I shrugged. “I raised a shade to settle an insurance claim this morning. The family refused to believe their father had left a chunk of his estate to an il egitimate son’s widow, so I spent over two hours graveside while the shade verified the wil line by line. I was cold. Besides, it’s not half as hot as it was a couple of weeks ago. The mid-nineties are practical y a blessing in August.”
“Uh-uh,” Hol y said, and made a production of sipping her iced latte. But though we were at an outdoor café, it was a café in the middle of the Magic Quarter—Nekros City’s center for al things magical and witchy. This café boasted the very best charms available for keeping customers cool and comfortable regardless of the temperature. And despite her protests, Hol y wasn’t so much as breaking a sweat in her crisp courtroom-ready suit. “So, was there anyone
else interesting ?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.
“Hardly.” I had to reach across the table to get to the cheesecake, but that didn’t stop me.
“Oh, come on.” Hol y pushed the plate forward. “It’s been a month since I’ve seen you pick up a guy. You’ve always accused me of being a workaholic, but ever since your business picked up, al you do is raise the dead.” She set down her latte, pul ed out her hair clip, and shook her red locks free. Then she smoothed her hair back again and twisted it effortlessly into a slick bun. She looked every inch the hotshot public prosecutor she was—less obvious was the fact that she was a witch in her own right. “I have court again this afternoon, but after that my caseload wil be lighter. Let’s go barhopping tonight. You need to get out.”
I made a noncommittal noise and focused on my once again empty fork.
“She is out,” Tamara said, though I had the feeling her coming to my defense had more to do with her new coming to my defense had more to do with her new disapproval of barhopping—a stance she’d taken about the s a m e time the large diamond engagement ring had appeared on her finger—than with my current social habits.
Hol y wasn’t exactly wrong. Business was good. Real y good. In fact, it was better than it had ever been. But business wasn’t why I’d stopped barhopping. For years I’d chased away the chil that clung to me after raising shades with a stiff drink and a warm body—preferably a guy I’d never see again after our encounter. That prospect didn’t appeal to me anymore. Besides, somewhere between temporarily swapping life forces with a soul col ector and discovering I was part fae a month ago, my body temperature had changed, and now most people felt blisteringly hot to the touch. There was a short list of guys who could touch me without causing us both discomfort.
Actual y it was a very short list. As in a list of two. That I knew of, at least. One guy had disappeared and the other .
. . Wel , that situation was complicated. It was time to change the subject.
I turned to Tamara, who, as wel as being my friend, was the chief medical examiner for Nekros City. “So did the FIB
take everything out of house?”
“Not yet. So far everyone is ‘cooperating.’ We’l see how long that lasts. Honestly, though, I’m out of my league. I have seven left feet in the freezer, and I have no idea how they were severed from the legs. There are no tool marks, so I’m inclined to believe the dismemberment is connected to the snarl of magic clinging to the feet, but I’ve had no luck discerning any individual spel s.” She shook her head, her lips thinning as her eyes moved past us. She was one of the foremost sensitives in the state. If neither she nor the anti–black magic unit was having any success, the spel s must have been rare and powerful. She shook her head again. “Maybe I’m losing my edge. I also have three bodies on the slab with no clear cause of death. Al the evidence points to their hearts simply ceasing to beat, but why? I stil points to their hearts simply ceasing to beat, but why? I stil don’t know. I need to run some more tests.” Her gaze fixed on the cheesecake. “I paid for a third of that slice. I expect to eat my third, so don’t you hoard it.”
“Take it, girlfriend,” Hol y said, pushing the plate across the table. “Sounds like you two need it more than me. Al the cases I’m working for the DA are pretty dul .”
She updated us on the case she’d be trying in court this afternoon. As she spoke, a shadow caught my eye. We were in the outdoor seating area of a café on a busy corner in the Magic Quarter, so one more passing person shouldn’t have snagged my attention. Of course, this wasn’t just any random stranger.
“That’s him,” I hissed.
Hol y fel silent and Tamara twisted in her chair. “Who?
Where?”
“The fae from the floodplain. He’s over by the magazine rack.” I pointed at the newsstand across the street. The fae, with his strange slumped stance and hawkish nose, held a copy of what looked suspiciously like Fae Weekly—a gossip rag—but his attention wasn’t on candid pictures or exaggerated articles. His gaze locked with mine, and I swal owed hard.