A Handful of Skulls (Here Witchy Witchy Book 9)

by A. L. Kessler

  That wouldn’t have sat well with me. Desk jobs and paperwork were my enemies. “Do you know what I should expect?”

  “You’re the first of your kind, Abby. Honestly, you’ll be teaching me more than I know about all this.” She put her light away. “Levi’s worried that the vampire blood will overtake the witch blood.”

  I thought back to Ira’s experiments. “I’d become a blood-starved?”

  “I don’t think so. Nothing may happen. All we can do is wait and see.”

  And now I felt like a ticking time bomb. I closed my eyes. “Thanks, doc.”

  She nodded. “Really, I’m just here so I can sign the papers saying that I’m checking up on you. You don’t need me.”

  I snorted. “You seem to be more willing to tell me about the situation than anyone else, so I wouldn’t say I don’t need you.”

  “Levi has my number if you need anything.” She picked up her bag and walked out of the room. I heard her talk to Levi in a low whisper. I couldn’t muster up enough give a shit to try and listen. I was replaying the last few years of near-death experiences and bizarre actions. Which actions were the witch part of me, and which were the vampire part of me?

  “Abby?” Liz’s voice brought me out of my thoughts. I looked at her.

  “When did you get here?”

  “Just a few moments ago, I see the doctor was here? Everything okay?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I’m healing fine. Did you get something of Kris’?”

  “I did. Let’s do this and see if we can find her. I can take her in for questioning.”

  I stood. “I’d like to go with you. I’m ready to get out of the mansion and back to fieldwork.”

  She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but in the end, she nodded. “Okay.”

  I took Liz down to the basement to my magical chamber. Levi had it built for me, so if I lost control, I wouldn’t destroy the whole house. I still used it often, because it felt like a second home to me. I closed my eyes when I stood in the middle of the room. Magic, my magic, welcomed me and wrapped me in its warmth. There was only one other place that held enough of my magic to do that, and it was the pack lands.

  I let out a content sigh and looked at Liz. She had a smile playing on her lips as she watched me.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so relaxed.” She put her hand against the stone wall. “It’s a nice place.”

  “It’s safe and sturdy. I’ve spent a lot of time down here. I’ve never blown it up. It contained the hex that the Cult put on me.”

  Her eyes widened at that. “The Cult?”

  “Yeah, we weren’t always on good terms.” I snorted. “They tried to kill me.”

  She shook her head. “What did you do to piss them off?”

  “Took a case on an AWOL member. Then they wanted me to kill him. And that’s when I met Merick,” I mused and laughed. “And well now…”

  “Now you’re helping them.” She shook her head and handed me the bag she had. “This is the best I could get from her office. Coffee mug and a sweater. Captain Ridgway says he wishes us the best of luck and to make sure you keep yourself under control.”

  “I swear, you find an entire family once by accident and no one lets you live it down,” I muttered and took the bag. I gathered the map and joined her in the center of the room. Taking a deep breath, I summoned my protective circle and looked at Liz. “Care to join?”

  “Oh no, I’m going to sit here and watch you work.” She crossed her arms. “We’ll call it evaluation.”

  I rolled my eyes and sat down in front of the map. I put the mug and the sweater near it. I’d try with the mug first and see if it would give me anything. If it didn’t, I’d switch to a different kind of tracking spell.

  I set the mug down and muttered the Latin words for the spell. The mug shattered, and Liz cried out as I cringed. Things didn’t typically explode during a tracking spell. I looked down to see that the pieces of the mug had created a circle surrounding an area not far away from the academy. I glanced at Liz. “Looks like we found her.”

  She helped me up from the floor and then took note of the location. “Let’s check it out.”

  We climbed the stairs, and Oliver stood there with his arms crossed. “Oh, Abigail. Still working despite almost being blown up.”

  I shrugged. “You guys can’t expect me to stay out of the field forever.”

