Midnight Curse (Disrupted Magic Book 1) Read online

  “What time?” I asked.

  He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his messages. “Five thirty-eight,” he said after a moment.

  I thought fast. “That was before I arrived at the house,” I said slowly. “But Molly didn’t have her phone. She’d lost it, she said.” I looked back at Dashiell. “Did you come?”

  He gave me a tight nod. “But I was delayed. By the time I arrived, the fire department was pulling up. I took a quick look in the windows and saw eight corpses, still burning.” He gave an artful shrug. “Then Will called me to say Scarlett wasn’t answering her phone. I put two and two together.”

  Well, that explained how Dashiell had gotten to the storage facility so quickly. But it didn’t explain the missing bodies. “I checked every one of those girls’ pulses myself,” I insisted. “There were twelve, no question.”

  “We believe you, Scarlett,” Will said, and Kirsten nodded. I didn’t dare look at Dashiell.

  Jesse spoke, keeping his voice soft. “So someone wanted Dashiell to walk in on Molly with eight dead bodies. Why?”

  “Because she was supposed to be even more out of it than she was when I got there,” I guessed. “Whoever did this wanted you”—I looked at Dashiell—“to arrive at the house and find Molly covered in blood, with eight dead girls. You would have hauled her out of there and called me from the car to come clean up the mess.”

  Dashiell gave this a grudging nod. It was exactly what he would have done. I went on. “No one would have ever guessed the other four girls were there. Molly wasn’t supposed to remember that part, just like she wasn’t supposed to figure out a way to contact me without her phone. But I was there, and it screwed things up.”

  “We’re getting ahead of ourselves,” Will interrupted. His eyes were focused intently on me. “You’re saying that Molly did kill these girls?”

  “Yes. But she was pressed.”

  I was expecting a big reaction, and they didn’t disappoint. Dashiell’s eyes bulged with surprise, and Will actually let out sort of a masculine gasp. Only Kirsten seemed to take this in stride, nodding as if it made perfect sense. I turned toward her. “I take it you’ve seen that before?”

  “I’ve met boundary witches before,” she corrected, “including Allison Luther, a few years back. I’ve never actually seen a vampire get pressed, but I’m aware of the possibility.”

  I glanced toward Dashiell, raising my eyebrows a little. “I’ve . . . heard of it too,” he admitted. For the first time he looked more pensive than angry. I’d thrown a wrench into his righteous fury. “A very long time ago. But the only boundary witches I’ve met in my life were too weak to truly affect vampires.”

  Will was shaking his head. “This is all new to me,” he said frankly. “What exactly is a boundary witch?”

  I expected Kirsten to answer, but Jesse was the one who spoke. “A witch who specializes in the boundary between life and death,” he said. “Death magic. They have a sort of connection to vampires, which allows the stronger witches to actually press a vampire.”

  “A less powerful vampire,” Dashiell interjected.

  I sipped my coffee, giving them all a minute to absorb it. Finally Dashiell nodded to me, looking sobered. “Go on with your theory,” he said. For the first time, I felt like he was really listening.

  “Thank you. Here’s what I think happened. The boundary witch’s press was starting to wear off, or Molly was able to fight it, just a little. She grabbed a kid off the street, Britt, and sent her to get me.” This meant that Molly had been keeping tabs on me, which was sort of sweet. “The bad guy must have been close enough to see her do it, but for some reason he didn’t stop Britt from leaving. Maybe there were too many people around.”

  “Britt said she was going to a party, right?” Jesse interjected. “If there were a bunch of college kids in the street when Molly grabbed her . . .”

  “Right. Anyway, they couldn’t have known what was in the note Molly sent. So instead of taking the girls right then, they made the decision to wait until either Dashiell or I arrived.”

  “But they didn’t hurt you,” Kirsten said, a question in her voice.

  “No, they didn’t,” I assured her.

