A Grave Magic: The Shadow Sorceress Book One (14 page)

D
ragging
on the first pair of jeans and T-shirt I found that hadn’t been damaged in the fire was easier than expected. The closet was mostly untouched, some of the clothes near the top of the piles smelled a little less than fresh but, ultimately, they were fine.

Hallelujah for small mercies.

Pushing aside the clothes in the closet, I pushed down hard on the small loose board near the floor of the closet and waited for the telltale click. Scooping the board out, I fumbled into the darkness and pulled a small box free.

The woodwork was intricate and delicate, the box older than I was, and the wood it was made from was older still. My mother had thrown around the word “ancient” each time she’d spoken about it.

Popping the lid open on it, I stared down at the tiny silk pouches that lined the inside of the box. This was the only thing I could think of to clean a magical signature. I wasn’t even sure they would work properly…. The powder was mostly used for wiping memories clean….

I picked up one of the small pouches and stared down at it. I could use it on the arson investigators, but there was already a paper trail.

Even if it didn’t clean the signature completely from the ceiling, it should at least conceal it…. Or, at least, that was my theory on it.

“Amber!” Nic’s voice sent my mind spiralling into panic.

He couldn’t be here. If he saw the signature, and I was almost positive that
he
would, then I was toast. Scrambling up from the floor, I dropped the box, scattering the contents across the wood floor.

The sound of his footsteps drawing closer sent my heart rate skittering into over drive.

“I know you’re here, I saw you come in but I wanted to wait and make sure—” he cut off as I ran into him in the doorway.

“Just getting dressed and trying to straighten this place up a little bit.”

“You met the city’s finest, then, I take it?” he asked, leaning against the door frame.

My heart continued to beat out of my chest as I stood in front of him, blocking as much of his view as I possibly could. He was a hunter and for some reason he was willing to overlook the fact that I was a witch. However, that wouldn’t last if he found out about the signature currently covering the ceiling.

There were some things even he wouldn’t overlook.

“Yeah, they want me to come down later and answer some questions about everything….”

He nodded and examined his fingernails as though they were suddenly the most fascinating things in the world.

“Any more leads on that case of yours?” he asked. His voice was low and utterly calm, almost disinterested, and I knew instinctively that he was lying.

“Why pretend you don’t care when we both know that’s a whole bunch of bull?” I said, pushing out past him into the rest of the apartment.

He turned from the bedroom and I felt my heart rate slow slightly in my chest.

“I didn’t know I was allowed to have an interest in the case,” he said, lifting his face and staring at me with that same wicked grin he had given me back at Sanctuary. The same grin that had almost caused me to self-combust right before he decided to kiss me.

Even thinking about his lips on mine sent my mind into overdrive. I wanted to kiss him again, I wanted to taste his lips on mine, feel his body against me.

Get a grip, Amber, you don’t have time for this!

I really didn’t have time, and yet, it didn’t stop me from really wanting to make time. I was a witch, but that didn’t prohibit me from having a life….

Did it?

I forced the traitorous thoughts aside. He’d kissed me in the club, but it had been for a reason, and not the kind of reason I wanted. I wasn’t the type to just hop into bed with a guy, no matter how hot he was, or how unreasonable his presence made me feel.

“Why are you here, Nic?”

“I like that you call me Nic and not Dominic. I’d wondered which you would chose….”

I glared at him and slowly folded my arms across my chest, the powder pouch still gripped tightly in my hands.

“Fine, I’ll stop going off topic. Jeez, something’s got your knickers in a twist today.”

“Oh, I don’t know what it might be. Could it possibly be the fact that I’ve got a case to work and you’re standing here wasting my time? Might it be that a vampire broke into my apartment last night and tried to kill me before my home went up in flames…?”

“Fine, fine, I get it, your life sucks, woe is you….” The sarcasm in his voice only made me angrier and I opened my mouth to give him a smart answer when my cell phone rang.

The sound of the death march filled the tiny apartment and I groaned. There was only one name that carried that ominous ringer. Dragging out my cell I stared down at the screen and a tiny thrill of rebellion rolled through me.

I could just ignore the call. Hang up and pretend nothing, but knowing Jon, he would just keep on calling and calling until he got an answer.

Sliding my thumb across the screen, I pressed the phone to my ear.

“Get your ass into my office immediately, we need to talk.”

He sounded so pissed that for a second I forgot how to answer. The phone went dead and I stared down at the call ended sign.

Now what the hell was going on? I’d been pretty firm with him; if he thought he was going to blackmail me and get away with it, then he had another thing coming.

“I’ve got to go,” I said, shoving the phone back into my jeans pocket.

“That can’t have been a good call,” he said, watching my face intently.

