Chapter 19 – Mistakes

Callum was somewhat regretful that he’d only meet with Gayle one more time. There just wasn’t any reasonable way or reason to stay in touch after she went off to the draft and did her own thing. Not that he had any designs on the girl, but it was nice to have some connection to normalcy in what was turning out to be an unreasonably stressful and isolated life.

He’d chosen to flout GAR with his eyes open, so he had no regrets about that. After seeing how they treated normal people, even going so far as to call them mundanes as if they were some lesser species, he was even more sure he’d made the right choice. Which didn’t mean it was the easy choice.

After chewing on it for a while, he decided to do something he really should have done ages ago. In retrospect, he’d been stupid to just chat with a young mage without knowing who he was interacting with, but he could only learn from his mistakes. Or, correct them, which he did with a call.

“What’s up, big man?” Lucy said, sounding chipper as ever.

“Hey Lucy,” he replied, stretching out in a recliner he’d installed in the motorhome. “How’s it going with GAR?”

“Oh man, they’re still annoyed they can’t find the vampire ghost, which is the stupidest name I’ve ever heard and I’ve heard a lot. It’s hilarious how incompetent it makes them look especially when three faerie kings have actually stated outright that you aren’t one of theirs. It’s great entertainment.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear they haven’t caught on,” he admitted. It was nice to know that he hadn’t left anything particularly incriminating behind, though that was far and away much easier to do when he didn’t have to be at the actual site. Teleportation meant that he broke up all the patterns and trails needed to track people.

“There’s a lot of vamps hunkered down in various places in case you decide to visit, from what I hear,” Lucy told him. “But since nothing’s happened for a couple weeks it’s kind of dying down.”

“Well, that’s fine with me. Never really wanted attention to begin with.” He shook his head, glad that he’d apparently gotten away clean. “Anyway, got a question for you.”

“So soon? I can’t even tell if you’re down on one knee!”

Callum barked a laugh. He wasn’t exactly certain why Lucy was so flirtatious, but she had the trick of surprising him. It was nice.

“Just because I’ve given you gold doesn’t mean I’m ready to move on to diamonds,” he told her, and got a chuckle. “Seriously though, what can you tell me about House Hargrave?”

“Don’t tell me you’re involved with them?”

“I’ve met one,” he admitted. “Just a kid, honestly. Gayle Hargrave. Helped her out a bit but I’m pretty sure I won’t see her again, so I was a little curious who she really was.”

“Huh. Just a kid, you say.” There was the sound of typing from the other end of the line. “Looks like Gayle is twenty-two, hardly a child.”

“There’s twenty-two, and then there’s twenty-two, you know?” Callum told her, and she laughed.

“Yeah, sure. College kids are the same all over. What did you want to know?”

“The general score, I guess.”

“Hmm, well, I can send you a report but the long and short is that House Hargrave is one of the big old ones. Hargraves invented half of the offensive spellforms anyone uses, so they’re pretty martially inclined.”

“Gayle is a healer,” Callum noted.

“Yeah, and that’s weird. Looks like some blending of bloodlines. Houses are pretty obsessive about tracking that kind of thing, so I’m surprised you actually met her. Normally a new talent like that is under lock and key, buuuuut I guess with a family of action maybe not.”

“She was hanging out with the Larsons?” He wasn’t sure if that was relevant, but if Gayle was some powerful scion perhaps the elderly couple who ran that bookstore were more than they appeared. “I don’t know if that means anything to you.”

“Oof. Yeah they’re a couple of old warhorses. Don’t piss them off! If they’re around no wonder House Hargrave let her wander off on her own.”

“I have no intention to, that’s certain. I guess I should have figured that any mage that actually looks old is liable to be dangerous.”

“Maybe? The pictures I have don’t look very old.” Callum winced at Lucy’s reply. Apparently he’d seen past a glamour without realizing it again. It was a good thing he’d never mentioned anything about it. Someday he was going to get in major trouble from that, and he made himself a note to try to use his phone’s camera more often and hopefully sidestep some of the issues.

“Anyhow, I guess I could use the information on House Hargrave, but I doubt I’ll be interacting with them again. I was mostly curious about who it was I was helping out.”

“Probably someone you shouldn’t deal with, big man. There’s all kinds of powerful politics with the big Houses and you sure don’t need Archmages after you as well as the vamps.”

