Were they winning or losing?
Fiona had no idea. She could see that red-beard was out of commission with the black goo, black beard was busy fighting off Celeste, but Morgan was slumped in a stupor and large-beard was advancing on her and Jolene.
Fiona’s heart pounded in her chest, since Jolene was still holding her hand in pain—it was up to her to fight off large-beard. She tightened her fist against the rocks she’d picked up earlier and focused her energy on them with all her might. She thought back to what her father had always told her when she was a little girl—if you wanted something bad enough, you could make it happen if you
believed
.
But did she believe?
As a child, it seemed so simple. But now as an adult, sometimes she felt like all that magical belief had disappeared. She didn’t have much of a choice right now, though, so she flung the rocks at large-beard and jumped back.
Fiona felt a glimmer of triumph as an ember of red glow surrounded the rocks. They hit large-beard in the chest, bounced off and fell to the ground, leaving small burn marks in his blue nylon jacket. Too bad it wasn’t enough to stop him. He merely looked down at the rocks, then back at Fiona.
“Is that all you got?” He laughed as he lunged toward her, the rope in his hand. She backed up until the cold bricks of the wall stopped her. He raised the rope as if to slip it around her neck. She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Leave her alone!” Jolene yelled. Fiona opened her eyes in time to see a purple ball of energy sear large-beard's forehead. He staggered backward, bumping into black beard, who had just been kicked in the jaw by Celeste for the second time.
Jolene didn’t wait for them to recover. She thrust her fingers out, pummeling all three men with tiny energy balls.
“Retreat!” large-beard yelled. The other two didn’t need any encouragement. They had already turned and were running back down the alley.
Celeste rushed to Morgan, helping her up.
“Are you okay?” Jolene asked Fiona.
“Yes,” Fiona answered. She was fine physically, but mentally she felt like crap. Her stupid rocks hadn’t worked and she hadn't been able to do anything to defend herself or her sisters. Instead, she’d had to depend on Jolene, who was already injured. The other sisters all had defensive skills. Fiona felt like a boat anchor.
“Are
you
okay?” she asked, indicating Jolene’s hand.
“I’m fine.” Jolene held her hand up. “It’s just a little burn from the melted licorice. You can fix that up right away with one of your carnelian healing stones.”
That cheered Fiona up. Maybe she couldn’t help fight off bad guys, but in the past, her carnelian stones had been able to speed up healing dramatically. At least she could help out with the aftermath of a paranormal encounter.
“You guys okay?” Jolene and Fiona walked over to join Celeste, who was helping Morgan get steady on her feet.
“Yeah. What was that thing?” Morgan asked. “It felt like it drained all the energy out of me.”
“I think that’s one of those geodes that Bly used on me before.” Jolene glanced down at the ground to make sure all the pieces were gone. “That’s exactly what it does.”
“I’m glad he didn’t get a chance to use it on all of us,” Celeste said. “Who knows what might have happened if we were all incapacitated.”
“Yeah,” Jolene frowned. “I guess they wanted something that was in that cornerstone, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the licorice.”
“Good point. What
were
they after?” Celeste asked.
“My guess is they were after the relic,” Morgan answered. “Which they thought was in the cornerstone.”
Fiona’s brow creased. “But the cornerstone was empty.”
“Right,” Morgan said. “Which brings up the question … if the attackers were Bly’s guys and they didn’t know the cornerstone was empty, then who took the relic?”
Chapter Eight
“It’s simple.” Jolene slipped a k-cup into the coffee machine, then turned and leaned her backside against the counter. “The licorice killer must have taken the relic.”
Morgan pressed her lips together. “But why would he leave a licorice in the cornerstone?”
Celeste backed out of the fridge with an armful of leafy greens and headed toward the juicer. “Maybe he was taunting us.”
“
Mew
.” Belladonna appeared in the doorway to the butler’s pantry, and rubbed the side of her face against the corner of the door jamb before snaking her paw under the cabinet and batting a small object across the kitchen floor.
“But if the licorice killer took the relic, then who broke into the museum?” Johanna asked, her eyes tracking the object as it skittered in front of her, then disappeared under the lip of the cabinet near the sink.
“Maybe there are two different parties looking for the relic,” Morgan suggested. “One group broke into the museum and the other—the licorice killer—got into the cornerstone.”
“That would make sense.” Celeste pulled spinach out of a bag and piled it into a bowl already loaded with wheat grass and kale. “Maybe the bearded guys were the ones that broke in. They realized the relic wasn’t among any of the items they stole, but they found a clue to look in the cornerstone and came back only to discover us looking in there first.”
“That’s an interesting theory.” Morgan tapped a fingernail against her coffee mug. “But don’t you guys think it’s strange that they took several items? I mean, why not just take one item—the relic?”
Jolene took her full coffee mug to the island and slid into one of the stools. “It’s obvious. They don’t know what the relic is, so they took everything they thought
might
be the relic.”
Johanna nodded. “That could very well be. After all, we don’t know what it is, either.”
“
Merow
!” Belladonna scooted across the room and swiped her paw under the cabinet near the sink, extracting the object and batting it over toward the back door like a hockey player testing out his slap shot.
Jolene watched the object shoot past her, a smile quirking her lips. Belladonna frequently amused herself by batting and chasing little items, like plastic milk bottle caps and elastic bands, and she was a lot of fun to watch.
But Jolene was only momentarily distracted by the cat’s antics. She brought her attention back to the problem at hand, pressing her lips together as she considered their conversation. “If what you guys are saying is true, then the licorice killer and the beards are racing against each other—and us—for the relic.”
“Right, but we don’t know if the licorice killer is one of Bly’s guys, or if he
killed
one of Bly’s guys,” Fiona said.
