by E A Price
Not many strayed from those groups. Apart from Jessie, she was supposed to be one of the nerds, but she had actually married one of the directors of the SEA. Actually scratch that, there was a girl like Jessie in her school. The teacher in question got fired. Hey, technically the student was eighteen – they weren’t actually doing anything illegal, but the school board was not lenient.
Although, she supposed Erin didn’t quite fit in either. She was on maternity leave, having just given birth to three enormous half-bear babies, but Sydney would never have pegged her for a jock or mean girl. She was human and a psychic and pretty shy, yet mated to one of the agency’s buffest, most boisterous polar bear agents. Erin was more oddball than popular girl. Though, perhaps there always was a jock who couldn’t help himself when it came to the odd girl – hadn’t eighties movies told everyone that?
Sydney slapped the side of her device. Maybe she should have brought her tuba.
“What the fudge is taking so long?” snarled Cutter, marching into the room.
“Language,” admonished Isis, following on his heels. “But yeah, seriously, what the fuck is taking so long?”
“We’re looking for evidence of magic use,” said Sydney in a small voice, wondering if the gruff wolf really did mean to say fudge. He never actually swore - instead, saying fudge or cheese and crackers - but she dare not ask him the reason why.
“What?” The huge wolf shifter glanced around the room before his gaze landed on Sydney.
“She said they’re looking for evidence of magic use!” yelled Isis into his ear.
Cutter growled at her, and she shrugged. “Turn your hearing aid up, gramps.”
He grumbled and folded his arms. “What are you doing?”
Sydney jumped as her colleague Nelson elbowed her, letting her know that was aimed at her. “I, ah, well, I’ve been tinkering with this machine, and it’s supposed to read extra-normal particles. See all magic leaves behind particles that while invisible to the naked eye…”
“So it’s a machine that can detect magic,” Isis cut in.
“Well, yes, sort of. You see when magic is used it leaves behind…”
Cutter waved a hand impatiently. “We don’t care, just make it work.”
Sydney’s cheeks flushed. “Well, I’m having a bit of an issue with the battery right now.”
The wolf swore not quite under his breath. Or at least he said 'blistering barnacles'.
Given the sister’s account of what happened, and that all of Rick’s tests had come back negative for drugs, they suspected some kind of magical interference had caused their victim to haul himself off the twentieth floor. She just wished she could show her worth and that one of her crazy inventions would work properly for once. In her defense, the robust alarm system and burglar defenses she cooked up for her apartment were almost perfect – they just didn’t take into account her eldest brother popping by to watch her TV and ravage her fridge. He spent three hours tangled in that net waiting for her to turn up.
“If I could just have a few more…”
“Spare me,” sneered a haughty voice. Sydney sagged. The mean girls had arrived.
Trina effortlessly sashayed through the room, as if walking in skin-tight pants and four-inch heels were nothing. Well, Isis made it look like nothing, but she was part predator and could stalk people wearing anything, or nothing as the case may be.
Both Cutter and Isis growled impatiently as the lithe witch did laps of the room, intentionally making sure everyone had to get out of her way. Although, Sydney did notice that she steered well clear of Cutter. She was haughty, not suicidal. She did, however, make a beeline for Sydney who stepped to the side with a sigh, only opening her mouth in protest as Trina accidentally-on-purpose kicked Sydney’s tool caddy.
Admittedly, Sydney was new at the Los Lobos SEA. She was virtually just out of college and hadn’t had time to meet everyone in the SEA, but she’d met more than a few of the witch agents and had been alternately looked down on and terrified by the lot of them.
So far it had been Trina, Sasha, Nina, Sofia, Lina, Freya, Carina, Sheena, Reena, and Dina. There had to be some kind of conspiracy about their names ending in A – surely that kind of coincidence wasn’t normal.
Out of all of them, Trina had to be the worst, and it was just Sydney’s luck that they seemed always to be at the same crime scene, or at least they had for the last four crime scenes. The beautiful woman appeared to be in a permanent bad mood, and Sydney always seemed to be in her way.