“Message received.” It meant that it was really for the best that he’d be cutting ties soon. Even positive attention could be dangerous, though he didn’t think that Gayle would suspect him of anything in particular. He just had to gracefully decline any invitation to meet anyone else.

Yet again he considered not showing up for the next meeting, but he also yet again decided against it. With only one meeting, probably one that was just going to be Gayle celebrating her new status. Or asking for help with something, but either way that would have to be the last meeting.

“So what I’m sending you is pretty much their own press statement stuff,” Lucy told him. “I’d have to dig a bit to find anything juicy.”

“I don’t need anything juicy,” Callum assured her.

“Aww, I was hoping to earn more of that gold.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll come up with a job for you soon enough.”

“Don’t keep me waiting, big man.”

“I know better than to keep a lady waiting.”

“Shame I’m not a lady, then.”

“Never been anything less with me,” Callum said with a grin. “Actually, now that I think about it, I probably am going to need to ditch this identity soon. I’d appreciate some steering on the best place to get a new one, and maybe some regions of the US where there’s very little supernatural presence.”

Running around in a motorhome absolutely muddied his trail, but it was also quite tiresome. Winut had been practically perfect for him save for the shifter and vampire politics, so if he could find something like that once again it would be nice. Through Lucy and Harry he could probably get more information on magic and try to build up a coherent understanding of modern magical theory. Something he realized he desperately needed after his discussion with Gayle.

“Boo. You could just ask me for a new one!”

“I could, but the logistics for that…” Callum shrugged, despite Lucy being on the phone and unable to see him. “I think that’d just put both of us at risk.”

“You make me very curious about who you think is after you, big man.”

“Aside from GAR?” He asked dryly.

“Oh sure, but they don’t know you are you, you know?”

“I know.” Callum shook his head. “Speaking of, and I hate to ask this because I know these types are trouble⁠—”

“Trouble like you?”

“Not like me, I hope,” he told her. “But do you have contact information for other people who might be operating outside of GAR’s laws?”

“Noooot so much,” Lucy said thoughtfully. “GAR tends to stamp on anyone that could be considered a rogue pretty hard. I know they’re out there, but usually what I see is one of the big agents reporting that they have them in custody or dead, you know? I don’t think there’s, I dunno, some kind of organized rogue syndicate or anything.”

“Not really any room for one when GAR is already kind of a criminal syndicate,” Callum muttered.

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” Lucy said with amusement. “The truth is, if you want stuff outside of GAR’s laws you really need to hook up with an Archmage, a faerie king, a regional alpha, or a master vampire. They’ve all got a lot more leeway than the rank and file.”

“What about dragonblooded?” It didn’t surprise him that the rules didn’t really apply to the most powerful. They never did. He was curious why Lucy had left out the fifth type of supernatural, though.

“They’re mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” Lucy replied promptly. “I haven’t heard of any actively breaking GAR rules but I’ve also only ever heard that you need to be careful around them.”

“Hmm. Fair enough. Well, if you run across some sort of black market information, I’d appreciate a heads-up.” Shahey was the only dragonblooded he’d ever seen, let alone met, and Callum couldn’t imagine him as being particularly threatening. Dangerous, yes, especially after he was attacked, but he’d just been playing an ordinary gym owner for years without a hint of trouble.

“Any specific items?” Lucy asked, not at all bothered by the illegality of the request. “It’s probably easier to get something through backchannels than try and pull it out of GAR’s confiscated stock.”

“Weird,” he said, but didn’t argue. She was the one who worked at GAR, be it ever so rank and file. “I’m looking for information on foci and enchanting, as well as any literature on the rare aspects for mages. Gravity, healing, time, space, that sort of thing.” He hoped that his phrasing and burying his real interest would obscure things. That was as close to a direct request for gravity instructional books as he dared make.

“Huh, gotta say, that’s going to be a lot harder than actual stuff. The Archmages and Houses are pretty damn protective of that kind of thing.”

“I figured it was a long shot,” Callum admitted. “I suppose I’ll just keep my ear to the ground.”

“Gonna cheat on me there, big man?” Lucy teased him.

“Never,” he assured her. “I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want to be involved in some of the stuff I need anyway.”

“I’ll have you know I like getting down and dirty,” she said with a laugh. “When it’s fun, anyway.”

“Oh, so you don’t care what I do when it’s boring?”

“That’s right,” she agreed cheerfully. “Just give me the highlights.”

“I actually don’t have anything exciting going on right now,” he said. “Thank goodness.”