Black Magic Shadows (20 page)

Dane scrunched his face. "It could be booby-trapped. Warded."

"Then we'll take Ronnie with us." She was the coven's warding expert. "Do reconnaissance first and let her check it out."

My goal was to do it as quickly and safely as possible. Especially if we were going to involve Ronnie, since she had kids. I knew she'd go, because she'd been part of the cavalry the first time demons had caused trouble. That fight had been a close call, and I did not want to be the reason Ronnie didn't make it home to her hubby and children.

"Maybe we should call the client first," Dane said.

"Yeah, because a clue why demons want the mirror would be nice." I pulled out my cell phone. After connecting, I had to wait for Lady Celadine to come to the phone, because her secretary answered.

Celadine's greeting was a frosty "I do hope you've progress to report, Miss Jones."

Dane grinned when I rolled my eyes. "We've found your mirror, but retrieving it will take a bit longer. Any idea why demons would want it?"

She sucked in a breath. "You will retrieve it immediately. This instant, do you understand?"

"Whoa there, Nelly. We have to plan, because..."

"Now!" She ended the call with that shrieked word. Dane and I winced in reaction.

"Well, it appears it's super important we recover the mirror," he said. "This instant, even."

"That was the impression I got too. Let me call Ronnie."

She answered after a single ring. "Hi, Cordi."

"Hey. Are you busy? We kind of need your expertise on a case."

Ronnie hissed. "Oops, sorry. That was cold. Uh, I'm kind of in the middle of a doctor appointment."

"Are you okay?"

She laughed, and I heard a weird sound from her end. "I'm great. We're looking at our next baby right now."

"Oh, wow. Congratulations."

"Thank you. Number four." She paused when someone spoke too low for me to hear. "I'll be done here in about twenty or thirty minutes. Where do you want to meet?"

Dane began shaking his head, mirroring my feelings, so I said, "Well, here's the thing. We've been hired to retrieve a stolen mirror, and found it, in the demon realm. So maybe you can suggest someone else?"

"Oh, yeah. I don't want to go there right now. Um, let's see," she was silent for a moment. "If you can pry him out of the shop, David would be best. If not him, Jo would be my next choice. They're both pretty good with wards, but they'll need a little more time than I do."

"All right, thanks. Congratulations again." We traded "Byes" and I ended the call. "I'll try David first."

"Let's just go over there. It'll cut down on time."

I eyed him. "Do you have a date?"

"At seven."

"Ooh, are things getting serious?" I pushed away from my desk to stand up.

"My answer depends on whether you're going to tease me."

Grabbing my purse and jacket, I laughed. "You mean the way you tease me about Logan?"

"Yeah."

"I'm going to tease the holy crap out of you."

Dane laughed. "Meanie. Okay, yeah, maybe serious. Not 'settle down forever' serious, but possibly 'this could lead to long-term dating' serious."

I didn't give him a hard time. "That's great."

"I think so too." He took the hand I held out, and I teleported us to the Blue Orb.

Jo waved to us from her spot behind the tall counter. "Hey, guys."

"Hey. Is David around?"

"He's with a customer. What's up?" She folded her arms and leaned on the counter. I explained why we were there, leaving out the call to Ronnie, and Jo wrinkled her nose. "Why haven't you called Ronnie?"

"We did, but she just found out she's pregnant," Dane said. Jo squealed, but I shot him a dirty look. "What?"

"You don't tell people that kind of thing without permission. It's Ronnie's news to share."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't know that was a rule."

"Don't tell anyone else."

He pretended to zip his lips. "I won't, promise."

"Argh." Jo mock-scowled. "Now I have to sit on the news too."

I pointed at Dane, swinging my finger to Jo. "See the turmoil you've caused? Do you?"

He dropped to both knees, holding up his clasped hands. "Please, oh please, forgive me for this terrible social faux paus."

We were laughing when Tonya came out of the back room. "What's funny?"

