Chapter 31

The drive from my apartment to House Cerenkov was relatively short. My apartment was about a mile south of UTA whereas House Cerenkov was a compound located in a large open area of Arlington just Northwest of UTA. I tried to ask Chloe why she had been so reluctant to drive me out here, but she refused to answer my questions.

We were going West on West Division street when she slowed down and turned right onto a long, lonely drive. In the distance I could see a collection of buildings. Some were, at most, three stories. They didn’t look like apartments though, more like office buildings. There were no trees, and the gray sky made the whole place feel like we had just driven many miles out of the city to find this place. There was a spooky aspect to the area. I suspected it was a magical defense set up to keep people away. I wasn’t about to let some horror movie special effects stop me from finding the answers I sought.

Chloe eased along the drive like she expected it to fall out from under us at any minute. I could almost feel her heart rate as she gripped the steering wheel.

I reached over and gently put my hand on her shoulder. “Relax, it’s just a driveway.”

She looked up at the buildings in front of us. “Yeah,” she squeaked. “Sure.”

A small building stood on the right side of the drive as we neared a T intersection. The building looked deserted. Grass and weeds had grown up around the structure, the few windows were all black, one of which looked broken, and the front door hung on a single hinge. It looked like no one had tried to do anything with it in years.

Chloe stopped at the intersection. I thought it was odd that the drive would split like this to circle around the rest of the buildings, but that’s exactly how it appeared. I pulled out my phone and opened a map app. My location showed us exactly where we were, at the bottom half of the circular drive. According to the map, the drive encircled all the buildings sitting directly in front of us, but there were no drives or parking lots anywhere among the buildings.

“Which way?” Chloe asked.

I looked at her and something caught the corner of my eye. I looked around. No one was nearby. Other than the clouds as they slid across the gray sky, nothing moved. Something was there though. I could feel it. I held up my hand to my eye, using the same see-Magic spell Sheriff Dalton had taught me.

A wall of blinding light filled the front windshield of Chloe’s car.

I put my hand down.

“What was that?” Chloe asked, looking amused. “Did you see anything?”

I nodded. “The entire area is covered with magical spells. It may even be possible that we’re staring out at several Magi and don’t see them because of the spells.”

She looked straight ahead. “Okay, then what do we do?”

I nodded to the left. “Let’s go that way.”

Chloe nodded and turned left.

We approached one of the taller buildings, but it looked deserted. In fact, the closer I looked at all of them, the more decrepit they all looked. More than likely it was some kind of spell to make everything here look less than pleasant and even potentially scare away anyone who came looking. The road we followed didn’t connect to any parking lots or driveways. It simply continued on around the collection of buildings. We followed it until it came to another T interest with Mason Avenue. There were a few buildings on either side of Mason as it led to West Sanford Street, but they didn’t look any better than the ones we had already passed.

I had a thought. Chloe and I hadn’t even gotten out of her car. I wondered what would happen if we did.

“Go on straight,” I said. “Let’s see the other side of these buildings.”

She nodded and continued on.

Sure enough, it was more of the same. There were two buildings to our left, separate from the ones encircled by the drive. One of them even looked fairly new. I pointed at it and Chloe pulled over and parked in front of it.

I released my seatbelt and looked over at Chloe. She looked back at me and then threw the building in front of us a look of disdain. Her seatbelt was firmly in place. She didn’t want to get out of the car.

I climbed out, straightened my jacket and belt, and walked around the car. The building was an odd structure. It didn’t make me think of a house or apartment, which left me with the idea of an office. However, the front door didn’t make me think of an office door. It was made of dark wood and put me in mind of the b-rate Arabian movies that my suit did. I tried the handle. It wasn’t locked. I pulled it open easily. Which was odd too. Normally, external doors are designed to swing into a structure so they may be barred from within. Like the rest of the building, the door was in good shape. Light shone through the sliver of a crack. It was warm and inviting. Someone had to be here. If this was for visitors, they certainly made it feel welcome.

I looked back at Chloe and waved for her to come with me.

She shook her head and locked her car doors. It appeared that I was on my own.

I shook my head and pulled the door open to look inside. The immediate room didn’t make me think ‘house’ or ‘office’ either. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to follow this Arabian setting. It wasn’t my House, and neither of the others I had visited had gone to any effort to do anything like this. Regardless, I stepped inside and took a closer look.

The middle of the floor had a huge rug with an intricate design. It was so big all of the edges were only inches away from each respective wall. The design didn’t form a picture, but was completely abstract. A long, hard wood bench sat along the opposite wall. The wood was dark and highly polished. The cushions were thin but looked well-kept. Two chairs sat along the wall to my right, on either side of a window that faced south. The chairs matched the bench. A set. They looked expensive.

