Free Fever (Blood Moon Rising, #1) by Lola Taylor

through the eyes of
her or his familiar, often using them as spies. The more familiars
they have, the more powerful the witch or warlock tends to
be.”
    Danica looked fascinated by everything
around her. Gage couldn’t imagine her hanging out in any New Age
shops, so she probably was intrigued by all this. Pentagrams,
cursing dolls, rows and rows of potions and dusty spellbooks took
up every inch of free space in the tight cabin. One room was set
off to the side, complete with a crystal ball and spooky lighting.
It was cleaner than the rest of the place, probably where the
reclusive witch met her clients and ripped them off. Most people
didn’t believe in magic, thus falling prey to the more cunning
witches and warlocks. All it took was one charm, and the client
would get home only to discover their bank account was emptied and
they couldn’t remember where they’d been.
    Gage kept Danica close as they set
about tearing the place apart for any clue as to if Onyx had hired
her, or if someone else had hired both witch and wolf. Nik wasn’t
kidding when he said the place smelled like a gigantic litter box
that hadn’t been cleaned in weeks. Danica was handling it
surprisingly well, her cute little nose curled up in disgust the
only indication it was bothering her. Her full wolf senses wouldn’t
develop until after her first Change, bless her heart.
    It became clear within the first few
minutes this witch was anything but tidy. It became apparent that
as they sifted through her dusty junk it was going to be highly
unlikely they’d find anything of any value in here. Gage was about
ready to call it quits when he moved aside a stack of papers and
his eyes fixed on a familiar symbol. “Check this out.”
    Nik walked over to where Danica and
Gage stood. “It’s another one of those charms.”
    “ We’re at the right witch’s
house, all right. It’s identical.” Gage frowned. “Now if we could
just find a ledger or a receipt book.” Paranormals weren’t exempt
from tax laws; the Underworld’s government didn’t differ much from
the human’s on that note.
    They nearly tore the place apart
trying to find a receipt book, but at last they found one. They
combed through it, not seeing Onyx’s name but finding a “Mistress
Black” scrawled across several receipts. None of them indicated any
patterns or gave any clue as to what the buyer was needing the
spells for. Most were standard potions, though several advanced
cloaking charms of the variety Gage found on Onyx had been
purchased.
    “ Do you think this Mistress
Black is connected to Onyx?” Nik asked.
    “ I’m not sure. Possibly.
She could be involved in one of the witch mafias we’ve heard about
being active around here lately.”
    Danica’s eyes widened. “Witches have
mafias? Weird….”
    Gage grinned, nudging her. “Bet you
didn’t expect that, did you?”
    She shook her head. “I didn’t expect
any of this. It’s a lot to take in.”
    He winced, reminded how different she
was from him. When his eyes fell on the Mark, his regret went away.
It didn’t matter where she’d come from - she belonged with him
now.
    Intending to hold onto the receipt
book, Gage tucked it into his pocket, then checked his watch. “We
should get going. Our scents will be all over this place, and
though it looks abandoned, I don’t want to take any chances.” He
reached for Danica’s waist and tucked her against him as he said
it.
    They walked quickly toward the door.
The instant they set foot outside, Gage and Nik immediately
tensed.
    “ What is it?” Danica said,
wide eyes searching the woods around them. Fog had descended upon
the place, but there was something off about it. It was shimmering.
Things moved within it as it stirred restlessly over the
ground.
    Nik growled. “Black Magic.”
    Gage swore. He hadn’t been able to
detect what type of witch they were dealing with inside. She looked
more like a dabbler. It wasn’t until the flock of wraiths