“That’s enough, Althea. You’ll prepare when I say prepare, and I’ll hear no more whining out of you. This is serious.” Luna was using her stern voice, which she rarely used. I sat up straighter in bed.
“Something happened.”
“Yes, it did. Mathias was working the night shift last night and this morning. He just got home.” Mathias, Luna’s boyfriend, was a doctor who not only ran his own practice, but also pulled some shifts in the ER at the little hospital downtown. “There were two mysterious deaths this morning.”
“Erm… please go on.”
“Two bodies were brought to the morgue. Two South American men. They died of mysterious causes. Mathias suspects poisoning, but they’ll need to do an autopsy.”
“Okay. Why was this mysterious, exactly? Where were they found? How were they found?”
“Chief Thomas found them in a car parked down by the docks. You know how he patrols to make sure there aren’t teenagers down there partying or getting into naughty business in their cars. And he found the men in a rental car.”
“Just sitting there? Or what?”
“Yup, both sitting in their seats. Windows up. Here’s the kicker: There was a deflated flamingo floatie in the back seat.”
“Oh.” I swear I’m usually more articulate.
“Oh, indeed. No marks, contusions, cuts, anything. Both dead, sitting straight up in their seats, looking at the docks.”
“That’s not good.” Again, not the most articulate, but coffee had still not entered my body.
“It is not.”
“Do you think someone is framing the Flamingo King? Like leaving a calling card?”
“I don’t know, but I think since Miss Elva is insisting we go to this gala with her, that you and I need to do a little prep work.”
“She did give me gris-gris this week,” I admitted. Luna gave a sharp inhale over the phone.
“And you’re just telling me?”
“I forgot,” I admitted, reaching over to scratch Hank’s ears. He pulled his nose out from the blanket and glared at me. I understood; I felt the same way when someone tried to drag me from my blankets in the morning.
“I don’t like any of this. There’s something weird going on with the flamingo people, and now we have murders again.”
“How do you know it was murder?”
“Two people don’t just die at the same time in their car of natural causes, Althea.”
“I mean… it could happen, right? Like a malfunction in the exhaust?”
“Then why the deflated flamingo?”
“Maybe they were going to the beach later?”
“And leave the suitcase of money in their trunk behind?”
“You failed to mention that part.”
“You distracted me when you told me Miss Elva gave you gris-gris.”
“How do you know all these details?”
“The chief told Mathias. That nasty reporter we don’t like was already there, so I’m sure it will be the talk of the town today anyway. I’m just preparing you for it with your clients. Also, clear your schedule by the end of the day if you can.”
“I don’t wanna do magick.” I swear, Sleepy Althea is as petulant as a toddler who doesn’t want to pick up her toys.
“Althea Rose, you have been given gifts from the goddess above. It’s a shame to her and your lineage to ignore them. A shame, I say.” Luna was using her stern voice again.
“Fine. But you’re buying me a drink after.”
“Better yet, I’ll take you shopping for a dress for this weekend.”
“Do we have to go?”
“Are you going to let Miss Elva walk into that all on her own?”
“Miss Elva is a strong independent woman who can handle her shit.”
“That she is. But even strong independent women need their friends sometimes. And this is one of those times. Now stop whining and go get some coffee.”
“Fine, but I’ll whine up until I’ve had the coffee.”
“At least I don’t have to hear it.” At that, Luna hung up.
I peered at Hank. “I don’t whine, do I, Hank?”
Hank just grumbled and buried his head further under the blanket.
“I didn’t want to say anything, but you have your moments.” I swear I almost toppled from the bed before I remembered that Rosita had comfortably ensconced herself in my home. I glared at where she hovered by my bedside.
“Rosita. It’s rude to eavesdrop.”
“How can I not eavesdrop? Nobody can see me. My very existence means I eavesdrop constantly.”
The ghost had a point.
“I can see you.”
“And you are well aware I’m staying in your home.” Rosita shrugged a shoulder delicately. “What’s this about a gala?”
“We’re going to the Bahamas this weekend.”
“Fun. I hope you’ll dress appropriately.”
Even the ghost was fashion-shaming me.
“I always dress appropriately.”
“That weird hair color says differently.”
“What’s wrong with my blue streaks?”
“They fade to grey and don’t flatter your skin tone. I suggest you go red if you want men to look at you with lust.”
Leave it to a ghost to not sugarcoat anything.
“Who says I want men to look at me with lust? I already have a man.”
“Do you? Interesting. Well, let’s not try to lose him with ugly hair colors, now, shall we?”
I took a deep breath and stared at the ceiling, counting backward from ten.
“Rosita. I need some space.”
“Fine. Come on, Hank darling. Let’s leave the cranky one to fix those dark circles under her eyes.”
Hank bounded from bed, following Rosita with an adoring look on his face.
Traitor.
