“Huh? Any relation to Emerson Donaldson?” Cham asked, clearly thinking immediately of the researcher for the Wizard Guard that he and Annie both worked with.
“I knew you’d ask that. So I pulled all Gila Donaldsons. There’s only one in the United States. Based on age, birthday, address, etc., it is Emerson’s grandmother.”
Annie and Cham exchanged surprised glances. “Thanks, Bucky. Was there anything else?” Annie asked.
Bucky typed away at his keyboard as he always did when they spoke. “That’s it. I have copies of the mortgage and note for confirmation. Was there anything else you need me to search for?” he asked.
Annie looked at the phone. “Nope. The Donaldsons are descendants of the original coven so we’ll have to play it differently. It’s odd though,” Annie said thoughtfully.
“Yeah. I thought so too. Bit of a coincidence if you believe in them. Anyway, if you need something else, let me know. And feel better soon,” Bucky added and hung up.
Annie played with her phone for a moment, assigning a meaning to the new information. “What do you think?” Cham finally said.
Before she could answer, Spencer and Gibbs entered the room.
“You look marginally better.” Spencer sat in the chair to her right. “You were about to answer?”
Annie chuckled and grimaced as she shifted positions. She was growing stiff in the neck, back, and legs from the fight with the demon. “Get a load of this. The house is owned by Gila Donaldson, Emerson’s grandmother,” Annie said.
Both Gibbs and Spencer took a moment to digest that tidbit. Annie bent at the waist and touched her toes. Still uncomfortable, she leaned against the bed again, struggling to find a comfortable spot.
“So, if we don’t believe that’s a coincidence, what are we thinking?” Gibbs asked. He leaned against wall of the room, his thick arms folded across his chest.
“I smelled mullein in the front room.” She summoned her crystal and tossed it to Cham. “It’s definitely black magic.”
Cham looked inside the crystal before handing it to Gibbs. He waved his palm once before giving it to Spencer.
“You think Gila Donaldson summoned a regenerating demon?” Gibbs asked.
Spencer handed the crystal to Annie, who tossed it in her lap. “Someone conjured a demon. Was it her? It’s not a stretch, seeing that she purchased the house,” Annie concluded.
Annie closed her eyes when she saw spots floating in front of her. A dull ache formed at the back of her head and was creeping to the top of her head, threatening her forehead. She touched the hard knot at the center of her forehead and grimaced.
“You’re tired. We should go,” Spencer said.
“No, it’s fine. Just a bump and a dull ache,” she said.
“No, we’ll go. I’m heading to the library to get a handle on the regenerating demons,” Spencer said.
“There’s more,” Annie said. Exhaustion finally had a grip on her, but she needed them to know this. “Sturtagaard was outside the house when I got there.” It wasn’t good news; the three men looked at her with surprise, worry, and anger.
“Now, why is he involving himself?” Cham asked, his jaw clenched. He tightly held the arm rests of his seat.
Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up.
“I’m not sure how he’s involved. He said a few weird things. First, he told me I have a part to play in this,” Annie began. She looked at Spencer. The two of them were fond of each other and enjoyed working together. At the mention of Sturtagaard, he seemed rather upset, his hands balled into tight fists.
“A part to play in what?” he asked. After spending a week in France babysitting the vampire, neither he nor Annie was happy at the prospect of doing it again.
Annie shrugged. “Beats me. He wouldn’t elaborate, feared he said too much.” She rolled her eyes before looking at Cham. Annie had only shared the next piece with Cham and Gibbs, and couldn’t bear to look at Spencer.
She carried the letter from her dad in her field pack. Now with Sturtagaard’s words, she wondered if her part in whatever this was had something to do with her father’s warning of a prophecy.
“He also said I would be safe in the thunder,” Annie said.
Gibbs and Spencer looked at her suspiciously.
“What the hell is he planning this time?” Gibbs asked.
Annie summoned the letter from her dad and handed it to Spencer. “I found Dad’s missing case file. This was in it.” She glanced quickly at Gibbs and dropped her gaze.
