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Chapter -36- End of the Line

Saturday, June 24, 1893 Washington D.C. ...

Reno kicked in the door. The electrical transference of energy caused the doors to blast apart. Nails shot from the hinges, and the doorframe splintered, creating small fires around the frame, which fizzled out.

Justus Loupe followed Reno into an empty warehouse.

"How come people like this always use abandoned warehouses?"

"Would you host illicit operations out of your home?" Justus approached a chair at the center of the empty room. There were ropes around the chair legs and pieces of twine on the floor adjacent to the chair. Justus knelt besides the cut roping and looked carefully at the knots. "Our victim is a man with blond hair."

Reno smirked. "Yeah? How do you figure, Sherlock?"

"There are short fair-colored strands of hair in the knot of these bindings. They tied his ankles to the chair legs. They tied his hands behind the chair. He obviously has enough arm hair, when they knotted the twine, some became pulled clean from the victim's forearm." Justus stood up and turned to Reno. "Feel free to examine the evidence yourself, if you wish to conduct your own investigation."

Reno shook his head. "So who is the victim and why did the hunters keep him alive?"

Justus examined the chair, finding bits of dried blood against the backrest, where the victim's hands were tied. "Suppose these men feel that their hostage still has information to offer."

"So why move him? Maybe they left to dispose of the body."

"Perhaps they were alerted to our presence? There is also the possibility that they acted on their information immediately. We cannot jump to conclusions yet."

Reno opened his hands and created an arc of electricity between them. "Okay, look, do you think this was the survivor?"

Justus stood up and turned away from the chair. "Of all the people murdered yesterday, only one was missing from the group."

"Yeah, the bloody footsteps that stomp and the ones that caused heel dragging marks, then they suddenly stop. Like I said, the guy was probably picked up and thrown over someone's shoulder." Reno frowned. "Although I admit, I thought it was a woman, because it's a pain in the ass to pick up a man and shoulder them."

"Also, you thought they took a female victim because they left all male bodies at the site of the attack yesterday. You thought they might have spared a woman, but I found wrist hairs in the knots of twine. As you can see, neither of us are perfect in our investigation abilities - at least not without proper evidence. We should continue to work together."

"Two heads are better than one, huh? Okay, so ... did they kill the victim and leave to dispose of the body?"

"Perhaps. Jumping to conclusions will not help anyone."

Reno paced, trying to think. "Hey." He ran his hands back through his hair. "I know I'm really reaching, here, but ... that guy in Chicago - the one killing people with the hotel...?"

"Yes?"

"I'm really making a leap, here. But ... just ... hear me out."

"Proceed, Nathan."

"The hunters won't stop this guy from killing people, right? They won't clean up their mess."

"Correct. What is your point?"

"Didn't you say this guy made a place capable of killing people in all sorts of fucked up ways?" Reno turned back towards Justus, pacing the floor. "I mean ... vats of acid? Furnaces for burning bodies? Lime pits? What if he is the connection?"

"You're right ... you're leaping. Why grasp at such? Does Chicago truly upset you so much that you wish to connect dots that do not exist?"

Reno scoffed and shook his head. "No, man - look at the facts."

"Then present them as you see them, Nathan."

"If you were a hunter and you were killing people, how would you dispose of the bodies to keep the evidence contained?"

"Fire."

"Fire attracts attention. Now, you've got a crackpot ex-hunter out there who is making a mess. But he's not making a big enough mess to attract police yet. So ... why not use him? That's why the hunters tolerate this Mudgett guy - he's their undertaker. They ship people to this guy in the middle of the night so there are no witnesses. What kind of business operates twenty-four hours a day?"

"A hotel."

Reno snapped his fingers and pointed at Justus. "See? You're seeing my point. I know you are."

"How do you propose..." Justus trailed off. "Let's return to the scene of the attack yesterday. We left the victims undisturbed. If the bodies are still there, we could determine how they clean up after themselves."

"Let's go."

Justus walked out of the warehouse.

Reno followed him out. "Close your eyes."

Justus arched his brows instead.

"Close'em. Now. Unless you want to be blinded."

Justus grimaced and closed his eyes.

Reno paused, seeing a pretty blonde girl dart around the corner of the warehouse. "Kerii?"

Justus sighed. "Nathan, you sent her to New York with your friend. She's hundreds of miles away."

"Right. Sorry, I just saw..."

"It does not matter. Please, commence this ... form of teleportation."

Reno smirked. He placed a palm on Justus' shoulder blade. A bolt of lightning connected the ground to the sky. They disappeared in a flash.

Seconds later, they appeared at the murder scene, a fairly large house, built for servants, behind a mansion on Rockville Pike in Bethesda.

In the distance was another mansion. Reno looked around. "Okay, making sure I didn't take us to Cedarcroft again, like yesterday."

