The Rainmaker

by Petra Landon

  “He’s done this before, Merceau” Jason reiterated, unsurprised by Raoul’s astonishment. “It looks to me like he’s been slowly working his way across the country. You know what that means.”

  “Anderson doesn’t know where the Wizard he hunts is” Raoul drew the only conclusion. San Francisco had been just one of the cities Anderson had tried his luck in. This was an unexpected piece of good news. LaRue was right — it had definitely made his day. He now had a little more to work with, and more time to handle the matter of the Guardian and the witch he hunted.

  “Exactly” Jason assented. “I’ve a feeling he’s been looking for his Wizard a long time. If I go back more in time, I’m pretty sure we’ll discover more cases of similar assaults in different cities.”

  “No one traced these assaults back to Anderson?” the Alpha inquired, his tone a mix of curiosity and disbelief.

  Jason shook his head. “No, he probably used proxies to do his dirty work, much like he did here in San Francisco. He’s a Guardian — it puts him above reproach. Why would any local Wizard suspect him?”

  “Did no one connect these assaults together to find a pattern?” It was inexplicable to Raoul that such assaults could continue with impunity, without any of the local Wizard Registries even connecting the dots.

  “That’s the beauty of this. These assaults were all investigated by their respective local Registries, who don’t share any information with each other. Only a Guardian would have the resources and access to put it all together and suspect that these similar muggings were related.”

  “The local Registries never called in the GCW?” the Alpha demanded. “Why not?”

  “The crimes were not worthy of a GCW investigation” Jason said simply. “No Wizard was killed or even seriously harmed. As far as the local Registry was concerned, it was a spate of muggings against their low-level Wizards which eventually stopped. No reason to call in the cavalry. The Guardians are meant for more serious investigations, something Anderson cleverly used to his advantage.”

  Raoul stared at the Wizard in dawning comprehension. “He might have gone on forever until he found who he was searching for.”

  “Yes, that was the plan. And he might have succeeded, too, if not for his mistake with Tasia.”

  “How did you discover the other assaults then?” Raoul was curious. Until now, Anderson seemed to have successfully gotten away scot-free by using his privileged position as a Guardian and his knowledge of local Wizard Registries to his advantage.

  “I can’t get much out of Anderson or his friends at the moment, so I decided to try a different track. Based on a hunch, I made some inquiries at some local Registries in the bigger cities, some of which panned out. I got lucky because I knew what patterns to look for, based on San Francisco.”

  “This is fantastic work, LaRue” the Alpha complimented him briskly, his appreciation genuine.

  “Being a Guardian has some advantages.” Jason smiled. “I might be persona non-grata at the GCW currently, but the local Registries still jump if I request something.”

  “I appreciate it, LaRue.”

  “I owe you, Merceau.” Jason was sober now. “I’ve asked the Registries to send me what they have on these muggings. We can go over them to see if anything jumps out. Perhaps something in there might provide us a clue about what or who Anderson is searching for.”

  “That’s a good idea. I’ll ask David Hamilton for their records on the muggings here in San Francisco. We can include that in the list, too.”

  “I’ll go over them with anyone you want me to work with on this.”

  “Duncan is the right person on this.” Duncan knew as much about the witchling as he did. Raoul knew that Duncan would be able to connect the dots, if something significant popped up while going through the Registry records.

  “Great. I’ll talk to Duncan. Sienna has offered her assistance with anything you need doing around here” Jason added. “She’s got a serious case of cabin fever.”

  “Understandably” Raoul responded. “I’m expecting Faoladh and his special guest here in a few days. Hopefully, the First Wizard will be able to mitigate Sienna’s cabin fever.”

  “Let’s hope so.”

  Raoul contemplated the Guardian’s clean-cut good-looking face.

  “I hear that you’ve been asking Duncan some rather personal questions about me” he opened with a pointed salvo.

  Jason closed his eyes on a soft sigh to lean back in his chair. At the back of his mind, he’d known that Duncan would talk to the Alpha about this. Jason had hung around them enough to know how close the two Shifters were.

