Reluctant Necromancer Page 4

  The magic under my control thrashed. A chunk broke away, escaping my grip and the funnel.

  Then the world was moving, spinning around me.

  I tried to reach for the escaped power but couldn’t focus enough to grab it. Distantly, I heard screams. I threw out a rope of my own magic with the end shaped like a hook. “Algiz!”

  It bit into the escaped power. Gripping the end of the magic rope, I drew the power back and hurled it into the funnel. It took some of my magic with it, energy I didn’t have to spare.

  The funnel twisted, looking for more magic.

  “Sowil en kannu.” I threw a shield up against it to protect my power reserves. It turned away from me and latched onto the fire. In a great gulp, it swallowed the magic and began searching for more. Before it could find other magic to eat, I pushed the rim of the funnel, turning it in on itself.

  The spell ate itself. The remnants of the magic went into the earth, leaving nothing behind but chalk runes on the pavement.

  I came out of the trance. At first, nothing made sense, but I switched from magic sight to regular vision and blinked a few times.

  It hadn’t made sense because I’d gone from standing next to the spells to sitting on the ground, fifty feet from where I’d been. Harris stood over me, his attention on the fire, which had returned to the normal yellows and reds.

  The firefighters had two hoses on the building. It was too soon to be sure, but it looked like the water was doing its job now that the magic wasn’t feeding the fire.

  On the other side of the parking lot, where everyone had parked, the firefighters were spraying down a car. Flames shot out of the interior around what was left of the caved in roof.

  My gaze drifted back to the spell circle. Scorch marks marred the pavement. If it hadn’t been for Wayne, those would’ve hit me. “Thank you.”

  He turned to me, his right arm missing hair. The skin was red and dotted with blisters.

  “Your arm!” I cried. “We need to get you to a paramedic.”

  I stood up, and had to sit back down, my head swimming. I knew better than to move that quickly after a large output of magic, I really did.

  He steadied me. “Careful. I had to move you. Several fireballs came at us, and I couldn’t divert them.”

  “I’m fine, but you...” I hadn’t thought he’d get hurt protecting me.

  Harris shrugged. “I’ll heal.”

  I lifted an eyebrow.

  “I’ll get it looked at as soon as this calms down.” He tipped his head toward the parking lot. “Right now, we have bigger problems.”

  At first, I didn’t see what he meant. The building fire was calmer than it had been, but that wasn’t the problem. On the other side of parking lot flames spilled out of a familiar black car. The fire hit the trunk and turned ice-blue.

  “Sweet bones of Narzel. That’s my car!” Being torched while I stood across the parking lot, gawking.

  “Can you drain the spell energy from here?” Wayne asked.

  “Yes.” I groaned. This didn’t have nearly as much magic as the building fire. With only a small tussle, I dragged the magic into the hole in the parking lot, sending back into the earth.

  Duty taken care of, I stood next to Wayne and watched my department-issue car, and all the precious spell components and ready-made charms in it, go up in flames. Smith was going to hate this. They’d outfitted it just for me, and I hadn’t even gotten two weeks of use out of it.

  “You’re telling Smith,” Harris said.

  “And you’re getting that arm looked at.” I got up slowly. This time, my head felt fine. “Come on. That burn looks nasty.”

  This time, he didn’t argue.

  I left Wayne in the care of paramedics and went to say farewell to my car. The blazing skeleton had little resemblance to its previous beauty. Replacing the car would annoy Smith, but replacing my supplies would be more of a chore. It would take time to rebuild my kit, and time had not been on my side lately.

  While my car burned, I got my phone out and started making a list of everything I needed to replace. Luckily, it was mostly work stuff. In the rush to get here, I’d left my purse at work. I thought about calling Smith, but he’d want information about the fire, and I didn’t have much of that yet.

  “Agent Pine, can you come here?” Kala called out.

  I turned away from my car and joined her next to a fire truck. “What can I do for you?”

