Page 31

Chapter Thirty-One

It was only when my stomach growled that I realised I hadn’t had any breakfast. We’d planned on grabbing a muffin or something at Sonny’s with our coffees, but that hadn’t happened. My belly was so loud that Yanni heard it, too.

‘I’ll drop you at the coffee shop.’ She shot me an amused glance. ‘You can pick me up a cappuccino while you’re there. Then perhaps this afternoon you’ll sit at the desk and answer telephone calls.’ She paused and we both laughed.

When we stopped snickering I felt the need to defend myself a smidge. ‘I did answer Mrs Brown’s call.’

‘Oh yes. Sorry, I forgot that one. It’s been rather chaotic having you back but it has been lovely. You’ve been missed.’

‘By you and Maddie?’

‘Do you need anyone else to miss you?’ She raised an eyebrow.

‘I guess not.’ I smiled faintly. ‘I’m sorry I stayed away for so long.’ I thought that there’d be a silence, one of those moments where no-one really knows what to say, but I should have known Yanni better than that. Somehow she always had the right words.

‘You did what you had to do, Bea. Enough apologies now. We understood that, even though it was hard to see you go. Maybe now you’ll consider staying a little longer? You’ve definitely got a flair for investigative work and there are plenty of mysteries in a place like this – tracking down lost relatives, finding lost heirlooms – that type of thing. We don’t have the manpower to deal with them all. You could be a PI here just as easily as in London,’ she suggested. ‘Just think about it, Bea. For me.’

‘I will,’ I promised before stepping out of the car towards the siren lure of coffee.

Thankfully the café was substantially quieter than it had been earlier, with only one person ahead of me in the queue. Another vampire was clearing the tables of the detritus from the earlier rush; the badge on her T-shirt told me her name was Kaz. She flashed me a friendly smile and I wished she was serving me instead of Sonny.

I turned to the grouchy vampire. ‘Two cappuccinos, please.’ I offered him my most winning smile .

To my surprise, he reciprocated – or at least something close. As his lips stretched, not only were his two pointy canines on show but his entire top row of pearly white teeth. The smile had a distinctly sinister edge to it, though, and I had a funny feeling he was about to spit in my coffee.

Almost immediately, he placed two cups in front of me. The service was way too fast, but on the upside he hadn’t had time to spit in them. I frowned as I picked them up. ‘Hey! These are stone cold!’ I objected.

‘Yes. Those are the ones you ordered this morning then left without paying for. I assume those are what you want.’ His smile crept closer to a snarl.

I balked. ‘That was a police emergency!’

‘Well, emergencies don’t pay my bills.’ His tone suggested he wished they did – preferably in gold bullion and firstborn children. He really was the grumpiest near-human I’d ever met. Why on earth had he chosen a career that involved working with the public? It was a good job his coffee was so damn good because people sure as hell weren’t coming for the warm, welcoming environment.

Now I understood what Ezra said about Sonny’s motto: customer service was for those with a shit product.

‘It’s alright, Sonny,’ a familiar voice cut in. ‘I’ll cover the cost of these. And can I get another two, please? ’

The way my stomach flipped was a sure sign of who it was, but I forced myself not to jump straight around to check. Instead, I turned as slowly as possible.

There he was, standing behind me, and somehow he looked even more attractive. His hair was tousled, his stubble perfectly rugged. My hands twitched as if my fingers were begging to run through it. What is wrong with you, Beatrix? I cursed internally. Fraser Banks is evil . He probably dines with Satan on a regular basis. Just no .

‘You don’t need to do that,’ I said tightly. ‘I can afford my own coffee.’ Or the police department could.

‘Yes, but I’d like to pay,’ Banks replied. ‘And anyway, I’ve got a tab here.’ His voice dropped to a whisper. ‘And a discount, too.’ There was something about his lowered tone that was so primal I felt it reverberate all the way through to my bones. And other fun places. Uh oh, spaghettio.

‘Sonny gives you a discount?’ I blurted, thinking of Maddie’s remark about how he was still rude to her even though she did his ward tattoos.

Banks shrugged. ‘I guess he likes me.’ The smile he flashed me was so bright it sent my stomach into yet another somersault, this one combined with a backflip and a handspring. At this rate, I’d qualify for the Olympics gymnastics team.

‘Well, thank you for the offer, but—’ My words trailed off as I caught sight of someone else, someone staring at me from across the coffee shop. ‘Thank you. Yes, you can pay for those coffees,’ I said quickly and walked away from him towards Old Jacobson.

There was no doubt he’d been staring at me; that was clear from the way he became flustered and shuffled the paper in front of him as I approached. He coughed a couple of times, not to clear his throat but a full-on, chesty cough. His weak old man act was convincing and I might’ve bought it if I hadn’t known better. But I knew what he could do beneath the fake nervous shuffle: he could throw me across the room, out of the window and probably as far as the sea if he wanted to.

I tried to catch wind of his emotions but there were too many people in the café and instead I was hit with an onslaught that was too tangled to parse.

‘Do you mind?’ I said as I pulled out the chair opposite him.

His head shook almost imperceptibly. It could’ve been a refusal but I took it as permission and sat down. Eva placed herself squarely between us under the table.

‘You’re not her,’ he said, his voice trembling.

‘I’m not who?’

‘The sorceress. You look like the sorceress. Just like her. ’

The blood drained from my face; if there was ever something I didn’t want to hear, it was that . ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ I said faintly.

‘Yes, you do. I can feel it. You know her.’ His eyes widened. ‘Are you…? Are you the girl?’ His voice rose. ‘Oh, good God! It’s you. It’s you. You’re her! I … I wasn’t meant to do that. I wasn’t meant to do that to you.’

He wasn’t talking now, he was virtually shouting, rambling in panic and horror. Tears welled in his eyes as he covered his mouth and shuffled his seat back. The skin on his face was so white it was nearly translucent.

‘I’m not her.’ I stood up and backed away from him. ‘My name is Beatrix, Beatrix Stonehaven.’

He moaned pitifully and covered his eyes with a trembling hand. ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I’m sorry.’

‘Is everything okay here?’ Fraser appeared beside us and placed a hand on Jacobson’s shoulder.

‘I can’t. I can’t,’ Jacobson stammered. Now I could feel his emotions whether I wanted to or not; he was paralysed with horror and it was mounting as he started to lose control.

‘Fraser, get back,’ I instructed sharply, realising what was about to happen an instant before it did .

The property developer didn’t move in time; instead, he put himself between Jacobson and me. Before I could push him out of the way, a flash of magic shot out from the old man and struck Banks square in the chest. He flew back and hit the coffee counter with a sickening thud.