Betrayal

by Jennifer Blackstream

  “Hurry!” Peasblossom screamed.

  I dropped to my knees and put my hand on the symbols etched into the floor. “Transveho!”

  My magic thrust into the symbols, and I lost my breath. The magic flowed through the circle, filling the symbols like water seeping into pores in the ground. It was smooth and effortless, my magic herded seamlessly by the wizard’s careful carvings. I wanted to go home, wanted the safety of familiar surroundings, but Scath didn’t know where I was. She could probably find me, but we didn’t have time to waste. I had to go back to the speakeasy.

  Magic cracked in the air around me. My heart pounded as I saw Jim rising through the hole in the floor, his face twisted with fury.

  The circle flared to life and I vanished just as he threw the spell…

  Chapter 13

  I landed on top of Scath.

  The sidhe let out a sound that no mundane feline had ever made, not in several thousand years, at least. She bolted out of the booth with me still on her back. I released Majesty and flailed my limbs out instinctively, and was rewarded with the harsh collision of both hands and my right knee slamming into the sides of the phone booth. I fell off and scuttled the rest of the way onto the sidewalk, desperate to get off the teleportation circle.

  I lay there on the ground, regaining my breath, my nerves spasming as an image of the wizard’s rage-filled face hovered in my mind’s eye. Majesty walked up and down my body, claws out, stabbing through my clothes.

  “Bad,” I croaked. “So bad.”

  I rolled onto my side, then forced myself to continue moving, getting to my feet. Everything hurt. I’d be lucky if I hadn’t chipped a bone in my elbow, and my right knee threatened to give out when I tried to stand on it. I looked around wildly, my brain hyper-focused. Jim had been following me. Or having me followed. I thought of the huge grey-skinned man standing in his house.

  I was so mad, I almost wished he’d jump out, attack me here and now.

  “Bloody arrogant wizard,” I seethed. “Bloody arrogant, judgmental wizard.” I rubbed my injured knee, focused on breathing through the pain as I stood up. “We need to get out of here,” I told Scath. “The wizard thinks I’m a bad guy, and he wants me off the case. Permanently.”

  I was already walking, and Scath flowed beside me like a shadow. She didn’t seem overly concerned, but I noticed her ears flicked forward and back, as if she were listening for danger.

  “It might be his associate, or it could be someone he works with that I’ve never met,” I said under my breath, knowing Scath would still hear me. “How am I supposed to lose a tail when I don’t know who it is?”

  “Almost enough to make me wish Andy was here,” Peasblossom spoke up from underneath my hair.

  It would have been nice to have an FBI agent with me. I was willing to bet a lot of his training had involved surveillance and counter-surveillance. He’d probably have all sorts of techniques for losing a tail. Figuring out who it was. Witches didn’t worry about things like that. People were supposed to find us, we were there to help anyone who asked.

  I clenched my hands into fists and gritted my teeth. No. No, I didn’t need him for this. Because the person following me likely wasn’t human. And if they weren’t human, they could have any one of a hundred ways to pursue someone, ways Andy had never heard of, much less learned how to get around. Whereas I knew.

  “Come on,” I murmured.

  I pivoted into the first shop I came to and headed straight for the sign in the corner labeled Restrooms. The room was blessedly empty, and I locked the door to make sure it would stay that way.

  “Would Majesty follow you?” I asked Scath. “Could you make him follow you?” I stopped, then added. “I need you in human form. Please.”

  Scath huffed out a breath, but did as I asked. The change from cat to human form was as rough as always, and I couldn’t help but throw a Cinderella spell at the floor. I couldn’t make her change less painful, but there was no reason for her to catch something because she’d had to writhe around on the floor of a public bathroom.

  When she was finished, she forced herself to her feet without taking the time to catch her breath. “He’ll follow me,” she rasped.

  “All right.” I started to undress. “I need you to put my clothes on.”

  Scath frowned, staring at my shirt as I draped it over her hand. “Why?”

