“How big was the dragon Finn started to summon?” he asked.
“It would have been around fifteen feet long once fully summoned.”
“His usual dragon is the size of a cat, not a house.”
That certainly was a big difference. The tornados and firestorms weren’t a small matter of magic either.
“So, you brought me here for a play-by-play of the incident?” she asked. “Because it’s all in my report, you know.”
“I saw.” He leaned forward, his shoulder brushing against hers as he reached for the folder on his desk.
She jumped a bit, which seemed to amuse him.
He opened the folder and scanned down the top page. “You were very thorough. I found your description of the swaying wind funnels very poetic.” He tossed her report back onto the desk. “But that’s not why I hired you. You’re here because I need you to help me figure out who is behind my cousin’s odd behavior.”
“You make it sound like a conspiracy.”
His icy blue eyes went completely cold. “Last month, another cousin of mine went berserk while on visit to our New York City office. The resulting magical catastrophe destroyed most of a city block.”
“I thought that was a bomb.”
The footage had made national news. Shattered glass, warped steel, concrete crumbs…a graveyard of dead bodies. Compared to that, Wednesday’s fiasco at Magical Research Laboratories had been nothing more than a minor skirmish.
“We covered it up,” he admitted. “We couldn’t have the general human population getting riled up into a panic. If they knew that mages were going mad and getting a big boost in power, that would be bad for everyone. New York and San Francisco weren’t isolated incidents. There have also been break-ins at all our other offices across the world. In fact, San Francisco was the last one to be hit. We knew it was coming, and that’s why I came to take over this office for awhile.”
“To bite their heads off and breathe dragon fire?”
“Something like that. But we didn’t consider that the perpetrator would hit the Sausalito facility. Anything of real magical significance is kept here, not there.”
“You think that whoever is responsible for this is trying to steal something from you?”
“Yes. We just don’t know what. All those break-ins at all those different offices—yet nothing was stolen. Not the centuries-old magic blizzard staff. Not the fire diamond necklace. Not the summoning tiara. Whoever is hitting us, they’re looking for something very specific. And they’ve figured out how to bypass our facilities’ security measures.”
“What kind of security measures are we talking about?”
“Poisonous firefly swarms. Modulating elemental cannons. Hallucinogenic fog.”
In other words, the best security an abundance of money and magic could buy.
“I see two possibilities,” she said. “One, we’re talking about a very powerful mage or group of mages.”
He shook his head. “I designed our security. No one could break through it. I don’t care how powerful he—” He dipped his chin to her. “—or she is.”
“Nothing is foolproof.”
“My system is.”
Right. Ok, then.
“That leaves option number two: it was an inside job.”
His whole body went rigid. He looked like he could have chewed rocks with that jaw. “The only ones with the necessary access to bypass the security are my own family. I coded their magic into the system—and only their magic. They can turn off the security system by performing a secret sequence of spells. Even if someone else knew the spells, they couldn’t get through.”
“It sounds like you really thought this through.”
“Of course.”
“How many people in your family did you code into the system?”
“Twenty-two.”
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you that the more people know about a secret, the harder it is to keep?” At twenty-two people, it was pretty much impossible. As far as security holes went, this one was crater-sized.
“None of them betrayed us.”
Family loyalty was one thing, but this was just plain old thickheaded denial.
“I had a triad of first tier telepaths put a lock on every single one of us. We’re unable to bypass the traps for any other reason than to uphold our family interests. The spell kills anyone who tries to bypass the security for selfish or nefarious reasons.”
Forget that. This wasn’t denial. It was paranoia of dragon-sized proportions.
“There’s something else,” he said.
“Oh?” Could it get any worse?
“It’s the thieves. Each time, after scavenging around the vault, they simply vanished into thin air.”
“What does the security footage show?”
“They disabled the feed.”
“Every time?”
“Yes.”
“What about the guards? Did they see anything?” she asked.
“People in black with masks. But the guards never got very close. The thieves always set up a barricade, and a few mages defended their position to give the others time to look through the vault. They liked to set the guards’ hair on fire.”
