Chapter Twenty Seven

“I fucking hate being right.”

My knees threatened to drop out from under me as I took in the smoldering pile of stone that’d previously been our destination. Smoke and the unmistakable smell of burning flesh clogged my throat as I surveyed the area.

The back of my neck burned from where I’d itched it raw on the flight over, only Dimitrius grabbing my hand stopping me from drawing blood. Halfway through the plane ride, I’d known that we’d be too late, but I’d hoped I was wrong.

I hadn’t been.

The mother’s information must have been important if they killed her to keep it secret and now we had to wait who knows how long until another person had the same info.

Anger boiled low in my gut, but above that failure settled like a heavy blanket around me. This woman–Isabelle–had been tormented for years, never allowed to have a peaceful night’s rest without worry for who would visit her. Had born the child of her rapist and torturer not once, but twice.

And now she’d died at the same whim of the one who’d put her through all that.

Fighting the urge to slam my skull into the nearest hard surface, I instead faced Dimitrius and thunked my head into his shoulder with a hiss. We’d failed that woman and the truth of that burned me to the core.

His hands stroked my spine, a hard frown curling his lips as he examined the rubble with open sorrow. “Such waste, did the fireman say if the child at least made it out?”

Sinking further into him, I shook my head. “Both bodies were found inside, dead.” Three bodies, if we counted the unborn inside the mother’s womb.

If only we hadn’t had to detour for me, we would have made it in time. The ‘fire’ had only happened a few hours ago…

Sera’s hand rested on my shoulder, pulling me away from the self-deprecating thoughts.

“Don’t, I can practically feel you blaming yourself from here. Instead of useless self-hate, let’s do something constructive. We can still salvage this, though the lives that were lost won’t be coming back, we can still get out answers. Those will save countless lives and while it doesn’t change what happened here, it will at least make the future better for those you spare.”

Dragging the tired pieces of myself back in line, I nodded, only for Dimitrius to glance between us, brow knit in confusion.

“How will we go about getting information from corpses?”

That’d be sarcastic on anyone else, but Dimitrius was genuine and I reluctantly pulled back to explain. “Remember how I mentioned the different types of magic? One of them is Mortuus Magum, Death Mage. They can pull spirits up from the grave and through that, we can talk to her.”

His brow didn’t ease though.

“Neither of you are Mortuus Mages, correct?”

Sera snorted, “Nope, would have made my parents a lot happier with me if I had been though. And because of Julian, finding someone who’ll work with us is going to be…interesting.”

Rubbing my temples, I sighed, knowing what we had to do. “No, it won’t, because I already know who we need to call in. He doesn’t mind my history or my magic, but I was hoping to avoid pulling him into this mess.”

Sera stopped, facing me with a brow raised and hands on her hips. “And who do you know? Because I was under the impression you didn’t know any Mortuus Mages.”

Glancing briefly back to Dimitrius who watched with open curiosity, I bit the bullet. “Well, I wouldn’t call us buddies. He’s nice and hasn’t judged me once over the years, kind of a necessity for our arrangement since killing me would have been fairly easy if he’d wanted to…”

The meaning went over Dimitrius’s head, but not Sera’s. Her eyes widened as she sputtered in disbelief. “Wait a minute. You’re not friends but you know him? You had better tell me that we’re not calling in your fuck buddy to help with this.”

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Dimitrius visibly flinched back, snapping his head around to stare at me in surprise as I winched. “Yup, though I’d appreciate you not calling him that. Even if we aren’t officially friends, for both our sakes, he doesn’t deserve to be slandered. Vladimir is a good guy and he hasn’t done anything to deserve that. Besides, he gets plenty of crap from the council with his magic being Exitium, Mortuus, and Spectrum.”

Sera’s jaw hit the floor as understanding dawned. “You’re talking about Vladimir? The Vladimir? Literally the only person who might be more wildly distrusted than you by the council?”

I nodded, turning to face Dimitrius who looked like he’d sucked on a lemon. I couldn’t blame him. We were talking about bringing in one of the few people I’d slept with so he had full rights to be uncomfortable with the idea.

“Yeah, our history is why I didn’t want to bring him in. I didn’t think you’d be too happy with him being under your roof. We could wait until another mother pops up who can remember the man who impregnated her?” I offered.

