Raving Moon, Lords of the Night Book One

Chapter 33: Magaven, Rising

By the time I'd returned to Wilson's office, Ariane had been busy.. She'd already rummaged through his file cabinets and was trying to guess his computer password. I handed her the water and the aspirin, she slid me a file folder labeled 'The Raving Moon'. I flipped through it while she self-medicated.

"Looks like Wilson and Zimmerman were looking for someone or something called The Raving Moon," I observed. "The only concrete lead they had was the name Magaven. Says here they spoke to Earl."

"Yeah, these guys were either terrible at recordkeeping or they were trying to keep this a secret."

"More secrets, more frayed threads from this unfinished tapestry..."

"More poetry," she chuckled.

"Funny," I said, scratching my head. Maybe I did sometimes wax poetic.

"Jacob's dead..."

We hadn't discussed what happened. A colleague was dead. Two of our peers had tried to kill us. It was a lot to take in.

"I saw it happen. There'd been a split second of purple light, when the killing curse rushed through his system, then he was ash."

"He'd started messaging me in the evenings to see if we needed anything before he picked us up." She typed a series of random characters, pounded enter, and dashed the keyboard against the wall. "Bastards."

"You can say that again."

"Bastards!"

I looked up from the file and she gave me a weak smile.

"I wonder if we could find out about Magaven from Earl."

"I don't see why not." She gathered the files she'd removed and put them back in the cabinet.

"For starters we'd need to know where to find him."

"He's at the protest."

"How do you know that?"

"I texted Jorge Negro while you were gone."

"Hawkins is there too... I have a bad feeling about tonight. Jacob was only the first death, but more will die. I can sense it."

"More will die if we don't figure this thing out. The murders and the bullets. It's all connected." She went to the door, unbuttoning her shirt. "I need a new specter suit. We talk to Earl then we confront Hawkins."

We found Ariane a new suit and requisitioned a driver. Sitting in the parking garage, I thought about Jacob. It was rare we lost drivers and the sting of losing a man on my watch was sharp after so many years. The pain was one of the main reasons I'd worked alone for so long. I thought about the weight of the gun in my suit. I needed to get it to Dr. Noraa as soon as possible. No matter how the night turned, at least I could be sure Carl received what help he could.

"Where to, Sirs." The driver was a tall woman with East Asian features.

"Rat City. The protest," Ariane directed.

"Actually, we need to make a stop." I didn't want to lose anyone else. "Take us to The Doc first."

"Copy that." The driver put the vehicle in drive. "Buckle up. It saves lives."

The official story was we had a collision with unknown assailants, there was an altercation, and there were three vampires dead. The commander of the cleanup team would keep things under wraps for twenty-four hours, but after that there'd be questions. The clock was ticking faster and faster.

I called ahead and Dr. Noraa met us in the parking lot. I hopped out and guided him away from the van.

"You found the weapon? This is fantastic." His enthusiasm was promising.