A Witch's Concern (A Witch's Path Book 4)

by N. E. Conneely

  It was a good thing that I had a mouth full of pie, or I would've been stammering and looking all sorts of silly. I chewed my pie slowly, using the time to regain my composure. "Why do you ask?"

  Tiffany shrugged. "You're clearly more than friends."

  "Okay, there's something there."

  "Oh, come on. It's more than something." Amber rolled her eyes.

  I shifted on my seat, uncomfortable with the conversation. "What do you want me to say? Yes, there's something between us, but we're taking it slow."

  With a glance at Amber, Tiffany said, "We guessed that much. Where's it going?"

  "This morning he said he was my boyfriend. I'd say that's progress."

  "For Elron that's a big step," Amber said.

  "Yes. After Sylvia's death I didn't think we would make it, but we're starting to heal, and we're doing it together." Even if he had been estranged from his previous partner for two centuries, her death had hurt. He hadn't said as much, but I thought those events had helped him see that he needed to take advantage of the good life offered.

  "Has he talked about her?" Tiffany asked.

  "Not since we sprinkled her ashes in the river. I think he's talked to Landa. They're old friends, and she might have known Sylvia. I get the feeling he wants to keep the past and present separate, and I don't know if it's because he sees me as young"—which I was compared to him—"or if he's trying to keep a distance between then and now."

  "I bet it's mostly habit," Amber said. "In his mind, Sylvia is an 'old' problem, so he talks to old friends. The man adores you; he's not going to hurt you intentionally. Remember how he clung to you after Sylvia's and Varro's deaths?"

  Since I'd just gotten him to leave me alone for more than six hours at a time, I was well aware that we'd been inseparable. It had been sweet at first, especially when we were both injured, but it had quickly gotten to the point where I was looking forward to a case. He'd relented after a sharply worded conversation, however that progress might've been lost thanks to my grandmother.

  "I do, and if you'd seen the way he looked at me…" I shook my head. "He'll move mountains to stay with me, and he proved that with the latest rescue."

  They nodded, not out of satisfaction with my answers, but because they were smart enough to realize that that was all they were going to get. I settled my hands around my teacup, gauging the temperature. Satisfied that it was cool enough to drink, I picked it up.

  A sharp, hot pain ripped through my right hand, and something sank into the web of skin between my thumb and fingers. Yelping, I let go of the teacup and looked down. Hot tea splashed across my chest and lap. The teacup was biting my hand.

  Chapter 13: Michelle

  I grabbed the cup with my left hand and tried to tug it loose. Biting the inside of my lip, I managed to prevent a scream. A section of the cup had opened up like a mouth and sunk an uneven edge into my hand.

  Careful to support the teacup with my left hand, I relaxed my arms, resting the cup against the table. The lack of pressure reduced the pain, but it didn't help me understand why a teacup had bitten me.

  There was movement across the table and in the rest of the cafe, but my attention was fixed on the teacup. Now that I was looking, I could feel the magic, but it wasn't a type of spell I recognized. If anything, it felt possessed more than charmed. If this was another attack from the Wapiti, it was a strange one.

  I grabbed a napkin and shoved power into it, making it solid enough that I could wedge it into the edge of the teacup's mouth. Nothing happened.

  On a hunch, I added a spell to the napkin, giving it an illusion of being part of me, a more magical part. Moving the napkin out of its mouth, I dangled it three inches above my hand.

  For a long moment nothing happened, but then the teacup released my hand and chomped on the decoy. Before anything else could happen, I slapped a shield around the teacup. I didn't know what that thing was, and I wasn't willing to give it another chance to make trouble.

  Someone jerked my right hand off the table and swaddled it in a wad of towels. I probed the captured teacup. It wasn't getting out of the shield bubble, but it had a connection to the teapot. I captured the teapot in a shield before it had a chance to make any mischief.

  As soon as I got the shield around the teapot, Varro's medallion stopped zapping me, and the heat it was emitting leveled out.