“It was work, they’re never good calls,” I said, directing him towards the door as I grabbed my leather jacket from the back of the couch.

It smelled of smoke and damp but I didn’t care; it was far more comfortable than Nic’s jacket, which I’d been wearing all around town.

“Before I forget.” I turned and hurried back into the bedroom and scooped his jacket up from the charred remains of my bed.

Where I was going to sleep tonight … well, that was a bridge I would just have to cross later. There was always the couch, as long as it dried out enough.

“Here,” I said, holding his jacket out to him.

He took it with a smile and slipped it on over the blue-and-black check shirt he was wearing. As he moved, the shirt shifted, tightening across his muscled back and riding up to expose his ripped abs. He was obviously someone who spent a lot of time hanging out in the gym. That kind of musculature didn’t just appear overnight, either.

“See something you like?” he asked, the blatant suggestion in his voice making my cheeks flame with colour.

“Just get the hell out, I need to go to work,” I said with a sigh.

I didn’t have time for his games. Perhaps if things were different, if I wasn’t searching for answers for my family, then maybe. Even then, it wasn’t likely.

His constant flirting didn’t mean anything. It was just who he was and I could picture him flirting with every woman that came within fifty feet of his sphere of influence.

“I can give you a ride over to Elite if you want,” he said, and for the first time since I’d met him there didn’t seem to be an agenda behind his words.

Narrowing my eyes at him, I chewed my lip thoughtfully.

“And there wouldn’t be any funny business? No playing games or using me to get your own way?”

Holding up his hand he gave me the scout’s salute, his beaming smile enough to melt the iciest of hearts. “I swear, no funny business, just a ride down to Elite.”

“Fine, let’s go.”

I waited for him outside the apartment door before swinging it shut and securing the damaged lock with the keys from my pocket. As soon as I had an opportunity, I was going to have to get the door fixed. As soon as I had the opportunity, there was a lot of stuff I was going to need to get fixed, and basically no money to do it with.

Nic started down the hall and then waited for me to catch up to him at the elevator doors. Whatever crap Jon was going to come out with, I knew I wasn’t going to like it. He was a snake, the type who would have found a way to work around my threats from the night before.

And, well, if he had, how was I supposed to argue with him? I had no proof, no evidence I could bring against him, and there was only so far I could really rock the boat. If I pushed him too far and he decided to try and dig around for dirt on me, then it would only be a matter of time before he found some.

It was a risk I couldn’t take, but I couldn’t stand by and let him get away with the things he’d admitted to doing. That wasn’t in my nature, and I wasn’t going to change just because the situation seemed kind of hard.

Something would be done.

I just needed to figure out what the hell that something was.

S
tanding outside the apartment building
, I stared at the motorcycle Nic was sitting astride and shook my head for the second time.

“You can’t honestly be serious? You want me to get up on that thing? You want me to trust you, that you can ride it and not run us both into a brick wall at the first opportunity?”

“I’ve been riding motorbikes, Amber, for a very long time. I can promise, there will be no brick walls. So come and hop on. You were the one who said you were in a hurry; this is the fastest way to get there.”

I bit down on my lip nervously. It would definitely be the fastest way there. It could also be the fastest way into an early grave. Bicycles were scary enough; motorbikes were a whole new level of pain and fear just waiting to happen.

He held the helmet out to me and jiggled it gently in my direction.

“Fine, but if you kill me, I’m coming back to haunt your ass.”

“Assuming I survive and you don’t. I’m glad you have so much faith in me,” he said with a smile as he watched me ram the helmet down over my thick and unruly hair.

“Trust me when I say faith has absolutely nothing to do with this. You’re simply the fastest way to get downtown.”

Climbing onto the back of the bike, I hesitated, my hands just gripping the corners of his leather jacket. I was supposed to wrap my arms around him, grip him tight. If I didn’t, then I wasn’t going to last more the five seconds up on the back of the bike. But the thought of pressing my body that close to his, of drinking in his scent as we….

My thoughts trailed off into panic as soon as he kicked away the bike stand and I wobbled back and forth on the back of the seat. Without thinking twice, I wrapped my arms around his waist, plastering my body to his broad and muscular back as the engine roared to life between my legs.

I was going to die. It would be horrible and bloody and painful and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I was a fool for even thinking I could go through with this and come out the other side unscathed.

“Hold on tight,” Nic shouted back to me over his shoulder as he pushed the bike away from the curb and we suddenly jolted forward.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I repeatedly prayed to the goddess for protection. If I got out of it unscathed, I would forever be in her debt, there would be no task to big or too complicated that I wouldn’t complete for her.

Hell, I’d even play nice with Jon if it meant I wasn’t going to end my final moments in a fiery ball on the side of the road.

