Alchemy Shift

by Jenny Schwartz

  “A white van, older. I didn’t get the number or anything. It was Hunts Point.” An area of the Bronx infamous for all kinds of crime. She gave an address down by the river. “Get her safe.” And she was gone.

  “This is the trap,” Delphi whispered as Jet closed and locked the front door.

  He glanced at her, the plans spinning in his head disrupted by her words. “What? Do you think she lied?”

  “Her siren magic wouldn’t work in my house. I warded against uninvited magics. I don’t think she lied. But knowing Ian Lewis has this girl, you’ll take more risks.”

  He probably would. His fear for the girl and his anger at the evil he couldn’t seem to stop found an outlet. “Do you think I shouldn’t?” He lashed out at Delphi.

  She stood rock-steady. “You can’t change who you are. But that’s what an effective trap does. It uses your instincts against you.” She hugged him even as he stood tense and resistant.

  She could have said so much more. She could have reminded him of his responsibilities here, to Tony and Grace, and to her and their new mate bond. Instead, her fingers traced a pattern on his back.

  “What are you doing?” he grumbled even as he wrapped his arms around her, accepting that she had the right to worry about him—no one had since his mom died.

  “Strengthening the ward against death magic that I placed on you earlier.” Her fingers stopped moving.

  “Finished?”

  “Yes.”

  He kissed her, drawing the sense of her deep into his soul.

  She responded just as intensely.

  Her vision had said she’d avenge him.

  “I’ll be careful,” he promised. She was right. Traps used a person’s habits and preoccupations and their instincts against them. “I’ll phone Perez.” The police sergeant would never forgive Jet if he let him sleep. “And Seleste. I’ll check in with the surveillance team.” He’d phone them on the way to Hunts Point. He didn’t promise that he wouldn’t go in alone, but he’d have back-up on the way. Getting there early, he could search the scene using his were senses.

  He was aware that Delphi watched him from the front door all the way to his car. She waved at him as he reversed out into the street. Then, ducking her head, shoulders hunched, she went inside as he drove away. His last glimpse of her in the rear view mirror was of the door closing. As for the mate bond between them, he shut that down.

  Safer that way, he decided. If things went bad, he didn’t want her to share his suffering.

  Chapter 8

  Delphi phoned her cousin Uma, who answered, shouting over the noise of whatever club she was at. Delphi checked the time. No, it wouldn’t be a club. Too early. A restaurant. She was about to disrupt her cousin’s dinner. “Uma, I need back-up.” Between cousins the same age, there was no more that needed saying.

  “Where are you?” Uma asked crisply.

  “Home.”

  “Twenty minutes. You need me to bring anyone?”

  “Nope.”

  Uma disconnected.

  Delphi ran upstairs, changing into a black sweater and jeans, and grabbing her black and gray wool coat and boots. She tiptoed up to Tony and Grace’s room and found them both asleep. She hoped they were dreaming of puppies and cats. She blew them a kiss that was a prayer that everyone came safely through this night—they needed their Uncle Jet—and ran downstairs at the sound of Uma’s motorbike.

  “Problem?” Uma asked as she came in the front door.

  Delphi shoved her feet into her boots and crouched to lace them. “The guy who took Jet’s cousin has taken a twelve-year-old girl. Jet’s gone out to try and track them down. I’ve got my phone. I’m going to tell Mom everything.” She trusted Jet’s word. He’d tell Perez about the girl’s kidnapping. But Delphi had her own loyalties. Plus her mom would kill her if she didn’t pass on the information. The trick would be to do so without letting her mom attempt to lock her away, safe. Jet evidently hadn’t considered that Delphi would follow him into the night. He still thought as a lone wolf—bear!—but they had family to babysit Tony and Grace. She didn’t have to stay with them. “I have to collect something from the Collegium, so I need you to stay here. Tony and Grace are asleep. They don’t know Jet’s gone. They know you so if they wake…”

  “I can get them a glass of water. Go!” Uma pushed Delphi out the door.

  “Don’t open the door to anyone not family,” Delphi said. “The house will keep you safe.” She’d never expected to face anything like a death magic rogue mage, but she’d sunk protections deep into her home, anyway.

  “No one will get the kids,” Uma promised.

