by Holly Ice
‘Yes, that potion. We ship it all around the world.’
‘How does he have time left over to help with your research?’ They must have hundreds of lorries to organise shipments for paperwork, taxes. And Shane had said Russell liked to take on a lot of the work himself.
‘Research is a pleasure of his, a hobby. But this is why his visits are infrequent.’
‘I see.’ Now I was even more sure that this wasn’t just a hobby. ‘Can I get back to class?’
He shooed me.
I closed the door behind me and texted Shane: ‘What does the force have on your great uncle?’
‘Not much to report yet. He splits his time between his business and the school.’
‘Look closer. He’s taking a lot of time away from the potion-making business for a simple hobby.’
‘I’ll pass your message on.’
I locked my phone. My gut was churning again. I was onto something. Something about the McKee business.
Be careful, Bianca.
I glanced at Lyall, perched on the banister. I know. Because that was the other thing I was sure of. Whatever was going on here was dangerous.
* * *
Justin came into our morning appointment late and breathless.
Shane and I glanced at each other.
I tried to ignore my heart jumping. ‘What did you find? Is it the DNA results?’
‘Sorry, no. We’re still analysing them. I don’t have much to report today, but I caught up with the people watching Russell. He barely ever goes home, he spends so much time at the office. But he still makes it to the school.’
‘And?’ He had to have something more than that.
‘We can’t see anything strange from the outside. We need someone to get inside the business. Do you think either of you might manage that? You’re both well placed. Shane, because they’re blood, and Bianca through your punishment. Maybe you could ask to see the family factory?’
‘Maybe.’ I licked my lips, my mouth dry. And my gut squirming. Again.
You’re right to worry. These people are not used to having their secrets poked by outsiders.
Throwbacks?
Yes. They won’t welcome an intrusion into their world. Russell especially. The way he talked to you, you are like… what was the phrase… gum on his shoe.
You are such a confidence booster.
Lyall fluffed his wings. He didn’t like it? Too bad.
‘I’ll do what I can. But I don’t think Russell likes me very much. Or any Animalis witch.’
‘I can attest to that,’ Shane said, rubbing my thigh. ‘He’s prejudiced, always focused on making the bloodline stronger, purer. It’s fascist how fanatical he is about it. And I suppose it was enough to seep into Eugene.’
Mira’s hair stood on end with his words, and I realised how deeply this still cut him.
‘He’ll learn.’
‘At his age? Doubtful.’
I looked to Justin. ‘Is there anything else we should ken or can help with?’
‘Not for now. Meeting adjourned?’ He checked his watch.
Justin managed multiple clandestine operations. Investigating the increase in Cognata throwbacks and non-sentient fae attacks were just two of them, if time consuming.
‘Go,’ Shane said.
Justin nodded, and then it was just me and Shane.
‘Shall we make a morning of it?’ Shane asked. He glanced at me for a fraction of a second, and then reception. ‘They have rooms upstairs.’
I bit my lip at the memory of his fingers through my hair, tugging just so, and I almost moaned at the table. I nodded, not trusting my voice. I was so ready for a repeat performance, in an actual bed, with hours ahead of us. And a bathroom.
Shane took Euros out of his wallet, placed them under his glass, and collected our coats, then went to reception. The receptionist was trying to hide a knowing smile.
Screw it. We were only young once, right? Who cared what they thought.
* * *
My very first punishment date with McKee was interrupted by his uncle. Russell rushed in, cheeks heated, and drew up short. ‘You.’ If possible, he got even redder.
Yep. He really didn’t like me. ‘Good to see you again. Are you here for research? I’m helping McKee today.’
He grimaced. At least he didn’t hide his distaste. Or did that make it worse? ‘Wonderful.’ His tone sounded anything but. And then he turned his back on me. ‘Eugene, I need to talk to you. Privately.’
McKee stood and pushed his chair in. ‘If you’ll excuse us for a few minutes, Bianca?’ He nodded to the door.
