Curse The Dark by Laura Anne Gilman

Return to the magical world of the Retrievers and the Cosa Nostradamus, in book 2 of this popular series by Laura Anne Gilman.

Once more Wren Valere's game plan has taken an unexpected direction. She made a bargain with a supersecret magic–watching outfit to protect her and her partner on their last job," but now the Silence is trying to wedge them apart. And ever since she and Sergei began to talk about their ""relationship"," things have been tricky. Still…they're a team, and a force to be reckoned with when danger is near.

So now they are off to Italy in search of a missing artifact, without any information other than that it's very old, very dangerous and everyone who gets too close disappears. Compared with what's going on at home (lonejacks banding together, a jealous demon, tracking bugs needing fumigation…) maybe disappearing wouldn't be so bad!

Originally published in 2005