Blood Games

Transparency

I put the coffees on the tray and we headed back to the living room. I knew that it was going to be transparent to Agent Harding that Timothy had told me something important. I really didn't want to lie to her. Besides the fact that she'd saved my bacon countless times, she was good at spotting someone who wasn't telling the truth. I wasn't sure whether she had a little bit of psychic ability or it was from just being a well -trained FBI agent with good intuition. I would have to head her off at the pass. I set the mugs on the table and pulled her aside.

"Timothy told me something that you need to know, but doesn't have direct bearing on this case. He asked me to wait to tell you about it," I said.

"I will trust your judgement," she said. "Can I ask you something about the kid?"

"Of Course."

"Is it just me, or is he a bit spooky? Someone his age should be playing videos games and worrying about basketball, not tracking down Blood Mages."

Timothy hadn't asked me to keep the part about what his Uncle Osric did secret. I glanced over at him and saw that he was watching us. When he nodded I was sure he'd been listening in on our conversation.

"It turns out his Great Uncle Osric decided to leave him a gift. I guess he did some sort of Blood Ritual that left some of his power in his great nephew. It had the side effect of making him grow up faster than he should have, at least mentally."

She grimaced. "Who would do that to a kid? This is the kind of thing that gives even well meaning Mages a bad reputation."

"I can't comment on who well meaning the guy was, but it doesn't seem to have done Timothy much harm, aside from making it hard for him to adjust socially."

"I'm ready for the tracking spell," Timothy said.

He had borrowed my small silver bowl. He took the vial of Father Serrano's blood and put a drop of it in water. Harding and I went over to him and I saw that the blood was swirling around in the center of the bowl.

"What does that tell you?" Harding asked.

"It's giving me a direction, but not distance. We're going to have to get in your van and start driving," he said.

"I'll stay here," Marva said. "I don't have any desire to get any closer to this guy. I can wait for Father McCabe."

"I'm going to stay with her," said Nick.

"I would have thought you would want to be in on this," I said.

"We don't know that Dubois is with Father Serrano. I can find you if I need to. No one should be alone at this point."

"He has a point," Harding said. "I assume Matthew is coming with us."

"You couldn't stop me," he said.