It wasn’t going to be easy, but he vowed to do it because he loved her.
The snowball fight went on for a little while longer, the movement preventing the cold from affecting Danny too much. She would keep dodging and popping up to shower him with snow from the oddest angles.
When she appeared behind him, however, he was ready for her. He turned before she could dunk the snowball on his head and wrapped her in his arms.
They tottered and then landed in a high snowbank, their fall easily cushioned. Both of them were laughing like mad. Her sunglasses were on her head as she looked up at him, nearly black eyes shining with emotion.
“I love you,” he whispered, brushing hair from her face.
“I love you, from now to eternity.”
Chapter 6
As was his habit now, Danny woke up around one in the afternoon, a few hours before sunset. He typically took the time between his waking and Angelica’s to concentrate on the psychic techniques Brighton taught him a few years back. It always helped to keep his brain sharp.
He’d then catch up on local news that had nothing to do with the paranormal world, eat something, and down half a pot of coffee. To many it would seem like he was living a fairly dull existence, but when one considered his nocturnal activities, they would understand why he tried so hard to relax during his downtime.
Though Angelica’s touches around his house sometimes gave him the creeps. Especially the taxidermy bat that hung on the wall. She claimed it was a gift given to her twenty years ago. Every so often she’d get bored with it and move it to a new place, not telling Danny, who always, every damn time, got startled by finding it somewhere else.
He wrinkled his nose at the little, beady-eyed creature. Angelica liked what she called oddities. He called it gross. His father liked to hunt and had heads of non-endangered animals hung on the walls of his office when Danny was growing up. Unnerved him then and still did now. At least she left the real raven skeleton back at her penthouse. That was one creepy thing he drew the line at having anywhere near him on a daily basis.
It hit him then, as he glared at the little bat, that he was bored out of his skull. After so long, he was used to constant action with Angelica. Sitting and being idle while teams did the footwork for him was not something he was used to as a cop or Special Agent.
His phone rang, startling him out of his mental stupor. He smirked: Angelica changed his ringtone to “Hurricane” by 30 Seconds To Mars. They had complimentary tattoos of the lyrics from that song.
“Mancini,” he answered.
“Hey, it’s Sean.”
Oh no, this cannot be good, Danny thought. “What’s up?”
“I got nothing to do with all the teams managing themselves. And I bet you don’t either, since Angie is asleep.”
“Yeah. And?” Danny asked.
“I need to go buy presents for my friends who celebrate Christmas, and I bet you do, too. I also have something I want to talk to you about, but don’t wanna do it at the PID,” Sean admitted.
“I have presents to buy, too,” Danny said. “Namely for Angelica.” Despite knowing her so well, he had no idea what to buy her. She loved old books, but he didn’t have the kind of money to buy antique, leatherbound editions of Poe or signed Shakespeare plays.
She loved music, but what could he get her she didn’t already own? And how would he know what Funko toys she was missing, when her coffin room was full of them?
“Yeah? I know just the place. Text you the address,” Sean said and hung up.
Twenty minutes later, after writing a quick note to Angelica, letting her know he was going shopping, but not with whom, Danny parked outside of a place called Woolly Mammoth. Sean stood outside, long black duster sweeping just above the snow with thick combat boots peeking out from underneath.
He might not have been a musician anymore, but he still dressed like one.
“I forgot how slow you are when Angelica isn’t driving,” Sean commented.
“I like keeping my guts inside where they belong, not strewn on the road,” Danny replied. “What the Hell is this place?”
“It’s awesome. One of a kind items for the creepy girl in your life,” Sean explained. He opened the door and said, “After you,” with a flamboyant gesture. The wicked grin on his face made Danny uneasy.
He knew Sean wouldn’t harm him — no matter how much they bickered, they respected each other — but something was up.
When Danny stepped inside the store, he knew exactly what made Sean so gleeful.
