A Magical Reckoning: Magic and Mischief Book 1

by N. R. Hairston

  Energy sparked between us, and I pulled back before it got too out of control. “Be careful.”

  I left him on the porch and walked into the house. The smell of garlic and onions filled the air and I knew that somebody was hard at work in the kitchen.

  Still, with twenty-something agents in residence, that could be just about anyone. A series of whoops and groans led me to the den.

  Boya sat at our card table, playing a game of spades with Steva, of panther descent, Iscca, another dranghum, and Ninia, a succubus. Boya and Steva were teammates and sat across from each other. As did Iscca and Ninia.

  Boya slammed down his last card, and jumped in the air, pumping his fist. “When ya’ll gonna learn not to fuck with the awesome combination of that dragon and panther magic.” His brown hair stuck to his forehead with sweat, a nice contrast to his tanned skin. Most of his hair reached just below his chin, and was curly enough, without being too curly, but still thick and full.

  Steva, who was about the same complexion as myself with jet black hair and emerald green eyes, drowned his beer and stood. He was a tall man and loomed over my five-foot-six frame by about three inches, as did Boya. “Gotta get on the beat. Come on Ninia, we got a case.”

  Ninia’s skin was a little darker than mine. Where I was a shade beyond walnut, she was a more beautiful, smooth ebony. She stood about five-foot-seven and her short spiked red hair perfectly complimented the red in her eyes. “Hey, Kia. You find something for later?” Succubi, we needed sex every night, couldn’t function or think properly without it.

  “Not yet, you?”

  She downed the rest of her beer and went to stand beside her partner. “Got a bear lined up for later.”

  Oh, good one. Those descended from bear DNA had an excellent sense of smell and often knew your favorite sexual position without being told. They made spectacular lovers and it was something for me to keep in mind for later.

  “You got the deets?” Boya asked. Because, of course, he’d been too busy playing cards to answer when the chief had called. No doubt he’d looked at his phone and taken it for granted that I’d have the information when I got here.

  I gave him a hard stare. Boya was a top-notch investigator, but his competitive spirit just couldn’t allow him to fold on a game, no matter how high the stakes.

  “We’re going to Morse town.”

  Boya slid the cards across the table to Iscca. “Next time you and Ninia deal.”

  Iscca waved a hand over his head. His hair was black but cut so close that you could hardly tell. He also had an earring in his nose that sparkled and shined from the overhead light. His skin was paler than Boya’s, but not by much.

  He decided not to ignore Boya’s taunting and blew a small line of fire toward the other man’s head. Boya bent down, caught the fire in his mouth, and shook himself all over. “Thanks for the energizer, bro. We gotta go.”

  Lin was no longer on the porch, but I hadn’t noticed him come inside, which meant he probably went to check on the twins. To be honest, I expected nothing less of him.

  Boya came out behind me, still throwing jabs at Iscca. I shook my head at his foolishness. “Why tease him like that?”

  He laughed and then jumped in the car. I got in on the driver’s side, and he waited until I was seated before answering. “That’s how you play. Shit talking is the name of the game. You know that.”

  Yeah, I did know that, but Boya always seemed to take it a step too far. “You have to be able to take it if you give it,” I scolded him.

  He ignored that and asked, “What’s happening in Morse Town?”

  I’d almost forgotten that that’s where we were headed. I gripped the wheel tight. “Another succubus draining.”

  He nodded, but didn’t look happy, which was about right. None of us really liked going into Morse Town. It was just too easy to get in trouble there.

  Dupoint was split into four parts. The human part, which was Morse Town. The humans who lived there had no clue that a bunch of magical and mystical creatures existed among them.

  Then there was Spray town, which is where said mystical and magical creatures lived, well most of us anyway. Next was Winn town, which is where both humans and magical creatures lived, many who’d married and started families together.

  Most of Winn’s human residences were Samg, human families who’d aided and supported the supernatural community for thousands of years, and were paid handsomely for their help.

