Two Peas in a Potion Read online

  “Yeah, well, you know how it is. A hundred years without gambling, then suddenly you see a sure thing, you make one bet, and it’s all downhill from there.”

  “So the old man is retiring to hang onto his reputation?”

  “And apparently set up his son for a while,” the woman answered. “That’s what I’ve heard, anyway.”

  “Well, regardless, you’re going to have to find a new lawyer, now.”

  The woman sighed.

  “I’m aware. I don’t know who else to go to. Lorondir was the best there was.”

  “He really wasn’t. He was pretty good, but he wasn’t the best. You don’t need to look just at the local lawyers, anyway. There are lots of good ones elsewhere.”

  “Still, I liked the lawyer I had. Anyway, I’ve got to go. I definitely need a stiff drink after getting this news.”

  The chair behind me scraped just as Ellie sat down in front of me.

  “Do you know who it is who just got up from that chair?” I whispered to her in a hushed voice. Ellie had a quick look.

  “Sure. Maria, one of the local vampires.”

  “We have to follow her.”

  “Ok.”

  I loved how Ellie didn’t even question why. She just accepted that we had to do it. Giving the vampire about a fifteen second head start, Ellie and I got up and passed by her companion, who with his silver hair, deep brown eyes and sharp fangs was also definitely a vampire.

  When we got back onto the street, my shoulders slumped as I realized I couldn’t see the vampire at all.

  “Where’d she go?” I asked.

  Ellie squinted in the sun. “It’s probably too bright for her to spend much time out here. She may have changed into a bat to go wherever her next stop was. Do you have any idea what that was?”

  “She said she needed to get a drink.”

  Ellie grinned. “Good. Then we’re going to The Bloody Mary.”

  Yeah, that didn’t sound ominous at all.

  Chapter 10

  “The Bloody Mary is the local vampire bar,” Ellie explained as she led me down the street.

  “Wow, you all really don’t like to hang out with different species, do you?”

  “Well, for vampires it’s really different. For one thing, their bar doesn’t actually open until the sun rises, usually around six or seven in the morning. So for us, obviously, that doesn’t really work. They’ll keep drinking until the middle of the afternoon, at which point the vampire’s last call is at 2pm, and then they head home to sleep it off.”

  I laughed. I hadn’t actually considered that vampires would really keep opposite hours to the rest of the paranormals. “Ok, that’s definitely a good reason to have a different bar,” I said.

  “Vampires can be a little bit threatening when you first meet them,” Ellie explained. “Don’t let the leering put you off, that’s just how they are.”

  “Ok.”

  Ellie stopped in front of a small, wooden house, and took the steps that led down towards a door at basement level. On the black door was painted a single white fang, with drops of blood dripping from it. The painting had obviously been done quite a while back, as it was faded in quite a few spots, but it was enough for me to know we were in the right place. This was definitely The Bloody Mary.

  As soon as Ellie opened the door a hiss emanated from the crowd inside. I slipped in behind her and closed the door quickly, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness. Because yeah, it was really dark in here. A couple of candles hanging from chandeliers on the ceiling gave off small bursts of light here and there, but that was it. I could just make out a large bar over to the right. It was smooth and sleek, and pure black, as was the shelf behind it. The tables and chairs were all modern in style; it was all quite different to The Magic Mule, which was the bar for witches and wizards in town.

  Sitting at a table in the back corner was the vampire I’d seen at the coffee shop. I could make out long, dark curly hair that framed a pale face, eagerly sipping at the drink she’d just been brought by another vampire. It was red, obviously. A bloody Mary, I assumed. I hoped.

  The vampire at the bar looked us over for a minute, then motioned for us to make our way to him. He was young-looking, with a thin mustache and dark hair that crossed over his almost-black eyes, half hiding them from view.

  “What brings two witches into this fine establishment today?” he asked with a grin, showing off his fangs. I didn’t like the way he looked Ellie and I up and down, like he was absolutely judging us and didn’t care that we had noticed.

