Magic After Dark: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels

by Margo Bond Collins

  “I’m not sure that’s a good thing. He wanted us to have it,” Alessa said.

  “No way.” That wasn’t possible, was it? “If he wanted us to have it, he would have just given it to us.”

  “I didn’t even ask him to offer it as a prize.”

  “But the games, the tests, the combat, the big hulking demon.”

  “Misdirection, I fear.” Alessa sounded weary. “Plus, I’m sure Grimstar enjoyed that for itself. He’s a showman who just put on a hell of a show.”

  “So what now?”

  She looked up at the sky. “The night is still relatively young. If I was sure it was the right thing to do, I’d say we should go now. The magtroller codes could be changed at any time, and immediate action might allow us get the jump on Grimstar. He can’t expect we’d go straight from what we just went through to trying to break into Cressington Tower.”

  “Because that would be crazy.”

  “Exactly.”

  “But you can’t be sure we should take the swirl key,” I said, “while you have doubts about Gabriel.”

  Alessa nodded.

  Should I tell her? Could I tell her? “What if I could reassure you about Gabriel?”

  “I’m listening.”

  I wiped rain out of my eyes, thinking furiously. Gabriel had told me not to tell anyone, but after what Alessa had been through defending me, she deserved to know the truth. And if she was the traitor the tarot cards warned of? Although I had once hoped that she’d end up being the traitor, I could no longer imagine that to be the case. “You mustn’t tell anyone else. Not even Lionel. It’s not my secret to share.”

  “I can’t promise,” Alessa said. “I won’t put him or the others on our team in danger by staying quiet. But I’ll do my best.”

  “Gabriel isn’t a mage from Italy. He’s a dragongod.”

  It was Alessa’s turn to wipe rain from her eyes as she looked across at me to figure out if I was joking. “A dragongod?”

  “He can change forms. A helsing warrior sees auras: green for ourselves, black for demons, red for vampires…” I snorted and shook my head.

  “What is it?”

  “I just realized that while we sat here, I forgot you had an aura, just didn’t notice it. A red aura, and I… I never thought that was possible.” I shook my head again. “Dragongods have a blue aura. The first moment I saw him, I knew what Gabriel was.”

  “Lionel talked about your strange behavior when he first came in. Falling to your knees. Helsings worship the dragongods, don’t they?”

  “And vampires don’t? Dragongods created your race.”

  “They cursed us into existence,” Alessa said. “Not sure how grateful we should be. So Gabriel is Riva, the one who walks the Earth.”

  I nodded. “So you know how important keeping the swirl key out of the hands of Grimstar is when a dragongod has decided to involve himself.”

  Alessa rapidly stood up and moved across to intercept a middle-aged man who’d been about to pass. “I need to borrow your phone,” she said. “It’s an emergency. I would recommend you not refusing.”

  The man looked around, then spotted me. I rubbed some rainwater into the wound on my bare chest and smiled at him. He took his phone out of his pocket, fumbled it, and it fell into a puddle. “Keep it,” he said and ran off.

  Alessa fished the phone out of the puddle, and wiped it against her dress. “I hope this still works.” She dialed. “Lionel?”

  “What’s going on? Are you okay?” Lionel’s voice came through clear enough that I could hear it from where I sat.

  “I’m, yes, I’m okay,” Alessa said. “We have the magtroller. Is everyone there?”

  “Danielle is. Gabriel, no.”

  “Shit! And still no way to contact him?”

  She held her hand to the mouthpiece and lowered the phone. “The dragongod is missing in action. Do we still go tonight?”

  “Umm.” I hadn’t told Alessa that Gabriel had been in Casino Demonica in a different form.

  “Wait, the door’s opening. Hold on,” Lionel said. Alessa raised the phone to her ear once more. “Yes, it’s Gabriel. We’re all here.”

  “Get everyone to Cressington Tower,” Alessa said. “We are going for the swirl key tonight.”

  “We’re not ready. We need a better plan.” Lionel cleared his throat. “Or some kind of plan, at least.”

