Boundary Lines (22 page)

Chapter 34

I’d guessed right. The werewolves had already infiltrated Boulder in human form, which wasn’t surprising—from what Nellie had said, the whole town was pretty irresistible to all things supernatural right now—but it did complicate the situation. Or rather, it complicated the degree to which I was disobeying Maven. I’d planned to take Tobias with me to talk to her,
figuring that although I’d further broken her covenant with the witches by bringing a werewolf into the state, she’d let it slide because it was one guy, who she already knew about, who used to be crazy.

While I was still deciding what to do, Maven called my cell phone.
My time was up. I held a finger up to my lips, and both Sashi and Tobias
nodded their understanding. “Hello, Maven,” I said into the phone.

“Hello. Update, please.”

“I was just on my way to debrief in person,” I lied. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

A pause. “That’s acceptable.” She hung up.

I breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Sashi and Tobias. “Okay, guys, we gotta change the plan a little.”

I dropped both of them off in front of the Boulderado, which wasn’t far from Magic Beans. Sashi had been even more helpful than I could have hoped, and the next part was going to be dangerous, so she was going back to the hotel to meet Grace as she returned from dinner. The thaumaturge witch had promised to be on standby, though, in case anyone was injured. I had a scary feeling we might end up needing her.

Meanwhile, Tobias would collect as many of the other werewolves as he could find and call me. He didn’t really understand the concept of a prepaid cell phone, but he said he’d just stop into a business and ask to make a local call to my cell. If I didn’t answer and/or Maven had flipped out and vowed to kill all the werewolves in Boulder, Tobias would tell them to run as far and fast as they could.

To my surprise, Magic Beans was open that night, and business was thriving. It was hard to believe that life went on outside of the threat posed by the ley lines, but I supposed even Maven couldn’t keep the place closed too many nights in a row without causing suspicion. Ryan greeted me at the counter. “Hey,” I said. “Working late tonight?”

He smiled. “Just a bit. Go on back to the office; Maven is expecting you.”

I went in the big concrete-floored room—completely clean of blood now—but I didn’t quite make it to the office door. My attention was drawn by a handful of people who were standing idly around the room. One of them was a college-aged girl sitting on the floor with her back against the wall, squinting up at the back door as if someone had just burst through it, but there was no one there. On the far side of the room was an older woman with a shaved head and a strained expression. She had her hands out like she was pleading for something, but there was no one in front of her. And the third was a homeless guy huddled in the corner nearest me. He had his eyes closed, but something about him set off a red flag in my mind. It wasn’t like Maven to let a homeless guy hang out in the coffee shop.

Then I realized that he didn’t smell. Not at all.

“Um, Maven?” I called in a shaky voice.

She came to the door of the office and gazed at me for a long moment, reading my face. “I take it the thaumaturge witch was useful, then,” she said mildly.

“They’re . . . you have
ghosts
in your place?”

She sighed. “Wherever vampires go, we tend to leave remnants.”

“That’s horrible,” I said without thinking.

“These aren’t spirits or souls, Lex,” she said, her voice harder. “They’re not
gjenganger
, either. None of these deaths were violent or horrific enough to leave that big of a psychic imprint.”

“What
are
they then?”

She shrugged. “Think of them sort of like . . . a fingerprint left on a wall. They are a tiny, nonsentient impression of what once happened. You’ll get used to seeing them wherever you go.”

I didn’t like that . . . but I had been warned, hadn’t I? Sashi had tried to tell me that seeing ghosts everywhere was undesirable at best, but I’d been too focused on my goals to really consider it. Now there was no one to blame but myself.

Well, for seeing the ghosts. But the fact remained that the vampires had killed people in this very room, and now I’d be reminded of that every time I walked in. Then something else occurred to me. “Why isn’t Itachi here?” I asked. “Or . . . what was his name, Benton? They both died here. Violently.”

“Vampires can’t leave ghosts of any kind,” she said shortly. “Please come into the office so we can chat.” Turning on her heel, she headed back into the office.

I swallowed hard, tearing my eyes away from the remnants, and followed her.

