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

by Margo Bond Collins

  “You know what the worst part is, though,” Dawn said just before they got within earshot of the camp.

  “Hmm?” Becca asked, not listening very hard.

  “You have to call Lange back and tell him you were wrong.”

  They circled the trucks out on Argo’s front lawn, if it was worth calling it that. Argo was outside of Dallas, and what he really had, in front of his sprawling, three-story absurdity of a house, was a bunch of red dirt. It didn’t look like anyone had made any effort to landscape it, so Billy wasn’t very careful with which tumbleweed he ran over as he pulled into his spot in the circle.

  Dawn said that Bella had wanted to meet at a campground again, that she hadn’t wanted to stay on Argo’s land, but that they’d argued for an entire hour about it before Bella had agreed to it.

  “She’s making him pay for it, though,” Dawn said ominously, though she wouldn’t say any more about it. They got out and Becca helped Billy set up the trailer while Dawn went to find Bella and then go see Felix about an injury he’d gotten tearing down camp that morning. Felix insisted it hadn’t been a big deal - Becca thought he’d seemed more embarrassed than anything - but Dawn wasn’t the type to let little things slide. Becca felt a shadow of sadness as she considered that now she understood why.

  There was a stranger standing and talking to Bella when Becca finally looked up from finishing the trailer. He was using animated handmotions that suggested they’d parked somewhere that didn’t make him happy, but Bella was unconcerned. Becca went to find Dawn, who was helping Colin unload his cooking gear from the back of his truck. The tripod and pot were obligatory, but it looked like Colin was planning on ember-broiled vegetables and baking some kind of flatbread tonight, from the things he was getting out.

  “Becca,” Bella called. Becca spun and raised her eyebrows, even though she was too far away for Bella to actually see her expression. “You’re coming with us.”

  Becca shot a look at Dawn, hoping for an explanation, but Dawn just gave her a wink and kept working. Becca hustled across the yard, grabbing a handful of her skirts so that she could walk faster without kicking them, and came to stand behind Bella as the dark woman kept talking to the man from Argo’s household.

  “There you are,” Bella said. “Come on. You’re in this, so you’re coming in with me.”

  “What?” Becca asked. “I didn’t…”

  Her phone rang. Bella raised an eyebrow at her, and Becca dug it out of her pocket. Surely it would be her mom and she could turn it off and call her back later.

  It was Lange.

  Becca flushed and answered.

  “Lange,” she said.

  “Yeah,” he said. “You guys know I’m two time zones away, right? I should not be negotiating where you get to park your freaking trailers. Seriously, though. You live in those things?”

  “You lived with Argo,” Becca said.

  “Points to the gypsy,” Lange said. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to bristle at that. “Argo says that Bella is fighting with Amille, and that they need to cut it out because he’s got places to be tonight, and he needs to talk to Bella before he goes.”

  “Amille,” Becca said, pulling the phone away from her mouth and pointing at him. The olive-skinned man glared. Becca jerked her head back. “It’s your name,” she said, pulling the phone back to her mouth. “Yeah, I got a testy guy who seems to answer to that.”

  “Just ignore him,” Lange said. “He likes being angry. We figure he’s already dead and if he lets his blood pressure drop too low it’s going to be permanent.”

  Becca grinned.

  “We’re invited inside,” she said to Bella, then put the phone to her mouth again. “Right?”

  “Yes,” Lange said. “And get it done. I’m at dinner and they don’t like it when you sit on a cell phone at a nice restaurant, around here.”

  “You just hang out at nice restaurants, there in the big city?” Becca asked.

  “On a date, actually,” Lange said sardonically. “You ever make it here, I might take you out and show you how people who aren’t nomads live their lives.”

  “Are you hitting on me in front of your date?” Becca asked. She heard Lange grin.

  “Makes her feisty,” he said. “Fix it and don’t bother me again.”

  She put her phone away after the line went dead, and then she caught Bella’s look.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I don’t know why…” She shook her head. “Never mind. Sorry.”

