Maps, Artifacts, and Other Arcane Magic (Dowser Series Book 5) (12 page)

“Or?”

“Or it was the magic of the fortress that kept her hidden. Had she managed to retrieve the artifact and remove it from the fortress, it’s likely I would have been called to her location.”

My phone pinged.

>Still waiting.

Great. My boyfriend was laying out possible truths on me while the vampire was getting pissy. I texted back.

Where should we meet you?

“Okay,” I said, breathing deeply to moderate my rising panic. “We have time, then.”

Warner nodded but didn’t answer. I felt like apologizing for losing the map again but kept my mouth shut.

> Pier 43 1/2 Fisherman’s Wharf.

I googled ‘Fisherman’s Wharf’ and ‘Pier 43 1/2’ though I thought the second part might be way too obscure to be helpful. I had to wait a beat for my map app to figure out I wasn’t in Vancouver anymore. According to the blue dot, we were only blocks away. I texted back to Kett.

Ten minutes.

“Kett sent an address. I texted that we could be there in ten minutes.”

Warner nodded, then closed the space between us, brushing his shoulder against mine comfortingly. “We’ll find the map, Jade.”

“Okay.”

“Good. Okay.”

My phone pinged again.

>
Bring your dancing shoes.

We’re going dancing?

>
That’s what you call it.

What do you call it?

>
Hunting.

Then he sent me a red devil emoticon.

“The vampire just sent me an emoticon,” I said with utter disbelief.

“I have no idea what that is,” Warner said archly as he crossed to the door. He might be okay with Kett for my sake, but he wasn’t going to be friendly about it.

Warner deliberately and carefully folded his hand around the door handle, but then waited without opening it. The handle glowed with golden magic that rose to swirl around his hand. Then the door clicked open.

Warner grinned at my questioning look. “In case we want to come back,” he said. “You should leave an imprint as well. Human technology might be fun, but magic trumps it every time.”

I shook my head. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that, sixteenth century. Humans have created some highly destructive weapons in the last seventy-five years alone.”

Warner snorted.

I let the subject drop as I crossed to the door. Now that it was open, I could see the inactive runes on the inner doorframe. “Wards on a guardian’s apartment. Who would dare enter it?”

“Any who thought a portal might lie inside.”

“A portal that would take them to their deaths in the nexus. If they could even figure out how to walk through it in the first place.”

Warner shrugged. “I doubt they would die for their stupidity, but I believe we’ve already established that not all Adepts love dragons. Or wish to be ruled by the guardian nine.”

“Like the eternal-life sorcerers.”

“Yes. Shadow leeches now, as you call them.”

“Yeah, I was still hoping their origin was just a guess.”

“A well-reasoned one.” Warner stepped into the hall, scanned left, then right, and crossed toward an elevator.

I was a complete Pollyanna when it came to the practicing of black magic. Except, of course, when performing it myself. Imagining Shailaja as a child — or even a teenager — sacrificing sorcerer after sorcerer to move through the traps of the fortress of the braids made me ill. As best I’d figured, she’d summoned some sort of demonic entity through the deaths of the sorcerers … but to what end? Consume their souls? Their magic at least. And now those entities were tied to the rabid koala. That was their ‘eternal life.’ I shuddered at the thought.

Pushing all the what-ifs that kept accumulating without definitive answers out of my head, I pressed my hand to the door handle, keying the lock to my magic. While I waited, I glanced down the hall to see Warner examining what I assumed was the stairwell door, based on the glowing red exit sign above it.

The only other door in the corridor was the unnumbered one across from me. The entire floor appeared to contain only two penthouse apartments. Again, posh.

“Alarmed,” Warner said, dismissing the stairs.

“How would you know, sixteenth century?” I teased.

He laughed. “The sign was pretty clear about using it only in case of emergencies.”

I laughed, tugging the apartment door closed behind me to follow Warner into the elevator.

Then we stepped out into the night to dance … or to hunt with a vampire.

∞

San Francisco was a lot like Vancouver, only way bigger. The similarities — as far as I could see quickly and at night — included green parkland between the city and the water, a big bridge spanning a body of water to connect residential areas, and wharves and warehouses — some converted, some not — on the waterfront. San Francisco’s streets were laced with tram tracks, while Vancouver had trolley bus lines zigzagging above its major streets.

