“Enough time to get through a broken door.”
They walked to the area around the back door. He tapped the mended portion with interest. “This part is a Replica.”
“A Replica?”
Liam took a step back and cranked his neck toward the second-story windows. “Whoever came here destroyed a chunk of the Shield.” He ran his fingers through the charm again. “They sealed it. See how the seams don’t match perfectly?”
Flawless swirls of dark red rimmed the outline of a jagged circle. Leaves blew against the side of the home, and the Protective Shield sparked.
Liam shook out his injured hand.
“Are you sure you’re alright?”
He winced. “This person was powerful enough to break through and then replicate the protective charm.”
“What would a mature Mystic want with a dealer?”
“This wasn’t a Mystic.”
“It doesn’t make a difference. We still have to get in there.” Maura walked toward the door.
Liam caught her by the wrist. “Whoever broke in could still be in there.”
“We can’t worry about that.” She flicked his hold away and pointed to the Replica. “Disarm this section.”
“I can’t keep it open long enough for your Influence to search the house.”
“Then I’ll use my Influence once inside.”
“Maura.”
She whipped around. “Do it, Liam.”
“You have to do everything the hard way.” He gave a disapproving look, but anchored his feet into the limestone patio and raised his arms.
The Replica shriveled into the jagged ends and a hole formed over the shattered door.
“Everything is easier when you listen to me.” Maura stepped into the dark living room, and Liam joined, stepping in front of her. The Shield sealed with a gurgle.
Silence plagued the home. Not a breath of wind or a slight breeze from a draft spiraled into the square room. Ghostly shadows slunk over plaid couches and leather recliners as the sun worked its way across the sky.
Maura walked toward the double French doors.
Liam stopped her. “Check the place first.”
She concentrated beyond the closed doors. A dining room rested on the other side, covered in green décor. In front of the dining room was a den with a fireplace and two windows that looked over the front of the house. Off of the dining room was a long kitchen. To the right, a hallway led to the front door and the side entrance to the den. A door, locked from the outside, probably led to a basement. A set of mahogany stairs climbed up to the right and opened into a long, narrow hallway on the second landing. A beige tiled bathroom held no significance. Her Influence passed a blue bedroom with an unmade bed, went to a white guest room, and down the hall to a blood-smeared, white-carpeted office.
Her magic recoiled with a harsh blow. “Upstairs.”
They charged through the house, taking the stairs two at a time. Maura barreled through the office door. Face down on his desk, Henry sat motionlessly. A single gunshot wound to the head. Blood had trickled to the floor and puddled on the carpet.
“Oh God,” Liam said.
“Don't touch anything.”
Having erased her fingerprints with Hell's Fire at the airport the other day, Maura could do as she pleased. She moved from the threshold of the office and crouched at Henry’s side. His skin had taken on a greenish, bluish hue. No warmth came off of him. Rigid fingers and a stiff arm meant he’d been dead for several hours already.
She strengthened her Mystic vision. With a powerful Shield blown apart and repaired, she couldn’t believe the killer would use a Mundane method like a gun to kill a Mystic. She searched for subtle hints.
On his neck, parallel with his carotid artery, two pinprick fang marks punctured his skin. Maura’s aura drained from the wounds.
She slammed her open fist on the desk. “Fuck!”
A piece of bloodstained paper fell from Henry’s clenched hand. In elegant script, written with perfection in black ink, read two little words: No cheating.
“What is it?” Liam asked.
She shoved the paper at his chest and stormed off to the bookcases lining the opposite walls. A secret lever, a compartment, a key to a safe, something had to be hidden in there. “He has to have a stash somewhere.”
For the next twenty minutes, she tore apart the room. Drawers, cabinets, closets, dressers, bookshelves, and filing cabinets littered the floor. No key. No passage. No lever. Nothing. She tried to locate a cell phone, only to discover it had been swiped along with his wallet.
