Doomed Cases Box Set: The Complete Collection Books 1- 4 & Prequel

by Joanna Mazurkiewicz

  He turned around, staring at me with those dark eyes, like he wanted to kiss me. My demonic soul sparked when he was around, and when he ran his fingers over my face my future looked brighter. This sudden intimate moment between us pumped me with hope that there was still a chance for me. I wasn’t completely lost.

  “Yes, Flower, I’m asking you out and, for the record, I don’t do this very often,” he stated.

  I rolled my eyes. “So what? Do they just jump into your bed?”

  “Most of the time.” He chuckled, leaning over like he was really going to kiss me. Ah, what the hell. I could blame the painkillers. “You adore me, Flower, and I can’t wait to get rough with you again.”

  When he started walking away, I was kind of disappointed. Lust was soaring down my abdomen. The sparks were still there.

  “Okay, fine, I’ll give this … whatever this is a go, but you need to take me home. I don’t think I can handle anymore excitement today,” I told him, not even knowing what I was saying. This date was going to be a disaster, but I was looking forward to it.

  “Good, glad we’re on the same page. Trust me, once I’m done with you, Prince Charming will never cross your mind again,” he said, with a wink. I was too drugged out to come back with anything witty, and my mind stopped thinking about what was right or wrong.

  Zachary dropped me outside my flat an hour later, saying that he would be in touch. I sensed that he wanted to go upstairs and tuck me into bed. I talked him out of it, and when his car disappeared in the darkness, I decided to go out. My intuition told me that this wasn’t a very good idea, but the craving won—I was dependent on tequila.

  When Paul saw me, he came out around the bar, looking pissed off.

  “What the hell happened to your face?” he asked, and a few people at the bar looked at me. I looked like shit, but that was part of the job. The local pub was packed and there was a game of poker going on at the back.

  “Long story. I had an unpleasant experience meeting an A’rea,” I said, when he stopped examining me. He sucked in a breath and lifted his eyebrow in surprise.

  “The A’reas are locked up in pits, Maxine.”

  “Tell that to the one that tried to use my face as a nail file. She took over the body of the girl I was going to question in a hotel room. She was sent there to kill her and then she attacked me,” I said, flopping on the stool. Paul went back behind the bar, disappeared for a good few minutes, and then came back with a brand-new bottle of tequila. The craving intensified, and I didn’t know if I should just take it or smash it against the wall.

  “So the Watchers showed up, I presume?” He unscrewed the bottle and poured some into a shot glass. The guy next to me was staring at my wounds. He was half drunk, but that was okay. People needed to satisfy their curiosity.

  “Two of them, they took some evidence and made everyone believe that they were supposed to be there. An hour later, I got a phone call from Ricky. They asked him to analyse whatever they collected,” I added, staring at the shot and knowing that if I drank it, there was no going back. Natasha was dead, her body rotten, and this was all my fault. I couldn’t blame tequila or the fact that my free will was completely screwed.

  “Max, I think you should be more careful. I know you can take care of yourself, but you don’t mess with A’reas, and that particular one could have killed you,” Paul said, leaning over and giving me one of his looks.

  I nodded, still staring at the damn shot glass. The overriding feeling inside me wanted to numb everything, numb Arthur, the fucking secret, and everything else. The solution was simple: I had to drink until I couldn’t use my brain, then play. The cards were going to be good tonight. There was no doubt in my mind, and I had a chance to turn my luck around.

  “What’s wrong? You don’t want it?” Paul asked, looking concerned at this stage.

  “If I have this now, then I won’t stop. Things got really fucked up the last time I drank,” I told him, thinking about the way Natasha had suffered, about Zachary’s past and my whole fucked up existence. Things needed to change, and tonight was the start.

  Paul scratched his head, appearing to be slightly confused. I’d never said no to tequila. Two years ago, when I was still working for the royals, I had occasional drinks during poker games, sometimes things got out of control, but then I knew my limit.

  “Do you want something else?”

