Elemental Shadows (14 page)

The only thing I knew for certain was the magical community, as it stood now, did not need to know that Witches like Ivan existed. It would be the same if the government ever found out about us.
 

I could just see the threads of wireless magic surrounding him, spinning around his fingers as he manipulated local Internet connections, security cameras and service providers. I assumed he was looking for Kyle's phone.
 

When Ivan opened his eyes they were green and glowing. He moved his hands and ghostly images appeared in front of him. He swiped at them like anyone would swipe at a tablet screen or smart phone, pinching things to make them smaller or using gestures to make them grow.
 

I saw strands of colors as he plucked through them and then centered on one strand that glittered a bright and brilliant red.
 

"I got him. He's on the phone with…" Ivan narrowed his eyes. "I don't know this guy. Might be somebody new he met."
 

"Is he at home?"
 

"No. He's on the road, and he's not near his house. I know the communication between the phones is red because of the Shadow entity—and it looks like the thing's trying to move from Kyle's phone to this other person's phone."
 

Oh shit. "Can you stop it?"
 

"I can cut the connection. But Kyle's just going to call him back or vice versa."
 

"Do it anyway. Can you shut his phone down?"
 

Ivan moved the strand of glittering red to the right and then widened it. "Yes. He's got that app on it to find his phone. I can shut it down, but then we won't be able to communicate with him either."
 

"Find out where he is first." I slapped a hand to my mouth as I fought back a yawn. I'd noticed the overwhelming fatigue settling on my shoulders since leaving Rose's house and now it was even heavier.
 

"I'll zero in on him with traffic cameras."
 

I tried to move all those pieces together in my head as I waited on Ivan to locate Kyle. The Clerics had given me twenty-four hours. That was at nine this morning. It was already closing in on six in the evening and the sun was setting. I had fourteen hours or so to find the Hammer or they were going to request a warlock. Truth was, that was
 
taking the request to Parliament. Who knew how much longer it would take Parliament make a decision? The Witch Parliament wasn't exactly a speedy bunch. Part of me figured if I didn't find them what they needed or invent something to placate them by exactly nine in the morning, there was still time.
 

"Got him," Ivan said as he moved blurry images across his virtual screen and read out an address.

"That's near Arden's house."
 

"He might be going to see his aunt."
 

"And the phone wouldn't work in her house to begin with. Let's meet him over there and get that phone."
 

Ivan blinked a few times as the images vanished and his eyes became their beautiful light brown. "And then what?"
 

"You're going to force that son of a bitch out of that damn phone and I'm going to get that book back."
 

Thinking it in my head, it sounded really cool. Saying it out loud made me sound like a dumbass.
 

We grabbed Grey and got back in my Jeep and headed to Arden's.
 

She lived in the Garden District, not far from Anne Rice's former home. Arden lived on a corner lot in a mansion to rival any of the others on her street. The house was lit up against the night for a party when we arrived; cars parked up and down the street. I used my Park Fu and found a spot down the street from Kyle's car. I jumped out and looked inside, hoping maybe he just left the phone in the car.
 

No such luck. There wasn't an Arcane thing in it.
 

"You really want me to go in there?" Ivan looked worried as he stepped out of the Jeep. He knew how much I didn't want Arden to know what he was. He was afraid of the woman because she'd inadvertently put him in a coma when they first met. Long story.

"Yeah. I need you with me. Just don't connect with anything in the house. Can you do that?"
 

He nodded, but he still looked worried.
 

I made sure I had my guns and Grey followed at my heels as we headed to the house. The iron front gate was open and we walked in.
 

The place was packed—literally—with people. Everyone was dressed in nice clothing, which made our casual apparel stick out. Grey hung outside and settled in the bushes. I had the clear impression she did not want to go inside.
 

"Sam!"
 

I heard Kyle's voice as we slowly made our way through the crowd. I spotted him, waved, and the three of us met in a corner near the staircase where there were no people and no furniture. I gaped at Kyle. He was actually dressed up in a nice suit. "What's going on?"
 

"Fundraiser," he said as he gestured around. "I promised my aunt I'd show up and I forgot till I left Rose's house and found messages from my aunt on my phone. Crwys and Levi took a taxi back to the Kennett house."

"You keep a suit in your car?"
 

"Damn straight I do. Never know when you might need one," Kyle smirked. "I also keep a whole change of clothing in my trunk, along with an emergency toiletry kit."

I returned his smirk. "Nice. So, what's the fundraiser for?"
 

"Avondale Women's Shelter. Arden's a big supporter when it comes to domestic violence cases. Avondale is one of her most successful shelters. They were hacked about a month ago and two of their workers were killed. So this party is to raise money for their families and prove to the community that Avondale Shelters shouldn't be closed."
 

Women's Shelter. Ivan's story about the hacker came back to me. Ivan looked like he was going to be sick. I grabbed the collar of his hoodie and brought him down to my level. "Please tell me Avondale wasn't the shelter that kid hit?"
 

He just stared at me.
 

"Shit…"
 

"It's worse than that." Ivan looked around before he leaned in close and spoke in my ear. "Remember how I said I hid the proof that would incarcerate him?"
 