Movement caught my eye and I turned to an open doorway to my left.

A woman came out of an adjoining room. She stopped in the doorway and her sparkling eyes looked me over. A smile spread her lips and dimples creased her cheeks. “Welcome, stranger.”

I may have been uncomfortable with the formal suit I had to wear to this meeting, but I certainly understood the motif. Her outfit, however, only loosely matched the theme. She was dressed in a green bikini top with sequins and a long diaphanous skirt that hung low on her hips and grazed the floor. I was pretty sure she was barefoot. Her skin was tanned and oiled, as if she had been laying out in the sun. Her hair, while not as dark as mine, was of a warm brunette with auburn mixed in. Her eyes looked green, but that could have been the way her revealing suit brought out the color. I may not have liked the pants I wore, but she didn’t look upset in the least about how little she was wearing.

She stepped into the room and stopped with her back to me. She looked back over her shoulder through the thick waves of her hair. “Are you coming in?”

I realized I was still standing in the doorway with the door open, letting in the cold autumn air. I stepped inside and pulled the door closed. There was a distinct click in the silent building.

The woman went to the bench and sat down on it. The diaphanous skirt settled and fell open at a split down the front, showing her supple, tanned legs to perfection.

I felt a bit uncomfortable, knowing these pants hugged me like second-skin. I couldn’t reign in my physical reaction to her appearance. I could only hope she took it as a compliment.

She patted the bench next to her. “Come. Sit,” she said, smiling and watching me intently. I was pretty sure I saw her eyes drop for a few seconds before rising again to my own.

Part of me wanted to sit in one of the chairs rather than next to her. I didn’t want to come across as overly presumptuous. However, she had invited me to sit next to her, and it would be rude not to. So, I crossed the room and sat where she indicated.

The bench was firm. I registered that the cushioning only marginally offered any comfort. The woman leaned toward me and I could feel the warmth of her body, or was that simply my imagination? The whole room was warm. So much so, that I was beginning to sweat. I had to get a grip. I had to concentrate on why I was there. Sure she was gorgeous, but I knew a number of gorgeous women already. One of them was sitting outside in her locked car.

I wanted to find someone who could teach me a spell to track down my missing Fonte. Even if this woman didn’t know the spell, I was sure she was a member of House Cerenkov and she would be able to at least direct me to one of the House officers so that I might gain permission to talk to the other members. I looked up and met her eyes. “Please, I’m looking for your House leader,” I said. “I have an urgent request.”

She blinked long lashes at me. “Really? What request?”

I couldn’t think of a reason not to tell, especially if it helped speed things along. “I need to speak to the members of your House. I’m looking for someone who can teach me a specific spell.”

She smiled beautifully. “A specific spell? What good would that do you? No one in this city can use Magic.”

I thought about the defensive spells around the complex. Was it possible House Cerenkov hadn’t heard the rumors? “I’m not inhibited like other Magi,” I said.

She scooted closer to me. “Not inhibited?” she asked with a twinkle in her eyes.

I smiled and shook my head. “I’m sorry. What I mean is that I’m not affected by the Lockdown.”

She flashed a frown and made it look cute, and then her eyebrows rose. “You’re not? You can use Magic?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

She smiled again. Her dimples only made her expression that much harder to resist. I found myself smiling too. “Then you’re in luck,” she said, leaning over to press her shoulder to mine. “I am Lady Riddell.”

I blinked at her. She couldn’t be that much older than me. Easily in her mid-twenties. And everyone was saying it would take someone older to be the Head of any House. Even more odd was that I had gleaned Dana’s memories about the House leaders of the city. Lord Mikel Haas was the leader of House Cerenkov. However, rather than argue with the woman next to me, I nodded. “Lady Riddell, thank you for seeing me. I am Lord Connors of House Ursae. I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t have a gift to offer you.”

She scooted her hips closer, pressing her flank to mine. “I believe we can overlook that particular detail for today. I’ve heard about your endeavor to end the Lockdown,” she said and then pulled down on the string between the cups of her top. “I’ve also heard about your recruitment methods.”

I shook my head, trying to stay focused on the conversation rather than the peak of her nipples she offered. “I’m confused. What have you heard exactly?”

She released the string of her top and it snapped back into place, then she laid the same hand on my thigh. “I’ve heard that you’re looking for Stirpi to teach you how to end the Lockdown,” she said as she squeezed the inside of my thigh. “I’ve heard that you were involved in the death of Lord Fanelli,” she said as her hand moved up and bumped into the crown of my erection. “I’ve heard that you’re free of the Lockdown, yet you refuse to share that gift with anyone else,” she said, wrapping her fingers around me, stretchy material and all, and giving me a firm squeeze.

