I nodded. “So all we have to do is survive the party tomorrow.”
She cringed. “Is Samuel really as scary as Levi makes him out to be?”
“He’s terrifying, but in a completely different way than anyone else I’ve met is. He’s Levi’s maker.”
She nodded. “You’re worried about the commands he might give?”
“Without a doubt.” I sipped my coffee. “And I’m a sitting duck here and at the party.”
“After this is over, we should go to a beach.” She stretched out her legs and wiggled her toes. “With warm sand and water.”
I smirked. “That sounds like a good vacation, but I think I’m almost out of vacation time.”
“I don’t really care,” she said honestly and laughed. “I’d be worth a couple days of no pay for a vacation on the beach.”
I laughed. “Maybe, just maybe we can go on vacation together, but I don’t think PIB would survive.”
“Poor O’Donald.”
My small laughed turned into rolling laughter as I tried to image him handling black magic cases without us and just with Nick.
When the files finally came through, Liz and I had finished a pot of coffee and had moved into the dining room. We both had our computers up with the current case file and the case file that O’Donald wanted me to look into.
“I have to ask why Nick isn’t the one doing this since he has the case file right there?”
“Because Nick hates paperwork. He probably convinced O’Donald to let him go check out the crime scenes. Which is fine. We need extra eyes there anyway, and we can’t go.”
She nodded and scrolled through the old case file. “This is my case file.” She hung her head.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning this is when my sisters and I were rescued from Adrianna.” She shook her head. “I have to step away from the case.”
“O’Donald hasn’t caught on if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I can’t handle this, Abby.” She shut the computer screen. “It’d be like asking you to continuously go over the details of the Ira case.”
I was going to argue, and then I remembered that I was still having nightmares about that. “I’ll handle it. You stay safe.”
She nodded and stood up. “I’m going to go take a walk.”
“Okay. Clear your head.” I watched as she walked out, and I turned back to my computer.
It was the same case, which meant we could pull that one out of the cold case files. Everything was the same, and I should have seen it sooner. I hung my head feeling like I’d failed somewhere.
I shook my head. It didn’t matter now. Now I had all the pieces, and I could make them fit. We had a location on Adrianna. We knew she was behind the torture and killing. We had witnesses. No motivation, but that didn’t always come when you were dealing with black magic and insanity.
What I needed to know was the spell she was using and how to bring her in or kill her. If she was truly immortal, I would need to take precautions.
I typed up my notes and sent them in an email to Nick, CC’ing O’Donald, letting them know my thoughts, what progress Liz had made, and letting them know that Liz was stepping down from the case.
It wasn’t long before Nick was blowing up my phone. “What do you mean that she’s stepping away from the case?”
“She’s too close to it. It’s a conflict of interest.” I tried to leave it at that.
“Stop hiding shit, Abby.”
“Look, Liz is a victim of this person. She had to step down for her mental sanity.”
There was a moment of silence on the other end. “Okay. I’ll see you Monday then? I’m sure you already have a plan in place.”
“I have a location even. But I can’t trust you at my back.” I hung up the phone and looked at the computer screen.
I knew exactly who I’d be taking in as back up, and it wasn’t anyone from PIB.
I had half expected Nick to call back, but he didn’t. Maybe he knew better than to push me right now.
I shut the computer and leaned back in my chair. I needed to call Merick and ask him to be my back up, but I also wanted to wait until I got through the party.
Someone cleared their throat in the doorway of the dining room, and I looked up to Levi standing there. “May I interrupt?”
“It’s a bit early for you to be awake, isn’t it?” I asked and started to gather the papers.
“I couldn’t sleep.” He shrugged. “Seems to me that you’re busy. Do you need me to leave?”
I shook my head. “No, I was just cleaning up. I’m trying to figure out how to take Adrianna out.”
“Out?”
“Or into custody. Whichever happens.”
Levi nodded. “Liz have any ideas?”
“No, she stepped down from the case as she should have. She needs time to heal and recover.”
“Do you think you can handle Adrianna without her?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m going to ask Merick to go with me. Maybe Oliver.”
“I have Oliver out doing something. He won’t be available.”
That made me pause. “He won’t be here tomorrow night?”
“No, I’m sorry. I can’t have him here for this.”
That made me suspicious. “Why?”
“I want to keep him away from Samuel as well. I don’t trust Oliver to not fuck up the safety net we’ve put in place.”
I crossed my arms. “Is this the safety net where you turn me before Samuel does?”
“That is not a real option. It had come up in a discussion, that is it. It was not fair of Mario to throw that at you.” Levi shook his head. “I have talked to him about his need to try and scare you into hiding.”
“Good, because as soon as this party is over, I go back to work. O’Donald has already called me back from vacation. I told him I was out of town until Monday.”
Levi was silent for a moment. “Okay.”
“Did you need to talk to me about something?”
He nodded. “You’ve been getting strange phone calls that are leading to old crime scenes, correct?”
“Yeah, I haven’t had one in a few days.”
“That’s what Oliver is hunting down. We think it has to do with Nick.”
“I’m sure it does. We were partners on both those cases. Just like I’m sure when my car shows back up, it’ll be crushed.”
