Heart of Fire

by Lisa Edmonds

“Go.” I grabbed my phone and my bag with my good hand and opened my door carefully with my right. I jumped out and started to shut the door.

  “Alice.” He threw the SUV in reverse. “We’ll finish this conversation later. Go heal yourself and watch your back. I’ll call you when I’m done.”

  “Go,” I said again, and shut the door.

  He backed out fast. Seconds later, he turned out into traffic and was gone.

  On the way home, I drove past the alley where Mark’s body had been found. There was a memorial there with candles and piles of flowers. People were parked along the street and walking toward the memorial as I passed. It made me angry. None of them had known Mark in life; why should they get to share in the grieving for his death? Some of them wore anti-supe shirts. If they’d known Mark, they’d have known he despised those sentiments. I kept going.

  I went home and used healing spells on my hand, back, and throat. The eye would have to wait until later; that many healing spells in a row left me nauseated and weakened. I used a strong blood magic healing spell on my hand, and that alone left me huddled on my bed, shaking and sweating, for more than twenty minutes.

  I was in the bathroom washing my face when Malcolm crossed my house wards. “Alice, are you decent?” he called from the hallway.

  “Yes.” I came out of the bathroom to find the ghost flitting around my room. “What’s up?”

  Malcolm zipped back and forth by my bed. “Okay, so I’m tailing West and I’m staying close, but not too close, and he leaves work early, so I’m thinking okay, cool, maybe we’re finally gonna see something, right? And—”

  “Malcolm. Stop flitting.”

  He stopped right in front of me. “I do not flit,” he huffed.

  “Whatever it is you are doing, stop doing it. I can’t listen to you if you’re buzzing all around the room while you talk.”

  “Fine.” He hovered in place. “I followed West in his car and we headed south of the river. He was really angry. I could feel his blood magic, like he was so furious he couldn’t hold it back. He was driving like he was on his way to kick someone’s ass, and then he turned around.”

  I blinked. “He what?”

  Malcolm floated back and forth in consternation. “He just stopped, pulled into a convenience store at 28th Street South and Forrester, made a U-turn, and headed back north to his house. That’s where he was when I jumped here to tell you.”

  I rubbed my face. “So, he was headed somewhere in the south part of town, and then he what, changed his mind? Or did he sense you?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I’m almost undetectable with all these obfuscation and masking spells, but there’s always a chance he sensed me and that’s why he turned around. Or maybe he decided today was not a good day to go on a rampage. I don’t know. I just wanted you to know what happened.” He frowned. “Hey, what’s with the black eye?”

  “Sean and I went to that anti-vamp protest. It got a little rowdy.” I hesitated. “You don’t see any magic on me that shouldn’t be there, do you?”

  Malcolm floated close and passed his hand slowly through my aura. I shuddered at the sensation. “I don’t see or sense anything. Looks clear.” He floated back. “Why do you ask?”

  “Thought I felt something weird at the rally, but I guess I was wrong.” I sighed. “Go back to West and keep an eye on him. It’s all we can do for now.”

  “Get some rest,” Malcolm said. “You look like you’re about to fall down.”

  “I think I might try to nap. Be careful.”

  “You too.” Malcolm disappeared.

  Once Malcolm was gone, I turned off the lights and crawled into bed. Exhausted from lack of sleep and the battering I’d taken from the healing spells, I fell asleep almost immediately.

  Hours later, I woke up and stumbled into my bathroom to splash water on my face, trying to clear the cobwebs from my brain. I’d needed the nap, but I’d slept so hard and for so long that I was disoriented and unsure of not only what time it was, but also what day. I was left wondering if the nap had helped or just made things worse.

  When I checked my reflection in the mirror, my eye didn’t look too bad; the swelling had gone down and though there was bruising around it, it looked like it could be covered with makeup and I could avoid using another painful healing spell. That was something, at least.

  When I checked my phone, I discovered it was almost nine p.m. and I had not, in fact, slept straight through until the next day. I flipped on my bedroom light, got out my laptop, and checked the local news.

