Something Wicked (Here Witchy Witchy Book 11)

by A. L. Kessler

  Or Merick. He’d never answered my text back.

  I sent him another one real quick. ‘Worried about you’.

  My phone rang a moment later, and I snagged it up, thinking it was Merick. “Hello?”

  “Hey Abby, any luck on Simon?” Travis asked.

  Disappointment filled me. “No, not yet. Once I get one of his shirts or something I can do a tracking spell to find him. We found my car, it was totaled, but there was no sign of Simon, blood or otherwise.”

  I heard him take a deep breath. “Okay, thank you. We can send a search party out as well.”

  “I think that might be a good idea. I’ll text you the location of the car and you guys can start from there. We’ll find him, Travis.”

  There was a moment of hesitation. “I have to tell you something.”

  My heart sank. “What is it?”

  “There was someone sneaking around Wolf’s Bane the other night. I didn’t like the look of him. He was carrying a silver chain. There was a woman with him, and she was asking about Simon. The bartenders shooed her away. When she finally left, she left with that guy.”

  “There was someone with a silver chain sneaking around my house a week ago. Thank you for this information, Travis. Shoot me over a detailed description and I’ll see if I can find anything in the system on him.”

  He grunted in understanding and then hung up the phone. I quickly got dressed and went into the living room to find Oliver sitting there, a cup of tea in his hands. “Nice of you to wake up finally. I was waiting for you to get up before I went to Melisandra’s.”

  “It’s only ten. It’s not like I’ve slept the whole night away. Besides, I expected you to still be sleeping. Plans have changed. Liz needs you to meet her at my house in about an hour. While you’re there, I’d like it if you picked up one of Simon’s shirts.”

  He nodded. “Okay, I’ll meet with Melisandra after Liz then. Levi called me last night to make sure you made it home from the interrogation.”

  “I’m guessing someone alerted him when we left the house?”

  “Yes. The person who wired the houses up knew what they were doing.” He smirked. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from Levi.”

  Yeah, me either. “Okay, well, what did you tell him?”

  “That you were sleeping, and that you didn’t get arrested for murder. I didn’t tell him about your theory. I figured I’d leave that to you.” He sipped his tea. “I made coffee. I’ll make sure to meet Liz at your house.”

  “Hey, have you heard from Merick recently?”

  Oliver shook his head. “Has your cat runaway, Abigail?”

  “It’s not like him to go days at a time without at least checking in.”

  “Perhaps his mission to protect you has been recalled with the death of his father.”

  I hadn’t thought about that. Still though, I thought we’d moved beyond him just being there because they ordered him to. “I guess I hadn’t considered that.”

  “He’s a Cult member, Abigail. He had a mission, he completed it, and then he left.”

  Maybe, but there was still a sinking feeling in my stomach. “Seth invited me to join the cult.”

  Oliver raised his brows at me. “And you didn’t take it?”

  “I’m still debating, or was debating. I don’t know if the invitation still stands now that he’s dead.” I went to the kitchen to get my coffee and returned a few moments later.

  Oliver shook his head. “The Cult could add to your abilities and strength so much, and you wouldn’t be as tied down to rules as you are with PIB.”

  “I feel like there’s a ‘but’ coming.”

  “But, if you were to change natures, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill you.” He closed his eyes. “After the attack at Melisandra’s, we have to face the fact that if you die, you’ll be coming back as a vampire. The next attack might not fail.”

  I shook my head. “Then stake me before I wake.”

  “Abigail…” He shook his head. “Never mind. I know that’s your wish.”

  “As does everyone else, so it won’t be an issue.” I sipped my coffee. “I’m going to start some research while you’re gone with Liz. I don’t have much to go off of, but I can at least start.”

  He stood and took his cup to the kitchen, but never came back. I assumed he disappeared and went to my house. A few moments later, my phone dinged, letting me know that the alarm system had been deactivated.

  I pulled my computer to me and opened it up, getting to work.

  #

  There wasn’t a lot on the internet about the murders. Any search turned up news articles with very few details. PIB was doing a great job keeping this out of the media. Which was good, except when I needed them to slip up and accidentally put something out there.

  I leaned back on the couch and checked my watch. Oliver had been gone for an hour at this point, and I was ready for him to return so I could work some magic and start finding Simon.

  I scrolled through another news article and paused at the image. I knew someone in the background. I couldn’t put my finger on who it was, but I knew I’d seen him somewhere before. It was almost like the first time I met Oliver.

  I knew I’d seen him, but I didn’t think I’d ever met him.

  I stared at the graying hair and the one brown eye I could see. He was half hidden behind someone else, but he was looking directly at the camera. I couldn’t place him, and the more I stared at him, the more it ate at me.

  The front door opened, and Oliver walked in with Liz. I raised a brow. “I thought people weren’t supposed to know where the house is.”

  “She doesn’t. I brought her here. I wanted her to share the evidence with you directly.” Oliver handed me a bag with one of Simon’s shirt in it. “Now, I’ll leave you two alone. Abigail, swear to me you won’t leave?”

  “And where the hell am I going to go? I have no car and the furthest I can transport myself is out the door.” I stood. “I’ll make us some coffee. This seems like a coffee situation.”

