Tessa promptly burst into tears and ran out of the building.
Flynn whirled around. "Of all the stupid stunts you've pulled, this was by far the stupidest."
"I'm sorry, Flynn. I thought she was a mage." I hobbled to my feet. My back ached and I noticed that my ankle was already swelling.
"How could you possibly think my sweet Tessa is a killer?"
"Because nobody's that sweet," I yelled. "Or that flexible. It had to be magic."
Flynn ran a hand over his face in exasperation. "Alyse, get a grip. I'm sorry about your situation and I'm sorry someone's taking advantage of it by trying to frame you or kill you or whatever, but I wish you'd have come to me with your wild theories before attacking my girlfriend."
"I didn't plan to attack her. She showed up." Tessa's tearful face flashed in my mind and I tried in vain to block it. "If I'd come to you, you never would have believed me."
"Because it's bullshit," he roared. "You finally see me settled and happy and you're determined to destroy it."
My jaw came unhinged. "Are you out of your mind? This isn't about you and me. This is about finding the killers before they strike again. This is about protecting innocent people."
"Well, Tessa's innocent. Great job you did protecting her. She'll be scarred for life and I'll be alone. Again."
"Sorry about that," I mumbled.
His broad shoulders drooped. "I guess I can kiss our happy life goodbye."
"Why did you show your face if you didn't want her to know?" I asked. "You could have attacked me as a bear. Wouldn't be the first time."
"A bear would have given her a heart attack," he said. "Besides, she knew I'd come in here with you and I wasn't about to sit back and watch you skewer her alive."
"I wasn't going to kill her," I said. "I only wanted her to confess so I could call PTF." I wasn't going for vigilante justice. I had every intention of going through the proper channels.
He didn't respond. Instead, he gestured weakly to my ankle. "You'd better put some ice on that. It's already swollen."
"You should go after her," I urged. "She's probably frightened."
"Gee, I can't imagine why." He gave me one final look of disappointment before he disappeared into shadows and darkness.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The next evening Farah made a valiant effort to cheer me up by summoning one of her favorite movies. We were near the end of Steel Magnolias when my phone buzzed. I pretended to wipe away a stray piece of hair as I deftly removed a tear from my cheek. What was wrong with me? I never cried, certainly not over a fictional character. It had to be prolonged exposure to my human body. That was the only reasonable explanation.
I glanced at the text. "It's from Mix," I said, my excitement rising. "He wants me to meet him at Dive." If memory served, Dive was a hipster bar in Northern Liberties.
"Finally! He's come to his senses," Farah said and elbowed me gently in the ribs. "See, it's not all bad news today."
I shook my head and tucked the phone into my back pocket. "He's right, though, Farah. I'm a coldhearted, terrible friend."
"Bullshit," she said. "That's in his own twisted head. Do yourself a favor and stop letting males fall in love with you. Causes too many problems."
"It wasn't love, Farah. Not really." I was simply a phase for Mix, a crush, and that was probably the reason our friendship survived. If it had been a deep, unrequited love, he never would've gotten over it.
"I'd come with you," she said, "but Rocco's picking me up in an hour."
"Ooh, Rocco again. The sex must be pretty good if you're going back for seconds."
She gave me a coy smile. "Let's just say he's more adventurous than he looks."
I did not want to travel down that mental road. "May the Force be with you."
"The size of his light saber might surprise you."
I held my hands over my ears and began to sing.
"I'm getting a shower," Farah yelled. "Say hi to Mix for me." She disappeared down the hall and I reread the text to make sure I was going to the right place. I didn't want to be late and risk pissing off Mix any more than I already had. My list of friends was shrinking by the day.
I took the Market-Frankford Line to Northern Liberties. The brick building was nondescript on the outside but oozed character on the inside. An exposed brick feature wall, hardwood floors and mismatched decor made it a favorite with the hipster crowd. Or at least it had been once upon a time.
The bar area was adjacent to the lobby so I headed there. No sign of Mix. In fact, no sign of many people at all, other than a hostess on her phone and a bored bartender. I guess Dive had taken a dive.