“This licorice killer person scares me. He must be very powerful to take out one of Bly’s minions.” Celeste loaded some greens into the tunnel of the juicer and switched it on. The noise made it impossible to talk, so Jolene thought about the facts of the case while the machine made its headache-inducing noise.
So far, all they really knew was that Ezra Finch had hidden an important relic decades ago. That relic was infused with energy from an energy master, which could be disastrous if it fell into the wrong hands. One or more groups of paranormal bad guys were after the relic, one of whom had a penchant for Black Crow licorices and had already killed at least one person. They had no idea what the relic was or where to look next.
Mercifully, the whirring of the juicer stopped and Jolene watched Celeste pour the green, gloppy liquid into a glass. “So, it looks like we’re up against both the licorice killer
and
Bly’s guys. But who has the relic?”
“The licorice killer must have it, since it was no longer in the cornerstone,” Morgan said.
Johanna’s left brow rose a fraction of an inch. “
If
it was in there in the first place.”
Fiona nodded. “That’s right. We only know that the licorice killer was in there before us. We don’t know he actually found anything.”
“And if the bearded attackers reported back that we were in the cornerstone, than Bly probably thinks
we
have it and he’ll be coming after us,” Celeste said over the rim of her juice glass.
“
Breeeow!
” Belladonna’s paw shot out at lightning speed, sending the object zipping across the floor. Jolene frowned as she watched it. It didn’t look like a milk carton ring or any of Belladonna’s usual toys. She stuck her foot out to intercept it. The object bounced off her foot, then spun to a stop an inch away. It was an old, brown cork. She slid off her stool and grabbed it off the floor then stood, holding it up in front of her face. “What is this? I’m not sure Belladonna should be playing with it.”
“
Brrrrrowgh.
” Belladonna glared at Jolene as if to say that she was perfectly capable of figuring out what was safe to play with on her own.
Morgan squinted at the cork. “That looks like one of my remedy bottle corks.” She held her hand out and Jolene dropped the cork into her palm. “Yep. It’s okay. My remedies are all natural.”
Jolene narrowed her eyes. “But don’t you use antique bottles. What if the cork still has some old poison on it?”
Morgan closed the cork in her fist and put her hands on her hips. “I sanitize the bottles and the corks, of course. You don’t think I’d be giving remedies to people in bottles with poisonous corks, do you? But anyway, I have no idea how she got this. I don’t leave my stuff lying around. I just thought she was batting around some balled-up masking tape.”
“Me, too.” Jolene felt bad that she’d thought the cork might not be sanitized. She knew Morgan was diligent about safety with her remedies. Still, it unnerved her that the cat was batting around the cork and she hadn’t noticed what it was. Which made her wonder what other items the cat played with that she assumed was one thing when it was really something else. Assumptions were too easy to make, and Jolene knew from her private investigator training that assuming was never a good idea.
And
that
thought made her wonder if they were making too many assumptions about the relic and the parties involved. “I’m not sure what to think about this. We can’t assume anything about Bly and the licorice killer, or even that they are the only two groups after the relic.”
Celeste said, “Sheesh, how many people do you think are looking for the darn thing?”
“The amount of people looking for the relic isn’t what worries me the most,” Morgan said. “What worries me the most is who
has
it now.”
“Nobody has it.” A voice shot in from the hallway shortly seconds before its owner, a tall, sharply-dressed woman appeared in the doorway. Jolene recognized the woman as Dorian Hall, Luke’s mysterious boss. Dorian was decked out in her usual, all-black office attire outfit. Her short, black hair was salted with a few grays, but her dark eyes were sharp and clear.
“How did you get in here?” Morgan leaned back in her chair to look down the hall toward the front door.
Dorian looked back over her shoulder. “Luke said you girls always leave the door open. I knocked but no one answered, so I just walked in.”
Jolene frowned at her. Luke was always on them about the security at the house, and with good reason. Jolene wasn’t sure she wanted everyone walking right in … not even Dorian. Belladonna must have felt the same way because she arched her back and hissed at the tall woman, then slinked her way out of the room, giving Dorian a wide berth as she passed her in the doorway.
“Whats with her?” Dorian watched the cat sidestep down the hallway.
“Maybe she doesn’t like people walking in,” Fiona said. “And how do you know no one has the relic?”
“We have our ways.” Dorian crossed her arms on her chest and leaned her shoulder on the doorframe. “Anyway, we have word there is more than one group after the relic, but no one has it in their possession yet.”
“Just what
is
it?” Celeste asked.
“That, I can’t tell you.”
Morgan narrowed her eyes at Dorian. “Really? You seem to know everything else.”
Dorian pushed off the doorframe and stepped over to the kitchen island. Leaning her palms on the surface, she bent forward slightly and fixed the girls with an earnest look. “Our outfit can only recover so much information. We have limited resources. That’s why we need you girls to step it up and get the relic before Bly does.”
“So, you’re hiring us?” Johanna looked shrewdly at Dorian. Dorian’s company, which the girls knew was really a secret branch of the government despite her denials, had hired them to do a couple of other jobs and they paid well. Of course, the Blackmoores didn’t really need money. Not since they’d discovered a priceless hoard of treasure hidden by the ancestor, Isaiah Blackmoore. But since Johanna’s return, she’d been running their activities like a finely honed business and she didn’t think it was wise to turn down money. Jolene agreed with her philosophy—you never knew when earnings might dry up.
“Yes, I already have Luke out trying to identify the other groups looking for the relic.” Dorian surveyed the room. “Have you girls had any interaction with any other paranormal groups?”
The sisters looked at each other. The girls had learned that the less information they gave out, the better. Jolene knew each of them was wondering if they should tell Dorian. But know that they were working for her, Jolene figured they should probably come clean. After all, they
were
on the same side and Dorian might have information or resources that could help them.