Bella Flores Urban Fantasy Collection

by R D Martin

  Pushing open the door of her chambers, she almost slammed it into a small bureau set against the wall. Less than five paces from that was her bed. At home, she was used to sleeping in something meant for two people, but the one she stared at was small enough she imagined falling off if she tried rolling over.

  Cat, lying in the center of the bed with his tail wrapped around him, lifted his head to stare at her with his deep green eyes. "It's about time you showed up. Why did you have to bring me along? There's nothing to do here. There's not even a television. I'm missing my stories right now because of this. How do you expect me to keep current if I can't watch them?"

  "And you think I want to be here either?" Bella made to fall face-first on the bed and Cat had to scramble to get out of the way. "I have never been so bored in my life."

  "What's that? I can't hear you with your face muffled by the bed. You know, the place I was comfortably lying in."

  Cat's voice dripped with sarcasm, but she ignored it. Her brain was still too fuzzy from the morning's monotony. "You could always hunt mice. I'm sure a place this large must have some of them."

  Cat's laughter made Bella lift her head. Craning her neck, she peered over her shoulder to look at her familiar. "What's so funny?"

  "You don't know?"

  "Know what?"

  Cat laughed again before meeting Bella's gaze. "You really can't feel it, can you? You know, sometimes I forget just how limited your senses are."

  "Cat."

  "Bella."

  "Tell me already. What am I missing?"

  "Oh, not much. Just the fact that we're hundreds of feet belowground."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "You've wandered through the building, I'm sure. Seen any windows?"

  "Of course I've…" Actually, as she thought about it, she realized she hadn't.

  "And when we arrived. Everyone was porting in. Did you see any entrance doors?"

  Again, Bella paused before shaking her head. It hadn't occurred to her to look for them. This place was supposed to be out of the way of prying eyes, so she'd assumed attendees were just given portal coordinates to make access easier. It wasn't like the location was a secret, though. Gar had told her she was going to Florence, Italy.

  Bella's forehead screwed up in puzzlement. Cat must have seen the look because he broke out in another fit of his weird, coughing laughter. Bella rolled her eyes. There was an easy way to find out if Cat was right.

  Pushing herself up, she readjusted her position on the bed until she sat with her legs crossed. Placing her palms on her knees, she opened her inner sight to the magic world around her. Entering the magic mists was almost as easy as breathing now. Becoming one with the source of magic in the world was like seeing the world in color for the first time. Images became sharper while contrasts became deeper. The mists themselves were a rainbow of colors that swirled and flowed around and through everything. Seeing them when she opened up her inner sight was like experiencing every happy moment of her childhood all over again, all at the same time.

  This time, though, instead of the warm rainbow of color, it was like having her eyes closed in a dark room before opening them to look at the sun. Pain lanced through her, piercing her mind and body. The room, or maybe even the entire building, was so full of magic mists it was as though the swirling clouds that ran through everything had become a solid mass of bright light.

  Bella struggled to shut down her inner sight and force out the blinding light. It was as if the concentrated magic had found a slight crack in the dam holding it back and, through her, intended to escape. What should have been easy turned into a fight for survival. With the pace of a glacier, she fought to close her inner vision.

  When the last of the light winked out, Bella fell back on the bed. A sheen of sweat covered her body, and she felt as wrung out as if she'd completed a triathlon.

  A quiet humming sound, like the revving of a miniature engine, filled her ears. She recognized it as Cat's purring.

  "You're back," he said, and the soft rumble disappeared.

  "Back? I didn't go anywhere. There's something… wrong with the magic here. Maybe it's because of everyone gathered in the same place, I don't know. I couldn't see through the mists. I couldn't do anything. I guess I'll have to find another way to look."

  "Another way to look?" Cat mewed. "That one almost killed you."

  "Huh? What are you talking about? It was strange, yeah, but I told you, nothing happened. I couldn't see anything, so I shut it down."

