by D. N. Hoxa
The man stood up from my desk when I entered. Why the hell was he sitting at my desk? Good thing my laptop wasn’t there and there was nothing else for him to see, but still. It was my desk.
“Who the hell are you?” I hissed, even more pissed off than before.
The man’s green eyes grew wide as he took all of me in. His nose actually wrinkled for a second, and his narrowed brows made him look like he was already regretting being there. That made two of us.
“Winny, dear, this is William Peterson from the Green coven,” Ms. Riley said, her three remaining teeth visible when she tried to smile.
“Hello, Miss Wayne.” He stepped forward. My beads rose up, ready to attack, but the man reached out his hand to me. And it was empty.
I raised my brow. “What do you want?” Had he really just tried to shake my hand? Because as soon as he saw my beads, he stepped right back.
“I was told that you’re a private investigator for hire. Perhaps I was mistaken.” His green eyes were full of suspicion, but there was no sign of laughter anywhere on his face. Come to think of it, the guy was older than my other “visitors.” He was at least fifty, with a very expensive-looking suit—grey with small white dots.
Holy shit. He wasn’t there to make fun of me.
Clearing my throat, cheeks burning red, I straightened a bit and ordered my beads to stand down. “No, no, I am,” I mumbled, completely mortified. “A private investigator, I mean. And for hire.” Ah, shit.
The man pressed his lips together, then looked to the side. Damn it, I’d forgotten about my landlady still standing there behind me, smiling as if she were watching a movie and enjoying it very much.
“I was hoping to speak to you about something. Alone,” the man said.
“Ms. Riley, if you don’t mind, I have some business to attend to,” I said to my landlady, and when her brown eyes met mine, you could have sworn I’d just slapped the remaining teeth out of her mouth.
“I’ll be no trouble, I promise.” She made for her chair by the door, but I stepped in front of her.
“I’m sure you won’t, but I need to be in my office alone for a while.” I grabbed her gently by the arm and pulled her toward the door. “When Mr. Peterson leaves, I’ll make you some fresh coffee. Sounds good?”
“But this is my property, Winny. I have the right to—” I slammed the door shut in her face. My property, my ass.
I turned around, smiling my prettiest fake smile. On the inside, my head was screaming at me. I didn’t know the first thing about receiving people in my office who weren’t there to make fun of me. How the hell had that never occurred to me? I needed to learn how to be a good host! A credible host, a reliable one. One that oozed confidence.
Right now, I was a wreck, and William Peterson could see it.
“Sorry about that,” I mumbled, then waved for him to sit back behind my desk. That was totally okay now. “Please, have a seat.”
“I realize this is bad timing,” he said. “It’s Sunday and—”
“No, no, no, it’s perfect timing. Please, just sit down and tell me how I can help you.” That might have come out a bit harder than I intended, but it worked. Peterson sat behind my desk again.
Okay. Good. Great.
What now?
“Do you…do you want something to drink?”
When his brows shot up, I knew it was the wrong thing to ask. Damn it, Winter. I should have been more subtle. Like: would you care for a drink? Or, could I get you something to drink?
“No, I’m fine, Miss Wayne,” Peterson said. God, it was so awkward. If awkwardness smelled, I’d have had to open the windows by now because the place would stink.
With a sigh, I lowered my head. “I’m sorry, Mr. Peterson. I just opened the office, and I’m still not used to…this, but I can assure you that I’m very good at my job.”
Peterson smiled. “I can see that,” he said. “No judgment.”
Would you look at that? I should be honest more often, I thought to myself. “In that case, why don’t you tell me how I can help you?”
It was finally happening. My first job. Ha! I was going to celebrate after this was over, and I wouldn’t even care if people looked at me funny while I did.
“Before we go any further, Miss Wayne, I’d like for you to answer two questions,” Peterson said.
I immediately nodded. “Ask away.”
“Did you kill Julian Walker?”
The smile died on my lips. Shivers washed over my body, and goosebumps popped out on my arms. My beads swirled faster and faster around my fingers, and my hands were itching to grab the knives behind my back.
“What?”
“Julian Walker,” Peterson repeated. “Did you kill him?”
Casually, I moved my hand behind my back and moved my head to bring my braid in front of my shoulder. I had four stones hidden in my hair, ones I’d made myself. I had no idea if they were any good, but if it came down to it, I wouldn’t hesitate to use them.
“What’s it to you?” I asked, careful not to let any small movement of his body escape my attention.
“Did you or did you not kill Julian Walker?” he insisted and he did not look like he was going to let this go. Cold sweat broke out on my forehead and back. If I said yes, things could go bad real fast. If I said no, the ECU would find out that I’d lied and come after me again.
I definitely wanted to start being more honest, but now was not the time. “Yes,” I breathed.
Peterson smiled. “I knew Julian. Strong witch. If you managed to kill him, then maybe you really are good at your job.” Oh, hell. I almost let out a sigh of relief. “By the way, how did you do it? They say you have very little magic.”
I raised a brow. “Is that your second question?”
“Oh, no. I was just curious,” he said, smiling sneakily.
“We agreed on two questions only, Mr. Peterson.” First client or not, I wasn’t about to expose myself on his account.
