I pulled into my driveway and parked next to a shiny black car. Nothing had set off my magic around the house though, so whoever it was, they didn’t mean harm. There was no need to panic.
The door was already unlocked when I reached it, and that made me pause. I had my gun on me, but I could escalate a situation that didn’t need escalating if the person was friendly. My heart banged in my chest as I pushed the door open and walked in.
“Abigail,” Merick’s voice came the moment I cleared the entryway. “We have company.”
That was obvious by the car out front. His voice came from the living room, so I headed that way. He was sitting next to another man. The man stood and straightened his three-piece suit. The tone of his skin matched Merick’s, and their faces were similar. For a moment, I thought they might have been brothers, but then another relationship hit me. The man’s face had more wrinkles, more pinching at the corners of his eyes. He was older then Merick by at least twenty years.
“Abigail, this is my father. High Priest of the Cult of Ra.”
I felt like someone had sucker punched me. There were so many things I wanted to yell at Merick for but now was not the time.
The man held his hand out. “It’s a pleasure finally to meet you face to face, Abigail. I’m Seth.”
I shook his hand, trusting that he meant no harm. Merick gave a subtle nod as if letting me know that I had chosen to do the right thing. “I can’t say it’s a pleasure as your cult has been a pain in my ass for a while.”
He chuckled. “Just as Merick described you, tall, strong and smart-assed.”
“I can’t argue with that.” I motioned to the couch. “Please sit. Your lackey told me that you wanted to meet.”
“He told me you threw up a circle the instant he tried to attack you.” Seth looked at Merick. “Is she always that defensive?”
I cleared my throat. “As a reminder, my first time dealing with you, you put a hex on me in attempt to kill me.”
“Not me, personally, but some of my members were just following our laws and rules. I quickly put a stop to it when I realized who you were.” His voice never changed as he spoke, always calm and collected, not raise in pitch at my accusation, simply a business as usual voice.
I sat down in the chair near the couch. “It’s good to know that you have no personal grudge with me, but at the time I had done nothing against your laws.” I originally wanted to add an insult before laws, but I kept myself professional. I couldn’t tell how powerful he was, which meant that he was hiding it, and chances were, he was stronger than me. I didn’t want to face that in my own house.
“Are you admitting that you’ve done something since?” He raised his brows. “Abigail, I can see that your aura is clean, and I didn’t come here to debate magical morals with you, as I am well aware that you and I have different ideals. I came here because I need your help with something.”
It seemed that a lot of people needed my help with something lately. “What can I do for you?”
“We found a magical site covered in runes, and we need your help translating them.” He folded his hands on his lap. “In exchange, I will provide you with some of the information that you’re seeking.”
Well, that was an interesting deal. “What kind of magical site? I don’t have my father’s linguistic skills.”
“You’re right; you don’t. But I can’t trust anyone else with this, and I fully believe that you and Merick will be able to decipher it.”
I glanced at Merick, who nodded again. He’d been quiet since we sat down. “Okay, I’ll see what I can do. I can’t travel right now because of work, but if you get me some pictures of the runes, I can start there.”
“They’ll be here by noon,” he promised and stood. “Once we get the site figured out, then we’ll talk about the information you want.”
Dread filled my stomach, and I wondered for a moment what I was getting myself into. Here was a man who thought his people were acting appropriately when they put a hex on me, the man my uncle wanted me to kill, and I was going to help him because he held the answers that no-one else wanted to give me.
Merick got up and disarmed the alarm and let his father out. I leaned back in my chair while they stood at the door and talked to each other in a hushed tone. I’m not sure what they were discussing, and at this point, I didn’t know if I wanted to know.
I closed my eyes until the smell of coffee hit my nostrils. Merick stood there with a steaming mug. I tucked my legs under me on the chair and took the mug from him. “How did you know I’d be coming back this morning?”
“Oliver came and talked to me last night. He wasn’t pleased with the most recent attempt on your life and assumed that it was the Cult. He said that you were staying at Levi’s and I assumed that you would come here before going to work because of what was going on.”
I blew on my coffee. “I could have called and chatted with you instead.”
“You don’t like to talk to me on your phone because your uncle has it bugged.”
He had a fair point. “Okay, why didn’t you tell me that your father was the High Priest.”
“Because it would have made you trust me less. Even now, I can feel your tension about the situation.” He sat down on the couch with his own cup of coffee. “The less information you had about me, the better, and the more likely you were to trust me.”
Again he had a point. “Why didn’t he use you to contact me instead of sending someone to attack me?”
“So full of questions Abigail. That man was testing your responses, the Cult of Ra isn’t known for peaceful meetings. My father thought it was the best way to get your attention and it worked.” He sipped his coffee. “We were not behind the attack last night. I swore to your uncle that we were no longer after your life. I don’t think he believed me.”
I sighed. “Levi thinks it was Oliver.”
“Your uncle is a lot of things, Abigail, but I don’t think he’s evil enough to kill you.”