The last place to look was Henry himself. She marched over to check his pockets. His stiff frame didn’t move smoothly and weighed heavier than he looked. She grazed his breast pocket and plunged her hand down his shirt in hopes a secret pocket rested beneath his clothing. The coldness of his skin irritated her fingers.
She kicked at the wall when she came up empty-handed. “Shit.” She bunched her hair as she slid down the wall, staring at Henry. She tried to think of where he could have hidden everything, where a man like him had a safe house.
Sweden? Florida? France? Some island in the middle of nowhere? All of those places were better than finding out he stashed it in Erewhon, where she couldn’t go.
“Adrian must’ve cleaned him out,” Liam said, standing in the center of the room, spinning on his heels to look around one last time.
Maura clawed at her temples. “No.” She walked to Henry and dragged her fingers through a small pool of blood beside his mouth. Memories jumped to her skin. Retracting her touch, she was struck with an idea to find out where his stash was. “A dealer like him knows not to keep everything in one place. We just have to find out where his reserve is.”
Liam raised an eyebrow. “You can’t press a dead man’s mind.”
“But you can. You’re a GateKeeper. You can splice through the present to view the past.” She placed his hands in hers and pulled him to the floor. “I’ll use my Telepathy to look on.”
He slipped his hands from hers, her fingertips clenching to his. “That’s a lot of magic. Powerful magic. It’s dangerous to–”
“I’ll be fine,” she interrupted.
He shifted, trying to take back his hands. “Maura, if anything happened to you–if the spell backfired…”
“I have a soul cursed upon me.” She clasped her hands over his. “I can handle your GateKeeper magic.”
“You don’t know how the two will react,” he pleaded, eyes wide, skin pale, hands cold.
“If you won’t do this, then I’ll have to use my Clairvoyance. Do you want another crack in the mirror?”
“Another?” He shook his head. “Listen, I can do it without you.”
“I need to watch. You won’t know what to look for.” She tightened her hold on him. “We need to see what happened. This is the only way.”
Liam sighed. “Let go if something happens.”
“Fine.”
A whoosh of wind entered the room. Smears of color flew past her vision. Walls melted into white puddles. She shut her eyes. Sounds danced together to create incoherent chatter. The sound of a gunshot sucked her into the past.
Chapter Eighteen: Dead Man's Tale
Earlier that Morning
“I’ll talk to you later, Henry,” Michelle said.
Henry hung up the phone. His ex had called on his way home from her Brooklyn apartment after realizing he'd visited while she slept. His drink had run cold in that time and the sprinklers cycled through their usual five a.m. routine.
He climbed from the car, leaving the phone in the cup holder. Michelle would call again.
Henry walked to the side door. He slipped the enchanted key into the lock, disabling the security Shields around the home. Once inside, the Shields reformed with an audible thud. He walked into the dark master bedroom.
Heidi stirred beneath the cotton blankets. Her platinum blonde hair flowed over the soft blue pillows she’d spent hours handpi
cking.
“You’re late,” she sighed, rolling over to him after he’d settled under the warm covers. She nestled her head into his shoulder.
He stroked her arm and kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry, babe.”
“You owe me,” she cooed, biting his earlobe. Her hand slid up his shirt, her lips pressed hard on his neck. She drew her hand down his chiseled torso.
Henry shuddered at the ghostly trail her aura left behind. It reminded him of ice. Her slender fingers crawled beneath the elastic band of his boxers and froze. Her parted lips sought his. He placed his hands on either of her cheeks to steady her mouth. She tasted like candy. Her leg slipped between his as the kiss deepened. The fabric of her nightgown rode up to her hip. She took his caressing hand and placed it on her exposed thigh.
A moan escaped. Heidi smiled. She stroked his length firmly while he ran his hands along her sides and pulled the nightgown from her body.
***
Henry’s alarm blared. He woke to an empty bed and rubbed his eyes. His body ached from lack of sleep.
After picking out a pair of jeans and a polo shirt, he showered and then made a cup of coffee. He filled a mug, staring out the back window at the birds in the bird bath.
