A Handful of Skulls (Here Witchy Witchy Book 9)

by A. L. Kessler

  Vlemeinheil’s gaze turned to me. “So quiet, Abigail? You were always a good student of mine, a favorite.”

  “Yeah? Even when I accidentally shot a hole in your favorite hat?” I threw out the story. It wasn’t true. My marksmanship was always great. It was magical control that I had issues with.

  He raised a brow. “Yes, even when you put a hole in that hat.”

  I pulled my gun and aimed it. “You lie, Ridgway never liked me. In fact, I spent more time in his office getting yelled at than I did in his classroom.”

  His eyes changed colors, and the skin of Ridgway started to melt away. The transformation was terrifying. “Tricky, tricky, Abigail. You really are smart.”

  He held his hand up, and a blast of magic threw me against the wall. Liz raised her gun to take aim, but an invisible force pushed her hand up. Vlemeinheil laughed. “Puny little witches. You don’t understand that I’m so much more powerful than you.”

  I kept my gun down, trying to study him. If I retained anything from the Academy, it was that even the strongest had a weakness.

  I put my gun up and called on my magic. Flicking my wrist, I summoned the whip and smiled at him. “Want to trade magic for magic?”

  I snapped it at him, and he jumped out of the way, but it broke his concentration on Liz, and her arm dropped.

  Vlemeinheil caught the next snap of my whip and the magic disappeared. He walked toward me. “I’ve defeated witches like you with the snap of my finger. Squashed them like bugs. You’ve been a pain in my side, Abigail Collins. You, I’m going to make you suffer.”

  “Yeah, well, get in line, buddy.” I smiled and held my hand up, calling a ball of fire to it. “The underground is lacking some information on me.” I threw the fire at him, and he dodged, just in time for it to barely char his clothing, but it did catch the desk behind him on fire. One stroke of my hand, and I was able to call the fire back to me.

  Vlemeinheil grinned and held his own hands out. “Fire with fire, Abigail.”

  Well shit. Apparently, we didn’t have all the information on him either. The flames that gathered in his hands were blue, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to control the flame when it left his hand.

  Vlemeinheil was ready to test that theory as he rushed toward me and threw the fire from one hand at me, and another at Liz. I didn’t have time to worry about Liz. She was a big witch. She could take care of herself. I dodged the blue ball of fire and watched as it disappeared when it hit the wall.

  I glanced and saw that the other one had disappeared as well. There were two options here. Either he had damn good control or…

  I threw another ball at him, this one hit him in the chest, and he cried out as he batted at the flames. Magic hit me hard, slamming me into the wall of the office, holding me there. Vlemeinheil slowly walked up to me. “When did you learn to move so fast?”

  I had no idea what he was talking about, so I kept quiet. Panic was building in me at the thought of being pinned against the wall with Vlemeinheil in front of me. I was having flashbacks of Hannah keeping me still and magicless. Except I wasn’t magicless. I met his gaze as he closed in and summoned the fire in his hand again.

  He didn’t throw it at me, he waited, almost hesitant.

  “It’s not real fire, is it? An illusion.” I met his gaze and kept my voice soft.

  He growled, and the fire disappeared. Something new appeared on his hand, the paralyzing rune. “Do you know what I do to my victims, Abigail?”

  “You paralyze them, then suffocate them.” I tried to keep the fear out of my voice as his hand came closer to my neck.

  He nodded. “And I take that life force and make it my own.”

  The price of immortality, kill with the magic, live off the life force.

  He jerked as something took him in the back. I looked over his shoulder to see Liz standing there, her gun aimed.

  The rune disappeared from Vlemeinheil’s hand as he turned around. The magic holding me in place also disappeared. I didn’t waste any time, I threw a circle up around Vlemeinheil. Not a mixed one, a pure red one.

  He laughed at me. “A bullet can’t stop me. PIB cannot contain me. And if you kill me with magic, it’ll taint your aura.”

  I shook my head. “I know how your little immortality spell works. There are runes all over your body, one for each person you’ve killed.” I swallowed and forced my more pure magic out to take over the red circle, trapping him in a circle of light.

  “You don’t scare me.”

  I raised a brow. “I should.” I glanced at Liz. “Ready?”

  She nodded. We both started chanting a cleansing spell in Latin. Two different ones, but the magic mixed together and forced its way to Vlemeinheil.

  He tried nothing, but nothing in his face changed. “You can’t cleanse me of this.”

  “Except I can.” I pulled my blade out, it wasn’t a blessed one, but it would do in a pinch. I sliced my thumb and rubbed the blood on my circle. “With my blood, I cleanse you of the darkness that dots your skin.” The circle turned to fire, and Vlemeinheil’s face pinched together. Something was working.

  “With fire, I cleanse the darkness from your soul.” The fire licked at him, kissing his skin in various spots. “And with my words, I release you of the black magic you’ve cursed yourself with.” I uttered another Latin phrase for cleansing.

  Vlemeinheil screamed. The sound would forever be added to the bank of nightmares, but at least I knew the spell was working. I kept the circle up until his screams died down. He looked at me through the haze of the purple. His skin started to wrinkle and wither.

  The bones under the skin started to break and crumble, almost causing the flesh to cave in on itself. I kept myself from gagging, but I knew I’d never forget the look in his eyes before his body collapsed in on itself and then turned to dust.

  I let down the circle and looked at Liz. “I just…what the fuck?”

  “He was stealing life force with black magic to stay alive. You severed that connection.” She put a hand on my shoulder. “You took down one son of a bitch. How did you know it was going to work?”

  “I didn’t. I knew he had the runes on his body because of the file the Cult had on him. I just started putting the pieces together.” I sighed. “I just killed the suspect.”

