Fire Storm (8 page)

“But why pick on Andreas? He hasn’t been involved in their war.”

“How would any witch over here know that?” Ari shrugged. “It’s just one theory. I’m not ruling out anything.” She stopped in the center of the room. “I can’t pick up a magical trail strong enough to follow.” It had been too long since the attack. She also didn’t feel that tiny void that accompanied every Otherworld death. So no one had died here. That was remarkable, considering all the blood. She tucked Andreas’s scarf in her pocket before reaching down with one finger to touch a splatter and bring the sample to her nose. “Werebears.”

“Bears? How would they get in?” Lilith demanded. “The door was still sealed.”

“They don’t live in the area,” Samuel said. “There’s not enough cover for even a pair of creatures that large to hide and feed.”

“Somebody teleported them. That’s the trace of black magic I felt. Residue from a teleportation spell.” She turned to Andreas’s local staff who had hung back near the doorway. “Where is the nearest bear country, dense forests and mountains?”

“North, in Austria or Switzerland,” one of them said.

Samuel cleared his throat. “How far can they transport? The Black Forest in Germany must be filled with bears.” He exchanged a significant look with her.

Crap. O-Seven territory. Yes, that would fit, except—Andreas wasn’t dead. Had he escaped and gone into hiding, or had he been kidnapped? Neither answer made sense.

“If they came from that far, they’d still need a local stop. No one could do a teleport and return with an unwilling captive without renewing their magic.”

“So they’ve taken him somewhere local?”

Ari shook her head. “I don’t know yet, Lilith. Just thinking out loud.”

She closed her eyes and centered herself. Now that she knew what to look for, she wanted to try reaching out into the surrounding countryside with her own version of Spidey senses. Maybe she could pick up the scent of werebear or the location of a teleport circle. Her magic spread out around her in increasing circles. The same faint trace of dark spellcraft came back to tickle her senses, but not enough to follow.

Lilith shifted her feet in impatience. “Well?”

“No go. The sorcerer was careful. I’ll walk around outside, see if I can find anything, but I’m not counting on the teleport circle being close by. More likely a mile or two away. Maybe more. Outside my immediate sensory range.”

She left the room, heading down the stairs to the front door. Everyone followed, but she waved them off except for Samuel.

Lilith took the hint. “I’ll get us settled in and take a quick shower.” The weretiger guards grabbed their own bags and went off to find their accommodations. Andreas’s staff scattered.

Once Ari was alone with Andreas’s security chief, she looked him in the eye. “So, explain how this happened.”

He returned her gaze without flinching. “I’d been away for the evening, visiting relatives. Andreas planned to go over the estate books and was in the study when I left, about nine o’clock. I returned around 2:00 a.m., and he’d already gone to his room. It looked like he’d taken some of the books with him, and I found them beside his bed the next afternoon. Anyway, I checked that night to make sure his bedroom door was secured. I knocked, and he said, ‘Goodnight.’”

“Was that his usual routine?”

“Yes. We often turn off the downstairs lights after midnight to make the casa look more natural. So neighbors won’t think it’s odd for him to stay up every night.”

“I still can’t believe they don’t know he’s a vampire.” She frowned. “So how did he sound? Are you positive it was his voice?”

“Just like normal. I’d swear to it.” Samuel looked away. “After that, I went to bed and slept through whatever happened.”

“And your room is right next door.”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“What about the other guards and staff?”

“Nobody saw or heard anything.”

She pictured the blood and disarray in Andreas’s room. “Why didn’t you hear the fight?”

“I can’t explain it.”

But she had been talking more to herself than Samuel. With his lycanthrope hearing, the weretiger should have noticed such a violent event. The lack of sound was more than strange. “It had to be a spell placed on the entire household.”

Teleportation, and now a silence spell. A sorcerer had to be behind this. Was it possible he or she was working with the vampire elders?

“OK, thanks.” She started to turn away but swung back. He needed her to say it. “Samuel, this wasn’t your fault. Now, come on, let’s see if we can find him.” She strode across the lawn toward the nearest building with Samuel staying beside her. “If someone’s taken Andreas, we need something to show us where they’ve gone.”

