My mind processed it all subconsciously, and I paid attention to what I wanted to, and the rest was just background noise. Much like the din of a restaurant, or a bar or club. In short, if it’s not too late, I thought I was close to another breakthrough in power. My reach was still two hundred and fifty feet in all directions. It hadn’t come yet though. Experience, desire, and control were all part of that growth cycle, as well as becoming accustomed to the new level of power. But I suspected there might be more to it, I’d felt ready for more for a couple of weeks now, and I hadn’t been overwhelmed by the vast amount of input in that time either.

  The two times I’d grown before, there was also a stress element involved in it.

  I wasn’t quite obsessed, or power hungry. The power was merely a means to an end, keeping myself and my allies safer. It was a dangerous world out there, and the sooner I grew to my potential the safer I’d be, and the higher a chance that I’d actually be able to enjoy the full life expectancy of my kind.

  Something that was all too rare in my world. Random chance could step in at any time, but I thought my chances were good that way, most sorcerers didn’t have allies, and I had many.

  I’d also worked hard to train my subconscious for healing practice, so I wouldn’t fully heal someone far into the late stages of cancer. At least, not completely. Nascent cancers and colds or flus were just snuffed out when I felt them come in range, without even consciously deciding to do so. It was one of my small ways of giving back and using my magic in a positive way. But I’d also trained myself to suppress cancers in those that had advanced forms, or to partially heal other diseases.

  Less help, with little immediate relief for those sick strangers walking in my range, but it would also cut down on the length of a sickness, or in the case of cancer it would enable medical treatments to be far more successful. Shoring up their bodies, and weakening the cancer, would make a difference. Just not an overt one, that science could detect. Healing was something I was passionate about, and I did it almost constantly now.

  I also practiced following links, and thrumming through them, like thumbing through the pages of a book. I could tell a lot about a person by their link vibes and emotions. Much more than the shallow assessments I’d done in the beginning, but it wasn’t perfect. How a person perceived and thought and felt about their home and possessions, didn’t always translate to how they treated the people in their lives. Although, a lot of the time it did. It was possible someone greedy and possessive, who gave off bad vibes, could be generous and good to strangers and friends alike, the reverse was true as well.

  While I did all that, I also did research on a missing person’s case. A son looking for his father who had disappeared on their family years ago. No magic required, just access to public information databases, which I had in spades for my work. Nine times out of ten I didn’t have to use magic to solve a case, and I’d even managed to win the respect of detectives Jonathan Andrews and Millicent Pierce. Jonathan still hated being associated with a psychic in any way when our paths crossed, but he didn’t suspect me of being a fraud anymore. Millie had been more accepting even from the beginning, and that hadn’t changed all that much, although we were hardly friends.

  I looked up from the computer screen when Dana walked in the room, and she sat down in one of the guest chairs across my desk. She didn’t do that often, usually speaking from the doorway, or using the intercom. I guessed she was going to try and talk me into something, or she was about to tell me something I wouldn’t want to hear. At least, that’s what she’d done the few times she’d sat at my desk in the past few months.

  Dana said, “We might have a new case. Sidney Sevier, nineteen-year-old that disappeared six months ago. Her father, Joe Sevier, wants to hire us.”

  I nodded, “Sounds like a typical case, so what aren’t you saying?”

  Dana said, “They’re from Charlotte.”

  I frowned, “We only take local cases. I can’t save everyone.”

  It was a hard thing, or at least it felt hard to me, but it was also true. I was a powerful water sorceress, but there were limits.

  Dana bit her lip, “It is a local case, sort of. She disappeared from here. Beach vacation, after finishing out her freshman year of college.”

  It also seemed to be important to Dana for some reason, so Mr. Sevier must’ve really gotten to her somehow. The sad truth was that story was more than common in such a big tourist town.

  I sighed, “I can’t take road trips all over the country, to find physical links. If it was six months ago, any nonmagical trail will be cold, and I assume the police and FBI haven’t had any luck finding her digitally.”

