Blood & Ash: A Snarky Urban Fantasy Detective Series (The Jezebel Files Book 1)

by Deborah Wilde

  Get the one answer I’d been denied all these years or ask questions to help someone else?

  Her tapping foot ticked off the seconds. She stopped, the sudden silence clearer than any buzzer that I had to choose.

  “My father doesn’t matter,” I said.

  “Bueno. What price are you willing to pay?”

  I crossed my arms as best I could with the handcuffs on. “First of all, you said I had a choice and I chose. And second of all, what kind of cockamamie business are you running that you set terms after the agreed-upon negotiation and never mind, you’re a criminal.”

  “I prefer visionary.” She motioned me forward and unlocked the cuffs, the mild arch of her eyebrow enough to make me nod that I’d behave. “That part is still a favor.” She smiled like the cat who swallowed the canary. “But I’m guessing you want to leave Hedon?”

  I rubbed my wrists. “What do you want?”

  “Show me your magic. Montefiore sent you for a reason.”

  “That’s a second date move. I’ll take my chances getting out of here.” My magic danced inside me and I curled my fingers into my palms to keep it from bursting out.

  She smiled. Too many teeth. “I insist.”

  “I don’t have any,” I said. “Though the cuffs really added a rock and roll punch to my outfit.”

  The Queen jangled the cuffs menacingly. “You’re lying.”

  “Ashira Cohen. Check the House database. I’m not in there.” I showed her my P.I. identification which marked me as Mundane. She might come after me once Levi decided to enter my magic into the records, but I’d deal with that when the time came.

  “That makes you even more interesting,” she said.

  “You have no idea. Now, I showed you mine and I’d like to leave.”

  She inclined her head regally. “Await my call. Oh, and Ashira Cohen?”

  I turned around, eyebrow raised.

  “You and I are going to spend some quality time together. Soon.”

  “Can’t wait.”

  My exit from Hedon was an anticlimactic elevator ride, but oh goody, my life was livened up by Levi’s stupid mug. He sat on Moriarty’s hood, his hair a raven’s blue-black in the sunlight with a pair of shades obscuring his eyes. He was the picture of cool and unaffected in his camel trench coat, his long legs stretched out.

  I sat down beside him, leaning back on my elbows with my face turned up to the sky, grateful to have made it back to the light.

  “I’m sorry about last night,” he said.

  “Words many a woman has heard from you.”

  “You were scared of the smudge. But afterwards, even though you were mad, you also looked terrified. If that was because of me, I sincerely apologize.” He took off his sunglasses, his remorse clear.

  “I’ll accept your apology for mindfucking me instead. What happened after wasn’t about you.” I shook my head at his inquiring look, not ready to discuss my dark side wanting to rip out his magic.

  His eyes drifted to the bruises on my neck, then back up to my eyes. “Hedon was useful?”

  Miles was such a tattle tale.

  “The Queen of Hearts was useful.”

  Levi fumbled to catch the sunglasses he’d dropped. “You just waltzed in and saw the Queen?”

  “Pretty much. She finds me interesting.”

  “That’s not a good thing. Do you know how she got her name? She consolidated her power in the underworld after a string of beheadings. In one night, all the other players were gone. There was never any evidence tying her to it, but the next morning she was top dog.”

  I exhaled slowly, the sunlight infusing my soul. “That’s probably true and I’m sure it bolsters her position for people to think that, but that’s not what the moniker refers to. Or not entirely. Pro tip. If you ever take that elevator ride to Hedon for the first time, be prepared to face your heart’s deepest desire.”

  “I thought the way in was fraught with monsters.”

  “When it’s the Queen seeing into your heart? It is.”

  He looked like he wanted to probe more deeply, but all he said was, “You okay?”

  I shrugged. “I survived.”

  “You do that a lot.”

  I braced for some sarcastic sneer but there was nothing but admiration as he gazed down on me. “Don’t do that. It’s unnatural. We’re still nemeses.”

  “Moriarty and Holmes admire each other,” he said.