Chapter Ten
Dark circles covered, coffee consumed, and an appointment booked with my hair stylist, and I was ready for work. Checking the time, I realized that thanks to Luna’s early morning call, I had an extra twenty minutes before I needed to leave for work. I hadn’t heard from Trace since he’d left for his boat trip, so I decided I’d give him a call before he headed out on his first dive of the day. Wandering to my secret slice of paradise, I settled into the low-slung couch set up on my outdoor patio, where I’d hung twinkle lights and large bamboo fans to dispel some of the humid air. Hank raced down to the beach and back, having found a stick for me to throw.
Finding a beach spot in the Keys was virtually unheard of, which was why I’d bought this place with some inheritance money. I’d taken one look at the semi-detached house and the yard that abutted the water, and had made an offer on the spot. With some serious renovations and a dump truck full of sand, I’d created an actual mini-beach for myself. Hank and I loved nothing more than to spend time outside listening to the water. Take me to the water, I thought, for it always soothes my soul.
Tucking my hair back from my face, I held up my phone to video-chat Trace while also tugging the stick from Hank’s mouth and launching it across the yard.
“Hello.” Trace’s handsome face beamed at me, the blue Caribbean water stretching out behind him, and I smiled automatically in response.
“Hi! How’s it going? Did you get settled in?”
“Yeah…” Trace said something and the line broke up a bit, but he was smiling and nodding so I just did the same back.
“You’re a little hard to hear. Did you go out on any dives yet?”
“The guests just arrived yesterday. We spent the first day just getting the yacht ready for guests and going over procedures. It looks like it’ll be a pretty heavily focused dive charter for some of the guests, which will be fun for me.”
“That’s cool! I can’t wait to hear about it. By the way… I’m going to the Bahamas this weekend.”
“For what?” Trace’s brows crinkled in confusion.
“Miss Elva’s met a man,” I said, shrugging a sh
oulder, “and he’s having a gala. She wanted us to come as they’ve just started seeing each other. We’re going with Luna and Beau too, so it’ll be a group outing.”
“That should be fun. Which island?”
“Eleuthera.”
“Good diving there, I hear. Think you’ll get any dives in?”
“Not likely if it’s a party weekend. I can see, though; maybe there’ll be a dive boat going out.”
“Well, keep me posted. If you do go out for a dive, and nobody from the group goes with you, just make sure you give them all the details of the dive shop you go with, okay? Better safe than sorry.”
“I promise, I will.”
“Trace!” A woman’s voice giggled behind him and he turned to smile over his shoulder. I raised an eyebrow at the group of young women, clad in string bikinis, that I glimpsed over his shoulder when he turned.
“That’s my dive group, ’Thea. I have to get going.”
“That’s your dive group?” I swear I trust Trace and all that, but those women looked young… and taut.
“Yes, it’s a grad school group from the marine biology program in Florida. Daddy dearest is chartering the yacht for daughter and friends.”
“They look… nice,” I decided.
Trace just smiled patiently at me. “It’s fine, Althea. I promise.”
“Mmhmm,” I murmured, annoyed with myself for being annoyed that my boyfriend – or non-boyfriend or whatever I was calling him – was surrounded by young beauties.
“Hey, I’m not the one refusing to take our relationship to the next level.”
“Well, maybe there’s a reason for that,” I said, nodding toward the group behind him.
“Hey, that’s unfair. I’m a one-woman man.”
“I know you are, Trace.” I sighed and pinched my nose. I’d known Trace a long time. While he’d always been popular with women, he’d never played with more than one at once. “You just didn’t mention that your guests would be an all-girl college group.”
“I didn’t know until last night. They don’t tell the workers about the guests until the day of. Yachties are used to just turning over the boat and prepping for the next charter.”
“That’s fair. I get it. I’m sorry, just having a cranky morning.”
“I wish I was there to make you less cranky. I know one thing that cheers you up.” Trace sent me a cheeky wink through the phone and I smiled, feeling warmth bloom through me.
“That would be nice this morning. I do have an extra twenty minutes.”
“Twenty minutes? Althea, you slay me. You know I can go longer than that,” Trace chuckled, then glanced over his shoulder again. “I really have to go.”
“Have fun, dive safe!” I called, but he was already signing off.
Hmpf. Rational Althea knew Trace was a good man and he was just doing a job. But irrational Althea was annoyed that it was with plethora of long-legged tanned beauties.
“Let it go, Althea,” I said. “He didn’t say anything about you going to a big party in the Bahamas this weekend.”
“Double standards, indeed,” Rosita agreed, making me jump again. “But it’s good to keep your man on his toes. He’ll wonder about you at this party.”
“The only thing I’ll be doing at this party is eating expensive food and keeping Miss Elva out of trouble.”
“That’s what you say now. Island parties have a way of getting people to lose their inhibitions. Trust me, I know.”
“My inhibitions are just fine. I’m the least inhibited person you know.”
“Trust me, I can tell.” Rosita shook her head sadly at my tank dress.
“Seriously? It’s a simple black tank dress. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this.” I looked down at my dress in confusion.
“Boring.”
“Classic.”
“If you say so…”
Chapter Eleven
“Now, we’ve already talked about creating a circle of protection to practice magick in, remember?” Luna was using her schoolteacher voice this time, and I found it just as annoying as her stern voice. I liked my Luna when she was laughter and light – but she wouldn’t be who she was if she didn’t also have a steel backbone.
