Oh, well... "That's easy. People. All the law-abiding and innocent. In fact, make that every living being in Santo Trueno who isn't up to no good."
Thorandryll raised his left eyebrow. "You consider this city yours?"
"I was born here, and have lived here all my life. Yeah, that makes it mine, as much as anyone's." Hell, I'd fought for it against demons, gods, vampires, and dark elves. "I'm not going to marry you to make all the other elves feel better."
"Then you'll agree to a declared alliance?"
"I need to talk to Terra first." I'd done way too much tripping into supe politics in the past year. "Because if I'm your ally, that makes the clan your ally too, and you've made it pretty clear you don't like shifters."
The prince frowned. "Logan has earned a modicum of my respect."
Good to hear, especially since he had a funny way of showing it. "That's nice to know."
"Discuss it with your people and inform me of your decision." He hesitated. "I must request a friendly appearance between us during the ball."
"I'll be nice," I said after swallowing a giggle. "Promise."
"Then let's move onto the matter that brought you here."
"Lady Celadine." Possibly my imagination, but I thought he flinched at her name. "She hired us to find a stolen object, a mirror she loaned to the museum."
"And you require my assistance in what way?"
"She wasn't exactly forthcoming with useful info. I wondered if you could shed any light on why someone might want to steal it."
He smiled, leaning back in his chair. "Anyone able to use magic is interested in acquiring objects of power. How they would use those depends on the object, and I can assure you that the mirror has proven to be remarkably uncooperative to those who have possessed it."
I frowned. "We were told it—he—has an attitude. Do you know how he ended up in the mirror? I mean, he was a person once, right?"
Thorandryll tilted his head to the left. "He was. The legend is that he was a human who angered a god, and thus, was stripped of his body, his soul imprisoned in the mirror."
"That's horrible." I shivered.
"Gods aren't above cruelty, Miss Jones. Hasn't that become clear to you yet?" He stared into my eyes, and I half-expected to have an attack of the hazies, but it didn't happen. "When they walk among us, we would all do well to remember their capacity for cruelty."
"I know. Do you have any idea who the second god was? With Cernunnos?"
Thorandryll shook his head. He hadn't been much help, if I discounted having my worries increased about having gods interested in me. "Okay, thanks."
"Would you stay for dinner?"
"Sorry, can't, but thanks for the offer. Bye." I stood up and teleported home.
With the dogs already fed, I only had my own stomach to worry about. Merriven appeared to watch me build a couple of ham and cheese sandwiches.
"Those look extremely unappetizing."
I ignored him, but he kept yapping while I ate, then followed me into the damn shower. He was still yapping when I finally fell asleep.
FIVE
The insistent blare of my alarm clock opened my eyes and pulled a groan from my throat. With a swing of my arm, I smacked the clock, hitting the snooze button. "Argh."
Leglin chuffed. He hadn't had nightmares about being turned into a vampire by Merriven. I had, and they sucked. The screams and blood were still too vivid, and I discovered dried tears on my face when I rubbed my hand over it.
Roughly twenty minutes later, I was dressed and stretching on my front porch—how awesome was it to be able to say that? My porch?—while the dogs took care of their early morning bladders. Were early-morning jogs really necessary?
Mom had thought it a great idea, but she did yoga four days a week. Like me, she always had several somethings going on at all times, but her time management skills far surpassed mine. Weird, considering I'd tagged along and helped her practically from birth.
I finished stretching, slipped my MP3 player from the pocket of my windbreaker, and stuffed the earbuds into my ears before hitting the play button. "Come on, let's get this over with."
Squishy was the first to meet me at the bottom of the steps, her pink winter coat the only bright spot in the pre-dawn gloom. I shivered while bending to pet her little head. "It's fricking cold."
"Wuss." Bone began walking toward the south side of our property. "You'll warm up."
He was right, but I said, "Remember, slow and easy first."
"Run, run, run." Squishy scurried to Speck, to herd him ahead of her. The black Chihuahua wasn't a fan of my new exercise efforts. He wore a black and red plaid coat, but trembled as though he were freezing to death.
