by Faith Hunter
When he got back to me, Eli said, “Not many people would have been able to sit there and get burned in order to do their job. He’s a good man.”
“So are you, Eli.” My cell vibrated and I checked the screen. “Our team is on the way. ETA fifteen. Let’s go reconnoiter. And then let’s go rescue some witches.”
“And kick some vamp butt. And then I’m thinking pizza tonight.”
My mouth fell open. “You? You are going to eat pizza?”
“With sausage and pepperoni, double cheese, mushrooms, and heavy on the onions. I can taste it now. With a pitcher of beer. Close your mouth, girl. Mosquitoes will fly in.”
• • •
The house Bobby had picked out was freshly painted, white with purple gingerbread trim, one of many that had been recently restored. It had a new cement block-foundation, making it sit high off the ground, a four-room square house on a tiny lot with a picket fence. And not a hint of magics about the place. Until I stood back and viewed the house with Beast vision. Then the blackish-purplish, bloody-broken magics stormed up from the house in a writhing, heated swarm, like frilled snakes or flaming worms, magic so strong it was nearly sentient, yet broken like a battlefield still full of the dead.
“Holy crap on a cracker,” I whispered.
And Eli laughed. “That swear, I like.”
We took a circuitous route to the house, and the closer I got, the stronger the witch stink got. This was the smell I’d found on the wind several times over the past few days, but couldn’t place. And it was no wonder. The spell covering and warding the house was strong magic, highly contained. It was based on a hedge-of-thorns spell, but a hundred times stronger; part of its makeup was a keep-away spell and another part was a containment spell to hide the magics. To get a more complete view, we circumnavigated the house, but made a point to stay far back, as the magics were hard and strong and burned when we got too close. The ward was a sphere buried below the surface of the ground that rose to cover the entire lot and nudge up against the taller buildings to either side. The structures on either side were each three stories tall, though the one on the left had a raised false front to look like a fourth story. Both were empty, with flat roofs and arched windows, and looked as if they were in original condition, unrestored.
The house they dwarfed was in far better condition, but the only way in was a small opening at the top where the magics met. I had only one idea how we might get inside. And it wasn’t something I wanted to do.
• • •
It was closer to half an hour by the time the two cars arrived, Rick and his team in one, Bruiser driving solo. Soul hopped out of the car before it came to a complete halt, her gauzy clothes swirling around her like waves of water. She stood in the middle of the street, her eyes wide. Brute leaped to her side, snarling at her.
Rick parked and got out of the vehicle more slowly. He was dressed in jeans and a button-front shirt and a windbreaker with the word PSYLED on front and back. And he wore a Kevlar vest under his shirt. Even money it was one of the new ones just hitting the market—Kevlar to stop bullets, a layer of some new plastic to slow even the sharpest knife blade, and a spell woven in to protect the wearer from attack spells. His earpieces were in his ears, music pouring out of them to hold the need to shift at bay.
His eyes were glowing softly, his cat peering out at the world, and he looked tightly wound but in control. I’d sat through his first full moon with him, before he had the music spell, and it hadn’t been pretty. Rick didn’t acknowledge me at all but walked up close to the house, holding a device, a small black box. A psy-meter, or psychometer, that measured the strength and quality of magics. He walked back and forth in front of the house, holding the meter over his head.
Bruiser stood at his car, studying the entire block, while Eli stood off to one side, his subgun at the ready, his mission look on his face, his body angled so he could see the house, the street, and the SUV with Bobby in it.
“I walked these streets,” Soul said, frustration in her voice, “looking for magic. This was not here.”
“It’s got a powerful ward,” I said. “Only when the moon came up did it become visible.”
Rick swore softly and put his device away. “Too much ambient magic to get a reading. All I could get was a redline.”
Soul nodded, blinking as if her eyes had dried out from staring so long. “Yes. It would show a redline. The ambient magics here are . . .” She shook her head, unable to find a word to express it. She settled on “astounding. We can’t get inside, not from here. It would take the magical equivalent of a nuclear bomb to get through that.”
