Alec ducked his head, turning away to hide a wry smile. “I don’t dislike Weres. There are a few in academia with whom I’ve corresponded with over work.”
“I guess a liberal education breaks down more barriers than anyone realizes. But this Dmitri doesn’t sound like a scholar.”
“He’s not one. He has the mind for it, but not the patience. His is a colorful story. Maybe he’ll tell it to you one day,” he said, stopping short.
They had moved back across the room to the glass doors. The pulsing fog had dissipated, but not in the way Diana had expected.
“It’s gone,” Alec frowned.
“No, it isn’t,” she replied, taking his hand and allowing him to see.
Below them, the vapor had seeped into the ground, becoming a network of threaded goo. Passersby did not notice anything as they walked over it. Diana and Alec moved outside to take a closer look.
“I can see it,” he whispered, amazed.
“Unless I let go of your hand,” she said in a flat tone—though she was secretly pleased by his delight.
“This is incredible. Do your sisters have this ability to share what they see too?”
Only with very specific people.
“Sometimes,” she answered noncommittally.
He squatted to get a better look, holding tight to her hand. “It looks like a slime mold. A huge one.”
“A what?” Diana asked.
“It’s a microorganism that can grow quite large. Like a fungus. They often look like this, but smaller. Some even move and pulse like that,” he continued, pointing to a nearby section which appeared to be throbbing as it crawled deeper into the soil.
“Eww.”
Slime and mold were not her department. That was Gia’s thing. The Earth Elemental would have known all about slime molds. She loved all sorts of gross earth-related crawly things from rhizobia to centipedes.
“Don’t touch it,” Diana told Alec as he shifted closer to one of the edges creeping toward them in the courtyard.
“Don’t you want to take a sample?” he asked.
She wrinkled her nose at his irrepressible curiosity. “I’m not a scientist. And I don’t want that shit to know we noticed it. It may have a memory, so don’t touch. It looks like a distorted lattice charm,” she said, edging them both away from it.
“If it’s a lattice charm, why does it look like this?” he asked.
A normal lattice charm was a protection spell practitioners cast over an area to watch who came and went without the limitation posed by a physical ward. When done properly, it could be quite sophisticated. Lattice spells required great talent and were frequently used to spy. More than one shady government contracted with practitioners skilled in latticework to spy on their enemies. But this one was different, more advanced and yet crude at the same time.
“A real lattice spell wouldn’t look like this. It’s been modified,” she said.
“It’s working itself into the ground,” he noted.
“Yeah. It’ll be gone from view soon. It probably doubles as a paratus charm,” she said.
He looked up at her. “What is that?”
“Some major magic requires a foundation—especially if it’s not a place of power. “
She scanned around the gargoyle-lined courtyard. “They’re planning something here. Something big. The museum isn’t far from a small ley line, and its artifacts make it an attractive place to cast spells. But it’s not a true place of strength. It only looks like one. They’re enhancing the location for a larger spell to be cast here later. That’s probably why he was checking out the church earlier, too. I found him at Les Jacobins. He was probably finalizing a location. And this one would have more Gothic appeal to a new practitioner.” She gestured to the gargoyles.
“How many parts can a spell have?” he asked.
“Infinite, if you were inclined to waste all of your time on it,” she said.
“Hmm,” he murmured as he returned his gaze to the swiftly disappearing network.
Diana tugged on his collar. “People are starting to stare,” she whispered.
“Oh, of course,” he said, rising slowly and brushing off his pants. “I clearly have more research to do. I don’t know enough about this type of spell.”
She adjusted his shirt collar back into place. “I’d be pretty surprised if you did,” she said, murmuring quietly as tourists passed them. “Those types of multi-part spells are the most closely guarded magic. They’re complicated for a reason. I don’t know what they plan on doing, but it’s big. Only the most senior members of the seven families should even know about them, let alone be able to work them. Someone in this group has learned enough to innovate, but without out all the restrictions being raised in the family would impose.”
“And you think a family member was helping them in some way?” Alec asked perceptively.
She cocked her head to the side. “It makes sense. They have too much knowledge and not enough at the same time. Someone, and not necessarily a member of the same family, is feeding him or her information. Enough to do some serious damage, but without the training to know the rules or the finesse to pull some of these off the normal way.” She gestured to the distorted threads at their feet.
Alec’s phone rang, and he whipped it out quickly for an update “My men have followed our suspect to an apartment building nearby. Looks expensive, and there are wards all over it.”
“Did they find Katie?” she asked hopefully.
“There’s no sign of her yet. They’re still watching. What do you want to do?”
Diana paced. “I want to watch him, but I get the feeling this is where we need to be. The energy here is darkening. It’s only a matter of time before the circle comes back to finish what they started. Just make sure your men call out right away if they find a little girl.”
Alec nodded and went off to relay those instructions while Diana set up her own spells, taking the time to make sure they were undetectable to anyone but her own kind, at least under normal circumstances.
