Spells & Magic Read online

  “Anyway,” Kate said, bringing her attention back to me. “It sounded like Archie had arranged a meeting between Lucien and Brianna. I don’t think he knew that the witch would abduct her. He sounded worried on the phone.”

  “Is there anything else I need to know?”

  Gritting her teeth, Kate sucked in a breath and shook her head. “I’m sorry, I’ve been ordered not to tell you anything. I’ve just told you way too much as it is.”

  My instant retort was sucked back before I hurt Kate’s feelings. It wasn’t her fault that my mother was the bitchiest bitch from Hell. Okay, that was a bit harsh considering she was genuinely trying to protect me from the man who wanted me to breed. However, the lack of gun on my hip and the absence of my badge made me feel a little grouchy to say the least.

  “It’s fine,” I lied. “Keep Dave updated, I’m going to steal him for an hour.”

  Nodding, Kate glanced up from the phone again. “My brownie is the only thing that allows me to kick arse all day!” Looking down at me, she wagged her finger at the screen. “I must go, Jake is about to get his arse kicked.”

  Not waiting for me to say goodbye, the seer hung up, leaving me hanging.

  Dave reached for my lonely burger, retreating when I batted his hand away.

  “Did you just hear what was about to happen to Jake? The same thing will happen to you if you dare take my burger. I need fuel.”

  Scratching the stubble on his jaw, Dave stretched his mouth open and yawned. “You’re stealing me for an hour? I take it we’re going to Brianna’s house?”

  Taking a bite of my burger, I savoured the flavour as I gave my partner a thumbs up. My mother may have taken me off the case, but in reality, she probably knew that I wasn’t going anywhere. There was no way I could search for Brianna at the same time as avoiding Xvair Harvey.

  “Well then,” Dave said, getting up from his seat. “We’d better hurry. I’ve got the tech guy coming to upgrade my pretty computer later.”

  Really? Was my partner more concerned about his technology than finding my friend? Did he need reminding that human life was more important? Well, vampire life, but that was neither here nor there.

  “I’m ready.”

  Shoving the last of my burger into my mouth, I grabbed Dave’s hand and used him as leverage to stand. If I wanted to take down Xvair at the same time as rescuing Brianna, I would have to pretend that I was listening to my mother’s command.

  “The ancestors allowed me to keep the magic for now. However, I’m still dead.” Taking Dave’s hand, I indicated that he could take some of my magic.

  The illusionist witch smiled as heat pooled between our palms. Having the witch beside me while I searched for my friend gave me comfort.

  Raising my eyebrows, I gestured at him. He brushed his hands against his suit jacket, ridding them of the grease from his own burger. “Oh, so you want me to transport us to Brianna’s house? I see how this is.”

  About to reply, I squeaked as Dave cast a spell that whisked us away, landing us outside my friend’s house.

  The pretty suburban street was lined with trees growing out of the pavement. The Victorian townhouses rose high above us, reaching for the cloudy grey sky.

  “This is work mode,” I said to Dave, who was playing with his phone. “We need to be on guard. If someone kidnapped Brianna from her home-”

  “It sounds like Archie took her to the Harveys. I don’t think anyone kidnapped her.”

  Tucking his phone away, Dave ran a hand over his man bun before taking his gun out from under his jacket. His frame crouched stealthily as he started walking towards the nearest iron gate.

  “It’s across the road, numpty,” I muttered, leaving him as I trotted to the other side of the street.

  The gate that led to Brianna’s home was open. The vampire often didn’t bother to close it, too lazy to worry about such things. I had been so out of touch with her recently, I still didn’t know how her love life was going.

  “You could have told me,” Dave groaned as he joined me on the bottom step.

  My gaze traced the red tiled steps that led up to the door. There was no sign of struggle anywhere, but the vampires were clever. They knew how to be careful with a target. If Archie Roberts had taken Brianna against her will, surely there would be a clue somewhere in the house.

  Going to the door, I tried the handle. Tingles slipped down my spine as the door opened freely, no lock barring my way. Brianna might have been careless but leaving a door unlocked was suspicious. Had someone taken her?

