She looked at me. “And you would kill a child?” Her voice dropped to matching what age she should have been.
“You might have been a child once, but some monster changed you into this.” I motioned to her.
She laughed. “How cute, you think that I was changed? I wasn’t changed. Not like you think. I died, and this is what I became.”
What on earth was she talking about? Mario cleared his throat. “Stop trying to scare the PIB agent. Do you understand the terms of this agreement?”
“Yes, run back to mommy or be killed.” She rolled her eyes and slid off the chair. “Really, Mario, I thought better of you. I thought you were ready to embrace a world ran by the vampires, not live next to humans, and date witches.”
Mario squeezed my good hand. “The world is changing, Keira, and it’s time that we adapt to it.”
“Did your wife think that way?” She hmmed for a moment and stopped walking when she was even with us. “Does your lover know that you had a wife and children?”
Mario froze. I gave a small smile. “He’s an old vampire; I would be a fool to think that he didn’t have others before me.”
She nodded. “I’ll go back to my mommy for now. Make sure you tell Levi that, and Lady R, so that they can leave me alone.” She disappeared, and I looked at Mario.
“She murdered my family.” He didn’t look at me. “Tricked my wife into thinking she was an innocent human child and drained them all.”
“What did she mean that she wasn’t made.”
Mario snorted. “She has a maker; she was just trying to freak you out. She and I share a maker. She has her message; now it’s out of our hands. Head home. I’m going back to the mansion.” He handed me the keys and disappeared without another word.
That wasn’t exactly the story I expected, and I felt like there was more, but he was still a very private vampire, and despite the fact that we were fake dating, he didn’t have to tell me anything.
Simon came up next to me. “So dating the vampire is going well then?”
“Has its perks.” I kept my voice light. “But you know the one thing I can’t do with him? Watch the sunrise.”
Simon started laughing. “Go home, Abby. Get some rest.”
I hugged him and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
“For?”
“Not freaking out too much.”
Simon shrugged. “I’m freaking out on the inside.”
I shook my head and walked out of the club. I got in the Hummer and closed my eyes for a moment. The pain in my shoulder was getting out of control. I needed to take something for the pain again.
I started the car and pulled out onto the road. I swore that I heard a child singing as I drove off, but I passed it off as paranoia. Too many children and too many dolls.
I woke the next morning to a knock on my bedroom door. “Ugh, I don’t want to get up.”
Merick laughed. “Clarissa came by to drop off a potion for your pain.”
I shot up in the bed. “Tell her I’m coming.” I got out of bed and flung the door open.
Merick shook his head. “She didn’t stay; she dropped it off on the porch with a basket filled with coffee, a bottle of wine, and the potion.”
I narrowed my eyes thinking about Drake dropping gift baskets off. “Are we sure it was her?”
“Yeah, she’s on camera. I have coffee brewing.” He turned and walked back down the stairs.
I followed him and tried not to feel the disappointment at missing Clarissa this morning. I stopped at the panel and watched the video. She seemed fine. She simply sat it down and returned to her car. She walked in her bouncy way and was smiling the whole time. Maybe she just had places to be.
Merick looked over my shoulder. “You’re reading too much into it.”
“What would you know?” I stepped away from him and went to the basket. Under the potion was a little card. Handwritten instructions covered the front of it and on the back was a little message.
‘Still working on your request, sorry for the lack of contact. Things have been busy. Love you. Clarissa’
I set the card down and looked at the potion. It was the same color as it normally was when she gave me some, and when I opened it, it smelt the same.
Merick laughed. “Really Abby, neither of our magic tripped. It’s safe.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought about the wine too.” I glanced at him. “I’ve got to get to work. There’s paperwork to fill out.”
“Images Abby.” He reminded me and tapped the binder. “I’m not making any headway on them.”
I nodded. “I know, I know I’ve seen them somewhere.”
“Well until you remember, we’re at a dead end.”
I rubbed my eyes. “Are we on a deadline?”
“Luckily, no, but the faster you figure it out, the faster you get some of your information.”
Except, I was at a dead end with the runes because researching them wasn’t pulling up anything and I was missing a source somewhere. “Then it’s going to have to be on hold for now.”
He nodded. “Then get ready.”
There was no argument from him, so I wondered if he didn’t want to put it on hold as well. I made myself a cup of coffee and took it upstairs with me so I could get ready for my day.
I pulled up to the office to see Tayler standing there in PIB black, his hands on his hips. I still had the flamingos in the back of the Hummer, and I wondered if he was finally going to get the balls to ask me on a date in person. Which of course meant that I was going to have to turn him down.
“Hey,” I said as soon as I got out. “What are you doing here?”
