The car accelerated down the road.
The Guild would notice he was gone, he thought. A warrant would be issued. But with the back roads and his spatial awareness kept active, he would be fine.
Then a red pickup truck appeared with a for-sale sign in the window. Perfect. The car stopped.
A bald man greeted him. "Can I help you?"
Callum felt it immediately. A shapeshifter. Just as magical a signature as the Langleys'.
He went straight to the point. "I need a new identity. I heard it's available here."
The shapeshifter asked suspiciously how he had found the place.
Callum countered without answering. He placed a solid gold bar on the counter. "And I need to get that pickup truck too."
Looking at the gold bar, the man said, "I'll see what I can do."
He came back in just ten minutes with a document and the keys to the pickup. "It's enough for matters both mundane and supernatural."
Callum looked at the new identity. Denver Brown. Teacher. Fake glasses would be required to complete the look.
The bald man asked whether he needed anything else. Callum said he was looking for some magic books.
The shapeshifter made a suggestion. "Try Pearson. Although you won't get much there."
Callum thought to himself: obviously he monopolises that information.
Sitting in the pickup, he decided. I'll go to Pearson tomorrow. It's late today.
There was a pang of guilt in his mind. The Langleys must have known he had gone. But he wanted to talk to them one more time. I'll find a way.
The sheriff, Jessica, Clara. They had all been good to him.
A few hours later, the bald shapeshifter was back in his shop, organising his shelves and counting.
Then a portal opened in the wall next to him.
A voice asked permission to speak. He was startled by the jolt of it.
The voice requested that he deliver a message to the Alpha.
"Which Alpha?" he asked.
No answer. Just the message. "Clara's friend is safe."
Alpha Chester received the message and confirmed it. The man sighed. "I heard exactly that."
The voice from the portal had given a warning too. Don't try to find the wizard. It is dangerous.
Chester turned to the two wolves in front of him. "This friend. Have you seen him somewhere before?"
One of the wolves reported. The Alpha was with Langley when he came for the first time.
Chester asked, "Can you identify him?"
The wolf confidently confirmed that he could.
The elder with the braids gave his command. "Find him. By any means."
Both of them promised. The search had only just begun.
Over in the car, Felicia said to Ray, "This weirdo Chase is the only lead we have. It's impossible that he's a mundane. He was immune to my power."
Ray countered her. "Being protected doesn't mean he isn't a mundane. Maybe he doesn't even know it himself."
Felicia pointed out the rest. "Chase was the most suspicious thing there. And his house is right near the mundane's house that the vampires took recently." She gave her theory. "Perhaps the vampires tried to grab Chase and collided with his protector."
Ray was frustrated. There was no other lead.
Both of them reached the house again and knocked at the door.
Felicia realised there was nobody there.
Ray released a spiral of green energy from his finger and it spread out through the whole area. The house was completely emptied.
Ray commented. "Too much. It's empty. As if no one had ever lived here."
The green energy checked every corner. The backyard gave them nothing either.
Then suddenly Ray found something. A small circular object under the furniture. His power brought it directly to his hand.
Felicia, being curious, asked what he had found.
Ray examined it. "Not completely sure. But it feels like some kind of enchantment. Human-made. It's on metal, so the trace of magic is weak."
Felicia concluded, "Even if Chase wasn't a wizard himself, he could have known one."
Ray dismissed the rest. "Mr. Hall will not come back."
Felicia said that she had put in requests for a search and inspection of his car.
Looking at that little circle with interest, Ray said, "We have to talk to Alpha Langley about these new developments."
Somewhere else, on a sunny day in a parking lot, the birds were singing.
Callum slowly blinked and opened his eyes. It was afternoon. First time in a long while he had slept that much. The recent stress had clearly been affecting his body.
But he knew that every passing second was bringing the Guild closer to him.
He hoped the shapeshifter had not lied about the bookstore near his shop.
Research materials were necessary.
In front of him was a small, very old building. He thought that maybe powerful wizards did not need to modernise.
He opened the door and the smell of dust welcomed him immediately.
On the front shelves there were ordinary books. But Callum felt a faint magical signature. There's a secret section here somewhere.
His eyes fell on an elderly man holding an open book. Yellowish energy was radiating off him.
Callum approached. "How are you?"
The old man just let out an irritated grunt.
Okay. Not a talker.
Callum started browsing. Common books, and honestly, very bad fiction. Seeing one particularly tacky cover, he decided that wizards were no different from anyone else in that regard. Then the frustration, when he saw the price of a low-quality romance novel and was shocked. Two hundred dollars, my friend. The calculations in this old man's shop were different from everybody else's.
Then he found something promising. A grey book full of symbols. The title was Arcane Defences and Dissertations on Shields. On this I can spend a little more.
He started flipping through the pages. Texts and magical symbols.
Then the grumpy old man finally opened his mouth. "If you want to read it, buy it. This is not a library."
Callum laughed. Now he used the opportunity. "Any recommended books for beginner mages?"
The old man commented, "You're too old to be a beginner."
Callum quickly clarified. "It's not for me. He's a student. I'm a teacher."
The old man snapped his fingers. Energy released from his hand while the other hand still held his book, and three books levitated up over his head.
Callum recognised what it was. That was levitation, and it was much superior to his own poor attempt. Impressive, without any effort shown at all.
His eyes went to the titles. The Encyclopedia of Magical Houses. Of Moz and the Portal Worlds, first edition. He took that one in his hand.
The old man warned him what it was going to cost.
Callum confirmed it. "I'll take all four."
A little over a thousand dollars in total. He gave him cash.
The shopkeeper opened the register and started using it, and then suddenly stopped and went back to reading his own book.
Callum was completely confused. "Brother. Change?"
The old man asked again, "You need something else?"
Callum said, frustrated, "No. It was clear."
The change was not going to be returned. There was no answer to this old man's audacity.