Maudlin's Mayhem (Bewitching Bedlam #2)(49)

Curious, I sat down on the bed and opened the black case. Inside, I found an odd array of items, including three bottles of spell oil—though they weren’t labeled, I could feel the energy wafting off of them—and two scroll tubes, each bearing one scroll. I tapped them out and unrolled them, cautious not to set off any exploding runes or hex work. But neither were trapped, and I examined the writing on them.

It was an old runic script that I had learned when I was young. The first one appeared to be a scroll to create an illusion. The second stopped me cold. It was a protection from vampire glamour. What was the boy toy of a vampire queen doing with a scroll like that? A human boy toy, at that? Wondering if Essie knew about the scroll, I dug deeper in the case, but found nothing.

The room still felt like it was hiding something, so I looked around. I poked around the nightstand, finding nothing in particular, and on the closet shelf. Then I glanced at the bed. There was something there—I could feel it. I knelt and peeked under the bed.

Nothing. Not even dust bunnies. Thornton had been a good housekeeper. Then, as I started to get up, I paused, staring at the mattress. Bingo. I began feeling my way between the mattress and the box spring and finally, near the foot of the bed, found what I was looking for. It was a thin journal, about the size of a hardback book. I carried it over to the desk in the corner and began to flip through the pages, slowing down as I realized just how old the paper was.

The first dozen or so pages were diary entries with no dates, and I could barely read the script, the hand was so spidery. Then I came to what looked like a spell.

“What’s this?” I murmured.

As I puzzled my way through it, I realized that the spell was meant to increase the strength of vampires, but it wasn’t any spell I had ever heard of. As I read through it, it dawned on me that the witchery was a form that I didn’t recognize, but I could tell that the spell was so complex, if it wasn’t cast correctly, it would backlash horribly on the witch.

“This isn’t good. I wonder just how powerful Essie aims to become?” I flipped through the remaining pages, finding two more spells.

One involved how to use a witch’s blood to make the vampire glamour stronger. That one gave me the creeps because it required seven pints of witch’s blood, enough to kill the average-sized witch. Given the blood needed to be fresh and not stored, it was pretty much Drain her down to cast the spell.

The third spell was four pages long. I could barely make out the handwriting. Some of the words were familiar, but it felt like it had been written by someone a long, long time ago, long before even my birth.

After a while, my sight began to blur as I tried to puzzle what it was. Then I came to one line and everything became clear:



Follow these instructions, and your vampire will be able to walk under the sun.



Holy fuck. I sat back, staring at the words. This couldn’t belong to Essie. In fact, I was pretty sure the spell had to be from someone in the Arcānus Nocturni. Both age and power emanated off of it. So did this mean they found a way to transfer their abilities to other vampires who weren’t as old, who hadn’t developed the immunity to sunlight?

And that thought opened up a horrifying vista of possibilities. What was even scarier was that Thornton had somehow come across the journal and stolen it.

I froze.

Essie was so insistent on getting his effects back. Thornton must have stolen this journal from her, and…in turn…where had she come across it? Either she had come across a member of the Arcānus Nocturni who gave it to her, or chances were good she had stolen it from them.

It wasn’t Thornton she had wanted back, but the journal. And if she didn’t get it, I’d be in big trouble. But if I gave it back to her, I’d be enabling her in ways that could put Bedlam at risk.

I wished I could talk to Aegis—and that he could talk back. I needed some counsel and having a vampire’s take on it would be helpful. A vampire that I trusted.

Slowly, I pulled out my phone and called Sandy. She answered on the third ring.

“I have a problem and I need to talk about it, but I don’t want to talk on the phone. Can you come over?”

“I have to run errands. How about I pick you up and you can tell me while we’re out and about? I’m close to your house. I can be there in five minutes.”

I didn’t know what to do with the book. I didn’t want Essie or her cronies getting their hands on it till I figured out what the next step was. Essie couldn’t visit—it was only around ten-thirty, and she couldn’t walk in the sun yet. At least I didn’t think so. Plus, I had never invited her in. But she could have someone break in. That I could take care of, at least for now.

“Can you give me ten?”

“Sure. I’ll see you in ten.”

I hung up, then quickly slapped the suitcases closed and zipped them up. I carried the book downstairs to the basement, where I hid it in an old dresser that was beneath a couple of outside picnic chairs. If somebody decided to go through the whole house, they’d have to search for quite a while to find it.

Once upstairs, I locked the basement door and pocketed the key. Then I slipped into the parlor, to the cabinet where I kept my magical supplies. One of these days I was planning on turning part of the parlor into a full-fledged ritual room, but for now, I just kept one side of it free for when I needed to work magic.