Lucky Witch: A Beechwood Harbor Magic Mystery (Beechwood Harbor Magic Mysteries Book 5)

by Danielle Garrett

  “What’s the, uh—game plan?” I asked Agent Bramble, desperate for something to drown out the alarm bells ringing inside my head. “Good shifter, bad witch? Reverse?”

  She frowned at my nervous joke. “The SPA has ways of forcing information from prisoners. However, I’d like to avoid that if we can. Despite my disgust for Ms. Pringle, I don’t think we need to go that route. There has to be something we can use to bargain with her for her sliver of information.”

  I nodded as I looked around the room. Tan walls, a set of metal chairs, and again, no windows. I supposed she probably wasn’t missing the sunlight anyway. As a half-vampire she was able to stand the sun, hence the reason she’d been able to go undetected for what she really was for so long. But the vampire curse was still in her system and I imagined she avoided the sun whenever possible.

  “What would she want?”

  Agent Bramble shrugged. “That’s what we have to find out.”

  I sagged down into one of the metal chairs. “Great.”

  Nick’s life depended on the whims of a power-hungry vampire-witch serving a life sentence. It wasn’t like they were going to let her loose for good behavior. That wasn’t how it worked. And while I didn’t know Sasha all that well, I imagined there was only thing she’d want: her freedom.

  The door opened and I sprang up. The same wizard who’d shown us to the room entered again, this time holding a chain that connected to a pair of cuffs linked around Sasha Pringle’s thin wrists. Somehow, even in a prison-issued jumpsuit, without a stitch of make-up, she managed to look beautiful, almost glamorous. A fleeting thought whizzed through my head that maybe I needed to get myself bit by a vamp, if it would give me the same, effortlessly glowy skin and shiny hair.

  Sasha smiled when our eyes met. “You know, I’ve had a pool going on who would be my first visitor. I must say, Holly, I hadn’t thought it would be you.”

  I glared at her as the guard forced her to sit in one of the metal chairs. “Let me guess, you were expecting one of your love-sick puppy dogs? I hate to break it to you, but I don’t think any of them are all that eager to see you again. At least, not while you’re still drawing breath.”

  The guard shackled her ankles to the chair and as he worked, I realized that the chair was bolted to the ground. Sasha tilted her head, her sheet of raven hair falling to one side. “So dramatic.”

  I shrugged. “Truth hurts sometimes.”

  She laughed, the sound light and melodic. “Believe me, Holly, my pack is loyal to me. It’s bred into them. Which, incidentally, now includes your lovely friend, Nicholas Rivers.”

  Her use of his full name felt like a bucket of ice water dumped over my head.

  “If I wanted, all I would have to do is snap my fingers and he’d come running.”

  “You’re lying.”

  She shrugged and leaned back in her chair. The guard double-checked that she was properly restrained and then took his post near the door.

  Sasha grinned. “Why are you here, Holly? I hope this won’t take long. I have a poker game at six o’clock that I sure would hate to miss.”

  “Grady Woods, one of your wolves, was killed on the night of the full moon. Apparently, someone is out there cleaning up your arts and crafts projects one wolf at a time.”

  Her eyes sparkled like I’d told her a funny joke. “Aha. And you’re worried your darling Nick will be next. Is that it?”

  “Don’t fuss with me, Sasha. You know exactly what’s going on. I want to know who’s behind the Grady’s murder and I want to know how to get Nick out of this mess.”

  She laughed again, the sound even more grating than the first time. “And what makes you think I’ll help you, Holly? In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not in a position to be out hunting wolves. So, why bother coming here? My hands are tied. Literally.” She shook her chains for effect.

  “If you’re not ordering the hits on these wolves, then who is? Who were you working with?”

  “Where are you even coming up with this stuff? It’s deranged. Truly.”

  I leaned forward. “Straight from an eyewitness. Grady’s brother, Marco. Another one of your collection, I believe.”

  “Marco?” She laughed, the sound cold and piercing. “You can’t trust anything that bag of bones has to say. He was never a proper wolf. I probably should have put him down after his first change.”

