First Sight: The Rune Sight Chronicles Read online

  “Yes, it does drive the males a bit crazy, they start wanting to hump the legs of every female around…” She grinned. “Have a seat and we’ll wait for your lady friend.”

  “Thank you, I really appreciate this.”

  “You have no idea how much in debt we are to you, do you?”

  “No…? You mean, the whole JJ thing?”

  “No, how you handle any supernatural issues on this side of the world without involving the Council and mundane authorities,” she said just as the door opened, letting in a slice of sunshine so bright it would light up the blackest of souls.

  “Well, this is a Council Enforcer I’m meeting,” I told her softly, “but she’s on the level. I would have asked JJ to be my backup but—”

  “He’s young and inexperienced and you wanted somebody with the Pack’s authority.”

  “Yes,” I said and grinned as I turned to greet Vivian.

  “Miss Sparks,” I said rising, “How wonderful to see you!”

  It was too; she wasn’t dressed in her Matrix outfit today. Like me and Yolanda, she wore blue jeans and had on a white t-shirt on with a denim vest over it. Her hair fell down her back and, seeing her dressed casually for the first time did something funny to my stomach. I’d spent most of my life running away from entanglements, but suddenly I seemed to be finding them whether or not I wanted to. Must keep this platonic and ignore her charms, I reminded myself, which were very… charming.

  “Mr. Wright,” she said, eyeing first me and then Yolanda.

  I saw Vivian’s eyes wobble as she flipped to her mage sight and looked at Yolanda, and then took half a step backwards. “I didn’t know this was going to be a party affair.”

  “You didn’t want to meet at my cabin,” I told her, “So like anything I do, I stacked the deck.”

  A hint of a smile tried to break out of one side of her mouth, but she looked at Yolanda nervously.

  “Have you never been around a Were?” I asked her.

  “No,” she said shaking her head. “Please forgive my rudeness; Vivian Sparks, enforcer for the Council of Magic.”

  “Yolanda Solarium,” she said and held out her hand.

  I almost expected to hear bones crack, but Yolanda kept her grip light and a supernatural incident was saved, if only by Yolanda’s own restraint.

  “So, you still don’t trust me?” Vivian said, turning to me.

  The door to the bar opened and Sheriff Cindy Raines walked in. This time my jaw dropped.

  “Hold on,” I said, and both women turned to see who had thrown me off my guard.

  I left the bar and walked towards the door a few steps.

  “Tom Wright,” she said in a serious voice.

  “Yes? What’s going on, Cindy?”

  “You need to come with me,” she said, motioning for me to follow her.

  “What’s going on?” I asked her, “Is your mom ok?”

  “We’ll talk outside. Let’s go,” she said in a voice that didn’t seem like the voice that always greeted me with a smile - it was her cop voice.

  “No, I’m fine, thanks,” I told her, uneasily.

  “Excuse me Sheriff, what’s this in regards to?” Vivian asked suddenly.

  “Who are you?” Cindy snapped, her gaze turning to focus on her.

  “Vivian Sparks, FBI,” she said, pulling a wallet thingy, with a badge on it.

  I almost choked.

  “Agent Sparks, this does not involve the FBI. I need Mr. Wright to come with me.”

  “Bullshit,” I told them both, reaching inside my shirt for my necklace. “Tell me what this is about, because I sure as shit ain’t going anywhere until I get some answers. For Pete’s sake Cindy, what the hell?”

  “Thomas Wright. You are under arrest. Anything you can say and do will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot—”

  I took several steps backwards and was about to gate when Vivian stood up in front of me, putting her arm behind her, as if to reassure her I was there.

  “Sheriff Raines, explain yourself before this becomes a matter for the FBI. I’m questioning a material witness in a cold case, and you’re mucking it up!”

  Vivian’s sharp words stopped Cindy cold and she turned to me and, for the first time, I saw she was pissed. Belay that, she was more than pissed: she was furious. At me?

  “Yesterday I was called to the Shenarbarger farm down the mountain. One of their farm hands had been found shot dead. Must have been dead for a day or two, at least. Coroner pulled two slugs out of his chest. They were like these,” Cindy said, and pulled three shells out of her pocket and set them on the bar angrily next to Yolanda, “chambered in a .45, pure silver.”

