There were more symbols carved in other parts of the body, on each arm and leg and on the back of the head. Diana made sure the body’s limbs were exactly as she found them, but the puddle of blood had been disturbed. She debated leaving it, but in the end, she used a fraction of her power to warm the blood so that it settled around the body once more.
Cleaning her hands with a quick burst of flame, she circled the body, examining the rest of the room around it. There wasn’t much in the way of furniture, and there were no signs of a struggle. Even the dust around the body was mostly intact. Catherine probably hadn’t seen her death coming. She had either trusted the person with her or was caught completely unaware.
Diana turned away and closed the door behind her, leaving it unlocked. It was time someone found Catherine. Perhaps the rest of the circle was waiting for that to happen, but the lack of wards suggested they didn’t care. The masking spell was probably to buy time for them to get away.
When she shimmied back out the window, Alec was waiting for her. She kept to the shadows, but needn’t have bothered since he had chosen to park directly in front of the building.
At least he didn’t park it under a streetlight. Suppressing a groan, Diana slipped into the backseat with him, prepared to rip him a new one.
“Did you find something?” he asked.
She hesitated. Alec looked mussed and so uncharacteristically grave that she couldn’t give him a hard time for his choice of parking spots.
Nodding, she buckled up. “I found Catherine, Brenda’s sister. Her throat was slit. She was wearing the beetle pin.”
“Well, hell. Are we after her sister or is she dead somewhere, too?”
“That’s what I’ve been asking myself since I found her,” Diana said, running a hand through her hair. “Both are real possibilities until we know more.”
“Did you burn the body?”
“No.”
“Are you going to leave it for the authorities to find again?” he asked, surprised. “Even in this case?”
“Sometimes that’s best. It looks like some black magic ritual. She had symbols carved into her body that masked her from me until I was on top of her. The police will draw the same basic conclusion and chalk it up to a psycho.”
“Are you sure that’s wise? What if they come up with a suspect?”
Diana frowned. “I doubt they will. And if there’s someone with the same m.o. then they deserve to be caught. But I doubt that will happen. The authorities might make anti-Wicca noises, but these days the only witches they know about are pretty tree-huggy. There shouldn’t be any repercussions to that group. The only likely side effect is a probable rise in tourism. Human nature will take over.” She sighed and sank back into the seat.
“Why would the circle leave the body like that? Undetectable unless you come across it?”
“My guess is they wanted it found but not right away. The spell was probably good for a week. It masked both heat and scent.”
Alec shifted restlessly. “Is their circle incomplete now? Or was she collateral damage?”
“Don’t know. If she was in the circle, triads have certain advantages or maybe they plan on recruiting. Catherine had no real magical ability. They might have found someone with actual talent and decided to get rid of her so they could take on someone else. Or she was never one of the real members in the first place. We won’t know until we find them.”
“What a mess,” he said slowly before giving himself a little shake. “The airport is five minutes away. I’ll call ahead and make sure we are ready for takeoff.”
Alec was still obviously upset by what had happened with his servant. A little voice in her head that sounded remarkably like Gia was telling her to comfort him somehow. Should she hug him or something? The very idea made her tense up. But she couldn’t leave him hanging.
“Tell me about Pedro,” she said softly.
Alec’s broad shoulders slumped. “I thought he was getting better, and then this happened. He seems more aware of himself these days, but this incident with the bleach is worrisome. Daniel will stay with him,” he said. “I tried to be honest with him. I told him I wasn’t sure if his son was still alive or not. But I promised to bring back the heads of the people who hurt him.”
Wide-eyed, Diana stared at Alec. “A little bloodthirsty for you,” she said surprised. “Definitely not scholarly.”
He met her eyes with a resigned expression. “I may be a stuffy scholar, but I am also a vampire on the Ruling Council. These witches have broken the covenant and taken the child of one of my house’s retainers. I need to make sure no others follow in their footsteps. You’re going to kill them anyway. I want their heads as a message that they cannot cross my house and harm one of our own. Even the children of our servants are off limits.”
“That was always your plan, wasn’t it?” Diana asked. She wasn’t judging. It was what she would have done in his place. “With or without my involvement…”
“It’s my responsibility. But I may not find them without you.”
Drumming her fingers on the seat, she frowned. “Even with me you may not find them,” Diana reminded him stiffly. “You didn’t mention being on the Ruling Council.”
Despite her attempt to soften her words, it came out as an accusation.
“I know. I’ll get to that, but we’re here now,” he said, gesturing to their surroundings.
They’d arrived at the airfield. She waited till they boarded and had taken off before she started on him again.
“I’m waiting for an explanation, Alec,” she said, arms crossed. The temperature around her grew several degrees hotter.
He closed his eyes briefly. “I accepted a position on the Council decades ago.”
Diana opened her mouth to throw out another accusation, but he forestalled her with a hand.
