Cut to the Crone (A Spell's Angels Cozy Mystery Book 4) Read online

  She frowned. “Do you think we should just knock or something?”

  “That’s the plan. It’s not a normal knock, though.” I shot her a warning look, waiting until she nodded, and then raised my own hands. “The owners know me.”

  “Have at it.” Zoe made a sweeping motion with her arm. “Go nuts.”

  “Thank you.” I let loose the magic, knowing those inside would recognize it. What I didn’t tell her was that it was possible the owners would double down on the locks when they realized it was me knocking. While we weren’t exactly enemies, we weren’t exactly friends either. I let out a breath when I felt the door opening. It didn’t look like brute force was going to be necessary after all. “See?”

  “Yes, you’re wondrous and magical. We should all be like you.” Zoe cast a look toward her husband. “Anybody hits on you and I’m going to blow them up.”

  He smirked. “Same goes.”

  “Wow,” Gunner breathed. “I didn’t know that was the rule.” He pinned me with a faux serious look. “I owe a bunch of people sticks of dynamite up their rear ends.”

  I snickered. “We’re a really odd crew, aren’t we?”

  “I think we’re awesome,” Zoe said. “Show me this place. I’m dying to see it.”

  “Your wish is my command.”

  IT WAS FUN TO WATCH ZOE ENTER THE speakeasy. She was a master at keeping her face impassive but the way her eyes hopped from table to table, magical lights illuminating what should’ve been a bare field in the middle of nowhere, had me smiling.

  The owner, a bubbly dude named Cedric with a bright aura, didn’t look surprised to see me. His smile was welcoming, although it dimmed a bit when he saw Gunner. “I didn’t realize you were bringing guests with you now.”

  I shrugged. “You didn’t say I couldn’t bring friends.”

  “I’m pretty sure I did.”

  “Well, I didn’t hear it.” I waited to see if he would make a fuss. It wouldn’t have changed the outcome, but it would’ve made things uncomfortable. He merely shook his head.

  “Take a seat.” Cedric indicated an open table at the edge of the space. Rather than sit there, Zoe headed directly toward the center of the action. “Or sit wherever you want,” he muttered, clearly unhappy.

  I held it together, although it was a chore, and waited until everybody was seated to look around. To my surprise, the female shifters from the woods, all three of them, were seated at one of the outlying tables. The look Jasmine gave me was dark and she didn’t wave or offer a greeting.

  “That’s interesting,” I muttered, inclining my head toward the women when Zoe pelted me with an inquisitive look.

  Zoe frowned when she saw them. “I’m not sure I buy their story. It doesn’t make sense to me that they decided to wander into the woods and hide out there.”

  “What do you think they’re covering up?” Gunner asked, sliding his arm around my back. He was a little unnerved by the magic zinging through the room. I recognized most of it was for looks, including the twinkle magic that zipped to and fro, but he was uneasy enough to want to keep me anchored to his side.

  “I honestly can’t say what bugs me the most about them.” Zoe glared at them. “It just feels off.”

  Next to her, Aric shifted. “You should be aware that, as much as I love my wife and her wicked mind, she’s suspicious of everybody. That includes me when we first met.”

  Zoe shot him a sidelong look. “You were a total lurker.”

  He snorted. “How was I lurking?”

  “You kept showing up wherever I was.”

  “As I remember, so did Rafael. You didn’t call him a lurker.”

  “I did so, and don’t go there.” Zoe wagged a finger. “I called him every name in the book when I figured out what he was. Just because we got over it, doesn’t mean there wasn’t tension to start. You’re still jealous because of that year we spent apart.”

  Despite myself, I was intrigued. “You spent a year apart?” That was hard to imagine. They were in tune with one another, to the point where it was obvious they had a marriage that was built to last forever. There were no cracks in the foundations of their union, despite the constant banter.

  Aric’s expression twisted. “Why did you have to bring that up? I hate that story.”

