by R. E. Butler
Chapter Eight
Delaney was still shaken by what she’d felt when she came to the rescue early that morning. An evil presence had been there, no doubt. The question was—who or what was it after?
She looked back to the cages where Flora was eating breakfast. Was someone after her? And if so, why?
Turning her attention back to the task at hand, she put a bag of cat treats into the box and hefted it onto her hip. They were taking enough food and treats for a week. While she was excited to stay with Brody—even though the circumstances sucked—she hoped the warlock would be caught quickly and the animals could move back to the rescue where they belonged. The move would definitely stress them out.
She carried the box into the back and set it by the door. They were going to put each animal into a travel carrier for the trip, and then transport the large cages on a trailer they were borrowing from the local feed store.
There was a pounding at the front door, and all three women startled.
“What the hell?” Hadlee asked, looking at her watch. “It’s seven a.m.”
The rescue didn’t open until nine. And they’d put a sign on the door that they were closed until further notice.
Hadlee turned back to the computer and opened the feed for the security camera at the front door. A man stood tapping his foot with his arms folded. He was tall with nearly-white hair and a goatee.
Delaney got some seriously bad vibes from the man. She looked at her friends. “What do you think?”
“I’ll turn on the mic,” Hadlee said. She pressed a button and said loudly, “Hello. I’m sorry, but we’re closed.”
The man looked around until he located the camera. His smile was forced. “I’m here about the black kitten.”
“Okay,” Hadlee said, “but we’re still closed. You can fill out an application online and make an appointment for next week.”
“Please,” he said, voice tight and brows drawn down, “someone stole her from me. I’ve been looking for her for weeks.”
Kinsley pressed the button to turn off the mic. “Anyone else getting bad vibes?”
Hadlee and Delaney nodded.
Kinsley turned the mic back on. “Be that as it may, you still have to follow our procedures. You can file a claim with the police department while you’re waiting, but our doors are closed, stolen cat or not.”
The man opened his mouth as if he might argue but then pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded. “I’ll be back.” He turned on his heels and stomped away, heading toward a car idling in the parking lot.
Hadlee turned off the mic. “Geez, that sounded like a threat.”
Delaney agreed. “You call Venice so he can keep an eye out for him, and I’ll call Brody.”
Once they’d made the calls, Venice agreed to watch for him, and Brody was going to look into stolen kitten reports.
Kinsley took the white cat from her cage and set her on the floor. “Do you think that guy is really her owner?”
“I don’t know,” Delaney said. “We did a web search for lost and missing black cat familiars and came up empty. Maybe I should’ve asked Brody to run a better search for us with the police software.” He could access police reports across the country and had on occasion checked on things for them. She scratched Flora’s head and she rubbed her nose along Delaney’s jaw, her whiskers tickling.
In all the years the rescue had been open, they’d never had a person show up claiming their familiar was stolen. It really didn’t make sense. Familiars and their masters were never apart. If Mimo wasn’t near her, it made Delaney feel twitchy. She couldn’t imagine a witch or warlock stealing someone else’s familiar, and a familiar would never run away from their master.
“I’m glad we were closed when he stopped by,” Delaney said. “He creeped me out over the video. I’d hate to meet him in person.”
“To be fair,” Hadlee said, “if Osiris was taken from me, I’d be kicking the door down to get him back.” As if hearing the mention of his name, her black cat peeked out from behind the computer monitor and stretched his paw out to bat at the mouse.
“But you’d file a report with the Council of Magic as well as the police. We’d have found at least a Council report if the kitten were actually stolen.”
“Good point,” Hadlee said. She rubbed her arms as if she’d just gotten a chill. “I hope he’s not a bad guy.”
“I’ll make an extra-strong protection ward for Brody’s house,” Kinsley said. Her magic specialty was protection spells. She went into the supply closet to gather the materials she needed. They always kept spell ingredients on hand because they never knew what they might have to deal with. One time a familiar had been dropped off and the rabbit had been pretty much feral because its owner had died and the body hadn’t been discovered for almost a week. The rabbit was half-starved and scared out of its mind, and they’d performed several spells on it, repairing its fragile psyche and healing its body and mind.
Delaney looked down at Flora who snoozed in her arms. “Was that man your master, little kits?”
Flora kept on sleeping.
Delaney set the kitten on the desk near Osiris, tucking her into a fluffy cat bed that the older male cat had turned his nose up at. He sniffed at her, his whiskers twitching, and then he settled back behind the monitor to rest.
By the time they were ready to move the animals, Kinsley had just finished the protection spell and Venice had arrived, parking in the front lot so his vehicle was visible in case the man got any ideas about coming back.
Venice was a good-looking guy, a fallen angel who’d come to town a couple months earlier from down south. Delaney had never met an angel who had wings—the heavenly messengers were invisible to everyone, human or supernatural, unless they chose to reveal themselves, which they almost never did. In order to “fall,” Venice would’ve had to go to his boss—the leader of his band of angels—and give the reasons for falling. She’d heard that sometimes a boss wouldn’t approve of the fall, and if the angel fell anyway, they’d become rogue and labeled a danger to everyone. Rogue angels were hunted by winged angels until they were found and returned to the heavens for punishment.
