by Keri Arthur
“No. I’ll walk you down there and wait—”
“Aiden, you have a crime scene to attend to. It’s not that far, and there’s too many trees around here to make a long-distance shot practical. Besides, I can use a repelling spell on anyone—or anything—that comes too close.”
He didn’t look happy, but he obviously sensed it would be futile to argue. I bid them both good night, and headed out of the house. The night air was crisp but rather pleasant, and the moon a bright if incomplete globe in the sky. The power of it sang across my senses, sharpening them.
Someone was out there in the darkness, watching me.
Whoever—whatever—it was, they were keeping their distance. I had no sense of them beyond that vague awareness. Had no sense that they meant me any harm. If I’d felt anything else, I would have immediately gone back inside, but for all I knew, it was one of the neighbors out investigating what the hell was going on here.
Even so, I flexed my fingers and silently threaded an immobilizing spell around them. The air shimmered briefly, a warning sign that the spell was ready to use. Whether my watcher had caught it, or would even know what it meant, I couldn’t say.
The trees lining the other side of the road arched overhead, cutting off much of the moon’s light. There were no streetlights here, and little in the way of noise aside from the occasional chirrup of a cricket.
I clenched my fingers around the spell, gaining courage from the pulse of it as I walked down the center of the road. The presence remained distant, but it nevertheless followed. I wished there was some way to find out who it was and what they intended. Wished, not for the first time in my life, that I could read minds like Belle. But while some of our powers did leech between us, that had never been one of them.
Somewhere behind me a dog barked, and I used it as an opportunity to glance over my shoulder—and caught the briefest glimpse of movement as someone ducked behind a tree trunk.
My follower was definitely human, though they were too far away for me to be able to tell if they were male or female.
My phone beeped. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw it was a text from Roger. Inside was the promised list of addresses for Maelle’s five remaining feeders—two men and three women. The man he’d mentioned—Aled Freeman—was there, as was our most recent victim, James Morrison. There was also a Dani Holgate, Leanne Jones, and Mandy Wilson.
Neither Marlinda nor Molly were on the list, which was unsurprising given one was dead and the other fired.
If this whole mess did have nothing to do with Larissa’s anger but rather Molly’s, then those three women needed to be found and protected.
It also meant Aled Freeman could very possibly be the man Frankie had killed.
And that, in turn, meant three things: One, that Ashworth was right in thinking the Ouija board was nothing more than a ruse to cover the true mission of the soul eater. Two, that Janice was very possibly the “not so bright and very recently fired” Molly. And three, that we did have another witch on the reservation somewhere—someone who was not only capable of calling forth and controlling such a strong spirit, but one who was very adept at hiding her presence from three other witches.
My finger hovered over the forward button for several seconds, torn between not wanting to cause any further problems with Aiden, and the desire not to piss off Maelle in any way. In the end, I chose Aiden over the vampire, and forwarded the message to him, along with a quick note stating it was a list of Marlinda’s close friends. I didn’t explain where I’d gotten it. I’d worry about that when the time came.
I shoved the phone away and walked on, well aware that the dark presence continued to shadow my movements some distance back. I needed to know who it was, but, given the distance between us, any move I made—be it magical or physical—would be spotted in enough time to allow them to escape.
But as the road began to curve to the right, an idea stirred. I increased my pace just enough to gain some ground on my watcher without being obvious about it. When I was far enough around the curve and out of their immediate sight, I ran into the front yard of the nearest house and squatted down behind a thick camellia bush.
My watcher drew closer. I couldn’t see them, couldn’t hear them, but I could feel them. Or, rather, feel their aura. It was sharp, bitter, and angry.
If it was either Janice or Molly following me, why was she feeling the latter when it came to me? Or was anger simply an overall part of her nature? If Roger’s comments were anything to go by, she was either emotionally or mentally unstable, and being fired certainly wouldn’t have helped either of those.
Given the fact that, according to Maelle, there was absolutely no magic in her blood, then Janice or Molly or whatever her true name was had to be working closely with the witch responsible for the soul eater and the magic I was sensing.
And that, in turn, meant the answers we so desperately needed could finally be had—but only if I could successfully capture the bitch.
She drew closer. While the energy crawling through the air was nowhere near as dark as the spirit it had called forth, it nevertheless scratched across my senses and itched at my skin. The closer she drew, the more I felt the need to shower.
I did my best to ignore the sensation, and held my position. A few minutes later, across the other side of the road, a shadow flitted from behind one tree trunk to another, and then paused.
I waited. Until that shadow came out from behind cover, there was little point in releasing my spell. Incantations designed to immobilize did have some pretty severe restrictions, the worst of which was the fact the whole spell had to hit them directly. If they moved at the wrong moment and were caught only by the edge, it wouldn’t work.
For several long minutes, neither of us moved. Then the figure stepped out from behind the tree and raced along the side of the road to the next one, which was one house up from where I was hiding.
That figure was not only very human, but also very definitely female.
