Pure Logic

by Jo Penn

Nodding, Talent folded an official document and affixed his Judge’s seal in wax. “Good. We’ll amp up the shields and lock Zenobia out, but we have to stay vigilant if we are to secure the globe and keep everyone safe.”

  “That we will, Judge.”

  Rico spoke up. “I would like to make a suggestion.”

  He went through the list, the most important being that all pouvoirs returned to the shielded lands and the younger ones attended college, which would be a place of learning about all supernaturals and developing powers and magic.

  “And what about you, Rico Logic?” Talent’s blond brows rose, an expression of challenge in his eyes. “The mission for the globe is still running, but you have a place at the council. I, for one, think it’s long past time you took it up.”

  Rico glanced at his watch. “Look at that! I better get back to the Castle. Uri’s made a Bulgarian casserole delicacy that he said he’ll heat up.”

  “Yes?” Darkness’ stomach growled.

  His linkmate was an excellent cook and should never be kept waiting. Otherwise, Uriel threw everything to the dragons.

  “Yep. We better head home. Catch you round.”

  Teleporting home, the pains of Zenobia betraying easing, they were just in time to wash up and take their seats at the long wooden table in the kitchen. Callum and Freddie were already seated and being told to put away their weapons, which was Freddie’s new sword and Callum’s array of black daggers. Callum loved his daggers.

  “’Bout time,” Uri huffed. “I don’t cook for nothing. Sit, eat.”

  It was good to be with family. And it’d be good to catch that bitch Zenobia.

  * * * *

  There was loud bellow and a few shrieks coming from outside that woke Rico the next morning. Rolling over, he saw Freddie was still asleep and peered at the drawn black blinds. Uri was bellowing something about a dragon stealing his iPod.

  Hopping up, Rico splashed water on his face, took care of business, and dressed quickly. He rushed downstairs and straight into the castle library. From the safe, he withdrew the fragile old parchment he’d put back together piece by piece over the years and sat at the center table studying it.

  Hours passed. Family came and went. He ate the food brought into him, drank, and worked on the parchment. Others arrived and joined him, most curious about the parchment and wanting to see it.

  “Mine?”

  “Stop touching the parchment.” Rico smirked as, yet again, Jules Colton’s hand was inching toward the parchment.

  Gods, the imp pouvoir was high in the imp lineage and brilliantly smart, which was why he was here with Rico.

  Sniffing around, Jules gagged a bit from the glue, coughed, then leapt back as his older brother Jazz waved his wand. Jazz had a hell of a lot more imp tendencies than Jules, Talent was way under both, and as all three were here, Rico was wondering how much work was going to get done.

  With the final piece now glued, Rico smoothed the parchment out on the table, Jules looking over one shoulder, Jazz the other, Talent across the table with Dark, Torr, and Golden.

  Rico smirked. “You lot expecting something special to happen here? Fireworks? Magic images appearing?”

  “Uh-huh! Where’s the globe? Come on, genio, show me the globe.” Jazz nodded vigorously.

  “I wish it were that simple, Jazz. Jules, as your hand is itching to touch again, go ahead.”

  Jules’ aqua eyes widened in delight, and he immediately put his hand on the parchment. With a squeal and yelp, Jules jerked his hand back and dashed around to Jazz.

  “Oooh, poor brother got magic zapped.” Jazz patted his brother’s head. “’Kay now, we know not to touch, don’t we?”

  “Uh-huh. It kinda stings still.”

  Rico glanced over at Jules’ hand, which was being inspected by Jazz. “I’d put some healing cream on that.”

  “There’s a good lesson for you, heorte. When an Arkman Tarok lets you touch, don’t.” Talent grinned.

  Jules laughed. “It was fun. So, lots of magic covering the parchment. Want me to test it? I’m real good at testing magics.”

  “First put some healing cream on, and then you can test,” Rico said distractedly, frowning over the parchment.

  He could feel the magic, shields and a lot of neat little tricks and codes embedded and knew this was not going to be a simple task to crack.

  “Ouch!” Stung by the parchment himself, Rico inspected his hand. “Well, that was one of the codes.”

