Blood Catalyst

by A. L. Kessler

  Table of Contents

  Blood Catalyst

  Acknowledgments

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Connect with me Online

  About the Author

  Other Series by A.L. Kessler

  Blood Catalyst

  Here Witchy Witchy Book Eight

  A.L. Kessler

  Copyright © 2019 A.L. Kessler

  All rights reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced without the author's expressed permission.

  Editing: No Genre Left Behind

  Formatting: Imagine Ink Designs

  Cover Art: Steve Rice

  To Mom

  Acknowledgments

  A huge thank you to Mia Bishop who helped me with the end of this novel, despite my attempts to keep it spoiler free for her. A thank you to my readers group who keep me motivated to continue writing. Jasmyn with all her wise words, ideas, and PA help, thank you. To my husband for providing me coffee when I most need it.

  CHAPTER ONE

  "Karma, Abigail, killing with magic is punishable by death." The man's voice echoed in my head. No, not man. Demon. He stood in front of me on hunched legs, with red leathery skin and bat-like wings behind him. His eyes met my gaze, and he snarled. I called on my magic, the last bit that I held in me and threw it at him.

  It didn't work. He didn't disappear in flames, he didn't die, and black ran up my arms as I tried to breathe through the panic and pain. The world opened under me, and I tried to reach out for something, anything around me. My hands met nothing as the darkness closed around me.

  I shot up in my bed, clawing at my chest as pain filled it. The panic of a crushing weight kept me from breathing properly. I tried to control my breath. In and out, and with each one I reminded myself that it was just a nightmare. Carson was dead. He couldn't hurt me or anyone else again, because he died by my hand. My magic. I groaned and put my head in my hands. The nightmares had plagued me ever since I had gotten back from Luna Grove. The undercover case that led me to a coven of black magic, the demon who had killed my best friend, and almost killed me with a curse. My PIB paperwork still read that I was on leave.

  At least until they say passed my psychological test I'd taken it last week. I was supposed to get the results today. I glanced at my phone and checked the time. It was still too early for any normal person to be up, but sleep wasn't going to happen right now. All I could hope for was that Liz Jefferson, my lead, would call me and tell me I could pick up my badge. A three-month leave was a bit much. I was ready to get back to work. The only useful thing I had done over the three months was to connect some of the dots in my parents' death.

  I got out of bed and stretched. I padded downstairs trying to be quiet and not alert my housemate, Merick, that I was up. I didn't want to answer questions. It was bad enough that he didn't want me to stay in my own house alone because shit seemed to keep happening to me. Unfortunately, Merick was already standing at the coffee pot in my kitchen making coffee when I got there. His dark hair was messed up, and he had dark circles under his eyes, which was impressive with his already dark skin. I sighed. "Did I wake you?"

  "I'm starting to think that you don't ever sleep, but no, you didn't wake me. I had an early call with my father, and I heard you stirring, so I thought I'd make you coffee." He looked at me over the counter. "Nightmares again?"

  I looked away from him. "Nothing to worry about."

  "Nothing to be ashamed about, Abigail. That demon almost took your life. Twice. Nightmares are bound to happen." He turned and got a mug out of the cupboard.

  "Not joining me for a cup?"

  "I was thinking about going to back to bed, but if you want company, I'll stay up." He waited for a moment while I debated my answer.

  "I'm just going to be downstairs going over things on the board. You know what's down there, so it's up to you if you want to join me or not."

  He turned back around and grabbed a mug for himself as well. "Tell me about your nightmare."

  "Same shit, different night, Merick. Like you said, it's normal." I crossed my arms. "The best I can do right now is focus on something else."

  "You aren't back on PIB yet, it's unlikely that a murder is just going to fall into your lap." He filled the mugs and went to get the creamer out of the fridge.

  I leaned on the counter. "And that's exactly why I'm going downstairs to look at my board and see what I can do about that."

  "Three months, Abigail, and you haven't gotten much further." He poured the creamer in my mug and then went to get the sugar.

  At some point over the last year, this just became normal, to have him make us coffee while we talked about work and other things in the world. Merick originally disguised himself as a cat to protect me, on his father's orders. Lately, he'd been spending less time in cat form because he'd found a nifty spell to keep the vampires from popping in and out uninvited. It had made my life much more peaceful and my home safer.

  "If your father would just give me all the information I need and stop trying to bargain with me, then maybe, just maybe, I could make some more progress." I grabbed my mug and headed toward the basement door.

  I opened it and waited for him to go down first. Merick walked down the stairs, and I followed, careful not to spill the coffee. We both sat on the couch that was in front of the pinboard.

  The pinboard was attached to the wall by nails and spanned most of the wall in length. It had two timelines on it. The top one was the timeline of my parents' death. I had a picture of a crown in the corner with a question mark on it. I knew exactly who it belonged to, so did Merick, but I couldn't risk anyone else knowing that it belonged to Levi. I knew he was the one who found my mother dead along with Tobias, the man I thought was my father.

