by Linsey Hall
“I didn’t see the murder, but I saw the cleanup. Vampire Court took care of it.”
Disappointment streaked through me. I sank back into the plush couch, suddenly exhausted. I wasn’t sure how many more Chuckles I’d be able to conjure at this point. “Were there many of them?”
“Eight.” She shuddered. “Powerful, creepy folks.”
“I’m trying to find the murderer. Did you overhear anything from the vampires?”
“Nope.”
“Do you know anything about the victim? His name was Marin Olerafort.” That was what they’d ask on the TV shows. Find the murderer by learning about the victim.
I so had the hang of this.
The woman held out a hand.
I passed over a package of Chuckles. She tucked it into her impressive cleavage.
“Careful, those could melt in there. Get sticky.”
“Maybe that’s how I like it.” She grinned, revealing a mouth of gold teeth.
I winced. Know when you’re beat. This lady could out-gross me anyway. She would take this victory.
“You do you.” I leaned forward. “What can you tell me about Marin?”
Please know something.
“He worked with vampires. And he liked to visit the woman who lived down the road to the left. Apartment 1B.”
“How often?”
“Often enough that you should pay her a visit.” She held out a hand, gaze expectant.
I passed the last pack of Chuckles over. She tucked it into her cleavage. Okay.
“Is that all you know?”
“About this Marin fellow, yes.”
“Thanks.” I stood. “Looks like I’m off to find 1B.”
“No, you’re not.”
I stiffened, then tilted my head at her, hoping to give off the look of an angry bird of prey. Not sure I quite nailed it. “I’m not?”
“No. You can’t find 1B. It’s hidden.”
Shit. “Can you help me?”
“For more Chuckles, of course.”
I sighed, then called on my magic. A few more packs and I’d be drained. I was good at finding things because of my dragon sense, but I didn’t want to risk relying on that alone, since it didn’t always work unless I had good info about what I was hunting.
And I really needed to find 1B.
I conjured two more packs of Chuckles and handed them over.
She took them, shoved them down the hatch of her bra, then smiled serenely. “You need to seek the everliving vine. It blooms blood red and pricks like a knife.”
“Hmmm. Okay.” I could work with that. It’d give me something to envision so my dragon sense could latch on. “That all?”
“No. There is no door. Pet a rose petal and say that Clarita sent you. And don’t startle her. She is easily spooked.”
“Perfect.” My favorite kind of person to question.
The woman chuckled and stood, then gestured me to the door. “The Chairman will lead you out.”
The big black cat who’d led me here rose from his spot on the rug, then stalked to the door. The Chairman really suited him. I waved to the woman, then followed the Chairman down the stairs and out the main door, which slammed unceremoniously behind me.
In the cold dark of the alley, my newfound clue suddenly seemed small by comparison. But I called upon my dragon sense anyway, feeding it a mental image of the everliving vine with blood red blooms and knife thorns.
It took a moment—an eternity, actually—before my dragon sense clued in. Then it tugged about my middle. Hard.
I followed it left, away from Fair Fortune Alley, headed deeper down the narrow street. The moon shined brightly upon the cobblestones that were flecked with snow. More rats streaked along to my left. Good company.
My dragon sense pulled me toward another blank brick wall. This one had no door, but it did have a thick vine crawling up the front. Blood red blooms—like roses on steroids—were nestled amongst the dagger-like thorns.
I really wanted to pick one.
That was a terrible freaking idea. Clarita had said to pet a rose petal. I ran a finger down the velvety red surface. “Clarita sent me.”
Magic shimmered on the air, and the roses dissolved, followed shortly by the thorns and the vines. A blue door appeared. 1B was painted on the surface in gold.
“Clarita?” the voice asked.
“Yes.” I strove to keep my voice calm, so as not to startle her. “She said that I could find you at the everliving vine.”
I swore I could hear the annoyed sigh from behind the door. A moment later, it opened to reveal a pretty blonde woman who looked like she ran the PTA. Her eyes were an ice blue that cut right through me, and she was thin enough that a stiff wind could blow her away.
Despite her everyday PTA appearance, there was something weird about her. Just like there had been with Clarita. But I couldn’t place it.
“What can I do for you?” Her voice was as cold as her eyes.
I sure hoped she didn’t want any Chuckles. “I’m here to ask you about the murder of Marin Olerafort. I understand that you were friends.”
Her ice eyes widened at that, and her jaw stiffened. At her side, her hand fisted until the knuckles were white. “I have no idea who you are talking about.”
“Of course you know Marin.” Shit, was I the first one to tell her that he’d died? “Wait, did you not know about his death?”
Idiot.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her voice wavered, but it was hard to tell if it was sadness or anger.
“You were friends with Marin. Please, help me. I need to find his killer.”
“I’m sorry. I know nothing.” She slammed the door shut. It disappeared and the everliving vine grew up from the pot on the ground.
I stepped back. “Well, shit.”
“That’s an understatement.” The deep voice sounded from behind me.
I jumped a mile into the air. I swear to fate I could see the city below me, spread out as golden lights creeping over the Oregon countryside. When I finally landed, fear sweat had broken out on my palms. Slowly, I turned.
