He didn’t respond as he drove to the coffee shop. We pulled up and silently walked into the shop. I glanced around, trying to make sure there was nothing strange around me.
We ordered coffee and went to sit at a table in the corner. “When will you leave?”
Oliver looked at me over his mug. “A week or so after the fancy party that the vampire council is throwing for you. Depends on how fast I can make the arrangements.”
I had almost forgotten about that. “Levi wants you there for extra security?”
“Yes. Besides, it’ll be a lot of fun to be at my niece’s party.”
I rolled my eyes. “I haven’t had an actual birthday party since I was four.”
Oliver nodded. “And even that one didn’t go as expected.”
I looked at him. “I don’t remember it.”
“Levi showed up afterward, and it upset your mother.”
I hesitated for a moment. “Oliver, did you know about the Cult coming after my mother?”
He stopped halfway to lifting his coffee to his lips and then put the mug down. “I had an idea that they were coming. I didn’t know when. I went to your house the night of the murder and tried to convince Lizzy to run away with you. Leave Tobias behind. He was the name that was on all the research they did together. I once believed the Cult killed her because she was in the way. But everything I’ve uncovered since, and what you’ve uncovered, has led me to other conclusions.”
“When I was drugged, I saw things in the house. Things I shouldn’t have been seeing. You and my mom in the kitchen. My mom sat with me on the couch and told me to sleep. Shadows moving around.”
“Your mother is always with you. Your subconscious was pulling bits of information together.” Oliver picked his coffee cup back up. “The drug let your subconscious take over.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I hope that never happens again. Because that was terrifying.”
My phone dinged, and I looked at it to see that Liz had sent me coordinates and DNR.
I frowned and showed it to Oliver. “I’ll track her phone. I’m going to assume that DNR stands for do not reply.”
I nodded. “It’s worrisome.
“Mm, yes.” Oliver stood up, and I followed. We took our mugs to the counter and headed out of the shop.
“Keep an eye on it and see if you can talk to her later tonight. O’Donald is supposed to be with her.”
“She doesn’t trust him. So she might just be leaving a bread trail.”
Oliver opened the car door for me. “And we’ll track it. I’m rather fond of her as your friend.”
“Yeah, let’s make sure she doesn’t die. Okay?” I shook my head and got in the car. “I don’t think I can take another loss right now.” Not to mention, she was the reason that I was alive at that moment. I had a feeling if the bullet stayed in my body, I would have been OD’ed on Thrills.
Oliver wrapped his hands around the steering wheel tightly. “I would do anything I could to spare you another loss like that, Abigail.”
And with that, he went silent and drove me back to the office.
This time when I walked into my office, it was empty. There was still the stack of files from before that needed to be archived and filed again, and right now, it was a welcome distraction from the strange text that Liz had sent me. I hadn’t heard any more from her since we’d left the coffee house, and I trusted Oliver to track her.
Anyone that was acting as a bodyguard for me got a tracker in their phone courtesy of Oliver. He didn’t want to risk someone betraying Levi and kidnapping me.
I sat at the desk and started to go through some of the files. I went through each one I checked the dates against the computer and then sorted them to be digitally archived or to go back to the file vault.
Back and forth.
Click after click.
Until finally I was at the last one. I opened it to find that it was an older file, and it was the only one marked cold case that I had seen so far. I opened it to see gruesome pictures of women on tables strung out and sliced to ribbons. My stomach churned as I realized that their lips had been sewn shut and there were scars on some of the unmarred skin.
It didn’t look like any modern place.
The tables were wood, and the tools in the pictures looked old, some of them almost archaic. Was it ritualistic?
The notes on the next page had no real answer.
The scene was discovered a couple states over. Authorities had been called due to complaints of a bad smell. The neighbors had noticed that no one had been in or out of the property for a month or so.
I frowned as I continued.
Three bodies had been recovered. Each one matched the description of a missing person. Strange markings had been on the scene, which was why it was handed to PIB. It was labeled as a cold case, as nothing came up in the system, and there were no real clues to go off of.
The house was under a false name.
There was no way of knowing what blood, if any, belonged to the culprit. I shook my head and closed the file.
I typed the case number into the computer, checked the digital archive, and then put it in the correct pile.
I was glad I wasn’t on that case. It probably would have given me plenty of nightmares to go along with my others.
I glanced at my phone when it buzzed and saw Oliver’s message.
“Liz is on the move. Not near PIB, but alive at least.”
I wasn’t sure if a moving GPS signal actually meant she was alive, but I was going to trust him. I glanced at the clock. I had time to drop the files off and snag lunch before coming back. My shoulder ached as if reminding me what happened last time I left the office for lunch.
It was healing already, but it stung enough that I did question if going for lunch was a good idea.
There was a knock at the door, and I frowned as I saw Agent O’Donald standing by the little window.
I stood and answered the door. “Boss.”
“Agent Collins. I wanted to talk to you about your files.”
