“The tome was the Libro Sanguis,” Casimir said, his voice little more than a whisper. “It was written in ancient Latin and according to my research is one of the oldest and most complete compendiums on the use of blood and ritual magic that has ever been compiled.”
Kasey winced. There was a reason most blood magic had been relegated to the forbidden. Any type of arcane practice fueled by blood sacrifice had been outlawed centuries ago. It didn't stop people from trying, but those found violating the Arcane Covenant met a swift end at the hands of the Arcane Council. The death penalty was alive and well in the supernatural world and saw ready use for those who would violate its few but sacrosanct laws.
“Sounds unpleasant,” Bishop said, pushing a strand of hair back behind her ear.
“The entire thing was written in blood,” Casimir replied. “Exquisite penmanship and impeccably preserved, it would have fetched a fortune on the open market.”
“Who knew it was here?” Kasey asked.
“No one but the thief who sold it to me and he’d already been paid,” Casimir replied. “He didn’t want anything more to do with it. Once I knew what it was, I didn't tell a soul. I planned to use an intermediary for the sale so that it couldn't be traced back to me.”
“Well, someone found you all the same, and now the book is loose on the streets,” Kasey replied.
The Council would be furious when they found out, which seemed inevitable given the nature of magic contained in the tome.
“Look, books like this come along once-in-a-lifetime,” Casimir replied. “I wasn't trying to endanger any lives. I just figured a collector would pay top dollar for something that old.”
“Or commit murder,” Bishop replied. “Casimir, we’re going to take you down to the station, take your statement, and keep you for a few hours, just in case they come back. Grab anything you need from the store. You can ride back with our officers.”
“But, but—” Casimir protested.
“No buts,” Bishop replied. “We’re going to have a nice little chat, just in case you remember something more useful. I want to know more about the thief that sold it to you. We’re going to need to ask him a few questions, see who he told about the book.”
Casimir nodded and sat down in a chair. “Please just give me a few minutes to secure some of my more valuable possessions. I can't lock the store in its current state.”
“Don’t worry, we will leave a few officers here to watch the store, while you take a ride with us downtown.”
Casimir let out a long breath. “Okay, detective.”
Kasey looked around the store. There wasn’t much else she could do here, and she wanted to get off the streets as soon as she could manage it. Council headquarters would give her somewhere safe to hole up while she figured things out, and it would give her a chance to do some research of her own into the Libro Sanguis.
Kasey headed for the door and looked out into the street. Traffic was starting to pick up as the city got moving. The busier it became, the more exposed she would be.
Kasey stripped out of her Tyvek suit and handed it back to Bishop. “I’m going to make my way to headquarters, start looking into this book there. Have you got things here?”
“I'll walk you out,” Bishop said, taking the bundled-up bodysuit and tucking it under one arm. Pointing at Casimir, she added, “You stay there.”
Kasey pushed open the busted door and stepped out onto the street.
“Don't think I've forgotten about that phone call,” Bishop said, following Kasey outside.
She turned to find Bishop's hands resting on her hips.
“I want to know what Hades was after. What's he up to?”
“He’s not up to anything,” Kasey replied, pushing her hair back out of her face. “Well, I'm sure he is up to something, somewhere, he always is, but the call wasn't for him, it was for me.”
“Then what did he want?” Bishop asked. “Or are the two of you trading social calls nowadays?”
Kasey let the comment slide. She didn’t want to bicker with Bishop. It was better to give it to her straight. “He heard someone might be after me, figured I should know about it, and I took the opportunity to tell him to pull his socks up before you arrest him.”
She didn’t want to tell Bishop what was going on until she knew more. Diane Bishop was the protective sort. When a serial killer had hunted Kasey through the streets of New York, Bishop had been all for locking her in the basement of the Ninth Precinct to keep her safe.
Right now, Kasey had far too much to do to be trapped somewhere under Bishop's watchful eye. Besides, supernatural hitters wouldn't think anything of going through a police station if they had to, and the Ninth Precinct had been through more than enough already.
“You told Hades that?” Bishop asked, a tone of disbelief in her voice.
“Yep, told him that you would slap the cuffs on him and everything.”
“You don't want to know,” Kasey replied.
“Yes, I do,” Bishop said. “Tell me.”
Kasey sighed. “He said he has always liked it a little rougher in the bedroom, and that you could cuff him any time.”
“That little…” Bishop's face turned beet red. “He should be so lucky. Besides, that position is occupied. I doubt my present partner would think much of sharing.”
“Partner, huh?” Kasey asked. “When did that happen?”
Bishop shrugged nonchalantly. “This is what happens when you never catch up with your friends, Kasey. You miss all the good gossip.”
That hurt a little. Kasey hadn’t been intentionally neglecting her relationship with Bishop. She’d just been busy running from one fire to the next. Working for the Council was far from a walk in the park, and she felt bad about not spending more time with Bishop.
“Is it anyone I know?” Kasey asked.
“Mmm, perhaps,” Bishop replied. “It's still quite new and I don't want to jinx things.”
