Page 347 of Castings & Curses

With her luck, she’d be here weeks, when all she wanted to do was get home and decompress. Avery told her one night. She didn’t believe him.

She left town to protect Kate and leave Gambian behind and being here was messing with her mind. Damn James for digging her up. Things would have been fine if he’d just left well enough alone. Crating that bitch had almost killed her the first time. But it would be worth it again if she could get to her before she got to Kate.

Her thoughts drifted back to the hotel room and images of flopping on the bed and getting some actual sleep taunted her.

Hah.

As if she could sleep.

Not a chance.

She took in the brick facades and coiffed lawns. You’d never know that a mile or so away there was a murder scene. Another witch found with her throat slit in an alley behind a popular coffee chain. Or even that there was one inside the holy sanctum of the pristine suburban sprawl. Well, unless you ignored the flashing lights of the squad cars and uniformed officers.

Things like this just didn’t happen in Bixby, Texas. Especially in neighborhoods like this one. It was time she took the lead, whether little miss tight britches liked it or not. She sped up so she was ahead of Cappelli by the time they got to the edge of the property in question.

“Your business?” The officer’s gaunt face was ghost like in the faint light of the flashlight as he flashed the beam in her direction.

Devi flipped open her badge.

“Inside.” His voice was firm, but she detected a quaver at the end.

“Bad one?”

“Yes. ma’am.” He looked back toward the residence and shivered.

Without a word, Devi lifted the tape and leveraged herself beneath it. Cappelli joined her letting the stark yellow crime scene tape fall back in place. Her gaze locked on the entrance to the house. Sheer curtains covered the windows. She made out shapes of bodies moving inside.

“At it again so soon?” A gruff voice ground out.

“Apparently.” Devi hesitated, but he knew she would. Touching people told her too much. That’s what made her good at her job. She reached out and took it, the images of what he had just seen rippling through her mind. It was also what made her a great familiar. Magic bonded to her like cheddar powder on popcorn. And old witch that he was, he knew talent when he saw it.

Damn it.

She staggered a little, holding the nausea down. It was getting to her. First the diner, then the alley murder, and now this. That, and the enormity of what they were facing. A demon with a penchant for witches didn’t bode well. And the fact that it brought her back to Bixby when she’d done everything in her power to put distance between them, just pissed her off and simultaneously scared the shit out of her.

She fingered her phone and thought about calling her, but squashed the idea like a bug.

Seven years was a long time.

“Sir.” Cappelli nodded, missing nothing of the exchange between her supervisor and Devi.

“You, okay?” His steely eyes regarded her; his expression no more moveable than stone. He stepped out of the doorway, light pooling out in the emerging darkness. The scent of blood and spoiled things drifted out behind him.

“So far.”

“We left the rental at the diner.” And Devi could hear every ounce of resentment curling through her words. The sulfur reek was going to take months to air out.

The evil part of her couldn’t help but smile. She could have taken the rental, but what the hell, right? Cappelli wanted to take the reins, she could just take a giant bite out of a shit sandwich and like it.

He nodded once at Cappelli but said nothing.

Devi gave a quick nod. “Where?”

His face twisted. “Come on.” He motioned her and Cappelli inside and shut the door behind him as soon as they were through. “The wife is in the back bedroom. The son went missing tonight, and we’ve heard this may be related to the scene you just left.”

“How so?” Cappelli spoke up, the first words she’d uttered since they entered the house.

“The team has been working on identifying the bodies from the alley.”

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