Here Witchy Witchy Box Set 1

by A. L. Kessler

  A few minutes later a containment van pulled up. Four men got out of the truck, each carrying a pair of handcuffs and feet shackles. I knew they were silver based, just like my handcuffs. They were also enchanted to block magic. They cuffed the vampires and led them to the van. The van was reinforced steel with silver lining to weaken and contain most supernatural creatures. The contraption could cause pain, and it was cruel, but there was no other way to deal with out-of-control creatures.

  Nick clapped me on the shoulder. "I'm sure Jason will call us tomorrow."

  I nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure. I'm going to go home and crash. I have someone coming over to possibly claim the cat tomorrow."

  "Sounds like you had an exciting day, but you need to give a statement first." Nick urged.

  I rolled my eyes. "Okay fine. My official statement? Vampires interrupted my late night snack and killed someone."

  "Abby..." Nick crossed his arms.

  I met his gaze and surrendered. I told him everything from the time Levi and I showed up to the time he pulled up. By the time I was done, Levi was done talking to the containment crew and was leaning against the Hummer.

  "Hell of a night. I'm ready to go home and crawl into bed."

  He handed me the keys. I looked back at the restaurant. "I should go pay, and grab my purse."

  "Then get home and get some rest." Levi put a hand on my shoulder. "And be very careful with this one, Abigail."

  The energy around me shifted and Levi disappeared. I always wondered why vampires got the fun abilities like that and witches still had to use modern technologies to get around. It just wasn't fair.

  I walked back in and the waitress moved away from the windows. She shook her head. "We've got you covered tonight."

  I smiled and bowed my head. "Thank you." I grabbed my clutch and heels and went back out to the Hummer. I had been hoping for an enjoyable night out with Simon, what I got was blood-starved vampires and dead bodies.

  CHAPTER SIX

  I texted Simon when I arrived home safe and sound. He told me he was still at the party and was bored. After that I had fallen asleep without so much as a second thought. I woke to realize I had fallen asleep in the scrubs. I rubbed my eyes and cursed when I looked at my phone. The first person trying to claim the cat was due to show up at any moment. I shot out of bed and danced around my room trying to pull on appropriate clothing. I replaced the scrubs with black jeans and a matching t-shirt.

  I managed to brush my teeth and hair before the doorbell rang. The cat was on the back of the couch just watching me.

  "Hold on!" I called out and then went to the chair I'd have them sit in. Putting my hand on the seat I mumble the Latin words that would put a spell on the chair to let me know if the person was lying.

  I opened the door and smiled at the person who stood there. It was stupid to invite someone to my house, but someone would have to be an idiot to attack a PIB agent.

  The guy smiled at me. He was slightly overweight with his glasses perched on his nose and his curly red hair sticking out.

  "Come on in." I motioned to the chair. "Take a seat."

  He raised a brow and went to the chair. He sat down as if the furniture was going to collapse under him. I went to the couch and picked up the cat. "This look like your cat?"

  The man nodded, almost too fast. "Yes."

  His lie hit my aura and a cell phone went off at the same time, just a little ping. Then another. It kept going. I glanced at him. "You might want to see who's texting you so furiously."

  The device continued its onslaught of pings.

  He reached a shaky hand down to look at the text. He responded something and then looked back at me. "Can I have my cat now?"

  The cat climbed over my shoulder and jumped back to the couch. "I don't think she likes you."

  "Of course she does, come here, Fluffy." He clicked his fingers. "She's just always had an attitude. But we have somewhere to be."

  I laughed. "Fluffy is a he, and I'm not surrendering him to you. Get out." I motioned to the door.

  He flushed and I wondered if he was embarrassed about not noticing the cat was male, or if he was embarrassed about being caught in his lie.

  "But he's--"

  "No, no he's not. Out you go. You're one of three people trying to claim him. See ya." I put my hands on my hips and he shuffled out of the house. I shut the door behind him and turned to the cat.

