Authors: SM Reine
I remembered how she’d told me that nobody called her Izzy, and now I knew why. She preferred the OPA agents wrapped around her pinkie finger to use a different diminutive.
“Ergo the snooping,” she said.
Fritz was speaking to me, but he could barely take his eyes off Isobel. “I believed you were trustworthy, Cèsar, but I had to be sure. Agent Takeuchi was high on my list of suspects. You’ve been close with her, and you had previous connections with the Silver Needles.”
“Was that why you assigned Isobel’s investigation to me?” I asked.
He nodded. “The Needles had identified Belle as my ally and a threat. I wanted to see how you handled the investigation. Unfortunately, we had that little problem with Erin Karwell first. Speaking of which…”
“Cèsar killed her in self defense, Fritz. She was a half-succubus. She attacked him,” Isobel said. “Erin Karwell and her coworker, Thandy Cannon, were Gray planted at The Pit to watch the OPA.” A smile flashed over her lips. “You’re going to have to find another bar to hang out at after work.”
Fritz looked disappointed. “I’m going to miss dollar rib night.”
I was going to miss living a normal life where I thought I could trust people. But you know, priorities. “Where’s Joey? Agent Dawes?”
“He’ll be arrested by now. Another unit went to his house at the same time this one moved in on Costa.”
Guess I should have felt relieved about that, but I was too exhausted. “So…what now? What about Agent Takeuchi? She didn’t have anything to do with Erin or the Needles. Her only crime was being unlucky enough to work for the OPA.”
“Ah, yes. I’ll make some calls,” Fritz said.
He whipped out the Blackberry and walked off again.
Isobel reached out, grabbed my hand. “I’m sorry I lied to you, Cèsar.”
The memory of her kissing me in the RV flashed through my mind, shortly followed by the memory of Fritz kissing her. I got up and abandoned the wine bottle on the table between our chairs. “I’m gonna get some air.”
“Thank you for saving me. Again.”
The way she said that turned my guts to hamburger.
Not going to think about it.
I managed to tear myself away from Isobel. Walk through the swarm of OPA agents moving in and out of the building. Bump past a photographer.
Domingo was sitting outside The Pit on the tailgate of a black SUV. He was smoking again, and he hadn’t smoked since getting married. When he saw me, he offered the cigarette in my direction. “Better not,” I said. “I think I’m technically on the job right now.”
“Your loss.” He dragged deep. The end flared with light. As he blew smoke out of his nostrils, he nodded toward the window. Isobel was on the other side talking to Fritz. “That’s the woman, huh?”
I sighed. “Yeah. That’s the woman.”
“And that’s your boss, isn’t it?”
“Yup.”
“Tough cookies.”
My thoughts involved a lot more expletives than that, but he’d gotten the gist of it. I sat on the tailgate next to him. “Your spell sucked. Everyone woke up.”
“Your friends broke the circle.” He patted the SUV. Its tire straddled the salt line.
I wasn’t sure I’d call the Union “friends.” Even if Eduardo and Joey had been double agents, I wasn’t feeling real warm and tingly about that particular arm of the OPA at the moment. On the other hand, every scrap of brotherly rivalry I’d ever felt about Domingo was suddenly magically forgotten. “In case I forgot to tell you earlier—thanks for coming out to help me.”
He grinned. “No problem.”
Fritz and Isobel emerged from The Pit. “Ready to go?” he asked.
I stood. “Where?”
“I’m making a new task force specifically for internal investigations and special ops. You can select an agent you trust as your partner. I assumed you’d pick Agent Takeuchi. Unless there’s someone else you’d like to nominate?”
“You assumed rightly, sir,” I said. I glanced at my brother. “You good here?”
“I’m fine,” Domingo said, taking a deep drag of his cigarette. “Go play secret agent man.”
I was waiting for Suzy when she emerged from the Union detention center. It was in an underground bunker in the middle of the Mojave, probably an hour of driving from the nearest highway on narrow dirt roads. The entrance was hidden inside a big pile of black rocks. Suzy emerged looking disheveled and annoyed. Her suit was rumpled, tie loose around her neck, hair in a messy ponytail.
She stopped a few feet away from me with a dubious look.
“Hey, Suze,” I said. “Bad day?”
“I’ve had better,” she grunted.
“You’ve been declared innocent and the bad guys are dead. What could be better than that?”
“Not being detained in the first place,” Suzy said.
“Good point.”
But she perked up a little. “So they’re dead, huh?” She didn’t give me a chance to explain. She didn’t seem to care. “What the fuck happened with my Glock?”
“It was a mix-up,” I said.
Anger flashed over her features. “Hell of a fucking mix-up.”
