Biting Cold (Chicagoland Vampires 6)

"This isn't quite the frontier," Ethan said.

"For humans, no. But magicaly? It's basicaly a vacuum.

Isolated, both from magic makers and supernatural populations.

That makes it a great place to house the Maleficium, when it's our turn to keep it, but not much else."

"Is it here?" Ethan asked.

"Safe and sound in the silo," she said. "So, officialy, welcome to the repository for the Maleficium. At least for now. When they found out Malory escaped again, they started making arrangements for a new location."

"Shouldn't they have picked it up by now?" I wondered.

She smirked. "You're assuming they're eager to carry it around. That is not the case. Baumgartner's having to cal in substantial favors just to get potential transporters to consider it.

Too much risk. When someone finaly volunteers, it wil be a blind drop to protect their identity. Or supposedly." Paige narrowed her gaze at Ethan. "The Order wasn't thriled when it was taken from Cadogan House. We al expected it would be safe there."

"At the risk of being insensitive to your concerns," Ethan said, "I was dead when the book was stolen. And it was stolen by one of your own, not a vampire. Who then tried to make me into her familiar."

She tilted her head. "You don't much look like anyone's familiar."

"I'm not, so far as we can tel. Her spel was interrupted before she finished it."

But not before the skies were roiling and Midway Plaisance was aflame, I thought.

Paige scanned him with magical interest. "She got just far enough to bring you back, but not quite far enough to make you a slathering minion. Good for you. On the other hand, that realy doesn't say much for Simon."

"Not that I disagree with the sentiment," I said, "but how so?"

Paige shrugged. "She tried to create a familiar, and Simon didn't notice. That's complicated magic. A lot of bits and pieces.

Ingredients, mechanisms, props, and, in this case, the Maleficium. Before Baumgartner told me about that part of it, I was going to give Simon the benefit of the doubt about missing what she was doing, but..."

"Now not so much?" Ethan finished.

Paige shrugged. "A little spel, a minor charm, a sorceress only has to say a few words. Those bits of magic are more akin to sleight of hand than true enchantments. They're al but ilusions, and they don't take long - or much - to manage. It wouldn't have surprised me if Simon had missed those. But making a familiar? That's the real deal. Complicated, picky, and heavy- duty. There would have been signs, not just in her workspace, but on her."

"Working black magic chaps her hands," I said.

"Signs," Paige said with a nod. "And Simon's less of a sorcerer for failing to notice them...and failing to stop her."

"And Catcher?" Ethan wondered.

Paige's expression shuttered. "He's not a member of the Order, so it's not my place to discuss him."

She deferred, but the narrowing of her gaze and acerbic breeze of magic said plenty enough: It had been an al-around bad week for Chicago sorcerers. It made me feel better that vampires weren't, for once, the ones causing the problems.

Paige looked at me. "I understand you were friends with Malory. Has she made any contact with you?"

She said we "were" friends, like Malory and I had gotten a divorce and gone our separate ways. That thought didn't exactly sit wel.

I shook my head. "No contact. Last time I saw her, she was being taken away by the Order."

"And now she wants another shot at the Maleficium," Ethan said. "She failed to achieve her goal, and she wants to try again."

"She was trying to put dark and light magic back together," I explained. "Good and evil. Her magic makes her uncomfortable  - physicaly il - and she thinks releasing the evil in the Maleficium wil make her feel better. From what I understand, the familiar spel was her means to that end. She thought by working dark magic, she'd tilt the balance of good and evil in the world, and that imbalance would force the evil out of the Maleficium."

Paige winced. "That's an ungainly method. It might have gotten the job done, had she been able to finish the spel, but it's not exactly elegant. A spel that awkward is the mark of a young sorceress. Inexperienced," she added. "Do we know if she took books or supplies or anything before she left?"

Ethan shook his head. "We don't know, but it doesn't sound like she stopped for anything. She just left."

"Maybe she had a backup plan ready," Paige suggested, "or she's confident enough that she thinks she can come up with one on the fly."

"So where is she now, do you think?" Ethan asked Paige.

"Nearby and planning, I imagine," Paige said. "If she's stil using the same method, she's debating which spel to use and trying to figure out a way to break in here, best me, and be off with the Maleficium."

"You're very nonchalant about the fact that a sorceress is planning to come to break in, best you, and be off with the Maleficium," Ethan said.

Paige sipped her tea for a moment, as if carefuly choosing her words. "I know you're friends of hers, and that she's a big magical deal in Chicago..."

"I assume there's a 'but' on its way?" Ethan asked.

"But," Paige said, "while Malory definitely has some mojo, she's realy just smal change."

"She tried to destroy Chicago," Ethan said, a curious tilt to his head.

"By using the ashes of a powerful Master vampire. That's not exactly like she'd wiled the destruction herself, is it?" Paige shrugged. "I'm sure the light show was big, but that's precisely why you want a familiar who has a lot of power - so that you can use their power to beef up yours.

"Look," Paige said. "I'm not trying to be rude, and I'm not trying to make light of the chaos Chicago was facing. But I'm a magical realist, and I don't play favorites. Controling the universe isn't about pretty lights and colors and irritating humans.

It's about controlling the universe. And if we're going by the book, what she did barely ranks at al."

"Any thoughts about what spel she might attempt this time?"

Ethan asked.

Paige shook her head. "I honestly don't know. I've never actualy read the Maleficium. Not for lack of curiosity on my part, but it's part of the oath I have to take to serve here. No peeking equals no temptation."

"A sound policy," Ethan flatly said. "Pity no one advised Malory."

"Could she try another familiar spel?" Paige asked.