  Dana nodded, “All true. The case is cold. Chances are the girl’s dead, but…”

  I shook my head, “Stop using my softness against me. Alright, if he’ll overnight something she used or cared for on a daily basis, I’ll take the case. I can’t drive up there.”

  Nor could I use fast travel. Well… I could, but it would be a mistake to use it for my job, which was highly visible to the human world.

  Dana smiled, “Alright, I’ll let him know we’ll take the case, and I know what to ask for.”

  I felt dread as Dana walked out, and worried that whatever the father sent might lack any connections. It was more than likely she’d already left this world. I’d find out the next day, one way or the other.

  Sharon Larson was a year older than Katie and I were, and at five foot eight she was two inches taller than I was with a similar lithe and willowy body. That’s where the similarities ended. She had long curly reddish-brown hair reminiscent of chestnut, light liquid brown eyes, and a heart shaped face. She was currently dressed in a black leather mini skirt and calf high red boots which matched the color of her halter top that showed plenty of midriff.

  Katie had a red sheath dress on, with black heels, while I was in a tight blue dress and sandals with two-inch heels. It was entirely too cold out for what we had on, but we had to look good as we headed into the club Plasma for the night. I wasn’t sure what magic they’d exchanged earlier. They’d been done with it by the time I got off work and made it over to the store.

  I felt Mark as we walked in, though I hadn’t thought he’d be there. There’s no way I could’ve missed his powerful aura of air magic that was singular in Myrtle Beach. The club was a little slower than during spring, summer, and fall, being tourist season was past, but there were still a lot of locals to be found in the club despite it being a Monday night.

  I grinned, and I warmed inside as I answered his wave with a wink in his direction. His powerful presence always had a potent effect on my body. I’d long since grown used to the idea my body seemed to belong to him, and I had no control over it at all. I had control over my actions of course, I was far from weak willed, but I had no choice in being swept away by the feelings and sensations that his mere presence engendered in my body. It was if anything, even more potent a thing now than it was three months ago.

  Regardless, it was girl’s night out, and he was busy with his coven, so I forced myself to look away and follow Katie and Sharon over to the bar where we ordered a few drinks. I never got drunk for obvious reasons. My magic would get out of control if my mind did, but a slight warm buzz would make the fun of dancing even better, and it’d help me shed the day’s work and relax.

  I had a good time that night. Life could be complicated, especially for a sorceress. I never knew when I might be attacked, or when some rogue from my family’s past would come into town looking for trouble. It was important to relax, and balance that, which meant we were at the club often.

  Given my shield was a subconscious effort, I’d long since mastered the art of being vigilant while at the same time letting my hair down, so to speak. It just wasn’t the stressful thing I’d feared it might be, since I’d learned of my new life over seven months ago now. At first, I’d thought that constant vigilance would be draining and stressful enough to make me paranoid. On the contrary, the shield was a fully subconscious effort now, and if anything, having it up helped me relax.

  We danced for hours, every hour or so returning to the bar to maintain our light buzz. The only disappointment that night was Mark pushed back our date to Wednesday night, instead of Tuesday. I wasn’t mad or worried about it, we both had our own lives, and unexpected stuff happened. I was sure he’d tell me all about it on our date.

  When we were danced out, we returned to the hotel to wind down and talk a little before Sharon headed home. The club was great, but far too loud to really talk or catch up on things.

  “Anything new going on in Wilmington?”

  Sharon smiled, “Not really. Everything’s going well.”

  She looked good, calm, and confident. Nothing like the disturbed and fearful woman we’d rescued from that fire sorcerer.

  “Anyone special?”

  Sharon smirked, “Nope, I’ll leave that to you two. I’m still getting my own life in order. Though I suppose I make enough from the allied vamps up there that I don’t need to do anything else.”

  “But you aren’t satisfied.”

