I pull back and smile. “I know.” They will protect me. For now.
* * *
“Light it now,”Gemma whispers, and I hold my hand over a white candle. I’m sitting inside a salt circle, performing a protection spell. Evan’s photo is in front of me, and I’ve carved his name into the wax of the candle I’m igniting.
“Ut salvum illum. Ut eum occulta. Et cadere de Evan Bradley non noncere,” I chant, and pick up his photo. Closing my eyes, I envision the boy’s face and say the chant again. The flame grows taller on the candle before me. The energy buzzes around the circle. “Ut salvum illum. Ut eum occulta. Et cadere de Evan Bradley non noncere,” I say a little louder this time, hoping I got the pronunciations right. I don’t want to say the wrong thing and end up sending demons after this kid.
I open my eyes and see the entire circle lighting up. Magic flows through it and into the air, disappearing with a flash.
“Did it work?” I ask, setting the photo down.
“That was amazing.” Gemma’s eyes are still wide. She slowly nods her head up and down. “If that didn’t work, then I don’t think anything else will. I saw the magic, Ace. Saw it.”
“Is that not normal?” I look from her to Jacques.
“No,” he answers. “Though for a witch with your power, it’s not surprising.”
I inhale, slowly getting up. “Now that the witch duties are done, I need to protect this kid as a cop.” I step out of the salt circle. “Though I have no fucking clue what I’m going to say.”
“Say?” Hasan asks.
“I can call and say I think the kid is in danger,” I start to explain. “And have an officer park in front of his house.”
“Is that a good idea?” Gemma blows out the candle.
“I don’t know,” I confess. “I really don’t know.” I head toward the kitchen, ready to pop open another bottle of wine. “I don’t want to put another person in the line of fire, but I have to keep this kid safe.”
“The protection spell will keep him safe,” Jacques assures me. “If this demon feeds off energy, then it’ll take more than regular weapons to stop it.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.” I sit at the kitchen table, looking at my phone. “If my captain found out I called and asked for a squad car to go sit outside this kid’s house…” I shake my head. “I can’t keep lying like this.”
“If you weren’t a police officer, you wouldn’t be able to request protection for this kid, right?” Hasan asks.
“No, I wouldn’t be able to at all.”
“What would you do?” he goes on.
“The spell and hope it’s enough.” I look at each of my guys. “It’s not like we can all hop on a plane and go to Kansas.”
“Even with the concealment charms?” Gil asks, sounding disappointed.
“You have no official papers. You need ID to fly. And if you’re pulled away for an additional security check, I have no idea what an X-ray would show. The spell keeps your wings out of human sight and space, but are they still there in a sense?”
“What’s an X-ray?” Hasan asks.
“It’s this machine that can take pictures of your bones through your skin. But it’s used for security since it can show anything you have concealed inside you.”
He tips his head. “Concealed what inside you? Where?”
“Uh.” I look at Gemma, who’s trying hard not to laugh. “People hide drugs and sometimes weapons in their prison wallets.”
“Prison wallet?”
Thomas laughs. “Up the ass, man.”
Hasan’s eyebrows push together. “People hide weapons in their assholes? And they’re able to get them out in time for combat?”
And now I’m laughing. “I mean, stranger things have happened. Usually it’s drugs, but the X-ray also shows if anything is hidden under clothing. Though small weapons or explosives have been located up the poop-shoot before. And women have an extra advantage.”
