The Lightning Prophecy (The Lightning Witch Trilogy Book 1) (6 page)

“So, the Coven has hired a private investigator to solve this?” he asked in a disgusted and disapproving tone.

“Yes, they hired me a month ago,” I replied evenly.

He began rummaging around on his desk, gathering papers and files. After about five minutes he said, “Okay here is everything, including notes and the coroner's report and contact information. They should still have the body if you want to go look at it. I guess she’s your problem now.” This guy had to be the most unorganized slob I had ever seen.

“Great, thanks. Any other information you would like to add to aid to the investigation?” I said in my best
I want to get the fuck out of here
tone.

He looked at me, then to Delaney, then back at me. He sucked his teeth then said, “She was just some witch. They aren't really worth my time. Witches are always getting themselves into some mess here or there. Look, these witches don’t belong here. I’m sorry this girl got hurt, but at least now she can’t go around unregistered causing all kinds of problems for humans.”

Oh shit
. This ass was going to die, but I wasn't going to be the one to kill him. I looked up at Delaney and she had a big smile on her face, and for some reason that seemed to be slightly frightening.

“Reid. Sir, that’s all I got for you.”

Dragging my eyes off Delaney, I said, “Yes, thank you. If I can get your card in case I have any other questions, that would be great.”

He reached in his pocket and handed me his card. I picked up all of the stained files and loose notes and that was when I smelled it. Ozone and burnt plastic. Before I could look up I heard Delaney's sweet voice chime, “Oh my goodness. Lieutenant Harris, your laptop. It seems to be smoking and, oh my goodness, it’s melting!”

I looked first at the smoking heap of what once was a laptop then to Delaney. I narrowed my eyes at her and sent her a silent message with my expression alone that said, “Really! That was mature.” She looked at me, shrugged, and replied just as silently, “What? Did you expect less?”

This whole time we had this little exchange Harris was losing his shit.

“Oh god. No. Someone, hey, a fire extinguisher!”

I got the files and pushed Delaney toward the hallway we entered from. Just before the door closed I heard Harris yell, “Oh God, not my phone too!”

I didn't know if I should be mad, amused, or a little afraid of this firecracker standing next to me. I grabbed her arm and dragged her out the front door just as the sprinklers went off in the whole building.

I raised an eyebrow at her. I mean, really. She stood there with her hands on her hips just glaring at me.

“Was that necessary?” I finally said.

She seemed to think about the question then looked me dead in the eyes and said, “No, but it sure was funny as hell.” She gave me her biggest smile. Then she started giggling with little snorts and gasps of air.

Lord, this woman, I couldn't help but smile. “Come on, woman, let’s go grab a sandwich and go back to my hotel and we can go over this.”

I tried not to laugh. God, she could end up being fun. Maybe her being off limits should be rethought.

AS MUCH AS
I love The Godfather from Zunzi’s, I really wished I’d waited to eat until after we had all of the victims’ files spread before us like some morbid buffet.
“Why, hello there! Welcome to the morgue, we have several murders for you to visually feast upon. What would you like, a mutilated blonde? Redhead? Brunette? We have them all
,” I mentally quipped.
God, I have the worst sense of humor on the planet.

I must have looked green because Reid leaned over and said in a low voice, “Hey, you okay?”

Was I okay? What kind of question was that? I was in shock. I had never seen anything like that. Well, not outside of a movie. The fact that I knew this was real did a number on me. I closed my eyes tight, willing the fear and disgust away. I would not cry. Why did these images hit me so damned hard? I was such a coward. What had I gotten myself in to?

I felt Reid’s warm fingers under my chin urging my face upward so I would look at him. I slowly opened my eyes and found his caramel eyes peering into my depths. He looked at me as if he could see every single bit of me. There was no fear in his gaze, no judgment like I see all too often. I blinked and turned my head, breaking his light hold on my chin. It was too much. Him, he was too much.

“I’m fine. Let’s just figure this out and get this ass hat.” An expression ran over his face. On a normal person I would call it hurt, but he was so damned foreign to me I’m not sure I knew what it was. As fast as it crossed his face it vanished, and I wondered if I had really seen anything or not.

