Here Witchy Witchy Box Set 1

by A. L. Kessler

  I pulled up to the house, parking behind Nick’s Charger. Mason was working out in the field with a few other officers, Jason and his crew were combing through the front yard marking little things here and there. I got out and waved as I went to the house. Nick walked out on the porch, a pair of goggles and a sledge hammer in his hand. “Talked to the families this morning. They were relieved to have remains to bury and only one of them demanded justice.”

  “Anything to link them together?” I held my hand out and he handed me the goggles. I pulled them on over my ponytail, wiggling them until they fit over my eyes somewhat comfortably.

  “Nothing of value.” He shook his head. “Let’s get this wall knocked down and see what we’ll find.”

  I nodded and stepped in the house. I waited a moment, my heart skipping a beat here or there as my gaze darted around. No furniture moved, nothing came after me and I followed Nick further into the house.

  “When I got in here all the furniture was moved away from the wall in question.” He motioned to the wall. “She likes you better, so you knock first.”

  I twisted my grip on the sledge hammer and swung. The drywall gave easily under the weight of the hammer. The dust settled and I looked through the hole I created. I couldn’t see much yet, but that didn’t mean anything. I continued to break the wall down until there was a visible door way. Nick handed me his MAG light. “Ready to go down?”

  I looked at the stairs covered in dust that led into the darkness. My mind conjured up images of dead bodies and screaming faces. “How about you go down first?”

  Nick clicked on his flash light. “Alright, but if I scream, no judging me.”

  “After the week we’ve had, I will not.” I promised.

  He took a few steps down, hesitating as the stairs creaked underneath him. I waited for the wood to splinter around his foot, but it never did.

  “When was the basement sealed up?” Nick asked over his shoulder.

  “Ninety-eight,” I paused. “Back when Jerry bought it.” I hadn’t even thought to talk to him about it when I talked to him about the ghosts.

  “Hopefully everything was up to code then.” The light bounced off the walls as we continued down.

  I took a deep breath and looked around when we got to the bottom. Charcoal drawings covered the walls. A female figure dancing in all of them. The ghost. I went up closer to one of them. “This is her.”

  “It’s like a shrine.” Nick’s voice came from behind me. “There are a ton of drawings.”

  I turned away from the wall and my light swept over the room. A modern bed with a few dresses laid out on it caught my attention. “Well, that’s a bit creepy, isn’t it?”

  “Do we have pictures to compare this room to?” Nick asked.

  “I might have some with the file at PIB.” I touched the fabric. “Why would he build a shrine to a ghost?”

  He shook his head. “I have no idea, maybe he fell in love with her. Stranger things have happened.”

  “I don’t think this is a crime, so we can’t arrest him.” I shook my head. “Creepy, but not illegal since she’s dead.”

  Nick made a noise of agreement. “We still need to bring Jerry in and talk to him.”

  “Let’s get back upstairs and have a team put lights down here so we can start collecting stuff.” I turned back to the stairs and paused as I felt something tug on my shirt. I looked over my shoulder and saw something whisk through the air. Nick had his back turned. I followed the white wisp across the room. It disappeared into a wall on the far side of the room. I frowned and put my hand against the wall, the only place bare of drawings. My fingers felt along the seam of the wall and a breeze danced along my skin.

  I pried at the seam until the wall started to move. It squeaked on hinges as I pulled and I looked over my shoulder at Nick. “Down the rabbit hole?”

  He looked over me. “At least there’s a light at the end of this tunnel.”

  He was right. Something that looked like a stream of daylight shone at the end of the pathway. I stepped forward and flashed my light on the edge of the hall. Nothing unusual from a regular hall, except for the peeling wallpaper and the smell of mold. The walk down the hall led to the hidden basement that I had found. My stomach churned at the sight. Disintegrating beds lined the walls, bucket next to them, and chains leading from the beds. Nick wasn’t kidding, it was an inhuman prison of some sort.