  "Some people. I swear." I sat on the couch and he came down on my lap. I scratched his ear. "Don't worry, we'll find your owner."

  He snuggled down into my lap and meowed and for some reason I had the feeling that I'd be keeping this cat.

  I leaned my head back as he started to purr. My phone went off and I fished it out of my pocket with a sigh. "Agent Collins speaking."

  "I have some results for you." Jason's voice came across the phone. "That tooth was a human tooth, and you're not going to believe this next part."

  I closed my eyes. I didn't want to ask, but I had to. "What?"

  "It's from Paul Newel, who's been deceased for a year and a half."

  My eyes shot open. "What? How is that possible?"

  "I don't know, but that's what it is. The other dental records came back and it's the same case, except they belonged to the corpse we found."

  Holy shit, maybe Nick was right. Maybe it was zombies. "Shit shit shit. Okay, thanks Jason. Any chance you know where they were buried?"

  "Evergreen Cemetery for our newest. Nick has the name of our first corpse's resting place."

  I had it at the office too. Nick had already checked that one out and said he hadn't found anything. "Thanks, Jason. Anything on the vampire victim last night?"

  "I didn't get the body, it might have been the M.E. that works with the hospital that got it. You okay? You weren't armed last night."

  His concern was touching. "I'm fine. Levi was with me. Let me know if you find anything else out." I hit the 'end call' button on the phone and scratched the cat's head. "Looks like I'm going out, sorry, kitty."

  He meowed and moved off my lap. I stood to gather my things. My gun, my badge and of course my backpack.

  Evergreen Cemetery was on the south side of town. The property was covered in tall trees and standing headstones. It was one of the oldest cemeteries in town and the grounds reflected that, stone statues of angels and Jesus could be found throughout. I pulled into the parking lot of the funeral home’s office. I stepped out and made sure my badge was visible on my belt, but I grabbed a light jacket to cover the gun at my waist.

  I walked into the old stone building and turned into the office. A woman sat there working on the computer. She looked very professional in her blouse and pencil skirt. Her makeup looked almost natural and for a moment she looked like a receptionist from the movies.

  "Can I help you?" The tone of her voice welcomed me and I smiled.

  "I'm Agent Collins, I was hoping you could tell me the location of a grave."

  Her eyes widened just a touch and her gaze went down to my badge. "Of course, what's the name?"

  "Paul Newal." I sat down in a chair in front of the desk while she turned to the computer and typed the name in.

  She pulled out a paper map and circled the gravesite for me. "Here you go. You're going to continue down the main path, take a left, and stop just after the statue there."

  I looked at the map she handed me and noted how many grave spots he was from the road. "Thank you. Can you tell me if anyone else has asked about him?"

  "I wasn't here all last week, so I can't tell you and the computer doesn't track our searches." She gave me an apologetic look.

  There were other ways to check the searches, but required someone who was more savvy at computers than I was. Unless I had to, I wasn't going to push it. "Thank you." I stood and walked out.

  I climbed back into the Hummer and drove down the main road slowly, keeping my eyes out for anything unusual. I'm not sure what I was looking for, but nothing stood out to me on the
path. I parked and got out. I stood at the edge of the road for a moment and closed my eyes. I felt a bit of magic, something fading and fleeting from me.

  Chills marched up my spine despite the warm air around me. Something had happened in this cemetery, something magical and, judging by the way it pushed against me, I'd say evil.

  Nick's zombie theory was looking more and more plausible. I walked towards the grave, counting each headstone that led me to it. The chills became worse, like needles pressing into my skin. I must have been approaching the grave. When I stopped at the headstone the magic was painfully pushing against me, urging me to leave.

  The grave looked untouched, all except a strange brown smudge on the head stone. I bent down to take a closer look. There was no doubt in my mind that it was blood. I pulled my phone out and called Detective Mason.

  "Abby, have something new for me? I've already talked to Jason." He sounded irritated, but now was not the time to ask why he was in a mood.