“Okay, then. Are you willing to drop everything else you’re working on and start right away?”
I almost laughed. Clearly, Mr. Peterson here hadn’t asked around about me properly. Good for me, though. Good for me.
“It depends on what the job is. Care to give me some details?” I grabbed Ms. Riley’s chair by the door and dragged it all the way to the desk so I could sit in front of the man. Now that I thought of it, I should have offered that chair to Mr. Peterson, and it should have been me behind my desk. I would have looked much more professional. Live and learn, Winter.
“What I am about to tell you is inside coven information. It can never leave this room, Miss Wayne.” Peterson began to look a bit scared. That piqued my curiosity.
“You have my word,” I said with a nod.
“Forgive me if that doesn’t meant much to me right now.” He took something from his pocket. I almost expected it to be a gun, but instead, it was an envelope. He tore it open, then took out two files and offered one to me. “A non-disclosure agreement. I’d like for you to sign this before we go any further.”
I read the agreement fast—it was only a page long. Standard stuff, almost identical to the ones Finn gave to us. Without hesitation, I grabbed a pen from the mug on my desk—why spend money on an actual pen holder when a mug worked just fine?—and signed my name at the bottom of it. Peterson folded it and put it in his pocket, and gave me the one he’d signed.
“I’m trustworthy, Mr. Peterson. You don’t need to worry about it.” I would never trust someone who said that to me, but what the hell else was there to say in situations like this?
Nodding his head, the witch looked at the floor. With shaking fingers, he wiped his lips a few times, then took in a deep breath. “Someone’s hunting down the witches in our coven,” he whispered.
Goosebumps all over me again. Nothing good ever started with lines like that.
“Every Green witch in the country is looking into it, and we’ve hired everyone else, too. We need to find ou
t who’s doing this immediately.”
“Okay, let’s start from the beginning, shall we? Tell me what happened. I’ll ask you questions along the way.” My mind was completely focused on him, ready to commit every word Peterson said to memory. This was my job. It was what I did best. And to be honest, I’d missed the hell out of it.
“The Green coven is led by four families,” Peterson said, his voice slightly shaking, but I already knew that. “Two weeks ago, the daughter of one of the leaders disappeared without a trace. We searched everywhere for her, but she’s nowhere. Nobody saw her. Then, a week later, the same thing happened to the son of another leader.”
A lump formed in my throat. I could barely breathe.
“Four days ago, it happened again.”
Squeezing his eyes shut tightly, Peterson leaned back in my chair. My mouth was too dry to speak, so I just waited for him to continue.
“The son of another leader was taken in his home, right from his room.”
A second later, the room around us became clear again. My heart pounded in my chest. Amelia’s face came to my mind, as well as the story she told me over breakfast.
“And the fourth?” I asked, my voice cold as ice.
Peterson’s green eyes met mine. “My children.”
Oh, shit. That’s when it dawned on me. I was talking to a freaking coven leader.
“Are they…”
“No, they’re safe. They’re safe for now.” Rubbing his palms against his thighs, Peterson looked like a crazy man all of a sudden. “We have to stop them before they get to my family. It’s why I’m here. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make sure we find them.”
Four children of the Green coven leadership members. Just like in the Bone coven.
Coincidence? I think not.
Everything my aunt said replayed in my mind. Those children were kidnapped, then found dead by untraceable blasts of magic. Blasts of magic like the one I’d used on Ralph Martinez. Ice covered my skin. Could it be that the same people who’d broken apart the Bone coven were doing the same with the Green?
And were they like me?
“Any dead bodies?” I asked when I came around to my senses.
“No,” Peterson whispered, as if he knew that this was only a matter of time. If what happened to the Bone coven ten years ago was any indication, it was. “They just took them. We haven’t received any messages. Any requests. It’s like they fell off the face of the earth, just like that.”
“Does your coven have any enemies? Someone who would want to harm the leadership? Be honest with me, Mr. Peterson. I know that’s inside information, but I need to know everything to do my job.”
“Does that mean you accept?”
Hell, yeah. “Yes, I do accept the job.” And I couldn’t wait to get to it already.
“Good,” he whispered, a shadow of a smile on his lips. “And, no, the Green coven doesn’t have enemies. We’re generally very peaceful.” They were known for that, too.
“Do any of you have any idea why those people were taken?”
Peterson shook his head. “None.”
“This is going to sound strange, but please bear with me. Is anything going on between the leaders? Any arguments or misunderstandings, fights, or something like that?”
Peterson narrowed his brows. If he knew the story of the Bone coven, he wouldn’t be so surprised at my question.
“We’re always arguing. Always have. Where are you trying to get at?”
“Just ruling out options,” I said, my excitement over the roof. What were the odds of the same thing happening to two covens? If I could figure out who was behind this for one, I would have done it for both. And all that guilt resting on my shoulders for tearing apart an entire coven—gone.
“This isn’t us,” Peterson said, a dumbfounded smile on his face. “The last time it happened, a witch saw them.”
I jumped to my feet, my heart racing. “What was it?” A fairy. That was what he was going to say. A fairy had done it.
