mission magic 01 - the incubus job by Diana Pharaoh Francis Page A

indicated the incubus had showered. A suitcase on the end of the bed was empty. Another on the floor was full.
    I prowled around, keeping my distance from Law. I didn’t see any sign of the goats or the box in the bedroom or bathroom and returned to the sitting room.
    “Anything?” Law asked.
    I shook my head. “Nothing. Maybe the goats went somewhere else.”
    “Maybe.” He scanned the room. “Do you get the feeling something’s off here?” he asked.
    It was true. Something had been gnawing at me since we came in, but I’d been too focused on my feelings for Law to pay attention. I mentally kicked myself. At the rate I was going, I was going to prove to Law that I was as incompetent as he thought I was. Stung by the thought, I forced myself to concentrate, stuffing my emotions deep down where they couldn’t interfere. I took a breath and let it out slowly, letting my senses spread from me.
    Something was off. But what? I frowned.
    I centered myself. A thought invoked a revelation spell. It unrooted from my flesh and floated out above my head. The edges unfolded like the petals of a rose then whirled softly. Magic unfurled in hundreds of violet streamers. They filled the air then puffed into particles as fine as sugar. Washed on an invisible tide, they rose on a wave and swept into the corners of the room and up to the ceiling. After a moment, they sifted down.
    I waited. As the flecks of magic descended, they began to catch on invisible symmetrical cones ranging from inches to several feet in height. They thrust up from the floor and down from the ceiling like teeth.
    “Impressive,” Law said when the spell had run to completion.
    I couldn’t tell if he really meant it or not. I decided to take it at face value. “Thanks. What are they?”
    We both walked around them. There didn’t seem to be a pattern to the design, and they had not reacted to my magic. I couldn’t feel any energy in them. They seemed more like playground toys than anything else. Except there was a menacing quality to them—like the white curve of fangs or the reflection of eyes in the black of night.
    “I have no idea,” Law said.
    That was saying something. He was a walking magical encyclopedia. As I examined them, I felt like I should know what they were. They struck a chord in me. I resisted the urge to touch them. In the course of our search, Law and I had certainly walked through more than one and suffered no harm, but I didn’t want to risk it again.
    “Maybe these were supposed to signal the incubus if anyone trespassed into his suite,” I suggested.
    “Could be.” Law sounded doubtful.
    He was right. If they were trip alarms, they’d have been on thresholds and in walkways, not clinging to the ceilings and hiding in corners.
    “There are getting to be entirely too many unknowns in this situation for my comfort,” I complained.
    “Preaching to the choir,” Law said, a phrase so familiar from the years of our partnership that it made my chest ache.
    I shook away the memories before they could cloud my reason. Instead I reviewed what we knew.
    “So the incubus steals the box, then travels across country like he has time to waste, even after killing the woman in Vegas. Something spooks him in Chicago, and he rushes to Effrayant. He checks in and within a few hours, he gets himself murdered and in a most violent way. The box I was supposed to recover is missing, probably taken by the killer, which could be someone or something called So’la, according to Tabitha, who is also terrified of the creature. Now we have these weird shapes.”
    “Don’t forget the shutdown shields triggered,” Law added. “I’d like to know why. And the goats. Where are they?”
    I nodded and pinched my lower lip. “Here’s the big question: Did the incubus know this So’la? Or was it a coincidental murder?”
    “I find the last hard to believe,” Law said.
    “Me too. This all has to fit together somehow. We just don’t have enough