Between the Lines (Here Witchy Witchy Book 7)

by A. L. Kessler

  I glanced around to make sure Merick hadn't sneaked back in. "It's close to my shoulder. Today alone it's gone up a couple inches. I'm still drinking the tea, but it seems less effective now. Oliver, did you know that Tobias summoned a demon because my mother had the same curse on her?"

  Oliver was quiet for a moment. "I did not know about the curse."

  "Luckily for me, he left that information in the book." I looked at my book on the table. "I'm going to need your help. Do you think you can get away from Ira?"

  "Long enough to help you go hunting for a demon? No, but if you find him, call me, or keep your tracker on, and I'll be there."

  I knew he could appear and disappear like Merrick could, so I knew he could be there the moment I needed him. "I guess that's the best I can do. I'm going to ask Merick for help too."

  "Good, we're probably going to need him. Keep me updated on the secured phone." He disconnected, and I wondered if someone walked into the room. I leaned back on the couch and pulled the blanket over me. I just needed some sleep, and I'd feel better in the morning. Or, I wouldn't wake up at all. The thought should have scared me, but I was too tired to care.

  ∞

  "Abigail?" Merick's worried voice drew me out of my sleep. I found it harder to open my eyes this time. "Abby?"

  "I'm awake," I muttered. "What time is it?" I slowly sat up, and pain shot through my arm. I hid it the best as I could, but the look in Merick's eyes told me that he'd seen the wince.

  "It's noon."

  I blinked a few times. "Noon? You didn't think to wake me earlier?"

  "I just got back from talking with my father and other cult members." He motioned behind me where Seth, his father, stood. I wasn't a fan of Seth because he had something to do with my parents' murder. His name was downstairs on my board where I was attempting to figure out who murdered them.

  "Seth, sorry to say I'm not really up to visitors right now."

  Seth nodded. "Merick told me, but I come with good news."

  I tried to keep any of my sarcasm to myself. "Yes?"

  "We've translated enough of the demon rune to remove some of the curse."

  "Some of it?" I raised a brow. "I thought the only way to remove it was to kill the demon."

  Seth nodded. "That is true, but we can…" He struggled to find the right word.

  "Reset it." Merick cut in. "Basically, reset it to when you first got it. So you wouldn't be as drained. It'll give you enough time to find Carson and kill him."

  I thought about it. The idea that death was so close at hand and I could escape it, again. It wouldn't be the first time I'd managed to outsmart death. "What do we have to do?"

  "We've prepared a circle. We just need you to come with us and trust us." Merick met my gaze. "You know that you can trust me."

  I nodded and stood. "If this is going to buy me more time, okay."

  "How much time do you think you have left?" Seth asked, but I ignored him.

  "Let's get this done."

  Merick held out his hand. "We travel our way."

  I sighed. "I hate your way and the vampire way. I much prefer cars."

  "This way is quicker," he promised.

  I took his hand, and the world around me swirled away. When it reappeared, I found myself in a stone room that reminded me a lot of my chamber at Levi's, the one magically protected in case something went wrong with my magic. There, in the middle, was a circle with the demon runes. My heart skipped a beat as we started to walk toward it. Nothing evil seemed to slide over me, nothing touched my aura to send me running. But my brain and my heart were both telling a different story.

  I tried to swallow the fear that I was feeling. Here I was, standing with two members of the Cult of Ra who had tried to kill me two years ago with a hex, trusting that they were going to reset a curse.

  "Abigail." Merick's voice pulled me out of my spiral of panic. "I swear to you by the goddess and Ra that I am not going to kill you or harm you. That our only intention is to reset that curse."

  His words calmed me a little bit, and I looked at Seth. "And you?"

  "This is part of redeeming myself. If I can keep Elizabeth's and Tobias' daughter safe, then maybe I can atone for my part in their death."

  It was as close to comfort as I was going to get from him. I took a deep breath and walked into the circle. Merick and Seth came up behind me. Merick murmured something in Latin, and I felt the circle snap close around us. My magic jolted at the closure, and my arm screamed in pain. I grabbed it and tried to keep from crying out.

