"But he's--"
"No, no he's not. Out you go. You're one of three people trying to claim him. See ya." I put my hands on my hips and he shuffled out of the house. I shut the door behind him and turned to the cat.
"Some people. I swear." I sat on the couch and he came down on my lap. I scratched his ear. "Don't worry, we'll find your owner."
He snuggled down into my lap and meowed and for some reason I had the feeling that I'd be keeping this cat.
I leaned my head back as he started to purr. My phone went off and I fished it out of my pocket with a sigh. "Agent Collins speaking."
"I have some results for you." Jason's voice came across the phone. "That tooth was a human tooth, and you're not going to believe this next part."
I closed my eyes. I didn't want to ask, but I had to. "What?"
"It's from Paul Newel, who's been deceased for a year and a half."
My eyes shot open. "What? How is that possible?"
"I don't know, but that's what it is. The other dental records came back and it's the same case, except they belonged to the corpse we found."
Holy shit, maybe Nick was right. Maybe it was zombies. "Shit shit shit. Okay, thanks Jason. Any chance you know where they were buried?"
"Evergreen Cemetery for our newest. Nick has the name of our first corpse's resting place."
I had it at the office too. Nick had already checked that one out and said he hadn't found anything. "Thanks, Jason. Anything on the vampire victim last night?"
"I didn't get the body, it might have been the M.E. that works with the hospital that got it. You okay? You weren't armed last night."
His concern was touching. "I'm fine. Levi was with me. Let me know if you find anything else out." I hit the 'end call' button on the phone and scratched the cat's head. "Looks like I'm going out, sorry, kitty."
He meowed and moved off my lap. I stood to gather my things. My gun, my badge and of course my backpack.
Evergreen Cemetery was on the south side of town. The property was covered in tall trees and standing headstones. It was one of the oldest cemeteries in town and the grounds reflected that, stone statues of angels and Jesus could be found throughout. I pulled into the parking lot of the funeral home’s office. I stepped out and made sure my badge was visible on my belt, but I grabbed a light jacket to cover the gun at my waist.
I walked into the old stone building and turned into the office. A woman sat there working on the computer. She looked very professional in her blouse and pencil skirt. Her makeup looked almost natural and for a moment she looked like a receptionist from the movies.
"Can I help you?" The tone of her voice welcomed me and I smiled.
"I'm Agent Collins, I was hoping you could tell me the location of a grave."
Her eyes widened just a touch and her gaze went down to my badge. "Of course, what's the name?"
"Paul Newal." I sat down in a chair in front of the desk while she turned to the computer and typed the name in.
She pulled out a paper map and circled the gravesite for me. "Here you go. You're going to continue down the main path, take a left, and stop just after the statue there."
I looked at the map she handed me and noted how many grave spots he was from the road. "Thank you. Can you tell me if anyone else has asked about him?"
"I wasn't here all last week, so I can't tell you and the computer doesn't track our searches." She gave me an apologetic look.
There were other ways to check the searches, but required someone who was more savvy at computers than I was. Unless I had to, I wasn't going to push it. "Thank you." I stood and walked out.
I climbed back into the Hummer and drove down the main road slowly, keeping my eyes out for anything unusual. I'm not sure what I was looking for, but nothing stood out to me on the path. I parked and got out. I stood at the edge of the road for a moment and closed my eyes. I felt a bit of magic, something fading and fleeting from me.
Chills marched up my spine despite the warm air around me. Something had happened in this cemetery, something magical and, judging by the way it pushed against me, I'd say evil.
Nick's zombie theory was looking more and more plausible. I walked towards the grave, counting each headstone that led me to it. The chills became worse, like needles pressing into my skin. I must have been approaching the grave. When I stopped at the headstone the magic was painfully pushing against me, urging me to leave.
The grave looked untouched, all except a strange brown smudge on the head stone. I bent down to take a closer look. There was no doubt in my mind that it was blood. I pulled my phone out and called Detective Mason.
"Abby, have something new for me? I've already talked to Jason." He sounded irritated, but now was not the time to ask why he was in a mood.
"I have blood on Mr. Newal’s grave. You want to send your forensic team down here? Or at least a member?"
He mumbled something.
"Mason?" I prompted.
"Yeah, I'm not buying Nick's zombie theory so I hope you're not jumping on that train. I'll send Mario. You wait for him." He hung up without me even responding.
I stood up and walked around the grave. The more I stayed near the gravesite the stranger I felt. The feeling told me that someone had put a circle around the grave, the magic had been dismissed, but the message was still there. I was not welcomed here. Whoever had performed magic here had left enough behind to scare off most people. I thought about Nick and the last grave. I wondered if he just wasn't able to feel it or ignored it. Or worse, my partner was lying to me.
"What on earth is going on here, Paul?"
As expected, the grave didn't answer. I heard something shift nearby and I put my hand on the grip of my gun and turned towards the sound. Nothing there. My heart pounded as another sound of something snapping came. My gaze moved over the area. I couldn't see anything moving. I glanced up in the trees and expected to see something waiting for me. Nothing but a big old crow sat there.
