Of Life and Death

by A. L. Kessler

  “Creepy,” I whispered and walked down the hallway. The concrete floor gave way to a plush white carpet that matched the walls of the hallway, giving the illusion of light. Brown spots dotted the threads of the carpet, leading down the hall.

  Bending down, I pulled out gloves from my bag and put them on. I ran my finger over one of the stains and found the fibers hard to the touch. I was willing to bet that any tests would come back with this as blood. I stood up and continued down the hall. A daybed done in pink frills and sheets sat in the corner with a doll in the middle.

  Curly brown hair framed the doll’s face, and big brown eyes stared at me as I walked in. I shuttered at the scene and wondered what the hell this was all about. I picked the doll up and smoothed down the frilly black dress and examined it closer. Someone had painted dainty white fangs peeking out from the doll’s rose-colored lips.

  I didn’t think dolls could get any more creepy and staring down at this, I knew without a doubt that the child vampire would now be making the mainstream news.

  Mason cleared his throat. “You want the case? Boss Man said I could give it to you, or wait until an Agent Yorkingson got in tonight.”

  “I want the case.” I put the doll down. “I can ask Agent Yorkingson to assist if I needed, but right now, it’s my case, and I’m not sharing.”

  Mason chuckled. “Maybe hand the other case off?”

  “No, I can work both. I’ve done it before.” I looked back at him and saw his brow draw together. “What?”

  “That’s when you had a partner.”

  I nodded. “I know, but I can handle this. Don’t worry. I need to get IDs on the victims and start scanning missing people. If they died from blood loss, they’ve either been here a while or we’re dealing with multiple vampires.”

  “Any way to tell if we are dealing with multiple?” Mason asked as he walked back into the makeshift living room with me.

  “Jason will measure the bite marks. They should be the same if we’re dealing with one vampire, or at least pretty damn close.” I walked back upstairs with him at my back. I paused again at the top of the stairs, instead of going out, I walked further into the house.

  The kitchen was set up with a round dining room table with fake flowers in the middle and plates set up as if ready for dinner. Something was off though, other than it being too perfect. A fine layer of dust covered everything. Nothing up here had been touched in a while. Which told me that it probably wasn’t humans that lived here, it might have just been the one vampire. Keira.

  “Do we know who owns the property?” I walked out of the small dining room and into the kitchen. I pulled open the fridge to find it empty.

  Mason flipped through his notes. “The name on the property taxes is Natalie Trevor. There’s no mortgage, and the property taxes are up-to-date. Looks like they bought it free and clear when it was built.”

  I ran my finger over the dust on the kitchen counter. “It doesn’t look like anyone has lived here since it was built. At least not up here.”

  “I’ll start talking to the neighbors to see if they know anything about the people who lived here.” Mason closed his notebook and put it back in his pocket.

  “Good plan, let me know what turns up.” I pressed my lips together as I thought. “I’m going to do some digging at the office.”

  “Okay, I’ll come visit once I’m done talking to the neighbors.” He walked out of the kitchen, and I stood there alone in the house.

  The forensic team hadn’t come in yet, so nothing was disturbed. I could hear the buzz of people outside the house while I just stood there, wondering what I was dealing with exactly when it came to Kiera and if by some unlucky streak we had two child vampires running around. I was hoping that wasn’t it, but I wasn’t sure that Levi would be thrilled that she made it into mainstream media or that Stephanie was now aware that I was going to be working the case.

  I walked out back and looked at the yard. Just like the rest of the house, perfect. Once I stepped on the grass, I knew why it appeared that way. astroturf crunched under my feet as I walked. I hopped the fence in the back and walked through the ally towards the PIB office. No one noticed me taking that route, so I had no media to deal with, and I could think in the silence on my way back. It was wonderful. Until I came face to face with a man in a black cloak, the Eye of Ra stitched in red on it.

  Well fuck.

  Chapter Five

  I threw my hand up to cast a circle around myself in protection the same moment the man in front of me moved. His magic came out at me almost like a whip. A flash of red cracking next to me. I dodged to the right and threw my magic up. My purple circle appeared around me, deflecting his next blow. What the hell?

  He pulled his hood off and his gaze met mine. “Agent Collins, our priest wishes to speak with you.” His blond hair stuck up in a cowlick at the crown of his head. The sun shone in his blue eyes, giving the illusion that he was innocent, but I knew better.

  “That’s a hell of a way to tell me he wants to talk to me. Attacking me? In public?” I snapped. “Tell him to use a phone, or are you people against phones?”

  He tilted his head to one side. “He didn’t think that you would take his call.”

  “Look, I’d love to chat, but I have two cases on my plate, and I really don’t have time for the Cult and whatever game it wants to play. Last time I dealt with you all, you put a hex on me and tried to kill me.” I touched the pentagram around my neck as if reassuring myself it was still there to protect me.

  He nodded. “That was our mistake; we weren’t aware of what might happen if you died.”

  “I…what?” I shook my head. “That makes no sense.” Unless they knew Levi would slaughter every one of them, but even then, since he was the king of vampires, I was betting that was frowned upon.