Oh no.

"What are you two whispering about?" Kyle leaned in. It was hard to hear with all the people milling about and talking.
 

I grabbed them both by the upper arms and led them through the red room in the back, the one I always thought looked like a bordello and outside to the pool. Since it was December and cold, no one was out and the pool was covered. Which seemed odd to me since the pool was enclosed in mesh.
 

I faced both of them. I had Ivan update Kyle on the shelter and what he'd done to Ronald Kennett. I followed the story all the way to hearing the name of Avondale. "So now answer my question, Ivan."
 

The two of them looked at each other. When Kyle put his hand to his forehead, I knew it as going to be bad news. Ivan said, "Kyle asked me to hack his aunt's servers once—back when I first started working at the store. I, uh…I did it because it was easy and apparently they haven't changed their security in six months. So I found a nice, empty patch of drive real estate on one of them, upgraded the encryption and security for that particular server and…just left it there."
 

"Christ, Ivan," Kyle said. "You left damning evidence about this hacker and Soul Machine on one of my aunt's servers?"
 

"Who would ever think to look there?" Ivan shrugged. "Come on, give me a break. Think about it."
 

"Ivan," I said when it became clear he didn't see the correlation. "If you could find that tiny bit of real estate, who's to say somebody else wouldn't? You said it yourself that it was possible he traced the information. And if he traced it there, it is conceivable he believed that someone in Arden's company, or companies, was the one that hacked him."
 

"Which means you set her up." Kyle ran his fingers through his thick, dark hair. "Oh damn, Sam. Do you think that's who’s framing Arden for those murders?"
 

I held up a hand. My own brain was spinning faster than it should and I wanted to go off in search of coffee. Black. Strong. Fatigue pressed down heavy on my shoulders. "Who's framing Arden? Ronald Kennett? How? He's dead."
 

"Then what about killing those Elders, that is, if this guy was a Witch like Ivan."
 

"No…look at the timeline." Eh gads for a white board! "Ivan said he hacked this guy two weeks ago. Threatened him. That puts it in the middle of the two weeks his parents were gone."
 

"Which means he was dead when the Elders were killed," said a new, distinctly feminine and familiar voice.
 

Everyone turned to see Emily Pearson step outside to the pool. She wore a little black dress that actually flattered her full size. She carried a clutch and walked expertly in high, satin black heels. She smiled as she approached and held her hand out to Ivan. "I'm Emily. I think you know what I am thanks to Samantha, but we haven't been formerly introduced."
 

My heart raced when Ivan shook her hand. "I'm Ivan Westerfield."
 

"Yes. The third and less Gifted of Sam's little band of Merry Men. She's a lot like her mother. Tends to attract the strays. So, tell me more about how you hacked this hacker? I take it this is what you do in the mundane world?"
 

Ivan glanced at me. I gave him a slight nod. Apparently Emily hadn't been tipped that the hacking was a magical hacking.
 

I was surprised to see Grey step outside and come padding up beside me. In fact, she sat in front of me, facing Emily, putting herself between us. It would have been interesting to see the faces of the guests inside when a dog the size of a wolf came trotting through as if she knew her business.
 

"Yes, ma'am. I'm a computer systems analyst. Or I was."
 

"Before your Gift came to you?"
 

I must say I was impressed to see Ivan work with it. "That's exactly it! How did you know?" He feigned surprise well.
 

"Because it happens to all of us. And I'm sure working with computers and then having a Gift—those things didn't work, did they?"
 

"No, ma'am. All the magnetic fields kept buggering up."
 

"Emily. Please call me Emily."
 

"Emily."
 

Kyle, Grey and I did the ping-pong conversation follow, going from Ivan on the left and Emily on the right. He'd played her. Oh Sweet Lord he’d played her and he was good at it!

Something red glittered around Kyle's left, suit jacket pocket. I smelled the Arcane as well as saw it. Without a signal to latch on to, the son of a bitch was trying to peak out and see where he could go. I glanced at Emily who appeared to be enthralled in conversation with Ivan. And who wouldn't be? The guy was cute as hell.
 

Grey nudged my hand and I petted her head. "Yeah," I said in a low voice. "I see it."
 

My hope was it would just stay where it was and choose a more opportune time to step out of the phone—one that didn't involve manifesting in front of a Cleric.
 

That just wasn't going to happen, the thing literally spilled out of Kyle's pocket and puddled on the floor. Just a flat, gooey looking mass of jellied red glitter. And if I looked hard enough, I could just see the Hammer in its flash drive form in the very center of it. Just an outline in darker red.
 

Three seconds after wondering if anyone else could see it; Ivan did a classic double take at Kyle. Emily looked to see what had Ivan's attention. She did a double take too.
 

Kyle looked at the two of them staring at him and he put his hands to his suit jacket. "What? Did I spill crab dip on me?"
 

When he looked down, he made a slightly high-pitched noise and backed away from the puddle.
 

Guess that answered my question, didn't it?
 

Two seconds later the red glittering puddle was replaced by a six-foot man made of Shadow.