"This isn't about you," Elyssa said, anger rising in her voice. "It's a rescue operation, not a bag and tag."
"Are the bounties valid if they're dead or alive?" I asked.
"I'm no murderer," Shelton said, "although rogues are officially off the protected list. Still, living vamps are worth more. Guess their elders have plans for them."
"How do you plan to take a vampire alive? The flames you shot at them didn't seem too effective."
"I wasn't exactly prepared for vampires when I came after you," he grumbled. "Vamps don't like fire but I hadn't programmed my wand since the last time I used it."
"Programmed it like a remote control?" I laughed. "I still don't understand how that works."
"It's way too complex to go into now, kid—I mean, uh, Justin. There's an energy cost to using magic just as there's a cost to using a smartphone. It all boils down to physics. If I can offload some of the overhead on a computer, then it helps me. Hell, you give me enough juice and I can create a hell of a gateway or burn an entire building to slag."
"Fine, fine, I get it," I said, already bored with the lecturing tone of his voice. "But what spells are you planning to use against the vamps?"
"Ultraviolet bursts."
Elyssa shook her head. "Effective, but highly visible. We can't use those in a stealth operation."
"What would they do to vamps?"
"A powerful enough burst will knock one out or immobilize them," she replied. "But the flash will light the place up like a strobe light."
"Actually, the one I've coded should be no worse than a flashbulb," Shelton said. "And one flash can take down multiple targets, provided it bursts right in their faces."
"Not feasible," Elyssa said, shaking her head. "Not unless we're in trouble and need help."
"Aw, come on. I've been working on the code for weeks."
"Emergency use only."
"You backing out or sticking around?" I said.
He mumbled something.
"What was that?"
"I'll come."
"Remember your oath."
"Believe me, if I go against an oath like that, I'll incur so much negative karma that it'd wreck me."
"I thought things were complicated enough using computers and magic. Now you're saying karma is involved too?"
He grinned. "Karma is a magic all unto its own. It's like a piggy-bank we carry around indirectly affecting everything we do."
"Great," I said. "One more thing to worry about." I caught motion from the corner of my eye. Nightliss was batting around the string of the blinds to the kitchen window. "How does Nightliss feel about prowling around a den full of vampires?" I asked.
Stacey regarded me with those vertically slit pupils of hers. "She thinks it will be rather exciting."
I thought of something nobody had mentioned. "How are we going to prevent the vampires from sensing us? I can sense people once I get within a few yards of them."
"Vampires can smell spilled blood," Elyssa said. "They can hear the pulse of a beating heart from ten feet away." She gave me a direct look that told me she spoke from experience. And yet she spoke of vampires as if they were in no way related to her.
"Why didn't anyone mention this before?" I said. "How in the hell can we sneak through a building full of vampires if they can hear our heartbeats?"
"When I am stalking something, nothing can sense me," Stacey said.
"I have a masking spell I use," Shelton said.
"Templars learn to block others from sensing us," Elyssa said. "I'm sure spawn have defensive measures as well. I had just assumed you knew how to do it."
"No," I said. "I'm still a newb. Dad never told me anything about hiding myself."
Elyssa pulled out her smartphone and started punching keys. Shelton did the same.
"Please tell me you're not Googling for an answer," I said.
Elyssa gave me a guilty look.
"Well, my spell might work," Shelton said. "But I can't just use it on you. I'd have to stay within a few feet of you for it to remain effective. However—" He pulled out a pouch and rummaged through it. After a moment he pulled out a gold chain and stared at it. "Ah, damn. No, this won't work. I thought I'd programmed one of these with the correct enchantment, but it's gone stale."
"Stale?"
"Yeah, you gotta keep renewing enchantments or they wear off over time."
"Can you freshen it up?"
"Not without a few hours to do it in."
I groaned. "What am I supposed to do then?"
"There's a simple version of this spell you might be able to do. Mine is one-way, meaning they can't detect me, but I can detect them with the proper spells. The simple version is like throwing up a wall of insulation between you and them, but you won't be able to sense them as well."