  And discovered the Daylighter folks had been busy putting that list of vamp-owned businesses to use.

  “Shit,” I breathed. Reports of vandalism were coming in from across the city and the fire department was on scene at three “suspicious” fires at businesses on the Daylighters’ list. None were owned by Charles, but he could very well have been a victim of the vandalism.

  My phone rang. I glanced at the screen, then answered it. “Hello, Bryan.”

  “Miss Alice,” the enforcer rumbled.

  “Are you guys all right?”

  “None of Mr. Vaughan’s properties have been targeted so far, and all of our personnel are safe. The same can’t be said, unfortunately, for others on the Court and their people.”

  I sighed. “I was afraid of that.”

  “I’m calling for three main reasons,” Bryan said. “First, we haven’t located either Mr. Travers or Mr. Andrews yet. They haven’t returned to their apartment, nor have their vehicles been spotted. Our resources are spread thin at the moment, but we’ll continue our search. Second, Ms. Dade has compiled a preliminary report on the phone records you provided. She wants to meet to discuss her findings, which brings me to item number three: you need to come in and discuss your investigation.”

  “Do I need to come to Northbourne?”

  “No. In fact, you should avoid Northbourne for the time being. It’s become a focal point for protesters. Several hundred are gathered outside the gate, and security personnel are fully occupied securing the perimeter.”

  “Holy shit,” I said involuntarily. “It’s that bad?”

  “It’s bad,” Bryan said grimly. “Only a few members of the Court are at Northbourne currently. Most are in their own private residences. We ask that you come to Hawthorne’s and meet with Ms. Dade and Mr. Vaughan here.”

  I’d been avoiding Hawthorne’s and Charles like the plague, but it sounded like a much better option than dealing with the mess up at Northbourne. “Is the bar open?”

  “No. Mr. Vaughan is opting to remain closed until further notice.”

  All things considered, I thought that was a good idea. “What time should I be there?”

  “Ms. Dade is on her way already and Mr. Vaughan will clear his schedule.”

  I glanced at the clock. “I can be there in about forty-five minutes.”

  “Should we send a car for you?”

  “No. I’m sure I’ll want to go somewhere afterward, so I’ll need my car.”

  “Alice, you are an investigator for the Court. You are welcome to utilize a Court-owned vehicle for as long as you need it.”

  A Court-owned vehicle no doubt outfitted with a tracking system and audio/visual surveillance. No thanks. “I’ll think about that. In the meantime, I’ll head your way.”

  “Be safe.” We ended the call.

  Before I put the phone down, I thought about checking in with Sean, then decided against it. He hadn’t texted or called, which probably meant he was still dealing with pack issues.

  I dressed in a blue long-sleeved shirt over a black tank top, black jeans, and my favorite don’t-mess-with-me boots, with my hair in a French braid. I slid knives into my boots and grabbed my bag on the way out the door.

  I saw more police cars on the way to Hawthorne’s than civilian vehicles. The streets were eerily deserted. When I arrived in The Heights, I drove past the closed bar and turned into a parking lot on the next blo
ck rather than be the only car parked in front of Hawthorne’s. I put my holster on my belt, locked up my car, and headed for what had once been my favorite watering hole.

  It was a chilly evening, but I left my jacket unzipped so I could get my gun quickly if I needed to—not that I expected to find trouble on the one-block walk to Hawthorne’s, but I was on high alert for possible attacks from humans, spirits, and demons. A gun might not help me much in two out of three of those scenarios, but if any Daylighters were hanging around hoping to catch a vamp or other supe coming or going from the bar, they’d find themselves staring down the barrel of my .45.

  The door opened just as I reached it. Adri gave me a tight smile. “Hey, Alice.”

  “Hi,” I said as I walked inside. Adri shut the door and locked it.

  The bar was dark and empty. I’d never been in Hawthorne’s when it was closed. Only the lights behind the bar were on, but there was enough illumination that I could easily follow Adri between the tables toward the back of the bar and down a dimly lit hall to a door marked Private. Our ascent up the stairs to the second floor was silent.

