BOOK 4 - BIJOU

Good. Her creations would not be the only ones to die here today. Taking the few prizes she'd collected, the Obayifo retreated, leaving her children to fight.

CHAPTER EIGHT

ZEKE

Zeke moved through the crowd at the art gallery as he kept an eye out for mages. It wasn't likely one of them would come somewhere so public and away from his bolt hole, but their minions might. After Ember escaped from her kidnappers, leaving dead minions behind and a mage missing, they would stop at nothing to get her back, especially if they figured out she was Strygoi -- a silver witch. The kind mages thought they'd exterminated a thousand years ago.

But Ember wasn't alone anymore. When they'd arrived at the showing, Stryx went immediately to his Dragă -- the one witch who could make his vampire heart beat. They made a striking couple. Ember's red hair and fiery personality balanced out Stryx's dark looks and brooding.

Jael was already hidden from sight. Not actually invisible, but the magic in his swords urged people to look away. An assassin for nearly four thousand years, he wielded scimitars more bloodthirsty than the sword Zeke usually carried. The Assassin and Melchior, the pale giant, took up positions along the walls, leaving Zeke to mingle with the crowd. If a mage or a minion showed up tonight, he'd have four vampires and a Strygoi witch to deal with.

The idea of a fight sent his thoughts back to his mysterious vigilante from a few nights ago, and he resisted the urge to touch his chest over his non-beating heart. Returning to the warehouses the last three nights hadn't brought him any closer to finding her again.

Why had she run? He'd tried to explain about Plan D, and that she didn't need to worry, but she'd fled. His heart didn't beat, but it had felt like it was torn from his chest when she looked at him with distrust and fear.

He'd been so sure she was the one for him. Maybe it was wishful thinking on his part, from seeing Stryx and Idris find their Dragăs. For now, Zeke had to put thoughts like that aside. There was a job to do at the art gallery.

Everyone wore suits or fancy dresses as they perused paintings of shadow hung on the walls next to photographs of light. In the middle, a wide open space that offered few places to hide, tables formed a line, nearly groaning under their burdens of flowers, candles, and food. Servers in black and white uniforms circulated to offer guests drinks from their trays.

No threats as far as he could see. Melchior and Jael remained watchful but unconcerned, so they had come to the same conclusion. As the evening went on, Zeke offered bows and winks to ladies, earning some flushes and titters. And just as he thought nothing was going to happen...

A man wearing a badly fitting suit entered the gallery. He stopped just inside the door and scanned the crowd. Something about him set Zeke's teeth on edge. Jael stiffened ever so slightly. Melchior stared, and Stryx's head snapped up as the intruder's eyes landed on Ember.

Had instinct not alerted him, those actions would have -- the newcomer was mage touched. Zeke's hand clenched over nothing at his hip, and not for the first time, he wished his sword could hide from view like Jael's twin scimitars.

Maybe Zeke could use the necktie the Assassin insisted was really a deadly weapon. Jael refused to wear one, but it could come in handy now.

The badly dressed man diverted his attention from Ember, which settled Stryx, to Viktoria, which riled Jael.

If nothing else, the man certainly had a talent for provoking the two men in the room who would happily kill him fastest. Zeke hadn't missed the staring contest between Viktoria, the painter of shadows, and the Assassin, who should have been hidden from her sight. There was only one reason Zeke could think of why Viktoria saw Jael when no one else could, and the Assassin wouldn't appreciate another man's attention on her if she were his Dragă.

Zeke half expected a scimitar to appear like magic in the minion's chest when he touched Viktoria's arm.

Viktoria moved away from the minion, who stood looking out of place as he stared after her for a few minutes, then left. Zeke followed him out, trailing the man from the Old Main Street district through the snow-covered streets to a more modern block of apartment buildings, bodegas, and a bar.

CHAPTER NINE

BIJOU

Bijou perched atop the slanted roof of a warehouse, and was never more grateful to have been raised by Amazons than when she watched over Allister. He hadn't recovered from his near-death head injury yet, and here he was, keeping perilous company again.

First, he'd initiated contact with an international cabal of traffickers and drug dealers, then befriended that psycho Dmitri, who worked for the Eel Mage. Now Allister was cozying up to these three minions of the Spider Mage, all while working under the nose of the Wolf Mage. If any of them caught on to what he was doing, she wasn't sure even she could get him out of harm's way.

This meeting, with representatives from mages and the cabal, run by humans, as far as she could tell, was a terrible idea for a member of their clandestine hodge-podge band of monster hunters, but especially for Allister. If he took another blow to the head in his fragile state, she might not be able to heal him again.

She couldn't tell how many men were in the warehouse with Allister, just the ones she could see move past the window where he'd had taken a chair. If he got into trouble, there was no way to know what she'd be facing. So far, he hadn't signaled danger, but with that crowd, things could change in a second.

