Secrets & Dark Magic Read online

  Delilah

  Delilah was hugging a tree branch, her legs hooked around the trunk as she held a pair of binoculars in one hand and a bag of Corn Nuts in the other. Cole was putting the moves on Penny and from what Delilah could see even from the top of a tree, she was not having it. Why Cole could not see that was anyone’s guess.

  He was moving too fast. She wasn’t ready. It was just like when she’d been buying up souls back in Moscow’s dark magic underground. You had to ease in. If you put the hard sell on somebody right away, they always got scared off and then you’d never get their soul and the vampire gang you’d contracted for would short you the difference.

  “Nah, nah, nah,” Delilah muttered. “This is bullshit. Don’t hit on her now. She’s gonna run off…”

  Delilah poured some Corn Nuts into her mouth. This was very disappointing.

  The flirting had been going so well though. And Delilah knew from flirting too. She’d flirted with plenty of people, usually to get something she wanted. But she could tell when there were real feelings involved and when there weren’t. It was easy for her to tell because she hated real feelings and generally tried to avoid them. In this case, though, real feelings appeared to be the ultimate goal. As long as the feelings headed toward the big L.

  “C’mon, “ Delilah muttered. “Okay, so he’s a little douchey. He’s still hot and he’s helping you and shit and bears are kinda cool… Oh shit, yeah, she’s gonna leave.”

  “You’re a bear!” Penny shouted, and she wasn’t looking right at Cole when she said it, like Delilah was looking at him through her binoculars, and so didn’t see the pain in his eyes when her derisive tone rang out like that.

  It sounded to Delilah like a death knell for the whole mission.

  “No no no no no!” Delilah sputtered, and losing her concentration and her grip on the branch, she promptly fell out of the tree, top over bottom, and ended inside a pokey little shrub with angry twigs that were catching on her jacket and in her hair. “Goddamnit!”

  With some amount of clumsiness, Delilah extricated herself from the shrub and began to run at full speed which, with a little bit of power via the Council of Three, was pretty swiftly. She guessed at a shortcut that got her to Penny’s car ahead of Penny and armed with the kind of knowledge that had lured men and vampire and shifter alike to early tombs, she popped the hood and disabled the engine just enough to make it appear broken down by “natural means.”

  That meant Penny would be stuck in town.

  It also meant she’d need to take the car to an auto shop. Preferably a place that was really terrible at fixing cars so that Penny would have enough time to make up with Cole and seal this deal.

  Delilah took off jogging down the road and halfway to Cole’s place, she found a little vacant lot, the kind of spot where the college kids probably went to smoke weed, but it was right there on the side of the road and perfect for her purposes, assuming the Council of Three was willing to help her out.

  Delilah whipped out her Oracle and tapped a few buttons on the touch screen. Nothing happened.

  “Can you build me an auto body shop real quick?” Delilah pleaded to the Oracle. A foreboding swirl of red appeared on the Oracle screen. “C’mon! She’s gonna leave! I’ll run the place! Just put a building here that says auto body! Something! C’mon, man! I’m trying to get the deed done!”

  The Oracle went green and with a rumble from beneath the ground, a building gradually appeared where the vacant lot had been; a simple squat, white garage with REDEMPTION AUTO BODY painted in giant letters on the front; the dead grass of the lot having become smooth pavement. Two old cars sat in the half-open garage as if in the middle of being serviced. Delilah found herself wearing a blue jumpsuit with an embroidered name tag sewn to the pocket that said “Delilah.” She was also wearing a blonde wig and a ballcap which would hopefully keep Penny from recognizing her as Joan, the meter reader. The council, she knew, was able to mess with the memories of human after missions if they were left with some questionable knowledge about helpers from beyond their world. But she was tasked with being as careful as possible.

  Delilah, having a hunch as to whom she could thank for the magic trick, winked up at the sky and said, “Thanks, Gavrill.”

  She waited, leaning against the Impala in the garage, smoking a cigarette. It did not take Penny long to arrive. It might not have worked, Delilah considered, even as a tow truck dragging Penny’s Prius pulled into the lot, if Penny happened to be more knowledgeable about cars. Or Cole for that matter.