  “We’re looking for one of your patrons.”

  “Oh? And what might you be after?”

  “Information,” I said. “About Lorondir.”

  “Ah, the dead elf. Well then, off you go. I’m not allowed to serve witches and wizards alcohol; my license doesn’t permit it, so you’ll excuse me if I don’t offer you a drink.”

  “Right, like we’d want one from you anyway,” Ellie muttered, earning herself a glare from the bartender. I liked her spunk. She grabbed me by the arm and led me away from the bartender, who winked at me as I was dragged off. Ugh. I was going to have to take a shower after I left here; I already felt disgusting.

  Ellie and I made our way towards the vampire, and as we got closer to her table, she looked up at us. Her eyes showed a little bit of confusion, but her expression didn’t change.

  “What do you want?” she asked.

  Ellie took the initiative and sat down at the table in front of her. “We want to help you.”

  “Oh yeah? How’s that?” A single dark eyebrow rose on the vampire’s face. She bared her teeth slightly, allowing her fangs to show just a little bit. I had a feeling that vampires used that move to be a little bit threatening.

  “Your lawyer. He was killed yesterday.”

  “Yeah, so he was. So?”

  “So, our friend got caught up in the investigation, and we’re trying to figure out who killed the elf to get her name out of it,” I explained.

  “What’s that got to do with me?”

  “Chief Enforcer King would probably be pretty happy to hear if information you gave us helped find the killer,” Ellie said, crossing her arms. “After all, biting people is a pretty serious offense, and you’re looking at some pretty heavy jail time.”

  My eyes widened as I realized who we were talking to. This was Maria Grecu, the vampire who had bitten another vampire. I felt a bit silly for not having made that connection earlier. Great. What if she bit us? Could witches turn into vampires? I had no idea how any of this worked. Ellie didn’t seem scared at all, but Ellie really didn’t seem scared about anything. And besides, she had a whole host of spells in her repertoire that she could use to defend herself; I definitely didn’t.

  Maria looked at each of us in turn, then finally bared her fangs once more before sighing deeply and leaning back. She motioned with her hands for us to keep talking. “All right, what you want to know?”

  “What do you know about Lorondir’s son and his gambling addiction?” I asked.

  Maria grinned, but it wasn’t a nice smile. “That elf is a piece of work. Not only does he have a gambling addiction, but he’s been arrested in at least three different paranormal towns for violence, he’s been banned from five others, and he’s tried to outrun his debts a couple of times over the years. Things came to a head right around the turn of the last century, when Lorondir ended up having to pay millions of abras to some very bad people to get them off his son’s back. After that, he hired someone to take care of his son, and the kid eventually kicked the addiction. He took it up again about a month back, but I don’t think Lorondir knew about his son’s relapse.”

  ‘Abras’, I had learned, referred to the local currency, Abracadollars.

  “So his dad didn’t even know?” I asked.

  Maria shook her head and smiled again. “No, and the most hilarious part is, when I was in his office last week, I overheard him talking to that other elf that works the
re, the female one. He was changing his will. I suspect he was actually including his son in it for the first time in years.”

  Ellie and I glanced at each other. Now all of a sudden we had a son who not only probably had a grudge against his dad, definitely had a gambling addiction and a history of violence, and was possibly going to come into some money if his dad turned up dead?

  It looked like Jordan Black wasn’t the only person in Western Woods with a pretty good motive for committing murder.

  “That other elf, was her name Manarwa?” I asked.

  “That’s the one,” Maria nodded.

  I bit my lip as I considered our options. There was no way Manarwa was going to tell us about the will; I had seen enough crime TV to know about attorney-client privilege, and I figured it also applied here, too. After all, if she had been at liberty to say anything, Manarwa might have done so when Amy and I went to speak with her.

  “Who do you think killed your lawyer?” Ellie asked.