I let out a breath of relief and went back to waiting for the forensic member. Graveyards were supposed to be holy places, no matter your religion, they were supposed to be peaceful. At this moment it was the opposite. I wanted to run away, back to the safety of my car.
I forced myself to stay there until Mario showed up. The fact that Mason had only sent one forensic specialist told me he didn't take me seriously. Mario nodded his head to me as he walked by and right to the gravestone. I watched in silence as he swabbed the headstone.
"Yeah, that looks like blood." Mario leaned over the gravestone.
I tried not to roll my eyes. "I know, but what I need to know is whose blood. Make sure the lab calls me."
"Mason told us to call him first. Said he doesn't think it's much." He didn't even look at me as he packed his kit up.
I counted to ten in my head before answering. "It's a PIB investigation. Mason called us because he thought it was something supernatural." It wasn't like Mason to try and keep me in the dark; sure, we played hard to get with information sometimes, but never truly held it from each other. Something must have been going on that I missed. What on earth did Nick do to piss him off?
"That sounds like you need to talk to him about that. Because I have my orders." He nodded his head and walked away.
I would have smacked him if I had the chance. No introduction, nothing to go off of and Mason wanted to hide things from me. I'd talk to him about it next time I came face to face with him. I walked across the grass and back to my car. The receptionist was standing by my car, her hands folded in front of her as if she didn't feel the slightest out of place.
"Did you find what you were looking for, Agent Collins?"
Something touched my aura, just the slightest flare of magic. I tightened my jaw and nodded. "I did, thank you for your help."
"Of course, anything to help an investigation." She smiled. "I'm sure I’ll be seeing you around. Seems that two of your recent victims are supposed to be buried here."
I
raised a brow. "How do you know that?" It wasn't information that I had received and wasn't sure if our victims were public knowledge at this point.
"Their family called me to start making arrangements." She said easily. "I came out here to take a few pictures of the empty plots."
I didn't know much about the business so I wasn't sure if that was normal or not. "I see. Well again, thank you." I moved past her and got in the Hummer. I started the car and watched her walk further into the cemetery. I shook my head. It took a special kind of person to work a job that dealt primarily with grieving people, maybe that's what I was picking up on.
I grabbed lunch before I made it to the office. Because of Nick I'd been keeping closer to normal hours for a human, but it was starting to wear on my body. I’d need more coffee to keep this up. I missed my late nights and evening starts. I'd seen more sunlight in the last six months and I now understood why people complained about the heat during the summer.
A rush of cold air greeted me as I walked into the PIB building. I stopped at the desk and noticed Mandy, our daytime receptionist, wasn't there. I looked around for a moment and shrugged. I leaned over the desk and glanced to see if there were any messages for me. Nothing, and the office seemed strangely quiet. The soft sound of the air conditioner was the only thing I heard as I made my way to the elevator. I assumed most people had left to grab lunch. I hadn't heard from Nick all morning, maybe he was upstairs in the office pouting because Mason hadn’t sent him with the M.E. and he’d had to clean up the vampire mess.
Pressing the button for the elevator, I tried not to let my paranoid mind start to wander. The overactive imagination in me pictured zombies crawling down the hall and a crazy necromancer behind them. I rubbed my eyes. Someone grabbed my shoulder and I spun away from them, pressing my back up against the wall next to the elevator. I had my gun out in a blink of an eye and aimed.
Nick stood there with his hands up. "Wow, still shook up?"
I took a deep breath and holstered my gun. I debated on smacking him for a moment, but thought better of it. "The office is quiet and you just snuck up on me. Haven't you learned yet?"
"That you're paranoid as hell? Yeah." He shook his head. "I know you've had a lot going on, but seriously, you need to stop being so trigger happy."
"I'm not trigger happy." I turned back to the elevator.
Nick laughed. "Oh? You don't think so?"
"If I was, I would have shot you." I crossed my arms and waited for the elevator.
He was silent for a moment and I hoped he was considering me actually shooting him. The doors opened as the bell dinged and we both walked in. "Are you okay after last night?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" I looked at him. "Just a few blood-starved vampires. Levi was there and I came out without a scratch. Yes, one person died, but there was nothing I could do for him." Of course, had I taken my gun with me that night, I could have killed the vampires. Possibly saving the man’s life.
He pressed the button for our floor. "I just thought it was strange that Levi was the one who rounded up the vampires, that he took point in stopping the attack."
"What are you getting at?" I asked and leaned against the mirrored walls.
"I've been working with you for six months, not once have you willingly let someone take point in a situation. We work as equals, but the moment you're faced with vampires with Levi you let him handle it."
I clenched my jaw. "I told you last night that I was without my gun. My spare was in the Hummer, I'm not going to be able to take on vampires hand to hand." The doors opened and I didn't wait for him. I shot out of the elevator and towards the office.
"You would have been dead; it's not like you to not be prepared for a situation. Levi clouds your judgment. Did you ever think why those vampires were there?"
I swiped my key card and walked into the office. "The south side of town has a lot of paranormal creatures, especially newly turned vampires or pups."
"Always the logical one." He followed me in and went towards his desk.
