Between the Lines (Here Witchy Witchy Book 7)

by A. L. Kessler

  He eyed me for a moment as if he didn't believe me and then spun around to walk further into the building. Ana nudged me in the shoulder. "You have quite the reputation in the underground eh?"

  "I honestly had no idea." I shook my head. "I don't frequently check with anyone in the underground."

  A few months back someone had sent a video to Boss Man of me using my elemental ability, and another video had surfaced of me killing the vampires. I never expected that they had come from the underground, I had assumed that it was Ira trying to ruin my life.

  Of course, maybe Ira ran with the underground crowd. That was a terrifying thought.

  "You okay? You just paled a little bit."

  I nodded. "Yeah, sorry, dwelling on past things." I followed her further into large room. People were sitting in the chairs scattered around the area, and others were standing around chatting with each other.

  "Greetings everyone." Nathan walked through the crowd and stood in the middle of the room. "Tonight the moon is waning, the wolves are grieving, and we have the honor of hosting a visiting witch."

  A couple people turned to look at me, and I resisted yelling 'boo' at them. Instead, I offered a tight smile.

  "Let us close our circle and begin tonight's rituals."

  Everyone started chatting in Latin, and I listened closely to the words. Typically when closing a circle, a witch or warlock welcomed the elements to help aid them in the magic, but this was different. They were welcoming demons. I swallowed as I realized that this was trouble.

  I took a step back and ran into Ana. She said nothing while the others chanted. This was going to end so poorly that I wasn't sure if I was going to survive the night.

  A new circle started to glow in the middle, a demon's trap with intricate lines and red glowing runes. The same runes that I had seen at Clarissa's murder scene. A sudden rise in emotions sparked my magic, and I closed my eyes trying to control it. An emotional outburst bent on protecting myself wasn't what I needed right now, but my magic knew that I could stop all of this if only I'd let it out.

  I felt it slip right as something outside exploded. Glass shattered from the big windows above us, raining down tiny shards. I grabbed Ana and threw up a protective circle around us. The purple magic shimmered and shivered with each tiny fragment that hit it.

  She looked at me with wide eyes as everyone around us scattered to the door. I pulled my magic back in, and we rushed out of the door with everyone else. I swallowed as I saw what had burst into flames.

  "My car." Ana turned to me. "You blew my car up!"

  "I didn't do it." I crossed my arms. "I was too busy trying to keep my emotions in while in there." I jerked my finger to the building.

  Flames had started to crawl up from the car and over the stone wall of the warehouse as if under someone's control. I had no idea who, but I knew it wasn't me. I also knew that the building was empty so I wasn't worried about injuries or death.

  Ana put her head into her hands. "I don't know if this is covered under insurance."

  "It depends, if it was magical, it should be as long as you had the addendum to your plan, if it's a bomb, it counts as terrorism, and it won't be covered."

  "Why do you know this?"

  "My first car was blown up by magic, another one by a bomb, magical mudslide, poltergeists…" I shrugged. "I have a good amount of experience with it. Judging by how that fire is moving though, I'd say it was magical."

  She nodded in agreement.

  Nathan walked over to me. "What have you done?"

  I let out an irritated sigh. "What makes you think this was my fault?"

  "I felt your power as we tried to summon the demon. It rose and touched my circle and then the car exploded."

  Interesting, it hadn't been my magic that had touched the circle, I had kept mine under control. "I had a surge of emotion, but my magic aims to protect, as you saw, not to explode things." I wouldn't deny it, because if I did, then he'd turn his anger to someone else. And if he thought it was my magic, it meant that it was different from the Coven's.

  My phone rang, and I glanced down to see Merick's number on the screen. I frowned, he had been pretty clear about avoiding him while I was here. "Please excuse me." I stepped away from Ana and Nathan.

  I answered my phone. "What's up?"

  "Your car just exploded."

  I blinked. "I'm sorry what?" He had to be fucking kidding.

