Here Witchy Witchy Box Set 2

by A. L. Kessler

  I scanned my badge and opened the door to my office. There was no one waiting for me, nothing was out of place, but it didn’t really feel normal. Something was off. I took a moment and concentrated. There was a small buzz that ran through me. Magic, and it wasn’t mine. I hadn’t noticed it earlier because I was so determined to figure out who Drake Moll was, but it explained the feeling of not wanting to look up the name earlier. A spell.

  Now I was going to have to cleanse my office. Or just move out of it. Yeah, that wasn’t an option that Boss Man would buy. I grumbled and grabbed my chalk out of my bag. I walked to the middle of the room and drew a circle. I didn’t normally need a physical guide, but I wanted to make sure their magic couldn’t interfere with mine. If a simple rune and spell didn’t work, I’d have to go home and get everything else I would need for a true cleansing ritual, but I wanted to try simple first.

  I closed my eyes and let my magic drift out of me and touch the physical circle. I frowned as the barrier hesitated. Summoning a circle was supposed to be effortless, but the new spell was interfering. I growled and pushed more of my magic out. Again it hesitated.

  I took a deep breath and tried switching tactics. It wouldn’t let me put a protective circle up, but my red one wasn’t a protective one. I pulled on my anger and that dark little part of me that’d started to form over the last year and switched the energy of my magic.

  The circle didn’t hesitate; there was no resistance from the other magic. Interesting. I opened my eyes to see a mix of red and purple in my circle. Oliver once told me that it was just like my mother’s, but everyone insisted that she was pure good.

  I took my chalk and carefully drew the lines for a cleansing rune. I put my hand on it to activate it. A shock jolted through my arm and my body. The room around me disappeared, replaced by images flashing around.

  “Mama’s going to buy you a little doll,” the voice whispered. “And if that little doll turns bad, mama’s going to buy you a little lad, and if that little lad escapes, mama’s going to buy you a little cape….”

  The words faded out as a scene with a little girl dressed in rags appeared. Her blonde hair fell in ringlets around her sweet little face. Worn out handmade dolls were scattered around her as she played with a stuffed animal of some sort and another doll. The child turned, and she looked right at me. A smile crossed her face. “Mama knows you’re here,” she whispered, clutching an old doll that looked like her to her chest. “Mama’s going to kill you.”

  The scene disappeared, and I fell to the ground with a gasp as my body went numb for a moment. The tingle in my limbs started to wear off as I remembered how to breathe. Never had I dealt with magic that could use my own like that. What the fuck was I dealing with here?

  The door to my office busted open just as I pulled the circle down. Two PIB swat agents stood there, staring at me. I blinked a few times and dusted my pants off.

  “Can I help you two?”

  The woman stepped forward. “The alarms for dark magic went off; we came running.” She pulled off her SWAT helmet and tucked in under her arm. “Agent Collins, what were you doing in here?” Her carefully arched brow rose up, and she used her other hand to ruffle the pixie cut hair that was sticking up.

  “I was cleansing my office of a spell.” I raised a brow. “It was interfering with me, and I needed it gone. Activated something nasty.”

  The man laughed and took his helmet off. “Nasty is one word for it.” He met my gaze with a dark hazel one. “Leave it to you Collins to have something like that in your office.”

  I looked at him and studied his face. The brown mop on the top of his head with the square law and the deep-set eyes looked familiar. Holy shit. “Tayler Specktor?”

  “Glad you remember me.” He waved at the door. “Go ahead and meet me back downstairs Jaz, all is clear here.” She made a noise of disagreement but left anyways.

  “When did you start working for PIB, last time I saw you was high school prom.”

  “When you freaked out and left me standing with the fake flamingos? Yeah, that was just before graduation.”

  I’d accidentally lost control of my magic and ran off, but I did leave him with a bunch of flamingo decorations for the paradise themed dance. I turned and went to my desk.

  “I started a few months back; they were looking for some SWAT members that weren’t witches to head up the new anti-magic squad.”

  I raised a brow. “I don’t think I got the memo, but what are non-witches or warlocks going to do against something like that?”

  “We have our ways.”

  That was a mysterious way of putting it. “I’m going to assume new technology and make sure that I stay out of SWATs way.” I went to my computer. “You can go now.”

  “What? Don’t want to catch up? Come on Abby, admit it, we had something, you and I.” He walked further in. “We’re both adults now, both working for PIB, we can figure things out.”

  I shook my head. “Look, Tayler, we had a great time dating in high school, but there are a couple big things in play right now.”

  “Just a single date, come on Abs.” He grinned, and I found myself remembering just how much fun he had been in high school, carefree, confident, and a bit reckless. Levi hated him, but I found it refreshing. Then, now I didn’t really need anyone who was reckless.

  I shook my head. “I can’t, I’m neck deep in cases, and now I have to figure out who spelled my office without getting in.”

  “How do you know they did it without getting in?”

  I looked at him from over my computer. “Most people have to swipe their key card to get in.”

  “Or steal one, just throwing that out there.” He turned to leave. “Let me know if you reconsider that date, I’d like to take you out.”

