Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic (14 page)

“No,” Kett answered. His tone was measured and thoughtful. “One vampire and his … brethren, if they’re in his good graces this century.”

Something about Kett’s even tone and careful phrasing made me shudder. I don’t think I’d ever heard him search for a word before, not in mid sentence.

“Are you … are you one of his brethren?”

Kett inclined his head. “I am connected to a child of his.”

“Big vamp is your gramps?” Kandy asked.

“By blood,” Kett replied, his tone clipped.
 

I was surprised he was still answering questions. I was scared, actually, that he was still answering questions. It meant he thought the knowledge was important … and vampires only ranked life, death, and power as important, not necessarily in that order.

“So in thirty-six hours we have to go meet your blood grandfather?”

“No. One of his lieutenants.”

“One of his children?”

“If you prefer to think of them that way. As long as you understand that he hasn’t divided his power in over a millennium.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Energy cannot be created.”

“I know, only harnessed.”

“Yes, so vampires do not … breed often or successfully. Only the most powerful manage, and even they must be willing to lose something of themselves. To become lesser for a time.”

“Vamps don’t give up power easily,” Kandy said.

“No, “ Kett answered. “And they often loathe the one they have created for that exact reason.”

He pulled the SUV to the curb in front of a five-storey apartment building. Not that it looked like any apartment I’d ever seen before. It was … very British. Hell, I had no idea how else to describe it. It was brick, stone, casings, and porticos or whatever … big, cased, paned windows … wooden door with a huge brass knocker. That sort of thing.

Kett turned to step out of the vehicle.

“Wait, wait,” I murmured.

Kett paused.

Kandy and Drake, always eager to be moving, tumbled out onto the street. The wrong side of the street — for me, at least.

“What are you not saying?” I asked. “Is this vampire — the lieutenant guy. Is he your … dad?”

“He is not my maker,” Kett replied. He turned to look at me. I could see his magic dancing in his skin — glimmers of red shards — and in his icy blue eyes.

“Am I dragging Drake and Kandy into danger?”

“Most certainly.”

“I meant with the vampires of London.”

Kett grinned, showing off his perfectly white, straight teeth. He was getting far too comfortable with that particular human gesture.

“I know something happened to you while we were talking to Edmonds.”

“You know me well.” Kett’s grin widened into a smile.

“Stop smiling at me. Is big bad vamp going to try to fang us all or what?”

Kett laughed. The sound was oddly husky for his usually cool tones. “No one will bite anyone without permission.”

“But we need to be gone within twenty-four hours.”

“Most definitely.”

“Otherwise, there are many ways to obtain permission, right?” Yep, I wasn’t dimwitted all the time. Kett only had the okay to be in London for thirty-six hours. After that, his companions would be considered snacks. My mind boggled. Witch politics had always seemed so complicated, but at least they didn’t demand blood tithes.

“You can’t tell me that every Adept in London allows the vampires to drink from them.”

Kett sighed. It was a heavy, deliberate sound. Deliberate in the fact that he had to inhale to speak or sigh, but not otherwise. Heavy because he was choosy when using it. “You’re not just some Adept, Jade. And yes, any Adept of power in London forms some sort of allegiance with the big bad — as you call him — or his brethren.”

Great. London belonged to the vampires … or at least one particular vampire.

“Do they at least wear capes and turn into bats or fog? It would make them easier to identify.”

“You’re thinking of Dracula’s crew. You need to go much farther east to run into them.”

I’d been joking, but I wasn’t entirely sure Kett was joking back … though his use of the term ‘crew’ made it seem likely.

“I can see you thinking, dowser,” Kett said. “It looks difficult.”

Yep, now he was teasing me.

“You’re awfully peppy all of a sudden, vampire,” I said, not feeling at all playful. “That worries me.”

Kett nodded. “As it should,” he said.

Then he climbed out of the SUV.

Yeah, that wasn’t a joke either. I sighed and followed him out into the drizzly day.