Justus smoothed the fabric dunes of his suit. "Both properties are rather beautiful." He looked back at the mansion, then forward to the servant quarters, nestled beneath trees in the back yard, behind the mansion. "Extravagant living arrangements ... this is the first mansion in Darcy's Store."

"Darcy's what? Who is Darcy?"

"It's what Bethesda was once called when I lived in Rockville, several decades ago." Justus approached the large house behind the mansion. He opened the front door but the bodies that littered the foyer yesterday were all missing.

Reno waved to Justus from the yard. "There are thin tracks - wagon, man. Look, horse hooves. The ground was wet, probably from dew or something. It left impressions of horse hooves and wheels from a cart. The bodies were hauled out of here."

Justus grimaced. "I do not want you to be correct about the man in Chicago. It would mean the efficiency of the hunters who kill ... and the inability to provide evidence in many cases ... I am rue to fathom such."

Reno sighed. "Okay, so now what, boss?"

Justus stared at the floor for a moment, thinking of options.

"Well, it looks like those morons were being cliché. They returned to the scene of the crime. Too bad it was last night. I'd have loved to kick their asses."

"They may have cleaned up the evidence," said Justus. "However, they left us tracks. Let us see what else they have left for us to find." Justus headed back into the house through the front entrance.

Reno followed.

The home was dark inside. Painted metal shutters were drawn and latched.

Reno approached one of the windows and tried to open the shutters. "This is bullshit. They're nailed at the hinges. They won't open." He stepped back from the window and cringed. "They coated the windows in something."

Justus approached the window in the foyer and sniffed at the air. "Clever. They've coated the shutters and windows in flammable liquids. Presumably so you cannot teleport in while they were stripping the house of evidence - cleaning the blood off the floors, etcetera."

Reno held his left hand out and created a low power energy glow. "Maybe they thought we'd use torches to search for clues and wanted us to blow ourselves up, or they plan to burn the house down to cover up the evidence."

"Then why not burn the house down first? Why spend so much time cleaning it?" Justus followed Reno through the dark house.

Pillars of light cut through the darkness from the thin gaps between shutters in several rooms. It was just enough to illuminate the dust particles floating through the air.

Nevada paused, using his hand to illuminate a door. He opened it but it was a simple closet for coats. "It's a beautiful, clean house. It doesn't seem all that old."

"No. This land is the first mansion built in this area. The Myrell vampire clan moved to Washington DC in the late 1700s. This home was built in 1884 as a place for the vampire family to live until the completion of the mansion in 1889."

Reno shrugged. "Neat."

Further down the hall, they found a staircase and ascended to the second floor. The upstairs was empty.

They returned to the first floor where they found direct access to a storm shelter.

Reno led the way down the stairs, lighting the staircase.

To the right was a hallway. A thin pillar of light cut through the darkness up ahead.

Justus squinted. "It's the original way into the cellar. Storm doors; the summer heat causes the frame to expand, letting light through this time of year."

"You can really see that far down a dark hall?"

"My eyes are designed to allow sight in the shadows and gloom, Nathan."

"I noticed we're back to being on a first name basis again, heh." Reno grinned in the dark, but the glow of his hand illuminated his jaw and the underside of his nose. "Seeing in the dark is pretty cool."

"Mm." Justus paused. He tilted his head. "I smell body odor."

"You think these ghoul-types huddled down here the night they were attacked?"

"I smell a person." Justus' voice lowered. "Someone else is here."

Reno narrowed his gaze. "Alright." He continued up the hall. There was a metal plate over a wall. Nevada knocked his knuckles against it. "It's warm." He touched his fingers against the wall across from the metal panel. "It's cool to the touch. But the metal plate is warmer."

Justus placed his fingers against the panel. "They feel similar in temperature."

Reno put his palm against the metal panel again. "There's electricity going through this."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I can feel it. There is a low current going through this metal panel."

Justus sniffed at the air again. He moved closer to the metal panel and sniffed. "The scent of body odor is coming from this panel. Rather, it's coming from behind it."

Reno frowned. "What if there's someone against the metal, holding the panel shut?"

"Would not the electricity you feel in the panel bring harm to them?"

"No. I think they're the source of it."

"I fail to understand."

"People generate electricity," said Reno. "I think someone is holding this thing shut. Let's get it open." Reno placed his palm flush against the metal panel. "Be ready. It will be just enough to stun..." He tensed up.

Electricity fed into the metal panel from Reno's palm. All at once, the panel fell back. Behind it, a man spilled to the ground.

Justus and Reno exchanged a glance with one another. They turned to the man hiding in a small room with a metal panel on the ground adjacent to him.

He looked up at them and grimaced.

"Oh my..." Justus frowned. "This was not a turn of events I could have anticipated."

No one replied.

Justus stepped into the small room, standing on the metal panel. He offered his hand to the man. "On your feet, Petru."

The man stood up and rubbed his hands together as if scrubbing them in a non-existent sink. "Mr. Loupe?"

