A Member of the Council (6 page)

Ty walked directly to the desk. “Raymond, I didn’t know you retired. When did you get here?”

Parris frowned. Retirement? Maybe ex-military? Being in the same business would explain how the men knew each other. Hopefully, this was a good thing.

The man at the desk didn’t stand. He held his hand out flat, palm down, expecting homage rather than a handshake greeting. Ty slipped his hand under the man’s palm turning it slightly, giving a quick shake.

Raymond Stone’s eyes flared. The look disappeared quickly making Parris not quite sure she’d seen anything.

“You always were good in the normal world.” The words sounded like an insult, cloying and sweet.

Parris crossed ex-military off her list. This guy would have never survived boot camp, not twenty years of the regimented lifestyle. Yet, he knew Ty from another life. The explanation seemed to be slightly off in Parris’ mind, she pushed away the nagging discourse.

“I’ve been practicing longer.” Ty responded. His gaze didn’t leave Raymond’s face, as he waved Parris to sit in one of the wing back chairs. She sat on the edge, not wanting to sink back into the chair which seemed quite comfortable.

An ease flowed over her immediately. The oddest memory of being home in grandma’s library, reading a romance novel, curled up before the fire, swarmed over her thoughts. The smell of baking ginger-snaps filled her nose. She fought to stay in the present.

“Charms?” Ty snapped his fingers. Parris found herself focused on the man sitting behind the desk. Ty laid his hand on her knee. His warmth steadied her, making her calm, not catatonic like she’d been a minute ago.

“Can’t blame a man for trying.”

Parris touched Ty’s hand, and he turned his gaze to her. “What the heck is going on here?”

“Just breathe.” He squeezed her leg giving her a quick smile before pulling the letter from his jacket pocket. He slid the paper across the desk. “We’re here to clear up this problem.”

Parris noticed that Raymond seemed to watch them intently. He pointed together his index fingers pressing them against his lips. He leaned back in his chair, not even looking at the piece of paper. “Interesting.”

“Don’t even start with me.” Ty growled. He tapped the paper. “Focus.”

Raymond Stone took one more pointed look at Ty before he leaned forward in his chair. Picking up a pencil, he moved the page closer.

“This is a letter from our office. Apparently someone has been very naughty.” Raymond looked at Parris. “Is it you, darling girl? Have you been naughty, not paying Caesar what is due him?”

Parris shook her head. “My grandmother, I’m afraid. She’s stubborn. I’m willing to make up the old taxes. I called, trying to get this settled. The woman who answered the phone said I was too late.”

Ty growled under his breath. “You brought an attorney, let me do my job.”

Parris frowned at him. She’d answered the man’s question. Did he want her to sit her like a lump and let Ty fight the battle like some simpering female? Ty was right so she clamped her lips shut, even though she wanted to scream she wasn’t a child. Ty had a way of pushing buttons she didn’t even know she had.

He searched her face with a glance and after she gave him a tight smile, she saw a glint of humor in his eyes. Parris felt positive he’d known she wanted to say so much more.

“You two done playing footsie?” Raymond asked, clearly amused at the short exchange.

His tone made Parris wary. There was something else going on here. Something even the feeling emulating from the soft, inviting chair couldn’t hide.

“I’m conferring with my client, Raymond.” Ty responded evenly.

“And I’m clearly a fat bureaucrat who likes to throw around his weight.” Raymond tapped a pencil on the letter sitting in the middle of the desk. “Give me a break, Wallace. We both know you wouldn’t be here on a water dispute.”

“I am a human lawyer.” Ty said slowly. “I handle disputes. That’s my job.”

Parris frowned at his words. Did he combine two sentences unconsciously? Considering Ty’s words, an intense desire to sleep came over Parris. She wanted nothing more than to lean back, closing her eyes for a second. This argument made her head hurt.

