by Deanna Chase
I spent the morning going to every beauty-supply store in the city, looking for Pamela, but I completely struck out. No one knew anyone by that name, and I was starting to think that Adrian was misinformed. After stopping off at the Grind for a large latte and to check in with Charlie, I headed back over to Jade’s house.
“Hey,” Jade said as I walked into her kitchen. Juliet was snuggled against Jade’s chest in a wearable baby carrier while she made a salad. “Hungry?”
No. “Sure.”
I set the table while she continued to prepare lunch.
Once we were settled at the table with Juliet tucked into a Pack ’n Play, instead of digging into the delicious goat-cheese-and-walnut salad, she eyed me. “There’s something different about you.”
I groaned. “Not you too?”
She raised one eyebrow. “What does that mean?”
“Bo thinks I’m depressed.” I forked some salad. The tangy bite of the goat cheese should have made my eyes roll into the back of my head. Instead, I forced myself to chew and choked it down, barely tasting anything at all.
“You’re just stressed.”
“That’s what I said.” I took a gulp of the latte sitting in front of me and sighed. “I just want this case to move forward. Then I’ll feel like I’m doing something useful.”
Jade didn’t say anything as she studied me. Finally, a tiny smile pulled at her lips but vanished just as fast when she went back to eating her salad.
“What?” I demanded.
She shrugged one shoulder. “Nothing. I was just checking to see if you’re depressed. You aren’t.”
Empath. Well, I already knew that, but it was nice to have confirmation. “Right.”
I waited patiently for Jade to finish her salad and then cleaned up the dishes while she got Juliet ready to go. It didn’t take long to finish the dishes, and when I was done, I watched her fuss over her child and felt a warmth spread all the way to my toes. Gods, how I wanted what she had.
“It’ll happen,” Jade said softly.
I started, realizing she’d been keeping an eye on me. “What, you can hear my thoughts now?”
“No. But it’s not hard to see the longing in your eyes.” She walked past me and squeezed my shoulder. “Let’s go. We have an illusionist to watch.”
An hour later, Juliet had been dropped off with Kane and Jade and I were sitting outside Kai’s home on a stakeout. We just needed him to leave and then we could search his place for any incriminating evidence.
Luckily, it didn’t take long. We’d been there less than half an hour when he bounded out of the house and into his Ford Escape. Once his car disappeared from view, we hopped out of my VW Bug and onto his porch. If Jade hadn’t been a witch, we would’ve tried to be stealthier, but it was nothing for her to magic her way through a locked door.
“Let’s hope—” Jade started.
She was cut off by the blaring of a security alarm.
“Shit.” She ran into the house, raised her arms, and shouted something in Latin. The alarm silenced instantly. “Get in here and close the door.”
Feeling like an idiot, I did as I was told. “Sorry.”
“With any luck, all the neighbors are at work,” she said, pushing her hair out of her face.
We both turned and looked around at the oddities strewn throughout the living area. There was a Hula Hoop, unicycle, clown outfit, a tux and top hat, various showgirl dresses, and just about everything anyone could imagine for a crazy variety show.
“He looks fun,” I said.
Jade snickered. “I guess he tried just about everything before he came up with his current show.”
“Looks like it. Let’s get started. What are we looking for?” I poked through a wooden box full of books and glass potion bottles.
“Anything tinged with magic.”
I nodded and pulled out the dagger I’d tucked into my back pocket. “Got it.”
“Don’t blow anything up with that thing,” she said, eyeing my dagger.
I chuckled. “I won’t. It glows when it comes close to live magic. See.” I pressed the dull edge of the blade to her skin and the jewel on the handle started to glow.
“Nice.” She gave me an encouraging smile. “Let’s do this.”
Jade took off to the back of the house while I spent the next hour poking all of Kai’s weird circus stuff with my blade. None of them lit up the knife except for a deck of tarot cards that were decorated with sky-clad witches. Of course they were. Sighing, I took the pack of cards and went in search of Jade. But she wasn’t in the kitchen or the bedroom.
