The Undead Pool (4 page)

I was
so
glad that I wasn't going to be the only one to wake up from this. “Where's my car?” I asked as I scanned for it, and Ivy winced.

“I.S. impound, I think.”

“Swell.” My keys were still in it, and tired, I looked in my bag to make sure I still had that golf ball. “Okay, who out here owes me a favor?”

Jenks rose up from Ivy's shoulder, turning in midair to look toward Cincinnati. “Edden.”

Nodding, I gathered myself, and as Ivy hovered to catch me if I stumbled, we shuffled that direction. I was surprised. As a captain of the street force of the FIB, or Federal Inderland Bureau, Edden didn't get out much, but this had happened six blocks from their downtown tower, and with both human and Inderland Security fighting for jurisdiction, he'd want to make sure the I.S. didn't sweep anything under the carpet.

The chaos was worse on the Cincy side of things and they were still moving cars out. Unfortunately none of them was mine. Behind the blockade were even more official vehicles, and behind them, the expected news vans. I sighed, trying to hide my face as a helicopter thumped overhead.
Three hours?

But the shadows on the road agreed with the lapse of time, and as we looked for Edden, I thought back to that inertia bubble. Safety charms didn't grow that big, and it wasn't a cascading reaction of one triggering another, either. It had been a misfired charm in a morning of them. What the Turn was going on?

“Found him,” Jenks said, darting away, and Ivy angled to follow his shifting path through the people. It was tight, and I leaned closer to her, not wanting to be bumped. Everything felt uncomfortably intense, even the sun.

“I'm sorry I scared you,” I said as I pressed into her to avoid a harried medic looking for a sedation charm for some poor woman. Her husband was fine; she was having hysterics.

“It wasn't your fault.”

No, it was never my fault, but somehow I always got blamed, and upon reaching the blockade, I dug in my bag for my ID. Ivy had already flashed hers, and after comparing the picture to my face, the two officers let me past. Jenks was hovering over Edden like a tiny spotlight, and I limped a little faster. There were definite advantages to being a noncitizen, but only if you were four inches tall.

Captain Edden had put on a few pounds since taking over the Inderland Relations division after his son had quit. His ex-military build made the stress weight look solid, not fat, and I smiled as he took off his sunglasses, his eyes showing a heavy relief that I was no longer out cold on the pavement. Standing beside an open car door, he finished giving two officers direction before turning to us.

“Rachel!” he exclaimed, thick hand finding my shoulder briefly in a heartfelt squeeze. “Thank God you're okay. That wasn't you, was it? Trying to stop something worse, maybe? You would not believe my day. The I.S. is so busy with misfired charms that they don't even care we're out here.”

“Wasn't me this time,” I said as we came to a halt in an open patch of concrete. “And why is everything automatically my fault?”

The bear of a man gave me a sideways hug, filling me with the scent of coffee and aftershave. “Because you're usually mixed up in it somewhere.” His tone was pleased, but I could see the worry. “I wish it
had
been you,” he said, his eyes flicking to include Ivy and Jenks as he put an arm over my shoulder and moved us away from the news vans. “The I.S. is giving me some bull about it having been a cascading inertia dampening charm.”

Jenks rose up, but I interrupted him, saying, “It was an inertia charm, but it was one charm, not a bunch of them acting in concert. It came from about three cars ahead of mine. Probably the black convertible the kid was driving.” I hesitated. “Is he okay?” Edden nodded, and I added, “
Nothing
came from my car. If it had, I wouldn't have been able to get out of it.”

Edden chewed on his lower lip, clearly not having thought it through that far. The I.S. would have, though. Ivy looked tense, and I was glad I had friends who'd sit with me on the hard road and protect me from helpful mistakes. A guy with an armful of bottled water went past, and I eyed it thirstily.

“If anyone would bother to look,” I said, voice edging into accusation, “they could see my safety charm hasn't been triggered. It's probably another misfired charm. Have you listened to the news today? No one's brain dissolved. We got off easy.”

