Half Past the Witching Hour (Paranormal Personnel Saga #3) (3 page)

‘So, are we feeling better today?’ Kate asked, eyeing me from head to toe as soon as I walked through the door.

‘Fantastic, absolutely brilliant, never felt better,’ I sang, smiling widely. Kate pinched her eyebrows, looking at me like she knew that I was giving her a lot of crap.

‘Good, so I guess you’re ready then?’ she asked, while I flopped in my chair.

‘Ready for what?’

‘Our meeting with Kelsie and Lucinda, you know, in an hour or so?’

I stared blankly at her for more than ten seconds wondering what the hell she was talking about.

What meeting with Lucinda and Kelsie?

I wanted to slap myself. Instead I took my diary out and turned to today’s date. Kate was right. The meeting with Lucinda Grabovsky was set for today, marked in red on my calendar. My chest heaved as I took a deep breath. Lucinda was going to want facts and figures. I was screwed because the meeting was in an hour and I was completely unprepared.

Unfortunately this was just the beginning of today’s nightmare.

I hope that Jasper isn’t involved. I don’t think I can deal with him right now.

‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ Kate repeated, after I stopped turning the pages in my diary. Sweat was soaking my clothes, as the images of me on my own kitchen floor covered with blood flashed in front of my eyes. I glanced at Kate, who wasn’t typing anymore and was staring at me with a baffled expression on her face.

‘Fine, fine. Just getting ready,’ I replied and started going through reports that I needed for the meeting. My mind was like a sponge soaked with fear, and I couldn’t concentrate on all the figures and numbers that were in front of me. It wasn’t long before Alexandra and Sara arrived to take over our duties. My brain couldn’t absorb anything, so I decided that I would improvise.

I’d booked a whole morning off to take care of this meeting. Lucinda liked talking too much. She was intense and always needed to know the smallest details, so I had to play like I was prepared.

Katy kept looking at me in the taxi, while I muttered to myself.

‘I’m fine, seriously, so stop looking at me like that. I’m going over what to say to Lucinda in my head,’ I said, giving Kate a warm smile, but I wasn’t very good at faking how I felt.

‘Maybe you’re nervous because we’re going to “his” company,’ she said, avoiding eye contact.

I sighed and shook my head. Kate was wrong. I wasn’t nervous because we were on our way to my ex-boyfriend’s company, the perfect and handsome half vampire, half human Nathaniel La Caz. I was distracted because I woke up on the floor in my own living room with no recollection of what happened to me and why my hands were covered with blood.

‘No, I’m not worried about him. Nathaniel is in Geneva, so he can’t show up unexpectedly. He isn’t a problem. ’

‘Whatever you say,’ Kate muttered, looking annoyed that I didn’t want to tell her what my problem was. ‘I’m your friend, Julia, and I know when you’re telling me porkies.’

Kate’s witchy nose was excellent, but I refused to look at her. It was easier to lie for now.

I kept telling myself that my morning scene from the movie
Saw
hadn’t actually occurred, and the last thing I wanted was to get Kate involved with my outbreak of madness. We were getting closer to La Caz Corporation and I still couldn’t believe that this whole meeting had slipped my mind.

Forty minutes later, Todd, the usual security officer, welcomed us with a smile, stating that Miss Grabovksy was expecting us in her office. My stomach made a small contraction as we both walked into the lift. Sweat started gathering under my arms and across my forehead when incredibly warm and sexy thoughts about Nathaniel, my ex, and me rolled up in front of my eyes. I tried to shake myself back to reality, knowing that this was the ugly past and there was no point dwelling on it. I reminded myself I had a new boyfriend, a fun, loving and incredibly caring man that was doing everything in his power to make me happy. I was a freaking moron.

‘Are you sure that you all right? You look a bit pale.’ Kate continued interrogating me while I did everything I could to breathe steadily.

‘I’m worried about Quentin and that unknown spell that struck him,’ I lied, hoping to distract her from what was actually happening to me.

‘Yeah, I asked my mother about that. She said the only kinds of people that could produce such spells are wizards and witches. Have you thought about Jasper?’

I swallowed hard.

I hope that Jasper isn’t involved. I don’t think I can deal with him right now.

Jasper was my other ex who wasn’t particularly stable emotionally. A couple of months ago he murdered my bodyguard in order to deliver me Caleb McGregor, a vampire who wanted to ruin Nathaniel La Caz. Jasper didn’t go through with his plan and in the end he saved me life. We agreed to stay away from each other from then on, and I really hoped he was planning to stick to his word. Now after hearing Kate, I wasn’t so sure.

