Graveyards, Visions, and Other Things That Byte (Dowser 8.5) Read online

  “Oh,” Liam said snottily. “You’re still here.”

  Jasmine laughed, sending chills up my spine. She had the same effect on Peggy, based on how the telepath rubbed her arms as she crossed through the room.

  “Certainly you aren’t suggesting you can’t tell when a vampire is in your basement, sorcerer?” Jasmine purred. “That would be a rather exploitable blind spot.”

  “Nah,” Gabby said, throwing herself down on the sectional couch next to me. “He’s just pissed because you outrank him.”

  Liam sputtered behind us.

  Peggy reached her hand toward Jasmine, offering to shake. The telepath liked touching people, using her magic. But not everyone was willing to take her up on it. “Hi, Jasmine.”

  The vampire gently grasped her hand. “Peggy. I see you all made it back from Whistler in one piece.”

  Peggy laughed. “We took a couple of falls on the hills but nothing serious. It was Gabby’s and my first time snowboarding. But we’ve all skied before.”

  “And where are the rest of the Talbots this cloudy late afternoon?”

  Jasmine’s every word, her every interaction, was layered with the enticement that Benjamin exerted unintentionally when he got intrigued by something. The constant beguiling might have been unconsciously done on the vampire’s part — or possibly even a sign of her relatively new magic simply leaking. But though the others didn’t seem to notice, all I could hear was the vague threat underneath her luring tone.

  Rationally, I knew that Jasmine would never hurt me. But irrationally, I occasionally had to force myself to stay in the same room as her. Being around her maker, Kett, was even worse.

  “They’ll be home in a couple of hours,” Liam said. The threat laced through his tone was more than simply implied. So apparently, he sensed Jasmine’s power, too.

  “Bitsy had an indoor exhibition game this afternoon,” Peggy said, still holding Jasmine’s hand. “In the valley. For charity. Angelica and Stephan went with her.”

  “You’ll ask them to consult with Pearl when they return?” Jasmine directed this question to Liam.

  “Of course.”

  “All hands on deck would be appreciated.”

  “I’m the one who contacted you.”

  “No, sorcerer. Mory is the one who contacted me. You were prepared to drag the wielder’s necromancer into danger without backup.”

  Tension ran through the detective’s jaw. Again. He must have been a terrible poker player.

  Peggy turned to look at me, still smiling sweetly. The light of her magic, as white as Rochelle’s power, ringed her eyes. “Ben is outside. He’d like to join us. Help you look for … Jane Hawthorne?” Apparently, Peggy could pick up thoughts from a vampire who wasn’t even in the house.

  Jasmine stiffened, dropping the telepath’s hand and suddenly appearing beside the door to the rec room. “Benjamin Garrick?”

  “Oh!” Peggy cried out, startled.

  The vampire moved quickly. I could track her better than most because her undead energy was always present, dancing just out of my reach like Benjamin’s.

  “Um …” Peggy shook her head. “I guess so. He’s … Ben in his own thoughts.”

  I tucked my knitting into my bag, keeping Ed with me as I crossed toward the door. I wasn’t going to put my turtle within easy reach until Jasmine signed off on what Tony and Liam had planned. “I’ll get him.”

  Jasmine raised her hand, palm facing me. She tilted her head as if listening. “How close is the vampire, Mory? Can you feel him?”

  I glanced to Tony, then over at Liam. Everyone was watching me. “Not yet,” I said stiffly. I wasn’t particularly pleased about being put on the spot.

  “Will he be safe among the fledglings?”

  A chorus of Hey! and Come on! ensued behind us.

  “We hang out every night,” I said, becoming incensed.

  Jasmine waved her hand dismissively. “Of course. I have no doubt of you.”

  A flush of pride tempered my anger, but I refused to be flattered when Jasmine was in the process of dissing Benjamin. “He’ll be fine. I’m not certain about the detective, though.”

  Jasmine’s head pivoted, taking in Liam. And though the gesture was decidedly inhuman, the sorcerer managed to hold his ground under her gaze. “Yes,” the vampire said, still speaking to me. “This one is oddly prejudiced for one so young.” Then she smiled scornfully. “A trait that will not survive long in the dowser’s territory.”