  "Bella?" The fact that there was actual concern in Cat's voice started worrying her more than any weirdness in the mists. "How long do you think you were, um, looking at the mists?"

  Odd question. She hadn't kept track with a stopwatch, but it couldn't have been more than a few seconds. A minute, tops.

  Cat shook his head. "No. Not a few seconds. Not even a minute. You've been away for more than an hour."

  "What?"

  "I couldn't feel you anymore. It was like your body was here, but your soul was somewhere else."

  "C'mon, it wasn't like that at all. I mean, okay, maybe I lost track of time, but more than an hour? Really?"

  As if to confirm his story, a high-pitched metallic ring, like someone striking a brass gong, echoed through the room. The worry starting to form in her chest exploded into an electric shock that ran over every inch of her body. The sound was the notification bell, reminding delegates to return to the amphitheater. Cat was wrong. Her time in the mists hadn't been a little more than an hour. It had been a lot more.

  Bella shot off the bed as if propelled by rockets. Ignoring Cat's hiss at being dumped on the floor, she snatched open the door of her compact room, ignoring the heavy door crashing into the bureau. She winced, cursing herself as the gong sounded again. The Finder would not be happy if they were late. Why hadn't he said something to remind her? They were close enough he should have been able to send her a thought as easily as, well, thinking.

  Stepping across the threshold between their adjoining room, she scurried to the plinth holding his box. Even from across the large room, though, she could see something was wrong. The box was just not angled right. A ball of ice formed in her chest, small but growing faster the closer she got to the Finder's carrier. By the time she reached the center of the room, her entire body felt as though plunged into an ice bath.

  The top of the Finder's box was caved in like it had been struck by a massive hammer. Splinters of wood stuck up at odd angles, and it looked as though someone had tried to tear the top off. Someone had entered the room and done this, but how? Why? There was no way they could steal the box. The Finder covered it with enough runes of protection to make theft impossible. If anyone but her tried to pick it up, they'd have to be strong enough to lift a small mountain.

  "Finder? Sir?" There was no response. Picking at some larger shards of wood, she tried to clear up the mess even as she wondered how it could have been broken. The same runes that kept the box from being stolen should have kept it intact. She didn't know all the magic used on the box, only the Finder knew that, but she knew a few of the runes. One of the more ornate ones was a deflection spell. Any force strong enough to damage the box was pushed to the side before it could even touch the wood. Failing that, there was a reflection rune carved on every one of its sides. Anyone trying to damage the box on purpose would have had their energy reflected back, multiplied exponentially.

  "Finder?" Pulling away the last splinter, she examined the damage. The lid, while caved in, wasn't entirely broken, though there were still holes large enough to stick her fingers through.

  Panic gripped her heart and squeezed. Maybe the Finder was still alive inside? Maybe he was hurt, or even dying? She needed to get him out of there, get him somewhere safe. Where would she take the Moab, though? She could take him to Gar. The Finder and her friend had a complicated relationship, but he'd help, wouldn't he?

  Pressing her fingers to the opposite edges of the box, she opene
d herself to the flow of magic, wincing once as the power flooded through her. Though it wasn't like opening her inner sight, the flow of power was still much stronger than she was used to. Thinning it out, she fed a minuscule stream into the wood and let out a sigh of relief as red lines traced out from her fingertips. The relief lasted only as long as it took the lines to wind their way to the first broken sections. With no more path to follow, the magic stopped.

  Bella hissed in frustration, but stopped as the top of the box shifted, sliding the smallest bit beneath her fingers. It had never done that before, though to be honest she'd never tried to open the top either. As she pushed a little harder, the lid held fast for a moment before giving a sudden lurch, shooting off the box and skittering across the marble floor until crashing into the wall. As if this was the last round of abuse it wanted to take, the lid broke apart and the magic in it fizzled like a child's sparkler before dying out.