  The tow truck driver climbed out of the truck and jumped down, seemingly bemused as Delilah approached him.

  “That’s so weird,” the driver said. “I didn’t even know this place was here until five minutes ago. When’d you open up? I’ve been towing in this area for ten years.” Delilah followed him to the hitch and helped him unhook it from the Prius, seeing Penny hop out of the truck’s cab.

  “Oh, that’s funny,” Delilah said. “We’ve been around a while.”

  “Really?” The driver blinked at her and Delilah patted him on the shoulder. “Yep. Anyway, bye now!” She took a five dollar bill from her pocket and slapped it into his palm. “Thanks, man.”

  The driver shook his head, climbed back into his truck and drove away. It was still drizzling and Penny had scurried over to the overhang in front of the body shop’s office. Delilah made a show of checking out the car and came to meet her, pushing back her now damp hair, and sticking another cigarette behind her ear.

  “Gotta order a part,” Delilah said. “Probably be a couple days.”

  “Shit, really?” Penny said, crossing her arms, looking cold and damp. “What’s wrong with it?”

  “There’s a bad...flux capacitor,” Delilah said. “In the transmission.”

  Penny squinted and for one terrifying moment Delilah thought she was caught out. “Okay. Will it be expensive?”

  “Nah.” Delilah stuck her hands in his pockets, shaking her head. “Nice face like you, I’ll get you the part on the house. I know a guy. Just charge you for the labor. Cheap labor. But not too cheap. They need to make a living.”

  “Oh!” She perked up at that. “Couple days, huh?”

  “Well, we’ll see,” Delilah said, stroking her chin. That all depended on Penny and Cole really. She just needed them to make up and hook up and then they’d need to go save the world. “These things are unpredictable. You from around here?”

  “Ah, no.”

  “I’d find somewhere to stay in town then,” Delilah said. “Find a friend. Even somebody you may have...prematurely dismissed? Much better than a hotel. Everything around here is totally overpriced.”

  “Right. Lyme disease.” Penny frowned, examining her nails. She looked somewhat ashamed of herself, Delilah thought. “Yeah, I got a place.”

  “Good!” Delilah said. “Go there! Now.”

  Penny seemed somewhat taken aback but it was raining and her car was broken down and she was fresh out of options. So, Delilah sent her trudging back down the road in the direction of Cole’s place which Delilah already knew Penny knew was a dark green stucco duplex.

  Delilah congratulated herself on her ingenuity.

  Or at least she congratulated herself until a Honda Accord pulled into the lot and a sweet-eyed old man asked to have his oil checked.

  Cole

  Cole walked home in the cold and wet, brooding. He wondered, if he had not fallen back on his routine of hitting on anything that moved, would Penny still have flipped out and run off? By the time he got home, he wanted to shift again. He could have, he thought. But just that break from his human form had him feeling a little calmer, even if he was now sad and put out at having been rejected.

  Cole stomped up the steep stairs to his apartment on the second story of a forest green duplex on Fleming Street right off the main road. He was damp, though the rain was not too heavy. He made himself a cup of lemon tea with honey in it and checked his home laptop for emails.
The emails had responded only that they were looking into the cult and would get back to him if they found out anything. Cole tried to watch some news but found himself pacing, not from the restlessness he’d felt earlier in the day but frustration over things having blown up with Penny.

  He could understand her being surprised that he was a bear shifter and that bear shifters existed at all. Only, things had been going so well with her. She was sweet and spunky in a way he found delightful. He couldn’t stop imagining her appearing at his door. He also couldn’t stop imagining her tearing her clothes off for him, but he didn’t expect that to happen either.

  He was genuinely worried too. They had not even exchanged numbers. He cursed his stupidity. He couldn’t make sure she was okay. He might very well see some minor story in the news.

  Occult Murder of Restaurant Hostess in Brooklyn.

  The thought made Cole’s blood run cold. Penny was special; curious and creative and funny. He chewed his lips and willed a knock at his door.

