Good Intentions 3: Personal Demons (12 page)

Onyx shrugged. She’d seen nothing in Kate’s aura to raise suspicion. While her mystic sight didn’t give her an analytical rundown of the spell, it was easy to tell that its effects subtly bound the three and separated them from the others around them. The outcome was obvious: Kate’s spell would occlude them from eavesdroppers. “Neat technique. I’ll have to steal that.”

“As long as you pay royalties. Revlon compacts are an ancient secret of the Salish peoples,” Kate joked, but her mood seemed somber.

“So, what’s up?” asked Molly.

“My circle is hoping to meet with the others this week, and the independents. Friday night, at the casino. I wanted to pass along the invitation.” She pulled an envelope from her coat pocket and laid it on the table. “I also wanted to ask you, since it’s related: When was the last time either of you heard from anyone in the Brotherhood of Apollo?” She watched the pair shift uncomfortably in their seats and glance at one another.

“Yeah, we figured you’d ask about that,” Molly answered with deliberate care.

“Do you know where they all went? Or what happened to them?”

Another uncomfortable glance. Onyx tilted her head in consent before Molly answered. “They’re dead, Kate. A lot of them, anyway. Along with…well, pretty much all the vampires in Seattle, as far as we can tell. Mostly at each other’s hands.”

Kate listened with wide eyes. Parted lips tried to form words. “You’re sure?”

“We saw it, yeah.” Molly nodded slowly. “We were there.”

“Oh my god. What happened?”

“We can’t tell you everything. Listen, we respect you a lot. We don’t want to lie to you. It’s a long story and some of it isn’t our business to tell. The bottom line is that the Brotherhood tried to hook up with the local bloodsuckers and they got some much bigger and badder fish involved. It didn’t go well for any of them.”

The older woman blinked. “Were you involved?”

“Yes.”

“We didn’t join up with them,” Onyx elaborated as she noted Kate’s further surprise. “We wound up being there without knowing this shit was even going on. It was…” She shrugged. “We got caught in a corner and it came down to either going to their creepy party or getting into a fight. Plus we were trying to get some answers about other things. Turns out we got the creepy party
and
the fight.”

“Hey, the Brotherhood is bad news, or was,” Kate corrected. “I know they gave you trouble before this. We heard rumors they were pushing around the smaller circles and the independent Practitioners. They never messed with my circle because we have the muscle to protect ourselves, like the guys in the International District. Plus we’re generally well outside the city. We never competed for power here. But if they were cutting a deal with vampires, though, that’s worse than I thought.”

“Those assholes weren’t even the worst part,” muttered Molly.

“What’s worse than…? How bad did this get?”

“Demons. Like a couple of actual, serious, no-shit-really demons.”

“That’s insane.”

“Right?” Molly huffed. “Anyway, they all got into a huge fight, most of them died, and the place burned to the ground. That’s what happened to the Brotherhood of Apollo. If there are survivors or if some of them were out of town or whatever, they haven’t turned up. Not that we’ve gone looking.”

“To be honest,” added Onyx, “we didn’t know whether to tell you or any of the other Practitioners we know around here. It’s not like they let us step out peacefully before they threw down.”

“Were either of you hurt?” asked Kate. “Are you doing okay?”

A small grin played at Onyx’s lips. “That right there is why we decided to tell you at all. You warned us the first time we had a problem with those assholes. You played us straight. We’re fine. It was ugly, but we’re fine.”

“Does my concern for your well-being get me any more details?” Kate prodded.

“It’s complicated,” Molly answered, shaking her head.

“Well, you might want to consider how much more light you might shed on all of this,” said Kate. “It’s a big reason behind the invitation. Everyone knows the Brotherhood disappeared, but nobody knew how or why. We wanted to talk to everyone we can find to figure out what’s going on and if there’s trouble for all of us. Now we have our answer, but I’m sure you can imagine it’ll lead to more questions. And to more eyes looking at the two of you.