  "What happened? Michelle, what happened?" Amber grabbed my shoulder.

  I shook my head to clear my thoughts. My hand hurt, as much from the pressure she had on it as from the bite. "The teacup bit me."

  As confused as she looked, she didn't question it. She yelled over her shoulder, "Did you call the ambulance?"

  "It's on its way." Our waitress rushed over, phone against her ear.

  Tiffany was still sitting across from me with wide eyes and trembling hands. We'd have to talk later. I loved her, but she fell apart in an emergency. Her spunky attitude vanished when things went wrong, and one of these days she was going to have a case get out of hand and be in a world of hurt.

  "Could you tell them it's a magical emergency and that Michelle Oaks has it under control?" I asked.

  The waitress nodded and relayed the information before telling me, "They're sending Rodriguez."

  I nodded and thanked her. With my healthy hand, I dug around in my purse. When I found my keys, I tossed them on the table in front of Tiffany. She looked up at me with big eyes.

  "Could you go to my car and get a healing charm? Open the trunk and look for the duffel with the blue band on the strap. If you open it, you'll find healing charms in the pocket marked with the red cross."

  She cleared her throat twice. "I'll be right back."

  When she swung open the door, I heard sirens. This was going to be a long day.

  Looking around, I was surprised by how calm the rest of the customers were. They were mostly standing around, watching the goings-on at my booth. Two of them looked rather green, and one of them rushed to the bathroom. No one seemed to be overly alarmed; maybe they didn't realize what had gone on or were too surprised to be worried.

  Two policemen rushed in, followed by paramedics. Outside a horn blasted, and a fire truck rolled into the parking lot. Yup, a very long day.

  The medallion was cooling off, which I guessed meant that the danger had passed. Why was it that dishwashers and microwaves came with instructions, when what I really needed was a user's manual for relationships, ancient medallions, and clan politics?

  "Ma'am, I'm Officer Kent, how are you doing today?" Officer Kent would've been ugly to a human eye, with his slender limbs, gray-brown skin, and large eyes. His look was unmistakable, and as dark elves went, he was as close to human normal as they came.

  "I've had better days."

  He gave me a kind smile. "I bet you have. Will you let the paramedics look at you while you tell me what happened?"

  I nodded and he moved back. A tall, broad-shouldered woman set a bag on the floor and gently took my hand from Amber.

  "I'm Stevie. Could you tell me what happened to your hand?" She slowly moved the towels until she could see where the blood was coming from.

  "The teacup bit me."

  She looked at the table, back at my hand, and nodded. "Do you have any burns?"

  Shaking my head, I answered, "I don't think so. I don't feel great, but the tea wasn't that hot when it spilled." I looked at the police officer. "Could you get a picture of this? I'm a witch, and my friend is going to be coming back with a charm and I'd like to use it."

  "Are you sure? Stevie can patch you up, and we can take you to the hospital."

  "Officer, I'd rather be healed now."

  "Can't blame you." Officer Kent pulled out his phone and took a few pictures of my hand.

  "How powerful is the charm?" Stevie asked.

  "Until she brings it back, I can't be sure, but I told her to grab one of the weaker ones."

  Stevie nodded. "I'd like to clean and bandage your hand; that way we
've contained the blood and you've gotten some basic first aid."

  "Sounds like a plan."

  "Officer, could you get the charm from her?" I pointed at Tiffany, who was picking her way around groups of people.

  He nodded and moved away. I winced as Stevie disinfected the cut and moved my hand around to get a better look at the damage the teacup had done.

  "You should get this checked out after the charm has done its job. The teacup made a mess of your hand." Stevie folded a gauze pad over the mangled part of my hand and secured it with gauze and tape.

  Officer Kent returned with my charm and keys dangling out of his fingers.

  "Thanks," I said as I took my keys and charm from him. After pocketing the keys, I rubbed the charm in a smudge of blood on my arm. The charm activated as soon as the blood touched it, and I was pain-free. Well, my jaw hurt from being clenched, but my hand was feeling better. I wedged the charm under the edge of the bandage, against my palm.

