Saved by the Spell. House of Magic 2.

by Susanna Shore

  Luca’s nostrils flared. “I smell blood.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Luca entered the hall first, stepping carefully like an agent in a movie. He didn’t have to go far. Jones was standing in the middle of the hall, immobile with magic. He was barely conscious, his face pale and drawn. A trickle of blood was running down his nose and jaw, dropping on his once white shirt.

  We rushed to him, stealth forgotten. Giselle reached to feel the pulse on his neck, and he opened his eyes, barely able to focus. Relief flushed through me, making my legs feeble.

  “I can’t smell anything beyond the blood,” Luca said grimly. “Is anyone here?”

  Jones was too exhausted to answer. Kane looked around with caution. “The spell would break if the caster was out of range.”

  Just then, the spell holding Jones up disappeared and he collapsed into Amber’s and Giselle’s arms. Luca and Kane rushed out the door in a desperate attempt to catch the attacker. Kane was fast, though not supernaturally fast like Luca, but if the assailant was in a car, they didn’t stand a chance.

  The women lowered Jones onto his back on the cold floor and elevated his legs. It didn’t look like it helped, and his face retained its grey hue.

  Luca and Kane returned a moment later, looking furious. “If the attackers were nearby when we arrived, they’re gone now.”

  Jones opened his eyes. “Black … hart.”

  We looked each other, stunned.

  Kane kneeled by him. “Did he attack you?”

  “Took … Himself. Couldn’t … stop.” A tear fell down his wrinkly cheek. He lost consciousness again.

  “We need to get him to a hospital,” Amber declared.

  Luca crouched and gathered the frail old man into his arms as if he didn’t weigh anything. He carried Jones out of the door and into Giselle’s car, with the women following. I watched them go, anxious and helpless.

  “What should we do now?” I asked Kane. He was standing in the middle of the hall, hands squeezed into tight fists and hair billowing with barely contained fury.

  He unclenched his jaw with effort. “We find Rupert. And then we find this Blackhart and make him pay.”

  I was fine with that plan.

  Luca returned, and together we went through the ground floor, a slow job because Kane had to check every door for magical boobytraps. There were none, and no one was lurking there to attack us.

  The next floor was gloomy and quiet, and empty too. The last room towards the back garden was a large study. A desk lamp was on, illuminating a messy desk. The chair was overturned, and papers and books were lying on the floor.

  “It looks like there was a struggle,” Luca noted. He took a whiff. “I smell at least two people, maybe three.”

  Kane’s jaw tightened. “It can’t have been much of a struggle. Rupert is powerful but he’s old. If this Blackhart is as powerful as Rupert claims, he could’ve easily overpowered him if he took Rupert by surprise.”

  “But why?”

  I studied the messy room, perplexed. Tall hardwood shelves lined the walls, but they were curiously empty. Had Blackhart wanted Rupert’s books and taken him too?

  Then a thought hit me, and my stomach tightened painfully. “Was it our fault?”

  Had Blackhart taken Rupert so that he couldn’t help us?

  “I don’t think so,” Kane consoled me. “Maybe Blackhart came to demand that Rupert make him an archmage, maybe he wanted Rupert to back him in taking over the council.”

  I tried to believe him. The alternative was too horrible.

  “Do you think he’s still alive?”

  Kane stood in the middle of the floor, hands on his hips as he studied the room. He gestured to the shelves. “Yes. The wards hiding his library are still up. They’ll come down the moment he dies.”

  So that’s why the shelves looked empty.

  “How do we find him?”

  He glanced at me from under his brows. “We’ll trace him.”

  He went to wide double doors to the adjoining room and opened them to reveal a large, empty space. Old traces of chalk on the parquet floor revealed that this was where Rupert cast his spells. The shelves there were empty too, but the spell ingredients were probably hidden like the books.

  Or Giselle was right, and he had used up everything.

  “We need a personal item of his,” Kane said, conjuring a piece of chalk from somewhere. “Something he would’ve touched often.”