  “You’re done, then?” Bella asked. Becca shook her head.

  “Sorry. Lange says to go in.”

  “I’m not going to let you just squat here in the front yard. You shouldn’t be here at all, but if you’re going to be here, I need you to drive around behind the…”

  Bella and Becca were walking. Amille gave up and jogged along behind them.

  No one opened the door, so Becca opened it for Bella and waited as Amille shoved his way through, as well.

  “Is that woman finally done arguing with Amille?” Argo called from somewhere overhead.

  “I guess that will be him, then,” Bella said.

  “Do I really need to be here?” Becca asked.

  “Take my arm,” Bella said, holding out her elbow. Becca wove her arm through, then Bella neatly reversed it so that she had her forearm over Becca’s. The gypsy queen wove the fingers on each hand together and nodded forward toward the stairs.

  “Onward,” Bella said with something akin to a twinkle in her eye.

  “I thought they liked ranches, down here,” Becca said. “This place is huge.”

  Bella tutted softly.

  “You aren’t here to pick fights. I can do that nicely on my own.”

  Becca looked down and to the side, not overly chastened, and they started up the stairs.

  “If Argo’s apprentice is on a date, I presume that means he’s not here,” Bella said quietly as they walked.

  “He said he’s in New York, now,” Becca told her. Bella nodded, slow and deep.

  “That means he will have graduated from whatever hazing it is they do. He’s one of them, now.”

  “What does that mean?” Becca asked. Bella shook her head.

  “Too much, and a bit too soon. You’ll get there.”

  Becca frowned at her, and Bella smiled with everything but her mouth, then stretched her features out to look stoic and expressionless. Becca wanted to ask why Jackson wasn’t the one here doing this, but she sensed she had been hushed again.

  The stairs curled around a large entryway, doubling back on themselves before they reached a landing that was directly overhead from the first step. Argo was sitting in a huge recliner in front of a bank of windows. From there, you could see the entire Makkai camp, like a map.

  “You shouldn’t let Amille detain you with his pointless concerns,” Argo said. “You kept me waiting.”

  “You shouldn’t let Amille detain me with his pointless concerns,” Bella said, throwing her hair back over her shoulder. “You’ve kept me waiting.”

  If Bella hadn’t had her arm, Becca would have stepped away. She wasn’t sure which of them she was more intimidated in front of, or which of them would give out first in the intense staring contest that took up the ensuing silence.

  “Impossible woman,” Argo said. “I have things to do.”

  “You called me out of my way with some vague promise of things that might be of use to me. I’m no common trashpicker, and I don’t want your offcastings in hope of some sense of indebtedness.”

  “You come all this way to tell me that?” Argo mocked.

  “No, I came all this way to annoy your groundskeeper,” Bella countered. Amille, behind them, huffed. Becca hoped the smile didn’t make it to her face.

  There was another long silence as the two egos struggled to make the other go first.

  “For heaven’s sake,” Becca finally said. “What is it, Argo?”

  She thought Bella might have put the slightest pr
essure on her arm, but Becca didn’t know what to make of it, so she didn’t regret speaking.

  “You. Gypsies. With your traveling and your crystal magic and your secrets. You think your time is of any concern to me?”

  “No,” Becca said. “What did you want us to come here for? Or should I call Lange and ask him?”

  “Lange isn’t here anymore,” Argo said.

  “Couldn’t imagine why,” Bella said.

  “Yes, I understand that,” Becca said. “Which is why I would have to call him. You aren’t just wasting our time here.”

  She saw the muscle on Argo’s jaw twitch, and there was another small pressure on her arm from Bella.

  “Amille,” Argo said, voice deep, rough, angry. “Go get the box.”

  “And what is it you want in exchange for this treasure?” Bella asked.

  Argo licked his lips.

  “You put me on your list above the others,” he said. “If I call, and so does someone else, you come. You do what I say.”

  “All you have to do to get that is pay me more,” Bella said.

