by brett hicks
We both simultaneously snapped a crisp salute to him and he returned it in turn.
“Ladies, I am glad you could make it in after the long hours you each pulled yesterday.”
We stood at attention and kept perfectly straight. The Captain was one of the few people we needed to keep on our side. He was the one who pulled the strings to get us our jobs in the first place. He had his own agendas and his own quotas to his bosses, but he ultimately was a cop’s cop. He did a good job and expected everyone under him to follow suit.
“Officer Early, you will be heading out with Detective Ben Grady. You will be looking into the three missing witches from the McQueen Coven.”
Sally nodded politely and said, “Yes sir,.”
Reed looked at me, fixed me with his yellow-brown stare, and said, “Officer McQueen, you will be working the magical angle at the one known murder site, same as last night.”
“Yes sir.”
Sally walked out the door and tracked down Ben quickly. I heard Reed clear his throat and he spoke to my back as I was headed out the door, “Try not to have any magical duels with the coven this time McQueen.”
I went ramrod straight and eerily still for a moment and then I kept walk and shut the door. How the hell did he know about that?
I caught the Hazel eyes I was already looking for and I stomped over to Jon, He raised his brow in question of my mood.
“Mornin chérie,” he said to me. I jabbed him in the chest with my index finger and said, “Mornin chri my ass Jon, why would you tell the Captain about Jade’s little stunt?”
Jon lost his blank cop look and I saw confusion, unbridled confusion in his features.
“He knew about that near assault?”
I nodded and said, “Yah, he knew and made a smart ass remark about ne, ’not getting into anymore magical duels.’”
Jon fixed me with the full weight of his gaze and he had just a little bit of male heat behind his otherwise cool emotions. I could taste his anger with me, just for a second, but it was there.
“Kayla, I would never go behind you back to our boss. You are the only person in this whole station who is like a real partner to me. I had hoped we were past the trust issues enough for you to know I would never do something like that.”
I felt about three inches tall by the time he finished speak and I nodded meekly and I followed him out to his unmarked car. We did not speak all the way to my grandmother’s house.
Chapter: 5
Awkward—our time together could be summed up with a single word. Having snapped at Jon, I felt too ashamed to speak to him much now and my mom and grandma seemed to be reading this signal loud and clear. There was this distinct, tangible curiosity, which oozed from both of them now. I could see grey eyes and ocean eyes tracing me from the corners of my sight. They thought they were doing it under the radar—they even thought that they mumbled their curiosity to each other outside my super hearing.
I cursed the seeming brilliant idea of pairing these two up, now I seemed to be their mutual form of entertainment—besides the impossible magic traces.
“I’m telling you it is sex, she clearly did the deed and now spending the whole day with him is like an extended walk of shame,” My mother, ever the definition of subtlety, said to my grandmother.
“Jennifer, I don’t know, she does not give off the recently conquered vibe. It is more like she is ashamed of something she did to him; maybe she tried to force herself on the detective?”
I tripped over a laundry bin in the basement and nearly face planted in the process, thank you dyamphyr reflexes! I stormed upstairs and I turned right, then left to come to a huffing stop in front of the two gossipy blonde witches and said, “Look I was nether conquered, nor walking any shame this morning, Jon and I just had a fight—well I more or less yelled at him for something I thought he did at the time.
I saw both their expressions go from curious to downright devious in less time than I could blink. “So you just hurt his pride, not his manhood then dear?” Did my grandma just call me dear? I nodded and my mother finished for her, “Oh just change into something sexy, he is about your age and he has the hots for you; he will forgive you if you remind him everything he stands to lose out on.”
I blinked a few times, I looked between the two of them for a long moment, and then I said, “You two are evil, but you’re brilliant!”
My mom raised her chin up in dignity, and accepted the praise with no grace what so ever and my grandma just rolled her eyes in mock annoyance. I could easily see the genuine amusement underlying her mood.
“Do remember those rubber things they invented for sailors during your mother’s days dear. I hear them stop you from having unwanted mundane babies and all that.”
I blinked at my grandmother in confusion for a moment and said, “You mean condoms?” She nodded, as if she had just recalled the name now and said, “Yes those are the things, rubber, goes over the manhood and all.”
“I am not going to have this conversation with you guys!” I stormed out of the house with bother generations hot on my heels.
“Well, it sure beats nine months of pregnancy with a child, you’re not ready for.”
I threw up my hands in mock surrender and said, “Why God, did you give me these two and their version of sex talks?!”
They blinked twice in unison at my dramatic display and then exchanged baffled looks.
“I’m… I’m going back over the whole crime scene and looking for any indications of the vampire’s identity, we might be spending too much time on just the witch angle right now.”
