The Trouble with Ghosts (Here Witchy Witchy Book 3)

by A. L. Kessler

  “No, neither of them should have the sixth sense. I know for sure that Collins doesn’t.”

  How wrong he was about Nick. Had he not been there, I could have been killed, which seemed like Jerry’s goal. At the thought of Nick my magic flared, rushing out of me and into the circle. It hit the invisible barrier and wrapped around me. I opened my eyes to meet Merick’s wide eyes.

  “Deep breaths.” He reminded me. “Pull it back in, we got what we came here for.”

  I tried to focus on the warm fuzzy feeling of my magic around me and pull it in, but it pulsed against the circle and against me. A strangled cry came from my throat as the magic went from warm to burning. I hadn’t felt this out of control in a long time.

  “Abigail.” Merick warned. “Rein it in.”

  If I couldn’t pull it in, there was only one thing I could do. Push it out. “You’re going to have to trust me.” I gasped through the sensation. Pinprick pain marched up my body, leaving burning trails in its wake.

  I could feel Merick’s magic and his portion of the circle. I fell to one knee and put my hand against my blood splatter. I looked at Merick and he nodded as if he knew what I was going to do. I closed my eyes and shoved the magic into the ground and circle. Purple light flew up around us and into the circle as I forced it outwards.

  The light moved out, widening the circle without a physical guide. I pushed it out until it surrounded the areas I needed it to reach. I could breathe again when it reached the other house. I looked at Merick. “We can reinforce it if you want, but now we can just walk.”

  “So much power Abigail, it’s unlike you to lose control like this.”

  I nodded. “I tried to warn you.”

  “Let’s walk and see that past, then we’ll talk about it.”

  Talk about it, like he was my mentor. I didn’t argue the point. There was no use arguing while there was magic about. I didn’t want to make it worse. Not only did I overtake his circle, I made it bigger and stronger with a little bit of blood and a lot of grief.

  We walked out to the yard. Shadows moved around us, brushing against us. I stopped where I had first found the skull and closed my eyes. Doing what Merick had told me, I thought about ten years ago when the bodies had been dropped.

  I opened my eyes to see someone dragging body bags from a truck and dropping them in a pile. Ira appeared and the two shook hands like they were good friends and not doing a business deal. The man turned towards where Merick and I were standing. I didn’t know his face. I pushed more magic into the spell and the words spilled out loud and clear.

  “Ten bodies, as I promised. I kept the thumbs.” He pulled out a bag from his pocket and gave it a shake.

  “Strange fetish, Nathanial.” Ira looked at the bodies. “I wanted them alive.”

  “Sorry, I had unfinished business I needed to attend to. You requested bodies, not living beings. And I told you, it’s Agent Heights now.”

  Agent Heights. FBI? PIB? I had a full name to put in the system now, and ask Agent Grace about. A name to go with the thumbs…which were just a fetish?

  Ira wrapped his hand around Nathanial’s throat. With a flick of his wrist the neck snapped. Well, shit. There went my only suspect.

  Merick had his hand to his chin like he was thinking. The vampire swooped down and snatched up the thumbs.

  “Jerry!”

  The shifter came running out of the house.

  The vampire tossed him the bag of thumbs. “Do what you want with them. Don’t upset my experiment.”

  The scene faded away and I growled as time started to shift again. Until a woman danced around the yard. The same woman that I’d seen as a ghost. Merick started to walk away, but I put a hand on his shoulder. “No, let’s wait and see what happened to her.”

  Ira approached her and she threw her arms around him. They kissed, lips moved together, hands tangled in the other person’s hair, her foot even went up a little bit. That didn’t seem like a hostage situation to me.

  “What was the cause of her death?” Merick asked.

  “Blood drained, multiple bites. She was thought to have been kept in a basement.” I motioned to the two lovers. “This is not a hostage situation.”

  “Yet.” Merick motioned to the forest. “Look familiar?”

  Figures moved in the distance, a horde of vampires.

  “I’m sorry my love, I have no choice.” He grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards the house. “This is the only way.”

  “The blood-starved vampires went back that far? Her death was a century ago.”

  I motioned to the house in the distance. “One more stop. I want to know what was going on in that house.”

  Merick walked next to me, never leaving my side, and I wondered if it was because he was afraid I was pushing myself too much, but I was high on the magic. The moon and my emotions continued to feed into me and supply the energy for the spell. As we walked we saw how the forest changed over the years, in reverse, moving at a speed no human normally saw.

  When we got to the house, I could see the way the shack looked a hundred years ago.

  Clean sleek wood that anyone would be proud to have built by hand. I focused to a time surrounding our current cases starting ten years ago.

  My heart hammered in my chest as Levi appeared on the porch and walked in. Merick and I followed him in and I saw Ira standing there.

  “Levi, what brings you here?” He held his hands out as if welcoming the other vampire.

  “I’ve come to warn you that you need to cease these experiments. The humans are becoming suspicious. The amount of starving vampires you have created from all of this is getting out of control.”

  “And who is going to stop me? You?” He laughed. “You aren’t powerful enough.”

