Desert Devil (Old School Book 5) Read online

  Rest’s gaze sought hers, and when he found her leaning against the porch railing, he nodded his own reassurance. Then he began stripping. “It was Paul Webb.”

  “Catch.” Austin threw the recording device he’d carried to Gabe.

  Gabe tossed him and Rest towels.

  While the two men showered off the Seine, Darius, Gabe and Donna listened to the recording. The device was as powerful as its packaging claimed and they heard Paul Webb’s side of the conversation nearly as clearly as Rest’s brief comments. Darius replayed it a couple of times.

  Rest returned first, rubbing at his black hair with a towel. His feet were bare.

  The porch light was as old as the house and gave the scene a soft, golden glow.

  No one spoke till Austin emerged from the house, pulling on a t-shirt.

  “Paul Webb.” Darius broke the silence. “He bribed General Olafur to send us into a trap. Wayne died.”

  The desert was cooling, losing the day’s heat to the night wind that brought the distant yipping howl of a coyote. There wasn’t a lonelier sound in the world than a coyote’s song.

  “Payback,” Austin said.

  “In this case, I’m willing to shoot the messenger,” Darius agreed. “But I want the person pulling the strings.” He looked at Donna. “You think that’s Gerald Svenson?”

  She was still for a moment, unsettled by the realization that the men weren’t talking metaphorically about shooting the messenger. Then she put her hands behind her on the porch railing and hitched herself up. “I know three things. One, Gerald Svenson is amassing fantastical creatures and magical artifacts. I asked some quiet questions from colleagues in the field, and although he uses an agent, there is an unobtrusive stream of unique items going his way.”

  “Use of an agent—as with Paul Webb,” Gabe said.

  Beside Donna, Rest lifted the towel off the railing and leaned near her. He acted as if he was just getting comfortable, but it was a silent statement that he supported her.

  “My second fact is that I definitely overheard Dad state that Svenson had tried to acquire his courier services. And failed. The third thing is simple intuition. I haven’t had a seer vision concerning Svenson, but when I see his photograph, I think of a spider.”

  “Why?” Darius asked.

  Rest put a hand on her leg. “Not why. How? What does thinking of a spider mean? How do you experience it?”

  “I…that’s a good question.” The coyote howled again and was answered by a more distant howl before she spoke. “There’s a sticky web. The threads tremble in many directions. I don’t feel like they’re a threat to me, but the spider is hunting. Alert.” She looked at the men on the porch who had no reason to trust her or her intuition. “I realize a spider web is a cliché in talking about a lobbyist. Webs of power and influence. But…there’s poison.” She sucked in a tiny breath and gripped Rest’s shoulder. “A spider is an opportunist hunter, and this one is ready to strike.”

  “We have to strike first,” Austin said.

  “Every mission has an objective,” Rest said. “What’s ours?”

  Gabe stood. His chair had been on the far side of Darius’s, on the opposite end of the porch to where Donna sat on the railing beside Rest. Gabe stayed on the edge of light and shadow, where the old porch light’s glow faded. “I’m in for revenge. We owe it to Wayne. But I also want a future, one where I’m safe to have a family.”

  His three friends stared at him.

  “I have a woman.” He looked back steadily. “She’s had her own issues to deal with and we’ve been seeing each other on the sly. The bayou keeps its secrets. But we both want more. She’s almost ready to reach for a normal life, and either I match her or I need to step aside.” His voice deepened and roughened. It would rip his heart out to let this woman go.

  “Wayne would tell us to take care of the future,” Rest said.

  “How do we do that?” Austin asked.

  Donna jumped down from the railing. “By coming in from the cold.”

  Rest straightened from his slouch against the railing.

  The tone of Donna’s voice meant she was not only serious, but emotionally committed to her suggestion.

  “Like spies?” Austin asked, trying for humor although it didn’t mask his curiosity. “I haven’t exactly been hiding.”

