Spellcasters (55 page)

In a few minutes, something would give—the roof, a wall, something. Through the dust, I could see the open doorway, beckoning me to safety. Instead, I closed my eyes, concentrated, and cast the binding spell again. Halfway through the incantation, a chunk of brick hit my arm, and I stumbled backward. More brick rained down, larger pieces now, big enough to hurt. I gritted my teeth, closed my eyes, and cast again.

The pounding stopped. I held the spell for a few seconds before I dared to open my eyes. When I did, I saw Griffin, his fist stopped in midair. He
grunted, then snarled, trying to break free, but I put everything I had into holding him still. Our gazes met. His eyes darkened with rage and hate.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

Lucas and the others swung through the doorway.

T
wo draining hours later, we returned to the SUV. The EMTs had taken Jacob’s body to the Cabal morgue for examination and autopsy. A forensics team was processing the scene. Investigators were combing the area for witnesses and clues. Standard procedure for a murder investigation. Yet every one of these professionals, from the coroner to the photographer, was a supernatural, and a Cortez Cabal employee.

None of this would ever make the six o’clock news. The Cabals were a law unto themselves in the purest sense of the phrase. They had their own legal code. They enforced that code. They punished the transgressors. And nobody in the human world knew any different.

“Do you want to stay with Griffin?” I asked Troy as he escorted us to the car. “I’m sure we could grab another bodyguard from the security team.”

Troy shook his head. “They’re taking Griffin to see his kids. He doesn’t need me there.”

As we neared the SUV, Troy lifted the remote. Heavy running footfalls sounded behind us. It was Griffin.

“I want to talk to you,” he said, bearing down on Lucas.

Troy put up a hand to stop him, but Lucas shook his head. I readied a binding spell. Griffin stopped inches from Lucas, well within anyone’s personal comfort zone. Both Troy and I visibly tensed. Lucas only looked up at Griffin.

“I want to hire you,” Griffin said. “I want you to find whoever did this.”

“The Cabal will investigate. My father will see to it.”

“Fuck the Cabal.”

“Griff,” Troy warned.

“I mean it,” Griffin said. “Fuck the Cabal. They won’t do shit until some sorcerer’s kid gets hurt. I want you to find this son of a bitch and bring him to me. Just bring him to me.”

“I—”

“I can pay you. Whatever the going rate is for a PI, I’ll double it. Triple it.” He raised his fist for emphasis, then looked at his hand, shoved it into his pocket, and lowered his voice. “Just tell me what you want, and I’ll get it.”

“You don’t need to do that, Griffin. My father will order an investigation, and he has resources I can’t match.”

“I’m class C. I’m not
entitled
to an investigation.”

“But you’ll get one.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then I’ll do it,” I said quietly.

Griffin glanced over, as if he hadn’t noticed me there. For a long minute, he just looked at me. Then he nodded. “Good,” he said. “Thank you.”

He turned and walked back into the night.

“Oh, God, what did I just say?” I murmured, thumping my head back against the leather rear seat. I looked at Lucas, buckling his seat belt beside me. “I am so sorry.”

“Don’t be. If you didn’t say it, I would have. You set his mind at ease. That’s what he needed. As for following through, that won’t be necessary. My father will call for an investigation, if for no other reason than to reassure his employees that the Cabal is taking action.”

This time when Troy searched our room, he found someone there. Benicio. Lucas took one look into the room and slumped, as if the strain of the night had just hit him full force.

“Minibar?” I whispered.

“Please.”

Benicio and I traded nods, and I skirted past him to the bar fridge. I took out two glasses, then stopped and turned to Benicio.

“Can I get you something?”

“Water would be fine,” he said. “Thank you, Paige.”

I fixed drinks as the two men talked behind me.

“I wanted to thank you for joining the search,” Benicio said. “It meant a lot to everyone, having someone from the family helping.”

“Yes, well, you’re welcome. It’s been a long night. Perhaps—”

“I couldn’t get your brothers there on a direct order, let alone voluntarily. They think leadership is showing up at the office every day, issuing
orders, and signing papers. They have no concept of what the employees expect, what they need.”

