“Can you smell anyone else?” I asked. “Anything else?”
“No.” He lifted his gaze to Theo. “How’d you find them?”
“Anonymous tip.”
“Interesting.”
“I thought so.”
“You go through them?”
“Not yet,” Theo said. He took a plastic bag and a set of gloves from his pocket, then pulled on the gloves. We moved aside while Theo crouched and searched the T-shirt, jeans, and boxers, looking for anything that might have been tucked inside.
“Gwen?” I asked.
“Working with the lab,” Theo said, frowning as he inspectedthe jeans’ front pocket. He pulled out a rounded square of thick paper.
“Bar coaster,” he said, flipping it over. “For The Raucous Wolf.” He slipped it into the evidence bag and, when it was protected, offered it to me.
The bar’s wolfish logo was, in a bit of gruesome irony, tucked inside a circle on the front. The reverse side advertised a beer company with a curvy pinup. But there was something else—what looked like a tiny bit of writing on the bottom corner. A phone number? I wondered.
“Flashlight,” I said, and held out my hand, expecting one of them would fulfill the request. Connor got there first, putting a penlight into my hand. I flicked it on and shined it on the spot, illuminating a simple mark of lines and dashes inked so heavily into the coaster they’d left a groove in the paper: two lines crossing in the shape of an X, and a series of shorter marks that crossed them both or individually at intervals.
“It’s a stave,” I said.
“A what?” Theo asked, moving closer.
“A symbol that makes up a spell. Nordic in origin. I studied staves in college—supernatural sociology,” I reminded him. “I don’t know what this particular stave symbolizes, but each mark has meaning, and when you put them together, they have a magical effect. Combine that with a little blood, a little salt, and a little paper, and you’ve made magic.” I looked up. “I think Ariel has one of these tattooed on her arm. I saw it when she moved her tray.”
“Ariel?” Theo asked, and we told him what we’d found at the bar.
“The lines,” Connor agreed with a nod. “I saw that, too.”
“We need to talk to her again.”
“We do,” Theo agreed. “And good catch. Petra couldn’t do much with the salt circle, it was too general. But added to this, wemight have something.” He pulled out his screen and sent her a message.
I rose at the scritch of shoes on pavement behind us. And along with it, the low buzz of magic.
I turned back. Connor positioned himself toward the sound, toward the threat. Theo slid the wrapped coaster into his back pocket and moved to put himself between the bundle of clothes and the interloper.
I knew the man who approached. Tall and lean, with blond hair, eyes the color of good bourbon, and a rather beautiful mouth. Not that I’d admit that to anyone in the present company.
Jonathan Black was part elf, evidenced by the delicately pointed tips of his ears. I wasn’t certain about the rest of his genetic origins. He appeared human but exuded more magic than part elf would account for. And unlike the first time we’d met, tonight he’d made no effort to use his elf-born glamour to hide his magic. It all but swirled around him.
I’d met him outside the Ombuds’ office one night and enlisted his help in dealing with the Assembly of American Masters, the ruling body of American vampires. He represented certain supernatural interests in Chicago but was cagey about who or what those interests were.
He looked at me, and while his smile was pleasant, it didn’t reach his eyes. Grimness had taken firm root there. Quite a change from the last time we’d spoken, which had been before my promotion to a permanent position in the Ombuds’ office. He’d been all charming smiles and flirty words then.
“Mr. Black,” I said. “What brings you to McKinley Park in the middle of the night?”
Recognition sparked in Connor’s eyes, and then his gaze shifted to take in the ears.
Jonathan didn’t answer, he just slid his gaze over Connor, then to Theo. They all looked at each other in hard silence, as if each waiting for the other to blink.
Alphas, I thought with a sigh. “Connor Keene and Theo Martin,” I said, making the introductions they’d apparently been too stubborn to make on their own. “This is Jonathan Black. Why are you here?” I asked again.
“My clients requested I come here and see what might be found.”