Brilliant. I’d been here twenty minutes and they were already chucking me out. For the good bits, too.
‘Should I wait outside?’
Russell shook his head, such a small movement I almost missed it.
‘No. This will take a while. Come back tomorrow.’
Instead of heading for the door, I approached Russell. He had nothing on him, no bag or papers.
‘Nice seeing you again.’ I stuck out my hand, trying to hide my smile. I loved rubbing arseholes like him the wrong way.
He barely slid his palm over mine, but it triggered a reaction. I was thrown out of the room.
It was dark, almost pitch-black, and it stank of piss and shit, like a backed-up club toilet partway through a busy Saturday night. And as I squinted into the darkness through a barred window, I saw a small lump curled on a bed against a wall. That was where the stink was coming from. So rancid I felt like I was swallowing it.
Whoever I was shone a light onto the lump. I glimpsed a mucky face and bleached-blonde hair showing its dark roots. And then the light blinked out, ruining my night vision. I hadn’t seen enough to recognise her or sketch her. But I’d seen enough to ken she was scared. And she wanted out.
And then I was staring at Russell, my hand limp at my side. I felt clammy and manky. And couldn’t get that stench out of my nose. I wrinkled it. Was that a vision? I’d read about people that Saw things from touching objects or people. But whatever that was, if it had anything to do with Russell, it more than backed up the bad vibes I’d had around him.
‘Are you leaving, Animalis?’ he asked, sneering.
I turned on my heel and closed the door behind me. Then I pressed my ear to the gap to hear their conversation, but their words were too muffled. They must have done something to block eavesdroppers. I’d seen hints that a spell like that might exist from some of the training we’d done, including spells which protected our ears at concerts, or on building sites.
So, I had to make a decision based on what I already knew. Did I tell Shane about my weird experience, or Lyall? I couldn’t keep it to myself. If it was real, that woman needed help.
Lyall, something happened when I shook his hand.
I saw that. It looked like your brain went on holiday to Australia. What were you thinking about?
I don’t know. About being thrown out before it got good, that I needed to find what they’re up to, that I couldn’t ask Russell to invite me around his workplace. I’m not sure that’s important, though. It wasn’t thinking about things that made me freeze. I saw something. Like a vision or a hallucination.
Was it a full sensory experience?
I smelled it. I wasn’t forgetting the smell anytime soon. I still tasted it on the back of my tongue.
Then that’s no hallucination. That’s a glimpse from the past or future. Talented spirit witches, maybe one per generation, could get them. The vision should be seen as an answer to your questions.
All that from touching him? That’s possible?
It isn’t widespread. It’s rare and runs in few families. You should be careful who you tell.
Runs in families… I’d have to ask Shane. But I wasn’t sure I should trust the WMCF with this.
Chapter 16
Shane wasn’t answering his phone, so I knocked on his dorm room door. A full two minutes later, Cameron answered, in a towel.
> ‘Is Shane in?’
Cameron glanced over my shoulder and waved me in the room. ‘Did you find something?’
He shut the door, but the rest of the room was empty, and I felt unsure. Nervous. Ridiculous really. I’d been around naked men before. ‘So he’s not here?’
‘He went for dinner a while ago. Should be back soon.’
‘I’ll look for him.’ I wasn’t sure if Cameron knew about Lyall’s true form, and I didn’t want to spill the beans if he didn’t.
‘You don’t want to share?’
Healing green bruises littered his arms and torso from all the ice hockey matches he’d played for us. He should be someone I kept up to date. He’d earned it. But.
‘I should tell Shane first.’ Secrets in this place were guarded closer than gold. And having a vision from touching someone… aye. That wasn’t something I wanted widely shared.
You’re finally getting it.
Cameron sighed. ‘Fine. Go, tell your lovercat.’