  Sharon nodded, “It feels like I should be doing something more than creating a few charms a week. A career that makes a difference in some way. Helping my allies track a rogue with a spell or keeping the humans from noticing things is important no doubt, but I have far too much spare time. Maybe I’m just selfish.”

  I got that. Between the healing I did, and my detective agency, I was fairly well set that way. The good things I did with my magic helped balance out the violence and justice I was forced to use my magic on. I felt like I’d found my purpose in this life. Not that justice needed to be balanced, but emotions didn’t always make sense, and just using my magic to defend myself and others with violence wouldn’t have felt right to me.

  “No, not selfish. There’s nothing wrong with leaving a mark on the world. It’s why I opened Reunion Investigations. What have you been doing with all the spare time?”

  She replied, “Magic of course. Developing new and better things, or I’ve been trying to at least.”

  Katie chuckled, “If today’s spell was any indication, you’re doing a good job there,” she added slyly, “You know, a way to do more is to join something bigger than yourself.”

  Sharon laughed, “Subtle, Katie. I assume you mean a coven?”

  Katie’s eyes widened in mock innocent surprise, “What a wonderful idea.”

  I snickered.

  Sharon shook her head, “It’s tempting, but my roots are in Wilmington, and my legacy. Plus, the vampires up there would be lost without me. You could always move and join me?”

  And right there was when our usual conversation when she visited had come full circle. Still, allied single practitioners was almost as good as a coven. Not quite, but almost.

  We chatted a little longer, then we called it a night. Tomorrow was Tuesday morning, and at least Katie and I had jobs to get to…

  Chapter Three

  “Any luck, boss?” Dana asked from the door.

  Luck? I stared at the FedEx box on my desk, a little in shock. Inside it was a pair of diamond earrings Sidney Sevier had gotten on her sixteenth birthday. A gift that she’d apparently treasured because the link to her from them was thick, and strong.

  Sidney was a strikingly beautiful young woman, easily in Dana’s league. She was also alive, and far out of reach. Well, not really out of my reach, but as far as the rules went, she might as well have been on another planet. It was impossible, wasn’t it?

  My stomach turned at the thought of leaving the nineteen-year-old where she was, and anger stirred in my middle.

  Dana asked, “What’s wrong?”

  I shook my head, “You hear about it, know about it, but I never expected we’d actually run into it. Stupid, I guess. I think… I need advice. She’s alive, but it’s complicated.”

  Dana frowned, obviously just as concerned about my state of mind as she was about the facts of the case, “Hear about what?”

  “Sex trafficking, human trafficking. The kidnapping of young woman only to send them overseas, no doubt part of those missing and never found statistics and cold cases.”

  Dana frowned.

  I shrugged, “Normally if a human perp was involved, I’d just notify the authorities with their location, not get involved past that. I find people, and if human perpetrators are involved then we don’t take the human law into our hands. We’re justice for ourselves, and for our supernatural allies against supernaturals that trespass. But… what if there is no law against it, or a police to report the crime to? What if the country they’re in doesn’t even recognize it as the crime against humanity it is? That hands-off policy works fairly well here, in America, but there’s also exposure to consider.”

  Dana grimaced, “Dead people can’t expose shit.”

  I laughed, in a rather dark way, but there was some humor in it as well.

  She wasn’t wrong, but it felt too much like it was over the line, even though it probably wasn’t. There were no police to report it to, much like that sick fire sorcerer we’d taken down. That they weren’t supernaturals didn’t change that in this case. If I wanted justice for Sidney, and to bring her home, I’d have to see to it personally.

  To be judge, jury, and executioner, and to play god.

  I picked up my phone, then shook my head and put it back down.

  “I’m going to ask for some advice, too many blind spots, I have no information. I also don’t know exactly where she is, and I won’t until I go there. I also don’t want the bastards set up in our town to get away with their part of it. Someone kidnapped that young lady and sent her overseas, somehow. Those people can be arrested.”

