"Why didn't it smell like demons down there to me?" Danielle asked, wrinkling her nose. "They have a distinctive odor."
"Neither Logan nor Nick could smell demons when they were wearing human bodies." I felt my frown becoming a scowl. "So if you didn't smell demon stink, that could mean they're trapping humans to possess them, or only possessed humans come and go through that portal."
Kate sighed. "I'll talk to Damian, see if there's any missing persons reports that involve that area."
"Thanks." Now what? We had no new leads on our case. I wasn't going to go wandering around the demon realm until we had an idea of what they were up to. "Hm."
Danielle was watching me. "What?"
"I'm trying to figure out whether demons have anything to do with our case."
"You don't know?"
I shook my head. "I mean, I think it's our case, because the first time I got a trail, it was after touching the dust cloth the missing mirror was covered with. But that could be coincidence, because my abilities don't exactly behave logically most of the time. But we have footage of the mirror's theft, and the thief wasn't human."
After I closed my mouth, I blinked. "Wait a minute. Demons can manipulate shadows."
"Demon lords can," Mr. Whitehaven corrected me. "The average demon cannot."
"Great. I guess the demons are case-related then." I wasn't looking forward to tangling with them again. The first time had been scary enough. "If they have the mirror, it could be anywhere."
Danielle suddenly laughed.
"What's so funny?"
"I understand why our Queen is insistent that we guard you. You're a magnet for trouble."
"Gee, thanks."
She shook her head. "That wasn't intended as an insult. I was thinking about what you said earlier."
"Oh." She meant the pawn thing. "Yeah, I get it."
The boss broke in. "If the mirror's in the demon realm, it may not be recoverable."
I looked at him. "Is that you're way of telling me not to go poking around down there?"
"Yes."
"Strangely, I don't feel the need to argue, unless my abilities throw something out."
He nodded. "Of course, but don't go alone. Dane may keep the sword for now, and I'll fetch the dagger for you."
"Thanks, boss." When he left the reception area again, I patted Leglin's head before looking at Danielle. "Guess when he gets back, I'll teleport you home, and go home myself."
She agreed, and that's what I did, once the boss handed over the dagger.
SEVENTEEN
I was outside with the dogs when Dane brought my car home. Once he exited and returned my keys, I asked, “How’d it go?”
“No trouble at all. Didn’t see anything or catch a whiff of demon.” My partner covered a yawn. “Pretty boring, until Jo and Trixie arrived. Closing a portal makes a lot of glowing special effects. That part was cool.”
“David didn’t do it?”
Dane shook his head. “Jo said he’s cranky today. Some shipment didn’t arrive when it was supposed to.”
“Oh.” David could be fussy about lateness. “Want something to drink?”
“Sure.”
“Go on in.” The dogs were heading toward the house, finished with their business. “I’ll be in with the dogs in a minute.”
“Okay.” Dane went inside, and I followed once the dogs had all reached the porch.
“Juice, tea, or coffee?” I walked to the kitchen. My partner was seated at the breakfast bar.
“Juice is fine. This case isn’t moving fast.”
“Some don’t. One of my first cases took nearly four months to solve.” I collected a couple of glasses. “Ice?”
“Please. I hope this one doesn’t take that long. I doubt our client’s the patient type.”
Selecting orange juice from the options in the fridge, I filled the glasses three-quarters full before dropping ice cubes into each. “Yeah, probably not. But it’s kind of hard to figure out supernatural crimes when it comes to shadow magic.”
Actually, most magic. It was why I’d preferred vampire cases. They were predators, driven by hunger and power. Pretty simple stuff, or so I’d thought for quite a while.
Then I’d met Derrick and his dhampyr son, Stone. I’d gotten a glimpse into vampire family life from the murders of Lady Esme and her family.
“Right, and elves never have clear reasons for anything.”
“Tell me about it.” I turned away to put the juice back in the fridge, and turned back—straight into a vision. “Ooh, maybe we have a clue happening.”
