The Fallen’s Crime: A Codex Blair Novella Read online

  The Fallen’s Crime

  A Codex Blair Novella

  Izzy Shows

  Contents

  1. Modern Day, Blair's House

  2. 1924, Malphas’ Mansion

  3. Modern Day, Blair’s House

  4. 1924, Riordan’s Estate

  5. 1924, Riordan’s Estate…still

  6. 1924, The Compound

  7. 1924, The Compound...still

  8. Modern Day, Blair’s House

  9. Bastian's Dream

  10. Aisling’s Dream

  11. Nuala’s Dream

  12. Modern Day, Blair’s House

  13. 1924, The Compound

  14. Modern Day, Blair’s House

  Grave Mistake

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2017 Izzy Shows

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  All rights reserved.

  * * *

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  * * *

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  * * *

  Modern Day, Blair's House

  “Tell me a story,” I said, settling into the comfortable armchair and cradling my drink with both hands. We sat in my living room, the fireplace crackled at the far wall. Thus far, Mal had been polite—likely still trying to convince me he wasn’t a complete wanker. I wanted to push him, see how much he would put up with before he called it quits. He sat across from me on the sofa, the coffee table between us littered with papers and books. There was an occasional spare inch of space where a drink could be put down.

  He looked every bit as relaxed and arrogant as always, his normally shaggy black hair combed back in a more professional style, his golden eyes gleaming at me. He wore a dark black suit over a red shirt, every inch the demon. Excuse me, Fallen.

  “What?” Mal said, an eyebrow arching up.

  “Don’t give me that look. I mean, tell me about one of the crazy things I know you’ve gotten up to. You can’t be an old fart without having some war stories, right?” I said. There was no way I would buy a Fallen not having some of the best stories on the planet, though I did have an ulterior motive: I wanted to know more about him.

  “Oh, right, of course, so now I’m an old fart.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Duh.”

  “Thank you for that, truly, I appreciate it so much.”

  “So are you going to tell me one?”

  He sighed. “What would you like to know?”

  I frowned, looking over at the fireplace while I thought.

  What would be a good one? I wondered. It must be good…

  “The Fall of the Angels?” I suggested.

  “Oh, no,” he scoffed. “I’m not getting into that. We’ll be here a full millennium and you still wouldn’t understand it.”

  “Excuse me?” I glared at him. “I’m not an idiot.”

  “No, but you also don’t have the knowledge necessary to begin to comprehend everything that went into that event.” He had a faraway look in his eyes as he spoke, likely remembering the Fall. “No, pick something else.”

  I chewed at my lip. “OK, what about…oh God, I don’t know. Have you been involved with any Fae? What are they like?”

  He waved a hand dismissively. “No, no, the politics alone will take a week.”

  “OK, well if you’re just going to shoot down all of my ideas, why don’t you pick one?” I asked.

  “Hm…” He glared at the floor, eyebrows knit together, his lips drawn into a stern line. “What indeed.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Is it really that hard?”

  His eyes lit up, lips curling into a Cheshire cat smile. “Oh, I know. I’ll tell you about the time we broke into Riordan the Dragon’s Vault.”

  I sat forward on the edge of my seat, leaning in to listen. “Really? A dragon? Wait, we?”

  “Yes, we. I didn’t do it on my own. Let’s see, who was it, Aisling was there, Bastian too. Oh, of course, Nuala. Pain in the arse. Do you want to hear it?”

  “Of course! Especially with someone who’s a pain in your arse. Get on with it.”

  He grinned, leaning back into the couch. “All right, then.”

  1924, Malphas’ Mansion

  “Why the fuck is she here?” Nuala snarled, pointing an accusatory finger at Aisling, the Wylde Fae I’d asked to join the group. Nuala was a Winter Fae, and certainly looked the part. She had icy blue eyes, silver hair with the occasional violet or blue hue to it when it caught the light, and the palest of white skin to boot. Aisling, on the other hand, was a direct contrast. Long tresses of reddish brown, skin the warm brown color of the Earth, and dark brown eyes.

  I chuckled, smirking. “Settle down, darling. It’s not a mark against you that another Fae is here. We’re all very honoured to have Winter represented.” It was impossible to miss the condescending tone in my voice.

  I was not honoured to have Nuala present. She was a poor shadow of the Fae I would have wanted there, but I’d had to settle.

  “Like hell.” She turned towards me, vibrant purple eyes flashing. “You think you can insult me like this? Danu will hear of it.”

  “Danu is already aware of it, darling. She approves. Even she agrees you can’t do it all.” I rolled my eyes, crossing to the bar cart in the corner of my study. I poured myself a drink and turned back to face the group I’d assembled.

  Two Fae and a vampire, quite the group. The vampire, Bastian, was a fledgling that didn’t know any better than to associate with demons and Fae. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, and looked every bit as young and foolish as he was. I was not above taking advantage of his ignorance, and he would likely learn from the encounter what he should have already known. It was hardly my fault his sire had not done their job properly.

