A Handful of Skulls (Here Witchy Witchy Book 9)

by A. L. Kessler

  “Why is the circle around the pack land different than the ones around your house? That’s what makes you more comfortable here, right?”

  I nodded. “The ones around the house are meant strictly for protection. The one here, it’s closer to nature. It’s created with my blood, making it almost like a charging station for my magic. I could do it at the house, but it wouldn’t be the same.” I struggled to find the words to explain it.

  “Interesting.” He kissed my cheek and then laid back down. “So about that pack…”

  “Yeah, I don’t need to complicate my life anymore. How do I hand them over?”

  He was quiet for a moment. “Since Luke’s pack was never registered as another pack, there’s no paperwork. But there are some official words and traditions for you to step down before I can claim them.”

  Traditions. Any time a supernatural creature mentioned traditions, it wasn’t something that I was going to enjoy. “Okay… what are the chances of me getting eaten?”

  “None, promise. You let them know you step down, and I step up to take them in. They get the option of joining me.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Traditions are never that easy.”

  He hesitated. “You’re right. The wolves have the option of joining us or we hunt them until they’re out of the territory. They won’t be welcomed here if they don’t pledge loyalty to me.”

  “Great, so I don’t have a risk of being eaten, but the others do.” I ran my hands over my eyes. “Can we skip that part? None of them chose to accept my leadership.”

  “Actually, they all did after you killed Luke. They all bowed to you, they all accepted your call and ran under your command.”

  I glanced at him. “I’m a witch.”

  “And now an honorary werewolf. Which brings me to my next point.”

  I sat up. “I’m going to have to pledge my loyalty to you too. But I’m a witch.”

  He nodded. “I have to talk to Levi and see if it’s okay and not a breach of our alliance.”

  I hadn’t thought about that. “Um, I haven’t told him anything about this.”

  “Nothing?”

  “Well, no, because there’s a lot more going on, and I didn’t think telling him I killed Luke was a good thing.” I cringed.

  Simon laughed. He used his best Levi impression, “Killing wolves is bad for the alliance.”

  “Something like that.” I laughed.

  My phone rang, and I groped around for it, finding it on the nightstand by the bed. I swiped to answer it. “Special Agent Collins speaking.”

  “Morning sunshine, I hope you got some rest.” Liz’s voice came across the line. “I need you down at the office ASAP. We have information, and we have to plan and make our move.”

  I wasn’t sure what exactly she meant, but I sat up anyways. “Okay, I’ll be down there.”

  She hung up without another word. I looked down at Simon, and he smiled up at me. “Work?”

  “Isn’t it always work?” I stood and looked down at my clothes. I owned enough PIB clothes to get away with wearing the same ones two days in a row, but I at least wanted a quick shower.

  He sat up. “After the case, we talk about this alpha thing.”

  “After this case, we solve the alpha thing and figure out how pissed Levi is going to be.”

  Simon snorted. “I’ll talk to him before you do. That might help.”

  “Yeah. Do we have to mention that I killed Luke?”

  “Might be kind of hard to explain how you became alpha.”

  “Ugh. Okay, fine.” I walked toward the bathroom. “I’m going to take a quick shower and I’ll be on my way.”

  “I’ll make you some coffee to go.”

  That was going to be nice.

  When I got to PIB, Liz was already in my office with papers spread across the floor. “You know, that’s typically how I work.” I walked in and looked over her shoulder.

  “Okay, so, here’s the thing. The explosion in the third building, buried in the center was this.” She tapped a picture. “Agent Landry sent it over to forensics.”

  I picked up the photo and sat on the floor with her. The photo was of a small skull, human, and it was still perfectly intact. Runes could be seen scratched into the side of the skull. Black magic for sure, but it didn’t tell us who committed the explosion. “Okay, so how do we get to look at the skull in person?”

  “Landry said we can go see it in the lab if we want, but we’re not allowed to take it.”

  That was crap. I wanted to use it for a spell, but I suppose it was a key piece of evidence. “What else?” I put the picture back down and looked at the next item.

  The stack of papers was clipped together with confidential printed on the first page. “Is that the case file?”

  She nodded. “It is. Go ahead and give it a look through. I haven’t yet. I’ve been focused on the skull and the explosion, trying to figure out how they fit together.”

  I flipped the cover page of the file and started reading through it. Landry shouldn’t have left the file in our possession without her being present because we didn’t have the clearance, but I wasn’t going to complain.

  Especially because I found something interesting on the first page.