I shot off a quick text. Where are you?
Another text pinged. In the Bukowski Room.
Then I remembered. There was a private room in the back connected to the bar area. Apparently, Mix had money to spend with his IT earnings. But why was he meeting me here? If there were more people around, I'd think it was the tail end of a work function.
I pushed open the door. Mix and Paulette sat a small round table, sharing a bottle of wine.
"You invited me on your date?" I asked. "I would've thought you wanted to keep me away from your girlfriend. Otherwise I might damage her, right?"
I realized that the head I thought belonged to Mix was thinning on top. Mix had a full head of hair, courtesy of djinn powers.
The man turned around to face me. "Miss Winters, so good of you to come."
My mouth opened and closed like a fish.
"Hugo?" I glanced to Paulette and back to Hugo again.
Paulette whispered a few words and I heard the click of a lock behind me. My pulse raced.
"Paulette, what's going on? Where's Mix?"
She refused to meet my gaze and I knew. Mix didn't send the text. My stomach dropped.
Hugo wiped his mouth with a linen napkin and smiled. "You, my dear, have fallen into our laps at the perfect time. It was as though the gods themselves had answered our prayers."
My eyes darted around the room, checking for escape options and potential weapons. I only had my daggers on me, not the Glock. If I didn't have these damn shackles, I would've blown a fireball straight out the back wall and walked over their charred corpses on the way out.
Hugo pushed back his chair and stood. "How about I show you our great achievement? I hate for you to die without knowing what your contribution will be. It wouldn't be fair."
He crossed the room and pulled a tarp to the floor. I gasped in horror at what was beneath it. Strapped to a table was a horrific creature, his body parts stitched together as if by hand. Despite a reasonably attractive head and ripped muscles, he was a patchwork quilt of butt ugliness.
"You're the murderer," I said, more to myself. I couldn't stop staring at the monster on the table. The legs were too long for the torso and the neck seemed too short. Even the skin colors didn't match.
I tore my gaze away and looked at Paulette. "How are you involved in this?"
The question was a mere formality. I already knew the answer. Paulette was more than a human with a Third Eye.
"I work for Hugo," she said.
"You're an unregistered mage," I said.
Her eyes met mine and I saw a hint of defiance in the angle of her chin. "Hugo is creating the ultimate weapon. He'll take over the colony with his creation, and I won't have to hide my magic anymore."
"When did you discover you had magic?" I asked. "Wait, let me guess. When you were older. Sixteen? Seventeen?"
Her expression darkened. "Twenty."
"Wow." I whistled. Magic manifestation past the age of eighteen was almost unheard of. "You really were a late bloomer." I inclined my head. "Why not tell Mix? You know what he is. Why lie?"
Paulette glanced at Hugo. "I was already working as Hugo's secretary when my magic manifested. He said it was too dangerous to tell anyone since the registration deadline had passed, so we agreed it would be our secret. He warned me all about unregistered mages."<
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I frowned. "Warned you that what? The Enclave would want you to register? What's the harm?"
"I missed the deadline. They would ban me from practicing magic," she said.
"It's on a case-by-case basis," I said. "Your magic bloomed late. They wouldn't hold it against you."
"But then I'd be subject to their control," Paulette said hotly. "I'd have to answer to them."
"And you don't answer to anyone now?" I challenged her. "It seems to me you're already under someone's control. At least the Enclave could help you hone your skills. You're one of them. They'd protect you."
To be fair, I understood her concerns. I wasn't a fan of being watched and assessed and I didn't trust large, organized groups. I was a lone djinni and generally liked it that way.
"Hugo's been helping me," Paulette said.
"Using you, more like."
Paulette's cheeks flamed. "Hugo and I are a team. We have a plan."
"Once we successfully breathe life into George," Hugo began, "he will serve only me. Answer to my commands. He will be unstoppable."