Bijou shook her head. Allister put himself in harm's way far more often than he had any reason to expect to survive, but she couldn't blame him. He was a boy on a mission, and she could understand the drive behind vengeance. It had been the impetus behind everything she'd done for the last twenty years, ten of which she'd spent chasing a monster across oceans and continents.

A flash of red and the buzz of wings announced Seeri's return. "How did it go?"

Hovering in front of Bijou's face, Seeri held her hand out, palm up -- that meant she expected payment, so her job was done. Bijou checked an app on her phone. Several green dots blinked. The trackers were in place and turned on. "Good work."

Bijou unzipped one of her many pockets and pulled out two sticks of cherry bubblegum. She unwrapped the treats and Seeri snatched them, stuffing both pieces into her tiny mouth.

"You're going to choke one of these days." Bijou gave the warning out of habit. It did no good. "Or need a dentist."

Unconcerned, Seeri grinned, showing sharp, white teeth in no danger of falling out, blew a bubble as big as her body, and popped it.

Below them and across the street, the meeting broke up, and a mob exited the warehouse. Twenty of them. Allister barely inclined his head toward the three white-haired men. Those were the ones he wanted her to follow. She held up her phone and snapped photos of all the attendees. As the targets left, Allister said something to hold the other men back.

The trio climbed into a dark-colored, older model sedan.

"Come on. Let's see where these guys take us." Bijou sprinted soundlessly across the roof, leaping from one to the next until she reached the iron fence, which she jumped over. Landing in a crouch on the other side, she kept low as she made her way to her bike a couple of blocks away.

The sleek, all black motorcycle wasn't the most practical way to get around in winter, but it was only cold tonight, not snowing or icy. She hit the starter button, pleased at the almost inaudible rumble of the engine. The custom work was expensive, but worth every penny when stealth was called for.

Seeri laid atop the gas tank on her stomach, facing the wind, tiny hands clutching the handlebars made just for her. Heph had thrown in that metalwork for free since he liked the fairy.

Bijou slipped her helmet on and used another app to connect her phone to a screen on her visor. A single green dot came toward her, the rest remaining at the warehouse. She followed the car on a parallel route a block over. The other vehicles would be monitored when they moved, and she could find them later.

She tracked the dot past the older district of the city into the modern center and watched from her bike as the men parked near a huge apartment complex that took up an entire block and rose ten stories high.

They walked onto a smaller street, where they entered a red-brick facade bar between a twenty-four-hour bodega and a post office. Called Count Your Sorrows, according to the blinking neon sign, a counter beneath rapidly flipped numbers as the three men entered, ending up on 1,205,650.

Parking her bike at the end of the block, she sauntered up the opposite side of the street and stepped into an alley across from the bar to get out of sight. This alley was cleaner than most she'd been in, but she was glad when the odor of the dumpsters faded.

A man wearing a suit that looked like it belonged to his slob of a bigger brother walked with purpose down the sidewalk.

Seeri scrunched up her face, removed her gum, and pretended to vomit, pointing at the object of her disgust as he entered the bar and sent the count spinning.

Bijou chuckled. "Bad guy. Got it."

Message delivered, Seeri resumed chewing her gum, blowing another enormous bubble.

Glancing through the window, Bijou saw this new man sit at a table with the other three. The network kept growing. She'd need to get help to monitor all the players at this rate

Another man, this one tall and blond, strolled up the sidewalk, and Bijou admired the cut of his suit. The dark material stretched over a broad back, muscled arms and thick quads, nipping in at his hips. He glanced around, giving her a profile of his square jaw. Continuing his surveillance of the area, she caught sight of golden-brown eyes when he turned in her direction.

It was him.

Seeri darted away, straight toward the man.

Not again. "Seeri!" Bijou hissed.

The fairy flitted around him, blew a bubble, and flew away. Revealing Bijou's hiding place. "Thanks a lot, Seeri."

Mr. Not Possible glanced around one more time, gaze lingering on the alley where she hid. For a moment, he looked like he was going to come her way, but he shook his head, turned, and entered the bar. The count beneath the neon sign went up by two.

What sorrows did he have? Her heart felt heavy as she imagined sadness weighing him down. Whoa. Focus, Bijou. You do not have time for the fairy tale.

She waited, watching through the window as Mr. Not Possible sat at a table near the four minions and spun a bottle in his hands. He didn't seem to know them -- that would definitely put him farther into the Not Happening category -- but he seemed interested in what they were saying.

Huh. Maybe he knew about mages and their followers. Uwa would be able to tell if he was worth getting to know.