  “Be careful.” Dave pushed me to the side, moving in front of me as we went into the hall.

  Allowing him to take the lead, I slipped my dagger out of its holster and followed. The hallway was decorated in terracotta and white, traditionally Spanish, just like my friend. A picture of us with our mothers hung near the bottom of the stairs. Several other family photos lined the wall, Brianna smiling in every single one of them.

  Tracing my friend’s pretty face, I sighed to myself. Recently, I had distanced myself from her. She was vivacious and fun loving, too cheery for my dead self.

  “Hello?” Dave called into the house.

  We waited at the bottom of the stairs, listening for any sound. It was silent.

  Dave nodded at me, indicating that we go into the front room. Our footsteps were quiet as we paced around the lower level of the house. Everything was in place, everything neat and tidy. I hadn’t been to Brianna’s house in almost a year. She had constantly pestered me to visit, but I had always been too busy.

  Nothing seemed out of place as we scoped the kitchen.

  “Everything looks normal.” Dave tucked his gun away, his alert expression clearing.

  Going to the counter, I checked the post that laid there. A couple of bills were stamped with red, urgent payment required. Brianna had never been one for conforming.

  “What’s that?” Dave pointed at an open handwritten letter.

  It was tucked under the others, a small piece of paper marked with Biro. Pausing before I reached out, I wrestled with myself. The letter was private, not something that I should read.

  “You’ve tried ringing Brianna how many times? She’s missing. We have to do this.”

  Taking the letter from me, Dave started to read it out loud. It was a love note from her human boyfriend, begging her to go back to him. Across the centre of the letter, Brianna had scribbled a big No in red lipstick.

  “Nothing there,” I muttered as I pushed away from the counter and headed for the stairs.

  “You knew that she had split up from her boyfriend?” Dave called.

  Stopping at the bottom of the stairs, I glanced over my shoulder. “She went off with some other guy that night I got drunk. I kind of guessed she was no longer in a relationship. It made me a little sad, actually. They made a good couple.”

  Without waiting for Dave to give me some of his wisdom, I ran up the stairs. My Essex dagger was still clasped in my hand, just in case. Checking in the bathroom, I quickly retreated when it showed that it was empty. There was only one bedroom in the house, so I gingerly stepped inside.

  Brianna’s rowdy personality came alive in her bedroom. Bright reds and pinks blended together on the walls. She was obviously a bit of an artist, considering she had painted pictures of flowers directly onto the wall. To some, it would be pretty, to me, it was too feminine. Although, I could see that Brianna was a talented artist, so I had to appreciate that.

  My Spanish friend had obviously left in a hurry. Her bedroom was a mess, clothes scattered all over the floor. Her bed was unmade, the covers crumpled in a heap.

  “Anything?” Dave asked as he trod into the room behind me.

  Tiptoeing across the floor, I stared open-mouthed at Brianna’s bedside table. Lying there, face down, was her phone. The phone I had tried ringing numerous times since Lucien told me that Brianna had been taken.

  Dave joined me, also staring at the gadget that should have been with
my friend. The fact that the vampire had not taken it meant something was seriously wrong.

  “Maybe she was taken. Who goes out without their phone nowadays?”

  The bang on the front door made us both turn around. Putting a finger over my mouth, I indicated that Dave be silent.

  He nodded before stepping towards the door and out into the hallway. Glancing over the top of the stairs, his tight shoulders relaxed as a voice called up.

  “Gemma?”

  The male voice was instantly recognisable. Leaving Brianna’s room with the intention of coming back to take her phone, I joined Dave at the top of the stairs.

  Standing at the bottom, Archie Roberts had his hands on his hips and a frown on his face.

  “Do you know where she is?” I barked before he had a chance to talk.

  Shaking his head, he sighed as he put his hands in his pocket and brought out his phone. “She sent me a text after I...”

  His sentence trailed off as he shrugged, his eyes red from where he’d obviously not slept.

