I glanced over at Kandy. “How badly did your beta ruin my sweater?” I asked, allowing the tension to ease out of my voice and body language.
Kandy laughed. “The back is completely shredded.”
I gave Audrey a peeved look, but kept my tone playful. “Merino, cashmere, and silk. Hand knit by my grandmother, beta.”
The dark-haired werewolf offered me the hint of a smile, taking my lead and softening her demeanor. “I’d be happy to offer compensation.”
I nodded seriously. “See’s Candies will do. When you’re next in town.”
“Your wish is my command … Jade.” Her using my first name again was a deliberate claim. Of my friendship. And possibly my loyalty.
I nodded, then turned back to the more pressing issue. Namely, the vampire who’d suddenly decided to attack a werewolf.
Jasmine was still on the ground, her back pressed against the wall beside the open door to my office. She regarded me with a steady blue gaze through her mass of riotous curls. “My head feels like it’s been split open.”
“You’re lucky, vampire,” Lara snarled from her corner of the kitchen. “The beta should have torn it off.”
Kandy cringed, and for a moment, I thought Lara was going to renew her attempts to attack Jasmine.
Then Audrey stepped into my eyeline, her gaze on Lara. “Surely I misheard, my enforcer,” she purred. “You couldn’t have just thoughtlessly used the term ‘should have’ in reference to a choice your beta made.”
Lara dropped her gaze. Then, obviously deeming that to not be a strong enough reaction, she dropped to one knee and tilted her head to expose her neck.
A bruise was forming around the bite Jasmine had inflicted. The wound was still seeping blood.
Jasmine moaned quietly. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I did that. I wasn’t even hungry. I’ve never bitten anyone before.”
A look of distaste overtook Audrey’s stern features.
“It’s okay, Jasmine,” I said. “Figuring out the why is next on our list of things to do.”
“I can … I can fix it. Heal it.” Jasmine bit her lip, making the offer to me rather than Lara. “At least, I think I can. I’ve never … tried. Never needed to …” She stopped talking, glancing around at all of us in uncomfortable dismay.
“What the hell do you eat, then?” Kandy asked.
I elbowed my BFF in the ribs, reminding her — with no particular subtlety — that Jasmine wasn’t going to be comfortable talking about her still fairly new feeding habits. Especially not in front of Audrey and Lara. Plus, I already had an inkling of the answer, based on Kett’s need to continually shore up power.
Jasmine reached up and touched the gold chain at her neck. It had come loose from her blouse in the tussle. The tiny reconstructions hanging from it flared at her touch, and a hint of nutmeg teased my senses. I wondered whether she could still feel the magic of the cubes in her new form. Or whether touching the necklace was simply habitual. Comforting.
“My saliva should heal the wound,” she whispered, not answering Kandy’s question.
“Absolutely not!” Lara snarled as she looked up at her beta. “I’ll shift, and it will be nothing but a nasty memory by tomorrow morning.”
“It’s your choice, wolf,” Audrey said. “I, for one, wouldn’t choose to remain weakened when in the territory of another. Not with elves running the place.”
That last bit was a dig at me. I let it go without comment — though not without silently deciding that Audrey would be paying for cupcakes henceforth.
Lara looked aghast. “You’d let a vampire … lick you?”
“I wouldn’t have allowed one to bite me in the first place.”
Lara’s face crumpled, then almost immediately hardened.
Jesus. Being a werewolf was a perpetually demoralizing lifestyle unless you were at the top of the pecking order. I glanced over at Kandy. She shrugged.
“If there’s a magical trail to follow, we need to get on it,” I said. “Plus, the display in the alley might be an issue.”
“I didn’t see any windows open,” Kandy said. “Most likely due to the weather. You were partially hidden by the garbage bins. And I didn’t see anyone walk by or drive into the alley. I triple-checked.”
I nodded. “Moving forward, then.”
Jasmine held out her hand to Lara. She was still sitting on the cracked tile floor — yeah, I was actively ignoring the state of my kitchen so I didn’t melt down. But she kept her gaze somewhere around the werewolf’s knees.
