Magaestra: Loyalties: An urban fantasy series Read online

  "Detective," she said slowly, choosing her words. "I truly appreciate your concern. You barely know me, but you saved Kaylee from that thing earlier, and by doing so, revealed your biggest secret to us. That took a great deal of courage. I know how hard it is to let others know about your magic, and I don't even know how to say thank you."

  "They're just kids," Lincoln grunted. "Nobody deserves to be torn up by monsters, but they're just kids."

  "They are," Faith smiled. "And they're living, breathing, happy, and free thanks to you. I can't do that. Light a candle? Sure. Throw a giant, fiery ball of doom? Nope. I have a shield that is fairly handy, but I can only use that as far as a few feet from myself. “

  Lincoln huffed a small laugh, then frowned again, like he didn't mean to show a sense of humor.

  "And if Aldric was likely to even try to bite me, it would have been after one of the times he was badly injured recently. He's needed more blood in the last few weeks, apparently, than he has in the last few decades. Fighting this hard and healing this much takes it out of him. And after the lodge, when we rescued the kids? We weren't completely sure he would make it. And he hasn't once suggested that feeding right from a human is a thing he would consider, let alone do."

  This time Lincoln's snort wasn't amused. "Then what does he eat? Bloodsuckers eat people."

  "Expired medical blood, actually. We have several packets in the fridge here. He drops it into a cup of warm water to heat it up," Faith grinned. "Or he goes hunting for deer and brings back the meat. I have to tell you, venison sausage is my new favorite thing."

  "Venison..." Detective Lincoln blinked, trying to absorb this information. After a moment he cleared his throat. "So, you're telling me that creature lives on deer and stale blood bags?"

  "Pretty much, yep," Faith shrugged. "I asked him about it once, and he got all shy. Said that he always thought it would be too intimate to do with someone else." She grinned at the memory of Aldric's face dusted with pink and his stammered explanation. Apparently, he had seen his parents feeding each other when he was young and thus, for him, it was associated with very private, personal moments.

  "I trust him, Detective. With my life. With Kaylee's life. I wouldn't be here if I didn't."

  The detective just growled quietly for a long moment. "What's done is done. But don't you trust them, Miss Latham. None of those inhuman things can be trusted, and you're too nice a lady to get used up like they'll try."

  "We will have to disagree there. And you can call me Faith, please."

  That earned the first real smile she had seen from him yet. It wasn't this kindly, sympathetic detective smile, or what she thought of as his PR smile for the public. This smile actually glowed out of him and lit up his whole face. She had heard of a smile transforming a person's look, but this was the first time she had seen it happen, and it made her wonder if he had a lot of friends for something so simple to cause such a smile.

  "And you can call me Ken," he replied. Even his voice was softer and less edgy now. "Listen, I have to get going. I should head back to the office to work on this new body we found. But maybe we could get together tomorrow? I could show you a few things about throwing fireballs. Seems it could come in useful."

  Faith felt her own smile stretching her face. "Really? I would love to learn more about how to use my magic! My lessons were cut short and Crissy only knew a little more than I did, so we've been stuck this whole time. You'll teach me?"

  Detect– Ken's face pinked slightly and he nodded. "Sure. It's not like I get a lot of opportunity to talk magic with anyone around here. My brother is deployed most of the time these days, and my sister lives across the country. I can show you a few things."

  "That's awesome! Thank you so much!" Faith felt like bouncing up and down like Kaylee did when they offered to bake.

  Ken just shrugged her thanks off and stood to put his dishes in the sink. Faith walked him out the front door and before he left they made an appointment for coffee and magic lessons. Faith watched him drive off and disappear into the trees and felt like maybe things were changing in their favor.

  7

  Aldric sat down at his desk and swiveled to face his screen. It had been an exceptionally long day, transporting the badly wounded sentries to the clinic, then transporting several of the healing sentries back to the Clan House to finish healing. Then Aldric and Tamika had to sort out a new plan for security, figuring out what to do about the scent blocked attackers should they try that trick again, arguing with Leo about security cameras in their woods, and finally getting the new schedule and the announcement about the new cameras out to everyone. That had taken most of the day.