  “We’ll figure it out. Slate and I will meet you there. Bring towels, a spare set of clothes for me, and more importantly, something for Slate to wear.” She smirked in my direction. “Not sure anyone is ready for a heist that involves a naked gypsy running amok.”

  “Naked,” Lionel said. “Why would anyone have gotten naked?”

  “Whatever you’re imagining, it was worse,” Alessa said.

  “Okaaaay,” Lionel said. “Let me check with Gabriel. See if he agrees that we’re ready.”

  “Tell him it’s now or never. See you shortly.” Alessa hung up and threw the phone back into the puddle. “We should probably walk. It’s not that far, and we’ll have a tough job getting a taxi in the state we are in.”

  I stood, spreading my arms wide and tensing my core. “You never know. I might be helpful for getting a taxi.”

  Alessa made a face. “I don’t want to ride with any taxi driver who stops for that.”

  Chapter 23

  The rain had stopped by the time we reached Cressington Tower, and well before then it had ceased to be cool and refreshing. I had started to shiver. We spotted the mage team van parked across the street and hurried over. We were spotted before we reached the van, and Lionel climbed out and threw a towel to each of us. He raised his eyebrows at the sight of me. “So Alessa wasn’t joking about the lack of clothes. Did Slate decide on a pleasure detour in the middle of the mission again. Like with Jacinta?”

  “That was part of the…” I groaned. “Forget it.” I ran the towel across my shoulders, then began to dry out my hair.

  Harps jumped out of the van from behind Lionel and tried to climb up my leg. He didn’t manage to get a good grip and slid down again. Ugh. You are all cold and slippery, he thought.

  Good to see you too, boy.

  Harps climbed back into the van and sat on Danielle’s lap. Perhaps he’d been serious about leaving me for Danielle.

  Becca stuck her head out. “Have we figured out exactly what Slate was doing? My guess is that he was fulfilling his secret dream to be a strippergram,” she said. “He generously took time away from saving the world so he could indulge the fantasies of a group of screaming middle-aged women. As you do.”

  “Did you not see I’m injured?” I rubbed the blood off my chest with the towel, glad to see the wound continued to heal well. It could end up leaving an impressive scar.

  “That was our first clue,” Becca said. “Those horny women can get feisty.”

  “Everyone’s a comedian,” I said. “Gabriel, can I talk to you for a moment?”

  “Sure.” Gabriel got out of the driver’s seat and came around toward me.

  Lionel lifted an armful of clothes out of a duffel bag and put them into my hands. He then slung the bag over his shoulder. “Come on, let’s get you out of those wet things.” He guided Alessa off to the side. She continued to dry her hair with her towel.

  With Gabriel beside me, I moved away from the van in the opposite direction to Lionel and Alessa. “Can you hold these for me?” I offered the clothes across to him.

  Gabriel stared. “You expect me to help you dress?”

  “Umm… I forgot. Umm…” I stammered. He was a dragongod, and I was asking him to…

  Gabriel gave me a slap on the shoulder. “I’m messing with you. Of course I’ll hold them.” He took the clothes off me. “Start with the trousers.” He held them out and I took them.

  As I put them on, I glanced back to make sure we were out of earshot of the others, then asked, “What were you doing at the casino?”

  He handed me my top. “Let’s just say
that I’m trying to keep several balls in the air at the same time. I’m hoping it’ll all pay off later.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning you’ll find out soon.”

  “Are we doing the right thing?” I looked across at Cressington Tower. “Going now. We still don’t know who the traitor is, which multiplies the risk. The others don’t know about that.” Perhaps I should have told Alessa when I told her about Gabriel. But I had been trying to persuade her to act at the time. “Unless you figured out who it could be.”

  “I’m afraid not. You’ve absolutely no idea yourself? Even just a hint. The cards spoke to you.”

  I shook my head. Becca had joined our little team, so that added another to the list of suspects. Another one that I found really hard to believe could be a traitor. Perhaps it was me after all.

  “Whoever it is will reveal him- or herself tonight.” Gabriel handed me my hunting coat, and I shrugged it on. “Don’t worry. I have a few tricks up my sleeve. A portal to the underworld isn’t happening without my say so. Not on my watch. Now, shall we rejoin the others? Finish getting ready?”