I sighed, hating what I was about to say. “I can get in.”
They all turned to me, and an acute discomfort sank its claws into me. Beast snarled. No. Will not let you.
You don’t have a choice. Not if you want a chance to save the kit’s mother, I thought back. “I can shift into a bird and fly over it, and dive through the hole at the top and land inside.” I thought Soul’s eyes were gonna pop out of her head, and I tilted my head in a wry shrug. “Only problem is that the magics I’ll be flying through might actually kill me. Or might force me to shift back while I’m in bird form, and I’ll lose too much mass and die. Either way—”
“Mass transference is difficult?” Soul asked.
“Yeah. Dangerous at every step along the way.” Which was all I was going to tell them about me, and way more than I wanted to tell them at all. If not for Misha maybe being trapped inside, I’d have never said anything.
Bruiser, looking like a million dollars, rounded the car he’d driven and said, “I can see the shadows of the spell, but not how high it rises. Is it higher than the buildings to either side?”
I pulled on Beast sight, and Soul stepped back to study the top of the spell. “No,” I said. “It reaches just above the top of the house’s roof, maybe three feet above the central roof beam. And as the spell curls down, the same distance above the chimneys.” The house was old enough to have been heated by wood or coal, and two brick chimneys were balanced at the front and back.
Bruiser picked up some stones from the street, small rocks used in the paving, and tossed one at the front of the house. It bounced back with a sizzle of sound and a shower of crimson energies. The second stone went higher, and would have landed on the roof had the hedge not been in the way. He studied the entire structure and pulled back his throwing arm. With a careful release of strength and precision, he tossed the stone up. It arched over before dropping, and passed through the energies escaping out the top. A shower of blue sparks rained down as the rock fell through, into the center of the sphere, and hit the roof before bouncing slowly down the incline and off the eave to the ground.
“Yeah. That’s the hole I could get through,” I said. I hadn’t known until now that Bruiser could see magics. Most humans couldn’t. But, then, Bruiser wasn’t human. Not anymore.
“If we could span a line over the house,” Eli said, “from the buildings at either side, we could reach the spell’s center opening and drop through, crawl to a chimney, and shimmy down it.”
“We would still have to pass through the energies that are escaping from the opening,” Soul said, “and to me, it looks like enough magic to fry a human body.”
“I’m not human,” Bruiser said, shocking me that he would admit it aloud. But, then, with humans and witches missing, a lot of things that were better left in the dark were being exposed to the light. “And neither is Jane. Soul, can you make an amulet of death strong enough to fool the sphere for perhaps twenty seconds?”
I raised my brows. “Death? Oh. The sphere thinks we’re stones or bones or something and doesn’t react to us? Much?”
“Precisely,” Bruiser said, his eyes on Soul.
Soul went still, her body seeming to hunch in on itself before she straightened, looking poised for flight or fight. A silence stretched between them as they measured each other, Soul not at all happy that Bruiser seemed to k
now something about her nature that she hadn’t told him, Bruiser looking unmoved. He had access to the database of the biggest, baddest Master of the City there is. Heck, he had probably compiled most of it. Did she think he wouldn’t know something about her? But he hadn’t known about Leo’s own son or about me either, so he wasn’t omniscient. Finally she spoke. “And if I can do this?”
“Then Rick and I will run a line from the roofs of the buildings to the side, and Jane and I will drop through.”
Beast pressed down on my mind, her claws out and piercing me with a headache. She peered out through my eyes. Fun!
I just shook my head in disgust at the plan. “I always hated gymnastics in school.”
“Why not Jane and me?” Rick asked.
“Because the magics might short out your electronics,” I said, pointing at his earpieces. “I’d rather not be trapped on the roof of a spelled, warded house with a screaming, half-insane black panther in a human body.”
“She has a point,” Eli said, trying to be helpful.