  She tipped her head toward the building. “I want to know if any magic could’ve survived and exactly what caused this mess. I’ve attended magical fires before, and most fires have a few spelled items in them. This was something else.”

  “Now? I thought it took hours or days for it to cool down enough to be safe.” While I’d been watching my car, the flames had died down to nothing more than curls of smoke. Everything was wet. Even I had to admit there wasn’t much risk of something falling in on me. The roof had already collapsed.

  Pro Swing was nothing more than rubble and the foundation. The shop beside it was equally demolished. A cracked yellow letter B was the only remaining hint of its name, Bumble Bee’s Gifts and More. I knew its name because I’d had time to look up the strip mall online.

  Kala grinned. “We have some tricks when we need them. We’ll have to keep an eye out for hot spots, but with the magic gone, blockwork and metal aren’t good fuels.”

  “Then lead the way.”

  She held up a yellow jacket. “Not so fast.”

  “No.” I held up my hands. “I’ll be fine.”

  Kala draped it across my arms. “You got to do your spells your way, but this is my area, and you need gear.”

  I knew a losing battle when I saw one, so I let her dress me. She didn’t have any boots, but the pants, jacket, and helmet weighed twice what I’d expected. Clearly, I hadn’t fully appreciated the effort it took to wear this gear while working.

  “Gloves.”

  “No gloves.”

  Kala narrowed her eyes.

  I held up my wand. “I can’t use this with those gloves on, and for me, it’s necessary gear.”

  Kala stared at me, and I started right back.

  “Fine.” She turned and started toward the building. “Don’t touch anything!”

  “Wasn’t planning on it,” I muttered as I followed her.

  If she heard me, she didn’t comment.

  Kala led me around the firefighters who were inspecting under bits of roof and debris. She stopped in a relatively clear spot inside what had been Bee’s Gifts.

  Waterlogged and charred bits of whatever had been here before crunched underfoot. “What am I looking for?”

  “Why this magical fire was so severe,” Kala answered.

  “We didn’t have to walk all the way over. There were hundreds of spells inside this shop. A mix of things, too, judging from the exciting display from the flames. It wasn’t licensed as a magic shop. I haven’t seen many black-market operations with proper storage.”

  “Could you just look?”

  “Fine.” Even though all the magic should’ve been sucked out, I switched my sight to see magic and started exploring the building.

  I didn’t find any magic, or the remains of anything I could identify, in the front of the shop. Reluctantly, I went deeper into the store, stepping around steaming chunks of metal.

  Nothing caught my eye until I was in the back. A bit of white showed through smudges of gray on a slender object with a knobby end. The rest of the shape disappeared under a collapsed sheet of roofing.

  Icy fingers of necromancy crept up my leg.

  I knew what I would find before I pointed my flashlight under the metal.

  Bones. Human bones, all of them blackened from the fire, with stubborn bits of flesh clinging to them.

  It took me two tries to clear my throat. “Body!”

  Everyone swarmed me, and I let myself be pushed to the back away from the remains. Other than my necromancy, I didn’t have any useful skills with the dead.

  Besides, the body changed the questions. Had the fire been set to cover up a murder, or was it an accident? And where had the spells come in? They hadn’t all been on the body, there’d been too many of them.

  Minutes ticked by before Kala got back to me. “So, what did you find?”

  “Other than the body?” I suppressed a sigh. “The spell I used to get rid of the magic took all of it. There isn’t any magical evidence to be found.”

  “You have to give me something. A fire this big... people want answers.” Kala watched the building as if more spells would fling themselves out of the rubble at any moment.

  “You can tell them it was a magical fire. There had been tons of spells in here, hundreds if I had to guess. That’s the best I can do.” For some reason, people got magic confused with miracles. That second one was out of my skill set.

  “Can you give me any information about the spells?”

  “They were powerful and mixed in the fire.”

  “Not helpful,” Kala said.

  “I was told to get rid of the magic, not preserve evidence.”