I motioned to the desk. “I just finished the batch up. I was going to get lunch and then grab some more.”
He narrowed his eyes at me as if he was expecting me to complain and bitch or maybe not have any of them done.
“I work eight hours today. I get a lunch,” I offered in a friendly voice.
He glanced at the files and then back to me. “All of that pile is done?”
“Yep, were you concerned I wouldn’t get them finished?”
His jaw tightened, and then he shook his head. “I had expected your injury to slow you down a little, that’s all. Enjoy your lunch.” He walked back down the hall without another word.
He was hiding something. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out. I grabbed my bag and left the office to go to lunch.
The restaurant was busy as I made my way through the line to get food. I completed my order and waited for my number to be called. I had decided at the last moment that I was going to take it back to the office to eat because something was nagging at the back of my head.
I put the bag in the passenger seat and tried not to jump as my phone buzzed. I looked at it.
New coordinates from Liz. Once again, followed with DNR. I locked my jaw at the text. She was alive and leaving breadcrumbs, but O’Donald was at the office or had just been at the office. I didn’t think he was with her.
Maybe he sent her on a wild goose chase.
Or maybe she was in trouble.
I tried to push off my paranoia. This wasn’t the time to think about how much power O’Donald had to screw us over as agents. Or what dangers within PIB that Liz might find. She was a big agent. She had other members of the force to back her up if needed.
She wouldn’t take anyone she didn’t trust.
I pulled up to the office building and got out. I glanced around to see if I could see Liz’s car. There was no sign of her, but O’Donald’s car was still there.
I gra
bbed my lunch and took the stairs up. I walked into the hallway, the door of the stairwell clinking shut behind me. O’Donald was standing outside my office, his hand on the doorknob. He looked up, surprised to see me.
I wasn’t sure who he was expecting to come out of the stairwell. There weren’t many agents who took the stairs.
“Did you need something?”
He shook his head. “I was coming to talk to you again. I forgot to mention that Liz might be out of touch for a little bit. She’s going undercover for the case.”
“Who’s her back up?”
“She chose her own backup. She wasn’t willing to tell me who it was. I just made it clear that it couldn’t be you. Have you heard from her?”
“Nope. As far as I knew, she was just going from scene to scene.” I didn’t like the sound of any of this. Agents didn’t just suddenly go undercover. Last time I went undercover, it was to go after an AWOL agent, and I had been cut off from all my PIB contacts. “Thanks for the heads up.”
I reached for the handle of my office door, and he wrapped his hand around my wrist. A strange thrill went through me, and I pulled my hand away from him. “I’m sorry, there’s no need to grab me.”
“Agent Collins, I don’t know what it is that you’re hiding, but you’ll find that I have ways to find out your secrets.”
I snorted. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I want to do is go to my office and eat my lunch.”
He took a step back away from me. I opened the door, finding that I didn’t need my key card. Which meant he had to have swiped his beforehand.
He couldn’t get into my office. I tilted my head to the side. “Would you like to come in and chat about what you think I’m hiding?”
He shook his head and walked away.
He couldn’t walk into the office. Which meant that he was planning on causing me harm. But he had been able to get into the house.
Something wasn’t right here. I grabbed my phone and texted Oliver.
‘I need all the information I can get on our new boss, and I want Liz’s locations tracked.’
‘On it. I’ll have results tonight.’
Was what I got back a few minutes later.
I wrinkled my nose and shot back. ‘I’m without a bodyguard right now during daylight hours.’
‘I’ve got digital tabs on you, you’ll be fine.’ Was what he sent back.
I could almost hear him laughing about my thoughts.
I went back to my desk to find the files right where I left them. I glanced back at the door, waiting for O’Donald to come back under some false pretense of needing to talk to me, but it didn’t happen.
I gathered up the files, keeping them turned different ways, so I knew where one pile started and another one ended and made room to eat.
I pulled out my food and woke up my computer. Chances were that if O’Donald was curious if Liz had contacted me, any search regarding her or her case would set off an alert in his system.
There wasn’t much I could do without possibly putting her in more danger than she might already be in.
My phone rang. “Special Agent Collins speaking.”
“Abigail. I need you here. Now.”
Mason’s voice broke up as it came over the phone. “Say nothing and get here. Address incoming.”
I frowned as the phone went dead in my hand, and a moment later, an address came from an unknown number.
I grabbed my bag, put my lunch back in its bag, snagged my files, and headed out of my office.
I double-checked the door shut behind me before heading downstairs.
Our receptionist had a little sign that said, ‘Out to Lunch.’ I took a moment to set the files there and write notes about which pile was which.
I headed to my car, trying to shake the feeling that someone was watching me as I made my way across the parking lot.
I got in my car, put the address in the GPS, and headed out. If O’Donald came to check on me, I’d have to make up an excuse as to why I left. I’d deal with him when I had to. Mason needed me now.
