Awakening (Birth of Magic #1) Read online

  Louis waited for me at the head of the alley with a full dozen policemen now. They had their guns leveled at me. This time I didn’t have any doubt they were going to use them. “Now, mademoiselle, we’ll take a little trip to my office.”

  Chapter 15

  The prefect’s office wasn’t much bigger than a jail cell and didn’t have much more furniture. Other than the desk and a plant in the corner, the main difference was the prefect’s window didn’t have bars on it. He opened his file cabinet and took out a bottle of brandy. “Care for a drink, mademoiselle?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Suit yourself.” He poured himself a double and then arranged himself comfortably in his chair, kicking his feet up on the desk.

  “Isn’t this supposed to be the part where you put the lights on me?” I asked.

  “I have no interest in questioning you.”

  “You’re not even going to work me over for injuring your men?”

  “I consider it a learning experience for them. They see a pretty face and assume she’s harmless. Now they’ll know better.”

  “Glad I could be of assistance.” I fidgeted in my chair. With magic it would be easy enough to snap the handcuffs and shackles. Then again if I had magic, I wouldn’t be here in the first place.

  What had happened to my magic I still didn’t know. I could only assume Celia had done something. Maybe she’d put something in my champagne cocktail. Not even Alexis had a potion to do that, but she could have done some research on her own; Celia clearly knew something of magic.

  I jingled the handcuffs around to get the prefect’s attention. “You aren’t going to charge me with anything, are you? Your Nazi pals asked you to keep me here until their plane left.”

  “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” he said and then took a healthy slug of his brandy.

  “You’re going to try playing dumb?”

  “I can assure you I’m not trying.”

  “Then where did the orders come from to detain me?”

  “I’m not at liberty to divulge that information.” He took another gulp of his drink. “Are you sure you don’t want any? It’s quite good.”

  “I’m fine.”

  He turned his head to leer at me. “Come now, can’t we be friends? It’s not every day I get a beautiful French girl like yourself in my office.”

  “Unlock the cuffs and then we can get cozy.”

  “That would be a bad idea, I’m quite sure.”

  He was right about that. The moment he unlocked the cuffs I would give him a kick to the groin and then hit him in the face with the brandy glass. If that didn’t keep him down then a couple more punches would do it.

  “How long do you plan to keep me here?”

  “Until I’m sure there will be no further trouble.”

  I snorted at this. Someone from the airport would probably call to say when the plane had left. Then Louis might let me go. Or he might keep me around to try and have a little fun. Maybe there was another way to get to him. “My family owns quite a bit of land back home. Have you ever heard of Chateau de Deveaux wine?”

  “I’m afraid I can’t afford that on my salary.”

  “I could arrange for a few cases to be delivered here.”

  He grinned at me. “My dear, the price to let you go is far higher than a few bottles of wine.”

  “Fine, tell me what you want.”

  He finally took his feet off the desk so he could lean forward and say softly, “I’ve been in this rotten, sweltering place for fifteen years. I’m sure a family as wealthy as yours has some influence with the French government.”

  I nodded. I didn’t have influence with the government so much as I knew the right people to bribe. “I’m sure I can arrange for a transfer to wherever you want. If you let me go and arrange transportation to the airport.”

  “Perhaps. But what reassurance will I have that you’ll keep your word?”

  “I’ll give you the names of the three men who can make that transfer happen.” I gave him their names as well as the amounts needed for them to move things along. “Put a pen in my hand and give me a piece of paper, will you?”

  It was difficult with my hands cuffed, but I managed to jot a short note and sign it. “You copy those and send them out. Then you can pack your bags.”

  Louis took the note from me, tucking it into his jacket. He didn’t unlock the cuffs yet, but he did help me to my feet. Afterwards he gave my hand a shake. “This, mademoiselle, looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

  ***

  The prefect wasn’t dumb enough to take off the cuffs in the car either. He waited until we were at the airport, in front of a hangar, before he had one of his minions finally turn me loose. Another one tossed my jacket to me. I found the Colt and the crossbow where I’d left them.