I opened the door and stepped back, my heart racing. Shane was close enough for our noses to touch. But he, the bastard, only smirked. Not a hint of a jump in him, like he’d known I was about to open the door and have a panic attack. Typical cat reaction.
‘Bianca, good. We need to head out.’ He slipped his phone back in his pocket. But why hadn’t he answered my texts if it was on him? Was he about to?
‘I need to talk to you.’
‘Can it wait, or can you tell me on the way? Justin’s tech finished analysing the DNA.’
Lyall, what do you think?
See what news they have. Don’t reveal too much if you don’t have to.
You must have led a very secretive life.
Maybe not secretive enough.
And that had to be the closest I’d ever got to a clue about how he died. It didn’t seem from his hang-ups and worries that he died as an older man. I felt like with the right hints, I’d ken who he was. He wasn’t someone too old to be known. Or he’d not hide so much. Most people wouldn’t remember who a three times great-grandfather was. And that thing he said about visions often running in families… I needed to look into that, too.
Shane placed his hand on my shoulder. ‘Bianca?’
I blinked, my heart racing. ‘It can wait.’
Cameron had already found trousers and was pulling on a jumper. They weren’t wasting time.
‘Let’s go!’ Shane nudged me out the door.
‘Should I get my coat?’
‘No, I booked a car.’
Shane kept checking his phone and moving foot to foot. The DNA results could confirm his suspicions or contradict them. This was his proof his uncle knew something. He’d been waiting months for this. And it was far more than the culmination of our investigation. This was his family. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it. My news could wait.
* * *
Justin sat in his normal cubby seat in the Ligzda restaurant, head bowed. He glanced up as we approached, a tic in his cheek. His knee bounced under the table, shaking his coffee cup and clinking the spoon against the saucer.
I slid into the seat. ‘Well, you look like shit. Have you slept?’
It looked like coffee was the only thing keeping him off the table.
‘The DNA came back.’ He unclasped his hands and then clasped them again, the other hand on top, and the jiggling of his knee intensified.
‘Isn’t that a good thing?’ I asked.
‘We don’t have to collect it again, do we?’ Cameron asked, massaging one arm.
‘We have all the results we’ll need. But…’ Justin shook his head. ‘The Cognata throwbacks have less human DNA than they should, radically less than the Animalis throwbacks.’
‘And more fae? Isn’t that what we expected, for a higher degree of Cognata?’ Shane asked.
‘Yes, and no. We expected more fae DNA, but this amount is as if there is fae in recent ancestry. Very recent. Like a parent or a grandparent.’
Shane and I glanced at each other. From what Rufus had told us, the only fae still around were non-sentients, and a select group of fae with strong links to humans. Had they agreed to help increase witch strength? It didn’t seem likely.
The vision of that woman came back to me with the awful stench. Shivers ran through my gut. I felt like she was connected, but she’d seemed human.
‘What do you suspect?’ Cameron asked. ‘That fae are sleeping around? I can’t see it.’
‘No, this is too organised. And the witch DNA comes from several different families. All powerful, so we’d need something stronger to point fingers.’ Justin cursed. ‘I know they’re working together, but I can’t prove it.’
‘Did you look closer at Russell Flynn?’ I asked.
Justin inclined his head. ‘We have men stationed outside his office twenty-four hours a day, every day. So far, nothing out of the ordinary.’
‘And you haven’t gone inside, searched their deliveries and exports?’
‘We can’t do much more without permission from the coven. It’s why I wanted the two of you to get close to him. I’m assuming you’ve had no luck?’
‘No.’
Does my vision count as proof?
I don’t know. Maybe, if they believe you. But they’d have to prove your visions are real, and they’d name you on search orders. You’d become a target.
But that woman with her dirt-stained features, looking at whoever I was with pure terror… I couldn’t leave her in that squalor. I Saw her to help her, to do something. Not sit on it.
Then an idea hit me. ‘Justin, you said the Animalis throwbacks had less fae DNA?’