The engine continued to purr along underneath me and the gentle back and forth sway of Nic and the bike as we weaved through the traffic quickly became soothing. All I had to do was focus on that and the panic would gradually subside.

As the bike slowed, I allowed myself the opportunity to slowly relax. I wasn’t dead and that had to be considered a bonus. He allowed the bike to roll to a halt and the moment I felt him shift and kick down the stand once more, I released the breath I’d been holding onto since we started the journey. Sliding from the back of the bike, my legs felt like jelly beneath me, and Nic’s voice caused me to pause.

“You know for someone who hunts down preternatural killers, I didn’t expect you to be so afraid of a little speed,” he said as he pulled his helmet off and gave me a cheeky grin.

Tossing his helmet back to him, I turned away and headed into the Elite building. His constant games and teasing statements, while cute, were beginning to wear on me.

Crossing the foyer, my footsteps faltered as I caught sight of the groups of people gathered inside the Elite doors. Whatever was going on, it was major. By the looks of it, Jon had called in every Elite agent that had ever passed through the doors and maybe even some that hadn’t.

Fear knotted in my stomach as I spotted Jon up the top of the room, the man standing next to him instantly recognisable.

Had Graham outed my secret? On one hand, it would have made perfect sense, but why had Jon bothered to call me up, why not just send the clean-up crew to do their jobs and get me off the streets for good?

Squaring my shoulders, I drank down a deep breath and let it back out slowly. I wasn’t going to get my answers out here; the only thing I could do was go in there and face the music, whatever it might be and however much I might dislike it.

What other choice did I have?

P
ushing
open the doors to Elite, I stepped into the office, the babble of voices making it almost impossible to pick out any discernible threads of conversation.

Something had obviously happened.

Hurrying to the top of the room, Graham’s eyes met mine, his gaze hard as he focussed in on me. He clearly still hadn’t forgiven me for not telling him what I knew about his daughter. But what did he expect me to do? I couldn’t just blurt out my suspicions, because at the end of the day, that’s all they were: suspicions.

If I told him I thought she was dead, that she was working alongside the sick son of a bitch who had murdered Joanna Sidwell and her family, the creep that had taken Christina without any apparent trace or request for ransom, he would completely lose his mind.

He loved his daughter and that love gave him a faith in her that I didn’t have. But it was also the means to completely reducing his life to mere ash. The position was an impossible one and I had no clue how I was supposed to get around it.

Jon caught sight of me, fear flickering in his eyes for a split second before it vanished only to be replaced by pure hatred.

“So nice you could join us, Amber. I was just filling everyone in on the little situation we find ourselves in.” His voice dripped malice.

My mouth went dry and my body froze mid-step. He knew. They all knew. That was the only thing that made sense. What the hell was I going to do?

Thoughts whirled through my head faster than I could keep up with them, and yet not one of them was the solution to the predicament I found myself in.

Graham caught my eye and shook his head almost imperceptibly, and the knot of tension growing in guts loosened by just a fraction.

“Last night, two of our men, two of King City’s finest men, were cut down in their prime, doing a job that only the most fearless of men will do.”

Even when he was making rousing speeches, Jon just couldn’t help but make it chauvinistic. I wasn’t a feminist in the extreme sense of thinking all men were out to get me, not by a long shot, although many would consider me just that. All I wanted was what most women wanted: a fair shot at the big pie that all men were automatically given.

I was never going to be as strong as a man, and I didn’t want to be. I had my own strengths and could certainly hold my own in a fight. I’d proven that with the vampire. All I wanted was for the other guys in the Elite to view the women they worked alongside as their partners, that we were equal and not just pretty ornaments to be trotted out when Jon felt an equality press conference coming on, only to be dismissed as soon as it was over and sent back to sorting and filing.

I contemplated making an announcement of my own, of telling everyone just what it was that Jon had the women of Elite do to earn their way onto the field.

“Struck down in the prime of their lives by what can only be described as a callous and calculated attack.”

His words cut through my rambling thoughts and my head jerked up. Just what in hell had happened last night?

“Do we know what killed them?” Officer Steven chimed in, cutting across Jon.

“From everything I’ve heard, it’s vampires. There’s a rumour that the Master of the City, Andreas, is dead, put down by a rival, and now war has broken out for the territory. Julian and Mo were following up a lead involving the Sidwell case and must have found themselves slap bang in the middle of a turf war.”

“Are they—” I started to say, but I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sentence.

“Dead?” Jon finished it for me and for the first time since I’d come to work for him, I could actually see regret in his eyes. “Yeah, there’s not really enough of them left to make a formal identification, so we’re waiting on dental records and DNA.”

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath as the room erupted into angry shouts and declarations of shock.

