Of Witches and Warlocks: The Demon Kiss (14 page)

“I hate sitting here, doing nothing,” he
complained, as he sat back down on the lounge chair.

“I know,” I said, as I sat next to him,
reaching over to pat his hand. “But Dad must figure it’s pretty
important for you to be here. He stayed here to protect you
himself.”

“Is that what he’s doing?” Vance rolled his
eyes and flopped his head back against the seat. “Marvelous.”

“Don’t be so hard on him.” I smiled over at
him. “If he didn’t really care about you, he wouldn’t be here.
Welcome to the close family life you’ve always been longing
for.”

He just answered me with some sort of grunt,
before he moved his hand to lace his fingers with mine.

We didn’t talk much as we sat together,
allowing the soothing sounds of the ocean to wash back and forth
over our senses.

I found myself slowly being lulled to sleep
as I lay with my eyes closed and my head leaned back into the
comfortably padded lounge chair. I didn’t realize I had actually
fallen asleep though until I felt Vance shaking me gently.

“Portia,” his sultry voice called out to me,
and I lifted my eyelids to look at him. “Hey, baby.” He smiled.
“You’ve been sleeping for about an hour now. Some of the coven
members have come back in. I thought you might want to hear what
they have to say.”

“Oh … okay,” I replied, taking the hand he
extended out to me, letting him pull me up from the chair.

We walked back inside, anxious to hear what
the others had learned while they had been out on their
expeditions.

Sharon and Fred were inside talking to my
dad.

“We were actually able to talk to the
security guard at the facility today,” Sharon was saying, as we
came through the sliding door. “We noticed there was a sign
advertising one of the warehouse units available for lease. We went
up to the gate pretending to be people who were interested in
putting a business in there. The guard gave us a card to the
listing agent.

“We also asked him about security on the
place,” she continued. “He told us they keep a guard posted at the
gate all day and there are three security cameras, one for each of
the other walls around the property. He then informed us there’s a
group which rents one of the larger units at the facility and that
they conduct their business there mostly at night. They post their
own security guards there in the evenings. He said the name of the
business was called Cummings Enterprises. He gave us a card for
them also, if we were interested in contacting them and asking how
they like the facility.”

Fred pulled a card from his wallet at this
point and handed it over to my dad for review.

“So now we have an address and a phone
number,” Dad smiled, as he looked over the card, before glancing up
to give Fred and Sharon a nod. “Great work, you two. I’m really
proud of you.”

Vance walked over to my dad and asked if he
could please have a look at the card, holding his hand out
expectantly.

“He really is here then,” he said somberly,
after my dad handed it to him, running his thumb over the card
absently for a moment, before snapping back to reality. “This is a
home address,” he pointed out, as he leaned over toward me to show
me the writing. “We passed the turn to Las Conchas when we were
downtown. I believe it’s a resort housing area.”

“Well, it’s evident that he isn’t trying to
hide if that’s true,” I replied, as I looked between my dad and
Vance. “That goes right along with what Juan told us. He isn’t
afraid of anything or anyone getting in his way.”

“Did you perhaps find out any clue to what
Damien is shipping there?” Dad asked Sharon and Fred.

“No,” Fred answered, with a shake of his
head. “We didn’t even ask after the guard mentioned that all the
business dealings were kept confidential. We felt he might get
suspicious about it.”

“No worries,” Dad said as he flipped his cell
phone open. “We’ll find out somehow.”

“Hi, Mom,” he said when Grandma answered her
phone. “You can send the other drivers home now, but I need you to
go check out a different location.” He gave her the address. “It’s
located in the Las Conchas housing area. I just want you to find
out where the property is, though. Please don’t slow down or try to
observe anything other than the obvious. After you find the place,
go ahead and come on back to the hotel.”

We waited around for about thirty minutes
after Dad talked with Grandma, before everyone made it back to the
condo and came to report their findings to the rest of us.

