I flipped his body over so that I could see the shredded mess.
"You know, I prefer my bodies to stay where they are until I can see them." Jason's voice made me look up.
I smiled at him. "I didn't know that they were going to send you on scene."
"Me either, but they wanted me here ASAP. Now I see why." He looked a little pale as his eyes darted around the room. "What on earth did this?"
"You don't really want to know the answer to that." I stood. "Three victims, all decapitated, all of them have their chests torn out." Unlike the movies, zombies didn't go after brains, they went after whatever they could get their hands on. They were at the mercy of whoever was controlling them.
"I've got this handled if you want to go meet up with Nick." Jason put his bag down. "I promise you'll be the first to know if something comes up."
I knew I would be and I wanted a chance to get a look at those zombies before the necromancer caught on and pulled the magic from them. "Thanks. I'll check back in a bit."
"Of course, how are you feeling? After your accident?" There was a real concern in his voice that warmed me a little bit.
"My rib is killing me, but I'm happy to be alive." I stripped off my gloves then threw them in a biohazard bag by the door.
He gave me a smile and then turned to work. I walked out into the hall and leaned against the wall. I wasn't kidding, my side pounded in pain and I put a hand against it. I closed my eyes and counted to ten, taking small breaths to help soothe the pain, but not so deep that I caused more.
"Agent Collins, can I speak with you?"
I turned to see Agent Grace standing at the end of the hall. My mind raced as to why she'd be at my crime scene, but I nodded. "Of course."
I walked to her and she motioned to an empty waiting room.
"Please sit, I see you're in a lot of pain." For the first time since I've met her, I saw her careful face show a hint of concern.
"Just a cracked rib, but thank you." I sat down and looked at her. "What can I do for you?" I kept my voice friendly; there was no reason to get defensive.
"Have you heard from Agent Tomes?"
I shook my head. "I was just released from the hospital earlier today, so I haven't seen him since the day of the accident."
"He told me he visited you earlier today, here." She pointed to the ground as if to make me realize she was talking about the hospital.
Visiting me was impossible. Oliver had told me he made sure everything was taken care of. Clearly he'd mentioned to someone I was in a private hospital. "I'm sorry, I don't know what to tell you. I haven't had any visitors today. It was meant to stay that way. I'm a very private person."
"Have you met with Agent Tomes without me at all?" She met my gaze and I knew something else was going on.
"The day my car blew up he was with me. He disappeared before anyone else came out. I figured it was because he didn't want to explain what you two were doing in town. What is going on?"
She leaned back in her chair. "I can't let you know yet, Agent Collins, but as soon as I can share information I will."
I didn't like it when people kept secrets from me. I opened my mouth to say as such and she held up a hand. "It's not my choice, it comes from higher up. If it was my choice I'd have trusted you with information long ago."
That was reassuring. I nodded. "If there's anything I can do to help with the vampire case, please, let me know."
"Of course, but I have instructions to keep you away from that too." She offered me a smile. "I know you don't like secrets and I know you don't trust easily, but just trust me on this."
I needed to focus on the case at hand. "I'll do my best. Now if you could excuse me, I have zombies to take a look at and victims to make connections between."
"Of course, thank you for your time."
I stood slowly and walked out the door. The encounter was strange and I wanted to know why her partner would lie to her about visiting me in a hospital that I was never a patient at. I pushed it out of my mind and went to find Nick.
Nick was standing behind the building with two officers looking into the chain-link cage that had been erected. I tried to imagine how they had herded the zombies through the hospital and back here. It had to be quite the sight. I walked up behind them. "The zombies still, um...moving?" Living wasn't the right word, but I couldn't think of the correct one off the top of my head.
Nick looked at me and raised a brow. "Moving?"
"Nick, it's been a long night and I have no pain killers in my system. That's the best I could do."
One of the officers approached me. "The answer to your question, Agent?"
"Collins." I completed his thought.
"Is no, whatever was animating them is now gone. We have three corpses."
I nodded. "Jason's here checking out the victims. I want him out here to see if we can get any ID on these corpses." I wanted to see them alive, because I wanted to test Nick's theory and see if they reacted to seeing me.
"I'm on it. What are you going to do?"
"Your least favorite part, I'm going to the office and I'm going to run names and chase trails." I clicked my tongue as I thought. "It's easier on my rib than bending over evidence here."
"Why don't you tackle that in the morning and go get some rest?" He offered.
Because my front door was still busted. "I'd rather work late, take care of something else in the morning and then sleep through the day." Part of me was happy that Simon was waiting for me at home. I knew I'd be safe when I returned, but the case came first. Besides, after a zombie attack in my home I wasn't sure if I'd be able to sleep. Not because of the zombie, but the fear of what kind of person we were dealing with was finally starting to creep in.
Necromancers were extremely powerful and in a league of their own. It was something I knew Nick and I would have to face together if we brought them in. I couldn't do it alone. Images of a horde of zombies filled my mind and the idea of being torn apart by them made my muscles tense. My heart pounded at the idea of being killed and then reanimated for the sole purpose of killing someone.
"Abby, you okay?" Nick's voice brought me back to reality.
