It was a new day, and the fact all the humans on the beach saw a lithe redhead with brown eyes, instead of a blonde with blue, only bothered me a little bit. At least my mate and friends saw who I really was.

  It was a good day, even the horrible part of it gave me a purpose I could be proud of.

  The dim lights, flashing lights on the dance floor, and slightly brighter island of lights around the bars were familiar at the club. We’d gone to Pulse that time. It was a lot harder to follow exactly what the love of my life was doing there though, because of the impossibly loud music. The vampires seemed to be able to hold conversations across the room, where as I was just deaf to anything but the driving beat of the music.

  That was okay, I was still enjoying myself, and I’d danced more than a bit with Dana and Katie. Katie was in the club as well, with Jeremy her hot electrician boyfriend. From what I understood tonight was the night she was going to tell him about her witchy ways, if she didn’t chicken out after taking him home that night. I wished her luck.

  Mark touched my shoulder, and when my eyes found his he nodded at my purse. There was no way I could hear it, but that was the signal I was getting a phone call. I grabbed it and headed for the backdoor as I answered it, it was closer. The music dimmed significantly, as the metal back door closed.

  “Caroline?”

  Caroline replied, “Ben needs your help.”

  “Ben needs help?”

  Caroline said, “He doesn’t know I’m calling. I don’t think he’s thinking straight right now.”

  I had a bunch of questions, but that would just waste time. They’d helped me a bunch of times, but this was the first time they’d called on me for help.

  “I’ll be right there.”

  I sent a quick text to Dana, so she could let Mark and Katie know why I bailed.

  I fast travelled to Ben’s office, through the water realm, it’d take a few minutes. I couldn’t travel straight to him, but at his office I’d be able to pick up his connection to it and trace it to his current location. I wouldn’t even have to leave the water realm, just open up a window when I was in the corresponding location to read the emotional connection he had with the building. My ice contracting and expanding thing really came in handy for things like that.

  I looked down at what I was wearing, a slinky red dress perfect for clubbing that looked painted on, with black high heels. Perfect for clubbing, but it rode the line of scandalous for just about any other activity. I shrugged, had to wear what I had on during an emergency.

  It didn’t take long once I’d stopped. I found Ben’s link and shot off to the northwest as I willed and focused my magic to trace it. The second part of the trip only took a few seconds, but since I didn’t ask any questions, I peeked out first. For all I knew he was in an arena full of people in plain sight. Of course, he wasn’t, he was with Caroline in a house I didn’t recognize, with a dead young woman on the floor, that looked right around twenty-two years old.

  I zoomed out, and I changed that to a strange apartment I didn’t recognize, as I popped back into our world.

  Ben looked more upset and angrier than I’d ever seen him before. His eyes snapped to me, so much for not being able to surprise the air sorcerer. Caroline gave me a grateful nervous look.

  She said, “Thanks for coming so fast.”

  “What’s going on?”

  Ben sighed, and mastered his emotions, then waved at the dead woman, “Casey Johnson. Human, single mother. A dark witch did this, and she made off with her three-month-old baby girl. Carly Johnson will be sacrificed in just over fourteen minutes, and her location is blocked from me with magic. Normally I can use fire magic to defeat that, trace the magic, but not with the mother dead, and the father blocked from me.”

  “The father’s blocked?”

  Ben nodded, “I believe he’s a sorcerer, as is the baby, which is why the dark witch wanted Carly in the first place. I’m just not sure what kind yet. He must be stronger than me, because any information about him is blocked. He also doesn’t live here, if I had to guess he hasn’t been around at all since he knocked up Casey, and I’m not going to speculate about the circumstances surrounding that event.”

  Oh. Yeah, air sorcerers gone bad weren’t all that fussed about the whole consent issue, as I’d found out yesterday. Fire sorcerers too, from what I understood. Of course, that could be jumping to conclusions, maybe he wasn’t a rogue and their relationship just didn’t work out. Deadbeat dad didn’t necessarily mean rapist through compulsion. That was two entirely different levels of things, with a huge gulf between them.