  “I apologize, Merceau” he said contritely, his remorse sincere. “You’ve every right to cut up rough about this. In my defense, I only made the inquiry to reassure Sienna. She’s not been having an easy time of it with the almost daily revelations about her mother. So, when I realized how concerned she was about Tasia, I did what I could to put her mind at ease. I can’t help her with the other stuff, no matter how much I want to” he shared candidly.

  The Alpha, a little disarmed by the frank admission, refrained from further recriminations on the topic.

  “Tasia Armstrong is not going anywhere” he stated categorically. “Not if I can help it. You can tell Sienna to stop worrying about her.”

  “I told her it was just gossip, Merceau. But that Shifter at the party had her all riled up about Tasia’s association with the Pack.”

  “Sienna is fond of the witchling” Raoul remarked, the gold eyes intent on the Guardian.

  “Yes, she is” Jason agreed easily.

  “Any special reason?” the Alpha inquired.

  Jason straightened up imperceptively in response, an action the Alpha noted with a flicker of his gold eyes.

  “Not that I know of.” Jason’s response was steady, his eyes holding the gold gaze. “I think Sienna feels protective of the younger Wizard.”

  Raoul stayed silent, hoping to draw the Guardian a little deeper into Sienna’s concern for Tasia. But Jason changed the topic deftly to another subject.

  “By the way, my sweep of the Lair turned up clean. I guess the Vampires really just wanted to come party.”

  Raoul nodded — Duncan had already informed him of the matter. Both the Guardian’s open sweep and the witchling’s more discreet one had come up empty. Franciszka had truly wanted to be included in the crowd of local Chosen dignitaries, not to play any mischief.

  “You’re aware of Franciszka’s warning about Bianchi being in town?” the Alpha inquired.

  Jason’s expression sobered in response. “Yes” he sighed. “Sorry dude, for bringing this down on your Pack. This is definitely not what I had in mind when I asked for your assistance with Sienna.”

  “I knew what I was doing when I offered to host both you and Sienna at the Lair.” Raoul shrugged. “And Bianchi turning up here doesn’t surprise me at all. I was half expecting it, to be honest. If our suspicions about the locket around Sienna’s neck are correct, then Lady Bethesda is eager to retrieve it. A new hunt has started for her, a more serious investigation of the past that involves Shifters. She knows her best chance is now, before we close in on her.”

  He paused for a moment to contemplate Jason, who stared back at him gravely.

  “Since the confrontation with Bianchi in Chicago, I’ve suspected that Lady Bethesda is ready to come out of hiding. Now that she knows we’re on her trail, there’s no reason to stay in the background anymore. This move of Bianchi has only cemented my suspicions. Mark my words — the moment she gains control of the locket, she’ll come out into the open. Faoladh’s people are working feverishly to track her whereabouts after India. Faoladh agrees with me that the clock is ticking fast and that we don’t have much time before she resurfaces to carry out the next phase of her plans.”

  “Is something bugging you, Sara?” Tasia inquired quietly, catching her friend’s preoccupied air.

  Sara looked up from contemplating her food, havin
g joined Caro and Tasia on their weekly lunch date as she usually did when her schedule allowed it. This afternoon, Sara had been quieter than usual, her usual effervescence curiously absent. Suspecting that her friend’s preoccupation had something to do with her Pack, Tasia had waited for Caro to excuse herself to the restroom before bringing it up.

  “I’m a little distracted” Sara acknowledged with a wry smile.

  “Anything you want to talk about?” Tasia inquired hesitantly. “You know you can always talk to me, right? About anything” she emphasized.

  “I know, Tasia. It’s nothing — just the usual Pack stuff.”

  Tasia contemplated her friend solemnly. Sara returned her look, her own eyes candid and guileless.

  “I’m working on something for the Pack” Sara admitted. “It involves dealing with Shifters from the other were-packs. Duncan never puts my name forward for these joint projects — he knows what a hard time the other Shifters usually give me. This time though, he asked me to try it for a few weeks. If I want to opt out after that, he promised he’d replace me.”

  “You’re not enjoying the experience?” Tasia asked gently.

  “I wasn’t, not at first. The Shifters were giving me a hard time, as usual, and I don’t put up with that kind of bullshit anymore. Then, Luis Beltran asked me about working with his Shifters. The two I’m working with closely are his” she explained.