  Well, shit.

  “So that’s all you have to go on; the fact somebody killed someone else with a silver bullet?” Vivian asked her.

  “It’s a pretty damned big coincidence, don’t you think?” she demanded, looking at me.

  “Cindy, I can explain—”

  “Stand up, or I’ll drag you out of here,” she snarled.

  Yolanda stood up and that was when I really started to worry. Things were about to get horrible and nothing good could be done unless I diffused the situation.

  “Sit down and have a drink and let’s talk. If you’re not convinced by the time I’m done, you can take me away, but if you try to drag me out of here now, it’s going to ruin our friendship and even worse.”

  “Our friendship?” She half laughed around the anger in her voice.

  “Do, uh… any of you want a drink?” The bartender asked from the doorway leading back to the kitchen.

  “Yes,” I said, as the others chorused “No!”

  “Bring me a bottle of tequila, whatever you got,” I told the bartender, “and whip us up some burgers and fries. I’ll start a tab,” I said, reaching into my pocket and peeling off two one hundred dollar bills.

  I had been going to go to the bank, but now I wasn’t so sure. I might need the cash to use for bail money. I had to talk fast and not expose the supernatural world, because I had a Council mage present to witness the utter folly I called a life.

  “Other than the bullets, why do you suspect it was me?” I asked Cindy.

  “I think it’s awful funny you and I were joking about a bigfoot or werewolf hunt a few days back. Next thing I know, you’re handing me silver bullets. I completely forgot about them until this morning when I got the results,” Cindy said, taking a chair out and sitting down at the table.

  I was across from her, Yolanda to my left, Vivian to my right. I was ignoring the pointed looks Yolanda was shooting at me, but Vivian looked interested and was leaning forward.

  “You want to know what happened the day I went looking for whoever tried to hurt Betsy?” I asked her.

  “Yes,” Cindy said, “Because you went in the same general direction towards the farm and the victim seems to have died right around that time frame.”

  “You know that drifter I was telling you about? The one that the dog got?” I asked her.

  “Yes?” she asked, angry but now confused.

  “That’s my nephew, Jeremiah Jones, JJ. He’s the one who got it. Your black lab nailed him and got him under the arm,” I lied quietly. “He was looking for my place.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “That doesn’t mean you didn’t…” her words trailed off and the anger seemed to wash out of her features. “Ok, from the top, and remember, I’ll probably come to your house and confirm your story with your nephew.”

  “I can do better than that, I can confirm it. We were giving the stranger first aid when Mr. Wright there found the group of us.” Yolanda cut in.

  “Excuse me? Group?”

  “There were five of us; my husband and I, my brother and one other. Plus, this JJ. We’d only just made his acquaintance,” Yolanda’s dark eyes sparkled and a smile touched the corner of her mouth.

  “What were you doing back there? You can’t be the landowners,”
Cindy asked, now confused.

  “I am Piute, as are most of my family. We travel, and we’re accorded land per treaty with the government of the United States of America.”

  “You look familiar,” Cindy said.

  “I’ve got that kind of face,” Yolanda told her with a snort and then turned and leaned to the side as a nervous bartender put down a bottle of El Toro and a few shot glasses, “and we heard no gunfire that day, though when you get a time/day of death I can ask our tribe if anyone has information or even memory of gun shots.”

  “Water for me,” Cindy said, and waited as the unsettled bartender left.

  “You might want a couple of shots, you know, to cool off?” I suggested, pulling the bottle close and then started my pour.

  “No, I’m on duty and it’s only lunchtime,” she snapped. “What about the rest of the time between then and now? They don’t have a time of death yet.”

  “My nephew came back to the cabin with me. I mean, I did leave once to go to the bank in Salt Lake City, then to Home Depot to order supplies for the old trappers shack up the hill from my cabin for him to stay in.”

  “This is all too convenient,” Cindy said.

  “Occam’s Razor,” Vivian said, speaking up.

