Chapter 19

CHAPTER NINETEEN

As I burst through the office door, Carson was manning Sophia’s desk. Dante and Orik were a few steps behind me.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Carson jumped up as we rushed in. He motioned for us to follow him.

I glanced at Dante and shrugged. We followed Carson to the breakroom, where he had set up his laptop and had pulled up a Talk2U chat room. It was a site on the Dark Web that allowed people to discuss things in private, which also had voice simulators to distort the voice, and used avatars instead of actual visuals. There was no way to hack through—security was just that good.

We sat down at the table, waiting.

“I’ll be back. My team is here,” Carson said, hitting the mute button. He looked over at us. “We’re facing some deep shit. One of my contacts who works with PortalWatch messaged me today. Something’s going on at several of the portals.”

Portals were stepping stones to other realms. They occurred in nature, but over the centuries, witches and sorcerers had learned how to recreate them through magic, and now there were underground groups who could provide access to other worlds and dimensions for a price.

Most humans didn’t know about them, though they sometimes tripped over a natural portal. But I knew from Penn that some of the gods—Hecate included—set their priestesses to watch over them. And one of her deeper secrets that I and my team knew in case we ever needed access, was that Penn was a portal keeper. She kept it under wraps though, because it would be too easy for someone to kidnap her and force her to open the portal.

“I wish Penn was here,” I said.

“So do I,” Carson said. “Can you call her? I can stall my contact for a bit.” While he went back into the chat to ask for more time, I stepped away so that I couldn’t be heard through his headphones.

Penn answered on the first ring. “Yeah?”

“Can you come down to the office? We need you here.”

“Oh crap, something big go down?”

“Carson says so,” I said. “It has to do with the portals. If you could hurry…”

“On my way,” she said.

I returned to the table, looking at Carson.

“It’s good. He’ll wait for fifteen minutes. Do you think Penn can make it by then?”

I texted her. can you be here in fifteen minutes?

i think so. in the car.

“She’s on her way. Penn has a way of invoking Carla the Parking Goddess to her advantage.” I grinned.

Penn was always calling on Carla, the mythical parking goddess, to weave her way through gridlock, and to find a parking spot. She succeeded most of the time, to the point of where I absolutely believed that somewhere, some wise-cracking goddess wearing a pair of leopard print pants, a pink cashmere form-fitting sweater, and stiletto ankle boots sat in a giant room, answering prayers as she manipulated traffic.

“She’s a wildcard,” Carson said. “Okay, do you want me to tell you what I know so far, or just wait for Penn?”

“Wait for Penn,” I said.

Ten minutes later, Penn texted me that she was at the door. How she managed that, I had no clue. Dante ran to let her in.

“What’s going on?” she asked, following him into the breakroom.

“We’re about to find out,” I said. “Don’t say anything. We don’t want his contact to know how many people are here. At least, not now.”

Carson logged back in. “So, my team’s assembled. I’m putting you on speaker. Go ahead.” Carson clicked on something and a low, mechanical voice echoed out of the speaker.

“Since we’ve worked together for a number of years, I thought you should know that I’ve noticed something dangerous going on with the portals. I’ve logged unusual activity with a portal in your area—it’s one set to the UnderRealms and that means Demonkin. The portal seldom gets used, but over the past month or so, it’s opened five times. I talked to the head of PortalWatch. It seems that the portal keeper for that vortex has vanished. We think she’s been secretly allowing some of the Demonkin to let them into your city. Since she vanished, we know something’s up.”

I motioned for Carson to mute again. “What the hell? Penn, do you know anything about this?”

“No,” she said, frowning. “Nobody’s told me anything. I haven’t done my weekly devotional yet, but I’ll ask Hecate tonight for insight.”

I gestured to Carson again. “Ask him what else they know.”

Carson unmuted and asked his contact. “What else do you know?”

“We sense demonic activity taking place in your area. Every city has its share of demons, but this is a highly concentrated level, and we’re watching it to see if it’s a threat. This could be very bad. PortalWatch hasn’t contacted the city government yet, because we’re trying to keep this on the downlow until we have a handle on what’s going on. Since your friends with a portal keeper, we were hoping you could investigate this.”

Penn sighed. She wrote a note to Carson, asking if her voice would be distorted. He nodded affirmative, and she motioned for him to hand her the microphone.

“Who vanished? This is one of the portal keepers for Hecate.”

“We know who you are,” the voice said. “We were hoping you’d be there. It would be safer if you could look into this, since you’re from the area. Also, be aware, the nosy observers from Solimentary are aware of what’s going on and you may trip over them.”

Solimentary was an organization that watched over supernatural and paranormal happenings. They were keepers of the arcane, dedicated to recording events. But they never stepped in to interfere. They did, however, at times cause issues. I knew about them, but not as much as I probably should.

“I’ll do what I can to help,” she said. “I’ll hold a devotional tonight, and see if Hecate has any guidance for me.”

“You should be receiving communication from PortalWatch about this issue in the next day or so,” the voice said. “Keep in contact.”

After Carson said goodbye, he turned off his laptop. “Well…it seems we’re facing a potential disaster.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Somebody, tell me more about the connection between Solimentary and PortalWatch.”

