Witch Blood ew-2

by Anya Bast

  He’d brought Isabelle and Adam with him for the first shift. Theo, one of the Coven hunters, and Jack would take the second shift. Micah was busy sifting through the texts they’d received from the Duskoff.

  “I can’t believe Alexander’s been living just a few miles from the Coven for the last ten years,” muttered Adam. He finished with a shake of his blond head. “Fuck me.”

  Their investigation had revealed that Alexander was an accountant — or was posing as an accountant — for a chain of motorcycle dealerships and that he’d been living in the Lakeview area of Chicago for the last ten years. The Coven’s sprawling campus lay near the northern portion of the Forest Glen area, only a short drive away.

  “That’s Emma’s job,” Isabelle replied with a grin as she adjusted the spelled listening device they’d use to eavesdrop on Alexander’s apartment. Isabelle could have done it through the water running through an unwarded residence, but Thomas had amped up her ability to listen in remotely by spelling a simple surveillance system. It would also allow Adam and himself to monitor Alexander as well, even though they were not water witches.

  Whether Mira had caught the communication by chance, by pure dumb luck, or because the demon had deliberately blown it her way was a matter of debate. The fact that they’d been searching so long for a sign of the demon, only to have one pop up now, was ample cause for suspicion. Still, they had to take the chance it was legitimate. Too many lives were at risk.

  “It’s not Emma’s job anymore,” Adam answered with a grin. “Now it’s Elizabeth’s.” Despite the fact that Adam smoked too much, drank too much, and the fact that he was less than classically attractive — with a nose that had been broken one too many times and a head full of spiky blond hair — women found him irresistible. Lots of women. And, unlike Micah, Adam knew just what to do with the attention.

  “You’re such a slut.” Isabelle shook her head as she fiddled. “You go through so many women I can’t even keep track. One day you’re going to find one who breaks your heart.”

  “That sounds like a curse, Isabelle. Or is it a promise? Want to break my heart, baby?” He leered at her. “I’ll let you try.”

  “You couldn’t handle me, Adam,” she shot back with a grin.

  He narrowed dark blue eyes at her. “Now that I believe.”

  Letting them banter, Thomas glanced around the room, sensing the walls, floor, ceiling, and doors to make sure he’d covered every inch with the warding. The physical space was bare, except for some tools the building maintenance crew had left. New caramel-colored carpeting covered the floor and the tang of fresh paint stung his nose.

  Adam sat with Isabelle at a card table to adjust the equipment. Isabelle had her long jean-clad legs crossed and she’d hooked her hair behind her ears as she worked. Thomas had noticed she had an adorable habit of biting the tip of her tongue when she concentrated.

  Isabelle set the headset aside and turned to Thomas. “So why do you think the demon has chosen to live so near the Coven?”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself.” Thomas smoothed out the last of the warding and grunted. “We don’t even know if Alexander is the demon. If he is, he likely did it deliberately. It’s too much of a coincidence otherwise.”

  “Maybe he got a kick out of being so close to us,” added Adam.

  “Maybe.” Thomas murmured an incantation — words he’d imbued with his personal power. The last of his concealing wards snapped into place. “Done.”

  His tattoo tingled, tapped of some of the magickal energy he’d stored there. Fire, air, and water witches could just draw straight from the seats of their magick in the center of their chests, but earth witches had more preparation to do. Unless he used his magick to exert control over something directly of the Earth herself, like the ground or a tree, a charm had to be created beforehand. Earth witches had to anticipate the spells they’d need, cook them up, and transfer the pure resulting energy to their bodies to be accessed later. Because of the planning involved, earth magick was the least convenient of the four types of power, but also the most flexible.

  Earth witches were the most stereotypical breed of the four elements. They were more what the non-magickals imagined when they thought witch. No one understood why earth witches were different, though there were plenty of theories.

  “I hope the wards hold,” said Isabelle, looking doubtfully out the window toward Alexander’s apartment.

  Yeah, so did he. They were in new territory with this one, having never done surveillance work on a suspected demon before. Alexander was at work now, which had given them some time to get the spells in place.

