Page 17 of The Vampire and the Case of the Cursed Canine

‘Yes, but in the same way letters are letters and we all have different handwriting. I’d bet good money these two curses were done by the same person.’

‘So the incident at the dock wasn’t a prank gone wrong?’

‘Not by half. At a guess, I’d say the curse on the docks was a practice run. Maybe they decided runing rage onto Jeff wasn’t punishment enough because the runes on him were stronger. Darker.’

‘We’ve got a stray evil witch? Again?’

He smiled wryly. ‘The witch population takes up a good portion of Portlock. There are plenty of good witches– and it’s not just witches that use runes. Necromancers and shamans use them, too.’

‘Wonderful.’ I sighed and crossed my arms. ‘So our suspect pool is large.’

‘Huge,’ he agreed. ‘But, like handwriting, someone might be able to recognise the rune style.’

‘Liv,’ I suggested.

‘Liv,’ he agreed with a heavy sigh. He took a deep breath to brace himself then he pressed speed-dial seven on the phone. As it rang, he hit the speakerphone button so I could listen in.

The phone rang several times before Liv picked up. ‘Gunnar, to what do I owe the pleasure?’ she purred. ‘I hope it’s not about the barrier because only one of my elementals has arrived so far, though I’m pleased to report the new programme is working out. For now, I’ve got all the gems secured. Moving forward, after the barrier is restored no one will be a gem caretaker for longer than a year, and I’m also working on a permanent solution. There’s a small fly in the ointment, though.’

‘Of course there is,’ Gunnar responded. ‘Hit me.’

‘Well, the other witches will be here in the next couple of days. Once we’ve all gathered, I’ll have to take the gems offline for a time to … um … recalibrate them.’

‘Offline?’

The chills that raced down my spine made my knees weak. What did that mean? Offline sounded bad.

Gunnar swallowed as he shared a nervous glance with me. ‘Does that mean the barrier will be down?’

‘We don’t know for sure but possibly. I’m working on a temporary fix, but you need to put a plan in place just in case.’

Gunnar and I both had identical expressions of horror. He shook his head. ‘Liv, there is no plan. If that barrier goes down, we’re screwed.’

‘If we don’t deal with the gems, the barrier will fail anyway,’ she pointed out.

‘Goddammit, Liv! What about a temporary barrier? Anything your magic users can do?’

‘We’ll see. I’m working on things at my end but I need you to have a backup.’ She was being weirdly insistent.

‘All right, I’ll look into an emergency procedure. To be honest, we should have one in place regardless. Anyway, that’s not why I called.’

‘No?’ her voice turned sultry. ‘Did you ring to whisper sweet nothings in my ear?’

‘No. I rang to talk about curses and runes and about the black market in the basement of your funeral home.’

‘Ah,’ she said delicately. ‘That.’ She paused and I could well imagine her biting her lip whilst she tried to think of a way to blag her way out of that one. ‘We both know that the black market is a necessary evil, Gunnar. By hosting it myself, I can control what the market brings into our community. It’s in our best interests to have it hosted by someone we trust.’

Gunnar ground his teeth. He didn’t like her answer but he needed her for the rune thing, so evidently he decided to let it go. For now. ‘You’re walking a fine line, council member,’ he growled, pointedly using her title.

‘Perhaps, but by now there’s no evidence the market was ever there.’

I could believe it. By now, no doubt the tables themselves had disappeared too.

‘That’s what they do,’ Liv continued. ‘The vendors don’t run this market over several paranormal towns without being able to set up and take down quickly.’

‘If I get so much as whiff that they’re still in town, I’ll shut them down,’ he threatened.

Liv gave a tinkling laugh. ‘But Gunnar … you’d have to find them first.’ She hung up.

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