I poked and pried at the shelf but it didn't budge. On to the next one.
"That one's firmly fastened," Cassandra said as she inspected the remaining shelf. "It doesn't so much as quiver."
I stopped yanking on the shelf and instead ran my fingers along both sides, where the unit fastened to the wall. It was rammed so tight against the wall that I couldn't even squeeze a fingernail into the gap. I crouched to examine the underside of the lower shelves.
On the second-to-bottom shelf, I found a nail sticking out near the corner. I prodded it. The nail slid into the wood and the shelf snapped hard against my hands.
"A catch," Cassandra said. "Well done again."
Before I could pull it open, my vision clouded.
"Not again," I muttered. "My perimeter spell, with flawless timing."
Cassandra checked her watch. "Aaron and Lucas."
"Or so I hope. I'll check. You go on in."
I scooted up the ladder and out the cabin door. Lucas and Aaron were picking their way through the brambles. I hailed them with a shout.
"Hear you found Edward's hidey-hole," Aaron called as they drew closer. "Way to go."
"We haven't had a chance to look inside yet," I said. "We ran into a few complications."
When they caught up, Lucas's hand brushed mine, then gave it a squeeze.
"Oooh, would that be one of those complications?" Aaron said, jerking his chin toward the fallen artist. "Or just a late-afternoon snack?"
"Both, I think," I said.
"Is she in a better mood now?"
"Actually, now that I think about it, a much better mood."
Aaron's laugh rang out through the quiet meadow. "Oh, yeah, same old Cassandra. I thought that might be the problem. She gets pretty damned testy when she hasn't eaten. That's one big drawback to socializing with nonvamps. Nobody wants to hear you say, 'I'm just popping out for a bite.' If she ever gets bitchier than usual, that's a good time to send her out on a late-night coffee run. Best way to cheer her up." He grinned. "Well, there are other ways, but you don't want to hear about those."
We circled past the artist and headed into the cabin.
A Strange Place to Take a Bath
I led Lucas and Aaron to the secret room. As I looked around, my first thought was, "That makes sense, and that makes sense, and… what the hell is that for?"
The room was just slightly larger than the fake cold cellar, maybe eight feet square. Along one wall was a bookcase, filled with ancient reference books and experimentation journals. The shelves on the opposite wall held vials, beakers, jars, and other scientific equipment. All this was exactly what I expected to see in a quester's laboratory. What I couldn't understand, though, was the claw-footed bathtub that took up a quarter of the floor space.
"I like to read in the bath, too," I said. "But that seems a bit extreme."
"Especially with no running water," Aaron said.
"I would assume it's used as a mixing basin," Lucas said. "Though it seems rather large for the purpose and it would likely have required removing the cabin floor to get it down here. Perhaps it has a greater significance, a relic of some sort."
Cassandra looked up from the journal she'd been reading. "You're both right. It would be used for mixing a compound, then bathing in it. Ingestion is the most common way to take immortality potions, but immersion is also popular."
"Find anything?" Aaron said, looking down over her shoulder. "At least it's not in code."
"It would be better if it was," she said. "A code can be deciphered and broken. Instead, what they've done is put in only enough detail to remind themselves what they did."
"Huh?"
She lifted the book closer to my light-ball. "'March seventh, 2001. Tried variation B again with fresher source material type Hf. No change. April twelfth, 2001. Expanded variation A to include source material type Hm, subtype E. No change.'"
"Shit," Aaron muttered. "Is it all like that?"
Cassandra nodded.
"What's the date on the last entry?" Lucas asked.
"June of this year."
"A month or two before Natasha left him," I said. "Any idea what they were doing at the time? Maybe something changed, made her decide to leave?"
Cassandra handed me the journal. "It's exactly like the other entries. They talk about 'materials' and 'variations' and 'subtypes,' but nothing specific."
I moved beside Lucas and held the journal between us as we read the last half-dozen pages. Then I flipped to the start of the book, which dated back to 1996, and skimmed to the present.
"The only change I see is a gradual increase in ingredient Hf and Hm. It appears on and off in the earlier entries, then becomes a regular ingredient in the last year. Otherwise, the entries are pretty similar-variations A through E, methodologies A through K."
"Let's see what other goodies we have, then," Aaron said. He scanned the equipment shelf. "Lots and lots of unlabeled, half-filled bottles." He grabbed one, pulled out the stopper, sniffed it, and gagged. "I may be invulnerable, but please don't ask me to taste-test anything."
I took the bottle from him and sniffed. "Sulfur." He handed me another one. "Rosemary." I eyed the shelf and named three more from looks alone. "All fairly common potion ingredients. Same with the dried stuff. Half these things you could pick up in any New Age shop."
"Which could mean that this is all they use," Cassandra said. "Or it could mean that they've hidden the more damning ingredients."
"Time to start looking for more cubbyholes," Aaron said. "I'll get the top shelves."
He ran his hand over the highest shelf, which appeared empty. As he swept along it, he dislodged a bottle and sent it crashing into the tub. Cassandra reached into the tub and touched the bottom, beside the broken pieces.
"Dry," she said. "It was empty."
She started to stand, then stopped, and ran a finger along the inside of the tub. With a frown, she leaned farther in, then shook her head and straightened.
"See something?" I said.
She shook her head. "It's been scrubbed clean."
"I believe I've found something here," Lucas said.
He was crouched in front of the equipment shelf. I expected to see another doorway behind the shelf. Instead, he gestured at the shelf itself, which he'd cleared of bottles. When I looked, I saw not a wooden shelf, but a drawer. It seemed too shallow to hold anything. Then Lucas pulled back the velvet cloth that lay over the contents-a row of surgical instruments.
"They, uh, could be veterinary tools," Aaron said. "Some questers use animal sacrifice. It's discouraged, but it does happen."
I met Lucas's gaze. "Hm and Hf."
He gave a slow nod. "Human male and human female."
Cassandra said nothing. When we looked over at her, she was bent over a hole in the floor, where she'd taken off a section of board.
"What's that?" I said.
She slammed the board back into place. "More ingredients. They're… human."
Aaron squatted beside her and reached for the loose board, but she held it fast to the floor.
"You don't need to look, either," she said.
"I've lived through Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, and Jeffrey Dahmer. Nothing under that board is going to shock me."
"It's not going to make you sleep any easier, either." She looked at us. "I'll draw up an inventory of what's in here, and package it if you'd like. For now, I can tell you that they were using body parts, from multiple humans, and they weren't retrieving them from graveyards."
Her gaze skittered toward the tub. She blinked hard and looked away.