Alpha Omega 03 - Fair Game

visit to the morgue had something to do with it.
    “The witch or Heuter’s bloody steak?” asked Anna, taking the first nibble of her cheeseburger and deciding she approved. She’d ordered six cheeseburgers on two plates—all medium well. Yes, she preferred rare, though before she’d been Changed she liked very well-done. But she didn’t eat raw meat in front of strangers.
    “Heuter’s eating habits are pretty creepy,” Leslie said. “But I was talking about the witch. At least she told us some things we didn’t know.”
    After they’d left the morgue, Leslie had called Goldstein with anupdate. From what Anna could tell, he’d been pretty excited because his voice had even sped up for a word or two. When she’d finished, Heuter recommended a restaurant with good food and outdoor tables where they could talk without having to fuss about Brother Wolf.
    The waiter’s eyebrows had risen when Anna ordered so much food. He’d protested when she put the plate with four burgers down for Brother Wolf, but had shut up when Leslie produced her badge and said, with a nod, “Werewolf.”
    There had been a quick switch in waitstaff, and the new waitress had asked if she could get Brother Wolf a bowl of water (yes)—or if he’d like something else to drink (no). Anna figured that waitress had just earned a pretty big tip. From the smile on the waitress’s face, she figured so as well.
    “That was wicked fun, how you yanked the witch’s chain,” Leslie told her. “Until then I hadn’t realized she was just trying to freak us out.”
    “Umm,” answered Anna, taking a bite to give herself time to think.
    Brother Wolf looked up and focused on Anna. Okay, she was here to share information. Might as well do her job.
    “She wasn’t trying to freak you out,” Anna told them. “Isaac told us she wasn’t very powerful. She didn’t have the control to keep up appearances in the presence of the death magic on the boy’s body. I was trying to distract her, get her focused on me, so she’d tell us something instead of doing something dumb that was going to get her shot.”
    “Shot?” Heuter asked.
    Anna smiled at him. “Guns are quite easy to smell. You should see about changing up the holster in the small of your back. You have to reach too far for it; it takes you too long. Try a shoulder holster or get some more practice.” The bun had been toasted with real butter and the meat seared on charcoal. Anna ate a few fries to put off starting on the second burger.
    “And you need to wait until you’re sure you are going to draw before you reach,” agreed Leslie. She smiled at Anna. “Cantrip doesn’t require the same weapons training that we get at Quantico.”
    Something cold came and went in Heuter’s face before he resumed his bland appearance. “Right. There’s been some talk about changing that. I’m afraid most of the shooting I’ve done is with a rifle. My folks are from Texas and we have a place in upstate New York where we go hunting every year, too—hunting is a family ritual. But that witch…”
    “Creepy,” said Leslie with a nod. “I wish she had been faking it. Did either of you recognize the name she gave us? Sally Reilly?”
    Anna shook her head. “No, but I think Charles did. I’ll talk to him when he changes back and let you know.”
    Leslie frowned and started to say something, then glanced at Heuter and stuffed her mouth with salad instead.
    “According to Wiki,” said Heuter, reading from his phone, “in 1967, Sally Reilly wrote a book called
My Little Gray Story Book
.” He looked up and grinned. “It was a play on the
My Little Red Story Book
series of readers in use in elementary schools.
My Little Gray Story Book
was an underground sensation, and when the second book,
A Witch’s Primer
, hit the stands three years later, it hit the
New York Times
bestseller list. Sally Reilly was beautiful, shocking, and funny and became an instant, if small-time, celebrity. The books were less how-to books than here-is-my-life-as-a-witch books. She did a few talk shows, including
The Mike Douglas Show
, where she straightened some spoons bent by Uri Geller without touching them the day after the famous Israeli psychic appeared.”
    “Witches can’t straighten spoons,” said Anna involuntarily. Witches did things with living and once-living tissue—blood and bodies and stuff like that.
    Heuter tipped his phone at her. “It’s on Wiki.”
    “I’ve never heard of her,”