“Huh? You know Emily and Emmett?” I asked.
“I sure do,” Martin grumbled. “I gave them shelter before I moved to the coven. I’d only been in San Diego for a month at the time.”
“Oh, wow,” I gasped, exhilarated by the prospect of a new lead. “What happened?”
“Nothing much,” he replied. “They were quiet and mostly out of the house. Didn’t give me much trouble. They begged me not to tell anyone that they were in town. They creeped me out, though. Honestly, they could be really scary sometimes. Given that I’d opened my door to them, I didn’t want to risk it, so I kept my mouth shut. After I got registered with the coven, I snuck back into my own house while they were out, packed a bag, and skedaddled out of there. I was safer here!”
“When was that?” I asked.
“About three years ago, give or take. I don’t keep track of time in death. It’s useless.”
“And what happened to your house?” I replied.
“Oh, I sold it,” he said. “I called the cops first and told them I had squatters in there. It was enough to send the Ryders away. Afterward, I got in touch with a realtor and got rid of the place. It wasn’t safe anymore.”
This sounded more like the Ryders I knew. I took a deep breath, trying to imagine them as they shared a house with Martin. I got goosebumps.
“You were saying something about locations, I think?” I asked, drawing his focus back to my laptop and the notes I had up on the screen.
He nodded, chuckling. “They won’t be using an interdimensional pocket, sweetheart. That takes Bestiary energy. The managing coven would be immediately notified if they did. They’d need approval from the California Mage Council for that.”
“So what should I be looking for?”
“Warehouses. Abandoned properties. That kind of stuff,” Martin replied. “Judging by the location of all your new magicals and crime scenes, I’m thinking they’d be holed up somewhere in Chula Vista, close to the water and the freeway. Easy access into the city and close enough to the ocean for an escape route. Based on the rumors that have been circulating through the spirit world, those kids have built quite the criminal operation. I should know, I was a prosecutor for the San Diego Coven for twenty years,” he added.
I gave Martin a grateful smile, my pulse quickening as new opportunities emerged in my mind regarding the Ryders’ potential location. “You’re a genius, Martin. Thank you.”
He laughed. “Yes. Gone too soon, I’m afraid!”
“How did you both die, if you don’t mind me asking?” I looked at him, then at Helen.
Martin sighed. “Heart attack. I was just getting ready for a bath.”
“As evidenced by my shirt, I got stabbed,” Helen said.
“I’m sorry, for the both of you,” I replied. “Do you know who did it, Helen?”
“Oh, yeah,” she said, scowling at me. “Absolutely. It was—”
Everything vanished, all of a sudden. I was back in the living plane. The darkness and the spirits were gone. My laptop was right in front of me, and Oberon’s spiritual weight was crushing me again. I panted from the effort as I pushed back and took a deep breath, but I managed to overpower him.
“What the hell, Oberon?!” I croaked. Beads of sweat trickled down my face.
We got everything we needed from those two, don’t worry, Oberon said, once again echoing in the back of my head. Now I think you need to tell your computer whiz kid about Chula Vista.
My chest tightened as I worried that he’d cut me out of the spirit plane on purpose.
“What didn’t you want me to find out?” I asked, gritting my teeth. Anger bubbled up in my throat. “I’m not stupid, Oberon!”
A few seconds ticked by in heavy silence. I thoroughly disliked it.
“I can always go back and look for Helen,” I said.
I’m to blame for what happened to her, Oberon said quietly. The bitterness in his distant voice was obvious. He felt guilty. Helen and I got off on the wrong foot. Bad date, like I said. But after that, we patched things up. I introduced her to some of my friends. You know, she was new in the coven, needed to form some social bonds and stuff. One of them… Well, one of them killed her in a fit of rage. I didn’t know he had all that darkness inside him. I actively encouraged her to go out with him, to stay with him, even when she told me that she felt there was something off about him. We found her in her room a few days later with a knife in her chest. I never forgave myself for that. And neither did Helen.
The candor was refreshing. Though, truth be told, I wasn’t sure if that was completely my own reaction, or if he was messing with my emotions. Either way, there wasn’t much I could do for the time being. I figured I’d have him around to help me deal with the Ryder twins, then eject his lying ass with a little help from my favorite Santeria witch. I slowly relaxed, allowing him to settle in my head again. His voice became a little clearer.
I just didn’t want you to know what a failure I was, as a man and as a friend, he added. I’m sorry.
