Spelled to forget?Yeah. Of course.EJ said, “I think…I think more than one working? Overlapping, maybe? The first of thelayered workings may have been applied when the brand was made.” He kept his words slow and soft, so as not to interrupt whatever the vamp was remembering. “I think that one was a foundation for future workings? Or became…an instigator switch?”
Walter frowned. “I have been influenced. For some time…” His words floundered.
“Walter?” EJ asked.
Walter touched his brand again, confusion in his eyes. He took the breath he needed to speak. “But the brand. Why did I never ask Nyoka about…that time? She was there when I was branded, but was an untrained witch.” He ground the heels of his hands into his closed eyes. “Did Nyoka try to make me forget my pain that terrible night? Or did she do something else? Why? What?” Forcing the words, he said, “I traveled with Nyoka after we were both freed.” He stopped again. “Did Nyoka betray me?”
“If so,” EJ said gently, “she could have added layers to it, creating ageasin it at any time during sex, feeding.”
“Or when I slept,” Walter said. Deliberately, he pressed his fingers to the brand and opened his eyes to focus on EJ, and then around the room.
The guards had spread out, instinctively taking up positions to have clean lines of fire. To kill Walter if he lost control. Walter laughed aloud at the tableau. “I could kill you all before you moved.”
No one replied. They knew the boast was the truth.
Sobering, Walter said, “Layers. More than one working. Now that I know magic resides within my flesh, I can sense them. The night of my branding, Nyoka put the first of several workings into my brand and later tied it, them, to the workings in her jewelry.”
“Could that first working have been one offorgetting,” EJ asked gently, “to make that night more bearable?”
Walter opened his mouth. Closed it. Took a breath, and said, “I keep forgetting things about the brand. I keep forgetting.” His eyes went clear and calm, and the stillness of the vamp vanished into something that appeared human.
Relief washed through EJ. He said, “I think the original working sounds like bothpain reliefandforgetting. And maybe it was activated by something or someone at Londyn’s home. You mentioned Sergeant Rocas, so, maybe the second layer was to keep you from loving anyone but Nyoka. Ever.”
“Ahhh.” Walter breathed out the syllable and closed his eyes. “Yes. She made me promise to always and forever love only her. I agreed. I promised. Then she left me.”
“Alone,” EJ said. “There may be more layers.”
Grizz said, “Ojos. Get us the Officers at Scene report for the crime scene at Londyn Simms’s home.”
“Certainly,” the system said, its diction all British elegance.
Grizz continued, “And the log for all civilians who were on-site. And Shaddock, I want the statement on the interview of the fanghead with broken fingers flown to the queen’s residence.”
“She slept all day,” Grampa said. “The Queen’s Consort is directing the interview now from the control room.”
“Who’s the top interviewer?” Grizz demanded.
“Blackmon and Koun. Koun is bad cop. That boy’s having him some fun.”
“If the Master of the City of Asheville is willing,” Grizz said, nodding to Grampa’s image in the corner, “please tell the Consort we need results faster than might be considered polite.”
“I’m sure they will be amenable to more drastic measures,” Grampa said, in his old-fashioned Southern accent.
EJ didn’t flinch, but inside, he reacted. Grizz had sufferedunder the hands of a torturer in one of the wars in the early twentieth century. For her to demand stringent interrogation measures, she must think something was about to happen.
Again, Walter laughed silently through his nose.
Over the speakers, Boots’s voice said, “We got a drone approaching, people. A big one.”
Everyone moved at once.
“Stop,” EJ said. Theta unfolded in an instant, Delta hovering close. There was a command in the singlewyrd, a magical compulsion that EJ never used. Everyone turned to him, even Grampa. Alex’s face appeared on video, watching.
EJ held up a hand, thoughts flitting. He reached out fast with his magic, whistling an interrogative, listening, note to note. EJ said, “Fighting aerial drones in heavy snowfall is a piece of cake, because they’re overwhelmed by snow that melts in contact with the drone’s heated parts and then ice-melt freezes over, making them impossible to fly and drive. Therefore, either our enemy launched from nearby, or this thing is spelled, or this is a feint.”
He turned to Grizz. “You’re our second-best sniper. Take demon-rounds for you and Boots to the roof.” He tossed two amulets from a pocket. “These will mask your and Boots’s heat signatures from magical and electronic sensors. Take the drone down if you can. No collateral damage.”
“Sure, kid,” Grizz said. She grabbed a single long rifle case, a box of ammo, and a coat, and flew from the room to join Boots on the roof.
