Chapter 16

 

Julian stood back as Leira laid out well-used maps. One of Australia, one of Western Australia, then one of Perth. There were others in the large box that she left untouched. She spread them over the kitchen table and circled around as though studying them. The magic she was drawing up was already making the hairs on his arms stand to attention.

She pulled her silver necklace out of her pocket and placed it with Emily’s gold bracelet.

“What do you need?”

She held her hand up, her eyebrows pinched together, and then she folded up the map of Australia. That was when he noticed the candle flame in the middle wasn’t upright. It was leaning toward the more detailed map of Perth. It was literally Leira’s guiding light.

He hadn’t expected Emily to leave the state, but they had both been hoping that she would. The morning news had given no more details about the shooting. His father had seen the footage. His father had made the warning that Guardians would be arriving in Australia public and the Albah family in Melbourne had taken the initiative.

It had put his father in a tight spot as now he owed the criminal Albah family a favor—Julian didn’t need to be a cop or a criminal to know that at some point his father would be asked to look the other way when they did something nefarious.

However, they had done everyone a favor by killing the Guardians, and because they were already a crime family there was no added suspicion and no connection to the Venns or Ryders.

This mess was getting bigger the longer they let Emily stay in the game. What they’d do with her he had no idea. He couldn’t kill her. If they told the police, the odds were they wouldn’t act on the info until it was too late, and he and Leira couldn’t keep calling up with new tips on her location. It would be too suspicious.

Even though his father had warned him against vigilante action, they needed to catch her out and turn her in. They could do that. Then the police would be forced to act, even if it was just to deport her.

Leira folded up the map of the state. Emily was in Perth. No surprise, but Leira was doing this properly, step by step.

After another moment, she walked around the table with the salt container and made a proper circle that included them both. With his pocketknife, she nicked her finger and pressed the drop of blood that formed into the curved disc on her necklace. Then she held her necklace by the chain with one hand and the bracelet fisted in the other. With her gaze firmly on the flame, she let her necklace hang over the map.

The bloodied silver disk swung as though seeking. Whatever Leira was seeing in the flame was guiding her. Her focus was absolute. He didn’t speak, not wanting to break her concentration, although he wasn’t sure she’d have heard him even if he had. She closed in on Emily’s location drawn by silver, blood, and fire. Eventually she stopped and let the silver disk hit the map.

She exhaled, then glanced at him. “Pull up that area on my laptop. I might be able to get closer.”

Julian did as he was asked. He had wondered why she’d put the laptop on a chair in the circle with them. She went through the process again before ending up with a block in the same suburb his apartment had been.

That was creepy.

“I can’t get closer. She has iron around her.”

“I’ll let Dad know.”

“Don’t. We don’t know if she is getting breakfast or at home.” She brought down the circle. She had a drink of water and swept up the salt, all simple grounding activities.

“You can’t find that out?”

“No. Iron. But also it would be kind of wrong if I could peek that closely into people’s lives. I mean I can, but only if they are with me and offering up their blood.”

How much had she seen in his blood that she hadn’t shared? “Do people, humans, do that?”

Leira shook her head. “No. Saba would be horrified if people asked her. She doesn’t like doing readings that involve blood. Especially after the Albanex.”

“I don’t blame her.” He paused, so tempted to ask Leira to go deeper next time she read for him. Given that everything had been very grim so far he wasn’t sure that he wanted more details.

She shook her head. “Don’t even think about it. Three uses of blood magic make an unbreakable bond. I’ll always be able to check up on you. You don’t want that.”

“I know. We’ve only shared one drop and that’ll last a while.” It would last longer if she stopped doing readings to see how his future was changing. Those little innocent uses of blood magic for readings and healings fed people’s fear of Albanex. They didn’t understand the difference between using a single drop for a spell and using liters to feed a spell that gave the user unnatural life. An Albanex only lived because of magic. No magic, no life. Unlike an Albah, silver killed them.

“So, should we do a little recon? See where she hangs out? Then we can pass the info on to Quinn and he can do his thing.”

“Even if they pick her up for shoplifting, they haven’t got her on anything else. Is that enough to cancel her visa?” He didn’t think it was. Otherwise his father would’ve acted faster.

Leira shrugged and folded up the last map. “What should we do then? We can’t lock her up ourselves. That would be kidnapping, and I don’t want to be on Quinn’s bad side.” Neither did he. It would be just their luck to end up being charged with kidnapping while Emily walked free. “Maybe we need to lure her into doing something more careless?”

“Set her up?”

