Spells & Death

by Rachel Medhurst

  Our eyes danced around as I avoided looking directly into his gaze. He tried to get me to make eye contact, but for the first time ever, I was vulnerable, open, with another person.

  “Gemma.” Dave came around the table, grabbed the top of my arms and turned me to face him. “We will find a way to get you back. Do you understand?”

  His matter of fact attitude made my heart rate calm slightly. The confidence in his gaze gave me the courage to take a deep breath. He was right. Maybe we could find a way for me to come back to life. Or, my body... although, that technically was still alive, otherwise I’d be smelling like the corpse of a dark crawler.

  “Thank you,” I said, my arms surging forward and wrapping around his bulky chest.

  He froze for an instant before enveloping me in a tight bear hug. “Well, you feel perfectly alive to me. You’re pressed so tight against my chest, I can feel your-”

  “Okay!” I blurted, ripping away from him.

  Holding up his hands in defence, he tried to stop himself from laughing. “Before you get all worried, I was going to say your heartbeat.” As he went back around the desk, he carried on chatting. “Which is a good thing because it means your body is working exactly as it should be.”

  “Stop talking about my body.” Even I could hear the deadpan tone of my voice.

  “I’m just saying,” he continued as he picked up his wand again. “If your heart is still beating, there’s a way to...” His sentence trailed off as he stared at the piece of paper with my blood on it.

  Leaning over, I glanced at it, my stomach dropping when I saw why he was so distracted. The blood had faded to show writing underneath.

  “What does it say?” I asked, reaching to pick it up.

  Catching my hand gently, Dave shook his head. “Don’t, you’ll dislodge the spell. It’s an illusion, remember?”

  Ah, of course. He’d borrowed some of my magic to fade out the blood and see what was underneath. His way of working was pretty handy considering that once the magic was used up, it would leave the evidence exactly as it had originally been.

  Getting his phone out of his jacket pocket, Dave quickly took a photo before the blood thickened to cover our new evidence.

  “How did he get your blood?”

  Licking my lips, I cringed at how dry they were. I might be dead in theory, but my body still needed hydrating. Grabbing the glass of water beside me, I downed it, the whole time trying to block out Dave’s stare.

  “I bled out, in the middle of the street.” Almost coughing, I indicated that he should show me what was written on the paper.

  “Wow, you did? Gemma, why didn’t you tell me? You must have been churning up inside dealing with this alone.”

  Sniffing, I folded my arms across my chest. “I haven’t been dealing with it on my own. I’ve been talking to Smudge.”

  Raising his eyebrows, Dave stared me down, his condemnation slicing through the air. “I suppose you told your book boyfriend, too. How did he take it?”

  Taking a deep breath, I decided to let it go. He was-

  “Did he become the all-powerful alpha male and go searching for revenge to-?”

  Scrambling over the table, I dove for him. He yelped in surprise, yes, the grown arse man actually yelped as he hastily backed away.

  My feet hit the ground running, the crash of the items on my desk not phasing me. The bastard could take the piss out of me all he liked, but my book boyfriend? That had pressed a button too far.

  “What’s going on?” Jake thundered into the office, his stance ready for battle.

  The bright blue of his eyes caught my attention as he glanced between us. I’d stopped mid-room, whereas Dave had retreated into the corner by his desk. The stupid fool couldn’t hide from me.

  “We were just...” How did I finish that sentence without sounding completely insane?

  “I gave her some startling news,” Dave said, straightening his jacket and holding up his phone. “She might have overreacted.”

  Jake eyed us for a second longer, seemingly able to see through the pair of us, but when Kate came in behind him carrying a tray of mugs, he relaxed his shoulders and joined us as we gathered round.

  Taking the lead, Dave held up the new evidence, graciously not mentioning that the blood was mine. How we would keep that a secret, I didn’t know.

  “By the looks of it,” he started. “The killer has something against Essex witches. As you know, both Gemma and I hail from two different lines.”

