32. Chapter 32
Two Weeks Later
Bec
Elena set a glass of bright red iced tea down in front of me. Agua de Jamaica was my new favorite drink. Last time I’d visited she’d sent me home with a jug of it. I noticed an extra container in her fridge and hoped that was for me.
Danzig and Marduk were in her front yard with Hugo, letting him sniff all around her garden. I could feel their happiness through our bond, and it made me smile.
“I finished yesterday,” Elena said, taking a seat across from me.
Two days after the confrontation with Lomis we’d brought all the things Gale had been storing to Elena. It took some time because we found three houses with items. Now it was two weeks later and we were visiting Elena again.
The bruja had looked angry when she’d seen it all. She said that as long as we paid for the extra materials she needed for her magic, she wouldn’t charge for her work.
She also demanded I not ask what she was doing to the people involved.
I agreed to everything.
The bulk herbs and pots she’d asked for hadn’t cost that much, and I felt an intense sense of relief to find out that she was done. It was as if a task that had been weighing on me was over.
“I can’t thank you enough, Elena,” I said.
She shook her head. “There’s no need to thank me. It felt good to create balance.”
“Do I need to figure out what to do with all the exotic animal parts?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, they all dissolved and became part of the spell. The animals were eager for retribution. I can feel that the void is content because there is balance in the magic again.”
Her words reinforced that we'd done the right thing.
Marduk and Danzig came into the house with Hugo right on their heels. All three of them were wearing matching shirts. They’d surprised me with them this morning. The trio were adorable and hilarious.
“I love the style,” Elena said with a chuckle.
“It was my idea,” Marduk said.
Danzig tugged the front of his shirt. “But I found the shirts.”
“I'm impressed you managed to find shirts with pugs on them,” Elena said, making Danzig’s smile even wider.
I took a sip of my drink as the guys settled into seats at the table with us. Cheddar, the orange cat, appeared and laid at Marduk’s feet.
Hugo stared at her, as if trying to figure out if she was friend or foe.
“She won't hurt the dog,” Elena said. “If she's not having fun, she'll simply leave.”
Marduk set Hugo down next to the cat. He sniffed a circle around her, then let out a massive yawn. As we watched, he flopped over next to the cat. Cheddar was bigger than Hugo and rolled over to be the big spoon.
“Welp, that's adorable,” I muttered. Did I need to get a cat now?
“I’m going to warn you that Cheddar might start showing up at your home,” Elena said. “She doesn’t like many dogs, but when she decides to like one, she basically adopts them too.”
I felt the twins' amusement through our bond even before Marduk spoke. “Should I put out cat food for her?”
Elena burst out laughing. “No, she’d never lower herself to eating that. Trust me, if Cheddar wants food, she'll find it.”
“That makes it easy,” Danzig said. “What is Cheddar?”
Elena shrugged. “If she wants you to know, she'll tell you. Otherwise, all I can say is that she's an orange cat.”
Even though I could feel amusement from Danzig, he still grumbled about brujas and their secrets. Marduk was probably planning what kind of food he could keep on hand in case the feline showed up.
I pushed the bag I'd brought with me across the table. “This is for you.”
Elena's eyes sparkled with curiosity as she accepted the bag. “Oh, what's this?”
“A gift,” I said. “Open it.”
She tugged out the crepe paper and pulled out the perfectly polished and round onyx the size of a large man's fist. “Oh, Bec, it's beautiful!”
She got up and hugged me much harder than I thought she could. It seemed Elena was like me, small and strong.
Returning to her seat, she held up the smooth stone and admired it. “How did you know I needed another onyx?”
“I asked Mason about what kind of gift you'd like,” I said. “He said you recently cracked yours and needed a new one.”
“I can't believe you found one this size with no impurities,” she murmured, finally bringing her hand down. She rested the back of her hand on the table and kept the onyx cradled in her palm.
“I've ordered two more,” I said. “Mason told me that you crack the onyx while scrying so I'm going to make sure you always have enough to do any magic you want to.”
“You're a sweetheart,” she murmured. “I know now that it cracked because Victor was waiting to be created and that was too much for any onyx to deal with. I'd been trying to figure out why I’d felt such heaviness, but now I know. Hopefully I won't crack another one any time soon.”
“Still, it's always good to have backup,” I said.
