Chapter 7 Stake Me Out Tonight
Stake Me Out Tonight
The rest of my night was filled with fitful sleep, and I finally gave up once the sun began to peek through my curtains. The combination of stress from the case and the rut that just would not quit was turning me into an insomniac, and I couldn’t wait for this whole thing to be over.
Especially since with the money I’d make, I’d have the perfect excuse to turn my phone off and sleep for the next few months straight if I felt like it.
I filled the electric kettle and clicked it on, yawning and going over my plan for the day.
The first thing I needed to do was head over to her parents’ house.
Aside from their address, I couldn’t find much more about them online, which was unsurprising for older witches.
They didn’t tend to have social media accounts.
I took a quick shower and filled my travel mug with hot water and a couple of tea bags before looking at the key hook by my garage door.
I needed to case the place out a bit before making a move, and my red Hellfire was just too beautiful to be sitting on their street all day without anyone getting interested or suspicious.
Sighing, I grabbed the keys to my more inconspicuous gray Goblin, with its cloth interior, smooth handling, and quiet engine.
So boring.
Sage’s parents only lived about twelve blocks away, and I thought about what a small world it was. I had only moved to Cindralis three years ago, two years after Sage had disappeared, so I couldn’t have accidentally run into her before or anything.
But I kind of wished I could have. It was pretty bold to assume she’d even be interested in a guy like me, but maybe we could have become friends. Maybe I could have helped stop her from going down the road that had led to this.
Because thief or not, it was getting harder and harder to ignore that Sage wasn’t some criminal mastermind, and that someone else had set her up to take the fall for this.
And with each passing second, I was feeling sicker with dread at the thought of returning her to the Premier, who would punish her for something she might not have had any control over.
What could I do, though? My life was literally on the line.
And I also had to consider maybe I was just filling in wishful blanks that weren’t even there.
That maybe this good girl image was all a ruse, and she was actually an evil villain who’d killed the two people closest to her and went underground to plan the heist of the century.
I had to keep my feelings out of this, because my job was just to deliver her to the Premier, not make any judgments one way or the other.
Because that’s what I was being paid unholy amounts of money to do.
When I turned on her street and saw at least three other houses with Goblins outside, I knew I’d made the right decision with the car. Even if this one sucked to drive.
I parked a couple of houses down, then pulled out one of the incuriosity charms I kept stored in the glove compartment and snapped it between my fingers. I’d bought a ton of them on sale last year, and while their potency was fading, they would help keep my presence easier to ignore.
It was still early, and I sipped my tea and cracked a window, lighting a vaporleaf roll, watching as the neighborhood slowly came to life.
An older witch on a broom flew low in the street, tossing newspapers on front steps, while other witches with energetic familiars stretched in their lawns and took off on morning runs together.
The Hexwood house was quiet, the lights still off. The front yard was a hodgepodge of wild plants, but in the quaint way witches’ yards sometimes were, and I stared at the lone paper in front of their door, willing Sage’s father to come out and grab it.
But after a few hours, there still wasn’t any movement.
It was now well past the time when most people went to work, as evidenced by all the empty driveways. But a car still remained in theirs.
They might have been on vacation. But then again, it was just the one paper, not the accumulation you’d see if they were out of town.
Hm. Were they retired? Maybe. It was still late for a sleep-in, though.
My tea was long gone, and after a peculiar stare from a dadwith a stroller, I popped another incuriosity charm and sat back, taking a nice, long blink.
* * *
The sound of cheerful screeching woke me, and it took a few moments to remember where I was as I stared at the school bus stopped in front of me.
Shit.
I grabbed another charm and popped it quickly, hoping none of the kids or parents at the bus stop had noticed me yet, then stretched, twisting my back and groaning as it gave several satisfying cracks.
This was why I needed time off between jobs. In my younger days I survived just fine without any sleep, but now that I was in my thirties, these kinds of hours were getting harder to keep. Sooner or later, the exhaustion would catch up with me, and I couldn’t afford any careless missteps.
Like falling asleep during a stakeout. Or—I stretched until my back made another satisfying pop—letting my body get out of whack and having it spasm on me during a chase. Because they always ran, and I needed to be ready.
I looked at the Hexwood house and cursed under my breath.
The paper was gone.
I waited until all the families had dispersed before getting out of my car, rubbing my sore neck and looking up and down the street before crossing.
A shaft of light hit through the yard at a strange angle, and I stopped.
Wait.
How had I not noticed before?
The house had a heavy, sophisticated glamour covering it.
This was powerful magic, so powerful I’d nearly missed it.
I still couldn’t quite see through it yet, which was really annoying, but at least knowing it was there was helpful.
I walked up to the door and knocked, my heart racing as a cheerful “Coming!” came from the other side.
The woman who opened the door was the spitting image of Sage about thirty years into the future, but I was able to clock another glamour right away.
I smiled. “Gloria Hexwood?”
Her eyes shifted from my horns to my face, her expression souring. “Yes. Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for your daughter, Sage. Is she around?” I took a step forward and forced myself through, taking a cursory look around the modest living room.
The glamour was heavy inside, too, but couldn’t hide the mixture of stale air and Sage’s faded perfume beneath the magic.
“E-Excuse me, who do you think you are?” the woman pretending to be Sage’s mother asked. “Sage isn’t here; she moved out over ten years ago! Get out before I call the police!”
I flashed my license. “Sorry, not much the police can do, Gloria. Or should I even call you that?”
Her panicked expression faded into one of cold calculation, and her head tilted to the side. “How much did you sell your soul for this time?”
The glamour in the air faded, revealing a house covered in dust, unlived in for years. I walked up to a hanging planter, rubbing a brittle dead leaf between my fingers and watching it crumble. “Does it matter? She stole something, Morgana. The Premier wants it back.”
A crow flew in from an open window and landed on the kitchen counter, cawing angrily at me, while her glamour melted away to reveal a voluptuous, raven-haired beauty.
“Is that what he said? Well, I suppose that’s one way to put it. Let me put it another way—she reclaimed something that was meant to be his, but given to her instead.”
I furrowed my brow, trying to parse through her cryptic words. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
She crossed her arms and walked towards me, her generous hips swaying with each step. Normally, I’d find that very alluring, but my dick was still steadfastly loyal to Sage.
“It means she didn’t steal shit, and I’m not going to let you get this one. She doesn’t deserve any of this.”
Well, that wasn’t going to work for me, unfortunately. I happened to like living.
“Where are her parents?” I asked. “Did they disappear five years ago, too?”
She didn’t respond, but the look on her face confirmed it.
“Her parents, her friends, her co-workers… it was all the Premier’s work?” She nodded almost imperceptibly, and I ran a hand along one of my horns as I groaned. “Dammit, I was kind of hoping Sage was a serial killer. Would have made my job a lot easier.”
She stepped up closer, her eyes bursting with power and anger. “That man is a psychopath, and he’s going to torture Sage for the rest of her life to get what he wants from her.”
I sighed, crossing my arms. “I can’t just exchange her eternal damnation for mine based on vague references. You want me to choose her freedom over my life? Then fucking tell me what she did. What he did.”
Morgana took a step back, defiantly raising her nose in the air. “It’s not my story to tell, and I’m certainly not going to let you get near enough to her to hear it yourself.”
I suppressed the laugh in my chest. “Oh yeah? And how are you going to stop me?”
She raised an eyebrow, and it was at that moment I noticed the crow was gone.
I looked up at the framed family photo on the wall behind her, the reflection of a large man raising a vase over my head in the glass.
Shit.