Page 8 of Wicked Deeds

He grinned. “I know. But I don’t know the correct gestures for checking a ward.”

All the more reason for him to stay inside. Him not arguing about it was a relief. It might even improve Mitch’s guaranteed-to-be-cranky mood. Usually he had to try to argue for Damon to be sensible when there were unexpected magical adventures, but it seemed today Damon wouldn’t need encouraging.

I finished my coffee and was contemplating whether I wanted to eat something to soak up some of the caffeine and give me some hope of sleeping once Mitch was satisfied all was well.

“Mitch and the team are here, Damon.” Madge’s calm tone interrupted my contemplation of the contents of the refrigerator.

I closed the door and waited as the team made their way inside.

Mitch practically marched into the kitchen. The severe black of the Riley Arts security uniform emphasized his ex-military posture. He ran a hand over his short more-gray-than-red sandy hair and regarded me with somewhat exasperated blue eyes before he muttered a gruff “Hello, Maggie.”

Maia Lin stood behind him, seeming more amused than annoyed. Dark haired and dark eyed, she was much more cheerful than her boss. Though no less effective at her job. Jake Kennedy stood beside her, all tall, brown-haired muscle. His gray eyes also looked entertained as Mitch rapid-fired a plan in which Maia and I would focus on the wards while he and Jake rewatched the feeds of the ‘incident’ and then I’d answer questions.

I found myself back out in the garden, moving somewhat warily around the walls, but despite Maia and me doing our best, we didn’t find any holes in the wards.

Whatever the nixling had done to get in, it hadn’t damaged anything.

When we went back inside Mitch made me tell him what had happened in minute detail. I’d been expecting the questions and answered them as quickly as I could.

Damon confirmed his part, and I decided to see if I could make a strategic retreat while the team reviewed the security recordings. Maia had already started testing the house wards, repeating the checks I’d already done.

They didn’t need me. They all knew what they were looking for in the recordings and I didn’t feel like answering the same questions all over again. Mitch was a stickler for detail and could find ten different ways to ask a question when he was in a mood. And while he was fond of me, and had accepted I was likely a permanent fixture in Damon’s life, the magical problems that trailed in my wake did tend to put Mitch in a mood.

I retreated to my office, staring at the screen on my desk comp. I could try to work, but doubted I’d manage anything actually productive. But I didn’t want to end up staring at the damn photograph again. Instead I pulled up a vidstream, scanning through idly for some entertainment that might take my mind off everything.

The list of offerings didn’t really appeal. I was saved when the little light above Aubrey’s name in my chat list blinked on, meaning that she’d just logged on.

The system clock showed nearly two a.m. So, nine a.m. or near enough in London.

Sometimes time zones were convenient rather than annoying.

I sent her a ‘hey, you free’ message. Aubrey and I weren’t friends, but we had been talking regularly since Damon and I had returned from the UK. I wanted to know how Gwen Jones, the tanai we’d helped return from the realm, was adapting back to life in the human world. Poor kid had no family and I knew how it felt to feel unwanted. Also, I was trying to at least getone of the UK Cestis to like me. Damon wanted to digitize their Archive, the same way he was ours. Establishing friendly relations might help.

To my surprise, Aubrey replied almost immediately.

Good morning, Maggie.

I could hear her clipped British accent in my head as the words flashed up.

You’re up late. Is something wrong?

No, nothing.

I didn’t need the Cestis on two continents worrying about nixlings gone astray.

Something I can help you with then?

Just working late. Damon had a thing. I saw you come online so I thought I’d check in on Gwen. How’s she doing?

Gwen was something of a mystery. Her father was human, but he hadn’t raised her. Once the Cestis had her back in London and started digging into her background, identifying him was proving challenging.

She didn’t know her Fae mother. She’d never acknowledged her and Gwen had no idea who she was. She hadn’t learned she was tanai until she’d finished school.

She’d been raised by a woman she thought was her aunt until she was ten, when she was packed off to boarding school and only saw her ‘aunt’ during vacations. She’d grown up thinking her father and mother had died in an accident.

When she turned eighteen, her aunt had turned up at the school, handed her an envelope full of information, including bank accounts set up for her, and informed Gwen that she wasn’t really her aunt, that she’d been paid to care for her until she was an adult, and that Gwen was now on her own.

Understandably, Gwen had gone a bit off the rails after learning the truth. She’d started her university degree, but met some tanai on campus who recognized her as one of them—another bombshell—and it seemed she’d followed one of them into the realm, perhaps drawn by the thought of finding her mother.

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