Vowed (35 page)

My magic skims him and I can see there’s now a golden hue to his magic. It’s glowing, like rich amber in sunshine. The scent of his magic reaches me again and I feel myself relenting
and wanting to be wrapped in his arms. It would feel so amazing and I’m tired and nothing would be nicer than being held by him.

I clamp down heavily on the feeling, refusing the suggestion that maybe now would be a good time to put my head on his chest and ask him to kiss me a little. I concentrate on my magic, fixing it
to my aura like armour, panels overlapping, bolted tight against Dante and whatever it is that he’s doing. When I’m clearheaded enough to speak in my own voice I clear my throat and
call out to him.

‘Dante? What was that?’ I look over to where he’s standing watching me with hurt and confused eyes and realize that he has no idea what almost just happened and how this was
his fault. ‘What are you feeling right now?’

He takes a step closer and my fingers curl up my sleeve of their own volition, hovering over the release button of the baton. It gives me some comfort.

‘I’m confused. A little bit hurt. I’m not sure what just happened or why you stopped. But I’m glad you did.’ He takes a breath and looks horrified at what he just
said. ‘I mean, that’s not what I mean. Oh God, Kit. I don’t know what I’m thinking. What was that, even?’ He scrubs his hair backwards in a gesture of annoyance. When
he speaks again it’s as if he’s reasoning with himself rather than talking to me. ‘I can’t like you like that. You’re a friend, my partner on this job. I can’t
screw this up. Besides, you’re too young for me to even think about you like that. I don’t understand what’s going on.’

I watch the conflict of emotions and how his magic responds to it and nod to myself. Okay, he is telling the truth. He genuinely has no idea what is going on.

‘Are you wearing the ring you showed me? The moonstone ring?’

Dante shook his head and held up both hands. ‘No. I left it on my bedside table.’

‘So this is all you.’ I gesture at the amber light surrounding him. ‘Great. Just great.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘You think I
wanted
to act the way I just acted towards you? That’s not normal.’

He looks offended for a second but then his brow clears and he looks horrified. ‘I did that?’ He backs away in horror. ‘No way, I didn’t do anything weird. I didn’t
want you to walk up to me and you know . . . try and kiss me.’

‘Well, I’ve definitely not wanted to do it before, either, so this makes me think that this heritage of yours comes with a few extra gifts we’re not sure about. Whatever you
are, you make people feel attracted to you in quite a primitive way.’ I’ve gone from shocked to scared to amused in such a short space of time, purely because he looks so genuinely
taken aback and deeply uncomfortable. ‘We need you to, uhm, how do I put this? Get you to tone down the love vibe.’

‘Oh my God, don’t call it that.’

The horror on his face is classic and I start laughing.

‘Don’t make me come over there and hug you, Blackhart, because I will and you’ll regret it.’

Which only makes me laugh harder and it’s good to laugh and feel a tiny bit normal again.

Kyle sounds as taken aback as Dante still looks. ‘Okay, so are we saying we think Dante may have some siren genes?’

‘Yes.’ I’m sitting on the couch in Dante’s flat and he’s sitting opposite me on the other couch. Dante’s phone is on speaker on the coffee table between us.
‘Definitely. Or we could go for an incubus but I’m unclear if an incubus is Fae, or a sub-species of the Infernal.’

‘Come on, are they even real?’ Dante cuts in, looking miserable. ‘This sounds so . . .’ He shivers and pulls a face. ‘So like it’s from some medieval
monk’s nightmare fantasy.’

‘Dante, these creatures are as real as you and me. There’s recorded proof.’ Kyle’s voice is huffy. ‘Listen, we’re not saying you
are
one, okay?
We’re just trying to figure out
what
you are.’

‘But a siren?’ Dante says, looking unhappy. ‘It sounds so . . . I don’t know. Girly?’

‘He could possibly be a selkie.’ The next suggestion from Kyle has me rolling my eyes but I can hear him frantically paging through books. ‘Or anything, basically.’

‘Well, he’s definitely noble born, a Sidhe first and foremost,’ I say. ‘We think he may be Eadric’s son.’

There’s the sound of a bang and Kyle swearing. ‘Ha ha, that’s funny, Kit. I swear you just said he’s Eadric’s son.’

