I did as Lucy directed, and even before I looked in Dahlia's direction I could tell the magic spectrum was going haywire. What the hell? I looked toward the front of the shop and—
Whoa!
The magical energy swirling around Dahlia and Maddie's table looked like a tornado. It was a literal vortex of magic. I followed the rivers of energy pouring into the magic storm and was shocked when I realized it was Maddie, not Dahlia, that was the epicenter.
"Whatever that is," I inclined my head in the direction of the energy tornado, "it's focused on Maddie."
"Yep," Lucy agreed.
"Have you ever seen anything like this?"
"Nope, this is a first," said Lucy.
"I'm a beginner at all this, but I don't notice any kind of organized spell. What's she doing exactly?" I asked.
"That's where things get even more interesting," said Lucy. "I don't know what's causing it. She's not actively casting a spell. It's as if the magic is being drawn to her like a magnet. I'm not even sure she knows it's happening."
I glanced back at the raging energy. "How could she not know?"
"That's what we need to find out. But if Dahlia has spent any amount of time around Maddie the past few days, it could explain the residue we noticed in her dorm room."
As we were speaking, the door chimed, signaling that someone had just entered the coffee shop. There had been a low rustle of noise – the murmur of other conversations, the various noises emitted from the machines behind the counter, the clank of cups and dishes as the tables were bused for new customers – but all of that noise died almost instantly.
Lucy's eyes went wide; she was staring at something over my shoulder. I turned in my seat, interested in what could have caused such a reaction.
Standing just inside the door was a guy dressed in the same t-shirt and apron as the baristas behind the counter. He appeared to be an employee showing up for his shift, except that he was missing a shoe. It also looked like he had been rolling around in a garbage dumpster as old food and other debris clung to his clothes and dark stains were splashed across his jeans.
"Mark?" one of the baristas called out. "Hey, Mark, you alright, man?"
Mark didn't answer; he just shuffled forward, his gait lopsided due to the missing shoe. Other patrons started whispering. All of them seemed worried, most of them knew Mark and all of them were in agreement that he was acting strange. I'd never met the guy, and even I knew something was off.
"Mark, what's wrong? You're tripping me out, man," said the same barista.
Mark reached the counter and bumped into it as if he hadn't noticed it was in his way. The overhead lights flickered.
There is danger.
Yeah, I'm getting that too.
I had no idea what the danger was. We were in a coffee shop full of people in the middle of a bright sunny morning. What could possibly go wrong? The lights flickered again.
"Lucy, something's up," I said, my eyes never leaving Mark.
I heard her chair slide back. "What do you sense?" she asked.
"I'm not sure, but my spidey-senses are tingling."
In a blur of motion, Mark jumped on top of the counter, kicked the worried barista in the face, and ripped one of the espresso machines from the counter. Mark howled like a maniac and tossed the machine in the direction of Maddie and Dahlia. Scalding hot milk sprayed a few customers. Lucy was quick on the draw, sending the espresso machine smashing harmlessly into the wall with a kinetic spell. Mark, still moving at inhuman speed, leapt straight for Maddie and Dahlia. Another kinetic whammy from Lucy sent him spiraling into some tables.
People, screaming in pain and fear, scrambled for the exit. Mark popped to his feet like his was on strings, his face a mask of rage, his eyes black, burning orbs.
Crap.
Black eyes could only mean one thing – blood magic. But Mark didn't start flinging mojo. Nope. Instead, his skin started sliding off.
Seriously.
It was super gross. It was like Mark was wearing a human suit, and he had decided to shrug out of it.
"It's a mimic!" Lucy shouted.
"What the hell's a mimic?" I was on my feet, claws out.
Lucy cursed, her opinion of my study habits falling even further. "Make sure everyone gets out, but the mimic can't escape! Understood?"
"Got it."
A people traffic jam was clogging the front door, stopping anyone from escaping the coffee shop. I jumped over the heads of the shouting throng. My trajectory was spot on. I crashed through the plate glass window, blowing a big Orson sized hole in the front of the shop. I didn't need to give any directions. People started jumping through the now open window and ran as fast as they could in every direction.