  Delphi nodded. Her cousin might only have a touch of electricity-related magic, but Uma was still dangerous. That’s why Delphi trusted her with Tony and Grace.

  Turning her back on her house and her usual role as the one who stayed home while others went out to fight, Delphi got in her car and drove to the Collegium, putting her phone on speaker. “Hi, Mom?”

  The Collegium had the subdued lighting of an office building at night, but it was still active. Freed from the need to maintain the Collegium’s daytime cover as an international think tank, seven guardians strolled, casual and dangerous, through the foyer, intent on their own concerns. They noted Delphi’s entry, but she made sure to look faintly harassed and impatient. Nothing to see here! Just a lowly alchemist who forgot to do something before she left work for the day. The guardians continued on about their own business.

  Delphi exhaled as she stepped into an elevator and travelled up to the alchemists’ department. Fortunately, she’d secured Excalibur in the locker in her office rather than returning the sword to the evidence bunker. Of course she’d have to smuggle it out, but there, Excalibur’s stubborn insistence on registering as non-magical or inert would help her. It wouldn’t trigger any alert that something magical was leaving the building. All she needed to do was physically hide it.

  She would strap it to her back, then drape her coat over her shoulders, leaving it hang loose, sleeves dangling, disguising… “Oh, Arlee!” Drat. She eyed her friend unhappily. It wasn’t Arlee she mistrusted. It was the fact that one of the guardians, Chad Price, was lounging on the sofa in the staffroom flirting with Arlee, that bothered Delphi. Empty takeaway food containers indicated they’d grabbed a meal together. Good for Arlee, who was interested in Chad. But bad for Delphi. Arlee wouldn’t care if Delphi smuggled out Excalibur. No, scrub that! Arlee would insist on accompanying Delphi on her drive out to Hunts Point.

  Because Delphi had a plan. She’d use Excalibur to search out the evil that had stolen the girl, killed too many, and potentially, would harm Jet. Of course, that relied on Excalibur being able to distinguish death magic among all the other evils in Hunts Point—and on Delphi getting the sword out of the Collegium without arousing Arlee or Chad’s suspicions.

  “I…uh…forgot something.” Delphi sucked at lying. She scurried for her office, but wasn’t too surprised to hear Arlee follow her.

  “What’s up?” Arlee demanded. “I thought you’d be cuddling with your bear-were friend.”

  “Mate,” Delphi corrected absently.

  Arlee squealed. “Really? Already! That is so cool!”

  But Arlee’s excitement attracted Chad’s attention. He wandered down the corridor.

  Arlee smiled up at him. “Delphi’s getting serious with a bear-were.”

  “So I’ve heard.” Chad considered Delphi thoughtfully.

  Delphi fought the urge to fidget. “Jet is a great guy. He’s a bit overwhelmed by my family.” Great, and now I’m babbling.

  It was something Arlee would ordinarily have noticed, except she was frowning at Chad. “Do you have something against weres?”

  He blinked. Good looking in a leanly muscled way, he seemed startled at Arlee’s attack. “No!”

  But Arlee didn’t let things go easily. “You don’t sound happy for Delphi.”

  “She’s mixed herself up in her bear-were’s
investigation. It could be dangerous.”

  “The transmutation thing?” Arlee asked casually. The way information flowed through the Collegium was nigh on magical. Really, as alchemists they ought to study it. “Seems to me it’s good she did. Your colleagues sure hadn’t thought of transmutation magic.”

  Chad rolled his shoulders. “They thought the case was a minor one.”

  “Death magic’s minor?” Delphi asked, startled into outright disbelief. She ought to be nudging them out of her office, but his attitude bemused her.

  “Untrained mages trying spells beyond their power can result in fatalities. With death magic, the rogue mage usually manages to kill himself before too long. It’s self-correcting. So the case wasn’t a high priority.” Chad exhaled abruptly. “Look, assumptions were made, they were the wrong ones, but it’s been rectified. Your boyfriend’s case is being handled.”

  Arlee tipped her head. “Were liaison, dude. You shouldn’t be ‘handling’ Jet’s case. Your people should be working with him.”

