Casino Witch Mysteries Box Set 2

by Nikki Haverstock

  His arm snaked up around my head, and he pulled me to his chest as we spun on the ground, his speed being too much to control.

  There was a loud crash, and my head was still spinning even when our bodies stopped. I was lying half on top of him, and stars danced in my eyes.

  “Are you okay?” Vin’s eyes searched my face. A hand caressed my cheek.

  I blinked and struggled to catch the breath that had been knocked out of me.

  I was unable to speak, sensations hitting my brain in a sluggish manner. The pain was high, but I also started to notice the warmth of Vin’s hard body under mine, his hand on my back, and our magic sparking between us. Desire flared in my body. Even if my brain had moved on from him, my body hadn’t received the memo and was responding to his.

  He reached up and slapped my face a few times. “Hey, are you in there? Ella?” His voice was tight with worry.

  “Stop that!” I barked.

  He looked relieved and rested his head back on the ground. A low chuckle moved through his chest and vibrated everywhere we were in contact.

  “What is going on?” Tiffany screeched.

  Vin groaned, once again a sensation I felt rather than heard, and using both hands, he carefully shifted me off him and onto the ground. He rolled up into a kneeling position by me. “Are you okay?”

  I grimaced and gingerly ran a hand over my body and wiggled my hands and feet, fingers and toes. My head ached along with eighty percent of my body, but nothing felt broken or permanently ruined. “I think so. What happened?”

  He gestured behind me.

  I rolled over and winced at both the pain in my back and the sight. The ice sculpture was now on the carpet, shattered in melting hunks over a twenty-yard radius.

  “Ouch. I think I can guess where I was standing.” I carefully lowered myself back onto the ground. “At least you can finally go home.”

  He snorted. “Sorry that I had to hit you so hard. The spell I used was effective but a bit overkill. I’m just glad I noticed it falling over.”

  Tiffany stomped a foot. “Probably ’cause you’re always watching her.”

  Vin stood up rather abruptly, and perhaps it was the lighting, but I thought the back of his neck turned red. “You are out of line, Tiffany.” He brushed past her and pushed through the crowd.

  Tiffany threw one more glare at me then raced after him. She shouted something, but it was lost in the muttering of the crowd. They hung back but split their attention between me and gossiping with the people around them.

  Vanessa wrapped an arm around me and helped me to my feet. “He does keep an eye on you. You know that, right?”

  I took a great deal of time adjusting my clothing just so and wiping off imaginary dust as I replied, “That’s just because he’s supposed to monitor my training. I mean, he watches over you too.”

  She snorted. “Gross! Never say that again. He does not look at me the way he looks at you.”

  Vin stormed out of the party, Tiffany still on his heels.

  I turned to look at Vanessa only to find her already watching me watching Vin. I cleared my throat and took an uncertain step. “Why don’t you help me home?”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  I rushed around my loft, tidying up. I grabbed sweaters and jackets off the back of the couch, collected the empty coffee mugs, and swept the mail into a tidy pile. I hobbled a bit, still stiff from my fall the evening before. Auntie Ann had assured me that nothing was broken, and a few potions had taken care of my sprained ankle. But I still had a few bruises and sore muscles. Magic couldn’t fix everything.

  Bear was bringing Colleen over for some one-on-one time, which made me unbelievably excited and nervous. I didn’t think I had impressed her, but I had been awfully nervous. This meeting would go better. I was sure of it.

  I checked my phone. There was a text from Bear that they were on their way. After comparing the timestamp and estimating morning commuter traffic, I figured that they would be at the loft any moment. There was another text from Tiffany, but I couldn’t even stomach the idea of opening it. I could just pretend I didn’t see it, at least until after my meeting with Colleen.

  Even though there were no other text notifications, I checked my conversation from Thomas. I hadn’t heard from him for at least two weeks, and that was the longest we had gone without a midnight phone call or text. My stomach twisted a bit, but I put down my phone.