Dahlia and Maddie ran past me. My instinct was to follow them, but I had no idea how strong the mimic was. I couldn't leave Lucy. A blast of magical fire lit up the inside of the shop. Lucy was standing on top of a table, her face fierce, her arms raised as she pummeled the mimic with spell after spell. She looked totally badass.
I growled with pleasure; my inner beast was impressed.
Oh, shut up.
With its Mark disguise gone, the mimic looked vaguely human. It had a head, arms, and legs, but no detail. It looked like it was made from silly putty. I made a running dive at the mimic, connecting with it at the same time as one of Lucy's fireballs. The result was flaming pieces of mimic flying through the air as I shredded it to pieces with my claws.
Lucy burned the remaining pieces of mimic to ash. "Look for cameras," she instructed.
The security cameras weren't hard to locate. They weren't exactly hidden as people had become accustomed to the idea that they were being recorded everywhere they went. Unfortunately, the cameras were the kind that uploaded all images to a cloud server. Lucy sent a text to the Society Cleaners, giving them the name of the coffee shop and the brand of security system. The cleaners would hack the server and delete any incriminating footage.
"I can hear sirens," I said.
Lucy looked around the trashed shop, shaking her head. "Ogres, trolls, and now a freaking mimic."
"Um – I don't want to get yelled at, but what exactly is a mimic? I mean, obviously, it can disguise itself – mimic people – but at the end there, when it dropped the Mark disguise . . ."
"It wasn't a disguise. Mimics have the ability to invade a body and wear the host's skin . . . until it rots away."
"Okay – ew. And why? Is that all it can do, just mimic someone?"
"Oh, a mimic can do some damage if it gets its hands on you, but its main weapon is the element of surprise. They're used as assassins. You could see how they'd be good at that kind of thing."
"Yeah, like an evil ninja, but where do they come from? Is there, like, a town full of mimics somewhere?" I asked, curious.
"No. They're created and fueled by blood mages."
"So, that means . . ." I looked down at the pile of ash that had been the mimic, "it was sent."
"Yep. It appears that Maddie's secret is out, and she's being actively hunted."
"But why?" I asked.
"That, Orson, is the million dollar question," Lucy said, poking around behind the counter. "Aha, found it! I'm going to need your muscles."
Lucy had me rip out a gas line, covered us in a camouflage spell, and when we had cleared the building, she turned and sent a small jet of fire into the shop; it went up in a ball of flames. Several of the coffee shop patrons were standing outside, some on their cellphones calling for help, others in full citizen-reporter mode recording everything for Twitter or Snapchat. Lucy waved her hand and all the mobile devices popped as their insides fried.
"Was Maddie hurt getting out of there?" Lucy asked.
"No. She and Dahlia were both good, but they didn't stick around. They ran off with a small group, that way," I said, pointing toward the center of campus. "I can't blame them. With the almost daily reports of crazy lone gunmen shooting up public places, running for safety seems l
ike the prudent idea."
"Well, let's go find her," said Lucy. "Before something else does," she added in a murmur.
* * *
Finding Maddie turned out to be much harder than it should have been for a seasoned battle-mage and an uber-bear-shifter. The small crowd of people that had run for cover from the coffee shop hadn't stayed together. Once the patrons had realized they were clear of danger, they had wandered off in separate directions. So much for giving eyewitness accounts to the police.
We headed to the address we had for Maddie – a sorority house just off campus – but she wasn't there and the sorority sister who answered the door didn't know when Maddie would return. The sorority sister wasn't too keen on sharing information.
"You guys look normal but, like, so do all serial killers, am I right?" said the brunette who had answered the door. "Like, I just saw on Twitter that some barista went nuts at a local coffee shop and set the place on fire."
"I can assure you, we're not serial killers," Lucy said patiently.
"Well, that's what a serial killer would say, am I right?"
