It was the ability to read the life of an object, as it related to all its past owners. A regular witch could use a person’s object to find a person by using the life energy imprint. Psychometry could actually read that imprint, and view a person’s life up until they stopped using that object. It also worked when touching a person directly. In any case, they finished chatting and made it out the door, which left her and Berny alone in the store.
The door opened again, still not Ed. It was a large shifter in a long coat she’d never seen before, and he didn’t seem happy. Then he dropped the coat and her eyes widened in alarm, he was naked underneath and started to shift into a bear.
“Crap, another one? Get in the back Bernie!”
She considered shifting, but a bear and tiger fight in her store would… be really bad for her displays and shelving, if not for herself, so she went for the gun she’d taken off the last assassin and readied a stun spell.
Bernie made a snorting noise of negation.
She glared at Berny and lifted the gun when the bear lunged forward… and hit a wall. He roared loudly and started to wave his paws as he was held above the floor, helpless. She couldn’t help it, she started laughing.
Berny growled, “It is funny, and I’m good at telekinesis, but the bastard is heavy.”
She nodded a little contritely, “Sorry,” and started casting her second sleep spell of the day. The large brown bear started to snore.
“Can you get him in the back, put him on the floor I guess, the table is full.”
Berny nodded and the bear started to fly into the back room.
What the hell was going on? She’d been pleasantly surprised when no one tried to actually kill her outside of lawbreakers for the first month. She’d started to believe it wouldn’t happen, and now twice in one morning? She shook her head and picked up the phone, this time she called Josh, and he promised to be right in…
Chapter 3
Ed and Josh showed up one right after the other, and she showed them the two would be assassins in the back. They both had no clue what was going on, and the incidents were obviously unrelated to each other, as far as the assassins went anyway. One witch from Charlotte, and the bear had a license from Georgia.
Ed looked at her with concern, “Sorry it took so long for me to get here, I figured you had him iced and I wanted to check into some things.”
Josh growled a bit menacingly, “Let’s wake one up, they’ll talk.”
Celia frowned, that sounded rather ugly. The fight had excited her, but questioning someone under duress didn’t sound quite so appealing. She knew based on the look on Josh’s face, duress was probably too kind a word.
Celia put up a quick glamour on the door that would filter out the sound from back here, as well as the view in case things got… interesting. She also hoped the human cops weren’t keeping an eye on her anymore, she didn’t think they were, but so far today two men had entered the store and hadn’t left yet, she wondered if they’d leave at all.
She asked softly, “Which one first?”
Josh nodded at the bear, and Ed just shrugged. Apparently Ed didn’t care enough to argue about it, and Josh wasn’t nearly as laid back as their regular shifter partner Paul was.
Josh pulled out a thin wire cuff, put it around the shifter’s neck, and he also cuffed the shifter’s arms behind his back. It wouldn’t stop a change, but if the bear changed the wire around his neck would cut deeply into it. The cuffs were quite a bit stronger than the human police used as well.
Celia waved a hand and used the one word dispersal spell, and her sleep spell was ripped away. It took a few moments for the bear to come to, and he immediately started to struggle.
She winced a little when Josh kicked him in the solar plexus and the bear started to struggle to breathe.
“Shut up, if you change, you die. You’re going to answer some of our questions… when you catch your breath that is.”
They waited while the bear caught his breath, seemed to recover a bit, and then glared up at them.
Josh demanded, “Why were you trying to kill Celia, who is a council enforcer for the Charlotte area?”
The bear laughed.
Josh growled, “What’s so amusing.”
The bear replied, “I’m dead either way, why would I tell you a thing.”
Josh shrugged and said in a bored voice, “There are many ways to die my foolish friend. If you talk I can promise you a quick and boring death, if not… well it will get very interesting for you.”
The shifter blanched and he wasn’t the only one. Celia turned away a bit so the bear wouldn’t see her own face, not to mention Josh or Ed. She’d had no trouble with the killing part, in the heat of battle, but the idea of torture was abhorrent. She had a spell she could use, from her mother’s war spell book, which would get a look into his mind. But… that wouldn’t work, the whole point of having multiple enforcers was for corroboration.
Plus, she wasn’t sure she wanted either the shifters or the witches knowing about that spell, somehow she didn’t think her mom had shared their family spell craft, and she was inclined not to either.
The bear sighed and shrugged after a while, as if it wouldn’t make a difference.
“Fine, but it won’t help you anyway. Someone put up a hundred grand to take her out.”
“Who,” Josh followed up.
“I don’t know. They put it up in a bond of sorts, a blind account. I provide a picture as proof, they send me the account number.”
Josh snorted, “How could you trust that, what if they don’t pay?”
The bear shook his head, “The ones that post the bounty on the underground network know who the buyer is, and they get a fee too. If the buyer backed out, they would regret it. Using an anonymous middle man broker like that makes it safer for everyone involved when going after targets not sanctioned by a council.”
Celia frowned, he was telling the truth.