“How is Victor doing?” she asked.
“Good,” Danzig said. “He spends most of his time with Mom, but he doesn't sleep. Mom worked out a nightly schedule with the Lobo Gris so Victor is never alone. He's learning fast.”
“I worry for him,” Elena murmured.
I felt a little insulted on behalf of Amara and Lobo Gris. “He's being well cared for!”
“It's not that I'm worried he'll be taken advantage of,” Elena said. “It's that this world is complicated. Understanding nuance is going to be a struggle for him. I hope he doesn't get hurt by his own ignorance.”
“It's something Mom worries about too,” Marduk said. “She doesn't want to, but she's going to take him traveling and show him the dark side of this world.”
Elena looked sad. “I hate that it's necessary.”
This was news to me. “She is?”
“When she called this morning, she mentioned it,” Danzig explained. “You were distracted by coffee.”
I nodded. We'd gotten in the habit of having a conversation with Amara every morning. I remembered hearing her say something about starting next month but missed what she was starting. Apparently, it was exposing Victor to the evils of the world.
“Have the authorities questioned you about Gale or Lars?” Elena asked.
I shook my head. “Leif and Lars's family think they’ve been kidnapped and have a reward for information. I see posts every once in a while. I hate that I can't tell them.”
“I'd be devastated if my child went missing,” Elena said. “We can't let this keep going.”
“What can we do?” Danzig asked.
“I could create an assurance spell,” Elena said. “They'd simply know their children were gone and then they'd be able to mourn and move on.”
“Please make three,” Marduk requested. “One for each parent and one for their sister.”
“What about the other two men that died?” Danzig asked.
“John was estranged from his family,” I reminded him.
“That's why I paid for the gravesite and memorial for him.
Doug was Leif's roommate, and his family hadn't heard yet.
He only had a mother, and she's in a nursing home that specializes in people with Alzheimer's. I was debating about having them tell her.”
We talked at length about what to do, but finally decided to tell the facility to contact us if they needed anything and leave Doug's mother with happy memories of him alive and well.
Doug had a family graveyard back in Arizona, and we'd paid to have his name added to the family gravestone.
Even though their deaths weren't our fault, I still felt responsible.
My phone pinged. After digging it out of my pocket I read it, then looked up at everyone watching me. “Jim's already at the office.”
“Time to go,” Danzig said.
“We'll see you next weekend at the party, right?” Marduk asked as we all stood up. Hugo was fast asleep, snoring loudly, and Cheddar had disappeared. Leaning over, he lifted Hugo up. The dog grunted, snorted, then went right back to sleep in Marduk's arms.
“I wouldn't miss it,” Elena said, getting up and pulling a jug of tea out and handing it to me. “Enjoy. Next time you visit I’ll show you how to make it.”
“Thanks, I’d like that!” I said. I could probably look it up, but any excuse to visit with Elena was a good one.
She walked us out to the garden. Cheddar appeared at her side, pawing the air as if waving goodbye.
“You should text Jim, we might be a little late,” Danzig said as we piled into the SUV Marduk insisted we buy.
He said we needed a bigger car now that we had a “growing family.” Tomorrow we were scheduled to visit Titan's rescue and interview dogs for Hugo.
I was curious to find out how many dogs we'd be leaving with.
“Sure,” I said.
A few days ago Jim called and asked me to meet him at the office. He probably wanted to talk about pending cases and what everyone had said when I'd called them to say Masel Investigations was closed until further notice. I hated the thought of him going back to work so soon after being injured.
I wanted him to take more time off, but it wasn't my place to say anything.
I'd wait to break the news that I was quitting until after I figured out how he was actually doing. He claimed he was perfectly fine during every conversation, but I knew better.
Maybe Cheryle or Kevin would be there to talk some sense into him.
It wasn't long before I got a response from Jim that he was there and didn't mind waiting. Despite the traffic, we made it right on time. Jim was sitting at my desk and didn't look surprised when the guys walked in with me.
He was pale and swayed a little when he stood up to greet us.
“Did you drive here?” I asked, rushing to help him sit back down.
“No, Kevin brought me,” he said, slumping back in the chair. “He left to run some errands. He'll be back.”
“He better be,” I said, taking a seat across the desk from him. “You can’t drive like this.”
A humorless laugh came out of him. “What was your first clue?”