"Dane. He's being a dork." I looked at Jo while my partner climbed to his feet. "So what are the chances of taking David away from all of this for a little while?"

"Higher than usual, thanks to a gaggle of sorority girl wannabe witches." She and Tonya rolled their eyes in perfect unison. "They were shopping for love potion ingredients."

"Do those work?" Not that I'd ever use one. Just curious.

The two witches snorted in tandem, and I fought a smile. Jo answered. "No, love potions don't work. Especially not the one they were talking about. But there are potions and spells that can give the magic user control over his or her victim's emotions. Those usually take someone with major talent. Spells are all about intent. The form and ingredients are just tools to focus that intent."

I squinted at her. "Thorandryll took an awful long time mixing up that potion to change me back."

Jo shrugged. "He was having to guess what Dalsarin's true intent was for cursing you, and counteract it. Magic's actually sort of complicated most of the time."

"Anyway, it's a good thing love spells don't work," Tonya said. "What does work can be messy enough. Like, violently messy."

"Why would anyone want something that wasn't real?" Dane leaned on the counter.

"Well, that's kind of the problem with people wanting to do love spells. Hearsay is that love potions only work if the victim already has romantic feelings for the person. Basically, people think a potion just speeds things up." Tonya grinned when Jo patted her on the head. "I'm a good student witch."

"They're party poopers anyway. Half the fun's in getting there."

I agreed with Dane's statement with a nod of my head, having well-learned the lesson of rushing ahead in relationships.

We moved down the counter when David appeared with a customer in tow. He wasn't wearing his customary cardigan, and the sleeves of his pale blue Oxford shirt were rolled up. No glasses perched at the tip of his nose, or sat askew on top of his head. He was in pure business mode, something I'd rarely seen. Giving the customer her receipt, bag, and a broad, plastic-looking smile, David said, "Thank you, and please do come again."

Once the customer left, the bell over the door tinkling, he looked at Dane and me. "I didn't hear you come in."

"Teleported. Came to see if you're in the mood for a field trip."

David's face brightened. "Where?"

"Demon realm."

"I'm in," he said before I'd finished speaking. "Let me grab a few things."

He hurried off to the back room, and Jo giggled. "Told you. Try and keep him in one piece, okay?"

I saluted her. "Aye, Captain, we'll do our best."

David returned, slinging a dark brown, leather messenger bag onto the counter. "Almost ready."

We watched him trot upstairs. I looked at Jo. "He didn't even ask what we needed him to do."

She laughed. "I don't think he cares. Tell him when you get there."

"What if he needs something he doesn't have in here?" I poked at the messenger bag.

"Me." The voice was a croak, and I raised my head to find Copernicus, David's raven familiar, perched on top of the shelves to our left. He stretched his wings before gliding down and landing on the bag.

"Ask a dumb question." I ran my hand over the bird's back. "Hello."

"Cordi." Copernicus inclined his head. He'd never spoken to me before I'd been turned into a dog. Percy, Kate's parrot, talked all the time. I wondered if Trixie, Illy, or Saki, the other familiars, could talk. They all understood people just fine, based on past experience.

Once upon a time, I'd wished for a familiar of my own, thinking such a companion would help keep me from freaking out when scared. Now, I had someone comparable. "I'd better call my hound. Leglin."

The huge, black and tan hound silently appeared. Elf hounds looked like a cross between an Irish wolfhound and a Rottweiler, just larger. I turned to pat him, and he hit Dane with his wagging tail. "Hey, buddy. We need your help."

“I am always pleased to be of assistance
.”

Dane limped a few feet, rubbing his thigh. "Remind me to step back when you call him, because ow."

"Sorry." I fought a grin.

"Ready!" David sang, thumping down the stairs. He'd changed into brown cargo pants, a white camp shirt, hiking boots, and to top it all off, a brown leather bomber's jacket.

