A Cold Case Spoiled (Ice Witch Mysteries Book 3) Page 3

  I peeked out of the corner of my eye and saw the faraway look on her face. “Natalia was the first—the eldest. Not the first vampire, but the first from our group. And over the years she brought more of us along. Alina and I have been here with her since practically the beginning. We vampires are not generally monogamous people, but some of us stay in groups or families. Since Alina and I are twins we’ve been by each other’s sides always. I told you how our mother dropped us off outside an orphanage a few days after we were born when she realized our father’s traits passed down to us. I know it sounds very strange—the humans find us very strange anyway.”

  “Humans are also very strange, so I wouldn’t take it personally…” I trailed off, thinking. “When you say Alina needs to be kept in line, what do you mean? It sounds serious.”

  I wasn’t crazy about the idea of an out-of-line vampire.

  But Drusilla let out a throaty laugh. “Not at all! I just mean she has a tendency to act a little restless and even a little reckless sometimes. But you read about us, right? That bloodlust isn’t real and we just need blood to survive? And human blood isn’t our favorite, either. I mean, I know a couple of vampires who don’t mind it, but you taste a little bitter…no offense.”

  I had to laugh too. “None taken. And honestly that checks out. Humans have been bitter since our existence. Oops!” I nearly drove right past the Gazette. You’d think the big, honking camper parked out front would’ve caught my attention.

  But funny enough, it was the second truck that I noticed first, parked in my space. I frowned.

  Drusilla hopped out with the supplies while I grumbled to myself. The space was obviously reserved for the vehicle that goes with the camper. And where in the heck were they going, parking outside of the Gazette? It wasn’t like the newsroom was that close to the other places nearby.

  “Must be visiting Sacred Heart chapel,” I said to myself, following in Drusilla’s bouncy footsteps.

  “These don’t look like our footsteps from before,” Drusilla said as she looked back at me.

  I raised a brow, looking down at where she was pointing in the snow. “You’re right. They don’t.”

  Something prickled at the back of my neck. We weren’t expecting company and if Amortencia was here for round two, she wouldn’t have left the large boot prints.

  I took a few steps ahead of her. “I’ll go first, just in case.” While Drusilla was more durable than me, I had the ability to whip up a nasty wind if necessary. Inside the newsroom was one of the last places I wanted to do that, so for the sake of the town’s news, it was a good idea to be extra cautious as we slowly pulled the doors open.

  “What about Henny?” Drusilla whispered.

  “She’s probably in her office. You check there while I go check out the rest of the place.”

  She quickly shook her head. “No way. I’m not leaving you alone like that, you silly human. Let’s go make sure she’s okay together and then we’ll look around.”

  “Dru! We need to split up and see—”

  “Don’t be so stubborn, boss. We can—”

  Someone cleared their throat behind us and I jumped a good foot in the air, clutching onto Drusilla for dear life.

  In her arms, Henny had a banker’s box from the small coat closet by the front doors, her horn-rimmed glasses slid down her nose so that she was looking over them in order to see us.

  “Henny, love! You scared me nearly half-dead!” Drusilla said, carefully extracting me from herself.

  Henny just shrugged, but she nodded her head in the direction of the main newsroom. “In there.”

  “Do you know who it is?” I asked, peering past Drusilla and around the corner to get a better look.

  She made a noise but as usual, I couldn’t tell whether it was a yes or no. Drusilla, however, clapped her hand to her mouth.

  “Oh my gosh, I totally forgot!” she said, wincing.

  I looked between her and Henny. “Uh, forgot about what?”

  She tugged at both of our hands and a smile spread across her inhumanly pretty features. “I invited a friend to stop by and interview for the photographer position. I knew we were talking about it before that whole thing with Amortencia, and I knew he had time to come in today. Ugh, I’m sorry, Indie. I should’ve run it past you first.”

