Chapter 5 Stuck in a Rut #2
“She didn’t move out, she was moved out,” he answered, his voice almost too quiet to hear.
“What does that mean?” I asked, keeping my tone gentle. I was an alpha, a demon at that, and this old omega seraph needed to be handled with kid gloves or I’d spook him into silence. I let out a comforting purr, to help further put him at ease.
He looked down, almost unwilling to elaborate, until he finally spoke.
“I mean around five years ago, I was coming home from the store to find a bunch of vampires in uniform—like the kind I’ve seen whenever the Premier’s around—clearing out her apartment.
When I asked them who they were and what they were doing, they just handed me an envelope full of runics and told me that for my own good, I needed to forget that Sage Hexwood ever lived here. So I took it and kept my mouth shut.”
If he were anything other than a seraph I’d understand, but it was so unlike his Magik to look the other way when something suspicious was happening.
I took another sip of the tea, my thumbs gliding across the warm ceramic mug. A cartoon drawing of an angry demon was on the side, next to the caption “Don’t talk to me til I’ve had my coffee!”
“Did you have any trouble with Sage? Like parties or guests that got out of hand?”
He shook his head. “No, she was a good tenant. She was gone a lot, either working or at school. But her rent was always paid on time, and aside from the occasional cauldron mishap, she barely made a peep.”
Something about that bit of information made me smile, imagining Sage trying a new spell and then having it backfire. A scene popped into my head of me laughing and bringing her into a hug while she huffed, wondering where she’d gone wrong.
I cleared it away to concentrate on what the seraph was saying.
“Sorry, I know it’s cowardly that I never reported her missing, but with the alpha vampires taking her stuff…
” He shuddered, his feathers shaking behind him.
“I’m an old omega living by myself with a whole building full of Magiks.
Most of us are on fixed incomes, and don’t have the resources to move.
All I could do was pray to Solasia she’d be okay. ”
There was his Magik—his sense of duty to the greater good. Not that I was judging him. If I were in his shoes, I would have likely done the same thing.
“So why risk talking to me?”
He turned to look at a save-the-date card for a wedding happening in a few months on his fridge, lost in thought for a moment before replying.
“I never had any kids of my own, but my niece lived with me while she went to Umbris. She’s older now, back in Halcyon.
She actually found her mate last year. A nice witch boy. He reminds me of Sage.”
My brow furrowed in surprise. Mate bonds were pretty rare in Lundaria—only around five to eight percent of us ever found that one person, chosen by the gods themselves, to be our perfect partner.
I’d only met a few mated couples in my whole life. They always looked stupid happy together, just like his niece and the witch in the photo.
A fat drop of water fell from the faucet, hitting the porcelain sink and echoing in the quiet space. He looked at me again. “I needed to protect my tenants, but I never stopped thinking about what her family must have gone through. Even if…”
He paused, collecting himself before continuing. “Even if she’s dead, they deserve to know. They deserve that closure.”
I nodded. I’d be perfectly fine rotting in the ground with my dad none the wiser, but I knew I was a bit of an outlier in that respect.
Finishing my tea, I thanked the seraph for his time, leaving the building and going back to my car, confused and pissed.
There were holes all over this case. Specifically, two bloody puncture wounds that had the Premier’s venomous spit all over them.
What hadn’t he told me about his relationship with Sage? Because it sounded like he’d definitely had a hand in moving her out of this place.
Not only that, but based on the strength of her scent I was just getting from her purse, the level to which it had been present in that apartment meant she must have been there a very long time. It was practically saturated in her perfume.
He knew her, and he was lying about it.
I looked at her purse again, the contents taunting me from the passenger seat. If she was making charms and experimenting with her cauldron, then she was buying ingredients from somewhere, and that somewhere would likely be close by.
After checking on my phone, I discovered there were only three witch apothecaries in Noctis, and the closest was just a few blocks away.
I grabbed the small charm box and got out of the car, walking the way to clear my head a bit. The rut suppressant was still making me a bit foggy and itchy, as though my head was underwater, and my skin didn’t quite fit my frame.
Sage’s old neighborhood was a lot like her building—a little run down, with peeling paint and overgrown lawns, but it was clean, and the people were friendly enough as I passed. No one seemed to pay my horns any mind, but that usually happened in areas where everyone was mixed together.
I dodged a werewolf kid on a scooter, followed by an exasperated, heavily pregnant mom who waddled after him, then walked by an older merfolk woman, waiting at the bus stop with a granny cart full of groceries.
The witch apothecary, Hemlock I’m a bounty hunter with a deadline. Now, start squawking.”
He swallowed, his eyes darting between me and the bird, before lowering them in resignation. “I don’t know much. I recognized her work, that’s it. She was a regular customer until she disappeared.”
I let the smoke continue to snake its way up and down my arm. “And?”
“And nothing. She’s a sweet girl, she just wants to…”
He clamped his mouth shut again.
“She just wants to what?”
He mumbled a negative response, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “I don’t know anything, I swear!”
Time to do this the easy way. For me, at least.
I released a tendril and it split, going up both his nostrils until he gasped for breath, his eyes now rimmed in gold.
“Tell me everything you know about Sage Hexwood,” I commanded.