  “I’m not exactly jumping with joy to be working with you, Nuala, but you don’t see me throwing a hissy fit over it,” Aisling said with a roll of her eyes. Good to see that I wasn’t the only one annoyed beyond belief with Nuala.

  “It’s not an insult to you,” Nuala hissed. “It is to me. Working with a betrayer, a woman who threw away the Court who owned her, it’s beyond the pale. I won’t do it.”

  “Oh, shut up already,” I said. “We get it. You’re very upset. You think no one thinks you’re worth anything. And you’re only mostly wrong about that. You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think you had some worth, would you?”

  She stared at me, too shocked to speak would be my bet. I shrugged.

  Demons don’t have manners, I thought everyone knew that.

  “Now, if everyone is done acting like teenage humans, can we get on with it?” I asked.

  Small murmurs of assent from the triad, that was all the answer that I got from them. I’d take it.

  I gestured for them to take a seat around the table—too large to be called a coffee table, too small to be a dining table. I fondly referred to it as the Round Table, for obvious ironic reasons. They took their seats, and I followed suit once I was sure no one was going to throw yet another hissy fit and storm off.

  “As each of you know, I have asked you here to take part in a fun little game of mine. We’re going to break into a vault, steal something of little consequence, and enjoy having pulled the wool over the eyes of a dragon,” I said. “It won’t be easy, and there’s very little
in the way of reward. You’ve each been picked because you can appreciate this for the joke that it is.”

  The Fae had not been hard to gather, most Fae were quite willing to take part in a trick for no reason other than that they enjoyed it. Perverse beings though they were, it worked for me in this instance. The vampire had been much harder to find. Bastian’s youth would normally be a strike against him—I disliked working with children—but it was a plus in this instance. His ignorance of the bad association, for one, and the fact that he still retained most of his human memories being the other. Vampires, the older they got the less they remembered, and generally the more they valued gluttony and greed above all. This mission called for neither of those things, and Bastian had appreciated this sort of thing in his human life.

  “You never said exactly what we’re doing.” Bastian spoke up for the first time thus far, his voice quiet. Likely he was intimidated by the rest of us, or perhaps he was uncomfortable in the presence of the Fae. They are unnaturally beautiful creatures, and he hadn’t been exposed to the supernatural for very long.

  “Indeed,” I said. “I was getting to that. Riordan’s vault—”

  “Riordan?” Aisling giggled. “We’re breaking into Riordan’s vault? Oh, this is going to be so much fun.”

  “Why does it matter who he is?” Bastian asked.

  “Because Riordan is a stuffy old coot who wouldn’t know a fun time if it smacked him in the face.”

  “And that is why you’re my favourite,” I said, winking at Aisling. “Yes, we’re breaking into his vault. It lies beneath his country estate, so we will need to get onto the grounds first. And I suppose I should add that it’s more of a vault within a vault. Or a vault inside of an underground, enclosed compound, depending on how you want to look at it. We should gain entry to the compound first, which is where you come into play initially, Aisling. You will teleport us to the front of the compound, once we have made it onto the grounds.”

  “How does she do that?” Bastian asked.

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Children. They have so many questions.

  “Aisling is a Wylde Fae. Her freedom from the Courts also grants her a certain…freedom of movement. A Summer or Winter Fae would be able to move, say, those of their courts. Stronger ones would perhaps be able to move others.” I cast a dark look at Nuala. “But Aisling can move all of us.”

  He nodded, frowning as he took in the information.

  “This is where you come in, Bastian. You’re going to move beyond the first door, inside the compound, and unlock it from the inside. It’ll be very simple for you, just use your mist form.”

  His eyes widened. “Oh. Right. OK, yeah, that’s me. Why can’t one of them just…hop inside?”

  I gritted my teeth. “Because the compound has a multitude of wards in place, directed at various species. You are a vampire, as I’m sure you’re at least aware of that. When you were human, you would have been part of that collection of species it’s warded against. But not as a vampire. Even through the indirect creation of another vampire, you are the result of a long ago interbreeding of Fae and Demon. You are a mixed breed. Riordan’s wards assume that the offspring of two warded creatures will also be warded, but he’s wrong. You will be able to get past it, albeit in your mist form.”

  “Wait, that’s what you’re basing this on?” Nuala asked, snorting derisively. “You’re making a lot of assumptions yourself. You have no way of knowing that’s true.”

  I glared at her. “Yes, of course, you’re right. I planned a whole mission on a whim, not knowing if I’d be able to get past the first obstacle. Thank you so much for pointing that out to me.” I shook my head. How I wished I didn’t need Nuala. “I know the wards that Riordan has used, and I know the way he thinks. It will work.”

  The three of them were quiet, staring down at the table. I waited for anyone to question me again, so that I could deal with them before I moved on.

  No one spoke. Good.

