“He couldn’t do that for me because Mario was there.”
“I’m surprised you were stupid enough to drink the wine.” She smiled. “Guess you aren’t so perfect. Then I’d put them on the stand. The spikes would hold them there while I made a cast of their faces to base my dolls on. By the time I was done, they’d lost too much blood to heal.”
“And making them up and shipping them?”
“Just a bit of fun.”
Yes, because bodies in boxes were always ‘just a bit of fun.’ “Your father, he sent me the vision of the little girl, he broke my circle at the hospital. Are you just as powerful?”
“Yes, and that doll, that was to keep me in check, you were right about that.”
I stood. “Thank you. That’s all I needed to hear.”
“Agent Collins, what happened to Cynthia?”
I paused in my motions. “Her soul is at rest now.”
“Thank you.”
I walked out and leaned my head against the wall. Mason walked up to me. “No holding back, right to the magic?”
“She lied to my face before. I still have blood on me, my shoulder hurts so much, and honestly, all I want is a nap.”
He looked at his watch. “It’s almost midnight; you should be crawling into bed right about now.”
“Mm, that sounds wonderful. Call me if you need me. I’m going home. I’ll fill out all the paperwork tomorrow.”
He nodded. “You’ve got a deal.”
I walked out of the police station and paused at the sign of a Flamingo in front of the Hummer. Taped on it was a picture of Tayler and me from prom. “Dinner, Saturday.”
I shook my head and threw the thing in with the rest of its friends and headed home.
I walked into my house to find Levi and Mario sitting in my living room. “For fuck’s sake guys, it’s past midnight. I’m exhausted. Go home.”
“We have an emergency council meeting due to the death of Drake.” Levi raised a brow. “Seems the council is quite impressed, but there are vampire laws that we must follow up on and clarify what happened.”
I rubbed my eyes. “Seriously. It was PIB business.”
Mario nodded. “That’s all you have to say, that it was PIB business, I happened to be there as an asset, and I didn’t deliver the death blows.”
“Why can’t you tell them that, and I can take some painkillers and go to bed.” I walked to the kitchen ignoring the two.
I had expected Mario to come into the kitchen to talk to me, but it was Levi who was close on my heels.
I reached up with my good arm to look for the pain meds I knew I had somewhere. Normally Clarissa had a potion for me, but I hadn’t had a chance to talk to her yet.
“Abigail, it is your duty to come and give the report. To make sure you broke no laws, that you understand that Mario was not able to kill Drake for you, despite your life being in danger.”
I still didn’t answer him. My fingers found the round bottle, and I pulled it down off the shelf. I used my left hand to hold the bottle while fighting with the stupid childproof cap.
“Abigail?”
“I heard you,” I snapped. “I just don’t want to.”
“All those times I told you, vampire business, and you got to happily ignore what was going on, those times are gone.”
I slammed the bottle on the counter. “Fine. You want me to play princess. I will. But I am not happy about it. I was almost killed by a psychotic vampire warlock because someone thought it was a good idea to change him.”
Levi calmly took the bottle and opened it, handing me two pills from inside. “How is that different than other cases.”
I paused to figure out what was really bothering me about it. “You know how you said vampires might be worried about you changing me?”
“Yes.”
“I felt like I was getting a glimpse into my future. And it was scary. All my cases before, with the exception of Devon, weren’t things that I could turn into. Looking in Drake’s eyes…there was no sense of sanity there. I don’t want to become that.”
He was silent for a moment. He put a hand on my uninjured shoulder and then did something he rarely ever did. He pulled me into a hug.
I tensed for a moment, but then let myself relax. He was trying to comfort me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “What happens after the council meeting?”
“We’ll have to see. There’s still the matter of Keira.”
I nodded. “We know exactly why she was in town.”
“You explain that, and we’ll decide what we need to do. I’m sorry Abigail.” He kissed the top of my head.
I wasn’t sure what to think about the sudden display of affection, but I wasn’t going to mention it right now. “After the meeting, can I please sleep?”
“Yes, I’ll have Mario bring you back here so you can sleep through what’s left of the night and probably far into the day.”
I snorted. “I have to go fill out paperwork tomorrow.”
“Ah, yes, the dreaded paperwork.” He let go of me. “Take your pills, lessen the pain, so you aren’t as irritable.”
I rolled my eyes as he walked out of the kitchen. I looked in my fridge for something I could take the pills with and settled on just water and an apple.
Osiris jumped up on my counter, and I stared at him. “You can lecture me when I get home.”
He meowed at me, and I nodded as if I actually understood him. “Vampire princess business. I’ll be back.”
He meowed again and then trotted off. I imagine he was probably going to sleep. The spell to stay as a cat was exhausting and we’d done a major spell earlier as well.
Mario walked in. “Who are you talking to?”
“The cat.” I laughed. “You know, he likes to know where I am.”
Mario raised a brow. “I’ll never understand that.”
“You don’t have to.” I took the pills with the water and then bit into the apple. “Give me just a couple minutes to eat.”
“Levi went ahead to prep the council. He wanted me to tell you to not show up in the blood-stained clothes.”
