Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic (Dowser Series)

by Meghan Ciana Doidge

  Sayers went rigid, then tried to relax but didn’t quite pull it off. “Dowser,” he said, with a smile that was half the wattage of his previous attempt. “I run an importing/exporting business that would benefit from your services.”

  “The diffuser interests me, sorcerer,” I said, ignoring the ‘services’ comment. I wasn’t sure why I was pressing the issue so hard. I usually found I caught far more flies with honey — or cupcakes —than with outright demands. “What need do you have to hide your magic? From whom?”

  The server stepped up to the table with a tray holding all four … no, five, of my desserts. Sayers and I didn’t speak as the server placed each item down on the table and set my hot chocolate close to hand. The rapidly melting whipped cream was overflowing the mug and running down the sides. This pleased me.

  “Thank you.”

  “Shall I identify the desserts for you?”

  “No, thank you. I’m fairly certain I have it covered.”

  Before the server had completely turned his back, I had a bite of the cheesecake in my mouth. “Ah,” I said. “Baked and served with a fruit coulis, there is no other way. I’m thinking of branching into mini cheesecakes.”

  Sayers’ grin was back, but brimming with confidence. This grin said he’d figured me out — based on the excessive desserts — and liked what he saw. Boy, was he wrong. And, boy, was I going to get a kick out of proving it to him.

  Like I’d said before, who the hell was I these days? I needed some of Drake’s dragon Zen. Not all of it — it was a bit insufferable coming from a thirteen-year-old — but at least enough that I had a reserve of calm. I needed to bake, or to make a trinket … maybe if I didn’t exercise my alchemist powers frequently enough my magic got caught up inside me until it desperately needed to discharge.

  Magic … I was thinking about magic, not sex. Though that could easily be the problem as well.

  “I’m looking for my sister,” I said. Sayers opened his mouth to answer, but I cut him off. “And you’ve seen her.”

  The sorcerer snapped his mouth shut.

  “You’re only the fourth sorcerer I’ve met, Peter Sayers, and yet you’re all the same.” I scooped a tiny ball of pistachio ice cream onto my spoon and held it in front of my mouth. Sayers’ gaze fell to my lips, as I knew it would. “Sorcerers never do anything for free, and yet you came here voluntarily.”

  I allowed the ice cream to roll off the spoon and onto my tongue. Then I licked the spoon.

  Sayers watched me, his clamped jaw betraying his mounting anger. He didn’t like being played with, but he liked the game.

  “What I don’t know is whether or not you’re aiding Sienna.”

  “A sorcerer wouldn’t help a witch,” he spat. “And I certainly don’t know any Sienna.”

  I believed him. “Right, she goes by another name now. And ‘aid’ isn’t the right word, is it? No, sorcerer. Perhaps you think you’re using her.”

  “What would a sorcerer want from a witch?”

  “Well, I could give you a list of spells, potions, and charms, but that would be boring … and potentially embarrassing for you.” I picked up the Pirouline, aka the cookie straw, from the side of the white chocolate parfait plate and twirled it in the air. Yeah, I was questioning his manhood.

  He flushed angrily.

  I tried out the parfait. It was sweet, as I knew it would be. But overly sweet — obnoxiously sweet — was exactly what I was looking for right now. Because everything else around me was in limbo — intangible, much like the magic of the sorcerer sitting across from me was diffused.

  “Maybe it’s the book,” I said, around a second bite of the parfait. “Except the others didn’t think it had much power, so why would you want it?”

  The sundae was tasty. I’d scooped a large spoonful while Sayers was figuring out how to gain control of the conversation. I usually wasn’t a fan of coffee, but I liked it in this form just fine.

  “And what of the fledgling necromancer?” I asked.

  “What necromancer?” Sayers snapped, and my heart sank.

  I placed my spoon down, suddenly done with the desserts before I’d really begun. What a waste.

  I couldn’t tell if the sorcerer was lying or not. But he hadn’t gotten up and left when I’d started interrogating him, and I wasn’t sure why.