I rose and, once she was past my position, silently moved out to the road. The dark-clothed figure had almost reached the safety of the next strand of trees. I raised my hand and silently launched the spell at the biggest part of her body—her back.
At the very last moment, she must have sensed something was wrong, but instead of jumping sideways, she simply spun around. The spell thumped into her chest, eliciting a grunt of pain as the force of it knocked her off her feet. She hit the ground with another grunt, and immediately tried to scramble to her feet. But the threads of the spell spread across her torso like wildfire, forming a net that quickly attached itself to the ground. Though she writhed and fought, she couldn’t escape.
She also didn’t fit the description of Molly I’d been given.
I got out my phone and called Aiden.
“What’s wrong?” he immediately said.
“Someone was following me. I just netted them.”
“Where?”
“Just beyond the road’s curve.”
“I’ll be there in a few minutes—Tala’s just arrived, and I need to update her.”
Meaning there was another way in and out of this area, because she certainly hadn’t driven past us. I hung up, shoved my phone into my pocket, and approached the woman.
“You’d better release me, bitch, or you’ll fucking regret it.”
I raised my eyebrows but didn’t immediately answer. The color was high in her cheeks and her eyes sparkled with rage and something else. Something that ebbed and flowed, changing her eyes from blue to green and back again.
Magic. Concealing magic, although the spell wasn’t the strongest I’d ever seen, given the fracture that was revealing the true color of her eyes.
But the foul feel of magic I’d felt earlier was still very much in evidence underneath the pulsing of my net. It wasn’t a part of her spirit or her soul, though, as both mine and Belle’s was. This woman wasn’t a witch.
And that, in turn, meant the concealment cha
rm she wore had indeed been created by someone else—probably the same someone who controlled the soul eater.
I squatted beside her. Her foot jerked toward me, but was stopped abruptly by the net. There were two very thin layers of energy covering her from head to foot, which suggested there were two spells being used, not just one.
There were no charms around her neck, which in itself was unusual given the dark forces these people were dealing with. My gaze drifted down her length, but it was only when it reached her worn leather boots that I felt it. I might not be able to see past leather, but I didn’t really need to. Hiding charms under the arch of the foot was an age-old trick of witches, and the dark pulse coming from hers certainly confirmed that was where the source of this woman’s magic lay.
My gaze rose again. “What’s your name?”
“None of your goddamn business,” she snarled back. “You are so dead. Just you wait and see.”
“Wait for what? A visitation from the soul eater? Because it doesn’t actually work like that. You can’t keep adding names to the kill list willy-nilly. Not without paying a price.”
“You obviously don’t know fucking much about them, then, do you?”
“Maybe not,” I said. “But I did help stop it from killing Lance this evening.”
“Who cares—it was James we really wanted.”
This woman really wasn’t all that bright. She didn’t seem to realize she’d just admitted her part in his death.
“We?” I asked mildly. “Who are you working with, Molly?”
Her eyes widened just a little, even as she said, “Who the fuck is Molly?”
“I think the more interesting question would be, why did you call yourself Janice when you were at Frankie’s? What game were you and Marlinda playing?”
“I have no fucking idea what—” She paused as headlights speared the darkness, spotlighting us both. “Get me off the damn road—you’re going to get me killed.”
“Although I’m sure there are plenty of people who’d like nothing more than to see you run over multiple times, Ranger O’Connor isn’t one of them.”
She swore and began to struggle anew, again to no avail. I swiveled around as the truck came to a halt a few yards up the road. Aiden climbed out, and he wasn’t alone—Ashworth was him.
I frowned. “How safe is it to leave Tala in that house alone?”
“The spirit won’t come back, but I left a surprise or two for it if it does,” Ashworth said.
Aiden stopped beside me and stared down at my captive. “Who is she?”
“This, I very much suspect, is the missing Janice.” I reached through my net and tugged off her boots. Something rattled inside them both even as the shimmer of magic rolled up her body and disappeared. The woman it revealed was well-built, with large breasts, a smattering of freckles across her nose, green eyes, and brown hair.
“She certainly fits the description Larissa gave us of Janice,” Aiden said. “But who is she really?”
“Molly Brown, a friend of Marlinda’s up until she was fired for bad behavior at Émigré.”
He glanced down at me. “She wasn’t on that list you just sent me.”
“No, but Marlinda and James Morrison certainly were, and I rather suspect Aled Freeman might have been Frankie’s unknown victim.”
“He was.” He squatted next to me. “Why do you want these people dead, Molly?”
“I don’t. She’s barking mad.”
“Liz is many things, but mad isn’t one of them. Why were you following her?”
“I wasn’t. I just happened to be going the same way, and she attacked me.”
“Then tell me why you were at James Morrison’s.”
“We’re friends,” she said. “Why shouldn’t I be there?”
“You were never in his house,” Aiden replied. “The air ran with many scents, but your foulness wasn’t amongst them.”
Molly hawked and spat. The globule hit the net and became little more than steam, leaving only a few untouched droplets that fell onto her coat. She swore softly, but didn’t repeat the offensive action.