An hour later, as they completed their circle of the nearby area, he led her to a grove of fig trees still laden with their distinctive leaves and the last crop of the year. The sweet, fruity smell drifted around them. He pointed to a matted area in the grass, and they crouched down to inspect it. “This is the place I was telling you about. The only thing our people have found.”

“Someone has been here, watching the house.” Ari ran her hands over the disturbed ground.

“Maybe,” Samuel admitted, “but it looks more like an animal has nested here. A local dog or wild fox, maybe.” He sniffed the air. “Strange I don’t notice a distinctive scent.”

“A vixen.” She said it with assurance. “A werefox vixen. I can feel her Otherworld scent clinging to the grass and soil, even though she’s attempted to hide her presence by spraying with some kind of masking agent.”

“Geez. Is that what’s making me want to sneeze?” He rubbed his nose, stood and backed away. “You think she was spying on us?”

“Don’t you? There’s a reason they’re called snoops-for-hire.” Damned sneaky creatures. Ari got to her feet and vented her frustration on a chunk of dirt by kicking it out of her way. “Is there a pack near here?”

“Fifteen or twenty miles. They avoid my family’s hunting area.”

“Let’s go visiting. Do you have a vehicle that isn’t being used in the searches?”

“Got a truck.”

Five minutes later, Ari smiled and climbed into the vintage pickup that stopped beside her and backfired. Its light green paint was liberally sprinkled with patches of rust. “Where on earth did you find this?”

“It belongs to the overseer,” Samuel said. “I thought it would be a better choice than Andreas’s silver Maserati.”

“Good thinking.” Andreas’s taste wasn’t always geared toward blending into the local landscape. She searched for the seat belt. “No seat belt?”

Samuel grinned. “Just hang on. It’s the bumps that’ll get you.”

She quickly found out what he meant when he took off down the back roads, winding through short cuts that were barely more than well-beaten paths. Finally he pulled the truck over to the side of a narrow lane. Ari coughed, wiping dust from her eyes. The region had been unusually dry, and the fall heat and dust billowed through the open windows. The cranks were missing, but that didn’t matter as the glass had been broken out long ago.

“Beppe suggested we walk from here. To give the foxes time to get used to the idea of visitors.”

Word would spread quickly. Ari’s neck already prickled with awareness. They were being watched. She climbed out, giving the foxes plenty of time to assess their arrival while she brushed off her dusty jeans and T-shirt. When she straightened, Samuel turned toward the east, leading the way. They hadn’t gone more than fifty yards when a male figure appeared ahead, and they stopped to wait for him to reach them. Ari sensed the fox pack filtering into the grove of trees and vines to their left. When Samuel stiffened, apparently picking up the fox scent, Ari touched his arm in a warning not to react.

The man striding toward them was deeply tanned, his natural Mediterranean complexion weathered and turned into a mocha color by the Tuscan sun. Well-built, confident, his expression was neither welcoming nor threatening. “Why is a tiger on our land?” he asked Samuel without preamble.

Ari answered instead, explaining she was a Guardian from the States and was visiting the De Luca vineyards. “A werefox has been on the estate property recently, and we’d like to talk with her.”

“You’re concerned about a trespasser?” The werefox, who’d identified himself as Ramon, was faintly mocking. His eyes narrowed. “You said
her
?”

“Yes, it was a vixen.” Ari had deliberately mentioned the gender. Lycanthropes had a hard time differentiating the males and females of other species by smell alone, unless the female was in her heat cycle, but witches could read the remnants of auras. It should tell him what she was.

He took another look at her and then a deliberate sniff, his nostrils flaring. “Witch.” His expression hardened. “I don’t understand. What’s going on?”

“There was a break-in at the De Luca house, and your vixen may have seen the suspects.”

Ramon scowled. “Are you accusing her of being involved?”

Ari struggled to keep her voice casual and not antagonize him. “We just want to talk. We’re willing to pay for information.” If anything motivated werefoxes, it was money.

Ramon’s tense stance relaxed at the mention of payment. “It may have been Katya. I heard she had a new client.”

Client! Ari’s nostrils flared with indignation. Too tame a word for the lowlife behind a sneak attack and abduction. She forced herself to focused on what she’d heard. So the fox had been someone’s local eyes, just as they’d suspected. The small and clever creatures could go wherever they wanted without being noticed. It made them effective spies, and in the States they earned good money doing freelance surveillance.