Kasey studied the detective’s face. There was a trace of a smile forming on her lips. It was a good thing. Bishop had had about as much luck as Kasey when it came to men.
“So who’s coming for you, Kasey?” Bishop asked. “What can we do to help?”
“I just need to get off the street and look into things. As soon as I know more, I’ll let you know. I just don’t want you to worry over nothing.”
“More like you don’t want me locking you in holding at the precinct,” Bishop replied.
Kasey laughed. “Perhaps a little of both. Don't worry, it’s probably nothing.”
Bishop did not look convinced, but she let it go. “I'm going to get this body to Vida so we can find out what was in that hellish concoction our John Doe took. Last thing we need is another new drug on the street, particularly one that could inspire such violence.”
“Sounds good to me. Let me know if you find anything interesting,” Kasey replied, with a wave. “I’ll call you later.”
Bishop walked her to the police cordon and Kasey slipped through it, heading down the snow-covered sidewalk to her car. She’d parked it on the corner of a small side street nearby. With the police all over the place, she was unlikely to get a ticket.
She walked over to her car, a blue second-hand Chevrolet Malibu. It was a step up from her old wreck. Working for the Arcane Council was really paying off. Sure, the subway might have been better value and a little quicker at times, but it was nice to have her own car for these early hours call outs. There were times of day when riding the subway could be a little much for her patience to handle.
Kasey reached into her pocket and pulled out her keys. As she did, they caught on the button of her jacket and tumbled to the ground. Kasey cursed as she bent down to pick them up. They'd come perilously close to sliding into the drain.
“That was a close one,” Kasey told herself as she looked at the gutter.
That was when she saw something und
er her car that shouldn't have been there.
A small tangle of wires poked out of a brick about the size of three cell phones taped together. A solid red light reflected faintly against the snow.
Kasey’s heart skipped a beat. She had seen such devices before.
It was a bomb.
Chapter Four
The flashing light sent a shot of adrenaline coursing through Kasey's system.
The bomb was placed beneath the driver’s side of the vehicle and had likely been rigged to explode once she started the car, but it could just as easily have a remote detonator as back up and she was far too close.
Kasey turned and pushed off the sidewalk, but her foot lost purchase on the packed frosty ice, shooting out from beneath her.
Kasey hit the frozen sidewalk, driving the wind from her lungs as she half fell, half rolled away from her car.
One of the officers at the police cordon started toward her, but Kasey waved him away frantically.
“Get back! It's a bomb,” she shouted, scrambling to her feet. She drew on her power and summoned a shield as her new Malibu exploded behind her.
Her shield robbed the explosion of much of its lethal force and stopped bits of shrapnel from turning her into a pincushion, but the blast still bowled her over. As her face hit the icy sidewalk, she groaned.
A passing car veered across the center line in an effort to avoid the explosion, but only succeeded in collecting a town car travelling in the opposite direction. Half a dozen vehicles piled into the jam and horns blared as angry commuters expressed their shock and outrage. The street came to a standstill as drivers piled out of their vehicles to stare at the flaming wreckage of Kasey's car.
Kasey spat out a mouthful of sleet and packed snow and rolled to her feet. Her head throbbed, but she was more concerned with the innocent bystanders. Her car had exploded on a busy street. Had anyone else been caught by it?
Behind her, police who had been working the scene called in the explosion on their radio. Someone else was shouting at her but Kasey's mind was moving one hundred miles an hour.
She knew the truth. Someone had just tried to kill her.
Hades' warning came flooding back into her mind and she realized whoever had planted the bomb was still out there and while everyone was focused on the explosion, the assassins could even now be repositioning for another shot. The NYPD had no idea of the real threat and Kasey kicked herself for not telling Bishop.
She hadn't wanted Bishop's stubborn and overprotective nature to get in the way, but in withholding the information from her ex-partner, she had put more lives at risk. Kasey needed to rectify the situation immediately.
She charged toward the police cordon and shouted “It's an attack! Take cover.”
The nearest police officer ducked down behind the back of his squad car, putting it between him and Kasey.
“Stay down, and spread the word,” she called as she ran.
If she could make it to Casimir's, she could put some solid cover between herself and any shooters that might be on the street.
She looked over her shoulder and spotted movement by the coffee cart on the street corner. The steel panels on the front of the cart were open and two children were climbing out of them.
As they stood up, Kasey realized they weren't children at all. They were short, barely four feet tall, but their greyish pink skin was heavily wrinkled and unlike any human Kasey had ever seen. Each had beady yellow eyes and hook noses, with a gray cap perched on their head.
They looked like they had escaped from a cosplay convention, but it was the compact submachine guns in their hands that captured her attention.
Their eyes darted about the street and landed on Kasey, but she was already moving. Throwing herself forward into a dive, Kasey landed on the trunk of the police cruiser, sliding across it and off the other side as the two creatures opened fire.
Disciplined bursts of automatic fire bracketed the cruiser as Kasey hit the street behind it. Ignoring a sharp flare of pain in her left wrist as it hit the asphalt, she hunkered behind the wheel well, putting the tire between her and her foes.
