Tracking the Tempest (18 page)

Before Ryu could start arguing with me, I asked what they'd found at Edie's apartment.

“Nothing,” Camille said, stepping forward. She was obviously as ready to get back to work as I was. “The apartment was empty and untouched. It did look as if someone had left in a hurry, and there seemed to be luggage missing.”

“Is she just on vacation?” I asked. “Or on sabbatical or something?” Everyone looked at me and then at Julian, who nodded obligingly as he started typing on his laptop.

“Nope, she's scheduled for classes right now. But it does say she's taken a leave of absence.”

“So, let's go to her office. See what we can find,” I suggested.

Camille nodded. Julian told us he had the address. We all stood up to go, after figuring out who was riding with whom and whether anybody needed to call Phaedra.

In the meantime, I wondered when I'd become someone who made decisions.

And why it felt so good.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

A
n hour later we were standing next to Harvard Yard, near the T-stop at the Pit, waiting for Phaedra and her harpies. Apparently, she did want in on this action.

When the Alfar finally showed up, the harpies had their wings wrapped around them like sarongs. I would have thought them beautiful, but for the company they kept. And speaking of company, luckily Graeme and Fugwat were
not
in attendance.

As for our recent encounter with the First Magics, we'd already decided that Phaedra didn't need to know about the brownie, or the murders in Chicago, until more solid connections were made. We didn't trust her, and we didn't need her help. We just wanted to keep her and her entourage where we could see them; anything more could be dealt with as it became necessary.

The barghest herded everyone down Mass. Ave. toward the address we had for Edie's office. She was in one of the main buildings right off Harvard Yard, and walking through the campus was very impressive. The redbrick buildings gleamed in the night air, gently lit backdrops to the huge swathe of grass that was the yard. Cobblestone and concrete spirit paths crisscrossed the winter-dead lawn, ushering students from building to building. It was such a peaceful, pristine facade that I could almost believe Harvard's aura of impermeability could protect whoever lived there.

Almost.

When we got to the office, I stayed in back with Julian as everyone else trooped up the stairs. They did some very professional-looking fanning-out thing, with mage balls at the ready. I felt like I was in a movie for just a second, until the door clicked open and, once again, nothing happened.

I was beginning to realize that investigating crime actually consisted of a lot of hurrying up and waiting, coupled with hours of sitting and doing research.

Except for when you get stabbed through the hand, Jane,
my brain reminded me drily.
So stop looking for excitement
.

Edie's office was very empty and very neat. And
very
large. There were two rooms: one a sort of lounge where she could meet with students. Tons of books lined the walls, housed in floor-to-ceiling bookcases, and there was a little seating area complete with a sofa, a love seat, and a pair of wingback leather chairs, all set around a lovely claw-footed, graceful-legged coffee table. Next to the reception area was an office. It was slightly more cluttered, with two desks covered in papers and books. The towering bookcases were full in this room as well.

“Okay, fan out and look for something, anything, that could give us a clue about where Felicia and Edie could be. Their lives depend on it,” Ryu said, and we all nodded solemnly.

I immediately went to the bookcases in Edie's office. Doing so had worked the last time, in Felicia's apartment, so why not here?

“Humans and their literature.” Phaedra yawned. “So boring. And so worthless as a form of immortality.”

I blinked at her, suddenly loathing her to the depths of my soul. Not only was she probably rather evil, and definitely thoroughly unpleasant, but she also didn't
read
.

“Of course you don't,” I said, accidentally letting loose my inner monologue.

“What, halfling?” the Alfar sneered, her voice sharp in my ears.

“Of course you don't read,” I replied, smiling at Phaedra sweetly to confuse her even more.

“Why should I? I care nothing for insight into humanity. I don't care how they deal with their psychological ‘issues,' nor do I care how they come to terms with their history or the passing of their own lives. Human literature catalogs the flaws of an obscene species put on this earth only to serve and sustain their betters…”

Phaedra trailed off when she realized that I had totally stopped listening to her. I was too busy watching Julian, who looked like he had either figured something out or was about to have a seizure.