‘I’m sending you a picture of the ring. Can you check the database?’ I sigh and rub my eyes. ‘And here I was thinking all I’ll have to do today is teach you how to
hide your horns.’

‘Horns!’ Kyle’s voice has risen to screeching level. ‘He has horns? Kit, you should have said so earlier.’

‘What difference does it make?’ Dante asks the phone. ‘Is that a bad thing?’

‘No, but it means it could help me figure out what you are.’

I have to hand it to my cousin. He’s handled this call pretty well, considering I’ve just told him we have a changeling in our midst. And that, oh, I tried to snog Dante’s face
off because he has some sort of built-in Fae voodoo that makes me fancy him a lot.

‘Okay, maybe you can do that once we’ve rung off,’ I say to Kyle. ‘And we’re not mentioning this to your dad either, right?’

There’s a protracted silence from Kyle but he catches on fast enough. ‘Yes, of course not. Jamie neither, right?’

I bite my lip, not keen to reveal that Jamie already suspects something. I wonder why he’s not called to check on me, but maybe he figures it’s something I can handle myself.

‘Right.’

‘What have your searches shown?’ I ask Kyle instead. ‘Have you found any connection between the families and the music festival?’

‘It was easy enough putting the search parameters into the software,’ he says enthusiastically. ‘I now have a full database of their financials and social media updates and,
no, they don’t have that music festival in common. Some of them, yes, but not
all
of them.’

‘You’re serious?’ I lean forward. ‘You’re sure?’

‘As sure as I’ve been of anything.’

I breathe out. ‘Holy smokes. I was counting on this being the thing that ties it up.’

‘I know. Now what?’ Kyle sounds miserable and I hear a keyboard being hit in frustration.

‘It could still mean something, you know. If only some of them go to the same music festival.’ Dante frowns at me. ‘Usually, if you go to a festival you go with friends,
right?’

‘Or it’s a coincidence and means nothing at all,’ Kyle mutters under his breath. ‘Kit, this case completely sucks.’

‘Give me a few minutes, let me think. If they’ve got a website up and running I want to check it out.’

‘They do, they also have a Facebook account, Tumblr, Twitter – all of it. And a forum.’

Without a word, Dante moves his laptop towards me.

‘Some of these people actually worked at the festival, whereas others attended or had something to do with it in some semi-official capacity or other.’

‘How do you know?’ I ask Kyle.

‘Looking at the main website now. There are various picture galleries.’

I hang up and yawn. Keeping my armour in place is tiring and, after spending a few hours with Dante, coaching him on how to dampen down his magic and abilities, I feel as if I’ve run a
bazillion miles. But he’s still keeping his distance and looks terrified every time I move.

I’m not sure if I should be amused or ashamed by his reaction. Was it that awful to be near me? I don’t grace magazine covers or movie screens but so far no one has run screaming
down the road at my approach. Well, not counting the group of goblins I chased down a suburban street that one time, but that was different.

What did he say afterwards? I’m too young for him to think about me in that way? Did that mean he did think about me like that? I frown at the computer screen as I type in the
festival’s name and find the website.

There are a lot of picture galleries. I slide down onto the floor in front of the coffee table and turn the computer sideways so that Dante can see the screen too.

‘What’s it looking like?’ he asks me, holding his hands up.

I narrow my eyes at him and scan him with magic. ‘You look safe, you sexy beast. Sit down over there and hope I don’t try and crawl across the table to snog your face off.’

He barks out a laugh but he relaxes visibly. He sits down cross-legged opposite me and spins the laptop around so he can see the screen. ‘You sure you don’t have a boyfriend? Your
acerbic wit really builds up a guy.’

‘Shut up and look at the pretty pictures. Let’s see if we can recognize anyone.’

‘There!’

I jerk with fright as Dante points to something on the screen.

‘It’s the same guy as before. Can you see him?’ I lean on the table so I can peer at the screen. We decided early on that he should take over looking through the photos. Every
time I took the laptop the screen juddered or froze completely, yet it was perfectly fine when he used it.

The photo he’s pointing at shows a couple laughing together. They’re leaning close to one another and the camera’s caught them just as they’re pulling away from one
another. In the background I see the dark figure I recognize from Tia’s room. It’s definitely the guy who stole into her room to take her away, or it looks as close as dammit. The shape
and outline are the same but because the picture is a bit overexposed, focusing on the kissing couple, it makes the rest of it not as clear as I’d like.

