Fair Game (Alpha & Omega #3)(34)
Author: Patricia Briggs

"Tell them we appreciate their cooperation," said Heuter, the younger Cantrip agent, who had shown up as they were waiting for the witch in front of the building where the county morgue resided. He’d claimed that someone told him that they were going to visit the body, but from Leslie’s attitude (polite but distant) it hadn’t been her.

Goldstein had been called away to discuss the case with someone in the Boston Police Department, so Heuter’s addition made them five. Had there been any more of them, they’d have had to leave the door to the small room open.

Dr. Fuller pulled back the sheet. "Jacob Mott, age eight. Water in his lungs tells us that he drowned. Joggers found him washed up on Castle Island early in the morning. His parents tell us that he did not have pierced ears, so the killer must have pierced both – though only the left ear was tagged. The tag is in evidence."

Anna let the words run in one ear and out the other. They were unimportant next to the small body laid out before them. Besides, Charles would remember every word – and she didn’t want to.

Jacob had been in the water and the fishes had nibbled, though he wouldn’t have cared at that point. Compared to what had been done to this boy, the fish were only a footnote. Death had nothing much to teach Anna, but dying…dying could be so hard. Jacob’s dying had been very hard.

The witch reached out and touched the body with a lust Anna could smell even with her human nose.

"Ooh," she crooned, and the doctor’s clinical recitation stumbled to a halt. "Didn’t you make someone a lovely meal, child?" She put her face down on the boy’s chest, and Anna wanted to grab her and rip her off. Anna folded her arms across her chest instead. No use ticking the witch off before they got what they needed from her. Jacob was past caring what the witch did.

"Someone’s been a naughty girl," the witch said to herself as her fingers traced a series of symbols incised into the boy’s thigh. She pulled her face away and began humming "It’s a Small World" as her fingers continued to trace the marks on the body. "There’s surely more on the back," she said, looking at the doctor.

Mutely he nodded, and she picked up the body and rolled Jacob on his face. She was strong, for all that she looked lumpy and dumpy, because she didn’t have to struggle particularly. Dead bodies were, mostly, harder to move than live ones.

More on the back, the witch had said, and there were. More symbols and more marks of abuse. Anna swallowed hard.

"Before death," said the witch happily. "All of it was done before death. Someone harvested your pain and your ending, didn’t they, little one? But they were sloppy, sloppy with it. Not professional, not at all." Her hands caressed the dead boy. "I recognize this. Bad Sally Reilly. She wasn’t a very talented witch, was she? But she wrote a book and went on TV and wrote more books and became famous. Pretty, pretty Sally sold her services and then – poof, she went. Just like a witch who was bad and broke all the rules should."

"Sally Reilly carved these symbols?" asked Agent Fisher, her voice only a little sharp.

"Sally Reilly is dead. Twenty years or more dead, because she gave mundane people a way to do this." Caitlin bent down and licked the dead boy’s skin, and Heuter drew in a harsh breath. "But they did it wrong and they didn’t get it all, did they? They left all this lovely magic behind instead of eating it."

"Precious," murmured Anna.

The witch tilted her head. "What did you say?"

"You forgot the ‘my precious,’" Anna said dryly. "If you want to act like a freaking nutcase, you have to do it right."

The witch lowered her eyelashes, flicked her hands at Anna, and said something that sounded almost like a sneeze. Brother Wolf bumped Anna aside, flexed a little as if he were absorbing a hit, and then hopped over the table, pushing the witch away from Jacob Mott’s body and onto the floor. Neat and precise as a cat, he did it without touching Jacob at all, though he knocked Heuter and the doctor back a few paces.

Anna ran around the table so she could see what was going on, and so she saw Brother Wolf bare his ivory fangs at the witch – who immediately quit struggling.

"Charles has a grandmother who was a witch and a grandfather who was a shaman – on opposite sides of his lineage," Anna said calmly into the silence. "You’re outmatched. Now, why don’t you tell us everything you know about the markings?"

A low growl worked its way out of Brother Wolf’s chest and she added, "Before he thinks too hard about whatever it was you tried to do to me." Anna wasn’t sure if Brother Wolf was really playing along with her or if he truly wanted to kill the witch, but she’d use what she had. Though space was tight in the room, the other people present managed to crowd together with the table between them and Brother Wolf. It might have been the witch they were trying to get away from.

"The symbols inscribed are meant to increase the power of whoever is named in the ceremony," the witch Caitlin said, her voice somewhat higher and tighter than it had been. Sweat dripped down her forehead and into her eyes and she blinked it away.

"You know," Anna told her. "If you quit staring him in the eye, he won’t be so likely to eat you." The witch turned to stare at Anna instead, and Brother Wolf increased the span of teeth he was showing and the threatening noise he was making. "Probably."

"So the symbols will increase a witch’s power?" Leslie asked unexpectedly.

"Yes."

Brother Wolf snapped his teeth just short of Caitlin’s nose and the witch shrieked, jumped, and struggled involuntarily before forcing herself limp.

"Werewolves," Anna said blandly, "can smell lies and half-truths, witch. I’d be very careful of what you say next. Now, answer Agent Fisher’s question, please. Will the symbols increase a witch’s power?"

Caitlin swallowed, her breathing rapid. "Yes – anyone’s magic abilities. Fae, witch, sorcerer, wizard, mage. Anything. You can store it. For use later. To power a spell or some magic."

"What could you store it in?" Anna asked.

"Something dense. Metal or crystal. Most of us use something that can be worn or carried easily." She hesitated, looked at Brother Wolf’s big teeth, and said, "But that’s not what happened with this spell, specifically. This is designed to feed the magic of a fae."

"So this boy was marked by a witch," Heuter said.

Caitlin snorted despite her terror of Brother Wolf and answered Heuter as if he’d asked a question instead of making a statement. "She only wishes she were a witch."

"What do you mean?" Leslie’s voice was cool, as if she questioned witches who were flat on their backs being threatened by werewolves every day.