I felt the heat of the fire at my back. The flames nearly licking at me as they used the desk for fuel. I dropped the fire ball out of my hand, and Christof waited for just a second.
I smirked and threw my purple circle up before calling on the flames behind me, shooting them forward.
Christof responded exactly as I had expected. He controlled what flames he could that snapped around him. But I’d used the fire to create a circle around Annabella.
I dropped my purple circle and added my red circle to the fire around her. I glanced at her, daring her to try to walk through that one. I tried to catch my breath before Christof attacked, but I didn’t have the chance. He flicked his wrist, and something sliced me across the side. Damn, he was good with his magic. Typically, there was some color associated with physical attacks.
I reached out to Annabella. “Stop or I’ll kill her. If you’ve been in the Underground, you know that I killed a hundred vampires like this.”
I closed the circle a little.
Christof shrugged. “Annabella has outlived her usefulness.”
She screeched at him, and I just stared. What the hell kind of relationship was that? Unless he was calling my bluff.
I summoned my whip, now a swirl of red and purple. I wasn’t out just to protect myself anymore. I was out for blood.
I snapped it, and it wrapped around his wrist. His blue fire climbed up the whip, forcing me to let it disappear.
He was better than me with magic, and I didn’t have my gun. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
There was another crash that shook the room, but I ignored it and focused on Christof. I couldn’t take him down with magic or my elemental ability, but maybe I could get in close enough for hand to hand combat.
I jumped in, using all the training I had from the Academy. I shoved my shoulder into Christof, knocking him backwards. He slammed his hand into my shoulder, and I felt his flames try to lick at my skin, but my own ability pushed it away. I took him down to the ground, but he elbowed me off him.
Back into an attack stance, I watched him get up. Right side kick to his head. Blocked.
Jab to chest.
Blocked.
How the hell was I supposed to get an in with him? I tried not to get frustrated, but my body was wearing down. The door to the room busted open, and I’d never been so excited to see Detective Balin walk into a room.
A red and black circle went up around Christof, and I wondered for a moment whose circle it was, because Liz’s was a blue-ish, mine was purple.
Oliver walked in with Merick, and I saw Merick’s eyes flash with a bit of red like they had when we’d performed the spell on Moll’s granddaughter.
Liz stepped in behind them, complete with her bulletproof PIB vest and her gun out.
I let the fire die out of Annabella’s circle, and Liz walked up, putting one around the other witch and letting me take down mine.
I let out a sigh and sat on the ground, trying not to freak out.
#
Soon the room filled with EMTs, containment, and other various members of PIB while I sat still against the wall with my head on my knees.
“I’m so tired,” I muttered when Liz came to help me up.
“You look like shit too. Come on, let’s get you out of here.”
She grabbed my hand and helped me off the floor. “Abigail, I don’t know if you would have survived twelve hours in here.”
“I would have. Samuel wants me alive. These two weren’t allowed to kill me, just hurt me.” I gave a short laugh. “And then Nick got Simon out.”
“Then they came to us. Nick said you put yourself in danger to make sure they got out.”
I shrugged. “My job.”
“Not your job.” Liz stopped in the hallway and turned to look at me. “You weren’t supposed to engage.”
“Don’t lecture me. I watched them torture Simon. She tortured me. I didn’t engage as long as I could. I got the hostages out with Nick’s help.”
She nodded and then continued walking without another word. When we got outside, Oliver and Merick were standing there talking to an EMT.
I knew exactly where this was going. The EMT would check me out and decide if I needed to go to the hospital, and then Oliver would probably talk them out of it. The three of them came up and Oliver put his hand on my shoulder.
“You look like hell.”
“Yeah, Liz already told me. Can I go home for a nap?” I rubbed my eyes.
“No, you’ll be going to see Melisandra and staying there until you’re healed.” Oliver met my gaze. “Completely.”
I didn’t like that idea, but I wouldn’t argue right this moment. “Are Nick and Simon safe?”
“They are at the PIB office. We wanted to keep them there until we knew the situation.” Liz crossed her arms. “And they are in a circle so Annabella couldn’t pull them back.”
That was a relief. “Nick needs a nice deep cleansing spell. So do I.”
“Melisandra will handle both of you,” Oliver promised me.
I closed my eyes. “Okay. Let’s go.”
