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I turned back to pounce on one of Morio’s attackers. He was pounding the other against the wall head first. I bit the ankle of mine and yanked, dragging him off balance. As he fell, I held him down while Camille landed on him from the other side, dragging a knife across his throat. Morio and Smoky finished off their opponents and we stood down, Morio and I shifting back into our regular forms. While we were transforming, Camille and Smoky turned off the lights and locked the door.
After the shop was secure, Camille called Chase. Morio waited in the front, while Smoky, Camille, and I headed to the back of the shop. The space was bigger than one would think—in fact it looked like they’d rented the shop next to them and opened up into it.
The back offices were as big as—if not bigger than—the main storefront. There were the usual supplies, everything you’d expect to stock a sex shop, but when we began tossing cupboards and drawers, we found evidence that the Tregarts had most definitely been running sorcery through the shop.
Bottles of unknown potions—Camille identified them as magical—filled one drawer. Another drawer held a handful of firebombs. And we found three drawers filled with bags of odd-looking components. Camille stuffed everything into a bag. As she started on the desk, ruffling through the paperwork, my phone rang. I flipped it open and pressed Talk.
“Delilah, it’s Chase. We’re out in the driveway. Let us in but don’t turn on the lights yet.”
I leaned out to the front. “Morio, let the cops in. Chase is here.”
As Smoky and I headed to the front, Morio opened the door for Chase and Yugi. Chase flashed his light around and grimaced.
“You guys did a number here. What’s the story?”
“Tregarts. Demons. They started the fight. This shop is a front for sorcery. Ten to one, Van and Jaycee funded it. What do we do?”
“You’re sure they’re demons? Nobody will come to the station, missing them?” He frowned, looking around at the mess.
“Nobody. They aren’t human. They aren’t Fae. And I doubt if Van and Jaycee are going to come knocking on your door to file a missing demons report.”
“Then we have the cleaning crew come in here, take care of this. The bodies…do you need to take them to Queen Asteria?”
“No…but we do need to get rid of them. We also need to make a trip to Otherworld to warn her about the fact that Wilbur may have inadvertently leaked that the spirit seals are with her.” I glanced over at Smoky. “Tomorrow, we head to OW.”
Camille entered the room, flipping through a date book. “I think I found something. Most of the notes are actually business oriented—one thing I’ll say about Van and Jaycee, they’re savvy. They were actually already in the black, according to the books. Taking in more than they were expending every week. But that’s incidental.”
“What did you find?”
She pointed to one of the pages. “On February thirteenth there’s a notation for ten p.m. that reads SCH. That could stand for Supe Community Hall. And here’s one for today. Eight p.m.—Vespa. Let’s see if…” She flipped back a week or so. “Yep…here it is. Two p.m.—Folkes.” We’ve got them on all three incidents.”
“But this group…they’re just the front. You know Van and Jaycee set up the hits. Anything that tells us where we can find them? Phone numbers? If we don’t find our way to them, they’re going to know something happened here and they’ll retaliate even worse.” I was now second-guessing our actions. But we had no choice. They’d ID’d us and once they came out swinging, we couldn’t back out. Even if we’d left the minute we sensed tension rising, they would have known we were on to this place.
“Phone numbers, check. I picked up their phone book. But it’s going to take a little time figuring out who they belong to. Addresses—no. But I suggest you grab the laptop that’s on the desk in back. I wasn’t sure what cables we needed to go with it.” She pocketed the day planner and the address book.
I slipped into the back and retrieved the computer, making a quick search for any CDs or DVDs that might be around. Who knew whether they kept their records on the hard drive or on a disk? When I returned, Chase was talking to a couple of his cohorts. The bodies of the demons were gone. I frowned, looking around.
“Where’d they go? The Tregarts?”
“Smoky, Shade, and Roz took them away.”
“Shade? Roz?” I glanced at Camille and she smiled.
“I called them while you were getting the computer. We’re closing down the shop and they may figure out we had a hand in it, but they won’t be able to tell what went down for certain.” She motioned for me to follow her outside.
Morio and Chase followed behind us. Shamas was waiting there, along with a specially trained hazmat team from the FH-CSI and a number of armed Fae guards. I recognized them from the Triple Threat’s militia. They had arranged a mutual-aid pact with the FH-CSI several months ago.
As soon as everybody was out and away from the building, the team headed into the building.
“What are they doing?”
“Cleanup. The guards will stick around to protect them. It won’t take them long—apparently they have a number of magical techniques that standard hazmat teams don’t.”
I nodded. Sounded like as good a plan as any. There was a flash from within the building, and mist wafted out. It smelled vaguely like bleach, but with something underlying.
Camille slapped me on the back. “Come on, let’s get out of here before Van and Jaycee show up. We’re not prepared to fight them tonight.”
“Then what are we going to do tonight?” I was tired, achy actually—today had been filled with so much stress, and the fights of the past two days were wearing on all of us.
