“Oh no you don’t,” Jake barked in my ear as my feet got ready to move towards Dave.
His arms came around me before I could propel forward. The smell of masculinity and damp hair made me pause. The man had no hair, why did he smell of wet dog?
“I will change.” Jake tugged me around to face him.
He was one of my agents, and yet, he was threatening me. The contradiction of my thought smacked me in the face, causing me to go still. Releasing my breath, I allowed the anger to drain out of me and into Mother Earth.
“I’m okay,” I told Jake, turning back to Dave. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know where that came from.”
Striding over to me, Dave grabbed me and pulled me towards him. “I do. Your life is being dictated by someone else. I don’t blame you for taking it out on those you care about.”
Snorting, I pulled away to look up at him. “Don’t think too highly of yourself.”
Raising his eyebrows, Dave picked up my ponytail, which was over my shoulder and put it behind me. The gesture was small but intimate. Our gaze clashed as the energy around us grew warm.
“I’ve got a reading,” Kate announced.
Almost tearing away from each other, Dave and I went over to Kate, followed by Jake. The wolf shifter was wiggling his eyebrows at Dave. Surely he didn’t think that anything was going on between us? That was something that would have to be rectified if he did. As if I would date a colleague.
“I can see them.” Kate pointed at the space where the house used to be. “For some reason, because the magic has been moved from here, I can see everything clearly. Whatever was shielding my ability to read the past at the crime scenes isn’t here.”
“Can you see where they went?” I asked, trying to keep my cool.
Shaking her head, she closed her eyes again, obviously to relive what she had just seen. “Before you arrived, they got a phone call from someone called Archie. I think they were expecting you. It’s pretty blurry before that point, which makes me believe that they wanted me to see what happened from then on. These people have a lot of magic. However, it’s not exactly pure.”
“Don’t I know it,” I muttered.
Dave encouraged Kate to keep telling us what she had seen. Her hair moved as a light breeze set upon us, the air suddenly shifting. Looking around, we checked to make sure that no one was in the vicinity. No, I was being paranoid. The wind was just nature. Would I ever go back to feeling safe?
Archie was a vampire. A friend of Brianna’s who’d asked me to help get rid of Joseph Cambridge. Why was he involved with the ancient witch who had bad magic?
“Wait!” Kate held up a hand. “It’s starting to clear. Before the phone call from Archie, Xvair and Lucien were having an argument in a bedroom. There was a woman...” Kate gasped, her eyes opening wide and staring at me. “She was in a wedding dress, tied to a bed.”
“Was she alive?” Jake asked as he cracked his knuckles.
Nodding, Kate closed her eyes again. “Yes. Xvair was trying to persuade Lucien not to kill her. It actually looks like our ancient witch is trying to control his son. Not that his son listens to him. I can see him in the demon mask. Which means that he obviously hides from everyone.”
Grabbing my wrist, Kate squeezed hard as her brow furrowed. “Gemma. There are pictures of you all over the bedroom walls. This man has an obsession. This man is not only our serial killer, but he’s obviously draining the ley line of magic. I can see spells all over his desk regarding the line.”
A shudder made my whole body shake. It was disgusting to think that he had pictures of me everywhere. How could someone be so strange? What had his father taught him to enable him to feel like he had a right to own me?
“Xvair’s telling him that you’re on your way. He asks him to allow the woman to go and promises that he will allow him to take you, Gemma.”
The grinding of teeth from Dave’s mouth sounded between us as we all fell silent. Some fucked up witches were out to get me because of a ridiculous bet that my father had made. It was time to arrest both and allow the human government to do what they saw fit. I knew for a fact that both of them would be executed. And, even though death wasn’t my favourite thing, I would be there to watch it. A part of me knew that I wouldn’t feel safe until both of the Harvey witches were no longer on Earth.
“I need to write my report,” Kate said, nodding at me. “There’s not much more we can do here, unless you can use your magic to read the place.”
Letting my head drop back, I swallowed down my frustration. The magic was gone, the place now an empty shell of nothingness. There was magic within the street outside, but it was just normal, nothing to do with Xvair and Lucien.
“No. There’s nothing to read here.”
Clearing his throat, Dave put his hands on his hips and looked at each of us. “Today has been busy. Let’s go home and recuperate before restarting in the morning. Kate, I know you have to write up your report, so if you could do that, I would really appreciate it.”
Wait. Was David taking the lead? His eyebrows raised when he looked at me. He was questioning me with a look. Was I going to push against his leadership? Yes, I was in charge, but it was actually a bit of a relief to allow him to take control. Sharing