As distracting as her hand was, I couldn’t help but notice that with each word, her friendly demeanor changed to something irascible. It was no longer pleasant but closer to furious. I grabbed her wrist and pried her fingers off of me.

The sparkle in her eyes had turned to flames. “I will not allow you to take my people just so your new fledgling House can grow.” Then she jerked her hand out of my grip.

I stood up and stepped away. “I’m not sure where you’re getting your information, but it sounds like you only got part of the story.”

She sat with her back straight, crossed one gloriously tanned leg over the other and then crossed her hands over the top knee. “And I’m supposed to believe anything that comes out of your mouth?” she asked.

I studied her posture. She was extremely defensive. “If you’re really that angry about me being here,” I said, focused on her face and her reactions, “why allow me to come in? With the spells around this facility, it would have been easy to keep me away. You could have kept me driving in circles for hours, but I find this one building looking relatively new and well-kept as compared to how the rest look. An obvious invitation.”

There was a flicker in her eyes, a crack in the anger she used as a shield. “It does not matter,” she said. “You’re not getting what you want from me.”

This made no sense, so I shook my head. “What I want?” I asked, starting to feel my own anger building. “You can’t possibly imagine what I want.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re looking for another Stirpe, but your Magic won’t work on me.”

I shook my head. “Another Stirpe? That’s your conclusion? And here I thought only men thought with their sexual organs.”

Something new filled her eyes. I hadn’t expected it, not with the way she was acting, but it was there nonetheless. Somehow, I had hurt her feelings. The very idea dowsed my own anger and I eased my tone. “I told you that I need to learn a specific spell.”

The fleeing pain disappeared as mysteriously as it had appeared. “Oh, please,” she spat, and stood up. “You can’t learn a spell instantly. It would take you days or months to learn what you want to know.”

“What do you think I want to know?” I asked with steady inflection.

She shook her head. “This is no longer about what you believe you’ve come here to do. I’m putting a stop to this, right now.”

“A stop to what exactly?” I asked. “I’m trying to end the Lockdown, so you and everyone else in the city can use their Magic again.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ve convinced yourself and those around you that you believe that,” she said, stepping closer to me. “But you will make things worse for everyone if you do not stop.”

I studied her eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Your efforts to end the Lockdown are only going to end in ruin for rest of us,” she said. “How can you possibly know how to end the Lockdown? Hmm? You need all this help to do so. You need spells that you don’t even begin to comprehend. One wrong word. One wrong move, and all of us could be suffering worse than we are now.”

“You’ve had another visitor,” I said. “Haven’t you?”

She shook her head. “You’re the first visitor we’ve had in weeks.”

“Then what makes you believe that I will fail to end the Lockdown properly?” I asked.

“You don’t see it, do you?” she asked with a softer tone. “You’re so full of yourself, you don’t even seen the potential for disaster. Your ego is going to hurt us all.”

I was taken aback by that. I may have been many things, but ego-centric wasn’t one of them. At least, I didn’t think I was. “We’re not the only ones affected by the Lockdown,” I said.

“Oh, please,” she said. “The missing women? I’ve heard your theory about that. There’s no reason at all that those poor women are involved in the Lockdown.”

“Then you haven’t heard all of my theories,” I said. “You have to take them all into account to understand what’s really going on.”

She waved me toward her. “Okay then, let’s have it. What’s really going on?”

“You said I’ve been gathering Stirpi to help me end the Lockdown,” I said and she nodded. “Do you know what spell skills I’ve been looking for?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “You may gain their insight to the kinds of Magic they use, but that doesn’t mean you truly understand how those spells work.”

I shook my head. “It’s more than gaining insight to the kinds of Magic they use,” I said. I wasn’t sure I should share this detail with her, but if she was really the House Lady for House Cerenkov, then she would already know how it worked. Telling her the additional detail wouldn’t matter since I wasn’t here to recruit. “Since they use my Magic, as my Stirpi, they are free of the Lockdown too. Which means they can help me end the lockdown because they’ll know what spells to use, how they work, and the dangers they pose should something go wrong.”

Riddell openly stared at me. It was a detail she hadn’t know.

“More than that, if I need the insights you describe, I can use my innate ability to share memories to learn them in nearly the blink of an eye,” I said.

She stepped back. “That doesn’t mean you’ll succeed. You and your Stirpi could make things worse by trying to force the Lockdown to end by any method other than the way it’s designed to end.”

