Nava Katz Box Set 2

by Deborah Wilde

  Ari crushed me in a hug just outside the meeting room. “Fuck, Nee.”

  “Ace.” I lay my head on his chest. My twin was here. It was as good as leveling up.

  “Don’t hog her.” Kane rolled his eyes at my brother, but I didn’t miss how close he stood to Ari, with no thrumming hostility. Between that, the fact that he looked rested, and the atrocious polka dot shirt with striped sleeves that he wore, I launched myself into his arms with relief.

  Baruch showed up, took in our assembled team, and nodded. “Let’s go.”

  Our little show of solidarity was lost on Mandelbaum, because he wasn’t in the conference room.

  Cisco, Danilo, and Bastijn were.

  Cisco raised his eyebrows at the sight of us entering all posse’d up.

  “Is this the cavalry, Hoss?” he drawled at Rohan. He leaned back in his chair, hands laced behind his head, but behind the carefree attitude was a sharp glint of anger. “You think we’re all going to go rogue like Ethan, so you’re strutting in here to pop our asses?”

  “We suspect that Ethan was under a daeva compulsion,” Baruch said. “Your chapter had reported new activity in the past few weeks.”

  Sometimes the anal-retentive paperwork that the Brotherhood demanded came in handy.

  Danilo snorted. “Not on this scale. The fuck is going on? You people waltz in to our city like some kind of Tarantino squad and what? We supposed to be impressed? Scared?”

  He curled his fingers lightly into his palm.

  A gust of wind danced around my group, tightening like a lasso around us. My eyeballs strained against my closed lids. The invisible pressure grew and grew, my breathing labored.

  “Stop!” Bastijn knocked the Rasha off his feet with a localized earthquake. Very localized.

  It broke Danilo’s hold on us. Instantly, every single one of my friends and I had accessed our magic. Rohan’s body was outlined in a wicked-looking blade, Kane’s skin was purple, the sharp tang of salt watering my eyes. Ashy-smelling shadows wove and bobbed around my brother, while metallic-tasting electricity crackled off my skin.

  All Baruch had to do to look scary as hell was drop into a crouch with his fists up and his eyes flat.

  Ropy vines swayed behind Cisco like cobras. “We drawing lines in the sand now?”

  Danilo pushed to his feet, murder in his eyes, and a small tornado dancing around his stocky form.

  The tension ratcheted up, the air thick with it. The next move, the next word could unleash destruction galore.

  A sharp whistle cut through the room. Bastijn looked at each of us with disdain. “We’re not going to play into the hands of whoever or whatever did that to Ethan. Everyone sit down.”

  None of us moved, our two groups eyeing each other warily.

  “¡Coño de la madre! I said ‘sit.’” The ground rumbled.

  We sat.

  That’s when Mandelbaum walked in.

  I gasped at the cadre of Rasha he’d brought with him. Four of them. Including Ilya.

  “Fuuuck,” Ari breathed on my left side.

  Kane was absolutely deadpan, careful not to touch anything because his skin was still coated with the remnants of his magic poison. Neither of them knew about my memory wipe, they were just worried he’d recognize me.

  I tipped back on my chair, brazenly watching Ilya enter. Ilya glanced at us, but other than a nod at Baruch, he paid us no attention.

  Ro’s eyes flickered from the new arrivals back to me. He raised an eyebrow.

  “Ilya,” I muttered, subtly jerking a chin to indicate who I meant.

  Ilya clearly didn’t remember me and he couldn’t rat me out. My witch magic had worked because I was just that good. The only thing that concerned me was why Mandelbaum had also brought a posse with him. Were they people he trusted in the face of this attack? Or was it a subtle warning to me?

  One thing I was certain of, if I ran the names of the posse, they’d come up as deceased on all official records, just like Ilya. Mandelbaum had his own ghost squad.

  The rabbi frowned at the table and despite everything, I clamped my lips together to keep from laughing out loud. The conference table was round and it was obvious he really, really wanted to sit at its head like our lord and master.

  He yanked out a chair and sat down. He’d fixed his clothing, but sorrow still pulsed off him, his mourning painful to behold.

  “Rabbi Wahl was a friend of mine for twenty years.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” I said.

