Page 43 of Brimstone and Broomsticks
“It was dark when you were here last. Maybe something got overlooked.” Lucien jumped up on top of the deadfall. I felt something like a tickle in the back of my brain, then watched as the demon bounced off the invisible wall of the ward to land inelegantly on his feet once more beside me.
“Can you take this damned thing off?” he gestured to his pant leg. “It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”
There was a magical “key” that was kept at the police station as well as one with the sheriff. Bronwyn could deactivate it with a word since she was the one that enchanted the device.
And so could I. I’d grown up with Bronwyn, shared a bedroom with her. I knew her magic as well as I knew my own. Of all my sisters, hers was the magic I felt the most in tune with.
I eyed the silver peeking out from under his pants’ hem. In the last twenty-four hours I’d had more doings with magic than I had in the last year. I could lie and just let him wear the darned thing until the law removed it. I could insist he just sprout those wings of his and fly over the wards. I’m pretty sure if he wanted to, he could smash right through the wards. He was a demon. I didn’t know much about their magic, but from what I’d read, I bet it made fae magic look like a kid’s birthday party entertainment. But him smashing through the wards would mean my sisters and I would need to repair them. And I’d really hate to explain to Bronwyn that the reason we were doing all this work on a Saturday morning was because I was too damned lazy to take her enchanted anklet off this demon.
“Hold still.” I knelt down, trying not to get my knees in the dirt as I felt around the silver band for the invisible clasp. With a word the device clicked free, two pieces of metal in my hands. Lucien reached down to rub his leg while I tossed the device in the car. By the time I’d returned, the demon was on top of the deadfall. There was a tiny scrap of fabric in his hand.
“Think if you got this to your sister Ophelia, she could tell us who it belongs to?” he asked.
I took it from him and squinted. How the hell had he found this in a huge pile of branches and mud? It looked to be from a pair of blue jeans. I’d been wearing a pantsuit last night, and hadn’t climbed the deadfall. Bronwyn had been wearing tan Carhartt pants. But who was to say this hadn’t been left here weeks or months ago, and had nothing to do with Clinton Dickskin’s disappearance?
“I’ll check with Ophelia,” I told the demon. I’d check with her later, just in case this didn’t go anywhere. She was probably finally getting some sleep after her night on-call at the firehouse and I wouldn’t want to wake her for what might end up being a dead end.
“Any blood or anything?” I called up. “How sensitive is a demon’s nose? Werewolf-quality? Because I’m hoping you can grab a scent and follow a trail.”
He continued to slowly make his way across the deadfall. “Not in my skillset. Can we call in a werewolf though? They’ve got an interest in finding out where Clinton is. Maybe they can check for his scent here and track him, or his body, down.”
“You heard Dallas. They think he’s sleeping it off somewhere and don’t care enough to go find him. Maybe if he doesn’t show up in a week or two, they’ll go looking.” Actually, they might not even in that case. Clinton had a handful of supporters, sycophants who felt he was going to be their next alpha and wanted to lay the groundwork for their own self-advancement. Other than that, a good bit of the pack hated him. Of course, a good bit of the pack hated Dallas as well. That seemed to be the case with werewolf packs. There wasn’t a lot of love going on there, even among mated pairs.
“Find anything else?” I asked.
He scrambled down the deadfall and held something out to me. “Only this.”
It was a seed bead. Gold with a swirl of green. And the magic of it crawled up my fingers clear to my wrist. Fae magic.
And suddenly I realized I’d been ignoring what was right in front of me the whole time.
“We need to go visit Alberta,” I told Lucien.
“Why?” He looked down at the bead as I held it up.
“Because she’s a troll. And trolls are fae. And I’m pretty sure this bead is from her bracelet.”