  “Dude, check your ego. Do you even know anything about Moriarty?”

  “He’s Sherlock’s enemy.”

  “He’s a criminal mastermind. Which takes you out of contention.” Besides, I might be Moriarty in the grand scheme of things. “Though you both dislike anyone smarter than you.” I batted my lashes at him.

  “I’ll up my game,” he said dryly.

  “You’re more Watson.”

  “The boring sidekick? Hardly.”

  “I’m just saying, you’re no Moriarty. Uh, one minor thing. In order to keep my magic a secret, I told her you were the one to see the smudge.”

  “So if this blows up, the Queen of Hearts is coming after me?” Levi said, annoyed.

  “Probably. Scared?”

  “No shit, Sherlock. As I should be and so should you. She’s incredibly dangerous. And here everything was going so well since I last saw you.” He slipped his shades back on. “I knew you were the kind of woman to ruin my day.”

  “Aww, Leviticus,” I said. “Don’t tempt me. Properly motivated, I’ll ruin your life.”

  “I don’t doubt it. So we’re good?” he said.

  “Once you clean up the graffiti at the skate park near the youth shelter on Powell Street.”

  Levi snorted a laugh. “You didn’t. Not that stupid Baskervillain handle you used to doodle on everything.”

  “You have never appreciated how cool I am.” I pulled out my car keys. “Is that the only reason you came by? To see if I was okay?” That was actually decent of him.

  “No. I came to tell you that my people found the woman that the smudge went into at Green Thumb. She’s still alive and I want to keep her that way. Pay her a visit and destroy it.” He texted me the details.

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really. It can’t be allowed to exist.”

  “Not that. I thought you didn’t trust anyone else on this.”

  “I don’t. But I can assign grunt work without raising suspicion. This woman needed to be tracked down and the more assistance I can give you, the faster this gets resolved. If anyone else gets hurt, or the press gets wind that the smudge exists, the damage to our Nefesh community could be catastrophic.”

  “It’s not the fault of the community at large. No one blames all Mundanes when one of them blows up a building.” I stood up, the keys jangling, but Levi didn’t get my hint.

  “Not one white person,” he said. “But if they’re brown? Or Muslim? Works the same way with us. Did you know that Baghdad used to have a thriving Nefesh community?”

  “Iraq is one of the worst persecutors of Nefesh. What happened?”

  “Back in the 1960’s, a Rogue went on a killing spree in a department store. Eighty people dead including a very well respected Imam.”

  I unlocked Moriarty. “Yikes. Is that when they turned on the magic community?”

  “Yeah. The reprisals were swift and brutal. Not only that, they whipped neighboring countries into an anti-Nefesh fervor, which has never changed. We live a very fragile existence.”

  Levi’s sense of responsibility to his people ran deep. It was an admirable quality in a House leader but how much time did he spend ensuring the general impression that his community was safe and strong, not even through magical means, but by inspiring his people to make it so? He was the king on the chessboard, thinking six moves ahead and hoping he didn’t sacrifice a pawn.

  “You’ll do anything to make sure your Nefesh stay safe, won’t you? And now you’re stuck relying on a person whose mother is dedicated to upsetting that bala
nce. That can’t be easy.” I opened the car door, which squeaked in protest.

  “I don’t believe in the sins of the father. Or the mother. You may be one of the most irritating human beings I’ve ever met, but I’ll admit you give everything to your job.”

  Warming under his surprising praise, I stilled. “You have a file on me?”

  “Like you do with me.” Levi’s limo pulled up to the corner exactly as he stood up. Damn, he was irritatingly smooth.

  “More a napkin with some notes in leaky pen,” I said. “Three bullet points, tops.”

  Levi winked at me. “Hidden depths, baby.”

  Chapter 11

  Noemi Rosen was a mid-level Sensitive, able to detect sound-waves. No sneaking up on this woman. Her hair was shaved down to the scalp without a trace of stubble so she’d buzzed it recently.

  I pretended that Green Thumb had sent me to check on her and make sure she was okay after witnessing their employee James’ death.