I was, however, exceedingly disappointed to discover that the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory was no longer in operation. The massive red brick building that occupied an entire city block was now called Ghirardelli Square, and housed a bunch of retail shops that hawked way more than chocolate.

Though if we were still here tomorrow, I was so dropping by the chocolate marketplace and denting my credit card. Thankfully, portal magic didn’t melt artisan chocolate. Of course, getting it by the dragons unplundered would be a feat.

Warner and I hustled by the square with its taunting, massive steel signage screaming GHIRARDELLI over my head. You know, as if the entire building contained nothing but vats upon vats of chocolate … Okay, obviously I was having a hard time letting that dream scenario go.

I managed to pass Norman’s Ice Cream & Freezes without stopping, though I cranked my neck awkwardly to peek through the crowd at the window. Then all that stood between us and the wide, dark bay was Fisherman’s Wharf.

We took a right turn on Embarcadero after the Chowder Hut. “I could seriously go for some halibut and chips. Or clam chowder,” I said. Yeah, so I was highly suggestible. What else was new?

I checked my phone. “According to the blue dot, we’re here.”

“The vampire wants to meet us at …” — Warner glanced up at the sign hanging above our heads, which depicted a mermaid riding a giant crab — “…the Franciscan Crab?”

“Can’t you feel it, dragon?” Kett’s cool voice emanated from the darkness at the top of the beige-and-black-tiled stairs that led to the second floor of the restaurant. I imagined the eatery boasted some of the best waterfront views in San Francisco.

“Can’t I feel what?” Warner snapped into the darkness, not bothering to turn toward Kett. Probably because he couldn’t sense the vampire’s dark peppermint magic and it bothered him. I often forgot that he — or Kandy or Kett — couldn’t taste magic like I could, and didn’t think to mention when we were approaching a magical object or person.

“The magic,” I murmured, reaching out with my dowser senses beyond the two of them. “Lots and lots of Adepts are near.”

Kett stepped down the tiled stairs, his hands casually tucked in the front pockets of his designer jeans in a learned human gesture. Not a white-blond hair was out of place, despite the fact that the evening offered a cool breeze. He had nary a wrinkle on his gray cashmere crew-neck sweater either.

Warner grunted at Kett’s appearance. Though the sentinel was particularly skilled at using shadows to his advantage, he hated when others had the ability to sneak up on him. But then, didn’t we all?

“Well,” I said, “that’s enough of the ‘standing around and staring at each other’ portion of the evening, don’t you think? You said something about dancing.”

“Hunting is what he said,” Warner corrected. Ah, so dragons did read other people’s text messages.

“That’s what vampires do.” Kett’s cool smile was meant to utterly infuriate.

“Am I tasting a bunch of Adepts nearby?” I asked to deflect the tension. “Or just a few of significant power?”

“A gathering,” Kett said. Then he slipped off into the shadows to move farther up the quiet, mostly empty street.

“Are we just supposed to follow?” Warner asked through gritted teeth.

“Yeah. He deals out information in bits and pieces. It’s part of the hunting instinct.” I meant the last part as a joke, but judging by Warner’s grunt and nod, he agreed with my assessment.

On the edge of the bay, San Francisco felt like a quieter, smaller city. A few cars drove by, but the sidewalk remained mostly empty. All the buildings and businesses that encompassed Fisherman’s Wharf appeared closed — or closing soon — for the evening.

“So you don’t actually know this amplifier?” I asked the darkness between me and the strip of grass that bordered the bay on my left. A mostly empty streetcar passed us on the right.

Kett didn’t immediately answer.

“This isn’t going to be the same thing that happened with the skinwalkers, is it?”

“Skinwalkers?” Warner asked.

“Adepts of First Nations ancestry. They have the ability to cloak themselves with the form of a spirit animal,” I said. “They were thought to be extinct. Kett had me hunting for them without … you know, telling me that we were hunting rare Adepts.” I glanced at Warner. He kept his gaze on the sidewalk ahead of us and his mouth shut. “It doesn’t sound so good when I put it like that.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“This Adept is … shy.” Kett fell into step beside me, placing me momentarily in a peppermint-and-black-forest-cake sandwich. It was less appetizing than I would have thought. Good to know …

“Shy, as in scared of you?” I asked.