  Ben shook his head, “Point is, if anyone else is connected to that baby, I don’t know who, and we’re running out of time to save her life.”

  “You seem, really upset. I mean, this is bad, but more than I’d have expected.”

  Ben grunted, “My power, I saw the whole baby’s life, up to her sacrifice, from her point of view. It’s a little… intense when that happens. Like I really was sacrificed, I was her. I just couldn’t get a sense of the location, that’s what’s being blocked by the witch’s wards. Casey was a good mother, and she didn’t deserve this. I don’t know why my power didn’t warn me soon enough to save her too.”

  Right, that was… screwed up. Once again, I was extremely thankful for being a water sorceress, and not an air sorceress. Emotions were bad enough. I couldn’t imagine absorbing lives like that.

  Of course, while we’d talked, I’d also been checking all the connections in the apartment within my magic’s reach, which was all of it. The mobile above the crib, and the stuffed animal in it both had the strongest connections to Carly.

  “I’ve got her, want me to take us there? It’s not a solitary witch, there’s six of them. I’ll drop us outside the house?”

  Just in case there were wards to cut sorcerers from their power.

  Ben nodded, “Yes,” then said more firmly to his shoulder, “YES, follow me there.”

  Right, whatever that was about, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

  Water rose up around the three of us, and we disappeared into the water realm.

  Ben explained, “Aitheria, she doesn’t like it when I go places that she can’t follow. It’d be a very large mistake for an air elemental to be inside the water realm. She wanted me to follow you, but that would’ve wasted a few seconds.”

  “Follow me?”

  Ben smirked, “We’re friends and allies, you don’t think I have a fire connection to you, and you to me? I can follow you anywhere.”

  Oh, right.

  He added, “Plus, I’m kind of at your mercy here, she worries.”

  Oh, that was true, his usually explosively strong magic was barely a candle in the realm of water, and only because of the atmosphere and air I had in my water bubble. Otherwise he’d have no magic at all.

  “Plan, we’re almost there.”

  Ben said angrily, “Kill them all, burn their evil magic, and take the baby back.”

  Right, good plan.

  Despite his words, the first thing he did when we popped out was to put a strong air and fire shield around Caroline.

  We stood in a backyard in a relatively rural area, at least an hour out of Chicago by car. There were trees behind us, and the house itself looked to be a fairly common sized three-bedroom ranch. Which made me think maybe the coven didn’t all live together, and only got together for their dark magic. Unless they were three lesbian couples, which was statistically unlikely, though there’d be nothing wrong with it.

  I blasted the wards with as much water magic as I could muster and channel, through the water vapor, water pipes under the ground, and a small stream about two hundred feet behind us.

  My water magic was about as strong as Ben’s fire magic, but his air magic was still at least four times stronger than mine. He created a rope of power, fire and air magic twisted and joined together, making it more powerful than the sum of its parts. Instead of five times as powerful, it was closer to seven. It blasted into the wards hard. There were strong wards on the house that would limit our power, as well as other protections against the four elements.

  Between his and my power, they were being ablated by water, consumed by fire, and dispersed by air at a fast rate. There must’ve been offensive spells tied up in the wards, because the ground shook and golems made of mud, vines, and roots rose out of the ground.

  Caroline was still a relatively young vampire, just a couple of years old in fact, but hardly slow. It was hard to track her movement with my human perceptions, as she drew a sword and rushed the golems. Dirt flew as she started to hack and dismember them wickedly fast, she never stopped moving, an arm off one, a leg off another, a third’s head went flying, and then the first lost a leg.

  They were powerful, made of earth, but far too slow and clumsy compared to the graceful vampire who danced among them randomly. Caroline had all their focus, so they never even got close to me and Ben who continued to assault the house wards with everything we had.