  Looking through the pockets of charms, I noticed the police hadn’t taken anything, but someone had added something. While the rest of my charms were made of rope, this one was made of hair. Taking it out of the pocket, I saw that it was a human-like shape made of hair the same shade of red as mine. Now I knew why my magic wasn’t working.

  Just like a charm could ward off a bogeyman or demon, a charm could prevent a witch from using her power as well. It had to be a very special charm, one made from teeth, fingernails, or hair. This wasn’t something the coven bandied around; not even everyone in the coven knew about it. I did because I had used a charm like this three centuries ago to take in a rogue witch. Gretel had given that charm to me and I suspected she had charms for all of us hidden away in case we decided to turn on her. Could Gretel be the one behind all of this? Could she be the Chairwoman?

  I didn’t have any time to think about that. I could see the plane taxiing onto the runway. “Can I borrow your lighter?” I asked Louis.

  “Of course.”

  I used the lighter to set fire to the charm. That was the only proper way to dispose of a charm like this. As it burned, I could feel the magic coming back to me. It started with a familiar tingling in my foot, as if it had fallen asleep. Then it spread through the rest of my body. In a minute I was a witch again.

  “Thanks,” I said and tossed the lighter back to him. “Got to run. I have a plane to catch.”

  I didn’t go very far, just around the corner of the nearest hangar. The plane was on the runway now, preparing to take off. I didn’t have much time now before Ethan would be gone.

  I couldn’t vanish myself directly onto the plane, having never been on one before. The best I could do was to vanish myself onto the wing and try to make my way inside. It was dark enough that the prefect and the airport personnel shouldn’t see much more than a flash of light. They’d probably chalk it up to some reasonable explanation—a camera, a haywire light, localized lightning—instead of a witch. That’s what I’d have to hope if I didn’t want to end up in hot water with Gretel later.

  Vanishing onto a moving object was never easy. It required the kind of concentration that Naoko always complained I lacked. I closed my eyes and tried to see the plane’s wing in my mind. Superimposed on it I saw Ethan’s face; he was counting on me and I wasn’t about to let him down.

  The next thing I knew, the distant whir of the plane’s engines became a violent roar. I opened my eyes to see that I had made it; I was standing on the plane’s left wing as it continued to streak down the runway. Now I just had to get myself inside before it took off.

  There wasn’t a lot of time for subtlety. With the wind howling against me and hair whipping in my face, I made my way a step at a time towards the side entrance door. I’d seen a wing-walker once at a fair, but I’d never imagined I would be so stupid as to try it myself. I tried not to look around me as I felt the plane lifting into the air.

  There wasn’t a handle on the outside of the door. That didn’t matter; a Static Charge spell broke it open. I heard screams from inside the plane as I tumbled inside. I was already reaching for my Colt before I was on my feet.
>
  Celia was just as quick as on the train, much quicker than the half-dozen Nazis still strapped into their seats and scrambling now to find their weapons. Celia had another of those black crystal knives in her hand, but this time she didn’t try throwing it at me. Instead she had it pressed to Ethan’s throat. His eyes bulged with disbelief at this; he had really bought her story back at Vic’s.

  “I’m sorry, Ethan,” she said. She kissed him on the cheek. “I really do care about you, but this is more important.”

  “It’s over, Celia!” I shouted loud enough so she could hear me over the wind blowing through the door and the engines outside. “Let him go and tell the pilots to put this thing down.”

  “It’s over, but not for me!” She grinned at me, her green eyes flashing. I took an involuntary step back; she was like one of those funhouse mirrors that twist your reflection around. Worse yet was she knew this; she tightened her grip on the knife. “You aren’t going to risk killing him.”

  “I don’t have to.” I hefted the Colt a little higher. “You’re a smart girl. You know if you kill Ethan, I’ll kill you.”

  “You won’t kill either of us, would you Sue? Not your dear friends.”