I peeked at Lucas. He stood there with the pained expression of a child forced to sit through the thousandth rendition of his father’s favorite lecture.

“I’m sure Hector would have gone.”

Benicio snorted. “Of course Hector would go. He’d go because he knows I’d want him to. He’d have killed the boy himself, if he thought it’d win my favor.”

Lucas winced. I handed him a straight Scotch. He mouthed a thank-you. I gave Benicio his water and he nodded his thanks before continuing.

“We’ve had more evidence of a pattern. A St. Cloud VP got wind of our problem, prompting a call from Lionel. One of their necromancer’s daughters, who was living with relatives after some family trouble, was attacked last Saturday, the night before Dana.”

“Is she okay?” I asked.

Benicio shook his head. “Like Jacob, she managed to place a call to their emergency line saying she was being followed but was dead when they found her. I’ve placed calls to Thomas Nast and Guy Boyd asking whether they know of any attacks on employees’ children. Thomas tentatively confirmed that they’ve had two incidents, but he wouldn’t provide details over the phone. The Cabals are meeting in Miami tomorrow to share information.”

“They’re launching a joint investigation, I presume,” Lucas said.

“Yes, which is why I’m asking you to reconsider.”

“Reconsider?” I said. “If the Cabals are investigating, you don’t need us.”

“No. If the Cabals are
jointly
investigating, I need your help more than ever. As Lucas can tell you, an intra-Cabal operation—”

Lucas lifted a hand. “We’re tired, Papá,” he said softly. “It’s been a very long night. I understand this new concern, and I agree that it
is
a concern. May I ask, though, that you let me explain the situation to Paige tonight, try to get some sleep, then discuss it with you over breakfast?”

“Yes, of course,” Benicio said. “What time do you need to be in court tomorrow?”

“Noon.”

“Then let’s reschedule our breakfast from seven to eight, to give you time to sleep. I’ll have the jet fly you to Chicago afterward.”

Lucas hesitated, then nodded. “Thank you.”

He turned toward the door.

“One last thing,” Benicio said.

Lucas paused, still facing the door, one hand on the knob, lips parting in a silent sigh. “Yes, Papá?”

“In light of this latest tragedy, I think we must assume that the killer’s intent is to hurt the Cabals where they expect it least and will feel it most. Given that, we have to also assume that the ultimate prize for him would be a member of a CEO’s family.”

“Yes, of course, but we can discuss this—”

“I’m not talking generalities, Lucas. I’m bringing this to your attention because it obviously affects you and Paige, and you need to consider that immediately.”

“He’s targeting teenagers. I’m not a teen—”

“I’m not referring to you. This killer is obviously smart enough to attack the edges, pluck from the herd the most vulnerable, those children farthest removed from Cabal protection. If he wanted a teenager from a Cabal CEO’s immediate family, there is only one who doesn’t live with a Cabal and who isn’t under twenty-four-hour guard.”

“Oh, God,” I said. “Savannah.”

E
arlier this year, when Kristof Nast sued for custody of Savannah, he’d done so by claiming to be her father. At first, I hadn’t believed him. Savannah, as the daughter of a notoriously powerful woman who was both a witch and a half-demon, showed every sign of matching or surpassing her mother’s powers, and as such she’d be a prize acquisition for any Cabal.

As for Kristof being her father, it was preposterous. No witch would ever get involved with a sorcerer, much less a high-ranking Cabal sorcerer. Then I’d met Kristof, seen Savannah’s eyes staring back at me, and knew there was no question of paternity.

Even if I’d still doubted it, his actions proved he wasn’t trying to recruit a potential employee. Kristof hadn’t just made a halfhearted attempt to kidnap Savannah. He’d put his all into getting custody, and he’d died trying to stop Savannah from hurting herself. A sorcerer like Kristof Nast would never do that for a witch who wasn’t his daughter.

This story had been churning in the Cabal gossip mill for months now. Anyone looking for Cabal children would know about Savannah. They’d also know that, unlike every other child and grandchild of a Cabal CEO, she wasn’t ferried to and from a private school in an armored car filled with half-demon bodyguards. She had only Lucas and me, and right now, she didn’t even have us.