  Each otherworldly family had at least three Samg families on call at all times. Other human residences of Winn consisted of those who had somehow found out that the creatures from their childhoods were real. They were the lucky ones.

  Some of my kind killed humans on the spot once they realized they’d been discovered. It was illegal, and if found out, the perpetrator would be held accountable. Still, that didn’t stop some from striking out and getting rid of anyone who would threaten our way of life.

  I turned right, going into the wealthier part of Morse. I’d known from the address that this was going to be a big case.

  Large brick houses loomed around us. Every single one sported manicured lawns, perfectly placed porch furniture, decorative mailboxes, and cars that cost more than my whole year’s salary. This is what you got on the Northside of Morse town.

  The last part of Dupoint was Riverwalk. That’s where the First Families lived. Riverwalk made Morse town look like an upscale junkyard.

  Numerous wards protected Riverwalk, alerting the residents and guards anytime anyone got close.

  This also helped to ensure that the only people who got into Riverwalk were those who’d been specifically invited.

  Magical creatures like myself and Boya would have a heavy price to pay if we were caught trying to sneak in there. Nobody got into Riverwalk unless the residents wanted you in Riverwalk.

  The First Families had handed down many ill-taken decisions over the years and were probably scared that if left open and unguarded they’d be ambushed and wiped out completely.

  They may have been right, but just one member of the original First Families held more power than myself and three of my kind combined, so it wasn’t an easy feat any way you looked at it.

  Boya breathed a small amount of fire into his hand and began to play with it, tossing it back and forth like a ball. “Been getting a lot of these succubus killings lately. Something bad is going on.”

  I agreed. The amount of illegal succubus drainings had almost tripled in the last couple of days. Boya shoved the ball back into his mouth and swallowed with a smoking burp.

  “Do you have to do that?” I asked, waving smoke out of my face, and trying not to cough. I refused to give him the satisfaction.

  That sly grin spread across his face, the one he sometimes got when he knew he’d done something wrong. “Now don’t be like that, K.” His eyes lit up, happy and pleased with his own mischief. “I thought you liked it when my smoke curled around you.”

  “Only when we’re fucking, which we’re not right now, so…”

  He chuckled loudly, and I smiled. One thing I loved about Boya was his ability to turn anything into a joke. His offbeat sense of humor often lightened up my most rugged days.

  I parked the car, and we got out. The yard looked like someone had taken a hairbrush and patted down each blade of grass until they were all the exact same length. The house sat a good length from the road, and was red brick, with blue shutters.

  Somebody had obviously worked hard at making it into a home. They’d probably thought they’d spend lazy Sunday evenings sitting on the front porch sipping lemonade and watching their grandkids play.

  It wasn’t fair that their lives had been cut short and my jaw tightened at the thought of someone snatching it all away for their own sick pleasure.

  “Figured we’d see you two,” Detective Rosen said. Detective Rosen was a tall black woman who was a member of a Samg family. Her partner, Detective Mason was a tall white man, also Samg.

>   Unfortunately, neither worked for my family or Boya’s and as such, they held no loyalties to either of us.

  Boya smiled. “Thought we’d show you two how it’s really done. What do we have?”

  Rosen lowered her voice so that the other officers around, the ones who only knew us as special investigators, couldn’t hear what she had to say.

  “Definitely a succubus.” She dropped to a hushed whisper. “Look, I’m going to clear the room. Give you guys a chance to do your thing.”

  I did like when they cooperated. It made things easier for all of us.

  I appreciated it too, because she knew like I did, that if we didn’t solve this quickly, the First Families would hold all succubi and incubi accountable. Until they found the culprit they’d probably gather us up, lock us away, and maybe even torture us until they got to the truth.

