Magic by Any Other Name, page 18
“And,” Delia added, “we need Senji to appear in his human form.”
Ishak heard Georgette draw a sharp breath, saw her eyes widen. His hopes for enlisting the Valkyrie’s help began to dwindle.
“His human …” Mouth agape, Georgette shoved one hand into her thick curls and pushed them back from her face. “Do you have the slightest idea …” She drew a series of short, choppy breaths. “To do that,” she said, “I’d have to break the bond between you. A bond that was forged in the hearth of Valhalla—transcending time and space, life and death. I can’t override that! I doubt there’s a witch alive who could.”
Ishak felt a maelstrom of panic, grief, and anger. Faced with the loss of this powerful ally, his mind churned with thoughts of Kalilah in chains, Kalilah cut to pieces, Kalilah in a grave. If Georgette was stronger, he thought with a stab of resentment, then maybe, just maybe. With great effort, he shoved those feelings aside. She’s doing everything she can to help, I must remember that. But gratitude was elusive.
“We don’t want to break the bond,” Delia said. “We only want to loosen it just enough to show Senji as he was. We want to … put a damper on it, not to shut it down completely.”
Ishak looked nervously at Georgette, hoping but doubting that this semantic shuffle would change the situation.
The witch tapped her fingers on the table, drumming the colorful cloth softly.
“For how long would he need to look human?” she finally asked.
“Perhaps an hour.”
“That’s not too long,” Georgette mused. “Dampened.…” She adopted the sly expression of a co-conspirator as she asked, “And would I have to make you solid?”
“No,” the Valkyrie answered, “not at all. That would, in fact, run counter to our needs.”
Seeing the witch’s eyes alight with calculation, Ishak allowed himself to hope. This deal was happening. It had to.
“What would you be willing to do for us?” Georgette finally asked.
“What do you need?”
Georgette immediately turned to Ishak, nodding expectantly.
Heart racing, Ishak told Delia about Kivuli Panon, about meeting Georgette and Mei-Xing, about confronting the Zamek’s clerk, and about KK Inc.’s house in Silver Creek. Through it all, he told her about Kalilah, the love of his life. Delia listened with the slight glaze in her eyes that he had seen earlier, presumably relaying all of his information to her partner.
When he finished, she sat in silence, still and unblinking, for what felt like eons.
“You need us to get you into the house,” she finally said, “and help you get your wife out.”
“Yes,” he said, “that’s it.”
“Easily done.”
He blinked; his lips parted in surprise. He pictured the gated community—guarded by walls, security systems, and suspicious residents—and felt awe for the Valkyrie.
But also doubt.
“Easily?” he asked. “Are you sure?”
“The walls, cameras, and locks you describe are meaningless to me,” she said.
“But the brokerage,” Ishak said. “If they catch you—”
She cut off his protest with a chirp of laughter. He was as surprised by the ladylike tone of her laugh as he was by the suddenness of her response.
“I’ll be impressed if they have a way to contain a Valkyrie,” she said, still laughing.
Delia’s eyes shone with delight; her lips spread in a fearless grin. Somewhere outside the shop, a raven’s amused squawk rang out—likely audible only to Ishak’s inhuman ears.
“I’ll be even more impressed if they have the balls to use it,” Delia said.
The coarse language surprised Ishak even more than the laughter had. Not as regal as she first seemed, he thought, amused.
The smile on her face gone, Georgette asked, “And what if your sisterhood finds out?”
The smile melted from Delia’s face as well.
While a part of him understood the need for the question, Ishak silently cursed Georgette for turning the tide of the conversation when it had been going so well.
“If Valhalla learns of this,” Delia said softly, “I will be in far more danger than you.”
“But we will be in danger?”
“… Yes.”
The scent of fear came off Georgette in waves, sparking a sympathetic response in Ishak. Though nothing frightened him more than losing Kalilah, he understood Georgette’s horror of unknown consequences.
Looking for support, he glanced at Mei-Xing—but the night had finally done its work on her. Though still sitting upright on the Botanica display case, the Nymph was unconscious. The hell, he thought irritably. Why did we bring her if she was just going to sleep?