Gibbs pretended to read the letter over Spencer’s shoulder. When they finished, they exchanged glances.
“I would’ve ignored the vamp until reading the letter,” Gibbs admitted. “Outside the house owned by Donaldson, a descendant of the original coven. Odd coincidence.”
“You don’t believe in those,” Annie reminded him.
“I don’t either. I wonder though, if this has something to do with why we can’t stake him,” Spencer said.
Annie hadn’t thought of that. It was a bone of contention with the wizard guards; after all of the problems he caused over the centuries, it was forbidden to stake the vampire and no one knew the real reason.
Annie yawned.
“We should go,” Spencer said and handed her the letter.
“Girl, get better.” Gibbs kissed her temple.
She watched them leave.
“It took a turn for the odd,” Annie mumbled.
“Worry about it in the morning. Get some sleep.” Cham ordered with a smile. He watched as Annie fell into a restless sleep.
*
Familiar, worried whispers tempted her to consciousness. Annie’s eyes flickered, their images became clear to her. She kept her eyes closed, feigning sleep; she wasn’t ready for family just yet.
But Annie couldn’t hide from Cham. “You’re awake,” he said drawing all attention back to her. She pouted for his benefit as they descended on her, the family that she and her sister Samantha created after their parents died. Kathy and Ryan couldn’t help it; she was as important to them as they were to her.
“Good, sweetie. You’re awake.” Kathy planted a kiss on her cheek and pulled her into a hug. “I hear it’s not so bad. They’ll release you tomorrow.” She smiled at her goddaughter. Kathy and Ryan had been her dad’s best friends. Annie had known Kathy her whole life, and had anyone ever asked, Kathy’s face was the only face Annie saw when she thought of “mom.”
“Feeling better?” Kathy asked hopefully.
“Yeah. Tired is all,” Annie said.
Ryan sat at her feet. He was the man who kept her from falling to pieces when her father died. He hid his emotions behind his smile; all she had to do was look in his eyes to know he was worried.
“Annie.” Ryan squeezed her foot. “I thought this was a quick capture,” his voice quivered though he joked.
“Why shouldn’t I have any fun?” Annie replied.
Though she felt better, her body ached from her feet to her head, something a strong pain potion would eventually take care of. She fidgeted with the bed controls, trying to find relief as well as avoiding eye contact with her sister, who glared at her uncomfortably.
“You had to go up against a seven-foot-tall demon?” Samantha finally said.
Annie stared at her sister, frowning. “If I knew my magic wouldn’t affect him, I would’ve waited for backup. We took him down, so he’s off the street. Besides, I’m fine. You guys came and visited. Go home, eat something good. Think of me.”
“We just wanted to make sure you were okay. And you’re relatively okay. Though you really need to stop falling on your head.” Kathy winked.
“I’ll try and remember that when the next demon throws me across a room.” Annie held Kathy’s hand, letting her mother her.
“And just to let you know, Robin is coming home in a few days. I want you well enough to come to dinner,” Kathy said. Her son was, by trade, an adventurer traveling the world in search of rare and dangerous
magical artifacts. He always came home when he found something or if his mother harangued him. Annie wondered which it was this time.
“That’ll be fun,” Annie said. “Anyway, before you all berate me for working or to get me to take care of myself or yell at me, go home. I see it’s night, and I’m fine.”
“Fine, we’ll go. You sleep and rest.” Kathy offered another hug and kiss. “I love you, honey. Sleep well.” Reluctantly, Kathy pulled away. In the time since Annie had found her father’s file and read his note, she missed her parents even more and, in that moment, would have preferred Kathy to stay. She resisted the urge to beg her to spend the night in the hospital room with her.
“Make sure you don’t go to work too soon. Though I know you.” Ryan touched her hair and kissed her forehead. “Love you, sweetie.”
“I love you,” Samantha whispered. It was all she could say. Annie knew that every time she got hurt on the job, it reminded Samantha of all they had lost. Annie felt a tinge of guilt.
