I rubbed at my chin. "How do you know this?"
Bastian answered. "Because I saw it in mon frére's mind before I killed him."
Lady Darksome…I stared at him with complete understanding of his mood now. Of what happened after I passed out. "I'm so sorry, Bastien."
"Non. It was the right thing. He was in so much pain from what she did to him. She caught him and Marilla and forced the potion on him. You killed the first one, the one that mutilated the bodies and took what she needed. Frére attacked the two in the morgue because he sensed that magic again, the same magic we sensed before he was taken."
"Oh hell…that's why he used me as a chew toy."
"Oui. And when the detective tried to protect you, the two fought," Bastien sat forward. "He may be a puppy, but he's a brave one. He tried to save you."
I remembered that much. I needed to find out if Crwys was all right, I didn't think I had Levi's number. "I wish I knew how he was. Where he was."
"He was badly hurt. Miss Vervain told you the homme mort took the detective? I have no idea where they are," he nodded to Arden. "We have been trying to find him."
"I don't know. I don't even know where either of them live." I was shaking. I knew it was a combination of information overload, use of magic, injuries and lack of food. And full moon fever. Oy. I sipped my tea.
"So what does Crwys think of your bond with Bastien?"
And abruptly choked on the tea. That wasn't a question I expected Arden to ask. But it did make sense she would ask it because she saw the bite mark on my shoulder while I was unconscious and drooling in bed.
"The bond was necessary so ma petite could understand us," Bastien beamed.
I tried to hide in the cushions.
"Uh huh. You do know she's started the fever. You've got about ten hours before it's too late to give her the antidote."
My cup, tea and saucer ended up on the carpet. I grabbed the seat of the couch. "Ten hours? I thought I had longer than that," I looked at Bastien. "You said I had forty-eight hours!"
"It usually takes forty-eight hours for the venom to make the transformation. But once the fever starts, it's going to get harder for you to be up and moving," Arden glanced at Bastien. "He didn't tell you that, did he?"
"No."
Bastien held out his hands. "I thought we would have found them by now."
I was on my feet. "If I've only got ten hours, then we've got to find them. Now!"
SEVENTEEN
I was ready to start calling out orders when someone knocked on the door.
Arden answered and I checked my phone. I had less than twenty percent battery but I did have a few bars so I tried Crwys's number. It went straight to voicemail.
"Hey, it's Sam. Look, I'm at Arden's and I'm worried about you. Could you or Levi please call me?" That's as much as I got out before the connection ended with a series of beeps. Out of power. Dammit.
"Sam," Arden said as she turned from the door. "You have company."
Grey threaded her way between Arden and the door and jumped up on the couch where I was standing. I could hear my mom's voice in my head, scolding me for taking chances and locking her up in the apartment. I quietly reassured her I was fine. I didn't know if Arden knew the wolf's relationship to me, other than her being my familiar. I'd lost track of what the damn woman knew and didn't know. Most of which didn't come from me. I really loved Kyle. He was my best friend. But damn, the boy needed to not be so forthcoming with his aunt about our business.
Ivan appeared at the door. He wore a concerned expression across his exotic features, but broke into a smile when he saw me. Arden moved from the door and took her seat again as Ivan closed the door and after looking around, sat down the other end of Arden's sofa. He looked good, well rested and just showered. His thick dark hair hugged his face but stuck up at the crown. Dressed in dark jeans, Vans, a Club Hell t-shirt and navy hoodie, he looked…normal.
Given the situation, I threw caution to the wind and decided to improvise. "Ivan, can you get a signal here?"
He caught on fast and pulled a tablet out of his backpack. After turning it on, he swiped the surface a few times with his fingers. "Yep. It's not the greatest signal but it's doable."
Arden's interest was peaked. "How is it he can access the Internet in this house, surrounded by so much magical energy?"