It’d probably take months we really didn’t have right now, not to mention with how much our enemy focused on that woman in particular, it smacked of more. She’d been special.

Dimitrius must have come to the same conclusion, because he nodded, determination overtaking his previous displeasure.

“No, waiting could spell death for countless others children and adult alike. We have someone who can get the information we need, so we will use them. It matters none that he had you before I have you now.”

Butterflies took flight at that as a warm fist gripped my heart and squeezed. Brushing that to the side, I nodded. “That you do, big guy. So it’s settled?”

At both their nods, we headed back to the waiting plane. One the way back, Sera idled up to my side with an impish smile. “So, you’re his?”

I should have known she wouldn’t let that go. Ignoring the flush working over my cheeks, I shrugged. “Yup and he’s mine. That’s kind of how this whole relationship thing works. Gotta admit, I like it.”

Sera’s milky eyes softened. “Good, I’ve always hated how our community treated you and from what little I’ve seen he’s a good match. I hope you’re both very happy together.”

Aw, she did care. Before I could comment about this being a near hallmark moment, she added on with a grin.

“Besides, I’ve always said you need a full time babysitter, and who better than him? He seems to have impulse control and common sense in spades, something he’ll need to deal with you. Oh, and patience. Lots of patience.”

Sera paused, remembering that Dimitrius was right behind her as she shot him an apologetic look. “Sorry for talking like you’re not here. Sometimes I forget to have Elle do a check around me.”

He waved her off, a serene smile curling his lips as he moved to grip my hand. “It is fine, no offense taken. I imagine your disability makes things slightly different for you.” Again, curiosity lit behind his eyes and the expression made me chuckle.

“If you want to ask her something, just ask. Trust me, if she doesn’t want to answer you she’ll say so, but beating around the bush just irritates her.”

Sera nodded. “She’s right, besides it’s not often I get someone who wants to know just for the sake of knowing. So, fire away.”

And with that, the rest of the trip dissolved into Sera explaining how she used her familiar Elle to see. Of course I already knew about the collar specifically made for Elle, embedded with the spell ‘Sight’, but watching Dimitrius take in all the new information with excitement was always refreshing.

Besides, after the day we’d had, some innocent confusion was nothing to sniff at.

I’d taken a brief stretch break to inform the pilots of where to go, but other than that I contently listened as my partner learned more about my world. It was only when the plane came to a stop hours later that Dimitrius blinked out of his fascinated stupor.

“I only just realized I do not know where we traveled to.”

Biting back a snort that he’d gotten that tied into the explanation, I took pity on him. “its fine, we’re in Russia. Vlad’s place isn’t far from the airport, but you’ll both need to promise not to tell anyone where it is after I show you.”

They nodded, though Dimitrius shot me a confused glance. “He hides himself, why?”

Sera beat me to the punch. “Because just like Julian is famous for only using Auxilio magic, Vladimir is the same for having all three of the most destructive types under his belt. It terrifies people, and what people fear, they lash out again. He’s basically a living legend.”

The constant threat was why his home was so heavily hidden. If Vlad wasn’t a master of Spectrum magic, he never would have managed to keep himself cloaked for so long, but he was one of the best for a reason.

It took only a short drive before we stood outside a barren plot of land. Rolling hills stretched as far as the eye could see, white painting it into a picturesque landscape. It looked abandoned, if you didn’t know where to go.

Not saying a word, I led them to a giant boulder to the side of the road. It was surrounded by trees and after wiping away the ice on its smooth face, I smiled. “We’re here.”

Dimitrius looked around, confusion still present as even Sera quirked a brow.

“Julian, throw me a bone because I don’t see anything and for once that isn’t a pun on my lack of eyesight.”

And they wouldn’t see anything, at least not until the master of the house came to let us in. Yet another security measure, but I couldn’t fault him for it. He’d made too many enemies–mostly by just existing–to be anything less than paranoid.

For now, I didn’t answer either of their curious looks. Instead, I put my palms on the rock and took a deep breath. Gathering magic into my hands, tingles sweeping out in waves as I spread a veil around it. The rock pulsed sharply, before fading to reveal a glowing doorway with no handle.

Dimitrius’s hiss of surprise came, but I didn’t turn. Knowing Vlad he was sure to be prompt. Sure enough, less than a minute after I summoned the door, it swung open and out stepped a very familiar figure.