  Kate looked between us as she nodded. She had obviously felt the tension as soon as she’d walked into the room. By including himself in the threat, Dave had taken the focus off me. What had I done to deserve a desk friend like him?

  “Where did that come from?” Jake asked, nodding his head towards the piece of paper.

  Coming into the middle of the room, Dave handed it to me. The others watched as I held up the paper for them to peruse. Jake’s nostrils flared. Taking a slow quiet breath, I prayed that the dried blood was too old for him to detect that it was mine. As a wolf shifter, surely he would be able to smell the DNA.

  “It was sent in the post.” Dave went to his desk to show the others the envelope it had come in. “I’ve run it through the database, and tested it for fingers prints, but it’s completely clean. Someone used gloves to post it. It’s a normal stamp, so there’s no record of what post box it was dropped into.”

  Kate held out her hand, palm up. Blinking quickly, I pushed the panic down to the pit of my stomach where it squirmed. Lying had never come naturally to me, but I didn’t have a choice right now.

  “Give me the envelope,” Kate said when no one made a move.

  Dave didn’t hesitate, placing the envelope straight into her hand. She rocked back as she closed her eyes. Her hair bounced slightly as her spine hit the back of the chair.

  Jake glanced at me, a frown on his face. “This could so easily link the PFF to the murders. They’ve been vocal about their grudge against the Essex lines. To send the same image to you two is declaring a war on those that protect the ley lines.”

  “I want to interview the Cambridges, but we need evidence to pull them in for questioning. At the moment, the connection is too loose.” Going behind my desk, I grabbed my tablet and took a photo of the paper before sliding it into an evidence bag. Something Dave should’ve done immediately. Shit, if the others noticed how we’d mishandled it, they might realise that something was up. This was becoming bloody hard to control.

  “I can’t get a reading on this, it’s that same fuzzy feeling I’ve had at both crime scenes. I think someone is using magic to distort reality so I can’t see it.” Kate let out a long sigh as she handed the envelope to Dave, who bagged it immediately.

  Clearing his throat, Jake glanced at me. “Getting close to PFF is going to be hard. I’ll put a call out to a couple of friends. They may know some people in the group that are loose-tongued.”

  It was often a rule that we wouldn’t involve any of our friends and relatives in our investigations, but if Jake had contacts who might know members of the group, it was well worth checking in with them.

  “In the meantime,” Dave said, straightening his jacket. “I’m going to come into the field as Gemma’s partner. I think it’s best for her safety.”

  “What?” I blurted, my knees knocking my desk and making everything rattle as I surged to my feet. “Erm, I mean... is that necessary?”

  His quick narrowed gaze made me resume my composure. It was getting harder and harder to keep my agent head on. Maybe a training session with Kate would help ease some of the tension that currently sizzled in my energy field.

  “He’s right,” Kate said as she got to her feet. “You both need to keep tabs on each other. It’s hard to know if this is personal to you, or to all of the Essex witches. Not that there’s many of you.”

  “How many are there? What about your mother?” Jake asked as he licked his canine.

  The small gesture made
me swallow. If he’d smelt my blood on the evidence, he hadn’t come forward with the information. We were practically strangers. Which meant there was a chance their loyalty could easily be bought. Maybe it was time to get to know my team.

  “I’m meeting with her in the morning to give her an update. I’ll pass over the responsibility of updating the top. In the meantime, who fancies a beer?”

  All pairs of eyes swung to me, mouths dropping open. Shrugging, I grabbed my jacket and flung it over my shoulder. Okay, so maybe I didn’t ever go for a beer, even though the others did, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t interested in... Who was I kidding, I hated the pub/club scene. It wasn’t the most intellectually stimulating place. However, it was time to figure out who I could trust.

  “Are you buying?” Jake asked, winking as he got up from the chair and spun the gun belt around his chest into a more comfortable position.

