Chapter 11 - The Endless Trove

Julian glanced over at Ellen, who was bobbing her head along with the music. She was sprawled out in the passenger seat, leaned back relaxedly on the bench seat while she sat with her phone in her lap, scrolling social media of some variety. Julian had the Cutlass' windows rolled down, meaning Ellen's brown hair was whipping in the wind like crazy, but the gorgeous werewolf was unfazed. Ellen liked looking good, but she wasn't the type of girl to get fussy over her appearance.

"See something you like?" Ellen asked, looking up from her phone screen and catching Julian mid-glance. Julian chuckled to himself, shaking his head.

"I was just seeing what you were doing." Julian lied.

"Uh huh..." Ellen nodded along, drawing out the syllables. "And the other times you were looking over?"

Julian sighed. "What do you want me to say?"

"Something like... 'damn, Ellie, you look so good I just wanna bend you over and fuck that cute little ass of yours until we drop.'" Ellen said in a fake deep voice that sounded nothing like Julian.

"I do not sound like that!" Julian protested. "And trust me, your ass isn't exactly little."

"So you have been looking at it?" Ellen raised an eyebrow, turning so she was fully facing him.

"I stole a peek a time or two." Julian admitted. "Plus there was that time I got my hands on it and all."

"Yup." Ellen said smugly. "In a club bathroom of all places."

"I'm just glad we didn't have to pay for the shit you broke." Julian grinned.

"OK, the sink was me, but you definitely broke all those wall tiles. Sure it was my back doing it, but you were the one fucking me like a wild animal." Ellen maintained. Julian laughed, and looked over at Ellen.

"I'm glad that doing that didn't make this awkward." Julian told her genuinely, and Ellen smiled.

"Eyes on the road, softie." Ellen waved him off, making Julian laugh again.

Ellen gazed out the window for a while, before she glanced back his direction. "I found out the name of that Alpha you tangled with."

"Does that mean you went looking?" Julian asked warily.

"I didn't go by his pack, no. I just asked some people in my own pack about the different LA packs." Ellen explained. "I knew it wasn't the Valley pack, I knew it wasn't my pack, that only really left one option. Your guy is Jesse Beckett, the Alpha of the Inglewood pack. They apparently use Topanga State Park as their running grounds."

"Jesse Beckett..." Julian mused. "Never heard of him."

"His pack's usually pretty quiet. They're also the big central LA pack, so it makes sense that that vampire assumed you were part of Beckett's pack." Ellen explained. "Seems like that vampire Highsire turned the quiet pack into killers."

"Yeah, and me killing one of theirs probably didn't help matters." Julian grumbled. "Alexandra said she talked with them, but werewolves hold grudges."

"Yeah, we do." Ellen agreed. "But don't worry, Jules, I've got your back."

"And I appreciate it." Julian said sincerely. Ellen smiled, reaching over to pat his thigh.

"Now, what's this place we're going to?" Ellen asked.

"The Endless Trove, apparently." Julian shrugged. "Hopefully this guy can help, Romero seemed to think so anyway."

"Are we going to bring him in for questioning?" Ellen asked hopefully.

"What? No, we're not. For one thing, I can't just bring a random guy into a police precinct full of people who have no idea what's going on. And secondly, he didn't do anything wrong, as far as we go." Julian shook his head exasperatedly.

"Ugh. I was hoping to get to use your handcuffs on him." Ellen said, making a pouty face with those plump lips of hers.

"No handcuffs." Julian said firmly. "We're just asking if he's heard anything about a magical iron sword."

"Detectives Anderson and Warner are on the case." Ellen agreed.

"You're not even a beat cop." Julian smirked, earning a feigned outraged gasp from Ellen.

"How dare you." Ellen shook her head.

"It's the truth, Ellie." Julian shrugged.

The GPS alerted him his turn was coming up, and Julian took the left turn, turning onto a side road off Orange Grove. He pulled into a little strip parking lot, and nestled in between a taco restaurant and a laundromat was a huge three story store that was ostensibly invisible to normal humans. How they could miss it, Julian had no idea, but he pulled into a parking spot and turned off the car. He and Ellen climbed out, and Julian looked towards the Endless Trove. It was a dark gray, almost black building, with bright gold lettering above the door. Elaborate old-fashioned streetlights were mounted on the building, along with some stone gargoyles at the very top.

Julian and Ellen approached the front door, and Julian glanced up at the gable over the front door, where a golden statue of a serpentine dragon was draped elegantly across the gable.

