Lost Souls ParaAgency and the Ghostly Reunion: (Romantic Paranormal Mystery #2) Read online

  “Too many years to count.” Tippie led her to an elevator and pushed the button with a down arrow. A double-ding sounded as the doors slid open. “And I’ve been married to him just as long.”

  Interesting. A siren and a warlock. Their kids would be an interesting mix of magic. Suddenly, Sparsh became ten times less intimidating. “You must know everything about everyone in the LSP.”

  Tippie angled her head to the side. “You’re a very curious witch, aren’t you?”

  “It only makes me more curious when someone avoids giving me straight answers.”

  Tippie tilted her head back and laughed, the sound putting an involuntary smile on Amira’s face. The siren’s laugh affected her even more than her touch. Amira’s family specialized in emotional manipulation magic, but they had to use candles and spells. Tippie’s powers were next level.

  Tippie fluffed her hair. “I like you already. When I’d heard the rumors that our Lex had acquired a partner on his last job, I wasn’t sure how long it would last, but I can see why you two make a good match.”

  Amira liked the surety in the other woman’s voice. “And why do we make a good match?”

  The elevator double-dinged again, announcing they’d reached their destination four levels underground.

  The doors opened to a hubbub of activity.

  So this is where everyone has been hiding.

  Lex’s former assistant, Jordie, crashed through a crowd lounging near a water cooler. Although they’d stayed in touch, Amira hadn’t seen him in person since the incident in Burberry. The twenty-year-old had allowed the dark fuzz on his chin to grow longer. Today he wore skinny jeans and a bright red shirt that matched his tennis shoes.

  His tall frame engulfed her in a hug. “Girl. I am loving your hair.”

  “Thanks.” She basked in his genuine compliment. The LSP had pulled the then teenaged Jordie out of a vamp feeding house, and Lex had agreed to adopt and mentor him. Lex had misgivings about Jordie joining the agency full-time, another example of Lex’s overprotective and somewhat smothering nature.

  Tippie cleared her throat. “Jordie, would you mind showing Amira to human resources? They’re expecting her.” She winked at Amira. “We’ll continue our conversation at another time.”

  Amira nodded and waved her off. As soon as Tippie moved out of their proximity, Amira’s anxiety returned like a slap on the back. She grabbed Jordie’s sleeve. “This is really amazing. And overwhelming.”

  “I know, right? Hard to believe how far underground we are. Good thing Georgia isn’t known for quakes or the walls would fall in on us. C’mon. I’ll show you around before I drop you with the trolls.”

  She placed a hand at her throat. “Trolls run human resources?” Her manual stated trolls were usually found hiding under wooden bridges, just like in the fairy tales. Mischief makers that exploded in direct sunlight.

  Jordie’s bark of laughter drew a few stares. “Nah, that’s just what some of us call them because they’re always trolling us with ‘don’t do this’ and ‘don’t do that’ or ‘sign this form’ type stuff.”

  He led the way through a large common area where people or supernatural people—most times hard to tell the difference—reviewed files and worked on their laptops. Like most office spaces, the LSP had the usual kitchenette area, cubicle spaces, and two large conference rooms. Toward the back of the largest conference room, he stopped in front of a wall that had a large whiteboard.

  He pointed to the neat script on the far left. “I see you guys accepted the ghost assignment.”

  Amira scanned the board, taking in the names and titles of the assignments that were labeled with city and type of paranormal. “Everyone’s ongoing assignments are on the board? How many agents are there?”

  “About seventy-five full-time agents with twenty assistants. There’s a ton of support staff that work out of here too.”

  Mother of goddesses. The paranormal community was much larger than she could’ve conceived. So was the group regulating them. “I had no idea.”

  He bumped her with his elbow. “That’s kind of the point. We squash the problems before they become bigger problems.”

  “I don’t see your name up there yet.”

  He shrugged and pursed his lips slightly in a pout. “I have some low-level stuff to do before I get full-agent status. Like a check in on paranormals who are on the watch list to make sure they’re behaving.”