I sat down at the chair in front of her desk. Maven looked so small behind the massive desk, not much bigger than Dani, and I had to remind myself that she was a centuries-old vampire who could snap me in half before my eyes managed to process that she had left her chair. “Where’s Quinn?” I asked. The two of us needed to have a serious talk, which he would not in any way enjoy.

“Driving your new friend Clara over to John Wheaton’s house so she can keep an eye on the baby. I know things have been . . . difficult in Boulder lately, but I haven’t forgotten my promise to protect Charlie. He’ll be back soon.”

“Thank you,” I said, meaning it.

She waved it off. “So. How was Nellie?” she said, the hint of a smile on her lips. “Does she still hold a grudge against me?”

“Oh, yeah. Big-time grudge.” I described the decrepit brothel and Nellie’s excitement about seeing me, then explained what she’d said about the “vestige” being stirred up.

“Ley lines,” Maven said when I was finished. “I should have remembered that. I’ve heard the theory, of course, but I’ve also heard about phrenology and osmosis and the idea that witches float rather than drown. It never occurred to me that ley lines were actually real.” Her eyes went distant for a moment, as if considering other alternatives, but she shook her head. “I can’t think of a single other viable explanation for what’s going on, though. One incident, certainly, but not everything we’ve been seeing.” She cocked an eyebrow at me. “If she still holds a grudge, I can’t imagine Nellie was very forthcoming with information,” she remarked. “How did you get her to talk to you?”

“I promised her a TV.”

Maven threw her head back and laughed, a tinkling, musical sound that went on for a couple of minutes and completely flummoxed me. Had I ever heard her laugh, aside from a dry sarcastic chuckle? I didn’t think so. “I’m sorry,” she said when she recovered. “I was expecting something like ‘I threatened her’ or maybe some grand manipulation you accomplished. But it’s just like Nellie to toss aside the greatest grievance of her afterlife in exchange for worldly goods.” The smile dropped off her face. “But she didn’t know how this vestige was activated?”

I squirmed in my seat. I’d known this moment was coming, of course, and there was really only one course of action that would keep Charlie safe. But that didn’t make it comfortable. “According to Nellie, it’s not boundary magic, so she’s not familiar with the workings,” I said reluctantly. “But it has to have been a witch, and it has to have been in Boulder.”

“A witch.” Maven’s eyes went distant again, and I could see her coming to the same conclusion that I’d needed a lot more time to reach: every witch in Colorado had a motive to activate the vestige, thereby nullifying Maven’s covenant with the witches. “I see the problem,” Maven mused, and although her expression was placid, her voice was as cold as I’d ever heard it. If this were a movie, she’d have snapped a pencil in her hand or dramatically dropped a glass of water, but instead the room was suddenly filled with the weight of malevolent silence. Her power, the terrible strength that seemed to call to me like a beacon, suddenly felt oppressive. I swallowed, wishing I could raise a hand to brace myself against the wall. I didn’t want to show weakness. Not when I needed her to trust me.

“We can still fix this,” I said quietly.

“How.” It was a statement, not a question, because she didn’t think I had a chance in hell of fixing it.

I took a breath. “We find out who did it and punish her. Or him,” I amended. “Just that individual. Not the whole clan.”

Her eyes finally focused in on me. “You presume a lot—that you can find this person without conflict, that they’ll submit to punishment, and that Hazel will allow it.”

“Yes, ma’am. But it’s better than the alternative.” Very softly, pray
ing she wouldn’t kill me, I added, “No one can afford a war right now.”

Her eyes narrowed, and I got the feeling her anger over the ley lines had just been briefly usurped by anger at me. I stood my ground, because I was right, and she needed to hear it. If she rallied the troops to fight both the witches and werewolves right now, how many of them would even come?

She must have been thinking the same thing, because without conceding anything she said, “What exactly are you proposing?”

“That we prioritize. The Unktehila is probably gonna hunt tonight, which means someone else will die. So tonight we stop the Unktehila, and tomorrow night we confront Hazel about the witches. Quietly. Respectfully.”