“If you don’t start talking, Molly, you’ll be charged with the murder of seven people, whether or not you’re responsible for the magic that brought the soul eater here.”
“And what evidence have you got tying me to those murders, let alone to the appearance of some damn soul eater?”
“We don’t really need actual evidence,” Ashworth said mildly. “The suspicion of dark magic is more than enough to have you hauled up in front of an RWA panel, who will get the truth out of you and then assign an appropriate punishment.”
She snorted. “I’m fucking human, not a witch. You haven’t the right—”
“Oh, I certainly have, especially with seven people dead.”
“I’m not responsible for that—”
“Indeed you are,” Ashworth said. “You might not be the source of magic, but you’re certainly the source of the foul anger that called this dark spirit into being.”
“No—”
“Then tell us who is,” Aiden said.
Her lips thinned. She wasn’t going to give anything—or anyone—up very easily. I glanced up at Ashworth. “You’ll probably have to use a truth spell on her.”
“Yes, although I suspect we might actually be dealing with an embedded spell that prevents her from speaking, rather than mere stubbornness.”
I frowned. “Embedded? As in, into her flesh?”
“Yes,” he said. “It’s rare, and generally only done when both parties are considered compatible.”
“Meaning spiritually? Or sexually?”
“Either, depending on the people involved and the magic being called on.” His gaze narrowed. “Why? What have you heard?”
“The source that gave me the list also told me that Molly was living with her half brother, and that they were involved in an incestuous relationship.”
“And who might your source be?” Aiden asked
My gaze went to his. “I can’t tell you that.”
“Liz—”
“I got the information on the understanding that I didn’t reveal where. I can’t back out on that promise, Aiden. I won’t.”
He studied me for a moment, then nodded and rose. “Let’s get her back to the station and deal with her there. Liz, is your spell portable?”
“Yes, but I’ll need to come with you. Ashworth can no doubt unravel it, but it would be quicker and easier if I just came along.” I rose and handed Ashworth her boots. “The two charms she used to mask her identity and mute the sounds of her movements are inside. You might be able to use them to track down their creator.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier and more efficient for you to use your psychometry skills?”
I shook my head. “The darkness of the magic involved would interfere with any sensation I could pull from them. Besides, for psychometry to be effective, the item has to have a longtime connection to flesh.”
All of which he should be aware of. Maybe it was more evidence of how little he believed anything Belle and I said about ourselves.
“Ah, pity.”
I turned to Molly, caught the ends of the spell’s threads, and silently adjusted them. As I did, the net’s ends pulled away from the bitumen and instead wound tighter around her body, until every part of her was cocooned except for a portion of her legs just below her knees. While she needed to be able to walk to the car, given her propensity to kick, I didn’t want her being able to get too much of a swing up.
Aiden herded her toward the truck. She swore and threatened him every inch of the way.
“That is a rather nice mutation of a very basic spell,” Ashworth commented.
I shrugged and headed for the truck. “When you’re taught nothing more than basics, you do tend to experiment.”
“So it seems.”
Again, his disbelief was evident, although in this particular case, it was the truth.
It didn’t take us
long to get back to the station. Aiden hauled her into the interview room, sat her down in a chair, and warned her not to move. He then walked across to the media unit and activated it.
Once he’d done his obligatory spiel about her rights and informed her everything was being recorded, he added, “State your name and address for the record, please.”
“You can just go fuck yourself, Ranger. I want a lawyer here before I say anything.”
“You’re on a werewolf reservation,” he replied. “The rules regarding interrogation can be somewhat murky at the best of times, let alone when there’s magic and murder involved.”
“You can’t interrogate me without an IIT officer here, at the very least,” she said. “I know the rules and regulations, Ranger.”
“But not quite as well as you think,” he said. “It rather depends on whether you are deemed witch or not, and for that, we need an RWA representative present. Which we have.”
“That doesn’t preclude the necessity of having the IIT here, because witch or not, I’m still human, not a wolf.”
“Sorry, love, but even the scantest suspicion of magical ability means you’re my responsibility, not theirs.” Ashworth’s voice was positively jovial. “And I have to say, I’m quite looking forward to dragging answers out of your murderous soul.”
She didn’t say anything, but for the first time since I’d netted her, fear flickered through her expression.
“Do you want me to unravel my net before you get down to business?” I asked.
Ashworth nodded. “I won’t be able to get a feel for the spell that’s within her with your magic present.”
I nodded and immediately deactivated the spell. As the last threads of my magic faded away, Ashworth’s stirred. The spell he placed on her wasn’t one I was familiar with, and it fell around her shoulders like a gossamer blanket. She didn’t appear to know what he’d done, which again confirmed Roger’s comment there was no magic in her. Once the blanket was in place, Ashworth leaned toward Molly and studied her through slightly narrowed eyes.
Aiden glanced at me. “For the benefit of the recording, what’s Ashworth doing?”
“Magically probing the spell that’s been placed on Molly to understand what we’re dealing with and how best to deconstruct it.”