  “I made the warding hard to detect,” Thomas answered. “The upside is that if Alexander sniffs them out and comes after us, we’ll know for sure he’s the demon.”

  Isabelle raised a brow. “That’s an upside?”

  “Yeah, I’d rather not find out that way,” groused Adam.

  “We’re about to know one way or the other because he’s home,” murmured Isabelle. “I can feel it through the water in his apartment. That was none too soon.”

  Adam slipped on his headphones and Thomas went to a small table nearby and did the same. The shades were drawn on the windows of their apartment and the wards were locked down tight. From what they knew about demon magick, theoretically, the creature shouldn’t notice their spying. According to Micah, demon magick and elemental magick were fundamentally different and one shouldn’t be able to detect the other.

  Of course, they really didn’t know for certain.

  Micah had successfully obtained the digitized books Stefan had provided and was feeding them information as he scoured and gleaned it. Unfortunately, this lead on Alexander had popped up so soon Micah hadn’t had a lot of time to do research. They were flying blind and had to take as much care as possible.

  They settled in to listen. Through the magickally imbued headset, they heard Alexander cough, blow his nose, go to the bathroom, open and close the refrigerator, pop the top off a beer, and then settle down on the couch with the sigh of one happy to be home from a long day at work.

  The TV flipped on. “Wheel…of…Fortune!” sounded the television audience.

  Adam looked over and gave him an eye roll.

  Thomas took the headphones off and laid them on the table in front of him. “This may be a false alarm.”

  Isabelle slumped her shoulders. “When I tune in remotely to him, using the water in his body, he doesn’t feel like anything more than a non-magickal human male.” She paused and looked morose. “Not even a witch.”

  Thomas nodded. “If he were the demon, you’d know it.”

  Adam pulled his headset off one of his ears. “And I don’t think he’d be watching Wheel of Fortune, if this was our guy. I don’t think demons like Pat Sajak.”

  Isabelle sat up a little straighter. “He could just be playing with us. The demon has to be able to seem convincingly human. Otherwise witches would be spotting him all over the place. Maybe he knows we’re watching and he’s masking. Or maybe he’s become humanized during his stay here and he’s grown to like TV game shows.”

  Thomas and Adam only stared at her. “I think you’re reaching,” Thomas said finally.

  “I’m just trying to think outside the box here, guys.”

  Adam leaned toward her. “Isabelle, I think outside the box with the best of them, but I still suspect he’s a non-magickical human male just home from work with one hand down his pants and a beer in the other.”

  She tossed her headset to the table in front of her with force. “Damn it!”

  Thomas considered her for a moment. “It’s not over yet. Mira heard this man’s name for a reason. He could be connected in some way with the demon.”

  “Maybe.” Isabelle chewed the side of her thumb and slumped in her chair.

  “I need to talk to Isabelle alone, Adam.”

  “Okay. I’ll keep listening to Wheel of Fortune,” said Adam with a sarcastic thumbs-up and gri
n. He placed the headphones to one ear. “I think I know this puzzle. Buy a vowel!”

  “Let me know if anything unusual happens or if he leaves.”

  Adam nodded. “Sure thing, boss.”

  Isabelle looked confused, but Thomas led her into the other room anyway. Only a long worktable stood in what would be the formal dining room. Wadded up painter’s drop cloths lay discarded in the corner. She stood near the table, crossed her arms over her chest, and looked at him expectantly.

  “I just want to make sure you’re okay with all this,” Thomas said. “I know you’ve been traumatized by the death of your sister and I need to make sure that you’re not going to—”

  She raised her eyebrows. “What? Freak out? Break down and cry at a critical moment?”

  “I don’t think you’re the hysterical weeping type. I just want to make sure you’re all right.”

  “I appreciate your concern, I really do, but I’m fine, Thomas. In fact, I’m more than fine now that I’m aligned with the Coven and helping to find this demon. And we will find him. This Alexander guy might be a dead end, but that doesn’t mean we won’t have other promising leads.”

