Ione leaned over the railing and scanned the water. The funnel spun along the surface of the river like a whirling dervish with the waves bobbing up and down around it like supplicants.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Ione said. Her fingers looked like they itched to reach for her bow, but she seemed to recognize the futility of that particular weapon.
Water witch or not, if we didn’t get Stevie out of there soon, she would drown.
The waterspout continued to spin across the river in a haphazard fashion. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the movement.
I inhaled sharply when I saw two hands break through the wall of water. Stevie dove headfirst into the river. The funnel splashed over the side and soaked the pavement before flattening again.
What the hell?
Stevie swam to the north side and crawled to safety. Ione and I bolted from the bridge.
This wasn’t a natural event. Even without the telltale sign of magical energy humming in the air, water didn’t rise up and form a spout under the current conditions. Unfortunately in an area as large and varied as this, it was impossible to tell where the magic was emanating from.
“No damage. No obvious target. What was the point of that?” Ione asked.
I shook my head. “No idea.”
Stevie came into view and I relaxed slightly. She jogged toward us, wearing a bright smile. “Nice day for a swim, right?”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
“Why were you on the bridge in the first place?” Ione asked.
She cut a glance at the calm river. “I’d finished with a client at Charing Cross and was about to leave when I felt a pulse of magic. It was…odd. Then another one, this one stronger. I started walking around to see if I could identify the source. Finally I realized it was coming from the water.”
“Is that why you walked across the bridge?” I asked.
She nodded. “I wanted a better view.”
And yet all the magic did was create a waterspout.
“Maybe there was a creature underwater that lured you there like a siren,” Ione said. “Do you think the client was setting you up?”
Stevie shook her head. “Total coincidence. His job involved muting a family of banshees that lived next door to him. I got the distinct impression that he liked the idea of silencing women and got off on the idea of another woman doing the silencing.”
“Minka said he was willing to pay double because it was urgent.” Now we knew why.
Stevie shrugged. “He hasn’t slept in days because they won’t stop wailing, or so he claimed.” She cast a glance at the river. “I think the river magic was more of a wrong place, wrong time situation.”
I thought of Kami and the dragon. “There seems to be a lot of that going around.”
Stevie shook droplets of water from her dark hair. “Anybody hungry? All that excitement worked up my appetite.”
I was never one to turn down food—unless it was being offered by royal vampires.
“There’s a place on the Strand that makes an excellent tofu burger,” Ione said.
Stevie shrugged. “Whatever. At this point I’ll eat the menu.”
I gestured to her outfit. “Might want to take care of your wet clothes first. They don’t tend to like it when you leave a puddle under your chair.”
Stevie closed her eyes and concentrated on the water molecules. In less than a minute she was dry as a bone.
“I bet you don’t even keep towels in your bathroom,” Ione accused.
Stevie smiled. “Not gonna lie. It’s a money saver.”
We almost made it to the restaurant. Almost.
A woman dashed past us, gasping for breath. “Run,” she panted, and kept going.
I spun around to see more people headed in our direction.
“Monsters,” a man shouted. He nearly collided with me in his effort to escape.
Ione and I reached for our weapons at the same time. Stevie glanced longingly at the restaurant.
“I’m so hungry.”
“Five minutes,” I said.
Metal creaked and groaned like the bones of an aging giant.
Ione stood on the tips of her boots and craned her neck. “I don’t see anything.”
A flash of movement on a nearby rooftop caught my eye and I squinted at the stretch of gray.
“Heads up, knights,” Stevie said.
I turned to see her pointing at the building across the street. Horror crept across my skin as the building started to sag.
I sprinted to the group gathered at the front of the building and shouted for them to move back.
“Is anyone inside?” I yelled.
A bald man in a tweed jacket stepped backward, looking dazed. “Someone called in an explosive threat. We thought it was a hoax but we followed protocol and evacuated.”
“And you’re certain everyone’s out? Nobody hiding in the restroom who was too lazy to take the stairs?”
He shook his head, still in a stupor.
A heavyset woman elbowed him aside. “I’m the fire marshal. Every floor was clear.”
Thank the gods. This was no hoax. The building was going down one way or another.
Stevie and Ione grasped the situation and herded the onlookers across the street and out of harm’s way. The sides of the building began to drip like liquid silver. The creaking and groaning suddenly stopped.
Ione stared. “What’s happening?”
“It’s going down, that’s what,” Stevie said in awe.
“Do you feel that?” I whispered.
The two of them looked at me.
“Magic?” Ione asked.
I nodded.
People screamed as the building continued to melt, leaving only a shiny puddle of molten gray.
The entire building melted.
The crowd dispersed as the puddle spread to cover a larger area. Vampires in white uniforms began to arrive at the scene. Someone had called it in to emergency services.
I glanced at the rooftop where I’d seen movement. It was worth a look.
“Come with me,” I said.
We crossed the street and entered the building. No sign of security. They’d either evacuated too or there was none to begin with.