“Divide and conquer, I like it, but do put on something more sassy and perhaps some heels. I cannot tell you how much heels have done for me since their invention dear,” Joan McQueen held a twinkle of mischief in her eyes and my mother made faux gagging sounds next to her.
“Something to keep in mind then grams,” I said and she tilted her head a bit to the left, as if considering the nickname and just shook her head in a regal manor.
“I never dreamed the day would come when I would feel so old, Jennifer are there any other attractive young men milling about? May haps it is time for me to remind myself what the definition of immortal is.”
“Or you guys could go to this new invention called a club,” I interjected, and then really regretted it. The sheen in their eyes said that they were taking that suggestion under advisement and seriously!
“Don’t worry honey, we won’t do anything that Sally wouldn’t do,” my mother said with a thickening level of mischief in her tone. My grandma interjected, “But Sally Early is a wolf shifter, and they will do anything with a penis; regardless of weather it stays still long enough.”
I was suddenly very grateful to my stars that Sally was on another assignment with Ben right now, she would either consider that a new challenge to her standing depravity, or a great offense. The last thing I needed was either, now that she and I shared an apartment. Wolves tended to start marking off territory if someone pissed them off enough, or she might just exact revenge in the form of sweaty one-night stands in my bed! That would be gross enough if I was just a human roommate—being a dyamphyr—I might have to burn the damn mattress and comforters after the deed was done.
Jon walked past me and I felt the tangible emotional chill in his wake, it caused me to shiver. I groaned internally and I began to trace around the windows. I opened the full weight of my sense to the floodgates I held back during the course of each day. I felt the magic, thick in the air and I felt glamor, lots of it actually.
How had I missed this the first time around?
“Shit,” I was furious, because I knew this flavor of vampire magic. He had tried to work this exact glamor thickly on my mind back at the Coffin and the Nail in September. James of Wales was here, though I had not scented him in any other way, I knew it was him. It stands to reason that he was masking his unique musk from me, but his glamor traces, once I was looking at them, feeling them and smel
ling them; I knew it like he left a thumb print at the scene.
Why would he leave any clues that he knew I could find?
“Find something, or are your eyes glowing silver for no reason for once?” I composed myself and cleared my throat and I looked Jon in the eyes for the first time since our fight this morning.
“James of Wales was in here, he masked his grave musk scent from me, obscuring the unique properties that were only his, but he did not mask the potent glamor coming from this window.”
I pointed to the window just in front of me; it looked into the living room from the side of the shotgun house. My eyes, along with my other senses, were still in higher function now. I took note to some tiny scratching around the window and I put on a glove and began to, gingerly, trace the marks. They were too faint for the human eye to perceive, but I was thankfully anything but human.
I pulled out my small digital Nikon and I zoomed it in as far as it would go and began to snap shots of the whole area around the window sill.
“I believe the glamor potency here indicates that he ensnared his victim from outside and then she opened the window for him and this sorcerer friend of his.”
“She was a witch. You guys were all immune to glamor last time I checked.”
I shook my head and said, “James was shocked, dumbfounded even, that I was not under his spell back at the Coffin and the Nail. I am a dyamphyr and I am a witch, he knew both before I did, yet he still truly believed his glamor would affect me that night.”
“You are saying that this James of Wales would break the peace with my people, non, our people; yet he left you his magical thumb print,” Joan was hovering over us now and her eyes shown with barely veiled violence.
“Madam, I believe that this is true, who would have ever guessed you to ask for police assistance?” Jon was an expert in defusing situations before they escalated and he knew my granny could drown the whole city in her anger.
Joan stopped for a moment and considered his words, looked to a few of her witches and something silent passed between them; finally she shrugged casually.
“You make a fine point young man, tis true that we have never reported the crime before this. However, we did hope that the new additions to your division might haps be more considerate of the sects harmed.”
“Then you were not mistaken in your assumptions madam, none of us shall let this go. I may not be supernatural; however, I believe in the peaceful balance we all strive to achieve.”
“Mhmm, I like this one a lot granddaughter, you should have already thrown him down to your bed.”
I froze and it had nothing to do with my ice magic this time.
Chapter: 6
There is nothing more frustrating than having supernatural abilities and being unable to do anything. We had nothing to track James with, nor did we have any solid leads on his whereabouts. Vampires did not survive by letting humans—especially the police—track their dens. James was currently our only link to this sorcerer.
Jaden trotted up to me where I stood outside the bar and grill in the McQueen Coven. I was still nursing my mocha with four shots of espresso. These witches made some damn fine coffee!
“I came here to deliver a formal warning on behalf of the Coven. If you do not track down this killer, then we will track you down.”
I looked up at her with a death glare, but I managed to keep my eyes grey and human. I do not need every witch for a mile believing I am threatening one of their own!