  "I have blood on Mr. Newal’s grave. You want to send your forensic team down here? Or at least a member?"

  He mumbled something.

  "Mason?" I prompted.

  "Yeah, I'm not buying Nick's zombie theory so I hope you're not jumping on that train. I'll send Mario. You wait for him." He hung up without me even responding.

  I stood up and walked around the grave. The more I stayed near the gravesite the stranger I felt. The feeling told me that someone had put a circle around the grave, the magic had been dismissed, but the message was still there. I was not welcomed here. Whoever had performed magic here had left enough behind to scare off most people. I thought about Nick and the last grave. I wondered if he just wasn't able to feel it or ignored it. Or worse, my partner was lying to me.

  "What on earth is going on here, Paul?"

  As expected, the grave didn't answer. I heard something shift nearby and I put my hand on the grip of my gun and turned towards the sound. Nothing there. My heart pounded as another sound of something snapping came. My gaze moved over the area. I couldn't see anything moving. I glanced up in the trees and expected to see something waiting for me. Nothing but a big old crow sat there.

  I let out a breath of relief and went back to waiting for the forensic member. Graveyards were supposed to be holy places, no matter your religion, they were supposed to be peaceful. At this moment it was the opposite. I wanted to run away, back to the safety of my car.

  I forced myself to stay there until Mario showed up. The fact that Mason had only sent one forensic specialist told me he didn't take me seriously. Mario nodded his head to me as he walked by and right to the gravestone. I watched in silence as he swabbed the headstone.

  "Yeah, that looks like blood." Mario leaned over the gravestone.

  I tried not to roll my eyes. "I know, but what I need to know is whose blood. Make sure the lab calls me."

  "Mason told us to call him first. Said he doesn't think it's much." He didn't even look at me as he packed his kit up.

  I counted to ten in my head before answering. "It's a PIB investigation. Mason called us because he thought it was something supernatural." It wasn't like Mason to try and keep me in the dark; sure, we played hard to get with information sometimes, but never truly held it from each other. Something must have been going on that I missed. What on earth did Nick do to piss him off?

  "That sounds like you need to talk to him about that. Because I have my orders." He nodded his head and walked away.

  I would have smacked him if I had the chance. No introduction, nothing to go off of and Mason wanted to hide things from me. I'd talk to him about it next time I came face to face with him. I walked across the grass and back to my car. The receptionist was standing by my car, her hands folded in front of her as if she didn't feel the slightest out of place.

  "Did you find what you were looking for, Agent Collins?"

  Something touched my aura, just the slightest flare of magic. I tightened my jaw and nodded. "I did, thank you for your help."

  "Of course, anything to help an investigation." She smiled. "I'm sure I’ll be seeing you around. Seems that two of your recent victims are supposed to be buried here."

  I raised a brow. "How do you know that?" It wasn't information that I had received and wasn't sure if our victims were public knowledge at this point.

  "Their family called me to start making arrangements." She said easily. "I came out here to take a few pictures of the empty plots."

  I didn't know much about the business so I wasn't sure if that was normal or not. "I see. Well again, thank you." I moved past her and got in the Hummer. I started the car and watched her walk further into the cemetery. I shook my head. It took a special kind of person to work a job that dealt primarily with grieving people, maybe that's what I was picking up on.

  I grabbed lunch before I made it to the office. Because of Nick I'd been keeping closer to normal hours for a human, but it was starting to wear on my body. I’d need more coffee to keep this up. I missed my late nights and evening starts. I'd seen more sunlight in the last six months and I now understood why people complained about the heat during the summer.

  A rush of cold air greeted me as I walked into the PIB building. I stopped at the desk and noticed Mandy, our daytime receptionist, wasn't there. I looked around for a moment and shrugged. I leaned over the desk and glanced to see if there were any messages for me. Nothing, and the office seemed strangely quiet. The soft sound of the air conditioner was the only thing I heard as I made my way to the elevator. I assumed most people had left to grab lunch. I hadn't heard from Nick all morning, maybe he was upstairs in the office pouting because Mason hadn’t sent him with the M.E. and he’d had to clean up the vampire mess.

