Chapter 28

Chapter

Twenty-Eight

Usually a dunk in witchy potions forced me to shower and soap myself more than once to scrub away odors one usually encountered in dumpsters. Unfortunately, my investigations had led me into dumpsters more times than I cared to think about, but at least literal dumpster smell was easier to wash away than stinky potions. Happily, this bath actually left me smelling good, so all I did was a quick shampoo and rinse-off in the shower.

When Sean and I emerged from the bathroom wrapped in towels, I found Baby Daisy sleeping on our bed. The list of questions I wanted answered, disasters that needed addressing, and things I had to do was a mile long, but right now I had to lie down next to our wolf pup and cuddle her with my nose buried in her soft, thick fur. Her scent was an automatic mood-lifter.

And because his wolf needed comfort and the shifter urge to snuggle with his future mate and our baby was so strong, Sean abandoned his stated intent to get dressed right away and curled around us both.

"She helped get Valas out of me," I murmured, though I probably could have yelled and Baby Daisy wouldn't have stirred. "I don't know how she did it, or how she knew how to do it, but she sank her teeth into Valas somehow and pulled."

"She follows her instincts, like any wolf." Sean nuzzled the back of my neck. "We know she has magic in her. A fae made her from your wolf, and you're full of magic. There's no telling what this pup will be able to do."

"Well, she performed a miracle today, but why do I feel like her personality and fae magic are going to bite us on the butt someday?" I asked wryly.

"Because that's how miracles work, and pups too." He kissed my shoulder. "Lots of good, lots of uncertainty, and lots of near-disasters. Just like everything else, we'll get through it because we won't have to get through it alone." He moved toward the edge of the bed. "Come on, babe. Malcolm and Matthias are downstairs waiting on us. We need to strategize. And judging by how frequently your phone has buzzed, I think your client is looking for an update."

"I'm sure she is." I caught his hand as he started to rise. "Is Matthias our beta now?"

"On paper, not yet." He kissed the tip of my nose. "But the entire pack felt it last night when he stepped up during the attack."

"I felt it too," I said, to his obvious surprise. "Like a puzzle piece falling into place."

"That's a good description." He drew me to my feet and gave me a little push toward the closet. "Reactions from the pack are mixed, as you probably guessed, but a pack isn't a democracy and Matthias isn't subject to popular vote."

"But someone could challenge him?" I asked as I emerged from the closet holding a pair of jeans, a tank top, and a shirt.

"Technically, yes. But I don't think anyone will." He tossed his towel into the bathroom and started opening dresser drawers. "They might not like it, but Matthias is coming into his strength quickly. His wolf has found a reason to stand tall. He fought well and obeyed both your commands and mine. They know he'll be a good beta." He pulled out an undershirt, shut the drawer, and eyed me. " Alice, we're in a hurry. Stop staring at my ass like you've never seen it before."

"It wasn't your ass I was staring at." I scowled. "And besides, I'll look where I damn well please, Wolf."

"Look and get dressed at the same time, then."

I stuck out my tongue, grabbed a bra and undies, and headed for the bathroom. He smacked my towel-covered butt when I went past. I winced.

His expression immediately switched from playful to serious, and his eyes glowed golden. "Are you hurting?"

I gave him an incredulous look. "Sean, I got mildly possessed yesterday afternoon and then was in a car wreck at forty-plus miles an hour last night. I used a high-level blood magic healing spell after that, and I just had an ancient vampire-sorceress forcibly exorcised from my body. Of course I'm hurting." I kissed his jaw and rubbed his chest so he'd make that growly sound I liked. "But a couple of ibuprofen will take the edge off and I'll be okay."

"Alice." Sean pinched the bridge of his nose. "What kind of lives are we living when I more or less forgot that yesterday you got mildly possessed by a ghost?"

"Hey, a mild possession is basically just your average Thursday for a mage PI."

That wasn't exactly true, but at least I got him to smile for a second.

I'd apparently been unconscious for almost three hours after expelling Valas from my body. That wasn't too bad—honestly, I'd expected to have been out much longer. But that meant it was nearly noon on a day when I'd planned to have accomplished a half dozen things by now, including several connected to my client's case.

