“The police are coming. We need to…”
I fell on the floor, unable to stand. The pain of the wound was now in my veins. My blood burned. I was hot. “Get out. Get out. We can’t tell them the truth. Please,” I gasped.
I was pretty sure that he would argue. Bryan loved rules. The idea of leaving without giving the police any information would drive him crazy, but much to my surprise, he picked me up and ran to the car. “What happened?”
My breath was clogged in my throat. There was a pressure on my chest. He strapped me on the seat. “Augusta. Please.”
Time slowed. Every breath had to be forced out of me. It was hard to inhale. I just wanted to stop trying.
“Don’t you dare die on me,” said Bryan in a furious voice as he drove at a breakneck speed. “Don’t you dare.”
I didn’t want to die.
But living was such an effort.
It would be nice to just black out and not feel the pain.
Someone was wheezing in the car. It took a while for me to figure out that the sound came from my throat. I was dying. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be – but hell, I would rather die as a result of a battle than due to old age. My eyes closed.
Someone slapped me awake. “Cleo, stay with me.”
What?
How dare he hit me? But it was impossible for me to do anything other than grunt. Bryan parked the car. My vision was a blur. Opening the door, he picked me and ran. My arm was frozen with fiery pain that trickled up my shoulder into my neck. If it reached my heart or my mind, that would be the end of it.
It was a race against time, and I wasn’t winning.
Bryan yelled something unintelligible as he put me on the couch in the foyer. Someone dug into my arm. The screams that ripped out of my throat were inhuman. I thrashed about, trying to free my arm from the hands that gripped me. My magic sparkled at the tip of my fingers, but someone bound it. I couldn’t use it. The sheer agony made me convulse. My legs flayed about as I tried to free myself, but the hands that held me were strong.
“Hush, honey. Stay calm,” said someone.
I couldn’t understand the words. They meant nothing. Every fiber of my body, every nerve, and every muscle was stretched to the breaking point.
I was going to die.
If so, I wanted the end to come quickly.
The pain was unbearable. I was better off dead. My throat was hoarse from all the screaming. My body jerked. My heart raced.
“What’s going on?” I heard Bryan yell.
“She has to go through this,” said the same voice.
Augusta. She was here.
Suddenly, I realized that the stinging agony had lessened somehow. The hot, strong lance of it became a little cooler. A breath escaped my lips, then another. I gasped, opened my eyes, and glanced at the person who caused the pain. Augusta. Her lips were set in a firm line. She pressed something hard against my arm. The wound throbbed, but before I had wanted to pass out from the pain of it. Now, it was bearable.
My lips parted but no words escaped them.
“You’ll be fine,” she assured me. “Hell of a day to tangle with the assassins. You nearly died.”
Nearly?
She was still hurting me, but as I concentrated on the people who stood near me, I could sense that it wasn’t as bad as before. My vision was blurry, but my breathing was better, and the pain was almost bearable. Whatever she was doing nearly killed me as much as that wound but now I was coming back to life.
“What the hell is that?” I finally managed to mutter. “Get it off me.”
“That saved your life so shut up,” ordered Augusta.
Bryan hovered behind her. At least he was safe. He got me here in time for Augusta to do whatever the hell she did to save my sorry ass. “Will she be ok?” he asked.
“She is fine now,” said Augusta. If I didn’t see that sheen of fear in her eyes, I would have thought she didn’t care. I almost died today, and it was something neither of us was going to forget in a hurry. “If we didn’t have the stone of Suri…”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a healing stone. It’s supposed to suck all poison out of you,” I said. Augusta removed the stone from my wound. The flesh wound shimmered for a moment and then knit together. As the skin knit together, it stung but it was nothing compared to the anguish I already endured. “Assassin’s weapons are dipped in poison. One cut…and it’s goodbye baby.”
“You didn’t die.”