  “Maybe wine,” Liz called after me, and I checked the fridge. No wine. Well crap. Coffee would have to do. I went to make a pot for the two of us, and a moment later, Liz walked in.

  “So what made you want to bring me in suddenly?”

  “O’Donald doesn’t know, but I need your help with the runes we found and Merick is MIA, so you’re the best I have.” She sighed. “I don’t want another death to show up, so we need to solve this.”

  “What about Nick?”

  “He doesn’t know either. He’s currently on research desk duty because of his stay in the hospital.”

  I smirked. “Did he put up a fight?”

  “Not really, which I thought was odd, because from everything you’ve said, he really should have put up a fight.”

  It was odd. “Okay, let me see the runes.” I walked back out to the living room where Liz had the files already laid out on the floor. She and I sat down and started going through them. I knew the language almost instantly. “This is the same rune base Devon was using when I took him down. It’s similar to the Cult’s.” I shook my head. “This can’t be going back to that case.” I shifted through all the pages she’d laid out. Each one of them had been used in Devon’s case. I tapped one. “This one explodes things, do not activate it.”

  “Seriously?”

  “It blew up a barn and my car, and a similar one was used in the basement of my old house too.”

  My house. “Someone non-magical needs to go to my house and scan it to make sure there're no runes.” Fuck.

  My mind turned a million miles an hour. Merick. I needed Merick back on this as well, but he wasn’t answering me.

  “Abigail?”

  “I killed Devon, but now I’m worried someone else has that case file information.”

  She put a hand on top of mine. “Focus. These runes had no power. I was on location when we found them. I touched one.”

  And it didn’t explode. “Then so
meone who has knowledge of the rune base.”

  “That doesn’t limit our suspects at all.” She rubbed her eyes. “You’re sure this is the same?”

  I nodded. “I am. Hold on, I think I probably still have the image in my files.” I pulled over my laptop and went to the storage cloud. I had all my photos uploaded since my phones tended to get destroyed at some point or another. I scrolled through and stopped when I found it.

  “There.” I turned the screen to her.

  “Identical. And your suspect from that case?”

  “Dead.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I stabbed him, so I’m pretty sure he’s dead. I mean, I guess he was Nick’s brother, so maybe he did a really good fake of his death.”

  She stared at me for a moment. “You killed Nick’s brother?”

  “Well, half-brother technically. He was out of control.” I shook my head. “Didn’t you read that case file?”

  “I did, but there was nothing in there about it being Nick’s brother.”

  I shrugged. “I didn’t feel the need to put that in there, but then again, if I had, maybe Nick wouldn’t have ended up as my partner.” I mused and then shook my head. “I have a feeling his family has more dark secrets than mine.”

  She hmmed for a moment and looked at the screen and then at the runes. “I’m going to look and see if anyone accessed the evidence for the case.”

  “Okay.” I started going through more of the papers to try and see anything else that she might have missed. I paused at a photograph of the man from the newspaper article. “Who’s this?” He was standing behind the police line, the angle the photo was taken showed his full face.

  “I don’t know. Press?” She asked, looking at it.

  I pulled back up the article. “Maybe? He’s here as well, looking right at the camera.”

  “Search it on the database. Maybe we’ll be able to pull it up.” She went back to her own laptop.

  I used my phone to take a closer picture of the man’s face and then uploaded it to my computer so I could search the database for the photo. Nothing came up.

  I wrinkled my nose and then switched to the internet instead of the PIB data base. I did a reverse image search and waited for any results. I still had nothing. I let out a frustrated growl and laid back on the floor. “Nothing, absolutely nothing.”

  “Frustrating for sure.” Liz growled and closed her laptop. “No one has been in the evidence box. Who has access to your cloud?”

  I sat up and shook my head. “No one has my password. That picture was long before Oliver could hack my phone, so I don’t think he’d know to look for it.”

  She nodded. “Dead end.”

  “I need more coffee.” I stood up and went to the kitchen. “Levi said he’d pull me in as one of his people when my forty-eight hours of rest and research were up. Why are the vampires involved?”

  Liz shifted uncomfortably next to me for a moment and then sighed. Once I was done with the pot, she reached for it and gave herself a refill. “A vampire showed up dead.”

  I stared at her. “No one told me this.”

  “It hasn’t hit PIB. Levi asked me to keep PIB out of it when I walked in on him and Mario talking about it.”

  “Anyone I know?”

  She shook her head. “No, but they were involved with your parents, that much I do know. Levi kept it at that because he said that was the only common thread between Seth and Michele that the vampire also had. He wants you in on it so he can also solve the vampire death.”

  “You don’t sound like you agree.”

  “I think it’s using his position to his advantage. He’s king, so he gets to dictate what PIB interferes with, while still using our resources through you.”

  I crossed my arms. “I get that. But if Levi is hiding it from PIB, there’s a reason. Like Grayson’s death.”

  “And that almost landed you in containment for murder charges. When I agreed to work with Levi by becoming your guard, I didn’t realize how dangerous he really could be to society.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “He’s not dangerous to society. He’s actually worked pretty well with PIB and other branches overseas in the past.”

