Here Witchy Witchy Box Set 2

by A. L. Kessler

  “You think she has something to do with this?”

  I knew she did, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. “We’re looking into every possible situation. Thank you for the information you’ve provided.”

  He stood up from the chair. “My daughter is seven, you know. Carmen, she wasn’t perfect, but I would never wish her dead.”

  Seven, just like Cynthia. Interesting. “I know. I’m sorry for yours and your daughter’s loss.”

  “If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know.” He walked out of the office, and the door clicked behind him.

  I leaned back in my seat and thought about what information he’d given me. I needed to figure out if the other children had dolls.

  I flipped through my notes and found Carl Tortania’s phone number again. I dialed it and waited for him to answer.

  “Mr. Tortania.”

  “Hello again, it’s Agent Collins with the PIB.”

  “Haven’t caught the bastard yet then?” There was something in his voice that I was unsure of. “If you can’t do your job maybe I should do it for you.”

  Well, that wasn’t how I was expecting the conversation to start out. “Actually, we have a new development, so I needed to ask you a few questions.”

  “I told you who killed my ex-wife, Agent Collins. There should be no other reason to go forward with that investigation.”

  I took a deep breath. “Mr. Tortania, your child, did you purchase a doll for them at Loraine’s Dollhouse at any point?”

  Silence on the other end. I wondered if he’d hung up on me for a moment before he finally answered. “How did you know that?”

  “I can’t tell you that.”

  “It looks just like his mother.” He sighed. “I was a sucker for getting it for him, but he was just so heartbroken that we split up that I had to do something.”

  “There’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s just another common link, nothing that caused her death.” So I hoped, but now we had another connection. I just needed to get a hold of Karen’s ex-husband to see if there was a doll there as well.

  “How old is your son?”

  “Seven.”

  The same age.

  “Thank you Mr. Tortania, that’ll be all.”

  We disconnected, and I searched my notes for the next name. A knock at the door had me pulling up from my notes. Liz stood there and motioned for me to let her in.

  I walked over to the door and opened it. “What’s up?”

  “The house we were just at, it’s on fire. Arson.”

  Of course it was. “We’ll need to recover what we can from it when they put the flames out.”

  She gave me a knowing look that clearly said you could do that.

  “Oh no, no, no, no.” I shook my hands. “I am not going out there to play with the fire. Do you know what they do to people like me?”

  “Abby, you’re talking about losing key evidence because you don’t want to embrace your ability.”

  I growled. “They put people like me in containment. To study.”

  “Yeah, I know, but that’s not going to stop you. Because you know it’s the one thing that can save this case.”

  I locked my jaw. “Fine, let’s go. You’re driving.” I grabbed my bag and headed out of the office.

  She snorted. “Why am I coming?”

  “Because if I’m going to use my abilities, I want someone there who can cover my ass.”

  She followed me down the hallway and to the stairs. “Okay, don’t worry Collins, I’ve got your back.”

  We pulled up as close to the house as the emergency crews would let us. Black smoke billowed over the end of the road, overtaking the sun. It didn’t seem anything the firemen were doing was helping the situation.

  “Magic,” Liz said, confirming my own thoughts.

  Great. “I don’t know if this is going to work.”

  “You’ve got to try because the fire is destroying our evidence.”

  She was right. I closed my eyes and focused on the heat of the fire. I couldn’t put it out without causing a lot of suspicion, but if I could find the threat of magic and break that.

  I tried to feed my magic into the pattern of the fire and contain it to the upper level. Sweat started beading on my forehead as I tried to force it. It felt like every time I used my magic to pull the fire, something else pushed it.

  “Oh Abigail,” My uncle’s voice caught my attention, and my eyes shot open. I saw him standing next to Liz. Where the hell did he come from? “You know you’re not ready to take on a fire this big alone.”

  He closed his eyes, and the water the firefighters used wrapped around the flames and more water came creeping up from the ground sinking into the house. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes again and visualized the flames bending to not only my will, but Oliver’s water. The heat and shouts died down, and I opened my eyes to see the fire gone and the fire crew moving in to control any hotspots that might be left. I looked to Oliver, his pale face and sweat told me that he was also exhausted from the fight. Fatigue crawled through my own body, but I realized that we actually made a decent team.

  “Family of yours?” Liz asked.

  “Yep.” I didn’t look at her, but met my uncle’s gaze. “Thought you weren’t going to be around?” I leaned against Liz’s SUV, trying not to give into my exhaustion.

  “Couldn’t let my niece try to handle a magical fire alone. Heard on the police scanner what was going on.” He sat on the edge of the SUV.

  I crossed my arms. “Thank you for the help.”

  “You don’t sound very grateful.” Oliver laughed.

  “Yeah well, we’ll have to talk about some things later.”

  Oliver shook his head. “There is no later. I’m leaving the country tonight. I have an appointment with someone.”

  “Someone who’s going to help you raise my mother.”

  Liz sucked in a sharp breath. “Okay, Abby, we’re on the clock.”

  Her words weren’t hostile, but it was a good reminder that now was not the time to deal with family issues. “You’re right.”