The brunette kept sneaking looks at my biceps; it started to make me self-conscious.
Lucy, took a few deep breaths. I could tell she was close to slapping information out of the woman. Not wanting to see the poor girl treated to a Lucy-style enhanced interrogation, I crossed my arms, flexing my muscles. The brunette's eyes almost popped out of her head. Good, I had her attention. I leaned forward, placing a forearm against the doorjamb, my upper arm very close to the young woman.
"It's like my colleague said: we're from the insurance company that's dealing with the claims for the car accident that Maddie was involved in. We just need to ask her a few questions." I smiled, hoping I looked trusting and not intimidating.
"Well, I'm not sure if she's coming back to the house today." The brunette shifted a little closer to my arm. Lucy snorted. I could've kicked her: she was going to blow my very unoriginal ploy at getting information. The sorority girl, however, ignored Lucy like she wasn't there and continued. "But she is on the organizing committee for our charity ball tonight. She'll definitely be there."
"Really? Where is the charity ball being held?" I asked, as earnestly as I could.
"Hoight Hall. You, "the brunette made sure to emphasize that Lucy wasn't included, "should totally come. It's a Cos-play theme and with your . . . physique, you could pull of any of the superheroes. My favorite is Captain America," she added with a grin.
"I just might do that." I flashed her another smile. "So, there is nowhere else we could look for Maddie before then?" I asked.
"Not that I can think of," she said.
"Okay, well, thanks for talking with us," I said.
"Maybe I'll see you later," she said hopefully.
"Maybe," I said.
I turned and pulled Lucy, who was staring daggers at the girl, after me.
"Well your new girlfriend was completely useless," said Lucy. "We need to find Maddie before tonight. She's in danger."
I ignored the 'girlfriend' remark and said, "I get that, but she didn't know anything and at least we know where Maddie will be in a few hours. We'll keep looking, but if we can't find her, at least we have a Plan B."
I cranked my super-sniffer and other senses up to eleven. The kind of magic Maddie was producing had to leave a trail, but I got nothing.
"How's this even possible?" I asked, turning slowly in a circle, trying in vain to pick up any kind of scent. "There should be giant magic-neon signs pointing in Maddie's direction, but it's as if she doesn't exist."
"There is one explanation I can think of," said Lucy.
"I'm all ears. Please share."
"The only other person I've met with the ability to completely shield what they are – is you." Lucy stared at me, waiting for my reaction.
I chuckled, but continued to focus on the tons of sensory input I was receiving. "Yeah, but I'm the Ollphiest . . ."
"Exactly," said Lucy.
Her tone of voice gave me pause, and I looked over at her. "What's that supposed to mean? "
"You are something that shouldn't exist, a fable . . . a legend of the supernatural world, but yet here you are," said Lucy. "Who's to say that there aren't more like you running around?"
"You think Maddie could be like me?" I replied softly. I don't know why, but the thought of another Ollphiest wasn't reassuring. It was actually the opposite. I felt some security in the fact that . . . well, that other Society members couldn't really hurt me. Lucy's daggers could do some damage, yes, but on the whole I had yet to meet any potential enemy that could take me. That was reassuring, especially since, when it came to things supernatural, I didn't know what I didn't know.
My inner psycho agreed whole-heartedly.
The witch is mistaken; there is none other than us. We are Ollphiest.
Still, hunting the girl and destroying her is a sound strategy.
Geez. Jealous much?
And how many times do I need to repeat that there will be absolutely no destroying without a very good reason?
If the girl can stand against us . . .
We don't know anything yet. Lucy is just guessing at what is going on with Maddie, so pipe down until we have more information to work with.
I needed to say something normal. Lucy was staring at me, eyebrows raised.
"I didn't get any Ollphiest-y vibes from Maddie," I began tentatively. "When the two of us first met, did I have magic swirling around me?"
