Pure Blood_ A Nocturne City Novel - Caitlin Kittredge [51]
I skidded to a stop, seeing a huge starburst crack in my windshield from where debris had rained down, but no obvious fatal injuries. The Fairlane started, a little more grumbly than usual, but it purred as I pulled out of the garage using the alternate exit, flashing my shield at the uniformed officer guarding it. As I accelerated into the street the Fairlane shuddered once and then slipped smoothly into gear. I sighed with relief. It’s a long drive to Battery Beach.
CHAPTER 16
Grandma Rhoda’s cottage looked duller in the light of day, no longer a spooky Carpenter Gothic house of horrors, just a ramshackle old Victorian that was slowly but surely sliding down the dune.
Sunny’s convertible was in the driveway, alone. That didn’t mean anything, though—Grandma Rhoda didn’t drive. In my less charitable moments I speculated about pointy hats and brooms as modes of transportation.
“Sunny?” I called, knocking cautiously on the frame of the screen door. I didn’t know what kind of wards Rhoda had put up since I’d visited last. I’d had Dmitri with me, and hadn’t exactly endeared myself.
Footsteps sounded and an eye covered the peephole momentarily before the door opened. “Luna.” Sunny frowned, in confusion or surprise I couldn’t tell.
“I need your help,” I said, cutting to the point.
“Oh gods, what’s happened to you?” Sunny said immediately. She has this habit of assuming that I’m always on the verge of dire peril. We’ll ignore for the moment that most of the time she’s right.
“Nothing’s wrong with me,” I said, more snappishly than I intended. “I have a crime scene that I want you to take a look at.”
Sunny blinked. “Me? Why me? I’m not good around blood, Luna.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m fairly sure all of the dead guy’s blood got burned up.”
She blanched and I made a heroic effort to curb the ingrained instinct that all siblings and close relatives of the same age have to mess with each other. We weren’t fifteen anymore. “Please, Sunny?”
“I don’t see what good I’d be,” she said. “And Grandma is going to be home soon…”
“They used magick,” I said. “They killed Patrick O’Halloran.”
Sunny’s eyes went wide. I knew that would get her.
“How?” she whispered.
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
She nodded slowly. “Of… of course. I’ll get my bag and meet you at your car.”
The minute we pulled into the garage Sunny started to shiver. “Cold?” I asked.
“No…”Sunny murmured. “Just power… a lot of power… all around us.”
“That would be the magickal electric fence the O’Hallorans erected around this entire tower,” I said. I could feel it too, if I let myself—the dull pinpoint between my eyes, like a disembodied whisper you can’t quite make out.
“Incredible,” said Sunny. “Just incredible. I can’t believe I’m actually here.”
“Well, I can’t believe they were stupid enough to leave their parking garage unwarded,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Yellow tape had gone up around the scene in the time I’d been gone, and Pete was scribbling a field report on his clipboard while his team packed up. He greeted me with a nod. “Detective. Ms. Wilder.”
“Swann,” Sunny corrected him. “I’m her cousin on the mother’s side.”
“Whatever brightens your aura,” said Pete. “Why are you here, exactly?”
I took Pete aside. “You know Sunny’s a witch, right? And O’Halloran too?”
“I’ve heard all the same rumors you have,” said Pete in his unflappable way.
“Pete, would you consider for a minute that maybe magick was used here?” I said. He rubbed his chin.
“Detective, I haven’t forgotten those weres. I haven’t forgotten what happened with the DA. Magick makes a helluva lot more sense than an invisible bomb or a CIA conspiracy.”
“Sunny can tell us how they used it,” I said. “If you don’t mind her taking a look around.”
Pete thought about that for a second, and then nodded. “I’m thinking I’ll just leave this part out of my scene report.”
“Smart man,” I said. Crumpled in my back pocket was a bandanna