  “I promise you, I did not murder the farm hand,” I said. “I haven’t even fired my guns since you saw me that day. Want to check them?”

  She started to reach across the table then pulled her hand back.

  “I’m sorry Tom,” Cindy said, a note of regret now in her voice, “I heard that and thought—”

  “Hey, I get it,” I said, and downed a shot and then poured another, pushing a fresh shot glass in front of each of the ladies. “I’m a loner, a hermit and suddenly I have my nephew moving in with me around the same time a murder happens and—”

  “Does your nephew have an alibi for before he was found by you?”

  “Dammit Cindy,” I said, pissed, “Do some investigative work. Do you realize how many people around here have silver bullets, or silver tips or…? I mean, come on.”

  She looked at me guiltily, then took the shot glass and downed it, and then coughed.

  “I like mine with salt and lemon,” Yolanda said, then downed her shot.

  I looked at Vivian who shrugged and then downed hers as well. I started pouring again.

  “No more for me,” Cindy said, “One’s enough. God, this is screwed up.”

  “What do you know about the murdered farmhand?” I asked.

  “He was new to town, had just started working at the farm.”

  “Sheriff,” Vivian said, taking a fresh shot from me and held it, not drinking, “if you would like to have the Bureau’s assistance, I’d be willing to help, but it sounds like your chief suspect has a pretty solid alibi. I’m sure he’ll make himself available upon your request, but I have places to go. Can you continue your discussion later?”

  I downed another shot and watched Cindy. She nodded after a second and stood. I stood as well.

  “I’ll walk you to the door,” I told her, “or if you’d like to head straight to my place and talk to JJ, he’s finishing off the roof on the little cabin and doing a clean out. Here,” I said, fishing in my pocket, “I’ll even send you with my phone to prove that I won’t call him to get my alibi straight.”

  “You’re a dumbass,” she said, “they have pay phones in here.” She had snickered the last out. “I’ll stop in and talk to him. Maybe he heard something. Yolanda, can you call my office later on and give me a statement as well? Maybe ask the others if they heard anything?”

  “Promise,” Yolanda said and I held the door open and watched her leave.

  I plopped back down at the table and poured another shot and looked at the two ladies. I felt hollowed out, going from, ‘oh my God my pretend girlfriend is going to arrest me’ to ‘she didn’t use the handcuffs and for once I’m glad’ in seconds.

  “How much of that is the truth?” Vivian asked me quietly.

  “He’s not my nephew, but the rest is true.”

  “Who is he?” she asked.

  “My responsibility,” I shook my head wryly, “One way or another.”

  Yolanda nodded. “Mr. Wright has been declared friend of the Solaris pack and accorded his own territory.”

  Vivian’s eyes widened and they wobbled again as she examined me with her mage sight. I closed my eyes and sat there for a moment.

  “You’re not a shifter,” she commented after a second.

  “No, but he beat an Alpha in one on one combat. That’s all I’m willing to share with the council,” Yolanda said. “The rest is protected by treaty.”

  “And as an alpha of a pack, so are you.” Vivian reminded me quietly.

  That startled me, but both women were looking at me and Yolanda gave me a nod. I had to bone up on this pack law and Alpha stuff fast, or it would come around to bite me in the ass.

  “So, you asked me for information, and now I am finding all kinds of questions I’d love to ask you, but that isn’t why we’re here,” Vivian said. “The woman you asked me about… she wasn’t killed by Council Enforcers. In fact, we were tracking her, and her husband had been witness to several crimes we were investigating.” Her words sounded mostly truthful to me, and my mother had certainly seemed scared of the council, maybe this was why.

  “Wait, she wasn’t… but I was there,” I said softly.

  “Did you see who came in the room?” she asked softly.

  “No, my mom bound me magically and hid me in the closet. I could hear everything, though.”

  “What did you hear? Stop, Council Enforcers, give yourself up, warlock?”

  “My mother wasn’t a warlock,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “No, and neither was your Father, though he was killed when you were young,” she snapped back. “Our best guess is that the House of Shadows got to her first, to stop her from becoming a witness for us. My information said she was on the run, like a witness in witness protection.”

