by Ann Denton
Rain comes out of the bathroom, sees Jackson, and shrieks, “What’s happening?”
My mother puts her hands to her face, covering the spiraling emeralds embedded in her cheeks, “Oh my goodness!”
I blink until my vision clears. Then I walk up to Jackson and smack the rest of the cookie out of his hand. It’s already half-gone.
He stands, frozen, in shock. But not puking.
My mother opens her mouth to start asking questions, but I hold up a hand and shake my head. For the first time in my life, she listens.
I snatch my cell phone from her and dial.
When the Emergency Response Wizard arrives at my place, he does a double take. “Didn’t I just see—”
“Yes,” I cut him off. “Take those three to the hospital. Tell them he ate this.” I hand him the half-cookie stuffed in a plastic bag.
“Lyon, you have to come with—” my mother’s demand is cut short as she’s teleported to the hospital.
I grab that damn box of cookies and summon a Broomer.
I don’t know what the hell kind of spell the Crypts put on these cookies. But when I find out, I’m going to rain hell down on Luke Hawkins.
Chapter 9
After Flowers is done yelling at me for leaving a toxic substance hanging around my apartment (a substance I remind him, he forgot to collect when he was there), I go into the briefing room.
Bennett is already talking.
"Our analyst team figured out that both men were on the Tres Lunas Halloween Board. Alvin Masterson, vic one, was head of the board, which is a voluntary position. For his night job he holds a position as head investigator at the Portalport. His power was flying.” Bennett tosses a pic of the victim up on the board. A tall spindly fae with pink curls and pink gemstones on his cheeks that look like freckles, he looks like an overgrown kid. No telling how many centuries old he is.
Bennett flicks to the next slide and speaks, “Vic two, Zanno DoLit, also worked at the Portalport. Looks like Alvin got him onto the Halloween Board this year. But, normally, he works in Magical Use and Abuse division. His powers were fire-related.” This fae has a winter look. White hair, pale skin, a purple gemstone on the tip of his nose. Ironic that he had a fire affinity. But genes sometimes do weird things like that.
Becca raises her hand, "Are we looking for someone who worked with them? Or was affected by their work?"
Bennett sighs. "All of the above. The problem is that the Halloween Board decides who gets permits for events in Tres Lunas. There’s not enough room for everything. Not enough funding. The Board naturally pisses a lot of people off. And the Portalport investigators collaborate with Magical Use and Abuse to decide who should be stripped of power for inter-world law or magical secrecy violations. In other words, we’re looking at a shit show of suspects.”
Seena asks, “What about M.O.?”
Bennett answers Seena’s question, but his eyes find mine as he does. “Both men entered the hospital with sugar shock. At this time, I believe they were coming from the same event. A Halloween gala put on by the Board. Two hundred people in attendance. Approximately twelve hours after entering the hospital, each man was dead. The killer had to have access to both those venues. The M.E. has confirmed that the vics’ magic was drained from their bodies. Let me repeat. Drained. We have yet to determine how.”
His eyes stare at mine intently.
My guess was right. Someone is stealing fae magic. What the hell? Why? Why these two guys? Is it personal? Revenge? My mind starts reeling from the possibilities. I frickin’ hope it’s personal as all get-out. Because otherwise … we have a killer on the loose during the time of year that Tres is filled to the brim with fae. If the killer’s just looking for fae magic, there will be easy pickings.
My eyes widen as I stare at Bennett. He gives a small nod, acknowledging my thought.
Bennett keeps talking. “This is all hands on deck. I’ve pulled a few staff to cover the night’s emergencies. I will be dividing the rest you into teams. We’re going to focus our initial search on guests and people who had access to the gala. Team one will research the vic’s personal lives. Team two will research Portalport co-workers and past employees. Team three will research the Board. The final group will research members of the public who might have a grudge."
Becca ends up in the members of the public group. Seena gets assigned to research the Board. Petey gets personal lives. I assume Bennett will send me to the Portalport group. But he doesn’t assign me. To anything.