  He thought they had a good handle on it now, though the sun had long since set. Nobody was going to go out alone until this entire situation was resolved. Two or more sentries would be together at all times when patrolling, and Aldric had told them quite frankly that he didn't want them alone when they were off duty, either, though he wasn't going to make that an order. He warned them that he doubted the Goldfangs or their allies would care all that much about the duty roster.

  There was some grumbling, but they all seemed to appreciate the warning.

  And then there was Faith. She had finally sat with Detective Lincoln, discussing her history and her training, or rather her lack of it. Lincoln had offered to go over the basics with her and be a mentor of sorts. Faith immediately asked when the lesson on incinerating blighthounds would take place, and the detective laughed for the first time in their presence. Even Aldric had to admit that when the man wasn't scowling, he was fairly handsome and it seemed that he was capable of being charming, after all.

  Faith and Kaylee were the only two he used it with, however. He was stiff and borderline rude to Marc and Aldric. Jake seemed to fall under the protection of childhood, even as a puppy, so Lincoln was gruff with the boy but generally kind. Aldric snorted to himself. It seemed that the detective drew a line on his bigotry, and he had nothing against werewolves so long as they were children.

  Faith, though, was so excited to have a more experienced mage to learn from that she had been almost giddy all day. He had no wish to dampen her joy, so he hadn't mentioned his concerns about the detective. Why had he shown up this morning? Certainly, he had an excuse, since he and Faith had found the first random body, but that seemed a fairly large coincidence, that he would be here just in time to save the most vulnerable of their clan from a surprise attack.

  Aldric thought it was a bit telling that this man who seemed to harbor nothing but ill will for paranormal beings had hit not one single werewolf, nor any vampires in the attack. All the scorched bodies had been blighthounds. The others-- the wolves and the vampires-- had all been photographed by Leo before all the bodies had been burned on a pyre in the furthest area of the field. The stench still clung to the air.

  He sighed and turned on his computer, staring at the screen as it woke back up. He was glad that Faith was so pleased. And he was relieved that she would be able to advance her magical skills, even though her limited abilities had already proved both effective and deadly. Still, he didn't exactly trust the detective. He had to have some motive beyond just an altruistic desire to help.

  But for Faith he would keep his thoughts to himself unless Detective Lincoln proved himself untrustworthy. Simply not liking the man was no reason to be rude.

  "What has you scowling like that, son?" Uncle Eldridge asked. "I've been watching you for a minute and your frown just keeps growing."

  Aldric flinched, not having heard his uncle come in and take his seat across the desk. "I was thinking about Detective Lincoln," he admitted. "I have some concerns. But those thoughts were the just the latest in a long string of worries from the day."

  Eldridge nodded, the serious expression ruined by the twinkle in his eye. "We didn't sustain any losses, did we? Only the injured sentries? I just wanted to check in before I headed home myself."

  "That's right," Aldric confirmed. "Madeline inf
ormed me that they will all recover after a few days of rest. I have ordered them all off for a week to make sure of it. I do not know why the Goldfangs and their allies left our people alive, but I am not going to allow that question to be one of my concerns this evening. I will simply be glad of it."

  "Good. Thank goodness for small favors. And what is your concern with the good detective?" Eldridge asked. His lips twitched as if he already knew what Aldric would say.

  Aldric grimaced. "Aside from being irritated at his attitude toward our mere existence? Nothing, most likely. I simply think his timing this morning was very convenient."

  "I see." His uncle nodded. His small smile vanished as he considered the idea. "I hear he is going to be working with Faith, mentoring her in human magic."

  "Indeed. She is thrilled to have someone to ask her questions of that might actually have answers for her." Aldric was absolutely not going to begrudge her the chance to get those answers, either. Even though the idea of her spending large amounts of time with the man made him itch.

  "Hmm," Eldridge nodded again. "Well, you're right about that. It will be good for her to have another mage around. Someone who can understand her needs in that regard.”