  I stepped up to one of the beds and saw the dark stains on the sheets. I didn’t need a test kit to tell me it was blood.

  “Abby?” Nick asked.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know what happened here, but I don’t like it. Why didn’t you guys check out the hall the other day?”

  “There wasn’t an opening.” He muttered. “She must be moving objects again.”

  I nodded and climbed up the ladder that someone had placed in the basement to climb out of the hole. Nick climbed up after me and we both stared at each other. “So did Jerry know?”

  I shrugged. “I have no idea.” I glanced at Mason canvasing the fields. “Are we sure on the age of the corpses down there?”

  “We won’t know until Jason’s labs are done, why?” Nick’s gaze followed mine and then he turned back to the pit. “You don’t think…”

  “I don’t know. Fifteen vampire victims and a horde of blood-starved vampires? Seems to be a connection to me.”

  “Yeah, but they were well hidden.” Nick shook his head. “I’m betting coincidence.”

  I smirked. “Betting, eh? What’s on the line?”

  “I win this bet, you owe me a week of coffee.” He crossed his arms.

  “And if I’m right and there is a connection, I want a week worth of coffee and you to start letting me drive.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Your cars always blow up.”

  “Not true. This last one was taken out by a rogue blanket of poltergeists.” I crossed my arms. “When I talked to Tomes, he said that there were others. That he’s not the only one. Which makes me wonder how far back this goes.”

  “Do you think it goes back as far as the first owner of the house?” Nick motioned to the field. “Like maybe there’s a cave out there he could have kept starving vampires in?”

  I shrugged. “I have no idea, Nick.” I seemed to be saying that a lot. “You go talk to Mason, I want to talk to Jason and give him an idea of the info we’ll be needing.”

  “What do you want me to talk to Mason about?” I didn’t miss the scowl in Nick’s voice.

  I gave him a droll look. “Really Nick? Put on your big boy panties and see if he found anything out there. I’ll be there to join you in a few minutes.”

  “How about I talk to Jason? I know what we need.” He motioned to Detective Mason. “He doesn’t like me and is more likely to give you information.”

  I couldn’t argue with that fact, I didn’t have to like it, but I couldn’t argue with it. “Okay fine, you talk to Jason.” I resisted throwing my hands in the air and headed towards Mason.

  I walked up next to Mason and stared off into the distance with him. The property reminded me of where my parents’ house stood. Quiet, peaceful, no neighbors for at least a couple city blocks. “What are you looking at?”

  He motioned to the ground and then forward. “You tell me.”

  I didn’t always appreciate when he didn’t give me a direct answer, but it was his way of allowing me to form my own opinion. I looked down at where we were standing. “Foot steps.” I continued to track the deep seeded heel prints, spread over different distances and strides. “Lots of footprints.”

  He nodded. “So tell me, our people haven’t been out this far in droves. Jason’s people have their range. PIB didn’t send a horde of agents. So what was out here?” He glanced at me. “You and Nick came out last night, according to the night guard.”

  I nodded. “We did, Nick and I both couldn’t sleep, so after a cup of coffee we decided to come check out the scene at night.”

  “
Why?”

  “Vampire related case. It made sense. Do you want to know what we saw out here last night, or you just going to keep asking me questions?” I bent down and touched one of the prints. Deep, round, and looked like the back of a tennis shoe based on the slanted threads.

  Mason grunted and I took it as a yes.

  “We saw a line of vampires. We assumed blood-starved because of how jerky their movements were.” I shook my head. “We didn’t get close enough to see how many, or to confirm they were blood starved.”

  He snorted. “You and Nick didn’t want to cause a fire fight.”

  “One we would have lost, more specifically.” I nodded. “Care to take a walk, Detective? Maybe we can figure out where they went come daylight.”

  “And what are we going to do when we find them?” He raised a brow. “Two of us against a horde of blood-starved?”

