13. Office Politics, Monster Style
13
Office Politics, Monster Style
“I want you to join our Special Investigations Unit.” Samuel ignored my startled look. “Your accounting background makes you perfect for following paper trails and your new abilities will give you an edge in the field.”
Except from finding out where Bo liked to hide my shoes and where Ellie habitually lost stuff, I’d never investigated anything in my life. I told him as much.
His smile did weird things to my pulse and had my inner wolf sitting to attention. “It’s okay. We’ll show you the ropes.”
I swallowed at the idea of him showing me any kind of rope.
A knock came at the door.
“Come in,” Samuel called out.
It was the stylish woman in the designer suit. She blew a strand of disheveled hair out of her face and gave me a curious glance before addressing Samuel.
“We’re ready for the meeting.”
“Thanks.” Samuel made the introductions. “Abby, this is Janet Pearsons from HR. Janet, this is Abigail West, our newest employee.” He paused and glanced at Bo. “This is her Husky, Bo. I imagine he’ll be accompanying her most days, so it would be best if you included him in the paperwork.”
Bo perked up. “Do I get a pass too?”
“No.”
Bo’s ears dropped.
We followed Samuel and Janet to a noisy conference room. The brouhaha inside died when we entered. Bo and I became the focus of curious looks as I took the seat Samuel indicated. Janet sat next to us.
“Everyone, this is Abigail West,” the Hawthorne alpha said in a businesslike voice. “She’s joining our firm as of today.”
“So it’s true.” The woman with the pointy hat and highlighters studied me with an intense stare. “She’s your luna.”
Samuel narrowed his eyes. “Who told you that?”
“Hugh,” Pointy Hat said with a shrug. “He told everyone in the building. Besides, we can smell your mate bond from a mile away.”
I chewed my lip. The mate bond was becoming an embarrassing problem.
“Who’s the canine?” the guy with the horns and reptilian tail asked curiously.
“This is Bo, Abby’s dog.” Samuel frowned. “Please refrain from looking at him like he’s lunch.”
He was addressing the pale man with sharp canines and the suit that smelled faintly of mothballs.
“I do not know what you mean, Samuel,” the vampire drawled in an aristocratic voice that wouldn’t have been out of place several centuries ago.
“I can tell you’re trying to figure out his blood type,” Samuel retorted coldly.
Bo slinked quietly behind my chair and peeked out nervously at the Nosferatu wannabe.
Janet gave me a reassuring smile. “It’s okay. Barnabas knows where to draw the line.”
“Yeah, right over the jugular,” Pointy Hat scoffed.
Samuel’s frown deepened. The room fell silent.
He began making introductions. “Abby, this is Barnabas Bludworth. He’s our Head of Finance & Investments.”
The vampire nodded regally. “You can address me as Barney, fair lady.”
Samuel’s expression grew pinched. “Dorothy Dupree is our Chief Compliance Officer.” He indicated Pointy Hat. “You’ll be working with her and Gavin Burlington, our Risk Assessment lead.”
The guy with the horns nodded shyly. “Hi.”
“You can call me Didi,” Dorothy declared magnanimously.
Janet leaned sideways. “If she ever invites you to look at her private jar collection, run for the hills,” she hissed into my ear.
“Why?” I whispered back.
“That’s how she lured several of our clients before she turned them into frogs and put them in said jars,” Janet said darkly. “That witch makes me stress howl at least once a lunar cycle.”
My soon-to-be coworkers were not inspiring much confidence.
“And Gavin?” I eyed the faint trail of fumes curling out of the corners of Gavin’s mouth.
“A nice if fire-prone dragon newt.” Janet hesitated. “If your office supplies go AWOL, check his drawers. He’s a compulsive hoarder.”
Bo slowly wagged his tail. “I think I’m going to like working here.”
“Eating all the muffins in the building doesn’t count as work,” I muttered.
Samuel continued the introductions.
“Over here, we have Mindy Parsons.” He paused, his tone turning sharp again. “Mindy, I’m pretty sure I told you to make yourself visible for our biweekly meetings.”
My pulse quickened.
A ghostly figure was flickering into view in what I’d taken to be an empty chair. It was a teenage girl with a militant expression, a school uniform, and a knife sticking out of her neck.
“Minty Mindy,” I mumbled hoarsely.
Mindy grimaced. “FYI, I hate that nickname.”
Bo fidgeted nervously and looked up at me. “Ellie is going to have a cow when you tell her ghosts exist.”
“Mindy got murdered by a school-caretaker-turned-serial-killer when he found her rearranging the work tools in his murder shed,” Janet revealed in a low voice. “Her organizational skills are why we hired her.”
I was still reeling from the fact that the real reason behind Mindy’s demise was because she’d had OCD and that my best friend had been right about ghosts all along, when a purple tentacle shot out from behind the large potted cactus near the window.
I froze. Bo’s tail went south.
A human hand appeared and yanked the tentacle back.
“Nigel, we know you’re behind there,” Samuel said dully. “We just saw you.”
Silence emanated from the cactus.
“No, you did not,” a small voice quavered.
“It’s okay, Nigel,” Janet said soothingly. “There’s no need to be afraid. Abby doesn’t bite.” She paused. “Yet.”
The others made encouraging noises while I debated whether to take this as an insult.
Bo gulped. “What kind of supernatural creature is Nigel?”
I had a sneaky suspicion I knew the answer to my dog’s question.
“He’s the Thing in the Closet,” Janet replied. She waggled her eyebrows at our expressions. “You know, the Thing in the Closet?”
“You mean, the boogeyman?” I asked carefully, just to be sure.
