Sapphire Flames

by Ilona Andrews

  Okay, that’s about enough. I didn’t even have to reach for Victoria’s granddaughter. I was already there. I looked at her, and Mira wilted.

  “Go back to your table.” My voice was icy. “You’ve embarrassed yourself enough for tonight.”

  Mira opened her mouth and saw the people around us. That’s right, you look rude and stupid. Run away while you can.

  “Baylor?” a deep voice rumbled.

  Oh crap.

  Mira scooted off to the side. Behind her Frank Madero lumbered to his feet.

  “What are you doing?” Cristal squeaked. “Sit down.” She put her hand on his forearm as if to restrain him and he pushed it off.

  “Your sister put me in the hospital.” Madero peered at me, pure rage in his eyes.

  I stared him down. Maderos understood strength, nothing else. “You tried to kidnap her.”

  “Well, I’ve got just one word to say to you. Rematch!”

  He flexed and his suit exploded. His skin turned red, his muscles swelled. He grabbed a table and hurled it at me.

  I dodged left, Alessandro dodged right. The table flew between us and froze in mid-air. An older black man next to us turned and fixed Frank with a hard stare. Shelton Woods, Head of House Woods. “That’s enough. Sit down.”

  “I didn’t ask you shit, old man!” Frank bellowed, and charged.

  The telekinetic swung the table with his magic and smashed it against Frank. The table shattered into splinters. Frank didn’t even slow down. Lilian Woods, Shelton’s wife of nearly fifty years, grabbed her husband and yanked him out of Madero’s way. The pieces of the table and silverware rose in the air and pelted Frank. It didn’t stop him, but he had built up too much speed to turn. He tore past us and crashed into the row of tables.

  Yeraz, the Armenian Magus Sagittarius, jumped to her feet, grabbed a knife off the neighboring table, and hurled it at Lilian. The knife stopped, reversed, and sank into the table an inch from Yeraz’s hand.

  “Don’t do that again!” Lilian snapped.

  Yeraz hissed at her like a snake, grabbed a handful of silverware, and launched it into the air.

  Frank rolled to his feet, grabbed two tables like they weighed nothing, and slammed them together, screaming obscenities. Shelton Woods waved his hand. A third table slammed into Frank, slapping him down like a flyswatter coming down on an annoying insect.

  Yeraz’s barrage of knives and forks fell harmlessly on the floor. The glass next to Yeraz shot into the air and splashed water into her face.

  “Cool off,” Lilian told her.

  “Kill the old bitch!” Yeraz howled.

  Everything happened at once: Diatheke’s killers zeroed in on Yeraz’s target; the guests realized this was not part of the performance and half of them headed for the exit, while the others stayed to watch or fight; security rushed through the staff entrance and stopped, not sure who to target, and Frank Madero screamed and hurled tables into the air. Magic crackled, furniture flew, and to the left a table burst into flames.

  Where the hell was Cristal?

  I spun to look behind me. Linus pounded his fist on the table. The silverware flew to his arm, melting, twisting, and snapping together into a barrel. Linus swung his new hand cannon and fired at Frank, who was rampaging in the middle of the floor. Frank’s head jerked as the bullet bounced off his skull. He spun around, roaring. I caught sight of Benedict, his face twisted with rage, standing in the middle of the melee, the dark-haired aegis directly behind him. A stray chair hurtled at Benedict’s head hit the translucent blue screen of magic and bounced off.

  Across the Grand Foyer, Cristal ducked into the hallway leading to the bathrooms.

  Frank finally saw me. His beady dark eyes lit up. He barreled at me through the crowd, enormous, brick red, and breathing like a charging bull.

  Crap.

  Alessandro thrust himself into Frank’s path.

  “Go!” Alessandro yelled to me. “I’ve got this.”

  I ran after Cristal. The last thing I saw before I turned the corner was Alessandro on Frank’s shoulders, choking him with a plastic bag.

  The hallway stretched in front of me, empty. I sprinted, checking the doors with my hand as I ran.

  Locked, locked, locked, empty, bathroom. Nobody in the stalls.

