Page 30 of Demon Loved (The Witches of Mingus Mountain #5)

Belshegar might have been surprised by the swiftness with which the meeting was organized, but if there was anything he’d learned during his friendship with Elena and his brief time among the Castillos, it was that witches could act with surprising speed when sufficiently motivated.

Levi had told him to go back to the hotel while he contacted the other elders and Connor Wilcox and Angela McAllister, but Belshegar had been there for less than an hour when his phone beeped to reveal a brief message.

Come to my house at eleven.

He hadn’t recognized the phone number but knew the text must have come from Levi. Besides Brianna, her father was the only person in the world who had his contact information.

Anxiety had rippled along all of Belshegar’s human nerve endings, but he told himself it was better to sit down with the McAllister elders and see if there was anything they could do to help him.

At least they would know the truth…even though he still had no idea how to explain to Brianna why he had come here and why he had been forced to conceal who… what…he really was.

It seemed that Levi must have arranged for his fellow elders to be there before his guest arrived, since they were already seated in the living room when Belshegar was ushered in.

Two women, one quite elderly and frail, with her wispy white hair piled up in a messy bun on top of her head and faded blue eyes.

In contrast, the other woman was at least a decade younger, if not more, and although her hair was almost entirely silver except for a few strands of its original red around her face, it had been cut in a sleek style that just hit her jaw, and her clothing appeared to be quite stylish.

“Allegra, Tricia,” Levi said, inclining his head first toward the older of the two women, and then at the younger one with the bobbed hair, “this is Belshegar, although he is going by the name Bill Garrett while he’s here with us.”

Belshegar couldn’t help being startled by Levi’s introduction, simply because he knew he’d never given the man the human name he’d been using. Word must have gotten around somehow, although he hoped the people in the town hadn’t learned anything about him beyond that false name.

Both women regarded him with intent eyes, although he didn’t detect any real surprise in their expressions.

Well, he supposed that Levi would have already explained the situation, and since they had been working for decades with someone whose origins were also not of this world, Belshegar supposed he wasn’t quite as much of a novelty as he might have originally thought.

“So, Belshegar,” said the woman with the bob — Tricia, he reminded himself, “you were sent here to spy on us?”

“Not precisely,” he replied smoothly, although something inside him bristled at the question. “More that I was sent to recover the artifacts that are currently in your prima’s keeping.”

As he spoke, he couldn’t help wondering where Angela and Connor were. Surely they should have been included in this conversation?

Levi must have noticed a shift in his expression, because he said, “Connor and Angela are on their way over here now. They were in Prescott because Connor was delivering several of his paintings to a gallery there, but they should be back shortly.”

That made some sense, especially when Belshegar recalled how the woman at the artist’s co-op had mentioned that Connor also displayed his work in a gallery in that town. A ridiculous sort of name, too. Van Gogh’s Ear?

He supposed that didn’t matter so much. What mattered was that the prima and her consort were even now on their way back to Jerome.

“Why didn’t the person who sent you just get the artifacts themselves?” Allegra, the older of the two women, asked.

Belshegar found himself shrugging. Odd how it became easier and easier to use human mannerisms the longer he was among mortals…the longer he inhabited this human body.

“I cannot say,” he replied. “But the Council is made up of beings from a plane as far above mine as my own world is above yours, and I suppose it is possible that the voice’s non-corporeal form would not allow it to interact with physical artifacts in such a way.”

“Which begs the question as to why this ‘voice’ of yours would even be interested in physical objects at all,” Tricia observed, her tone dry.

He had to admit that he hadn’t considered that aspect of the situation. “I do not think the voice planned to use them,” he said, speaking slowly as he picked his way through the conundrum. “It is more that he believes they have no place on this plane. They are far too powerful.”

“Even though they were created by human hands?” Levi said, speaking for the first time after making the introductions.

Belshegar stared at him for a moment. Because he’d known very little about the artifacts other than the mere fact of their existence, he’d had no idea that mortals had made the things in the first place.

