The Cursed Crow and the Deadly Hex Read online

  “Alexandra Meyers and I met at her last place of work. The powers-that-be thought I might assist. Agent Ethan Jackson. Paranormal Investigative Group.” The agent nodded a greeting to Elspeth.

  Xandie stared, shocked, at the agent. Why would he say they’d met at Andrews University? Her last job? He wasn’t one you’d forget. Except she had never seen him...or had she? Something familiar nagged at her. A sense of déjà vu. Had she run into him somewhere? She narrowed her gaze on the agent. He made a visual impact. Tall with dark brown hair that curled and puppy dog, brown eyes. Broad shoulders, a swimmer’s waist and muscles to tempt were all wrapped up in a package Elspeth would normally pinch on the bottom.

  “Since you’re a Forget-Me-Witch, obviously she won’t remember you. So, she doesn’t count.” Elspeth stuck her tongue out and moved to shut him out.

  Agent Jackson slapped a hand on the door, but it didn’t move anyway. Harrow House had a mind of its own and had decided they needed the agent. The door wasn’t closing no matter what Elspeth did.

  “Elspeth Harrow,” the agent continued, “I’m sorry, but you’re wanted for questioning in the deaths of Minerva Crowe and Hannah Lynch.”

  Three

  “Why do we always end up in jail?” Lila crouched and fiddled with Aggie Braun’s toy wolf.

  As soon as Elspeth had left the house, Lila had rushed downstairs, her grandma’s compulsion spell dissolved, so they’d hightailed it down to the station.

  Xandie grabbed the toy from Lila and stuck it on Aggie’s desk. “Play nice. Aggie is a crony of Elspeth and we don’t want to annoy the Police Chief’s mother before we spring Elspeth from the big house.”

  “Land sakes. Elspeth isn’t under arrest.” Aggie Braun, mother to Police Chief Zach Braun, and in charge of Point Muse police station, glared around the room. “Toy boy agent was under pressure by his idiot bosses to bring Elspeth in. I heard the phone call. He tried to dissuade them, but apparently the Paranormal Investigative Group bosses don’t listen to smart junior agents.”

  “Not the way to encourage Elspeth’s cooperation,” Lila agreed.

  Aggie waved the comments away. “My Zachy is sorting things out. The old girl will be home for ‘Days of Our Witches’ in no time.”

  ‘Days of Our Witches?’ Xandie cocked an inquiring eyebrow at her cousin, Lila.

  “Aggie and Elspeth’s favorite soap opera on the Witchweb. They’re addicted to it.”

  “What’s going on? Is Elspeth in any danger? Should we get the aunts and Colin back from the singles’ cruise?” Xandie gnawed on her nail.

  “Elspeth Harrow is not under suspicion currently, but we need her to curtail her activities and stay close to home until we work things out.”

  That voice. That faint feeling of déjà vu... again. Xandie glared at the shaggy brown-haired man standing behind Elspeth. “Our grandmother is not a criminal. She’s a fragile older lady and deserves respect.”

  “Have you met her?” The agent shook his head. “I’m sorry about how it happened, Xandie, but I didn’t have a choice. My superiors wanted Ms. Harrow down at the station for questioning ASAP.”

  Xandie? “How do you know my name, Mr. Agent?” Xandie took a step forward, hand on hips.

  “My name is Ethan Jackson. And that’s not important. What is important is that you came here and found what you were looking for.”

  What she was... Xandie glared at the annoying agent and let an idea wiggle its way out of her brain. “Go to Point Muse and stay out of the investigation,” she mumbled, almost on audible autopilot. A blinding flash tore through her head. Xandie worked through the pain and wiggled out the memories she hadn’t realized she had. “Damn you, Jackson,” Xandie screeched. “You whammied me and made me move to Point Muse.”

  Jackson held up his hands. “Whoa, it was the best thing for you. Now you’ve got family and focus. You’re the Librarian.”

  “You don’t get to dictate and decide my actions like that.” Xandie fumed at his high-handed behavior. It was all coming back to her in bits and pieces. The pixie drug dealer, the murders at her father’s university in Andrews. And the oh so annoying Forget-Me-Witch and PIG agent, Ethan Jackson. “Hang on. The Library’s supposed to make me immune to magic. How can a spell to forget work on me?”

  “The Library didn’t want you to know yet, I’m betting.”

