Blood Magic

by Melody Raven

  She looked much less pleased. “This seems too easy.”

  “Too easy? Are you kidding?”

  “You think this girl’s evil, right? What if this is some kind of trap?”

  I snorted at that. “I’ve broken into so many places in my time, and I can count on one hand the ones that were traps.”

  “So that means it’s happened,” pointed out Gabbie. “More than once.”

  “Would it make you feel better if I broke a window?”

  “It would make me feel better if we got back in the car and left.”

  Well, I didn’t need to dignify that with a response. “If you don’t get a little joy from doing the wrong things, I don’t think we can be friends.”

  “If you don’t respect my wishes, I don’t think we can be friends.”

  I set a hand on my hip and turned to face her. “Hey, I respect your wishes, okay? If you turned around right now and waddled back to the car, I wouldn’t fight you. If I didn’t respect you, I’d make you stay in the car. You should take this as a compliment.”

  She stared at me wordlessly for a moment before saying, “Did you just accuse me of waddling?”

  “Cowards waddle. Awesome people walk. Are you a walker or a waddler?”

  “You’re impossible.”

  “I’m very possible. When I’m getting what I want. If everyone just did what I wanted, when I wanted, we’d all be so much happier.”

  “How do you get by, expecting everyone else in the world to bend to your will?”

  “I might not have a hundred-percent success rate, but I bet more people bend to my will than yours. And that’s because I don’t expect any less. Am I annoying? Sure. Am I rude? Yes. No question. But I’m also fierce. No one ever handed me anything growing up, and this is just who I turned out to be. And I could be filled with doubt and self-hate, so if people are left thinking I’m rude and annoying while I’m happy, then so be it. Now, if we’re done with life lessons by Sonia, I’m going to illegally enter this woman’s house now to get some solid evidence to prove she’s an evil piece of shit.”

  I walked into the darkened garage. My eyes usually did pretty good at night, but it still took a moment to adjust. Part of me wanted to walk confidently as if I knew exactly where I was going, but if I face-planted into Amy’s car, that wouldn’t help the badass, confident image I was working so hard to convey.

  Also, I wanted to leave no trace. So knocking shit over wouldn’t help my sneaky mission. But I was able to slowly make my way to the interior door. I felt around the wall next to the door until I felt the light switch and flipped it up.

  And then I tried the handle of the door leading inside and it gave way. “Lesson one,” I called to Gabbie, who still stood just outside the garage. “People never lock the door leading from a house to a garage.”

  Gabbie leaned in, poking her head around the corner. “Do you really want that to be my first lesson?”

  “Stop bitching and get in here. You’re just drawing attention now.” I stepped inside and took my first look at the evil bitch’s house. Looked pretty standard so far. Nice hardwood floor. Clean. A lot of cheaper-looking Pottery Barn knock-offs. Basic as basic gets, as far as I could tell.

  Carter could do better.

  “Great. I’m officially committing a felony. Should we be wearing gloves or something?”

  “We’re not going to leave any trace. This is just a looky-loo.”

  “Is that an official term?”

  “Very official. I don’t want you to make a mess, but I want you to get your hands on things. Try to scare up a vision.”

  “That’s not how it works.”

  “That’s not how it worked in the past. How often have you tried to call on a vision?”

  “Never. They’re the bane of my existence.”

  “Well, there you go. You have to open yourself up to the idea of accepting your gifts instead of working against them.”

  “You’re just making all of this up.”

  “I know that if you’re actively fighting against a power of any sort, it’s not going to work as well.” Gabbie’s jaw clenched and I knew I was onto something.

  “Why can’t we be experimenting at your place instead of breaking into some stranger’s place?”

  “One, we didn’t break in,” I reminded her. “We entered. Secondly, you’re more likely to get a vision under a high-stakes scenario.”

  She scoffed. “Okay. I know you’re making that one up.”

  “Am not!”

  “You just don’t want me snooping into your life.”

