West Coast Witch (20 page)

“All right,” I looked in the envelope. There were a number of long, straight brown
hairs. I studied them for a long moment, then closed the envelope. “I’ll run the tracking
spell.”

Amy looked to me. “Your idea regarding Coolidge?”

“I…I’ll put that on the back burner. Tonight we’re working with Jackson anyways.”

“Jackson?” Nick furrowed his brow.

“A local were. He wants our help.”

Nick nodded, smiling. “Ingratiating yourself with the local powers. I’m impressed.
My contacts have already discovered the raid on Darius’s beach house last night. Impressive.”

Amy growled under her breath. “Typical. You are watching him, keeping tabs on him.”

“The man has known about his status as a witch for less than a week, and he’s already
gotten involved with the vampires and weres. Mister Carpenter is a politically-minded
person.”

“Just someone who wants to help.” I insisted. I walked into the kitchen. “Why are
you keeping tabs on me, Nick?”

“I’m doing my job. I’m here to protect the American people from the less-savory individuals
in the supernatural community. You’re a variable at the moment, and I’m interested
in finding out what you will turn out to be.”

“And if I don’t fit into your nice little box of what’s right?” I inquired.

“You certainly are fitting into it right now. A bit of a…mercenary, but I like it.
You’re a good man, if a little naive about some things.”

“Naive?” Amy sighed. “Nick, leave us. You’ve given him the information you want, and
the hair. We’ll find this marshal.”

I turned back into the living room, only to find Nick gone. I rolled my eyes in frustration.
“He left? Jeez, how the hell does he even do that? How do you do that?”

“That would be telling,” she said, offering a shrug.

“Yea, it would, but it would be really useful. What, are you guys sworn to secrecy?”
Amy didn’t say anything, and I groaned in frustration. “You can’t even talk about
being sworn to secrecy, can you? I will find out what you guys are.”

“Eric,” Amy said. “Not every mystery should be solved. Leave this one be.”

“Why should I, because you said so?”

She nodded. “A favor. For now, drop it.”

I shook my head. Whatever was going on here, those two were going to keep quiet about
it. I supposed, for now, I’d have to just to accept that Amy wasn’t talking about
whatever was going on here. “All right.” I put my hands up in surrender.

“Very well.” She said. “Now, you believed you had something to look for?”

“Uh, right, yea.” I said. I went towards my laundry, when my cell phone started to
ring. I flipped it out. I didn’t recognize the number,but I answered it. “This is
Eric.”

“Eric, this is Jackson.”

“Jackson?” I furrowed my brow. “It’s only two in the afternoon. What’s up?”

“We need to push this ahead faster.” He said. His voice sounded strained, worried.
“We need to get Becca now.”

“Tell me where to meet you.” I said.

Jackson gave me the address of where to meet him. “I know I told you to just come
to help get Becca out, but you might want to come armed.”

“Sure,” I sighed, feeling at that moment I was getting myself in over my head. I hung
up, and turned to Amy.

“Who was that?” She asked.

“That was Jackson. He wants our help early. Come on,” I said, and went to the kitchen
table. “We’re going to help.” I grabbed the pistol and tucked it into my jacket pocket.

“And you are just rushing into this.” Amy sighed. “Save me from foolhardy witches.”

“Jackson will have a plan, I hope. If not, we’ll make him think of one before we do
this.” I said. “Do you need your knife?”

She shook her head. “I have a back up blade I keep in the car.”

“Why are the women in my life better armed than most cops?”

“Because I have to cover for your foolishness.” She mumbled.

We drove out in Amy’s jeep to the address Jackson had given me. It was in the neighborhood
that, in the past few years, had become one of the three supernatural neighborhoods
in San Francisco. The Covens were a poorer neighborhood, for those Arcanes that hadn’t
spent hundreds of years collecting interests.