Edden shook himself out of his funk and looked over the surrounding heads. “Yes, we did. Medic!” he called, and I waved the woman off as she looked up from putting an ice pack on an officer's swollen hand, probably crushed when they were getting the people out of their cars.

“I'm fine,” I said, and Edden frowned. “I could use some water, though. You don't know where my car is, do you?”

Edden's frown vanished. “Ahh . . .” he said, looking everywhere but at me. “The I.S. took everything south of the midpoint.”

Jenks's wings clattered from Ivy's shoulder. “Hey, hey, hey. Good-bye.”

Tired, I sighed. I was
not
going to take the bus for the next twelve months while they figured out whose insurance was going to pay for this.

“I can get you home . . .” Edden started.

Ivy put a hand on my arm, pulling me from my souring mood. “It's okay, Rachel. My car is just off the bridge in the Hollows.”

That wasn't the point, and I shivered as Ivy's touch fell away with the feeling of ice. The light was seriously hurting my eyes, and even the wind seemed painful. It was almost as if my aura had been damaged, but Jenks said it was okay.
Why had it gone white, and right before the misfire?
“Edden, I had nothing to do with it,” I complained, not entirely sure anymore. “I can't tap a line over the water, and the I.S. knows it. If I could, I wouldn't have gotten stuck in that . . . whatever it was. It was all I could do to get out. This is the second misfire I've been in today, and I want my car!”

Edden jerked, his eyes coming to mine from the man with the water. “Second?” He whistled, and the guy turned. “Where was the other one and why haven't I heard about it?”

Jenks's wings hummed—swaggering, if someone flying could swagger—as he landed on Ivy's shoulder. “Out at the golf course,” he said, and Ivy's eyes remained steady, telling me he'd already told her. “Someone almost nailed Trent with a ball, and she blew it up instead of deflecting it. Made a new sand trap out on four.”

Edden's reach for the bottle didn't hesitate, but he eyed me speculatively as he cracked the cap and then handed it to me. “You're still working Kalamack's security?” he said, clearly disapproving.

“If you call that working,” Ivy said, and I felt a chill as the cool water went down. “Edden, I've been listening to the radio the past three hours—”

“As she held poor Rachel's little hand,” Jenks smart-mouthed, darting off her shoulder when she flicked him.

Edden's brow furrowed, and he looked back to where I'd woken up. “You could hear the radio from there?”

Ivy smiled, flashing her small and pointy living-vampire canines. Her hearing was that good. Almost as good as Jenks's. “I've heard nothing new since the bridge. If I had access to the FIB's database, I could confirm it, but I'm guessing the misfires are contained in a narrow band that's moving about forty-five miles an hour, roughly paralleling 71.”

I lowered the bottle, cold from more than the water. Across from me, Edden took a breath in thought, held it, then exhaled. “You know what? I think you're right.”

Suddenly everyone was looking at me, and my stomach clenched. “This isn't my fault.”

Edden went to speak, and Ivy cut him off. “No, she's right. The first incident was just outside of Loveland. Rachel was nowhere near there.”

Head down, I recapped my water, a bad feeling trickling through me. I hadn't been out to Loveland this morning, but my ley line was out there. Crap on toast, maybe it was my fault.

“So you're off the hook!” Jenks said brightly, and I lifted my eyes, finding Ivy as worried as me.

Clueless, Edden looked over the heads of everyone as if having already dismissed it. “I don't like you working for Kalamack,” he muttered.

“He's the only one who comes knocking on my door looking for something other than a black curse,” I said, worried. Damn it all to hell, I had to talk to Al. He'd know if my line was malfunctioning. Again.

Making a small grunt of understanding, Edden touched my shoulder. It meant more than it should, and I managed a small smile. “Sit tight, and I'll see if I can get your car before it goes to the I.S. impound. Okay?”