  He left and I shook my head. Suddenly men were coming out of the woodworks, and I didn’t know what the hell to do about it…except I probably should have told him about Mario. I unlocked my computer and pulled up my search engine and typed in Drake Moll.

  The system flooded with results, but the dates on the files were from the archived files from years ago. I opened the first one and found a picture of a man. It wasn’t what I was expecting. He looked clean cut, narrow jaw, tanned skin, normal looking.

  Underneath the photo, a caption read, “Assumed Deceased.”

  Interesting. Clearly, he wasn’t dead if two people were looking for him. Oliver’s intel rivaled that of PIB’s, so if he thought Drake was alive, chances were, he was right. However, the man would have been at least seventy by now. Unless he was a vampire.

  The thought made me pause. There were very few cases of witches or warlock turned vampire and kept their sanity intact. I texted my uncle.

  “You said Drake was magical. What’s his paranormal designation?” I hit send and set my phone down. I wasn’t sure if I liked where this was going. I purposely didn’t tell him about the spell in my office, and I’d keep it from Levi as well, to make sure that he didn’t freak out and try to find a daytime babysitter for me again.

  I looked through the files on Drake. There wasn’t anything hugely offensive in it. A couple strange attempts of Life Magic, but since I’d seen a velociraptor brought to life that way, it really wasn’t too alarming. I clicked on his earliest arrest which was long before PIB existed officially. Early eighties, he was at least fifty by that point judging by the picture. Behind him though was a teenager hugging a doll to her chest.

  It was in better shape, but the doll looked just like the one the child in the spell had been holding. The hair wasn’t as stringy yet, the clothes were still intact, and the were eyes still sewn onto the face.

  I switched gears and started to look into Drake’s family tree. Not much had come up on them, there’d been a couple kids, but their names hadn’t been released to PIB records. I went back to the newspaper article and clicked on the picture. I used a photo recognition software to run another search.

  Nothing popped up on that
, but there was an interesting article on the history of the sir name Moll.

  Insanity tracked through Bloodline was the title, and I clicked on it to open it. Scanning the article, I read about how the bloodline had a history of insane witches and warlocks due to their magic forming at a young age and the amount of power the child had. It was rare that magic drove someone insane, but it was possible. I filed the information away for later in case it became useful.

  My phone vibrated on my desk, and I picked it up to read my uncle’s message.

  “Designation: Vampire. Don’t get too mixed up in this,” was Oliver’s reply. If he was a vampire, maybe Levi knew him. I made a mental note to ask. I sent him a quick thank you text and then made notes on where I needed to go and do next.

  I spent the rest of the afternoon working through some possible scenarios on where Drake’s children might be or who might have been behind the spell, but I came up empty on a lot of it. What I needed to do was talk to Drake and see exactly what he was up to.

  My alarm buzzed, reminding me that I had a dinner date with Clarissa. I smiled and jumped out of my chair. Chinese food and a girl’s night in was just what I needed to help me relax.

  I walked into Clarissa’s house without knocking. The cute little Victorian house fit her personality and lay in the heart of the city’s metaphysical community and just a few blocks away from her shop.

  “I hope you ordered food; I’m starving,” I called out as I dropped my bag by the door.

  Clarissa came running in from her living room and threw her arms around me. Her smile complimented her now fading red hair that was up in some sort of messy bun. She squeezed me tight. “Abby, it’s so good to see you.”

  Clarissa’s bubbly self always greeted me like it’d been years since we’ve seen each other. Even though we’d talked on the phone the day before, her enthusiasm for seeing me was never gone.

  I hugged her back and tried to escape her tight embrace. “Hasn’t been that long.”

  “A month since we’ve seen each other face to face,” she chided. “And now I hear I’m going to be sharing you with your new beau soon.”

  I tried not to cringe. “Levi told you about that huh?”

  “I think that it’s going to take a lot of work to convince people that you and Mario are actually dating. Especially if you’re going to trap him in a magical circle every time he pisses you off.” She stepped back and put her hands on her hips. “Levi is only trying to make sure you’re safe.”

  I wondered for a moment what other information she had about the situation, but I let it go. I didn’t want to think about vampires or work tonight. I wanted to enjoy some good food and company.

  She hooked arms with me and led me into the dining room where she had already set the little red and white square containers on the table. “And yes, I already ordered food, and I made sure it got here before you did.”

  I smiled and sat down at the table and examined the containers. If there was one thing I could count on Clarissa for, it was to keep things as normal as possible. I found my orange chicken and fried rice in front of where I normally sat if I came to visit, and I knew there was chicken chow mien in her container. It was how things worked; it was normal for us.

  I picked at my chicken with my chopsticks. “How is the shop doing?”

  She sat down across from me and pulled a noodle out of her chow mien. “Slowing down a bit since tourist season is almost over, but I’ll have enough of my regulars come in to make ends meet for the slow season.”

  “That’s good. I was hoping that this season was good for you because I know the protests have been slowing some things down.”

  She nodded. “They have for some stores, especially those who are something other than witches and warlocks.”