  “No, I need to get my shit together and stop drinking, stop blowing all my cash gambling,” I admitted. “Give me a glass of soda and some time to think.”

  I didn’t have to tell Paul twice. A minute later, he took the shot away and put the soda in front of me. I drank it in one go. My jaw was aching, my cheek was on fire. Hell, if I really was going to get sober, then this was the best time to start.

  Prince George was in London, and maybe he was already dead, drained of his blood and soul. I had no other leads, and Alexis had warned me to stay out of this case. I had to start changing my life for the better, for the people in my life who were still important. There were other ways to push this through, but I had to at least try. The burning guilt was never going to go away.

  I had made so many bad decisions, exposed the demonic world, and pretended that everything was all right.

  As I sat at the bar watching other people, it was maybe only the second time since my breakup with Arthur that I hadn’t touched magical tequila.

  The burning sensation was still at the back of my throat, even after some random human asked me to join him for a poker game. Somehow, I found the strength in me to say no. Paul was shocked too and was ready to call Ricky.

  I suffered knowing that I was the one to blame for Natasha and possibly Jessica’s death.

  Now Zachary was part of my curse, and tonight after I went back to my flat, I decided to shift my priorities. I would still look for the prince, but I had to take care of myself first, my life. On top of that, I needed to clear my name. Cyril was still around. He was investigating Doomed Cases, and this was my business, my only way of earning a living.

  When I dropped on the bed several hours after midnight, stone cold sober and completely aware of my inner demons, I knew that from tomorrow on, I was going to be a different person.

  Chapter 27

  “Faith is the substance of the things we hope for,

  And evidence of those that are not seen...”

  ― Dante Alighieri

  The next day I was woken up by my alarm, and I felt worse than I could ever imagine. Every part of my body hurt, and every move was a struggle. I couldn’t imagine being stuck at home until I was back to being my normal self. The A’rea had bitch slapped me good and proper, and on top of that, my entire face looked like the swollen arse of a baboon.

  After coffee that tasted like the swill they served in hospital, I looked through the book of potions that I kept hidden in my bedroom. The red elixir made from the feathers of an angel (yeah, they existed too) was supposed to numb the pain. Normally the bottle of tequila was my usual salve to fix the problem, but I reminded myself that I was trying to turn my life around. I had a little bit of red potion left, and no ingredients to brew another one. It was time to pay a visit to a certain old lady, but even the idea of walking to the tube station scared me.

  Arthur was still on my mind, now that my brain was working at full speed and my thoughts were clear. I was struggling to cope with the constant ebb and flow of unexpected emotions. The red elixir started kicking in when I showered. Most of the time it worked like Valium, but it was the magic with something extra boosting my immune system to advance my healing. Suddenly I could function, walk, and do the usual nonstrenuous stuff.

  Fighting was out of the question, but at least I had some of my strength back. People, mostly humans, were staring at me as I made my way through the streets of Brixton. Mongrels and other demons could smell the charms on me, and the fact that the A’rea’s scent was still in my blood made me a bit of a target. Ricky wanted me to stay at home, but this w
asn’t going to happen. I was bored out of my mind and I needed to stay busy.

  “Morning, Maxine, how are you in that…”

  Yep, Emma stopped talking in mid sentence when she saw me. She most likely had no idea that I had been attacked last night. Humans weren’t aware of magical formulas, but I had taken enough elixirs to bring the attention of other mongrels and demons to myself. I always had to pay the price in the end and being called down to Hell for using forbidden elixirs wasn’t on the list of my priorities. That’s why today I needed to stay out of any kind of trouble.

  “Chill. I’m fine. I was on a case last night and things got out of hand,” I explained, trying to calm her down. She was staring at me with her eyes wide and seemed very concerned.

  “Oh, my God, but your face. Are you okay? You shouldn’t be here in that state. Go home and rest,” she said, leading me back to my desk. She was ready to walk with me back to my flat, which was sweet. No one ever fussed over me like this, even when I worked for the royals.

  “Emma, I’m fine, just get on with your work. Did Ricky say when he was going to be in?” I asked.