Three months of serious training in the dragon nexus and I was still lagging behind … everyone. Being able to kick someone’s ass — even potentially — didn’t make it any easier to figure them out or find them.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Peter Sayers, the third sorcerer on Blackwell’s list, the second on Edmond’s post-it, and the name Clark had all too willingly given up, lived just off Piccadilly. I gathered, given the way Clark had phrased it, that this area was supposed to be famous, or at least well known. For me, all the streets and buildings in London were pretty impressive looking, no matter the neighborhood. Sayers’ apartment building was one of those all-brick deals with white-painted trim and paned windows, five storeys high.

“Nice building,” I said as I joined Kandy, who was leaning against a lamp post and ignoring the never-ending drizzle that appeared to be the sum total of London weather.

Kandy shrugged. “Looks all the same to me. Big, loud, and too many humans.”

“Impressive, though. It must be expensive to live right in downtown London.”

“I doubt he owns the entire building,” Kett said as he stepped up to my left.

Yeah, vampires weren’t any more easily impressed than dragons. I ignored him. “Shall we buzz?”

“Already did. You know, while you were getting cozy with the vamp,” Kandy answered. “No one home, apparently.”

“I don’t feel any wards here,” I said, ignoring the barbed edge of the werewolf’s comment. “Wait … where the hell is Drake?”

Kandy pointed up and to the right.
 

Drake was scaling the building. The thirteen-year-old was jumping from ledge to ledge, pulling himself up on the iron railings that I was pretty sure were only for decoration.

Kett started laughing.

Kandy’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped as she turned to look incredulously at the vampire.

Yeah, Kett laughing was more remarkable than Drake scaling a five-storey building in broad daylight in the middle of freaking London. London, England. With a population of seven million plus people. All of who seemed to be on the street at any given time.

I glanced around. Being mostly residential, the sidewalks weren’t as crowded as South Kensington, but there were still people passing by carrying groceries, walking dogs, and parking their cars.
 

Kandy started laughing.

Oh, sweet Jesus. “It’s not funny,” I hissed as I fought the urge to literally start pulling out my hair. “What is he doing?”

Kandy stopped laughing long enough to answer. “Seeing if the sorcerer is home.”

“We don’t even know which apartment is his.”

“4A. It’s on the buzzer. Probably the fifth floor. According to the fledgling, Brits number funny.”

For some reason this statement made Kett laugh even harder. So then Kandy started laughing again. When had I become the stick-in-the-mud between a vampire and a werewolf? My life had turned completely freaking upside down.

“We need to get him down,” I said. “Before someone sees him.”

Police sirens sounded from a few blocks over and I flinched. Jesus, I didn’t even know what to do if Drake got arrested. He didn’t have a passport, and he certainly didn’t look or sound remotely British.

Any minute, a Londoner was going to glance up and see the thirteen-year-old jimmying the window on the fifth floor above their heads. That is, once they stopped staring at Kett and Kandy guffawing it up on the sidewalk. Anyone who passed gave us a wide berth. A woman with two toddlers in a double stroller actually crossed the street to avoid passing by the giggle twins.

Drake got in the window.

I waited, my hand on my knife, for some explosion of magic as the fledgling disrupted a ward or was confronted by an angry sorcerer.

Kandy was wiping tears from her eyes. She caught me glaring at her. “What?” she asked. “It’s not like he was going to hurt himself.”

Kett suddenly stilled and slowly twisted his head to the left, as a cat does when seeing a ghost, or whatever they stare at when they stare at nothing. I followed his gaze but didn’t see anything unusual, besides the fact that we were in London in the first place. It felt like being in the latest Bond film or BBC’s Sherlock — hmm, Sherlock — or a historical documentary.

The street running perpendicular to us was actually much busier, more of a main thoroughfare. Cars and people were momentarily backed up at the traffic light. They then surged forward a half-car length before the light changed to green. A woman who’d been standing among the curb crowd didn’t move with them. She was channeling the Audrey Hepburn look as hard as she could behind thick, black sunglasses, a three-quarter trench coat, coiffed hair, and slim-legged pants. And, yeah, I know who Audrey Hepburn was. They used her in all those Gap ads a few years back and everyone freaked about tarnishing an icon.

“I’ll meet you at the hotel, dowser,” Kett said.

“What? Hotel?”

“Hotel 41.” Kett tossed the SUV keys toward me. I only managed to catch them out of fear of them hitting my face. “See to the fledgling.”