  From across the room, Tippie caught her eye. She spoke with a hulk of a man dressed in black fatigues. He kept his hands tucked behind his back like she’d seen soldiers do in movies. A tattoo of a snake with its mouth opened wide and fangs extended wrapped his arm from wrist to bicep. Ally would drool herself silly if she saw him.

  “Who’s that?” she asked and pointed to them.

  “He’s from a group called the Merc Squad. They handle cases for the Council that require a special touch, if you know what I mean.” With his hand, he made a gun finger, and then he leaned in close to whisper. “Rumors are that Lex worked with the Merc Squad before. When he was my age, I think, and before he left the agency for the real estate biz. Long before the LSP pulled me from the vamp nest.”

  Amira wrinkled her nose. “Wow.”

  “Yeah, that was my reaction too. But good luck getting him to admit to it. Although, that would explain why Lex is so quick to respond to an assignment with the whole ‘take them in, let someone else ask questions’ method. Don’t tell him I said so, but I like your process better.”

  “I’m not sure I know what my process is yet.”

  Jordie smiled down at her, his young age highlighting his goofy grin and spread of dark brown freckles across the bridge of his nose. “Let’s get you to HR before they miss their paperwork quota for the day.”

  After a good hour of paperwork that left a cramp in her right hand, Amira stopped off at the restroom. She cupped her hands and splashed cold water on her face, not caring if her mascara ran black rings under her eyes. Was she really doing this? The eldest Walker girl, who’d denied her witch heritage for as long as she could remember, had joined an agency to investigate paranormal activity.

  A good therapist would probably suggest she’d made a rash decision too soon after an emotion-filled, life-altering event. Her practical sister, Ally, would say she was following Lex around like a lovesick animal. She grabbed the sparrow necklace and gave it a tug. What would Mom say?

  A toilet flushed. Amira stiffened, unsure what type of paranormal would join her at the sinks. Would she know if the person standing beside her were a vampire or shifter?

  Even before the stall door pushed open, all her anxiety dissipated.

  Tippie.

  The older woman emerged and joined her at the sink. She washed her hands and after drying them, removed a tube of lipstick from her purse.

  Amira stared and bit the inside of her cheek.

  Tippie applied a bold red to her lips and smacked them twice before giving Amira a nod in the mirror. “Still curious, I see. Okay, I’ll give you three questions before I have to return to my desk.”

  Amira turned and sat down in the space between two of the sinks. Even with the magical calm, a thrill tickled her stomach. She’d just been granted the same token as Aladdin’s three wishes from the genie’s lamp. They had to be good.

  “Why do you think I’m a good match for Lex?”

  Tippie leaned a hip against the counter. “His view is very black and white, much like his grandfather’s. You see things a little deeper and at varying degrees. Yin and yang. You’ll be a good partnership for him at the agency.”

  “Just the agency? What about romantically?”

  She tilted her head to the side. “I read the file on you and your sisters. A love match has to be made by age thirty or no magical offspring result to carry on the line. That does a number on romantic expectations. Just remember that everyone shows love differently. Maybe you need to manage your expectations a little better. I think if you do, you an
d Lex will be a great team as agents and also romantically.”

  Amira released a sigh of relief and immediately wondered if the emotion was a result of the siren’s voice.

  Tippie slipped her purse strap onto her shoulder. “I really must get back to my desk. Sparsh can’t run this place for long without me.”

  “Wait. I thought you said I had three questions.”

  “Think back, dear. You asked three.”

  Amira rested her forehead on the palm of her hand. Endless hours of Saturday morning cartoons should’ve taught her better about how to use her limited supply of questions.

  Tippie slipped out the door and the rush of anxiety hit Amira again, this time with a force square in the chest. She pulled out the Consensual Romance form she’d secretly stashed in her purse and unfolded it. It wouldn’t hurt for her to hold on to it until they were done with this first assignment, would it?