  “Thank you.” Something flickered in the depths of his gaze and then his weary expression was wiped away. “Every chapter is on high alert. No one works solo until given the all clear.” He rubbed one of his tzitzit between his fingers, absently. “This attack wasn’t a daeva. It was witches.”

  The room erupted in an uproar.

  Baruch pounded his fist on the table. “Sheket!”

  Silence fell.

  “You’re joking,” Danilo said. “I mean, witches are fun to date because some of those women are hella freaky, but they’re hardly a threat.”

  Wait? What? He knew about witches?

  “Jeez, man,” Cisco said. “TMI.”

  Mandelbaum tapped the table twice with his finger. “This is priority one, gentlemen. Find those responsible.” He pointed at me. “You stay on your current assignment.”

  “Why? Because I’m female?” Please let that be his reason. Did Mandelbaum know I’d met with witches?

  Did he know I was one?

  “Yes, it’s because you’re female. Don’t make a scene. I don’t want you feeling sorry for them and not doing what has to be done.”

  I sat on my hands, magic sparks jumping off them to shock my poor butt.

  “Which is what?” Bastijn said. “What do you want us to do when we find whoever compelled Ethan?”

  “Bring them to me,” the rabbi said in a dark voice.

  It was a brilliant, nightmarish countermove. Sienna’s attack allowed Mandelbaum to search for a witch possessing dark magic using all his resources, while pretending it was in the name of justice.

  “Where do you want me?” Rohan asked. “Stay with Nava or on the witches?”

  “The witches, but unfortunately, I’ll have to keep you with Nava since she’s dragged you into the public eye with her idea.”

  I leaned forward, ready to argue that it had been Orwell’s grand plan, but Ari grabbed my wrist under the table, yanking me back.

  Interesting that the rabbi was keeping Ro away from the witches as well. Ferdinand had come after us warning us to back off our investigation into his activities, which meant Rabbi Mandelbaum knew what we’d been up to. Was this yet another good cover story to get what he wanted–keeping us far away from further investigation?

  Ari half-raised his hand. “Rabbi? Since Kane and I aren’t familiar with the city, we’re going to put together a timeline of Ethan’s last few days.”

  Bastijn nodded. “Another way to track these witches.”

  “Not quite. See if Ethan was really compelled or if he made a deal with them,” Ari said.

  The entire Los Angeles contingent, including my boyfriend, bristled.

  Ro’s finger blades flickered out for a second. “You didn’t know him.”

  Some of Cisco’s tension left his muscled frame at Ro’s reaction.

  “Even good Rasha can find themselves addicted and willing to do whatever it takes to get their fix,” Ari said. “I would know.” A Rasha had done that exact type of deal, allowing Asmodeus to kidnap and torture my brother. “If Ethan had any problems that would have led him to willingly partner up with these women, we need to find out.”

  Opening an investigation into a Rasha/witch partnership, again under the pretense of justice? My brother was kind of a genius, too.

  “Ethan didn’t have any problems,” Danilo said.

  “That’s precisely the kind of person who has problems. The one who doesn’t want you to see them and who can hide them well enough so y
ou don’t,” Kane snapped.

  Cisco wore a thoughtful expression and I couldn’t read Bastijn. Mandelbaum’s contingent looked politely alert, except for Ilya who stared down at his lap, his brow furrowed.

  “Rabbi?” Ari prompted. “I really want to contribute somehow.”

  Don’t over act, golden boy.

  “Good, Ari,” the rabbi said. “Agreed. If Ethan’s attack was a result of some deal, we need to know. Betrayals will not be tolerated.”

  Hypocrite, thy name was Mandelbutt.

  “Can I see Ethan’s body?” Kane said.

  Rabbi Mandelbaum said something in Hebrew. “Ilya.”

  Ilya jerked up his head at the rabbi’s sharp tone, blinking rapidly like he’d been momentarily disoriented. “What?”

  “I’ll call the Chevra Kadisha representative,” Baruch said, picking up Ilya’s slack. “They’re performing the Tahara on Rabbi Wahl and handling the transport of Ethan’s body, but we can get Kane in before Ethan is sent home.”

