Page 52 of Mystic Justice
‘How like a woman, always multi-tasking,’ he murmured. He thought for a moment. ‘Well, Betty and I were … entertaining ourselves up here until 2am.’
‘And on the night of Moss’s murder? Saturday the fourth?’
‘I took the lovely Betty to the theatre. We watchedBlood Brothersand she gave me a wonderful blow-job in the second act – we were in a private box. I do so adore a young woman’s libido.’ He looked at me. ‘Though it’s supposed to be stronger when a woman is your age.’
As Gideon dragged his gaze suggestively down my body Krieg gave a low, threatening rumble. Gideon’s eyebrows shot up. ‘No disrespect intended, Your Excellence,’ he said hastily. ‘I didn’t know she was yours.’
‘I will break your fucking nose,’ I snarled. ‘I am no one’s but my own.’
Volderiss burst in at full vampiric speed and in a beat he was standing next to Gideon with the desk between us. ‘Violence, Inspector Wise? How unlike you.’ His tone was faintly sarcastic.
Although he appeared to be alone, my skin prickled with the uncomfortable sensation that told me I was being watched.I sent out tendrils of my subterfuge magic and encountered another mind – one I recognised – lurking in the shadows. I kept that knowledge off my face. ‘I don’t tolerate fools gladly.’
‘You do not,’ Volderiss agreed. ‘But Gideon is no fool. Far from it, though he plays the jester well. He’s one of our best Red Guard agents. He has been deep under cover for nearly a year now, harvesting ingredients for the Black Coven, ingratiating himself into their good books.’
‘Or bad books, as the case may be,’ Gideon interjected with yet another too-charming smile.
‘We are at a critical stage of the mission and we cannot afford for you to screw this up,’ Volderiss groused. ‘Back off, Inspector Wise. That’s an order, direct from the Symposium.’
Well, fuck.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Having said his piece, Volderiss started to leave. ‘Stay,’ I said crisply. ‘Please,’ I added belatedly. ‘We’re not done yet.’
He said impatiently. ‘I know nothing about the dryad’s death, nor about the centaur’s.’
‘No, but you know evil witches.’ I took out my phone and showed both vampyrs the video of the runes lighting up on the bones of the dead.
Volderiss’s expression was tight. ‘I’ve never seen such a thing before.’
‘Me neither,’ Gideon confirmed. ‘It’s as if the runes are scorched on. But with runes like that, you’re definitely looking at a necromancer, a witch who has slid into complete darkness.’ For once the smile was gone, leaving him looking sombre.
Voltaire – the head of the Red Guard vampyrs – phased out of the shadows: the Peeping Tom had come to play. I would have been startled by his presence had I not already known he was there, which was what he had intended.
I’d already decided how I would play it. I drew up my intention and gathered the fierce magic within me. Every now and againyou had to remind the factions that you weren’t weak – and Voltaire was about to get a front-row demonstration.
Blade raised, Krieg had pivoted instantly to face the new threat. He paused as he recognised Voltaire and deduced that the vampyr was unlikely to attack me, but I was pissed off at the eavesdropper so I didn’t pause. I released my magic in a hard column of air that blasted Voltaire, sending him careening back into the exposed brickwork. He hit the wall with an audiblethunk.He grunted, glaring at me as he picked himself up.
‘Oops,’ I said flatly. ‘You startled me.’
‘Bitch!’ he spat.
Now that wasn’t kind. ‘Sticks and stones, Volty,’ I taunted. Was that wise? Perhaps not, but I was tired and cranky and my patience had long gone. Voltaire had shown me zero respect by lurking in the shadows so he would get none back from me. In the Other realm, respect wasearned.
Volderiss cleared his throat pointedly. ‘If we can all focus on business, please? Wise, show Voltaire the footage. I’d like him to see it for himself.’
I did so grudgingly, but Voltaire was an expert in all things necromantic. It was his life’s work – and the rest of the Red Guards’ – to find and wipe out evil witches, witches that slid from naughty bloodwork to animal sacrifices to human ones. Witches that became necromancers who could control the dead. The walking undead often became their lackeys, willingly or not.
The dark witches subsumed the vampyrs, controlled them like puppets and then discarded them to ash once they were finished with them. Unsurprisingly, the vampyrs disliked that immensely and hunting down those witches was the purview of the Red Guard.
Voltaire watched the footage a couple of times. ‘Definitely necromantic in nature,’ he said to Volderiss. Finally he looked at me. ‘Those runes are powering something dead. You’re lookingfor a dead man walking and an evil witch doing the powering. If you find them, let me know and I’ll take care of them for you.’ He sneered condescendingly.
‘I can take care of them myself,’ I replied coolly.
I’d proved I was tough with the whole slamming-Voltaire-into-a-wall thing, but now I needed to show I could play nice when I had to so I offered him an olive branch. ‘Inspector Elvira Garcia was attacked by five vampyrs yesterday. They were all under a necromancer’s control.’
‘Or several necromancers,’ Gideon commented. ‘Holding one of us is tricky so five at once would be harder still.’
