Missing Magic (10 page)

“No.” The more she talked, the more flustered
she grew. “Please. Get dressed.”

Shaking his head and muttering about the
oddities of humans, he turned to do as she’d requested.

Sagging against the sink, she caught a quick
glimpse of a perfect, male behind as he headed back towards the
sofa, where he must have left his clothes.

Luckily her coffee-maker beeped, informing
her the brew was ready. Hastily, she poured herself a mug full. Two
heaping spoonfuls of creamer and two packets of artificial
sweetener and she was good to go.

Closing her eyes, she inhaled the rich aroma
before she took the first sip, prepared to savor the taste as she
always did.

“I’ve never tried coffee.”

She jumped, splashing scalding coffee on her
hand. Cenrick. He’d snuck up on her while she was distracted – and
spoken from maybe three inches away from her ear – so close, his
breath had actually tickled her.

Hastily she set her mug down and moved to the
sink, running cold water on her poor hand.

“Don’t do that,” she snapped. Drying her hand
on the dish towel, she snagged her cup and took another gulp. “You
want coffee? You can have coffee.”

Without waiting for him to answer – in truth,
her jittery reaction had probably shocked him – she plucked a
second mug from the cabinet and filled it with coffee.

“Cream? Sugar? Artificial sweetener?” Taking
a deep breath, she faced him.

“I don’t know.” He grinned at her, looking
entirely too good with that lock of black hair falling over his
forehead. “I’ll take it the same way you do, I suppose.”

She nodded, inwardly wincing. Though still
half-naked, he’d complied with the spirit of her request to dress
and put on his trousers, but no shirt or shoes. Seeing him,
bare-chested and barefoot, looking completely at home less than
three feet away in her kitchen, provided a better wake-up jolt than
ten cups of caffeine.

She took another chug of coffee and grimaced
when she realized she’d inadvertently drank from his. “Here.”
Handing it to him, she tried to sound apologetic. “Most men take it
black.”

Gaze locked on hers, he nodded. Raising the
mug to his mouth, he drank, this throat working as he swallowed.
Her mouth went dry. Damn.

Carefully, she moved past him, refilling her
cup and then heading for the kitchen table. “Let’s talk.”

She pulled out a seat; he did the same,
taking the chair across from her.

Cradling her mug in two hands, she sipped
slowly. The niggling bit of desire she felt each time she looked at
him made her decide to cut to the chase. “About Mick – I think I’ve
come up with a workable plan.”

He raised a brow at her, motioning for her to
continue.

“I’ll go undercover. If I pretend to be Fae,
maybe I can get in that house. Even Mick won’t recognize me if I
disguise myself. I’ve got wigs and colored contacts from my days
working undercover in Vice. Once I’m in, I can find out what Mick’s
up to, whether he’s a willing participant in this or—.”

“Not possible.” He cut her off, his voice
certain.

“Why not?”

“Because no matter what you do, any Fae will
instantly know you’re human.”

“How?” She rubbed her eyes. God help her, so
much unreal stuff had happened in such a short time. “What am I
missing? Don’t tell me you guys have some special scent or
something.”

“Not scent. Your aura. Remember I told you I
can see other Fae’s auras and they can see mine? Human auras look
completely different.”

“Aura. Of course.” Doggedly, she sipped
coffee and tried to regroup. So much for her plan. Shot down
because of another new-age type word. Aura.

Life kept getting more and more strange.
Shifting veils separating her world from his, an alternate reality,
one in which elves and faeries existed, magic spells, soul-stealing
machines… If she didn’t know better, she’d suspect she was under
the influence of a mind-altering drug or in the throes of a really
bizarre dream.

A dream. Wouldn’t that be nice? Maybe she
could wake up and find out she hadn’t been accused of being a
crooked cop. She’d still have job and her best friend Mick and a
normal life.

“Stop,” she muttered.

“Stop what?”

“Nothing.” She drained her cup. Pushing to
her feet for her last refill, she checked his mug. He’d barely
touched his. Fine. More for her.

Once she’d finished doctoring her coffee, she
carried it back to the table. “Okay, you’ve shot down my plan. But
I still want to go back to Mick’s. I want to know why the glow went
out.”

