Black Magic Shadows (22 page)

Nick had said he loved me, and was serious enough to buy a ring. Love could cause people to do crazy things.

So could rejection.

Diablo wandered in, and came to stand beside my chair.

"Am I looking at this the right way?"

"
Looking at what
?" Diablo reared to plant his paws on the desk's edge, and sniffed at the paper. "
Is there more than one way to look at paper
?"

I scratched the back of his neck. "Not the paper, the situation."

"
Case
?"

"Curse."

The black pit perked his ears. "
You're not a dog again
."

"No this curse makes me see things that aren't there."

"
Oh. So that's what your problem is
." Diablo flicked an ear and leaned into my scratching. "
You been acting like a Mexican jumping bean
."

"Sorry." I turned and began using both hands to scratch him. His black hair was short, but thick and shiny.

"
You haven't been jumping lately
."

"Someone removed the curse from me, but I have to find out who cursed me."

Diablo dropped to the floor. "
My money's on Smelly
."

"Smelly?"

"
That wolf you were cozy with. Wolves are bad news
."

"Why would he curse me?"

"
Because you kicked 'im to the curb instead of being his mate
." Diablo's face wrinkled. "
Want us to get him
?"

"No, but thanks for the offer." I patted his head and swiveled my chair back to the desk. After giving the dog's opinion some serious consideration, I picked up the pen, and added Nick's name to the list. Not that I really thought he'd go that far, but it also wasn't as though I'd known him for years.

Diablo grunted before wandering out of my office.

Shifters were basically magic people, based on what I'd learned about their origins. But could they create actual spells?

Of course, David's shop stayed in business on the principle that anyone could create magic by using the right spells and ingredients. If only certain people could, the Blue Orb wouldn't be nearly as successful as it was.

Staring at Nick's name, I mentally face-palmed. I had an expert I could ask, right next door: Moira.

As the clan's shamaness, she'd know what shifters could do when it came to using magic. I could also talk to her about seeing the ancestors, and my worries over the missing White Queen.

A
call to Logan assured me that the dogs were always welcome in clan territory, and netted an offer to guide me to Moira's house.

He met us just past the parking lot, greeting me with a hug. I returned it with interest, wondering how much longer I'd be able to hold out before diving into bed with him.

"I let her know you were on the way over, and I'll keep an eye on Speck and Squishy," he said as we disengaged. Re-engagement followed instantly, his hand sliding around mine. "If you need me to."

"Thanks." We walked down the path, our pace slow due to the dogs' need to sniff everything. I didn't mind, because it meant longer hand-holding time. The air was cool and pine-scented, but I felt warmer than I had on my walk over. "Is the whole territory like this?"

"No, there's rainforest, grasslands, even a mangrove swamp, and highlands. We needed a mix of habitats, since we have a mix of tiger breeds. Most clans do."

"Cool." I was not going to waste brain power on how they'd done that. Maybe someday a headache wouldn't be the result of trying to comprehend magic, but today wasn't that day. "If there's a beach around, I'll take my next vacation here."

Logan stepped over Squishy, who'd found something interesting to sniff on the path. "We don't have ocean access, but there's lakes and rivers. One goes through the jungle area, and it has a few nice beach spots."

"What about snakes and piranhas? Or alligators?"

"None of those. We're the apex predators here, though we have some small predators to keep things in balance." He squeezed my fingers. "There's a troupe of chimpanzees in the rainforest, and Michelle—she's one of our Bengals—saw a few groups of smaller monkeys. We have some foxes and buzzards too."

"That's too cool."

"Even cooler: They're sort of programmed to let us know when something's wrong." He half-smiled. "They're real wild animals, but not. It's kind of hard to explain, but the reasoning is that we'll be able to help them if there's injuries or illnesses, because they'll come to us."

"Kind of a fail-safe, huh? To keep all this on an even keel?"

He nodded. "Exactly. They won't avoid us completely, so we'll see them, but it's better to keep our distance unless necessary."

"What about deer or rabbits? Will they come to tell you if something's wrong?"

"No, since they're our main prey animals. It's up to us to be good shepherds, weed out the sick or injured, and not over hunt the healthy."

I wrinkled my nose, but didn't protest. Animals hunted other animals. That's how the circle of life worked in the wild. "I think I'll skip the hunts."

Logan chuckled in response. We'd reached the main street and its houses, but he led me down it, past the big community building. Also past the playground and the gathering area where we’d celebrated Solstice. "Moira wanted space. It's easier for people to seek her out when they need her help, if she's not smack in the middle of everything."

Her house was a really cute log cabin, set in the trees not far from the edge of the gathering ground. The cabin wasn't particularly large, but it had a covered front porch big enough to hang out on. We didn't go to the front door, but around back. I stopped, impressed by the space behind the cabin. There was a clearing, but the trees edging it weren't pines, and their branches met overhead to form a canopy. "Neat. It's like a natural gazebo."

Moira waved at us. She was sitting in one of the Adirondack style wooden chairs arranged around an in-ground fire pit at the center of the area. Her welcoming smile reinforced the friendliness I'd noticed in her from the start. "Come have a seat."

The three big dogs agreed to a run with Logan, while my two Chihuahuas thought warm laps were a better idea.