“Maybe?” They weren’t trained assassins, or cops, or anything special. He was a doctor and she was a historian who knew a little too much about the medieval torture methods used to get confessions, and names, out of witches. Why take one Albah when there could be more lurking nearby waiting to turn undead at the drop of a hat?

The fear of magic and Albanex—who had once had a valid purpose in keeping the magical lore and ways alive after the destruction—had been handed down through the generations. Had no Guardian ever stopped to think about what they were doing and destroying?

Now, the only Albanex worth talking to were the Keepers. The magic modern Albah could do was nothing compared to what they had wielded in the past. It had all been lost, and with each death a little more was erased. Eventually it would be like the Albah had never existed.

“Could we offer a truce? Do you think she knows that her backup is dead?” If Emily attacked them in public, then there would be witnesses.

“I could offer myself, if she promises to leave the rest of you alone.” Julian frowned. “I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to be there. She wants you dead.”

“And she wants you alive, that could be a whole lot worse.” So much worse, death could come very slowly and neither of them knew exactly how much training Emily had received.

He nodded slowly. “I know. But I can speak to her. Make the meeting place public. If nothing else, you can watch and follow her to find out where she is living.”

“You don’t know?”

“She told me it was with friends. I’m thinking she doesn’t have any, at least not here.” More lies. It was a wonder their relationship had lasted as long as it had without falling apart. He would never again lie about who he was, but then he didn’t want to date humans ever again. His gaze followed Leira; he didn’t want to think about dating anyone else. He wanted to make this work. He wanted to believe in the happy future Leira had seen for them. All he was holding on to was that this could be put right and he got to be happy. That Leira got to be happy.

Leira scowled. “Okay, so the plan is to contact her. You meet face to face and I watch and follow. What about the whole you getting shot thing that I saw in your future? How effective is your shield against bullets?”

“No idea. It might slow them down. If she shoots me in public, there will be a reason to arrest her.” He forced a smile that was definitely more of a grimace. He’d dealt with bullet wounds and had no desire to see how it felt to have one.

“You might die.” She put her arms around him. “I don’t want you to die.”

“I won’t die.” He kissed her and held her close.

“You don’t know that. I saw her shoot you.”

“You didn’t see me die. If we sit and wait for her to come to us, then she has all the power. If we set the time and place, we at least have some control. Maybe Dad or Dale could act as backup? It should be Dale, if there are Albah around, she’ll get suspicious.”

“I’ll call him. You call her.”

He kissed her again, not wanting to do this but knowing they had to act.

* * * *

Julian sat in the coffee shop that was within Leira’s one-block radius. He knew it well because he’d been here before, only this time he sat with his back to a wall as Dale had advised. Dale sat at a table nearby with a coffee and a newspaper looking like just another guy enjoying a Sunday morning.

Dale hadn’t been thrilled with the plan, but he understood the need to draw people out and get them to make a mistake. Hopefully a non-fatal one. But Dale had also been practical and insisted that Julian wear a bulletproof vest under his jacket. They weren’t nearly as difficult to purchase as Julian had thought they’d be. It was, however, heavier and hotter than he’d expected. It may also save his life—assuming Emily didn’t aim for his head or his thigh and hit the femoral artery. There were so many places on the body that could be injured and cause a quick death. He had to stop thinking about that.

He resisted the urge to glance out the window to where Leira was watching from the rental car. Her telltale blond hair hidden under a cap.

Julian really hoped that Emily had no more backup, otherwise anyone in the coffee shop could be a Guardian. He cast his gaze around, trying to see if anyone had a trident tattoo on their wrist. Although, that was probably only Emily’s branch.

No one was watching him and everyone was far too busy with their coffee and cakes and friends. There were too many people in here. What if she did something and hurt someone? Once he would’ve said Emily wasn’t capable of hurting anyone, now he knew she was willing to kill.

Dale turned the page of the newspaper. Was he actually reading?

Julian checked his phone, then scanned the menu for the tenth time. He had no plans to order anything. He couldn’t have eaten even if he had. Emily was late. Had she been watching the coffee shop? They’d been careful; Leira had driven and he’d caught the train as usual. Dale had been here before Julian had arrived.

He forced out a breath and risked a glance out the window to where Leira was. She was fine. He may not be, because Emily was walking toward the door. His heart clenched and adrenaline swept through him. Fire was close to the surface, ready and waiting. He’d cut his hand before coming out to make sure he had blood ready to spill if he needed it to strengthen his magic.

Emily sat down opposite him. There was no greeting or smile. All presence of romance or affection was gone. “You wanted to meet.”

“I want to establish a truce.” They had decided that would be the best way to approach this.