  Dave chuckled as he went over to his desk to shut down his computer. “Of course she’s bloody buying, the woman has never offered us a beer, we need to take advantage of it.”

  “Time to get wrecked on the boss’s expense,” Jake jested.

  “As if,” I muttered, following them out of the room.

  “Be careful,” Dave said over his shoulder. “We might start thinking that you’re a bit normal after all.”

  Laughing, I locked the office as they waited. “I don’t think there’s any threat of that.”

  “I agree,” Kate piped up. “And, you should be proud that you’re quirky.”

  “Quirky?”

  The others walked ahead of us as Kate waved to a female agent. “She’s gorgeous, isn’t she?”

  “Er...” Glancing over at her object of affection, I blinked. “... yes, I suppose she is.”

  “Don’t worry,” she said, grabbing my hand. “None of us want you to be normal. Your sense of self makes you one of the best agents in this building. Don’t ever lose who you are just because you worry about what others think.”

  “I don’t care what others think.”

  My immediate response was met with raised eyebrows. Kate could probably see through everything. A part of me was terrified that she’d had a vision, but there was nothing in her demeanour to suggest that she knew anything. Maybe both her and Jake knew that there was more going on, but were playing it cool. It was time to get them on my side, otherwise they might use me to climb their way to the top.

  Chapter 9

  Grabbing Dave’s hand before he could walk through the pub door behind the others, I tried to stand tall enough to hiss in his ear. It didn’t work.

  “What is it?” he asked, his gaze watching the wooden door swing shut.

  “What did it say under the blood?” My words were hushed as I checked that no one watched us.

  Several people were marching on the pavement, on their way home from their nine to five employment. Some were humans, some paranormals, but every one of them looked like they were going through the motions of living, rather than really feeling alive.

  Taking out his phone, Dave quickly found the picture and showed me. My breath hitched as I read what had been hidden under the blood. When death comes knocking, there’s only so long you can avoid it.

  “The serial killer has to be the man that was at the book festival. He’s the only one who knows about my death.”

  Rubbing his jaw, Dave glanced up to the bright blue sky. “If that’s the case, the PFF might be innocent.”

  Gritting my teeth, I slowly nodded my head. As much as I hated to admit it, there was no evidence linking the PFF to the threats. They might hate the Essex witches as much as the serial killer, but he was gunning for me, and me alone. Which meant it was far more personal.

  “I don’t understand why someone would hate you enough to want to scare you like this, and how does he know you’re dead?”

  A loud whistle drew our attention as Brianna swayed towards us. My Spanish vampire friend eyed up Dave as a grin came to his face.

  “Hello, Bri,” I said as she threw her arms around me.

  As her eyelashes fluttered up at Dave, I instantly regretted inviting my only friend. While they greeted each other, I indicated that we should go into the pub and join the others.

  Once inside, my regret increased tenfold. Introducing Brianna to the team might have been a mistake. The pub was noisy because some football game was being shown on the television. Trust me to pick a night where the pubs were crammed with people watching the England match. My best friend was currently telling the others that I’d had a life-size cardboard cut-out of the Backstreet Boys when I was a teen. I was half tempted to cast a zip spell over her mouth to get her to shut up.

  “Don’t dis The Backstreet Boys, they were heroes of our time.” Sipping on my pint of cider, I shook my head when Jake scoffed.

  Waving his hand in front of him, he took his phone out of his pocket. “No, lady...” he said, holding up his free hand in defence when I leant forward, resting on the wooden table surface, and fingered the handle of my gun. No one called me lady. Ever.

  “This is real music.” His phone burst into an old school rock song, the rifts loud and the melody perfect.

  Closing my eyes, I nodded along, singing the first line as it started. When I opened my eyes again, I froze. They were all staring at me, open mouthed. Did they think I lived in pop land? I loved Bon Jovi as much as I adored the Backstreet Boys. What was wrong with genre-hopping?

  “You’re such a contradiction,” Jake said, shaking his head.