  I kept running. The hallway turned, ending in a big round room. A stack of tables waited at the opposite side, where two other hallways branched off. Next to the tables, Cristal had halted, obviously trying to choose an escape route.

  “Cristal,” I sang out, sending my magic her way.

  She turned, a panicked look on her face.

  “I’m so glad you’re safe,” I said in a cheerful, singsong way.

  Her mind fluoresced in my magic’s eye, a pale glowing smudge. She had a lot of power. It burned bright, but her will was weak and she wasn’t a mental mage. My magic wrapped around her, cushioning her from the world and reality. It was almost too easy.

  Cristal turned to me.

  If I pumped too much magic into her, she would do anything to keep me happy. I needed her to be honest and answer my questions, but not so far gone that she started lying. Linus would have to defend this interrogation, and I didn’t want to give anyone ammunition to question it. It had to be evident that Cristal still had some control over herself.

  “You know what helps me when I’m scared? I like to sing a little song. Twinkle, twinkle, little star . . .”

  “How I wonder what you are,” Cristal finished. “It’s a baby song. It’s stupid.”

  Perfect. “Do you feel better?”

  “I do. But I’m still scared.” She knotted the fabric of her skirt in her hands. “Big events are difficult for me. This was supposed to be safe. It was supposed to be nice. There are only nice people here and I have two bodyguards.”

  I had no idea how much time I would have with her. “It’s okay. You’re safe with me.”

  “I know. You seem like a nice person.”

  I turned my phone on and started Bern’s app. He’d written the custom piece of software specifically for times like this. With one tap, I turned on recording, encrypted it, and uploaded it to our cloud. Even if I lost the phone, the conversation would be saved.

  “Tell me about Lawrence. Was he a good subject for your research?”

  Cristal frowned. “He survived. In terms of compatibility, we could have done better. The goal of the process is to enhance magical talent without the warping side effect.”

  “What did you use to enhance him?”

  “The 1012 variant.”

  No good. “Variant of what?”

  Cristal gave me a look like I was stupid. Even besotted, she still kept her natural disdain for people below her level of expertise. That was some deep personality flaw.

  “Variant of the Osiris serum.”

  “Is 1012 a derivative of 971?”

  Cristal gave me a bright smile. “Of course it is.”

  “Why are you experimenting with the secondary application of the Osiris serum on human subjects? Do you know that it’s illegal?”

  “Throughout human history a great many things have been illegal. There are always people who stand in the way of progress. There is no difference between Galileo and me. He was the first to discover that the Earth revolved around the sun. I’ll be the first to cure a failing vector.” She paused, looked at me, and added, “A person born into a magical family whose talent is weaker than their parents’ magic.”

  She had dumbed it down for me. How nice. I wondered what she would say if I told her that the model of heliocentrism was first developed by Aristarchus in the third century BC, eighteen centuries before the birth of Galileo. “That’s so interesting, Cristal. Who is financing this important research?”

  “Diatheke. Benedict isn’t a scientist, but he understands the value of scientific discovery.”

  “Do you know what Diatheke does?”

  “Of course. They’re assassins.”

  And that didn�
��t bother her at all. “How many warped assassins have you supplied to Diatheke?”

  “Three.”

  “How many test subjects died?”

  “Seventeen.”

  “How were these people selected?”

  “They were homeless and addicts. They would do anything for their next hit.”

  That had to be enough. She admitted to doing the research, she acknowledged that it was illegal, and she specified that an assassin firm was paying her bills in return for her supplying them with warped killers. Linus couldn’t ask for anything more. It was time for my questions. “Why do you need Halle?”

  Cristal frowned again. “Why are you interested in Halle? Halle doesn’t matter. You should be interested in me. I’m the important one. Halle is a tool.”

  She saw Halle as a rival for some reason. I fed more of my magic into our bond. This part wouldn’t have to be presented to the National Assembly.

  A happy smile stretched Cristal’s lips. She linked her arm with mine and stared at me with adoration.

  “Tell me about Halle. It would make me happy.”

