The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) by Brad Magnarella (best business books of all time txt) 📕

“It probably occurred on or near the full moon,” Lady Bastet said. “This Alexandra would have gone into the wilds at night, fed on the blood of animals, and then slept in the daytime to avoid the most intense light.” I nodded, remembering what her roommate had told us. “Eventually, she would have developed a craving for human blood. It would have been irresistible to her. Are you trying to find her?”

“Yes,” Vega said.

“No,” I said over her. “Well, not right now. We’re trying to find the mother.” Something still told me that was what Arnaud was after. “Do you remember her name? Anything about her?”

“She did not give me a name. She was young and frightened, though she hid both well. I noticed she had no wedding band. She looked a lot like this young woman.” Lady Bastet tapped the photo with a fingernail.

I turned to Vega. “Do you remember Sonny’s reaction to the photo? How he said it reminded him of an employee from decades earlier.”

“He knew the mother,” Vega said.

“Intimately,” I added. “Because he’s Alexandra’s father.”

“That son of a bitch,” she whispered.

I turned back to Lady Bastet. “Did you treat the mother, too?”

“She did not ask me to. Perhaps because she was not a full-blooded werewolf.”

“What did you charge the mother to help her infant?” I asked.

“Her hair.”

“Her hair?” Vega said.

“She had very powerful hair, the color of wild honey, all the way to her waist. Her wolf nature gave it added potency. Some of my most powerful enchantment spells came from that hair.”

“Do you have any left?” With even a single strand, I could cast a hunting spell.

“I am afraid not. Word spread quickly. The supply could not keep up with the demand.”

Crap.

“Can you, I don’t know, divine anything about her whereabouts?” Vega asked.

“Do you have something that might connect me to her?” Lady Bastet asked.

“We have no idea who she even is,” Vega said.

“Then I’m sorry.”

“Wait.” I reached into the inner pocket of my coat and withdrew the long strand of Alexandra’s hair. “This belonged to her daughter.”

Lady Bastet accepted the hair and drew it between her finger and thumb. “A cellular as well as an emotional connection.” Lady Bastet’s lips turned up at the corners. “Most powerful.”

“Will it work?” Vega asked.

“That depends on what you are prepared to give.”

“What do you charge?” Vega asked, already pulling out her wallet.

Lady Bastet’s attention shifted to me. My skin tingled uncomfortably as her kohl-lined eyes roamed my body. At last her gaze returned to mine, and she smiled again. “His blood.”

“What?” Vega said.

“Not all of it.” Lady Bastet stood and retrieved a clay tube from a shelf. “This much.”

I sized up the tube. She was clever, asking just enough to weaken my powers without it being a deal breaker. But I was more concerned with how she planned to employ my blood. Wizard’s blood could be used in powerful spells. And if those spells took a dark bent, the wizard was on the hook with the Order—especially if said wizard had given his blood willingly.

I glanced over at Vega, who was watching me for my answer, one hand to her bandaged stomach. “It’s a deal,” I said. Before I could reconsider, I pushed up my right coat sleeve and placed my arm on the table.

“Very good.”

I shuddered as Lady Bastet’s fingernails caressed the network of veins on my upturned forearm. She uttered an incantation, and the veins bulged in a painful spasm. Drawing what looked like a wooden needle from her hair, she said, “You’ll feel a small prick.”

She placed the needle against an especially thick vein. A second later, the needle bit into me. A greedy suckling commenced, and I watched blood fill the clay receptacle she held below the needle’s other end.

When the tube was full of dark blood, Lady Bastet pulled the needle free and capped the container. With another incantation, the puncture closed and my veins relaxed. Giving the tube a light shake, she whispered, “Perfect.”

She shooed away a cat perched on a small wooden box and placed the tube inside among some others. Back at the table, she removed the cloth from the scrying globe. The pad of her first finger caressed the length of Alexandra’s hair as she whispered in old Egyptian.

The marble-like pattern of the globe began to shift and glow.

“The mother is in the city,” Lady Bastet said after a moment. “She is involved with disreputable people, but she cannot disentangle herself from them, like she did Sonny. The years have made her more wily, though. She uses them.”

I glanced over at Vega, who mouthed, “John Smith.” I nodded. Alexandra’s sponsor. He was connected to the mother somehow. And if he had been paying Alexandra’s tuition in cash all those years, he was someone of means. Lady Bastet stared into the globe until I couldn’t help myself.

“Is there a man in her life?” I asked.

“Because the hair is not hers, I see only glimpses of those around her. There are two men of significance, though. One strong, the other weak. Power binds her to both. Not love.” Light seeped from the globe and it stopped shifting.

Lady Bastet raised her eyes. “I have told you all I can see.”

“No name?” Vega asked.

The mystic’s gold hoop earrings rattled when she shook her head.

“There’s Sonny’s files,” I said to Vega as Lady Bastet covered the globe. “Alexandra’s date of birth gives us the year she was conceived, probably when her mother worked for Sonny. Going name by name through the file for that year, Sonny should be able to make the match to the woman he remembered, the one who looked like Alexandra.”

Vega nodded and stood. “Thanks for your help,” she told Lady Bastet.

“Are you sure there is nothing else?”

“Not right now,” I said.

Vega hesitated. “Actually… a friend of Everson’s is missing.”

I looked at her in surprise. Vega tilted her head toward Lady Bastet. I pulled out my wallet, digging through the