Levi chuckled. “At a crime scene?”
“It didn’t show up at a crime scene last time. It showed up at a protest, and it was the one where I shot the stupid werewolf skinner.”
“Ah, and started a riot.”
“And started a riot,” I agreed and stretched. “So, you have Oliver hunting that down. Do you have Catalina watching Nick as well?”
“No, I figured if he was at PIB and behaving himself, you could keep an eye on him.”
I snorted. “I’ll do the best I can. Do we have more news on the woman?”
“No. We’ve run her through every database that we have access to, and nothing comes up.”
“You don’t have access to PIB’s database anymore, do you?”
“No, O’Donald took that from us.” Levi sounded less than pleased, but I smiled.
“I got my rights back since I’m no longer on vacation.” I pulled my computer to me and pulled up the image that Catalina had sent me.
Levi sat down next to me and watched me run a picture search through the database.
At first, as the progress bar made its way to the end, nothing pulled up. A little bit of hope in me died. But then one result popped up at the very end.
I frowned and clicked on it. It was dated four years ago.
The file opened up in a new window, and the face on the article was one from a missing persons case.
The woman had disappeared without a trace. She was thought to have been on drugs at the time she disappeared. The person who had reported her missing was a friend, and she had no known family.
That didn’t explain why it popped up in PIB until I got to the name of the friend. Clyde O’Donald.
I glanced at Levi, who was scanning the text a second time. “I think it’s time I pay a visit to Agent O’Donald.”
“You risk him pulling my badge if you do that. If he finds out that I gave you access to the PIB database, I’m in trouble.”
Levi hesitated for a moment. “I don’t want to risk your job.”
“I’ll figure it out. It’s related to the shooting, so I’m sure I can sneak it to whoever is on that case.”
Levi chuckled. “It’s Detective Balin”
“Lovely, he hates me.”
“Has he contacted you at all about the shooting?”
I shook my head. “No, and he probably won’t. I didn’t know that O’Donald handed it back to the human police, the shooter was a shifter. Liz and I hid my damage pretty well. We didn’t let O’Donald know about me being drugged from it.”
That wasn’t something I wanted to experience again.
“Because Liz thought that he was behind the shooting.”
“That’s because he was making sure Abby was being tracked that day.” Liz walked in. “He kept glancing at his screen while we were on the scene. He made the mistake of not locking it when he put it down.” She glanced at Levi. “Each Agent carries a tracker. Abby happens to carry several, but her PIB one is rarely activated.”
I shrugged. “Oliver doesn’t like anyone else tracking me.”
“But O’Donald made sure that all trackers were on that day, and he was watching yours closely.”
I frowned. “He told me to stay in the office, and then I went to get coffee. Was he making sure that I listened to him?”
“I don’t know, but he knew exactly where you were when the shooting happened. That’s why I was so careful when you were shot on how long it took us to get back. I also texted Oliver to make sure that your tracker was off.”
I frowned. “I don’t remember that.”
“You were pretty in and out of it.”
I spun the computer around to face her. “Do you know this woman?”
She looked at the picture. “I’ve seen her around town. I don’t know why though.”
“She was reported missing four years ago by O’Donald. She acknowledged me when I was walking to the coffee shop.”
She continued to look at the picture. “Do you think they are trying to work together to assassinate you?”
“No, I think if that was the case, the killer would have hit his mark and not just caused chaos. Or just poison me.” I glanced at Levi. “You worked on the case when Thrills first came into play, can’t you use that to ask O’Donald about some information?”
“Not without admitting that you were poisoned with it.”
I made and ugh noise. “Okay fine, I’ll contact Detective Balin.”
Liz smiled. “I’ll work with him. You focus on Adrianna.” She clicked a couple things on my computer. “There, I sent me the file.”
I rolled my eyes, but relief swept through me. I really didn’t want to deal with the other detective. “How’s Mason doing?”
“He’s fine. Still sitting with the little girl.” Liz shrugged. “Go see her Monday if you can?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’d like to talk to her a little bit. Maybe with a truth rune.”
“Probably a good idea.” She shut the computer.
Levi stood. “Thank you both for all the hard work. I’ll let Catalina know what we have found.”
I leaned back in the chair. “I’m going to go make dinner.”
“I’ll help.” Liz stood, and we both went to the kitchen.
CHAPTER TWELVE
I slept most of the next day, waking up in the evening a few hours before the party was supposed to start. I went through the rounds of finding something to eat and making coffee. Liz joined me not long after, and we both sat in the dining room in silence.
Liz was the one to break it. “What do you think Samuel is planning tonight?”
“I don’t even want to think about it. I’m hoping that I’ll survive tonight without being bitten, changed, or magically hurt,” I muttered as I sipped my coffee.
“I hear it’s going to be a fun night of dancing and wine.” Simon’s voice came from the doorway, and I jumped up with glee.
I went to hug him, and he pulled me close. “I’m glad that you were able to make it back.”
“I wouldn’t miss your first Levi-thrown birthday party.” He squeezed me and then let me go.