Annie waved and waited as they reluctantly left the room, their footsteps growing softer as they left the floor.
“They could’ve stayed,” Cham said.
“When I’m hurt, it causes them pain and I feel guilty,” she said. “Much like how I feel when you first see me here.”
To avoid his gaze, she picked up her phone and checked for messages.
“Expecting a call?” Cham asked.
“Seeing that it’s 8:00 PM, I expect there’s no news from Graham or Perkins yet.” She dropped her phone on the table, it pinged against the metal. “I’m going to Tartarus tomorrow. I want to study that demon,” Annie said.
“I figured you would.” He sat back in his chair as the door swung open once again as Dr. Christine entered to resume Annie’s treatment.
*
Annie finally convinced Cham to leave, albeit reluctantly.
While she felt better, the room was dark, cold, and lonely; she missed his presence, his scent, his touch. But Annie needed time alone to process the connections.
Finding her father’s file, reading his notes, seeing the pictures, and once she found a tape recorder and listened to the tape, forever changed her. She couldn’t un-see or un-hear what it contained. While she was glad to have found the missing folder and know what was inside, she ultimately knew that loading the information on the cassette tape to her phone would be a bad idea. It was filled with such pain, emptiness, and anger that was more than she could bear—and Annie was bearing it alone.
She snuggled under thin covers, inserted her ear buds and tapped on the recording to hear her mother’s voice for the maybe the hundredth time. It didn’t get easier.
“Emily. You died. I saw your body. You were dead!” Jason’s voice rose with emotion.
“And now I’m not,” Emily said.
“Emily, how are you here? Why are you here?” Jason asked, such deep sadness in his voice.
There was a moment of silence between Jason and Emily. Footsteps clicked in the distance.
“Because they… they told me they would hurt Anne Elizabeth if I didn’t come. I couldn’t let that happen. I went with them.” Emily sighed. “Jason, there is so much even you don’t know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? I could have helped you.”
Emily laughed coldly, robotically. “They’re powerful. They had ways to make me see that I needed to leave. Even you, the great Jason Pearce, Wizard Guard, is no match for them. What could you possibly have done?”
Metal scraped against glass. Someone slurped. “You shouldn’t be here,” Emily said.
“I can take you back with me. Now,” Jason pleaded.
“No. What’s done is done. I have a life here. Family who needs me. Even if I wanted to leave with you, I couldn’t. There’s something I’m meant to do. A greater purpose for me. I can’t leave. I don’t want to.”
“You left a family who loves and needs you. Don’t you care about Sami and Annie?”
“If you had left well enough alone, left me alone, we wouldn’t be here now. All you had to do was give them the stones and leave. Why must you make things more difficult than they need to be?” Glass clinked against glass.
“Emily, what did they do to you?” A chair scraped against a floor, a table rattled.
“Let go of me!” Emily’s voice sounded cold, bitter, possibly angry. “Go home. Be with your children before the Fraternitatem kills you. I won’t be coming with you.” Another chair scraped across the floor and footsteps grew softer as Emily seemed to leave and the tape ended.
Each time Annie listened, she shuddered and grew colder. “She didn’t even ask how we were,” she said to herself softly. She wiped away a tear, as she had each time she’d listened. Fewer fell now than when she first listened to the tape. Replacing the sadness was a new round of anger she couldn’t control.
Chapter 4
Twenty feet below the human basements of Tartarus Prison were the demon pits, a noisy, dark, and smelly space created to securely house all demons captured by the Wizard Guard or the VAU. Each individual pit was a ten-foot-by ten-foot square and ten feet deep. The stone walls and floors were covered in a slick, oily substance that kept demons from climbing out. Ever since the prison was built in 1692, no demon had ever been able to leave.
Anyone who entered the stairwell was immediately hit with humidity and an unbearable stench that saturated their clothes and hair. Only the very determined came down to the pits and stayed for any length of time. Most witches and wizards never came down at all, if they even knew it existed.
