The Elementals Collection

by L. B. Gilbert

  Diana tuned briefly to Alec, who’d found a convenient wall to lean against, before answering him.

  “You already know that or you wouldn’t have run,” she said.

  J shifted in his seat. He still seemed to be weighing his options when he suddenly bolted and threw a glass globe at her—a smaller version of the one from his shelf. It shattered against her chest, the contents splashing over her tank top.

  Whatever was inside, it didn’t activate like its creator intended. Instead, it just boiled away like water against a hot frying pan.

  By the time Diana looked up, J had reached the doorway at the far end of the room, but she didn’t move to race after him. Alec was about to go after him himself when J opened the door, only to be blasted back by the backdraft of a huge fire.

  Fire that then started walking toward them.

  Channeling her energy in a specific pattern, Diana gave the flames form. It was the massive shape of a huge animal, something like a lion. She’d latched onto the image by instinct, but past experience had taught her that her instinct was preternatural. The form was governed by the fears of her opponent.

  In this case, J seemed to harbor a fear of big cats. The lion-like fire creature padded toward J, forcing him back into to the room, leaving fiery footprints in its wake.

  “I knew that last fire was shaped like a snake! The one at the coven house that you wrapped around you,” Alec burst out as he left his place at the wall and crept closer to the fiery lion, making Diana sigh aloud.

  “No self-preservation instincts whatsoever,” she said, sadly shaking her head.

  Alec looked up at her, his smile irrepressible. “It’s so cool.”

  Diana smiled back at him resignedly and waved him back as the lion circled J until the man scrambled up onto the couch. He climbed as far away from the beast as he could, his breath escaping in rapid short pants.

  “Now why would you do something stupid like trying to run, making me mess up your grandma’s nice house?” she asked him with annoyance. She turned to Alec. “I hate doing that to an innocent bystander’s house. Unless she isn’t innocent,” she said, directing the last back to J. “Someone taught you the craft. Maybe Grandma taught you that questionable judgment as well. The one that said dealing with a black circle was a good idea.” She leaned against the dining room table, crossing her legs in a relaxed pose to give her words added menace.

  J shook his head. “My grandmother is a practitioner. A medium,” he said. “A real one.”

  Hmm. That was interesting. Charlatans were common as grass. A true medium was rare. But J registered as a shaman to her senses, so that had to come from somewhere.

  “And no, Nona is a white witch, mostly,” J said, flinching away from the lion as it moved in to sniff him.

  “Mostly?” Diana asked pointedly, that red eyebrow working overtime.

  “So she was a little grey on occasion,” J said defensively. “Times were tough here growing up. And after the storm. But Nona would never countenance any association with a black practitioner, let alone a black circle. She’s a descendant of Marie Laveau. She does right by people, even at her own expense. But walking the righteous path doesn’t always pay the bills. Even before Katrina. I hustled, walked the line. Crossed it on occasion. And I did right by the woman who raised me. She wants for nothing now,” he finished with an emphatic sweep of his arm, which he immediately regretted as it stretched the burned skin on his chest.

  “At whose expense?” Alec asked with a scowl.

  “I don’t do anything that keeps me up at night,” J spat.

  “Well, that’s the problem with sociopaths. Most of them sleep real well,” Diana replied.

  J’s aura indicated that he was definitely in a downward slide to the black. But he wasn’t there yet. She might be back in a year or two to strip him of his magic, but that wouldn’t stop him from buying the spells of others. Either he went straight now or he was going to be a problem that got fixed in a more permanent way.

  “You’re straying, J. Soon you won’t be salvageable. Then grandma will be all alone. Tell me what I want to know and turn over each and every one of your contraband spells. I have bigger fish to fry than you, and I’ll be pissed if you make me come find you again after this.”

  J stopped trying to climb the wall as she called the lion to her side. She stroked its fiery surface with a sedate little smile, the way someone would pet a housecat. J looked down at the letter burned into his chest and started talking.

