The Lost Ones (Here Witchy Witchy Book 12)

by A. L. Kessler

  The room was tiny, with two chairs and a table. It wasn’t a room someone would typically eat lunch in, but more of an interrogation room. I let out a sigh and walked in.

  I sat down and waited to see if the guard was going to cuff me to the table. He simply stood at the door. “Agent Jefferson, you have an hour with her for lunch.”

  She nodded and walked in. They shut and locked the door behind her.

  I cringed at the sound of a heavy dead bolt. “Hey, Liz.”

  She sat the fast-food bag down and then divided the burgers. “Not really how I was expecting your first day back in the real world.”

  “Technically, second. Yesterday I spent the day watching television until SWAT showed up.”

  Her eyes flickered to a camera in the room's corner. “How are you doing here?”

  I shrugged. “Can’t feel my magic, and I don’t like that. Loraine from the Moll case is here. I saw her at breakfast. Pretty sure she hates me.” I unwrapped my burger. “Met our commissioner. She’s a peach, and I know she’s lying to me.”

  Again, Liz’s eyes flickered to the camera, and I wondered if she was waiting for something to happen or reminding me it was there.

  I was being careful with my words because I wasn’t going to allow them to misconstrue what I said and turn it against me.

  Liz started to eat her burger. “I talked to Agent Ross. Peach is about right. She came around the site to ask about you. Talked to everyone she could. Questioned the doll and the flamingo in your office. Questioned why Nick was still there.” She shook her head. “I can’t stay long, but I brought your bag. It’s being inspected right now, and I figured this lunch was better than what they’d feed you.”

  “I appreciate the company. I’ve been in my room alone since Agent Ross came to visit.”

  “I brought you some books to read.” She laughed. “I wasn’t sure what you liked to do. I also brought a jigsaw puzzle. Once Ross finishes her investigation, you’ll be out of here.”

  I wasn’t sure about that, but I also had a feeling that Liz was playing a part right now. I took a few bites and sat there in silence while I ate. “I can’t stay here. I can’t feel my magic, and Loraine is going to make it hard for me to keep my head down. Liz, you know I don’t kill with magic, especially that ability.”

  “I know. So Agent Ross won’t find anything against you. Levi is working with your lawyer tonight, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you got a visit from them today.”

  I hesitated. “If I get out of here, am I going to return to PIB?”

  “I honestly don’t know Abby.” She shrugged. “I’m hoping it’s back to passing that second psych eval, and that’s it. But I can’t make any promises.” I knew she couldn’t.

  “Okay, I guess I’ll just have to pass time with the books and puzzles you brought.” I finished the burger and tossed the trash into the bag. “Come visit me again?”

  She nodded. “Of course, and I’m sure Levi and Mario will visit too.”

  “Oh, I don’t know, the King of Vampires visiting someone in containment isn’t a good look.” I rubbed my eyes. “Has anyone heard from Simon?”

  “He’s been at the club working there most nights.” She raised a brow. “Did he not tell you that?”

  “No, I haven’t heard much from him.”

  “I figured you two were still an item.”

  I shrugged. “Hard to tell, I got him tortured.”

  “That wasn’t your fault, Abigail.”

  Except it was. I was the reason Simon had been dragged into the mess, because we cared about each other. I sighed. “I’m a mess.”

  “You’ve been through a lot.” She reminded me as she stood. “I have to go. Hang in there.” She turned and knocked on the door. A moment later, a guard opened it. I stood and walked out with her. One guard escorted her out, and the other stayed with me.

  “Back to my room?”

  “We’re moving you to a new location.” The guard tensed as if he knew I wouldn’t like the next words. “To a location specifically for elementals.”

  I’d heard rumors and terrifying things about what elementals went through in containment. Observations, experiments to understand them. I was hoping it was just that. Rumors.

  “I promise, Agent Collins, they won’t hurt you here.” He said it as if he read my mind. He was also the first person to put ‘Agent’ in front of my name since I’d gotten here.

