Burning Bright (Ivy Granger) (4 page)

I didn’t have time for practical jokes.  We needed to get to
the bottom of Jinx’s marks before one of us started glowing in public.  Mab’s
bloody bones, when did my life become so complicated?

I
walked into
Kaye's spell kitchen and Jinx nearly toppled over as I stopped dead in my
tracks.  Arachne was inside Kaye's spell circle working a casting.  Since when
did Kaye allow Arachne to practice real magic?

Don't get me wrong.  The kid was from a long line of Wiccans
and she was well versed in herb lore, but Kaye never trained her would-be apprentices. 
What had changed?

"I'm getting old, Ivy," Kaye said, as if reading
my mind.  She waved a tattooed hand toward the spell circle.  "It's time I
had an apprentice."

It had taken Kaye over 300 years to utter those words. 
There was nothing I could say in response, so I continued to watch Arachne in
silence.  Purple streaked hair floated around the kid’s face, and a ball of
energy spun in the middle of the circle, as she chanted something under her
breath.  I had to admit.  The girl was impressive.

But the longer I watched, the more Arachne showed signs of
fatigue.  Sweat rolled down the girl’s face and her hands were starting to
shake.  I frowned, but resisted the urge to rush forward.  I had to remind
myself that this was what Arachne wanted.

“Do you have her parents’ consent?” I asked.

Kaye snorted.

“Don’t be daft,” she said.  “Of course I have their
consent.  That family has been forcing its progeny on me for decades.  They’re
so happy, they threw a party.”

I was glad I’d missed that party.  Wiccan gatherings tended
to have a strange dress code; clothing optional.  Not to mention the orgies. 
Start pouring the mead and brandy wine and the local coven was nearly as bad as
the clan of pooka who lived in my old tree house.

“Things are changing in the world,” Kaye said.  “I can feel
it like a storm brewing on the horizon.”

“What kind of storm?” I asked.  “Something magical?”

I had a feeling I didn’t want to know, but I had to ask.

“War,” she said.  “There are signs, if you know where to
look for them.  Even Jenna being sent to Europe demonstrates just how desperate
the Hunters are.  They feel it too.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” I asked.  “Is Jenna in trouble?”

I’d thought that Jenna had been sent away as a punishment,
but maybe there was more to the story.

“The balance of power is shifting and there are those who
would use that change for their own benefit,” she said.  “The Guild is
mobilizing for war.  They are rushing the training of young Hunters like Jenna and
calling up old retired souls like myself who have aided them in the past.”

“So this trip to Europe is part of her training?” I asked.

My head spun trying to keep up with Kaye’s unusual
outpouring of information.  The witch was normally tight-lipped about her
Hunter friends—unless she herself was deep into the brandy wine.

“Yes, the final step in a young Hunter’s training is a solo
assignment to the Old Country,” she said.  “But Jenna was years away from her testing. 
The fools at Guild headquarters are advancing journeyman Hunters into the ranks
of masters with little or no preparation.”

“Is it really that dangerous?” I asked.

“The supernaturals who haunt the Old World cities are
ancient and deeply entrenched,” she said.  “Locals often worship them, which
only adds to their power.  I do not know to which city Jenna has been assigned,
but I hope for her sake that she has made allies.  The girl will need all the
help she can get.”

Icy cold spider’s legs skittered up and down my spine.  If
the highly skilled Hunter needed help, then the Old Country was indeed a
dangerous place to be.  Apparently, Jinx was thinking the same thing.

“Whoa, remind me never to vacation in Europe,” she said. 
“We’ve got enough supernatural nut-jobs right here in Harborsmouth.  Bigger and
badder doesn’t sound like my idea of fun.”

“Sounds like a dream vacation for Jenna,” I said.

It was true, Jenna loved a good fight, but my gut twisted
all the same.

“What is
she
doing here?” Kaye asked, arching an
eyebrow and pointing a tattooed finger at Jinx.

“Um,” Jinx said, looking down at her shoes.

“We’ve got a case we need help on, but if you’re busy with
Arachne, we can come back later,” I said, waving a hand at the spell circle.

Kaye sighed, making a
tut tut
sound, and shook her
head.

“Go have a seat by the hearth,” she said.