In short order, I was sitting by the fire pit close to Moira, each of us with a lump of snoozing fur in our laps.

That was when I felt a little unnerved, because I knew she and Logan were exes. It made it difficult for me to think of how to start the conversation.

Moira waited for a couple minutes before taking pity on me. "Logan said you needed help with something?"

"Yes. Did he tell you I was cursed? I mean, again?"

"He did, and that a gargoyle gave you a Tear to block it."

"Yeah." I petted Squishy. Speck was in Moira's lap. "Lord Kadon removed the curse, but I'm trying to figure out who cursed me."

"Okay." She gave a slight nod.

"My suspect list is limited, and there's a name on it I kind of hate having there. Nick's."

"Ah." Moira pursed her lips. "We, meaning shifters in general, aren't magically powerful. Our magic is shifting shape." Her lips curved. "Plus the physical benefits. Speed, strength, and quick healing."

"So Nick can't be the one who did it."

Moira slowly shook her head. "He can't create and throw a curse, no, but he could hire the job out. The question is: Do you really think he'd want to harm you?"

I answered without thinking. "No. Okay, scratching him off the list. That leaves..."

Her eyebrows rose when I trailed off. "Yes?"

Something was dancing right at the edge of my mind. "I've been cursed three times."

"Some girls have all the luck," Moira murmured.

"Yeah, right. Okay, the first time it was passed by touch." The dark elf, Dalsarin, had gone on a cursing spree and sent a gunman to my little brother's school. But it wasn't the gunman who'd passed the curse. It was the police chief. We'd never figured out how Dalsarin had come into contact with him. I felt my forehead wrinkling.

"The second time it was a potion." Also a present from Dalsarin, personally presented.

Moira nodded, watching me intently. I stared back, trying not to wrestle with the teasing memory. "I don't know how I was cursed this time."

"Well, not that I would deal in curses if I could, but I do know something about them." She stroked Speck's round head with her forefinger. "A potion or an object is the usual method. If it's neither of those, then it's a long-distance spell. Those require a focus object."

My surroundings disappeared and I blinked.

"Cordi?"

"Vision." Everything was dark. Where the hell was I? I lifted my hand and felt Moira take hold of it.

"Oh my. It's dark," she whispered. "I can barely see."

Pulling tiger shifters into my visions was becoming a thing. "Is it the clan bond?"

Moira understood my question. "Could be."

"Can you make out anything?"

"Barely. We're in a cavern, I think. There's a wall close. Is it possible to turn around? I feel a lot of open space behind us."

"Yeah, I think so." It was weird, sitting still and trying to turn around, but we sort of shuffled.

The shamaness hissed. "I see you."

"Who?"

"You," she said, right before light blazed.

I blinked and shuddered as Merriven's voice broke the silence. "Once you've learned your place, you'll begin your new existence in truth, as my little princess."

Now I understood what Moira had meant. The vampire stood over my past self. It was a retrocog vision.

I glanced at the tiger, whose eyes were dark orange and unblinking as she stared at the tableau.

"So much wrong with that sentence." Wow, I sounded like crap. Looked like it too.

We both twitched when he threatened to feed my dad to me.

"He was a real winner," Moira said.

"Yeah."

She growled when the vamp straddled me, and stopped when I tossed him with telekinesis. Her growl returned when he used TK to yank me upright and pull me across the cavern to him.

"Yeah, that sucked, and," I winced, watching Merriven sink his teeth into my neck. "That's really disgusting. Why does anyone think it's sexy? It friggin' hurts."

"Biting's fun, in the right circumstances. Those weren't." Moira's lips tightened.

"Petra's about to show up."

The gargoyle did, dropping like a rock behind Merriven. My past self fell to the rocky floor when the gargoyle hooked her claws into Merriven's sides.

He tore free, turning to face her, only to get her huge left paw to his head. About to follow up with her right, Petra checked.

"I think that’s when I told her not to kill him, telepathically."

Moira nodded. The gargoyle leaped, wrapping her front legs around the vamp, and they disappeared. Everything went dark, but we heard my whisper to call my hound.

I couldn't see what happened next, but could hear Logan's voice. "Discord?"

"He's checking you," Moira informed me. "Covering your neck wound. He has Leglin's collar... and you're all three gone now."

"Okay." The vision didn't end. I felt a flutter of panic. "Um..."

"Someone's appeared. A woman." Moira hissed. "She's soaking a cloth in your spilled blood."

"Crap." I sucked in a breath. "What does she look..."

The vision changed, and the shamaness pointed. "That's her."

An even earlier version of my past self, wearing a crimson dress and black robe, sat, while a blonde woman trimmed my hair. Demon Mitchell and his big, scaly, green side-kick stood by watching.

"Well, guess I have the answer." We kept watching, the vision not ending until the blonde was alone, and had carefully collected the tufts of hair she'd trimmed.

Moira blinked as our true surroundings reappeared, and released my hand. "A demon."

"Yep."

"She has your blood and hair." The shamaness frowned. "Cordi..."

"I know. I'm in big trouble." I gave her a hopeful look. "Maybe she used it all?"

"I'd love to be comforting, but I doubt it."

"Fantastic." What the hell was I supposed to do now?

"T
here's only two ways to end this particular threat. Either recover, or destroy, what she has left." Moira was frowning.