Cassie didn't mind the briefing room so much when they were at the end of a case. She liked knowing all of the ways things wrapped up and made sense when put together.
She took a sideways glance at Zack to make sure he was okay, but she knew he was. Healing fast was one of the many advantages of his species. Hopefully, it was one she'd be able to take advantage of once she started gaining some of her mates' powers.
Riz darted around the room, loving life among them. She could never make out any rhyme or reason for when he appeared, but she was eternally grateful for him acting yesterday.
Hadrian entered the room and dropped into his seat with a loud sigh. "Richard has finally got an answer out of Hilary Ferris about her motive. It took some doing."
"She still wouldn't speak to you?" Cassie asked. She hadn't seen him since they'd parted ways the night before, but Issac had filled her in when she'd arrived at the office.
"No. I don't know what she has against me, but she refused point-blank. I'd think it was because I'm a vampire, but..."
"Richard is too," Cassie finished.
"Precisely."
"So, why did she do it?"
"She wanted to send a message to the other sirens. Apparently, Jessica was very vocal about the treatment she'd received and was suggesting others did the same. Hilary wanted to put a stop to it and thought this was the best way."
"But why her sister?" Issac asked. "Surely there would have been other choices?"
"We can only guess on that front. But she probably thought she wouldn't be a suspect in her sister's murder."
"Which is ridiculous, the family is the first place we look," Cassie pointed out.
Hadrian shrugged. "A lot of people don't know that. The PCI is still new, and a lot of paranormals assume we don't work the same way as the human police. I'm not sure why when we're no doubt heading more that way."
"Which can only be a good thing. If we had better databases and systems in place, maybe Zack wouldn't have ended up nearly drowning last night," Issac muttered.
"That was a nasty scare." A shiver ran down Cassie's spine just thinking about it. "It was a good job Riz appeared when he did." She threw an affectionate look up at him.
"I thought familiars didn't show themselves in front of anyone other than the witch and her mates?" Hadrian asked. "Riz didn't seem to have a problem with it."
Cassie shrugged. "I don't have an answer. There have always been rumours that familiars are able to appear in moments of great danger. Obviously Riz has taken a liking to Zack."
Riz darted around, fluttering through the air until he was hovering in front of Cassie. She reached out and tickled the bright red sparks that made up his chin. She didn't think normal bats behaved this way, but she hadn't been around them much. Despite having a magical bat familiar, she'd never been particularly interested.
She glanced at Zack. Maybe that should change now that she had a bat shifter mate.
"I don't think familiars are something we're ever going to understand," she admitted. "Witches have been trying to work it out for years, but no one has managed to."
"Is he alive?" Zack asked.
"In a sense. It's more complicated than that. He doesn't need food or water, but he is connected to my life force."
Riz zipped around the air above them, as if knowing he was the subject of conversation.
"Will we get them?" Issac asked, eyeing the bat made of sparks warily.
Cassie chuckled. "No, that's not how it works. I'm sorry to disappoint you."
His shoulders slumped. "Damn. That would have been fun."
"Or a nightmare with four familiars flying around all the time. They'd always pop up when we least needed them around. Can you imagine a crime scene tent with little sparkling bats flying around?"
"Would they all be made out of the same magic? Would Issac's be purple?" Zack asked, eyeing up Riz.
"I have no idea," she admitted. "But I find it unlikely. You know how hard it is for life and death magic to mix." There was a good chance they were never going to be able to use one another's magic despite the mating bond. Eventually, she'd be able to shift into a bat like Zack, and do whatever it was vampires did like Hadrian, but the chances of her being able to use necromancy were slim to none.
Not that she minded too much in a lot of ways. Having to cut into herself to perform magic like Issac did wasn't something she wanted, but sharing their magic like that would bring them closer together, and that was something she definitely wanted.
But they'd find other ways to bond. Thanks to Hadrian's long-lived powers as a vampire now affecting them all, they had a long time to work out what they meant to each other and how they could bond. That was something she was looking forward to as much as fighting crime and solving murders.
And she was going to do it with her three mates and her familiar by her side.
Thank you for reading Familiar Magic, I hope you enjoyed the brief adventure from the Paranormal Criminal Investigations series! If you want to learn more about Cassie and the team as they solve murders, you can in the main series, starting with Spell Caster: http://books2read.com/spellcaster
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