  “Abigail, remember the letter.” Oliver stood and pulled me into a hug. “I would do anything to protect you.”

  He let go of me and walked away. I watched him go back to his truck and pressed my lips together. I wasn’t sure what he was up to, but I knew I could trust him. Despite his plans.

  “Come on, let’s take a look at the damage. You can minimize the hot spots while we go through it.”

  I nodded and followed her up to the scene. We both flashed our badges and were allowed through.

  One of the firefighters shook his head. “I’ve never seen a fire act like that before, and the hoses.”

  “Magic,” another one stated. He looked at us and motioned to the house. “What does PIB think?”

  We both nodded. “Magic. We’re going to take a look around. We were out here earlier on a case.” I walked toward the blackened frame of the front door.

  “Be careful,” the firefighter said as we walked by him.

  I made sure to keep my magic active as I searched for hot spots. The main level was pretty much gone, but the basement seemed only to have smoke damage. “Call a containment team. I’m going down there for the dolls.”

  I heard Liz behind me as I went downstairs. There on the floor were the life-size dolls, but they weren’t moving, and there was no magic to them. “Never mind about the team,” I called up the stairs.

  Liz came downstairs and looked around. “Minimal damage. The dolls?”

  “Just dolls now. No life to them.” I motioned to them, laying on top of each other on the floor. This shit is creepy.”

  “No kidding. Call Mason?”

  “Yeah.” I pulled my phone out and waited for him to answer.

  “Detective Mason.”

  “Hey, I need a forensic team please.”

  “Abby, you sound exhausted. Where are you?”

  I sighed. “I’ll text you
the address, and yeah, exhausted is a good word for it.”

  “I’ll get your team and see you down there in a bit.”

  “I’ll be around; I want to make sure there’s no other magic floating around.” I hung up and shot him a text with the address.

  Liz came up next to me. “I found this.” She handed me the old rag doll with a note pinned to it.

  “Catch me if you can.”

  I locked my jaw. She was taunting us. But there was a connection she probably didn’t know I had. Levi and Mario. “Can you handle forensics once I clear the house?” I put the doll in my bag to hold on to.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “I need to go see a connection and see what kind of information they can give me.” I looked down at the doll. “I need to call the mental hospital too and see if Cynthia is still there.”

  “You think they are making a run for it?”

  “I know they are.” I went back up the stairs and started making a tour of the house checking for hotspots and anything magical. By the time I finished, Mason was pulling up with several cop cars and a white forensic team van.

  “What happened here?”

  “Magical fire, it’s out now though. Liz is going to work with you while I talk to a contact of mine.”

  “Liz going to fill me in on everything else?”

  Liz walked up to us. “You bet. At least what Collins has told me.”

  “You’re my lead. I wouldn’t dare leave you without information.” I kept my voice light, so she didn’t realize that I had actually. “I’ll let you know if I get anything else on our lead.”

  Liz cleared her throat. “Agent Collins, I drove you here.”

  “Don’t worry; I’ll make a phone call as soon as the sun is down and I won’t need a ride.” I looked over at the sunset and smiled, it wouldn’t be long, and I was looking forward to laying all of this out in front of Mario and making him face his fledgling.

  I walked away from all the hustle and bustle and let Liz deal with Mason. I pulled my phone out and texted Mario to come get me.

  Mario appeared within two minutes, and I narrowed my eyes. “You had no idea where I was.”

  “The tracker is still active on your phone.” He sniffed the air. “I smell fire, your work?”

  I shook my head. “Nope, the daughter of your fledgling. Which, I have some questions about.”

  “I already told you what I could.”

  I poked him in the chest. “No, you haven’t. You’ve given me vague answers. I have three dolls that were housing souls.”

  “Souls.” He repeated slowly.

  I nodded. “Souls. Living. Fucking. Dolls. So now I need to know a few things about Mr. Moll.”

  “Like?”

  “What was the reason you were told to change him.”

  For once Mario wouldn’t look at me. “I told you that we needed his set of skills.”

  “Which skills?”

  He didn’t answer me. “Who is we?” I asked, and he remained silent.

  “Mario, you told me that you wanted me to be able to trust you. This isn’t going to work if you withhold information that is important to a case.”

  “We needed his ability to do Life Magic,” he snapped at me. “What we wanted him for, it didn’t work, so it was all for nothing.”

  I tried to think through the massive amount of questions crashing through my head; I’d finally settled on one when Drake appeared and jumped at me.

  He grabbed my wrist before I could respond, but so did Mario. The world around me spun and disappeared.

  Chapter Thirteen

  When the world reappeared around me, and Drake had me pinned against a wall with a hand around my throat. I snarled and brought my knee up to my stomach, but he caught it with his hand and squeezed enough to let me know that he could break it without a thought.

  “You wouldn’t dare.” I lowered my voice. The room was dark, and I couldn’t see where Mario was if he’d even been able to follow us. I knew he had a hold of me when we transported.

  Drake laughed. “You don’t think so Abigail? Because you’re Levi’s daughter?”

  I didn’t think now was the right time to correct him that it was adopted daughter. Though I had been banking on that to help me get out of here unharmed. I met his gaze. “Because I’m a PIB agent, I’m Levi’s daughter, and Mario’s lover.”