  Elspeth hefted a lumpy tweed handbag onto her shoulder and accidentally connected with the side of Jackson’s head. “She’s always been a controlling harridan, that Library. Let’s vamoose, the smell of prison food gives me reflux.”

  “Plus, she wants to binge watch the current season of her trashy soap opera,” Lila offered in a fake whisper.

  “Elspeth needs to lie low. No antics, no Witchshine and no hexing.” Zach Braun, Police Chief, closed the door to his office and strode toward Xandie and Lila. He paused in front of the agent and shot him a practiced sneer.

  Zach Braun and Ethan Jackson were a study in contrasts. Zach had curly, sandy blonde hair, thickly muscled shoulders and piercing ice-blue eyes. Whereas Jackson had a lighter build and dark brown hair with brooding eyes. But both exuded alpha male, pain-in-the-behind tendencies. “Chief Braun, we’ll do our best. If you excuse me, the level of testosterone in this room is choking my delicate senses.” Xandie did her own version of a sneer and grabbed Elspeth and marched her outside to Lila’s bakery van.

  “Well, well. So that’s Agent Jackson?” Elspeth smirked, back to her sarcastic self.

  “What?” Xandie glared. “You knew about the spell he put me under?”

  Elspeth climbed into the van and waited for Lila to start the engine. “I knew someone had whammied you from a few reports from friends. So, I had a general idea. But who knew a PIG could be so cute? Normally they’re crusty old do-gooders.”

  Lila climbed in and turned the ancient engine over. The van coughed a few times before catching. “Feel the tension? Two males trying to exert dominance. I think Zachy boy’s feeling the competition.”

  “There. Is. No. Competition. Now drive,” Xandie commanded before sinking into her seat. The next few days would be epic headache material.

  “Why are we at Lila’s bakery instead of Harrow House, like the good law enforcement officer wants us to be?” Xandie sipped a milky hot tea. She’d swapped out Lila’s addictive hot chocolate when the weight started creeping up on her hips. Heart’s Delight bakery was Lila’s witchy superpower. Her gift went into her cooking, every morsel brimming with positivity and self-love that powered her baking spells. Xandie wasn’t a witch, but a catalyst, and the Librarian to the Great Library of Alexandria. Which more often than not, meant her finding a dead body.

  “That’s why.” Elspeth waved her fork. “Never do what people want you to. Don’t be predictable, Xandie girl. It’ll keep you alive longer.” Elspeth shoveled a forkful of sinful chocolate cake into her mouth.

  “And that’s why Elspeth will outlive all of us. Won’t you, old crow?” An older man with thinning reddish-gray hair stood beside Xandie’s chair, massive arms crossed against his chest and a scowl on his face.

  “Pure living sucks the life out of you, Buchanan.”

  Xandie looked from one frowning octogenarian to the other. “I take it you’re friends?”

  “No,” both of them chorused.

  “Buchanan is a do-gooder. They give me hives. Your grandfather was a friend of his.”

  “We worked together until he passed away and I retired.”

  Elspeth slammed her fork down on her plate. “Killed, you mean. There was no passing, just messy death. And you’re Paladin Inc. You’re never retired.”

  Buchanan dropped his arms to his sides and fisted his hands. “I know you hate Paladin but get over it. Especially with what’s going on right now. They can help you.”

  “I’m handling it,” Elspeth spat the words out. “PIGS are involved. Everything will be fine. You stick to Henry, he’s the one who needs your help. Not me. Go caretake something.” Elspe
th picked her plate up and stomped behind Lila’s counter. She ignored the confused look Lila shot her grandmother’s way.

  “Monitor her. She’s impulsive and never does what she’s told. It’s dangerous.” Buchanan’s pale blue eyes bored into Xandie.

  “No offense, but if you know my grandmother, then you realize she’s the most devious and dangerous person in this room.”

  He nodded. “Without a doubt, you’re right, but she’s too close to Morrigan to see clearly. Keep your wits about you, Librarian. You’ll need it.”

  He spun to leave, but Xandie stopped him. “Wait. You mentioned Morrigan? Elspeth has told us nothing about her past. Who was Morrigan?” Xandie had a sudden brainwave. “Or what?”

  “You’re right. It’s not who, but a what. They were a coven of supernatural creatures. Different species, unique powers. The PIGs called them Morrigan’s Crows, Morrigan for short. Elspeth was the coven leader, at least for a while. She was formidable and then it all ended... badly.”

