We’d just made it into the kitchen where Gryph was pulling out burgers to grill, so I decided now was the time to test my theory that Allie would be shocked about the swingers.
“What strange incident?” Dylan asked. “No one tried to bite you, did they? That sort of thing is against the law without written consent.”
“Nothing like that,” I assured him. “I guess Gryph’s neighbors are swingers, and they asked us to join them in bed. They also invited us to an orgy.”
“They never specified a bed, Sass,” Gryph corrected me. “My neighbors made the potato salad for us today. I’ve never had potato salad this good.”
“Wait a minute!” Allie interrupted.
I smiled and waited for her to continue. She was clearly shocked by what I’d said.
“Vampires make the best potato salad?” she asked doubtfully.
“You should try some,” Gryph told her. “It’s fantastic.”
“That’s really what you find so hard to believe?” I asked.
“Did you honestly expect me to be shocked by swingers?” Allie asked with a laugh. “On more than one occasion, my mother and grandmother invited me to attend an orgy with them. Actually, invited isn’t a strong enough word. They tried to pressure me into going to an orgy with both of them.”
“That is much stranger than my swinging vamp neighbors,” Gryph agreed. “No offense to your family, Allie.”
“None taken,” Allie assured him. “Most find the behavior of sex demons strange. You’re all lucky I spent so much time around witches growing up.”
“I’m especially grateful,” Dylan told her. “As I understand it, monogamy is frowned upon among most sex demons.”
“I’m going to run out to start these burgers,” Gryph stated on his way out the patio door.
I shook my head. “Who would have guessed the infamous Dylan Hunt would end up smitten with a succubus?”
“I prefer smitten with a sex kitten,” Dylan remarked.
Allie just snorted.
“That really was horrible,” I told Dylan.
“Yes, but she loves me, anyway,” he said with a smirk. “How about you, Julia?”
“Of course, I love you, but like a brother,” I replied, intentionally mistaking his meaning.
“You know what I mean,” Dylan pushed. “I heard all about what happened with you and Gryph at the council building. You’ve been avoiding me at Bliss, so I haven’t had a chance to ask you about it. What the hell happened? I’m sure the rumors can’t be true.”
“I haven’t heard them, but they’re probably true,” I admitted.
“How?” Dylan asked.
I still didn’t have an answer to that, so I was thankful when the doorbell rang, saving me from further questions. At least, that’s what I thought until Mel and Trevor walked in.
Trevor was grinning from ear to ear. “So, how have you been, Julia?” he asked.
“She’s been busy turning down orgy invitations,” Allie answered for me.
“I could have lived without picturing my sister at an orgy,” Trevor said with a shudder.
I smacked his arm. “I didn’t go, you pervert.”
“Why am I a pervert?” he asked. “I’m not the one going to orgies.”
“Don’t pretend you’ve never gone to one,” Allie told Trevor.
“You told her!” Trevor accused Dylan.
“It was an interesting story,” Dylan replied. “My wife is half-succubus. It’s hard to come up with many interesting stories from my past.”
“That one wasn’t terribly interesting,” Allie insisted. “Although, it was amusing.”
“Why have I never heard this story?” I asked.
“Because I’m your brother,” Trevor stated. “You don’t need to hear about me going to an orgy.”
Mel let out a dramatic sigh. “I’ve never even been invited to an orgy, yet you went to one. I’m not really sure why that surprises me, considering what a man-whore you were.”
Allie giggled. “It didn’t turn out quite the way they’d hoped.”
“Now, I really need to hear this story,” I insisted.
“What story?” Gryph asked as he walked back in with a plate of burgers that would likely moo when we bit into them.
“We were just about to hear about the orgy Trevor and Dylan went to,” I explained.
“I don’t want to picture either of them naked, so maybe I should go back outside,” Gryph suggested.