  “Well, you don’t need to be psychic to figure that out,” I muttered.

  Gabbie narrowed her eyes. “You seem so open and forthright, but I bet you have more secrets than anyone in the Dangerous Magic Division.”

  I kept my perfect poker face. “We all have our secrets. No one really knows who has more or less. Except you, because you’re a psychic. Get to work.” I glanced down at my phone and verified that Carter and Amy were still on their way to their date. I couldn’t fully relax. There was still no guarantee that Amy wouldn’t have some friend, family member, or neighbor hanging around. “Try to stay clear from the windows,” I warned. Gabbie and I didn’t look too threatening in general, so if someone happened to look in and see us, they probably wouldn’t immediately call the cops. But it was better safe than sorry.

  “What should I be touching?” Gabbie wandered around the edges of the living room.

  Really, I was no expert on this. “As much as you can. Probably the more personal, the better. Maybe look for dirty laundry.”

  “You’re out of your damn mind if you think I’m touching that poor girl’s dirty laundry.”

  “Hey, I already got you to commit a felony. If I were you, I wouldn’t doubt my powers of persuasion.” I couldn’t be holding Gabbie’s hand this whole time. I was on my own mission. It was hard to know where to start when I wasn’t looking for anything specific. My source told me that Amy couldn’t be trusted but had given me no specifics, and I couldn’t exactly get anything else out of him.

  So I needed to get something productive out of this little jaunt. If Carter found out we were here, he would flip his lid. And considering how fond of me he was to begin with, he wouldn’t stop until I was not only off DMD but also behind bars. I might seem calm and collected around Gabbie, but I knew how crazy this was. And I knew how high the stakes were.

  What I was after was information, so I stuck with the usual suspects: paperwork and digital records. I searched cabinets and drawers, going through stacks of bills and junk mail. If I could find a bank statement, that might be my jackpot. There was no luck in the living room or kitchen, but I found something when I went into a spare bedroom that seemed to be doubling as an office. There were three months’ worth of bank statements. Nothing stood out to me, but I snapped some pictures on my phone so I could investigate later, making sure to put everything back the way I found it.

  “How long do we have to do this?” asked Gabbie from the doorway.

  I pulled open the app on my phone and saw they were still at the restaurant. It probably took them ten minutes to get there. Carter likely wouldn’t want to stay out too late because he probably made sure he got a full eight hours of sleep before waking up obscenely early to work out before the sun even came up.

  “Not much longer,” I assured her. I wanted to be out of the house before they even left the restaurant. I wasn’t going to put Gabbie in any more danger than I already had. “Are your hands touching things?” I asked pointedly.

  “I’ve been touching everything. I’m going to need a gallon of hand sanitizer after this.”

  “You better not sanitize those digits before you get a vision!” I called as she walked down the hallway.

  I left the office to follow her. There was still plenty I hadn’t gone through in the office, but I wanted to hit every room in the house in the limited time we had. And I also didn’t want to get separated from Gabbi
e.

  I took a deep breath as I got to the bedroom. Here, she and Carter had— My face scrunched in disgust. I really didn’t want that mental picture. Okay, I’d take a look through the closet and dresser, but then it was time to vamoose.

  Gabbie stepped up to the dresser and her hands reached out, brushing along various items.

  “Come on. You have to try. Give it more than half a second.”

  She looked at me over her shoulder and I knew I might have pushed too far. “If you interrupt me one more—” Her fingers hit the mirror and she trailed off, her eyes going blank as her mouth hung open.

  “Shit,” I muttered. “It’s happening.” I stayed right where I was, too worried that any movement would break whatever was happening.

  But a moment later, Gabbie blinked a few times as she seemed to come back to herself. “Whoa.”

  “Tell me everything,” I ordered. “Did you see who she’s working for? What she’s planning?”

  “No. I….” Gabbie turned and looked into the mirror, her brow furrowed in concentration.

  “The suspense is killing me! Give me something here.”