Once I got dressed and braided my hair, I picked up my phone and confirmed I did indeed have a bunch of texts and one missed call from Philippa Grayson. I let her know via text that I'd gotten into a car accident last night but was now healed and back on my feet. I assured her I'd send a full update within a few hours once I ran down some leads.

I could practically feel the disapproval radiating from my phone when she texted back a terse Thank you . Not that I blamed her. I always tried to give my clients my full attention, but at the moment all our problems pulled me in a dozen different directions at once.

I also had a missed call around three in the morning from Detective Diaz, but he hadn't left a voice message or sent any texts. What was that about? I put him on my call-back list for later.

When Sean and I emerged from the bedroom, the house was quiet and the door to Matthias's room was closed. "She's still sleeping," Sean murmured. He probably heard Carly breathing. "She said not to wake her or she'd turn me into a chinchilla."

My heart hurt that Carly had gone through so much to help me, to the point that she had to sleep it off. "Well, you'd be cute as heck," I said, trying to lighten the mood for both of us. "But I don't think I'd want to be a chinchilla's mate."

He kissed my palm and held my hand while we went downstairs.

We found Matthias and Malcolm in the kitchen. Matthias appeared to be making a fresh pot of coffee. I hoped it had my name on it. I could use some breakfast too, come to think of it. Or lunch. Or both. I was starving. Apparently having an exorcism worked up an appetite.

When we reached the bottom step, Malcolm zipped over to me and flitted, clearly nervous, angry, and unhappy. "Alice! How do you feel?"

"I'm okay," I promised. "I mean, I feel like shit, of course, but I'm okay."

Matthias snorted quietly. Even Sean's mouth twitched.

But Malcolm wasn't in the mood for jokes. "I don't know how I didn't see her in there," he said. "I'm so sorry. I feel like I let you down again."

"You didn't." I took a step closer so I could sort of touch his hand because he obviously didn't buy it. "I promise you didn't let me down. We had no way of knowing what she'd done. Valas didn't want to be found, and she knew how to hide from you, Sean, me…everyone. She was all but impossible to see."

He crossed his arms. "If Carly could see her, then it wasn't impossible."

"Well, Carly's extra special. And like Sean said, Valas has had a long time to learn every trick using kinds of magic you and I have only read about. She's more than a thousand years old. You're only what, twenty? There's no shame in getting tricked by someone five hundred times older than you."

Malcolm eyed me. "First of all, that was shameless flattery about my age to distract me, and it worked. And second, you are terrible at math."

As I tried to come up with a good retort, Matthias approached me with a mug of coffee. He looked about seventy-five percent less grim than I was used to seeing.

I couldn't help it; I hugged him. He hugged me with his free arm and patted my back somewhat awkwardly but didn't pull away.

"You're safe with us now," I said, claiming my coffee mug from him. "I mean, you were before, but now it's all legal and official."

"Thank you both for granting me asylum and persuading the Council to affirm it," Matthias said. "But legal and official doesn't necessarily mean they won't still try to get to me."

"You know she used to refer to you as Mr. Sunshine, back when we first met you?" Malcolm asked, hands on his hips. "Guess how you got that nickname."

"I do recall that, yes." Matthias folded his hands behind his back. "I assumed it had to do with my radiant personality."

Malcolm's incredulous expression forced me to hide my smile behind my coffee cup.

"What smells so good?" I asked.

"I put a breakfast casserole into the oven when we heard you moving around upstairs," Matthias said. "It should be ready in ten minutes. "

I gaped at him.

"You'll have to forgive Alice," Malcolm said with an exasperated look in my direction. "She's in a much worse pre-coffee condition than usual, and I think she's having trouble picturing you, of all people, making a casserole. Making a hole through a brick wall seems more your style."

Matthias raised his eyebrows. "I am a man of many talents," he rumbled. He turned back to me. "What else can I get you?"

Normally being fussed over made me self-conscious, but in the wake of…well, everything, I didn't mind a bit of fussing, especially since it gave Matthias's wolf purpose.

