Magic Bleeds

CHAPTER 7

THE TRICK HERE WAS INDIFFERENCE, I DECIDED AS I took my sweet time coming down the stairs. Act cool. Detached.

Something potent and violent boiled inside me and I strained every nerve in my body to keep it on its chain. I could do this. I just had to stay cool. Zen. No punching in the face. Punching would not be Zen.

The stairs ended. I wished I knew the jackass who’d made the staircase so short. I’d throw him down the damn steps so he could count them with his head. I stepped onto the floor and walked over to the two shapeshifters, looking straight at Jim.

“Jim. What a lovely surprise.” I smiled, aiming for cordial.

Mark winced and took off. I caught a glimpse of my smile in the wall mirror. Very little cordiality but lots of homicidal maniac. I dropped the smile before I caused an interagency incident.

Jim nodded at me.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Curran’s face. Like looking into a glacier.

“Please relay my greetings to the Beast Lord,” I said. “I appreciate his willingness to alter his extremely busy schedule and make an appearance.”

Curran showed no emotion. No gloating, no anger, nothing at all. Jim looked at me, looked at Curran, looked back at me again. “Kate says hi,” he said finally.

“I’m ecstatic,” Curran said.

My hand twitched to touch Slayer’s hilt protruding over my shoulder.

Silence stretched.

“What can I do for you?” I asked finally.

Jim glanced at Curran again. The Beast Lord remained stoic.

You stood me up, you sonovabitch. If I made it through this in one piece, I’d need some sort of medal to commemorate it.

“The Pack would like to extend an offer of assistance to the Order in the matter of the Steel Mary,” Jim said.

Knock me over with a feather. The Pack cooperated only when forced. The shapeshifters almost never volunteered. “Why?”

“Why is irrelevant,” Curran said. “We’re willing to put our considerable resources at the Order’s disposal.”

We stared at each other. Add some whistling and a rolling tumbleweed, and we’d be all set.

A green sheen rolled over Jim’s eyes. Reacting to the tension.

A couple of mercs lingered some distance from us. A third one stopped. They were expecting a brawl and didn’t want to miss it. We needed to get away from the audience.

I nodded at the small workout room, separated from the main floor by a wall of frosted glass. The hotel had used it for private dining. The mercs had emptied it, thrown some mats into a corner, and turned it into a makeshift dojo. “Let’s go someplace more private.”

We moved off the main floor. Curran stalked into the room as if he owned it, turned, and crossed his arms on his chest. Biceps bulged, stretching the sleeves of his sweatshirt. If there was any justice in the world, he should’ve gone bald, lost all his teeth, and developed a terrible skin rash. But no, the bastard looked good. In perfect health.

Just keep cool. That’s all I had to do.

I shut the glass door and locked it.

“The Pack has a personal stake in the matter,” Jim said.

“I see no basis for the Pack’s involvement.”

“Solomon Red was a closet shapeshifter,” Jim said softly.

The world stood on its hands and kicked me in the face.

“The man was deeply religious. It was a difficult thing for him. He didn’t shift but he had to live with the urge. The Pack gave him special permission to operate on his own in exchange for a cut of the Guild’s profits. First Joshua, now Solomon. There is a pattern.”

“How much of a cut?”

“Ten percent.”

Ten percent of the Guild’s take was a lot of money. Someone had killed two shapeshifters and just bit a large chunk out of the Pack’s income.

Curran kept watching me and I couldn’t shut him out enough to properly concentrate. “Who else knew about Solomon?”

“The Council.”

Fourteen people, two alphas from each clan. “So either this was a coincidence, or you have a traitor among the alphas.”

Jim’s eyes flashed green. “There are no traitors on the Council.”

I sighed. “Of course not—how dare the mighty shapeshifters have human vices.”

Curran leaned half an inch forward. “We’re not mercenaries, Kate. Don’t measure us by your standard.”

Thank you, Your Majesty. I looked at Jim. “The Order appreciates the offer of aid from the Pack, but given the sensitive nature of our investigation, we decline your assistance at this time.”

