Dirty Magic

by Jaye Wells

  She nodded at Morales, who snapped to attention and followed her out like a good little soldier. The instant the door shut behind them, I rounded on Pen.

  “Can you believe that bitch?” Even I heard the petulance in my voice. I hated it, but I couldn’t help but feel as if I deserved a little bit of self-pity, all things considered.

  “Honestly?” Pen said, watching the door my boss just exited. “I think she’s kind of awesome.”

  I sighed and dropped back in the chair. “Jesus, Pen.”

  My best friend came over and grabbed my hands, which felt icy in her warm palms. “We’ll get him better.” She opened her mouth to say more, but at that moment the door burst open and Hurricane Baba blew in.

  “Oh, my poor, poor boy!” she wailed. After that, any thoughts of planning revenge or ignoring Gardner’s instructions flew out the window as Pen and I tried to answer questions we didn’t begin to know the right answers to.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Two days later, on my way to the hospital, I grabbed a box of glazed donuts for the nurses and a bucket of coffee for me. I only wished answers were as easy to come by as sugar and caffeine.

  The night before Baba had shooed me out of the hospital to go home to shower and sleep.

  “You smell like a foot and you look like shit,” she’d said in her most loving tone. “I don’t want to see you back here before dawn.” After that she’d tried to press one of her special teas into my hands, and I escaped just so she wouldn’t make me drink it.

  Walking back into that silent house had been like entering a crime scene. Echoes of Danny permeated the place—his shoes on the floor, dirty laundry next to the hamper, his toothbrush by the sink.

  When I arrived, there was an e-mail waiting for me from Eldritch. It contained an attached police report detailing the information the cops had gathered about how Bane captured Danny. According to his friend Aaron, they’d arrived at school around seven thirty. Aaron was in the band so he had to go set up for the assembly, which was scheduled right after the first bell. Best anyone could tell, Danny decided to run to the corner store to grab some junk food before school started. The last person who saw him was the convenience store clerk, who reported seeing a tall male with brown hair, about mid-thirties, talking to Danny in the parking lot.

  I paused reading and removed the watch they’d found at the scene from my pocket. One of the cops who’d come by the hospital had brought it to me. They’d found it next to the curb where the store attendant saw Danny speaking to the stranger. I closed my fist around the cold metal and squeezed my eyes shut. So much for its bringing him luck. I swiped angrily at the tears I didn’t want to indulge and shoved the watch back into my pocket where I didn’t have to look at it.

  By the time the first class had begun and Danny’s teacher noticed he was absent he’d already been abducted. And by the time news of his absence had trickled to Pen and she’d begun leaving the frantic messages I found on my phone later, I had already been fighting Danny in the tunnels.

  I’d closed the e-mail with a nagging sensation to go along with the weight in my chest. Why would Danny go somewhere with a stranger? He knew better than that. And the clerk hadn’t reported a struggle between the two. It didn’t add up.

  To distract myself from my loneliness and the memories and the theories, I’d called Morales around midnight for an update. He’d groggily informed me that they’d identified some of the Gray Wolf addicts who’d attacked us.

  “Shadi ID’d five of them as vagrants who hang out at one of the shelters downtown.”

  “Did she go there?”

  “Of course.”

  “And?”

  “And what, Kate?” He sighed. “Did she find Ramses Bane sitting on a cot waiting to be arrested?”

  The conversation was pretty much over at that point.

  It’s not that I didn’t trust Morales and the rest of the team to get Bane—well, that’s not true. I didn’t want anyone but me to deliver the swift kick of justice directly to Bane’s ass. But I also realized that my hands were tied. As much as I hated to admit it, Gardner was right: Danny needed to be my priority.

  He might be unconscious, but the doctor felt sure he could register some of what was happening around him. Even if he didn’t remember everything—and Lord knew I hoped he forgot what happened in the tunnels—when he eventually woke up, I had a feeling he’d know deep down that he hadn’t been alone. That had to count for something.