Ivan and I looked at each other and I winked. "It's because that's one of his Dianic Gifts. It's an odd Gift, to say the least, but it's new and he's still learning." There. I'd been partially truthful. Calling his Gift Dianic would immediately make it seem less powerful to Arden. It wasn't Elemental. But what she didn't know was that Ivan didn't really need any of the Gifts combined to create what he did. He just…in essence…was the Gift itself. Like a big, walking modem.
Or that's how I explained it to myself this week. Give it time. It'll change as his abilities changed, that I was sure of.
"Really?" Arden leaned in closer to Ivan who immediately sent me a text. It appeared in the air in front of me, red this time. All of it was red.
I'm accessing your Arcane thing. This way she can't see the messages with her magic.
I didn't nod or acknowledge. And I didn't know how to text back so I just smiled.
I can't talk to you like I did before because this house's surveillance isn't electronic. It's magical. I mean it's on a different electromagnetic field. "So, you guys going to tell me what the hell happened and why Kyle's not answering my calls?"
We brought Ivan up to speed, each of telling our part. As he listened, he touched his tablet as if working. I knew what he was doing since he and I had already discussed clandestine use of his magic before. The tablet was the focus he used to access the Internet. This way he could use the screen and still be tactile without projecting what he found into the air in front of him. So instead of building the virtual Cyber World around him, he was technically half-diving into the machine itself, putting half his consciousness into the Internet. To anyone else, especially Arden, it would look like he was just hacking on a tablet when it was so much more.
Did I understand it?
No.
Did I think it was brilliant?
Hell yes.
While Arden finished her part about coming to the rescue and sweeping me out of harm's way, Ivan continued to nod and move at a breakneck speed over the tablet's surface with his fingers. Grey settled herself on the couch, practically on top of me. I was surprised Arden didn't say something given there was a really big animal on her nice furniture. I kept a hand on Grey's back the whole time, feeling better the longer she and I were together.
The fact she was my mother in another form didn't negate the fact she'd proxied herself as my familiar. She still gave me her strength and her support. Mentally and physically. I loved the combination…but there were times I really just wanted her back as I remembered her. As a human. I just wanted a warm hug.
"I've…" Ivan said with his eyes glued to the screen. "I've tapped into the traffic cameras around Circe's home and within a hundred mile radius. Rewinding back to the event…" He stopped talking as his eyes widened.
What you guys did on some of these recordings should not be seen. I'm going to download them and then wipe them.
Now I was a bit nervous. I was always afraid Ivan was going to get caught.
"I see…" Ivan moved his hands over the tablet. Arden leaned over to look. "I see Miss Vervain's people picking you up, Sam. And if I move to another camera…"
I pushed Grey back and got up so I could stand behind the sofa he and Arden were sitting on and look over his shoulder. Bastien joined me.
Ivan had the screen broken up into six different views from six different surveillance cameras, most of them traffic cams. The cams' movements were fluid but jumpy. I watched as Bastien picked me up, he was naked cause I could see his full moon, and set me inside one of Arden's black vans. Another camera watched us drive away. And still another caught a brief glimpse to the side of Levi hal
f carrying, half supporting Crwys to something off camera. I assumed they went to Crwys's Mustang.
"What's that?" Arden pointed to the view in the lower right corner.
Ivan moved his fingers over it to bring it to the front. It looked like a side view of the neighborhood and bunch of dark figures shoving two other hooded figures into the back of a van. "I think that's Kyle and Jack."
"Why didn't Jack just wolf out and tear them apart?" That boneheaded question came from me.
I say boneheaded because Arden looked at us and pulled back. "Jack's a Lycan? My nephew is sleeping with a Lycan?"
Bastien came to the rescue and put a hand on her shoulder. "It is safe, chérie. He is apogee and is ruled by the moon at this time. When Audrianna is in her full glory, he has no control of the shift, and will remain in what we call our war form. The upright beast. But between the Goddesses' glories, he can shift to full wolf."