  That sounded ominous. “How badly?”

  “Body count badly. Elspeth left the coven and settled in Point Muse with your grandfather, Lucas.”

  “She won’t talk about my grandfather unless it’s insulting his do-gooder genes that we might have inherited from him.”

  Buchanan let out a sharp bark of laughter. “Sounds like Elspeth. She’s always had a wild streak and the power to back it up. Surprisingly, they balanced each other out. She met him while doing an investigation for Paladin. But he was a straight-talking Paladin and Paladin Inc. was always a sore spot for her. Especially afterward.” Buchanan nodded to Xandie and left as promptly as he had arrived.

  “Why is our grandmother slamming pots and muttering curses in my kitchen?” Lila dropped into Elspeth’s vacated chair.

  “Because some guy called Buchanan spilled secrets.” Xandie leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Morrigan is a coven, not a person and apparently it comprised all kinds of supernatural species, not just witches. PIG called them crows or Morrigan for short. And our grandmother and deceased grandfather, Lucas, worked for an organization called Paladin Inc.”

  Lila whistled. “No wonder she’s grumpy. Any mention of her husband or her past sends her into a tantrum.”

  “I have a few names to research. Morrigan and Paladin. She also mentioned that guy, Henry, again and something about caretaking?”

  “That’s because Buchanan is the live-in caretaker at the Academy.” Holly leaned against Lila’s chair and blew her short choppy bangs out of her face. Her usual slick, dark brown bob was in finger-in-power-point disarray.

  Xandie frowned. Her cousin was normally calm...mostly. When she wasn’t squabbling with her chaos-causing, drama-queen cousin, Lila. However, today, she looked frazzled. “What’s wrong? You look anxious.”

  Holly grimaced. “Some sicko kidnapped a heap of our pet clients. I’ve been all over town, knocking on the doors of our normal suspects. But no one knows anything.”

  “By pet clients, you mean pet bodies?” Holly worked at Elysian Fields Funeral Home. Being part Banshee and having to prophesize death meant her cousin felt at home in the cemetery.

  “Yes, my work buries pet bodies too.” She sighed. “We had some in cold storage, spelled not to spoil. When we went to bury them this morning, the bodies had disappeared.”

  Lila wrinkled her nose. “Okay, that’s sick. I can’t believe you have people who steal bodies regularly.”

  Holly glowered at Lila. “Sometimes people donate their pets to us. We arranged for the Academy to have some for dissection and the alchemists in town like to grind things up for spells and rituals. We have permits for it.”

  “Still disgusting.” Lila mimed a fake vomit with a finger in her open mouth.

  Bristling, Holly jabbed her cousin in the shoulder. “You kill living things and cook them.”

  Lila rolled her eyes. “Baker. I bake. I don’t kill anything.”

  “Whoa there, warring Harrows. We should probably focus on keeping Elspeth alive, instead of squabbling, right?” Xandie pointed at Holly. “Did you find out anything more about your vision of death?”

  “Only that it’s coming for her. Wants her bad. That’s the only impression I get.” Holly bit her lip. “I’ll keep trying, but my powers are

  spotty at best. I swear, as soon as I see anything, I’ll tell you.”

  Xandie nodded. It was a long shot as Holly was only just coming into her Banshee powers. Delayed maturity, Elspeth called it. Speaking of Elspeth... “Lila and I have to head to the Academy and speak to this Henry from the coven. You grab Elspeth and go home. Wait with her until we get back. And for goodness sakes, don’t let her out.”

  Holly pulled a face but agreed and stomped into the kitchen to pry Elspeth away from pot banging.

  Lila nodded for her waitress to take over and stood. “Let’s get this done. Who knows how long it will be before Elspeth reduces her to a babbling mess?”

  Xandie followed behind Lila as they ducked outside to her cousin’s decrepit bakery van. Elspeth and Holly rubbed each other the wrong way. Mind you, Elspeth rubbed everybody the wrong way.

  Somehow, they had to keep Elspeth on home detention, safe and sound.

  Not to mention keep their sanity intact...

  Four

  “The smell of gym socks is strong in this one.” Lila coughed and waved a hand in front of her nose as they walked through the locker room.

  “Kids stink. It’s a fact of life.” Xandie pointed to a darkened hallway off the locker room. “His offices are there somewhere.”