  So, really, I had no choice but to put my faith in the team. Which meant I probably needed to add an apology to Morales to my to-do list for calling him an asshole before I’d hung up on him.

  The nurses cheered when I dropped off the box of glazed donuts at the desk. Apparently the Cauldron had hosted a busy night of ODs, stabbings, and assorted other magic-related violence that kept the ER hopping. That meant the nurses in Danny’s ward had had to step it up to cover all the staff who had been commandeered to handle triage.

  “We didn’t expect you until later,” Rita, the shift supervisor, said with a yawn. “But we’re sure glad you showed up when you did.”

  I smiled. Inside I longed to ask them what kinds of potions were involved, but I left them to enjoy their breakfast in peace. Even if the cases were related to Gray Wolf, there wasn’t much I could do with the knowledge besides harass Morales some more.

  “I’ll just go check on Danny,” I said to the nurses.

  “Oh! Mrs. Nowiki went down to grab some coffee and breakfast at the cafeteria about half an hour ago, but your other friend showed up not too long after.”

  I frowned at her, wondering if Morales or one of the task members stopped by. “What friend?”

  “Let me check.” She started rifling through stacks of files on the counter, looking for the visitor log. “One of the other nurses was on duty, so she wrote it down.”

  I waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll go see for myself.” I started to walk away, thinking it was probably Pen. It wasn’t until I approached the room and saw that all the curtains were closed to the hallway that my gut told me to worry. I reached for the door at the same instant the nurse called down the hall.

  “Oh, here it is,” she called. “It’s Mr. Volos—”

  My heart plummeted ten stories. I threw open the door and ran inside.

  “Hello, Kate.”

  My feet froze to the ground. For a moment, all I could do was stare. Volos stood on the far side of Danny’s bed, holding my brother’s hand as though he belonged there.

  The instant my brain snapped out of it, my gun was in my hand and pointed at Volos’s chest. “Get the fuck away from him.”

  His hands didn’t tremor as they rose. “Easy there.”

  “I said get away from him.” My voice was permafrost on the air.

  Footsteps squeaked down the linoleum hallway. “Officer Prospero?” the head nurse called.

  “Call security,” I said quietly without taking my eyes off Volos.

  “I thought you were security.” Volos smiled. “Put down the gun. You know I wouldn’t hurt either of you. In fact, I’ve come to offer my help.”

  I stared hard at his innocent expression for a full fifteen seconds. I knew better than to trust that poker face, but I was also extremely curious to hear how and why he was offering help. Finally, I looked over my shoulder. “Leave us.”

  The shuffling of reluctant feet followed. Volos and I stared at each other across my brother’s silent form until we were again alone.

  “What do you want?”

  “Won’t you lower the weapon?”

  “No.”

  “Fair enough.” The corners of his lips lifted. “But if you’re going to shoot—” He unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt. The top of what looked like a stretchy black undershirt peeked out between the widened collars. “You’re going to want to aim for my face.”

  I frowned at him. “What the fuck is that?”

  “Bulletproof fabric.”
/>   It looked a lot like the same fabric that made up the patch Mez had given us to wear for the tunnel raid. “Why are you wearing it here?”

  “Says the woman pointing a gun at me.” He tapped it with his knuckles. At my narrowed eyes, he sighed. “Let’s just say some of my former colleagues aren’t exactly my biggest fans.” He smiled tightly. “I’m sure you understand.”

  “What do you want?”

  “To help you.”

  My eyes narrowed. “Why?”

  He straightened himself as though my suspicion ruffled his feathers. “Recent events notwithstanding, we once were very close.” He cleared his throat. “More to the point”—he glanced at Danny with a look bordering on warmth—“I have always had an affinity for the kid.”