I’d eaten my lunch on the way, but I probably shouldn’t have. I found myself standing at the edge of a blood-stained basement. Dried blood was everywhere, leaving a brown stain on everything it touched.
But there was a lot of it, and the smell clung to the air. I glanced at Mason and then back to the scene. “What the fuck?”
“This is our third scene like this.”
“How old is it?” I couldn’t take my eyes off the room. The walls were perfectly clean, only the floors had stains on them. Some of the furniture had spots, but it was almost like someone had been careful about where the blood went. Then there were the symbols. All drawn low to the ground, almost as if a child had been practicing on the walls.
“I don’t know. I won’t know until I call in the lab. I can’t get a hold of Liz, so I called you in.”
I pressed my lips together. “My boss has me on desk work only.”
“I’m not calling you in as PIB. I’m calling you in as one of Levi’s people. With his permission.”
“Is there a vampire connection?”
“We believe that there are vampire victims. I’m waiting for Levi to confirm it.”
It would be hard to explain to O’Donald if I was caught, but if there were actually vampire victims, I wouldn’t get my ass chewed out. I removed my badge from the front of my belt and put it in my back pocket. “Then catch me up on what’s going on.”
“Third scene like this, strange marks at each scene. Liz showed you the symbols, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah, that’s all she told me though. She was adamant that I couldn’t work the case because of O’Donald. She didn’t want him to suspend me.”
“I don’t plan on telling him that you’re here because, again, I want you here as Levi’s person.”
“So three scenes, all like this, strange markings. What else do we have?”
“Only a few bodies were recovered.”
I glanced at him. “At this one scene?”
“Between all of them. There’s too much blood for the number of victims. And if this scene is anything like the last two, the bloodstains are so mixed there’s not going to be a clean sample.” He motioned. “Any ideas?”
Not off the top of my head, but I really wanted to know where Liz was now. What on earth had she stumbled into?
My mind flashed to the scene in the files that I had just sorted. “I’ve seen something similar, but without victims, there’s no way of knowing.” I needed to get my hands on that file.
I knew the case file, and it was digitally archived already. I could pull it up when I got back to the office.
“Get the information, and we’ll see if we can match any of the evidence. Was it a solved case?”
“Cold case, a while back.” I rubbed my shoulder as it ached. “Look, get the lab people in here and let me know what the oldest and the newest blood spots are. Keep trying to get a hold of Liz if you can.” I had a feeling that she wasn’t undercover, but she was wrapped up in this. “I’m going to get that file and go over it tonight. If you can send me copies of your files from the other scenes, that would be a huge help.”
He nodded. “I will. Watch you back, Abigail, I don’t like this.”
I snorted. “I’m always watching my back now, Mason.” I turned away from the scene and walked out of the building to my car. The scene had been a bit further off the beaten path, and it’d take me about an hour to get back to the office.
I started the car and turned on some loud music. I didn’t want my brain overthinking what was going on while I drove. But in the back of my mind, a little voice said that Liz was going to need help, and that little voice wanted me to go into O’Donald’s office and start demanding answers.
I tried to tell that little voice it needed to calm the fuck down, because if I did that right now, O’Donald would fire me. And I really liked my job.
Most days.
C
HAPTER FOUR
I got back to my office to a sticky note on the door. ‘Come see me when you get back- O’Donald’
I wrinkled my nose. I didn’t want to go see him. I wanted to pull the file for Mason. But if I didn’t go see him, I’d be in more trouble than I really wanted to be in. Especially if he knew that I’d gone out on the case. I sighed, hiked my bag up on my shoulder, and trekked up to his office.
“I don’t fucking care that you can’t find her. People don’t just disappear. You find her, and then you tell me where she is.”
I hadn’t been eavesdropping on purpose, but he was loud enough to hear through the door. I waited until his voice lowered before I knocked.
It took a moment for him to answer. “Come in.”
I walked in. “You wanted to see me, sir?”
“Where were you, Collins?”
I blinked at him. “I wasn’t aware I was confined to the building. I went out on personal business.”
“On the clock?”
“I’m salary. Is there a reason you’re determined to get me into trouble?”
He seemed taken aback by that. “Look, I’ve seen your close rates. I’ve seen the shit you’ve dealt with. I’m trying to give you a break from being on the field. Psychologically you should be a mess.”
“I’ve passed all my psych evals.” I crossed my arms. “I’m born to be on the field.” My mind started to spin, trying to figure out how to use this to my advantage. “But, if you think I need a break, I have some paid time off to burn up. I could take a small vacation for my birthday.”
He seemed to perk up at that idea. “Why don’t you do that, Collins. A week.”
“A week,” I agreed.
He smiled. “Enjoy your vacation time, Collins. I’ll put you in the field when you get back.”
If he had alternative plans for while I was gone, a week would be enough time for him. It would me time to find Liz, help Mason, and survive my birthday party.
A Little Blood Magic (Here Witchy Witchy Book 10) Page 4