Justus turned to Reno and said, "This is Petru Vykos. He is one of the most important people in the Esoteric Community. He is also the last of his kind."

Reno looked the man over. He cut his gaze back to Justus. "How so?"

Justus peered out into the hallway to make sure it was clear. "The man who crafted your wedding band by hand..."

Reno's thoughts turned to Evan Balmoral's ancestor. "What about him?"

Justus gestured for Petru to follow him into the hallway. He turned back to Reno. "A handful of Romanian family members learned how to do it with flesh and bone."

Reno blinked. "What?"

"I'm the last," said Petru. "My wife and I greatly appreciate being rescued. What happened to the servants?"

Justus sighed. "They were brutally killed. How long have the two of you been here?"

Reno looked around but didn't see the man's wife.

Petru said, "Three days. We had very little food, and only one another for company." He gestured with his hand to the empty doorframe. "Antanasia. She rarely speaks; when she does, it is in the old tongue, so I will have to translate."

Justus saw Reno's eyes wonder to the empty air. He reached over and gave Reno's elbow a firm squeeze, and then nodded firmly with an expectant gaze.

Reno licked his lips. He nodded to the empty air, respectfully, and turned back to Petru. It wasn't his first time talking to someone who was a little ... out there.

His thoughts turned to Dr. Cybil J. Powalski.

"As Karla would say, we're all a few chicken McNuggets short of a happy meal in our own way. Let's move." In truth, Reno thought it was weird as hell for a man to have his non-existent wife at his side.

"You take point, you have the light." Justus fell to the back of the trio.

Reno stopped in the intersecting hallway before the stairs. He glanced down the dark hall towards the storm cellar entrance. The pillar of light between the two doors flickered, causing the thin shaft of light to shift.

Reno held his hands up and closed his fist. "Shh." He held a finger aloft, signaling for everyone to wait. He went down the hall to the two storm doors and peered through the gap.

There were people outside. Reno couldn't make out what they were saying to one another, because they were speaking softly.

Reno came back through the hall. "There are a group of people out there. We should make sure the path is clear first."

Justus nodded. "What do you suggest?"

Reno motioned to the stairwell. "Mr. Vykos, I'm Nathanial Carrington. I'm going to do my best to get everyone out of here safely. But there are people outside, and they weren't there when we arrived. So I want you to wait in the stairwell, okay? Stay in the stairwell, don't come out of it."

Petru nodded. "You speak strangely, Mr. Carrington. You, however, have my undying gratitude. Antanasia also speaks her appreciation. She understands many words, but she cannot speak English in a way you could understand, due to a speech impediment. That is why she prefers the old tongue."

Reno took a deep breath and nodded. "Right on, pal." He gave Justus a side-long nod. "Take point. If someone is up there, you'll see them. I'm gonna refrain from using my light until we know what we're dealing with."

Justus started up the stairs first. Reno guided Petru halfway up the steps. "Incidentally, where did you use the bathroom?"

"I only locked myself in when I heard your footfalls upon the staircase earlier. We will wait here, Mr. Carrington. Thank you. I promise we will both remain silent."

"Great." Reno followed Justus upstairs. "You do that."

At the top of the steps, a thin miasma of smoke filled the air.

Reno sniffed and frowned. "Please tell me that's not what I think it is."

Justus guided Reno away from the top of the steps, so that their conversation would be private. "Do you understand how important that man is?"

"The skin and bone thing? It's a little weird."

Justus sighed. "Think, Nathanial. Especially in the modern age, where your image can be captured to print, how important would that man be to those of us who no longer age?"

Reno stroked the scruff of his short facial hair. "Okay, so, let's say I don't age and I don't want anyone to recognize that fact ... this guy is ... what? He makes people look old, and then later on he makes them look young again? He reinvents people when it's time to change their name or something?"

"That is just one of his many talents. Need to fake your death? Done. Need to assume the identity of your enemy to watch for spies amongst your ranks? It's all possible. With changes to the throat, he can change a person's voice. He is an artisan."

"And the invisible wife thing?"

"She died. He crafted her into a vision of undeniable beauty. She was the definition of perfection. She was poisoned by a jealous woman. However, Antanasia may exist."

"What, you mean like a ghost?"

"Thomas Edison's wife passed away. He wanted to capture her ghost. To placate Petru, we used the same equipment. There were positive readings; however such technology is, at best, unreliable. Most placate him out of respect."

Reno sniffed at the air again. "Okay. So, you just slink out of here as a shadow and I'll take the flashier way. Which one of us should take Petru?"

Justus approached one of the shuttered windows and peered through a thin gap. "There is a circle of flames surrounding the house. I would not be able to cross it."

"So I'll zap us all out of here."

Justus turned from the metallic shutters. "The flammable liquid on these metal covers ... it was a trap all along. We walked into an ambush."

"What?"