  “I don’t know where they are. They have enough connections now to have heard they were of interest to someone dangerous. They’ll have gone underground.”

  “Are you sure they haven’t gone to another property you arranged for them through my kind or another Supe?” Alec interrupted.

  “That was a one-time thing. That Fiona owed me. Racked up big bills in the club, her and her girl, that they had no intention of paying. I forgave the debt in exchange for use of a property. One that suited the needs of my newest vendor.”

  “And how did that start?” Diana asked.

  “A young woman came to see me a few months ago. She said she was going into business with her circle. They would be selling new versions of class A spells and a few new inventions they’d come up with themselves. She left a sample, a top-notch appearance spell. Lasted several hours. Not like the common ones that are only good for a few minutes. And it was tight. More like a Fae’s glamour. It was impressive,” J said, his enthusiasm getting the better of his sense.

  He was practically glowing until he noticed both of them frowning ferociously at him.

  “And so you decided to become a customer,” Diana said, motioning him to get on with it.

  “Hell, yeah. It was good for business. That glamour spell alone was worth the price of admission. It was the kind of thing I could offer to VIPs of the club and their rich friends. I had access to the market they wanted access to—the richest Supes in North America. In return for opening that market to them, I got a taste. And a break on the price for whatever I chose to purchase from them for personal use.”

  “But you did meet the other members of the circle?” Diana asked.

  This is what she needed. A real starting point for her search.

  “Only once, but that won’t help you.”

  Shit, Diana thought. “They were using their own glamour spell.”

  “Yeah. I could tell that much,” J said a nod.

  Diana looked to Alec for confirmation he was following, but he was still staring at the lion as it rubbed up against Diana’s leg. Lost in thought, it took a snap of her fingers inches from Alec’s eyes to bring him back to reality.

  “Care to join me here?” Diana asked, sarcasm bleeding into her voice.

  “Sorry. . .snakes. . .and lions. Um, what did I miss?”

  “The circle members always use their own glamour spells to disguise their appearance when dealing with outsiders.” J recapped with a shake of his head. “I thought it was a little weird, but everyone has a thing.”

  Diana rubbed her temple, annoyed. Being constantly under a glamour was unusual outside of the fae, some of whom had the power of disguise innately. But for a witch, the amount of effort required to create those spells was considerable. Making sure they lasted longer than a few hours took painstaking effort. Using them to mix with a buyer spoke of a considerable amount of paranoia. . .or the intention to get away with something very dark.

  “Was there anything identifiable about their speech?” she asked. “Any accents or unique vocal patterns? Do they tend to dress in the same style every time you see them?”

  “Like I said, I only saw one of them more than once. The youngest woman. At least she sounded young. I don’t know how dramatically the glamour changed her look. I’m not good with accents. I did my best to get rid of mine. And none of them had an obvious one, but the one I think is the oldest man sounded educated, like he went to school someplace fancy. Pretentious. Didn’t mind rubbing the fifty-cen
t words in your face. Their girl rep doesn’t sound the same. Not stupid, but flaky. Always mentioning energy and magical currents. Not trained proper. The other two didn’t talk at all. And their clothes during the meet were nice but hippie-like or new-agey. Youngest called herself Sarah and oldest Tom. They just referred to the others as brother or sister, like cult members do.” He looked up at Diana and made direct eye contact. “That’s it. There’s nothing else. They never left anything behind. Not even a stray hair.”

  “No jewelry? Sarah sounds like the crystal type,” Alec asked.

  J frowned, wrinkling his chin in thought. “No crystals. . .” He shifted in his seat, the chest burn obviously painful. “The girl who did the talking. She had this thing, like an insect. An insect pin thing.” He pointed to his chest above his heart.

  “An insect shaped brooch? What kind of insect?” Diana asked.

  “More like a bee than anything, I guess. It was in the fancy old style my grandma likes.”

  “What style is that?” Alec asked.

  “Like that,” J said, pointing to a vase that vaguely resembled the Chrysler building.