  “No,” he said, a sharp noise. “No, you do what you see fit. You don’t like me? Fine. I don’t like you. It hardly matters.”

  “To either of us,” Bella said. He grunted.

  “You remember,” Argo said. “You take this, you remember. That’s all.”

  Bella looked at Becca simply for dramatic effect, her eyebrows a fraction higher than they had been, then she turned to look forward again.

  “Could you be any more obscure?” Becca asked. “You aren’t helping anything.”

  “Wait,” Argo said. “You see if you want it, and then you tell me I’m the one being difficult.”

  Bella hummed a note that said so much that words couldn’t, and then they waited in the most awkward silence Becca had ever known for Amille to come back. Bella lifted her head up and away. Argo stared at the floor like he was willing it to burn. Becca watched the Makkai as they continued to work on normal campbuilding activities below them.

  Finally, Amille came back with a small chest, maybe a foot on its longest side, with brass bindings and latches at two corners. He set it down in front of Argo, who leaned over to open it.

  It was full of stones.

  “Gypsy treasure,” Bella said without moving. Becca eased her arm away a fraction and Bella let her go.

  “Why this?” Becca asked.

  “I had it…” Argo swallowed once and glanced up at Amille, daring the other man to make a liar of him, “come into my possession and they’re of no special value to me.”

  “Is that so?” Bella asked.

  “May I?” Becca asked. Argo pushed the box toward her with a foot and she picked it up, going to sit on a couch with the box in her lap. She started sorting the stones, glad that Billy had been quizzing her so hard, lately. About a minute later, she looked up at Bella and opened her hand to reveal a dime-sized blue sapphire.

  “Is that a seeing-eye?” Bella asked.

  “I’m not the one to ask,” Becca answered quietly. “There are more.”

  “Seeing-eyes?” Bella asked incredulously. “Then they’re fake.”

  “No,” Becca said. “Stones we should show Dawn.”

  “Or Quinn,” Bella said. She looked at Argo. “Where did you get these?”

  He shook his head.

  “Not your concern.”

  “It is,” Bella said. “Did you steal these from my people?”

  Argo sat up straighter.

  “I don’t steal, woman. I kill and I take, but stealing means taking instead of paying. You think I couldn’t afford those?”

  “I think a man like you likes to show off how powerful he is, and sometimes he takes without paying because he knows that the original owner doesn’t have a squeal big enough to stop you.”

  “Are they ill-gotten?” Becca asked.

  “Ill-gotten,” Argo muttered. “They’re for gypsies. I can’t use them. I got a good offer for them, but,” he dropped his chin, dramatic, defiant, “he’s like to use them against me as anyone.”

  “Shocking,” Bella said.

  “If you don’t want them, I’ll drop them down a well, be done with them.”

  Becca’s instinct was to slam the lid shut on the box and twist away with it, but she sat still instead, just watching Bella.

  “We aren’t indebted,” Bella said. “And I will not act any differently toward you than I would before. But these are dangerous crystals, in the wrong hands, and you know as well as I do that mine are the safest hands you can think of.”

  The muscle twitched again and Bella put her arm out. Becca stood, coming to take Bella’s arm again.

  “We will stay through camp break tomorrow, and I expect you to manage your people well enough not to disturb us,” Bella said.

  “You leave at dawn, and you keep your people away from mine,” Argo countered. Becca frowned and shook her head. They’d said the same thing again.

  Bella started away. Becca had expected one more exchange in farewell, but apparently that wasn’t going to happen. Bella leaned her head in toward Becca as they rounded the far turn on the stairs.

  “No conversation until we are inside my trailer,” she said, then gave Becca a nod. Becca nodded back, and Bella stood straight again. Becca felt just a tremor of fear that might have actually been excitement at the idea of being on the inside of whatever it was was going on. They got to the main floor and out the door, then walked across the front yard to the sound of the front door slamming behind them. Dawn looked up from what she was doing, and Bella waved her in.

  “Find Jackson,” Bella said as they kept walking. “Quickly.”

