Chapter 2

The most useful Thad had seen her was when she found a lost cufflink at a crime scene. She touched it and told them where the other one was. If it was close by, she could point the correct direction and know when they were getting close, if it was farther away, a map worked pretty well.

Finding a cufflink now would be too much to hope for. Sighing, again, Thad spun the small, ceramic jack o’ lantern bowl Elora had placed there and wished he could go home and hide. Glancing inside the bowl, he pursed his lips when he saw there only were two tiny chocolate pieces left. He’d eaten the entire bowl—the entire super-small bowl of chocolates.

He’d gotten this job due to his name. Poor Jaecar hadn’t known he was about to hire the least powerful magic user in the Ezax bloodline when he’d held the interview, and Thad hadn’t told him. Had he investigated Thad’s personal life, he’d have found out how his mother always tried to keep him out of family business, excluded from photos and birthday dinners. Thad didn’t care, his name had gotten him the job, but how Elora had managed to snag a position, he didn’t know. Ric claimed she was there to make the department look good—black and a woman—but Thad refused to believe it.

Jobs in the Paranormal Investigations Department were sought-after, the department had a great reputation—or it had at least had a great reputation before they had hired Thad and Elora.

How the hell would the two of them find the missing woman? They couldn’t afford another unsolved case; the department’s statistics were already down a lotsince they’d added a wizard-slash-psychic team. In their defense, they never got much of a chance to solve cases. Had the collaboration between wizards, psychics, and shifters worked, they could all gain from each other’s strengths. As it was now, there was nothing more than competition; hushed conversations between team members so no one else could intervene or give their opinion.

Thad sighed and bit his tongue until he tasted blood. They had to solve this.

“Perhaps, I could stay and help.” Leo Norden, who despite Thad’s first assumptions wasn’t a lion shifter, but a jackal, and Ric’s partner, took a step forward.

“As I recall, you too, have two vacation days coming up.” Jaecar’s voice was flat as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Leo cleared his throat. “Yeah, but it was to spend Halloween with Ric and his family up at the cabin in the mountains.” He pointed at Ric, his shaggy sand-colored hair falling into his eyes at the gesture, “I don’t have a…eh…mate or kids. I can cancel.”

“No.” Leo’s eyes flew to the floor when Ric spoke. “You’re coming with me. Either we both work or none of us do. Fay has some woman from her job coming to meet you.”

Thad grimaced as Leo’s shoulders slumped. He could sympathize—a Halloween blind date, poor soul.

Thad had met Fay, Ric’s mate, once, and it was not something he wanted to repeat. Her body was ample and she had honey-colored, soft curls framing a heart-shaped face. Thad’s initial reaction had been to smile because she looked warm and lovely, then she’d opened her mouth…He guessed if you were to be mated to someone like Ric, you had to be a bit bossy, and she was—more than a bit.

“Then get out of here, both of you.” Jaecar turned toward his office. He was the only one who had an office. In the open area, there were two rows of desks, and they each had their own. His was in front of Elora’s. If they wanted to have private meetings, they used the conference room. “Better get cracking, Ezax.”

“Yes, sir.” Thad held the folder in his hand as he spun around on his office chair so he was facing Elora. Her desk was filled with Halloween trinkets—skulls, witches, ghosts, and Thad’s favorite, a skeleton cat. He couldn’t find anywhere to place the folder, so he continued to hold on to it.

“Show us some of that spark now, Ezax,” Ric sneered.

Fucking wolf.

Thad opened the folder and looked down at a photo of a beautiful woman with olive skin, sparkling greenish eyes, and a dazzling smile. She couldn’t be more than twenty-five, if that. Ric kept on watching him as he handed the picture over to Elora and read her information. Ava Davis, twenty-three, had never come home from her shift on the night of the twenty-sixth, so that meant she’d been gone for two days. She worked at The Depot, a nice restaurant in the building of the old train station, as a waitress. She’d left on her own, and her roommate hadn’t noticed she wasn’t there until the morning after.