I looked down and saw nine case files before me. “Wait, you told me there were ten victims. Where is the tenth?” I asked, trying to break the tension that was fairly palatable.

“Remember I mentioned my partner? Well, Mitch was tying up some loose ends in D.C. while I’m here. He’s the local alpha from Atlanta. Because half of the murders happened in Atlanta, I asked him to help me with the investigation.” His tone was clipped on the last bit. I wasn’t altogether too sure he was pleased he had to ask for Mitch’s help. He seemed like a bit of a loner. Like when he was in school he would get a report home saying, “Reid does not play well with others.”

“Is he your alpha? I’m not sure how werewolf politics or whatnot works,” I decided to ask.

He scoffed, “No, Mitch is not my alpha. I don’t have an alpha. I am what's referred to as a lone wolf.”

“Why? I mean, if I could be with my own kind and learn and grow in my power without being a lab rat I would be sorely tempted to do so.”

“It’s not like that with weres. We are territorial. We have a temper. And that’s in human form. Packs protect each other, but they also live under the rule of the alpha.” He gave me a predatory smile that should have scared me, but it only made things low in my belly tighten.
Treacherous body!

He continued with a lower, more controlled tone, “And I, Ms. Delaney, do not play well with others.”
Definitely not
.

I swallowed as a rush of heat headed south without any consultation from my brain. He narrowed his eyes and gave me a smile that said he knew what just happened to me. How? Wait, there’s no way. Right? I dismissed the thought because I simply did not want to think this man had some way of knowing I was getting a wee bit hot and bothered.

I picked up a file and started paging through it. This witch’s name was Holly Franklyn. She was from Atlanta and she was twenty-four. God, she was younger than me. I flipped past the pictures of her ravaged body to a photo of her face. She had beautiful blue eyes and a round face. Her chocolate hair made her blue eyes appear even bluer. She seemed to have some extra weight on her, but on her frame, it looked right. She was an Air witch. Wow, and she was a fairly powerful one based on the two-year-old report from the Coven.

“Did you know this Holly girl was registered? Well, she was two years ago,” I asked.

“Yeah, there’s a report that the Coven included about her in there,” he replied as he shuffled through a file of his own.

“Did you see the rank they gave her power? A freaking eight.” He looked at me, confused. I sighed and continued, “Okay, when a witch registers as an adult at the age of eighteen, their power is tested on a scale of one to ten. The members of the Coven’s inner circle are all eights to tens. The majority of witches are a three, maybe four. This girl was an eight! I’m surprised she wasn't recruited by the Coven.”

He just sat there looking at me. I glanced around and said, “What?”

“I didn’t know an eight was a huge deal.”

“Oh yeah. Anything above a seven is huge. Sierra was a solid seven, maybe even an eight.”

“Okay, I know all of these women were at one point registered, but did not renew. Let’s find their ranks.”

My heart was pounding. Sierra, seven; Holly, eight; Sarah Ann, seven; Gayle, seven; Grace, eight; Nicole, seven; Marie, eight; Lindsey, seven; Fatima, seven.

“Holy shit, Reid, none of them were under a seven.” I looked at him. “How could you have not seen this?”

He glared at me sharply. “I had, but I didn’t realize what it meant or even that it was that important.” He honestly looked distraught at this revelation. “So, if they were that powerful, why didn't any of them fight back?”

He clearly wasn’t a woman. Well, mentally anyway, because physically no one in their right mind could confuse him for anything other than male. There is only one reason they wouldn’t have fought back. “Because they knew their attacker and I’m betting they liked him. You know, like romantically.”

He just stared at me. Okay, it was just unnerving when he did that. “What? Why do you keep looking at me like that?”

“Nothing, I just keep getting surprised by you.” He gave me a slight smile, a slight tilt of his mouth. And just like that heat rushed first to my face then was on its way south when something else caught my eye.

“Bleach? Why were the bodies covered in bleach?” I had to get it together.

“Werewolves can smell all kinds of things,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“Okay, like what?”

He moved closer and said, “Every person has a scent. One that is unique to them. And the killer used the bleach to mask any scent he may have left on the bodies. That’s why I am an effective investigator. I can also smell emotions if they are strong enough.” He gave me a wicked smile and with that I got it. He could smell when I was aroused. My damn body betrayed me. Heat flooded my face. God, I was embarrassed. I was sure he thought I was some silly little girl.