“Beyond the Brotherhood—or, maybe because of their disappearance—a few of us were talking about trying to work out a little more of a community of Practitioners than we’ve had before. Something more than just watching each other from afar and hoping we don’t step on one another’s toes or have any big blow-ups. Nothing formal. Certainly not the sort of expansionist stuff the Brotherhood had in mind. But we’ve been talking, and we at least need a way to make sure we can
all
talk to each other. Peacefully.”

“Are we going to set up rules?” Molly asked. She frowned with exactly half of her mouth to convey her skepticism. “Voting procedures? Robert’s Rules of Order? Laws specifically for Practitioners?”

“All we want is neutral ground where we can all talk,” Kate answered, calmly holding up her hands. “People have treated the bookstores as neutral ground for a long time out of habit. That’s not enough.”

“I think Molly’s asking if it’s really going to stop there,” said Onyx.

“Who’s to say? Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. You can find a few places out there with a well-developed grand society of Practitioners, but they’re rare, and to my knowledge they aren’t on this side of the globe. As far as I know, that kind of thing usually falls flat on its face.” Kate tilted her head thoughtfully. “If you come talk to people, maybe you can let them know how it went for the Brotherhood when they overreached.”

Onyx waited for Molly’s eyes to meet hers. By now, the year and a half that Molly had on Onyx in both age and magical experience mattered little. They saw one another as equals. Even so, Molly knew the other Practitioners of Seattle better. With that shared look, Onyx told Molly that she would defer to the redhead’s judgment. Still, Molly only shrugged, her mouth still bent in a half-frown.

“You don’t see any trouble coming down on us for what happened?” Molly asked Kate. “Or for keeping it to ourselves?”

“Hey, the fact that we don’t really have any rules or laws is the whole reason we even need to have this conversation,” Kate answered. “The only rules we’ve got are for keeping magic quiet and not getting into fights in the bookstores, and that’s more habit than policy. The secrecy bit isn’t even that serious. Tell all the ordinary people you like about magic. You still won’t make it work in front of a real audience. Point being, no, this won’t give anybody a right to hold you accountable for what happened to the Brotherhood. They don’t need a right, though. That’s the trade-off for living in a secret anarchy.”

Molly stared at the envelope. “It’s up at the casino?” she asked. “Friday night? Won’t the place be busy?”

“Yes. It’s later in the evening, but yes. We figured that would be a deterrent for any trouble.”

Onyx understood the thinking. Mundane witnesses tended to diminish the power of magic, along with the other ordinary dangers of people with cell phone cameras and the ability to call cops. Then again, she could remember a night when that sort of deterrent didn’t make much of a difference. “The last ‘get-together’ like this was the reading of Elizabeth’s will. We got jumped on the way home,” Onyx pointed out.

“Yeah.” The older woman sighed. “Yeah, I know. Look, I don’t think it’ll happen again. Not after the way that all went down, and not after what happened to the Brotherhood. Besides, I’ve talked to them and they’ve given their word—”

“You invited
them
?” Molly interrupted. “For fuck’s sake, Kate! You know what went down, and you still keep them on the invite list?”

“Yes. We kind of have to. Sooner or later, anyone we don’t invite will catch wind of this, and they’ll know they’ve been snubbed. That’s exactly what we want to avoid. At this point, it looks like it’ll be a pretty big gathering. Bigger than anything we’ve seen in Seattle. We cast a wide net for this. The Light is coming, too—”

“Aw Jesus! Really, Kate?” Molly groaned. “Those freaks? You know Elizabeth had to throw them out of her shop, right? They nearly shot up the place.”

“Weren’t they the one group
not
included in Elizabeth’s will?” asked Onyx. “I mean even the Brotherhood got something.”

Kate sighed. “They’re Practitioners living in this region. They don’t have to be pleasant. Like the others, they have to be included, or we risk creating hostility when we’re trying to promote community. We started by inviting the bigger circles first and worked our way down. You’re some of the last on my list.