  “In a way you have,” Donna responded. “Like the best spies, you’ve been hiding in plain sight, pretending to be normal. You’re a wizard, Austin. One trained for combat. You all have special skills.” She waved her hands impatiently. “I think the military stuffs up, a lot. But even more often, it gets things right. They put your team together because together you’re exponentially more effective than operating individually.”

  She looked at Rest. “I’m assuming you want to continue to use your courier talent? Because you could have stopped any time.”

  “I needed the money.” He’d explained his decision before, but when she waited, he repeated the real reason he continued as a courier. “My talent is rare. I feel an obligation to use it.”

  “You all do,” Donna said softly. “All of you chose to serve your country. Wanting to help doesn’t go away, and if you want to give of your best, your talents are more powerful when combined.”

  “You haven’t even seen us work together,” Gabe objected, resistance in his voice.

  “Except she has.” Unexpectedly, it was Darius who spoke in support, his tone drawling as he considered her suggestion. “She’s seen us fall in after two years apart, each of us taking up a role in preparing for a mission.”

  Gabe’s hands curled into fists. He stared at them, and slowly relaxed his fingers. “I don’t want to fight anymore. Been there, got the t-shirt, burned the hell out of it.” He looked up, seeking out Rest. “I thought you felt the same. You resigned. Said you weren’t going to be a combat courier, opening portals to hell. You broke the team apart with that decision. Has it changed?”

  “No.” Rest had blood on his hands. He’d done more on their missions than simply open and close portals. “But there is work out there, people who need help that I can’t offer alone.”

  “What sort of work?” Austin asked, while Gabe looked from Rest to Donna, then away into the night. The stars were incredibly serene, bright and clear in the desert sky.

  “Disaster relief. I can travel to places other transport can’t reach. Rescues. Hostage retrieval, if we could gather enough details to be sure it was safe.” Rest noted how Gabe’s shoulders stiffened at the latter possibility. “Currently, I contract with people like the client I was couriering when the temple guardian attacked. Larry has the money to chase mysteries and legends. Treasuring hunting is interesting.” He glanced at Donna. “But if I could do more than that, if I could actually help people, I’d like that. I’m with Gabe, though. I don’t want to fight. I want to take jobs where I’m sure I’ll return.”

  Rest looked at them. His team and Donna. “But I won’t risk you. Reforming the team makes you all targets.”

  “It would be our decision,” Darius said. “Not yours. If I hadn’t been stuck in a hospital bed I’d have told you that before you vanished. We choose our fate.”

  Donna nodded vehement agreement.

  Rest turned away. “It’s not that simple.”

  “It would be different, out of the military,” Gabe said. “We’d choose our jobs.” It sounded as if he was coming to agree with reforming the team. “We wouldn’t fight.”

  Donna stared at the weapons pile at the end of the porch.

  Austin rocked back on his heels. “I miss it,” he said. “Not the killing, but the risk. The adrenaline rush. I thought of re-enlisting…” He also stared at the weapons pile. “I couldn’t imagine it without you guys. I realized I didn’t trust anyone else to have my back.”

  Darius scrubbed his hands over his face, muffling his swearing. “We’re all messed up.”

  “You think we’re stronger together.” Rest looked at Donna.

&n
bsp; “I think everyone needs someone to trust. Minervalle—”

  Darius’s hands dropped. He stepped forward, his gaze fixed on Donna. “I didn’t go back far enough. I didn’t think to check where you went to school.”

  Donna looked back at him, matching his intensity. “What do you know of Minervalle School?”

  Her school. Rest had forgotten, in the rush of other events, that she’d mentioned her school yesterday, and been surprised that he hadn’t known about it. But Darius recognized the name.

  The captain was obviously reassessing Donna. “Are you here for them?” he asked her.

  “No.” She paused, then added scrupulously. “A school friend of mine who is a finder talent helped me find Rest to deliver my seer’s warning, but it was private between us. That’s the extent of the Old School’s connection.” She nodded once, sharp like a pounce. “You’ve heard of it.”