  “She’s a stupid girl. I’m using her to counteract the toxicity of the serum. You would think a person in her circumstances would figure out that she was trapped and try to please the people who have power over her. If I tell Benedict that she’s not useful, she’ll just disappear, and nobody will ever find her. I’m keeping her alive. She should be grateful. Instead, everything is a fight with her. I actually had to threaten to have her sister and brother killed to get her to do the simplest things. I mean, does that seem rational to you?”

  “Clearly she isn’t as smart as you.”

  Cristal nodded enthusiastically. “I’m very smart. I’m not a failing vector. I’m smarter than my parents.”

  That’s great. “Where is Halle now?”

  “At my lab.”

  “House Ferrer lab? Biocine?”

  “No, my personal lab. The real lab. Biocine is where my parents work.”

  “Where is the real lab? Can you give me the address?”

  Cristal’s mouth gaped open. Her eyes widened, her eyebrows rose, pulled together, her lips stretched, baring the edge of her teeth. Horror stamped her face, and she stood petrified, locked in place, but shaking. I turned around. Behind us, at the mouth of the hallway leading back to the Grand Foyer, Benedict stood, his face twisted by pure rage. The aegis waited two feet behind him, his face flat. He had seen it all before and none of it bothered him.

  Cristal fell to the floor and scrambled up on all fours. A high-pitched animal shriek broke free from her mouth. She spun and dashed down the nearest hallway, sprinting away like she was running for her life.

  “Well.” Benedict raised his arms. “Here we are. She’s an expensive asset. It will take me weeks to undo what I did. Stupid bitch.”

  I didn’t ask which one of us he was referring to. He was a combat Prime and he had an aegis. My best bet was to make it past him and run back to the Grand Foyer, where I’d have the combined firepower of Alessandro and Linus and hundreds of witnesses. Problem was, Benedict stood between me and that hallway.

  “I’ll need that phone,” Benedict ordered.

  “You can have it. Let me go and I’ll give it to you.”

  “Let you go?” Benedict tilted his head. “Do you have any idea how difficult it is to recruit a Prime from an active House? I cultivated Cristal like a priceless orchid. I flattered her, I did her favors, I consoled her when she failed, I rewarded her when she succeeded. I have eighty million and four years wrapped up in this project, and you almost fucked it up for chump change and a dead woman.”

  I could run into the hallway behind me, but I wasn’t a fast runner. If he didn’t catch me, his magic would.

  Benedict shook his head. “Until now I stayed my hand, because I thought you were working for Montgomery, following that mishap. But now I have confirmation that you’re on your own. So, let me break it down for you, Ms. Baylor. You’re not going anywhere. You will hand me that phone and walk with me out of this theater. You will get into my car and you will smile the whole time, because if you don’t, I’ll murder your entire family and I’ll make sure they suffer.”

  You arrogant asshole. I slid the phone into my clutch and gave him a tepid golf clap.

  His magic slithered out of him, splaying out like a black thundercloud. The ghostly serpents snapped, demonic mouths forming and melting.

  The more I delayed him, the higher the chances were that either Alessandro or Linus would get here. I stalled.

  “At first I thought you were creepy, but intelligent. Sadly, I was mistaken. Only an utter moron would bring a Madero into this setting. You’ve offended two hundred of Houston’s most powerful Primes. Yeraz, one of your employees, attacked Lilian Woods in public, in front of witnesses. Do you really think you’re coming back from this?”

  “Nothing that can’t be fixed.” Benedict stared at me, his gaze cold and hungry. “Last chance. Come with me or die here.”

  Behind him, the aegis looked bored.

  Benedict’s arrogance had curdled his brain. He killed people without remorse. He kidnapped women just like me. They were scared just like me. He tortured them, squeezing out every drop of fear for his perverse pleasure until there was none left, and then he threw them away like trash. I wanted so much to rip into him. For the first time in my life I wished for Arabella’s magic. If only I could grow huge and strong, I’d grab his bodyguard and beat Benedict to death with him. I’d kick him and bounce him off the walls, while his pitiful little snakes bit at my hands. The sight of his terrified face before I stomped him into human pulp would mean everything.

