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“Thank you,” he said, blushing. “I love the work. But, I’m going to be late if I don’t get moving.” Grabbing his briefcase, he headed for the front door after giving Iris a deep kiss. His driver showed up every morning at eight A.M. promptly. Bruce had his own limo. We’d also discovered that he donated his entire salary to charity—mostly to the food banks and to the animal shelters—and lived off the family money.
Iris waved him off, then pushed herself out of the rocking chair. “I’m going out to the trailer for a nap. Hanna, hold down the fort for me.” Blowing a kiss to all of us, she headed out the back door.
I glanced over at the wards I’d set up on the house to make certain the crystals were still glowing clear. If they went off, we’d all know it, but it eased my mind to double-check, especially after a night like last night. Polishing off the last bite of toast, I carried my plate over to the sink, then turned around, leaning against the counter.
“I guess we should talk about what went down last night in the cemetery,” I started, but the phone rang, interrupting me.
Delilah picked up. After a few muffled answers, she hung up and motioned to me. “Hope you’re up for action, because Chase needs us.”
“Oh, crap. What now?”
“Another grave robbery—en masse—and another officer dead thanks to…well…something. He also mentioned concern about some missing witches.” She ran into the living room to gather her keys and purse. I was about to ask her how his ankle was doing, but the phone rang again. Trillian picked up and, after a moment, handed the receiver to me.
“Hello?” I didn’t want any more bad news. The break in our dry spell was not welcome. But more bad news it was.
“Camille, can you come over? We have a problem here.” It was Lindsey Cartridge, the FBH director of the Green Goddess Women’s Shelter and leader of the most prominent coven in Seattle.
My first thought was that something was wrong with her baby. But when I asked, she put that fear to rest.
“No, Feddrika is thriving. But remember when my coven was having problems a couple of months ago? Looks like it’s not over yet.”
“More psychic vampires?” I so did not want to deal with more bhouts—ghosts who ate magical energy and transferred it to their controller. Gulakah had really messed with a good share of the witches in the area, as well as a number of the magic-using Fae.
“Not exactly. One of my covener’s sons is in trouble. Sean was out hunting for graveyard dirt—don’t even say a word about that.”
I chuckled. I couldn’t very well say much, seeing that I used graveyard dirt myself. “Go on. I’m listening.”
“Well, he was out early this morning digging up a little graveyard dirt when he saw grave robbers in the cemetery. He managed to hide before they caught sight of him. When the cops showed up, they got into a fight with the thieves. Sean managed to escape before he was caught, but he’s terrified. And he said there were some odd things going on there—the energy was fucked up.”
I bit my lip. This was all getting too close for comfort. Thinking for a moment, I finally said, “You, your covener, and Sean meet us at the FH-CSI in an hour or so. You have to tell Chase about this. I promise, we’ll make sure Sean doesn’t get into trouble. At least not more than a dressing-down.”
Lindsey agreed and hung up. By that time, Delilah was back and we headed out. We took my car. Delilah’s Jeep had been acting up and Jason Binds, our friend Tim’s husband, had said he would come out to look at it today. As I tossed my purse into the back and strapped on my seat belt, it occurred to me that vacation was over and we were firmly back in the trenches.
“I need to stop by Mystic Charms before we head to HQ. It’s on the way, and I’ll only be a few minutes.”
The minute Delilah had shut her door, I eased out of the driveway and headed onto the—for once—dry roads. The sun was peeking through wispy clouds, in that perfect union of cool breeze and warming rays that sparked the imagination and cleared the head.
I rolled down my window and inhaled deeply. Someone, somewhere, had recently mowed their lawn. The clean, newly shorn grass smell gave way to rotten eggs as we passed through where a skunk had let loose.
Delilah let out a muffled “Ugh,” and I grinned at her. Ever since she’d been skunked, she gave them a wide berth.
And then we were nearing the metropolitan area, and I closed the window and turned on the air. Exhaust wasn’t my idea of a good time.
“Marion called last night,” Delilah said.
“She and Douglas find a house yet?” Marion was a friend of ours—a coyote shifter—who had been displaced when the Koyanni burned down her house and her café. The café had been restored, but she and her husband had been living with our neighbor Wilbur—our neighborhood necromancer and frootloop—helping him out. He’d also been a victim of collateral damage, only instead of a burned shell of a house, he was missing a leg.
“Yeah, they’re closing on it and moving in about three weeks. Marion’s sister came to get Snickers, their cat, when they moved in with Wilbur. She’s going to keep him for them until they move. They didn’t dare take Snickers to Wilbur’s, not with Martin around. He might eat him.” Delilah grimaced, and I grimaced along with her.
“He’s a freak show, that’s for sure.” I sighed. “But I guess he’s our freak show, as much as we might not want to claim him. I imagine Wilbur will be glad to have his house back, though.”
“Marion thinks he’s going to miss them.”
“He’s such an odd duck. Just when I think I might actually like him, he goes and does something to piss me off. He wanted to borrow Rodney the other night, but Morio told him to fuck off.”
“What did he want with Rodney?” Delilah sounded as suspicious as I felt.
“I dunno, but it couldn’t be anything good.”