"What do you think people see when we enter somewhere veiled?" Ellen wondered as Julian opened the shop door for her. "You think we just vanish?"

"Not sure." Julian shrugged. "I've always assumed veiled places kind of repel human sight, but I have no real proof of that."

"Oh, like it's not invisible, they just can't look at it?" Ellen asked.

"Dunno." Julian shrugged. They entered into the store, and Julian looked around curiously. The store was gaslit, but only barely. The lights were dim and yellow, setting the Endless Trove in sort of eerie lighting, even though the sun was shining brightly just outside. As for the layout of the store, the entrance hall led into a huge open space absolutely full of ceiling high shelves. It was almost like a labyrinth, and from the looks of it, the wrought metal staircase off to the left just led to two more stories. The place did feel almost endless, and as the pair of werewolves moved further into the store, they quickly got lost amongst all the junk. And goddamn was there a lot of junk.

The shelves were full of absolutely everything. There were almost no modern items, but Julian passed old-fashioned timepieces, cuckoo clocks, silk scarves, headpieces like 1920s flappers wore, elaborate sabers, tons of dusty old books, a shirt of chainmail, and so much other random shit from the 1800s, the 1900s, and whenever else. Ellen picked up a steel flask with an engraved V on it, frowning at it and shaking it to the audible sound of liquid.

"Never runs out of whiskey." a cheerful voice said from right behind Julian.

"Fuck!" Julian exclaimed in surprise, wheeling around hastily.

Standing there wearing a pair of thick, old fashioned bifocals with circular lenses was perhaps the oldest man Julian had ever seen. He was stooped over considerably, leaning heavily on a cane with a jade dragon atop it. His head was livered and mostly bald, save for a couple white tufts of hair. In addition to the ridiculous bifocals, he wore a snazzy red sequined waistcoat and a pair of black pants with pointy tap shoes.

"Welcome, dear customers... to the Endless Trove!" he exclaimed flamboyantly, with a surprising amount of energy for how fucking old he looked. "I am Cornelius, the finest purveyor of magical artifacts this side of the Thirteen Colonies!"

Julian and Ellen exchanged stunned looks, and Ellen hastily put the flask back. "I was just looking."

"But of course!" Cornelius gasped. "This is not some stuffy museum, feel free to poke around, my friends! I'd be warned though, every item you see before you within these halls is enchanted. Some are minor and amusing, others are stuffed full of major arcana!"

The old man gave a jubilant grin and did an excitable little dance, waving his arms about and tapping his shoes against the hardwood floor.

"Uh... we're here to ask about a specific item, actually." Julian cleared his throat.

"Ahhh, I see." Cornelius stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Well, let me tell you true. I know every item within this trove, I have them all extensively catalogued in my steel trap of a mind! Ask, friends, and I shall answer."

"Well, we're not sure if it's here, or ever was here, but my friend Romero told me you might be the person to ask." Julian began, but when he said Romero's name, Cornelius gasped loudly.

"You are friends of Romero Scott? Oh ho! I had not realized! My deepest apologies. That old coot has personally enchanted many of the relics within my trove, he is quite the contributor. I recall just last century, he gave me this beautiful set of china that would reassemble itself if ever it shattered."

"Last century?" Ellen repeated, and Cornelius nodded emphatically.

"Yes, yes." Cornelius nodded, like that was a perfectly natural thing to say. "That was right before Britain and all them became the United Kingdom. He visited me in London, you see."

"I'm not an expert, but I don't think that happened in the 1900s." Julian frowned.

"1900s? Egads, is this the 21st century already?" Cornelius huffed. "Two centuries ago then."

Ellen looked incredulously at Julian, and Julian really didn't have an answer. He was no stranger to long-lived supernatural beings, but this guy was one of the most eccentric people Julian had ever met. Certainly the first one he'd met who genuinely used 'egads' in a sentence.

"Right, well.." Julian said, trying to get this discussion back on track. "We're looking for an iron weapon of some kind, something with a long blade. I'm guessing it's a sword, but it was used in a murder, and we're trying to figure out who has that weapon."

"I have many such weapons within this store." Cornelius scowled thoughtfully. "Is there anything specific you can tell me about it?"

"Well, it was used to kill an aos sídhe, if that tells you anything." Julian explained. "This killing was three days ago, so something used recently."

"An aos sídhe?!" Cornelius exclaimed. "What sort of pigeon-livered cad would do such a thing?!"