Well, at least there was some limit to his evilness. “Oliver isn’t evil. I mean he’s not exactly good, but he’s not evil.”
“You’re correct; it was wrong of me to use such a black and white example. So if it wasn’t me, and it wasn’t Oliver, who is behind the attack?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. It wasn’t direct enough for Ira, and I haven’t gotten very far with the cases to really piss someone off. I guess Drake could have placed it, but even then, I’m not sure that he would handle the situation like that.”
“Drake Moll, the magical taxidermist?” Merick raised a brow. “I thought he died.”
I snorted. “Technically, he did. He’s a vampire now.”
“Oh, that’s a great combination.” Merick gave a full laugh. “Drake wasn’t really sane to begin with if you believe all the things people said about him. Turn him into a vampire, and things probably got complicated.”
That was a good way to state it. “Okay, I’m going to get ready for work. Thanks for the coffee. I have a date tonight with Simon.” I was going to need to find a way to avoid Mario for the night. “So I won’t be home until later. Don’t panic.”
“I never panic about you, Abby, I just look forward to your stories when you get back.” He held up his coffee. “Don’t get kidnaped, killed, or beaten up.”
I shook my head. “I never plan on those things.” I took my coffee with me to my room to get ready.
I locked my door behind me to make sure Merick didn’t come in, even as a cat. I didn’t want him looking over my shoulder. I pulled out the flash drive that Oliver had given me. I didn’t want to do this at the office because I knew IT could look at what we accessed on the computer. Even if it was private.
I grabbed my laptop from my nightstand and opened the lid. Once it was booted up, I plugged the flash drive in and navigated to the device. There was only one file on it, simply named ‘Abigail.’
I clicked on the file, but a password field popped up. There was no hi
nt given, nothing that would tell me what my uncle would have used. I didn’t want to text him to ask for it. Not yet. Knowing him, there was a reason he hadn’t give me the password. He was testing me, or he was just trying to drive me insane.
I poised my fingers over the keyboard and thought about my uncle and what I knew about him. He was a jerk, he was out for himself, yet he had a love there for his family. He was willing to sacrifice a stronger member of his family for a weaker one. He was completely devoted to my mother. My mother, his sister. I knew what the answer was.
I typed in the name of the restaurant and hit enter. No error came back, but the document popped up on the screen. It was a scanned image of a handwritten letter. The penmanship was pristine and elegant with its loops and carefully slanted lines.
My dearest Abigail,
Today you were born, your mother cried the moment you took your first breath. The magic in you was strong, and you fought so hard to stay alive. I thought we might lose you before the night was through. But you, like your mother, are stubborn. I write this because I do not know what your future holds, all I know is that the course of my sister’s life has changed and I fear that this will bring danger to her and you, my only niece.
When you read this, know that I have every intention of protecting you and Elizabeth until my last breath. Know that there are evils out there that not even your father can perceive and even a choice made with a good heart can lead to horrible outcomes. Know, that despite every circumstance surrounding you, that I will never hate you. That I will never wish you dead. For you’re just a babe, and the real monsters are around you. Forever yours,
Uncle Oliver.
I leaned back on my bed and looked at the letter. He must have still had the original somewhere. It’s not something that had ever been shown to me, and I wondered if he gave it to Levi to give to me after my parents died. Or if my parents had it. I wondered if my father had seen it or not. I knew there was no love lost between the two of them, so if my father had seen the letter, it was likely gone at this point.
I don’t know why my uncle chose to send this to me now; he didn’t do anything without reason. He made certain to hide it from Mario, so I knew that I wasn’t supposed to let anyone know that I had it.
I closed the file and ejected the flash drive. I had no idea what was going on. I reached for my phone to call him but decided against it. I didn’t know what he’d say or if he even wanted to approach the subject. Hell, I didn’t know what I needed to say. He must have known that Levi was going to accuse him of wanting me dead. I felt like those two communicated more than they let on.
What on earth was I supposed to do with this? I rubbed my eyes. I needed to get ready for work. I needed to put all the personal drama behind me and focus on my PIB cases. I had a handful of dead bodies and two criminals to find. Personal drama was going to have to wait.
The hushed silence of the office came over me when I entered it. Nothing had changed, no magic hit me, all my things were in the right spot. Yet, something felt off again. Wrong. I stood a few yards away from my desk, trying to place what the feeling was. Paranoia. That’s all it could be. My office required a key card to get in.
SWAT had to get in somehow. I assumed they had a master key, or maybe the system unlocked it for them when someone was alerted that there was a situation in my office. Either way, they got in which meant chances were, someone else could too.
I cringed at the thought. Who had been in here without me knowing? I needed to put a rune on this door as well. This was why I didn’t want to do anything unrelated to PIB in my office. I never knew who was watching. I was glad I didn’t open Oliver’s letter here.
Unlocking the computer, I went down the mental list of things I needed to do, check on the name Carmen Jones, try a search for the baby vampire, and search for Drake’s daughter. Lots of research and no real answers. I almost wish I had a partner so that I could do street research instead of computer research. Go talk to someone and see if they knew anything about these people. I could talk to the moms’ group on if they knew Carmen, but that depended on if there was any reason for her to be connected.
