Edwina narrowed her gaze and Meriel gave her blank face right back. She’d groomed her blank face over many, many years. Considered it perfect. It was the only way to win with her mother, who pushed to get a response. One of these days though, oh, Meriel would give it to her, all right.
“Thank you.” Meriel said it again, holding her mother’s gaze.
Edwina sighed and moved to the door. “Keep me apprised.” And left.
Meriel read through her notes and headed to Gage.
Chapter 2
GAGE looked up as she tapped on his door. Meriel liked this part of the office. Back in a far, infrequently used corridor, Nell ran the investigative and law and order arm of the clan. They had a pinball machine. Hello.
Gage sat, boots up on his desk, a phone to his ear as he looked over whatever he had in his hands. She waved when he looked up and made to leave, but he waved her in to sit and wait.
“I have to go. No. Nell, if I so much as get a whiff you’re back in town before Sunday, I will kick your ass. And I’ll tell Meriel.” He grinned up at her as he paused, clearly getting an earful. “Bye.” He hung up, laughing.
“She can’t possibly be coming back early. William has to be more attractive than anything she could find here. William in swim trunks. Yum!”
He rolled his eyes. “I had to call her about this New Mexico stuff. I take it your mother spoke with you?”
“Yes, that’s why I’m here. It could have waited until Monday, you know. Nell’s only going to obsess about it now.”
“I know. But she made me promise to call if anything unusual came up. I found a way around it for the investigation at this club. That’s not new.” He shrugged and Meriel laughed, delighted.
“I love the way you two are together. You keep her in line.”
“William told me marrying Nell was like getting me too. But then he confessed that he was glad because it would take more than one person to keep her in line. He said as long as I had no designs on the parts he liked to keep in line we were good.”
Meriel always had wondered why Gage and Nell hadn’t hooked up. But she imagined it was one of those great, totally non-romantic partnerships. They teased, but there wasn’t an ounce of sexual tension between them.
“He’s a smart man.” She held up the file. “So what do you know about New Mexico?”
“I spoke with the person who called your mother. They don’t have a clan organization so no law enforcement to speak of. No investigative team. They’re not going to bring in anyone else. I did offer,” he added at her questioning look before continuing. “Missing witches. No real connection they know of. But there’s too much they don’t know for me to be really comfortable with the situation.”
“We need to be sure we’re keeping a good eye on everyone. Even the outclan.” This would make her mother insanely angry, but just because those witches didn’t want to join the clan didn’t mean the clan should simply leave them without any protection. They used the Font. They obeyed the clan rules. They deserved some benefit.
“I agree. We have something in place, as you know. But I think it can be stepped up. I’m going to work with section five to see if we can’t monitor through the Font. You know, see who is taking and filling. Look for gaps.”
The Font was the collective energy bank for the clan. All witches within it were keyed in so that their magickal energy should be part of it, if not every day, at least several times a week. An absence could be detected; she just didn’t know how hard it would be to do it.
“Good. That’s a good idea. They’ll tell you if it can be done or not. Keep me apprised. I’ve been named the point person on this.”
Gage’s brows went up a bit.
“I know, I’m surprised too.” She couldn’t very well say she was shocked her mother had let go of the power. Her mother had a way of hearing lots of things. Most likely, her mother thought this was all bullshit so it was fine to give it to Meriel, who’d also end up with a reality check that would smack the notion of working with other witches and protecting against external threats by banding together right out of her head.
Ha. Edwina had no idea. None. Which bugged Meriel. For heaven’s sake, she was Edwina’s child—canny and strong willed, just like her mother. The future didn’t involve this continued self-segregation and her mother could pretend Meriel didn’t know any better or that she was naïve, but they both knew that wasn’t true.
“Totally hypothetical question here. Do you think this might be connected to the situation in Minnesota? With the mages?”
A witch had been found nearly dead and had recounted a horrifying tale of being kidnapped by a group of mages who’d spent days siphoning her power. She had only been able to escape when she’d managed to grab back enough of her magickal power to siphon the air from the room and the mages had passed out. She’d crawled nearly a mile before someone found her and took her to the hospital. By the time the police had arrived at the house, everyone had gone.
The human authorities were looking for human monsters. Human monsters could be taken down. But mages were not human, and they had no code of ethics like witches. No, they stole power and magick to twist it and use it like a drug.
And what if they’d decided to hunt witches for that drug?
BY the time she’d made ready to leave for the day, the sun was down. She’d had plans to duck out early but of course that hadn’t worked out. As it was, she still had the opportunity to stop at the little boutique just down the street from her apartment building. She wanted something new for that night. Wanted to find an outfit suitable for club wear.
Her phone was ringing when she came out from her bathroom and she ran to grab it. It had been Gage’s mother, Shelley, calling from his house where he was currently suffering the throes of food poisoning. She’d assured Meriel that Gage would be fine by morning, but there was no way he’d be accompanying her that evening.
Meriel had almost felt sorry for him as he’d attempted to order her to wait until the following night and she’d refused, promising to be safe and check in the following day before telling him to get well and hanging up.
She’d made the choice to go and, she thought as she put in her earrings, that was that. It hadn’t simply been a matter of their font being stolen from. It had been bigger.
No spiky-heeled sandals that night. She needed to be able to move easily and quickly. So she opted for her cowboy boots. Thankfully they went well with the outfit she’d picked up.
The skirt was a little shorter than she usually went for, but it wasn’t so short she’d be in danger of showing any of her bits. And the shirt was snug and a little stretchy; the sequins accenting it here and there would catch the light. Feminine. Sexy. And it all emphasized her best parts and hid her worst.
In the garage she looked at what she’d picked up two days before. Nell’s car. Nell’s beautiful, cherry-red classic 1967 Camaro. All shiny and powerful.
Her own car was nice enough and all, but this, well, this was part of the whole night. Unexpected like the short skirt and this mission she went on. Silly, but it was thrilling all the same.
She traveled across the lake toward Seattle, feeling as if there was a reason she felt nearly driven to do it. Though Meriel was as rational and logical as they came, she still believed in following her gut. Her gut was where her magick lived and it wanted her at that club tonight.