"He can't do magic," Elyssa said. "He's demon spawn."
"There are demon spawn who can do magic," Shelton said. "But usually only if they've been around a long time."
"He hasn't been around long at all."
"Actually," Shelton said, giving me the same look he'd given me after letting me hold his wand a day earlier, "I think he can. Can't hurt to try."
"Fine," she said. "Waste your time. But I think we're going to have to keep you closer to us than we'd planned so you can keep him masked."
"We need some quiet," he said. "Let's step outside."
We stepped on the back porch. I nearly had a heart attack as two large shadows in the back yard shifted. Then I remembered the moggies.
Shelton pulled out some chalk. "First you need to draw a container, like a circle, around you and close it."
I sketched a circle which more closely resembled a warped oval.
"Now you need to close it by pressing your thumb against it and willing it closed."
"How do I will it closed?"
"Just think about the circle around you and wish for it to be closed."
I pressed my thumb against the chalk and wished for the circle to be closed. Nothing happened.
"Think 'circle close'," Shelton said.
This whole exercise seemed pointless and silly, but I kept thinking that phrase over and over again. The air around me crackled faintly.
"Nice job," he said with a big smile. "You just did your first magic act."
"Seems pointless," I said.
"Believe me, it's not. There are a lot of different ways you can close a container, but this is all you need for this spell. After a minute or two, you should feel a slight buildup of pressure in your ears."
I nodded. "I feel it."
"Okay, that's what magic feels like when it can't escape your container. Now you need to focus on what you want it to do."
"Like put up a wall?"
"Exactly. But we need to be careful here. We want you to block out your heartbeat and psychic emanations without blocking all sound. Otherwise you'll be deaf and possibly blind to what's happening around you."
My stomach fluttered nervously. I didn't want to render myself senseless by accident. "How do I block things selectively?"
"Listen to your own heart and imagine it as being silent to everyone."
I closed my eyes and listened. The moggies purred nearby. Car engines and tires sounded from the streets. I heard indistinct talking from the kitchen and the sound of Nightliss batting around the cord to the blinds. I filtered those noises one by one until I heard my heart thudding in my chest. It sounded rather panicked and I couldn't blame it. Things were about to get real.
After a few moments, the sound of my heart was the only noise I heard. I imagined it being shielded from the rest of the world. Buffered by my will. I concentrated on it for what seemed an hour when I realized I could no longer hear my own heartbeat. I opened my eyes. Shelton gave me a thumbs up.
"I did it?"
"Yes you did."
"Is your hearing sensitive enough to hear my heart beating?"
"I was using a little bit of magic to eavesdrop."
"Oh yeah. Guess you would be."
"Now we need to do the same with your psychic emanations."
I remembered something Dad had told me while learning how to feed. I evened out my psychic hook, as he called it, just as I would before sneaking into someone else's psyche. Making it neutral, he had termed it. Then it would be no more noticeable than background noise.
"That was quick," Shelton said.
"I didn't need magic for that one," I said.
He compressed his lips and nodded. "After this is over, I was wondering if you might like to learn some real magic."
I cocked an eyebrow. "You think I'm capable?"
"You seem to be a natural at it."
I wondered if that might have to do with my mother's side. I rubbed away the chalk line with my foot and felt a release of pressure from my ears as the magical energy dissipated into the air around me. We went inside. Stacey and Elyssa looked at me for a moment. Stacey clapped her hands and laughed with glee.
"You did it," Elyssa said. She cast a questioning gaze on Shelton. "How is this possible?"
"He's got potential."
She grabbed my arm and put a head to my chest. I wanted to press her entire body against me. I drew in her scent: sword-cleaning oil and leather underneath the sweet smell of a spring day. Just her warmth against my chest made my pulse quicken. She pulled away, a hint of softness in her eyes, and shook her head. "I've never heard of demon spawn who could do this."
"He's a special case."
"Special in the head maybe."
"Hey," I said and playfully punched Elyssa in the arm. "That's not nice."