She could only hope the circle wasn’t as skilled at detecting spells as they were in casting them. The witches would be paying close attention when they returned, so she left intact the spell the mark had cast. No doubt they would set more when the entire circle arrived.
By the time Diana was done, the museum was empty and it was almost closing time. They vacated with the last stragglers and settled into an old fashioned stakeout. Alec had a van waiting around a corner and a shifting supply of men watching the different entrances to the building.
It was only their constant updates that kept Diana in her seat, eating a cold crepe.
“This is not the way I do things,” she muttered between bites.
Alec threw her a commiserating glance. “I know you’re used to a little more action, but you know why you can’t do things the usual way.”
“Yeah, I know. I just. . .hate this. I hate it a lot,” she said, shifting her booted feet up to the dash.
“I’m right there with you,” he said, voice grim as he checked for texts from his men.
In between, he took surreptitious glances at the long length of her legs, which were stretched out next to him.
Diana swallowed her mounting sense of frustration and began to prepare. She lit a small flame and held the fire in her hands, trusting the tint in the windows to keep it hidden.
She sent another message into the aether, telling the others what was happening and where. Then she let the flame go out.
32
It was after two in the morning. A prolonged shower and thunderstorm had emptied the streets. Diana usually loved the smell after rain, but this time she was insensible to anything but the cold center of anger in her core.
The museum—a former Gothic convent—took up an entire city block along the usually busy Rue de Metz. The original compound around it had probably been much larger, but the encroaching city had cut it down to its central buildings. Apartments and shops had
sprung up on all sides, making the museum an anachronism among its newer, less stately neighbors.
Alec and Diana waited a few blocks down the street next to the van. They were parked next to the river, next to the Pont Neuf bridge while they waited for the circle to appear. Alec’s men had staked out all the entrances and were updating him every few minutes.
Diana chafed at the wait. She’d never had to work with a team before. The few occasions she’d pulled a job with one of the other girls, they had done little beyond support, both technical and logistical. None of them had ever needed any real backup. When push came to shove, each Elemental had little need for additional muscle.
Alec’s phone rang. “They’re in,” he said. “We needn’t have bothered staking out all the entrances. They walked in through the front door. Let’s get ready.”
She nodded as a tall handsome man sidled up to them. His tell-tale heat signature identified him as a Were. Next to Alec’s coolness, he was practically a walking furnace.
With the build of an Olympic swimmer, he was as tall as Alec but broader in the chest with defined muscular arms. His light brown hair was streaked with gold, a sunny contrast to Alec’s darkness. Like most Werewolves, his chest tapered a little dramatically to a narrow waist over legs that were also corded with muscle. He was still leaner than a lot of gym rats she had seen, but the power of a Were’s muscles was in their density.
Clapping Alec on the back, he exchanged a muted greeting with his old friend. Then his eyes lit on her and his hard stoic face changed. His eyes heated, and he gave her a toothy grin.
“Mmm, hello gorgeous,” he growled as he stepped closer. “You must be Diana. I’m Dmitri.” He paused to give her a sweeping bow before straightening in a way that emphasized the muscled expanse of his upper body. “When we’re done here, why don’t we go to this charming little after hours place—”
Alec moved between them. “Don’t even think about it.”
Diana rolled her eyes and walked away toward the museum without answering, leaving the two no choice but to trail behind her.
The Were lowered his voice conspiratorially, but Diana could still hear him thanks to her enhanced hearing.
“She’s not yours yet,” Dmitri was saying. “I can tell. Your scent is on her, but it’s not strong enough for a mated pair.”
“Stop smelling her, you dick.” Alec huffed, and Dmitri chuckled a little too heartily.
“The Professor has a crush. And not just any crush. A crush on an Elemental. A Fire Elemental, judging from her scent. You are either the luckiest sod alive or the stupidest,” Dmitri whispered. “Better make sure she really likes you before you start anything. You are extremely flammable, my friend.”
Diana spun around. “You can smell what kind of Elemental I am?” she asked from what would have been well out of earshot for a normal human.
“And she has super hearing. . .I am in love,” Dmitri murmured. He raised his voice. “And yes, I can smell your talent. It’s like a wood fire in winter, love. Absolutely delicious,” he said, inhaling deeply as they caught up to her.
Diana ignored his flirting with a shake of her head. “Did your men spot a child in the group?”
“None walked in with them, but they were carrying several large parcels. . .one could’ve been a sleeping child,” Dmitri said, instantly serious.
Or a dead one, Diana thought, refusing to voice the possibility aloud.
“She’s alive. Right now she has to be for any of their rituals to work,” Alec said quietly, doing his damned mind-reading trick again.
Dmitri nodded, puffing up in anticipation.
Two heroes, she thought, almost sentimentally. It had taken longer to see that selfless quality in Alec that was so readily apparent in his Were friend, but that was only due to her own stubborn prejudice. She knew that now.
“Yeah, of course” she finally lied in a reassuring tone, though in her mind, she could think of a few spells that would work regardless.
But she wasn’t about to tell that to the two hopeful men. She could break their hearts later. Or never, if all went well.