  America wasn’t perfect, no place was, but it was a hell of a lot better a place than most. Although there was more than a handful of other places that I could name that would come down hard on that kind of thing. Most countries would, I would hope.

  Dana nodded, “I’ll watch the office.”

  I stood up, and my magic rose around me and formed a double shell. I wasn’t sure where Ben was, but I was heading to his office which I’d personally been in more than a few times. Once there, if he wasn’t, I’d be able to track him down through his personal connection to it.

  My mind was in turmoil. I knew it was the right thing, but so often in the world, people that knew the right thing were responsible for the greatest of massacres. The math on it was pretty simple, it was the emotions and my own doubts that made me question it. If they were supernatural kidnappers, I wouldn’t hesitate or have a second thought about putting them down like the monsters they were.

  I’d thought I’d had it all worked out. Supernaturals, I could bring justice, humans, let them handle it. I couldn’t save everyone after all. I’d never be done hunting and taking down evil men and women if I tried, and at some point, I’d become worse than those I hunted. Or I could possibly make a mistake and expose our world to the humans.

  Of course, this was different. It was happening in a place that most likely didn’t have the authorities that could shut it down, or rather that would shut it down. It was in fact, quite likely that the authorities were involved. It was also personal, it was my case, and I’d taken it. I’d seen the conditions she was living in, and by her dress and the room I knew what she’d been forced to do for the last six months, just to stay alive.

  How else to explain it? For a human it was the difference between knowing a woman was raped every second of every day somewhere across the world, and actually seeing it happen right in front of them in an alley. The former is a horrific fact, but most humans can’t do anything about that, no more than I could stop all those rapes across the planet. The latter case is immediate, personal, and easily acted against for that human. I’d like to think most people would act against that, and they’d stop it or at the very least call the police. Sidney Sevier may have been halfway across the world, but that was equivalent to an alley for me, and I knew about it, saw enough to know what she was being used for.

  That made it different, personal, and immediate, because it wasn’t a vague fact or impersonal statistic. It was happening right in front of me. Literally, given scrying. Sidney wasn’t the only victim either. Self-justification and mental acrobatics or not, I believed the greater evil would be to ignore it out of fear I’d be corrupted, or the risk of exposure acting on it represented. But I needed more information to manage it, and to make sure exposure didn’t happen.

  I also wanted someone to tell me my logic wasn’t flawed, and that I should go kill every one of those bastards I could get my hands on. That’s what I really wanted to do.

  When I stopped in the endless vista of blue-green magic, I took a peek into our world. Ben was in his office, working on his computer, and there was no else there. Still, prudence dictated surprising an air and fire sorcerer was probably a bad idea, so I moved down the hallway a good distance, and popped out into the real world by the stairwell. That’d give him plenty of time to identify me.

  He smirked, when I walked in, “Do you really think you can surprise me?”

  I laughed, “Good point. Maybe when I’m more powerful,” I winked.

  He handed me a thick manila envelope, and I stared at it in disbelief. Air sorcerers were the ultimate know it all’s.

  “I’m tempted to help you, just for the satisfaction, but you don’t really need help. These men are all evil. The envelope is for the FBI, detailing what they need to know to shut down the sex traffickers on our side. They're operating all along the east coast, just make sure to deliver it anonymously. You might even want to drop it on Jonathan’s desk, and let him bring in the FBI. He’ll have to since there’s a lot of state lines involved. That part will be the easy part, the authorities can handle it.

  “Sidney and a number of other U.S. citizens, along with women from various other countries, are in northern Africa in a high security compound, that various officials and VIPs visit. When you free them, you’ll want to get them to the embassy in Cairo, Egypt. It’ll be far more explainable to the humans that investigate this that they managed to hop a border, rather than if they all suddenly showed up in America. It might take a week or two, but she’ll make it home to her father on her own at that point. The others too.”