“What, exactly, could happen to us?” he asked the Valkyrie.
She shrugged slowly. “This is uncharted territory. If any Valkyrie has ever made an alliance with a witch before, I’ve never heard of it. I don’t know how Valhalla might react. I only know that they will certainly view it as an affront.”
“An affront?” Georgette repeated. “Are you waging war against Valhalla?”
The Valkyrie closed her eyes and let out a slow breath.
“Senji and I were chosen by Valhalla,” she said. “We accept our position without reservation. But this matter concerns our pre-death lives, which is forbidden to Valkyries. We are not interested in waging war against Valhalla, but … to do as we plan …” She trailed off with a sigh. “The sisterhood will see it as an act of war, yes.” She locked eyes first with Georgette and then with Ishak. “We will continue to perform our duties. You have our word that we will give Valhalla no reason to suspect us. And if the sisters do learn the truth, we will try to protect your identities. They would far rather punish a traitor than a solitary witch, a wandering hyena, and an uprooted Wood Nymph.”
Rising from her seat, the Valkyrie collected her sword and helmet from the display case counter. In the doorway, she stopped and glanced back. “Time stops for no one, living or dead,” she urged. “We need an answer soon.”
Two steps past the threshold, she vanished into silver light.
Kazimiera arrived for their meeting sporting a form-fitting minidress the color of wild roses and matching spiked heels that clicked with every step. While Georgette sat at the tarot table, Ishak standing beside her, the Vampire sauntered around the Botanica. Puckering her painted lips, she brushed her long, French-tip nails over the display cases, feather-touching the glass. A gossamer wrap draped loosely around her shoulders glistened like morning dew.
In the Vampire’s presence, Ishak experienced an unsettling contradiction. The woman he saw was a bundle of life: full hips, ample breasts, and a youthful-yet-wise energy. Every liquid motion she made was pure, sensual power. He could easily imagine men and women being caught in the wake of this force of nature, swept along in her footsteps, helpless to escape.
That was what he saw. What he smelled told a different story.
A living body gave off a variety of scents—some of them robust, others subtle. But a Vampire’s body, while not exactly dead, was not alive. When inhaling the air around Kazimiera, Ishak smelled decay. It wasn’t rot, such as he would smell from spoiled meat, but it seemed to belong to something newly dead.
His eyes told him he should pick up lusty, fertile scents. His nose told him he should see a fresh corpse. The disagreement of his senses made him uncomfortable.
“So Kett & Kedena bought your wife from the witch who caught you,” Kazimiera said. She walked along the side of the display case, pausing when she reached the sleeping Nymph. “Now you’re using this one’s”—she pointed to Georgette—“Hathiya to access your abilities during the day.” She wound a section of Mei-Xing’s hair around her long finger and sniffed it as if smelling a flower. The Nymph’s glamour wobbled, revealing that the hair was actually a small, leafy vine. When Kazimiera dropped it, it merged back into the imaginary curtain of straight black hair. Mei-Xing never stirred. “And Georgette came to work for me because she hoped to covertly use my connections to find your wife.”
“Correct,” Ishak said.
As she turned to sashay toward them, she crossed a beam of light spilling in from the street. For a moment, it lit up her eyes. The light reflected from them in a green, catlike glow.
Kazimiera put her palms on the table and leaned over. The sheer wrap slowly slid down her bare arms, exposing her cleavage. Her visual appeal tugged at Ishak, stirring arousal—until he inhaled. Her honeysuckle perfume couldn’t fool his hypersensitive nose. She was temptation incarnate, but her body promised no warmth.
“What are you offering?” she asked.
“Offering?” Georgette asked. She and Ishak exchanged looks—hers puzzled, his irritated. “What do you mean?”
“Well,” the Vampire purred, “obviously your cover is blown. You won’t be sneaking around to use my connections now.”
“Sorry,” Georgette murmured, her cheeks flushed.
Kazimiera stood up and tossed her hair with a tsk! sound. Then she pinned Ishak with a pointed gaze. “If I get in touch with KK Inc. about your wife, what will you give me?”
