Page 109 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

With Connor to my back, I walked into the den, over to the back floor vent.

“Fuck,” Connor said understandably, because of the blood pooled in a small corner of the vent cover and a disgusting piece of fingernail nestled in the congealed blood. We were staring at the blood and fingernail of our intruder. This person violated my life by destroying my home and was so cocky, he neglected to be bothered to clean up after himself. It hurt. It hurt a lot. I took a moment to let myself feel that hurt and then shut it down.

Time to get to work. Closing my eyes, I manifested a gallon-sized Ziploc bag big enough to hold the vent cover, and I was careful to only touch the sans-blood side, dropping it inside the baggie and zipping it closed.

“Oh, we need?—”

“Got it right here, babe.” We’d entered the ‘reading each other’s minds’ portion of this mated bond because he absolutely held the grimoire in his hands.

“We didn’t even get to eat yet,” I grumbled.

“If you ate more protein instead of junk, you wouldn’t be so hangry right now.”

“Shut it, Baghest. For your information, I planned to manifest a big, juicy double cheeseburger and fries. Cheeseburgers have plenty of protein. And I’m not hangry, more hirritated.”

His fingers curled into the shirt at my waist as he pressed a kiss to my hair and I manifested us to Weik Laboratories. We landed in the alley between the two looming block buildings again, but this time instead of shadows, we were cloaked in darkness.

“What time is it?” Connor asked.

I pulled my phone from my pocket to look at the screen. 2:00a.m.“Early.”

“No one will be in. We could’ve slept in our bed.”

“Lilith made it pretty clear we needed to get this stuff here.”

“She’s dead. Time doesn’t mean the same to her.”

“I’m sure dear Granny still understands the concept of time for those of us in the meatsuits.”

“‘Meatsuits,’ Simone? Where do you come up with this stuff?”

“Youwishyou had my incredible sense of sass.” I loved playing around like this with Connor, but given the time crunch, I grabbed his hand, pulling him along with me out onto the sidewalk. I supposed I could’ve manifested us inside the building, disabling any security measures, but as it turned out, I didn’t need to. As we walked, I spied light coming from the back of the alley next to Weik Laboratories. It happened like a blink, there and gone—or, like a door opening and closing.

“This way,” I said to Connor. A cooling breeze rippled over my skin. It hardly felt like the world was on the brink of ruin on nights like this with Connor and breezes.

These were the images I needed to hold on to in the coming days. My future life with the sexy hellhound deserved to be lived. I planned to live it.

With quiet steps, I led us down the darkened alley and to the second partial alley that ran behind the Weik building.

We held back, peeking around the corner to check out the lay of the land. Two women and a man stood under a cloud of smoke sucking down cigarettes like it was an Olympic sport. Given the way witches were being hunted, I couldn’t blame them.

I’d never smoked a day in my life, but if I smoked, I’d have been doing the exact same thing.

When they finished, the man knocked on the door—three quick raps and two slow. Then the door popped open.

They walked back inside. With lightning quickness, Connor jutted forward to stick his foot between the jamb and the door to keep it from clicking shut on us.

He nodded at me, knowing exactly what I was thinking, and I cloaked us before we walked in.

People—witches—milled about in the hallway. I figured if Victoria Rivers was here, she’d be in her office.

“Hold on,” I whispered to my mate, but a woman whipped her head up.Whoopsie.I needed to be more careful. The second Connor’s hand touched my shoulder, I manifested us to the top floor.

A woman and child, both in pajamas, walked from the restroom to one of the offices on the floor before Victoria’s. Air mattresses and sleeping bags took up the floor space. The desk had been pushed back against the far wall. It appeared they’d turned Weik Laboratories into a Holiday Inn.

We continued on past this band of offices to where the space opened up and Victoria’s secretary’s desk sat empty. Connor and I moved around the desk and I dropped the cloak before knocking on her door. After a few moments, the door opened. A sleep-disheveled Victoria’s eyes went wide.

“Nice jammies,” I said, smiling and pointing to the dancing kitties on her sleep pants. She blanched before gaining composure.

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