The place was full of taxidermy animals, skulls, skeletons, broken doll heads, antique coffins, medical supplies, some dating back to the nineteenth century, and other things he either could not or did not want to identify.
“This place screams Angelica,” he said. “And frankly, it just makes me want to scream.”
Sean chuckled and slapped him on the back. “I’ve known Angie longer than you. She’s not easy to buy for. Niche interests, but many of them are easily obtainable. I knew you’d be in a quandary over what to get her.”
“I’d thank you, but I’m not sure I’m grateful.” Danny peered at a stuffed otter that seemed to almost glare at him.
“Does she like otters?” Sean asked.
“No, and even if she did, one dead animal is enough for our house, don’t you think?”
“You mean Lestat?”
“The bat has a name?” Danny rolled his eyes. “Let me guess, you gave it to her.”
Sean shook his head. “Not me.”
“The little bastard stares at me.”
Sean guffawed. “Is that what you do with your downtime, have stare-downs with dead rodents?”
Danny turned his back on Sean, not responding, as he looked at some of the antique books on display. There was a painting on the walls of a rose, almost tattoo style, in a deep shade of red. Angelica would love it.
“How much for that?” he asked a worker.
“Nah, man,” the guy replied. “That was a gift to the shop. Cool, huh? He painted it with his own blood.”
Revulsion crept down Danny’s spine and he nodded at the man. “Yeah, my wife definitely belongs in this place.” He ran a hand nervously through his hair.
There was a life-sized skeleton in an aged wooden coffin — not a casket, like what Angelica slept in. He wondered if there was room for it in her coffin room. She could have a friend.
There was a vintage vampire hunting kit, but considering the age of the holy water contained in a vial within, Danny didn’t want to risk it potentially injuring her. Besides, he was sure she owned one at one point in her life when she lived in Victorian London. It wouldn’t be novel to her.
Another case proudly displayed some skulls and a handwritten sign that read, “HUMAN VERTEBRAE”. Danny backed away quickly.
Next to the hunting kit, he spotted another box, just as aged behind glass. Inside was what looked like an ancient syringe with a thick, used, but well preserved needle.
“Blundell’s Blood Transfusion Apparatus.” He grinned and called for the employee to come unlock it. It was perfect.
Angelica ran the US’s first blood bank in 1888, and Danny volunteered there when he was still Jonathan Price in his first life. It had a personal connection, to give that to her, not just because it was creepy.
“Good choice,” Sean commented, showing Danny the preserved copperhead skeleton he was getting her. The glaring otter was also amongst his purchases.
“Do not give that to Angie,” Danny warned. “I don’t wanna look at it every day.”
“It’s not for her,” Sean assured him. “It’s for you.” One glance at Danny’s stricken face had him and the shopkeep doubling over in laughter. “Chill, Mancini. It’s for a friend of mine. You are so straight-laced.”
There was some strange vintage jewelry behind the counter, and Danny also bought Angelica an Edwardian era brooch: it was a golden sword with a crescent moon and sparrow, bedazzled with pearls and sapphires. She
was going to love it.
As they left the store, Danny gave another shudder at what was inside and tried to put it out of his memory.
“You hungry?” Sean asked.
“After that?” Danny gestured behind him with his thumb. His stomach decided to growl at that moment, betraying him.
Sean laughed as he put his purchases into the backseat of his PID-issue black Mercedes. “That will keep thieves from wanting to steal the car, in any case.”
“An alarm might be cheaper,” Danny commented.
“Let’s have a late lunch at The Melting Pot,” Sean suggested.
“You wanna go into the Magic District?” Danny asked. “While we have a witch on the loose?”
Sean nodded. “It’ll be safe to talk there.” He got behind the wheel of his car before Danny could protest further and sped out onto Foster Avenue.