“What?”
“Vision.” I held out my hand and heard Dane leave his stool. “It’s a tunnel, rock.”
“What color of rock?”
“Reddish.”
“It’s really freaky when you have visions. Your face goes blank.” Dane had reached me, and took my hand. “And your eyes... whoa.”
“Whoa, wha... holy crap, dude.” I stared at him in the tunnel’s dim light. “How the hell did you get in here?”
My partner blinked, his nostrils flaring and eyes opening wide. “I don’t know. Wow, this feels real. Smells real, too. Are all your visions like this?”
“No, just the retrocogs. Oh, and the precogs, I guess.”
He looked both ways down the tunnel. “Not gonna lie, this is kind of cool. What do we do?”
“I usually wait for something to happen, but this looks like the same kind of tunnel we found earlier.” Which meant demons, and I’d had the terrifying experience of having a demon see me in a vision before.
Dane apparently felt my shiver at that memory, because his grip tightened. “How about we not do the usual?”
“Sounds good. Which way?” Should I call Leglin over? The hound had entered a vision before. Yet, realistic as my visions could be, Leglin couldn’t transport me out of one.
“Left? The tunnel slopes down that direction.”
It did? “Why down?”
Dane grinned. “If this is the demon realm, the deeper we go, the more chance we have of seeing them. If we see them...”
“We’ll catch some clues. Okay.” I didn’t really want to go deeper into the demon realm, but not being stuck in a vision alone was nice. “Don’t let go.”
“I won’t. Ready?”
“Yeah.”
We began walking. Nervousness opened my mouth. “Where is the light coming from?”
“It’s some kind of fungus, mixed in the rock.”
“Doesn’t it need sunlight to recharge?”
“Nope.”
So much for that outlet. “Demons are Numero Dos on my Bad Guy List.”
Dane glanced my way. “Who’s Number One?”
“Gods.”
“Number Three?”
“Elves.”
“Our lists match,” he said. “There’s a three-way intersection ahead. I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”
“What?”
“Why can’t you transform stuff?”
“Huh?”
“You kind of do, I mean. You do that thing with air, making it thicker. That’s transformational.”
Grateful for a distracting subject, I shrugged. “I don’t think that’s the same thing as what you guys can do.”
“Maybe not exactly, but isn’t teleportation a transformation? You move from one place to another, and you’re not exactly anywhere for a second or two. Right?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know that it’s an actual transformation. Right or left?” We’d reached the intersection. I couldn’t tell if either part of the new tunnel sloped up or down.
“Right.”
“It slopes down?”
“No, but there’s some doors set in the walls. I think we should check them out.”
“Sure.”
“You transform air to fire or ice.”
I nodded. “Yeah, but that’s about friction. Make air move faster, or rather its molecules, and it gets hot. Slow the molecules down, and
the water vapor solidifies.”
“That only makes me wonder more, since you can change air at the molecular level.” Dane peered through a barred opening in the first door we’d reached. “Empty.”
I looked too. “It’s a cell.”
“Yep. Let’s keep going.”
We backed away and walked to the next door. My partner continued the conversation. “I mean, if you can make air molecules do what you want, why shouldn’t you be able to make other molecules do what you want?”
The next cell was also empty. “Give me a for instance.”
“Well, what about changing your shape?”
I pulled him to a halt. “What?”
“Why couldn’t you learn how to do that?” Dane shrugged. “You’ve been in a different shape before.”
“Because of a cursing potion.”
“Well, yeah, but seriously. You can do stuff.”
I cocked my head, studying his expression. “Do you know something I don’t about my abilities?”
“Maybe? I started poking around, after we returned from the Unseelie realm. The Unseelie and Kethyrdryll said you were a natural mage. We should probably keep moving.”
“Yeah.” I let him pull me along. “Why would their label make you poke around?”
“This one’s empty, too. Because Kethyrdryll said you were descended from all the great families, and that they started because the gods were having affairs with humans.”