“You got me here on time.” I sat, took a deep breath, grabbed Jeremy’s hand and stood. My head spun and my legs shook but I didn’t fall. “And lucky for me, it was merely a flesh wound. The poison didn’t have time to…run too deep in my blood.”
“Couldn’t you have run a spell to protect yourself?” said Bryan.
I glanced at Augusta. “Who could have sent them?”
She flopped on the couch as if she didn’t have the energy to stand anymore. I gave her quite a bit of scare. “New enemies. Or old. My guess is as good as yours.”
Assassins weren’t cheap to hire. The organization was as old as time, and just as expensive. They were efficient, heartless, and unstoppable. If there was a contract out on me, there was almost a guarantee they would try again unless we managed to somehow eliminate the person who gave the contract. Or else I killed the entire contingent of assassins who accepted the contract.
Both were difficult options.
Not impossible, but certainly difficult. And now that I’d a new case, I didn’t have time to devote to this task.
“Why didn’t you use a spell to protect yourself?” Bryan demanded again.
“We can’t worry about them now. I’ve got a case,” I decided.
“If they are after you…” said Jeremy.
The fear in his voice told me that I needed to pay a bit more attention to this. But what the hell could I do except watch my back.
I didn’t want them to get riled.
“No, maybe it was a mistake,” I countered.
Bryan grabbed my hand and swung me around to face him. Anger swirled in the depths of his eyes. A nerve twitched on his cheek. “Why the hell didn’t you use your magic?”
“We’re not allowed to use magic in front of people,” I said. “In case you didn’t notice, we had an attentive audience, a whole hoard of them with their noses pressed to the windows of the supermarket. Of course, not one of them came to out aid.”
If they had, they would have died. The assassins didn’t care about collateral damage. They came and they did their job.
For now, they failed but they would be back.
But I couldn’t worry about that now.
“The police?” Augusta asked. “There were witnesses.”
“All they saw were a bunch of people fighting. They might give descriptions and if the police comes here…” I shook my head. “We’ll worry about it when and if it happens. I don’t think the police would take it seriously. The assassins disappeared and so did we. No one died. There was no property damage. They wouldn’t take it seriously unless there was an official complaint.”
“Ok. Good. Let’s hope so,” said Augusta.
Bryan stepped in front of me. The set look in his eyes told me that he was on a mission right now, and ignoring him might not work. “Why didn’t you do a protective shield?”
“I didn’t have the energy or the time to do a complete protective cover.” I stepped to the side, eager to get to my room and take a shower. Then I could get back to work. “We should…”
He spun me around again. Man. The guy was fast getting on my nerves. “Did you do a protective shield for me?” I hesitated. “Did you?” he demanded to know.
He wouldn’t have had a chance with the assassins. My magic at least offered some innate protection that he didn’t have. “I did one for you, alright.”
Shit.
The cold, ice look was back in his eyes. His lips peeled back as he glared at me. “You shouldn’t have
protected me.”
“Hey.” I raised a hand. “Next time there are three assassins who are trying to kill us, I’ll make sure they get you first. Now back off. It was my decision, and I took it.”
“You’ve no right…”
Whatever.
I wasn’t in the mood to listen to his tirade. Should I have not saved his sorry ass? Maybe. If he were dead, I wouldn’t have to listen to his lecture on how he was a big boy who was perfectly capable of protecting himself.
Too bad that wasn’t true.
He didn’t have a clue that the world he now belonged to was dangerous and crazy, and he wasn’t the least bit equipped to handle these attacks. If I weren’t there, he would have died. I saved him, and he returned the favor. As far as I was concerned, we were even.
Oh yeah.
Too bad he wasn’t thinking like that.
Not my problem.
He would just have to deal with that on his own.
We had other things to worry about. It wasn’t just the case that bothered me. Someone tried to put Colonel Sanders behind bars, and now the assassins. What else was next? We were targeted for a reason and I wanted answers – and I wanted them fast.
