by R. L. King
“It would be nice if a few of them took showers,” Amber said, wrinkling her nose. “Or, you know, didn’t wear the whole bottle of perfume at once.”
They reached the desk and checked in, securing two adjoining rooms on the top floor, and collected their registration bags. Jason poked through his while they waited for the elevator. “Looks like a map of the venue, a schedule of events, a bunch of ads for people’s businesses, and…what’s this?” He held up a small plastic tube filled with swirling blue liquid.
“That’s happy juice,” said a plump older lady with shocking red hair, giving Jason an appraising side-eye. “Comes from Adele’s shop in Tulsa. Just a little sample—put it in your drink and it’ll give you a little mood pick-me-up.”
“Uh…yeah. Thanks.” He dropped it back in the bag and said nothing else until the lady got out on floor three.
Amber burst out laughing. “She wanted to jump you right here in the elevator, Jase. Her pheromones were off the charts.”
“Uh…I’ll pass, thanks.” Jason looked like he wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Instead, he glanced at Stone. “Happy juice?”
“Probably some alchemical thing. Harmless, I’m sure, or they wouldn’t allow it in the bag. A lot of older witches specialize in that sort of stuff.”
Jason didn’t answer, and seemed relieved to get out of the elevator before some other weirdo got on. They reached their rooms without meeting anybody else. “Meet up out here in fifteen?”
“Yes,” Stone said. “I’ll let Verity know we’re here.”
There was nothing magical about the room—it was a typical mid-grade hotel room, and Stone’s scan revealed no arcane enhancements. He tossed his bag on the bed and sent a text to Verity: We’ve just arrived. In our rooms now.
Great! came her reply. Not much going on yet. You guys want to have lunch? There’s a restaurant downstairs or we could go somewhere else.
Lunch seemed a fairly innocuous way to reconnect. Downstairs is fine. I’ll check with J and A.
Jason and Amber were in favor of lunch as well, so they headed back down to the lobby. Stone noticed both of them were shooting glances at him when they thought he wasn’t looking, but he pretended not to notice them. This was likely to be an awkward meeting, so best to get it out of the way quickly.
Verity showed up a few minutes later as they lingered outside the restaurant. She lit up with a smile when she spotted them. “Hi!” she called, hurrying over. She was dressed in her usual style, wearing jeans and the black leather jacket Jason had given her, but she’d swapped her T-shirt for a jade-green button-down. A pair of sunglasses were perched on top of her head.
Jason took the lead. “V! It’s good to see you, little sis.” He hurried over and engulfed her in a hug, which she returned with enthusiasm.
She hugged Amber next. “I’m really glad you’re here. I’ve missed you.”
And then it was Stone’s turn. “Hello, Verity,” he said softly. He remained where he was, letting her make the first move.
“Hi, Doc.” She hesitated for just a moment, then strode forward and embraced him. “It’s good to see you too.”
“I wasn’t sure that would be the case. I did promise to keep my nose out of your business.”
“Yeah, but this is important.” She glanced around, then dropped her voice. “If somebody’s kidnapping kids and you think he’s here, I totally get it. I hope I can help you catch him.” She pulled back without kissing him. “C’mon. Let’s go get something to eat and you can tell me all about it.”
It was late for lunch and early for dinner, so the restaurant wasn’t crowded. Stone requested a table all the way in the back, and used a modified version of his “cone of silence” spell (he hadn’t thought of it that way until Dez Griffith in Massachusetts had bestowed the name on it, but it had stuck in his mind ever since) to ensure no one else listened in on their conversation. Even so, he kept a close watch on the other diners. A quick glance exchanged with Amber verified she was paying attention too. Stone suspected if their man was here, he wouldn’t be spending much time sampling the Symposium’s amenities or attending the panel discussions. Most likely, he’d devote most of his effort to tracking down any portal experts who might be present.
“So,” Verity said after they had their drinks and put in their orders. “Tell me what’s going on with this case.”