Annie grimaced as the guard from the Wizard Zoological Society steered her to her demon’s pit. Noomi, a petite woman with long brown hair and light-blue eyes, flashed a smile as she led Annie across slimy, dung covered stones and rotted food. Low growls, angry grunts, and frenzied cries wafted up to them.
“Here you go, Annie. Not sure why you want to see it,” Noomi said. She was dressed for the job in dark coveralls and heavy gloves. She placed her hands on her hips as she waited to escort Annie back out.
“I’ve never seen a demon that could regenerate. I was curious.” Annie crouched low and peered at the creature as he paced wildly. He stopped suddenly, glanced at the smooth stone walls, and felt for a hand hold to pull himself free. The stones, however, were cut in such a way there were no spaces between each rock, and any cracks were self-repairing. In frustration, the demon kicked the wall and continued the dizzying pacing.
“He’s been doing this all day,” Noomi advised.
“Has he said anything?”
“No. He acts humanoid and animalhood at the same time. It’s the damnedest thing.”
Annie took a breath and shuddered. Her body still ached from tracking and capturing the creature. It had been all she could do to convince the hospital she was ready for release, but now that she was down in the pits, she wished she had stayed in the ultra-clean and quiet hospital room.
“Do you mind if I stay for a bit? I’d like to see what he does,” Annie said.
“Suit yourself. I’ll be in quadrant four working on another demon if you need me.” Noomi walked from Annie toward the back of the large pit area; her flashlight bounced as she walked.
Annie sighed, summoned a blanket, and laid it flat on the top of the pit where she took a seat. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop observing and studying the creature.
Where did you come from?
The more the demon paced the pit, the more frustrated he became. With nothing else it could do, the demon ran at the wall and gave it a heavy punch. The force was so strong the stone cracked and loose debris clinked against the floor. Seeing the foothold, the demon punched the stone several inches above the first hole.
But this was Tartarus Prison, a structure designed to hold evil wizards, vampires, and the most dangerous demons of the magical world. Within minutes of the stone breaking apart, the magic inside caused it to promptly repair itself. The demon yelped and shook out the pain in his hand.
“Hey, Annie,” Spencer called out from behind her. He joined her on the floor. “How are you feeling?”
“Stiff and sore, but otherwise I’m good. No more concussion, no more cracked ribs.” Even as she spoke to him, she couldn’t take her eyes from the demon. “He’s restless,” Annie offered and placed her chin in her hands, resting her elbows on her knees.
Spencer bent at the waist and watched with curiosity. “My target is human,” he said.
“Hmmm,” she murmured. The demon looked at his hands and back to the wall as if planning escape.
“So, what do the human and the demon have in common? Do you think they’re here together?” Spencer asked.
“Well, it appears your target knew the demon. What the hell language was he speaking anyway?” Annie asked.
“I recognized nothing he said.”
“Look at what the demon is wearing? It’s so…”
“It’s not modern. The long tunic, loose pants, primitive shoes. Mine wore boots that were higher on his legs, not these bootie things. Actually, they’re both dressed in similar clothes,” Spencer said.
“Who wears that?” Annie said. She desperately tried to connect the dots and she feared there wasn’t enough information to do that yet. And no matter what ideas she came up with to explain the demon and his presence here, she just couldn’t place the regeneration demon in the pit. She was stumped.
“Cosplay?” Spencer asked.
Annie glared. “Next guess.” He chuckled.
The demon marched along the walls of the pit, turning left at each corner and continuing down the next wall.
“Clothing notwithstanding, maybe your target was the one who conjured the demon with mullein, and it escaped and he was out searching for it,” Annie suggested.
“When we meet with Gila Donaldson, we’ll have to ask her if she knew him and why he’d be doing that in her house,” Spencer quipped.
“Ugh. This demon’s making me dizzy.” Annie finally pulled away from watching the creature and turned to Spencer. “How about we pay a visit to Gila Donaldson and find out what she knows?” Annie’s phone buzzed. She glanced at it. “Actually, Graham and Perkins have something for us. I hope they don’t mind the stench.”
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