  The witches, no doubt caught flatfooted while preparing a circle for sacrifice, finally adjusted to the attack. A huge fireball was shot our way, but I watched almost amused as the fireball was sucked into Ben’s line of attack, as he added the fire to his own attack on the wards. I imagined their only chance to even hit us was an earth spell, since any air, water, or fire spells would be worthless against the two of us, and they would merely empower us further.

  The wards fell, and both of us turned on what was left of the golems. I sent water at them to turn them to mud, while Ben sent fire to consume them.

  I giggled, as they turned into mud cake statues, no longer empowered by earth and unable to move.

  The fight wasn’t over yet though, and I turned my power against the witch’s personal shields inside the house.

  Ben smirked in amusement as well, despite the thunderous expression on his face. With a burst of power, the statues exploded, no point in leaving evidence of magic for the neighbors to find.

  I had the feeling he blamed himself for Casey’s death. For not getting there sooner. It’d take time for him to get past that, especially if he lived Carly’s life from her point of view. That meant, in a very real way, he loved Casey as his primary care giver and mother. In a real way, he’d just failed to save his own mother’s life. Talk about a mind screw.

  The reason his power didn’t pick it out sooner was obvious to me, and I was sure he’d figure it out once his anger cooled. His subconscious was focused on saving children, it was what he did in his business. He couldn’t save everyone, so he focused all his power to saving kidnapped and runaway kids, in the Chicago area.

  His power pulled the information from the ether to do so, guided by his subconscious. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred that was more than good enough, but in this case where the parent was actually killed before the abduction, it hadn’t been enough.

  That wasn’t his fault, but I suspected his power and subconscious would take such rare circumstances into account next time. What good was saving the kid, if the parent wasn’t around to raise her anymore? Well, still good of course, just not ideal.

  We moved toward the house, and Caroline kicked in the back door and disappeared inside. We followed after. She disappeared into the kitchen ahead of us, and we heard a door open and the sound of running down stairs.

  He grimaced, “They’re in the basement, aren’t they?”

  I nodded, “Yes. I’m almost through their shields.”

  We could hear a scuffle as we approached the door to the basement, and the chanting of magic.

  A moment later, Caroline reappeared at the door with a baby cradled in her arms, and she ran outside the house. No doubt the witches had been too slow to stop her. With the wards down, witches didn’t have an edge on vampires at all.

  Ben said, “Let’s finish this, I… shit. That’s a ward spell they’re casting, they must have a backup.”

  He spun up fire and air magic in his hands, and cast it down the stairwell, where it exploded. A huge plume of white-hot fire raced up the stairwell. I figured my water shields would handle it just fine, that part wasn’t magic anymore, but it wasn’t necessary. Ben’s magic stopped the plume cold at the doorway.

  My own efforts at taking down the witch’s personal protections the last thirty seconds, had been enough. Sure, I could’ve brought one witch’s personal shields down in a handful of seconds at my power, but I was hitting all six at the same time.

  Ben’s firestorm explosion ripped through what was left of them.

  The agonized screams made me cringe, but they were mercifully short screams as they cut off. Their spell chant interrupted by violent death, meant the backup wards were never activated. Smoke poured out of the basement, but didn’t get close to us, as Ben kept our air clean and breathable.

  He said, “Let it burn, that should take care of the dark magic books, and any exposure risks.”

  We turned, and then headed to the backdoor and out to the yard, where Caroline was cooing and rocking the baby like a pro.

  We all watched, as the house went up in a pyre.

  “What about Carly?”

  The small baby girl was going to be an air sorceress when she grew up, my magic told me that much. She also had no home to go back to.

  He grunted, “I’ll take her. My girl will have a sister, unless we can find her father, and he gives a crap. Both are doubtful, who knows how much more powerful he is? Of course, that means if he does give a crap, he could show up himself if he bothers to check on his daughter. That he wasn’t here tonight tells me that’s unlikely as well. If he cared, his power would’ve picked up that she was in danger.”

