by B N Miles
“Exactly.”
“Sure as hell beats trying to hold the spell ourselves,” Lumi said.
“We’ll be able to mark everyone inside with glyphs that’ll allow passage,” one of the contractors said, a tall woman with dark hair and pretty green eyes named Maeve.
“Really?” Jared asked. “The last time we built something like this, it was a pretty blunt instrument. Nothing in, nothing out.”
“I added a little something extra to your design,” she said with a gentle smile, and Jared got the sense she was trying not to insult him too much, which he appreciated. “Pretty simple, but effective. I’ll mark everyone, so anyone with the glyph can come and go, but nobody else.”
“That would be great,” Jared said. “Shit, I feel like I can breathe now.”
“Vampires won’t get through that,” Lumi said, “not easily at least. We’ll be ready for them.”
He nodded and held up a hand. “Thanks everyone.”
“We’ll keep the batteries charged,” Maeve said. “Least we can do, since you’re paying so much.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
She nodded and turned to go, leading her small contingent of contractors with her. Jared stretched, watched them go, then turned to Izzy. “How long do you suppose that work’ll last?”
“As long as we keep the batteries charged,” she said.
“I wish you wouldn’t have used all of them,” Penny grumbled. “I had some good ideas for those things.”
“Yeah, well, I figured keeping everyone alive was more important than your experiments,” Jared said.
“Debatable.” Penny gave him a frown then shook her head. “Anyway, I’ve got to check on some stuff.” She walked off with a wave, disappearing back into the house and down into her lab.
Jared lingered in the street, letting his eyes roam up along the wall of the wards, up to the muted gray sky, and he thought he should’ve felt some sense of oppression, some sense of being jailed. Instead, he felt a relief like he hadn’t been expecting. A smile slipped onto his face as Lumi stepped up and leaned against him.
“It’ll hold, right?” she asked.
He nodded. “Damn right it will. It’s better than our last one by a mile.”
“I thought we did a pretty good job with that.”
“We did, but we’re stronger now.”
“True enough.” She let out a breath.
“I’m just relieved we won’t have to worry so much about everyone.”
She nodded a little and looked up at him. “It’s heavy, isn’t it? All these lives?”
He was quiet for a moment then looked down at her and shook his head. “It’s not the number of them, but how important they all are.”
She laughed a little. “I know what you mean.”
“I love you, Lum. I love all of you. And all these girls under our protection, maybe I don’t love them the way that I love you and Cassie and Jessalene, but I care about them, too. They didn’t deserve what the Medlar did to them, and they don’t deserve to be hunted down and murdered by Vampires. It’s the injustice of it all that pisses me off the most.”
“You’re a bleeding heart, you know that, right?”
“It’ll get me killed one day.”
“I hope not.” She got up on her toes and kissed him. He held that kiss for a moment, then released it and looked into her eyes.
“How’s your Need?”
“Driving me wild.”
“Good.” He looked over at Izzy. “Me and Lumi are going to go fuck each other’s brains out. Would you like to join?”
Izzy stretched and seemed to consider. “Well, I suppose that sounds like a good time.”
Lumi laughed, walked over, and took her hand. Together, they walked back to Jared’s house and headed inside. As the girls disappeared upstairs, already kissing each other, laughing and stripping down in preparation for what he had to assume was going to be a fuck fest of epic proportions, he looked out at the city block and caught sight of a few women poking their heads from windows, from doorways, ogling up at the barrier stretched out over their home. He smiled to himself before turning inside again and shutting the door behind him.
17
Jared spent a quiet few days beneath the dome.
Bea’s team went out scouting. Izzy and the other Independents made some improvements to the ward system to the point where Jared was genuinely impressed by their ingenuity. There was this belief, clearly not true, that Independents were sloppy and weak and lacking in subtlety. Magi were trained from a young age by other experienced Magi and sent through trials with the Fist of the Magi to hone their powers and sharpen their abilities—but the Independents had none of that. Because of this, the Magi families all assumed Independents were weak and unskilled.
If they knew how strong some of them were, and how intelligent they could be, the families would shit their pants.
He lounged on the roof deck, drinking a beer and staring up at the muted afternoon sun. Jessalene stretched next to him in a small green bikini, a little smile on her face, the light shimmering off her beautiful pale green skin. She looked like a goddess, frozen in plant life, and he couldn’t get over that smile, her long legs, her smooth skin, everything about her. He downed his beer, crushed the can with magic, and tossed it into a trashcan ten feet away.
“Nice shot,” Jessalene said lazily.
“Thanks. Been practicing.” He cracked open another. “I know we’re supposed to be out hunting for Wade right now, but—”
“Enjoy your time off,” she said. “Who knows when you’ll get it again.”
“Probably never.”
She sighed. “Have you thought about what comes after all this?”
“Not really, if I’m honest. Living day to day over here.”
She peered over at him and frowned. “I’ve been thinking about it.”
“Of course you have.”
“Eventually we’ll need more money to take care of all these girls, right? I mean, your cash isn’t endless.”