  Tasia recalled a scene in the Pack Room from a couple of weeks before. She’d been waiting for a meeting with the Alpha when Sara had joined her at the conclusion of a Pack discussion. Luis had walked over to them to ask Sara about some Shifters. Sara had stiffened at his question and Hawk, who’d just joined them, had ended up with a thunderous expression on his handsome face. Duncan had stepped in to calm things down, as he always did. Now that little scene finally made sense to Tasia.

  “Since then, those Shifters have been model work partners” Sara continued. “No snide remarks and no giving me a hard time. It’s all very strange.”

  “You think Luis warned them off.”

  “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

  “So, it’s all good, right?”

  “I’m confused, Tasia” Sara burst out. “Why would Luis Beltran do that for me?”

  “Perhaps, he’s just being fair” Tasia pointed out uncertainly. She’d always had a soft corner for Luis, the soft-spoken and taciturn Were-Alpha who tended to mind his own business.

  “Why? And more importantly, why now? I’m not his responsibility — I never have been.”

  She paused to shoot Tasia a troubled look. “That day at the party when Justin Markham came up to us …”

  “Hawk and Duncan hastened over to stand guard …” Tasia paused as she remembered who else had come to the rescue. All the Shifters making a beeline for them that day had come for Sara; Tasia had never been in any danger from Markham.

  “Luis came too, when there was no reason for him to” Sara finished. She sighed softly. “This thing’s been bothering me, Tasia. I don’t know why. I know how it is to be part of a Pack — I’ve been part of this one for a while now. But the thought of Luis Beltran playing games with me because I dared to declare that I will never date a Shifter …” Sara stopped abruptly.

  Tasia went silent, the Alpha’s revelation about her own careless declaration suddenly brought home to her by Sara’s words. She’d almost forgotten that Sara had made a similar declaration amidst a gathering of Shifters. Sara was a Shifter and unlike Tasia, would not be considered naïve to the ways of a Pack.

  Sara cast a knowing glance at her friend’s suddenly arrested expression. “Hawk told me about the Shifters asking you out. I know exactly why they’re suddenly paying you attention, Tasia, although Hawk doesn’t. He was distracted that evening. I hope you’ve sicced the Alpha on to the ones playing games with you, Tasia. You don’t have to put up with this nonsense, and neither do I. That’s why I’m so confused about what to do about the project.”

  Finally, Tasia had an inkling of Sara’s dilemma. If Luis had simply intended a good turn by paving Sara’s way for her, then it would be a mistake for Sara to walk away. After years of animosity from the Pack, Sara was finally at the cusp of acceptance by the same Shifters. It would be foolish for Sara, who needed the Pack for her very survival, to turn her back on this opportunity. On the other hand, if Luis was playing some kind of elaborate game with her, then it would make sense for her friend to nip it in the bud now. Tasia knew that Sara’s suspicion was not without merit. The mess with Markham had been a similar game that Shifters played to demonstrate their intent to move up the chain of command in a Pack, and after the reaction of some Shifters to Tasia’s careless comments at the party, Sara’s fears about her own remarks being misinterpreted or exploited didn’t seem that far-fetched anymore.

  “Ladies” Caro drawled brightly, slipping back into her seat. “Any further thoughts on dessert?”

  “I like the black walnut semi-freddo” Sara answered promptly, switching gears with determined cheer. “I’m partial to semi-freddos. What about you, Tasia?”

  Tasia studied the dessert menu blindly, her mind still grappling with Sara’s admission. Then suddenly, she stiffened. Her magic could sense the presence of other Chosen in the vicinity. And no ordinary Chosen, either.

  Blutsaugers.

  Just for a moment, Tasia panicked, her fear almost causing her to blunder. She turned to Sara to raise the alarm, forgetting for the moment that to do so would reveal her deadly sixth sense. Fortunately for Tasia, Sara was a Shifter, all her senses much more powerful than an ordinary human.