“Give you?” Ishak’s cheeks began to burn. “Georgette told us that you rescue enslaved creatures and protect them. Why would you ask us to give you something for Kalilah?”
“Because I’m not running a charity,” she said, placing her hands on her hips. “When I bring in new rescues, I don’t just save them, I also gain new employees.”
Ishak narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth. His hyena half growled, rising into his throat. If Kazimiera weren’t a woman, he would have struck her. “Slave labor.”
“Oh honey,” she chuckled, gliding to his side, “no one is forced to work. If they opt to hide in their rooms to wait until their brands fade, I let them. But if all of them did that, I couldn’t keep the doors open. I can’t take care of all of them and also pay salaries. The labor my employees provide allows me to save others.” She cocked an eyebrow at him. “If you see that as slavery, that’s on you.”
Her charm invaded his personal space, sizzling into his skin. The tingle it sent through his body made him remember Kalilah. At moments of peace and rest, Kalilah often smiled just like the Vampire smiled now. It was a proposition—a spark to light a fire. Maybe it would lead to a night of hunting, or maybe to sex, but it always led someplace he was happy to go.
He didn’t want to go anywhere with this woman.
“If you blind yourself to the truth,” he said, “that is on you.”
Her smile faltered for the briefest moment. She recovered so quickly that, if not for his extraordinary sight, he might have believed it was just a trick of the light.
“Well,” she said with an exaggerated shrug, “if you aren’t interested in my help …”
She smirked at him before turning her back. Slowly, deliberately, she walked toward the door, hips moving with the steady twitch of a cat’s tail.
Georgette’s head jerked up toward Ishak, eyes wide with alarm, but the Bultungin couldn’t help but grin. He had conducted enough trade with the Toubou and Fulani tribesmen to see this for the bluff it was. Negotiations. Though an ocean apart from his home and family, this was familiar ground.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“I want,” Kazimiera said, swiveling and taking a step toward him, “a replacement for your wife.”
“Someone to work in place of Kalilah?”
“Exactly.” Strolling about the room, she scrunched up her face as if deep in thought. The clicks of her heels echoed faintly as her long fingers drummed on her arms. She glanced at the sleeping Mei-Xing. “What about that one? She doesn’t look like she’s being a productive member of your little team, and many of my VIPs are Chinese businessmen. I’m sure they’d enjoy her.”
Georgette made a squeak of protest, but Ishak put a hand on the witch’s shoulder to keep her quiet. Under his hand, the panic riding her scent faded. With a swell of gratitude, he realized that she was trusting him to deal with this. He looked first at Mei-Xing—deep asleep and still as a tree—and then at Kazimiera. The Vampire stared back at him, waiting expectantly.
“I won’t give you a slave,” he told her.
“Employee,” she corrected. “A temporary employee. The longest any of them has worked for me is twelve years.”
“Indentured servitude is slavery.”
“Not when the one in question is free to leave at any time.”
Anger bubbling up from his gut, Ishak opened his mouth to snap at her—and then he saw her smile and stopped himself. He was doing exactly what he’d sworn to himself he wouldn’t: following where she led. She was making him angry to keep him off balance. Drawing in a deep breath, he exhaled slowly and steadied himself.
“I cannot give you what you ask for,” he said calmly. “Perhaps something else.”
Her amber eyes swept over him with an assessing gleam. Then all air of playfulness slid off her like an unzipped dress. When next she spoke, she assumed a no-nonsense, businesslike tone of voice.
“I can use my contacts to find your wife,” said Kazimiera, “but that’s just a first step. KK Inc. doesn’t give out freebies.”
“Free bees?” Ishak repeated, brow furrowed. No one mentioned bees.
“She means,” said Georgette, “that they won’t just let her go. We’ll have to pay for her.”
Ishak nodded, filing the strange word away in his growing English dictionary.
“I think it’s safe to say that she won’t be cheap,” the Vampire said. “Nymphs like her,” she gestured at Mei-Xing, “are a dime a dozen. Werehyenas aren’t something you see every day.”
“We can pay the broker’s price,” Ishak said, “if money is the only way.”
“This is America, handsome,” the Vampire said. “Money is always the way. Now,” she continued, “let’s discuss my payment.”
