Chapter 25

‘April Arctos?’ Sidnee repeated as she noisily slurped a milkshake. ‘She’ll either be horrendous or she’ll be running the show in a day.’

I laughed. ‘My thoughts exactly, but who better to be in the office alone? No one would get away with anything.’ I took another bite of my burger.

‘She has my vote,’ Sidnee agreed.

‘If it was a democratic process I’d hire her now, but it’s got to go through Gunnar and the council first.’ I swallowed down some more tasty beef. ‘Hey, I noticed that we aren’t getting any hotline calls. Have you had any?’

‘Oh, yeah, I was getting most of them during my shift, so I had them sent to my phone. I leave you messages if it’s something you need to deal with.’

I’d had a few, but not many. ‘So the calls have died down a lot?’

Sidnee didn’t look at me; she was playing with the salad on her plate. ‘Yeah.’

I nodded, but something was niggling at me and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Suddenly Sidnee looked beyond me and glared. I turned to see who had earned her wrath and saw a young man and a woman smirking at her. ‘Who are they?’ I asked.

‘No one. Just assholes.’ She speared a tomato with her fork.

‘Mermaid assholes?’

She tried to give a nonchalant shrug. ‘Yeah.’

‘You want me to say something to them?’

She gave me a bitter smile. ‘Say what, Bunny? “Please leave Sidnee alone, or else?”’ That had pretty much been my plan. Then she grinned suddenly. ‘That was your plan, wasn’t it?’

‘I was maybe going to flash my gun, too,’ I confessed.

She laughed aloud. ‘You’re the best! You know that, right?’

‘I’m trying. I’m not good at this friendship thing, but I want to be there for you.’

‘You are – you have been and I really appreciate it. Come on, let’s go. I’m full anyway.’

We paid the bill and I made sure to level a glare at the two mers as I walked past. They didn’t look cowed in the slightest so I was tempted to flash my fangs, but luckily the little buggers didn’t listen to me and refused to drop down. As the local law enforcement officer, starting a fight would have been a bad idea.

I hurried back to work. Gunnar and I had an appointment offsite with Liv and she didn’t suffer fools, let alone unpunctual ones. We headed out about twenty minutes before we were due to meet her leaving Fluffy and Shadow to hold the fort. Shadow was doing the very serious job of snoozing and Fluffy was in guard-dog mode.

Gunnar took me to a side of town I’d not visited before. Portlock was on the tip of the Kenai Peninsula, on the south-east side of Port Chatham Bay, but there was an additional spit of land that jutted into the bay with a few expensive houses on it.

We drove to the last one. With water on three sides it had an amazing view, though I wasn’t sure I could have lived there. I’d be spooked in a storm, and the water around the house would be tempestuous.

The house was made of wood and stone and looked very solid, except for its huge windows. We knocked. Liv answered the door and we entered the stylish, nautically themed interior. The homeowner had a love of quotes: things like Shore is nice! and My sense ofdirection leads me one way: to the beach! were splashed on the walls. That was how I knew the house definitely wasn’t Liv’s: no way she’d have anything cute on her walls. She’d have something dead, for sure.

A sturdily built woman stood up. She had dusky colouring, suggesting she was native to the area, and two thick, dark braids that hung to her waist. Her dark eyes were framed with eyelashes that any celebrity would have killed for.

Liv introduced us. ‘This is Adelheid Paneok, the water witch. I’ve been here all day strengthening the wards. See what additional security measures you can put in place,’ she ordered briskly. Her eyes lingered on Gunnar but there was no trace of her usual flirtatiousness; she didn’t even sashay as she showed us to the room at the end of a hall.

My scalp started to itch as we neared the door. When Liv opened it, we saw that it was a vault. The door was four inches of steel with a complex locking mechanism. I was impressed: this was the most secure location I’d seen so far. Liv showed us that the box containing the water gem was securely on its plinth.

‘Are the walls reinforced as well as the door?’ I asked Adelheid.

‘Yes, reinforced concrete like a bank vault.’

‘It’s possible that the thief can teleport in. Do the wards go all the way to the box?’

‘Yes, we took that suggestion and put it in place. There is only a half-foot buffer between the wards and the box, if anyone teleported in, they’d be fried.’

