Mochas and Minotaurs (Possessive Monsters #8)

Chapter 14

Marcus

I bolted upright, suddenly awake. I looked around, but everything was quiet, the room exactly as it had been when I went to sleep earlier. With me putting so much of my effort into preparing the gym, I’d ignored my own living space, only setting up what was absolutely necessary.

That meant my mattress was on my bed, and I had a dresser where I’d stuffed all my clothes, but my nightstand was still outside in the living room. I felt around my pillow for my phone but realized it had fallen to the floor. I reached for it, wanting to know what time it was.

It was just after midnight. I’d been asleep for less than an hour. I put the phone back next to my pillow, and that was when I heard it. The sound of breaking glass had me on high alert.

It sounded like it came from the front. Not my windows. The Witch’s Brew. Gigi!

If they harmed a hair on her body, they were going to wish they’d never been born.

I pulled my clothes on, ready to run over there to help her. But a nagging voice in my head warned that perhaps my mother was trying to flush me out. I reached for my earring, rubbed it, and said the words. Once I felt the familiar weight of the glamor spell on my face, I went to my window to check.

Two men with dark parkas and balaclavas covering their faces stood outside, baseball bats in hand. And just as I surmised, they were making quick work of Griselda’s coffee shop windows. Those sons of bitches! I quickly pulled on a top and some pants and was already on my way downstairs, ready to teach those thugs a lesson, when the phone in my hand rang with a call from Gigi.

I stopped in my stairwell to pick it up.

“Gigi? Are you okay?”

“Yes. Are you?”

“Yeah. I’m just about to go out there and chase them off.”

“No. Don’t. I’ve already called the police. They’re on their way. I’d rather these assholes get caught than run away. Maybe they’ll spill the beans and tell us who sent them.”

Damn it. I was hoping to get my hands on them and do that myself. Somehow I didn’t trust the cops to find out anything, not if Arcane Development was involved. My research said that they had enough money to throw around to buy off the cops.

“Depends on if Arcane has already paid the cops off.”

“Not if they send Officer Hayes or Cooley. Those two are solid. Not only are they regulars of mine, but they’re the ones they usually send if it’s magic-related. This is just plain old vandalism, but it’s my coffee shop, and plenty of magical shit has happened in this parking lot before.”

“Yes, I heard about the troll,” I said. “You don’t happen to know anything about that, do you?”

“Nope. None at all,” she said in a tone that clearly told me she did.

“Let’s hope they send your officers.”

Another loud smash, this time sounding just below me, had me wincing. My newly frosted front windows! Oh no, they were going to go for my mirrors. Declan and I had just finished installing them.

“Fuck this.” I was going to save my mirrors. I rushed down the stairs and out into my gym just as one of the thugs stepped over the broken glass.

The streetlights filtered in wanly from outside, enough for me to see. I didn’t bother with the lights. Instead I growled, gave a sharp huff, and then lowered my horns, ready to charge.

“Holy shit!” the man yelled. “What the hell is that!”

He stumbled backward, tripping over himself to get away. I feigned a charge to hurry him out of my gym, even as the blinking red and blue lights appeared in the parking lot. Help was here. And I’d saved my mirrors just by bluffing.

Not wanting to be the one to talk to the cops first, mainly because I wasn’t sure if I should wear my disguise or not and also because I didn’t want to be the center of attention, I slinked back into the stairwell.

“Marcus?” Gigi’s voice came from my phone, and I realized I’d never hung up. Oops.

“Yeah?”

“Get back upstairs and watch your phone. I’m going to ask them to talk inside since it’s freezing out. That way you can meet them as yourself. I’ll call you over; come through the roof.”

She hung up before I could reply.

I removed the glamor spell and made my way back upstairs, nervousness brewing in the pit of my stomach. I had always known Arcane would be a problem, but this just brought it home. It had to be Arcane, because the thugs had been surprised to see a bull-headed man. If it was the dragon looking for me, then they would have been delighted to have found their prize.

After what seemed like much too long, I got a message from Gigi asking me to come over. I went through the roof as she’d suggested and found her waiting for me by her door on the roof.

“Are you hurt?” I pulled her close and patted her down, inhaling her scent into my lungs.

“I’m perfectly fine. I didn’t go downstairs.” She went up onto her tiptoes and pulled me down to give me a quick peck on the cheek. “Come on, Officer Cooley and Hayes are waiting in my kitchen.”

Officer Cooley was a friendly-looking brunette with her hair pulled up in a high ponytail. She was leaning against Gigi’s counter. Officer Hayes sat at Gigi’s dining room table, drinking a cup of freshly brewed tea. He had a blond cop ‘stache that made him look like he’d walked straight out of a 90’s movie. They looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.

It was relatively quiet, mainly because there was a blanket tossed over Triscuit’s cage. But he was awake. I could hear him moving around inside.

The two cops introduced themselves, and Gigi added, probably for my benefit, that she’d already told them about the problems we’d been having with Arcane Development. I grabbed a seat at the table across from Officer Hayes who seemed much too comfortable to be a cop investigating a crime in the middle of the night.

I couldn’t stop staring at him because I swore I’d seen him before. But where? Had he gone to my gym once? Lots of people came through, especially in January when New Year’s resolution drives were high. Was that where I’d seen him?

“Griselda says she’s already had one of her coffee bean shipments destroyed even though they couldn’t prove who was responsible. She said something similar happened to you,” Officer Hayes prompted.

“Yes. With my mirrors. Exact same story. They didn’t destroy anything else but my mirrors. The shipping company says they made a police report.”