“I realize that,” I said, nodding. “Which is why one of my Stirpi is a specialist at deciphering spells. She can pick it apart without affecting it and tell me what’s required to end the Lockdown. The other one is a syphoning spell specialist. The Lockdown doesn’t block you from your power, it takes away the energy you expend when you cast a spell, no matter how small. Between the two of them and everyone else helping me, I’m confident that we can figure out how to end the Lockdown without any undue side-effects.”

Riddell was frowning. “Then why are you here if you think you’re ready to end the Lockdown?”

“A failsafe,” I said, stepping closer to her. “The missing women are involved. The Lockdown is a syphoning spell. All the energy the Magi under the Lockdown expend is being taken and deposited somewhere else. The most efficient container for magical energy is people. For whatever reason, the person who cast the Lockdown chose women to be the batteries to hold all of that energy. On top of that, the Lockdown has continued to syphon energy from the area, and those women can only hold so much, so occasionally one or two of them go out and find someone else to help contain the energy. Monday night, one of my Fonti was taken. I need to know where she is. I need to find her and a Fonti-tracking spell will help me do that.”

She shook her head. “That doesn’t mean you’ll be able to end the Lockdown even if you find your Fonte.”

I nodded. “I know that, but the Deputies working with me need to know where to find the Caster. We believe that if the Lockdown is ended before the Caster is ready, she may go to the missing women to tap all the power already syphoned away in an attempt to complete her goal.”

Riddell looked up at me. “She? Her? Do you know who cast the Lockdown?”

I studied her face. “You don’t even know that do you?” I asked. “You think to trap me here, to force me to do what you want, all in the name of saving the Magi in the area from my foolish mistakes, and you don’t even have all of the information.” I shook my head. “If you want to help me, then tell me who might be able to teach me the Fonti-tracking spell. Otherwise, stay out of my way.”

“I suppose we do have all the information now,” said another voice from behind me.

I turned and another woman dressed similar to Riddell came out of the open doorway. She was a bit taller. Her hair darker, and her body more athletic. Dana’s memories of this place only told me her name, Cassi Moran. Following her was a man of who was much shorter than I and wore a more authentic looking Arabian costume. The turban was real and made of purple silk with gold thread weaved through it. The jacket didn’t stop at his waist but grazed the floor. I couldn’t see his legs for the rest of the loose-fitting garments. His skin had a dark olive tone and what little hair escaped his turban was black. Dana’s memories told me that he was the Lord of the House and the title meant so much more than the symbolic meaning the other Magical Houses shared.

Cassi stayed next to the doorway as Lord Mikel Haas walked into the room, stepped past me and stood next to Riddell. Riddell dropped to her knees in front of Haas and folded herself all the way down to the floor as if she were bowing before the mightiest king.

Lord Haas looked up at me. “Forgive me, Lord Connors for the subterfuge. I knew we were lacking crucial details of your plan, but I had no idea what you knew or how far you were willing to go to accomplish your goal.”

I looked from him to Cassi to Riddell and back again. For a moment I was confused.

“You staged this?” I asked.

Lord Haas nodded. “I am sorry if Sarah hurt you. The original plan was that of seduction, but I changed it when I saw that you had arrived with one of your Stirpi.” He looked at me. “I believed an argument would be swifter, and I was right.”

“It never occurred to you to simply come out of hiding and ask?” I asked.

He smiled. “We heard that you were an Orphan, and that you were unconventional. Yet, asking straight faced questions simply isn’t in our nature.”

“Thanks to the Laws of Secrecy, no one knows what anyone else is about,” I said, but still didn’t like what I had found out.

He shrugged. “Maybe, but some people simply like to play their cards close to their chest.”

I looked at Riddell. “So why her?” I asked. “Did she volunteer?”

Lord Haas looked at Riddell too. “I chose her for her appearance more than anything.” He smiled and threw me a glance. “Of all the women in my House, she has the largest breasts. Something we noticed about you while we spied.”

“You admit you were spying on me?” I asked, not sure what to make of this openness.

He guffawed. “All of the Houses spy on each other. Your new House will be no different.”

I sighed and looked at Sarah again. She was quiet, calm, and yet there was tension to her body. If I was right, she was angry. Maybe it was the reason she had been chosen. Maybe it was even simpler than that. Maybe, she didn’t liked being used.

“Sarah is an oddball when it comes to Magic,” Lord Haas said. Sarah didn’t looked up but I saw her frown. “She is immune to Magic. She can cast spells on herself, but no one else has ever been successful in doing so.” Lord Haas looked up at me. “Even our innate abilities do not affect her.”