Witch for Hire (2 page)

Some things were hard to explain to humans. Just because they lived in a world where everyone else was magical didn't mean they really understood magic. "Think of it as an aura that extended a few inches around their body that allowed them to bend things to their will. They weren't casting spells as Jerry or I would, but they were bending things to their will."
 

"What do I tell animal control?" He looked frustrated.

"You've got what, a few fey, and some elves working there?"

"Yup."

"Tell them they have magic and a bad temperament." I looked him straight in the eyes.

"You're serious?" His eyebrows climbed an inch.
 

"The fey can handle anything those stupid creatures dish out. We've sent more dangerous things to them and they've been fine. I wouldn't worry about it, but you might want better cages."
 

He dropped his gaze. "You're right. I just hate dealing with new species." He stumbled over the last word, like he hated to apply that term to those vermin. I couldn't blame him a bit. "I'll see what I can find in the budget for cages. Paying the bill for an injured officer might persuade the bean counters."
 

"Perhaps. I'm done here so I'm heading out." I did some quick math in my head. Cobb had hired me for fifty hours at the beginning of the year. "Middle of the night emergency calls count for double time so you have about six more hours of my time paid for." I grabbed my damp duffel and headed to my car. I had other appointments to make.
 

"Seriously, Oaks?"

"You bet. I never joke about my business." I slid into the car and headed off.

 
I had an appointment in Forsyth later in the morning, but I couldn't justify driving home for ten minutes before leaving again. I called the hedge-wizard in Forsyth, and left a message telling him I'd be early.

One of the problems with consulting in a variety of places was the travel time. I didn't want to live in Atlanta, but the departments that needed me most, and were most willing to pay, were the ones near, but not in, the city. I compromised by living in Canton, forty minutes from the city, but driving a lot. I loved where I lived. It had a nice garden that flowed into an old forest to perform rituals in, and I never awakened to smog or traffic.
 

A billboard caught my eye. "Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Culture! Free the Trolls!" I turned my eyes back to the road, still chuckling. Not all races were treated equally; in fact, none of them were. Trolls ate other people, dead or alive. They had been moved to reserves, where they ate the newly dead and animals. Hardly a troll's preferred diet, but the rest of the races had decided that this was the best for them, mostly because it was the only way to prevent their own extinction. A few nut-jobs still thought that trolls should be free. The rest of us were happier not needing protection all the time and not having a relative with an obituary listing "Troll" as cause of death.

Two hours, a cup of tea and a donut later, I rolled in to the Forsyth office at eight in the morning.

"Jones, I'm here." I thumped down into the chair in front of his desk. Jones, the department's hedge-wizard, was a round, bald, middle aged man.

"Oh, hey, thanks for coming in early."

"No problem, I had to rearrange my day."
 

"Are you ready to look at the goods?"

"Sure." I followed him back to the magical workroom. Forsyth had a small room devoted to dealing with magic objects. It was spelled to contain any magical accidents and kept the harmful stuff away from everyone.
 

He had promised that this would be worth my time, and interesting enough for two cases. Laid out on the table was the better part of a kitchen's worth of goods: a toaster, a coffee maker, a frying pan, and a full tea service.
 

"Where did you get this stuff?"

Jones rocked back on his heels, grinning. "Here and there. None of it is going to cling to your power or anything, so just humor me and sense them out."

I glared at him. Most days this would be fun, but today it was just annoying. "You know I don't like to work that way." He kept grinning. "Fine, I'll do this your way."

"Deal."

I stretched out a tendril of power, letting it hover over the toaster. Not that I could get much information unless my power touched it, but I knew it had been spelled. Relaxing, my power touched the toaster. Ah, it caught fingers, but only when removing toast. It was a painful trick, though more mischievous than anything.
 

Moving to the coffee maker I repeated the process. Someone had spelled the coffee maker to give people the flu.

