“Something like that.”
She tipped up my chin with one red manicured nail, her light floral perfume weaving around me. “How did a Mundane such as yourself find this place?”
There was no harm in her knowing, so I shared what I’d found on the encrypted files, including the plus code and how it essentially provided an address to this place within Hedon. I explained about my suspicions of a back door, which led me to the warehouse and the golem. Though I lied and implied trickery, not magic, in opening the portal. Unlike Levi, she showed no surprise or disbelief when I mentioned the creature.
He was going to have to wise up, fast.
“Chica lista,” the Queen said. Off my inquiring look, she tapped her head. “Smart.”
“Highness?” White Rabbit Man glanced at the Queen, who nodded. “This way.”
“You going to knock me out again?” I said.
“Only if you keep talking.”
I followed him and the Queen back into the slaughter room. He touched the side of a cabinet and a dim light came on through the dark glass, revealing a kind of humidor with vials of smudges. Fourteen of them to be exact.
“These people died protecting this,” he said.
“You could make a lot of money off of them.” I kept my voice as neutral as possible, thinking furiously about how I could get them away from the Queen.
“I could,” she said, “if acquiring magic wasn’t a fantasy.” She gestured at a headless body. “One of these pendejos was quite forthcoming about that. Also about the fact that two employees had stolen vials.”
“The smudges that got loose.” I was right about the crossed-out entries. I tapped the cabinet. “Are you going to sell them, knowing what will happen?”
She wrinkled her nose. “That type of chaos doesn’t interest me.”
What kind did?
“Well, you can’t let these exist and if you try and destroy them, your people will die,” I said. “Give them to me. Levi has a way to dispose of them safely.”
“Does he? How convenient,” she said. “I believe I’ll hold onto them for now.”
My cool “as you wish” was nothing like the giant “fuuuuuuuuuuuuck” that I wanted to scream.
“Whoever is behind this has been working hard to shift blame onto the Queen,” White Rabbit Man said. “We’re going to put them out of business. Permanently.”
“And the people that were taken?” I said. “They’re helpless victims.”
“They’re yours,” he said. “If we find them first, we’ll contact you and hand them over.”
He didn’t ask for my phone number. I was becoming very popular.
“Thank you.” I hadn’t expected that from them. I gestured at the bodies. “Their employers will amp up operations now,” I said. “The clock is ticking.”
“Sí. And whoever is behind this?” The Queen sliced her hand across her throat.
While I didn’t dare protest, I also didn’t stifle my grim smile. These people had played their cards, now let the chips fall where they may.
Chapter 18
How much blood did I have on my hands?
If I hadn’t gone to the Queen in the first place, would she have found out about this operation? Would those men still be alive? Would Meryem and any others have more time before their magic was stolen? Or would all this have played out with or without me and Meryem was already a loose end that had been tied up?
And what would the Queen do with all the smudges?
Overhead a seagull cawed, the sky and waves here at Jericho Beach a melancholic gray.
I dropped my head into my hands. I been so blithely certain that I’d come back with Meryem and I’d failed. A million “if onlys” trumpeted through my brain. If only we’d decrypted the drive faster, if only I hadn’t freaked at the auction about my magic-stealing abilities and instead gotten answers from Birthmark Man. If only. If only.
I opened up my text chain with Charlotte Rose, but I couldn’t bring myself to update her. I wanted to drown myself in a party-sized bag of ripple chips with a three-pound chocolate bar chaser. Instead, I mentally indexed any possible leads. The warehouse location was burned; there was nothing further to be found there. The Van Gogh was dead and the encrypted files hadn’t yielded anything else to pursue. Talia was connected to the Van Gogh, but she wasn’t connected to this, so that avenue was out.
If the German killer had been identified from the video footage, that would be worth following up, but that was it for viable leads. I punched the steering wheel.
My phone rang with an unfamiliar number. I almost sent it to voicemail, but answered at the last second. “Hello?”