  Maria shrugged. “Wouldn’t have a clue. I put my money on that kid though. I know a few people have said Jordan Black is back in town, and goodness knows he probably wants the elf dead, but Farawir has had it in for his father for hundreds of years. Trust me, that’s a lot of time for a grudge to hold.”

  “How old are you?” I asked, the words coming out before I realize how it could have sounded. “Sorry, don’t answer that if it was super rude.”

  Maria smiled at me. “You’re that new witch, aren’t you? I can tell. For one thing, the other one is smarter than you. She has her wand out underneath the table pointed at me just in case I try to bite either one of you. Anyway, to answer your question, I was born seven hundred and twenty-two years ago.”

  My mouth gaped open at the answer. If I’d had to guess, I wouldn’t have pegged her as a day over thirty-five.

  Maria’s smile turned into a grin of pleasure at my surprise. “I don’t look a day over 500, do I? You’ve probably never really met many people my age, have you?”

  I shook my head, not trusting my mouth to make words. This woman was over seven hundred years old? That was insane.

  “Are vampires immortal as well?”

  “In the same way as elves are, yes. We can be killed, but only by stabbing. Poisons don’t work on us, because our blood immediately filters the poisons out. You really haven’t spent any time in the paranormal world, have you?”

  I shook my head. “No, sorry if my questions seem impertinent. I just genuinely don’t know the answer to a lot of these things.”

  Maria grinned. “Well, better to find out than to live in ignorance. You’ll do well here, especially if you hang out with your friends until you learn to stop being so naïve. Vampires aren’t inherently scary, but there are bad apples in every species, and many people would consider me one of those bad apples.”

  “Are you one?”

  “My lawyer probably wouldn’t want me to answer that, even though he’s dead.”

  “Do you know where to find Jordan Black?” Ellie asked, getting the conversation back on track.

  Maria shook her head. “I don’t even know for sure that he’s even in town. It was just a rumor that I heard, but if you ask Adrian behind the bar, he might know.”

  “Thanks,” I said as Ellie stood up. “Sorry about your lawyer.”

  Maria shrugged. “It happens. It’s just too bad there’s not another criminal lawyer in town anywhere near as good as Lorondir.”

  The two of us got up and headed back towards the bar.

  “Was Lorondir that good?” I asked Ellie. “After all, the guy she was with at the coffee shop seemed to think he was overrated.”

  “If you’d asked me before the Jordan Black trial, I would have said for sure he was the best. But, ever since then, his reputation has definitely taken a bit of a hit. I still think he’s the best criminal lawyer in town, and I don’t think you’d find anyone who disagreed. But I can also see why he wanted to get out of the job now.”

  The two of us made our way back to the creepy bartender, and sat down on stools.

  “I thought I told you two I couldn’t serve you,” he scowled at us.

  “Were not here for alcohol, were here for information,” Ellie said. “Maria said you could help us.”

  “Oh yeah? What is it you want to know?” He continued to wipe down the counter, seemingly uninterested in whatever we were talking about.

  “Is Jordan Black in town?” Ellie asked, and the bartender stopped mid-wipe. He came over to us, speaking in hushed tones.

  “Who told you that?”

  “We’re not at liberty to reveal our sources,” I replied. “Is that a yes?”

  The bartender nodded. “Yeah. He’s here. Showed up a couple of nights ago. A friend of mine, who works the night shift at one of the local hotels, saw him come in. He asked for a room, for a room service menu, and not to be disturbed no matter what. He also paid my friend five hundred abras to keep quiet about what he saw.”

  “Wow, your friend sounds real trustworthy,” Ellie said. The bartender glared at her.

  “Hey, I’m helping you out here,” he said. Ellie held up her hands in apology.

  “Where is this? The place where he’s staying?” I asked.

  “Western Woods Lodge,” the bartender replied. “I’m just telling you this so you’ll get him in trouble. I don’t like having people like him around town, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was the one who offed that lawyer elf.”

  I nodded. “So you think he killed that guy?”