  I nodded. As we returned to the van, I spotted Alessa leaning against the wall, lit up by her aura. There was something strange about how she stood. I took a few steps toward her, then saw that Lionel was between her and the wall, and they were embracing, kissing. No, they weren’t kissing—Lionel’s mouth was half open and he stared into the far distance with a look of ecstasy on his face. Alessa’s head was tilted against Lionel’s neck. Suddenly, she turned her head and saw me watching her. A drop of blood fell from one fang.

  Lionel stepped away from the wall, shielding her from my vision, murmured something to her, then came my way. “Staring is impolite,” he said as he walked past, rubbing at the base of his neck.

  “I was called a bloodbag earlier,” I said. “I didn’t know what it meant until now.”

  He didn’t reply. I followed him to stand by the van, and when Alessa joined us, her fangs had retracted. She avoided my gaze.

  Danielle and Becca had also exited the van, and Harps sat on the roof. “What’s in that?” Lionel asked Becca, pointing at a bulky backpack she wore.

  “French baguettes, Gouda cheese, and a bottle of Merlot,” she said. “I’m thinking we might have time for a late-night picnic later.”

  “Alessa, can you give the magtroller to Becca?” Lionel asked, and Alessa handed the metal cube across to his sister. “You don’t need the rest of what you are bringing. Your job is just to reprogram the magtroller.”

  “I can do more than one thing. I’m a prodigy, after all.”

  “A prodigy,” Lionel said. “That’s news to me. Aren’t you just a failed mage?”

  “If no one else realizes it, it only makes me the best kind of prodigy,” Becca said. “One who is unrecognized in my own time.”

  “I said not to bring the maser gun,” Gabriel said.

  “We’re a twofer,” Becca declared. “You want me, you get the gun, too.”

  “It’s unstable,” Gabriel said. “Dangerous.”

  “I haven’t been allowed access to the Cressington Tower equipment in nearly a year. This is my chance to get it working. Slate said that I might get a chance to test it if I helped you guys.” She looked at me for support.

  “Maybe next time you’ll get a chance to try your technology,” I said. If Gabriel was against it, maybe masers were as dangerous as Lionel thought.

  “So you are all against my grandpapa’s maser,” Becca said. “Well, screw the lot of you. My maser will save the day, you’ll see.”

  “It’s never going to work,” Lionel said.

  “It’s this close.” She held her forefinger and thumb a hair’s width apart.

  “You were that close two years ago,” Lionel said. “And Grandpapa was that close five years ago.”

  “Some people never know when to leave well enough alone, do they?” Gabriel said. “Ever since the Garden of Eden, people always insist on pushing every boundary, no matter the risks, until every good thing is ruined.” Gabriel stopped talking as he realized everyone was looking at him. He gave a smile. “I seem to have gone off topic. Are we ready to go?”

  “I have bad news and good news,” Lionel said. “The good news is that the outer wards are no longer in place.”

  I looked across the street and saw that he was correct—no white shimmer surrounded Cressington Tower. Though there had to be a reason for that. “Let me guess,” I said. “That’s also the bad news.”

  “Got it in one,” Lionel said. “I figure Hadrian is letting us get inside so he can spring something. Luckily, I have known Hadrian since he was pissing in paddling pools and blaming the dog for it.”

  “That happened last year, right?” Becca said. “Or was it the year before?”

  Lionel smiled. “Outwitting Hadrian won’t be a problem. I know how he thinks, and I know the layout and security measures of the Tower.”

  “So you have a plan?” I asked.

  “More of a general outline than an exact plan,” Lionel said. “We were discussing the details on the way over. The two prototype robots were transferred back from the Dulane Building to here. Alpha Two is unlikely to have been repaired, but Alpha One will be operational, and I’d bet my left nut against a Snickers bar that Hadrian will be controlling it. Alessa and Slate will have to fight past Alpha One and any other mages to get to the magsafe. Danielle’s seeing eye will be helping. I’ll help Becca get the magtroller programmed, then get it to you. Gabriel will…”

  “Gabriel will coordinate and intervene if necessary,” Gabriel said.