I couldn’t read Maven’s expression, but she didn’t immediately jump out of her chair and rip open my rib cage, so, bonus. “The Unktehila
is
the more immediate threat,” she allowed. “I’ve seen the papers. The public is already very interested in the man-eating animal that seems to be stalking the city. Any further deaths—and any further evidence—will only cause a greater panic, bringing more attention to all of us.”

“Yes, ma’am. I do kind of have a plan for dealing with the Unktehila,” I began. “But you’re not going to like it.”

Her eyebrows quirked, as if to say
Then why would you even mention it?

Before I could lose my nerve, I told her about Tobias and the werewolves in Boulder, and what I thought we should do with them. “You want to send a pack of stirred-up werewolves to kill this Unktehila, and you want to do it in my name?” she said disbelievingly.

“Um, yeah. And in exchange, they get a pardon for invading the state . . . and for what happened to Allegra and Travis.” Her eyes narrowed. “It wasn’t their fault, Maven,” I added quickly. “Much as I’d love to condemn every werewolf in the country, something else was pulling their strings.”

“Did you already promise this?”

“No, but I did float the possibility that you would go for it,” I admitted.

She gave me a sour look. “This is
not
how things are done, Lex. I didn’t hire you to make your own decisions and follow your own agenda. Our agreement is that you will do things during the day that I can’t do myself.”

“But that’s exactly what I’m doing—things you can’t,” I argued. “You need a peaceful resolution here, and you can’t broker it yourself. Peace doesn’t work when the most powerful player tries to force it on everyone else.”

She just continued to stare at me with hooded eyes, like a falcon watching its prey. I tried to soften my voice. “Maven, you said that you didn’t want to lead, but you felt responsible. Well, I feel responsible too. I took an oath to defend you, to take care of your interests, and that’s exactly what I’m trying to do—even if I couldn’t get permission first.”

Maven continued to study me for a long, silent moment. I stared back at her, knowing full well that it was something most people couldn’t do. My witchblood protected me from being pressed by vampires. I could even have tried to press her into doing what
I
wanted, but I chose life instead. Maven was way out of my league.

“When this is over,” she said finally, “you and I are going to have a conversation about the difference between taking initiative and taking control.”

I bowed my head, trying to look contrite. “Fine. And in the meantime?”

She sighed. “We kill the Unktehila tonight,
then
deal with the problem of which witch is responsible for activating the vestige.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Tell me more about this plan.”

I nodded. “The way I see it, we have two options: We either cut off the sandworm’s power supply, which means putting the ley line back to . . . sleep, or whatever, or we figure out where it’s going to appear again and kill it the old-fashioned way.” I smiled, not in a nice way. “Since we don’t know enough about ley line magic, I’d like to pursue the second option, with Simon and Lily’s help.”

She leaned back in her chair and gave me a measured look. “Are you sure about those two? They’re Pellars, after all.”

I considered it for a moment. Was I? Was I absolutely certain they weren’t involved in waking up the vestige, even tangentially?

“Yeah,” I told her. “I’m sure. If I go after the Unktehila tonight, they will help me. Not because of any pact, but because they’re my friends.”

She sat there for a long moment. Her eyes were pointed more or less in my direction, but they’d gone distant. Finally she said, “Very well, then, Lieutenant. You’ll be in charge of killing the Unktehila. I’ll send Quinn and Opal with you. They’ve both proven themselves, and can help keep the situation under wraps. Quinn will also get you whatever he has in the armory that might help.” She stood up. “Wait here a moment.”

Maven rose and left the room, disappearing into the coffee shop. She was gone for a while, but I didn’t dare so much as walk to the office door and peek out. I just waited, feeling like I’d just survived three rounds in the ring with a tiger.

Finally, Maven returned to the office and held out her hand to me. In it was a small container, like an oversized jewelry box.

“What is this?” I asked, accepting the box. She nodded at me to open it. Inside was a large, clear marble made of some kind of translucent glass or stone, just slightly too big for my thumb and forefinger to fit around it. I raised my hand to touch it, but stopped when my fingers were a couple of centimeters away. I decided I didn’t want to touch anything that seemed to give off its own heat.