  “Now, back to work. I have obtained a slightly outdated, but mostly relevant according to my source, layout of the compound. The most direct path to the interior vault requires we go through three of the trap rooms. Each of you have a skill set that will get us through a particular room,” I said.

  “Excuse me,” Nuala said, piping up for the hundredth time. She was really starting to get on my nerves now. “But what point could she possibly serve that I don’t already?” She jerked a thumb towards Aisling.

  Aisling rolled her eyes. “Right, because Winter is the be all end all. Keep taking the tablets.”

  “Perhaps if you belonged to a Court, you would have better manners.”

  “Cut it out, already.” I huffed out a sigh. “Your room is particularly difficult, Nuala, and I want you at full strength to handle it. Perhaps if we had a different Winter Fae I wouldn’t have to worry about that, but…” I let my voice trail off with a fixed glare in her direction.

  She had the decency to flush. “You need to let that go, Malphas. She’s gone. Probably dead,” she said, her voice quiet and she didn’t make eye contact with me when she spoke.

  “Too bad it wasn’t you.” My voice was cold, and again silence descended on the group.

  Some would say I had overstepped a line, but I didn’t care. I wouldn’t get over my loss, no matter what anyone said.

  “As I was saying, you each serve a particular room. Aisling, your room is first. From what I understand, there will be something within the room that will ask you a series of riddles, and you must answer correctly for us to leave the room alive. Clearly, a Fae is the optimal choice to deal with something like that,” I said. Fae could twist you up in knots trying to have a straight conversation with one of them, and I was hoping she would do that to the creature asking the questions. Maybe we could even get past it without having to go through the whole list.

  “Next is you, Bastian. Your breeding will come into play for us here as well. This room is a sensory deprivation chamber with pressure plates spread out all over the place. We need to navigate to the other side without triggering any of them, which is all but impossible when you can’t see where you’re going. You will likely be exempt from this effect but regardless, your senses are heightened as a vampire. You will guide us safely through to the other side. Do you understand?”

  He gulped, staring at the table in front of him for a moment or two before he jerked his head up and down. “Yeah, I can do that.”

  “Good. Now, Nuala.” I looked at her again. “Like I said, this room is very difficult. Riordan is very fond of it, it’s a Nightmare room. We would all be subjected to the worst nightmare each of us is capable of imagining, with the intent to paralyze us and drain the life force out of us as we live through it. As a member of the Winter Court, you are uniquely experienced with the dark sides of the mind, capable of producing nightmares of this calibre yourself. You’re going to stop it from happening in the first place.”

  She nodded, a pensive look on her face. “I can do that. Simple in concept, but you’re right, it will take a lot out of me to accomplish it.”

  “Exactly. I hope you can appreciate my planning now,” I said.

  They all nodded.

  “Once we clear that room, we’ll only have the main door to contend with. It should function the same as the first, and Bastian you should then be able to mist past it and unlock it from the inside again. Then we retrieve our prize and get out. Simple. Does anyone have any questions?”

  Bastian raised a shaky hand.

  “Yes?”

  “What if Nuala is right, and I can’t get through the doors?”

  “Then I’ll incinerate them. But, trust me, you’ll get through the doors.”

  “And you have no reason to think there won’t be other challenges? No guards or anyone between the rooms?” Nuala asked.

  “Are you saying you wouldn’t be able to handle a pesky guard or two?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow up at her.

  Again, her cheeks he
ated with blood. “That’s not what I meant,” she mumbled.

  “Good. Glad we cleared that up.” I rolled my eyes.

  “Oh, I have a question,” Aisling said, voice sugary sweet. “How are we planning on celebrating?”

  I grinned. “I’m sure we can come up with something in the heat of the moment.” I winked at her again, “Wouldn’t you agree?” I directed the question at Bastian this time.

  His face turned bright red. “I, uh, I…I um,” he stuttered.

  “Oh, you’re embarrassing the poor boy,” Aisling said, giggling.

  “Certainly not my intention,” I said. “I didn’t mean anything untoward. Simply that I could easily imagine us coming up with a mutually satisfying celebration, of course.”

  The boy’s face maintained its red colour and he stared steadfastly down at the table, mumbling something incoherent.

  “Are you quite done?” Nuala snapped. “Or do I need to watch you making fools of yourselves for much longer?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Poor Nuala, are you upset I didn’t include you?”

  “I couldn’t possibly be.” Her tone was as icy as her skin.

  “Fine,” I said. “Yes, that’s all that we needed to go over. If everyone is satisfied with the plan, you may all go home. We will meet at the gates of his estate at dawn.”

  Murmurs of assent from the group, and Nuala and Bastian stood to leave. Aisling remained seated, and I raised an eyebrow at her.

  “I thought I’d stay for a drink, if that’s all right.” She grinned, flicking her eyes over me.

  “Absolutely,” I purred.

  The other two exited without another word, and I stood with an outstretched hand for Aisling.

  Modern Day, Blair’s House

  “Ugh, is that really necessary?” I asked, shaking my head at Mal.