  That was another piece of information I left off the board. I wasn't supposed to even mention or hint to the fact that Levi was my biological father. Each bit of information I gathered was on the board in the form of sticky notes. Clarissa, my best friend, had been at the house that night to free me from the magical circle my mother trapped me in to make sure I was safe.

  My uncle had a question mark on his sticky note because I had no idea where he was when my mother was murdered, and I had never gotten the chance to ask him. His card was above the timeline, held with a push pin.

  Merick's father now had a sticky note of his own, also with a question mark on it, because he had something to do with the deaths. He had followed someone's order to have my mother and Tobias executed on false charges - meaning they went against something the Cult of Ra found against their own code of what magic should be used for.

  The second timeline was the many attempts on my life or when I was taken by Ira. I still had it up because some things just weren't adding up. Ira had his own sticky note on both timelines. He was apparently my mother's lover at one point, he was Levi's brother, and he was one giant asshole.

  Nick, my old partner, had a sticky note, that had alive written on it, but a question mark still remained because I didn't know how he played into any of this. He was off to the side because I wasn't sure exactly where he fit in. And the newest card was the assassin that tried to kill me three months ago, the day-walking
vampire that Merick's spell saved me from. That card was placed on the lower timeline from when Ira's attacks had started. They could be related or not, but I wanted to see the timeline and the new vampire was going to be a problem.

  Samuel. The motherfucking daylight-walking vampire.

  I leaned back on the couch and sipped my coffee and took in all the information that was on the board. "You father never gave me information after I got back from Luna Grove. I basically solved your Cult case for you."

  "He's been talking to the others and negotiating how much information he can give you." Merick held his own coffee. "I wish I knew what the information was, so I could help you with this."

  I glanced at him. "Why would you want to help me with it?"

  "Because it's consuming your life, Abigail. And you shouldn't let the past do that." He sipped his coffee. "Do we know where Mario was the night your parents were killed?" And just like that, we weren't going to talk about what problems he thought I had but go straight to the problem that was literally in front of me.

  "I don't think he was around then. I'm not sure how long Mario has been with Levi. He just showed up one day and they were the best of buddies." I shrugged. "Mario is his guard, that's all I know."

  "Levi was made king not long after you were born, so that means Mario was probably around. Might want to look into that." Merick sipped his coffee.

  "What we need to know is who gave your dad the command to kill them. Why would he blindly listen to such an order? Did he know my mom?" I sighed and shook my head. "I just want to know who killed them."

  "What do you hope to accomplish with that information?"

  I studied the mocha color of my coffee. "I'm hoping I'll find peace knowing who did it and maybe why."

  He was quiet for a moment. "That may not be a road that you want to go down, Abigail. Just like with Clarissa's murder, you may not find that peace."

  He was right. I was finding more of a nightmare than peace after killing her murderer. But I had killed him for my own survival, not revenge. There was a huge difference between the two.

  We sat there in silence staring at the board and saying nothing. I tried to run different situations over in my head. I know my mother had been in the spare room upstairs that they had used as an office. I'd seen that in a trace spell that had gone that far back, but magic prevented us from seeing anything more.

  Tobias had summoned a demon, that had been used as an excuse for the Cult to come after them.

  My phone rang, breaking the silence of the room. I glanced over to find that Merick had actually fallen asleep with his head tilted back against the couch. I grabbed my phone and answered it as I jogged up the stairs so I wouldn't disturb him.

  "Abigail speaking."

  "Sorry Abby, I know it's early, but your test results came back." Liz's voice came over the phone. Her words made me hold my breath. I prayed to the goddess that I was going to be able to return to work. All I wanted to do was go back to being a normal PIB agent after my crazy undercover case. "I expect to see you in the office by eight. Your badge will be on your desk."

  I couldn't help the sound of joy that came out of my throat. "Oh thank the goddess."

  "Were you worried there for a minute?"

  "You scared the crap out of me. Who the hell calls someone before typical coffee time?"

  She laughed. "I was hoping to give you time to get into the office. You're all clear Special Agent Collins. I'll see you in a couple hours." She disconnected the phone, and I ran upstairs to my room to get ready to return to work.

  ∞

  I finished getting ready for work and went downstairs to the main level to find it still empty. I assumed that Merick was still taking his little cat nap in the basement, so I did the only courteous thing I could think of. I wrote him a note telling him that I was going into the office. I walked out to my new car with my phone in one hand and not paying attention. I texted Simon to let him know that I was going into work and I'd call him later to let him know how it went.