  When there was a knock at the door, he thought perhaps he was actually a wizard.

  Cole dashed to the door and threw it open to find Penny, indeed standing at his door. She was a little bit damp, the cold making her lips and cheeks all the pinker. Her brow was furrowed and she bounced on the balls of her feet as she looked up at him.

  Before he could speak, she said, “You’re still a little skeezy but I freaked out because you’re a bear shifter and I’m sorry. Because you seem like a nice bear shifter. Or anyway...you’re not skeezy because you’re a bear shifter. So I’m sorry.”

  Cole smiled wryly and opened his door wider to let her in. “That’s fair. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. Truly, Penny.” He hung his head, feeling genuinely contrite.

  Penny walked inside and regarded him, tilting her head and biting her lip as if attempting to come to some decision. She smiled a little and tucked her hair behind her ear. “That’s alright. I wasn’t that uncomfortable. Or I wasn’t really uncomfortable in the um...wrong way.”

  He took note of that but was uncertain of what it meant and he wasn’t about to push to find out now when she had just come back. He watched Penny take a look around his place, silently nodding to herself.

  Cole’s apartment was a large studio, all hardwood floors and wood-paneled walls lined with bookshelves and dark curtained windows. It had the feel of a cabin deep in the woods, if not for the architecture. Cole found it exceptionally cozy. There were watercolor paintings of bears and landscapes on the walls and Penny knelt on the navy blue couch to get a better look at the large impressionistic painting of a Kodiak hanging on a wall.

  “Pretty,” she murmured. She hopped back, pursing her lips, and took note of the laptop and steaming cup of tea on Cole’s big dining room table. “Do you have some more tea?”

  “Sure thing,” Cole said, and she followed him to the kitchen where he put another pot on to brew. “I thought I’d make dinner. I’ve got some fish and potatoes. Do you like cod?”

  “I love cod,” Penny said easily, and sat down at the table, leaning on her hand. “Do you usually cook for yourself?”

  “I like to.” She watched the shrug of his broad shoulders as he worked at the kitchen counter.

  “And you like fish,” she said. She took a sip of his tea and said, “And honey in your tea.”

  “Yep.” He glanced back at her but she was smiling.

  “I’m sorry I was prejudiced against bear shifters,” she said. “Really.”

  “It’s okay,” he said. “You were surprised. Truth is, I haven’t told a human about me in...I don’t know, not since college.” He brought her a mug, still steeping and steaming, and set it down in front of her before sitting back down.

  “No?” She fiddled with the tea bag. “I thought maybe you could use it to impress the grad students.”

  “God, no,” Cole said, chuckling. He leaned on his hand, watching her dip the tea bag in and out of the water. “Generally, I try to keep it a secret. God knows what humans would do if they knew about shifters.”

  “I was nosy,” Penny said, frowning again. “Sorry for that, too.”

  “Eh. You already know about the magic shit,” he said, smiling warmly. “You’re different.”

  “Are there women shifters?” Penny said, and she leaned forward a little, crouching in on herself. She rubbed her arms.

  “Yeah, of course. Are you cold?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “I’ll turn up the heat.”

  “It’s really not a problem.”

  “I’ll turn up the heat anyway,” he said, hopping to his feet. “Yeah, there are women shifters just like any other species of most things? And humans can have shifter babies or they might be half-shifter…”

  “What’s that like?”

  “Sometimes they have trouble shifting,” Cole said, and turning from the thermostat on the wall he saw the line of her gaze and he could swear it went straight to his rear. He bit back a smile. “I’m gonna start dinner.”

  Penny wanted to help and Cole demurred, insisting on being a good host. But he eventually let her finish up the dishes and cut some vegetables for a salad. The conversation was easy. In fact, he was surprised by how easy it was. He sometimes felt apart from people and he couldn’t tell now if it was easier to talk to Penny because she knew about him or if it was just easier to talk to Penny in general.