“Look, I’m not going to pretend I can guarantee safety. Nobody can do that. We’ll watch out for you as best we can, and it’s a bad place to start trouble, but everything has risk. We all have to decide if establishing a neutral territory to gather and talk is worth that. My circle feels like it is. Jin and his people feel the same. So do most of the others I’ve spoken with.”

She nudged the envelope forward. “Details are in here. Show up or not. If you don’t, I won’t blame you. But I really hope to see you there. And I wish I could stick around to talk more. Turns out I still don’t have a spell to put the lawyer world on hold.”

“Thanks, Kate,” said Onyx.

“Yeah,” Molly agreed. “Listen, I get what you’re trying to do. I’m sorry if I’m being bitchy.”

“I didn’t take it that way. This is all heavy stuff. Thank you for telling me what happened. I want to know more, but if it’s down to you or them, I’m glad you’re the ones to come out okay.” She offered a small, final wave as she headed out through the door.

“Should’ve seen that coming,” grumbled Onyx as she turned back toward Molly.

“Didn’t we?” Molly held a casual posture as she watched Kate leave from a different direction than the way she’d arrived, then flicked her eyes to her partner. She didn’t need to ask the question out loud. Given the circumstances, they hardly even needed to look at one another at all. They were on the same page.

“She didn’t try anything,” said Onyx. She pulled a small flask from one pocket of her coat, spilled a few drops onto their table, and drew the water into a circle with her fingers while softly reciting an old chant. She flicked a little of the water on herself and a little on Molly, who accepted the droplets against her face with a slight grin that didn’t survive for long at all against their concerns. With the spell complete, Onyx looked around the café again. “Talking here is as safe as anyplace else,” she said. “I still like Kate’s trick with the compact mirror. Don’t know why I never thought of that.”

“So you wanna go to this thing?”

“No. But I think we have to.”

“Yeah,” agreed Molly. “Shit.”

“I’m not thrilled about the guest list, or going to a party with other Practitioners again after the way things went last time.”

“The last
two
times, if you’re counting the fiasco for Elizabeth’s will.”

“Kate at least tried to warn us,” said Onyx. Then it was her turn to frown. “Didn’t try to back us up, though.”

“It’s not her responsibility to back us up,” said Molly. “She had her own crew to look after, same as she does now. That’s one of my concerns. We can’t count on anyone to step up on our behalf.”

“We got rid of the biggest bullies on the block. It’s gonna be less dangerous for us without them around. Less dangerous for everybody. And if that’s where we’re at, maybe this is a chance to build something safer? Do you
like
anarchy? I mean that’s what we’ve got now, right?”

“More or less, yeah,” said Molly. “And no, I don’t like it. The only thing that bothers me as much as anarchy is if we start setting up rules and then people start figuring out how to take advantage of them, ‘cause that’s what’s gonna happen. It’s what the Brotherhood was angling to do.”

“No, they wanted everyone under their banner. Okay, fine, I guess that’s the same thing,” Onyx conceded as she thought it through. “But like I said, they’re gone. Kate took that pretty well. It’s not like they had a lot of fans outside their own dorky club. Maybe we didn’t need to worry so much about people reacting badly.”

“Kate didn’t push for more answers because she likes us,” Molly pointed out. “And because we could’ve just walked away. She wants us to go to her wizard’s convention or whatever the hell it is. That way her whole circle can push us for answers. The other circles, too. I wouldn’t expect everyone to be so tactful.”

“On the bright side, we’re stronger now than we were the last time we walked into a room with all the neighbors,” said Onyx. “Much stronger.”

“We won’t have the home field advantage at this thing, though. North of Everett is another territory as far as magic is concerned.”

“Sure, but it’s Kate’s territory. Hers and her circle’s. If Kate says we’re safe there, I think we can take her at her word. As soon as we make it back to Seattle, we’ll have the home field advantage on most of the other problem children we know of.”

“That we know of,” repeated Molly. “And we don’t know who might get froggy now that they don’t have to look over their shoulder for the Brotherhood.”