Elemental Flame by Phaedra Weldon Read Free Book Online

troublemaker.
    "Captain," Levi said as he bowed and then held up his phone. "I got a body."
    "Good," she waved him on and he headed out the door. Prescott turned, and saw Grey, who just panted at her as she played on the floor with Kathy. Even though Prescott took Grey forcibly from me last month, my mom had no resentment toward her. In fact, she told me that the captain was just doing her job. I expected that from Mom, since she'd been a detective herself when I was young.
    But apparently Prescott didn't know how the wolf felt and carefully, cautiously, stepped around Grey. Then with a smile at Robin offered her hand. "Mr. Tremere, nice to see you again."
    "Nice to see you, Captain," Robin shook her hand then gave me a quizzical look.
    I shook my head at him before I motioned for Kyle to go get ready and then moved to stand in front of the very odd looking Ivan. "Captain Prescott. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit now?"
    But she wasn't looking at me. She was taking a seriously hard look at Ivan. "Is he all right?"
    "He's meditating."
    "I see. Can he stop doing that?"
    A text box like the one on a cell phone floated in the air to my right as Ivan sent me a message. I can go in the break room. Or your office?
    I put my hand on the counter. "Ivan can go meditate in my office."
    As if on cue, my tall Google boy slipped off the stool and walked in a sort of dreamlike state through the break room door and closed it.
    "Is he on drugs?"
    I shook my head at Prescott. "No. Just high on life. Robin? Can you take Kathy with you?"
    "Sure," he said as he motioned me to him. I smiled at Prescott and moved between her and her officer to follow Robin to the front door. "Look, about the way we left things—"
    Oh no. "Robin—this isn't a good time to have this conversation," I spoke in a low voice and nodded toward the cops. "Maybe later?"
    "Sure. Kathy? Say goodbye to Grey."
    Kathy made lots of protesting noises but she hugged Grey, then I knelt down to get my hug. "Save him, Sammie. He's so sad," she whispered in my ear. She kissed my cheek and followed Robin out the door.
    I slowly got off my knees and watched them walk down the sidewalk. If she was dreaming about Crwys, and he was in some kind of trouble, then it was possible Kathy had a Dianic Gift coming to the surface. Clairvoyance maybe. Or a Seer? The only other Seer I knew was Arden Vervain, Kyle's aunt. Maybe I should try to call Arden, though it galled me to even consider it, and find out exactly how the Seer Magic worked. Or I could Google it myself. Or go over to Ina's and look for the answer there. Ina has a pretty large library on the occult and especially the God Mother's children.
    "Miss Hawthorne?"
    And back to business. I tried to hide my frustration with the captain's arrival as I walked back and stood behind the counter. "Captain. What is it?"
    "Someone filed a missing persons report for Inamorata Devonshire. I know she's your aunt, so in investigating her whereabouts, I discovered you're having her house renovated."
    "She's not my aunt. Not biologically. She…was an old friend of my mom's who stepped in and raised me."
    "In the house in the Garden District."
    "Yes."
    "Do you know where Miss Devonshire is?"
    I shook my head. "No. But Aunt Ina travels a lot. Sometimes she's gone for months." It wasn't a lie. After I grew up and moved out on my own, she'd go away for weeks and I wouldn't know where she was. But thinking back now, knowing she'd been possessed all these years by a Leviathan, I had to wonder if maybe she was plotting her next big escape during those trips.
    "So you think that's what she's done this time?"
    "That's what I assumed. Who filed the report?"
    "I'm afraid that's confidential," Prescott smiled. "The workers there told me you were in charge of overseeing the rebuilding of the interior garden, as well as some minor house repairs."
    What I was doing was cleaning up evidence of zombies popping out of the backyard like daisies. Something Circe,