  Rabbi Wahl was being prepared for Jewish burial with the ritual washing and prayers, but Ethan’s burial would be handled once he was in Switzerland.

  Rabbi M said he was staying here in Los Angeles until this situation was resolved. He demanded a quick update from Rohan on our current assignment and upon hearing that the charity event was tonight, his lip curled. “Have fun,” he sneered at me.

  Ro took my hand, out of sight under the table. I thought it was for support until I felt something tickle me. He was drawing on me. A tiny rough sketch of a squirrel in goggles.

  I snorted a laugh, doing my best to turn it into a cough.

  The meeting broke up after that. The four Rasha the rabbi had brought ushered him out in tight formation, but Mandelbaum paused at the door.

  “This was a tragedy and those responsible must pay.” Did he linger on me longer than the others? “Be’ezrat HaShem.”

  I prodded my brother. “What did he say?”

  Ari watched the rabbi leave. “God willing.”

  14

  The door slammed before the rest of us could go anywhere. Cisco leaned against it, arms crossed. “Why does the rabbi need bodyguards?”

  “How did he even know it was witches that compelled Ethan?” Bastijn raked a hand through his curls. “The attack happened yesterday and we’d never had any issue with them before. I didn’t even know they existed until Danilo revealed his weird-ass tastes.”

  Danilo stretched and grinned. “You just wish there were dude witches, man.”

  “I’m good,” Bastijn said. “Anyway, what’s with the rabbi? A day later he shows up with bodyguards because they’re priority one?”

  “You know something,” Cisco said to Ro. He sat back down at the table, studying each person in my group with a shrewd look. Then he cocked his fingers like a gun at me. “But I think you know more.”

  He was one Rasha among eight, all shoulder-to-shoulder at a round table, like King Arthur and his knights. If that wasn’t a sign to go a-questing together, then I didn’t know what was.

  “Give me your cell.” I held my hand out to Cisco, who drew his phone out of his pocket, but held on to it. I blasted the phone out of Cisco’s hand and it hit the ground, smoking.

  All the L.A. Rasha froze, wearing identical “Oh shit, crazy chick” expressions of wide-eyes and slack-jaws.

  I turned to Danilo. “Phone. Now.”

  When he didn’t move, I blasted his chair–between his legs–with a single lightning strike.

  Hand over his crotch, he jumped up so fast, his chair toppled over backward. He tossed me his cell.

  Bastijn didn’t need to be asked. He slid his over immediately.

  Scooping up Cisco’s phone, I took them all, opened the window, and tossed them outside. I slammed the window shut.

  “Mandelbaum was working with a witch who had dark magic to unleash demons on the world and make the Brotherhood a big savior. She’s dead and he’s looking for her replacement. Ta da.” I threw jazz hands. “Pick a side.”

  “Go big or go home?” Ro said to me.

  “Playing coy was yesterday’s reality.”

  Kane tilted his head, studying the other group. “No protests that he’d never do such a thing. Interesting.”

  “Walk us through what you’ve learned,” Cisco said.

  “And how you learned it,” Danilo said.

  I’d told this story so many times, I could take it on the road as a one-woman show. Thing is, I’d never had to fudge a version that got me to the witches without Ari’s involvement. I was deep into a fascinating and totally plausible story about running into a coven on a full moon in Prague when Ari interrupted me and told them the truth about his induction.

  No one seemed to care, though Bastijn looked intrigued.

  Kane shifted his chair closer to Ari’s.

  “Fine,” I said to the group at large. “I met Dr. Gelman because of the induction.” I included Sienna in the story though I kept my witch status, Lilith, and Ilya’s memory wipe out of it. They seemed trustworthy, but I was holding off on those details until I had absolutely no doubts about them.

  “So we’re looking for Sienna,” Cisco said.

  “You can try,” Kane said. “Most likely won’t find her until she wants to be found.”

  “Ferdinand Alves,” Bastijn said. “Guy shows up out of nowhere and is treated like a V.I.P. He was a part of all this, wasn’t he?”

