He shook his head. "No, I'm going to wait outside your uncle's circle until you're safely out of there."
I guess that was really the best I was going to get out of him. On one hand, it was nice that he wanted to help me. On the other hand, I wasn't sure if Oliver wanted Mario there uninvited. Mario had been there once before, but if Oliver laid a new protection spell around the house, it might not welcome Mario again.
I got in the car, and Mario sat in the passenger seat. "Let's get this over with."
I didn't miss the bored tone in his voice. My enthusiasm echoed his. Honestly, all I wanted was to be alone while I looked through the books.
∞
The large house loomed over us as I pulled up two hours later. We had plenty of time before dawn, so I wasn't worried about Mario burning to a crisp.
Mario got out of the car with me but stopped a few yards away from the house.
I knew exactly why he did. I could feel the magic too, but instead of warning me to go away, it wrapped me in a warm sense of security, almost as if it was welcoming me home. I glanced at him. "Sorry, looks like you're staying out here."
"I don't know why he wouldn't want me to go with you. He knows that I'm here to protect you."
I shrugged. "Oliver doesn't like people in his house, except me." And I never really understood that. A few months ago, I realized that my uncle and I were a lot more alike than I had originally thought, maybe that's why he decided to trust me in his house while he was gone.
I took the couple steps that led to the front door. A little security camera overlooked the porch, and the tiny red light told me that it was active. Like me, Oliver had a keypad lock. I pressed in my code for it, heard the electronic lock click, and I opened the door to let myself in. His security system beeped at me as I entered. I waited a moment to see if Mario was just going to appear in the house, but nothing happened. I smiled at the thought of Oliver having a way to keep out the vampires.
I took my shoes off and walked over the wood floor. The dark walls were bare of pictures or anything else to give the house personality, and it had always been that way. This was where Oliver and I practiced with my elemental abilities, but there had been no more training sessions since he walked out of my life three months ago. On Levi's orders.
Walking down the hall to the library, I tried to keep any unwarranted anger and emotions out of my mind. I needed to focus on the task at hand. I knew Oliver had books on demons; he'd taught me how to banish one back to Hell from one of the books and insisted that I memorized the spell. It'd been handy.
But Oliver sometimes played with darker magic, so I assumed he had the books I needed. I walked into the library and looked at the floor to ceiling bookshelves covered in books, some old, some new. Old leather ones had the titles long worn away, and there was a stack of them on the floor by a leather chair.
I walked past them and went to where he'd kept the book he'd taught me from and started searching the titles near it. Oliver was a particularly organized man, and I assumed he'd keep the other books about demons near the first one. I pulled my phone out and looked at the titles, comparing them to some on the bookshelf.
Pulling out each book, I started to make my own small pile. I sent my uncle a text letting him know I was going to borrow them for a case. I stopped on my way out to look at a few books by the door on another table. Photo albums.
I picked the first one up and flipped through it. It was rare to see pictures of a younger Oliver. His hair was unkempt, and he wore a simple t-shirt and jeans, something I had never seen him in. I stopped at a picture of him and my mother. The look on his face was one of pure admiration as she held a book out for him to see. Her wild curly hair was pulled back out of her face except for the few strands that had escaped, she was pointing to something, and her face was lit up with excitement.
My heart ached as I turned the page. Pictures of my mother holding me filled the next page. The last one was a picture of Oliver with me, his hair cut a little shorter, but he still had that look of admiration on his face.
I touched the picture gently, but then closed the book and left it there. I shouldn't pry in his memories; I knew that he and my mother had been close, and he'd dropped hints that she taught him a lot about magic, but it was only recently he'd started speaking of their relationship.
I left the library and walked down the hall. I half expected Oliver to call out to me before I left the house, but it all remained silent. I held the books with one arm while I hit the button to lock the door. I looked to see Mario leaning against the hood of the car, waiting patiently for me. Part of me was comforted to know that he cared enough to protect me, the other part still wanted him to go away. Tonight I'd have him looking over my shoulder as I worked through the books, trying to find any clues on what I was dealing with.
He pushed off the car when he saw me approaching. "Ready to go?"
"Yep, back home to bury myself in coffee and research."
"You're off the clock though." If I didn't know any better, I would say he sounded disappointed.
I snorted. "I'm a PIB agent; I don't know what it means to be 'off the clock.' I have a murder that needs to be solved." I opened the car door and put the books in the back seat. "This is what it's like to date me, and honestly it's why no relationship ever works out."
He said something under his breath and got into the car. I jumped in the driver's side and started the engine.
"You know, if you don't like it, you could always just go back to the mansion and leave me to do my work alone."
"And risk you getting poisoned or attacked? Levi would never forgive me."
That was probably true. "So…how did you end up working for Levi? When were you let in on his secret?"
"He gave me a chance to escape my maker. I wasn't aware of exactly who he was until Elizabeth and Tobias were killed."
Interesting that my parent's murder would force Levi to come out. "And now you're helping him solve my parents' murder."