“Thanks,” I whispered as I took a swig of water. It was too cold, and my teeth hurt. Jenks noticed my grimace and the hum of his wings dropped in pitch. Sitting tight sounded fine to me. I wasn't up to dealing with vampires yet, especially if everything was hitting me twice as hard.

Ivy seemed to gain two inches as she scanned for someone wearing an I.S. badge and a tie. Across the cleared pavement, the last of the charmed people were finding their feet. The only one still on a stretcher was the kid. “Mind if I go with you?” she asked Edden. “I don't recognize anyone, but someone out here probably owes me a favor.” She looked at me as if for approval, and I nodded. I was fine, and if anyone could get my car back, it would be Ivy.

“Great,” Edden said. “Jenks, stay with Rachel. I don't want anyone from the press bothering her.” He hitched his pants up and tightened his tie. “We'll be right back. Someone needs a refresher on this sharing information thing we're supposed to be doing.”

I rolled my eyes, wishing him luck as Ivy looped her arm in his and they started across the bridge to the Hollows end of everything. “They're just afraid, Edden,” I heard Ivy say as they left, a sultry sway to her hips. “FIB forensics can put them in the ground, and they're tired of looking bad.”

I couldn't help my smile as I watched them, her svelte sleekness next to his round solid form, both very different but alike where it counted.

“Ah, 'scuse me, Rache,” Jenks said, a pained look on his face. “I gotta pee. Don't move.”

I looked around, finding a car I could lean up against. “Okay.”

His wing hum increased as he hovered right before my nose. “I mean it. Don't move.”

“Okay!” I said, resting my rump against the car, and he darted over the edge of the bridge.

Sighing, I turned to the insistent beeping of the last car being towed off. Most of the news crews had left with the recovering spell victims, and it was beginning to thin out. A man in a trendy black suit drew my attention, up to now hidden behind the Toyota being carted out, and I frowned as he looked at his phone, fingers tapping. It wasn't his dress, and it wasn't his haircut—both trendy and unique—it was his grace.
Living vampire?

A distant pop across the bridge sounded, and the man started, his eyes scanning until they fastened on mine.

A chill dropped through me as I took in his blond hair shifting in the wind, the grace with which he tucked it behind an ear, the knowing, sly smile he wore as he looked me up and down. Suddenly I felt alone. “Jenks!” I hissed, knowing he was probably within earshot. This guy wasn't FIB, and he definitely wasn't I.S., even if he was a living vampire. The suit said he had clout, and confidence almost oozed from him. “Jenks!”

Putting his attention back on his phone, the man hit a few more keys, slipped the phone in a pocket, turned, and walked away. In three seconds, he was gone.

“Jenks!” I shouted, and the pixy darted up, his dust an irate green.

“Good God, Rache, give me a chance to shake it, huh?”

My hands on the warm car burned, and I curled my fingers as I scanned the crowd. Slowly my pulse eased. “Are you sure my aura is okay?” I asked out of the blue.

Hands on his hips in his best Peter Pan pose, he said, “You called me back about that?”

“I think it might be linked to the misfires,” I said truthfully, and he looked askance at me.

“Yeah, but you were nowhere near any of the other ones. It wasn't you, Rache.”

“I suppose.” Heart pounding, I leaned back against the car, arms wrapped around my middle. I couldn't tell Jenks I had been spooked by a vampire, not under the noon sun, and not by a living one. He'd laugh his ass off.

But as we waited for Ivy to return with good news about my car, I shivered in the heat, unable to look away from the crowd and a possible glimpse of that figure in black.

He'd looked like Kisten.

Three

I
t wasn't Kisten,
I thought again for the umpteenth time as I shook two tiny pellets of fish food into my hand, wiggling a finger at Mr. Fish in his bowl on the mantel. But it had looked too much like him for my comfort, from his lanky, sexy build to his funky sophistication and even his thick mass of blond hair. I'd been so embarrassed I hadn't even told Ivy. I knew she'd loved him too—loved him long before I'd met him, loved him, and watched him die twice defending me. But those feelings belonged to someone else, and I now knew what vampires were born knowing: those who tried to live forever truly held no future.

