Chapter Text
Gage looked up from the code on his computer screen as a jumble of goods clunked onto the counter in front of him. A young, lanky man looking several inches short of six feet glowered at him from under an unruly tangle of black hair. His face was angular but easy on the eye, and the rest of him wasn’t bad either. Grey eyes squinted at him in apparent urgency as the man pulled out a wallet.
“Can I pay for these or what?”
Gage realized he’d been staring at the very attractive customer longer than considered polite. “Sorry. Yeah, no problem.” He rang up a standard protection spell bag and some cedar smudge sticks. “You got someone bothering you?” Gage asked as the man handed over some cash.
The man grimaced. After what appeared to be some sort of internal debate, he took a breath. “I’m looking for a man who might have bought a few things from you recently.”
Gage quirked a questioning brow.
The man pulled a slip of paper from his pocket and handed it over. A man of few words, apparently. Gage glanced at it and laughed.
“What idiot would buy both a Taloan bulb and dragon’s blood? The two cancel each other out. Just having them in the same bag risks them losing their magical properties.”
The man frowned. “Do you know if someone came in and bought these things?”
Gage shrugged. “Not on my watch, but I’ll check the computer. I can’t imagine Anthony selling those things together at all, but who knows.”
“Anthony?”
“Boss man,” Gage replied, typing the ingredients into the inventory system. A moment later he huffed in surprise. “Yeah, a woman bought Taloan bulb, dragon’s blood, and Baltic amber last week.”
The man cocked his head. “How do you know it was a woman?”
“You aren’t the first hunter to come in looking for someone who bought something weird. It’s actually a fairly common occurrence. We keep tabs on anything out of the ordinary.” Gage smiled in delight when the hunter’s grey eyes widened slightly.
“How’d you―?”
“Seriously? You get a hunter or three in your place of business, you start picking up on things. You may not look like your average hunter, but you’re carrying an armory in your coat, and you’re asking about little-known magical ingredients. Also, you don’t smile.”
“I smile—“
“Dude, you’ve been frowning since you arrived. What’s with you guys, anyway? Did the monsters take away all your candy when you were a kid or something?”
The hunter’s frown deepened. “None of your business. This isn’t about me anyway. Do you know anything else about the woman?”
Gage glanced back on the screen. “Umm, about five-six, 30 to 35 years old, curly—“
“Red hair?”
“Know her?”
Gage thought the V in the hunter’s brow would sink right into the floor if it got any deeper. Hunters.
“Perhaps. There is a man that fits that description. Siblings, maybe.”
Gage stared at the computer screen. “Or a gender-swapping spell. She bought the ingredients for it. Those are tough, though. Someone with that level of abilities wouldn’t buy dragon’s blood and Taloan bulb together.”
The hunter sighed. “Yeah, they would. Be right back.”
He stalked—and truly, that was the only word for it—out of the magic shop and returned less than a minute later with an old book. He thrust the open pages toward Gage. Gage took it. He flipped to the cover to see that it was an old and fairly rare grimoire. He looked up at the hunter with raised eyebrows. Not exactly normal fair for hunters. Most hunters weren’t known for reading. They tended to be the kill-first, read-never types.
The hunter exasperatedly motioned him back to the open page. Gage obligingly flipped open the book and read the spell on the page. His grip tightened on the book as he read through the explanation.
“She’s collecting the souls of children?!? That’s disgusting!”
The hunter nodded. “I’ve been tracking him—uh her, for over a month. He/she goes to a town, steals a few souls, and moves on. It’s not noticeable, since children tend to act up a lot anyway, so people don’t notice the loss of souls right away. She’s getting bolder, though. Instead of taking just one or two souls per town, she’s taking dozens.”
“Holy shit. If you’ve been tracking her, why haven’t you stopped her yet?”
The frown deepened yet again. Now Gage knew it was for good reason, though. “I’ve tried. I stabbed the man three times now and shot him once. He keeps coming back. And has apparently taken to gender swapping as well.” The hunter scratched his jaw, causing Gage to train his eyes back on the book so as not to become mesmerized by the view. Damn, he was really good looking. He focused on the problem at hand.
“This is horrible. What are you going to do now? If stabbing and shooting doesn’t work.”
The hunter shrugged and rubbed his eyes. “I’ll figure something out,” he said with a drained grimace. “I always do.” He nodded at Gage, scooped up his ingredients and book, and turned toward the door. “Thanks for your help.”
“Wait! I can do more. I can help you figure out how to stop this person.”
The man shook his head as he walked away. “This is not your fight, man. Leave it to me.”
“But…” The door slammed shut behind the hunter, and Gage sat down with a sigh.
What the hell? Usually when hunters came in, they were hunting something bad but fairly harmless in the grand scheme of things. Usually something that went bump in the night or the occasional vengeful witch. But this, this was different. This person was taking dozens of souls. And from innocent children, no less. Obviously something big was going on, given the fact that the person—creature—couldn’t die easily and because of the uptick in the number of souls. What did they need the souls for? Why the gender swapping? And who was this hunter, who had a rare grimoire in his possession and seemed to know more than usual about magic?
