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"Hello?" I didn’t want any more bad news The break in our dry spell was not welcome But more bad news it was
"Camille, can you coe, the FBH director of the Green Goddess Women’s Shelter and leader of the ht was that so with her baby But when I asked, she put that fear to rest
"No, Feddrika is thriving But reo? Looks like it’s not over yet"
"More psychic vahosts who ate y and transferred it to their controller Gulakah had really ood share of the witches in the area, as well as a nu Fae
"Not exactly One of raveyard dirt--don’t even say a word about that"
I chuckled I couldn’t very well say raveyard dirt "
"Well, he was out early this rave robbers in the ceht of hiht with the thieves Sean ht, but he’s terrified And he said there were soy was fucked up"
I bitfor a moment, I finally said, "You, your covener, and Sean meet us at the FH-CSI in an hour or so You have to tell Chase about this I proet into trouble At least notup By that time, Delilah was back and we headed out We tookup and Jason Binds, our friend Tim’s husband, had said he would come out to look at it today As I tossed my purse into the back and strapped on my seat belt, it occurred to me that vacation was over and ere firmly back in the trenches
"I need to stop by Mystic Charms before we head to HQ It’s on the way, and I’ll only be a few minutes"
The minute Delilah had shut her door, I eased out of the driveway and headed onto the--for once--dry roads The sun was peeking through wispy clouds, in that perfect union of cool breeze and warination and cleared the head
I rolled down myand inhaled deeply Someone, somewhere, had recently ave way to rotten eggs as we passed through where a skunk had let loose
Delilah let out a rinned at her Ever since she’d been skunked, she gave the the metropolitan area, and I closed theand turned on the air Exhaust wasn’t ht," Delilah said
"She and Douglas find a house yet?" Marion was a friend of ours--a coyote shifter--who had been displaced when the Koyanni burned down her house and her café The café had been restored, but she and her husband had been living with our neighbor Wilbur--our neighborhood necro hie, only instead of a burned shell of a house, he wasin about three weeks Marion’s sister caet Snickers, their cat, when theyto keep him for them until they move They didn’t dare take Snickers to Wilbur’s, not with Martin around Hewith her
"He’s a freak show, that’s for sure" I sighed "But I guess he’s our freak show, as ine Wilbur will be glad to have his house back, though"
"Marion thinks he’s going to ht actually like hi to piss ht, but Morio told him to fuck off"
"What did he ith Rodney?" Delilah sounded as suspicious as I felt
"I dunno, but it couldn’t be anything good"
Rodney was a bane and a curse, though he’d been given to us as a gift The bone golem would have erfield Toss in a touch of Don Rickles, and he’d be the perfect storh, because Grandiven him to Morio I not-so-secretly hoped that one day Rodney would find hiehammer
As we neared the corner of Strand and Oakes, I pulled into a space that opened up even as we drove down the street Bingo! Right in front of Mystic Char whenever I needed it
"You want to stay here, or colanced intoI needed was for so with" Delilah hopped out The sidewalks were cracked, barely above street level, and when the rains flooded the streets, the shops put out sandbags, just in case But it was a low-rent district, and businesses that ski found it easier to survive here
As we headed into the store, I auton of trouble It was second nature now--especially ere dealing with ical shops and clubs
Mystic Char The owners were an interracial couple--an FBH witch and her Fae husband Laslan had come over from Otherworld, met Beth, and fallen in love, oing back to Otherworld with hio over Earthside They were both powerful, each in their own forrity, so I frequented their shop
Delilah hovered over some pretty candles, while I checked out the other patrons in the shop There were tere obviously Wiccan--which was anism and witchcraft
Another woy and powerful, and intriguing
A fourth was flipping through the how-to books on the shelf, looking frustrated I wanted to go over and tell hiic, but that wasn’t lanced around, looking for the herbs and oils, which had been moved from their usual location
In fact, now that I looked around, I saw that the entire shop had undergone a change in looks After a moment, I spied the herbs and headed over to a wall that was now lined with cubbyholes
Within each niche stood a jar filled with herbs They were in alphabetical order, and as I set down the basket and beganthe mandrake root and ood to the counter with scales and plastic sacks, theback onto the shelf and, with a disgruntled sigh, headed out the door