Page 69 of Charming Her Monsters

The others have Rob’s face and what looks like files on him.

After a nod, Maxum greets his other friend, “Dwayne, hope you are well.” He then ushers me over to the couches far from the computers. We sit down and make ourselves comfortable.

“Yeah,” Dwayne says. “We purchased some mage spells for protection with your donation. Thanks. Seems like it wasn’t a terrible investment, considering the community center bombing and the attack at the fae portal.”

Both Maxum and I sit straight up and perch on the edge of our seats.

“I knew about the bombing. We helped clean up the mess.” Maxum’s hands grip his knees, and I’m afraid he’s going to crush his own bones. “Do they know who attacked the portal?”

“From what we hear, no witnesses.” Mal answers, “The two fae guards stationed there were killed.”

“Any leads?” I ask.

“None that we have heard about.” Dwayne frowns and pulls up a report. “It happened only a few hours after the bombing. Maybe some random asshole was taking advantage of the distraction.”

Maxum and I lock eyes, both wondering if someone was chasing us.

What if the assailants were able to track us somehow? Is Jade in more danger than we realized?

“Or it wasn’t connected at all.” Maxum stands up and paces in front of me. “We’ll circle back to this. Dwayne, I see you have Robert Holden on your screens. Anything become of your search?”

“Yes. But I doubt you’ll like any of it.” Dwayne clicks and clacks on his keyboards. “Robert Holden is an alias, as we suspected before. From his photo, I was able to determine his real name is Robert, but Robert Blackwell.”

“Blackwell. As in the infamous witching family?” Maxum stops pacing and rubs his chin.

“He’s not one of the favored lines, but yeah. But he seems to be the family grunt worker. He gets the jobs no one wants from what our sources confirm.”

“Did you tell anyone why you were asking after him?” I demand.

“Of course not,” Mal snaps. “We are professionals.”

“Sorry.” Sighing, I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I’m just stressed.” I look down and see my claws are out. Running my tongue over my canines, I can feel that I’m on the verge of a shift, but I realize, this time, it didn’t hit me the same. Usually, it feels like a wall of painful twisting when my berserker is ready to burst from my skin. Perhaps my slow acceptance of him is helping me ease the shift.

I’m not sure if not noticing a shift is a good thing. I will have to be more aware of myself than before.

“You okay?” Maxum stands in front of me, blocking Dwayne’s and Mal’s view.

“Yeah. Just the thought of Rob is enough to rile me.” I watch as my claws retract and I take a deep breath.

Maxum turns and continues with the reports. “What else did you dig up?”

“He is not all that popular from what we could suss out. He’s had a few known acquaintances over the years. Mainly it has been Galiana Collins, an older witch and coven leader and from what we figured out, an activist for witch superiority. I’m sure you already suspect her to be one of ASO’s top members. Likely one of their leaders.”

Galiana looks much like I remember from when I’ve spied on her before. She appears to be around forty, but is truly closer to ninety. About the same height as Jade, slimmer build, and only a few streaks of gray to show any signs of her age. She isn’t ugly, but she’s definitely not my type because of the truly evil glint in her eye. She reminds me too much of Talin, the witch I killed to earn my curse. I heard once they were distantly related, fifth cousins or something. If they were related, I must be more careful around her. Witches are usually protective about ‘family’ no matter how distant. I didn’t see all the faces of the witches who had cursed me, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Galiana was one of them.

Maxum grunts a response about Galiana being Rob’s associate. “Yeah. One of my people saw her with Rob recently. Who else?”

“A warlock reported having a rare transmogrification affinity, named Sloan Winter.” He pulls up a picture of a non-assuming guy with mousy brown hair and pale skin. “But he hasn’t been seen much the last couple of years. So I don’t know much about him or if he’s still in contact with Rob.”

Maxum gives me a quick, knowing glance.Floofer.

“And who is that?” I point to the last image on the screens. It’s a woman who looks more than a bit like Jade.

“Jadeana Jones.” I don’t know much about her. “Rob was seen with her on a few occasions.”

“Jadeana Jones?” I repeat softly, still fixated on my mate’s face on the computer screen. That isn’t her author pseudonym or the name on her driver’s license.

“Anything you can tell us about her?” Maxum asks, his tone devoid of emotion.

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