  “It’s fine. It’s for the best,” I said to Patagonia.

  She let out a tiny kitty snort and shook her head. I couldn’t blame her. In the year and half that we had been living together, I had fallen—hard—for two different guys in two different ways. I had been so sure that Vin and I were destined to be together. He had even asked me on a date.

  The memory caused my heart to clench in pain. If he had just asked a month earlier, we might have already been together when I had to declare myself a Monza. We could have figured something out. I was sure of it. Even if he had just talked to me afterward instead of running back into Tiffany’s waiting arms. So many what-ifs that just thinking about them hurt, so I stopped.

  Thomas was the opposite in every way. He had known I was a Monza, and it didn’t stop him. He had let me know how he felt from day one and had never hesitated to show me that he was serious. And no matter how I had tried to forget him, I couldn’t. When I was with him or spoke to him or even texted, it was like everything else on earth faded away.

  Or at least it used to, but his long absence was making me question his devotion. Maybe he had met someone else and dropped me.

  Patagonia interrupted my thoughts by jumping up onto the kitchen counter. I had tried to train her not to get up there, but that had been a losing battle. I had yelled and swatted, and for a while, I had even used a water gun, which had been a huge mistake. After I would spray her, she would glare at me, and I wouldn’t see her the rest of the day, even when I performed magic. That night, after a long shower, I would discover that every single towel in the bathroom, including the ones folded in the closet, were dripping wet and ice-cold.

  The next morning, I would wake up to discover she had returned. She would be curled up on the bed and stare at me coolly until I had adequately apologized and lavished her with attention. But things hadn’t really turned around in our standoff until she watched me throw the water gun in the trash and take the bag out to the dumpster. At that point, she rubbed up against my leg and purred like a sports car.

  My delight was short-lived when I went to grab a pair of shoes and found every single right shoe was missing.

  I saved all the left shoes, sure that she had hidden them, but they had never reappeared, and I was forced to buy all new shoes. As I had sorted through my remaining left shoes, she had trotted over to me and dropped a pair of earrings by my side. The threat was obvious: first were wet towels, then the shoes, next up, jewelry.

  Perhaps I was attributing her with too much human intelligence, but only the right shoe in every single pair? And how had she gotten all the towels wet then folded back in the closet? That couldn’t be an accident. I looked up to catch Patagonia staring at me, and she slowly winked at me, with all her tiny, sharp teeth showing.

  There was a knock at the door, and I grabbed everything that I had lumped into a pile. On the way to answer, I chucked all of it into a closet.

  “Welcome!” I said as I opened the door.

  They entered, and I tried to be cool and casual as they sat down.

  “Let me get you a coffee and some pastries. After my little accident last night, Vanessa brought me home, but I insisted she stop and get some pastries. These are the best. We know the gals that own the bakery, they are really cool. I mean, I think so. Vanessa doesn’t. She only thinks one of them is nice, but that’s neither here nor there. I picked out some chocolate croissants, éclairs, and cannolis.”

  I couldn’t stop talking, but I had the food on the coffee table and coffees delivered. I flopped into my seat, faced Colleen, and was fi
nally able to convince my mouth to stop moving by stuffing an entire pastry into it. I caught sight of Bear, whose face was beet red from trying to stifle a laugh. I wanted to smile at him and let him know I had myself under control, but I was pretty busy not choking to death.

  She was dressed far more casually than I had expected but somehow still looked ready for a photo shoot. Her black hair was back in a braid, and her pants were stylish with zippers and accent patches but made of a tough material that could probably handle any kind of mission.

  “Ella, how are you feeling this morning?”

  I tried to answer but choked a little on my last swallow of éclair. I tried to wash it down, but I forgot that the coffee was still scalding hot. I sputtered and coughed. Coffee dribbled onto my shirt, and I frantically wiped at my mouth with one napkin and dabbed my shirt with another. My eyes watered, and it took nearly a full minute to catch my breath.

