Doomed Cases Box Set: The Complete Collection Books 1- 4 & Prequel

by Joanna Mazurkiewicz

  “What the hell is this crap? Did the woman on the phone mention that her friend was into some satanic rituals?” Zach asked, lifting a dead snake off the floor that I only noticed as he pointed it out. This wasn’t good. Humans were oblivious to our world, and Zach wasn’t even supposed to be aware of the strong magic in the apartment.

  “I don’t know, but this doesn’t look good,” I said, smelling the other flasks. Some of them were filled with mongrel’s blood that was more than likely obtained illegally. Jessica was in a right mess, but I suspected that she wasn’t part of it anymore. A demon who had George was using her apartment as a lab.

  Zach went to look around, leaving me alone with my racing mind. Whatever George was part of wasn’t good. Now it was quite clear why Lucifer wanted to find him so urgently.

  “I might have something here,” Zach shouted from the kitchen. I wiped the sweat off my forehead and headed to see him. He was looking at a calendar that was tacked to the wall. Today’s date was circled with dried blood and there was a note next to it.

  “Cemetery, 4 p.m., don’t forget girl,” I read it aloud, leaning over Zachary. A second later, he was typing something into his phone. I didn’t understand why all the humans were so obsessed with technology these days. I hated having my phone on me all the time.

  “There is a cemetery close by, at least a mile away,” Zachary stated, looking at what seemed a map on his phone. I checked the time. It was half past three. I didn’t want to leave such dangerous potions near humans, but we had to get down to the cemetery to check the next lead. Maybe Jessica was meeting someone there, maybe she was still alive.

  “All right,” I agreed, thinking that this was a bad idea. If that demon was planning something at the cemetery, then I had to make sure Zach was out of sight. His mind had already been pushed to it limits, thanks to his mystery demon tampering with him, and I couldn’t risk exposing him to anything that couldn’t be physically explained. Sometimes demons used the human energy that remained in corpses to find an alternative way down to Hell. Mongrels weren’t allowed downstairs because they were classified as second-class citizens. Watchers were responsible for taking care of order on Earth, and at times if any mongrel pushed their luck and did something that exposed the demonic world, the Watchers stepped in and dragged them down to Hell for interrogation. They had their ways of punishment, and no one really knew what waited for mongrels down in Hell.

  Zach took some photos with his fancy phone, probably for the evidence. The police were going to swab the place. I suspected that eventually Watchers would show up. They were also responsible for keeping humans from knowing about the other world, from any supernatural exposure.

  The blood on the floor belonged to Prince George too, but I didn’t need to tell Zach. My head was hurting, as my overactive energy rolled down my spine. There was a possibility that I could be called down to the underworld to provide a full report of what I had discovered. This wasn’t something that I wanted, but Zach was pumped. He wanted to check the cemetery.

  We left the apartment several minutes later. Zach called for backup; his team of officers were going to sweep the place for evidence. He seemed positive that the prince was close by.

  It was already getting dark and the temperature was quickly dropping. The housing estate seemed deserted, immersed in a gloomy silence. It seemed like the humans were sealed in their cosy houses, compelled to stay in tonight. Those familiar bad feelings kept stirring my gut. Normally I wouldn’t pay attention to these odd sensations, but Zach was agitated, too. The homemade lab led me to believe that we were dealing with someone very powerful, someone who had nothing to lose.

  It had gone completely dark by the time we reached the cemetery, after walking for what seemed hours. The gate was open, and an absolute silence had descended over the area, sending chills through my body.

  “Where to?” Zach asked.

  “Let’s look around; if she is still alive she must be here somewhere,” I said, concentrating on the emotions nearby. I sensed at least two people further up, between the graves. Zach and I spread out, crossing the pass and the creepy graves. I was never a big fan of being around dead people. I still remember staring down at my mother’s sullen dead face in the church, trying to grasp the reality that she was long gone.

  The air buzzed with electricity, and my breath became laboured. A moment later, I felt a wet patch on the back of my neck. The small drizzle quickly turned into a heavy rain. I got soaked within seconds, shaking with cold and unexplained exhaustion. Thunder and lightning lit up the sky, and the tiny sparks of power somehow alerted me to the presence of a demon.

  Then I felt it. Someone was high on magical charms, filled with advanced elixirs. It was a male human; his circulation was poor, and his mind completely confused. A second later, I saw a figure beyond the steep hill several meters away, standing by a tomb. It took me a moment to recognise a human woman. She was staring down at someone else. That other person was below, like he was in a hole or an open grave, and it looked like he was digging something in the ground.

  The rain was pouring down, heavily and I had to keep wiping the water off my face to see more clearly. Zach joined me when I lowered myself down, hiding behind an old tombstone filled with unlit candles.

  “There is someone down there, possibly two people,” he said, narrowing his eyes and pushing away his wet curls. It was difficult to see exactly what was going on in front of us, even with my excellent vision. The rain blurred out most of the view, and I was hoping to sense a demon, someone who was tampering with the two humans by the tomb.

  “We should move closer, but we don’t want to scare them,” I said gathering the energy inside me. Zachary took out his gun and readied it.