  I nodded, not all that surprised that he’d take on that responsibility.

  He said, “Thanks for coming, I don’t know how I’d have found her in time otherwise.”

  I smiled, “Anytime.”

  He took Caroline and Carly back to Chicago, while I returned to the club. It felt good to save the girl, but it was also a dark thing. Our world was a violent place, and we’d brought justice to six evil witches that had been corrupted by darkness. That was something to be proud of as well, but at the same time it was disturbing. How do six women get the point where they sacrificed innocent babies for a little more power?

  Chapter Thirteen

  I spent most of Tuesday morning with Dana, putting together an investment portfolio and choosing companies to invest in. One of those wound up being the coven itself, as I dropped a couple of million to buy a handful of homes they’d offer to rent to vacationers. It was a long-term investment, but once I’d recouped my layout expense it’d be a very strong income source.

  I won’t go down the whole list, but we had fun making it happen. I also set up a foundation that would automatically receive a percentage of my profits and distribute them to a number of local as well as worldwide charities. It would be my new way of helping in the human world, as I focused my active help in the supernatural world.

  Everything from local soup kitchens and pantries, to tuition grants or grant money for research into deadly diseases.

  It wouldn’t be static either I was sure, at some point I’d be getting even more money from some asshole rogue and we’d have to distribute the new funds as well in my portfolio. It would also have to be monitored, at least a few hours a week, to measure my investments in the stock market.

  I had more than enough liquid assets to pick up another corvette, or even a fleet of them, but I saw no reason to do so, or even to pick up any car at all for that matter. Now that I was working out of the public eye it was just easier to fast travel through the water realm if I was going anywhere far away, or simply walk if my destination was close by.

  I ate with the coven, or out, or at Katie’s, so no food shopping, and if I wanted to go clothes shopping then I could always borrow one of the coven vehicles. In short, my life had undergone a huge change, and it’d take me time to get used to it all. I had no regrets, except that I would no longer be bringing family’s back together, but I couldn’t save everyone or fix everything, no matter how powerful I was.

  Some things had to give, and I was mostly at peace with that. That didn’t mean if something happened, that was in my face, I wouldn’t act. There was always the option of an anonymous call to a hotline.

  I still wore nice clothes, but more casual. I had on a shiny blue blouse that Tuesday, half buttoned with a white skintight strapless shirt on underneath it that showed just a tiny bit of cleavage. Gray jeans and black boots, along with a black leather coat finished out my ensemble as I headed across the country to Seattle to have lunch with Melody. It was cold in Seattle, in January.

  It was something I’d be doing every Tuesday save an emergency, to maintain and grow my relationship with her. By the time I turned forty, and she relented and became my ally, I imagined we’d be very close.

  We were meeting at a Sushi and Sashimi bar. Once I’d arrived in Seattle, I took control of my travel, and found the place. Then an empty alley nearby to pop back into the real world. My expanded powers and discoveries really came in handy for that kind of thing, as long as I was careful there was almost no chance of exposure.

  So much different than taking two-hundred-mile hops while I held my breath, and then hoped for the best when I arrived at the other end.

  Melody waved when I walked in. She looked to be in her early thirties, and she looked more like a soccer mom than one of the most powerful and oldest among our kind. She was five foot three, with brown hair, hazel eyes, and looked cute in a pair of yoga pants and a yellow blouse. Her black ankle length coat was folded over the back of her chair.

  Our kind lived four hundred years, if we weren’t killed, but we didn’t age proportionally five to one, at least not in appearance. We aged a lot slower for the first three quarters of our lives. She looked thirty, but she was over three hundred. When she hit three twenty or so, she’d start aging at a human rate, one to one, until she looked old and finally passed away. I rather thought our magic preserved our bodies, slowed aging significantly until the last sixty or seventy years of our lives. I’d look thirty too, when I finally reached three hundred.