The doorbell rang. Taking a sip, he walked the short hallway to the door, opening it wide.
A girl with a cheery smile stood on the front porch. She wore a blue blouse, tucked into her high-waist skinny jeans, paired with a brown leather belt. Her long brunette hair blew in the breeze, and her black aviator sunglasses sat atop her head. Bright blue eyes, like oceans, smiled back.
“It’s Beth,” she said. “This is my new Illusion for now.”
The Shield around the home fell at his welcoming touch.
“I wasn’t expecting you till much later.” He moved from the door, shutting it once she passed into the hallway.
“Sorry. I called your phone…” Beth slipped her sunglasses into a breast pocket.
“Don’t apologize. I left the damn thing in the car. Can I get you anything? I made a pot of coffee.” He raised the mug to eye level and took another hot sip.
She shook her head. “No, thanks. I was just hoping we could get this over with.”
“This way.” Henry directed her upstairs. “I had to go all the way to Brooklyn to get this for you.”
“Oh yeah?” Beth drew her fingers over the bookshelves she passed and glanced around the room in wonder. “That’s a drive from here, no?”
“It isn't bad if you can beat the traffic.”
After sealing the room with a soundproof spell, Henry took a seat behind the desk. The chair creaked under his weight, a reminder to take up running again. He unlocked the desk drawer and retrieved the vial of antidote, along with a receipt for the charge. Three thousand was a hefty price tag, but it beat The Keep and their ten thousand dollars.
He placed the vial on the desk and looked at Beth.
A man, six feet tall, black hair and red glowing eyes, stood over her shoulder. The sly smile on his lips reflected on Beth’s. She sat back in her chair, crossed her legs, and folded her intertwined hands beneath her chin.
“This will go one of two ways, Mr. Bach.” His smile exposed a set of fangs. His hand revealed a silver gun. “Where this encounter goes depends on your decisions in the next five minutes. Do we have an understanding?”
Henry remained silent. His gaze flitted back and forth between the gun and the Vampire. Gun. Vampire. Gun. Vampire. He didn't know which to watch.
“Gentlemen introduce themselves when a guest in someone’s home,” Henry said, forcing his voice to remain steady.
The Vampire’s smile widened. He held out a hand. His firm shake threatened to break Henry's fingers. “I am Adrian Wilhelm. And I will either be a blessing or a curse. It all depends on you.”
The name shot fear down Henry's spine. His fingers clenched into a fist.
“What can I do for you, Mr. Wilhelm?”
“My request is rather straightforward.” Adrian placed his palms on the desk and leaned forward. “Beth Hollings, not this lovely lady I have here with me,” he gestured to the woman watching him with adoring eyes. “Beth Hollings is due to conduct business with you later this morning. In exchange for three thousand dollars, you are to provide her with an antidote. Man to man, I do not know about you, Mr. Bach, but I do not appreciate being rejected by an antidote.”
“Are you asking me to sell her a placebo?”
“I knew you were a smart man,” he smiled.
“I–”
Adrian held up a finger. “Before you decline, perhaps you would like to hear the consequence of your noncompliance.” He rolled his neck and spoke through tight lips. “You can either be dead or alive at the end of all of this.”
“What happens to the girl?”
Adrian shook his head and wagged a finger. He leaned closer. “Your concern is not the girl. Instead, ask yourself this–is her life worth more than yours, Henry?”
Bang. Bang.
The woman cringed into the chair, her Illusion falling in surprise.
Henry slumped forward onto the desk, his blood pouring onto the floor. His choked gurgles for a breath faded in the silent air.
Heidi stood and walked beside Adrian, his fingers still curled around the gun.
“Why do you always play with your food first,” she said. “You didn't give him a choice.”
He handed over a small vial, filled with Beth Hollings’ venom from the Riley house incident. “Beth Hollings didn't give him a choice.”