I approach him after everyone breaks up and goes off to search databases and crystal balls, interview suspects, and read tea leaves.
“Um … you forgot to give me an assignment, sir.”
“No. I didn’t.” Bennett doesn’t look up from the presentation laptop he’s shutting down. “You are typing up reports for every single group.”
That hits like a hammer. Yeah, I asked for extra work. But I thought he’d at least be reasonable.
“Every group, sir?”
Ben glances at me. “Yes. It’s not punishment, Fox. You have a weird knack for making unlikely connections. So that’s your job. Nice work on the magic draining thing by the way. ME’s office would have noticed it eventually, but they were so busy looking for external causes of death—spells and enchantments—it might have taken them days to see it.”
“Thanks.”
“What a way to go, though. The medic I talked to said it would have been like falling asleep. Nicest murder I’ve ever heard of.”
“A supernatural sleep.”
Ben gives a nod. “Yup. It’s just, that’s odd, don’t you think? Why would a killer choose such a painless way to knock people off?”
“Maybe the guy doesn’t like blood?”
“You think it’s a guy?”
“I dunno. That just came out. I’ll take notes and let you know what I think.” I take a step to leave but Ben calls me back.
“Oh, and … I got a phone call from your mother,” he bites his lip as he shows me his cell phone. “She left a voicemail. Want to give me a heads up?”
I roll my eyes. “I’m sure it’s the usual. You’re a darkheart who has no business being with a sweet innocent sweetheart fae like me. Even though I told her we just work together. She’s pretty ticked I’m gonna miss dinner.”
“If you need to see her—”
“Trust me, I don’t.” I rub my neck, remembering the clothesline.
“Okay,” he gives me a shy smile. “I’ll find you after you’ve had a chance to talk to all the groups? A few hours?”
“Yup. I’ll be happy to go over the case with you then,” I deliberately don’t flirt back.
“Sure,” his face drops.
I walk away, kicking myself for being a bitch. But then my anger turns on him. I’ve told him I’m not okay with dating him right now like a zillion times. He should back the eff off. Then my thoughts zig zag. Maybe I’m overthinking the smile. Maybe he was just being friendly. Maybe I’m being crazy. He didn’t say anything inappropriate just now.
I decide I’m insane. And the best I can do to control my level of insanity is focus on work.
I go to a group of desks at the back of the big open room. I take notes for the Portalport group for an hour; they sound like a bunch of lost, bleating lambs. The most info they have is that Zanno applied for a transfer to Interworld Relations. A promotion. Big whoop.
“What about this power stripping thing? Or the people they lock up behind The Veil?”
A senior investigator named Dan—a snotty genie who likes to appear in a cloud of smoke behind you after you pull your food out of the microwave so you think it’s burnt—rolls his eyes at me. “We aren’t stupid enough to forget that. We have to request access to those files. They’re from beyond The Veil. Jurisdiction. Have you heard of it? We’re waiting for approval. Unless you got an in with the fae?” He raises a pierced eyebrow.
No, I don’t have an in with the fae, you jerk. And you know it.
I just
scrunch my nose and walk away. If they’re gonna sit on their butts over what I think would be the most promising leads, I’ll just tattle to Bennett later. I’m not above that.
I move to Becca’s group, taking notes and drinking tea with a witch sitting next to Becca. After I’ve interviewed her, I turn to Becca.
“Anybody cropping up as a person of interest on your end?”
Becca hands me a piece of chocolate (because she’s the most thoughtful little sprite on the planet), and says, “Settle in.”
I cross my legs and lean back in my seat. “Shoot.”
She holds up two photos. “You’ll be happy to know that the local gangs were all well-represented at that gala. The Crypts sent Brian Saint, the Bloods sent Heather Well. I guess both are a little upset this year. The ley line shifted last year. It now covers part of the pumpkin patch, and Fey claim ley line access, so the Trolls don’t get full use of their normal orgy space.”
“I hear they’re pretty attached to that orgy.”