  The protests were humans that were trying to take away the rights of shifters or other creatures who couldn’t pass as human. They’d slowed down in the last three months, but they hadn’t disappeared altogether yet. “It’s a shame that they are affecting the local economy.”

  “How’s work for you going?”

  “Same as always, people killing each other, mysteries to be solved.” I laughed. “There’s never a dull moment at PIB; they’ve even put me on two cases.”

  She laughed. “Kind of like the good old days? Working it alone, getting to test out your skills?”

  I knew she didn’t mean anything harsh by it, and she was right, the good old days I did work things alone, there were very few PIB agent interactions. Just Mason and I, and Mason was just there to make sure the case stayed on track and provide resources and insights I may not have. “Yep, like the good old days, and it looks like it’s probably going to stay that way.”

  “Yeah, no other partner?” She sounded a bit sad about it.

  “Yeah, they moved his desk out.” I shook my head. “I’m okay with that; I didn’t want a partner in the first place. And this is one of the reasons why.” My tone was a bit sharper than I had wanted it.

  She nodded. “Yeah, good old Abby, keeping everyone and everything at arm’s length.” Her tone matched mine.

  I wasn’t sure what had gotten into her or how to even respond. I had come for a good evening of food and conversation, not bitterness. “Something going on?”

  “Levi was only forced to tell me about Mario because you trapped him in a circle. I have my suspicions that you were going to keep me in the dark about it too. There was a time where we could tell each other anything, and now you’re hiding things from me.” She wouldn’t meet my eyes.

  Not too long ago I was sure she was hiding things from me as well, but now was not the time to bring that up. “It isn’t my choice. I don’t want him hanging around me, and a second ago you agreed with it. At least it sounded like it.”

  “I agree that it’s about time Levi starts taking some interest in your safety, I’m upset that it took that case in Romania to get him to that point.”

  Clarissa was older than me, but she was normally bubbly and happy all the time. I wasn’t used to serious conversations with her. “Levi protected me in his own way, and now those ways are changing, but this isn’t what this is all about is it?”

  “You’re right, it’s not, but you’re not going to like what’s coming next.” She set her chopsticks down. “The Coven wanted me to talk to you about some things.”

  She was right. I wasn’t going to like this. “And this has you upset?”

  “You’re an elemental, Abby. You hid this from me.”

  My stomach dropped. How had they found out? “You know exactly why I hid it from you. Now someone is trying to expose it. They sent a video to Boss Man a few months back.”

  “They sent a video to the coven too. They asked me to convince you to go to a housing location for elementals. They don’t want the coven to be responsible for anything you might do. There are reports of you losing your control…” She sighed. “Abby, why didn’t you come to me for help?”

  I stared at her. “I’m not going into a housing location; they are government run. They study people like me.” My heart skipped a beat. “I haven’t lost control.” Except I had, a couple times, but the people who were there wouldn’t have exposed me to anyone. At least I didn’t think they would.

  She pulled out her phone and showed me a video. The image was grainy, but it showed me trapping a hundred blood-starved vampires. I turned away because I knew exactly how it ended. I killed each and every one of them with a motion of my hand.

  “You killed them, Abby. Every single one of them.”

  “I had no choice. I was in complete control.” I tucked her phone into my pocket and stood up.

  She stood with me. “You can’t just take my phone.”

  “I need to trace the video and see who it is that’s trying to expose me.” I shook my head. “I’ll give it back as soon as I’ve got the information.” I was going to my uncle and have him trace it. I couldn’t trust IT at PIB to do it, and now my entire coven knew that I was an el
emental.

  Panic crawled through me as I headed towards the door. I needed to get this taken care of, and I needed to do it now. Clarissa followed me. “Please sit down and finish dinner and talk to me about this.”

  “You invited me over for dinner to get on my case about hiding secrets that would put me at risk if exposed. Then you want to talk to me on behalf of the coven. Now you want me to sit down and talk to you about this? I have to get to the bottom of this before someone decides to use this against me more than they already have.” I shook my head.

  She grabbed my wrist, and I turned around to yell at her, but I saw tears in her eyes. “Abby, I’m so worried about you. All of this going on and I did a reading.”

  That made me pause. “What did the reading say?”

  “Change, huge change is coming,” she whispered. “I saw you dead; the reading was strong enough to give me a vision. Dead at the hand of a vampire.”

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “We can talk, but I don’t know how much I can tell you without putting myself in more danger, or giving away other peoples’ secrets.”

  “Just tell me what you can about you and let me see how I can help you. Please.” She moved her hand down to mine and squeezed. “I just want to help.”

  And I wanted to know who was trying to expose all my secrets. Who had taken that video? I could see Levi, Mario, and Oliver in it, so it wasn’t either of them. “We’ll talk, and then I’ll need to take your phone, so I can see who sent the video. Deal?”

  “Deal.” She wiped her tears with the back of her hand. “Thank you.”

  I wasn’t sure what she was thanking me for because I knew she wasn’t going to like what I had to say. I went back to the table with her and sat down. “I found out that I was an elemental after the barn case. I’ve been working with someone to control the ability because I knew I had to hide it. My magic…” I shook my head. “I’m under control, but it’s not the same. There have been changes in it.”