Irresistible Magic (12 page)

“Sure.” She smiled at Harrison. “It’d be my pleasure.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He saluted me and followed my employees out of the office. Link darted over to his new doggie bed. After rolling around on it, he lifted his head in sort of a nod of approval and then curled into a ball.

I grabbed the old-fashioned phone on my desk and dialed Phoebe. It went straight to voice mail. I didn’t leave a message. What was the point? I couldn’t say what I really wanted to. I had no idea what was bugged and what wasn’t. I spent the next half hour going over paperwork and was so engrossed that when my cell phone buzzed, I actually let out a tiny yelp.

Link jumped up and started pacing. You’d think he’d be used to my overreactions by now. I was glad he wasn’t. He was my first line of defense against all the crazy that seemed to follow me.

The text was from Phoebe.
I’ll be there in ten minutes. The courtyard is calling.

What the hell did that mean? We didn’t have a courtyard. But the neighbors did. That was it. She wanted me to meet her outside in ten minutes.

Good. Did she have a plan of action? Asher had already come after me once. I couldn’t afford to sit and wait while Allcot’s people stalked his lackeys. I paced until the clock read ten minutes past the hour. Then I slipped out the side door.

Phoebe was already waiting. She grabbed my arm and pulled me back into the opening to the neighbor’s courtyard, concealing us from prying eyes.

“What’s going on?” I asked, rubbing my arm. Damn, the girl had a strong grip.

“What isn’t?” She reached into her bag and pulled out her black stun gun. “Take this.”

“Why?”

“It’s yours now.”

“You really think this is going to ward off vampires?” She always carried a stun gun, but they were almost useless against a vamp. Sure, it hurt, but it wouldn’t slow one down. They were just too good at compartmentalizing pain.

“Yes. It’s the Void’s version.” She held up a hand to stop my protests. I had always refused one on the premise that if a vamp got it away from me, I would be total toast. “It will work on vamps, but that’s not why I brought it. It’s for the souped-up humans.”

I stepped back, clutching the gun. “How did you know about that?”

Her mouth opened in a surprised O. After a few beats she closed it and straightened her spine. “Sorry, Wil. I planted a silver beetle on you because of the meeting—or nonmeeting—you had with Allcot.” She bit her lip, embarrassed. “I heard what you and Tal said.”

Shit! Nothing was private anymore. I was even personally bugged. I started rummaging around in my pockets.

“It’s not there.”

“Where, then?”

“Your hairclip.”

I reached up and yanked the offending accessory off my head. “This is a ladybug. Not a beetle.”

She shrugged. “Either works.”

I wanted to toss it to the ground and stomp on it until it was in a million pieces, but instead I handed it to her. My privacy was being invaded from all sides, but I knew Phoebs had bugged me because of Allcot. She kept tabs on me only when I was headed into dangerous territory. “You could’ve told me.”

“With everything that was going on, I just forgot.” She met my eyes and I saw sincerity there. “I should’ve turned it off earlier, but then you and Tal started arguing about his agreement…Well, you know me. I like to be in on the plan.”

I nodded, not sure if I was pissed or not.

“But I did turn it off after I heard Tal’s confession. Pretty low of Allcot to involve him, if I do say so myself.”

I was suddenly emotionally exhausted. “I can’t live like this.” I waved to the shop, indicating Harrison, though I wasn’t sure she knew what I meant. “I can’t live with zero privacy, knowing someone is intent on taking me down while I sit back and do nothing. I have to take action.”

Phoebe cocked her head, looking thoughtful. “I have an idea, but it isn’t Void sanctioned.”

“Since when has that ever stopped you?” I challenged her.

“Never. You know I’m always up for kicking some vamp ass. I just want to make sure you are.”

I held up the stun gun. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

Chapter 9

I opened the door to my office and whistled for Link. He shot off his doggie bed and scrambled to my side. Seconds later we were in Phoebe’s car, headed toward Mid-City, New Orleans’s known vampire territory. I hadn’t told Harrison I was leaving. Phoebe didn’t want him anywhere near her investigation. I didn’t blame her.

Allcot and his people had their own way of dealing with situations. It usually involved making people disappear. Harrison would never let me go without him, if he’d let me go at all. I had Phoebe and Link. They were more than enough to battle any unexpected attacks.

“I’ve got the last known address of the guy who attacked you at the dress shop yesterday. The director ordered a search of the premises and I, being the fabulous manipulator that I am, managed to score the job.” She grinned, clearly pleased with herself.

“Really? And how did you do that?”

She shrugged and stopped at a red light. “I may have mentioned to the agent who had the job that I’d seen him out around town with a woman about ten years younger than his wife.”

“And?”

The light turned green, and Phoebe laid into the gas. “Let’s just say he was willing to negotiate.”

Laughing, I shook my head. Phoebe had a way of getting whatever she wanted. She could also transform into anyone she wanted. Today she was wearing a dark brown wig, carefully mussed into a carefree, college-girl style. Her tight blue jeans and formfitting T-shirt screamed student. If it weren’t for Link and me, anyone who saw her would never make the Void connection.

“I thought you said the job wasn’t Void sanctioned.” If she was working the case, this was not only normal, but expected.

“Oh, the job is. Taking you isn’t. The director ordered you benched for the time being.”

“What? And she didn’t tell me?” I scowled. What if Phoebe needed Link and me to go out on patrol with her?

