Free Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton Page A

It was clear he was the beta in the mix. I felt sorry for them if they were a couple, because she’d be wearing his balls as earrings before they hit their first anniversary.
    Not that I was interested in her—skinny blondes didn’t do it for me—but he seemed too comfortable in her shadow, like a politician’s spouse during campaign season. People drifted in and out of my line of vision as they offered their good-byes to the blonde, a constant stream of villagers who seemed to think she had all the answers.
    I heard the front door of the church swing open some thirty feet away and footsteps moving closer.
    Shit.
    I did what any other cop in my position would do: I ducked behind one of the huge snow-covered bushes and tried to become invisible.
    The footsteps stopped abruptly. I heard muffled conversation. Then the footsteps retreated back across the ice-encrusted snow. A chorus of voices called out “Good night,” and a bus engine turned over with a clunk. The VW van I’d noticed added its distinctive high-pitched whine.
    The night fell silent in a way it never did in Boston, and I was counting off a full two minutes of it before breaking cover when I got that old familiar feeling, the one that made the hackles on the back of my neck rise.
    I was being watched.
    I turned toward the church. The windows were dark. No telltale condensation on the glass. No movement. I scanned right, then left. Nothing. But the prickling sensation along the back of my neck was still there and it was never wrong.
    And then I saw it. A quick flicker of darkness in my peripheral vision. The kind of thing only a cop would notice. I turned quickly but there was nothing there. No footprints. No broken branches. Just the familiar knot in my gut that signaled trouble.
    The place was lousy with wildlife. When had I become a city dweller who could be thrown by country noises? People were trouble after dark. Owls weren’t. Raccoons foraged for food at night but they usually gave humans a wide berth. An entire segment of the animal world came alive when the sun went down, and most of them managed without acknowledging the presence of man.
    Still the feeling that I was being watched persisted. I scouted around some more then finally chalked the whole thing up to the fact that I hadn’t slept in two nights. It was time I got my ass to Motel 6 and crashed for a few. Stifling a yawn, I climbed behind the wheel of my truck and headed back toward the bridge that led to the highway.
    It would all make sense tomorrow in the daylight.
    It always did.

6

    CHLOE
     
    Janice drove Gunnar and me home after the meeting. We told Gunnar it was because Janice needed to borrow a set of US1 double point needles to finish a sock she’d been knitting, but the truth was we didn’t think Gunnar was steady enough on his feet to be left alone.
    We would have taken him back to his own place but neither one of us had a clue where his place was. Gunnar was my best friend and I didn’t know exactly where he lived or how he lived. So much of his life was shrouded in the whims and mysteries of the Fae that there were times when I wondered how well I really knew him.
    “I know what you’re doing,” he said after Janice drove off with her knitting needles. “I’m fine. I just had the wind knocked out of me.”
    I put the tea kettle on the stove to boil. “You were blown across the room into a wall,” I reminded him. “And no offense, friend, but you haven’t been looking so good lately.”
    He didn’t meet my eyes and the light dawned.
    “Dane?” I asked.
    He nodded. “He must be in some kind of trouble. My powers have been leeching away faster than I can replace them. It’s been a bad couple days.”
    “Maybe that’s why your mother was in such a contentious mood.”
    “Contentious?” He lifted a brow.
    “Okay,” I said. “Bitchy. You have to admit she was in rare form tonight.” I set out two big mugs and an assortment of tea bags. “I really wish you