“That’s true, although I think Nikki and Lumi are both still filthy rich.”
“Can’t rely on them forever.”
“Are you suggesting I sell my body?” He waggled his eyebrows at her. “I see the way you’re looking at me.”
She tapped her lips with her finger. “Hm, maybe. A bit scrawny though. I’m not sure we’ll get much for you.”
“Burn.”
“I’m just saying, we need to start planning for the future.” She sighed and stretched her arms up above her head. “Some of those girls are still in bad shape.”
He nodded but didn’t answer. He’d seen some of the Metas staring off into space for hours at a time, not moving, not responding when prompted. Izzy said they were still in shock, and whatever the Medlar did to them left some seriously deep and long-lasting psychological trauma. The girls in the best shape still had PTSD and were hanging on by a thread—the worst were near-catatonic and needed constant care. The girls helped each other, and the ones that were functional pitched in for those that weren’t, but that couldn’t last forever.
They’d need to hire nurses, a team of doctors, food and clothing and housing and—
Jared squeezed his eyes shut. This was why he hadn’t let himself think about the future too much, because the present was bad enough, and he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to take care of everyone the way he wanted.
“I’ll figure it out,” he said. “I have some investments.”
“I’m sure you will. I just worry, is all.”
“I know you do.”
“I want to keep all of this, when this is over. If we can, anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
She gestured into the air. “The houses, the girls. I want to keep helping them, if we can. I always wanted to open up a school, you know?”
Jared laughed. “We could turn it into a school that teaches young Independents about their magic.”
“Oh, that
’s a good idea.”
“I was joking.”
“No, really, think about it. There are plenty of Independents out there, so it’d be an income stream. We could teach young magi how to use their powers, and then use that money to fund taking care of any stray Metas we come across.”
Jared grunted. “But then I’d have to become a school teacher.”
“You can be the headmaster.”
“I do like the ring of that.”
She gave him a look and grinned. “Headmaster Bechtel. I skipped third period and mouthed off to a teacher. I think I need to be punished.”
“Well, well, well,” he said, shifting toward her. “I’m disappointed to see you in my office again, Miss Jessalene, but not surprised. You’ve always been very bad.”
She laughed and was about to answer when the door opened. Jared turned as Penny stepped out onto the roof, looking harried and tired, her hair a frizzy mess and her eyes bloodshot. She marched over with a laptop under her arm, pulled a small side table up in front of Jared and Jessalene, and plunked the laptop down without a word.
“Uh, hey Penny,” Jessalene said. “What’s that you’re doing?”
“Computer,” Penny grunted.
“You’re going to have to be more specific,” Jared said.
“Wieland’s computer.” The machine booted up and a lock screen appeared. She typed in a quick password, hit enter—and it unlocked.
Jared sat up. He knew she’d been working on cracking it, but he had no clue how much progress she’d made. The hard drive had been encrypted and password-protected, and she’d made it sound like they’d never break the encryption in a million years.
Apparently, she was wrong.
“How’d you get it open?” he asked, slightly breathless with excitement. His little game with Jessalene was completely forgotten.
“Borrowed one of the batteries,” she said. “Siphoned off some of the power and ran my encryption software.” She seemed to wake up a bit as soon as she started talking about her tech. “Basically supercharged my processing speed, and instead of taking a few hundred years, it took a few hours.”
“That’s sort of terrifying,” Jared said.
“Right?” She laughed and opened a folder on the computer. “There’s a lot on here. Some of it is bullshit, but some of it’s important. Like these emails, for example.” She leaned toward them, squinting. “They’re between Wieland and some guy named Aran Medlar. Apparently, they’ve been moving Wade around all over the place, never keeping him in one spot for long while they set up the final ritual space.”
“It seemed like they had something ready in that last facility,” Jared said.
“Maybe, but apparently there’s another place they want to use.” She clicked into another email thread. “They sound desperate, Jared. Really desperate. I think our attacks have done more damage than we realized, and now they’re running out of options.”
“I like the sound of that,” he said.
She shook her head. “I don’t know if you do. These emails make it seem like the ritual is happening really, really soon.”
He glanced over at Jessalene and she frowned back at him. “How soon?” she asked.
“I don’t know. They’re all vague about timelines, and Wieland’s responses get more and more mixed up. I think as he got deeper into his addiction or whatever happened to him he got real fucked up. Eventually that Aran guy stopped responding all together.”
“How long ago?” Jared asked.
“The last email from him was two weeks ago. Everything beyond that seems pretty jumbled, so I’m guessing Wieland went off the deep end around that point.”
Jared nodded, frowning. “Does it say where they’re setting up?”
“No,” she said. “But it’s the last major power nexus. That’s all they said.”
“Is there anything else useful?” Jessalene asked.
“I haven’t had time to go through it all. Wieland had a lot of very… unusual porn.”
Jared raised an eyebrow. “Really? Okay, no, never mind, I don’t want to know.”