‘Save it to the folder. Once we’ve got more pictures, we can decide what we need to do,’ I tell Dante.

While he has been checking the website, I’ve sketched the two figures I saw when I replayed Tia’s abduction. The guy in her room had a similar build to the guy I saw in the photos,
but nothing conclusive. I shove my notebook aside and mutter in frustration.

We work silently side by side. I’m going through Diane’s auntie’s scrapbooks again. They contain a mixed bag of local news, focusing heavily on the people she obviously knows.
Several pages are devoted to news of the kids who’ve gone missing over the past few years. They’re mostly drawn from the local newspaper and from a police website. Someone, possibly
Diane, must have printed them off for her so she could paste them into the scrapbook.

My mind wanders as I read the newspaper accounts and I wonder about the bargain the missing children’s parents entered into. Was it for money, fame, fortune? True love? As much as I yearn
to believe people wouldn’t be stupid enough to strike bargains with supernatural forces, some obviously have. Most likely, none of them, or almost none of them, had believed the bargain was
real. Especially not if the bargain was presented in a low-key manner at a time when they were out there having fun, hanging out with their mates, not thinking about the future.

‘Here, have another drink. So, what if I say that five years from now you’ll dig up a load of Viking gold and you’ll get handsomely rewarded by the government. Would you
give me anything I want if I make this come true?’

‘Ha ha, sure, of course. What would you like? My eldest son? My soul?’

‘No, no, nothing so ambitious. Your youngest child would do nicely. Deal?’

‘Yeah, deal.’

‘Here, sign this IOU. And you need to read the vow out loud too, to make it binding.’

‘Shit, is this for real?’

‘Ha ha, no, just a bit of fun, really, don’t you think? Helps with the atmosphere. Here, have another shot of this.’

‘I take this vow, before these witnesses to allow you to come into my house and steal away my youngest child.’

‘Perfect. Drink up.’

The thought of it makes me gag but then the likelihood of this type of scenario playing out feels maybe a bit too real.

I stand up and stretch, climbing over Dante’s legs to head into the kitchen to make myself a coffee and him some tea.

‘Am I no longer allowed to drink coffee?’ he asks me when I put the mug down in front of him.

‘Did you drink a lot of coffee in the past?’

He looks confused for a second but then shakes his head. ‘No, not really. Not that I remember, actually. Mostly tea. Proper strong stuff. Lots of milk and sugar.’

I look at him as I sip my coffee. ‘I don’t know if I should tell you what happens to the Fae who do imbibe coffee.’

‘I don’t want to know, do I?’

‘Oh, I don’t know. It might be interesting.’ I can’t help the grin as it spreads across my face. ‘Coffee is illegal in the Otherwhere and only a few places are
allowed to sell it. It’s a controlled substance.’

‘Does it kill them?’

‘No, it makes them . . .’ I flap my hand from side to side. ‘Amorous.’

‘You are kidding me.’ How many more times will this poor guy look horrified today, I ask myself as I burst out laughing. ‘You’re not serious, right? God, you’re
serious!’

‘It’s okay, you’re safe with tea, I think. Thorn only ever drank the herbal stuff.’

‘There’s caffeine in tea too, Kit.’

I shrug and drink my coffee, saluting him with my mug. ‘I don’t make the science,’ I tell him. ‘I don’t know how it works, but that’s what I’ve been
told.’

He pushes his mug to the side with a grimace. ‘Urgh. I feel sick now. But, on the other hand, I’ve got a decent set of pictures of our mysterious man in his weird tattered outfit. In
a few he’s with some other people in the background, but there’s never a clear photo of him.’

‘That is still great news.’ I push myself forward. ‘Show me.’

He opens the folder and a range of picture show up, all with our raggedy man on the edges.

‘Worst photo-bombing ever,’ I say, tapping the screen before hastily drawing my finger back when the laptop makes a weird
urk
sound. ‘Put those in the shared folder
and I’ll call Kyle now.’

I ring Kyle on my mobile. ‘Hey, cousin of mine. We’ve got photos of the man I recognize from Tia’s room. Can you see if you can do any magic tricks with photo software and
enhance the pictures?’