Chapter Five
The Enforcer stood on the other side of the alley, leaning against a brick wall. Though he was far too big to ever look elegant, he somehow managed it. But it was a lounging jungle cat’s I’m-about-to-eat-you elegant. His eyes pierced right through me, and he looked like he was poised to attack. His dark hair swept back from his forehead in the sexiest, most artful disarray I’d ever seen.
Omigod, had I just thought he was sexy?
I was a certifiable idiot. The kind that deserved a plaque on her wall. Or on her tombstone. Here lies the body of the idiot who was attracted to a killer vampire Enforcer. May she rest in stupidity.
“Did you think you could outrun me?” he asked.
“Kinda hoped to, at least until I found a clue that proved I was innocent.”
“Innocent? You drugged my guards.”
“But I didn’t kill them. Just like I didn’t kill Marin.”
He crossed his arms and gave me a skeptical brow raise, then glanced at the wall behind me. “You’re trying to prove your innocence?”
“You believe I’m innocent?”
“What I believe is that you are somewhere you shouldn’t be, talking to people you shouldn’t have the ability to see. Much less talk to.”
“I can talk to anyone I want.”
The corner of his mouth pulled back in something that was almost a grin but at the same time not even close. “Apparently so.”
“I’ve found a clue, though. So you have to let me go.”
“Hardly.” He stepped forward.
I backed up. My heart thundered, and sweat broke out on my palms, as if my primitive lizard brain remembered him slapping the collar on me.
“We need to get out of here,” he said.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Yes, you are.” His gaze fell to the collar. “If you w
ant to keep that head of yours.”
“Bastard.” Of course I wanted to keep my freaking head.
“Then come on.” He held out his hand.
“I’m not holding your hand.”
“I’m transporting you, not asking you out. We can’t talk here. It’s not private.”
“My friends are here with me. I can’t just ditch them.”
“Loyal.”
“Like a postcard of a golden retriever.”
His brow quirked. “Paul Simon?”
He recognized the lyrics. I wouldn’t have pegged that. “Since I’m not a moron, yes.”
“That’s debatable. Come on. You can call your friends to let them know you’ve left.” He eyed the collar, the threat implicit.
“Fine.” I grabbed his palm, both attracted and annoyed.
His strong hand closed around my own. A second later, I was sucked into the ether. It spit us out in the middle of the business district. The tall, darkened buildings glowered down upon us. Most busy bees had gone home for the night.
“Here?” I asked. “You got some banking to do?”
“Smart-ass.” But the look in his eyes kinda suggested that he thought I was funny.
Weird. “Give me a moment to call my friends.” I pointed to a light post about twenty feet away. “I’m going over there to do it.”
“Don’t want me eavesdropping?”
“Don’t be weird. Of course I don’t want you listening to me. I’m going to say terrible things about you.”
This time, I’d bet at least seventy-five cents that there was a grin in his gaze.
Nah, that was nuts. I wouldn’t even bet a dime.
“Fine. Be quick.”
I turned and hurried to the light post, then pressed my fingertips against the comms charm at my neck.
“Guys?” I whispered.
“Yeah?” Cass whispered back.
“I’ve been nabbed by the Enforcer.”
“Damn!” Del hissed.
“My thoughts exactly. He’s taken me back to his place in the business district.” I didn’t need to tell them exactly where to find me. If they needed to, their dragon senses would lead them right to me. “Anyway, I’ll be in touch.”
“Be safe. We’ll keep looking for clues, though we’ve had no luck yet.”
“Thanks, guys. And hey, look after Fabio, okay?”
“Of course,” Del said. “I’ll drive him like he’s my own.”
We cut the line, and I returned to the Enforcer. He lounged against a light post, doing another effortless impression of a jaguar that could take my head off.
Not so funny thing was, he could.
“What’s your name, anyway?” I asked.
“Ares.”
“Like the god of war?”
He shrugged. “If the shoe fits.”
“But not like, the Ares.”
“No, gods are myths.”
“Myths can be based on people.”
“Well, this one isn’t based on me. I’m only twenty-eight, not twenty-eight hundred. Follow me.”
He led me toward the front door of the tallest building in Magic’s Bend. It held offices as far as I knew, but there was a doorman who looked like he should be standing outside of some fancy apartment building in New York, letting Eloise in and out.
“Sir,” the doorman intoned. His face looked like every face I’d ever seen. As boring and bland as wheat bread. It was almost as if he tried to be invisible.
“Jeeves.” Ares nodded.
Jeeves held open the door, and I followed Ares into the elegant lobby. I hurried up beside him. “Are you freaking kidding me? The doorman’s name is Jeeves? Is he also a butler?”
The corner of Ares’s mouth tugged up just slightly, though his eyes remained chilly. “Just a doorman.”
“Okay, then.” I looked around at the fancy couches and potted plants. “I thought this was an office building.”
“The bottom floors are.” He pressed the button for the elevator. “The tops floors are apartments, and this is the residential entrance.”
“And we couldn’t just transport into your house?”
He tossed me an unimpressed glance. “As if I’d allow transporting into my home.”