Some skinny people might have a depth of less than fifteen centimetres, but that was unlikely; one wobble backwards and they’d be incinerated. Maybe we needed to let the would-be thieves know what they were facing to discourage more thefts.

When I said as much, Liv snorted. ‘No, Bunny, we’re not announcing the measures. It would be like a bank vault putting their blueprints in a newspaper.’ Her tone was scathing. ‘It would invite a break-in. If anyone tries it and gets incinerated, more fool them.’

‘Would you allow us to place a camera inside the vault and outside the door?’ Gunnar asked, changing the topic. I shot him a grateful look.

Adelheid hesitated. ‘They’d only be in those places?’

‘Absolutely,’ he promised.

‘Then sure, no problem. But I’d have to drop the wards long enough to install them. Would that be safe?’

‘Yes. We’ll do the installation ourselves. I don’t want anyone except those of us in this room to have access.’

‘When can you do it, Nomo?’ Liv asked.

Gunnar frowned at her. ‘Are we expected at the earth gem soon?’

‘No, I gave them a three-hour window.’

‘Then I can do it now.’

Liv was impressed and her eyebrows rose a little before she schooled her face. Poor Gunnar – his efficiency had probably revived her ardour.

Adelheid started the process of lowering the wards by lighting candles and chanting while Gunnar hustled out to the SUV. He returned with a large tote bag and a toolbox. It took a while for the wards to drop, which made Liv smile in satisfaction. When they were down, Adelheid swayed a little and the irritating itch on my scalp stopped abruptly.

‘Okay?’ I asked the tired witch.

She flashed me a brilliant smile. ‘I will be in a moment. It’s nowhere near as bad as putting wards up, but it does take it out of you.’

‘Can I ask a question?’

The water witch glanced at Liv who gave a nearly imperceptible nod. ‘Go ahead,’ she said. ‘Shoot.’

‘What exactly is the water gem?’

‘It’s a large, brilliant cut sapphire, about the size of…’

‘A fist?’ I finished for her.

‘Well l… Yes.’ She gave me an odd look.

‘Has anyone new come into your life recently? Has anyone shown an interest in your routine?’

She thought about it then shook her head. ‘No, I don’t think so, ma’am.’

‘Other than yourself, who could lower your wards?’

‘Well, obviously Miss Fox here and the other guardians. I suppose another elemental witch who was powerful enough could do it if they had enough time and patience, but there’s no one in this town capable of it. Liv has sent for more witch elementals to join us but they won’t arrive for a few days yet.’ She looked into the vault. ‘Watch yourself,’ she warned softly. ‘The wards aren’t there to protect the stone.’

Gunnar started the installation and I stopped chinwagging. I drew my gun and stood beside the pedestal, keeping my eyes on the box the entire time: I didn’t want to blink and have a sticky-fingered teleporting-banshee snatch it in a flash. The thief would know we were checking the other stones; if they wanted to try for that trifecta, the time would be now.

Something about the gem was making me uncomfortable and I felt odd – off somehow – being this near to it. It had a malevolent energy that set my nerves on edge, and a hum that rattled my back teeth. My fingers itched to flick open the box and look inside; the need to grab it and run was unmistakable. I planted my feet more firmly and held steady.

Gunnar looked up mid-install and nodded approval. His hands were shaking with the effort of resisting the gem. Jesus, what was up with these damned things?

Once he’d finished installing the cameras, the witch put the wards back up. She was visibly drained.

The itch started again and I pushed down the urge to put a distance between myself and the wards. ‘Do you have to do your thing again with the wards?’ I asked Liv.

‘Of course not,’ she said dismissively. ‘The new wards were already set. Adelheid is lifting and lowering them, not making them all over again.’ It was all foreign to me but I nodded as if she were making total sense.

Gunnar installed another camera outside the door. Both were battery run, motion activated and sent images to our phones; they were also video only, so they didn’t suck up a lot of power. Once he’d finished and we’d tested that they worked, we said our goodbyes to Adelheid. She was going for a lie down.

We followed Liv to the home of the earth witch. Apparently Calliope was meeting us there – and I wasn’t too thrilled at the prospect. Not long ago we’d suspected Soapy, her second and lover, of being a drug dealer so she probably wasn’t thrilled with us, either. Plus, she was a terrifying water dragon and I’d seen her kill someone with one bite.

I’d have to remember not to stand too close.