* * * *

As Ty watched Parris close her eyes, giving in to the chair’s spell, he shook his head. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“I wanted to talk to you alone. Your girlfriend seemed too interested in our conversation. Where did you find her, anyway?” Raymond’s question seemed casual. Ty knew nothing interested Raymond Stone besides his own career advancement in The Council. Ty chose his words carefully. Not a lie, just not an info dump.

“She’s an acquaintance of my secretary who needed a lawyer since your office stonewalled her on this problem. Why didn’t you let her pay her grandmother’s taxes?” Ty leaned back watching Raymond’s reaction. He felt the wards on his chair trying to get past his guards. He waved his hand, stopping the niggling feeling.

Raymond cursed. “Damn it, Ty, do you know how long it took to set those spells? You come in and wipe the chair clean.”

“Sorry.” Ty didn’t mean the apology and Raymond knew it. Formalities. “So the taxes? She can pay them and we’ll be done?”

Raymond leaned back tapping his pencil on the desk. Finally he sat up, clearly having made a decision. “When I found the file, it was mislabeled, misfiled, with a large payment posted out of an undisclosed, untraceable source on the record.”

“Sounds like you have some administrative issues with your department.”

A rather rat-like smile crossed Raymond’s lips. “Sounds like some tampering going on with the record.” He tapped the letter again. “The item aroused my curiosity. It took some doing but I finally got my hands on the physical file.”

“Again, why are you telling me this?”

Raymond tapped his desk again.

“You can’t think there’s anything except human error in this case. Her grandmother’s a flake, old and forgetful.” Ty watched a pigeon tapping at seed on the window sill.

“Buddy, if this was human error, you wouldn’t be here. Whoever warded this property hid the record in plain sight. My staff never saw the file. Everyone was digging through an old stack of boxes in the back office. Telling me the file must have been shredded. When I went to look myself, the file sat right where it should have been, yet no one saw it.” Raymond glanced nervously at the window. “My secretary keeps feeding the damn things. The birds give me the creeps.”

Raymond was right to be wary. If Ty wasn’t mistaken, the same pigeon had been bringing him messages from The Council the last five years. Answering his unspoken question, the pigeon nodded his head to Ty in recognition. The Master must not have shared his secret mode of communication with the rest of The Council.

“Birds, aside. Your staff is incompetent. Have you thought of that?” Ty faced Raymond. No need to feed his paranoia. Even if the old saying was true in this case–if it looked like a duck and quacked like a duck, it’s probably a duck. The Council set a watcher on Raymond Stone.

“Believe me, staffing incompetence was my first thought. Then I found the actual file.” He leaned to the left opening a drawer. Using a napkin, he threw the folder on the desk. “Touch that then tell me your little old lady is harmless.”

Ty smelled the mixture of herbs emanating from the normal manila file folder. Yew, cypress, hemlock, a faint touch of myrrh, covered the other herbs mixed with the normal paper and ink to form a protection spell. Matilda must have spelled every letter she sent in return to the bills, knowing eventually the spell would cause the file to become invisible to the human eye. Matilda hadn’t counted on a retired warlock wanting to spend his golden years as an overpaid department chief. He glanced at Raymond. Obviously denying Matilda’s meddling would be fruitless. Raymond wanted to know the story behind the file. Ty would have to give him part of the answer. He hoped his deception would be enough to get the man off Matilda’s scent.

He would have to explain The Council’s reach to the woman if she wanted to continue to live outside the notice of the magical world. She’d been lucky. However, it would take a minor miracle to put her back under the radar now. Bringing Parris here was another mistake. How would he have known the Department of Water and Lands was run by a witch? Ty felt caught in a web. A version of the truth was his only weapon to cut his way out.

He bent forward, putting his forearms on his knees. “You’re right. The woman who owns the property is a witch.”

“I knew it.” Raymond slammed his hand on the desk.

“A level five. Tested and certified by The Council.” Ty let the statement sink in before he continued. “A level five who over the year’s perfected one spell to save her home.”

“You’ve seen her papers?” Raymond seemed disappointed.

“This morning, after I met her. She recognized my role as hunter right away.” Ty tapped his fingers together, absently. “She’d hidden in plain sight for years. No one from our world even stopped or did a check-in for thirty years.”

