by R. L. King
“Why should I tell you?” Daisy’s voice shook a little, and her aura fluctuated more. “Who were those people you said were after me?”
“They’re friends of mine.”
“But—” She backed another step away. “You said—”
“They’re my friends, but they don’t know the whole story. I don’t want them to hurt you. They’re upset because the woman who got hurt—the one who almost died, and might not ever walk right again—is a friend of ours. You can’t blame them for being pissed, Daisy. Wouldn’t you be, if somebody did that to one of your friends?”
“Oh, God…” She took several deep breaths. “I’m so sorry…I wish none of this had ever happened.”
“What had never happened? The Arena?” Verity kept scanning the rooftop, half-expecting Zel and Lara—or more likely Kyla or Tani—to come rocketing up through the skylight.
“Yeah…That, and…”
“And what? What else do you—” Verity paused as she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. “One sec,” she told Daisy, and pulled it out.
A text from Jason read: Where are you?
She quickly tapped out a reply: On roof. Have Daisy. Harpies here looking 4 us.
“Who’s that?” Daisy asked with suspicion. “Them? Those other women?”
“No. My brother. I came here with him. He was helping me find you.”
Suddenly, the girl looked tired. “I’m sorry. I hate this. I hate all of it. I just want it to be over.” Her gaze came up. “Why were you looking for me? Are you gonna turn me in to the cops for what happened?”
“No. What’s the point? You weren’t anywhere near Greta when she went over. The cameras will show that. Do you think the cops will believe you threw her over with magic?”
A glimmer of hope showed in her eyes. “But…your friends…”
“I’m not gonna lie, Daisy. My friends are really pissed. They’re probably pissed at me now because they saw me with you. But I believe you when you say you didn’t mean to do it. It was that guy, right?”
She watched Daisy’s aura carefully when she said it, and was instantly rewarded with a flare of shocked surprised. “Wh-what?”
“The guy. The one you work for. His name’s Ben, isn’t it?”
More shock, billowing like sudden storm clouds. “How did you know that?”
Verity crouched on the roof. “Come on, Daisy. It’s over. I know about you, and so do some other people, including a friend of mine who has nothing to do with the Arena but a lot to do with finding Ben. Just tell me about him. Do that—help us find him—and promise you’ll give up this little magic gang of yours, and I’ll help you get out from under all this shit. My friend will, too. He’s got a lot of resources. He can pull some big strings for you.”
For a second, Daisy appeared hopeful. But then she bowed her head and slumped. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
She shook her head. “I can’t help you find him, because I don’t know where he is.”
“You don’t? I thought you guys kept in contact.”
“He contacts us. You know—when there’s a job. We haven’t done one for a long time. We—me and the others—were pretty wrecked about the Arena thing. We told him we didn’t want to do it anymore.”
Verity glanced at the skylight again. It wasn’t safe to stay here for long—even if Zel and Lara couldn’t find them, Tani or Hezzie could if they were here. “What did he say when you told him that? Did he accept it? Is that why you guys haven’t done any more jobs?”
“He did for a while.” Daisy looked miserable. “But then the other day he contacted us again. Got us all together. He wants us to help him with something.”
“Help him with what? Another job?”
“Yeah…kinda. And I don’t want to do it, but I’m scared not to.”
A chill ran down Verity’s back. “You don’t want to? Why? Does he want you to hurt somebody else?”
“I…” Her gaze came up, and all the bravado was gone now. She looked like exactly what she was: a scared teenage girl who was in over her head. “I don’t know what he wants anymore. I think there’s…something wrong with him.”
Verity’s phone buzzed again, and she looked down at the screen to see another text from Jason: Hurry up. Just spotted Kyla. She didn’t see me yet.
Damn. She was going to have a lot of explaining to do if they found her up here. Just wait, she sent back. I’ll probably have to meet you somewhere.
To Daisy, she said, “Why do you think there’s something wrong with him?”
