I turned back to Shelton. "So? Who is she?"
Shelton took a long time to answer, his face buried in his hands. Finally he said, "I was in love with her."
My mouth dropped open. Harry Shelton, romantic? Inconceivable.
He continued. "When I first started the bounty hunter business, I was pretty bad at it. So I tailed other hunters, watching how they did things, and eventually fell into a partnership with an old-timer named Hooch. He was amazing." Shelton sat up, his eyes filling with something like affection or respect. "I spent two years with him, learning the ropes and steadily improving. Then Hooch got a tip and a lead on a big fish. The holy friggin grail of fugitives."
"Who?" Bella asked, leaning on the edge of her seat.
"Vadaemos Slade."
My skin went cold at the name. "I didn't realize you ever went after him."
His jaw went tight. "Yeah. We did." Shelton shook his head like a dog shedding water. "We were ambushed. Somehow, that slimy pile of butt droppings knew we were coming. Some kind of demon spawn creatures sucked Hooch's soul out of his mouth. Turned him into a dried husk of skin right in front of me. I ran. Holy hell, did I run. Used every spell in the book to get myself out of there. But when I looked back at it later—much later—I knew for a certainty escape from those things should have been impossible. Something or someone held them back, and let me go."
"What makes you think that?" I asked.
His eyes focused on me. "You had to be there. Those things were lightning fast, man. Hooch was one of the trickiest Arcanes I have ever known. He wasn't the most powerful, but he made up for it by being crazy like a fox. He always warded himself, and had a shield spell ready to turn on in a heartbeat. His precautions saved our hides more times than I can count. Those spawn went through his shield like it was thin air. Poor bastard didn't have a chance. And there were enough of them to take us both down at the same time. But they didn't."
I pursed my lips. "Sounds like the same creatures that ambushed the Templars and Daemos at Thunder Rock."
"They make hellhounds look like puppies." Shelton shuddered. "Anyway, I took a break from the business. It wasn't a good time for me. And then I met Aerianas." An almost dreamy look overcame his face. "She came to me, and asked me to help her find a fugitive who'd killed a little boy's parents. I didn't usually do freelance for individuals, but she was so smoking hot I couldn't resist. So, I did the job, and my prize was her."
"Slut," Bella said under her breath.
Shelton didn't seem to hear her. "She told me she knew people in the tribunal court, and could tell me about contracts before they went public so I could get a head start. She told me I was the best, and it would be a shame if I stopped bounty hunting." He sighed. "That's how I got Zagg's girlfriend, and Morgana's parents."
"I imagine they were easy targets," I said.
His forehead pinched. "Are you kidding me? Zagg and his pals hid his girlfriend, Kayla, so well it took me a month to track her down. Morgana's parents, the Findelays, were hiding in the Swiss Alps. They triggered an avalanche that nearly took me out." He looked skyward, as if wondering how he'd survived. "But Hooch taught me well, and I always got my man."
"Didn't he teach you to question things?" I asked. "To find out why you were hunting people?"
Shelton showed a rueful grin. "He tried. Hooch was a different breed of bounty hunter. He always demanded proof before a hunt. Even after he caught his targets, he'd question them like he was the sheriff. He once told me a friend of his had been wrongly accused, and he never wanted to take in an innocent person."
"I guess those lessons didn't stick with you," I said, and I couldn't help the disapproving note in my voice.
"Guess not. I didn't care about that stuff. I just wanted the money and the glory." He looked away.
"What do you mean?" Bella asked.
"One of the jobs Aerianas landed me involved apprehending an Arcane accused of selling magic to noms. I took him in, got my payout, and when I went back to the guy's house to recover supplies I'd dropped during the bust, I just happened to stumble across evidence that completely exonerated him. I—" Shelton blinked. "I decided it wasn't my job to do anything about it. So I just let it lie."
"Harry!" Bella looked aghast.
"I didn't want Aerianas to get in trouble. I was young and stupid. I was so blindly in love with her, I would have—I did anything she asked."
"You kept doing jobs even though you had suspicions." I said in an accusing voice.
He nodded. "But my conscience really started bugging me."
I raised both eyebrows.
Shelton held up his hands defensively. "Yeah, yeah. I actually have a little cricket that nags the hell out of me when I'm doing something bad." He exhaled a long sigh. "I secretly checked out the evidence against the next few targets Aerianas tipped me off about. Each case looked like a complete slam dunk. If Hooch ever taught me anything, it's that if the evidence looks too neat, it's probably a load of bull."