Danny followed reluctantly in his white Cadillac Coupe DeVille. It was a nice restaurant. He and Angelica would sometimes stop in between working on cases, since it was vampire friendly and served blood. Despite his previous poor experience with a witch named Fiona, he never held anything against magic wielders. But now he couldn’t be sure if anyone harbored Cailleach from the PID, and it made him paranoid.
He paid the meter after parking behind Sean and walked into the hidden alleyway many — okay, most — normal humans didn't know existed.
The Magic District was located right off the Magnificent Mile and went for five blocks, lined with specialty shops for all your witchy ways. On top of the shops, apartments sat. Some were lived in by the owners, and some were used as student housing for kids attending the local Coven school. The whole District was painted bright colors, and the most modern thing allowed within was electricity. Even the Coven members were clad in bright tones, a few in more earthy colors. Unlike fiction, precious few witches wore all black.
Nor did vampires, for that matter. Angelica was an outlier with her heavy eyeliner and black-on-black aesthetic.
In fact, there was so much color, Danny felt dizzy as his eyes tried to take it all in. Orange and fuschia and blue and green … it all clashed and yet it all fit cohesively and gave one the feeling of being somewhere magical.
“If they opened the district to tourists, they would make a fortune,” Danny said when he caught up to Sean.
“Yeah, but it’s not worth it,” Sean replied. “To have normal people traipsing through here, littering and appropriating Paganism?”
“You do realize that, up until a few years ago, I was a normal person, right?”
“You are the reincarnated soul of Jonathan Price of the legendary Price family of hunters, plus you’re psychic. Plus you’re married to the Vampire Empress. Dude, the ‘normal’ ship sailed long ago.”
Sean turned and walked into The Melting Pot, which had a circular entrance shaped in the silhouette of a cauldron and no door. Magic kept them locked up at night.
They sat down at a table and placed their drink orders before Sean sighed and rubbed the back of his head, a habit he had when he was nervous or sheepish.
“What do you know that I don’t?” Danny asked. His detective instincts were never wrong, and he knew whatever Sean wanted to talk about, it was more than a suspicion or idea.
“I spotted Roman last night, as he was leaving from research,” Sean blurted. “He had some holly pinned to the clasp of his watch.”
“The same plant burnt in the ritual that killed the kid,” Danny said. “But he is a witch. Maybe it’s for the season?”
Sean looked up from under his lashes. “Not fucking likely. Since when do we get so lucky?”
Danny sighed. “Could he be trying to attract Cailleach?”
Sean nodded. “To be her next mate, to have his bloodline merge with hers. Like royals used to mate their offspring to strengthen their kingdoms.”
Danny took out his phone and opened the PID app Brighton created to get into the files. After putting in endless passwords, he found Roman Airmid’s personnel file.
“He’s not from a particularly strong bloodline. In fact, his family contacted the Grand Coven and didn’t want him to learn at the school because he was male, and all their witches were female until him,” Danny read. “Explains why he’d want to hook up with her, though.”
Sean nodded. “So, you don’t think I’m being an asshole?”
Danny shook his head. “No, I think you are an asshole,” he corrected. “But you’re also someone I’d trust to have my six against any enemy. I believe you. I don’t like the guy, either. And he wasn’t Angie’s first choice to lead the active search team.”
“Not surprised,” Sean said. He checked his watch. “So, after we eat, there’s an hour left before sunset. Do we go have a little talk? Because you know Angelica, she won’t talk.”
Dann nodded. “She’ll just shoot.”
They smiled at each other and both were silent as their food arrived.
“This could work in our favor,” Danny spoke up. “At the CPD, we had criminal informants who snuck into and infiltrated the enemy in order to help us bring them down. This could be like that, except he doesn’t know we’re onto him.”
Sean cocked his head. “Dunno. I kinda want him to shake in his boots a little.”
“So do I,” Danny admitted. “But what will benefit us in the long run?”
After a moment of contemplation, Sean nodded. “You’re right… Dear fuck, someone mark the date I had to say that out loud.”