  I touched the butt of my gun. “If we’re lucky, they’ll all be sleeping, but maybe we can find out who is behind creating them.”

  “Abby, how do you expect to do that?” He sounded exasperated, as if I was expecting the impossible.

  I took a deep breath. “Chances are he’ll be strong enough to be awake during the day.”

  “Which means what?”

  “We’re dealing with someone about as powerful as Levi.” I didn’t want to admit it out loud and part of me knew that I had been avoiding that thought. I didn’t know how powerful Mario was, because I hadn’t seen him in action, but I knew I’d be visiting Levi tonight. Or at the very least calling him.

  Mason followed me. “Has the thought of back up occurred to you?”

  “Nope, not really.” I didn’t look behind me. “I’m beyond waiting for other people and things to fall into place right now.”

  He said nothing as we followed the steps. I stopped on occasion and checked the depth of the prints and direction. Last time I was on a hike like this I had a broken rib and I was following magic. It’d been a long time since I’d tracked without it. “If we could find just one thing. One simple scrap of clothing or blood or something. Nick and I could do a tracking spell and this would be a lot easier.”

  “Then maybe we should look for that instead of following the trail. If you think it’d be easier.” I couldn’t tell if he was serious or not, but I wasn’t going to slow down to find out.

  “I don’t think it’ll be easier to find it.” I muttered and looked up. “There’s an old house up ahead.”

  “Can’t vampires just transport themselves? Why would they leave trails?” Mason stepped up next to me.

  I closed my eyes as memories assaulted me from my encounter with the blood-starved vampires. “They don’t have the energy or the concentration to transport like a well-fed vampire. I know it’s a skill that young vampires struggle with, so no, walking is the only thing that would make sense. The ones we dealt with at the press conference barely managed to get me to the van. Which is why they needed a mode of transportation.” I motioned to the house. “Let’s take a look.”

  We walked side by side up to the building. The wood siding clung to the frame, torn by years of wear and tear with no maintenance. Spider web cracks climbed through the two windows up front and only a frame remained where the door should have been. Mason motioned and I stepped up onto the porch. Wood splintered around my boot with my first step. Freezing, I waited for something to rush out of the house to attack. My heart pounded, but nothing came after me.

  I pulled my foot out of the hole and stepped again, this time finding solid wood. I took cautious steps until I reached the door. The sun shone through the two front windows, casting shadows from tree branches over a standing figure. I pulled my gun and raised my arm. “Stop.”

  The figure looked up, meeting my gaze. I knew the face and relaxed a little bit.

  “Merick, I should shoot your ass.” I hissed.

  He held his hands up. “Please don’t, I rather like it lead free. Detective Mason.” He bowed his head. “Abby, you can put the gun away.”

  “Merick, nice to see you again.”

  I put my gun away and turned to Mason. “You two know each other?”

  “Merick recently came onto the force as a consultant in linguistics. He speaks five languages and specializes in written text.”

  I raised a brow. “I had no idea you were so versed in other languages.”

  “You never asked, Abigail.” Merick didn’t miss a beat. “I followed the trail, same as you did.”

  “Why are you even on this crime scene?” I turned my flashlight on and looked around the room. The beam moved over about twenty corpses…no, not corpses, sleeping vampires. My heart dropped.

  Merick met my gaze. “I was here examining the runes in the other house, I thought I heard something out in the yard and ended up here after following the trail.”

  It made sense. He was trying to find a way to help me, though as much as I appreciated it, I didn’t know how I felt about him being this close to the case. “Any sign of their maker?”

  He shook his head. “Just a bunch of sleeping babies.”

  Who were probably blood-starved. The bodies had parted, as if by instinct, to avoid the sun beams. All the other windows were still boarded up making the sunlight exposure minimal. “We need a containment team out here and I need to contact Levi.”

  “I think that’s a good idea.” Mason put his hand on my shoulder. “I’ll call the team, you get back to Nick, take Merick with you. You guys finish working the haunted house.”

