by A C Spahn
“What you think I need to know and what I think I need to know are not even in the same zip code. What else haven’t you told me? How many more secrets do you have that might get me killed?”
His palm slammed on the table. His other hand seized the knob of a desk drawer like it was my neck. “You are hardly in a position to talk about secrets. Remember that you hid yourself from the Union for years, evading the law.”
“Evading your control, you mean.”
“Your powers, all supernatural powers, must be regulated.”
“And with all the trouble the Voids are having, you still think you’re qualified to–”
kadum
I burst up from my chair in shock. Harrow startled and wrenched open the drawer, but I was too alarmed to pay much attention. My senses stretched out, feeling for that pulse of magic. It had been there, but now it was gone.
kadum
Another one thrummed in my brain, then vanished.
“You have a problem,” I said, hearing a quiver in my own voice. When I turned back to Harrow, he was in the middle of closing his desk drawer once more. But he wasn’t fast enough. I caught a glimpse of a black metal barrel before the drawer slammed shut. Harrow watched me, his posture still guarded. My jaw clenched. “You can keep your gun locked up. I’m not going to attack you.”
His impassive features were entirely unapologetic. “I hope not. We still need each other, Miss Morales. Now more than ever.”
“You certainly do need me now,” I growled. “Something’s leaking magic into your building.”
I followed the pulses of magic, tracing them as they grew stronger until I narrowed down their origin. Harrow and Axel accompanied me, the latter on guard, the former maintaining his air of unshakeable confidence. But I’d seen him jump, when he thought I was about to assault him. He wasn’t immune to fear.
The magic led us halfway down the building to the floor above the medical wing. Kadum, kadum, kadum, the pulses drew me to the morgue, to the body drawer holding the young man we’d found in the cemetery.
Carefully I rested my fingers on the drawer’s handle. KADUM! KADUM! KADUM!
“It’s him,” I said, yanking my hand back. “The magic on his body, it’s dissipating.”
Harrow jerked his chin at the drawer. “Open it.”
I moved aside so Axel could pull out the slab. The boy’s body lay on it, unclothed save a sheet at his waist for modesty. His enchantment tattoos were more pronounced atop the pallor of death. Yet the largest one around his heart looked significantly thinner than before. I pointed this out. “The enchantment is bleeding off, fading back into the ambient magic in the area.”
Harrow’s lips compressed as if this were my fault. “Is this a problem?”
“I don’t think so. This building is still full of Voids. I only felt little pops of magic before it disappeared.” Repelled by whatever trait made Voids impervious to enchantments. Another kadumkadum of magic skirted my senses before fleeing. Then another. Stronger here, closer to their source, but still nothing compared to what I felt on a normal day. “It’s probably just because this enchantment is so powerful. Otherwise I doubt I’d be feeling anything at all.”
“What about these?” Harrow asked, sweeping his hand over the few other tattoos on the corpse.
I peered closer. “They aren’t fading. Not as much as the bigger enchantment.”
“Is that normal?”
“I’m not sure.”
Axel shifted his position so he loomed behind me. “Don’t lie.”
“I’m not lying!” Heat rose in my cheeks. “If I was lying, I’d do a good enough job that you wouldn’t see through it. But I’m telling the truth. I don’t have a lot of experience with magic on dead bodies. Most of my knowledge is secondhand, or stuff I’ve seen putting down ghosts for you people.”
“And what does that experience tell you?” Harrow asked mildly.
With effort, I calmed my tone. “That the weaker enchantments should have bled off before the stronger one. But that one doesn’t even look faded.” I pointed to a particularly dark enchantment tattoo on the body’s stomach. Something prickled in my memory, and thoughts connected. “We’ve been seeing more ghosts this month than you said normally rise in years. This might be a symptom of the same problem.”
“How so?”
