Alec let out an impressed whistle. “Now I know how you managed to survive without a computer. This is remarkable. Aren’t you afraid of it falling into the wrong hands?”
She gave a dismissive wave. “The people who would be the biggest problem are sensitive enough to detect major ley lines on their own. The witch clans keep their own maps. A ley line in of itself is not a problem. The practitioner is.” She pointed to an area outside of the city of Toulouse. “We need to look around here. There’s a major point of convergence at the base of the Pyrenees, but it’s been a while since we’ve been in that area. It’s probably shifted around since we were there last. It has a history of moving around. I’m going to get in touch with Logan. She spends more time in southern France than the rest of us.”
“Why?” Alec asked, but his phone rang. “Sorry. I have to take this. It’s Daniel.”
He went to the other room to take the call. When he came back, his face was drawn and pale.
He started gathering his things. “There’s a problem with Pedro. Daniel is not sure, but it’s possible he tried to commit suicide. I need to go see him.”
Their pleasant dinner turned into a rock in her stomach.
“What happened?” she asked.
“He drank something toxic from under the sink,” Alec said. “Daniel isn’t sure if it was intentional or not, but Pedro served himself some bleach with dinner.”
“I should go with you. But. . .we need to get to France. I need to update the others and get some gear together.”
“I understand. And you said you’re not a healer, so you’re not going to do him any good. I’ll go alone and call in a healer I know to look in on Pedro. One with a record for reliability. Maybe they can do something. I’ll get the plane ready unless you want to try and find a fire that is capable of transporting you,” he said, pausing to look expectantly at her.
His concern that she would go without him was written all over his face.
“There aren’t any in that region right now that are big enough to ensure I wouldn’t be seen,” Diana reassured him. “There are always campfires and fireplaces but those generally have people around. The last thing we need is for me to end up on YouTube. I can’t tell if there’s someone on the other side, so I usually don’t travel that way unless it’s prearranged with one of the other girls. Exposure has to be avoided at all costs.”
“Makes sense,” Alec said distractedly as he put on his coat.
His gaze was distant as he kissed her on the forehead before hurrying out the door.
Diana stood frozen in front of the closed door. She didn’t think Alec was aware of what he had done. He’d been a little disoriented, which was disturbing in its own way, too.
And she hadn’t even thrown a fireball at him in response. Had the same thing happened a week ago the vampire would have gone up like a Roman candle. But she didn’t do anything right now because she liked him.
Maybe more than like.
“Are you in love with him?” Logan asked excitedly. Diana jumped.
“For the love of the Mother, Logan! How many times have I asked you not to do that?”
“If you don’t want me dropping in, you should have closed the window in the library,” Logan replied reasonably, tucking her shoulder length black hair behind her ears.
The Air Elemental was dressed the way she preferred to dress when traveling the air currents: in a form-fitting mock turtleneck, dark jeans, and biker boots. She teased Diana about her ‘uniform’ but when it came right down to it, all of the girls dressed similarly when they worked. Form-fitting clothes and tied back hair were requirements for fighters—although Serin often did her best work in a bikini. Regardless, giving your opponent something to grab onto was a bad idea.
“How long ago did you get here?” Diana asked in a resigned tone.
“Only a few minutes. I was dying to meet tall dark and deadly, but he seemed a tad distressed, so I thought it could wait,” she said before smiling wickedly. “It also gave me a chance to spy and see if you would send him off with a kiss. And you did!” she crowed. “Well, almost. . .”
“Are you six years old or something? We are working this case together. At most, we are friends. That last thing was a weird anomaly. He was totally distracted by some bad news,” Diana said, motioning Logan to the map. “I have a lead. I connected with the Mother. Kind of. It wasn’t like Gia described.”
“How was it different?”
Diana rubbed her head, remembering the pain. “It was a flood of images like she said. That much was the same. But there were so many, I could barely distinguish one from the next. It was like being in whitewater rapids and then being dashed against the shore. I could only grab a few images before I got spit back out again.”
“That sounds exactly like what Gia described.”
“Yeah. . .but she said she could feel the Mother’s presence. Her awareness of Gia’s attempt to communicate. Gia felt her guidance. I didn’t feel that. I didn’t feel another’s presence at all. But it happened so fast. Maybe I just didn’t have enough skill to hang on long enough. It felt like my brain was being fried.”
Diana put her hands on her head and propped her elbows on her lap.
Logan sat down next to her with a thump. “Wow. I wondered what you had got up to when I felt that spike coming from your direction. What did you do? Set Boston Harbor on fire?”
Diana smirked. “I decided the Colorado fire was big enough to passage to. I used the big fireplace in the coven house to get there.”
“And there was nothing useful?”
“I wouldn’t say that. I saw a connection to the Burgess family. The witch we are looking for is Hillard’s illegitimate son or daughter. Not the one here in the states. I doubt Gerald is even aware of this one’s existence,” she said.
Gerald Burgess was the current patriarch of the Burgess family. None of the Elementals particularly liked him, but they didn’t like any witches. And Gerald had kept the covenant. To their knowledge, he had never before failed to keep track of any of his heirs before. Even the illegitimate ones had his support.
Logan frowned and reached for one of the full take-out containers still on the table. “That family hasn’t had this kind of trouble for centuries. They have a reputation for staying on the straight and narrow. I guess it makes sense the current generation has forgotten our warnings to keep track of their own.”
“Yeah, but there wasn’t an image of who the child is now. I don’t know what they look like. I couldn’t even tell what gender it was. In the present day, I got a quick flash of a farmhouse. I’m hoping that’s where the kids are. The vamp and I spent the last few hours trying to define the location from the snippet I saw of the surroundings. We think it’s in southern France, somewhere near the base of the Pyrenees,” she said, moving to smooth the map again.
“You can call him Alec. I know he’s your new BFF. No need to pretend with me,” Logan said.
“I’m not pretending anything. We’re partners on this case. Possibly friends. That’s it,” she lied.
She was trying to distance herself from Alec in front of Logan. But she had gotten pretty soft about him and felt the need to backtrack now.
“Suit yourself,” Logan said. “Well, I’m not sure if it’s relevant anymore, but I have a lead on your insect pin lady. The wind whispered a location, nothing more. And it’s not in France.”
“Where is it?”
“Salem.”
“Of course it is.” Diana groaned. “If a wannabe witch or outcast wants to play at witchcraft they always end up in Salem.”
Few genuine talents called Salem, Massachusetts home these days. Today it wasn’t any richer in ley lines than any other part of the state. But at the time of the Salem witch trials, a large unstable line had run through that region and some genuine practitioners had lived in the area.
One of them, a Delavordo descendant, started a whole heap of trouble that resulted in the deaths of as many as two dozen peopl
e. It was considered bad luck to live in the area if you were a Supernatural—something that became a lasting legend about the area even after everyone had long forgotten the details of what happened.
“I can give you a lift to Salem right now.”
“Thanks. Let me grab some stuff. I can text Alec to meet me there. And then we need to get to France. He’s getting his jet ready,” she said, pulling out Alec’s gift.
Logan hopped closer. “Since when do you have a phone?” she asked, plucking it out of Diana’s hand. She whistled. “What kind is this? It’s huge.”
“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 few 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.
The Elementals Collection Page 21