“How did you find her?”

Ty smiled at the still sleeping Parris. “The girl came to me. I find her fascinating. Even though she’s human, she appears worthy of a few rounds in the sack. Frankly, I jumped at the chance to play Prince Charming. I’ll call in the favor later.”

Raymond leered over at Parris. “She is fine. Are you sure she’s human?”

“She has less talent than her grandmother.” Ty shook his head sadly. “That’s what happens when you breed indiscriminately. The power wans.”

“Such a shame, she’d be beautiful in circle.” Raymond glanced back at Ty. “Kind of like your Rowena.”

Ty scowled. He hated the thought of Raymond thinking about Parris or Rowena. But the witch had seen the resemblance, too. The two women didn’t look at all alike, but something in their aura mirrored each other. The attraction that had drawn Ty to Rowena in the first place was here in Parris too, only stronger. The potential she held was exhausting to even try to explore. “The girl is nothing like Rowena. Pretty, yes. I will have her. No one will replace Rowena.” Ty glanced at Parris dismissively. “She’s a play thing to be discarded after I grow weary of her charms.”

“You always were a son of a bitch.” Raymond chucked. “Okay, you’ve convinced me. Chickie can pay her grandmother’s back taxes. Or are you going to pay them for her?”

“My office will send you a check. Who I bill and how I bill is none of your business.” Ty stood buttoning his suit jacket. “So we’re done here?”

“Done. All you have to do is wake your sleeping beauty.” Raymond leaned back in his chair watching Ty pull Parris to her feet. “One more thing.”

Ty froze, not looking at the man. “Yes.”

“Tell your level five she messed with the wrong person. This time, she got lucky.” Raymond pushed the file into his desk drawer with the pencil.

“I think she realizes that.” Ty put his arm around Parris who wasn’t quite awake yet to get her out of the office.

When the door to Raymond’s office closed, Parris’ eyes opened. “Tell me more about my grandmother being a level five witch.”

Chapter 6

Ty didn’t respond until after they were in the car. “The wards on the car won’t hold Raymond’s curiosity out long, not this close.”

“The what?” Parris glanced around the tight compartment.

Ty started the engine. Not meeting her gaze, he growled, “Not here.”

Parris waited while he drove them to the nearest drive-thru coffee shop, ordering a large black coffee and a mocha, without asking her what she wanted. A few minutes later, they were parked in the front lot of a local park. The only car in the lot, the park felt deserted. Ty shut off the engine.

Finally, he answered. “Wards keep people from listening in on our conversations. It’s standard magic. Stuff you should know already.”

Parris felt energy flowing off him like a turbulent waterfall. If even half of what she’d overheard while pretending to be asleep was true, her carefully constructed world had turned upside down. Many things made sense now in this new reality. Why hadn’t her grandmother told her? Parris sighed, Grans had tried.

The smell of coffee mixed with chocolate filled the car’s interior. She glanced at Ty, waiting for him to talk. He seemed to be looking around the park. Parris followed his gaze seeing only empty playground and rolling hills. The park was an after school teen hangout. At eleven on a weekday, no one sat on the park benches or walked the trails.

“I guess we’re parking?” Parris asked.

Ty turned toward her. “Sorry, habit. I like to know if I’m being overheard.”

“Someone would have to have some pretty sophisticated spy gear to hear us talking in this deserted park.” Parris took a sip of her mocha. “Or not? Why don’t you explain your conversation with the tax office troll?”

Ty looked at her, appraising, before he spoke. “How much did you hear? Or were you awake the entire time?”

“At first. I leaned back, suddenly I felt like I sat on Gran’s window seat on a sunny winter afternoon after a cup of hot chocolate. My eyes closed. Then I heard your voice.” Parris glanced at Ty. “You told me to keep my eyes closed and my ears open.”

Ty laughed. “You’re good. I didn’t know if you picked up on my instructions. You looked like you were asleep. Hell, you felt like you were asleep.”