Ah, we have come to the meat of it. Now we will learn what she really wants.
“Do you want money?” Ishak asked, knowing this was unlikely.
“Oh,” the Vampire said with a swish of her hands, “I guess we could do it that way. But it’s not my preference.”
Everything about Kazimiera, from her stance to her voice to her ever-present smile, was annoyingly casual. Finding his eyes unhelpful, Ishak drew a breath and examined her scent. The smell of her was still unsettlingly stagnant, but now there was an element of hunger underlying it—not the red hunger her kind were known for, but something far more human. She did want something, wanted it badly.
“Perhaps payment on a sliding scale?” he suggested. He expected her to refuse but wanted time to feel her out. “The better the deal you make with the broker, the more we pay you?”
In what he took for a show of disdain, she slowly turned her back to him and ran her fingers through her corkscrew curls. Her sheer, sparkling wrap slipped over her arms and shoulders, frictionless as water, as she moved.
With her attention momentarily diverted, Ishak raced to figure out what she was thinking, grasping for an advantage.
She would not come to us for something so simple as money, he thought. Could she want blood? But a fresh supply comes through her club every evening. Perhaps she really does want an "employee,” like she joked. His eyes shot to Mei-Xing, Kazimiera’s opening request in the negotiations. No, he immediately thought, Nymphs are a dime a dozen—she said it herself. She will want something rarer.
Kazimiera completed a full rotation, still teasing her hair. As she came around to face him again, her catlike eyes coasted over everything in their path, as lightly and thoughtlessly as mist across a garden—except when they arrived at Georgette, at which point she shifted her eyes to skip over the witch.
Suddenly, Ishak understood.
Georgette.
A cooperative witch was much harder to come by than a Nymph. Readily accessible magic was worth more than any fee they could offer. It was the thing Kazimiera needed the most to keep her business running. She thought she had found a suitable replacement for her last witch, only to learn that Georgette never intended to stay. Now she hopes to secure her service via Kalilah.
His stomach turned. It was unacceptable. He would not give up Georgette to servitude. The very thought was abhorrent.
The Vampire opened her mouth to speak but stopped without uttering a sound. For a moment, she looked at Ishak through squinted eyes, her painted lips tight and unsmiling. The Bultun-gin felt a crawling sensation under his skin, a nervousness he usually associated with the prey he hunted. The feeling stopped at the same instant that her expression softened.
“Clever man,” purred Kazimiera, the sexy smile back on her face. “I think you know what I want.”
Anger rumbled through Ishak. Somehow, she had seen right through him.
“I can be flexible on the terms—but, honestly,” she said, looking him up and down, “you have nothing else of value to me.”
Damn you, he thought, struggling to keep his face impassive. The thing you want isn’t mine to give.
Kazimiera looked back and forth between Ishak and Georgette, her smug smile widening into a predatory grin that exposed her pointed teeth. “Do we have a deal?”
After seeing Kazimiera out, Ishak stood by the door and waited until his Bultungin senses lost track of her. Sighing, he glanced back at Georgette and Mei-Xing. The Nymph’s arms had fallen to her sides; her hands dangled limply over the edges of the display case.
Georgette shook her by the shoulders but got no response.
“Perhaps she should have waited at the hotel,” he said.
Georgette shook her head. “She wanted to come. Besides, this is partly her decision to make. We’re all sharing the brand. I just need to drop her glamour. Once she’s not using my power for that, she’ll have enough energy to stay awake.” She reached out, fingers inches from Mei-Xing’s face, then paused. “Um, could you double-check that all the blinds are closed? It’ll freak her out if she thinks somebody might see her without the glamour.”
He obliged and walked the perimeter of the shop. When he returned, Mei-Xing’s human visage was gone, replaced by her true, mossy, grass-sprouting form. Georgette shook the Nymph again and this time, she awoke with ease. Though Mei-Xing accepted their assurances that she was safe, when she took a seat at the tarot table, she pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, making herself as small as possible. Her iridescent eyes repeatedly scanned the room over the tops of her knees as if she was expecting to spot some hidden threat in the shadows.