  “I said could be. I often imagine someone like Ira in Levi’s place and think about how having a vampire king that does not work with the human world would be. We just have to make sure Levi doesn’t go down that path.”

  It was such a strange switch in subject that I wanted to know what had turned her thoughts to it. I sipped my coffee. “I don’t like to think about Ira in any position of power. Some days I worry about Levi as king with his maker around.”

  “Because of the control.”

  It wasn’t a question, but I nodded anyway. “Because of the control. The birthday party was an eye-opening experience for me. I hadn’t felt that helpless since the attack from Hannah. It seems any time one of them gets close to me, I end up being fed from.” I cringed. “The feeding from Samuel… the aftereffects were horrible, worse than with Ira.” I shook my head. “Sorry, I’m rambling.”

  “You’re reflecting. There’s a difference. Look, I’ll work with Levi for now, but if it becomes a bigger case, I’ll have no choice but to let PIB know a vampire died in the same manner. I can’t hide things from O’Donald.”

  “Is he still staying out of my office?”

  She snorted. “Yeah. Nick and I have worked in there a few times because I know he won’t interrupt us.”

  I smiled. “Yeah, that’s kind of the nice thing about O’Donald not being able to go in there. I still don’t like that Nick can walk into the office, but not my house.”

  “I wonder if he can now that Merick’s not there. Didn’t he say that it was Merick keeping him out?”

  I nodded. “I took it to mean Merick’s magic, but as far as I know, Merick’s magic is still up.”

  She leaned against the counter and sipped her coffee. “Okay, so Seth gave the order to kill your parents, Michele was a research partner, the vampire? I don’t know exactly.”

  And just like that, we were back to work. We both took our coffee into the living room. “I’ll call Levi tonight and tell him I have to have the information to work this case. He can’t hide evidence from me.”

  “Good.”

  We sat back down with all the papers. “So now we just have one other person to figure out.”

  “The man in the picture,” I muttered. “And why you found my hair at the crime scene.”

  “And Nick’s DNA as well.”

  I sighed. “His dad was a research partner of my parents, so I wonder if someone had some of his dad’s hair or something? Who knows how or why they got it.”

  “It looks to me that someone is trying to frame the two of you. Having you alone at a safe house is going to make it hard to prove an alibi if another body shows up.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I know. There are cameras and such, but we both know those could be faked and so does Balin and anyone else on this case.” I rubbed my eyes. “I just need the forty-eight hours to pass so I can go back home and normal-ish life so I can make sure I cover my ass.”

  “We need pizza for the rest of this research.”

  I shook my head. “Out of the question. Safe house, I don’t even know the address.”

  She grumbled and pulled out her phone.

  “Who are you texting?”

  “Your uncle. I’m requesting pizza after his little meeting with Melisandra.”

  I snorted. “You hate my uncle.”

  “Yes, but I like pizza more.” She shrugged. “It helps me think.”

  I started stacking the pictures up and sighed. “Okay, so since we’re not getting anywhere with this. Want to help me out with a tracking spell?”

  “Yes. Let’s see if we can’t find your wolf.”

  #

  We gathered the items we needed and had decided on a physical circle in case my magic went crazy or someone attacked me while performing the spell. One of the ot
her reasons I wanted Liz there was so that if something went wrong, she could help me.

  She finished drawing the circle on the back patio of the house, and we welcomed the elements in as we pushed our power out into the circle.

  I laid out the map and the cutting from Simon’s shirt. Taking a deep breath, I went to prick my finger with the tip of the knife, but Liz put a hand on my wrist to stop me.

  “Let me do the blood work. Even the tiniest drop can be draining if you’re not careful.”

  I wanted to do it. I wanted to be the one that controlled the spell. I took a moment to struggle with my feelings, and in the end, I handed her the blade. I wouldn’t be any help to Simon if I was drained dry of magic while trying to find him.

  “Good choice.” She pricked her finger, and we both chanted the Latin words to the spell as the dots of blood landed on the shirt and she wiped it on the map.

  We waited for a moment. The smear didn’t move at first. It laid there, three red lines turning brown as it dried on the laminated map. My heart fell. The spell failing typically meant one of two things.

  He was being protected magically.

  Or he was dead.

  I turned away from the map as I tried to force myself to grapple with the reality that I might have lost someone else in my life. Someone close to me. Someone I loved.

  Liz put a hand on my arm. “Abby, look.”

  The blood turned red again as if fresh and inched across the map of the state, leaving a trail behind it. It curled around a tiny city in the mountains. I frowned. “Why on earth would he be out there?”

  “I don’t know, but we have a location. Travis can sniff him out when he gets up there.”

  “I’m going too.” I looked at the map. “We don’t know what we’re walking into. I can’t let Travis face it alone.”

  She sighed and pulled the circle down. “Abby, we can’t have you running all over the state right now.”

  “Technically, this is vampire business. Simon and Levi are allies. I can’t just leave him sitting out in the middle of some tiny mountain town.”

  Pressing her lips together, she took a moment to think. “First, let’s figure out what we can about this town. If we rush in blindly, we can end up with another Adrianna situation.”