“I’m sorry.”
She shook her head. “It’s not your fault.” She tugged the rubber band out of her ponytail. Fine black hair fell around her cheeks. “Fuck, I need a shower.”
I jerked my chin toward the pile of rocks. “What’s it like down there? I’ve always been curious.”
“You don’t want to know.”
Probably true. “Ready to go?”
“
Oh
yeah.”
I escorted her toward the helicopter that had carried me out to the detention center. Apparently, Union regulations didn’t allow aircraft to park directly on top of the underground construction, so it was a good quarter mile to the north. Fritz and Isobel climbed out as we approached and met us halfway.
“Welcome back, Agent Takeuchi,” Fritz said. “You’ve been reassigned from the Magical Violations Department to a new task force. You’re now Agent Hawke’s partner and will handle special investigations.”
Suzy glowered at him. “A promotion? Right when I’m getting out of a Union detention center?”
“Yes, it’s a promotion. You’ll have much more responsibility.”
“And more pay?”
Fritz was stony-faced. “We’ll see.”
Which meant no.
Damn. I hadn’t thought to ask for more money, but now that Suzy mentioned it, I wouldn’t have minded a raise. I was going to need a new apartment—one where I hadn’t killed a half-succubus—and moving wasn’t cheap. I also really wanted to complete my
Star Trek: The Next Generation
collection on Blu-ray.
“I accept the promotion,” Suzy said.
Fritz smiled. “Of course you do.”
The helicopter’s rotors hadn’t slowed while we talked. It was ready to take off when we approached. Fritz moved to help Suzy into the helicopter, but she jerked out of reach, giving him the kind of look that could have started engine fires.
I stood back for a moment, letting them pick their seats, buckle in. Isobel waited with me.
A question had been nagging at me since we left The Pit, and I couldn’t help but ask now that we were momentarily alone. “So you and Fritz,” I said, leaning close, keeping my tone low. Nobody would be able to hear us under the helicopter.
Isobel’s cheeks flushed. “Yeah, Fritz and me.”
“Are you…?”
“We used to be.” She quickly added, “But it’s been over for a while. I reminded him. He knows.”
That probably shouldn’t have made me feel as good as it did. The feeling didn’t last long. Ex-girlfriend of my boss? The only woman I could date with even more guilt would be Domingo’s estranged wife.
She climbed into the helicopter. I let Fritz help her up and kept my hands to myself.
I took the seat across from Isobel. “You knew I was going to be assigned to investigate you. So you knew I was coming. And you still dusted me with blister powder in the cemetery.”
Isobel had the courtesy to look embarrassed again. She waited to respond until she had pulled on her headset. Her voice came in over the speakers, flat and crackling with interference. “I thought you might have been with the Needles at the time.” She ducked her head and focused awfully hard on figuring out her buckles. “No hard feelings?”
Suzy was staring fixedly out the window, Fritz absorbed in his Blackberry. Both of them looked disturbed, probably for completely different reasons, but I knew they could hear us over their headsets.
I had a lot of hard feelings about this week and I didn’t think I was the only one. But it was a new day, and apparently, we were coworkers now. Better to move on.
“Naw,” I said. “No hard feelings.”
Fritz pushed his microphone closer to his mouth. “Good, because we have a lot of work to do. I just received a report of anomalous infernal activity in Reno, Nevada, and we’re the closest unit equipped for response.”
“Infernal?” Isobel asked. “You mean demons?”
That wasn’t the problem I had with Fritz’s statement. “How the hell are we equipped? We just got Suzy out of the detention center. We haven’t done any training for demons. We’re barely even a team yet.”
Fritz smirked. “I said internal investigation and special projects. This is special. Are you all ready?”
I was pretty sure that was a rhetorical question, but I exchanged a look with Suzy. For the first time since she’d stepped out of that bunker, there was a spark of mischief in her eye. “Born ready, sir.” Of course this was the kind of thing she’d love. She rolled with the punches better than anyone else I knew.
This was going to be fun.
“Great,” I said. “Let’s go to Reno.”
Hell of a week.
Dear reader,
I hope you’ve enjoyed Cèsar’s story! If you’d like to know when the next Preternatural Affairs novel (
Silver Bullet
) comes out, visit
my website
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new release email alerts
.
You might also be interested in
The Descent Series
, another series of urban fantasy mysteries that take place in the same world with different characters. (And did I mention that you can get the first three books for free on most major ebook sellers?)
I hope you’ll also leave a review with your thoughts on the site where you bought
Witch Hunt
—it helps other readers find the series, and I appreciate the feedback!
Happy reading!
Sara (SM Reine)