  “I really didn’t see much,” she said, still acting as though she were half in a daze.

  “But you saw something.”

  “I didn’t really.”

  “Girl, I know you’re not bullshitting a bullshitter. Tell me what you saw.”

  “I’m not lying. I mean, I did see something. I saw her looking at her reflection.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not it, though. Tell me what’s bothering you.”

  She let out a deep sigh. “It wasn’t anything I saw. I felt something. She was about to do something, and she felt guilty about it.”

  I pumped my fist in victory. “Yes! Evil! Just like I told you.”

  Gabbie pursed her lips. “I didn’t say it was evil.”

  “You sure as hell didn’t say it was good.”

  “You can’t use my pitiful excuse for a vision as an excuse to continue to harass this poor woman any longer.”

  Silly Gabbie. It wasn’t as if I needed any more reasons to harass Amy. I was already very set on it. “Come on. Let’s get out of here before I convince you to break any more laws. And remember, you were able to summon a vision tonight. If anything, that means we have reason to celebrate!”

  8

  Maybe we’d celebrated too hard. I winced as I walked into the DMD offices and the bright fluorescent lights hit my eyes. Ugh. Didn’t the government have enough money to put those things on a dimmer?

  Gabbie had beat me in, and she definitely didn’t seem like her normal chipper self, though she hid any circles well beneath a perfect amount of concealer and foundation.

  I’d done my best with my cheap drugstore products, but I’d been running too late to really give it a good college try.

  Carter’s stern gaze immediately locked on me with even more disapproval than usual. A bolt of nerves shot through me. Did he know where Gabbie and I had been last night? Did he know how thoroughly I’d invaded his fiancée’s privacy?

  “You better not still be drunk,” he said in a hushed tone as he approached me.

  I let out a sigh of relief I hadn’t realized I’d been holding in. He was just judging me for drinking. Thank fuck.

  “Are you jealous you didn’t take me up on my invitation?” I smirked, hoping he couldn’t tell how relieved I was.

  “I cried myself to sleep,” he muttered as he handed me a folder. “Nico and Flora are in the conference room. I’m going to need you on your game today.”

  “I’m always on my game. In fact, I don’t know how to stop playing. Ask Gabbie. She’ll tell you.” Okay, maybe now I was tempting fate.

  But Carter didn’t take the bait. “Are you and Gabbie getting along okay?”

  “We had fun last night.” I had tried my best to show her a good time after all the crap I’d put her through last night. But I had no idea whether she’d been building up resentment ever since she got home. Lord knew I had a tendency to push people too hard, too fast. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d given someone an awesome night and they’d hated me the next day. Nor the last time, knowing me.

  I wasn’t one to learn from past mistakes. But I couldn’t exactly tell Carter any of that. “I opened up to her a bit and she opened up to me a bit. You know, it’s hard for a lot of girls to get past my good looks. They’re all jealous.”

  I didn’t think Carter had any eye rolls left to throw my way. “I want to pair you off with her today.”

  “Not in the mood to spend more time with me?”

  “There are two other members of this team that I’m supposed to be leading. They’re getting my time. Besides, if your hangover is any indication, you’re going to like your job today.” For the life of me, I couldn’t tell whether he was being sarcastic. “But I’d be careful if I were you. I can order a drug test any time I suspect anything, you know.”

  Well, I knew that one wasn’t sarcastic. I was half surprised he hadn’t ordered one already. He’d made no secret about how much he wanted me off the team. Not that he’d be able to find anything if he had me tested. But the idea of him having some poor sap handle my urine only to find out I was clean gave me a bit of sick amusement.

  “You’ve got sixty seconds to grab some caffeine before our morning briefing starts,” he said before he walked away.

  I wasn’t sure whether it was a threat or an order, but I wasn’t going to fight him on it.

  I didn’t actually time myself, but I made it to the conference room right as Carter was hooking his laptop up to the projector. Flora and Nico each sat on different sides of the table. It didn’t look as though friendship were blossoming between the two. Maybe it was a good idea for Carter to hang out in the dungeon with the techies.

