by Jasmine Walt
There was definitely something he could do for the case. “Can you give me access to the surveillance tapes for the period the witch bloods went missing?”
“Come back tomorrow at noon. I’ll get you everything you need.”
I left him to his whiskey and his thoughts, wiser about the contradiction that was the modern-day witch.
The lift spat me back out into the club and right into Ajitah’s arms. His body was positively vibrating.
“See, she’s okay. I told you Banner wouldn’t hurt her,” Drake said.
I looked up into Ajitah’s overly bright eyes. His face was ashen, and his biceps were tense beneath my fingers.
“I’m okay. He just wanted intel on the case. He had a thing for one of the missing witch bloods.”
“Please tell me you didn’t reveal any details,” Drake said. “Grandmother was pretty clear about the chain of command in this case.”
“It’s not as if we have much to tell. Besides, we need his help. Our coven-related witch bloods were all regulars here, and two of them may have actually been kidnapped from here. Also . . . get this.” I rummaged in my bag and pulled out the photographs. “Vanity and Gemma were both seen in the company of Wallace and this girl, Deena, the last time they were here . . . the last time they were seen.”
Drake rubbed his temples. “So two witch bloods were seen with two aberrations and then all four vanish?”
“We don’t know for sure the aberrations vanished on the same night, but yeah, it’s too much of a coincidence.”
“Let’s get back and pore over this properly,” Ajitah said.
I nodded. I was so done with this place. We were headed out of the club when I spotted a familiar silver-blonde head in the crowd. Drake followed my gaze.
“Is that . . .?”
“Carmella? Yeah.”
She was busy sucking face with a tall, dark guy with a Mohawk. Her petite body was encased in a dress barely long enough to cover her butt cheeks. The guy had his hands all over her, his gemmed rings winking in the strobe lights. Maybe Banner wasn’t exaggerating about the nature of the primal beast within. It looked like she was having fun and explained why she never invited me. Leaving her to it, I made my way out of the den of sex and sin.
We were one step closer to solving this case.
Eamon was waiting for us in the sitting room when we returned. “Any luck?”
I threw myself onto the sofa opposite him and allowed Drake to do the honors of filling him in. It didn’t take long.
“The surveillance footage could be the key here. I’m surprised the Mayfair Coven hasn’t already looked into it,” Eamon said.
Drake snorted. “Well, that would mean asking for permission from a Piccadilly witch.”
Was there really that much us and them among the covens, so much to hinder an investigation of this magnitude? One glance at Drake’s curled lip and flared nostrils gave me the answer I needed.
Ajitah sat on the sofa next to me, his shoulder right there for me to lean on, but I resisted the urge. I’d promised Eamon I’d keep things professional and intended to follow through on my word. He needed time to get used to the idea of Ajitah and me as a couple. Rubbing it in his face wouldn’t help.
“How did your case go?” I asked Eamon.
He nodded. “Good. I convinced the Moonlight pack to take care of the rogue harassing the neighborhood.”
Drake let out a low whistle. “You got close enough to the alpha to negotiate?”
Eamon smiled, but it was a tired action that didn’t reach his eyes. “Juniper owes me a favor.”
He finished his tea and made a move to stand. He didn’t make it far before his face drained of all color and he slumped back in his seat, eyes overly bright and lips trembling.
“Dad!” I was on my feet and across the short distance that separated us in a millisecond. “What’s wrong? What happened?” I checked his brow with the back of my hand, but he was cool to the touch. He was looking at me with a weird expression on his face. “What? What is it?”
His throat bobbed. “You . . . you called me Dad.”
My chest grew warm. I had called him Dad. Where had that come from? “I guess I did.”
He inhaled, closed his eyes, and exhaled. “Thank you, Malina.”
I didn’t know what to say. There was this twisty warmth inside me offering contradictory instructions. Step back and give him room to breathe. Lean in and hug him.
He made the decision for me when he pulled me into his arms.
“I love you, honey. So much.”
Our first hug. My eyes pricked and I hugged him back, but my stomach churned in warning. Something was terribly wrong with him. I pulled away and studied his face. “What’s wrong with you? Please, I need to know.”
His expression shuttered. “I forgot to eat, that’s all. This case and the other news I had today have thrown me off balance.”
I sat back on my heels. “What news?”
His lips turned down. “I was hoping there was a way to get your mother home, to save her from the clutches of the entity, but there isn’t. Indra checked into it. He called me today to give me the news. It just . . . it hit me a little hard.”
I stared into his amber eyes, so like mine, so full of sorrow. My throat pinched, my eyes burning. “There has to be something . . .”
He shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips. “I like to think that somewhere, in an alternate version of our reality, we’re all together. Happy.”
“Yeah, if only that were true.” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my voice, because I’d imagined something similar so many times—when Barrett had ignored me, or failed to be there for me emotionally, I’d imagined a father and mother who cherished me. But I’d learned soon enough that imagining was pointless. Reality always won.
Eamon was studying me closely. “Your mother believed.”
I blinked down at him. “She did?”
