West Coast Witch (6 page)

My mind raced for a moment. I didn’t know what was going on at first, but then I heard
two voices, muffled through the walls of the office, drawing nearer.

I mouthed the words “What do we do?” to Amy.

“Follow my lead.” She said, and I followed her out of the door. I could feel something
in my back, tensing as we went out into the hallway, anticipating trouble.

The voices had come from two men. They were both stocky fellows, with matching leather
jackets and the same tattoos on their necks. I wondered to myself it it was some sort
of gang mark.

“Morning.” Amy said, nodding to them.

One of them seemed to sniffle a little. “Morning, ma’am.” He said. The man seemed
to stiffen, annoyed at seeing us here.

“Can I help you two? This office is closed for a police-related investigation.” Her
voice turned hard, more authoritative.

“Of course.” The man said, and he turned around. “Right, sorry.” He said, and the
other man followed him off in a swift retreat.

Amy hurried me down the stairs. She was breathing hard by the time we hit the street.

“I’m sorry, but what the hell was that?” I said.

She leaned against the brick wall of the building. “I think they were there for the
same reason we were.”

“You mean to snoop around Francis’s office?” I asked. “And how do you keep doing that
thing with your voice?”

“I cannot, not any more now. That particular trick has tired me out.” She pulled out
her keys. “Can you drive?”

“Yes, bu-“

“Good.” She pushed the keys into my hand. “You go talk to her room mate. I need to
go sleep this off.”

“Alone?”

“Yes, alone.” Amy grunted as she grabbed the notes and handed them off to me. “If
you run into any trouble-“

I interrupted her this time. “If I run into trouble? Jeez, this is really driving
me crazy, you know that?”

“If you run into trouble, do not fight longer than you have to.” She finished. “Fight
dirty, fight mean.” She flipped out the knife she’d wielded last night. “The blade
is silvered. Do you understand the importance of that?”

I shook my head. “Uh, not really.”

“Silver is very effective against Arcanes. A wound caused by silver will heal slow,
and can slow a vampire or werewolf. But that also goes the same for you. You are weak
against it too. That is something to keep in mind.”

“Uh, got it.” I said, and put the folding blade in a back pocket. “What if I need
help? How can I get in touch with you?”

“Right.” She murmured. We swapped phone numbers, and she told me what to expect from
her jeep.

“So, how are you getting home?”

“Do not worry about me, Eric.” She said. “I will be fine. I have just overexerted
myself in the past twenty-four hours.”

“All right.” I said. “I’m just worried for you. I mean, hell, this is all a lot, and-“

She put her hand on my shoulder. “Eric, I have faith in you. And that is not something
I say lightly.
 
This will come naturally. Do this, and we will talk tomorrow, all right? Just keep
the car for the night, and make sure you bring her back all right?”

“Deal.” Now I just had to survive driving San Francisco’s streets.

It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, even with driving stick. I’d driven with
Matt several times and I’d driven outside the city on a few road trips. One of the
first things I noticed about the car was that, the radio was set to static when I
turned it on. I didn't think anything of it at first, but it started to eat at me.
What kind of person never sets their radio?

I drove to the address in Francis’s notes. It was a small house, sandwiched between
two others in true San Francisco architecture. As I walked up off the sidewalk, I
walked up to the front door on the second floor. The first, I surmised, was for the
garage and laundry rooms.

As I approached the front door, I felt a tingle run across my senses, like a leftover
static charge. It didn’t shock me, but it certainly made my back stand a little straighter.
Something was here.

I stalled on knocking for a moment. Instead, I closed my eyes and focused. When I
felt my mind was clear, I tried what Amy had shown me last night. I tried to let go,
to just experience. It took a bit longer than it had the last night, took more focus,
but it hit me eventually.

The feeling that first came on my senses was something basic, primal. It was an instinct,
something we knew from before we relied on computers and technology to solve problems.
This was a mark, left by someone. I was infringing on another’s territory. I was only
here because whoever this was allowed it.

I shook my head, bringing myself back to the present. The feeling was much less potent
than the power I had felt in Pax, more subdued.

Whatever it was, I would have to figure it out. Maybe Samantha Coolidge was linked
to the Arcanes in some way?

My knock was answered promptly by a girl I assumed was Samantha’s roommate. Her red
hair hung loose around her shoulders, wavy and with a hint of bed head. She wore a
tank top and sweats, hugging her curves nicely.

“Hi, can I help you?”

“Yea, you can. My name is Eric Carpenter.” I searched for a quick lie to cover why
I was here and asking questions. “I was working with Raymond Francis on Sam’s disappearance.”

“Liar.” The growl that rose from her throat was inhuman. It sent shivers straight
through my spine.

The part of my genetic ancestry that stretched back a few dozen million years started
screaming at me to run. Beneath the cute redhead’s exterior, there was a predator,
one who wanted nothing more than to rip my liar’s tongue out.

She raised up a tattooed hand to open up the screen door, and stepped outside. I stepped
back, staying on the small landing in front of the door. My mind immediately went
back to the knife in my back pocket. Would I have to use it?

She looked up to me. The woman was only about five-eight, but she moved like she knew
what she was doing. “Tell me why you are really here, and I may not just call the
police. Or worse.”

I figured that, with what this woman was putting off, honesty would probably be the
best policy here. “The first part was true. I’m Eric Carpenter. I want to help.”

She laughed at me. “Help? That’s not a word I hear often. And just who are you, that
you think you can help?”

“I used to be involved with Sam. I just want to help, honestly. She's a good person,
and I want to see her safe.”