“I think the glow only occurs while souls are
being taken.” Expression serious, he studied her. “What about the
license plate number you wrote down?”

“Great idea.” She jumped up, crossed to the
corner of the dining room where she kept her computer on a small
desk. “Give this thing a minute to boot up, and then we’ll
see.”

Once she’d gotten on the internet – thank
goodness for DSL – she went to the web site of the data service she
used and logged in. She did a search by license number and less
than ten seconds later, a name came up on the screen.

“Natasha Klein.” Now she brought up a
powerful search engine. Immediately, she got dozens of hits. “It
seems Mick’s new friend is a top level scientist with NASA.”

“NASA? The space agency?”

“That’s the one. She’s also done some work
for Lockheed. Now let me make sure this is the same person.”
Clicking on link after link, she located a picture of the esteemed
scientist. “Bingo. That’s her.”

“Well done.” Cenrick’s grin was full of
admiration. “Human technology is almost as good as having an Oracle
and a Mage use their magic to see things.”

“Almost as good? It’s better. After all,” Dee
clicked the ‘print’ button, labeling a manila folder. “They weren’t
able to learn any of this. At least now, when we head over to
Mick’s, we know exactly what we’re dealing with.”

AS BEFORE, when they reached Mick’s, they
parked on the opposite side of the street. This time, they ventured
much closer, only two houses away.

The sickly yellow emanating from the house
lit up the night sky like an obscene flare.

“The glow is back.” Cenrick didn’t sound
happy.

“Yeah, and something’s happening. I wonder
what’s going on.”

This time, the place was a virtual hive of
activity. A large, white, windowless van was parked in the drive.
The two goons, with Blondie supervising, were unloading several
people from the van.

“Can you go closer?” Cenrick asked.

She glanced at him curiously. “I could,
because I’d like to write down the van’s license number, but I’m
not sure it’d be a good idea. Remember what happened to you last
time? I don’t want whatever it is that’s sucking magic out of Fae
to affect you.”

Expression set in grim lines, he drummed his
fingers on the dashboard. “Go closer. If it gets to me, I’ll let
you know.”

“Fine.” She pulled closer, pulling in to park
on the opposite side of the street, directly across from Mick’s.
“You’d better hope they don’t notice us.” She kept a notebook in
While she jotted down the numbers, he watched the new arrival.

“By the Plains of Lothar!” Cenrick cursed.
The narrow-eyed glare he shot her way was full of fury. “Look at
them! The soul-stealing has already started.”

He was right. Like Zombies from some grade-B
horror flick, the small cluster of Fae shuffled forward, vacant-
eyed and slack-jawed, with the goons herding them towards the
door.

“They’re either under a spell or their souls
have already been stripped.” He shook his head. “Even now, I can
feel that thing – whatever it is – attempting to pull the magic
from my body.”

“Magic?” She shot him a look. “Or your soul?
Which is it?”

“They’re one and the same. All the magic we
Fae have resides in our soul. It’s our core, the very fiber which
makes us whole.”

“Then, without the soul, how does your body
manage to live?”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s not normal,” she said.

“Nothing is normal, when you’re dealing with
magic.”

They both fell silent as the blonde woman
motioned her hired muscle to hurry.

“Natasha Klein,” Cenrick said slowly. “It’s
good to put a name to her face.”

“Knowing she works for NASA and with Lockheed
is even more intriguing. She has to be the one who developed the
machine.”

This time, Cenrick didn’t argue. He must
finally be coming around to her machine theory.

Once the last of the stragglers had been
herded inside, Natasha motioned to the van. Immediately, it drove
off, past Dee’s car without even a glance from the driver.

While Dee was watching the van, Natasha and
the others disappeared inside the house, closing the garage door
behind them.

Dee looked at Cenrick. Then they both turned
and eyed the house.

Except for the still pulsing glow, the place
might have been an ordinary, suburban, home.

“We’ve got to get in there.” Cenrick sounded
frustrated.

“I know. But since you shot down my
plan…”

“Cenrick, look.”

Natasha had come outside. Alone. They watched
as she strolled down the driveway towards the mailbox.