“I’ll take you to her, but…” he looked directly at Ari, “I think I better stay while you talk.”

“Fair enough.” Ari and Samuel followed him back down the road. He cut through a grove of trees and approached a gentle hillside of vines and brush.

His soft growl warned her before the smell did. Rotting flesh.

The den had been dug out by deep claw marks; twigs and earth scattered; the werefox’s body lay half in, half out. Her neck had a large chunk of flesh missing where it had been ripped by sharp teeth, and she had bled out. Katya’s clothes hung in shreds; the backs of her hands showed small tuffs of red fur, suggesting she’d been in the process of transforming when she died. Probably in an attempt to escape. Foxes were not effective fighters against larger opponents, but they could run like the wind.

Ari sucked in a shallow breath. It hadn’t been an easy death. But overshadowing her natural empathy for any loss of life—even this life—was a bitter disappointment. Ari wanted answers, and Katya wouldn’t be telling them anything.

She stepped closer and sniffed the air. A second odor was becoming all too familiar.

Ramon’s low growling cut off, and he knelt beside the victim. “What the hell happened to her?” Even though it was clear to Ari the woman had been dead for some time, he leaned over and listened for a heartbeat. He looked at Ari with pain in his eyes. “Who did this?”

She responded to his loss first. “I’m sorry about your friend. She was attacked by werebears. Two or more. The same scent was at the De Luca house.”

“Did you have a kill like this?”

“At the estate? No, but there’s blood from a fight.” She glanced at the victim’s decomposing body. “She may have been attacked the same night so she couldn’t report what she saw. I’d like the name of her employer. Is there anyone who’d know?”

Ramon lifted a hand high overhead and two young men came running. They stared wide-eyed at the corpse, and he had to raise his voice to get their attention. “Hey, listen up. Gather the families. Spread the word of what has happened to Katya and that we need the name of her most recent client. Hurry.” The men took off running, changing into fox form as they went. Bushy tails were the last parts visible before they plunged into a grove of trees.

“Outsiders are not allowed at a fox gathering. You can wait in your car or I will find you at the
casa di campagna
.”

“Andreas’s country house,” Samuel clarified.

She looked at Ramon. “How long will this take?”

“Minutes. Hours.” He shrugged. “Who can say? Is there urgency?” His voice sharpened. “Are you withholding something?”

Ari glanced at Samuel. He gave Ramon a steely-eyed look. “The master is missing.”

“De Luca?” The werefox leader looked startled, then disbelieving, and finally settled on bewildered. “By missing, are you saying he’s lost or been abducted? Who would dare? How is such a thing even possible?”

“He wouldn’t get lost,” she snapped. “Werebears attacked him.” She cocked her head. “Why do you seem so surprised?”

“Because I am. How could anyone take him captive?” He looked at Ari, then at Samuel. “Oh, I see. You thought we didn’t know he was a vampire.” Ramon gave a dismissive grunt. “It is the worst kept secret in the region. At least among the Otherworlders. He is somewhat of a legend.”

Samuel’s mouth dropped open; Ari merely nodded. She’d been thinking the local populace would be pretty dense not to suspect. In fact, it was a relief they knew. Not having to hide that fact would make their investigation easier.

“How long have you known?” Samuel demanded.

“Decades.”

“But how?”

“Samuel, you can catch up on local gossip later. Right now it’s a good thing that they know. We can talk more freely.” She turned back to Ramon and followed her instincts. She liked the way he cared about and protected his pack. Maybe he could also be trusted, at least to some extent, and she needed local expertise. “A sorcerer was involved in the attack, but we’re afraid it was the vampires who were behind it. The powerful elders who rule Europe. But they didn’t pull this off without local help.”

“By vampires, you mean the O-Seven. We’ve all heard of them.” Ramon gazed thoughtfully at the rolling hills over her shoulder. “I hope Katya wasn’t part of this, but she may have been spying for them without realizing who they were or what they planned. I’ve heard she was pinched for money. Starting this new business and all…” His eyes darkened, and he shook his head. “De Luca and his people have been generous in this region, sheltering, providing jobs without asking questions or demanding anything in return. We will do what we can.”