‘Much less. Not all witch either. My best guess is they’re a mix of shifters and witches, or some of the families with more fae in their blood.’
‘And the spread across witch families is the same?’
‘Yes.’
So why’d they have higher fae blood in some and less in others? ‘Were the Animalis throwbacks older than the Cognata throwbacks?’
‘Some, but not all.’
‘Okay. I think the Animalis throwbacks, or at least a portion of them, were what they tried first. Then they gained access to someone with more fae blood. Or multiple people with more fae blood. So they changed strategy.’
‘And now it’s panning out in more Cognata throwbacks,’ Cameron said, nodding.
And that might explain who that woman was. What if she was being used to birth these babies? What if she was an earlier attempt, now replaced? They couldn’t let her go if she wasn’t a willing participant. But how could I get the WMCF to find her without giving myself away?
The more I thought about it, the more of a headache I got. But if I didn’t trust these three, who did I trust?
Bianca…
They’ll protect me. And if I didn’t say anything and something happened to that woman, it’d be on me. I wasn’t sure I could live with that.
Lyall kept trying to persuade me of the dangers, but I’d made up my mind.
‘I might know something,’ I said.
All the guys looked at me.
‘Is it what you wanted to tell me earlier?’ Shane asked.
‘Yes. Lyall doesn’t think I should say anything, but I have to.’
Shane put his arm around me. ‘We’ve got you.’
I leant into him. He made talking about these things so much easier. ‘So, Russell came to visit the head last night.’
‘What did you see?’ Cameron asked. ‘Anything we can use?’
‘It wasn’t anything… in the room. And it’ll sound crazy.’ I glanced at Shane, but he gave me a smile. ‘I shook Russell’s hand but… disconnected. I wasn’t in the room anymore. I was someone else, standing over a woman.’
‘A vision?’ Shane’s hand jumped on my arm, his voice shaky, breathy. ‘That’s rare.’ Did he not believe me?
Justin and Cameron’s eyes were riveted on me.
But I’d started, so I should finish. ‘The stench of the place
was a presence in the room, but at first I couldn’t see anything. Then whoever I was lit a light and shone it into a cell. I saw a woman on a tiny bed, her own waste in buckets around her. Then I was back in the room, with Russell, and he was asking why I hadn’t left yet.’
None of them said anything. They were still staring. And I felt self-conscious.
‘Can you use it?’ I asked.
Justin cleared his throat. ‘That is… powerful. But using it is a bad idea.’
Shane gripped my shoulder. ‘It puts you at risk. Too much risk.’
My heart stopped jumping around. He believed me.
‘Not just that,’ Justin said. ‘You’d have to convince the WMCF, and other witches, that what you saw was real.’ He glanced at Lyall so quick I almost missed it. ‘It’s a rare power, and unheard of among Animalis witches.’
Cameron sat straighter, his chair squeaking. ‘It might give us something else to work with.’
‘What?’ I asked.
‘Something to look for. Russell won’t keep captive women in his factory. But they have to be somewhere accessible for feeding and watering. People will come and go. We could go through sales records for his properties, see if anything is remote enough to be a good hit.’
Justin slapped the table. ‘Thank you! Finally, something we can actively work on.’ He turned to me. ‘And thank you, for trusting us.’
This went beyond trust. We had to find that woman. And I hoped what we had was enough. ‘You’re sure the person in the vision was Russell? I was in his body and didn’t see myself. It could’ve been anyone.’
‘It’s the most likely explanation,’ Shane said. ‘Visions are spurred by physical contact or questions about a person. Since you were touching Russell, it was either him in the vision, or he’s involved with what happened.’
Then Shane was right. This mystery had his family in the middle of it. His arm was limp around me as he stared a hole into the table.
I kissed his cheek, but he didn’t react.
‘I’ll organise routine customs checks on business vehicles,’ Justin said. ‘Maybe we’ll find something that shouldn’t be there. Restraints, drugs. Anything that’d be evidence for a larger search.’