Dark Magic (Harbinger P.I. Book 3) by Adam J Wright Read Free Book Online Page B

it in the first place. If I looked at Wesley’s material, maybe I could pick up on something second-hand.
    “Here’s what’s going to happen,” I told him. “You’re going to box up everything you have on Sherry Westlake and you’re going to deliver it to my office. Then I’ll forget about you sticking your nose into my business at the cemetery and everyone will be happy.”
    He swallowed and nodded. “Okay, I can do that. When do you want me to bring the stuff over?”
    “Today. Leave it with my assistant because I don’t think I want to see your face again for a while. Understood?”
    “Of course. Can I get back to the store now?”
    I stepped back slightly to give him room to get past me. “You can but remember that I want that material today. Don’t make me come back here tomorrow.”
    “You’ll get it today,” he promised, scurrying to the door.
    “One other thing,” I said, stopping him in his tracks.
    He looked at me expectantly.
    “Timothy didn’t tell me you were out here,” I said. “I found out by magic.”
    “Okay,” he said.
    I raised an eyebrow at him as if to say, “Why are you still here?” He opened the door and disappeared inside.
    After he was gone, I stood in the alley, feeling a hot tingling sensation rise from the base of my spine, up to my shoulders, and down along my arms. I’d only felt it once before, when I’d sent a lethal blast of magical energy at DuMont in the cemetery.
    What I felt now wasn’t as strong and it didn’t feel like it was going to escape my body unless I let it. I had the feeling that if I stood still and breathed deeply a few times, the tingling would pass and the energy I felt in my hands would dissipate.
    But what would that prove? Something had been unlocked within me when I’d touched the statue of Hapi at the British Museum and I needed to know what it was. Controlling it and making it go away wouldn’t get me any closer to understanding what it was.
    I checked that I was alone in the alley and stepped back from the blue dumpster, deciding it would be as good a target as any. I flung my arms forward, palms facing the dumpster, and willed the energy to leave my body.
    The air in front of my hands crackled with bright green energy that formed itself into an intricate circle and glyph combination before becoming a streak of blinding green light that shot forward and hit the dumpster.
    I expected the dumpster to maybe crumple a little where it was hit but the force of the blast sent it tumbling end over end down the alley. The metal slammed onto the ground each time the dumpster touched down, the sound thundering off the walls of the surrounding buildings.
    After four revolutions, the dumpster skidded to a halt, upside-down and about thirty feet from its original location.
    I needed to get back to the office because if this was anything like the last time I’d fired a bolt of energy, I would soon lose all my strength. As I passed the door to the game store, it opened and Timothy poked his head out to see what the noise was.
    “Alec?” he asked. “What happened?”
    “Your boss is going to have to find a new place to smoke,” I said as I walked out of the alley.

Chapter 5
    I felt fine when I got to the office but I remembered that after blasting DuMont, I’d had time to drive Mallory home and have a conversation with her before collapsing on the lawn. As I passed Felicity’s office, I stuck my head through the doorway, told her about my encounter with Wesley Jones, and said that he would be coming over later with the Sherry Westlake material.
    “No problem,” she said.
    “I’m going to go into my office for a while,” I said.
    “You said you had something here that would let me see those windows the same way you saw them. Can I have a look at the photos now?”
    “Sure, I don’t see why not.” Actually, I could think of a lot of reasons why not, one of them being that I might collapse from exhaustion at any time, but I felt good