Curran showed me the edge of his teeth. “Are you implying my people can’t be circumspect?”

I looked at Jim. “Please relay my congratulations to His Majesty on learning such a big word all by himself.”

If Jim had been in his feline form, his whiskers and his fur would’ve stood on end.

I kept going. “Also please explain to him that either he has a traitor in the ranks, which means that his people aren’t circumspect, or Solomon’s murder was a coincidence and the Pack has no reason to bully its way into the Order’s investigation.”

“Why aren’t you talking to me?” Curran took a step from the mats.

“I’m following your orders to the letter. I was told to address all queries to your chief of security. But if you wish to speak to me directly, I’ll be happy to oblige.”

Curran’s eyes narrowed. “When did I say that?”

“Don’t be coy. It doesn’t suit you.” Stay cool, stay cool.

He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. You have a tiny bit of power and you used it. Run with it while you can. In the end, the Order will let us in. I’ll go over your head.”

Jim took a small step forward. His teeth were clenched and the muscles on his jaw stood out. I actually felt sorry for him.

Stay calm. Don’t give him the satisfaction of seeing you lose it. I unclenched my teeth. “Right now you have nothing to justify your involvement. If I accept your offer of cooperation, I’ll have to clear it with Ted, who’ll block it, because he distrusts you on principle. It’s in your best interests to wait, until you can give me irrefutable proof that the Pack is being targeted, forcing Ted into a corner. If you want direct access to the knight-protector, you’re, of course, welcome to it. But please keep in mind that expecting understanding from Ted Moynohan is like waiting for wine from a stone. I, on other hand, am sympathetic to the Pack’s needs as a whole, no matter how much I might dislike interacting with you personally.” Because of Jim, and Derek, and Raphael, and Andrea, who wasn’t yet part of the Pack but who might end up there one day.

“So now you dislike me? Ironic, considering you pulled the plug on us.”

“I pulled the plug? You stood me up, you arrogant asshole!”

“You ran away!” He moved toward me. “I deserve an explanation.”

Slayer left its sheath almost on its own. It was the fastest draw of my life. One moment empty space lay between us and the next my saber jumped into my hand. “You deserve nothing.”

Gold rolled over Curran’s eyes, so briefly that had I blinked, I would’ve missed it. His face gained a slightly bored expression. “Do you honestly think your toothpick can hurt me?”

“Let’s find out.”

“Let’s not.” Jim stepped between us.

Curran looked at him. His voice rasped with the beginning of a snarl. “What are you doing?”

“My job.”

He had lost his mind. Curran was hovering on the verge of violence and Jim had just made himself into a target. “Jim, you want to step back.”

Jim remained rooted to the floor.

Curran’s gaze fastened on me, the gold burning scalding hot. Like looking into the eyes of a hungry lion and realizing I was food. My body locked, tiny hairs on the back of my neck rose on their ends, and inside me a tiny voice whispered in desperation, “Don’t breathe and he might forget you’re there.”

I flicked my saber, warming up my wrist. “Your headlights don’t scare me.”

Jim squared his shoulders. “You can’t do this. Not here and not now.”

Curran’s voice slid into icy calm. “Be very careful, or I might start thinking you’re telling me what to do.”

If Curran ordered him to move, and Jim refused, it would be a challenge. Curran would have to fight his own chief of security and his best friend. They both knew it. That was why I was on the receiving end of Curran’s alpha stare. If he leveled it at Jim, there would be a fight.

I sidestepped. Jim moved with me. I stared at the ceiling and growled.

“Cute,” Curran said.

Die. “Why don’t you come over here and I’ll show you cute.”

“I’d love to, but he’s in the way. Besides, you had your chance to show me anything you wanted to. You’d just run away again.”

For the love of God. “I didn’t run away. I made you your damn dinner, but you didn’t have the decency to show.”

Jim’s eyebrows crept up. “Dinner?”

Curran’s eyes blazed. “You took off. I smelled you. You were there and then you got cold feet and ran. If you didn’t want to do this, all you had to do was pick up the phone and tell me not to show up. Did you actually think I’d make you serve me dinner naked? But you didn’t even bother.”

