The Witchkin Murders

by Diana Pharaoh Francis

  “Ten’s better. Bring your lab results on the Keller Fountain murders with you.”

  “They’re murders now?”

  Ray grimaced. Trust Logan to pour alcohol in the wound. Not that he didn’t deserve it. “They always were. I was just too stupid to know it. I’ve also got two names I need you to run down. I need home addresses and anything else that might be out there on them. Got a pen?”

  He rattled off the two names Laina had given him, along with their academic titles.

  “Who are they?” Logan asked.

  “Hopefully the key to the unknown,” Ray said sardonically. “Get your ass here as quick as you can. Oh, and one more thing. See if you can get any updates on the investigation. Just in case I get fired before you get here.” Though he might already have been for ditching Dix at the hospital.

  He hung up before Logan could reply, and then hit the call button for Captain Crice.

  When he answered, Crice sounded livid. His voice scraped hoarsely like he’d been yelling, which he recommenced as soon as he heard Ray’s voice.

  “Garza? What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Do you have any idea what kind of shit storm is happening down here? What in the holy hell were you doing, blowing off Dix in the hospital? You’d better have a damned good explanation or your ass is canned.”

  Ray decided to go on the offense and shut Crice’s tirade down before he really got wound up.

  “Sir, there’s a potentially catastrophic magical event going down soon somewhere in the city. I’m in the process of tracking down details, but I can tell you that there’s at least one god involved. The Runyon case is directly tied to it, as is the attack in the lab.”

  To his credit, the Captain didn’t bat an eyelash. In fact, he instantly calmed. “Did you say god? What kind of god?”

  “Don’t know, though I’m on my way to track down an expert on the subject.”

  “Dammit, Garza, why is this the first I’m hearing of this?”

  “I only just found out myself. Have there been any leads from the tip line or the canvass?”

  “Getting reports of a cluster of sightings down near Sherwood and Tualatin. Not a lot of detail, but everybody’s seeing the same thing—a big guy wearing some kind of cloak or poncho and stained with blood. I sent extra teams out to follow up.”

  “Tell them to be on the lookout for those demon dogs from the lab. Wherever they are is where it’s going down. Make sure everybody keeps their distance. Logan couldn’t hold them on his own. Call me if they see anything. I recruited some reinforcements.”

  “Reinforcements? Who?”

  “Some witches and one or two others,” he said vaguely. Luckily Crice seemed content with that. Or maybe he didn’t want to know.

  “I’ll put the word out. What about the Runyon women?”

  “No leads, except a clear link between the cases. My bet is that we’ll find them in the middle of this mess.” Though Ray seriously doubted that they’d be alive.

  “All right, Garza. I’m going to give you the rope you want, but I’ll use it to hang you if this goes to hell.”

  “Captain, if this goes to hell, I’m probably going to be dead, so you won’t have to worry about it.”

  “Goddamn, but I hate this supernatural crap!” Crice bellowed into the phone, and Ray could hear the sound of breaking glass, as if he’d thrown something. “They should keep their damned magic to themselves and leave the rest of us out of it.”

  “About that, sir,” Ray said, the words popping out before he could think about the wisdom of what he was doing. “I’m a witch.”

  That announcement met with stony silence. Ray’s jaw tightened as he waited for a response, but he wasn’t sorry. At least, he wasn’t completely sorry.

  “You’re a what?” Crice said, his voice slow and quiet.

  “A witch. Happened at Magicfall.”

  “Garza, exactly why are you telling me this right now?”

  Ray imagined Crice pinching the bridge of his nose.

  “Word’s going to get out.”

  “I have a don’t ask, don’t tell policy in this precinct, Garza. I do not want to know about your personal bullshit. I want the job done and without making me a target for the city council or rich assholes like Alistair Runyon.”

  Crice cut the call. Ray stared at his phone. That had not gone the way he’d expected.

  “I take it you’ve decided to come out of the closet?” Raven asked drily.

  “Seems like,” he said. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the confession. His heart pounded with adrenaline, but otherwise he felt . . . numb.

  Raven nodded, but he could practically feel the skepticism rolling off her. It infuriated him for reasons he couldn’t identify.

  “What more do you want from me?” He fought the urge to punch the side of the boat as his temper snapped. All the stress and emotional upheaval from the last couple of days crushed down on him all at once, leaving him without patience and without any fucks to give.

  “I’ve basically just torpedoed my career. If I’m willing to do that, then I’m willing to take this to the end.”

  “The end, Detective Garza? There is no end. This is life. This is truth. You want a pat on the head for admitting you’re one of us? You can go to hell. So humans have to share their world. Big fucking deal. We’ve shared our world with humans since you crawled out of a swamp somewhere and decided you were the only ones who mattered. Everybody else was vermin.

  “So congratulations. Have yourself a party. You told someone you’re a witch. I don’t give a shit how hard it was or that you might lose your precious job. You know what we’ve lost? The rest of us who’ve been out of the closet this whole time? We’ve lost our homes, our friends, respect, and most of all, we’ve lost most of our rights. We’re no longer human, so we’re no longer worth a damn. So no, you don’t get any brownie points just because you finally owned up to who you really are.”