Josh laughed darkly, “Not for you it doesn’t.”
Ed looked very annoyed, “No wonder I couldn’t find anything in the usual places.”
Josh frowned, “Is it a website?”
The bear laughed, “No, it’s not. More like a blind drop. I just get an email when a new job comes up, and no I have no idea how I got added to this guys list. Like I said, I couldn’t tell you anything useful if I wanted to.”
Lie.
Josh growled, “You know something else, what is it?”
The bear looked at Ed and sneered, “I got an e-mail for him too. It’s just a matter of time, both of you are walking dead.”
Josh barked, “Anyone else?”
The bear looked unimpressed but answered anyway by shaking his head, “No.”
Celia flinched when Josh stepped forward and put the bear in a hold that snapped his neck.
They went through the same routine with the witch. The guy didn’t need threats though, he was already scared out of his mind. It seemed Celia’s contract was his introduction to the whole secret assassination club, or whatever they called it. Someone knew something though, if the assassins got blind drops, how did the ones that did the hiring do it?
Someone had to know something. Maybe the one who ran it could not only find those willing to assassinate people, but also could somehow find the ones willing to pay to have it done? That would almost certainly leave out shifters, it had to be someone with magic. Didn’t it?
Ed frowned, “I’d thought at first this was about your nature, apparently not. Any ideas who’d want to off the both of us?”
She went over the last few weeks, but nothing came to mind as they’d been pretty tame after they’d executed Brice. Just a few interviews for witches passing through town, and as far as she knew it had nothing to do with the shifter side anyway, or Paul would be on the list as well. Really… she could only think of one person that might have the motive to kill both her and Ed.
She shrugged, “Gerald Burrows, Albany coven leader. We took out those
two enforcers, and he never sent a follow up. Maybe he doesn’t want to risk a war with us, but he still wants us to pay for keeping Elaine. There’s no proof of course, I guess that’s the whole point though.”
Ed narrowed his eyes, “It’s a good guess, but it might be wrong. It helps you’ve been doing this just under a month, less history to check to find out who we pissed off. I’m calling it in.”
He pulled out his phone and called the council.
Josh waved at the dead bodies on the floor in the back of my store.
“I don’t think you need me for this, seems to be a witch thing. Can you do that thing you do, so I don’t cause a panic when I put these in my trunk? I’ll take care of them.”
She nodded and put a glamour over both bodies. People just wouldn’t… notice them. And pictures would be blurred out.
He picked them up and threw them one over each shoulder, and turned to her.
“I might need you later, I’ll let you know. Got word of a couple of independent wolf shifters in town, we need to figure out what they’re doing here. Stay safe would you? My wife likes you for some reason.”
She snorted, noticing he didn’t say he did.
“Alright, let me know when you need me.”
He nodded since his hands were full, and left right out the front door.
Ed hung up and looked resigned, “They want us to stay together until we figure this out.”
She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but apparently didn’t get a choice. Things were just starting to get normal between them again. Even though she hadn’t been with Paul yet, because they’d been waiting for the test results, but she’d kind of picked Paul over Ed. Ed had been attracted to her as well, but Paul completely overshadowed it because they were both tigers and…
She wasn’t really sure why, it was just how it was, she just couldn’t see anyone else when Paul was around. Ed was attractive though, and outside of his almost constant grumpy annoyed demeanor a good man. She didn’t want for things to get… awkward. It did make sense though so she didn’t object, they’d be able to guard each other’s backs when the next assassin showed up.
Her eyes widened a moment later as something occurred to her.
“What about Elaine and Cheryl?”
He furrowed his brows, “What about them?”
“Suppose I’m right and it was Gerald that put out the hit, once he took out the witch enforcers for the area, do you think he’d simply let the rest of it go, or make a play for them again?”
Celia pulled out her phone without waiting for a response and called Fran, maybe she was crazy, but she wasn’t taking any chances. It took her a while to go through all of what just happened.
Fran said with steel in her voice, “We’ll keep her safe dear, don’t worry. She won’t leave the house without an escort, and if anyone is foolish to attack here, at the center of our power, they won’t live to regret it.”
“Thanks Fran, let me know though, if anything happens. We’ll need real proof he’s involved if we’re going to do anything about it. I think your end of things is our only chance for that, the assassins are too clean.”
Fran agreed, and promised to fill in Elaine as she got off the phone.
She caught another one of those compressed air things out of the corner of her eyes. It was just still, and seemed to be watching her. She knew she should probably be more concerned about it, something or someone was spying on her, but since it wasn’t agitated like the last time, she actually relaxed a little.
It was possible the two things were related but she didn’t think so. Especially after the seeming warning, and whatever it was had been around for a while before the two attacks this morning. She also wondered how she was going to research what they were with Ed constantly looking over her shoulder.
She’d been keeping them a secret, because she’d thought they were hallucinations, even in their world seeing things that aren’t there wasn’t a good thing. But she was still reluctant to share the information now, and she wasn’t entirely sure why that was. Except, why wasn’t Ed seeing or sensing the thing right now?