  "Okay, so this isn't going to be painless."

  "It's a curse, did you expect it to be?" Seth asked, and I resisted punching him. I settled for a glare instead.

  Merick also sent his father a glare. "Your arm, Abigail."

  I rolled up my sleeve enough so he could see that the black was past my elbow. He met my gaze, and I could see the disapproval in his eyes. He knew I had been hiding how bad it was. Neither of them said anything as Seth came over and placed his hand on my arm. Merick also placed his hand over the black. I took a deep breath as they both started chanting.

  I cried out as my magic wanted to respond against theirs. I kept hold of it, keeping it from lashing out, repeatedly telling myself that I was not in harm's way.

  The pain continued, and I fell to my knees. Seth and Merick came down with me, never letting go of my arm. Their grip tightened on me as I closed my eyes, trying not to scream. Fire flooded through my body as if my blood was boiling and trying to kill me. I whimpered as my heart seemed to skip a beat or two with every word Seth and Merick whispered.

  I opened my eyes as the pain isolated itself to my arm. I saw the black in my veins slowly creep down back to my wrist and forearm. The magic faded from me as Seth and Merick let go of me and stood. I took a moment on my knees to catch my breath before I was willing to risk standing up. The pins and needles feeling still dominated my arm, but the rest of the pain was fading. I heard them dismiss the circle and felt the magic around us disappear. Merick stepped up to me and offered a helping hand.

  I took it, and he pulled me up from the ground. "Thank you."

  "How much further up did it go?" he asked.

  I looked over his shoulder at his father and then to Merick. "We'll talk about it later."

  He locked his jaw, and I knew he wanted to argue, but he stayed silent.

  "Thank you, Seth, for helping Merick. I'll be using my extra time wisely." I looked at Merick. "Let's go. I'll drink some tea, and then we can get to work."

  He nodded, but Seth put a hand on my shoulder before we could leave. "This was all thanks to your work Abigail. Your cases and research have helped us decipher this much."

  "I have just one question about the situation you're trying to translate the runes for. Was your victim a werewolf?"

  Seth nodded. "They were, a spouse of one of our members."

  Interesting. "Thank you, now, if you'd excuse us, there is work to do."

  Seth nodded. "Of course, I'll be seeing you later."

  Merick put a hand on the small of my back, and once more the world around me swirled away.

  ∞

  We reappeared in my living room. "You have to teach me that spell one day."

  "I thought you hated traveling that way?"

  I snorted. "I do, but it would come in handy." I flexed my left hand. "Thank you for the help. Now we can see if we can find Carson."

  "And just how do you plan on doing that? You've tried a trace spell already."

  I nodded. "Yes, but I have a feeling he'll know that his curse hasn't killed me. So I'm willing to bet he'll be around and easier to find." I walked to the kitchen and started to make some tea. "Maybe he's back in Luna Grove just chilling and trying to get his coven back together."

  "Did you strip everyone of that spell?"

  "Ana called me a couple days
after I returned and said that she was successful. She also invited me down for Nathan's funeral. Which I politely declined."

  Merick laughed. "Was it actually polite?"

  "Well, I didn't tell her fuck you, if that says anything." I sat on the couch and examined my arm. "Thank you."

  "It was all thanks to you, Abigail. All the work you put into it, and as soon as you found out that Carson was a demon, we were able to put most of the pieces together."

  I traced my arm. "I have a little over two weeks before it kills me at this point." I looked up when the teapot whistled. I went to fix my tea, but Merick motioned for me to sit down.

  "So you have a choice, you can resign yourself to knowing that you're going to die, or go demon hunting." He got a teacup from the cupboard.

  "I've already told you my answer on that."

  He nodded. "I just wanted to make sure it hadn't changed."

  My phone rang, and I snagged it off the counter. "Abby speaking."

