Page 32 of Bombshell

The natural magic the ocean possessed was too much for most living creatures. Even I had very little sway over it when I used my own magic and I’d been born in its waters.

“It wouldn’t be a siren unless it was a very powerful one,” Santi murmured, stuck in thought with me. “And the only spell casters I know wouldn’t be able to pull something like this off on such a grand scale for such a long period of time. The volatile tides, the change in current, the luring of victims to their death… all of this feels almost…”

“Cataclysmic?” I provided with a shudder.

It felt almost biblical and that was the scariest part of all. Like when Noah had to build an ark to save humanity.

But at least Noah had someone whispering instructions in his mind.

All these people had was me and I was kind of dealing with a lot right now.

Case in point the house phone from the eighties ringing across the room.

There were only a handful of people in the world that had that number and I was betting that the person I’d been waiting to get back to me for weeks had finally popped his head out of whatever snake hole he’d squirreled himself away in.

Crossing the space in three long strides, I picked the phone up off the hook and held it up to my ear. “Art, have you got what I asked for?”

“Hello, Art, nice to hear from you. How are you?” Art’s snarky reply came through the phone to the tune of an incredibly bad Scottish accent. “I swear you and Cash treat me like your bitch sometimes.”

“Hi Art,” I greeted him, gritting my teeth. “How are you?”

“I’m wonderful. I was beachside in Tahiti until you decided to yank me from my vacation to find what you’re looking for.”

“And did you?” The two hearts in my chest started to pound with trepidation..

I’d called Art the night that Alexander came to the shop with a proposition for Effie in hopes of finding an alternative for her so that she wouldn’t have to go back to that mansion again, but it was clear that finding a magic user that could cast the kind ofspells Daphne would need to have a safe pregnancy was no easy task.

Art Nagath, however, was no easy snake. He was the naga who’d been my friend almost as long as Cash. He specialized in finding information—whether that meant via technological means or by magical means there wasn’t a monster alive who could sniff it out better than the naga.

“I have. She’s even willing to travel to California for a pretty penny, and I do mean pretty penny. If this wasn’t for Daphne, I’d accuse her of highway-fucking-robbery.”

I winced at that thinking about how much of my cash was liquid enough to throw at this witch.

Despite being alive for nearly half a millennium, most of my funds were tied up in the shop or in my investments. I could probably cash out some old bonds, but I had a feeling that the price the witch was asking for would be much higher than just money.

“What does she want?” I asked hesitantly, a sinking feeling in my chest.

Art was silent for a moment before he took a big breath and launched into it. “Well, you see, I accidentally let it slip that my client was a Cthulhu and she perked right up at that. Apparently she has quite a few spells she wants to try but she needs—”

“Ink. She needs ink,” I finished for him grimly.

“Yep and before you offer to do your usual pull and tug method with Effie, she—ah—wants to collect itherself. Apparently she’s also a kinky freak, which should have been obvious because I found her at a supernatural sex retreat…”

Just the thought of letting another woman touch me made me flinch so hard that I nearly dropped the phone.

“And there’s nothing else she wants?”

I wished I had any friends that were the same race as me left on the Earth but there were only a handful left including my Da and I was fairly sure my mother would skin the witch alive if she even so much as looked at my Da sideways.

“No, dude, she’s a weirdo but she’s the weirdo with the specific set of skills that you need.”

There was no way Effie would agree to it. Despite not wanting to put a label on what was going on between us, Effie was just as territorial over me as I was her. Effie would spend the rest of her life making the hike up to that damn mansion if it meant that Daphne was safe and I was worried that she’d become even more stubborn if she found out this new witch’s price.

“Try to negotiate with her for me. I’ve got enough money to pay for ten more sex retreats, but I’m off the table.”

“Even if that means that you lose out on her services?” Art asked, clearly playing devil’s advocate.

“Even then.”

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