She giggles, “I’d say that’s an understatement. Darrell told me he had to break up a fight during one once and nearly got decapitated. Only the spells on his bandages saved him.”
“So, in short, they’re ticked.”
She nods.
I jot it down. “Always good to have deadly gangs mad at you. Though the Bloods aren’t known for subtlety.”
“Yeah, not the brightest buttons. I’d have expected them to just smash heads.”
“I’ve written it down, but we’ll move them down the list of suspects.”
“Sounds good.” She points to the other photo, where a hot vamp with cropped hair and killer stilettos smiles dangerously. “The Crypts’ Halloween event permit was denied outright. Something about sanitation violations last year.”
“The gang itself applied for an event permit?”
She laughs. “No. The UTI applied, of course.”
“UTI?” the witch on my other side glances up from the tea leaves she’s reading.
“Not that kind,” I respond. “Undead Transformation Institute.” I write it down. “Do you seriously think they’d kill someone over a permit?”
“This is when they do the majority of their human to vamp transformations. So, yeah. UTI issued an official statement. Said the denial was an attempt to limit the vamp population.”
I can see the vamps getting worked up over that. And the Crypts would have no problem ‘helping out.’ Clearly, they had access to the gala. I don’t think getting someone into the hospital would be that hard. I cradle my forehead in my hands. “I feel a migraine coming on.”
I do not want to hear that the Crypts are anywhere near this. I’m already dealing with them on some level in my personal life. They better not be doing this, too.
Becca tosses a hand on my shoulder, sensing my distress. “Sorry to hear about your friend, Danny.”
I glance up, “Gossip’s that fast?”
“Well, Flowers is on the case. So, naturally, every female senior investigator has dropped by to check in on him.”
“Naturally my butt. He’s such a dung bucket.”
“Anyway, what I wanted to say is my cousin’s there too. Just had her fourth kid. Seena and I were gonna dress up and go down there. Bring a little cheer. We could stop by Danny’s. Want in?”
I sigh. I owe Danny. The least I can do is drop by and visit. Though I haven’t worked out what to say to JR yet. Maybe I should work on my apology speech first.
“Wish I could but I haven’t got a costume.” That’s a lie. JR and I got coordinated green eggs and ham costumes. No way I’m going to wear that.
Becca claps. “Awesome! I’ll get you one!”
“But, I thought we had to work tomorrow. Didn’t Bennett post a sign for recruits to guard the troll orgy?”
“We’ll just drop by for five minutes. The sign did say we could be undercover for the orgy. Less likely for the trolls to notice us. Oh, yay! I’ve got the best costumes planned! My cousin’s afraid of feet. Hope you like dressing like a giant sock!”
“What?”
“Just kidding. They’ll be amazing!” Her eyes light up and I can’t help but look forward to it. Becca’s energy is always contagious.
I head over to Seena’s group, hoping he’ll be able to knock the Crypts off the top of my suspect list.
As soon as I get near, he holds up a hand, and shoves his glasses up his nose. He’s got four computers crunching numbers at once. Not sure how that relates to the Board members. But he’s a kickass analyst. Maybe he’s checking the vic bank accounts or something. I lean forward to look at his screens.
Seena holds up a hand to block them. He glares at me, “Zahré mar. Not gonna let you steal my theories.” (He’s been teaching me to curse in Persian. So now, he thinks he can curse at me in Persian whenever he wants.)
“I’m just here to take notes.”
“Why you and not ABC?” (ABC is our precinct golem. He’s got a keyboard built into his belly and watching him type is like watching someone trying to tickle themselves.)
“Because my mother’s in town and I’d rather eat rusty nails than go see her right now,” I shudder as my phone buzzes with yet another text from her. I have yet to read them. I’m sure they’re a lovely combination of guilt, shouty capitals, and outrage. How could you POISON your sister’s boyfriend? Why would you abandon us at a mortal hospital? How dare you not answer me! I unlock my phone, open the texts, and toss it at him. “Here, see why, and I’ll check your notes.”
I swipe a file from his desk and skitter backward.