“We didn’t get naked,” Dylan assured him with a laugh. “Some college buddies thought this would be a great adventure. We were dumb enough to agree. Let’s just say that the ladies we knew weren’t interested in attending the orgy.”
Gryph laughed. “Did any women show up?”
“Nope,” Trevor replied. “It was just a room full of horny guys. Worst night of my college life.”
“That’s pathetic,” Mel told Trevor with a shake of her head.
“At least, I got invited to a real orgy,” I said with a laugh.
That set the tone for the rest of the evening. The conversation was light and fun. It was nice having one night where my life seemed almost normal again.
Chapter 64
The Gentleman Warlock
Five days! That’s how long it had taken me to recover from my exhaustion. There had to be a problem with the form I’d used to go to Beatrice’s house. Some people had their body spelled so someone couldn’t duplicate their form after death. I’d never failed to recognize those types of spells in the past, so it seemed unlikely the problem was a spell. No matter the reason, I’d spent most of the last few days languishing in bed. Tatiana was lucky I’d recently stocked the room she was being held in. I’d been too exhausted to drive out to bring her food and water.
With any luck, she’d have enough for another day or two. There was no telling how this next change of form would affect me, considering how I’d reacted to the last. It was unavoidable. I needed a voice that wouldn’t be tied to me. The easiest way to accomplish that was to use a woman’s form.
Looking over at the corpse of the old human woman, I focused on taking her shape. I hadn’t killed her. She hadn’t deserved to die, but life was tough for a woman living on the streets. She’d died because someone wanted the few measly dollars she’d panhandled that day. I’d taken her body for two reasons. First, I figured no one would miss her. Second, I’d been the one to deal with her killer. The least she could do was allow me to use her form.
Looking down at my withered hands with the dirty nails, I realized the transformation was complete. Drawing air into my lungs was difficult, making me worry. This wouldn’t do. I was already weak again, and I’d just shifted to this form. I had no idea what was going on. It enraged me further to remember how strong my sister had seemed when she’d changed into a falcon. Before I killed her, I would force her to reveal her secret. She’d come nowhere near succeeding when we were children. It simply wasn’t possible to change into anything with that much of a weight difference. She’d also done it without the body of the bird anywhere nearby, making me wonder if she’d learned to create her own form like a shade.
Shaking myself out of my useless ponderings, I grabbed the disposable phone. It took me some time to get the person answering the phones to transfer my call. They acted like I was wasting their time. I knew mentioning Beatrice by name would get my call transferred to the right place eventually, but I was angry about the wait.
“Hardy,” the shade answered impatiently.
“Am I speaking to a police detective?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Detective Hardy replied. “I’m a detective. What can I do for you?”
He sounded bored and annoyed. From what I’d seen of Detective Hardy, he didn’t care too much about helping people.
“I was told you could help me,” I began, trying to sound frightened. “I went to visit my friend at the witch trailer park in Pinole, and something happened.”
Hardy let out a huff. “Could you just
get to the point? I have a lot of cases to handle.”
“There was this young witch, Beatrice LaCroix,” I began. “She was arguing with a man. His name started with a D, but I can’t remember what it was.”
“Was it Desmond?” Hardy asked.
“That sounds right,” I replied hesitantly. In order to sound more believable, I had to pretend to forget some of the details. “I’m not completely sure. He was a handsome young man with black hair and blue eyes. He looked quite a bit like the witch, Beatrice.”
“Can you tell me what happened?” Hardy pushed.
“He dragged the poor witch out of her trailer,” I began in mock horror. “When I asked my friend about it, she told me it was a family matter and I should just leave well enough alone. According to her, that family always had problems.”
“How long ago did this happen?” Hardy pushed.
“It was earlier today,” I lied, knowing that if I told them the truth, they’d be less inclined to believe Beatrice was still alive. With no family pushing for her to be found, and little chance she could be used as a witness, Detective Hardy wouldn’t be that concerned with finding her. He was not a good man, and if I could find a way to pull it off, I’d see that he was punished for all he’d done. For the time being, the detective’s moral flaws and laziness worked in my favor.
“Why didn’t you call as soon as you saw what was happening?” Hardy demanded.
“Oh, dear,” I uttered in a shaky voice. “My friend seemed convinced it was just a family squabble that would resolve itself. The longer I was away from there, the more it bothered me. I think that poor witch is in danger. Someone needs to help her.”
“I’ll need the name and address of your friend at the trailer park,” Hardy told me.
“I don’t think I should provide that,” I hedged. “My friend doesn’t really like talking to the police. No one over there does. I doubt you’ll find a single person there who’ll admit to seeing that girl being dragged off in broad daylight.”
“This is a police matter, and I’m going to have to insist you answer my question,” he ground out.
“I hope you find her, but that’s all the information I can give you,” I told him before ending the call and tossing the phone in a bowl equipped with an incineration spell. I wasn’t sure if the lazy prick would try to trace the call, but I didn’t want to take any chances.
When I took a step, I nearly collapsed.
“What the hell is happening to me?” I asked in a slurred voice.
Distantly, I heard Katya’s voice, but much like the other times in the last few days it was tinny and far away. Unable to handle two more changes, I changed back to my own form and collapsed onto the bed. With any luck, the police would locate Beatrice for me.
Chapter 65
Julia
“I am getting sick of looking over my shoulder,” I grumbled.
“I don’t blame you, Sass,” Gryph replied from his spot on the sofa in my office.
“Don’t patronize me!” I snapped.
Gryph merely raised an eyebrow at my reaction. He was getting used to my moodiness. The last few days, things had been getting increasingly more stressful for me. None of that was Gryph’s fault. Our relationship was great. We’d settled into a comfortable routine, and the sex was phenomenal. If it weren’t for the sex, my mood would be even worse. No matter how much I enjoyed my time with Gryph, I couldn’t get past how much I missed Oliver. He was my familiar. The bond between us was hard to explain, but it felt unnatural to be away from him.
“It must have been horrible for Beatrice when she lost her familiar,” I uttered.
“I imagine having her own brother hurt her that way made the pain worse,” Gryph added, and there was no missing the anger in his voice. “Despite any issues I had with my brother, I could trust him.”
“I know what you mean,” I agreed with a sigh. “I fought with my sisters all the time when we were growing up, but the meanest thing any of them ever did was cut off a chunk of my hair when I was asleep. Do you have any idea what he did by taking her familiar away from her?”
“I can’t fully understand since I’m not a witch,” he began. “All I can do is guess based on how you’ve been without Oliver around. That’s been pretty bad.”
“Sorry I’ve been so moody,” I said on a sigh.
“It’s more than that,” Gryph began. “With this bond we have, the witch and werewolf thing, I sense your agitation. I never would have guessed how much Oliver soothes you. He seems like a lot of work most days.”
“Most don’t realize that each familiar is a perfect match for their witch,” I began. “There are times when people see a witch with her familiar and think there must have been some mistake, but they balance each other. We’re stronger with our familiars.”
“Why don’t warlocks have them?” Gryph asked. “Or do they? I’ve never seen a warlock with a familiar, so I just assumed they don’t have them.”
“Warlocks don’t have familiars,” I confirmed. “They’ve tried it a few times, but for some reason, they just don’t bond with them. No one really knows why that is.”
“Why doesn’t Beatrice just get another familiar?” he asked.
“It’s not quite that simple,” I explained. “You have to keep in mind that the magic involved is complex. There have been some rare cases where they were able to repeat the magic for a witch after she lost her familiar. It often fails the second time.”
“So, the magic didn’t work the second time for Beatrice,” he deduced.
“More likely, her family never tried to get her a new familiar,” I corrected him.
“Why wouldn’t they at least try if a familiar is that important?” he asked.
