“Brenda, how many times do I need to insist you call me Mal?” He smiled, flashing his dimples.
Brenda’s face crinkled around the eyes. “Oh, yes. Of course, Mal.” She giggled and shot me a pointed look.
It was the get-gone look, the you’re-cramping-my-style eye dart. Brenda was a cute little thing—brunette, dark eyed, and voluptuous—and she had a fiancé. It didn’t stop her flirting her arse off though. She’d said more than once that if Banner crooked his finger her way, she’d dump Stephen in a heartbeat.
But Banner was a fantasy and Stephen was real. I just hoped she realized that.
I backed away from the counter. “I’m gonna … do stuff in the kitchen.”
“Wait,” Banner said. “Did you get my card?”
Brenda’s eyes widened. Fantastic. There’d be questions galore later.
“Card?” I shook my head, faking ignorance. “Sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He searched my face and then a small smile played on his lips. “I can live with that. While I’m here, maybe you can get Urvashi to come out. I meant to thank her personally for pulling of the dessert catering for the Meet.”
“She never came in,” Brenda blurted.
She was lucky she was too far away to have her foot stomped on. Never came in sounded irresponsible and callous, isn’t in yet would have sounded much better.
Banner had picked up on the choice of words too. “Is she alright?”
I smiled. “I’m sure she is.”
“She’s not answering her phone.” Brenda said.
I sighed. “I’m sure she has her reasons, Brenda.”
But Banner’s eyes had narrowed, his lips tightening. “Maybe someone should check on her. Make sure she’s alright.”
Why was he so concerned? Did Urvashi and he have a thing? But he was right. Urvashi had made me a promise she wouldn’t play hooky without telling me first. Not to call or text wasn’t like her.
I smiled tightly at Banner. “I’ll check on her later.” The timer on the oven beeped. “Rolls are ready.”
I bustled into the kitchen.
He is concerned. Anxious. I sense it coming off him in waves.
I pulled the tray of rolls out the oven. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a thing with Urvashi.”
A thing?
I rolled my eyes. “That they’d … you know … been intimate.”
She is his woman.
“No. Urvashi is no one’s woman, and Banner,” I snorted, “Banner is everyone’s man.”
He was silent for the longest time, long enough for the rolls to cool enough to be iced.
In my world intimacy is meaningful. It is a commitment.
“Well, that must be lovely for you. In this world people take your body and break your heart. They love you one moment and forget about you the next. Relationships suck.”
I carried the rolls back out, slid them into their section behind the glass counter, and grabbed a box.
“How many?”
Banner sighed. “Four.”
The bell pinged, but I didn’t look up until his order was ready and on the counter. Brenda rung it up while I turned to the new customer.
Mira, in her Gemma guise, grinned cruelly at me.
My heart sank. “What do you want?”
“Carmella.” Brenda nudged me, her eyes wide with admonishment.
Crap. Of course to Brenda, Gemma was just a customer—a sweet little girl who wanted two brownies and a jammy dodger. She hadn’t a clue how many faces lay behind the innocent heart-shaped one blinking up at us now, looking bewildered and hurt.
I exhaled through my nose and smiled over gritted teeth. “Sorry, sweetie. The usual?”
She nodded, ponytail bobbing.
Banner glanced at her and did a double take, his brow crinkling in a frown.
Oh, my god. Did he sense something? He was an elder witch. Maybe he could. But then he was smiling at her.
“Best brownies in Piccadilly, right?”
“Right,” Mira said in her saccharine Gemma voice.
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.” His gaze lingered on me a moment longer and then he was headed for the door. The bell tinkled on his exit.
Brenda sighed, hand on heart. “He gave you his card?”
I glanced in Mira’s direction. “Later.”
Brenda nodded. “I better stock up the brownies.” She walked off into the kitchens.
I turned on Mira. “What do you want?”
She pointed at the bag in my hand. “My order would be nice.”
There it was … her real voice, snarky and sultry and totally weird coming out of her twelve year old mouth.
“Do you have to parade around looking like a kid? Can’t you look older?”
She snorted. “And risk detection by whatever is hunting my people? Children are invisible in your world … most of the time. No one pays any attention to them, unless they’re responsible for them.” She paused and tapped her chin. “No, wait. I tell a lie. There was this one man who attempted to bribe me with small boiled sweets and get me in his car.”
Oh god. “What did you do?”
She grinned, a wide sadistic grin. “I ate him. He was much more appetizing than the sweets.”
Mira, enough with the tales. What have you got for me?
For a blissful moment I’d forgotten he was there, but he shifted now, making himself known and filling my mind with his presence and intent. I’d promised to help him and my shift was almost over.
Mira crossed her arms over her chest. “I found djinn essence. Fresh and ascendant.”
Good, take me to it.
“Whoa. I still have thirty minutes left on my shift.”
Brenda strolled in. “Is something wrong?”
Mira looked up at Brenda, her eyes misting. “I’m not feeling too well and I wanted Carmella to walk me home.” Her bottom lip trembled.
Brenda made a tutting sound. “Oh, honey. Can we call your mum to get you?”
She shook her head. “Mum’s sick.”