And before I could open my mouth to freak all over him because I’d been trying to do just that for the last twenty-four hours, he was gone.

“I hate it when he does that,” Kandy murmured.

“It’s a trick,” I said. “I mean, yeah, he moves fast. Faster than you or me, but he can’t teleport. He uses the shadows.”
 

The Audrey Hepburn lookalike was also gone. I wondered if Kett knew her. It was too much of a coincidence otherwise.

Drake wandered out of the front doors of Sayers’ apartment building, grinning like an idiot. The back hem of his Scotland hoodie was torn.

“No sorcerers,” he pronounced as he sauntered over to us.

“You understand what covert means, right?” I asked.

“It was Kandy’s idea.”

I turned to look at the green-haired werewolf. She grinned back at me, but in an edgy way, not friendly — like some tension was underlying the expression. “I just mentioned that the corner looked climbable,” she said.

“That’s like giving a thirteen-year-old the keys to the kingdom.”

“What are these keys?” Drake asked eagerly, completely proving my point.

“I have no freaking idea,” I snapped.

“Well, it’s not nice to mention them like that, then.”

Kandy started laughing again. Everyone had seemingly taken some sort of happy pill, and I was pissed they hadn’t shared.

“Why is your hoodie torn?” I asked Drake, hoping there weren’t any bodies to clean up in the fledgling’s wake.

“Dog,” Drake answered with a shrug.

“A dog laid tooth on you?” Kandy asked. Then she actually doubled over to laugh louder.

Drake grinned at the werewolf. His ego was so huge it was hard to even poke at it … or maybe it was that nothing ruffled him, like life was a grand playground.

I could use some of that attitude. Right after I hunted down my sister, and hopefully rescued Mory — though why Sienna would drag a fledgling necromancer around for three months I don’t know. Right after I took care of Sienna … stopped Sienna … killed Sienna.

“Phantom dog,” Drake elaborated. “Cool spell, but he didn’t have the window covered, just the front door. So I didn’t see it coming.”

A phantom dog had appeared and bitten a fledgling guardian dragon in the ass while he was leaving the apartment he’d already broken into by the window.

I started laughing, then. I couldn’t help it.

Thank god Drake was here. Otherwise, it would just be all blood-magic, demons, and doom all the time. A girl could get lost in that darkness … a girl had gotten lost in that darkness. My sister. My best friend.

I stopped laughing.

Kandy flung her arm around my shoulders. “You need chocolate, Jade.”

“I so do.”

Grinning, Kandy held the iPad up so I could see the screen. It displayed a Time Out London app page for Melt, an artisan chocolate shop.

“Hot chocolate blocks, melt bars, and sea-salted caramel bonbons,” Kandy said.
 

“Where is Notting Hill? We need to be there, like now,” I declared. “But we should probably leave a note for Sayers.”

 
“Sure,” Kandy said, agreeably. “How about on his fridge? After we sniff around for the black witch.”

“The fridge seems rather aggressive.”

“Exactly.”

“We don’t even know him.”

Kandy shrugged. “He’s the last sorcerer on the list.”

“How about on his front door?” I countered. “We’ll mention we were concerned for his safety, hence disturbing the wards.” I glared at Drake. He grinned proudly. “I can tell from the hallway if Sienna’s been around.”

“Whatever,” Kandy answered. The green-haired werewolf spun away and crossed to the apartment’s front door.

I sighed. Was I the only one not interested in creating an international incident? Gran would be seriously displeased if I pissed off the sorcerers’ League. And the League would never believe that Sayers’ had potentially been in peril from a witch, no matter how black.

∞

Hotel-freaking-41 was freaking amazing. And it wasn’t just the six thirty-gram melt bars going to my head. I mean, I was buzzed, of course, but the hotel was freakingly amazingly insane.

Okay, part of my awe might have been the chocolate overload. Melt’s smallest bars came in milk chocolate — one with raspberry and one with hazelnuts — then dark chocolate — one with mint and one with orange — as well as a white chocolate strawberry and tarragon bar. It certainly wasn’t my fault that the milk chocolate with passion fruit, the milk chocolate banana, and the sea-salted caramel bar only came in the forty-five gram size. So I had to try those as well.