  “Caution is not prejudice,” Liam said.

  Jasmine scoffed. “Let Benjamin know I am here, Mory. Before you invite him in. He might not want to meet me.”

  Peggy laughed, delighted. “Oh, he’ll want to meet you, Jasmine. He likes to know everything. But not, like, in a know-it-all way. Right, Mory?”

  I nodded, already heading for the back door.

  “Stay out of the vampire’s mind, Peggy,” Liam said behind me. His tone suggested that he was completely exasperated by his adoptive sister.

  “Vampires aren’t usually so easy to read,” Peggy said, her voice fading as I traversed the dark hall. “I can’t read Kett at all, and only by touch with you, Jasmine.”

  “Peggy …” Liam snarled a warning.

  Gabby laughed.

  I flicked on the exterior light as I opened the back door. I had already taken a step out when I spotted Benjamin crouched at the top of the concrete stairs. The overgrown backyard stretched out behind him, a series of tree- and bush-shaped shadows. It was already dark. And chilly.

  “Hey, Benjamin.”

  He nodded, but his gaze was angled beyond me, through the open laundry room and down the hall. “Mory. I thought you might want my help this evening. But, uh … who is that? I mean, I can, um …”

  Jasmine appeared behind me. One moment, I could feel her energy burbling on the other side of the house. Then it was behind me.

  Benjamin stopped breathing, becoming completely still. Except for his eyes. His eyes widened, taking in every glorious golden inch that was Jasmine the vampire.

  “Benjamin, son of Teresa Garrick, necromancer,” I said, trying to not sound stiff and pissy.

  “Child of Nigel Farris,” Jasmine murmured, standing so close that her breath stirred my hair.

  Benjamin nodded. Then he looked to me, silently prompting me to continue.

  I cleared my throat, pushing past the dull ache trying to settle in my chest. “Jasmine. Child of Kettil, executioner and elder of the Conclave.”

  Benjamin smiled. I lowered my gaze to the concrete stairs. The genuine, welcoming warmth in his expression and the brush of magic that came with it weren’t meant for me.

  “Jasmine Fairchild?” he asked softly.

  “Not anymore,” she said matter-of-factly.

  “But you look like her … Wisteria. A little. Same eyes.”

  “And when did you get such a good look at my cousin, vampire?” Jasmine asked teasingly. “When you were attempting to bite her in the graveyard?”

  That pulled my attention back to Benjamin.

  His smile faded. He wrapped his right hand over his left wrist. “I wasn’t myself. Not as I am now. I was … starving. But I didn’t know what … I wanted to eat. Or how.”

  Jasmine snorted.

  I shuffled my feet, trying to ease the tension in my shoulders and back, but still keeping myself between Jasmine and Benjamin. Not that I could have stopped her if she went for him. The only thing I could really bank on was that hurting me to get to Benjamin would put the vampire on Jade’s shit list. And very few Adepts would risk that.

  Benjamin lifted his dark gaze, once again looking at Jasmine steadily over my shoulder. “You don’t know what that’s like? That hunger?”

  I wasn’t certain what he was asking. And the way Jasmine went thoughtfully still behind me, I wasn’t sure she did either.

  “I am Kett’s,” she said. “I … haven’t known hunger.”

  Benjamin tilted his head thoughtfully. “I se
e. Because he is … powerful?”

  “Do you regret it?” Jasmine asked, not bothering to answer Benjamin’s question.

  And suddenly, I felt like a complete outsider. Like I’d shoved myself into a very personal conversation.

  “Not for one minute,” Benjamin said. “You?”

  I turned away, squeezing between Jasmine and the doorframe, then stepping back into the laundry area.

  “No,” Jasmine whispered. “Not for one second.”

  Still feeling like an intruder, I steadily crossed back toward the rec room, clutching Ed to my chest. I was behaving like an idiot, but thankfully, the vampires wouldn’t notice.

  “Necromancer,” Jasmine called after me. “You are not to go anywhere with Liam Talbot without me.”