“Did it hurt when you fell?” Delaney asked when he helped her carry one of the cages to the trailer.
Venice raised a dark brow. “Absolutely. A higher-up took my wings with a fiery sword. The sacred fire on the blade closed the wounds and scarred them over, but the pain lasted a good week. It was like someone had jabbed hot pokers into my shoulders.”
“Wow. Do you regret it?”
He hummed, his gaze going a little distant as they set the cage on the trailer and secured it with straps. “Yes and no.” He paused for a bit, and then he continued. “It’s lonely being a winged angel. We’re always busy on heavenly jobs. Because we’re created and not born, we have no family to speak of, although I had thought of the other angels in my band as family of sorts. At least until I fell, and I realized what real family was.”
“How do you mean?”
He shrugged one shoulder, as if distancing himself from the feelings the conversation evoked. “If they were really my family, the angels in the band would’ve come to me after I fell, but they didn’t. When the female I fell for left me, I was destroyed by it. It wasn’t until I came here for a fresh start and became friends with Brody that I realized what friendship means, what family means. I’d die for him in a heartbeat, you know? And he’d do the same for me. That’s family.”
She nodded. “I totally get that. My parents are gone, and I’m an only child. But Kinsley and Hadlee are my family, and I wouldn’t just die for them, I’d lay waste to a city for them.”
He chuckled and gave her an approving smile. “Well put. It’s very easy to see the three of you have a special bond.”
Delaney was going to ask him some more about being an angel, but she lost the opportunity when Hadlee came to the back door.
“He’s back!”
They hurried inside.
Venice looked at the monitor, Delaney peeking around him.
“That him?” Venice asked. The man was standing on the porch again, his hand raised to knock.
“Yes,” Hadlee said. “We told him we were closed. I should’ve made a better protection spell for here.”
“It’s okay, I’m here,” Venice said. “I’ll handle it.”
Delaney found Kinsley at the front counter with the kitten in her arms. “Should I put her away?”
“No, he clearly knows she’s here,” Delaney said. “Just stay behind the counter. We’ve got Venice on our side.”
Venice strode to the door and unlocked it, pushing it open. “Morning,” he said. His voice was casual, but there was no mistaking the strength and power that emanated from him. He might not have his wings, but he was a supernatural creature, and one not to be trifled with.
The man paused at the threshold, nodded curtly at Venice, and walked inside. Venice let the door shut and joined the girls at the counter, keeping one hand loosely on the butt of his gun.
The man’s gaze took them all in then focused on the kitten.
“There she is!” he said.
The kitten woke at the sound of his voice and hissed, arching her back. Kinsley said, “Ow, dang sharp claws.”
The man reached over the counter, and Venice slammed his palm down, making the man jump and jerk his hand back. “Hold on a damn minute,” Venice said. “You say this kitten is yours, that she was stolen, yet I waited at the station and you never showed up to file a report.”
The man clenched his fists. “I filed one with my local precinct.”
“I searched the database, and no familiars were reported stolen in the last thirty days. Try again, and this time don’t lie.”
His gaze narrowed. “Why would I tell humans that she was my familiar? I reported a kitten stolen, not a familiar. At any rate, she’s mine, so let me have her.”
Delaney pushed Kinsley behind her, shielding the kitten from the man’s view. “If she’s yours, tell us your name, where you’re from, and what type of supernatural creature you are.”
His upper lip curled. “Give her to me.”
Venice stepped from behind the counter and put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “Answer the questions or leave.”
“You can’t do that! She’s mine.”
“Prove it,” Hadlee countered. “Don’t act like a criminal.”
“Fine,” the man said. “My name is Yago, and I’m a warlock. My coven is in North Dakota, and the kitten was stolen from me during a ceremony by an enemy, retaliating for a spell I cast against their family.”
“Why would you cast a spell against a family?” Hadlee asked.
“I was tasked by the head of the coven,” he said.
Delaney frowned. The man was definitely not telling the truth, but his aura appeared normal, as if he weren’t a bad guy. She would’ve expected his aura to be dark and muddy, but it was bright.
Too bright.
She realized what she was seeing was a glamour. He’d managed a spell to cover his aura that was strong enough to fool a witch.
Opening her mouth to warn her friends, she was a heartbeat too late as Yago lunged over the counter, knocking Delaney to the side and grabbing the kitten. Kinsley shouted a curse as Flora was snatched from her arms.
The kitten screeched, clawing and biting Yago, who dropped her with a yelp.
“Flora!” Kinsley called. The kitten raced from the room.
Venice tackled Yago. The male threw up his hands and spoke a few words. A blinding light appeared from his hands and smoke billowed around him. Venice fell to the floor where Yago had been but was now gone.
He’d disappeared!
“Shit,” Delaney said, rushing around the counter and offering her hand to Venice. They both raced to the front door and found the warlock’s vehicle gone, and no sign of him or his car.
“What the hell!” Venice sputtered. “How did he do that?”
Delaney flipped the deadbolt on the door and called to Kinsley who’d gone after Flora.