"What happens if you strike these metal shutters, covered in lantern oil, Nathanial? It will ignite. This metal is likely ferrous, and will do well to trap you as a bolt of energy. I burn, you set the house ablaze, and Petru dies. Then the hunters will have an advantage against the immortals."

"Oh. Well, that's some bullshit right there."

"You and that word..." Justus brushed his pinky finger over the shutter and sniffed his fingertip. "I confess ... it was clever to try and use you to ignite the house and burn evidence of their involvement."

Reno went back to the front entrance. The front door was still open just how they'd left it. True to Justus' words, a circle of fire wrapped around the house.

Beyond the flames, Reno saw the man whose hotel room was across from the one he stayed in with Kerii. The bald twenty-something gentleman leered at Nevada. Their eyes met.

Reno looked up into the sky. He smirked. "You morons know I could get out from right here, right?"

"Can you?" called the man from across the flames. He picked his crossbow up, pointed an arrow at Reno, and smirked. "Well? Show us your power then."

"Arrow huh?"

The man didn't speak. He pulled the trigger. The arrow flew through the flames and struck the doorframe adjacent to Reno.

The oil-soaked arrowhead, ignited by passing through the fire, struck a wet residue of lantern oil and gunpowder around the doorframe. It ignited.

Before Reno's mind could confirm that he wasn't the target, the doorframe lit up, followed by a loud noise.

Reno felt dazed and disoriented. He rubbed his face and sat up on the hallway floor, several feet from a burning doorway. Supports in the wall collapsed, likely from being prepared as part of the trap.

"Fuck," Nevada muttered. He felt hands beneath his arms. At first, Reno was startled and struggled in confusion.

"Stop!" Justus ordered. "Calm down!"

Reno clenched his eyes shut and blinked several times. "I'm an idiot. I should have seen it coming."

"Nathanial, shrewd tactics and careful planning - that is how they have remained a threat for almost eight hundred years. They think you are either very brave, or very gullible. Neither attribute will favor your chances for survival."

Reno jerked away from Justus and got to his feet. He stumbled, still dizzy and half-deafened. "Ringing in my ears..."

"We do not have much time."

"What?"

"Time," Justus repeated. "I found a stick of dynamite on the stairwell to the second floor. I found another in the kitchen. I'm not sure if I missed it the first time through, or if they added them when we went to the cellar."

"So let's throw them outside. Throw'em into the fire. Let's use them."

Justus sighed. "You wish to hunt them all like Easter Eggs? Eventually the fire will spread to the house and set them off. We only needs must miss one. Regardless, it is a clever trap - it would be a time consuming endeavor. Forget the dynamite. Consider a route of escape before the heat and flames closes in and sets them off."

"You guys have egg hunts? That's already a thing here?"

Justus arched his brows and shook his head. "Yes, since Martin Luther invented them in the 1500s. Please, focus. Fire is where I draw the line. If you want to survive, we must find you a way to rescue Petru."

Reno smirked. "You'll live through this."

"It's likely that I will not."

Reno rolled his eyes. "You live, Justus. Also, you don't change your name and you don't change your face, trust me" I know an oracle. Anyhow, let's figure this out."

Justus took a deep breath. "I wish to hold my temper, however, your attitude and personality are quickly becoming a source of my vexation."

Reno held his hand outwards. "Slow down, man. First of all, they don't know what I can do."

"They covered the windows with lantern oil; it's obvious they know the extent of your latent abilities!"

"No, they're guarding the windows and doors with goddamn arrows, Justus. They shoot it through, ignite something on the front of the arrow, and try to attack us each time we try to leave. We're giving them more credit than they deserve - they don't know my power, Justus."

"Can you not even pronounce my name right?"

Reno shrugged. He thought back to the fact that the man always went by the name 'justice' in the future. "You'll grow to like it." Reno walked to the staircase leading to the second floor. "How big of a boom do you suppose a blast of dynamite would cause?"

"Enough to cause the house to collapse upon us should one detonate."

"Dynamite blows out fire. We can use'em."

"They explode."

"Yeah," Reno said. "That's how you stop an oil well from burning. I thought that was common knowledge? You create an explosion, it gets rid of the oxygen and blows the flames out." Reno gave Justus a firm pat on the shoulder. "You said they're shrewd? Fine. We'll just be more shrewder. More ... resourceful. You know what I mean - don't correct me."

"With all due respect, instead of speaking of your plan, just ... commence with it?"

"Look, I'll save you - relax. I'm already saving the world anyway, apparently. C'mon." Reno went to the top of the staircase leading to the cellar. "Hey, Petru - that was your name right? Follow me, we're going up to the second floor."

They trio made their way to the second floor.

Reno took one of the sticks of dynamite. "I'm going to use this to blast open the outside doors to the storm cellar."

"What? Why?!"

"It causes confusion," Reno said. "They won't expect it to blow up. They'll also deem it too dangerous to invade. We're on the defensive right now. We can't blow a hole in the roof to escape, because it might make the house collapse. It might set off other dynamite sticks you said are hidden around. Well, the storm doors are on the _outside_of the foundation wall. The house won't collapse. Then we'll take the flashy express route out of here."