  I used the back of a spoon to clean up the mascara that had smudged under my eyes though it was clear that the best I could hope for was an only-slightly-drowned-raccoon look. I needed to pull myself together and act like a normal mage with her. Maybe I should have had an Irish coffee. “A little sore but overall not too bad.” I ran my tongue all over my mouth, feeling the burned skin inside.

  “Did they figure out what happened?”

  That took me by surprise. “Oh, I don’t know. I just assumed it was a stupid idea, and since Tiffany was so top-heavy, the whole sculpture tipped over.”

  She didn’t look convinced. “I noticed you don’t get along.”

  “No. She’s…” I briefly thought of mentioning the whole situation with Vin and me and their breakup then reunion. But it was long, boring, and not really relevant. “We’ve never gotten along very well. But enough of her. How were your travels to Rambler?”

  She waved a hand, dismissing the question. “Long, and I already dread leaving again in a few weeks.”

  “So soon?” I tried to keep the disappointment out of my voice.

  “There are people who are depending on me. But I might be able to come back, depending. Now there is something that really interests me.”

  I perked up. “What?”

  “Bear was telling me about the murders you’ve helped solve, and it sounds like there is another one right now?”

  “Oh!” It was not where I had planned to start, but it was as good a place as any. And I was glad she was interested in something I was involved in.

  So I told her all about the investigations I had done. I had already decided to be as honest as I could. I started with my first job in Rambler and how I had discovered my abilities, met Patagonia, and helped to solve several supposedly accidental deaths that were actually much more. Colleen asked many questions about my ability to see and experience magically caused deaths. Especially my vision concerning the murder of Edward Santini, Olivia’s father.

  “Do you still pass out when you try to read the vision? If you can’t read it soon, will it just fade from your memory?”

  “It fades at the location but not up here.” I tapped my temple. “That is what I was told, and so far that seems to match up with my experiences. And I no longer pass out when I try to view it, but I do get a wicked headache the rest of the day. Plus, I’m not totally sure that I am really getting all of it.”

  Colleen pulled out a notebook from her purse and jotted some notes as we continued talking. “What do you mean by not getting all of it?”

  I scrunched up my face in concentration. I wasn’t exactly sure either, but I wanted to try my best to explain. “I’ve never had a migraine, but it kinda reminds me of what I’ve read about them. As I experience the vision, everything gets fuzzy, not just my sight but all the senses. Then the headache starts, and everything dims. I think the vision is in there just… like… I can’t fully see it? Experience it? Does that make sense?”

  She jotted down notes and nodded along. “I think so.”

  “Do you know what is happening?”

  She tapped her pen on the notebook. “Not really, but I have some ideas. I’ve worked with a few mages that had the same gift as you, though they didn’t give me many details. Mages tend to be pretty discreet about their abilities unless you have a close working relationship with them. Even then…” She shrugged. “How much do you know about your abilities?”

  It was my turn to shrug. “Not much other than what I pick up over time.”

  “Why don’t you tell me about another murder you helped solve? Bear said there were several different incidents.”

  I went into my story about the cheese convention and the man I had found flattened under a large block of cheese. That was a bit more straightforward investigation and more dangerous. But I had grown a lot in my abilities, which I mentioned.

  “At one point, Vanessa gave me a potion, and we did a spectral rat spell. We were able to squeeze through this crack in the wall because our bodies were all made with this iridescent light. And I could smell or taste the different magic around. It wasn’t really a smell, but that seems to be how my brain wants to understand it.”

  Her writing in the notebook sped up. When I didn’t continue, she looked up. “Keep going.”

  I wanted to quiz her about what she knew, but I decided to be patient and ask her at the end. Patagonia hopped into my lap to lick at the cream on my half-eaten cannoli. “We were almost caught by Victor and his ratty old orange familiar. But at the last second, Patagonia appeared. This is the crazy part. She grabbed both Vanessa and me in our rat forms, and poof, we were suddenly back in my loft. Right here.”

