Everyone has Their Demons

by A. L. Kessler

  "I felt you panic when I left. I came back to see what was wrong. This. This is why I want you to come back to the mansion."

  I pulled my magic into me, bringing the circle down. "This wasn't from the last time. I don't think."

  "What?" He sat on the couch next to me. I didn't know where Osiris had run off to, but I assumed he changed in time to not alert Levi to his other form.

  "I heard my parents' voices."

  Levi shook his head. "Elizabeth never would have let Ira near you. There was one time that Tobias made a mistake, and you got out of the car, but Ira didn't feed from you then."

  I thought that had just been a nightmare. "What else aren't you telling me?"

  "Ira was out of yours and your mother's life quickly. Your father learned from his mistake." He shook his head. "Find a spell to fix this, please. Before he drags you out of the territory to kill you."

  "You said he was toying with me."

  "He is, or he would have already caused harm." He went to the kitchen and came back with a paper towel. "Your wrist."

  I took the paper towel and put it over the bite. "I'm looking for something now; I've found a cleansing balm, but that's it so far."

  He started to say something, but then his phone rang. He answered. "Levi." He made a few noises of agreement before hanging up. "I have to go. I will send Mario."

  "And I will put him in a red circle. Just let me have some space, please."

  He looked hesitant. "If it gets worse, you call."

  "Promise." I nodded, and he disappeared again. I sighed and went back to my book, flipping through page by page. Osiris never reappeared, leaving me alone to my research.

  ∞

  By dawn, I had found a spell, a potion, and the balm that could help with the bite issue. I had fallen asleep reading my mom's notes on each and woke up about noon. What I woke up to were a cup of fresh coffee on the table and an empty house. I wondered where Merick had run off to for the rest of the night and the morning.

  I sat and sipped my coffee. I needed to find my demon and figure out what to do about Agent Grace. I trusted that Levi handled the notes for Liz, but only because it was Clarissa's case. I also needed to get the stuff for the potion. The spell was a cleansing spell that required a group, much like the cleansing spell that took the hex from me a few years ago, but I didn't trust the coven to help me now.

  "You're deep in thought." Merick walked in. "You fell asleep on the book last night."

  I glanced at him. "I needed to find a solution."

  "And?"

  "I found three, two of which I can do myself."

  "And the third?"

  "Requires at least two people." I glanced at him. "Which is not happening."

  "I could grab a few members and help."

  I wasn't sure if he was serious or not. "Just because I trust you doesn't mean I trust the rest of your cult."

  "Ah, Abby you honor me by placing your trust in me. I was joking, I know you'd never let them near you, but if you show me the spell, I'm willing to bet that your uncle and I can perform it."

  "That's assuming I can get a hold of him."

  He nodded. "Text him and tell him the situation, and I bet he appears within twenty-four hours."

  I could only hope that he was right. I wasn't sure if Oliver read my messages or not when he decided to go MIA. No matter what, I needed to get this straightened out before I went to my meeting with Ira in a couple days. It was creeping up on me, and I had no idea what I was going to do or if I was walking into another trap.

  No. Ira made it clear that he was bound by the truce down to what he was allowed to discuss with me.

  "I'll try."

  "Want to cover all your bases?"

  I nodded. "Yep, so I'm going to head down to Manitou to grab the items that I need."

  "And?"

  "And see if I can't figure out how to summon a demon."

  "Abigail!"

  I cringed at the high pitch tone he suddenly hit. "Fuck Merick. I meant as in a circle, to banish it. Not from the hell realm."

  He shook his head. "You can't just pull him through. Especially not the kind of demon you're dealing with."

  "What do you know about the demon?"

  "He's breaking out of the summoning circle, isn't he?"

  I nodded. "Yes."

  "Has another murder happened?"

  I shook my head. "Not yet."

  "Then they haven't been banished again. It must be banished in order to be summoned again."

  I guess I hadn't thought about that. "I need to check out Agent Grace's house."

  "I'm due in town to help Liz out, seems that Levi dropped the information off at her desk."

  I relaxed a little. "Good, I know he wants to make sure that Clarissa's murderer is brought to justice."

  "What about the person who stole the information?"

  "I don't know; I still haven't figured that one out." I finished my coffee and then transferred the ingredients I needed to my phone.

  "Be careful while you're out. I'll be in town, so just text me if you need something."

  I nodded. "I'm going to text Oliver now and tell him to get a hold of you."

  "I can't wait."

  I didn't miss the sarcasm, but I knew he'd work with my uncle, and somehow I'd survive this without Ira causing too much damage.

  I went upstairs to get ready for the day, and after a quick shower, I was feeling better. I'd grab food on my way into town and figure out what I could do about needing to get into Agent Grace's apartment. Breaking and entering was normally frowned upon.

  I got in the Hummer and smiled. I knew exactly how I was going to get in. I pulled up the information from her file on her current address and put it in my GPS. Hopefully, I could catch her off guard with being nice instead of hateful.

  Or I was going to get another punch thrown at me. Either way, it was promising to be an interesting afternoon.

