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Belle glanced at me. “If he’s following the same pattern as before, he won’t have.”
“That’s a big if, especially if the first victim was my aunt. The bruising suggests he snatched her days ago, which means the so-called pattern only exists in our minds.”
Belle grunted. “Then be fucking careful. And yell if you sense anything untoward.”
“I will.” I touched her arm lightly—more to comfort myself than her—and climbed out. The icy wind stirred around me, and I shivered into my coat. The scent of rain hung in the air, strong enough to suggest that it was going to bucket down soon. Hopefully, we wouldn’t be out in it when that happened.
Instinct whispered I should be so lucky.
I ran across the road and approached the building’s double width wood and glass front door. There was an electronic keypad and a buzzer system to the right, the latter containing the surnames of all eleven residents. Deni’s was ten, and one of two penthouses. I pressed the buzzer then waited for several minutes. No response. I pressed it again. Again, nothing.
I took a deep, frustrated breath and released it slowly. Why could nothing ever be easy? For all I knew, she had the bell turned down because she was asleep, but I couldn’t risk leaving until I knew for sure. And that meant I’d have to do this the old-fashioned way—which, when it came to electronics, wasn’t always easy. Or successful.
I wove the spell that would hopefully imitate an unlock command around my fingers, then pressed it into the mechanical lock. It was a spell we’d discovered in one of the books Belle had inherited from her gran, and it wasn’t one I’d used all that often. I certainly hadn’t updated its parameters to include the most up-to-date locks—mainly because to do that I had to have a working knowledge of said locks, and I didn’t.
For several seconds, nothing happened, but just as I began to fear my spell was out of date, the door clicked open.
Lucky came Belle’s comment. I’d have thought apartments in this area would not only have the latest electronics, but also have taken precautions against unlock spells.
For individual apartments, they might have.
It’d be easier to stop them from entering in the first place.
It probably would, but that would have cost extra money for building maintenance. And from the little I knew about them, most body corporates worked on extremely tight budgets. I’m just hoping there aren’t any overly alert witches in this place to sense my spell. I’ll be in trouble if the police get here before I can speak to Deni.
If the cops arrive, I’ll send them elsewhere, Belle said.
I walked through the lobby, heading for the emergency stairs. There were two elevators, but they were also key coded, and I wasn’t going to push my luck magically. Not until it was absolutely necessary, anyway.
The door into the emergency stairwell was one of those self-latching things, so it was just a matter of magically pushing down the inside lock to gain entry. Once I was through, I ran quickly—though not entirely silently—up to the fourth floor. I checked to make sure the door wasn’t alarmed, then pushed it open and caught the edge of it, making sure it closed without force. Then I looked around.
The lobby was small but plushly decorated in dark wood and gold hues. The elevators lay in the center and there were only two other doors—one on the street side of the building, and one to my left. Deni’s was left.
I spun on my heel and walked down. I couldn’t sense any magical protection around the keycode lock, but there was definitely a weave of them around the door.
Trouble was, all of them had been shredded.
My pulse rate leapt. I swallowed to ease the sudden dryness in my throat and pressed the door buzzer. It rang inside, the sound soft and echoey.
As before, there was no response. Was she out, asleep, or dead?
Doubtful she’d be asleep, given the shredded protection spells, Belle said. Maybe we’d better call Samuel and get some of his people here. Might be safer.
I’m hesitant to do that until we know for sure what we’re dealing with.
Who else could it be but our sorcerer?
Would our sorcerer have been so blatant and uncaring though? Nothing in his past suggests he’s like that.
He wasn’t a wraith in the past. Maybe he—or his demons—have grown impatient.
Maybe.
I shivered and pressed the buzzer again, even though I knew the result would be the same. Once its echoes had died down again, I tugged my sleeve over my fingers and lightly pressed them against the middle of the door.
It opened.
I didn’t step inside.