“Is this Ashira Cohen?” The woman was tentative.
“It is. Who’s this?”
“Sandra Chen. You left me a message?” The nurse from my post op ward.
“Yes. Thank you for calling me back. I wanted to speak to you about something that might have happened when I was a patient fifteen years ago.”
There was silence and then she sighed. “I know what you want to talk about. It’s why I hesitated phoning you back.”
I dropped my head against the seat. Part of me had been holding out hope that Talia hadn’t done this, but if the nurse was reluctant to speak about this? It didn’t bode well. “I can come to you, if you’d feel more comfortable.”
“No. I don’t want to see you. I appreciate that this wasn’t your fault, but it scared me and no one at the hospital took me seriously. My complaints were ignored and worse, I was chastised for saying nonsense because you were a Mundane.” Her voice shook.
“My fault for what? What did I do to you?” Because if we’re going to assign fault here and you coerced Yitzak, there’s plenty to go around.
More silence.
I closed my eyes, my gut filling with lead. “I tried to take your magic, didn’t I?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, I was a Mundane. Until a few days ago, that’s how I lived my life. It’s complicated, but the short version is that someone warded my magic back then without telling me.”
“I’m sure he did it for your own good,” she said. He? She knew about the Van Gogh.
Sandra must have manipulated Yitzak with her bio-electric magic, forcing him to comply. Could I blame her for a gut reaction, doing something to keep me from harming her? Emotions warred in my head.
But that aside, Yitzak loathed Jezebels. Assuming that was a magic type, and he’d had no choice warding me and hiding my powers, then the logical conclusion was that he’d rather I’d have been found. Probably by whatever group the German killer belonged to and who Yitzak was so desperate to please.
Why? Because Jezebels stole magic and created smudges? Or was something else at play?
“He didn’t have much of a choice, did he, thanks to you?” I said.
“What are you talking about?” Sandra said.
“You forced Yitzak to tattoo me.”
“Who’s Yitzak? I’m talking about Adam. Your father.”
My phone clattered to the floor mat. A strange disassociation from my body, from the entire world, enveloped me. I was outside myself looking down at this pale frozen figure and only the tingling of my skin assured me I was still rooted here.
“Hello?” Sandra said.
I fumbled for my phone. “I’m here. Are you sure it was my father?”
“Dark hair? Charming? Very fond of lemon candies.”
My stomach sank into my toes. “When was he there? What did you tell him? Where was my mother?”
“I’d convinced her to go home and shower. Take a break for a couple of hours. He showed up in the middle of the night, after I’d had this episode with you. I was upset, especially because my supervisor didn’t believe me.”
“But he did?”
“Not at first. He claimed you were a Mundane, but then he saw for himself and said to leave everything to him.”
There are two kinds of people in this world,
little jewel. Dad had swung me high in the air, always smiling, magnetic, a compelling personality even without his magic.
Oh fuck. Compelling. The ultimate charmer. People fell over themselves wanting to help Adam out. My father followed a Robin Hood principle of stealing from the rich and the shady. He’d never scammed an innocent person, and while he’d compelled Yitzak into betraying his principles, the Van Gogh was no innocent.
But I was.
My father had stolen my magic, redirected my life down some narrow path, and vanished once more. If he’d really done this for my well-being, he would have stuck around and helped me through it. No, whatever had gone down had benefited him and fucked me over.
All the idyllic childhood memories that I stored deep in my heart slipped ninety degrees out of alignment, leaving a dull throbbing ache.
“Then what happened?” I clutched the phone like a lifeline.
“I don’t know. I left early, but no one else reported the same thing. Seems he took care of it.”
“Yeah.” I laughed bitterly. “He did.”
“Do you have better control of your magic now?”
Well, I was sitting in my car in an empty beach parking lot with blood crawling over my skin, so I was gonna go with “no.”
“Much better,” I assured her. “One last thing. Did you ever tell my mother about this?”