“Jade?” I called as I poked my head into the bathroom.
No response.
My skin started to prickle with unease. Something was seriously wrong.
Slowing my pace, I crept back into the kitchen on full alert, my dagger clutched in my hand. Jade wouldn’t have left without telling me. I scanned the run-down room, taking in the dingy beige linoleum and the natural wood cabinets that were something out of the 1960s. My gaze landed on the peeling, rose-covered wallpaper. I was about to move back into the living room when something about the wall behind the plastic dining room table caught my attention.
The pattern was off. And not in a way that could be attributed to misaligned application. No, the pattern was interrupted in a perfect circle, cutting right through the faded roses. I walked up to the wall and pressed the dagger to the circle.
Magic skittered over the wall, flashing so bright it nearly blinded me. I stumbled back, hitting my spine against the plastic table, and blinked up at a large pentagram that was secured to the wall… with Jade handcuffed in the center.
“Holy shit, Jade! What—”
“Welcome to the party, Pyper Rayne,” a smooth voice said from behind me.
I tightened my grip on the dagger and turned to find Kai levitating in the center of the kitchen.
Chapter Eighteen
“What the hell are you doing?” I demanded, my entire body shaking with uncontrollable anger. “Let Jade go.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “You’ve got balls. I’ll give you that.”
“I’ve got a dagger and I’m not afraid to use it.” My bravado was out in full force. While I wasn’t eager to use my knife on a human, I would if it meant saving Jade from whatever he had planned for her. Because if he’d managed to get the jump on her, that meant he was a really powerful witch who shouldn’t be underestimated.
“Bring it on, lady.” He threw his hands out to either side, showing me the balls of magic already clinging to his palms.
Shit. I glanced over my shoulder at Jade, noticing for the first time that she had a gag in her mouth. No wonder she’d been so silent. Her eyes widened and suddenly filled with panic. On instinct, I dropped to the floor right as one of Kai’s magical fireballs whizzed over my head.
“What the hell, jackass? What’s your problem?”
The second fireball headed in my direction, but I was quick with my knife and stopped it with the blade. The ball sizzled out just as it hit the steel. My heart hammered against my rib cage as I rolled and scrambled to my feet.
Kai was gone, but after seeing his show, I didn’t trust what I couldn’t see. “I know you’re there. What do you want from us? Why did you cuff Jade to that pentagram?”
Silence.
I couldn’t do this alone. I needed my favorite witch. Making a split-second decision, I darted toward her and stabbed the pentagram with my dagger, praying it did the trick.
A small spark skittered over the frame of the pentagram, making Jade wince when it reached her handcuffs and shackles, but it did nothing to break the binds that held her.
“You’re going to need to do better than that,” Kai said, appearing right beside me.
I sneered at him. “What do you want from us?”
“Nothing. You’re the ones who broke into my place, aren’t you?” The magic glowed in his palms again, and I had no doubt he had every intention of
using it on me.
I backed away toward the living room but was stopped by an invisible barrier, barring me from leaving the kitchen. “We were just looking for information.”
He snorted. “Right. Trying to pin a murder on me. I got that. But you know what, Ms. Rayne? I’m out of here tomorrow to fulfill the dream of a lifetime, and two meddling bitches aren’t going to stop me. Especially since it’s not my fault Sam drank that potion. She was warned it could be dangerous.”
“So you gave her the potion that killed her?” I asked, cutting right to the chase. If he was going to take me down, I sure as hell was going to have the answers I came looking for.
“Gave isn’t exactly the right word. But I did deliver it.” He shrugged. “It was an accident. They happen.”
Rage boiled in my veins. He brought Sam a potion that killed her, and he was acting as if it was no big deal. “A woman died, Kai. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
His silver eyes narrowed, and his lip curled in disgust. “Of course it does. But what am I going to do? Mourn her for the rest of my life? She had free will. No one forced her to drink that crap.”