I looked down at my black clothes. “You can hardly see it.”
“Still.”
“Fine. Let me eat and then I’ll change into something more princess-worthy. Okay?”
Mario bowed his head. “If you need any help getting dressed, let me know.”
“Not likely. I’ll be fine. Thank you.”
He left the room and let me finish my apple in peace. I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage to get the t-shirt off, but I’d figure it out.
I walked up the stairs to see Merick sitting on my bed. “Seriously, we have a guest room.” I kept my voice very low.
He nodded and motioned to the pictures. “Working,” he mouthed.
“Fine.” I unholstered my gun and put it in the small safe by my nightstand. I hated going into the council without my gun, but I knew that would be bad form. I grabbed a dress and went to the bathroom to change.
I slowly peeled my shirt off and over my shoulder. The feeling had started to return to my fingers which I was grateful for, but that also meant the pain was starting to settle in more as well. I wiggled out of my pants and pulled the dress on. I slowly moved the sling back over me and let it keep my arm tight against my body.
I’d be showing weakness in front of the council, reminding them that I wasn’t one of them. That I was human. Dread sat in my stomach, and in the end, I took the sling off and left it laying on the counter.
I’d pay for it in pain later, but as long as I kept the movement minimal, the damage wouldn’t get worse. I walked back out, and Merick raised a brow when his eyes landed on my shoulder.
“I’ll be fine,” I promised. “Don’t want to show too much weakness and a reminder that I’m very mortal.”
He nodded, and went back to the pictures without saying a word.
I walked downstairs and met Mario standing in the living room. He turned and
his eyes fell on my shoulder. “Abigail.”
“Don’t, trust me. The council doesn’t need a reminder that I’m human. Okay?”
He laughed. “You are so much more than human, Abigail. Oh so much.”
“You’re right; I’m one kick-ass witch. Now, let’s get this over with.”
He held his hand out to me, and I rolled my eyes. “Do you even know how to drive?”
“A horse and cart. Yes.”
I stared at him, and it took me a minute to realize that he was joking. His lips quirked up in a smile, and he shook his head. “This is faster, and the faster we get there, the sooner I can get you home and tuck you in.”
I took his hand, and for once didn’t flinch as he wrapped his fingers around me.
We appeared in the hall from before, and I looked around. No Levi to walk in with us, no sounds in the hall, nothing. I looked at Mario, and he nodded.
“They’re all waiting.” He motioned to the heavy doors. “Let’s go.”
I took a deep breath and Mario opened the heavy door for me, so I didn’t have to move my arm too much. Once again, I stood facing the table of vampires, and they all stood until I sat down on Levi’s right. Mario sat next to me and put a hand on my knee. We couldn’t hold hands on the table since lifting my arm that high hurt like hell.
Grayson spoke, “I want to congratulate Princess Abby on dealing with the case commendably, as well on her recent promotion to Special Agent.”
There was a small murmur around the room, and I nodded my head. “Thank you very much, Grayson. I had some help with closing the case.”
“We’ve heard,” Catalina spoke, “that Mario had to face his fledgling.”
I nodded. “He did. He was able to pull Drake off me to save my life. However, Mario abided by vampire law and did not kill Drake.” I kept my voice even. “I killed Drake with two shots to the head, two to the heart. In a previous encounter, I had shot Drake two other times. PIB does a thorough inspection of every death, and they’ll find that the bullets match my gun and that every wound is consistent with self-defense.”
Grayson looked at me and gave a subtle nod. Levi cleared his throat. “This leads us into our next topic of discussion. During the investigation, it was shown that Keira was here in order to collect to dolls that held human souls.”
“Impossible,” one of the members cried out. “No one has been able to work that kind of life magic for centuries.”
Oh well shit, there were other people who knew about this. I kept my mouth shut; I wasn’t going to weigh in on something I wasn’t practiced in.
“Drake is the only person that we know that was still alive who was capable of Life Magic in that capacity. The covens do not encourage the study of Life Magic in any way.” Levi looked at me. “Abigail?”
“Life Magic is considered to be a Black Magic because in order to do it right there must be a human sacrifice. The only recent cases involving it were a man who wanted to bring his ex-wife back and was practicing on dinosaur fossils, there was a little boy who managed to hatch a raptor egg. Other than that, there hasn’t been anything.” I looked around the table.
“Levi is correct, it’s not something that the covens teach, and it is extremely hard to get your hands on information to perform the spells needed to do life magic properly. Hopefully, the practice has died out with Drake’s death.”
Grayson raised his hand, and Levi nodded toward him. “With respect, my king and my princess. There are a few cases on file with PIB, one of them concerning Calico Research and Ira.”
That was news to me, but I tried to keep my face blank. “Then I suggest we look into those cases and reopen them until we find out what exactly Ira was looking into and who was involved.”
“That would fall under the Black Magic team.” He pegged me with a stare.
“Then I’ll make sure to talk to the team lead about it and see what I can do from there. It was mentioned in an interview with Drake that he had contact with Ira, but it was never said for what. We may get lucky and have that die out as well.”
Levi nodded. “Ira is still in hiding, so anything we can do to make progress on him and his intentions while he is dormant, the better.”
