Dirty Magic (21 page)

He shrugged to dismiss my argument. “Look, I know you feel guilty. But you shouldn’t. You didn’t force Mom to try that potion.”

I leaned back and shook my head at him. I’d been expecting recriminations for my sins, not exoneration I didn’t deserve. “Must be nice.”

“What?”

“For everything to be so simple. To have an answer for everything. I used to be that way, too. Right before Mom died.”

“Look, you want to beat yourself up for that, it’s your business. But it’s not fair for me to suffer for your mistakes.”

I got it then. He didn’t give a shit about Mom’s death. Asking about it had been a lead-up to lobbying for magic training. My stinging guilt morphed into something sharper. I threw my hands up. “What do you want from me?”

Several patrons turned to gape.

He leaned forward, his jaw set in that stubborn Prospero line. “I want you to teach me magic.”

“Absolutely not.”

His eyes sparked with challenge, the kind spurred by the thrill of rebellion. “Fine. I’ll just find someone who will then.”

I slapped my hands on the table. “I forbid you!”

“You can’t do that! You’re not my mom!” He jumped out of his seat, knocking over the shake as he went. My shock nailed me to my seat just long enough for him to bolt for the door. In the next instant, I sprang from the booth to follow.

“Miss! Your bill!” The waitress grabbed my sleeve just as I reached the door.

Cursing, I pulled my wallet out of my pocket and shoved a couple of twenties in her hand. I swiveled and ran out the door just in time to see my brother standing on the corner, looking around as if he were lost.

“Danny!”

He flipped me the bird.

Gritting my teeth, I stiff-legged it over. As I moved, I was very aware of the eyes tracking us. Of the judgmental gazes of the women who already condemned me as a bad mother. Of the men who thought I should take Danny in hand. What the hell did they know about our problems?

When I finally reached Danny, I grabbed his arm. “What the hell, Danny?”

Every cell in my body yearned to read him the riot act right there on the corner. Maybe drag him down to the precinct so he could see what magic did to people. Perhaps ground him for the rest of his life so he’d never have a chance to make good on his threat to seek magic training from someone else. Luckily, my conscience kicked in. It was the kid’s birthday, for Christ sakes. I blew out a long breath. “Look, I’m sorry you don’t like my rules, but I know more about the dangers than you do. I’ll answer questions and I’ll talk to you more about Mom if you want, but I cannot condone you learning how to cook.”

He set his jaw in a mulish line. “I have to get back to school.”

I deflated. What? Had I hoped he’d see reason and tell me it was okay? I gritted my teeth because I knew this battle would have to be fought another day. “Let’s go.”

A
few hours later, the sun was a glare in the rearview and Morales and I were looking for a man named PeeWee. According to the dispatch for the limo company he worked for, Marvin’s friend had failed to show up for work the last two days. We wanted to find him and ask him if he’d seen or spoken to Marvin after we’d left him in that alley so we could begin piecing together a time line for the murder. But it was looking more and more as if PeeWee didn’t want to be found.

Morales drove us. By that point, he’d stopped trying to make small talk and had settled for casting me worried glances. I sat with my face turned toward the window, chewing my bottom lip raw while I endlessly replayed the lunch with Danny in my mind.

“Is this about Volos?” Morales asked quietly.

I kept my eyes on the road but shook my head. “Don’t be an idiot.”

“So what’s up?”

I had a brief moment of thinking I’d prefer to roll out the car door than to ask Drew Morales for advice. But then I thought, What the hell? It was not as if he was going to take Danny’s side anyway. “My brother wants to begin magic training.”

His eyes slammed down. “Back up. How old is this kid?”

I told him. “And, yeah, he’s an Adept.”

“So what’s the problem?” Morales shrugged.

I paused. “What do you mean? My little brother wants to learn magic, that’s what’s wrong.”

“Am I missing something?”