Bijou stomped her feet to keep warm. This was the worst part of hunting. The interminable waiting for something to happen. A black SUV pulled up outside the bar, and Mr. Not Possible climbed into the passenger side. Four men, the three she'd followed plus Bad Suit, exited the bar and walked down the block toward the apartment building. They wavered for a moment, then disappeared from view. Using magic stolen from a witch by their master, no doubt. Seeri gave them her vomiting routine.

A different man, wearing two curved swords on his back, climbed out of the SUV, drew one scimitar, and stalked the quartet. Mr. Not Possible went back into the bar.

He was nice to look at, but not her quarry. She glanced up the street, but the man with two swords had vanished. Was he working for mages too? Seeri didn't have an opinion about him, and he didn't seem friendly toward the men.

The sedan remained where Bad Suit's friends left it, so wherever they were headed had to be within walking distance.

Bijou didn't relish the idea of standing here all night. The men she'd tried to follow were gone, using magic to disguise themselves, and there was no way to tell if they were done for the evening. Their car wasn't on the move. She checked her app. Neither were the other cars at the moment, but they had changed locations from the warehouses. Maybe it was worthwhile to see where they'd ended up.

Her phone buzzed, and she pulled it from a zippered pocket. "Hey, Allister. How's your head?"

"The pain is just about gone."

"No more blurred vision or seeing double?"

Allister chuckled. "I'm okay, Doc. Really. Were you able to, uh, assess your new referral patients?"

"Not as fully as I'd like, but I'm going to see about arranging some follow-up appointments." A thought about the man with two swords niggled at her. "Do you remember the guy you told me about a few days ago?" No way to know if Allister could talk freely. "The one that does, uh, skin blemish removal?" That should be enough for him to realize she was talking about glyphs mages wore.

Allister had been elated, babbling like a fan boy about meeting a vampire called the Scourge. A fairy tale about a good vampire. Right. Bloodsucking parasites. She'd killed hundreds of them.

"Yes!" Allister's enthusiasm made him sound so young. He was young. Far too young to be playing such a deadly game. "I didn't see him, but I saw the two -- uh, tools of his trade. He uses special curved instruments. They can do what he said. No scars, quick recovery time."

Carve magic right off people.

"Why do you ask?"

Because I think your fairy god-vampire just sauntered down the street. She didn't say anything. It would do no good to get Allister all excited when she couldn't be sure where the man had gone. Or if he was a vampire. "Just wondering if you knew how to get in touch with him."

"I can probably get a message to him, if you want --" The phone muted like he'd put his finger over the microphone. "Hey, I've got to go. Some of the guys are here. I'll talk to you later."

Seeri hadn't reacted to Scimitar Man's presence, so he was probably just human, but it couldn't hurt to be sure. Bijou unzipped a pocket and removed another magnetic tracker. Always eager for gum, Seeri held out her hand.

"Put this on that SUV." Bijou pointed to it. "There's two more pieces of gum in it for you if you do." Five pieces of gum would give Seeri a sugar high, even if she didn't get cavities.

Seeri accepted the device and zipped away.

Now Bijou could figure out what exactly this man was before she got Allister all excited again.

Ready to go, she left the shadow in the alley and walked toward the street, pausing as Seeri darted into the alley and hid behind a dumpster. Six people passed by on the street. Bijou palmed the two parts of her staff, in holsters on her thighs, but the men talked among themselves. They kept moving, and wore a uniform of sorts -- torn jeans, boots, thick sweatshirts, and some sort of red head covering -- beanies, caps, bandannas, a hood, and even a helmet.

Seeri scrunched her face, held her hands to her throat, and stuck her tongue out, gum forming a bulge in her cheek like a chipmunk.

Not the worst judgement Seeri could pass on them, so not evil, but she didn't like them. Bijou waited for them to get ahead of her, and left the alley, turning to follow them. Seeri kept close, wings buffeting the chilly air against Bijou's head.

As she strolled down the sidewalk, footsteps rushed up behind her. She pretended obliviousness, wanting to see how this played out. A hard shove to her back propelled her into the next alley, where the six men waited in a semicircle.

Bijou spun. Another half dozen of them crowded into the entrance.

These guys were like roaches.

"Give us what we want and you can go."

"That figures." She hunted actual monsters and followed traffickers who kidnapped witches, and what did she get? Plain old muggers. Sorry, guys. You're not scary enough. Bijou snapped her hands to her thighs, the ends of her staff comforting in her pals. "This isn't going to go like you think. Run along, boys."

They laughed and closed the circle around her.

Bijou pulled the halves of her spear from her holsters, snapped it together, and whirled it.

"Kill her." A surprisingly high voice gave the order. A woman? None of them had a particularly feminine build or facial features, but thugs could be equal opportunity too. "Don't hurt the fairy." Knives came out.

They could see Seeri. Not human. And they wanted to keep this quiet. That made things so much easier.