The heat from Al's smaller hearth fire was warm on my shins, and I soaked it in, worried about the beta resting on the bottom of the oversize brandy snifter, gills sedately moving. The wood fire crackled, and I breathed the fragrant smoke, much better than the peat moss fire that stank of burnt amber that he'd had last time.

I dropped the fish food into the bowl and turned, glad to see other hints that Al was pulling himself, and therefore me, out of ever-after poverty. I'd seen other demons' spelling rooms over the last year or so, and they varied greatly as to the theme. Newt's looked like my kitchen, which made me all warm and cozy. But Al was a traditionalist, and it showed in the stone floors, the glass-fronted ceiling-tall cabinets holding ley line paraphernalia and books, and the smoky rafters coming to a point over the central, seldom-lit raised hearth fire in the middle of the circular room. We didn't need the big fire for the spell we were working, and Al sat on the uncomfortable stool at his slate-topped table five feet from the smaller hearth. He liked the heat as much as I did.

The shelves were again full, and the ugly tapestry I'd once heard scream in pain was back on the wall. The hole that he'd hammered between my room and the spelling kitchen had been tidied, and the new solid stone door between the two met with an almost seamless invisibility.

“Mr. Fish is acting funny,” I said as I watched the fish ignore the pellets.

Al glanced from the book he was holding at arm's length. “Nothing is wrong with your fish,” the demon said, squinting at the print as if he needed the blue-tinted round glasses. “You're going to kill him if you give him too much food.”

But he wasn't eating, simply sitting on the bottom and moving his gills. His color looked okay, but his eyes were kind of buggy. Distrusting this, I slowly turned to Al.

Feeling my attention on him, he frowned as he ran an ungloved finger under the print to make it glow. His usual crushed green velvet coat lay carefully draped over the bench surrounding the central hearth, and his lace shirt was undone an unusual button to allow for the warmth of the place. His trousers were tucked into his boots, and to be honest, he looked a little steampunky. Feeling my attention on him, he grimaced. It was one of his tells, and my eyes narrowed. Either it was the fish or the charm I wanted to know how to do.

“He's just sitting on the bottom,” I said, digging for the source of his mood. “Maybe I should take him home. I think it's wearing on him.”

Al peered sourly over his book at me. “He's a fish. What would wear upon a fish?”

“No sun.”

“I know the feeling,” he murmured, apparently not caring as he went back to the book.

“His mouth is funny,” I prompted. “And his gimpy fin is the wrong color.”

Al's breath came out in a growl. “There's nothing wrong with
that fish
. Teaching you how to identify the maker of a spell by his or her aura is a bloody hell waste of time. As you have an interest, I will indulge you, but I'm
not
going to do it myself. If you're done playing zookeeper, we can begin.” He looked pointedly at me. “Are you done, Rachel?”

Silent, I took the mangled ball out of the brown lunch bag I'd brought it in and nervously set it on the table beside the magnetic chalk, a vial of yellow oil, and a copper crucible.

Al's eyebrows rose. “Since when do you golf?”

I knew Al didn't like Trent. I knew that the source of his hatred was more than five thousand years old and hadn't lessened in all that time. “I was on a job,” I said. “It exploded under a deflection charm. I think it might have triggered an assassination spell.”

Shoulders stiff, his eyes narrowed. “You were Kalamack's
caddie
?”

“I'm his security,” I said, voice rising. “It's a paying job.”

Standing, Al's lips curled in disgust. “I said avoid him, and you take a subservient role?” My breath to protest huffed out when he slammed the book in his hand onto the table. “There's only one possible relationship, that of a slave and master, and you are failing!”

“God, Al! It was five thousand years ago!” I exclaimed, startled.

