“Don’t trust your head right now,” Josh said out of the blue. “That’s paranoia talking,” he said as he brought up a finger and ground it against his skull, the plastic of his latex gloves slapping hard.
I blinked and blanched. “How do you know what I was thinking?”
This elicited a deep, rattling snort. “Because you’re an open book, Beth. Speaking of which – close the damn book.” He pointed at the door dramatically. “And come help me already. Put your gloves on, use your finding magic, and tell me what we’re looking for.”
“I can’t use finding magic to find something I don’t know is there,” I snapped. My voice was weak, however.
Josh crossed his arms and arched an eyebrow at me. “Every single day your ability to find objects is increasing. Your magic is expanding, Beth. Just in line with the prophecy,” he added under his breath. “And while technically I suppose you can’t find something you’re not looking for with your magic – you can still have serendipitous moments. We all do as humans,” he said, dropping into that lecturing tone he used when he wanted to appear like an intellectual and not the ridiculous bounty hunter he really was.
I screwed up my nose and shook my head. “That doesn’t make any sense,” I said expressively, finally unhooking my arms from around my middle.
“Ha,” he said as he jabbed a finger at me. “It worked, didn’t it? You’re finally not thinking of him. Which is good – because you need to be thinking about this case.” Josh pointed at the floor. “We have to find Isabella in,” he brought up his watch, “20 hours. Time’s a ticking. Plus,” he turned his head over his shoulder and looked out of the large, picturesque window behind him. Isabella, being an actress and all, had a heck of a nice place. The window was large enough and wide enough that it gave a beautiful view of the Madison City skyline. Enough to see that night was encroaching. “Sooner rather than later it’s gonna get dark. I hate tracking bounties in the dark. I prefer to be wrapped up in bed with a hot water bottle and a Teddy bear,” he joked.
“What kind of Teddy bear would tolerate your company?”
“Harsh, Beth. If that’s a way of saying that I’m old enough and strong enough and wise enough not to need a Teddy bear, then thank you. Now,” he jabbed his thumb toward the carpet, “get over here and help. Jason is not coming. Trust me,” Josh said with some level of exasperation, “he will not be looking for Isabella. He’ll be looking for that book.”
I finally took a step forward, abandoning my nervous post guarding the doorway. “Isabella shared this apartment with her boyfriend, Bradley’s brother. Bradley was in the library looking for a book that his brother, Hayden, had brought from home. When Jason can’t find that book in the library—” I began, my voice arcing up with every sentence, even though I was trying desperately to be rational.
“He’s already been here,” Josh dropped the bombshell.
I shook my head. “What? How do you know that?”
“The Justice Department. The people we work for.”
“Why would they tell you Internal Affairs had already assessed a crime scene? I thought there was a direct division between Internal Affairs and the Justice Department? Especially considering what’s been going on with the plants in the warlock division.”
“True, true – but I know Susie. I trust Susie. She likes me, too,” Josh said with a matter-of-fact tone.
I had to control my expression, but it was damn hard as my eyebrows shifted up and down and my cheeks dimpled.
It got Josh’s attention. “Why do you look as if you’re highly amused?”
“Because I am. Susie hates you. You never do your paperwork in time, and you’re irritating.”
“Susie does not hate me,” Josh said with a slow, direct, insulted breath that – if he were a character from some Regency novel – would probably be the prelude to a duel. “I’ll have you know that we have a fine working relationship. But I’ll also have you know, that… considering circumstances,” Josh clenched his teeth hard, “Susie was kind enough to let me know that a certain trainee sorcerer from Internal Affairs had already checked this place out.”
I blinked. I blanched. “You mean Susie knows about the prophecy? Just how many people know about this prophecy?”
“Not as many as you think, kid. Plus, Susie doesn’t exactly know about the prophecy. Well, not entirely,” Josh began.
He was digging himself into a hole, and the more he dug, the more I sunk through it until I finally closed the door, walked over, and flopped down on the couch. I hooked my elbows onto my knees, placed my face in my hands, and probably looked as if I was about to burst into tears. Rather than rush over and comfort me, Josh blustered, picked up a spare pair of magical latex gloves, and slapped them on my shoulder hard.
“Hey!” I spluttered as I jerked my hands from my face to glower at him.
“Get off the damn evidence,” he said as he pointed to the couch. “My job’s on the line here, Missy. I was only allowed entry because I promised the police I wouldn’t touch their crime scene.”
Clenching my teeth, I stood up, and I finally accepted the latex gloves. I pulled them on quickly, the rubber thwacking and echoing around the apartment.
I honestly still couldn’t shake the impression that Jason was just around the corner, but I also suspected that Josh wasn’t lying. Jason had already been here.
There were so many damn questions swirling through my head, and nobody to ask them to. Josh was in no mood to pander to my anxieties, and even if he were, there was a limit to what he knew.
For a fleeting second as I cast my gaze back through the window, I wondered if I should just do it – rely on truth magic. But then an impression of how tired I got after I’d done so with Ming slammed into my head, and I realized I simply couldn’t afford to try. Something told me that wherever Isabella was, she didn’t have that much time. And wherever Isabella was, her boyfriend, Hayden, was with her.