  ∞∞∞

  Lex steepled his fingers under his chin. The irritation of the assignment caused a dull throb in the back of his head. He’d wanted to walk Amira through her first tour of the agency, but he needed to speak to Sparsh alone. “Why this assignment? Does Gramps want me to be exposed?”

  “Unlike you, I do not question every decision your grandfather makes.” The lines around Sparsh’s eyes softened. “It’s time for Amira to take an assignment. If we want to keep suspicions to a minimum about her reasons for joining the agency, then she needs to take normal cases like everyone else.”

  The unease pooled in his gut. If he had it his way, he’d keep her on the books but far away from any actual assignments as long as possible. While he trusted her abilities, he did not trust anyone else. “Can you promise me there’s no hidden agenda for this assignment?”

  “The Burberry assignment is the first time we realized there was a manipulation from within the Council, but I can’t promise that it will be the only one. We have a spy on the inside, but the intel could be a slow trickle back to us. Your grandfather is playing the long game.”

  The unease didn’t budge. “I don’t like it. Shouldn’t we stay as close to her sisters as we can? If the sisters are more powerful together maybe we should keep them that way.”

  “I’ve assigned someone to Burberry to watch over the two younger Walker sisters, but he has been instructed not to engage.” Sparsh focused on his laptop. “I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell Amira. If her sisters are constantly on the lookout for a lookout, their behavior may send up warning flags.”

  “Does Gramps know about me and Amira?” Would his meddling grandfather manipulate their relationship too?

  “I don’t think you and Amira know about you and Amira.”

  “I don’t want to mess it up.”

  Sparsh swiveled his chair to glance at Lex. “Then don’t.”

  “Your advice is the worst.” Lex scratched his chin. Gramps had fallen in love with a witch and everyone who depended on him suffered for it after her death. Falling for Amira could produce the same consequences. When she entered his proximity, nothing else mattered. And his urge to rush in and claim her for his own was exactly the reason for his wariness. He didn’t believe in doing anything without thinking it through. Amira deserved the extra precautions too.

  The cell phone on Sparsh’s desk bellowed with a long wolf howl. He sighed and texted a response. “I’ve given this discussion as much attention as I can today. There’s a rabid werewolf outbreak in Colorado and I need to get agents on the ground.”

  Lex laid his head against the back of the cool leather chair and stared at Sparsh’s white ceiling tiles. “Just when I think I’m out, Gramps found a way to pull me back in.”

  “The agency needs you. Your grandfather and I won’t be here forever.” Sparsh’s tone was soft. “If you see Tippie in the hallway, give her Ms. Walker’s letter and please send her inside.”

  Lex smiled at the mention of Sparsh’s better half. As long as there had been Sparsh, there’d been Tippie by his side. Behind every broody man stood an amazing woman. “Talk about a woman being too good for someone.”

  Sparsh waved his hand in dismissal. “Is that what we were talking about?”

  Lex pulled the door closed behind him and approached Tippie’s desk. She sat at a smaller version of Sparsh’s desk outside the office and organized a stack of paperwork.

  “Boss man wants to see you.” Lex dropped Amira and Ally’s letter on the desk, and instead of leaving, sat on the corner. He played with a silver paperweight made into the shape of a mermaid. A gift from her husband.

  “Sparsh can wait a minute or two.” Her fingers glided across her keyboard. “Are you hovering because you want my advice about something?”

  “What do you think of Amira?”

  She stopped and tapped the top of the complaint letter. “I think she’s going to be a handful.”

  “Worth the trouble?”

  “Only you can decide that.” Tippie stood and touched his arm. Her calming effect surrounded him in layers of comfort. “I’ve watched you grow up in these halls and seen the light in your eyes dim with each passing year. Do you know what I see now? A spark. Do what is necessary to turn that spark into a flame. Your happiness matters.”

  Happiness looked more like cocktails on a secluded beach than working a ghost assignment, but he’d take Tippie’s sage words into consideration. Much better advice than Sparsh’s “don’t screw it up.” He wondered briefly how different his life would have been with Tippie and Sparsh as his guardians instead of Gramps. “Thanks, Tip. I owe you a dinner.”