  “Yeah. The network is legendary in certain circles. So, you’re one of them. Did you know?” he snapped the question at Rest, who must have looked bewildered, because Darius relaxed a degree. “Obviously not. You explain.” The order was for Donna.

  “It’s confidential,” she said, but not as if she refused. It was a statement, and an implicit request.

  “We keep secrets secret,” Gabe said.

  Donna hitched herself back up onto the porch railing. “If you do decide to form a courier team, the Old School network could be a useful ally for you. I’ll keep this brief, but maybe this is important for you to know. I went to boarding school in England. Minervalle School was founded at the end of the First World War not simply to educate girls, but to establish a network of women to fill in the gaps where the informal Old Boys network that ran the world either failed, abdicated responsibility or acted immorally.”

  She kicked her legs. “Minervalle School is not elitist. That’s not always obvious to those looking in since we have students and alumni who come from enormous wealth and/or social standing. Minervalle takes in girls who can change the world whether by magic—which we’re all educated in although half of us have none—or with other talents of intelligence, determination, fierceness or whatever. It works.”

  Darius sat down, rubbing his right thigh. “The Old School network has a reputation for achieving its objectives—and for having tentacles everywhere.”

  “Like an octopus?” Donna grinned, just a wry twist of her lips. “That’s probably true. We have artists, community builders, business people, and—”

  “Magic users,” Rest concluded. People like the finder talent who’d located him for Donna.

  “Yes.”

  “And you treasure hunt for them?” he prompted.

  “Viola, my boss, is another Minervalle girl. Some of our jobs are for the Old School, or provide cover or assistance for other members’ activities. I’ll answer questions later, those that I can, but right now, I think the Old School might be a distraction. I was going to mention Minervalle because…being part of the Old School network has shown me the strength of trusting and being trusted. I know that no matter what, those women will be there for me. You all give each other that. It’s why you’re here and going after Paul Webb and whoever hired him. You’re doing it for Wayne and for one another. People talk about family, but not everyone has that. Sometimes we have to build our own. Or simply say yes when it’s offered.”

  Rest wondered if she was talking specifically to him. She had claimed him as family. “We’ll think about it.”

  “Do,” she said coolly. “But if you decide to step out of the shadows, you need to think about allies, and the best way to get strong allies is to prove that you also have strength, not just a rare talent like couriering. Otherwise you’ll end up serving your ‘allies’, as Dad does.”

  Ouch. She hit home for Rest with that reminder of Tony Keats’ lifestyle, couriering government high-ups.

  “Whatever we decide longer term, the first step is obvious,” Austin said. “My confusion spell is a temporary protection. It works because people aren’t expecting it to exist and deflect their magic, but it wouldn’t hold up against a direct attack. Rest needs real protection. If he decides against working with us, being a team again, then he’ll need more than the passive protection of the pendant hanging from his neck. It’s not enough for him, nor for those he needs to impress. Fortunately, you’ve told us where he can get that sort of protection.”

  “I did?” Donna sounded startled. “The Old School—”

  Austin cut her off. “The temple guardian that attacked Rest.”

  “Oh hell,” Gabe swore.

  Donna bit her tongue she was so shocked. “It nearly killed Rest by sucking out his magic.”

  Austin nodded. “Exactly. It’s a powerful defensive weapon. Rest is a courier, but he doesn’t have any other magic. The temple guardian would level the playing field if people with magic came after him.”

  “More like obliterate the playing field.” It would suck up his opponents’ magic. Rest rubbed the back of his neck.

  “Donna, what do you know of temple guardians?” Darius asked.

  “Very occasionally an archaeological dig at a site along the Silk Roads has encountered one. They seem to be triggered by the presence of magic. The fact that Rest could deliver and collect Larry, uh, his client, from the temple ruins the previous day, but then be attacked the next morning suggests that the thing had to power up.”

  Gabe was interested. “So Rest’s magic woke it?”

