“No,” Tiernan agreed and then added, “not unless they try to hurt his son. Then there will be blood, lots of blood.”
“And fire probably,” I nodded. “I guess we have another reason to prove Raye's innocence.”
“I didn't need one, I already believed he was innocent,” Tiernan huffed as he opened the back door of the Council House for me.
“I know,” I took his hand as we went down the hall. “I did too but witches... Tiernan, this is huge. What if there's another secret society-”
“What the hell do you mean; there's another secret society living right beneath our noses?!” A voice screeched and we followed it into the library.
“We are fairly certain there are humans who have developed magical abilities,” Teagan said calmly into a speaker set before him. He was seated at a central table in the massive library, with Councilman Murdock beside him.
“Sir,” Murdock jumped in as Tiernan and I took seats at the table. “The evidence presently points to it but we cannot be one-hundred-percent certain as yet. We simply wanted to apprise you of the situation.”
“If we are correct,” Teagan took over, “and there are indeed witches living among us, then it would make sense that they had a society of their own, hiding in plain view. The tattoo points in that direction but I assure you that we will investigate this until we discover the complete truth.”
“I'm sending my own investigators to assist you,” the voice coming through the speaker box said. “You will allow them access to everything you discover.”
“Yes, Sir,” Teagan said immediately but he rolled his eyes as he did so. “Just tell me when to expect them and I'll have a team meet them at the airport.”
“My secretary will phone you with the details later,” the line went dead.
“Well he sounded lovely,” I said brightly.
“That was Reginald Murdock,” Teagan grimaced, “Head of the Human High Council.”
“And my Uncle,” Councilman Murdock added with a grin that was part remorseful and part proud.
“Oh damn,” I widened my eyes. “And he's sending his investigators? What does that mean exactly?”
“He has a team of extinguishers whose talents are geared towards investigations,” Teagan explained. “Precognition, psychometry, telepathy, and advanced clairvoyance; that sort of thing. They're very good but very annoying.”
“So they're literally a bunch of know-it-alls,” I rolled my eyes. “What could possibly be annoying about that?”
“As long as they find out the truth, I don't care how annoying they are,” Tiernan said.
“Count Tiernan,” Murdock grimaced, “you may end up eating those words.”
“Councilman Murdock, I have a feeling very few peopledon'tannoy you,” I teased him.
“That may be true,” he gave me a little smile. “But I tend to get even more irritated when the annoying party can read my mind.”
“Telepaths,” I sighed. “Right. They are annoying... and usually crazy. I didn't think we had any sane ones left.”
“Only a few,” Teagan scowled. “And the ones on Murdock's team are barely holding onto their sanity.”
“Great, crazy mind readers,” I huffed. “This just keeps getting better and better.”
“Well hold onto your knickers, little girl,” Councilman Murdock chuckled. “Because we found that symbol.”
“You found it?” I sat forward in my seat.
“Ah-yup,” Murdock nodded but it was Teagan who explained.
“We Googled it,” Teagan pushed a print out over to me. “Found it on a site devoted to magical symbols. Two feathers, back to back, one white and one black. It's the symbol for a group of witches known as Flight.”
“Bird witches?” I asked dubiously.
“The name implies some sort of flying ability,” Teagan nodded. “But we're not sure. We've had to wade through massive amounts of information.”