“You know this for certain?” he asked, and all three elders exchanged what he thought were worried glances.

“There’s very little we know ‘for certain,’” Levi said, and now his tone was quite dry.

“One of the artifacts was brought to us from the past, and the witch and warlock who found it told us that the McAllister elders of that time had said it was made by witch-folk centuries earlier, users of magic who poured some of their life force into their talismans to give them their power.”

Belshegar had never heard of such a thing — everything he knew of witch-kind was that their powers were born within them and awakened after they had been on this earth for a decade or so, and that those gifts certainly did not come from external amulets and talismans and so on.

However, he also knew enough to realize how little he actually did know.

“And the other artifact?”

“That one’s origins are far murkier,” Tricia said. “It was found very recently, and we know very little about where it came from, since the man carrying it is no longer alive to explain its history.”

“Another reason why we have them both locked up and as warded as we can make them,” Levi put in. “We know a little about how both of them work, but it just seemed safer to keep them away from everyone.”

Yes, that made sense. It was unfortunate there wasn’t more information to be had, but Belshegar was relieved to see that the McAllisters were proceeding with an abundance of caution.

The doorbell sounded then, and Levi immediately turned away from the rest of the little group, saying, “That must be Connor and Angela.”

He headed toward the foyer, while Allegra glanced over at Belshegar with bright eyes. “How are you enjoying your time in Jerome? It must be very different from what you’re used to.”

“It is,” he replied, relieved that the three of them weren’t going to sit there in awkward silence during Levi’s absence. “But I like it here very much. The land in this region is quite beautiful.”

And it was, whether the view consisted of the purple bulk of the Black Mountain range high above Jerome, or the glowing, energy-charged red rocks of Sedona, or the gently rolling hills with their acres upon acres of sun-golden grass.

She seemed satisfied with that response, settling against the back of her chair even as Levi returned, Connor and Angela a few feet behind him.

Since Belshegar had already met them, he knew something of what to expect.

However, they seemed far more tense than they’d been at the folk festival — for good reason, he supposed.

Both of them immediately looked over in his direction as soon as they entered the living room. “So, you came here to take the artifacts?” Angela said abruptly, not bothering with any sort of formal introductions.

“To retrieve them,” Belshegar replied. A fine point of distinction, he supposed, and yet he wanted everyone listening to understand that he would never have come after them if he hadn’t been directed to do so by the voice.

“For this person on the Council, according to what Levi told us,” Connor said, and Belshegar nodded.

“Yes. The members of the Council seem to believe those items are far too powerful to be placed in human hands.”

“Even though humans made them,” Angela said. Her lip didn’t quite curl, but he could tell from the angry sparkle in her emerald-hued eyes that she didn’t have much use for that particular argument.

“You believe they were created by human hands,” Belshegar said mildly. “But do you know that as a verified fact, or do you accept that explanation for their origins because you don’t have any others?”

A silence fell then, as Angela slanted a look up at her husband, and his shoulders lifted ever so slightly. Both Tricia and Allegra also seemed unsure as to how they should react to such a question.

Levi spoke then, saying, “I’ve only handled each of the artifacts briefly, but I couldn’t sense anything particularly otherworldly about them.

And although I’d be the first to admit I don’t know as much as I should about this sort of thing, I want to believe that I’d be able to detect something if they weren’t of this earth.

After all, I was able to note your…unusual energy… easily enough.”

He made a good point, Belshegar realized. If Levi really had held the artifacts in his hands, then he should have sensed their strangeness just as easily as he was able to detect Belshegar’s.

But if they had been made by humans, the Council shouldn’t have had any interest in the things. They were mortal business, something to be ignored, as it couldn’t possibly affect anyone on the higher planes.

There seemed to be only one true way to know for certain, though.

“Let me feel them,” he said. “I am from one of the higher planes — although not as high as the one the Council occupies — and it should be easy enough for me to tell for certain whether they are as much a part of this earth as the chair I’m sitting on or the rug under my feet.”