Bitten in Two

“No to both.”

“Has he—”

“Wait a minute! Wait, wait, wait…” I rubbed my forehead, trying to pul a scene I’d wanted to forget forever back into focus. “About two weeks ago we were in Scotland. My mom escaped from hel to—wel , it doesn’t real y matter what she wanted with me. But before the dogs dragged her back down, Vayl whispered something in her ear that real y flipped her out. And then Satan’s Enforcer”— who’s trapped in my head right now, but I’m sure as hell not admitting that to you—“he said, ‘So it shal be.’ And he took her away. Does that sound like it might’ve been a curse to you?”

Sterling had started to straighten up and sit forward halfway through my story. He nodded and said, “When someone lays down a curse, they leave themselves vulnerable to the same kind of attack. It’s not a wide window. In fact, it starts to close right away, and by the time the moon changes again they’re safe. But if an enemy can attack that person within the month, they can do massive damage.”

I stared at the candles. Was it just my imagination, or had they begun to melt in the heat of my gaze? “The only person who knew about that curse before today was the Enforcer. Brude. Who, we just discovered on our last mission, has ties with the Sol of the Valencian Weres. Have you heard of him?”

“Just through office memos. His name’s Roldan, right?”

“Yeah, but he’s not just some superalpha who’s in the mood to throw his weight around. He’s so old that he met Vayl for the first time during the same era his mind is currently stuck in.” I looked up at Sterling. “Do you believe in coincidences?”

“Not when they click like a seat belt. How does Roldan feel about Vayl?”

“A week ago I’d have said he was just some creeper who’d backed a bunch of fanatical gnomes that were trying to gut NASA. I never knew about Vayl’s history with him until the end of the mission. And even then I’d have guessed Roldan was only after what he got when we were able to stop the Australian gnomes—you know, a major reputation boost among the moon-changers. But now I’d guess he’s probably hating like a reality-show reject, and it’s al to do with this ward Vayl had in the late 1700s named Helena.” Sterling raised a finger. “We also know he kil ed Ethan Mreck.”

Ethan had been one of us, a Were assassin assigned to infiltrate Roldan’s pack. News of his death had reached us shortly before Pete was kil ed. Sterling must’ve been thinking along the same lines because he went on. “Pete’s kil er was clawed too.”

I shivered, almost like I could feel the tips of those razor-sharp spikes brush against my neck. “That’s enough for me. You want to know what I think?”

Sterling’s eyes had begun to blaze. “Hit me.”

“I’m glad you don’t mean that literal y. There’s this guy named Yousef—never mind.” I took a deep breath. “I think Roldan was moving to fil the power void that was left when we took out the Raptor and Floraidh Halsey lost her coven.

He kil ed Ethan and Pete in a largely successful bid to bring down our department, which was the biggest threat to his safety. Take us out, he hamstrings his worst enemies. In addition, somewhere along the way, he learned that Vayl was working for Pete. I don’t know how or when. The chronology doesn’t real y matter. The point is that he’s chronology doesn’t real y matter. The point is that he’s created this perfectly geometric plan, which probably has him bouncing like a kid on a trampoline, where he gains power over al Weres by taking his revenge on Vayl.” Sterling shoved his plate away from the edge of the table so he could tap at its top, almost as if he was playing the notes of a song as he spoke. “But this kind of curse? It’s mondo magic. Only a few people can pul off the kind of mind-fuck Vayl’s experiencing right now.”

“Meaning?”

“I’d bet big money that Roldan’s hired himself a mage. I can’t give you a name. They keep their identities closer to their chests than poker cards. But if you get close enough to him, you’l be able to sense him.”

I jumped off the couch. If the mage felt anything like Sterling, my hair would probably fly straight off the nape of my neck the second I hit his neighborhood. “Let’s go get him.”

He raised a hand. “I’m not wasting my energy looking for a guy who’s probably guarded his home better than a super-max prison.”

“So how are we going to find him?”

Sterling flicked his hand like I’d just presented him with a simple math problem. “He’l be where the crowds are thickest.”

Right. A parasitic pickpocket, feeding off mass energy so nobody in particular would notice what he was stealing.

Sterling had probably done it hundreds of times himself. I said, “That’l be the Djemaa el Fna after dark. It’s rol ing with people.”

“So we know where he’l be.” But Sterling didn’t seem satisfied. He ran a hand through his hair, pul ing it back far enough to reveal an earring that hung halfway to his shoulder. Shaped like a boat oar, it was inscribed with runes that made me feel a little sick when I stared too long. I concentrated on his straight black eyebrows as he said,

“But I’m not positive I’m right. No mage could have pul ed off the curse without using some of Vayl’s personal things. I looked it up. He’d need something from the year he wanted to stick Vayl’s mind in. Something with his blood on it.

Something related to a habit he’d had in—what year was it?”

“1777,” I said.

“Okay, so let’s say he drank a glass of port every night before he went to bed in 1777. The mage would need a bottle of port of the same brand Vayl liked. How would he have gotten hold of something like that?” I shook my head. “It couldn’t have been from his house.

Bergman designed his security system so nobody’s broken in. And he would’ve mentioned stuff going missing from our hotel.”