Bewitched Avenue Shuffle: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (Scions of Magic Book 3) Read online

  Bewitched Avenue Shuffle

  Scions of Magic™ Book Three

  TR Cameron

  Michael Anderle

  Martha Carr

  This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2020 TR Cameron & Michael Anderle

  Cover Art by Jake @ J Caleb Design

  http://jcalebdesign.com / [email protected]

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  A Michael Anderle Production

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  First US edition, January, 2020

  ebook ISBN: 978-1-64202-675-7

  Print ISBN: 978-1-64202-676-4

  The Oriceran Universe (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are Copyright (c) 2017-20 by Martha Carr and LMBPN Publishing.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Author Notes - TR Cameron

  Author Notes - Martha Carr

  Other series in the Oriceran Universe:

  Other LMBPN Publishing Books

  Connect with The Authors

  Bewitched Avenue Shuffle Team

  Thanks to the JIT Readers

  Jeff Goode

  Diane L. Smith

  Jeff Eaton

  Dorothy Lloyd

  Dave Hicks

  Larry Omans

  Deb Mader

  Paul Westman

  If I’ve missed anyone, please let me know!

  Editor

  Skyhunter Editing Team

  Dedications

  For those who seek wonder around every corner and in each turning page. And, as always, for Dylan and Laurel.

  — TR Cameron

  Chapter One

  Caliste Leblanc imagined that any of the New Orleans party crowd who saw the three of them flash past would remember the sight, assuming they weren’t too intoxicated. The man they pursued was dressed like Dracula, a result of the decision to confront him at the end of the evening vampire tours. Their quarry had been a part of the Atlantean gang back in the day and was now mostly legit, Tanyith reported after several days of surveillance, although not above a little petty theft when the opportunity presented itself.

  She was a step ahead of her partner and made a mental note to tease him about the obvious onset of age-related decay. Her black boots thudded on the sidewalk, and she wore mostly matching hues—jeans and a concert t-shirt with faded lettering promoting The Police, with the cover symbols from Ghost in the Machine in a slightly darker black than the rest. Her curly red hair trailed unfettered like the tail of a rocket.

  He pounded along a pace behind. She risked a quick glance at the former prisoner and current amateur wannabe private eye. His chiseled face was filled with annoyance and sweat darkened the armpits of his untucked white dress shirt. So that’s something else to taunt him with. “Stop that vampire!” he shouted.

  A crowd of laughing revelers raised their gigantic beer bottles in a toast as the trio whipped past, and Cali shook her head. He had to choose to run along Bourbon street, naturally. Even if this group wanted to help, their reflexes are so damaged they’d miss by a block and a half.

  In the week of relative quiet since the events at the docks, Tanyith had investigated all the people he knew from the gang who were still around and no longer an obvious part of the criminal group. His effort was focused on the intention to locate someone who might have information about Sienna’s missing boyfriend. Most had nothing to share and welcomed his inquiries with varying degrees of enthusiasm. This one, though, ran as soon as he saw them, which suggested it had been a good call to ask her to accompany him. Fleeing at the sight of us has to mean something, right?

  Their quarry looked over his shoulder at her partner’s shout and hissed, then suddenly surged forward with a burst of speed. You’re taking the whole Nosferatu identity a little far, buddy.

  Cali pulled up a touch of magic—only enough to get the job done—and put her most recent lesson from Emalia to work. Power flowed into her legs to energize them and enable her to run faster. She’d been sad at the revelation that she couldn’t become superhero-fast, the top limit being what her body could handle before it actually damaged itself. Still, she was half again as fast with it as she was without it. She narrowed the distance, then growled in annoyance and slid to a stop several yards beyond the archway he’d ducked into to evade her lunge at his cloak.

  Tanyith gave her a superior look as he took the corner with ease. She grimaced and moved at normal speed in the right direction in time to see the caped figure dart through the tables of a packed restaurant patio. Diners shrieked, waiters yelled as they dodged or fell, and shouts from the bartender in a language she didn’t recognize followed her as she trailed the others. She did her best to avoid colliding with anyone but still stumbled from a chair that she’d mostly, but not entirely, leapt over. When they emerged onto the crowded streets once more, their target was now a fair distance ahead of her, with her partner a dozen paces behind him.