The girl began pacing around, both her aura and her body language suggesting growing agitation. “When we first met him, he was…nice. He seemed like he cared about us. He wanted to help us. I didn’t even know I could do magic until he told me. He taught us stuff, and we used it to get back at bad people who deserved it, y’know?”
“Wait. You’re saying you didn’t even know you could do magic? He just…came up to you and told you that you could?”
“Yeah. Is that weird?”
“That’s really weird. It shouldn’t even be possible.” She wanted to call Stone right now and tell him, but it would have to wait.
Daisy shrugged. “I dunno. He did it. For all of us. None of us knew before he told us. Like I said, he was cool for a while. We all felt special, like we had something nobody else did. Like we were a little team, maybe even doin’ some good in the world and gettin’ a little extra money for ourselves. You know?”
Verity looked at her pleading eyes and understood all too well. When you were a runaway street kid, there weren’t many people out there you could trust. But you had to risk it, because going it alone—especially as a girl—was dangerous as hell. Feeling like she belonged, as part of a group that had the power to protect themselves from mundane threats, had to be a big deal for her.
“Believe me, I get it,” she said softly. “But then he wasn’t cool anymore?”
“I dunno,” she said again. “He called us together and told us he needed our help. That somebody had killed his mama and he wanted to get back at them.”
“Get back at them?” Verity froze. “So he did want you to hurt somebody.”
“He said he didn’t. He said if anybody would be hurtin’ anybody, it’d be him. He just needed us as backup.” She swallowed. “He was…scary.”
“Scary how?”
Her aura was a mess now. “At first, we said we didn’t want to do it. Like, we told him we were done after the Arena. And then he got really upset, and blew out the window in the place we were talkin’. It sounded like an explosion. And…he seemed like he wasn’t quite right in the head, y’know?”
That wasn’t good. The only thing worse than a powerful maverick mage was an unstable powerful maverick mage. Once again Verity wanted to contact Stone, but once again she forced herself to calm down. A quick glance at the skylight verified nobody was approaching yet. “So…what happened? Did you get away? Did he let you go?”
She sighed. “He apologized. Got really upset, and said he didn’t mean to scare us but he couldn’t just let them get away with killin’ his mama. I guess we felt sorry for him. We told him we’d help, as long as we didn’t have to hurt anybody.”
“So…what happened then? Did you help him?”
“Not yet. He’s gonna contact us when he’s ready. He said he had to figure some stuff out first.”
“How long ago was that?”
“About a week. I haven’t seen any of the others since then.” She looked around. “I…keep thinkin’ maybe I should just take off, y’know? Get a bus ticket to anywhere but here. But I guess I’m afraid he might come after me.”
“Okay…okay…” Verity paced again, thinking, and then turned back to Daisy. “Daisy…you said you wanted this to be over. Did you mean that?”
“Yeah. I wish none of this had ever happened. I wish I could take it all back. Even the magic. It’s scary and it makes me nervous.”
Verity gripped her shoulder. “
I can help you with that, if you let me. And so can my friend.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Why should I trust you? What makes you any better than Ben? Do you want something from me too?”
“All I want is for you to stop using magic to commit crimes—but it sounds like you already are. And I want you to be safe. Believe me, I know what it’s like to have magic and not know what to do with it.”
“So…what do you want me to do?” She still looked suspicious.
“Will you come with me and my brother?”
“Where?”
“To talk to my friend. He’s been trying to figure out what’s going on with all this, and he can help you even more than I can.”
To Verity’s surprise, she shook her head emphatically and backed up. “No way. No way. I’m not goin’ nowhere, and I’m sure as hell not gonna go talk to some other mage dude. Ben’s bad enough, but at least I kind of know him.”
“Daisy…” Even as she said it, though, Verity knew she wouldn’t get through to the girl. She made another quick scan of the roof and thought fast. “Okay. Fine. You don’t have to talk to him. But you said you didn’t want to do this job for Ben, right?”