  I unzipped my waist pouch. “Bizbee, I need more clothes, please. Something I wouldn’t usually wear.”

  “And why would ye be carryin’ around clothes ye wouldn’t wear?” Bizbee argued.

  I bit my lip, then brightened. “Give me the suit Mrs. Porter gave me for Christmas.”

  I thought I heard the grig snicker as he handed up the suit, but I couldn’t be sure. I winced at the frilly white blouse and peach colored short suit jacket and knee-length skirt. Mrs. Porter had good intentions, but I’d never understand her passion for sherbet colored clothing.

  It wasn’t nearly as comfortable as my leggings and long-sleeved cotton shirt, and I felt my mood souring even more as I touched the soft linen. “Thank you.” I glanced up at Scath as I pulled off my leggings. “I’m going to glamour you to look like me. If you wear my clothes, you’ll smell like me too. Just in case.”

  I nodded at Majesty. “And I’ll glamour him to look like you in the service dog disguise.” I paused and looked up. “How do you always find me? I mean when you just show up, when I didn’t tell you where I’m going?”

  She didn’t answer right away. Frustration burned hot inside me, and I had to press my lips together to keep from shouting at her. Now wasn’t the time for secrets.

  “I can shadow walk,” she said finally.

  Shadow walking was notoriously difficult to do with any sort of accuracy. It involved stepping from the material plane onto the shadow plane. Thanks to the blurry line between the two, an individual walking the shadow plane can’t see details of the material plane, so it’s difficult to tell exactly where one is. The more practiced the shadow walker, the closer it was possible to get to the target location. But stepping off the shadow plane always carried the possibility that you would end up hundreds or even thousands of feet away from your desired goal. Not a big deal if you’re aiming for a city block. Somewhat challenging if you’re trying to get into a specific room.

  Though, if you were four legged and capable of running over seventy-five miles an hour, maybe it didn’t matter.

  “That explains how you travel, but not how you find me,” I pointed out.

  Scath’s face closed down. Even more than before. “Whoever is following you won’t be able to use my method of finding you.”

  I didn’t bother to ask what her method was. She obviously wasn’t going to tell.

  “I want you to go out there as me. Head for Goodfellows. Jim probably already knows where I live, but if not, I don’t want to lead him back to the apartment. Maybe he’ll believe I’m hiding at Goodfellows while I wait for backup.”

  “Where are you going?” Scath asked.

  “Somewhere else. You can find me, right?”

  Scath didn’t look happy about the vagueness of my answer, but she was hardly in a position to comment.

  I started to call my magic, then stopped. “Wait a minute. You’re sidhe.”

  Scath frowned again. “Half.”

  Half. I filed that tidbit away to think about later. “So you can glamour yourself to look like me?”

  A second later, the air in the room shifted, and suddenly I was looking at a mirror image of myself. It was more disorienting than I would have expected.

  “That is…surreal,” Peasblossom said slowly.

  “Bizbee?” I said. “Could I have the glamour spell I used to use on Scath? The braided thread?”

  “Will ye be needin’ anything else?” he asked, sounding somewhat annoyed. “Or do ye want to keep askin’ for things one at a time?”

  I took the circle of thread and winced. “That’s it. Thank you, Bizbee.”r />
  Majesty continued to wind around my ankles, and I had to grab for him twice before I got a good enough hold to lift him. I doubled up the necklace until it just fit over his tiny head then slipped it over his neck. “Please be good,” I begged.

  The kitten flattened his ears, obviously not thrilled with his new necklace, but Scath scooped him up and nuzzled his head. He tilted his face and purred. When he was happy again, she put him down, then activated the glamour.

  I called my magic, using it to change my own appearance. Nothing intense, just moving my eyes farther apart, giving my nose a more aquiline slope. I couldn’t make myself taller or my suit wouldn’t fit, so I lightened my hair a few shades, then looked at myself in the mirror. It was incredibly strange looking in the mirror and not seeing my true self. I looked at Scath’s reflection, thinking it was mine, but the person moving with me in the mirror was a stranger. The reflection that looked like mine arched an eyebrow.

