Page 65 of Call of the Blood

“Certainly. The thing I need from you is that vampire’s name,” I said, realizing there was another chair at his desk and sitting down in it finally.

“Oh? You don’t know his name?” Wren chuckled. “That’s impressive because you seemed pretty surprised to see him. Like you knew him, so certainly you know his name.”

“That’s the problem, Wren. I know his real name. I want to know the name he’s going by now,” I said, crossing my legs as Wren’s eyes narrowed.

“You know his real name.” It sounded as though that was a bad thing. Wren’s smile faded into a more serious expression.

“I do. I’ve known him for a long time, actually. Would you like it? We can trade.”

“You have no idea what sort of magic you accidentally bypassed with that little bit of information,” Wren said softly. “No, you would have needed more, but it seems you bypassed it, nonetheless. You see, that vampire spent a lot of money on some very good fae magic a long time ago. I’ll trade name for name, but information on the magic will cost you.”

“Alexius will check the charge later, but I’ll explain to him what I learned.” I put the black card on the table.

“It’s not his opinion on the worth of this that I care about,” Wren said, taking the card. He wrote down a price on a sticky note and slid the pad over to me. I nodded at the amount, not finding any issue with it.

“Then we have a deal,” Wren said, looking up. “We shall trade the names of this vampire.” Wren snapped his fingers, and a magical image of Henry showed up. “And then for the price noted, I shall reveal the fae magic he paid for over ten years ago. Fifteen to be precise.”

“Could you tell me how you know about the magic? Did you do the service?”

“I didn’t do the service, but I am all too familiar with it and recognized the magic on him when he walked in. Fae magic and all. It’s a very particular thing. Do you agree to the terms?”

“I agree.”

We shook on it.

“The name he uses is James Henry Bishop,” Wren said immediately.

“His real name is Henry James Abbott,” I explained.

Wren’s eyes went wide, like saucers, as he realized he could have charged me much more than he did.

“Oh…” Wren leaned back in his seat, taking in that information. “Henry Abbott was being looked for a little while back.”

“Alexius was trying to find him for me since I hadn’t seen him since I was twelve. Never knew where he went.” I shrugged. “And imagine my surprise when I find him here… when not even Alexius or Isaiah could find him.”

“In Maria’s nest of all places…” Wren said, nodding. “Well… his fake name and the magic he’s had done explain it.”

“Tell me.” I needed to know. James Henry Bishop was a good fake name. He didn’t need to change his call name or anything. He could keep being called Henry, and no one would ever know.

“He approached a fae for a specific and powerful magic that requires a high payment. He gave up everything from his previous life for a new identity that those who did not know him well would never see through or look into. It’s… a very complicated version of a spell we do on cars, right? To not look too closely at speeding vehicles, keeping the human law enforcement away from us. But for an entire person, who is trying to give up and leave an identity.”

“Oh…” I leaned back, somewhat surprised Henry could even afford something like that.

“The payment is extreme. Every cent that person has, no matter where it came from or when. Everything on their person. There’s a reason people don’t want this spell done often. They have to start over from nothing, and if they were well known, it can fail. But for a small-time person who is escaping a handful of people or an area, it works really well. Disappear into a new place and never be known again. New paperwork, unquestioned. Anything you say about your fake identity, taken as truth, so long as the people you’re lying to don’t know you well or intimately. Family normally gets around it, so that person should hope that family never finds them.” He gestured at me.

“It’s like insane witness protection,” I said, shaking my head in dismay at how far Henry went to get away from whatever happened when my father died. He’d been exiled for it, whatever it was, and that would have ruined his life among vampires, from the way Alexius put it.

“Somewhat but without any support,” Wren said. “Once the spell is done, it’s up to the person who wanted it to maintain its protections. Keep away from those who might identify them from their previous life, and the like. A small-time vampire? He probably only needed to hide from you.”

“And we met right outside this very café.”

“If I remember correctly, you walked right by him. He said something. From my perspective, he recognized you first and blew his own cover, didn’t he?”

“Yeah…” Looking back, that had happened. I had just been trying to leave. Didn’t even look at him.

“Idiot. All that money and all that lying and he broke the spell himself. You would have never known if he never said anything. He was probably so surprised to see you that he couldn’t help himself. Oh, well. He knows the terms and wasn’t even thinking about them when he said something.”

“Other than money, what did a fae get out of this?”