  “That’s all I can say, except that my priest wants to speak to you.”

  I rubbed my eyes. “Tell him to either pick up a phone and call me or come see me himself.”

  “Your word you will see him if he contacts you himself?”

  I nodded. “Yes, my word I will talk to him.”

  “Then you shall hear from him within the week. I’ll let him know that we have spoken.”

  I was going to mention something about Merick, but I thought better of it. “I can’t wait.” I tried to keep the sarcasm from my voice, but it was hard.

  He bowed his head and put his hood back on. I expected him to walk away and wondered how he was going to get past the cops without suspicion, but he simply faded into the air.

  Like Nick had. The similarity didn’t escape me. I needed to make sure that I asked Merick about the ability because as far as I knew, witches and warlocks couldn’t just transport themselves to and from places. Not like vampires could.

  I blew out a huff of air out and closed my eyes. Concentrating, I called my magic back into me and let the purple circle down. My magic warmed my skin and calmed me as I pulled it in. My life was going to hell in a handbasket again, and I wasn’t sure what I could do about it. Saying no to PIB, Levi, and the Cult didn’t sound like a good option, one would cost my job, one was impossible, and the other could cost me my life. Yeah, saying no wasn’t going to happen.

  I walked back to the office without another issue. I walked in and the rush of the air conditioner wrapped around me and was a welcome relief from the morning heat. Mandy looked up. “Hey Agent A.” She waved at me from the desk.

  I gave her a half wave and headed toward the stairs. I didn’t rush up them. I moseyed as my mind thought about how the cult member disappeared in front of my eyes. I kept thinking about how Nick faded into the dusk. I hadn’t even thought about it being magic. That had never been a possibility in my mind. If he had an ability like that, a spell, anything, then he could have used it to get out of the morgue. It would explain how he disappeared without Jason noticing. I originally had no explanation for the disappearing.

  I scanned my badge and opened the door to
my office. There was no one waiting for me, nothing was out of place, but it didn’t really feel normal. Something was off. I took a moment and concentrated. There was a small buzz that ran through me. Magic, and it wasn’t mine. I hadn’t noticed it earlier because I was so determined to figure out who Drake Moll was, but it explained the feeling of not wanting to look up the name earlier. A spell.

  Now I was going to have to cleanse my office. Or just move out of it. Yeah, that wasn’t an option that Boss Man would buy. I grumbled and grabbed my chalk out of my bag. I walked to the middle of the room and drew a circle. I didn’t normally need a physical guide, but I wanted to make sure their magic couldn’t interfere with mine. If a simple rune and spell didn’t work, I’d have to go home and get everything else I would need for a true cleansing ritual, but I wanted to try simple first.

  I closed my eyes and let my magic drift out of me and touch the physical circle. I frowned as the barrier hesitated. Summoning a circle was supposed to be effortless, but the new spell was interfering. I growled and pushed more of my magic out. Again it hesitated.

  I took a deep breath and tried switching tactics. It wouldn’t let me put a protective circle up, but my red one wasn’t a protective one. I pulled on my anger and that dark little part of me that’d started to form over the last year and switched the energy of my magic.

  The circle didn’t hesitate; there was no resistance from the other magic. Interesting. I opened my eyes to see a mix of red and purple in my circle. Oliver once told me that it was just like my mother’s, but everyone insisted that she was pure good.

  I took my chalk and carefully drew the lines for a cleansing rune. I put my hand on it to activate it. A shock jolted through my arm and my body. The room around me disappeared, replaced by images flashing around.

  “Mama’s going to buy you a little doll,” the voice whispered. “And if that little doll turns bad, mama’s going to buy you a little lad, and if that little lad escapes, mama’s going to buy you a little cape….”

  The words faded out as a scene with a little girl dressed in rags appeared. Her blonde hair fell in ringlets around her sweet little face. Worn out handmade dolls were scattered around her as she played with a stuffed animal of some sort and another doll. The child turned, and she looked right at me. A smile crossed her face. “Mama knows you’re here,” she whispered, clutching an old doll that looked like her to her chest. “Mama’s going to kill you.”

  The scene disappeared, and I fell to the ground with a gasp as my body went numb for a moment. The tingle in my limbs started to wear off as I remembered how to breathe. Never had I dealt with magic that could use my own like that. What the fuck was I dealing with here?

  The door to my office busted open just as I pulled the circle down. Two PIB swat agents stood there, staring at me. I blinked a few times and dusted my pants off.

  “Can I help you two?”

  The woman stepped forward. “The alarms for dark magic went off; we came running.” She pulled off her SWAT helmet and tucked in under her arm. “Agent Collins, what were you doing in here?” Her carefully arched brow rose up, and she used her other hand to ruffle the pixie cut hair that was sticking up.

  “I was cleansing my office of a spell.” I raised a brow. “It was interfering with me, and I needed it gone. Activated something nasty.”

  The man laughed and took his helmet off. “Nasty is one word for it.” He met my gaze with a dark hazel one. “Leave it to you Collins to have something like that in your office.”

  I looked at him and studied his face. The brown mop on the top of his head with the square law and the deep-set eyes looked familiar. Holy shit. “Tayler Specktor?”

