Chapter 16

It took two hours to contain the fire and for the firefighters to let us look around the outside of the house. They still needed to check the stability of the inside before they would let us paw through the ruins.

We were about to start the search when Stan arrived in his truck, Bessie. He parked up and Liv made a beeline for him, leaving the shaken wind witch cowering in the shadows. ‘This is your fault!’ she exclaimed stridently as she marched up to him and invaded his personal space. ‘I lent the council the stones and look what you have done with them!’

‘Calm down,’ Mafu urged. ‘We don’t know yet whether or not the stone has been taken.’

Liv ignored Mafu and narrowed her eyes at Stan. ‘If it is gone, I will be back for my pound of flesh. You weren’t even here. None of your shifters were here! So much for your vaunted protection!’

Stan’s eyes flashed and he glared right back. ‘Oh hell, no. You don’t get to lay this at my door. If someone got in then there was a problem with your wards!’

I had a death wish, so I stepped between them. ‘Enough! Let’s start the search and find the damned gem, shall we?’

Liv stalked off, still visibly simmering. ‘Fluffy!’ I called. ‘Let’s go.’ He obediently trotted forward, nose to the ground. He started to sniff around but I could tell from his frustrated huffs and sneezes that all he was getting was smoke.

Stan joined me. ‘Did you have a man on the house?’ I asked quietly.

He sighed. ‘Yeah,’ he admitted unhappily. ‘I had someone who was supposed to be here.’

‘Who?’

‘Martin Snow.’

‘Your moose-shifter who was at the barrier protest?’ I asked.

‘That’s the one,’ he agreed grimly.

‘Stan, it doesn’t look good.’ With hindsight, it was obvious that he should have removed the barrier protestor from the gem-protection detail.

‘I know. I’ll speak to him, then you can have him when I’m done.’

I didn’t like his proposed order of events, but supernat politics were murky and Stan was Snow’s leader. ‘Make sure he can still talk when you’re done with him.’

‘No guarantees,’ Stan growled, looking far from the jovial man I knew. He was pissed off and I didn’t blame him: Snow had dropped the ball and it looked like he’d done it deliberately. But I knew he wasn’t working with the fire-gem thief because Aoife was dead. Was Snow’s involvement negligence – or was he part of another gem-thieving plot?

We spread out looking for tracks or anything out of place, but after the devastation of the fire and water any evidence had long since been destroyed. We were still waiting for the fire inspector to give the nod so we could look inside. The crowd had dissipated, leaving the council members waiting anxiously.

Sidnee was bouncing on the balls of her feet and I worried about the effects of the energy potion she’d taken combined with Gunnar’s healing potion. If anything, she now had too much energy.

To add insult to injury, the fire – and the smells – were giving me flashbacks to my own house burning down. Every sound made me jump; I probably looked like my namesake hopping about the place. I tried to keep a lid on it, but the vision of Virginia and Jim burning to death was hard to shake.

Several hours later we got the okay to go in. The weepy wind witch, Elsa Wintersteen, showed us where the wind gem had been kept and we searched the area thoroughly; even if the box had burned to ash – which wasn’t likely considering it was made of metal and covered in enchantments – the magical gem would definitely be there.

We sifted through ash and rubble but there was nothing to be found other than a scorched, stone pillar. The wind gem was gone. This time, though, our thief wasn’t a teenage banshee because she’d been murdered by someone who presumably had stolen the fire gem from her. I was fairly certain that someone was now running around with two cursed stones in their fist.

Life had been simpler when I was serving drinks in a bar, but I still wouldn’t have traded my current life for anything.

I needed to keep busy so I took Elsa Wintersteen’s statement. Like Kostas, she’d been out of the house; she’d been picking up her kids at school and had come home to find the fire. Her husband was at work. She was shaken and upset and kept throwing nervous glances at Liv. If I’d been in charge of something that I’d lost that was under Liv’s command, I’d have been nervous, too.

I wanted to keep chasing leads but we were all exhausted, and by tacit agreement we headed back to the office. Dawn was coming, all three of us had been on shift for way too many hours and we were dead on our feet. Even Sidnee was flagging, despite her potion.

We really needed an extra person to cover the office for times like this. Gunnar said he’d call in someone from the mayor’s office to answer the phones for the day.

Tomorrow was supposed to be my day off. I hadn’t had one in a long time, and now that I knew Connor had our date planned, I was looking forward to it. But there was the small matter of Aoife’s murder and the theft of the wind gem, and I didn’t know what to do: my head said to cancel the date but my heart said to keep it. There hadn’t been a quiet week since I’d arrived here; if I kept waiting for a break in the mayhem before I took time for myself, I’d never have a personal life.

‘Hey,’ I said quietly to Sidnee. ‘I’m supposed to be off tomorrow, but with everything going on…’ I trailed off.

She rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t be stupid. You need time off or you’ll burn out or make stupid mistakes because you’re over-tired. Sig is already lined up to cover your shift, so take the day off.’ She fluttered her eyelashes. ‘Spend it getting sweaty with Connor.’

I blushed and ducked into Gunnar’s office where he was packing up for the day. ‘I’m supposed to be off tomorrow,’ I started awkwardly.

‘Then you’re off.’

‘But Aoife—’

Gunnar held up a hand. ‘Bunny, has it been quiet since you joined us here in Portlock?’

‘Well no, not often.’

‘Exactly. Shit happens here because there are a lot of factions with a lot of history. There’s only so many hours in the day, and we all need downtime. We’ll run down leads in your absence tomorrow and I’ll update you when you’re back in.’

‘If there’s anything urgent—’

‘I’ll call you, like we did with Sidnee even though she was off. Go. Enjoy your day. Come back ready to fight crime.’

I gave him a cheeky salute, which made him smile, then headed home with Shadow and Fluffy. I made us all dinner and added a cup of tea for me. I warmed some blood and gulped it down before the meal.

Bed was calling my name. I locked up and pulled the metal shutters down over the windows – a girl could never be too careful – then all three of us tumbled into bed.

Shadow was going mad, yowling at the door and scratching at it. ‘Quit it!’ I murmured and pulled a pillow over my ears. The yowling continued: he was probably hungry.

With a reluctant sigh, I sat up and immediately froze. Light was pouring into my room through the bedroom curtains. The metal shutters weren’t engaged, but I had definitely put them down!

‘Fluffy! Wake up! Something’s not right!’ I shook him and he sat up, instantly alert. I threw on some clothes and patted Shadow approvingly. ‘Sorry, bud. I shouldn’t have ignored you. Let’s see what we’ve got,’ I whispered, trying to sound brave.

I opened the door and a rush of cold air greeted me. A breeze whistled over my skin, joining my fear and making it prickle.

With Fluffy by my side, I sneaked out of my bedroom as quietly as I could in case I still had an intruder. My gun was at work so I grabbed the knife that I kept in my boot and held it tightly. For once my fangs co-operated; sensing my fear, they snicked down ready to rip and rend flesh.

Then Shadow darted ahead of me. Dammit, cat! I picked up the pace and burst out of the hallway into the main living area. All the doors and windows were wide open, and my eyes were instantly drawn to the splash of crimson on the walls. Fear made me think it was blood but a split second later my nose told me it was paint.

Scrawled across the walls were the words Drop the barrier or you’ll burn next! God damn it! Why was it always me?

Even though my heart was beating far faster than normal, I took the time to check every room and closet in the house. All clear. I was freaked out but safe.

For now.