  The name of the victim:

  Crystal Davenport

  And the fact that she was listed as a surviving victim and Cornelius was listed as her father.

  “Boss Man should never have been on that case.” I handed the paper to Liz.

  She looked at it and then me. “Holy shit. There’s no way.” Liz ran her fingers down the paper. “According to this, she’s in a PIB run facility.”

  A PIB run facility typically meant the person couldn’t be released back into society because either they were a danger to themselves or others. “Does it say why?”

  She shook her head. “No, but I’m willing to bet it has something to do with the reason Boss Man was looking for Vlemeinheil.”

  “Me too. Looks like we’re taking a trip to the facility to see what’s going on there.”

  She nodded and flipped through the papers. “Didn’t Vlemeinheil say that he had a copy of this?”

  “Yes. I’m willing to bet that he’s going to pay a visit to Crystal.” I sighed and looked over the other items on the ground. “I thought we weren’t going to work on the explosions.”

  “Well, I didn’t either, but if we can connect it to our current case, then we can, and with the skull being an obvious inclusion of black magic, Landry has decided to consult us.”

  I smirked. “That’s a nice way to get in the case.” I pointed to the first building. “This was the first one that exploded, that took down my circle.”

  She nodded. “And the second one came quick enough that I couldn’t replace the circle. Seconds, maybe milliseconds after your circle crashed?”

  “I want to talk to Kris again. See if she knows about Vlemeinheil or Crystal.”

  “I think that was Boss Man’s secret, that he had a daughter in the facility.”

  I nodded. “Depending on what she’s in the facility for, it could have ruined his career.”

  “Thompson said that the victim from that case was dead. That it was just like what we had found on campus.”

  I nodded. “Cover-up?”

  “Covering for a man who disappeared?”

  “Boss Man didn’t disappear. He went seeking answers.”

  A knock came on my office door, and I looked at Liz. She started gathering up the pictures and papers, and I helped her before I went to answer the door. “Can I help you?” I stared at Agent Porter.

  He pulled his cuffs out and slapped one on my wrist. “Agent Abigail Collins, you’re under arrest in connection to the murder of Grayson Yorkingson.”

  What the fuck? I was too stunned to fight him off as he spun me around and put the other cuff on. I glanced at Liz, who looked just as stunned as I did.

  “Anything you say can and will be held against you in the court of l
aw…”

  As he repeated my rights to me, I tried to wrack my brain on how I would be arrested for Grayson’s murder when there shouldn’t have been a body to find. Never mind evidence of me killing him.

  The blood splatter was in a random castle, the bullet in the wall, and that was if no one cleaned it up.

  Had the council betrayed me again? Or had someone else gotten ahold of the location and information. Grayson’s death hadn’t been mentioned in the case file at all.

  Porter jerked me into the hallway and guided me down the stairs.

  “You know if you wanted to bring me in for questioning, the cuffs weren’t needed,” I muttered as a few agents stared at us. He got to the elevator, and my panic nearly peaked. Enclosed in an elevator. With someone out to kill me. With magical cuffs on. I took a deep breath and stepped into the steel trap, hoping that I wasn’t going to die before we hit the basement where the interrogation rooms were.

  He walked me out of the elevator when the doors opened. He never said another word to me as he sat me down in the chair. I felt the magic of a truth spell close around me, and I sighed. I was in so much trouble. It was just a matter of time until he pulled the full truth out of me.

  I stared at Porter as he went to the other side of the table. I folded my still cuffed hands in front of me. “I thought you got the information you needed about Grayson. You had told me that you ‘just needed to decide where to go from here.’”

  He nodded. “And I was working on what I needed to do to put the case in as a cold file, but then I got a call. A body was discovered in that sinkhole, Agent Collins.” He sat down in the seat. “Grayson’s body. We were lucky that it wasn’t burnt.”

  Yeah, lucky wasn’t the word I would use right now. I kept my mouth shut.

  “Do you have any idea how the body ended up there?”

  I shook my head. “Nope, as far as I knew, they didn’t have anything figured out about the sinkhole.” Nothing from the magic tingled, but I wasn’t even stretching the truth at that point.

  “Magically initiated. Grayson’s body was lying in the center of it.” He tapped the table. “How did Grayson die, Agent Collins.”

  “Gunshot,” I muttered. There was no way around it. I could only get away with omitting information for so long, and staying silent would paint me just as guilty.

  He nodded. “Gunshot. Whose bullet do you think we found in his skull.”

  “Huh, mine should have been in the wall, not his head.” I cursed.

  “So, you did shoot him.” Porter smirked.

