Night Rune (Prof Croft Book 8) Brad Magnarella (the red fox clan TXT) 📖

“What are we supposed to do till then?” Gorgantha asked.

But I only half heard her. I was still puzzling over how Jordan had come to occupy the most dangerous piece of real estate in Manhattan. And what about the hoodlums demanding tribute for the Raven Circle? I didn’t like it.

“I need to go somewhere,” I said.

Caroline looked up. “Where?”

“My apartment in the Village.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“I want to cook up some potions. That will also give me time to check out a couple resources in my library. Alternate me will be at the college. I’ll take Arnaud so you can focus on Bree-yark. Gorgantha, I’ll ask you to stay here on security.”

The mer nodded. “I can do that.”

When Caroline’s gaze lingered on mine, I had to remind myself that I’d chosen to trust her. No waffling.

“Go carefully,” she said.

37

I peered up the four-story building that was my West Village apartment. A faint nebula of magic hung around the top floor, but it was ambient, left over from prior casting. I wasn’t picking up anything fresh. And there was no sign of Tabitha on ledge patrol, either.

Big surprise there.

“C’mon,” I said to Arnaud, taking his arm and heading up the steps.

I’d checked his infernal levels shortly upon arriving in the time catch. Satisfied they were ample, I restored the wards to full strength. It would deplete his energy, but I didn’t want him tripping the citywide wards and alerting the time catch version of me that a demon was afoot. I’d open the wards out again before we left.

As we arrived at the building’s doors, Arnaud moaned. I was preparing to ignore him, but like an echo from earlier, my magic suggested I listen. I unfastened his muzzle/scarf and removed it from his face.

“This better be good,” I muttered.

“Have you forgotten about your wards?”

He was referring to the ones protecting my unit. “They’re still under my control,” I said.

Agitation edged the demon-vampire’s eyes. “And if they’re not?”

“Then you’ll be incinerated.”

“Which means you’ll lose your ride home.”

“Then what are you worried about?” Grinning, I pulled my keyring from my pants pocket and unlocked the building’s front door. As we climbed the stairwell, I could feel the wards pulsing from the top floor.

So could Arnaud. Even under the power of the subservience enchantment, he managed to drag his feet. At the top floor, I had to pull him from the stairwell. Bound hands to his face, he shrank from the power emanating from my door. I incanted until the energy idled down. Arnaud watched warily as I unlocked the door’s three bolts and pushed it open. The rack where I hung my coat and cane was barren, telling me I was truly out.

“After you,” I said to Arnaud. “You’re invited.”

Creeping to the very edge of the threshold, he tested it with a toe, then jerked his foot back. Nothing happened.

“See?” I said.

As if to reclaim a modicum of dignity, Arnaud straightened and stepped through the curtain of weakened energy. I followed, bolting the door behind us. Hot sun illuminated the covered bay windows, while icy air-conditioned currents swirled around us. Except for some minor rearranging, my present-day apartment was much the same as this older version. Down to the orange mound on the divan.

As a pair of green eyes squinted out at us, a bolt of emotion shot through me. Not just at seeing Tabitha, but at seeing her so young. In this time catch, it had only been a couple years since I’d channeled the succubus into a stray kitten. Her hair was brighter, her eyes a little more keen, and she was less voluminous. Even knowing it would be a very bad idea, a part of me wanted to rush over and smoosh my face against hers.

Her eyes closed again. “Oh. You.”

On the ride over, I had considered how best to deal with her, but now I remembered how little she spoke. She’d only just progressed from her determined-to-kill-me phase to simple hatred. The upshot was that pretending to be Everson from this period would be easier to pull off than I’d thought.

“Nice to see you too,” I said. “I’m going to be working up in the lab.”

The fewer words spoken, the better. I headed for the ladder, waving for Arnaud to follow.

“Who’s the old man?” she murmured, her body repositioned away from us.

“Oh, just a … friend.”

It took every ounce of willpower to force that word out.

“Are you sure he’s not a ghoul?”

Indignation gathered on Arnaud’s face. But before he could respond, I held up the muzzle to tell him it could always go back on. He compressed his lips, yellow eyes glaring at Tabitha through his glamour.

From what I remembered of the two-year-old Tabby, he’d gotten off easy.

We climbed the ladder to my library/lab. Spell implements and ingredients littered the iron table, while a notepad and pile of books occupied the desk beside my shelves. The hologram of the city was dim, telling me the wards hadn’t picked up Arnaud’s arrival into the time catch. One less worry.

“Have a seat,” I told him, pointing to a stool in the corner.

As he complied, I went through the bins under my table to see what I had to work with. This was before my pre-made-potion phase, unfortunately, but I seemed to have stocked up recently on spell ingredients. When I happened on a stash of lightning grenades, I pumped a fist and loaded them into a pocket.

I can definitely use these.

Thinking potions now, I cleared a space on the table for my portable range. I placed a cast-iron pot onto each of the two burners and split a bottle of absinthe between them. There wasn’t time to prepare anything complex, but I had the ingredients on hand for basic stealth and encumbering potions and so prepared a pot of each. When they began to bubble, I snapped the burners to low so the potions could reduce.

Now research…

Turning toward my floor-to-ceiling bookcase, I whispered a Word. In