“Yeah…”
She pulled a pen and notebook from her pocket and jotted both her phone number and Stone’s on it. “Here. Take this, then. When he contacts you about the job, call these numbers. The first one’s me, and the second one’s my friend. I’ll tell him what’s going on. When you know what Ben’s got planned, let us know. We’ll take care of it.”
At first, she only stared at the slip of paper. “Take…care of it? What’s that mean? Are you gonna hurt Ben? Kill him?”
“No!” Verity bowed her head. All this talk of killing coming from such a young girl saddened her. She wondered what Daisy’s life must have been like. At this point, all her anger at the girl for what had happened to Greta had ebbed away. This whole business wasn’t Daisy’s fault—it was Ben’s. And it sounded like even Ben needed help. “Nobody’s gonna kill anybody, Daisy. We just want to fix it so this doesn’t keep happening. It sounds like this Ben guy isn’t gonna leave you or your friends alone, right?”
Daisy looked between Verity’s face and the paper, her entire aura radiating indecision. “I don’t know…”
“V!”
The call came from behind her, and she whirled. Two figures were clambering over the edge of the roof. As they both stood, she recognized two women: a tall one and a shorter, skinnier hunched one. Kyla and Tani! “Oh, fuck…”
They were still a considerable distance away—she still had time. “Daisy—you have to decide! If they catch you, they’ll hurt you. Please. I can help if you let me!”
Daisy, terrified now, looked between Verity and the two approaching women. “Okay,” she panted, snatching the phone numbers and jamming the paper into her pocket. “Please don’t let them get me!”
Verity grabbed her arm. “Just trust me. And help me if you can!”
Kyla and Tani had already covered half the distance to where they stood, Kyla running in her usual effortless, athletic strides and Tani loping alongside with her strange, half-bent gait. “V! Stop!” Kyla called.
Verity didn’t stop. She cast her invisibility spell again and lifted herself and Daisy off the roof. As she did, she threw an illusion of the two of them still crouching on the roof. Once again, she silently thanked Stone for his rigorous training—this was the kind of thing most normal mages wouldn’t have a prayer of doing. Even so, she knew the illusion wouldn’t fool them for long. Especially Tani, who seemed to be able to track her prey by smell. “Stay quiet,” she whispered to Daisy.
Below them, Kyla and Tani reached the illusion. Kyla pounced on it, cursing as she passed harmlessly through it.
Tani stopped short of it, clearly not fooled. She sprang several feet into the air, higher than a normal human should be able to jump, and slashed what looked like long, clawed fingernails through it, barely missing Verity and Daisy as they soared higher.
“I know you’re there!” she yelled. “I’ll find you!”
A chill ran through Verity as she looked down into Tani’s burning eyes. She’d never known what her fellow Harpy was and had never asked, but right now the thought of having her on her tail scared the shit out of her. She dropped the illusion, since it was pointless, and focused on getting herself and Daisy away.
“Where are we going?” Daisy whispered, panting, maintaining a death grip on Verity.
“Away. But you’re gonna have to lie low. Those two are damn good trackers. Can you hide yourself with magic at all?”
“Some, yeah. It didn’t work on you, though,” she added with some bitterness.
“Yeah, well, I’m a little different. I’m hard to hide from. Now stay quiet. I have to concentrate.”
She stayed low, floating close to the tops of buildings in case she lost her focus, and finally dropped down behind a building on Fisherman’s Wharf. This time of night many of the tourist businesses were closed, but enough restaurants and bars were open that there was still a healthy-sized crowd.
“Here,” she said, pressing a few bills into Daisy’s hand. “Get a cab back to Oakland, and I’m not kidding—keep your head down. Don’t go anywhere anybody knows about. They’re really good at tracking, and they’ll find you if you’re not careful. Give me a chance to talk to them.”
Daisy swallowed hard. “Why are you helping me? After I hurt your friend?”
