I let my circle down, and she stared at me. “There are people who can help you.”
“I’m being kept alive by magic; do you really think people will help me?” She tilted her head to the side. “I don’t have to eat like a normal person, sleep, nothing; I’m just a soul trap in a body. Eventually, the body will wear down.”
Her magic faded around me, and she sat on the couch and put her head in her hands. “Grandpa says he’s still perfecting moving souls to the dolls.”
So that was the true motive. “That’s not how life magic is supposed to work. I’ve seen it done before; you should be perfectly healthy, functioning.”
“Something went wrong.” She shook her head. “Not a strong enough sacrifice, something interrupting the spell.” She glanced up at me. “No true intentions.”
It was a very complicated spell. Human sacrifices were best, but I’d seen a lot done with just some blood. But the bigger the task, the bigger the sacrifice that was needed.
“What do you want?”
“Does it matter?” She looked up at me. “Can you do life magic?”
I thought about it. “I know there’s a spell to release a trapped soul.”
“An exorcism?”
“Sort of. Less painful.” My heart broke at the idea of her basically being a conscious version of a zombie. “It’ll let you move on without pain.”
She nodded. “That’s what I want.”
I held my hand out to her and squeezed hers. “I need to call someone to get me the information I need, can you stay right here for me?”
She nodded. I walked out of the building and took a deep breath. The evening air still held a little bit of heat from the day, and it was nice change from the cold inside of the building. A life magic spell gone wrong. That poor child.
I opened my eyes to see Levi and Mario both staring at me.
“She’s a victim of life magic gone wrong. I’m going to have to release her soul.” I shook my head. “And then I’m going to kill Drake.”
Levi raised a brow. “As PIB or as one of my people. It’s not like you to want to kill your suspect.”
I tried to think of what the best course of action would be. Originally, I wanted to bring him in so I could get answers, but this was a man who’d messed with a child’s life. “I have to handle it as PIB.”
“I want to come with you,” Mario said suddenly. “I want to make sure that you’re not hurt going up against my fledgling.”
I turned to him. “You have to answer something for me before I let you.”
“What?” He met my gaze.
“Did you know about this?”
He shook his head. “No, I didn’t.”
“If he had, Abigail, I would have killed him,” Levi stated. “There are very few times where someone should step in and mess with the life of a child.”
I nodded in agreement. “I’m going to make a phone call.”
I stepped away from them and pulled my phone out. I called Merick and took a deep breath.
“Abigail, what do you need?”
“I need help releasing a soul. I know you can do it and I know there’s a spell in my book for it.”
He was silent. “Eventful night?”
“Life spell gone wrong, on a child. Her soul is tied to her body, and it’s not aging.”
He said something under his breath. “Where are you? I’ll be right there.”
“Tree Leaf Grove. About forty-five minutes south.” I ran a hand through my hair. “Thank you.”
“I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, Abigail. There are very few cases of Life Magic like that going right.” He disconnected and Levi walked up to me.
“Merick?” His voice was carefully even.
“Yes, I can’t do the spell alone, Clarissa won’t touch it, and Nick is dead.” I looked at him. “I can trust him not to screw it up and guide me properly.”
“I don’t like him.”
“I don’t care.” I brushed passed him and walked back into the building to sit with Cynthia while waiting for Merick.
Merick walked into the building and looked at me and then the girl. “You didn’t sense it before?”
I shook my head. “No. Should I of?”
“Dark magic surrounds her, Abby, you should have known something was off. Something crawling over aura, that slimy feeling that you want to wipe off. Things like that. Looking at her aura there’s black around it.” He knelt in front of her. “Hello, I’m Merick. I’m here to help Abigail.”
She nodded. “I know.” She looked up at me. “Thank you.”
I nodded. “Of course.” I got off the couch. “They’ve taken the wards down so that we can perform magic. They did it originally to put a protection spell up.” I threw up a circle around all three of us and looked at the purple and red mix of colors.
Merick looked at it. “It’s okay, Abby, nothing to be ashamed of.” I felt his magic join mine and strengthen the circle. He looked at Cynthia. “This won’t hurt.”
He handed me a piece of paper with Latin words on it. “I’ll do most of it, we both need to say the spell though in order for it to be strong enough to break the bond.”
“Does this count as killing with magic?”
He shook his head. “No, this counts as releasing a soul to the freedom it should have had already.”
Oh good. I looked down at the paper and scanned the words while Merick pulled out a knife. I heard Cynthia gasp.
“Don’t worry; it’s not for you,” I promised. “Sometimes spells need a little bit of blood to work. Merick is going to…” I looked at him to finish my sentence.
“Prick my finger and put a dot of blood on your head.” He did just as he said and pressed his thumb to her forehead. I felt a jolt of magic, and he looked to me. We both read the Latin words, and as we did, a wind kicked up in the circle blowing my hair around. I locked eyes with Cynthia as I continued saying the words.
Her big brown eyes faded and glazed over as our words died and her body dropped to the ground. The wind continued to whip around me. The magic grew cold, and I knew it wasn’t mine. I looked to Merick, but he seemed to be faded by the wind.
