We made our way onto the main street through town and turned down the street that led to the portal, safely tucked in the cellar of an old bungalow.
“Can we talk about this when I get back?” I asked.
“Of course.” He said it with a smile, but it didn’t feel entirely authentic. He was disappointed. I could see it in his eyes.
We walked the rest of the way in silence until saying goodbye at the mouth of the quiet neighborhood where the bungalow sat on the corner lot. “I’ll see you soon.”
He inclined his chin. “Have a good meeting.”
“Thanks.”
Adam waved and then tucked his hands in his pockets, hunched his shoulders, and walked away. My heart squeezed but my internal time clock reminded me I didn’t have time to wallow and stress out. Agent Bramble was a stickler for punctuality, and I had to assume that would be the case even when she moved a meeting at the last minute.
With a deep breath, I pulled open the door of the cellar and a purple glow beckoned me forward. I closed my eyes, stepped forward, and let the magic pull me through. When I reopened my eyes, I stood in the heart of the haven, the secret supernatural city that was hidden behind a cloak of powerful enchantments and charms, just a whisper away from the shiny surface of Seattle.
The SPA building wasn’t far, and within minutes, I sat studying the name plaque on Agent Bramble’s desk while she stepped out to speak with a colleague.
Agent Agatha Bramble
The letters were all capital set in a bold typeface, formal and dignified, much like the woman they represented. She was a handsome woman with a broad frame, sharp eyes, and a birdlike face that mirrored her shifter form: an eagle.
“I apologize for the delay,” Agent Bramble said, sweeping back into her office. She rounded her desk, her lips pressed in a tense line. “It seems everyone has forgotten how to do their jobs today.”
She perched at the edge of her seat behind her desk and folded her hands together. “Now, where were we?”
“You mentioned meeting with Dr. Pasqual,” I replied cautiously.
Dr. Sharon Pasqual was my lead supervisor in the top-secret potion work I’d been doing with the agency over the last six months, and I was nervous to receive my first formal performance review. Especially as it was apparently going to be delivered by Agent Bramble rather than Dr. Pasqual herself.
“Right, right,” she said. “Dr. Pasqual is quite pleased with your work. It seems you’re fitting right in with her specialties potion team. I’ve personally seen some of the work coming out of the department, and it’s quite remarkable.”
I breathed a silent sigh of relief. “That’s really good to hear. I’ve been enjoying the work and don’t want to stop.”
“Well, as it happens, I am going to have to ask you to pull back and consider another assignment.” She inclined her head. “The reassignment is only temporary and shouldn’t be considered a reflection on the work you’ve done so far.”
“I see.”
Agent Bramble handed me a manila folder. “This assignment is what we call field work and requires you to work outside the lab. Normally, we’d assign a formally trained agent to the case, but it just so happens that you’re in the perfect position to take up the assignment without causing ripples of disruption, as the person of interest has just moved to Beechwood Harbor.”
She gave me a nod and I lifted the cover of the folder.
A small gasp escaped my lips when I realized the person staring back at me in the glossy photo was Narissa Leonard.
Chapter 3
“Is this some kind of a test, or something? You can’t actually expect me to spy on my roommate!”
Agent Bramble paused thoughtfully. “We prefer to call it surveillance,” she replied coolly. “But, essentially, yes. We’ve been monitoring Ms. Leonard for nine months now down in the Bay Area, but now that she’s moved north, we’ve decided it would be best to get a new pair of eyes on her. We’re not entirely sure of the motive behind the move, and we want someone close to keep tabs on her until we figure it out.”
“So, let me get this straight, she’s under investigation, decides to leave the Bay, and just so happens to pick Beechwood Harbor? Let alone the manor where a quasi-agent of the SPA happens to live?” I raised a brow.
Agent Bramble smiled. “We may have had a hand in placing her at the manor.”
“Posy said she is in town to write a book. Is that not true?”
“We don’t know. We need you to find out and report back. That’s the job, Holly.”