Arden wasn't really keen on it though. "Look, that's mighty wolfie of you to accept their relationship, especially since your kind is all into testosterone and domination and Jack and Kyle are so far on the other end of that, but I'm not sure I can approve of this. When we get them back, you and I are going to have a sit down with them and lay down a few ground rules." She pointed at herself and Bastien.
He looked at me and half smiled. "Je regrette. I now see why you fight with this one."
"I got a license plate." Ivan moved off the pages of screens and into a DOT database I was pretty sure he shouldn't have access to. "The van is registered to Olivia Graham."
"You'd think she would have hidden that," Arden tapped the screen. "Can you track the van?"
"I can to a point," Ivan pulled up the screens again. "Combining all of the traffic sightings on the van until it moved away from cameras, it was heading this way."
"This way? Did you find any other houses in her financials with an address near here?" Arden asked.
"Yep. I'll bet that's where she took them and where she's holding Marilla." He tapped the screen again and within seconds he smiled. "This is interesting," he paused. "Sam, didn't Blackwood say he didn't have any dealings with Olivia Graham?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Because he's half-owner of a company that owns a house that backs up to this property. Look," Ivan turned the tablet for us to see better. "Right there under primary—look at the secondary owner."
Olivia Graham. This did not bode well. Not at all. I wrapped my arms around my chest. "I don't understand. He seemed genuinely disgusted with Olivia Graham's actions."
Arden snorted. "Edmund Blackwood isn't genuine about anything, Samantha. Remember that. I knew he owned the property next to mine, but I didn't know he had a house on it. I've sent dozens of neophytes out there to snoop just because I like to see who's near my borders," she didn't look so confident anymore. "Now I'm pissed off thinking that crazy bitch could be so close to my own power base."
* * *
"Maybe we should go take a look ourselves?" I asked.
Arden gestured to the tablet with her hand. "You're not going to find that house even if you found the address. Not if my own people never saw it. Magicians are notorious for camouflage and deceit. You could walk or take a boat in the bayou for days and go right past it." She shook her head.
Bastien moved to the fireplace and stoked the flames. "Then where do we go from here? I can't hear Jack, none of the pack can touch him. It's like it was when Marilla and André disappeared."
"If we can't get to her, then we need her to come to us," I said and crossed my arms over my chest. I started pacing behind the sofa, only I wasn't really aware I was doing it. "If she comes to us then she'll leave the house. All we need is something that will expose the house. Something that'll break through a Magician's barriers. And we need something that will nullify her magic."
"That's a lot of needs," Ivan looked up from the tablet. "I can do a search online."
"I have an idea," Arden said.
I found myself staring at Bastien.
"What do you have in mind?" Bastien asked, oblivious to the fact I was shivering and staring at him.
"We use our magic rules against theirs."
None of us figured it out at first. I forced my attention away from Bastien and sat back down on the couch with Grey. Having her wet nose in my ear and against my neck helped clear my head. Okay, pull it together, Sam. Use the two magic rules against one another. So what made their rules different than ours? Well it was going back to basics again. Witches blessed and invited the Elements in. Ceremonial Magicians cast Circles to keep…things…out. "Oh!" I looked at Arden. "I get it. But how are we going to do that? If you haven't detected a house and they're using deceit and subterfuge, that means there's a self-sustaining spell surrounding the place. Like a barrier."
"That's what we have to come up with. I'll call my coven together to help. Bastien, we're going to need your pack as well. Once we get into that house, I want to look for some items Circe allegedly stole from Blackwood."
"Yeah, he mentioned stolen stuff." Arden rarely did anything that didn't benefit her. She took full credit for those missing children. Getting a nephew back from a crazy person would be enough of a reward for anyone else, but not Arden. If she actually returned stolen items to their rightful owners, i.e. Blackwood, or confiscated Magician tools for the Witches, then it all looked good for her. If she just happened to save her nephew and rescue two wolves for the Aces, great for her!