  A heavy weight settled on my chest. It had been so long since I’d thought about the good times. Back before Mom died, when John and I were still in love. We used to take Danny to get ice cream from the cart on Canal Street. Once, when Danny dropped his cone in the gutter, John bought him two more to get him to stop crying.

  I clenched my jaw against the memories. They were dangerous. He was dangerous. “Just say your piece and get out.”

  The skin around his eyes tightened. Volos wasn’t used to being spoken to like that. From what I’d seen of this slick, new CEO persona, he commanded ultimate respect at all times.

  He tilted his head. “Where’s this hostility coming from? You know damned well I had nothing to do with this mess.”

  “Doesn’t mean you’re innocent or that I trust you.”

  “Trust … right. You know a lot about that.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  He ignored my question. “Let’s put our past aside for the moment and focus on Danny. What Bane did was beyond a crime.” He paused, letting it hang there just long enough to pique my interest. “I may have access to a remedy for your brother’s ailment.”

  “He doesn’t have an ailment.” My stomach clenched like a fist. “He’s brain-dead because of a fucking dirty potion.”

  He made a noncommittal gesture as if I were splitting hairs. “Regardless, it’s clear conventional medicine and clean magic aren’t the proper tools.”

  “Are you saying I should employ illegal dirty magic to cure my brother when it was illegal dirty magic that harmed him in the first place?” It was so ridiculous that I laughed bitterly. “You’ve got balls, I’ll give you that.”

  “What I am saying is that sometimes you have to fight dirty with more dirty.” He raised his hands in a pleading gesture. “He’s not going to recover without it, Kate. You know that.”

  “More to the point, what makes you so sure of that? Maybe you’re in bed with Bane.”

  “That’s your stupid stubborn pride talking.” He smiled sadly. “You know I’m as much a target for Bane as you are.”

  “So if you didn’t cook it, how could you possibly know where to get the antipotion?”

  He watched me quietly for the span of three heartbeats. “I may be out of the dirty magic trade, but old training dies hard. Once I saw what Gray Wolf did to people, I decided to start gathering materials to see if I could work out an antipotion.”

  Something clicked. “Wait. Is that why you received the shipment of oil of rose quartz?”

  He nodded. “That’s also why I ordered the oil instead of distilling it myself. I knew it was only a matter of time until Bane made his big move.”

  I stared at him as a million questions and thoughts tripped over themselves in my head. I must have stayed quiet too long because he shifted uncomfortably. “So you figured it out?”

  He grimaced. “It’s not progressing as quickly as I’d hoped. I never had your talent for breaking down the recipes of existing potions.” He let it hang there, like a hook with a juicy worm.

  “Surely you have access to wizards who can help you—”

  “No one I trust. If word gets to Bane that I’m working on an antipotion, he’s bound to do something desperate.”

  “So if you don’t have the antipotion to offer, what are you doing here?”

  “I want you to help me cook it.”

  My stomach pitched south. “Fuck you.”

  “Kate,” he said, coming toward me, “you know that between the two of us we’ll figure out the cure for Danny.”

  I shook my head rapidly, as if I could knock his words free of my ears. “I can’t.”

  He frowned. “I get it. You’re a little rusty. It’ll come back.”

  I held up my hands. “No, you don’t get it. I don’t cook anymore.” I looked him in the eye. “Ever.”

  His mouth fell open. “You’re joking.”

  I pointed at my brother, who looked like the poster boy for desperate cases. “Do you honestly think I would joke about something that could save his life?”

  John’s mouth snapped shut. “I don’t—I had no idea you didn’t cook at all.”

  I crossed my arms protectively and looked away from the mix of curiosity and concern in his blue gaze.

  “Surely you’d make an exception here.”

  I shook my head. “Magic did this to him, John. I’m not going to multiply the crime by cooking dirty in some vain hope of curing him.”

  He ran a hand through his hair. “I—okay, I can maybe figure something out. It’ll take some time, though, Kate.”

