Black Magic Sanction th-8

by Kim Harrison

  Heart pounding, I scanned the empty room. "Right in front of us. Let me pull up my second sight and see what's going on." Damn it, Nick knew witches couldn't do this. But he thought I could?

  It was weird, how the magnets had pulled the line deep into the earth. Weird, and really clever. But even that thought vanished when I brought my second sight up to find that instead of the expected rock and rubble of being underground, we were in an open space, with tall ceilings and flat floors, colorful banners, and the phantom sound of eighties music done instrumentally.

  "Holy. Crap," I gasped, shocked when I recognized it. It was the demons' mall. Al had taken me here once when he was out of powered rock from Pompeii. My hand went to my throat as I saw the demons and familiars going about their business. I'd be unseen unless they used their own second sight. I was like a ghost, not really in the ever-after but just looking at it. I turned to the wall, blinking. It was gone, a coffeehouse catering to demons and familiars alike in its place.

  "Whoa. Dudes," I said. "Ivy, you're not going to believe this. It's a mall." It was times like this that made me glad demons couldn't pop over to reality whenever they felt like it but had to be summoned. Nothing could stop them from looking, though.

  Nick grunted, and I turned from the juxtaposed views of the wall and coffeehouse to see him, seemingly standing in the mall, oblivious to demons going past. Nick's aura was a lot darker than the last time I'd seen him. Jax, on his shoulder, was a spot of rainbows. "Can you get in?" Nick asked.

  Feeling ill and disoriented from holding two visions of reality, I blinked, deciding that his black smut was a lot thicker. The mark that Al had given him was like a black hole, sucking in all the light around it, twin to the new one on his shoulder. Seeing him waiting for an answer, I nodded. "Probably." Witches couldn't shift realities by standing in a ley line, but I wasn't a witch. Shit.

  Nick bobbed his head. "There should be a panel on the other side. Just hit open. You've probably got thirty seconds to get me in so I can enter the code to disable the alarm."

  "Alarm?" Ivy said, probably thinking that's why I looked sick. "You didn't say anything about that before."

  He turned to her. "And you thought the vault was being hidden in a magnetic resonator. Roll with it, vamp. Or can't you function without a plan to blow your nose?"

  "Uh, Rache?" Jenks interrupted, looking worried. Rainbows spilled from him, his aura falling like pixy dust. He knew what it might mean if I could do this, and I hoped he'd keep quiet about it.

  "Just... let me see," I said, then faced the blank wall, shaking out my hands and trying to find a sense of calm. This wasn't like trying to jump from one line to another. I simply wanted to slip into the ever-after through a ley line. Just go into the ever-after, walk three paces, then get out of the line. Right into a demon coffeehouse. Great. And hope that when I reappear in reality, I'm in an open room and not buried in dirt. If Trent could do it, maybe I could. I'd never be trapped in the ever-after again, either, provided I could find a ley line.

  "Rachel," Nick said, bending close. "There is a room behind the wall. Why have a lock on an empty room? I trust you. You can do this."

  I eyed him and his smutty aura, and he took his hand off me. How come he knew I was different? This didn't smell good at all.

  But closing my eyes, I strengthened my second sight. Once more, the red-tinted burnt amber smell enfolded me. The ley line ran right through the wall. Best to take two steps maybe.

  "Rachel?"

  "I'm fine, Ivy," I said, my voice harsher than I had intended. "Jenks, don't even think about it." Just do it, I thought, and then I stepped into the line and let it take me.

  The smell hit me, jerking my eyes open. Noise jangled, a hundred conversations, arguments, loud gossip. Shit, I'd done it. I didn't know if I should be happy or depressed. It sounded like Takata being piped in. It was hot, and sweat threatened to break out. Pushing my hair back, I took a shallow breath. I was what I was. The door to the coffeehouse was ahead of me, THE COFFEE VAULT painted on it in big silver letters. You ve got to be kidding. It was too obvious to ignore. Grasping the handle, I pushed open the door and went in.

  Two demons looked up, the laughter of their joke still showing on their faces. Dressed in leisure suits I wouldn't be caught dead in, they looked me up and down, assessing how high I was in the familiar hierarchy. I felt naked without Al, and I gave them a bunny-eared kiss-kiss. "Hey, hi," I said, feeling stupid. "Just passing through." Damn it, I shouldn't be able to do this.

