Angelica let the door slam behind them to get everyone’s attention, though Danny knew that many of the Coven members could sense the Darkness within her blood the moment she walked in, and the shifters could smell her.
She walked right up to the podium and opened the laptop that sat atop it, prepared for her.
Danny stood to the side, watching for a moment. Having been to many briefings like this at the CPD, he could not recall a superior wearing three inch, silver spiked heels, black leather pants, and a t-shirt cut dangerously low that read “STILL A FREAK” in white spray paint.
However, her demeanor alone commanded attention and respect. No one had to look twice at her, even the employees who were not well acquainted with her. She was able to get away with the way she looked because her actions, her past, spoke for themselves. Few questioned her, and those who did never lived to tell the tale.
“Thank you all for ditching your previous positions to join us here. Some of you might have seen the mortal news, with a child found ritualistically murdered in the same spot five reindeer were found slaughtered.”
Some people nodded, most simply watched with rapt attention and mild apprehension.
“Those two incidences are connected, as you might have guessed.” She moved to the side and clicked something on the laptop. A photograph filled the smartboard’s screen. It was an elderly woman clad in blue and white robes. Her white hair flowed to the floor, and her freakishly pale, unblinking eyes stared out through crevasses of wrinkles. Even in this form, her nose looked like a chicken’s beak.
“Cailleach,” Angelica said, butchering the pronunciation. “The Winter Goddess. Formerly a benevolent or benign deity, she went into hiding, so to speak, centuries ago, only resurfacing briefly in the violent winters of Scotland, spotted by the Coven there. However, during her hibernation, she has undergone physiological changes as well as magical ones.
“That,” she poked her black-laquered thumbnail at the photo, “is no longer her appearance.” She clicked something else on the laptop, and a sketch of her current form appeared, drawn by one of the PID psychics. “As you can see, she now appears to be in her mid-thirties, blonde, with the same icy eyes and nose. We have no reason to believe that she is going to attempt to change her appearance again.
“She, and the now deceased Skadi, sacrificed the deer and the child, as well as slaughtered the girl’s parents. For a rogue of any species, that is not exactly a high body count. But for Cailleach, it’s incredibly high. And that brings me to the magical changes. Danny?” She gestured to him to come speak.
While he addressed colleagues and led many investigations, he wasn’t used to Angelica picking him to lead, in any miniscule way, her company. And how would a bunch of creatures feel about a human — psychic, but human all the same — taking charge?
“For those who don’t know, Daniel Mancini is my right hand here at the PID, and the lead agent who took down rogue vampire Vincent Cross. He is also a powerful psychic. Danny, if you would…”
He stepped up and said, “Thanks, Angelica. All right. Um… From what I understand, this is highly unusual, and we are still in the process of studying it. As the Coven members here well know, elemental magic is inherently Light magic. Those born with the ability to harness any element are naturally Light, much as Coven members born into Clan Fraser are.
“My powers give me the ability to sense Light and Dark magic, as well as enable me to activate certain defenses to both, particularly Dark. And when Angelica and I faced Cailleach, it was apparent that her powers became Dark.”
A low murmur went through the magicians in attendance. Even Sean appeared troubled.
“What we are going to need from the more scholarly Coven members here is assistance with research. The PID library is massive, and we need all hands on deck to help us figure out how her magic turned Dark and what she might want to do now, after all these centuries.”
He glanced at Angelica, who gave him a nod and a smile.
“Are there any volunteers to do research?”
Quite a few Coven members either raised their hands or called out in affirmation. It didn’t surprise him. Despite the few outliers, like Fiona Guilfoyle, most witches were peaceful, bookish types. They spent most of their time studying magic more than they did practicing it, unless it came to their households and personal lives.
“Great. The Coven members who prefer to be active in the search, can you guys all stand against the back wall? We’ll get to you separately. Coven members who want to research, go with Deputy Director Wireman and he will explain a bit more about what’s expected of you.”
He glanced at Angelica again, sure that she was going to jump in and take over, but she gave him an encouraging smile, so he kept going.
“Now, shifters, we need all flying types—” God, what is this, Pokemon? Get it together. “—to take to the skies, searching for places where Cailleach might be hiding. We will update you via electronic communication for what you should be looking for.
“Feline and canine shifters, we need your eyes, ears, and noses. Especially noses. Tonight, you will be sent the address where Cailleach fought Angelica and I so you can learn her scent and seek her out.
“Insects, search for places where Cailleach might have worshippers and spy on them, see if you can gain any sort of intel. Possible locations will be forwarded to your phones once the meeting has adjourned.
“Now, Angelica will finish the setup and then we can all be on our way.”
He stepped aside and she took her place again.
“Thanks, Danny. Okay, now that you all know your objectives, I am going to assign team leaders. Once your team has been assigned its head, you may leave.” She went down the list of names and one by one, each group got up and left to wait for their electronic briefings.
Angelica grimaced at the choices left for leading the active faction of the Coven. “Roman Airmid, answer me this.”
Danny looked and saw the head of the Chicago PID’s Medicinal Magic Department. The same one who came to collect Skadi’s corpse.
“Yeah?”