  I shook myself. “I didn’t say I’d let you give him a potion whether I helped cook it or not.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “Because I don’t think I could afford the price you’d ask in exchange.”

  “I don’t want your fucking money.”

  I looked him hard in the eye. “It’s not money I’m worried about. It’s the inevitable favors.”

  His jaw hardened like I’d offended him. “What have I done that you would think so little of me?” he asked quietly. “You left me, remember?”

  I crossed my arms and glared at him.

  “I don’t want anything from you. I just want to help the kid.” He sighed. “For his sake, I hope you’ll put your pride aside sooner rather than later.”

  “Don’t hold your breath.”

  He turned to look at my brother’s pale, expressionless face. “Eventually you’ll realize that even if you catch Bane, he’ll never give up the formula for the antipotion. Or maybe Danny will take a turn for the worse. Or maybe the money for his care will run out.”

  I swallowed hard. It had run out before it began, hadn’t it?

  “Or you’ll just run out of hope.” He looked up then, straight into my eyes. “And when that happens, you’ll have no choice.”

  I pointed a trembling hand toward the door. “Get out.”

  “Kate—”

  “Get out!” I screamed. My weapon was in my hand again without me realizing I’d drawn it. “Get out!”

  He held up his hands and scooted toward the door. Just outside, the nurses were running again along with a couple of security guards.

  “I’ll be waiting for your call.” With that, he ducked past the security guards and nurses who had congregated at the door. The instant his blond head disappeared into the crowd, I sagged against the bed. I looked over at the gray face of my sixteen-year-old brother and felt the fragile facade I’d been maintaining shatter into a million pieces.

  “What are we going to do, Danny?” I whispered. “What the fuck are we going to do?”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  By noon, I was on my way to the gym. Heading there had been a decision motived by two factors.

  First, Baba had returned with four women who looked old enough to be Methuselah’s aunts. The group often got together for such activities as quilting, making scrapbooks, and casting revenge spells under the full moon. I guess after Baba told them what happened to Danny, they’d decided it was a good idea to sit vigil around him and chant to Hekate for a quick recovery.

  I hadn’t pointed out that some stupid chants weren’t going to fix my brother, but I didn’t argue
with them about their plans. If chanting helped Baba feel less desperate about Danny’s situation, I wouldn’t stop her from finding the solace that I’d been unable to find. I had escaped as quickly as possible before they started drawing pentagrams from the salt packets they’d stolen from the hospital cafeteria.

  The second reason I headed to the gym had been the conversation with Volos. After I’d calmed down a little, I realized he’d been right about one thing. The doctors at the hospital couldn’t cure Danny. They could keep him alive and somewhat comfortable—if you considered a coma cozy. But they had no idea how to reverse a dirty magic potion that combined blood magic with alchemy. What I needed was a wizard who knew a thing or two about street magic and had access to samples of Gray Wolf to analyze. And the only person who fit that description besides John Volos was Mesmer.

  Luckily, I found him working alone in his lab. When I reached the top step, he poked his head around the divider and his face morphed into a smile. “Kate!”

  “Hey, man.” I looked around at the empty gym. “Where is everyone?”

  That day his dreads were back to their normal dark brown color, but his eyes were different. I squinted at them for a moment before I realized his irises were vibrant violet instead of the typical chocolate brown. He was also wearing eyeliner.

  He sighed. “Morales and Shadi are working with the BPD to figure out where the hell Bane went. And Gardner is in Detroit trying to convince the ASAC not to pull the plug on the whole operation.”

  I reared back, eyes wide. “What’s an ASAC and why would they pull the plug?”

  “Assistant Special Agent in Charge, aka Gardner’s boss,” he explained. “And he’s pissed because the mayor’s raising hell about the clusterfuck in the tunnels.”

  “Shit,” I said. “What a fucking mess.”

  “No shit, sister. What brings you in?”

  I hesitated, trying to figure out the right tone to use for my request. “I need to talk to you about something, actually.”