk.
“Are you sure?” Max asked, and I couldn’t help laugh. It was a sickly thing.
“Like I have a choice.”
Max initiated the call.
It connected, but to other person didn’t say anything.
I couldn’t talk. Me speaking first was the surest was the end this.
“Hello Max,” Raphael finally said. “What do you want?” he sounded tired, maybe annoyed.
“Hello Raphael. I have an elder here with me who would like to talk with you.”
“Why the fuck would I want to talk with him?” he sounded fully awake now.
“Raphael, he’s an elder.”
“He’s a fucking Rasia! He might have swindled you, but not me. I don’t care what stories he’s been spreading. They’re lies.”
I could see the strain on Max’s face. I really wanted to jump in and give the rat a piece of my mind, but I could not afford to alienate him any more than I already had.
“Raphael. Your grandfather was a good friend of mine. I’m asking you, in his honor, to listen to what Denton has to say. If my friendship with him isn’t enough, I’ll remind you that Denton caught Allistair’s killer. You owe him that debt.”
“Really? I’d think that him stealing my city from me, with your fucking blessing nega—” the silence was so complete I thought he’d disconnected, but no. Max had the time to frown when Raphael un-muted half sigh. “Fine, I‘ll listen to his lies.”
Not the way I’d hope to start this, but I didn’t need him to believe me, just agree to cooperate.
“Hello Raphael,” I said.
“Just get on with it,” he replied.
Fine, not leading up to it. “I need your help.”
A pause. “Oh, this ought to be fucking good.”
He wasn’t going to make this easy. “I’m hoping you aren’t so insular that you haven’t noticed the war.”
“You mean this thing you started with the Gray Church? Oh, I noticed, I lost three cousins to it. There’s so few of us that there was no way I wouldn’t notice that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Spare me. You don’t give a shit about me or my family. All you care about is your power.”
Not protesting was harder than I’d expected. He was the one who’s screwed me over multiple times. He’d gotten what he deserved. I wasn’t the bad guy in this story. But it wasn’t the time for a fight.
“Do you know who is controlling the Gray Church at the moment?”
“One of those Orrs you pissed off.”
“Damian. He’s the one who tried to eradicate your family.”
Another pause. “Sure. Whatever you say.”
“Fine. Regardless of the past, he is currently trying to wipe all of us out. Can you deny that? Have you kept track of how many Society men he’s had killed?”
“My understanding is that the Gray Church is retaliating after you had a bunch of their cardinals killed.”
I looked at Max. Where had Raphael gotten that? The cougar shrugged.
“Damian killed them to gain control of the Gray Church. He’s after an artifact hidden in the altars from the hearths.”
“I heard that story. What does it have to do with me?”
“You have the altar from the hearth in Belize.”
Raphael snorted. “Come on. How would I have that?”
“That’s were you family’s from, right?”
“No, we’re from Wales,” Raphael replied.
“By way of Belize.”
“No,” he stated.
I was going to bring up Zee’s reasoning, and I had trouble believing how he’s connected all the dots, even if in the end, there was a trail.
“Are you familiar with Madoc?”
“What does that kid have to do with this?”
“Not a kid, the legend. Madoc Gwynedd. The Gwynedd were friends of the Lewistons, right? Although you guys went by Llewellyn back then.” I took his silence for agreement. “So the stories claim Madoc got to America before anyone else. No real record of who was on his ship, but there’s a painting in the Louvre that supposedly depicts Madoc embarking on the voyage. You ever see it? There’s a dozen rats as part of his crew. Oh, it’s also the time when the Llewellyn get in trouble with one of the rulers there. Couldn’t find details but the church got involved, so I can imagine a voyage on the sea looks like a good idea.”
“Even if that true, doesn’t put me in possession of one of our holiest artifact.”
“True. Have you ever gone to Belize? Did you ever see the hearth there?”
“Of course not.”
“On a side note, did you know that Mango Creek, on the eastern edge of Belize is actual a bastardization of its actual name? Which properly translated means the Creek of Madoc?”
“Really? That what you’re going on?”
“That and an unexplained influx of rats in the region, and also a shift in the language historians think looks a lot like the precursor to welsh.”
Raphael sighed. “Care to get to the point?”
“This points to your family being in Belize. I’m going to pass over the Spanish records of their arrival in the region, and get to nineteenth century, when, in the middle of the Indian wars, a caravan is documented as entering the country. No real information on who they are, except they’re noted as being rats, and there’s a comment about a block of stone, which is claimed as being of family importance.”
“So you’re saying that’s my family smuggling the altar into the country.”