  “The woman out there is probably the girl from the apartment,” he said quietly. His agitation grew, and suddenly it shifted into red hot anger. Pure fury hit me hard, turning my stomach upside down.

  “You two, turn around now. Slowly, or I’m going to blow your heads off,” shouted a stranger’s voice behind us.

  Slowly, Zach and I did what we were told. With heavy rain obscuring my vision, I could still see that we were surrounded by three human men, all of them high on drugs. That’s who I sensed just a second ago, but I was still filled with magical tequila that dulled down my abilities. One of them was holding a gun, and he looked like he wouldn’t hesitate to fire. A second later, the woman further down had spotted us. I turned my head just in time to see the young human climbing out of the hole with a shovel in his hand, noticing all of us for the first time. There was no doubt that it was the missing Prince George.

  Chapter 20

  “If you follow your natural bent; you will definitely go to heaven”

  ― Dante Alighieri

  Zachary cursed under his breath but didn’t drop his gun. I had to make a split-second decision, either to use my powers to get these morons out of my way and keep chasing after the prince or let him disappear. I didn't think that these men were in any way linked to the missing royal. Their thoughts would give them away otherwise. Questions kept rushing through my mind. There was no way that my excellent vision could have misled me. Prince George was at the cemetery, most likely under the influence of the human woman from the apartment.

  “I’m a cop, you fucktards, so I suggest you drop that gun and walk away,” Zachary shouted. Yeah, he wasn’t really helping the situation. That insult only made the guy holding a gun even crazier. On top of that, I had heard in his thoughts that he hated cops.

  I glanced back, seeing that Jessica (well, I was certain that Jessica was somewhere in the body of a demon who was likely controlling her) was shouting and pointing at the prince to move. I chewed on my bottom lip, concentrating on the strong current of my demonic power, calculating the risk of using it against humans. The burst of energy made the tiny hairs on my body rise.

  The man with a black moustache and long untidy hair, the one holding the gun replied to Zach, “I don’t believe y
ou, arsehole. My sister’s grave was vandalised. We caught you, and now we’re going to deal with you accordingly.”

  My skin was itching to hit them with a strong bolt of energy, but I couldn’t let myself be exposed. This whole situation was beyond comical. The rain kept pouring down, and I couldn’t see well through the streams of water. There was another demon in the vicinity. I felt him or her leading the prince away from the cemetery.

  Zach’s anger escalated, and he gripped his gun tighter. He was ready to shoot these idiots and I couldn’t let him do that. His career would be on the line and I still wanted to live.

  “You fucking arseholes, you will be rotting in prison for obstruction of justice. We are on a case here,” he shouted furiously. Then too many things happened all at once. First someone—and I had no idea who—fired a gun. Then a loud terrifying scream spread over the whole cemetery. I struggled to remain on my feet, suddenly showered with waves of my own light energy. I was able to gather it from the Earth, from every living being, from water that ran beneath the ground, from leaves and plants. I felt it surging through me, igniting my demonic soul to action.

  I brought my hands together, making time pause in its natural moment. Now I had more than enough time to destroy the flying bullet and deal with the human, but bending destiny like that was going to cost me big in the long run.

  Everything stopped—the small dots of rainwater had been suspended, the air shifted, and all the humans around me became frozen statues. It took me a second to realise that the bullet was heading straight in my direction. I was going to die here, in this wet cemetery. I had never truly experienced using my abilities to this extent. The demon nearby was watching, sensing the fact that I was breaking all of Lucifer’s rules, just to save myself and possibly Prince George.

  I knocked Zachary off his feet, moving at least a meter away from the speeding bullet. Those couple of seconds gave me enough time to reboot time again. I screamed at the top of my lungs landing on top of Zach, reaching for the energy of the storm. The light pulsated, became more of a living entity as waves crossed over, feeding me with bits of nature’s power. Lightning slashed its angry light through the sky and then I summoned it. My fingertips were red as they throbbed, and tiny wisps of smoke began drifting away from my arms. The lightning hit the human man who fired the gun, but the impact knocked the others off their feet.

  My eyes started to glow, as I shot back on my feet, feeling the enormous power of my energy begin tearing my flesh apart and joining itself with my demonic soul. Two humans who landed on the soaked ground were screaming their heads off.

  I didn’t even realise that Zachary was fully conscious now, staring at me with his eyes wide open. The pain eased off as the power slowly faded away. Mist began covering the entire space, drifting through the graves. I had brought it in, so whoever was watching couldn’t see what I was planning to do next. A second later, the bullet hit the grave behind me, missing my hair by about an inch.

  “Your eyes, Maxine, your eyes are glowing,” Zach shouted. He shot back on his feet and lifted his gun. We didn’t have time to play this game right now. The prince was already out of sight, somewhere behind the cemetery walls, and Zach was ready to shoot me on the spot.

  My head was banging loudly, and for the first time since I came back, a human had witnessed the real me. This whole thing was supposed to turn out differently. Zach was meant to be knocked out when I landed on him, so I could deal with the rest of the guys.

  “Zach, put the gun down. We have to go after the prince!” I shouted back, wondering if he was really ready to kill me. His mind was confused, convinced that I was the cause of his partner’s death.