“The elf screwed with us last night,” Lara said. “And I couldn’t smell any magic.” She glanced at Audrey and me for confirmation.
Kandy nodded. “Even the dowser missed it.”
I huffed out an indignant breath. “I never pretend to be infallible.”
“You skewered that elf in the middle of the forehead in the park.” Kandy’s tone was edging on accusing. “After he took down Warner and me. I’d think you’d know the taste of his magic.”
Lara, Audrey, and Jasmine all looked at me.
“Hey! Apparently they have different magic, like Adepts do. And the ability to mask it. Or maybe it’s because it’s not of this dimension. So my senses aren’t, like … tuned up or calibrated to it.”
Audrey laughed. As in, throwing back her head and howling.
Apparently, comparing my magic to getting a car serviced really got her going. Honestly, if I were the one standing around half-naked, I’d be just a little more circumspect.
Ignoring her beta’s outburst, Lara stood and stepped toward Jasmine.
The vampire rose in a perfectly fluid movement — the same movement that accompanied everything Kett did.
“No biting.” The purple-clad werewolf wagged her finger sternly, as if talking to a puppy.
Jasmine nodded, glancing questioningly at me, then at Kandy.
Nodding, the green-haired werewolf stepped around Lara, laying her hand along the back of Jasmine’s neck. It was a gentle touch that could turn rough in an instant — backed, if necessary, by the magic of the cuffs she always wore.
Lara smoothed her hair away from her face, gathering it together at the back of her head. Then she stepped closer, offering her bruised neck to Jasmine. The two deep gouges there were still weeping blood.
The vampire reached for Lara’s shoulders. Then she curled her fingers in, as if she were afraid of hurting the slightly shorter werewolf.
“Let’s not take all day,” Audrey said. “Elves to hunt and all.”
Instead of closing the space between them, Jasmine leaned forward, running her tongue up Lara’s neck without otherwise touching her. Then she paused as if observing the wound. I couldn’t see fully through her cascade of curls.
The vampire gently licked Lara’s neck again. And this time, the wolf sighed softly. Intimately.
Jasmine stilled for a moment. Then she carefully began lapping at Lara’s neck.
Lara twined her hands through the vampire’s hair, curving forward into her embrace. Jasmine placed a hand on the werewolf’s lower back.
And suddenly I felt like a voyeur.
Kandy glanced over at me with wide, questioning eyes.
Lara sighed again.
“You taste good, wolf,” Jasmine murmured against Lara’s neck. Heady magic was laced through her words, likely some form of compulsion. “Strong. Vital. Sweet.”
“Is that enough, vampire?” Audrey’s question snapped through the kitchen like a whip. Or maybe that was her own magic, claiming her dominion over her enforcer.
Jasmine quickly pulled away from Lara. Then she tried to step back.
Only Lara wouldn’t let her go.
Kandy reached up, untangling Lara’s fingers from Jasmine’s mane of golden curls. Lara moaned disappointedly. But she stepped back readily enough, pressing her hand to her neck though it appeared to be completely healed.
She grinned at Jasmine. “Nice, vampire.”
Jasmine laughed, but quickly
glanced away. “It’s a trick, really. My saliva, combined with the residual venom in the bite, makes you feel good.”
“Mmm.” Lara swayed in place. “Being bitten by Kett was much the same.”
Jasmine’s head snapped up. “Kett bit you?”
“With permission,” I interjected.
“Werewolves aren’t food, vampire,” Audrey snapped. “As I understand the situation, the executioner was badly wounded. Enough to hurt many innocents. Two of our wolves sacrificed some of their strength in order to quell and heal him. Nothing else.”
Jasmine glanced at me.
I nodded, confirming Audrey’s version of the incident in which Kett had tangled with a zombie and nearly lost. Then he’d attempted to drain me dry, forcing Desmond to come to my rescue. Though that extra detail was best left between those who already knew it.
“I think I might need a nap now,” Lara murmured, swaying on her feet again.
“Sorry,” Jasmine muttered.