  “I know.” He glanced at Liz. “Agent Jefferson, glad to see the bruise on your face is healing nicely.”

  “Mr. Macintosh, glad to see you’re still alive.”

  The exchanged was awkward at the very least. “Something I need to know?” I asked as they glared at each other.

  Oliver shook his head. “Agent Jefferson is just upset because I made a new ranking in the Cult.”

  “He’s after Seth’s job.”

  At one point, Oliver was after Seth’s life. Seth was the high priest of the Coven of Ra, or the Cult of Ra, depending on who you talked to. I had just recently found out that Oliver was a member. When Oliver first came back into my life, he’d wanted me to kill Seth. I glanced at Oliver and then Liz. “I’m not even touching this.”

  Oliver crossed his arms. “Come on, Abigail, let me heal the rest of the damage before you go back in the field. You can explain it off however you like as you don’t involve me.”

  “You’re a selfish bastard,” Liz said before walking away. “I’ll meet you at the car, Abby.”

  I glanced at Oliver. “What the fuck?”

  “Don’t trouble yourself over it, you’re not part of it. Liz is just upset because she doesn’t want to see Seth lose his position. I’m not actually after it, but I want to climb high enough that I have access to the information I need.” He started walking toward the kitchen.

  I paused. “I have the contacts.”

  “What?” he asked, stopping in his steps. He turned to look at me. “How did you get the contacts?”

  I hesitated. “I negotiated with Seth. I helped him with something, and in exchange, he gave me the name of the people who put the order in on my parents.”

  Anger flashed in his eyes. “How long have you had this information?”

  “Not long, I haven’t had a chance to contact them.”

  “Abigail.” There was a demand in his voice.

  I locked my jaw. “I haven’t wanted to because I’m scared.”

  That got him to change from anger to concern. “About?”

  “About what I’ll learn. About what I’ve already learned.” I met his gaze. “I have an entire board at home about the murders. I know it’s a vampire that put the order in, but there’s no name.”

  Oliver glanced toward Levi’s office. “He wouldn’t have.”

  “No, he wouldn’t have. He loved my mother. But others who know, Oliver. Others who would do anything to protect him.”

  “The council,” he whispered. “Come, let’s get you healed. We’ll talk more on this later.”

  I nodded and followed him to the kitchen. I expected him to fill a bowl of water like he’d done before, but this time he simply turned on the faucet. He ran his hand under it, and it curved away from him and toward me.

  “You’re going to flood the kitchen.”

  He laughed. “Have faith, Abigail. I have more control than you think.”

  The water wrapped around me without touching me, but I could feel the chill of the cold droplets. I closed my eyes and just let his magic wash over me. I could feel the muscle in my knee start to knit completely back together, the cuts and bruises disappeared, and my head seemed to clear.

  When I opened my eyes, the water was gone, and I was dry. “Thank you.”

  “Of course. Try not to get blown up again. I like you alive.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I don’t try to get blown up. It just happens.”

  “At least your car is still in one piece.”

  “Don’t jinx it!” I gave him a playful shove. “I’d like to not have to buy a new car in the
next few months.”

  He nodded. “Go, finish your case, then you and I will discuss the cult and the information you’ve gained.”

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but I nodded and headed out of the mansion.

  I found Liz waiting in the car. I climbed in the passenger seat and said nothing. I wasn’t sure what I could say about the situation.

  She turned the engine over and glanced at me. “Glad to see you in perfect shape.”

  “I bet he would have healed you if you asked.”

  She snorted. “He offered already. I told him to go fuck off.”

  “That’s normally my line.”

  “Maybe I was channeling you. Let’s go find Kris and see what we can learn, okay?”

  I nodded and dropped the subject of Oliver. Liz wasn’t technically part of the cult. She was referred to as an honorary member. I wasn’t entirely sure why she was so upset with my uncle, but clearly, she didn’t want to talk about it.