Was he seriously acting like she’d overdosed or something? “What did she think the potion would do for her?”
“Weight loss. She’d been taking a similar version for a couple of months. This time she wanted something a little more potent.” Something that looked a lot like regret passed through his gaze, but he blinked and it was gone, replaced by indifference. “Those types of girls are desperate to maintain their weight. For work.” He scanned my body and nodded. “You know how it is.”
“Actually, I don’t,” I barked back. “So if this was all an accident, then why is Jade tied to a pentagram and gagged?”
He glanced up at the coven leader and his lips curved into a slow smile. “Your friend there threatened to turn me in. And I can’t have that. If that potion is traced back to me, my days in Vegas are through before they even start. So she’s going to stay right there until she forgets all about me and everything else she’s seen over the past week.”
Without warning, he tossed one of his fireballs of magic right at Jade’s chest.
I screamed, knowing she had no defense, but at the last second, her shackles and handcuffs broke and she leaped to the floor, yanking the black silk gag out of her mouth. Kai’s magic slammed into the wall, leaving a gaping hole so large it looked as if Jade would’ve been obliterated into a million little pieces.
“Not today, Satan!” Jade cried and put both hands out, pouring her magic into him.
He vanished into thin air again, and this time it was Jade’s magic that made a giant hole, right through the cabinets lining the wall.
“Go!” Jade pointed toward the living room. “Get him before he bolts.”
I didn’t hesitate. If Jade thought he went that way, I wasn’t going to argue.
“There.” She pointed toward a cabinet on the far wall.
I threw my blade so fast even I was startled by the speed. But the dagger hit its mark, shattering the illusion that was keeping Kai hidden. Whatever spell he’d used crumbled, leaving him standing in front of the cabinet in bright red bikini underwear as he tried to jam himself into a pair of red-fringed salsa pants.
Jade snarled and rushed forward, her magic streaming out like ropes, wrapping around his wrists and ankles, anchoring him to the hardwood floors.
His face turned purple with effort as he tried to call his own magic, and then he let out a string of curse words when it was clear Jade had turned his own spell on him. He wasn’t getting free until we were good and ready.
“Let me go. It wasn’t me,” he ranted. “It was Pamela. I swear. She asked me to bring the potion. Told me it was a gag. I never meant to hurt anyone. It was an accident. No one was supposed to die!”
Breathing heavily, Jade glanced at me and said, “Thank you.”
“For what? You did all the work.” My hands were trembling, a delayed response to the stress I’d endured at seeing her bound and gagged.
“Your dagger. It was enough to weaken the bindings. I just needed the right moment to surprise him.” Her face was scrunched up in disgust as she stalked toward him. “You know, the only way you got the jump on me was because of your stellar illusion skills. I thought I sensed someone behind me. If I’d listened to my instincts instead of my magic, I’d have had you restrained an hour ago.”
Holy hell. Is that how long she’d been hanging on that wall?
She turned to me. “His illusion skills were masking his emotions. I could’ve sworn I heard the back door open, but when I didn’t sense any emotions, I chalked it up to the wind rattling the door.” She shook her head. “I won’t let that happen again.”
“So he snuck up on you and knocked you out?” I guessed.
She nodded. “Jackass.”
A delayed chill ran up my spine. What if I hadn’t been there to help? What if my dagger hadn’t weakened the spell?
“Stop,” Jade ordered. “We’re fine. And we found out what happened to Sam. Let’s just call the council and have a freak-out over ice cream later, all right?”
I nodded and turned to him. “What did you mean when you said Pamela asked you to bring the potion?”
“Never mind. I’m not telling you anything unless you release me,” he spat out.
I shrugged and glanced at Jade. “Ready to make that call to the council?”
She nodded and pulled out her phone.
