"Grocery shopping?"
Well, I was going to pick up creamer and some whiskey. "Yeah, we'll call it that." I sat down on the couch and Osiris jumped up on my lap, I stroked his thin fur, because that's what one did with a cat…even if the cat was human most of the time.
I flipped on the TV, and the first thing that came on was the news.
"PIB arrived at the scene in record time for a murder described as horrific and bloody. There is no doubt that black magic was involved. Police and PIB have not released the name of the victim, but the scene of the crime was at the Dancing Fairy shop in Manitou, so speculation is that it was the owner of the shop. Rumors say that she was involved with sketchy magical practices-"
I threw the remote at the television, but Levi caught it before it hit.
"She wasn't involved in anything sketchy. Fuck the media."
Mario wrapped an arm around me, and I pushed him away. "I don't want comfort right now."
"Abigail, control," Levi reminded me, but I didn't want to have control right now.
But again he was right. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I took another one and felt myself start to break down again. I couldn't afford this. I needed to focus on something else. I opened my eyes when Levi touched my cheek. "Grief you can afford, anger you cannot. You're safe to break down."
I glanced at Mario and then to Levi. "I cannot afford to look weak."
Levi did something he rarely did. He pulled me into his arms, and even though I tried to push him away, he held me until I broke. I sobbed in his arms like a child, babbling about how it wasn't fair and how I shouldn't have to lose the one friend I had who had no other motives than just to be there.
∞
I didn't know how long I let Levi hold me, but exhaustion had taken hold by the time he let me go. I lay on the couch and let Mario stroke my hair while I closed my eyes. No one said anything, and I wasn't rushing to break the silence. Levi draped a blanket over me, and Osiris curled up on my hip.
"Your cat has become friendlier." Levi sat by my feet.
I knew it was because Merick was eavesdropping for information, but Levi wasn't aware that Osiris was Merick. "He's becoming used to people."
Mario stood, gently moving my head from his lap. "I'm going to go to the store. You're exhausted, and I believe that's what any gentlemen would do for their lady."
I didn't roll my eyes because he was trying to be helpful. He was trying his hardest to make this facade work and not piss me off. "Thank you. There's cash in my bag if you want it."
He gave me a look that clearly said he didn't. I expected Levi to leave as well, but he stayed. Something unsaid hung in the air, and I wondered if he was debating on spilling some big secret. Levi finally sighed and patted my ankle "I'm going to stay until you fall asleep. I don't think you should be alone."
"I have my cat."
"He is a cat." Levi shook his head. "That isn't exactly protection."
Little did he know. "Okay, really I just plan on lying here and trying to process."
Levi sighed. "She was a good woman, and we both know that she would never have gotten mixed up in that."
I gave a small nod. "She was looking for a spell to keep vampires from popping in and out. The last time I saw her, she'd dropped a potion off for pain after the case with the doll maker." For a second I thought I felt Levi cringe a little.
"That didn't lead her to this."
But I couldn't believe him. I closed my eyes. "When is my trap…I mean meeting with Ira?"
"Rest, don't worry about it right now." He kept his hand on my ankle, just a comforting touch to remind me that he was there. "A few hours of sleep and then you can think a little clearer."
I hoped he was right. Sleep started to drag me under. There's nothing like the exhaustion of a full-blown breakdown. It was rare that I had them, but it didn't mean I was a stranger to the after effects. My last thought before slipping into dreams was to wonder what Ira wanted with me and why Levi had agreed to the meeting in the first place.
Blood surrounded me as I looked up from my position in the room. I stood in the middle of an upside down pentagram with glowing runes around me. The same one I'd seen at Clarissa's shop. Voices screamed and echoed around me, calling for her, looking for her as if she were lost.
"Clarissa, where are you?"
"Clarissa, can you hear us?"
A shattered mirror appeared in front of me. I looked at the cracks running through the reflection of my face and blinked. Suddenly my face was replaced by my mother's, and the voices changed.
"Elizabeth, where are you?" Levi's voice first.
"Elizabeth, can you hear us?" Ira's voice next.
"Abigail, oh Abigail…," my mother's voice called out.
The pentagram disappeared, replaced by terrifying creatures. I had changed too, back to being a toddling child, trapped in the corner by terrifying beasts. Red eyes stared at me as blood dripped from the snouts of half-formed werewolf and human faces. Their lips snarled at me, revealing almost vampire-like teeth.
"Ira, please I'm begging you." I heard my mother's voice. "Don't hurt her."
Ira's laughter made me cover my ears and press against the wall behind me. Levi appeared. I threw myself at him, and he wrapped his arms around me.
"Toying with the life of a child, that's a new low, even for you."
"Levi, the now suddenly moral vampire." Ira laughed. "I'll take everything from you one day." Ira faded, and somewhere in the distance, a door slammed.
I jumped up and tried to relearn how to breathe. Levi was no longer with me. I tried to place the sound of the shutting door as I wiped a small drop of sweat off my forehead. No one had walked in and out of the house because the alarm didn't go off. My magic tingled a little bit, and I shot off the couch. The basement.
