Free Influential Magic by Deanna Chase

then I heard you talking to David again right before the woman showed up to ask you about Beau.”
    I blinked. “Damn it. The concealment charm. Phoebs, they had the whole room cloaked. I couldn’t feel anyone except David until we joined them in Allcot’s private room upstairs.”
    Phoebe stiffened and then rounded on David. “How?”
    Confusion flickered over his handsome face. “I don’t know what the hell either of you are talking about.” His gaze landed on me. “What do you mean you couldn’t feel anyone but me? Is the Void tracking vampires now?”
    “No.” Not technically. Oops.
    My ability wasn’t exactly public knowledge. Just perfect . Maude was going to have a shit-fit when she learned I’d leaked the information. The thought suddenly filled me with a gleeful defiance. I tilted my head to one side. David was my partner now. He would’ve found out sooner or later. Shrugging, I uttered the words I’d been sworn to keep secret, “I have a vampire spidey sense.”
    “Excuse me?” David scooted to the edge of the chair. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “You know, spidey sense.” I tapped my temple. “I know when vampires are around. I should’ve felt Eadric and his groupies long before we entered his office. But I didn’t. Which only means one thing—a concealment charm.” I strode across the room, stopping right in front of him. “And you’re going to tell us where it came from and why they’re using it.”
    I glanced at Phoebe. She nodded once and cut her eyes back to the vampire.
    David leaned back and said nothing.
    What did it take to get a reaction out of the guy? I’d confessed a potentially dangerous talent, and he didn’t even dignify it with a response. Asshole. “I’ll assume that means you aren’t important enough to be in the know.”
    He glared, a muscle pulsing in his jaw as he clenched his teeth.
    “Looks like you hit a nerve, Wil.” Phoebe pulled out a cigarette, rolling it between two fingers the way she always did when working out a problem.
    “Guess so.” I took two steps and crouched, staring David in the eye. “But you can and will tell me how it is Allcot knows about the agreement you made with the Void to be a double agent.”
    “What?” Phoebe demanded, taking a place beside me. She straightened her spine, making her frame appear much taller than her five-foot-two inches. “Someone better fill me in before our guest finds himself with a nasty sunburn.”
    She held up her agate. I frowned. Right then I’d like nothing better than to fry David myself. Double-crossing, low-life coward who couldn’t even break up with me in person. I’d deserved an explanation, dammit. Not a hasty text. Coward.
    I filled Phoebe in on the night’s events and when I finished we both focused on David. Phoebe pointed to her agate. “You’ve got five seconds to start talking.”
    He held her gaze, then quirked an eyebrow, a tiny hint of a smile touching his lips. “This is between Willow and me.”
    Phoebe snorted out a laugh. “Arrogant bastard. Agent Rhoswen is my partner. Where she goes, I go and all that shit. Now start talking. I’d think you’d know by now I don’t issue idle threats.”
    David’s face turned stony. “Unfortunately for you, Agent Rhoswen is no longer your partner. She’s mine, as of sometime this morning. There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for tonight’s events. However, I will speak to her about them in private.”
    Phoebe’s arm rose, her face flushed in anger, light pulsing faintly from the agate. All it would take is one word, and David would be out of commission for days, if not weeks. I clasped Phoebe’s wrist, deflecting the growing rays of artificial sun.
    “Phoebs,” I said, exhausted. “As much as I’d like to see him crispy fried, I do need some answers. Maybe it’s better if I fill you in later?” The beetle bug was still in my pocket. Whatever David told me, Phoebe would hear it.
    She took a deep breath,