Gold Dust

Chapter 18

"Who indeed?" Grace gave the old man a thin smile. "You see, I paid him a lot of money for some information, and all he gave me was the name of a fish shop, along with a description of an old man who looked eerily like a sailor. I'm sure he's already contacted you, so you can drop your act."

The old mans cheerful exterior dropped, and he gave Grace a glare and sneer. "I don't give business to witches." He hissed, "leave." The change between the man who had greeted them and the one who was shaking with rage behind the counter was similar as salt was to sugar.

"No." Grace stonily said, as she felt Rose shift next to her uneasily. "Tell me where the Gold Witches Wand is, and I will, but until then, you're stuck with me."

The old man uneasily glanced around the empty shop, "do not speak so loud!" He hissed.

"Tell me!" Grace said even louder, her palm smacking the counter. "If not, I'll go to the Witches Council, and I'm sure the Onyx Witch would love working with you. Those reports on how she ruled Britain were rather gruesome, but true." Her voice had turned soft and sweet. "All of that is just one phone call away."

He glanced over at Rose, the only sign to Grace about what he was going to do, before his hands disappeared and reappeared with a shotgun. Grace didn't allow him to even point it at her head, she reached out and grabbed the mans thumb and twisted. He let go of the gun with a yell, and Grace grabbed it's barrel before it touched the counter, as she let go his thumb. With one smooth motion, she opened it's ammunition chamber and dispelled both of the shotgun shells. She tossed it over her shoulder, and it landed against the tiled floor with a clatter.

"Please tell me you didn't try and shoot two Witches," Grace said, a pitying smile on her face. "Because that would constitute as an attack against all Witches. Do you really want a war between Witches and humanity? Because I think I know who is going to win."

The old man was hold his thumb and shaking, with what, Grace had a pretty good idea. He suddenly looked old, too old to be dealing with this. His wisened face and the sad look in his eyes made Grace's heartstrings twinge.

"Tell me where the wand is, and I'll even give you something that would let you close up this shop forever."

"What are you going to do? Blow my shop up and kill me?" The man looked around wildly.

Grace sighed, before reaching into her back pocket of her jeans and pulled out a small drawstring cloth bag. It clinked against the counter as Grace threw it on it, "this will give you enough money to retire."

The man glanced between the bag and Grace's face. Finally, he grabbed it and shoved it in his pocket. "It's in the Lunar Mansion, Spain."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, seen it with my own two eyes. Long stick, barely a finger width around, with some type of dark metal around it. But some real heavy security around it, and the people around it look weird in the eyes." The man glanced outside the window, "look, can you please leave now?"

"Thank you. We'll be leaving now." Grace gave him a smile, before taking Roses arm and guiding her out of the fish shop.

"Where did you learn how to do that with a gun?" Rose stared at Grace with a wide eyed look.

"Wild West." Grace shrugged, "I was a barmaid. There were a lot of shotguns then. Plus, self defence was important to me since I couldn't use my magic."

"Wow." Rose said, glancing away. "I didn't know we could learn self defence."

"Of course you can." Grace frowned, stopping Rose. "We can do whatever we want, and nobody can tell us otherwise." She was surprised by the venom in her own voice, but Grace went with it.

"Right." Rose faintly smiled, "you so brave, Grace. I wish I was like you."

"Rose," Grace chuckled, "don't you get started on that. To be honest, I wish I was kinda like you. So let's admire aspects about each other at a later time, before the cops come and get us."

"Cops?"

"Did you really think that man would let us out of his shop after threatening him?"

"But you gave him some gold, didn't you?"

"A little, something he'd can buy something with, sure." Grace shrugged, "but I know better than to spite a man and trust him to not stab me in the back when I am walking away." They started walking away again, this time, Grace steered them into an alleyway.

"So, we're going to Spain?" Rose brightened, "I've always wanted to go to Spain. Have you?"

"A few times." Grace said, "though it has been a while since I've been in Europe. Although, I am not really looking forward to this. I don't even think I can even get my wand back."

"Really? This... Lunar Mansion? Does it have that good security?"

"It's not the security I'm worried about," Grace admitted out loud, a nervous bundle of nerves in her stomach forming. "It's the people."

"Who are the people?" Rose asked, trying to keep up with Grace's hurried steps.

"It's not who, but what. The answer," Grace took in a shuddering breath, "is werewolves."

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