  It was true, she should’ve run it by me, but I wasn’t going to hassle her about it. “It’s all right. At least we know it’s not someone trying to set up a...trap.” I rounded the corner and stopped dead in my tracks, my words trailing off as they fell from my lips.

  The familiar face reached into a memory from last month. It took my next breath an extra moment to reach my brain and cobble it together.

  Julian, if memory served, placed his hands behind his back and straightened up as the three of us walked into the room. The jagged scar weaving from his eyebrow to his cheekbone stood out immediately, while I quickly remembered his vivid blue eyes the color of a clear day.

  He was tall enough to crane his neck some as he looked down at me with a polite smile. He stuck out his hand. “Julian Reid. I think we may have met.”

  The melodic lilt to his accent had the same effect as before—it strummed through me as if he were playing a guitar. Scottish, or maybe Irish if the wavy auburn hair and easy nature were any clues.

  I didn’t want to seem like I was at a loss for words, which I most definitely was, so I put on my best poker face. “Hi! I’m Indie, or I guess you already know that.”

  I never was very good at poker.

  “I’m so dumb,” Drusilla laughed, coming up behind me. “Sorry, Julian. I might have forgotten to let the rest of the gang know you were stopping by today.”

  Julian’s posture relaxed some as he gave her a lopsided smile, showing off matching dimples. “Why am I not surprised?”

  Even Henny walked up and smiled at him. Which I think may have been the first time I’ve ever seen her smile at anyone other than Drusilla. Julian shook her hand too, looking like a tree bending to meet a stump.

  “Nice to meet you. And thank you for inviting me to come interview. Drusilla has been talking the place up.”

  Oh had she? I shouldn’t have been surprised; she had mentioned something about a friend needing part-time work a couple of weeks ago. And our list of people interested in the position was longer than I cared to admit. Obviously I wasn’t going to just hire some clown off of the street.

  Drusilla’s tinkling laugh left me wondering if maybe there was more going on between her and Julian than she was letting on. The two of them would make a cute pair maybe. But then again, she did say that vampires weren’t usually monogamous and it was hard to imagine…

  Wait. What in the heck was I doing? Going down too deep of a rabbit hole than necessary, that’s what.

  I checked back into reality and gestured for all of us to take our seats. “Why don’t we get to know a little more about you and tell you what the job entails so you can get a better idea of what we’re looking for?” That sounded like I’d hired hundreds of people before, right? I sat down as gracefully as possible, waiting for everyone to do the same.

  “Sure, that’s not a problem,” he said as he sat down at the desk. Henny and I did the same while Drusilla did her trademark sitting-on-the- edge-of-the-desk move.

  “I can go first,” I said. “Indie Warren, used to be an assistant professor for our university’s English department. I’ve had plenty of writing experience but not so much with journalism, so it’s been interesting trying to get into the swing of things. Also, I’m an earth witch who just found out about magic after accidentally getting stuck here. But I think you already knew that.”

  Julian chuckled. “It’d be hard not to know about you, truth be told.”

  The blush crept up my cheeks but I smiled through the embarrassment anyway. “It’s been an interesting ride, I will say that. So what about you?”

  “Julian Reid, I work at the Special Council building in the accounting department—at the top of the department. So I’ve had a bit of overseeing skills. And I’m a leprechaun who has thankfully always known that. I canna imagine what life would’ve been like without knowing, so I give you a round of applause for handling it well,” he said, rattling it all off in the same fashion.

  Accounting? Leprechaun? Handling it well? I have so many questions. I’m not going to get thrown off of my game here, though.

  I cleared my throat. “A leprechaun accountant. I could see that. Sorry,” I said. “That was probably a foot-in-mouth moment there. I don’t want to assume anything—I just don’t know anything about your kind is all. Sorry… I mean, well, I haven’t read anything about leprechauns. I didn’t mean to insinuate that—okay. I’m just going to let you speak now,” I said, biting my lip to keep from making a bigger mess of things.