"Yeah, sorry, just zoned out for a moment." I took a deep breath and instantly regretted it. "I'll talk to you in the evening. I have someone else coming to look at that cat, but I plan on taking the day easy after I get our foot work done."
"Leave notes on my desk?" He asked.
"If there's anything interesting I can find, sure." I looked at the three corpses in a pile on the ground. There wasn't anything that stood out to me, but I knew that the necromancer would have seen through their eyes. I wanted to know who was on the other side of those creatures. Who was hiding behind corpses and graves? "I might still be at the office when you get there, depending on how long things take here."
"Go, it's not a big deal." Nick put a hand on my shoulder. "I promise. Go get some rest and some painkillers. You look pale and shaky; I know you're in a lot of pain."
Damn him for being observant. "I'll see you in the evening then."
"Deal, and not a moment sooner." He gently spun me and nudged me towards the hospital. "I promise, Abby I've got this."
I gave a small laugh and made my way back through the hospital. I peeked my head in the room with the victims. Jason had gotten two out of three of the corpses into body bags. "Hey when you're done here, there's three more outside."
"Really?" His voice raised a pitch.
"They were already dead, so don't worry." I said trying to calm him. "Call me first if you find anything, okay? I'm trying to run down connections."
"Of course, always Abby first." He winked.
I rolled my eyes. "I'll talk to you later Jason, thanks for being so good at your job."
I walked out the front and was greeted by a few cameras and reporters. I was starting to think these people never slept. I put a hand up to ward off some of the glaring lights from the cameras. Different voices called out my
name and questions, which I promptly ignored as I made my way through the crowd and realized I didn't have a ride. The office wasn't far from the hospital so I could walk, and I didn't want to face the reporters again.
A strange fear washed over me at the thought of walking through the dark alone. The trembling it caused in my body was new and foreign to me. The only thing I could do was blame it on stress and keep moving. I hiked my bag up and glared at the road ahead. I'd be damned if I couldn't face a little fear. A faint red line snaked out from my bag, tugging off in the opposite direction. The spell on Martha’s shirt activated because of something nearby. My pulse sped up and I started running to follow the line. I ignored the pains shooting through my side as my feet carried me across the pavement. I wasn’t going to give up on this spell.
I turned the corner into an alley and saw a heap there. When my eyes adjusted to the dark alleyway I could make out black and white fur in the shape of a large wolf. A fucking werewolf in the middle of the city. I slowly approached it and it raised its head to me. There was nothing human in those eyes, it was all animal, and she was scared and wounded. Fuck me.
Approaching a wounded werewolf wasn't covered in PIB training. I pulled my gun out, but held it against my leg, finger off the trigger. I held my other hand out, palm down as if I was approaching a domestic animal. The wolf sniffed the air and lifted her lips up in a growl.
"It's okay girl, I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to help you. Your sister misses you, Martha. She wants you to come home. We've been looking for you."
Something flashed in the wolf's eyes and I hoped it was her human mind coming back to the surface. "I'm no werewolf, but I imagine if you willed yourself, you could switch back to human form."
The wolf shivered and howled. I instinctively raised my gun and quickly jerked it back to my side. Threatening her with a weapon would only complicate the situation.
The howl switched to a painful cry as the fur melted away from her body. Snapping bones and muscles moved under the naked skin of the wolf. Crouched on her hands and knees, she looked up at me. Her limbs shook as they gave out and she collapsed to the ground. The sound of snapping bones and muscles filled the air as the body of the wolf formed back into a human. She stayed on her hands and knees without movement for a moment. She looked up at me again and then collapsed to the ground.
I holstered my gun and pulled out my phone. "Dispatch, this is Agent Collins with PIB, I need an ambulance at the corner of Twenty Third and Cascade please. Send a lycan team please." I ran to her. "Known species werewolf."
"Confirmed, please stay with her as we dispatch the team."
Like I was going anywhere. "Thank you." I disconnected the call and knelt down next to Martha. I could see various wounds on her body, but I wanted to wait until the team got there before I moved her. I wasn't trained to treat lycanthropes. It took special training, which is why I needed to request a special team. Their bodies reacted differently to medicines and silver plated tools were needed to keep the skin from healing around needles. Unless the wounds were in the heart or head I wasn’t sure what could be fatal and what wasn’t.
Sirens wailed in the distance. I swallowed and called Greg, he answered on the first ring.
"I found her. A team is coming to get her. They'll take her to the lycanthrope wing at the north hospital." I didn't even give him a chance to greet me. "I don't know how she got here, but she was in an alley downtown."
"Ride with her." He demanded.
There wasn't much I could do in the ambulance with her and was about to ask him why.
"She's a pup, she needs someone there that she knows she can trust."
Or she will lose it and shift again. I thought of a rampaging werewolf in an ambulance and cringed. "Okay."
"I'll meet you at the hospital, you can fill me in there." He disconnected and I imagined he was probably halfway out the door. The high pitch of the sirens came closer and I checked for Martha’s pulse. The faint beat told me she was alive and relief flooded through me.
Red and blue lights bounced off the brick walls. I called out, "In the alley."