"You named your ultimate weapon George?" I queried. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. "And how do you propose to animate your Frankencorpse here? Wait for a bolt of lightning? I hate to break it to you, but the sky is clear. I even saw The Big Dipper on the way here and I never notice that stuff."
The smile quickly faded from my lips. Suddenly I understood why I'd been lured to this room and it wasn't because they needed an audience. An icy chill spread through my veins.
"Look Paulette, she's finally caught up," Hugo said, noticing my expression. "That's right, Miss Winters. You are the key to unlocking our secret weapon." He bowed deferentially to Paulette. "It was my lovely assistant's idea. It seems she doesn't like you very much. Something about getting in the way of a boyfriend."
"I'm not in the way," I told Paulette. Given the fact that he wasn't speaking to me, I couldn't be more out of the way. "Mix loves you."
"He's been different since you've come back to town," Paulette said, her tone thick with accusation. "Moodier. He even snapped at me over watching my house hunting shows. He never minded before."
"Mix and I are friends. Period. Full stop. End of story."
"Still, I don't like what your presence has done to our relationship. And your death solves a problem for both of us," Paulette said with a mild shrug. How did I ever think she was cute? She had a face like a llama. What did Mix see in her?
"And you think Mix is going to be happy with you when he finds out you murdered one of his best friends?" I asked. "He'll dump you faster than you can say 'backstabbing bitch'. Hell, he may even kill you."
"How will he find out?" she asked, her eyebrows raised. "You won't be talking because you'll be dead."
"Is that why you own a semiautomatic with copper bullets?"
Paulette smiled and reached into her handbag on the floor. "You mean this?" She withdrew the semiautomatic and placed it on the table in front of her.
Well, at least I knew where it was now. "Why have a gun if you're planning on killing me with magic?"
"Magic is only one part of the equation," she said primly.
"The gun is for defense," Hugo added. "For the final death, we have something very special." He looked directly in my eyes and smirked. "And perhaps familiar."
He produced an object from his satchel and I sucked in a breath. O'Leary's scian heirloom. That lying scumbag had it all along. He must've swiped it the day O'Leary showed it off to his mobster colleagues. That special dagger forged from copper and cold iron, specifically designed by O'Leary's ancestors to kill djinn. To kill me.
I shivered.
He handed the blade to Paulette and she continued to chant as she accepted the weapon, her palms raised and flat. This was why the heirloom was stolen. The blade had probably been soaked in enough djinn blood over the centuries to retain some of its victims' powers. And now they intended to use it to kill me and merge my magic with the others'. Despite the clear and present danger, I had to admit -- there was a certain poetry to it.
"And you think my great and powerful soul will infuse this room and you'll gather it all up." A harvesting spell so they can raise the dead. Fabulous.
"I certainly hope it's as simple as you make it sound," Hugo said, rubbing his hands together. "I could do with a good night's sleep. All these late nights don't fit with my usual schedule."
"What about these?" I asked, holding up the copper cuffs for examination. "What if they prevent the nuclear explosion you're banking on?"
Hugo shrugged. "Then you'll simply be dead and we'll find another djinni. We'd prefer a Marid, of course, because yours is the most powerful caste, but any djinni will do."
"The spell will work," Paulette said, with an air of confidence I hadn't seen in her before. "Djinni magic flows through your veins. The cuffs don't change that fact. They only serve as a muzzle."
So my djinni soul was more useful dead than alive. It figured.
"Hand over your phone, please," Hugo said. "We don't need you making any calls for help."
I removed my phone from my pocket. "I was leaning more toward a selfie with your friend here." I nodded toward the carefully constructed corpse.
Hugo looked calmly at Paulette. "Take the phone."
She held out her hand and uttered an incantation. Then I heard her say, "To me."
The phone flew from my hand to her outstretched one. I was not expecting that.
"That was a present from Mix," I said. "He'll be pissed if you break it."
She set the phone on the table next to the gun. Oh, that gun was so close yet so far.
The only weapons on my person were the jade daggers strapped to my calves. With Hugo and Paulette watching my every move, I'd never unsheathe them in time. Then again, I only needed to kill Paulette. Without his mage, Hugo was useless. Without the carefully constructed corpse, however, their whole plan was a wash.