  Drusilla giggled but Julian didn’t seem at all bothered. “It’s a pretty common thing. There’s a reason why we usually end up in financial positions and all…and that reason is because we’re very good with money.” He gave me another lopsided smile.

  The fluttering in my chest felt like a cause for alarm until I realized a small part of me hoped that this was his subtle way of flirting with me. And then the bigger, more realistic and less ridiculous side of me pulled me back out of the clouds.

  “That’s good to know. Do you work for the Special Council still?” I asked.

  He raked his hand through the side of his thick auburn hair, likely a nervous gesture. I noticed when Ash did it too, sometimes. Beside me, Henny let out an unmistakable sigh.

  Oh boy.

  “I work in the building but things have been slow for a while. There isn’t much accounting going on at the moment as the Special Council is looking to cut back in different ways. They’re
hoping to keep solid until they’re able to break the curse. I like to keep busy and truth be told, I could use a break from sitting around without much to do.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry things are going slow there, I hadn’t realized.”

  Pushing her hair over her shoulder, Drusilla piped up this time. “I told him to come in because he’s got some experience with cameras. Right, Julian?”

  He nodded. “I took some classes back in school. It used to be a hobby of mine when I was in college, but I’m no professional. Not by a long shot. I can pick up things quickly, if that’s a concern.”

  I raised a brow. Huh. So he’s actually got some photography knowledge. That put him leagues past my bare minimum criteria.

  “That would definitely be a big help,” I said, thinking on my feet. And Drusilla tells me you’re a hard worker. Would you agree with that?”

  There was no arrogance in the way he simply said, “Yes.” He paused, thought for a moment, and continued, “I don’t know any other way to work.”

  A sentiment I could totally agree with. I smiled at him. “I appreciate the honesty. And I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes the hard-working thing gets conflated with being stubborn, but I don’t necessarily think that’s such a bad thing.”

  He cracked another smile, this one both easy and amused. “I’d go with spirited. You have conviction, is all. Not a bad thing in my book.”

  Was it weird that he was speaking politely and well within the parameters of the conversation, but I was stuck on how the sleeves of his dark blazer fit in a way that spoke to the amount of bicep curls he’s probably done in his life? I knew it was but the thoughts were still there nonetheless.

  “Conviction... I like that much better.” I put on another careful smile and gestured around the room. “Why don’t Drusilla and Henny give you a quick tour around here and see if you’re still interested in working in this dusty old place?”

  “Sure. That’s fine with me,” he said as he stood up, back to his full height—easily over six foot tall.

  Drusilla and Henny did exactly that, showing Julian around the place while I sat back and contemplated things. The perks of being the boss had to start somewhere.

  I would never discriminate against someone, most importantly about their looks, but this was a different story. Everything about him seemed to pull tiny threads of me, sort of how Nan’s old cat would very slowly shred up her good pillows one thread at a time.

  And the last thing I wanted was to turn into a shredded pillow on the job. Even still…it didn’t seem right to base my opinion on how distractingly handsome the guy was. It’s not like he could help it and I was sure the novelty of his presence would wear off quickly.

  Then there was the other thing to consider—Amortencia. If I went ahead and hired Julian then I would be able to rebuff her without needing to explain past that. Who knew when she would be back to try and stir something up again?

  I chewed at my lip, watching as Drusilla and Henny showed him around the main newsroom. Yes, Julian would take some getting used to but so would anyone else. That’s just how jobs worked.

  His laugh boomed around the room as he listened to a story of Drusilla’s. Shoving his hands into his trouser pockets, he nodded along with her.

  I trusted Drusilla’s judgment, and really that was the main reason I was considering him. What I really needed was someone we could trust after the last fiasco.

  “Oh man, what are you doing?” I whispered to myself as I strode toward the three of them.

  “It’s not the most exciting of places, but it’s cozy at least,” I said, smiling at Julian as they paused by Drusilla’s desk.