“It was yesterday,” he said, hand shaking as it pinned the book to the table. “Do you think the fact that there can be no viable children between elf and demon is an accident? It's a reminder, Rachel. Lose him or abuse him. There is no middle ground.”

“Yeah?” I exclaimed. “You're the one who offered him a circumcision curse. I thought you two were BFFs.”

Brow furrowed, Al came around the table, and I forced myself to not move. “You're making a mistake. There're already concerns that we moved too fast in killing Ku'Sox.”

I drew back. “Excuse me!”

“That we were taken in by elven trickery and lured into killing one of our own.”

“That is so full of bull!” I could not believe this. “Ku'Sox was trying to kill all of you and destroy the ever-after!”

“Even so,” he said as he put a threatening arm over my shoulder. “It would be better if you simply . . .” His words drifted off into nothing, his fingers rubbing together, then opening as if freeing something.

“You spent a thousand years with Ceri. What's the difference?”

His arm fell away, and I felt cold. “Ceri was my slave. You're treating Trent as an equal.”

“He is an equal.”

Motions brusque, Al reached for his book. “No, he isn't,” he growled.

“Yeah? Well, you loved Ceri,” I accused. “You loved her for a thousand years.”

“I. Did. Not!” he thundered, and I cringed when dust sifted from the rafters.

“Fine,” I muttered. “You didn't.” This had been a bad idea, and I grabbed my golf ball to go home. He was my easy ticket out of here, though, until the sun set and Bis woke up.

Seeing me standing there, chin high and pissed, clearly wanting to leave, Al relented, stiffly pointing for me to take his chair. Relieved and uncomfortable, I did, setting the golf ball back down with undue force before I sat on the hard stool. The spell book was splayed out in his thick, ruddy hand as he came to stand behind me, and I could smell the centuries of ever-after on him, soaked in until it couldn't be washed off. He'd teach me this, but I was sure our conversation was far from over.

“It doesn't look like much,” I said as I looked at the spell laid out before us.

His hand hit the table beside me, and he leaned uncomfortably close over my shoulder. “Good curses don't.”

The slate table shifted as he pushed back up, and still lurking more behind than beside me, he peered at the book over his glasses. “Step one,” he said loudly. “Sketching the pentagram. You can do that, yes?”

I blew across the table and picked up the magnetic chalk. “You need a book for this?”

“No.” He pointedly dropped a colorful square of silk, and I wiped the slate free of stray ions. “I've not done it the long way for ages. Any more questions? Then a standard pentagram of comfortable size. The point goes up if the ley lines are flowing into your reality, but down if they are flowing out.” He hesitated, then said sarcastically, “Which way are they flowing, Rachel?”

Hesitating, I tried to guess. We were about four stories deep. “Has the sun set yet?”

He cleared his throat in disapproval, and when I turned, he said, “No.”

“Then it's point up,” I said, mostly to myself as I began to sketch. I'd only recently found out that the ley lines, the source for most if not all magic, flowed like tides between reality and the ever-after. Energy streamed into reality at night, and flowed out when the sun was up, but since there were lines scattered over the entire globe, it evened out unless a line was unbalanced. And if it was, it wreaked havoc.

I don't know which is worse,
I thought, the soft sounds of the sliding chalk mixing with the snapping fire making a singularly comforting sound.
An attack on Trent, or that my line might be wonky.
The misfires were coming from Loveland. Damn it, it was my line. I knew it.

“Better” was Al's grudging opinion as I finished, but I could tell he was pleased. I'd been practicing. “Crucible in the center, ball in the crucible. As you say, simple stuff.” The snap of the book make me jump, and he added, “Step two. Burn the object to ash. Use a spell to avoid contamination.”

The crucible was cold against my fingers as I placed it in the cave of the pentagram, and I tried to fold the ball so it would all fit in the copper bowl. We needed the ash, apparently. “Do I need a protection circle?” I asked, and then remembering having burned my fingers this morning, I wedged a tiny portion of the ball off to use as a connecting bridge.