A minute later, they reached the museum. There was a little playground and a sculpture garden in between the main entrance and a long wing that jutted out onto the street. Diana led them to one of the sculptures underneath some trees.
The small group of commandos Alec had organized had been instructed to wait for her signal before entering to avoid alerting those inside. A few were stationed in the sewers under the museum, prepared to enter through the basement and up through a grate into one of the galleries nearest the entrance. More men were on the Rue Alsace-Lorraine, the large street full of shops that ran parallel on the left side of the museum complex. At least one barred door was on that side, waiting to be broken into once they were given an all clear. More men were ahead on Rue de Metz, prepared to scale the shortest wall of the complex.
“We go in only when I say. Are your men ready?” she asked in an undertone.
“Yes,” Alec answered in a harsh tone.
His normally calm and collected demeanor was shifting. He drew himself up taller, and his expression was ice cold.
“Remember. Your men are here to make sure the circle doesn’t escape, not to engage. Without warded armor, they’re too vulnerable. And make sure they stay out of my way,” she said, taking off her leather jacket as she moved to the entrance.
Diana opened the front door silently, but stayed on the threshold, examining the new spells the circle had cast.
Focusing her energy, she concentrated on the network of threads beyond the door, disabling them with a quick incantation. Pressed for time, she didn’t undo them outright. Instead, she placed a stronger charm over the room, effectively smothering whatever was underneath, closing the door when she was done.
“Aren’t we going in?” Dmitri whispered.
“Not this way, but that should clear the path for your men. Follow me.”
Walking silently, she headed around the right side of the building along the Rue des Arts.
“Oh, this is. . .convenient,” Alec said, examining the brickwork on the right side of the building complex.
In three different places, a protrusion of bricks formed a ladder-like trail straight up the side of the building. The farthest one ran along the tower that overlooked the entire complex. Several walls must have been removed during the city’s evolution to make room for the street on the right side.
She headed for the last one, testing for spells of contact first, but the circle had chosen not to ward the whole building. If they had, any drunk coming to pee or puke at the wall would have set them off.
Diana quickly scaled the bricks. Some of them crunched slightly under her fingers due to age. At the top, she stretched her leg, and in one fluid motion, crossed to the right, turning the corner of the rectangular tower and shifting onto the terracotta tiled roof of the building above the courtyard. Not a sound was made when Alec joined her.
Silent as the grave, she smirked to herself, then frowned when a crack sounded behind them. Breathing audibly, the heavier werewolf climbed up beside them. Diana turned to give him a dirty look, and he shot one back that clearly apologized.
“Don’t move,” she mouthed at him with a scowl before turning away.
She crept closer to the inner courtyard, carefully staying in the shadow of the tower.
The scene in the inner courtyard was like something out of a movie, one about black magic and death. Four robed figures were setting up a ritual altar lit by torchlight. In front of it, they’d drawn a sacred circle with what could only be blood. She hoped it was animal blood, but at this distance, couldn’t be sure.
The only thing missing was the bleating goat tied to a stake, ready to be sacrificed. Spurred by the thought, Diana scanned for other heat signatures. Out of sight, in a room across the courtyard, there was another person.
A small one.
Still alive. Diana breathed a sigh of relief.
“She’s there,” she whispered to the two men.
“Where? I can’t smell a blasted thing beyond that crap those gits are spreading around,” Dmitri whispered.
“In the room behind them. Let’s go,” she said, raising her hand to signal the waiting men before jumping.
Diana landed in the courtyard in front of the circle with the softest of thuds. None of the four robed figures reacted right away, but the louder twin cracks behind her were harder to ignore. One by one, the circle members noticed they weren’t alone. Diana faced them, flanked by the larger men.
“None of them have heartbeats,” Alec said, speaking first as he studied the tableau of frozen witches in front of them.
“You!” A hooded figure pointed to Alec. “I knew it was a mistake! I knew you saw something!”
The nothing man threw back his hood, his handsome face twisted in anger. For a moment, it flickered as his rage weakened the glamour, revealing the falseness of the face he was wearing.
The other three figures had taken down their hoods as well. There were two woman, a brunette and a blonde, and a tall black-haired man in addition to the nothing man. All three looked like they fell off magazine covers, but one wasn’t using a glamour charm.
No Brenda, Diana realized as she quickly scanned the others. Even with the glamour charm, she would have known her by her heat signature. And all of these people were true talents, unlike the humans they used to cover their tracks. Two of the others were also staring at Alec. But one wasn’t.
One was looking directly at her.
“You,” Diana said, pointing at the blonde woman with delicate features and wide green eyes that fell shy of true beauty. “You’re the leader.”
“No, she’s not!” The nothing man shouted. “I am!” He moved in front of the slim blonde, shielding her from view.
She didn’t buy that for a second. It didn’t feel right.
“Is that really what you think?” she asked, shifting slightly to see the blonde again, who hadn’t moved. “Did she tell you that? Did she tell you she needed you? Did she tell you were special. . .necessary?” A slight mocking colored her tone now.
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