  “What’s the House of Shadows?” Yolanda asked, sipping from her shot glass.

  “I’m sorry, this is mage business, I can’t really discuss it with other—”

  “Don’t forget, I’m an Alpha and accorded my own pack, so if you were gonna pull the shifter or supernatural exemption, don’t,” I said. “Are you really FBI?”

  “Division of,” Vivian said with a grin. “You trust her?” She nodded towards Yolanda.

  I knew right then that there was only one answer and it was yes. I knew by obligation Yolanda or one of the pack would have been here to back me up, yet asking if I had trust in her? If I said no, it would be a huge insult to the local pack, one I could never take back.

  “With my life; it’s why I asked the pack for backup.”

  “Because after all of this you still don’t trust me?” Vivian asked, exasperated.

  “Yup.”

  “Damn. Well, I have to ask you not to share this with the rest of your pack unless it’s your Alpha, and only if it’s necessary to your survival.”

  “Agreed,” Yolanda said with a smile.

  “The House of Shadows is the Assassin Guild and criminal organization that started in Sicily, Italy, in the 1600s.”

  “Assassin’s Guild?” I asked, wishing the food would hurry, as the liquor was starting to go to my head.

  I scanned the future and saw in four seconds the bartender would be out with half a dozen burgers and a ton of sides. I smiled.

  “Yes, it’s…” she paused, and the bartender came out just when I’d expected and set the food down.

  “Thank you,” I told him and pulled a plate of burger and fries to me and started digging in.

  “It’s… the mercenary branch of the… The House of Shadows is the opposite of the Council of Mages. They are based in Europe still, but they have members worldwide, much like we do. We keep tabs on them but sometimes… It’s really complicated. For every yin, there’s a yang. They are the Council of Mages’ ya
ng.”

  “Vassago?” I asked her around a bite of food.

  “Who told you that name?” Vivian said, dropping the burger she’d been picking up for herself.

  “Rose,” I told her and took another bite.

  “Rose?” she asked, and I just continued to eat.

  She’d heard the name. I thought about telling her, but I’d already scanned the future and saw she would get it within a few seconds. The bar burgers were too damned good to interrupt, and I was trying to negate the effects of the hard liquor.

  “Ahhhh, your Fae servant.”

  “You kept her?” Yolanda asked just as Vivian attempted to get another bite in. She didn’t drop the burger that time but it was a close thing.

  “I set her free, only to have her swear her allegiance to me. Said it was better to be stuck to my carcass than roaming around free.”

  “She’s probably right, you’re a good guy so far,” Yolanda said. “But don’t let Carl hear me say that. He’s still bragging on your fight and a little jealous, to be honest.”

  “Carl?” Vivian asked, feeling lost.

  “My husband, Alpha, and accorded leader of nearly two hundred miles of territory, including the greater Salt Lake City area and the area up to the Wright pack’s boundaries.”

  Now it was my turn to almost choke. To have an area that large meant that Carl was a huge badass. JJ was young, but he was one of the strongest Weres I’d ever run across. His hybrid form’s footprints were easily the biggest I’d ever seen. I mulled on that half a second and then considered who’d put him down, forced wolfsbane into his mouth and tied him up without getting a scratch. Carl was… badass.

  “His fight?” Vivian asked.

  “You know, where he challenged an Alpha and beat him without magic, barehanded, and knocked him out cold? That’s his nephew, JJ.” Yolanda snickered and dug into her food.

  “And that’s how you got Rose?” Vivian asked.

  I nodded as I chewed, my mouth too full to talk.

  “If you don’t eat that, I will,” I told her finally, pointing to the burger she still held.

  Chapter Nine

  I drove slowly back. The road conditions were fine, but I was chewing on everything I’d heard. The House of Shadows was the criminal side of the mage world. It was more than that though; it was full of supernaturals who didn’t or wouldn’t follow mage law, as the Council of Mages dictated. I hadn’t even known there was an opposing faction in the magical community, though I’d spent most of my life avoiding all of it. Still, I’d heard enough from Vivian that I now knew more about what was going on.