“History,” he said, staring at Phaedra. “The passing of a human life… Edie Thompson is Edie's
married name
,” Julian announced to the room, beaming at me.

“Of course,” I breathed as I put together what he was saying.

“Sorry, what?” Ryu asked, still a supernatural step behind. They didn't do marriage, let alone married names. He was aware of the human tradition, obviously, but he didn't realize what Julian was trying to say. Hell, I was surprised Julian knew, but I guess his fascination with his human side extended to our marital practices.

“I read it about Edie when we were doing research, but it never clicked,” Julian told Ryu excitedly. “There's very little biographical stuff on her; she's really private. But I did read that she goes by her married name for her professional stuff. She was married for only, like, two years, to this asshole who tried to beat her, but in that time she published her first book. So she was stuck, professionally, with the name Thompson. Which is why I think that human women changing their names is silly, when you think about it, but that's neither here nor there…” Everyone in the room gave Julian the gimlet eye, till he got back on track. “Anyway, I haven't yet searched for her under her maiden name. Whatever it is.”

Inspired by my fellow halfling's cleverness, I scanned the office till I saw what I was looking for. An ancient thesaurus, the kind that hadn't been published for eons, sat next to an equally ancient dictionary on the very corner of Edie's desk.

Bingo
. Every prof I've ever known had one: the dictionary/thesaurus set given to them as a graduation gift.

“I'm sure we could find it online, but if we're here…” I said, as I opened up the front cover to where people wrote their names in their books.

I grinned as I held up the book so everybody could see.

“Edie's not just Felicia's supervisor. She's her aunt.”

I set the book down so Julian and I could give each other a loud, obnoxiously smacktastic high five before he charged for his computer. Everyone else still looked confused by what had just happened, but they went with it.

“Good work, Julian, Jane,” said Ryu. “The rest of you, keep looking. Make sure we've found everything we can here. As long as those women are missing, they're in danger.”

As Julian typed, we all fanned out and Phaedra went to whisper something to her harpies. I put the thesaurus back where I'd found it.

Ryu was right. Real success would be finding the women alive.

Until then, we had work to do.

Julian wasn't yet finished with his Internet search, but we were done at the office. So we put everything to rights and locked up before heading back down to where we'd started. We wanted coffee and to give Julian some time to work.

So we commandeered a big group of tables on the elevated terrace at the Au Bon Pain across from Harvard Yard and right next to the T-stop at the Pit, where we'd started the evening. Daoud bought me something sweet and creamy and delicious, which I sucked away at like a child with a grape soda. Despite knowing we were still one step behind where we needed to be, the caffeine and the sugar immediately made me feel better, as did the lovely evening. The night air was crisp and cold, but the elevated terrace of the coffee shop was surprisingly full. At ground level, bundled-up chess players were still hunkered over games at the stone tables lining the other side of the wrought-iron fence encasing our patio. A few young couples, probably Harvardians, huddled down in their student togs of stupid knit caps, down jackets, Eskimo boots, and jeans. There were also quite a few very chilly looking Euro dudes dressed, too scantily for the cold weather, in thin leather jackets, button-down shirts, and shiny trousers. But they persevered, despite the cold, in smoking their unfiltered cigarettes and talking in the melodious grunts and sighs of their various homelands. The strong smoke of their black tobacco curled up into the naked limbs of the trees that grew out of holes in the concrete of the terrace. I breathed in a deep lungful of the cold, smoke-laced air and sighed happily.

I'd be even happier if we'd found Edie, but whatever.

I was watching Julian work, his glasses illuminated by the shine off of his laptop. I was also watching Phaedra and trying not to giggle.

The little woman was perched uncomfortably on the edge of her chair, glaring balefully at the humans around her. She'd refused a drink when offered, as if we might poison her.

Not a bad idea,
I thought, watching as she snapped at the remaining harpy. Kaya, or Kaori, had taken off after we left Edie's office, leaving only Kaori, or Kaya, behind to watch their mistress's back. The harpy was sipping at a coffee, making sure she showed no pleasure when Phaedra turned to her. But whenever the Alfar looked away, the harpy would take greedy sips from her cup before turning her face back to stoic mode before she got caught enjoying herself. I almost felt sorry for the harpy.