  “That’s just weird,” Peasblossom muttered.

  “All right, I’m going to leave first,” I told Scath. “You watch from inside the store, make sure no one follows me, then head for Goodfellows.”

  Scath nodded and I unlocked the door and headed out. Blessedly, Majesty seemed content to trot along beside Scath, and he didn’t try to follow me out of the store.

  I tried to look annoyed as I reached the sidewalk, glancing at a watch I’d glamoured onto my wrist as if I were late for something. I hailed a cab—no magic needed without the animals—and it took every ounce of self-control I had not to look out the rear windshield to watch Scath leave.

  “Where to?” the driver asked.

  I froze. I’d forgotten to think of an address. Peasblossom whispered in my ear, and I repeated the address, then cursed as I realized whose it was.

  I had the whole drive to Andy’s house to think about what a bad idea it was for me to just show up like this. By the time the cab pulled into Andy’s driveway, my stomach was twisted into knots, and my hand shook as I retrieved the money to pay the driver.

  Andy’s garage door was closed, so I couldn’t see if he was home or not. I put a hand to my hair, reminding myself I was still wearing the glamour and he wouldn’t recognize me. I could probably drop it now. I doubted anyone had followed me, and Andy’s street was quiet. It was almost eight o’ clock, so it would be dark in half an hour.

  I dropped the glamour, then knocked on the door and waited. No answer. I rose on tiptoe to look through the glass on the door.

  My heart stopped.

  Andy’s house had been ransacked. Furniture was turned over, and broken pieces of Precious Moments figurines lay shattered on the floor. There was a hole in the closet door just inside, the wood splintered and broken.

  I fumbled at my waist pouch, gripping the zipper and tearing it open.

  “Bizbee, I need a credit card!”

  This time the grig offered no snarky comment, handing up the credit card without a word. I tried to pick the lock, but my heart sank as I realized the dead bolt was in place. I pressed my lips together and dropped the card back in the pouch.

  “Use the spell,” Peasblossom urged.

  I eyed the lock. The spell I knew that bypassed locks was a tricky one if you used it on someone’s home. A lock was a physical symbol of the homeowner’s desire to keep people out. It was tied to the threshold, part of the sacredness of the home. Using a lockpicking spell on the front door to a private home always ran the risk that the threshold would react badly to the invasion.

  Sometimes, the lock exploded.

  I took a deep breath and put a hand on the lock. “I’m here as a friend,” I murmured.

  The threshold wasn’t a sentient thing, but magic wasn’t entirely unaware either. Intentions mattered. To varying degrees.

  “Recludo,” I whispered.

  The lock disengaged, and the handle turned. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.

  “Someone was looking for something?” Peasblossom wondered aloud.

  I stared at the ruin of the living room. “No. No, the drawers aren’t open, the cushions aren’t cut up. This doesn’t look like someone was searching for something. It looks like someone was…mad.”

  It wasn’t until I’d entered the dining room that I noticed the broken figurines on the table. Beside them were little tubes of super glue. One figurine had been glued back together, and another was partially reassembled. I frowned.

  “He’s been back since this happened. He’s already cleaning up.” I looked up. “Andy? Are you here?”

  Peasblossom leaned closer to my neck. “I don’t like this. It feels different in here. It’s making my wings hurt.”

  “Get in the pouch.” I called my magic and held my hands up, ready to let loose with a spell if anything nasty reared its ugly head. Peasblossom slid down the front of my shirt and crawled over the pouch. Bizbee lifted up one corner, offering her his free hand as he ushered her inside. I started down the stairs to the house’s lower level.

  It wasn’t as bad downstairs. Guilt stabbed me in the gut at the sight of the stacks of files along the bar against the right hand wall. I’d promised to help him with those cases. That had been the plan. I’d help him close cases he couldn’t have closed himself, and in the process, I’d learn how to conduct investigations the same way I’d learned how to be a witch. By working with the best.

  Soon, I promised myself.