There was agreement around the table.
“As for Keira,” Levi spoke again, and the noise died down. “Mario and Abigail will go speak to her tomorrow night. The ultimatum will be given on her going back to her maker to be rehabilitated or being executed by my guards.”
I wasn’t sure who that meant, if it was Mario or other guards. Either way, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
“You are sure your guards are capable of handling her?” Catalina spoke.
Levi nodded. “I am sure. Her maker is well aware of her behaviors and is expecting her to return. She knows the consequences if Keira does not.”
My shoulder started to ache, and the exhaustion was creeping in. I just wanted this meeting to be finished, but I reminded myself that being rude and impatient wasn’t going to win me any favors. The painkillers weren’t kicking in yet, and each moment I felt like the muscle was stretching. I bent my elbow to put my arm close against my body.
Mario looked at me and then to Levi, nodding. Levi stood. “It has been a long night; we have our answer on the situation with Drake and our plans with the situation with Keira. It’s time to adjourn this meeting.”
They all stood as Mario helped me stand and kept an arm on my elbow to guide me out of the room. Levi walked with us.
“Take her home, make sure she’s taken care of before you leave for the day.” Levi didn’t even look at me. “I’ve arranged a meeting for you both with Keira under a truce. Abigail—”
“Yes, yes, that means no guns, no knives. I’ll be okay as long as Mario has my back.” I waved my good arm. “Can I go home now please?”
They both stared at me.
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Mario shook his head. “She just said she trusts me to have her back.”
Levi nodded. “We’re making progress. This is good.”
“Home, please. Before I change my mind.”
Mario smirked. “As my princess wishes.”
Chapter Fifteen
Mario stared at me as I answered the door. “You look like shit.”
“Gee, thanks, honey. I feel like it too.” I gave him a blank stare. “Let’s go see the baby vampire.”
He waved at the Hummer. “I thought we’d drive.”
“She’s allowed in the territory under the truce?”
“With the understanding that she’s not supposed to be killing anyone.”
I pressed my lips together. “Are you kidding me, can we trust her? I’m not going to end up with a slew of dead bodies all over am I?”
“No.”
But he didn’t specify which question he was answering. I walked to the Hummer, and he once again held his hand out. “Keys?”
“I can drive.”
“Please, Abigail.”
He didn’t say please often, and his voice was low, quiet, like maybe he was tired of fighting the last few nights as well. “Fine. Don’t wreck my Hummer.”
“It’s not yours.”
“It might as well be. No one else drives it.”
He chuckled as we got in. I had a little bit of a problem climbing up with my injured shoulder, but I hid it the best I could.
I buckled up and loosened the sling a little. “I’ll make sure to take it off.”
“No, don’t. We’re going on the grounds of a truce. Showing her you’re hindered will help put her at ease.”
Great. Because the creepy child vampire needed to be put at ease. “Okay then.”
He eased the Hummer out of the driveway and headed into town.
“Just exactly where is this meeting?”
“The wolves are allowing us to borrow one of their clubs tonight. They have it closed for the night.”
I sighed. “Wolf’s Bane.”
“Yep.”
Lovely. “Is S
imon going to be there?”
“He is, just because he owns the club and his second-in-command didn’t want to be involved.”
I couldn’t say that I blamed Travis on this one. “Okay, as long as I know what I’m walking into.” I tried to get comfortable in the seat and kept adjusting the seat belt.
“I was trying to keep your wishes in mind about traveling, are you not happy with the arrangements?” There was a tone of amusement lacing his words.
I forced myself to settle. “I’m fine, just between the sling and the seatbelt, I’m a tad bit uncomfortable. But I’d rather be uncomfortable than dizzy and disoriented.”
“I suppose that is fair.”
We passed the rest of the car ride in silence until we got to Wolf’s Bane downtown. Mario opened the door for me, and I got out.
Simon greeted us on the sidewalk in front of the door. He reached out to hug me but hesitated when he saw Mario.
Mario nodded. “It’s okay.”
Simon gave me a gentle hug. “What the hell Abby?”
“You know me, picking fights with people bigger than me. That’s all.”
He laughed and opened the door. The house lights were on again, giving the place a normal look. Except for the vampire sitting at the table in the middle of the dance floor.
Keira seemed even creepier this time than the last time I met her. She wrapped her finger in the curl of her hair while her short legs swung at the chair.
Mario urged me to go forward, and he pulled out a chair for me to sit in. I lowered myself down and adjusted my sling.
Keira giggled. “I see that Drake beat you up a little bit.” Her gaze cut to Mario. “Do you regret letting her kill him?”
“No, not a bit. I’m here with a message. Abigail is here to play witness.”
“Oh? As daughter of the territory leader?”
I nodded. “Yes. Because this is in his territory.”
“I’m here because they hope you’ll listen to me.” Mario leaned forward. “Go home, Keira. Go back to our maker and let her help you.”
She leaned forward and spread her small hands on the table. “Or what? You’re going to kill me? Get revenge on me?”
Of Life and Death (Here Witchy Witchy Book 5) Page 22