Chapter 6 #3
Her body flared to life as his hand brushed her shoulder. Her emotions warred between anger and arousal. She bit her lip in an attempt to shake off her racing thoughts.
“It’s going to be all right, now.”
“Yeah, sorry. I just don’t understand how this bar is now a coffee shop. I’m telling you…there’s another room here somewhere.” She changed the subject. “We don’t know that woman. She could be lying.”
“You have to trust me.”
“But you just met her,” she protested. “Seriously how could she not know where it is? She works here. Come on. This doesn’t make sense.”
“Look at me, Sky.”
She reluctantly lifted her gaze to his. The electricity between them hummed as he spoke.
“I’m wolf. I know. I’ll explain it later. I promise. But please. Just trust me. I know she doesn’t know, okay?”
“Okay.” Skylar acquiesced. “But I want to know now why this place is the way it is. We need to find the hallway to the back.”
Skylar crossed the room to the counter and placed her hands on it. She closed her eyes attempting to remember what she’d seen. A long brass bar across the back of the room. Round tables. Chairs. She opened her eyes and stared at the wall. What had been against the wall? A mirror?
“This.” She tapped the bar. “Last night it was made of brass. I don’t know how they changed it, but the tables and chairs - they could have been switched out easily.
But this wall? I don’t know how. It was mirrored.
” She wandered behind the bar and stared at the large tapestry on the wall. “Something’s wrong.”
“It’s magick. Perhaps a glamour of some kind,” Greyson suggested.
Skylar turned to the bar. “Where are the coffee machines? Where’s the coffee cups?”
“Where’s the back room?” Rafe asked the hostess and she pointed to a curtain near the bar.
“But there’s no bar back there. It’s just a small kitchen,” the hostess said.
“It’s likely there’s a powerful witch or warlock behind this.” Greyson tapped the bar with his finger. “But it could be any kind of a diabolical creature. Something that can bend the reality of what you see.”
“There’s a lot of bad things that can glamour.” Rafe strode toward the curtains and pulled them open, revealing a concrete wall. “What the fuck?”
“I can smell the smoke. Can’t get it out even with the magick,” Greyson said.
“We need to focus,” Rafe told them, studying the room. “Why go through so much trouble to glamour a bar? Why cover it up unless you have a reason?”
Skylar stood behind the bar and slowly turned in a semi-circle. Her gaze settled on the shelf underneath the bar. No coffee cups. No coffee. A tall stack of square napkins tucked into a corner drew her attention. A smile broke on her face as she spied the long thin silver spoon.
“Hey guys.” She held it in the air, showing off her prize.
“A spoon?” Rafe circled around the bar.
“A cocktail spoon. See the spiral ridges. Not a coffee spoon.” She reached into the corner and held up a napkin with a red logo on it in the shape of a blood drop. “This was a bar.”
“Nice work there, detective,” Greyson said. “So what does this tell us? It tells us that whoever did this may be gone but they’re sloppy. Maybe they used glamour to cover things up for an evening. Maybe they’ve been using this place for a while.”
“Whoever helped glamour this place last night isn’t here. I can’t sense even a hint of magick. I don’t scent anyone,” Rafe said.
“When I first got here, it was kind of empty but there was a hallway that led to another bar.” Skylar explained.
“There were a lot of people. I sat down next to Tina. I ordered a drink. I just can’t remember anything else after that until I woke up in the desert.
But how did they get me out? There’s no way they could have taken me through the casino. ”
“It’s not like you’d be the first passed-out girl someone carried out of a casino,” Greyson countered.
“Assuming it was glamoured, what else would have changed? Round tables to square tables is an easy spell.”
“What about that painting?” Skylar asked as she studied it. “I don’t remember seeing it. That painting is really big.”
“I don’t think that’s a painting.” Rafe reached for it and rapped his knuckles onto it. “It’s glass.”
“There must be something behind it.” She spun around, her attention drawn to Rafe as he knelt to the floor, sniffing, his hands hovering over the wooden molding.
“I can feel the temperature change, the air coming from underneath. Tell me. Do you like magick?” he asked with a clever smile.
Skylar put a hand on her hip. “Not at this particular moment. Are you going to show me a trick?”
“You know it, darlin’. I’m gonna show you quite a few.” Rafe winked at her and went to work.
The extraordinary, sexy as fuck wolf tempted her, but Skylar forced herself to ignore his flirtatious nature. Convinced he’d found something of importance, she watched with fascination as his hands slid up the wood. “What is it?”
“Abracadabra,” Rafe said as his fingers popped open the secret door.
Greyson laughed. “Nice work, wolf.”
“Yeah, this doesn’t look like a kitchen. Stay back,” Rafe ordered, his voice stern.
Skylar eyes widened as she caught sight of the bloody floor. “Oh my God.”