by E. A. Copen
I flinched when the phone made a loud hissing sound and a small puff of smoke flew out of the charging port. A breath later, fire jumped out of the screen. I flinched back at the sudden pop while Ed broke the outer and then inner circle.
“Fuck!” He swung the blanket at the fire.
I put a hand on him and pulled him away before he set the blanket and himself on fire. It was better to just let the phone burn and bill BSI for a replacement. I was still too busy processing what I’d just seen.
Theoretically, it made sense. He’d satisfied all the ingredients for a simple tracking spell, except that normally people used paper maps. That he’d been able to manipulate something as complicated as my cell phone’s GPS using such a simple spell, that was the part I couldn’t figure out. Anyone could do simple magick. Ed was the only one I’d seen use an electronic screen as the output.
I closed my eyes and called up my auric sight. Ed had never been much to look at as far as power went. Like most werewolves, his aura had always been streaked with a touch of magick, but werewolf magick drew on pack bonds, so it was difficult to tell how much of that was his and how much of it belonged to the pack as a whole.
When I looked at Ed in that empty field next to the burning building, however, it was alive with colors that hadn’t been there before. Rich hues of electric blue and neon red streaked and swam like particles in a collider. The colors swirled and crashed into each other, flickering briefly out of existence before coming alive again a few centimeters away in brilliant flashes. They moved in preset lines and patterns as if his circulatory system were a circuit board. Beautiful, but odd.
“Ed, how are you doing that?”
A proud smile flashed over Ed’s face, but it soon faded, and his shoulders slumped. “Mara. She was teaching me.”
“Dammit, Ed, magick isn’t a game.”
“I know that,” Ed snapped. “I’m a fucking werewolf. I know a thing or two. I read the papers and browse the internet. Mara’s a spirit sensitive. She can let ghosts possess her. We weren’t helpless children. Everything was fine until…” He cast a wary glance at the fire.
I placed my hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “It’s okay, Ed. You said you tracked Mara here. Then what happened?”
He blinked several times and turned back to me slowly. “Moving as a wolf is faster, so I got here on all fours. I could smell her. There were others, too, at least three counting Reed, but I didn’t know he was around. I didn’t recognize his scent right away. I did hear voices on the other side of the door. Mara’s voice and another man. She sounded hurt. I didn’t even think about it. I charged the door. That was a mistake.” Ed looked back at the barn. “There was this old dude inside with Mara and Reed. He was bald and had crazy green eyes. As soon as I came through the door and they determined I was a threat, the old dude shouted something in another language—not sure what—and Reed went berserk on me. Threw fire everywhere. That’s how the fire started.”
“You said there were three other people besides Mara and Reed. That makes five people total,” I said, counting on my fingers. “So far, you’ve only named Mara, Reed, and the bald, green-eyed guy. Who were the other two people you scented?”
Ed shrugged. “Beats me. Might’ve been fae, but there was so much magick in the air, and I was kinda upset, thinking my girlfriend…ex-girlfriend was in trouble, so I didn’t pay much attention.” Ed gave a pained expression when he called Mara his ex-girlfriend.
I narrowed my eyes, glaring at the dying embers of the fire. The firemen had almost conquered it now, and the barn was a smoldering pile of ash. It was still too hot for them to go in and search for bodies, and the water would have destroyed any residual magickal energies, effectively making the crime scene useless to me.
“The old man and Mara?” I asked. “What happened to them?”
Ed shook his head. “Gone. Reed kicked me aside, opened them a Way, and they hopped right through.”
So, whoever Baldy was, it looked like Reed had allied himself with him. Now, that was odd. In all the time I’d known Gideon Reed, I hadn’t ever seen him make friends. Something about the way Reed had acted during the fight didn’t sit right with me, either.
“Do you think Mara’s okay?” He fidgeted with two fingers and stared at the ground.
