Chapter 8 A Dark Roast
A DARK ROAST
Dark clouds were racing across the sky when Bo and I walked into Hawthorne & Associates the next day. Charlene and Fred were having a low-key conversation behind the front desk and greeted us distractedly as we crossed the lobby.
“Did you hear about the Phelpses?” Charlene was saying worriedly.
“You mean, the brownie family who owns that popular bakery on Third Street?”
“Yeah. They all got a bad case of the Scorches. Apparently, it’s spreading like wildfire among the brownie population.”
Fred winced. “Ouch. That’s gonna keep the fire department busy.”
“What’s the Scorches?” Bo asked as we headed for the express elevator.
“Probably something worse than Ember Pox,” I muttered.
The mood in the building seemed to mirror the weather when we hit the fifth floor. People were talking in hushed voices and everyone appeared to be walking on eggshells.
I realized why when the door to the large conference room banged open and Gavin shot out like his tail was on fire.
“Please tell me you brought coffee,” the dragon newt warbled nervously.
“I did.” I fished out a large, insulated flask from my bag.
“Thank God!” Gavin’s nostrils smoked with relief. “Didi’s on a rampage.”
That explained the general tension.
“I’ll get some cups.” Gavin disappeared in the direction of the break room. “Be careful what you say when you walk in there.”
Bo eyeballed me warily. “You ready to face the rampaging witch?”
“Do we have a choice?”
We headed over and peered cautiously around the door, Bo looking ready to turn tail and vamoose at a moment’s notice.
The conference table was covered with books that looked older than Amberford itself. Some of them had titles I couldn’t read. Others had titles I wished I hadn’t read. And a few had no titles at all, just cracked leather bindings and pages that smelled like dust and secrets.
Didi was parked in a chair at the far end, head deep in a tome. Dark circles shadowed the witch’s eyes.
She looked like she’d been up all night.
“You’re ten minutes late,” she said without looking up.
I sighed. Bo trotted over to the table, sniffed one of the books, and sneezed.
There was movement behind me. The way the mate bond hummed told me it wasn’t Gavin even before I turned.
Samuel’s expression grew guarded as he looked past my shoulder. “That’s a lot of magic books.”
I did my best not to drool at how good he smelled this morning and cleared my throat.
“You’re attending this meeting too?” I asked nonchalantly.
“Didi sent an email.” My alpha stiffened a little when he caught my eye. He gave me a wide berth and made a beeline for a chair next to the window like his wolfy tail was on fire.
I bit my lip guiltily.
I’d had a lot of nervous energy to burn through last night and he’d proven to be the perfect antidote. Which meant he hadn’t gotten much sleep.
Bo sidled up to me. “You should buy him stamina pills,” he suggested in a stage-loud whisper. “You know, like the ones Pearl was looking at on the internet the other day. They’re wolf-friendly, apparently.”
I pondered his proposal for a heartbeat before hastily discarding it in the face of Samuel’s narrow-eyed stare.
“So, you and Pearl are back to being besties again?” I asked Bo.
The Husky curled a lip like I’d suggested he become vegetarian.
“Besties is pushing it. Let’s just say we’ve declared a truce over the sunbeam situation.”
There was also the ‘fireplace’ situation, the ‘dining chair’ situation, and the ‘greeting visitors at the door’ situation but I decided not to mention those for now. It was best to deal with one ridiculous territorial war at a time.
Gavin returned with cups. His eyes glazed over when he got a whiff of the coffee I poured out.
“Whoa. What’s in that?”
“Nora brewed it.”
Smoke curled nervously out of Gavin’s nostrils. “Your new ghoul housekeeper?”
“Yeah.” I looked hesitantly at the coffee. “I’m sure it’s fine.”
Didi accepted her cup, took a sip, and froze.
“Or maybe not,” I mumbled, eyeing the door in case I needed to make a hasty escape.
Didi blinked. “This is good coffee.” The color was returning to her face.
Samuel, Gavin, Bo, and I breathed a collective sigh of relief.
