Witch for Hire (20 page)

Most incubi worked as strippers or prostitutes. They were attracted to lustful people, areas where lustful people gathered, and the pornography industry. They seldom gathered in large groups, I was relieved to hear, my fears of a incubi baby boom reduced. They also had a hard time feeding off of each other. One of the informants, with his voice distorted and face fuzzed out, described it as never being full; you could eat and eat but it was never as good as eating something really nice and filling. Regular people, regardless of race were a more filling meal.
 

I shuffled off to bed with mental images of an incubus sneaking into my room. The cookies hadn't dampened my aggravation with Amber. Her advice had been good, even if it killed my post-date high. I wanted to have fun, not worry over every move someone made on a date. After counting four hundred and two sheep, I finally fell asleep.
 

Later, I wasn't sure how much later, something woke me up. I snuggled in bed, listening for a reason to worry when I heard the doorknob turn. I pulled a wand off the nightstand, ready to cast a spell. Would thinking about an incubus longingly, in passing, have been enough to summon one? I watched the door swing open, followed by the dark shape of a satyr. I knew this intruder, and he wasn't an incubus yet.

"Just a little look, not touch," he whispered.
 

I suppressed a snort. It wasn't enough for him to be getting it on with Priscele, he had to sneak into my room to look at me. Not wanting to see what he was planning on I sat up, "Orzu," and his feet sank into the floor.
 

"I just wanted a little look, nothing more. A little look. You're so pretty and you wouldn't have let me look at you," he pleaded.

"Sure you did. Fehu." I walked out of the room, wand in hand, grateful that I slept in a nice big t-shirt and boxers.
 

"Wait, don't leave me here!" He wailed.

"I'll only be gone a few minutes."

"Where are you going?" Not hearing an answer he shouted, "Come back!"
 

I closed the door of my apartment behind me and headed down to Landa's rooms—she'd want to know what was going on. I knocked on the door. As I was standing there I realized I didn't know what time it was.
 

Surprisingly quickly, Landa poked her head out. "What do you need, dear?"

"I just trapped a satyr in my bedroom."

Her big brown eyes blinked. "Tironious is trapped in your bedroom? How did he get stuck there?"

"He woke me up while he was sneaking over to my bed to 'look at me.' I made the floor soft so he'd sink in before solidifying it again." I shrugged.

"I warned him. I told him if he did anything, anything," the air around her vibrated, "out of line, he was gone." She looked me in the eye, "I'll fix this."
 

Landa marched past me. I trailed along behind her, not wanting to miss this. She strode right into my room, and rounded the door to my bedroom before I could see anything.
 

"It's not what it looks like, Landa. I just wanted a look. Maybe I had more to drink than I should have, but no harm would I have done," he squeaked.

"No, after this night you will never do harm in this house."
 

I walked through the door, seeing Tironious cowering, and trying to look at Landa, but unable to pivot. I'd never seen Landa vibrating with energy.
 

"Michelle, let him go."

I flicked my wand upward, "Ansu." He popped out of the floor.
 

"Tironious, out!" She followed him out of my apartment. "He will not bother you again, child."
 

She closed the door behind her and I heard all the locks fall into place. Relieved none of this was my problem, I settled back into my bed. All we needed now was an incubus and we'd see Tironious join a new species.

Michelle

Other than the late-night adventures, I was happy. It had been more than twenty-four hours since I'd seen Elron. I hoped he was gone permanently, but I didn't think I'd be that lucky.
 

I slowed as I neared the dining room. Lately, I'd had all sorts of strange feelings about eating. A week ago, I'd eaten and chatted with the residents, never caring who would be there. Meals hadn't been something I thought about at all. This new dynamic, of worrying who would be here, wasn't something I wanted to continue.
 

With that in mind I marched in, finding Landa, Mander, and Tinver at the table. After gathering my food I sat down next to Tinver, across from Landa.

"Michelle?"

"Hum?" I looked at Landa.

"He will not bother you again. He is no longer welcome. I had a talk with another satyr. Tironious will face satyr justice."

"That seems appropriate. Thank you, Landa."
 

After a few minutes of quiet conversation, I couldn't stop myself. "Is Elron still staying here?"

"No, child, he's not."
 

She had a strange look on her face, one I couldn't read. I left the topic alone. His current absence was nice enough.
 

I was expecting the police to call today, not because I knew someone needed to talk to me, but because I was almost caught up on paperwork, didn't have any charms I needed to make, and I was looking at a day of research. Right now I needed to figure out how to find the trolls; easier said than done.
 

The map was driving me crazy. Even with the adjustments, it wasn't working, and I was running out of ideas. Witches weren't the best trackers because we needed an item connected to the individual we wanted to find. If I had something like a person's favorite shirt, hair, or nail clippings, I could track them anywhere. Without those, I was out of luck.

I jumped in my seat, coming back to the present. Finishing my breakfast, I returned to my apartment. After turning my phone volume up, so I wouldn't miss its charming ring if anyone called, I started pulling out books, looking for anything that would help me track down the trolls.
 

I didn't have any idea what I was looking for in the books. My grand plan was to read the chapter summaries and then the indexes to see if anything looked useful. This was one situation where I'd prefer to read more than less. It's hard to know where a useful idea will hide, and I didn't want to miss one.

My phone rang while I was reading the first chapter summery of the first book. With a gusty sigh I flipped the book shut and answered the phone, "Oaks Consulting."

"Michelle, it's Rodriguez."

"What do you need?"

"I've got a set of decorative lions that are trying to eat people entering a house. I can't do anything about them, and they nearly bit a guy's leg off. Can you come out?"

"Sure thing."

Address in hand, phone in pocket, I headed out. My hours might not have been dependable, but the police could be counted on to interrupt anything but paperwork.

