Page 17 of Bad Medicine
For a few seconds, my stomachtightened painfully and my heart pounded, and it wasn’t because of lustfulthoughts. I was going to kill Adam Thorne. I was going to finish what my fatherhad started.
And wouldn’tthatmakehim proud.
Then I remembered Saul’s package,which Max had put on a file cabinet across the room. I pulled the item from thebox, frowning. “What is it?” I asked no one.
It was a black, stretchy butstrong fabric, and magic fell from it like bits of silver glitter when I liftedit from its nest. I was beginning to think Saul was a sorcerer. He wouldn’ttell me anything about himself, but everything he sent me smelled or felt likemagic.
There was a sheath of sortsmade into the somewhat stiff, thick fabric of the band, with a smallish strap atthe top. I had no idea what it was for, but when I searched the box, I found anote.
Wrap this around your hipslike a belt. Your blade goes into it. When you shift, the fabric will stretchto fit your wolf. It will stay with you even when you burst through the rest ofyour clothing. You’re welcome.
“Magic,” I breathed. “Damn,Saul.” The holster would take care of my worries about leaving my demon bladewhen I shifted. I put it on immediately, wrapping it around my lower abdomenand positioning it so the sheath was at my left hip.
The fabric tightened around mybody, the edges clinging to each other like magical Velcro. My demon blade slidinto the sheath, secure.
Saul was apparently a magical genius.
It was still daylight—justbarely—when I left the building to go do a quick housecleaning. Neither Joe norMax asked if they could go with me—they just jumped in my car and buckled upfor the ride.
“Call Lucy,” I said, as I drove,then held my breath as the sound of her phone ringing came through the speakers.Part of me was always afraid there’d come a time when she wouldn’t answer.
She answered on the third ring.“I’m fine, Kait.” She sounded almost cheerful. “Ash and I have had a busy day,and neither one of us got taken by a serial killer.”
“That’s always a positive,” Isaid dryly. “I’m going to do a quick job for a client, then I’ll be by to pickyou up. Joe and Max are with me.”
“We’ll be ready. Hi Joe, hiMax,” she said.
“Hey Lucy,” Joe said, but Max,his nose in his phone, barely grunted.
“I’ll have dinner ready so youall can eat before we leave,” she told me.
My stomach growled ratherviciously. “Thanks, Luce.”
The clients I was going tovisit, Arnold and Jeff Parsley-Reed, lived in the quiet neighborhood of Baxton.Their house was smallish and neat, and their little yard was well-kept, justlike all the other houses in the area. It couldn’t have looked less like a“haunted” house.
According to Jeff, the onewho’d come in to see me, they were visited by a sobbing woman every night sincethey’d moved into the house six weeks earlier. “We absolutely cannot move,” hetold me. “You have to get rid of her.”
“It’s what I do,” I’d assuredhim. “I’ll help her leave.”
“Or,” he’d said, scowling,“we’ll get a full refund.”
“Absolutely.”
He’d left my office with somehope, and I didn’t intend to let him down. He answered the door now, motioningus into the house, then sticking his head out to look both ways before slammingthe door shut. Apparently he was ashamed of his ghost.
“It won’t be dark for twentymore minutes,” he said. “She always appears exactly at dark, no matter whattime it is. I’ve put some coffee on. Have a seat and I’ll bring it to you.”
He bustled off as Joe, Max, andI sat down on the comfortable couch, and already I was regretting that we’darrived early. I wanted to get to work, not waste time waiting for an unhappyghost to arrive.
I got back up and paced theroom, too restless to sit.
“Where’d you get the new belt?”Joe asked, pointing at my demon blade holder.
“Saul,” I told him. “I can alwayshave my blade with me.”
“You haven’t told us much aboutSaul.” Max looked up from his phone and eyed me somewhat balefully, like it wasmy fault that he, the finder of all things, couldn’t find any information aboutSaul. “A last name would be good.”
“Yeah,” Joe said. “What’s hisdeal?”