“She’s gone,” Kinsley said, coming into the room, holding a gauze pad to several bleeding scratches on her arm. “She took off into the woods and I lost her.”
“We’ll find her,” Delaney said. She turned to Venice. “We’ve got to call Brody about this.”
“Of course,” Venice said.
“That dude’s one hundred percent evil,” Hadlee said, rubbing her arms.
“How do you know?” Venice asked.
“He was powerful enough to glamour himself a new aura that was clean and pure,” Hadlee said. “That’s practically impossible.”
“That, and he got past our protection spell without any effort,” Delaney said.
Hadlee nodded, chewing her bottom lip. “In order to tap into that kind of magic, you have to take yourself into the dark side. A male that powerful would have given up every ounce of goodness within him in exchange for such magic. We’re in trouble, and so is the kitten.”
“I’ll call Brody,” Venice said. “Then we’ll search for the kitten.”
“Thanks,” Delaney said.
“Hey, I’m glad I was here, even though I don’t think I was any kind of deterrent.”
Delaney squeezed his shoulder. “He was definitely put off by you being here. And no offense to your skills as a police officer, but he blinded you with light and disappeared not only himself but his vehicle. He’s no match for any of us, and that’s disturbing on several levels.”
“What if we can’t find her?” Kinsley asked.
“We will,” Delaney said, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. If the kitten knew the man was evil, she escaped to protect herself, so she’d find somewhere safe to go. They’d use a seeking spell to locate her. The question was, why had the warlock come for her and what did it mean that Flora had reacted so violently?
It would be helpful if familiars could talk. But since they couldn’t, they’d have to rely on their own instincts. Delaney’s were screaming that they needed to keep the warlock far away from the kitten
Venice came back in the room, tucking his phone into his pocket. “Brody’s doing research on the man. I forwarded the image you guys sent me earlier and told him everything that happened. I think it’s safe to say we can leave the other animals here since he’s clearly only after Flora. All three of you need to be safe once we find the kitten.”
“We’re not going into hiding,” Hadlee said.
“I’m not asking,” Venice said. “This is a powerful, dangerous male. You said you’re no match for him, so let’s make sure he doesn’t get a chance to harm any of you or get his hands on the kitten.”
Delaney nodded, fear making her stomach hurt. “Until we know why he came for the kitten, we shouldn’t be taking any chances with our safety. He could use one of us against the others. The kitten is special. We just need to figure out why.”
Kinsley folded her arms. “Where will we stay?”
Venice said, “Brody already said you can all stay with him. But the first order of business is finding the kitten. What if the male is already looking for her?”
“We need to find her first,” Hadlee said.
The girls put all the animals in their cages, locked the doors, and headed into the woods to perform a seeking spell to locate the kitten. It was a surprise to all of them when the spell revealed where the kitten had gone.
The lighthouse.
“Why on earth would she go there?” Hadlee asked.
“No clue,” Delaney said. “But she’s there, so let’s go.”
The lighthouse—operated by the grumpiest merman on the East Coast—was definitely a safe haven as far as Delaney was concerned. Cassian was strong and powerful, and while he didn’t wield magic per se, he could definitely keep the kitten safe until they figured things out. For now, they’d head to the lighthouse and ensure the kitten wasn’t harmed.
Chapter Nine
Brody finished a call with Ve
nice that made his fangs throb in anger. It was only ten a.m., and Delaney’s life was already in danger thanks to the abandoned familiar and a dangerous warlock. He loathed being trapped in the house during the daylight. He was thankful Venice had been at the rescue helping them pack up, and that they were on their way to get the kitten at the lighthouse. But they still didn’t know where the warlock had gone, and Brody didn’t like that one bit.
Sitting at his desk, he opened the facial recognition program and scanned in the image of the warlock from the security camera. While it set to work attempting to match the man’s face in the database, he swiveled absently back and forth in the chair, then picked up his phone.
He texted Delaney. Are you okay?
Yeah. On the way to Cassian’s. Did you find out who the asshole is?
He snorted. Not yet. I’m running the image now. You’re coming here after you get her?
Yes. We think the rest of the familiars will be fine staying at the rescue, but Flora and I will stay with you as planned.
Good. See you soon.
He blew out a breath but knew he wouldn’t relax until Delaney and Flora were under his roof.
* * *
Brody cleaned up, showering and dressing in his uniform, then checked the facial recognition program, grumbling when there wasn’t a hit on anyone in the database yet. He’d hoped to have good news by the time everyone showed up, but he wasn’t sure he would.
While he waited, his nerves jangling like bells to have Delaney in his house, he searched every database he could think of to see if anyone knew who Yago the warlock was or had reported a black kitten familiar stolen. He’d come up empty everywhere he turned, which led him to believe that Yago wasn’t his real name. On a whim, he switched up the search parameters, removing the man’s name and replacing it with a description of a powerful warlock with gray hair and a goatee looking for a familiar.
While he waited for the information to populate, the perimeter alarm announced Delaney and the others had arrived. He pressed the button to unlock the outer door. The computer beeped, announcing the completion of the search, and he turned his attention to the screen.