  The better dressed of the two eyed me. "Who the hell do you belong to?"

  Ambivalent, I let the door shut behind me. There was a room mirroring this one in reality. I could sense it, like an unheard echo. "I'm Al's student. Nice to meetcha."

  The second demon smacked the first on the shoulder. "See, I told you she was alive."

  Alive? I thought, wondering what the gossip had been. "Toodles," I said, blowing him a sarcastic kiss and stepping from the line and back into reality.

  The noise cut off with a suddenness that almost hurt. The air was cooler. Dark. Black. In the corner, a shadow moved. Shit, something was in here! Not a demon, I told myself, panicking. They couldn't just slip into reality like that. Not like I could. This is good, right?

  Heart pounding, I backed up into the wall I'd just walked through. Not taking my eyes off the moving shadow, I fumbled, finding the light switch. Light flickered into existence, and I sighed. It had been me. The movement had only been me, my shadow reflecting off the ornate mirror propped against the wall.

  Slowly my pulse eased. Before me, large racks held old clocks, locked metal boxes with faded index cards, and slatted crates. One side of the room held a huge chest freezer. Actually the entire room looked a lot like Nick's basement in a much higher tax bracket. If I was lucky, there wasn't a camera. I thought of the demons at their table, able to see me with their own second sight but unable to cross over, and I shivered. The Coffee Vault, indeed. At least I'd never be trapped in the ever-after again.

  Spinning to the wall behind me, I found the thin lines of a door and the expected keypad. "Come on in, guys," I whispered, and hit the green button.

  There was the hum of machinery, and I backed up. The two panels slid apart like the doors in a science-fiction movie to show Ivy, Nick, and Jenks, hovering with brow furrowed. "Rache?" Jenks questioned.

  "We'll talk about it later," I said, and Ivy bumped Nick when he bent to pick up his stuff. Scowling, he caught himself and followed her in, immediately plugging his card into the panel.

  "Cameras?" Ivy asked, scanning the room, and when negative wing chirps came from both Jenks and Jax, she went to the canvas display. "So this is Trent's basement," Ivy said as she started leafing through the hanging canvases, arranged like posters in a pagelike display. Nick made a satisfied grunt and pulled the card from the reader.

  "We're good," he said, his gaze fixing on the picture Ivy had turned to. "That's it," he said, eyes eager as Ivy paused at a really small painting. It was hardly a foot by a foot, showing a dark background of snowy mountains and a castle, the foreground taken up by a satisfied-looking young man in a red robe and funny hat, fur around his collar and three downy feathers in his lapel. That the man looked like Trent was almost anticli-mactic.

  "That's it?" Jenks said, landing on my shoulder as we eyed it. "It's not very big."

  "Kinda ugly, too," I said, getting a funny feeling about this. I didn't want to say this was too easy, seeing as I'd used a door neither a witch nor a demon could open, but everything was going too well.

  Nick was spreading a black silk cloth on the coffin-size freezer. "It's not the size, Jenks, it's how you use it," he said, smirking. "It doesn't need to be big if it looks like Trent."

  Well, it did look like Trent. Jenks wasn't laughing, his hands on his hips as he moved out of the way while Ivy took the picture to Nick. "It stinks. Almost as bad as you, Rache," he accused.

  "I smell?" I said, flushing.

  Hol
ding the canvas at the unpainted corners, Ivy frowned at him. "You were in the ever-after," she said, one shoulder lifting in a shrug, and I took a step back from them, feeling unclean. Great, I hadn't even noticed.

  Oblivious, Nick carefully took the picture from Ivy, making a production out of rolling it up in the black cloth to put into the mailing tube he'd been carrying across his back like a sword. I couldn't help but sourly wonder if it was stamped and addressed to his latest girlfriend.

  While the two of them discussed who was going to carry it, I unzipped my belt pack and brought out the hoof pick. I'd leave it here where Trent would be sure to find it. If he didn't make the connection that he was going to get the painting back, I might be in trouble.

  Jenks joined me, and together we looked at the beautiful inlaid wood one last time before I set it on an open display case, bright with mirrors and lights. "I should have done this a long time ago," I said softly, wondering if I'd ever get my entire memory back. But who really remembered anything about being twelve?