"Thank you for the offer, but coffee and food is all I need for now." I took my mug to the kitchen island and slid onto one of the tall chairs. "Thank you all for helping Carly get Valas out of me. That experience was highly unpleasant, but I'm obviously very glad to not be giving her spirit a piggyback ride anymore. And doubly glad Carly stuffed her into that cool mirror where we can keep an eye on her."

When Matthias's expression turned grave, I touched his arm. "You're one of us now. You aren't going back to the Court, or to her. I don't care that she's apparently still kicking. As far as I'm concerned, no one but us needs to know that."

He studied me. "If Charles Vaughan finds out, he will obliterate everything in his path to get that mirror. He won't care who's in the way. Not even if it's you."

"I know." I squeezed his arm and let go. "But only five of us know the truth, right? You, Sean, Malcolm, Carly, and me. If we stash that thing where no one will find it, inside the best wards we can create, and no one breathes a word of it, Charles won't find out."

"Those people who attacked us on the road knew Valas was inside you," Sean said. "They came for her. Ben heard the man you called Mr. Touchy say ‘I'm here to free you' and you—or probably Valas, actually—told him ‘I will not be captured.' We found a spell crystal in the grass near him that Carly thinks was meant for Valas to transfer into. "

"I don't remember that conversation," I said with a sigh. "I remember feeling really dizzy once I made it out of the wrecked SUV, but everything's blurry until Ben handed me to you. I wonder if Valas wiped it from my memory or I was just concussed."

" Just concussed," Malcolm said with a sigh. "Listen to her. Just concussed."

Meanwhile, I was thinking about what Sean had said. "She probably didn't want to risk leaving my body," I said, my hands wrapped around my coffee mug. "I guess that's what she meant by ‘I will not be captured.' She thought they were trying to trap her in the crystal."

"Maybe they were," Malcolm suggested. "We don't know who those people were or what their motives might be."

"Ben told me Mr. Touchy said ‘Mistress, I still serve you.'" Sean put his hand on my back to comfort me. "That seems like something a devotee would say."

"Maybe they were her followers, then," Malcolm said. "They might have been trying to help her and she misunderstood their intentions. When in doubt, kill them all, I guess. Vampires."

"She must have told these people whose body she planned to jump into," Sean said. "Otherwise, how would they have known who to look for?"

I recalled my abbreviated tracking spell from yesterday and had a thought. "Yesterday, before someone broke my spell, I caught glimpses of occult rituals when I tracked the magic from the ghost grenade Mr. Touchy tossed at Malcolm. Those rituals felt ancient and very bloody."

"In other words, entirely consistent with what I'd imagine Valas's own practices to be." Malcolm flitted. "You said someone busted your tracking spell. Was it Valas trying to keep you from seeing what was going on in those rituals?"

I closed my eyes and tried to see the enraged face I'd glimpsed just before my spell broke. But try as I might, it remained more of an impression than an image .

"I don't know," I said, opening my eyes again. "She's capable of doing it, but I just can't say for sure."

"Great—another mystery," Malcolm said. "So six of these people are dead. But are there more out there? Are they going to come after Alice again, not knowing Valas isn't in her anymore? What will they do when they find that out?"

"Great question." I finished my coffee and let Matthias take the mug. "I'll add that to my list of things to worry about."

"How long's that list now?" Malcolm asked dryly.

I held my thumb and index finger a few inches apart. He snorted.

"And speaking of mysteries," I said, "any more murders that look like they might be connected to our necromancer and their pet spirit?"

"I've been following the local news as best I can," Matthias said from the coffee maker. "There were a couple of murders in the city last night. Two of them I doubt are related to the necromancer." He handed me my refilled mug. He really did know how to make my coffee exactly how I liked it. A man of many talents, indeed. "According to news reports, one was a domestic situation and the other seems to be gang-related. But in the two other cases, the killers apparently cut their own throats immediately after committing murders."

" Two murder-suicides?" I set my mug down after a single sip. "What times did these take place?"

"Both of them at about two fifteen in the morning, about six blocks apart. I don't have any details—just what's been in the news."

I thought of Diaz's three a.m. phone call. If I'd needed a sign these twin murder-suicides were related to our case—other than my gut instinct, that was—that call clinched it. And judging by the grim expressions on both Matthias and Malcolm's faces, they shared my feeling.