I will say, with some modicum of pride, that I did not panic. Okay, I did have a few moments of heart palpitations and rapid breathing, but I managed to pull myself together before hitting the clinical anxiety stage.

It took only a few minutes for Lucas and his father to come up with a plan that kept me from barreling out the door and grabbing the next plane home. Benicio had already dispatched the corporate jet to Portland. By the time he mentioned the possible danger to Savannah, Cabal guards
were en route to pick her up. I will admit to a brief moment of “What if this is all a setup and he’s going to snatch Savannah” anxiety, but I managed to stifle it before I blurted out any wild accusations. Lucas trusted his father to bring Savannah here, so I trusted him.

Lucas made the call to Michelle’s parents, apologized for waking them, and tossed together a plausible story to explain why several huge men would be arriving at their door to collect Savannah. Or I assume he came up with a plausible story. I heard none of it. I knew enough about Lucas, though, to know he was capable of manufacturing the most convincing lies at a moment’s notice—yet another birthright from his father.

At my request, Lucas also talked to Savannah. What did he tell her? The truth. I’m sure of that. If it was me on that phone, I’d have sugar-coated it for her. I couldn’t help it. The urge to make her life easier was too great. So I’d have given her a watered-down version, and she’d have listened, then asked to speak to Lucas to get the truth.

Once Benicio was gone, Lucas walked to the sofa, sat down beside me, and took my hand.

“You okay?” he murmured.

I squeezed his hand and managed a wan smile. “I’ll be better when she’s here, but I’m okay.”

“About this case,” he said. “Am I correct in assuming you want it?”

“I want it, but—”

“After what happened tonight, we’ve moved beyond the luxury of worrying about conflict of interest. Someone needs to investigate this.”

“You don’t think the Cabals can handle it?”

“Individually, I’d say the Cabals are quite capable of handling the situation. But together? Together they work at a fraction of their capacity.”

“Infighting?”

He nodded. “Precisely. It’s like two warring countries teaming up against a common enemy. Each will want to lead the attack. Each won’t share their information for fear of divulging contacts and techniques. Each will want the other to put
their
men at risk. A plan of action won’t be decided so much as negotiated.”

“And in the meantime, more kids will be hurt.”

“Collateral damage. I won’t say the Cabals don’t care; they aren’t monsters. But they are structured around profit-making and self-preservation. Those priorities will always come first, intentionally or not.”

“But obviously your father foresees this or he wouldn’t still be asking you to take the case. Why doesn’t he tell the other Cabals, ‘Thanks for the offer, but we’ll go it alone’?”

Lucas leaned back into the sofa. “Politics. At this level, even my father’s hands are tied. If he refuses to cooperate, it’ll not only affect his standing with the other Cabals but also cause internal dissent. Understandably, his employees will question why he’d refuse extra help.”

“So it’s down to us. In that case, then, I definitely want to—” I stopped. “Wait. What about Savannah? I certainly can’t let her tag along and—”

“I have a thought on that. Someone who could look after her.”

I shook my head. “You know how I am. Either I look after her myself, or I’ll go crazy worrying. I don’t trust anyone—”

He told me who he had in mind.

“Oh,” I said. “That might work.”

Benicio called to say that Savannah was on the jet and would arrive in Miami just after six. Lucas told him our decision, that I would take the case, starting immediately. As for Lucas’s role, we’d decided on honesty over subterfuge. Of course he’d help me. Yes, this meant working alongside the Cabals, but the cause was right, and he wouldn’t cheapen that by hiding his involvement. If Benicio felt he’d won a victory, we had to let him have that satisfaction. Our only defense was that we wouldn’t accept a Cabal paycheck for the job. We were doing this on our own, for our own reasons.

With securing Savannah’s safety now our top priority, Lucas asked his father for a rain check on breakfast. Instead, Benicio would bring a copy of the case files for me later in the morning, after Lucas was gone and I’d had time to settle Savannah in at the hotel. Benicio promised Lucas that he would help with protection arrangements for Savannah, and Lucas wisely refrained from telling him we’d already done so. While we appreciated Benicio’s help, neither of us wanted Savannah in his custody for long, in case he hoped to use the opportunity to pitch to her as a future employee.