Chapter 7

A plan.

I wasn't mistaken: it was Kelsie and I could hardly recognise her. She had glorious black hair that was completely straight and smooth. Her sparkling brown eyes were glancing around with eagerness. She looked like she walked straight from the cover of one of those glossy celebrity magazines: flawless skin, long skinny legs, and stylish clothing. Kate was staring ahead blankly. I rubbed a hand along my jaw, feeling a little insecure wearing my skinny jeans.
"Kel, what are you doing here?" I asked a little breathless.
"I owe you one. I hope you don’t mind that I came over," she said, approaching Kate’s table. Even her movements were refined. A couple nights ago I thought she looked like an ordinary woman, but now I was completely gobsmacked.
"I didn’t expect to see you, that’s all. You left quite fast the other day. How did you know I would be here?"
"I didn't. I just took a chance. It stuck when you mentioned that you work for Paranormal Personnel."
"Right, sorry. Kate, this is Kel," I introduce them both. "We met a few days ago."
Kate was staring at my new acquaintance, chewing her lip; she eyed her up and down, probably wondering how we knew each other.
"Hey, Kel," Kate greeted her, then tucked her magic wand behind her ear like it was a completely normal thing to do. Sara emerged from the kitchen a few seconds later, humming an unknown melody. I glanced at my watch and saw Alexandra entering the office.
"Sorry, Kate, I meant to be here half an hour ago, but I missed my bus," Alexandra complained. It was time to move to another room. My other co-workers weren't supposed to be involved with what I wanted to do.
"Julia, it’s Monday today. Did you mix your shifts?" Sara asked, realising I was in the office.
"Kate, shall we leave? I really need to finish this conversation," I said, rubbing my hand. Kate rose and started packing her stuff. I turned to Kelsie. "Kel, I’m sorry, but I’m in the middle of something really important. If you give me your number, we can meet later on."
"She can help us," Kate whispered in my ear, and I looked at her, bewildered.
"I just needed to have a chat with Kate," I told Sara. Alexandra wasn't paying much attention to us. She sat down at her desk and started scrolling through her emails. “Let's use the interview room; we need to talk."
I had no clue why Kate thought that my new friend would help us. Yes, she was attractive, but it wasn't fair to drag her into what I was planning, although she had an idea about our problems.
Kel didn’t ask any questions, she just followed us. I locked the door from the inside, making sure we weren't going to be interrupted.
"Can I smoke here?" Kel asked, putting her legs on the table.
"Not really, but carry on," I muttered, still not quite believing she was so stunning. She lit the cigarette, watching me from the corner of her eye.
"So, what’s up, ladies? I’m intrigued," she said, blowing out a circle of smoke. First, I needed to explain to Kate how I met Kelsie, and then we could discuss my plan, so I started talking. Within ten minutes I went through the events of the night we met, feeling quite nervous about the magic that I was able to produce. Kate was aware I couldn’t control my magic, although we never had a chance to really talk about this. After I finished my story, Kate looked amazed.
"You knocked out a wizard?" she repeated after a moment.
"Kind of. I couldn’t quite control what I was doing," I explained, deflated.
"Wow, that’s incredible, even for someone who doesn’t know what to do." She smiled.
"Maybe, but we aren’t here to talk about me," I said, taking a deep breath. "My plan is simple: I want to sniff around at the rival agency; find out what they’re working on. Kate suggested that you could help us, Kel."
"Me?" Kel looked surprised.
"You could be an easy distraction," Kate said, smiling lightly. "I hear that this troll, the head of the other agency, has the reputation of being a womaniser."
Kel laughed, putting away her lighter. I had to agree with Kate—Kelsie was pretty and could work as a distraction. If she would come with us, our plan would be so much easier.
"I guess I can help, I’ve got nothing else to do today anyway," she said. “What's the deal with the other agency anyway?"
"I have a feeling that they might be behind Rufus’s disappearance. We made a tonne of money in the past few months and they know that. News spreads fast in this business. Rufus has worked with Paranormal Personnel for over ten years; he has a lot of contacts."
Both Kate and Kel looked at each other, acknowledging what I just said. Maybe it wasn't fair to get Kelsie involved just yet, but we needed to have a good backup story.
"Elf, witch, and shapeshifter sounds more realistic. We can pretend that we all worked in an office in West London, but we’ve been made redundant a few weeks ago," I said.
"This would get us through the door, but what’s the point talking to the consultant? We need to talk to the guy in charge," Kate observed.
She was right—we had to talk to the branch manager. He was the one who held all the necessary information. I didn’t know his name, but I met him briefly a couple of years ago, so I vaguely remembered his face. My plan was shaky, but I was determined to find Rufus.