“It’s not like being the head of the house,” he assured her. “Vampire covens operate independently for the most part. But in times of crisis, they defer to the Council’s edicts. If they know what’s good for them, that is. I thought it was important to have a voice, so I chose to serve when I was asked. But I act independently of them if I don’t believe it serves the greater good. Most council members do the same, but for different reasons. Which is why little is accomplished unless something big happens.”
Diana didn’t like the sound of the ‘greater good’. “How often do you and the council have to make these monumental decisions?”
Alec drummed his fingers on the armrest. “Whenever something sufficiently disruptive happens. Something that might affect us. Last time we met was 9-11. We decided to let things run their course geopolitically but moved things around financially when there were concerns shared across houses.” Diana lifted a brow and he gave her a weak smile. “Like you, we don’t interfere when it comes to big political movements, but we do protect our own interests.”
“Of course you do,” she muttered. “And do you plan on continuing your involvement with the council indefinitely?”
Even if he decided to chase her around the world? Or had he changed his mind about that? She ignored the pang of discomfort that last thought caused.
He nodded. “It really has nothing to do with ruling a house or over other vampires. It was decided long ago that the head of a house was disqualified from serving on the Council. It’s more like the Supreme Court, only the decisions are few and far between. The positions are for life, such as it is. . .”
Diana mulled that over. It made sense that he’d hold such an exalted position, but knowing he was on the Council made her uncomfortable. She knew enough about it to know he was being truthful about how the Council worked.
Mostly truthful anyway.
But she decided to let the matter drop. They had bigger fish to fry. Together.
She got up to get a drink from the bar. “Okay, well, let’s make Toulouse our base of operations. We should rent a flat or get hotel suites near their Natural History museum.”
Alec frowned, shifting in his seat. “Is there some research we need to do there?”
“Not exactly. Natural history museums are great places to steal raw materials for spells. This one even has a botanical garden attached if memory serves. Museums are like Wal-Mart for spellcasters.”
“Well again, that makes sense,” he said loosening his tie and tossing it away. “I never even realized. Stupid of me.”
“Not stupid. It takes a witch and a thief to make the connection,” Diana said with a curl of her lip. “Try not to beat yourself up for having too much moral fiber.”
Smirking briefly, he started making calls, finding a place for them to stay and getting special access to the museum.
While he was busy, Diana pored over the old ley line map she’d tucked into her bag at the safe house. She cross-referenced it with what she knew about the shifts of magnetic fields in the area, marking likely search areas.
Hopefully they would find something at the museum or through one of their sources that might narrow down the possibilities. After a while, she put away the maps and settled down to sleep. It was a good idea to conserve energy for what was coming.
She slept the rest of the way to France, aware on some level of Alec’s watchful gaze on her for the duration of the flight.
28
Toulouse was known as the pink city because of the brickwork on the old buildings in town and along the river that flowed through it, the Garonne. Diana had zipped through it on her way to the nearby cities of Barcelona and Bordeaux. They had a safe house in Provence that Logan especially liked, but Diana hadn’t spent any real time in Toulouse before.
She had a basic idea about the layout of the center of town. The natural history museum was attached to a complex of public gardens near the Palais de Justice, the city’s courthouse. Alec had rented a recently renovated eighteenth-century house near the gardens to use as their base of operations. The three-story building was meant for multiple families, but Alec had rented the entire thing to make sure they had complete privacy.
Diana put her pack in the bedroom. From the window, she could see part of the public gardens. It was not quite dark yet, and there were still people milling about, enjoying the late light despite the humidity in the air. After fishing her super phone from her pack, she made a call to arrange for one of her bikes to be delivered before dark fell.
She and her sisters had resources in every country in the world, and it was a good idea to avoid being restricted by a car in this town. Europe’s small and narrow streets were difficult to navigate, and she didn’t know where this search was going to take her.
Us.
Having second thoughts, she called back her service and had one of her spare bikes delivered as well. One for her and one for Alec. She couldn’t leave him behind at this point.
Besides, he had a definite knack for tracking her down. Which was weird. Elementals had evolved to be difficult—nearly impossible—to trace. Except by their own kind. . .and their mates.
Summer heat generally meant shorter hours at the municipal buildings of the city, but it also meant longer days with people lingering in the park as it cooled off. It was late evening before it was empty enough to enter the area surrounding the museum and its small botanical garden. Diana led Alec around to one side near the greenhouses where she jumped the fence in one smooth motion.
“You know, we could have had the museum’s curator lead us around,” Alec said, looking askance at the fence and then down at his designer suit. “It wouldn’t have been a problem.”
“And we tell him what? That we’re looking for signs you’ve been robbed by a bunch of witches?” Diana said from the other side of the fence, hands on her hips.
“Fine,” he muttered, jumping over the railing at human speed.
Using his vampire grace, he avoided snagging his suit, but he landed in a particularly muddy spot. He shot her a look, shaking the mud off his shoes.
“Seriously? Why did you wear those anyway?” she asked, gesturing to his feet. “They must cost like thousands of dollars. Those are not caper shoes.”