"Are you saying that they were after me? Because I can promise you that Levi has nothing to do with it." I sat at my desk and unlocked my computer. Until the lab called back there wasn't much that we could do on our current case except paperwork, but it needed to be done.
Nick leaned against the front of his desk. "What I'm saying is that I think it has something to do with you."
"One, why would anyone send blood starved vampires after me? Two, if those vampires wanted me dead, I'd be dead. There are only so many bullets in a cartridge and they move a hell of a lot faster than me. Three, I trust Levi more than anyone else in my life. If he wanted me dead, he would have killed me as a child." I turned my gaze towards my computer; I'd heard the arguments before. Levi only wanted me for certain reasons or he'd try to kill me eventually, but all the rumors did was piss me off.
"I'm being told that we have to work with Levi on the vampire case. I don't like it; he should have nothing to do with human task forces."
I rolled my eyes. "Look, the human government says we work with the supernatural government, Levi or not. If you don't like it, see if we can pass the case on."
"What do you think?" He asked and I wondered if he was waiting for me to jump to the defense of Levi or if he wanted me to tell him how I was secretly disgusted with all vampires.
I shook my head. "I think that if you can't be a big boy, we pass it on. We have our hands full already." Plus, I had a missing wolf.
I pulled up the template for the update reports that went to Boss Man and his higher ups. "I'm going to go ahead and do the paperwork. If we're lucky, we'll have enough time to grab dinner before the press conference."
"In my old city we never did conferences after dark." He moved to his desk. "I'm going to go over the notes from the M.E."
I knew my observations would be part of those notes so I didn't bother responding to that part. "We have several big name political vampires here, or at least some of their people. Holding press conferences after dark helps include them. Our city is one of the better ones for supernatural inclusion."
Nick snorted but that was it. I found myself wishing that our partnership would end at some point. We got along well enough, we made sure to work as equals, especially in situations like at the store, but our views were off. It was going to cause problems at some point.
My phone rang, when I saw the medical office's phone number I answered it. "Jason, what do you have for me?"
"Your third vampire victim, I was able to find out the cause of death for you." He paused for a moment and I was wondering if he was trying to be dramatic. "It was a heart attack. Most likely because of fear and shock. He had a weak heart, it wasn't the blood loss."
I felt myself relax a little bit. Shooting the vampire most likely wouldn't have saved the man. "Thank you."
"Of course." He hung up and I looked at Nick.
"Vampire victim died of a heart attack, not blood loss."
Nick's body slouched a bit as if he had been tensed about it too. "Thank you for letting me know."
I nodded and went back to my paperwork. The rest of the day needed to go quickly so that I could get the press conference over with.
Nick didn't join me for dinner. I had a nice quiet meal before returning to the office. The press was already gathering in front of the building, including Stephanie. The office had set up an area for them to stay in and no one was paying attention when I snuck back into the building. I came face to face with Agent Tomes and Agent Grace standing there. Nick came down the hall and shrugged.
"Boss Man said they are taking over the case. I swear I had nothing to do with it."
No, but I had a feeling it had something to do with Levi. I nodded. "That's fine, they can do the talking then."
Tomes cracked a smile. "And what will you do, Agent Collins?"
"I'll stand there and look beautiful." I batted my eyes and he suppressed a laugh with a cough. Agent Grace looked less than pleased.
"Agent Beast, of course." I tossed my hair over my shoulder and then started laughing.
"This is how you do your job?" Agent Grace stepped up. "Laughing and making jokes. You've had a vampire related death and six dead bodies from an unknown assailant. Now is not the time for stupid humor."
I raised a brow. "How long have you been an agent?" I put my hands in my pockets and watched her.
She straightened herself up. "A year."
"How many bodies have you seen?" I asked. I wasn't trying to be mean and I wasn't trying to show her up.
She shook her head. "I'm not answering you. I don't have to, you aren't my superior."
"That's true, but let me tell you something; six months ago I nearly died because of a hex and a rogue member of a cult. He killed several people. Not long before that I had to hunt down a shifter who was trying to change children. The only way you're going to be able to survive this job is if you have a sense of humor or one hell of a therapist."
She met my gaze. "Death is no laughing matter, Agent Collins."
"On the flip side, I think death has a sense of humor." I gave her a forced smile. "Let's go greet the press, shall we? Stephanie is out there, and I'm eager to see what shows up in the tabloids tomorrow."
Everyone seemed to pale at that. She'd already openly said it was Levi's fledglings, but I'm sure she could come up with something better. Agent Grace moved towards the door and the rest of us followed.
More press had gathered during the small amount of time that we had been inside. The sun had sunk completely behind the mountains a few minutes before I had arrived so the flashing of the cameras and the lights from the camcorders were almost blinding. I put on my best blank face and Nick and I stood on either side of the podium while Grace and Tomes stepped up to the microphones.
"These attacks are not isolated incidences."
My heart dropped, that's not what we had been told to say originally. I kept the panic off of my face and listened as Tomes continued.
"Agent Grace and I have been tracking a group of vampires through the state. They are not part of the local clan. They are part of a group who are refusing to follow human laws or follow the truce laid out between vampires and humans."
Deathly Magic Page 9