A few men came down with a stretcher and ushered me out of the way. I showed my badge to one that approached me. "I've notified next of kin and I was requested to ride with her."
A medical mask covered his mouth and protective goggles were strapped to his head. "We don't allow that in case of infection." He held his arms behind his back.
I smiled. "I'm a witch, there's no chance of infection." I promised. "She's a pup, she needs someone she can trust in there. Since I can't tell you what happened before I found her, I can't tell you that she'll trust a bunch of strange men."
It took him a moment and he realized what I was hinting at. He nodded. "Understood, you may ride." He turned and instructed the men ease her on the stretcher and motioned with a gloved hand for me to follow them to the ambulance.
I wasn't sure how well I'd do at comforting her. Levi was never very nurturing to me, he was a vampire and it wasn't in his nature. Sadly, it was one of the things I picked up from him. I ran from grieving people because I didn't know how to deal with it. The hardest thing for me to do is look at a friend who had lost someone. I couldn't make them feel better and I couldn't help them. I hated that feeling.
I followed the team back to the ambulance and climbed in. I sat close enough to Martha so that if she woke, I could be seen and talk to her, maybe even take her hand if it came down to it, but I was out of the way of the two team members in the back with her.
"Hang on," said one of the paramedics. I reached for the handrail that ran from floor to ceiling and watched as the paramedics called out numbers and medical terms that I didn't understand. They were choreographed dancers in a ballet of saving lives tucked in a theater on four wheels.
He hadn't been kidding, the ride was bumpy and full of turns. They still managed to work on Martha without a problem. She had remained unconscious. We pulled up to the hospital and they started calling out orders to each other as they got her unloaded and rushed into the hospital. I pressed my lips together and started after them. There was no way I was going to leave her alone right now.
"I'll take you to the room when they get one assigned. Don't worry about her, one of the things we do is sedate them until we're sure they are stable enough to not shift." The paramedic came to my side. "Agent Collins, do you make a habit of finding injured werewolves?"
I shrugged. "I was walking to the office from another scene."
"Do you make a habit of walking?" He asked and then motioned to the doors. "Let's go in."
I walked with him. "I don't make it a habit, but my car blew up and I didn't want to call my ride to take me a mile down the road." I laughed. "I never caught your name."
"Davis. Now if you please, go take a seat I'll let you know when she has a room." He walked up to the counter there and I sat in the dark blue seats the waiting room had. The hard plastic wasn't so kind to my sore body, but I wasn't going to complain.
My phone buzzed and I swiped to answer it. "Agent Collins."
"Where are you at?" Simon's voice demanded. "Nick said you left the scene, but when he called the receptionist you hadn't made it there."
I was taken aback by the tone. "You aren't my keeper."
"I'm worried you're in trouble." His voice calmed a little bit.
I wasn't used to people worrying about me, except for Levi, who was normally content to just know I hadn't been killed. "I'm at the hospital, I ran across Martha while I was out. I'm waiting to be taken to her room so I can sit with her until Greg gets here."
"You ran across her?" He sounded worried again.
I rubbed my eyes as exhaustion was starting to settle in. "She's hurt, I found her in an alley in wolf form. She's sedated for the time being, but I don't want her alone when she wakes, neither does Greg. The moment the home improvement store opens, get me a door and then get here. I'm not pack, she'll need pack."
"Greg will probably beat me
there." He said honestly. "I don't want you in the room alone with her. She could easily kill you."
"I can always shoot her if it comes down to that."
He was silent on the other end. "Yeah, I suppose if she was trying to tear out your throat you could do that."
I wasn't going to reassure him that it would be only extreme circumstances that would cause me to draw my gun. I had to survive and that was one of the only ways I'd survive a werewolf attack. "I'll see you later."
I hung up just as Davis came up to me. "She have a room?"
"She will once she’s in recovery. We had to take her into surgery, she has a silver bullet in her stomach."
That didn't sound good. "Will she survive?"
"How much do you know about werewolves, Abigail?" He asked and started walking towards a set of double doors that led out of the waiting room.
"I know a lot about them, which means I know that with the right target, a silver bullet can kill them." I wasn't a child; I didn't appreciate him trying to test my knowledge. "I know they also heal quickly from most wounds and if she's lucky she'll be out in a couple days."
He nodded. "How did you know who to contact for next of kin?"
"I happen to know the pack leader, that's who I called." I answered simply and followed him down the white halls.
"I suppose that's as much detail as you're willing to give?" He asked and stopped in front of a door.
"Yes, it is. Sorry." But we both knew I wasn't sorry.
"You can wait here for them to bring her in. It shouldn't be long." He pushed open the door and I walked in.
The hospital room was like most, it had light colored walls and an obnoxiously patterned chair in the corner. A television hung high on the wall in front of the bed. Monitors and an IV stand crowded the room. I plopped myself in the chair and waited.
The door opened about an hour later and a group of nurses and doctors flooded the room with a gurney. A team moved Martha onto her bed and started getting her settled in, flipping on machines and putting the IV bags up. No one said a word to me as they worked, and I didn't mind. They needed to focus on her.
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