Grave Intentions (Darkling Mage 3)

Then all of those doppelgangers, all my clones had come from the same source. That shouldn’t have been at all surprising. They had the same objective, after all, of stealing magical items. The Heartstopper, Madam Chien’s jade peach, the Null Dagger – it didn’t matter what they went for, did it?

“I think it’s safe to say that Thea is behind this,” I said. “But why is she sending all of these creatures out to steal artifacts? And how did she get my blood?”

Carver stroked his chin. “It’s possible that she kept a sample when she first sacrificed you. But the more likely possibility is that she collected one during your last encounter. When you fought Thea, did she cut you at all? Think.”

I stared off into empty space as my mind ticked through our last battle. “She did. She slashed me with her talons. You don’t mean to say that she managed to keep enough of my blood just from one cut?”

“The woman is a powerful sorceress and an accomplished enchantress. To say that she also has a firm grasp on alchemy wouldn’t be a stretch. She didn’t need much of your blood to work with. Whatever she harvested from you that one night was more than enough. As for why she’s stealing artifacts – that remains a mystery. Sterling?”

Sterling grunted.

“Perhaps you could speak with Diaz.”

“Are we talking about the blood witch?” I said. “The one who sent two vampires to corner me in a dark alley?” I frowned a little, remembering that I still hadn’t managed to make time for a burger.

“I would be quite upset if someone stole my enchantments as well,” Carver said, “but I confess that Diaz’s actions were somewhat rash. I am unable to locate Thea because of her cloaking mechanisms, but perhaps Diaz has his own way of tracing the homunculi back to their point of origin.”

“Or,” Sterling said, grinning, “or, we could start from the source.” He winked at me. “I might be able to track them down. But I’d need another taste to be sure.”

“Sterling,” I groaned. “No. Stop.”

“You’re right,” Sterling said, rising from the table, stretching his limbs and yawning, like a cat. “We may as well go with someone who knows his stuff. Let me take a nap, then I’ll contact Diaz for a meeting.”

“Dustin should come,” Carver added.

“Oh. I should? Yay.”

Sterling chuckled. “It’ll be fun. Diaz is okay. The twelve vampires he lives with, though? Not so much.”

My eyes went straight for the pantry, where we kept all the garlic. If only they were afraid of the stuff.

I pulled out my phone, wondering where in Valero I could go to buy myself a stake. Just – just in case.

Chapter 15

“So you cleared this with Carver, right?”

I sipped on my latte, eyeing Herald with a little more guilt than I’d intended to show.

“Um, yeah. Sure. Sure I did.”

Herald nudged his glasses up his nose, fixing me with a quick scowl before turning his attention back to the road. “You’re a terrible liar, Graves.”

“Actually I?

??m usually really good at it. You just happen to be really good at sniffing me out.”

“What a pair we make,” Herald muttered. I could hear his eyes rolling. “But seriously. This sounds like the exact kind of thing Carver would have your head for.”

This was true. Sterling said he needed a nap, and besides, he hadn’t clarified whether we were going to see Diaz that very same day, so I made plans. It had taken some hemming and hawing on my part, but after hours of pacing back and forth in my bedroom I finally gathered up the balls to pick up the phone and call Herald. And even then we had to swing by for coffees to help settle my jitters. I realize that sounds totally counterintuitive, but just go with it.

I told him I would pay him back for the car rental. I guess I could have gone on my own, but I didn’t know how to drive. Okay, fine, I do, but I was too anxious to do it. Plus the destination was on the edge of town, and unfamiliar to me. I didn’t want to go it on my own.

I hear you, okay? Yes, I could have taken a rideshare. Enough already. Maybe I was nervous. I hadn’t seen my dad in ages, and I needed the moral support.

A stupid idea, you say? Totally. Sure. For the record, you and Herald are on the same page. But I couldn’t deal with it anymore. Arachne had given me his address. I’d been through more life-threatening scrapes in the past few months than I have in my entire existence. And I knew that the danger was only going to amp up.

Some sinister shit was going on behind this whole homunculus business, and someone was going to get hurt real bad. I wanted to see my dad just in case. It’d be the first time in a long while. If things went truly horribly for me somehow, between the meeting with Diaz’s vampires and the unknowable threat of the doppelgangers, it might even be the last.