He smiled. “She was a devout Hindu and believed there were infinite universes featuring alternate versions of each person. She used to say that even if we were parted in our reality, there would be a version of us who managed to stay together, somewhere in the multi-verse, so we would never truly be separated.”
A sweet sentiment, but a farfetched one. But I guess, when you loved someone that deeply . . . If you lost them, then anything that made you feel closer to them was something worth clinging to. If there were a way to get my mother back, my dad would have found it. If he could bring her back, he would. My chest ached for the woman I would never know, one whom I had forgotten. But I had Eamon. I had him, and I wasn’t going to lose him because, despite the excuses he made, this spell was more than not eating. It was about more than a phone call from Indra. Something was very wrong with him, and I was going to get to the bottom of it.
“Why would he lie to you?” Ajitah asked.
“To protect me? I don’t know. But even Drake agrees there’s something fishy going on.”
The triplets were asleep, and we were lying on my bed, fully clothed . . . just talking. The lamp was turned down low, and the room was heavy with shadows. This was the perfect opportunity to finally consummate our relationship, but my stomach was still churning and my head was spinning with possibilities of what could be wrong with Eamon.
“He said hellhounds lived to be at least seventy, so he can’t be dying, right?”
Ajitah traced the kill marks on my forearm. “Thirty-two marks left, so the mantle can’t pass to you yet.”
“That’s just it. It can pass to me, no matter how many marks I have left. Once Eamon . . . once his time is up, the seal will connect to me. I can’t help but think that maybe something’s gone wrong, and he’s hiding it from me. All this talk of multi-verses and alternate versions of us was a distraction to stop me asking questions about his health, and it worked.”
“Or maybe he was simply sharing a memory of your mother? Many Hindus believe the same as she did, and science isn’t far
behind. Maybe he just wanted to give you a piece of her? Some comfort?”
I didn’t know what to believe anymore. All I knew was there was something wrong with him—more than not eating and more than the news that he couldn’t save my mother. Gah, I could stress about this until my brain exploded but the only solution was to go over his head.
I sat up and stared into Ajitah’s face. “I’m going to speak to Indra about it. I’ll take the blue pill and get him to look into it.” Why hadn’t I thought of this before? It was obvious. “The gods created the hellhounds, and if there’s something wrong, surely they should know what it is and how to fix it.”
Ajitah smiled. “Drake called him to bail us out at the prison . . .”
I grinned. “First thing tomorrow, I’ll make the call.” The knot in my stomach eased. “Thanks.”
He quirked a brow. “What for?”
“For just . . . for being here.”
He traced my features with his gaze, and heat bloomed in my cheeks. He was so close, his smile soft and tender, his body warm and hard . . . inviting.
“You’re blushing.”
“No, I’m not.” My voice was a hushed whisper.
His gaze dropped to my lips, and my heartbeat kicked up. He leaned in, and a huge yawn rose from my chest. I turned away, trying to bite it back.
He chuckled, dropped a kiss on my head, and gently extricated himself from my embrace. “Get some sleep, Malina.”
I really wanted him to stay, but I was bloody shattered. “Tomorrow?”
He turned at the door and dropped me a wink. “You can count on it.”
Tomorrow, we’d get answers. I just hoped they were the answers I was looking for.
12
We patrolled the area around the Moon and Star for three nights in anticipation of some kind of nefarious activity linked to our case. The last witch blood had been taken more than three weeks ago, and the last human female had gone missing over a week ago. It seemed as if whoever was behind the disappearances had either achieved their objective or gotten wind of the fact they were being pursued. Our days consisted of browsing the club surveillance footage and following weak leads related to the missing humans. Our nights were spent hanging at the eatery opposite the club and watching people come and go from the Moon and Star. We came home exhausted, slept, and began the cycle again. Needless to say, Ajitah and I hadn’t had our tomorrow yet.
The footage of the club had shown Vanity leaving with Wallace, and a little while later, Gemma had left with our other aberration, Deena. No sign of an attacker or kidnapper. We’d finally managed to get our hands on the surveillance feed from Vine Street, where our vamp had been zapped and nabbed, but once again it showed nothing we could use. With our vamp out of the picture, our solid link to both cases was gone.
Basically, we had nothing.
Eamon had caught another case—a woman who was being harassed by her vampire neighbor. After his little episode three nights ago, I wasn’t letting him on a case without backup, so Drake had agreed to go with him. Besides, it wasn’t as if we were swimming in clues on our own investigation right now. We had no direction, and the trail was practically stone-cold. If only the witches had come to us as soon as the first witch blood went missing. We might have been able to find a warm trail, followed it, and maybe prevented the human disappearances. Yeah, my gut screamed at me that the whole thing was one big, fucked-up mess.
I dialed Indra’s number for the umpteenth time and left my umpteenth voicemail. The god was either screening his calls or had decided to take a vacation somewhere that wasn’t linked to the mouth of hell. Pondering over a cup of coffee and a packet of chocolate digestives, I was finally getting around to admitting that this case may have us beat when my shrill ringtone sounded in my pocket. I answered it just as Ajitah strolled through the door looking all freshly showered and kissable.
“Hello?”
“Malina, hey,” Aaron said on the other end of the line. “I was wondering if you’ve heard from Carmella?” His voice sounded strained.