  I glanced at Merick who nodded and motioned to the door, “Ladies first.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  I walked across the field with Merick in silence. I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to say when I was on the scene with him. Clearly Mason didn’t know the connection between Merick and I, and I wasn’t exactly willing to give up that information.

  “Your partner, he’s bound to know me on sight.” Merick motioned to where Nick was talking to Jason. “I’ve meet with him a few times and he’s not so friendly towards me.”

  I shrugged. “He’s going to have to get over that. You’re officially on the case to help us with the runes.”

  “But I know the runes and why they are there.” Merick stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. “I’m here to watch over you, Abby.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know why everyone thinks I need a guardian angel. The last year Levi had Simon glued to my side, the department is refusing to move Nick to his own cases, and now you think I need protection. Last year you were giving me death threats on behalf of your Cult.”

  He shrugged one arm. “We’re realizing you aren’t as big as a threat as we thought and that you can be more useful to us. But for that, we need you alive.”

  I continued walking without giving a response, there was no reason I should have to justify anything to him. I approached Nick and Jason, noticing that Merick went straight into the house instead.

  “Jason.” I nodded to him. “Find any more skeletons for us?”

  “Sure have, Agent A. We’ve configured seven more from the bones we’ve found.”

  That meant there were ten total now. We hopefully had all of our thumb victims. “That’s great to hear. And any news on the victims in the basement?”

  He nodded. “I was hoping you’d meet me at the morgue to see a couple of them.”

  I wasn’t a fan of the morgue, but I wanted to get a look at those victims. I also wanted to get back into town so that I could go visit Mr. Borneheart to figure out what he was hiding about all of this. “Sure, let me just finish up something inside and I’ll head that way. Are you and your team done here?”

  “Nick is going to stay with them to see if there’s anything else they happen to find, but we combed the area several times to make sure there wasn’t anything there that we were missing. Should we have seen something other than the skeletons?”

  I shook my head. “No, anything else would have been our department. Thank you for your hard work. I’ll see y
ou at the morgue.”

  Jason nodded and trudged over to where the cluster of vehicles was parked. Nick put a hand on my shoulder when I turned towards the house. “The man in there. He’s from the Cult. I don’t know how he got on our crime scene, but I plan on making sure that Detective Mason removes him.”

  I shook my head. “Good luck. I know him too and I know exactly how stubborn he is, and when he’s determined, he’ll succeed.” I started towards the house.

  “And that doesn’t worry you?” Nick jerked me back.

  I glared at him. “No, it doesn’t, I plan on using his expertise and using him to help solve the case. If you have a problem with that, then maybe you should step back.” I tried to keep the irritation out of my voice. “I want this case solved and I want to continue on with my life and putting some of the pieces back together.”

  “But at the cost of letting the Cult further in?” He raised a brow. “Abby, I think your judgment is clouded.”

  “By what, Nick? If he’s steering us away, we’ll know. The thing is, the Cult is already close to the case. So what’s the harm in letting him in?”

  “Do you trust him?” Nick shoved his hands into his pockets and stared at me. “Can you honestly say that you can trust him at your back and not to lead us astray on this case?”

  I thought about what he was asking. Originally, Merick had been giving me death threats, but now he swore that the Cult was backing away. Then he reappeared in my life, without me signaling him, when I needed to talk to him. He’d led us to the crime though and had tried to protect me from the poltergeists. “Right now, yes. I can.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “I don’t owe you any explanation. You can trust me or you can’t. I’m your partner, Nick. If I thought this was going to put you in danger, I’d be right there backing you up when it comes to talking to Mason.”

  “Go talk to Merick then. Just don’t get yourself killed, hexed or otherwise.” He muttered and turned away from me. I didn’t know what else he was expecting, I wasn’t going to lay down and let him walk over me. I shook my head and walked up the porch. I took a deep breath before stepping into the house.