EJ pulled his vehicle over on the far side of the street and down two lots from Londyn’s and powered off, turning off all exterior and interior comfort lights. “What changed?” he asked.
“Ten months ago, before you started dating her,” Alex said, “Londyn’s elderly aunt died. Funds were placed at her discretion, and, due to the reporting cycle of income taxes and, as they were an inheritance, these funds were not reported on public tax info until she filed, quite late, this year. In October, in fact. In your own background search, you will discover that, in the last three months, she began using those funds at an unprecedented rate. We missed that, but it wasn’t the biggest problem. We also missed extremely expensive upgrades to her home, far more costly than she could afford, even with her inheritance. Had we dedicated full resources to her this past year, we would have, possibly, caught the expenditure of extra, unaccounted-for, funds.”
EJ wanted to pound the car’s dash, but he didn’t. Londynhad used aBes. That cost money and required powerful friends. He had considered her cute, harmless, and fun. Not dangerous. Therefore, he hadn’t kept track. He’d missed it too. He was the stupid one, not Londyn.
Soaking in an ice bath while my sister was injured by my girlfriend. Stupid.EJ pulled on the headset and adjusted the surveillance goggles. “Cams on,” he muttered, switching the headset’s vid on. Beside him, Walter did the same.
As they studied Londyn’s house, Walter slowly vamped out, his sclera turning scarlet, his pupils eclipsing his irises, his fangs clicking down on their little hinges that otherwise kept them against the roof of his mouth. He was using vampire vision. He was preparing for a fight. Or to terrify someone into talking. Walter was a seriously scary fanghead.
EJ tapped the MaLLIR specs on the headset, equipped to detect the presence of active magic, low light, and infrared at the touch of an indicator. Nothing magical or mundane showed. No active magic, no B and Es, no physical attacks were taking place against the front of the house. He tugged the specs down to hang around his neck.
From his pocket, EJ removed a simple open-hole flute with only four holes. The number of holes corresponded with the number of magical workings that could be built into the musical instrument. He placed the flute, shaped more or less like a piccolo, to his lips, and blew a pure C note, the sound soft, rising in volume, and dropping away into silence, enhancing ahearingworking, his air-witch way of detecting all kinds of magic. Nothing. No bells, ticks, drums, nothing indicating magic. He tucked the steel instrument into his jacket pocket, slapped an ear-patch to each ear, and adjusted each for different purposes.
“Ojos, record,” EJ told the system. “Testing comms.”
Walter tapped his ear-patch, openingOjos’s dedicated channel.
“Alex Younger listening on comms,” the security expert said from the queen’s residence in Asheville, putting himself on official record, making this situation the queen’s business, should there be problems.
EJ wasn’t surprised to hear him. It was possible that Londyn’s attack had, in reality, been against the queen, with them as pawns. He said, “Case: Londyn Simms.” He gave the address, date, time, and their names, referring to Walter as Walter N.O.N.—no other name.
Back when he had called their protector Uncle Walter, five-year-old EJ had asked if Walter was his first name. Walter had turned and stared at him for what had felt like forever. EJ should have turned away from the vamped-out fanghead. Instead, he had been ridiculously trusting, and had waited, patient, innocently curious, until Walter answered. “It is the name I chose when I finally wasfree.”
EJ hadn’t known at the time what Walter meant, but he had understood that this was avery important thing. A bad thing. Not something EJ was supposed to ask about.
EJ examined the op site. Londyn’s home, the residence of his current lady friend, sex partner, whatever people called what they had, and hadn’t had. “No magical wards or obvious magical trip wire defenses,” he said. “Brick, with windows and doors replaced in the last upgrade. Not invisi-windows, but good quality. Lights are on inside and on the front and back porches. No obvious signs of visitors, no unexpected vehicles. No sound of loud music or partying.”
Alex interrupted. “According to Chattanooga’s Department of Building and Codes, Londyn’s home’s interior was renovated eight months ago with multiple electronic upgrades, AI, andexcellent security. However…” He went silent for half a minute. EJ and Walter waited inside the vehicle, protected from the winter cold, EJ’s breath beginning to fog the windows.
Frustration and anger in his tone, Alex said, “There were additional upgrades not on the county’s official paperwork. The walls were not only reinsulated, they were equipped with passive copper mesh shields beneath the wallboard. Copper mesh shields prevent detection of heat sources and provided top-of-the-line privacy from outside listening devices, cell signals, and radio waves.”
“She built a Faraday cage,” EJ murmured. There was an odd silence as if the queen’s listener and Walter were surprised at his response. Maybe they were. They still had little idea what he’d done in the war. Faraday cages—used to block some electromagnetic fields—had been combined with null magic and tested against demons.
Seconds ticked by.
Alex said, “Evaluation: It’s a good cage, if the cost is an indicator. We are currently tracking her funds and expenditures. Ah. Here we go. All of this was available in the contractor’s private files, not the city code department. It was paid for under the table. The walls of Londyn’s house were also fitted with—” He broke off. “Well, this is a crap sandwich. Her walls were also fitted with null sheets that offer protection from magical attack, again, passive, and well hidden beneath wallboard and paint.
“The updates precede Londyn’s pursuit of you, which is interesting, and cost way more than the bounty on Angelina’s life.”
Angie may not have been the target.Gotcha.
Uncle Alex was an electronic savant. The military had stolen him away in the war and used him in the electronic part oftheir fight against the Rus witches. Alex’s abilities had contributed far more than most knew to the decimation of the dark-witch-vamp coven and their demons. EJ had used his own resources to find out that much. But they had never talked about what they did in the war. Never would.
A Faraday cage combined with a null cage, in civilian life, presented mind-boggling permutations of who their enemy might be. And who their target might be.
EJ said, “The timing is convenient. She got her inheritance several months before the Faraday cage was built. And Londyn started to flirt with me shortly afterward.”
Walter said softly, “The tea shop across the street from The Firm also saw some serious upgrades about that time.” He added, “She took what had been a business relationship—shipping tea to the royal family—to a personal one. She had a Faraday cage. And she had a demon.”
EJ didn’t react. He considered the brick bungalow, which looked like a normal, middle-class human home, not one with upgrades—mundane or magical. He hadn’t dug deep enough with his electronic scans, nor had he continued to track her. He had treated her like the harmless, empty-headed sex partner he had wanted.
The thought came again.Horndog.
He had convinced himself that not making commitments kept the people around him safe. In reality, what he hadn’t wanted was the responsibility that came with a commitment, including protecting another person from his enemies. He was an ass.
“All that makes this averyexpensive house,” EJ said, “not something that a tea shop owner, even with an inheritance, could afford.Ojos, is there any record of where her other income came from?”
“Negative,”Ojossaid. “The alterations were made and paid for by a third party. Searching for the identity.”
