Page 6 of Oracles Always Win

I’dcertainly made enough enemies over the years to warrant that kind of retribution.Evenin our current case, we were sure another demon was involved.Thelast thingIneeded was to blindly fall into a trap they’d set.Sure,Ineeded to find a place to tether or my demonic magic would eventually break free—which no one wanted to happen—but a false connection to a place would be just as detrimental to me as having none at all.Igritted my teeth and fought for control.

Fornow, untilIknew more, my focus needed to be on the job.Nothingelse.

“Boss?Youokay?”Isaacasked as he bounded over to me and ducked down to peer right into my face.Iwasn’t a short man by any means, but, in his centaur form,Isaacstood at least a head taller than me.

Stillclenching my teeth,Inodded sharply.

“Okay.ThoughtIshould ask because you’re shimmering a bit.”

“Fuckinghell,”Nelsongasped as he stepped through the portal behind me.

Theedges of his body flickered from solid to wispy and back to solid again.Theshadow jumper was capable of manipulating the solidity of his body until he became nothing more than a curl of smoke in the air.Rightnow, though, his body seemed to be changing without his permission.

Hereached out with one hand to brace himself against an aspen tree.

“Whatthe fuck is up with this place?”Nelsonasked.Hisface appeared even paler than normal.

AtleastIknew now the magic wasn’t impacting just me.Ofcourse, that didn’t mean it wasn’t still a trap.

Isaachooted, although in his case it sounded more like a neigh, and slappedNelson’sshoulder. “Itold you guys it was a rush last night, didn’tI?”

“Justthought you were high from your run,”Nelsonmuttered as he drew his hand over his short dark beard.Thenhe glanced at me. “DidAdriansay anything about this?”

“No.”

AndNelsonwas right:Adrianshould have.Thewolf shifter had been staying here with his new mate for a couple of weeks now.Hehad to know about this, so why didn’t he say anything?

“TextDavinaandTeague,”Isaid toNelson, referring to the other members of my team who weren’t here yet. “Tellthem about the high magic levels and that there should be a lot of ghosts.”

Hepulled out his phone to do asIasked.

Good.Thatshould be enough of a warning.Aplace with this much energy would attract supes, but it would also attract a lot of other beings too—like ghosts.Althoughspirits were capable of lying, they rarely did.Mostof them were so starved for attention, they were eager to tell you anything you wanted to know.Icouldn’t see or speak to ghosts, but from whatI’dbeen told, they tended to be eager gossips, which worked out well for us.Informationfrom the local ghosts could make this case go a hell of a lot more smoothly.Theywere also a great early warning system if, say, a demon had snapped and started killing people, creating a lot of ghosts all of a sudden.That’swhyIhadDavinaon my team.

Asa medium, she could interrogate those spirits, or if we needed to summon one back from beyond the veil,Teaguecould do that, although that was only a small part of what he could do.Mostof the time, he just acted as a medic if the situation called for it, but as a death mage, he could bridge the gap between the living and the dead.Evenafter working with him for so long,Idoubted we’d seen the full extent of what he was capable of.

Ineeded them here.Theircurrent case had already gone on longer than it should have, which seemed to be a theme for us lately.

Nelsonshoved his phone away without waiting for an answer.

Isaacbounced lightly on his toes, sending his long, wavy blond hair bouncing too. “Awesome, right?”

“Don’tthink awesome is the right word,”Nelsonmuttered as he eyed the portalIhadn’t closed yet like he was ready to jump back through and get out of here.

Isaacclapped his hand onNelson’sshoulder and laughed. “Whoknew a guy who dressed in black like he’s channeling theGrimReaperwould be such a wimp.”

“Fuckoff,”Nelsonmumbled, shaking offIsaac’shand.Headjusted the collar of his black leather jacket before smoothing his trembling hands down his black jeans.Nelson’swardrobe was as dark as his supernatural form, not thatIwas one to talk about fashion sinceIpreferred blacks and grays too.

Longago, my species had been maligned as evil entities by many human religions to discredit our role in society.It’dworked.Peoplein the past, like now, were always eager to believe the worst.And, since then, many supernatural beings had come to think the same.Itmight have been different if there were more of my kind around to offset the rumors, but overturning a couple of millennia’s worth of bad press was now an impossible task.SoIembraced it instead.Iused the fear-inspiring lies to my advantage and played to the stereotype.Dressingin black helped with that.

Iignored their bickering and glanced around the area.Theinn, a massive century old building, was to our left.Itwas a familiar design, andIwas sure it was originally a pack house for wolves.Theytended to all follow the same basic plan.Toour immediate right was the road we’d taken last night, andWillowLakewas beyond that.Onthe far side of the water, people were already setting up on the shore, getting ready for a warm summer’s day.

Iforced myself to step toward the inn.

Wewere meeting the police chief later, butIwanted to get a feel for the place first.Sincea robbery at the inn is what started our original investigation, this was our first stop.We’drecovered most of the stolen magical artifacts and, in the process, discovered an even worse crime.Andnow all our leads had brought us back here, where everything started.

Thelocal wolf pack had been using a goblin namedBabetteto fence the stolen objects, and when we’d gone to retrieve them, we discovered she was involved with trafficking supernatural beings.Herwarehouse in the city had been filled with caged supes.We’dreleased her prisoners, but we still didn’t have the answers we needed.Therewas no wayBabettewas acting alone, but we hadn’t found what we needed to go after the others.Notyet.

ButIwould find them.Theywould be punished.Itwas just a matter of time.