Drink Deep (Chicagoland Vampires 5)

"It is what it is," Malik calmly said. "However horrendous the act, we shouldn't convict her of the crime without facts.

We don't have any evidence she's done it. Most important, why? Why would a burgeoning sorceress do such a thing?"

"I can't tel you why she did it," Lindsey said, turning back from her computer station, her face unusual y pale. "But I can confirm that she did it."

We al moved to her computer, where Lindsey had pul ed up two segments of security video. "We don't actively monitor the basement camera because it's right beside the Ops Room," she said, "but we record the video. It's motion activated, so it didn't take long to find what we were looking for."

The video was black and white and grainy, but there was no mistaking Mal ory Delancey Carmichael, ad exec turned sorceress, taking the Maleficium from the vault.

"How did she get the vault open?" I quietly asked.

"Magic," Lindsey said. "I fast-forwarded through that part.

It gives me the wil ies."

"She only has the book," Malik pointed out, but Lindsey shook her head.

"No, she only has the book this trip. She takes the ashes four days later. Runs the same play both times - the same magic, I mean."

"Why the delay?" Malik wondered. "Why take the risk?

Why not take them both at the same time?"

In the silence, I'd been piecing together the quilt of my experiences with Mal ory and Tate over the last few days -

what I'd learned from Tate about magic, and what I'd seen of Mal ory.

The finished product wasn't looking good.

"Because she didn't know she wanted the ashes," I quietly said, then glanced at Malik. "She profunt oodbably learned about the Maleficium while working with Simon.

She'd used black magic before. Maybe using it made her curious."

"That only explains the book," Luc said.

But I shook my head. "When I visited Tate, he listed some spel s that might require the mixing of magic we've seen this week. One of them," I said, "is making a familiar."

"A familiar?" Luc asked.

"A kind of magical assistant," I said. "They help sorcerers funnel the magic they have to wield. A familiar gives them extra capacity, like an external magical hard drive."

"That's a frightening benefit," Luc said. "But I'm confused

- you think Tate's making a familiar?"

"Not Tate," I said, nerves and stomach rattling. "I think Mal ory might be. She's used black magic before, and she's created a familiar before. A cat. But it's not right -

there's something wrong about it. She gave me an excuse, but now . . . I don't know. And she's mentioned she wished there were more of her to help work the magic."

The room was quiet, everyone considering what I'd said.

"A sorceress is being tested this week," I continued. "A sorceress who understands how to make a familiar, at least on a smal scale, and who's stolen a book of magic that can help her do more than just dabble in black magic. Ethan's ashes are gone, and now the city is fal ing apart because good and black magic are being mixed."

"That's a far-fetched idea," Keley said. "Attempting to revive a vampire to make them a familiar."

"Unfortunately," Malik said, "it's not entirely far-fetched."

He looked at me. "Do you know why there are no sorcerers in Chicago, Merit?"

I shook my head.

"It is an anachronism from the days when relationships between vampires and sorcerers were more strained than they are today. If things have progressed the way you suggest, it is not the first time sorcerers have made such an attempt."

The room went silent, al eyes on Malik.

"The making of a familiar requires the application of powerful magic to something - or someone - who the sorcerer desires to make a familiar. The capacity to make that kind of magic is rare, and the capacity of the familiar depends upon their power."

"So a vampire can hold more magic than a cat," I offered.

Malik nodded. "And a Master vampire can hold more power than a stil -pink Initiate. The last time a sorcerer tried to make a vampire into a familiar, a Navarre House vampire was kidnapped. She was discovered later in the sorcerer's lair, a mindless, slathering thing."

I shuddered involuntarily.

"The sorcerer exerts a measure of control over the familiar," Malik said. "They become service animals, in effect. Mindless, without free wil ."

Even as a part of me was thril ed by the idea that Ethan could return at al , hope curdled at the thought that Mal ory was attempting to turn him into a mind-control ed zombie. I suddenly had a little less sympathy for her stress - and a lot more sympathy for the cat.

"The sorceress was identified, and she was dealt with by Navarre House. And when that was done, vampires forbade the Order from working in Chicago.orking icag="3

That explained why the Order hadn't wanted Catcher to visit Chicago, and why they'd kicked him out when he insisted. It also said a lot about Ethan - that he'd been wil ing to take Catcher in upon his arrival despite what sorcerers had once done.

"If a sorcerer tried this before," Luc asked, "why didn't we see the same kind of effects? The natural disasters?"

"We did," Malik assuredly said. "We saw the Great Fire."

The Great Fire of 1871 had destroyed huge swaths of the city.

"The Order argued it was a coincidence," Malik said, "but having seen what we've seen this week, there's a strong argument they were equal y in denial then."

"But you're talking about turning a living vampire into a familiar. Ethan is gone," Luc quietly said. "There is nothing left of him but ash. How could she make that happen?"

"If he was human, she probably couldn't," Malik said. "But vampires are different than humans.Geneticaly.

Physiological y. The ties that bind the soul are different -  which is why the body simply turns to ash."

"This is real," Luc said after a moment of silence, crossing himself. It was an odd move for a vampire, but there was no doubting the sincerity in his expression.

Malik stood up and pushed back his chair. "I'm going to alert the Order to the possibility that a sorceress is attempting to create a familiar, and has done so using the ashes of a Master vampire. I wil also alert them that she may be using the Maleficium to do so, and that her attempts may completely disrupt the order of the natural world. Does that sum it up?"

Guilt heavy on my shoulders, I nodded.