  “You’re lying about Mario. You may be dating, but he’s not your lover.”

  I couldn’t argue the point. “Your daughter confessed to tying the souls to the dolls and told me that you were bringing her the victims.”

  “Which you’re about to join them,” he snarled in my ear. “But I plan on bleeding you dry first.”

  I tried to keep my panic in as he scrapped his fangs against my neck. My hand searched for my gun, and my fingers wrapped around its handle, pulling it from the holster. I couldn’t get a good shot at this angle, but I aimed at the knee. I squeezed the trigger and tried not to flinch as the recoil shoved me harder against the wall.

  I felt the blood splatter on my body, and Drake jerked away from me, but his fingers tightened around my throat. Where the fuck was Mario?

  The lights in the room came flooding on. I heard a high pitch laugh, and I knew it belonged to Loraine.

  “You don’t fit my current body hunt, but I have a client who would pay well for a living doll with your likeness.” She walked through the stainless steel room. “Daddy, if you want to drain her, you need to do it now so I can get her molded and dispose of the body before Mario realizes where she is.”

  What the fuck. I raised my gun, and Drake grabbed my wrist with his free hand, squeezing it until he forced me to drop my weapon. I tried to remain calm and look at my surroundings. There were no windows, no doors that I could see, and the harsh light did nothing for the stainless steel floor. There was some sort of contraption against the wall to my left with three big spikes stained with dry blood.

  Loraine followed my gaze. “Oh, that? That’s where I stick the bodies so I can start the molds and the castings. My clients want very particular features, so I want to make sure that every detail is correct.”

  Drake sealed his lips over the pulse in my neck. His breath was hot on my skin, and it hit my panic button. I rammed my elbow into the side of his head, and he stepped back. I ducked under him and swept up my gun off the floor as I ran toward Loraine.

  She’d managed to break my circle last time when I used my elemental abilities, and she’d managed to deflect my bullets without a physical circle. There wasn’t much I could do, but my main concern was to survive long enough for Mario to figure out where I was.

  I turned and shot at Drake. My bullet took him in the shoulder, and blood splattered against the wall behind him. He just laughed and moved forward. The only thing my two bullets did was slow him down a tiny bit.

  I glanced over my shoulder to see Loraine coming toward me. “Your daughter,” I said suddenly, and she paused. “She’s a very lost little girl sitting in a mental home with powers she doesn’t understand.”

  “My daughter?” She looked at Drake. “You told me Cynthia was dead.”

  Oh, well wasn’t that interesting? Clarissa had told me she learned about the little girl from an employee.

  Drake lunged at me. “She’s lying to you; she’s trying to turn you against me.”

  I shot him again, but it missed as he disappeared. I waited a moment to see where he would reappear, but he didn’t right away. “Loraine, that’s why you were choosing mothers who had children that were seven, because that’s old Cynthia was.”

  “They abandoned their children because they couldn’t make it work. None of those women fought for their children. They had no idea how precious a gift a healthy child was,” she snarled at me. “Cynthia died because she couldn’t handle the amount of power our bloodline carried.”

  I shook my head. “No, she’s in a magically protected mental home. She has fits of rage, but your dad gave her a doll to help with
that.” I didn’t want to mention what I was told about the health issues; she could deal with that later. I lowered my gun. I couldn’t fight her with magic or fir power, but maybe I could get through to her.

  “How do I know you’re telling the truth?” There was a look in her eyes for a moment. A glimpse of sanity that wasn’t there a second ago.

  I swallowed. “Because I wouldn’t lie to a mother about a child. I lost my mother when I was four. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

  “My father…”

  “Has lost his mind because of the battle between the magic that wants to keep him alive and the curse that is being a vampire. I don’t know what his intentions were.”

  I thought about the doll that was in my bag. “The rag doll.” I held my hand up, so she knew I wasn’t going for another weapon. I reached into my bag and felt around for the doll. I pulled it out and showed it to her. “This was yours. It had the same spell on it that Cynthia’s had.”

  She gave me wide eyes. “I left that in the house to burn.”

  “I found it in the basement with a note on it.” I narrowed my eyes. “Your dad has the ability to show up in visions as other people. A way of communicating almost through a dream world.”

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  I could see her becoming calmer which was reassuring for me. At least I knew she wasn’t going to put a knife through me at any moment or shove me into the points.

  “It wasn’t you that placed the rune in my office.”

  “It was. I swiped a key card from a SWAT team member when he took me to lunch. He’d come to the store to order a doll, when he came to pick it up, I asked him to lunch because I knew I could swipe the key card.”

  “Why?”

  She was silent for a moment. “Because my father wanted me to scare you away from the case.”

  “Loraine, you have to let me out of here. He knows I know about Cynthia now, for some reason. he wanted to keep her away from you.”

  “Oh my god, he’s going to kill her,” she shrieked.

  I nodded. “Let me out of here, and I can help her.”

  She nodded and opened a hidden door on the far end of the room. I thanked the Goddess that I managed to defuse the situation. The moment I got up the stairwell, I grabbed my phone and dialed the mental home.