  Thinking on that, he muttered, “I forgot how much I missed talking to someone about these things. Other than my shifter friends, but we don’t hang out that often anymore. It’s hard to keep such a large part of yourself to yourself.” He frowned down at the garlic he was mincing, feeling a bit exposed as Penny looked at him. “I mean, I used to talk to my mate, Louise,” he said, intending to ease the conversation. “She was my wife. My mate. But now…”

  “You had a wife?” Penny said, her voice going up a couple of octaves. “What happened there? You guys split?”

  “No,” he said, and now abruptly realized it was not an easy conversation at all. He had become used to it somehow. “She died.”

  “Oh,” Penny said softly. “How long ago?”

  “Seven years ago,” Cole said, keeping his eyes on the food as he cooked. “Which sounds like a long time. But it doesn’t feel long at all. I mean, I’m… I’m alright about it. Now. I’ve...but there’s always a part that…”

  “You’ll always miss her,” Penny finished for him “Of course, you will. I’m so sorry, Cole.”

  “Thanks,” he said, because he didn’t know what else to say.

  “Can I ask how?”

  He cleared his throat and threw the cod into a pan of oil, adding in the garlic. “She was shifted at the time. Hunters killed her.”

  “No,” Penny whispered, and he saw her blink back tears. “Oh, Cole…”

  “It’s fine,” he said softly.

  “Not everything is fine,” she said, echoing his own words.

  “No,” he said. “Guess it isn’t.”

  Penny looked at him and some understanding seemed to pass between them. It had been ages, it seemed, since he’d talked to anyone about Louise. His shifter friend had been forced to pull emotions out of him in the months after her death. He hadn’t always been the best at trusting somebody with his feelings, even before Louise had died.

  Cole flipped the fish and Penny silently put the salad together, yet their silence wasn’t awkward and she even hummed a little as they moved around each other in the small kitchen. When their dinner was ready, Cole prodded her back over to the table, insisting on serving. He cut himself a bite of fish, swirling it around in the oil and garlic sauce he’d whipped up but he looked to Penny first, finding himself waiting with bated breath, eager to see what she thought of his cooking.

  Penny’s eyes went wide at the first bite and she swallowed as she smiled across the table at him. “That is some good fish!”

  “It’s fresh,” he said, secretly quite proud.

  “But you season it ju
st right. And it’s crisp. You know, I work at a fancy place and even they can’t get the fish right about half the time! I guess it figures. They’re called Quelle Surprise. How pretentious, right? But this is great.”

  “Glad you like it,” Cole said quietly. He leaned on his hand as he ate, proper table manners not being top priority for a bear, and he saw her gaze go right to his forearms. “Why do women like forearms so much?” He asked, smiling slyly as he raised his eyes to her.

  He thought, for a moment, that he had messed up again. But the corner of Penny’s mouth turned up as she chewed, though she lowered her eyes and her cheeks were pink with embarrassment. “They’re understatedly sexy,” she said. “It’s like a nice little hint of what’s to come. Especially with rolled up sleeves.” She shivered. “Rawr.”

  “Rawr?” Cole said, and maybe his voice lowered a bit. He stroked his stubbled chin.

  “Rawr,” Penny said, nodding, and took another bite of fish. “Let me ask you a question now. Exactly how much do you work out? And how on earth do you have the time, what with teaching all those classes and studying potions and being a bear?”

  Cole had been sipping wine when she spoke and he nearly choked on it, amused at the question. “There’s a gym at the university,” he said, shrugging. “I make the time.”

  It didn’t hurt that on occasion, students came by the gym simply to watch him work out, or at least it had always seemed that with the number of female (and a few male) grad students just hanging around in their work-out clothes and drinking water as Cole worked on arm day.

  “You sure do,” she said, and blushed again, stuffing her mouth with baked potato.

  Alright, Cole thought to himself, this is not my imagination. They were both flirting. Yet he decided he would not make the first move, not wanting to step out of bounds. But that was okay. He could wait for her. He watched her eat her dinner, her eyes roving around the apartment as if cataloging everything, and was overcome with a desire to know her when this was all over, even if nothing romantic or sexual happened between them. She was lovely, he thought. He hoped he could keep her around if only to come hassle him about his love of fish and honey and back scratching.