  “Maxine Brodeur, you’re not fine; you look terrible. Let me at least make you a cup of tea,” she said swiftly, never once considering that I didn’t need to be taken care of. “And Ricky is on his way. He was working late last night on some new evidence.”

  I rolled my eyes, and then my jaw started to hurt. Emma was talking to herself in the kitchen whilst she was making my tea. Then she announced that she had to go out for a bit. I just waved my hand, glad that the whole fuss was over. Growing up with nuns taught me that sometimes the best thing to do was to keep your mouth shut as a kid, and it was still true as an adult.

  Ricky showed up at eleven a.m. He looked tired and he stopped in his tracks when he saw me.

  “For shit’s sake, Max, you look dreadful. Your face—”

  “Yeah, yeah. I heard it from Emma already. I had to get to the hospital last night. An A’rea nearly ripped my face off, but don’t worry. I’m fucking fine, all right?”

  He was shaking his head, putting his stuff on the desk.

  “This whole case is becoming very complicated. One day, you’re going to die for that fucker, Maxine, and then what?” he asked. By “that fucker” he meant Arthur. Ricky knew everything that happened to me. He was convinced that I was doing too much, risking my life to find the missing prince who was most likely in Hell already.

  “Calm down. I won’t be going anywhere alone from now on. Zach wants to keep me on a short leash. You better tell me what you found out about the evidence that the Watcher brought in.”

  He wasn’t done with giving me a lecture just yet, but he nodded for me to go to his office. He’d created a spell to deter any intruders from getting inside his drawers. When I looked past the wards, I could see that he was in the process of analysing the potions and hair. The whole setup from the photographs looked a lot like the lab from Jessica’s apartment. There was obviously a connection between Natasha and the demon who kidnapped George.

  “You finally met someone who talks with some kind of sense. I’m scared, Maxine, petrified that one day you won’t make it. I know we agreed that you should be out in the field and I’m taking care of the rest, but last night was a close call. You were risking too much.”

  “She could have killed me, but she didn’t, so stop going on about it. Tell me, what is it that you found?” I asked, fed up with talking about last night. I was going to be fine, and my friends didn’t need to worry.

  “Nothing yet. The hair is definitely a human’s, but it will take me a couple more days to extract and identify all the ingredients. I’m going to run some tests on all the liquids today.”

  “Cool, let me know if you find anything,” I told him. We discussed a few other possibilities, but I knew that he worked better alone, so after a few minutes, I left him to it. He’d taught me a lot about potions and elixirs; the books were useful, but there was nothing better than learning this stuff directly from an expert.

  I went to my own office, hoping to take my mind off recent events. I had some reading to catch up on and I had to take care of phone messages and reply to emails. Sometimes I also took care of the bills and other paperwork, only if Ricky was busy. My throat was dry, and I really wanted to get my hands on some tequila. This wasn’t going to happen, because I was planning to stick to my resolution of sobriety. My irritation turned into frustration just before lunch. I was trying to change my whole lifestyle, and the time was dragging, leaving me free to think of everything I shouldn’t.

  Emma knocked on my door and I told her to come in. The smell of freshly baked cake and coffee filled the room. Her hands were full, and she started putting various boxes on my table.

  “What is all this?” I asked, scratching my head when she placed a fancy coffee pot in front of me.

  “I brought in some homemade cakes… lots of them. They make a nice impression to visitors. I left some in Ricky’s office, too,” she said shyly. “I thought maybe you would like to talk?”

  My stomach was rumbling. I realised that I hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday. Most of the time I missed breakfast. Maybe this was the best time to start changing my routine. I needed to fuel my body with energy and the cakes looked delicious.

  “Talk about what?” I asked and shoved the raspberry turnover into my mouth. Emma was unsure what to say, her thoughts slightly tangled. The work that I needed to do could wait.

  “About what happened to you last night. My mum says that if you’re feeling down, talk to someone and have a very naughty cake.” She smiled widely.

