One Part Human (8 page)

Benny kept her head high, but she was watching carefully for any signs of disturbance in the agents. There was a mild bit of blinking, but nothing major.

Smith quirked his lips. “You look a little pale.”

She snorted. “Right. You see how you look when you have to puke on behalf of a tracking spell.”

Tremble nodded as if he had figured it out, and Argyle sat still as stone.

Her mother had assembled all the implements, and she stood aside as Benny approached.

Benny closed her eyes and moved her hands over the assembled objects. Two items jumped into her hand. A heavy charm embossed with serpents and books joined a long black crystal bound with silver. Benny transferred them both to the same hand at the same distance from her palm and she exhaled slowly.

The map was of the entire continent, and she would work in narrowing areas until she pinpointed the target.

She held the pendants out and watched them pull from one side to the other as she focussed on herself. Both located her hometown, so Lenora moved the large map aside and pulled out one with local streets and surrounding areas.

When the pendants pulled toward her home, she blocked that and continued to move her hand until there was a second indicator. She followed the new location to a charming suburb.

Her mother subbed out the maps again for a satellite view, and Benny focussed and indicated a house on the left side of a cul-de-sac.

“Bowl and knife.” Benny kept her focus, and when her mother put the small bowl on top of the house image, Benny cut her finger and dripped six drops into the bowl. The blood swirled and took form.

“Jennifer Langstrom. Nineteen Yarrow Path.” Benny staggered back, and her father helped with the first aid.

The agents were staring at her. She stared back. With her eye unglamored, she could see them for what they were, and it was an interesting sight.

Smith’s body had a healthy golden glow, his hair nearly waved in the energy he was putting out, Argyle’s eyes were sunken and his skin was chalky, but sparking with light from the inside out, and Tremble was a confusion of power and nature. His power was going in all directions all the time.

Smith blinked slowly. “Is your eye going to stay like that?”

She lifted her hand toward her face and could see the reflected light. “I am sorry, but it is. I can’t put it away and then whip it out when I need it.”

Out of reflex, she lifted the scry bowl to her lips and drank the water and blood drops. Tremble made a face, but the other two watched the bowl like it contained a treat.

Lenora tidied up. “Well, you have the address, you had better get going.”

Smith paused. “Where did you get all those maps?”

Benny chuckled. “I will explain the idea of having friends on the planning committee, as well as being an official city archive in the car.”

Tremble stiffened. “You cannot come along.”

Benny crossed her arms. “I have to. There is no one else who can stop the spell work. It is an easy fix, but no one can manage it unless they have mage training with demon control as a primary field of study.”

Argyle smirked. “You have studied it?”

Her father cleared his throat. “It was necessary. She had to use it for the first time when she was fifteen. She is very good at it.”

The agents looked over at her father with his claws, bright eyes and evil fangs. They looked to her mother, and she merely smiled cheerfully.

“Benny is very good at doing what she feels is necessary. She isn’t one to put herself in danger. She will keep herself as safe as she can.” Lenora finished putting the maps away and neatly tidied the tools that had been used in the scrying.

Benny stood and drummed her fingers on her bicep with her arms crossed. “Jennifer is in danger right now. She was still at home, but I can track her if she is taken. Now that I know what I am looking for, she will leave a trail.”

They nodded and took their leave of her parents. Benny was in the car and buckled up in under a minute and they were on their way to talk to Jennifer.

She wished that there was less silence in the car, and suddenly, there was.

“So, dating must have been awkward.” Argyle chuckled.

Benny grinned. “You have no idea.”

Smith chipped in, “Did you get asked out by normals?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Yes. Their families encouraged them because my parents were and are on the boards of five local universities. A relationship with me meant an increase in their choices for a higher education.”

Two dates. She had had two dates before her father fully turned into what he was now. After that, all introductions to her parents had been short and to the point, and heavily glamoured. Glamour was hard to stick on a demon, but as long as her father stayed calm, he looked just like he used to.