  “His reading glasses?” I suggested, and Luca and I went to look. They weren’t on his desk, so they’d likely gone with him—or were hidden underneath the clutter on the floor. We stared at the messy desk for inspiration.

  “How about that fountain pen?” I asked, pointing at the ancient looking thing. I couldn’t believe it would still be in use, but it lay on the desk as if he’d been recently writing with it.

  “Let’s give it a try.”

  Luca pulled out a hem of his shirt and picked up the pen with it so as not to leave his essence on it. I followed him back to the casting room, where Kane had drawn a surprisingly small pattern on the floor, only large enough for a small portable item. He told Luca to set the pen in the middle of it.

  “Don’t you need a map?” I asked, remembering the previous tracing spell they’d done.

  “No, I’ll spell the pen so that it’ll lead to Rupert.”

  Luca and I retreated to the side of the room to watch him cast the spell. He wrapped an arm around my waist, the gesture consoling.

  “Don’t you find me repulsive anymore?” I wanted to press my head on his shoulder, but I didn’t want to make him throw up.

  “I do, but you needed a hug, so I’m enduring.”

  Tears blurred my eyes, and it took a long time before I could see clearly.

  The spell was rather disappointing to watch, and fast to cast. Kane picked the pen up. Then he frowned. “I can feel that the spell has taken, but it’s not pulling me anywhere.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Luca leaned closer. “Is he still in the house?”

  Kane shook his head, disappointed. “No. I’m afraid Rupert is already out of range.”

  “What now?”

  I had no idea what to do, and no suggestions to make. I was an excellent antiques dealer’s assistant, capable of handling even the trickiest situations involving anything from items that turned out to be stolen to out and out forgeries, but I hadn’t had to deal with abductions before.

  Kane was squeezing the pen like he wanted to throw it against the wall, but in the end he just slipped it into the breast pocket of his jacket and got up.

  “First, we’ll go through Rupert’s desk, in case he made notes of the spell that’ll break yours.”

  I’d completely forgotten why we’d come here. The realisation that I still wouldn’t be rid of the spell threatened to bring tears back to my eyes, and I had to blink to keep them down. With Jones in the hospital and Rupert missing, the spell was a minor problem.

  Luca patted me on the shoulder and guided me after Kane to study the desk.

  There were dozens, if not hundreds of notes on loose sheets of paper scattered on the floor after the struggle with Blackhart. We collected every paper we could find, and Kane went through them carefully. But in the end, he had to give up.

  “If one of these does the trick, I seem to be unable to figure it out.”

  He looked so angry with himself that I rested my hand on his arm—briefly, so that I wouldn’t make him feel worse.

  “We’ll find Rupert and he’ll break the spell,” I said with more optimism than I felt.

  “But how?” Luca asked. “Magic’s failed us, and I can’t track them beyond the street where they got into a car.”

  I rubbed my face vigorously to get the blood flowing to my brain. “How about instead of trying to find Rupert, we try to find Blackhart?”

  Kane shook his head. “What do you think I’ve been trying to do this past month? If the council members know
who he is or where to find him, they’re too afraid to talk.”

  “Jack knows who he is.”

  “We presume. We have no idea if it’s Blackhart he’s helping.”

  I wanted to growl in frustration, but I wasn’t ready to give in. The only person who could help me was being held captive by an evil mage, and I needed him found—for me as well as for his own safety.

  So how about finding someone even more evil…

  A smile spread on my face, and I had a notion it was a smidgen evil too. “We’ll ask someone who isn’t afraid of him.”

  Kane gave me a puzzled look. “Who?”

  “Danielle.”

  He practically jumped back in his haste to reject my suggestion. “No!”

  “Oh come on. She’s the only one who can help.”

  “There’s no saying what she can or cannot do.” He crossed arms over his chest, rejecting my suggestion with his entire body. “But the point is moot. I don’t know how to reach her.”