He definitely wasn’t the stereotypical hunter, with his short, thin physique and his use of magic books and herbs. Apart salt and iron, most hunters stuck with guns and knives, but this one obviously knew how to protect himself with spells. Gage, who had studied magic his whole life, itched to get his hands on that grimoire again. He’d heard of that title, but had never seen it. And to find a spell that knew how to use those two ingredients without making them useless… there had to be some other great spells in there as well. Man, the things he could learn.
Gage sighed. Wishing would get him nowhere. He noted that he had another hour before he could close up shop, but things were pretty quiet. He pulled a few books out of Anthony’s private library in the back and settled in at the counter for some research.
###
Three days later, he still hadn’t come up with much. He had figured out that the gender swapping had to do with the soul-sucking spell requiring the caster to be male, but he still hadn’t figured out why the person needed the souls.
Gage was considering options as he dusted the shop one afternoon when a throat cleared behind him.
“Holy fuck!” He jumped and turned to see the hunter standing behind him, the ever-present frown gracing the man’s amazing face.
“You should get a new bell for the door. It’s dangerous being caught unawares like this—especially in a magic shop.”
Gage smiled flirtily. “Are you worried about me, hunter?”
The man crossed his arms in front of his chest uncomfortably. “More like worried for the general populace. If someone got a hold of even a few of the ingredients in this shop, they could do a lot of damage.”
“Eh. We keep the harmless stuff up front. The big guns are safely in the back or the basement. We cater mostly to the New Age crowd.”
“Still—“
“Yeah, I know. We’ve got the bell, I just keep forgetting to replace it.”
The hunter stared at him for a while. “Replace it today, okay?”
“Yes, Dad.” Gage sighed. “So, what brings you back? I was sure I’d never see you again after the way you left like your ass was on fire last time.”
“Those big guns you mentioned? I need some.”
Gage leaned against the front of the counter. “Oh yeah? What do you need?”
The hunter handed him a list.
“Shit, are you trying to bring every demon within a fifty-mile radius to your doorstep? This spell is like catnip to those guys.”
“Precisely.”
“Precisely? Care to elaborate?”
“No.”
“Then you don’t get the ingredients.”
“I can go to the magic shop in the next town.”
“I’ll tell Mags not to sell to you. Not that she wants demons flocking here anymore than I do.”
The hunter’s face tightened. “I need the ingredients. It’s the only way to stop this.”
“What good will a bunch of demons do you? Are you buddies or something?”
“No, but it will work.”
“The spell or the demons?”
“Both.”
“Tell me more.”
“No.”
Gage crossed his arms and waited, using a staring contest an excuse to drink in the hunter’s handsome features without censure. Hunters generally did not enjoy being ogled by the same sex, the bunch of hick pricks.
The hunter gave in within a minute. He sighed, dropped his arms, and rolled his eyes. “Fine. The spell will bind the witch’s soul to the spot, which I think will free the stolen souls.”
Gage started to protest, then stopped. “Huh, that actually might work.”
The hunter smirked, which was simultaneously a turn-on and off-putting.
“But you’ll still have to deal with a fuck-ton of demons after the binding.”
“The demons have no beef with me. I leave them alone, they leave me alone.”
Gage stared at the man in disbelief. “You’re a hunter. You automatically have a beef with all demons just by your very nature.”
“Fucking Winchesters,” the man grumbled, half to himself. “I’ll be fine. Now, I told you what I was going to do, so will you get me the ingredients?”
“Fine. But when those demons come after you, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Gage went to the basement to gather ingredients.
A few minutes later he returned with a basketful of items.
The hunter looked through the jumble. “I didn’t ask for over half of this stuff. What is all this?”
Gage pulled up a few recipes on the computer and printed them out. He took the first one and piled several items on top of the page. “This is a demon protection spell. They can still kill you the normal way, but they can’t do any non-earthly woo-woo on you and they can’t possess your body. It’s basically like dowsing yourself in holy water.” He took the second page and piled more ingredients on it. “This will weaken the witch so you can kill her after you’ve bound her soul and freed the others.”
The hunter stared at him for a moment before nodding. “Thanks. What’s that for?” He pointed to a green bag still sitting by itself on the counter.
“Squeeze that and say my name if you’re ever in trouble and it will transport me straight to you.”
The hunter raised his eyebrows. “And when would a hunter need the protection of a witch? I’m pretty sure I see way more action than you ever have.”
Gage winked. “Oh, I see plenty of action, good sir.” The hunter wrinkled his brow in confusion, so Gage rolled his eyes and put on a more serious face. “We witches have our uses. I doubt you’ll get any of these to work anyway. They require a real practitioner to perform, not some dabbler hunter.” He looked up at the hunter hopefully. “I could help—“
“No. It’s too dangerous. I can figure this out myself. How much?”
Gage sighed and named the amount as he bagged the items. The hunter paid and turned to go with his newly acquired loot.
“Gage!” Gage said just before the hunter reached the door.
“Huh?”
“My name, if you need to call me, is Gage.”
The hunter stopped a moment, turned his head to flick Gage a salute, and strode out the door.