  “Why is it so dark? School’s only been out for an hour and it’s already deserted.” Lila shivered and shoved Xandie ahead of her. “As Librarian, you should go first. Celebrate with pride your career achievements, cousin.”

  Xandie snickered at Lila’s silliness. Truth be told, considering her track record with bodies, her cousin had a valid reason for hanging back. “Fine, but you call the police if we find a corpse.”

  A voice sounded from the shadows. “No corpses here. Can I ask what you’re doing on Academy premises?”

  Xandie and Lila swung around in shock and Xandie was surprised at her own reaction, her hands had curled into fists, ready to fight instead of her previously natural instinct to flight.

  “Sorry to scare you, ladies. I’m Henry Strongarm, the gym teacher here. What can I do for you?”

  Bingo. Just the man they were stalking... Xandie stepped out from behind Lila and scrutinized Henry. Thick gray beard, heavily muscled shoulders, with no hint of old age sag. A strong large nose dominated his face, and he had a bald head with dark brown eyes. Xandie held her hand out. “Hi, I’m Xandie Meyers, the Librarian. Elspeth Harrow is my grandmother. This is my cousin, Lila Harrow. We’d like to ask you a few questions.”

  A large grin split Henry’s face. “Why didn’t you say that first? Elspeth was a good friend of mine once.”

  “Seriously? Can’t imagine Elspeth taking the time to be nice to anyone, let alone a friend,” Lila said, choking back a laugh.

  He nodded. “She’s a live-wire. Why don’t we get settled in my office? That way the spell chuckers won’t disturb us.” Henry strode off down the hallway and opened the door at the far end of the corridor.

  “Spell chuckers?” Xandie whispered to Lila.

  Henry directed the girls to two chairs. “Powered kids throwing spells at each other. It’s a big competition here. Finals are in a week.”

  “Isn’t that dangerous?” Xandie had seen Elspeth chuck a spell or two and it was never pretty.

  “We put binders on them. No maiming or killing. How can I help Elspeth’s granddaughters?”

  Xandie exchanged a look with Lila, both of them unsure what to actually ask.

  “Is it about Minerva dying?” he prodded Xandie, giving her an opening.

  She nodded. “We’re worried about Elspeth.”

  “Seeing Minerva die would have rocked poor Elspeth. Grief must eat at her. She was alw
ays such a sensitive witch.” Henry sniffed and rifled through his desk drawers until he found a tissue.

  Wracked with grief wasn’t a term she’d have used in connection with her mayhem-loving grandmother. Sensitive witch wasn’t either.

  “Oh, it is.” Lila bent forward, an earnest expression on her face. “We want to help her. Make sure she’s safe. But we need all the details.”

  Nodding, he made a dramatic production of getting up and closing his office door. “You can’t be too careful. Ears everywhere.” He settled back into his chair. “I’m only cleared to give you a little information. Paladin and the Paranormal Investigative Group are tightfisted when it comes to control over case details and information.”

  Why were the feds and Paladin involved? What exactly was Paladin Inc.? Xandie hadn’t realized she’d spoken aloud until Henry answered.

  “Paladin Inc. was formed centuries ago. Originally made up of Templars, they served a higher cause and multiple gods. They dealt with Armageddon events. Anything magic-oriented that threatens the end of the world. Templars and the PIGs look after the small stuff.”

  “What’s that got to do with Elspeth?” Armageddon certainly sounded like her grandmother, though. Xandie mulled the idea over. Buchanan, the old guy at Lila’s café, mentioned she worked for Paladin briefly while their grandfather had been a Paladin agent. And Elspeth named Buchanan a Paladin too. “We just found out our grandfather worked for Paladin Inc.”

  Henry clapped his massive hands together. “Yes, they worked together. That’s how they met. They were both investigating Morrigan and our boss, Albert Proctor. Of course, that backfired, and the coven fractured.”

  “Why?” Lila asked.

  “Nothing I can go into. Let’s say Morrigan had a specific function during the war. Some people didn’t appreciate our efforts and our processes, especially Elspeth. Maybe someone decided to do something about it. Your grandmother upset people with her investigation and Morrigan had enemies. In fact, Elspeth upset the coven too.” He cracked his knuckles and stood. “The chuckers have probably arrived, so I should get out there and supervise.”