The council witches took their sweet time getting to Kai’s house. But that gave us an opportunity to finish going through his things, looking for evidence. As it turned out, he’d made the potion in his kitchen and the pot he’d used hadn’t been cleaned.
“Gotcha,” Jade said as she set the pot aside along with a dozen other illegal, magically enhanced items.
The tarot deck was one of them. As it turned out, the council had a law on the books that forbade witches from spelling decks. Jade said it was something about being too dangerous—decks already had their own inherent magic and spelling them was just asking for trouble. So I set the deck aside along with a few other potions, a cursed handgun, pentagrams, human bones, various bird feathers, and a whole box of voodoo dolls, all of which were cursed with black magic.
“Real stand-up guy,” I said. “And he wanted to date Sam?”
“I didn’t want to date her,” he said, scorn in his tone. “Pamela—” He bit off whatever it was he was going to say and averted his gaze.
“Pamela what?” Jade asked, stalking toward him.
“Pamela dated her,” he said, his eyes narrowed in challenge.
“Yeah, we know,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “How do you know her?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Jade tried a few more times to figure out the connection, but he was done talking. “Okay. But if you keep your trap shut and she’s involved in this, you’re going to end up taking the fall for her.”
He let out a small growl but didn’t say anything else.
The front door burst open, and three witches from the council strode in. The lead witch was one we knew well. It wasn’t too long ago that she’d roped us into working for the council on a dragon case.
“Ms. Calhoun, Ms. Rayne, I can’t say it’s a pleasure to see you again,” Madam Tempest said, eyeing us warily. “What kind of trouble have you gotten into tonight?”
Jade was vibrating with frustration as she stepped into the white-haired witch’s space. “Madam Tempest, we have an admitted killer on our hands here. He also magically bound me earlier this evening with the intention of keeping me restrained for the foreseeable future. After Pyper and I neutralized him, we found a whole lot of magical contraband that I think you might be interested in.” She waved a hand at the items we’d collected. “He’s the one who made the potion that killed Sam. I would appreciate it if you took that case off the NOPD’s hands now that we have actual evidence.”
Madam Tempest studied Jade
with suspicion in her gaze. “You’re not telling me everything.”
Jade sighed. “Fine. We broke in to look for evidence. He found us here, and instead of letting us leave, he decided to break out some black magic.”
A muscle in her jaw twitched. “We don’t condone breaking and entering. You know that, Ms. Calhoun.”
“I do. But I can’t just sit around and let Julius Jackson remain in an in-between state while the council does nothing to help him. Sometimes witches need to take matters into their own hands.”
The council witch actually snorted. “Sometimes? That’s generous of you.”
Jade was unflustered by the leader. I, however, was sweating bullets. Would she discount everything we found just because we’d broken a mundane law? As far as I knew, the witch laws were a lot looser.
“We do what we have to,” Jade said.
Madam Tempest nodded and walked to the middle of the room. She drew an imaginary circle around herself with her finger and said, “Reveal!”
A scene featuring Kai standing in his kitchen, making something at his stove, appeared inside her circle. She watched carefully as he added ingredient after ingredient. Then the scene shifted, showing Kai handing Sam the potion and encouraging her to drink up. He actually told her it would help her lose weight. His insistence that he’d warned her the potion was dangerous had been a complete lie.
And to make matters worse, after she collapsed, he chanted a spell that made it look like Sam was in bed, sleeping peacefully, while she was really lifeless on the floor.
That explained why Charlie never knew Sam had died. She’d probably seen her sleeping and just slipped out.
The scene changed again, this time turning to the moment Kai spotted Jade in his kitchen going through his things. The spell hit her hard and fast in the back with no warning. If she hadn’t felt him, she’d had zero chance of defending herself.
“That was quite rude, Mr. Kai,” Madam Tempest scolded him.
All I could think about was how she’d said nothing when she witnessed the death of Sam but was lecturing him on the rules of engagement. Holy hell, the council witches were cold.