Page 129 of Cold Curses

“We have to at least look,” I said. “Maybe we don’t have enoughpower to take him in, but we have to see what he’s up to and stop him if we can.”

I knew Connor wanted to argue that would be too dangerous, but Black posed a danger to the entire city. Especially with the magic he was gathering. And mine wasn’t the only family in town.

“Next life,” he said, “no marrying an Ombud.”

“Anyone have X-ray vision?” I asked.

Swift snorted. “We are not Kal-El,” he whispered.

I could practically hear Connor’s heart beating faster. “You a Superman fan?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Swift whispered carefully. “You, too?”

Connor nodded, held back a grin—badly—while sliding a glance at me. “I’d love to discuss this more, but she’s impatient.”

“Just imagineAction ComicsNumber One is in that building,” I said. “That’ll keep you motivated.”

“Now you’re just flirting with me,” Connor said. “Since we don’t have X-ray vision, Alexei and I can take the guard.” He looked over at Lulu. “Can you give Elisa a shield, so she can look in?”

“Better if Lulu looked in,” I thought aloud. “She’ll know what she’s looking at.”

“No,” Alexei said, the first words he’d spoken in a while. “She’s just now conscious again.”

“Try to take a picture?” Lulu suggested.

I nodded. “I’ll call an audible on that one.”

“I thought we said no more flirting?” Connor’s grin was just for me.

I kissed him hard. “Go,” I said. “Distract.”

Alexei was already naked and changing to shifter form, the light and magic of that transformation echoing the red in the clouds above us. Once in wolf form, he ran toward the demon, but whipped past him. Connor, still in human form, was there by thetime the demon turned to look, and he did some sort of pressure-point move that had the demon slumping to the ground.

“That was faster than I thought it was going to be,” I said.

Lulu grinned. “That’s what she said.”

“Stay here,” I told Lulu and Swift, and crept over to the door, checked the keypad. The light was red. I leaned in closer, stared at the buttons. And saw fingerprints on only one of them. I took a guess, keyed in0-0-0-0.

“Villains are so predictable,” I murmured as the lock disengaged. With Connor keeping watch at my back, I edged open the door and looked inside.

The building was one long space, all of it empty except for Black and his demons—and the light show that filled the air above them.

A circle, at least ten feet across, had been rendered in red light, and it rotated vertically in the middle of the room. Magical symbols were arranged around it in thin red lines. This wasn’t a sigil—or not a demon’s personal symbol, anyway. It looked more like someone had taken a compass and a zodiac calendar and mashed them together.

A cone of greenish light funneled down through a gap in the roof and into the circular symbol; it was flowing directly from a ley line. I could feel the massive volume of power even at the door.

Black stood in front of the symbol. His jacket was gone, his shirt open, his skin glowing red as power poured over him. Three of his demons were positioned around him. But they weren’t privy to the flowing magic—they were contributing to it. The demons’ arms were extended, their eyes closed, their bodies vibrating as magic flowed from them and the ley line into the symbol. And from the symbol, that magic poured into Black.

The symbol was some sort of magic transmission device, and he was filling himself up.

I thought I’d fibbed by telling Lulu that Black wanted to absorb magic from others. But I’d been horribly, surprisingly right.

And we had to stop him.

I pulled out my screen, took a photo of the room, the symbol. And then glanced down. On-screen, Black was surrounded by wisps of black smoke, and as the symbol turned and power funneled down, that smoke grew thicker. It slipped inside him, putting black streaks across his skin that weren’t visible in real life.

When Black screamed, I dropped my screen, but caught it an inch before it hit concrete—and gave away my position.