She sniffed the air for a moment. “You don’t smell like a were, but you’re not human.
Not completely. And you’ve been bit by a vampire.”

“Not by any desire of mine,” I replied.

She paused a moment before speaking. “Come inside, Eric.” She smiled lightly, and
opened the screen door. “We’ll talk.”

I followed her into the house. Again, the sense of home and hearth hit me, but I didn’t
even need to reach out with my senses for it. It was more powerful here, so much that
I could feel it without focus. I told myself that I’d think on it later. Something
to ask Amy about.

“So, Eric.” She started. “You’re looking into Sam’s disappearance. How did you get
pulled into this?”

“We dated for a while, Miss, uh..?” I asked her, realizing I hadn’t asked for her
name

“It’s Diana. This must have been before she moved in. I don't recognize your scent.”

“My scent?” I furrowed my brow. “But that would make you a…”

“A were, yea.” Diana nodded. “I’m a werefox, Eric, like Sam.”

“Wait, Sam Coolidge was a were?”

She laughed, and raised her arm with tattoos on it. “You didn’t recognize these?”
Diana shook her head. “Wow. Did you, like, live under a rock while you were dating?
You didn't know she was a were?”

Was I really that clueless? “Before yesterday, I’d never met a vampire. Hell, I hadn’t
really had much experience with Arcanes in general, before.” I thought back to the
office. Had those two men we’d run into been weres of some sort as well? They had
matching tattoos, and one had sniffed the air like Diana had. It seemed like a good
bet.

“And you think you’re going to be able to navigate the supernatural community of San
Francisco, find Sam, and bring her back?” She sighed. “God is quite a comedian.”

“Playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.” I finished. “Mencken.”

She gave me a glance that made me feel like I was being judged in that instant. “You
don’t strike me as the type to quote philosophy.”

I shrugged. “Hey, I’ve got a master’s in Literature. I’m smarter than the average
bear.”

Diana laughed. “All right, Eric. You’ve convinced me not to call the cops. How can
I help?”

“Well, I was hoping I could ask a few questions, first.” I said. I really wished I’d
had the forethought to bring a note pad or something.

“Shoot, Eric.” She said. “Can I get you anything to drink?” She asked as she stood..

“Uh, yea. A glass of water would be great. The heat’s killer.” She smiled, and disappeared
to the kitchen. I followed her into it. “So, the first thing I wanted to know was…well,
had anything strange popped up recently in her life, or anything?”

She nodded. “Yea, she said she’d found a new bar she liked to go to. It was an all-nighter
club, a vamp one. She said she’d found someone there, but…well, it was weird. I didn’t
find any new smells on her, but she was telling the truth.”

“Do you remember the name of the club?”

“The Last Drop. It’s over in the Castro.” Diana answered. She handed me the water.
“I never went. Was a bit too wild for my tastes.”

“And Sam?” I asked. Our relationship hadn't been much of the go out and party type,
though to be fair, it had been a weird one.

She laughed. “She liked to work hard, party harder. Sam fit in just perfect there,”
she explained. “Eric, I…well, I don’t know what could have happened to her. But whatever
it is, she’s a tough gal.” She fidgeted. “She could take care of herself.”

Work hard, party harder? That sounded like a were. I nodded. “I just want to make
sure she gets home. Did she ever say who that new someone was?”

“No, she wanted to save it for a surprise.” She shrugged. “Whatever that was.”

“All right.” I took down a gulp from the water. It was refreshing, but it was so hot
out I ended up downing half the glass in one gulp. “I wanted to ask for one more thing.”

“What’s that?” She gave me an inquisitive look.

“I was hoping I could grab Sam’s hairbrush, comb. Something of hers like that.”

She nodded. “Yea, sure. Just wait here a minute, and I’ll go grab it, okay?” Diana
disappeared off into one of the back rooms of the small house, leaving me there in
the kitchen.

I started to reflect back on things. Maybe the Last Drop would be the best place to
start. But if Sam had already been missing a week, her chances were way too slim.
I’d read somewhere that the chances of finding a missing person decreased exponentially
after the first twenty-four hours. Or was it forty-eight? Whatever it was, it was
too damn long.
 
It had already been a week, and I was new to this. How could I find her when the
cops and a seasoned PI couldn’t?

Doubt, I told myself, would have to wait. I was a witch, whatever that meant, but
I was also a Carpenter. Carpenters weren’t quitters.

Diana returned after a few minutes, after I’d already emptied the rest of the glass.
She had in her hand a simple plastic brush, and handed it to me.

“What are you going to do with it?” She asked.

I decided that lying wouldn’t do her any good. “I’m going to hopefully use it to find
her.”

“And how’s a brush going to help you?”

I thought carefully on how to approach this. I remembered Amy's warning, to keep my
gift safe, but at the moment I figured I had to get Diana to trust me.. “Magic.”

She had a look of disbelief on her face. “Magic? Magic’s not real.”

“Hey, we live in a time with vampires, werewolves, and all other sorts of folk. You’re
really going to doubt me?”

“Biology major.” She said, offering a shrug. “Hey, I gotta be a skeptic.”

“I’m a witch.” I explained. “And no, I don’t understand it at all. I just know that
I can do stuff other people can’t. This shit hasn’t been explained to me in full,
really. I’m still learning, but I’m going to give this the best honest chance I can.”

“Well, then, maybe magic will give you something that the police haven’t fond.”

“That’s the hope. Thanks for your time, Diana.”

“Anything to help.” Diana promised. She offered her hand to me, and I shook it. “Keep
in touch, please?”

“Will do.” I said, and she showed me to the door. I walked back to the jeep, and put
the brush into the glove compartment of the car.