A Little Blood Magic (Here Witchy Witchy Book 10)

by Kessler, A. L.

  I blinked a few times at him. “But you’re not worried about me being on a crime scene.”

  “Not with Mason, no.”

  I tried not to roll my eyes. “I can’t with you right now.”

  “You are the Princess,” he drawled out.

  Levi put a hand on his shoulder. “She knows that, and we both have to admit that she’s done a lot to work with us on this aspect.”

  “And we all agreed I’m only princess in title, not in practice.” I sat my coffee down. “I thought we were past this.”

  Mario threw his hands up and disappeared.

  Levi shrugged. “The council is worried since you were shot.”

  “Random act of violence. I’m fine.”

  Levi nodded. “As I know you are. I will get you what notes I have from Liz and hope that you can pick up her trail.”

  “Do you have any idea of what we’re dealing with?”

  He was quiet for a moment. “Something old.” Was all he told me before he also disappeared.

  “Because that’s not cryptic as hell.” Simon rubbed his eyes. “Your life is weird.”

  “Mmm, and now you’re part of it.” I grinned and sat my coffee back on the table. “Now, where were we?”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The next morning, I woke wrapped in Simon’s arm. It was the best way to wake up, especially when I woke to my phone ringing.

  I groaned and reached for my phone. Simon handed it to me, and I slid the answer bar without looking at it. “Special Agent Collins speaking.”

  Crackling static came through the phone line, and I sat up, trying to listen to the faint words that were coming through.

  “Find me…”

  I frowned as the crackling continued. There were more words that I couldn’t decipher. I nudged Simon, hoping maybe he could hear what I couldn’t.

  He sat up as I put the phone on speaker. The crackling faded out, followed by a terrifying scream.

  My heart pounded in my chest. “Hello?”

  No one answered, no other sound came through. I looked at Simon. “Did you catch anything other than ‘find me’?”

  He shook his head. “I didn’t. It almost sounded like the phone was rubbing against fabric? It was so muffled.”

  I looked at the recent call list and didn’t know the number. I sent Oliver a text with the number and instructions to track it. I was worried it might have been Liz, and if it was, she was in trouble.

  “I don’t like the sound of it.” I put my phone on the nightstand and got out of bed.

  “I don’t either. I don’t know whose voice that was.”

  Me either, but there was a sinking feeling in my stomach. I tried to push it off, trying to blame it on paranoia, but there weren’t many people who had my phone number that would send me such a message.

  “I’m going to grab a shower.” Simon kissed my cheek. “Let me know if you figure out anything.”

  I nodded. “I’m going to make some coffee.” I walked out of the room and to the kitchen where Merick was already at the coffee pot.

  He looked at me with a smirk. “Good morning.”

  “Morning.” I went to the cupboard to get a mug and filled it with coffee. “I got a strange phone call.”

  He raised a brow. “That’s not a typical way to start your first day of vacation.”

  “No, not normally.” I got the creamer out of the fridge.

  “You’re worried that it was Liz?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. She said to ‘find me.’ There aren’t a lot of people who would call me with a request like that. It ended in a scream.”

  “What kind of scream? And before you say, I don’t know, really think about it. What kind of scream?”

  I stood there and poured the cream in the coffee and grabbed the sugar. I took a moment to think about what he was asking. “Terror.” I frowned. “She was scared.”

  “Better than pain.” He offered and motioned to my coffee. “Drink up and get ready for the day. You have a lot to work on.”

  It was so odd to hear him boss me around. “Who put you in charge of me?”

  “Well, no one, but you have your case with Mason, this phone call, and you’re supposed to go up with the wolves tonight. Nothing is going to get done while you’re up there, and if you don’t accomplish anything today, your brain isn’t going to let you relax and enjoy the magic of the full moon tonight. I’m trying to be helpful.”

  I sipped my coffee. “And what are you doing for the full moon tonight?”

  “I’m going to go to a meeting with the coven. I do wish you would come.” A few months ago, he had dropped an invitation to join the coven in my lap, but I hadn’t taken them up on it.

  I wasn’t ready to make that commitment yet. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be willing to join another coven, even one filled with as many misfits as the Cult of Ra.

  “I’ve already obligated myself to the wolves tonight.”

  “Another night then.”

  “Full moon celebrations tend to be huge.”

  He chuckled. “It’s not as big as a harvest moon or an eclipse celebration.” He smirked. “Many of the branches gather for those.”

  “That would be a fuck no from me.” I raised my coffee cup. “I’m going to go get ready for my day and start my research.”

  “Good luck Abigail. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He sipped his coffee, and I turned to walk off.

  I walked back up the stairs to find Simon drying off from his shower. “I’m going to have a day of research ahead of me.”

  He kissed my cheek as he walked by me to grab some clothes. “I have to check in on the clubs and make sure all the shifts are covered for tonight. I’ll pick you up this evening.”

  I was looking forward to tonight, but work had to come first. “If something comes up, I’m not going to be able to go.”

  “I know, but I’m trying to be optimistic about it.” He laughed and pulled his clothes on.

