ALEX BROUGHT OUR lunch and Sandy made me sit down to eat. I wanted to gobble down the food and then head over to the sheriff’s office to find out what was going on with Ralph, but Sandy sternly shook her finger at me and backed me into a chair.
Capitulating, I tried to relax and enjoy the food.
“I wonder if Delia took care of notifying Rose’s family yet.” Sandy poked at her fish with her fork.
“I hadn’t even thought about her family. That makes me feel horrible. I’m a selfish person, Sandy.” I felt like a heel. Here I was, concerned about how all this affected me when I should be thinking about Rose’s family. They had to be going through hell right now. “Should we call them?”
“I’d ask Delia first. We don’t want to spring it on them before they’ve been notified. We can go visit them afterward.” Sandy frowned as I pulled out my phone. “Put that away. We can ask her after lunch. Right now you just sit and eat and try to keep yourself from obsessing.”
“Easier said than done.” I glanced at the clock. It was almost one o’clock. “This sucks. The only thing I had to worry about the other day was what style sofa I should buy. Grand opening’s coming up in less than ten days and I still have to furnish half the house. Then one of our coven-mates is found murdered on my lawn, my boyfriend suddenly has an ex-girlfriend who might—or might not—be back in town and out to steal him back. And a bunch of horny satyrs are trying to shut down my business by badmouthing me all over the internet.”
“We could try to do a Divining spell on Miss Rachel. If you like.” Sandy cocked an eyebrow at me. I knew that look. She was egging me on.
“I like how you think.” I grinned at her. “We do have several hours before sunset, so we can’t very well ask Aegis for help right now. And Delia told us not to call her until she has something for us.” I popped a French fry in my mouth, contemplating the idea. The more I thought about it, the better it sounded. “Why not? What have we got to lose?”
Bubba leaped up on my lap. “Mrowf.”
I looked down at him, ruffling the fur on his head. “No, you cannot help.”
“M’rrow…m’rrow.” He was being awfully insistent, but the last thing we needed was a cjinn messing around with our magic. Our spells were volatile enough without his help.
“No, you are not allowed in Circle. Sorry, Bub, I love you but no matter how much you play the sympathy card, you’re not invited.”
“Mmmf.” He twitched his tail, flicking it hard against the table. Then, with a deliberately snide look at me, he stretched up so his front paws were by my plate, grabbed a piece of fish, and darted off my lap, racing around the corner into the living room.
“Hey—” I stopped. It wasn’t worth the chase. He’d have scarfed down the food before I could catch him, and it seemed a fair consolation prize.
“You spoil him.”
“If he was just a cat, yes, I’d say he’s spoiled. But remember, beneath that fuzzy smirk lies a very twisted sense of humor. Bubba likes getting his own way and when he doesn’t, he tries to find a way to repay you. A piece of stolen fish is a small price for refusing to let him in on our Circle. Now, if you’re serious about this, let’s finish lunch and get busy. It’s a whole lot better than just sitting around waiting.”
Casting a Divining spell didn’t offer too many chances for backfiring. Besides, I rather liked taking things into my own hands and the idea of being proactive was always high on my list.
We cleared away the dishes and headed into the parlor, where I shut the door to keep Bubba out. Sandy cleared off the coffee table while I gathered a white candle, a bowl of water that had been charged under the new moon, a crystal ball, and some sea salt. After we arranged everything, Sandy tossed a handful of the salt into the water while I touched the wick of the candle with my finger and whispered, “Light,” igniting a steady flame. Sandy cast a quick Circle to keep any astral eavesdroppers from peeking in, as I leaned over the bowl and blew across it.
Breath to water, water to mirror,
Bring that we seek to see so clear.
Sandy sat beside me, leaning in to watch. As the water began to churn into miniature waves throughout the crystal bowl, I brought the image of Rachel’s face to my mind and narrowed my attention, focusing only on her.
I seek to know all that I can,
About a specific woman.
Mirror, mirror, water-born,
Hear me and inform.
Then, letting out a long breath, I held my palm over the bowl. The water calmed into a smooth, glassy surface, reflective like any mirror. I pulled my hand back and we waited, watching for any sign of a message.
A moment passed, then another, before finally things began to shift. Rachel’s face formed in the water, and then vanished, followed by the image of an old gothic house on the other side of town. Both Sandy and I immediately recognized it.
I groaned. “I do not want to go there.”
“I don’t either.” Sandy frowned. “Ask the mirror if that’s the only chance we have to find out what we need.”
I frowned, trying to fit the question to a rhyme. The Divining spell worked in rhymes and only rhymes. You could make a near rhyme and get away with it, but if it wasn’t a poem, the mirror wouldn’t cough up any info.
Mirror, mirror, you show a house,
Is this the only route we can,
Find out about this louse,
Who once dated my man?
Sandy snorted. “Wow. Such eloquence.”
“I never claimed to be a poet. You make up something, if you don’t like it. Anyway, it’s not like we’re doing a formal incantation. Spells on the fly always come out wonk—” I stopped, motioning for her to be quiet. The mirror was stirring again, revealing yet another image. This time it was of a woman that both of us recognized and neither of us really wanted to see.
“Crap,” Sandy said. “Looks like you have a visit to make.”
“I’m debating whether it’s worth it, especially since Franny said Rachel didn’t like Essie very much.” Paying a visit on Essie Vanderbilt, the vampire queen of the Pacific Northwest, was the last thing I wanted to do.
Essie lived in a mansion that was reminiscent of the Addams Family house and basically held court from there. Her court was subject to the laws of Bedlam, however, and unlike a number of vampire courts around the nation, Linda, the High Priestess of our coven, kept a strict eye on Essie and her vamps. As vampires went, Essie didn’t seem a bad sort, but she liked to play up the ghoulish aspects of her people and always seemed to be skirting just to the right side of the law. There were occasional skirmishes, but Essie always made sure they never quite broke the treaties they had with Bedlam.
“Aegis isn’t going to like it if I go visit her. For one thing, he doesn’t like her. He told me he thinks she’s a pretentious ass. For another, he said that—as far as he knows—while they tend to keep up appearances, Essie isn’t as upstanding as the cops want to believe.”
Sandy gave me a keen look. “If the vamps aren’t keeping to their treaties, they really shouldn’t be allowed to live here. Did you ask Aegis if he talked to Linda about this?”