I tried to smile, but it probably looked as fake as it felt. “You're not coming back to work already, are you?”
He let out a long breath. “No, not for a while yet. I keep getting dizzy spells, and I forget things.”
“I'm sorry, Jim,” I said. “I'm sure you just need some more time.”
“That's what the doctors say,” Jim said. “I hate it. They can’t give me any real answers. They say everyone is different and every injury is different. It’s frustrating. I want to be better right now.”
I didn’t know what to say so I tried for another sympathetic smile. “Yeah, I mean, so would anyone.”
I’d asked Victor if he could heal Jim like he’d fixed me. Unfortunately, Victor couldn’t heal things that hadn’t been caused by magic. He’d offered to bring Jim nachos, so that was nice.
It seemed like Victor’s love language was nachos.
“My head hurts,” Jim said, slumping back in the chair. Alarmed, I stood up to circle around the desk, but he held up a hand. “Don’t get up, I'm fine.”
“You’re not,” I said, but sat down anyway. “Maybe we should call Kevin to come get you now.”
Jim let out a long sigh and closed his eyes. “It’s going to be months before I’m ready to work. Maybe longer before I can do a full day.”
“How can I help?” I asked.
Jim opened a single eye enough to look at me. “You could file the paperwork to have this business renamed Masel and Stanhope Investigations.”
It was so far from what I'd been expecting that I couldn't answer right away. Thankfully, Jim kept talking.
“I know the business isn’t as glamorous as you thought it would be, but if you became my partner, I’d be open to expanding the scope of what we did.
” Jim gestured to Danzig and Marduk. “Especially since you’ve got them to look big and mean.
As the old detective stories would say, they're your muscles.”
He chuckled at his own joke.
“But I don’t have a private investigator’s license,” I said.
“That doesn’t matter,” he said. “Once you’ve worked for me for a few years, you can take the test and you’re good.
Hell, as a lawyer you might not need the three years.
I’ll have to look into that. I’m only ten years from retirement anyway, or sooner.
You can buy me out of my half when you’re ready to take over. ”
I blinked, unsure about my feelings. The guys were carefully blank, as if making sure they didn’t sway me either way. That wasn’t helpful. I couldn’t make this decision without their input.
When I didn’t answer right away, Jim’s smile got wider. “You’re thinking about it, that's good. Talk it over with your men and look into the requirements. It’s steady work, but it can be boring and repetitive."
“Or exciting as hell,” I murmured, making Jim laugh, then wince. Kevin walked in as he was wincing and made an angry grumbling sound.
“Jim, I told you this was a bad idea.” He walked round the desk and pulled Jim’s chair away from the desk. “Let’s go home.”
It was a testament to how bad Jim felt that he didn’t protest even once.
“Think about it,” he said to me as Kevin guided him out of the office.
“I will,” I promised. Kevin shot me a curious look but didn’t ask. He was much too concerned about getting Jim home.
After they left, I looked at the guys. “I don’t know.”
I was still getting that blank feeling from them, which was annoying as hell. When neither of them spoke up, I threw up my hands. “Stop blocking me!”
Danzig spoke first. “We don’t want to sway you.”
Marduk nodded in agreement.
I let out an impatient breath. “But I need to know what you guys want to do before I can decide what I want to do.”
Marduk’s face went from blank to laughing. “We want to do what you want. We’ve lived a long time, and we’ve never been investigators. It might be fun for a while.”
“I know you guys live a long time, but I’m human. I’ve only got about eighty- or ninety-years total. Do you think I should do this?”
I felt confusion from the guys. “What do you mean you only have eighty or ninety years?” Danzig asked.
“Do you have plans you haven’t told us about?” Marduk asked.
I was confused by their questions. “Uh, I’m human, remember? I mean, some humans can live to be one hundred, but probably not me. I like to eat all the bad food, and I’m not giving it up.”
I felt understanding coming from the twins.
“Ah, no,” Marduk said. “You’re tied to us now. You’ll live as long as we live.”
I nearly fell off my chair. “What?”
Danzig nodded. “That’s how it works for most magical creatures. When humans share souls with vampires, they live as long as the vampire. Your life span is now tied to ours.”
A lot of different emotions went through me, but I finally settled on content. “We’re going to have a lot of great adventures.”
Danzig grinned. “All of them.”