“Empty,” I said, checking the fourth cell. “And?”
“Gods can transform themselves and others into anything, Cordi.”
“But I’m not a god.”
“No, but legends say their half-human children—natural mages—could transform themselves or others, too. Empty. We have one door left before a turn to the right.”
“So you think I should be able to change shape.”
“Makes sense.”
We paused to look into the last cell. “Holy crap. It’s the mirror.”
The mirror’s darkened surface glowed green and a misshapen face appeared. “Who’s there?”
“Uh-oh.” We ducked, looking at each other. I whispered, “Now what?”
“You’re the vision expert.”
“I can hear you,” the mirror said. “And one of you is a woman. Hopefully naked. I requested a TV with the X-rated channels, but the real thing’s far better.”
“Ugh.” Tanisha was correct: The mirror was a pervert. I straightened to look into the cell. “Hello. You can see us?”
“You’re right outside my door. Of course I can see you.” A leer transformed the mirror’s pale green face. “Love to see more. Why don’t you come in and...” his leer disappeared. “Oh. I see. You’re not really here. Tease.”
“Excuse me?”
“Shame. Dark-haired beauties are my favorites.”
I frowned. “How do you know we’re not really here?”
“I see, hear, and know all,” the mirror intoned, his voice deeper than before. “You’re a natural mage, peeking into the past. Naughty girl. I like naughty girls.”
Rolling my eyes, I said, “We’re private investigators, hired to recover you.”
“By whom?”
“Celadine.” Dane tried the door with his free hand. “Wait, we can’t actually do anything in a vision, right?”
“Leglin carried a pebble out of one for me.”
“Okay, then maybe if we can open the door, I can carry the mirror out?”
“Ooh, escape from this dreary cell? I like it.” The mirror brightened.
“Let me try to pick the lock.”
Dane looked away. “Uh, I hear someone coming. If he can see us...”
“They might be able to, too, if they’re demons.” Crap. So close, even considering our plan might not work.
“So we’d better, hey.” Dane scowled as our surroundings changed. We were in my kitchen. “Damn it.”
I heaved a sigh, releasing his hand. “It’s okay. Now we know exactly where the mirror is.”
"What are we going to do?"
"Duh. We're going to steal it back."
EIGHTEEN
"This will totally work. Leglin can take us in and out. All we have to do is grab hold of the mirror. Easy peasy."
Dane scrunched his face. "It could be booby-trapped. Warded."
"Then we'll take Ronnie with us." She was the coven's warding expert. "Do reconnaissance first and let her check it out."
My goal was to do it as quickly and safely as possible. Especially if we were going to involve Ronnie, since she had kids. I knew she'd go, because she'd been part of the cavalry the first time demons had caused trouble. That fight had been a close call, and I did not want to be the reason Ronnie didn't make it home to her hubby and children.
"Maybe we should call the client first," Dane said.
"Yeah, because a clue why demons want the mirror would be nice." I pulled out my cell phone. After connecting, I had to wait for Lady Celadine to come to the phone, because her secretary answered.
Celadine's greeting was a frosty "I do hope you've progress to report, Miss Jones."
Dane grinned when I rolled my eyes. "We've found your mirror, but retrieving it will take a bit longer. Any idea why demons would want it?"
She sucked in a breath. "You will retrieve it immediately. This instant, do you understand?"
"Whoa there, Nelly. We have to plan, because..."
"Now!" She ended the call with that shrieked word. Dane and I winced in reaction.
"Well, it appears it's super important we recover the mirror," he said. "This instant, even."
"That was the impression I got too. Let me call Ronnie."
She answered after a single ring. "Hi, Cordi."
"Hey. Are you busy? We kind of need your expertise on a case."
Ronnie hissed. "Oops, sorry. That was cold. Uh, I'm kind of in the middle of a doctor appointment."
"Are you okay?"