My Pit Crew had laughed at the idea of wearing sweaters or coats. They didn't know I'd ordered them each a hoodie with their names on the backs.
I broke into a slow jog, the bigger dogs ahead, and the two little ones behind. A good PI didn't shirk on exercise the way I had been doing for the past several months. I'd even missed some self-defense classes. Of course, I hadn't exactly been lazy either, with my job being what it was. But a regular fitness regimen? Forget about it.
Nearly everyone I might face would be bigger and stronger. Probably faster too, but that didn't mean I shouldn't try to keep fit. Or that I should grow to rely on my psychic abilities too much, since I knew they weren’t always available in some places.
At my slow pace, two songs had played by the time we reached the first back corner of my property. I was already beginning to huff and puff. Slowing to a walk along the back fence, I caught my breath, and couldn't keep from grinning. How cool was it that I'd found such a great place? The dogs spread out, leisurely sniffing the crunchy grass and glistening weeds. It was so cold, the dew had frozen on everything. It was beautiful, and it was all mine.
At the northwest corner, I turned east and began jogging again. Halfway to the front fence, the Chihuahuas began to complain they were tired. I sent them to the house, Diablo going with to make certain they made it.
He caught up with us a couple of minutes later, and at the front northeastern corner, I dropped back to a walk. "Okay, at the driveway, we sprint back to the house."
My legs were feeling the burn, so I wasn't looking forward to the sprint. But hey, at least I wasn't freezing anymore.
The distance from drive entrance to house was longer than I hoped I'd ever have to run from anyone or anything, especially full-out. That's why I was doing it. We reached the asphalt surface too soon for me, but I turned and took off running, trying to convince myself something was chasing me.
Diablo and Bone barked, shooting past. Leglin stayed beside me, adjusting his pace to do it. He wasn't running full out. Didn't have to, to keep up with me.
My heart was pounding triple time, my lungs were burning, and my legs felt ready to fall off. We reached the end of the driveway and I staggered to a stop, gulping air while bending at the waist, my hand pressed to the stitch stabbing me in my side.
More than a few minutes passed before I was able to straighten, and my entire body felt lead-filled. Pacing to cool off, I said, "Whoever said exercise makes you feel great is a raging idiot. I don't feel great. I feel like throwing up."
Diablo snickered from the front porch. "I feel hungry."
"Ugh." Sweat had plastered the tee I wore under the windbreaker to my skin. "Breakfast for you guys. I'm going to take a shower before mine."
The doorbell rang at nine AM, announcing my partner's arrival. When I answered the door, he held up a box of donuts. "They had your favorites."
"You're my bestest friend in the world right now."
Dane grinned. "I have the list Tabitha made too."
"Awesome." We retired to the dinette table—which I really needed to replace for something larger—for coffee and donuts, and to look over the list. He'd brought a work laptop and a few books from his shelves, so we set to work after devouring the donuts. There went my morning's exercise.
A f
ew hours later, Dane sat back and stretched. "I thought I had a decent handle on all the pantheons. I do not. Especially when it comes to the elder gods."
"You're doing better than me. I have no handle at all, and I've met three gods." I stuck a bookmark into the book on Aztec gods I'd been scanning. "Maybe we should take a drive, see if Jo and David can help us out."
"With a lunch stop?"
"No pizza."
"Damn." He stood. "Chinese?"
I nodded. "That'll work. I have to let the dogs out first."
However, we didn't make it to the Blue Orb as planned, because Tanisha from the museum called to let us know she'd located the dust cloth that had covered the mirror. We went there to pick it up after we finished eating.
Once back outside, Dane shook the giant baggie. "Do you want to try it here?"
"Why not?"
I waited for him to open it, and stuck my hand inside. The dust sheet held the remnants of air-conditioning chill. Merriven appeared on top of my car, leaning back to brace his hands, his pale face tilted up to the sun. Frickin' vampire.