  “They are.” Chad sounded beleaguered. He focused on Delphi. “All I’m saying is that you lack a guardian’s training and experience, so if you’re tempted to try and help your boyfriend any more, don’t.” The guardian turned and marched back to the staffroom.

  Arlee leaned close to Delphi. “You’re totally here to help Jet, aren’t you?”

  “I…yeah.” No point trying to lie. Arlee would see through it. “But it’s secret. Just get Chad out of here without raising his suspicions.”

  “No problem.” Arlee whistled.

  “He’s not a dog, Arlee,” Delphi whispered.

  Arlee shrugged. “Also not quite the man I thought he was.” And louder as Chad appeared, looking both wary and a tad cross. “Gotta cancel the rest of our evening. Girl talk. Delphi’s new relationship and all just hit a speed bump.” She sauntered back down the corridor to Chad.

  Delphi ducked into her office, closed the door, and activated the wards before unlocking her evidence locker and extracting Excalibur.

  “He’s gone.” Arlee knocked at the door.

  At a thought from Delphi it swung open.

  Arlee eyed the sword and the broad ribbon Delphi was tying to it, intending to fasten it to her back. “What stupid thing are you intending to do, because I’m coming with you?”

  With Arlee’s help, the sword was securely fastened, Delphi’s coat artfully draped over her shoulders, and the two women headed out, chatting about men and life and how there were better things to do than wait for any man.

  Chad was in the foyer, apparently chatting just as casually with a fellow guardian, but obviously watching for Arlee.

  She smiled at him, her misleading dimple popping into view. If only he’d known her better, he’d have recognized it for a sign of trouble. As it was, he scowled but made no move to stop them.

  Delphi explained her plan as they drove to Hunts Point. As much as she trusted her friend, she skirted mentioning her prophecy in which she’d been an angel of vengeance with a flaming sword. Instead, she mentioned her afternoon’s tentative discovery that Excalibur could search out evil.

  “So basically you’re going to use the sword as a sniffer dog?” Arlee swiveled her head to stare at the sword lying on the back seat. Not that she could see it. Delphi’s coat covered it. “And you don’t think you’ll attract attention?”

  “Obviously, I’ll use an illusion spell.”

  Arlee snorted. “For you or the sword?”

  Delphi winced. It was a fair point. Hunts Point wasn’t the safest place for a woman to wander around at night. When Delphi had phoned her mom to pass on the alert as to the girl’s kidnapping by Ian Lewis, she had kind of, by inference, let her mom think that she was staying safe at home while Jet was out hunting evil. That was why she’d phoned Uma to babysit. Uma didn’t ask questions. She expected adults to keep themselves safe: sometimes that meant avoiding dangerous areas; other times it meant going in prepared.

  “I’ve got back-up.” Delphi chanced a smile at Arlee. “You.”

  “Huh.” Arlee folded her arms. “Don’t even try that one. I know you were trying to sneak past me.”

  “But I’m glad I didn’t.” It was true. With her entropic magic, Arlee could counter death magic more subtly and effectively than Delphi. “Do you mind crafting the illusion to hide us? A death magic rogue mage won’t recognize your magic as easily.”

  Entropic magic was rare and disconcerting in its patterns. For many mages, especially those who’d never encountered it before, it felt less like magic and more like a blurring of reality. Which was reasonable since entropic magic was the unmaking of existence.

  They finished the drive in silence while Arlee worked on her illusion.

  As Delphi tried to decide where to park the car, she felt the illusion settle over her. Since she was inside it, she couldn’t see what deception the illusion broadcast. Arlee’s choked off giggle didn’t reassure her. “All right. What have you done?”

  “We look like debt collectors. Big, burly guys and the sword will appear as a leash leading to a Rottweiler.”

  Insane, but probably effective, and Arlee’s nonsense, and her presence, was taking some of the terror out of the night. The fear for Jet that had been compressing Delphi’s chest lifted a bit. She parked in a dark side street and got out of the car, holding Excalibur by its smooth hilt and concentrating.

  With an effort she put Jet out of her mind and pushed down her worry for the kidnapped girl to concentrate on death magic. Hunts Point pulsed with despair and frenetic energy aimed at warding it off. Drug addiction, violence, violation. Amid the miasma of evil, the sword had to find the corruption of life-stealing.

