“Yes.”
“It’s getting worse. The body’s decomposing.”
“Which means he looked a whole hell of a lot better while up and walking around,” I said, opening the book from the front page and flipping through three or four invitation patterns before I stopped.
“Shit,” she said.
“Exactly.” I traced my finger across a simple white vellum with a black border and scripted lettering. Simple. Elegant. “I like this one.” I turned the book her way and pointed.
“You would. We’ll never find the right one!”
“What? Necromancer or wedding invitations?” I asked, grinning at her with a gentle tease.
“Both.” She sighed and then sat back in her chair. “I’ll talk to Oz and the other covens to see if they have any additional information. Maybe they can help.”
“I hate to say it, but we might need them.”
“Fine, but right now, invitations,” Jade snapped, tapping the book with the tip of her finger.
“Yes, Ma’am,” I said with a smile and a small salute.
“Where’d this guy come from anyhow?” Jade asked, sliding the photos from the morgue aside and flaring her computer to life. Fifteen screens on the opposite wall blipped and filled with pictures of nighttime cityscapes from all over the world.
“Greenlawn Cemetery.” Tucking my feet under me in the club chair, I got comfortable.
“What about the first one?”
“Evergreen Cemetery.”
Jade plugged the coordinates of both cemeteries and a bunch of other information that I didn’t understand. On the fourth screen, a map of the city popped up as little dots appeared like tacks in a paper map as Jade triangulated all the incidents and cemeteries in the areas.
“Where were the victims abducted?”
“Two were picked up from the night club on Long Street, downtown. Another was taken from Easton’s parking lot by Macy’s and she ended up in Greenlawn. The other two dumped in Greenlawn Cemetery were abducted from a bike trail in Dublin on the Northwest end. The third came all the way out from Powell. She’d been walking her dog. That’s all I know.”
Little dots populated the map with no rhyme or reason, nothing was connected, and there were no lines anywhere. The dead, both men and women, didn’t even have common features to be able to discern a pattern. This mess was looking more and more convoluted the longer it went on.
“Well, at least now we have somewhere to start,” she said, pounding away at the keys, her green eyes flicked from screen to screen.
“Not we. Me,” I corrected.
“But—” Her bright green eyes darted up from the computer screens to catch my hard expression.
“No way! If something happened to you, Kurt would kill me . . . literally! I’d rather not have to fight him. Consider yourself sidelined permanently,” I snorted.
“Fine!” she snapped, returning her gaze to the screens. “But you can’t go alone.”
“I won’t.”
“What if I could get us a meeting with the coven? Would you be interested?” Jade asked, eyeing me from across the desk as if I couldn’t tell she already had something up her sleeve. The reality of the situation was that we needed help and I didn’t want any more dead bodies on my watch.
“Set it up.”
Chapter 25
“Don’t say anything mean,” Jade hissed back over her shoulder at me as we descended the stairs.
I ducked just in time to avoid hitting my head on the low hanging bulkhead and held in my curse. Where the hell had Jade dragged me to anyhow?
“Why are we here again?” I asked, turning the corner into the basement of a midsized Arts and Crafts house on the North end of town. The light from the overhead globe light was muted by the frosted glass and I stopped in my tracks at the gift-wrapping station mounted to the wall at the bottom of the stairs.
“I told you that I’d get you in to see the coven,” she said with a proud little smile.
I turned the corner behind her and stopped. The low ceiling made the basement seem smaller than it was and the wall-to-wall powder blue shag carpeting didn’t help with the claustrophobia. Littering the room, on chairs, a sofa and loveseat, on the edge of the fireplace, and finally on the floor, 12 women of all shapes, sizes, and ages sat. The basement seemed crowded with all that estrogen and I couldn’t ignore the hum of magic circulating in the confined space. Every hair on my body stood on end as I stepped closer to the group of women staring daggers through me.
“O.M.G! Is it really her,” a bright-faced, wide-eyed young woman almost screeched from the chair in the corner. Slim but tall, she jumped from her chair, hopped over a young woman sitting on the floor beside her and closed the distance between us.
“Brittany,” a woman on the sofa chastised. By the sharp features and the same sandy blond hair, I assumed this woman was Brittany’s mother. They were both slender and tall. Brittany strode over to me and met my gaze, not something most people did any more.
“You’re her, aren’t you? Jade said she’d bring you but I didn’t believe her. We’ve heard so much about you. This is so exciting,” the girl squealed.
“Jade,” I warned through clenched teeth as I reached for the gun holstered at the small of my back.
Jade grabbed my hand before I could clutch the butt of the Smith and Wesson and smiled at me. “Brittany is the coven leader,” she said with a warning smile that didn’t reach her eyes but begged me not to draw blood. “Behave yourself. Please.”
“Her? You’re kidding?”
“No, and she’s agreed to help us so no bloodshed.”
“Fine,” I bit out.
Eyeing the woman in front of me, she was young, younger than every other woman in the room. I glanced over at the white-haired woman I recognized as Oz from the shop. I caught her pursed lips and disapproving glower as Brittany bubbled and smiled in front of me. So excited. So vibrant. The rest of the women seemed dull next to her, a pale shadow of what life could be.