  Sayers tugged lightly and needlessly at the wrist of his suit jacket. Then he placed his hands flat on the table before him. I wasn’t sure how to read his body language either.

  The server dropped off Sayers’ finger of Macallan and the sorcerer took it without saying a word. Then he nodded the server away and added water to the scotch.

  “I don’t feel like interrogating you any longer, Sayers,” I said.

  “Thank God,” he answered.

  “But you’re still here.”

  “Your magic is still intriguing.”

  “Have you figured out what you want from me yet?”

  He raised his eyebrow and grinned at me wolfishly. I raised my eyebrow back at him and waited. I didn’t believe he was interested in me like that for one moment.

  He looked away and sipped his drink.

  Yep, no follow-through. Man, that bothered me. What was the point of innuendo and flirting that never led anywhere?

  I was a downer tonight. I took a sip of the hot chocolate, then sucked all the melty whipped cream off the top. Ah, that was better.

  “Are we back to the interrogation?” Sayers was trying to flirt … again.

  “No. You’re going to leave me to my desserts, which I am going to eat, because I do have follow-through.” I dug into the cheesecake.

  Sayers frowned. “You contacted me.”

  “Right, right. One of my friends will check in with you. You’ll be home later on tonight, yes?” My mention of friends deepened Sayers’ frown. I might be wrong about him knowing Sienna. Maybe he’d come to the hotel after getting my note because he’d spoken to Edmonds and Clark and wanted to meet me for himself. And by me, I meant Drake, of course. Because what sorcerer was interested in a dowser — a power they already had in a limited capacity — when an unknown and unusual Adept was in town?

  Kandy or Kett would make quick work of Sayers. They could both pick out liars before the actual lie was out of their mouths — by heartbeat for Kett, and I presumed by scent for Kandy.

  It was coming up on eleven o’clock. At 12:01 a.m., it would be November 9th. I didn’t know if Sienna was in London. I didn’t know how literal she was preparing to be, but I did know that we were walking distance from the Dorset Street site. Well, walking distance for us … Google Street View also informed me I had a warehouse and a parking garage to stake out. It would be easier to carry swords at night than by day as well.

  All that was going to happen with or without Sayers’ information … or lack of information.

  “We’ve gotten off on the wrong foot,” Sayers said.

  “Have we? I’m not so sure.”

  “You asked me here —”

  “I didn’t, really. Not in a way that implied anything. If I’m wrong about you and Sienna, then I’m sure Edmonds or Clark filled you in … though maybe they didn’t. Sorcerers don’t seem big on sharing information.” I looked to him for confirmation. He gave none, so I dug into the melon créme brûlée. It was too sweet. I relished every creamy bite.

  “All right,” I continued. “Here’s the gist. My sister, a black witch in a blood frenzy, might be in London to raise some demons, even though logically she shouldn’t be able to raise them. She kidnapped a friend of mine — a fledgling necromancer under my protection. And I will kick any ass in my path to get the fledgling back … unharmed.”

  Sayers opened his mouth, but I stopped him once more.

  “Oh, and Sienna needs a sorcerer’s power to do all this. Binding is her specialty. So if you do see her, turn the other way.”

  “Or she’ll kill me?” Sayers asked, mockingly.<
br />
  Stupid, stupid sorcerers.

  “Yeah, eventually. My ice cream is melting.”

  “I enjoy watching you eat.”

  “Oh, please. This is done. It never began.”

  Sayers lost his smile in a way that let me know it wasn’t going to return. I could see him better without it, but I still couldn’t quite tell what put me off about him. Was it just the diffuser he wore that bothered me? Had I blown this all out of proportion? Should I apologize?

  Kett slipped into the lounge. His pace was oddly languid and yet deliberate … as if he might be drunk but hiding it. Vampires didn’t get drunk, though. At least I didn’t think they did.

  Sayers turned to follow my gaze, but Kett closed the space between the entrance and the table before the sorcerer had fully looked behind his own shoulder. He flinched to find Kett standing next to him.

  “Jade Godfrey,” Kett whispered. Then he smiled in a way that sent a not-unpleasant chill down my spine.