  The angry flow of words cut off with a sharp snap. Her spine was ramrod straight. Before Ray could formulate an answer, he became aware of movement along the side of the boat.

  Kayla’s cobalt-and-gold dragon head floated just above the water. Her large crystalline blue eyes stared at him. Through him.

  She’d heard. Son of a fuck! This was not the way he’d wanted her to find out. He needed to explain.

  “Wait! Kayla—”

  He leaned over the side of the boat. She held his gaze another moment, and then dove out of sight.

  He swore with a vehemence that surprised even him. God but what a fucked-up mess. He’d finally told her he was a witch, and he’d done it in the worst possible way.

  He knew she’d come back, if only because of the case and her missing grandmother and aunt. What he didn’t know is whether she’d let him explain. Not that he had a good explanation. Raven’s searing condemnation had told him that.

  He fell silent, clutching the rail along the side of the boat and searching the water for some sign of Kayla. Raven’s voice broke quietly through his misery.

  “I’m sorry. That was your secret to tell on your time.”

  “I should have already told her.”

  Her silence told him he wasn’t wrong.

  Chapter 21

  Kayla

  KAYLA DOVE DEEP into the river, down to the base of the underwater mountain, and then deeper, into a narrow canyon cutting south into the lake. Her mind whirled, and she didn’t know what to feel.

  Ray was a witch. A witch.

  The bitter irony of it struck her first. That she left the force because she’d become a shifter, and he’d stayed despite the fact that he’d become a witch. She’d thrown away everything with him because he wouldn’t have been able to accept her, only to find out he’d been changed too. She’d stil
l have had to leave the force. Her inability to control the shift guaranteed that, but maybe they could have stayed friends.

  Anger struck her next. Who the hell was he to bitch about her keeping secrets when he was just as bad? There he was yelling at her and getting all self-righteous.

  Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

  She clawed a boulder from the underwater canyon wall and flung it.

  And then once he learned the truth, he could’ve come clean. But apparently he was allowed to keep his secrets.

  Jackass.

  She dug out a couple more pickup-sized boulders and sent them careening. It was another fifteen minutes of thrashing and tantrumming before she calmed down enough to start seeing reason.

  Ray didn’t owe her anything. She hadn’t even seen him in four years, and she walked away without any explanation at all. If not for the murders at Keller Fountain they still wouldn’t be talking. He’d never been one to trust easily, and though he wore an impassive mask most of the time, she knew he felt things deeply.

  She’d been at his side when his parents died in the car crash. To everybody else he’d taken it stoically, but then a few weeks later they had gone to a bar. Kayla helped him get good and drunk and listened as his pain came pouring out. Later she’d taken him home and they’d sat up most of the night talking and drinking coffee.

  All-night-coffee-chats turned into one of their rituals when dealing with a hard case or tragedy, and then it turned into a regular thing. A way to wind down after a long week. They’d grown close. Closer than lovers, the way partners were supposed to be.

  She missed those days and being able to talk to him.

  She couldn’t help but wonder if she’d just had the balls to tell him, what would’ve happened? Would he have understood?

  The possibility made her feel physically sick. She sank down until she lay on the rocky floor of the canyon. She’d taken away his chance to decide what he wanted to do. She’d owed it to him to decide for himself. So now, four years later, what right did she have to blame him for not trusting her with his secret?

  Besides, he turned into a witch not a sea monster. Not some kind of bizarro god from the Black Lagoon. Anyhow, he’d been trying to tell her something at Jerry’s and at Raven’s, and she’d put him off, afraid of what it might be. She really had to get over walking on eggshells with him if she wanted to have a real friendship again, which she did, more than anything.

  So, what did she want to do now? Get over her damned self for starters. Put the past in the past and call this a clean slate. Hopefully Ray would agree.

  Kayla rose through the water. A cluster of water pixies watched her pass, riding creatures that looked like a cross between a manta ray and a squid. Since jumping off the boat into the water, all kinds of water beings had come to see her. They kept their distance as if not entirely trusting her. She dipped her head to them, deciding that a smile would probably look more threatening than not

  She broke the surface in the middle of the river. Raven and Ray had already tied up the boat. He paced along the dock talking on the phone and scanning the water. He looked worried. Probably wondered how she was going to take the news. Better put him out of his misery.

  She swam to the dock and crawled up onto the wood decking, her claws gouging chunks out of the wood. Both Raven and Ray came to stand in front of her. Ray’s face was stony, but his eyes were tortured.

  “Give me a second, and I’ll have you dry,” Raven said.

  She set one hand on Kayla’s shoulder who made sure to keep her scales slicked down. It would be rude to slice off Raven’s fingers.

  The witch made a little humming sound and then hot power washed over Kayla, drying her. With Ray watching, Kayla’s concentration was close to shot, so it took her a good minute to change back to human form. As soon as she did, Raven took a couple steps back.

  “I’ll give you two a few minutes,” she said, walking down out of ready earshot.