"It's the least I can do. Hannah…doesn't have morals that fit today's society. She's not necessarily evil, but she's not good. Levi may have done questionable things in his past, but sometimes the end does justify the means."
I raised a brow. "What kind of things has Levi done that would be questionable?" Levi was an old vampire, there was no doubt in my mind that he'd done some things that I wouldn't agree with, but typically, his past was off the 'let's talk about' list.
"You know that I cannot tell you." Mario chuckled. "Levi would never forgive me, any information about his past must come directly from him. Not a third party."
I wrinkled my nose. "And why is that?"
"To avoid misunderstandings and to spare him your temper."
I guess it made sense, to a degree. "You guys act like I'm going to shoot you every time you piss me off."
Mario was quiet for a moment. "You did trap me in a circle a few months ago."
I pressed my lips together. "Point taken." I pulled out of my uncle's driveway and headed toward home. "I'll try to watch my temper."
He laughed again.
"What?"
"I think it's one of your more endearing qualities."
I had no idea how to respond to that, so I kept my mouth shut as I drove.
∞
When we got to the house, I instantly set up in the living room, spreading the books out across the coffee table and opening them to the table of contents. Mario disappeared into the kitchen while Osiris walked into the living room to join me. If he'd been in human form, I could imagine the look on Merick's face.
I scratched his ear. "Case related. Don't lay on the books."
"Talking to your cat again?" Mario asked, walking in with a big travel mug. He sat it down on an end table near me.
I shrugged. "What can I say, it's habit now. When you live alone talking to the cat is all y
ou have."
Mario stared at me for a moment. I imagined he was probably trying to tell if I was lying or not. He sat down on the couch next to me.
"So you really do plan on researching all night?"
I nodded. "Really, I'm not planning on going anywhere unless I get a sudden lead. Research is where all cases start. I don't know enough about demons to not research."
He nodded slightly. "Did you think about checking Tobias' research?"
I stared at him. "I know he summoned a demon once."
"Yes, but like you, he approached everything with research first. He was a scholar after all."
I jumped up from my spot and ran up the stairs to the library. I hadn't thought of that. I didn't know anything about the demon my dad had summoned, but it didn't mean that there wasn't something up there on darker and more powerful demons. Of course, I didn't know why he had summoned one either.
Normally people summoned demons to bargain with them, to have them kill someone, or occasionally, for shits and giggles, like at the book fest. My dad didn't strike me as a 'let's endanger people for fun' kind of guy. I hesitated before I walked into the office. Mario was right at my back.
"What's wrong?"
"Do you know why my dad summoned a demon?"
He was quiet for a moment. "No, it was before I knew him."
"When did you meet him?" I opened the door and walked in. I didn't spend a lot of time in my dad's office. I preferred to do my research where I had coffee handy and better lighting.
"I met him just before you were born." He shook his head. "So sorry, I can't be much help with the research on this."
I walked in and started looking through the books and notebooks that were on the shelf. Levi had taken a bunch of stuff to his place after my parents had died and added it to his own library. I'd have to ask him if he had any notes on the demon summoning or not.
After a few minutes of skimming titles, I hadn't found anything useful. When I had come in here before looking for information on the Cult runes, I'd found it hidden under a floorboard, but I highly doubted that's where this would be. It didn't seem like him summoning a demon was all that secret. I let out a sigh and sat at his desk. After a few minutes of me looking around, Mario spoke up.
"Maybe he didn't keep a record of it, and my hunch was wrong." Mario crossed his arms. "It's a pretty grave offense, to summon a demon."
He could have erased all evidence, or the coven or the cult could have taken the evidence. I leaned back in the chair and tapped my hands on the arms. "What do you know about my father?"
"Tobias was a smart man; he cared very much for your mother and you. He would have done anything to keep both of you safe."
"All I know about the demon summoning was that odd circumstances surrounded it and that the Coven and the Cult of Ra excused the actions because of those circumstances. Apparently, they changed their mind because they came back and killed both my parents later on." I glanced at him. "Any ideas?"
Mario looked around and then looked at me. "I once heard that Elizabeth's life was in danger and that Tobias was blackmailed into raising a demon. That's all I know." He held his hands up. "But maybe your contact with the Cult could tell you more?"
I looked around for my cat to see if he had joined us for the conversation, but he was nowhere to be found. "If it comes down to that, I'll contact him. For now, I'll start with the books that I have in the living room."
My phone rang, and I pulled it out from my pocket. "Special Agent Collins speaking."
"Hello, Abigail." The male voice on the end of the phone made me tense up. Jack was a local priest from the Coven who had forced me to resign a few months back. Someone sent them a video of my elemental abilities, and they thought I was dangerous. What they didn't seem to understand was that they were more dangerous to me because they could turn me into the government to be studied.
"Jack, to what do I owe this displeasure?" I wasn't going to bother with the niceties.
"The coven is holding a memorial for Clarissa."
I felt like someone had punched me. "Okay, when and where?"
"My house, tomorrow night at eight." He hung up without another word.