The frying pan could heat itself, but only to one setting. Either the spell had been damaged or the caster only cooked on high. Annoying, but it's only dangerous for your dinner.
 

Finally, I investigated the tea set. This was a different level of sophistication. Each piece of the set had a different talent. If you added sugar from the sugar cup to a drink, it made the drinker more willing to believe your words. Adding milk would encourage strength of will, and the honey pot inspired romance. If you were brave enough to add lemon, the tea would be dosed with bitterness. Each of the tea cups had a different talent, bringing joy, sorrow, sympathy, and anger.

I reeled my power back in. "Ok, I played the game. The toaster grabs fingers, the coffee maker gives you the flu, the pan heats itself, and tea set induces emotions. Where did you find them?"

"You felt more than that, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did, but I've been up since three, Jones, I can't do games today." Sighing, I plopped down in the chair sitting beside the table. The room looked a lot like a chemistry lab, with tables lining the walls, and cabinets overflowing with supplies. There were several types of fire extinguishers, a safety shower, an eye wash, and a giant first aid kit strapped to a wall.
 

"Sorry." He settled into the chair next to mine. "We've been collecting these from across the county. Some old lady died, natural causes, and her kids held a yard sale to get rid of her stuff. Apparently, the old lady was a bit of a tinkerer and hedge-witch. I don't think we've gotten everything, but with her dead, and her kids ignorant of the old woman's hobby, we didn't have a crime that anyone was willing to prosecute. I just need to find the stuff she charmed."

Items like this were tricky. I could undo or cleanse most of these spells, but it's hard to be sure they're clean. "I can fix these, but I would still send them through the plasma gun. If you atomize these things nothing will survive. It's not like the department can make much money selling them."

"Nope, but it sure cost money to send things through the gun." He sighed, his bushy brows scrunching. "I think we still have some of the free space they gave us left, but I hate to use it for these. Would the crusher be good enough?"

I mentally slapped myself. The lack of sleep was showing. None of these had the tenacity or danger that would require the plasma gun. The crusher would be fine and much more affordable for the department. They needed to save that free space for something really dangerous. "I don't know what I was thinking. Send them to the crusher."

"Alright. I'm going to go do paperwork while you deal with this. "

I waved my acknowledgment as he left. Removing magic was tricky. There were several ways to do it, each with different risks and benefits. You could unknit the spells, over load them with energy, or rip the magic off of the object. None of these spells had seemed powerful, but I was going to check them more closely before I tried to remove the magic. I really wasn't in a good frame of mind to delicately unknit the spells; I was just going to yank them apart and disperse the energy.
 

It took two hours because some of them had been stubborn, but by nine thirty all of the spells had been removed. I handed Jones my notes as I left. It was a two hour drive home, where I could grab some lunch, nap, and then clear up some paper work before heading to bed early if nothing else came up.
 

I kept switching the music and I stopped every thirty minutes on the way home. I could feel my eyes falling closed and my body relaxing into sleep when I neared the thirty minute mark. Four hours of sleep just wasn't enough. I'd been up and moving for six hours now and was ready for a rest. A trip that usually took two hours lasted nearly three.
 

After coasting into my parking spot, I sat for a moment, letting the tranquility of the house soak into me. The land was covered with elegant decorations and charming gardens that begged to be explored. The house, more of a lodge really, was built of roughhewn logs. Two wings sheltered the sides of the covered porch, protecting it from the weather. It was four steps up to the porch and eight feet to the oak door.
 

It wasn't my house. It was owned by a brownie couple who maintained it and rented out suites. There were a few long term renters like me, but it also functioned as a bed and breakfast to people and magical creatures passing through. A renter, like myself, was entitled to two meals a day, which made up for the microscopic kitchen. Being something of an indifferent or terrible cook, those kept me from eating fast food every day.