“I never got the chance.” Sandra paused. “Are we done? Did you get what you needed?”
I opened my mouth to answer her, but the truth was, I didn’t know. Blood magic roiled over my body and there was a chopped-off golem’s hand on the passenger seat. What did I need? A return to a world that made sense, maybe?
“We’re done,” I said.
I lost track of how long I sat there in this slowed-down bubble of time. The beach, my car, everything dropped away into a cold fog. I’d had a happy childhood with two parents I adored, but Dad and I had had a special bond. He was the one who watched endless cartoons with me, taught me to ride my bike, and took me for secret ice cream trips, throwing Mom a wink and an unrepentant grin when I returned home sticky.
It had taken me years to reconcile those memories with the man who had abandoned us without a word and the only way I’d managed was to believe that he had no choice. That one of his cons had gone wrong and he’d had to leave. It didn’t ease my heartache, but the alternative was to accept that he hadn’t wanted us anymore. That we’d served our purpose, same as any other mark, and now he’d moved on.
But now I had proof he’d come back. I should have been ecstatic, but rage sent my magic pulsing and spurting off my skin like a fucked-up fountain. He’d come like a thief in the night and taken away my magic.
I was halfway to Talia’s office before I realized I’d left the parking lot. It was a miracle I didn’t kill anyone.
People scurried out of my way without a greeting. And that was with my magic carefully shut down. Sinaya took one look at me and hit the intercom button to let Talia know I was here.
“Have you come to apologize?” My mother looked up from her laptop and did a double take. “What’s in your hair?” She came around her desk and touched my dishevelled ponytail, frowning at her fingers when she pulled them away. “Is that clay? For fuck’s sake, Ashira. If you’re going to fall apart, then let’s get you some help.”
I stepped back, my hands up. “After Dad left, did you ever see him again?”
“No. Your sainted father never showed his face again.” She snatched a tissue from the box and scrubbed the clay off her hand. “Good riddance as far as I’m concerned. The son-of-a-bitch couldn’t even bother to return my call when I told him you were in the hospital.”
“You told me you didn’t have his new number.”
“I didn’t want you begging him to come back.” Talia dropped the soiled tissue in the trash. “He’d left and made it pretty damn clear we weren’t a priority. You were angry enough. I didn’t want to see you trapped in some cycle of false hope.”
“Then why call him after the accident?”
“He was still your father and I didn’t know what was going to happen.” Talia rubbed her eyes, exhaustion etched into every line of her body. “I assumed he’d give a damn. Obviously, I was wrong.” She sat back down at her desk, spine straight, glasses on. Ready to take whatever the world threw at her.
Never show weakness. I hadn’t only learned that lesson from Dad leaving.
“What’s this all about?” she said. “What’s done is done. Why bring up past history?”
It wasn’t the past. It was the present and maybe even the future if I couldn’t answer all the questions his presence that night raised. Even if I’d tried to take his magic, why was Dad’s first reaction to bring in a Van Gogh to ward me up and suppress it? Why didn’t he tell Talia? How did he know Yitzak? Was he aware of whatever organization Yitzak was betraying? Did Adam believe I was a threat to some scheme of his?
“I thought the worst thing Dad had done to me was to leave.” I shrugged and sat down on the arm of a chair.
“But the worst thing was not coming back when you needed him?” She reached across the desk and squeezed my hand.
The gesture nearly undid me.
I half-rose up to hug her and seek the comfort she’d always been willing to give when I was a child. How had Talia and I gone so wrong? Even though Dad and I had been closer, I’d loved my mom, but I’d shut the door on needing her. I’d taken Dad’s teachings about cons and marks and applied it to her as well, distancing us until we sat on opposite sides of this impossible gulf.
Despite all that and the fact that we sat here in her world that had no room for magic, I almost busted out my powers to prove this wasn’t a fantasy born of drugs or mindfuckery on Levi’s part because I was lost and I wanted my mom, but I couldn’t even force any words past my clogged throat.