  “You hate it because you’re the bad guy in it,” Zoe pointed out. “I’m the feisty heroine who was done wrong and you’re the mean, low-down jerk who dated a psychopath.”

  I was horrified. “You cheated on her?”

  Aric’s eyes flashed. “I did not. We had ... issues ... with pack politics.” He looked to Gunner for sympathy and my boyfriend responded with an understanding head nod. “They wanted me to put them ahead of Zoe and it was difficult because of who my father is.”

  I remained confused. “A state senator?”

  Aric shook his head. “No, in the pack. There was a time when our family was supposed to take on an extensive leadership position. I was forced to keep information from Zoe at a time when it hurt her, and she broke up with me.”

  “Rightfully so,” I said.

  Aric’s scowl grew more pronounced. “I tried to fix things but she wouldn’t talk to me.”

  “Rightfully so,” I said again.

  “She broke my heart.”

  “So you dated another woman to get back at her?” I was so disappointed. Here I thought they were relationship goals to the utmost degree and then I had to hear this.

  “Ugh.” Gunner, obviously reading my mood, shook his head. “Thanks, man. She’s going to take out your bad behavior on me later.”

  Aric shot Zoe an annoyed look. “You’re enjoying this are you?”

  She smiled and nodded. “I am. I love it when you’re not the favorite person in the room.” She reached over and squeezed his hand. “That being said, he was only fake dating the woman in question. She was one of the people working against me and he was trying to get information to keep me safe, even though I refused to forgive him.”

  Some of the resentment that had been building eased. “Well, that sounds nice.”

  “Thank you.” Aric poked his wife’s side. “She couldn’t stay away from me. Eventually she forgave me.”

  “Because you were being tortured by your fake girlfriend and I wanted to make her pay,” Zoe fired back.

  “That’s not true. You missed me. You invited me to spend the night before I was tortured.”

  Zoe rolled her eyes, but the way her lips curved told me she was enjoying the walk down memory lane. That only served to confuse me more.

  Cedric picked that moment to deliver our drinks.

  “We didn’t order anything,” Zoe noted, studying the contents of the glass suspiciously. “What is this?”

  “Magical moonshine,” I replied. “It’s basically the only thing on the menu during your first visit.” I dipped my pinky in and gave it a swirl, which had shimmering bubbles flying above the drink. “It enhances magic.”

  “Really?” Zoe peered closer. “How do I know it’s not going to do something funky to me?”

  “Because he’s not powerful enough to carry that off,” I replied.

  “He built a dome,” Aric countered. He, too, looked reticent to drink. “That’s no small feat of magic.”

  Cedric shot me a triumphant look. “Thank you.”

  I could’ve let him have his moment, but it was too much to ask. “He didn’t build this dome. I did that ... after I tore down the previous one trying to get inside.”

  “Yes, she has a penchant for breaking into places she’s not wanted,” Cedric agreed, rolling his eyes. “As for the drink, I couldn’t very well encourage a returning clientele if I messed with my customers, could I?”

  “I guess not.” Zoe tentatively extended her tongue and sampled the drink. “Hmm.”

  “Good?” Cedric prompted.

  “It’s ... interesting,” she said, taking a full sip and cocking her head. “Actually, it’s pretty good.” She tossed him a thumbs-u
p and looked to Aric expectantly. “Try it.”

  “It’s pink,” Aric complained, holding up the glass. “I don’t think I can drink something pink.”

  “The cocktail reacts to the heart of the person drinking it,” Cedric pointed out. “You’re the one making it pink.”

  Aric’s eyebrows drew together as he looked over to Gunner’s drink, which was a funky green color. “So, what? Are you saying I have a pink heart and he has a green one? Does that make him an alien?”

  “I think it means you were remembering back to when we were in college and being nostalgic,” Zoe said, happily sipping her purple concoction. “That’s why mine is purple.”

  “Because your heart is purple?” Aric groused. “Does that mean I’m more in love with you than you are with me?”

  Zoe shook her head. “Purple is my favorite color. I’ve always seen purple when I’ve looked at you.”