  “When we come to be known in the human world you will have to follow laws and rules that the king agrees on. That time is coming sooner than you want to believe.”

  Ira sneered. “I serve no king.”

  “Then he won’t spare you. You’re toeing a gray line even now. He should kill you for this.” There was a tone in Levi’s voice I hadn’t heard before. Pleading. There was more than he had originally led me to believe between him and Ira. I kept the anger reined in, not wanting to feed more emotions into the spell.

  “So be it. Be gone.”

  The time shifted to closer to the present and I gasped at the sudden change. I glanced at Merick and knew he was responsible. He motioned back to the house to get me to pay attention to what was going on in the memory.

  Ira stood there with a horde of blood-starved vampires.

  “Remember, in life or death we serve no king. We serve no power. We are the superior beings. Your job is to remind the humans of that. King be damned. When our experiments walk this earth we will show people that everyone is a monster.”

  He was behind it all and I had no way of finding him. Not right now. My emotions flared again and Merick put a hand on my wrist. “I think we’re done for the night.”

  I closed my eyes and focused on the pressure of his hand to ground me. He was right, I had learned everything I could from this. We hadn’t gotten to the basement, but I didn’t think I could handle any more. I pulled the magic in and tried to find the warmth in it, but there was none. My body went cold as I tried to recover from the spell.

  Merick put a hand on my shoulder. “Abigail.”

  “My warmth is gone.” I couldn’t keep my teeth from chattering.

  “You pushed too hard.” He threw his jacket over me. “Come on.”

  I looked back at the shack as he led me away. I swore I saw someone inside moving around, but I shook it off. Just a small residue effect of the spell.

  “Levi knew more than he told me.” My voice sounded numb even to me.

  “Are you surprised that he lied to you?” Merick opened the Hummer and I leaned against the passenger seat.

  I considered his question. “I shouldn’t be, but I am.” I flexed my hand as the warmth
returned to it. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to take over your circle, there was just nowhere else the magic could go.”

  “I’d rather you take over a protective circle than cause chaos. I should be thankful that your magic leans towards good and not evil.” He glanced at the Hummer behind me. “Are you okay to drive?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I need to go speak to Levi.”

  “Are you sure that is wise?” Merick hesitated. “You should consider going home and resting for a little while.”

  “No, because if I do that I’m going to wallow in my own grief and do something stupid.” Though he might have been right. I wasn’t going to sit there and let Levi lie to me about something that had to do with the case. He’d given me the name, yes, but he said it had been centuries ago that he had dealt with the vampire. Not ten years ago.

  He hesitated again, but stepped back. “We have enough to go off of to solve both cases, now we just have to gather the evidence.”

  “I’ll share with Agent Grace what we learned tomorrow. She and I can go from there. The two people we brought in should be enough to send an execution team after Ira.” Assuming they could find him. Of course, maybe Levi knew where the bastard was hiding.

  “I’ll be in contact.” He nodded and headed towards his car.

  I walked around and climbed into the Hummer. I texted Levi.

  Where are you?

  It was only a few moments before he answered Just finished up at the station.

  Meet me at my parents’ house. I wanted to do this on my turf, not his.

  I turned the key, giving the Hummer a moment to warm up. I tried to rein in my emotions and clamp down on my magic. It wasn’t going to do me any good if I lost control in front of Levi.

  I pulled up to the house to see Levi sitting on the porch. I slammed the Hummer door when I got out. “No just waltzing in or popping in?”

  “No, I thought it was best considering the kind of night we’ve both had.”

  Interesting, I wondered if someone had called him to tell him about me losing my control. No. The only one there was Merick and the one officer.

  “I’m sorry about Nick.”

  Oh, that’s what he was talking about. “Clarissa call you and tell you about me leaving the coven barbecue?”

  “She did, the moment the sun went down. Right before Mason called me to interrogate the suspect you brought in. Why didn’t he want you to handle the vampire?”

  “I handled the human.” I shrugged. “But that brings me to why I asked you to come here. Merick helped me do a trace spell tonight.”

  His lip lifted in a half sneer at the name. “You worked with him?”

  “I didn’t really have a choice. When was the last time you saw Ira?” I wanted to give him one more chance to answer me without lying.

  “Don’t, Levi.” Mario’s voice came from around the corner and I glared at him. “She can solve the case without that information. She has enough to condemn him.”

  “Stay where you are Mario.” I snarled at him. “Levi, I’m not a vampire, I can’t tell when you are lying by pulse and breathing, but I was able to trace the events at that house. The one with the blood-starved vampires.”

  Mario took a step forward. “He doesn’t have to listen to you, witch.”

  I flung my hand in Mario’s direction and a red circle surrounded him. I kept my own surprise in at the color. It made my intentions clear, if he didn’t back off, I had the ability to hurt him. With my emotions flying wild and the full moon above me, I wasn’t sure I had the self-control to stop it.

  “Then you know the answer, Abigail.” Levi kept his voice even.

  “Why lie to me? I know that Ira has a connection to the vampire king, by relation that means you do too.” I met his gaze, but out of the corner of my eye I saw Mario move. “You touch that circle and you’re going to burn. I am not in the mood to deal with your ass.”