  Oh, shit.

  “Kett,” I said as pleasantly as possible. “You haven’t met Peter Sayers. Importer/Exporter.”

  “Pleased to meet —” Sayers began.

  Kett stepped past the sorcerer, showing him his back, and stood alongside me. He reached down and touched his cool fingers to my inner wrist.

  “Are you drunk?” I hissed.

  “Are you?” Kett asked in return.

  “No.”

  “Unfortunate.” He dropped my wrist and stepped behind me, facing Sayers again. I really wasn’t a fan of having an apparently drunk vampire behind my back, knowing he lusted after my blood — however cool and reservedly.

  Sayers stared, open-mouthed, at Kett. I finished the coffee ice cream sundae.

  We probably could have stayed like that — me eating my desserts and Kett and Sayers facing off — for the next hour, except my phone pinged.

  I had a text message from Kandy.

  Heading back.

  I looked up at Sayers. “We’re heading out now,” I said. “Please don’t get yourself killed. I know I’ve been oddly rude, but please don’t ignore my warning.”

  “He’s not powerful enough for your sister to take notice,” Kett murmured.

  “He’s wearing a diffuser,” I said, downing the last of my hot chocolate in one long swig. I could feel the sugar starting to course through my bloodstream. Soon, I’d be jittery with it. Good.

  “Is he?” Kett’s tone grew more intense and focused.

  Sayers swallowed, just once. I gathered that he would have preferred to go unnoticed by the vampire.

  “Why would you wear a diffuser to meet a dowser, sorcerer?” Kett asked.

  “I’m fairly certain he’s already met Sienna,” I said as I ran my spoon around the depths of the sundae glass.

  “That would make it an even odder choice,” Kett said.

  “Would it?” I asked. “Maybe I’m wrong. In any case, if he hasn’t met her, we’ve warned him.”

  “And if he has met her and he’s still alive, then his power is not what Sienna wants,” Kett added.

  We both looked at Sayers closer — at his magic, specifically. The sorcerer stared back at us, mouth still agape as we continued to discuss him as if he wasn’t actually in the room.

  “It would be nice to know for sure if Sienna is in town,” I mused.

  “I could take him back to the suite,” Kett offered. His cool tone was completely nonthreatening, and yet the biting-to-extract-information implication was very clear.

  “We’ll know soon enough,” I said as I stood, satisfied that I’d done justice to the decadent desserts. I wasn’t so sure what was up with Kett and the vampires of London. Adding ‘biting sorcerers’ to any list of wrongdoings we were about to commit — if we were to confront Sienna — probably wasn’t a great idea.

  I walked away from the table and finally got the rise I’d been waiting for out of Sayers. Magic bloomed around his wrists, where he’d earlier tugged at his jacket sleeves. I hadn’t been able to identify any specific magical objects on him before, because of the diffuser he also wore somewhere on his person. But he couldn’t hide the magic he was triggering now — diffuser or no diffuser.

  As Sayers stood to follow me — or perhaps to attack me — I turned into him. Wrapping my fingers around each of his wrists — over his suit jacket, so he wouldn’t be able to lift his hands — I leaned into him as if we were kissing goodbye. That last part was for the benefit of the server and bartender.

  “You don’t want to cast against me,” I whispered in his ear. Sayers twisted against my hold. I applied just a little more pressure and he winced. Yeah, I was strong … for just a dowser. “If you actively use these bracelets against me, then I have the right to relieve you of them. It’s sort of my job.”

  “Is it?” Kett asked. He stood behind and slightly to the side of Sayers. Though he was about two inches shorter than the sorcerer, I could still clearly see his ice-blue eyes.

  “Well,” I answered. “It will be.”

  “Interesting.”

  “I have no idea what the hell you are talking about,” Sayers said.

  “Do you want me to take the bracelets, and the diffuser for that matter, or not?” I was still smiling prettily for the server’s and bartender’s benefit.

  “No,” the sorcerer answered begrudgingly. The magic of the bracelets he wore dimmed. I didn’t know what spell he’d been calling up, but it felt like I wouldn’t have liked it at all. No wonder Gran loathed sorcerers … in her entirely polite Canadian way. I let go of Sayers.