I slowly lowered my phone. I wasn't going to cry, I wasn't going to scream, and I refused to break down in any other way right now. What I needed to do was move forward with my demon case and the case of the mysterious runes.
"Breathe, Abby." Mario's voice was the softest I'd ever heard it. There was no mocking, no frustration, nothing to indicate that he was upset or that I was an inconvenience.
I sucked in a small breath and let it out. I repeated it a few times, and I felt my shoulders relax a little bit. "I'm okay. This is hard."
"Losing a loved one is never easy." Mario put a hand on my shoulder. "Focus on what's in front of you and how you can help bring her murderer to justice."
I nodded. "Thank you." Standing, I looked around the library one last time. "I need to focus on my cases. I'm going to need a lot more coffee."
Mario chuckled. "Indeed."
He followed me downstairs where I situated myself in front of the books again and started to take notes while sipping on my coffee.
∞
At some point, I'd fallen asleep on the books. A creaking noise on the floor woke me up. The sun streamed through the crack in the curtain telling me that it wasn't Mario that had woken me up. He would have been long gone by now with the sun up. "Osiris?" I called out, just in case someone else was in the house.
Nothing had triggered my magic, so I didn't think that it was someone who was out to harm me. If there was anyone there. I pushed up off the floor and looked down at my notes. I hadn't learned anything to break the case last night, but I had learned a lot about summoning a demon.
Osiris crawled up next to me and then shifted into Merick. He held a finger up to his lips to tell me to be quiet. I nodded, and we both stayed low and crouched to the ground. I assumed now that it was Merick walking across the floor that had woken me up, but he'd done it with purpose.
He motioned to the window, and we both crawled toward it, making sure to keep ourselves out of view. I peeked over the window sill and saw a man standing there, looking at my car. I wondered how he had managed to get past my protective circle, but then realized he was standing just outside it.
I pressed my lips together, debating on what I could do. He obviously could sense there was a circle there because he refused to move closer. I just watched him for a moment, until he finally turned around and left.
What the hell was that all about? My heart had sped up a little bit. A stranger on my property was never a good thing, especially a stranger that seemed to be magically trained.
"What do you make of it?" I glanced at Merick. "Anyone you know?"
He shook his head. "I was hoping it was someone that you worked with. At first, I thought it could have been Nick."
"No, didn't look quite right." I stood up and stretched. "Maybe I should reconsider putting cameras further out on the property."
Merick gave a bob of his head. "Might be a good thought."
I ran a hand over my face, trying to push thoughts of people creeping around my house out of my head. There were other things I needed to focus on. "I need to look over the other book I grabbed from my uncle's house."
"The PIB training one with the runes?" Merick jerked his head toward the kitchen. "I have it spread out already, and I've been reading it most of the morning."
"Boring PIB lesson, I'm sure." I went back to my pile of books and started closing them up and stacking them on the coffee table.
"Yes, but there's a mention in there of Tobias and how he helped build the lesson, based on a tablet he'd found and was working on translating."
I raised a brow. "I didn't know my father worked on stuff for PIB. I knew he worked for Levi on translating something. Maybe that's it
."
"If you can find the notes to that, then maybe we can crack this code." Merick smirked. "Then we'll have all the information we need to finish the Cult's scene."
I had no idea exactly what Cult's scene was, but I was sure at this point that I didn't really want to know. "I'll go back upstairs and look. I didn't want to look while Mario was here."
"Don't bother; I was up there most of the night wondering if he had kept them in his regular library." He shook his head. "If it caused problems, it's possible that Tobias made sure to hide the research. Much like the translation of the Cult's runes."
I nodded and rubbed my eyes. "Then we're back to working with just the training case and talking to Levi about it." Maybe I'd catch a break, and he'd have my dad's notes.
"Now you have an actual reason to ask him about it too, without letting him know that you're working for the Cult."
I snorted. "He's not going to like it anyways. I told him I'd stay far away from Clarissa's case."
My phone rang again, and this time I looked at the screen. Liz's name scrolled across, and I slid the answer icon. "What's up?"
"I need to bring you in for questioning." Her voice was careful and low.
I jerked at the words. "I'm sorry what?"
"Someone mentioned that you were seen at Clarissa's shop before the dark magic had been cast."
"I'm a suspect?" I looked at Merick, not sure what to do or how to respond.
"Abby, I'm sorry, but yes."
Chapter Four
I agreed to meet Liz down at the station because I knew that it made me look less guilty. I had no idea how someone spotted me at the shop, because I hadn't been down there at all that day. I'd been at the PIB office. I hoped that nobody had screwed with the security cams enough to erase my presence at work.
I greeted a few of the officers with nods as I walked through. Mason and Liz were standing outside the interrogation room with their arms crossed and talking.
I handed Mason my gun. "No weapons, no magic. Any other requests?" I tried to keep the irritation out of my voice. She was wasting her time on me; she needed to be searching for the real culprit.
Everyone has Their Demons Page 5