  “You’re not my friend,” I said, but it sounded feeble even to my own ears. While Celia looked different and acted different from back at Cuthbert, there was still a part of her that was the same girl. No undercover agent could be so good as to fake all of that.

  “I’m wise to you, Stephanie. You try to act tough, but inside you’re as soft as the others. That’s why you’re not going to kill me and you’re not going to risk killing Ethan. You’re too good for that.”

  Though I didn’t want to, I began to cry as I stared at Celia and Ethan—my friends. The Colt trembled in my hand. “Why are you doing this?” I asked her, pleading with her.

  “Because I have to. It’s my job.” The way she said this indicated that despite the smile and the mad gleam in her eyes, she didn’t like it any more than I did. “Now put the gun down.”

  I stared at her for another long moment. Finally I tossed the Colt through the open door. I slowly took off my jacket while Celia kept her grip on the knife. I threw the jacket with my crossbow still in it after the gun. Then I put up my hands.

  She still didn’t relax. “Don’t think about using magic either. It’s not going to work on me. Not anymore.”

  “Covered all your angles, haven’t you?” I said. “Like planting the charm on me. Where did you get that from?”

  “I’m not giving you anything for free.” She stared at me for a moment and then licked her lips. I could see her arm cocking to throw the knife. She wasn’t going to miss, not this time. “Goodbye, Sue. It was nice knowing you.”

  I could have vanished myself off the plane, but Ethan was even quicker than me. He shot up from the seat and slammed into Celia, his head butting her in the chest. They dropped to the deck together, rolling around like the lovers they had been, the knife still in Celia’s hand.

  I didn’t see the knife, but I heard Ethan’s muffled cry and saw his face go pale. Celia pushed away from him, getting to her feet and holding up the bloodstained knife. She stared at the knife as if she hadn’t seen it before and then down at Ethan. Not even she could believe that she’d stabbed him.

  That was my opening. I somersaulted forward on the pitching deck of the airplane. I didn’t have to do much, just land on Ethan and lock my arms around him.

  Then we both vanished.

  Chapter 16

  We went out of the proverbial frying pan and into the fire. Or at least there was black smoke coming from Naoko’s house, far more than should be coming from the fireplace. There were also two pairs of snowshoes by the front door, something Naoko would never have any use for. She wasn’t the type to make friends with mortals either.

  I set Ethan down on the ground. He was bleeding out pretty bad from the wound in his stomach. I tore a strip from his shirt to press on the wound, but that wouldn’t do much good. He really needed to get to a hospital, but they would ask a lot of inconvenient questions I didn’t feel like answering at the moment. The good thing about a gut wound, though, was that it took a long time to die from it. That should give me enough time to get a Restoration potion from Alexis.

  Except seeing the smoke and snowshoes, I had my doubts that Alexis would be able to help us. I had to suppress a shiver that wasn’t because it was negative twenty degrees and I’d tossed my jacket out of an airplane over Casablanca. I had already lost one sister, but it had never really occurred to me that Alexis could die. Alexis had always been so beautiful, sweet, and trusting; who would ever want to kill her? Celia’s friends: the Nazis and the Chairwoman.

  Ethan was passed out, but I leaned down to whisper into his ear anyway. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Then, against all reason and logic, I ran into the burning building.

  Naoko didn’t keep a lot of stuff in her house, so there wasn’t much to ransack. They had tossed her prayer rugs around and thrown her statue of the Buddha against the wall, where he stood on his head. I saw a few swatches of fabric on the floor too, pieces of a project Alexis had been working on to pass the time.

  I didn’t see Alexis or Naoko on the floor. If they were smart they would have already vanished out of here to somewhere safer. Though the real question was why Naoko would let them do this in the first place. Between her magic and martial arts, she could dispose of a whole company of Nazis without breaking a sweat.