And once he was found, the both of them would have quite a few questions to answer.
On the ride over here, Josh had explained to me what Bradley was. A halfbreed created as a consequence of a portal spell.
I didn’t know that much about portal spells, but now Josh had explained them, they honestly made my blood chill. Seriously, the more I learned about this magical world, the less I wanted to know. It was very much like a child growing up and realizing the safe world she’d once thought existed was nothing more than a nightmare.
Though only witches could technically practice magic, even ordinary people could dabble in the occult. There was nothing stopping them from acquiring magical books or magical items. They simply wouldn’t be able to use them. But you know what they could do? Hire somebody who had magic, or you know, just exploit them.
Heck, that’s what the modern workforce was all about. But I was digressing. My point was Hayden had dabbled in the occult. He hadn’t been forced to find a witch down on their luck to help him with his spells. No, he’d just used his girlfriend and his brother. And his brother? If Josh’s theory was right, Bradley was an undisclosed witch.
They happened occasionally. Rarely, but if the family was smart enough and proactive enough, they could hide a magical kid from the government. It took a heck of a lot of preplanning and a mountain of fraud. After all, every single registered citizen in the country had to undergo a blood test every single year. That’s how I’d been found out as a witch. If Bradley had slipped under the radar, that meant his blood had been faked every single time.
But answering for the fact Bradley had been kept from the government all these years would be the least of Hayden’s crimes. By the sounds of it, he’d used his brother to try to open portal spells. And it had backfired. Josh had told me that portal spells were some of the trickiest forms of magic. Though technically there was a portal spell imbued in every single set of Josh’s handcuffs, they were different. They’d been specifically manufactured, and they only exited in one direction. In the hands of an untrained warlock, portal magic co
uld take you somewhere you did not want to go. You see, apparently, there were dimensions close enough to this one that sometimes an ill-conceived portal could punch through. And when it did?
I shook my head and shivered once more.
This caused Josh to let out a heck of an exasperated sigh. “For the last time, Bethany Samson, put Jason out of your mind. He is not coming. He’ll be looking for this book,” Josh said as he patted his pocket, “and you’ve already told me that he’ll only be able to find it if he’s in close proximity to it. He will be fixated on the Hidden Grimoires, and it will be up to us to actually save the day.”
“I’m not actually thinking about Jason,” I retorted quickly.
This elicited a snort from Josh. “Of course you are.”
“I was thinking of Bradley. Everything you told me about portal spells and… creatures from the beyond….”
Josh placed his hands on his hips and shrugged. “The reality of magic is quite different to what they teach you in primary school. Not every kid wants to know about the porous membranes between dimensions and the creatures on the opposite side.”
I shook my head again. “But concluding that Bradley has… melded with such a creature? Isn’t it a little far-fetched?”
“Not remotely. In fact, it makes perfect sense. If Bradley’s family managed to keep the fact he was a witch from the government this long, they would’ve required help.”
“Help?” My blood chilled.
“Though you won’t find it on the Internet, there are all sorts of recipes in old magical books for creating hybrids.”
I shook my head. “I thought you said that Bradley would’ve been the consequence of an accident? I thought you said that his brother would’ve pushed him to create a portal, and Bradley would’ve lost control… absorbing some creature on the opposite side.”
Josh shrugged. “While that’s likely, sometimes people do it on purpose,” he dropped that bomb with a shrug.
I made a suitable face, probably looking as if I was about to swallow my tongue. “I’m sorry, people do it on purpose?” My voice shot up as high as a whistle. “Why?”
Because if Bradley managed to merge with the right kind of cross-dimensional creature, he would’ve been able to fake his bloods easily.”
I shook my head defiantly. “That doesn’t make any sense. They don’t just test your blood for magic. If Bradley had somehow merged with another creature, I’m pretty sure that would come up on his test.”
“Oh ye of little knowledge. We don’t know what kind of creature Bradley merged with. That’s critical. Some of the creatures from beyond the fold are chameleons, capable of changing their appearance – including their bodily functions – for extended periods of time. All Bradley would need was to do that once a year and ensure he didn’t show his real identity to anyone who didn’t know who he really was.”
I shook my head again. “I still can’t believe a word of this. It’s crazy. Creatures from across the fold? This sounds like the kind of crap you get on a daytime TV movie and not in reality.”
This elicited perhaps the most massive snort I’d ever heard Josh give – and that was saying something, considering it often sounded as if he’d been raised by bulls. “I’m sorry – have you forgotten your own predicament, Beth? You’re prophesied to save the world, marry a sorcerer, and find the most powerful Hidden Grimoires history has ever seen. What kind of plot does that sound like to you?”
“A horrible one,” I said through a snarl.
Josh actually brought his arms out wide and bowed. “Thank you for making my point. If you can believe in prophecies, you can believe in this.”
“But why would I never have heard about it before?”
Josh snorted again, and I told myself then and there that if he kept doing it, I was going to find some nostril-shaped corks and stuff them right up his nasal passages.