“Bullshit!”

“Hey!” Jim barked.

“What?” Curran and I said at almost the same time.

Jim looked at me. “Did you make him dinner?”

He’d find out sooner or later. “Yes.”

Jim turned on his foot, went out of the room, and shut the door behind him.

Alrighty, then.

“He thinks we’re mated.” Curran moved forward, too light on his feet for a man of his size, his gaze locked on me—a predator stalking its prey. “In the Pack, one doesn’t stand between mates. He’s being polite. He doesn’t realize you broke it off.”

“Oh no. No, I didn’t break it off. You had your chance and you blew it.”

Curran’s mask cracked. “The hell I did.”

All of the pain and anger of the past month smashed into me. Having him near was like ripping the dressing off a raw wound. Words just came tumbling out and I couldn’t stop them.

“So it’s my fault? I made you your bloody dinner. You didn’t show up. Just couldn’t pass up a chance to humiliate me, could you?”

Curran bit the air as if he had fangs. “I was challenged by two bears. They broke two of my ribs and dislocated my hip. When Doolittle finally finished setting my bones, I was four hours late. I asked if you called and they said no.”

He’d sunk enough gravity into that “no” to bring down a building.

“If you were late, I would’ve turned the town inside out looking for you. I called you. You didn’t answer. I was so sure something happened to you I dropped everything and dragged myself to your house. I came to check on you with broken bones and you weren’t there.”

“You’re lying.”

Curran snarled. “I left a note on your door.”

“More lies. I waited for you for three hours. I called the Keep, thinking that something happened to you, and your flunkies told me that the Beast Lord said he was too busy to speak to me.” I was shaking with rage. “That in the future I should address all my concerns to Jim, because His Majesty declared that he didn’t want to be bothered with talking to the likes of me anymore.”

“That phone call happened in your head. You’re delusional.”

“You stood me up and then rubbed my nose in it.”

Something hissed behind the frosted glass in the main hall.

Curran lunged toward me. I should’ve thrust straight through him. Instead I just stood there, like an idiot. He clamped me to him, spinning us so his back faced the glass.

The glass wall exploded.

Shards pelted the dining room behind us, breaking against Curran’s back. A black and gold jaguar crashed against the opposite wall. Twin jets of water burst into the room from the main floor. The first thudded into the wall, pinning Jim. The second smashed against Curran’s spine. He grunted and clenched me to him.

We were caught out in the open. No place to hide. Oh, the stupid, stupid idiot. He was shielding me.

Jim snarled, trying to get to his feet, but the water slapped him down and kept him there.

Gold flooded Curran’s eyes. His big body shook.

I jerked left, trying to see past Curran’s shoulder. A man stood in the middle of the main hall, his hands raised. Behind him a broken pipe jutted from the wall, spilling water under his feet. Two pressurized jets shot from the water, following the direction of his arms. A water mage. Shit.

I pressed closer to Curran to speak into his ear. “One-man fire brigade, dead center of the room. He’s broken the main pipe and is emptying the Guild’s water tower into the lobby. Let me go.”

“No.” Curran gripped me tighter. “Too risky.”

“He’s sanding the skin off your back.”

“I’ll heal, you won’t.”

Until he let go of me, he couldn’t maneuver. If he did, the mage would cut me down.

The jet that pinned us was only a foot wide. I pulled out a throwing knife. Slayer was too long for close-up fighting. “Throw me.”

Golden eyes looked into mine.

“Throw me at him.”

He grinned, showing me his teeth. “Over or under?”

“Under.”

“Say please.”

Red spray hit my lips. Magic nipped at me—I tasted shapeshifter blood. The water was scraping the skin off his back, but he didn’t give an inch.

When this was over, I would rip his head off. “Throw me, please!”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

He spun, twisting, and hurled me like a bowling ball. I slid across wet floor and broken glass, the twin water jets shooting above my head, right at the mage standing in a ten-inch whirlpool. Water drenched my face. The mage’s bare feet loomed before me. I grabbed his left ankle. The momentum jerked me behind him, and I sliced across the Achilles tendon of his right leg.