“I think you and I are going to have a very long chat when things have calmed down.” The dull thud of uneven paws on the ground made me turn my head. Sal limped out toward where we stood. “But I think I’ll give your alpha the privilege of ripping you a new asshole first about keeping secrets and getting involved. You and me, we’re going to talk about this magick.” I pointed at him sternly and then turned my back to walk away.
Sal gave me a tired look as he limped past, but I didn’t stop for him. I needed to talk to Tindall. I walked closer to the crime scene and stopped beside Tindall and a fireman whose helmet announced he was the fire marshal. Tindall greeted me with a bob of his head. “Find out anything useful?”
“You having a problem with rem in Eden?”
“Fuck.” Tindall scratched his chin. “Drugs are always a problem. You get one off the street, the pushers have got another, stronger, more deadly one lined up. Yeah, I know a few corners where it’s a problem, but nobody’s dying from rem, and funding is limited. I’d rather get the heroin pushers since I have to choose. Best I can do until legislature catches up and pick up the overdoses and harass the dealers. Why? What’s that got to do with the fire?”
“Word on the street is your victims might have been involved with the Tribulation Adventists and maybe the rem trade.”
“Fuck,” Tindall breathed and scratched at his chin. “Don’t suppose you got stuff to back that up?”
“Not yet, I don’t. And the fire probably destroyed anything inside the building.” I shook my head, trying to think through the smoke and noise. I dismissed the reference with a wave. “We need to find out who this property belonged to and go knock on their door.”
The fire marshal, a muscular and mustached guy nodded. “I can answer that. Flagged in the system when I put the address in to find the place. This whole parcel belongs to that group of weirdo new-age people with the compound over that-a-way.” He pointed southwest. “System said they still owed on a fine for a permit violation.”
“Tell me you don’t mean the Tribulation Adventists? That’d be too easy.”
The fire marshal nodded. “That does sound right, yeah.”
I tipped my head to the side. “You feel like throwing a few badges my way to go ruffle some feathers at the compound?”
“Careful, Black,” he said with a grunt. “I don’t need a Waco incident on my badge.”
“I won’t go busting down doors without a warrant,” I promised. “I just need a few grunts with badges. Enough to let the head honcho know I’m onto their rem operation. Maybe he knows something about all this.”
Tindall did a half-turn, put two fingers in his mouth, and let out an ear-piercing whistle that drew everyone’s attention. “Espinoza!” He made a big gesture with his arm. “Get over here!”
A Latino cop in a beat uniform jogged up, and I was suddenly reminded of my weakness for a man in uniform. Lieutenant Espinoza was the kind of cop they put on calendars: broad-shouldered, ruggedly handsome, and medium height with well-kept dark hair and flattering facial scruff. He was fit enough to grace the cover of a men’s health magazine without being too buff to be on Entertainment Weekly as the heartthrob of the week in some cop drama. I’m not kidding. Espinoza was pretty. With a name like Otilio Espinoza, how could he not be? That name begged to be said aloud. Go ahead. Try it. See if you don’t melt. I almost did when he smiled at me and extended a hand.
“Agent Black, meet Lieutenant Otilio Espinoza, head of my newly-formed special response team,” Tindall said.
“It’s good to finally meet you, Agent Black,” Espinoza said in a formal tone and squeezed my limp fingers.
“Lieutenant.” I finally shook the stars out o
f my eyes and squeezed back.
A sultry smirk crossed Espinoza’s face, and a small shock of magick power traveled down his fingers and into mine. Surprised, I jerked my hand away. “You’re—”
“Gifted? I know.” He offered me a wink.
Not sure how to respond, I turned to Tindall. “What’s the special response team for?”
“For you,” Espinoza answered in Tindall’s place. “Or, more specifically, the squad was put together to be your backup on the force. My men are volunteer only, Agent Black, so no one’s on your team who doesn’t want to be. And I fully vetted each of them with thorough background checks.” He dropped his voice an octave to keep from being overheard outside our circle. It made the skin on my arms prickle. “No Vanguards of Humanity on my team. You can trust every one of us to have your back.”
