He raised a brow at her, motioning for her to continue.
“I’ll go undercover. If I pretend to be Fae, maybe I can get in that house. Even Mick won’t recognize me if I disguise myself. I’ve got wigs and colored contacts from my days working undercover in Vice. Once I’m in, I can find out what Mick’s up to, whether he’s a willing participant in this or—.”
“Not possible.” He cut her off, his voice certain.
“Why not?”
“Because no matter what you do, any Fae will instantly know you’re human.”
“How?” She rubbed her eyes. God help her, so much unreal stuff had happened in such a short time. “What am I missing? Don’t tell me you guys have some special scent or something.”
“Not scent. Your aura. Remember I told you I can see other Fae’s auras and they can see mine? Human auras look completely different.”
“Aura. Of course.” Doggedly, she sipped coffee and tried to regroup. So much for her plan. Shot down because of another new-age type word. Aura.
Life kept getting more and more strange. Shifting veils separating her world from his, an alternate reality, one in which elves and faeries existed, magic spells, soul-stealing machines… If she didn’t know better, she’d suspect she was under the influence of a mind-altering drug or in the throes of a really bizarre dream.
A dream. Wouldn’t that be nice? Maybe she could wake up and find out she hadn’t been accused of being a crooked cop. She’d still have job and her best friend Mick and a normal life.
“Stop,” she muttered.
“Stop what?”
“Nothing.” She drained her cup. Pushing to her feet for her last refill, she checked his mug. He’d barely touched his. Fine. More for her.
Once she’d finished doctoring her coffee, she carried it back to the table. “Okay, you’ve shot down my plan. But I still want to go back to Mick’s. I want to know why the glow went out.”
“I think the glow only occurs while souls are being taken.” Expression serious, he studied her. “What about the license plate number you wrote down?”
“Great idea.” She jumped up, crossed to the corner of the dining room where she kept her computer on a small desk. “Give this thing a minute to boot up, and then we’ll see.”
Once she’d gotten on the internet – thank goodness for DSL – she went to the web site of the data service she used and logged in. She did a search by license number and less than ten seconds later, a name came up on the screen.
“Natasha Klein.” Now she brought up a powerful search engine. Immediately, she got dozens of hits. “It seems Mick’s new friend is a top level scientist with NASA.”
“NASA? The space agency?”
“That’s the one. She’s also done some work for Lockheed. Now let me make sure this is the same person.” Clicking on link after link, she located a picture of the esteemed scientist. “Bingo. That’s her.”
“Well done.” Cenrick’s grin was full of admiration. “Human technology is almost as good as having an Oracle and a Mage use their magic to see things.”
“Almost as good? It’s better. After all,” Dee clicked the ‘print’ button, labeling a manila folder. “They weren’t able to learn any of this. At least now, when we head over to Mick’s, we know exactly what we’re dealing with.”
Chapter Six
AS BEFORE, when they reached Mick’s, they parked on the opposite side of the street. This time, they ventured much closer, only two houses away.
The sickly yellow emanating from the house lit up the night sky like an obscene flare.
“The glow is back.” Cenrick didn’t sound happy.
“Yeah, and something’s happening. I wonder what’s going on.”
This time, the place was a virtual hive of activity. A large, white, windowless van was parked in the drive. The two goons, with Blondie supervising, were unloading several people from the van.
“Can you go closer?” Cenrick asked.
She glanced at him curiously. “I could, because I’d like to write down the van’s license number, but I’m not sure it’d be a good idea. Remember what happened to you last time? I don’t want whatever it is that’s sucking magic out of Fae to affect you.”
Expression set in grim lines, he drummed his fingers on the dashboard. “Go closer. If it gets to me, I’ll let you know.”
“Fine.” She pulled closer, pulling in to park on the opposite side of the street, directly across from Mick’s. “You’d better hope they don’t notice us.” She kept a notebook in While she jotted down the numbers, he watched the new arrival.
“By the Plains of Lothar!” Cenrick cursed. The narrow-eyed glare he shot her way was full of fury. “Look at them! The soul-stealing has already started.”
He was right. Like Zombies from some grade-B horror flick, the small cluster of Fae shuffled forward, vacant- eyed and slack-jawed, with the goons herding them towards the door.
“They’re either under a spell or their souls have already been stripped.” He shook his head. “Even now, I can feel that thing – whatever it is – attempting to pull the magic from my body.”
“Magic?” She shot him a look. “Or your soul? Which is it?”
“They’re one and the same. All the magic we Fae have resides in our soul. It’s our core, the very fiber which makes us whole.”
“Then, without the soul, how does your body manage to live?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not normal,” she said.
“Nothing is normal, when you’re dealing with magic.”
They both fell silent as the blonde woman motioned her hired muscle to hurry.
“Natasha Klein,” Cenrick said slowly. “It’s good to put a name to her face.”
“Knowing she works for NASA and with Lockheed is even more intriguing. She has to be the one who developed the machine.”
This time, Cenrick didn’t argue. He must finally be coming around to her machine theory.
Once the last of the stragglers had been herded inside, Natasha motioned to the van. Immediately, it drove off, past Dee’s car without even a glance from the driver.