“Ghosts are born when an enchanted person dies and their magic doesn’t know it. Magic is linked to life. That’s why enchantment tattoos look different than enchantments on inanimate objects. A ghost’s enchantment is trying to stay alive, and it produces an afterimage of the person that sticks around until the enchantment itself dissipates. It’s not supposed to happen. What do you usually do when ghosts pop up?”
“Lock them in a silver cage in the holding cells until the corpse’s magic bleeds off naturally,” Harrow said. “It’s fortunate that we have your assistance at this time to put them down faster. We don’t have enough silver cells to contain this many.”
I waved away the compliment, though I noted it as a possible peace offering. My thoughts were busy chasing down this line of reasoning. “All these ghosts mean all their enchantments aren’t working quite right when they die. Earlier this week, one of the ghosts fought with far more power than she should have had. And now we have a corpse whose magic isn’t bleeding off the way it’s supposed to.”
Axel rose on the balls of his feet. “He’ll become a ghost?”
“No, he’d have done that by now. I think ...” I hesitated to voice my suspicion, because it sounded like fearmongering. But it was where the evidence led, and if there was the slightest chance I was right, these two men needed to know. “I think the ghosts and the magic dissipation might be related to the same problem. Something is causing magic in San Francisco to stop working correctly.”
Axel and Harrow were silent as they absorbed my words. Then Harrow asked, “Can you fix it?”
“Seriously?” I blurted, anger returning in a heated flash. “I don’t even know what the problem could be, much less how to fix it.”
“You know magic more than anyone else in our territory.”
“Yes, but everything I know that can cause magic to behave erratically is small-scale. It wouldn’t raise ghosts all over the Bay Area, and it wouldn’t stick around for weeks on end. This sort of thing is usually caused by someone weaving a powerful enchantment, or a random flare in the world’s magical field. They happen, then go away. Like an injury, or a papercut. This ... this is more like a disease.”
“You’re saying magic is sick,” Harrow said warily.
“Yes. That’s the best way I know to describe it.”
He stared at me for a long, silent moment. I had the uncomfortable feeling my words were being weighed. Finally he said, “It seems the obvious solution would be to eradicate the germs.”
“I wish I knew how.” I shrugged. “There’s no precedent for something like this. I can’t do anything about it until I know why it’s happening.”
Harrow sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “As if we didn’t have enough to fret over. I will continue to research this. You will do the same. If you learn anything, anything at all, contact me.”
“Will you pick up your phone this time?” I asked drily.
His eye twitched. “I suppose I deserve that. Yes, I will answer any of your calls immediately, and ensure the rest of the Union knows they are to accommodate whatever you need. The problems you are solving are more dire than the others on our docket.” He waved a hand, and Axel moved to close the body drawer, hiding the enchanted corpse once more. I watched the door close, resisting the urge to trace my own enchantment tattoo.
Harrow eyed me. “How is it that trouble surrounds you so predictably?”
I smiled wryly. “Magic.” To my surprise, he chuckled.
Axel gently pressed my elbow to start me walking toward the door. The three of us returned to the hallway, heading for the elevator. “If you are to survive long enough to fix this,”
Harrow said, “we’ll need to deal with the man hunting you.”
Dread simmered in my gut. Right. I had to think about that again, too. “He’ll come after me again. Probably next time a ghost rises. I’ll keep an eye out, and take him down.”
“Simple, but inartful. I would hate to lose such a valuable asset to chance.”
“I guess you don’t play the stock market.”
This time he didn’t laugh. “We need to capture this tracker, learn what he knows of your cult’s information system and plans.”
“Good luck. Vince is an expert at staying hidden.”
“I’m sure. But we do have something he will pursue, something that will lure him out of hiding, something that will tempt him to strike.” His smile made icicles prick on my skin. “You said the cult knows how to find your car?”
Chapter 12
“DON’T LOOK NERVOUS,” Axel told me. We sat outside Orion Towing, peering through a chain-link fence at rows of impounded cars. Axel’s sports car engine thrummed through the entire hotrod, vibrating me from toes to hair. It matched my shivers as I contemplated what I was about to do.
