A Handful of Skulls (Here Witchy Witchy Book 9)

by A. L. Kessler

  Merick touched my arm. “It’s okay, Abby. Sleep.”

  For a moment, I wondered if he had betrayed me to the Cult for something, but that was ridiculous. He’d spent the last three years looking after me. I’d helped the Cult. They wouldn’t do something like this. Would they?

  When I woke, Merick was sitting in the chair reading a book. “Liz called, she said she’d stop by in the morning to give you an update since you were sleeping. Levi also called. I didn’t answer that one.”

  “I didn’t hear the phone go off either time.”

  “I know, you were in a deep sleep. I found the source of the spell. Your nighttime nurse put it on, when I spoke to her, she said she was trying to keep visitors away so you’d sleep. That, for some reason, the visiting hours didn’t apply to you, and she didn’t agree with that.”

  I smirked. “She’s a good nurse.”

  “She is, but you also attract a lot of trouble, which is why someone is with you at all times.” He closed his book. “I promised her that all I wanted to do was sit with you, and she removed the spell, making me swear I wouldn’t disrupt your rest.”

  I sat up and found I felt a bit less sore. “Much appreciated, it was well needed. I didn’t dream this time, so that helped as well. Will you hand me my phone so I can call Levi back?”

  He nodded and handed it to me. The digital numbers on the screen told me that I still had a couple hours before dawn. I listened to the voicemail first. Which was pointless because all he said was ‘call me.’

  I punched the buttons to call him and waited for him to answer.

  “Abigail.” There was a relief in his voice. “Why didn’t you answer?”

  “I was sleeping, you know, resting to heal.” I tried to keep the annoyance out of my voice. “How did the meeting go?”

  Levi was quiet for a moment, enough of one that I thought maybe he’d hung up on me. “Levi?”

  “It went. I’m not harmed, Samuel is not happy, but that’s all I can say.”

  I noticed he didn’t add that I was safe in that sentence. “Glad to see you survived. I’m awake, but they won’t let me out for at least a week. I’m doing research from the bed. I’m going to try and convince them to let me out of here as soon as I can walk.”

  “You can’t walk?”

  “Muscle damage, it’ll heal. I’m a witch. It should be healed in a couple nights,” I promised. “I’ve had worse.”

  He growled. “In which your uncle was there to help you heal.”

  “And as soon as I get out of here, he will. But they won’t let me out too soon, head trauma and all that jazz typically lead to an extended stay.”

  “If you still can’t walk properly, please come finish healing at the mansion? Unhindered, I know you’re doing fine out on your own, but weakened…I don’t want Samuel to take advantage of that.”

  I suppose it would be really hard to run when I couldn’t put pressure on my left leg. “I can agree to that. As long as no one babies me.”

  “I would never baby you, Abigail.” There was actually a little joking in his voice.

  He wouldn’t, but I had a feeling Mario would try. “Good.” I paused. “I tell you what, if you can get the doctor to let me out early and Oliver can pay me a visit at the mansion, I’ll stay there for a little bit regardless of being able to walk properly or not.”

  He was silent for a moment, and I swore I heard someone behind him mumble something. “Deal,” Levi stated. “I’ll be there in a little bit to negotiate with the doctor.”

  Yes, win! I didn’t have to stay in the hospital, and I wouldn’t be down long. “Liz is going to stop by in the morning. Can she stop by the mansion?”

  “Yes, I don’t have a problem with her.” He disconnected the call. I put the phone down and looked at Merick. “I’m going home.”

  He shook his head. “No, you’re going to the mansion. But I give it two days tops before you’re back home.” He laughed. “Levi and Mario will drive you nuts.”

  “This is true.” I tried to bend my knee again and found that it didn’t give me as much trouble. “I’m starting to heal.”

  “Faster than a typical witch,” Becky said when she walked in. “Funny, Ms. Collins, I tried getting into previous blood results in your medical file to see your blood type, and they seem to be confidential.”