  Bella felt as though someone had wrapped their hands around her throat and squeezed as she stared into the depths of the open box. The inside was not as ornately carved as the outside, but someone had taken the time to inlay gold filigree into grooved swirls and wavy patterns and paint the bottom to recreate the Renaissance masterpiece Venus Rising. The inside of the box shouted of wealth and comfort, or at least she imagined it would for a creature three inches long. But as for the Finder, there was no sign of him at all.

  5

  The gong struck again, and the sound rolled through the room like an ocean wave. This time, though, Bella was less concerned with it than she was with locating her boss. Aside from the carvings and the lacquered painting on the bottom, the box was empty, something she confirmed as she ran her hand around the inside surface with the desperate hope of finding a disguised hiding place or hidden catch.

  Where was he? What happened to him? Was he even alive? Each question and a hundred more swirled through her mind. What kind of being had the strength to bash through the spells on the box and still live? Why would they want to? How had they even gotten in? Looking up, Bella could see the bolt locking the door was still in place. So how had they bypassed it? And what about the wards? She could still feel them in place, so why hadn't they activated? What was going on? Was the Finder playing some kind of joke? She hadn't thought the Moab had a sense of humor, but if this was it, she wasn't finding it funny.

  Maybe he'd escaped the attack on his box. He was old and powerful, wasn't he? There wasn't any furniture in the room to hide under, but perhaps he'd made it to a tapestry. He could be trapped behind it, unable to move.

  Rushing to the first wall hanging, Bella grabbed the bottom edge and lifted. She knew finding her employer behind it was a long shot, but she still felt her heart drop a bit when she didn't see him. Shaking the tapestry hard enough to dislodge a small dust cloud didn't produce him either. Letting the tapestry fall back into place, she checked the other five in the room, each time ending with the same result.

  Bella dropped to the floor next to the plinth and tried to control her racing pulse. With it pounding in her ears, it was becoming harder for her to think. What was going on? Why hadn't she heard something? Well, at least that question had an answer. Cat had said she'd… Cat!

  "Cat! Cat!" She could hear the hysteria rising in her voice as she called for her familiar. He should have heard something, at least. At home he always complained of the noise. Well, not so much complained as accused her of being loud, but still, his ears were better than hers.

  Cat sauntered into the room with his tail twitching like a furry metronome, as though emergencies were things that happened to other people and would just have to wait until he arrived in his own time.

  "What do you want now? First you drag me along to this underground temple of doom where they haven't heard of television. Now, just when I'm finally getting comfortable enough to sleep in this den of boredom, you scream like you've seen a mouse. Please tell me it's a mouse."

  "Tell me you heard something."

  "Yes, you screaming. Was it a mouse?" His tone seemed to imply anything less than a mouse and she'd regret calling him.

  "What? No, no mouse. Something happened."

  She slid the empty box she'd been clutching across the floor toward him. She meant for it to stop in front of him, but the fear gripping her spine made her put a little more effort into it. Cat had to jump out of the way to miss the wooden projectile. When it stopped after bouncing off the wall behind him, Cat gave it a cursory sniff and glared at her.

  "You woke me for an empty box? Are you okay? Did the box try to attack you? Bad box." The sarcasm in his voice was thick enough she could cut it with a knife.

  "Cat."

  "What?"

  "When I was—"

  A firm banging on the door cut off what she'd been about to ask. Holding up her hand in the misguided hope of keeping her familiar quiet, she rose to her feet. The banging on the door happened again, this time with a little more force and accompanied by a low-timbre voice.

  "Finder? Finder? Pardon the interruption, but the Conclave has resumed."

  The Conclave. Bella's heart leaped into her throat and she only choked off a squeak before it escaped her lips. She'd forgotten about the Conclave. What was she going to do? What should she tell them? She didn't think they'd accept that he was using the bathroom.

  Bang, bang, bang. "Finder? Are you there, sir?" Though the thick door muffled the voice, Bella could hear the speaker's determination to get an answer. Staying quiet and pretending to be gone was not an option.