“You promise you’ll be able to surround him?” I asked.
In the back seat, a small woman squashed between two other Voids scoffed. “Is she always this jumpy?”
My eyes closed. I understood the need for lots of Voids to help with this operation. I just wished Janette the Hunter didn’t have to be part of it. “Yes,” I said. “With reason.”
“We’ll get him,” Axel told me, ignoring Janette.
Inhale. Exhale. “I guess it’s time to go.” I opened the car door and stepped out onto the chipped sidewalk. The second I shut the door, Axel pulled away, flying down the street in a streak of red and chrome.
Stop shaking, I told my knees. The pulsing of magic on my skin was a comforting reminder that I was armed. Besides that, I had an arsenal of enchanted jewelry in my purse and on my body, though only five for the latter. Wearing more enchanted items at once made it hard to distinguish which magic I wanted to use. Desmond was somewhere nearby, ready to leap in when needed, as were four other Voids.
This first part had to be done on my own.
As if sensing my thoughts, a red squirrel hopped along the telephone wires overhead. Kendall looked down at me, tail twitching, and flicked her ears. She couldn’t do more than keep a lookout without giving away the ruse, but I welcomed the encouragement like a balm for my raw nerves. Using me as bait for Vince was a good plan, likely to work. I repeated that to myself until my nerves settled into something resembling cohesion. With nothing else to excuse delaying, I threw my shoulders back and marched myself into the Orion Towing office.
Ten minutes and several hundred dollars later, a worker finished removing the boot from my little car’s rear tire. I didn’t bother inspecting it for hidden booby traps. The cult wanted me alive, and intact. They wouldn’t try to kill me. Not until it was on their terms, anyway. Paranoia made me give the car a quick once-over, though, checking in the trunk and backseat. Nothing there but spare art supplies and my roadside junk pick-ups, from the skein of orange yarn that had been behind the driver’s seat forever, to a battered vintage suitcase I only vaguely remembered.
Key in ignition. Engine on. Reverse, back out, drive to the exit. I operated by rote, barely noticing the gate guard raising the bar to let me leave, nor the way my bobble-head wizard’s head toppled off as I went over the speed bumps leading to the street. My eyes scanned my surroundings, trying to see every direction at once.
Since we only went ghost hunting at night, we assumed Vince spent his days watching the impound lot, waiting for me to come reclaim my towed vehicle. Kendall had been surveilling the area for hours in squirrel form and hadn’t seen any sign of him, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t out there. Was he the man rushing out of that coffee shop? The figure bundled in a thick jacket with the hood up? The driver of the green van following me? The black sedan turning left up ahead?
Once I pulled onto the freeway, I relaxed slightly. Vince wouldn’t risk abducting me in fast traffic. Too many witnesses, too much risk of causing a news-worthy pileup. Instead I kept my attention on the passing vehicles. Axel’s team was supposed to form a perimeter around my car, escorting me to my destination. I spotted the dark blue sedan Desmond had borrowed a few car lengths behind me, and a yellow Beetle driven by a woman who looked vaguely familiar passing me on the right. No sign of Axel, of course, since Vince would have watched his car drop me off, and seeing him again here would raise suspicions.
Still no sign of Vince in any of the passing cars, either. My heart began to sink. What if he’d seen through the trap? What if he didn’t show? Every ghost sighting would become a potential trap, a time when Vince might pop out to kill me. Harrow might insist I surrender to Union custody, for my own safety. I didn’t like the idea of putting my security entirely in someone else’s hands.
Cold metal pressed against my ribs. “Keep driving.”
The wheel lurched as I jumped, nearly ramming me into an SUV that would have flattened my little sedan. The other driver honked. Heart in my throat, I wrenched the wheel back to center and regained my own lane. A quick glance down showed me the silver barrel of a handgun, with a silencer, pressed into my side. Screams writhed in my chest, but couldn’t escape through the panic freezing my throat.