  Aldric couldn't stop the growl if his life had depended on it. He growled louder when his uncle just chuckled.

  "What is so amusing?"

  "It is good to see you wound up about a woman. Hell, about anyone. I haven't seen you even try to date this century,” Eldridge said.

  Aldric gaped at him. "What?"

  Eldridge grinned. "You haven't dated anyone since the mid-nineties, Aldric. That's more than twenty years. Faith took all of a few minutes to start getting under your skin. Smitten is a good look on you." His uncle raised a single eyebrow now. "Jealous, however, is not as attractive."

  Aldric wanted to argue, but he was afraid that there may be a nugget of truth in his uncle's words. He was saved from having to answer by the beeping of his computer.

  "It's Leo." He turned and hit the button to open the chat window.

  "You've been at it all day, kid. Any luck now that you're back at your own setup?" Eldridge crowded behind Aldric to get on camera.

  "Hey Dad, still over there helping out?" Leo flicked his gaze over the corner of his own screen where the chat window was clearly stuffed.

  "It was a lot of cleanup, and Marc had to spend a deal of time helping his son, though surprisingly it was Ori who finally helped the boy shift back to human. I was happy to take some of the burden off Marc's shoulders."

  "Is he still awake?" Leo asked, looking up at the camera now, as if he could make actual eye contact with them. “Marc really ought to take a nap or something.”

  "He has gone to the clinic. Again," Aldric said with a grimace. "It is a trip he hopes not to have to make tomorrow."

  Leo nodded with a sigh. "Yeah. Well, I've got some not great news for him. Of the three vamps we took out today, one is a mercenary, unaffiliated with any coven."

  Aldric narrowed his eyes at his cousin's image. This did not sound like good news at all. "And the other two?"

  Leo hunched a little closer to his keyboard and turned back to his screen, to avoid all possibility of eye contact, even virtual. "I traced them ultimately back to a coven led by this guy." A photo replaced Leo's image of an aristocratic man with sandy blond hair and an elegant, arrogant frown. "This is Sandalio Conti. He is the Master of the House of Noctis Coven– and can I interrupt myself for a moment to thank you, Dad, for not letting me be born into a coven with such a stupid name? I've been researching this guy for hours now and why are half the coven names in the world so... high school goth?"

  Eldridge chuckled. "It was a fashion for a short while, and I regret to say that many of the names stuck."

  "Ugh, I'd much rather be a Frostwalker. At least it doesn't sound like bad poetry," Leo grumbled. "Anyway, He's bad news. Arrogant, demanding, and thinks he's better than almost everyone. Sadly, one of the people he admires greatly is this man."

  Another photo flashed up on the screen of sidewalk seating at a cafe on a bright, sunny day. A slim, dark man with a pleasant smile sat back in the wire frame chair, his fingers caressing the handle of his espresso cup. He sat across from Conti, not looking at him. Rather he stared into the crowd, watching the people walk past on the sidewalk. Conti was caught, leaning in to say something, looking almost eager.

  Eldridge went very still beside Aldric, and Aldric himself frowned. "Hell."

  "That was taken a month ago at a tiny cafe in New Orleans. That is confirmed to be Reyher Cherro. He leads a coven that was until recently located in very rural Peru that is known as Night's Phoenix. It is, near as I can tell, mostly made up of what is left of the Immortal Thirst Coven."

  Eldridge swore in several languages and started pacing and scowling. "We know damn well who that son of a bitch is, Leo."

  "Sorry. I was still an infant, remember?"

  Aldric sat back in his chair, shocked for a long moment. Leo left them alone to let the information sink in. The Immortal Thirst Coven was the one that had started everything. Led by a megalomaniac who thought he could and should rule the world, they had rolled over everyone in their way and very nearly caused the extinction of mages.

  The Master of that coven had been very publicly killed at the end of the war, just before D-Day thanks to the personal sacrifice of a mage who himself died from the battle due to injuries sustained as well as overuse of his magic. Donald Haydenson would be forever remembered and honored by paranormals as the man who saved the world.