  “You were one of them this entire time. I knew there was something wrong with you,” he shouted. The other two guys stopped moving and that wasn’t good. Zach was ready to blow my head off. He believed that I was evil, that he was finally seeing the real me.

  “I’m Maxine. You know me. Just put the gun down, so we can talk about it,” I said firmly. A haunted look crept into his eyes right before he averted his gaze down to my hands that were most likely still sparkling. His dark eyes turned into the furious shade of liquid tar, as his mind filled with dark images of his partner spread over the bed, her wrists were sliced, sheets soaked with blood…. The prince didn’t matter anymore.

  “Witch, you’re a witch, like the rest of them. The government is twisting our minds, but I finally know the truth,” he kept mumbling, shaking the gun right in front of my face. More humans were on their way and I couldn’t let him ruin us both.

  I concentrated and froze the bullet in his gun with the magic that was still alive in my sore fingertips. He pressed the trigger convinced that he was doing the right thing, and I covered my face with my palms, ready for the worst. The gun didn’t fire, so I took this opportunity to jump and deliver a roundhouse kick that would knock the stuffing out of him and leave him disorientated.

  He was lying on the ground, touching his face. I reached out and grabbed his hand. A second later my wet palms connected with his cheeks, and the words started floating out of me before my mind could process what was happening.

  “You made a mistake; I didn’t do anything extraordinary. The thunderstorm hit the tree nearby, distracting the guy holding the gun and he fired it accidentally. The bullet nearly hit me, but now everything is fine.”

  His pupils were dilated, and his eyes darkened as he ran his thumb along my face. I was in his head again, easing the anger slowly until I saw that one covered-up memory from the past that someone replaced with the image of his dead partner.

  “Hey, Cora, I brought your favourite chocolate cake, the one that makes you extremely horny,” I shouted through the threshold, knowing how much that kind of thing wound her up. This whole thing between us was very new, but somehow exciting. We started sleeping together over the past few weeks, after I made a move on her in the car.

  First, I thought she would slap me, but she kissed me back instead. This wasn’t something that I planned; it was a spur of the moment thing.

  My mother kept nagging me, saying that I would end up alone, never marry and never settle. There was some truth in that, because I’d been enjoying myself a bit too much, partying most of the time and sleeping around. Women liked the fact that I had a badge, that I wasn’t looking for anything stable.

  I walked into the living room, smelling an odd burning scent, suspecting that she most likely ruined our dinner for tonight. Being in the kitchen wasn’t one of her strong suits. There were masses of paper lying on the floor, the sofa was turned upside down.

  Something was wrong. I took out my gun moving forward. There was an intruder in the house. This area wasn’t one of the safest.

  I started climbing upstairs, quietly, listening in. A few days on the run, Cora had been acting strange. She seemed convinced that someone was after her, telling me that she had been followed home a few times. I kept telling her that she was working herself to death. Sometimes we spent over sixteen hours on a case, driving around the city and checking all the leads. She was drained and needed some time out.

  “Please, no. I didn’t do anything wrong. You can’t take me, you can’t.” I heard her talking to someone. I stopped halfway up the stairs, wondering what the hell was going on inside her main bedroom. There was someone there with her. I swallowed hard forcing myself to move.

  Another voice spoke. “You broke the rules of your faction. Leviathan needs you in the underworld. There is a new army being formed. You cannot say no; this is your duty.” The man, whoever he was, wasn’t from around here, and he had an unrecognisable accent. The lights from the candles flickered, and an odd terrifying sensation rippled through my spine. My grandmother had told me that there were things in this world that couldn’t be explained. Somehow, she fucking sold me her sixth sense.

  “But I paid off my duty. Leviathan cast me out a long time ago. You can’t just expect me to go back. I have a life here on the outside.”

&
nbsp; “That’s true, but you have broken the rules, bedded with a human. Lucifer sends others to pits; he punishes them severely. He doesn’t want to see any more mongrels being brought into this world,” the strong voice stated.

  I shook my head and barged into her bedroom, holding the gun in my hand. My own voice died when I saw Cora naked on the bed with the older, bare-chested guy. There was something wrong with his eyes—they were white, without any pupils. He jerked back with a hiss.

  “So he is the one that services you with earthly pleasures?” the man questioned her, standing up. He was taller than me, wide through the shoulders, and his chest shined with sweat.

  “Zach, leave, please. You don’t want to get involved. There is always a price and I have discarded the rules. I thought that no one would care,” Cora said in a sad tone of voice. She was radiant, her hair sleek, eyes gleaming in the dim light of the room. There was something wrong with the way she was staring at me, with that overwhelming sadness. That crazy-eyed guy most likely had done something to her. This was beyond normal.

  “Get up, you son of a bitch. I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but you have two seconds to get the fuck out of here!”

  Then I felt the pain in my head, gut-wrenching pain that spread to every part of my body. My gun slipped from my fingers and I fell to my knees, screaming in agony. Suddenly the man was standing beside me, and bright yellow light filled the room, but I couldn’t see anything. I was holding my head, wanting to bang it against the floor just so the pain would ease.