Between Stone, Jason, and Amber, they shared everything they’d learned so far, starting with Tyler Ellerman’s disappearance and ending with their discoveries about the fertility clinics and the bogus doctor.
Verity listened in silence, her eyes widening when they got to the part about Stone’s attack in Gary. She fixed a hard stare on him. “They hit you over the head and buried you alive?” Her shock was clear in both her voice and her aura.
“I got better.” When it appeared she was about to protest his light tone, he waved her off. “It’s fine, Verity. I’m fine now, as you can see. Well, as fine as I ever get, anyway. That’s not the issue here. I’ve got reason to believe our man might be here trying to find someone to build a portal for him—probably because the public ones he’s been using for all this time are becoming too dangerous. Too much chance someone might recognize him or catch him now that the keepers have been alerted.”
It didn’t seem as if Verity wanted to let it go, but she did—for now, anyway. “So you’re going to try to find these portal people first and hope you can head him off? Are any of them here?”
“I don’t know.” He’d been idly flipping through the program as they waited for their drinks, studying the various panels and meetings, but there was nothing about portals. “My guess is, if any are here, they’re not participating formally. The best place to find them might be at some of the evening dinners or parties.”
“That seems pretty hit-or-miss. What if you can’t find one? It would be easy for the guy you’re looking for to arrange a meeting somewhere private, and you might never even see them.”
“That’s where Amber comes in,” Jason said. “She got a whiff of the guy at the house where we initially went, and she’ll recognize his scent if he turns up again.”
“Ah.” Verity nodded, satisfied. “Sounds like you all have this pretty well under control, then.”
“I hope so,” Stone said. “Since our man thinks I’m dead and I doubt he’ll recognize Jason or Amber, we’re hoping he might not use the same precautions he might employ if he thought I was this close to him.” He’d built another illusionary disguise amulet after he returned home, and this time added a new component that would conceal his appearance from the rest of the world, but not from his friends.
“If he’s here,” Jason said, “we’ll find him.”
“So, Verity,” Amber said, “how have you been? Has your trip been what you expected?”
She hesitated, glancing first at Stone and then out past him to the dining room. “It’s been…different. Like I said in my letter to Doc, being alone with your thoughts, especially out on the road, gives you a lot of chance to work some things out.”
“Did you meet anybody interesting?”
“A few people, yeah. I stopped several places with magical communities, and met up with people where I could.”
Stone hadn’t been watching Verity’s aura, but he didn’t miss the odd evasive quality in her tone. He wondered if trained investigator Jason or hypersensitive Amber had noticed it too. There was clearly something she wasn’t saying, but he couldn’t tell whether it was because she didn’t want to talk about it now, or at all. “Where did you go?” he asked, keeping his tone neutral.
“I started in L.A. like you suggested. Spent three or four days there, then headed off through the South. Then I went north up along the east coast and cut back in toward Chicago so I’d get here on time.”
“Did you run into any trouble?” Amber asked. The glitter in her eyes and her tiny, predatory smile suggested she would have welcomed dealing with some of the potential trouble a young woman mi
ght encounter while traveling alone.
Verity obviously picked up on that, because her answering smile was every bit as wolfish. “Nothing I couldn’t handle. Surprisingly there wasn’t much, though. Either guys aren’t as piggish as we’re led to believe, or else I just look like somebody you don’t want to mess with.”
“Did you find any good support for what you want to talk about?” Jason asked. “Are you having some kind of meeting here?”
Stone was glad Jason and Amber were present, because that way they could ask the awkward questions so he didn’t have to.
Once again, Verity hesitated, but only for a second. “Yeah,” she said, a little too quickly. “I did find some people who seemed receptive, and I’ve been working on getting something together here. I’m glad you all have a good plan for finding your guy, because I’m going to need to spend some time on this. I’m trying to set something up for tomorrow night.”
