Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
Sonia called halfway there, letting me know that: a) the potion hadn’t worked on Brimstone , b) I was a dead witch walking if I didn’t figure out how to fix it, and c) she was running a background check on Lilian and Tammy in case they were scam artists.
I told her about the dark coven family list, and she demanded I send it over right away, which I did during a traffic stop.
It took a while to find a parking spot, but we eventually made it to Olmeda Combined Insurance’s offices. They were on the third floor of a modern building, the glass window walls reflecting the sun as it went down.
The insides were the same as any office building anywhere: beige carpet, gray walls, modern white furniture. The man at the reception desk didn’t appear too impressed by our presence, but he was extremely polite when informing us that Caswell didn’t work on Fridays .
“ Why not?” I asked in what, in retrospect, was a pretty dumb way.
The receptionist pushed his glasses up his nose. “ Because he doesn’t work on Fridays .”
“ Where can we find him then?” I asked, leaning on the counter.
The man eyed my forearms like they were sausages about to burst and spill pork innards all over the pristine surface. “ I wouldn’t know.”
“ What about his phone number? Can I have that?”
He tensed immediately, and I realized that in my hurry I’d committed the ultimate offense—asking for personal information without even trying to buy into his good graces.
“ I’m sorry, but we can’t give away personal information,” he said very stiffly. “ If you want an appointment for a quote, I suggest you use the online form.”
Alex leaned in on my other side, his charming surfer grin at full intensity. “ Hey , man. Are you sure? We’re kind of in a pickle here, and it’d help us a ton.”
That usually got a reluctant smile and a tendency to help out of strangers, but, unfortunately, my sin was too grave, and the man simply glared at Alex like he, too, was a sausage about to burst and spill animal innards everywhere.
“ Please leave now.”
Alex pouted endearingly, but the man’s freezing stare didn’t change. Conceding defeat, Alex stood back from the counter and lifted his hands in surrender. “ We’re going. We’re going.” He winked at the receptionist. “ But I can be back later alone if you want me to.”
From the way the temperature dropped to minus degrees and the metaphorical icicles that formed around us, he did not want to.
“ What now?” I pondered aloud once we were out in the much warmer, if still necessitating a good winter jacket, outside. “ Any word from your friends?”
Alex checked his phone and shook his head. “ Nothing , boss. But maybe we can figure out Caswell’s info online? It might be out there somewhere. Maybe his social media?”
“ Good idea. Let’s check that out.” I had a sudden idea. “ We should ask April .”
Why hadn’t it occurred to me before? April was Olmeda’s top busybody. Thanks to her long years of working at the city’s only paranormal tax accountant and aided by her insatiable thirst for gossip, April knew everything there was to know about everyone.
The moment we were back in the SUV with Rufus I called her.
“ Hey , Hope ,” she said cheerfully. “ I’m so glad you called.”
“ You are?” I asked, surprised.
“ Of course! I was starting to get worried, you know.”
“ You were?” I glanced at Alex , wondering if he knew why this conversation was starting so weirdly. He was busy checking his phone. Rufus’s unruffled doggy stare was no help either. “ I see.”
“ So ?”
“ So …?” I racked my brain, trying to figure out if I’d forgotten some important date. Maybe it was her birthday?
She let out a good-natured sound of frustration. “ Are we in?”
“ In …?” I winced, bracing myself for her aggravation.
“ The Christmas event, silly,” she said cheerfully. “ Are we in? I know air conditioners are not exactly very festive, but I think we can make it work!”
The dentist’s office April used to work for had shut down, so she was now working as a receptionist at a small HVAC business in town. After her old boss’s death, one could only hope this wasn’t the start of a string of bad luck to the places that hired her.
“ Hope ?” she prodded.
“ Yes , uh, we’ll think of something, I’m sure.” I didn’t know how an A / C company fit with a Christmas event, but I had to give her something if I wanted her full cooperation. Disappointed gossipmongers weren’t as eager to share as happy ones.
“ Water your sources well and you shall reap the rewards,” I whispered.
Alex chuckled.
“ What was that?” April asked.
“ Nothing . Actually , I wanted to ask you about something.”
“ Ooh ! What ?” Her happy eagerness was contagious, and it eased some of the tension clamping my chest.
“ I’m looking for some families that used to live in Olmeda a while back. The internet isn’t being very helpful, but I thought maybe you’d know about some of them.”
“ Sure . What are the names?”
“ One second.” I switched to the notes application and the preview for the Christmas event list caught my eye. Almost on its own accord, my index finger brought it forward. There it was, the crème de la crème of the lower echelon of businesses in Olmeda . The underdog shops, the ones at the bottom of the ladder banded together with some exceptions.
Had I thought calling April was a good idea? It had nothing to the absolute stroke of genius that speared my brain as I read the list.
“ Hey , April . I’ll text you the names, okay? I gotta go.”
“ Sure ,” she said.
I ended the call and stared at the list again. Could I be right?