  They’d done it before with other creatures. Once a black panther was out of control and ripping the throats out of humans and magical beings alike. They’d taken Steva that time, and he’d come back an empty shell of himself. It’d taken months of Ninia and Iscca being patient and working with him to restore him to his former self.

  The same had happened with Boya when an enraged dragon kept setting half the city on fire. Boya had only been gone three days, until the guilty dragon (who’d counted a wife and three children among those being tortured for answers and clues) confessed, but it was three days that had marked a part of him that neither myself or Lin could reach.

  I didn’t want that to happen again. I needed to solve this to ensure the safety of myself and all other succubi and incubi around me, Lin and Ninia included.

  2

  The bedroom was on the top floor. Pictures of a smiling middle-aged couple lined the stairwell. A young man appeared in some of them, and I wondered if he was their son. If so, we needed to get in contact with him ASAP.

  The sight that greeted us upon entering the murder room was one of disarray. Clothes had been pulled out of the draws and tossed about. The flat screen lay cracked on the floor. The woman’s purse had been emptied, its contents piled in the corner.

  Boya studied the curtains that now hung loosely on a cracked rod. “What about you, K? You really think a succubus did all this? What the hell for? Seems like overkill to me and that’s not really ya’lls style, now is it?”

  He was right. I looked at the two figures on the bed. Hollow. That’s the first word that came to mind.

  You could see their bones peeking out through the skin. Their eyeballs were now sunken, and the hair on their heads looked like wigs, fitted after their deaths. Chris and Alley Hemsworth, husband and wife, and latest victims of a succubus gone wild.

  That was the working theory anyway, but the destruction of the room made me wonder why a succubus would bother. It seemed like too much of a hassle unless they were looking for something specific. The only question was what?

  Boya checked over the bodies. “I can’t find a mark.”

  “We’ll let the chief know. The agency may need to take possession until they’re found.” I didn’t even want to think of the chief’s face when we delivered that news. It wouldn’t be pretty.

  Each succubus and incubus family carried a distinct marking often left behind after a killing. The problem was when two members of different families got together and created an offspring, who would of course, have a different marking. Then, if two people with changed marks had a child, well you got the picture.

  We’d figure it out eventually, but it would take a while. The best thing for us to do now was collect any clues we could find and dissect them.

  We needed to start with why a succubus would target Chris and Alley Hemsworth in the first place. Or was this just a random act brought on by a starving succubus who’d had no choice but to feed or die?

  Then why mess up the room? I stepped over a cracked picture of the couple and picked it up. The two stood together in their front yard, beaming, a sold sign behind them.

  It was cases like these that I tended to take personally. Two people who’d had their whole life ahead of them had been snuffed out because one of my kind couldn’t control themselves.

  The good news was that someone had had sex in here recently, and so it was easy for me to pick up a scent. I closed my eyes and tried to get a feel for the last few minutes of these people’s lives.

  A flash of sharp teeth flittered across my mind's eye, and then the Hemsworth’s horror-riddled faces, right before they were drained of life. After that, nothing. “Shit.” I shook my head, frustrated with myself.

  I couldn’t tell who was doing the attacking, or confirm them to be a succubus or maybe even an incubus.

  Boya, who had been on his hands and knees looking under the bed, popped back up after hearing me cuss. “Anything?” He looked like he already knew the answer. His eyes were sympathetic, probably because he knew the fear of having the First Families pressing down on you.

  “No,” I said dejectedly. At this point, we had more questions than answers, and that was never a good way to start an investigation.

  He gave me an, “it happens” look, before going back to his own search. Boya had a special talent for sensing things out that didn’t fit with the other objects around it.

  If the symmetry was off, if something was there that shouldn’t be, he’d find it. He always did. Especially if it was in the first forty-eight hours. After that things tended to get muddled.

  Finally, he came out from under the bed with a hand full of frog spit. Yuk. Frog spit was long, thick, yellow, and white. There was no way to mistake it, as nothing else looked like that. He’d been wearing a glove and he slipped it off and placed it in a plastic evidence bag to be analyzed later.

