Winterfall

by John Conroe

  “You know… that might work,” Declan said.

  Stacia had her arms crossed and her gaze leveled at the two boys. “And just how did you get these nano things inside you?”

  “We were in the jail cells. Some of her blood dripped into my mouth,” Declan said, watching his werewolf carefully. “You see…” he started to explain, but Stacia whipped up one hand, palm toward him.

  “Don’t care. Don’t want to know. I’m interested in how you plan to get these things into your system this time?”

  “I don’t know. Draw some blood, swab some saliva, whatever,” he said. “The question isn’t how she would deliver them, it’s will she? We didn’t part on particularly good terms and our last interaction in Vegas was… bad.”

  “Yeah, I saw,” Stacia said. “I’m still interested in the how.”

  “Hey, let’s all get some food while we wait,” I said, glancing at my vampire. She gave me a little nod and a shrug. I might only speak English but I can read Tanya pretty well. She thought the food was a decent, if short-lived, distraction and was thinking the nano thing with Caeco was going to be dicey.

  So we got sandwiches all around. Newly baked focaccia bread, slick with olive oil, prosciutto so fresh I wanted to slap it, and layers of provolone. No mayo, no mustard, no lettuce or tomato, nothing extra at all. I ate four of them, Stacia had three, and the boys each ate two. Everyone else, including the soldiers, had one, except Tanya of course. She got the honor of paying. The mama at the register was torn at taking her money. Here the most famous people in the world were snacking in her deli, but the bill was probably almost a whole day’s take. My vampire charmed her into accepting payment, keeping up a smooth patter of questions and complements while we ate. A crowd had formed outside the deli and when the Alfa Romeo carrying Caeco arrived, the police escort had a bit of a time getting through.

  Declan’s old girlfriend hadn’t come alone. Agent Krupp got out of the car with her, following as the girl marched into the small, crowded deli and up to Tanya and myself, completely ignoring Declan.

  “You asked me to come. Said it was urgent. What’s up?” Caeco asked my vampire, giving me a nod before focusing on Tanya.

  “We need to get through to the AI, Omega. It’s being attacked and if it loses, we lose. You’ve been briefed on the flight over regarding the enemy we all face?” Tanya asked.

  Caeco nodded slowly, glancing back at Krupp. When she turned back, her face showed understanding. Declan always said she was a really smart girl.

  “They’ve found some way to hack what’s supposed to be un-hackable. Probably through the entangled particles on Omega’s drones. Not supposed to be possible, but what do we know—none of their tech seems particularly possible. Oh! You need me! No, he needs me,” Caeco said, glancing for the first time at Declan. Her expression was calculating as she turned back to Tanya. An odd glint appeared in her eyes and I felt Grim pay sudden attention.

  “I’ll do it—but?” the young assassin said.

  “But what?” Tanya asked.

  “I’m not giving blood or spitting into a cup. He wants it, he has to pay the price,” Caeco said.

  “What price?” I asked, picturing her beating the shit out of our witch.

  “A kiss,” Caeco said with absolutely no emotional inflection.

  The growl was instant and when I looked at Stacia, her eyes were full yellow. She was a split second from wolfing out. I sidestepped twice, putting myself next to her.

  “That, ah, seems unlike you,” Tanya said, puzzled. “You understand what’s at stake?”

  “I understand a lot of things that I didn’t used to,” she said. “Call it a sheltered childhood.”

  Yeah, the kind that teaches you to kill grown men a thousand different ways.

  “And this meets some need you have for vengeance or pride?” Tanya asked, eyes narrowed at the girl.

  “It does many things. It is also the closest replication of the first dose of nanites Declan got from me. My nanites don’t live long outside my body. Shouldn’t you try to achieve the highest possible chance of a positive outcome?” Caeco said.

  “We could just take them from your blood,” Stacia offered.

  “You probably could, what with all this talent. But people would get hurt, possibly die. I would go down fighting,” Caeco said, her stance deceptively easy.

  Grim read the very, very slight tension in her frame, the way she let her eyes go slightly unfocused. She would fight back. Well.

  “We will not take anything from you,” Tanya said, looking aside at Stacia. “This is not the place or time for hurt feelings, jealousy, or rage. It’s a simple kiss. Declan, you want access to her nanites, I suggest you pay her price,” Tanya said, moving over near me, which put her on Stacia’s other side.

  Declan’s face looked like he was seeing his own death… in 3D. White as a sheet (or Lydia, and she’s damned pale even for a vamp), and just a tiny bead of sweat forming on his brow.

  He glanced at Stacia, whose jaw was clenched. She studied him back and then blew out a breath. “Fucking games. Fine. Pay the price and let’s get Omega back online,” she said.