“It’s fine, Oberon. Just stop hijacking my body. It’s not just uncomfortable, it’s scary. Stop doing that, okay? You pulled my hand away from Dylan the other day, too. You have to hold back. This isn’t what we agreed on.”
You’re right. Forgive me, Tatyana.
For a dead guy, he sure had his charm. It didn’t work on me, but I could see others falling for it. There was no point in a conflict with the ghost that had hijacked my body, just yet. “If you keep taking over like that, you’ll give us away to Santana or Raffe. Those two won’t hesitate to tell Wade and Alton about our agreement, and that will buy you a one-way exorcism back to the spirit world. I’m trying to watch out for the both of us here.”
I appreciate that, Oberon said.
I could feel him watching as I wrote an email to Astrid, asking her to look into the Chula Vista area for any warehouses or abandoned properties, based on Martin’s assessments. My gut told me that we were one step closer to finding and bagging the Ryders before they could do any more damage. Too many people had suffered already.
The more time passed, despite Oberon’s outbursts, the more I knew I needed his strength. After Harley’s account of her encounter with the Ryders, it became clear that I required a spirit’s power to face off with those two. Luckily, I already had a Herculean nesting within.
My heart felt heavy, though. The same intuition that pointed me toward the Ryders was also warning me about Oberon. Something was off about the way he’d tried to take over. I didn’t like that.
I reacted foolishly with Dylan, Oberon said, reading my mind. It’s been so long since I’ve felt anyone’s touch, Tatyana. And, right now, I’m feeling every fiber of your body. I can’t begin to describe what that’s like. I got jealous. Forgive me.
He was tugging at my heartstrings with that statement, making my cheeks flush.
“It’s okay,” I muttered, clicking the send button.
Let’s get you some fresh air, Oberon whispered. It’s gorgeous out there by the dragon fountain, at this hour.
I couldn’t shake the uneasiness of his presence, but the end, to me, justified the means. I took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. A walk sounded nice.
Twenty-Nine
Harley
While Astrid was busy digging up that Icelandic spell and looking for any sign of the missing magical kids or the Ryders, I had a small task to cross off my list. There wasn’t much else I could do, since Jacob refused to put me in touch with Isadora, and I couldn’t find any other useful information on Katherine Shipton in the archives. Nothing I’d come across would help me smoke the witch out.
Dinner with the brooding studs was as awkward as I’d expected it to be.
Wade, Garrett, and I sat in silence at one of the tables at Carluccio’s. I’d ordered the ricotta cannelloni, Garrett had opted for pizza and fries, and Wade had gone the extra mile of pretentiousness and went for the arugula salad with parmesan shavings. Most of the food was just getting poked and pushed around our plates as we all tried to restart the conversation.
Our previous attempt had died off when the plates were first brought to the table. Though, the eerie silence had more to do with Wade’s rebuttal of Garrett’s contributions to our current investigation than the food’s arrival. In his opinion, Garrett was “a whole lot of talk and little to no action.”
“The pasta’s good,” I mumbled.
They both looked at me as if I’d just farted.
Maybe this was a bad idea, after all.
“Salad’s not half bad, either,” Wade conceded. His angst made my stomach clench, my appetite dwindling with each minute that went by.
Garrett chuckled. “Didn’t peg you for a salad type of guy.”
“We’re both different people now,” Wade retorted. “Well, I am, anyway. You’re always different people.”
I got confused, fast, as I realized that I was sitting on a gunpowder keg with these two, and that Wade had just lit the fuse. The boom was coming.
“What… Um, what are you talking about?” I asked, my voice barely audible.
“You’re still hung up on that, huh?” Garrett said to Wade, virtually ignoring me. “Here I am, trying to reestablish a communication channel, and you’re stuck in the past. Really, Crowley? After all these years?”
Oh, I was definitely missing some crucial pieces of information here.
“It’s not something you easily forget,” Wade replied, glowering at Garrett.
“Well, you haven’t made it easy,” Garrett answered.
I had a front seat view of their dashing profiles—each of them handsome and gorgeous in his own way. Wade’s features were dark and sharp, highlighted by his sea-green eyes, the black curls on top of his head, and the smooth blade of his nose. In contrast, Garrett’s short dark hair, azure eyes, and devastatingly cute dimples offered me another type of beautiful, the kind that was accustomed to breaking hearts.