Except, at that moment, Trina appeared to be undergoing a transformation. She stopped scowling at everyone to get out of her way and patted her hair before smiling widely. Isis caught Sydney’s eye and raised a questioning eyebrow. Sydney shrugged. She didn’t know Trina could smile until that moment. But a few seconds later, it was much clearer. The reason for her smile sauntered through the door.
*
Kurt Fisher tried not to roll his eyes on seeing Trina standing in front of him. Great. The universe clearly hated him. Damn Carina told him he was supposed to be meeting Nina there – but then, both Carina and Nina were Trina’s flunkies. They’d do anything for her.
The witch agents of the SEA didn’t tend to be permanently attached to any particular investigative team, and were generally just called when needed by each team – with the exception of the misuse of magic department where help was always needed. Given how much magic was used in the city, they rarely had a quiet moment, and because of the scope of magic, they usually consulted in pairs. But considering how many other witches worked in the SEA, the likelihood of being called to a crime scene with his ex-girlfriend should have been small. Yet, this was now the fifth crime scene in a row where someone or something was trying to throw them together. Cowardly maybe, but he’d managed to palm the previous four crime scenes off on Bettina – a friendly and sparky witch who didn’t get along with Trina either and was more than happy to butt heads with her. Sadly, Trina had already seen him, and it was too late to run in the other direction – which really was not an overreaction to being in an enclosed space with Trina. She once stalked him all the way to Italy.
Kurt gave a half-hearted smile, and his heart sank as Trina gave him a coquettish look. Crap.
“Get a move on,” snapped Cutter. The wolf looked to be at boiling point, but then Kurt knew from experience it took very little to get him there. He once went ballistic and tried to force feed a member of the maintenance team some fried chicken because the elevator was out of order. Kurt wasn't sure what the chicken was about, but Cutter held the record for attending the most anger management classes in the SEA.
Normally, Kurt couldn’t stand him. The surly wolf was more than a little dismissive of witches and Kurt tended to goad him when they worked together. But today, he was all for hurrying the hell up.
“Hi, Kurt,” cooed Trina. Her aura usually a muddy red started sparking yellow. While yellow was not in itself bad, it could also hint at instability.
Kurt nodded and tried to concentrate on the room. He was a competent witch, not terrifically powerful (those types of witches made more money in the private sector) but he was good, and he knew his stuff. One of his better gifts was his ability to read auras. It was something that he was sometimes called on to employ when interrogating suspects. What had given him a perma-headache when he first developed the ability at age sixteen was now pretty useful. Particularly when it came to picking up women. Though it didn’t always help – hence his eleven-month relationship with Trina.
He ignored Cutter’s usual frayed moody purple aura, and Isis’ bright, confident orange, but he came up short as Cutter moved to look out the window.
He inhaled sharply at seeing the rainbow aura surrounding a gorgeous young woman. Every beautiful color he could think of moved and glittered around her. She was small, human undoubtedly, with a sweet, round face, big brown eyes and long black lashes that fanned over her face. Her skin was warm brown and her hair midnight black, cascading from
her head in tight corkscrews. He’d worked at the SEA for the last six years; he thought he knew everyone. She must be new. She certainly looked young, maybe twenty-two or twenty-three. She looked so small and innocent. She was… biting her plump bottom lip and currently gazing at him in some trepidation - probably because he was staring at her like a loon.
Kurt cleared his throat. Say something cool; say something clever. “I’m Kurt,” he said lamely.
“Sydney,” she croaked, starting to look a little alarmed.
He was still staring. Say something else. “I’m a witch,” he blurted.
Inside, there was just sarcastic clapping.
*
Sydney goggled at him. She’d heard there were male witches. Definitely witches - not warlocks or wizards or witch doctors, which were entirely different kettles of fish. She’d never met one and was certainly intrigued – she’d love to pick his brain. Yes, that’s the reason teased an inner voice. It certainly had nothing to do with the fact that he happened to be a six-foot-two god of a man who could easily give any of the male shifters in the SEA a run for their money as sexiest stud. He was definitely keeping up the reputation of witches being the most beautiful people in the SEA.