“It’s also incredibly expensive,” I explained. “From the little I know about Beatrice and her family, they struggled financially.”
“You went to school with her, right?” he asked.
“Yes, but we didn’t talk much,” I replied.
“Let me guess,” he began. “You ran in different crowds.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded. “Are you insinuating I was stuck up?”
Gryph laughed at the suggestion. “Hardly. I just meant you probably had different interests. I’ll bet you were involved in a lot of activities.”
“I was too busy trying to avoid everyone to get involved,” I admitted. “My ability to sense connections between witches and warlocks has always been strong. What few people realize is that when teens are in love, it’s real. It may not last, and it may be totally different from the type of love they’ll feel as adults, but it’s no less genuine. In witches and warlocks, that love is strong enough to cause their power to connect in some way. It’s not a real bonding, but it’s very intense. I could sense them all around me. It was like walking through a web of hot magic.”
“That sounds pretty damn stressful,” Gryph remarked.
“You have no idea,” I told him. “As if all that wasn’t enough to make high school suck, everyone knows what my family does. Practically every day I had a couple begging me to test their affinity so they could prove their parents wrong. There is a very good reason we don’t do affinity tests on young witches and warlocks. It seems that when they believe they’ll pass, they will. I did my Master’s thesis on magic in adolescence. The focus was on how their belief in the outcome could make it come true.”
“There was really that much information to do an entire thesis?” Gryph asked.
“I could have spent decades doing research,” I said with a shake of my head. “My findings were a little terrifying. If anyone ever wanted to create an army of witches to take over the world, all they’d have to do is recruit teens. While their magic is more volatile and hard to control, we are all at our most powerful between the ages of fifteen and eighteen. That’s when we gain a huge amount of magic, and it’s also when we are so convinced of our own immortality that we have a harder time believing things aren’t possible.”
>
Gryph chuckled. “So, teen witches and warlocks are the most dangerous creatures in the preternatural community.”
“Not the most dangerous, but they’re up in the top three,” I told him. “Thankfully, they have no idea how powerful they are. After my thesis was reviewed, it was destroyed.”
It took Gryph some time to get his laughter under control before he spoke again. “I guess it’s a good thing your research was destroyed. I’d hate to have teens take over the world.”
“Goddess help us all if that ever happens,” I muttered.
When my phone rang, I grabbed it and let out a frustrated sigh when I saw who was calling. “It’s the police,” I told Gryph, and I didn’t miss his low rumbling growl.
“Hello,” I answered, trying not to sound annoyed. Now that we suspected one of the detectives was Desmond LaCroix, it was hard to be pleasant.
“Good morning, Miss Dupree. This is Detective Mason.” He sounded much more pleasant than normal.
“What can I do for you, detective?” I asked.
“We need to meet with you today,” he stated. “I just wanted to let you know we’ll be at your office in about thirty minutes.”
“I have a client in thirty minutes,” I told him. “Can we meet a little later? I’ll be with this client for about an hour. After that, I have no meetings until five.”
“I’m sure your client will understand that police business comes first,” Detective Mason insisted. “We’ll see you soon.”
Not waiting for a response, he ended the call.
“Stupid jerk,” I muttered before looking up at Gryph. “Our favorite detectives will be here in thirty minutes, so I need to call my client and see if they can come in later.”
“I wish we could figure out which of them is Desmond,” Gryph grumbled. “While you make your call, I’m going to call the preternatural police again and see if I can get your case reassigned.”
I said nothing, knowing it wasn’t going to happen. I simply couldn’t figure out why we were having so much trouble with the police. It wasn’t that I was so innocent I didn’t think there were bad cops, but I knew most shade detectives were good people doing a tough job. I also knew it wasn’t that uncommon for people to request a different detective on a case. What I couldn’t figure out was why they were refusing to assign one on this case. There was definitely more going on behind the scenes than we knew about.
Seductively Spellbound (Spells That Bind Book 3) Page 24
