Here Witchy Witchy Box Set 1

by A. L. Kessler

  I couldn’t figure out what to say. I wasn’t used to people telling me when my plate was too full, but maybe she was right. There were twenty-five bodies that were waiting for answers. Possibly three cases, counting the blood-starved vampires. I was used to having Nick there to work through things and back me up the last year.

  She called the records building and read off the case number, mumbling a few things before hanging up. “They’ll have it for us in a couple hours.”

  “Perfect. Let’s go pick up lunch and head over to Calico.”

  She nodded and we packed up all of our stuff. I gave a little wave to the barista as we walked out.

  Calico Research was nestled in a rundown shopping center in the south part of town. The front door and windows had iron bars over them. A small white sign on the front read ‘receptionist has no cash’ which made me wonder how many times they had been robbed.

  I pulled the door open, Agent Grace walked in first and I followed. A little bell dinged in the doorway when the door closed behind us.

  “Welcome to Calico Research.” A southern voice called from the back. “I’ll be out in just a moment.”

  Most of the front room was taken up by a counter with two chairs sitting in front. Behind the counter, a doorway with plastic strips dangling down blocked the view of anything beyond. The strips rustled and Jerry walked through, back first. He turned around carrying a cooler by the handles. His gaze met mine, flickered to Agent Grace and then back to me. All color drained from his face.

  “Shit.”

  That was an accurate word to describe the situation. He set the cooler down behind the counter. “What can I help you two agents with? Melody, you’re looking well.”

  “Shut it Jerry.” she snapped and I wondered just how she knew him.

  “When digging into the case some more, imagine my surprise when I discovered that the research center that was supposed to have closed ten years ago just opened up a new location here. And the two staff members were you and Johnny Smiths.” I used the alias on purpose to see if there was recognition.

  He jerked like I’d hit him. “It’s not a crime to have a business with a vampire.”

  “You’re right, but helping him out with experiments on humans and supernatural creatures that end in death is. Not to mention helping him cover it up.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He crouched and Agent Grace jumped over the counter, tackling him.

  “You’re not going to shift your way out of this.” She slapped cuffs on him as she pinned him to the floor. “You’re under arrest…” She continued to read him his rights and I called dispatch.

  “Hey, this is Agent Abigail Collins, I need a car to transport a suspect.”

  Dispatch made some joke about me not having my own car while they put the order in, but I couldn’t find the energy to correct him on what happened to my car. “Just get me a squad car.” I muttered and hung up.

  Agent Grace stood and pulled Jerry up from the floor. I walked behind the counter and looked at the cooler. “That’s a pretty big cooler for lunch.”

  “Everything we do here is legal.” He snarled. “We have release forms signed by all participants.”

  I flipped opened the cooler. The room spun as I counted over fifty packets of blood. “Holy shit, what the fuck are you doing with that much blood?” I closed the cooler and gave Jerry wide eyes.

  “We’re doing research on it.” He shrugged. “That’s all I can tell you because of client confidentiality laws.”

  I glanced at Grace. “You have him handled? I want to take a look in back.”

  “You can’t do that without a warrant.” He snapped at me.

  She nodded. “I’ve got him handled. Don’t worry about it. Squad car on its way?”

  “Yep.” I stepped around them and pushed the plastic aside. I didn’t know what I was expecting to find. Blood maybe? Torture room? More bodies? What greeted me was white halls, so clean they reflected the horrible lighting. Heavy wood doors led to rooms on either side of the hallway. I saw a only one sign and it was for a restroom. I took a deep breath and drew my gun before opening the first door. I nudged my way into the room. I aimed and swept the room with my gun. A chair with an IV stand next to it took up most of the room. Metal cabinets shone in the light. It all looked very sanitary. I flipped each cupboard open to find medical supplies in each.

  I left that room and went to the next, but something down the hall made a noise. A shuffle, a rub of fabric or something. I ran down the hall as silently as I could in my boots, making my steps soft. I put my ear up to the last door and heard groaning and more rustling. I tried the handle and let out a small sigh of relief as the handle gave. I pushed the door open. Firearm ready, finger on the trigger. My heart pounded and sweat beaded on my forehead as the door opened.

  A red light barely lit the room, but the figure standing over a person could be seen even in the dim lighting. Rows of flat beds with people strapped to them lined the bigger room. The figure looked up at me with blood dripping from his mouth. I shot twice into his chest but he disappeared and my bullets bit into the wall opposite me. I waited a moment to see if he’d reappear. Nothing happened. I took a step forward. Weight took me from behind. My face hit the cold tile floor as a massive palm held my face down.

  I slammed my elbow back and hit solid muscle.

  “You were warned to stay away, Abigail Collins.” The male voice hissed right next to my ear. “You just couldn’t let a vampire take the case.”

  I didn’t have any blades on me and I couldn’t shoot him at this angle, even though I still had my gun. “You obviously don’t know me that well. I don’t give up my cases.”

  His fangs scraped over my neck. A shiver shot down my body and my muscles tensed under him. Grace had to have heard the shots. I could scream, but with the heavy doors, I didn’t know if she’d hear me.