While Dee was watching the van, Natasha and the others disappeared inside the house, closing the garage door behind them.
Dee looked at Cenrick. Then they both turned and eyed the house.
Except for the still pulsing glow, the place might have been an ordinary, suburban, home.
“We’ve got to get in there.” Cenrick sounded frustrated.
“I know. But since you shot down my plan…”
“Cenrick, look.”
Natasha had come outside. Alone. They watched as she strolled down the driveway towards the mailbox.
Dee tensed, poised for action. Beside her, she sensed Cenrick doing the same.
“Let’s jump her, now! She’s alone and far enough from the house.” He fumbled with his door handle.
“No.” Dee grabbed his arm. “I’m sure her muscle is watching. Those guys have got to be her bodyguards.”
Just then, proving her words, one of the big guys strolled out the front door, and stopped by the SUV. Arms crossed, he waited while Natasha retrieved the mail. Even from this distance, Dee could see he was armed.
When Natasha reached him, the two conferred for a moment. Then, to Dee’s disbelief, the bodyguard opened the SUV’s passenger door. Natasha climbed up. Once he’d closed the door behind her, he crossed to the driver’s side and got in.
“They’re leaving.” Dee couldn’t believe it. “Talk about lucky breaks.”
“That means only one guard is left. And all those messed up Fae.”
“And Mick.” She couldn’t keep the hope out of her voice.
They exchanged a glance. She understood exactly what he was thinking and said it for both of them. “Excellent odds.”
In the streetlight’s dim light, his aristocratic features looked arrogant. He smiled as the SUV backed out and drove off. “It’s time.”
“Yep.” She opened her door. “I’m going in. You wait here.”
The look he gave her told her it would be a cold day in hell. “No. I’m going with you.”
“What?” Door halfway open, she turned to look at him. “You can’t. It’s still glowing. That means it will affect you.”
“Maybe.” He pushed himself up out of the car, leaving her to hurry after him. “It’s a good time to test my theory.”
“What theory?”
Giving her a mysterious smile, he shook his head. “Wait and see.”
“Cenrick-.”
“Shhh. Are you ready?”
Glaring at him, she grabbed his arm. “What if you get in there and it zaps you so badly you can’t leave?”
Smiling grimly, his gaze was dark as he looked down at her. “Then I guess you’ll just have to rescue me, won’t you?”
“We’re going in the back. If there’s only one guy left guarding the place, we might as well take him by surprise.”
Some of her doubts must have registered with him, because his expression closed off, became cold and remote. “Look Dee, I know you don’t think I’m much of a warrior. I’ve been trying to study the situation before acting, as is my habit.” A hint of bitterness crept in his voice. “No doubt to you it appears I’ve done nothing but skulk around and hide.”
He increased his pace, so she had to hurry to keep up. They reached the end of the driveway and needed to get around to the backyard without being seen.
“Cenrick, wait.” Working around so much testosterone at the police station, she was intimately familiar with male pride.
“I never said I doubted you.”
He stopped so suddenly she ran into him. She had to grab his arms to keep from falling. “You didn’t have to. Look Dee, I’ve always prided myself on my ability as a scholar, but I’m a warrior too. I have a feeling brute force and raw strength will be needed before this is all over.”
Shaking off her hold, he swung around the corner, keeping to the shadows. While she stood there staring after him, his low voice floated back to her. “Come on, Dee. Time’s running out. We’re going to have to do like my brother Alrick usually does – act without a completely thought out plan.
“All that’s well and good, but look what happened to you last time. You almost passed out when you even got close to the place.”
“I’ll be fine. Nothing happened the time before that, when we ran into each other in the garage.”
“The house wasn’t glowing then.” She looked around. “What’s that awful smell?” The overwhelmingly pungent odor was sickeningly sweet and full of decay.
God help her, she knew what the smell meant.
Something had died here. Died and in the stages of decay.
Cenrick sniffed too. “Pretty powerful smell. Do you think it’s coming from his garden?”
“No.” She took a look around. “It’s too awful for that.”
“All of the shrubs are really dead and shriveled.”
She took another look. More than merely dead, Mick’s beloved plants looked scorched, as a nuclear explosion had ripped through the yard. The grass too had gone brown and lifeless.
“Mick’s gardens.” She felt stunned. “Those were his pride and joy. There’s not a single bloom left living.”
“Maybe that has something to do with that awful smell.” But he didn’t sound convinced. Maybe he knew, as she did, such an odor could only come from a decaying body – human or animal.
She could only hope it wasn’t Mick.
From the set line of his mouth, she guessed Cenrick hoped the same.
Carefully, they skirted the side of the house. The motion sensor light in the front of the garage clicked on, but no one came outside to investigate.
The ground felt damp and spongy underfoot, despite the dead grass, or maybe because of it. Like some horrible chemical had seeped into the soil, polluting everything within reach.
The smell grew stronger. Waves of nausea and dizziness made her head spin. She could only hope Cenrick was all right.
Taking a deep breath and fighting not to gag, she leaned on the brick for a moment. Every instinct screamed at her to leave. As a cop, she’d learned to trust her instincts. “I don’t like this,” she told him.