  We pulled up to where the map had shown us as Kris’ location. I frowned as there was nothing but burnt forest around. This part of the mountains had seen a fire a few years back that wiped out a lot of the growth. It hadn’t recovered much yet. A path of rainwater could be seen in the dirt and gathered sediment.

  “Is your magic slipping?” Liz asked, her voice holding a small joke.

  “I’m not entirely sure. She should have been here.” I hoped that wasn’t the case. I walked a little bit further away from the road and looked around. If there had been any human activity, we should have been able to see footprints or something to show it.

  I glanced around and found what I had been looking for. Small footprints, most likely female, filled with rainwater. She was probably hoping the rain would wash away her tracks, but it hadn’t rained hard enough to wash them away. I glanced at Liz and motioned to them.

  She nodded, and we started following them further through the burnt area. We walked for a little bit, and, eventually, we left the burnt area and walked through a section of small growth before reaching lush green forest untouched by the fire. The footprints disappeared, but the sound of someone running wasn’t far off.

  Liz groaned and shot forward. I ran a bit downhill first and then headed north, hoping to head the person off. Liz and I burst through the same clearing within moments of each other. Both of us panting, but we’d caught up with Kris.

  She stood in the middle of a clearing, a red circle around her. “Go away.”

  I raised a brow. “We just want to talk. That’s it.”

  “How the hell are you two still alive. You should have died. I know you were in that building,” she yelled at us. She turned wild eyes to me. “You should be dead.”

  I smirked. “Death and I have a deal, I won’t die until I’m ready.”

  Liz cracked a smile, but it didn’t seem that Kris appreciated my semi-joke.

  “Cornelius is gone,” she growled. “You can go tell Thompson that.”

  Liz took a step forward, and the circle lashed out at her, stopping her in her tracks. “Gone how, Kris?”

  “Disappeared, no tracking can find him,” she sounded almost grieved. “He told me he was going undercover, but couldn’t tell me anything else. But those stupid kids seemed to know.”

  I nodded. “Those kids knew something, those cadets. Did you set the explosions?”

  Her anger and circle seemed to hesitate. “What? No, I never would hurt them,” she growled in frustration.

  I motioned to the circle. “Then what’s all this about? Why run? Why tell us to go away.”

  “Because you’re going to pin this on me. I know how it works. I was the last one to see him alive. I was supposed to take over his spot at the branch, cadets ended up dead, and buildings explode right after you see me?”

  When she put it like that, it did make her sound pretty guilty. “Pull the circle down, and we’ll talk. Just us three, no recordings, no cameras, nothing.”

  Kris glanced at Liz, who nodded. “We only came here to bring you in for questioning. Not as a suspect but as the last person who saw Cornelius and as someone involved in whatever case he was given.”

  She lowered the circle, and Liz and I both gave a relieved sigh. Kris sat on a big rock nearby and hung her head. “I refused to take the spot. I hate overseeing a department of any sort. That’s why I still teach. I’d rather work with the students then preside over others.”

  “Is that what you and Cornelius talked about when you went to dinner?”

  She nodded. “He told me he had to go undercover and that he had arranged for me to fill in for him at the PIB branch. He couldn’t tell me where he was going and told me not to mention it. No one was supposed to know he was on a case.”

  That was typically how undercover worked. The one case I did undercover had stated that I was on leave the whole time I had worked it. “But he told you.”

  “He just told me that he was going on one, not what it was.” She sighed. “After he dropped me off, he was going to go talk to Ridgway. I don’t know if he ever made it there or not. At some point, Trent learned something about the case. He’d wanted to talk to me, but said he couldn’t talk about it on campus. I didn’t believe him, but then he ended up dead.” She looked at us. “Not long after you two showed up.”

  I nodded. “We were supposed to meet Trent off campus that night. He told his friends what the secret was, and now they are also dead.”

  “They were near the building when the first blast went off.” She shook her head. “I had just left the academics building. I should be dead.”

