Page 12 of Demon's Bluff

“I appreciate you taking the girls to Ellasbeth,” he said as he put their backpacks on them, and I smiled, trying to pretend it didn’t bother me to walk away and leave him to make his solitary way back. “Quen will bring them home.”

“My pleasure,” I said. “Let’s see. They have their things, I’ve got your keys, the girls. Car is there. Good to go.” Unfortunately my reality was that after getting these two to their mother, I’d be doing a lot of soul-searching that would end up with me exactly where I was now: taking that book to the coven, showing it to them, then probably telling them to go Turn themselves in the nicest way possible. There might be a way to resurrect the undead, but Elyse was trying to bribe me into being their unpaid, underappreciated muscle.Easy always bites me on the ass.

“Okay, Ray, Lucy. Hands, please. Let’s go!”

“Bye, Daddy!” they chimed out, and after bringing up my second sight to make sure we weren’t going to appear in traffic, I took a step into the line, changing all of our auras to match the ley line. One more step and I released my hold on our auras, and the line spat us out, right into reality.

That fast, the whispering grass was gone, replaced by the familiar sounds of Cincinnati. One moment, we were there, and now we were here, walking briskly down the sidewalk to where Quen had left the car. It was cooler with the sun behind a thick cloud layer and the wind whipping up from the nearby river. November weather was fickle in Cincinnati, and I hustled, eager for Trent’s heated seat and steering wheel.

“Spelling on a Mon-day!” Lucy chanted, jerking my arm as she skipped, one hand in mine, the other clenched around her wilting daisies.

“Time is washed and hung,” I said, and she beamed up at me through her wildly whipping hair. My heart seemed to swell. I’d thought Trent might never trust me with the girls again, seeing as the first time he had, I’d been attacked by a Were intent on city domination.

“Nice transition, girls,” I said, swinging their arms to get them to pay attention. “Let’s get in the car. If we hurry, we have time to stop for a coffee at Junior’s.”

“Drive-through!” Lucy sang out.

“Hot chocolate?” Ray asked, and I nodded.

“Little girls are run-ning!” Lucy shouted, her hand slipping from mine as she jumped over the cracks in the sidewalk. The almost-three-year-old took after her mother but had the inborn magical ability of her dad. And maybe the cunning, seeing as she really wasn’t the feckless, loud, energy-sucking kid that she pretended to be.

So when Lucy went utterly still and sent her gaze across the street, so did I.

All work done,I thought as I studied the man in jeans and a leather jacket watching us. Our eyes met, and he pushed off from his parked car. A flash of fear hit me when he looked both ways and crossed in the middle of the street.

“Damn it back to the Turn,” I muttered, taking Lucy’s hand again.

The whoop of a FIB siren echoed in the narrow street, and the man seemed to slump, hands going into his pockets as a Black man in a suit got out of the squad car and headed our way, pace fast.

I spun to the ley line, a quick check with my second sight telling me Trent was gone. It wasn’t that far away. It might be better to simply jump back.

Until the FIB officer raised his hand in greeting and relief found me. It was Glenn.

“Aunt Rachel?” Ray asked, and I dropped down to put my face beside the girls’.

“It’s okay,” I said, my smile real. “It’s Detective Glenn. He’s from the FIB. He knows your daddies.”

But even so, Lucy hid behind me when I stood, the little girl shy as the two men closed in on us.

“Stop right there,” I said when the unknown man reached the curb, and he did, his youthful face holding a pleasant expression that I wasn’t buying into. Annoyance was a quick flash over him when he glanced at Glenn, and that gave me strength.

“Hey, Rachel.” Glenn scuffed to a halt beside us. His suit was cut for ease of movement, and his FIB detective badge was clipped to his pocket. He kept his hair cut close, and he had no beard. An earring gave him some bad-boy bling, but other than that, he could be the poster boy for the FIB force: collected, confident…and distressingly vulnerable when it came to dealing with Inderlanders. “I’m sorry about this. You go on about your day,” he added as he turned to the man who had crossed the street. “This has nothing to do with you.”

“I just need a moment,” the guy said, his pale features and light brown hair making him utterly unremarkable. The worn amulets around his neck, not so much, and I didn’t like that one of them was glowing. He had way too many rings, charms obviously. His pockets were weighted down, too. “Ms. Morgan, yes?” he added, voice pleasant.

Glenn pushed in front of me. “You don’t have to answer that,” he said tersely, adding, “Laker, I saw your warrant come through, and it has nothing to do with Kalamack’s kids or his kids’ driver.”

Driver?I thought, then nodded. That was exactly what I was doing.

Laker stood with his hands in his pockets. He was human. He had tobe. An Inderlander would know better than to accost me in the street when I had the girls. “I wanted to ask Ms. Morgan a few questions is all,” he said, forced smile still in place.

Glenn grimaced, then eased his features when he realized the girls were staring at him.

“I won’t take much of your time, Madam Subrosa,” Laker added mockingly.

Damn wizards.There was nothing more dangerous than a magic-using human. They didn’t know the meaning of the wordrestraint, always going too far and often miscalculating the effect of their magic. Eyeing him, I let go of the girls’ hands.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Glenn said, rightly reading my mood.

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