Chapter 7
“Why did a band mangle ‘All I Want For Christmas’?” Danny asked Angelica as he followed her through the store in the shopping mall.
She turned and placed a black-laquered nail on his lips. “If I didn’t love you, I’d hurt you for insulting My Chemical Romance in such a manner.” She turned on her heel and held up a black and grey tartan dress with a corset attached. “What do you think of this with red heels for the holiday party?”
He smiled at her. “How about just the red heels?”
“For a party? Suddenly your jealousy has vanished?” she teased, putting the dress back on the rack. The store didn’t have her waist size unless she went online. And just like their investigation, there wasn’t enough time for that.
“Not my fault everyone with a pulse thinks you’re hot,” he commented.
“Nor is it mine.”
He nodded. “You’re right, it’s theirs.”
She smiled and kissed his bearded cheek. “You’re cute when you try to be possessive.”
“Try?”
“Yes.” She winked. “Because you know damn well that if you wanted to possess me, I’d eat you. And not in the fun way.”
He looked at the gigantic wall of band and pop culture shirts to distract them both. “Do I have to see Sean everywhere I go?”
Sean’s old band, Lycancore, had a few t-shirts on the wall. Angelica sometimes forgot that her best friend used to be a famous rock star.
“Like when you went out with him two days ago?” Angelica asked nonchalantly, flicking through more shirts to find one in her size.
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched her husband become still as a statue.
“How did you know?”
“I smelled his God-awful aftershave on you. The man needs to remember that a little goes a long way.” She placed a Lycancore shirt over her arm, as well as one from The Umbrella Academy. “So? What happened? I know damn well you two didn’t decide to become all buddy-buddy in the span of a few days.”
“Well, he showed me a store and we found you some Christmas presents,” Danny said, hands in the pockets of his jeans.
“Mm-hmm.” Now she moved onto the vinyl section, still not looking him in the eyes. “You might have been a detective, husband of mine, but you need another century of experience to catch up to me. What was the premise?” She placed the twentieth anniversary edition of Issues under her arm.
“We have reason to believe that Roman Airmid is either working with Cailleach or wants t
o,” Danny said. “We were going to let him lead us to her and simultaneously hang himself before we told you or anybody, in case our idea got him or the PID compromised. You know, plausible deniability.”
Angelica nodded. “And let’s not forget that, had you told me, I would have strung him up in iron chains and slowly sliced his skin off with a butterknife until he spilled his guts.”
“That, too.”
She grinned at him. “You know me so well. I knew I should have picked someone else, but the Coven Master trusts him. Stupid, blind motherfucker.”
“Sean’s got electronic monitors on all Roman’s devices, including a GPS tracker that can’t be disabled by magic,” Danny said. He held up his phone. “I’ve been keeping an eye on him until this evening.”
Angelica kissed him quickly. “Have I told you how much I love you?”
“I never get tired of hearing it,” he replied.
It hurt that, because she was forced to make a choice, the investigation might be compromised. Loyalty was something she not only valued but demanded from PID employees. If Danny and Sean were right, and she had no reason to doubt them, then she appointed a traitor head of an investigation that could have catastrophic results.
“Can I ask you something?” Danny asked.
She nodded, now looking at the pop culture jewelry on a rack.
“If Cailleach only plans on reproducing, like some kind of immortal luna moth, why is she such a high threat?”
“The woman hasn’t been seen since the seventeen hundreds. Do you think all she wants is to pass on her bloodline?” She turned and cocked an eyebrow at him.
“Nope,” Danny replied, crossing his arms. “Please don’t tell me we’re dealing with another witch who wants to control the world? This is getting old.”
She fingered a dragon’s wing ear cuff and said, “I don’t think so. Not to such an extreme length. I hoped by now someone would have gotten word of her hideaway.” She silently held out her things to Danny for him to hold while she chose the color stone she wanted in the earring.
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