  “That was nice of them, but this visit really wasn’t necessary.” She kept me on her front stoop.

  There wasn’t that same rotting flesh and feces odor as when the smudge had been in Miles, but if it was no longer inside Noemi, and I was positive it wasn’t, then how was she still alive?

  “You haven’t experienced any odd symptoms lately, have you?” I said.

  Noemi rubbed a hand over her head. “Other than hair loss, vomiting, and mouth sores?”

  “I didn’t realize. I’m sorry.”

  She smiled. “It’s okay. I finished chemo a few days ago and my prognosis is good.”

  I was all for Noemi’s continued health, but where was the smudge? If I’d stuck around when the light had turned green that day, would I have seen the smudge jump into the next person? Or could the chemo have killed more than her cancer cells? Had that treatment saved her life in more ways than one or had the smudge moved on because of the chemicals in her body?

  At least the visit with Noemi allowed me to slot in another piece of this puzzle. James had been a very low level earth elemental, which meant the smudge fed upward since Levi’s notes on Noemi ranked her magic higher.

  I stifled a laugh. The smudge that had flowed out of Miles had been undecided as to whether to jump into me or Levi, so I was more powerful than Miles and could apparently, give Levi a run for his money. I was totally sharing that fact some time.

  From there, I swung by House Pacifica to kill two birds with one visit. HQ’s lobby was bustling today and I hurried to the elevator banks to make it into one of the packed cars.

  “Yo, Nancy Drew.” A voice boomed out from behind me.

  The uniformed cops entering the building with their coffees laughed like their burly Staff Sergeant Novak was the world’s greatest wit.

  “Find any missing cats lately?” Novak smirked. That had been my first case, finding that cat. I’d solved it by dinner, and in the process, had the misfortune of meeting this cop. He was never going to stop giving me shit about it.

  “Just your wife’s pussy.” I jerked a thumb at one of the cops. “Lewis had it.”

  Novak lost the smirk. “Fuck you.”

  “Not in any universe whatsoever.” I got on the next elevator, scratching my nose with my middle finger as the doors slid shut.

  I let out a low whistle as I got my first glimpse of the massive House library, all detailed woodwork, with that glorious smell of warm paper, wrapped in a hushed reverence.

  Elke, the good-natured librarian with a slow and calming manner, was happy to assist me.

  When I asked if it was possible for magic to only appear after a traumatic event, she confirmed that although she’d never heard of it happening, it wasn’t impossible.

  As she explained it, DNA, the genetic material that determined our physical characteristics and made us who we were, was also responsible for a number of diseases with a hereditary component, like cancer, diabetes, Huntington’s, and Alzheimer’s. The risk of inheriting them was passed down from our parents, but recent findings confirmed that DNA wasn’t necessarily set in stone.

  Researchers had shown that DNA could be modified by our environment during childhood and that these modifications could affect how or when a person developed certain illnesses later on.

  “But I’m talking about magic, not disease,” I said.

  “There are those who believe that, genetically, it’s the same thing,” she said. “Remember, magic didn’t evolve. It invaded us.”

  I mulled that over. If magic had originally been a recessive gene in me, but the trauma of the crash and surgery had turned it on, that would explain why I’d thought myself Mundane. For all intents and purposes I had been Mundane during my childhood.

  It also might explain those crazy clusters that had eaten the smudge. The smudge was a magic entity that had invaded a Nefesh host. If I followed the disease supposition then those clusters could be the magic equivalent of white blood cells attacking a disease. It was blood magic, after all.

  “That gives me a lot to think about, thank you.” I said. “One more question. Ever heard of anyone having blood magic?”

  “No.” Her eyes gleamed. “Does it exist?”

  “I’m looking into it.”

  “Let me know what you learn.”

  “Sure.” Eventually, Levi would have to put my magic on record. Good to know that at least one person would be happy about it.

  Neither Miles nor Levi were around to get me access to the Van Gogh. As I headed to the elevator to go upstairs and see if anyone else could authorize it, my footsteps slowed and my fingers drifted up to the single line of the new ward the Van Gogh had burned into me. Let him stew one more day. It couldn’t hurt.