It bothered me she would use this for her own gain, but I wanted Kyle and Jack out of there more, and I really wanted that wolf girl back with her pack so I could stop wanting to rip Bastien's clothes off.
I'd do anything for Kyle. And the thought of that bitch using one of her potions on him burned my chest.
Bastien clapped his hands together. "My pack will find the house if it is truly there."
Ah. Good idea. Send the pack out to sniff around for it. They could lock onto the specific Arcane smell.
So…why was I feeling like I'd made a really big mistake by leaving this up to Arden?
-She's going to betray you.-
"Yeah," I said under my breath as Bastien and Arden worked out the pack participation details. "I just don't know how."
EIGHTEEN
I half listened to their plan as we sat in Arden's dining room. Her chef had prepared a filling meal. Three trays of club sandwiches. Turkey, ham and roast beef. Five different kinds of homemade chips. Potato salad and a broccoli stem slaw. I nibbled here and there but didn't have much of an appetite. And that was bad. Normally, if I knew I was going to be using a bunch of magic I'd eat a big meal.
Ivan sat at the far end of the table with a plate of food and his tablet. He was still searching as he ate, keeping up appearances of someone playing a game. Arden had brought out maps of the bayou, especially around her home. If the van carrying Kyle and Jack had been heading in that direction, there were over fifty ways they could have gone. Bastien called in his Beta, a charming little Cajun girl named Molly. She was small, but I sensed power around her and knew she was probably a kick-ass wolf. She was perigee, same as Bastien.
Why couldn't he take her as a mate?
A text box appeared across the top of my roast beef club. I followed the Mustang and I have an address. But you're not going to believe where it is.
I didn't look up and waited for his revelation.
When he typed out the address I gasped. No. I didn't believe it. This was a block away from Ina's home in the Garden District.
I checked the address with Crwys's financials and he's not even closely affiliated with the house. It's not Levi's either. It belongs to some company called Mephistopheles, Inc.
Didn't ring a bell for me but if that's where Levi took Crwys, then that's where I was going. And I could stop by my place and pick up my phone charger.
"Sam, you all right, shugah?"
I looked up at Arden and then pushed my chair out. "Yeah I'm fine. I just need to get over to my shop."
&nb
sp; "Why? It's locked up secure and all. Your boy down there said so."
"I need some things from my apartment," I looked at Ivan. "Did you want to come with me?"
"I think he should stay here with us," Arden put her hands on the table. "His skills with a computer could come in useful, and if you don't make it back before the pack finds Circe's base, then I'll have a way to get in touch with you."
I wanted to argue with her. I wanted Ivan with me because, right now, I had bells and whistles going off around her. She was up to something, and I was afraid that something involved Brendi and the price for information about the Changeling children. I didn't have proof. I just had that nagging feeling I always got when something was going to go wrong.
Goddess I hated that feeling.
I opened my mouth to suggest Ivan come with me, but his next text stopped me. Go find Crwys. I can spy on Arden and Bastien. Keep you updated.
With a swift hug to Ivan, who gave me his keys, Grey and I headed outside to his truck and got the hell out of Gypsy Gardens. The drive back into town was pleasant enough. Not a lot of tourist traffic in the middle of the day.
The house matching the address was a monster. Don't get me wrong, Ina's house looked like the house out of Candle Magic, but it still wasn't as big as this one. This antebellum was the mother of all antebellum houses. Two story, with the infamous black wrought iron around its verandas, as well as the property itself. The place had a double oak door with stained glass on either side. That much I could see from the road as I parked the truck right in front. "Park fu" is my copilot.
That's a nice house.
"Uh huh. Looks like it could fit three families." I got out of the truck and came around the side to let Grey out. The gate was locked but there was a buzzer. I rang it.
Levi's voice came through the speaker. "No deliveries today."
Elemental Moon: The Eldritch Files, Book Three Page 12