Tremble cocked his head. “You introduced all of your prospective mates to your parents?”

She looked at him and raised her eyebrows. “You have met my parents; do you think I had a choice?”

The men in the car chuckled. Tremble grinned. “I suppose not. It must have made for a fascinating adolescence.”

“That is one way of putting it. Mind you, in all those years of dating, I only had one bad experience.” She chuckled.

Smith started to ask her about that one experience, but they arrived at Jennifer’s home.

Tremble opened his door and looked at her.

Benny held up her hands. “I know. Stay in the car.”

The agents left, and Benny kept her senses wide and looking for any signs of trouble.

Benny couldn’t sense anything and that was when she got agitated. Jennifer was gone, and there was only the slightest hint of where she had been.

The moment the agents returned to the SUV, she said, “Down the block to the left.”

The night air was cool and bracing, but Benny was stuck next to a closed window. She had to settle for the view she was getting through her mage’s eye.

They were at the turning point in under a minute, and she tried to focus. “Okay, I am not trying to be difficult, but I can’t sense her from inside the car.”

Smith nodded. “Right. I am going to shift, and I will stay with you while you follow the trail.”

They parked and left the vehicle. Tremble and Argyle were ready to move, but Smith had to strip.

Benny blushed and focussed her vision and senses on the trail left by her mirror.

The sound of flesh flexing, tendons snapping and claws scraping the pavement caused her to peek a little. Smith twisted and arched into his lion form, and he was huge.

The actual full shift of a shifter was always something that creeped her out. She could face anyone in a body that didn’t conform to normal standards and see their true beauty, but the twist of a body from its natural state into another beast made her a little queasy. It was probably the snapping tendons and rippling flesh.

The lion came up to her and sniffed her, chuffing softly.

Argyle nodded. “He’s ready. You are consulting here, but you are also observing. Do not involve yourself directly.”

Benny focussed, and she started to run. The men were behind her, and Smith was at her side.

Jennifer was up ahead, and there was other magic, human magic, involved.

The faster they moved, the further away the soul seemed. Benny growled and started to run faster. The moment she got within a hundred yards, she felt the separation of soul and body. She grunted and put her power around the soul.

She staggered when something tried to crack through the protection. There was a shout of frustration, and heat was the next thing to strike her energy.

Benny and her followers burst through the hedges, and a horrifying sight greeted them.

A man wearing a shadowed cloak was hunched over the floating body of his victim.

Smith sleeked into an attack mode and charged the man.

Energy sparked as the pentacle halted Smith’s advance.

Benny stumbled through the energy field and fought for air as she said, “Get away from her.”

Confronting someone was not normally in her nature, but she could feel the pressure he was putting on her shields, and it was not comfortable. If she left him alone, he would crack through it and that would be the end of the woman in front of her.

The cowled head turned toward her. “Stay out of this, mage. You don’t know what you are dealing with.”

The agents were up against the warding and shouting at the attacker.

Benny stood straight and hit him with attacks spells she hadn’t used in a decade. With her hands held a foot apart, she pelted him with balls of burning moonlight. The first few had no effect, but as she increased her speed, she knocked him away from Jennifer.

She kept firing at him, pushing him back toward the edge of his circle. If she could get him past it, the agents could get him.

Thud, thud, thud. The energy balls struck over and over until it was a solid stream of power that edged his foot into the circle.

The agents stumbled in, and the mage looked at her in shocked horror. “Bitch!”

A swirl of dark power wrapped him, and he disappeared.

Benny stumbled and shook her hands as the power had nowhere to go. It was time to put the soul back in the body.

Argyle looked at Benny. “What is wrong with her?”

She blinked, lifted her hands and grabbed the protective orb that she had cast. “Her soul is here, but she needs a healing before I put it back. Her body has been primed for blood loss. If I put her back in before the healers get here, she’s dead.”

