“Oh, good. There you are.” He snapped his fingers, and her duffel bag vanished.
“Hey.”
“We need to talk.” He walked away from her.
She snarled under her breath, not pleased with high-handed magicians or the goddesses for whom they worked. She cautiously joined Mormo on a level upstairs that shouldn’t have existed. She spent time trying to make sense of what she saw as she peered outside a window into what looked like a divine courtyard—filled with flying horses and cherubs—and finally gave up.
Nothing in this house makes sense, just go with it.
The spacious upper level had an open floor plan. Farther back, a long, L-shaped desk and a few metal tables held an assortment of objects. Along the walls on both sides of the tables, floor-to-ceiling shelves, some glassed in, gave the appearance of a laboratory.
A long conference table and chairs separated the lab from the seating area. Riley sat in one of two leather couches, both facing each other over a chic coffee table and bordered by both walls full of books and other magical pieces. She recognized a few statues of Hecate, a gleaming golden gem that begged her to pick it up, and some odd mist encased in a jar that seemed to track her movements.Okay, then.
She glanced away, centering on Mormo once more. An older black woman joined him on the sofa across from her. A look at the woman’s eyes and Riley knew she’d met Hecate again.
In this guise, the goddess looked both powerful, regal, and beautiful. A crown of looped braids merged in an intricate design to crown her head, her skin a rich, dark-brown to match her eyes. Yet her flowing purple skirt and lavender knit sweater made her look like a hippie runway queen.
“Yes, it’s me.” Hecate smiled. “I was feeling crone-ish today.”
“Hecate, the artifact is still missing,” Mormo cut in, all business. “But now it’s in the hands of a sorcerer who’s sacrificing lycans. Riley, tell her.”
Riley recounted the events from the previous night, with Mormo filling in what Orion and Kraft had apparently already reported.
“This is concerning,” Hecate stated the obvious and paused to frown as Shadow, Orion’s kitten, walked up to Riley and meowed. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. Pet him, Riley, before he becomes a nuisance.”
She picked him up and settled him on her lap, pleased when he curled up and started purring.
Mormo gave the kitten a look of disdain but didn’t say why he didn’t like the furball.
Riley petted him, needing to focus on something other than how much she needed to leave. Mormo and Hecate were taking forever to chat when she had better things to do.
“I’m sorry. Are we boring you?” Mormo asked icily.
“Look, I have to get back to my pack. We’ve got problems. Someone’s sayingIkilled those lycans, the ones stacked up in a pile.” The remembrance made her ill. A waste of so much life.
“Interesting that this sorcerer is after you.” Hecate tapped her lips, studying Riley. “You say he knew your name?”
“Yeah. And he wanted my blood.”
Mormo scowled. “He took your blood. You might have seriously bled out if Kraft hadn’t helped you.”
“How did he do that, exactly?” Riley wanted to know. “I remember being stabbed, and it hurt like blazes. But then I passed out and woke up here.”
The cat let out a loud sigh and gave a few grumbles.
“Apparently, Kraft fed you some of his bloode.”
“What?” Oh crap. Did that now make her part vampire? She’d never, ever heard of a vampire willingly giving up his bloode for a non-vamp. Was she infected? She didn’t feel thirsty for blood. But what did she know?
Shadow gripped her thighs with his claws and let out a low growl when she shifted in alarm.
“Sorry.” She forced herself to relax and drew on that calm ability to deal with anything life threw at her. She could handle vampire bloode, surely. “What effects can I expect from ingesting nachzehrer bloode?” Magical stuff to be sure. Was that why she felt stronger than normal?
“You healed, that’s what you can expect.” Mormo glared at her lap and the kitten there, who studiously ignored him. “Vampire saliva has a healing agent in it, but vampire bloode is a complicated mixture of magic and life’s essence. It shouldn’t have worked on you.”
“It should have made you sick.” Hecate sounded a little too enthused about that. “But you healed. We’ll have to study you later, because you’re an anomaly, Riley. Perhaps that’s why this rogue sorcerer wants you.”
“Maybe.” She hated the fact he’d taken her blood. Could he put a spell on her from afar? She’d have to tell her cousin to keep an eye on her. “He was working with the rogue lycans, and I’m not sure what that means in terms of the brewing lycan war.”
