Page 26 of Incubus with Benefits
As I explained the situation, Steven looked like he’d swallowed a sword sideways. Idiot probably thought the cops would take his side immediately. He turned bright red, then stomped out of the coffee shop. Gigi and I let out a shared sigh.
I turned to Hayes. “I’m actually in here waiting for you and Officer Cooley. We need to talk. After you order your drinks, of course.”
Gigi waved her hands, and the open sign on the door flipped over, followed by a loud slide of the lock. “Your regulars?” she asked.
“You betcha.” Hayes pulled up a seat and plopped himself down at one of the larger tables.
I followed his lead and sat down, and so did Cooley and Julian.
Officer Cooley, or Hazel as I knew her, eyed Julian. “Let me guess. It’s about Delerium.”
“Kinda,” I said.
Hazel sighed. “One of the missing girl’s families threw a fit when their private investigator found out I was in a triad with Liam and Seth. Since Seth and Liam have been seen multiple times at Delerium, they claimed it was a conflict of interest.”
“Marissa’sfamily?” I guessed.
“Yup.”
Julian huffed. “They’re trying to pin it on Nathan.”
I set my laptop on the table and opened the screen, pulling up everything I’d found. Hazel leaned in as I scrolled through the data.
“The Breach, huh.” Hazel looked pensive. “Man, I hate that thing.” Her mates, Seth and Liam, had been instrumental in shrinking and containing the portal. “Seth is going to want to look into this.”
“That’s what I was hoping,” I said.
Not only did Seth work part-time for the EA, the (not so secret anymore) Enforcement Agency, the group responsible for keeping monster and magic users in line, but he was also personal wizard to Desmon, the dragon of Darlington. If there were anyone who’d be able to find information about this, it would be him. And plus, like Hazel said, he liked Delerium.
“Seth really pushed to get that portal closed,” Hazel said. “I swear, the EA’s decision to keep it open is going to bite us on the ass.”
Despite our combined efforts, we hadn’t been able to close the portal that day. But we’d managed a containment spell, barely; we were all exhausted. Instead of revisiting it and closing it for good after a good night’s rest, EA headquarters in Rome had insisted on keeping it open for study, which was a very foolish idea if you asked me and everyone else involved.
Right now, the portal sat inside a heavily sealed and warded box the size of a sarcophagus, smack dab in the middle of a midtown intersection. They’d turned the intersection into a roundabout and built a shack around it so the EA rep could take his measurements and run his tests.
Because nothing says “safe urban planning” like a magical hazard wrapped in plywood and bureaucracy.
“We can drive by it during our patrols and see if we notice anything strange,” Hayes suggested.
Gigi came around the counter with their drinks, and the two reached for their caffeine fixes eagerly.
Once the officers were gone, I rounded on Julian. “What the hell was that you pulled with Steven?”
Gigi wisely retreated behind the counter, pretending to rearrange napkins while Julian met my glare with one of his own.
“He was being a jerk,” he said, shrugging like it was no big deal.
“So you start a fight?”
He shrugged. “Technically he got physical first.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Come on, let’s get you home.”
That defused my anger. By home, he meant my real home.
Nothing had happened over the weekend that led us to believe the culprits were watching my home. And I had several micro cameras I planned to set up and link to my wards. Plus, Mr. Kim and his wife had set up a few extra wards around the whole building. Witches were going missing, and since all their tenants were witches, it was in their best interest.