Closing my eyes, I opened the doors to two rooms in my mental maze—psychometry and tracking—and waited, reveling a bit in how well I'd managed to follow Sal's suggestion about mental shielding.
We probably looked strange to the few people arriving or leaving the museum. Good thing none of them could see the sunning vampire, who chose to speak. "It won't work. I do believe your powers are waning. What a shame it will be, should you become just another boring human."
Teeth gritted, I concentrated harder. A damn vampiric delusion was not going to shred my self-confidence. After a few more minutes passed, Dane quietly asked, "Anything?"
"Not ye...wait." A thread unfurled, dark gray in color. I'd have to add it to my list, and hope to figure out what the new color stood for. I opened my eyes to find the thread stretching out in mid-air, which was freaky, since it went right through Dane's throat. "I have a trail."
"Yay." He closed the bag while I rushed around to the driver's side. A few seconds later, we were out of the museum parking lot and dodging through traffic. The thread continued to float at eye level, and I wondered if it indicated shadows. The ones involved in the mirror's disappearance had been kind of floaty.
Dane stayed quiet, texting on his phone. I'd never gotten into the habit of texting, but kind of envied him and Tabitha for having someone always there, just a text away.
Not that it was anyone's fault but mine. Logan would probably enjoy seeing texts from me, if I hadn't put him on hold.
We went under an overpass to the west side of Santo Trueno. The city had developed in and around a ravine, spreading out into the gullies cracking either side. The highway ran right through the middle of the ravine's lowest point, splitting the city into unequal halves.
On the west side, the Palisades marked the southernmost end. A few somewhat better neighborhoods spread from there to the north, culminating into a spread of businesses and warehouses. We ended up entering the Heights, in a section roughly center on the west side. I parked in front of a block of offices and shops, across the street from an apartment complex. "It's going between the dry cleaner and that thrift store."
"Okay." Dane had put his phone away when I slowed the car. He climbed out as soon as I turned off the engine, and looked around. "Be nice if we found it sitting in the alley."
"Yes, but don't hold your breath." We began walking.
"I can hold my breath for six minutes."
"I'll add that to my Dane trivia."
He grinned. "My favorite color is orange."
I felt my lips curve. "And your favorite food is pizza, with all the meats and extra cheese."
"Yours is a medium-well steak with a baked potato. Butter, pepper, and sour cream on the potato." We turned down between the two buildings, and he stepped over a damp, flattened cardboard box. "And you don't like to wear jewelry."
"I wear earrings." Our banter actually had a point: We were practicing our observation skills.
"Yes, but only studs. You don't wear rings, bracelets, or necklaces most of the time."
"You prefer tees to shirts with buttons."
Dane looked over at me. "How do you know that? I wear shirts with buttons."
"Yeah, but you constantly fiddle with them when you do. You never tug at your T-shirts." I stopped, because we'd reached the alley. "Well, that was helpful."
"What?"
"The thread ends right there." I pointed to the air in front of us. "Just beyond the edges of the buildings."
"No mirror in sight." Dane walked into the alley to look around. I stayed put, studying the ground below and air above the thread's end point. Merriven slid into my peripheral vision, whispering endearments, and then insults as I ignored him.
I wished he were solid so I could set his aggravating ass on fire, especially when he shoved his fist through my chest, baring his fangs right in my face.
Dane returned from checking both directions. "Nothing."
My phone beeped, indicating its battery was low. We turned to walk back to my car. "Well, that was a waste of time. Guess we should head to the shop to talk to David and Jo now." After that, I needed to take care of my dogs, and had that appointment with Lord Derrick about my Merriven problem.
Dane had a field day, looking through my MP3 collection as we drove to the Blue Orb. "You listen to country?"
"Sometimes. Don't judge."
"I'm totally judging, because...oh my God, Cordi. Nickelback? Really?"
"Hey." I smacked his fingers away from the stereo. "No judging. I've heard you humming 'MMMBop' more than a few times."
"At least it's not by Nickelback."
