by Kelly Ethan
“This is one of those days I’d kill to have my camera on me. This would be great for blackmail.” Lila moved toward Holly, knife raised.
“Why is it, if there’s any trouble, there’s always a Harrow in the thick of it?” Buchanan stepped around the side of the house with a pack of leather-jacketed Paladins, all sharp swords in tow.
Lila whooped and jabbed her knife in the air, saving Holly forgotten. “Wahoo. Take that, walking dead. We have our own hunky reinforcements.”
Melody whistled and plumped her brown hair. “A posse of leather-clad Paladins is nothing to sneer at. I may forgive you Harrows yet for my trauma.”
Buchanan gestured to Holly and his Paladins surged forward, swords gleaming in the light Elspeth had ramped up. They quickly dispatched the furry ankle lovers from Holly.
She sagged against a hunky agent. “You just saved me from a fate worse than death.” Holly patted his muscled chest. “Don’t suppose you happen to be single and looking for some mayhem?”
Lila rolled her eyes. “In the middle of a zombie apocalypse and she’s hitting on her squirrel slayer? Way to step out of her quiet shell. She gets all the breaks.” Lila jabbed her knife into a stray furry body and pouted.
Buchanan stood toe to toe with Elspeth. “Will you admit you need help now?”
“I. Do. Not. Need. Paladin. Help.” Elspeth hissed through her teeth at the aging man.
“Look around, old woman. Dead animals are stalking you. You’re a target. We can help.”
Elspeth picked her sword up and flung it into the air, skewering a blind horned owl against a tree. “I can help myself. Paladins only complicate things.”
“It isn’t just you, Elspeth.” Buchanan nodded to Xandie and her cousins, along with Melody, all frantically swinging knives and claws.
Elspeth sagged. “Protect the girls, they’re the only ones who need it.”
“We’ll talk about the use of halos later, Elspeth.” The Paladin warned the Harrow witch.
She ignored Buchanan and stomped off in another direction.
Xandie worked her way over to her grandmother, slicing and dicing as she went. “How did Buchanan know we needed help?” she yelled at Elspeth.
“Probably had one of you girls tagged for monitoring. Seems like something he’d do.” Elspeth shrugged.
A police cruiser, with a host of other cars behind it, screamed up the driveway and slid to a stop, gravel spraying everyone.
Chief Braun and Agent Jackson tumbled out of their cars, weapons drawn, deputies and agents in tow. Braun and Jackson worked together, taking out animal after dead animal.
Without warning, all the animals quivered and stiffened. Taking advantage of their pause, the Paladins shot relentlessly until every animal lay dead again.
Covered in gunk and panting, Xandie stepped up to her grandmother. “No more secrets, Elspeth. Someone wanted you dead or at least pinned down in Harrow House. Who do you know who could have done this?”
Elspeth dropped her sword at her feet and surveyed Harrow lands desecrated by dead animals. “Only one coven member ever had the power to raise that many dead at once.”
Braun, Buchanan, and Jackson joined Xandie, listening intently to Elspeth’s words.
“Hellacious Whitburn is the only Morrigan Coven member who could do this.”
“And he’s missing.” Buchanan frowned, considering Elspeth.
“Is he? Or does he just want us to think that?” Xandie shook her head. Considering the surrounding devastation, things weren’t looking good for Elspeth and Harrow House. Xandie needed to protect her family and find a killer. Hellacious Whitburn had become her number one suspect.
Now she just needed to hunt the missing necromancer down.
Seven
“Hellacious Whitburn wants you dead.” Buchanan glared at Elspeth.
The old witch slapped the table and cackled. Lights and power fizzled in the bakery. “Hell will just have to get in line. There’s a list a mile long of people who want me dead.”
“Elspeth,” Lila bellowed from her bakery kitchen. “I’m trying to bake here. Cut the evil witch routine if you want to eat.”
Xandie covered her snicker with a cough. Elspeth had dolled herself up for this gathering of law enforcement, PIG, Paladins, and Harrows. Her grandmother had donned a rainbow-colored shoulder-length wig and paired it with a watermelon-inspired pantsuit. Anyone would think she was trying to impress someone. And since Buchanan was the only person in the room old enough to date Elspeth…
Elspeth narrowed her gaze at Xandie. “It’s true. My enemies are plentiful.”