“I see.” I glanced down at Narissa’s picture again. “She just moved in tonight. I mean, I literally met her like five minutes before you called me down here.”
“I know,” Agent Bramble said. “We made the arrangements with Posy earlier in the month, when we got word Ms. Leonard was readying to move. One of our connections suggested the house to her, and she took the bait.”
“Posy said a former resident recommended the manor to her,” I said.
Posy nodded. “That’s right. Nathaniel Parsons. He’s the editor-in-chief for the Haven Herald, based out of the west coast office.”
“So, is she really a writer?” I asked.
“Yes. The bulk of her work is her bi-weekly column with the Herald.”
I frowned. I didn’t read every page of the paper, but I at least glanced over them, yet the name didn’t sound familiar to me.
“She writes under an alias,” Agent Bramble supplied. “Kitty Carrington.”
“Oh! She does the advice column.”
“That’s right.”
“Huh.” I bobbed my head, wondering what kind of book she was supposedly working on. Self-help? Considering she was under SPA investigation, it might not be the best time for her to toot one’s horn, but as I’d found myself under investigation on a few occasions, I wasn’t going to judge.
“Is the editor, this Nathaniel Parsons, a spy too?” I asked.
“Not exactly,” Agent Bramble replied in a measured tone, as though choosing her next words carefully. “Nathaniel spent close to twenty years as a lead investigative reporter for the Herald before taking the helm as chief editor.”
“So, how does he link to Narissa, other than that he’s her boss? And what exactly is she being investigated for?” I gestured at Narissa’s folder. A few newspaper clippings were tucked behind her picture. “This doesn’t have a ton of info.”
“Ms. Leonard first landed on our radar about a year ago. Her name popped up on the byline of a story about the murder investigation after a werewolf was found dead in a shopping cart in the parking lot of a human grocery store. Now, one article wouldn’t be cause for alarm, but when a second werewolf was found dead, less than ten miles from the first, she wrote a follow-up article. That article is what landed her on our internal persons of interest list. There were a few key details presented that could only come from having an insider, or being one herself.”
I stiffened. “Are you saying there’s a chance she’s a werewolf killer?”
My mind immediately flashed to the image of her and Nick at Siren’s Song. Did she know Nick was a wolf? She was a shifter. Could she smell it on him? Was he her next mark?
Oh, and I was the one who practically pushed them together!
“At this time, she’s not an official suspect in either of the murders, though they remain unsolved,” Agent Bramble said. “But, the articles were red flags. We contacted Nathaniel quietly to see what he knew about her previous work, and he pointed us to a few other pieces she’d written about pack politics in the same pack that suffered the loss of two members.”
She pointed at the folder. “I’ve included the articles for your reference.”
I looked them over, the headlines referring to the supermarket killer. I shook my head, struggling to put the pieces together. “How did she go from doing that work to writing articles on how to avoid clawing your in-laws’ eyes out over the holidays?” I asked.
“Nathaniel re
assigned her after our conversation,” Agent Bramble. The tone of her voice made it clear she didn’t approve of his decision. “We suspect she knows more about these killings, but we’ve not been able to figure out what her link is to the slayings.”
“Is she dangerous?” I asked. It was hard to envision the well-mannered woman at the manor’s kitchen table as capable of violence, especially the kind Bramble was talking about, but I’d only known her for a few minutes. Maybe there was something I wasn’t seeing, lurking under the surface.
“I mean, if you think she’s capable of murder, why in the Otherworld did you approve her to move into the manor?”
“We don’t believe she’s had a deliberate hand in the killings, no.”
“Gee, that’s comforting,” I said. “She’s not the kind to pull the trigger, but if she calls the right shot, I just might find myself in the crosshairs anyway.”
She shook her head. “If I thought your life, or that of any of your fellow roommates was in danger, I wouldn’t be asking this of you.”
I blew out a slow breath. “If Adam finds out, he’s going to flip his lid.”