Lucy pursed her lips, "No. I could sense the presence of strong magic, but its source wasn't obvious. I just assumed it was you, since you were the unknown factor and Tommy had such a hard-on for you," said Lucy. "You never give off so much as a blip in the magic spectrum, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. The fact that she's pretty much invisible to our ability to track her . . . it isn't normal."
"Okay, so we have a young lady with not-normal abilities, or at least abilities that seem not-normal. That doesn't mean she instantly falls into the same category as me, but we definitely need to proceed with caution," I said.
Lucy nodded her agreement of my assessment, "But that still leaves us with no Maddie."
"I have an idea on how to find her," I said, turning abruptly and heading in the general direction of Lucy's car. "We are going to engage in a bit of cyber-stalking."
"Cyber-stalking?"
"Yep. It's creepy, I know, but with our generation's—" I paused when Lucy gave me an incredulous look. "I mean, with my generation's obsession with social media, we should be able to locate Maddie pretty quickly."
I explained that we needed to get back to the hotel and my laptop. My plan was simple: hack Maddie's life, or her social media accounts at least. It would be easy, I assured Lucy.
I was wrong, kind of.
Maddie, it seemed, was very careful with her use of the various social media apps. Unfortunately for her, most of her friends weren't as careful. It took me a few hours longer than I thought it would, and of course it didn't help that Lucy paced around me asking if I was 'done yet' every five minutes.
"This will go a lot faster if you stop bugging me," I said.
"We are in a time sensitive situation here," said Lucy. "There are Low Creatures attacking in broad daylight," she said, walking to the window, pulling the drapes aside, and pointing. "And we're quickly losing daylight. What happens when it gets dark?"
I didn't reply; I just kept focusing on the task at hand. I wasn't a world-class hacker, but I had skills. They were just a bit rusty, and Lucy's continued harping was distracting.
"Boom!" I said.
"What boom? Good boom or bad boom?" Lucy asked.
"Definitely a good boom. I've gotten into Dahlia's accounts." I pointed at the screen.
According to Dahlia's Snapchat, she was a member of the Stanford Wiccan club, which, if their page was current, was meeting as we spoke.
"She belongs to a Wiccan club? How original," Lucy scoffed.
"But
you do agree that she's our best bet in finding Maddie, right?"
"Yeah, let's go talk to the wannabe witch. She still needs to explain about the potion and all the magic residue in her dorm room."
I sent the directions to my phone and closed the laptop. "I thought we decided the residue was probably from her interactions with Maddie?"
"That was before we knew she was a card-carrying member of a Wiccan club," Lucy said, disgusted. "Those clubs are notorious hotbeds for underground magic. While most Wiccans are lovely people, in tune with nature and practitioners of a benign form of ceremonial magic, there are others who give the Society nothing but headaches. This club might be where Dahlia learned to brew the pick-me-up potion."
"You've got to be kidding me? More real magic on the loose?" I said, not able to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. "You know, for a secret society, you guys suck really bad at keeping secrets."
"Tell me something I don't know," Lucy agreed, strapping her daggers to her back and sliding her leather jacket on.
I raised my eyebrows, but didn't say anything. We'd run into three ogres, a troll, and a mimic, so suiting up for battle didn't seem like a terrible idea. I just hoped things wouldn't get any weirder.
Yeah, right.
CHAPTER 10
Jimmy was in heaven. Well, if he believed in heaven, this is what he imagined it would be like. He was the center of attention – his friends were staring at him with slack-jawed envy, and it seemed that the ladies of Stanford were his to command. He was tripping on the power of it all. If this was magic, then he wanted – no, he needed – more.
After the fourth girl stopped by their table to introduce herself to Jimmy, his friends lost all sense of trying to play it cool. They started shouting questions at him.
"What's going on?"
"I think that last one was a senior. Seriously, she TA's in the Computer Lab."
"Did you, like, win the lottery and not tell us?"
"This a joke? You paid those chicks? Right?" Bryan insisted again.
"Please, Bryan. 'Chicks' is such a . . . loser way to describe the lovely women of Stanford," Jimmy scolded.
Gypsy Witch Page 10