I wasn’t too privy to the financials of how Arcanes worked, and how they did their
finances, but I assumed that, before Four-Thirteen when the vampires came public,
they had to have been careful and methodical about staying hidden and well-off. Going
public would have raised too many questions. Thankfully, humanity had done well in
not freaking out. There were very few killings in the five years since the Arcane
community had gone public.

We parked in a parking garage, and walked to the meetup location. It was a small,
hole in the wall Italian restaurant. The smells of sauces and delicious cooking flooded
my nose. “Damn,” I muttered, making a mental note to come back here when I wasn’t
working.

Jackson was sitting at a back table with Tyler and one of the other weres from the
beach. “Hey, Eric, Amy!” Jackson called. “Come on over.” They all were dressed in
black t-shirts, jeans, and leather jackets.

Amy and I walked to the table and pulled up chairs. “Good to see you again, Jackson.”
I said. “What’s going on that you needed us early?”

“We’ve found out that the two vampires who Becca’s staying with are planning to skip
town.” Jackson said. “Apparently, someone took out a vampire last night. One of Ishmael’s
deputies pulled an execution job in the middle of the night, and a lot of the vampires
are freaking.”

I mentally winced, and tried not to let it show. “Wow, really? Okay, so, we go in
fast then, I guess?” I asked. “What’s the plan?”

“The plan is simple. Tyler, Robby, and I will go in, with you two bringing up the
rear. We’ll make a show of force, and hopefully they’ll just chicken out and let us
take Becca home.”

“Is she being held there against her will?” Amy asked.

“Practically.” Tyler’s voice bubbled in a low growl. “They’ve got her hooked on Bliss.
She can’t even make a conscious decision anymore.”

“It’s an aggressive intervention.” Jackson said. “As her brother, Tyler more than
has the right to do this.”

“Seriously?” I turned to Amy.

She nodded. “Indeed. Pack laws state that, if Becca is an unmated female, she is under
the protection of her male relatives. Even vampires must respect that. Or, rather,
they should.”

“All right,” I nodded.”Well, let’s get this all taken care of. Lead the way, guys.”I
said.

All three weres stood. Robby seemed a head shorter than either Tyler or Jackson, but
he still was a big guy, more wide than tall. They all cut impressive figures, I would
admit that much.

We walked out of the restaurant, into the more residential areas of the Covens. We
stopped in front of a building several stories tall, with a new age shop in the bottom
floor. Jackson bypassed the stairs up to the apartments above, walking straight to
the shop’s owner.

“Hey there, kid.” He said to the employee behind the counter, a lanky guy in his early
twenties with bleached dreads. The difference between the two was extreme, almost.
Where Jackson was tall, muscular, and professional, the kid behind the counter wasn’t.

The blond kid nodded. “Uh, hi.” He fidgeted with his hands. “How can I help you?”

Jackson reached into his jacket, withdrawing a picture. “I’m looking for this girl.
Name of Becca Young. She would have been here with two vampires.”

“Uh, yea,” The kid nodded. “She’s been staying with them for the past few days. What’s
going on?”

Jackson flashed his teeth. Maybe it was some subtle change on his part, or Jackson
was just really good about hiding it, but his canines were fangs. Unlike a vampire’s
needle-sharp fangs, they were thick, like an animal’s. “It’s none of your business,
vanilla.” He growled. “Which room?”

“Listen, I don’t want to be the cause of any trouble.” The store clerk said. “I don’t-“

Jackson didn’t wait for an answer. He grabbed the kid by his shirt and pulled him
over the counter. “Tell me, you miserable little punk, or you’re taking a trip through
the counter.”

That was my breaking point. I didn’t want some innocent kid to get his face smashed
in. I took a step forward, approaching Jackson and the kid. “Listen, just tell him
what he wants to know.” I said. “We’ll be on our way, and that’ll be the end of it.
All right?”

The kid nodded. “Right. They’re on the third floor, first door on the left.”