  Bella took a deep breath to steady herself and, trying to calm the tornado of thoughts whirling through her mind, walked to the door. Maybe she could tell whoever was on the other side that her employer had been called away on urgent business. That was reasonable, right? Her boss was a Finder, and that meant his magic compelled him to seek odd things from time to time. That could work, couldn't it?

  She hesitated a moment with her hand hovering inches from the dead bolt, shaking like a leaf in the wind. But what if they didn't accept it? What if his absence started a war or something? Shaking her head, she pushed that thought away. She needed to stop being silly. Open the door, tell whoever is on the other side the Finder is busy, close the door. That's all she had to do.

  She couldn't stop the squeak this time and even jumped a little as the pounding on the door resumed. Pulling the dead bolt back and wincing at the sound of metal scraping against metal, she unlatched the door and swung it open just far enough to see the person on the other side. When their eyes met and she saw the bloodshot whites, she did her best to ignore the chill walking its way up her spine.

  The vampire smiled, displaying too-white teeth, and bowed his head. "Ah, at last. Please tell your master the Conclave has resumed and they await his arrival."

  "My master? Oh, the Finder. Um, yeah. About that. He's, uh, he's indisposed." Even in her ears, the excuse sounded lame. What happened to telling him to go away and shutting the door?

  "Indisposed?" The vampire said the word as though trying to identify an unfamiliar taste.

  "Um, yes?" She tried to make it a firm statement, but it still came out like a question. Deciding enough was enough, she made to close the door.

  Though not as fast as his Elder, Darius, the young vampire was still fast enough to blur the space between them as his hand shot out to catch the door. Though the sudden stop wasn't much of a shock, her inability to move the door was a little more so. As hard as she tried to push, the door refused to budge. She'd have more luck pushing against a wall.

  "I'm sorry." The vampire's face twisted a little, putting the slightest crease in his smooth, pale brow. "I'm afraid I don't understand. The Conclave has begun, and the Finder's presence is required. If you need me to escort you to the amphitheater, I'd be more than happy to."

  "I told you, he, that is, the Finder is indisposed at the moment. He'll be there when he can."

  "But that's not acceptable," the vampire sputtered. His eyes darted from her to the
room behind her and back as though he was looking for her boss. "I must insist."

  "I said—"

  "And just who are you?" The vampire’s gaze settled on her and now she could see the indignation twisting his features. His face screamed his displeasure at having his will stymied by a human. "Do not make me ask again, bag. Who are you?" The light behind the vampire darkened, and it seemed as though he somehow grew in size. Even the very air felt as though it dropped five degrees before it began pressing down on her.

  Bag? Who does he think he is? It was true vampires considered most humans little more than food bags, and worth about as much respect, but she wasn't just a human. She was a witch. Anger flared in her veins but burned itself out almost as fast as it rose. Vampires, even newly turned ones, had some immunity to magic that only grew stronger with age. By the time vampires became an Elder, it didn't matter how powerful a witch was, using magic to fight one was usually a losing proposition.

  "I'm," she started, meeting his glare with as much of her own anger as she could muster. "I work with the Finder. I'm his"—what was the word the Finder used?—"I'm his Prime."

  The vampire's expression changed as if she'd flipped an invisible switch. His looming presence lessened, though it didn't quite disappear, and the scowl on his face transformed into a smile as he nodded, though his hand never left the door.

  "Forgive me, I did not realize. Shall I escort you to the chamber, then?"

  "Escort me? What? I don't…" What was he talking about?

  "We must make haste. The entire Conclave is waiting."

  "Waiting? What are you talking about? I told you, the Finder is indisposed, so you'll—"

  "You said you were the Finder's Prime, did you not?"

  Bella nodded and the pit in her stomach seemed to grow even larger as the vampire's smile grew wider. She couldn't help noticing all his teeth seemed normal, though, without a pointed one in sight.

  "Then it is your duty to attend in your master's stead."