Page 47 of The Vampire and the Case of the Cursed Canine

I pulled out the pins and finger mussed it until it looked like she’d been out in the wind. ‘Ow,’ she complained.

I wasn’t feeling especially charitable. If Connor’s supposition was right… Not now, Bunny. ‘There,’ I said gruffly.

‘I’ll go and look in the mirror.’

‘No! Trust me, you don’t want to look. Let’s go.’

I picked up Arabella and put her in Mum’s room, turned on the TV for Fluffy and hurried my mother out of the door.

We were going on a mission – and I didn’t trust her as far as I could throw her.

Chapter 29

I drove quickly to the warehouse and found another inconspicuous parking place. ‘Remember, we are not going to draw attention to ourselves,’ I said. ‘If you see anyone you know, hide. Pick up a book or bend down, something subtle like that.’

‘Okay, darling.’

Mum’s colour was high; she really was finding this exciting. If I hadn’t been thinking that she’d quite literally had me shoved under a bus, I might have been too. I’d been itching to have a real look around the black market; the brief glimpse I’d seen before had been tantalising.

There was a handwritten piece of laminated paper taped to the door with an arrow: Enter around the side. At least they had signs this time; the organisation had obviously improved. We went to the side door. It was hidden from the road since it was at the end of the warehouse row. No one would see people using the side entrance. Clever.

When we walked up to the door, Mum stopped me before I felt the buzz of magic in my teeth. ‘There’s a ward around it. Hold on.’

Great. Would we be denied entry because we didn’t have a password or a spelled item?

She closed her eyes and muttered for a moment, weaving her hands in the air. After a few seconds she said with satisfaction, ‘Got it. Hold my hand and we’ll get through.’

I grasped her hand and she pulled me forward. As before, all was silent until the door opened and then the roar of many people in a small space rumbled over us. Mum closed the door. We were in.

I scanned the crowd and saw some familiar faces but no one I knew well. Nobody was looking at me but even so I pulled my cap down a little further.

We started to work our way up and down the rows. The first booth had nothing but packaged herbs. I had no idea what they were for, but Mum exclaimed when she saw something. ‘Oh my, how much for this?’ she asked the vendor.

The vendor squinted at it. ‘Balm of Gilead is forty.’

Mum reached into her pocketbook and pulled out two twenties.

The vendor’s hood fell back as he took the money. ‘Hey, you look familiar,’ I said, trying for casual. ‘Do you know Jeff?’

‘Not well. Jeff keeps to himself.’ The answer was terse and abrupt, not inviting any further conversation.

We walked to the next booth. ‘This was incredibly cheap,’ Mum said happily. ‘It grows in North America, so it’s twice as much at home.’

‘Good stuff,’ I said aloud. Did you push me into a bus? I said in my head. It was harder to concentrate than I’d thought it would be and I railed at myself. I had to focus for Fluffy’s sake. We needed to find the curser and stop them. If anyone else was cursed, they’d get the remaining alpine azalea and Fluffy would be shit out of luck.

The next few booths were also dead ends but the corner booth was selling grimoires like Jeff’s had. Mum started examining the volumes, which gave us an excuse for loitering. ‘Hi,’ I said to the stallholder. ‘I was here the other day looking for a grimoire at Jeff’s booth. I wasn’t sure about buying it, but now I can’t see Jeff anywhere.’

‘What was the grimoire?’ The vendor looked at me suspiciously.

I quickly accessed my memory. ‘The Arrowheads Grimoire,’ I said promptly. ‘I think its latest owner was R. Wylor-Owen.’

Mum, who was scanning through a book, slammed it closed. The seller and I both jumped. ‘This is a fake grimoire!’ she protested loudly, glaring at the man. She wagged her finger at him. ‘You shouldn’t sell false wares – they could be dangerous to the uninitiated.’

‘Keep your voice down, please,’ he hissed as he looked around. ‘It’s not fake. All of my stock has been verified.’

‘By whom? An internet witch? Hmph.’

‘It’s okay, Mum, there’s another seller on the other side of the room. We’ll check there,’ I said, trying to prevent a scene.

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