Making a sound of frustration, he reached for the back door. “Look, quit worrying. Last time, that thing – whatever it is – took me by surprise. Now, I’m better prepared.” He tried the knob with his gloved hand. To her surprise, it turned.
“They left it unlocked.” Shaking her head, she swallowed her trepidation and followed him inside. “This is beginning to feel like a trap.”
She’d barely spoken when the light flared, pulsing.
Sickly yellow-green flooded the kitchen, bathing Cenrick’s face. Immediately, he staggered.
“Everything’s spinning.” He spoke through clenched teeth, sounding like a man in pain. He inhaled deeply, once, twice, the rasping loud in the quiet.
“That’s what I was afraid of.” Dee grabbed him. “You’d better hope your theory about my touch shielding you works.”
As soon as her skin touched his, the cloudiness vanished from his eyes.
He grinned at her. “I think it does.”
With her hand on his arms, he was able to stand. A moment later, he slid his fingers through hers, intertwining them.
“Don’t let go,” he told her.
“You seem better.” She squinted up at him. “Just because I touched you. What’s up with that?”
He flexed his other hand. “I’m capable again. I don’t understand why, but you protect me.”
“Either that or they’ve turned off the machine.”
But the evil, pulsing glow still filled the room.
“If you’re okay now, let’s see what we can do to get to Mick. I’ll make sure not to let go of you.”
Side by side, they moved forward.
Despite the glow, the place appeared deserted. In fact, the house was so silent they could hear the ticking of the kitchen clock on the wall.
“Mick’s bedroom is this way,” Dee whispered. “This still feels… off. Wrong.”
“Bad,” he finished for her. “I agree. But we have no choice.”
Hand in hand, down the eerily lit hall they went, peering in rooms as they passed. They saw no sign of the bodyguard who’d been left behind, nor of the Fae they’d seen shuffled inside.
Worse, when they reached Mick’s room, the unmade bed was empty.
Cenrick cursed. “He’s not here.”
“No, but I am.” Another voice, from the hall behind them. “She said you’d come.”
Dee spun, pulling out her gun. In her haste to draw her weapon, she yanked her hand free of Cenrick’s. Immediately, he fell to the floor, gasping.
The man rushed her. Pivoting, she danced away, bringing up her revolver to bear on him. “Freeze.”
He laughed. “Point your gun all you want, lady. I’m not sure how a Fae like you can hold metal, but I’ve got the machine amped up full power. She wanted him. You’ll be an added bonus.”
She’d been right – this had been a trap. That explained why neither Natasha or her helper had even so much as glanced at Dee’s parked car.
And they wanted Cenrick. She glanced at him, thrashing weakly on the floor near the doorway. No way could she get to him, not yet.
Seeing the direction of her gaze, the guard laughed again and pointed to Cenrick. “In a second, you’ll be just as helpless as he is.”
He thought her Fae? That meant he was human, though she supposed it didn’t matter. One shot would take care of him either way.
“Put your hands over your head,” she yelled.
The guy didn’t move.
“Do it. Now!”
Instead, he took a step towards her. “Any moment,” he repeated, his expectant gaze never leaving her face. He didn’t seem to know or care that she had a 357 Magnum pointed at him.
Dee’s hands tightened on the gun. �
��I said freeze.”
Instead, he kept coming.
With no choice, she squeezed the trigger.
The guy dropped and rolled, a half-second before.
Her bullet went wild.
The man crashed into her legs.
She went down, her gun flying across the carpet.
The man grabbed her. She elbowed him in the stomach.
With a cry of pain, he released her.
On her hands and knees, she went for the gun, but he got there first and snatched it up.
Damn it.
This time, the guard’s laugh was full of triumph. Her gun in his hand, he pointed it at her. “Now you freeze,” he snarled.
Dee froze. She had to get to Cenrick and touch him, but first, she had to disable Natasha’s guard.
A quick glance at Cenrick showed her he still lay face down and unmoving.
Thinking quickly, she dropped to her knees and began to moan as though she finally felt the effects of the machine.
“See,” the man taunted. “Now you’re mine.” He came closer to gloat and she knew she had him.
“Oh, yeah? Guess again.” Using her shoulder, Dee pushed herself to her feet and rammed him.
Surprised, he fell backwards, dropping her pistol and hitting his head on the door jam. He crashed to the floor and stayed there, unmoving.
First, she grabbed her gun. Then she went for Cenrick.
Grabbing him by both arms, she pressed herself full against him. “Come on Cenrick, come back to me.”
He didn’t move.
She began to feel a teeny bit worried. “Cenrick? Are you there?
No answer.
Crap.
Checking her watch, she saw they’d been inside the house nearly half an hour. No telling how long before Natasha and her other helper returned.
The other unconscious man stirred.
Great. Now what should she do?
She heard the answer as though someone had whispered it. Touch Cenrick again. More.
Right now her only contact with him was through her hands.
One more quick glanced at the guard assured her he was still out. Great.
She climbed on top of Cenrick, stretching herself out until her entire body touched him.
Missing Magic Page 8