Julian blinked. "Well, uh, that's what we're trying to figure out. I'm a detective, and this is a case I'm working on."

"What was their name, this aos sídhe?" Cornelius demanded. "There are precious few left in this world, the last one I heard of was living in Singapore in the 1950s."

"Niamh Sinclair." Julian answered, and Cornelius gaped.

"The legendary Niamh Cinn-Óir? Dead by the hand of a mortal wielding iron?" Cornelius moaned, shaking his head. "It is just not right."

The old man sniffled, wiping his eyes. "It is always a tragedy when one so old dies, but the death of Niamh Cinn-Óir is truly one to mourn. Alas, she is with Oisín now."

Julian and Ellen looked at each other again, both baffled. Julian had no idea what Cornelius was talking about, but he stood there a touch awkwardly as the old man grieved. After a long minute, Cornelius grasped his jade dragon cane fiercely, and pointed the index finger of his other hand at Julian.

"I will help you however I can, young detectives." Cornelius said passionately. "I will find the iron blade used to strike down Niamh Cinn-Óir if it is the very last thing that I do."

"So you didn't sell an iron weapon to someone recently?" Ellen asked. Julian had seen her straighten up when Cornelius said detectives in the plural, and he let her ask her questions.

"Afraid not. Such a dark weapon would never have been on sale here." Cornelius insisted. "No plain blade of iron would have been able to slay Niamh Cinn-Óir, this must have been a weapon imbued with much darkness."

"So we don't have any leads still." Julian sighed.

"I did not say that, did I? Follow me!" Cornelius grinned toothily. Julian was almost surprised the old guy still had teeth, to be honest. Cornelius shuffled past the pair of werewolves, his cane tapping against the wooden floors as he led the way through the cluttered shelves. As Cornelius shuffled along, he pointed at various items they passed.

"The Necklace of Harmonia! Bestows immortality and beauty upon any woman who wears it, but curses them with misfortune." Cornelius exclaimed, pointing at a heavily jeweled necklace. "Oh, and here is a Wolfsegen, repels wolves. Much more useful back when men owned flocks of sheep, you see."

Julian and Ellen steered well clear of the Wolfsegen, for obvious reasons. Cornelius pointed out other strange items like a plain looking pot that could withstand thousand degree temperatures, a gorgeous dagger which apparently belonged to someone named Rostam, a stone that would keenly sharpen any weapon belonging to someone courageous, and a big round bronze mirror that Cornelius told them was eight ata long, whatever that meant. There were hundreds of other things he didn't deign to mention, but he seemed genuinely fond of all of his things. He paused to pat a little statuette of a jackal, and he adjusted several things that had gotten disorderly.

Interestingly, there was not even a speck of dust in this store, despite the age of most of the items. Cornelius, or ever his cleaning staff were, cared greatly for the Endless Trove's items, and being inside the place, Julian could understand the name. The place did seem vast and endless, and this was only the first floor. Finally, they emerged out of the labyrinthine arrangement of shelves, and they came to a big mahogany wood counter with a quill and inkwell sitting atop it, along with an absolutely enormous book that Julian really hoped was a list of everything that had ever been in the shop. It was just about big enough to be that.

Cornelius shuffled behind the big wooden counter and climbed up onto a high-backed chair. He settled himself onto it and opened up his book.

"Is it going to take you a while to search?" Ellen wondered. "There was this taco place outside I was looking to check out-"

Cornelius looked up, shaking his head. "Oh, no, not long at all. You see, I have this book memorized. Your iron blade is not in here, meaning it has never been a part of the trove."

"Then what are you doing looking in the book?" Julian wondered.

"The book has quite a useful function." Cornelius winked. He flipped to a specific page, and waved his hand over it. Julian braced himself for something to happen, but... nothing did. Julian looked to Ellen, who seemed just as mystified, but Cornelius seemed to be waiting for his opportunity to say ta-da. Just when Julian was about to say something, there was a whooshing sort of noise, and a furled up piece of paper came hurtling around the corner, flying directly into Cornelius' hands.

"My Index is quite a useful tool." Cornelis said cheerfully. He closed his huge book, the Index, and rubbed the front cover lovingly, before he slid it aside and unfurled the paper to reveal a large map of Los Angeles and the surrounding area. It looked like a very dated map, but as near as Julian could tell, it was perfectly accurate, same as the map Romero had used to trace Corinne's charm. Cornelius started muttering over the map, waving his hands about, and Julian wondered exactly what Cornelius was. Was he an enchanter like Romero? That seemed unlikely, considering he hadn't mentioned enchanting any of these items himself.

