Witch Hunt(34)

His eyes were shining when he stepped up to look at it. “It’s perfect.”
“Test it out before you thank me,” I said. “Hopefully it won’t make you comatose.” Although it looked like he could have used a few weeks of solid sleep. Maybe going comatose wouldn’t have been the worst thing for him. I kept my eyes on the infused gemstones as I asked, “How long has she been gone now?”
“A month. Every morning I wake up and think she’s making breakfast downstairs just to remember all over again,” Domingo said. “I’ve distracted myself with the basement. Pops even did the floor for me.” His gesture encompassed the room. “Now the remodel’s done, but Sofia’s still with him.”
“Shit, man.”
He socked me in the shoulder. “Keep the bitch eyes to yourself. Take whatever you want.”
I took another pass around the shelves, looking for finished products rather than herbs. Domingo had been making poultices, too. I grabbed a bowl of strength he’d brewed and sniffed. My sinuses tingled, but no sneeze—he’d never been as good at poultices as I was. “I’m gonna take all of these. I’ve been away from mine a couple of days and feeling weak.”
“Whatever you want,” he repeated.
I stuffed my pockets with strength poultices, a few potions in plastic bottles, anything that looked vaguely useful. When I was done, I weighed an extra fifteen pounds. Or maybe that was just the exhaustion hitting me hard.
“Can I sleep in the guest room?” I asked. “Just for a few minutes.”
“Why not?” Domingo agreed. “I’ll make dinner happen while you nap. No shimmying down trees while I’m distracted, though—you need to get some real rest. And I’ll know you’ve ducked out on me.”
“Hey, if it worked on Pops…”
“Don’t even. What do you want for dinner? Pizza? Burgers?”
“You could give me your moldy leftovers and I’d be the happiest man alive.”
Domingo snorted as he pulled out his cell phone. “Not with the way I cook.”
It felt like it’d been days since I smiled. I patted him on the back. He smiled back.
It was good to be home.






 
    Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure,   Magic
    
 


 

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.#p#分页标题#e#
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.