Something was keeping me from wanting to be in my office. But why? Did I risk another cleansing spell to see if someone had cast another spell, but how were they getting in to do this crap? I growled in frustration and stood up. I went back to the chalk spell from the day before and activated the rune again, this time without a circle.
A jolt shot through me and I flew back into the wall. I hit the concrete with a thud and fell to the ground. What the hell was going on? I took a deep breath. Someone had hijacked my rune. I rubbed the back of my head as I stood up. That wasn’t something I wanted to experience again, but the question was, who the hell had managed to turn my own rune against me?
I waited for the SWAT team to come storming in again, but nothing happened. I slowly walked back to the rune.
I could feel the magic buzzing under my feet, marching up my skin, raising the hairs there and warning me to stop. I stopped a foot away from the rune and debated on if I wanted to touch it again or not. The first time was probably a warning, the second time it would probably hurt me.
What I needed was a clean office, and it looked like someone else was going to have to clean it up. I rubbed my eyes and went to the desk. Grabbing my bag, I grumbled. I needed to do the research, and I wanted to know why someone was so desperate to keep me out of my office.
I swung my door open and came face to face with Boss Man. His narrow features always reminded me of a rat, and his beady eyes didn’t help much with that. Boss Man was what we were told to call him, we had never been given a real name to go with his face, but all the agents just went with it, I followed them and never questioned. Until recently.
“What’s up?” I asked, tightening my grip on my bag. It wasn’t like him to leave the top level of the building.
He looked at me and then into my office. “Office troubles, Agent Collins?”
“Seems someone has hexed my office, using my cleansing rune.” I shrugged. “I’ll get security on it and find someone to cleanse it for me.”
He just stared at me. The look in his eyes made me want to squirm, but I refused. “Case related?”
“Most likely, seems just to be warning me off of my office. I’ll make sure security checks the records and see who’s been in and out beside me.”
“And Nick.”
I raised a brow. “Nick’s dead.”
“But someone has used his key card a few times.” He stared at me. “We talked about this before. Still have no idea who it was?”
I shook my head. “Nope, but I assumed PIB had deactivated it by now.” Of course, I was lying. My uncle had been the one who used Nick’s key card to get in and out because our IT guys hadn’t updated the system yet and my uncle took advantage of it. Boss Man didn’t need to know that though.
“We updated it, but I wanted to make sure you hadn’t had any unwanted visitors. Seems my hunch was right.”
I tried not to lock my jaw and to keep my voice even. “What hunch.”
“That something more was going on down here than what SWAT said.”
I shrugged. “Like I said, I’ll take care of it. Once I talk to security, I need to get back on my case.”
“I need to speak to you about the video.” He met my gaze, and I knew exactly what video he was talking about. “The local coven called me to warn me about you.”
My voice dropped low. “They have issues with me so I wouldn’t believe what they said.”
“They think you’re dangerous and sent me proof.”
I bristled at that and didn’t want to respond because if I did, I would end up screaming at him.
He took that as a sign to continue. “I know that the case with the King was a difficult one for you and I know that there wasn’t much of a choice with what you had to do, but that was more of a position for the executioners to handle.”
“There was no time t
o call an execution sir. Lives were in danger. I did what I had to.”
He nodded. “And your aura isn’t tainted by it.”
“What are you getting at? I didn’t get away without remorse or guilt because of it. I still have nightmares about it.”
“I know. I wanted to hear your side of the story before going to my higher-ups.”
I closed my eyes. “Am I going to be suspended again?”
“No, the opposite actually, I’m hoping they move you into a different position.” He started toward the elevator. “Have a good day, Abigail.”
I watched him walk off, a bit stunned at the conversation. What on earth was he going on about exactly? I shook my head. I needed to focus on my cases. If I wasn’t going to get suspended, then I didn’t need to stress out about it. I didn’t really want to move to any other positions, but if it meant keeping my job. I would. I was happy as an Agent. I got my job done, I brought in the bad guys, and I got to use my magic on a regular basis, there wasn’t much else I could ask for.
I took the stairs up one floor and went to the office of our head of security. The woman sat at her desk, her caramel-colored hair pulled up in a tight bun, with a couple loose strands hanging around it. She peaked up over her thick-rimmed glasses. “What can I do for you, Agent Collins?”
“I need to pull some security footage of my office and then I need a cleaning crew to swipe through it.”
“Of course, anything particular you’re looking for?”
“Someone hexed my office; I need to look for any sort of anomaly in the footage or someone entering my office without permission.”
She nodded and typed in a few things. “It’s going to take me a couple hours before I can get one of my guys on it. I’ll let you know what we find.”
“Thanks.” Though I knew security footage could be deceiving, it was a good place to start. I walked back out of the office and looked around. Something was eating at the back of my mind telling me that someone was watching me.
Of Life and Death Page 10