Agent Bramble’s eyes sharpened. “But he’s not going to, is he?”
“I’m not going to deliberately tell him, of course, but what am I supposed to say when he finds me stalking our new roommate all over town? He’s not stupid. He’s going to know something’s up.”
Agent Bramble considered this for a moment. “Adam has been in talks with the agency about some contract work that would require a higher security clearance. If he’s cleared, I will consider letting you bring him into the fold.”
I chewed my lower lip. For nearly a year, Adam had been consulting for the agency to bring them into the twenty-first century as the magic community slowly but surely learned to integrate technology and magic.
“How long is that going to take for him to get the clearance?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Agent Bramble replied. “It’s not my department. He was here a few days ago, meeting with Mache and some of his underlings.”
“Adam was here? At headquarters?”
Agent Bramble nodded. “That’s right.”
I sat back against the chair. “He … uh, never mentioned it.”
“I see. Well, that should help you feel better about keeping this from him then.”
I frowned. Clearly, it’d been some time since Agent Bramble was in a romantic relationship. Or, at least, a healthy one. I didn’t think it wasn’t essential to share every little thing with a romantic partner, but a meeting with the head of the SPA? That seemed like the kind of thing a person might mention over dinner.
“Holly, can I count on you to keep Narissa under your watch? We need to know if she starts poking around in any local werewolf business. I expect daily phone calls to report in and you are to use my personal number in case of emergency.”
I could say no. Turn down the assignment and go back home to my normal, non-duplicitous life, but I had a feeling that if I did, my access to the SPA potion lab would be restricted, or worse, taken away altogether. I didn’t like the idea of spying on someone, especially someone under my own roof, but if there was even a sliver of a chance that Narissa might start trouble with the local pack—Nick’s pack—I’d get dragged into it anyway.
After a moment, I nodded. “I’m on it.”
Agent Bramble smiled. “I knew we could count on you.”
Minutes later, I was stepping back through the portal, into Beechwood Harbor. Adam’s proposition hung over my head as my thoughts swirled in tight circles, wondering just what I’d gotten myself into. The next few weeks, or even months, were going to require quite the tightrope routine.
Luckily, I was used to walking the wire.
Adam and Evangeline were in the kitchen when I arrived back at the manor. Boots was in the corner, giving himself a post-dinner bath. I stooped down and scratched his head. “Someone took pity and fed you dinner, huh?”
He purred and rubbed his face against my knuckles. “Oh, for the life of a cat.”
“Guess you can ask Narissa all about that, huh?” Adam chuckled. “You’re not the big man on campus anymore, eh, Butterball? She’ll probably have a good ten pounds on you in her Manx form. Though, your belly probably hangs a little lower.”
I covered his ears and shot a look of mock horror at Adam. “Don’t listen, Bootsie. You’re doing very well on your new diet.”
Adam and Evangeline exchanged a look.
“Well … he’s trying. Okay?”
“Whatever you say, gorgeous.” Adam poured himself a glass of soda, still smirking to himself. “How’d your meeting with Mama Bird go?”
I rolled my eyes. “I thought you’d agreed to stop calling her that?”
“Fine, fine.”
“It was fine,” I replied, giving Boots a final pat on the head. “She’s got some work for me. Nothing too major. I should be able to focus on getting back on track with my potion work. Which, after Posy’s cleaning spree, is going to take more time than I originally planned.”
Evangeline twisted in her seat. “I can help, Holly. I’ve been meaning to get back to my potion studies. Consider me your unofficial apprentice.”
I smiled but it felt more like a grimace. Evangeline meant well, but she was more of a liability than a helper when it came to anything having to do with the kitchen. We’d collaborated on a line of supernaturally charged beauty products that she sold in her day spa, but she’d been more of a sounding board than anything else. Anytime she tried to get more hands on, things went sideways in a hurry.
“Thanks, Evangeline. I’ll keep that in mind. Maybe when I get ready to package? You’re way better at magicking bows than me.”