  The last we’d seen her she’d stepped through a portal and vanished with her warlock partner.

  “Surely someone must know how to reach her. Her parents?”

  Kane just shook his head.

  “I can try to track her down,” Luca suggested. “I’ve occasionally done cyber searches.”

  “Excellent,” I said before Kane could torpedo that idea too. “Let’s go home.”

  After renewing the wards on Rupert’s door, Kane drove us home. And even though he didn’t look at all willing, he followed us in and down to the basement, where Luca had his lair.

  Though that wasn’t exactly an accurate word.

  His room was twice the size of mine, taking the entire width of the basement, with an en suite bathroom and a walk-in closet. The colour scheme was the same grey and white as the rooms upstairs, and nothing indicated that the room belonged to a century-old vampire.

  It looked like it belonged to a single man under thirty: messy and full of gadgets.

  There was a large desk on one wall with several computer monitors side by side, most of them on and showing stock market data. Luca supported himself with trading and online poker, the two sides of the same coin, as he’d told me one night when I kept him company during a poker tournament.

  He was excellent at both, and he could have lived on his own somewhere more luxurious, but he preferred having friends around. Especially the kind that knew what he was.

  He took a seat at the desk and clicked the keyboard, bringing one more monitor to life. “Now, let me see…”

  He began the search, with Kane and I watching over his shoulder—though Kane’s attention seemed to be on the stock markets.

  “Here,” Luca said after a suspiciously short search.

  “You’d tracked her down already, hadn’t you,” I said, and he shot me an impish grin.

  “She’s both hot and dangerous. I thought it prudent to keep an eye on her.” He got up and gestured at the chair. “Will you do the honours?” he said to Kane, who looked like he’d rather be anywhere else.

  Like at the dentist having his teeth pulled out.

  But he sat on the vacated chair and placed his hand on the mouse. “It’s late in France,” he said.

  “It’s only a little past eight there.”

  Luca had everything ready for a Skype call. He’d even used Kane’s email address—and how he knew that I had no idea—so that Danielle would know the call came from him. All Kane had to do was click the icon that connected the call.

  He stretched his neck and drew a fortifying breath. I tried to sympathise—their divorce had been ugly—but the longer he dawdled, the farther Blackhart could move Rupert.

  “Shall I do it for you?”

  My tone was more sarcastic than I intended, but it had the desired effect. He placed the call.

  We waited tensely for Danielle to answer. It seemed to take forever, but happened so fast that she managed to surprise us when her face appeared on the monitor, puzzled and disdainful.

  “Archie?”

  She was a beautiful woman a couple of years older than Kane, dainty with a sharp chin, slightly downturned green eyes, full lips, and asymmetrically cut rich brown hair that fell partly over her face. There were faint lines in the corners of her eyes and mouth, and she radiated strength and power even through a video connection.

  Kane cleared his throat. “Hello, Danielle. I trust you’re well?”

  I punched him in the shoulder. This was not a social call.

  Danielle noticed it and she sneered. “I can see you’ve your assistant with you.” She thought we were dating and wouldn’t accept the truth. “And a pet vampire too.”

  “Hey! I’m not his pet,” Luca said indignantly. “I’m Phoebe’s.”

  I shot him a grin. Anything to aggravate Danielle.

  Though we should keep it to minimum. We did need her help.

  “What do you want?” she asked impatiently. “I’m in the middle of a dinner.”

  “I need you to tell me everything you know about Blackhart,” Kane said.

  A smirk twisted her lips. “So you found out about him, did you?”

  “No thanks to you,” I interjected, but she ignored me.

  “Why would I tell you anything?”

  Her tone irritated me, but Kane was in better control of his emotions, and he studied her calmly. “Blackhart has taken Rupert and we need to find him before he does something drastic.”

  Her brows shot up. “So he’s moving on with the plan…”

  “What plan?” Kane demanded.