I snorted. “I don’t know, this sounds like it’s going to be more like a drama-fest than fun.”
“Don’t stress about it. Just enjoy yourself, dance a little, drink a little.” He nudged me. “It’s your night, I want you to have fun.”
“And we have your back in case anything crazy happens. Levi wants you to pretend like nothing is going on. Apparently, you weren’t supposed to know about Samuel’s order?”
I shrugged. “Mario spilled the beans because Levi couldn’t.” I looked at my watch. “I guess I should get ready, it’s almost dusk.”
Liz nodded and cleared our plates. “I’ll see you in a little bit.” She walked out of the dining room, and Simon held his hand out to me.
“Can I escort you to your room?”
I shook my head. “Don’t go all old fashioned on me.” I took his hand and wrapped my fingers with his. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to enjoy tonight with a looming threat.”
“If you don’t, then Samuel wins. We don’t know what he’s planning. Tonight could just be a big mind game. Get you to stay and think of all the things he could do tonight, playing with your brain just for him to not show up.”
I hadn’t really considered it being a mind game. “That’s a good point.”
“I have those sometimes.” He kissed me when we got to my room. “I don’t have to be back to the pack grounds tonight.”
I smiled. “Good, so you can stay all night.”
“Yeah, with you.”
Being wrapped in his arms in bed sounded like the perfect way to end this night. “Wonderful.”
He kissed me again before I went into the room to get dressed. Levi had dropped off a dress late the night before, and it hung in the closet. I pulled it out and laid it on the bed.
The fabric was a soft, deep red. It was strapless and tight at the top but would flare around my waist. Hanging with it was a shawl of the same fabric and color. Luckily for me, Levi had bought sensible shoes for it, flats since I didn’t need the boost in height. I didn’t mind the dress.
It was nice to feel fancy occasionally.
I found myself smiling at the thought of the party tonight, and for a few moments, Samuel didn’t tint my thoughts.
I went and took a shower. I dried off and put my hair up in a towel to deal with once the waves dried. I took my time getting ready before fixing my hair, pulling half up it up, and leaving the other half around my neck.
It was a subtle way of me telling the vampires that my neck was not for tasting.
Samuel flashed in my mind, and I shook the thought off.
When I walked out of my room, Simon was standing there in a suit and tie. His tie matched the color of my dress, and he looked a bit sheepish as he held a flower out for me.
“Levi made me dress up too.”
I took the red rose from him and kissed his cheek. “You look quite handsome. I don’t think we’ve ever been to anything fancy together.”
“Ah, that’s a lie. You and I went to a pack thing that was formal.”
“Oh yeah, that was the night that I ended up in the morgue.”
Simon and I both laughed at the memory. “Hopefully there will be no morgue trips tonight.”
“That would be great. It’s actually been a while since I’ve been to the morgue.”
“Maybe I can plan that for our next date.” He nudged me.
I rolled my eyes as he hooked my arm with his. “Shall we go?”
“Down the hall? Why, yes.” I gave him my best southern bell voice, and he snorted. We walked down the hall together, arm in arm, smiling and talking.
He opened the door, and I stopped at the handful of colorful dresses and suits that dotted the dance floor. The banners in the room had been changed to purple and red, and I didn’t miss that it was a nod to my magic. My breath caught at the look of Levi and Mario on the stage. Two thrones stood there, made of dark wood, carved to perfection.
Levi wore a suit similar to Simon’s, but Mario wore a purple tie instead of red. I swallowed as anxiety tried to take me down. I didn’t know many of the people in the room. A quick sweep of the crowd and I saw Travis, Liz, Detective Mason, and Merick mingling with the others.
Simon squeezed my hand. “Take a deep breath.”
“I wasn’t expecting it to be this formal,” I admitted. “I didn’t even know Levi had a throne.”
“And now you have one too.” Simon walked me over to the stage and kissed my cheek before he handed me off to Mario.
Levi cleared his throat, and the room and music died down. “May I introduce, officially, Abigail Collins, Princess of Vampires.”
There were a few cheers that went through the room.
“I want to wish her the happiest of birthdays and the first of many in our company.”
I tried not to frown at the wording. A closer look at the crowd, and I saw that many of them were vampires. The council members were scattered around as well. At least I knew I was safe.
A waiter brought me up a glass of wine, and I took a small sip of it. The alcohol warmed my throat, and I remembered what Simon said. I needed to relax and enjoy myself.
The music started up again from somewhere in the ballroom. I saw a string quartet on the other side of the room.
I glanced at Levi. “This is so formal. It’s weird.”
Mario laughed. “Welcome to your new life, Princess. Where formal is how it all is. Parties and balls, meetings and bodyguards.” He helped me off the stage. “Isn’t this what every girl dreams of?”
“There’s typically dragons and Prince Charming, and evil spells to break.”
Mario kissed my cheek. “And who says there’s not all that?”
I stepped back and took another drink of my wine. I spotted Simon, and my heart eased a little bit. “Maybe you’re right,” I said. “Now, if you excuse me, I do believe I was told mingling was the name of the game tonight.”
A Little Blood Magic (Here Witchy Witchy Book 10) Page 15