  She nodded but didn’t look up as she wrote.

  I had expected her to be shocked, so I continued to the part that Vanessa and Auntie Ann still couldn’t believe. “And right before we poofed, I heard her voice in my head.”

  Colleen’s head jerked up. “What did she say?”

  “‘Mine.’”

  She smiled. “Smart familiar.”

  “So you believe me? Have you heard your familiar talk?”

  As if on cue, an enormous calico cat the size of a leopard rounded the couch. My mouth fell open at its size, but with each step, the cat shrank until it was the size of a small housecat. It leaped onto Colleen’s lap to delicately drink from her coffee cup.

  “Whoa! How did she—”

  “I know you have a lot of questions, but they really do need to wait.” She lifted the cat off her lap and placed her on the couch.

  Bear cleared his throat and made significant eye contact with Colleen. After a few moments, Colleen sighed.

  “I want to get as much info about your situation as I can because I am meeting with an old friend this afternoon. I want to discuss the situation and get their advice. I want you to know that I might not be able to help you.”

  I gasped, but before I could say anything, she held up a hand.

  “This isn’t even about whether I want to or not. I want to help, but there are many other responsibilities, too many people that are in desperate need. But that is only one factor. You are already incredibly lucky to have three people to train under. Ann Russo can work with almost anyone, and she is very talented. There is a reason that royalty all over the world pay her top dollar. It is rare that someone can work with so many different students.”

  I had known that she travelled a lot to train others but hadn’t realized that it was tied up with her gifts or how lucky I was.

  “Plus, you have Bear and Badger. They gave your father their word that they would help. There is magic in a bond like that. It prepared them to help you, but that may only last so long. At some point, you may need to train alone.”

  “And you?” I was hesitant to even ask. I had so desperately wanted her to be able to help me. To answer all the questions I had.

  “There are many… factors that would influence if I could help you or not. I don’t know yet. But I can tell you a bit about familiars.”

  I settled in to listen.

  “When you train with a
familiar, you are pulling magic through them, and they help you to focus that energy. That is why mages are usually bonded with their familiar in puberty. That is when a mage’s magic starts to mature and present itself. And that is likely why you were matched with Patagonia when you were—when you were starting to use your magic.”

  I thought back and interrupted. “Actually, she bonded with me before I knew what I was. I don’t think I was really using my magic until after that. I mean, I guess there was some stuff I was always doing, but that had been going on for years.”

  “Interesting.” She looked at Patagonia, who had been giving her familiar sly looks, and now Patagonia slinked across the couch. “Perhaps she knew what was about to happen. A familiar is never late or early, despite what mages believe. Go on, Coronam.” She directed the last statement to her familiar.

  The familiar rose and hopped down onto the ground. Looking behind her, she waited for Patagonia to follow, then the pair of them trotted behind the couch.

  I leaned over to look, but they were gone.

  “As I was saying, familiars grow as we grow. Our training affects them, all the magic. I can’t say for sure, but their size seems to increase as mages get more powerful. Not every mage can see a familiar’s real size, and humans never can, but enough mages can see their size that it is worth hiding. There are many times that you don’t want anyone to know how powerful you are. That is part of the reason that many mages keep their familiars at home. Distance is just a concept to them, nothing that actually affects their ability to help you. But another option is to train them to adjust their size. Normally Coronam keeps her size small. She probably did that to show off to Patagonia. Is that helpful?”

  I nodded. I was still reeling from her revelation that I might not even be able to train with her, even if I could convince her it was a good idea. I was trying not to think about it too much because I could feel the tears itching at the back of my eyes.

  “Yes. Thank you.”

  She studied my face, probably sensing my tears. She became a little more gentle. “Tell me about announcing yourself as a Monza. That was during this cheese investigation?”