  “The art deco style,” Alec said.

  “Yeah, and it looked real. Like a genuine antique. Real stones.”

  Well, it’s better than nothing. But not much better.

  “And that’s it?” Alec asked. “You don’t know where they are? Haven’t heard any rumors that might help?”

  “I already said no.” J’s nostrils flared. “Are we done now? I want to go get Nona. I checked her into a hotel last night. Told her it was for the spa.”

  “You may want to have the floors redone first,” Alec said, shaking his head at the charred paw prints.

  “Yeah. . .right,” J said slowly, taking a good look at the fire cat sitting at her feet.

  “We’re not done yet,” Diana said. “Where are the spells?”

  “I left the last one I had in Boston,” he said, waving a hand dismissively.

  “No. You brought several with you. Or have you forgotten why there are scorch marks on your floor?”

  “That was the only one. A defensive spell.”

  Diana sighed. “I figured you’d want to do this the hard way,” she muttered with a little eye roll, igniting her hands.

  J jumped up and out of the way, but Diana didn’t follow him. Instead she held out her arms at her sides and walked around the room.

  Alec followed her, fascinated as she headed toward the back of the room and out the door. They continued into the kitchen. Diana turned in a wide circle, looking for likely hiding places. She discarded the possibilities in the cabinets and focused on the refrigerator.

  It was an old-fashioned Frigidaire, a massive number that probably took two people to move. A tell-tale shimmer came from underneath it. She took hold of the side.

  “Do you need help with—” Alec began. “Never mind,” he muttered as she shoved it aside with one hand.

  Stooping down, Diana lifted a false floorboard and found the stash of vials and glass globes.

  She turned to Alec. “I think you should stand back. Or better yet, go watch J, make sure he’s not doing something sneaky.”

  Alec frowned. “Fine,” he agreed before heading back to the other room.

  As soon as he was gone, Diana torched the vials, enveloping them completely in fire before she broke the structural integrity of the glass. Normal fire wouldn’t destroy a spell without disastrous consequences, but the fire Diana called was from the center of the Earth, the core at the heart of the planet and closest to the Mother. Nothing could survive, except another Elemental or their mates.

  There was no blowback, just complete disintegration of the spells inside. She could tell what most of them did, but at least one in the bunch was ambiguous. She’d never encountered that particular configuration of ingredients. All she knew for sure was that it was pretty nasty. And new.

  What are you guys up to? And why do you need two children?

  She didn’t know what was going on, but none of the possibilities involved rainbows and candy. Truly exhausted now, she went back to Alec and J, hiding her fatigue.

  Alec, the big softie, had found some burn cream from god knows where, and was watching J apply it to his chest. The lion had disappeared as soon as she’d willed it to leave.

  “We’ll be leaving now. . .but I’m pretty sure I’ll be seeing you again,” Diana said with crossed arms. “You keep fucking with the black, and I’ll return to make sure it fucks you back, you got me?”

  “Yeah, I get you,” a subdued but still defiant J muttered.

  “You better, if you want to keep the patronage of the Eastern Coven,” Alec added.

  “I said I get it,” a significantly more respectful J reiterated.

  Making enemies with the most powerful vampire coven in the Americas would not be a good move for a businessman. Or one interested in the whole breathing thing.

  “Come on,” Alec said to Diana. “Let’s leave J to clean up.” He paused. “What does the J stand for by the way?”

  “It really is Jay, but it doesn’t pay to let people know that,” he said, backing up from them.

  “Hold on,” Diana said.

  She walked over to Jay and punched him hard in the face.

  “What the fuck!” Jay said, nose spurting blood as he backed away. He covered his face with his hands but the blood still dripped on the floor.

  “Stop being so dramatic. I pulled that punch,” she said flatly, brows drawn down. “I promised the others I would do that, for calling your club Whore.”

  “Fuck, it’s just a name,” Jay mumbled behind his bloody hand.

