Arcane Solutions (2 page)

Two

Nick was there, but I ignored him.
“Hey, Kate. Feel like trying for a location?”

“
Sure.” She pulled out a map of Santo Trueno before reaching a hand behind her neck to unhook the gold chain her locator crystal hung upon. Handing her the photo, I dropped into a chair to watch. Dangling the crystal over the map, Kate gazed at the photo, her green eyes going vague. Her lips barely moved as she formed a silent request to her chosen goddess for guidance.

I don't pretend to understand magic or to believe in any pantheon of gods, but it works for some people. Kate and the others of her coven are some for whom it works really well. They’d all chosen Aztec gods, so I couldn’t pronounce half the names. Our city, Santo Trueno, is allegedly named after the Aztec god of thunder, so their choices seemed appropriate to me.

The crystal pendulum shivered twice before beginning to slowly circle. After a minute or so, it was swinging side to side. The witch moved it, letting the crystal guide the direction.

“
Well, well,” she murmured once the tip had stilled over a spot. “Looks like your favorite place to visit, Jones.”

“
The Barrows?” Leaning forward to have a look, I sighed. The Barrows were Vampire Central, located beneath the city.

“
Stake?” Kate offered, opening her desk drawer to display several tucked among boxes of truffles, which were part of her emergency kit. “Damian delivered a few last night.”

“
She won't need one. I'm going with her,” Nick said, and pulled a credible Yoda imitation. “Dangerous, the Barrows are.”

Fighting the urge to laugh, I rose from my seat. Maybe he wasn’t my idea, but the shifter was certainly big enough to choke a vampire long enough for an unhurried get-away on my part.
“Fine. Let's go.”

“
You're bossy,” he observed, but stood up to follow.

“
It's one of my gifts.” I smiled at Kate. “Thanks.”

“
My pleasure, Jones.” She waved us out. “I’ll let Mr. Whitehaven know where you’re going. Have fun.”

It was a rule that we kept the boss informed of our whereabouts. Safety precaution, he called it.

After a detour to my office for jacket and purse, I led the way out to the parking lot and to my twenty-eight-year-old sports car. Nick balked, frowning at it, eyes hidden behind dark shades. “You've got to be kidding. You drive this tin can?”

Tin can? My baby? The glare and scowl made him back up a step.
“There's more room than you think, but if you want to stay here, be my guest.”

He eased the sunglasses down enough to look over the rims at me.
“Is the trying-to-brush-me-off thing going to be a constant?”

“
Probably.” I grinned at him over the car's roof. “Coming?”

“
Not yet, but I have hope.” He winked while opening the door.

“
Pervert.” Settling in the driver's seat, I asked, “Is the innuendo thing going to be a constant?”

Nick threw my answer right back at me while pushing the shades back into place.
“Probably.”

“
Great.” I started the engine, which purred before the stereo kicked on. Stabbing a finger at the volume control to cut Pink’s excitement at rattling her chains, I asked, “Ever hear of sexual harassment?”

“
Do the seats recline all the way back?” His grin was friendly. Joking around, I could handle. If he really became a pest, I’d sic Mr. Whitehaven on him.

“
Would you can the questions? What sort of dealings have you had with vampires? Any particular enemies I need to be aware of?” I hated taking someone I knew squat about into the Barrows.

“
I'm the bodyguard,” he replied, fastening the seatbelt. “Are we stopping for lunch first? I'm starving.”

“
Look, just because the boss thinks--”

“
You really had both legs broken three weeks ago?” the shifter interrupted. I began sputtering in reaction and his near-permanent grin widened into a smirk. “What was it that happened? Oh, I remember: you were pushed off a roof.”

My face grew hot. Throwing the car in gear, I muttered,
“Shut up.”

“
I'm curious. Why didn't you use your telekinesis?”

I whipped the car out into traffic.
“It's kind of hard to concentrate when you're falling, okay? Besides, that’s the wrong ability.”

“
How many stories was it, and what is the right one?” Nick winced as I stomped on the brake then accelerated and yanked the wheel to pass another car. “Can I drive?”

“
Fifteen stories. Transvection, which I don’t have. No, you may not drive.” I'd been lucky my legs were all that had been broken, panicked as I'd been. Unfortunately, my favorite jeans hadn’t fared so well. E.R. nurses have an absolute fetish for cutting clothing off people.

“
Watch it! Oh God.” I glanced sideways, upper lip curling a bit at the sight of him cowering in my passenger seat.

Nick scowled.
“Would you watch the damn road?”

“
Wuss. I could drive blindfolded. Wanna see?” My grin broadened as panic bloomed over his face.

“
No. There's...holy…! Can I please drive?”

“
I already answered that question. It was 'no'. Your turn: any vampire enemies?”

“
I'm a shifter, what do you think?” Nick grabbed the dash, still scowling.

“
Names?” I persisted, making a sharp right that jerked him into the door. We were nearing an entry point for the Barrows, so I began searching for a parking spot on the car-lined street.

“
No one you need to worry about. Are we stopping? Because I think I need to throw up. Has anyone ever told you that you suck at driving?”

“
Yeah, and I'll tell you what I told them: kiss my ass.” Spotting an open spot, I slowed down.

The shifter recovered quickly.
“Ooh, can I?”

“
No.” Neatly parallel parking, I turned off the engine, catching his shrug from the corner of my eye as he took off his shades. Leaning toward him, I opened the glove box and began groping around inside. Nick sniffed at my hair. I angled my head to catch his gaze. “What are you doing?”