  “Do you know Sienna or not?” I asked.

  “No,” Sayers answered as he rubbed his wrists.

  I glanced up at Kett and he frowned. I took that to mean Sayers was actually telling the truth.

  “I apologize then,” I said as I stepped away. “Thank you for coming to see us. Please be wary over the next few days.”

  Sayers nodded and I turned away to sign the bill at the bar. A 12.5 percent tip was included, but I added another 10 percent.

  Kett had a few more words with Sayers that I didn’t bother trying to hear. Then the sorcerer hightailed it out of the lounge without another glance at me. I made more enemies than friends these days. It used to be the other way around … well, if I counted acquaintances as friends.

  “Have a good evening,” I said to the server.

  “You as well, Jade,” he replied.

  ∞

  Kett matched my step once I turned into the corridor to our suite. I had a feeling he’d stayed behind to make sure Sayers was out of the building.

  “So …” I said. “You sober enough to go hunting?”

  “Always,” Kett replied.

  “Tonight …”

  “Yes?”

  “Tonight we end this. If Sienna is there and Mory is in danger …”

  “You’ll pick protecting the fledgling over containing your sister.”

  “Yes.”

  “I won’t.”

  I stopped in front of our suite door. The black-and-white-check carpeting was a plush cushion underneath my feet, even through the leather soles of my boots. “Is it cowardly of me to ask this of you?”

  Kett’s magic danced within his skin and in his eyes … every inch of him was magic, but I didn’t … couldn’t let it distract me.

  “I will kill the witch if you cannot,” Kett said.

  I closed my eyes at the pain that bloomed in my chest — pain so coated in anger now that I couldn’t distinguish between the two emotions anymore. “It should be me.”

  “Why? You’re not responsible for your foster sister’s actions, Jade Godfrey.”

  “I feel like I am.”

  “This is a human weakness you feel. Misplaced guilt. Do you not think she deserves to die?”

  “Is this a conversation you’re morally qualified to have, vampire?” I opened my eyes to meet his once again. “How many people have you killed just t
o live?”

  Kett smiled. The gesture was tight on his face. “The difference is, I have not broken any laws … not since I was the one enforcing them. Sienna has, on multiple counts. And the number of deaths on my hands is not so large as you make it out to be.”

  “One is already too many.”

  Kett nodded and stepped back from our intimate huddle. I instantly felt bad. He was a vampire. I was pretty much condemning him for something utterly beyond his control. I knew that was naive.

  “I will do it,” I said. “I should be the one to see this through. But if I’m struck down or incapacitated —”

  “I will step in and add to my tally. Which is already too long for your youthful morality, dowser.”

  “At least you won’t be breaking the law.” Sienna had been tried and convicted. Her life was forfeit, and had been even before she’d learned to keep the powers that she stole from those she murdered. She already had five bodies on her tally, as the vampire called it — including Hudson, Rusty, Jeremy, and two other werewolves — and those were only the ones I knew about.

  “But I would for you, Jade.” With a terrible sadness, Kett brushed his fingers across my cheek and then stepped into the suite so quickly I almost didn’t see him go.

  Something was really up with the vampire. He wouldn’t tell me what it was until it was past necessary for me to know. I just hoped we got out of London before whatever he was worried about also became an issue for the rest of us.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Kandy hadn’t returned to the hotel by the time we were ready to go. We texted the werewolf our destination, and then set out on foot. The balmy night had cleared enough I could see a few stars, despite the reflected lights of the city. It was a lovely evening for a walk, except for the hunting and potentially slaughtering my sister part.

  As we neared our destination, we circled the two outer blocks twice to dowse for magical activity. There wasn’t any. So, it was just after midnight on November 9th when Kett, Drake, and I turned onto Duval Street, aka the former Dorset Street.

  “Millar’s Court was entered through a passageway between numbers twenty-six and twenty-seven, before it was demolished in 1920 to make way for a new fruit market,” Kett said.