“Tell me where it is,” Stone said, “and I’ll be certain to stay well away from it. I’ve got no intention of interfering with your efforts. That part of my promise, at least, I’ll keep.”
She shot him a grateful look. “Thanks, Doc. I appreciate it. Anyway,” she added to the table at large, “I’ve got some more good prospects after the Symposium too, surprisingly. I met a mage in L.A. and we got along pretty well. She suggested I talk to her family back East, in upstate New York. They’re kind of a big deal back there, and my friend thinks I might get somewhere talking to their matriarch.”
“Cool,” Amber said. “That’s great news. Is your friend here?”
“Nah. This isn’t her kind of thing. I’ll probably head back there after this is over. We’re playing it by ear.”
Stone gave her a brief sidelong look, wondering if the “friend” she’d mentioned was more than a friend, but she didn’t want to say so. She either didn’t notice the look, though, or she ignored it.
Their meals arrived and they enjoyed a leisurely lunch, chatting about safe topics like the Symposium’s program, a big party that would be held in the main ballroom that night, the mundane aspects of Verity’s travels, and the house Jason and Amber were thinking about buying.
“That’s great news!” Verity said when they told her about it and showed her a few snapshots on their phones. “I’m so happy for you guys. If you invite me over when I get back, I’ll cook you a big housewarming dinner.”
“We haven’t bought it yet,” Jason warned. “And right now it barely even has a kitchen at all, let alone a functional one. It’s going to take a ton of work.”
“Sounds like it’s perfect for you two, then.”
Jason and Amber exchanged fond glances. “Yeah,” he said. “I think maybe it might be.”
“And if we start soon,” Amber added, “it should only take us a year or so to have it whipped into shape. Right about the time to think about adding to our family.”
Verity’s startled look mirrored Stone’s. Apparently, the newlyweds hadn’t mentioned any family plans to her, either.
“That’s…brilliant,” Stone said with a smile. “I should have expected it, I suppose.”
“Yeah,” Verity added. “You two will make amazing parents.”
“Just don’t ask me to babysit,” Stone said. “I’ll contribute handsomely to the potential offspring’s university fund, but I don’t do nappies.”
“Don’t worry, Al.” Jason grinned. “I wouldn’t take bets on you knowing which end of a baby to powder and which one to feed. You’re safe.”
“Let’s not talk like the kid’s already on the way,” Amber said. “Give us some time to do the newlywed thing—and the fun part of creating a baby—before we get down to the important stuff.”
Stone settled back, listening to his friends talk while he continued scanning the dining room. Every now and then he paused to think about how far they’d all come since the day he’d rescued Jason from the Evil in a parking lot in Redwood City. His friend had been a slacker back then, drifting through life with no real idea what he wanted to do with himself. Now, he owned his own business, was married to a woman he obviously adored, and they were already talking about buying a house and starting a family. That was the way it was supposed to work.
Verity was successful too, in her own way. She’d passed her apprenticeship and proven herself a capable and powerful mage. She had a good and lucrative, if unusual, job healing for the magical tattoo artist Scuro, and she’d made a life for herself in San Francisco. Sure, she had her problems, but given what she’d been through in her early life, Stone couldn’t exactly blame her for those.
It gave him pleasure to think that he had been, even indirectly, responsible for some of that success. Of course, he’d also been (possibly not indirectly) responsible for nearly getting them killed several times over, but they never seemed to hold that against him. He had a feeling all their lives were moving into a transitional phase now, and wondered what that would mean for their association.
“Al?”
Stone started, realizing he’d been woolgathering and Jason was trying to get his attention. “Er—sorry. Yes?”
“I was just sayin’ that maybe we should split up tonight. V said there are at least three of these parties going on at different places.”
“Is that right?” He glanced at Verity. The Symposium had obviously grown since the last time he’d attended, when there hadn’t been enough mages to populate the back room of a medium-sized restaurant.