  Before she could answer, a man appeared next to her. He looked to be in his early forties, with a starkly handsome face, a very French aquiline nose, and a hint of grey at the temples of his black hair.

  Laurent Dufort, the warlock Danielle had hooked up with in order to learn dark magic, and an overall sexy guy—for someone evil and probably a hundred and fifty years old.

  He kissed her on the cheek. “The dinner is growing cold, cherié.”

  A warm smile softened her face. If we’d had any doubt the two were an item, that banished it. “I’ll be right there.”

  Dufort directed his black eyes at us, and even through the video link I could feel their impact. I almost took a step back, halting myself only by grabbing the back of Kane’s chair.

  “Why are you contacting Danielle?” His French pronunciation made the name sound like a caress, even though his tone was sharp.

  Kane wasn’t intimidated by him. “Her former accomplice has kidnapped the archmage of London and we need any information she has to locate them.”

  He cocked a gently admonishing brow at her. “Is this true, cherié?”

  “How should I know?” She glared at us. “What do you think I can do? I don’t live in London anymore.”

  “Just tell us who he is, where he lives, and who his companions are,” I said.

  “Oh, is that all.”

  Kane’s jaw tightened at her mocking tone. “Need I remind you that Rupert is old and might die?”

  “If he’d chosen his successor, that wouldn’t matter.”

  As if that was all we cared about!

  “And if you weren’t such a power-hungry bitch, he might have chosen you,” I spat.

  Her eyes flashed in anger, and Dufort placed a hand on her shoulder. “She’ll have the information to you by morning.”

  He cut the connection.

  “That went well,” Luca said dryly.

  I was still seething with anger. “The nerve of that woman. Doesn’t she have any compassion?”

  Kane’s mouth curled in a bitter twist. “Not really.”

  “Now what do we do? We have nothing to go on.”

  Kane ran a hand through his hair and got up. “I guess we’ll find Jack and ask him about Blackhart, in case he’s involved after all.”

  Luca took a seat and began to search for the address, but he had to shake his head. “There are hundreds of that name, and I can’t even be sure he’s one of
them.”

  Kane patted him on the shoulder. “No matter. Council headquarters should have his address.” He glanced at his watch. “It’s still early. Let’s go.”

  Chapter Twelve

  The long drive to Thames Ditton passed in silence. Even Luca was deep in his thoughts, which wasn’t a natural state for him.

  “What if Jack isn’t in league with Blackhart?” I had to ask. I hated that I sounded hopeful still. Kane’s mouth tightened.

  “That would be a point in his favour, but it won’t help Rupert.”

  “How’s the pen?”

  “Growing cold.”

  I leaned closer in alarm, and he leaned away, unconsciously. It was as if I had a force-field he reacted to. “What does that mean?”

  “That he’s either being moved farther away, or we’re moving away from him.”

  Since we were driving away from central London, I hoped it was the latter.

  The parking lot of the retirement home had quieted for the night, but there were a couple of cars. Remembering Cynthia’s attack on Sunday, I looked around carefully when I exited the car, but there was no one around.

  The headquarters was dark too, but the mages had some sort of permanent spell or ward in place to make it appear like it was empty. Luca insisted on going in first, and Kane let him, shaking his head, exasperated.

  I thought his attitude was much too cavalier, after what had happened to Rupert and Jones, but kept my mouth shut for once.

  Lights were on in the hall, but no one was around, and Luca couldn’t hear anything either. Kane checked his wards on the library door.

  “These are intact.” He peeked into the library, but it was dark.

  “Someone must be here,” I said, but Luca grinned.

  “Or mages are careless with lights.”

  Kane acknowledged his assessment with a wry tilt of his head, but pointed deeper into the building. “I think we’d best search the place anyway.”

  “I’ll take point,” Luca stated, but Kane disagreed.

  “If there is a mage here, he’s either on an innocent errand or here to challenge me, in which case they should be allowed to.”

  “That doesn’t mean you have to let them take you by surprise,” Luca countered, and went in first.