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“Not sure. I didn’t see anyone else. Just him and his two ifrits,” Prax said.
“He’s also in town for some Future Wizards meetup,” I said. “It was held at the marina the day of the fridge…ahh…incident.”
“Oh!” Seth snapped his fingers. “You mean the Young Wizards of Tomorrow Assembly?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“Wow, I didn’t know they did that at the marina now. I had to sit through that shit when I was growing up, and I hated every moment of it. Think of it as WEC Lite. They basically brainwash young men with magic, tell them that they’re going to control the world in the future. I remember being told that all Earth’s nations and corporations should be governed by wizards, since we are so much better than everyone else.
“Augustine is too old to be attending as a young wizard, though. He was probably giving a talk. One of those inspirational look-what-you-can-be talks. It’s a perfect cover, considering how many wizards would be there at the same time.”
My alarms went off. I checked my phone to see who had triggered them.
“Uh, that’s my fault, sorry,” Seth said. “It’s Liam. He’s joining the team so we have one more demon at our disposal.”
“Cool. I’ll let him in.” I mumbled the words to let him through the wards.
Moments later, the demon popped into view.
“Hello, lover.” He wedged himself next to Seth on the couch, then eyed Prax, who was now pressed right against him on the other side.
I introduced him to Eva, appreciating that the demon didn’t try to come on to her the way the other demon had.
Liam turned to Prax. “Don’t even think it. Well, maybe if you were a succubus instead.”
Prax shimmered and turned into a gorgeous, nubile woman. “I can be anything you want me to be, baby.”
Liam and Seth did not look impressed.
Chapter 24
Eva
I’d spent the last few days dealing with the rep from the insurance company, who had just as many questions for me about the fire as the cops did. Then there was stress about my work. Even the big boss himself was starting to question if I really needed this much time off to get my shit together, especially since it was crunch time at the office. I had to return to work tomorrow, or else.
Welp, if they were willing to risk another ghoul attack at the office, so be it.
The only good news was that I’d picked up a cheap grooming table online, and it had arrived last night. Next day delivery was a truly wonderful thing. I was able to take a few volunteer furry clients today in Mateo’s living room.
I gave the little kitten one last spritz of the conditioning spray and gave him a final once over with my slicker brush. This kitten was lucky. I hadn’t had to shave him, like I had the rest of his siblings.
I couldn’t believe the condition they’d found this mother and litter in. Poor Mama Cat had been so malnourished that she was no more than skin and bones. I understood that hoarding was a mental disorder, and people who hoard really didn’t have control over it, but hoarding animals was where I drew the line. That shit was unacceptable. If you had to hoard something, hoard something inanimate. Desmon had the right idea.
“There you go,” I cooed, clipping the velvet bow tie to his collar. “Such a dapper gentleman.” I hoped that my hard work meant these kittens would find their forever home faster. This little guy was the last one. I’d saved him for last as the least matted one, knowing I’d be exhausted from the marathon groom. I gave his carrier a quick wipe down as he explored the room, but he was pooped from his fight with the water and the brush, and by the time his carrier was clean, he was already mid cat nap on the rug.
I wish I had the ability to fall asleep anywhere, anytime!
With everyone clean and ready to go back to the shelter, I headed down to the basement, where Mateo and Prax were figuring out our next move.
Knowing who was behind all this was only the first step in retrieving the locket. We were finding it hard to prove the wizard had anything to do with it, because he was careful not to leave a paper trail. And even if we did know that it was definitely him, we still didn’t know where he was keeping the jewelry.
I’d offered to help by calling my brother and belatedly telling him I’d help buy back the locket, a lie of course, but Mateo had refused to put me in the line of danger. He and Prax were adamant that they could figure it out themselves and that they were getting really close, especially now that they knew where to look.
They’d briefly investigated Augustine’s uncle but concluded that the WEC wizard had nothing to do with it. That was a good thing, because it greatly reduced the number of places the locket could be.
Nope, Augustine was clearly keeping the good stuff for himself and didn’t want to share it with his uncle. Knowing that these wizards didn’t all work as one and spent a lot of their time trying to one-up each other was actually encouraging, in a way. It suggested to me that they had failings, and could be beaten.
You know how in detective movies they had those maps on the wall of all the locations and suspects, and there were red lines and circles linking everything together? Mateo and Prax had one of those going on the table.