"Why the body puzzle?" I asked. "Why not use a single intact Naphil?"
"I'm testing a theory," Hugo said. "Each contributor possessed his own unique magic. The humans were accidents and the parts discarded."
"Contributor?" I queried. That was an interesting way of looking at it.
Hugo glared at me. "If we blend all their magic together and then infuse George with all the djinn magic absorbed by the scian, I'll have created the ultimate weapon."
"You're insane," I said. Insanely smart. His plan could work. George would have the strength and skill of a Naphil and a djinni. And Hugo would be his master. If Hugo then managed to kill enough Nephilim and djinn to make an army of Georges, he'd be unstoppable. I couldn't let that happen.
I lunged for the table.
"Kill her," Hugo cried.
"I can't yet," Paulette said, wringing her hands. "The spell isn't ready."
He scowled at her. "Then get it ready. Now."
I took refuge behind Frankencorpse. Paulette must have already worked a little magic on their creation because there was no rotting flesh smell.
Crouched behind the table, I slid my jade daggers out from their hiding spots as Paulette began to chant.
"What's going on?" I heard a familiar voice say and my heart stopped. No, no, no. How did he know to come here?
I peeked out from behind the corpse. My worst fear was confirmed. Mix was here.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
"Take him," Hugo demanded.
I watched Paulette's expression shift from anger to fear. She cared for him, that much was clear. It didn't change the fact that I was going to kill her as soon as I could get my hands around her llama neck.
"Mix, shift," I yelled. "Get out now!"
Mix blinked, scanning the room for me. "Alyse?"
"Dammit, Mix!"
Too late. Hugo whipped out a gleaming metal choker from his satchel of torture and snapped it around Mix's neck. Made from cold iron, no doubt. These two were more prepared than a troop of Boy Scouts.
Mix dropped to the ground, clutching at the choker and writhing in pain.
"Stop," Paulette pleaded. She grabbed Hugo's arm. "Please. He's not part of this."
Hugo glanced at me and flashed a triumphant smile. "He is now. Unless she comes out, we'll kill her friend instead. Either way, she ends up dead."
"He's a Jann," Paulette objected. "We agreed to use a Marid."
Hugo shrugged. "True. He's not as powerful, but, as I said, any djinni will do."
Paulette moved to comfort Mix, who was on the floor, his body curled into a ball. I shuddered, reminded of my own pain under the copper net in Monaco. I could only imagine how much pain I would've endured had I been conscious when the cuffs were put on. Small mercies.
I couldn't watch Mix suffer like this. Brandishing my dagger above Hugo's beloved monster, I said, "Let him go or I will rip Humpty Dumpty into so many pieces you will never be able to put him back together again."
Hugo's jaw tightened. "Then I will simply create another one. It won't be easy, but nothing worthwhile is." He inclined his head toward Paulette. "Her magic is powerful enough to hold you both prisoner until we've accomplished our goal."
Cuffs or no cuffs, I was not going to let that happen.
Mix grunted in agony as he twisted his neck to look at Paulette. "Magic?" he whispered. "What does he mean?"
"She's an unregistered mage," I called from my safe place. "She and Hugo are behind the murders."
Mix fought to sit up. "I don't understand."
Paulette gripped his arm. "I never meant for you to get involved. Why are you here?"
"Called Farah..." His voice was weak. "I went by to apologize...No one was there."
He must've been confused to learn that I was meeting him here.
"She's Hugo's secretary," I said. "They have a stupid plan for world domination. Tell him the truth, Paulette. You owe him that much."
Paulette's eyes narrowed. "It isn't a stupid plan. Hugo has outsmarted everyone. The Dragon will take notice now."
So Hugo wanted the Dragon's attention. A supernatural zombie warrior would do the trick. I wondered whether that was the real reason he left Vito's group and moved into accounting. I had the sense that Vito ran his gang with a much tighter fist than O'Leary.
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