Page 42 of Catnapped

“We’ll have to hope we find something in the papers we found in the trailers. I’ll check the place for anything hidden. There might be stuff in the cabinets.” Every cabinet we’d checked had been opened and empty, but we hadn’t pawed through them or done more than a visual inspection or checked for fingerprints using Darian’s magic.

My magic might tell a different tale, and I took one of the scraps of paper, grabbed a pale marker, and debated how best to draw the symbol to sweep through the whole place and reveal its secrets—if there were any secrets to reveal. The runes obscuring the boxes in the trailers had been potent enough, so I went for intricate, complicated, and thorough, playing off what I’d drawn to bring fresh air into the lab and casting a wide net. In the two symbols, which I drew on top of each other, I added one more, the simplest of the runes at my disposal.

An incomplete circle could be used for many things, but it worked best for me when I used it to break bindings—or to lure unsuspecting entities into a trap.

I drew a single, red line diagonally across the gap in the circle so it couldn’t be closed and would reveal dark secrets, inhaled, and gave the paper a shake before releasing it.

A gust of wind burst from the sheet, and it spun in the air, as though it’d been caught up in some twister. I expected the dust to swirl, but my magic flattened it to the floor. Blue flame engulfed my hands before sweeping out to the paper and devouring it. Light spilled throughout the lab, a gentle radiance imbuing everything. Most of it faded, leaving a few glimmers in a cabinet and within one of the cages.

The cage lacked a skeleton, to my relief, and I investigated to discover some intact, dust-covered fur from the previous resident. Darian followed me, and he gathered the sample in a bag.

“Can you use that fur to find similar fur, like you can with blood?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. It can get complicated, and the fur can’t still be attached to the animal it belongs to, but we might find somewhere else to go after we’re finished here from this sample.”

While he labeled the bag with the fur sample, I checked the glowing cabinet. The light enveloped a box-shaped object affixed to the bottom of a shelf. I touched, discovered something hard and metallic, and gave a brisk rub to wipe away any obscuring runes on the surface. The ploy worked, and a shimmering shroud flashed before revealing the case beneath, some twenty inches long, a foot wide, and four or so inches thick. It rested in a bracketed shelf, and I slid it out. Dust shed from its surface, revealing several other runes, which I wiped away. “They had a decent practitioner, but their practitioner was either overconfident, or this was their best trick.”

“Why do you say that?”

“No traps.” The magic I’d worked would have turned anything malicious red to match the color marker I’d used. “They either trusted their obscuration—to the point of being a low-grade shroud—to protect their secrets, or they pushed the extent of their abilities. This level of obscuration working is no joke. It’s not the same level as what the divines use, but it’s no surprise to me this stayed a secret.” I placed the box on one of the examination tables, drawing a second working to make certain I’d run into no surprises. Like the first paper, it burst into blue fire. The metal remained unchanged, and I eased the lid up.

A haphazard mess of documents greeted me, and beneath them, I located another collection of liquid-filled vials of varying colors. “Well, I’m going to have to go make sure the Devil gets me a real damned good meter. We’re going to need it. And a way to get samples out of this without unleashing whatever the hell this substance is. I don’t suppose you have any contacts who run labs? The CDC won’t give us the results, neither will the police. They’ll lock it down for certain.”

“Yes, I have a contact, but she’s not cheap. Worse, she’s an elf. Well, half-elf. That’s just as bad, really.”

I raised a brow at that. “You know Missy?” Everyone who was anybody in the CDC knew about Missy. Nobody dared to piss off the lycanthrope, who acted far more like an elf than any wolf. Where Missy went, her mother wasn’t far behind, and nobody screwed around with a lonely full-blooded elf. When the two paired up, trouble happened—and the other elves came out to play.

When the other elves came out to play, somehow, I got roped into self-defense courses. The last time I’d been tossed to an elf, I’d drawn the short lot and gotten Samantha. In exchange for practitioner magic lessons, I’d gotten off lightly.

I’d learned to dance rather than fight, but the elf promised all I would need to become a tolerable fighter would be a few weeks and a weapon.

“I know Missy. Wait. You know Missy?”

“Worse, I know Samantha.”

Darian made a gesture to ward against evil. “I, too, know Samantha. Dad worried I wouldn’t be able to take care of myself. As such, Father asked Samantha for a favor. Samantha thought it was adorable there was an archangel bold enough to ask her for a favor. She had me for two weeks. I almost died.”

I laughed. “She had me for a month spread out over the course of a year, and she taught me how to dance. She was supposed to teach me how to defend myself, but I’m either hopeless or she just was tired of teaching fighting. I actually really like Samantha. Missy is a piece of work, though. I actually really like her, but she’s psychotic. If you can talk with Missy, just tell her you’re working with me. She’ll probably give you a break on the bill. We just have to hope she doesn’t call her mother. If she calls her mother, she might call Samantha, too. If she calls Samantha, we might have to run away. Quickly. With Samantha, the longer we evade her, the happier she is. We need that head start, Darian.”

“Yes, we do. And if you agree to undergo a conversion, Samantha would be a good teacher for you. I approve.”

Interesting. “Why?”

“Well, you won’t be a wilting lily if Samantha is teaching you.”

That was true. “Once we’re upstairs, I’ll give her a call.”

“Okay, there’s crazy, and then there’s flat-out insanity. Calling Samantha is insane. It’s the definition of insane. Calling her means she might show up.”

“That is the idea.” I gestured to the cages, which easily numbered in the thousands once I added all the research rooms in the labyrinth of a lab. “I’m going to tell her about this, and I’m going to tell her I wish to make even elves proud of me when I’m finished with these bastards.”

“That’s how you sign yourself up for weapons training.”

“Yes, and?”

“That’s how you sign me up for weapons training, Diana.”

I shrugged. “Some prices are worth paying.”