“Why isn’t Coven Master Daley here?” Angelica demanded.
Roman’s lips twisted into a half smile, half grimace. “He’s politicking to make sure no high powered asshats decide they don’t like having a witch as mayor.”
Angelica and Danny both rolled their eyes.
“Politics,” she muttered. “All right, then. We’ve got precious few Coven members who want to take part in the active search. You’ve led magical cleanup teams that required a lot of organization. You up for leading this team?”
He brushed a red curl from his forehead. “Well…”
“It involves a bonus,” she admitted.
An eyebrow quirked. “Nice to know. I would rather prefer to be in the action, however.”
“You can be,” she assured him. “But you have to pick the best Coven member to man the Dark magic detectors, then.”
“Deal.” He held his hand out and she shook it, but he did not take Danny’s outstretched hand.
Neither of the Mancinis like that, but Danny thought, perhaps, the man knew Danny was psychometric and didn’t particularly want his mind read. That he could understand. When Brighton did it to him two years prior, it was extremely unsettling.
The room was now empty save for the two of them. Sean returned, rubbing the back of his head. “Who’s the asshole lookin’ like Opie went steampunk?”
Angelica burst into laughter and even Danny cracked a smile.
“The head of the active magical investigation team,” Danny said.
“Wonderful. Who do you have running the shifters, Andy Griffith?”
Angelica laughed again. “Everyone is perfectly suited to their positions, I assure you.”
Danny sighed and glanced outside, as snow began to swirl in the bright city lights.
“I hope so, because we don’t have much time.”
Chapter 5
“For the
last fucking time, we are not serving pig’s blood. I can’t risk the kosher and halal food getting contaminated. Were you born stupid or was it a sudden malady?” Angelica clicked the phone off, wishing it was still the nineties. What she wouldn’t give to bang a receiver down in the cradle right then.
Or someone’s head. She wasn’t picky.
“So … we need a new caterer?” Danny asked across the kitchen table from her.
“Yeah, one who isn’t a racist prick,” she replied. “I always hire extra kitchen and wait staff at Crowley’s to help with the holiday party. This is the first time one of them thought it was acceptable to serve warm pig’s blood from the same table as matzo ball soup.” She ran a hand through her hair. “This is almost worse than not knowing where Cailleach is.”
“Dunno, from my end this sounds pretty brutal,” Danny admitted. “Why don’t you delegate?”
“You party plan?” she asked.
“No, but my mother and nonna did.”
“Well, unless you can Ouija your nonna back down here, concentrate on monitoring the team leaders. I’ll handle this.”
He smirked at her. “The world is lucky you never had to work retail.” He stood up and placed a warm kiss on her forehead.
She leaned into it, preferring to simply stay inside with him and watch cheesy Christmas movies than deal with idiots and murderers, respectively.
Her patience was already thin, and now it was nearly nonexistent. She despised waiting for anyone or anything, and right then, they didn’t have the luxury to wait long. If none of the scouting or research teams found anything within the next few days, she needed to come up with a plan B.
Would the Winter Witch even give them that much time?
“Riddle me this,” she called to Danny, who was stirring a cup of coffee with a cinnamon stick. “Has Cailleach turned all her magic Dark, or can she turn it off like a light switch?”
He cocked his head. “Good question. Because I didn’t walk into that house and feel Darkness. But I’m pretty sure she can cloak herself. I thought that elemental magic couldn’t be Dark, so who knows?”
Angelica sighed in frustration. “I mean, God created the elements, and the Goddess was born from them. Technically. So the elements have to work for the Light. To have been so bitter these past centuries to turn it Dark…” She shook her head. “It’s actually terrifying.”
Admitting to fear was not something she was prone to do, nor did she approve of others doing it. It wasn’t a word in her vocabulary. But when faced with an enemy she could not pin down, one that no research possible could give insight on, it scared her.
“Stop thinking,” Danny criticized. “There’s nothing we can do right now but at least give the teams we created a fighting chance.”
“They’ve been at it for three days,” she argued. She got out of the chair and went for her coat. She didn’t need it, but walking around Chicago in December without a coat would bring unwanted attention.
“Where are we going?” Danny asked without question as he also stood, putting his mug in the sink.
She smiled at him. While he challenged her when he truly felt she needed it, he followed her lead and didn’t make her feel like she was overreacting.
“PID. I am going to do a check in and, if my nerves are quelled, maybe we can take a walk in the fresh snow under the lights?” Since their honeymoon was ruined, they both tried to get in as much alone time as possible.
“All right,” he agreed, pulling on a coat, scarf, hat, gloves, and snow boots. Angelica thought he looked cute all bundled up in the puffy, navy parka and bright red scarf.
At the PID, Angelica wanted to check in on the research team, so they stopped at the library’s floor. All PID locations had large libraries, but only Chicago’s was the size of an entire floor in a high rise.
It was late, but the company never closed, since many of their employees and criminals alike were nocturnal.
Sitting at one of the long oaken tables, looking through large tomes, was Sean.
“Hey, what are you doing here so late?” Angelica asked, leaning over his shoulder to see what he was reading.
He leaned back and pushed the book towards her. “You were right.”