“Exactly.” Janet looked awkward. “Except ours is a scaredy-cat.”
“I changed my mind,” Bo declared. “This place is full of weirdos.”
I had to concur.
Mindy crossed her arms and heaved a sigh that was one hundred percent bored teenager. “Can we get on with this meeting? I have some copy machines to go haunt on the third floor.”
Samuel cleared his throat. “Right. First order of business. We have a new case that requires immediate attention.” He slid a file across the table toward Didi. “A cursed artifact was stolen from a witch’s shop two days ago.”
Didi took the folder and leafed through the contents, Gavin peering over her shoulder.
The witch frowned. “Someone stole something from Mystical Moments?” She looked at Samuel like he’d grown a second head. “That’s one of the oldest magical establishments in Amberford. How could someone steal something from there? It’s got first-rate security.”
My stomach dropped. I had a horrible feeling where this was heading.
“I should clarify,” Samuel said with a grimace. “It wasn’t so much stolen as it was manipulated out of the hands of a gullible employee.”
Bo put his paw over his eyes, clearly on the same wavelength.
Samuel shot a puzzled look our way before continuing. “The item in question is a crystal skull. It was disguised as a cheap decoration and locked up in a display cabinet.”
Barney paled, which was saying something for a vampire. “Wait. You don’t mean that crystal skull, do you?!”
Samuel nodded grimly. “The very one.”
Didi’s gaze swung between them. “What crystal skull?”
“It’s an object of considerable power belonging to an old vampire family that liked to dabble in the dark arts.” Samuel’s expression hardened. “According to legend, the curse can control supernatural creatures in some way or another.”
A chill ran down my spine as a deathly silence befell the room.
Controlling supernatural creatures sounded like the kind of crazy power a madman would be after.
The tension in the room broke when Gavin accidentally set the corner of his notepad on fire. He mumbled an apology and patted it out with practiced ease.
“How was the object stolen?” Janet asked curiously.
Didi’s expression turned scathing as she continued reading. “According to this, the idiot employee sold it to a teenager while the owner stepped out to deal with an emergency.”
Bo peeked at me worriedly from between his toes.
I could feel a sheen of sweat building on my forehead.
Samuel frowned at me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Mindy muttered. “You don’t look so good.”
I closed my eyes and counted to ten. When I opened them, everyone was staring. There were no two ways around this. I was going to have to confess.
“My, er, best friend Ellie was the idiot employee who sold that skull,” I admitted in a small voice. “In her defense, she had no idea it was a cursed artifact.”
Samuel stared. “Ellie works at Mystical Moments?”
It was hard to tell if his tone held horror or disgust.
“She used to. The owner fired her after that incident.”
Samuel rubbed his temples. It was a moment before he spoke.
“We believe the teenager in question was working for someone else. Someone who knew exactly what the artifact was.”
Didi drummed her fingers on the table. “That thing might be on its way to a private auction house by now.”
“No.” Samuel’s pupils flashed amber behind his glasses. “It’s still in Amberford. Clarissa Owens, the owner of the shop, put a tracking spell on it. Although something is interfering with her ability to pinpoint its exact location, she’s convinced it hasn’t left town.”
My stomach sank. Not only did my best friend accidentally sell a magical artifact, she might have put the entire Amberford supernatural community I now belonged to in mortal danger.
“So we need to track down this skull before it falls into the wrong hands?” I asked stiffly.
A tentacle emerged from behind the cactus. “Um, technically it’s already in the wrong hands.”
“Thank you, Nigel,” Samuel muttered.
Bo and I jumped when a horrifying screech echoed from the depths of the building and rattled the windows. I clutched my chest.
It sounded like Charlene.
“Uh-oh,” Janet said, pale-faced. “That was a DEFCON 3 warning.”
Samuel muttered something under his breath and began rubbing his temples harder.
Didi licked her lips. “We still had her on DEFCON 3?”
Mindy flickered and faded. “I’m outta here. Catch me up later!”
The potted cactus near the window suddenly looked lonely, the boogeyman having also made himself scarce.
“What are you talking about?” I said once my heartbeat had slowed down.
The sound of heels clicking on the hardwood floor outside interrupted us. Samuel and my new coworkers visibly tensed, their unblinking stares following the approaching footsteps through the wall. Bo shuffled behind my chair.
A familiar figure opened the conference room door and swept inside in a cloud of respectability and Chanel No. 5 , a white cat perched regally in her arms.
“There you all are,” Victoria said. She was tucking away two sets of matching rose-gold noise-canceling headphones into her handbag. “And DEFCON 3, really?” she told Samuel sourly. “There are better ways to make use of your receptionist.”
Pearl sneered.
The temperature dropped by several degrees. Hawthorne & Associates’s top management looked about as pleased at seeing the pack matriarch as they would an inquisition.
“Why exactly are you here, Mother?” Samuel asked coolly.
“To take care of our new luna’s induction into supernatural society.” Victoria scanned my outfit and frowned. “You were right, Pearl. We can’t have her running around in off-the-rack suits.” She checked her watch while Pearl swished her tail with a smug expression. “Come along, Abigail. We’re going shopping.”
“What?” I blinked. “But—I’m in the middle of work!”
“I’m sure Hawthorne & Associates won’t mind if its CEO’s luna took a leave of absence for pack reasons.” Victoria gave the room and Samuel a small smile edged with pure steel.
Samuel opened his mouth to protest.
His employees gazed at him beseechingly.
He hesitated before giving me an apologetic glance. “You should go with her,” he said reluctantly. “Dorothy will catch you up on the case.”
Traitor.