Alpha's Legacy (Black Moon Saga Book 3)

50. Chasing the Decoy

Willow

I really shouldn’t have come here in the broad daylight like this, but it felt necessary. I also really shouldn’t have left the location where I told everyone I’d be waiting to hear from them, but I couldn’t sit there any longer. Not like that – waiting, wondering, worrying.

I discovered Grayson’s strange magic in only two places in this entire city – not just in Riptide territory, but in the entire city – and that seems odd. Pete and Phoebe’s team left to check out the most likely suspect, but what about that other location, the house in the ritzy suburb where someone like Grayson has no business even being?

I couldn’t leave it alone, not after I put the idea in my own head that the motel may very well turn out to be the decoy location. Grayson is a trickster. That’s what he’s known for. It may be a fool’s errand, but I cannot just sit there alone worrying about what might be happening in that house while the rest of the team is busy chasing shadows.

But now that I’m here, I have even more questions. His magic is active somewhere inside the house, I know that for a fact, but it isn’t his magic that greets me. It’s someone else’s, a light magic user, if I’m not mistaken. A powerful light magic user. And it’s very strange because the essence that is currently active does not match the imprint left behind by the original creator of the sigils and runes that protect this residence.

The effects remain, but the person who originally cast them? I suspect that she has perished, and I don’t even recognize the essence of whoever has taken over her home. Because it’s not Grayson. It’s dark, but it’s not the same as the magic I’ve been chasing for days now. Have I inadvertently stumbled upon some sort of dark coven? Does he have allies who have been helping him in secret this whole time?

At least I had the foresight to obscure myself before coming here. Unless the neighbors around here who may be watching the residence are powerful casters themselves and can smell my essence from wherever they may or may not be monitoring from, no one should be able to tell that I’m here. And if there are any other casters about, I’ll be able to smell them too, so I shouldn’t be met with any unwelcome surprises.

Yet all I smell is this strange protective magic surrounding the place. And what’s more, it’s not as simple and rudimentary as I’m used to from Grayson. If I’m not mistaken, it may even be that this entire house has been transplanted here from somewhere else, and the protective magic that surrounds it is intended not only to prevent intruders from making their way inside, but also to anchor the house in place. The sigils are strong and complicated, using no fewer than five unique words of power each, and I suspect that they must be deactivated in a particular order.

It will take me some time and a substantial amount of power to disarm it and make my way inside, which I’m not even sure would be a wise idea. I don’t know who or what might be in there, and I’m all alone out here.

My Council authority only extends so far, and breaking and entering into a private residence simply because I do not like the magic that I can sense from within is not among the powers and privileges I’ve been afforded. With no apparent signs of Anna Jade, and without a trace of anything questionable or illegal occurring here, I may just have to concede defeat and return to the motel where the team left me.

But just as I’m about to begin casting my teleport spell and return to our secure meeting location, I’m greeted by the most abhorrent stench of an essence that I’ve ever personally experienced, and I realize that the man himself has returned. I don’t know whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing that I can smell but not see Grayson. Hopefully, the same is true of me for him.

We’re not wolves, and our essences are so opposite that being in each other’s presence is overwhelming to both of our noses. He shouldn’t be able to pinpoint my location any better than I will be able to find him until he becomes visible – as long as I hold off on casting any spells.

I suppose that the question now is whether I should risk revealing myself to him, falling back on flashing him my Council credentials, or hold off until I see how he’s going to react first. I haven’t yet made my decision when I suddenly hear a man’s voice, the booming sound carrying as if he’s speaking from all around me.

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Grayson

When I return home to begin packing up some essentials, it becomes immediately apparent that I’m not alone. I used the summoning circle just inside the front door, but the instant that my feet hit the floor, I can sense an intruder. Light magic, and a powerful case of it. Not quite as strong as Anna Jade’s, but still strong enough to be a threat.

But I think it’s coming from outside. Whoever it is can’t get in any better than I’d be able to if I was out there, and she lacks the marked key that I carry for this very purpose, to be permitted entrance into my own home. My mother’s work on securing the exterior is extensive, and I wouldn’t have the first clue how to disarm it.

There’s only one caster who would, whichever dark witch Enrique hired to energize the sigils just before my mother’s passing to ensure that the house stayed put where he wanted it. But considering the inherent lightness of the essence I’m sensing, there’s no way that it’s the dark witch out there, so I’m not really all that worried.

Until I realize the implications of such a caster being outside my home. It could be coincidence, but there was a powerful light caster working her way through the mess that I left for her below the city. If she’s tracked me here, despite my extensive efforts to lure her to that motel instead, then that’s not good news for my life plans. That means she knows where to find me, if ever I were to return home, and being able to return freely was the whole point of everything that’s happened.