  “What were you actually doing there? You had said that you had a late meeting with a student, but the door was locked behind you.”

  She hesitated for a moment. “I was checking the office. I thought I had felt Cornelius’ magic call out for help.”

  “That’s what brought us to the science building,” I muttered.

  “And we felt his magic in the main building when we first got to the campus,” Liz muttered.

  I glanced at Liz. “Glamour?”

  “That’s such a hard spell to keep up. If he was fighting against it, there should have been a flicker of him or something.”

  “Have you dealt with a blocked tracking spell before?” Kris asked.

  I nodded. “Once.” I didn’t expand on it because it wasn’t for a PIB case, but when I was helping the wolves find a missing person. “There’s no real way to break it. I had to try another tracking spell, and it only worked when the witch released the person from the circle that was blocking the magic.”

  Liz raised a brow. “What case?”

  “Classified.” Was my response. I knew she’d probably ask about it later, but I wasn’t going to give Kris any information to use against me later. If there was a later.

  “I didn’t hurt him. I loved him.” She sighed. “I’ll go in and make an official statement.”

  I nodded. “A good idea.”

  Liz and I walked Kris back to the car and placed her in back. We rode in silence to the PIB station, not wanting to discuss case related things with Kris chilling out there.

  We arrived at the station and got out of the car. “Go ahead and get her statement. I want to go talk to Thompson about a couple things.”

  Liz looked at me over the hood of the car. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah, I have some questions for him. I’ll meet you when I’m done.”

  She didn’t question me anymore, and I made my way into the building first and headed back up the stairs and to Boss Man’s office.

  I knocked and found it open. Thompson was sitting there pouring over papers and what looked to be case files.

  He looked up at me. “You look well.”

  “Good friend came and healed me so I could do my job.” I sat in the chair in front of him. “We brought Kris Bittman in for questioning and a statement.”

  “What’s the reasoning? Because they had a meeting? Didn’t you talk to her when you first got there?”

/>   I nodded. “We did, but we also found out that she was supposed to be filling in here for Boss Man.”

  “What?”

  “You didn’t know that Boss Man had been put on an undercover assignment?” I raised a brow. Did I have more clearance than he did?

  He swallowed and went pale. “No.”

  Oh, I had a feeling he was lying. Now what was he hiding? “We learned that Cornelius had a secret, one worth killing over. You don’t happen to know what it is, do you?”

  “I assume it has something to do with his case.” His face closed down, and he folded his hands on the desk. “You think I had something to do with this.”

  I was starting to hate working with PIB agents because we all thought like each other. We know how to work a case, and we knew who the likely suspects were. “I’m not assuming anything right now. What I need is Boss Man’s secret, so that we can figure out how his case might have gone wrong, and where he might be. Hopefully alive, because I’d really hate to locate a corpse.”

  The last part was a bit harsh, but he was the one who stressed time, and now he seemed to be trying to delay the situation.

  It caught his attention. “I don’t know what his secret is. If I did, I’d be solving the case myself, not supervising incompetent agents and doing paperwork.”

  “That’s all you had to say.” I turned to leave.

  “Agent Collins.”

  I glanced over my shoulder at him. “Yes?”

  “How did you learn about his case? Nothing came up for me.”

  I smirked, and I couldn’t keep the pride out of my voice. “I have a higher clearance.”

  The look on face said he didn’t believe me. I walked out with a bit of pep in my step because he had just given me valuable information. He was currently in place of Boss Man, which is why we were working the case. He’d come to a dead-end, which meant he had to rely on us to get it done.

  His clearance wasn’t high enough to investigate things, which as internal affairs, he should have had the same clearance, if not higher.

  Joseph Thompson was lying about some things. The question was, why?

  We had all just been blind enough to follow him because he had his PIB badge and a huge case for us to work on. Just as we had all accepted that Boss Man had a real reason to hide his name.