by K. F. Breene
I advanced on him, grabbed him by the shirt front, and lifted him into the air. His mouth gaped.
“Yeah, I’m strong.” I shook him for effect. “Can you imagine what a punch feels like?”
“It’s in my house. In someplace safe,” Rodney blubbered. “Please don’t hurt me.”
“What do I look like, your slave? Go and get it.” I tossed Rodney toward the archway. He crumpled to the floor like a doll and sobbed. “Good grief, man, it wasn’t that bad. You’re not hurt. Go get the book.” He dragged himself up like a wounded puppy and dramatically limped out of sight.
“This is not at all how I saw this meeting playing out…” I said with a sigh.
“Will he come back?” Darius asked, releasing Tamara.
“Hmm. Go ahead and bite. I’ve always wondered what it feels like.” Tamara reached for Darius.
“And the crazy keeps rolling.” I scratched my nose, willing my frustration to simmer down. “Can you put her outside or something? She’s making me uncomfortable.”
He took a card out of his wallet and handed it to her. “If you would really like to know, call that number. One of my people will get in contact with you.”
“Tamara, we’ve talked about that,” Margaret said disapprovingly. “It’s a dangerous road.”
“It is quite safe, I assure you,” Darius said, directing Tamara out of the room. “Beneficial to all parties.”
“Will you be there?” I heard her ask.
“Decidedly not.” The door closed and he appeared in the room again, looking calm as usual.
“Definitely not how I saw all this going,” I repeated. “One minute, serious questions, talk of torture, and a run-of-mill scare tactics. Next minute, crazy vampire lust from a middle-aged married person looking to get bitten by a walking corpse.”
“That is offensive.” Darius poured himself some more tea.
“Margaret,” I said, drawing her attention my way. “You need to break up this neighborhood. It’s gotten weird, sweetie. The witch next door was clearly insane before he elevated to mage, your neighbor is looking for thrills while her husband stands by, you’re dabbling in spells way above your pay grade…” I touched her arm. “The first step is admitting you have a problem.”
She blinked at me for a moment, her face white. “Please don’t bite me. Or hurt me.”
“Good. A normal response. Thank you.” I went to the window and pulled back the curtain. Rodney was on the sidewalk, and he and Tamara looked to be in an argument. He had something tucked under his arm.
Another light-bulb moment. “Darius, go get that book.” He was out the door in a moment. “Margaret, you need to watch Tamara. I bet she’s looking for a way to power up too. She’ll follow in your neighbor’s footsteps when she realizes getting bitten by vampires doesn’t help.”
“No, she won’t,” Margaret said, setting her cup and saucer aside. “They wouldn’t take her.”
I turned around slowly, pretty sure I had an oh my God! expression. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Darius walking up the stairs with the book. He was moving slowly, studying it. That was probably bad, but right now, this took precedence.
I lightly tapped the window and waved my hand, indicating he should stay out there. I was in friend mode right now, letting her talk. Telling me things I hadn’t known to ask about.
“They have criteria on who they take?” I asked, playing it cool, pretending I knew who they were. Just a couple of girls gossiping, that was what we were.
Darius continued toward the house. He was going to come in anyway, which was probably good, because his memory was better than mine. I just hoped he did it in stealth.
“Yes. John, the…” She swallowed and nodded in the direction of the house next door. “He had the highest level of power in our community. We all have a little spark of natural magic, but he had quite a bit more.”
“Could he get into the Realm?”
She shook her head. “He could see the gate, but it hurt him really bad when he tried to enter. Everyone said he’d die if he went through.”
I nodded, because that was correct. The pain was a warning. Some kept pushing through it. A dead body emerged on the other side.
“I guess he had enough magic for the high mage, though.” Margaret rose and moved toward the door. I was about to throw a question at her to stop her, but before I did, she asked, “Do you want something stronger to drink?”
I released my breath with a laugh. “I sure do. I’ll help you.”
That was code for: I don’t want to let you out of my sight for fear you’ll stop talking.
Darius stood by the door, quiet and still. Margaret didn’t notice.
“I told John not to join,” she said, moving down the hall. “A few of us did, but the others, Rodney and Tamara included, thought maybe he should check it out. That maybe he could learn something and pass it on. I should’ve pushed. I should’ve tried to drown out Rodney’s goading.”
“Why did Rodney goad John?”
We entered the kitchen. “Well, you know, he and John never really got along on account of Tamara and John’s affair a while back. And because John had more power. That made a few people jealous. So Rodney didn’t care if it was dangerous. He probably hoped it was.” She shook her head sadly, and I felt my mouth drop open. This coven definitely needed to split up. “John gave in. Then all it took was the first meeting and he was hooked. We saw his power boost right before our eyes. That’s when Rodney and Tamara tried to join. A couple others in the neighborhood, too. I begged them not to, since I could already see John changing for the worst. Thankfully, they weren’t allowed. Not enough power.”
“But in the end, Rodney still got rid of John,” I said softly, the wheels spinning.
“I guess so. Since you had to…” She gulped.