Rick snarled, turned, and walked away, around the building and to the left of the house we were trying to enter. So much for teamwork and effort.
“How long to make a death charm?” I asked.
“Before dawn,” Soul said.
“Eli, nothing we can do here. Let’s get some shut-eye. And hey, Soul?” She looked up at me, her platinum ponytail falling over one shoulder. “Before we head out, would you take a look at Bobby’s hands? They got burned when he was dowsing for the magics.”
• • •
Bobby—healed and out of pain—was asleep in his bed when we again slipped quietly out of Esmee’s and into the SUV, to meander our way back to the warded house. Rick was still there, and so were Bruiser and Soul, and none of them looked very happy. I got out of the vehicle and looked over the house. Nothing was different except for the thin line that ran from the front of one roof to the back of the other roof of the three-story buildings standing on either side of the warded structure. Someone had found mountain-climbing devices and lots of rope. On the highest point hung woven mesh straps and buckles and more metal, like a zip-line trolley and harness. With Beast vision, I could see that the rope passed directly over the opening of the hedge ward.
Eli followed me from the SUV, our feet silent on the sidewalk, our shadows long and diffuse in the light of the moon that appeared to be falling off the edge of the world. The magics of the first full-moon night were more muted now, many witch circles closed after the witching hour, others just closing down as dawn approached. There was a strange smell on the air, like burned hair and hide and odd chemicals, but it was old and faint, and I couldn’t place it. When we were close enough to be heard without raising our voices, I said, “Hey, Eli. How come I think our little experiment is gonna be way more dangerous than they expected?”
“Maybe because they look like death warmed over themselves,” he said. “What’s up, guys?”
Soul examined me. It was a way more intense examination than I’d ever gotten from her before, and it made me feel the way I used to when a schoolteacher suspected that I had done something wrong in class behind her back. I’d learned to stare back, mostly expressionless, a little curious and a lot bored—a look teenagers master early—and I used it on her now. She gave me a small, unamused smile. “Are you willing to risk death to possibly help your friend, who may not be inside?”
I thought about that, tucking my thumbs into my leathers, fingers hanging down as I came to a stop at the small group. “No. But I’m willing to risk it for her daughter. I promised Charly I’d get her mother back.”
Rick growled at that stupidity. Bruiser chuckled. Soul’s expression didn’t change, but I felt the tingle of magics as something happened to her or in the air around her. Her dress wafted and swirled before settling again. “I can’t make a magic that will survive a fall through a hedge that strong. I tried. The charm failed.” More softly, Soul said, “But I am a magic that will survive it.”
I looked over the guys, estimating their weight and Soul’s, and put two and two together, hoping I wasn’t coming up with four. “Sooo, I’m guessing that you want me to carry you on a zip line to the middle of the house, hoping that your magics will protect us from the magical seepage at the top of the hedge, and then drop us both through. And I’m guessing that it’s got to be us, because the boys weigh too much.”
“Yes,” she said, watching me like I was an interesting experiment.
“The pitch of the roof is steep,” Bruiser said. “When you land, you risk tumbling off the house. Once you are stabilized, you have to catch Soul. Then shift into your cat, or, even better, a big snake, slither down a chimney, and figure out how to turn off the ward so we can come inside. All without disturbing whatever biological deterrents are waiting inside.”
“Biological deterrents?” Eli asked. “Like the spidey vamps we’ve been killing?”
“Soul says there are at least four undead guardians inside,” Rick said, his voice less growly now that the night was nearly gone. “One in every room. The witch magics are so strong, she can’t pinpoint the location of any of them. If you shift on your fall through the opening to the hedge, you might die. If you slide off the roof when you land, you will die. If you can’t get inside through the chimneys and get stuck up there, you might die. And if you can’t fight off the things inside, you might die.”
“We don’t want you dead,” Bruiser said.
“And yet you’ve strung the line,” I mused.
“Because we had hoped that Soul and I could do the job. Or Soul and Rick.”
