Debts - 16. Chapter 16

- XVI -

Julian was pleasantly surprised when he managed to get out of the office at his usual time – 7:30, instead of much later as he thought he would. The entire thing didn’t take much time at all – just several papers to scan and sign, a couple of interviews, and creating a few new files in the database. He got back home just a little before eight, noting that the lights in the bedroom were on, threw his keys on the small table by the front door, and went into the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and headed towards the bedroom while contemplating yet another scenario in his head. He knew that he was sexually obsessed, to say mildly, and he was enormously relieved to realize that Raven’s appetite was as insatiable as his own – the smaller man would initiate at least half of all their encounters.

He walked into the bedroom and slightly frowned, seeing that it was empty. He cocked his head slightly to the right, listening to the sounds of shower running, and frowned deeper when there were none. He walked out of the bedroom, listening intently. The house was quiet; it was obvious to the blond that he was the only one in here. His first thought was that Raven decided to run to the store, but then he remembered that other cars were still in the garage, and he frowned even deeper. He stood there for several seconds, thinking, and then took his phone out of his pocket, and dialed Raven’s number.

The phone let out a long, bored ‘beep...!’ and Julian blinked when suddenly, he heard muffled ringing from the bedroom. He went back there without turning off his phone, and looked around. Finally, he saw the small silver gadget half-buried under the blanket. He walked towards the bed and picked up the phone. He didn’t even need to look at the caller I.D. that said ‘THE Blond,’ with capitalized ‘the’ (that usually made him smile); he knew Raven’s phone as well as he knew his own.

Julian slowly shut his phone, and stared at the silver gadget in his hand. Raven never left the house without his phone – the blond knew that. The man would grab it even if he had to step outside to grab the mail. Julian thoughtfully stared at the silver device for several minutes, and then suddenly, he swore through his clenched teeth, whirled around, and stormed out of the bedroom. Soon enough, he was driving down the dark road, ignoring speed limits.

...He brought the car to a screeching halt less than two hours later in front of a big dark house, got outside, slammed the door shut, and headed towards the house. He didn’t even bother ringing the doorbell – he simply reached for the nearest magic stream and blew the door off its hinges. He stormed inside, his fury blinding-white by now, and made his way upstairs into a big bedroom. He kicked the door open and switched on the lights.

“Wha...” the startled redhead started saying when Julian yanked the blanket off the bed.

“Where is he?” he growled, ignoring a naked twin next to the redhead. “Where is he?!”

“W-who...?” Celeste stuttered, reaching for her robe with shaking hands.

“If you don’t tell me where he is...” Julian grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her out of bed.

“Uncle, don’t...!” Olivier lunged at him, but the blond merely moved his wrist, and the young man flew across the bedroom, slamming into the wall hard.

Celeste’s eyes became even wider when she saw that. She hastily wrapped her robe around herself, glancing at her unconscious brother who lay on the floor in a lifeless, naked heap.

“Where is he?” Julian repeated in a quiet voice, and that quietness made Celeste’s teeth to start clanking.

“W-who...?” she whispered, unable to look away from blond’s eyes that were almost white with fury. “Uncle, I have no idea what you talking about, I swear...!”

“Raven,” Julian said through his clenched teeth. “You never gave up on that idiotic idea of yours, did you? Now tell me where he is...! For your sake, I hope that he is unharmed, because if he is not, then all the Air in the bloody world is not going to help you...”

“R-Raven...?” Celeste stuttered again. “Uncle, I swear, I don’t... Oh, God, please don’t...!” she screamed when the blond was about to close his eyes. She was perfectly aware that he was about to unleash that spell on her; she also knew that right now, he would hit her with the highest voltage that he possibly could reach. “Uncle, I swear to you, I have no idea where he is...! I swear...!”

Julian looked at her with narrowed eyes for several excruciatingly long seconds, and then he took a deep breath and let go of her shoulder. Celeste was so relieved, she almost started sobbing.

“Where is the mirror?” Julian asked in the same quiet voice. “And the medallion for that matter?”

“The...” Celeste coughed, hating her trembling voice. “The office...”

“Give them to me,” the blond demanded, and Celeste nodded rapidly and walked towards the bedroom door, throwing another desperate glance at unconscious Olivier.

Julian followed her to the office and waited impatiently when she turned on the lights and started digging in one of the drawers with trembling hands. She dug in that drawer for probably five minutes, her movements becoming jerkier and more desperate with each second, and finally, she looked at Julian with wild panic in her eyes. Julian knew what she was going to say before she even opened her mouth.

