“Thanks,” I said with surprise.
“Come on in, Micah’s just getting out of the shower.” She opened the screen door wide enough for me to step inside and I followed her to the kitchen where I sat on one of the barstools. It was weird being in the house again. Micah had remodeled inside also, new floors and an entirely new kitchen. I noticed Jamie watching me with a question lingering in her eyes.
“You must think what Micah and I have is strange, considering what you two had had been real.” Jamie commented. I had no interest in having this conversation with her.
“It’s none of my business,” I said, hoping she would drop it. In all honesty, it did hurt a little more after finding out that Micah had given me up to be with a woman he didn’t even love. The wounds Micah had inflicted had healed, although the scars remained. I didn’t want to open them up again.
“That’s true, but it’s what we weres do. Some of us are lucky enough to find love within the pack, but for those of us who don’t…” She shrugged as if what they were doing was a common thing and maybe it was. I didn’t know much about were politics. I nodded my head, unwilling to comment on how I really felt.
“Are you dating someone?”
“Yes, just recently started dating someone.”
“A warlock?” Her face was hopeful, like she wanted me to be happy with my own kind.
“Vampire,” I said with a smirk. She laughed and leaned against the kitchen counter, crossing her arms in front of her.
“You like the ones you shouldn’t be with, huh?”
“What does that mean?” I was quickly becoming annoyed with Jamie’s chatty personality. Who the hell did she think she was to question my personal life or me?
“I just mean, first a werewolf that is destined to marry his own kind and now a vampire that craves witches’ blood.”
Heat rushed to my cheeks as my anger rose to a boiling point. Micah had given me attitude for telling Aiden about brew. The hypocrite was he had told his girlfriend about the case also. Would it be immature to make the kitchen faucet explode? I noticed my magic amped up with my anger, side effects of the tea I drank, maybe?
“First of all, that’s none of your business and second, not all vampires are drinking witches’ blood,” I spat out, giving her a glare to match my feelings. Her pupils dilated a little and began to change to a yellowish color, her wolf must have felt threatened. Micah came into the kitchen to witness his ex-girlfriend and his current girlfriend staring daggers at each other.
“What’s going on?”
Jamie dipped her head and took a couple deep breaths to calm herself. I hopped off the barstool and headed for the door. Once outside, I took a couple of deep breaths myself. The conversation with Jamie had started off okay, but I didn’t need her nose poking into my dating life. Aiden had never drunk from me nor showed an abnormal fascination in doing so. Maybe I was a little touchy when comparing Aiden to the monsters I’d seen in the warehouse the previous night.
Micah stepped out of the house and walked over to where I was leaning against the hood of my car. I hesitated to make eye contact but my pride forced me to look at him. He didn’t look angry, which was good. I couldn’t spend all day with him being in a bad mood.
“Sorry if I caused any trouble.” I said, not sure why I was apologizing. I didn’t regret anything that I said but it felt like the right thing to say in this situation.
“Not your fault. Jamie is a little too inquisitive and stepped out of line.”
“You told her about the case?”
“She heard about it while I was on the phone with Wyatt.”
Like vampires, weres had exceptional hearing and could easily hear a phone conversation from another room. I nodded my head but didn’t say anything. Instead, I hopped into the driver’s seat of my car. Micah walked around to the driver’s side and leaned on the door.
“Scooch over, I’ll drive.”
Deciding not to argue, I climbed over the middle console and plopped ungracefully into the passenger’s seat. Micah was chucked and climbed into the driver’s seat. I scrunched up my face in annoyance.
Micah started the car and backed out toward the road while I messed with the radio so that the silence wouldn’t cause any uncomfortable moments. We had been driving for about ten minutes before Micah turned the volume down and looked over at me.
“What?”
“That night Wyatt and I came to your apartment, when you passed out. How often does that happen?” He glanced between the road and me. I held up fingers as I counted how many times I remembered being in the realm of the death. Everything was happening so quickly, that I had a hard time remembering for sure.
“That night was the first night, but it’s happened two other times since then. I think Bridget will be restless until we capture her murderer,” I said uneasily. Of course, I wanted the culprit caught but I didn’t know how many more visits I could handle from Bridget, especially when I wasn’t getting any helpful clues. We were as close to finding out who was responsible as we were the first day. Something in the back of my mind told me that if we found the warehouse, it, in itself, would tell us what we needed to know.