  I texted Levi that the whereabouts of the smudge that had been in Noemi was inconclusive.

  He texted me back when I got home that Miles had paid the Van Gogh a visit but he still wasn’t talking. How sweet. Levi had sent his resident badass in on my behalf. Hmm. I wondered if Miles ever freelanced, because there was a pizza delivery guy I’d love to give an attitude adjustment to.

  Priya was in the bathroom, angrily typing with one hand on the laptop that was balanced on the counter, while curling her hair with the other. She glanced up at my entrance. “Three pages long. Was he fucking kidding me?”

  “Wow.” I had no clue who she was talking about, but when Priya got code red mad, she tended to simply include you at whatever part of her ranting she was at. “What did it say?”

  She grabbed a set of damp crinkled pages from where they’d been tossed in the sink and shoved them at me.

  I got two paragraphs in and winced. One of the partners of the company she was working for had sent an email mansplaining to the female coder what a database was. “Oh my.”

  She stabbed at a section on page two. “Not only does he fundamentally not understand that a database is not a magic box, but he had the gall to tell me that his nephew who got accepted to computer programming in the fall assured him that every single change he wanted could be done. Never mind that I have years of experience.”

  I placed a hand on the top of her computer. “Would now be a bad time to remind you that the bathroom is a laptop-free zone? Remember, work-life balance starts in the toilet.”

  “I’m balanced. You’re the one with a neck that looks like a zombie gnawed on it. There’s arnica cream in the drawer.” She used her hip to indicate which one. “Use it.”

  I slowly lowered the top of her computer but she brushed my hand away.

  “I need to fix this one buggy line of code.” She savagely ripped the printout into pieces and tossed them in the trash.

  “Uh-huh.” I uncapped the tube and smeared some arnica lotion on.

  Priya unplugged the curling iron and set it on the tile floor to cool. Her eyes flew across the screen, then she typed a quick series of commands, before picking up the laptop and carrying it out. “See? Done. I’m taking the rest of the night off.”

  “Good.” I followed her out.
<
br />   “By the way, I wrote you an algorithm to narrow down potential hospital employees to a short list of suspects. Should have something for you in the morning.”

  “You never cease to amaze me.”

  “That’s why you pay me the big bucks. Oh, wait.” She grinned at me. “Want to come for a late dinner with me and Arkady?” She detoured into her bedroom to deposit her laptop on her dresser and grab a coat.

  “Getting pretty buddy-buddy there, Pri.” I lounged in her doorway, turning sideways to let her into the foyer.

  “Aw. I’ll always love you best, baby.” She shrugged into her jacket.

  “That’s a given. Just be careful. He moves in and wants to be besties? We have no idea who this guy is. Did you know he was in the army? How come he didn’t mention it?”

  She paused, black ballet flat in hand, looking around for its match. “You did a background check on him?”

  “Yes. If a right-wing racist homophobe moved in next door, steps would need to be taken. His story seems legit, but still.”

  Priya wandered through the apartment holding her shoe like it was a dowsing rod, so I joined in the search, locating it with a cry of triumph under the couch.

  “Sometimes you have to have faith in people.” She slipped the flats on and grabbed her purse.

  I laughed. “No. That’s exactly what you don’t want to have. Present company excepted. I have ultimate faith in you.”

  “Not everyone is out to screw you over. Your constant suspicions have narrowed your world.”

  “My world is narrow because people are just not worth knowing.”

  “I call bullshit. Either way, you need to branch out from just me.” Priya opened the front door. “If you want to join us, we’ll be at Park West. Arkady specifically asked me to invite you.”

  “Another night.”

  She threw up her hands. “You’re always like this. I feel like I'm your lifeline to the world and I’m sick of it, okay? Most people are only out there trying to connect, but you refuse to see that. Your dad wasn’t some saint dispelling gospel. He was a con artist who seriously fucked up your ability to have relationships.”