Petru asked, "What is our reasoning to abscond to the secondary level?"

"You want to be anywhere near a stick of dynamite when it goes off? Maybe you'd rather be deaf or worse?"

"Do not condescend to him in that way," said Justus.

Petru turned to Reno and offered his hand.

Reno looked at the man's hand for a moment. After a short time, he reached forward and took the man's grasp. They shook. "What was that for?"

"The community of esoteric persons prefer to handle me with kid gloves. Soft lamb skin disgusts me; the way I am showered with their idea of tact is, in itself, condescending. Mr. Carrington, your personality is a refreshing change."

Reno turned his head to Justus and smirked. "Soft lamb skin, huh? Is that where the term 'kid gloves' comes from?" He kept his words directed towards Petru, but offered the knowing smirk towards Justus. "Get your butts upstairs. When you hear the explosion, come downstairs, and we'll take the express way out." Reno tilted his head, adding, "Keep him safe. But treat him like he's a man."

Petru grinned at Reno and turned to Justus. "Shall we?" He gestured his hand forwards. "After you, my dear." He used his free hand to stop Justus, "After Antanasia."

Reno grimaced. "Why don't you have her go last?"

Petru tilted his head. "Excuse me?"

"You never send a woman into a dangerous place first. You're the man, you take point."

"I ... quite right." Petru nodded. "To protect her. Very wise, sir." Petru nodded to Justus, adding, "If you please, then."

Justus took to the steps first.

Petru turned to Reno again and, in a softer tone, added, "I know you cannot see her. However, I can. Her name ... it means 'she who will be born again.' I assure you, she will in time. I'm not crazy."

Reno shrugged. "You like me being honest? I don't know what to think. I really don't care, to be honest. So she's a ghost, and she can't be harmed? Fine by me. Whether she's alive or not, you don't send a woman first. In other words, just because she can open a pickle jar doesn't mean you let her do it ... you open it for her out of courtesy because you love her."

"She no longer needs to open..."

Reno interrupted the man. "It doesn't matter if she's real or a figment of your imagination - man up, pal." Reno nodded towards the stairs, adding, "Now move."

Petru smiled. "Again, refreshing." He made his way up the stairs, adding, "Yes, my love. I agree that he is..." Petru's wording changed to a language that Reno couldn't understand.

Nevada smirked. "Hooray for crazy people," he whispered. He picked up the dynamite stick that was sitting on a decorative half-table against the wall across from the staircase.

He carried it downstairs to the cellar and grimaced.

Nothing went according to plan.

The cellar storm doors were open and four hunters came into the long dark hallway with torches and crossbows. They had weapons designed for close quarters at the ready.

One of them spotted Reno. He tossed his torch to the floor, withdrew a dagger and hurled it up the hallway.

Reno tensed up as if by instinct. The air electrified outward around him. The electric field distorted the world around him.

The hallway walls cracked. Dust on the floor levitated with static. The dagger was repelled as if it had been struck by a powerful force.

Reno hurled the dynamite stick towards the storm cellar doors. It struck one of the steps and bounced. He expected an explosion, but nothing happened.

The hunters dove away from it, and seemed perplexed when nothing happened.

"God dammit," Reno muttered. He held his hand towards the stairwell and a bolt of hot current gushed from his palm. It struck the stairs. He moved his hand somewhat, bringing the current arc over to the dynamite stick, at the end of the hall.

It exploded, sending one of the hunters flying back towards the ring of fire in the yard.

One of the hunters hit the hallway ceiling and dropped to the floor, motionless.

The other hunter stumbled forward. He picked up his dagger and went to dive at Reno but he was off balance from a lack of equilibrium and from his ears still ringing.

Reno took the stunned man by his wrist, forcing him to drop the dagger. Nevada brought his knee up into the man's gut and caused him to drop to the hallway floor with a low groan.

"You guys must really want that dude if you're willing to kill a bunch of people to flush him out, huh?"

The hunter looked up at Reno, dazed. His eyes were dark, unable to be seen in the lighting. He got to his feet and stumbled again.

"Shake it off." Reno slapped him twice in the face. Not hard enough to hurt him, but just enough to insult him and help his adrenaline spike up. "I have questions and you've got answers. Shake it off. C'mon, now."

The man stepped back and collected his wits. "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm just a guy stuck in the middle of this bullshit. Who are you?"

"Why are you protecting Petru Vykos? Why would you protect any of the vampires from this nest?"

Reno shook his head with a sigh. "I have questions, you have answers. You either answer my questions, or you're useless to me."

"Who are you? What's your name?"

Reno reached up to smack him again. The hunter brought his hand up and grasped Reno's forearm. Reno used standard police defensive training from his time period. He snatched the man's forearm and flipped him around, so that the hunter was pressed against the wall with his wrist behind his back.