"I like Nickelback, so shut up."
He snorted. "Your taste in music? It leaves a lot to be desired."
"Says Mr. I Listen to Boy Bands."
"You're just jealous my taste in music exceeds yours. I know good music."
I laughed. "You don't listen to anything more than four years old, unless you're in someone else's car. You don't know the tip of Mount Good Music."
"Yeah? Prove you do."
"Find 'Bohemian Rhapsody' on there and start it."
Dane tried to resist, but failed, when the head banging part began.
We pulled up at the shop, and sat in my car to finish our over-dramatic, lip-syncing second run through of "Bohemian Rhapsody" before heading into the shop.
I loved the Blue Orb. The combination of herbs, scented candles, and incense made walking in feel as though I'd entered a different world. When I had the time, I enjoyed browsing around to see what unknown things I might find.
Today, it was busy. I waved at Jo, who was running the cash register, and then at Tonya as she went past with a customer in tow. David was helping an intense-looking, thin young woman select a crystal. I could hear a few voices from some of the aisles we couldn't see down.
With a few minutes of down time, I decided to tease my partner. "How'd your date go?"
Dane grinned. "Sheila's really smart, and we had fun."
"Was there kissing?"
"Nosy."
"Just returning the favor."
"She let me kiss her good night. There was hand holding."
"Ooh, Dane and Sheila sitting in a tree," I had to stop to keep from laughing, ducking away from his attempts to muss my hair. "Quit it."
"Children, behave," Jo called from the register. We walked to the counter, ignoring her reprimand, jostling and smacking at each other's hands as he kept trying to mess with my hair.
Jo's short auburn hair bounced when she shook her head. "You two are in good moods. What's up?"
"We need some, stop it," I smacked Dane in the stomach to make him lower his arms. "Help with research."
My partner stopped trying to mess up my hair, and slung his arm around my shoulders. "Shadow manipulation that can move solid objects."
Jo blinked. "Well, there's one I haven't heard."
Looked like Tabitha was r
ight. I glanced at Dane, who continued. "We're thinking either elf, god, or demon, and want to try and narrow it down."
She looked at me. "Do you ever have normal cases anymore?"
"Sorry."
"Okay." Jo huffed air out, her hazel eyes glazing over. "Right off-hand, I doubt we'll be able to give you any elf names."
I nudged Dane with my elbow. He dug out the list we'd printed from his back pocket. "Tabitha gave us a starting point."
She took the list when he held it out, scanned it, and shook her head. "This is a good start, but I'd think any god could manipulate shadows if he or she wanted to. So trying to pinpoint a particular one could result in bupkis."
"Great." I sighed. "Guess we'll have to play it by ear then."
"Hit up Prince Snooty for elf names," she said. "If it's demons..."
"We'll ask the boss to loan us his sharp, shiny demon-killing blades," I finished. "Okay."
"We'll look through these names though, just in case, and see if there's any other possibilities." Jo smiled. "What's the missing object?"
"You won't believe this. It's the mirror from Snow White."
She scrunched her face. "I wouldn't think it was a big deal. Didn't it speak riddles and compliment the vanity of the Evil Queen?"
"Yeah, I think that's what it did. Apparently the real mirror is perv who likes to make sexual comments."
Jo laughed. "Figures. Well, I'll let you know if we come up with anything."
"Thanks." When Dane dropped his arm from my shoulders, I leaned over the counter to give her a hug. "Talk to you later."
"Bye."
Once back in the car, we looked at each other. I shrugged. "Well, now what?"
"Nothing new on the Psychic Hotline?"
"Nope."
He drummed his fingers on his thigh. "No leads to follow at the moment. No way of determining who or what the thief is. Sounds like we're at a dead end right now, unless you want to go talk to Thorandryll."
I started my car. "Let's call ahead."
The elf who answered the phone apologized, but said Thorandryll was busy. "I'm afraid the final preparations for the ball are consuming everyone's time and attention right now."
Black Magic Shadows (Discord Jones Book 5) Page 3