“You have a lot of nerve and no small share of ignorance to deliver such a threat to a police officer. You do realize I am well within my right to arrest you here and now for this.”
Jaden hissed lowly, leaning into me and said, “Who do you think they will believe you little leech? You are an abomination, they may give you a gun and badge so they don’t have a normal person getting shot at, but do you really believe they will take your word over an innocent eighteen year old girl?”
Beside myself with a sudden onslaught of fitful laughter, I burst into tears and laughter right in Jaden’s face.
“Sorry, the way you said innocent, I just cannot help but recall you assaulting me with water magic right in front of my partner the night before.” I gave her a winning smile and continued, “There may be those who hate what I cannot control, but there are a lot more that will just become enraged if it ever became known that you used death magic on a police officer. You think your sect will come out of such an incident unscathed. Do you honestly believe that you will not have to explain to every witch on the force why they are suddenly treated suspiciously?”
“Do you honestly believe that your grandmother can save you Kayla?”
The look in Jade’s eyes told me everything; they were going to turn on my grandma if this went south, well further south. All humor drained from my face and posture and I pulled up all the power and authority a five foot three inch eighteen-year-old half-breed could. I let icy waves of my magic roll off me and my eyes began to glow silver. Witches in the area all stopped what they were doing and stared at me in open fear.
I raised my voice enough for all of them to overhear me this time, “I will be filing a formal complaint against you Jaden, if I find out anyone else is threatening to assassinate my grandmother, then I will be coming for you too. I might suggest you find a lawyer, because I swear I am going to bury your—legally speaking of course.”
I folded my power back, I took a long sip of my mocha, and I savored the chocolate and the bitter espresso on my tongue. No one approached me and I watched with both eyes focused on my surroundings. I could feel the turbulent emotions of the coven washing over me as I paced back to Jon.
****
It did not take me long to find Jon, he was waiting next to his car with a look I could not decipher on his face. If I was not so mad at Jaden, I would have been red as a lobster around him after the thorough embarrassment my mom and grandma had put me through right in front of him.
“We need to go back to the station; I have a formal complaint to file against a witch.”
Jon did not move and my grandmother stepped into view from behind the side of another vehicle.
“Oh, don’t bother stirring up a hornets nest over a silly little threat. You honestly believe I do not know about the little power plays that Jaden and the other fools are planning?”
I blinked a few times and I cleared my throat, “Then why do you have her next to you all the damn time?”
Mischief twinkled in my grandma’s ancient blue eyes and she said, “I would rather keep her next to me, where I can see and hear all her foolishness, than to cast her out and have no insights as to what she intends to do next.”
“So this is an enemies closer kind of thing, huh?” She nodded and said, “Oui, that is exactly why that saying is so famous after all.”
I furrowed my brow and tilted my head a bit to the right. “What are you going to do about Jaden then? She is threatening her leader and she is potentially hindering a police investigation of murder, neither of those sit well with me.”
Her eyes shone with even more mischief and some mysterious pondering, I had absolutely no idea what she was thinking now.
“You just focus on solving this murder and you trust me to do what I have done for many centuries, to keep power hungry witches on their leashes.”
I nodded and I looked at her and my face must have held more concern than I could have meant for it to, “You will be careful and call me if you need any help?”
She snorted and then she nodded to me. Something passed between us in that moment, she did not look at me like a vampire, or an outsider, she looked at me the way she looked at my mom.
“We have much more work to do Kayla, let’s get going. Madam, if you need anything, just call my private number ok?”
She smiled seductively at Jon and I rolled my eyes and climbed into the passenger side of his unmarked car. Jon did not speak to me on the ride to his favorite sub shop. I gulped down my type A greedily
from the passenger seat.
We pulled up to the mom and pop ran sub shop, named ‘Southern Subs,’ and my stomach growled at the scent of the fresh meats and cheeses wafting to me in the car now. I saw a slight twitch in Jon’s cheeks and his eyes brightened a shade; he was amused with my condition!
Quickly, I averted my eyes from him, still ashamed of my behavior this morning. Jon had never been one to sulk about anything and we had never fought before now. It would be better if I give him some time and then I apologize like a grown up.
I munched on a Philly Cheese Steak and made girly sounds of pleasure, I am a passionate eater! Jon had not spoken to me yet and I was beginning to squirm with the deafening silence now. After fifteen minutes of sitting and eating in silence, I cracked and said, “Jon, I am really sorry about this morning. I was the mother of all bitches and I can’t blame it on being hungry either.”
He closed his eyes, as if to gather all his calming will power, or maybe he way praying.
“Kayla, you should never accuse your partner of ratting on you. In my case, I could hardly believe you would accuse me, considering I never breathed a word about you posing as an FBI agent last September.”
