Page 14 of That Mafioso Magic
I shook my head. “Not yet. I mean, we’re broke as all fuck. But I don’t think getting killed trying to protect a mobster is the best way to get paid. I just wanted to know your opinion of him.”
“You haven’t asked me if I think it would be worth it.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Do you?”
Xavier shrugged. “If the landlord gives us that eviction notice and I’m down to my last package of ramen noodles, I’m game for anything then.”
He wasn’t the only one. “I’ll take that into consideration. For now, see if you can drum us up some employment.”
“Are you opposed to stripping?”
I laughed. “No. It’s honest work.”
He rose from the chair. “Cool. Just wanted to know how far out I should look.” With that, he laughed at his own joke as he left my office.
I looked back at my computer screen, at Sage’s image on it. He was listed as one of the country’s most eligible bachelors and I could totally see why. On top of being filthy, stinking rich, he was drop dead gorgeous. The two should never meet in such a lethal combination. Still, when he had been inside of me, I’d felt complete in some odd way. And I couldn’t ignore the fact that his dragon tattoo matched the emblem on my grimoire or how the pages that used to be sealed together completely were now peeling a little. I continued my search of Sage to learn as much as I could about the man who had flipped my world upside down the previous night.
“Holy Shit!” Xavier exclaimed.
I jumped in my seat, my heart leaping into my throat at his outburst. “What?” I yelled.
He came running into my office, his cell phone in hand. He came around my desk and showed me the article he’d been reading. I took the phone from him and started reading myself. “Holy shit” indeed.
“What do you think that means?” Xavier asked, gesturing to his phone.
“I… I’m not sure,” I said, still reading to gather all of the details. Once I was done, I handed Xavier back his phone and shook my head.
“We did save that little girl, right? Do you think she was taken again? Who could have done this to them?” Xavier asked.
“I don’t know. If someone has taken the child again, I need to do a locator spell right now.”
“What about that sigil, do you think he was successful?”
I’d discovered that the sigil on the floor had been one for demonic possession. I had immediately contacted the Marshalls when I’d found out to check in on them and Lacey. Of course, she reported that her daughter seemed fine but a little reserved, which was to be expected after what she’d been through. But if… if we were too late to save her and the demon had taken over her body, it could be what killed her parents. I had wanted to visit them just to check for myself, but Mrs. Marshall had refused and I had to let it go. I just figured she didn’t want to see me because she hadn’t paid us yet. Now, I wondered if that was the case at all.
I looked at Xavier. “If we did fail, then that asshole was successful in conjuring a demon and putting it into Lacey. I need to know what kind of demonic spirit now possesses her and get some help. I’m not powerful enough to get rid of a demonic spirit.”
“It fooled us… I mean, if that’s what’s really going on, we had no idea it was already in the little girl when we rescued her,” Xavier said.
“That’s what makes them so dangerous. They are masters at being deceitful. We still need to confirm that it’s a demon we’re dealing with. Just as probably, this Greg Houser could have been a part of a cult and they kidnapped Lacey again to try to work some spell.” That was the name of the killer who’d taken Lacey and killed those other two girls. He was in a jail infirmary right now, when he should have been six feet under. I rose from my desk and walked into my apartment with Xavier following behind me. I still had some of the mother’s blood saved from the last time I had done the locator spell. It wasn’t as good as having the blood of the actual person one was trying to locate, but a close blood relative was the next best thing. Good thing I hadn’t tossed it. Something had told me not to, and I always listened to my intuition.
I walked around gathering all of the items I would need to perform the locator spell, and once I had everything laid out, I got to work. Xavier stood beside me, but remained quiet as he knew just how much concentration it was going to take on my part to make this work. Especially now that the mom was dead. The link to her daughter would barely be there. I dipped the crystal into the blood, then dangled the crystal charm over a map of the entire state. A single drop of blood dripped onto the map and I waited to see if the blood would begin a trail to pinpoint me in Lacey’s direction. There wasn’t any reaction, which meant one of two things or both. Lacey was alive, but I wasn’t powerful enough a mage to make the connection, or the daughter was dead like her parents. Or there was a third and horrific possibility. The daughter was dead and the demon that took over her body was having a field day with her innocent continence.
I gave up, because I was starting to get a headache and it just wasn’t working. “Fuck!” I hissed.
“Yeah, fuck,” Xavier echoed. “What now?”
“This is on me. I failed.”
“This is on us, we failed,” Xavier stated.
I shook my head. “I’m the only one between us with magic. I should have done some kind of spell on her before I turned her over to the police. Something to reveal if she was truly okay. No, Xavier… this is on me.” I hated that I had messed up so royally. I never claimed to be a professional, but that was basic shit. How had I let it slip past me? And now, because of my incompetence, a little girl’s family has been brutally slaughtered and she may be dead. How was I going to fix this?
“So, you fucked up and I didn’t even remind you, so we fucked up. Remember, I’m your partner,” Xavier said, trying to shoulder some of my guilt. Man, I swore, he was such a stand-up guy. Too good for this world, it would seem.
“I don’t even know where to begin or how to fix this mess. We need to talk to that son of a bitch to find out what demon he allowed to take over the girl’s body,” I said.
“Well, that’s a start. Let’s go.”