I ran to the door and found it closed, but I knew someone was down there. I sprinted down the stairs to find Levi standing in front of my investigation board.
"You've made a lot more progress than Mario and I have." His voice was soft. "There are some gaps in yours that Mario has filled, but not up on his board."
I pressed my lips together. "Think he'd be willing to share?"
"No, I think you need to stay far away from it." He shook his head. "Abigail, you don't want to go down that path."
"Except I do. Because I know there are details that everyone is hiding from me." I glanced at him. "You don't know who killed my parents."
"No, or I would have had them killed by now." He crossed his arms. "Mario is working on it because I want Elizabeth's and Tobias' killer brought to justice."
I pressed my lips. "I could do a trace spell if Oliver was around. We could figure it out in a matter of minutes."
Something crossed over his face, an emotion he couldn't hide, but I couldn't read it. "I don't want you to watch your parents' murder."
"You forget that I deal with murder for a living." I crossed my arms.
He was silent for a few minutes. "I don't trust you to not go after the killer."
"I have more control than either you or Mario think." I turned back to my board.
"You have two timelines going. A picture of Merick and a question mark on Nick. It's not just the murder you're trying to figure out."
I laughed. "Yeah, but the other one was to figure out who was trying to kill me. I'm pretty sure it's Ira now." I left it at that, not answering about Merick's picture or Nick's. "Why don't you head back to the mansion? Mario will be back soon so I won't be alone for much longer."
"Are you sure you're okay?"
I nodded. "I'll be fine. I promise. Mario will be here until sunrise, we'll watch some movies, try not to kill each other, and then tomorrow I'll go into the office."
"Abigail…"
"I need to do something normal, work is normal. I have permissio
n to look into some old cases, so I'm going to work on those until something else comes up."
He gave me a doubtful look but then uncrossed his arms. "Your word you will not go near Clarissa's case?"
"I'll be lucky if I'm not at the top of the suspect list." I tried to make it sound like a joke but failed miserably. "I'm going to be just fine. I promise. I'm not going near the case."
He gave me a one-arm hug before he disappeared. I slowly worked on pulling the pictures down from my board. I really could have used the spell to keep vampires out of rooms and my house so I could actually have some secrets. It wasn't more than ten minutes before I heard Mario let himself in and disarm the alarm.
"I'll be upstairs in a moment." I gave one last look at the pictures and headed back up the stairs.
Mario was putting groceries away, and I had to smile at how normal it made him seem. "Thank you for going shopping for me."
"I doubted that you were actually going to do it, so the only way to make sure it'd get done was to go myself."
I rolled my eyes. "You know, I do know how to take care of myself."
"Some days you do a fine job of showing that."
I didn't miss the sarcasm in his voice and turned away. I didn't know what to say to him. "What do you know about this meeting with Ira?"
"I know that Levi has avoided telling you for a week now because he thinks sending you is not the right move."
I pressed my lips together. "It's not typical of him to give into threats like that, and I'm concerned that I'm walking into a trap."
"Those were my thoughts as well. You'll be on your own; I can't go with you."
That wasn't really comforting either. "But if he really does still have my blood…there are some nasty spells out there that can be used to harm me." I touched the pentagram around my neck. It was my mothers, and in theory, it should be able to protect me from such spells, but it was never a promise.
"Then you have to go." He sounded so calm and so civil about it that it was throwing me off guard.
"Not once tonight have you told me I was being irrational, stupid, or putting Levi in danger. Why?" I put my hands on my hips as he turned around and started to make me a fresh cup of coffee.
Osiris jumped up on the counter and Mario tried to shoo him away, but the cat just batted at his hand.
"Can I not just be nice?"
"You can be, but normally it's only when it suits you." I watched him take care making my coffee to my expectations. "So what do you want?"
He turned around and put the mug in front of me. His eyes darting to the gun still there.
"Oh come on."
"I've been invited to go to an…event at Hannah's." Hannah was his creepy maker.
I raised a brow and pulled my coffee toward me. "Tell her no if you don't want to go."
"You don't turn down an invitation from your maker."
Vampires were fickle creatures apparently. Can't kill your fledglings, can't turn down an invite from your maker…rules, rules, rules. "Does the King have the right to refuse his maker?"
Mario glared at me. I wasn't supposed to mention the king under any circumstances. "I can't answer that."
I tried not to roll my eyes. "Okay, so how long are you going to be gone?"
"I would like you to come with me."
I almost dropped my coffee. "I'm sorry what?"
"It's a ball to celebrate Keira coming home." His voice made it sound so simple, but there were so many things in that sentence that were wrong. "It's a ball, which means a fancy dress, Keira is going to be there, which means creepy vampire child who hates me, and Hannah is going to be there."
He nodded. "That is all true, but it would mean that Hannah would have to follow certain rules when it comes to you and me."
It took me a moment to try and decide what he was saying. "You're scared of her."
He met my gaze, and I expected him to deny it. "Absolutely."
I took a moment to consider my options. "When?"