  Nothing.

  Arlee leaned against the car, watching Delphi but also watching the street.

  It was good to have protection. And because she had protection, Delphi risked withdrawing her attention utterly from her surroundings as she couldn’t have if she’d been alone. She focused her magic into her right hand where it gripped the sword hilt and fed the sword her rage and desire for justice, her outrage that people would kill to gain power.

  Excalibur tugged ever so faintly to the left.

  Delphi followed the sword.

  Arlee followed her, a step behind.

  They walked two blocks. The few people they encountered crossed the street to avoid them. Arlee’s illusion evidently kicked ass.

  “Stop,” Arlee said low and came forward to stand with Delphi. “The warehouse on the corner.” A tip of her head indicated the rundown structure diagonally opposite to them. Its windows were boarded up or broken. Graffiti tagged it…but the graffiti looked old. “It’s warded and there’s a repulsion spell.” Hence the age of the graffiti. “Don’t you sense it? I have to fight to focus on the warehouse and usually my entropic magic eats that sort of spell for breakfast.”

  “I can’t sense a ward or a look-away spell. Here.” Delphi handed Arlee Excalibur. As the sword left her hand, the warehouse wavered and her gaze shifted to the closed storefront opposite. “Whoa. Strong repulsion spell.” She snatched Excalibur back and the force of the repelling magic vanished.

  “Looks like Excalibur has an extra nifty trick. Shines in the presence of evil, can search out evil, and blocks death magic spells and possibly others, too.” Arlee frowned at the sword, then at Delphi. It wasn’t a frown of anger, but of concern. “The sword only works for you.”

  “Maybe it’s one-person only? The sword holder…the Lady of the Lake…gave King Arthur the sword. Maybe there’s a way I can transfer it?”

  Despite themselves and the urgency of the situation, they were both alchemists. Arlee nodded. “Something to try in the office.”

  But for now, they had a girl to rescue and a trap for Jet that Delphi aimed to disable before it could ensnare him.

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  Delphi and Arlee both squeaked, whirling around to discover that Jet had walked up behind them, and beh
ind him was a lean, rangy man.

  Jet hustled Delphi out of sight of the warehouse, directing their small group to a shadowy gap between two buildings. Ew. It stunk!

  The unknown man…wait, no, Delphi vaguely recognized him.

  “Perez, this is my mate, Delphi.”

  “We met once at a police picnic. Congrats on your mating.”

  Delphi blinked at that one, and heard Arlee cough-laugh. “Um, thanks?”

  Jet wasn’t amused. He continued introductions. “And this is her friend Arlee who is also a mage, although I don’t know what kind or why she’s here?”

  “I work entropic magic, which your death magic rogue mage is unlikely to have encountered before. Believe me, Delphi is safer with me along than coming here alone—which is what she intended.”

  “Way to throw me under the bus,” Delphi muttered as she felt Jet’s worried anger pulse down their mate bond. “I didn’t want you walking into a trap alone.” She looked up at him, hopeful he’d understand.

  His hand moved restlessly over her back. Perhaps he understood her motive, but he still worried for her. “I’m not alone. I have Perez.”

  “Who is?” Arlee prompted. Jet had left the introductions unfinished.

  “Police sergeant and jaguar-were,” Perez answered for himself, adding after a half beat. “And single.”

  Jet whirled on his friend. “You’re flirting? Now?”

  Perez shrugged and grinned.

  Arlee looked interested, which meant that the guardian, Chad, had definitely lost her interest. Well, he had been condescending in a macho-guardian-to-sheltered-alchemist kind of way. “You’re both weres? So that’s how you saw through my illusion. It’s a damn fine one.”

  “I’m sure it is.”

  Jet huffed impatiently and focused on Delphi. “You need to go home. Perez found security camera footage of Ian Lewis’s car and of the girl getting into it.”

  “No coercion,” Perez said, all trace of the charming flirt gone now. He was one hundred percent cop. “I didn’t get the footage. Your mom—” A nod to Delphi—“made finding the girl top priority. Finding her alive. She got into the car willingly, but she’s obviously underage. When we find Ian, we can hold him. But your mom knows it’s complicated. Weres and magic. So she’s giving Jet and me two hours.”