  “Exactly that.” Lionel reached into the van and pulled out a tangle of earpieces. He poked through them, matching the earpiece to the owner, and handed them out. “Sorry, Harps, I don’t have one in your size.”

  Harps, from his perch on the roof of the van, stuck his tongue out.

  “Thunderbirds are go,” Lionel said once his own earpiece was in place.

  “Mage team on,” I said.

  “The force is with me,” Becca said.

  “I love it when a plan comes together,” Danielle said.

  “Memento mori,” Alessa said.

  “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure,” Gabriel said.

  Everyone turned to stare at him, and he shrugged. “What can I say, it’s my favorite movie.”

  “No point in delaying, then.” Alessa adjusted her leather jacket around her shoulder, and I spotted her katana sheathed inside. Then she started across the road, and Lionel followed.

  I checked inside my own jacket to make sure my knives were secure yet easy to access, then paused when I felt feet dig into my shoulder. Harps had jumped from the van. What was I going to do about him? I was wearing my hunting coat and we weren’t exactly going somewhere fancy, so I had no excuse for leaving him behind. On the other hand, I didn’t want to put him in danger unnecessarily.

  Harps, will you stay in the van? Gabriel will make sure you are okay, I thought.

  Won’t you need me?

  Not this time, boy.

  Harps’s answer was to hop onto the roof of the van, then swing from there through an open window and inside. I was glad he was safe, but I felt vaguely disappointed that he didn’t insist on staying with me. Of course, I knew that made no sense—it was just a stupid emotional twinge that I couldn’t ignore.

  As I crossed the street, I looked back to where Gabriel leaned against the side of the van. He gave me a smile and a nod.

  In that moment, seeing him looking assured and confident, his blue aura glittering, my doubts and fears melted away. I wasn’t sure what awaited us, but whatever it was, our opponents didn’t have a dragongod on their side.

  We would succeed.

  Chapter 24

  Danielle sat on a low wall with her crystal ball on her lap, manipulating it with her fingers, moving her seeing eye. Just as I came up behind Lionel and Alessa, the seeing eye disappeared through a door. A moment later, the door clicked open.


  “That was quick,” Lionel said.

  “No magical wards at all,” Danielle said. “I’d say I have a bad feeling, but it’s gone way beyond that. Pure dread is slivering around inside me.”

  “It’s as we expected,” Lionel said. “Hadrian is making it easy to fall into his trap.”

  “I guess.” Danielle picked up her crystal ball and stood. “Will we go inside anyway?”

  “Wait,” Gabriel said through the earpiece. “I’ve had an idea. Our mission might take longer than we’d like, and the last thing we need is more Cressington mages arriving after we’ve dealt with Hadrian. Since there are no protective wards in place, what if we set our own? Wards that prevent any communication, tech or magic, with the outside. So the alarm can’t be sounded.”

  “Would you be able to do that, Danielle?” Lionel asked.

  “I’m not sure.” Danielle sat back down again, taking her spellbook from her pocket, and flicking through it. “It’s not something I’ve prepared.”

  “You stay outside and operate your seeing eye from there,” Gabriel said. “And if you get the chance, try to set up those wards.”

  “Okay,” Danielle said, squinting as she read one of her spells.

  Gabriel’s idea made sense in more than one way. Danielle lost her ability to use magic when scared or rushed. Leaving her out of danger, with a task to occupy her mind, would be a way to get the best from her abilities.

  As Lionel, Alessa, and Becca passed into Cressington Tower, I crouched down beside Danielle. “Danielle, remember the spell I talked to you about before? One that might break a connection between a necromancer and the demon giving him power? Lionel said you went to an old bookshop today. Any luck?”

  “Amazingly, yes. I found something.” Danielle leafed to one of the latter pages of the spellbook and pointed out several lines of weirdly shaped writing. “I even wrote it down, but I didn’t have time to practice with it, to truly learn it. Why?” She glanced up at me. “You don’t expect the necro to arrive, do you?”