“So I found the address without any problem,”
Grandma said, looking around at each of us. “It’s easily the
largest beachside home in the vicinity, though I didn’t notice any
activity whatsoever on the property as I passed.”

“How about you two?” Dad asked turning to
look at Babs and Alice. “Did you have any success?”

“We were able to speak with Juan,” Babs said.
“He seemed to be willing enough to help out however he could, but
he’s a little nervous about everything, especially since Damien
threatened him and his family if he tried to get other people
involved in this situation.”

“That’s understandable,” my dad replied, as
he thought about it for second. “If he wishes, we can conduct our
business there during the evening hours, after the shop is closed.
He wouldn’t even need to be there at all, if it was to be his
preference and, of course, if he feels he can trust the place to
us.”

“That might help,” Babs said, nodding her
head in agreement. “We’ll talk to him again and see what his
feelings are about it.”

“Good,” Dad replied. “We just need to decide
now which is the best way to do some surveillance on this property
located out in Las Conchas. If it’s indeed Damien’s personal
residence, you can be sure it’ll have powerful protection charms
all over it. We need to try and find the weakest spot and attack
things from that vantage point.”

“That would be from the ocean,” Vance spoke
up. “All of those homes are loaded with glass windows that face out
from every room to maximize the view. It would be easy to sit out
on the water with binoculars or even a telescope. We’d be able to
see virtually everything happening in the house, without ever
setting foot on the property, eliminating the need to worry about
activating magical charms or wards that he may’ve placed around the
area.”

“That’s true,” Dad replied, pondering on what
Vance had suggested. “This is a very good idea. We’d need to come
up with a boat of some sort that we could use, though.”

“No problem,” Vance said with a slight shrug.
“I’ve seen a lot of those fishermen stay out on the water well
after dark. I think we should offer to pay one of them to use their
boat for the whole day. It wouldn’t seem suspicious to anyone who
was watching to see a regular local craft out on the water. In
fact, keep the crew on and let them fish. Tell them we’ll pay them
all double their draw for the day.”

“That could cost a pretty penny, though,” Dad
reminded him.

“I’m not worried about the money.” Vance
said, dismissing the comment with a shake of his head. “I do have
one stipulation, though.”

“What?” Dad asked, looking at him in
question.

“If I’m paying for it, then I’m on the boat,
and Portia comes with me. She has seen images of my dad through our
mental link. We’re the only two here who can positively identify
him besides you. I will not leave her behind.” He stared at my dad
seriously, driving his point home, and I knew he wasn’t going to
budge or negotiate on the subject. He was tired of sitting on the
sidelines.

Dad mulled things over for a minute before he
spoke again, and I could tell that he wasn’t too thrilled with the
suggestion, but he knew Vance’s idea was sound in its logic.

“Fine,” he finally agreed. “We should be far
enough away to keep you safe from being seen by anyone.”

“It’s too late for us to get on the boat
today, though. We’ll have to shoot for tomorrow,” Vance said, and I
could see he was feeling frustrated by having to wait even longer
to get going on this plan.

Bruce, who owned the restaurant in Sedona,
volunteered to go down to the docks and wait for the fishing boats
to come in, to see if he could make the arrangement we needed to
acquire.

“I can inquire about fresh shrimp for the
restaurant while I’m down there looking around for a suitable boat.
It’ll be a good cover,” he said.

Hal also volunteered to go to the marina with
him, too.

“Awesome,” Dad said, and I could tell he was
enjoying the thrill of the hunt we were finding ourselves drawn
into. “Now we need to figure out some surveillance plans on this
warehouse for this evening.”

Everyone was soon surrounding my dad as he
knelt down on the large tile floor, where he had spread out
documents detailing his previous searches for Vance’s father, along
with the schematics for all the warehouses Damien had previously
used in other locations.

While I was surprised by all the detail these
documents contained, I was most caught off guard when he rolled out
an entire blueprint of the warehouse here in Rocky Point, along
with all the surrounding property and businesses, clear up to
Juan’s store on Benito Juarez.