I placed the odd smell and started laughing. I couldn’t help it. And it only got worse when I saw the sour look on Rick’s and Bruiser’s faces and the confusion on Eli’s. Soul didn’t react, but her very nonreaction was funny. “How bad did you get burned when you tried it?” I asked them.
“I was unharmed,” Soul said, “and was able to heal the wounds of the others.”
“But I bet it hurt. Didn’t it? Still trying to protect the little woman?” I said, less kindly, shooting my anger at the two men.
“I refuse to apologize,” Bruiser said.
“We were afraid you’d shift when you hit the ward’s energies,” Rick said. “We’re still afraid you’ll shift. And if you do, you’ll probably die.”
It was interesting to see the two men on the same side of an argument for once. Even more interesting to see Rick siding with any male this close to the full moon. “Only one way to find out,” I said.
I began to divest myself of weapons and put them into a go-bag I had brought for that very purpose. I hadn’t been able to sleep back at the house, but had spent the time sitting with Eli in the breakfast room, him binging on coffee, me binging on strong tea, brainstorming, coming up with a plan, talking through the equipment we might need and gathering it all up. I’d have felt better if Eli had brought a shoulder-held rocket launcher, but he didn’t have one handy. That was his reply when I mentioned it. I was relatively certain that meant he had one somewhere. My partner was scary. In a totally cool, macho, U.S. Ranger kinda way.
“Eli, you want to tell them what we have planned?” I asked.
“I’ll plant explosive devices at every corner of the building, right up against the ward. Jane and Soul will move over the opening, shielded by the dead-thing charm on Soul. If Jane shifts, Soul will open the harness and let Jane’s cat fall through the opening. Then drop her clothes. Then drop her weapons. The cat will snag everything with her claws, prop them in the cleft of the roof and chimney, jump up on the chimney, and look down to see if the chimneys are open passageways or sealed, which they could be. If they are open, Jane will gauge the size, shift back to human, and eat to restore her energies, and catch you as you drop.”
He looked at Soul. “If she doesn’t shift, she’ll catch her equipment and you, when you fall through the ward opening.”
“And then?” Bruiser asked.
“Then I’ll drop
an explosive device or three into the chimney,” I said, “and Soul and I will hide on the far side of the roof. Eli will set off the devices at the corners of the building to attract the attention of the guardians, and three seconds later, I’ll set off the ones in the chimney. Hopefully it will blow a hole in the roof big enough for me to get through, and disrupt the ward long enough for Soul to get you guys through the opening and onto the roof. While she’s doing that, I’ll drop inside, and you guys will follow as fast as you can. If we time it right, the sun will be rising and will scorch some bad guys. We’ll kill us some guardians and save the witches. And hopefully find out where the leaders of the Naturaleza are.”
Bruiser smiled that quirky smile I liked so much. Rick snarled. Soul tilted her head, considering. “It might work,” she said. “I can make my clothing part of my death charm and extend a scarf, so that as you fall, the charm will extend with you. However, I put the chances of us all surviving at forty percent. The chances of us escaping unscathed at less than twenty percent. Are these acceptable to you all?”
“I put them much higher,” Eli said. We shared a smile. Eli was really, really good at setting explosives. And he’d brought enough to do the job.
I just hoped he had calculated the necessary explosives with the age and construction condition of the old building and didn’t blow it up around me. “Yeah. I think we’re looking at a seventy percent chance of survival.” To Bruiser, I said, “I saw a fire escape on the back of that building,” I pointed to the one on the right. “That the best way up?” At his nod, I said, “Meet you on the roof, Soul.”
• • •
With Beast vision, the hedge ward was fiery in the early dawn light. I tried to measure the size of the hole I needed to fall through while I pulled off my boots and stored them in the second go-bag. If I shifted in the harness, I needed to be mostly clothes free to allow me to fall and catch myself with my claws. Beast thought it looked like fun. I thought it looked risky and potentially deadly, no matter my seventy percent claim.