Tonya took off for another part of the store, trailing muffled giggles in her wake as David plopped the brown fedora he carried onto his head. Jo gave me a long-suffering, "See what I have to put up with?" look. "You forgot the whip."

"Don't tease him. He's David, Man of Action."

"Hah," said the newly dubbed Man of Action. "Cordi doesn't think I'm weird."

"Oh, I do, but it's a weirdness I can totally get behind." I tried to mimic a movie voice-over tone. "Mild-mannered shopkeeper by day, daring adventurer by night."

David beamed. "I'm cool."

"You're awesome."

Jo groaned. "Stop encouraging him. He's been drooling over a Thor costume."

"For next Halloween." David offered his arm to his raven. Copernicus side-walked up to his shoulder and squatted, avoiding the fedora's brim. Next, he pulled the bag's strap over the bird and his head, settling it on the opposite shoulder. "Let's go."

"Okay. Leglin, we need you to take us to the demon realm."

My hound immediately dropped his big rear end to the floor, his ears flattening. “
It's a dangerous place
.”

"I know, but the thing we need to close a case is there. I can show you exactly where it is."

Leglin cocked his head, but didn't relax his ears. “
Will we have to stay there long
?”

"That depends on David. But Copernicus is going." I hooked my forefingers behind his ears to unflatten them. "None of us wants to be there any longer than necessary."

Leglin heaved a sigh and stood. “
Very well
.”

While the men took places on either side of him, I summoned my memory of the room the mirror was in, and carefully transferred that image to the hound via telepathy. "Can you see it?"

Leglin flicked one ear. "
Is this how humans see
?"

Crap, would it not work? I didn't remember anything looking super different as a dog. Except red had appeared yellow. "Yeah. Can you take us there?"

"
How did it smell
?"

Argh. "Sorry, I don't have a dog nose anymore."

"He wants the scent?"

"Yeah."

Dane nodded. "Can you do whatever you're doing with my memory of it? It might be closer to what's normal for him."

"Okay, but you have to concentrate on just that memory. Like, really hard. I don't want to trip into any personal stuff."

“Right. Okay.” Dane closed his eyes. “I’ve got it. Now what?”

“I’m going to look into your mind. You shouldn’t feel anything.” I focused carefully, and linked to him telepathically. “Here we go.”

“
Much better
,” Leglin said. “
I know where to take you now
.”

“Awesome.” I broke the links to both of their minds. “Then we’re ready to go. Everyone touch Leglin.”

They obeyed, and a second later, we were in the tunnel from my vision.

D
avid scowled, an unusual expression for him. “Who touched the door?”

“I did.”

“Advice for the future: Don’t touch doors in the demon realm unless you want them to know you’re here.”

Dane ducked his head, his ears reddening. “It’s warded?”

“Yes. How can you assume the mirror’s warded, but not think the door it’s behind is?”

I broke in. David could lecture at Mom level when the mood struck him. “It was a vision. We didn’t know we could set off wards in a vision.”

“Now you do.” David looked into the cell. “Hm. We need to get inside without opening the door. The ward on it has been reset.”

“Okay.” I patted Leglin. “Take a look, then take us in.”

My hound rose on his hind legs, planting one paw on Dane’s shoulder. After a second or two, he dropped back to all fours. “
Ready
.”

We all made contact with him, and were instantly inside the cell. The mirror’s surface stayed dark.

“Listen for trouble,” David said, crossing to the mirror. “We’ll need a few minutes.”

“Sure.” Dane, Leglin, and I stayed near the door. I strained my ears watching what was viewable of the tunnel outside, and heard a whole lot of nothing.

The soft rustle of Copernicus’ wings turned my head. The raven was on the floor, his head cocked. He began to walk around the mirror. A glance at David showed me his slack face and unfocused eyes.

I looked at the raven again, considering whether this picture was alright.

Copernicus disappeared behind the mirror, reappearing on its other side two breaths later.