  I returned to the living room and faced the broken closet door. There’d be blood left behind. I could find out who did this. I raised my hand.

  A cool puff of air against my left side startled me, breaking my concentration. The spell fizzled out as I spun, and my eyes bulged.

  A ghost stood beside me.

  It was a woman. Her white hair was short and she wore a thin cotton blouse with flowers on it, and plain linen slacks. I took a step back, but quickly realized the woman was standing with her hands clasped in front of her, her face serene. The epitome of calm. She waited for me to recover my composure, then offered me a small smile. “Hello, Shade. May I call you Shade?”

  My brain whirred and clicked. She looked familiar. Familiar because…

  I turned my head to the pictures on the wall. Then I looked back at the ghost. “You’re Andy’s mom.”

  Her smile widened. “I am. And you’re Andy’s partner.”

  I looked around at the destruction that Andy had kept from me. “I want to be.”

  The skin between her brows wrinkled, and she clasped her hands tighter. “You shouldn’t be here. Andy is a very private man. It’s hard for him to trust. If he feels you’ve invaded his privacy…”

  “What’s wrong?”

  I jumped as another ghost appeared. A man this time. Andy’s father.

  “She wants to help Andy find out who did this,” Andy’s mom said, gesturing at the door, then the broken figurines and overturned furniture.

  The man’s face betrayed little emotion, but his jaw tightened when he looked at the broken figurines. He didn’t say anything.

  I looked at the door again. Based on the direction of the damage and the size of the hole, I guessed someone had put their fist through it. A thought struck me, and my chest tightened. I stared at Andy’s parents.

  “Did Andy do this?” My lips parted and I looked around the house. Broken figurines, super glue to fix them. “Did he do all of this?”

  Neither of the ghosts answered, but their expressions told me enough.

  “Why was Andy so angry?” Peasblossom whispered.

  I looked down to see her poking her head out of the pouch. The spirits looked at Peasblossom, but neither of them looked surprised.

  “What’s going on with him?” I asked.

  “It’s not our place to discuss Andrew’s business,” his father said firmly.

  I looked at Andy’s mom. “You’re both still here. Why?”

  His mom smiled, but somehow the expression made her look more melancholy. “He still needs us.” She laughed soft
ly. “He’s left our room exactly as it was. He still won’t go in there. But he sits outside our door sometimes, and…” She broke off, her eyes bright with tears.

  The sight of her tears twisted my heart a little more. A lot of people thought ghosts didn’t cry, because they were dead, mere projections of what the person had been in life. But that wasn’t true. Ghosts were souls seen through the veil of death. They could feel pain. And since their bodies were projections, they changed with the will of that soul. Sometimes on purpose, for ghosts who chose to frighten the living. And sometimes subconsciously, as the ghost remembered what it was like to cry.

  The man put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. Then he looked at me. While not unfriendly, his face was serious. “Andrew won’t like it if he finds out you were here. Without him.”

  “I know.” I groped for my phone. “I’ll call him.”

  I dialed Andy’s number, feeling awkward making the call in front of his parents. He hadn’t answered my calls earlier. I didn’t think he’d answer this time, but just before the voicemail would have picked up, he did.

  “Shade?”

  “Hi, yeah, it’s me. I’m—”

  “I’m sorry too. Just forget about it. I have information on Vazkasi.”

  I frowned. “The dragon?”

  “Yeah. Where can I pick you up?”

  Tell him, tell him, tell him. “I’ll meet you somewhere. Name a place. I was being followed earlier, I need to make sure they don’t find me again.” I avoided looking at his parents. “Could we meet at your house?”

  “I don’t want a tail following you to my house,” Andy said, too quickly. “Meet me at Goodfellows?”

  I shook my head, then realized he couldn’t see it. “Not there. How about Alexander’s, down the street from the FBI building?”

  “I know it. I’ll meet you there.”

  I agreed and ended the call. I could feel his parents looking at me, feel the disapproval radiating from them. I forced myself to meet their eyes, each in turn. “I’ll tell him.”