  That was news to me. “My blood type is O negative. But there’s no reason to need that information unless you were planning a blood transfusion.”

  My mind suddenly flashed back to being trapped on Ira’s table, with the hybrids taking my blood. I took a deep breath to steady the panic. That was a new reaction. Merick took a step closer as if he sensed the panic in me.

  “I’m glad you know that information, most people don’t.” Though she didn’t give a reason for looking into it. “You’re healing quickly, that’s good. But I’m afraid you’re still going to be here for a little while.” She looked at Merick. “You swore you wouldn’t interrupt her rest.”

  “He didn’t, I woke up on my own. I returned a few phone calls, and I did it all by just sitting up,” I assured her. “I appreciate your concern and why you tried to keep me alone, but I do feel better with someone here. Let’s just say my life gets a bit complicated.”

  “My job is to look after your health, Ms. Collins. I’m doing what is needed. That being said, it’s a couple of hours before dawn, you should be sleeping.”

  I gave her a fake salute and shimmed back down on the bed. Merick went back to his chair and his book while the nurse took my vitals. I couldn’t help but wonder how my blood results became classified. I didn’t even know that was a possibility. Though I assumed Levi had doctors on his payroll as well, so in a desperate situation, someone would know the blood type or have the clearance.

  I knew what the results said, I’d have to be stupid not to after everything that happened. The results would read as both witch and vampire blood. A hybrid.

  I woke up to Levi’s hand on my shoulder. I stared at him and wondered where Merick had gone and if he had gotten out before Levi got here.

  “You were sleeping soundly, sorry to wake you. I’ve signed the needed paperwork and have the approval of our private physician to bring you home.”

  I stared at him for a moment. I didn’t know that private physicians were a thing anymore, but I guess being the princess of vampires had its perks. “Okay.”

  He moved so Becky could unhook the IVs. The entire time she muttered about it being a stupid choice. I smiled. At least she took her job seriously and was worried about her patients. She finished unhooking everything, and she looked at me. “Can you stand?”

  I nodded. “I can stand. At this point, I might even be able to take a couple steps.” I stood slowly, Levi hovering by my side. I closed my eyes as I put pressure on my leg. Just a little bit of pain, nothing like when I had tried earlier in the evening. Neat.

  I took one step, and it shook. Levi was by my side in an instant. “That’s progress,” I promised him.

  Levi nodded. “Time to go home and rest.” He looked at the nurse. “Thank you for taking care of her.” He bowed his head, and the hospital disappeared.

  The mansion reappeared around us, and Levi steadied me by my elbow. He looked at me. “It took a lot of convincing and a few phone calls to get you out of there, so go rest for the day. Tomorrow night our doctor will visit and give a report so we are complying with the agreement of your release.”

  “I appreciate it, I really do.” I leaned against the wall and used it to support me as I walked to my room.

  Levi walked with me, but true to his words, he didn’t baby me by forcing me to let him help. “Oliver will also be here tomorrow night.”

  I nodded. Pausing, I turned to him. “I have a question, and I need you to answer honestly.”

  His face went blank, which I was starting to learn either meant he was going to lie to me, or I wasn’t going to like the answer. “I’ll try.”

  “The nurse tried to
look up my blood type results and said that the results were classified. Why?” I knew the answer, I just wanted him to confirm it.

  He shook his head. “She’s lying. Your blood type is in all your records. The findings of your results on anything else are classified.”

  She had been prying for further information then. “You had something to do with that?”

  “Yes, Abigail…” He sighed. “Come, let’s get you settled, and we’ll talk a little bit more about this.”

  Levi never willingly volunteered information, so this conversation was going to be interesting. I nodded and started back toward my room again. Slowly, very slowly, I made it to my room and looked at Levi. “Give me a minute? I want to change out of my hospital gown.”