  ∞

  After stopping for food, I pulled up to the modest house. From the outside, it seemed normal. A dull yellow painted house with white shutters, a big window in the front, and Agent Grace's car sitting in the driveway. I had a hard time imagining her living in such an unassuming house.

  I got out of the Hummer and walked to the door. I didn't miss the magic pushing against me as I approached. The problem was Grace was a shifter, not a witch. I swallowed my paranoia, and I raised my hand to knock, but she opened the door before I even got a chance.

  "What do you want?"

  She looked a little worse for wear. Her normally neat blonde hair was sticking out of the messy bun on the top of her head, and her eyes were shadowed. "I wanted to come and apologize for my reaction to your…grief." It was the best word I could come up with. She had accused me of getting Nick killed and had some made up a story about how he was engaged to her sister, and he broke her heart, and now she was messed up because Nick was dead.

  There had been too many holes in her story to be true, but pretending to make amends was the only way I was going to be able to get into the house.

  She looked me up and down. "You could have called me."

  "Would you have picked up?"

  She shook her head. "Come in for a cup of coffee?"

  "Sure."

  She stepped out of the way and let me in. The magic that had been pressing against me disappeared, but now there was a new magic, it was faint, but there was a slimy residue that clung to my aura. I tried not to squirm at the uncomfortable feeling. I wondered for a moment who she had back there working magic. I kept my guard up as I followed her to the kitchen.

  "Sorry to hear about your suspension."

  She snorted. "It's ridiculous, and now someone's searching me in the system, trying to dig things up."

  For a moment I was wondering if it was me.

  "They are trying to tie Tomes to me in other
ways, other than me being his partner. I left everything in my old life to take on that case, and this is how PIB repays me?"

  I cringed realizing that she hadn't been talking about my digging. No, she was talking about her suspension case. "That sucks. I heard there were some issues with the paperwork."

  She looked at me. "Yeah, you got your hands on it. That's what it was."

  I raised my brow. "I wasn't informed that my additions screwed it up, my bad."

  "You're the poster child for PIB Abby; you can do no wrong."

  That wasn't really true, seeing as I was blackmailed into my current position, once I had been suspended for shooting a suspect, and there'd been a couple occasions that I was sure Boss Man was shaking his head. "I think you've been listening to rumors." I kept my voice even.

  "No, I haven't been, because all the rumors say that you're a dangerous witch and you're out of control." She met my gaze. "Are you?"

  "Dangerous or out of control?" I challenged her.

  She was hesitant for a moment. "They can go hand in hand."

  "They can, but they don't in my case."

  She gave a laugh. "I guess you have to be to survive, dangerous that is."

  "And you, Agent Grace?"

  "Maybe a little bit of both. Never forget that, Abigail."

  I raised my mug. "I never forget that there are other dangerous people out there."

  The magic pulsed around me and I felt my pentagram warm. I raised a brow at her. "Something you want to tell me?" Who was behind the magic?

  The magic pulsed again and a strangled cry made me cringe.

  She smiled and never broke my gaze. "I know why you're here. I also know that your best friend was murdered, and I have all the evidence you and Liz worked to find."

  "You sent the demon." I narrowed my gaze. "You stole the information and the pizza?"

  "I'm not the one controlling him." She gave a shrug. "I shifted to get into PIB undetected, and shifting makes me hungry. I wanted something to eat. Poor Clarissa, sacrificed to attempt to bring someone back to life."

  "How do you know that?" My mind flashed to my uncle as panic crawled through me as the magic around me continued to grow. It wasn't time to call on my own, not yet.

  "Because I have your research."

  Something told me it was much more than that. "You stay away from that case."

  Something crashed in the back room, and this time it was a snarl, not a strangled cry that came. I looked up to see the demon.

  Oh, fuck me.

  Grace laughed as I started backing away from him.

  "I don't know what led you here Abby, but you've found our little demon."

  Little my ass. The thing towered over me with its scale-covered back and drool dripping out of its mouth. I did the only thing I could think of. I ran to the door while pulling out my phone dialing 911.

  "Agent Abigail Collins, I need back up. Now." A giant clawed hand hit me, slamming me into the wall of the entryway. The impact was enough to make my teeth rattle. My phone flew out of my hand, landing on the ground with a thud. Thank the goddess for life proof cases. I shouted out the address right before Melody slammed her foot down on the phone. Yeah, it wasn't going to survive that.

  I looked at the demon and then to Melody. "Death sentence Grace. That's what this can end in. Even if you're not summoning him, you're helping."

  "They have to catch us first, and with them worrying about your injuries, they won't have time to send the execution team after us until well after we achieve our goal."

  The demon rushed me, and I threw up a circle. It ran into it and bounced back. The thrum against my circle vibrated in me.

  The demon ran into my circle again, and I shuddered at the physical pain it caused. It wouldn't be long until it broke through. I should have brought back up and not depended on Grace wanting a friendly chat and her being alone. Or I should have gone with a good old fashion breaking and entering.

  I could hear the sirens coming. The shrill sound breaking through the snarling of the demon.

  Grace growled. "We do not have time for you to try and protect yourself." She ran her hand over something on the wall, and a rune glowed. She wasn't a witch, but that rune was made to be activated by her. What the fuck. I glanced at the rune and realized the base of it was similar to what they found at Clarissa's scene. Not exactly the same, but similar enough.