She smiled. “Anything you need!”
“How’s your week looking?” I asked Adam. I was itching to ask him why he hadn’t told me about his own meeting, but didn’t want to drag Evangeline into our bickering. “Busy with work?”
“Same old, same old, really.”
“Uh huh.”
“You want to go to McNally’s tomorrow night for dinner?” he asked. “Maybe we can talk more about my idea.”
Evangeline glanced between us, her silent question written on the slight wrinkle between her brows.
“Sure,” I said. “How did tonight go? Is Narissa upstairs getting settled into her room?”
“Oh, she left,” Evangeline said, waving toward the door. “She barely stayed long enough to finish her slice. Said she had plans with a guy she met this morning at the coffee shop. I wonder who it is!”
My heart sank. I knew exactly who she meant, and he was the one guy in Beechwood Harbor I didn’t want her anywhere near.
Nick.
Chapter 4
Beechwood Harbor was small enough that I could have searched the whole town in a matter of hours, but since I couldn’t come up with an excuse to leave the manor, I absently munched cold pizza and sat through a movie with Adam and Evangeline, my wheels spinning so loudly I couldn’t focus on any of the story. Though, judging by the sheer amount of explosions and car chases, I wasn’t missing out on some cinematic masterpiece.
All I could do was picture Narissa and Nick off somewhere together. If the SPA’s suspicions were right, Narissa was at best a nosy, expośe writer on the inner working of pack life. If Nick gave her a juicy tidbit, he’d find himself on the outs with his own pack, but he was new to being a wolf and even newer at being a pack member. I couldn’t image there’d been a proper handbook on etiquette. Nick was a savvy private investigator and not prone to babbling, but he was also friendly and a little too open-book at times.
And if the more serious suspicions were true … then Nick could be in danger of more than just ticking off his pack.
Nick Rivers was my enemy-turned-friend. One of my closest friends, in fact. He’d moved up from Los Angeles a couple of years ago to open his own private investigation business. He was a former reporter himself and wanted a career change. We’d
met in the flowerbeds outside my bedroom window in the middle of a stormy night, when he’d been prowling around, looking for ghosts.
Silly rabbit.
Nick dabbled in the paranormal and had heard through some sort of internet grapevine that the Beechwood Manor was haunted. According to him, his plan was to sell tickets to a ghost tour through town, and he’d planned to make the manor the crown jewel of the whole thing.
I smiled to myself, remembering the way we’d squared off between the rose bushes, me in my fuzzy slippers, him in an all-black Mission Impossible get-up. We’d come a long ways. Of course, our bond had deepened significantly in the past several months, since he’d stepped between me and a crazed werewolf and wound up getting himself cursed.
Even all this time later, it still sent a pang of guilt through my chest to relive that flash of a moment that changed all our lives. Nick joined the supernatural community, with Adam, Evangeline, and me serving as his guides. We were all closer for it, but the deeper friendship came at a steep price. We’d all watched Nick struggle to fully wrap his arms around his new life and felt helpless as he fought off bouts of depression and despair.
In a way, seeing him with a woman in the coffee shop had surprised me. Even before the curse, Nick wasn’t a ladies’ man. Before arriving in Beechwood Harbor, his ex-fiance cheated on him and left him gun shy. Being turned into a werewolf had only shaken his confidence further.
Under any other circumstances, I’d be happy for him and encourage his efforts to move on and rebuild a so-called normal life. But with Agent Bramble’s words rattling around inside my head, all I could feel was my thundering pulse.
Hours later, I found myself alone in bed, my ear perked for the familiar creak of the front door. As soon as Narissa was back home, I’d be able to relax and sleep. At least, I hoped. But when the clock flipped over to 11:35, I decided I’d waited long enough.
With a huff, I flipped the covers off and swung my legs over the side of the bed. Boots stirred, trying to snuggle deeper into the warm blankets. He protested further and dragged a paw over his fuzzy face when I clicked on the bedside lamp.
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