  Jesse picked up the story. “My guess is that once Scarlett got there, they figured out who she is—or, more to the point, what she is. Is it pretty common knowledge that Scarlett is a null, and she works with you guys?” We all nodded. Anyone in the LA Old World would know about me. Jesse continued, “Maybe they didn’t want to fight her just then. My guess is that they didn’t have guns with them at the time.” Most people in the Old World don’t bother with firearms, which Jesse knew.

  “But how did they get four girls out of there without you seeing?” Will asked.

  “Two possibilities.” I ticked them off on my fingers. “If they waited right by the back door for us to leave, they could have snuck them out the back before the fire spread. Or, they might have put the fire out—there was an extinguisher in the kitchen—taken the girls, and restarted the fire. That seems less likely.”

  “Either way, Scarlett knew how many bodies she’d seen,” Jesse said, jumping in again. “So they had to come after her again. They followed her to me, and saw an opportunity to take a shot at Scarlett before she could tell anyone about the number of girls.”

  “Without Scarlett, Molly looks responsible for all of it,” Dashiell said thoughtfully.

  “Exactly,” Jesse said. “Scar is the only person who can blow the official story.”

  “Look,” I began again. “If I’m right, you have a boundary witch running around LA right now, one who’s strong enough to press vampires. But she can’t be working alone. Setting aside the fact that she would have to move four adult bodies in a few seconds, I can only think of one reason for her to have stolen those women.”

  Kirsten paled, and Will went quiet. Dashiell said, “Because they’re being turned into vampires.”

  Chapter 12

  It was strange seeing the Old World leaders again, especially in a cheap hotel lobby. Jesse had sort of built them up in his head as the shapers of his destiny, but really, they were just tired-looking people struggling to represent their respective tribes. Even Dashiell didn’t look as scary as Jesse remembered, although he supposed it helped that the three of them were all in Scarlett’s presence at the moment.

  Dashiell’s declaration that the missing girls were likely being turned into vampires had silenced the group for a moment. Will and Dashiell had nearly identical thoughtful expressions, as they both worked through the implications. Kirsten just looked unnerved. Scarlett waited patiently, giving them time to absorb it. That surprised Jesse a little, but it was a smart move.

  Dashiell finally broke the silence. “So we’re talking about a boundary witch and a vampire working together,” he said in a hushed voice. “The vampire must have fed those four girls his blood a day beforehand, say by pressing them . . .”

  “Then the boundary witch was waiting for Molly when she woke up for the night,” Kirsten finished.

  Scarlett was nodding. “The mystery vampire probably even helped Molly press the girls to stay still, since I don’t think she could have done all twelve at once by herself. My guess is that the bad guys never intended to take all twelve,” she added. “They wanted Molly to take the fall for some of it.”

  “It’s kind of slick, if you think about it,” Will said mildly.

  Jesse was inclined to agree, but Kirsten glared at the alpha werewolf. “Slick? Think about all the families. One way or another, those girls are never coming home.”

  Will raised his hands, defensive. “I wasn’t trying to be glib, Kirsten. But you almost have to admire it, from a strategic perspective. Molly is framed and the girls are turned, all in one move. While we’re already distracted by the Trials.”

  Kirsten just glared at him and turned to Scarlett. “Did they know about Louisa?” she demanded. “That she was a Friend?”

  “I honestly
don’t know. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. No offense, Kirsten, but killing a Friend of the Witches would make you that much more likely to condemn Molly, and fast.”

  Kirsten’s face clouded over, and Jesse found himself stepping in. “She’s right,” he said. He looked at the three Old World leaders. “Anyone can see that the quickest way to distract you guys is to threaten one of your own. Or threaten exposure,” he added, looking at Dashiell.

  “That’s not the only threat, I’m afraid,” Dashiell said. “If there’s a powerful boundary witch running around our city, she can press any of my vampires.”

  Scarlett was staring at him. “So you believe me?” she said.

  He nodded. “I’m still not happy about how you handled this, but yes. I believe you about the girls.”

  “Then you should let Molly go,” she pushed. “It wasn’t her fault. She couldn’t stop herself.”