I threw in a guess. "Those people were set up."
He nodded. "I decided to dig a little deeper." A look of remorse or perhaps regret pinched his face. "It didn't take me long to figure out what tied most of them together, once I knew what to look for." He drew in a deep breath as if steeling himself, and looked at us. "My father."
I glanced at Bella. She looked just as confused as I felt. "Care to elaborate?"
"Daddy dearest, also known as the Arcanus Primus, was pushing his pet project, the Gloom Initiative back at that time."
Bella nodded. "I remember. It was very controversial, costing millions of tinsel. They wanted to explore the Gloom and see if it could be used for transportation like the Obsidian Arch network."
"Or see if it had anything to do with the way the arches worked, or find new creatures living there, and blah, blah, blah." Shelton grunted. "The opposition claimed it would cost lives, and possibly allow undesirable entities to enter our world."
"Like the minders?" I said.
He nodded. "Yeah, creepy critters like that."
"These people opposed your father, and he framed them for clear passage of the initiative?"
"Yes, again." Shelton twiddled his thumbs, gazing at them forlornly. "And I still kept right on bagging and tagging the poor bastards. I just couldn't force myself to leave Aerianas. I knew she had something to do with it, but I turned a blind eye. I wanted her so bad, I could hardly stand it, and the thought of losing her drove me crazy."
I wanted to blame Shelton for his misdeeds. Really I did. But I knew how love, real or imagined, could make anyone do stupid things. All I had to do was think back a few months to remember how idiotic I'd acted for Katie Johnson. "How long ago did all this happen?"
"It went on for about a year, and ended just before I met you." He didn't look up from the floor. "Look, I ain't perfect. I was kind of a jackass when I went to school here, and I didn't change much once I graduated. But I didn't go out of my way to intentionally hurt people."
"What was it that drove you out of Colombia when we went after Maximus?" I asked.
"Murderous relatives of someone I'd apprehended for—" He paused a moment. "For Aerianas. For my adoptive father." His lips curled in rage. "Sager used me to catch and kill my real parents. Then he used me again to put away his political enemies." Shelton bolted from his chair. Turned, and kicked it. As the chair skidded across the floor, he whipped out his wand, and with an angry word sent a bolt of white-hot energy into the defenseless object. Wood splintered, spraying across the room. He shouted again, and shards of light intercepted the splinters, reducing them to ash before they hit the floor.
"Madre de dios," Bella said under her breath. "Now I understand."
I, of course, was far more impressed with the display of wizardry than anything else, so it took a moment for her words to sink in. Shelton's soul was scarred. He'd been used by his father. Used by the woman he loved. No wonder he walled off his emotions. No wonder he never let anyone see the real him, his emotions, insecurities, and worst of all, the sense that nobody in this world really loved him. He had no family. How could I complain about my situation after knowing what Shelton had been through?
Shelton stood before the falling ash, his back to us, shoulders heaving. I couldn't let the questioning stop now. I still had to understand one more thing.
"Shelton—Harry. What did Meghan mean when she told me you worked with the spawn who killed her family?" I felt my chest tighten. "Is that true?"
He shook his head without turning to face me. "No. The Daemos who did that, as you well know, was Vadaemos. What happened to her parents was long before my time."
I felt myself relax, and saw Bella, hand to heart, breathe a sigh of relief.
Shelton turned to me, his eyes rimmed with red, face screwed up in pain. "She was almost right. I didn't work with Vadaemos, but I did work with someone close to him."
"Aerianas?" I said, taking a logical guess.
He nodded.
"How did she know Vadaemos?"
Shelton let out a shuddering sigh. "Aerianas is his daughter."
Chapter 34
"Holy macaroni," I muttered.
"Now it makes even more sense," Bella said, eyes lighting up. "Was she using her succubus powers on you, Harry?" The hopeful look on her face made my heart ache.
Shelton gave a grudging nod. "Yeah. Later, when I confronted her, she told me she really loved me, but was afraid I hated her." His lips curled up in an angry snarl. "She did something to me. Infected me with her succubus powers. To this day, I still think about her. I still miss her. Worst of all, it feels like I still love her, even though I know with every inch of my black heart I don't. I hate her for what she did to me. I hate myself for what I did to those people." He threw his wand across the room where it clattered against a bookshelf. "I don't want any of these feelings piled on my shoulders, man. I just want to forget them. I want the past to stay in the past and to leave me the hell alone."
