Either way, this Witch was associated with the pack somehow. I needed to talk to Greg and Martha. No one had told me if she’d woken yet, but going to the hospital would allow me to talk to Greg and check on Martha.
Nick waved at me on his way out the door. I took a moment to text Simon that I would be on my way to the hospital to talk to Greg. Nick would question why I was leaving not moments after him, so I needed to give him time to get to his car and get out of the parking lot.
I leaned back and took the few minutes to type in one of the most called numbers. This one came back with a name and an address. Rachel Monike. It had to be Martha's sister. The address listed wasn't the pack's mountain property, it was here in town. It was a billing address, but it was worth a shot.
Either the sister lied to me, or maybe her phone was just being used. That was my hope, but my gut said that wasn't the case. I cleared my screen and locked my computer before I picked my bag up and left. Greg wasn't going to be pleased with my findings, but I promised him I'd figure it out.
I found my Hummer just where I left it the night of the press conference. I walked around it and looked under it for any evidence that it'd been tampered with. I unlocked it and climbed in. I waited a moment to see if there was any magic. When nothing blew up I started the car and drove to the hospital.
Greg greeted me in the waiting room. The dark circles under his eyes told me he hadn't slept. "Simon said you needed to talk to me. I thought it best that we talked out here."
I nodded. "Martha was in contact with someone that she simply had named Witch in her phone. There was a spell that was supposed to happen and it was set up to happen the night that the other part of the pack attacked you. I found the circle still active when I went to visit pack grounds."
"What kind of spell?" He asked, his jaw tight. "Why would she agree to something like that?"
I shrugged. "I don't know yet, I was hoping she was awake to talk."
"They still have her sedated, until the bullet wounds heal a little more."
"Is Martha's last name Monike?" I met his gaze and he nodded.
"Why do you ask?"
I wasn't sure how much information I could give him and expect him not to go pack master on someone's ass. "The number that Witch used called Rachel several times. Witch's phone is still active, but I don't want her to know that I have the number."
"Can you trace the location?" He shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'll talk to Rachel."
"I can't unless she calls and that takes more equipment than I have when I'm not working an actual PIB case." I shrugged. "I'll keep doing what I can. You'll probably have more luck with Rachel than I had when I talked to her." I still planned on visiting the billing address of the phone, but I wasn't going to tell Greg that. I wasn't going to give him the chance to talk me out of it.
"Thank you. I mean it Abby, I don't know what these girls got themselves into, but I want to keep them safe."
I really wanted to know what spell was supposed to be performed, but it wasn't like Greg was going to have an answer for me. "Can I see her?"
"Do you think there is anything you can learn while she's unconscious?"
I took a moment to consider my words carefully. "The text suggested that a spell was placed. If there's any magical residue on her aura, I might be able to trace it or figure out what the spell was for."
"Will it hurt her?"
"The spell? I don't know. Once I figure out what it was then I can answer that for you."
"Let's go see her and you can work your magic, witch." He turned away from me and started down the hall. We stopped briefly to get me a visitor badge and for me to sign in saying that I understood I was entering a lycanthrope wing.
I followed Greg into the hospital room and nodded at Simon as I entered. "Thanks for letting Greg know that I was on the way."
"No problem. Glad that you seem to be making some progress." He gave me a smile.
I hoped I was going to make more. I went to the edge of the bed and took Martha's hand. Some witches and warlocks could see auras without an issue; it was something I had to concentrate to do. It was why I hadn't thought about doing it the night before.
Taking a deep breath, I looked at her. Truly looked at her. Her face had some color back, which was a nice change from the pale near death look she had the night before. I concentrated and saw the blue haze of her aura around her, but there was a second one, almost a halo to hers and I knew it was her wolf's. I had seen it before with Simon.
There was no trace of magic on her aura though. Whatever the spell was it had failed completely and didn't leave a residue. I stepped back and shook my head.
"The good news is there's no trace of the spell. The bad news is that I can't trace it because of that." I crossed my arms. "Whoever this witch is, she knows what she's doing and how to make sure her tracks are covered."
"Thank you for trying. We'll call you when she wakes up. Simon will stay with her while I go to talk to Rachel." Greg motioned to the door.
I took it as a dismissal and walked out. Simon followed me out to the hallway. "Why does he need to talk to Rachel?"
"Because the witch has been calling her phone frequently and Rachel didn't mention it to either of us." I held my hands up in surrender. "I don't even know what to think of this. It's strange, and without knowing what the spell was, I don't have any idea if this witch is into black magic or not."
He leaned against the wall. "I was going to ask you on a date tonight, but I guess I'll be here."
"I'll be at Levi's doing a tracking spell with Nick." I sighed. "We're always just so busy."
He snorted. "Nick? You're taking other men into your chamber now?" He raised a brow.
For the love of the Goddess. "Don't be jealous, I have to teach him the spell."
"A warlock that doesn't know a tracking spell. I think you could aim higher Abby."