Luckily, it wasn't a long drive, and if things went smoothly I'd have more than enough time to finish my research later. Without the research I didn't have any new ideas for tracking the trolls. Carls was itching to get rid of me. I wasn't sure if he could fire me, but according to his timeline, I had four days to find the trolls. Four days to work a miracle, and I was running short on ideas, sleep, and magic.
 

I wound through a few back roads until I was in the upscale neighborhood with big houses, big fences, and gates. I hardly needed the directions. Police cars were parked around one of the houses. This one had an iron gate with a motion sensor to swing it open. Their wall wasn't anything special, just a well-kept black wooden fence. The brick and column colonial house didn't look like lions would fit its décor.
 

I couldn't get all the way up the drive way without blocking in cars, so I pulled on the grass and parked. I dumped my keys in the passenger seat, grabbed my duffel and emerged from the car. Listening, I could hear voices from the top of the drive. With no better place to go I followed the sounds, expecting to find Rodriguez with the group.

I wasn't exactly sure why this had been an emergency call for me. Most things attacked, the victim was sent to the hospital, and the object was confiscated. My expertise was usually needed for disposal, though I was considering helping with tracking some of these things down. Many of the items should never have found human owners, and I had more than a passing suspicion that some clans were dealing black market enchanted goods.

"Michelle, come on. We need you over here now." Rodriguez appeared around a car, and dragged me over to a knot of people standing a few feet away from a path leading to the front door. Everyone was giving two stone lions, and the person still in the right lion's mouth, a wide berth.

One lion was sitting with its left paw resting on top of an upright shield decorated with a paw print, a lion's print I presumed. The lion on the right wasn't mirroring, mostly because it was halfway off its pedestal to clamp his jaws around a man's leg. Sweat was pouring off the poor balding man's forehead, dripping on his nice suit. The jacket might be saved by a good dry cleaning, but the pants, with blood trickling down them, were a lost cause. A medical witch was standing just out of reach of the lion, performing what distance spells she could.
 

Before I had time to look at anything else, Rodriguez started speaking to me again. "His leg may be lost already, but odds are he's going to die if we can't get him loose soon."

"What happened?" It would take me a lot longer to free him if I had to discover everything about how the creatures worked before I could start undoing anything.
 

"Mrs. Abernathy," he nodded towards an older woman in a pink sweater, tan skirt and pearls, "bought these at an estate sale a few days ago. She had the gardeners set them out last night. Mr. Abernathy says they let him walk out just fine, but when he was returning with the paper they growled at him as he neared, and bit him when he tried to walk past. His wife heard the noise, saw what they'd done and called us. She can walk through them just fine, all the rest of us get growls. I wasn't going to have a second person maimed by these things. The witch says if she can't get her hands on him soon the leg's gone and odds are he's going to follow."
 

"The wife can get though?" See, little details like this were important.

"Sure. She was standing next to him when we arrived."
 

Rodriguez might not have the magic to deal with the lions, but if he'd known more about how spells like this worked he might have been able to solve the current problem.
 

"What's the witch's name?"

"Mary Bells."
 

"Mrs. Abernathy, could you come over here?"

She hurried over, wide-eyed and hugging herself. "Who—Can you help my husband?"

"I'm Michelle Oaks, a witch, and I'm here to help. Now, I need you to be very brave and do exactly what I say. I will protect you, but no matter what else you have to listen to me. Can you do that?" She nodded. "Good, then follow me."

I led her over to the other witch, but kept the two of us a couple feet behind her. "Bells, could you stop for just a moment and come over here?"

A moment later she dropped out of the light trance she'd been in, and turned around to study us.
 

"I can get you to him, and then I can get him out of the lion's mouth." I could, if she trusted me.

Mary scrubbed a hand across her forehead. "What do you need me to do?"

"You can't be afraid, for him or of the statues. If you're afraid this won't work. I can shield you. You won't be in any danger." With that they relaxed. "Mrs. Abernathy, I need you to walk, arm in arm, with Bells past the statues. You need to chat while you're doing this. Once you're both past them Bells will ask to look at the lions, and you'll agree, and lead her back over to the one with your husband. You," I looked at Mrs. Abernathy, "will stand a little bit behind her. Move away when Bells does, but listen for anything else I tell you."
 

I positioned them, reminded them to relax, and cast the shield. I could feel the shield around them, but I didn't think the lions could.
 

The lions hadn't been intended to be the only house guards. They'd been designed to work with other defenders, each targeting something different, making nearly impossible for any intruder, or even a group of intruders, to make it out unscathed. These should be the basic physical defenders, programed to recognize specific people and types of people, but ready to detain anyone who didn't match those descriptions.
 

Basic door guards were usually spelled to listen to whoever purchased them. Mrs. Abernathy had purchased them, and directed their placement in her car, and outside her house. From those actions they identified her as the person to respect and protect. The two women walked past the lions without any trouble. I dismissed the shield. Free of the shield they were able to get the witch's hands on Mr. Abernathy.
 

"Mrs. Abernathy," I called softly.
 

"Yes?"

"I need you to look at the one holding your husband and say 'Release.'" I wasn't sure that would be the right word, but it was the best bet. Most people don't want to think too hard about commands so they were in their first language. If this didn't work I'd start looking up the equivalent in every language I knew as I figured out how to pull the magic out of the lions.
 

She slowly let out a deep breath, stilled, and ordered, "Release."
 

The lion rumbled, but dropped her husband on the ground. The witched pulled him away, while starting to heal him. Running over, I placed a shield around the lions to keep them from hurting anyone else. After I finished the shield, I rushed to the injured man. I couldn't heal, but I could feed Bells energy. Kneeling behind her I placed a hand on the nape of her neck, gently pushing energy into her. She swallowed the energy, draining power out of me.