  My stomach turned at the casual way she said it. The woman could hand down a death sentence without flinching.

  “Now, his brother, Grady,” she paused, smiling. “He was a real wolf. Twice Marco’s size and yet still managed to be faster. He knew how to follow marching orders too. Marco was always questioning me. Ben.”

  “Ben? He said they were—” I stopped myself when I caught the sharp gleam in Sasha’s eyes. She would love nothing more than for me to feed her information. It was chilling how easy it was for her to twist and manipulate.

  “What did darling Benjamin have to say? Let me guess, he’s innocent? He was acting under my control the entire time?”

  I sneered at her. “I saw you, out in the woods. You controlled him. Threatened him into doing what you wanted.”

  She shrugged. “I’ll admit, in the end, he required more … convincing. But it wasn’t always that way. Did he tell you that Marco and Grady were both his offspring? He cursed them.”

  “Because you told him to.” I shook my head. “You wanted a whole pack of them. What I don’t know is why you needed all these henchmen. You were planning something.”

  Sasha’s eyes went a shade darker. “Listen, sugar, I don’t know what you were hoping for by coming here. Some grand confession to all my master plans? A cure for your little friend? Either way, it’s not going to happen. You have no power to negotiate.”

  My heart sank, only to bob back up a second later. Without flinching, I fired back. “What if, in exchange for your help, we arranged to have your mother set free.”

  Agent Bramble bristled beside me, but didn’t contradict me.

  Sasha’s eyes flashed and went pitch-black. “How dare you bring her into this?”

  “I’ll dare whatever I want, sugar.” I stood and stalked toward her, stopping just short of her reach. Even with her hands and ankles chained, she radiated danger. “We both know that was your original plan. Worm your way onto the Haven Council so you could glamour them when the time came for her appeal hearing. Now, I’m guessing the wolves were dual-purpose. Part grunts to do your dirty work. Part back-up plan in case the council wasn’t convinced and needed a little more … motivation.”

  She growled but didn’t dispute me.

  “Now, clearly neither plan A or B worked out very well for you. Stars only know what you’re cooking up now, but your resources are limited, you’re friendless, and every day that you’re here, rotting away playing poker, you’re reminded that your mother is also sitting in a cell somewhere. Maybe you’ve even worked your way through the prison grapevine and know where she is and what she’s going through. It’s making you sick.”

  “I’m not staying here forever,” she hissed. “And when I’m free, you’re the first one I’ll come after.”

  I leaned over to bring myself to her eye level. “I’m counting on it.”

  Casually, I straightened and flagged the guard. “You can take her away. She doesn’t have anything interesting to say.”

  The guard took a step forward. Sasha’s eyes went wild, pinging from me to the guard and then finally to Agent Bramble. “Is this a real offer? You’ll set my mother free if I talk?”

  Every nerve stretched tight in the split second before she answered.

  “If you help us, I’ll see to it that she is moved somewhere more comfortable and that her appeal is bumped to the top of the council’s schedule. That’s as good as I can do.”

  Sasha thought it over and then nodded.

  I held up a hand and the guard stopped short. “Who is coming after Nick?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t kn
ow.”

  “Who were you working with? Where did you learn everything?”

  She met my eyes. “I taught myself. I don’t have a partner. Ben was the closest thing to one.”

  “Ben told us that he was never allowed to see any of your research. That he didn’t know what your plans were.”

  “He didn’t.” She drew in a ragged breath. “Ben was a puppet. But he was my favorite one. I shared more of myself with him.”

  I cringed, not really wanting to know what that meant.

  “As far as he knew, I was working on a cure. I didn’t curse Ben. He was already a wolf when we met. The reason he agreed to help me was because I promised to cure him. He let me practice and run tests. In the beginning, they weren’t dangerous. When the need arose for more complicated spells, enchantments, and potions, I’d already fallen for him.”

  I reared back as though slapped. “You loved Ben?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “Wow.”

