Page 51 of Deadly Avarice
“Funny, nearly everyone says that about djinn, but I always give you the benefit of the doubt.” I wasn’t sure that was completely true, but it was true enough.
Aurelia lips pressed together, but her eyes dimmed, the fires within receding if only slightly. “You should not trust a witch,” Aurelia repeated, crossing her arms under her chest, pulling at the backpack straps. No doubt the hamster was inside.
“Loretta Cicely is Franklin’s captain. She’s proven trustworthy. While I understand your animosity, I don’t share it. Your creator is dead, Aurelia. The ones responsible have been wiped from the planet. Witches destroyed any knowledge of how to create a djinn. Even they realized the error of their ways.”That wasn’t completely true. From what I understood, some information survived but was being kept under very tight lock and key.
Aurelia sneered. “Do not fool yourself. Witches only had a change of heart when theirs were torn from their bodies. If they could fully control us, then witches would still be creating us.”
I couldn’t argue that point of view, no matter how much I would have liked to. “You could be right,” I answered. If Aurelia’s widened eyes and softening features were anything to go by, I’d surprised her. “I think that’s true of nearly any species. Except maybe pixies. Brownies too. We’re all power hungry, looking for the next thing that will give us an edge in the game of survival and destruction.”
Aurelia appeared at least partially mollified. “You did not include fairies in that short list.”
“Yeah, I’m not really sure where they fall. Brownies seem pretty content with their individual lots in life. Gaia help us if they were power hungry like fairies.” I’d hate to see the destruction that could cause. It was one of those quiet truths that everyone knew and rarely spoke of. Brownies were the only other truly magical creatures. Like fairies, they were made of the stuff. While Fairy Law was sacrosanct and had probably saved the planet, it had only done so because brownies hadn’t fought it. Like I said, they were a content lot and had no desire to rule anyone. If that ever changed… Well, I don’t think any of us wanted to contemplate that possibility.
Aurelia’s gaze shifted as her body relaxed. So far she hadn’t made a move to extract the hamster from the backpack. I got the feeling she wasn’t comfortable enough to do that, or maybe she wasn’t sure if she was staying or not.
Eyes trained on the remaining potion, Aurelia’s attention zeroed in on my empty glass as she questioned, “You were injured?”
“I was. Yesterday.”
“How?”
With a heavy sigh, I related yesterday’s events and just as Franklin and I assumed, Aurelia was mostly upset by the fact she’d missed the action. “You should have alerted me,” Aurelia said. “I would have enjoyed the entertainment.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course you would have. When you’re mortal, getting shot at isn’t soenjoyable.”
“You do seem tragically fragile,” Aurelia readily agreed. “That is what the witch was speaking of.”
I stared at the remaining potion. “The rearending and running me off the road caused more damage than the bullets.” That wouldn’t have been true if not for Pops’s shield charm. “Pops is a warlock. Healing isn’t really in his wheelhouse. Pops can make charms to cover and mask pain, but not repair the body. That’s witch work.”
Again, Aurelia sneered. “That does not mean witches are good.”
“No, no it doesn’t. They’re like all the other species. There are good ones and not so good ones.” I felt like I was channelingThe Wizard of Oz. “Kind of like you and Janus. He was a djinn also, but he wasn’t like you.”
“No,” Aurelia huffed. “Janus was nothing like me. He was a fool.”
“He was also bloodthirsty and totally without conscience.”
Aurelia’s head ticked to the side and an odd smile twisted her lips. “You believe I am agooddjinn?”
We were walking on some very treacherous ground. “I believe you’re better than Janus.”
“Of course I am. Janus is dead, and I am not.” I don’t think Aurelia understood that wasn’t the line in the sand I’d drawn. Regardless, she dropped the subject and went back to somethingelse she’d mentioned earlier. “I will start wearing the alert charm again. Should something interesting happen, you will alert me.”
Aurelia didn’t wait for a response. She was simply there one minute and gone the next. I’d need to let Pops know. The last one had been activated and was no longer useful. I was surprised he hadn’t demanded I keep another on hand. Then again, he’d created the shield charm with an extra feature—one that alerted him when it was activated. Perhaps Pops thought that was enough.
My head hurt and it wasn’t from the accident yesterday. However, when I hung my head, I was pleased to find the action didn’t send shots of lightening down my spine. Loretta’s healing charm was already hard at work. I wouldn’t say I felt fantastic, but definitely better. Maybe the day was looking up.
Chapter
Seventeen
Franklin
This day was going to shit. I stared at the ME’s report. She’d gotten me an ID on the junkie shooting victim. Definitely not suicide. There was no way Lucas Davies, a seventeen-year-old kid, could have killed himself given the trajectory of the bullet. It would have been physically impossible for him to get into position with the type of gun that had been used. The kid—human—didn’t have the arm reach.
As expected, Davies had been high as a kite when the murder happened. No drugs were found on his person, but a shit ton of heroin was foundinsidehis person, running through his blood. The body had been rummaged through postmortem. No money, drugs, or ID. Dr. Stowe had been able to identify him after looking through missing persons and comparing dental records. Davies’s family had cared enough to report the kid missing seven months ago. As of yet, his father didn’t know his son had been murdered. According to records, Davies’s mother died when he was nine. Lucas Davies had an older sister and a younger brother. From what I could tell, the younger brother still lived with the father. The sister also lived in the house. She already had two children, and she was barely nineteen years old.
I needed to head out soon and give the notification. I also needed to question the family. If Lucas Davies had been missing for the past seven months, they might not know anything, but it never hurt to ask. Maybe I’d get lucky.