  The rune pulsed, and my circle crashed down, and the demon rushed me. Its clawed hand grabbed my throat. I struggled and grabbed my gun. I shot the beast in the foot twice, and it let me go with a howl. This couldn't be the demon that had killed the others. It was much too dumb and clumsy.

  I shot it again, and it stumbled back next to Grace. "What are you doing you dumb beast, get her!"

  I threw my hand up to trap them in a red circle, but a bullet took me in the shoulder. I cried out and looked behind me to see a man standing there.

  I didn't know him. His bald head only added to the intimidating darkness of his eyes. He stood there, bare-chested, arms held up to aim the gun in almost perfect form. There was a rune tattooed on his chest that matched the base language of the runes from Clarissa's crime scene and the Cult's pictures. Fuck. Me.

  Pain radiated in my shoulder as I stared at him. I could trap them all in circles, it'd take more energy, but my blood would aid it. I holstered my gun and called on my magic. I managed to summon two circles, one around Grace and the demon, but the stranger escaped it.

  The rune on him glowed just a little bit, and I realized that it was keeping him from my magic.

  "Poor little PIB agent, killed in the line of duty." He let out a dark laugh and raised his gun again. "With the rune active you can't raise a protective circle. I made it for her in case PIB showed up." He squeezed the trigger, and the next bullet took me in the stomach. I cried out and fell to my knees. My magic around Grace and the demon came crashing down as it rushed back into me. I heard shouting around me as my world went black and I started to feel cold. I was going to die by fucking gunshot wound.

  Chapter Eleven

  She's dying, Levi."

  I heard Mario's voice, and the first thing I wanted to do was to tell him to go the fuck away. Which meant I wasn't dying, because I could form a coherent thought.

  "She's not dying. Her heartbeat always slows when she's healing." Levi's voice was soft. "She's starting to wake."

  It was odd to have the two of them at my bedside. Normally Levi sent Clarissa to sit with me, but that was no longer an option. Of course, he could have sent Simon, but that was probably out of the question since the whole dating Mario thing was still supposed to be happening.

  My eyes finally opened and I saw the white tile ceiling of the hospital and let out a sigh. "Did anyone get the bastard?"

  "They were gone by the time anyone showed up to the house." Levi sat next to me. "Liz will be in soon to take a statement from you."

  I pressed my lips together. "I can't work my case from here."

  "Abigail, you were shot in the stomach. The fact that you're alive is a miracle; maybe you should hand the case off?" Mario suggested.

  I looked over at him. "Go away."

  "Told you she wasn't dying." Levi actually chuckled.

  "Yes, I see that now." Mario rolled his eyes. "I'll be out in the hall."

  I let him leave and looked back at the ceiling. I hadn't really tried to move yet because I knew it'd be painful. "How long am I here for?"

  "Until you heal," Levi said easily. "Mario is right; you need to pass on your case."

  I shook my head and felt the pull in my shoulder. "I know who it is. I just need to make the connections and turn in the report to the executioner."

  "A death sentence?"

  "They are summoning demons to kill people."

  He was silent for a moment. "Did you catch the demon?"

  "No. But the one
that was there isn't responsible for the killing at the other scenes."

  "Mario will stay during the night with you, and I will have Simon come during the day."

  "I need a potion for the pain. I don't want the painkillers. I also need my computer."

  "You're not working from the hospital." Levi was exasperated. "Abigail, you need to rest and to heal."

  "Where's Oliver?" I asked without looking at him. "He can heal me, and I can get on with my life."

  "Damn it, Abigail," he snapped, and I finally looked at him. "You need to heal, you need to rest, not depend on him to heal you so you can rush back into danger."

  All I could do was stare at him from his outburst. "This is my job."

  "Not for much longer. Not if this is how you are going to handle situations." He growled.

  I didn't miss the threat in his voice. "I'm not a child."

  "No, you're not, you are heir to the vampire people." He hissed low. "A princess."

  I locked my jaw and turned away from him, despite my body protesting. A new pain radiated in my neck, and I closed my eyes knowing what was coming.

  "Abigail?" Levi asked, the anger gone.

  I didn't answer him as the noises of the hospital room disappeared and Hannah's magic surrounded me, freezing me in place.

  I could feel Ira's fangs in me once more, spreading the burning pain that fought with the ice of the magic. I let out a strangled cry, trying to break the illusion again, but I couldn't, and instead of it ending with me awake, it ended with me floating in darkness.

  When I finally woke, Levi was gone, and Simon was sitting in the seat next to the bed, reading a book. I smiled at him. "Always the loyal guard dog."

  He laughed. "You know I'd sit by your side at any time. How do you feel?"

  "I'm in a lot of pain. I was shot twice." I looked at him. "How's the pack?"

  "Well, the merge is going better." He put his bookmark in and laid the book on the table. "Liz stopped by while you were sleeping."

  "Yeah?"

  "She dropped your computer off and said call her when you wake up and feel up to talking."

  Liz knew me well if she brought my computer. "Did someone go get the Hummer?"