“Surprised they let that remain on their records and didn’t try to expunge it.”
“They still have time. The charges are recent enough they’re probably still working through the system. Anyway, that’s not the interesting part. It looks like their attorney is a member of the same firm that’s on a long retainer with the Cascade Coven.”
“I hate to say that could be a coincidence, but it could be. Covens are known to recommend legal counsel they like.”
“Well, the coven is definitely paying for top-tier support. Lawson and Bennet LLP is a nationally ranked firm. We had Legal pull some recent cases they’ve been involved in, ranging from assault charges to some civil rights lawsuits. The firm has won most of them, and the majority of people they’ve represented are covens.”
Spencer rubbed at his eyes. “Someone else can look into if these covens are housing hunters or not at a later date. Our job is to find the Ouroboros Mirror. For the two guests who were possessed, can you figure out if they’re associated with the Cascade Coven? Getting invited to the gala doesn’t outright mean they’re members, but if they are, we can maybe use that information to get a search warrant.”
“Money trail hasn’t reached the Adler family yet, much less their coven,” Kori warned.
“Funny thing about messing with souls. The government doesn’t like when you do it with or without money involved, and judges are more inclined to sign off on warrants for something dealing with souls over a possible poltergeist’s origin location. Add in the fact the poltergeist was seen in two places where Caitlin was, then there’s grounds for concern on the status of her soul.”
“It also went after you.”
“I’m typically not a target for possession. They just want to kill me.” He tried not to think about how Takoma had been in all three of those locations as well.
Kori wrinkled her nose. “Glad I’m an analyst and not a field agent. I’ll look into the pair’s connection with the coven.”
She went back to her terminal, and Spencer focused on his own task list. He got a meeting invite with Director Kohli from her executive assistant for later that day, which he accepted. He kept working, trying to make sense of all the moving pieces, knowing there had to be a connection, but all he kept coming back to was territory. It was a starting point, but it wasn’t an answer.
Spencer was on his second cup of mediocre coffee when Fatima, who’d been napping on her back behind his laptop, front legs stretched out by her head, abruptly rolled over onto her stomach. She lashed her tail from side to side, hitting his coffee mug and jostling the liquid inside.
“Hey,” Spencer said. “What’s wrong?”
Fatima’s lips peeled back from her teeth.Demon.
“Aw,shit.”
Spencer nearly knocked his chair over in his haste to stand as Fatima launched herself off the conference table. She raced out of the war room, running right through the closed door.
“What’s going on?” Kori called from behind them.
He ignored her, yanking open the door and following Fatima out of the war room and through the main workspace. Heads turned to watch him leave, but he ignored everyone, all of his attention focused on where Fatima paced in front of the stairs that led up to the next level as she waited for him. He reached with his magic through her, searching out whatever threat she’d become aware of first, tuned as she always was to a plane he wasn’t.
Upstairs, Fatima urged, already five steps ahead of him.
No one was using the internal office stairs that linked the SOA’s floors, so Spencer wasn’t in danger of knocking anyone over as he took them two at a time to the next floor up. He did nearly run into a pair of agents when he made it to the landing after Fatima and rounded the corner, causing one of them to lose her hold on the files she carried. Paper went flying, but Spencer didn’t stop to apologize.
It was probably a bad look to be running through the field office like a crazy person, but he’d learned never to ignore Fatima’s warnings. As he raced down the hallway, Spencer slipped his sight sideways. The auras around him flickered outward, quite a few magic users burning brighter than the rest, but at the far end of the hall was a roiling black mess obscuring a soul so dimmed it hardly looked present in their body.
When Spencer blinked his sight back to normal, he found himself staring at where Maricela stood with Levi outside her office next to Olivia’s desk, chatting together as if nothing was wrong. How the building’s protective wards hadn’t reacted to the demon was a question for after Spencer broke it free and sent it back to hell.
“Fucking hell,” Spencer said.
Hell indeed, Fatima agreed.
He skidded to a halt, aware of the eyes on him from the higher-ranking agents around him. Maricela turned her head, looking down the hallway at him. “Bailey, what are you—”
Spencer thrust his hand forward, raising a shield between her and Levi as he slipped his sight sideways again. It crackled around Maricela and Olivia, and not a moment too soon. The shadow in Levi erupted like a volcano in his aura, drowning out the light of his soul. Spencer could see the fault lines where the demon had sunk itself into the warlock, a maze of control and possession he had every intention of breaking.
“You can leave him on your own accord, or I’ll make you,” Spencer snarled. Footsteps coming up behind him had Spencer sweeping his other arm behind him, mageglobe spinning against his palm. Fatima yowled at his feet as he raised a shield between himself and the other arriving agents, all his focus on the demon at the end of the hallway.
When Levi spoke, it was his voice, just not his tone or inflection. The expression on his face when Spencer blinked his sight back to normal was that of something pretending to know how human emotion worked. Black eyes stared back at him from Levi’s face, magic already sparking at Levi’s fingertips.
“I don’t take orders from the likes of you,” the demon said as he sauntered forward with a swagger to his stride Levi had never owned.
“Yeah? Who do you take them from?”