Brenda sighed. “Course sweetie. I can close up, no problem.”
Paimon relaxed.
He knew he’d won.
Ducking out of my apron, I grabbed my keys.
“Oh, Carmella, I tried Urvashi again, still no answer.”
“I have a key to her apartment. I’ll drop by and check on her.”
An irritated sigh.
Well fuck him. My friends came first. I pulled open the door and Mira gripped my hand, squeezing painfully, while a soft smile played on her lips. My wrists tingled and the bands flashed gold—a gentle reminder I was no longer my own boss.
“See you in the morning,” Brenda called out as I stepped into the late afternoon sun.
Paimon’s voice filled my head, and his energy infused my limbs. Time to track a djinn.
10
“T wo minutes, dammit.”
That wasn’t the deal.
“The deal was to help you outside of my working hours, but we didn’t set time frames. I’m not breaking our deal.”
Mira growled low in her chest. “Let me hurt her, Paimon.”
Tuning her out, I climbed the three steps to Urvashi’s tiny terraced house. The curtains were drawn and a local paper lay on the mat, all dry and faded from the heat of the sun. The bell and the knocker elicited no response. Time to use the emergency keys.
The scent of vanilla potpourri and cotton fresh air freshener hit me as I entered.
“Urvashi? You here, hun?”
Her handbag hung on the coat rack; her memory-foam shoes were propped on the shoe rack. A bunch of keys hung on the hook by the door.
“Urvashi?” I scanned the lower floor.
The living room was neat and ordered and shrouded in darkness. Two dirty plates sat on the draining board in the kitchen, alongside two empty wine glasses.
Urvashi had had company.
But she hadn’t left the house … not without her bag a
nd keys. I took the narrow flight of stairs two and a time. Something was wrong.
Something is wrong here.
“Yeah, tell me something I need to know.”
All the doors to the rooms upstairs were closed. I’d visited enough to know which was hers, so I bee-lined for it, pushing it open to reveal …
What in the world?
Mira pushed passed me, her nose in the air, eyes alight with triumph. “I know this scent. It’s them.”
Paimon tensed. But I was too busy staring at the mess: the shredded sheets, the tossed pillows, the shattered dresser glass, and the hundreds of large white feathers lying across every surface.
“What the actual fuck?”
The net curtains billowed into the room on a gust of wind.
Mira ran to the window. “It came in through here.”
“What? What came in?”
It was Paimon who replied, his tone low and somber. The thing that took your friend … the thing that’s been taking my people.
No. It couldn’t be. What were the odds?
Mira picked up a feather and sniffed. “Vanilla. Sweet. What creature in your world has such feathers?”
There was only one. “The Ghandarva have wings. They used to be the apsara’s companions in swarga. But I can’t believe one would hurt the other.” The two empty wine glasses downstairs. “Wait, maybe she was having a … thing, with this Ghandarva?”
“So you think he was taken too?” Mira asked.
The scene suggests a struggle.
“And the feathers suggest this Ghandarva fought,” Mira said.
Urvashi had been on a date, and something had burst in and taken them both. But why? I picked up a feather and slipped it into my handbag.
“You can tell for sure these cases are connected?”
Yes. There is a weak signature in the atmosphere. It is all we’ve ever succeeded in finding. Not enough for us to track it though. For that I need to see it. I need a piece of it.
“But you’re sure?”
Yes. Whatever took your friend is the same thing that’s been taking my people.
I headed back downstairs.
Where are you going?
“To the enforcement office. I need to report this.”
“They can’t help you,” Mira said.
I hit the hallway and she grabbed my arm.
“Paimon, let me hurt her. Please.”
Trying to shake her off was futile, her grip was a vice, digging in and bruising. Heat expanded in my chest. Urvashi had been taken. She could be hurt, or being hurt right now. I needed to do something—get officers out there looking for her. My eyes grew hot. “Seriously, tell your dog to let me go, or I swear I don’t give a fuck about our deal. I won’t help you. I’ll fight … I’ll fight you with everything I have.”
Let her go Mira.
“But—”
Now!
I was out the door and on the street in seconds. The nearest enforcement office was two blocks away. I broke into a run.
_____
Dripping with perspiration, I entered the building filled with people sworn to serve and protect. This was no IEPEU, but it was what the everyday person had when it came to report a crime.
The AC was on full blast, cooling the sweat on my brow. Wiping at my face and ignoring Mira’s furious expression, I walked up to the reception desk where a slightly balding, thickset guy in uniform was flicking through a magazine. His polite smile turned into something more appreciative when he noticed me. He stood straighter and shoved the magazine under the counter.
“How can I help you?” he asked.
“I need to report a missing … person?” Was an apsara a person?
He smiled kindly. “You don’t sound too sure.”
Paimon sighed. Stand up straighter. Confidence woman.
My spine straightened. “My friend, she’s an apsara, and she’s gone missing.”
He blinked at me. “An apsara, as in one of the celestial dancers?”
“She’s not a dancer, she owns a bakery … Delightful Bakery.”
“Oh, man, those brownies are to die for.” He shook his head. “And the cinnamon rolls are just too good.”