Almost.

I stood up, causing Ryu to look up at me questioningly.

“Just going to the bathroom, babe,” I said.

“Want me to come with?”

I laughed. “Nah, I can handle this. You hold down the fort.”

Ryu smiled, turning back to continue his conversation with Camille.

Once inside, I had to wait in the ridiculously long line at the counter to get a stupid token thing that opened up the bathroom. It took forever, and the line hadn't gone down at all when I was finished. So I went out of the opposite side of the café, figuring I'd walk around the little terrace and hop over the fence to get to my seat.

I should have known better than to get fancy.

Just as I was at the far corner of the fence, something detonated in the Pit.

A large explosion took a knot of humans by surprise, sending the kids who were clustered—smoking grass and playing guitars—flying. All the humans at the café instinctively ducked, but the supes I was with were already in motion.

Anyan, Ryu, Camille, Phaedra, and Daoud were already leaping gracefully over the café's terrace, Caleb clip-clopping rather more cumbrously behind them. Julian, bless him, was furiously trying to get his laptop stowed away in his backpack. The harpy had launched herself in the air, pointing toward the Pit and shouting at Phaedra.

I was trying to decide whether to follow or stay put when another series of explosions rocked the ground, making my decision for me by spilling me onto my knees.

“Stay there, Jane!” Ryu shouted from where he and the others were already crossing the street. The humans were scrambling every which way, as blast after blast of energy erupted from the T-stop across the street. I could feel the power—Conleth's power—swirling from that spot, lifting my hair off my neck and sending the café detritus crashing about. The skeletal arms of the trees rattled a tardy warning.

I stayed crouched down, pushing power into my shields and using the fence to protect myself from the fleeing people. The Euro dudes didn't waste any time, vaulting over the rails of the terrace and hotfooting it away. The American college kids just looked scared, running this way and that before Julian, backpack now in place, directed them where to go.

The explosions were still coming from the T-stop, but the sheer
force
behind them illustrated just how much strength the ifrit halfling had at his disposal. Power rode the ground in waves that pushed over everything in their paths. The tables around me overturned, and I crouched lower, clinging to the concrete next to me so I didn't fall over or get hit by something from the terrace above.

I was so focused on watching my team forge a path to where Conleth was launching his attack from the center of the Pit that I felt only confusion when a hand touched my hair and Conleth's voice whispered in my ear.

“Jane,” he said.

Oh, shitballs,
I thought, turning to face the inevitable.

Like the first time we'd met, Conleth had banked his fire. Crouching beside me, he would look, from a distance, like a scared human using the side of the terrace as a shield. But from up close, I could see his eyes. His utterly, totally, bat-caca-crazy eyes.

That wild gaze roamed over my face and I realized he was demanding to know whether I was hurt. I shook my head, unable to get my usually overactive tongue to form any words.

Conleth crouched in front of me, placing a hand on my cheek. I could hear the explosions still detonating, the fire behind us framing him like an eerie echo of his other, ifrit, form. He was keeping everyone well distracted and I had to give him props for his ability to multitask.

“Jane,” Con crooned again, shifting his fingers to cup my chin. My reflexes finally kicked in and I jerked my face away, but he tightened his grip, forcing me to meet his gaze with my own.

“There you are.” He giggled, and my heart went cold with terror. I responded with a heartfelt, if not particularly brave, whimper.

“Don't be shy, Jane!” Conleth said, grinning madly at me. “I know it's hard to get to know new people. I understand that.” My fellow halfling's wackadoo blue eyes burned into mine. “But we were meant to be together,” he added with an earnest nod.

I gulped, trying to overcome my panic so I could focus on surviving this little encounter. I had to humor the loony fire-man, or he'd kill me without a second thought. His hand was still firmly gripping my chin, and an occasional burst of flame skittered up and down his arm in alarmingly random bursts.