  "Your car just exploded in a fiery ball of magic. Your house is untouched." Well that was a good thing at least.

  "You probably should have started with the fact that my house was untouched. It's interesting that you say my car is gone, because we just had a car explosion here."

  Merick was quiet for a moment. "I'll look around here to see what I can find."

  "Watch out for Levi and Mario, I'm sure they'll come snooping around." I disconnected the call and slid it in my pocket.

  Ana stepped up. "What was that about?"

  "I'll fill you in later." I shrugged. "Just some issues at home."

  I could hear the fire truck coming down the road. The whine of the sirens grew as it got closer. I could put the fire out if I wanted, but I thought it best not to gain more attention. I met Nathan's gaze through the crowd, and his eyes narrowed at me. I was pretty sure I was on his shit list at this point because I had screwed up tonight's ritual. Which made me wonder what the ritual was for.

  I made a note to ask Ana why they were summoning demons. Of course, she was sworn to silence, but maybe since we both were there, the spell would let us talk about it. I ran a hand over my face and walked further away from the building as the fire crew pulled up and started unloading. The ringing from the sirens died down in my ears as Ana and I walked away from the scene.

  "You can stay at the hotel tonight if you want, we have a small couch."

  Ana shook her head. "No, don't worry about it, I'll catch a cab back to my house."

  I hesitated slightly. "Are you sure?"

  She nodded. "Yeah, I'll check in with you tomorrow. We can do breakfast before I go into work?"

  Work, like she lived a normal life in this crazy demon-summoning town. Of course, it was probably part of her cover. I nodded. "Sounds good. I think I might do some sightseeing tomorrow. I'm sure there's a lot of history around here that I can see."

  She gave me a tiny smile. "Sounds like a good day." She motioned. "Now get out of here before Nathan decides that you're responsible."

  "I think he's already come to that conclusion." I gave one more glance at the high priest, his eyes hadn't left me. "Yep, I'm out. I'll see you in the morning."

  Ana gave me a quick hug and directions to the hotel, and I wandered my way back without any issues.

  ∞

  I unlocked the hotel room and walked in to find it empty. No Simon and no unexpected guests. The night was looking up for sure. I laid down on the bed and sighed. My car had blown up, and I wasn't there. It had to be a coincidence. But seriously, who was blowing my car up while I was gone?

  My phone rang again, and this time Levi's ring tone came out of my pocket. I answered it. "I'm on leave, what?"

  "Your car blew up."

  "Great." I couldn't even muster fake concern right now. "Call the insurance company. House okay?"

  "You heard me, right? Your car blew up."

  I sighed. "Yes, Levi, I heard you. We had a car blow up here too and other shit go down. My car is the least of my worries. My house on the other hand…"

  "The house is fine. We are assuming magical though since it was limited to the car."

  I sighed. "Probably, get Liz out there to take a look? I really don't want to come home just because my car blew up."

  He was silent for a moment, and I was wondering if he was debating on arguing. "Okay, I'll talk to her about it. Are you safe?"

  I considered the answer.
"Yeah, I'm safe."

  He disconnected the call, and I wasn't sure if he believed me or not, but at least he wasn't begging me to come home. Of course, he had his own issues to worry about right now as well.

  I sat up and pulled out my laptop. I had a bit of time to work on the runes and no idea what time Simon would be back from his run with the pack.

  I pulled up the program I had been using to database everything and typed in the word fire. It pulled up the base runes that could be used for anything related to fire. I scrolled through them. I hadn't checked out Ana's car, but maybe there was a rune on my car that would give me a clue. Merick would probably check it out during daylight hours if Liz wasn't able to take a look.

  I glanced at my phone. I couldn't risk calling her and tipping someone off.

  I snuggled back into the pillows I had piled up behind me and continued looking and studying the set of runes and the pictures I had of the Cult's crime scene. Merick had said that the exact same effect was what happened to their victim.