It hit me then that Morales didn’t know about my personal ban on magic. He knew I’d left the coven behind, sure, but not that I didn’t cook or use any magic. Something told me that, even though he was, according to Gardner, a Mundane, no one shunned all forms of magic in our world. Hell, Rufus was the most hard-line, antidirty-magic guy I knew, but even he thought I was crazy for spending more to buy produce from farms that didn’t use potions to fertilize their vegetables and fruits. I was saved from having to wade into that mess when my cell started dancing on the dashboard. I punched the button. “Prospero.”

“We need to talk.”

Electricity skittered up my spine. “John?”

Beside me Morales went tense and frowned. “Volos?” he mouthed.

I nodded distractedly. Into the phone, I said, “It’s not a good time right now—”

“Your brother’s here, Kate.”

Shock and worry made every muscle in my body go stiff. “Where?”

“My loft.”

“I swear to God if you hurt him—”

“Shut up and listen,” he snapped. “He came to me. Showed up ten minutes ago. Said he walked all the way here to ask me a favor. I gave him a soda and ducked away to call you.”

The idea of my brother’s spending time with John Volos made my fingers cramp on the cell. “I’ll be there in five. Do not let him leave before I arrive.”

I hit the End button and turned to Morales. “My brother is at Volos’s loft.”

His eyes narrowed. “Why?” Given his qualms the day before after the meeting with Volos, I cursed the dumb luck of being with him when that call came in. I wanted to suggest he just drop me off, but I was pretty sure he’d refuse because he’d want to know the reason my kid brother was hanging with our lead suspect.

“That’s the million-dollar question.” I looked over, trying to quell the rising panic in my throat. “Step on it.”

He smirked at my bossy tone. “Yes, ma’am.”

* * *

Volos opened the door immediately, like he’d been staring through the peephole waiting for our arrival. I was shocked to find him at his house in the middle of the day. Even more surprised to find him wearing a simple black T-shirt and well-worn jeans. It was easier to stay at arm’s length when he was all buttoned up in a suit.

He didn’t say anything when he opened the door. Just stepped back and waved a hand down the hall, where it opened up into a large living area. I nodded and brushed past him, trying to ignore the dark, earthy, chypre scent of his cologne.

As I walked down the hall, I reminded myself that I had witnesses so I couldn’t lose my cool. Behind me, I heard Morales thank Volos for calling. The wizard murmured something I couldn’t hear, but the tension in the hallway was palpable.

I found Danny sitting on Volos’s couch with a can of soda in one hand and the remote control in the other. The TV on the facing wall was as large as a billboard on Interstate 71. The room was bigger than my entire house, with a sunken seating area filled with an expensive leather sectional and lots of tasteful artwork. To the right, a large counter separated the living area from a gourmet kitchen, gleaming with lots of granite and stainless steel. The entire front wall of the space was made of windows that looked out over the wide terrace. Beyond that, Lake Erie was a sheet of diamonds in the distance.

When Danny saw me appear, he froze with the drink halfway to his slack mouth.

“Do you have any idea—” I began and had to stop myself because I felt the words growing into a shout. I cleared my throat. “What are you doing here, Danny?”

Behind me, I felt Volos and Morales enter the room. They hung back, as if they were concerned I’d turn on them next. I wasn’t about to yell at Morales, but Volos was right to worry.

“How’d you find me?” Danny said. He didn’t sound afraid so much as disappointed.

“I called her.” This from Volos.

“You said you were ordering pizza,” the kid whined, sounding wounded.

Volos crossed his arms and shrugged. “I lied.”

Danny threw his hands up in disgust. “Well, that’s just great!”

“That’s all you have to say?” If he’d been smart he would have recognized the quiet chill in my tone. “The school called me right after John did. Danny, they’re frantic with worry. You never should have come here.”

“He said he wouldn’t call you until I told him why I was here.”

“Tell you what.” I crossed my arms. “Since I already came all this way, you can tell us both.”

Morales cleared his throat. “I, uh—think I’ll go call Gardner. Check in.”