She looked at Ed, “What now?”
He looked thoughtful for a moment, “Lunch?”
She laughed, “You said the magic word. I’m always up for food.”
Berny asked them to bring something back for her as they were leaving, and to be careful.
Ed replied confidently, “We’ll be fine, there were probably only two in the first wave. It’ll take time for the person running the show to send out new emails, and then travel time for the assassins. But don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to Celia.”
Celia felt a shiver down her spine, and wondered how many would be in the second wave.
Chapter 4
Josh frowned in welcome as her and Ed walked out of the store later that afternoon. He’d come by to pick her up and deal with the two wolf shifters in town.
“Why is he here?” Josh asked gruffly
She took a deep breath for patience, thank the goddess tiger shifters didn’t have to deal with alpha instincts. Sure, her cat would never submit, but cats were also good at ignoring things that annoyed them. She never felt the need to establish her dominance or fight, she just wouldn’t submit.
“Witch council orders, Ed’s my shadow until we figure out this assassin thing. Although right now we don’t have a lead, so that might take a while.”
Josh grunted and nodded at Ed, as if to say no offense.
She quirked a smile, “Shall we?” and got into the front passenger seat.
It wasn’t that she needed to be in the front, she just knew Ed wouldn’t want to sit next to Josh. As the one in the middle she found herself in the role of peacekeeper all the sudden, just another reason to miss Paul.
Ed shrugged and got in the back, and Josh got in silently and they drove off.
She asked, “So what do we know?”
“Not much, two shifters came into town, contacted the shifter council last night and indicated they wanted to make contact. Didn’t say anything about why though.”
She suppressed rolling her eyes. Shifters conserved words like they might run out sometimes, usually when communicating over the phone or e-mail. She supposed in a way it made sense, they preferred face to face conversations where they could gauge the truth, but that didn’t make it any less annoying. The tense silence started getting on her nerves, and she resorted to small talk.
“So how are Kelly and Rose?”
Josh grunted, “Good.”
She sighed at his one word terse answer, and didn’t bother to try and fill the silence anymore. Maybe he’d warm up to her. Josh seemed to be the polar opposite of his garrulous and relaxed father, Joe.
They pulled up in front of an economy motel, which rented dirt cheap for a week’s stay, and all piled out of the car.
Josh muttered, “one oh eight,” and started for the large building.
She noticed Ed leaned against the car, trying to give us privacy for shifter business while still being close enough if things went sideways. She nodded to him and followed in Josh’s wake. She almost giggled when Josh knocked so loud the whole building must have heard it. Subtle just wasn’t in the man’s repertoire.
The door opened and a man took a deep breath, then moved aside and waved them in. The room was small of course, but had two double beds in it. There were some moving boxes piled up in the corner, and empty pizza boxes and beer cans scattered around the room.
She casually looked over the men, they appeared to be twins at first. Both of them had the same general build of wolf shifters, same facial features, dark brown eyes, and black hair. But she noticed slight differences after a moment, very subtle differences, they were brothers but one was a few years older.
She nodded to them both, “Celia, and this is Josh.”
The older brother replied in a pleasant tenor, “Nice to meet you, I’m Cody, this is my brother Don. Excuse the mess, we weren’t expecting anyon
e from the council quite so fast.”
He waved at the table with two chairs by the window, and then took a seat on the bed.
She quirked a smile as she sat and quipped, “Slow week.”
Josh gave her an annoyed look, but the two brothers smiled appreciatively.
Josh asked bluntly, “So what brings you to Rock Hill?”
Don replied cautiously, “We’ve been searching for a new pack, and we heard the local pack here is more than a few short. Our only interest is in finding a new home, and we mean no harm to any here.”
“Where did you hear that?” Josh asked suspiciously.
Cody raised an eyebrow, “The last town we tried. The council told us. They all talk…”
Cody trailed off, as if feeling foolish stating the obvious.
Josh asked, “What happened to your old pack? Are you running?”
Don and Cody exchanged glances, and then Don answered with anger in his voice.
“Witches happened. And no, we aren’t running from anything, not since we escaped those spell casting freaks.”
Celia fidgeted a bit, feeling rather uncomfortable now.
Josh’s eyes went up and he leaned forward in the chair, “We have a rather solid peace going with the local covens here, will that be a problem for you two? The reason the local pack needs more members is partially because two of them attacked a witch. They died, one of them executed by the alpha himself.”
Cody shrugged, “We’d only protect ourselves. We don’t go out looking for revenge against a whole race, even if we do hate em. If we wanted revenge we’d go after the coven that got our old pack, not some witch that had nothing to do with it.”
Although the war was over, the peace depended on the local packs and covens. She was sure that coven would be taken to task eventually, but it wasn’t a simple situation. She also felt conflicted, should she mention who she was? Or more specifically what? She held her council for now, they would find out sooner or later, especially if they became part of the pack.
Demon's Moon: A Celia Winters Novel Book 2 Page 2
