"Shouldn't you use magic to simply track him?"
"I'm trying to narrow things down a bit. Please do as I say so I can do my job. Special Agent Jefferson trusts me to take this case, so please, let me work it."
He seemed to hesitate for a moment, his hand on his hat rim. "Alright, Liz places her trust in you, so I will as well." He stood and put his hat back on. "Thank you, Abigail. I will e-mail you those names." He walked out of the office without another word.
I leaned back in my chair. I could do the tracking spell in the office, which would save me a trip to Levi's. I'd have to trust that nothing was going to blow up in my face, but I wanted more research on Zayden first. As a Cult member, Jon had to know the first step wasn't always magic and that magic could backfire.
I rubbed my eyes and moved to my e-mail. Maybe there was something in there that Liz added to the case file, or maybe, in the last two minutes, Jon had managed to e-mail the list of names…
Okay, that last option probably wasn't possible. My e-mail synced and nothing interesting popped up. I growled in frustration. I hated the start of cases where there was nothing left to do but searches, and I didn't even have anything to go off of this time.
My phone rang, and Detective Mason's number flashed over the screen. I was probably a little too excited when I answered it. "Special Agent Collins speaking."
"Hey, Agent A, glad to hear you're back." Mason's gruff voice came over the line. "I've got something special for you."
"Special how?"
"I've got a dead body down here with runes tattooed on him."
I blinked for a moment. It was way too soon for Jon to have been killed and found. "Cult runes?"
"I'm no expert, but I would say yes."
I had a feeling that I wouldn't have to search for Zayden anymore, but I'd be solving his murder instead.
"Send me the location. I'll be there as soon as I can."
He disconnected, and a second later I got the location. I grabbed my bag and ran out of my office. I took the steps two by two and came out on the ground level and about ran into Liz and Jon talking. I came to a halt right next to them. "Jon, I need to ask you something."
He looked at me. "Of course."
"Do you have a current picture of your brother on you? All the ones in the system were older."
He nodded and pulled out his phone. He showed me the image, they looked almost identical. "Does he also have the rune marks?"
"Not the last time that I saw him."
Liz's eyes widened just a bit. "Agent Collins?"
"I just got a call from Mason."
The look on her face clearly said that I could not work a third case.
I tried to think of the most graceful way to backpedal. "Would you like to consult, Liz?"
Her narrow gaze went back to normal. "Yes, I would. That way you can hand it off." She gave Jon a quick hug. "I'll be in contact."
I raised a brow at the casual touch. She gave a subtle shake of her head. I wouldn't push it now, but I would later. PIB agents didn't typically hug people involved with cases.
Jon walked out, and Liz came to my side. "You know that I won't let you take on another case, right?"
I nodded. "I don't think it's a third case. I think it's related. Are you familiar with Zayden?"
"I am." She followed me out of the building. "How do you think it's related?"
I shrugged. "I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure there aren't many other covens that would go around with runes tattooed on their bodies. Of course, I wasn't aware that the Cult did things like that either." I rubbed my eyes. "Come on, let's go."
"Like hell you're driving." She nudged me towards her car. "Your car blew up, and you weren't even in town. I'm not risking that."
There was a joke in her voice, but she was right. It had blown up, and it hadn't been the first car. "Fine, you drive."
∞
We pulled up to the location that Mason had sent us. Emergency responders blocked off the road, their lights still flashing. We parked and hopped out. I made sure my badge was clipped to the front of my pants before we started to make our way through the small crowd of gawkers that stood in our way. My eyes scanned the crowd for a particular tabloid writer that I hadn't seen in a while, but there was a familiar crawl over my skin that told me someone was watching me. Or that I was paranoid.
I didn't spot Stephanie in the crowd, but that didn't mean that she wasn't there. Liz and I stopped when we got to the yellow crime tape and ever watchful officer. We showed him our badges, and he lifted the tape up for us to walk under.
Liz and I walked side by side, and a couple of the officers gave us concerned looks as we passed them. I imaged what it must look like, two PIB agents walking side by side wearing the leather jackets with the Black Magic Task force symbol on then. It probably wasn't a sight that people wanted to see coming their way.
We found Mason talking with a couple. The woman held her hand to her mouth as if trying to stop herself from being sick. She glanced at me as we approached, her eyes rimmed with red. The man she was with simply looked upset, no tears, no signs of distress, just a grumpy frown in place on his middle-aged face.
"Ah, Special Agent Collins and Jefferson, just in time. This is Mr. and Mrs. Ember; they are the ones who found the body."
I wasn't sure what we were just in time for, but at Mason's words Mrs. Ember let out a sob as fresh tears rounded her eyes.
I glanced at Liz and then to the Embers. "Did you know the deceased?"
"No, it's just so horrible. The way we found him, the marks on his body." Her voice reached a wailing pitch.
I turned to the husband. "How did you find the body?"
"Are you asking like what position it was in? Or literally, how did we find it?" He crossed his arms. "We didn't touch it if that's what you're thinking."