“Yes, Miss.” I nodded at her, widening my eyes and pretending to be enthralled with her words.
“Careful, or I’ll turn Hank into a rabbit.” Luna glared at me.
I gasped. “You would never.”
“Of course I wouldn’t, I love Hank. But pay attention, please?” Luna asked, pushing up the sleeves of her white silk cardigan. We were located in the back room of her shop, as we’d locked up for the day. In the back room, she had turned her space into not only a storage area for the ingredients she used for making her tonics and products, but a full-on practitioner’s studio. With wide-planked wood floors, beautiful lamps, and flowy white linens, it was a veritable magickal playground. I sat on the floor on a slippery teal cushion in the middle of the pentagram marked there, and smiled up at Luna.
“Got it. Protection circle.”
“And why do we do that again?”
“So we can channel the flow of your power.”
“Right.” I still wasn’t entirely sure where this so-called flow came from, but apparently I had one.
“What’s happened the other times, when you didn’t complete your circle correctly?” Luna continued.
“We were cursed –” I bit back my words and glanced at where Rosita glared at me from a corner. “I mean we were blessed with the presence of Rosita and Rafe.”
“Right, and while that is certainly delightful, do we need anything else slipping through the veil? For example, perhaps a bad energy?”
“Isn’t Rafe already a bad energy?” Rosita laughed in agreement from her corner.
“Just because he annoys you doesn’t mean he’s a bad energy. He’s no demon.”
“Ugh, fine. No demons, devils, or anything else of the kind,” I promised. Of that much, I was entirely sure. I’d witnessed a few bad energies in my time and I had to say I had absolutely zero interest in toying with any again in the future. Not that I’d chosen to play with any in the past – it had been more like they’d landed on my doorstep like a cockroach, and I’d had to dispose of them.
“After we cast the circle, we’ll work on today’s lesson.”
“Which is?”
“Moving things with your mind.”
“Telekinesis.”
“Basically. But using magick instead of just mind power. It’s telekinesis but with a shot of espresso, so to speak.”
“And why this spell, particularly?”
“I asked my pendulum, and this is where it directed me.”
“Your pendulum speaks?”
“Althea! I swear you’re the worst psychic sometimes. A pendulum. You write down your options and see where it swings. I’d asked for guidance on narrowing down the spells and wrote down four. The pendulum selected this one. It’s never wrong.”
“Out of curiosity, what were the other spells?”
“One for breathing underwater, one for making fire, and one for freezing people in place.”
“Honestly, all of those sound useful, and I’m a little offended you haven’t taught me them sooner. I might have enjoyed learning magick more. Especially the breathing underwater one. Can you imagine all the money I could save on scuba tanks?” I glared at Luna.
She sighed, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at me, her delicate features as miffed as I’ve ever seen them. “You know magick isn’t meant to be used for your own personal gain or pleasure.”
“Why not? I would be much more inclined to use it then.” Luna knew I was kidding, but I couldn’t help poking at her.
“Stop distracting me. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can go dress shopping.”
“Why do you think I’m delaying?”
“Oh, stop. You know I can pick an outfit for you in ten minutes flat and have you to happy hour before the su
n sets. You are being so dramatic.”
“Fine, let’s do this.”
“Okay, call the circle.”
This time I knew I had to take Luna seriously: I didn’t think I could stand the presence of another ghost in my life. Rafe was annoying at best, Rosita a sometimes-welcome distraction, and I wasn’t willing to discover what was behind door number three.
I called the circle as instructed, carefully checking my notes to make sure I got my wording right. I was doing my best to stay completely focused so nothing could break the circle.
“Good.” Luna nodded her approval, standing inside the pentagram with me. “Now, this should be a relatively simple process as it’s something that’s first taught to white witches at a young age. If they have an inclination for that particular power, that is.”
“What am I moving?”
“I’ve put a floor pillow on the other side of the room in the corner. It would be nice if you could bring it into the circle for me to sit on,” Luna said.
I looked down to where she’d written the spell in her precise handwriting.
“Okay, focus on the pillow.”
“Correct. You want to envision it moving to you in the circle.”
“Gotcha. Okay, here goes nothing,” I blew out a breath and stared down at the incantation, memorizing it as I brought the image of the pillow to my mind.
“I see the object that I choose,
And I ask the pillow to move.
I direct it as I see,
As I will, so mote it be.”
With barely a sound, the pillow torpedoed across the room, slamming into Luna’s chest with such force she stumbled back a step. Luckily, she didn’t leave the circle and I did my best to choke back a laugh.
“Jesus, Althea, tone it down, will you?” Luna grumbled, tossing the pillow to the floor and proceeding to sit on it in front of me. Reaching out, she grabbed my hands and looked me deep in the eyes. “I’ve told you that you have more power than you realize. I’m smart, so I choose something soft for you to work on. But if that had been a statue or a plant, you could have really hurt me.”
A Sixer of Tequila Page 5