  Relief swept through him. It was nice to hear her being positive. “I’m glad you feel that way—”

  She uncrossed her arms and her expression softened. “Now what’s with your hair?”

  He blinked at the abrupt change of subject. “Excuse me?”

  “I’ve established that you do, indeed, possess pupils, but what’s up with the hair? I mean, it’s beautiful. It’s so long, glossy, and sexy. I want to thread my fingers through it every time I see you. But it seems strange on a man like you because you’re all about work and never about play.”

  He blinked again. “My hair is about work, actually. It holds power for me. Earth witches don’t hold magick in the center of our chest the way fire, water, and air witches do.”

  “I’ve dated earth witches, so I know you guys do that but I’ve never really understood how.”

  “My hair is charmed to hold a reserve of power for me, like you hold your magick in the center of your chest. Except we have to cook up the spells we’ll need beforehand, draw the energy off them, and manually store it on our bodies in places that have been charmed to hold reserves…like my hair.”

  She nodded. “Yes, with one of the complicated earth spells that I’ll never comprehend. Gotcha.” She smiled and reached out to finger a tendril of his hair. “So your strength resides here…like Samson? If I cut it, are you less powerful?”

  “That’s not something earth witches usually reveal.”

  “That’s…wild. And the whole thing makes an odd sort of sense.” She dropped the hank of his hair. “You don’t seem like the vain sort of man who would grow his hair this long for looks or style. It figures you’d have a purpose, a strategy. So, how else do you hold your magick?”

  “I have a tattoo on my back. The ink is charmed to hold power for me.”

  “A tattoo?” A slow smile spread across her mouth. “Show me.”

  “You want me to take my shirt off.” It was a statement more than a question.

  She grinned and waggled her eyebrows. “Why not? Are you scared?”

  He raised his eyebrows and pulled his suit jacket off.

  She laughed and clapped. “Oh, yeah! Take it off, baby!”

  Thomas grinned at her and laid his jacket on the table. The woman had that effect on him. He unbuttoned his shirt and slid that off, too.

  “My, my, my, Mr. Monahan! What big biceps you have.”

  “Are you flirting with me?”

  “Maybe. Why do you sound so surprised?”

  Because women didn’t flirt with him. Not ever. Well, occasionally a non-magickal woman might flirt with him in a store or a bar, but never a witch. Never anyone who knew who he was. Women didn’t play with the heart and soul of the Coven.

  Isabelle was apparently fearless.

  He didn’t answer her; he only turned around to show her his tattoo.

  He heard her quick intake of air. “Oh, my Lady, it’s gorgeous. Who did it?” Her fingers reached out and brushed his skin, making him shiver a little under her touch.

  “An earth witch named Theo. His full name is Theodosius. He inks a lot of us because he’s got the power and the artistic skill. You’ll meet him soon, I’m sure. He’s one of the Coven’s best hunters.”

  ISABELLE TRACED THE LINES OF HIS TATTOO WITH HER fingertip. An angel marked his entire back, her wings arching up and covering his broad shoulders and trailing down his arms. She pushed his hair to the side to see the whole thing and dragged her fingertips over the exquisite artistry of the image. It was done in simple black, but with a high amount of detail.

  Beneath the surface of his skin, along the marks the ink made, she could feel the pulse of the extra power he stored. Earth witches were certainly a different breed.

  She let her gaze drop to his ass and bit her lower lip. The man was fine everywhere, from the top of his head to the tip of his toes. Could anyone blame her if she fantasized about licking everything in between?

  He made her feel oddly safe, too, and she liked that. Isabelle could take care of herself. It was a specialty of hers, surviving. But once in a while it was nice to be in the presence of a man strong enough to take care of her for a change. Thomas was that man. When he entered a room, he commanded it. His leadership was something inborn, innate. It was magnetic, and all those around him reacted by falling in line.

  Yes, she was powerfully attracted to Mr. Thomas Monahan. Most women considered him off-limits. Isabelle considered him fair game.

