Page 3 of Air Of Mystery (Witches On The Hill #4)

“I’m not sure,” I said. “But if there was, you’d think an alarm would have sounded by now.” A second later, a detector’s piercing beep began to sound from across the street.

While Jason burst into gales of laughter, Charlie simply folded his arms over his chest and lifted one eyebrow in a silent question.

In response I shrugged and tried to look innocent. I wasn’t entirely sure if I had pulled it off.

Jason tried to catch his breath. “Well, at least you didn’t find a body this time.” He waited a beat. “Did you?”

“No officer,” I said meekly.

“Ha!” Jason clapped a hand to my shoulder. “Those were the days.”

Charlie simply stood there. But the way he was silently taking everything in had me swallowing nervously.

The fire department went across the street to check inside the house to search for the presence of carbon monoxide.

I caught a glimpse of their equipment…some type of square gadget with a sensor on a cord to try and detect the deadly fumes.

That could really come in handy for my team in a future investigation.

I made a mental note to try and price one out later.

Now that our statements were concluded we were free to go, and so Charlie and I walked back to his jeep. He opened the passenger door for me, and I climbed in.

Charlie joined me a moment later. After shutting his door he turned to look at me. “We need to talk, Skye.”

I folded my hands in my lap. “All right.”

Without another word, he pulled away from the curb. At that I knew we wouldn’t be going out to dinner or going back to his place.

Instead, we ended up driving to a scenic overview at the banks of the river, right outside of Ames Crossing.

To one side was the parking lot for folks who were waiting for the ferry to St. Charles County.

On the opposite side of the lot there was a lovely spot in which to view the river.

It was fairly quiet that evening and Charlie parked on the overlook side, where we would have some privacy.

Needing some air, I grabbed my purse, climbed out, and walked around to the front of his jeep. Facing the water, I leaned my hips back against the bumper.

Air was billowing off the river, and it seemed that a storm was beginning to roll in from the west. The west wind was associated with purification, and so I closed my eyes for a moment, visualizing that wind was stripping away any lingering negativity I had encountered while in the house.

It was a discreet energetic cleansing, yet it was an effective one too.

Charlie joined me, and I pulled in a deep breath, steeling myself for the conversation that was about to take place. “I have always loved this spot,” I said, staring out over the river.

“When I saw what Cordelia did last year,” he began, “it took me days to wrap my mind around it. Gabriella explained some of it to me. Told me that Cordelia was an Elemental Witch...and still even after seeing it with my own eyes, it was hard for me to believe.”

“To be honest,” I said, shifting my body to face him, “I was impressed by how well you handled that. Most mundanes don’t believe in Witches or magick. They think it’s all pop culture and Harry Potter stuff.”

He nodded. “Living in Ames Crossing and working for the Marquettes you hear about the ghosts, the local wise women, and things like that.”

“That’s true. Also, you do work in one of the most famously haunted locations in the state,” I said, facing the river again. “Be hard for you not to hear about it, considering they offer ghost tours at the mansion every fall.”

“Yeah, I’ve got a Marquette Mansion Ghost Tours T-shirt and everything.”

I chuckled at how dryly he’d said that, but then I realized that I’d completely misjudged his tone. He wasn’t being sarcastic, he was serious. “Ask your questions Charlie,” I said, “and I’ll do my best to answer them as honestly as possible.”

“As honestly as possible?” His eyebrows drew together. “Why would you feel the need to lie?”

“I won’t lie,” I countered. “But there are things I may not share. Because there are things that you simply don’t need to know.”

He tipped his head to one side considering my words.

“I would imagine,” I said, trying to keep a reasonable tone of voice, “there are plenty of things that you can’t talk about during your time when you served in the Navy SEALs.”

“Point taken.”

“Go ahead,” I said. “Ask your questions.”

“There was a circle around Kenna and Tyler on the floor in that basement,” he said. “It was dying out when we arrived, but I saw green flames. What was that?”

“At first glance,” I said carefully, “it looked to me as if Kenna had thrown down a protective circle around herself and Tyler.”

“Why were the flames green ?”

I took a steadying breath before I spoke, ensuring that my voice would remain calm. “Because, Charlie, witch-fire manifests as green flames.”

“Witch-fire?” he asked, clearly thrown off by my answer.

