15. Cooper

15

COOPER

T he ride is tense. Nikki sits in the passenger seat with a necklace from Rosalie's jewelry box and a sweater. She couldn't decide which item was more personal, so she brought both. She clutches the sweater in her hands, her knuckles going white as I weave in and out of traffic.

She's clearly rethinking all this. I can't read minds, but she's thinking loud enough that I can almost hear her thoughts. Or maybe it's the combination of her posture, her scent of fear, and the way she keeps looking over at me. I assume she's just now realized that I could be an otherworldly creature and also a liar, and that maybe all her initial fears were true.

"Where are we going again?" she says, breaking the silence. And I'm sure she thinks I'm about to cackle and say: My evil lair.

"To see an ex of mine."

"What?" She turns in her seat toward me, her fear shifting to exasperation.

"She's a witch. I told you that. We need her to find Rosalie."

Nikki is still processing the supernatural world. I can't blame her. It's a big reality shift.

After another twenty minutes of fighting traffic, I turn off the engine in a parking lot on the edge of the city. We're sitting in front of a green building with a blue neon sign that reads, "Coven Mart."

Selene has a strange sense of humor.

Nikki just blinks at the building. "Was this always here?"

"Yeah, but she's got a light cloak on it. Most people don't really notice it. Those who do tend to be humans who do some version of what they call magic, but don't actually have otherworld powers."

"But this witch does?"

I nod. "This witch does."

Selene gets a kick out of having a witch store selling stuff to normie humans that most of them don't really know how to use. Witchcraft has gone mainstream enough that at least that part of the otherworld doesn't have to be completely hidden. It hides in plain sight. She's loving this ability to mix and mingle. Just a few centuries ago, her family barely escaped a witch burning purge—so she's enjoying this new sense of freedom.

I glance at the clock on the dashboard. It's already eight-thirty. The shop closed half an hour ago. We get out of the Jeep.

"Maybe I should just wait out here," Nikki says.

"No. You're coming inside where it's safe. Vampires, remember?"

She looks around, uncertain, but follows me up to the door. I bang on it. We wait. I bang some more. Finally, the door opens.

Selene looks the same as always, long flowing black hair, a black corset, black mini-skirt, fishnets, combat boots, and dark red lipstick painting lips that always seem to smirk in a knowing way.

"Well, if it isn't Cooper Blackmore. I knew you'd be back. I should make you work for it, but I know what you can do in the bedroom, so I'll forgive you this once." She licks her lips as her gaze slides down to a package she was once well acquainted with.

She finally notices Nikki. "Who the fuck is this? You know I don't do threesomes unless it's another guy." She raises a hand, and I know what that fucking wrist flick can do, so I grab her by the arm before she can do damage.

"She's not important. I need your help."

Selene jerks out of my grasp and rolls her eyes. "And why should I help you?"

"We broke up three years ago! You can't still be mad about it, and you of all people should know it wasn't ever going to work."

"And I told you, I could do a spell that…" I cut her off before she can re-explain her plan to block any future mate connection from forming at all, so she and I could be together—so we could cheat fate. But despite all that comes with it, I wanted a true mate.

"Selene, I found my mate."

Her eyes narrow into slits, and I'm not entirely sure I'm going to survive the night.

"Congratulations, I'll be sure to send a mating gift." She starts to slam the door in my face, but then she senses it.

She turns on me like a hungry jackal, a sharp satisfied gleam in her eyes. "Uh oh… your mating isn't completed. What happened… did she run from you, Cooper? Did you scare the poor thing with your…" she gives me a long slow once over. "… stamina? Wait… is she human ?"

This is why we're here. Selene may be difficult, but she's powerful, and when she can get out of her ego for five minutes, she senses… everything.

"She's been taken, and I need your help."

Selene laughs. "You need my help. I'm sorry, have you met me? I'm not exactly the charitable type. And I'm jealous and vengeful to boot, or did you forget that in our time apart?"

"Believe me, if I knew any other witch, I would go to them. But I don't. And the fact that there are enough wannabe witches in this city to keep you in business, means I'd have to vet through a lot of humans to find an actual otherworld witch. And I don't have time for that."

She looks at me, really looks at me, and I could swear there is something like pity in her eyes. "You should have let me do that spell back when it would have worked."

"Please, Selene, help me. You know what we had was nothing more than a good time."

"To you, maybe."

"Either way, it's too late for that, and you know it. You know what will happen if I lose her, so if you ever cared for me…"

She sighs. "Fine. Come in."

I hold the door open for Nikki and then step inside behind her. We follow Selene to the back room and up a narrow set of stairs to her apartment over the shop. The most remarkable thing about Selene's apartment is how utterly unremarkable it is. Nothing about it screams Witch In Residence. Even the most skittish human would never suspect Selene lives in an extended love affair with the dark arts.

"Did you bring something personal of hers?" Selene asks.

Nikki meekly holds out the sweater and necklace.

"I don't need all her stuff, hon." She snatches the gold heart-shaped locket. "This will do."

She plops down on her ass in the middle of the living room floor without any preamble, candles, or spooky lighting. If I didn't know her I wouldn't take this seriously, but she doesn't need any of the props and spectacle to get shit done.

She holds the necklace in her hands and chants softly, rocking back and forth. Then her eyes go solid white as her head shoots back. I may not be magic in the same way she is magic, but I feel the energy in the room shift, and it seems Nikki feels it as well.

After what seems like a small eternity, Selene comes out of her trance and hands the necklace back to Nikki.

Nikki hesitates.

