Elemental Shadows by Phaedra Weldon Read Free Book Online

later.  
    At least if they had some copy of the damn thing they'd leave me the hell alone. Or that was where my thoughts were going.  
    "I guess it's possible. If he believed it wouldn't be safe in his own home."  
    "Did you ever organize a search of the city?"
    Arden sipped her tea. Then she took several large swallows. I assumed she was getting that sugar rush. "Not a very large search. But I can remedy that."
    "Good. Now, let's get back to someone framing you and why." I leaned back in the chair as it creaked beneath me. Grey huffed and flopped down on the floor in a very good imitation of being bored. "I'm pretty sure if I told you to make a list of your enemies…"  
    "We'd be here for a year. Someone in my position always has enemies. My enemies have enemies because they're my enemies."  
    "You really need to learn to play well with others."  
    Arden shook her head. One short, curt shake. "It will never happen. And I've been racking my brain and yelling at my assistants all morning, trying to come up with someone that would love to see me not only incarcerated in the Cowen world, but in our world."  
    "They're the same world, Arden. Jail's jail."  
    "Not if you're warlocked."  
    True dat. "I don't know about DNA or the usual physical forensic anomalies that were found in their homes. But whoever did this knew the right evidence to leave. An email addressed to you in mid-creation works for the NOPD and the Clerics," I leaned my head onto my right shoulder. "Have the police come to question you?"  
    "Not yet. But I've left my assistants instructions to call me as soon as they show up. At either residence."  
    The fact the NOPD hadn't brought her in for questioning seemed odd to me.  
    My phone rang and vibrated in my back pocket. I leaned over just as Grey jumped up and loped into the front room.  
    My phone displayed the caller's face. Male, looked to be in his mid to late twenties, possible early thirties. Chiseled features. Full lower lip on a mouth forever pulled to the side in a smirk. Long black lashes framed unusual amber red eyes. A thick shock of sandy brown hair flopped over his face, crowning shaved sides and back.  
    Detective Crwys Holliard.  
    My silent partner, former lover, and unknown species.
    "Yeah? Rent's not due for another two weeks."  
    Crwys laughed in my ear, but I could hear the tightness in his voice. "Miss Arden Vervain in there?"  
    "How did you guess?"  
    "This big-ass white limousine taking up half of Bourbon Street was my first clue," he sighed. "Come unlock the front door, Sam. I got a warrant for her arrest."  
    So much for odd.  

A rden stepped into the front retail shop with me and remained by the counter as I unlocked the door. Crwys stepped in, squeezed my upper arm as he passed by. Lt. Levi Tulouse, Crwys’s partner, came in as well. Levi was rocking another of his crisp suits while Crwys wore his standard uniform of jeans, boots, t-shirt and leather jacket.  
    What I said earlier about Crwys being an unknown species wasn't a joke. I had a spell I called a dex , like a Pokédex, that would magically scan the Spirit of the person I directed it at and tell me what they were. Human, Fetch, Daemon, Revenant, Lamia, and I recently added in Leviathan parameters.  
    When I used it on Crwys, and I used it a lot, it came up with no results. Not even a guess. I didn't know what he was, and he wasn't going to tell me. What I did know about him was that he was sexy as hell. My magic loved something about him and sometimes snapped me to him like a rubber band, and he could set people, places and things on fire.  
    Instantly. Poof. Gone. I’d recently watched him crispy-critter eleven ghouls.  
    Levi, on the other hand, showed up with brilliant flares on my dex . Revenant. In other words, vampire. But he seemed like a good guy. He caught the bad guys, and his demon, the thing in him that made him a vampire, was named Ashur.  
    I know it gets confusing. But if you hang in