  “I’d love to strap you to a table and mix your blood. See what I could create with you.” His tongue traced the same vein his teeth had.

  Like hell I was going to become one of his experiments. A noise sounded outside the door and the pressure on me eased up just a bit as if he was distracted. I pushed up, slamming my head back into his head. The smack of my skull meeting his nose echoed through the room and the door burst open.

  Grace came in followed by two officers. With the help of the officers, she got him pinned to the wall and cuffed with silver to keep him from poofing anywhere. I had a moment of wondering why he didn’t leave when he had the chance. He had to have heard them coming.

  “I heard the shots, but I couldn’t leave Jerry alone out there.” She raised a brow. “Leave it to you to stumble upon a vampire in daylight.”

  I rubbed the back of my head. “My day just keeps getting worse.” I pulled out my phone and called for a containment team, ambulances, and a biohazard team. Dispatch was probably getting tired of hearing my voice.

  I put my phone back and Grace put a hand on my shoulder. “Still up for the records?”

  “A quick run. I want to be there to question Jerry again.” I closed my eyes and rolled my neck. “I swear, vampires come with harder skulls than anyone else.”

  “Heading butting him was your best option?” She chuckled. “Not your gun, not a knife, but your head?”

  “I was pinned to the floor. I took two shots and he avoided them.” I opened my eyes and looked over the victims in the room. Neither of us were medical, so we couldn’t touch them without fear of causing further harm or damage. I glanced at the vampire and realize he didn’t match the picture. I cursed.

  “Who are you?”

  He just looked up at me and laughed. “Abigail Collins, you were expecting the one who made me no doubt. My maker isn’t stupid enough to be in a human facility.” He smiled and showed his still blood stained fangs. “He’s much stronger than me. Had it been him, you’d be dead or under his care.”

  I didn’t like how that sounded. “What is going on here?
”

  “I can’t tell you that. You don’t deserve the answers.” He was just another pawn, a scapegoat was my theory, which was why he didn’t disappear. Or maybe he didn’t have a safe place to go.

  Grace jerked him out of the room. I assumed the containment team had gotten there. I had an idea of what was going on now. His words and threats had given me more than enough to figure out what was happening.

  The medical team flooded the room, shouting orders to each other. I slipped out of the room and took a deep breath. Two people in custody, but one person missing. More victims, and nothing yet on either of the other cases, but we were making some sort of progress.

  My phone dinged and I pulled it out of my pocket. The text message was from the automated PIB system. “Debriefing scheduled for three PM, all personnel, north PIB location.”

  The north PIB location wasn’t used often, as far as I knew it was mostly storage with a few agents that needed to work further up north instead of downtown.

  Grace found me in the hall. “You get it too?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, looks like records is going to have to hold on.”

  “We have time to swing by and pick the box up. We can go over it at the other location.”

  “They’ll let you take a box of evidence?”

  She smiled. “They’ll let me do a lot of things with my clearance.”

  “Fair enough. Let’s go and get this over with.” I walked down the hall, avoiding the personnel that darted through the rooms. I didn’t want to know what else they would find; I could already imagine the horrors that waited in the rooms.

  “What do you think is going on here?” Grace asked, motioning to the building as we climbed into the Hummer.

  “I have a theory that they’re mixing supernatural blood with human and other sorts. We’re waiting on results from the lab to see what sort of blood they are mixing.”

  She leaned back in the seat. “Interesting.”

  “Isn’t it? I can’t wait to hear what Levi has to say about this.” I started the engine. “And now we have a vampire to question.”

  “I don’t think he’ll give you answers. I feel like he’ll probably hide everything from you like his maker wishes.”

  I shrugged. “Doesn’t mean I’m not going to try.”

  “Truth spell?”

  I shook my head. “Magic doesn’t work as well on vampires when it comes to spells like that. Their willpower is too strong. But I might bring Levi in to consult. If I can talk Mason into it.” And hopefully Levi would have the foresight to leave Mario home and out of all of this. I didn’t want to deal with him.

  “I think after what we found, Mason would be willing.”

  I headed towards the records department so we could pick up the box of evidence. “We’ll have to exchange notes tomorrow after I’m done working the spell with Merick tonight.”

  “I’ll do what research I can tonight then. I won’t be any good at the scene when it comes to magic. That’s your department, so I’ll let you have at it.” She looked out the window and I wondered where her mind went when she zoned out. I didn’t interrupt because sometimes we need those few minutes of silence to reset ourselves. I wasn’t going to take that from her.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Cars dotted the pristine parking lot in front of the North PIB building. Bright, freshly painted lines stood out against the asphalt, new enough that it wasn’t faded by the sun or worn yet. Stepping out onto it I could feel the heat coming up from the dark surface, reminding me a bit of what hell might feel like.

  “I didn’t realize there was a second location in this state.” Agent Grace slammed the door.

  “It’s not used often.” I started towards the building where other agents moseyed towards the doors. We all looked about the same, dressed in black, guns at our hips, badges visible and a solemn expression on our faces. We all knew that we had lost people today in what seemed to be an attack. Now we’d learn the total count and hopefully what caused it.

