Despite my moment of fear, I didn't expect to find Bliss really gone, as in missing gone, more like stepped-out-for-some-shopping gone. And I certainly didn't expect to sense anything in the backyard, so I wasn't fully alert until I caught a whiff of magic. Witch magic. And witch blood.
I stopped and parsed the scents, pulling my braids into a knot, out of the way. Most magic has a distinctive smell. Some is a bit peppery, maybe with a hint of spice in it; some smells like fresh-baked cookies, or freshly turned earth, or wood smoke. Though I don't have synesthesia, I have to say witch magic often smells herbal and blue, like cornflowers. And sometimes a little mellow-yellow. My own magic, the scent that erupts in the air when I shift, smells earthy, musky. Vamp magic, the smell that clings to them when they hunt, pulling on the gifts of stealth and mesmeric mind games, is peppery and desiccated, the way dried herbs smell after they've sat too long on the shelf.
Here, I smelled witch magic, witch blood, and an overlay of vamp. A very specific vamp, his scent signature as knotted and twisted as a braided rope. My heart thumped hard. The rogue maker. A vamp in daylight? Or near enough to count, anyway. And he didn't smell scorched either. He smelled well fed and as healthy as a dead thing can smell. My hackles rose and Beast hunched within me, claws out and probing. I didn't have a stake or cross handy. Stupid to have left the house without them. But it was still daylight, for pity's sake.
I drew in a breath, mouth open, seeking a more familiar scent signature, but it was missing. Bliss hadn't been out here recently. I didn't need to go all the way around the house, instead ringing the bell at the back door. Troll opened it instantly, one hand rubbing across his bald head, worry on his face. "Let me see the tapes," I said by way of greeting. "And get all the girls down here for a chat." After a moment, I added, "Please," to which Troll grunted while leading the way to the new security console hidden behind the doors of a seven-foot-tall, black-lacquered chest with gold-leaf dragons capering across its doors. A new thick oriental rug was in the entry, a matching one at the console, both done in dynamic shades of gold and maroon and black. Really nifty. Troll had been redecorating.
The console--Boeing's Visual Security Operations Console Sentential, or VSOC, the same sort of system designed for U.S. embassies around the world, but scaled down for private use--was also brand-spanking-new. The system had been installed at Leo's expense, integrating the existing cameras into new software and new sensors that gave a 3-D view of the grounds, the public rooms of Katie's Ladies, and, when the girls were working in-house, additional monitoring of their bedrooms. It was a way of keeping them safe, and they didn't seem to mind.
To me it was pretty icky, and since I knew that Leo was monitoring the security systems of most of the vamp clans, clandestinely and in contravention of the Vampira Carta, and would have access to the downloads, it got doubly icky. Free porn for him. Total lack of privacy for the girls. But I hadn't said anything about that. It was something I wanted to have in reserve for later. Troll punched a button and I could hear him throughout the intercom system, "Girls, meet in the dining room, please." With another click he said, "Deon, the girls will need drinks set out, and some of those fruit cups."
"Cocktails and fruit coming, Tom." Deon was the new cook. No one would tell me what had happened to Ms. A, the former cook who had been attacked by the liver-eater, as Beast referred to the skinwalker I'd killed. Except to say she wasn't dead, which was a comfort of some sort. Deon was new, a three-star chef from the islands, who had been offered Ms. A's position. The very newness of him set my teeth on edge at the moment. I didn't know Deon, and when something goes wrong with a security system and there's a new guy around, he becomes a likely suspect for tampering.
"How much of the system was activated?"
"All the outside cameras, public rooms, and hallways. Here, at four fourteen, we have a shot of Bliss leaving the dining room. Twenty seconds later, she enters her bedroom and closes her door. Then nothing until the interference, which isn't supposed to be possible with this system."