I stood up. Talia had nothing to do with Yitzak or the tattoo. “I’m sorry for the things I accused you of before. It’s been a really long week and I was wrong. I should go.”
No lies. No games. I shouldn’t have doubted her.
“Ashira…” Her eyes sought mine and hope surged through me that she had a way forward for us. “It’s dangerous out there. Watch what you say.”
Did she believe me about my magic? Was this a veiled warning? Or a heads up? Her expression held no clarification.
“And if you insist on fraternizing with Levi,” she said. “Be careful.”
“Trust me, I want to see him less than you want me to.”
That seemed to satisfy her. Well, that made one of us.
I drove to House HQ on autopilot. One quick errand and then I could melt down.
I snapped my fingers at the snooty Executive Assistant. “Levi.”
“He’s not to be disturbed.” She didn’t bother looking up at me.
I slammed the golem hand on her desk. It was still wearing its glove so as far as she knew, this unhinged person had presented her with an overly large severed human hand. Heh. “Make sure he gets this.”
She wheeled her chair back so fast that she hit the wall behind her and bounced forward. “Go right in.”
“You sure?” I waved the hand in her face. “I don’t want to be a bother.”
“Go!” she shrieked.
I rapped twice on his door and entered.
Levi leaned back in his chair, reading a document, his feet up on his desk, and a pen in one hand. “Hmmm?”
His suit cost more than my rent and fitted him like it was sentient, calculating the best ways to enhance his aura of power, showcase his muscled thighs, and highlight his flexing biceps as he turned the page. His midnight black hair didn’t have a strand out of place; nary a wrinkle marred his clothing. Nothing dared be disordered in his world. This man didn’t fail, not in his job and not as a person.
My hair was half-falling out of its ponytail and streaked with bits of clay, my pits were sweat stained, and even though I was doing my best not to look, I was pretty certain there
was a bloodstain on the toe of my boot. I unclenched my jaw. “Did you get a hit on the killer?”
Levi finally looked over, eyebrows raised. “New look?”
“Deluxe spa treatment. You got a name for the German who murdered Yitzak or not?”
“No. He’s not in any database we have access to and there were no hits with facial recognition software.”
Of course there weren’t, because the universe was determined to ride my ass today.
“I'm assuming you’re here because Priya decrypted the drive,” he said. “Any leads on who’s behind the auction?”
“Not yet. But the Queen has all the vials.”
He sat up straight, his feet hitting the ground. “What’s she going to do with them?”
“Hold onto them. So she says.”
“Do you believe her? Because if not…” He snapped his pen. A regular cheapo pen, so no great loss. “I can’t sneak into Hedon and steal them back.”
“She wouldn’t look kindly on that, no. But I believe her. For now.” I lobbed the golem hand at Levi. “Catch.”
Levi pulled it out of the glove, his own hand dwarfed by the golem’s. “What’s with the gag gift?”
“Golem. They exist. Happy early birthday.”
He dropped the hand on his desk. “Ash.”
I hightailed it for his door and didn’t look back.
“Damn it. Wait.”
He caught up with me by the elevators. “You can’t just drop that bombshell and leave.”
“And yet that’s exactly what I’m doing.” I stabbed the elevator button, my jabs growing more frenetic, my need for a place to melt the fuck down expanding inside me like a balloon filling with helium.
The doors opened to reveal a crowded car.
“Out,” Levi said.
Everyone scrambled to abandon ship.
How fucking rich. I stalked inside.
When we were between floors, Levi hit the stop button. He planted himself directly in front of me, his arms crossed. “Finish your status report.”
“You’re not as all-knowing as you think you are.”
“Spare me the insults.”
“But Leviticus, that’s our schtick. And for the record, that was the status report. Big House Head, so powerful and in control. You don’t know shit about what’s going on. None of us do.”
Blood & Ash: A Snarky Urban Fantasy Detective Series (The Jezebel Files Book 1) Page 22