"It won't bite you, sweetheart. There's no scary magic on it or anything. I didn't hex it if that's what you're worried about."

She tentatively takes the necklace back and puts it in her pocket.

"Well?" I say. "What did you see?"

"Your girl's alive, and safe enough—for the moment. She's being kept in a cell. There's a timer on the wall, which I assume is when he plans to come back for her. Just some old-fashioned psychological torture. I heard some talk from one of the guards. Marcus only bit her tonight to mute your connection. Guess he didn't know you knew a strong witch. Either way, he's not going to touch her again until tomorrow night when he rises. He's waiting for the drugs to wear off."

"What drugs?"

"Well, I'm not a pharmacist, Cooper, but I assume whatever drugs were used to transport her to him."

I start to pace. Marcus. I don't have to ask if it's the same Marcus. I push down the growl bubbling in my chest.

"I thought that motherfucker was in Europe?"

Selene sighs. "He's a vampire. You know how nomadic they are. Maybe he got bored."

"Where's Rosalie?"

She shrugs. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"Selene…"

"I can give you a general area, maybe within a few miles, but I can't do better than that. He's got wards, Cooper. Good ones. He doesn't want to be found."

"Then how could you see all the rest if you can't see where he is?"

"Because finding a conscious being is energetically easier than finding a physical location."

"Why?"

"I don't know why, Cooper, they didn't cover it in witch school. Why is the sky blue?"

"Because the sunlight is scattered by gases and particles in the earth's atmosphere," I say.

She rolls her eyes.

"Can't you just… break the wards?" I say.

"Let me put it to you this way, Mars needs to be in retrograde, and I need virgin tears. That's six weeks away, and it's also assuming I could find a virgin. Do you want to let your mate wait for me to be able to break his wards? What all do you think Marcus could come up with to do to her in that time? The imagination practically buckles under the possibilities."

"You don't need all that to do magic."

"Correction, I don't need all that do to magic unless there's another powerful witch involved… then I need to break out the spooky rah rah. I'm sorry, Cooper, I don't write the rules of magic, I just live by them."

I'm not entirely sure I trust her. And I wonder if she's just doing this shit to spite me. Maybe she'd prefer both Rosalie and I die, than to have to live with the idea of me with someone who isn't her.

She sighs. "I really can't pinpoint the house, Cooper. I'm sorry. But I can find the general location. Just give me a minute."

We wait as she goes into another room. A drawer opens and shuts. Another drawer opens. There's the sound of papers rustling.

"Ow, fuck me!" she hisses after she bangs into something.

Finally, she returns with a folded paper map of the city. She unfolds it and places it on the floor then holds her hand out to Nikki.

"What?"

"The necklace, dear. I need it."

Nikki digs the locket out of her pocket and passes it to Selene.

"I have to brew tea."

"Selene…" I growl.

"Cooper. Enough! I told you, he has wards. They're strong enough that I know I can't pinpoint his exact location without much stronger magic which requires celestial alignments we don't have right now. I'm so sorry this inconveniences you, but to even get in the general neighborhood, I'm going to have to do a little more, ritually speaking. Now be useful and go downstairs to the shop and get me a bloodstone, some ginger root, and mugwort."

Selene dismisses me and goes to her own kitchen cabinets to pull several amber glass jars from the shelves.

Nikki comes with me down to the shop as I collect the ingredients. I don't blame her for not wanting to stay behind.

Half an hour later, Selene finally has her tea brewed, some weird smelly herbs to sprinkle, and candles lit. The lights are dimmed and the map is spread out on the floor in the center of the room. She drinks the tea.

Some more chanting happens, and then she hovers the necklace over the map. It starts to move, and she seems to sense where to go so that the locket can find the right location. Finally, after testing several spots, the locket starts to move in a very clear circle.

Finally, Selene puts the locket down, leans back, and reaches into a drawer. She pulls out a red Sharpie marker and draws a circle on the map.

"There. She's somewhere inside that radius."

"Are you sure?" I ask.

She just looks at me like I'm quite possibly an idiot.

"Can I take the map?"

"Of course you can take the map. Why else would I draw the circle on it? As a souvenir of the time my ex asked me to help him rescue his one true love?"

She gets up off the floor, folds the map, and snuffs out the candles.

"How am I going to find her? This is still a lot of ground to cover." The circled location covers about five miles on the outskirts of the city—in the suburbs.

"Well, use that big architect brain of yours. There aren't a lot of basements around here. But a vampire's safe house will always have a basement."

I nod. "Thank you," I say with sincerity. "I know you didn't have to do this."

"No problem. That'll be $25,000. I take all major credit cards." She holds out her hand.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"No, Cooper. I'm not kidding you, and I know you can afford it. I need new plumbing in this dump. You broke my heart, and then you came to me to do magic to find the woman you plan to spend the rest of your existence with. That's expensive magic. And it'll get even more expensive if I have to put your account into collections."

"What does she mean by that?" Nikki says, her tone wary. Rosalie's friend has been quiet and attempting to blend into the background practically the entire time we've been here, a smart strategy to be sure.

"She means she'll hex me if I don't pay her."

"You always were smart," Selene says.

I pull out my wallet and hand her my black card.

She smiles broadly at me as she takes it. "Give me one moment to process your order and get you your receipt."

Nikki and I follow Selene downstairs back into the shop. She puts the map into a logo-printed brown shopping bag with black tissue paper that has silver foil stars on it, then runs my card. A moment later, the receipt prints.

Selene smiles sweetly as she passes me the bag with my card and receipt inside. "Thank you for shopping at Coven Mart. Have a magical night."