‘I haven’t seen him since that night a few months ago. Police are still after him for some other offences, but hey, anything is possible when it comes to Jasper.’

‘Your father should place those policemen back outside your apartment, just in case.’

’Are you kidding me? They were useless. If I’m attacked I think I could use my own power to defend myself rather than relying on officers who can’t even stay awake in the night,’ I said, laughing, remembering when I had snuck out to Nathaniel under their watch and they didn’t even notice.

Speaking of magic, for some reason my power was lifeless again. There was no energy, no tingling. Exactly like after the night Quentin ended up in the hospital. The loss of my excess magic made me feel paranoid, but my thoughts were soon interrupted by our best friend Kelsie, who waited for us on the fourth floor.

‘What took you guys so long? Lucinda has been ranting about this meeting all morning. I was considering stealing some earplugs from production,’ Kelsie complained, eyeing both of us with impatience. Kelsie was a shifter, a very beautiful shifter. As usual, she was rocking with her sexy look. Her skin was radiant, her glossy long black hair tied nicely in the back, and she was dressed in a grey suit.

‘Julia is having a bad day and she doesn’t want to say what’s wrong,’ Kate announced, giving me a stern look.

Busted.

‘Julia, come on, just tell us. You know that you can’t look so miserable in front of the mermaid monster. She might report it to him,’ Kelsie warned me.

It was understandable that my friends were worried, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell them about the blood on my hands. To some extent Kelsie was right. Lucinda was my ex’s HR director and she liked ranting about him when I was around. It didn’t matter that he was currently out of the country. There was a possibility that she was secretly in love with him and was trying to make me feel even more miserable.

‘Kate is exaggerating as usual. I’m fine, just worried about Quentin and his magic.’

Why do I keep lying to them? You’re pathetic.

‘That handsome giant of yours is going to be all right, but if you want I can talk to Kevin. He could ask some of his friends and find out about the cure,’ Kelsie suggested.

I was just about to ask her what her new shifter boyfriend knew about giant magic, when we were interrupted by Lucinda Grabovsky.

The HR director was a full-blooded mermaid, but she looked far from the stereotypical appearance of a beautiful, radiant water creature. Mermaids swam at least three days a week to keep their skin looking healthy, but Lucinda enjoyed food more than anything else. Her skin was almost grey, her eyes heavy and bloodshot. She obviously didn’t care about her appearance. Today she wore a blue two-piece suit that made her look even paler and more like a vampire.

‘Ladies, why are you all standing by the elevator? Miss Crowford, I told you to bring them to my office first,’ Lucinda fumed, frowning at Kelsie. She’d put on a little weight since the last time I saw her. She swept her stern look over us all and stopped on me, probably wondering if I was still coping with being away from Nathaniel.

‘No, Miss Grabovsky, you told me we had to go down to production.’ Kelsie didn’t take any crap from Lucinda and she was the only person I knew that wasn’t afraid of her.

‘I never said such a thing, Miss Crowford. Now let’s go; I have reports to run,’ Lucinda said, packing herself to the lift.

She pressed the lowest floor while we all squeezed inside. I didn’t get why she wanted me to see the production area of the company. When I came in a few months ago, Kelsie asked to give me a tour, and introduced me to a shift manager. I knew Nathaniel’s factory well. He’d showed me around himself when we started working together. I hadn’t been here since last year, but I didn’t believe it was necessary for me to see the new production.

‘So, Miss Taylor, how are you?’ Lucinda asked.

‘Um, fine, great actually, working most of the time.’ I replied in a small voice, hoping that this lift would move faster.

‘Work is important, but you need to relax a little as well,’ she said, pausing. ‘You know, I always kept telling Mr. La Caz to separate work life from his private life. He didn’t listen and now, poor thing, he had to travel to Paris to see that specialist. Apparently he was so overworked that he collapsed.’

I had to squeeze the handle in the elevator to keep it together. I knew that she would bring Nathaniel up. She obviously liked torturing me with information about my perfectly handsome and rich ex-boyfriend who broke my heart. Kelsie and Kate were staring at me so intently as if they feared I was going to let go of my magic and involuntary change Lucinda into a frog. On the contrary, my magic was absent, but my heart was pounding. I didn’t feel like myself without the tingling and cracks of magical current that were part of me.

‘Julia is taking care of her new boyfriend, so she surely knows how to separate working and private life herself,’ Kelsie said with her sweet voice.