I knew it was a mistake to listen to Alpha Miles and bother with trying to secure those tunnels. I’m betting that’s how she followed me here. She knows my signature and essence by heart now, and in my haste, I made the ill-founded decision to muddy up my mother’s masterpiece by adding my own touches in the master bedroom for Anna Jade. This light caster has somehow traced my messy rush job, despite my apparently futile efforts to hide it from her, and it has led her straight to me.

Damn it, that was stupid. I shouldn’t have tampered with the house, but I didn’t know what else to do. I could sense that Anna Jade was finally becoming aware of her situation and beginning to panic, and I feared that the trust and good behavior she’d shown all along was about to come to an abrupt end now that there were windows and neighbors to tempt her. It felt like a bigger risk not to hide her away somehow, but I surely regret it now.

How will I ever be able to come home, when my address is apparently public information now? Perhaps I’m being prematurely dramatic without any evidence to support my fears, but something in my gut tells me that I’ve been found out, and it was all for nothing.

No. I refuse to let that happen. Never again. I have been given power that no person has any right to wield, and for once, I’m going to use it. It doesn’t matter how powerful this witch on my doorstep is, she cannot defeat me. It’s impossible. But she might just turn out to be useful for my own selfish purposes.

I hate that I’ve been made into a vampire, but perhaps it’s about to come in handy for once. As it turns out, I’m in need of a powerful witch to decipher and override the sigils that are keeping my house someplace that it does not belong. Maybe, instead of running, it’s time to go home. To my real home.

Nameless witch, forgive me for what I’m about to do. I promise I won’t hurt you unless I must, and you’re not even going to remember this once it’s all over.

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Willow

I was growing restless sitting around in that dingy motel room, just waiting and worrying about what was even going on and what we might have missed. I started to suspect that I’d sent Pete and Phoebe’s team to the wrong place, that the motel might have been the decoy location all along, and once I started thinking that way, I couldn’t stop myself.

It only made sense. Grayson is a known trickster, so of course he would divert our attention in two directions, making one possibility look so unplausible as to be immediately dismissed and ignored. But that must be where he is because the motel is too obvious of a location. With his reputation, which includes being so tricky and slippery that no one can ever pin the crimes they suspect him of on him directly, there’s no way that he’d do something as stupid as reveal his face to a security camera and give away his location.

That’s why I decided that I must go and check out the house on the outskirts. Maybe he’d smell me coming, but I had to take that risk. Otherwise, he might get away before anyone even thought to check there, which was probably his plan all along.

But something strange happened as I was attempting to teleport to the location, and I ended up arriving at a higher elevation than I intended. Before I tumbled to the ground, I managed to slow my speed and cushion my fall, though I still failed to prevent stumbling entirely. I must have knocked myself silly and perhaps even blacked out momentarily, because the next moment, I was picking myself up from the ground, my head throbbing a little from the impact.

I haven’t fumbled a teleport like that since I was a teenager, which was a lot longer ago than I care to remember or think about. I suspect that it’s Grayson’s doing, though. He must have deliberately anchored his effects much higher than necessary, to throw me off. And now that I’m here, I can see why.

There’s nothing here but the charred remains of a house that probably used to be as grand as those of its neighbors, but it appears to have met an untimely demise at the hands of a great fire. Whether mundane or magical remains to be seen, but at first glance, I can tell that this is indeed the decoy location that we suspected it would be all along. His magic is literally up in the air, anchored to the tallest beam that remains of the house, at a height that probably used to be on the second or third story of this house.

And I breathe a sigh of relief, my worried thoughts finally coming to rest. Pete and Phoebe are following the right trail, and we haven’t wasted any time chasing a false lead the way that I feared. After poking around a bit and finding no other traces of magic in the location, I’m content to return to the dingy motel room to wait for word from the others.

I must be getting too old for this, or I’m out of practice. After mere days of working alongside Pete's team tracking and searching for Anna Jade, I find myself feeling rather exhausted. As much as I never would have expected it from myself, the uncomfortable bed with the stained and not-so-gently used comforter that I left behind at the motel is calling to me.

It feels like I barely have enough power left to teleport back there, and I can’t help wondering if Grayson rigged this place with a power-drain trap as part of the mess he left in the sky for me. That must be what knocked me sideways and left me plummeting to the ground like that.

That sneaky snake of a man. If we don’t manage to bring him in when Anna Jade is recovered, he is going on my own personal most-wanted list. I believe him to be more powerful and dangerous than anyone realizes, and I suspect that the best place for him might just be in the cells beneath Council headquarters.