“Jade, I can’t believe you actually know The Blushing Death,” Brittany cooed.
“For years and years now,” Jade answered in the same overly peppy voice that seemed to be Brittany’s main mode of communication.
I tried to hide the smile at Jade’s mocking tone. I tried, I promise.
“So, Brittany,” I said, directing the girl’s attention back toward me. I didn’t particularly like being in the center of this much power and most of it was radiating off of Brittany. I fought the urge to take a step back and away from the creepy crawly feeling her magic sent skittering up my spine. God, there was so much of it. “Jade said that you might be able to help.”
“Maybe, Jade didn’t go into a lot of detail. She said you would have the information we needed. That’s why she brought you here.” She grinned at me like I was the second coming of Justin Bieber or something. It creeped me out and made me incredibly uncomfortable.
She turned and strode back to her seat, turning about halfway as if she expected me to follow. I couldn’t say why but I felt much safer on the outside of their haphazard circle so I stayed put.
“I’m looking for a vampire,” I said, trying to figure out how to explain in words what I only sensed, the magic I felt.
“But I thought you were dating one of the vampires?” she asked, sitting in her seat with a confused expression furrowing her brows. “Can’t he just present them?”
Jesus Fucking Christ!
“They’re not toys,” Jade mumbled so that only I would hear her. I was just glad that even she noticed how ridiculous that statement sounded.
“Everyone knows she’s sleeping with Patrick Cavanaugh. I don’t know how you let that bloodsucker touch you?” Oz huffed with indignation.
“That makes two of us,
” Jade hissed softly.
“Shut it,” I mumbled back. It was an old argument and I was well aware that Jade didn’t particularly like or understand Patrick. It wasn’t that she hated all vampires, she didn’t. She and Alex talked and met for dinner a few nights a week. Jade just didn’t particularly like Patrick and he being a vampire was a convenient excuse.
“I am sleeping with him, and the Pack Alpha as well. They’re both fantastic fucks,” I said, making my voice sultry and deep. I didn’t like people badmouthing the men I loved. Oz cringed and I couldn’t help but smile. Jade just rolled her eyes at my shenanigans.
“Oh, I like her,” Brittany said.
“Brittany, we’re looking for someone new in town,” Jade offered, getting the conversation back on track.
“Yes, this vampire isn’t blood-oathed to Patrick. He’s new in town and his magic is different.”
“How could you possibly know it’s different?” Oz snorted as she crossed her arms over her ample breasts. “What do you know of magic?”
“It feels different in my head.”
“You can feel magic!” Brittany squealed, her bright eyes glinting with delight in the subdued light of the basement.
“Yes,” I answered, darting my gaze from Brittany to Jade with a question I didn’t dare ask aloud. Something along the lines of What the hell is going on here?
“That’s so cool.”
“Uh-huh,” I agreed, confusion making my entire body tense. This situation was uncomfortable for so many reasons.
“So this vampire’s magic is different? Different how?” Brittany asked, and her bright, naïve hazel eyes narrowed into a gaze that seemed too old and too serious for the girl with whom I’d just been talking.
“I’m not sure. The vampires have an energy about them that I relate to ice or cold in my mind. That’s what it feels like to me. This particular vampire feels like this too, like icy rain where it chills you to your core. But there’s something mixed in his magic that I’ve never felt before. It’s dark. It turns my stomach,” I tried to explain.
“Like the dark magic hovering around you?” Brittany asked, and I couldn’t hide my surprise. She’d sensed what had escaped Patrick and Dean. She’d seen, or felt, or even smelled the contagion of Baba Yaga in my energy.
“No, mine is a bit of leftover fae magic. This vampire carries something much more sinister.”
“With the zombies running around town, maybe you’re confusing their magic with this vampire’s,” Jade said, trying to make me feel better but she wasn’t helping.
“I’m not confusing them. They’re almost identical, actually,” I snapped.
“ZOMBIES!” Brittany squealed almost with glee. “You didn’t tell me there were zombies. I know exactly what you’re looking for.”
“Mistress, we can’t help her,” a woman said from the couch, leaning forward as if to get up and physically stop Brittany. She was older, mid-forties with big white tennis shoes partially hidden beneath the mom jeans she was wearing. The Westerville North High School sweatshirt she wore with the Roman warrior mascot plastered on the front was brand new and too tight across her full breasts.
“Shush, Margie,” Brittany scolded and the woman sat back, her arms folded beneath her breasts and scowled.
“Brittany, be nice. Margie’s only worried about the coven’s well-being,” Brittany’s mother said.
Brittany waved away her mother’s comment. “You’re looking for death magic.” Her eyes grew bright with excitement as she rose from her chair and crossed the circle. The ponytail hanging down her back, swung her long blond hair back and forth with each step.
“How is that different than what keeps vampires alive?” Jade asked.