"What are you doing?" Ellen piped up, and Cornelius glanced at her.

"Any item used to kill an aos sídhe would naturally become evil." Cornelius explained. "This map can detect great evil, and with it, we may be able to narrow down the location of your iron weapon."

"Any great evil?" Julian asked interestedly, but Cornelius shook his head.

"No map can account for the evil in the hearts of man. This map only detects items that have been imbued with evil or used for magically evil means." Cornelius explained. The eccentric old man went back to his murmurings, and Julian found himself pacing as he waited. Ellen gave him a knowing look, and he shrugged at her.

There was a sudden crackling, and Julian looked over as burn marks started appearing on the map, three in total. Julian looked first to Beverly Hills, but none of the three burn marks were particularly nearby. The closest burn mark to Beverly Hills was near Marina Del Ray, another was in Long Beach, and the third was way on the other side of the map in San Bernardino. The San Bernardino was the smallest burn mark, followed by Long Beach, and then Marina Del Ray as the biggest. Biggest evil and closest to Beverly Hills seemed like a good place to start, in Julian's opinion.

It wasn't super close, but it had been three days after all. He couldn't expect whoever killed Niamh Sinclair to just be hanging out across the street from her house.

"Looks like we'll start looking in Marina Del Ray." Julian said aloud, and Cornelius and Ellen both nodded agreement. The burn mark covered the whole area around the marina, there was no specific indicator of where, just a rough estimate.

"Ah, Detective..." Cornelius exclaimed suddenly. "I did have a thought, as you seem like a trustworthy sort. While you're here... I'd like to report a robbery."

"You were robbed?" Julian asked, surprised.

"Indeed." the old man nodded, shaking his head grimly. "I could not exactly phone the police about this robbery. It's... a sensitive matter."

"What was stolen?" Julian inquired, and Cornelius cleared his throat.

"Detective, you must understand, the store has magical defenses in place to prevent thefts. How they were circumvented, I am not sure, but... I am worried." Cornelius continued like Julian hadn't spoken. "It is imperative that the item be recovered quickly."

"And what is that item?" Julian demanded.

"Er... it was a Grimoire." Cornelius admitted.

"That's a book of spells, right?" Ellen squinted.

"That would be a spellbook, my dear." Cornelius chortled. "No, a Grimoire is far more powerful. It is itself a powerful magical tool, never mind the rituals entombed within. Grimoires are often locked, as was this one, but I fear that someone who could steal from the Endless Trove might be able to breach the lock and access its' secrets."

"What kind of danger are we talking here?" Julian asked. "Is it one of these three burns on the map?"

"No, no. A Grimoire is not evil, it is merely a tool. However, it can be used for great evil, especially if the owner is already a proven thief." Cornelius scowled.

"When was it taken?" Julian asked, and Cornelius shrugged.

"Last month some time." he admitted. "I did not know who to tell, but a detective seems like the ideal choice."

"Any idea who might have taken it?" Julian asked, and Cornelius shrugged.

"None! The Endless Trove is always jam-packed with people, so it could be anyone." Cornelius mused. Julian looked around the completely empty trove skeptically, and Cornelius huffed.

"Bah, just a slow day. Besides, nighttime is prime time for supernatural shoppers." Cornelius waved a hand.

"Can you describe the item for us?" Ellen jumped in, clearly trying to mimic a professional tone.

"Ah, yes. Gray book, about yay big. Very thick, with a bronze clasp across the pages." Cornelius described, gesturing to indicate a shape roughly the size of a laptop.

"Well, we'll keep an eye out for it, but I don't think we'd have much luck trying to find a random book in all of Los Angeles, unless you have a map for that one too." Julian told him.

"No map, alas." Cornelius sighed. "I appreciate any help you can offer."

"We appreciate your help as well." Ellen said in the same professional tone, and Julian hid a smirk by scratching his face.

"Of course, of course!" Cornelius exclaimed. "Do you need a guide back to the front door?"

"No, I think we know the way. Have a good day, Cornelius." Julian said.

"Bye, Cornelius!" Ellen waved, and the old man waved back.

They walked back into the maze of shelves, and after a little bit of walking, Julian looked to Ellen.

"Kind of an odd guy, don't you think?" Julian muttered.

"I liked him." Ellen shrugged. "What, er, what is he, though?"

"Not a clue." Julian shook his head.