“Yeah. I’ve been talking to some people, and I already got invitations to all of them. I can’t go because I’ve got a meeting set up with some other people to talk about the thing tomorrow night. I could blow it off and go with you, though, if you want.”
“No, no, it should be fine. We’ve got this under control.”
“Is it safe for us to split up, though?” Jason asked, with a concerned glance at Amber.
She glared at him. “You’re seriously doing the protective thing? With me?”
“It’s wired into his DNA,” Verity drawled, smiling. “Might as well get used to it.”
Jason glared at both of them. “Hey, these people are mages. I’m just saying it might make more sense for us to stick together.”
“That’s silly,” Amber said. “We’ve got a lot better chance of finding him if we do split up. I’ll notice him instantly if he’s there—he can’t hide from me. And since he thinks Alastair’s dead, he might not even bother disguising himself. You guys didn’t circulate that photo through the entire magical community, did you?”
“No,” Stone said. “Only to the portal keepers, as far as I’m aware.”
“It’s not a bad idea, though.” Jason said. “At least not on a small scale.” He pulled out his phone and held up the image of the sketch. “If we can find the place’s business center, we could print up a couple hundred copies of this. Maybe we can talk the organizers into letting us slip them into the goodie bags.”
Stone frowned. “That’s a good suggestion, but I’m not sure it’s the best idea in this case. If we spook our man, he might do a runner before we can find him. I think we’ll be best off with the element of surprise on our side, at least for now. If he doesn’t turn up at any of the parties, we can consider doing something like that.”
“So then, split up?” Amber asked. “Verity, can you give us the information about where they are?”
“Yeah, sure. I wish I could go with you.” She looked troubled.
Stone gripped her arm gently. “Verity—I know how much this whole thing means to you. Please don’t let me break my promise to you indirectly, by pulling you away from the whole reason you’ve come here. We’ll be fine. We have been so far.”
She gave a reluctant, grateful nod. “Okay. But you have to fill me in on what you find tomorrow morning. And if you do end up needing extra help, you have to promise to call me.”
“Absolutely,” Stone said, and Jason and Amber nodded.
They finished lunch and drifted out of the restaurant a
s the early wave of the dinner crowd began to come in. They paused in the lobby for Verity to write down the locations of the three parties. “One’s here in one of the smaller ballrooms. It’s mostly for the younger crowd, I think, and there’ll be some mundanes there, too. One’s at a restaurant not too far from here—not even sure why I got invited to that one, because it seems like it’s a group of older mages getting together to discuss high-level stuff. And the last one’s kind of a cocktail thing at another nicer hotel near here. More formal, but more social than business.”
Stone pondered that. “Right, then. I think our best bet is for me to go to the high-level party. Jason, you go to the one here. And Amber, you take the social one. Did you bring a cocktail dress?”
“Not really, but I can wing it.”
“Hey, wait a sec,” Jason protested. “Are you sure that’s the best way to do it?”
“I am, yes. You two will stand out like sore thumbs anywhere they’re discussing actual magical theory. Jason, you’re best at liaising with mundanes—you might even know someone there.”
“Sounds like the least likely one for our guy to attend, though.”
“Yes, that too.” Stone kept his tone even. “I know you don’t like it, but Amber and I have got the best chance of spotting our man. If he’s using any sort of illusionary disguise, she can identify his scent and I can probably punch through it. You can’t do that, but you can use your investigation skills to question people discreetly and find out if they’ve spotted the man.”
Jason was about argue further, but then he sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m kind of out of my element here.”
“You are,” Stone said, “but don’t for a moment let that discourage you. So far, it’s been your efforts, and Gina’s, that have got us the bulk of the information we’ve got so far. Don’t forget that.”
“Good point. I guess everybody on the team has their areas, and this one is yours more than mine. I’m cool with that.”
“We should keep in communication,” Amber said. “If somebody spots him, we need to move fast. What should we do if we do see him?”