  I pulled up the saved files from Mason's e-mail. Paranoia had me double checking that my wi-fi was off and that there was no chance of an outside intruder. I put the two images side by side, and sure enough, I saw identical runes. The question was, for the Cult killing, was the victim a wolf? Or were there other murders that had gone undocumented?

  I was suddenly really hating the lack of communication that I had between my real life and this city. I could call Merick and try to pass details off on the sly, in case my phone was compromised, but I had no real reason to call him. It wasn't public knowledge that he was my roommate, and the only other documented connection we had was he was a linguist on the case.

  I was isolated from everyone that could help me. Truly on my own in a strange city.

  I swallowed the panic that was climbing my throat. I could do this, and if I needed to, I could go back home with the information I found. Except all I had right now was the similarity to the Cult's murder.

  Fuck me.

  I was going to have to stay more than the one or two nights I had originally thought. I made a noise of disgust and rolled my eyes.

  The hotel door clicked, and Simon walked in, looking a bit more tired and ragged than he had when he left. "Oh man, not a good run?"

  He shrugged. "Not my pack. We've only been gone a night, and I miss them."

  I patted the bed next to me. "Come lay down and close your eyes."

  "You?"

  "I'm just playing around on the computer." I turned the screen to him. "That's all."

  He closed the laptop and pried it away from me. "It's almost midnight. You need some sleep."

  I gave the computer a longing look. "I'm fine."

  He snorted and put the computer on the nightstand. "You're on leave. Take advantage and sleep."

  I crawled out of the bed. "Okay, okay, I'll change and turn in for the night."

  He muttered something, and I looked over my shoulder to see him already curled on his side and his eyes half closed.

  I chuckled and went to change clothes before crawling in the bed.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The first thing I noticed in the morning was Simon's arm draped around me and his warmth. There was something almost comforting in waking up that way. And it made it incredibly hard to get out of the bed. My second alarm went off, and I finally pushed Simon's arm off me. He gathered an arm full of covers in my place. I grabbed clean clothes from the suitcase and then headed to the bathroom to take a shower and get ready for the day.

  Simon was awake and playing on his phone when I got out of the shower. "What are your plans for the day?"

  "Ana and I are meeting up for breakfast, and I thought I'd take in some of the sights. Want to come?"

  He nodded. "Yeah, Curt doesn't have anything for me to do today. Tonight he wants me to talk to some of the pups about what has been going on."

  "Isn't that his job as an alpha?" I raised a brow.

  Simon nodded. "Yeah. Seems to me that he's a bit of a chicken shit."

  "If Ana doesn't have plans tonight, maybe I can come with you. You know, to help with some of the magical questions."

  He smiled. "Curt doesn't want you near the pack grounds."

  "Well, with the type of witches and warlocks around here, I can't say that I blame him." I shrugged. My phone buzzed, and I looked down to see a text from Ana. "Okay, I'm off to breakfast, I'll see you in a few hours."

  He stood. "See you then." He stepped up and kissed my cheek. "Curt has a watchdog." The words were barely a whisper in my ear. I wrapped my arms around Simon and gave him a tight hug.

  "I'll see you then." I gave him a quick peck on the cheek, grateful for the new knowledge. Of course, I wasn't sure why Curt would have a watchdog on us.

  Simon walked me to the door and gave me a quick peck on the cheek before he shut the door behind me. I walked down the hall and took the stairs two by two to the main floor. Ana was waiting for me in the lobby, checking her phone as I approached.

  "Hey, sorry about your car."

  She gave me a dull look. "It's not your fault. I found a rune on it." She flipped her phone around, and I tried not to look excited. It was the same language, and it fit one of the runes I already had in the database. It made me feel like we were making progress. "Oh." Was what I managed to get out. "Do you think someone was trying to kill you?"

  She shrugged. "I don't know who the intended target was."

  I let it go. I didn't mention my car, not yet. I didn't know who was listening or if it was someone looking for a reaction or not. I'd seen scarier. Hell, I'd survived scarier.

