Alpha Omega 02 - Hunting Ground

hers.
    â€œCharles?”
    His phone rang. “I’ll be right there. Angus is calling.”
    He opened the phone, “Yes?”
    â€œYour Anna was spot on. About an hour ago—fifteen minutes after the cleanup crew left Chastel’s place—we had police all over the place. Someone had called in a report of screaming, dogs howling, gunshots, and hell-all-knows else. They brought in luminol—the stuff that glows in the presence of blood. We owe Moira big-time because they found squat. The last witch we had could never have cleaned up that well. The police are still tearing the place apart—but they’re being nicer about it.”
    â€œTrap sprung too late,” said Charles—aware that Arthur had come out to listen.
    â€œYes.” Angus paused. “And your scent? Moira found clothes in one of the . . . well, in the mess of body parts. As best we can figure, someone snitched the clothes you wore to the hunt, dragged them around the room, and dumped them.”
    â€œDeliberate.”
    â€œAbsolutely. And not even the fae can pin it on you now. I know you left the hunting grounds in a completely different set of clothes.”
    â€œGood.”
    â€œOn another interesting news front . . . that van? The local vampires who were doing the cleanup on it recognized the stick you poked through one of the bad guys. She called it a spellcatcher.”
    Charles frowned. “Spellcatcher?”
    â€œVampire hocus pocus, apparently. Very secret—the vampires here really don’t want trouble with your father over this to tell us this much. Only a couple of vampires can make them—and they charge a lot for them. If our team of out-of-town vamps were hired guns, they were successful and expensive to be able to purchase such a thing. Apparently this stick can absorb up to four spells, and the person it’s tuned to can use it to cast them, even if that person wouldn’t normally be able to do magic.”
    â€œThat would explain the shadows spell and the Look-Not-At-Me the vampires used when they attacked Anna the first time. And how they kidnapped Anna while we were both in the hotel room—they must have used the spellcatcher to put us out with a witch’s sleep spell.”
    â€œThe thing to remember is that it can only absorb spells given to it voluntarily by the spell caster. Means a wolf gave them the shadows spell and the Look-Not-At-Me.”
    â€œConfirming Anna’s theory,” Charles said. He was pacing. There were many things he did not like about cell phones—but not tangling himself up in cords was a definite benefit.
    â€œIs Anna all right?”
    â€œShe’ll be fine as soon as a few more chunks of lead fester out, and I get some locks picked so she doesn’t have to explain her interesting choice in jewelry.”
    Arthur was leaning against the door frame of his treasure room, making no effort to pretend he wasn’t listening.
    â€œGood.” Angus cleared his throat. “You did good, son.”
    The “son” made Charles smile. He was older than Angus by a few decades. “I think so. She’s—she completes me.”
    â€œTell her that,” Angus advised humorously. “Women like to hear their men get all tongue-tied.”
    â€œI’ll do that.”
    He shut the phone.
    â€œCleanup crew?” asked Arthur.
    And Charles realized that there was a lot Arthur didn’t know. “Chastel was killed last night in a particularly bloody fashion that required some quick action.”
    â€œWas it you who killed him?”
    â€œNo. Vampires.”
    â€œAh.” Arthur looked away. “Chastel. Odd to think of him being dead at last. It couldn’t have happened to a better person.” He looked back and gave Charles a broken smile. “And I guess it did, didn’t it? Poor Sunny.” He rubbed his face, hiding it for a minute. “Sorry. Sorry. So Chastel required a cleanup crew?”
    Charles considered offering sympathy—and decided it wouldn’t help. “Anna suggested that the murder was so bloody—especially given it was vampires who’d done it—”
    â€œThe vampires killed Chastel? You are sure?”
    Charles nodded. “Ironic, considering how many wolves I know who would have loved to kill him.”
    â€œWho called the police? The vampires?”
    Charles shrugged. “The timing is off. The police were meant to