  Using this new information, I closed my eyes again, determined that something would really click this time. An image gradually came to shape, black hair, long nails, and an overpowering desire to kill. My eyes popped open. There was a purpose behind this. I could feel it. I just didn’t know what it was yet.

  I told my partner what I’d seen.

  He nodded and collected our supplies. “Guess we’re going to Spray town then.”

  I let Boya drive when we got back in the car. He had a few frog informants, and so I figured I’d just sit back and let him do his thing.

  He looked at my disappointed face and said something that he probably thought would make it better. “Got a clue this time. That’s something.”

  I thought back to the feelings I’d had while in that room. “This was done deliberately. There was no loss of control. I’m almost sure of it.”

  He nodded, not doubting me at all. Which is one of the reasons we worked so well as partners. He always trusted my readings and never tried to contradict me or tell me I was wrong. Hey, it made for a harmonious working relationship if nothing else. “We can hit Gull up. See what he knows.”

  Gull was one of Boya’s informants. Of frog descent, he had his hand in many illegal elements. If he didn’t know what was going on, he knew someone who did.

  Gull lived in a nice, four-bedroom brick house, in Forest Hills. One of the more affluent communities in Spray Town. He ran numbers and did a host of other things that we’d never been able to make stick. Luckily for us, Gull hated competition and so he’d rat out his fellow criminals wherever the mood struck.

  Gull had two teenage daughters. One opened the door and let us in. Tall with pale skin and black hair reaching just past her shoulders, she was used to seeing us by now and seemed more bored with our presence than anything else. “He’s in the study,” she said, then went back to the glowing screen on her iPhone.

  Gull’s house was nice and well kept. The furniture looked like it hadn’t been sat on, ever. Rigid and firm, every piece still had the plastic on it. Pictures of him and his family lined the walls of the living room and either side of the hall. A small silver stand sat in the hallway, right beside the bathroom, with a golden antique phone on top of it. The phone actually worked, as I’d see
n him and his wife use it on multiple occasions.

  We had to go through the kitchen to get to the study. It too was immaculate. The scent of apples and cinnamon floated from the stove, infusing the whole air with the sweet smell.

  t was warm and inviting, and my stomach growled as I realized that I hadn’t had dinner.

  Gull’s study was a typical man cave. A large sunken recliner rested in one corner, a big screen TV right in front of it. His desk was in the center of the room and off to the right was a long brown sofa, with a chocolate-colored carpet covering the whole floor.

  Everything smelled knew and looked a lot more expensive than I could afford, which told me that maybe crime paid well after all.

  Gull was lying back on the couch, arms behind his head, bare feet crossed, remote on his stomach. He was a large man, skin slightly tinted green and eyes so big they bucked.

  He sat up when he saw us, sweat breaking out on his forehead.

  I cocked a brow at my partner. This was new. Gull was never nervous and the fact that he was now was more than a little disturbing.

  The tilt of Boya’s head told me he’d caught it too. He pulled the chair from behind Gull’s desk and took a seat, rolling it across the floor and coming to a stop in front of the couch.

  Usually cocky and self-assured, Gull squirmed in his seat, determined to look anywhere but at us.

  Boya snatched the remote off Gull’s belly and then cut the TV off, which was playing a new episode of a popular froggy crime drama, that I myself watched from time to time. “What did you do?” he asked the other man.

  Gull stood, rubbing his hands on his jeans and looking as if he’d rather be anywhere else than locked in a room with the two of us. He grabbed another chair, sat it behind his desk, and made a show of shuffling some papers around. “It’s late.”

  Boya shook his head. “I gotta say, Gull, you’re making me wonder. Perhaps I should search your office, see what I can come up with.” Boya tapped a finger to his chin. “I’m sure I’ll find something.” He made a show of looking through a few shelves and opening a couple of drawers.