  I watched him for a moment. At the very start of our romantic relationship, we couldn’t find that balance of life and work. It seemed now we just kind of fell into an easy routine of it all. He came up and kissed me. “I’ll see you later.”

  I returned the kiss, and he squeezed my hand, taking a deep breath. “I love you, Abigail.”

  My heart stopped for a moment at his words. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting to hear, and I wasn’t sure how to respond. “I love you too,” slipped out of my mouth, and it felt right. Almost like a weight was lifted off me.

  He smiled and kissed me again. “I’ll be back later.”

  “Not like I can go anywhere. My car is still sitting in PIB’s parking lot.”

  He cringed. “That’s right. I’ll see if Travis made any progress on it.”

  “Thanks, I’m glad I’m not going to have to have it towed.”

  He chuckled and left the room. I waited until I heard the faint sound of the alarms system being disarmed and him leaving.

  He loved me.

  Through all the craziness.

  He loved me.

  #

  I finished getting ready for the day and settled in the living room with coffee to get to work. I logged in to my computer and tried to access the PIB database.

  I was denied.

  Frowning, I double-checked that I hadn’t miskeyed anything.

  Still denied.

  I paused for a moment. I grabbed my phone and texted O’Donald. ‘Did you freeze my PIB login information?’

  ‘Yes, you’re on vacation.’

  I tried not to shoot him back a nasty text, but I refrained. I’d done a PIB case without resources before. I could do it again.

  ‘I’m looking out for you’ came through a moment later.

  It didn’t seem like looking out to me. It seemed like he was trying to keep me out of PIB. Because something was going on.

  I pressed my lips together and forced myself to type back ‘okay.’

  So, I didn’t have PIB database to dep
end on. I did the next best thing and pulled up Google.

  Oliver would get to me when he could on the phone number. Until then, I’d work on the case with Mason.

  I threw the case details that I had into Google and scrolled through the results. There wasn’t a whole lot there to go off of. Some rumors from overseas, a couple urban legends, but nothing solid.

  After wading through several different pages, I came across one that caught my attention. ‘Do you want to live forever?’ was the tag line on it.

  I clicked on it, and it brought me to a poorly made website with a black and red color scheme that burned my eyes. I clicked on the flashing red ‘enter’ button and waited for some cheesy pitch at becoming a vampire.

  What I got was totally different.

  The black and red melted away to reveal a white and yellow color scheme that was a little bit easier on the eyes. The header text read:

  Then confess to Jesus and take him into your heart.

  Not what I was expecting, for sure, but I had to admit it was pretty good to snag younger kids who would have typed in how to live forever or how to become a vampire.

  I shook my head and closed out the website. Silly of me to think that someone would have put their crime up on the internet. Most criminals weren’t that stupid.

  My phone rang, and I shut the laptop and grabbed it. Mason’s name flashed on the screen.

  “Hey, what’s up?”

  “I need you at South Memorial Hospital.” His voice left no room for argument.

  “I’ll get there as soon as I can.” I put my laptop on the table and got up to put my shoes on.

  He seemed to hesitate for a moment. “Bring a guard.”

  The phone disconnected, and I frowned. It wasn’t like Mason to encourage me to bring someone with, but I’d listen because he was there, and I was not.

  Of course, my daytime guards were either MIA or dealing with their own things today. “Merick, you still here?” I called as I tied my shoes.

  “Yes, what’s up?” He walked into the room.

  “I need you by my side. Simon is out doing pre-full moon stuff, and Liz is MIA. Mason told me to bring someone.”

  Merick nodded. “Okay, let’s go then. Where are we going?”

  “South Memorial.”

  He held his hand out to me, and I grabbed it. I wasn’t strong enough with the transportation spell to go that far yet.

  My house swirled away to be replaced by the alley between the hospital and the parking garage. Merick and I headed into the building to find Detective Mason standing there talking to the lady at the front desk.

  “No one but Abigail Collins and me are allowed in that room right now. Is that clear?”

  “Yes sir, Agent O’Donald has already called about it since he was informed.”

  “Let him know that I am handling it.”

  My hair stood up on the back of my neck at the tone Mason was using. It was unusual for him to try and exclude PIB from the situation unless there was something fishy going on.

  I stepped up to the counter with Merick by my side. Mason glanced at him and then to me. “Best I could come up with on short notice.”

  “Okay, let’s go.”

  “Can I have some idea of what is going on?” I followed him to the elevator. “What floor?”

  “Third.” He pressed the button to call the car, and I went up the stairs with Merick.

  “Who do you think they found?” Merick asked as he ran up behind me.

  I shrugged. “I’m hoping not Liz.”

  “Me too.”

  We reached the third floor before the elevator got there. A couple seconds later, it chimed, and Mason walked out.

  “We found someone, and their first request was to speak to you. I don’t know if we can trust him, so that’s why I had you bring a guard with you.”

  Him.

  So it wasn’t Liz. Part of me relaxed at that, but the other part of me was panicking, wondering who they could have found.

  Mason led us down the hall past the nurse’s station and closed doors. At the end of the hall, he stopped and motioned.