  “How long will it take?” Torr asked.

  “Pushy much? You wanna give it a go?” Rico retorted.

  “Gods no. I’ll just stand here pushing for a quick result.”

  “You do that. Thanks.” Rico took the container of cream Jules had fetched and applied some to his hand. “Okay, this is what we need to do. Jules is to test what creature magics there are, I’ll work on the codes and tricks, Dark will break the shields, and, Jazz, when all the coverings are gone, use your locator magic to fix in on the globe.”

  “Sounds like it’ll take a while,” Dark commented.

  “In the meantime, it needs to be kept safe here. This parchment leads to the soul globe, and like I have said before, I don’t want my family in danger, or the brethren, but we can’t let it out of the lands.”

  “Duplicate.” Jules sniffed around Talent.

  “What’s that?” Torr asked.

  “Jules is thinking that we should copy the parchment, just in case anything happens,” Talent explained.

  “That’s not a bad idea, Jules.” Rico glanced up at Jazz. “Doom’s a drawing creative. Is he able to do a copy?”

  “Err, sure, I think. We’re still getting to know each other, but I can call him and see if he’ll come over. Punk’s a creative, so is Larkana, Mace’s daughter. Could get three copies – oh! Make it real confusing for any bugger trying to steal the parchment.”

  “Sounds good. I need to take some time studying the parchment before any tests are done, and right now, I’ve got an appointment so wrap this up and I’ll get into it tomorrow.”

  “An appointment? What appointment?” Torr demanded.

  Wrapping a cloth over the parchment, rolling it and tying the string to keep together, Rico stood, checking his watch.

  “A date.”

  “I like dating,” Jules said and looked longingly at Callum, who was lounging in an armchair back from the table.

  They were soul mates. They’d known since they were babies yet had not linked. Callum was having trouble with the idea of sharing his mind once they joined. Rico felt sure it was more than that, but his brother was keeping his own counsel.

  “Date?” Gloom frowned slightly. “Ling and Henri do this. Mace and Linux have date nights, and I watch over their daughter, Larkana. Litton, I want a date.”

  Torrent smiled and played with the ends of Gloom’s hair. “Okay. Does that mean you’re moving in with me?”

  “Moving in?” Hales skidded into the library with a dragon, a juvenile named Dante. “That’s good. I was worried we had to move into the Leung’s home. No offense, Gloom, but that’s not my home.”

  Gloom studied the dragon. “The dragons will be disturbed by me. Your young dragon here is shaking, and the dragons outside are restless with my presence.”

  Rico glanced at Dante and saw Darkness had a hand on his head, soothing the young creature. He hadn’t considered how the dragons would feel with a powerful gargoyle pouvoir in their territory.

  “That will change once we are joined,” Torrent assured Gloom, but the Guard of Justice teleported away. “Damn.”

  “’Kay, now let's go. I’ll ask Doom about creating the map.”

  “Thanks, appreciate it, Jazz.”

  “Let’s crack those codes fast, Rico.” Talent snagged Jules and teleported away.

  * * * *

  The date was fun. Rico took Freddie to one of the towns in the pouvoir-shielded world. He could tell his mate was surprised to find it wasn’t something out of a movie
but rather similar to any other town around the world. The only difference was that, here, supernaturals had homes and didn’t hide their creature appearance. The shops were the same. There were banks, cafés, bars, parks, and schools.

  They had a good time. Eating pasta at a restaurant, ice creams in a park, and just wandering around talking. He should have been working on the map, but he wanted to be here with Freddie. Rico wanted a life. He wanted to be part of others’ lives again. They ended up spending most of the day there and into the night eating dinner then went to a bar where he discovered Freddie liked to dance and loved karaoke. And he was damn good at it. Completely out of tune and forgetting some words, he rocked the stage and had everyone laughing and singing along with him.

  There were a few brethren here that Rico enjoyed talking to and Freddie was fascinated with. His mate had thought that all pouvoirs were defenders and guards, but they weren’t. Some were shopkeepers, others teachers, musicians, and bus drivers.