  Gritting my teeth, I held myself stiff, resisting the urge to fly down the stairs and pound his face in. He might be a handsome vampire bookworm, but he had spoken to the Harveys. Something wasn’t right, and I had to find out what that was.

  “I think you had better come to headquarters for an interview,” Dave said, getting out his handcuffs.

  Placing my fingers around my partner’s wrist, I stilled him, my eyebrows raised when he looked at me. Yes, in normal circumstances, the first thing I would do would be to take the vampire for questioning. However, if that happened, Dave could not tell me what was said. I had to know more about Brianna. And the Harveys.

  “Shall we?”

  Before trotting down the stairs, I waved Dave towards the bedroom. He knew what I wanted him to do, even though his eyebrows pulled low.

  He wouldn’t like me questioning Archie on my own, but it was the best time to get as much information as possible.

  “I want to save Brianna as much as you do,” Archie muttered as we walked into the living area and sat on Brianna’s red leather couch.

  Tucking my hair behind my ear, I glanced at him. Brianna had believed that Archie would make a good match for me. Part of me understood why she thought that, considering he was a very well read vampire who knew the classics. It really was easy to see why my friend had believed we were soulmates. Sometimes, a tiny part of me wondered if I should have given him a chance.

  “All done.” Dave thundered into the room, almost falling over as his big frame collided with the wooden door frame.

  When Dave came into the picture, something about the illusionist witch made my anxiety calm.

  “Tell us everything,” I ordered the vampire, who sat forward and leant his elbows on his knees.

  Clearing his throat, Archie glanced between us as Dave sat in an armchair. The illusionist witch stared at the vampire, his dark eyes analysing his every movement.

  “Three days ago, I got a phone call from Lucien Harvey. He said that if I met up with him, he would help me end the Paranormals for Freedom terrorist group.”

  My fingers gripped the edge of the couch as Archie sat back and folded his grey suit jacket over his flat stomach.

  “Go on.”

  I wasn’t going to give him a chance to think too much about what he wanted to say. There was a risk that the vampire might concoct a story that wasn’t true if he was allowed too much leeway with his thoughts.

  “Of course, I didn’t know who he was. He claimed that a vampire friend of mine gave him my number. He asked that I bring Brianna with me to the meeting, thinking that she was also interested in taking down Joseph Cambridge’s terrorist group.”

  Getting up from the sofa, I started to pace. “Joseph Cambridge is in custody...” I didn’t bother to go into detail about the fact that I was currently on sabbatical from Paranormal MI5, that information would be kept on the quiet. “... Why bother with the PFF when its leader is behind bars?”

  Shifting slightly, Archie licked his lips before he answered. “Do you really think that the group will stand down just because two of its leaders have been caught? How often do you see a terrorist group fall apart just because of a small mishap?”

  Okay, so the vampire had a point. The PFF was probably still aiming to carry out the stupid ritual on the equinox. How that involved me, I didn’t know. I hadn’t forgotten about it, but my mind had been split between the two people that mattered most. If I didn’t find Brianna, she would more than likely be murdered. If she hadn’t already.

  “Do you know what they’re planning to do on the equinox?”

  Sticking his foot out, Dave almost tripped me up. The ploy was to stop me from pacing, but my lips sneered as he smiled unapologetically. Was the illusionist witch scared that I had asked too much?

  “I have no idea what they have planned. Obviously, we know that they want to disconnect you from the ley line. Whatever they have devised can probably be performed without Joseph and Helen Cambridge.”

  Waving my hand in dismissal, I brought the conversation back to our main point. “Let’s talk about Brianna. Did you take her along to a meeting?”

  “Yes. Later that day, both Brianna and I met with Lucien Harvey. I quickly realised that he wasn’t reliable, so I persuaded Brianna to leave as soon as possible. Lucien wanted us to lead you into a trap. Of course, we both left pretty quickly, sneaking out of the back of the restaurant.”

  “And why didn’t you come to me? If you knew that the man was after me, why not ring me and tell me?”

  Chewing the inside of his lip, Archie stared at me. “I tried. Your phone wasn’t attainable for some reason.”