  The black sea of agents moved down the hallway and into a conference room. Long tables crossed the room with seats behind them. One by one we filed to chairs and sat down, much like a herd of sheep. Agent Grace sat next to me and we both just looked ahead in silence. It seemed the same for everyone; maybe we were all too scared to speak about what happened.

  The lights dimmed as the room finished filling up. A projector on the ceiling flickered to life, showing a black and yellow square on the board in front of the room. I folded my hands on the table in front of us, trying to be patient. Boss Man walked in front of the crowd and I felt some relief, at least he hadn’t been killed.

  “As most of you know, today there was an attack on the downtown PIB office.” He walked out of the light of the projector and an image of the burning building filled the screen. “We can now say that this was the work of a magical spell placed in the elevator.”

  Magic. Well, shit. I remembered how the elevator had taken an abnormally long time to come up.

  “We’re looking into tracing the magic and the runes used to see if we can locate, at the very least, the coven responsible.”

  My heart pounded against my chest. Why would a witch or warlock target PIB? We were all supposed to be allies. Unless they were hired by someone.

  “We lost six of our own, five from the explosion, one from complications from injuries. All considering, we were lucky. The media will not be releasing the names of the deceased at our request. Here are those we lost: Nick Avarin…”

  His name hit with such a hard punch my ears rang and my breath disappeared. I didn’t hear the other names; all I could think was that Nick lost his life because someone decided to blow up our building. We may have not always seen eye to eye and we were both ready to go back to working on our own, but I didn’t wish death upon him.

  “Abby, breathe.” Agent Grace whispered in my ear.

  I took a shaky breath and focused on Boss Man.

  “We have our team working on the case, meanwhile, you are to all return to your cases. Do not speak to the media about this, let them draw their own conclusions for now. We do not want a mass…witch hunt.”

  No, we didn’t. Muttering went around the room at his words. I wanted to be on that team, but there was no way Boss Man would give me another assignment.

  “We are working on recovering, and until we get the building back up and running, agents will be moved to this location. We will have equipment and systems up and moving as soon as we can. For now, the local FBI and police departments are working with us to allow us access to their labs and staff for current cases.”

  I leaned back in my chair, trying to shove off the numb feeling. I wanted to be on the case, but I still had three on my plate with no end in sight for any of them. No, that wasn’t true. I had two suspects in custody to interview today. Nick’s death…I needed to grieve for my partner, but all I felt currently was anger. Anger that he died in a needless attack on the building, anger that it was my partner that died and not someone else’s, anger that I survived simply because I had to pick up paperwork.

  Boss man concluded his briefing, informing us that we’d be kept up-to-date on the case and then dismissed us. I gave everyone a moment to clear out before standing. Agent Grace had chased after another agent for something, leaving me alone with Boss Man in the room.

  “Collins.” He called, waving me over to him.

  I forced my feet to take me over to him. “Yes, sir?”

  “I want you to continue to work with Agent Grace on the cases you and Nick were working on. After, I want you to make sure you set up sessions with the company counselor on grief and loss.”

  I tried not to glare at him. “I can handle some grief, sir.”

  “You lost your partner today, that’s not something your mind digests easily. You will take my advice or you will be suspended until you do. I watch out for my people. I’m not going to watch you drown in grief.” Something passed in his beady little eyes that I didn’t
understand. Maybe, just maybe, Boss Man actually had experience in grief and losing a partner.

  “Understood.” I nodded. “Now if you’d excuse me, Agent Grace and I have some old files to go through.”

  “Of course.” He took a step back to let me pass to the door.

  I walked out and found Grace standing in the hallway with a bank box. “Let’s find an empty room and get to work.”

  It’s like she understood that I needed a distraction from everything right now. “Let’s do it.”

  We found an empty conference room with a big round table and started spreading the papers and evidence bags out. She wasn’t kidding, there wasn’t a whole lot to go on. I picked up the ransom note in its baggy. “If the thumbs hadn’t been in the PIB building, we could get a hand writing comparison from them.”

  “Do you think that would have worked? I mean, human flesh and paper are two different surfaces.” She leaned over and slid some pictures my way. “This was the location that was closest to the mailbox the letter was sent from.”

  “It might have worked, I’m not the expert in that area.” I muttered and looked at the pictures. “It’s an abandoned strip mall.”

  “They’ve since redone and rented out most of the stalls. I drive by it every day since moving back here.” She sat back down. “Any idea when they redid it?”

  I looked at the pictures and tried to even place where in town it was. “Is this the one across from the huge grocery store?”

  “Yeah.”

  “They put the grocery store in about five years ago and slowly started to bring the strip mall back to life. They thought it’d be a good place to start rebuilding that side of town. Bring life back to it, all that.”

  “So five years too late. No one there had security cameras set up since there were hardly any businesses there.”

  I tapped the photo. “That’s only a few blocks away from Calico’s new research facilities.”

  “You don’t think they had something to do with it, do you? How would they relate?”