  “Of course. I’m going to let Mario know that we’re back, that should give you enough time.” He walked out of the room. I took a deep breath and set forth on my task. Stay upright, get dressed, and get in bed.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  I managed to change and get in bed before Levi came back from talking to Mario. Levi walked in and pulled up a chair. I suddenly felt like a sick child whose parent came to comfort them, but that was never really something Levi did. He wasn’t sure how to act around me when I was sick or hurt. I think he’d lost a lot of his compassion after being a vampire for centuries.

  “Your blood type reads as both vampire and witch. A perfect balance.”

  Well, there it was. He admitted to what I already knew. What Ira had been after and probably learned from taking my blood. I met his gaze. “How long had you known about that?”

  “I’ve always known it was a possibility. With your bloodlines…” he hesitated slightly. “Elizabeth had an idea. Tobias was sure because your blood test came back weird at the hospital.” He shook his head. “I never thought it’d be an issue. I have doctors on my payroll, people I could trust, but now everything seems to be imploding. PIB needed a sample of your blood in case of emergencies, so I had to get it redacted from your file.” He dropped his head.

  I pressed my lips together and then asked a question I needed to know. “Levi, what happens if I die?”

  “We have theories, but we don’t know.” He met my gaze. “I’m sure you can guess what those theories are.”

  “At least one of them, yes.”

  It was possible I would wake as a vampire. He remained silent, and I wondered what was going through his head. Nothing in his eyes was giving away his thoughts, and I couldn’t figure out another question to ask. Part of me was angry, but the other part of me knew that he actually had no choice in what I was. He hadn’t decided to use a spell to keep me alive. He had been prepared to accept my death. It was my mother and uncle who had performed the magic to keep me alive.

  Of course, the alternative could have been a tiny baby vampire. I blinked a few times, thinking back to the doll that I had bought from the doll maker’s daughter. “Who else knows this?”

  “The council members, Oliver, myself. I’m sure Ira had it figured out.” His eyes widened. “Grayson knew.”

  “And Grayson betrayed us.” I had shot him for it, but that didn’t really fix the problems. “What happened to Ira’s files?”

  “We burnt them all. We burnt the whole building you were kept in down. The main lab was burned as well. I don’t know if he had anything backed up electronically. All we found were paper files.”

  I didn’t know if Ira had been a fan of technology or not. There was a chance that he had digitized his files and backed them up somewhere off-site. Any smart person would have. “The doll that I have in the office, it came from Loraine’s shop.”

  “And it looks just like you. I had assumed that it was just an attempt to creep you out, not an actual sign of your heritage.”

  “Mario knows, so Hannah may know.” I held my hand out before he could defend Mario. “I know that he wouldn’t have surrendered the information willingly, but we have to face that her knowing is a strong possibility. She was connected to that case.”

  Levi nodded. “I’ll speak to Mario about it.” He stood. “Rest for the day, please.”

  “Until Liz gets here, then it’s work, but I won’t strain myself. Promise.”

  “Until Liz gets here.” He nodded. “She’s a good agent, and boss. I know she won’t let you work too hard.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t think too hard on what we talked about.”

  “There have been two people who predicted my death by a vampire. I’m wondering if that’s not what they are talking about.”

  He shook his head. “I doubt it is. Clarissa gave me the same warning for you.” There was so much grief in his words, and I knew that he also missed her. “I don’t think that’s what she meant.” He squeezed my shoulder and then walked out of the room.

  I checked the time on my phone and texted Liz that she needed to come to the mansion and leaned my head back to sleep for a few hours.

  By the time Liz texted me that she was on the way, I had gotten plenty of sleep and was able to limp my way to the door to answer it. I hadn’t considered that as an obstacle when I told her to come up to the mansion. I opened the door to greet her, and she put her hands on her hips. “So, I know this was supposed to be a meeting here, but Agent Tight Ass has called a meeting with us and says if you want to keep your job, you’ll show up. He knows you’re out of the hospital.”

