Witch Hunt: An Urban Fantasy Mystery (Preternatural Affairs) by SM Reine

Author:SM Reine [Reine, SM]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Red Iris Books
Published: 2014-02-04T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

I DIDN’T SHIMMY DOWN the tree outside the guest room, but I also didn’t stay for dinner. I crawled into the shower to rinse off the dirt, tossed back a few shots of energy potions, and crept out the back door as soon as the shock of consciousness hit me.

Every minute I spent at Domingo’s house was another minute begging for him to be dragged out to the desert next.

My new car was a Dodge Charger, newest model year. Bumblebee yellow with two sexy black stripes up the hood. I gave a low, appreciative whistle. Domingo’s “friends” were richer than I expected. That worried me—the idea that Sofia was gone and Domingo was suddenly tight with his old contacts again. But I’d deal with that later.

I grabbed the keys out of the wheel well and booked it.

My leads were dry. Erin had been murdered two days ago and I still didn’t know anything about what had happened—only that Stonecrow was a dead end and that Suzy was sick of me.

If a case was going cold, then all I needed to do was heat it up. And we have a saying at my office: “There’s nowhere hotter than Helltown.”

The agents weren’t talking about the weather when they said that. Helltown is just another neighborhood in Los Angeles, much like Chinatown, and it enjoys the same temperate winters and steamy summers that the rest of the city does.

But if you’re looking for a murderer, or missing evidence, or a stolen item on the black market—chances are real good that you would find it in Helltown.

You just had to know where to look.

I drove around until sunrise, then parked the Charger at a Walmart and walked three blocks east. I stood outside Helltown with my arms folded, eyeballing the empty street in front of me.

It didn’t look like anything special—definitely not a demon hideaway. From the outside, all I could see were rows of uniform housing with barred windows and sunbaked lawns. The fact that I was seeing those houses at all meant I was allowed to enter. Meant that someone inside of Helltown was expecting me.

Most humans weren’t going to stumble into Helltown by accident. It was drenched in enough wards and diversion spells to render the average mortal stupid. There were lots of accidents on the intersections outside because people drove too close and got zapped with old magic. But I walked right up to the edge of the block and didn’t get turned away. My invitation was open.

Not the most cheerful thought.

I stepped over the line in the sidewalk—and got smacked in the eye with a femur.

“Jesus,” I growled, slapping it away, spinning to look at what I’d walked into.

From this side, I could see that the entrance to Helltown was marked with an iron arch that had bones dangling down the middle, kind of like Isobel’s beaded curtains. I rubbed my face hard where the bone had touched it.

Lord, I hope the sun’s bleached all the bacteria off of that.

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