Chapter Four
As I knocked on to Colonel Sanders door, I wasn’t sure what to expect. If he wasn’t there and Jasper was the one who opened, my effort would get derailed. We could never predict which one would be in attendance at what time. Some people found it difficult to understand Colonel Sanders and Jasper; for me it was just a fact of life. Colonel Sanders and Jasper were two different men who just happened to share the same body.
When you got one, you didn’t get the other.
I liked Colonel Sanders. Jasper, I tolerated.
When he opened the door, a sigh of relief escaped me.
“Colonel?”
There was a haunted look in his eyes. “Yes?”
Augusta had expressly forbidden me to question him. He was vulnerable, emotional. I was supposed to stay away, and yet the thoughts that nagged me wouldn’t let me leave this alone.
And of course, since when did I begin to uphold all the rules Augusta imposed on me?
“What happened yesterday, Colonel?”
It was an impulsive question. Augusta and others better suited to question asked him and got no replies. I wasn’t expecting one too, but perhaps he was more unguarded then I realized. “I didn’t hire her. She asked me to fix her car, wanted me to take a look. I just…wanted to help her.” He shook his head and appeared to come out of a trance. “I’ve got to rest.”
He slammed the door hard enough for me to get the message but I was rooted to the spot. Colonel Sanders was lured into that car. He didn’t hire her. What the hell was going on?
He was trapped.
But why?
By whom?
Suddenly, there were even more questions, and I was sinking damn fast under their weight. Time to do something, and since I wasn’t one to sit on my butt for long, the time was now. Augusta always said that I wasn’t one to allow grass to grow under my feet. When I got hold of a thread, I needed to unravel it. As I headed out, my mind was alive with possibilities. Perhaps, I would prove to be wrong but there was never any harm in trying.
Hot damn.
I might be on to something.
I leapt down the stairs, two at a time. “Hey. Where do you think you’re going?”
All my hopes to avoid Augusta were dashed. I turned, slowly. “Just headed out to do some investigations.”
Her eyebrow rose. “Did you find a break in the case?”
“Well…not exactly. But I was thinking…” My mind worked furiously. She would keep prodding and pushing until I gave her something, but if I told her the truth, she would flay me with words. “I just…”
The loud scream made me jump. No questions. No hesitation. I leapt towards the door, knowing that Augusta was right behind me. Were the assassins back? Did they have another target in mind this time?
“It came from the school,” she said as we both ran for the building.
The old barn in the farmhouse was converted into the school for the ten or so children who studied magic with us. A couple belonged to people who lived on the farm, and others came from nearby towns where mages resided. For whatever reasons, these people chose to homeschool their kids at our place. Reasons for it were myriad; some wanted the kids to learn magic from us because they didn’t have the time or patience to handle that job themselves, others thought it was good for kids to have access to peers who were similar in nature. Some simply didn’t want to take the risk of sending these kids to normal, human schools. If there were ever a demonstration of magic by them, it would lead to a lot of unpleasant questions.
If anything happened to one of the kids…
The shock of seeing similar suits cars made me stop. Augusta collided into me. “What are they doing here?”
Why was the FBI here?
The FBI’s paranormal unit knew exactly who and what we were. Unless, these people came from another department, but if so, we could call Jones and get this cleared up. I spotted Graham, one of the agents I knew all too well. Annoyed, I walked up to him. He owed us some answers. What was he doing here with his team?
And who the hell screamed?
Seeing me, he took off his sunglasses and pocketed them. “Cleo. Augusta.”
“What are you doing here?” My answer became moot when I saw three of his men escorting one of ours out of the school. Dubey’s hands were cuffed behind his back.
Anger spiraled inside me, fiery hot and impatient.
I snarled, stepping forward. “How dare you? You have no authority to arrest him.”
He presented a paper. “I’ve got authority. Jones signed it. We knew you would make waves.”
Snatching the paper, I read it. “It’s not an arrest warrant.”
