Sloe Djinn Fizz, page 3
His eyes rounded as he followed me inside. “You’ve met her?”
“I have,” I said without giving him any further information.
He didn’t need to know how close we were. We’d managed to keep the battle with the rogue Dark Fae mostly quiet, and I preferred to keep it that way. Ronan and I had discussed it, and though the thorough beat-down we’d given them would have gone a long way toward boosting my street cred, it wouldn’t do for other magicals to find out the dark fae had a faction willing to fight me if they didn’t already know. If I had to put out fires, I’d rather deal with small, manageable ones than an inferno. Of course, we’d pretty much neutralized them, but there were a few that had escaped.
“Bagel or toast?” I asked once we were in the kitchen. “I also have fruit, but I haven’t had much time to do any shopping.”
“Toast and fruit, please,” he replied, and it felt odd discussing such mundane things with a stranger who’d just shown up asking for help in the middle of the night.
As I moved, his gaze followed me, and I sensed he had questions.
“Go ahead and ask whatever’s on your mind,” I said with a reassuring smile as I popped his toast and a bagel for Ronan into the toaster.
He tilted his head at me as he pulled a cup from the rack and slid a coffee pod into the machine. "Well, I guess I'll ask the most obvious question first. How did you not know? What you are, I mean. We all come into our magic as children even if we're not very powerful. You’re the Mistress of Balance, and from what I've heard, you’re every bit as powerful as your ancestors. I just don't get how your magic didn’t manifest in some way."
I lifted a shoulder as I handed him his coffee and motioned toward the cream and sugar sitting on the counter. "I've asked myself the same thing, and the only answer I can give you is that I don't know. There’s speculation that my father bound me, but that's all it is. All I know is that when I got here, I had no idea who or what I was until I put on the necklace."
I hadn't mentioned the book to anybody. Though most people likely assumed I had one, there was no way for them to know for sure. I wasn't about to clue them in because I had enough of my plate already. Even though my place was heavily warded and the apartment itself had some sort of magic of its own, I figured there was no reason to set myself up for further trouble even if the book wasn’t a traditional grimoire. Unlike others passed down from one generation to the next, mine was empty except for spells the apartment thought I needed to get through whatever challenge I was facing next.
He thought about that for a second. "You never had any little accidents or weird things happen to you that you couldn't explain?"
I shook my head as I doled some fruit into a little bowl. "Nope. I’ve racked my brain and can't think of a single thing that ever happened that couldn't be explained. I know it defies all the rules, but I had no magic before I came here."
He lifted a brow. "Oh, you definitely had magic. You might not have known or been able to access it, but you definitely had it. There's no way you could have unlocked the power of the necklace if you didn't. As much as all the fantasy books like to play it up, you don't just suddenly get magic." He put the last two words in air quotes.
"Then we’ll write it off as one of the great mysteries of the universe," I replied. "That's really all there is to it. You said that was the first question. What's next?"
He blew across the top of his cup and then took a sip. "Who’s training you? How did you end up with a demon dog? I've heard there’s contention for the title coming from your sister, but she's obviously younger than you. Why does she think it belongs to her?"
I slathered butter onto his toast and handed his plate to him while I thought about how much to tell him. "First, Eddie and Erik have mostly been training me in magic, and Alexa and Ronan have been working with me to hone my hand-to-hand skills. As far as Brutus, he showed up one day and adopted me. Finally, I believe Drake has been feeding Lila's misconceptions. You also have to understand, she had no idea that I existed and just assumed the title would pass to her when our father died. Because of that, I've done my best to give her some latitude."
He ran his tongue over his teeth. "It's not my business, but I don't think that's a great idea. No matter who it is, you can show no quarter to anybody who challenges your title. You need to establish that right out of the gate or else you're going to face problems your entire life. And eventually, it'll get you killed."
He wasn't telling me anything that Ronan, Alexa, and Lapis hadn't already tried to pound in my brain, but I still disliked the idea of going full force on my sister when I thought maybe there was a glimmer of a chance we could work things out.
Just as the silence started to get heavy, he motioned to Brutus, who was splooting on the floor in front of the fridge while keeping a sharp eye on Blain. “About the demon dog. You say he adopted you. What do you mean?”
I laughed as Brutus shifted his gaze to me. “He showed up at the bar one day a few weeks ago and just sort of moved in. He’s already saved my bacon more than once.”
He eyed Brutus curiously. “I imagine. Having his loyalty is a rare thing. You should count yourself fortunate because there aren’t many of them and the few that there are typically keep to themselves in order to avoid being caught and sent back. He’s a powerful ally and a formidable enemy.”
Brutus gave a small woof that sounded more like a scoff, then closed his eyes.
I freshened up my own cup of coffee and was just adding the creamer to it when Ronan entered the kitchen fully dressed.
“Good morning,” he said, leaning down to give me a quick peck as he took his coffee. “Thank you. How long have you been up?”
“Morning. Not long. I’ve already talked to Lapis and your mom, and they’ve put things into motion.”