He glares but opens the phone. His eyes widen. “There are like fifty texts here.”
“Yup.”
“You poisoned your sister’s boyfriend?”
“Not exactly. Who’s this?” I set down the file and pull out a disturbingly familiar photo of a fae with high cheekbones.
“Jackson Rock—one of the Halloween Board members.”
I groan and face palm.
“What?”
“That is my sister’s boyfriend.”
Seena starts to laugh. “Fox, you have the world’s worst luck.”
No shit, Sherlock.
Chapter 10
Bennett and I get a booth at Wanda’s Brews. He orders me a Witch’s Heart and himself a beer.
I pick at the leather buttons on the seat while he looks over the menu. It’s busy, with all the people pouring into town for the holidays, but Bennett manages to get us into a secluded corner. The dim lighting and semi-nice bar and grill all scream date.
I stare down at my notes. This is his ‘dinner.’ In repayment for letting me become the office bitch. I should just be grateful, right? Not uncomfortable. Date is all just in my head. He has files on the seat next to him. I have a notebook. I shouldn’t have a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach warning me that he’s gonna want to—
“We should talk,” Bennett says the dreaded words. Of course, he does.
I gulp my drink and dive into my notes. My nerves are all shouting, ‘distraction strike!’ So, I spit the words out as fast as I can. “Yup. It looks like both the Crypts and Bloods are pretty ticked off by the vics. I don’t know if I told you, but Flowers, I mean Flores, has me looking into a selkie nurse with a history of violence. I think the list of people who the Portalport might have stripped of powers or cut off Interworld travel privileges for is pretty important, but Dan looks like he’s sitting on his lazy patoot about that. My sister’s boyfriend, the one who ate my cookies? Whoa. I meant literally. Um, that came out wrong. Anyway, he’s on the Halloween Board, too, and it looks like he pretty much voted against the dead guys for everything. Not that disagreement is a basis for murder, at all—”
“Ly,” Bennett interrupts me and puts a hand over mine. “I didn’t mean we needed to talk about the case.”
I stare at his hand. It’s so warm on mine. It feels good. But, at the same time, not good enough.
Why? What’s wrong with me? Why is a tiny sliver of
me still fantasizing about Luke’s hand? Or the way he looked at me? I mean, it’s pretty clear that whatever he was doing was some kind of ploy to hurt me.
I still don’t know why. In the magic world, I’m the crust that’s stuck to the bottom of the pan. Not even worth scraping up. My power? Ha, that’s such a joke. Losing things. Yeah, it’s helped me once or twice. But I can’t zap people like my mother. I can’t mummify them or drown them like Rain. I’m not fast or strong or powerful. And now, it looks like my power comes with a side of chicken.
I’m a nobody. A nothing. Just a mouthy girl who’s hardly more than human.
I move my hand away from Bennett’s.
My throat is tight. “I don’t know if I want to talk.”
“Can you think of any reason you’ve been targeted by the Crypts?” his voice is soft and he pulls his hands back to grab his beer bottle.
I shake my head.
“I’ve looked into any connection Georgina might have had with them. Other than Luke, I didn’t come up with anything.”
I nod. I start doodling on my notepad because my fingers are restless, and my stomach is buzzing with nerves. Can I just want this to stop? Is that okay? That I just want to bury my head in the sand and make the Crypts go away without figuring why they wanted to target me in the first place?
Bennett clears his throat and opens a file. He pushes it toward me across the table. “Have you ever seen this woman before?”
I study the photo. The photographer didn’t know jack shit. The lighting sucks. I turn my focus to the woman. She’s Hispanic with a wide face and grey streaks in her hair. She has an infectious smile and freckles on her cheeks.
“No. Who is she?”
“That’s Cookie.”
I tilt my head and stare harder. She definitely doesn’t look like a sadistic gang leader who loves torturing innocent young women. But then, she wouldn’t be able to get away with it if she did, would she?
I trace the line of her chin. Why me? I ask the photo. Why?
“I don’t know why they’re doing this, but I promise I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe.”