“So you think Bridget is responsible for your passing out? Like she’s haunting you?” Micah asked, his voice less than convinced of that theory. I shrugged my shoulders because, in all honesty, I didn’t know what the hell was happening with me.
“Ms. Ozland seems to think I may be part spirit walker but that’s just crazy. I mean, no witch has had that power in over seventy years and the ones who do have it, are either insane or on every villain’s hit list.” The perps didn’t like getting ratted on by their victims. Only a handful of people in Flora knew that with the help of Aura, I could see the memories of the dead. Bridget was the first spirit I had actually interacted with and that was dangerous, for me. I trusted Micah, though, and didn’t think he’d announce that the dead woman they found by the woods had been talking to one of Flora’s witches.
“It’s possible, Gwen. I’ve never met a witch who could see memories of the dead. Is it so far of a stretch to think you could actually interact with them? You could very well be a spirit walker.”
I cringed at the thought, but had to admit there was a possibility, even if I didn’t want there to be. The first time I’d ever seen into the mind of the dead was right after an elder had given Aura to me. Witches were gathered for the celestial celebration that was held every five years and Holly Humphrey, a member of the council, presented me with Aura. During the celebration, gifts were always exchanged, but I hadn’t thought much of the adorable black kitten I received; witches and cats went together like peanut butter and jelly.
I’d been holding my new cat when someone screamed from within the large hedge maze that occupied the backyard of the Council building. We ran toward where the scream had come from and found a woman standing over the body of a warlock. He had a large hole burnt through his chest and his eyes were glassy. I almost vomited at seeing my first dead body, but even more so when Holly urged me to check for a pulse. Under normal circumstances, I would have told the person to go to hell, but Holly was a Council member and therefore demanded my respect. I crouched down and, with a shaky hand, reached for the dead warlock’s wrist, while holding Aura with my other arm. A buzz of energy flowed all through me and then I was looking through the warlock’s eyes. It had scared me so much that I instantly let go of the man’s wrist and fell backwards.
“Something wrong, dear?” Holly asked me. I looked up at her in fear, not sure how to explain what happened. She gave me a knowing smile and later on told me that I was meant for great things. At the time, I thought her words were only for encouragement but thinking back to that night had me wondering if she knew all along what I was capable of.
“The sooner we end this case, the better,” I told Micah with disdain. He nodded his head.
“What did you see last night? You said it was horrible.”
“Yeah, it was.” I paused, remembering the horrific scene I’d witnessed as if I were there. “Bridget was being drained on a cot, she died while I was there. A guy slung her over his shoulder and threw her into the back of a white van like she was trash.” I took a deep breath to calm my anger. “There were eight men in the warehouse; six of them were filling orders. I saw the same man I saw in Amy Harper’s mind, but his face was blocked.” The more I thought about that man, the more I wondered if he was a warlock, since vampires couldn’t cast spells. I felt betrayed that one of my kind could be killing my sister witches.
“What do you mean, his face was blocked?” Micah asked.
“Whenever I looked at him all I saw was blackness covering his face, like a spell was protecting his identity. Bridget said she never saw his face either. It’s starting to look like the ringleader might be a warlock.” Micah looked over at me in surprise and then was silently submerged in his thoughts.
We had been driving for about thirty minutes when Micah pulled my car to the side of the road. I looked up from my cell phone and realized why he’d stopped. A warehouse-type building sat in the near distance, surrounded by overgrown weeds.
“That’s not it,” I told Micah.
“How do you know?”
“Just a feeling, it doesn’t look familiar.”
“We’re checking out every warehouse we encounter.”
We both hopped out of the car and pushed our way through the tall grass and toward the warehouse. As soon as we got closer to the building, I knew with absolute certainty that it wasn’t the one we were looking for. The walls weren’t tall enough and neither was the overall size. The warehouse I’d seen was a very large one; this one looked like it had been used for maybe storing farming equipment.
Micah tried the door but it was chain locked. “Unlock it,” he said.
I shot him an unbelievable look and said, “Kinda ironic that a detective is telling me to break into a locked building.” I laughed and focused my magic on the corroded padlock until the chain fell to the dirt.