“He’s ideal for your situation,” Tindall informed me, “if all you want to do is talk.”
“In addition to being the sexiest cop on payroll, I happen to be a practitioner,” Espinoza said. “Not on your level, of course, but I do have a little talent you might find useful.”
Tindall patted Espinoza on the back. “If you want info, he’s your man.”
I finally convinced myself to look away from Espinoza’s face. “All right, Espinoza, you know anything about rem?”
Espinoza nodded. “I’ve got the most experience dealing with it on the force, ma’am, which still isn’t much.” He flushed and shifted his weight.
“You okay, Lieutenant?”
“I’m fine. Just…”
Espinoza jerked forward when Tindall slapped him on the back. “Espinoza’s your biggest fan.”
I blinked. Fan? I had fans? This was news to me.
“It’s true,” Espinoza admitted with a sheepish grin. “I’ve been following your work for some time, Agent Black. Judah the Giant Slayer. That was damned impressive.”
I huffed. “You didn’t see how close it was to turning out the other way,” I said and nodded toward one of the squad cars. “We’ll make a better showing if we go in with the lights on.”
“I’ll drive,” Espinoza offered and swaggered off.
I sighed and gave Tindall a long look. “Don’t worry,” he said, scratching the scruff on his chin. “Espinoza’s a good guy. Just be careful.”
“Why?” I scoffed. “What’s he going to do? Sexy me to death?”
“Maybe. He has that effect. Lot of women really like to talk to him. Not sure if that’s part of his so-called talent, or something else.” He looked at the cruiser, where Espinoza was leaning on the hood in a lazy pose. “But he’s also got a reputation.”
“What kind of reputation?”
“The kind that usually gets people in trouble.” Tindall sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Really, he’s probably too good for this job. One of the best cops on the force. Problem is with people that think they can save the world, they tend to get hurt. He’s got what I’d call a Superman complex. Man of steel for sure, but the kind who might be a little too eager to apply truth and justice when he ought to look the other way.” He patted my back. “But you’ve got magick. You’ll be fine.”
“May God have mercy on my poor, little soul,” I droned and waved to Tindall as I walked over to the cruiser.
Espinoza opened the passenger side door of the cruiser for me and tipped his hat. “You know where the compound is, Agent Black?”
“That-a-way.” I mimicked the fire marshal and then added, “Better call dispatch and get an address.”
“You don’t have some kind of magick spell to find the bad guy, huh?”
Espinoza said it in jest, but it made me think of Ed’s spell. It might have seemed like harmless magick to him, but all his dabbling had changed his aura around, and I didn’t know yet if that was a bad or good thing. Ed was young and untrained learning magick from someone else who was young and untrained. That by itself was a bad thing. Or maybe, just maybe, it would be the edge I’d need to get a leg up on Seamus when he made his appearance.
Chapter Four
“Okay,” I said after we’d pulled away from the scene, lights on and sirens blaring. “I’ve got to know. If you’ve got magick, what are you doing working for EPD instead of BSI?”
Espinoza chuckled. “I’m not that talented. Besides, I’ve never had any interest in working for the government. The fact that I became a cop at all is a surprise. But mi mamá didn’t raise a criminal. I grew up on Superman and Batman comics. Being a cop is my form of hero-worship, I suppose.”
I gave him a sideways glance and tilted my head to the side. “You’re into comic books?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, but don’t call me a comic book geek. I’m the thing most of them wish they could be,” he said in a cock-sure tone.
I turned my attention out the window to the landscape passing by. It wasn’t a far drive to the compound. There was nothing but empty desert between the barn and there, that and empty road. We barely had time for conversation before it loomed up in front of us.
The compound was a hodge-podge of simple buildings connected and built onto each other. Some sections were three stories high. Others were only two. I counted four sections in the dark and one more under construction. The compound sat on three acres of land, some of which had been converted into greenhouses. I made a note of that. We couldn’t search them without a warrant, which I wouldn’t be getting. There was still no evidence to back up Ed’s claim that they were growing rem. I needed more than unreliable testimony to get a warrant.