“She doesn’t know me … yet.” Kett flashed a toothy grin.

Warner shook his head.

“She’s a mercenary of sorts,” Kett continued. “Just difficult to contact and hire on short notice.”

“Amplifiers of any real power are exceedingly rare,” Warner said. “Her freedom is probably her top priority.”

“Witch magic?” I asked.

“A form of it,” Kett said. “But she hasn’t forged ties with the witches’ Convocation or the sorcerers’ League. Both would be options for her.”

“Just another set of chains,” Warner said.

“Indeed,” Kett said.

The sentinel didn’t seem pleased by the vampire’s amiable agreement.

“Then she doesn’t have any protection?” I asked.

“I didn’t say that,” Kett said. “Though I doubt it would be anything we three couldn’t handle.”

Warner grumbled something under his breath. Kett laughed quietly to himself.

Wow, this was going to be a fun evening.

“So the dancing?” I prompted.

“Time is tight,” Kett said. “Too tight to wait to make contact through proper channels.”

“So you propose to use the alchemist as bait.” Warner’s disdain was almost as impressive as it had been in the nexus with the treasure keeper.

“There’s a lot of that going around today,” I said.

“The alchemist is far from bait.” Kett paused before a two-storey building complex, set before what appeared to be a number of huge piers jutting out into the bay. “More like the trap.”

Bold white lettering on a turquoise and orange sign drew my attention. Across a narrow bank of grass and a pedestrian walkway, nestled between a bike rental place and a moored yacht, an oasis beckoned. I gripped Warner’s arm in excitement and gestured toward one of the most beautiful buildings I’d ever seen. “Oh my God! He’s taking us to Ben & Jerry’s!”

Kett pivoted and darted completely in the wrong direction, across the tram tracks running up the side of the street to the opposite sidewalk. There, a four-storey concrete parking garage took up the entire city block. Stairs of blue steel and concrete wound up the exterior.

“No,” I moaned. “He completely tricked me.”

“I think the ice cream place is closed,” Warner said helpfully.

“Don’t take his side! He lured me with ice cream because he didn’t want me to see the parking lot!”

“You have an issue with parking lots?”

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

I watched Kett slip around the dark side of the lot. I sighed. Heavily. Warner was a silent but comforting presence at my side. Just a couple of blocks away from us the city was quiet … in that way that ever-present car engines, sirens, murmured conversations from balconies, door chimes from twenty-four-hour convenience stores, and wind through tall buildings can be quiet. So not quiet, but normal.

I trusted Kett. And I wanted the map back. That’s all any of this came down to. So no matter where the vampire was leading me, I would go for those two reasons.

Pushing previously disastrous choices out of my head and remembering to look both ways, though there wasn’t much traffic, I jogged across the street toward the open-air parking garage.

∞

Floodlights jutted out over the top of the Pier 39 public parking lot, illuminating a mural of humpback whales sticking their noses out of a bright blue sea. Behind us, small shops and restaurants blocked most of the pier from sight, though I could see a white and blue boat — perhaps some sort of small ferry — moored off to one side. The entire vista reminded me of Granville Island and Fisherman’s Wharf in Vancouver. Though the buildings were older here and more tightly packed together.

I found myself thinking about coming back by day and wandering down one of the piers or side wharves. I wondered if I could buy crab fresh off a boat. I used to love doing that. Crab … sweet spot prawns … You know, before my life became consumed by cupcakes, portals, and duty.

I could see a bus depot a block ahead and to the left of us, but halfway along the base of the parking garage, Kett veered off to the right. And apparently went down a set of stairs, since he disappeared from sight and didn’t have the ability to walk through walls. Not that I knew, anyway. I probably would have missed the stairwell if I hadn’t been following his peppermint magic.

Turning away from the piers was enough to remind me that I had no idea where we were anymore, or how to get back to Haoxin’s apartment. Yeah, my sense of direction was terrible. I wasn’t sure that was a skill I would ever be able to hone, actually. It would probably have been a good idea to note the freaking address of the apartment building before we left. Then I could have at least followed the blue dot on my map app back.