The mage dropped to his right knee, his back to me, his filthy cloak pooling about him. I knocked his left leg out from under him and sank a throwing knife deep between his ribs. He twisted to me. I saw the fist coming, but could do nothing to avoid it. The blow smashed into my jaw like the strike of a sledgehammer. I slid across the wet floor, through the whirlpool, and rolled to my feet on instinct. The world shuddered and swam sideways in a haze of pain. I stumbled back, shaking my head. Things snapped into focus.

The mage grinned at me from twelve feet away. Pale hair framed a narrow face. Mid-twenties, maybe a bit younger. His tattered cloak hung open, revealing a martial artist’s body: hard, crisply defined, and completely nude. Too short. Five ten at most. I had a guy in a cloak, he was naked, and he wasn’t the Steel Mary. Only I could be this lucky.

The jets behind the water mage kept spraying, changing direction. He was still tracking Curran and Jim. How the hell did he do that?

Water swirled around his feet, surging up. A needle-thin jet hit me, burning my left thigh. A narrow cut sliced through my jeans and skin, like a slash from a scalpel. Another jet singed my ribs. He was playing with me. If he hit me straight on with one of those, the water would punch right through me. As long as he didn’t hit heart or eyes, I would survive. Everything else medmagic could fix.

The mage pulled my knife out of his side and looked at it. “Nice knife.”

The voice was deep but female.

I threw my second knife. The blade bit into the mage’s chest. Shit. Missed the neck. “Here, have another one.”

The mage laughed. Definitely a female voice. The only way he could sound like a woman would be if he . . .

A demonic shape leapt above the man: a seven-and-a-half-foot tall muscled monster, sheathed in gray fur, half-human, half-beast, all nightmare. He came sailing above the water as if he had wings, huge arms opened wide, eyes burning with gold on a terrible face.

God damn it. “No!”

The mage spun about. Water shot from him in dozens of sharp narrow jets. Curran backhanded him. Bones crunched. The mage’s head spun on his shoulders, turning completely around: hair, face, hair again.

The mage’s body froze, rigid. He toppled back like a log, crashing on the wet floor with a splash. The whirlpool fell apart.

Broken neck, severed spinal column, instant death. There goes my chance at a chat. I swore. “Did you have to kill him?”

Gray eyes stared back at me. Prehistoric jaws opened, revealing enormous teeth. “Yes, I did.” The words came out perfectly. Curran’s control over his warrior form was absolute. “You’re welcome.”

You’re welcome, my ass. I pulled Slayer from the back sheath and strode to the corpse. Why the hell was I so relieved that Curran was mostly unhurt? I wanted to strangle him, not celebrate the fact that he was in one piece. “Thank you for killing my suspect before I could talk to him.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Jim trotted over and sniffed the mage’s body.

I reached them and crouched by the corpse. Jim decided it was a good moment to shake. Wet spray hit me in the face.

“Thanks. That’s just a cherry on my day.” I wiped wet jaguar out of my eyes and stabbed Slayer into the mage’s stomach.

“He’s dead already,” Curran told me.

“The Casino was attacked this morning.” I leaned closer, watching the skin around Slayer’s blade. “Two elemental mages fried some vampires and enhanced the Casino’s walls with a lovely burn pattern.”

Curran shrugged his monstrous shoulders. “Stupid, but not remarkable.”

“They registered magenta on an m-scanner.”

Jim snarled.

Curran wrinkled his muzzle. “Undead mages?”

It was my turn to shrug. “We’ll see in a minute. Fire, air, water are all part of the same brand of magic.”

The mage had spoken in a female voice. The room was noisy with the sounds of running water, but I had heard a woman laugh. The body before me was unmistakably male. The only way he could speak like a woman would be if he was undead, and a female navigator was riding his mind. But I’d never heard of any other types of undead being piloted. Vampires, yes. But nothing else.

Well, no, wait, I’d seen undead mermaids being piloted, too, but they weren’t undead in the traditional sense of the word.