Penn cleared her throat. “Solimentary runs the Library of Arcane Wisdom, and they gather information on paranormal and supernatural events that impact society. They study the dynamics of Supes within the human community and record the history. Those of us trained through the magical academies who sign an oath to Queen Elsabetha of the Crystal Court, are taught about the Library of Arcane Wisdom. However, few humans, or Supes for that matter, know about them. PortalWatch needs to access the records, and so the two organizations are connected, in a way. As a result, Solimentary knows about the portal keepers.” She turned to us. “Will you guys help me?”

I nodded. “Of course we will.” I turned to Carson. “Does your contact know that I’m half-demon?”

He shrugged. “I’m pretty sure he knows the background of everybody in this agency.”

“Well then…it looks like we have our marching orders.” I sighed. “It’s starting to look like winter is going to be a long, hard, slog. Thanksgiving at my place, if you want. We could use some cheer.”

Four days later, on Wednesday afternoon, I sat in the booth at Jersey’s Diner, waiting for Penn as rain pounded down outside. The smells of the diner were comforting, and I ordered a brownie with vanilla ice cream, and a caramel cappuccino, warming my hands on the cup.

So much had changed in the past few days. First, as of Monday, Lazenti started working with us. We now knew his real name, though we still called him Lazenti, and he’d taken Penn’s magical loyalty oath. He came in to work at night, and had moved in with Dante for the time being, so I wasn’t the only one with a new roommate.

Wednesday morning, I had attended Letty’s funeral, and told Angela that she was right, Letty had been killed. I’d told her as much as I could, without putting her at risk, and she had thanked me for coming, then given me a big bag of Letty’s supplies to give to Penn.

At noon, I’d gone to see Seton for the results to the tests about my heritage. I fiddled with my latte, still trying to comprehend what I’d learned.

Promptly at 3:45, Penn appeared at the door of the diner, looking war-weary herself.

Over the past few days, she had verified that the portal keeper for the Glider Park portal, which was linked with the UnderRealms, had disappeared with no trace. The portal had been activated within the past three weeks, and was probably how the demon who killed Letty got through. Now, Penn was in charge of keeping tabs on that portal as well as the one she normally looked after, and Shadow Blade Investigations was on the hunt, looking for any signs of demonic activity, along with our regular cases.

“Hey,” she said, motioning to the waitress as she slid into the booth. “Triple mocha with whipped cream and a cinnamon stick,” she ordered. “Also, pie. Cherry pie.” She turned to me. “What did you find out?”

I let out a sigh. “Well…yes, I am from the Arosien Clan. And apparently, I’m developing some strong powers, more than a usual half-breed usually would. Seton said that means my father was a strong demon.”

“How strong will your powers get?” Penn asked.

“I don’t know. And I won’t know what all the powers are until they manifest. Seton’s convinced me to participate in what he calls ‘counseling’…though it’s more of a combination of therapy and training. Right now, I seem to be developing a strong connection to the spirit realm, and they’re going to train me how to handle seeing and talking to ghosts.”

“Are you afraid? And that sounds cool,” Penn said.

“Yeah, I’m afraid. I’m afraid of the potential risk of losing control of my temper like…you remember. But Seton promises me that I’ll be able to control it, if I follow his program. The ghost thing does seem fun, though, so apparently being half-demon has its perks. It will also mean I can communicate with victims, if their spirits are still around.”

“That could be helpful.” Penn accepted her mocha and dessert with a nod to the waitress. “I’ve officially closed my shop. Carson’s building me a website,” she said.

“Wow…that’s huge,” I said.

She nodded. “Yeah, it is. I’ve signed up for a business course on Sunday evenings at Windchime Magical Academy, by the way. Principal Groveletter gave me a reduction on the cost because of you, so that’s helpful.” She paused for a moment, then added, “Life is changing, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “It does seem to be, doesn’t it? I do admit, I’m afraid. How many demons have infiltrated the world? Are they out there, waiting to strike? Or are they going to be subtle—take over from within? And if humans find out—and Supes—will they go on a rampage, hunting them down? What about me? I’m half-demon. Will I be under attack?”

There were so many questions, and only time would give us the answers. I looked at Penn and smiled, reaching out to take her hand. As we sat there in silence, watching the rain pour down outside the window, I realized that—if nothing else—I was grateful that we were now roommates. For some reason, it seemed to give life more meaning. And that…was priceless.

If you enjoyed Shadow Seeking , then you can preorder the second and third books in the Shadow Blade Series : Shadow Scorching and Shadow Dreaming . There will be more to come of Kyann’s adventures after that.

If you love my paranormal women’s fiction, you can preorder Haunted Eclipse and Vampire’s Vixen , the two first books in my new PWF series— Married At First Bite . Follow along with Maisy Tripwater as she attempts to match up perfect couples, but ends up battling ghosts, monsters, and vampires to pave the way to wedded bliss.

For all of my work, both published and upcoming releases, see the Bibliography at the end of this book, or check out my website at Galenorn.com and be sure and sign up for my newsletter to receive news about all my new releases.

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