  I didn’t like all the secrecy, but if Mason did it, it was because he was trying to gauge my reaction.

  I took a deep breath and knocked on the door before I opened it.

  The soft beeping of hospital machines hit my ears, and then I saw who was in the bed. His brown hair was a mess, and his eyes were closed as he breathed softly. A hospital blanket was pulled up to his chin. There was a nasty bruise across his cheek, making his eye swell a bit.

  Nick.

  He opened his eyes and tried to smile. “Abby, I should have known you would have been the one they called in.”

  “You’re lucky I don’t strangle you where you lie, Nicolas Averin.” I tried to keep my voice down, and I swore Mason chuckled behind me.

  Nick’s smile faded, and I wondered for a moment if he thought I would really strangle him.

  The anger that swept through me was unreal. How dare he just randomly show up again after hiding in the shadows.

  “Abby?” Mason asked.

  “Leave us. Make sure no one walks in that door,” I growled.

  Merick started to leave, and I put a hand on his shoulder. “You’re required to stay.”

  Merick nodded but said nothing as Mason closed the door, leaving the three of us in the hospital room.

  “What the fuck, Nick? What the hell kind of game are you playing now?”

  “It was time for me to come back to the world of the living.”

  I crossed my arms and glared at him. “And how do you expect to explain your death and resurrection to our new supervisor?”

  “I was hoping to have your help with that.”

  “Fuck. No.” I pulled the chair up to the side of his bed. “One, I’m on vacation. Two, he hates me. Three, there are very few people who know you survived that explosion.”

  My phone rang, and I looked at it. Oliver.

  I answered it. “I’m currently at the hospital.”

  “I know exactly where you are. Are you hurt?”

  “Nope, staring right into the face of Nick.”

  Oliver was quiet for a moment. “Alive or dead?”

  “Alive for the time being.”

  Nick cringed. “You wouldn’t dare kill me.”

  “I wouldn’t test her right now,” Merick spoke up.

  Oliver sighed. “Well, I have a location on that call. If you’d like to check it out.”

  “Send me the location, and I’ll check out once I’m done here.” Except I didn’t have a working car.

  I glanced at Merick, and he nodded as if reading my mind.

  “Be safe, niece.” He hung up, and I turned back to Nick. “I can’t help you. You got yourself into this mess, Nick. You can’t just come barging back into my life and demanding that I help you.”

  He let out a dark laugh. “Fine then, Abigail. Walk away.”

  I stood and started toward the door.

  “I hope you have a lot of people at your back, because there are so many more threats to your life.”

  I glanced over my shoulder. “Tell me something new, Nick.”

  “Oh, Princess, there is so much more I could tell you, but you’re not willing to help me out. So why should I help you?”

  Merick put a hand on my shoulder and practically pushed me out of the room. “You are not to go near him again.”

  I stared at him, getting ready to tell him that I wasn’t a child, but the look on his face made me pause. I started to ask, but Mason cut me off.

  “What do we do about that?” He jerked his thumb towards the room where Nick was.

  “We let you handle it until you have to hand it over to PIB. I’m on vacation, remember? I want nothing to do with it.” I knew I’d be called in for questioning, but right now there were more important things to worry about.

  “I have to go check out a location. I’ll keep in touch with what I find.”

  Mason
glanced around and then to me. “Case related?”

  “I don’t know yet.” I shrugged and headed back toward the stairs.

  Merick stayed behind for a moment but quickly caught up with me. “Nick is covered in a black aura.”

  “I didn’t feel anything.”

  “I know you didn’t, or you would have walked out the moment you stepped foot in there. I’m not sure how he’s hiding it from you, but you need to stay away from him.”

  “I plan on it. I don’t like that he’s playing with threats.” I opened the door to the stairwell, and we both went down the stairs. “I have to focus on this case with Mason and on that phone call this morning. I’m Levi’s eyes and ears during the day on this, so I can’t fuck it up.”

  “Then what’s the address?”

  I gave Merick the address, and we looked it up on Google. “I’ve never been there. It’ll probably be safer to drive.” He frowned.

  I raised a brow. “Do you even own a car?”

  “Yes, I do, and it’s a fast one.” He put his hand on my shoulder, and we disappeared from the hospital.

  Merick was right. His car was some European sports car, and the way he drove had me clinging to the door. I was starting to appreciate the ability to just poof in and out of places.

  The directions on the app took us out to a rural area, and I started to have flashbacks to a previous case, the exploding barn that held a body in it, a three-legged werewolf.

  I frowned. I didn’t think this was the same area, but it looked almost identical.

  Then I was proven wrong when I saw the remains of the barn from the road. “Some thing’s not right here.”

  Merrick and I got out of the car, and I took a moment to look around. The area looked untouched since PIB had gone through it for the case a few years ago. I pulled out my phone and called Oliver.

  “Abby, what did you find?”

  “This is the scene of an old case. Are you sure this is where the call came from?”

  “Positive. Have you gone to the exact location?”

  I took a deep breath. “We’re on the side of the road, a few yards away from the barn that exploded.”

  “Oh, that case.” Oliver started laughing. “Go see what you can find and let me know.”