  "Make sure someone takes a look at that when the charm has done its thing." Stevie patted me on the shoulder, picked up her bag, and walked away.

  Cradling my hand, I looked at Officer Kent. "Do you want my statement now?"

  He held up a finger. "Not just yet."

  I grunted, leaned against the back of the booth, and closed my eyes. There was something weird going on with that tea set, and not just because the cup had taken a bite out of me. The set was lively in a way that would suggest a spell of some type, but I couldn't feel any magic. Oh, there was something there, but I'd need time and a quiet space to figure out what was going on.

  This wasn't the time or place to be unraveling the mystery of them. Not only were there too many people around if they reacted badly, but I wasn't up to diving into a magical mystery. Especially one that made clan nonsense come to mind.

  "Oaks, what is it going to take to keep you out of trouble?" Rodriguez asked. "Twice in one day has to be a record even for you."

  Opening my eyes, I gave him a tight smile. "I wish I knew. This blasted stuff is finding me."

  "Looks like it got the better of you this time. Kent, I'll look at the items after you take her statement."

  "Miss Oaks, could you tell me what happened?" Kent asked.

  I gave a gusty sigh and started the story. I left out the part about Varro's medallion because it wouldn't help their investigation, and I knew the hunk of metal had been warning me, not causing the incident.

  "Do you think this could be related to this morning's events?"

  "I don't know. I don't see a connection right now." Though I'd look for one later.

  When I finished, Kent and Rodriguez exchanged a look. Rodriguez stepped closer to the table and held a hand over the shield containing the teacup. It jumped for his hand, but collided with the shield and fell back to the table. I could feel him examining the teacup and then the teapot, but I knew his abilities. If these things were strange to me, odds were they were outside his experience.

  He was frowning by the time he finished examining them. "Kent, I can't tell you anything useful. If I had to guess, I'd say a fragment of a spirit is trapped in them, but this is the type of item I'd refer to Michelle."

  "I don't have a problem with her being part of the investigation."

  "Michelle?" Rodriguez prompted.

  "I'll take them home and look at them. My first impression mirrors yours, but until I can identify them, that's not particularly useful."

  Kent excused himself and started to interview other witnesses.

  "What am I going to do with you?" Rodriguez asked ruefully.

  "I'm not doing it on purpose," I muttered.

  He ignored that comment. "The local police have taken several members of the Wapiti into custody. Do you think you could come by the office today and look at some picture lineups?"

  "I'll follow you over when we're done here."

  "Are you sure?"

  "Yup." If I went home, I'd collapse on my couch and he wouldn't be able to get me out of there without a pry bar. "Could you help me carry these things back to my car?"

  "Sure." Rodriguez picked up the teapot.

  I picked up my purse, palmed the teacup, and slowly followed him out of the cafe. At my car, I popped the trunk, and we nestled the tea set in a padded box and secured the lid. They weren't going anywhere.

  Tiffany and Amber were waiting for me inside the cafe.

  "I'm sorry I ruined lunch."

  "The teacup ruined lunch, not you," Amber said firmly.

  "Not your fault," Tiffany agreed.

  "Thanks."

  There was an awkward pause before Amber spoke. "Do you need anything?"

  "No." I sighed. "I can deal with this."

  "If you're sure… we need to get back to work."

  "I'm sure. Off you go." I gave them a hug and watched them drive away.

  Chapter 14: Elron

  "Cease, I see the danger." The magic around the door to my building had attracted my attention before the medallion began shocking me. But if the medallion understood my words, it ignored them. As long as its commentary continued at this level, I would return the favor.

  I stopped far enough away that I could study the magic surrounding the door, but not so close as to trigger it. There was definitely some type of spell there. As the university was not in the habit of spelling things, I was willing to assume that this was a gift from a certain group of witches. I was touched that they considered me important enough to merit individual attention, but I could have done without the honor.