  A sensation of a new presence in her mind and a metallic flash overhead heralded the arrival of Fyre, and the Draksa swooped with his claws extended toward the fugitive. A faint shimmer surrounded the creature who’d adopted her, a trace of the veil that rendered him invisible from everyone other than her. He was about to snatch their quarry when the man tumbled into a somersault that allowed him to evade the dragon lizard’s sharp grasp. He hurtled through the doorway of an apartment building, which gave Cali flashbacks to the ambush laid for her a couple of weeks before. She gritted her teeth and pursued, confident that if there was a trap ahead, she and Tanyith would be able to deal with it and that Fyre would prevent any outside reinforcements from joining the melee.

  She cleared the doorway as she drove her shoulder into the closing door, burst into the structure, and had a moment of disbelief at what lay within. While the exterior of the building appeared to contain a set of six separate apartments, the interior held only a single large room that stretched three tall stories high and occupied a re
ctangle about forty feet wide and sixty long. Long strands of twinkling lights adorned the walls, doubtless repurposed from Christmas decorations. Mismatched bunks and sleeping bags, most occupied, covered almost the entire ground level. A part of the area was sectioned off with shower scrawled on the plywood that enclosed it in spray paint. Pictures done by graffiti artists filled the first-floor drywall, judging by the style. Some had ventured higher but not so many as to fully cover the other levels. Or where the other levels would be if the place wasn’t gutted.

  The man panted in the center of the room, bent over with one palm raised in a “stop” gesture toward them. Tanyith and Cali obeyed, not because of the signal but because of the two men and two women who trained pistols on them.

  Her partner muttered, “Whoa, now. We only want to talk. There’s no need to escalate.”

  One of the men laughed. “I’d say you did the escalating when you apparently chased our friend.”

  Cali shook her head. “He chose to run. All we wanted was a little conversation. Maybe you could lower those weapons? We wouldn’t want one to go off by accident.” In truth, they looked experienced enough that she didn’t worry about unintended bullets fired inadvertently. Still, it was always preferable to have a weapon barrel pointed somewhere other than at one’s face.

  The woman with the man who’d spoken, both off to Cali’s right, shook her head. “I have a better idea. You and your boyfriend back out of here. Now.”

  She sighed. “He’s not my boyfriend and I’m not an archaeologist.” The woman tilted her head as a quizzical expression crept onto her face and she sighed again. “Because archaeologists are into fossils. And I’m not into fossils. Or an archaeologist.” She rolled her eyes. “Okay, enough.” She raised her fingers to her mouth an inch at a time so as to not set the gun-wielders off and used them to discharge a sharp whistle. Moments later, the surrounding air was disturbed by Fyre’s passage. She kept her gaze locked on the woman to avoid betraying his presence.

  With her hands on her hips, she noted that the man they’d pursued was now properly upright and breathing normally. Which means he’s able to talk. “Here’s the thing. All we want to do is have a short chat. If you aim the weapons at the floor, we won’t have to take them from you. Of course, that means if you don’t, we will.”

  The man laughed derisively and twitched his pistol at her. “I’d like to see you try.”

  Cali answered with her magic. With a twisting dive to the left, she fired a force blast to knock the weapon out of his hand. In her keyed-up state, she misjudged the power and he careened back and tripped over one of the bunks. At least I didn’t send him through the wall. A curse from the woman signaled Tanyith dealing with her, the gun, or both. A chill pervaded the air before she rolled up from her dodge. The gun-wielders were frozen in place, and the other people in the room, all of whom were awake now, cringed away from the suddenly visible Draksa.

  The man who’d led them there twitched, and she pointed a finger at him. “Don’t even think about it, or I’ll have him freeze your legs.” She and Tanyith walked over to stand before him, and she gestured for her partner to take the initiative.

  He stepped forward and shook his head. “All right, Parker, why lead us on this chase? And why the hell are you working as a tour guide? A friend told me you’d cleaned your act up and come into some cash. I don’t think this is what she was referring to.”

  Parker sighed and finger-combed his hair out of his eyes. His locks were floppy, perhaps a sign that he was growing them to better fit his image as a creature of the night. The face below them was clean-shaven and sharply angled, and his slender form was mostly hidden beneath the black and red cape, white shirt, and black trousers. Sneakers ruined the look, but at least they were black. His laugh held portions of disbelief, regret, and resentment. “Tay, it figures you’d be back in town at the precise moment when everything went to hell. You’ve always been trouble’s lackey.”

  Tanyith frowned. “Let’s let bygones be gone, Park. What are you talking about?”

