“It’s the most heatproof one Alec could find,” Diana said with a little smile she couldn’t seem to hide.
She took back the phone and finished her text, ignoring Logan’s smug expression.
“I would take you to France, too, but I’ve got a pressing thing in Mexico City,” Logan said apologetically while peeking over her shoulder to read the text.
“That’s fine. Alec’s jet is a fast one. Maybe you can manipulate the currents to give us a little push. Also, I don’t know how the children of the night feel about taking to the air for that long a trip,” Diana finished with a shrug.
“Well, some of them can fly short distances. I’m sure he would make it in one piece. . .probably,” Logan added before pursing her lips. “If he’s your mate, he should survive.”
Diana rolled her eyes. “He’s not my mate. And even if he was, only your mate would be adept in your medium.”
An Elemental’s mate was partially immune to her ability. With practice, he would be able to travel with her through her medium, but only if the Elemental was highly skilled. Logan was.
“Yeah. We’ll see,” the Air Elemental replied, swinging her foot.
The phone chimed with a text message, and Diana read it as she started gathering her things.
I would rather you waited for me but will of course do as you ask. I’m sending the plane ahead to a private airfield outside Salem. Pedro will be all right. I think it was an accident. He doesn’t seem to be aware of what he did.
“Okay, I’m ready to go,” Diana said, grabbing her coat and slipping a pair of leather gloves into her back pocket.
She carefully folded the ley line map and put it in her pack.
They shifted to the library, and Diana took Logan’s hand. Her body shuddered, and she transitioned the same way she would have while traveling through fire, but the sensation stopped short of completion as the air current picked her up and carried her along for the ride.
27
Ten minutes later, Diana was dropped into the Burying Point Cemetery. The wind rushed over her as Logan made her way to her engagement in Mexico. She took a moment to whisper a prayer to the Mother for the safety of her sister and then took a good look around.
All was quiet. It was one of the many advantages of the Air Elemental. Logan could see and feel the area she was passing over and avoid the locations where people were present.
Diana’s ability didn’t work that way. She couldn’t differentiate from the heat of the fire and the body heat of people around the fire in question. Occasionally, one of the other girls could start a fire and open a secure gateway for her, but they were usually nowhere near where she needed to be.
The historic cemetery was deserted at this hour. Closer to Halloween there probably would have been tourists or wannabe practitioners wandering about. If she remembered correctly, one of the judges that had sent so many to hang was buried here. Though she knew that one of the Delavordos had started the frenzy, she sincerely hoped the old bastard of a judge was not enjoying eternal rest. Too much innocent blood was on his hands.
Wishing she had her bike, Diana walked along trying to pinpoint a location. Reaching out with her other sense, she searched for recent disruptions in the balance.
There.
A ripple signaled a disturbance somewhere to the east. It didn’t look like she would have far to walk. She turned away from Salem Common, away from the waterfront, and headed deeper into town.
The streets were also deserted at this hour. The night tours were long over, and no enterprising tourist crossed her path, although the occasional car passed in the surrounding streets. Passing various cafes and shops that played up the town’s association with witchcraft, she pulled out her new phone and texted Alec her current location and where the disturbance would likely be.
She followed Logan’s directions, trying to decipher the signals she was receiving, anything that would explain why the winds were calling out this location, but there was little she could be sure about. There was a vague swirling in the aether, localized a few blocks away. As she got closer, for a split second, there was the signature of violence, but in the next blink, it was gone.
“Of course,” Diana muttered as she reached her destination.
It wasn’t the site where the witches had hung as she’d initially suspected, but was an old building dating from that time. The sign outside declared it the ‘Witch House’. It wasn’t actually associated with the trials themselves except for the fact one of the judges had lived here at the time. But it was one of the few buildings still standing from that time in Salem proper. More were located in nearby Danvers, which was originally called Salem Village, the true origin of the hysteria.
The Witch House served as a museum these days. It was a dark, multi-gabled structure that managed to look both pious and sinister at the same time. Slipping into the shadows, Diana reached out with her senses, looking for the presence of another person inside the building. There was nothing except the fading heat signatures of the museum’s daily visitors. No listening spells or trespassing wards were discernible, either. She walked around the perimeter to be sure, but there was nothing to find.
Releasing a pent-up breath, she narrowed her eyes at the house. If there was a person inside, or a body, it was masked somehow. Getting closer, she found an unlocked window. She passed unnoticed by the alarm system, slipping inside the building with supernatural stealth.
The room had an old-fashioned hearth and table set up to display what life was like at the time of the trials. Stepping deeper into the interior, she scanned the darkness, alert and ready for battle. Despite what her senses were telling her, she wasn’t confident there was no one else here.
Diana systematically searched the ground floor of the house, sorting through the mishmash of heat signatures for anything that would explain why the winds were whispering about this place. Finding nothing, she made her way upstairs, looking through darkened room after darkened room.