  “I don’t know what to think, because rumors always have a seed of truth to them.”

  He nodded. “I know. You’ll be spending an hour or so in the lab and then back to your room. I’ve escorted people like you before, they never come back harmed.”

  I wasn’t sure if he was trying to comfort me, or if it was the truth. Either way, there was no way I was going to take him on and fight my way out.

  My visit to containment kept becoming stranger and stranger.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The guard led me further into containment. The farther we got from the entrance, the tighter the magic became. He paused at another set of doors, swiped his badge, and they opened with a beep and a swish.

  These halls were white, almost blinding compared to the gray of where we just were. I was hoping the spell would lift a little, but no such luck. The magic still wrapped tightly against me.

  Each room that we passed had a number on the door, reminding me of a doctor’s office. The doors were shut tightly with no windows letting me see what was going on.

  We stopped in front of room twenty-one, and the guard knocked once. The door opened to reveal a man, not much older than me, wearing a lab coat. “Oh, Ms. Collins, come in.” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “I wasn’t expecting you for another fifteen minutes.”

  “Sorry, my lunch visitor left early.” It felt like such a normal conversation, which helped me relax.

  He looked at the clipboard and then stepped aside. “Sit on the table for me if you would. We’ll start by taking some vitals.” He shut the door, locking the guard out.

  “A physical?” I asked. “I don’t think I’ve been for a physical in years.”

  He chuckled. “Most people stop going after a while.”

  “Mostly I just end up in the hospital because of cases.” Sometimes stupidity and direct attacks as well, but I wasn’t going to add that.

  “I’m Seamus, a nurse here.” He took his stethoscope off his neck and placed it on my chest.

  I knew the routine. I breathed deeply and stayed quiet so he could listen to my heart. He made a couple notes on the clipboard and then stepped back. We went through the routine of checking vitals, blood pressure, eyes, ears, mouth, throat.

  When he finished, he set the clipboard down. “A lab technician will be in soon.”

  I frowned. “For what?”

  “Blood test.”

  “No,” I said without thinking. I took a deep breath. “I’m not consenting to a blood test.”

  He gave me a slow nod and wrote a note down. “Okay, no blood test. That concludes our physical then.”

  He rapped on the door and the guard stepped in. “Ms. Collins is ready to be taken down to observation.”

  I bristled at that. I didn’t want to be observed.

  “Of course.” The guard motioned for me to walk further down the hall. He followed me and we stopped at an elevator.

  “Um, can we do stairs?” I asked, and he shook his head.

  Fine, no stairs. The elevator certainly wasn’t the scariest thing here. I stepped in with him. “So you said what? A couple hours in this place?”

  He nodded. “Yep, then I’ll come get you and then you’ll go back for dinner.”

  Lovely, I’d have to face Loraine. “Food any good?”

  He chuckled. “Decent, but it’s nothing compared to home cooking.”

  The elevator dinged, and we stepped into a basement. “You know, in my job, nothing good comes from basements.”

  “There’s not a lot of good here either, Agent Collins.�
� There was something in his voice that I couldn’t decipher.

  We walked down a long hall with rooms lining one side. Each room had large clear windows to see in. I stopped as I saw a creature in the corner. My heart pounded as I stepped up. “That’s a hybrid.”

  “Please keep moving.” His voice shook a little. As if hearing us, the man in the room looked up, his eyes red and his fangs bared. He rushed to the window, banging his hands against it. Both the guard and I jumped.

  I forced myself to continue. “You said I wouldn’t get hurt here.”

  “They won’t hurt you, because that means risking Levi’s wrath.”

  I found myself thankful for that connection right now.

  “You actually said that other elementals came back fine too.”

  He nodded, but said nothing as he stopped in front of an empty room. He opened the door. “Please enter.”

  I peeked in the door and saw nothing in there that could hurt me or entertain me. With a huff, I stepped in and he closed the door behind me.