“Thank you.” Jackson said and dropped him. The kid sprawled over the counter, whispering
to whatever deity he believed in.
 
“Come on, guys.” He stormed off through the door back towards the stairs.

The other two weres, Amy, and I followed him up the stairs. Amy and I brought up the
rear. “Eric,” Amy whispered.”Thank you for doing that. The last thing we needed was
assault charges.”

“I didn’t think about that.” I said. “I was just thinking about that kid. He didn’t
need to get his face smashed in over this.”

Robby, the were we had just met, said. “If he hadn’t talked? Yea, he did. This is
how the pack works.”

“And when the cops come? What then?” I asked.

“There are answers to that.”

I started wondering, suddenly, whether I had just signed on with the mafia. Was this
what this was? Some induction ceremony? I was starting to wonder what I was getting
myself into.

We reached the third floor. The apartments were certainly not pristine. Even the hallway
had seen better days. The walls had once been eggshell-white, but had browned with
years and stains. There was a general stench of bodily fluids, with burnt cooking
and some other funky smells mixed in.

We headed to the first door on the left, and Jackson slammed his fist into the door
so hard it sounded like he was about to break the door off its hinges.

“Jeez, is this how weres knock?” I deadpanned

“When we’re on business, yea.” Tyler murmured. “Let us do the talking now, all right?”

The door opened up, and a small-willowy woman answered. She was pale, the ivory I’d
come to associate with vampires who hailed from European stock. She had messy black
hair, cut short. “Can I help you?” She asked.

“I want to talk to Becca.” Jackson said, without any pretense.

“Becca?” She smiled, innocently. “Why, I don’t think there’s anyone here by that name.”

His nostrils flared, sniffing. “I can smell her, you know.”

“Well, she certainly doesn’t want to see you.” She turned back inside. “Becca, say
if you want to see whoever this is.” She paused a moment, for dramatics’ sake. “Why,
she doesn’t want to see you.”

Jackson bared his fangs. “You should be really careful, vampire. We aren’t bound by
your need for an invitation to enter your home.” He took a step towards the door.
“Let us in.”

“Hey, baby,” A male voice with a Hispanic accent spoke from the apartment. “Let the
puppies in. What’s the harm?”

“Rico,” The female hissed. “You can obviously see the harm in-“

The door opened, with a tall Latino’s hand on it. He was stacked, and he had some
tattoos I was pretty sure were gang-related. “Come on in,” We all filed in.

The apartment was small, littered with clothes and dirty dishes. There was some rap
music playing on a radio in the kitchen, and the windows were open. The main thing
I noticed, though, was the smell of Bliss. Back a few years ago, Terry had made all
of the bartenders attend a class about the supernatural drug, and the scent had been
one of the most distinctive traits of the narcotic. It had a sweet, almost floral
smell to it, and it tended to stick with you.

“So, where's Becca?” I asked Rico. “Can we see her?”

“Becca's sleeping.” He flashed a smile. “Don't worry, we've taken care of her.”

“Turned her into an addict, perhaps.” Amy said, with malice in her tone. “But you
have taken care of her.”

“Where did you dig her up?” The female vampire casted a disapproving look towards
Amy.

“An alley near State.” I deadpanned. “Can we see Becca?”

“Insistent, isn't he?” She remarked.

Rico chuckled. “Yea, he is, Julia.”

Julia sighed. “She's in the bedroom, but asleep. I don't wish to wake her.”

“You'll show us to her.” Tyler said. “Now.”

Rico took a step forward. “Hey, what's the big deal?”

“It's Becca's brother.” Julia said. “You know how the pups get over their brood.”

“Call me a pup again, and I'll show you your insides, vampire.”

The three weres had a primal, aggressive sort of aura around them. Each one of them
looked ready to attack, either with a weapon or their bare fists. The vampires, however,
were more subtle. The changes in their body language weren't as notable, but they
were crouching just slightly, coiling their muscles.