Sera would have cringed to say that. The dragon didn’t even blink.
“At some point, the mages stopped setting off firecrackers, and the guards moved in. The intruders were gone.”
“Odd.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “Who is this group? What are they looking for? Why do they want this object? How are they able to get into our vaults, and how do they always escape?”
“It sounds like you’ve got a fine mystery on your hands.”
“We.” His voice was sharp, the single syllable infused with his will and magic.
“Sorry?”
“
We
have a fine mystery on our hands. You and I. I hired you, remember?”
“You hired the wrong person. What you need is a private investigator. I’m a dumb brute armed with steel. I hack monsters apart with my sword.”
“After the conversation we’ve just had, you honestly expect me to believe you’re just a dumb brute?”
Sera folded her hands together and gave him a simple, unassuming smile. “Yes.”
Something rumbled in his chest, either laughter or fire. “Come on. Let’s go. And bring that sword. I have a feeling you’ll need to do a fair amount of hacking before this is all over.”
What girl could resist a romantic offer like that? “No.”
“No?”
“No. N-O. It might be an unfamiliar word to you, so look it up. It comes after M—and right before I go get my sword.”
“Funny.”
“I don’t want to work with you. I don’t trust you.”
“Why not?” He looked genuinely surprised.
“Because you pretended to be my brother’s friend,” she said. “Why would you even do something like that? What the hell is the matter with you?”
“I wanted to get a good look at you before I hired you. Finn’s story of what you did sounded too spectacular to be true. I had to see it for myself.” His voice was dispassionate, his eyes calculating. He was watching her closely, waiting for her to give something away.
“See for yourself? You mean, by sending a bunch of vampires to attack me in my home?” she demanded.
“No, I didn’t send them.” He didn’t frown, but his eyes had taken on a harder glint. “With your power level, you must be attracting all sorts of weird creatures all the time. Like a magic beacon.”
Hmm.
“It happens to anyone with significant magic. The more powerful you are, the worse it is.”
Sera had never heard that.
“Even if you manage to mask it, you can’t do that all the time. Sometimes, that wall cracks when you sleep. Sometimes when you’re hurt. Or tired. Or distracted.” He smiled. “You get the idea. When the wall weakens, that’s when the monsters find you, drawn in by the taste of your magic. Some mages can sense magic just like the monsters.”
That Sera did know. Because she was one of those mages. She experienced magic like it was just another sense—and yet it used all the other senses. She tasted magic. She heard it. She saw and smelled and touched it. All of it and all at once.
“Unlike the monsters, though, I don’t just sense where magic is. I identify the kind of magic,” he said. “I wanted to get close to you so I could figure out what kind of magic can do what Finn described.”
This was going downhill fast.
“But for the first time ever, I couldn’t define someone’s magic. I’ve never before felt anything like yours. It’s exotic.” He inhaled, drinking in the magic in the air, that magic she was trying so desperately to bury down deep inside of her. “Enticing. Delicious. I could drink in your magic all day. You’re not mundane, no matter what you pretend. I’d love to fight you to see what you can do. I’ve only caught a glimpse, but I bet you’re even more spectacular than I imagine.”
She felt his magic reach out, a tentacle of invisible power wrapping itself around her. It rippled in warm waves against her back, trying to knead the magic out of her. The caress was gentle, even intimate. And it felt like bathing in a hot rose oil bath. She knew he was testing her, hoping that she would use magic to block him out. It felt so good that she almost didn’t care.
But she had to care. She had to keep this secret—and not just for her. For Alex and Riley too.
She pushed out her best glower. “You’re arrogant,” she told him. “You use people to get what you want. Except you don’t even see them as people. You treat them like they’re tools or—worse yet—toys to play with. You manipulated Riley into thinking you were his friend, just to satisfy your curiosity about me. That’s cold and it’s mean. And you’re not even a very good liar. No one would ever believe that a cruel, arrogant sociopath could be a vet. You actually have to be a real person to care about animals.”
He shrugged. “Our labs do a lot of research on magical creatures. And I do like dragons.”