  Liz nodded. “Yeah, but not on purpose, you didn’t know it was going to kill him. You were trying to neutralize the threat. Come on, let’s go let Kris and Landry in on what happened.”

  I nodded and started to walk off with her. I took one more look back into the office and laughed. “I don’t want to see this place ever again.”

  Liz laughed. “What? Don’t want to come back and be a teacher?”

  “Not if I can help it.”

  I sat down with my beer and put my feet up on the ottoman. “I cannot believe this case.”

  Liz snorted. “Me either. I’m glad it’s closed. The paperwork is in, and now we can relax a little bit.”

  “Hm, relax.” Merick sat next to me. “Are we forgetting that Levi wants to meet me? Are you prepared to explain that, Abby?”

  I shook my head. “I’m not, so we’re not going to. As far as Levi is concerned, you’ve not agreed to let your identity be known, but I’ve compromised to the point that if I leave the house at night, I need to take Catalina with me.” I shrugged. “Right now, it’ll have to do.”

  Liz shook her head. “I don’t think that’s going to do. What about cases?”

  “That’s where you come in. Right now, though, I’m not going to stress about it. Samuel knows that I’m on to him. I just need to figure out how I can pin him to something PIB related and have a reason to go after him.”

  Liz sighed. “Maybe stop trying to go after the trouble.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t go after Ira and see what happened there? He tried to turn me into a fucking vampire.” I shuddered.

  Merick dropped something in my lap. An envelope. “What’s this?”


  “Something else for you to deal with. If you want.”

  I looked down at it, and then I looked at Liz, who looked just as confused as me. I rolled my eyes and set my beer down. I grabbed the envelope and opened it.

  Dearest Abigail Collins,

  You are formally invited to join the Coven of Ra, Colorado Springs Branch. Your dedication, skill, and knowledge have proven to be your best assets, and we believe we can take you further in your training as a witch. Please consider this invitation and let us know if you accept or decline.

  Sincerely, Seth

  That was probably the last thing I was expecting when I opened the letter. I sat there and thought back to the idea of being a lone wolf. I despised Coven gatherings, and I hated the way they made me feel like an outcast, but would the Cult be any different? They had their own code and their own set of rules that they followed. Their world wasn’t as black and white as most covens were. They understood situations and choices much better than anyone else, and I had just recently started to learn that about them.

  Merick cleared his voice. “You don’t have to answer right this moment. Let it settle in and think about it.”

  I folded the letter back up and put it back in the envelope. “That’s a hell of a choice.”

  “My father believes you deserve it for taking down Vlemeinheil.” Merick shrugged. “I think you deserved more, but I don’t make the rules.”

  I smirked. “I appreciate that for sure.”

  EPILOGUE

  “You said you wanted to meet with me when the case was done.” I sat down in front of Geb. “That you had information to share with me about my parents’ murder. I thought you wanted to do this at a gathering.”

  He nodded. The lines on his face moved as he let out a grim smile. “Plans change. Your parents were wonderful people, Abigail. Smart, caring. All they wanted was for the world to be a better place. They made their mistakes…” He looked down. “Which they paid dearly for.”

  “The facade was that they were killed because my father summoned a demon.”

  “And they were using life magic.” He nodded. “I know, I’ve read the reports and the papers in our archives on them.”

  “Why were they killed then?”

  “They were a threat. We were given the kill order by a nameless vampire. He had us look deeper into what your parents were doing, and what we found was you, Abigail. A creature that should not exist. The evidence of life magic was there, the fact that you survived after birth when you should have died instantly. We, as the Coven of Ra, could not let that pass. So, we listened to the vampire and executed your parents.”

  I clenched my jaw. “Because they chose to save me.”

  “Yes. Because we were led to believe that what you were would be a monster.” He met my gaze. “But clearly we were wrong about that. We should have waited until you grew older, watched what you became. But this vampire feared you so much that he reached out to us.”

  “And you have no name for him?”

  He shook his head. “A description, that is it.” He pulled a hand-sketched image out of his pocket and handed it to me. “This is all I have to offer you, Abigail. I hope it is enough.”

  He stood and left me sitting there, staring at a sketch of Samuel. The world spun for a moment as if I was going to pass out while sitting there. He wasn’t supposed to know about me. He wasn’t supposed to know about any of the things my mother and Tobias had done.

  What the fuck.

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you so much for waiting patiently for this book. As many of you know the beginning of this year was not kind to my family so it took me a bit to get back on track. I hope you’re enjoying Abby’s journey through this series. I love Abby as I know many of you do too!

  Thank you for all your support and cheering me on through out this process! I’m truly honored to have such fantastic readers and I hope you stick with me. As always if you enjoyed the book, please consider leaving a review.

  A.L. Kessler

  About the Author

  A.L. Kessler is a paranormal romance author residing in beautiful Colorado Springs, Co. Since she was a teenager she has loved spinning tales. She can easily be won over with gifts of coffee or chocolate.

  Also by A.L. Kessler

  Series

  The King’s Game

  Parlor Tricks

  The Syndicate (with Mia Bishop)

  The Case Files of Abigail Collins

  Normalcy

  Children of the Apocalypse

  Standalones and Anthologies

  A Werewolf Kind of Christmas

  The Legend of Moon Hollow

  The Fall of War

  Blood & Ink Press thanks you for supporting indie authors

  “The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink.”― T.S. Eliot

  Follow us to find your next destination:

  Blood & Ink Press

  Dark and Wicked Fiction

  https://www.facebook.com/bloodinkpress/

  http://www.bloodandinkpress.com/