  I expected her to turn left toward Charles’s office, but instead we went right, down the hall to a door near the end. Bryan opened it as we approached, and we entered the conference room. The space was dominated by a long wooden table ringed with twelve leather chairs. One wall was an enormous screen.

  The three people at the conference table rose as we entered. Charles, in a dark gray suit, sat at the head of the table. On his left was a brunette in a red tee, black blazer, and jeans, who I took to be Kim Dade. On his right, to my surprise, was Niara, in a royal blue jumpsuit that wouldn’t have looked good on anyone else. Her braided hair was arranged in an elaborate and intricate style that looked like it had taken hours to create. Vamps never let a crisis keep them from looking good.

  “Alice, how lovely to see you.” Charles came around the table to take my hands and kiss my cheek. It wasn’t unusual for him to greet me that way when we were alone or with one of his enforcers, but he’d never before been quite so affectionate in front of others.

  When Niara’s brown eyes glowed, though, I thought I had a good idea why he was being so demonstrative. Fantastic. The last thing I needed to be was the prize in a tug-of-war between two members of the Vampire Court.

  Then Niara moved toward me with a smile that felt like the warmth of a hundred suns, and I forgot all about Charles, Mark, Sean, and literally everything else but the pleasure and contentment promised by those amber-colored eyes.

  “Alice,” she murmured, reaching out to take my hand and kiss my cheek. Her lips were soft and cool as they brushed the corner of my mouth, and a shiver traveled all the way down my spine. “You have been injured, have you not?” Her fingers stroked mine as she leaned forward to speak into my ear. “You must let me heal you. Our investigator must not be distracted by pain.”

  “It doesn’t hurt,” I said absently. The word investigator drifted through my brain, looking for something to connect to, and it finally fell into place. Mark. Harnad. Murders.

  Son of a bitch, she’d rolled me.

  I took a slow step back. Her fingers trailed along my arm, igniting little sparks of sensation I forced myself to ignore.

  “Such control.” Her lips turned up in a ghost of a smile. “How remarkable.”

  Charles was so still he could have been made of marble. Only the faint silver glow in his eyes belied his anger. I took another, more deliberate step back and tried not to think about how much I would have liked to feel Niara’s soft fingertips in other places on my body.

  “If no one has any objections, I’d like to hear what Kim has to report.” I was pleased my voice was steady.

  The analyst, who had been waiting by her chair while our little drama played out, looked up from the tablet in her hand and raised an eyebrow. I guessed her to be in her mid-thirties. She was curvy and about my height, with shoulder-length reddish-brown hair held back in a ponytail. Her eyes twinkled as if she was thinking of a particularly funny joke. I instinctively liked her.

  “By all means,” Charles said.

  I moved to take a seat on Kim’s side of the table, a few chairs down so I could see all three of them as well as the video screen. It was a practical decision and it kept some distance between Niara and me. I was sure my choice of seat was not lost on anyone in the room.

  When I was settled in, Bryan opened a bottle of water and sat it on a coaster in front of me. I smiled my thanks, then turned my attention to the analyst.

  Kim did something on her tablet and the video screen on the wall lit up, displaying the emblem of the Vampire Court. It was replaced with the first page of John West’s phone records, obtained by Cyro for the price of a decent used car.

  “These are the records provided by Ms. Worth,” she said briskly. “As you can see, West’s cell sees heavy use between the hours of seven a.m. and six p.m. Monday through Friday and between seven a.m. and one p.m. on Saturday, which makes sense since it appears to be primarily for communication related to his investment business. He doesn’t appear to use the texting function, which isn’t surprising considering his age.”

  The page changed on the screen. “I began with this week’s contacts and worked backward,” Kim said. “Though the overall call volume is relatively high, many of the calls were made to and received from the same individuals. I compiled a list of their names. Brief background checks have been completed and I am comfortable saying there is a high probability they are clients of his investment company.”