“PIB first.” Liz crossed her arms. “O’Donald wants to debrief you and make sure you’re doing alright.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, let the EMT patch me up then?”
Liz led me to the EMT, and I let him do what he could and listened to Liz promise she was going to take me in after they took my statement.
I looked at the house and realized that we were at the Black Hawk house. I stared at it, trying to figure out how everything fit underneath it. The front door of the house was blown off. I hadn’t paid a lot of attention when Liz led me back out.
“Abby?” Liz asked.
“Hm?” I blinked a few times. “Sorry, what were you saying?”
“That this isn’t your first time in shock.”
“Oh, no, not at all.” I shook my head. “I just need some sleep and some coffee.”
Liz smiled. “We’ll pick up coffee on the way back to PIB.”
“That’s a two-hour drive.”
“You can nap,” she promised.
Oh good.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I sat in the office in front of O’Donald. I hadn’t gotten to see Simon yet, but Nick was sitting next to me, oddly quiet.
“You two are ridiculous.” O’Donald shook his head. “But we got them. Abigail, you did a great job securing Annabella Louis and allowing Nick the chance to get the hostage out. You did engage, but they made me aware that you didn’t really have the choice.”
“Yep.” I sipped my coffee, not really wanting to talk about it. “Make sure they are secured and away from each other. I do not want to worry about them getting out.” Or going to Samuel.
“There’s something that Annabella kept repeating to the PIB - that you could control fire.”
I sighed. “If you look deep enough in my files, it states that I’m an elemental. It’s what Boss Man used to blackmail me into working for the task force.” I shrugged. “It hasn’t been a big deal, and if I didn’t have the ability, I would be in much worse shape.” I didn’t have it in me to panic about it.
O’Donald wrote something down. “Abigail and Nick, you are both to take three months off to heal. You are both required to pass a psychology test before returning to work at the task force.”
Woo-hoo, another psych test. I nodded. “Are we dismissed yet?”
“No. I want to let you know what charges we’re going after Annabella and Christof for.”
I waited for it.
“We have enough evidence to get them for the murders of Seth, Michele, our John Doe, and the vampire.”
But not my parents. I stayed quiet, and I think Nick was thinking the same thing, because he said nothing.
“Liz has informed me they may be connected to another murder, but we cannot go after them for that, not yet.” O’Donald met my gaze. “But trust me, if we can get them for that as well, we will.”
“Killing with magic is a deat
h sentence.”
“They killed with blades, not magic. So we can’t go for that.”
That was a shame. I realized that was the grief speaking.
“You two are dismissed.” O’Donald motioned to the door.
Nick and I stood up, and I moved slowly as my muscles ached. Nick wasn’t moving much faster. We got out of the office and I shut the door behind us. I looked at Nick.
“Thanks for coming through.”
He snorted. “I’m not my father,” he promised. “I didn’t fight Annabella’s influences until it served a better purpose. I can’t believe they set you up as bait.”
“I’m just glad the wolves didn’t have to come in as backup as well. We wouldn’t have them in custody.”
“Hopefully they fucking stay there.” Nick moved passed our office, and we both waited for the elevator. I wasn’t going down the stairs right now.
We got in and rode it down to the main level where Liz was supposed to be waiting. When we got to the lobby, Levi was standing there.
I closed my eyes. “I’m so fucked.”
“Better you than me,” Nick muttered.
“Don’t get too close, he doesn’t like you anyway.”
Nick stopped where he was, and I moved forward to Levi.
Levi sighed and pulled me into a hug. “Abigail.”
“Yeah, I know. It was stupid. What was I thinking?” I smiled when I pulled back, though. “But we got them, Levi. Christof and Annabella confessed. What they had me working on is burned to a crisp. I’m exhausted.”
“And Samuel?”
“Wasn’t there, but he’s pulling their strings.” I was going to bring up what Christof said about me being a replacement for Levi, but I didn’t have the energy. It was a fight for another day.
“I’d like you to come home for a bit.”
I shook my head. “I’m going to Melisandra. I need to finish healing, and I need her help with some of the damage.”
“That’s a good place for you as well.” Levi looked at Nick. “He’s lucky he didn’t come closer. I would have ripped him apart.”
“He’s actually the reason I’m okay. He escaped with Simon and let PIB know that I needed help earlier than the time we agreed.”
Levi locked his jaw. “O’Donald put you in danger on purpose.”