“It’s complicated. You see, vampires rise and wake of their own magic. They are neither dead nor alive but somewhere in-between. The magic you’re talking about is animating the dead. Bodies with no souls.” Brittany glanced from me to Jade. “You were right. This is voodoo. You said this vampire was male. So, you’re looking for a Bokor.”
“A what?” Jade asked.
“A necromancer,” I answered.
“Yes.” Brittany smiled as if pleased with my answer.
“But how do I find him?”
“Oh, that’s simple. You need a locator spell. There can’t be that many necromancers in town. It shouldn’t be that hard.”
“We can’t possibly have that ready before dawn,” Margie piped up, her voice sharp and petulant, clearly still angry.
“I can have that ready in ten minutes,” Brittany said.
For the first time, I took a deeper look at the women sitting in the circle. They stared at Brittany with hatred and I didn’t think it was because she was so bubbly.
“It’s that easy?” I asked, glancing about the room at the anger and jealousy flashing through some of the women’s gazes. If looks could have killed at that moment, Brittany would’ve been toast. I breathed deep, letting the scents of the room fill my senses and the prickle of magic skate across my skin. There was a great deal of power skipping through the room, the clean, velvety hum of white magic was easy to underestimate but there was so much of it. And as I opened my eyes, I realized that all of it, at least 85% of it, came from the perky blonde at their center, a goddess in a room filled with dabblers.
“Easy-peasy,” she announced.
I saw a few eyes roll and a huff or two of indignation.
“Meeting adjourned,” Brittany called over her shoulder with a quick wave of her hand to dismiss all of them. She took my left arm like we were old friends and walked with me to the stairs. I let her since she’d managed to leave my gun hand free.
When we reached the kitchen, Jade sat at the table and I rounded it, placing my back in the corner so I could see the entire room. The sliding glass door opened from the basement below and the coven left through the walkout basement, leaving us to the silence of a quickly emptying house.
Brittany’s mother trudged up the stairs, shaking her head as she crested the top. “Brittany, you can’t flaunt your magic like that in front of them.” The woman’s heavy sigh of resignation was apparent in her tone.
“They’re weak,” Brittany snapped. “Is it my fault it takes minutes for me to work a spell it takes the entire coven days to master?” By the sharp tones, the slumped shoulders, and the defeat in the older woman’s gaze, I knew this was an old argument. “I have to get a stone for her to invoke,” Brittany said and stormed off down the hall.
“I’m sorry,” her mother said.
“How powerful is she?” I asked, watching Brittany’s form disappear down the hall.
“There isn’t a coven in a thousand miles that can touch her.”
“A coven? Not a witch?” Jade coughed.
“Exactly. You see our problem.”
“I see you have someone with too much power and not enough guidance. How old is she?”
“Twenty-one last month,” her mother answered.
“Dahlia?” Jade asked beside me, a familiar hesitancy in her tone, like she knew I was thinking too hard.
“When this is over, we’ll talk about this again,” I said to Brittany’s mother.
She nodded but she didn’t argue, which meant she knew she had no control over her daughter. It led me to believe, she knew exactly how much danger they were actually in.
Fanfuckingtastic! At least I wouldn’t have to argue with the mother.
True to her word, Brittany came out of her room with a bright grin ten minutes later. She held out a clear stone to me and I plucked it from her fingers.
“To invoke the charm, you’ll need a drop of blood from one of the sacrifices, anyone used in the ritual to raise the dead. Once you have that, this little thing will show you where to go.”
“That sho
uldn’t be too hard to get,” I said, reaching for my phone. “Thank you,” I said, standing up.
Brittany’s mother also got to her feet and led the way from the kitchen back the way we’d come to the front door.
“You’ll tell me how it goes?” Brittany called behind us.
“I will,” I said, having every intention of returning. I needed this girl on my side and as much power as she had at her fingertips, I couldn’t let her fall into the hands of Lebensblut or anyone else. They’d use her and dispose of her. They’d use her against us.
When we hit the fresh air, I took a deep breath and rolled my shoulders. I tried to shake the feeling of magic tingling across my skin.
“What do you think?” Jake asked softly beside me.
I glanced back at the house, the stone in my hand, and then met her gaze. “I think that if she doesn’t learn how to lead them, they’ll kill her. When this is all over, we’ll think of something.”
“I’m glad you saw it, too. I’ve been worried.”
“She’s safe for now. They’re just angry, jealous. We have time before they start to take the situation in their own hands.”
“How can you be so sure?” Jade asked, rubbing her hands up and down her biceps as if she was cold in the middle of the summer heat.
“Call it a hunch.” I typed in Derek’s name in my contacts and hit ‘send.’
“Hey, Kid, what’s up?”
“I need a drop or two of blood from one of the victims. Doesn’t matter which one.”
“What? Why?” he asked.
“Trust me, Derek. You don’t want to know.”
Chapter 26
The interior smelled of leather. The soft blue light from the speedometer reflected against the perfection of Nova’s face, giving him an eerie glow. Miguel hummed in the back seat as I gripped the steering wheel. I followed the bus, turning onto Livingston Avenue and into the not-so-great parts of downtown.
Emerald Fire (A Blushing Death Novel Book 6) Page 18