“ What’s up, boss?” Alex asked.
Rufus barked from the back seat, intrigued by Alex’s questioning tone.
I turned toward them, excitement rising like the ocean waves in a meteorite crash movie. “ I think I know how to fix the spell.”
“ How ?”
“ What if the spell causing all these problems works like Godzilla ?”
Alex frowned, trying to follow my logic. He might’ve not watched the movies. Not that I was a connoisseur— I’d just watched one with Ian last month. “ How do you mean?”
“ What if feeding it powerful magic makes it stronger? Think about the people who have gotten sick— Brimstone , Shane , Ian , Lilian .”
“ I see what you mean,” he said thoughtfully. “ They’re all top of the line paranormals.”
“ The potion I made for Shane and Brimstone lasted almost two days, but the potion Tammy did with everyone’s luxury blood and her power lasted minutes. What if it fed off it, making the spell even stronger, and that’s why Ian got sick?” I swallowed. “ Even sicker than Shane ?”
“ You might be onto something, boss,” Alex said. “ But then how can we stop it?”
I mulled that. “ We need enough magic to mess with the spell but not enough that it feeds off it. I think the potion basis Lilian and Tammy used are still good in theory, but the problem is the, uh, quality of the ingredients.”
“ So we need wilted herbs and weak paranormals’ blood? A losers’ spell?”
“ An underdogs’ spell,” I corrected primly. “ Power might be on a scale, but the scale is horizontal, not vertical.”
“ Whatever you say, boss,” Alex said with a grin. “ So , how do we make this spell?”
“ I have the herbs and crystals at the shop, but we’ll need to get the paranormals’ blood. One of each type, like Tammy did.” I held his gaze. “ Are you up to it?”
He offered his fist. “ Hell , yeah, I am.”
“ Good .” I fist-bumped him. “ We got witch and shifter. Dru can be our demon.”
“ Witch , shifter, demon.” Alex ticked us off with his fingers. “ Need mages and a zerker?”
“ That’s right. Tammy used Bosko and Key for mages, so we should get two types at least? Do you know what kind of paranormal Sonia is?”
“ Nope , sorry.”
One day. One day I’d figure it out. “ Maybe we should get a third mage just in case? Or a second shifter. The original plan was for both Ian and Hutton .”
“ The more the merrier,” Alex agreed.
“ But not too many or we might make the potion too powerful.”
“ There’s no shortage of crappy magic users in Olmeda ,” Alex said cheerfully.
“ Underdogs !”
“ Sure , boss.”
I ignored Alex’s amusement and started the SUV . I knew exactly where to find our first crappy— underdog mage.
As I drove to the bed and breakfast, I called Key on speaker.
“ Hi Hope ,” she answered, her voice full of worry. “ Did you find anything yet? I’ve been searching but there’s nothing.”
“ We’re trying a new approach. How are Shane and Ian ?”
“ Hi , Key ,” piped in Alex .
“ Hi , Alex . Shane and Ian are the same.” There was a strange, high-strung quality to her voice that raised the hairs on my arms.
“ What’s wrong?” I asked sharply, instinctively leaning toward the phone on the dashboard.
“ Nothing ,” she asked in a definitely oddly-pitched voice.
“ Key ?” Alex asked, concerned now too. “ What’s up?”
“ It’s all good. Shane and Ian are good. Well , not worse.”
There was a sudden crash.
“ Key ?”
More thuds came through, and then Key spoke again. “ Sorry about that. I dropped the phone.”
“ Why did you drop the phone?” I asked.
There was a long pause. “ My , uh, right arm stopped working for a moment there.”
“ Key !” Alex and I shouted in unison.
“ I’m fine. It’s fine!”
“ You’re being affected by the spell,” I said.
“ I’m sorry. I didn’t want to worry you.”
She sounded defeated and I hated it. “ It’s not your fault, Key . Is your magic working?”
“ Not really.” There was a loud bark in the background, which I took to mean Shane was emphatically saying her magic wasn’t working at all.
“ It’s okay, Key . I’ve got a new plan, and I think—no, I know it’s going to work.” Because it was. The theory was solid, and putting it into practice was going to take a lot less time than chasing down the coven families. “ I’m getting everything together now.”
I explained our plans, then asked her to pass me to Ian .
“ Hey there, angel.” His voice was gruff and weak and made me want to weep.
“ Hey there, Cavalier . Don’t worry your pretty head, Alex and I got this.”
He chuckled. “ I bet you do.”
“ You doing okay there, boss?” Alex asked.
“ Sure am.”
“ You heard our plan?” I asked.
“ I did. It’s sound.”
“ We’ll get you three fixed up no problem.”
“ I know you will. See you soon?”
“ Very soon.”
I made kissy noises, which always made him laugh, then ended the call.
Alex touched my arm. “ We got this, boss.”
I tightened my grasp on the steering wheel and pressed down on the accelerator as determination filled me to the brim. “ Yes , we do.”