We’d been dismissed.  Getting the hint, we gave the casting
circle a wide berth and headed toward the large stone hearth at the back of the
room.  The front of the kitchen was modern looking with bright, white cabinets
and wide open spaces to accommodate the large spell circle, but the rear of the
room was all stone, thatch, and dark beams.  It was like walking into an old
pub, a pub that happened to have its own hearth brownie.

“Hi Hob,” I said, lowering my head to acknowledge the
brownie and bowing slightly at the waste.  “May we enter?”

The top of Hob’s crumpled hat only came to my knee, but I
sure as heck didn’t want to anger the little fellow.  Brownie’s can be ornery,
and if you piss them off, you’ll be in for a world of hurt.  Brownies have made
an Olympic sport out of pranking, and some of those pranks are pure evil.

Hob nodded his oversized head and waved a knobby hand,
allowing us to enter his domain.  And don’t be fooled, Kaye may own this place,
but the old portion of the kitchen was Hob’s territory.  Even the witch
respected that fact.

“Thank you, Hob,” I said.

“Thanks, Hobster,” Jinx wheezed.

She dropped onto a wooden bench and slumped over the old oak
table.  Crap, she didn’t look so good.  The circles around her eyes seemed darker
than before and she sounded out of breath from our short walk to The Emporium,
which wasn’t like her at all.  Jinx may be curvaceous, but she was in great
shape.  If she was that tired from our walk, then something was seriously wrong
with her.

“Got me gift?” Hob asked.

Right, time to get down to business.  Hob had allowed us
entry into his domain and now it was tradition to reciprocate with a gift. 
Since I’d been on the receiving end of Hob’s ire once or twice in the past, I
came prepared.

I held out a small pendant in the shape of a gnome standing
beneath a mushroom.  It was made of a gold that matched the twinkle in Hob’s
eye.  His fingers twitched, but he didn’t reach for the trinket, yet.

“Gnomes don’ look li’ dat,” he said.

Hob scowled at me from beneath thick, bushy eyebrows.  I
smiled back and winked.

“I know,” I said.

I did in fact know.  I’d helped to relocate a family of
gnomes when the land their home was on was sold to developers.  The gnomes now
lived in my mother and stepfather’s garden, spitting distance from the tree
house where I’d stashed a clan of pooka.  If I didn’t watch out, their yard
would soon be inhabited by an entire freaking fae menagerie.

Me a soft touch?  No way.  I just seemed to have a knack for
picking up strays.  That old lady who lived in a shoe?  I wondered if she was
half-wisp.

“Hah!” he exclaimed, slapping his thigh.  “Me wear dis bit
o’ pretty next time me see Olga.”

Olga was one of the female gnomes I’d help to relocate.  She
usually stops by my office once a week with fruit pies (real fruit pies, not
goblin fruit or grasshopper pies, I checked) as her way of saying thanks for
the new digs, and I’ve noticed that Hob has made a habit of visiting at the
same time.  I was pretty sure the brownie was harboring a gnome sized crush.

I was happy for the guy.  Olga was kind and sorta cute, if
you could get past the facial hair.  It took me weeks before I realized that
female gnomes have beards, though I should have guessed sooner with all the
catcalls coming from the tree house.

“You do that, Hob,” I said.  “It’ll be good for a laugh.”

The pendant disappeared into one of Hob’s many pockets as a
shadow crept across the floor at my feet.

“So who is your client?” Kaye asked.

I turned to face the witch, and tried not to flinch.  She
looked as drained as Jinx.  The arcane tattoos that crept across her body had
spread down her arms and up her neck during our battle with the
each uisge
. 
In recent months, the marks had snaked across her wrists and hands, bringing
with them a frailty I’d never before witnessed in the woman, no matter how old
she really was.

“You’re looking at her,” I said, pointing to Jinx.

Kaye gave me the stink-eye, no surprise there, and turned
her steely gaze on Jinx.

“Come with me,” Kaye said.

She turned and marched toward the spell circle where Arachne
was still sweeping away a pile of salt.  Jinx shot me a questioning look and I
shrugged.  There was no point arguing with Kaye.  If the witch said jump, you
asked off which bridge.  I just hoped that she could help my friend.

Jinx pulled herself upright and shuffled zombie-like across
the room.  By the time she reached the spell circle, Arachne was done with her
cleaning and striding toward the hearth.  Hob was nowhere to be seen.  Knowing
the brownie, he was probably down in his home beneath the hearthstone, counting
his gold.