“Think, inanimate objects, and feet, and holes—”
“No, seriously, I don’t want to know.” Jared stood up and walked over to the laptop. “Mind if I go through this?”
“Be my guest.” Penny stood and stifled a yawn. “I should probably sleep at some point.”
“When was the last time you got some rest?” Jessalene asked.
“I don’t know. Yesterday? Maybe the day before. At a certain point you sort of stop being tired and just kind of drift along.”
“Pen.” Jared put his hand on her shoulder. “Go to sleep. Right now. Go downstairs, find an empty bed, and sleep in it. Okay?”
“I guess.” She smiled at him. “I did good though, right?”
“You did real good. Thank you.”
She nodded to herself and headed back inside. Jared watched her go and shook his head.
“She’s going to work herself to death,” Jessalene said.
“Yeah, probably, but I think that’s what we need right now.” She looked at the computer in his hands. “If she’s right about them planning to start the ritual soon, we may not have much time.”
“Which means we need to find that last facility sooner rather than later.”
“Damn right we do.”
Jessalene groaned and stood up. “I guess the vacation is over.”
He smiled, leaned over, and kissed her. He lingered on her lips. “I’ll make it up to you.”
“Oh yeah? How?”
“I won’t go into detail, but if you keep that bikini on—”
She laughed. “I don’t think I can wear this all day. But how about I put on a plaid skirt, and a button-down shirt, and you punish me for skipping class?”
“Sounds good to me. Prepare for a very, very intense detention with your much older and very handsome Headmaster.”
“Can’t wait.” She kissed him again then headed downstairs. He watched her go before sitting back down with the laptop and scrolling through the files.
He drank another beer, then another. He eventually found the porn Penny mentioned and instantly regretted opening the file. He figured he’d have to burn out his own eyes when everything was over, but he kept sifting through the documents. After a couple of hours, he found one thing that caught his eye.
It was an email from a minor household retainer. Magi families had core members, the blood relatives, and a whole host of greater retainers that weren’t related by blood, but were loyal by oath. The richer and larger families had a lot of retainers, while the more minor families had a handful at most. The Bechtel family had none—they didn’t want to share the secrets of their double-memgram power with anyone outside their blood relatives.
This message went unanswered, so clearly Wieland didn’t think it meant much, but Jared realized what it implied. The retainer mentioned that the Waters family had blocked another proposed use of the Fist of the Magi and were causing the Medlar a lot of problems on the Magi council—and apparently were beginning to interfere with some of their financial dealings. It seemed like petty power grievances at first glance, and it wasn’t unusual for one major house to cause problems for another, but after a closer look Jared realized something.
Magi families fought for position, power, and wealth all the time, but they rarely went out of their way to target a particular house, and almost never actively sabotaged their rivals. There were a lot of back alley dealings and dark web spy games, but most houses kept that stuff off the books and out of sight.
It seemed as though Waters had given up on trying to be subtle and were actively working against the Medlar family. Jared stared at the email, read through the list of grievances again, and slowly shut the laptop lid. His mind worked on the problem for a second, and he let out a frustrated sigh.
He needed help. They could keep sending Bea and the girls out to scout out known locations as much as they wanted, but in the end that co
uld take weeks or months or years. They didn’t have months, certainly not years, and might not even have weeks. He needed information and needed it fast. The Vampires were out of the picture, so that left the only other major power in the world: the Magi families.
The Waters family looked as though they wanted to take the Medlar down a peg, and Jared figured the enemy of their enemy and all that. They might be willing to help.
Maybe not, but maybe. As far as he knew, Waters had never been involved with the Bechtel family, so there might not be any preconceived ideas about their relationship that he’d have to navigate. The last thing he wanted to do was to dive back into Magi power politics, but they were desperate, and he was willing to do whatever it took.
After considering it for a moment longer, he opened up the laptop again, logged into Wieland’s email account, found the email address of the highest ranked Waters representative he could find, and typed them a very polite email. Since it was coming from Wieland’s account, it would get flagged and read immediately—and Jared hoped the content would be persuasive enough to get the gears moving.
He hit send, put the computer aside, cracked open his last beer, and waited.
18
The Parkway Central Library was an enormous Beaux-Arts style building with elaborate pediments and grand columns made of what looked like smooth marble. Jared doubted it was actually marble—it was Philadelphia, after all— but the library looked more like a temple than a public building. That was probably on purpose, considering the art museum at the opposite end of the Parkway was designed to look like the Acropolis perched atop its hill.
Jared walked up the main steps of the Central Library and pushed open the large doors. Lumi followed close behind him, looking bored and put out. She’d argued against this meeting several times, but Jared knew they needed as much help as they could get, and he was willing to reach out to whomever he could.
The library opened into a spacious lobby with high ceilings and elaborate tiled floors. Racks and racks of books were spaced out all over the place, and the main help desk was set up to the right, with not-so-friendly staff glaring at every person that dared to enter their domain. Jared ignored them and moved further into the building, heading back toward the elevators, and took the stairwell up.