  I glanced back at her along the dark hallway. Her golden hair glowed softly in the overhead exterior light. Benjamin stood framed in the doorway with her, only a couple of inches taller but swathed in darkness.

  “I don’t trust him to put you first,” Jasmine said.

  “And you will?” I asked without thinking.

  Jasmine smiled tightly. “As tasked by Jade … and the executioner himself two nights ago. You and Rochelle are mine to protect.”

  I nodded, pushing open the rec room door and entering the room just to keep walking.

  Tony spun around in his desk chair, triumphantly holding a tiny camera attached to an elasticized strap. “Ready for test number one.”

  I petted Ed as I crossed through the room. And as I did, I tried to ignore the weird feeling that I was leaving a part of myself behind me, with Benjamin and Jasmine on the basement stairs.

  Three tests later, Jasmine and Tony had figured out how to get the camera to work on Ed while I had him walk around the room. Liam then raised the wards that coated the Talbot house, and Ed passed through them without trouble.

  After that, the argument smoldering between Jasmine and Liam really ramped up. And while the sorcerer kept trying to speak to her in hushed tones in the hall, the vampire wasn’t interested in excluding the rest of us from the discussion.

  Being included should have been satisfying, since we so-called fledglings never were. But instead, it was a little boring sitting around waiting for a decision to be made.

  Tony was still fiddling with Ed’s camera while the turtle slowly shuffled around on his desk.

  Jasmine’s voice filtered in through the closed door. I picked up the words elves, wards, orders, and protection.

  Liam’s answer was simply a hissed sentence.

  Benjamin snapped his notebook closed, gazing thoughtfully toward the closed door. “Jade didn’t show.”

  “What?” I asked. “When?”

  “This evening around five. We were actually supposed to meet yesterday, but I tried again today. It was my third attempt to reschedule our first interview.”

  I glanced over at Gabby. “When did you leave the bakery?”

  “After closing. I took a nap after baking, then went back to help Peggy close. But yeah, no Jade all day. No Kandy. No witches, even.”

  I frowned. “No one showed up at all?”

  “No one magical. Except me and Peggy.” Gabby nudged her twin with her elbow.

  Peggy shook her head, but her gaze remained remote. “Um, yeah, sure.” She hadn’t been listening. At least not to us.

  My phone vibrated. And as I reached for it, I found myself desperately hoping it was a text from Jade.

  “That’s the best I can do from here,” Tony said, pointing at my phone. “There’s really no system or information to hack. I’m guessing files as far back as 1995 haven’t been digitized.”

  I glanced at my screen, reading the text the tech sorcerer had just sent. The message consisted of a section number and a series of rows.

  “I picked up older references to there once being a pauper’s grave section at Mountain View. But I couldn’t confirm it with any of the current information online, or even figure out if the practice has been maintained. But I’m fairly certain that a Jane Doe who died in Vancouver would have been buried there. And as best as I could figure out, their guidelines indicate that unclaimed remains are cremated and interred, but not within any specified timeline. They might have waited at least a year to see if anyone came forward with information on the body.”

  “Right.” That all lined up with the information Rochelle had given me.

  “So I narrowed down the interment dates to get you a possible location. I’m going to keep looking, but, uh … you know … I’m not really supposed to be hacking government sites.”

  “Thank you. That should be close enough.”

  “Compromised,” Peggy murmured.

  “What?” Gabby asked.

  “That’s what they’re really fighting about out in the hall, Jasmine and Liam. What they’re trying to not say out loud.” Peggy’s face was solemn. She leaned forward, speaking in a hushed tone. “Liam thinks Jade has been compromised. That she’s … hurt. That she maybe even killed the others.”

  This wasn’t news to me. But still, an extra layer of dread settled in my belly. Bravado only kept it at bay for short periods of time. “Yeah. He told me.”

  “All of them?” Gabby asked, shocked. “Everyone who’s missing?”

  “No,” I said, trying to sound sure of myself. “Not the witches, or the oracle, or Jasmine, or any of us. And not Drake.”

  They all stared at me, shocked into silence.

  “Listen,” I said, my stomach churning with doubt. “It’s going to be okay. This sort of thing happens around powerful people. We have a plan. It’s going to be okay.”