I leaned closer to examine the wound. My saber liquefied undead flesh and consumed it, building thickness onto the blade. If this was a vampire, the wound would’ve sagged by now.

A thin streak of white smoke curled from the blade. It could be something, or it could be just Slayer reacting to me being pissed off out of my mind.

“Clerk?” I yelled.

“Hey!” The Clerk’s head appeared above the third-story balcony rail. A moment later more heads joined it. That’s the Guild for you. Would it have killed one of them to shoot the damn bastard with a bow? I didn’t say it out loud. They would’ve laughed. People inclined to help others ended up in PAD or the Order. These guys were exactly where they wanted to be. Unless money or their hide was involved, they didn’t give a damn. They weren’t getting paid, so why bother?

“You all okay up there?”

“We’re fine,” Juke called back. “Touched you care.”

Slayer hissed. I tapped the saber with the tip of my index finger. It careened to the side. The edges of the wound drooped, as if the man’s flesh were heated wax. I pinched the muscle near the wound and watched a telltale burgundy fluid seep from the cut.

Curran inhaled next to me, sampling the scent. A grimace troubled his nightmarish face. “Undead.”

“Yep.”

Just like the two undead mages who had attacked the Casino with elemental magic. It would be a miracle if they weren’t connected.

There were things I could do with an undead body that I couldn’t do with any other corpse. I had to hurry. I’d need magic and herbs for this. The herbs waited in my apartment and there was no telling how long the magic wave would last.

I looked up at the Clerk. “What happened?”

“He came in through the front,” the Clerk shouted. “I saw he was naked and cleared out. He busted the pipe and went after you.”

Except it wasn’t me he was after. True, the People hired me to investigate the attack, but I hadn’t had a chance to do anything warranting this sort of retaliation. No, he went right after Curran. He and Jim were the primary targets. I was a bystander.

“Get the firebugs to torch the floor and call PAD.”

“Who’ll pay for the torching?” Mark called out.

“The Guild will, Mark, unless you’d like us to keep walking around in undead blood.”

If Mark had any other objections, he decided to keep them to himself. There were at least a few pyro-talented mercs, and once they were done with the floor, all traces of the undeath and of my blood would be gone.

I raised Slayer and sliced across the corpse’s neck. It only took one cut—Curran had broken his neck and tore the muscle, leaving only skin for me to sever. I grasped the head by the hair and got up to my feet.

“The Order accepts the offer of aid from the Pack,” I said quietly. We had an audience and this wasn’t something I wanted them to hear. I was about to force Curran into a corner, and while he might come to terms with it in private, in public he would immediately refuse. “With the understanding that the Order is in the position of authority and our agreement can be terminated at will. This is mine.” I showed the head to Curran. “The rest is yours. We compare results later.”

“Changed your mind?” Gold rolled over Curran’s eyes, but he kept his voice low. To the peanut gallery above, we appeared to be having a pleasant conversation.

“I can now take this to Ted. It’s hard to refute eyewitnesses. If I fight hard enough, he’ll let it stand. Let Jim know what Doolittle finds out about the body.”

“I’ll call you.”

“Jim’s better.”

Curran leaned to me. Bones crawled under his skin. His jaws shrank, his muzzle shortened, his claws receded. Gray fur flowed, melting into human skin. In a blink, he stood nude in front of me. A month ago I would’ve needed a moment to cope. Today I just looked straight at his face.

“I’ll call you,” he repeated.

“If you call me, I won’t pick up the phone.”

“You will wait by the phone for my call, and when it rings, you will pick it up and you will speak to me in a civil manner. If you don’t know how, ask someone.”

That did it. I pivoted to him. My voice came out quiet and cold. “Do you need me to draw you a chart? You stood me up. You made me think there was something between us. You made me want things, things I thought I could never have, and then you crushed it. Don’t come near me, Curran. Don’t call. We’re done.”

I turned and walked away, heading to the Guild changing room, where I still kept clothes in a locker. I had to strip off my soggy rags, seal my cuts, and drag the head home. I needed to ask it some questions.