The oven buzzed. As Matthias donned oven mitts that strained to fit his enormous hands, my phone rang. I recognized the number immediately. Ugh—just what I needed .

"Back in a minute." I slid off the chair, hurried upstairs, and shut myself in our bedroom, far from Matthias's sharp ears.

I answered just before the call went to voice mail. "What do you want?"

Moses's dry chuckle grated on my already frayed nerves. "Charming as always. Do highway ambushes by crazed zealots always make you this rude?"

"Yep, every time." I kept my voice sarcastic to hide the way my stomach lurched.

How the hell did he know about the wreck? And what did he mean by "crazed zealots"? I categorically did not want Moses anywhere near this mess with Valas. Much like Charles, my grandfather would stop at nothing to get his hands on that mirror.

My best bet was to play dumb and see what information I could get out of him. "Crazed zealots?" I asked, feigning confusion. "Is that who attacked us? I thought it was something to do with the Court."

"If you're referring to Charles Vaughan, my sources inform me he was furious about the ambush. He apparently wants you to stay alive."

His tone indicated he'd bought my dumb act, so I stuck with it.

"Well, he would say that, wouldn't he?" I scoffed, though I knew damn well Charles hadn't had anything to do with it. "We're supposed to be fighting this out in the courtroom, not on some backwoods country highway. He has to pretend he's playing by the rules, at least until he thinks he can get away with coming after us directly."

"Alice, use your head," Moses snapped. "A Court operation would not have been so sloppy. Why wreck your vehicle but leave you all alive? This wasn't Charles Vaughan. Those people were connected with a cult calling themselves Disciples of the Sun. What they might want with you, I don't know, but I have people trying to find out."

I patted myself on the back for convincing Moses I suspected Charles and getting him to tell me who he thought had attacked us. " Well, if it wasn't Charles, then it's a hell of a coincidence," I said, feigning skepticism. "How do you know about this cult, anyway?"

"I put my best people on it. I was highly motivated to find out who tried to kill you."

Ugh. Of course he wouldn't tell me how he knew. I wasn't going to beg him for that info. We'd just have to do our own digging into this supposed cult.

"At least I know it wasn't you," I said to Moses, in a tone that would have made Malcolm roll his eyes. "The attackers didn't smell like a pompous Baltimore racketeer."

He sighed. "I called to make sure you were all right."

"Right. Like you care." I snorted. "And as if you don't have eyes on my house telling you I got home alive last night."

"Judging by the reports I got, the condition you were in last night didn't convince me you'd recover. You were seen being carried into the house—not by Sean, but by your new werewolf. You haven't left your home today. The witch Carly Reese arrived in the middle of the night and still hasn't left." He raised his voice. "These facts might have led me to believe you were seriously hurt, maybe dying."

Huh. Maybe he did care. I doubted it, but he sure was selling it with that last bit and his tone.

Given the twenty years of misery he'd inflicted on me, I really didn't care if he cared now—except it presented an opportunity I'd waited for. As long as I didn't blow this, I could take a shot at gaining something important.

"Okay." I let my voice tremble. "Look, it was bad, okay? I don't like anyone knowing when I'm vulnerable, as I'm sure you'd expect. Someone like me, with my list of enemies, can't let on when I'm not at my best. The wreck was bad and those people, whoever the hell they were, tried to capture or kill us when just wrecking our SUV going fifty miles an hour didn't get the job done. So yeah, I needed a lot of help to recover, and yeah, Carly's still here because she's recovering from helping me. At the moment, however, other than being sore from the wreck and all the magic, I'm good to go. So thanks for asking, or whatever."

During the silence that followed, I tried to determine whether he'd bought my scared and vulnerable act or not. I really couldn't tell, but I decided to keep going.

"But speaking of my case…" I blew out a breath. Time for a big gamble. "I have a problem, and maybe you could help."

"How so?" His voice sounded guarded but intrigued.

The key to bullshitting someone like Moses was to commit fully and not let even a hint of nervousness or uncertainly creep in. To pull this off, I had to go all in.

