I parked in front of his house and stepped out of the Hummer. Magic marched up my spine in the form of pinpricks. Just a warning that something was being performed in the area. I narrowed my eyes as I approached the house. I knocked and there was no response. Tried the doorbell. Nothing. Not even a voice from the intercom. Maybe he was too deep into the magic to break away to answer the door. I tried the knob and found the door open.
I stepped in and shut the door quietly behind me, feeling bad that I might have interrupted a powerful spell. The door clicked shut, and a painful scream echoed through the house. The magic hit me hard, slamming me against the front door. I felt another wave coming and threw up a protective circle. The purple light surrounded me but rippled as the magic hit it. The scream came again. My gut told me I needed to leave, but I couldn’t just leave my uncle to deal with whatever he was fighting against.
I took a step forward and focused on moving my circle with me. It was something I had only done a handful of times, but with practice, I’d started to get better. My phone chirped in my pocket. I pulled it out to glance at the screen and saw a text.
“Leave.”
It was an unknown number, but I knew that it was my uncle. I wasn’t sure how he managed to text me something while he was dealing with the waves of magic, but I wasn’t going to question it. I waited for the last wave of magic to fade. I pulled my magic back into me and raced out the door, slamming it behind me. The magic faded completely by the time I reached the Hummer. My hand hesitated on the handle of the vehicle. I could go back in and check on Oliver, or I could listen to the text and leave. I pulled out my phone and replied to the text.
“WTF is going on?”
There wasn’t an instant answer, but I wasn’t expecting one. He’d get to it when it was convenient for him. I started the car and tried to squash down the dark feeling in me. I knew what it was. Black magic. It left a trail on my aura like slime. Something was going on in there, and Oliver didn’t want me to know what it was. It wasn’t out of character for him, so it wasn’t anything for me to be paranoid about. But seeing as he had wanted me to call him earlier so that we could discuss what he needed to tell me and now he was suddenly practicing black magic when I should have been calling him didn’t bode well.
I pulled the Hummer away from the house and tried to forget about what happened. Dwelling on it wasn’t going to do me any good. Instead, I turned my mind back to the board that I found in Mario’s guest room. The investigation board had connections listed to the king, to my parents’ case, and to the blood-starved vampires. I didn’t know what my parents had to do with it, but I had something else to add to my own investigation board. Connections that I hadn’t made yet because I lacked the information.
My phone rang about halfway back to my house. I clicked on the hands-free system in the car. “Agent Collins speaking.”
“Oh Abigail…” It wasn’t a voice that I knew, but the phrase was one my uncle often used when speaking to me and I’d done something that he thought was stupid or something that surprised him. “Why were you at your uncle’s house tonight?”
“Who am I speaking with?” I tightened my grip on the steering wheel and looked for somewhere to pull off. This wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have while driving. I’d already almost lost my life to a car accident once and I didn’t want to repeat the experience.
“Of course you don’t know my voice, we’ve never actually spoken.” He chuckled and chills slid over my back. “I’m Ira Diaz, and I heard you were looking for me, little witch.”
My stomach dropped and I pulled onto the shoulder of the highway. “And what are you doing at my uncle’s house?” So it had to have been Oliver’s magic that I felt. Vampires weren’t normally witches, there were very few in history and many of them had gone mad because the magic tried to fight to keep them alive while the vampire blood fought to kill their body.
“The same thing Tomes was doing at yours. Trying to convince him that I have Levi.”
Which meant that he didn’t have him. Perfect, he’d just outed his own lie. “Oliver didn’t buy it either, did he?”
“No, but he provided me with a very valuable piece of information. Abigail Collins,” the name rolled out of his mouth, and I hated hearing it in his strange accent. “I may not have Levi, but he’s not in his territory, which means that I can cause all the chaos I want here.”
Over my dead body. “You’ve never dealt with me, have you, Ira? Have you seen what I’ve done to those who’ve worked for you?”
“As a PIB agent, your hands are tied by the law.”
I smirked and I wish he could have seen it. As a PIB agent, yes, my hands were tied by the law, but as someone who worked under Levi, I had a few other things I could do. “Oh Ira,” I mocked him. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”
“I think I know more about who I’m dealing with than you do. Your uncle has been…detained. I suggest you don’t come after him.” The line went dead, and I took a deep breath, trying to calm my pounding heart. I couldn’t go after Oliver, and I knew that he could handle himself. What I needed to do was start going after Ira in between pieces of my cases. Without a partner, it’d be easier to look into things and follow up on leads without suspicion following me.
My thoughts turned to Nick, he was something else that I needed to follow up on, but he could wait. If he was really alive, I had a feeling he’d reach out to me when he was ready. Like sending his ID to my uncle. I threw the Hummer into gear and went back onto the highway. I was going to put a bullet through Ira the next time I laid eyes on him. I didn’t care if I was following the shoot first ask questions later model, I was going to shoot the bastard.
I pulled up to my house and jumped out of the Hummer. My emotions buzzed with my magic and I tried to regain control. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Oh, Abigail.”
My uncle’s voice made my eyes open. I drew my gun and raised my brows. “How did you beat me here?”
