Free Demon's Fury: Part 1 of the Final Asylum Tales (The Asylum Tales series) by Jocelynn Drake Page B

door.
    “Yep. Here, hold this,” I said, slapping the box of matches into her free hand before I turned my attention back to the cabinet. I squatted down where several plastic jugs were lined up along the bottom shelf with dates scrawled across them in black marker. Grabbing the fullest one, I stood and closed the cabinet doors with my foot.
    “What’s that?” she asked, eyeing the jug suspiciously.
    “Water.”
    “Isn’t starting a fire in the basement a little dangerous, even with water on hand?”
    “We’re not starting a fire,” I said as I carried the water jug over to the middle of the room and put it on the floor.
    “Fine. So what do you have to explain?” Her mind didn’t sound particularly open and her tone wasn’t what I’d call inviting.
    A little voice in my head screamed, This is a mistake! But I was already on this course and I’d made enough mistakes in the past by hiding important things from the people I was depending on to help me. It was time to be honest. Unfortunately, a TAPSS agent wasn’t the best place to start.
    “I want to tell you why my file at TAPSS is locked.”
    Serah immediately perked up and I had her full attention. She was going to get her hands on something that would give her a bit of clout over some of the other investigators who were giving her shit. Fantastic. She was going to hate that she couldn’t tell another soul.
    Taking a deep breath, I just spat it out. “I’m a warlock.”
    She stared at me for a second, her eyes wide, before a burst of laughter jumped from her open mouth. The tiny woman was nearly doubled over as she staggered to the side in her mirth. Well, she seemed tiny to me, but then I’m surrounded by six-foot-plus creatures all day.
    Shaking her head, she straightened and looked at me. “Geez. You had me going for a minute. I thought you were going to actually tell me something,” she said around lingering chuckles.
    “I’m being serious.”
    “Whatever. You’re not a warlock.”
    This had been a lot easier with Trixie, but then Trixie recognized when there was magic shit about that had nothing to do with potions. Serah didn’t stir, so she thought my hidden stockpile was for potions, or at worst, she thought I was running a black market for illegal goods.
    “Fuck,” I mumbled. I had wanted to do this without scaring the shit out of the woman, but she refused to make it easy for me. Reaching up my left sleeve, I withdrew the wand I had hidden there while keeping my eyes on her. Serah stubbornly kept the smile on her face, but it had become a little more forced and sickly. Fear clouded her eyes and I knew I was now edging onto dangerous ground.
    “Funny, Gage. Let’s quit the joking and get down to business,” she said, her gaze locked on the hawthorn wand like I was holding a poisonous snake in my hand.
    “Stay calm, please.” Pointing the wand at the ground, I murmured some words for the binding spell and a red laser-like beam shot from the end of the wand, which I used to draw a large circle in the dirt. When it was complete, I waved my hand over the circle and a series of swirls and symbols were drawn around the circle as if a dozen invisible children were seated in the dirt doodling.
    Serah screamed. I turned back to see her drop the blood-soaked tissue and box of matches. In one fluid motion, she reached behind her and pulled her gun. It trembled, but I had no doubt she could put a couple slugs in my chest at the blink of an eye.
    “Stay back!” she shouted, still trying to sound authoritative while slowly edging toward the stairs.
    Apparently she didn’t trust me enough to leave the gun upstairs. I knew I should have taken the damn thing instead of leaving it behind. Fear tightly clenched my stomach. I wasn’t worried about her shooting me. I could stop a bullet. No, terrified people waving guns around while rational thoughts flew from their brains led to disastrous things happening. I’d asked her to leave the gun behind