  "I have a trace on Lawrence. Ana called me and said she saw him sneaking around the warehouse for the coven. Are you willing to go back out there and see what's up?" Liz sounded almost excited about the new information.

  I pressed my lips together. I wanted to know why Lawrence thought it'd be a good idea to bring me in on his scheme. Hell, I wanted to know what his part in all of this was.

  "Yeah, I'm good for it. I'll book a flight tonight." I glanced at Merick. "And I'll take my own kind of back up."

  "How's your arm?"

  I laughed. "Let's just say an old friend helped me out with that, and it bought me some time."

  "Okay, be careful out there. You don't have to be as elusive as you were when you first went, but remember you are still technically on leave." She disconnected the call, and I laid my phone down on the counter.

  "I'm not allowed to go to Luna Grove," he stated. "Cult members aren't allowed there."

  "Mmm, except the coven leader is MIA and the person acting as the coven leader is dead. The marks have been removed from the members, and I'm betting that you can go there as long as you aren't doing…cult-y stuff."

  Merick rolled his eyes at me. "I'll see what I can do, and for the record, it wasn't the Nora Coven keeping us out." He shook his head. "I'll speak to Betsy."

  My jaw dropped to the ground. "That sweet woman who runs the library?"

  "Oh, I see you've met her. She used to run the town until the Nora Coven came in."

  "Her granddaughter is the one who makes the tea for me." I shook my head. "Okay, tell her that you're coming to help protect me and maybe she'll give you a little bit of leeway."

  "I'll make sure to mention that." He handed me my tea and walked out of the kitchen.

  I glanced at my phone and debated on calling Levi, but he wouldn't be awake yet. He hadn't checked on me since the night I'd gotten back, which made me wonder what on earth he was dealing with. Or maybe he'd just given up since I had pushed him away. I let out a frustrated growl. He was supposed to be my father. He was over-protective like one, but he wasn't around when I needed support if it went against what he wanted for me.

  "Rough day, Abigail?"

  I spun and had my gun out and pointed at the voice. Samuel stood there, his hands up in the air.

  "If I had been here to kill you, you would have been dead already. I came to ask you a simple question."

  I didn't lower my gun, "What?"

  "What is Levi to you?"

  I blinked. "Who are you?"

  "I've already told you my name and what I was supposed to be doing. The least you can do is answer my question."

  I felt something brush against my magic, and realized that the man in front of me was a vampire. A fucking walk-in-the-daylight vampire. I squeezed the trigger. I didn't even think about it. The shot echoed in the room, and Samuel jerked as the bullet took him in the shoulder.

  He laughed as the blood ran down his doublet. "Oh, Abigail."

  I shot again as he rushed forward, trapping me against the breakfast bar. I grabbed a knife from the counter and stabbed it into his side. He snarled and threw me across the kitchen. I caught myself against the wall and glared at him. My chest heaved as I breathed, and adrenaline rushed through me.

  Samuel snarled at me. "You want to play that way, Abigail?"

  "Fuck you." I aimed my gun at his head and squeezed the trigger. He disappeared and reappeared in front of me. He grabbed my throat, his nails digging into my skin.

  "You will respect me one day, Abigail. When you join our world and Levi is gone."

  Magic rushed through the house, and Samuel let go of me as he was shoved out of the house and through the magical circles that protected the area.

  I looked up to see Merick standing in the doorway. His eyes had the strange streaks of black in them again. "What kind of spell is that?" My voice raised a couple pitches.

  "One that I'm going to teach you." The magic faded from him, and he came to my side. "Are you okay?"

  "Oh, you know, just a bit beaten up from the vampire who is fucking walking around in the daylight!" I screeched the last part.

  Merick blew out a puff of air. "Yeah, that caught me off guard too. That and neither one of us noticed it before."

  "He didn't reach out with his powers before. Today he did." I ran a hand through my hair. "Holy fuck. When did you learn that spell?"

  "I've been studying it for a few months. I wasn't sure I had it down yet."

