Eight

Marie

Marie jerked awake, bringing her hand to her forehead and rubbing to soothe the sharp throb. Then she scowled at her mini tablet lying next to her face. It hadn't been smart to transfer to her smaller device so she could watch the documentary lying down. It wasn't the first time she'd dropped her tablet on her face as she dozed off, but it usually happened when she was reading.

The documentary had been a little slow, with people speaking in low, awed voices about the rituals the ancient Egyptians might have practiced using blue lotus. There'd been soft background music for a mystical ambience, too. She wasn't even sorry she dozed off. She could always backtrack and pick it up in the last place she remembered. The real question was whether she was actually absorbing the information she was trying to research.

The memories of Joe's ready grin and Kuro's intense gaze bubbled up in her thoughts. Nothing in the documentary mentioned anything that would bring those two to mind. The closest imagery related to Egyptian mythology had been Anubis. Whether Anubis was depicted in animal form or his anthropomorphic representation, the Egyptian god was shown in the form of a jackal or another canine, but he never had multiple tails. Not like her fox spirits.

Not hers . Them. The fox spirits. Joe and Kuro. Which were definitely not her fox spirits even if she did seem to keep encountering them.

Maybe she should call it a night and get ready for bed.

She shook her head and swung her legs off the chaise, planting her feet on the floor. Time to get her head out of the clouds and back to reality—like walking dead guys, ancient Egyptian amulets, and mystical blue lotuses that helped people travel into the afterlife.

Marie resolutely headed for her bathroom to wash her face. Maybe she'd feel refreshed enough to take another pass at that documentary. She was midstep when something set off her wards, threads of her magic vibrating through her. Whatever it was, it wasn't an immediate danger, it wasn't one of the wards set directly on her apartment or even on the building. But it was within the near vicinity.

Turning off the lights in her apartment, she stepped to the windows, staying to one side so she could dodge out of sight if need be. Seattle downtown was always brightly lit, even late into the night. The trees along Pine Street were wrapped in strings of LEDs, adding to the streetlamps and illumination from inside the nearby buildings. Still, there were nooks and crannies, alleyways and corners where the light didn't reach.

She peered out in the direction of the ward that had been disturbed. The building next to hers caught her attention immediately. It was a parking deck, the rooftop several floors below her own. It usually had ample lighting because people snuck out there all the time to conduct photo shoots with the city as a backdrop or to shoot videos. Right now, it was dark. It wasn't as if someone had knocked out all the lights. She could still see the glow of the outdoor lamps. It was more like shadows were pooling on the roof, swirling in thick currents.

That magic had been what had set off her wards and it had the feel of another witch, but not the kind of witchcraft Marie practiced. Her magic was drawn from and fed back to growing things, like her house plants and the urban greenery all around Seattle. Her power amplified when she spent time in gardens or in the forests around the manor of the Darke Consortium. This witch's magic was gained from living things too, but it was stolen through blood and tears, fear and grief.

She shrank back from the window, brushing her fingers over the rosemary she had in a planter there. Careful not to disturb her own wards, she added a few layers of magic inside her existing protections. Unless the other witch knew exactly which window to look into, Marie's magic would cause a casual glance to slide right past. The added magic would ensure no movement inside her apartment would catch attention.

If she had to defend herself against another supernatural, she could, for the most part. But it took time to gather power the way Marie did, allowing it to trickle into her slowly from the life around her. If she tried to draw it forcibly, it would harm the source. So she carried different talismans as reservoirs when she left her safe spaces, and generally did her best to avoid confrontation in the first place. She was very good at spells to allow herself and her home to blend with the surroundings.

Feeling reassured about the added precaution, she studied the rooftop next door more carefully. She couldn't make out anyone on the roof. Maybe the door to the stairwell had just opened, because it was swinging slowly closed now. She bit her lip. Just because she hadn't seen someone didn't mean someone hadn't been there. At this distance, sound and smell weren't an option. She murmured softly, letting her fingertips slide over the starburst blossoms of dong quai growing tall in the pot next to her plant stands. Its sweet scent washed over her as she reached out with her boosted magic, hoping to sense what she couldn't detect with her eyes, ears, or nose.

There weren't any humans on the roof, but there was a living being. Curled up on its side, it was small and its pain was a bright psychic flare in the shadows. Whatever it was, it was vulnerable. She wasn't immune to the temptation presented by the power she could draw from that. No witch was, as far as she knew. She'd wondered, early on, if that was a sign that she was bad or wrong somehow. With experience and time, she'd figured out that in many ways, the practice of witchcraft was a choice.

She didn't draw her power from another's pain. Wouldn't.

The other witch obviously did, so the question Marie had now was not as simple. Why did they leave such a juicy power source alone and exposed on that roof? It could be bait to capture an even more tempting victim. A solitary green witch, for example, like Marie.