Xandie held a hand up in surrender. “No argument here.”
Agent Jackson stepped forward. “We have a current list of five names with a serious axe to grind. With a further twenty also unhappy with Elspeth. Your former co-worker, Hellacious Whitburn, tops the list. But we still need to narrow the suspect pool.”
Elspeth sniffed and then dropped below the table. Rummaging noises came from underneath, along with a victorious holler from Elspeth as she popped back up with her bedazzled hipflask. She tipped a salute to Aggie Braun before guzzling a large mouthful of liquid.
Jackson quirked an eyebrow at Aggie. “The chain of custody for crime scene evidence isn’t a concern for Point Muse law enforcement?”
Aggie snorted. “Please, it’s obvious the killer isn’t Elspeth. If it was, no one would find a body, let alone a flask, with or without her name bedazzled on it. This was planted at the scene by an idiot, clearly.”
Zach patted his mother on her large shoulder before sneering at the Paranormal Investigative Group agent. “We’ve done our due diligence and eliminated Elspeth Harrow from our suspect pool. No reason she couldn’t have her hipflask back. Now, how about you do some heavy lifting instead of leaving it up to the Paladin Inc. and Point Muse law enforcement?”
Xandie watched transfixed as Zach’s ice-blue eyes flashed silver and his frame grew until he towered over the PIG agent. She still hadn’t sorted out exactly how she felt about Jackson wiping her memory back in Andrews, her old hometown. She only knew she was angry about his interference and that wouldn’t change any time soon. But Point Muse had become home and she just hated to admit his high-handed actions were justified.
An unruffled Ethan Jackson stepped up to Zach and grinned, teeth gleaming white. “Far be it from me, Braun, to expect professionalism. If you’ve got something to say, Leo, spit it out.”
Oh yeah. Forget-Me-Witch Jackson isn’t happy either and neither is he backing down. Xandie prepared for an alpha male fight for supremacy. She wasn’t entirely sure who she wanted to win.
Buchanan thumped his hand down on the table next to Elspeth. “Put your alphas away, boys. This is a joint task force which Paladin Inc. is spearheading. Basically, you do what I say.”
Aggie pushed herself between the shifter and the witch and gave them a good shove. “Plus, if you don’t stop posturing, Elspeth will hex you so every food you eat tastes like poop. So back the heckadoodle down, kids.”
Taking heed of Aggie’s warning, the rival law enforcement officers stepped apart and proceeded to ignore each other.
Xandie bit her lip, amusement bubbling up. Jackson was tall with a swimmer’s body, wide shoulders, and a tiny waist. His brown hair curled around the collar of a smart navy suit. In direct contrast to Zach Braun’s bear shifter body, whose large muscled shoulders slid into a solid waist and heavy thighs. He balanced, ready for action, in his trim black police uniform. His sandy brown, non-regulation haircut that flopped over his forehead did little to hide the scorn in his eyes. Different men, but the same masculine urge to challenge each other.
Xandie added in her contribution to the conversation flowing around her. “Whitburn’s a necromancer and dead animals attacked Harrow House last night. I’m sure that’s called a clue.”
“Alexandra is right. Whitburn is our focus. He’s got to be in the area.” Buchanan pointed to Jackson and Braun. “Get state and
local eyes on him. I want to know where he is and his every move before he disappears again.”
Buchanan turned to Elspeth and growled. “You need to give everyone a rundown on Morrigan again and the Morpheus Amulet, but nothing gets repeated outside the bakery. Got it?” Buchanan eyeballed the agents in the room and then pointed a finger at Elspeth. “Speak, witch, and make it snappy.”
Elspeth shot Buchanan a look that promised retribution later but honored his request. “Most of you know PIG formed the Morrigan Coven to stop Hitler’s use of certain artifacts and his encroachment into the supernatural world. It was nominally under Paranormal Investigative Group special projects but was pretty much autonomous. Head of the Department was Albert Proctor. The donkey’s behind.” Elspeth’s face soured as she sipped from her flask, the diamantes catching the light and throwing sparkled flashes onto the walls.