“Actually, Liz and I came up with the idea. I traded myself for Merick’s sister to get in there.”
Levi let out a small growl. “Had Samuel been there…”
“We would have fucking got him too,” I growled. “Please, we got three hostages out, including the Alpha. Which, where is Simon?”
“With his pack, healing.”
“I want to see him.”
“I’ll have Oliver bring him to Melisandra’s soon, but right now he needs to heal.”
I swallowed. “How bad was he hurt?” Guilt filled me. I’d caused his pain. I couldn’t get him out.
“He’ll heal.” Levi walked me out the door. Oliver stood waiting by the Hummer.
I smiled. “Oh, good, I get my Hummer.”
“I’m driving though.” Oliver chuckled. “But you aren’t under house arrest this time.”
Levi gave me another hug, and it felt weird to have him show me so much affection, but I had a feeling he had probably assumed I wasn’t coming back as human. I climbed into the passenger seat of the Hummer and slammed the door shut.
Oliver and Levi took a moment to talk to each other before Oliver got in the Hummer. “Ready?”
“Yeah. Thank you.”
“I wasn’t going to leave you there to be tortured. I saw the shape Simon came back in.”
“Yeah, that’s my fault.” I closed my eyes.
Oliver said nothing.
#
I was sitting on the couch at Melisandra’s with a book when the door opened and Simon and Travis walked in. I almost jumped off the couch, but then remembered I still had gashes on my body from Annabella. Simon’s right eye was partially closed with the healing. He smiled at me and came to sit down with me. “Hey.”
I automatically leaned on him. “Hey.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Oh, you know, like I took on two magical people, and she tore a hole in my aura.” I glanced up at him. “You?”
“Oh, you know, like I was put in a blender.” He chuckled and Travis cleared his throat.
“Alpha?”
It was weird to hear Travis approach him so formally, but I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like when he spoke again.
“Yeah, I know.” Simon kissed my head. “I’m going to be on pack lands for a while. The whole situation took a lot out of me, and my wolf and I have to heal.”
I wanted him here with me. I swallowed. “Whatever you have to do.” I tried to keep the disappointment from my voice. “I’m here until I heal magically. I’m off work for at least three months.”
“At least?” Simon ran his hand up and down on my arm, trying to offer me comfort.
“I have to pass the psych evaluation.” I let out a short laugh. “But I don’t know if I’m going to go back yet. I guess it depends on how healing here goes.”
Simon nodded. “I’ll call you each day. I wish I could stay here with you.”
I did too. I looked up at him again. “I wish too. But I understand. It’s also important to show your pack you’re okay.” I glanced at Travis. “Right?”
Travis nodded. “Our Alpha being gone for almost a week was not good for our pack. He’ll heal, and we’ll help him, but Annabella did a number on him.”
Guilt hit me hard again. “I’m sorry.” I hung my head. “I’m so sorry.”
Simon hugged me. “It wasn’t your fault. You did what you could.” He kissed my cheek. “Abigail, you need to take time to heal everything. Mentally, physically, magically.”
“I know.” I sighed. “I love you. I’ll see you in a few weeks if Melisandra lets me out of here,” I joked.
He smiled. “I’ll call you.” He kissed me and then pressed his head against mine. “I love you.” He slid off the couch and went back with Travis. He offered me one last smile before he left the house.
I hung my head and sighed.
Oliver sat down next to me and put a hand on my knee. “It’s going to be okay, niece.”
“Yeah, well, I feel like the world is tumbling down right now.”
Oliver snorted. “I know.”
“Why are you still here?” I raised a brow.
He chuckled. “I’m going to help Melisandra with your healing.”
So at least I wouldn’t be alone here. Three months with no work. Three months spending time in my head and focusing on healing from the past few years. It wouldn’t be fun. We’d caught the killers of my mother and Tobias, but for some reason, that didn’t feel like it was aiding my healing. If anything, it made me want to go after Samuel more. To finish what I started.
Dear Readers
Wild ride right? I want to thank you for taking this journey with Abigail. I hope you’ve enjoyed the series this far and I can’t wait until the next book! Abby is so close to my heart and I loved writing this book. I hope I did the characters justice. I’ll see you next book!
A.L. Kessler
Now that Abigail Collins has solved the murder of her parents, will she get her chance to go after Samuel? Or will he take her down first?
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Something Wicked (Here Witchy Witchy Book 11) Page 20