  “Excuse me,” Wayne stopped next to me. “Smith called. He needs you to get to the hospital to do the interview.”

  Kala looked between Wayne and me with narrowed eyes. “Fine, but I may need you back here to look for magic again.”

  “Like I said, anything I can do to help.” I smiled before walking away.

  “I arranged a ride.”

  “Good.” No witch, necromancer, or mechanic was good enough to resurrect my car. “How’s your arm?”

  He raised a forearm covered in bandages. “It looked worse than it was.”

  “Sure it did. I have a healing charm at the office if you’d like it.”

  “
That would be nice.” He motioned to a patrol car. “That’s our ride.”

  The officer was friendly. He had seen my car go up in flames.

  We rode in silence for a bit before Harris turned to me. “I talked to Smith while they were treating my arm. He checked on CJ. According to the hospital, CJ hasn’t left or made any calls since we brought him in. Smith doesn’t know how CJ could’ve had anything to do with the fire, but we did find him on the roof of this building a week ago.”

  “And last week, we didn’t know about the magic shop. When we were here, I checked for magic and didn’t find all those spells. They had to be in shielded containers. That smacks of black market.” Licensed stores had more inventory on the shelves. Only the most volatile and dangerous items would be in shielded boxes.

  “That leaves us with...” Wayne winced as the car went over a bump.

  “The stimulant charm. It had to be strong to last as long as it did, and most witches won’t make one that strong. I bet it was from the now-destroyed shop.”

  “And the compulsion charm?” Wayne asked, referring to the second charm that combined with blood to captured CJ in a web of magic last week.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. It had to come from somewhere. The fey who used it certainly didn’t create it.”

  Most fey were athletic and good with plants and animals. They had some nifty abilities, but magic wasn’t one of them.

  The officer dropped us off in front of the hospital entrance. I thanked him and followed Harris into the building. We had to show badges to get past security with our weapons, and Wayne spoke to the nurse manning the station before guiding me to a room.

  Last time I’d seen CJ, he looked like he could fade away at any moment. He didn’t look much better now, hooked up to machines, with deep lines in his face and loose skin. He had to have dropped thirty pounds in a week. Maybe more.

  I’d seen pictures of him. Before last week, he’d been a strong, muscular man in his thirties.

  “Agent Harris,” He rasped. “Back so soon?”

  “CJ, you’re looking better.”

  That alone assured me I didn’t want a more detailed memory of what he’d looked like before.

  CJ smiled faintly. “Flattery will get you nowhere.” His gaze shifted to me. “And you are?”

  “Agent Kelsey Pine. I was told you wanted to speak to me.”

  His hand lifted off the bed. I gently captured it and gave the necessary shake before helping his lowering it back down. Even days after being admitted to the hospital, his arm trembled.

  CJ studied me. “I’m told we’ve met, but... the memories aren’t very clear.”

  “Given the spells you were under, I’m not surprised.” I tugged a chair over and sat down next to him.

  CJ fumbled for the control before finding the right button. The motor whined as it propped him up. “I suppose you have questions.”

  “I do, but I can also listen.” With the time I’d been away and the morning’s excitement, I hadn’t gotten around to reading any of the reports of previous interrogations.

  He looked past me. “Really?”

  “I told you.” Wayne said.

  As much as I wanted to ask what Wayne had said, it was more important to gain CJ’s trust. From the sound of things, this hadn’t been how everyone had approached the situation.

  “Well...” CJ took a deep breath and winced. “I’ve been told Thomas is dead. I think I killed him. He’d been coming around. We had fun at rugby, and he wanted me to join the pack.

  “He was nice, and the pack never bothered me much, but I had my reasons.” He shifted and winced. “At the machine shop, some of the parts I made were for projects I couldn’t talk about. I knew that wouldn’t sit well with the pack, so not joining was easier. And I’m not much for shifting with a hundred people so we can howl at the moon together. Though, a group does make fetch more fun.”

  I couldn’t help but smile at that.