"I think I might be up against something really nasty with this case I'm on," I said. "To reel the bad guys in, I'll need big wards. I have to have sources of power that aren't connected to my house wards or blood garden, but I'm an earth mage, so that's all I've got here. I can't use pack magic, and Carly's only able to offer me a little of her kind of magic to protect me. I need…something else." I made my voice tremble a little and cleared my throat. "Sources of power that are self-contained, that I can link together and put where I need them."

"Ava Selene," Moses said, feigning shock and horror, "are you asking me for what I think you're asking me for? After all those years of telling me I'm a monster for using them?"

I hated that he'd used my real name, but I couldn't let him distract me from selling him on this request.

"You are a monster, but I'm after a much worse monster than you," I said, and it was actually true. "Am I proud of this? No. Do I hate myself for asking you for help? Yes." I swallowed hard, because my apprehension about the necromancer was very real. "But sometimes there's no such thing as a practice being always good or always bad. Sometimes it's just necessary."

After everything I'd been through with Sean and Malcolm, and everything I'd put them through, I didn't like how much I still believed that. Malcolm and Sean both believed some things were always wrong, no matter what, and in theory I agreed. But theory wasn't real life. My life and soul and the people I cared about were on the line. People were dying because a necromancer enjoyed dealing out death and using a monstrous spirit to commit murder.

In theory, I'd never wanted to say one word to my grandfather ever again, or share his table, or drink his scotch, or chat in his conservatory, or ask for his help, or request that he loan me weapons I'd always believed were inhumane. And look where I'd ended up: doing all those things within the last few days.

Sometimes, like now, I had to do what was necessary and hope for forgiveness, or at least understanding.

"When do you need them?" Moses asked.

I made sure none of the hope I felt showed in my tone when I asked, "What's the price?"

"If you need them to keep you alive, then there's no price," he said. "Come to the manor this afternoon and choose which to take."

I'd thought the taste in my mouth from puking black blood after Carly exorcised Valas was bad, but that was nothing compared to the taste in my mouth right now. Remember this feeling the next time you think about asking him for something , I told myself.

I didn't try to hide the tightness in my voice when I said, "Thanks."

"I'll see you in a few hours. Be safe." He ended the call.

I tossed my phone on the bed like it was moldy.

Sean must be feeling a tornado of emotions through our nascent bond right now. He'd probably guessed right away who'd called. I'd have to figure out what to tell him, and more importantly, what to say to Malcolm. I didn't want to get his hopes up, but he deserved to know what I was doing.

The smell of Matthias's breakfast casserole had reached the bedroom, but my appetite had evaporated. I had to eat something, though, or I'd have to deal with a couple of unhappy werewolves and a disapproving ghost on top of everything else.

Matthias had baked something for the same reason Sean loved to cook: a dominant wolf wasn't just a fighter and protector, but someone who wanted to ensure his pack was well-fed and safe. Fight and kill one minute, throw a casserole together the next. Nan had done the same. And even her late predecessor, Jack Hastings, for all his faults, had too.

Thanks to the number of crises in our lives at the moment, Matthias had found his place light-years faster than I could have hoped or even imagined. That didn't mean he and his wolf had healed—not by a long shot—but I believed he was on the path to healing. Sean, Malcolm, and I were on that path too. So were Carly and Katy. Maybe we could heal together.

Something Arkady had told me recently popped into my head: Do you know how someone who's been beaten down finds their strength? They get the chance to be the strength for someone else.

I'd gotten the sense she was talking about herself when she said that, but when I'd asked, she'd changed the subject. Her insight certainly applied to Matthias and his battered wolf.

As happy as I was about the Council affirming Matthias's asylum status and his rise to beta, I couldn't shake the dread I felt thinking about the next twenty-four hours. Assuming Katy and Carly would be ready by tonight, we'd be facing a necromancer and their nasty pet spirit in a battle that would force me to rely on not just my own magic and abilities but the witches' too—while risking their lives and souls.

On top of that, my visit to Merrum Manor later today would either give Malcolm something he wanted with all his heart or fail my friend in a way I'd never forgive myself for, even if he did forgive me.

Oh, and Charles still needed something big enough that he'd threatened to put Sean and me in prison, and now we had a thirteen-hundred-year-old vampire-sorcerer in a hand mirror.

At least we had casserole and coffee and each other. That counted for something.