He grinned at her. “This is a caper?”
“Close enough. Come on. Let’s take a look and see if any plants have been lifted from the garden,” she replied, rounding the greenhouse.
“Okay, I’m going to ask. How can you tell normal gardening activity from outright theft?” he asked and then stopped short, looking at a small hole in the dirt where a plant had been clearly ripped out by the roots.
“Yeah. Not exactly subtle. They’ll want to keep the plants as fresh as possible for as long as possible so they take the whole thing, roots and all. I think this one was betel nut,” she said, bending to examine the labels fixed to little sticks in the grounds. “Look for more.”
They split up and found an additional four more stolen plants.
“Three of the usual suspects: henbane, belladonna, and anise seed. And that last one, alihotsy, is pretty rare. It had been used in some dark spells in the past,” Diana said as he knelt in front of a particularly large hole in the ground. “The circle has definitely been here.”
Alec straightened up. “I thought alihotsy was fictional.”
“Most people do. You know it as asafoetida but it’s a specific subspecies that only grows in a specific corner of Eastern Europe. . .and museum collections.”
“Interesting. Do you think we need to look inside?”
“Definitely. We need to pay special attention to their gem and fossil collections,” Diana said, leading him toward the back doors.
No cameras were apparent on the exterior of the building. The doors, however, were sure to be wired. She had bent over the back door and was starting to tap into the electrical system when Alec tugged on her shirt. He whipped out a key from his suit pocket and nudged her toward another door.
“How much did you pay for that?” she asked with a knowing smile.
“Actually, I called in a favor. No silver crossed any palms. Honest,” he said, taking the lead as they moved into the darkened interior of the museum.
Left of the door, there were a number of skeletons set into the wall of windows between two panes of glass. It was a striking effect, but most of the skeletal remains were plastic reconstructions, so they moved on. They quickly glanced over the rest of the fossil collection and concluded that none of the genuine ones were missing. The ground up powder of human and animal bones was a common base in dark spells.
Unfortunately, their luck didn’t hold. Diana knew there was trouble when they stepped into the gemstone and mineral exhibits.
“It’s the fucking meteorites.”
Alec frowned. “They’re still here,” he said, pointing at the stones in their display case.
“No, they’re not,” she replied, rubbing her forehead at the hairline. “These are definitely common earth rocks, not meteorites.”
“How can you tell without looking at them microscopically? Do you have a geology degree that I don’t know about?”
“I can tell when something is not from here. Something not of the Mother. And these are just rocks,” Diana said, turning to meet his eyes. “This is not good. If I’d known they had meteorites here, I wouldn’t have waited till night to take a look around.”
“What can they do with them? I know they are prized as materials for weapons, but what can they do in spells? Magic is centered around the natural world, isn’t it?” he asked, frowning at the display.
“That’s exactly why they’re so useful in weapons. If the forger knows what he’s doing, they can break through any sort of protection spell. Fortunately most don’t. The circle shouldn’t be able to use them in spells properly, but they’ve been able to innovate in unexpected ways. Maybe they think they’ve found a way to use them in their magic,” Diana mused, biting her lip.
“Or they’re going to try and use them to forge weapons to use against you,” he added in a worried tone.
“I doubt they know what I am. Besides, we wield weapons
like that sometimes and spar against each other. We’re not immune to the effects, but they can’t undo our magic. Our abilities are a facet of the Mother and don’t require spells to use. Not something undone so easily. These stones haven’t been missing for long. Judging from the state of the garden, the theft happened within the last few days. It would take a master much longer to forge a weapon.”
“And if they can find a way to work them into their spell-craft instead of using them to forge weapons?”
“Ve vill burn that bridge vhen ve come to it,” she said in a terrible Transylvanian accent, and he broke into a grin.
“Don’t make me smile. This is serious,” he said, forcing a scowl over his handsome features.
“I can’t help being hilarious,” she said with a perfectly straight face, making him laugh outright before leading the way deeper into the museum.
They checked the other gem and mineral cases, but nothing else was missing despite the presence of several minerals useful in spell craft.
“They left some valuable things behind,” Alec said. “Maybe they didn’t want to get greedy and alert the museum’s security to the thefts. It looks like they took only what they really needed.”
“Or they didn’t know the value of the other things in here. My gut still says untrained in traditional spellcraft. Do the most common spell books, the kind outsiders can get their hands on, mention the healing properties of jade? Or the energizing boosts from amethysts? Only trained witches learn how to use them in their spells. These guys might have had no idea,” she said, heading toward the exit.
“Maybe. Maybe not. But too many things missing would alert the authorities. And they might want to blend right now and not call attention to the theft,” Alec pointed out as they went out the door and back into the garden.
“Doesn’t matter. We need to start looking for that farmhouse. They might not be there anymore, but it’s got to be a better lead than this. Meteorites can’t be traced—at least not from a distance. They are not of the Mother and so are outside of our ability to track. But they sometimes buzz like hell when we are close.”
The Elementals Collection Page 22
