Chapter 16: Lordship Validated

Just as with Erin so many months before, the nearly all-consuming need to rush to Whisper's rescue fed my adrenalin. The run up the emergency stairwell was nearly instantaneous. I didn't even feel the effort, almost like I flew rather than ran. The door leading to my floor burst open before I reached it. I was certain no one was waiting in the hall so I took it.

The door to our room was ajar. I didn't hear the shower or any movement inside, so I pushed it open and looked around.

A man sat at the table where Whisper's laptop was still open and presumably showing her profile in Master PC. He had been looking at it but my entrance captured his attention.

"Ah, Mr. Setton I presume," he said with a touch of jovial cheer. My anger and fear were threatening to override my reservations about what to do. He sat there watching me. His eyes were dark blue, sharp and anxious. He wore an expensive looking suit that brought out the color of his eyes. His hair, dark brown, was short and well groomed. There wasn't a lick of facial hair.

I walked past him to the bathroom. Whisper was gone.

I came back out and reached for the man but he said, "Stop!" and held up a small corked vial. He held it so close to my face that I had to back away to focus on it.

"Do you know what this is Mr. Setton?" he asked with a sneer.

In the vial was a black swirling substance. It wasn't really air or liquid. I stared at it, watched it and noticed to my shock and horror whisper's face appear and vanish within the constantly moving vapors.

"By the look on your face, I would say you do. Interesting..." the man commented.

I looked past the vial to the man. His look was contemplating.

"Who are you?" I asked.

He looked up, drawn out of his reverie. "Me? Oh, I'm not so important so long as you do what you're told."

I reached for the vial but he snatched it away.

"No, you can't have that. You wouldn't want anything to happen to your little girlfriend, now would you?"

"You didn't answer my question. Who are you?"

"Since you insist, my name is Leland Arrett, a Dragon of the Mind Magi."

"You should have taken the hint when the other Dragons failed to bring me in."

"Hint?" He raised his eyebrows and had a cocky smile. "You should have known better than to resist the Dragons. Even if one or two fail, the others will come for you. Some will be direct, while others use different tactics to make you do what is desired."

"Such as taking hostages?" I replied. Then I looked at the vial in his hand again. "And what else?"

"Yes, even more insurance." He held up the vial but kept it closer to himself. "This is your girlfriend's soul."

I took a step back. "You ... You killed her?"

"Oh no, no, no, no, no. Her body is with associates of mine. Essentially, she is in a coma. However, if anything happens to this," he waved the vial, "then she will die."

"How do I put her back?" I kept my eyes on the vial.

"Simply do what you're told and it will be taken care of for you." That brought my eyes back to Leland.

"Do what I'm told?"

He nodded.

"And what exactly is it that you want?"

"Not me. My Master. And all you have to do is stay in this hotel."

My anger burned. "Stay in this hotel," I repeated. Leland nodded. "In other words, stop doing anything to mess up whatever scheme your master's working on."

Leland's eyebrows rose. "Whatever scheme my Master is working on is none of your business. So essentially, yes, stay out of it."

With the speed of a striking rattle snake, I had Leland by the throat. "And what makes you think I can't save my girlfriend and take down your master?"

"Because without her body, she will wither and die. Now take your hand off of me!" His face was red and quickly heading for blue.

I started to let go and he relaxed believing that he had won the duel with words. It wasn't over. "Sleep!" I cried and he slumped onto the table. I snatched up the vial and held it reverently.

I picked up Leland and tossed him on the bed like a discarded coat. Sitting in the chair he had occupied, I looked closer at the vial. "Whisper ... Where are you?"

Her face appeared again. She looked sad. I could see her lips moving but no sound came from the small glass tube. I was tempted to pull out the cork but didn't because I wasn't sure what would happen if I didn't have her body with me too. Leland was probably right. I would probably need him to put her back.

I put the vial in my jacket pocket after making sure the cork was secured. Rage threatened to spill out of me. I was so tempted to do things to Leland; things doctors would never be able to undo.

Then I looked at Whisper's laptop. The screen saver had kicked in and required a password to get back to the OS. "Good girl!" I whispered.

After shutting down her computer and packing everything up, I went back to Leland. Searching his pockets, I found his cell phone. I pulled up his call list but it was empty. I checked voicemail and text messages but they too were empty.

"You know where she is. You will tell me," I mumbled as I laid a hand on his head. I sought his memories of the day, but he blocked me just as the other Dragons had done earlier. I pushed harder, determined to get what I was after. He fought me, backing away a bit and then standing to take the brunt of my assault. I was so frustrated, angry and scared I almost screamed. Suddenly there was no resistance.

I was in total blackness and it reminded me of the Void.

"You fool. Now I have you trapped. All you had to do was sit tight. Your girlfriend would have been just fine. Now you'll remain trapped here. I'll put her back together again, but you I will leave to rot!"

He sounded like he was standing next to me, but I couldn't see him. "Show yourself."

He appeared in front of me, floating in the darkness and still dressed in his fashionable suit. "The other Dragons told me what you did, what you were capable of. I knew if you forced your way in I would be able to lead you here. Now my friends will entertain your stupidity with pain unlike anything you could imagine." Other shapes moved in the darkness. I looked but never could see what was there. "I am Lord over this domain. I am what you might call a ... necromancer. A Mind Magi of the dead."

"I'd say I'm impressed, maybe even scared, but I've been here before." What I wasn't going to tell him was that without one of my girls grounding me to the real world I didn't know the way back. If this was the Void and not his twisted version of it I could be in deep trouble.

He floated away from me. "The only way you could have come here before is either with my help or if you died. I know I've never brought you here and you looked perfectly alive back in your room ... for now."

The shadows in the darkness moved closer. I allowed my anger and fear to show. My mark lit up. It had never shown light before but now it acted like a flashlight. The light spread out and I felt like I was glowing. The shadows stopped and backed away.

I heard whispers then, echoes of voices. Leland looked around as if the shadows were talking to him. Finally he looked back at me, his smile gone.

"You have been here before! They told me about you, the 'shining one'. You took a soul away."

He had to be talking about when I had saved Renée.

He looked at the shadows, pointed at me and whispered something. He repeated whatever he said but it seemed the shadows were not obeying his command. I moved toward him and the shadows moved away from me. "Lord over this domain? It looks like your lordship is over." I grabbed him. "Now you're going to tell me what I want to know."

Leland continued to look to the shadows for help. I pulled his face back around and held his jaw so he couldn't look away. "Tell me!"