Chapter 38
Vesta moved out into the matrix, stepping like a dancer into spaces specifically constructed for her presence. Then she sat down facing the tiny girl of flame.
“What’s she doing?” the mayor asked.
“Chatting,” I said, pulling out my notebook of spells.
“She’s amazing. Is she single?” the mayor asked. The sheriff sighed and Admin Orren just shook his head. I looked closely at the mayor’s intent.
“You’ve got brass ones, Mayor. You’re testing me to see how volatile I am.
But I’ll play along. She’s not single. Beloved is the same as Chosen among vampires.
Vesta is very chill, but hitting on her will likely have her hitting you.
Among weres, it’s like a switch has been thrown because none of them…
well, most of them, won’t approach her. But feel free to try your luck.
Just remember she can shift into a seven-foot-tall killing machine in a split second.
Not that she needs to. She is probably as powerful a witch as her father. ”
“Craig?” Vesta called out softly.
“Yes dear?”
“Would you come over to me? Flint wants to meet you,” she said.
“Okay, nice chat. Gotta get to work,” I said, then stepped in the same spots that Vesta had.
“Hi honey,” I said as I sat down cross-legged.
“Amusing yourself at the mayor’s expense?”
“He started it.”
“Well, his heartbeat is erratic in a bad way. But Flint really does want to meet you. Would you take off your jacket and sweater?”
“Sounds like a strip show, but okay,” I said. I piled the clothes in another blank spot and sat back down wearing a t-shirt.
“Hold out your arms,” she said.
I did and Flint the fire elemental leaned forward to look at my forearms. The glow from her fire lit up my skin and suddenly my rhinocodium tattoos lit up across both arms.
The little fire woman clapped her hands and spun around three times, jumping up and down.
“She sensed your tattoos from across the room. Maybe from thirty miles away. She’s fascinated,” Vesta said, frowning.
“That’s bad?” I asked.
“That’s weird,” she said. “But she’s agreeable. Let’s start our spell work. I’ll do this building and you can start the community building.”
“I’ll take him,” Sheriff Brower volunteered. I could tell that she had more questions.
A rope lead connected the hundred or so feet between buildings. It was crusted with snow, and the drifts were already a foot and a half deep.
Sheriff Brower opened the metal door to the big cinderblock building and led me into a brightly lit but cold space. Dozens of people looked our way, huddled on temporary cots or standing in groups around electric space heaters.
“Sheriff, what’s the word?” a man yelled out.
She pointed at the lights. “Progress, Harry, progress. Hospital has heat. This place will too, shortly.” She turned toward another door, but the guy wasn’t done.
“Who’s that?”
“He’s trying to help, Harry, if you’d let us get to it.”
She didn’t wait for an answer, instead leading me down into another big institutional basement.
Two of Omega’s drones zipped out and burned a perfect circle on the floor and I started my matrix.
Working from the inside out, I constructed the call portion, then added Flint’s name before working on the thermal conduit portion of the spell.
I had no sooner finished the runes on her name than she literally burned up through the floor.
“Oh, hey now,” I said. She clapped and spun but didn’t do anything else, so I kept working. She would turn and lean forward to watch my actions very carefully and when I got the last chalk line written, they all suddenly lit with bright red lines of intense heat.
“Ah, is that normal?”
“Sheriff, I’m not the one to ask. Vesta’s been working with elementals since birth. Me, I come from a magicless planet where I mostly just killed stuff.”
“It doesn’t seem hostile,” she opined.
“No, actually. Kind of friendly. Vesta says they don’t generally express much emotion although I’ve heard her father’s Air elemental sometimes acts like a puppy.
This is different. She’ll likely call her dad through Omega and we’ll find out.
But in the meantime, Flint’s already pumping heat into this building. ”
I moved across the floor and put down a smaller circle for another heat source. This time, I started with her name, and it seemed to write itself before I could finish. A tiny fiery face appeared overlaid on her name, looking up at me with a clear smile of orange flame.
As I wrote out the rest, she seemed to burn it in place almost as fast as I worked. Quickly, the basement was warmed up, hot even, and I removed my parka and sweater.
“What the hell are those?” Sheriff Brower asked.
I glanced at her. She was looking at my arms. The tattoos were all glowing a fiery silver hue.
“My warlock tattoos,” I said, finishing up quickly and a little self-consciously.
“You really are what she said, aren’t you?”
“Who and what?”
“Agent Jensen. Said you were the most lethal killer she’s ever met, including the Steward, the Elders of the Coven, and the Gordon–Demidova group.”
“That seems a bit far-fetched,” I said. “But I am a killer.”
“What’s her problem?” Brower asked, pointing at Flint.
The little being of fire was jumping and pointing at me, at my torso, then spinning her fire finger.
“She wants you to turn around,” the sheriff said.
I did, slowly, and when my back was fully turned, I felt a sudden sharp burning pain under my left shoulder blade. “Fucking shit! She burned me!” I said.
“She looked closely at your back, then got excited and shot a little tiny ball of flame at your back. And promptly vanished.”
Flint was gone, but the array was pumping heat into the concrete walls and ceiling, and I had more spells to draw.