“Werewolves.”
What the fuck?
“Werewolves?” Peterson nodded without hesitation. “Are you absolutely sure?” Another nod.
I fell on my chair again, sighing loudly. “Are you…disappointed?” Peterson looked like he wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
Yes, I was disappointed! The Bone witches had been killed by blasts of magic. Werewolves had no magic.
“No, not disappointed. Just surprised. Werewolves are some of the best hunters out there. I can see how they could have managed to capture the first two unnoticed. But werewolves have never had anything against witches. We’ve always worked together.” Since the very beginning, werewolves and witches have always stuck by each other’s sides.
“We?” Peterson’s raised brows made me flinch. He was right. I looked like a fairy, not a witch, and fairies never worked together with anyone.
“Who else is in on this, other than your coven?” I said instead of answering. It wasn’t his or anyone’s business if I was half a witch or not. All people cared about was how I looked, anyway.
“Finn’s Agents and the ECU. They’ve sent the best of their werewolves on this, but they’re only there to help. They’re still treating this as an internal coven matter,” Peterson said.
That was really surprising. “And nobody has been able to find them?” If Finn had his best people on this, and the ECU theirs, the case should have been solved within a day.
“That’s why I’m here,” Peterson said.
“Who told you about me?” I was very curious.
“Finn. He called me this morning to tell me that there was no update on the case, and that if his agents couldn’t find out what was going on, you could.” Oh, that sweet ole werewolf. Made me feel all warm and fuzzy for a second.
“The only thing I can promise you is that I will do my best,” I said, feeling a little on edge now. This was much more complicated than I thought. If all those people couldn’t get to the bottom of this, how could I? “I’m going to need everything you have so far. The names and addresses of the witches who were kidnapped, where they were last seen, who they were last seen with, and who was the last to speak to them.”
Peterson searched for something in the other pocket of his jacket. “It’s all here.” He left a small red flash drive on my desk.
“I’m also going to need access into your coven’s neighborhood.” From what I heard, Green witches were based in Delaware in this huge green area. That would be where the coven leaders lived. Bloomsburg was the Bone coven’s neighborhood, and all of its leaders used to live there, but I could still be mistaken.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Peterson looked down at his feet.
“Why not?” I asked, but I already knew the answer. He couldn’t let me into his neighborhood because I was a fairy. Goddamn it.
“Like I said, nobody knows about this. If the others find out…”
“You didn’t tell the other leaders?”
With his lips pressed together, Peterson shook his head. “We talked about bringing you in, but they all voted against it. I’ve come to you as a father, not as a coven leader.”
With a sigh, I let it go. Maybe I didn’t like it, but I understood. “It’s not like you can stop me if I want to come for a walk around your house, though.” He opened his mouth to object, but I didn’t let him. “Nobody will see me, I’ll make sure of it.”
Peterson stood up. “How much do you charge?”
His question made my stomach roll. How much did I charge? No fucking idea.
“Let’s just talk about that once this is over, okay?” I said, feeling uncomfortable at the mentioning of money. I wasn’t used to asking people for it. Finn told me what he offered in the contract I signed, and he just transferred what he owed me in my bank account. We never really talked about it, which just showed how unprepared I was for running my own business.
“I’ll leave this with you for expenses.” Peterson put an e
nvelope on the desk right next to the flash drive. “Thank you for doing this, Miss Wayne.”
He was a desperate man. That much was obvious by the fact that he’d come to me. But he was also scared. Very scared.
“You’re welcome, Mr. Peterson. Take care of your children until we figure this out.”
When he made for the door, he didn’t offer me his hand to shake again. With his head down, he walked out of my office and disappeared down the street, leaving me alone, excited and even a bit scared.
Four
I ordered a pizza and I actually went to get it myself. There was something about having shit to do that seemed to breathe life back into me. I didn’t even mind the stares the paranormals gave me in the streets all that much. And before I went to get my pizza, I took my time at the grocery store and bought enough snacks to last me a week.
Back at the office, I put everything I bought on my bed. I locked the door to my tiny room so that even if my landlady came down to the office, she wouldn’t be able to talk to me. With the laptop on my lap and food all around me, I began to work.
The flash Peterson left for me had everything I needed to get started. I was right about the Green coven. It was located in Delaware. It was going to be a pain to get there with my car—which I was now calling Turtle—but it wasn’t like I had anywhere else to go. I could plan ahead and save time.
The names of the people who were kidnapped were written in a document, along with their ages and addresses. A paragraph was written below each, explaining where they were last seen:
Cara Hughes, daughter of Ronald Hughes, was last seen in the living room of her apartment by her best friend and roommate at 8:00 p.m. on a Monday.
Oscar Sullivan, son of Theodora Sullivan, was last seen by his younger brother at the family’s accounting office at 7:40 p.m. on a Tuesday.
Austin Marshall Jr., son of Austin Marshall, was last seen in his parents’ house for dinner by his whole family at 7:00 pm on a Friday.
The hairs on my arms stood on end. Whoever had taken these people, they were good. So much better than anything I’d ever worked with before. They’d managed to break through protection spells without raising any alarms and take those witches like they owned them.