I didn’t go into any more detail because in reality, I didn’t know Blain at all. Sure, he’d passed the magical sniff test, but that was only for the most critical criteria for this situation. For all I knew, he could plan the next power grab if this one failed. Assuming, of course, that this wasn’t all a huge coincidence, not that I believed in those anymore.
“Eddie and Erik will be here in a bit,” I said as I handed him his bagel before leading the way back to the balcony. “I figured we’d need to fill them in. They know a lot of the locals and have mentioned the coven before. For that matter, we should probably bring Janelle in, too. Being a realtor, she has a huge network, and I’m sure some of them are magicals.”
I slid back into my chair and sent a quick text to her, too. “Y’all better drink and eat up. We have about thirty minutes before our peace is over and the hoopla begins.”
My friends were many things, but calm and collected weren’t usually two of them even on a regular day. I couldn’t imagine telling them about a rash of magical murders was going to change that.
Chapter 3
"Oh, sugar. This is so not good," Eddie said as he took a long pull from his iced tea. They’d arrived ten minutes earlier than they’d said, and we were sitting at the bar since it wasn’t open yet.
Erik brushed imaginary lint off his yellow Aloha shirt, a move I recognized as one he used to buy time when he was thinking. "It's really not, and it couldn't have happened at a worse time. Julie, the local coven leader, is out of town for the week. I ran into her at the grocery store a few days ago, and she's visiting her family in Ohio before it gets too cold."
Before I could say anything, the fourth member of our little witchy group joined us.
"I can take care of that," Janelle said, hustling toward the bar. She was dressed to the nines in a green silk shirt and black slacks with her blonde hair swept back in a French twist. She looped her Coach bag over the hook under the bar and wiggled onto a stool. "I'm not sure what I'm taking care of though. All I heard was what Erik just said. If we need Julie, I can get her."
"Let Jules explain," Eddie replied. "It's a doozy, and I don't want to leave anything out."
For the fourth time that morning, I reiterated the story. I probably should have just waited ‘til I had everybody together, but that would've been too easy. I hadn't wanted to wait to set things into motion with Alexa and Lapis, and Eddie and Erik had been too impatient to wait even ten minutes considering I’d brought along Blain with his bandaged head.
When I was finished, Janelle's face was white as a sheet. Rather than say anything, she just sat there with a far-off expression. I couldn't tell if she was connecting the dots with something else or if the information had just unsettled her that much.
After a few moments of silence, I still wasn’t sure. "What's on your mind? You look like you're about to pass out."
I was seriously starting to worry about her because I'd never seen her without something to say. The color hadn't returned to her cheeks, and her breathing was shallow. Brutus nudged her calf, whining as he picked up on her angst. Apparently, he was worried about her too.
"Tabitha." She looked at all of us as if that should mean something. I glanced at the guys who just shrugged, as clueless as I was.
"Tabitha Wayne,” she said, emphasizing the last name. “The girl who was struck by lightning a few weeks back. I met her when she was looking for a condo. She's Elven, and unlike most of her kind, she chose to live on this side because she'd fallen in love with a wizard. He died not too long ago, and she was looking to downsize. I was surprised she was staying here, but she said she had a life here and didn’t want to leave it. At least not yet."
My mind spun as I processed the information. It hadn't occurred to me that there might be fae living on this side, though now that I thought about it, it was silly to assume everybody had chosen to follow Caitlin to Otherworld.
"Are you absolutely sure she died?" Ronan asked.
It was a good question. Before I jumped to any conclusions, I wanted to make sure the information was accurate.
Before Janelle could answer, Erik piped up. "She definitely died. I didn't know she was fae, but I remember reading about it in the paper. I didn't think a whole lot about it because lightning strikes aren't that uncommon here."
"The same goes for LA," Blain said, plucking a piece of melon off the fruit tray I'd brought out. "We probably wouldn't have thought anything about Charles’s death either if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. I mean, it would have been weird but not outside the realm of believability. It happens."
Eddie turned to him, his expression sad. "I'm really sorry about your friend, and I'm glad you escaped."
I poured myself a glass of tea just to have something to do with my hands while my mind worked through the situation. "I was already planning to call Caitlin, but now that's at the top of my list. She has to know, and I need to find out how many other Fae are living on this side."
Eddie drained the rest of his tea and motioned toward the beer taps. Apparently, it was time to switch it up despite the early hour. "Not many, I'd venture to say. They're a clannish people and tend to stick together. Most of them wouldn't choose to live among humans if they didn't have to."
It's not like I could blame them, even if it was just a choice between the two worlds. I'd been to Otherworld, and though there were pixies that would take a chunk out of you with their teeth, trolls that would smash you like a bag of chips, and dark fae who may or may not be plotting my downfall, the world itself was gorgeous. All the colors were brighter, the food was better, and the weather was perfect all year round. The entire fantastical world had a feeling of community I'd never experienced before.
I automatically pulled a cocktail napkin from the caddy in front of me and slid it in front of Eddie before I pulled his beer. "I couldn't imagine not wanting to live there either, but if Tabitha chose to stay in our world, it's fair to assume others did, too. I need to get upstairs and call Caitlin."