Maybe not as muscled as the shifters, Kurt was nonetheless a perfect specimen. Wearing a fairly tight white shirt, Sydney could see the firm outlines of his toned body, and the color made his golden tan pop. He must spend hours sunbathing she thought dreamily. It would certainly account for the naturally golden highlights in his hair. His face looked like it had been carved – all cut glass cheekbones and a manly chin. But oh, his eyes, so ice blue, so deep, so penetrating. She felt naked under those eyes. They looked like they could see everything. Damnit, why did she have to wear her Iron Man underwear! She gave herself an inner slap. Nope, he didn’t have x-ray vision – she was fine.
“I’m a human,” she squeaked.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Kurt grinned, and she could have sworn she heard angels weeping for that perfect smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Sydney, the human.”
He held out his hand, and she allowed hers to be swallowed in it, only squeaking slightly at the warm tingles his touch afforded.
“How old are you?” he asked in a husky voice.
“What?”
He shook his head and whipped his hand away from hers. “I mean, ah, are you going Ghostbusting or something?”
His eyes flickered to the device in her other hand, and she realized she was clutching it as if her life depended on it. “Oh, oh! It’s to detect magical energy.”
“Really?” he quirked an eyebrow in amusement. “That sounds interesting.”
“Would be if it worked,” she muttered.
“Where did you get it?”
“Oh, I invented it,” she admitted unsure whether to be proud or embarrassed.
“That’s impressive.”
Proud it is. Sydney could feel the blush creeping over her face. When was the last time she was given a compliment? Oh right, the other night at family dinner when Chad told her she had the appetite of a rhino shifter. He thought that was flattering.
“If you’re done gossiping like school girls,” snarled Cutter, “we have a barnacle busting case to solve!”
Sydney blanched and was about to hop to it, but Kurt just gave the wolf shifter a blinding smile. “It takes as long as it takes, my friend. My magic is just getting warmed up, and I doubt you want Sydney to rush bagging the evidence – a mistake might be a problem.” He turned to Sydney, frowning. “Not that I’m suggesting you would make a mistake.”
Cutter muttered something about a jumping jellyfish and stomped away. Sydney was thoroughly impressed by Kurt’s cool reaction to the wolf shifter – who had been known to make bear shifters cry.
Kurt’s beautiful eyes softened as he smiled at her and she felt an odd sensation. Men had found her attractive, more so since she started wearing contacts rather than her enormous glasses - which would have happily found a place in Dame Edna’s collection of frames. But she’d never been so nervous or uncertain of a male before. There was just something different about him. She could put it down to his beautiful looks or maybe that he had magic, but that wasn’t it – there was just something about him that made her all… gooey. Maybe it was just a crush. Normally, she didn’t get them based on looks and a few words – no they had to prove their mettle in an engineering lab before she contemplated anything more than friendly feelings – but Kurt was different.
It was perhaps a shame they were meeting a crime scene – not that she actually would have done anything crazy like asking him out on a date if they'd met somewhere else. Men like Kurt dated women like Trina – not five foot nothing geeks with overprotective fathers and a weekend hobby of trawling through junk yards for spare parts (they have hidden treasures).
Speaking of Trina…
“If you’ve finished distracting Kurt, Sandy…”
“Sydney,” corrected Kurt before Sydney could do it herself.
Trina’s cheek ticked. “Sydney,” she said with forced sweetness, “we actually have work to do.”
Kurt looked at Sydney's device thoughtfully. “Shame about your detector – would have been useful.”
Trina scowled at Sydney. “No machine can do what we do,” she sniffed.
Kurt shrugged. “I think it would help us. You should keep working on it, Sydney.”
“Oh, I will,” she mumbled, ignoring her irritation as Trina laid her hand on Kurt’s arm.
“Do you detect any magic use?” she asked, turning her back on Sydney and dismissing her.
Kurt looked like he was about to say something, but Trina’s lithe frame effectively eclipsed him from Sydney's vision. She sighed and started packing up her tools.
Cutter in a surprising show of chivalry helped her carry it down the twenty floors – the building didn’t have elevators, it was not a friend to the un-athletic.