  Isabelle lifted her hand from his tattoo, dragged it over his shoulder and down his bicep, losing herself for a moment in the bounty of male beauty spread before her.

  He turned and she allowed her hand to trail on his warm skin as he did so. When he faced her, she pressed her palm to his muscular chest and looked up at him, letting her arousal shine in her eyes.

  “Like I said…gorgeous,” she murmured.

  A small smile quirked the corners of his mouth. “That’s supposed to be my line.”

  “Women’s lib. Happened decades ago. What other abilities do you have?”

  “I have some unpredictable PSI and basic empathic skills.”

  “Empathy, huh? What are you picking up from me right now?”

  He took her hand and used it to pull her a step closer to him. That brought her flush up against his magnificent body. The look in his eyes dried her tongue as he slid a hand to the nape of her neck and lowered his head toward hers. “That you’re attracted to me.”

  Her lips curved into a confident smile. “Likewise, I’m sure, Mr. Monahan.”

  The first touch of his lips on hers was a bare tasting, just a brush. Unlike the kiss at Gribben, this one was soft and undemanding. It made her legs feel weak. It promised that if she trusted her body to him, he would take good care of it. Very good care.

  He walked her backward a step, so the back of her thighs hit the worktable in the center of the room. The table’s feet made a squeaking noise on the floor as they bumped it backward an inch.

  She sat down on the edge and he followed her with his mouth, the pressure becoming harder, hungrier. His tongue slid between her lips and brushed against hers lazily over and over, until that patient, thorough attention registered in an area of her body much farther south.

  Thomas briefly broke the kiss. His warm breath caressed her lips. “You’re right. I want you.”

  The words rolled over her, low, warm, and full of erotic promise. They tingled places that hadn’t tingled in a while. She ached with the need for more. Damn it. She would’ve given anything for Adam to suddenly have to go out for a smoke…for an hour or two.

  Isabelle nipped his lower lip. “Come to my room tonight. I promise I’ll still respect you in the morning.”

  Just then the door slammed open. Adam looked stunned for a millisecond at the sight before him and then said, “He’s moving.”<
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  HE MOVED FAST.

  “What happened to sitting around and watching Wheel of Fortune? What happened to the beer drinking? What happened to the whole hand-down-the-pants thing?” asked Isabelle as Thomas guided the car down the busy street, trying to keep up with Alexander’s Volvo.

  Marrow-sucking demons didn’t drive Volvos. They just didn’t.

  “I don’t know,” answered Adam from the back seat. “One second he was drowsing on the couch to the dulcet sounds of the spinning wheel, the next he was up and out the door.”

  “Maybe he’s just off to pick up take-out Chinese or something,” muttered Isabelle.

  “If so, he’s in a big hurry.” Thomas made a hard left, causing her to grab the armrest for support.

  It was much harder to follow someone in real life than in the movies. The follower had to keep a respectable distance behind the followee, while avoiding the traffic and stoplights that could easily cause a separation.

  They followed him to a large building in one of the north-western suburbs of Chicago. Staying well behind him, so as not to draw attention to themselves, they parked a good distance away in the large lot, concealing their vehicle behind some trees.

  Alexander guided his Volvo into one of the parking spots in the overflow lot, near a blue SUV. Then he waited. He’d chosen an isolated place, with few cars or buildings nearby. It was far past the end of the normal workday.

  “I don’t have a good feeling about this,” murmured Isabelle. “Is Alexander stalking someone here? Someone working after hours, maybe?”

  “Like maybe the owner of that blue SUV?” Adam added.

  “Adam, call Micah and see if we know of any witches who work at six hundred and one Amberlyn Drive,” said Thomas in a low voice.

  Adam flipped his cell phone open and talked with Micah in a muted whisper. He snapped his phone closed. “No one on record, but that doesn’t mean much.”

  Not every witch registered with the Coven informed them of job changes and many witches weren’t registered at all. They lived in the world like a non-magickal. Some witches didn’t even know they were witches. Thomas’s cousin Mira Hoskins hadn’t known she was a witch until some warlocks had tried to snatch her to use in a demon circle.