Hunter

Chapter 17

        The mission had cut me from all my personal problems. As strange as it may seem, this zombie hunt had done me some good.

"Well you took your time!"

The remark coming from Henri abruptly brought me back to reality. Gaspard took upon himself to answer before teasing Bob while I was going to give the once-for-all-dead zombies to Jacques who was seated at his desk and talked with another colleague in charge of dissections and cleaning. They were the ones who would have to bury the corpses again.

"What's next for you now?" he asked me getting to his feet.

"Locating the wizard. Well, we hope."

He nodded, presented his hand. I took it and shook it. He wished us good luck. I answered with a nod and him and his partner left the room.

I went back to my colleagues and motioned to them to go into the meeting room before heading to the living room where I had left my son few hours earlier.

When I entered, Sophie was seated at a small round table, some tarot cards in front of her. When she heard me come in, she rose her head and smiled at me. I smiled back and then turned to Arthur and Agate who were both asleep on the couch where I had left the eldest before leaving.

"They're adorable." Sophie said standing right behind me.

I had not heard her coming and held back a jump.

"Thank you for taking care of them. I was really caught off guard."

"You're welcome. It took some time for the little one to accept to go to sleep."

I smiled.

"She is like a pure energy."

She agreed, nodding before adding : "Arthur woke up not too long ago, when I was cleaning his wound. He first looked at me in silence... Then we talked a bit. He is a nice boy. You raised him well."

"That was mostly his mother."

I thought about Susanne before pushing away her memory. It was true she would have been proud of him.

Silence settled between us. Sophie kept on looking at Arthur, her eyes filled with tenderness.

"I wish I could have children of my own some day." She whispered suddenly.

"You still have time."

I laid my hand on her shoulder. "You can go home if you want to. Thanks again for looking after them."

She looked at me with a smile before leaving the room with light steps. Yet, I thought there was some kind of sadness in her smile.

         I had ordered to make the room pitch dark before lighting three candles. Bob and Henri had managed to bring a piece of flesh too, which meant the attempt to locate the warlock was possible. In front of me was a copper basin filled with scalding hot water. I added the two pieces of flesh cut into slivers. Then I dropped a handful of coarse salt and three feathers: one of crow, one of hawk and one of owl. When the last feather fell into the basin a greyish smoke started to swirl up from the mixture. I added the last element – the eye of a toad – and right away the water turned brown. I recited: invenire tenebris, invenire tenebris...

I repeated the words relentlessly and added a piece of parchment in the basin. Piece on which the place where to find the wizard was meant to draw itself. I repeated the spell again and again before Henri's eager and Gaspard's half-enthralled eyes, when suddenly an explosion coming from the copper pan threw us - me, my magic book, and my colleagues - backwards in a thunderous "boom". I crashed into the wall while Gaspard flew over a table, Bob fell on his rear and Henri ended up seated in a chair. Of all people, he was the one ending up seated...

As I slipped to the floor, a Machiavellian laugh rose in the room, and suddenly, before us, the ghost-like figure of a man appeared. Translucent, it floated into the air. The smoke from the explosion prevented us from seeing him clearly but we could make out dark hair and a straight nose. When his laugh stopped, he spoke and his words resounded in a deafening echo.

"Nice try!" he began with a mocking smile. "However it won't be enough to find me..."

He was observing his nails, indifferent to my eyes locked on him. I was the only one who could see him from up front, but I could have sworn he coud see us all. Suddenly, he rose his eyes and locked them on me. They were cold, colder than ice and overflowing with a boundless cruelty.

"But you see, the problem is... I am looking for something. If you keep hindering my research, I won't hesitate to harm you... or worse."

All traces of amusement had deserted his tone. He rose two fingers before bringing them violently down towards me. A wave of power came out of them and came to me, crushing my chest.  My breath cut short and I felt my eyes roll and a warm liquid coming out of my ears.

The magician disappeared in a whirlwind of smoke.

"Gustave!"

The last thing I saw was Bob rushing to my side. Then, I sank.