  Dashiell got up and wandered a few feet away, toward the coffee machine. He filled a Styrofoam cup, returned to his seat, and took a tiny sip, making a face. The expression was so incongruous with his usual demeanor that Jesse and Scarlett both stared at him. “Good heavens,” he sputtered. “I do not remember coffee tasting like this.”

  Scarlett looked determined to stay on track. “Molly is okay, isn’t she?”

  “Of course.” He gave her an injured look. “I wouldn’t kill her without a trial, not even if she had committed these murders with a song in her heart.”

  “Then you need to let her go,” Scarlett insisted. “She didn’t do this.”

  “He can’t,” Will said abruptly. Everyone turned to look at him. “I’m sorry, Scarlett, but right now, the people who did this think they’ve won. They’re probably holed up somewhere within the city limits, waiting for the girls to turn before they move them.” He looked at Dashiell. “Am I right?”

  The vampire nodded. “It’s difficult to move vampires,” he said. “But much harder to move a lot of corpses whose faces are all over the news.”

  Will turned back to the null. “So we’ve got a few days before they can flee town. During that time, they need to think that they’ve won, which means Molly has to stay where she is.”

  Scarlett looked unconvinced. She couldn’t see the big picture while her friend was in danger. “If they know you’re on to them, they can find another way to distract you,” Jesse said quietly. “Like eating people in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard.”

  “It’s much worse than that, actually,” Dashiell said. His voice was as calm as ever, but his face had darkened. “The vampire is dangerous to humans, of course, and to the weaker members of our community. But a boundary witch could make my own vampires do anything, including killing one of us.”

  That little revelation struck Jesse like a gut punch, but Scarlett wouldn’t be deterred. “If you’re saying we need to leave Molly where she is to buy time,” she said slowly, “I understand that. But it’s not like she’s joined the witness protection program. You’re suggesting we put her on trial for murder.”

  “Think of the damage these two could do in the city,” Dashiell pressed. “If the boundary witch can convince any of your witches she’s in the right, or if either of them can manipulate the werewolves . . .”

  “I love my pack, but it wouldn’t be all that difficult to convince some of them to act against one of the other groups,” Will said in a subdued voice. “And several of them hate Molly. If you were to let her go, they would think she was getting away with murder.”

  “Can’t you control them?” Scarlett asked, not unkindly.

  Will’s expression was pensive and a little sad. “At what cost? You saw what happened the last time they lost faith in me. If I give them orders they don’t understand, they’ll obey me out of fear. And once I open that particular door, it’s very difficult to get it closed again.”

  “Above all,” Dashiell said, in the tone that was kind of scary even as a human, “we have to maintain appearances. It’s likely that the vampire and boundary witch are watching us for signs that we’re not buying Molly as the perpetrator. It has to appear that we condemn Molly, we don’t believe Scarlett, and the Trials are proceeding just as planned.”

  Jesse’s eyes immediately turned to Scarlett, who was sitting up straighter in her chair. “At what cost?” she said, echoing Will’s words. Her eyes were narrowed at the vampire. “How far are you gonna let this go?”

  “Hang on,” Will said. He pointed to Kirsten, Dashiell, and himself. “We need to keep up appearances,” he said. “But the two of you don’t. Scarlett needs to be at the table when the Trials begin, but no one is monitoring her activities until then.”

  “Or yours,” Dashiell said, making eye contact with Jesse. “If you find the people doing this, we can expose them.”

  Scarlett and Kirsten began talking at the same time, but Jesse held Dashiell’s gaze. “You want me to work for you?” he said, barely managing to keep his tone civil. “Because that’s worked out so well in the past.”

  “You’re damn right it has,” Dashiell countered. “Your work with Scarlett has saved lives, both within the Old World and without. Just because we don’t see eye to eye doesn’t mean I underestimate your value as an investigator.”

  Now it was Jesse who stood up and paced away from the group. Despite his resolution to help Molly, he had a hard time with the idea of working for Dashiell and the others in any sort of official capacity. They hadn’t betrayed him, exactly, but he’d lost everything the last time. It was hard not to feel like Charlie Brown with the football.