  “Fine,” Benedict said. “I would have rather done this in private, but why wait?”

  The ghostly serpents rose around Benedict. He was about to strike.

  My wings snapped open, every feather visible, glowing, radiant with power. Emerald fire danced across their width, flowing into dazzling gold at the tips. My magic erupted and soared, free from being constrained for so long.

  Benedict halted in mid-step, his face shocked. Behind him the aegis gaped at me, his face slack.

  “Beautiful . . .” Benedict whispered.

  I opened my mouth and sang out a high, powerful note, born of pure magic. There was no need to calibrate it. It was utter power made into sound. Madame Trapeze would’ve been proud.

  Benedict jerked his serpent swarm to him, wrapping it around his mind to shield himself.

  The note resonated and died, tiny echoes of it traveling into the hallways. I fell silent.

  The ghost serpents uncoiled, melting and twisting. Benedict smiled, emerging from the dark storm of his power. “You missed.”

  I looked past him at the aegis and said, “Save me.”

  With a primal scream, the aegis tackled Benedict from behind. They went down in a tangle of limbs. I sprinted to my right toward the hallway leading back to the Grand Foyer.

  Behind me, the aegis howled, a sound of sheer terror, cut short. I didn’t look back. I knew what I would see—Benedict’s demonic snakes ripping into the aegis’ mind.

  The walls of the hallway flashed past.

  I turned the corner and almost collided with Alessandro. He caught me. “Hurt?”

  “No.”

  “Benedict?”

  “Behind me.”

  Alessandro sprinted back in the direction I’d come from. I followed. The reasonable thing to do would be to go back to the Grand Foyer, get Linus, get backup, security, other pissed-off Primes, instead of dramatically running toward danger to have a duel with a deranged megalomaniac with snakes growing out of his soul. But if he left the building, he would go straight for my family. And I was done. I was done listening to him, I was done with him killing people and everyone else acting like it wasn’t a big deal, I was just done. Someone had to step on that cockroach. Combat mage or no, I could block Benedict’s magic enough to give Alessandro the edge, and two Primes were always better
than one.

  Ahead of me Alessandro slowed and walked into the round room. The body of the aegis lay crumpled against the wall, his face a twisted, terrified mask. His eyes had rolled back in his head, the milky whites staring up unseeing, as if he had looked his death in the face before it devoured him, and the sight of it had struck him blind.

  At the opposite wall, Benedict paused at the mouth of a hallway leading deeper into the building. His jacket hung on his body, one sleeve ripped. Blood stained his pale blue shirt. He saw us and bared his teeth. “You’re back. How fortunate for me. You could have run away. Who is an utter moron now?”

  Magic flashed with orange, pulsing from Alessandro. A shoulder cannon flashed into existence on his shoulder. He raised his right hand, and an oddly shaped sword popped into it, resembling a violinist’s bow, except that the stick was an amalgam of metal parts and the ribbon was a metal cord, thin and razor sharp.

  Linus made some weird stuff.

  Shock slapped Benedict’s face. He recovered almost instantly and raised his eyebrows, his voice mocking. “The artisan graces us with his presence. I’m flattered.”

  The sword in Alessandro’s hand let out a high-pitched metallic whine. The metal shuddered, spinning into the sword, turning it into a weaponized buzz saw.

  Benedict’s magic lashed out. Orange pulsed from Alessandro. The black serpents fell short.

  Benedict turned and sprinted into the hallway. Alessandro’s cannon spun and fired, spitting bullets into the corridor. Alessandro marched after him.

  I moved to follow.

  “Stop.” Linus’ voice snapped like a whip.

  I froze.

  Linus strode into the room, still the picture of elegance. If he had gotten into a brawl in the Grand Foyer, he’d come through it undamaged.

  “Did you get it?” Linus asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Come with me.”

  “But—”

  “That isn’t your fight. He can handle himself. He took the contract as your bodyguard. Let him do his job while we go and do ours. Follow me.”

  “But—”

  “Now.”

  I gritted my teeth and followed Linus back to the Grand Foyer.