———

Julian walked into his apartment, throwing his keys and his wallet onto the counter and letting out a long sigh. He'd steered well clear of the precinct today, and other than going over to look into Niamh Sinclair, he'd stayed away from human policework in the first place. He'd been over the Arcana Augurum, he'd hit up the Endless Trove, and he was making a lot more progress than he ever did sitting at his desk in the precinct.

As he dropped down onto his couch, some rebellious part of him thought about calling Abigail, but he shoved that part down. She was right for ditching him, he thought glumly. As much as he hated it, this was probably better for her anyway. It sure beat having a partner who lied to her endlessly. And now, Julian was free to run down his more supernatural leads. Abigail seemed to have told the precinct that he was injured, and he planned on running with that until he absolutely had to come in.

As for his leads... well, there weren't many. He had the information from Jenna about the men in the donkey and pig masks, meaning there were at least two people who were committing these serial killings. And there was the description from her about magically freezing up, and Romero's thoughts on it being a pre-set trap. Julian had looked into that, but there was no real way to track traps like that, he'd learned. Those kind of traps worked because they were mostly undetectable, especially on a city-wide scale. So, again, they had no way of figuring out who the next victim would be. Missing persons reports were being carefully watched at the precinct, but even if Julian was part of that, he likely wouldn't be able to identify supernaturals just from whatever photos of them the precinct got.

Scouring the city seemed damn near impossible, so all that left Julian with was reacting to the bodies they drop. It infuriated him that there was just nothing he could do. All of this magic in the world, and he was really no more useful than the human police. Sure, he knew a couple more odd details, but he was no closer to catching them than Abigail was. Robert and Anna Russell. Marina Davis. Jenna Downey. Miguel Ortiz. Amaya Lake. Six people Julian had failed, six people who were dead now because he couldn't get his shit together.

And then there was all of the other weird magical shit happening in the city, too. The stolen Grimoire from the Endless Trove, the stolen whitethorn ashes from Niamh Sinclair's house, the impending Equinox Gala, and Miguel and Amaya's mysterious diamond in danger. The three burns representing evil items in the area. The fallen angel, too, if Meg's visions could be believed. He thought they could though, considering she'd been the one who put the idea of interviewing ghosts in his head via a vision, and sure enough, Jenna had a djed amulet that had allowed it. Oh, and he'd barely even gotten a chance to really look into the bastards who kidnapped Corinne, either, not that he had much to go on there. Too much was going on, and Julian felt like he was being pulled a million different directions.

Whether it was the equinox or the Harvest Moon, Julian had a growing feeling dread that next week was going to be the ending of all of this, but whether it was a good or bad ending was still up in the air. He needed to figure out what the hell was going on in his city before next week, or everything might go up in flames. He had no idea what the serial killers' ritual was supposed to accomplish, likely nothing good, and if they weren't the ones who killed Niamh Sinclair and took the whitethorn ashes, then who else was trying to complete a ritual in this city? Could it be the people who'd taken Corinne? They had no problem with capturing an innocent vampire girl, would they really balk at killing an aos sídhe?

Julian felt like there were too many factions involved with this tangled mess, and he didn't even know who some of them were. That was really the problem. Julian was trying to solve a puzzle and all of his corner pieces had jumped off the table and made a run for it. Julian rubbed his forehead, standing up to go over and grab a beer from the kitchen when his phone buzzed.

He pulled it out of his pocket, and was surprised at the name on his screen.

Corinne hearted his message, and Julian exhaled. The blonde vampire girl sure had a lot of faith in him, and no small amount of hero worship, it seemed. He felt distinctly uncomfortable at her being so confident in him, but it was nice having someone tell him he could do this and wholeheartedly believe it.

His thoughts shifted to Alexandra Blackwood next, though, and a bit worriedly, too. If she expected him to produce a killer, he sure didn't have one. He had a vague location on what might be the murder weapon, but who knew if the killer had held onto it? If he knew the sword had been so thoroughly tainted by its' deeds that it could be tracked magically, he might have ditched it. Julian planned on looking into Marina Del Ray tomorrow, but it had been getting late when Julian and Ellen got back from Pasadena, he hadn't gotten to it today.

Well, at least he had something to give her if she did expect something from him. It was a better position than he'd been in before the Endless Trove. Julian collected his keys and his wallet from where he'd left them and made his way out of his apartment. Would he ever get a normal, restful night again? Downside of knowing vampires, he supposed glumly as he started back down the steps to the Cutlass.