“As you can all imagine, I and everyone else, right up to the top rungs of Elite, are devastated by this loss and we want to strike hard and fast.”

The room went silent once more and I felt my heartbeat stall out in my chest. He knew something, he knew something and he was holding it back but whatever it was; it was about to send everyone here into a frenzy.

“We have a location for the vampires we believe are responsible for our men’s deaths. And I think it’s plain to everyone in this room what needs to be done.”

“Who’s in charge?” Anthony Barbossa said, his voice booming out over everyone else’s in the room, sending them all into silence.

He had the highest kill count on Elite as a member of the Clean-Up. There hadn’t been a vampire yet who had come up against him and lived to tell the tale. Most of the men called him the Machine because of the way he fought; he was practically unstoppable and there wasn’t a man on the squad who could stand against him on the training floor.

Anthony wanted the position and he would get it; he was the obvious choice in the matter.

“Amber Morgan and Graham Lance.” Jon’s announcement sent a ripple of unease through the gathered group.

I swung around to face him, my eyes a little too wide. The smirk on his face made me want to take him to task then and there. I wanted to wipe the smug cocksure look clean off him, but to do that would be a mistake.

“Like hell they are!” Anthony said again, his voice louder as he moved through the crowd to the front of the room.

“The decision is made, Anthony, and I expect everyone here to fall in line. Is that clear?” Jon’s tone brooked no argument and I watched him carefully.

He was obviously planning something; he had to be. There was no way he was going to allow Graham and I to run a Clean-Up operation on something this big, this important, without an ulterior motive coming in to stab everyone else in the back.

I swung around to face Jon, keeping a small smile plastered to my lips in an attempt to throw everyone else off what I was truly feeling on the matter.

“What the hell are you doing here, Jon? Yesterday, you didn’t want me anywhere near the case and now you want me leading the charge? Forgive my confusion, but I’d like to know what your real thoughts are on the matter.”

Jon returned my smile with one of his own, but his was far more genuine.

“I’m hoping that by giving this case to you one of two things happen. Either it’s enough to keep you off my case, letting me get on with what I do best here, which is run Elite, without interfering bullshit from a busybody like you….”

“Or?” I said.

“Or the vampires that ripped Mo and Julian apart, leaving them to rot like so much mincemeat, get their hands on you and do whatever it is that they do best.”

It made sense, and I wasn’t surprised by his declaration. The only thing I was surprised about was his complete honesty. He had to know that by giving me this, he was giving me a weapon I could use against him, and yet I could see from the look in his eyes that he just didn’t care anymore.

“Run along now, Amber, you’ve got a raid to get geared up for. Everyone is waiting for you,” Jon said, before he turned on his heel and disappeared back into his office.

“What did he say?” Graham asked, stepping in close and keeping his voice low enough that it wouldn’t be overheard by anyone else standing nearby.

“He wants me out of the way, one way or another,” I said, shaking off Jon’s little speech.

Just because he wished me dead didn’t mean it would happen. I’d wished to win the lottery more times than I could count and it hadn’t happened yet, despite being a witch and coming from a very powerful line of witches. There were just some things in life that couldn’t be gotten, not without interference.

“He wants you dead?” Graham asked, turning to face me, his blue eyes filled with surprise. “I know the man doesn’t like you, but isn’t that a little extreme?”

“If you knew everything that had happened between us, you’d be wondering why he was even bothering to send in a Clean-Up crew alongside us.”

“That bad, huh?”

“That bad,” I said, scanning the crowd.

There was no sign of Anthony Barbossa and the usual crew he hung out with, which could mean only one thing.

“Shit,” I said again, this time louder, catching Graham’s attention as I started to duck and weave through the crowds of angry officers.

“What is it?” he said, following close on my heels.

“It’s Anthony. You saw how mad he was. You and I both know he’s led every single raid this Force has ever performed and he is damn good at it.”

“Yeah, I saw he was pissed,” Graham said.

“Well, he’s not here anymore and neither is the rest of his crew. They’re already gone, and if we don’t catch up to them soon, then whatever little plan Jon has worked out for me, they’re going to walk straight into it.”

“You can’t honestly believe he plans to have you killed?”

“I think he would do anything to keep certain things a secret, Graham. He’s dangerous and unpredictable, and while some of it might just be the hope that, because I’m a rookie, I’ll mess up myself, he’s still willing to send a lot of good men into a nest under my leadership, despite his hopes that I’ll end up dead.”

My words were enough to make Graham pause, and as I broke free of the last stragglers, I dashed across the foyer and down the hall toward the locker areas and the weapons storage.

I wasn’t about to let Jon get Barbossa and his men killed. They were a pain in the ass, and way too macho, but they were good at their jobs, and at the end of the day, Jon’s problem was with me, not them.