Commuters screamed as they raced away from the gunmen, but the creatures only had eyes for Kasey. Ignoring everybody milling around in panic, they advanced on the police cordon.
Several officers drew their weapons and returned fire. One bullet struck one of the creatures in the chest, forcing it back a step, but the creature shrugged off the blow.
They had to be wearing bullet-proof vests.
The creatures returned fire, forcing the police back into cover.
“Kasey? What's going on?” Bishop called from the shelter of the battered bookstore.
“Two shooters on the street, both with submachine guns and looking to lay the hurt on us,” Kasey replied.
Bishop scrunched her face. “The man from this morning?”
Kasey remembered the man from the footage in the thick cowl. He'd certainly been a heck of a lot taller than whatever these were. Which wasn't to say they couldn't be working together but the man in the robe had been after the tome.
“Nope, too short,” Kasey replied.
“You think they are after the book?” Bishop called, trying to get a glimpse up the street.
A burst of automatic fire drove her back into cover.
“Fairly sure they are after me,” Kasey shouted back. “That was my car they blew up.”
It wouldn't take Bishop long to reach the same conclusion Kasey had. She was far better off leading with the truth. “That call from our old friend. This was what he was worried about.”
Bishop ducked low around the corner and squeezed off a few rounds. She'd aimed low and one of the rounds caught the creature on the left in the leg. The creature went down.
“And you didn't think to tell me?” Bishop shouted back.
“I thought I had more time and you already seemed to have enough on your plate,” Kasey answered.
The creature that was still standing grabbed something off his vest. It was a fragmentation grenade. Whatever these creatures were, they had serious firepower on their side.
These had to be the assassins Hades had told her about. What had he called them? Savage Garden?
Gnomes. The hook nosed, beady-eyed little murderers were gnomes. The creature lobbed the grenade with an underarm toss that sent it skittering across the road and beneath the car Kasey was sheltering behind. Grabbing the officer beside her, Kasey pushed him away from the squad car, took two steps, and then threw herself to the ground atop him.
The grenade came to a halt next to the tire Kasey had been hunkering behind and detonated. The sound of hot metal filled the air but none of the angry fragments found their mark.
Kasey panted as she rose from the ground. She hurt all over and it wasn't even 9 AM. She was meant to just be starting her day, but these wretched little gnomes seemed determined to kill her before she could.
Well, if the vampire court had put a price on her head, the best thing she could do was send a message. The court might have been offering five million, but money was difficult to spend when one was dead. She needed to show that the bounty just wasn't worth the effort and the only way she could think of doing that was to barbecue these pugnacious little pests.
Fortunately, she had been training with Sanders, and those weekly dueling sessions had taught her volumes about dealing with deadly situations on-the-fly. Since her prescience had abandoned her, Kasey had needed to up her game and pitting her skills against one of the most dangerous battle mages of the Arcane Council seemed the perfect way to do it.
Awkward sexual tension aside, Sanders had helped her immeasurably.
“Covering fire, Bishop,” Kasey called.
Bishop leaned around the corner of the bookstore's entrance and squeezed off a few rounds.
Using the distraction, Kasey looped around the other side of the police cordon and into the stopped traffic. The gnomes were short and would have trouble seeing through the dens
e mass of cars that Kasey had put between them.
She darted between the stationary cars, keeping a low profile as she flanked the creatures. Crossing the street back toward the sidewalk, she leapt onto the back of a taxi and strode up onto the roof.
One of the gnomes was down, but he was using his submachine gun for suppressing fire against the police behind the cordon. The other whirled to face Kasey but she had already had plenty of time to gather her magic about her.
“Troelli,” Kasey shouted and the submachine gun in the gnome’s hands twisted itself into a useless hunk of metal.
The gnome hurled the piece of useless steel at Kasey and reached for his side arm.
“See you in hell, you bowlegged little beast. Pêl tân.”
The anger coursing through her, combined with the mental image of the two creatures burning in eternal fire, conjured a blaze far greater than she had intended, but she hurled it at them all the same.
The ball of flames broiled and expanded as it descended on them.
As the fire rained down, the creature raised its hand and muttered something in its own language. There was a shimmer in the air above them and she felt a wave of arcane energy blossom from the diminutive, little gnome.
The fire struck some sort of barrier and steam hissed and recoiled from it. The fire dissipated as if it had struck a river, choking the sidewalk with a thick cloud of mist.
Kasey jumped off the taxi. She couldn't see either of the creatures through the fog, but they had known her last position and she didn't want to present an easy target.
With the dense vapor, she couldn't see more than two feet in front of her face. Somehow, the creature had turned her own spell to his advantage, not only dispersing its energy but converting it into cover.
Their sudden and brazen assault had lost its impetus and now they had changed the battlefield. In the mist, the little creatures could move freely. One of them had been wounded but the other could be anywhere by now.
Kasey did her best to focus her senses but there was simply too much background noise. Somewhere in a car a child was crying. Further down the street, oblivious to the goings-on ahead of them, cars stuck in traffic tested their horns. The city was conspiring to prevent her from getting any hint of where her pursuers might be.