Blood Trade

I pulled on Beast sight, and Soul stepped back to study the top of the spell. “No,” I said. “It reaches just above the top of the house’s roof, maybe three feet above the central roof beam. And as the spell curls down, the same distance above the chimneys.” The house was old enough to have been heated by wood or coal, and two brick chimneys were balanced at the front and back.

Bruiser picked up some stones from the street, small rocks used in the paving, and tossed one at the front of the house. It bounced back with a sizzle of sound and a shower of crimson energies. The second stone went higher, and would have landed on the roof had the hedge not been in the way. He studied the entire structure and pulled back his throwing arm. With a careful release of strength and precision, he tossed the stone up. It arched over before dropping, and passed through the energies escaping out the top. A shower of blue sparks rained down as the rock fell through, into the center of the sphere, and hit the roof before bouncing slowly down the incline and off the eave to the ground.

“Yeah. That’s the hole I could get through,” I said. I hadn’t known until now that Bruiser could see magics. Most humans couldn’t. But, then, Bruiser wasn’t human. Not anymore.

“If we could span a line over the house,” Eli said, “from the buildings at either side, we could reach the spell’s center opening and drop through, crawl to a chimney, and shimmy down it.”

“We would still have to pass through the energies that are escaping from the opening,” Soul said, “and to me, it looks like enough magic to fry a human body.”

“I’m not human,” Bruiser said, shocking me that he would admit it aloud. But, then, with humans and witches missing, a lot of things that were better left in the dark were being exposed to the light. “And neither is Jane. Soul, can you make an amulet of death strong enough to fool the sphere for perhaps twenty seconds?”

I raised my brows. “Death? Oh. The sphere thinks we’re stones or bones or something and doesn’t react to us? Much?”

“Precisely,” Bruiser said, his eyes on Soul.

Soul went still, her body seeming to hunch in on itself before she straightened, looking poised for flight or fight. A silence stretched between them as they measured each other, Soul not at all happy that Bruiser seemed to know something about her nature that she hadn’t told him, Bruiser looking unmoved. He had access to the database of the biggest, baddest Master of the City there is. Heck, he had probably compiled most of it. Did she think he wouldn’t know something about her? But he hadn’t known about Leo’s own son or about me either, so he wasn’t omniscient. Finally she spoke. “And if I can do this?”

“Then Rick and I will run a line from the roofs of the buildings to the side, and Jane and I will drop through.”

Beast pressed down on my mind, her claws out and piercing me with a headache. She peered out through my eyes. Fun!

I just shook my head in disgust at the plan. “I always hated gymnastics in school.”

“Why not Jane and me?” Rick asked.

“Because the magics might short out your electronics,” I said, pointing at his earpieces. “I’d rather not be trapped on the roof of a spelled, warded house with a screaming, half-insane black panther in a human body.”

“She has a point,” Eli said, trying to be helpful.

Rick snarled, turned, and walked away, around the building and to the left of the house we were trying to enter. So much for teamwork and effort.

“How long to make a death charm?” I asked.

“Before dawn,” Soul said.

“Eli, nothing we can do here. Let’s get some shut-eye. And hey, Soul?” She looked up at me, her platinum ponytail falling over one shoulder. “Before we head out, would you take a look at Bobby’s hands? They got burned when he was dowsing for the magics.”

•   •   •

Bobby—healed and out of pain—was asleep in his bed when we again slipped quietly out of Esmee’s and into the SUV, to meander our way back to the warded house. Rick was still there, and so were Bruiser and Soul, and none of them looked very happy. I got out of the vehicle and looked over the house. Nothing was different except for the thin line that ran from the front of one roof to the back of the other roof of the three-story buildings standing on either side of the warded structure. Someone had found mountain-climbing devices and lots of rope. On the highest point hung woven mesh straps and buckles and more metal, like a zip-line trolley and harness. With Beast vision, I could see that the rope passed directly over the opening of the hedge ward.

Eli followed me from the SUV, our feet silent on the sidewalk, our shadows long and diffuse in the light of the moon that appeared to be falling off the edge of the world. The magics of the first full-moon night were more muted now, many witch circles closed after the witching hour, others just closing down as dawn approached. There was a strange smell on the air, like burned hair and hide and odd chemicals, but it was old and faint, and I couldn’t place it. When we were close enough to be heard without raising our voices, I said, “Hey, Eli. How come I think our little experiment is gonna be way more dangerous than they expected?”

“Maybe because they look like death warmed over themselves,” he said. “What’s up, guys?”

Soul examined me. It was a way more intense examination than I’d ever gotten from her before, and it made me feel the way I used to when a schoolteacher suspected that I had done something wrong in class behind her back. I’d learned to stare back, mostly expressionless, a little curious and a lot bored—a look teenagers master early—and I used it on her now. She gave me a small, unamused smile. “Are you willing to risk death to possibly help your friend, who may not be inside?”

I thought about that, tucking my thumbs into my leathers, fingers hanging down as I came to a stop at the small group. “No. But I’m willing to risk it for her daughter. I promised Charly I’d get her mother back.”

Rick growled at that stupidity. Bruiser chuckled. Soul’s expression didn’t change, but I felt the tingle of magics as something happened to her or in the air around her. Her dress wafted and swirled before settling again. “I can’t make a magic that will survive a fall through a hedge that strong. I tried. The charm failed.” More softly, Soul said, “But I am a magic that will survive it.”

I looked over the guys, estimating their weight and Soul’s, and put two and two together, hoping I wasn’t coming up with four. “Sooo, I’m guessing that you want me to carry you on a zip line to the middle of the house, hoping that your magics will protect us from the magical seepage at the top of the hedge, and then drop us both through. And I’m guessing that it’s got to be us, because the boys weigh too much.”

“Yes,” she said, watching me like I was an interesting experiment.

“The pitch of the roof is steep,” Bruiser said. “When you land, you risk tumbling off the house. Once you are stabilized, you have to catch Soul. Then shift into your cat, or, even better, a big snake, slither down a chimney, and figure out how to turn off the ward so we can come inside. All without disturbing whatever biological deterrents are waiting inside.”

“Biological deterrents?” Eli asked. “Like the spidey vamps we’ve been killing?”

“Soul says there are at least four undead guardians inside,” Rick said, his voice less growly now that the night was nearly gone. “One in every room. The witch magics are so strong, she can’t pinpoint the location of any of them. If you shift on your fall through the opening to the hedge, you might die. If you slide off the roof when you land, you will die. If you can’t get inside through the chimneys and get stuck up there, you might die. And if you can’t fight off the things inside, you might die.”

“We don’t want you dead,” Bruiser said.

“And yet you’ve strung the line,” I mused.

“Because we had hoped that Soul and I could do the job. Or Soul and Rick.”

I placed the odd smell and started laughing. I couldn’t help it. And it only got worse when I saw the sour look on Rick’s and Bruiser’s faces and the confusion on Eli’s. Soul didn’t react, but her very nonreaction was funny. “How bad did you get burned when you tried it?” I asked them.

“I was unharmed,” Soul said, “and was able to heal the wounds of the others.”

“But I bet it hurt. Didn’t it? Still trying to protect the little woman?” I said, less kindly, shooting my anger at the two men.

“I refuse to apologize,” Bruiser said.

“We were afraid you’d shift when you hit the ward’s energies,” Rick said. “We’re still afraid you’ll shift. And if you do, you’ll probably die.”

It was interesting to see the two men on the same side of an argument for once. Even more interesting to