“PIG recruited members from different supernatural groups. Minerva Crow was a shifter, Henry Strongarm was a descendant of Hercules and Hellacious Whitburn was a necromancer. I was a hexer and caster, Bridget Doyle a seer, and Lucien Benoit was a vampire. Albert Proctor oversaw us, and Hannah Lynch was his intern and admin.”
Lila deposited a large plate of blueberry muffins on the table before slinking back to the kitchen.
Elspeth paused while everyone dug in. “In the beginning, it worked. We stemmed the tide of artifacts flowing into Hitler’s sweaty little hands. Hellacious turned double agent and went undercover with Hitler as his artifact expert, and no one suspected him. But the war rolled on and Hitler’s obsession with the supernatural worsened. Proctor ordered the coven to step up our artifact retrieval. Any means justified the end of Hitler’s grasp on the world.”
Elspeth shook her head and was silent for a few moments. Then she continued, her voice raspy with remembered pain, “because of our experience with artifacts and their use, they tasked us to start interacting within certain fieldwork parameters. I noticed small things at first. Minor changes to duty rosters, contact locations altered, artifact disposal routines changed. Then Proctor upped our quota of artifacts. The smaller, less notable artifacts disappeared from our inventories. At the same time, our mission parameters were becoming more fluid, less rigid. Proctor didn’t care how we achieved our mission. Or who was hurt.” Elspeth gripped her flask tight, knuckles and fingers ivory against the bedazzled pink.
Xandie stepped around an agent, planning to stand by her grandmother’s side, but Buchanan was there before her, his hand resting on the elderly woman’s shoulder.
“I knew Proctor was on the take, but no one believed me. Not even my coven members. In fact, they turned on me.” Elspeth glared at Agent Jackson. “Neither PIG or the coven bothered to investigate, and Proctor kept stealing, but the artifacts weren’t insignificant anymore. He was targeting more and more dangerous and larger artifacts. I was coven head, but I was being cut out of the loop on almost every mission. Hannah Lynch, our intern, stopped briefing me and that was the last straw. I contacted Paladin Inc. They immediately assigned a handler to investigate my claims.”
“Grandfather,” Xandie murmured.
Elspeth nodded, her eyes glimmering before she blinked the memories away. “He was an obnoxious do-gooder, but he was a hottie and he listened. Lucas agreed with me and I went back to the coven as an informant. I found evidence of Proctor’s dealings and the fact Whitburn was his dealer to the black witch market. Proctor became obsessed with the Morpheus Amulet, and the coven’s body count of collateral damage escalated. Hitler deployed the amulet in Poland, but only focused on certain supernatural groups. It was a slaughter.”
“If Proctor was so corrupted, why didn’t anyone else see?” Xandie couldn’t fathom the fact that someone could get away with this magnitude of dodgy dealings. Well…except for Elspeth.
“The threat of Hitler overwhelmed everything. People were so tunnel-visioned on the evil he presented, they couldn’t see others taking advantage of the situation. Proctor ordered all our missions shelved and our sole focus became the amulet. We snagged it, but Proctor disappeared and took the amulet with him. Lucas and I tracked him down. We used a bait and switch with a fake amulet. He was so far off the rails by then that when he realized what had happened, he deployed an absorber hex. He sucked in all the electricity in the area and then just exploded. Not long after that, Hitler died, and the coven disbanded. They hated me. None of them forgave me for what they considered was my betrayal. We split up the amulet. I had a piece, but so did Henry, Doyle, and Lucien.”
Xandie frowned. “What about Whitburn and Hannah Lynch? Did they get a piece as well?”
Elspeth shook her head. “Hell knew PIG would bust him for dealing in Proctor’s dirty Artifacts scheme. He disappeared before Morrigan disbanded. No one heard from him for years, until he sprang up in Silicon Valley in the eighties and nineties with his necromantic game and made millions.”
“And Hannah?” Braun leaned forward, hooked by Elspeth’s tale.
“Hannah was a complete null. No magic worked against her. She ate it up and magic disappeared, a complete black hole. It devastated her when Proctor’s dirty dealings came to light. Hannah idolized him. She wanted nothing to do with the amulet and returned to admin at PIG.”
Buchanan dropped his hand from Elspeth’s shoulder. “Hannah died in a car bomb, but we found traces of magical accelerant. Some kind of fire hex.”