  They didn’t stop moving until they got to Bella’s trailer, where Bella left Becca sitting on a bed and went to busy herself on the tiny stove in the kitchen.

  Becca had never been in Bella’s trailer before. It was sacred enough to her that she hadn’t even thought to ask Dawn about it. It was the nicest of the trailers, which was appropriate, but it really wasn’t that special. The beds were covered with red and purple quilts and there were small baubles hanging from the roof that, if you actually looked at them, were pretty significant symbols of status, but apart from the cooktop, it was still just a trailer, and it smelled like one with the damp that you just couldn’t get out of something closed in like that all the time.

  “Tea?” Bella asked.

  “Okay,” Becca said as Bella came to sit.

  “You did very well,” Bella said, sipping out of a mug that she wrapped long fingers around before settling into the opposite bed.

  “Thank you,” Becca said. Bella breathed into her tea.

  “It’s good to have someone there who isn’t trying to battle with Argo. I might use that again.”

  “Oh, goodie,” Becca said, then looked up sharply at Bella, realizing what she’d said. Bella smiled.

  “Tell me what you saw in the box,” she said.

  “I think it’s a seeing-eye,” Becca said. “There are a few other true precious stones, maybe one uncut diamond, but it’s mixes of things I’ve never seen before, or heard of. And some of them are bigger than I’ve handled before.”

  Bella nodded quietly, taking another sip of her tea. Becca finally put the box down on the bed and took a drink of her own. Dawn and Jackson didn’t leave them waiting much longer, and then the four of them were sitting with their knees touching.

  “So what did he say?” Jackson asked.

  “He knows,” Bella said. “And he’s taking our side.”

  Becca glanced at Dawn, but Dawn didn’t give anything away. Jackson nodded.

  “What did he give you?” he asked.

  “Show them,” Bella said.

  Becca took the box up into her lap and opened it. Dawn gasped, nearly snatching it away while Jackson scratched his chin.

  “That’s a nice haul,” he said. “What did it cost you?”

  “My dignity,” Bella said with a sour note. “Becca was a g
reat choice.”

  “I thought she would be,” Jackson said. “Especially after Lange opened the door. Always did like him.”

  “He made it,” Bella said. “In New York now.”

  “Great,” Jackson said, meaning the opposite. “Carter is going to make him worse than Argo ever could.”

  “Sam is there now,” Bella said. “Things are changing.”

  “Things don’t change,” Jackson said. “Just the way people look at them.”

  “The way Carter is looking at things is changing,” Bella said.

  “Guys,” Dawn chastened. Becca wouldn’t have taken that tone with Bella and Jackson in a million years. “There’s a monkey’s eyebrow in here.”

  “Really?” Becca asked, leaning over to see. Dawn held a stone out in her palm and Becca sighed.

  “Is that a cobalt?”

  “Impressive,” Jackson said. It would have been easy, if cobalts were ever blue, but they were always hidden away with something else, this one in an iron compound. It made them black, most often, but this one was metallic. It was the shape, though, that was distinctive.

  “It’s perfect,” Dawn said. “And it’s been worked. It’s a monkey’s eyebrow.”

  “I haven’t even seen one of those on the market in a decade,” Jackson said. Bella shook her head. Neither had she.

  “This is going to take me three days, just to catalogue it,” Dawn said.

  “So he’s throwing his weight behind us in a big way,” Bella said. Jackson nodded.

  “We need to move, early, tomorrow.”

  “It’s time,” Dawn said.

  “Yeah, Argo doesn’t want us any longer than we have to be,” Becca agreed. Dawn shook her head.

  “No,” the young woman said, still running her finger through the stones like a bird looking for a particular morsel. She spoke without looking up. “It’s time to tell us what’s going on.”

  “There has never been a time, since the beginning of the Makkai, that they have been accepted by outsiders. We have had positive interactions with outsiders, even friendships. Outsiders have married Makkai and joined us, and Makkai have married outsiders and left. But there has never been a time in history that the Makkai people, as a group, have found a place that made itself home to them.