Was he not getting me? “She’s missing. I need you to find her.”
He pulled out a pad of paper, his demeanor instantly more professional “Okay, when’s the last time you saw or spoke to her.
“Yesterday morning.”
“Ahuh, and you’ve tried to contact her today?”
“I did, she didn’t answer so I went to her house. I have a key. I let myself in and there’s been some kind of struggle. I think she was taken.”
His brows were knit together. “Your name?”
“Carmella Hunter.”
“Okay, please start from the beginning. Tell me exactly what happened.”
I talked and he jotted everything down. He glanced up when I mentioned the Ghandarva feathers.
“So your friend was with someone last night?”
“I think they were both taken. It’s a mess.”
“Do you suppose the mess could have been caused by their … activities?”
Paimon growled in exasperation. This is a waste of time. We’re wasting time.
“Miss Hunter?”
“No. They were taken. I’m sure of it.”
“Hmm.” He gave me a look, the one that said you-naive-fool and picked up his note pad. “Wait here. I’m going to run this by my boss. We’ll get a unit over to her home and check it out. Take it from there.”
I sagged in relief. “Thank you.”
He left me at the counter and headed into the back office.
“See. We’re gonna get some help. Maybe they’ll find some clues that’ll help us with your case … if the thing that took her is the same thing that’s hunting your people.”
Paimon was silent.
Mira picked at her nails, looking bored.
A few long seconds passed and then a tall silver-haired man strode up to the counter. “Miss Hunter?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you for coming in, we’ll take it from here.” He smiled tightly.
Mira snorted.
He reeks of lies.
I hated to admit it but the djinn may be right. “You’ll send a unit?”
“We have our procedures for dealing with this kind of thing.”
This kind of thing? “What do you mean?”
He sighed. “Look Miss Hunter, you seem like a nice lady, a decent lady, and I’m sure this apsara has been very kind to you. But we know the type—promiscuous and flighty. It’s their nature. Your friend is probably having a whale of a time somewhere and will turn up in a few days, no worse for wear. However, as you’ve made a formal report we are obligated to investigate, which we will do in due course.”
Due course … as in never.
Mira snorted again, and the officer glanced at her as if noticing her for the first time.
He cleared his throat. “I suggest you take your sister home and leave this to us.”
Carmella, we should go and examine the site Mira found while it’s still light. There’ll be no help for us here.
Something cold and lethal stirred inside me. “You listen to me, and you listen carefully. If anything untoward has happened to my friend I will be holding you personally responsible and I will sue your ass. No. I’ll get my friends and Brahma Corp to do it for me.”
He blinked, taken aback. But then his expression hardened. “In that case maybe you can get your friends to investigate the case for you. Maybe they can do it from their stone fortress where the reality of what’s happened to our world doesn’t touch them.”
Rage lanced through me and I fisted my hands in time to stop myself physically lashing out. “If it wasn’t for those gods, we’d all be dead.”
The officer pressed his lips together, nostrils flaring. “Look. That was uncalled for. I apologize. I realize you’re just doing the right thing here. We’ll look into it. I
assure you.”
He left me standing at the counter, bewildered and angry.
“Can we go now?” Mira drawled.
“Yeah, we can go.”
Walking out of the building was like stepping into an oven, but the heat was the least of my worries. My gut squirmed. The whole exchange had been off. More than plain unhelpfulness, and more than them believing Urvashi was simply off on a sex binge. If the regular enforcement channel wasn’t going to help me, I’d just have to go over their heads. And lucky for me I knew just the gal to call. Retrieving my phone from my bag, I hit speed dial.
What are you doing now?
Mira leaned up against the wall glaring at me. “I told you to let me hurt her. Pain is a great incentive.”
The phone rang, once, twice, and was answered with a click.
“Hunter? What’s up?” Melody Parker said.
“I have a problem.”
“Tell me.”
I filled her in on Urvashi’s disappearance, and when I’d finished she was silent for a long beat.
“Parker?”
“Look Carmella, this is classified, so I can’t go into detail. But please do me a favor and just drop this.”
Had I heard her right? “My friend is missing. How the heck do you expect me to drop this?”
She sighed in exasperation. “Because I’m asking you to trust me. Look I got to go. Just … you’ve filed a report so let the authorities deal with it.” She hung up.
I stared at the phone, dumbstruck.
Are you ready to do some investigating now?
The Carmella of a few days ago may have listened to Melody and left everything up to the authorities. But that Carmella was buried under the power and confidence of a djinn. His energy thrummed in my veins, intent pulsing in my brain.
“Hell yeah. I’m ready.”
11
W e rode the aerial tram to Tottenham Court Station. From there Mira led us to Soho square—a large expanse of green where people could stop to eat lunch, or merely enjoy the sun. She stopped and sniffed the air.
“What is it?”
“I’m not sure … something more …” she strode off across the grass.
Paimon was silent, but he was watching, scoping. I sensed it through our weird connection. It was invasive but kinda comforting at the same time. Like having an extra pair of eyes you didn’t need to control.
Binding Magick: an Urban Fantasy Novel (The Witch Blood Chronicles Book 1) Page 6