“I’m not ready to blindly trust you, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I understand that. But let me ask you something: am I being less straight or less real with you than the demon lady you’ve moved in with?”
Alex just stared. “You did not seriously just say that.”
“I did. Hey, look, I get it. She’s gorgeous and rich and I have to imagine she’s wild in bed, and she doesn’t care how many other women you fool around with, right? Even encourages it, from what I understand? What twenty-year-old guy wouldn’t jump right into bed with that?”
“Impersonating my mother isn’t going to get you anywhere with me.”
“No? I’m sorry, is your mother not a smart lady?” Hauser asked respectfully. “My profile on her says she is. Alex, I don’t want to insult your intelligence. You’re clearly a guy with a big heart. But have you ever considered that Lorelei’s entire approach is tailor-made for a guy like you? I mean, what part of ‘fix all your problems and cater to all your fantasies’ doesn’t sound a little too good to be true?”
He has a point, the voice within Alex conceded. You’ve known that all along.
Alex scowled. “We’re not exactly having this conversation on equal footing.”
“Can’t be helped, pal.”
“Don’t call me pal.”
“Alex, I’m trying to help. You’re a good guy. That means something to you. Decency isn’t a punch line for you. Responsibility isn’t, either, is it?”
You know that’s true.
“What’s he doing?” Alex asked, nodding toward Bridger at the end of the table. The other agent remained in a semi-meditative position, his fingers curled in a strange fashion.
“Keeping out unwanted eyes and ears,” Bridger answered in a murmur.
“How do I know you’re not getting in my head?” frowned Alex.
“Won’t hold up in court,” shrugged Hauser. “At least as far up as we’ve been able to appeal it. Can’t get the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of using magic to read minds or compel confessions. Anyway. How’d you lose your job, Alex?”
“All this stuff you already know and you have to ask that?”
“I do if I want to hear your side of it. C’mon, we can’t throw you in jail for anything there. Not like your old company wants to press charges. So what happened?”
“My boss wanted to jump me. I wasn’t into it. She held my job over my head and I said no, so she fired me for sexual harassment.”
“Your boss is an attractive woman,” noted Hauser. “Your girlfriends don’t have a problem with that sort of thing from what I understand. Why did you?”
“I’m not into bondage,” Alex scowled, and then tugged meaningfully on the cuffs securing his arms to the chair.
“Yeah, sorry about that, but you have to understand our side of this. Taking down a single vampire is serious business for us. You fight ‘em in groups and wake up the next morning with hardly a scratch. Back to the point: why didn’t you go along with her?”
“It wasn’t right.”
“See,” Hauser nodded, pointing at Alex with a pencil, “I figured it was that. You could just live on your rich girlfriend’s dime and party it up, but you don’t, because you want to pull your own weight, right? Maybe keep yourself grounded in reality? So you keep that job, and you keep pushing papers twenty hours a week and you keep going to school… until that gets taken away from you, and you become that much more dependent on your girlfriend. That girlfriend who just magically makes all your problems go away, right?”
He isn’t wrong.
“You’re the ones telling me magic is real,” said Alex. “Hunting werewolves and vampires and shit, right?”
“Sure. I’m asking if you honestly think magical bullshit makes your life better without any price or any consequence. Or does all that sex and all that material comfort seem natural to you?”
It’s not.
Alex grimaced. He wished he could stop thinking things like that. He wished it would stop making sense.
“Am I getting through to you, Alex? Do you see what I’m saying? I’ll grant that you know her better than I do, but doesn’t any of this make you just a little uncomfortable?”
* * *
“We’re home now. Onyx is running another dowsing spell on him now that we’re sitting with our tools and our circle, but…” Molly’s voice cut off on the line for a moment as she listened to her partner. “Yeah, the direction she’s pointing lines up with Magnuson Park, but she can’t get a solid feel for where. He must be under some sort of concealing magic. I’m sorry. I thought we’d do better here.”
“No, you’ve told me a good deal already,” Lorelei assured her. She stood at the edge of a tree line, looking out at several old brick buildings and scattered cars in long-neglected parking lots. The park had once been a naval facility, with many of its buildings leased and repurposed by other groups. Most of the sprawling property served as a public park, but the buildings still stood. The university had several operations across the sprawling property, as did a few community charities and some government research labs. A few others remained unused-and therefore likely candidates for government operations that required privacy.
“If this area lines up with what you were told,” said Lorelei, “then I am likely on the right track. I know now that I am looking for powerful magic. That should narrow my search significantly.”
“Well, it’s not necessarily powerful,” explained Molly. “It’s not always a matter of matching power with greater power, or skill. Onyx kicks ass at this sort of thing, but even a competent novice could block out this technique.”
Lorelei nodded to herself as she considered the ramifications. It was not lost on her that Molly and Onyx were more forthcoming about their Practice than most sorcerers she had ever encountered. Even those she had thoroughly seduced in the past at least tried to evade giving up much information. These two readily volunteered details. Not for the first time, she considered the weight of genuine friendship.
“That is helpful, thank you,” Lorelei said, “but regardless, at least I know now that I am looking for some trace of sorcery. I can usually sense that much. It is far easier than checking every room in the building.”
“You sure you’ve got the right one?”
“This is where the police intended to bring Jason,” Lorelei said. “The agents may have had plans to move from here, but it is what I have to go on. I should be on my way now.”
“Say the word, we’ll be down there to help,” Molly offered.
“It may come to that. If you could be nearby in case I have need later, it would help. But if this genuinely involves mortal authorities, I am loath to involve you directly. The complications could quickly spiral out of control and they could last a lifetime.”
“We’re on our way in a minute,” answered Molly. “Give us a call whenever you need. Don’t even think twice about it.”
Her eyes closed. Brave girls, she thought. Just a few months ago, she likely would have seen them as little more than useful and lovely tools. “Thank you.” With that, she hung up the cheap, disposable phone, detached its battery and put both pieces back in the pocket of her black leather coat.
She considered how to best handle this as she walked briskly toward the tall glass doors at the entrance. She also considered how her lovers would want her to handle such a task. It was one thing to abandon the cruel habits she had learned over three thousand years. It was another thing entirely to actively concern herself with minimizing harm to others around her when such restrictions brought such inconvenience.
Lorelei cloaked herself in several enchantments, rendering herself easily ignored to all but those she spoke with directly. Cameras would not likely record her approach to the building. She found the door locked. Its electric call box looked long dormant. She rapped her knuckles against the door and waited.