Reno kicked the hunter's feet out from beneath him and guided him to the floor, pinning the man's arms in a way that kept him from moving. "Stop squirming, you'll hurt yourself."

"Get off of me! Who are you?!"

"I told you I'm asking the questions, dickhead." Reno glanced back towards the doors at the end of the hall. No one came down the steps. He looked back up towards the staircase that led into the heart of the house.

Silence.

Reno looked back down at the subdued hunter. "How many of you guys are there?"

"What?"

"How many?!" Reno exclaimed. He clenched the man's wrists, forcing his forearm upward, until the man's fingers were touching against his shoulder blades.

The hunter called out in pain. He began panting through his teeth.

"How many?" Reno asked calmly.

"More than fifteen of us. I was one of the first on scene, so I don't know who else arrived!"

"Okay, and how much dynamite did you idiots hide around this house?" Reno looked back towards the storm cellar opening. The doors were completely missing, and the framing around the end of the hallway was crooked. He looked back down at the hunter and said, "You want to be down here when this hallway collapses? The loadbearing supports are messed up."

"We could be buried?!"

Reno leaned forward, adding pressure on the man's forearm, behind his back. "How much dynamite did you hide around the house?"

"Everything in the case! Maybe a dozen sticks. We're trying to stop the shadow man from escaping! The dynamite will blow out the fire once the house catches. We did not know about_you_!"

"Yeah, obviously. Clever, using lantern oil on the shutters. You want to ignite them like you did the front door, huh?"

The hunter struggled against the feeling of having both of his arms pinned behind his back, and a knee pinning down the backside of his knees. "You're off your trolley. You want an anointing? Those men out there are waiting. It's your funeral."

"I handled three of you, didn't I?"

"You got me bellows to mend, but I ain't keen on dying, mister."

"God, are you serious? Did you just go Wild West on me? Where're you from?"

"I been tryin' not to talk like I did back home. Nevada, born 'n raised. You can gimmie a bunch'a fives until I'm two blinkers and bloody. You can throw'a crab at me. You got me whole-mourning, but I'm not takin' no earth bath yet."

Reno shook his head and sighed. "Jesus Christ, are you serious? Are you seriously...? I can't even."

"And you say I talk strange-like?"

"Where are your folks from, jackass?"

"Carson City and Kansas City."

"Okay, okay, if I let you go, are you going to stir up shit?"

"Mister... I've got four outs, and I'm as poor as Job's turkey, but I'm good at one damn thing. If you let me go, I ain't all that good at it, now am I? I got a monkey with a long tail and you come in here like it's one o'clock."

Reno grimaced. "God, I hit you so hard you became a cliché western. Get your act together. If you don't chill out, I'm going to whip all your asses before I go."

"You think I talk weird? You barely make a lick of sense. But I'm gonna pocket your ego, if you really might let me go."

Reno looked up.

Petru and Justus came around the corner. "We all heard the blast," said Petru. "I thought you would be dead."

"Who is your friend?" asked Justus.

"This is Hunter Number Three," said Reno. "One and two are back by the steps." He leaned down and said, "And do you know my name?"

"Mean Maverick; got the devil in you, no two ways about it. My bell's still ringing."

Reno scoffed. "I hit this jackass while he was dazed, now he went from talking normal, to talking like some wannabe cowboy."

"You little sodomite, you might as well kill me else I'll gut you like a dog."

"Sodomite?" Reno lifted his gaze to Justus.

"He called you a homosexual."

Reno arched his brows. "I'm married, you dumb hick."

"Well, I'll make sure we come after your strumpet too."

Reno looked up again.

Justus sighed. "He called Kerii a prostitute."

Reno took a deep breath. "Alright... we're not getting anywhere with this guy..."

Petru turned to Justus. "Help me with the body by the stairs."

Justus looked at Petru for a moment, then he walked up the hall and picked up the man that was dead on the floor. He dragged the body down to the hunter beneath Reno's grasp.

Petru crafted the dead man's flesh until his face appeared to resemble Justus' own facial features. It didn't take long to make them identical.

"Sweet Mother Mary," said the hunter beneath Reno.

Justus smirked. He nodded to the man under Reno's grasp. "Will you make him to resemble yourself or Nathanial?"

"Myself," said Petru. He sniffed at the air. "By the way, Mister Nathanial, the upstairs is on fire."

"He's right; it is why we came down here. It was only a matter of time," Justus said with a sigh. He lifted his gaze to Reno. "The fire from around the front door has spread along the ceiling of the first floor."

Reno rolled his eyes. "Great. Did it catch any windows yet?"

"Drapes in one window caused the shutters to ignite." Jules frowned. "Can we escape?"

"Yeah. We'll have to go through the storm cellar. Look, this guy ... I'm not killing him; it isn't self-defense at this point."

Justus sighed. He reached down and touched his hand upon the hunter's head. The hunter's body became limp in Reno's arms.

