I reached over to grab the passenger side door, and Richard grabbed my arm. The pulse of magic shot through my system and grafted itself onto Richard's arm.
He let out a howl as the blue flame licked up his arm and consumed his body. Roscoe grabbed his partner by the chest and pulled as hard as he could to snatch him away from my grasp. I stared in horror as the two vampires liquified in an instant. The water vapor that, just a moment ago, had been two vampires, joined the fog drifting off the asphalt and disappeared. The scales on my arms shimmered and rose ever so slightly off my skin and then smoothed out again.
The blue flame was gone and I had just killed two LAPD vampire goon squad officers.
I revved up the car engine and headed for my office. I need to leave town and tonight. I loved Los Angeles but I wouldn't be able to stay here anymore. Not after what I had done to the two cops. I'd grab the few things of value I could sell and head north. My eyelids grew heavy and the crushing sensation of exhaustion overwhelmed me. I couldn't stop now. I had to get out. Tonight.
2
The creaky elevator doors opened and my heart dropped at the sight of him. I had a good head start but I knew the LAPD would be coming for me. I had a stash of cash under the floorboards under my desk in the office. I figured the cash could get me to San Francisco. I could set up shop there under an assumed name. Maybe I would start a witches brew type of shop peddling love potions and the like. I needed to get out of this detective work. The less contact I had with the cops the better I would be. I would be able to survive, just like the rats did. They always knew who to attach their stars to.
The man hovered by the door and by the look of him, he was a client. He also had no magic around him. It didn't necessarily make him a human but he wasn't a creature either and that worried me. What was a new client doing here? In the middle of the damn night? I stopped a short distance from my shabby office, Wildes Investigations proudly painted in gold on the door. I flicked him a look.
"I'm not taking on any more cases," I said. "In fact, I'm going out of business." I put the key into the lock and opened the door. I didn't have time to wait for him to leave. Unfortunately, he followed me right inside.
"Did you hear what I said?" I asked, looking for any sort of weapons. He didn't look like the type to cause me any harm. He was built lean and no older than 35, wearing all black with pale skin and the most intense green eyes I'd ever seen on a human. Or creature for that matter. His shock of black hair crawled out and made him have a halo of black around his pale face. It was a strange combination but weirdly attractive. His green eyes flashed at me and I wished for the second time tonight that I had a gun on me. I didn't have to use it but I could at least wave it around some so he could leave me the hell alone.
"I need you to help me find someone. A woman named Regina. She's my fiancée and has been missing a week," he said and didn't look to be in any hurry to be leaving.
"I'm closing up shop, buddy. I can send you to one of my colleagues down the hall. He does a lot of missing persons and divorce cases and this kind of project would be right up his alley," I said and took Gus Levens’ card and tried to hand it to him. He stared at my offering and made no move to take it.
"It needs to be you," he said.
"I can't. Sorry. Why does it have to be me?" I asked him and looked at him closer. He didn't look familiar at all and his features were striking enough that I would remember them. What did he mean by it had to be me? On closer inspection, he smelled of money. His black shirt and black pants were made of the finest material. I think I had seen something like that in a fashion magazine. The only people that had money now were the ones who were of the ruling class. Like the Mage of Los Angeles, Jeremy Nottingham, and his entire family. I smelled politics. I could feel the blood draining out of my face as I swallowed down the bile that had come up unbidden.
"I don't want any problems here," I said. "I just want to move on, close down my business, and go be a witch like everybody else."
"But you aren't like anybody else, are you?" he asked and sat down on the chair reserved for clients. He wasn't planning on going anywhere.
"I don't know what you mean. I was a cop. Is that what you mean?" I asked and checked the time. It had been about an hour since my christening of the vampires and I was sure they would have been noticed missing by now. It was only a matter of time before they got the camera footage and saw me being pulled over. I had never bothered to change my tags on my car because I still believed in the law somewhat, stupid as that was. Now I regretted that decision. I had to get this guy out of my office.
"All right, so when was the last time you saw your fiancée, Regina was it?" I asked and sat behind my desk. I ran my foot over the loose floorboard where my getaway money was kept and wished I had gotten here earlier.
"It would have been at least two weeks ago now. She had told me she was going away on business but then when she didn't come back I started to worry. When I went to her apartment I found that she was gone," he said.
"Her clothes were missing?" I asked. I wasn't going to write any of this down but I figured if I let him talk then maybe he thought that I'd take the case. He'd leave and I'd get the hell out of dodge.
"She had taken a suitcase of clothes with her on the business trip so her clothes not being there didn't mean anything," he said. He leaned in, his eyes boring through me. "You're taking my case?"
"Reason I was asking was to see if this one would be a cinch. It's not and no way could I solve it for you in 24 hours. From what you're telling me, this is a lot more expensive and involved. I really do believe that my associate could handle this better for you. I need to be in San Francisco by 4 o'clock tomorrow and I really should get going."
"What's in San Francisco?" The way he asked me that made me take notice. I was missing something very important here. The Mage of Los Angeles and his last decree floated up into my memory and I shivered. The man was frightening and I did not want to deal with any of his minions. The guy sitting across from my desk didn't exactly look like a minion. But there was something I wasn't catching that was biting me in the nose. I got up to go and waved towards the door. I didn't have time to deal with this. And this guy scared me.