  The smoke I’d seen came from the kitchen. I put a hand to the door handle and pulled my hand back a second later from the heat. Taking a step back, I kicked open the door with my boot. Right away I dropped to my knees, a cloud of black smoke bringing tears to my eyes and stifling the breath in my lungs. I coughed and wheezed until I could finally breathe again. My eyes were still watering when I felt cold metal press against my forehead and the click of someone taking off the safety of a weapon.

  “Another one?” a voice asked in German.

  My vision cleared enough that I could see two of them dressed like the Nazis on the U-Boat had been. One had a Luger against my head while the other carried a machine gun. Pretty good firepower, at least for dealing with mortals.

  Now that I didn’t have my hands tied by Gretel’s rules or a charm, I could use magic however I saw fit. I said a few words like back on the train to Boston and the Luger turned into a big gray butterfly that flapped out of the Nazi’s hand. Before the other could fire the machine gun, I held up my hand and used a Static Charge to hurl him into the wall.

  My other hand I used to punch the now-disarmed Nazi in the groin. He dropped to the floor, where he rolled around in pain. I got to my feet and then gave him a kick in the ribs.

  I left them on the floor while I darted into the kitchen. Fire had already consumed one row of cupboards and was working its way up to the rafters. The smoke was so thick that not even my nightcrystal glasses could have penetrated it. Getting back on my knees, I found myself just about nose-to-nose with Naoko. From the look of it, her nose was broken, blood dripping from it to pool on the floor. The rest of her didn’t look much better.

  The only good thing was that she was still alive. I gave her shoulder a little shake, but she didn’t stir. “Naoko, wake up,” I said, punctuating this with a cough. She still didn’t move. They must have knocked her out.

  I hooked an arm around her and tried to vanish us out of there. Nothing happened. “Goddamnit,” I mumbled. Thinking back to Casablanca, I began rummaging through the folds of her torn robe until I found it: a roughly human-shaped charm made of silky black hair, the color Naoko’s had been long ago when she was young. I tossed the charm into fire above us, waiting until it was completely consumed before I tried to vanish us again.

  This time it worked. We appeared outside, next to Ethan. He was still unconscious, the wound looking even worse than before. He still needed a Restoration potion, as did Naoko. I wasn’t likely to find one in the house, not after the Nazis
had been through it.

  I vanished back into the kitchen. Crawling around with my eyes closed to keep out the smoke, I felt around for Alexis. There was no sign of her on the floor. Had the fire already burned her alive the way it had my other sister?

  I made my way back through the smoke, to where the Nazis were still on the floor. The one I’d thrown into the wall was unconscious, but the other was just in a lot of pain. I seized him by the front of his shirt and then hauled him up to his feet. “Where’s Alexis?” I asked him in German. He stared at me blankly. “Blond girl, about my age.”

  This got his attention. No one could forget Alexis, not when she looked young. “She’s gone,” he said.

  “Gone? You killed her?”

  The way the Nazi’s face paled, he knew what I would do to him if this were the case. He violently shook his head. “No! They took her away. As a prisoner.”

  “Where?”

  “I don’t know!” He flinched. “Please, don’t kill me.”

  “I’m not,” I said. “I’m going to let the fire do that.” I tossed him to the ground and then used a Static Charge to propel him into the kitchen. I heard the first of his screams as I vanished.

  Naoko might have a Restoration potion hidden away on the property, but I didn’t want to waste time looking. So I vanished myself to the basement of mine and Alexis’s house in Rampart City. Except this too would be futile. Someone had opened the vault and emptied it out. The drawers were all pulled out so that I could see every potion, every crystal, and every charm was gone.

  That must have been what they wanted from Alexis. They used a charm on Naoko so they could sap her and then they took Alexis prisoner. From there they found a way to extract the vault’s combination and called it back to a team waiting here. “Goddamnit,” I mumbled again.

  It didn’t come as a surprise to find the house in Edinburgh similarly cleaned out. They had somehow blown open the safe to take everything out of it. Just to make sure I knew who’d done it, some clown had painted a large red swastika on the wall.