  “Mario. Go back to the mansion.” Levi glanced at the vampire. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her in this mood, but you don’t want to push her.”

  Mario nodded and I let my circle down so he could disappear into the night.

  When he was gone, Levi turned to the house. “Shall we talk inside?”

  I motioned to the door to let him know to go ahead. I needed to work on reeling in my anger or I was going to end up trapping him in a circle. We both walked in and he went right to the living room to sit down.

  “Yes, I was a King’s guard ten years ago, I stepped down about the time you graduated high school. I was sent to give Ira another warning to stop.”

  “And what was his relationship to the king?”

  All the lines smoothed out of Levi’s face as he put his emotionless mask on. “They had the same maker.”

  “Which is why the king was so hesitant to kill him. Had the King done it, then we wouldn’t be dealing with this now. Had you not lied to me, I would have had a better lead on the case.” I snapped. “Now he might have gotten to a place our executioners can’t get to.”

  “He’ll evade them. He’s a master at that. This isn’t a case you’re going to be able to close, Abigail. He’s too powerful and too close to the vampire king.”

  “But you can get to him.”

  Levi shook his head. “No, I can’t. I don’t have that kind of authority anymore. It doesn’t work that way, but send the executioners after it and the case will be off your plate.” He waved a hand, dismissing it.

  “Why did you lie?”

  “To protect you.”

  “From what? I have nothing to do with this or the vampires, because you’ve kept it all locked away and hidden from me. Which means I should be in no danger because I am not a threat to anything political.” I felt the magic well up in me again and closed my eyes. “I’ll be ordering an executioner group tomorrow and working on solving the other cases. If I can handle it, I’m going to go see the PIB building and my house tomorrow.”

  “To see if you can figure out who killed Nick?”

  “Yes, and if I find out that it has something to do with your lies, I’m going to trap you in a circle and leave your ass there.”

  He snorted. “I can’t believe you trapped Mario in one.”

  “He’s lucky I didn’t do more. My anger is out of control tonight.”

  “Then it’s best I leave.”

  Yes, it was, and he did such without another word. I sat in the living room alone, trying to get a handle on myself. It wasn’t like me to be so blunt with Levi or to threaten him. Throwing Mario in a circle probably didn’t win me any favors, but I didn’t want him there for any part of the conversation and he was trying to convince Levi to continue lying to me.

  Abigail…

  The voice called again and I closed my eyes. There was nothing menacing about the house, but continuing to hear the voice call to me pushed against every nerve I had left.

  My sweet Abigail…

  There were only two violent and emotionally filled deaths in this house and the voice was female. Most likely just my imagination.

  A meow brought my attention around to the hallway. Osiris sat in the hall staring at the wall. I was sure that if he had hair it would be standing up. I looked where his gaze led and saw nothing. He trotted off like everything was fine now.

  Shaking my head, I leaned back on the couch and flipped on the television. It’d been a long night and there was no way I was going to handle anything else.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The noon day sun bounced off the remains of my house. Construction equipment crowded the street with bright orange cones to make sure that people saw them and the mess the crew was trying to clean up. I stood where my mail box was, staring at the mess of concrete, drywall, and beams that used to house me. I had talked to the project manager before I came to let him know that I wanted to take a look around. The crew was finishing up whatever task they were on while we waited for Clarissa to show up.

  In traditional Clarissa fashion, she was runnin
g a few minutes late. The noise of the machines moving debris should have bothered me, but it seemed the loud rumbling, scraping, and crunching helped drown out the voices in my head. The ones that questioned all my choices last night. The ones that warned me not to be stupid in any part of these cases, but I didn’t want to listen.

  The noise died down and someone cleared their throat behind me. “What are you thinking about so hard?” Clarissa asked.

  I turned to face her. “Choices that can’t be unmade.” I gave her as honest of an answer as I could.

  “I called Levi—“

  “Yeah, I know. He and I had a talk last night about some things. I don’t really want to get into it right now. Right now, I want to check the house for anything that will give me a clue of who tried to kill me. Then I’m going to the office to try and find a clue about who killed my partner.”

  Clarissa nodded and motioned to the driveway. “Let’s go then. Did they clear a path to the basement?”

  “Yeah, I’m assuming that’s where it started because that’s where Osiris bolted from. The project manager said he’d have his crew make sure it was safe for us to go there.” As I said it a crew member walked up and handed us both hard hats.

  “We’ve got the basement uncovered and we’ll start moving the debris off the property once you ladies are gone. After that, it’ll be your job to bring a contractor for the rebuild.”

  I nodded. “Thank you for the hard work.” I put the bright yellow hat on and looked over at Clarissa.

  She kept trying to stick a curl under the hat just for it to fall out. She huffed and looked at me. “They clearly don’t keep in mind unruly hair when it comes to these.”

  “It’s not a fashion statement, it’s a safety precaution.” I chuckled and motioned to the cleared area. “Let’s go see my basement.”

  At this point in my life, I was pretty much over anything that had a basement. I looked down into the pit that was my basement. Most of the large debris had been moved away, but dirt and chunks of house dotted what had been a mostly empty basement. Luckily, I didn’t keep much down there.