“You can put that away. Ira’s not behind this. I passed you on the highway, and I parked down the road as to not draw suspicion in case someone was to pass your house to see if you or someone else was here.” He held his arms out. “I’m unarmed and you’d know if I was planning on using magic.”
I holstered my gun and let out a sigh. “What the fuck was going on?”
“I don’t have much time, but I can tell you this. Ira is determined to get you to leave the country and go after Levi and Mario. You must stay in the states. You’re safe here. Ira can’t touch you.”
I shook my head. “You’re not making any sense. There’s nothing here that would keep Ira from killing me if he wanted.”
“You’re right, but if he kills you on American soil, there are consequences he must face. But if you’re in another country there’s nothing for him to answer to.”
“The vampire king—“
“Is a useless bastard. Abigail, listen to me. Stay here, stay safe. I have to go before Ira realizes that what he has isn’t me. He was hoping you’d come after me. You’re a smart witch. Keep that up.” He turned away from me.
I reached out to stop him. “You were going to tell me something at your house. What was that?”
“Now’s not the time. I should have told you when I had the chance.” Something akin to pain crossed his face. “It never should have been hidden from you, but I can’t tell you now. Stay safe.”
He walked away without looking back, and I resisted calling him back. Levi was gone, Oliver was gone. What the hell was going on? Loneliness suddenly overcame me. I could survive without them; hell, I had managed twenty-five years without Oliver in my life. Levi though… The mansion was empty, and it didn’t really feel like home without him there to greet me.
I went to my door and punched in the key code to unlock the deadbolt. I walked in, dropping my bag by the door. Osiris meowed at me, coming around the corner. I picked him up and scratched his ear. “At least you’re acting normal,” I mut
tered and put him down.
My phone rang again, and I let out a dramatic sigh. “Really people?” I answered it. “Abigail Collins speaking.”
“We have more bodies.” Mason’s voice came across the receiver. “Well…kind of.”
“I’m not in the mood for riddles. I’m exhausted. What do you mean kind of?”
“We have heads and pelts. Come over to the warehouse district?” His voice left it a question, but he knew I wouldn’t deny him.
I rubbed my eyes. “Yeah. I’ll be there in a bit. I just got home.”
“Long night?”
I snorted and grabbed my bag. “You have no idea. Don’t let anyone touch anything. Not even forensics.”
“How come?”
“I want to see if there’s anything there that I can use to perform magic. I need some sort of break in this case before more lycanthropes end up dead.” I couldn’t imagine the panic Simon must be in. “Has anyone contacted the alpha?”
“Yeah, he sent his second to the scene. Apparently, he was dealing with pups.”
Interesting, Simon said they didn’t have any pups earlier and that he was heading back to his house. “Pups? Did they say when the pups got there?”
“I didn’t ask Abby, I’ll see you soon.” The line disconnected and left the house. It looked like this was going to be another case that I didn’t get to sleep during. Coffee. I needed to pick up coffee on my way to the warehouse district. I looked back at Osiris in the window. He sat there with his green eyes trained on me as if he was waiting for something. I shook my head and drove off.
I realized as I got to the warehouse district downtown that I didn’t know where I was going. Mason hadn’t specified, but it wasn’t hard to find. There was a crowd surrounding one of the buildings, and I made a noise of disgust. Human curiosity was one of the worst things about this job, the only thing that topped a morbidly curious crowd was the press. The worst being the tabloids. The one person I didn’t see in the crowd was Stephanie, the tabloid reporter who seemed to make it her job to make sure that I was on as many front pages as possible. I parked the Hummer and jumped out. I adjusted my badge so that I could get through the crowd without too much of a problem.
Most of the people parted as I walked through and a few of the reporters snapped pictures while they tried to ask me questions about the situation. I didn’t answer anything for fear of giving some wrong impression. I ducked under the crime scene tape and walked to the big open doors of the warehouse. The metal arch reminded me of an airplane hangar, but the building was empty except for the cops and forensics that were buzzing around doing their jobs.
Travis stepped up to me. “Do you have any ideas of what is going on yet?” His voice held a growl to it, but I wasn’t going to back down or respond to it. He was just using scare tactics; there was nothing he could do to me because it would risk the case.
“I’m working on it and chasing down a few leads.” I kept my voice calm. “Now if you would excuse me, I’d like the see the crime scene.”
He stepped aside and I walked past him to find Mason standing over the scene. Little yellow markers dotted the ground with black numbers. Forensics may not have touched anything, but they weren’t wasting any time. They marked evidence, and a couple of them were taking pictures, working around Mason.
I stepped up to him and looked down. Two human heads sat looking up with dead eyes. The look of horror was frozen on the faces. One white male, one black male, both had five o’clock shadows over their open jaws. Blood dotted the corners of their mouths. Behind the heads were two black wolf pelts. The size was right for werewolves. “Fuck me,” I muttered. “I just turned in a pelt to the lab. I’m betting these were done the same way.”
“Care to share?” Mason asked.