“I’m going to call it importing, I doubt there were laws against that sort of things back then. I’m also going to point out Society families are notoriously good at writing down their histories, so I’m confident you’re just making my life difficult at this point.”
“What if I am?”
“Then you won’t need me to trace that family’s movements through the country until it the name Lewiston officially enters the census, will you? And before you say you don’t have the altar. I had someone check the mansion your grandfather owned. The altar isn’t there.”
“Did you really expect me to leave that behind when you forced my family out?” Raphael asked hatefully.
“No, but it would have meant we wouldn’t have to talk.”
“Now you’re going to want me to break apart an invaluable object. You really want to take everything from me, don’t you?”
“This isn’t about—”
“Yeah yeah. War and everything, sacrifice. Funny how it’s everyone but you doing the sacrificing.”
I muted the call. “How the fuck goes he get off saying that? He fucking cost me my family. I haven’t sacrificed anything? I could wring his neck right now.” I panted.
“Feeling better?” Max asked.
“No.” I un-muted myself. “I’m not asking you to destroy it. Scan it, you’ll see where the piece of the artifact is.”
Raphael laughed. “Of, that just great. It’s a fucking piece of rock dating from who known when? Of course a scan’s going to reveal something. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a handful of fossils in there? I can’t believe anyone fell off that. Max, are you listening to him?”
“I’ve seen the pieces,” Max said, and I stared at him. I accessed his ability and saw him walk into the room with Fred. The lion open the safe, Max open one on the case. I felt him experience the surge of power and slam it shut. “… so you can see, I’m not blindly doing what Denton says.”
Fuck, what had I missed?
“It’s a trick,” Raphael said.
“I promise you, it isn’t,” Max replied.
The rat was quiet; finally he said, “I want to experience it myself.”
I glared at Max. If there was one person I didn’t to know how powerful the artifact was, it was him. “You can do that when you bring your piece here.”
Raphael burst out laughing. “As is that’s ever going to happen? No, you’re coming to me, cheetah boy.”
“Raphael, that isn’t going to happen. I need you to—”
“Ignoring what you promised you’d do to me if I ever set foot in Denver again, I am not even going to look at the altar until I have proof this thing’s real. Max knows where I’m based at. So let’s see just how far you’re willing to push this farce, Rasia.” The call ended.
I stared at it. He was serious. He was going to force me to travel with at least a piece of it. That was like begging Damian to attack and steal it. I looked at Max. This had to be dealt with first.
“Did you think I wouldn’t let you see it? Is that why you went behind my back?”
The cougar shook his head. “It was the middle of the night. I didn’t want to disturb you and your friend.” He sighed. “I had a moment of doubt. I needed to be sure.”
I nodded. “Okay. But he can’t be serious.”
“I think he is. He distrusts you enough not to believe anything you say without proof. What I’m curious about is why we’ve never felt the power of the piece. I’ve been near that altar, there’s never been anything unusual about it. Knowing it’s the one from Belize explains the reverence Alistair had for it, but it was never anything more than stone.”
“Ask Fred,” I said. “As far as I’m concerned, you never felt anything because He didn’t want us to.” I rubbed my temples. “How the fuck are we going to move this would attracting Damian’s attention? He’s got to know I’m not going to let it out of my sight.”
“I can call Raphael back and try to convince him to come here with his piece.”
“Do you really think you can manage that?” I asked, no sense of hope.
“No. You two have carved a chasm between you no amount of goodwill can fill.”
I wasn’t going to contradict him. I took out my phone. “Fred? I need you to get the decoy cases ready. We’re going to have to pull off a miracle to keep Damian from getting his hand on one of the pieces.”
I ended the call and lost myself in thoughts. I didn’t actually have to prevent Damian from knowing who had the piece, just make sure he could get his hands on it.
“I need to grab something from home. Are you coming with us?”
“No. You can afford Raphael seeing this as a ganging upon him. He’ll expect you to bring extra security, just like you should expect him to be protected, but I represent an entire family stepping into this. Getting him to talk to you used up the little goodwill I had left.”
I nodded. “Okay, then keep an eye on the city for me. If he’s only going to get the piece out only after I’ve proven it’s true, I’m going to be enjoying he hospitality for a few days.”
Max chuckled. “At least you won’t feel crowded, Raphael set up shop in a hotel. Bought the whole chain.”
“That means I’ll be stuck under his roof the entire time, not the bonus you think it is.”
* * * * *
I peeked in Eddy’s room, Loraine was putting him to bed.