  Since I was not the only person who used this door, it stood to reason that the spell had to have a method of identifying its target. With that in mind, I walked around until I found a piece of deadfall. I could not move energy like Michelle, but I was able to get the stick to send out fresh growth, and that would be enough to give it my flavor.

  Taking a step forward, I tossed it at the door. The stick came within inches of the door before the entire area—from the ground to several inches above the top of the stick—became a solid block of ice. The feeling of a spell had faded, but that left me with a different problem. This door was the primary access to my greenhouses and office. Until this was cleared, anyone inside the building would have to find an alternate exit, and additional spells could be targeting those areas.

  I went to the call box in the parking lot and pressed the button that would summon campus security. Perhaps an individual with applicable talents would respond, but I wasn't hopeful. Thus far the campus security I'd encountered were two werewolves, a human, and a wereowl. Not a one of them would have been useful in this situation.

  The medallion had stopped its electrical activity and was cool against my skin, but I did not let my guard down. It had not shown a sensitivity to upcoming danger, merely an inclination to warn against an imminent threat. As I needed to search for spells that were not currently a danger, it would do me little good to rely upon the medallion as a detection system.

  One of the garden beds had a sizable patch of ivy growing up the building wall. Kneeling next to the ivy, I extended a hand. "Would you aid me?"

  A runner shifted until it was lying across my palm.

  "Could you spare a vine to search for magic? A spell that could have injured a student was placed on one of the doors." I explained the problem in a way the plant would understand. Not all of the flora was fond of students, but this was where the plant-loving students studied, so the greenery in this area were rather spoiled and were the envy of the rest of the school's landscaping.

  The ivy agreed, and a three-foot long section with several shoots separated from the plant. I gave it directions and the energy it would need to carry out its task. The leaves rubbed my hand before the vine started working its way around the side of the building. It was for the best that Michelle wasn't here. She would've said the vine moved like a camouflaged spider.

  As the campus security had yet to arrive, I turned my attention to my greenhouses. My plants were eager to report on
what had been going on and look for any traces of magic. It was a relief when they informed me that my greenhouses were vacant. Few of my students would be comfortable with the type of activity that was about to occur inside those walls.

  Plants with runners sent them trailing along the walls and roof while more stationary plants checked their areas, sweeping leaves across nearby surfaces. The remaining plants checked the ground, moving their roots around to better examine the paths. One by one, they quieted down, informing me that there was nothing of interest in the greenhouses.

  However, the ivy reported its runner had tripped an ice spell and escaping by shedding a section before being destroyed by a fire spell. I thanked the main plant for its sacrifice. It was understanding and happy to have prevented injury to a student or me.

  I broke the contact when campus security pulled up. My hopes for a quick resolution plummeted when a human stepped out of the vehicle.

  Chapter 15: Michelle

  I tracked down Rodriguez. He was talking to a waitress and looking at the rest of the tea sets. Since I'd been a victim, I didn't offer to help. If he needed my assistance, he'd ask. By the time he came over to tell me he was ready to go back to his office, I'd darn near dozed off standing up. Luckily the drive was uneventful, something I needed more of in my life. I followed him inside and took a seat next to his desk.

  "Could you sit on the other side?" Rodriguez asked.

  I nodded and moved to the seat on the other side of the desk. It didn't take a genius to figure out why I needed to move. He was pulling up pictures and didn't want me to look before it was ready.

  "Come back over and tell me if you recognize anyone."

  Returning to my previous seat, I looked at the six pictures on the screen. "That one. That's Josh."

  He clicked on the picture and went to the next screen. "Anyone on this page?"

  This was really easy; I'd recognize that face anywhere. "Top right. That's my grandmother, Gretchen."

  Rodriguez nodded. We repeated the process six times, and I picked out the two women who'd been my guards, the lady who'd told Josh to grab me on the side of the road, and one of the ladies from the auditorium.