  Sasha glared up at me. “That’s so hard to believe?”

  “Well, considering that the last time I saw the two of you together you were blasting him with spells and threatening to leave him as a wolf forever, yes. It’s hard to swallow.”

  “I don’t care what you think.”

  “Of course not.”

  “I had Ben curse two humans, Marco and Grady. That way I wouldn’t have to experiment on him anymore. There were others along the way. Some made it, some didn’t. By the time I gained full control of my power, Ben, Marco, and Grady were the only ones left of the original wolves.”

  “Stars.”

  Sasha flexed her jaw, her expression defiant. “Sacrifices have to be made for magic. You would be a stronger witch if you understood that. I told you, that night in the woods, that I respected your magic. You have the potential to be a great witch, but you have to understand that there is always a cost.”

  I frowned. “That’s the difference between you and me, Sasha. I will never sink to that level. What you see as power, I see as a rampant disregard for life and all of the things that make our magic sacred.”

  She considered me but just as quickly, brushed it off. “From the originals, we created two or three new wolves every full moon. It was a well-oiled machine. Thirty days was all Ben needed to get the new ones in line. By my last count, there were thirty-seven wolves in the pack.”

  The room spun at her admission. The notion of nearly forty wolves running the woods behind the manor was enough to turn my stomach inside out.

  “You said you didn’t have a partner, but surely someone knew what you were doing.”

  “No. I work best alone.” She shook her head. “All of my research was detailed in my journals. If you didn’t find them at my house, then I don’t know where they are.”

  I paced to the other side of the room, sifting all of the new information through the rest of the puzzle pieces in my mind, trying to connect any dots. Suddenly, I stopped. “The briefcase!”

  “Briefcase?” Agent Bramble repeated.

  I whirled around. “The BHPD found an empty briefcase in the motel room where Grady stayed before the change. The initials on it were MW. What if Marco was the one who had the journals and his brother stole them? Maybe he was planning on destroying them? Or, worse, turning them over to the SPA.” I paused, the next words lodged in my throat. “What if Marco was the one shooting in the woods that night? He killed his own brother to keep the information safe.”

  Chapter 22

  “Marco Woods isn’t in the system.”

  “Of course not.” We’d hurried back through the portal to SPA headquarters and went straight to her office to dig up everything we could on Marco Woods. “None of Sasha’s wolves will be in the system. Ben’s only in there because he was a wolf when they met. She would have kept the others under wraps. If one wolf suddenly went berserk and made forty new wolves over an eighteen-month period, the SPA would dispatch an entire legion of agents to get to the bottom of it. Sasha couldn’t risk the attention. And really, there would be no benefit to her having them all in the haven system.” I frowned and paced the length of Agent Bramble’s office.

  “Are you sure he’s the one who did this?” she asked from her desk, pausing her search through a large volume of werewolf records.

  “It’s the only thing that makes sense. With Sasha and Ben gone, there was a power-vacuum. Someone had to step up and lead the pack. Nick didn’t even know about the pack. That leaves Grady and Marco. You heard what Sasha said. Marco was never going to be as strong or powerful as his brother. Maybe they fought. Marco realized the only way he would be the leader was if Grady was out of the way.”

  “It fits. But there’s a problem.”

  “What’s that?”

  Agent Bramble removed her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Marco was a wolf too. How could he have shot and killed Grady? He would have already changed.”

  I shook my head. “Not necessarily. According to Adam, the shooting started right as Nick was changing.” I paced back again, still working out the pieces in my mind. “Grady knew where Nick was changing because he’d been following him around at Ben’s request. He obviously told Marco about it. So, Marco rents out the cabin to be there when Nick changed. He wanted Nick out of the way. Then he’d deal with his brother. That would ensure him the alpha spot in the pack.”

  “Wouldn’t he have recognized his brother’s wolf?”

  “The shooting started right as the change happened. Adam was in his beast form and got hit in the chest by the second shot. Maybe he thought that was Nick. Then turned the gun on his brother.”