“You can access Kandy’s apartment through mine,” I said, gesturing toward the open stairwell. “Just up the stairs and through the front door.”
“Yes,” Audrey said with a sniff. “We did sleep there last night, dowser.”
“Right.” I forced myself to continue being polite, though apparently doing so made me an idiot in the beta’s mind. “No one should see you, but if you’d like to grab a bathrobe …”
Giving me a look, Audrey rearranged her shredded clothing so that it better covered her important bits. Then she slung Lara’s arm across her shoulders. Without another word, the beta half-guided, half-carried her enforcer up the stairs to my apartment.
Jasmine watched them leave, utterly chagrined. “Kett’s going to be so pissed.”
Kandy howled with laughter. “Oh, yes!” She clutched her belly, trying to talk at the same time. “Oh, please, God. Let me be there when you tell him.”
Jasmine twisted her lips, looking slightly nauseated. She hadn’t mastered Kett’s detached aspect yet, though perhaps that took decades, if not centuries. Either that or Jasmine was a particularly unique vampire emotionally.
“I need to go look for the damn elf,” I said.
Kandy sobered, shaking her head. “Lara, Audrey, and I circled twice, doubling back over each other. No elves. At least none we could smell.”
“Yeah, I was worried about that.” I stepped closer to Jasmine, thinking about how I’d felt the elf magic when I’d grabbed her elbow.
She smoothed her hand down her ruined suede jacket — the second one I’d helped her destroy in as many days. Though if she found a good tailor, she might be able to get the arm reattached.
“May I touch you?” I asked. “I don’t know how you were spelled … if you were spelled.”
“It didn’t feel like magic, but … I wasn’t naturally talented like that … even as a witch.”
Kandy stepped up beside me, leaning in to sniff Jasmine. After an initially disconcerted moment, the vampire remained still. “Smells like vamp,” the green-haired werewolf muttered. “And the necklace. Witch magic.”
“Wisteria,” Jasmine murmured. Then she smiled softly.
I brushed my fingers across her shoulder, then down her arm. Trying to taste beyond her sweet peppermint and that unknown spice that clearly marked her as a vampire, I breathed through the scent of Wisteria’s nutmeg magic in the reconstructions on the necklace. “I tasted elf magic briefly outside when I touched you.”
“Maybe we need to step outside,” Jasmine said. “Through the wards again.”
“No,” Kandy said. “Not without finding the source of whatever was influencing you. We don’t need Kett pissed at us as well.”
I nodded, only vaguely listening to them as I brushed my fingers down Jasmine’s other arm. Then I found what appeared to be a small plastic dot stuck to the cuff of her silk blouse. Almost on the very edge. A section that would have been exposed even before she’d torn off the sleeve of her jacket.
I had to actually touch it to get even a glimmer of magic from it. Which made sense, since its hold on Jasmine had been severed once I’d gotten her behind the bakery wards. Still, the idea that something so small could be powerful enough to make a vampire see things — even a fledgling — was disturbing. And even as a guess, this tiny touch of elf magic might have also exacerbated the antagonism between Jasmine and the werewolves. And the power that backed that sort of reach was chilling.
Brushing the supposition off as unhelpful until it was verified, I carefully peeled the dot off Jasmine’s cuff. It was the size of the tip of my middle finger.
“What the hell?” Kandy leaned in to sniff the dot. “What’s that? Plastic? Like one of those bumpers you put on a cupboard door? Or underneath something so it doesn’t scratch your coffee table?”
“It isn’t plastic,” I said grimly. “It’s a drop of elf blood. At least that’s what I think it is.”
“Blood?” Jasmine whispered. “As in … blood magic?” Witches had an ingrained thing against blood magic — apparently to such an extent that Jasmine was forgetting she wasn’t a witch anymore.
“Yeah. I mean, I’m guessing. But elf blood is thick and clear like this. I’ve seen it turn to a fine powder, like pulverized crystal, when removed from their bodies.”
Kandy snorted. “Well, that one time at least.”
I nodded thoughtfully. “And the illusionist’s magic does seem to work completely differently. So … I really am just guessing.”