“We’re merely taking him in for questioning, and we request his cooperation.”
I shoved my face next to his. Was he doing it to annoy me? To get back at me? No, even Graham wouldn’t stoop so low.
“Why are his hands tied?”
He winced. “As a mere precaution. He is, after all, a vampire.”
What the hell was Jones up to?
“You do know that, handcuffed or not, he could have killed all three of them before you had a chance to whip out the damn guns.”
He gulped. “I know.”
I wanted to pound his head in, but he was merely doing his job, and if there was any grouse to be taken up, it needed to be done with Jones.
Grr.
Frustrated, I gnashed my teeth. My gaze remained locked with his. While I couldn’t read any malice into his eyes, I couldn’t tell what his intentions were. “Jones never said anything to me…”
“You were the one who suggested that the killings could be the work of a vampire.”
I nearly reeled. How dared they used my words to hit at my friend? “Dubey would never do something like that.”
“And yet, he is the only vampire in this area.”
“But…”
“Look, it wasn’t my call.” Graham took a step back. Taking out his sunglasses, he wore them again. “If Jones chose not to discuss this with you, a wild guess, if I had to take one, would be that he might have felt you would tell Dubey to run before we got a chance to question him. You’re too close to this, Cleo, and we all know what happens when something hits hard close to your home turf. He, perhaps, felt that you wouldn’t be as objective about it.”
Augusta walked over to Dubey as he was herded towards the car. “Dubey isn’t a threat. He couldn’t be the one who…”
“Your first guess was a vampire, Cleo. Yours. Not ours. Yours.” He took a step back. “And there is a vampire in your house. Can you blame us if we want to question him? If he is innocent, he will come home soon. We don’t target innocents.”
Damn me. I should have kept my big, fat mouth shut. Now Dubey would pay the price for my carelessness. And he rea
lly was the sweetest vampire I ever knew.
Yeah, I know how that sounded but man, he taught kids. He was a teacher. Vampire or not, he was innocent and trustworthy.
“If anything happens to him, Graham, you will have to deal with me,” I snarled.
Graham opened the car door. From the stance he took, I could see that he feared I might attack him. I wanted to. But it would be childish and it wouldn’t serve a purpose. “If he is innocent, he will be back,” he repeated with care.
Obviously, I wasn’t going to get more out of him. Ignoring him, I went to see Dubey who was sitting in the car by now. “You’ll be back soon. Oh Dubey, I am so sorry about this mistake. I know that you could never do such a thing.”
He nodded, didn’t speak, as was his custom, and then one of the agents slammed the door shut. When I took a step forward towards him, I actually felt him shrink back. The agents were deathly scared of me, and for good reason too. Once, I set a car on fire when I was mad. Luckily, there was no one inside. That was a couple of years ago, but that incident made me a legend in the department.
That reputation wouldn’t serve me now.
Deliberately, I took a step back and turned. My gaze caught the sight of another man who didn’t sit in the car; Special Agent Bryan. Was that he doing?
Was he the one who set these wolves on Dubey?
A growl escaped my throat as I strode over. “How dare you bring these maniacs to our door?”
His expression didn’t change. “It wasn’t me. I actually told Jones that this didn’t make sense. Dubey wouldn’t do such a thing. I’ve not had much interaction with him, but if you and Augusta can trust him with children, I doubt he is the sort to take innocent lives.”
I needed to blame him.
I wanted to blame him.
And yet, he wasn’t the sort to lie to me. Whatever our issues were, he wouldn’t deliberately mislead me or step away from accepting a mistake that was his to shoulder. There wasn’t much else to say. I failed to protect Dubey. And yes, Graham was right; I was the one who thought that it was the work of a vampire, and Dubey was the one who resided closest to these murder sites. If he weren’t one of ours, I would have looked at him too.
01 Serial Killer (FBI Paranormal Casefiles) Page 3