  With a suspicious glance at the Draksa, the man took a few steps sideways, sat on a bunk, and folded his hands in his lap. “I had a good thing going with one of the smaller groups in town. We didn’t do any of the really bad stuff, only a little smuggling for rich folks—things from the homeland.”

  “Rich Atlanteans?” Cali interjected.

  The man frowned at her with enough condescension that she considered having Fyre freeze his feet. “No, for humans. There are some who consider themselves collectors of arcane knowledge and artifacts.”

  “Not actual artifacts, surely.” Her partner sounded alarmed. “You’re not that stupid, are you?”

  The laugh he uttered seemed forced like it had to fight to escape the clutches of his chest. “Sadly, that’s a shoe that fits. Our boss had a connection. Then, suddenly, he didn’t and we were attacked by the Atlantean gang.” He shrugged. “I walked away from everything—a new place, a new ID, and new job, such as it is. The last I saw of the others, they were headed to the swamps.”

  She looked at her partner and he nodded sharply to verify that the man’s words were likely the truth. But something in how he’d said it scratched at her instincts. “Who was the final collector you worked for?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. That was boss-level stuff.”

  With a scowl, she folded her arms. “There’s no way you didn’t discuss it among yourselves and try to find out. Spill, or you’ll go into deep freeze.” She gestured toward Fyre.

  Parker glanced at the dragon lizard and sighed. “Rion Grisham.”

  “It had to be him.” Cali put her head in her hands but spoke loudly enough to be heard through her fingers. “And what’s the last thing you sourced for him—the thing that pushed it over the edge with the others?” She knew what it had to be even before he answered. Finding the first piece was random chance. Discovering the second among the things her parents left for her pointed to something bigger.

  “A hunk of metal with stuff engraved on it. Part of a sword, the boss said, from long ago.”

  She sighed. “Of course it was.”

  Tanyith snapped his fingers, and both she and Parker turned to him. “That’s all very interesting, but it’s tangential. What I really need to know is this—when was the last time you saw Aiden Walsh?”

  The man frowned. “Who?”

  “You might know him as Adam Harlan or Harry.”

  Parker laughed. “Oh, that guy. He’s an idiot.” She noticed the flicker of a smile on her partner’s face at the characterization, but it vanished quickly. “Probably about a month ago. He was trying to get in with the boss or something, I guess. They were talking at a bar.”

  “Which one?”

  “I don’t remember and it probably wouldn’t matter. They didn’t, like, simply run into each other. Someone put them together.”

  Tanyith growled his irritation. “Who?”

  The other man shrugged. “I don’t know. Not me. But what I can tell you is that one other person was there for that meeting.”

  “Who was it?”

  Parker stood suddenly, and Cali reached inward to touch her magic, ready for anything. He stepped forward to look the other man in the eye. “Something for nothing, is it?”

  He shook his head. “You owe me. A number of times over.”

  “This clears it.” It was a statement, not a question, and he received a nod in response. “Fine. It was Grisham’s jerkwad assistant.”

  She thought back to when Grisham and his associates visited the Dragons to deliver their threats and promises. “The muscle or the brain?” She’d put her money on the thin man, who’d had as much intelligence sparkling in his eyes as his partner had bulges straining the lines of his suit.

  The man laughed. “The smart one. I’m not sure the other is capable of speech. But I’ll give you this for free since Tay and I are even after so long. Grisham has two smart ones, at least, and maybe more. His fingers are i
n way more pies than anyone outside his inner circle knows about.” His voice turned stern, and the two guards who’d been thawed stepped behind him. “Now, get out. You’re not welcome here, ever.”

  Fyre snarled once, which made the trio flinch visibly, but they relaxed as the team departed without further incident. Once they were back on the street, Cali asked, “Do you feel like we’ll never get any useful answers and only more questions?”

  Tanyith laughed darkly. “Yes, exactly that.” The dragon lizard snorted his agreement.

  “Fantastic.” Sarcasm dripped from the word as she shook her head. New week, new troubles. But at least I made good tips tonight. Maybe I’ll treat Emalia to lunch tomorrow while I grill her for information on the sword.

  Chapter Two

  The decision to sleep in hadn’t been entirely voluntary, but after spending the early morning hours racing through the streets, Cali had been grateful for the break. Unfortunately, it meant she was late to meet her great aunt, so not only was there no time to take her out to lunch, but she had to wait outside while Emalia told the fortunes of a tourist couple. The woman’s ability to correctly predict the future was remarkable, although most of her customers doubtless attributed her accuracy to coincidence or luck rather than true magic.