Lucinda looked at her, raising her perfectly shaped eyebrows in astonishment, but didn’t say anything else. It was the first time I’d seen her lost for words. I guess she couldn’t quite believe that I managed to replace perfect Nathaniel.

The elevator took us to the lowest level. No one was working in that part of the factory today and I was curious to know how many people she was looking to employ, since it was my job to find them for her. But when we reached the production level, my anxiety flared up a little more. I was freaking out that I might have hurt someone, maybe unknowingly cast a spell, and that was why my body had shut down the magic.

‘The company came up with something new and exclusive,” Lucinda said. “We are still doing research, but I want you to meet the production manager in charge of this project. We are expecting a lot of orders, and we need to know how many more workers you can supply.’ She bragged, showing us around a large open space with a number of machines and the new production line. I kept wondering if we were underground. I had no idea that Nathaniel had managed to create such efficient rooms; the building seemed like it had limited space.

‘What kind of numbers are we talking about here?’ I asked, as she kept pointing at the stations and the positions that she was planning to recruit for.

‘Twenty-five paranormals to start with and then we will see. The production will expand significantly in the next few months. Magic shot had a tremendous success, when Mr. La Caz—’

Lucinda stopped talking and nearly fell down, but I caught her arm, regaining my own balance.

‘Oh, thank you, Miss Taylor. There is some spillage out here,’ Lucinda said.

This part of production was filled with heavy machinery and the lighting was poor. I walked in some liquid on the floor; my heels were smudged in it. Inhaling, I smelled a heavy metallic scent and noticed the air around us was thick with floating magic. My fingers started crackling with electricity, which didn’t seem to be created by me. I felt a little dizzy.

‘Mrs. Grabovsky… are you all right?’ Kelsie asked. ‘I brought a flashlight with me. I know that you said that you didn’t want to put all the lights on.’

‘Yes, great, at least you made yourself useful today. Point it at the floor to see what we are dealing with,’ Lucinda ordered.

Kelsie brought the flashlight to her face and gave us all her fake smile before she pointed at the spillage on the floor. Then we heard a terrifying scream and saw a body lying in a pool of blood in front of us. Lucinda screamed again, collapsing straight away.

‘I’m going to switch on the main generator,’ Kelsie shouted, running away with the light, not too bothered that her boss had just passed out. Kate grabbed my hand, and a minute later all the lights came on. Somehow I forced myself not to scream, but the shock passed right through me, curling my toes.

Kate let out a gasp as we both stared at the dead body of our old co-worker Jennifer Griffiths.

‘Oh my God, is that … is she–?’

‘Dead. Yep she is dead, stone cold dead,’ Kelsie confirmed, touching the pulse. She had no idea who the person was lying dead in front of her. She’d never met Jennifer.

Meanwhile, Lucinda was on the floor unconscious and I was suffocating, struggling to catch my breath, and staring at the large kitchen knife that was right in the middle Jennifer’s chest. It looked like she’d bled to death.

Then the images started piling up in front of me and my stomach revolted and heaved. I saw myself here, holding the same knife that was dripping with blood. I opened my mouth to let out a scream, but another image flashed through my mind. I was walking down long dark street, squeezing a knife in my right hand. Then I was stabbing, attacking, and killing someone with a smile on my face. A few seconds later I felt a burning on my cheek. My eyes opened and Kate stood in front of me.

‘Hey, stop screaming; you’re all right,’ Kate said, shaking me back to reality. I closed my mouth. It took me a moment to recognise her.

‘Hey, is Julia okay?’ Kelsie asked, leaning over the body.

‘Yeah, she is fine,’ Kate replied, looking at me with concern. ‘How is Lucinda?’

‘Passed out, couldn’t handle it,’ Kelsie said, sounding amused. ‘I kind of like her that way, out and silent.’

‘What is going on?’ I asked, moving around, trying to breathe calmly. My world was spinning, but I couldn’t let Kate see that. I would normally be calm and collected, but those images shot through me like bullets. I felt like I was going to be sick.

No, no, no, this isn’t possible. I was at home. I was sleeping!

I tried to convince myself that I wasn’t a killer, but all the evidence was pointing at me. Jennifer was my ex co-worker. She tried to burn me alive me, but I would have never wished her ending up like this. Not long ago I woke up with blood on my hands and now I was seeing myself killing another person.

Maybe that was why my magic was invisible today. Maybe I blacked out in the middle of the night and murdered my ex-coworker using my energy.

Kate looked at me, obviously searching for signs of madness. ‘You were in shock, kept screaming about the knife. Right after Lucinda passed out.’