“Hurry up and get that device fixed,” Cutter rumbled. “Damn arrogant witches.” With that, he stomped away.
An hour ago, Sydney might have agreed, but now there was at least one witch that she wouldn’t put in that category.
*
Trina was prattling about something but Kurt wasn’t listening. Sydney’s fading aura lingered in the room. He’d never met someone with a rainbow aura before. Truthfully, he wasn’t an expert on auras, all he knew he learned from experience, intuition and practice. He wasn’t sure what the rainbow meant, but he knew he instinctively liked her – liked her more than he had anyone else at first sight. She was sweet, sparky, sexy, bright, innocent – she was anything, and everything and damn if she didn’t make him harder than a sledgehammer.
Focus he chided. He was at a crime scene – a wolf shifter had just died – and all he could think of was getting Sydney back to his apartment, stripping the bulky overalls off her petite body and sinking inside her. Shit, he was hornier than a shifter. Kurt could usually control himself better, but Sydney was the sexiest little thing he ever saw, and he wanted her.
Maybe he was turning into a horndog in his old age. He’d just turned thirty-one and while he didn’t see the big deal, his mother telling him over and over that he wasn’t getting any younger and that he needed to settle down with a nice witch and produce baby witches was starting to get him antsy. Maybe that’s why he liked Sydney – he was rebelling against his mother’s constant nagging. He imagined his mother would throw a fit if he brought Sydney home – too young and too not a witch for his mother’s liking. No, his mother thought Trina was the perfect woman for him. His mother - hardly a domestic goddess - also believed that peanut butter and anchovies made for a good sandwich filling – so she was hardly reliable.
Trina snapped her fingers in his face. “Focus!”
He tamped down his irritation and started looking around the room. She was right; he had a job to do. Just because Sydney sent electric arousal zinging through his body was no reason to stop being a professional.
Kurt flipped through a few of their victim’s magazines. Kurt wasn’t much for scent, but Sydney smelled delicious. He wondered if that was perfume or her natural smell. Probably her natural smell. What he wouldn’t give to bury his face in her wild hair and just sniff... Kurt dropped the magazines.
Lord, he was useless today.
He made his way into the kitchen to check out the food, trying to ignore the lingering goose bumps from shaking Sydney’s hand. Instead, he focused on corralling his magic. Usually a simple task, but apparently it decided to take a strange turn.
He moved to open the fridge and managed to send a small ball of fire to the handle. The mole shifter technician squeaked and almost jumped out the window.
“Sorry, sorry!” said Kurt quickly.
Isis ran into the room followed by Trina. The tiger shifter was drawing her gun. “What happened?”
Kurt quickly quenched the fire and held up his hands. “My fault. It’s fine; just a little singed, and I’ll pay for any damage.”
Trina frowned at him while Isis gave him a bored look. “Let’s not destroy the crime scene too much, huh?”
The mole shifter scowled at him before deciding to move on to a different room. Kurt shook his head and gingerly opened the fridge. That was certainly odd. It usually took a lot of concentration to create fire. He dismissed it and decided to talk to his mother later. It wasn’t unknown for his powers to go a little haywire when he was a teen, but he did think he was past that.
Okay, back to Sydney. No! Back to business, back to his job, back to the reason he was there.
Kurt slapped his forehead and started rifling through a very well stocked fridge. Made his two tomatoes, old lump of cheese and carton of almond milk look paltry.
If someone had influenced their victim magically, it would be hard to figure out. But if the victim’s sister was to be believed, he had spent all morning at his apartment – without receiving any calls or visitors, so they were ruling out the chance that someone cast a spell on him.
That would still leave the potential for magical substances, which could be applied to food or clothes or even something like washing powder. Or even any of those things could have been enchanted. Yep, the potential for misusing magic was pretty huge and sometimes very hard to prove. He wondered what other devices little Sydney had thought up. He didn’t even bother chastising himself for that thought – that was a genuine, work-related thought. He figured Trina disliked Sydney because, well, she disliked anyone who wasn’t a witch, but also because she thought Sydney was trying to take their jobs. He doubted that and thought they could use all the help they could get. Perhaps they could work together…
