Blood Ties

Blood Ties

## Blurb

**Most families can be a pain. Some can be deadly.**

Alastair Stone has successfully finished the first of the three tasks he’s oath-bound to complete for his powerful dragon ancestor. To his shock and surprise, the second turns out to be something he already wants to do: kill an old enemy who shouldn’t even be alive.

The only problems are, Stone has no idea how to find his target, and the deadline he’s been given makes success by no means certain.

Complicating matters, a new ally has a consulting job for him: figure out why somebody in the Changeling community is kidnapping young and seemingly unconnected children all over California.

Stone will need to rely on all his friends to deal with these challenges—especially when both take unexpected, deadly, and decidedly personal turns.

When family is involved, none of the usual rules apply.

And the penalty for failure is unthinkable.

## Plot

Aldwyn summons Stone for his next task: Kill James Brathwaite. Alastair has no particular qualms, given what the necromancer has done to him and his found family, but he’s surprised Aldwyn doesn’t want to take the mage out himself. Brathwaite’s been in the wind for over three years, though, so Stone asks to involve his friends. Aldwyn reluctantly agrees.

Stone calls Ian and Verity together to enlist their help. He excludes Jason and Amber; they have kids to care for. He tells Ian he hopes Gabriel will help, as well, those he’s not sure how much he will. Verity, of course, wants Brathwaite dead for what he did to Sharra. Ian says he doesn’t consider it murder, since the man died over two hundred years ago. Gabriel agrees to meet with Stone, but he says he will only get involved if Stone exhausts all other avenues to find Brathwaite himself, first.

## Quotes and One-liners

“Maybe you have a portrait moldering in some attic, Stone, but I’m not as young as I used to be."Gerry Hook

Stone consults with Eddie and Ward at Caventhorne, thinking perhaps they might be able to identify members of Ordo Pupuratus they can use to locate Brathwaite. But something Eddie says triggers an idea. Stone proposes they let it be known a new volume has been acquired at Caventhorne, one a necromancer would be interested in. He has many books in Desmond’s secret library he can use as bait. If they say it once belonged to Burgess Crowther, Brathwaite’s rival, he’d certainly be interested. He’d send someone else for it, but then they can use whoever that is to track down Brathwaite.

At a gig for the Cardinal Sin, Agent Huxley appears with a problem she hopes Stone will help with. Someone is kidnapping children in the SoCal area, and a group of Changelings know as Freakshow are suspect. One of their members was seen on security footage from one of the kids’ homes. Stone agrees, with the caveat that he has another, more urgent, mission that takes precedence. He meets with Gina to get the ball rolling. She is acquainted with Freakshow, but not involved with them. They’re a fringe group she thinks takes Changeling rights things too far. But when Stone tells her about the missing children, she says even Freakshow wouldn’t go that far, though she will do the research and put out feelers.

Huxley sends Stone the video of the Changeling, Squeak, caught on camera. When they talk, he tells her he suspects the kids are also Changelings, though that still doesn’t explain why they’re being kidnapped. He asks to bring his friends in to help and Huxley agrees, as long as she doesn’t have to pay them.

Stone and Gina get together with Jason and Amber so he can fill them in on the kidnappings. They want to help, of course, especially since Jaden is in the demographic of the kids being taken. Stone suspects there is some new, charismatic leader among Freakshow. Gina looks guilty and says she’ll look into it, but she won’t name names until she’s sure it might be them. Meanwhile, Stone checks the wards to ensure Alice and Jaden are safe.

Gina and Jason gather more information on the children, finding that one is a Changeling and another very likely to be. Gina also says she’s contacted the leader of Freakshow, and he’s willing to talk, but just to her and Stone, and only remotely. It will take time to set up.

Eddie comes through with news: one of the Ordo mages wants to examine the book they set up as bait. They’ve given him an appointment the next afternoon. Stone contacts Ian and Verity, who are eager to join in. The next day, they set up in a room with surveillance on the room the man, Vogel, will be using. Eventually, Vogel pauses in his examination and texts an “HMB”, theoretically Herr Meister Brathwaite. He says the book is worth pursuing, but Brathwaite tells him to return and they’ll talk. Before he leaves, Eddie distracts Vogel while an invisible Ian slips an electronic tracker Stone obtained into his bag.

Stone, Ian and Verity track Vogel through a portal to Berlin, where he gets into a car. They follow in a cab, ending at a rundown residential house. They learn nothing from outside, so break in and search the place. The tracker is still saying the man is there. Verity finds a trap door to a basement. They blast their way in to find Vogel dead on the floor, but Verity says something’s not right. Nothing is left in Vogel’s bag except the tracker. Verity suddenly yells for them to run, but zombies are already coming out of illusory hiding. A battle ensues, with Ian taking a severe head blow, and the place set on fire. Still, they escape the house to a nearby rooftop where Verity heals Ian. The fire was started by someone throwing Molotov cocktails through the windows, and a separate firebomb in the cellar. It had been a setup. Their only remaining lead is thr tracker itself, which Stone gives to Eddie to have checked for fingerprints. They come back as belonging to Miriam Padgett: James Brathwaite.

Gina and Stone have a video conference with the Changeling leader and tell him about the kidnappings. They show him the footage of ‘Squeak’, and he tells them it’s not him. If the timestamp is correct, the real Squeak was with him at a party at that time. He’s not happy someone appears to be framing freaks for the kidnappings. Because it was a Hollywood B-list party, Gina suggests searching social media for photos or videos showing Squeak was there.

Eddie reports that a local terror group in the Berlin area took credit for the firebombing of the house. They’d been hired anonymously and paid cash. Out of leads, Stone tells Ian it’s time to ask Gabriel if he can help. Gina confirms that Squeak was at the party and, further, she’s found him. He’s at a place in West Hollywood just then, hanging with friends. Stone pops to the restaurant in disguise, and locates Squeak at a table. Luckily, Squeak heads for the men’s room.

Before Stone can talk to him, a group of ‘pretty’ Changelings enter and begin muscling Squeak around. Stone intervenes, immobilizing the bullies, then sends them off with a warning. He and Squeak go outside to speak privately, and he shows the ratman the video. Squeak says someone sure has his movements down, but he has no idea who would frame him, or why. He would never hurt kids, especially Changeling kids.

Stone briefs Huxley, suggesting she might have resources better equipped to search social media for anyone with a grudge against Squeak. She tells him another kid’s been taken. Feeling the pressure, Stone can’t sleep. He’s worried what Aldwyn will do if he can’t meet the dragon’s deadline. He pops to Surrey house and calls out for Aldwyn, who answers with the usual ‘return home’ phone call. At the dragon’s meeting place, he asks what Aldwyn will do if he fails. Aldwyn says it’s against his own interests to kill Stone, but there are other options. Alastair takes this as a threat to his family. Before he leaves, the dragon tells him it’s also in his (Stone’s) interest to find Brathwaite quickly before the necromancer can complete things he has in motion.

Stone remembers that Verity often works with Bron Broome, and knows her matriarch, a powerful mage called Nana. He asks her to see if they can speak with Nana about Brathwaite. Verity texts Bron and get the answer – they need to get moving; Nana will see them in a couple of hours. They take a portal direct Nana’s compound in Upstate NY. There, Stone lays out all he knows about Brathwaite and the need to find him, leaving out who gave him the task and the tight timeframe. Nana says she can’t help directly for - reasons. But she’ll at least try to locate him. As the meeting concludes and they’re about to leave, Stone asks Nan if she knows Kolinsky. She smiles and says yes, she’s known Stefan for a very long time, emphasis on ‘long’.

Gina has new information for Stone. Two of Squeak’s former girlfriends could have implicated him in the kidnappings. One is probably just a regular angry ex, but the other is Charlotte who, verging on supermodel status, suddenly disappeared from public view three years prior, then resurfaced but didn’t resume modeling. Derik, interrupting, reveals that Charlotte didn’t have the publicized drug problem, but Changed, into a warty, toad-like creature. She couldn’t handle the transition and had a breakdown. Stone decides it’s worth talking to her. Unfortunately, she’s disappeared – around the same time the kidnappings started.

A meeting with Squeak confirms Charlotte’s breakdown; she’d told him about it when they were dating. But when Stone suggests she might be connected with the kidnappings, Squeaks says no way. He says Charlotte loved kids and would never hurt them. His girlfriend, Quinn, looks like she might have a different opinion, but waves Stone off when he asks.

Nothing happens for a bit, and Stone finds himself worrying about the future, and his family, most of whom will age and die far sooner than he will – if he even can. He wonders if there are other immortals aside from him and Harrison. A phone call breaks his maundering – Charlotte’s sister, Holly. She says she’s worried about Charlotte. When they meet, she explains that Charlotte had become a pretty unpleasant person when she became gorgeous after puberty. When she Changed, Holly Changed as well, into a lovely fox creature. It was too much for the model. When she finally came to terms with her Change, Charlotte became involved with the more radical elements of Freakshow. Holly has a hunch Charlotte has been behind the kidnappings.

While others search for Charlotte, Ian says Brathwaite has turned up in Vienna. Stone rushes to him and they go to the bar where Brathwaite was seen in time to see him get in a car. They follow, with help from a magical tracking tag, to a parking garage where the woman morphs into someone else altogether. Still speaking in Brathwaite's voice, the woman says she has a message for Stone. She drops an envelope on the ground and backs away a bit. Alastair retrieves the message, which only says he’ll never catch Brathwaite, but might thank him someday. Then the car the woman is standing next to explodes. Stone is blown back, but both he and Ian are mostly unscathed; the bomb was mostly meant to destroy the zombie.

Gina finds a possible connection between Charlotte and one of the kidnapped kids. She’d been recorded by a blogger at a party and, as the interview ended, Charlotte can be seen reacting to the waves of a little boy who’s with his parents. The boy seems to recognize her. He’s one of the kidnapped kids, and the one confirmed Changeling, taken shortly after the party. The question still remains, why.

The ‘why’ comes from Quinn, who gets in tough with Stone to tell him a conversation she’d forgotten. Another friend had been with Charlotte when they saw a Changeling child with his normal parents. Charlotte says how badly she feels for him. She says Changeling kids should be with other Changelings who understand them. It seems Charlotte thinks she’s helping, and probably had no trouble enlisting help from the fringe who might share her opinion.

Next, Stone receives a call from an anonymous woman in the UK who says she knows where Brathwaite is. But she’s scared, and will only tell Stone in person, in a public place if he likes, but not over the phone. In the midst, Stone lets a call to Amber go to voicemail, but she immediately texts – Jaden’s been kidnapped. He convinces the woman to wait to hear from him; he has an emergency.

At Jason and Amber’s home, Stone learns the boy was taken while they were outside the house – and the wards. The nanny has a memory gap of ten minutes, and Amber says she seemed ‘out of it’ when she arrived. Amber scented two kidnappers, but lost them when they got into a car. Verity is on her way, but Jason is in LA, trying to get a flight back. Amber gives Stone some of her blood to do a ritual to track Jaden. He sets up in an absent neighbor’s garage, and Verity arrives in time to help with the ritual.

The result of the ritual is clear that Jaden is alive, and they get an area, but it winked out so they have no tendril to follow. Just then Charlotte herself calls. She tells her associates have Jaden and Stone is to meet her in Hollywood in an hour, and she knows he has fast ways to get there. Verity immediately wants to go, but wouldn’t be able to get there in time, since he can’t take her on the ley lines.

Stone convinces Verity to go meet the woman in the UK. He contacts the woman and explains about the kidnapping. She’s sympathetic and agrees to meet with Verity instead. Stone instructs Verity to get Ian to help, and to inform Amber about Jaden.

Stone pops to Hollywood, rents a car, and heads to the place he met Squeak, where he gets the next call from Charlotte. She directs him to a warehouse not far away. There, Charlotte – a truly grotesque toadlike Changeling – makes her case for Stone to stop investigating the kidnappings. The children, also ugly, will never thrive with parents who can’t even see what they see in the mirror. They won’t be told they’re okay as they are, and loved despite any appearances. She want through it with her change and understands – they need to be with their kind. She’ll return Jaden if Stone agrees to leave her to it. Otherwise they’ll raise Jaden themselves. Alastair says that won’t happen. Jaden’s mother - not exactly human – will literally tear their heads off.

Holly suddenly appears (Stone had called her earlier), and appeals to Charlotte to stop. She’s always loved Charlotte, when she was young and ordinary, when she was beautiful and mean, and still loves her now, no matter. What. But she has to stop; the parents love their children, and the kids love them back. Breaking that bond isn’t right. Meanwhile, Amber texts to say she has Jaden safe – Stone had called her to give his location earlier, too, so she could sniff out her son.

Alastair suggests getting Gina and other Changelings involved to help the parents understand their kids, perhaps institute Changeling counselors, but first Charlotte has to call her associates and tell them to release the kids to Huxley, who he’s about to call with the info. Stone has just finished a call to Jason to make sure he knew Jaden was safe when Ian texts him. Verity is missing.

On the phone he says Verity went missing from their meeting place. He’s at the London hose and has done a tracking ritual, but someone is warding her. He has a call in to Gabriel to do another, since he’s stronger. Once Stone pops to London, Ian fills in more detail. They met in a park. The woman had to use the restroom and Verity went with her to keep her from bolting. Neither ever returned. The woman had seemed on the level, and genuinely scared. He shows Stone a photo, and she looks vaguely familiar, but he can’t recall from where. Ian says Verity may have had the same reaction.

Gabriel arrives, but says he can’t help them find Verity beyond trying another ritual. Ian is angry at that, but Gabriel says he has his reasons. Stone has a thought and contacts Hezzie. She has some of Verity’s blood on hand they can use to find her. He pops to the shop to get it, then back. During the ritual, Gabriel struggles. Even he can’t pinpoint her closer than an area encompassing the UK and part of eastern Europe. Someone powerful is concealing her. Stone explodes in frustration, saying Gabriel is so powerful, why can't he find her, he’s a bloody *dragon*…

In the next few minutes Stone and Gabriel try to stave off Ian’s questions and focus back on Verity. Ian learns that, yes, Gabriel is a dragon; no, he can’t turn into a big lizard, at least not on Earth; yes, there are others; and, yes, Stone knew and didn’t tell him. They promise Ian will have better answers, but later. Alastair has a thought and calls Jason, who has arrived back in San Jose. Meanwhile, Gabriel heads to Berlin to take up the chase from there.

Jason has tracking on his phone and Verity’s so they can locate each other. Her phone pings in northern England, a place called Windermere. Stunned, Stone hangs up on Jason, which he knows he’ll pay for later. Ian is asking what’s wrong, what’s in Windermere. Stone says, “Your great-grandmother.”

Once more, Ian has a million questions, and Stone gives him a brief thumbnail sketch of his and Verity’s previous encounter with Nessa Lennox (Necessary Sacrifices). He’s about to pop away to Windermere, but Ian insists he go along. Stone explains he can’t; he can’t travel the ley lines and Stone can’t take anyone with him, but… He texts and persuades a reluctant Gabriel to return and take Ian along the ley lines to Windermere.

They arrive on a dark road, Gabriel leaving immediately, and search for the hidden entrance to Nessa’s compound. Once through, they creep through the woods, Stone answering Ian’s questions as best he can but trying to maintain focus on finding the compound itself. He says they’re close and should be quiet now, when a voice orders them to stop.

Cloaked and hooded women escort them to a clearing with an artifact designed to prevent eavesdropping. Stone recognizes one of the women, one of Nessa’s acolytes, Lila. Verity reveals herself, as well. The women had released her from where Brathwaite ordered her held. They’ve become concerned about Nessa recently, especially since she was heard discussing necromancy with a strange woman. Necromancy is anathema to druids. Before Acantha was killed, Nessa and her group had developed a way to collect and preserve an echo, or soul. Now, with Brathwaite’s help, she planned to put Acantha’s soul in a new body.

Verity hadn’t been the target, Meara, their contact was, for betraying them. She would serve as Acantha’s new host. But they took both women because Brathwaite wanted Verity for his own purposes. Lila says the ritual to put Acantha in Meara’s body is underway and they have to hurry. The women disguise the trio with cloaks like theirs, including brooches that will allow them to pass the wards, then leads them to the entrance Stone recalls from the past. Lila says they’ll wait and keep watch, she doesn’t want to actively fight against Nessa, who she hopes is not in her right mind, not willingly participating in necromancy.

Brathwaite is there with three of his zombies, alongside a platform with Meara on it, as well as a now-broken and empty vessel. Nessa is looking on, as are her women. Meara/Acantha wakes as Stone and company unleash their magic at Brathwaite. Brathwaite screams that Nessa let Verity get away, she was to be his. He sends his zombies forward, himself well-shielded by his own and the women’s power. He announces he’ll take all three, and Nessa yells that wasn’t the deal. Brathwaite threatens to kill Acantha if she interferes.

Nessa’s women try to get Acantha to safety. But Brathwaite redirects one of his zombies to block their escape.

Ian is injured in the melee with the other two zombies while Stone and Verity try to get to Brathwaite, who has conjured illusory copies of himself to confuse them. Alastair calls to Nessa, saying Ian is her great-grandson; will she let Brathwaite kill her own blood? Nessa blasts the Brathwaites with power until one of them glows, and Stone and Verity hurl spear-like candle holders at him with all their magical might. One goes through his heart, the other his head. Nessa screams to kill Brathwaite’s echo. Stone spots it with magical sight and surrounds it with a shield, squeezing it smaller until it finally winks out, dead.

In the aftermath, Verity and the druids heal Ian. Stone harangues Nessa for allying with Brathwaite. She’d been willing to sacrifice one of her own people, and hadn’t even considered what the mage planned for Verity. Nor had she even realized – or bothered to – that the woman she’d allied with was actually a 200-years-dead necromancer. Acantha, though, says they got what they wanted; she’s alive again. Stone warns Nessa never to interfere with him or his friends again. They leave, taking Brathwaite’s body with them.

At the Surrey house, Ian leaves to find Gabriel. Verity returns home to reassure Jason, though she warns Stone is going to have to deal with him after shutting him out of Verity’s rescue. When Aldwyn arrives to retrieve Brathwaite’s body, Stone comes to the realization that Aldwyn was actually trying to help, in his way, to have Stone stop Brathwaite before he could resurrect Acantha. He asks if Nessa is a scion. Aldwyn says she’s not, but he’ll let Stone figure out what else she might be. Acantha is not a scion, as a female in a male-passing line. Aldwyn leaves, promising to be in touch when he has Stone’s final assignment.