  “Anyway, I don’t know how, but the fey, I don’t know his name, found out. He came by and threatened me. I’m not much for fighting, so I asked around and found a charm that would make me more aggressive.” He sighed from deep in his soul. “It all went wrong.”

  Seconds ticked by before he continued. “Thomas wasn’t supposed to be there. He came over, said he had to ask me about joining the pack. The alpha had ordered it. When I heard the fey come in, I told Thomas to hide, and I used the charm. Then my memory gets fuzzy. The fey was there, and I started to give him the information.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “Thomas stopped me.”

  While CJ relived the moment, I waited. It wasn’t much, but I wouldn’t disrespect him or Thomas by asking a question right now.

  His eyes opened, dark with haunting memories. “I got angry and started to fight. Thomas tried to get out of it. Then I started to shift and got my fangs into the fey. All I remember for the rest of that day is hunger, fear, and killing the fey. The hunger was so bad. It blocked out almost everything else.

  “After a time, it occurred to me the person who sold me the spell might be able to undo it. I didn’t mean to kill that SWAT officer.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “I didn’t mean to kill any of them.” Tears slid down his face. His shoulders didn’t shake, and he never made a sound. Just the tears.

  I let him cry and wished I didn’t have to ask questions. “Where did you buy the charm?”

  “Bumble Bee’s Gifts and More, right next to Pro Swing.”

  “Can you describe the person who sold it to you?”

  “Two people were at the shop, but I only saw one of them: a woman about your age, a little taller. Human, I think. Dyed blond hair and a cheerful smile.” His voice was empty.

  “Anything else?”

  “She wasn’t a witch. You have this scent about you, from the magic. She didn’t have that.”

  “I have to ask, why wouldn’t you tell this to the other officers?” I knew what mattered was solving the crime, but it felt wrong to cause this man more pain.

  “You understand I tried to fight it? I tried, but... It was eating me, trying to kill me.” He grabbed my arm, his grip firm even though his hand shook.

  I met his frantic gaze with steadiness. “I do.” And I gave him what comfort I could. “I don’t know the exact nature of the spells on you, but what you call aggression, I’ve been calling a stimulant. It pumped your body full of adrenaline and all sorts of other things. Your body was on high alert. Worse, it had to fuel the spell somehow, so it tapped into your body.

  “Then the fey laid a compulsion spell on you, one crafted in a way I haven’t seen before. It interacted with the aggression spell when you wounded him. From there... the spells would’ve destroyed a lesser man.” There was more, but I couldn’t say it and uphold my oaths to my badge. I couldn’t tell him he wasn’t at fault, because I wasn’t a judge.

  “Doesn’t matter. I killed people. If I’d joined the pack or notified my client about the security breach, none of this would’ve happened.” He closed his eyes again. “What more do you need?”

  “Do you know who the fey was working for?”

  “No,” CJ said.

  “Where were the charms stored in Bee’s Gifts?”

  “I don’t know. I never saw them.”

  “Did you notice any magical items?”

  “No,” CJ said again.

  “We’re done.” Nothing else was worth tormenting him any further today. “At least for now. Rest and get well soon.”

  I walked out of that room not sure we’d done CJ any favors when we’d saved his life.

  Chapter Four

  “I hope the district attorney doesn’t charge him.” If it went to trial, I’d have to testify. Nothing I said would make either side very happy.

  “Me too.” He settled on a bench. “Our ride will be here in a few minutes.”

  I sat next to him. Closing my eyes, I tipped my head back and enjoyed the warmth of the sun and the breeze. The scent of ash finally faded from my nose, which was great until I realized I still smelled like smoke.

  My phone rang, saving me from thinking about the shower I wouldn’t get for a few more hours. “Pine.”

  “We need to talk, and not about the clan,” Jamie said.

  I glanced at Harris, who politely studied the parking lot. “Today has been a mess. Could we talk later?” I wanted to ask what was wrong, but this wasn’t the time or place.