  Scarlett stood up and came over to him. The others could probably still hear them, but they had the grace to start a quiet conversation amongst themselves, giving Jesse and Scarlett the semblance of privacy.

  She touched his arm. “What’s wrong?”

  Jesse blew out a breath. “This just got real for me, I guess.”

  She studied his face. “Nothing has changed,” she said after a moment. “You’re still making a decision to help someone who can’t help herself. It’s just officially sanctioned.” She gestured back toward the group. “Look, the rest of them see Molly as collateral damage—if she lives, fine. If she dies, fine. I could really use another person who cares about saving a life.”

  “I don’t know, Scar.”

  “Jesse, no one expects you to do this for free. What do you want? Money? I’m sure Dashiell could—”

  “I don’t need money,” he interrupted, holding up a hand. “I’ve already cashed in on this Old World shit once; I’ve got no desire to do it again.”

  She nodded, patient. “Okay. So what do you want?”

  What did he want? “Scarlett, until a few hours ago I was going for the world record in pajama sulking. I have no idea what I want.”

  Her eyes probed him. “A job?”

  Jesse looked up sharply. Scarlett hurried to add, “Hey, it’s just you and me here. You can admit that you absolutely love this shit.”

  He closed his eyes, feeling like she’d struck him. He had loved working Old World cases in the past. They were complicated, exciting, and he’d always played an active role—so much better than doing the dull grunt work so senior detectives could take the credit. He’d been important, and that was intoxicating. Who didn’t want to be important at their job?

  Jesse opened his eyes. “You’re right, I loved it,” he said. “But I didn’t love what it did to me.”

  “I will not ask you to help me destroy any bodies,” she said firmly. “I won’t ask you to hurt anyone unless it’s to save lives. And I promise that when we find the people who did this, you will get a say in how they are punished.”

  He gave her a skeptical look. “Can you really promise that?”

  Scarlett drew herself up to her full height. “I’m not a naive kid anymore, Jesse. If those are your conditions, let’s go back and pitch them. I’ve got your back.” She reached over and squeezed his hand. It wasn’t a romantic gesture, but Jesse felt his pulse trip anyway, l
ike his body was just hardwired to react to her.

  They went back to the others, who gave no sign that they’d overheard anything. As Scarlett listed Jesse’s conditions they all nodded passively, until she got to the last part. “If Jesse helps me find these guys, he deserves the right to have a vote in what happens to them.” Before anyone could respond, she added, “Which means there will be five of us. The vote can’t be split.”

  The three leaders all lifted their eyebrows at the same time, which was a little funny, but Jesse was too startled to enjoy it. He’d thought she would ask that he could address the four of them before they did anything; he hadn’t expected her to actually push for him to vote.

  But Kirsten, Will, and Dashiell all looked at each other, and he could practically read their thoughts: even with Jesse getting a vote, it would be the three of them against him and Scarlett. The odds looked good for the Old World.

  “You have a deal,” Dashiell said, holding out his hand. Jesse took it, surprised. Dashiell had never initiated a handshake before.

  “What do you need from us?”

  “Access to Molly,” Scarlett said promptly. “We need to talk to her.”

  Dashiell was already shaking his head. “Forget Molly. Finding the boundary witch should be your priority.”

  Jesse could practically see steam coming from Scarlett’s ears, so he jumped in. “Molly obviously wasn’t chosen at random. We need to ask her about her enemies. Her history.”

  “I’ve never let any prisoners have visitors before,” Dashiell said. “And there are too many people at the mansion we might not be able to trust. For all we know, the boundary witch pressed one of my people to report any suspicious activity.”

  He had a point. “What if we came to see her during the day?” he suggested. “Scarlett can wake her up and we can ask questions then.”

  The vampire looked thoughtful. “Hold on a moment,” he said. He pulled out his cell phone and began scrolling through what looked like a calendar app. After a moment, he looked up and said, “I think I can make that work. At noon, just before shift change, there’s an hour where only Abigail and Theodore Hayne will be in the house. If you come then, Hayne can bring you to Molly, and Abigail can make sure the video cameras don’t record it.”