“Th-they are g-gone...” she stuttered, and the blond lost it. He hit her with the spell without even closing his eyes this time, his fury making the level of pain jump up to an enormous degree. He stood there, breathing fast, watching redhead’s rigid form and very dark by now eyes, and when he saw a small trickle of blood running from her nose down to her chin, he finally drew a shaky breath and took off the spell.

Celeste let out a single, wailing scream and fell onto her knees, shaking wildly.

“You kept two magical artifacts, one of which just happened to be attuned to both of us, in the goddamn drawer?” Julian said in a low voice. “Without even bothering to lock the door?”

“U...Un...Un...” Celeste tried saying, digging her fingers into the carpet. “I... I...”

“When was the last time you saw them?” Julian demanded. “Speak, goddammit! Otherwise, I will use the spell on you again, and this time, I will leave you here for hours!”

She shook even harder when she heard that. She raised her head and made an enormous effort to say something. To her relief, she was able to squeeze out the words.

“L-last... Thur-Thursday...” she muttered, and Julian felt another wave of fury threatening to burst through. He gritted his teeth and dug his fingernails into his palms. Last Thursday, he thought. Almost a week ago.

“Uncle, I...” the redhead whispered, tears crawling down her cheeks, fear and echoes of pain making her eyes darker than ever.

Julian turned around and left the office without saying anything else. He got into his car and started driving back home while pulling his phone out of his pocket. He made several very frantic calls, barking his demands into the phone without taking his eyes off the dark road. When he got back home, it was ten minutes after midnight, and the blond marched into his office and turned on his computer. He was looking for information on the dark-green rock for the rest of the night. He found nothing.

...Next morning, he was downing yet another cup of coffee without looking away from the computer screen, when there was very careful knocking on the door.

“Yes!” he called loudly without turning around.

The door opened just a little, and someone said in a soft, cautious voice:

“Master Salamander... I must speak with you...”

The blond finally glanced at the door. It was a young woman talking to him, her expression wary, as if she expected him to lash out any second. Julian immediately remembered that she was one of the maids.

“What is it, Amelda?” he asked shortly, and her eyes became wide, as if she couldn’t believe that he remembered (or even knew, for that matter) her name. “Make it quick,” Julian continued. “I don’t have time.”

She blinked and cleared her throat.

“May I come in, master?” she asked after nervously glancing around. “I would rather shut the door...”

Julian sighed and pushed his chair slightly away from the desk, stretching his arms.

“Come in,” he said as shortly as before.

Young woman almost tiptoed inside and carefully shut the door. She stood there for a minute or so, composing herself it seemed, her hands nervously clutching onto her skirt. Finally, she took a quick breath and looked at the blond.

“What is it about, Amelda?” Julian asked impatiently, and she blinked.

“It’s Tobias, master...” she said finally, and Julian frowned.

“What about him?” he asked.

“I...” she coughed. “I overheard him speaking on the phone two days ago,” she said quickly. “I didn’t think twice about it until today... He said...” She looked uncomfortable and scared now. “I am going to quote him, master...” she looked at the blond with a silent question, and after he nodded curtly, she continued:

“He said, ‘That son of a bitch is not going to come back until later on Wednesday, we should do it then. I will make sure I have enough dirty water, since I am not taking any chances’...” She took another quick breath. “That was all he said, master... I don’t know what ‘dirty water’ means, and I almost forgot about it until today... With master Delamorte missing and all...”

The blond interrogated every single staff member earlier this morning; therefore, it didn’t surprise him that Amelda knew about Raven’s disappearance. He stared at her without blinking. He knew what ‘dirty water’ meant. It was one of the nicknames for a certain drug that was quite powerful and extremely quick working. If Raven was injected with that, he would be out for at least seven hours. The blond felt cold.

“Did he say anything else?” he asked calmly, and the woman shook her head.

“No, master,” she said. “He only said ‘yes’ and ‘no’ after that...”

“Thank you, Amelda...” the blond said thoughtfully. “You may leave now...”

She nodded quickly and turned around.

“Amelda!” the blond said sharply, and she froze. “Do not let him know that you are aware of the conversation...!”

“I won’t, master,” she glanced at him above her shoulder. “He scares me...” she added in a softer voice.

“Take today off,” Julian said shortly. “Tomorrow as well,” he added, and her eyes became confused and scared again. “Don’t worry,” the blond nodded when he saw her expression. “You will get paid.”

She blinked very rapidly, and then nodded as quickly as before.

“Thank you, master,” she muttered and left the office.

Julian sat in the chair for several minutes, absent-mindedly tapping his fingers on the desktop. Finally, he got up and left the office, heading towards the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, ignoring a wary look from the cook, and went into the living room. The butler was standing by the couch, his back rigid, and he was watching one of the maids cleaning the carpet, his expression very serious.

