Page 82 of Throwing Shade
I offered him some biscotti, but when he refused, I popped the piece in my mouth. “They don’t shift?”
“No. They don’t possess such common powers.” His lips twisted wryly. “They have different talents, but they rarely use them. My father takes great pride in the fact that all his achievements have been done with intellect, not magic.”
“What does he do?”
“He founded a financial management firm that’s now the second largest in France. What is it you really want to ask me?” I glanced at him, startled, and he pointed to my chest. “I can hear your heart racing.”
“Could you hear it when I’m cloaked?” Because if so, that was a huge problem.
“No. The magic must prevent it.”
Nodding, I pulled down the visor to block the sun from my eyes. “How do I keep myself and my family safe from Zev? No, wait. First tell me how you survived a blindspot.”
“It’s complicated.” He rested his head against the seat. “I told you I trained to scent dybbuks. It’s tied to that. As for Zev, I suspect you turned down the same offer he gave me? To hand Jude over?”
“Yeah. I don’t get it. Emmett ratted me out, but why did Zev come for you that way? Emmett didn’t know we were working together. Would Harry have—”
“Never.” Laurent shook his head so firmly it was clear that he believed on pain of death in the gargoyle’s loyalty. He frowned, though, as he spoke again. “But BatKian knows about my interest in this particular dybbuk. I failed to stop Mei Lin once before, but she won’t get away again.”
“A woman is the head of this gang?” I said.
“Hashtag feminism,” Laurent said acerbically. “At the time, I was warned to drop my hunt. Mei Lin and Zev already had agreements in place regarding territory, and it was impressed upon me by the Lonestars that if I disturbed that by killing her, the vamps would not be happy.”
“But bringing Jude in to make a golem was seen as an act of aggression and Zev changed his mind.”
“Yeah. He dragged me down for our little chat and gave me the conditions under which I could go after Mei Lin. When I refused to give him Jude, he compelled me to do it anyway, after I’d dealt with Emmett.”
I sighed. The golem wasn’t being paranoid about the vampires intending to destroy him. “And me.”
“A last-minute addition,” Laurent said.
“Aren’t I special? Well, we’ve both pissed him off now, so how do we stay safe?”
“Either offer him something he wants more, or find someone who can protect you.”
“Do you know what he wants?” I drove onto the Port Mann Bridge, which crossed the Fraser River, the fan-like pattern of the cables supporting the bridge deck soaring like sails overhead.
“Other than your friend’s return? No idea.”
“Even if the Lonestars didn’t want you going after Mei Lin, why don’t they do something about Zev?” I said. “All that traffic in and out of Blood Alley is a good way to blow the secret of magic.”
“And yet, it hasn’t. The vamps have dealt with that problem through illusion or compulsion, and like Ohrists, they police their own. Also, Blood Alley is one of the few places where Ohrists can work without fear of revealing their magic. It’s a necessary evil.”
Laurent turned the volume up slightly and I let the classical music wash over me, coming to terms with being a tiny insignificant speck in this vast supernatural universe. To comfort myself, I mentally categorized everyone. At the bottom of the pecking order were Sapiens. They had the greatest numbers, but unless they learned of our existence and acted, they weren’t a threat.
Who would I put next? I drummed my fingers on the wheel, running through the various strengths of the rest of the supernatural world.
Probably golems and gargoyles were the next step up on the food chain. Laurent had mentioned a demon, but estries at least hadn’t been seen in ages, and demons hadn’t come up in conversation with anyone else. I would have asked my passenger about it, but he was relaxed against the seat, his eyes closed and his breathing slow, and I couldn’t bring myself to wake him. Maybe that put demons on the rarer side? I set them aside for the time being as an unknown.
Above golems and gargoyles, I’d list dybbuks. No one wanted to tangle with these dangerous spirits, but they tended to be loners, which was for the best, because the idea of roving dybbuk gangs causing mayhem was unsettling.
If a dybbuk did inhabit a host, then there was a week of enthrallment, where they battled for possession of our body, but only I could sense them at that point, and the person’s shadow still looked normal.
Once the dybbuk fully possessed the host and that person’s spirit or essence was no longer alive, Laurent could scent them, but he was unable to see that their shadow had changed to that sickly gray streaked with crimson flecks.
I chewed thoughtfully on the rest of my biscotti.
Maybe other Banim Shovavim were out there doing something to combat that problem, but there weren’t many of us worldwide and the Ohrists here weren’t inclined to do more than bitch and leave it to Laurent. To be fair, they weren’t able to unearth dybbuks naturally, but I didn’t think the training to scent them could be that bad—until the obvious torment that Laurent had suffered while destroying the dybbuk came to mind.