“She left that lovely job to me.” Phoebs wrinkled her perfect nose. “Sorry. I think she’s off her rocker, obviously, or I wouldn’t be taking you along. But to be fair, she probably doesn’t want Allcot’s people mixed up in any Void business.”

“She knows?” Jeez. Was the Void following me, too?

Phoebe nodded slowly. “I’m sure she has informants. A good director would.” Twisting, she nodded to a duffle bag in the back seat. “Find a disguise. You don’t want to be spotted.”

I bit my lip and rummaged around in the bag. There had to be something to hide my wings. I tugged a dark blue sweater out of her bag, tucked my wings to my back, and pulled it over my shoulders. It was late September and still far too hot for such clothing, but I had little choice.

Phoebe eyed me. “You need a wig.” She pulled up in front of a shotgun double with peeling paint and grabbed a bleach-blond, shoulder-length wig from another bag.

I pinned my own hair back and turned myself into a cheap blonde. “Ready?” I asked, not daring to study myself too much.

“Let’s do this.”

Clutching my new stun gun, I followed Phoebs to the front door. She pulled out one of her magic-filled agates and knocked on the door. When no one answered, she peered in the window. “Looks empty.”

She jumped off the porch and headed around to the back. Link and I followed, knowing this was her usual routine for breaking and entering. As a Void agent, she didn’t quite have a get-out-of-jail-free card, but it was close. She was expected to go undetected, but if caught, the Void had ways of getting her off the hook. Unless the property was controlled by a vamp. Then she had to deal with him or her directly.

Before Link and I even caught up, Phoebe had the back door open and was doing a security sweep through the small house. “All clear,” she called and tucked her witch agate back into her pocket.

Link and I stepped inside. I peered through the kitchen doorway to the rest of the house. Four rooms were all lined up in the shotgun-style home, each leading into the other in a straight line. The one directly off the kitchen had dirty clothes strewn all over the floor and an unmade bed.

The bedroom. I wrinkled my nose at the stale, sweaty stench. When was the last time the guy had washed his sheets?

“You start at the front of the house and I’ll take the kitchen,” Phoebe said.

Worked for me. If I was lucky, I wouldn’t have to touch anything but the warped wood floors of the bedroom. “Sure.” I snapped my fingers and Link and I hightailed it to the living room. The rancid grease stench from the abandoned fast-food bags made my stomach roll. Ick.

Link raised each paw carefully as he made his way over the debris scattered throughout the rooms. Seemed the place wasn’t even fit for a dog. “We won’t be long,” I told him. It took me less than five minutes to determine there was nothing of informational value in the front room. Not unless you counted the stack of
Vamp
magazines towering in the corner. It was a publication devoted to humans who longed to be turned.

There were almost no accounts of wannabes of his caliber who had been turned. Vampires were very choosy about who they let into their families.

“Wil,” Phoebe called excitedly from the other room. “I found something.”

Link and I rushed through the dining room and bedroom to the kitchen. Phoebe was standing on the counter, holding a tattered spiral notebook. “Names and numbers. A bunch of them.”

“For what?”

“It doesn’t say, but some are starred. I want to start with them first to see what kind of connection there might be.”

“Sounds suspicious,” I said, heading for the back door.

“Where are you going?”

“To get some fresh air. This place reeks.”

She nodded her agreement. “Are the rest of the rooms clean?”

I snorted. “I think clean is the last word I’d use for this place, but the living room is done. The dining room is almost empty, and you couldn’t pay me to search that bedroom.” I opened the back door. “I’ll check the shed and then we’ll wait for you on the back porch.”

“Okay.”

The outbuilding was about half the size of the house. I gritted my teeth at the ceiling-high cardboard boxes that blocked the windows. If it was full of storage, we’d be there all day. I glanced at Link. “This is gonna suck.”

He barked.

“You can say that again.”

The doorknob turned under my grip, but the door was blocked by something and wouldn’t open. I glanced up and noticed the padlock slipped through a latch at the very top of the door. Better than a deadbolt.

After a quick search of the ground, I picked up a rock about the size of my fist, shed my sweater, and fluttered my wings, lifting myself off the ground. Three strikes later, the lock and the hardware had come loose. One more and the entire operation tumbled to the ground. “Termite damage,” I said to Link.

He sniffed the lock and wagged his tail.

Must be nice to be a dog. The door swung open and the musty stench of mold and dirt filtered out. I fumbled around for a switch. My hand hit something cool, and fluorescent light flooded the shed. Blinking, I took a deep breath of clean air and then stepped inside.

The hair on my arms rose and I froze. A diagram of pictures was tacked to the wall with my name in the middle, surrounded by all my loved ones and a bunch of people I didn’t recognize. Arrows were drawn between me and some of them, but not all, and some of the accompanying, unfamiliar names were circled and connected to other names.

I took a step closer and pressed my fingers to a picture of Talisen. He was standing on my porch in the twilight, laughing as Link bounded up to him. I recognized the shot. It was taken ten days ago. They’d been watching me for over a week and a half, at least. Asher’s people, if Allcot was to be believed. Who else would be following me, unless someone in the Void had gone rogue again? But why were they making a move now?

I pulled out my iPhone and snapped about a dozen pictures of the pictorial in front of me. Phoebe and I’d have our work cut out for us figuring out who all the players were.

“Wil!” Phoebe whispered harshly. “Time to go!”