  He stared at her. “You know, that might be the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “I promised that, once Sami goes to college, we can spend an entire weekend eating pizza and watching sports – naked – as your reward for a child well raised.”

  He smirked. “You’re right. That was the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me. The purple thing was a close second, though.” He leaned over and gave her a kiss before turning back to his drink. If possible, it was even more pink than before. “Bottoms up.” He took a swig and grinned at the taste. “Actually, pink is good.”

  I left them to their drinks and each other, recognizing they could entertain themselves, and focused on Cedric. We were here for a reason, after all. “I don’t suppose you have any information on a missing shifter, do you?”

  Cedric appeared surprised by the question. “Not last time I checked. I don’t particularly enjoy kidnapping.”

  “I’m not suggesting that you had anything to do with it. I simply heard that she spent a decent amount of time here.”

  “You’ll have to be more specific.”

  “Jeanie Lawrence,” Gunner stated, his tone icy. The girl wasn’t a close relative but he was obviously on edge regarding her disappearance. I made a mental note to question him about his relationship with his cousin when we were alone later.

  “I’m not sure I recognize the name,” Cedric replied.

  “She would’ve hung with a rough shifter crowd,” I replied. “She was underage.”

  Cedric balked. “I don’t serve anyone who is underage.”

  “She had a fake ID.”

  Cedric worked his jaw, obviously unhappy with the conversational shift. “Is that why you’re here?” he asked. “Are you trying to bust my balls?”

  “We’re trying to find a missing seventeen-year-old,” I said. “She’s not the only one who has gone missing.”

  Cedric’s expression changed to intrigued. “Really? All shifters?”

  I nodded.

  “I hadn’t heard that.” He rubbed his jaw in thought. “Have you talked to them?” He turned toward the table where Jasmine and the others sat but they were already on their feet and headed toward the door. “That’s weird. They’ve only been here twenty minutes. Usually they stay longer.”

  It was indeed weird ... and suspicious. Part of me wanted to follow, question them, or at least figure out where they were going, yet I remained seated. If I gave them reason to distrust me, they might never get past it and there was a chance I might need to tap them again for information.

  “Maybe they’re afraid,” I said. “I’m sure they’ll be back.”

  “I’m sure they will, too,” he agreed. “As for this missing girl, I don’t know what to tell you. If she’s a regular with the group I’m thinking of, I never had reason to believe she was underage.”

  “I’m not blaming you.” I meant that. “It sounds like the girl is having a rough go of it. I just thought I would ask. Apparently she went missing last night so there’s still a chance we might be able to track her down.”

  “Sorry.” Cedric held out his hands. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

  “Fair enough.” I forced a smile. “One other thing before you go. Have you heard about vampires amassing in the woods, or maybe in caves or houses somewhere?”

  “Are these different vampires from the ones you took down two weeks ago?”

  I shrugged. “I honestly have no idea. Just vampires in general.”

  “I haven’t heard anything, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. It’s not as if vampires come in here to hang out and broadcast their plans. Since you burned a houseful of them to the ground, they’ve been rather scarce. People have heard you visit occasionally and I very much doubt vampires want to risk crossing your path.”

  “That’s because I’m a badass.”

  He smirked. “That’s because you have a notorious temper and aren’t afraid to kill. I can ask around, but right now, I don’t have anything to offer.”

  That was disappointing. “Thanks. Anything you can come up with, I appreciate it.”

  “Sure thing.” He moved to leave but a giggling Zoe caught his attention. She’d already finished her drink and had pressed herself against Aric in a suggestive manner. They seemed to be lost in each other, not a care in the world. “Another?” he asked with a grin.

  Zoe nodded. “I want to see if it’s purple again.” She tweaked her husband’s nose. “I’m feeling purple.”

  Interestingly enough, Aric’s drink had turned blue while I was distracted. “Do you think of blue when you look at her?” I asked, legitimately curious.

  He nodded, never looking in my direction. “It’s the color of her eyes.”

