by ERIN BEDFORD
“Then I’d make do.” Creaking open her office that also doubled as her bedroom on more than one occasion, she made her way to the bathroom she had installed when she first rented the place.
Her office sat on top of a Wiccan supply store. Madame Serena, her landlord, specialized in everything from palm reading to love potions and aura cleansings. The first time she had seen Mary she had told her she had the purest aura she’d ever seen and rented her the space without even having to fill out a form. Her business had been booming ever since. Madame Serena called Mary her good luck charm, Mary wasn’t so sure.
Turning the hot water on scalding, Mary dragged her clothes off her body, each muscle aching from the movement. She always hated getting possessed. It was like she had been beaten on the inside and out. It left her insides feeling like they needed a good scrubbing; something even boiling hot water wouldn’t clean out. What she did have was access to the water heater and a holy cross that had been dropped in it on day one.
Didn’t make the water stay warmer longer, but it beat the hell out of doing an aura cleanse every other week. Not that she got possessed that often. It didn’t hurt to be prepared.
Once she had rinsed off the extra baggage weighing her down, Mary felt a hundred times better. She moved through the bathroom and back into her office with more pep in her step.
“Uh, Mare.” Trisha sat behind Mary’s desk filing her blood red nails. “Did you forget something again?”
“Hmm?” She bent over and grabbed a bottle of water from her mini fridge.
“Mary, come on! I’m right here.” Mary turned her head toward Trisha who was covering her eyes with her hand, and then realized she had forgotten clothes, again.
She’d only been living as a human for the last five years, and while she had acclimated herself to their culture, she still lacked some of the hang-ups that most humans seemed to have. Like modesty and what Trisha called tact.
She didn’t understand what the big deal was, they were all animals, and it made no difference to her. Were humans so out of control of their hormones that the mere glimpse of naked flesh would send them into a frenzy? It made her happy she was above all those animalistic urges.
“Sorry,” Mary muttered, grabbing a clean shirt from the closet of clothes she kept at the office.
“So anyways, did you get paid?” Trisha pointed her nail file at her.
Jerking her pants on, she realized she actually hadn’t even talked to the father about payment. Money. Another one of the human needs that she didn’t quite get.
“Not exactly.”
Trisha frowned. “What do you mean, not exactly? Either you did or you didn’t? Please tell me you actually told them they’d have to pay.”
“I didn’t not tell them.” Mary tugged her boots on and sighed. “Can’t you just send them an invoice?”
The young girl’s mouth dropped open before clamping shut. “Well, yeah. But it won’t do any good if you haven’t discussed payment beforehand.”
“Why?”
“Because,” Trisha snapped. “People are in it for themselves. Mare, you know I love your naïve outlook on humanity, but you have to remember there aren’t a lot of good people out there. Even priests.”
Mary almost let out a snort. Naïve outlook. Trisha couldn’t be further from the truth. It was hard to ignore how much evil was in the world when she could read people's intentions from across the room. Even Trisha had her dark moments, and no one was completely good. There were more bad humans than she thought were worth saving.
“Got it. No more freebies.” She nodded her head, ending the conversation she and her receptionist seemed to have on a weekly basis.
Seemingly satisfied, the young girl started to click away on Mary’s computer. “So, now that that is out of the way. How are we going to make some dough? Rent is due and you are already a month behind.” She moved the mouse around on the screen until something caught her eye. “How about a nice and easy background check?”
“A background check?”
“Yeah!” Trisha beamed at her. “This rich guy wants you to check out this prospective nanny. Make sure she’s not a child molester or whatever. Easy peasy.”
“That sounds more like a Patricia skill than a Mary skill.” Mary came around the desk and leaned over her shoulder to look at the screen.
“Well, yeah, I can do all the online digging, but he wants you to use your special gifts.” She air quoted. “To sniff out if she’s the real deal or not.”
“What am I a bloodhound?"
“When it’s a four digit job, you bark and roll over.” Trisha smirked at her over her shoulder.
Mary groaned. She didn’t like to use her powers for menial tasks, like she was some kind of circus freak that could jump through hoops on command. She was supposed to be looking for a way back home not paying bills.
As if hearing her distress, her cell phone rang.
“Wiles.” The gruff voice of Sergeant Thompson of the LAPD greeted her. “How’s my favorite PI?”
“Hi, Sergeant.” Mary couldn’t help but smile at his attempt to flatter her. “Just had holy water cleanse and you?”
She refrained from laughing, it sounded like he was choking on what she knew was his regular cup of coffee permanently attached to his hand.
“Really now?” He asked when he finally caught his breath. “Where would you get one of those done?”
“Oh, you can do it at home. I’ll have to show you sometime.” She smiled over at Trisha who was having a laughing fit. No one would know it but the Los Angeles Police Sergeant was a closet paranormal addict. Something that Mary had easily picked up on and had since used it to tease him mercilessly. She found it especially funny since she herself was of the paranormal.
“Yeah. You’ll have to do that.” He cleared his throat and tried to sound all official. “But that’s not what I called about. We have a body.”
“Don’t you usually?”
“Your kind of body.” Her kind of body usually meant that there was some kind of weird mutilation or symbols that moved the murder from normal to paranormal if one could call murder normal.
“Oh. Well in that case. Where do you need me?” Thompson rambled off the address of a bar called The Night Owl. A local bar she knew was crawling with paranormal activity, and it was only a matter of time before a body would show up.
“So, do we have a case?” Trisha’s eyes lit up with interest.
Mary snapped her phone closed with a grin. "We have a case."
* * *
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About the Author
Erin Bedford is a fantasy and paranormal romance author, a computer programmer by day, and a hobby hoarder.
Creating fantastical worlds have always been a secret passion of hers and she couldn't imagine writing any story without some kind of lovey-dovey or smexy goodness in it.
Read More from Erin Bedford
www.erinbedford.com