  Pressing the button for the elevator, I tried not to let my paranoid mind start to wander. The overactive imagination in me pictured zombies crawling down the hall and a crazy necromancer behind them. I rubbed my eyes. Someone grabbed my shoulder and I spun away from them, pressing my back up against the wall next to the elevator. I had my gun out in a blink of an eye and aimed.

  Nick stood there with his hands up. "Wow, still shook up?"

  I took a deep breath and holstered my gun. I debated on smacking him for a moment, but thought better of it. "The office is quiet and you just snuck up on me. Haven't you learned yet?"

  "That you're paranoid as hell? Yeah." He shook his head. "I know you've had a lot going on, but seriously, you need to stop being so trigger happy."

  "I'm not trigger happy." I turned back to the elevator.

  Nick laughed. "Oh? You don't think so?"

  "If I was, I would have shot you." I crossed my arms and waited for the elevator.

  He was silent for a moment and I hoped he was considering me actually shooting him. The doors opened as the bell dinged and we both walked in. "Are you okay after last night?"

  "Why wouldn't I be?" I looked at him. "Just a few blood-starved vampires. Levi was there and I came out without a scratch. Yes, one person died, but there was nothing I could do for him." Of course, had I taken my gun with me that night, I could have killed the vampires. Possibly saving the man’s life.

  He pressed the button for our floor. "I just thought it was strange that Levi was the one who rounded up the vampires, that he took point in stopping the attack."

  "What are you getting at?" I asked and leaned against the mirrored walls.

  "I've been working with you for six months, not once have you willingly let someone take point in a situation. We work as equals, but the moment you're faced with vampires with Levi you let him handle it."

  I clenched my jaw. "I told you last night that I was without my gun. My spare was in the Hummer, I'm not going to be able to take on vampires hand to hand." The doors opened and I didn't wait for him. I shot out of the elevator and towards the office.

  "You would have been dead; it's not like you to not be prepared for a situation. Levi clouds your judgment. Did you ever think why those vampires were there?"

>   I swiped my key card and walked into the office. "The south side of town has a lot of paranormal creatures, especially newly turned vampires or pups."

  "Always the logical one." He followed me in and went towards his desk.

  "Are you saying that they were after me? Because I can promise you that Levi has nothing to do with it." I sat at my desk and unlocked my computer. Until the lab called back there wasn't much that we could do on our current case except paperwork, but it needed to be done.

  Nick leaned against the front of his desk. "What I'm saying is that I think it has something to do with you."

  "One, why would anyone send blood starved vampires after me? Two, if those vampires wanted me dead, I'd be dead. There are only so many bullets in a cartridge and they move a hell of a lot faster than me. Three, I trust Levi more than anyone else in my life. If he wanted me dead, he would have killed me as a child." I turned my gaze towards my computer; I'd heard the arguments before. Levi only wanted me for certain reasons or he'd try to kill me eventually, but all the rumors did was piss me off.

  "I'm being told that we have to work with Levi on the vampire case. I don't like it; he should have nothing to do with human task forces."

  I rolled my eyes. "Look, the human government says we work with the supernatural government, Levi or not. If you don't like it, see if we can pass the case on."

  "What do you think?" He asked and I wondered if he was waiting for me to jump to the defense of Levi or if he wanted me to tell him how I was secretly disgusted with all vampires.

  I shook my head. "I think that if you can't be a big boy, we pass it on. We have our hands full already." Plus, I had a missing wolf.

  I pulled up the template for the update reports that went to Boss Man and his higher ups. "I'm going to go ahead and do the paperwork. If we're lucky, we'll have enough time to grab dinner before the press conference."

  "In my old city we never did conferences after dark." He moved to his desk. "I'm going to go over the notes from the M.E."