He nodded. “And she showed herself to you, not me, I’m betting there is a reason. If you think you can handle it, go. Wear your mother’s pentagram and let me know if anything crazy happens. If anything odd happens, get out of there ASAP.”
“Of course, I get it. Don’t tempt the ghosts.” I chuckled. “When I joined PIB, I never thought I’d deal with ghosts.”
“What’s the strangest thing you’ve dealt with so far?” Nick smirked. “I’ve seen ghosts before, possessed people, hell, I think the strangest I’ve dealt with was the shifter who’d learn many different forms, not all animals. That was…interesting.”
“So far, demon I think is the strangest.” I chuckled. “It sounds like your adventures are a bit more exciting.”
He snorted. “Until I got here and met you.”
I glanced up. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Well, exploding cars, Cult cases, a blanket of poltergeists…” He laughed. “Lighten up, Abby, I’m joking.”
“I still think you might be the one attracting all the crazy stuff.” I sipped my coffee and smiled as the taste was finally to satisfaction. “So we have direction for both cases. I’ll look at the basement pictures tomorrow when I get back from opening up the new one.”
“I’ll start contacting families.” He agreed.
Both of our phones dinged at the same time. I pulled it out and read the text. “Jason has three skeletons so far.”
“And both of them are missing their left thumbs.” Nick practically jumped out of his seat. “Let’s go.”
“Go? Jason says there’s nothing to see. I’m not going to go look at the skeletons just to be disappointed.”
He sighed and flopped back in his seat. “That’s a good point. But that’s three out of ten so far. If we can get the other seven bodies put together, then maybe we can find something to connect them.”
“Not much you can get from bones. Maybe some DNA, some facial reconstruction, but who knows?” I continued to drink my coffee. “Has Jason slept at all during this case?”
He shrugged. “I don’t think many of us are sleeping right now.”
He had a point. I finished my coffee. “Let’s go.”
“Go?”
I laughed at the echo of the conversation. “Let’s go to the house. We’ve only been there during the day. Let’s see what goes on at night.”
“You aren’t thinking about trying to open that basement in the dark are you?”
I shook my head. “No, I’ll wait for daylight for that. I’m hoping that maybe there’s some type of nighttime activity that might give us a clue as to who our nameless vampire is.”
“You’re crazy, but let’s go.” He downed the rest of his coffee and put some cash on the table. “If you get me killed, I’m coming back to haunt your ass.”
I smiled. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
CHAPTER NINE
I got out of Nick’s Charger and looked at the house in the dark. No lights flickered in the windows, the wind whipped around us, but nothing out of the ordinary. I don’t know if I expected to see orbs of lights for the ghosts or what, but the dark house wasn’t really what I thought I’d find.
Nick handed me a MAG light over the roof of the car. “Disappointed?”
“I don’t know, I guess I just expected a legit haunted house to look, I don’t know, haunted?”
He laughed. “It has the caution tape,” he pointed to where the yellow tape danced around the hole in the ground. The ground was cut away and the tape was wrapped around fence stakes to warn people to stay away. “And the house is falling apart, but if you think you’re going to just see a bunch of random ghosts…” He stopped for a moment. “Abby?”
I was too busy trying to figure out how big of a hole there was for the basement that I didn’t see what he was looking at. “What?”
He moved my head so I was looking at the far end of the house. Nothing was there. “Must be a ghost, Nick, I don’t see anything.”
“The woman is standing right there and crooking a finger at us to follow.” He grabbed my wrist and started pulling me forward. I followed him with the flash light. His quick steps covered a lot of ground, but he stopped right at the corner of the house.
Giggling filled the air. I glanced at Nick. His wide eyes turned to me. “So we saw the vampire at the press conference, right?”
I nodded. “Working theory was that he’d given a fake name to the press he was working for. Why?”
“I think we need to talk to Levi again.” He put a hand on my shoulder and started to walk backwards.
“What do you see that I don’t?”
I glanced around, focusing mainly on the house.
He motioned forward. “Look in the field.”
I rolled my eyes and turned off the light to let my eyes adjust to the dark. Figures moved through the shadows. The faint red glow of eyes came through the darkness. The closer the figures came, the more ridged their movements. There was only one type of creature I knew that had red eyes like that. My heart dropped. “Are those…”
“I think they’re blood-starved.” He started to move backwards and reached for me as if planning on forcing my steps. “Back in the car. We can’t take that many.”
We both turned and ran. I was panting by the time I got into the car. We took a moment to look around to see if they had followed us.
“I think we need to talk to Agent Grace and maybe visit Tomes.” I tried to catch my breath. “Also, we need to start running more.”
He nodded and started the car. “My question is: how are there that many blood-starved vampires without Levi knowing? What are they feeding from? There’s been no reports of vampire attacks since we arrested Tomes.”
I looked back towards where we had seen the figures. “We go out there tomorrow in the daylight and see if we can find out.”
And I would be asking Levi and Mario about it, demanding answers even. If there was a horde of blood-starved vampires, or even new vampires, PIB should have been informed. Someone should have told us.
Nick threw the car in gear and peeled out of the driveway.