  Agent Bramble fell silent, her questions answered.

  “It’s grisly,” I added. “But it’s the only scenario that fits. The police don’t know who rented out that cabin, but I would be willing to bet that this alias leads back to Marco. It also explains the silver bullets. Why would a hunter have silver bullets on him? It doesn’t make sense. Those bullets were meant for wolves.”

  She sighed. “Then there’s only one thing left to do. We need to find this Marco character and find out the truth, straight from him. The problem is that he’s not in this database so we have no idea where to find him and it’s getting late.”

  I slumped into a chair and exhaled. “I don’t know where to find him. He found me at Siren’s Song and then insisted we meet at this dive bar down by the harbor.”

  “We’ll have to start there. What’s it called?”

  “On the Rocks.”

  Agent Bramble stood. “Let’s go. We’ll use the portal.”

  “Should we take anyone with us? Back-up, or anything?”

  She shook her head and slipped into a leather duster. “Not right now. This is all off the books and for now, it’s important that it stays that way.”

  I couldn’t help grinning as I followed her from the office. It was nice to know my first impressions of her were all wrong. Sure, she was a stickler, but she’d proven that she wasn’t afraid to bend the rules a little when the occasion called for it. Perhaps we were more alike than I’d thought.

  Agent Bramble led the way through the portal into Beechwood Harbor and then I took the lead as we wandered down to the docks. On the Rocks was packed with the late-night crowd but a pay-per-view fight was soaking up all the attention. I elbowed my way to a clear spot at the bar and flagged down the bartender. I recognized him from my prior visit. I flashed a smile and hoped he would remember me, too.

  “Hey, red. What’ll it be?”

  I ignored the insulting nickname. “I was in here the other night and wound up talking to this guy. I didn’t get his number and was hoping you might know where I could find him.”

  The bartender smiled. “I’ll give you my number.”

  Ugh.

  “His name is Marco Woods. Sound familiar?”

  The bartender frowned, clearly annoyed by my silent rebuff. “I don’t know his name, but I know who you were sitting with. The guy’s a regular. C
omes in most nights. Keeps to himself, doesn’t make trouble. To tell you the truth, I don’t even know the guy’s name. What was it again?”

  “Marco.”

  The bartender bobbed his chin and picked up another glass to wipe dry. “I haven’t seen him in the last few days. Well, besides when he was here with you.”

  “What about the time before that?”

  He considered it and then grinned. “Oh, yeah. I remember that. He was in here with another guy and the two of them were going at it. Arguing about something. I thought I was going to have to ask them to take it outside. We don’t get too many fights around here, but every now and again something sparks.”

  “Any idea what they were arguing about?” I asked.

  He shrugged one oversize shoulder. “Business, I assumed. They had a bunch of paperwork with them. I couldn’t really tell what it was, but I’ll tell you they were serious about it.”

  I glanced over my shoulder at Agent Bramble. She frowned.

  “Hey, looks like you’re in luck. There’s your special friend now.”

  I froze. In slow-motion, I shifted my gaze a few inches past her and spotted Marco in the doorway, waving to someone on the other side of the room.

  Agent Bramble sprang into action, a half-step faster than me. We burst through the doors of the bar and tore off after Marco as he barreled down the street. He stopped at a beat-up Taurus and frantically tugged at the handle. Without looking around, I fired a stunning spell and smiled when it hit dead center on his back.

  He hit the ground and Agent Bramble launched herself on top of him, producing handcuffs from inside her duster.

  “Get off me!” he shrieked. “I didn’t do anything!”

  “Liar!” I growled, dropping into a squat beside him. “We know all about your nasty little plan, Marco. You were the one who tried to kill Nick and then you killed your own brother in the process.”

  “Prove it!”

  I pushed up to my feet and opened the car door. Sure enough, spread across the backseat were six bound journals. I grabbed one and thumbed through it. My jaw dropped at the detailed information inside. Complex potions, carefully recorded findings, and crossed-out sections with spells that had clearly failed. “These are Sasha’s journals.”