Page 21 (1/2)

No sign of a spell or any witch ic I pursed my lips That didn’t necessarily mean that he hadn’t been spelled A standard sleep spell would probably leave a bit of witch-tinged aura on him for a week after it was cast But there were less run-of-the-er One or two that an a would be illegal as hell for a non-Covenant witch

Longin and out of an al except for how long Mason had been gone, and how Vasquez’sback on Jarvis’s aura He could just have a vairlfriend If he did, that didn’t auto up There were too s he seee of vampire aura all over him The fact that the coin disappeared with him in the room What if he hadn’t really been knocked out by the blast, but had used the distraction to hide the coin, or pass it off to an accomplice?

Could he have accomplished that? I wasn’t certain he’d been searched, but it was a possibility he’d have to have planned for Maybe he’d stashed it? A trashcan or under another box? Hell, he could have counted on his reputation to keep hi searched fully and just shoved it in his briefs Risky, but possible

I blinked at suddento Vasquez in low tones

The coin The fact that he had been watching Mary Stone--or should have been--before she was killed And he stunk of vampire

I needed more information Not just on sleep spells Mason had mentioned that the spell that knocked us all out at the evidence locker had likely been triggered fro that was hardly a certainty But how likely was it? My education as a witch had stopped while I was young and still learning histories, not actual spells

I needed to reach out to so with Covenant witches extended far beyond just htest contact with h, who contracted as the department’s Covenant witch on cases that required such services

I slipped out to Mason’s backyard with the excuse that I needed a breath of fresh air No one shot lance A quick call to inforh’s office

I’d expected her voiceive me a little more time to steel my nerves So when Natalie answered, I alh," she said, voice bright like a custoent before you told them you wanted to disconnect your cable

I cleared my throat "Natalie This is Astrid--Detective Astrid Holmes" Even to my own ears, o Paranormal Unit," I added lamely

"Astrid Yes, of course" Her voice maintained its professional tenor, but her words were hesitant

"I’et your professional opinion," I said, as if we hadn’t played together as children Of all my family, I’d been closest to Natalie She was an only child, andlittle sister Our ether before either of us was old enough to even really know the difference betitches and huap would tear us apart

"Of course Ask away"

I glanced over my shoulder at Mason’s house to ensure I was still alone, then briefly described the spell that had knocked out Jarvis, Donaldson, and ht the coin had been taken

"So the spell took the power out and knocked you out simultaneously?"

"Yes What I really need to know is how difficult that would be to cast from outside the room Especially if a witch wasn’t actually present"

"So you’re talking spells attached to an object?"

"Exactly No witch was close enough for me to sense" I was almost certain that an actual witch hadn’t been present Even with my concentration focused on the coin, I would have definitely sensed a witch close enough to cast that sort of spell on me

Silence took over the line for a few seconds Painful moments that I almost ached to fill with questions Questions that had absolutely nothing to do with my case

"If you couldn’t sense theht about the object For the spells to trigger together like that, they’d have to be woven together Otherwise, one would have been cast before the other"

"So either the security feed would have seen us fall, or ould have seen the power fail before the knock-out spell hit us, if they weren’t weaved into a single spell," I said, not really asking for clarification, but she gave it anyway