"What the hell did you do?"

"I wrapped a tangible shadow around his heart and stopped it." Justus tilted his head, watching Reno's expression. "You thought our spar in Switzerland was an accurate portrayal of my abilities? Mr. Carrington, you will never know the full scope of my abilities."

"Jesus."

"I gave him far more than he deserved - a humane end."

"What the hell is a monkey with a long tail?"

Justus scrunched his brows. "He said such? It is a euphemism for a mortgage. Why do you ask?"

"He was complaining about poverty."

Petru stood up over the hunter and rubbed his palms together. "We are ready to leave."

The stairwell glowed, casting the dim hallway in soft orange illumination.

Reno looked down at the dead hunter. He released the man's wrists and stood up. The hunter's face resembled that of Petru's own facial features.

Reno shook his head. "So now they'll think these dead hunters are ... us. Great. So, when the fire roasts them so that all that's left is their dental records..."

"You wish me to change their teeth to be more like your own?" asked Petru. "It would take time, but anything is possible. However, it would take more time than is apparent to our schedule."

Reno eyed the encroaching flames. He stood up, stretched, popped his back, and gestured for the group to follow him towards the stairs at the far end of the hall.

He checked the stairwell and cleared his throat. "Okay, everyone come close together." Reno glanced back at the two dark splotches back down the dark hall.

Fire and smoke crept across the ceiling. It headed into the intersection, creeping towards the group, drawn to the oxygen.

Reno held his hand up. "Wait here." He went back towards the two bodies. He knelt besides the one he'd spent the last few minutes questioning. He unbuttoned the man's shirt and jerked up on it, so that it covered his face.

Once it appeared the man would have been trying to cover his face from smoke, Reno made his way back towards the storm cellar exit. "Anyone who knows how to do an autopsy will see he didn't breathe in any smoke."

Justus smirked. "No, his heart gave out from fear. Rather a shame, considering it was such a healthy heart." He placed his hand on Petru's shoulder. "Shall we?"

Reno nodded. He moved closer to the storm cellar entrance and peered outside. The hunters were spread out around the grounds.

One of them stood just on the other side of the entrance. The man held a Winchester rifle, pointed in Reno's face. "Not so fast, kid. Hand over the Romanian freak."

Reno stared down the barrel of the rifle. He licked his lips. "Just calm down..."

A gunshot rang out from an upstairs window of the nearby mansion. The gunshot struck the hunter square in his back, throwing him to the ground near the concrete stairs.

Reno looked up to see where the gunshot came from and saw a blonde woman from the upstairs window. At a glance, he thought it was Kerii, but he knew she was in New York with Tesla by now.

"What are you waiting for?" Justus asked. "Whoever killed that hunter, they did not do it so you could stand around like an idiot!"

"Right, sorry." Reno put his hands on Justus and Petru's biceps.

A bolt of lightning linked up to the sky. The superheated sky replied with a crack of thunder.

X

X

Monday, June 26, 1893 Chicago, Illinois ...

Reno shifted his weight. He folded his hands, trying to look comfortable in the living room sitting chair.

The front door opened. A well-dressed sixty-eight year old man in a bowtie stopped in the doorway. His eyes locked on Reno's gaze. He looked around the foyer and crossed the threshold, into the living area.

Reno watched the man's gaze. "Margarette and the maid went into town. They never saw me; I wouldn't hurt them."

The man approached Reno cautiously. "Who let you into my home?"

"Mayor Harrison, I let myself into your home."

"Who are you?"

"I'm a homicide inspector from out west." Reno stood up and gave a tug at the bottom of his suit jacket. "Call me Nathan. I'm here to help you clean up your city."

"Excuse me?"

"I couldn't risk making an appointment. There was no time. There's a man named Mudgett who owns a hotel a few miles from the fair. He's been killing people. You need to shut down his operation."

"Why not go to the police?"

Reno shrugged. "I did a little research. The police have been forced to look the other way. Only two people at the top know. However, if you put the word out that the place needs to be shut down, they'll have to listen to you."

"I'm not sure how things work where you're from, 'out west,' Mr. Nathan, but here ... we like to have proof."

"So check it out, then. You have your lead. That guy offered to dispose of bodies for a clandestine ... let's just call them a 'cult' for the sake of ease. Mudgett started doing it for money, but it went to his head. Now he's bat-shit crazy. He's devolving quickly, and killing blonde women. Fair goers, employees, girlfriends and their relatives ... this guy is making a mess in your city, Mayor Harrison."

"My God in Heaven, is a man really capable of such atrocities?"

"Yeah? Wait until you see it. He has acid baths, furnaces, a labyrinth to confuse victims ... he locks them in vaults until they suffocate."

Carter Harrison swallowed with an offended expression. "Your story borders on absurd! You break into my home to tell me about a man with pits of acid and fire, yet he suffocates his victims?"