I laughed a little. “Should have brought the Hummer.”
“Why?” He didn’t even glance at me as he turned on the road.
“So we could have run over the bastards.” I couldn’t hide the twisted smile that formed at the thought.
He echoed my laugh. “Really? Hummer vs vampire? Hummer vs zombie is one thing, but vampires move quickly.”
I hmed for a moment. “True, but how many of them do you think I could take out before they get me?”
“I give it three before one of them is in the car with you. You’ve already almost died from a car accident before, do you want to repeat that?” The light heartedness in his voice died a little bit. “I’d hate to lose a partner that way.”
I sighed. “No, I’d rather not repeat that. I was lucky. So very lucky.” I leaned back in my seat. “I think I’m going to go home and try to grab a couple hours of sleep.”
“What happened to pulling an all-nighter with me?” He joked and just like that the tension broke in the car.
I shrugged. “That was before we were going to go speak with Tomes.”
“Did you want me to handle that?”
Did I want Nick to? “No. I want to see the look in his eyes when he realizes that he has no more power over me.”
“Abby…”
“I’ll be fine and I won’t overreact.” I promised. “I won’t even bring my gun into the visitor room.”
He snorted. “I don’t think they’ll even allow you to do that.”
“I’m an agent, I don’t think civilian rules apply to us there.” I watched as the sleeping world went by as we drove. “You should get some sleep too. Dealing with grieving families take a lot of energy.”
“Yes, but at least now we have three sets of remains from the field that the family can put to rest.” He sighed. “And then we can start working on the
fifteen bodies in the basement and see if they have relatives.”
“Do you think someone is missing them almost a hundred years later?”
His grip tightened on the wheel. “I have no idea.”
I didn’t either. There might have been family rumors that still existed, but I would doubt living relatives were still looking for these people.
Nick dropped me off at the Hummer and I drove home in a daze of sleepiness. I didn’t know what he was going to do, but that didn’t matter too much to me at the moment, what mattered to me was getting into bed and getting a few hours of sleep before I had to head back to the office. I unlocked the door and dropped my bag in the entryway. Osiris greeted me with a meow before trotting up the stairs and then to the bedroom.
I nodded. “Yep, I know. I was out much later than I planned. Sorry, things got complicated.” I rubbed my eyes.
Osiris rubbed against me and then jumped up on the bed. I changed back into my PJs, putting my gun on the night stand, and then crawling into bed. I took a deep breath before closing my eyes and falling into a deep sleep.
‘Abigail…’
My eyes shot open at the sound of my mother’s voice. I glanced at the clock, it was thirty minutes before I needed to get up. There should have been no reason I heard her voice. I hadn’t been dreaming.
I rubbed my eyes and reached to pet Osiris, but the spot was empty. Still warm from where he had been laying. “Osiris?”
No answer. No meow or anything. I sat up. “Here kitty kitty.”
Nothing. I shook my head and stood up. Maybe he was just hiding.
“Abigail…”
I took another deep breath and closed my eyes. It was just my imagination. I took a few steps forward and felt something tug on my shirt, much like I had at the other house. I turned around and Osiris was sitting on the bed with his claw stuck in the fabric. I let out a sigh of relief and gently pulled his claw out.
“I have to get ready for work.” I rubbed my eyes. “And make some coffee. I need more coffee.”
I quickly got ready to go and went to the kitchen. On the counter there was a brand new single serve coffee brewer. I found a set of new mugs sitting next to it and smiled. All of them were travel mugs. Again, whoever helped Levi out during the day did a hell of a job getting everything that I needed.
I made myself a cup to go, finding creamer in the fridge, and real sugar in a jar near the mugs. A day that begins with good coffee can’t be a horrible day. Except this day included a long day at a haunted house and a visit to the high security PIB prison. I went to the front door and picked up my bag. Osiris gave me a sleepy yawn and trotted off, probably to find a place to sleep. I went out to the Hummer and climbed in. I turned the key and the engine purred to life. Nothing else happened. No explosion or anything.
I switched from park to reverse and looked at the front door of the house. I knew I’d be calling this place home soon. I could feel it. A figure appeared in the window and my heart dropped. Just a trick of my eyes. No one was in there. No ghost or otherwise.
I rubbed my eyes. This case was already getting to me. What little sanity I had was fleeing apparently. I backed out of the driveway and headed into town. My first stop would be to talk to Tomes. I called the high security prison and put the call onto the hands free system.
“This is Agent Abigail Collins. I’m looking to request a private visit to Brian Tomes in regards to a current case.”
“Agent Collins, there’s a note in the system saying that any audiences with him must be supervised by Agent Grace.”
That wasn’t so bad, at least I was allowed to visit. Grace and I had an understanding of some sorts when it came to Tomes, she was also nice, so there wasn’t some weird woman to woman rivalry with her. “Okay, please inform Agent Grace that I’m about thirty minutes out.”
“I’ll give her a call. What case is this pertaining too?”
I tried to figure out the best way to phrase it. “Mainly the blood-starved vampire case she was on a few months back.”
“Thank you, we’ll see you in thirty minutes, Agent Collins.”