  "Oh my God," Jenks said, eying the statue next to it. It wasn't any bigger than he was, but I felt myself warm as I looked more closely. It was two men and a woman, buck naked, doing the nasty. At the same time. One in front, one in back. She looked like she was enjoying herself, though, ample breasts heaving and back arched, which kind of made it hard for the guy in back, but by his expression, he didn't care. They had pointy ears, the woman sporting a cute pageboy haircut and the men having hair past their shoulders, wild and feral.

  "What is it?" I said, wanting to pick it up but feeling it might leave me sullied.

  "Tink's dildo, you're asking me?" he said with a snort, but he didn't elaborate. Not even one rude gesture or comment. The unusual restraint was clear evidence of his depressed state.

  "Ivy?" I called. This was too good not to share, timetable or not. "You gotta see this."

  She came closer, Nick trailing behind as he capped the top of the tube the picture was now stashed in. "Whoa," she said, nose wrinkling. "Elf porn?"

  "It's my ticket out of this life," Nick said, and Ivy grabbed his wrist when he reached for it.

  "Hey!" I said as he twisted out of her grip, frowning at her. "We're not here to steal a statue. Didn't you learn anything from last time, Nick?"

  Expression angry, he picked it up, the small statue fitting neatly in his palm. "I'm not walking out of here without something to show for it. And don't tell me you didn't expect me to help myself. That's the only reason I agreed to this, and you know it." His blue eyes were mocking, daring me to say anything. Just once, I wished I could be wrong.

  Pissed, I barked, "Put it back!"

  Jenks rose from the shelf, and Jax chimed out, "Uh, Nick? An alarm just went off."

  Thirty-one

  Ivy's eyes went a deeper black. "You son of a bitch."

  "Put it back!" I shouted. "Put it back now!" Nick shoved it into a jeans pocket, where it made a small bulge. "Doesn't make a difference. Let's go."

  "You idiot!" I exclaimed. "It does make a difference. I'm not here to take anything I can't return!"

  He smiled from the keypad, using only half his face. "You won't get caught. Promise."

  Promise? What in hell is that supposed to mean? With a satisfied smirk, he dropped his card into the reader, hit two buttons, and the doors slid open to show the first empty room.

  Ivy was a blur of motion, picking him up and throwing him to slam against the closed twin wooden doors to the hall. The gadget swung from the reader, and I lunged for it before the wires snapped. Almost crosseyed, Nick gasped for air as Ivy pinned him, her cast under his chin. The hidden door started to close, and after yanking the card free, I slipped through. I had time for one glance at the hoof pick, and then the door shut. Jenks was a blur beside me, and Jax was already with Nick, screaming at Ivy to let him go.

  "Ivy, we might need him to get out!" I exclaimed, dropping his equipment by the closed hall door. "I've got a spell to make him look like Trent. Don t give him a bruise you can see!"

  Scowling, she thought for three seconds, an eternity for her. "We're not using those."

  I touched my belt pack, my heart pounding. "Yes, we are."

  Shoving him into the doors, she dropped him. "You know I don't like your magic."

  The faint honking of a claxon was obvious, and my pulse was fast. It felt good, and I rocked to the toes of my feet as Nick rubbed his neck, his cocky mood now sullen as he gathered his equipment. God, I was not going to get excited about this. But it had been ages since I'd done anything even remotely resembling a run, and I was riding the high already.

  "I'm carrying the picture," I said, snatching it from Nick and draping the tube over my back. "Everyone, take what I give you and swallow it. Ivy, I mean it. Don't give me any crap."

  The room went silent but for pixy wings as I pulled out a vial, gave a sniff, and imagining the faint scent of tea mixing with the reek of burnt amber, I downed it. All eyes watched me as I made a face. "Tastes like lemon pop," I lied, shoving the vial away and bringing the next out.

  "I'm not drinking that," Ivy predictably said, but this one smelled like horse under the burnt amber stench, and I handed it to Nick.

  "Nothing happened," he said, and I made a face at him like he was being stupid.

  "I've not invoked it yet." Dummy.

  "Who takes the smut?" he asked as his fingers encircled the tiny vial, and Jenks bristled.

  "I do, now drink it!" I said, handing Ivy the last one. "I'll invoke them together. You uninvoke it by saying the invocation word again, so don't say it until you mean it. Got it?"