  “Of course he bloody did,” the bartender replied, going back to wiping the counter, this time with more vigor. “Everyone knows it. Just because he got off on a technicality doesn’t make him a good guy all of a sudden.”

  “Thanks,” Ellie said with a nod. “We’ll get out of here.”

  “Good, it makes the customers suspicious when we have non-vampires hanging around here for too long.”

  Moving to the end of the bar, the bartender didn’t even look at us again as Ellie and I got up off our stools and made our way towards the exit. We slipped through the door as quickly as possible, a hiss of annoyance coming from the patrons once more, and as soon as we made our way back out into the bright sunshine of the day I blinked heavily, my eyes taking a while to get used to the bright sunshine.

  “Well, that was illuminating,” Ellie said.

  “No kidding,” I replied. “I think we need to get a look at that will Lorondir made just before he died.”

  “I was hoping you would say that.”

  Chapter 11

  “You know, when I said I was hoping we would get a look at it, I was kind of hoping to do it in a much more legal manner,” I said as we sat in the kitchen, making a potion that would render us invisible for when we broke into the law offices where Lorondir worked later that night.

  “You sound like Amy,” Ellie said. “Besides, consider this a part of your education.”

  “Right, I’m sure making an invisibility potion in order to break into a local business is definitely what Lita was thinking of when she put you in charge of some of my teaching.”

  “Never mind, you’re more whiny than Amy. Amy would just straight up refuse to do this.”

  I stuck my tongue out at Ellie, who motioned to a jar sitting on the counter.

  “I need you to grab me that jar of birch bark,” she said, and I did so. I mean, as much as I didn’t want to break any laws or get in trouble, I also really wanted to know what was in Lorondir’s new will, and if we were invisible there was no way we could get caught, right?

  “Now, bark is especially important in a lot of potions, but you have to make sure that you have the bark from the right tree, and it has to be perfectly dry. Fresh bark is almost never an ingredient in any potions, and after you’ve removed the bark from a tree, it has to sit in the open air for at least three weeks before it’s considered dry enough to use in potions. And it can’t be rained on, either.”

  “So basically, you n
eed to harvest all of the bark you possibly need for the year in the summer?” I asked.

  “That’s right,” Ellie said. “At least, for amateur potions makers like us. There are professional outlets, and professional witches who deal in potions exclusively, and they tend to have their own private greenhouses set up, so that they can dry out the bark year-round. There’s really no need for us to do that, though.”

  I nodded as I wrote down what Ellie had just told me in my journal.

  “When this potion is finished, we need to freeze it for at least four hours.”

  “That’ll give us time to go to Lorondir’s funeral,” Sara said from the doorway, where she was watching what was going on.

  “Is that today?” I asked, and Sara nodded.

  “When elves are killed, it’s tradition that they need to have the ashes scattered within forty-eight hours of the death. Lorondir’s family decided to do the release at sunset tonight.”

  “Good, we’ll definitely go. That might give us an opportunity to have a look at that son Farawir and maybe get a handle on him.”

  “Hey, I meant to ask, do you guys have any pictures of Jordan Black? From like, old newspaper articles or anything? After all, I wouldn’t put it past him to show up as well.”

  “Good thinking,” Sara said, racing out of the room and returning a moment later with an old newspaper clipping. Staring back at me was the picture of a brooding, round-faced young man with deep set eyes and a hard mouth. He definitely looked like a bear, and as soon as I looked at it I knew that if I ran into him at the funeral, I would know it.

  “You have to let me come to this, too,” Mr. Meowgi said, making his way into the kitchen and sniffing at the potion before turning his nose up to it.

  “I don’t think pets are generally invited to funerals,” I replied. “I mean, it was fine at the last one we went to, but only because that was for a wizard. Elves don’t have familiars. At least, I don’t think they do,” I said, looking at Ellie and Sara expectantly.

  “That’s right,” Ellie replied. “Only witches and wizards have familiars, and unfortunately for you, Mr. Meowgi, I don’t think you would be very welcome at an elf funeral.”