What the hell. I reached out for my circle and found it, but it felt further away than it should have. The cold overtook my body, dragging me down. I gasped as everything disappeared, the cold, the magic, the wind. I was on my hands and knees trying to draw a breath. Finally, I managed to remember that I had to breathe in and out to function.
I looked up at Merick who gave me wide eyes. He held his hand out to help me up. Cynthia’s corpse laid in front of me, but her face looked peaceful, relaxed as if she was just sleeping.
“That wasn’t your magic.” He looked around the now completely red circle, and I knew he’d taken it over by force.
“It wasn’t yours either.” I ran my hands over my pants, my palms feeling wet and clammy. “I know who’s magic that was. I need to find him and put a stake into his heart.” Or a bullet or two.
“Do you want my help?”
I shook my head. “No, help them get things resettled here. Mario will help me with Drake.”
“Be careful.” He knelt down by the little girl.
“Of course.” I walked out, and Mario was standing by the door waiting for me.
“Ready?” He pulled me into his arms, and I tried not to flinch. I leaned my head against him for a moment to try and put on a show for whoever he thought was watching.
“Do you know where he is?”
“I do, but I want to make sure you’re ready to face him.”
I thought about it. I knew what I needed to do, and it was time to do it. “Yeah, I’m ready. You have my back?”
“Without a doubt.”
The world changed again. “When I’m done with this damn case, I want to drive and only drive,” I snapped when I pulled away from Mario.
“You’ll be dead when you finish this case,” Drake’s voice came from my left.
I spun and dre
w my gun. “Drake Moll, you’re under arrest.”
Lightning shot out toward me, and I threw a circle up for it to hit. That explained the electricity running through the door when Loraine had trapped us. I wasn’t sure if that was an elemental ability or a really rare magical ability. What the hell?
“Drake, you need to come with us so they can put you on trial.”
Well actually, there wouldn’t be one, killing with magic was a death sentence, he wouldn’t make it to the jail, no bail, nothing. I’d have to fill in Mario later on how PIB law worked. Now was not the place for that lesson. I looked over the stainless steel room we appeared in. This one was bigger than the basement in the house. It held much of the same equipment, but also big barrels that were stacked up against a wall and a second table.
“Oh, come now Mario, you made me this way. At the command of that creepy little child. All because she wanted playthings. Dolls. Slaves.”
I glanced at Mario wondering why he’d ever agreed to that. Drake tossed a small ball of lightning between his hands. “Does she not know? Wouldn’t you tell your so-called lover where you came from?”
Mario shook his head. “That life is over. I work for Levi now.”
“So you can fuck his daughter.” He chuckled and started walking around my circle. “This one is purple, the one at the hospital was red and purple. Interesting. Your intentions change, you don’t know if you’re good or bad.”
I wasn’t going to let him get to me. I tried my hardest to keep my face blank. It didn’t matter what color my circle was. I didn’t harm with my magic unless I had to. My mind flashed to the vampires back in Romania, and my circle changed colors automatically. Well shit.
“You should embrace it, Abigail, using black magic, the dark side, it’s intoxicating.” He licked his lips and pressed his hand against the circle. A jolt went through me as it crashed down, and I cried out.
He broke my circle with a touch. I shot at him, and the bullet tore through his stomach. Just like the other times I had shot him though, it didn’t do much. He rushed me, and I braced for the impact, but Mario jumped in front of me.
He grabbed Drake by the throat and threw him away. The vampire crashed into barrels, causing a few of them to come crashing down. The noise echoed through the room.
I waited for Drake to move out from under the pile. Nothing stirred, and I looked at Mario. He held his hand up telling me to wait. I walked through the room to a stainless steel table against the wall. A silver carving knife laid on the surface. If bullets weren’t working, and magic wasn’t working, maybe a blade would.
I slid it off the table and jerked my head to it. Mario’s eyes followed, and he nodded. I hope he understood that this meant I needed to get close to Drake.
Something to my right crashed to the floor, and I turned. Sculpting tools laid in a discarded pile on the floor near the base with the spikes. He was playing with us. Judging by the way Mario’s gaze kept shooting around the room, he could either see or sense the vampire.
I kept the blade tucked against my body. Something heavy slammed into me, causing me to stumble forward. I recovered and spun around. Nothing.
I looked at Mario, and he held his hand up again, telling me to wait. My heart pounded in my chest, and I realized I knew what I was doing wrong. Drake was toying with me, he was crazy, and I was allowing him to control the situation.
I remembered how much he wanted to bleed me dry, how much he enjoyed having his mouth sealed around my racing pulse as he toyed with me. I flipped the knife and drew the blade across my shoulder, just enough to draw blood.
Mario’s eyes shot to me, his look clearly asking what I was thinking. It didn’t take long until Drake showed himself. He slammed into me and latched his teeth into my shoulder. I flipped the blade by the handle and with all my strength shoved the blade into his neck.
He reared back, taking a chunk of my shoulder with him. He grabbed my wrist and pulled the knife out. The blade came out with a sickening wet sound, and I saw the wound heal up instantly. Great, it wasn’t actually silver.