Officer Cooley scribbled furiously onto her clipboard. “We’ll look that up. When we apprehended the suspects, they were speaking gibberish.” Her brows furrowed. “Like they were magically compelled not to tell who had sent them. We had another pair bring the troublemakers down to the station for holding.”

“The last time this happened, the Wizard’s Elder Council was involved,” Hayes said solemnly. “You might have heard about it on the news. They were kidnapping witches to try to reinstate The Wall.”

It was the strong sense of déjà vu that had me racking my brain for an answer.

“Hey! Now I realize why the two of you look so familiar. You came to investigate the breaking-and-entering at my old neighbor's place. Shelby. She’s the seamstress.”

“Oh hey! No way,” Officer Hayes exclaimed. “You’re the same minotaur! I knew Bullseye Fitness looked familiar.” He twisted around to look at his partner. “That’s where we’ve seen it before!”

She studied me, tilting her chin. “I see it now. So you understand why we had to call in the EA. The last time we saw something like this, it was serious.”

I tried not to react. The EA stood for the Secret Enforcement Agency. The S was now silent since the existence of magic and monsters wasn’t a secret anymore. Bringing in the EA was bad news for me. They’d probably figure out who I really was, and it was a crapshoot between whether they’d take my side and protect me from an angry dragon or take the dragon’s side and hand me over.

“It just seems a little overblown,” Gigi said. “I understand it had to be done last time because, I mean, there was a troll in my parking lot. But this time I’m pretty sure it’s just those condo developers being assholes.”

Was she trying to convince them not to call in the EA to hide my issues?

“And weren’t the WEC going for witches who didn’t know how to tap into their powers?” she continued. “That’s what they said on the news. They wouldn’t try the same stunt twice. It’s too late for another wall, anyway. It’s been what, like, seven or eight years now? There’s too much history for them to erase. And even if they do, I’m not in the right demographic.”

“True,” Officer Hayes said. “So it might not be that. But strong magic is still involved. I know it’s a nuisance, but we’ve already called the EA. They’re sending someone as we speak. We are supposed to stay here with you and make sure you’re safe until they get here.”

I couldn’t help but notice that Officer Hayes was talking specifically to Gigi, not me. He thought she might be in danger. I should be glad that they were staying to make sure she was safe, but instead, the irrational, jealous part of me wondered if Officer Hayes secretly liked Gigi.

Was he staying because it was his job or because he wanted to? He seemed way too comfortable in her home. My minotaur wanted me to get between them, block his view of her, and claim her as mine. The man part of me knew that was crazy talk. I didn’t need to make an enemy right now.

So I clenched my jaw to prevent myself from saying or doing something I might regret and pretended I didn’t care. I focused on the positives instead. I didn’t feel any negative vibes coming from the two officers. They seemed to be genuinely nice people, and of course, Gigi had worked with them before.

They asked more questions on what I had heard from my side of the walls, and I told them everything I remembered. It wasn’t long before the representative from the EA arrived. When Gigi went to open the door, Hayes followed after her into the stairwell just to be safe, and I felt that crazy, irrational urge to throw him out the window.

“Oh, it’s you!” Gigi exclaimed, clearly recognizing the person at the door.

“I saw where the location was, and I volunteered,” said a smooth masculine voice. “Had to make sure you were okay.”

My hackles raised even more. Another man in uniform to vie for Gigi's attention! This time, I didn’t even chastise myself for feeling so possessive. I stood and started toward the door, but Officer Cooley got there before I did.

“You!” she exclaimed, with quite a bit less welcome than Gigi had.

“Hello, sweetheart, you miss me?” was the newcomer’s reply.

Officer Cooley, not pleased with the nickname, marched back to her place, leaning against the counter as the others filed into the apartment. “Fuck this,” she muttered under her breath.

The newcomer had his blond hair spiked up around his head in a way that was completely at odds with the EA enforcer uniform he wore. He didn’t feel like a shifter, but that could be deceptive. Declan didn’t feel like a shifter either. If this stranger worked for the EA, then he was either a shifter, another monster of some kind, or a human magic user.

He didn’t look like a wizard. A male witch? Maybe that’s how he knew Gigi. It didn’t make me feel any better, though, as he pulled out another chair at the table and sat down like he owned the place.

“And you must be the minotaur next door.” He offered a hand, and I took it. “I’m Seth, from the EA.”

“I can’t believe they sent you .” Officer Cooley’s mood had soured, but her partner just looked amused.

“Like I said, I volunteered.” He winked at the cop.

“Do you all know each other?” I asked.

Seth shrugged. “It’s Darlington. The big city with a small-town heart.” He grinned at Officer Cooley, who pretended not to notice him.

“We’ve been here for a very long time,” Officer Hayes explained. “I know we’re human, but we’ve always known. Before the fall of The Wall, Darlington was a lot smaller.”

I knew that. I’d been part of the first influx of monsters moving to Darlington after The Wall fell. Before then, I hadn’t even known it was real. The Wall had kept Darlington a secret, even from other monsters and magic-users. Any mention of it from before had been only hearsay.

“Not to mention,” Officer Cooley added, “it's impossible to forget the guy who stole my cruiser .”

“Hey! The EA paid for the damages. And it was an emergency,” Seth said defensively. “You were gonna let me borrow it anyway, weren’t you, Sweetheart?”

“No!”

Officer Hayes cleared his throat like he’d dealt with this before. “I, for one, appreciated the upgraded vehicle we got as a replacement. Let’s get out of Seth’s way so he can work, shall we? My shift was supposed to end half an hour ago. Some of us have lives outside of work.” He turned to Griselda and me. “We have the place roped off. I recommend locking the entrance from your shops to your homes until you can get those windows fixed.”