  Ray stepped forward, his hands coming up to hold Kayla’s arms like he thought she might go running off. He caught himself before he touched her and dropped his hands back to his sides.

  “Kayla, I was going to tell you—”

  “Stop,” she said, interrupting him. “You don’t have to explain. I get it. I really do.”

  He scowled, the muscle in his jaw flexing. “Get what?”

  “Why you didn’t tell me, and it’s fine. So, let’s just forget it and move on. We’ve got work to do anyway.”

  Her words didn’t seem to make him feel any better, a conclusion confirmed by the harsh anger of his tone when he spoke again. She just had no idea why he was so mad.

  “Just how do I feel?”

  “Well for starters, you’re clearly pissed at me,” she said.

  He swallowed and shook his head as if to clear it. When he spoke again, his tone had evened out in a carefully controlled way, like when you try to reason with an insane person holding a gun. “Why aren’t you mad I didn’t tell you after I gave you such shit about not telling me? Why don’t you care?”

  Kayla drew back. “You don’t think I care? Of course I care. But there’s not a lot of point in holding a grudge. Sure, I was pissed. I had a grand hissy fit down in the water. When I got done tossing boulders, I decided I didn’t have much right to get be all holier than thou, and I didn’t feel like it either. I’d rather focus on today and tomorrow rather than yesterday. We’re talking again. I don’t want to fuck it up.”

  “I did try to tell you, but—”

  “I know. I figured that out. It really is okay.”

  He shook his head, his dark eyes searching hers. “You sure you’re not just saying that? You’re letting me off way too easy.”

  “Oh, I plan to make you pay for it. Do you want me to call you Mr. Wizard? Mr. Oz? Maybe Gandalf? Merlin? Mr. Crowley? Or I know, Professor Snape. Glinda could work, too, if you want to go pink and fluffy.”

  He continued to stare at her in disbelief. “You’re serious. You really aren’t pissed.”

  “I figure you’ll give me something else to get aggravated about before long. Why not just wait?” she said lightly, then sobered, chewing her bottom lip. One thing still ate at her. “Just—back at Keller Fountain, you said—”

  She broke off. “Never mind. It’s stupid.”

  “Tell me.”

  “You said we weren’t friends. Is that still the way you see it?” Then quickly, “It’s okay. I understand.”

  He winced. “I don’t suppose you could forget that. I was an ass.” He took a breath. “Look, I’ll be honest. I don’t know what the hell we are at this point, but if we aren’t friends, I damned sure want to work to get back there, which means I need to apologize. I should have said something earlier about becoming a witch. I’m sorry I didn’t.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “At first it was because I didn’t want to scare you off.”

  “I’m a lizard-crocodile-snake-monster. A complete freak of nature. How could you being a witch scare me off?”

  “I couldn’t risk it,” he said baldly, and it stunned her to see the raw vulnerability that touched his eyes. The intensity of earlier had returned as he looked at her. “I lost you once and it was pure hell. You were my closest friend. Practically family. The one person I could depend on no matter what happened. I want that back. I screwed the pooch last time. I made it impossible for you to talk to me, to trust me. I don’t want to do that again.”

  “So to make me trust you, you didn’t tell me you were a witch, which could easily make me not trust you. Is that man logic?”

  “Stupid, right?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “What can I say? I’m a man.” The corner of his mouth kicked up in a half smile that didn’t make it to his eyes.

&nbs
p; “Okay, what was the other reason?”

  “Other reason?”

  “You said at first you didn’t want to scare me off. What was second?”

  He sighed. “I could barely admit it to myself. Telling someone else made it more real, more true, than I was willing to accept.”

  “And now?

  “I can’t keep hiding from myself, and if you and I are going to be able to fix things, I can’t keep lying to either one of us.”

  Kayla nodded. “Very adult of you.” He looked as if he couldn’t decide if she was teasing him or not. She decided to switch gears and ask more interesting questions. “So you’re a witch. Are you any good?”

  He drew back slightly. “I’d say I’m about as good at witchcraft as you are at being a god.”

  She snorted. “Wow, you really suck, don’t you?”

  That earned her a chuckle, and then he sobered. “I haven’t exactly embraced the witch thing. Mostly I ignore it and pretend nothing ever happened to me.”

  “Sounds familiar. How’s that working for you?”

  “Better than for you.” He put his hands on Kayla’s shoulders and leaned in until his forehead rested against hers. Her hands drifted to settle on his waist. For balance. Nothing else. She had to concentrate to keep them from sliding around and investigating more of him. She didn’t want to give him a reason to put up walls. More than anything else, she wanted his friendship back. His company. His laughter. His trust.

  “I wish to God I’d pulled my head out of my ass years ago and learned how to use my magic. But don’t even think about trying to leave me behind so I won’t get hurt. There’s no safety anywhere if we don’t stop whatever’s about to happen.”

  Kayla flashed to the creatures ripping at Ray in the morgue hallway, blood splattering the floor as he tried to get away. Her stomach clenched. She couldn’t and wouldn’t not try to protect him. Her jaw set and she didn’t reply.

  “Kayla,” he said, voice harsh with warning.

  “Ray.”