“Dad?” I asked him, in front of everybody, as
he was busy circling areas of the blueprints in red marker. “Where
did you get all this stuff, and what is it exactly that you do? And
I don’t want any more of this encyclopedia salesman bull that
you’ve been feeding me my whole life.”

A slight chuckle made its way through the
rest of the group as Dad looked up at me with a grin.

“Pumpkin,” he replied, “it may not be in your
best interest to know that I may, or may not, be an agent of the
United States federal government.”

“What? Are you like a … a spy or
something?”

“No. Nothing that glorious.” He bent back
over the map of the building. “All you need to know is that I have
my resources, but I’m not going to get into any more detail than
that.”

I threw my hands up in the air and turned to
walk away as I began to mutter quietly to myself.

“Pumpkin, I’m an encyclopedia salesman,” I
mimicked him. “But really I’m a warlock. Oh and did I mention I’m a
federal agent also?” I paused. “Is there anything else that I need
to know about you?” I added loudly, calling to him over my
shoulder, as I cast a glare back at him.

His only response was laughter.

“I’m such an idiot!” I said to myself.

“You really are,” Vance added with a grin,
coming up behind me.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked,
looking at him in surprise over his agreement with my
self-assessment.

“Encyclopedia ‘salesman’?” he said with a
smile. “Ever heard of the modern convenience called the Internet?
Who in their right mind would purchase a set of encyclopedias when
all the information they need is right at their finger tips with a
touch of a button?”

I had been played, and I knew it.

“You’ve known all along, haven’t you?” I
asked, staring at him with an incredulous look on my face.

“Well, he was the reason Marsha and I came
specifically to this coven,” he offered as an explanation.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I felt like a
complete idiot for not even knowing my own father.

He shrugged nonchalantly.

“I figured if Sean wanted you to know what
was going on, then he’d tell you,” he explained as he watched
me.

I felt betrayed.

“Don’t take it personally,” Vance said,
coming closer to rub his hand down my arm. “It was a means to
protect you and your family from anyone who might want to harm
you.”

“Yeah, well I feel like Lois Lane must have
when she took off Clark Kent’s glasses and found out he was
Superman.”

Vance just laughed at my comment and reached
out to pull me closer to him.

“Come on, silly girl. Let’s go see what your
dad is planning,” he replied, after placing a chaste kiss against
my forehead, before leading me back over to the group, even though
I was still scowling at him.

Dad began by pointing out the locations of
the security cameras on each of the walls. Each of them had a small
point where they didn’t quite cover the area over to where the next
camera picked up.

“Even though these are weak points, we can
count on them being reinforced,” Dad explained. “I’m positive
Damien has looked for these kinds of flaws himself and has placed
magical charms all over the area.”

“What about this building?” Vance said,
leaning over and pointing out a two-story building on the left of
the compound.

“That was what I was thinking,” Dad replied,
nodding his head. “We won’t be able to breach the perimeter of the
warehouse, but we can observe it from the roof of this building.
Now Damien may have anticipated this also, so we’ll need to proceed
with caution and check it for any type of alert system.”

“How will you know if they’re there?” I
asked, curious.

“Magic has a strong energy field,” Grandma
explained to me. “It looks different than regular energy, and there
are ways to see it with certain spells. I imagine Damien may even
be using the same sort of thing to search out some of the powers of
his victims.”

“Makes sense,” I agreed, pondering this new
information.

“There’s so much I don’t know,” I added with
a sigh, speaking directly into Vance’s head.

“You’re doing fine,” Vance said, back into my
mind, and he gave my hand a little squeeze. “Be patient. Things
will come to you in time.”

I turned my attention back to Dad and what he
was saying.

“I think we should move a surveillance team
into the room at Juan’s place. We can send another team to the roof
of the building next to the warehouse to check things out. If they
can get on the roof without being detected, we’ll have them set up
a camera. We’ll rig things up so we can send the feedback to Juan’s
store.