“Hey buddy.” Gave him a finger to chew on. “I’m just passing through,” I told her. “I’m going to be out for a few days. Zee might stay here in my absence, I haven’t checked how comfortable he is sleeping alone, he might decide to stay at the office, there’s plenty of guys there to keep him company, but then the offers of sex might be uncomfortable. Sorry, I’m rambling.”
“It is okay,” she said. “I did not think men like you had problem with sex.”
“Zee isn’t like me, not in that way. He’s gay, but that’s it. Marcus’ was central to his sex life. Without him, I don’t know how he’s going to handle it.”
“You and him haven’t?”
“No. We just sleep.”
She nodded.
“I need to grab something and get going.” I rubbed Eddy’s head. “You behave hear me? No running from your mother and hiding by the heating vents.”
I headed to the guest bedroom, one of three, the other two were empty. I had no idea what to do with all that space, but this one I’d turned into storage by dumping every box I’d brought over from my apartment. Somewhere in there were those books Frank had lent me on Society history. Maybe I’d known about the Lewistons and Belize if I’d read all of them? Or ate least more than a handful of chapters in one of them.
I found the case between two boxes of clothing. I’d have to see what was in those, eventually. As before, it wouldn’t open. To test my idea, I jerked off in a bowl, dipped my finger in it and spread a line on the case. This time it opened. Now I wouldn’t have to whip it out in Raphael’s presence. I wiped it clean, closed it and was on my way.
* * * * *
“We have a problem,” Fred told me as I set foot in the office.
“Now what.”
“This one’s entirely my fault, but to be fair, I didn’t expect it would happen.”
“That what would happen?”
Fred pulled me along to the shielded room, who now had a physical padlock.
“When did that get added?”
“This morning. Getting everything ready meant leaving the vault open. I didn’t want to tempt anyone.”
A table was set up next to the vault with five closed cases on it.
“Ready yourself,” Fred said, then opened the first. The lust washed over me and with Fred there, it was difficult to resist the desire. He opened the other four, and the intensity increased, but not as much as I expected.
“Shouldn’t we shield ourselves?” I panted.
“Wouldn’t help. This goes through anything short of a full encasement.” He tapped the cover of a case.
“You seem okay.”
“You actually get used to it. I still want to fuck you hard, but it’s not mindless. It’s nothing like you described the Orr influence is. This raised our energy levels. It’s no wonder that in its presence you saw me have none stop sex. I’m pretty sure normal men you be endlessly horny.”
“Okay, well this isn’t unexpected, so what is your fault?” Fred motioned to the five cases, and I noticed only four of them had pieces. “Where’s the missing one?”
He motioned to the second case from the left. There was only one piece there. It was the largest of the four. “That was two pieces. I was lining them up to see the order the fit. Figure out which piece Raphael has. I wasn’t going to touch them together since I figured it would reattach then. I didn’t expect them to snap together about an inch apart.”
“Like they’re attracted to each other?”
“Yeah. I think if we dump them together the full item will just reform. They know where they belong. I tried those two,” he indicated the sharp point and large case, “they don’t want to connect.”
“Okay. Not ideal, but maybe that resolves something.” I put my case on the table. “First, I need to know if that’s going to shield these.”
“Of course.”
I tilted an ear at Fred’s certainly.
“Dent, your case is the masterwork of hiding stuff. That doesn’t just mean not being able to get in short of shattering it magic, nothing in it can be scried for, seen precognitively, or any of the multitude of ways one of us can go about trying to find something. Why do you think no one knew where the case was until it made its way to you?”
“But the Saracen had someone here within hours, if not before that, of the case being at my door.”
“My guess is they were watching you, knowing it was going to come, eventually. Probably had slicers in MM&J’s systems, waiting for your name to pop up.”
“So no magical way to find it, but susceptible to mundane ways.”
“I wouldn’t call using expert slicers mundane, but yeah.”
“Then I need your opinion on something. What if we reassemble it and put it in this case?”
“That’s risky. If Damian gets his hand on it, he has the whole thing.”
“But he can’t open the case without my cum, and I can definitely keep that from him. Can he break its magic?”
“I don’t know. There isn’t really a phrase for it, so there might not be marks, but he’s a champion, and we know nothing of what you and him can do.”
“Best guess.”
“My best guess is that it’s unlikely. To be honest, I don’t even know if I can break it. You certainly can, because you can put a lot more power in my ability than I can.”
“Then we do that. We get Raphael’s piece, slam the case shut and bury it somewhere it’ll never be found.”
“You’re the boss.”
“I really wish you sounded more confident saying that.”
“Confidence if my boss’ job.”
I groaned.
