Witches for Hire (Odd Jobs #1)(70)
Clive cringed inwardly. Why does this man possess so little tact?
Jeremy stalked to the door before Clive could stop him, and then he looked back at the group. “Something stopped the energy vamps last year, but I don’t know what will happen when Perry gives his boss Desmond’s heart. I guarantee it won’t end well for the covens or those who follow Desmond. I’ll be in the lobby. Sort your shit out or don’t. I’m not listening to you children bicker anymore.” Jeremy left the room and slammed the door behind him.
“As the only representative the werewolves have for this impromptu meeting,” Simone said, “Jeremy has a point. This energy vamp is stirring up shit just by using her lackeys. I don’t want to see what she can do at full power either.”
Salvatore stuck out his hand to Desmond. “I swear that our investigation into your past is paused until the energy vamps are dealt with. That is the only promise I can make.”
Desmond stroked his chin thoughtfully. “I have a second condition. As payment for my services, I want to be considered if upon apprehension of the energy vamps, there are powerful objects confiscated. One or two magical items won’t be missed from your vault.”
“We’ll consider your request.”
It was an oddly peaceful exchange brought on by both men being insulted by Jeremy, but Clive would take it. “Now that we have that settled, what plan does the Council have in mind for the trap?”
Chapter 19
SNUGGLES, OR whatever the cat’s real name was, jabbed its white paw at a chipmunk whose struggles for freedom finally ceased. The bodies at the park had nagged at Jeremy’s mind for weeks. They hadn’t looked like fresh kills, so how could they have been dead for most of the day without the Great Mother knowing? On a hunch, Jeremy tracked cat after cat until he spotted one about to obtain a kill. If Jeremy’s neighbors were going to let their furry babies roam all night and shit in everyone’s yards, then it was plain common sense to take advantage whenever he needed to solve a magical problem. Distracted by its prey and oblivious to Jeremy’s presence because of his ward, the cat froze when Jeremy pointed his wand at it. Jeremy came out of the bushes, looked around quickly for any witnesses, and then walked over to the two animals.
The chipmunk no longer moved. Jeremy placed one hand on its tiny head and his other on the cat’s. The smaller animal’s dwindling life force easily pulled away and seeped inside the cat. Jeremy placed both hands on the still living animal, but instead of allowing the borrowed energy to fully absorb, Jeremy willed it to rise over the cat’s skin. At first, his fingers trembled from the effort, but a light gleamed on Snuggles’s fur for a moment and then disappeared. To test his theory, Jeremy gathered a tuft of fur stolen from a bush Snuggles had rubbed against and laid it on the ground. He whispered a scrying spell and lit a match over it. The match died out quickly, giving no indication that Jeremy’s hands were literally on the cat the spell should have sought out. Next, Jeremy dropped the chipmunk’s fur on the ground and repeated the spell. A thin line of light like a red laser shone from the ashes and pointed straight at the cat.
“Well, we are truly buggered,” Jeremy muttered as his shoulders sank. If this was Rosaline’s means of elusion, there was no way to find her. Not for him, the bleedin’ Council, or the Great Mother. He released the cat’s mind from his power, careful not to hurt it since he wanted it home in the same condition he’d found it. Snuggles streaked into the trees in a flash. Seconds later, the yowling of two battling felines came from the same direction. Snuggles ran back to Jeremy with a bigger cat on its trail. Jeremy winced and pointed his wand toward the cat, who had no idea why another cat was trying to eat it. Snuggles’s pursuer stopped midpounce as the chipmunk’s energy dispersed, and then stalked away coolly, as if eating one of its kind was on purpose.
When Jeremy turned around, Snuggles and the chipmunk were gone. “And thus continues the circle of life. I wish everything were that fucking simple.” Jeremy pushed himself to his feet, brushing off dirt and leaves from his pajama pants. Light gray was just starting to peek through the trees, so it was both too late and too early to find a bar.
DRIVING FOR hours to clear his mind was on top of the list of things Jeremy liked about America. He could live to four hundred and always have new places to travel. To avoid traffic, Jeremy took the back roads. Every curve hid the road ahead, and it was easy to pretend he was a lone wanderer. Eventually the cars returned, and German-themed restaurants appeared. He kept driving until he pulled into the parking lot of a small grocery store that was empty except for two cars parked at the very back. Jeremy headed inside, where two teens manning a register together greeted him. He grabbed a trolley and rolled it to a small fridge filled with sodas he hadn’t seen anywhere else in the state. Spicy ginger ales that burned as hard as liquor, and the fizziest root beer his father had added to his first float after leaving England. Handfuls of long striped candies completed his sugar run, and he strolled to the register, which now sat empty of clerks.
Jeremy looked around, but he didn’t see anyone on the other side of the store. “Hello?” No answer. He abandoned the trolley and pulled out his wand. As he stepped forward, his foot thunked against something hard. On the floor, a shoe and the leg attached to it continued behind the corner of the counter. Slowly, Jeremy walked around the other side. Lying tangled in a pile of limbs were the two teens, who, judging from the visible shoulders of the boy rising and falling slightly, were still alive.