Reno held his hands up. "I did my homework. He's selling the corpses to medical students, Mayor Harrison. Just do me a favor."

"Do you a favor? You? The man who broke into my home?"

"Yeah, grandpa." Reno stood up with a smirk, coming face to face with the sixty-eight year old. "Do. Me. A. Favor. I want you to keep this between us. The people employing this Mudgett guy ... they're fanatics, and some of their members know how to use money to keep things quiet."

"Even a killer requires due process."

"Look, I'm a copper, but do you really think this man deserves the law to be on his side, here?"

Carter Harrison stepped back, eyes narrowed. "I served two terms in the House of Representatives. I know a thing or two about law, and constitutional rights."

"Yeah, yeah," Reno said in a dismissing tone. "I did research on you, too. You're a cousin to the ninth president. You know a thing or two about the principles this country is founded on. I'm real impressed. But there is a man in your city, and he is making a mess. He is _killing_your voters. Voters you are sworn to protect."

"Then this man should be investigated thoroughly, and his face should be posted in the paper until such a time as he is properly apprehended."

Reno sighed and shook his head. "You make a fuss like that, and he'll walk. Or worse, this cult I mentioned - they'll find a way to have someone kill you. They'll find the most crazy-ass bastard they can, talk him into doing it, and let him take the fall for your murder. You want that?"

Harrison ground his molars together. "Get out of my home, Mr. Nathan."

Reno ran his hands up through his hair. "Just promise you'll have enough respect for your city that you'll quietly look into this. Don't bring a spotlight to it. Make it seem like this Mudgett guy screwed up. Post a patrol near Mudgett's hotel - it's a few miles from Jackson Park. There's a pharmacy on the first floor."

Harrison walked with Reno towards the front door, escorting him from the living room. "Mm-hmm, and what sort of resistance should we expect from this Mudgett character?"

"He'll be smart. Smart enough to have the floor plan made for his hotel just to kill people. Don't put it past him to do things like ... confess to killing people who are alive, so it discredits him as a killer."

"And why would _anyone_confess to killing someone who is alive, Mr. Nathan?" They approached the front door and stopped on the front stoop.

Reno sighed. "Because it will look like he confessed under duress, so that a jury is more likely to acquit him."

"If he is to be exonerated, it would be the evidence that freed him. I hope you realize just how you sound."

Reno stepped through the door, down the steps and glanced back at Carter. "Mayor Harrison, play it smart. Let him mess up. If you speak to people about this, you'll only endanger yourself."

"And just who would kill me if we arrest this ... Mudgett character? Him? You?"

Reno shook his head. "Mudgett's employers would be smart about it. They would find the most mentally unstable fellow they can. They would convince him to feel betrayed by you, even if you don't know the guy. Next thing you know, they'll unleash this loon to find you. This is how these people work. They try to get other people to kill for them to save public face."

Carter remained silent, standing in the doorway of his home.

"They'll try using a good person to draw out and kill a target." Reno's thoughts turned to how the hunters tried using Justus to kill Petru Vykos. "If you're careful, you can save the people, you can save this killer from himself, and you can save yourself from assassination, for bringing attention to this ... this cult's operation."

"Your words are those of a man in need of mental help," said Carter. "However, your eyes seem to shine with sanity. I have no doubt you believe in this conspiracy, however ... I require proof."

"All I'm telling you ... is be careful how you obtain it. Don't bring attention to yourself, Mayor. Let this guy make all the mistakes."

"Very well, Mr. Nathan. You are free to leave, if you please."

Reno thought about teleporting as a bolt of lightning, however he couldn't risk it. "Stay safe, Mayor."

Carter Harrison cleared his throat. "Cousin twice-removed, Mr. Nathan."

"Excuse me?"

"My ties to President William Henry Harrison. You said he was my first cousin. I am correcting you. You see? Sometimes, a man's research isn't without error." Carter reached for his door knob. "I respect the heart you've displayed by coming to me out of concern. In the future, I am not your backchannel. Find a way to bring police attention to a killer."

"I'm just trying to help," said Reno.

"And what if involving me leads to my assassination?" Carter's tone was kind, but a touch condescending.

The frustrating part was that Reno could tell the man was an otherwise genuine person. He sighed and nodded. "I don't have time to invest in this. I have to leave. I'll keep my eyes on the news when I get home. I'm hoping you live to a ripe old age."

"Mr. Nathan, I am nearing seventy years old. A man should have no illusions of immortality."

"Fine. I'll keep an eye on the news to see if you got Mudgett, or if Mudgett got away."

"I will look into it, but I make no promises." Mayor Harrison closed the front door.

Reno could hear the chains slide into place from within. He shook his head. "God dammit. Why do I get the feeling I messed that up." He turned away and started walking.

Once Reno was out of sight from the house, and was sure he was alone, he linked up with the sky and disappeared.

A short time later, Reno touched down in Niagara Falls, New York. Now to find Kerii and Nikola...