“But …” Jasmine hesitated. “If you want my opinion …”
“We don’t stand on ceremony here, vampire.” Kandy wagged her fingers toward Jasmine, encouraging her to speak.
I laughed. “We’re usually in the dark for way too long as it is, even when everyone is contributing.”
“Okay. I don’t think I was seeing things. Like, not illusions, at least.”
“What about the text messages?”
“Yeah, sure. But then they weren’t there, right? And can the illusionist even confine her magic to only one viewer like that? We all heard the wolf on the cliff, right? The werewolves’ reaction was just stronger.”
“Just because you two don’t care about a wounded animal,” Kandy grumbled snarkily.
Ignoring her, I spoke to Jasmine. “What did it feel like? I know you don’t feel magic like I do. But?”
“Like I was going crazy,” Jasmine whispered. Her attention was trained on the solid dot of elf blood at the tip of my finger.
I glanced at Kandy. She shook her head once, grimacing ruefully.
“Telepath?” I offered up the suggestion hoping I was wrong.
Jasmine nodded. “Maybe. Could be. But not just any mind reader. Someone capable of creating a psionic dissonance and planting complex scenarios based on my own … concerns, obsessions …”
“Jesus,” I muttered. “An uber-telepath who works with some form of blood magic. As what? Something that broadcasts magic, like Wi-Fi? Except personalized?” I refocused my questions to Jasmine. “Why did you go out tonight? Because of the text message you thought you got from me?”
“No. And if being behind the bakery wards severed the connection …”
“Then the elf wouldn’t have been able to trigger the spell and manipulate you until you’d left the building. He or she must have been waiting, and then … simply brushed up against you without you noticing.”
Jasmine nodded. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry is what sorry does,” Kandy drawled sardonically.
“Helpful, my wolf.”
Kandy grinned toothily, like a wolf smiles at a bunny.
“So … you left the bakery, then what?” I asked.
“Then I remembered I was supposed to text you, so I stopped on the corner … and saw I already had a text.”
“From me.”
“Yes.” Jasmine hesitated. “I thought I might try to come in … for the bridal shower. Scarlett, your mother, did invite me, and I was okay hanging out with you all in the bak
ery in Whistler last night. But …”
“But?” Kandy prompted.
“But, um, you’re all … I thought it might be harder around witches and the necromancers …”
“Weaker prey,” Kandy said matter-of-factly.
Jasmine nodded.
“You might be surprised,” I said. “Especially by the necromancers.” I thought about the bone bracelet with which Teresa Garrick was practically torturing her son, Benjamin. Then I sighed as I laid the puzzle pieces out before us. “What are the chances that an elf skilled as an illusionist would also be a masterful telepath?”
“In the Adept world?” Jasmine asked. “No chance at all. Both are mind magic, obviously, but they’re completely different skill sets. Hell, they’re different genealogies.”
“Yeah,” I said grimly. “I thought you were going to say that.”
“The third elf.” Kandy tugged her phone out of her back pocket.
Yep. The freaking third elf.
“And …” Kandy added, drawing out the word in a way that let me know I really wasn’t going to like what came after it. “The telepath’s magic doesn’t register on the witches’ grid.”
Ah, the freaking grid.
“They are other-dimensional beings,” Jasmine said helpfully, attempting to get a look at Kandy’s phone. The werewolf belligerently angled her screen away from the vampire. “Do you have the grid up and running on your phone?”
Kandy eyed her for a moment. “Like how? With a live feed?”
Jasmine grinned, then shrugged. “I guess you’re going to have to let me look at it. See what I can do.”
Kandy offered Jasmine one of her patented nonsmiles.
Jasmine’s grin widened. “And I might be able to figure out how to tweak it so it can register the elves’ magic.”
“How?” I asked.
Jasmine nodded toward the solid dot of blood on my finger. “Exactly like that, but in reverse. But I’m … ah … it’s not blood magic if it’s elf blood, right?”
Misfits, Gemstones, and Other Shattered Magic Page 10