  This extraordinary and unusual ability to detect the inherent magic in creatures was a deadly ability to possess — this is how Tasia was able to identify Chosen in a crowd. The more powerful a Magick was, the greater the likelihood of Tasia’s detecting him. In the long history of their people, no Chosen had ever been ever known to possess this ability. It was one of the first secrets she’d been forced to reveal to the Alpha and his astonishment, bordering on shock, at her revelation had reminded Tasia of the ever-present threat from Chosen who might discover her unique heritage.

  “Leeches” Sara whispered, before Tasia could raise the alarm.

  The Shifter turned to Tasia urgently. “Call Evgeny and Joaquim and tell them we’ve a dozen leeches making their way towards us.”

  Tasia reached for her cell, her friend’s frantic words helping to unfreeze her from her own flight of terror.

  “What is it? What’s happening?” Caro asked urgently, drawn by Tasia’s frenzied actions and Sara’s frantic expression.

  “We’ve Vampires headed our way” Sara said softly with a quick glance around her. “At least a dozen, if my nose is right.”

  “Vampires” Caro repeated, lowering her voice to a whisper.

  “They’re probably here for Tasia” Sara explained. “There’s some history there.”

  Caro shot a glance at Tasia’s face. “Okay. We stay put.” She glanced around the crowded restaurant. “There’s no way they’d dare to accost you in here, Tas, not without placing the Edict in danger.”

  All Chosen obeyed the Supreme Edict — the only way the Chosen had hidden their existence from the Si’ffa, who far out-numbered them, successfully for centuries. Chosen guarded the Supreme Edict like the precious gift that it was. It allowed them to remain incognito. To break that law was to invite death by their own brethren.

  “You’re right, Caro.” Sara took a deep breath. “Don’t worry, Tasia. We’re safe here while the crowd surrounds us.”

  “Yup, don’t you worry, Tas” Caro reiterated, clasping Tasia’s hand. “We’ve got your back.”

  “I’ve messaged Evgeny” Tasia said in a low voice, squeezing Caro’s hand back. “They’re on their way.”

  “I’m going to call Duncan” Sara said abruptly. “Evgeny and Joaquim will be outnumbered against these many leeches. Duncan will know what to do.”

  She dialed her cell to speak into it rapidly.
“Duncan, it’s Sara. I’m with Tasia and Caroline Hamilton in a restaurant in the Financial District. A dozen leeches are headed towards us.”

  “Yes” Sara reiterated quietly into the phone.

  Tasia watched Rafaelo Bianchi wend his way confidently through the crowded tables. Her hand clenched under the table as memories from a nightmarish evening in Chicago washed over her. This Blutsauger had casually ordered his men to kill her, after declaring her redundant since the intended target had been Sienna. If not for Sienna’s intervention and the Alpha charging in, Tasia would have been in deep trouble. She had good reason to fear the Clan, but even if she didn’t, the aura of casual cruelty that hung palpably over this one would frighten her. The hand clasped in Caro’s palm tightened involuntarily, a reaction to her dire thoughts. Caro glanced up to follow Tasia’s gaze. They watched the young-looking pale man stride unhurriedly to them.

  “That him, Tas?” Caro inquired in a low voice.

  Tasia nodded mutely.

  Sara put away her cell. “It’s done” she murmured softly, her eyes zeroing in on the Vampire.

  Bianchi came to a stop before them.

  “Caroline Hamilton, you keep very unlikely company. I wonder what your father makes of it” he remarked pleasantly, his smile not quite reaching the rather cruel expression in his black eyes.

  Caro said nothing, merely returning his stare with composure.

  The Vampire’s eyes moved on to Tasia, his eyebrow arched in mock surprise.

  “We meet again, Tasia Armstrong. Perhaps this time, our meeting will be more fortuitous than the last one” he commented sardonically.

  His words had an unexpected effect on the young Wizard. They invoked a slow burn in Tasia, a tiny spark of angry rebellion growing to fire in her.

  Joking about having your men attempt to kill me, are you? Well, I’ve faced down scarier Chosen in my time — the Alpha, for one. My circumstances bar me from using my magic, but since you’re similarly handicapped in here, I don’t have to take this lying down anymore.

  “I can’t say the pleasure’s mine” Tasia countered steadily, meeting the Vampire’s eyes flush on. “This encounter is likely to be as much a fiasco for you as the last one.”