“Tobias,” Julian said, and the butler turned around.

“Come into my office, please,” the blond said evenly. “There is something I need to discuss with you.”

“Yes, master Salamander,” the butler bowed his head and threw another glance at the maid. “I will be right there.”

“Now,” Julian said quietly, and Tobias’ back became even more rigid. He looked at the blond with a trapped expression in his eyes, then slowly nodded, and walked towards the office. Julian followed him closely, ignoring a puzzled look from the maid.

They walked into the office, and Julian locked the door.

“What is it, master?” Tobias was trying his best not to look scared, it seemed. It worked, but only partially.

“Where is Raven?” the blond asked quietly without wasting any time on useless questions. Butler’s eyes went wide. “Now,” Julian continued. “Before you waste my time with your poor acting skills, I am going to warn you that I will hurt you regardless of your answer...”

Tobias’ face started to become very pale.

“However,” the blond looked at him without blinking. “If you will tell me the truth, I am not going to introduce you to certain levels of pain, and believe me, it would be a much lesser evil for you,” he nodded, and Tobias swallowed hard.

“Master Salamander,” the butler said in a shaky voice. “I don’t know what... Aaah...!”

“You were saying...?” Julian pulled the needle from underneath man’s fingernail, holding onto his wrist with lazy firmness.

Tobias was shaking as if he had a hell of a fever, tears streaming down his face. That goddamn needle came out of nowhere. He was about to say ‘I don’t know what you talking about,’ thinking that maybe, just maybe he would be able to convince the blond, when all of a sudden, Salamander was holding his wrist in the iron grip, and there was that fucking needle sliding deeply underneath the fingernail of his thumb. Tobias never even got a chance to see where the hell that needle came from, let alone jerk away. The pain was as close to excruciating as he could imagine. He never got hurt before; he wouldn’t even get into fights when he was younger. Hell, he never even had a sprained wrist! The biggest amount of pain he ever experienced was not-that-severe toothache a long time ago. He had a very bad suspicion that whatever the blond had coming for him, would make this needle feel like a lover’s kiss.

“Speak,” Julian said almost gently, and the needle moved towards man’s fingers again.

“No...!” he screamed out with sheer horror. “Oh, God, please don’t...!”

“Speak,” Julian repeated, and the grip around Tobias’ wrist tightened significantly.

“I don’t know...!” the man sobbed. “I swear, I don’t know...! She took him, and I don’t know where she went...! She said she would call me... I swear, I don’t know where...H-huuuh...!” he howled at yet another finger exploding with sharp, hot pain.

“She,” the blond nodded casually, as if they were discussing the latest issue of some magazine. “Who is ‘she’?”

“Magdalena!!” the butler shrieked. “Magdalena...!”

“Magdalena...” Julian frowned for a second, and then squeezed his eyes shut and swore in a low voice through his clenched teeth. “Magda... Goddammit! What does she need him for?”

“The spell...!” Tobias shrieked again. “The spell that grants you great powers...!”

Julian immediately knew that he was talking about the same spell the twins were trying to perform a couple of weeks earlier.

“He is attuned to the mirror...” the butler sobbed. “She needs him because he is attuned to the mirror...!”

“So am I,” the blond nodded, putting the needle away to Tobias’ very wary relief. If he is not going to use the needle, then what is he going to do now...?

“She has a plan,” he started saying in rapid stutter. “She is going to pump him full of her blood, and she is positive that it will override yours... Then the mirror is going to accept her...”

“How does the rock fit into the picture?” Julian pulled one of man’s fingers backwards without any visible effort, and Tobias choked on his own scream when he heard a sickening, dry ‘Snap!’ and then there was another explosion of pain – this one was worse than the one inflicted by the needle.

“It...” he sobbed, seeing nothing but the curtain of his own tears. “...completes the set of artifacts... Without it... Oh, God... Without it, there is only fifty-fifty chance of success... With the rock, the success is definite...! Please, don’t hurt me again, please...!”

“I didn’t hurt you yet,” the blond said in a pleasant voice. “You’ll see,” he nodded without releasing Tobias’ wrist. “What else besides the attuning does she need him for?”

The butler shook so badly that he managed to bite his own tongue.

“Th... the spell itself...” he stuttered. “She figured that since she couldn’t get the rock, then she would use him as a safety net... In case if the spell goes wrong...” he gulped air in a desperate, panicky gasp when he felt blond’s hand slide towards his groin. Somehow, he didn’t believe that Salamander was going to jerk him off. “If it goes wrong, then it will destroy him, and not her...”

