Dark Reunion: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (Alison Brownstone Book 13) by Judith Berens & Martha Carr & Michael Anderle

Author:Judith Berens & Martha Carr & Michael Anderle [Berens, Judith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2019-09-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

With a carefully pleasant expression on her face, Alison settled into a comfortable leather chair across from the frowning wizard in a suit. The man’s beard and weathered face reminded her vaguely of her dark magic defense professor from the School of Necessary Magic, Xander Powell, but his desk nameplate confirmed a far different identity—Sebastian Colton, Head of Resort Security.

Okay, I can do this. I merely need to be smart about it.

“Good evening, Miss Brownstone,” Sebastian drawled, a hint of the Deep South in his voice. “The on-duty clerk said you were rather insistent on speaking to security. If this is about the earlier incident, I thought it was made clear to you that we will not follow up, provided you don’t create an additional ruckus. We understand these things can happen, but we still have standards here that we need to maintain, even for people of your wealth, fame, and background.”

She took a deep breath and reminded herself what the situation must look like from his position. A famous, rich, celebrity bounty hunter and security consultant came to his resort and decided she could do whatever she wanted. Her normal instincts wouldn’t help. This wasn’t her confronting a bounty or defending a client. Threats or arrogance would only feed into the misunderstanding.

I have all this magic but sometimes, the most direct ways of tricking people are still the most effective.

“Okay, here’s the thing,” she began. “I have a few questions because I can guarantee you that I definitely did not fly around drunk and naked earlier, and I have every reason to believe that someone used magic to frame me for that little incident.”

He leaned back in his chair and folded his hands together. “I see. I won’t claim that’s impossible, but it also seems very elaborate and ill-considered, given your reputation. Do you have any proof that you’ve been framed? Because many people do things they later regret and then disavow them. I’m sure you’ve heard that a few times in your own career.”

“That’s why I’m here. I need to better understand the evidence. There has to be some kind of surveillance in the public areas, either magical or technological—or both—right? There’s no way a place this high-end will simply rely on people behaving themselves.”

“True enough.” The wizard nodded, pity in his eyes.

He doesn’t believe me at all. Damn it.

Alison took a deep breath. “About the security?”

“We actually use cameras for the public areas,” Sebastian explained. “This includes the gardens, and yes, we do have footage of you from the incident if that what’s you’re asking. We have not relied solely on eyewitness testimony.”

“Cameras? Not spells? Really? Huh. I didn’t expect that.”

He shrugged. “We found through experimentation when we first opened that it ends up easier to use cameras and in some ways, using out-of-sight cameras works better. You’d be surprised how often someone thinks to ward themselves but they forget about simple straight-forward recording, especially when they can’t see a camera. People assume too much, especially Oricerans who haven’t been to Earth much.

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