Page 11 of Hooked on a Witch
“You work alone with an assistant.”
“There’s always paperwork and minutia.”
“Do you only go after witches?”
“No.” He wished she’d desist and wished he could stop answering. What was it about her that turned him into a chatterbox about secrets he hadn’t revealed to anyone except Danny?
“Do you chase down all people who use magic or only the bad apples?”
“I hunt the ones who’ve gone astray, such as those who use this type of scrying glass.” He gazed at her, half hoping he’d intimidate her into stopping the questions and half hoping she’d confess whether or not she’d killed to power magic in the past. He needed her in the clear, good-magic category where she belonged. He got visions when someone had performed a death ritual, indicating where and who’d died. He’d never gotten that kind of revelation about her, but Shannon jumbled his mind to the point he might not get normal visions.
“You think I’m a bad apple?” she asked.
“Are you?”
“As if I’d confess.” She rolled her eyes. “Why do you think I’m a witch?”
“I’ve always known about you, just like you suspected I had…abilities.”
“Aaha! You finally admit it.”
“I’m not admitting anything in particular.”
“How would you know about me? It’s not like I wear a pointy hat and do naked rituals on Samhain or anything. This is a serious issue if everyone can tell. We’re not supposed to… No one is supposed to know about us.”
“I’d like to see you dance around a caldron naked.”
“I’ll bet you would.” She whacked his shoulder. “Stop being a jerk.”
He grinned and focused on the lines of the highway, not speeding like he normally would down this stretch. He was enjoying himself and regretted how soon this would be over.
“You’re not a traditional witch in the sense of covens and rituals in the woods. You ladies were labeled witches centuries ago by those who didn’t understand the powers that come from being a Pleiades goddess descendant.” He paused to glance at her shocked face. Eons of past life memory as the Enforcer meant he might know more about her descendants than she.
“Who told you that?”
“I know a lot about magic, darlin’. I know who likes black magic and who does only good magic.” That was a truth stretch. He only knew when someone killed, thanks to the visions. When close to a person who used magic, he could usually detect what kind they’d practiced most recently. From her, though, he couldn’t tell anything, probably because his balls were in a wad.
“I think you like the hint of badness that comes from being a called a witch.” He waited, hoping she’d fill him in on how much badness was black magic and how much was sexy wickedness. The latter he could handle and would be a willing participant. Her using evil magic, maybe not a death ritual yet, but still, the darker side of magic, he didn’t want to hear.
“So, you’re the Santa Claus of the magic world with a naughty-and-nice list?”
“This Santa kills those on the naughty list and doesn’t bring gifts to those who behave. Which list do you think you’re on?”
She glared, but didn’t answer. “You kill people like necromancers? They always use death energy for power.”
He wanted to hit his head on the steering wheel. Would she just answer the question? “Sometimes. They don’t always need a death ritual, though.”
“I guess it makes sense there’d be someone out there designated to keep this in check. I haven’t run across very many truly evil magical people. Sounds like a dangerous job. How do you find them?”
He shrugged.
“Why am I not on your kill list if you think I’m a bad witch?”
His heart hammered his ribs to the point of pain. Best to just throw it out there. “Do you and the other six Pleiades witches do evil things that put people at risk or kill people?”
She frowned and shook her head. “We try not to get noticed. Hurting people would definitely get us noticed. However, one of us is an ex-MI6 agent who still goes after the lowest of the low in society. Guess that counts.”
She hadn’t said she wouldn’t do it at some point in the future, but at least she hadn’t misused magic yet. His shoulder muscles loosened. “I’m sure you could be awickedwitch…”