  I simply sat in the middle of the room and focused on meditating. I couldn’t feel my magic at all here, and I wondered how long it would be before I started feeling weak without it.

  This was not the worst place I had been.

  This was not the end of me.

  This was not where I was going to end up staying.

  I just had to keep positive, so that I didn’t end up breaking. A speaker squeaked to life, and I opened my eyes to a man in a lab coat facing me through the window.

  “Good afternoon, Abigail Collins,” he smiled at me. “We hear you control fire. Care to show us some tricks?”

  I raised a brow. “I’m not a monkey to perform for you.” I smiled.

  “I would be wise for you to change your attitude, Abigail. We can send someone in there to force you to use your ability.”

  I frowned. “That’s a bit inhumane, isn’t it?”

  “Not if it’s an out-of-control hybrid.” He smiled at me. “So, should I go get you a target? Or are you going to show me something?”

  “You have the tapes that Commissioner Ross has. I’m sure you’ve seen what I’m capable of.”

  “Tick tock, Abigail.”

  I sighed and summoned a flame to my hand and tossed it between my palms. I didn’t want to risk facing a hybrid. I let it disappear and then held my hands out like ‘tada’.

  “You have enough control to call it without having to involve your magic.” He looked down and made a note.

  I paused, realizing that the video had only shown me using it in combination with a magical circle.

  I had a moment where I wondered if there were humans that were elementals. It wasn’t something I had thought to look into. I had assumed that it was all genetic and only in magical blood lines.

  I tried not to imagine a terrified human in this place. “I had a good teacher.”

  He didn’t respond while he made his notes. “Can you cast a circle with it right now?”

  “I can make a circle with it, but it won’t be a magical one.” I called fire to my hand, tossed it toward the ground and with a swirl of my wrist turned it into a spinning circle. “See, nothing magical.”

  Because they bound my magic, you dumbass.

  He made some more notes. “Fascinating. What’s the largest fire you’ve controlled?”

  That was a loaded question because he could be trying to get me to admit to something. I shrugged. “I don’t really make a habit of controlling large fires. As we both know, putting this ability on display lands people well… here.”

  He wrote something down again, and I wished I could see his notes. Someone came down the hall and spoke to him. They weren’t loud enough for the microphone to pick up, so I just stood there tossing a ball of fire back and forth. He wanted to see me do some parlor tricks with my ability, fine.

  He turned away from the window and walked out of my view. I let the fire ball go and went to test the door. It was stupid. I knew it was locked, but I had to try, anyway.

  The door jiggled, and I got an idea. If the doctor wanted an example of what my power could do, maybe I should just melt the handle and walk on out of containment.

  Of course, that would prove me more guilty than innocent.

  I let go of the door handle and went back to meditating. There was nothing else to do to pass the time.

  The doctor never came back, and meditation lost any practical use about an hour later. I was leaning against the wall, debating on burning runes into it. They wouldn’t be magical, but it would at least give someone a scare.

  The door clicked and a different guard walked in. “It’s time for you to go back to your room. You have a visitor coming tonight.”

  Probably Levi or Mario. I stood and stretched. “How long have I been sitting in here?”

  “I don’t know, I just came to fetch you.”

  He wasn’t nearly as nice as the other guard. He grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room as if I wasn’t quick enough.

  “No need to manhandle me.”

  He forced me forward, and I tried not to snap at him again. We wandered through the halls, heading back towards the room I was staying in. But two people stepped up and stopped him in the gray high security hall.

  One of them I had just met the other night. Zayne.

  I tried to keep my anger in because at first my mind thought he’d set this up. The other person was a PIB agent I’d never seen before.

  “Out of my way, I’m taking this freak back to her room.”

  Freak. That wasn’t an insult I’d heard since high school. I swallowed the laugh that built in my throat.

  “Abigail Collins will come with us now. She will no longer be at the containment center.”

  Both the guard and I looked confused. I was hoping it was a mistake, and that’s why I was getting out.