  "Where are we heading to breakfast?" I asked and slung my bag on my shoulder.

  "A place just down the road. Best Eggs Benedict you've ever had." She looked over her shoulder as she walked out. "Hope you're hungry."

  Truth was that I wasn't really a breakfast person. "Do they have good coffee?"

  "Yeah, I promise, I wouldn't take you to a place with bad coffee. I remember how much of a coffee snob you are."

  I shrugged. "I've gotten better. I'll make it out of a regular pot now. It's just a survival need."

  She chuckled and took a left out of the building. "I have to work for a bit today, but if you need anything, I work down at the bank. I'm sorry I couldn't get the time off for your visit."

  "It's fine. It was short notice anyway. I just needed to get away." I shoved my hands into my pockets. "I'm just glad you were able to hang out."

  "Yeah, me too."

  We walked a block in silence, and she stopped in front of a little shop with a bright yellow canopy over the door. We walked in, and the sound of friendly chatter greeted us. It was the first thing in this town that I would describe as welcoming.

  The talking blended together in a white noise that was indecipherable, and the tension I was feeling eased a little bit. It wasn't hostile at all.

  A little white sign stood just inside the door.

  Please be seated.

  Ana led me further in, and we found a small two-seater booth toward the back. Plates and glasses clinking joined the noise as we sat down. I glanced at the menu, but other than coffee, nothing sounded appetizing to me.

  Ana didn't touch her menu. "I'm sorry, Abby."

  I hated the words 'I'm sorry, Abby.' It always meant that something I didn't like was coming. I closed my eyes and sighed. "About?"

  "Nathan will be joining us for breakfast. He wanted to talk to you about last night and what you saw and…" she sighed. "He wants you to join us."

  I stared at her. "Join you? I'm going home eventually. I didn't come out here to find a new coven."

  "Then why are you not registered with your local coven?" Nathan's voice came from behind me.

  I glanced at him, and he pulled a chair up to the table. "There's a reason there are not enough seats here," I said. "Because yo
u weren't really invited."

  Ana covered her mouth and I assumed it was to hide a smile or a gasp.

  Nathan laughed. "You don't understand something here, Abigail. I own this town, which means I know everything about it and all the people in it. I know that you and Ana went to college together and lost touch, and then out of nowhere you suddenly want to come visit? That's suspicious, especially with you being a PIB agent."

  Ana shook her head. "We reconnected through social media."

  "Abigail's social media isn't active anymore. Shut down about six months ago."

  "That's because I lost my best friend, and I needed a break from all the online condolences and drama." I didn't have to fake the grief in my voice. "There's nothing like a constant reminder of your loss. Ana and I kept in touch through e-mail."

  He paused for a moment. Maybe he didn't have access to Ana's e-mails because he didn't have a quick comeback. Or he was trying to figure out a way to call me on my lie without admitting he was stalking the members of his coven. Either way, it took him a moment to speak. "Clarissa."

  "What?" I swallowed.

  "Your friend's name? I seem to recall an article about her death. They say that she was sacrificed to summon a demon."

  "I wasn't on the case. I wouldn't know the details." I kept my voice even. "Either way, I don't wish to discuss it. That's not why I'm here."

  "All I want to know are your intentions, Abigail."

  I met his gaze. "My intentions are to visit Ana and return home, pass my psych eval, and return to being a PIB agent."

  "Or, you could stay here, join a coven who won't judge you for your talents or past mishaps."

  "You don't know me, Nathan, so please stop trying to tempt me." I raised my hand to get a waiter's attention. He came over to the table. "I'm sorry, can we get coffee, please?"

  He gave me a polite smile. "Of course. I'm sorry for the wait."

  "No problem. Really, I just want some coffee." I ignored Nathan for a moment and looked at Ana. "I came here to relax."

  "I know. I'm sorry, Nathan insisted on meeting with us today." She really did sound sorry, and I'm sure Nathan had his way of persuading people.