“Werewolves shift back to human form when completely unconscious or dead. Which means…”
“They had to be alive and awake for the fur to be skinned off.” Mason shook his head. “Torture.”
I nodded. “I’m betting this wasn’t done in any humane way. So now we have someone who is torturing the wolves before dismembering them.”
“Did you figure out the tool that was being used to kill them?” Mason looked back at the heads.
I knelt down and pulled gloves out of my bag before rolling the head over. I saw the same marks on the neck bone. “We have a theory, but I don’t have all the evidence to back it up yet.” I shook my head. “Jason was a great help with that. He worked closely with forensics, but it’s not something that I want the press to get ahold of.”
“It’s something that would cause a mass panic then?” Mason guessed. I didn’t have to look back at him to know that he was serious.
I took a deep breath and flipped over part of the pelt. “I need these fingerprinted and tested for anomalies in the blood samples. Maybe I can get something that belongs to our murderer.” The dried blood had turned to a brown color against the skin. I didn’t know much about how things played out when it came to blood splatter and skinning, and it was honestly something I never thought I’d have to deal with.
“I’ll make sure the guys keep this away from the press the best we can. We don’t want panic about people skinning werewolves.”
“Collins.” Travis’ voice came from behind me. “Skinning wolves?”
“There’s an ‘agent’ that goes in front of that name.” Mason reminded him.
He wasn’t having it. He stared right at me as if challenging me. I turned around without responding to him. “I need to talk to the Alpha about the strengths of his people before I can make any more conclusions on what is going on. I’m also going to take another trip to the pack a county over. They may have some insight for me that this pack isn’t willing to share.”
“You don’t need to speak to him about that. I can give you the information that you want.” Travis put a hand on my shoulder, and I shrugged it off.
He did it again, digging his fingers into my shoulder and skin. He spun me around, and I resisted drawing my gun. Mason, on the other hand, had his up and aimed.
I held a hand up. “He’s just trying to show me that he has control here and not me. Which isn’t true.” I met his gaze. “When you learn to respect me and my job, then I will start treating you with the same respect that I have for Simon as the alpha. Until then, I will continue to ignore you.” I picked his hand up by a finger and dropped it. “Touch me again, and I will shoot you.”
He opened his mouth but shook his head. I could see him struggle to gain control of his emotions. “Agent Collins, if you’d like, I can provide you the information that you’re in search of.”
“That’s better, but no. I know Simon has better resources to get me what I need. I’m not just looking into your pack, but others.” I kept my voice even. “Thank you for being willing.” I stepped away from the heads. “If the rest of the bodies show up, please let me know.”
I paused in my walking away. “Travis, there is one thing you can do for me. I need these two identified for me.”
“They aren’t our wolves.”
That threw me for a loop. “I’m sorry, what?”
“They aren’t ours. Walk with me?” His eyes flickered to Mason, and I glanced over my shoulder.
Mason nodded. “If you’re comfortable with being alone with him, go for it. But if I hear gunfire, I’m coming to save you.”
“I appreciate that.” I tried not to roll my eyes.
Mason chuckled. “Not you, him.” He jerked his thumb towards the wolf, and I couldn’t help but smirk.
“Very funny,” Travis said.
I thought it was hilarious. I motioned to the back door of the warehouse. “Let’s go this way or the press will see us together.”
“Don’t want to see a picture of you with a werewolf?”
“More I don’t want to see the headline that will go with it.”
He took a moment and considered me. “Fair.” He walked past me and to the doors. I followed him and reminde
d myself that I was surrounded by people who would come running if I shouted or shot something.
We walked for a couple minutes in silence and passed the burnt warehouse. I smiled at the memory of escaping with my life when Devon had tried to kill me. That was when I had first learned I was an elemental. I was surprised to find that they hadn’t taken the warehouse down.
“You know this place?”
I nodded. “How did you know?”
“Your heart sped up as soon as you looked at it.”
“A warlock tried to trap me in there, burning it around us. I almost lost my life. I took his because he gave me no other choice. He had all intentions of killing me.”
“Do you come across that often?” He shook his head. “Never mind.”
“Devon wasn’t sane. He’d lost his sanity because someone bound his magic. As a witch, magic is my life, it keeps me living. If it’s cut off completely, it can kill me. Devon was bound when he was an infant, then suddenly the bonds were lifted.” I stopped in front of the warehouse.
Travis stopped next to me. “Those wolves don’t belong to us. They were at our pack lands last night with a few pups that they found on the borders of our lands. We took the pups in and offered those two a safe place to stay, but they refused. They were on the move, trying to hunt down something or other.”
Pups. Traveling werewolves. People skinning werewolves. Nothing was adding up. “How long did they stay last night?”
“Not long at all. I was up at the property because Simon wanted someone to look over the territory since you found the pelt.”
Interesting. “Thank you. I need more information from Simon in regards to how werewolves can control changes, so they are only half changed.”
“Why? I can show you.”
I gave him wide eyes. “Do you realize you just moved yourself to the top of my suspect list if you’re capable of that?”
“Yes, but the more you know, the faster you can figure out this case. You’ll be able to keep our pack safe.”
To Skin a Wolf Page 8
