Blood Ties (Brides of Carpathia Book 2) by Brantwijn Serrah & Torie James

Author:Brantwijn Serrah & Torie James [Serrah, Brantwijn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-06-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Sebastian

The chimes over the door to Mystic Sisters sounded as I walked in. They bore a more-than-coincidental resemblance to the opening theme of The Exorcist, making me pause, then pinch the bridge of my nose with a sigh. Not amusing.

A slender girl with shoulder-length ash blonde hair and big, brown doe eyes stood before a bookcase, turning to me with a smile as the chimes announced my entrance. The skirt of her green, vaguely renaissance-looking dress twirled prettily. “Welcome! I’m Tali. Can I help you?”

“Hi there, Tali.” I showed her my badge. “I’m Detective Sebastian Stone with the Newport Beach P.D. I’m investigating a case and thought you might be able to help me with some information.”

Her expression immediately darkened, her smile dissolving into a worried, almost apologetic look, as though she thought she’d done something wrong. I tucked the badge away and waved a hand. “No worries, you’re not in any kind of trouble. I’ve had a sort of symbol come up in my investigation, an occult symbol, I’m told, and I’m just hoping you can identify it for me.”

“Oh...” She dropped her gaze shyly to the floor. “Okay. What’s the symbol?”

I flipped open my notebook and pulled out the folded photocopy of Marcus Duran’s neck tattoo. Tali took it and examined it, holding it up to the light, tracing over the image with her fingers.

“The star’s a Wiccan thing, right?” I prompted.

Her brown eyes widened, and she shook her head. “No, no, no! Not like this. We use the pentagram, the five-pointed star, as a symbol of balance and the unity of elements.”

Handing me back the photocopy, she gestured for me to follow her up to the counter. After a quick perusal of the shelf behind the register, she pulled down a slim book and showed me the image on the cover: a five-pointed star enclosed within a circle. Five small icons labeled each point of the star, angular elemental symbols, and beneath these were the words water, fire, earth, and air. The topmost point read spirit.

“This is our symbol. When it’s depicted within a circle like this, it’s a pentacle. The circle contains and protects the power of the elements and the spirit.”

Taking the photocopy from me again, she smoothed it out on the counter beside the book and pointed out the differences. “Here, the pentagram—the star—is inverted, and the points break out through the continuity of the circle. The inverted pentagram suggests the shape of a goat’s head: two horns, two ears, and the snout, or the tongue sticking out. That’s a... well, a...”

Whatever she wanted to say, it clearly made her nervous. Before she could finish her sentence, though, we were interrupted by the sound of a door closing, and another young woman—this one taller, with vibrant, ruby-red hair, stepped out from a room marked Employees Only, carrying a stack of shallow boxes.

“Everything all right out here, Tali?” From behind the inventory in her hands, she hadn’t noticed me. She carried the boxes up

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