  She set her tablet on the table and turned to me. “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but I’m betting West has a second mobile phone, one not registered to him or his address.”

  My stomach sank. “What makes you say that?”

  She gestured at the screen. “The clues are there. As I said, almost all of the calls take place during what you would call normal business hours and almost none of them occur at his home or anywhere other than his place of business or a small radius around it. He has a landline phone in his residence. I took the liberty of obtaining those records, and it is so rarely used I was easily able to identify all the calls made to and from that number in the past month. Conspicuously missing from that list are what I would call ‘friendly’ calls. So either this guy literally has no friends, or they’re contacting him at another number.”

  I sighed. “So, what you’re saying is this got us nowhere?”

  “Not necessarily.” The screen changed to a map of the city. A red dot appeared near downtown. “That’s his office,” Kim told me. A blue dot lit up on the east side. “His house.” Then the map lit up with yellow dots. Most of them formed a path between the red and blue dots, but others were in the north part of the city, and some in the west. “This is a map of his movements up through this evening. I can do more traffic pattern analysis, but I think this is interesting.”

  It took me a second, but I figured it out. “There is absolutely nothing on the south side,” I said. “Wait. I know for a fact he was near 28th and Forrester this afternoon, but it’s not on there.”

  She pointed at me. “So what does that tell us?”

  “He’s turning his phone off when he goes to the south side of the city.” I stared at the map. “It’s a big area. Mainly industrial parks and warehouses.”

  “Hundreds of warehouses,” she confirmed. “Lots of places you could hide an operation like this and never be found.”

  “That’s something. It gives us a place to start looking, I guess, but it’s going to take a long time with an area that big.”

  “I can do more analysis, see if I can shrink down the search area. Have you considered tagging his car?” Kim asked.

  “We considered it, but Mark was unwilling to do it. We feared if the tracker was discovered, it would endanger the surviving victims.”

  “And how do you stand on this issue?” Niara asked me.

  My shoulders hunched under the combined weight
of Felicia and the others who were still alive, as far as we knew. Mark had borne that weight for us. Now it was on me.

  While I shared Mark’s reluctance to risk the survivors, I was beginning to think the time for walking softly was over, not just because of Mark’s death, but because the city might tear itself apart if we didn’t get answers soon. The question was: could I endanger the lives of the survivors? I flashed back to watching Amelia Wharton cutting throats at the construction site and my breathing and heart rate spiked.

  In a room with two vampires who were already on edge, that was not a good move. Charles’s eyes went the color of moonlight and Niara’s blazed with amber fire. Kim went still, her eyes on the table. I forced my breathing to slow and my heartbeat followed suit.

  Kim and I jumped when my phone buzzed. I reached into my pocket and took out my phone.

  Wolf: With my pack for another hour or so, then free to meet. What’s your 20?

  Me: Meeting with data analyst. Not sure how much longer—will text when done.

  I stuck my phone back in my pocket. “Sorry about that. Where were we?”

  “I think you should tag West’s car,” Kim said.

  “Why do you say that?” I asked.

  “I’m analyzing the situation; it’s what I do. In my assessment, it’s worth the risk. With the right tech, you can reduce the chances of it being found to practically zero. Maclin can get the tech.”

  It was my turn to raise an eyebrow.

  She grinned. “I’m an analyst. It’s my job to know all the players, all the variables. All the options.”

  “I’ll talk to him about it. If he’s got the right tech, we’ll tag the car. We’ll have to be ready to move fast if we get intel we can move on or the tracker is compromised.”

  “That’s outside my area,” she said. “In the meantime, I’ll continue to look into the cell records and see if I can get any other helpful info.” She looked at Charles. “Mr. Vaughan?”

  “You are dismissed,” the vampire said.

  Kim rose from the table, packing away her tablet and putting her bag on her shoulder. I stood and we shook. “It was nice to meet you,” she said. “Looking forward to helping you get these bastards. You get any more data you need crunched, send it on, any time day or night.”