  Ivy hesitated, and Jenks got in her face. "Do it, you chicken-shit vamp!" he yelled, and she did.

  My breath exploded out of me, and I touched the line, strengthening my grip on it. The thing was right next to me, and the hair on my arms was standing on end. Maybe the demons were watching, getting a good laugh.

  I put my hands on Ivy's and Nicks shoulders, and said, "Quid me fiet!" What am I becoming? Yeah. It fit. It was a freaking demon curse. I'd made it, and I was using it.

  Ivy jerked, and I held on to her, not letting her break my gaze as the magic cascaded over us together. Her eyes widened as she felt herself change, her own face going longer and thin, aging a decade or two, and her hair silvering. Her clothes, too, changed, becoming what I remembered from the last time I'd seen Dr. Anders. Dark slacks, white shirt, and a lab coat—no hint of a cast. Demon magic. You've got to love it. It was only a glamour, though, not her real body. Under my fingers, I could feel the hardened plaster.

  "You're Ceri!" she said, and feeling the magic soak in, I let go of her and dropped back.

  "I take it," I whispered, accepting the smut for all of them, and I stifled a shudder as I felt it lap over me, settling in like a blanket, smothering. I'd never be free of it.

  Ivy turned to Nick. "You look like Trent," she said. "My God, Rachel. How long have you been able to do this?"

  I followed her gaze to where Jax was flitting like mad over Nick, who indeed looked like Trent, dressed in his usual suit and tie. It was demon magic at its best, but it was only an illusion. "Not long. It won't hold up to touch. I mean, you aren't really dressed in a lab coat, and your arm is still broken. It's all an illusion that goes no deeper than your aura. Cheaper that way. Let's get out of here."

  My brief high was gone, and I felt sick. I'd made the curse, taken the curse, made my friends take the curse, and then invoked it. Bad tempered, I reached for the door.

  "You're not pregnant," Jenks said, and my mouth fell open. I knew I'd forgotten something!

  "Shove your belt pack under your shirt," Ivy suggested, and as Jax slipped out the crack in the door to get the camera, I swung it around and did what she said. It was too big for seven months, but it was better than nothing. The picture, draped across my back, showed, and Nick had his card reader. I stank like burnt amber, too. Dead. We were so dead.

  "Let's go," I said, and Nick opened the door.


  Jax took the first camera. Jenks buzzed on ahead, his ultrasonic hail hurting my ears as we got to the corner. Jax was a blur, racing over our heads to leapfrog ahead.

  The sight of two security people jogging down the hallway spiked my adrenaline. "Here we go, boys and girls," I said, glancing at Ivy and trying to remember if Dr. Anders had eyes that dark or if Ivy's curse wasn't covering all of her.

  "Sir! Ma'am!" the one said, coming to a breathless halt, his hand on his holstered weapon. "What are you doing down here?"

  I tensed. If Nick was going to betray us, it would be now. Ivy kept her mouth shut, knowing she wouldn't sound like Dr. Anders, and I jumped when Nick took my arm as if in support. "Someone got into the vault," Nick said, lifting his card gadget. "With this. I think they're headed for the upper floors." The two men stared at him. "Well, go get them!" he added, and they turned to run the way they had come, shoes clacking as they radioed ahead.

  Swallowing, I looked down at the fake bulge at my middle. "That was close," I said, knees shaking as we started forward again.

  "If we're not out of here in two minutes, we're caught," Ivy muttered. "How fast can a woman seven months pregnant run?"

  "This one can run pretty damn fast," I said, and we jogged to the elevators, waving a worried encouragement to the occasional face that peeped out from an office or lab, wanting to know what was going on. Soon as Quen showed up, it would be over. God, what I would give for my splat gun. Good thing I didn't have it.

  The sight of the elevator sent a surge of excitement through me. Almost there. If we could just get inside the workings, we'd be all but home free. Feeling like actors in a sci-fi film, we slid to a stop. As Jax kept the camera on a loop, Nick and Ivy both reached to wedge the doors apart, Ivy using her hand not in a cast.

  "Come on. Come on!" I encouraged, but then the little ding of an approaching car iced through me, and the doors slid open. Six security guys were in it. All of them were looking at us in surprise. Not my day. So not my day.

  "That way," Nick said, doing a credible imitation of Trent on a bad day. "They gained the vault. Check every room from here to there. Now!"