“Kill him, yes.” I didn’t mention that next Rodney would have to contend with a bunch of vampires, which would be much harder competition than a mediocre-powered mage. “So this high mage can boost people’s power, then?”
She shot me a strange look before pulling down a bottle filled with brown liquid. “The high mage didn’t recruit you?” she asked.
“I don’t do magic.”
Confusion surfaced on her face. “Then…they let you go?”
“Huh?”
“Huh?” she repeated.
I accepted the glass, holding up my hand to stop the crazy. “Why would you assume I was captured? Or even approached?”
Her face closed down into a look of remorse, and worse, guilt.
“Margaret, what did you do?”
“We’d already lost John,” she babbled. “We couldn’t lose anyone else. They would’ve killed us to get that book.”
I hunched a little. “So when they came looking for John’s goodies, you told them I’d found what was in the kitchen, and you pointed them my way.”
“I figured they’d think I was too low-power to find anything myself, so…”
“They didn’t even bother looking through this neighborhood, they went straight to me.” I nodded, because I should’ve assumed that. “When was this?”
“Yesterday night. He was in John’s house all evening. I saw flashes and fire through the windows, but didn’t hear anything. Nothing caught fire outside.”
“He was… Just one?”
“The high mage. He was alone. B-but, I think he has a few people he sends out to recruit or to assert his will. I’m not sure how many.”
I huffed out a laugh at her choice of words. The high mage was definitely on a power trip with that title and all this will assertion he was doing. “What does the high mage look like?”
“You mean, besides the mask? You don’t know?” She took a shaky sip of her drink.
“I was gone when they—or some other mages—arrived at my house. I didn’t bother going in after them.”
“And the spells you got out of the kitchen?”
“They’re in a safe place.”
She sh
ook her head. “They’re not safe from the high mage. He’ll blast through your house with fire to find them.”
My heart sank. “Fire won’t work on my safety holds.” No one, not even my father himself, could break into those. I had a spicy blend of magic and history protecting my most valuable assets. The problem was, my house and all my furniture was wood. I would lose everything I called home. Maybe I already had. “Sometimes I really hate my job.”
I felt Darius’s comforting hand on my shoulder a moment before he asked, “What do you know about him?” Clearly he wanted to hurry this along.
Margaret huffed. “What don’t I know? After he recruited John, I started asking around. I’m friendly with witches all over the city. From what I can gather, he is power hungry. More so than most mages. He used to target witches like John—ones who were on the cusp of being mages, desperate for the power boost that would get them there. Word is, he’s shifted his attention to those with a higher level of power. They’re selling blood of some sort to witches and other mages, trying to enlist them. No one knows what kind of blood it is, though. They’ve been very quiet on the subject.
“The rumor is that it’s vampire blood.” Her face turned red as she glanced at Darius. “But I don’t think that’s it. I’ve looked into it, and vampire blood gives humans an energy and ability boost, but not necessarily magical people. And this stuff gives only magical people a boost, I’ve heard. Like magical PCP. It doesn’t last, but…”
“This explains some things,” I said. This confirmed the theory that had started to take shape in John’s burned-out house. A power boost would certainly help the high mage run his demon-pack-and-play gig. It would amplify his spells and allow him to refill his store of magic more quickly. In the slump between boosts, he’d have the demon to give him power.
“How did he start this venture, though?” I wondered. “How did he get that strange blood in the first place? Torture it out of a vampire?” I looked at Darius, hoping he knew I meant torture the information out of a vampire.
Darius was staring at the wall, not moving. Thinking.
“If they’re in league with vampires, then you’re a faction divided,” I said to him, watching his expression for any hint as to what he was thinking. I wasn’t getting anything. “Someone killed those vampires in the Realm, after all. Then there’s John, who I am pretty sure was bonded to a vampire.”
Darius’s head snapped around, and he scrutinized me. “How do you know?”
“He could see in the dark. No magical spell can do that. That I know of, anyway. What else?”
“There probably is a way. John had access to a lot of advanced spells,” Margaret said.
“So do I.” I was still looking at Darius.
“Well…now…I’ve never seen a vampire hanging around his house,” Margaret said, tapping her fingers on the counter. “He did disappear for a few days at a time, though. Spread out all my feelers in the city, and I still couldn’t find him. But I’ve only heard about the blood, not any vampires helping him.” Margaret made a duck bill with her mouth.
“How often did he disappear?” Darius asked.
“Oh…” The duck bill turned into lip gymnastics. “Every two to three weeks.”
“How long has this been going on?” I asked.
“John was approached four months ago or more, but he only started getting really bad in the last couple. That’s about when he started disappearing as well.”
“That could be a girl, though.” I leaned against the wall, my mind trying to fit everything together. “You’d think a vampire would visit his house when he or she needed blood.”
“What girl would have him?” Margaret scoffed. “The high mage hasn’t approached any female witches or mages, as far as I’ve heard. And no girl went to John’s house. No, that can’t be it.”
“Do you know where the self-proclaimed high mage is located?” I asked.