I walked inside, barely pausing to wipe my feet on the mat. I swung to the right and stumbled into the dining room. Hardly looking at the long table or who might be at it, I made a beeline for the tea and slurped down half a mug. The hot, caffeinated beverage forced my eyes open and gave my movement some energy. While topping off my mug, I looked around and saw two unicorns, a dwarf, and five shifters. I forked out a salad at the buffet and joined the group.
 

"I don't understand why President Ederin hasn't put a stop to these reparations lawsuits. The humans have been free and mostly equal for the past three hundred years. There isn't a human alive that remembers slavery," the dwarf finished with a flourish of his fork.

I munched down a bite of lettuce. President Ederin was a bit of a mystery, but that was true of all dragons. To be fair to the humans, there wasn't a country in the world that was ruled by them, or viewed them as equals. Every country was ruled by dragons, vampires, witches, elves, dwarves, dark elves, orcs, fey, shifters, goblins, or giants. As for the humans, they were short lived and had been enslaved, but equality was a relative term. Yes, they had all the same rights, but they didn't have magic. They tried to compensate with technology and innovation. Regardless of their legal state they were still the dumb younger race to most of the world.

"
You know dragons see time differently. Ederin is old, even for that exceptionally long lived race. He has a soft spot for hopeless causes and new races. Why do you think he agreed to rule this land for the humans and others? No one else who was here wanted to, and they needed protection.
" The unicorn with the longer horn snorted into his oats. Unicorns couldn't speak with words, but they did speak mind to mind with anyone they pleased.

Deciding this was a great time to shift the conversation I interrupted, "How long are all of you here for? I'm Michelle, by the way."
 

The smaller unicorn, who looked pregnant, nodded her understanding. The first unicorn answered, "
I'm Enethre. This is Elise. We came to make arrangements to stay here next week. Elise is close to term. We are staying close because we do not want to be caught without shelter when the time comes.
" He gently nuzzled his wife.
 

After a stare down between two of the men, the older one spoke. "We are of the Manachar pack." From their interaction, I gathered they were werewolves because few other groups had dominance struggles, or were so pack oriented. "We are staying here for a few days, but are waiting for the right time to perform a ritual." Werewolves were a secretive bunch, but from the group dynamics I could lay my money on an alpha trial, coming of age ritual, or mating call.

The dwarf pulled a bread crumb from his beard. "Well, I'm staying here while I attend a conference in Kennesaw about smelting. I am called Aksi. How 'bout you lass?"

I quickly swallowed my mouthful of food. "I live here, but if you're asking what I do, I'm a witch. I work with the police to provide magical assistance." Now, we were in danger of straying into territory that I didn't want to explore. "I saw a 'Free the Trolls' billboard today. Do any of you know what group is behind it now? I thought the movement had died out a few years ago when a few members of the last group, I think it was Trolls Today, tried to live with them and were eaten."

With a glance at the first werewolf who had spoken, one of the other wolves commented. "I heard it's a group of humans, HATE, Humans Against Troll Enclosures. Apparently, the past seven years has been enough time for them to forget why trolls are in the preserves to being with."

"I don't want them to do anything stupid. There's a preserve in Forsyth that I'd rather not have to visit," I said.

"Lass, I still remember when my fifth cousin, Tharish, was eaten by a troll. I have no sympathy for those beasts, but I haven't heard that this new group would use illegal means to free the trolls." Aksi stuffed the last of a cranberry muffin in his mouth, brushing crumbs off his beard as he chewed.

"
It is not unknown for one of their kind to eat one of ours. We find the world to be less dangerous for the young with the trolls removed from society
." Enethre had a valid point; unicorns were fragile until they hit puberty, and even then they weren't the sturdiest things around. I finished off my salad and grabbed a muffin off the buffet. I hadn't realized they were there until I saw Aksi finish his.
 

 
"
I would worry less about the trolls, young one. I heard someone has a few of us more magical creatures and was experimenting
."

"Really? Did any of these experiments use mundane creatures as well?" Another reason I liked this place, good information was easy to find.