  “Glad you remember me.” He waved at the door. “Go ahead and meet me back downstairs Jaz, all is clear here.” She made a noise of disagreement but left anyways.

  “When did you start working for PIB, last time I saw you was high school prom.”

  “When you freaked out and left me standing with the fake flamingos? Yeah, that was just before graduation.”

  I’d accidentally lost control of my magic and ran off, but I did leave him with a bunch of flamingo decorations for the paradise themed dance. I turned and went to my desk.

  “I started a few months back; they were looking for some SWAT members that weren’t witches to head up the new anti-magic squad.”

  I raised a brow. “I don’t think I got the memo, but what are non-witches or warlocks going to do against something like that?”

  “We have our ways.”

  That was a mysterious way of putting it. “I’m going to assume new technology and make sure that I stay out of SWATs way.” I went to my computer. “You can go now.”

  “What? Don’t want to catch up? Come on Abby, admit it, we had something, you and I.” He walked further in. “We’re both adults now, both working for PIB, we can figure things out.”

  I shook my head. “Look, Tayler, we had a great time dating in high school, but there are a couple big things in play right now.”

  “Just a single date, come on Abs.” He grinned, and I found myself remembering just how much fun he had been in high school, carefree, confident, and a bit reckless. Levi hated him, but I found it refreshing. Then, now I didn’t really need anyone who was reckless.

  I shook my head. “I can’t, I’m neck deep in cases, and now I have to figure out who spelled my office without getting in.”

  “How do you know they did it without getting in?”

  I looked at him from over my computer. “Most people have to swipe their key card to get in.”

  “Or steal one, just throwing that out there.” He turned to leave. “Let me know if you reconsider that date, I’d like to take you out.”

  He left and I shook my head. Suddenly men were coming out of the woodworks, and I didn’t know what the hell to do about it…except I probably should have told him about Mario. I unlocked my computer and pulled up my search engine and typed in Drake Moll.

  The system flooded with results, but the dates on the files were from the archived files from years ago. I opened the first one and found a picture of a man. It wasn’t what I was expecting. He looked clean cut, narrow jaw, tanned skin, normal looking.

  Underneath the photo, a caption read, “Assumed Deceased.”

  Interesting. Clearly, he wasn’t dead if two people were looking for him. Oliver’s intel rivaled that of PIB’s, so if he thought Drake was alive, chances were, he was right. However, the man would have been at least seventy by now. Unless he was a vampire.

  The thought made me pause. There were very few cases of witches or warlock turned vampire and kept their sanity intact. I texted my uncle.

  “You said Drake was magical. What’s his paranormal designation?” I hit send and set my phone down. I wasn’t sure if I liked where this was going. I purposely didn’t tell him about the spell in my office, and I’d keep it from Levi as well, to make sure that he didn’t freak out and try to find a daytime babysitter for me again.

  I looked through the files on Drake. There wasn’t anything hugely offensive in it. A couple strange attempts of Life Magic, but since I’d seen a velociraptor brought to life that way, it really wasn’t too alarming. I clicked on his earliest arrest which was long before PIB existed officially. Early eighties, he was at least fifty by that point judging by the picture. Behind him though was a teenager hugging a doll to her chest.

  It was in better shape, but the doll looked just like the one the child in the spell had been holding. The hair wasn’t as stringy yet, the clothes were still intact, and the were eyes still sewn onto the face.

  I switched gears and started to look into Drake’s family tree. Not much had come up on them, there’d been a couple kids, but their names hadn’t been released to PIB records. I went back to the newspaper article and clicked on the picture. I used a photo recognition software to run another search.

  Nothing popped up on that, but there was an interesting article on the history of the s
ir name Moll.

  Insanity tracked through Bloodline was the title, and I clicked on it to open it. Scanning the article, I read about how the bloodline had a history of insane witches and warlocks due to their magic forming at a young age and the amount of power the child had. It was rare that magic drove someone insane, but it was possible. I filed the information away for later in case it became useful.

  My phone vibrated on my desk, and I picked it up to read my uncle’s message.

  “Designation: Vampire. Don’t get too mixed up in this,” was Oliver’s reply. If he was a vampire, maybe Levi knew him. I made a mental note to ask. I sent him a quick thank you text and then made notes on where I needed to go and do next.

  I spent the rest of the afternoon working through some possible scenarios on where Drake’s children might be or who might have been behind the spell, but I came up empty on a lot of it. What I needed to do was talk to Drake and see exactly what he was up to.

  My alarm buzzed, reminding me that I had a dinner date with Clarissa. I smiled and jumped out of my chair. Chinese food and a girl’s night in was just what I needed to help me relax.

  I walked into Clarissa’s house without knocking. The cute little Victorian house fit her personality and lay in the heart of the city’s metaphysical community and just a few blocks away from her shop.

  “I hope you ordered food; I’m starving,” I called out as I dropped my bag by the door.

  Clarissa came running in from her living room and threw her arms around me. Her smile complimented her now fading red hair that was up in some sort of messy bun. She squeezed me tight. “Abby, it’s so good to see you.”