“He moves around all the time.” A troubled expression came over her face. “I’ve heard of a couple places, but he knows people are after him. Or will be, if they aren’t now.” If he was killing vampires and dabbling in unicorn blood, that made sense. “The one thing he does constantly, though, is meet with his disciples—that’s what he calls his followers. They go to the same place every week. John used to sneer when he mentioned the meetings, like the high mage was all-powerful. Like no one in their right mind would challenge them when they were all together.”
“It sounds to me like a bunch of grade schoolers in a pillow fort praising an older boy wearing a paper crown,” I said, feeling the familiar fire of a challenge. “They don’t have anything I haven’t seen before, I guarantee it.” I made a sign like I was writing in the air. “I need that address, please.”
Darius started out of his reverie. He looked at me with a straight face. “I need to go to the lair. There is some information I must acquire.”
“What are you thinking?”
“Don’t go after them alone,” he said, ignoring my question. “Wait for my return.”
I stared at him incredulously. “You’re going to keep me in the dark about what you’re doing?”
“Here.” He handed me the book, ignoring me again. “Keep that. Go to my residence. They will protect you. Don’t go by your house—he is surely waiting for you. Find out when and where they meet, and I’ll—”
“I have that right here, plus a couple of the old addresses I have for him.” Margaret held up the notepad. “The meeting is every Tuesday. A lot of witches know about it, even though they weren’t invited. But I really don’t think that is a great time to go after him. He’s got a couple dozen people firmly under his control.”
“Two dozen barely trained yet volatile mages who have probably forgotten a bullet will kill them more handily than a spell,” I said to Margaret while still staring at Darius’s blank face. “They’ll be so certain they’re the kings of the world, and protected by numbers, they won’t realize that very thinking makes them extremely vulnerable and unprepared. Tuesday is the perfect time to go. And I will be going.”
He stared at me for a moment, reading me as I was trying to do him. I kept my face just as blank.
“I will return at sundown tomorrow,” he said curtly. “Stay away from this until then, or I will consider it a breach of contract.”
“Are you seriously not going to tell me what—” He was gone before I could finish my sentence.
I blinked at the empty spot where he’d just stood, taken aback by the sudden shift in power. One moment I had been leading the charge. The next, I’d been ordered to seek protection in Darius’s home, where I would surely be monitored by his people, and keep my nose out of the investigation. All this while the big man left to take care of secretive business.
What the hell was that about a breach of contract, anyway? That was not how these things worked.
Anger heated my cheeks and tightened my grip on the leather-bound book. “That’s a load of bullshit, right there.”
Margaret’s lips thinned and her eyebrows rose—silent judgment. She tilted her head down in a half nod, as if to say, Yes, that is some bullshit, you are right.
“What day is today?” I asked.
“The third.”
“No, like, the day of the week.”
She shook her head—another silent judgment. “This is why you shouldn’t hang out with vampires,” she said. “I know he is incredibly handsome, and it’s hard to think around him, but as a rule, they run out when they are needed the most.”
“I can think around him perfectly fine, Margaret. I’m only working with the vampires because I’m poor and they offered me a job, which has nothing to do with what day of the week it is…”
She sniffed. “Desperation. That’s how it always starts…”
“No, it starts with biting and canoodling. What do you think I am, a novice? What day is today?”
“Sunday.”
I tapped each of my weapons, a check to make sure they were there
while I mentally got ready to go out on my own again. Damned if I would check into a hidey-hole with a bunch of curious vampires I couldn’t trust while Darius went off to do some secret handshakes, or whatever he was doing.
“I know he said he’d come back, Reagan,” Margaret said, analyzing me. “But vampires are only your best friends when they need something. As soon as they get what they’re after, you’re expendable. You should never trust a vampire.”
I sighed. She was like a broken record.
“So what are you going to do?” she asked, clearly seeing my decision to ignore her.
“First I’m going to borrow a satchel off you, because this book will be cumbersome. After that, I’m going to collect a bunch of spells for a helluva magical battle. I’ve got a mark to capture and then use to barter for the money I’m owed. There is no way a vampire is going to dupe me out of a mark a second time. No way in hell.”
Chapter Seventeen
Armed with a very bad attitude and a handful of spells Margaret had given me, I walked down the street while pulling up the ride-share app. My phone was charged up, thanks to the stay at Darius’s house, but my bank account was nearly dry. I planned to rectify that.
After the big, bearded driver picked me up and brought me to my first destination, I made him wait while I thumped on Darius’s front door. The poor guy had commented favorably on my sword, but he’d gone white at the sight of my gun. It must’ve dawned on him that those items weren’t for show. He was probably afraid to refuse service, since I’d already gotten in the car.
I thumped on Darius’s door again. Out of patience, I stepped back with the intent to kick it in. The lock flipped.
“About time,” I said, straightening out.
A handsome man stood in the doorway. Six two, shirtless, and sporting lots of defined muscle, he was human.
Confused for a moment, I backed up and checked the house. Yep, it was the right one.