  “Absolutely. I’ve had plenty of outside work. I could do for a nice warm environment.”

  “Well, Henny keeps it blazing in here so I don’t think that would be an issue. Why don’t you have a seat? The three of us need to have a quick chat.” It was embarrassing how proud I felt about keeping it together and not sounding like an idiot around him.

  “Of course, take your time,” he said with a bow of his head. When he looked back up those sky blue eyes of his seemed to lock directly on me.

  Where did that scar come from? I nearly blurted out the question without thinking, but caught myself and nodded instead.

  I waited until Julian took a seat at Drusilla’s desk before bringing the other two into a quick huddle closer toward the hallway. “Okay, ladies, what do we think?”

  “Well, you know what I think since I’m the one who recommended him in the first place—but I would like to point out that we should totally diversify our staff. The last guy might have made a mess of things, but I know Julian. He’s a good guy, and he would be good at his job. Professional but also easygoing. Like you, Indie!” Drusilla said.

  We both looked at Henny expectantly, though I didn’t actually think she’d say anything. And I was right.

  She wiggled her thick eyebrows with a look back over her shoulder at Julian. She nodded with a little funny giggle.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” I said. I couldn’t figure out if I’d ever heard her giggle so this would be a first.

  Drusilla nudged me. “What do you think, Indie?”

  I glanced over at him. He was very obviously trying his best to give us some privacy, leaning forward and watching the melting icicles hanging off of the roof drip past the windows.

  From this angle his profile struck me like the first time I quite literally ran into him. His chiseled jaw belonged in one of those action movies where the guys drive fast cars backwards down the highways and blow up random stuff.

  As if he felt my gaze, he looked at me out of the corner of his sky blue eye. I quickly looked back at the other two, but in the back of my mind I was whining to myself about how guys always ended up with the thick eyelashes girls would kill for.

  “I trust your judgment, Dru. And Henny, you…seem to be on board. So I say we can do a trial period. Let’s give him a couple of weeks to test out how he does. Would that be cool with you two?”

  They both nodded.

  “All right. Let’s go tell him the good news.” It felt a little like the beginning of one of my old softball games when we broke apart.

  Keeping it professional and easygoing as Drusilla put it, I smiled as I walked up to Julian. “Well, it looks like you’ve made the cut, Mr. Reid. We’d like to offer you a two-week paid internship here to make sure it’s a good fit. Would you be able to start tomorrow?”

  He stood up, beaming a dimpled smile at me. “I can, yes. What time would I need to be here?”

  “Eight-thirty. Henny and I are here at eight thirty and Drusilla gets here at eleven. Does that work for you?”

  He nodded and stuck his hand out. “Absolutely. I can be here at eight-thirty tomorrow morning.”

  “Great! We can get paperwork and everything sorted out then. But hey, welcome to the team,” I said, taking his hand and shaking it. I let it go before I processed how cozy and warm my hand had felt in his.

  “Woo-hoo! This is so great,” Drusilla said, throwing an arm around his broad shoulders. “We get to be work buddies!”

  Even Henny was smiling, though to the untrained eye it looked more like she was simply not frowning.

  Julian laughed and squeezed Drusilla back. “Thank you, Indie. I promise I’ll do my best.”

  I folded my arms. I didn’t want all of the nervous excitement to come across. The three of them seemed to be pretty exultant about the new addition as it was. “I’m glad to hear it.”

  Because I’m really hoping I don’t regret it.

  4

  Eyes In The Sky

  Looking at the blank page in front of me was like staring into the abyss and it staring back at me.

  You would think that being an assistant professor in a well-known university’s English department under one of the most well-respected professors in the school would’ve taught me a thing or two about writing, but unfortunately it didn’t do a thing for me when it came to writing my own book.

  For the past two years, I’d been working on the same novel that had been banging around in my head, begging to come out.