The body was upstairs. It was a young woman laid out in the middle of a pentagram, her throat cut. She was dressed in a long flowing skirt and a revealing peasant blouse—clothes far less conservative than those Diana had seen the one time they’d met. It was Catherine, Brenda’s sister. The beetle brooch was pinned over her heart.
Diana stood by quietly, the sinking feeling in her stomach solidifying into anger. Was Brenda in the circle? It looked a lot more likely now. She could be the second woman in J’s club, selling their illegal spells.
But that didn’t make sense. Neither woman had a speck of magical ability in them. If they did, it was so negligible that it didn’t register. Perhaps Catherine had simply been a groupie who’d then been recruited as a salesperson. Swearing to herself, she knelt down to examine the body.
Even this close, she couldn’t sense any heat emanating from it, not even the work of decomposing bacteria. There was simply nothing for her to find.
Suspicious now, she reached a hand out to touch the body on the arm. For a moment, she felt the resistance of an unseen barrier. It wasn’t very dense. It dissipated as she pushed through it, breaking the spell the way a kid would smash through a sand castle that had hardened in the sun.
When it was gone, Diana could smell and feel the decay that had been completely obscured only moments before. She searched the air for the heat signature of the murderer, but there wasn’t one. It was possible that Catherine had been killed elsewhere and dumped, but she still should have seen the signature of the one who did the dumping.
Except his hadn’t been a simple body dump. According to the amount of blood, she’d been killed in this room. Could the spell of concealment have masked the signatures of the murderers? It shouldn’t be possible, but little about this case was in line with her past experiences.
She had a hard time believing the body lying in front of her was Katie’s aunt. Whoever was in charge of the circle could have found another person with actual magical ability far more easily. There were a fe
w spells to mask abilities, but none that could have fooled an Elemental and certainly not one that would work on the dead. And there wasn’t another spell active on the body.
Perhaps Diana was leaping to the conclusion she was meant to. Someone in the circle could have learned that someone was looking for a woman with a bee pin. It could have been placed there to implicate Catherine and Brenda both. Brenda could be lying dead somewhere, too, masked by a similar spell.
She scanned, but found nothing on or around the body that would explain the masking spell. Which meant there had to be something under her. She fished out the leather gloves from her back pocket and put them on, then lifted the right leg near the booted foot, looking for symbols drawn underneath. But the floor was bare. She put the leg down and then noticed the stickiness of her glove. It was tacky with drying blood.
She picked up the leg again and checked the underside. Even though the pool of blood didn’t reach down past her waist, the entire calf was coated with blood.
Pulling back the cloth took some effort. It was stuck to the skin, but once she’d separated it, the carving was clear. An unfamiliar rune had been cut into the skin behind the back of the ankle.
Well, that was overkill. A carving in the wood would have sufficed. Diana seriously doubted it was a case of them not knowing any better. Whoever cast this spell had enjoyed inflicting the maximum amount of damage possible.
There were more symbols carved in other parts of the body, on each arm and leg and on the back of the head. Diana made sure the body’s limbs were exactly as she found them, but the puddle of blood had been disturbed. She debated leaving it, but in the end, she used a fraction of her power to warm the blood so that it settled around the body once more.
Cleaning her hands with a quick burst of flame, she circled the body, examining the rest of the room around it. There wasn’t much in the way of furniture, and there were no signs of a struggle. Even the dust around the body was mostly intact. Catherine probably hadn’t seen her death coming. She had either trusted the person with her or was caught completely unaware.
Diana turned away and closed the door behind her, leaving it unlocked. It was time someone found Catherine. Perhaps the rest of the circle was waiting for that to happen, but the lack of wards suggested they didn’t care. The masking spell was probably to buy time for them to get away.
When she shimmied back out the window, Alec was waiting for her. She kept to the shadows, but needn’t have bothered since he had chosen to park directly in front of the building.
At least he didn’t park it under a streetlight. Suppressing a groan, Diana slipped into the backseat with him, prepared to rip him a new one.
“Did you find something?” he asked.
She hesitated. Alec looked mussed and so uncharacteristically grave that she couldn’t give him a hard time for his choice of parking spots.
Nodding, she buckled up. “I found Catherine, Brenda’s sister. Her throat was slit. She was wearing the beetle pin.”
“Well, hell. Are we after her sister or is she dead somewhere, too?”
“That’s what I’ve been asking myself since I found her,” Diana said, running a hand through her hair. “Both are real possibilities until we know more.”
“Did you burn the body?”
“No.”
“Are you going to leave it for the authorities to find again?” he asked, surprised. “Even in this case?”
“Sometimes that’s best. It looks like some black magic ritual. She had symbols carved into her body that masked her from me until I was on top of her. The police will draw the same basic conclusion and chalk it up to a psycho.”
“Are you sure that’s wise? What if they come up with a suspect?”
Diana frowned. “I doubt they will. And if there’s someone with the same m.o. then they deserve to be caught. But I doubt that will happen. The authorities might make anti-Wicca noises, but these days the only witches they know about are pretty tree-huggy. There shouldn’t be any repercussions to that group. The only likely side effect is a probable rise in tourism. Human nature will take over.” She sighed and sank back into the seat.