“What do I smell like?” Before I could think the words fell out of my mouth
. Shit, what is wrong with me?

He smiled. He held my gaze and leaned toward my neck. My heart began to race and my belly tightened. I felt his nose just under my ear and his lips were feather light on my skin.
Am I on fire?
I just had to be because no being, human or otherwise, should produce as much heat as I was giving off. I felt his hand on the back of my neck pull me in slightly. I knew there was no hiding how much this was affecting me, so I didn’t even try. I felt more than heard his intake of breath and stifled a moan. In a low almost growl he said, “Like ozone and gardenias.”

My breath caught as I felt him press a slight kiss just under my ear.
Oh God
. His hand turned to a fist in my hair as his face moved to hover just over mine. Did I want this? Did I want him?
Hell fucking yes I do
.
Whoa, calm down, hot sauce
. My thoughts began to haze as his lips lightly brushed mine as if he were dipping a foot in the water to test the temperature. I bet he could hear my heart pounding.

All of a sudden a loud alarm began blazing from the small hotel nightstand. I jumped in surprise. He didn’t move, as what I now recognized was his cell phone, rang again. Saved by the damned bell. Still a bit husky, I cleared my throat as the phone rang for a third time and he still didn’t move. “You gonna get that?”

He moved so fast I had to stop myself from pitching forward. “What!” he more than snarled into the phone. “No, Mitch, what’s up?” Pause. “Okay, see you tomorrow.”

We both just sat there. I was sitting at the foot of the bed and he at the head of the bed near the table.

What had almost happened? His hand on the back of my head fisting my hair, his lips, his breath, they took me to a place I have never been before and, frankly, that place scared the hell out of me. I closed my eyes, trying to will my heart rate down to a more normal pace. Was he upset things went that far? I wasn’t. Was I? Damned conflicting emotions.

“Reid—”

“Look.”

We spoke at the same time. “You first,” I said with a shy smile.

“Look, let’s get back to the files,” he said in a clipped yet professional tone. I guess he was regretting it. I hope I didn’t let the disappointment show on my face.

Five hours of looking at gruesome photos, small printed forms, and yellow highlighter. My eyes were starting to cross, so I closed them and flopped back on the bed, groaning. “Ugh, Reid. I think I’m going blind. I cannot read anymore.”

“Yeah, it’s late, how about you head home and meet up here tomorrow morning so we can take a look at the last file Mitch is bringing. He said he would be here tomorrow morning.”

“Oh yeah, okay. What time?”

“Is ten A.M. okay?”

I got up and smoothed my skirt down, about falling over. He was right in front of me.

“You have got to stop doing that,” I said a little breathlessly.

He laughed. “What?”

“Being so damned fast, popping up everywhere. You're going to give me a heart attack!”

He laughed again, and the sound of it made my heart do a little flip-flop. God, my body and I were going to have a little conversation. He looked me in the eyes, those caramel eyes that made me want to fall into them and never come out. I felt his arm snake around my waist.

As his right hand held my chin and brushed my lips with his thumb, he whispered, “No, I don’t regret what happened. But I don’t want to hurt you and we are too close to the full moon for this to be a good idea right now.”

And, just like that, heat pooled between my legs. He smiled.
Bastard
. He stroked my lips with his thumb again and as he did I became acutely aware of the hard length of him pressing against me. Suddenly and without warning he let me go and stepped away from me.

“Goodnight, Delaney. I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” he said, smiling. And with that I left.

SLEEP WAS SO
out of the question it might as well have been in another galaxy. I had tried everything at that point. I counted five-hundred-something sheep, I turned on Zumba and worked out. I even tried, with increasing desperation, taking a Tylenol PM. So, here I sat, with my third glass of wine on my balcony that overlooked a thick wooded area. One would think the woods would smell of pine and growing green things. Well, in Savannah everything smelled like the marsh.

Reid. Good lord that man was so, so,
male
. Just simply being close to him did things to me I didn’t really want to admit to myself. My vision had fogged over. I got up, ready to attempt the sleep thing when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye.