Once Lost Lords (Royal Scales, Book 1) (9 page)

I grabbed a chair, one that was familiar from the last vision of the
fugitive elf. This room had been tainted by dozens of people
recently. There was no connection, emotional or physical, between
these objects and the elf. Hands fidgeted with the hair and the empty
tube. Thoughts slowly spun together. Linking that which I held to the
other end. My hand, my items, mine. These were mine, all of it was
mine. That which I owned could not hide.

Consciousness unfurled one inch at a time. The sensation of having
more limbs stayed with me for a moment. My mind’s eye could see
the room around me and felt everything. Cheap wood sealed tight by a
false grain. Lamps were screwed into the wall, dragging down the
plaster. Worn threads on the rug. My eyes shifted around, not really
seeing, only feeling. There was a thread in my hands connecting hair
and tube with something in the distance. Then that mild awareness
stuck as another cadence of thoughts chimed in.

Other faltering connections. Many. None are mine. None elven.
Hair connects. Tube connects. Different vibrations, same colors. I
pull towards their destination. Pulls sharply west. Feel the sun's
heat layered through everything. Welcoming. Comforting.

This connection went past the freeway, towards the trees. Elves
always went for trees. Historical fact, and one of the reasons the
Isles couldn't reclaim the Americas. Once the isle elves invaded they
were in already claimed lands. Our elves were fiercely protective of
their homes.

Soaring above the treetops. Trailing link. Following Long Ear's
thread. Know this because of the colors. Four, five on connection.
Always Long Ear. Savage earth is fuzzy things. Ticks laced with red.
Pink meats complex, never sensible. Changes.

Trees sway. Images trail before and after. Glow. Spirits of
living things. Diffuse compared to pink meats. Almost ghostly. Barely
tangible. Material vibrates. Faster than pink meat buildings. Easier
to pass by.

Every living creature I saw had an aura about them. If my vision was
focused on a traveling person there would be a blur of energy just
before and after them. Almost like destiny dragging them forward one
moment at a time. With vampires, when they woke, that colored energy
rushed from the ether to their comatose bodies. Right in time with
sunset. Daniel and I had discussed it once over too many drinks and a
starlit night.

Growing close. World small now. Look down. Will find what is
mine. Need to. Pulse thumps. There. Found the Long Ear. He kneels.
Appropriate. Trees dwarf him. Branches weave their patterns. Shade
blots sunlight. Air cools from their actions.

Look at Long Ear’s face. Study. Still dirty. Hair,
unwashed, grains in it, oils. Tangles through. Can feel it all.
Disgraceful. Disrespectful.

Long Ear shudders but knee stays firm. His pulse skips with my
displeasure. Barely feel supplicants weight against grass and dirt.
Confusing how it sits. Feel the face, search for reason, expression,
familiar. Faces all the same, regardless of specifies. Long Ear is
wary, tried. Cheeks drag, eyes pinched, wrinkles line eyes. Unsure
how old this one is.

Lips move. Air vibrates. Almost make out the sounds. Inhuman,
incomplete. The reverberations of voice sink into the surrounding
wilds. Lost.

In a startling moment of realization, I saw something else behind
him. A figure, standing tall and looking around. Its head resembled
the same mist that trailed after the trees. Almost like a spirit
detached from the body.

Fog Head stares straight at me. The curve, posture, all
telling. I look back. Confusion runs through me. It speaks words,
clear words.

"Forgive me, Lord," The elf said. Who was he talking to?
There was no one else this clearing. No one sizable. "I answer
your summons. What do you desire?"

Oh Hell. He was talking to me. Never, ever, ever, before had anyone
tried to hold a conversation with my tracking form. The closest thing
was Kahina talking to me. The brief moment of comprehension she
brought back with her as she awoke would allow her to see me. A side
effect of her spirit traveling during the day.

Responding was a difficult concept to grasp. I tried to speak,
feeling an odd disconnection as my body back in the hotel room spoke
the words for me. It was like being drunk. Where words came out of me
but someone else spoke them. A stranger operated my mouth.

"You can see me?" A hum whispers through the world.
Leaves brush in agitation. Branches rustle. Birds chirp.

"Yes. You are a Lord. Forgive me for my delay in response,"
The elf said. This whole situation was growing stranger. I was
basically feeling a conversation miles away and translating it into
normal sensations.

Long Ear’s words are reverent. Tone soft as they pass
through. My head tilts. I feel taller than expected."Why do you
call me ‘Lord’?" Wind scrapes by trees, carving
words out one at a time.

I should be asking where the elf was. Then Daniel would drop me off
at home and life could go back to normal. Instead, I was going along
with the craziness.

"You claimed ownership, I felt your call again and waited."
Fantastic. Another mystery. Had he felt my claim while tracking?

"I am no full Speaker, please, ask what you will before my
energy fades." Plus, how could this elf claim to have any
energy? He seemed worn already with his scraggly blond hair and worn
features.

"Why do you run?" Each word hangs on the air. Felt
more than heard.

"Because they must not catch me," Comes the elf with an
answer.

"Daniel?" Want to call another name. Stop myself.
Correct it to Daniel. Can't remember other title. Not Pink Meat.

"Is that the Hunter’s name? If you are with him, Lord, be
wary. He is dangerous to your kind."

"He searches for you." I whisper. The words come
easier. Or Long Ear understands quicker. Hard to say.

"Do not tell him where I am, I beg of you, Lord." The
strange form looked plaintive, and wavered at the waist, bowing
slightly.

"Why bow?"

"Lord? You have claimed me, but I can not stay long." His
hazy form blurred. "Find me in the waking if you wish to speak
more. But I must not tarry for their Hunter."

"We hunt you now." My words terrify the ghostly
figure. Sweat pours down the brow of his kneeling self. Warm. Liquid
pools where I inspect. As if blocked by my nonexistent fingers.

It was weird to see emotions in one form and talk to another. Like
talking to someone who spoke sign language. All the emotions were in
the gestures and not in the face.

"I must run, Lord, forgive me."

Connection breaks. Two are one again. Tired shell of long ear
stands. Looks at space that I watch from. Lips move. Mutters. Things
that are blocked to my senses. Turns. Runs further west. Roots on
ground trip him. Shows his exhaustion.

I retreated back to my form. For a moment, I had that hugging
sensation as ghostly limbs folded inward. Settling in their normal
place. Slippage from tactile sensations poured in with the mental
retreat.

Man outside. Talks on small hard object. Phone. Few words
audible as they bounce down hallway. Feet pace the row of doors.
Heel, toe, heel, toe."Asset...working...soon," He said.

I had found quite a few elves and never experienced anything like
this. Nothing remotely close. Most of my history involved the
pathetic side of an elven family tree. Those that were often strung
out and coming down from a high. One talking to me? One having a
separate spirit form? Telling me that he was running from Daniel?
Hunters? This was more than a cold case. Daniel might be covering up
something huge, or he might not know. Now I had a personal stake in
this whole mess.

The elf knew what I was, and seemed to phrase it in such a way that
it was beyond a mere case of avoided vampirism. Kahina had believed
my tracker abilities came from a close call with conversion during my
childhood. The mental rewiring vampires went through could sometimes
leave other changes in its wake. Rare, but possible.

Ditching Daniel would give me room to act. I would find this elf and
square away some answers before the agent shoved him into a cell.

"Any luck, man?" The agent himself stuck a head inside.

"No. It was weird." That wasn't a lie.

"How so? Maybe I can compare it to the case files and shed some
light on it."

"This elf is different than normal ones?" I asked.

"Well, you probably deal with the ones addicted to depressive
shit." Daniel said. The few I tracked were often barely aware of
their surroundings. "But he's from a nearly dead high family,
I'm surprised he ever showed up on your radar, man."

"They do anything different?" I asked.

"Like vanish from sight in a pair of iron cuffs? I know he's one
of the few that can actually do the extras,” Daniel tapped at
his binder of papers. “They've got a name for them."

"Speakers." The elf had mentioned he wasn't a full speaker,
though.

"Yeah. Those." Daniel nodded.

"Besides that." I prompted Daniel back to the conversation.

"Don't know. They don't show up on my radar a lot either."
We were both out of our depth. Only I knew my relation to this elf,
but Daniel’s was looking more and more confusing.

"I'll keep trying. See what turns up. Checking here isn't
working."

"I didn't know you got mixed signals." Daniel was careful
in his phrasing. He knew something was up. I could tell it by his
face. The way he paused before saying his words. Did he think I was
lying? Should I be worried about this? One damned elf, one damned
conversation and I was already mistrusting. I had known Daniel for
years, hell the greater part of three decades. But I couldn’t
remember anyone talking to me like that elf. Not while tracking."This
room’s screwing me up. You know how many different people have
been in here?"

"Oh. Yeah, man. Forensics wouldn't even bother trying to get
anything from a one-night hotel like this. Not without blood or
something obvious." He dipped his head in defeat at that, then
shook it to switch tracks.

"I guess I should tell you about the reward for this case."
Daniel's comment immediately focused my attention. Reward was
attention getting, right up there with boobs, explosives, and
Julianne screaming.

"Were you not going to?" I asked.

"I was thinking of slipping you something, but I'm not chasing
charity. I'm chasing dollar signs."

"Suits get rewards?"

"Not normally, but this case is one of the rare exceptions. If I
solve it, we're talking a quarter million that goes into my paycheck.
That's a lot of incentive, man," Daniel said with a smile.

I whistled. "No wonder you're gung-ho."

"Right, and that elf was my only lead, if I could hold him, he
might know where Arnold Regious is." He handed a picture to me
showing Arnold's face, and a clean-cut version of the elf. One of
them had gone through hard times since elves normally looked younger
than a human counterpart.

"Or what's left." My first search for this human resulted
in nothing. Daniel shrugged it off.

"What's left would be fine. Anyway, man, it took awhile, but the
parents finally admitted that the two had been friends for a long
time." Daniel shook his folder of paperwork at me. All his
answers must have come from inside. "One of those blue blood
networking things. Shove the kids in the same class, they grow up and
rule the world together. Why they'd pick a dead clan heir is beyond
me."

Daniel was shaking his head and kept talking. "Quarter million,
I could do a lot with that, and I need it."

"Why’s that?" His need was going to affect my demands
for compensation. Legwork and tracking were the heavy portions of any
hunt.

"Getting married, man. Need to propose, need a ring, need to
plan. Shit’s not cheap." Daniel was counting off the items
on his fingers. "New suit. Maybe two. A real house to come home
to. The works."

"No kidding? Who's the lucky woman?" I asked.

"Boss’ daughter."

I whistled again, but this time it was in amusement. The redhead was
dating his boss’ daughter, and as far as marriage already? He
had moved on since the teen years. Next he would tell me he was going
to be a father of little ginger headed triplets.

"You don't aim low."

"No, I've got to do this. I need to complete it, and it's not
only the reward." Daniel's voice took a momentarily hard edge.

"Right, cheaper than kneepads I guess." I heard him blink
in reaction to my comment.

"Fuck you," Daniel's face turned tomato red.

"She cute?" I asked.

"Of course."

"How did she get her claws into you?" I had to know.

"Our first date was at a shooting range. Her idea." Poor
Crummy had fallen hard. The tone in his voice made it obvious. "But,
business always gets in the way, at least until we get things sorted
out."

"I hear you," That meant that it was time to get to work.
"Cut me loose and I'll call when I get a lead."

"Here." Daniel eagerly handed over a business card with his
name and phone number. It came with a few twenties for change. "I
can't spare much more without writing up a report, but I trust you to
keep me in the loop."

"Alright." Maybe I would keep him in the loop. Depending on
what this elf meant by ‘Lord’. Maybe the elf was high on
something. Delirium by forest mushrooms was a common enough addiction
for the low born.

"We find Arnold first, then we can talk about splitting the
reward, consider it a retainer for my best man."

I snickered. Like we could explain a nonentity showing up to a suits’
wedding. Much less a wedding to his boss’ daughter. Knowing the
Sector high ups, even the catering staff would have to pass a
background check.