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Peri made a sound of annoyance as the video zoomed in and out of focus. “Is it a law that security tapes have to be crappy?”
“More of a precedent than an actual law.”
“Hmm.”
Her lips twitched but she refused to smile. Or even glance in his direction. Instead she continued to study the video, tension vibrating around her slender body. Did she sense what was about to happen?
On cue, she jumped to her feet. “Wait.” Valen reached to pause the video as Peri walked toward the monitor to point at a smudge near the doorway. “Why is this blurred? A technical glitch?”
“Gabriel studied the original tape. There’s nothing wrong with the video,” he assured her.
“Magic,” she breathed.
“This bar is outside the Gyre so it can’t be a demon.”
“A mage?”
“Possibly. Watch.”
He pressed the Play key and the video stuttered back into motion, revealing the smudge moving forward. A customer glanced around and nodded toward the blurred object. Obviously it appeared normal to the crowd, which meant that it was deliberately obscuring the security camera. They watched in silence as the smudge angled toward a nearby table surrounded by a group of six guys all dressed alike in jeans, flannel shirts and cowboy hats. The men glanced up, and without warning the beer bottles in front of them toppled over. They jumped to their feet, and even without sound it was clear they were shouting abuse at each other, blaming the man next to them for the beer carnage. The blurred object hovered next to them, and a strange shadowseemed to flow from man to man. Like a ribbon of evil tying them together.
Nothing happened for a full minute, just the men glaring at each other. Then, as if there’d been some hidden switch flipped, the men reached for the guns they had strapped to various parts of their bodies and started shooting.
Peri hissed in shock as the smoke from the weapons filled the air and the men began to drop like flies. The carnage was swift and ugly, sending the rest of the customers fleeing in a stampede of terror.
The shadowed form avoided the escaping crowd and headed toward the back of the room where the bartender was holding a shotgun. The frightened woman pressed the trigger and jerked backward from the recoil. The blurry object never slowed, and with a last-ditch effort to save herself, the bartender tossed the shotgun at the advancing form and sprinted toward a nearby exit. The smudge followed, and within seconds the bar was empty except for the wounded and dying left lying on the cement.
Valen stopped the tape and Peri slowly turned to face him, her expression troubled.
“It’s the miasma. It has to be.”
Valen frowned. He had limited experience with the toxic magic, but he’d never heard of it traveling from one place to another.
“Can it take human form?”
She grimaced. “Honestly, I have no idea. Once the magic was forced inside the vessel it might have evolved over the centuries into something completely new. Like Darwin’s theory on steroids.”
Valen slowly straightened. “There’s only one way to find out.”
“How?”
“We talk to the witnesses.”
She stared at him in confusion. “In Garland?”
“Do you have a better suggestion?”
Her lips parted, but no words came out. Valen hid a smile. He was betting he was one of the few to ever render this woman speechless. A victory.
Finally she cleared the lump from her throat. “I don’t have a better suggestion, but I’m not sure why you say ‘we.’”
Valen strolled toward her, savoring her warm scent. The light aroma of lilies with an undertone of rich spices. She’d been mixing potions before she’d come to see him, and the pulse of her power stroked against him like a caress.
“I can get you to the location in a fraction of the time it will take for you to fly commercial,” he pointed out in reasonable tones.
She scowled. “And your interest being?”
He nodded toward the monitor. “This chaos can’t be allowed to spread. It has already attracted the attention of human authorities. And once it reaches the power of a Gyre we can’t predict what form the destruction might take.”
