~YULIA
“Ward endangerment?” I asked in disbelief. “Is he being serious?” I was beyond confused by the legal action Mr. Rogers took against Issa. “Does he even have the power to do that? He knows you’re a Lycan after all.”
Apparently, the letter that had been delivered to Issa came from Mr Rogers. The content made no sense to me. Why did Mr Rogers suddenly want to take him to court?
He was the one who convinced me to move in with Issa in the first place. I felt a migraine forming in my head just from thinking about it.
“Only if he has a legal interest in your case,” Issa answered as he drove us away from the school. “I knew that slimy son of a bitch was up to something,” Issa added.
I looked at him. “Is there anyone you actually like?”
“Yeah, you,” he answered as he pressed down on the accelerator, increasing the speed of the car.
I noticed the anger in Issa’s eyes even if he was trying to mask it. Anyone would have been angry had they been in our shoes. I was just surprised by how calmly we handled the situation of the woman we both recognised.
“Are we in a hurry to get somewhere?” I asked with concern.
“The lady that served me the letter, you recognized her, didn’t you?” he finally asked me.
I had thought that we were both pretending not to recognise the witch so that we could each go after her on our own but I guessed there was no reason for that anymore.
“Yes,” I said as rage began to boil my core.
I still couldn’t believe that we had seen her. Indeed, the world was such a small world. Not long ago, I had vowed not to forget her face and the Universe had brought her to my doorstep.
“If she works with Rogers, then it seems that our family lawyer knows something about Marianna’s death,” Issa pointed out and my heart froze.
If Mr Rogers was truly involved then it was going to wreck me. I wanted to believe that he was also played and he had no idea about that woman’s truye identity.
“How do we find her?” I asked him.
“I have her scent, although she is blocking it with her magic, but I can still see it,” Issa replied.
I turned to him again in surprise.
“You can see people’s scent?” I asked in disbelief. “That does not even make any sense.”
“Nothing about me makes any sense,” he replied with a bit of pride.
I loved the way Issa embraced his own strangeness without hesitation.
“How does it work?” I asked him. “Seeing other people’s scent.”
“It is like a string of a thread but each person has a different colour of string,” Issa answered.
“What is her colour?” I asked, eager to know more about how his Lycan powers worked.
“Black,” Issa answered. “But it is faint.”
“What is my colour?” I asked.
“Grey, like the moon,” He answered. He cursed quietly.
“What is it?” I asked him as he slowed down the car and balled his hands into angry fists.
“Fuck!” He suddenly exclaimed. “I lost it.”
My heart sank. I could not accept that. I could not allow that witch just disappear after what they did to my mother!
“Is it because of the magic?” I asked through gritted teeth as I also balled my hands into fists..
He nodded. “She knows how to mask her scent.”
I exhaled sharply and closed my eyes. I did not know why but something just propelled me to try my luck. I had to try. My mother needed justice and this was my shot at giving it to her.
“What are you doing?” Issa asked when he noticed how quiet I had suddenly gone.
I had caught her scent too and I honed in on it. At first every smell assailed my nose and I almost gagged. I could smell the leather seats, the engine oil, the polish from Issa’s shoes and his natural scent which was very distracting and arousing.
Then I filtered everything until I found her scent. However, I did not see it as a string of thread, I saw it as light dust but it was vividly black. A black trail of dust.
“Found it” I said as I opened my eyes.
“You can see it?” Issa asked with a bit of disbelief. “You are not affected by the magic.”
“I guess so,” I answered. Although I did not know why.
He followed my direction as I trailed the dust of black until we reached a night bar that I recognized. “I remember this place.” I muttered.
“It was where we first met,” He replied. “And you hated my guts,” he added with a smile.
“It was also where I had almost been kidnapped,” I told him. He frowned. He did not like the revelation. “But Rogers had helped me.”
“Is the witch in the bar?” He asked, his voice hard with anger at the mention of the lawyer’s name.
“Yes, although I am curious as to why she would come to a bar this late when there is work tomorrow,” I said.
Issa looked at me with a slight frown.
“Lawyers don’t work on the weekend,” I said with a shrug. “And it’s a work week.”
Issa parked by the side of the street, under a street lamp and we both hastily got out. There were a few people loitering outside the bar as we passed them. Issa and I walked into the bar and the first thing I noticed was the female bartender.
“Are you seeing this?” I asked, shocked.
“I have never believed in coincidences and I am not going to start now,” Issa replied.
It was all beginning to make sense. The female bartender was in a deep conversation with the lady that served Issa the court order. The bar was full of tired men and women who had resumed here after a long day’s work,
We both walked to the bar and took a seat beside the lady. She turned to look at us and froze in shock and fear at the sight of Issa and I. I turned to the bartender who had a worried expression in her eyes but still maintained her composure.
“Two whiskeys on a rock,” A fat man with a bald head appeared and shouted the order.
“Coming right up,” The bartender said.
I glanced at Issa who had a deadly glare in his eyes as he watched the woman behind the counter. He was really terrifying if he wanted to be. The bartender went about to make the drinks but I could see that she was visibly nervous.
“Stay where you are,” He whispered softly to the woman we met earlier. She had been shifting on her stool with obvious discomfort and I was sure she wanted to bolt out of the bar.
“You should listen to him,” I told her. “You do not want him hunting you down, he loves the chase.” I added coldly.
She was one of the witches that had killed my mother. The lady sat rooted to the spot.
“What can I get you two?” The bartender asked as she came to stand in front of us.
“Privacy,” Issa replied.
The Bartender frowned, feigning confusion.
“I need you to tell everyone to leave the bar, you are closed for the night, and remove your hand from the shotgun behind the counter,” Issa said. “Or I will snap the neck of your witch friend here and then I will start killing your customers one by one.”