Tremble was speaking on his phone, and he finished the call. “I called them when we first hit the barrier. They are driving in across the green.”

He wasn’t wrong. Benny could hear the approaching sirens and see the lights.

Smith came up behind her and supported her. She hadn’t realised that she had been swaying. His lion form smelled of sunshine and musk. “Thanks, Smith.”

He grunted and remained behind her while they waited for the healers to stabilise the victim.

Tremble marked out the transport site that the attacker had used. Argyle asked her, “Did you get a look at him?”

She nodded. “He was completely average with the exception of the twisted expression of greed and panic on his features.”

“Could you describe him to an artist?”

Benny held out her hand, put an orb of energy into it and she printed the face from her mind onto the energy. “Here. Put this on some twigs and leaves and you can take a photo of it.”

Tremble went to the shrubs and broke off a branch, bringing it back to carry the fey globe. “So, fey blood, too?”

“After this is over, I will invite you guys over and take you through the portrait gallery. The only thing I don’t really have in me is a lot of normal human.” She shrugged and eased the orb onto the leaves that would support it and give it energy for a few hours.

The medics started to load Jennifer onto a gurney.

Benny moved around Tremble. “Is she stable?”

“Non-responsive. We stopped the haemorrhaging. We will be able to treat her at hospital.”

Benny nodded, grabbed the soul and she pushed it back into Jennifer’s body without the mirroring of her own.

Jennifer started moaning and shifting, and the medics got into high gear.

Benny staggered backward, and Smith was there to support her.

Argyle caught her elbow and he frowned. “Are you all right?”

“I have just cast more magic in ten minutes than I have in ten years. I had forgotten what kind of an energy rush it is.” She rubbed her forehead.

Tremble handed the orb over to some uniformed officers, and they carefully carried it to their vehicle before they taped off the scene.

Benny sighed. “What happens now?”

Argyle cocked his head. “You are interviewed, and we have to begin looking for the mage who was draining the victim.”

She yawned and leaned against Smith, lounging on him as she lost focus. “Whomever is going to interview me had better work fast.”

Another XIA vehicle pulled up, parking on the grass. The trio emerged up and stalked toward their team.

Argyle muttered, “I should get the SUV.”

She reached out and grabbed his arm. “Not until I am sure that they are not going to arrest me.”

He chuckled. “Right.”

The three agents were cordial enough to her team, but Smith got a little bit of ribbing for his current shape.

The elf of their team, named Frond, brought out a notepad and smiled at Benny. “Now, can you tell us what you saw once you entered the circle?”

She explained the levitation, the man trying to drain the woman of her soul and his escape when she attacked.

“Are you a registered mage?” He raised a brow.

She blushed. “No. I am afraid I am home schooled. I am a registered mage guide, but that is about it.”

He nodded. “You are that journalist that the XIA was asked to host.”

“Correct. Benny Ganger.”

He grinned. “I love your recipes.”

“Thank you.”

“What spells did you use to repel the assailant?”

“I used a moonlight repulsion spell in the form of rapid snowballs, and to protect Jennifer, I encased her psyche in a heavy warding with a starlight base and used my own body as a power source to maintain it.”

He made frantic notes. “All mage-based?”

“Um, no. The light attack was fey. The protection was part mage and part fey.” She smiled, and Smith rumbled behind her.

She took his sound to mean she should shut up.

“How can you master fey magic?” Frond raised his pale green brows.

“I never said I was a master; I said I was home schooled in magic. My parents are both academics. The books were all there.”

He nodded and continued to make notes.

He opened his mouth to ask another question, but Smith shifted his position and pushed Benny away from the elf with his huge paw. He huffed and moved his head.

“You are kidding.”

He made the motion again, and she boosted herself onto his back. Lion riding was not comfortable; they were made entirely of shoulder blade.

Her XIA team made their way back to their vehicle in silence. They all had been interviewed before being released.