“
You smell good. What perfume are you wearing?”

My fingers closed around the small, ruby-inlaid crucifix and I rolled my eyes while settling back into my seat.
“Giorgio Red.”

“
It works on you.” Nick watched me pull the chain over my head. “A cross? Seriously?”

“
It's a ward. One of Kate's fellow coven members is muy kick ass in the warding department. This keeps me from looking tasty to younger vamps.” Checking for traffic, I climbed out of my car. Locking the door and pocketing the keys, I glanced over at him and sighed.

The sunlight loved him, picking out cinnamon glints in his hair. His ready-to-rock stance gave wordless voice to the shifter’s self-confidence. Nick met my eyes.
“What?”

“
Nothing. Let's go.” Having him around was going to take some getting used to. Yet it was nice to know the boss cared.

This particular entry point into the Barrows was set between the brick walls of a club and a sex shop. It used to be just a narrow pathway to the alley behind them. Now an eight-feet-tall stone archway opened to a tunnel with steps leading down. If you came through the alley, you'd just walk through the arch and onto the street, because the entries are one-way deals.

The tourists love them, constantly snapping photos of friends appearing to float out of the tunnel's dimness. The Melding had returned magic to the world without much disruption as far as real estate went. The people and critters had been the real shockaroonies for humans.

Of course, I’d missed all the shock and awe. I’d dropped into a coma on the stroke of midnight as the Melding began, like a weird remix of the Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty fairy tales.  Only my mom had been the one with the kiss of consciousness, instead of a prince, and delivered it to my forehead, not my lips because that would’ve been
eww
. By the time I’d rejoined the land of the awake, things had mostly moved past the
impossible
reaction.

Nick reached the archway a step ahead of me and led the way down. I followed, slightly amused by the appearance of his bodyguard attitude and his question:
“Which area do we need?”

“
How should I know?” My answer brought him up short, which wasn’t a good thing in a stairway. I narrowly avoided bouncing my nose off his jacket.

He paused just long enough for a deep breath of his own.
“Then what's the plan to find out?”

Grinning at his back, and noticing his shoulders were almost touching the tunnel's walls, I said,
“Walk around until I feel a tug.”

The shifter half-turned to look at me.
“A tug?”

“
It's a psychic thing.”

“
Uh-huh. The Barrows takes up a lot of space, uh...what am I allowed to call you?” Nick asked, head tilting just a touch left.

“
Well, my friends call me Cordi, but you may call me Jones. You?” I was still grinning for some inane reason.

“
I prefer Nick. How long before you decide someone's a friend?” His head tilted the other direction, as a curious dog’s would.

“
Depends on who it is. Daylight's a wastin', so get a move on, please.” The sun affected vampiric powers even underground. I really didn't want to be in the Barrows after dark, having acquired a not-fan or two of the vampire persuasion.

With a shrug, Nick turned and began walking downward once more. A minute passed, then a couple of more. I noted my boots were the only ones scuffing the moss-encrusted stone.

“Stop.” I frowned when he glanced back. “Can you see the landing?”

After peering down, he shook his head.
“Not yet.”

“
This is weird, since we should be right at it now. It's ninety-seven steps down this entry point. I counted ninety-six, so you should be on ninety-seven.” Leaning, I squinted into the darkness below, unable to spot the landing.

“
You count steps.”

“
I like to be prepared if retreat becomes a necessity.”

“
I don't hear anything.” The shifter sniffed the air a few times. “Vampire scents are faint.”

“
Okay. Time to go back up,” I decided, but upon turning around, discovered that what should've been daylight from the opening had been replaced by the tunnel ceiling glowing. The entrance was gone, covered by something. “I don't like this.”

“
Don't panic,” he soothed. “Go on up, we'll see if we can figure out what's going on.”

Throwing a scowl over my shoulder, I said,
“I'm not panicking. I just said I don't like this situation.”

“
Okay. Would you start climbing?” Nick poked me in the back.

“
Hey! No touching.”

“
Is that a prejudice thing?”

“
It's a psychic thing,” I huffed, beginning the climb upwards. “I can pick up stuff when people touch me without warning.”

“
Oh. Sorry.” The shifter was silent for a few seconds. “That must make sex difficult.”

“
Excuse me?” My voice was a squeak.

“
Doesn't it? Sex does require a lot of touching.”

“
My sex life is none of your business.” My face had gone hot and I was grateful he was behind me. It had been a while, and having a wet dream of a guy bring up the topic just made the lack all the more apparent to me.

“
Oh, come on. You can't tell someone that and not expect them to wonder.” Nick chuckled. The soft, husky sound hit me somewhere below the belt. “But I'm sorry I embarrassed you.”

“
You didn't,” I lied.

“
Right. That's why your body temperature just shot up about five degrees.” Amusement laced his tone. “Your scent's grown hotter too.”

“
Thank you ever so much for sharing that and now, please shut up.” I'd reached the top. “What the hell? There's not supposed to be a door.”

“
Switch with me,” Nick demanded. “I'll open it.”

“
I think I can manage opening a door.” He grabbed my arm when I began to reach for the door's ornate handle.

“
But can you handle what might be on the other side?”

He had a point. I probably could, but why waste having perfectly good muscle around? Huffing out a breath, I shrugged.
“Fine.”