"You know, maybe I should go take a look at the body first." I glanced at Mason. "Point us in the direction?"
Mason pointed up a sidewalk that led to a hiking path. "You can't miss it."
I started up the path with Liz right on my heels. She remained quiet, and I assumed that's the way it would be until we found out if the victim was Zayden or if she needed to take over the case because it was unrelated.
We got to a small concrete resting place on the path, officers were gathered around it, and I guessed we were in the right spot.
"Excuse us, officers, we'd like some time with the deceased," I said gently to catch their attention.
They turned to us and made a break in their gathering for us to get through.
"Man, you know shit's about to hit the fan when the Black Magic Task Force is called before typical PIB," someone whispered as we walked past them. This hadn't been my first crime scene as part of the task force, and it certainly wasn't the first where I was called in as task force before a regular agent. I pushed the thought away and looked down at the body.
Liz whistled. "Damn."
I would have gone with 'fuck' but maybe she was toning it down for the company. The body had been stripped naked and laid out, bones were broken at odd angles as if someone was trying to force the body into the shape of the star that had been drawn under it. Well, not star, upside down pentagram. The runes on the ground were that of the language of the local coven. "Man, fuck me."
Liz actually laughed. "Who would you rather deal with? Cult or local coven?"
"Cult, any day the Cult. The local coven hates me."
"Oh, I remember."
Humor was the only way to survive this job. "So?" I asked looking at her.
She looked back at the body. Black runes had been tattooed on the skin, some of them still red and raw as if they were new. The man's head had been shaved. His eyes were rolled back into his head, and his mouth hung open slightly.
"It's Zayden." She sighed. "I'll talk to Jon."
"I'm going t
o call in a consultant if that's okay?"
She hesitated for a moment. "I promised Jon I'd keep as many people away from this as we could."
"It's Merick. He knows so much more about this than me."
"Okay, I know you trust him." She crossed her arms. "I'm glad it's not a third case, but I'm upset this was Zayden's fate."
"Were you close?"
She didn't answer me as she turned to walk back down the path. I pressed my lips together. She'd gone from joking with me about the local coven to shutting down. It wasn't like her, which led me to believe that she was hiding something.
Case first, Liz later.
I pulled a pair of gloves out of my bag, put them on, and then bent down next to the body. Something about the way the mouth was open made me want a closer look. The jaw had been broken, and I used my fingers to open it a little more. Holy shit, the tongue was missing.
I stood and backed up. I grabbed the crime scene photographer. "Get pictures of the mouth please."
He gave me a short nod, and I moved out of the way so that he could get to it. I stripped my gloves off and threw them in a nearby biohazard bag as I made my way back to Mason and the Embers.
∞
Mrs. Ember had calmed down in the short time that I was gone. Liz stood off to one side, one arm holding her phone up to her ear, and the other one crossed over her body. I refocused on Mrs. Ember. Her tears were dry now, and she was holding a foam cup. I assumed someone brought her some coffee or tea to help calm her nerves. Mr. Ember stood beside her, one arm around her shoulders.
"I've seen the body now, and there's no doubt in my mind that you didn't move him. So, how did you find the body?"
Mrs. Ember sniffled again, but it was Mr. Ember who answered. "We were taking a walk, we do every Tuesday morning. There he was, it was like he magically appeared when we approached the area."
"Did you touch the body at all? Check for a pulse? Anything like that?"
There was a moment where he looked ashamed. "No, I didn't want to get near the circle. I may not be a warlock, but I know better than to cross something that looks so evil."
"That was a wise choice. The magic had faded from it, but you never know. Did you two notice anything else unusual on your walk?"
He shook his head. "Nothing, like I said, it was as if he just appeared. We didn't see anything strange from a distance."
Mrs. Ember nodded. "There wasn't even a noise, nothing."
I pulled out my PIB business card. "If you think of anything that you've seen or heard while you were here that might be important you can call me here."
Mr. Ember took it. "Thank you, Special Agent Collins. May my wife and I go home now?"
"As long as Detective Mason says you can, yes." I offered a kind smile and then walked away from them. Mason came up to me. "I called Jason, can we move the body?"
"No, not yet. I want to bring Merick in as a consultant on this. The runes on the man's body are Cult, but the runes in the circle are local."
Mason pressed his lips together. "You hate the local coven."
"Yes, yes I do." And there was a little part of me that was going to take pleasure in this.
"Call Merick in, let's see what he thinks. The photographer and officers should be out of your way soon."
"Thank you."
Liz walked up to me. "I got another call; I need to go. Think you can catch a ride back?"
"Yeah, I'm sure Merick can give me one. You okay?"
She nodded. "Just keep moving forward Abby. Zayden was Cult, not many Cult members die of old age."
Which was kind of a scary thought. "Yeah. I'll do what I can to find justice for Zayden."
She gave me a small hint of a smile. "I know you will. You always do." She walked off, and I pulled out my phone to call Merick.
"Hello, Abby."
"I need you down at a crime scene. Do you have a bit?" I sighed. "We found Zayden."