“Hey, Ivy,” Arachne said, toweling her face and pulling her
purple-tipped hair into a pony tail.  “What’s wrong with Jinx?”

I raised an eyebrow at the kid, wondering what she could
see.  She’d always been the gangly teenager who worked the register at The
Emporium.  Aside from being the butt of Kaye’s magical jokes, and being brought
up in a Wiccan family, I hadn’t thought she had much real experience with
magic.  Maybe I was wrong.

“You tell me,” I said.

“I don’t know,” she said, forehead wrinkling.  “Maybe the
flu?  Her aura’s all messed up, like she’s been drained of energy.”

“Does the flu leave behind glowing hickies?” I asked.

Arachne’s eyebrows disappeared beneath purple bangs.

“Guess it could be mono,” she quipped.

Mono—the kissing disease.  A chill ran up my spine.  Kisses
that left behind glowing marks and drained the victim of energy?  I really
didn’t like the sound of that.

“Guess we can rule out normal human ailments,” I said.

“Yes, you can, dear,” Kaye said.

I jumped.  Not many people can sneak up on me, but Kaye
wasn’t most people.  That was something I’d be smart to remember.

I frowned, scanning the room for Jinx.  She wasn’t standing
behind Kaye, like I’d expected.  Heart racing, my eyes came to rest on her
prone form at the center of Kaye’s spell circle.

“What have you done?” I asked.

I took a deep breath, trying to remain calm, but the light
coming from my skin betrayed my emotions.

“Calm yourself, child,” she said.  “She will be safe inside
my circle.  I’ve given her something to help her sleep.  She needs rest if
she’s to recover.”

“Recover from what?” I asked.

“From being eaten, dear,” she said.  “Someone has been
feeding off her lifeforce.”

“Someone or something?” I asked.

At some point my blades had found their way into my gloved
hands, my fingers cramping around the hilt.

“A succubus or incubus,” she said.  “Judging by your
friend’s proclivity for ‘bad boys’ I’d say we’re looking for the latter.”

“Fuck,” I muttered.

“That is one way they feed, though if things had gone that
far, I don’t think the girl would still be alive,” she said.

An incubus could steal your life energy during sex?  That
gave a whole new meaning to getting screwed.

I
left the
Emporium determined to find the perp who’d been tapping into my friend’s life
force like she was a freaking battery.  The fact that he’d been doing it under
the guise of sex just made it all the worse.  My stomach twisted at the thought
of some incubus violating my friend.

I gripped my knives and strode toward the waterfront.  There
was one place I knew harbored incubi and succubi, and there was one succubus in
particular who might have some answers.  Too bad Delilah and her friends were
under the glaistig’s protection.  The Green Lady was the last person I wanted
to face right now.

But this was Jinx who needed my help; my business partner,
my roommate, my best friend.  Jinx had always been there for me, through all
the weirdness, and there was nothing I wouldn’t do for her.

According to Kaye, the incubus who’d fed on Jinx wasn’t
finished.  He’d linked himself to Jinx and was continuing to siphon off her
energy, bit by bit.  She was safe inside Kaye’s spell circle, but if I wanted
to keep her alive, Kaye speculated that I needed to break the connection.

That’s where Delilah came in.  I needed someone who could
help me find the incubus and reason with him.  It would be best for Jinx if I
could sweet talk the incubus into willingly breaking his hold.

If that didn’t work, we’d do things the hard way.  I didn’t
like killing.  The guilt from taking down Ceff’s psycho ex-wife still gave me
nightmares.  But I’d learned that in the fae world, you couldn’t show
weakness.  Most of the fae were deadly predators.  I just hoped that the
knowledge that this creep was feasting on my best friend would help alleviate
the guilt, if it came down to using my blades.

A shriek filled the air and I tensed until I recognized the
source.  I was so focused on my mission that I didn’t hear the fire engines
until they were turning onto the narrow street.  I slipped my blades back into
their wrist sheaths and stepped out of the way just as a horn honked and the
truck came barreling down the hill.  Heart racing, I continued down the hill,
taking to heart the harsh reminder that there were things bigger and more
powerful than me in this city that could squash me like a bug.