  "I thought they had been disbanded? Destroyed?" Aldric finally managed to speak. "About a quarter of them were caught and executed as Nazi war criminals, and I thought the rest were hunted down by the Paranormal Allies."

  Leo's shoulders slumped and he nodded. "Yeah. They were, mostly. But a few survived, including Cherro. Rumors have him doing everything from turning into a mist to escape to a daring rescue where his followers sacrificed themselves to save him."

  "Who is this guy?"

  Faith's voice near his ear startled Aldric. He reached out and took her hand, needing the comfort of human contact.

  "That man," Aldric pointed to Cherro on the screen. "was the second in command of the coven that was the true cause of World War Two. You recall I told you about the coven that started hunting human mages and influenced many of the main players in the Axis? That man was a leader of that coven."

  "He taught the Nazis many of their foundational horrors. That is the face of genuine evil," Eldridge said. he kept pacing as he spoke. "If that man is involved in this mess, we are in far more danger than we thought. The Goldfangs are being used as cannon fodder to batter away at our defenses before they come in and take what they want."

  Both men turned to look at Faith, and ice filled Aldric's veins.

  "No," he said, and he found his vision shifting as his vampire form came close to the surface. "I won't allow it."

  Faith had lost all color in her face and her eyes were wide and filled with horror. Aldric stood and wrapped his arms around her and turned her away from the screen.

  "I won't let either of those creatures or their people touch you or Kaylee. I swear it, Faith," he said.

  “We don’t know that he’s after them...” Leo spoke up, hesitantly. “I mean, he may not even know about them.”

  “If Conti knows, and Conti wants to curry favor with Cherro, then Cherro knows as well,” Eldridge said. He sank into a chair and looked defeated. “Mages are rare these days. Immortal Thirst's Master wanted to drain as many as he could and take their power for himself. He was power-drunk. Addicted to the rush of it. I’ve seen films... It was horrifying. I do not like violence, but I have never regretted fighting against that monster. Cherro was nearly as bad.”

  Faith curled into Aldric’s chest and he tightened his hold on her. The thought of anyone, let alone that madman, sinking their teeth into her was beyond enraging. He knew that His vampire nature had come out fully, an
d there was nothing he could do to restrain it.

  Faith glanced up and saw his fangs, his inhuman eyes, and sucked in a sharp breath before burying her face into his shoulder and wrapping her own arms around his waist.

  “We’ll be okay, Aldric,” she murmured. “I believe in you. In all of us. We’ll be okay.”

  It astonished him. Even after all they had been through in the past few weeks, she wasn’t afraid of him. She had seen what he was capable of. Seen him kill. Repeatedly, in fact. But when confronted with the truth of the vampire– when held firmly in his arms and already caught– she didn’t run or fight. She held tighter and tried to comfort him.

  “You are truly a treasure, Faith,” he murmured into her hair. She just rubbed her cheek against his shoulder and held on.

  “We need to warn the good detective,” his uncle spoke up. “Even if they don't know about you yet for some reason, they will soon. Finding even one Magaestra would be a way to curry favor with that man, but finding several, all in the same area? Cherro's coven members being involved this morning is a bad sign.”

  “Agreed,” Aldric said. “Nobody should be hunted like that.”

  “I’m having coffee with him tomorrow,” Faith said, lifting her head to speak. “Ken, I mean. I can call and tell him the basics of what we've learned tonight and then maybe he can come here instead of meeting in town, and you can fill him in on everything I don’t know.”

  Aldric pulled in a deep breath, and closed his eyes. He may not like the man, but as he already said. Nobody should be hunted. And he had seen the films as well. He wouldn’t wish that torture on his worst enemy. It was as if their very soul was being drained from them, not just their blood. Aldric was never more glad that those films had been silent.

  “That sounds like a good idea. He needs to make sure he takes measures to stay hidden and safe. Tell him that I will send some sentries to patrol near his apartment as well. He is a Frostwalker ally, and we will not abandon him. Also, I would rather you didn’t leave the Clan house alone until this is over. I am sorry, but with Conti’s people in the area…”