Elspeth continued with fists clenched. “Lucas and I settled in Point Muse and had a family. Five years later, Lucas was called into a high-level Paladin meeting in Boston. Some kid crashed the meeting and used the same absorber hex that killed Proctor to blow the Headquarters to pieces. No survivors. The kid was Edwin Proctor, Albert Proctor’s only child. He was nineteen years old.”
Xandie covered her gasp with a hand over her mouth. No wonder her grandmother was the suspicious, sarcastic, devious woman she was. To go through all she had would have broken a weaker woman.
“That’s why Paladin ordered me to do protective detail. We protect our own and whether or not Elspeth wants to admit it, she’s Paladin family. I’m moving into Harrow House and I’ll set up a protective and surveillance detail as well.” Buchanan braced against the table.
Elspeth exploded out of her chair as fast as an octogenarian could. “Nope. No way. Paladin can stick their protective detail up their...”
“Now, Elspeth. Take a breath before you say something you regret.” Aggie stepped forward, hands outstretched.
Elspeth shuffled back from her friend and spun on Buchanan. “You,” she intoned dramatically. “You planned this, didn’t you? You’ve always been hot for this sugar momma.” Elspeth shimmied her hips and glared at the room, daring anyone to speak.
Deciding retreat was the best option, Xandie sidled back and made a dash for the kitchen. She swung the door open and knocked Lila to the floor.
“Geez, be more careful of eavesdroppers.” Lila rubbed a red lump in the middle of her forehead and then hauled herself upright.
“Did you hear everything?” Xandie propped herself against the kitchen counter and stole a chocolate muffin, still steaming hot, out of the muffin tray.
“Yeah, even down to the hot body comment.” Lila shuddered. “I’m betting Elspeth shimmied too. So glad I missed that.”
Xandie swallowed a mouthful. “Kind of explains Elspeth though, doesn’t it? Should have guessed she’d have a secret spy past.”
Lila busied herself cleaning counters and emptying rubbish into a trashcan. She shoved it at Xandie. “You can pay for your thieving of my baked goods by taking the garbage out.” Lila jerked her head at the alley behind her shop.
“Fine.” Xandie grabbed the trashcan and slid out the door into the alley, almost stumbling over a brassy blonde waitress puffing on a cigarette.
“I’m so sorry.” Xandie dumped the can down and reached out a hand to the woman sprawled on the ground. “I have a habit of leaping before I look.”
Using Xandie’s hand, she hauled her
self up and smiled. “No worries, ducky. I should have looked where I was standing.” The woman, somewhere in her late fifties, patted her brassy blonde hair and adjusted her tight top. “I’m Delilah. I work at Heaven’s Diner.” She pointed down the end of the alley. “I smoke out here so the boss doesn’t complain. Reformed ex-smokers are horrible to work for.” She rolled her heavily made-up green eyes.
“I’m Xandie Meyers.” She held out a hand again and gingerly shook Delilah’s red-taloned fingers.
“You’re the new Librarian. My parents used to drive through here and consult the Library all the time.” Delilah giggled. “My dad was a weather mage and always made sure he and mom got snowed in here so they could spend extra time in the Library.”
Nice that someone had a good opinion of the Library and Point Muse. With all the bodies turning up, you’d think they were the murder capital of Maine. “Are you a weather mage?”
“Lordy, no.” Delilah belly-laughed at the idea. “I’m more of a good luck charm. Things just turn out right for me. You know?”
“Not really. I’m the Librarian, so luck isn’t really my thing.”
Delilah flicked out the hot part of her cigarette and then shoved the butt in the pocket of her uniform. “Well, better get back before the boss loses it. If you want something to eat, come on in. The food’s great.” She waved and wobbled off in her not-so-practical wedge sandals.
Xandie smiled at the sight of the waitress. Big, brassy blonde hair, tight uniform, wedge sandals, and sharp red nails presented an image of a man-eater. But Delilah came across as warm and welcoming. Maybe she should pop into the diner for lunch?
The sound of shattering glass and Elspeth’s high-pitched shrieks decided Xandie. Lunch, Delilah, and an Elspeth-free zone was her priority of the day.
The second was track down a killer with a grudge.
Eight
“And I said over my dead body.” Elspeth slapped the diner tabletop.