  I wasn’t excited about the way her jaw kept clenching. Caeco was playing with fire. A mated wolf will fight to the death for her mate and as deadly as Caeco was, I don’t think she’d ever tangled with a were like Stacia. I remembered hearing that Caeco had beat up a few of the teen weres at Arcane. Even the biggest ones wouldn’t hold a candle to Stacia, whose training had been at Tanya’s completely ungentle hands.

  Declan was frozen, eyes now narrowed at Caeco, who looked expectantly back at him. Finally he moved toward her, hands down at his sides.

  The thing about witches is that they don’t really have any obvious giveaways. I switched vision, looking with my Sight. His body was covered in black, the color of magic to my eyes. He was going in armored in case she attacked him. So much for romance in this moment.

  When he leaned in for the kiss, it was like two combatants shaking hands before a knockout round. His eyes were focused on her and clouds of black hovered over and around him, his magic coiled and deadly. Did she know he was fresh from battle? That less then thirty hours ago he’d battled the forces of another world—and apparently won.

  Her move was fast, faster than human. He was an inch from her lips when Caeco’s hand snaked up and grabbed his head, pulling him in for a real lip lock. Her hand slipped though, sliding off his invisible force field.

  Tanya and I moved as one, grabbing Stacia as she bolted for the engineered assassin. We almost couldn’t hold her, but by then, the action was over. Declan ducked away and Caeco was suddenly pinned to the wall, six feet off the ground, right over a table above a pair of customers who were frozen in shock.

  To her credit, she just smirked at him. “The correct response is thank you,” she said, ignoring the raging werewolf who was almost dragging both Tanya and my Posted feet right off the ground. We were connected to the ancient wooden floor and the boards were threatening to break.

  Declan wiped his mouth and moved over to his werewolf, taking one of her hands in his. He stared at Caeco, then waved a hand. She floated over and down, light as a feather. “Thank you. It’s important,” he said, turning and heading toward the back room and the staircase down. Stacia allowed him to pull her with him, but her snarling glance over her shoulder was expressively clear.

  “Hey, guys, he’s gonna need you too,” Mack said to the witches, who were, for the most part, delighted to have front row seats to the free show.

  Tami was the first to follow, then Britta and Zuzanna. Michelle, Paige, Jael, and Erika seemed reluctant to go, but finally left. Ryanne was last, her face thoughtful as she took one last look at Caeco. That left Jetta, who was looking at Caeco with a frown.

  “What, roomie? Sorry—ex-roomie,” Caeco said.

  “You good? Did that give you what you needed?” Jetta asked.

  “Maybe it did,” Caeco said. “Something you wanna say a
bout it?”

  Jetta’s face froze for a second, then she laughed. A laugh filled with delighted disbelief. “You have no idea. None. Thanks for coming, Caeco. Your gift may be the answer,” she said. She started for the room in the rear, then stopped and turned back. “He’s different. It wouldn’t work. Stick with the Bureau,” she said, waving a hand in Krupp’s direction. Then she was gone, following the others.

  Krupp, who looked a little pale, turned to her protégé. “Was that necessary?”

  “It was. It was on my terms, not his,” Caeco said, her tone steady although she wore the tiniest of furrows between her eyes.

  “Maybe. But it was extremely reckless, Caeco,” Tanya said. “Jetta was correct. You have no idea what he’s been through or what he’s turned into. That could have gone… poorly. Which would be a shame, because we would miss you. Now, Agent Krupp, we have reserved excellent accommodations for you at one of the best hotels in Rome, on us. When you’re ready, first class seats will be available to take you both home.”

  “That’s all?” Krupp asked.

  “I sincerely hope so, Agent. For all our sakes,” my vampire answered. Looking unsatisfied, Krupp led her deadly junior agent out of the deli to the waiting car.

  I made sure it pulled away before heading down to the basement, holding Tanya’s hand.

  Chapter 31

  Trastevere, Italy

  Mack watched carefully as his buddy drew a Craft circle around the table holding the cube-like processor. A string was tied to one table leg, giving him a proper compass for his chalk, and he took his time to get it exact. Then he started adding runes and Mack saw some new ones that he was pretty sure were Elvish. As he finished the runes on each arc, he would point to one of the witches and direct her to sit where he pointed. Each witch was specifically chosen, her spot apparently customized for her alone. The girls didn’t miss that point. They were avidly studying the combinations he’d crafted and watching every move he made.

  A pattern emerged. Air witches clustered on the western arc, Water witches on the east, Fire seated south and finally, Michele, the only Earth witch, was seated on Declan’s left side as he took the northernmost cardinal point.