  “Names are important,” Diana replied with an icy glance before walking to the door. “And clean that blood up before you pick up your Nona!” she called behind her.

  When Alec finally joined her in the back of the car, she was raiding the minibar. She dug around until she found another gourmet coffee drink and popped it open.

  “Did you kiss his boo-boo and make it all better?” she asked, fighting a grin.

  “No,” he said, a touch acidly. “I was simply explaining a few of the ways the coven could hurt his bottom line.”

  She rolled her eyes, but she had to acknowledge it was an effective tactic. “It might actually make a difference, your threat. Sometimes moral incentives don’t cut it. Even when someone knows his or her life might be at stake. They just keep on doing whatever it takes to get money or power. But if they potentially risk losing business, then they might think twice about it,” she said with some annoyance.

  “Glad I might be of some use,” Alec replied wryly. “Look, I have a plan. Our best move may not be to go back to Boston right away. I think it might be a good idea if we check into a hotel and regroup. Put out feelers to our contacts to see if they can track that insect pin or have heard anything new. Get some real rest. By the time we leave tonight, we should have a better plan of action. The circle may have bolted to a place far from here.”

  Diana thought about it. “All right, but if there’s not a good reason to search elsewhere, we go back to Boston. I have another case to wrap up there.”

  “Is there a lot of collateral damage being accumulated by a delay on the Denon case?” Alec asked, leaning over to buckle her seat belt when she didn’t do it herself.

  “Not in the short term. It’s a slow burner,” Diana said absently, too tired to complain about the liberty he had just taken.

  The sleep on the plane hadn’t been enough. She nestled into the leather upholstery and closed her eyes.

  Alec smiled at Diana’s absent use of fire metaphors. Before she drifted off completely, he picked up the phone and made reservations at the Hotel Maison de Ville. Once he was done, he found Diana wide awake, staring at him expectantly.

  “I’ve never actually stayed there,” he said. “I usually go to the Ritz when in town. It’s a famous landmark. Tennessee Williams wrote A Streetcar Named Desire there.”

  “Finished
it there anyway,” she said, surprising him. “It’s okay with me. Staying there. But I’ll pay for my room. I’m well provided for.”

  “And yet you don’t treat yourself enough,” he said, running his eyes over the long length of her legs. “Tonight after we’ve done our research, we are going to indulge in the best cuisine New Orleans has to offer. It’s too good an opportunity to pass up,” he said. “This case is going to take its toll. It’s important to take some downtime.”

  Diana gave him an openly skeptical look. “Will you sleep this time?”

  Alec paused. “You know I didn’t sleep? On the plane?”

  “Yeah, of course,” she said as if it were obvious. “Is it a side-effect of being a Daywalker?”

  Damn, she was good. He nodded. “I can forego sleep for a long period. Up to a week maybe. But I am hard to wake up when I do go down.”

  “I think you should sleep, and I’ll wake you for dinner. Don’t start racking up a deficit, just in case.”

  Alec smiled. “It may not be easy. I sleep like the dead, pun intended.”

  Diana cocked her head, considered him silently. “May I be blunt? And slightly terrifying?”

  “Of course,” he replied, enjoying her quirky and rare flashes of humor.

  “When I’m standing above a vampire about to torch him, they always wake up first. Waking you up isn’t gonna to be a problem.”

  “Ah. . .all right. Well, in that case, I’ll get some shut eye,” Alec said, his voice pinched.

  They arrived at the hotel a little later. After Alec flashed his black card, they were checked in at speed by the efficient smiling staff. They ended up in two of the four historic Audubon Cottages. Alec saw Diana to her door before going inside his room. Grateful for the good Wi-Fi, he started making inquiries right away, searching for the antique bee pin or any insect pins that resembled bees. He also checked in with Daniel for a report on Pedro.

  Pacing the length of his room, he listened to Daniel’s deep gravel voice run down Pedro’s progress. It was times like this he was grateful that he’d added Daniel to his staff. The man was a fount of information, and what he didn’t know he soon found out.