As the car came down the long driveway in front of the compound, a small light came on in front of a covered entryway and faces pressed against the windows. One by one, shades and blinds closed. The compound was probably going into lockdown with our arrival. I wondered if I’d brought enough back-up.
We parked in front of the covered entry, but Espinoza left the siren running an extra second or two before shutting it off. He didn’t bother to kill the lights. I’d told him we wanted to be seen. If people were being held in the house against their will, I hoped they’d make some noise so we could come in. If not, it would communicate that we were there and meant business.
We got out of the car and I pulled my badge from my pocket. As soon as I started for the front door, it opened and a man stepped out. He was tall, thin, and bald with an angular jaw. I would have placed his age somewhere between forty and forty-five and described his complexion as milky. He was dressed in gray pajama pants, a white t-shirt and a thin, blue bathrobe. Dark rings under his green eyes and the coffee cup in his hand told me he’d been awake when we pulled in. Worry lines creased in his forehead while sweat formed on mine. This had to be the guy Ed had seen.
One of my primary abilities allows me to see people’s auras. Red, blue, purple, and green are all common colors. Each one has its own meaning…sort of. It’s more complicated than red means angry and blue means sad. The location of the colors has its own meaning, along with how large the aura is.
Gold was not a common color, and I’d seen it exactly one time before, when I peeked at Father Reed’s aura. This guy’s aura made Father Reed’s look like muddy water. It was the brightest, most glowing gold I’d ever seen, streaked with light blue and black. Holy hell, this guy had some serious mojo.
“Officers,” he said in the form of a greeting. “Is this about the fire?”
We stopped in front of him. “You’ve been watching?” I asked.
“One of my people called it in. We saw the blaze a while ago.” His jade eyes darted from me to Espinoza. “Can I assume it’s a total loss?”
I decided to ignore his question and his attempt at leading the conversation. “I’m Special Agent Judah Black, BSI, and this is Lieutenant Espinoza, SRT. And you are?”
His eyes narrowed. “What’s this about?”
“I’ve received an anonymous complaint that a young woman is being held here against her will,” I said, tucking my badge away. “If you’d consent to a search of the premises, we cou
ld get this all cleared up, no problem.”
The man’s smile was strained. “I’m afraid I can’t allow that. This is a sacred place. My people are peaceful. I assure you that no one is being held here against their will. My flock is free to leave at their pleasure. Perhaps if you’d give me the name, I can clear it up.”
I almost told him it was Mara but stopped when Espinoza put a hand on my arm and gave me a subtle shake of his head. Of course. What was I thinking? If I told him about Mara, he could still deny us entry to punish her for causing trouble. The best way to protect Mara was to distance myself from her.
“Someone has also claimed you’ve been growing some plants of questionable origin,” Espinoza said and jabbed a thumb toward the greenhouses. “What do you grow in your greenhouses? Maybe you wouldn’t mind giving me a tour?”
The man avoided the question entirely. He sighed, and his shoulders slumped. “The old house was to be our next project. It was here when we began work on the property and we hadn’t yet had time to clean it out and renovate it. My people have not been inside or near that house in months. If there was anything growing in it, we were not the caretakers.”
“You see anyone hanging around on your property?” Espinoza asked. “Maybe out by the old house? Strange cars? Prowlers? Anything like that?”
“Nothing of the sort,” the bald man said and waved his hand.
“I didn’t catch your name.”
His glare at me intensified. “I am Reverend Hector Demetrius.”
I tilted my head to the side. “Are you registered with BSI, Hector?”
Hector pressed his lips into a thin line. “If you’re not here simply to inform me about the damage to our property, perhaps I should speak with a lawyer before answering any more of your questions.”
“Sure thing.” Espinoza pointed a thumb back at the squad car. “If you want to come down to the station and wait for your legal counsel, I’d be happy to take you. It’d save you the cab fare, seeing as how you don’t have any cars parked out here.”