Page 69 of Cursed By Fate

“I suppose,” Laurel said, still whittling. “You and Penny getting along okay? No teething pains?”

“A few,” I admitted.

“Worried you can’t trust her?”

“To be fair, I don’t trust many people and I’ve only known her five minutes.” I didn’t want to sow the seeds of distrust unnecessarily. Trust in the security team was crucial to its effectiveness. A single crack in that foundation and the whole system crumbled.

“Understandable,” Laurel said. “Is there anything that would give you peace of mind? A spell?”

I hadn’t needed to learn any spells like that in my previous line of work. Target given. Target acquired. Any magic I used was in service of the acquisition.

“Possibly.”

“Then I might be able to help,” Laurel said.

“How?”

She set aside her knife and picked up a tube of glue, then affixed a small, metal item to the back. Holding up a wooden pin in the shape of a sheriff’s star, she said, “Give this to Penny to wear. If it glows or changes color when she answers you, then she’s telling a lie.”

“If I had one of these for all the residents, it would make my job easier,” I joked. Sort of.

I accepted the pin and stuck it in my pocket out of sight, not sure how much truth I’d be telling these next few minutes.

“The real reason I’m here is a werewolf named Keith. He’s one of the new Neighbors.”

“Is he riling up the pack?”

“The opposite. He’s controlling them somehow. And not just the wolves. He had Louise feeding him grapes at the pool.”

Her brow lifted. “Louise Perry? He must be incredibly charismatic in that case.”

“It isn’t that. It’s some kind of power that makes him seem like an alpha, except he isn’t. I’ve ruled out magic and vampire blood.”

“And you were hoping I might have another idea.”

I nodded. “He hasn’t caused much trouble so far, but it’s coming. I feel it in my gut.”

“I assume you searched his condo.”

“I did. The weirdest thing I noticed was that he hadn’t unpacked yet.”

“Men,” she scoffed. “Probably expects someone else to do it for him.”

“Are there any ancient druid rituals that might result in this type of mind control? He was moving werewolves around like pieces on a chessboard.”

“Sounds more like the power of the gods than the ancient druids.”

Her offhand remark unsettled me more than I would’ve liked. The power of the gods was exactly what I feared. But how would a werewolf like Keith Irwin gain access to that level of power? Gods didn’t make deals with mortals anymore. That fell out of fashion centuries ago, once the gods lost interest in the mortal realm.

“You’re a Gorgon. You could turn him to stone, couldn’t you?” Laurel asked.

“That would be a short-term solution. I need one that’s longer term.”

“You remember the story of Medusa, beheaded by Perseus using a sword from Hermes. Gifted the head to Athena.”

I regarded Laurel for an extended moment. “I remember.”

“Pegasus sprang from Medusa’s blood, and Athena gave some of that same blood to the god of medicine.” She snapped her fingers. “What was his name?”