"Three nights from now."
Wow, he was cutting it close, wasn't he? "Okay, but you have to promise that she won't touch me, neither will the creepy mini-vampire."
He chuckled. "I will keep you safe." That was the best I was going to get from him, and I knew it.
I lifted my coffee. "Someone opens my vein, I'm going to stab them."
"And I wouldn't expect any less."
∞
A knock on the door woke me up. I found myself draped on the couch and a blanket on top of me. I must have fallen asleep while Mario and I were watching television. Luckily for me, my sleep had been a dreamless one. I pulled myself off the couch, grabbed my gun off my counter and holstered it, and checked the security camera.
Liz stood there waiting patiently. The clock on the screen said it was just after eight. I was late getting into the office, but I highly doubted that's why she was knocking on my door.
I disarmed the alarm and let her in. "Good morning."
"Morning, Abby." She held up two coffee cups. "I come bearing gifts."
I smirked and took one from her. "I have a feeling this isn't a social call, but the coffee is a nice touch."
She followed me into the living room where we both sat down on the couch. "I wanted to talk to you about Clarissa."
"Media grabbed hold of the case and went running with it. Said she was wrapped up in black magic." I tried to keep the anger out of my voice.
"You sound like you don't believe them." Her voice was calm, careful not to give away any emotion of her own. It was the same trick I used when I interviewed people.
I shook my head. "Clarissa's aura was pure. She'd never touch black magic; she'd never consider doing blood magic, or anything that's in a gray area." I sipped my coffee. "She was much more about helping people than harming them. She was a master at potions; she read tarot cards flawlessly." My voice hitched a little bit remembering the last reading she'd told me.
"I'm sorry, Abby. I know this is hard." She patted my knee and leaned back on the couch. "Do you know if she was working for anyone? Someone else who might have been mixed up in something bad?"
I shook my head. "No, she was looking for a spell for me, but it wasn't something that would have led her to this. Occasionally she does work for the local vampire, but nothing dangerous."
"I'll need to talk to him."
"His number is on file." I studied the lid of my coffee. "Is that all you came here for?"
She shook her head. "Remember the reason we moved you to the Black Magic task force?"
"The real reason, or the reason that ended up on the paperwork?" I met her gaze. "Because they are totally different."
She laughed. "The one on the paperwork."
"Because I have experience and I'm familiar with different rune languages." As I said it, I knew exactly why she was here. "You have to find a different expert. I can't be near this case."
"I cleared it with Boss Man; I can pass the runes by you to see if you know them or can send me in the right direction."
I felt that lump in my throat form. I knew I was going to agree because I would do anything for Clarissa. "Did you bring pictures?"
She dug through her bag and handed me a folder. I opened it, and the eight by ten glossy photos made me cringe. The blood had dried, so it was a dull brown against the floor. Judging by how clean the lines were, someone had taken their time in painting the runes. I'd seen them somewhere before, a vague memory in my brain. I looked past the fancy swoops and swirls and looked for the underlying base that would give me an idea of which coven or which country the runes came from.
Something clicked in my head. They were the same runes that the high priest of the Cult had dropped by a few months ago.
Chapter Two
"Abby?" Liz asked after a moment.
"I've seen these bases before. I need to contact someone to see
if they have information."
"Anything you can share?"
I shook my head. "He asked me to look into the runes because he couldn't figure them out. With some help, I've managed to find the base, but not the origin or the meanings."
Osiris jumped up and started pawing at the photos. I flipped through them knowing that he wanted a glance. "That's all I know right now, but if I have a breakthrough on them, I'll let you know."
"One of the officers suggested that it might have been the Cult of Ra."
I shook my head. "No, the cult has a different base, I've seen an older version and a newer version of their runes, this isn't it."
She tried to shoo the cat away. "I can't leave these with you, but I'll get approval to make copies and drop them by your office. Are you coming in today?"
"I was planning on it. I fell asleep on the couch last night and forgot to set my alarm."
"Oh, were you watching TV with a special someone?" she joked. "I know you're dating that vampire."
I tried not to roll my eyes as I stacked up the photos and put them back in the folder. "Yeah, he stayed over, and I fell asleep."
"Does he stay over the day?" She sounded genuinely curious.
"No, we're not really to that point yet. I like to take it slow." I stood. "If there's nothing else, I need to get ready."
She stood up as well and took the folder back from me. "I'll see you in the office."
Except she should be out of the office running down leads, talking to others who knew Clarissa. I opened my mouth to say something but then clamped it down. Liz knew what she was doing. I had to trust that she could handle Clarissa's case.
"Don't worry Abby; I'm doing everything I can." Her words were so perfectly timed that I wondered if she was able to read my mind.
She walked to the door, and I followed her. I disarmed the alarm and let her out. "I know you will. This one's just too close to home."
"Don't worry; we take care of our own." She gave me a little wave as she left and I shut the door. I found myself wondering why she drove all the way out here just to show me photos. Maybe she didn't think I would come in today and she needed to make sure that I saw them.
Everyone has Their Demons Page 2