  I wished I had a witty remark. “I’d call his bluff, but since Boss Man is missing, I don’t really have him to back me up.”

  “Yeah, that was my thought too. You up to going?”

  Levi was going to kill me for leaving the mansion. “Yeah, duty calls. As long as I don’t have to chase down any bad guys, I should be okay.”

  She nodded and led me to her car. “I already sent Levi a text, by the way.”

  “Are you two best buds suddenly?”

  She smiled. “No, but he’s glad I’m keeping an eye on you. He said that this meeting was totally up to you on if you wanted to go. We both knew you’d be stubborn and want to go instead of telling Agent Thompson to fuck off.”

  “It was a hard choice, but I really like my job.” I slowly got in the car. “Besides, I’m healing. My head no longer feels like it’s going to explode, and I can walk. That’s a lot better than yesterday.”

  My phone went off with a news alert. I pulled it out and stared at it as Liz started up the car.

  “What’s up?”

  “News alert. They found the body of a nurse outside the hospital this morning.” I tried to calm the shake in my voice. “She was my night nurse.”

  Liz glanced at me. “You don’t think it was related to you being there, do you?”

  “I hope not, but I have a feeling that I’ll be hearing from the detective on the case. Seems weird, doesn’t it? Levi forces them to let me leave, and she ends up dead?”

  “It’s only weird if they find that she was killed by a vampire,” Liz said. “And then PIB will get the case.”

  Well that could end in so many bad ways. “Right. Let’s get to this meeting. Can you update me on the case on the way?”

  “Yeah.” She pulled the car onto the highway. “Let’s start with the explosion.”

  “I don’t remember much after seeing blood in my vision.”

  She nodded. “There was a second explosion, and it made it through your circle. The third explosion was further away, but we were still hit by debris.” She swallowed as a shake tried to enter her voice. I assumed she remembered it all too well. She took a deep breath. “I came to when the emergency crews got there, you remained unconscious, and we both went to the hospital.” She sighed.

  “I found out that our cadets died in the first blast. Boss Man’s secret most likely with them.” She tightened her grip on the steering wheel. “The cause of Trent’s death was suffocation. He was sealed in the gel alive.”

  That was not a pleasant way to go. “Any other clues on his body?”

  “A rune burnt into his skin. A mark to paralyze him.”


  “Ah, so it’s our case still.”

  She nodded. “The agents sent to check out Boss Man’s family came back empty-handed. The family said he never actually visited him. That they haven’t heard from them in a few months. That’s not unusual either. Typically he’d just send a card for a birthday or call here or there. They assume that he’s just busy with life.”

  “And there was no male body found in either of the buildings?”

  “Not that matched him. They found a female body at the center of the blast area of the first explosion.”

  “So we’re back to square one.”

  “There’s one person who might know his secret, and that’s Bittman. She’s currently missing.”

  Interesting. “So she wasn’t the female in the blast center?”

  “No.”

  Then who was? I watched as the trees went by and started to turn into buildings. “So we need to find her to figure out what Boss Man might be up to. We need to dig a little bit more into his past.”

  “I figured after this meeting, we could spend some time at PIB digging through records. Maybe find something in his old case files.”

  It sounded like a good starting point. There was a reason he hid his name from everyone. I was all for keeping secrets, but if we didn’t find his, chances were he was going to be found dead. We didn’t want that.

  “Is that it? That’s all we know on this?”

  “The explosions were passed to internal investigations, so I’m not sure what’s going on with that. We’re not entitled to that information.”

  Like hell, I wanted to know who almost killed me. “Okay.” Was what I said.

  Liz gave a small smile. “I know it’s hard not knowing, Abby, but let’s focus on our case and let them handle that one. We’re too close to it.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, I think we were.”

  She laughed and continued to drive. We discussed non-case related things like how bad the hospital food was and the ghastly gowns, lightening the mood with laughter. It was a nice change to the silence that normally filled this drive for me.