  But I knew that doubt was creeping into my tone, because Benjamin stepped forward, laying his hand on my shoulder. And for some reason, what should have been a comforting touch made me angry.

  “Standing around arguing about it endlessly is ridiculous.” I pushed myself off the couch and marched over to the door, throwing it open.

  Liam, standing with his back to me, flinched and whirled around. Jasmine, half hidden in the shadows at the base of the stairs, gazed at me steadily, not surprised by my sudden appearance.

  “If Jade is in trouble, there’s no question about trying to help her,” I said.

  Liam gestured toward me, looking pointedly at Jasmine.

  “I’m not saying no,” Jasmine said coolly. “I’m simply negotiating parameters. You will wait here with the others while Liam and I locate an easily defendable position. Then I’ll ask Scarlett to provide a perimeter spell. And having Peggy around might be useful. Can she pick up the elves telepathically?”

  “Absolutely not,” Liam snarled. “I won’t have my sister —”

  Peggy and Gabby abruptly and eagerly appeared behind me in the doorway.

  “I can totally help,” Peggy said exuberantly. “The elf in Whistler gave off feedback.”

  “Peggy … not until —”

  Gabby interrupted her older brother. “And if I’m there, I can amplify Mory, if needed. Or even help coordinate things with Peggy. We’ve been testing her range.”

  “Great,” Jasmine said pertly. “We’re almost settled, then.”

  “Almost?” Liam echoed sarcastically. “Would you like to wait until Bitsy gets home to put her in danger as well?”

  Jasmine gave the detective a withering look. Then she smiled at me. Even Jade couldn’t intimidate quite so effectively with only a smile. “Benjamin and I will be with Mory at all times.”

  “Benjamin?” Liam sneered. “He’s not going to stand between Mory and an elf. Not for long, anyhow.”

  Jasmine shifted, suddenly standing too close to Liam. He flinched, but didn’t back off. “No, Detective. That’s your job. Benjamin will be there to grab Mory and run.”

  Liam clenched his jaw. But then he nodded curtly.

  “What about Freddie?” I asked.

  “What about Freddie?” Jasmine gave me a quelling look, telling me she clearly knew the shadow leech — but wanted to keep the informatio
n from the sorcerer.

  I ignored the vampire’s not-so-subtle implication that I should keep my mouth shut. Secrets weren’t going to rescue Jade and the others. I wasn’t certain we were, either. But it was past time to try.

  “Who is Freddie?” Liam asked, folding his arms and glancing sternly between Jasmine and me.

  “A shadow leech.”

  “What the hell is a shadow leech?”

  “Freddie.”

  Liam swore under his breath.

  I stifled a smirk.

  Jasmine shook her head. “What about the leech?”

  “Well, it … he … she consumes magic, right? Why not ask her to try to break through the elves’ wards?”

  “And can you summon it … her?”

  “Nope.”

  “Helpful, necromancer.”

  “You’re very welcome.”

  Jasmine laughed quietly.

  “Let me get this straight,” Liam interjected. “There’s some entity that eats magic just randomly roaming about Vancouver?”

  I scoffed. “Not randomly. She hangs out with Jade.”

  “Jade,” Liam echoed. “Jade, who is currently missing, controls some sort of magic eater?”

  Jasmine shrugged. “Maybe Freddie is with her?”

  “Um …” I murmured. Freddie had seemed perfectly normal when she’d been playing around with my mother’s bone collection. Though that didn’t mean she wasn’t in the know about what was going on with Jade. Too bad no one spoke shadow leech.

  “Yes?” Liam asked pointedly, seemingly on the edge of snapping but holding himself in check.

  “All good,” I said pertly. “I’ll ask Freddie next time I see her. Only instead of sitting around and doing nothing while you two figure out the particulars and get the spells from Scarlett, I’m heading up to Mountain View Cemetery —”

  “Absolutely not,” Liam growled. “This takes priority.”

  Jasmine raised her hand, hushing him. “For the oracle?”

  I nodded, slightly peeved that Benjamin must have spilled the beans about Rochelle’s request.