  Gabbie sat at the far end of the table, as far away from the projector as possible. It made sense she wasn’t totally comfortable yet. I wasn’t totally comfortable yet either.

  Despite my resolve to befriend Flora, I found myself taking the chair between Nico and Gabbie. Nico gave me a wide, flirtatious smile, and I couldn’t help but smile back. When was I going to get assigned to work with him for a day? I still had no plans to date a coworker, or anyone for that matter, any time soon, but I wouldn’t mind a solid eight hours of flirting.

  “Good morning, everyone.” Carter sat next to his laptop and started to open a saved folder. “We’ve got a lot to get done.”

  “We’re looking into some Vopura,” said Nico casually. “What’s so pressing about that? We’re supposed to be some high-profile task force. The local PD could handle this with the right training.”

  “The problem is that we’re still auditioning. The efficiency and speed that we handle this nest will determine if we’re kept on as a unit.”

  Okay, that made sense. I didn’t like being forced to audition. Hell, the men in black should be thanking me for even being here. But yeah, I got it. They were just looking for a reason to pull funding. And I knew that eventually when I got a handle on these powers, I was going to be an indispensable asset, but for now I might as well be deadweight.

  What a fun place to be.

  I wasn’t used to having to prove myself to anyone. I’d long ago abandoned anyone who would have those kinds of demands on me. Maybe it was just the pounding hangover that had me so negative this morning. I took a drink of the crappy coffee and willed my attitude to improve.

  It didn’t work.

  “We made good progress yesterday,” said Carter. “Nico was able to get us access to the accounts for the Carlton, and Flora has been running financial checks on the residents. If they’re using fake Socials to get these apartments, we want to know the source of these fake IDs. That way we won’t just be bringing down this nest, but potentially a lot more. And with Sonia’s help, we were able to get a visual inside the building and a printout of all of the tenants.”

  “That made my job a lot easier.” Flora smiled at me.

&
nbsp; I immediately tensed in my chair. Praise from two different coworkers? At once? “Carter did most of the work.” Holy crap. Did I just push attention away from me? And while giving praise to Carter? Maybe I really was broken. “Gabbie was also able to pull a vision out of her ass while we were out last night.” I didn’t even have to look at her to know her eyes were shooting hot lasers into me. I quickly filled in the blanks so she wouldn’t have to lie. “I had her feel up a bunch of my stuff until she saw a half a second of me being vain. She didn’t see much, but she was even able to pick up some of the emotions I was feeling. I think if we keep working with her, she’s going to bring real talent to the DMD.”

  Carter gave Gabbie a warm smile of approval. “That’s great. Melanie will be thrilled to hear it.”

  There. At least the focus was off me. I wondered where Melanie was. I knew she wouldn’t be a day-to-day member of the team, but I figured that she would at least be here for day three. I’m sure she had a good reason not to be here. I just wished I knew what that was.

  She was the only one who knew why I was really here. I was not friends with her by any means, but on some level she was the only one I could trust.

  “Flora and I are going to drill down on the tenants. Since we’re not getting backup on this job, we can’t go in guns blazing, taking down the entire building. So we’re going to start at the top and then work our way down. All these nests have one big bad. That’s the one we’ll kill first.” I opened my mouth, but Carter saw me and continued before I could even get my question out. “You three are going to do some day drinking. Light day drinking.” Oh. He really had found a job that was perfect for me. “Some of my sources have told me there’s a club a block away from the Carlton that the Vopura have been frequenting. It’s filled with supernaturals, so it’s a perfect orientation spot for you to take Gabbie as you research the Vopura regulars. But I don’t want either of you there after dark without more muscle. Is that clear?”

  “Yes,” said Gabbie meekly.

  I nodded. “Sounds like a good plan.”

  “I’m not kidding. You’re not to stay there after dark. Not for any reason. Understand?”