  I bumped into the front of the car and sighed, reminding myself to be more mindful. I'd only had this car a couple months. It was paid for in full because of the insurance claim on the last one, which was blown up by a magical spell. It wasn't in the best shape. It had some hail damage from a couple storms back, but I'd gotten it for a good price. It ran, and if something happened to it, I wasn't out a ton of money. Best of all, it was a dark blue, and I loved the color.

  I got in and started the car. I wasn't worried about it exploding because the magic spells around the house were pretty damn tight now with the new one Merick added. So nothing unwanted, human or otherwise, was getting close enough to put something on my car to cause it to explode. I pulled my car out of the driveway and onto the county road leading to the highway. I moved outside of town into my parents' old house after my house in the city imploded. It was far enough away from people that if something like that happened again, there was less chance of people being hurt. There was also less chance of people just stopping by. I liked it.

  I passed a small pull-off that held a white car. The moment I passed, the car pulled onto the road and came up behind me. I tried to ignore the edge of paranoia that crawled through my body, leaving a trail of goosebumps on my skin. There were a few other houses on this road. The car probably belonged to one of them. Or it was someone who was lost, and they had pulled off to use their GPS. At seven in the morning.

  I took a deep breath and just did what I could, continue on the way to work. I occasionally checked my mirror to find the white car behind me on the highway, and then on the exit. My heart pounded as it followed me onto the road that led to PIB, but it disappeared when I pulled into the parking lot.

  I put my car in park and took a few minutes to breathe and push the anxiety away. The car was probably just going downtown. There were a lot of office buildings in this area. It had to be just a coincidence that it followed me. I gave it another couple of minutes before I looked around the parking lot and got out. No white car, just a few SUVs that probably belong to agents.

  That was a good sign. I shook my head and walked into the building. Agent Liz Jefferson was standing in front of the reception desk with her arms crossed. Her hair had grown a little bit, enough that she had to pull it back away from her face. She was shorter than me but held herself in a way that people knew there was no messing with her. Typically it was the receptionist that greeted me, but I was willing to be that Liz had my badge so I could get past the receptionist.

  Liz looked me over once and then twice. "You still look like shit."

  I shrugged. "I'm just tired. I've been stressing over the results since I took the test. That doesn't lead to restful nights. But I passed the test, and now here I am. A bit tired but nothing a little coffee can't handle."

  She snorted and tossed me my badge. "Welcome back Special Agent Collins, you've got paperwork on your desk already." She handed me a key card, and I slid it into my pocket. "You're all set to be back on duty. Boss Man wanted me to put you strictly on desk work for the first few weeks, but I convinced him that you were fine. You're ready to get going."

  Boss Man knew that the leave of absence was for an undercover job, so I was sure that the conversation was just for show. There was worry about someone corrupt in PIB, so we kept the undercover case on the down-low.

  I ran up the stairs to get to my office. Two flights, taking them two by two. I was excited to get back to work, to bury my head into something other than my parents' murder and to be out of my house.

  My feet skidded to a halt just down the hall from my office. Someone stood there, leaning against the door that led to my office. I slowly approached the unknown person. They had a hat pulled down low, shadowing their face, and a jacket on that fell down past their knees. I cleared my throat. "Can I help you?"

  They turned to me to show th
at they had a little visitor badge pinned to their jacket. They looked up and their gaze met mine. Black streaks crossed their pupils, much like Merick's when he performed questionable magic.

  I swallowed any signs of fear or surprise that I could. The shape of the person's face gave no hint if they were man or woman, nor did their body. I was captivated by the eyes though, such an open sign of practicing black magic.

  "Special Agent Collins. I'm here to ask a favor of you." Their voice sounded a little distorted, and I was wondering if their voice box had been injured at some point. "My priest insists that you are the witch for the job. I need you to hunt down a member of our Cult."

  Oh no, I knew exactly where this was going. "Tell Seth that I don't work for the Cult."

  "So you know where I am from?"

  I nodded. "The only priest that would send you my way is Seth."

  "I'm not here for a favor for Seth. I'm here for a favor for me."

  I glanced around the hall. "We shouldn't be talking about this in the hallway. Let me get into the office, and we'll chat a little bit, but understand, I can't take on unofficial jobs, everything has to go through PIB."

  "I want it to, or I wouldn't have left a paper trail of being here." They flicked the badge.

  I nodded, but I wish Liz would have warned me that there was a random visitor up here right already. "Come on in then." I swiped my key card, and the door clicked open for us. I walked in and smiled at my doll still sitting on my desk waiting for me to come back. The pink flamingo I had was moved to the side of the door with a note taped to its beak saying, 'welcome back.'

  I grabbed the note and shook my head on my way to the desk. The glass windows behind my desk gave me a beautiful view of the mountains, but I kept my back to it most of the time. I sat down in my chair and put the paper on my desk. "What can I do for you?"

  They sat down in the chair in front of my desk and eyed the doll for a moment.