It was a possibility, but not a high one. There was a strong coven of witches in Seattle whose magic had been built over generations and was shared through familial bonds. They made it their business to ensure witches who practiced pain magic were driven out of the city as soon as possible. Solitary witches like Marie were left to themselves; the coven wouldn't bother them, but it wouldn't go out of its way to help them either. So it wasn't likely that a witch practicing pain magic would even know a witch like Marie was in the vicinity. And they certainly wouldn't risk drawing the attention of the coven just to lure a hapless green witch out into the open.

The small form down on the rooftop moved slightly, and she could finally make out several fluffy tails spread across the pavement, each of them a deep burnished red fading to charcoal at the tips. She knew those tails.

Darting for the door, she wrapped as many protections as she could around herself, so many that even the concierge at the entryway of her building didn't notice her run past. Similar to the spells she had around her apartment, they provided a you-can't-see-me sort of effect that dampened any sounds she made and even her scent. It wasn't perfect, but she'd been working on strengthening it for moments like this, when there were other supernaturals active in the vicinity.

Seattle was a dense city with supernaturals scattered sparsely throughout. She rarely came into contact with them outside the Darke Consortium unless she was specifically seeking them out, and of those, she really only encountered the ones who allowed themselves to be found. Tonight, there were at least two on the same city block as her. And there wasn't even a cosmic convergence she was aware of to explain any of it.

She approached the street corner and peered around the edge of the building. A figure wrapped in shadows—dramatically unnatural, that effect—left the stairwell of the parking garage and crossed the street, slipping down an alley with haste. Her heart pounded hard, providing her with a convenient way to count off ten before she walked as quickly and quietly as she could down the street and ducked into the stairwell. The elevator would attract too much attention.

She climbed the stairs, staying alert to any sound or sign of someone else lying in wait. At every landing, she paused to catch her breath and cast another spell. Some were simple warning spells, to let her know if anyone followed her up. Others were detection spells to check for any nasty surprises left by the pain witch or give her an idea of who else might still be in the parking garage. And still others were protections wrapped around herself, more misdirection to make it hard to land any kind of hit on her.

Take a set of stairs. Breathe. Cast. Repeat. Exhaustion was tugging at the edges of her awareness as she stretched her energy reserves, but she had practiced to handle situations like this. She could manage.

Finally, she reached the rooftop, thankful it was only twelve floors and not as tall as her own apartment building. She checked her surroundings carefully as she emerged from the stairwell, but the fox with nine tails was still lying exposed across the roof from her. There was nothing for it but to walk out into the open and retrieve him as fast as she could.

Kuro

The door to the stairwell creaked open again, and Kuro struggled to move, get to some kind of cover, lift his head to look his attacker in the eye even. Something .

"Kuro?"

That voice. Feminine. Gentle and low, slightly husky. He knew that voice. Marie. Footsteps approached, light and more delicate than the ones that had just walked away from him. Or maybe the man had left a while ago. Had Kuro blacked out? She needed to get away from here. It was dangerous. He tried to get to his feet, but he only managed to flop awkwardly on his side, his paws scrabbling against the concrete.

"I'm just"—a pause—"I'm just going to get you away from here. Okay? Don't bite me or anything."

He panted, unable to do much else. When she coasted her palm over the fur on his side, he let his eyes close. Her touch soothed the searing pain. Maybe she could disperse the spell. She was a witch, too. Her hands smelled of fresh rosemary and another woody, floral scent.

When she gathered him into her arms and lifted him, he managed to rest his chin on her shoulder and pry his eyes back open. The least he could do was keep watch behind her as she carried him across the roof and toward the stairwell. He couldn't sense the other witch anymore, and he figured she wouldn't have come out if there was immediate danger. Which meant he was safe with her, at least for the moment.

Inside the stairwell, she began her descent. It was a long ways down. While he didn't have a problem running up or down that many levels in any of his forms, she was limited to her human form with the same strength and stamina as a normal human. At least as far as he knew. She was definitely not moving faster than a normal human could, but maybe that was out of care for him. He wasn't sure.

Her body tensed as she froze on the stairs and her arms tightened around him. The sound of someone running up the stairwell finally pierced his clouded thoughts, and Kuro realized he'd been almost completely absorbed in his mental stream of consciousness and barely aware of his surroundings aside from the feeling of being held by her.

"Joe?" Marie called softly.

"Marie?" Joe answered in turn. "What happened? Why is Kuro with you in that form?"

"I'm not sure, but we need to talk somewhere else." Marie's words were terse, assertive.

"Okay." Thank all things running on two legs or four that Joe had fed fully tonight. He didn't seem ready to argue with her. "I can carry him. Do you know where we can go?"

Right. Going back to their apartment was potentially a bad idea.

"My place is warded," Marie answered.

She didn't sound happy as Joe took Kuro out of her arms. Kuro gathered a burst of energy and turned his head quickly enough to give her a lick on the cheek. Joe chuckled and Kuro didn't have enough in him to give his partner the glare he deserved.

"Safety first," she said. Her tone had softened slightly. "Then we'll figure out what happened."