Al leaned over my shoulder, his lips so close to my ear that I could feel their warmth. “Do you make a pentagram for any other reason?”

I turned to face him, not backing down. “I do, yes.” Maybe bringing Ceri up had been a bad idea, and I looked across the table to the cushy chair that had been hers, still there although the woman was not.

Grumbling, he waved his hand in acquiescence, and using the outer circle linking the points of the pentagram as the circle base, I touched the nearest ley line and set a protection circle. Energy seeped in, connecting me to all things, and I let it flow unimpeded as a reflection of my aura stained the usual red smear of ever-after now making a sphere half on top, half underneath the table. I scooted the stool back a smidge so my knees wouldn't hit it under the table and accidentally break the spell. As I watched my thin layer of smut skate and shiver over the skin of the molecule-thin barrier, I tasted the energy for any sign of bitterness or harsh discord. It was fine. The lines were fine.

But the fear of being trapped in that inertia dampening charm gave me pause. My nudge to Limbcus's golf ball had blown it up, and I was gun-shy.

“We're waiting . . .” Al drawled.

Well, it was in a protection circle,
I thought, and maintaining my grip on the line, I held the small bit of the ball I'd peeled off in my hand as I carefully enounced, “
Celero inanio.
”

A puff of black smoke enveloped the ball, and for a moment, the reek of burning rubber outdid the stink of burnt amber. The heavy smoke rolled upward, curling back as it hit the inside of my small circle until it finally cleared.

In the center of the pentagram and the crucible was a pile of ash. For an instant, relief filled me. My control was fine. And then my mood crashed. Something from Loveland had caused the misfires. If it wasn't me, what was it?

“Very good.” Book in hand, Al sat down before me in my usual chair, and I wondered if he'd been hiding behind me this entire time to avoid a possible burn if I did it wrong.

Peeved, I eyed him, the length of the table between us. “You're such a chicken squirt.”

One eyebrow went up, and he pushed the oil across the table at me. “Anoint the ash with oil of marigold,” he said dryly. “Don't ask me why, but it has to be marigold. Something to do with the linkages in the DNA allowing a hotter burn.”

Unsure, I picked the oil up. “How much?”

Al opened the book back up and peered at it over his blue-tinted glasses. “Doesn't say, love. I'd use an amount equal to the mass of the ash.”

My palm itched as I broke the protection circle, carefully spilling what I thought was the right amount of oil onto the ash. This was kind of loosey-goosey for me, but demon magic had more latitude than the earth witch magic I was classically trained for, being a mix of earth and ley line and whatever else they cobbled together.

“Burn it using the same charm you use for making a light,” he said, and I touched the oil/ash mixture to make a connection to the slurry so the next curse would act on it and not, say, my hair. But when I reset my circle, he reached out and broke it, shocking me with the reminder that he was still stronger than me—unless I worked really hard at it.

“No protection circle,” he said, and I slumped.

“Why not? Something is causing misfires, and I don't want to blow you up. I mean, you just got your kitchen looking halfway decent again.”

Al's grimace as he looked over the space was telling. “Your magic is fine,” he said, but he was edging backward. “You can't put it in a circle. If you do, then the color of the flame will be distorted from your aura.”

My fingers twitched. That was how it worked, eh?

“But I don't think it matters,” Al said with a false lightness. “That ball was not charmed by anyone but you.”

Which would mean the misfires were responsible for it. Taking a steadying breath, I renewed my hold on the ley line. “
In fidem recipere
,” I said, smearing the ash and oil between my fingers for a good connection. One eye squinched shut, I finished the curse and made the proper hand gesture. “
Leno cinis.
”

The ley line surged through me as the oil and ash burst into flame, and I wiggled at the uncomfortable sensation. Almost two feet tall, the flame burned with an almost normal gold color, hinting at red at the edges, and black at the core. I cut back on the energy flow, and when the flame subsided to three inches, both Al and I leaned over the table to get a closer look.