  “Rest’s magic and whatever toys Larry was using to explore the ruins,” Donna answered. “I’ve sold Rest’s client a few things. Larry collects magical artifacts and enchanted objects, and not just to look pretty on a shelf. Without magic of his own, the objects enable him to compensate when he goes exploring esoteric mysteries.”

  “When you say they’re triggered, what actually, tangibly, exists to hold the spell that animates a temple guardian?”

  “A rune.” She shuffled along the railing till she could loop an arm around a porch support and lean against it. “This is all secondhand. I haven’t seen a temple guardian or a rune. I’ve been told that no one has managed to duplicate the rune, but that a mage was saved sixty years ago when another, mundane member of the archaeological dig burned the parchment the rune was drawn on. But I’ve heard it’s more often painted on a wall or etched in stone.”

  “Not transportable,” Rest muttered.

  “Perhaps.” Darius frowned into the night before he turned his head to address Austin. “The temple guardian has been in place centuries, so it’s not just Rest who would benefit from obtaining it.”

  “That a problem for you?” Austin challenged with a grin.

  Donna didn’t understand the exchange, especially when a gleam of actual anticipation, albeit of the grim kind, entered Darius’s eyes. She looked at Rest for an explanation.

  “When the temple guardian attacked me, it siphoned my magic. If it had succeeded in taking it all, I’d have likely died, and the magic…”

  She pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead. “Had to go somewhere. It took a while for the temple guardian to wake up, but that’s different to it not having access to magic. If it’s stolen other magic users’ magic over the centuries, all of that magic is in a reservoir at the temple.”

  Austin’s teeth flashed in a fierce grin. “Rest gets a defensive weapon that bites. Darius and I get a power boost.”

  “If you can disable the temple guardian long enough to reset it to obey Rest,” she objected. She understood ambition, but this was recklessness. “And you’re more likely to break it or be broken by it than to successfully transfer the temple guardian. What if it’s etched into a massive block of stone?”

  “Let’s go find out,” Rest said. He looked at his team and they all nodded, including Gabe who had no magic. “Donna, you can stay here and—”

  “I’m going with you.”

  He nodded.

  She’d thought he might argue that she stay safely behind. But then, she
was the experienced treasure hunter here, wasn’t she? Time to act like it. “Austin, can I look through the magical supplies you bought?”

  “What are you after?”

  She countered with her own question. Her education in magic had been excellent at Minervalle School. Her talent as a witch might be small, but she’d learned to leverage it for maximum effectiveness. “How do you intend to store the magic you drain from the temple guardian’s reservoir?”

  Darius intervened. “It will be connected to the temple guardian. We’ll bring it back here, then work out how to take as much as we…do you have a problem with that?”

  She’d shaken her head. “I don’t think you can take out the temple guardian without removing its power first. Even the backlash when the pendant saved Rest won’t have disabled the guardian. It’s not sentient. It doesn’t feel fear or wariness. It’ll do what it’s meant to do and try to siphon your magic, unless you weaken it.” She paused. “But that’s just might opinion. I’m going along to ensure Rest is safe. I don’t want the temple guardian and I won’t fight to possess it. However, I will make you both witch bundles.”

  “To protect against something strong enough to suck power from a courier?” Darius was incredulous. He should have withheld judgement.

  Austin brushed past his friend, headed for the weapons pile at the end of the porch. “The magical supplies are here. I got the quartz chips you wanted.”

  The quartz was to reinforce the wards on Rest’s ranch. Witch bundles of the kind she intended needed more aggressive components. Or if not aggressive, then robust.

  “Did you buy any other crystals?” she asked hopefully, crossing over to him. Garnet would be great.

  Rest’s talent was for couriering, not other magic. “Gabe, help me with the mundane preparations?”

  His friend, tall, silent and watchful, followed him down the porch steps.

  Austin picked up a paper bag, sorting through its contents. “I scooped up a handful of those crystal chip bracelets. There’s black tourmaline. I guess I remembered that Rest said the pendant that saved him was tourmaline.”