Heidi took the vial and a syringe from her bag. She walked to Henry and knelt beside him, filled the syringe with venom, and pressed it against his bloodstained throat. She avoided his glassy gaze and pushed the plunger, the venom rushing into him.
Adrian turned on his heels toward the door. “We will smoke her out.”
Chapter Nineteen: Framed
Maura stood in front of the bathroom mirror with the sink water running. The images of Henry Bach’s death reeled in the mirror. She couldn’t stop hearing Adrian’s gun going off. Bang. Bang. Again and again, she jumped. She was fucked in more ways than one. Aura from her venom was all over Henry's wounds, Heidi played a role in everything, and Adrian knew how to find her. Her head throbbed.
She splashed frigid water on her face. The damning thought that she had been framed churned her stomach.
She stood tall and opened the door.
Liam spun around. “Are you okay, Maura?”
She nodded when he approached, taking his hands into hers. The burn marks along his fingertips appeared only skin deep. She dropped Liam’s hands and moved into the blue master bedroom. “We’ll go to his safe house. Let’s hope it has what we need.”
Strewn clothes littered the wood floor around a messy bed. Maura opened the double door closet adjacent from the bed. Glitter, sparkles, bright colors, and thin outfits hung on hangers. The scent of bitter honey was suffocating.
Liam leaned on the wall beside the closet. “What are you doing?”
“I need a dress for tonight.”
She reached for red apple stilettos and stuffed them into a gym bag that emanated the aura of honey.
The bag full, she turned from the room and headed downstairs.
Liam followed in a much slower stride. By the time he reached the first-floor landing, she’d moved to the den and stood at the window. Henry’s Shield had been lifted, and morning light flooded in. A draft from the broken door whirled through the room, mixing with Liam’s grave voice. “How do you know Adrian doesn’t know about that place too?”
“When you have a safe house, the last thing you do is write down its whereabouts.” Maura walked to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door. The scent of leftovers in plastic containers poured out in waves. She bit her lower lip, trying to decide if she wanted apple slices or a bottle of beer. She grabbed the bottle, popped the cap off using the corner of the counter, and walked toward the side door.
“It’s
eleven in the morning,” Liam commented.
“It’s five o'clock somewhere.”
Heat from the sun rolled down like a blanket. It warmed skin she hadn’t realized was cold from shock. I’m fucked. She lit a cigarette.
Liam sat with her.
She took a long puff of smoke. “You called The Keep to clean up this mess, right?
“Yeah, they’ll be here in an hour.”
She nodded.
Liam hung his arms over his knees and leaned forward. Sunlight danced on the edges of his auburn hair. “You shouldn’t be around when they come.”
“They’ll send Jeremy to survey the area before clearing it for them.” She took another inhale. “But we should take care of your hands in the meantime.” She ground the cigarette into the patio and gulped the last drop of beer.
“They’re fine.”
Maura snorted. “Don’t be a baby. It won’t hurt.” She walked around the house, unlocked the car, and reached in for the potions.
Neighbors had emerged from their homes. They waved to each other and cleaned their cars of the cherry blossom petals that blanketed everything.
Back in the yard, Liam sat where she’d left him. He straightened.
She snapped the tops off three vials and emptied the numbing liquid over Liam’s fingers. The transparent substance turned blue and then red at the site of his raw skin. She waited for them to dry before she ran her fingertips over the wounds.
“I’m the Elixir,” he said.
“You weren’t doing anything about it.”
Silver threads squeezed the charred skin. Turquoise flooded skinless patches, sowing gaps together with flawless precision. Her fingers continued to skate around his. Streams of magic coiled around his hands. She felt the heat of his gaze as she concentrated. With an audible snap, the magic disappeared, and Maura kept his hand in hers for a second longer than she should’ve. She liked the way his skin felt against hers, warm and soft, and how his fingers protectively conformed around hers. Bashful heat flooded her system, and she turned away.
“There,” she said, ignoring his eyes on her. “All better.”
Blue Ruin (The Phoenix Series Book 1) Page 13