  Glancing at Dave, I narrowed my gaze on him. He looked to the ceiling and the floor but refused to make eye contact with me. The agent had always taken care of my communication. He was the one who controlled who could contact me. Which meant that he had stopped Archie Roberts from warning me about Lucien Harvey.

  “Dave?”

  Placing a hand over his chest, Dave finally looked at me. “I knew that you weren’t interested in Archie, so I made sure to keep your line clear for work.”

  My hands clenched into fists at my side. If my partner was going to protect me, he had to do it wisely. By not allowing Archie to contact me, he had placed both myself and my friend at risk.

  “To be fair,” Archie interrupted. “He didn’t give me his real name. It wasn’t until I was told by a friend that Lucien had been dragged to hell that I realised who he was.”

  “Wasn’t that meant to be confidential?” I asked Dave.

  My partner shrugged, his head shaking at the same time. “The underground isn’t a bed of love and light, meaning that everything that happens often gets shared. Especially when a witch calls a demon to drag a serial killer to hell.”

  My snarl was vocal this time. Dave was not helping our informal interrogation of Archie. And, it had been his fault that Archie wasn’t able to tell me about Lucien’s plan to use my friend to lure me to him. He had still managed to lure me to him anyway, but it wasn’t the point.

  “Brianna was troubled as we came home,” Archie went on, distracting me from Dave’s incompetence. “She said that she felt like she knew the man but couldn’t place him.”

  “Did she say any more?” Going to the window, I looked outside. A man stood on the other side of the road, a hood pulled low over his head. He was facing the house, his hands tucked into his pockets.

  “No,” Archie began, his voice tight. “I dropped her home and haven’t seen her since. That’s why I rang the number I had for Lucien. His father picked up and told me that they had no idea where Brianna was.”

  Keeping my eye on the man out front, I indicated that Dave join me with a flick of a finger.

  Both the vampire and witch got to their feet, coming to join me by the window.

  “Is it me, or does he look extremely suspicious?”

  Affirmative mumbles replied as we all stared.


  The man strode across the road, his footsteps long, almost disjointed as he hurried straight towards the door... which was still unlocked.

  “We’ve got trouble,” I whispered as we rushed into the hallway.

  Just as we reached it, the man from the outside pushed open the front door and entered. He paused, his hood lifting slightly, revealing a strong jaw, a small nose and yellow eyes.

  “Who are you?” I demanded loudly.

  My voice echoed down the hall.

  Flicking his head forward, he replaced the hood before turning. Running down the steps, he retreated quickly. All three of us ran for the door, Dave and I slower than Archie, whose vampire speed helped him to thrust out into the street.

  “Get him!” I ordered him, even though he wasn’t in my team.

  Not hesitating, Archie ran after the man. The hooded figure was fast, too fast. His yellow eyes told me that he was probably a shape-shifter, not unlike Jake. However, Jake’s eyes were wolf-like. The man who now shot across the road would more than likely be a lion.

  I had only seen a few in my time as an agent, but the beasts were powerful when they transformed. Because of their clearly obvious difference to humans, shifters were forbidden to shift in broad daylight. The humans could never know that paranormal creatures existed. We would be hunted and killed instantly, our numbers going into extinction.

  “I don’t think we can keep up.” Dave puffed as we followed the pair. “They’re freaks of nature!”

  The shifter turned suddenly, startling Archie into a stop. Screeching to a halt, I lifted my foot, whispered an earthquake spell and stamped down hard. The ground shook so violently, two car alarms set off in the distance.

  “Nice one.” Taking my arm, Dave dragged me towards the others.

  The shifter had fallen to his knees, allowing Archie to jump on him. Screaming as the shifter turned his head, his long canine teeth bared, I only just managed to warn Archie to release the beast.

  Fur sprouted from the stranger’s body, the shifting causing his bones to crack and crunch as his human form was replaced by a lion.

  Holding his hands up, Archie backed away. Dave took my arm, pulling me behind him as the beast turned to stare at me.