In the end, we decided to play a new investment company. We were looking to recruit an admin staff and we wanted to start working with an established recruitment agency; we knew someone who worked with them before. Coming from recommendation would be more credible. We all needed each other: in the worst situation I could be useless; Kate was a skilled witch.
Kel was going to use her charm in an attempt to seduce the branch manager. We needed to find out if he was a suspect; he was known for his tastes in beautiful supernatural creatures.
After discussing our options, we went to my apartment and changed. We needed to look convincing; our plan had cracks. There was stiff competition between the agencies and it wasn't easy to win a business these days, so they could look at us with suspicion. I felt a little guilty getting Kel involved with all this, so I told her that she could just walk away.
"Chill out, Julia. I'm bored out of my mind. Besides, I like to live on the edge." She giggled.
Just after six, we left my flat suited and booted. My legs were shaking when I got into Kel’s Fiat. My stomach went through serious contractions when I thought about the worst-case scenario. Kel had nothing to do with this, and I wanted it to keep it like that.
"If anything goes wrong, I’ll shift,” Kelsie said. “Trolls are really dumb, but their magic is oddly good."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"
"Sort of, but if worse comes to worse we would have to kick his butt." She grinned.
I rolled my eyes, hoping that it didn’t have to come to that. StaffSpell Recruitment was located in a rougher part of London, although the main street was busy, filled with people from all over the world. I kept flexing my fingers, aware that magic was rolling through me. Kate looked focused, whereas Kelsie was pulling her top down, so it revealed more of her cleavage.
I wished I’d paid more attention when Rufus was talking about our rivals. Now I needed all the information I could get. I knew they had fewer clients and mainly specialised in construction. I kept biting my lip, ignoring the uncomfortable ache in my stomach. We needed to charm the troll in order to know if he was telling us the truth.
StaffSpell’s office was modern and well equipped. I spotted two elves staring at us from the corners. One of them, a blonde, got up swiftly from her chair and bounced toward us with a plastic smile on her face.
"Welcome to StaffSpell. How can I assist you today?" she squeaked, eyeing us intensely. I opened my mouth to begin, when Kel spoke instead.
"We need to speak to your boss, right now," she ordered, folding her arms together. The woman with the name tag, Marcia, stepped back, looking away.
"May I ask what this is regarding?" she asked after a long stiff moment.
"No, you can’t. We’re here for business and we haven’t got time for chitchat. We need to see the branch manager right away," Kelsie continued sharply.
The girl hesitated for a moment, knowing that her co-workers were staring. She cleared her throat and narrowed her eyes. I kept seeing holes in this stupid plan; we couldn't possibly pull this off, not with the way Kel was speaking to her. Kate looked like she was going to faint whereas I was panicking already.
"Let me see what I can do," Marcia replied, pursing her lips in annoyance. She walked through the room, then vanished around the corner. I could have sworn that Kel could hear my pounding heart, but she was playing her role well, looking annoyed that we had to wait.
The elf came back within a minute, this time she wasn't trying to impress us.
"Follow me, please. Our regional manager will see you now."
As we were passing through, I saw Kelsie giving me thumbs up, but a nagging uneasiness settled in my stomach.
The elf opened a white door and with her perfect manicure she pointed toward the troll who was sitting behind the desk. "Mark, these ladies insisted on seeing you."
"Very well, Marcia, please close the door behind you," the troll barked, but flashed a smile seeing us standing in front of him. Once we were alone, I searched for an unpleasant smell, but there was none. The troll in front of us was short, stocky, but he was exceptionally handsome. I was stunned because his smoky black hair and blue eyes didn’t fit the rest of his awkward body.
“I'm sorry that we demanded to see you Mr...?"
"Fiorillo," the troll quickly replied, looking straight at Kelsie. His eyes darted downward, moving over her long bare legs. He licked his lips, raising his left eyebrow, obviously liking what he was looking at, but Kel pretended she didn’t notice.
"Yes, Mr. Fiorillo. Time is money, so we will get straight to the point," Kel said, fanning herself with a booklet that she picked up by the entrance. She looked sexy, aware of the attention that she was getting. "Can we sit down?"
"Of course, where’re my manners? Here." Shrugging, Fiorillo pointed at the chairs that suddenly appeared in front of us. I was impressed but tried hard not to show it. One of his parents must’ve been an elf or a fairy. Trolls just didn’t possess pretty genes.
Once we were sitting, and I could breathe again, I wanted to say something before Kelsie got too comfortable in her own role.
"So, what can I do for you ladies?"