This time, he couldn’t even scream. The only sound he was able to produce was a high-pitched wheezing. Blond’s fingers got hold of one of his testicles, and squeezed it in the most unkind manner; in fact, ‘squeezed’ wasn’t the correct word. The correct word would be ‘crushed.’ Everything around him blazed with a sparkling black-and-red surge, filling his ears with silent, nauseating whispering. The blond twisted the unfortunate private part, crushing it even harder, and pain decided to be merciful to Tobias, making him to lose consciousness.

Julian let out a short, irritated sigh, and let go of the butler’s limp form. The man collapsed onto the floor, and Julian reached for the magic streams. He methodically browsed through them until he found the right one. He reached for it almost lovingly and wrapped it around the butler’s unconscious body. Less than a minute later, the man gasped for air, and his eyes flew wide open.

“Welcome back,” Julian nodded and let go of the stream. The minute he did that, the pain was back in full bloom. “Now,” Julian said in the same casual tone of voice. “Tell me what were you doing here two weeks ago? That one night, remember...?” He smiled without baring his teeth. “Of course, you do,” he nodded again.

Tobias tried speaking, but the only word he was able to produce was ‘I.’ Julian sighed again.

“Try your best to speak, will you?” he said in a low voice without a smile this time. “Because if you won’t be able to...” he didn’t finish his sentence, and Tobias started to shake even worse, unaware of the fact that his bladder finally let go.

“I... Had to... put a... microphone in... your... bedroom...” he managed in short, gasping efforts.

“I see,” the blond said thoughtfully. “Only the bedroom?”

Tobias couldn’t say anything else – he just nodded with wild desperation.

“Where is it?” The nod seemed to be good enough for Julian.

“Cu... cu... Curtain rod...!” the butler managed finally.

“I see,” the blond nodded again and stepped over Tobias’ shaking body, heading towards the door of the office. He glanced at the man. “Something tells me that Magdalena is not going to call you,” he said with a twist of the mouth that didn’t even resemble a smile. “Therefore, goodbye, Tobias.”

With that, he closed his eyes very briefly – it almost looked like a long, slow blink – and walked out of the office, locking the door behind him, leaving the butler alone with the pain. He knew that if he left the spell up and running at that voltage for too long, it would eventually kill the man, and that was what he planned.

He was walking towards the front door of the house, not quite sure what he was about to do, when his phone rang. He took it out of his pocket and glanced at the caller I.D. Then he quickly pushed the ‘Talk’ button and pressed the phone against his ear.

“Alessandro...!” he said sharply. “Anything...?”

The man on the other end of the line sighed deeply, and Julian knew the answer to that question immediately.

“Julian, I’m sorry,” Alessandro said quietly. “He is not in the city.”

Julian didn’t even bother with ‘Are you sure?’; he knew that Alessandro would find a mouse if it was hiding somewhere in the city. He closed his eyes and stopped in the middle of the hallway.

“What do you want me to do now?” Alessandro asked, and Julian opened his eyes, his teeth locked so hard that his jaw was aching.

“Get me the best wizard you can find,” he said quietly, and closed his eyes once again. “Wait!” he said sharply after several seconds. “Cancel that; never mind the wizard... Get me the best damn Locator you can find... If he is anywhere near the city, that should be enough...”

“Got it,” Alessandro said shortly and hung up the phone.

Julian slowly dropped his phone into his pocket, took a deep breath, and went into the living room. The maid, who almost finished vacuuming the carpet, looked at him with badly hidden worry.

“Is everything all right, master Salamander...?” she asked in a shaky voice.

“No,” Julian answered shortly. “Get Anthony!”

“Yes, master,” the maid quickly nodded and turned off the vacuum cleaner. In less than a minute, she was gone.

Julian stood still, his fingers tapping desperate rhythm on the wall, his gaze locked on some unseen crack in the uncarpeted floor of the hallway, when he heard:

“Yes, master.”

He looked up.

“Anthony,” he said in a quiet, lifeless voice, looking at a rather tall (even though he wasn’t as tall as Julian) man, who was built like your typical head-basher. “There is something in my office I need you to dispose of,” he handed the man his office key. “When you are done, let one of the maids know to clean up the mess.”

“Yes, master,” Anthony gave him a quick nod and took the key.

“Give it two hours,” Julian said, nodding at the key and knowing that by that time, Tobias would be at least ten minutes dead.

“Yes, master,” Anthony gave him another quick nod.

Julian walked away without saying anything else, his hands clenched into tight fists.

So my computer has finally decided to off itself -- gave me a rebel yell "Banzai!!" (BSOD, whatever) & plunged into an infinite loop of Startup Repair. I should still be able to post stuff but might not be able to respond/post comments. I am sorry!!!