  By the time they got home, it was late and the castle was quiet. Freddie had a bit too much to drink, Rico rolling his mate into their bed, taking off his shoes and letting Freddie sleep.

  Tonight had been one of the best of his long life.

  Rico jogged down the Castle steps to spend an hour or so going over the parchment before he’d crawl into bed with his mate. He needed a coffee though, a strong one, and headed to the back of the castle.

  Darkness was still up and eating ice cream in the kitchen with Golden and, to Rico’s surprise, the infamous de Ville twins. This pair represented the extremist of their kind, and no one in their right mind should ever get in their way or take them on. They were pure goodness though.

  “Evening, twins.” Rico went straight to the coffee machine.

  “Doom, Punk, and Larkana have all been over and copied the parchment, brother.”

  “No problems?”

  “No. The twins wish a word with you.”

  Surprised because he never had much to do with the twins, Rico collected his full cup—there was always coffee brewing—and, leaning back against the counter, faced them.

  “Anna and her son, Henri Anwar Stretton, are the Defenders of Souls,” Jett Wild said quietly in heavily French-accented English. “The globe belongs with the Soul Defender, oui?”

  “Yep. Once it’s found, it’ll be given to them.”

  “The globe, it is designed to bring in a person’s soul and then release. But also to guide a soul defender to a specific soul. This is what jumeau and I think. You give us logic.” Wild’s clear, perfect blue eyes studied Rico seriously. “Soul mates must be found. They will be targeted by crāwan. If a soul mate dies, a brethren feels the pain of loss. They wither and die inside, their soul shattering. Then they follow their lost soul mate to the next life to be together.” Wild’s lush mouth tightened. “Or they become twisted, filled with hatred and pain. Like Zenobia. Like Lex and Santo. They become our enemy and join the crāwan.”

  Rico winced. “I didn’t even think of that. Shit, the numbers are growing, aren’t they? How many have we lost?”

  “Over the last few hundred years, five. Now Zenobia. And we all hurt.” Wild’s blue eyes flashed black and quickly back, reminding Rico of the de Ville’s Elfin side, one you ran freaking fast from. “This will not continue. We plan soul mate search teams and want to have Anna and Henri use the globe to connect and center their soul magic. With us increasing their strength, and moi tracking when a connection is made, we find and bring soul mates in.”

  “That’s fucking good, twins.” Rico nodded, stunned at how much they’d considered.

  “Jumeau have idea.” Orlando sniffed his twin affectionately.

  “Non, idea ours.”

  The twins were irresistible and normally spent minimal time with others. Nor did they show much affection to anyone else, but as Freddie came into the kitchen, both pinned perfect, clear blue eyes on him, both standing and sniffing. Rico used an energy beam to draw his mate into his arms.

  “Purity. We are most happy for you, Rico Logic, your mate, and your family. Our idea has merit?”

  “A hell of a lot, twins.”

  Uri was up and sniffing Freddie. “Tired. Back to bed and rest.”

  Freddie smiled, collected a water from the fridge, and walked out of the kitchen with a good night and adorable springing walk.

  Wild smiled, Rico glad the smile wasn’t one that could kill and maim. It was a deadly beautiful ability Wild had. Killer smiles.

  Rico was thinking. “We could also use the globe to try and trace our betrayers.”

  “Bon. Come, jumeau, home now.” The twins vanished.

  Darkness, wearing only a pair of black track pants, moved to the sink to wash out the bowl. Rico said goodnight and left with his coffee, looking back a moment later to see Darkness leave the kitchen with his arm across Uriel’s shoulders and speaking quietly in his linkmate’s ear.

  Rico headed to the library with his coffee, amazed at the twins’, or Wild’s, brilliant idea. Wild was the ideas man, and this idea was life saving. The twins were really coming through for the brethren. It left Rico with a good feeling.

  Up until he pulled the parchment out of the safe. To make Wild’s idea possible, Rico needed to find the globe. Rico got to work immediately studying the codes and symbols.

  He was surprised when his brother and Dark’s linkmate sat on either side of him.

  “The burden is no longer yours alone, brother.”