“Thanks.” I nodded, grateful for his tact. Once he’d disappeared into the hall and out the door, I looked back at Danny. “Well?”

He slumped back into the plush couch. “I was going to ask him if I could be his apprentice.”

Even though I’d suspected his motivation, hearing the words come out of that young face made me want to punch something. “We discussed this earlier.”

Danny hopped up. “No, you didn’t listen to my side at all.”

“Why come to me?” Volos’s voice was calm despite the charged atmosphere.

“Because of what you said.”

My brows slammed down. “You’ve been talking to him?”

Volos shot me a bemused look and shook his head.

“No,” Danny said, exasperated. “Back when I was little. Remember? The night before Kate and I moved away?”

I stilled and turned to look at Volos in time to see some emotion pass across his face before he slammed down the walls. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, kid.”

“You do, I can tell,” Danny said. “I’ll never forget it. I was six and something woke me up. There was a lot of shouting coming from Kate’s room. I walked in the hall. It was really dark, but I remember telling myself to be brave.”

Memories of that night came rushing up, like ghosts rising from deep graves. Suddenly, my ribs felt too small to contain my lungs and heart.

Danny, oblivious to my emotions, soldiered on. “You were yelling at Kate, asking why she was leaving you,” he said to Volos. “She said something real quiet, so I couldn’t make it out.”

John glanced at me, as we both remembered the words I’d said to stop the argument: “Because I don’t love you.”

It had been the only lie I ever told him. But I knew if I didn’t break both our hearts, he’d never let me leave.

“Anyway,” Danny said, “a couple minutes later, you burst into the hall. You looked real mad. But then you saw me standing there and knelt down. Do you remember now? What you said?”

Volos’s jaw clenched. With a sigh, he nodded. “I told you if you ever needed anything to come find me.”

Danny nodded eagerly. “You made me repeat it back to you, too, so I wouldn’t forget.”

I closed my eyes and damned myself for being the reason Danny felt the need to go to Volos in the first place.

“That was a long time ago, kid,” Volos said. “Things have changed.”

“So you were lying?” The betrayal in my brother’s voice had me snapping my eyes open again.

“I wasn’t lying,” John said. “I meant it—at the time.”

“You still do magic, don’t you?”

Volos shot me a look. “Occasionally.”

I gritted my teeth. “Look, even if nothing had changed, I’d never allow you to become an apprentice.” Especially not
his
apprentice, I amended silently.

Danny’s expression became mulish. “That’s why this was supposed to be
secret
.”

“Please apologize to Mr. Volos for interrupting his day.”

He looked as if he was about to fight me on it, but I put on my best cross-me-and-regret-it look. With a sigh, he finally muttered, “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it, kid. But maybe instead of running away you could have just called me.”

“Whatever.” Clearly the conversation had put a serious dent in Danny’s hero worship of Volos. Good.

“Why don’t you wait on the terrace while your sister and I have a little chat?”

Without a word, Danny stomped toward the sliding door set into the windows. He slammed it so hard, the entire panel of glass shook.

“Well, I see he got the Prospero temper,” Volos said.

“What the hell are you doing home today anyway?” I shot back because I needed to vent my anger somewhere.

He crossed his arms. “Gee, Kate, I don’t know. Maybe because your investigation has required me to shut down my offices for a few days?”

I opened my mouth but found my brain totally incapable of a battle of sarcastic wits. The awkwardness of the situation swooped in to replace my anger and fear. “Look, I’m sorry he came here. It’s been—” I shrugged instead of trying to find the right word.

“Why won’t you let him learn the art, Kate?”

“It’s none of your business.”

“Considering he just asked me to mentor him, it is.”

“I appreciate you calling me, and that you let him down as gently as possible. But that’s as far as this goes.”

Just then the door opened again and Morales came back in, looking wary. When he saw Danny outside and Volos and me squaring off, he relaxed. “What’d I miss?”