“Ross said you went to speak with the god pack alphas. What did they have to say?”
“They weren’t aware their people were possessed. The PCB is unaware of the possessions as well, but it sounds like the Cascade Coven is coming after the packs because of the gala, and they’ll use what I told them as a defense. The SOA will need to step in and take over that case whenever that happens.”
“That’s going to clue in the covens they’re being investigated before we’re ready for that, and we’ll lose the Ouroboros Mirror,” Levi snapped over the line.
“You’ve been working the case for half a year before I came on board. Legal has to already be prepared for something like this happening.”
“We have contingencies that can be brought into play. Next time you want to disclose information about a case to third parties, run it by the team first,” Maricela said.
“Yes, ma’am.” Spencer knew how to play the game of toeing the line. He’d been playing it his entire life since he’d been taken in by the government and a court decided he could live.
Do your job, but only how we want you to.
The phone call ended a few minutes later, with Spencer still cleared to follow the lead Fatima had bitten off last night. He got his coffee, rubbed at his gritty eyes, and got back on the road, letting Fatima guide him down unfamiliar streets. The sky was overcast, with a cold wind blowing over the city. Spencer hadn’t checked the weather earlier, but it looked like rain.
They meandered northwest, the path the poltergeist had taken through the fringes of the veil nowhere close to a straight line. It would’ve been easier to take East Madison Street, but Fatima pointed him down residential side streets, past single-family homes that slowly grew in size the more east they drove.
When they finally drove their way into the wet, partially green landscape of the Denny-Blaine neighborhood, Fatima was crouched on the dash, nose pressed to the windshield, zeroed in on something only she could see. Spencer didn’t ask to see through her eyes, taking his duties as chauffeur seriously as they rolled through a neighborhood whose houses were way past his buying ability, even if he lived two lifetimes.
The homes were set far back from the sidewalks, bushes and trees blocking a full view of the buildings. Some had fences, others didn’t, but they all had luxury cars in the driveways. Middle of the day on a weekday and he supposed all the stay-at-home partners weren’t making use of the park they passed. He got a glimpse of Lake Washington from time to time as they took streets that wound closer to the shoreline.
It was well past noon when Fatima finally said,Here. This one.
Spencer kept driving, looking for parking past the grand mini-mansion Fatima was homed in on like a heat-seeking missile. The SUV stood out, but he didn’t think they’d be there long enough for it to be a problem. He turned off the engine and checked the GPS on his phone, frowning down at the map on the screen when it showed him the street name.
“Caitlin Adler’s coven has a house around here.” Spencer turned his head to meet Fatima’s gaze. “Odds of that being the house you want to check out?”
You would lose that bet. I would get a bone.
“You’d get a bone anyway.” He reached into the back seat to grab his wool coat and put it on before opening the door. “Come on, let’s take a walk.”
She jumped out of the SUV after him, trotting over to the sidewalk and sniffing the air. He shoved his hands into his pockets after locking up the vehicle. The wind was colder out here by the water, sliding beneath his wool coat and reminding him there were warmer places in the country where he could be spending the tail end of winter. But none of those places had a missing artifact and angry spirits who failed at haunting a building correctly.
Fatima kept a few strides ahead, tail sticking straight up and flicking at the tip. Spencer kept his pace slow, gaze skipping from house to house. It was quieter out here, missing the hustle and bustle of downtown. He could see why people wanted to live by the water, the distant mountains made hazy by low-lying clouds. Money could buy exclusivity, and that’s what people paid a premium for in this corner of Seattle, be it fences or wards.
Spencer sensed the wards embedded in the iron fence wrapped around the property Fatima was leading him to like a metaphysical DMZ. The wards gave off a sense of warning to his own magic through his shields, and Spencer was careful to stay outside their reach and not set them off.
When it came to covens, money could also buy traditional security, though Spencer had to wonder what the social cost of hiring on hunters was these days. Not that the person striding down the home’s walkway would ever overtly announce themselves as being one, but if it walked like a hunter and was armed like a hunter, well, then they were a fucking hunter.
They were also familiar, in that they’d been the person at the gala who put a bullet in a dead woman’s body.
So, really, there went his attempt at going unnoticed.
“Get away from this property,” the man snapped in a low voice as he came to a stop behind the wrought iron gate, one hand resting on the grip of his pistol. Spencer had left his in the lockbox in the SUV’s trunk. At least he didn’t look like a federal agent since he’d foregone a suit today.
“Can’t a guy go for a walk?” Spencer asked, flashing the man a smile.
“Not in this neighborhood.”
Do not get shot, Fatima ordered as she slipped between the bars of the wrought iron gate and sped toward the house, the hunter none the wiser to her presence. Spencer didn’t watch her go, nor did he respond. All his attention was on the man who looked as if he were eyeing Spencer like one would eye a practice target at the end of a gun range.
“You aren’t welcome here,” the man said.
“Good to know. I’ll just continue on my merry way, then.”
“You’ll head back to your car, or I will—”
Spencer’s vision changed, overlaid in a flash by Fatima’s sight right as someone else called out to them from across the street. “You harm him and you risk my master’s wrath. He is under our master’s protection.”