Why am I not surprised?
“Dragons eat other animals. And people.”
He gave her a long, lethal grin. “Come on.” He waved his hand toward the door. “We have to get going.”
“I didn’t say I was going to work with you.”
“No, you didn’t. You were too busy establishing what a tough and rough fighter you are. You’ve had your fun, and now it’s over.” He pulled a bundle of papers out of his desk drawer. “Here’s my contract with Mayhem. It says here that you will be working for me until my problem with the thieves is resolved. Do you really want to break the contract?”
Sera didn’t, and she suspected he knew that. If she were the one to break Mayhem’s contract with Drachenburg Industries, there would be consequences. One of them was financial, but that wasn’t even the worst of it. More than the money, she was worried about the questions. There’d be a lot of them. Simmons took his contracts very seriously, and he’d apply enormous pressure on her to figure out why she’d had the nerve to break one. He’d shove her into the spotlight, where there was a very real danger that her secret could be exposed.
So she followed the dragon out, knowing that her doom might already be sealed either way.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Underpowered
THEIR FIRST STOP was just down the hall. The dragon led her into an office that while smaller than his, was no less extravagant. Floor-to-ceiling wood bookcases packed full with richly colored leather book spines covered an entire wall of the room. The desk, too, was made of wood; a miniature model of an old style San Francisco trolley perched prominently on one corner, a glass jar of colorful bubblegum balls on another. A Wizard House Pizza box was stuffed awkwardly into the trashcan in the corner, the faint scent of cheese and sweet tomatoes lingering in the air. Sera’s stomach growled in appreciation.
Finn, the mad mage who’d tried to magic-slap her into oblivion just a few days ago, stared up from the white leather sofa in the corner. He raised his tea cup in meek greeting, looking every bit the part of the underpowered fourth tier mage in a family of magical powerhouses. Not only did he look weak, he felt that way too. He wasn’t even a shadow of that mage from Wednesday—not in power level, madness, or confidence. He was through and through a complete pushover.
“Kai,” Finn said, standing. His gaze slid slowly over to Sera before dropping to the floor.
“Finn, this is Sera. She’s going to ask you some questions. You might remember her as the woman you recently tried to kill.”
If Finn’s gaze could have sunk any lower, it would have. His shoulders hunched over into a spiritless slouch.
“You’re mean,” Sera told the dragon, bumping his arm out of the way as she extended her hand to Finn. Anyone who understood the awesomeness that was Wizard House Pizza couldn’t be all that bad. “Hello, Finn. I know you’ve been through a lot, but if you can, I’d like you to go over everything you remember from that day.”
The dragon’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you being so nice to him? He tried to kill you.”
“He didn’t mean to.”
“So, basically, what you’re saying is you’ll be nice to me only after I try to kill you—as long as I don’t really mean it.”
“Yes, exactly that.” She flashed her teeth at him. “How about you make your move and see what happens?”
But he was far too smart to be goaded. He locked a stony glare on her. “If I attack first, you can claim self-defense.”
“Yes.”
“Oh, no.” His hard mouth slid into an even harder smile. “You’re not getting out of this assignment so easily.”
“Should I leave?” Finn asked, his eyes shifting uneasily between them.
His cousin turned to him. “You stay right where you are while Sera asks her questions.”
Finn sat back down, folding his hands together on his lap. As Sera sat beside him, he began to fidget with his fingers, twisting and turning them with a nervous twitch. The dragon remained standing, looming over them like a mountain.
“What do you remember?” she prompted Finn.
“Everything,” he replied, squeezing his hands together. “Unfortunately.”
“You were being controlled?”
He nodded, fear streaking his magic.
“Do you know who was controlling you?”
“No. Only that it was someone very powerful. Or something,” he added in a hushed whisper.
“What did this someone want you to steal?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Something in the vault. I only know I
had
to get to that door. The compulsion was too strong. I couldn’t do anything. I was only a passenger along for the ride.” He stole a furtive glance at his cousin. “I guess I’d only know what it was I was supposed to be stealing once it was in my hands.”