“You said you found something,” Samuel said while Gavin and I took our seats.
I’d already updated him about our disturbing findings last night.
The witch took another sip of her coffee before answering.
“I found zilch is what I found. Which is something.”
I frowned. Samuel’s attention sharpened.
“Explain,” my alpha ordered.
Didi closed the book she’d been reading with a sharp sound.
“The Lincoln sisters’ stale magical signatures. The Forgetting spells on the blocks where their clinics are located. The way the building on Maple Street felt wrong yesterday. Not a single witch chat room has reported those anomalies. The Cauldron, Witchboard, Hexbook, The Scrying Pool.”
“Hexbook?” Bo whispered.
Somehow, witches having chat rooms felt appropriate. They probably shared recipes in there about how to turn people into frogs.
“Witches are naturally nosy,” Didi said dismissively.
“They like to poke around in other covens’ business and they love gossip.
Plus, the forums are perfect for finding out where to shop for the best ingredients for potions.
I checked all of them and couldn’t find a single whisper about the sisters and their abandoned clinics on any of them, although there was subdued chatter about receiving substandard treatment at the alternative supernatural clinics a few witches visited recently.
” She tapped a finger on the table. “More worryingly, I dropped by the Lincoln sisters’ home last night.
Their household staff appear to have been affected by the same Forgetting spell as the businesses close to their clinics.
” Her expression hardened. “I believe it all points to my worst fear. The Lincoln sisters didn’t just disappear.
” She pinned us with an unflinching stare.
“I think they were kidnapped. And I think someone is making sure no witch pokes her nose into why.”
My wolf perked up as my pulse quickened.
“Kidnapped?” Gavin asked nervously. “For what reason?”
“I doubt it’s for a ransom,” Samuel said in a hard voice. “The Alliance would have heard by now. Cornelius would have informed us.”
Cornelius Heathwood, the head of the fae, was currently acting as the Alliance chair in Daria’s absence.
“I don’t know.” Didi sat back and pinched the bridge of her nose, frustration underscoring her voice. “Maybe somebody has a grudge against them.”
“They’re witches,” Samuel grunted. “Lots of people have grudges against them.”
“Specially the ones who got turned into frogs,” Bo contributed, tail wagging.
None of this sounded good.
“So, they rattled the wrong cage and got bitten?” I asked hesitantly.
Gavin paled. “You thinking vampires?”
“It’s a figure of speech.”
Bo’s ears drooped. “I mean, it could be another lunatic like that Ludvik.”
We considered this for a moment and shared a group shudder.
“Let’s hope not,” Samuel muttered. “Those googly eyes still give me nightmares. Besides, I checked already. Barney doesn’t have any other psychotic nephews lurking in his bloodline.”
This wasn’t exactly reassuring. There were hundreds of vampires in Amberford, most with extensive lineages.
“Maybe we should talk to Melody,” I suggested.
Didi looked unconvinced at this.
“You said yourself it’s unlikely she’s the one behind the magic we sensed at the Lincoln sisters’ main clinic yesterday,” I said levelly. “She took over their seat in the Alliance. She might know something about their disappearance.”
Samuel rubbed his chin. “Abby is right. As the covens’ representative, she should be our first port of call.”
Didi made a face. “How about I leave Melody to you two? I’ll start working my coven contacts. Gavin can look into their financial records and see if anything is amiss.” She shrugged at our blank expressions. “Like they say, always follow the money.”
“By the way, I can’t keep calling them the Lincoln sisters,” I said. “What are their names?”
Samuel flinched. Gavin’s horns popped out. Didi pursed her lips.
I squinted. “What?”
“It’s Maude, Viola, and Petunia,” Samuel finally admitted reluctantly.
I blinked, certain I’d misheard. The way everyone refused to meet my eyes told me I hadn’t.
“Wait,” I said leadenly. “So, they’re Amberford’s MVP?”
Bo grinned and opened his mouth to say something.
“Don’t,” Samuel ordered darkly.