  “What’s the drill?” Tami asked.

  “We hold hands and everyone pushes energy widdershins,”Declan said.

  “That will move it around the circle, but it won’t help you power up,” Tami said.

  “Yes and no. The idea here isn’t the standard drain-all-the-juice-you-can and feed it to one witch,” Declan said, nodding to Chris and Tanya as they came in.

  “Where do the rest of us stand?” Chris asked.

  “Against the wall by Mack. If anything goes wonky, listen to him. He knows the drill. Stacia, you sit behind me, close, but not touching,” Declan said.

  “Why? I’m not a witch,” she asked.

  “You’re his ground. If he runs into trouble, your touch will bring him back,” Mack said.

  Declan nodded and pointed at his roommate. “And he’ll tell you if that’s necessary. I hope not, but best to be prepared.”

  “Wait. This setup trims power from the circle every time it makes a rotation and feeds it to you, but it never pulls directly from us? You’re the only one taking a risk here, aren’t you?” Britta asked.

  “Exactly. This is the way circles should work. You only risk one, and then only in very controlled circumstances with some precautions as backup,” Declan said, reaching back to pat Stacia’s knee.

  “And just how will Mack be knowing if yer in trouble?” Ryanne asked.

  “He’ll know. He’s watched over me lots of times and he can pretty much read my body language. Also, besides his sister, he’s the luckiest person I’ve ever met,” Declan said.

  “Seriously? You’re going with luck?” Erika asked.

  “Roll dice with him sometime,” Declan said.

  “Yeah, Erika, how about strip dice?” Mack said, more to get under her skin than for any real interest.

  She just arched an eyebrow like she was considering it.

  “Okay, everybody ready? Anyone need to hit the bathroom before we start? No breaks,” Declan said.

  “Shouldn’t be too taxing on us, warlock,” Zuzanna said. “You’ve got the risky job.”

  “Then let’s get to it,” Declan said, grabbing the hands on either side of him, which were Michelle and Britta’s. The others followed suit and then all nine closed their eyes and relaxed into their spots.

  Within a few minutes, they all started to breathe in and out at the same time, automatically synchronizing

  Tanya tapped Mack’s shoulder and raised her eyebrows in question. He looked over the circle and noticed Stacia’s worried eyes locked on to him.

  “We can whisper; it shouldn’t bother them. They’re all deep into it now,” he said.

  “What’s happening?” Tanya asked.

  “Each witch is taking energy in through their left hand, passing it through their core, and then pushing it out their right hands. Each adds a tiny bit every time, except Declan, who is taking a tiny bit as it passes through him. Nobody gets overtaxed and nobody is in danger. It’s related to the portal protocol he learned on Fairie. We talked about it on the plane ride back to Rome,” Mack said. “When he’s added a pretty good amount to his own deep reserves, he’ll try projecting himself into the cube. The nanites should let him connect to the cube and therefore to Omega.”

  “How does that help Omega?” Chet asked.

  “Declan created those quantum circuits with magic. Omega is part magic and Dec is, in a very real way, his creator. He’ll likely join his power to Omega and give him a boost. It’s possible he can actually attack the enemy with his magic.”

  “You think it will do much good?” Chet asked.

  “Declan has told me about the night Omega was born. When he got trapped in the quantum matrix along with the Book of Darkest Sorrow, he could see the NSA algorithm and could direct spells against it. That was then. He’s grown a lot since then.”

  “But he’s not wielding the power he had in Fairie,” Tanya pointed out.

  “That’s why he’s harvesting extra power from the ladies,” Jetta said.

  “He was forced to learn a lot of new things on Fairie. The portal lessons were pretty intense,” Stacia whispered.

  “When will he start?” Chris asked.

  “He already has. Watch his eyelids. That’s not rapid eye movement. He’s visualizing Omega’s attacker,” Mack said.

  “Apparently I am too. Is that black mold on the cube?” Jetta asked.

  Sure enough, a creeping tide of black crud was covering two-thirds of the metal cube.

  “Where the hell did that come from?” Chris asked.

  “The magic is high. It’s our brains interpreting the assault. Like how we watch a video game on a monitor,” Mack said.

  “Look, you can see the battle,” Tanya said, pointing.

  The uneven line of black moved, if you looked close, back and forth, gaining and losing, all around the metal box.

  “What does it look like to your Sight, my zayka?” Tanya asked Chris.

  “Oddly, the colors are all reversed. I always see magic as black, so I can see a river of blackness circling around the nine of them and a thick rope of black extending from Declan into Omega’s cube. The mold looks like white frost to me in this vision,” Chris reported.