  The L.A. Rasha told us about Rabbi Wahl assigning Zander to work with Ferdinand on some classified gig a couple months ago. Cisco had heard Zander and Ferdinand arguing about something, though he only heard the raised voices, not the topic. They’d subsequently disappeared for a few days, and when they got back, Zander stayed stoned-to-the-point-of-catatonic for a week.

  He’d also had deep scratches all over his hands that he’d refused to explain.

  I stopped pacing. “When was this?”

  Cisco turned to Bastijn. “What night did you get back from Caracas? It was then.”

  “June twentieth,” Bastijn said.

  “That’s around when Ferdinand died,” Rohan said. “Shedim killed him.”

  “Shedim controlled by Sienna,” I said.

  Danilo cursed. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah,” Ro replied. “I was there. Ferdinand was trying to kill me. Though we didn’t know about Sienna until later.”

  “Well, fuck,” Cisco said.

  I drummed my fingers on the table. “The timing of the fight also fits for when Tessa died.”

  “Ferdinand’s wife,” Ari clarified for the others. “And the witch with dark magic that Mandelbaum was using.”

  I’d taken a snap of the photo Ro had found of Tessa and Ferdinand at his apartment and put it on my burner phone, along with one of Sienna. I passed the cell to the men.

  Danilo whistled. “I saw her once. Pegged her for a witch in about three seconds.”

  Bastijn took the phone from him. “You think they killed Tessa?”

  “No. Dark magic killed Tessa,” I said. “It’s not a sustainable hobby. But there’s some connection with the timeframe of the fight that we’re missing.”

  “Rabbi Wahl?” Cisco said. “Not-so-innocent bystander?”

  “Seems likely,” Rohan said.

  There was a loud crack. Baruch held a chunk of the wooden conference table in his hands and was glaring at it. “This runs too deep into the heart of the Brotherhood.”

  “So let’s find out where everyone’s loyalties lay,” Ari said.

  “Quietly.” Baruch pinned the L.A. Rasha with his steely blue gaze. “Find out how far Rabbi Mandelbaum and his friends’ tentacles stretch. Contact those you trust. Rohan, can we commandeer my bungalow to set up a war room?”

  Rohan nodded.

  War room. I swallowed. Then I broached the unpopular topic still unresolved. “Why Ethan?”

  Danilo stood up with a scowl. “This again?”

  “If Sienna didn’t care about using an innocent person,
why not just make him into a magic bomb and take everyone out? This was a precise strike. None of the staff were hurt and the Rasha that tried to stop him weren’t hurt because of Sienna. They got hurt in the fight. That means Sienna didn’t want them hurt.”

  I was starting to sound like a broken record, but the distinction was important. It would be too easy to paint Sienna as an archvillain, see her in terms of black-and-white absolutes. That would be to our peril.

  “You didn’t know him,” Bastijn said.

  “No, I didn’t. My thinking isn’t clouded by personal sentiment, either.” I’d effectively split us back into us and them and I wasn’t sure which group Rohan fell into.

  “It all must be considered,” Baruch said.

  Before I could lay out a plan, Ro cut me off. “Get burners. No Brotherhood cells anywhere near you when you’re discussing this assignment.”

  Cisco stood up, cracking his knuckles. “Love a good dose of paranoia.”

  Danilo jabbed a finger at me as he strolled past. “Stirred shit up.” He looked pleased to have a fight on his hands.

  Bastijn clapped Ari on the shoulder. “Good to see you again, chamo.”

  Damn, his accent was hot. I cut a sideways look at Kane, who scowled at them. That’s right, son. Man up and appreciate my brother.

  “You too, Bastijn.” The tips of Ari’s ears were pink but there was no awkwardness, so while they’d totally slept together, it was quite a while ago.

  “Hussy,” I whispered to my brother.

  “What a touching reunion,” Kane said.

  “It is.” Ari exchanged a warm smile with Bastijn.

  Bastijn smirked at Kane and left.

  I poked Kane with a pen, since he still wasn’t touch-safe. “You’re an idiot.”

  “For what?” Kane said.

  “Put your razor-sharp mind to it for five minutes and see if you can puzzle it out.”

  Ro checked the hallway. “Sorry for cutting you off, Nava. They weren’t going to listen. I’m having trouble believing it of Ethan and I know you’re probably right.”