There was no response for a moment. "Why do you need me?"
"Because I'm still not super efficient at reading Cult runes, and he has them all over his body."
"Send me the location, and I'll be there." There was a sadness to his voice, and I wondered if he knew Zayden well. Of course, in most covens when one membered died the whole coven grieved regardless of how close someone was with them. He disconnected the call, and I sent him the location.
This was going to be nasty. I made my way back up to the body. The officers were gone, but the photographer was still there, looking at the camera screen.
I stepped up to him. "Anything interesting?"
He showed me the screen, it had been a close up of the mouth and the missing tongue. "I'm no expert, but that looks like it was cut clean."
"It does." There were a few reasons I could imagine someone cutting out a tongue, but of course the first one that came to mind was torture. He pulled the camera back and started to flip through pictures again. He stopped at one of the feet. "All the toes are broken as well."
I didn't need the photo to know that, the toes were all pointing different directions. "I'm just hoping this man wasn't alive for all this."
"Do you think he was?"
"I don't know. I won't know until Jason gets a chance to look at the body."
The photographer nodded and put his camera away, leaving me with the body. I stood there, examining the scene more. There was no hint of magic around. Nothing to tell me what spell the murderer had used to mask the scene. There was no blood splatter, and nothing to symbolize that he was sacrificed.
I didn't know how long I'd been standing there, staring and thinking when Merick came up. "Special Agent Collins."
"Merick." I motioned to what was in front of us. "I don't think this was an active circle."
"And what makes you think that?" His voice was a bit distant, and I wondered if he was focused on something else.
"There's no blood, and no symbols that are meant for a sacrifice."
"You're correct. The runes on Zayden are runes of protection and binding."
That caught my attention. "Binding?"
"Not in the typical way that you think about when binding someone's magic. The thing is that Zayden, unlike his brother, didn't harbor any out of control abilities."
I glanced at him. "What kind of out of control abilities?"
Merick shook his head. "Not my question to answer. You'll have to talk to Jon about it. Merick bent down by Zayden's head, and I knew he'd spotted the same thing that I had, no tongue.
"Why the tongue? Torture?"
Merick shook his head. "So he can't talk in death either."
I stared at him. "You mean if he becomes a ghost?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I mean. I don't know if your Coven did this or if someone just wants to make it look like they did. Do we know the cause of death?"
"Not yet. I didn't want Jason to move the body before you got a chance to look at it."
"I've seen everything I need to." He looked back at the body. "I'll have to tell the Cult."
"Liz has already talked to Jon."
Merick nodded. "I'll speak to the Cult tonight then."
CHAPTER FOUR
Pounding on the office door brought my attention away from my computer screen. I hadn't been back in the office for an hour yet. I was trying to get up the courage to call the coven about the murder.
Whoever was pounding on the door was standing where I couldn't see them through the little window. I tried to see through the window, approaching at an angle but whoever was there remained out of sight. I answered it, my hand on the butt of my gun.
Jon stormed in, his magic swirling around him, brushing against my own. "Dead," he snarled at me, his eyes were red and puffy. "My brother is dead."
I swallowed. "I'm sorry for your loss." Even to me, it sounded stiff, but with his magic pressing up against mine and seemingly threaten
ing me, I couldn't muster up a lot of sympathy.
His magic suddenly disappeared as he collapsed to his knees. "My brother." There was a small hiccup as he spoke. "Agent Collins, do you know who did this to him?"
"I'm working on the investigation now," I promised and knelt to put a hand on his shoulder. "I will find out who did this."
He looked up at me. "The Cult will mourn tonight, but when will the body be released?"
"When the coroner is done with it." I sighed. "We need to figure out a few things before you can put him to rest."
"Liz said that you're not allowed to tell me the details of the investigation."
"That's correct. I can only give you certain pieces of information until we close the case." I stood and went to my desk. "I do have a couple questions though, regarding the tattooed runes."
He stood and took a moment to take a couple deep breaths. "I'm sure you do."
"A consultant of mine told me that the runes were protection and binding runes to keep an out of control ability dampened."
He nodded. "I have an ability that isn't really welcome in the world, Agent Collins."
"There are many of those, but did your brother show any signs of them?" I wasn't going to push for what ability, not right this moment.
"No, Zayden showed no signs of necromancy or the sixth sense."
Necromancy was already an ability that could bring trouble, but out of control necromancy could get ugly. "You can't control your necromancy?"
"There aren't many necromancers out there. When I was young, there was no one to teach me."
That was fair. "Okay, so if he showed no sign of these abilities, why would he put runes on himself?"
"I don't know." He lowered his head. "No idea at all. Zayden was so much more innocent than I."
I could hear the sorrow in his voice, and this time my words were sincere. "I'm sorry, it's never easy to lose a loved one."
"Are you familiar with that kind of grief?" His gaze lowered.
"I am, far too familiar with it." I leaned back in my chair. "Thank you for answering the question about the runes. Have you been in contact at all with the local coven?"
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