  I started spinning in my chair moving left and right very slowly, staring at her, slightly taken aback by the fact that she wanted to make me feel better. In my entire short, but eventful life I never had anyone who I could really talk to. Most of my friends were guys and we spent time together drinking or playing cards. Getting together with a group of girls and sharing our emotional experiences wasn’t my kind of thing. I’d never been a sleepover-pillow-fight chick. Emma most likely had plenty of girlfriends, and today I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so I decided to go with it. The craving for tequila wouldn’t just go away and these cakes looked really good. Maybe I could substitute tequila with sugar and get a really fat arse, and then Arthur wouldn’t be hounding me, and then that would be one problem solved!

  “Okay, I guess I can try, but I don’t think I’m very good, you know, at talking about stuff in general,” I told her.

  “Don’t beat yourself up over this, Maxine. You saved my life, and I’ll remember it forever. Tell me, what’s bothering you?”

  I thought about her question for a second. There was nothing that was bothering me specifically. I’d made certain decisions that impacted everyone around me whether they knew it or not. I couldn’t talk to her about my affair with Prince Arthur. My broken heart would heal eventually.

  “The investigation isn’t going anywhere. I’ve made so many mistakes with this case and I don’t know what to do. I feel stuck,” I confessed. Ricky had to have something in that room. George had disappeared down in the cemetery, and the demon who took him had covered all their tracks. “But at the same time, I’m not that worried. I know that I should be, but for some reason I’m not bothered.”

  “Why? Are you thinking about something else?” she asked and took a bite of a chocolate eclair.

  I sighed, knowing that my head was clear. Last night I didn’t drink, so my judgement wasn’t clouded.

  “Zach asked me out on a date, and I said yes,” I blurted out.

  Emma giggled and then started clapping. “OMG, that’s fantastic; he’s so handsome.”

  “Yep, that he is,” I admitted, feeling a little warmer all of a sudden, “But I don’t know if going out on a date with him is such a good idea.”

  “Why? Because of the case?”

  “Yes, we have been assigned to work together, but I don’t want to complicate things. My focus sho
uld be on George.”

  Emma was chewing her cake, mulling over what I said. Maybe I really needed to change the way I dealt with things in my life. Humans seemed to understand more; their problems were insignificant, but they had to deal with them on a daily basis.

  “In my opinion, you just have to get back to the basics,” she announced.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “With the case, the investigation. Go over all the evidence once again, and think about what you would do in the very beginning. Maybe you’re just overthinking this,” she said. “Sometimes I do it, too. Before I got this job, I was struggling. I didn’t know how I was going to get through the month without any money. My ex-husband was supposed to send the maintenance payment, but I didn’t get a penny from him.”

  Only now did I begin to realise that Emma used to be broken, too, but she always remained positive. Her heart was healed. God, I didn’t even know that she was married before.

  “Why is he not paying you? Surely you have a child support agency on your side?”

  Maybe I wasn’t very domesticated, but I knew things like that. A while ago, I had a mongrel who wanted to track down her ex-boyfriend: a demon who fathered her child and ran away with someone else. She still had to pay her bills, and for that, she needed money.

  Emma smiled weakly. Part of her soul darkened when I mentioned her ex-husband.

  “I had to run in the middle of the night with my daughter. He used to beat me up. Things were tight for a few years, but that’s all in the past now.”

  I clenched my fists. I hated men, humans who abused women. If I could get my hands on that prick, I would kill him. Shit, Ricky was right. It was a good thing that I had given Emma a chance.

  “But you ran, and he hasn’t bothered you since?”

  She took another bite of the cake and chewed slowly, thinking about her daughter’s dance lessons.

  “He came around a few times promising that he would change. I had to call the police on him. He couldn’t understand that I didn’t want to be with him anymore, and when I refused to take him back, he stopped paying me. Things were difficult for a few months, but I managed somehow,” she explained. “There is no point stressing over the past. There are some things you will never be able to control, so appreciate what you have. I’m not doubting that you can solve this case, but first you need to take a step back and relax. Go on that date. Zach is a good man for you.”