  She gestured with her head toward the exit of LSP. “Maybe you should offer that dinner to someone else.”

  ∞∞∞

  Amira ascended to the top level of the agency. She’d almost made it back down the stark hall to the front doors when she heard Lex call her name. His voice involuntarily curled her toes.

  “Why are you rushing off?” he asked.

  “Sparsh said this job is a high priority, so I’m going home to pack. If we leave Friday morning that only gives me two days to coordinate. I have to arrange for Ris to run the Tea Haven over the weekend and rope Ally into pet care.” She missed her furry and feathered friends and wanted to decompress with a glass of wine and a soapy drama.

  His gaze bounced across the top of her head. “I like your hair. Reminds me of that one actress from that movie that won an award or something.”

  She laughed at his attempt to relate to her and her love of anything and everything on the small and big screen. “That’s the best you got?”

  “Eh.”

  “Easier to manage,” she lied. She’d cut her hair into a bob after a magic training session gone wrong. The image of her hair on fire and her great-aunts laughing was a story she didn’t wish to share.

  His shoulders dropped a bit, and he leaned against the wall, while the easy charm she’d fallen for the day he’d shown up on her front porch worked its way onto his face. “I hoped we could have dinner together. There’s a really great hole-in-the-wall café that serves fried pickles about twenty minutes from here.”

  Dinner sounded cozy and almost romantic. She thought back to the conversation with Tippie in the ladies’ room. If she relaxed her expectations and stopped trying to control every outcome, maybe Lex would surprise her.

  She agreed to dinner and followed him to the parking lot.

  Other than the pop music that filtered from the radio, they rode mostly in silence to the square of a quaint town that reminded her of Burberry. The café’s sign had an alligator smiling and giving potential customers the thumbs up signal. Lex held the door open for her and busy chatter greeted them.

  “Pick any open seat, honey,” a waitress called from the corner of the café. She balanced a round tray on one hand and delivered food with the other.

  Lex placed his hand on the small of Amira’s back and directed her to a booth near the large plate glass window facing the street. “It’s always a good idea to position yourself close to t
he entrance in case you need to make a quick exit. Being able to watch the street is a good idea too.”

  Amira bit her lip to hold back a snarky retort. Had she thought this dinner would be more romance and less safety related? “Do agents get to turn off ‘Agenting 101’ when they aren’t working a case?”

  He quirked an eyebrow but didn’t answer the question.

  The waitress sidled up next to them, and after an order of sweet tea, pulled pork sandwiches, and fried pickles, they were left alone.

  Lex reached for her hand across the table and used his thumb to caress her palm.

  Amira relaxed into the seat and beat back her restless nerves. Now this feels like a date.

  “Did Ally and Ris get the surveillance cameras set up outside their front doors?” he asked.

  The mention of her sisters mixed with the word surveillance killed the mood. She pulled her hand back and glanced at the cafe’s ceiling tiles. If she wasn’t going to get the date she yearned for, she’d prefer to switch to full agent mode and plan their case with Samuel Chase. First, she answered his question. “Ally did, but Ris said she’d prefer to try a magical spell to cover her front door.”

  He pulled his hand back and draped his arm over the back of the bench seat, confusion pulling his features into a frown. “You’re okay with that?”

  “The aunts have promised to supervise.” She glanced around at the patrons and waitresses all engrossed in their own lives. She lowered her voice. “Can we talk about the assignment in here?”

  He leaned forward. “Sparsh convinced me that chasing off one ghost should be a good first case. I’ll make a plan and we’ll stick close to it.”

  “You mean ‘we’ll’ make a plan?”

  A half-smile pulled at his lips. “Can you maybe just for a second admit that I’m more experienced and trust me? I know you’re used to being in charge, but I’m a pretty capable guy.”

  Amira chuckled, relenting. “Fine. So, how many ghosts have you chased off?”

  “A few. They usually aren’t as malicious as television dramas would have people believe.”