"I really must be on my way. Really, honestly I can't take your case. I can't help you," I said. And waited impatiently for him to get up. To my dismay, he stayed exactly where he was. And then the thing he said next stopped me cold.
"I know what you did to those two vampires a couple hours ago," he said. His facial expression didn't change and I worked hard not to fall over. This was a set up and I had walked right into the middle of it.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied.
"I believe that was you at the Pritzker hotel with Roscoe and Richards. They called me right before they stopped you. I have the correct information," he said. With my heart pounding against my rib cage and feeling faint enough from the shock to pass out, I stumbled back towards my chair. I hadn't yet been hit by the exhaustion that typically happened after I used that other magic of mine, and I had hoped I'd be able to sleep in my car. I wondered now if I'd be in jail.
"They provoked me, and I can't control my magic. I warned them and they came after me anyway," I explained and hated myself for giving him even that information.
"I wanted them to bring you in so I could speak to you. You are really the only one that can find Regina for me." There was that case again. Now, that I knew he was in league with the LAPD I wanted nothing to do with this. He might as well take me to jail right now.
"I'll turn myself in," I said.
"I didn't ask you to do that," he said. I noticed that I had finally cracked through his stoic demeanor. He looked positively pissed.
"I'd rather go to jail than help you with this case," I stated flatly. That got him out of his chair.
"Do you know who I am?" He hissed at me.
"I know that you went through an elaborate scheme to get me to take the case. Which means t
hat this case is filled with a steaming pile of shit and I am going to be the one holding the shitbag when it all comes crashing down around us. I don't do politics. I try keep my head down, and I get people divorces. Maybe play Robin Hood here and there. That's pretty much all I'm in this game for. If you had done your homework, you would know that about me. I don't do complicated."
"You aren't doing too well, are you?" he asked and gazed around my shabby, dirty, low rent office. It was in a crappy part of town, fine. But I didn't care. I just wanted money to eat.
"When you have standards, sometimes the money doesn't come," I snapped back at him.
"Standards like blackmailing a client to pay you?" He had all the answers. I must've been under surveillance for quite some time and they must've heard what had happened in the hotel room. I didn't really care because the guy was a creep anyway but what was more concerning was that I was on people's radar. Radar that I did not want to be on.
"I needed to get paid. He didn't want to pay me and so I went looking for the money myself."
"If it's money you want, money I have. If you had said that at the beginning, this could've been much easier," he said.
"I don't want your money. I don't want anything to do with politics," I said again through gritted teeth.
"This is about your partner isn't it?" He asked and I kept my mouth shut. It was none of his damn business what I did with my life.
"I'm not taking this case so I'm not sure what you want to do. I will turn myself in for zapping those two vampires and take whatever consequences come my way. Or you're just gonna let me walk out that door and go to San Francisco and never hear or see from me again. Your secret is safe with me, I don't know who this Regina is, I don't care who she is, I don't care if she's dead. I want out of it." I stood up to go and figured that if he called my bluff that I wouldn't need the money anyway. If he did let me walk through that door, I would come back later through the window.
"This isn't how I wanted it to go," he said.
"What did you expect when you had me roughed up by two vampires before getting here. I'm going to leave town, because I zapped two LAPD officers, not that that's what they really are anymore, are they? But I'm not going to get involved in that," I said and felt the first dabs of guilt. This was never what I had been. I joined the LAPD to get justice for the little guy. I loved being a cop. Until the unveiling of course. And then I was just one small person against a whole lot of madmen and I knew it was going to be a losing battle. Justice was no longer part of the institution that ran the city, state, or country. Peters, my former partner, would be so disappointed in me.
"Would it help you to know that Regina was part of the resistance?" he asked with an arched eyebrow. I already knew who Regina was. Everyone was looking for her.
"I don't want to take sides. I'm not part of the resistance. I'm not part of the establishment. I'm just a girl trying to eat." I didn't want him to see my shaking hands or the tremors that had started up. Exhaustion from my ordeal with the vampires had hit me and I was using every bit of power that I had not to pass out while I stood right in front of him. I paced back and forth hoping that the kinetic energy would keep my eyes open. I felt like I was losing the battle.
"I can understand you're in shock," he said. He stood up as he said this and caught me as I started to sway towards him. My body had betrayed me. I shoved him away and hit the wall and slid down it, my eyes already closing.
"You're in shock, and the amount of magic that it takes to zap two vampires was a thing to watch. I understand that kind of magic takes a toll. I'll give you til tomorrow at noon to come to your senses," he said stepping over me.
"I'm going to turn myself in," I mumbled.
"Maybe in the harsh light of day, you'll change your mind," he said. He flicked the card onto my lap and as my eyes started to close I took a look down at it. My eyes widened as I realized who I had been talking to. The mage's one and only son, Damian Nottingham, supposedly the most powerful wizard in all of the United States. He wasn't what I would expect somebody so evil to have spawned. He didn't have the air of narcissistic abuse around him. But then he was trying to block me and force me to take a case I didn't want.