“For several reasons, kid. The government doesn’t want to go around scaring people. The entire point of regulating witches is so that the rest of humanity can get down to business without fearing that the world is about to end. And secondly, they don’t want to promote this. If you were taught about cross dimensions in school and the fact that witches who didn’t want to work for the government could meld with interdimensional chameleons, it might encourage more scared witches to try. You remember what you were like on that day in the testing office? If someone had offered you a handy way out, I guarantee you would’ve taken it.”
I looked at him challengingly. “If you’re about to threaten me with noncompliance, don’t,” I said darkly.
He waved a hand at me dismissively. “We’re way past noncompliance. My point is that desperation will lead to young witches doing desperate things to get out of what they see as a life of servitude. Especially if they come from a family that’s already negatively been affected by magic. So yeah – the government doesn’t promote knowledge of things like this. It keeps a tight wrap on it, in fact – which is precisely why incidents like this are rare.”
“So why would Bradley’s family have known about them?”
“Because it sounds as if both his parents were academics, and they both specialized in arcane books.”
“Just like Hayden?”
“Just like Hayden. Apparently fascination with the occult runs in the family. Now, can you stop wasting our time?”
“This isn’t wasting our time,” I said defiantly as I tilted my chin up and stared at him hard. “This is me doing the necessary groundwork so that I can use my magic to find where Hayden and Isabella are before it’s too late. Speaking of which, why haven’t you called in the fact that Bradley is a crossbreed? And why exactly did you know he was one, anyway?”
“Don’t tell me you didn’t feel something when we were spying on him – and don’t tell me you didn’t hear something, either.”
I swallowed. “I heard something, and I felt something. But why—”
“Bradley would’ve been scared. He would’ve also been with Jason, and he would’ve erroneously assumed that Jason wouldn’t have allowed him to be found out. Jason mustn’t have been that much of a finder if he hadn’t picked up that his soulmate was two aisles down,” Josh chuckled. But when the joke completely died on me, he cleared his throat. “Now, to answer your most important question, the reason I’m not calling this into the police is they presumably already know about it. You’re forgetting who Jason works for.”
I opened my mouth and closed it.
“See.” Josh brought up a finger and tapped his noggin twice. “This was why you were placed with me, Beth. I’m not just extremely powerful – I’m extremely smart, too.”
I looked at him askance, finally doing what we were here to do as I started to walk around the apartment.
It was just as fancy as you would expect for the house of one of the city’s most successful movie stars. It was large and luxurious and easily big enough that you forgot the fact it was a flat. There was a widescreen TV on a polished wooden coffee table just in front of a massive row of windows that took up the entire wall of the main room. There was a new kitchen, a fancy modern dining area, and a bunch of rooms branching off an open doorway just past the lounge room.
“That’s what I’m talking about – I like it when you go all silent and watchful like that. Go find me a bounty,” Josh said as he dramatically pointed a hand at the opposite side of the room. I was surprised he didn’t tell me to mush as if I was some Husky.
That being said, he was right, and I was starting to withdraw in on myself as I concentrated on my powers.
They were pushing through me, singing in my blood and pounding in my bones.
The next thing I knew, I’d walked into the small corridor connecting the various bedrooms and spare rooms of the apartment.
Though several of the doors were closed and they could easily hold important clues behind them, I didn’t bother opening them. I walked straight to the room at the end, feeling as if I was drawn by a hook around my m
iddle.
I expected the room to be something important – perhaps Lydia’s bedroom or maybe one of Hayden’s libraries.
It wasn’t. It was the bathroom.
I walked into it and immediately frowned, doubting the sensations that had led me here. Maybe I was still tired, I began to think.
I stopped as my gaze darted across the various face creams arranged along the counter near the sink.
I took a soft step forward, then another. A sinking feeling started to push through my stomach. I reached the counter, hesitated, then pushed a hand out. I started to methodically open each face cream and check them.
Though Josh had appeared content to let me do my thing, I was aware that he was now standing in the doorway.
There was also a frown on his face. “I hope you’re not just checking out the quality of the face creams a famous starlet uses,” he quipped.
“I don’t honestly know what I’m checking out,” I answered, my voice quick.
Josh’s expression crumpled as he picked up on the note of urgency in my voice.
He could have remained there in the doorway, watching me, but he didn’t. He shifted forward and helped me to look. He left me all of the face creams on the counter and opened the doors of the cupboard. He started shifting through the various creams.
There was such a diffuse sense in my head that I was starting to question what I was doing. But just before I could stop entirely, I swore I heard the slightest rattle. I darted down and suddenly latched a hand over Josh’s. There was a tub of male face cream in his hand, and I locked my fingers around it with such strength, Josh twitched. “What is it?” he asked through a hard breath.
I got down on one knee, snatched it from him without a word, and shook it.
He got the kind of expression that told me I was crazy, until I shoved a hand out and started shaking it by his ear. “What are you—” he began. He snapped forward. It was his turn to snatch it from me. He rattled it near his ear, met my gaze, then opened the face cream. He frowned at the contents, turned it over, and then started playing with the bottom. With a trapped breath, he unscrewed the base. It didn’t look as if it could be unscrewed, but that was the point.
Forgotten Destiny 3 Page 5