"Pour me one of those too, sweetie, and put some tomato juice in it,” Erik said. “We'll start making some phone calls, too. We play poker on Tuesday nights with a few other wizards and a leprechaun. We'll see if they've heard anything and ask them to spread the word."
"I need to get in touch with my coven leader," Blain added. "I should have called her last night, but I was so shaken up that I didn't even think to. There's a heavy magical population on that coast including water people just like there is here. We need to start tracking them down to make sure they’re all accounted for and to make them aware of what’s going on.”
"And I'll get with Julie," Janelle said, snatching her phone off the bar. "She can teleport, so I imagine she'll be here in no time. Should I tell her to come here first?"
I shook my head. "No, tell her to check on her coven first and anybody else she knows of with magic. If this is really what’s going on, I'm not sure keeping the cat in the bag is an option. Circling the wagons and doing a headcount is more important than worrying that dark practitioners are going to hear about it and join forces."
She nodded. "I'll have her get with you as soon as she makes sure everybody's accounted for."
I tapped my hand on the bar as I rose to leave. "Thanks guys. While you're doing that, we have to update Lapis and Alexa, then I’ll call Caitlin. Talk in a bit."
Chapter 4
Despite the fact that the temperature was already close to eighty, Alexa and Ronan were on the lanai under the shade of the red table umbrella when we got back upstairs.
"I've been thinking about what you did last night," I said to Blain once we were settled and had filled Alexa in. "I think I need to learn how to teleport by following people instead of limiting myself to places I've been."
He rubbed his chin for a second. "It took me decades to master that. It's a great skill to have, but I'm not sure I can teach it to you overnight, or even at all."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Ronan said, scooting his chair around a little so I could pull mine into the shade. "If I've learned one thing, it’s that the combination of her magic and her determination make her a force. She’s powerful and she’s smart. She might not pick it up overnight, but we could at least give it a shot and see if it's even in her wheelhouse."
Blain turned to me. "I don't really know anything about your strengths other than the little I’ve heard about you, but it's a dangerous thing. Who knows where you’ll end up if you don't get it right? For that matter, unless you have basic teleporting down to an art form, you could end up sending parts of yourself to two different places if your attention slips for even a moment."
I weighed his words for a minute. "If I've learned anything over the last two months, it's how to focus. Teleporting is almost second nature to me at this point, so I don't think that would be an issue. I can certainly see myself landing in the wrong place though. That being said, I'm at a standstill in my training. Eddie and Erik are fine-tuning the magic I've already picked up, but we've reached a point where they don't have much left to teach me."
I left out that Ronan and I had been working on tapping into each other's magic. So far, I was ahead of him on that, mostly because I was willing to open my mind, but he was struggling. I could sharpen my senses just by opening our link, but he was having trouble getting out of his own head and into mine. Still, other than practicing that and working on my hand-to-hand combat skills, I really was to a point where my mentors had nothing left to teach me.
This sounded like something I could pick up since it was just an extension of a skill I already had. "Is it the same process as regular teleporting except other than focusing on a place, I focus on a person?"
Blain sighed. "That's a massive oversimplification of the difficulty level, but yes. The problem is, you have to focus on that person's essence, not just the physical body. That's where it gets complicated."
I decided there was no time like the present. I focused on Eddie, who was down at the bar, then looked at Ronan. "Is there anybody down there other than Eddie, Erik, and Janelle?"
I sent out feelers of my own, but I didn't entirely trust them, especially for what I was about to do. Exposing magic to regulars would be bad on several levels.
He tilted his head, and through our link, I felt all of his senses open up. The only beings he heard or smelled were our three friends plus Austin, who'd shown up to open the bar. I wasn't worried about him because he was a wolf shifter too, and he knew about it all. Though Ronan knew I’d felt what he had while he was scanning the place, we didn't want to let that cat out of the bag to Blain.
Instead, he shook his head. "Austin showed up for work, but other than that, it's just the guys and Janelle."
"Then there's no time like the present. If I leave an arm behind or end up disappearing, call Caitlin for me," I said, closing my eyes and searching for Eddie's essence. I found his presence immediately, but I dug a little deeper and found who he was as a person. The true “him.”
“Not funny.” Ronan put his hand on my knee. “Since you put it that way, I don’t know if this is a good idea.”
Without letting go of Eddie’s thread, I said, "I was just kidding. Mostly. I'll be right back. Wish me luck."
I pulled up my magic and willed myself to teleport to Eddie, and a blink later, I’d accomplished my mission. Sort of. Rather than standing behind him as I’d pictured, I was sitting in his lap lodged between him and the bar. Yelping, he dumped his beer, which he'd apparently had halfway to his mouth, all over both of us. I scrambled off of him, nearly knocking us both off his stool in the process. While he untangled himself from the legs of his barstool, I steadied myself against the back of another. That hadn't gone exactly as I had pictured it.
"Jules, what the hell?" He snatched napkins off the bar and started dabbing his shirt and shorts. I waved a hand and dried his clothes as well as mine, figuring it was the least I could do for the poor guy.
Erik put his hand over his mouth and attempted to choke back his laugh, but he failed miserably.