He motioned to the Hummer. “Wondering if you even looked at the note. I surrounded your Hummer with flamingos, and you never questioned it. I started leaving more at different places, and it didn’t even phase you.”
“Until I got the picture. But there’s a couple things, Tayler. There’s a lot going on in my life, including the fact that I am seeing someone. Which you probably should have looked into first.”
His face fell. “I was told you were married to your work.”
“I’m dating a vampire.” I shrugged. “Not a lot of people see it because it’s kind of a night thing.”
He didn’t even crack a smile at the joke. “I just assumed.”
“It was cute, a little creepy sometimes, but cute. I just can’t go on a date with you; I can’t give you that dance.” I did give him a one-armed hug though. “Thank you for bringing a little bit of laughter to my tough week.”
“You know, someone suggested that I get you a doll.”
I paused and looked at him, studying his face.
“But you don’t really seem like a doll kind of girl.”
So he was the SWAT member Loraine had snagged a badge from. “I have a doll, and it’s kind of creepy. Do you want the flamingos back?”
“Sure, I can use them to decorate my yard.” There was a small smile on his face. “I’m glad you thought it was kind of sweet.”
I popped the trunk of Hummer, and he started taking the flamingos one by one and putting them in the trunk of a nearby car. When he got to the last one, I put a hand on his arm. “Can I keep this one?”
“Why?”
“Because I think the doll in my office could use a friend?” It sounded cheesy, even to me, but I wanted to give my new office a bit of personality and not leave it blank as I usually did.
He laughed. “Sure.” He got in his car, and he drove off. I really was glad that he brought some strange light into my week, because after all the death and gloom, it was nice to see something bright pink.
I hauled the flamingo up the stairs and got it into my office. I sat it next to the desk so that it was close to the doll, it looked silly, but just the sight of it made me smile. I sat in front of my computer and unlocked the screen with the stroke of a few keys. I started entering the paperwork for Drake. Liz had already been nice enough to start the report and just
left the details open for me.
She mentioned the fire at the house, but not why we went, except that it was our crime scene. No mention of how the water behaved oddly, but that the firemen did their job. The details of Drake’s death were left blank, and I put my good hand over the keyboard and started to type in the text box.
Ten minutes into my report, a knock came at the door, and Liz stood there, her arms crossed as she looked down the hall. I got up and let her in.
“What’s up?”
“Came to see how you were faring after your exchanged with Drake.” She looked me up and down. “Damn Abby, what did he do to you?”
I smirked. “You should see what he looks like.”
“Heard there’s not a lot left of him.” She sat in front of my desk. “A little birdie told me you needed to chat with me.”
Interesting. “Little birdie named Grayson?”
“Yeah.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, you’re going to think I’m crazy, but there are some cases that have to do with Life Magic and a vampire named Ira Diaz. I was asked by someone to look into those cases.”
“You want to reopen them?” She raised a brow. “Do you think you can solve them?”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to jump right into reopening them, but I’d like your permission, as the team lead, to look into them. Look over the case files and see what I can make of them.”
She was silent and twisted back and forth in the chair. “That’s a slippery slope that leads to the vampire king.”
“Ah, gotcha, I don’t have the clearance to deal with him.” At least I didn’t use to. I hadn’t checked it since I’d gotten my forced promotion.
She shrugged. “I look at it this way, if you have the clearance, go for it, if you don’t, then you won’t get very far.”
“I guess I never looked at it that way.” That was as close to permission as I was going to get.
“I’m here to be your support, not your boss.” She stood. “Glad to see you made it out in one piece. Welcome to the team, Collins, I’m sure you’ll feel right at home.”
And for some reason, I didn’t doubt that. I snorted and turned to my computer to see what grand adventures and explosions would come next in my life.
The End
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About the Author
A.L. Kessler is the author of the best-selling series Here Witchy Witchy. She resides in Colorado with her family and pets. Her addiction to coffee and chocolate fuels her creativity to bring her readers wonderful stories
Also by A.L. Kessler
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Dance in the Moonlight (DWC #2) (also on audiobook)
On Torn Wings (DWC #3)
Midnight Symphony (also on audiobook)
Of Brass and Magic
DWC Short Story Collection #1
DWC Box Set #1
No More Black Magic (HWW #1) (also on audiobook)
Deathly Magic (HWW #2) (also on audiobook)
Demon Days A Case Files of Abigail Collins Short Story
The Trouble with Ghosts (HWW #3) (also on audiobook)
To Skin a Wolf (HWW #4)
The Syndicate Vol. 1: Code Name: Fox & Mind Games (With Mia Bishop)
The Syndicate Vol. 2: In Disguise & Sing to Me
Coming Soon
The Syndicate Vol. 3 (With Mia Bishop) –Early 2018
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Of Life and Death Page 23