She laughed, mocking him. It was an ugly sound. “It’s far too late for that after what you did to my mother.” Her voice was a low harsh whisper.

“Your mother?” He honestly had no idea what she was talking about.

“Melbourne? Don’t act like you don’t know.”

Oh. One of those Guardians who had been killed had been her mother. “I didn’t know that was going to happen.”

“Bullshit. I told you they were coming and you passed the news on.” The sneer in her voice was so sharp he wondered what he’d ever seen in her.

“I warned the others, that much is true, but I didn’t expect that result. Besides, they were coming here with only one purpose. How can you argue that they were innocent or didn’t deserve it?” How many Albah had her mother killed and made it look like an accident? “They had blood on their hands.”

Emily’s face contorted. “That was my mother.”

“Yeah, hurts to lose your mother, doesn’t it? To know that it could have been prevented. Imagine what it would be like if your people stopped killing mine. No one would need to die.”

“People would die, though. You’d want a taste of forever.”

Julian shook his head. “Two hundred years ago we made a truce with your kind. We kept our end in good faith, but your kind have been breaking it, making it look accidental. Now we know the truth and some of us want revenge.” That probably wasn’t a lie, but he didn’t know if it was the truth either. “Most of us want peace and to be left alone.”

“No, there will never be peace until you are all gone.” She rearranged her handbag on her lap.

“Genocide is never the answer. Maybe the rest of the world would like to know we exist and what we can do.”

She sneered at him. “Two words. Government labs. The Albah will never go public. The Guardians? We have many faces. We could be your colleagues, your friends, your lovers and you wouldn’t know until the trigger was pulled.” She stood up. “This is for my mother.”

Julian pushed up his shield. The first bullet hit, the metal glowing red as it slowed, then hit him in the chest.

If she noticed his magic, she didn’t stop. “I’ll hunt your girlfriend down too.”

People hadn’t realized what was going on yet. The gun was too quiet and they thought they were witnessing an argument. Breathing hurt but he had to focus on the shield. He scraped his nails over the cut on his palm and felt the shield harden. Dale was moving. Emily fired again. The bullet skewed through his shield and hit him in the bicep. It tore through the muscle.

Now people were screaming and hiding behind their tables.

Emily was running. Dale gave chase and was calling the police.

Julian dropped the shield; the pain was distracting. He clamped his hand over his arm. Plenty of blood to work with. As much as he’d like to heal it here and now, there were too many people around and they were expecting him to be hurt. Blood oozed between his fingers. He slowed the flow, feeling for the ruptured blood vessels and knitting them together. It was all he could do in those few seconds. Healing wasn’t a quick magic and he wasn’t sure he could do more on himself for something this major.

Could have been worse.

Dale ran back in. “Where are you hit?”

“Arm. It’s fine.”

Dale looked like he was about to argue, but then must have remembered he was talking to a doctor with healing magic. He may not be fine. Muscle was damaged, maybe the bullet had chipped the bone. He wouldn’t know until he got the chance to do more magic. He didn’t want surgery and a hospital stay. “You didn’t get her.”

Dale shook his head. “I never saw the gun. Did you?”

Julian shook his head. This place would be crawling with cops and medics soon. He needed to make the injury less severe. “She fired through her handbag…must have had a silencer?”

Dale nodded. “Take a moment to do what you need.” He pulled out his badge and started gathering people up.

That was his idea of a distraction. Julian grabbed the sugar off the table and made a circle around his chair as surreptitiously as he could—he wouldn’t be able to hold one out of pure will right now. The circle sprang up around him. He used his own blood in the magic. He focused on the wound, then took hold of the pain and used that too. He hadn’t healed himself in years. That had really only been skinned knees, and one small fracture in his hand. This was different. Everything was screaming and ragged. He could feel the bullet in him. It was still hot after passing through his shield.

Carefully he nudged it closer to the surface, which was difficult to do. What he needed was some tweezers and a little local anesthetic to go digging. He started the healing process on the inside. He didn’t have the time or energy to fully heal anything right now.

Sirens filled the air.

He pulled his hand off his arm and let the circle go. The wound felt better already. He could feel it knitting together. The bullet was still moving, working its way closer to the surface. A little silver on the wound and the help of another male Albah to finish the healing and he’d be fine.

He was not going to tell his father about this. He sighed. With the cops arriving his father was going to hear about it anyway. There was no way to keep this quiet. Leira and he had never expected Emily to try something so public.

By the time the cops and the ambulance pulled up, everything had calmed down. He even managed to avoid a trip to hospital.

But not being questioned by the newly arrived police.

This was a mess. He glanced out the window. The car was empty. Leira was gone.