  “No, so stop hogging the parchment, or I won’t use goblin magic or illuminate the codes and crap.”

  Smiling, Rico straightened. “I’m glad of the help, brothers.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Four cups of coffee later and the sun now moving high across the sky, Rico sat back in his seat, tired, sniffing the air and stomach rumbling.

  They’d worked solidly together, navigating magic, shields, and unusual spells that were set up to trick. They had one code to go. Uri was busy working on the magic covering it. They were all tired, drained, and determined. He couldn’t help but be impressed again by Sacra Jarvis, who worked so hard to put the parchment with all its little tricks together.

  “Morning.” Callum came in, followed by a baby Dragon. “How’d it go?”

  “Only one code to go, frate.”

  “Can’t do it on an empty stomach. Breakfast is waiting in the kitchen.”

  The baby Dragon, GiGi, had crawled up Uri’s leg and was now having her stomach tickled, Uri calling her pretty and purring.

  Breakfast sounded like the best idea in the world. Rico hurriedly put the scroll away, and Darkness covered it in a shield, and then Rico bolted to the kitchen, where he pounced on Freddie who was squeezing oranges to make juice. He’d hardly been able to concentrate on the parchment knowing his mate was in bed without him. The amount of times Dark had given Rico a look to say “close your dirty mind, brother,” were countless. But hell, there was no way to stop his thoughts and need.

  Freddie kissed Rico’s cheek then nudged to the sink. “Wash your hands.”

  Grinning, Rico washed his hands and was knocked out of the way by Dark, who was waiting his turn. Rico sat down to a large breakfast and joined in the banter then helped Uri Golden clean up. Golden hated anyone messing his kitchen and whined the entire time about juice spilled and things in the wrong place.

  After a fast shower, Rico returned to the library, passing Freddie, Hales, and Callum in the hall, who were all gathered around an iPad. Rico thought it was best he see what they were up to.

  “I think sea blue,” Hales said.

  “The entire castle?” Callum looked pained.

  “You’ve got to mix it up, guys!” Freddie exclaimed.

  Rico moved away fast and returned to the library and worked for the next few hours. Brethren came and went and still no success. Jazz and Jules tried with their imp magic, and even the twins stopped in and used elfin, but though it caused a crack in the magic, it didn’t work. They suggested black ma
gic.

  Torrent asked Gloom to come and try. Rico realized that if not for the brethren assisting, he would have been trying for days, perhaps months, researching all the different magics and spells before he found the ones that worked. Gloom studied the parchment serenely. Doom appeared beside him, and they conferred a moment before Gloom waved his hand over it and murmured a few words.

  There was no noise, no fizz and sparks. Rico grinned and watched the map reveal itself, ignoring how everyone crammed close around him.

  “Is that..?” Golden gave a funny little screeching noise.

  “I think it’s—”

  Rico cut Darkness off. “Can’t be. Do we have one of those old maps?”

  Darkness went to a drawer and rifled through while the rest of them studied the delicate old parchment. When Darkness returned and spread out a map, they looked between them, did a few navigation calculations, which Rico was useless at, and they all agreed where the globe was.

  “Piccadilly Circus.”

  “Crap. Jarvis probably chose it because there was nothing really there five hundred years ago, yet it was close to London.” Torrent sighed. “Now it’s flashing lights and people. Does the map show us exactly where the globe is?”

  “Right where the winged fountain is.”

  “Terrific,” Rico muttered.

  “There is a simple solution,” Gloom murmured.

  “What is that, mate?”

  “Kekipi Akana is the Defender of the Earth. He will sense for the globe and draw it out of the ground using his magic then return the ground to the way it was.”

  “Brilliant. But what about the magic coverings the globe will have?”

  “If there is an object in the earth that is covered by magic, it will be easier for Kekipi to sense,” Gloom said. “Anna will also sense the globe when she is close. I will inform her to be ready.”

  “Let’s not waste time.”

  “I’m ready!” Freddie rushed in. “No way I’m missing out on this!”

  “We will have to wait until it is dark and late in London,” Darkness said.

  They all looked at the wall clock. It was five in the afternoon.