He’d blocked it for security reasons, I guessed. Smart.
He stuck his key into a slot in the elevator, and we rode in silence up to his apartment. The doors opened onto a small, private lobby, and he used his key again to enter his apartment.
I whistled. “Fancy.”
The apartment was huge, with high ceilings and a wall of windows looking out onto Magic’s Bend. It was modern and beautiful and cold, a bit like the man himself.
I wandered toward the low gray couch. The leather looked soft as silk. It faced a massive marble fireplace.
“You should have a white bearskin rug in front of that fireplace.”
“Not my style.”
“I imagine not.” Too tacky for ol’ Ares. “You really live here?”
“Occasionally.” He strode to the open kitchen behind a half wall.
“Multiple homes, huh?” I shook my head. “I feel you. They can be a burden.”
I so did not have multiple homes, but I wasn’t above making fun of him for his.
“Can I get you a drink?” he asked.
“Will it be blood?”
He glanced back at me, brows raised. “Are you offering?”
As fear dampened my palms, I regretted my joke. “Nope. And, uh, I’ll just have a water.”
He nodded.
I followed him toward the kitchen, veering off to stand at the huge dining room table set into the corner. Windows surrounded it on both sides, providing expansive views out onto the rolling lights of Magic’s Bend. The dark patch beyond had to be the sea. Though we were basically a coastal city, I didn’t go there often.
Ares joined me, passing me a glass of water. I took it, careful not to touch his hand nor look too directly at him. Not only did he scare me, his beauty kinda blinded me.
I didn’t like it. He’d be easier to trust if he were ugly.
But he wasn’t. He had the face of a guy who got everything he wanted. And what he wanted right now was to pin a murder on me.
I sipped the water to wet my parched throat. “What are we doing up here?”
“Talking about what you were doing back in Darklane. Returning to the scene of the crime? Did you want a memento?”
“Ugh, no.” I set the water on the glass table just a little too hard. Thankfully, nothing cracked. “I was there looking for clues about who actually did it so that you’d take this damned collar off me.”
“Did you find one?” he asked.
“Of course. PTA lady has one.”
“PTA lady?”
“You know, Parent Teacher Association? She looks all pressed and proper, besides the fact that there is something weird about her.”
“Weird? As weird as you being able to walk in the Shadowlands?” He stepped close, his magic pressing in on me. I swore I could feel heat roll off him, though that was crazy.
I stepped back. “What the hell are you talking about?”
He frowned. “Nothing. Tell me what you learned from the PTA woman.”
I wanted to know more about these Shadowlands, but now wasn’t the time to push. “She knew Marin. And I bet she has a clue about the murder. I just need to figure out what.”
“How did you know how to seek her? That seems suspicious that you wandered right to the door of the woman who has a clue.”
“Well, you said I wasn’t just a Conjurer. I also have a bit of Seeker gift. Not enough that it’s worth mentioning, but sometimes it works.” Lies. Seekers were harmless Magica who could find things. I could find things because I was a FireSoul. We were not harmless.
“A Seeker? Really?”
“Yeah. My mom’s side.” Not that I could actually tell him a thing about my mother. I didn’t know a thing myself.
“And it led you to her
. To a clue that you think will absolve you of the crime?” That skeptical look came back to his face.
“So you trust me? That I didn’t do it?”
“I don’t trust you. There’s something strange about your magic and you’re a suspect. Suspects wear the collar so you don’t run for it. In three days, if I’m not convinced you’re innocent, you go in front of the Vampire Court for sentencing. Or that collar becomes a real problem for you.”
My stomach pitched. “A head-removing problem.”
“Exactly.”
I scowled. “I won’t be running. Is it true that one of your court members can read minds?”
He nodded. “Doyen can. It’s annoying.”
I swallowed hard. That was bad news for me. “Can she read yours?”
“No longer. I learned to protect my thoughts. But it took a long time.”
Shit. I definitely could not end up in front of the Vampire Court. Not if this Doyen could look inside my head and figure out that I was a FireSoul.
I was going to have to help him figure out who the killer was. It was the only way to save my own hide.
“Tell me about the man who was murdered. Was he a vampire?”
“No, but he was a valued ally to the Vampire Court. He was one of our own. We are responsible for him.” His hands fisted at his side, and his lips tightened.
Interesting.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think he missed Marin. That he’d cared for him. Was he fighting to avenge someone he’d loved? Did the ice man really have feelings?
But I didn’t want to explore that right now. Ares wasn’t a real person to me. His feelings didn’t matter. He was an obstacle I needed to get through to prove my innocence.
“We need to go question that lady,” I said. “Or better yet, I need to sneak into that house. Could you distract her while I sneak in? I have an invisibility potion.”
He sighed. “I can’t say I’m surprised that you want to be involved in this.”
“Of course I do. I can’t just leave it up to you. I solve my own problems.”
“But I don’t need your help.”
“Sure, you could probably just bust in and search the place, but that’s a terrible idea. Loads of supernaturals have spells that quickly dispose of incriminating things. Stealth is always the best way.”
He frowned. “You have a point. I wasn’t planning to just bust in, as you put it. But two will make it go more smoothly.”