Vince crouched behind the passenger seat, all his attention on me. He had the body of a runner, lean and hard, always poised to spring. At first glance, he was pretty. A closer look revealed the predator beneath. Within his deep green eyes lurked the unforgiving chill of sea storms.
“We’ve missed you, Adrienne,” he said, his voice soft as a snake’s hiss.
Breathing felt like a herculean task. My eyes darted between him and the road ahead. How had he gotten in? He wasn’t in the car when I swept it for traps. It had to be enchantment of some kind. Where were Desmond and the others? How long did I have to signal them before ...
“Don’t bother trying to alert your bodyguards. Their perimeter is obvious to anyone who knows what to look for. They won’t be coming to your rescue.” Keeping the gun pressed to my ribs, Vince slid over the center console into the front passenger’s seat.
Finally a word squeaked out of me. “How?”
“Simple layered enchantments.” He held up a plain silver ring, then pocketed it. “One to disguise myself as one of those pieces of junk back there. Another to make me seem familiar to anyone who looked.”
I risked another glance at the backseat. The vintage suitcase was gone. My fingers tightened on the steering wheel. I should have checked more thoroughly, touched every item in my car to feel for enchantments. Of course, Vince’s magic had probably thrown off my mind enough that I would have overlooked him even then.
My mouth felt dry as sand, but I tried to moisten my lips. “Please ...”
“Don’t beg. It’s beneath us. You may be a runaway, but you’re still an enchantress. Show some self-respect.”
Think, Adrienne. No one is coming to save you. Find a way out. I drew in a bit of magic from the air, letting the kadumkadumkadum in my head push away the terror that wanted to reduce me to a sobbing little girl. The magic’s pressure ached, but it sharpened my mind, gave me an anchor point.
“Geralt needs me alive,” I said, amazed at how little my voice trembled over the name. “You can’t shoot me.”
Vince laughed dryly. “Most of your enchantment would last a day or two after you died. I could probably get your corpse back to him in time. Of course I’d prefer not to have to rush, and the Mentor would prefer your enchantment completely whole, but if you force my hand, I will kill you.” He sounded as invested as if he were stating what he intended to have for lunch.
I took quick stock of the enchantments I wore in my jewelry. My new shield ring would do no good here. Vince’s gun was right against my body, and I couldn’t form a shield between us fast enough. My bracelet that conjured a magical dagger was equally too s
low to help. My sensory ring held six layered enchantments that enhanced each of my senses and slowed down my perception of time, but activating that one would skew my perceptions and ruin my ability to drive. A car accident at freeway speeds would be just as fatal as a bullet, plus take out who knew how many innocent bystanders. That left my strength bracelet and my anklet of speed. If I got my hands on Vince, I could fend him off, and I could easily outrun him, but neither helped against the immediate threat.
Kadum went the magic in my head. Its rhythm began to throb in my temples. I had to channel it soon or the pain would get worse. What could I make to fend off a gunshot?
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” said Vince. “You’re going to drive out into the country, where your bodyguards will have to expose themselves to follow. If any are dumb enough to do that, I’ll deal with them. Then you and I are catching a private flight out of an East Bay airport and going back to Virginia. I’m sure Geralt is ... eager to see you again.”
“I won’t cooperate.”
“The next time you say something like that, you die.”
My mouth clamped shut.
“Take this exit up ahead.”
Desperate, I scanned the surrounding cars again. No sign of anyone familiar.
If I followed Vince’s directions and drove somewhere secluded, I was dead. There was no doubt in my mind he’d been sent prepared with enchanted objects to hold me captive. He probably had something ready to incapacitate me the moment I put the car in park. If I was going to save myself, I had to do it now.
I took the off-ramp as ordered, holding my breath. Waist-high concrete barriers flanked the descending off-ramp on both sides, hemming me in. A few car lengths back, another vehicle pulled into the exit lane, but no one was very close to me. Perfect.