She laughed, and I heard a weird sound from her end. "I'm great. We're looking at our next baby right now."
"Oh, wow. Congratulations."
"Thank you. Number four." She paused when someone spoke too low for me to hear. "I'll be done here in about twenty or thirty minutes. Where do you want to meet?"
Dane began shaking his head, mirroring my feelings, so I said, "Well, here's the thing. We've been hired to retrieve a stolen mirror, and found it, in the demon realm. So maybe you can suggest someone else?"
"Oh, yeah. I don't want to go there right now. Um, let's see," she was silent for a moment. "If you can pry him out of the shop, David would be best. If not him, Jo would be my next choice. They're both pretty good with wards, but they'll need a little more time than I do."
"All right, thanks. Congratulations again." We traded "Byes" and I ended the call. "I'll try David first."
"Let's just go over there. It'll cut down on time."
I eyed him. "Do you have a date?"
"At seven."
"Ooh, are things getting serious?" I pushed away from my desk to stand up.
"My answer depends on whether you're going to tease me."
Grabbing my purse and jacket, I laughed. "You mean the way you tease me about Logan?"
"Yeah."
"I'm going to tease the holy crap out of you."
Dane laughed. "Meanie. Okay, yeah, maybe serious. Not 'settle down forever' serious, but possibly 'this could lead to long-term dating' serious."
I didn't give him a hard time. "That's great."
"I think so too." He took the hand I held out, and I teleported us to the Blue Orb.
Jo waved to us from her spot behind the tall counter. "Hey, guys."
"Hey. Is David around?"
"He's with a customer. What's up?" She folded her arms and leaned on the counter. I explained why we were there, leaving out the call to Ronnie, and Jo wrinkled her nose. "Why haven't you called Ronnie?"
"We did, but she just found out she's pregnant," Dane said. Jo squealed, but I shot him a
dirty look. "What?"
"You don't tell people that kind of thing without permission. It's Ronnie's news to share."
"Oh, sorry. I didn't know that was a rule."
"Don't tell anyone else."
He pretended to zip his lips. "I won't, promise."
"Argh." Jo mock-scowled. "Now I have to sit on the news too."
I pointed at Dane, swinging my finger to Jo. "See the turmoil you've caused? Do you?"
He dropped to both knees, holding up his clasped hands. "Please, oh please, forgive me for this terrible social faux paus."
We were laughing when Tonya came out of the back room. "What's funny?"
"Dane. He's being a dork." I looked at Jo while my partner climbed to his feet. "So what are the chances of taking David away from all of this for a little while?"
"Higher than usual, thanks to a gaggle of sorority girl wannabe witches." She and Tonya rolled their eyes in perfect unison. "They were shopping for love potion ingredients."
"Do those work?" Not that I'd ever use one. Just curious.
The two witches snorted in tandem, and I fought a smile. Jo answered. "No, love potions don't work. Especially not the one they were talking about. But there are potions and spells that can give the magic user control over his or her victim's emotions. Those usually take someone with major talent. Spells are all about intent. The form and ingredients are just tools to focus that intent."
I squinted at her. "Thorandryll took an awful long time mixing up that potion to change me back."
Jo shrugged. "He was having to guess what Dalsarin's true intent was for cursing you, and counteract it. Magic's actually sort of complicated most of the time."
"Anyway, it's a good thing love spells don't work," Tonya said. "What does work can be messy enough. Like, violently messy."
"Why would anyone want something that wasn't real?" Dane leaned on the counter.
"Well, that's kind of the problem with people wanting to do love spells. Hearsay is that love potions only work if the victim already has romantic feelings for the person. Basically, people think a potion just speeds things up." Tonya grinned when Jo patted her on the head. "I'm a good student witch."
"They're party poopers anyway. Half the fun's in getting there."
I agreed with Dane's statement with a nod of my head, having well-learned the lesson of rushing ahead in relationships.
Black Magic Shadows (Discord Jones Book 5) Page 13