  “They have cleared her of all charges,” Zayne said easily. “And she will return to the watchful eye of the King.”

  Ah, there was the catch, but at least I wasn’t on the suspect list still. Zayne held his elbow out to me. “Princess?”

  I tried not to snarl at the title, but I’m sure the displeasure was on my face. I took his elbow, and he and the PIB agent led me out of the gray halls and back into the first room we’d been at. The agent talked to the lady at the counter and Zayne turned to me.

  “Are you hurt?”

  I shook my head. ”Pride is a little hurt, but that’s about it.”

  The agent walked over and handed me the bag Liz had brought earlier. I pulled it over my shoulder.

  “I’ll meet you at your house.” Zayne looked at me. “Assuming it’s secure for vampires?”

  I snorted. “You can’t just pop into my house. My spells prevent it. I’ll meet you at Levi’s.”

  He studied me for a moment. “Agent Whittbe will be with you at all moments. Part of the agreement to get you out of here.”

  “Thought I was off the suspect list.”

  Zayne glanced at the woman at the desk and then at me. “We’ll discuss that when I see you at Levi’s.” He disappeared, and I let out a sigh and looked at Agent Whittbe. “Thanks for being my chaperone.”

  He snorted. “I feel like you don’t need one.”

  “Well, that makes two of us, so I’m sorry if you feel like you’re wasting your time.”

  “I didn’t say that.” He walked out with me and led me to an SUV. I climbed into the passenger side.

  I gave him the address of Levi’s mansion. “Now, as with everything that deals with the King…”

  “I won’t be giving out his address. Levi is an old friend of mine.”

  “Which is why Zayne and he trust you with taking me.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, exactly.” He didn’t even put the address into the GPS. “I don’t want a trace of it. You tell me where to go.”

  I nodded and gave him directions as we drove. The car ride was quiet with just a hint of classical music playing while he drove. It
was nice and gave me a chance to just be without someone watching me.

  We pulled up to Levi’s and got out. By this time, the sun was sinking behind the mountains, casting shadows along the land. I walked up and put my hand on the scanner for the door. The tumbler clicked, and I walked in with Agent Whittbe behind me.

  Zayne was waiting in the foyer. “Princess Abigail, study, now. The King would like to speak to you.”

  I nodded and slipped by him, going to the study. I walked down the hall and walked in. “You wanted to see me?”

  Levi nodded and motioned for me to sit down. “Are you hurt?”

  “No, Zayne asked me the same thing. I was in confinement, and yes, the whole situation was odd, but no one hurt me. There was one threat of sticking a hybrid in the room with me, but that was it.”

  “Did they get a sample of your blood?” Levi asked quietly.

  I shook my head. “No, I told them I didn’t consent to a blood draw. The answer satisfied the nurse who wrote it down in the notes, and that was that.”

  “Good.”

  “Are you going to tell me what is going on here?”

  Levi sighed. “They took you in under a false warrant, from evidence pulled from Boss Man’s locked files.”

  “They also had evidence from Ira’s case. They unsealed that.”

  Levi hung his head. “So they know you killed Grayson and Ira.”

  “She didn’t seem to know I had killed Grayson, but she had the evidence picture of Ira.”

  “She?”

  “Commissioner Ross. I assumed you knew who was doing this.”

  He shook his head. “That’s good to know. We have made O’Donald and Liz aware, but for now they consider your psych test still valid, despite your little trip to containment. O’Donald wants you at the office, at the very least.”

  I raised brow. “Why?”

  “Because he seems to think that you can do less damage at the office than on your own.”

  I shrugged. “He might have decided after my last case that being idle is a bad thing. But I’m glad I’m going back to the office. Though I’m curious what Commissioner Ross is going to say about it.”

  “I’m not sure that she’s actually the commissioner. I’ll be looking into it. Meanwhile, try to stay out of trouble. I have updated Liz on the situation. O’Donald had no clue they had taken you into custody.”