Dee tensed, poised for action. Beside her,
she sensed Cenrick doing the same.

“Let’s jump her, now! She’s alone and far
enough from the house.” He fumbled with his door handle.

“No.” Dee grabbed his arm. “I’m sure her
muscle is watching. Those guys have got to be her bodyguards.”

Just then, proving her words, one of the big
guys strolled out the front door, and stopped by the SUV. Arms
crossed, he waited while Natasha retrieved the mail. Even from this
distance, Dee could see he was armed.

When Natasha reached him, the two conferred
for a moment. Then, to Dee’s disbelief, the bodyguard opened the
SUV’s passenger door. Natasha climbed up. Once he’d closed the door
behind her, he crossed to the driver’s side and got in.

“They’re leaving.” Dee couldn’t believe it.
“Talk about lucky breaks.”

“That means only one guard is left. And all
those messed up Fae.”

“And Mick.” She couldn’t keep the hope out of
her voice.

They exchanged a glance. She understood
exactly what he was thinking and said it for both of them.
“Excellent odds.”

In the streetlight’s dim light, his
aristocratic features looked arrogant. He smiled as the SUV backed
out and drove off. “It’s time.”

“Yep.” She opened her door. “I’m going in.
You wait here.”

The look he gave her told her it would be a
cold day in hell. “No. I’m going with you.”

“What?” Door halfway open, she turned to look
at him. “You can’t. It’s still glowing. That means it will affect
you.”

“Maybe.” He pushed himself up out of the car,
leaving her to hurry after him. “It’s a good time to test my
theory.”

“What theory?”

Giving her a mysterious smile, he shook his
head. “Wait and see.”

“Cenrick-.”

“Shhh. Are you ready?”

Glaring at him, she grabbed his arm. “What if
you get in there and it zaps you so badly you can’t leave?”

Smiling grimly, his gaze was dark as he
looked down at her. “Then I guess you’ll just have to rescue me,
won’t you?”

“We’re going in the back. If there’s only one
guy left guarding the place, we might as well take him by
surprise.”

Some of her doubts must have registered with
him, because his expression closed off, became cold and remote.
“Look Dee, I know you don’t think I’m much of a warrior. I’ve been
trying to study the situation before acting, as is my habit.” A
hint of bitterness crept in his voice. “No doubt to you it appears
I’ve done nothing but skulk around and hide.”

He increased his pace, so she had to hurry to
keep up. They reached the end of the driveway and needed to get
around to the backyard without being seen.

“Cenrick, wait.” Working around so much
testosterone at the police station, she was intimately familiar
with male pride.

“I never said I doubted you.”

He stopped so suddenly she ran into him. She
had to grab his arms to keep from falling. “You didn’t have to.
Look Dee, I’ve always prided myself on my ability as a scholar, but
I’m a warrior too. I have a feeling brute force and raw strength
will be needed before this is all over.”

Shaking off her hold, he swung around the
corner, keeping to the shadows. While she stood there staring after
him, his low voice floated back to her. “Come on, Dee. Time’s
running out. We’re going to have to do like my brother Alrick
usually does – act without a completely thought out plan.

“All that’s well and good, but look what
happened to you last time. You almost passed out when you even got
close to the place.”

“I’ll be fine. Nothing happened the time
before that, when we ran into each other in the garage.”

“The house wasn’t glowing then.” She looked
around. “What’s that awful smell?” The overwhelmingly pungent odor
was sickeningly sweet and full of decay.

God help her, she knew what the smell
meant.

Something had died here. Died and in the
stages of decay.

Cenrick sniffed too. “Pretty powerful smell.
Do you think it’s coming from his garden?”

“No.” She took a look around. “It’s too awful
for that.”

“All of the shrubs are really dead and
shriveled.”

She took another look. More than merely dead,
Mick’s beloved plants looked scorched, as a nuclear explosion had
ripped through the yard. The grass too had gone brown and
lifeless.

“Mick’s gardens.” She felt stunned. “Those
were his pride and joy. There’s not a single bloom left
living.”

“Maybe that has something to do with that
awful smell.” But he didn’t sound convinced. Maybe he knew, as she
did, such an odor could only come from a decaying body – human or
animal.