“Because I don’t think you meant to, and I gotta explain that to my other friends. And because Ben’s got to be stopped, and you’re our only link to him right now.” Verity pointed at Daisy’s pocket. “Keep that number. And please call me or my friend if Ben contacts you. Okay? Promise me.”
“Y-yeah. I will. And…thanks.”
“No problem.” She patted Daisy’s arm. “We’re not all after something from you, Daisy. Being a mage can be pretty cool. Trust me.”
The girl didn’t look convinced, but she offered a tentative nod and then took off, fading from view as she went.
Verity let her breath out and watched her go until even her aura disappeared, then pulled out her phone to contact Jason. Good thing he had a spare key to the SUV, because otherwise she’d be in for a long walk.
She wasn’t looking forward to the conversation she’d be having when she got home. She wondered if she’d just lost her girlfriend over this.
34
Stone got home shortly after eleven. Raider, as usual, met him at the door, winding around his legs. “Yes, yes, I’ll feed you in a minute. Just be patient.” Amused at the idea of a cat exhibiting anything approaching patience, he hurried up the steps to the master bath, already shrugging out of his coat. If he intended to try healing the wound on his shoulder, he’d need to get to it soon. The longer he waited, the harder it would be.
Raider followed him into the bathroom, leaping to the vanity and tilting his head curiously. This was not the usual way his human behaved.
Stone was only halfway thinking about the wound as he carefully peeled the tape off and pulled up the blood-spotted gauze pad Blum had put in place. He was more focused on Ben Halstrom, and what might be going on between him and the rift. He couldn’t be sure there was a connection, of course, but there weren’t too many other plausible explanations for how some slacker mage with little experience or training had managed to avoid his powerful tracking spell. It had happened before, open rifts imbuing people with magical abilities. He’d seen it himself with Cathy Kirkson, who could see auras, and Clyde, the backwoods tweaker who’d been given healing abilities. There had to be more of them out there—he certainly hadn’t discovered all of them. Had Ben Halstrom had magical abilities before he came into contact with the rift? Had he had a minor level of talent that the rift had amplified? It couldn’t have been a coincidence that Stone had seen the same yellow-green light he’d seen at the rift right before everything had gone pear-shaped and tossed him into the corner of the file cabinet. He wondered if Halst
rom knew somebody was looking for him now, or if somehow the rift’s energy had connected with him and was now protecting him on his own.
Either way, he was dangerous. Stone would have to be careful going forward.
He glanced at the mirror as he tossed the gauze pad into the trash can—
—and blinked in surprise.
He’d expected to see a long, angry red slash, possibly still bleeding since the center part of it had been fairly deep.
What he didn’t expect to see was a line that had faded to near invisibility at both ends, with a much shorter red slash in the middle. The red part was only an inch or so long now, not bleeding, and far less angry-looking than it had been when Blum had dressed it.
Stone leaned in closer, studying it in the mirror. He probed at it with his fingers, trying to see if he could make it bleed again, but the edges had knit neatly together. It wasn’t completely healed, but it certainly looked a hell of a lot better than it had less than an hour ago.
“That’s…odd…” he muttered to Raider.
The cat regarded him silently, then reached out and poked him with a soft paw as if to say put aside your trivial concerns, human, and attend to your master.
Or maybe he just wanted to be fed. Stone could never be sure.
“Just give me a moment,” he told the impatient cat. He’d probably just overestimated the severity of the wound. People did that sometimes—when it was your own skin bleeding, it was easy to blow things out of proportion, especially as freaked out as he’d been about what had happened with the tracking spell. But regardless of the severity or lack thereof, he could still use the healing practice.
He walked to the bedroom and sat down on the bed, where Raider instantly joined him once again. The spell didn’t come easily to him—it never did, to his continuing consternation—but in a few moments he’d managed to heal the wound to the point where it was now nothing more than a pink line, barely visible unless you knew what to look for.
