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As we headed back to the front of the shop, Beth stopped to give Kerri—her older daughter from her first marriage—my list. The girl began to pull herbs and measure them out for me. I wandered over to Delilah.
“Almost done. Anything interesting?”
She was reading an issue of Supe-R-Natural Weekly, a small newspaper on a shoestring budget at a regional press started by two Weres and one of the ES Fae. We had a subscription, though there usually wasn’t much in it. But we liked supporting our brothers-in-arms.
“Actually, something did catch my eye. Look.” She pushed the paper across the table. I picked it up and looked where she pointed. An advertisement that took up about one-eighth of the page, for a meeting coming up in two days. Run by none other than the Aleksais Psychic Network.
“Fuck…you have to be kidding.”
The Aleksais Psychic Network was the group we suspected of colluding with Gulakah to bring in the bhouts. They’d been accused of luring away Fae and magic-using FBHs, a lot like the Moonies had indoctrinated their cult members. We’d been trying to find some leads on them, and all we would have had to do was check the local magical rags.
“Why didn’t we see this in our issue? Did we even get this issue?” I glanced at the front of the paper. It had been out for several days.
“We might have accidentally let it lapse.”
“This would be the perfect way to check them out.” I looked up at my sister, who gave me a slow nod.
“But they’d know who we were. We are pretty visible, you have to agree with me on that.” She frowned, thinking.
I leaned back, glancing over my shoulder. Beth had my packages almost ready to go. “You’re right. But there are ways around that. I have some ideas. I’ll need help implementing them, though.”
“Camille—your purchases.” Beth called from the counter, and I pushed to my feet and headed over, handing my credit card to Kerri as she rang up the herbs and oils.
I glanced at the woman who’d first caught my attention—the one with shamanic energy. Her energy was stronger than I’d thought, and I found myself staring openly at her. She glanced at me, her dark gaze lingering on my face. It took everything I had to pull my attention away.
As Kerri handed me my package, I turned to Beth. “Who’s that?”
Beth glanced over at the woman, who had gone back to hunting through the shelves, then back at me. “Her name is Zinnia. She is one tough cookie, and nobody messes with her. Not nasty, but if you fuck with her, she’ll sure as hell fuck with you. And when she means business, heads roll in the magical world.”
“Zinnia, huh?” I made a note to remember her name and check her out later, when we had time. It paid to know the stronger witches in the FBH world.
I signed the credit card slip, picked up my package, and—with one last look at Zinnia, who was studiously ignoring me—headed toward the door. Delilah fell in beside me. I’d added the newspaper to my purchases so we’d have the information in the advertisement. Back in the car, I eased into traffic and we were headed to the FH-CSI.>“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.