"It's a complicated tracking spell and I don't need your jealousy right now." I rubbed my eyes. "Seriously, I just need to close this case and get it done and over with."
"I'm just giving you grief. After this we can have a nice normal date, no other wolves and no cases."
I nodded. "Deal." I walked down the hall and towards the exit. I dropped my visitor badge off and went out to the Hummer. Simon and I were trying to form some type of relationship, but I was starting to think there was just no time as other things came up as priorities.
I leaned my head against the steering wheel of the Hummer. The visit had gotten me nowhere. I hoped that Greg got more information from Rachel.
I drove back to the office and hoped Nick had managed his task.
Nick was waiting in the lobby when I got there. He held up a cooler. "We were lucky, Jason had already collected blood samples for us. He even added our newest victims."
Jason was a smart man, his forethought made me think he'd worked with PIB agents before. I smiled. "Perfect, let's get going. I'd like to make it up there and get this done before nightfall."
"Don't want Levi finding me there?" He asked, his voice light.
"Something like that, but I'm really hopping we can start tracking down locations tonight. Levi trusts my judgment, so I'm not worried about you being there."
He made a face. "Are you sure you're up for this much today?"
"Weren't you the one who told me that I needed to be here and have information for you?" I raised a brow.
"That was before you spent your night at the hospital with a werewolf."
Ah, so he knew about that. "Yeah, my night was adventurous. Don't worry about it. I'm up for it. A friend made me a potion to deal with the pain and it's not like lying around at home is going to help anything."
"All right, then lead the way." Nick motioned to the door. "I do hope you enjoyed your lunch out of the office."
I wasn't going to tell him he was wrong on where I went; I didn't like that he knew where I was until the wee hours of the morning. I wasn't willing to share any more information that m
ight tip him off to me working a case outside of PIB. "Yeah, it was nice." My stomach growled at my lie and I hoped it wasn't loud enough for him to hear.
We both climbed into the Hummer and we headed towards the mountains. Two hours in the car with Nick seemed like it could be a long ride. Thirty minutes of silence in, I was right.
My phone rang and I turned on the hands free device. "Agent Collins speaking. You're on speakerphone so choose your words wisely."
Nick snorted, but didn't say anything.
"Abigail, it's Mason."
Nick and I both took a deep breath.
"Please don't tell me that you found another body." I groaned. "We already have our fair share."
He was silent for a moment. "Who's in the car with you?"
"Nick."
"Good. No, it's not another body. I ran that blood you found on the gravestone. We have a match. Agent Tomes."
I risked a glance at Nick; his eyes were just as wide as I figured mine were. "Agent Tomes and his partner are assigned to the vampire case."
"Because it's a continuation of the case they were working on before. I talked to him earlier." Mason said.
That was interesting, Agent Grace said she hadn't seen him. "What did he say?"
"Said that he went to make sure another vampire victim hadn't been raised as a zombie. He apparently had the same idea as Nick did, before we even had to deal with an undead unit."
I resisted the urge to sigh. "Nice of him to share that information. That doesn't explain how his blood ended up on the tombstone."
"He said he tripped and cut his hand on it. The receptionist confirmed his story."
That woman was creepy and had told me she didn't know if anyone else had asked or searched for the grave. Of course, maybe Tomes didn't need to search for it. Then why would she have been out there? Something wasn't adding up. "Which receptionist was it?"
"Said her name was Samantha. She'd just gotten back from vacation, said that Agent Tomes was one of the last people she helped."
So it wasn't the same one I had dealt with. "Okay, thanks. If you say he's cleared, then I'll trust you."
"You don't think he is?" Mason asked. "I'd be happy to dig further."
"It's not wise to start an investigation on a fellow PIB agent." Nick said. "I'd wait to see if any further evidence comes up."
He was right, but there was something in my gut that told me Tomes was connected to something. Either the rogue vampires or the zombies. Or maybe I was just being paranoid. "Nick's right. We'll wait and see if any more evidence comes to light. Things could get tricky if we start a case on a visiting PIB agent."
"Okay, I just wanted to let you know what I found. Have you two made much progress?"
"Not yet, we're on our way to try and find out how the victims are all connected. I'll let you know when we have something, anything."
"While you two work your magic, I'll look into the people that are being raised as zombies. I don't need magic for that."
No, he didn't, and it would be nice to have him working from the other side. "Thanks, call us if you find something." I disconnected the call. "So what's your theory?"
"Rage killings. People probably owe the necromancer money." Nick laughed. "Maybe just now started realizing what he or she could do with the ability."
I laughed. "You can't get money from the dead."
"Damn, that's right. What do you have?"
I thought for a moment. "Killing for fun. Random victims. Serial killer style. They have great control, but I hear it can make the witch or warlock power hungry."
"So a power hungry necromancer who's killing random people. I think that's less likely. There's always some reason. It doesn't have to be a good reason, but there's always some type of motivation behind killing."
It was human nature to be motivated by something. When it came to magic, I'd seen something as simple as jealousy push someone off their rocker. It wasn't pretty, but it did happen. "So there are two crazy theories. What else do you have?"