“Kenna has a connection to the element of fire,” I explained as thunder rumbled in the distance. “It’s her element to call, and although she rarely invokes a living flame, I am very glad she was able to today.”

He nodded. “So the outline on the basement wall…I assume that was a burn mark from where she blasted whatever attacked Tyler?”

“Although I haven’t had the chance to ask her about it yet, that was my impression as well.”

“The ashes that were falling from the ceiling?” he asked next. “Was that all that was left of the...”

“Let’s call it an entity,” I suggested. My phone vibrated in my purse, signaling a text. Automatically I pulled it free. “It’s from Kenna,” I told Charlie. “Tyler is stable, and they are going to admit him for observation.”

“That’s good,” he said. With a sigh he pressed his fingertips to the bridge of his nose. “So, I have to ask...is this type of situation typical for your family?”

“Not sure what you mean by situation ,” I said. After tucking the phone away in my purse, I secured the strap over one shoulder. “Could you be more specific?”

“Do you and your sisters often have to fight magickal adversaries?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Not my sisters.”

“Your sisters don’t,” he said immediately. “But you do?”

He was quick, I’d give him that. “As a paranormal investigator, I have come up against more than a few entities and astral beasties.”

“Astral beasties?”

“Things that go bump in the night,” I said as my stomach tied itself into an anxious knot.

“You mean like monsters?” he asked, folding his arms across his chest.

“I would imagine—” I said over the thunder that rumbled again, “that some mundanes might consider them to be so.”

“Jesus Christ,” he muttered, spinning away from me.

“Afraid he’s not in my pantheon,” I said. “Try an older religion. Much older.”

Charlie spun back around to regard me. I stayed where I was, leaning casually against the bumper of his jeep. At least I was trying to appear as if my pose was casual. Because my stomach was killing me and my shoulders were tight from nerves.

This conversation was going downhill fast.

“Are you cracking jokes right now?” he demanded.

“Not intentionally,” I said lightly. “Sarcasm is simply my default mode.”

“Well sarcasm aside, what’s the fire department and police going to think, Skye, when they are down in the basement investigating and they see the mark on the wall?”

“They won’t see it. I promise you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I glamoured over the mark on the wall,” I said. “They won’t be able to physically see it.”

“What the hell is a glamour?”

I sighed. “It’s like a camouflage. The glamour—my spell—will hold until I can get permission to go back in there and cleanse the space.”

“I heard you tell the police that the homeowner lived out of state. You had his contact information in your phone. You passed it along to them.”

“Yes, of course,” I said. “That’s because my team and I had—up until recently—been investigating the location.”

“How long have you been investigating that house?” he asked next.

“Off and on for a couple of years.”

“That cop, the one you were so friendly with. He made a comment about you finding a dead body. What was that all about?”

While I didn’t have Cordelia’s gift of empathy, I could feel the suspicion radiating off Charlie. “The cop’s name,” I said, trying to remain civil, “is Jason.”

He sneered. “And are you two close ?”

The wind began to pick up speed. “He’s married and has kids,” I said flatly. “I happen to be friends with both Jason and his wife. I don’t poach. It’s not my style.”

“What is your style?” he asked, his eyes narrowing. “You made that detector go off, didn’t you? Somehow you did it from all the way across the street. Why?”

“Yes,” I said, crossing my arms over my own chest, as the sky grew darker from the approaching storm. “I’ll concede that the carbon monoxide detector thing was a tad manipulative, but it did make the fire department take precautions before they went inside that damn house.”

“So, you admit what you did was manipulative.” He pointed at me. “I thought your kind vowed to harm none?”

“My kind ?” I asked, pushing my hair out of my eyes.

He winced. “That came out wrong.”

“No,” I argued, “I think you meant it. The suspicion radiating off of you is so thick that it’s damn near making me choke. You’re worried about what I can do...and afraid of what I’m capable of.”

“Watch that.” His voice was low and for the first time, mean.

“And we’re done here.” Beyond frustrated, I stepped away from him. “Enjoy the rest of your evening Charlie.” I started walking toward the bank of the river and tapped into the electricity in the air around me. Pulling in a deep breath, I threw down the biggest glamour of my life and disappeared.

“Holy shit!” Charlie yelped when he ‘saw’ me fade out of sight.

For the most part I stayed where I was. I did move slightly over to one side in the grass because he had rushed forward, trying to figure out where I’d gone.

Spinning around, he yelled my name. “Skye?”