  Twirling my finger, I laughed when a song by The Backstreet Boys started to play on his phone. My magic was handy sometimes, especially when I was trying to prove a point.

  “Make it stop!” Jake pleaded, blocking his ears.

  Everyone laughed. The sound resounded around us but was quickly drowned out by the cheer of the crowd as England scored a goal. At the exact moment the noise exploded, Jake’s nostrils flared and the hair on the back of my neck prickled. We looked at each other as we got up from our seats.

  Brianna grabbed my wrist and tugged, her face pulled tight. “Your librarian friends are really cool,” she shouted at me. “But, I need to go home.”

  Before I could say anything, she rushed away from me, not looking back once. Could my friend sense that something wasn’t right? Had she smelt whatever Jake had?

  “What’s wrong?” Dave took my hand as Jake indicated for Kate to follow him.

  Pushing our way through the mostly human crowd, we headed for the exit. A hysterical scream suddenly caught the attention of everyone in the room. They parted as I took out my gun and shouted for everyone to remain calm. On the floor in front of me, a girl sat cradling a teenage lad. A splodge of red was quickly spreading on his white England shirt.

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” someone whispered in my ear as the crowd moved.

  My hand shot out, freezing the hooded man in place. He had gone to step away, but the leather smell of him had instantly reminded me of the witch at the book convention.

  “Please,” Jake called, flashing his MI5 badge quickly so the humans couldn’t read it. “Evacuate the pub slowly.”

  The following surge made it easy for the suspect to blend in with the crowd as he broke away from me. I had to be careful. There were too many humans to use a ton of magic. And, if the man had just killed a teen to get my attention, I didn’t want to risk anyone else’s life.

  Kate was on the ground, performing CPR. Dave was forcing the girl to leave with her friends, even though she fought like hell. Slipping into the moving crowd, I whispered a spell to protect them all from harm. The head of the hooded man was moving with a couple of people in front of me. Tucking my gun away, I pulled out my dagger and pushed through the people to reach his side. My fingers wrapped around his wrist, my blade about to prick his skin to let him know that I had control.

  The startled gasp as a male human glanced down at me, his eyes wide, made me let go. “I’m sorry,” I said, coolly. “I thought you were s
omeone else.”

  Shit, that was close. How had the witch disappeared? Only seconds before he had whispered in my ear. Bastard!

  Slinking back to the scene, I tried to keep my disappointment from showing. The others had no idea about the man who had claimed that he didn’t want to fight, except Dave. For some reason, I’d felt compelled to tell him, even though I usually kept everything to myself.

  “He’s gone,” Kate said when I reached them.

  Heat zipped up my legs as someone pulled on the ley line. Shit, it was getting stronger. I had no idea who was able to access it other than Devon Jinx. The London line was exclusively ours, except I was the only one protecting it. Maybe it was time to speak to Devon to see if she’d been using it more often.

  “Are you okay?” Dave asked as I stood still, trying to feel who was tugging on the line.

  Nodding, I cleared my throat as I bent down. Both Jake and Kate were on the other side of the teen. Kate’s eyes were closed as she recalled the young man’s memories. Jake was sniffing, his heightened wolf senses on alert.

  “I hate to say this,” he said, looking straight into my eyes. “But, it smells similar to the magic used by the serial killer.”

  “The Essex Obsessor,” Kate muttered under her breath as she opened her eyes.

  “Huh?” Hovering my hand over the teen’s wound, I tapped into his aura to see if there was any magical residue.

  Kate smiled to herself briefly. “Okay, so I named him. Most serial killers have a name.”

  My hand shook as my magic came into contact with the same magic that had been used at both crime scenes. Jake was right, the serial killer had carried out this murder. Which meant that the man in the demon mask was our suspect. Why would a man who knew about my predicament kill a random teenager? People had been at a football game, celebrating our team making it to the semi-finals. His reasoning made no sense to me. I wasn’t that special, there had to be a reason why I was being targeted.