Danny feigned shock. “You’re admitting someone else was right? Should I call WGN News?”
Sean flipped him off.
“What was I right about this time?” she asked, ignoring their jibes. Truth be told, she found it amusing. However, she would never tell either man that. It would be infantilizing, as though they were adorable children.
“Roman was a good choice for team leader. He sent factions off to different magical areas, avoiding the Magic District, since of course that would be the obvious place to look. He said he’d go there himself. And he dragged up some books about Cailleach. And it says how come she’s young again.”
Angelica took the heavy tome in one hand and began to read one passage.
“She has seven periods of youth. Makes sense.”
Danny arched an eyebrow. “Wanna explain to the mortal in the room?”
“Some deities and even just creatures can renew their youth. Y’know, like cats having nine lives?” Angelica explained.
“Are you saying cats are gods?”
She chuckled. “They were in ancient Egypt. But that’s a story for another time. Cailleach had seven youths, and she must have been saving this last one. It says here she kept the youths going as every man with her aged and died, their children and then on descendants — some of whom are amazing elemental witches today — formed entire races and tribes in ancient Scotland and Ireland.
“I think she saved this last youth to make a tribe, so to speak, here in the US. To spread her magic further. But to obtain her youth, she needed to sacrifice a child.”
“To gain the very youth she snuffed out,” Danny said, nodding. “Is that normal?”
Angelica shrugged. “Doesn’t say, but many minor deities required sacrifices and it was considered completely normal.”
Sean scoffed. “Fucking bonkers is more like it.”
Danny nodded. “So… Why did she hide for all these centuries?”
“Maybe she didn't.” Angelica put the book down and picked up another one. “She might have remained in Scotland with whoever had her Carline.”
“Who is Carline?” Sean asked.
Angelica gave him a light whack in the back of the head. “Not who, what. A Carline is an effigy made from the last corn husk of the harvest in Scotland. The first person to complete their last harvest of the season makes it, and whoever completes their harvest last keeps it and that means they have to host Cailleach all winter, since she technically doesn’t have a home, but goes into a type of hibernation in the spring and summer months.”
“Who the fuck sent one to Chicago, and how do we send it back?” Danny muttered.
She smirked, but even with the new information, she was concerned. If Cailleach simply wanted to mate and have magical babies, then why did she not meet a man to do so with yet? It wouldn’t be hard; all she would need to do was show up in the Grand Coven’s headquarters and male witches would fall over themselves to be chosen.
“I got a question,” Sean said, breaking her train of thought. “If she can’t help but kill with every youth regeneration, is she evil?”
Danny scoffed. “Of course! She killed a kid!”
Sean shook his head. “No, but … if she couldn’t help it? Like me before you found out how I could feed safely?” He addressed the last part only to Angelica, effectively shutting Danny out.
It was a valid question, but the witch’s case was not as open and shut as Sean’s was way back then.
“No. Not the same. She did not need to renew her youth. She is immortal without it. And even if she did, she also killed the parents, hid the corpses, and then tried to kill Danny and I as well. She is not innocent. Not like you were.”
She closed the book and set it down. “Sean, inform all team leaders to s
end scouts into places where magical people might look to find love or increase their magical properties. I think that is where we will find our snow bitch.”
He nodded.
“Oh, and find me a Kosher caterer. The last asshole got his ass handed to him in a polite, verbal manner.”
Snowfall made the city appear brighter and quieter than it was. It was still coming down, and while snow plows were out, no one bothered to shovel the sidewalks yet. Frozen flakes glittered under the halogen street lamps, looking like flakes of gold as they settled into the snowbanks, and into Angelica’s raven hair. The snow reflecting the light was so bright, she was forced to wear sunglasses even at two in the morning, making her look mysterious.
Well, to Danny, at least.
Her skin seemed to glow, paler than the snow, contrasting startlingly with his. He still wasn’t used to her being not only a full blooded vamp, but also the Empress. She changed subtly with the newfound power that came from within. But underneath the power, the fangs, the red eyes, she was still … Angelica.
She was the daredevil woman who stabbed a vamp to death, risking her own life at the end of his blade. Who slit her own father’s throat to save Danny. Who sent demons cowering back to Hell.
The same woman who cursed when the Cubs lost a playoff game, who listened to the strangest music about murder for fun, who stole his old CPD shirts to lounge around in, who cuddled with him until the sun forced her into her casket every single night.
As he mused, something icy cold hit the one tiny spot on his neck not covered by his hat or scarf.
“Hey!” he cried, brushing the snow off.
Angelica laughed, already forming another snowball. “That got your attention, huh?”
His face split into a wide smile and he grabbed some snow as well. “You’re gonna regret that.” He tossed the snowball but missed her by a mile.
Using her vampire speed, she shot three at him in quick succession.
“Not fair!” he protested. “I didn’t sign up to have a snowball fight with Barry Allen!”
She merely laughed at him, and while that sound often struck fear into many hearts, to him it was the most beautiful sound in the world. He wanted to make her laugh like that every single day, to dispel the darkness that festered within her heart since she was a teenager.
Holidays Bite: A Limited Edition Collection of Holiday Vampire Tales Page 65