“Why would the circle leave the body like that? Undetectable unless you come across it?”
“My guess is they wanted it found but not right away. The spell was probably good for a week. It masked both heat and scent.”
Alec shifted restlessly. “Is their circle incomplete now? Or was she collateral damage?”
“Don’t know. If she was in the circle, triads have certain advantages or maybe they plan on recruiting. Catherine had no real magical ability. They might have found someone with actual talent and decided to get rid of her so they could take on someone else. Or she was never one of the real members in the first place. We won’t know until we find them.”
“What a mess,” he said slowly before giving himself a little shake. “The airport is five minutes away. I’ll call ahead and make sure we are ready for takeoff.”
Alec was still obviously upset by what had happened with his servant. A little voice in her head that sounded remarkably like Gia was telling her to comfort him somehow. Should she hug him or something? The very idea made her tense up. But she couldn’t leave him hanging.
“Tell me about Pedro,” she said softly.
Alec’s broad shoulders slumped. “I thought he was getting better, and then this happened. He seems more aware of himself these days, but this incident with the bleach is worrisome. Daniel will stay with him,” he said. “I tried to be honest with him. I told him I wasn’t sure if his son was still alive or not. But I promised to bring back the heads of the people who hurt him.”
Wide-eyed, Diana stared at Alec. “A little bloodthirsty for you,” she said surprised. “Definitely not scholarly.”
He met her eyes with a resigned expression. “I may be a stuffy scholar, but I am also a vampire on the Ruling Council. These witches have broken the covenant and taken the child of one of my house’s retainers. I need to make sure no others follow in their footsteps. You’re going to kill them anyway. I want their heads as a message that they cannot cross my house and harm one of our own. Even the children of our servants are off limits.”
“That was always your plan, wasn’t it?” Diana asked. She wasn’t judging. It was what she would have done in his place. “With or without my involvement…”
“It’s my responsibility. But I may not find them without you.”
Drumming her fingers on the seat, she frowned. “Even with me you may not find them,” Diana reminded him stiffly. “You didn’t mention being on the Ruling Council.”
Despite her attempt to soften her words, it came out as an accusation.
“I know. I’ll get to that, but we’re here now,” he said, gesturing to their surroundings.
They’d arrived at the airfield. She waited till they boarded and had taken off before she started on him again.
“I’m waiting for an explanation, Alec,” she said, arms crossed. The temperature around her grew several degrees hotter.
He closed his eyes briefly. “I accepted a position on the Council decades ago.”
Diana opened her mouth to throw out another accusation, but he forestalled her with a hand.
“It’s not like being the head of the house,” he assured her. “Vampire covens operate independently for the most part. But in times of crisis, they defer to the Council’s edicts. If they know what’s good for them, that is. I thought it was important to have a voice, so I chose to serve when I was asked. But I act independently of them if I don’t believe it serves the greater good. Most council members do the same, but for different reasons. Which is why little is accomplished unless something big happens.”
Diana didn’t like the sound of the ‘greater good’. “How often do you and the council have to make these monumental decisions?”
Alec drummed his fingers on the armrest. “Whenever something sufficiently disruptive happens. Something that might affect us. Last tim
e we met was 9-11. We decided to let things run their course geopolitically but moved things around financially when there were concerns shared across houses.” Diana lifted a brow and he gave her a weak smile. “Like you, we don’t interfere when it comes to big political movements, but we do protect our own interests.”
“Of course you do,” she muttered. “And do you plan on continuing your involvement with the council indefinitely?”
Even if he decided to chase her around the world? Or had he changed his mind about that? She ignored the pang of discomfort that last thought caused.
He nodded. “It really has nothing to do with ruling a house or over other vampires. It was decided long ago that the head of a house was disqualified from serving on the Council. It’s more like the Supreme Court, only the decisions are few and far between. The positions are for life, such as it is. . .”
Diana mulled that over. It made sense that he’d hold such an exalted position, but knowing he was on the Council made her uncomfortable. She knew enough about it to know he was being truthful about how the Council worked.
Mostly truthful anyway.
But she decided to let the matter drop. They had bigger fish to fry. Together.
She got up to get a drink from the bar. “Okay, well, let’s make Toulouse our base of operations. We should rent a flat or get hotel suites near their Natural History museum.”
Alec frowned, shifting in his seat. “Is there some research we need to do there?”
“Not exactly. Natural history museums are great places to steal raw materials for spells. This one even has a botanical garden attached if memory serves. Museums are like Wal-Mart for spellcasters.”
“Well again, that makes sense,” he said loosening his tie and tossing it away. “I never even realized. Stupid of me.”
“Not stupid. It takes a witch and a thief to make the connection,” Diana said with a curl of her lip. “Try not to beat yourself up for having too much moral fiber.”
Fire: The Elementals Book One Page 21