Nick and I spent the rest of the drive coming up with crazy theories. Some were built on evidence and some were just for fun. It helped pass the time until I pulled up to Levi's mansion.
"I didn't realize there was a house this big here in the mountains." Nick looked at it.
It was grey stone, with a huge oak door. Levi liked technology so it had a hand scanner to unlock the damn door. On the bright side, I didn't have to keep track of keys. On the down side it sucked during the winter. "Yeah, we're out in the middle of fucking nowhere. It was lovely to grow up. I had my own detached miniature house for a while, until I moved."
"Spoiled, were you?" He asked with a smile. We went up the walk and I looked over at the sheep grazing on the weeds. Nick pointed to it and I shrugged.
"No idea. I've learned not to question so much." I put my hand on the scanner and a tumbler moved and clicked. The little light on the box turned green and I walked in.
Nick followed me and looked around. "Nice place. Seems a little big for the two of you."
"He does his territory business here." I dropped my bag by the door.
"And exactly what does a vampire do for territory business?" Nick followed me as I made my way through the hallways and to the door that led to the basement and my chamber.
I swung the door open. My footsteps echoed in the empty stairwell as I walked down. "I don't know, he never includes me. He tries to keep me far away from all that." It was the truth. With the exception of working for him on cases the PIB couldn't handle and very rarely killing someone who stepped out of line, I didn't know much of Levi's business. He always said it was to protect me and so that other people didn't think he was using me.
I never asked to become a part of it, because supernatural politics wasn't a game I wanted to play.
"You're an adult now. Why do you keep so much connection with him?"
It was an odd question, and I couldn't place his tone. "Levi is the only family I have. You don't just cut yourself off from the person who raised you."
"I've just...I've heard things about him. Not nice things." He followed me down the stairs.
"Everyone has their not nice things, we've all done things we regret." I flipped on the light and motioned for him to come through the door. "Welcome."
He looked around at the stone chamber. It had been built for me to learn my magic in. That way there was little chance of me hurting the mansion or the people that happened to be in it. "Wow, I wish I had a place like this to work."
It was a nice switch in conversation. "It's nice, I do my more powerful spells here and some of my items are here. Like the bigger map that we need."
"It's magically protected and the set-up is great." He walked the circle that was etched into the stone floor.
"I needed something like this growing up. Wouldn't do me any good to kill myself or blow up the house accidentally if I lost control of my magic."
"Levi did a great job with having this built." He put his hand against the wall. "The magic around it is amazing. Who did he have do it?"
It was nice when someone else could appreciate the work that went into creating my safe place. "I honestly don't know. He had it built when I was little. I never thought to ask." There were a lot of things I just learned not to question when it came to Levi. It was just a fact of life at this point.
"It shows that he cares for you." He said easily. "This had to take a powerful witch or wizard, probably one of the older ones."
Which meant that they normally stuck to themselves. The older witches, wizards and elders weren't fond of the mainstream ways of supernatural creatures. It was just starting when I was four, so I couldn't imagine how hard it had to be to find one to do a spell for a vampire who took in a witch. "He cares and I've never doubted that. He has strange ways of showing it and strange rules, but he cares."
"He's a vampire."
That seemed to be his most common argument, but this time there was something different in his voice. "
Yes, I know that." I looked at him. "You know, I'm an adult and I know you don't like vampires. So you can keep the opinion to yourself and we can get down to doing this spell. Deal?"
He nodded. "Deal."
I went to the desk on the far side of the room and pulled out my map. It was large enough that it showed the four corners territory, the territory that Levi ruled. As a PIB agent, I was able to go out of state if my case allowed me. There wasn't a whole lot of animosity when it came to districts or territories for PIB agents, most of the time.
I laid the map in the middle of the circle that was carved in the floor. A full pentagram with each point of the star facing the correct direction. The rune for each element was carved at the point. Nick followed me and put the cooler with the blood samples next to the map.
"I sure hope you know what you're doing." He crossed his arms. "I've never seen a spell like this done."
I snorted. "Then you need to hang out with more people of our kind. I know a priest in the coven who used to do this for fun."
"I'm getting registered with the local coven this next weekend. Full ceremony and all."
I didn't know that. I didn't even want to think about it. "Have fun, they know how to throw a welcome party."
"You won't be there?" He raised a brow. "You were on the list of registered members."
I smirked. "Yep, doesn't mean I go."
"You don't like the local coven," he stated.
I finished smoothing out the map and went back to the desk to grab a blessed knife. "They don't really like me either. A few months ago one of them side swiped my car. Almost killed Simon and I because it activated your brother's rune on my car. You know the one that caused it to blow up. One of the priestesses tried to bind my magic because she was involved with the murder case. I almost died in a burning building because of that."
"Every group has bad eggs." He didn't move from the circle. "You need family."
I swear one of the coven planted him in my office to try and convince me that I needed to be more active. "You'll hear things about me there and know that at least ninety percent of it is true."
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