"You call that number and this whole thing with the vampires will be all forgotten," he said.
"Forgotten? They were LAPD cops," I slurred. I was trying to keep my mental facilities around me but it was becoming harder and harder.
"Let's just say they were moonlighting for me. My father always says vampires are easily expendable."
"I'm sure that the vampires would be saddened to hear you talk about them in that way," I said and felt my eyes closing. His eyes came into focus as he leaned into me. "You will take this case, Mabry Wildes," he said and then was gone.
I dragged myself to the door but I couldn't get up. The shock overwhelmed the last reserves that I had left. I wouldn't be able to leave tonight. I was doomed and would turn myself in. I would disappear, just like everybody else. That would be fine but I wouldn't give up the few last principles that I had. Especially if this Regina was as important as everyone said she was. I wouldn't be complicit. I might be a guilty bystander but I would not be complicit.
3
I came to by a shaking on my shoulder. My eyes fluttered open and someone I hadn't seen since my old life peered closer and opened my eyes with her fingers. She was the wife of a colleague of mine, Detective Marcus Shale, and we had been close before Peters' death and my leaving the force. I hadn't stayed in touch with her either and I had always regretted the way that I had left. I shook my head trying to get rid of the fog that was clouding my mind and tried to get up. Leslie's hand pressed me on my shoulder and prevented me from doing so.
"Not yet. The magic you used has sucked much of your life force out of you. You're going to need a couple more hours with the help of my healing spell to really move as quickly as you just wanted to," Leslie said. The unveiling revealed she was a powerful witch. Marcus was a werewolf and the couple had known about each other when they married years before the unveiling uprooted all of society.
Marcus decided to stay on the force, especially now that he was able to use his talents as a werewolf in policing. I wasn't sure what Leslie was up to, but last I heard she had opened up a shop on La Brea Blvd. It had become a go to place for all sorts of spells, potions, and materials for spellcasting. Her hands began to make small circular motions as she chanted a healing spell under her breath.
My mother had taught me that same spell, and if I had any energy on me, I'd be able to cast it myself. But I lay there like a lump, as a faint green mist appeared at her fingertips and started to move toward me. As it came closer, I closed my eyes and felt the faint water droplets on my skin. It felt like when the rain mists and cools your skin without getting it truly wet. It smelled of growing things, earth, and life. I breathed in deep and started to immediately feel better. I stayed like that for several more minutes until I felt energy shooting through my arms and legs.
"You should be able to at least stand up now," Leslie said and I opened my eyes. The glare from the fluorescent bulb on my ceiling made me squint as Leslie held out her hand for me to take. I did and she heaved me up. I swayed back and forth a little, trying to gain my bearings. The buzzing from the lamp reminded me of how much I had wanted to change that last week. Without the money, I had to deal with the ugly, blue light and the constant buzzing in my ear. It was a good thing that most of my cases took me outside of the office because otherwise I would go crazy listening to it.
"You know how long I've been out?" I asked her and as the words were leaving my lips I realized that she would not be able to answer that question for me.
"I got here about five minutes ago so the last five minutes is all I can tell you," she said. I checked the time and it was already way past midnight. My brow furrowed. What in the world was Leslie doing in my office?
"I'm not sure how I can thank you for your help. Most likely, I would've been lying here
all night if it wasn't for you," I said and then the memory of what had happened outside of the Pritzker hotel flooded my mind. The two vampires scorched, Damian's proposal, and the fact that I had to leave town like two hours ago. And now here was Leslie. This couldn't be a coincidence.
"Is this about a case?" I asked her as I made my way to the chair behind my desk. I could still smell Damian in the room. I couldn't have been out that long.
"Sort of. Marcus sent me here. He's been working on a case, and well, he needs your help. He sent me here to find you. I used the cloaking spell to make sure that I wasn't followed," Leslie said. A cloaking spell? That didn't sound good.
"Leslie. It's so good to see you but I wish that it was under different circumstances. Unfortunately, my magic went haywire again and I hurt two LAPD vampires. I'm surprised they haven't come for me yet. I was thinking of going up to San Francisco and-" I stopped myself. Damian smelled of money and politics and I didn't want to involve Leslie and Marcus into that mess. The less they knew about him the better.
"Is that the reason why you were passed out on your floor?" Leslie asked.
I nodded. "The Fae side of me doesn't come out very often, but when it does, it lands me on my back," I said. "I haven't exactly been looking for a mentor to help me control it and really it only comes out when I'm in danger. These vampires looked like they were going to cause me a lot of pain, maybe death. I truly believe they wished me harm. Or at least I'd be disappeared like everybody else has in this town." Leslie grimaced and sat in the chair that Damian had occupied just hours ago. His green eyes flashed as the memory of him made me feel funny. There was something wrong with that guy. Wrong in the way that I couldn't stop thinking about him. That worried me because that hadn't happened before. At least not with this kind of staying power.
"Is Marcus anywhere nearby?" I asked, getting back to the subject. If I was going to get out of here in one piece, I would have to leave soon.
A Case of Magic: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Wildes Chronicles Book 1) Page 2