He slammed the blade into my shoulder where he just bit, pinning it to the ground. I unholstered my gun, struggling with it with his weight on my body. He grabbed my neck and pinned my head to the ground.
I rolled my eyes back to see where Mario was. He wasn’t in my field of vision, and I had a moment thinking he betrayed me. My heart fell as I looked into Drake’s crazed eyes.
“Poor little witch, all alone.” He laughed, but suddenly he was lifted from me and thrown across the room again.
I pulled the knife out of my shoulder and looked at Mario. “Why the fuck don’t you slam your hand through him and just kill him?”
“Because, if this is PIB, you have to handle it. And there are rules about killing your fledgling.”
I fucking hated vampire politics. “Three bullets and he’s still moving like he’s not even wounded.”
“Headshot, heart shot. I’ll distract.” He touched my shoulder. “Can you move it.”
I moved my arm up enough to cup my gun. “Hurts like a bitch, but I’ve got it.” I saw Drake recovering behind him. “Thank you.”
Drake rambled towards us, laughing. “You can’t touch me, and if you did, Keira and your maker would kill you on the spot.”
I pushed away, thinking about the connection Mario had to the tiny freaky vampire. Mario turned around, stepping to the side enough to give me a shot, but still close enough to protect me. Drake moved in jerky movements toward us, taunting us. Mario disappeared and reappeared, pinning Drake against the spiked stand. The spikes poked out of Drake, and he laughed. “Not silver.”
I raised my gun. “But my bullets are.” The shots echoed in the room, piercing his heart twice and his head twice. His insanity might have kept him from feeling the pain before, but he wasn’t going to survive those shots. Blood splattered over the floor and Mario.
He turned to me and wiped the blood off his face. I pressed my lips together. “I’ll buy you a new suit, promise.”
I lowered my gun as my hand went numb. I put the gun back in its holster and reached for my phone, realizing I wasn’t even sure where we were at.
Mario cleared his throat. “Out of the basement, you’ll get service and some idea of where we are.”
He pulled his shirt off and tied it around my shoulder, using it to pin my arm to my front. “I don’t want you to bleed out.”
“Takes a lot more than a knife to my shoulder and a vampire bite to keep me down.”
He laughed. “I’m starting to think nothing keeps you down for long.”
Unlike the other workshop, this one had an obvious door. We opened it to find that it led outside and not into a house like the other workshop. I pulled my phone out to make all the calls I needed and looked at Mario. “Thank you for having my back.”
“Of course, Princess.” He bowed his head slightly, but I didn’t miss the smirk on his face.
Chapter Fourteen
I’d left Drake’s body in the capable hands of the forensics team. I’d allowed an EMT to bandage up my arm and put it in a sling to minimize the movement of the wound and allow the muscle to heal. I didn’t like it, but it would work for now. If I needed to, I could force it to move, but it was best to listen to the medical advice.
I walked into the interrogation room and looked at Loraine. “Listen here; I am not in the mood for you to sit here and lie to me. The cuffs restrain your magic, not mine.”
I drew a rune on the table and moved her cuffed hands over it. “Truth rune, I’m done with the lies. What happened to Cynthia?”
She gave me wide eyes as my magic took hold of her. My shoulder was killing me, and I hadn’t even had a chance to even after facing Drake.
“I tried to kill her by burying her alive.” She didn’t show any emotion when she said it. She sat there all matter of fact. “She was seven.”
“She told me you were like her.”
She locked her jaw, and I didn’t
expect an answer because I hadn’t asked her a direct question. “Why did your father use life magic to tie your soul to your body?”
“Because he had a theory that it would make my magic stronger.” She tilted her head to the side. “He was right. We’re stronger than ever.”
“No, you’re not. Your father is dead.” I met her gaze. “Now, why shifters?”
She bristled a little bit. “My mother was a shifter; she left my father when she found out he was a warlock.”
“So you picked women who left their children and were shifters, because of your mother.”
“You forgot the age of the child.” She shook her head. “Really, the victims were just preference, punishing people who I thought were betraying their family. I had clients who would pay for a living doll, particularly one vampire.”
“Keira”
“Yes.”
Which explained why the little creep was in town. She was there to pick up a shipment of creepy ass dolls.
“Did you know that Cynthia’s life magic was screwed up? That her body wasn’t aging and would eventually give out?”
She didn’t look at me. “It’s why I never went to visit her. I couldn’t stand what had happened to her.”
“Yet you wanted to kill her.”
“I felt guilty for bringing her into this world, When she turned seven and started showing signs of magic. I knew exactly what my dad would want to do to her, what he would use her for. I couldn’t allow him to force her into this.” There was that moment of sanity in her eyes again. “What would you have done, Agent Collins?”
I didn’t have an answer for her. “Walk me through what you were doing to the shifters.”
“I found my targets through my customer database. Once I found someone who matched, I mixed the poison that was in the wine. My father would deliver it to them, as a gift, secretly. From a secret admirer. Not many people think about it if it looks professional. Like a traveling wine company.” She shook her head. “It’s easy to get the wine there. He’d wait, and then bring them to me.”
Of Life and Death (Here Witchy Witchy Book 5) Page 21