  I put a hand to my heart trying to demand it to slow down. "Think you can turn that into a circle?"

  "To keep them from coming in? Yes, I've been working on it."

  "Thank you." I grabbed my tea from the counter and went to the living room. Merick followed me.

  "Aren't going to call Levi about that?"

  "No, because then he'll demand that I come to the mansion, and I have things to do instead of just hide. Not to mention he's not awake yet." Though it did worry me that Samuel could walk in the daylight, which meant he was either old, powerful, or both.

  I sat down on the couch trying to shake the fading effects of the adrenaline and open my laptop to book a flight. My phone rang again, and I picked it up. "Abby speaking."

  "Hey, I know you're exhausted, but Curt would like to meet with you." Simon's voice came over the phone. "And he doesn't want to leave his pack."

  I laughed. "Should I book three seats then? Liz has me going back to Luna Grove to check something out. Merick is coming as well."

  Merick sat down next to me as I pulled up flights. He took the computer from me and started looking up hotels instead of flights. I guess he was just going to poof us there.

  "I can't come. I need to handle somethings here." There was some hesitation in his voice. "I'm glad Merick is going with you."

  "Everything okay with the pack?"

  "Yeah, just trying to get the pups settled and work on my agreement with Curt about our alliances."

  "Okay, I'll be fine. Merick's got my back. I'll see you when I get home."

  "Of course, I'll be waiting with coffee and pizza for you." He hung up, and I looked at Merick.

  "You just assumed I could go?"

  "I know you won't leave me hanging." I nudged him. "Am I wrong?"

  He shook his head. "No, you aren't. I'll start packing. You should too if you're booking us an early flight."

  "The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get this handled." I finished booking the flights and shut the computer.

  ∞

  Merick looked around the hotel room after we arrived. He'd popped us back to Luna Grove and then we'd checked in. "Not too bad for a small town. Now if you excuse me, I have to go check in with Betsy."

  I nodded. "That's fine. I'm going to go see Riley and then check out Lawrence's building."

  "I'll meet you there?"

  I texted him the location. "Now you will. I'll see you
in about an hour."

  "Stay out of trouble, Abigail. I mean it." He disappeared, and I rolled my eyes. It must be nice just to appear and disappear when you wanted. I, on the other hand, walked out of the hotel room, down the stairs, and out the front door. I walked to the coffee shop, and for a moment, as my feet carried me toward it, I worried about the curse preventing me from going in. My fears were relieved though when I smelled the coffee and found the cafe door visible. I smiled and walked in to see Riley already making a cup of coffee.

  "Hello, Abigail. I didn't think I'd be seeing you back so soon." She glanced up and had a small smile in place.

  "Mm, I think that's a lie and that you saw my return in your cards." I sat down at the table. "I'm just in town to check on a few things, and then I'll be going back to hunting Carson down so I can get my curse removed."

  She walked over and sat a mug of coffee in front of me. "That curse should have killed you by now."

  "I had some friends who were able to reset it. I've bought time."

  "The goddess in on your side," Riley said and went back to the counter. "You'll find your answers, but I have a warning for you."

  Warnings were never a good thing, especially from someone who could see the future. "Okay."

  "You will be tested, and in the end, it's your life that matters. Remember that." She looked up as the door opened, and Merick and her grandmother walked in. She wrinkled her nose. "You aren't tainted enough that this place is hidden, but you are Cult, so you shouldn't be welcomed here."

  That was interesting, because from my perspective Merick was pretty tainted. "He's here to help me. I trust him with my life, and he's never disappointed me."

  "I am here under a truce." Merick bowed his head. "I'm simply here to make sure that Abigail does not die at Carson's hand. Then I'll be flying back home with her."

  Riley looked at him and then me. "You trust him?"

  "He's saved me from two vampire attacks, has helped me with cases, and willingly came here knowing we'd be dealing with a situation I can't control."

  She nodded. "Then welcome to the cafe. Grandma, what can I get you?"