I disconnected the call and told the system to send Nick a text to update him on my plans. I felt a bit like I was going to go chat with the devil himself, but I would show no fear when I faced him. Before Tomes was arrested, he had planned to kill me and throw me at the feet of the Vampire King. He was convinced I had some type of connection to him, but no one knew what that was. Agent Grace and I had a good laugh about it over a couple beers one night.
I pulled up to the PIB prison. The tan brick walls stood out against the backdrop of the mountain, chain link fencing with barbed wire swirling on top led to towers with guards in them. Brick walls stood behind that, also with barb wire, which made me wonder if there had been a sale when they were building the prison. I drove up to the gate and paused in front of it, right next to the guard.
I rolled down my window and handed him my badge, my clearance, and my ID. “Good morning.”
He smiled at me. “Good morning Agent Collins.” He handed me my stuff back and another armed guard rolled the gate away so I could drive in.
I drove slowly to the main parking lot and parked the Hummer. I wasn’t even sure how to approach this. My phone dinged and I looked at the message.
‘Nick told me that you’re visiting Tomes, be careful, we’ll see you at the house in a few hours.’ The fact that Mason texted me told me he really was worried about this visit. But it wasn’t like Tomes could hurt me here. So I hoped.
I nodded to Agent Grace when I walked in to the holding room. She looked as she always did, her blonde hair pulled back in a tight bun, keeping any of the strands away from her slim face. She sat across from Tomes. His hair was more gray than I remembered, and there might have been one or more wrinkles by his eyes.
“What is she doing here?” He jerked his chin at me. It took me a moment to realize it was because his hands were cuffed to the table. Because he was a warlock, I knew that the cuffs were bespelled to block his magic.
“I came to talk to you about the blood-starved vampires.” I sat down next to Agent Grace. “Last night my partner and I found a horde of them outside a murder scene.”
He chuckled and leaned back in his chair the best that his bonds would let him. “I thought I told you that I wasn’t the only one working with them.”
No, he hadn’t told me that. My mind went back to Mario and how he was in town to follow up on the problem, he had a theory that Tomes had a partner. I glanced at Agent Grace, but her face remained carefully blank, and it reminded me that she’d been an agent longer than I had. Just about ten years she’d said, making her one of the first official PIB agents.
Tomes laughed. “No, not Melody.”
That was a relief at least, I didn’t know how to deal with more than one rogue PIB agent. Assuming he was telling the truth. “You care to enlighten us on who?”
He shook his head. “Why? From what I understand I’m basically awaiting trial to be executed. Even if I give you one name, that won’t end it. It won’t end until the Vampire King is brought down and anarchy reigns through the supernatural world.”
“That’s a pretty lofty goal. You plan on doing that through blood-starved vampires, from here in prison?” I shook my head. “No, you’re a pawn in this. You like to pretend that you’re powerful and that you can control this outcome, but you can’t. You couldn’t even take me down.”
He snarled and jerked his chains. Grace flinched next to me, but I held Tomes’ gaze. “You can’t scare me. You’re behind bars while whoever is pulling your strings is free. So why don’t you just fill me in on what is going on.”
“Fuck you, Collins.”
This wasn’t getting me anywhere. I stood. “That’s fine. I’ll figure it out myself. Thank you, Agent Grace, for meeting with me here on such short notice.” I bowed my head and turned my back to Tomes. “Enjoy your time awaiting trial.”
“You don’t want to go down tha
t path, Abigail.”
I paused as the familiar words came from Tomes. “There’s nothing but death waiting for you. If you think I was the only one with the idea of taking your life, think again.”
I looked over my shoulder. “If you think that a death threat will scare me, you’re wrong. You learned nothing about me while we worked together.”
Agent Grace stood and joined me as I walked out of the room. “He’s just trying to egg you on.”
“I know.” Though his warning was far too close to Grayson’s warning about the case. “I figured this was going to lead to a dead end, but I had to try.”
“If you want some help on the case, let me know. Maybe a third agent will be helpful? I heard you and Nick caught a doozy of a case.”
I nodded. “Actually, there might be something that you can help me with. We have ten thumbs that are close to ten years old.”
“Gross.” She scrunched her face up.
“They had letters scratched into them that spelled out ‘Too Late PIB”. Do you recall any unsolved cases around then? I know you would have been just a rookie and that PIB was just officially getting its start…” I let the thought trail off.
She thought for a moment. “I’d have to go through old case files. There’s nothing that sticks out to me, but let’s get back to the office and I’ll take a look.”
I smiled. “Thanks.” We walked out together. “I’m supposed to meet Nick at our haunted house, so call me if something shows up?”
She nodded. “You have fun playing with the ghosts. Play nice with Nick. We should get together once this case is over.”
“We should. I could use a beer buddy.” Of course, I’d have to go out since according to Levi I shouldn’t have any visitors in the house.
She waved at me as she climbed into her car. I leaned against the Hummer and texted Nick a quick update and my ETA for the house. Tomes’ warning was too close to Grayson’s to make me comfortable. I got in the Hummer and started it up. One thing at a time, solve the case, worry about conspiracy later.
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