  For some reason, the realization that they were essentially going through some sort of public display of foreplay filled me with amusement. “I guess the fire still burns even after forty?”

  Aric nodded. “Forever, if you’re with the right person.”

  I glanced at Gunner and found he’d relaxed enough to sip his own drink, which had turned a shimmery pinkish yellow. “What are you thinking about?”

  He merely grinned at me. “I’ll show you later. It will lose something in the telling.”

  “Now that’s something to look forward to.”

  Twelve

  Things turned fun after the shifters departed. Gunner had exactly one drink before declaring himself group babysitter, which allowed the rest of us to relax and get to know one another. Honestly, I found I enjoyed Zoe and Aric a great deal.

  “How do you not crumble under the fear?” I asked after I finished my second drink. “It sounds to me as if Sami has been a target her entire life. I think trying to keep a small, vulnerable individual safe as long as you two have would cause me to implode.”

  “We were ... ill-prepared at the start.” Zoe offered up a rueful smile. “Actually, I don’t think we were prepared for any of it, even if things did ultimately get easier, and harder at the same time. Sami was a fussy baby, which probably isn’t a surprise to you guys. She refused to sleep. Aric and I were like walking zombies those first few weeks.”

  Aric grinned at the memory. “I know we were miserable at the time but I look back on those weeks fondly. We used to drop wherever we were standing when she’d finally go down for a nap. We had to call our mothers to help us.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “We’d taken out rogue wolves, vampire nests, and a militant academy at that point but we couldn’t get one tyrannical baby to go to sleep. I remember days of curling up to sleep on the floor at the foot of the crib, just me and my very crabby wife. It was fun.”

  The fact that he could be happy talking about that memory made me like him even more. “Did you have plans in case you were attacked when she was little?”

  Aric sobered and took another sip. “We had plans. The thing is, there were attacks when Sami was a baby. Zoe had to leave to engage in fights days after she gave birth.” Aric moved his hand to his wife’s neck and rubbed. “She was supposed to be recovering. We were s
upposed to be bonding as a family. She was so sore, and tired. And she went days without showering so she smelled really bad,” he continued, earning a dark look from Zoe. “The second that security system sounded, though, she was on her feet.”

  “We sent a series of messages,” Zoe explained. “I burned through enemies left and right that first month, always leaving one survivor, if possible, to spread my message of tyrannical fear. It worked. Whispers of Zoe the terrible mage ripped through the paranormal community.”

  “After that first month, there was still the occasional attack, but people wisely took a step back,” Aric took over the tale. “They were afraid of Zoe’s wrath and, quite frankly, the longer Sami went without manifesting, the more people started to believe she was a dud.”

  “She didn’t manifest at all as a child?” That made no sense to me. I couldn’t ever remember not having magic at my fingertips.

  “Oh, there were a few instances.” Zoe smiled. “When she was four, I took a toy away from her because she was misbehaving and she set the couch on fire.”

  Aric smirked. “That’s when we realized she’d inherited her temper from both of us.”

  “She was also manipulative, especially with Aric,” Zoe explained. “She would wheedle him, bat her eyelashes, and try to pit us against one another. She was smart, to the point of worrying us, and there was a stretch where we were constantly fighting and couldn’t understand why.”

  “She was pushing us,” Aric explained. “I was more susceptible than Zoe. She had to teach me how to shutter when we figured out what was happening.”

  “So she had magic but didn’t use it very often?” I asked.

  “She had limited magic,” Zoe replied. “We realize now what a blessing that was. It’s as if some higher power was watching over us. If she had her full magic at three, I’m not sure we would’ve survived. Between the attacks from outside forces trying to take her and that attitude ...” Zoe shook her head.

  I nodded. “So she was twelve when she fully manifested.”

  “Yeah. She shifted and realized her true potential as a mage within weeks. It was a lot for her to deal with, especially because we weren’t certain she would ever shift. Her wolf abilities have always been a bit ... weak.”