“Not in the last few days. Why?”
“It’s probably nothing, but she didn’t come in to work today and didn’t call in sick. I tried calling her mobile, but it just went to voicemail. So I went over to her flat, and she’s not there.”
Okay, this wasn’t like Carmella. “When’s the last time you saw her?”
“Last night. She was going out.”
“With?”
“Some guy she met at some club. She’s been pretty coy about it, said she’d introduce us once she was sure about him.” A shiver ran up my spine as a horrible possibility wormed its way to the surface of my mind. I looked up and caught Ajitah’s eye. His brows rose, and I shook my head. “Aaron, did she tell you where she was going?”
“Yeah, some club in the Magic District, shit. What’s it called again. Star something . . .”
Oh, crap. “The Moon and Star?”
“Yep, that’s the one.”
“Fuck!”
“What? What is it? Malina, is Carmella in some kind of danger?”
“I don’t know yet, not for sure. I’ve got to go, but I’ll keep you posted. Call me if you hear from her, though.”
“Malina? What the heck is going on?”
“I can’t, not now. There’s no time. But I promise I will explain this later.” I hung up and pushed back my chair. “We need to go speak to Banner. Now.”
Ajitah stopped stirring sugar into his black coffee. “We have a lead?”
“I really hope not.” His brow crinkled, and I shook my head. “I’ll tell you on the way.”
One call to Drake and I had Banner’s Piccadilly address and phone number. A quick conversation later and we were pulling up outside the Moon and Star. The building stood silent and dead in the daylight. It was just after lunch, and the club wouldn’t be switching on its lights and pumping out the music for another seven or eight hours. A huge black Honda motorcycle was parked outside, and Banner was propped against it—hair windblown, eyes squinted against the sun. Today, he was dressed super casual in faded jeans, a T-shirt, and a leather jacket.
“Poser,” Ajitah said.
I snorted. “Yeah, he really is.”
We got out of the car and strode across the road to meet him. “Thanks for coming.”
He smiled tightly. “Of course. I just hope I can help.”
We followed him around to a side door, up a flight of steps, and into a small, boxy room filled with monitors and surveillance equipment. It wasn’t our first time here. The last couple of times, I’d been desperate to catch the culprit nabbing our witch bloods. This time, not so much, because the witch blood was Carmella, and I wanted desperately to hold on to the hope that she was safe, curled up in a love nest with her new beau, and not someone to be added to our missing persons’ list.
Banner slid into the swivel chair in front of the monitors and began fiddling with knobs and punching buttons. The screens came to life and fizzed as he did a super-fast rewind. The clock in the right-hand bottom corner of the image flickered as the minutes whizzed backward, and then Banner stopped.
“Okay, this is last night, eight o’clock onward.”
He vacated the seat. “I have to make some calls, but I’ll go grab us some coffees and be back. You need a refresher on using the machines?”
“No, we’re good,” Ajitah said.
I slipped into the seat, and he left us to it. Ajitah pulled up a plastic chair from the corner of the room, and we began people-watching.
An hour and a half later, I was losing the will to live when Carmella’s silver-blonde head came into view in the crowd outside the club. She entered alone. Okay, so she had been there last night. Now to find out who she’d been with, and when she’d left.
Drake entered the room. “Hey, I brought the van, just in case.”
“Is Eamon okay?”
“Yeah. Just dropped him off at the mansion. What can I do?”
“You can help me scan
the footage of the interior of the club,” Ajitah said.
“I’ll help Malina.” Banner had returned twenty minutes ago with fresh coffee and donuts. Thank goodness for my high metabolism. “Donut?” He offered the box to Drake, who shook his head.
We settled into silence, watching the monitors.
“There.” Ajitah hit a button on his monitor and pointed to a screen on his left.
Carmella was in the shot, her head tipped back in laughter at something her mysterious beau, with the Mohawk and glittery rings, had just said.
Banner leaned in, his brow furrowed. “That’s Hugo. He’s Piccadilly Coven. If she was with him, she’s safe.”
“Let’s see if she left with him.” I continued to scroll through the tapes until I spotted her leaving, and yep, she was with Hugo. “You got a number for your friend?”
But Banner was already hitting speed dial. I exchanged glances with Ajitah, the band around my lungs loosening slightly. Banner was vouching for Hugo, and Carmella had left the club with him, which meant they were probably just holed up in bed enjoying each other.
“Hugo, hi, mate. You got a minute? Yeah. Look, you left with a woman last night, a witch blood called Carmella?” There was a pause as Hugo obviously replied. “Hugo . . . I just saw you leave with her on the surveillance tapes. Hugo?”
My scalp prickled. “What did he say?”
Banner tapped a few buttons on his phone. “He said he didn’t know anyone by that name. He denied leaving with her last night, and when I mentioned the tapes, he hung up.” He held out his phone. “He’s on the move.”
“You have a tracker on him?”
Banner nodded, looking grim. “Hugo is an ambitious bastard, one of the witches who were passed up for elder. He’s also one of our coven record keepers. I saw the way he looked at me when I made elder over him. I believe in knowing exactly where your frenemies are at all times.”