  I hung my head. “Look. What I’m about to say is confidential. Grayson was part of the King’s Council. Grayson betrayed me to Ira, sending me right into danger. When I got out, Grayson denied it. I shot him. In front of the King’s Council.” I looked up at Porter. “There is so much more behind this that’s confidential. But believe me, it was a roundabout way of self-defense.”

  “You shot another agent.”

  “I shot an agent who was double-crossing PIB and working with a monster,” I growled. “Call up the King’s Guard, let them know that I’m sitting in interrogation for bringing down a traitor.” I glared at him. “I can promise you they’ll come down and defend me.”

  “Hiding behind a king in a world you’re not part of Abigail? That’s just sad. Your bullet is in Grayson’s skull. You killed him, point-blank, and then tried to cover it up.”

  “No, I never tried to cover it up. I just didn’t tell anyone about it at the request of the King,” I growled. “I want to know who the hell put his body in the hole.”

  That seemed to catch Porter off guard. “We don’t know.”

  “Someone trying to frame me, maybe?”

  He leaned back in the chair. “You aren’t getting out of this, Agent Collins.”

  “Out of what?”

  “Murder charges.”

  I blinked at him. I honestly hadn’t been trying to get out of them. I really thought I was screwed. “I’m not trying to. I killed him in self-defense. You want to put me up on charges, okay. But when it goes to court, it’s not going to fly.”

  “You honestly think that?”

  “Yes.” I wasn’t going to expand on it. Chances were that since it was a King’s case, it probably wouldn’t even see court.

  He stood and walked out of the room. I wasn’t sure what he was doing, but it couldn’t have been good.

  I sat there and tried to think about what was going to happen next. He could put me up on charges, and that would take me out of PIB. If that happened, I wasn’t sure what I was going to have left. I could work for Levi more, but that seemed out of the question with Hannah after me.

  I could go out and get consulting jobs, but that was boring compared to PIB, or I could go work for the Cult. Wouldn’t that just make so many people happy?

  I smirked at that thought and gave a little laugh.

  “Something amusing Agent Collins?” he asked as he walked back in.

  “I was just thinking of my choices if you ruin my PIB career.” My smile changed to a smirk. “They were a bit more amusing than I had thought.”

  “The King’s Guard’s human secretary said she’d get the message to them. Until then, you’re in holding.”

  I blinked at him. “I have a case.”

  “It’s not your case any more. It’s Agent Jefferson’s.”

  “You’re an asshole.”

  “And you’re a killer.”

  His words stung a little more than I thought they would. The problem being he wasn’t wrong. I had killed Grayson, Ira, Luke, and that was just the recent ones. Yes, self-defense, but that still didn’t mean it was right. I slouched in my chair. “I’ll try to entertain myself until nightfall.”

  He snorted and stood, leaving me alone in the interrogation room. I didn’t want to be stuck here for hours. I wanted to be solving the case with Liz. I wanted to not be involved in Grayson’s case.

  I was going to be tried for murder and lose everything.

  Maybe this was a ploy by Levi to get me to leave PIB, or Mario. I wondered if either of them would do something this stupid.

  No, neither of them would risk exposing Levi. I put my head on the table and sighed. It was going to be a long few hours.

  A tickle went through me. Magic, and it wasn’t mine. Oh shit, oh shit.

  I couldn’t use my magic with the cuffs on. Hannah. My pentagram heated up, and so did the cat charm. I looked at where I knew the camera was. “Porter, you need to put me in a magically secured room. Now.”

  Pain hit me and cried out. I doubled over, knocking myself out of the chair. I felt like something was tearing me apart from the inside out. I coughed, and blood appeared on the ground below me.

  What the hell?

  “Porter!” I cried out. I swore I was going to kill him if I survived this. The world started turning black, and my face hit the concrete floor. Fuck this.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Pain shot through me as I opened my eyes to find myself in a room I knew all too well. It was one that had haunted my dreams since killing Ira. The throne he’d cuffed me to was still there. His body was gone, though there was a bloodstain where it had been.

  I looked down and found my stomach bleeding. which explained the pain. No. This was a dream. I was not hurt. The charm protected me from physical harm in my dreams. This was just a dream. Nothing more.

  As I thought that, the pain started to fade. Good. I looked up to see Ira looking over me.

  “Princess, princess. What are we going to do with you?”

  “You’re not real. I killed you. I emptied the full clip into your face,” I growled. “Get out of my dreams.”

  To my surprise, he disappeared, but it was like he melted away only to be replaced by Samuel. He stood tall in his frock jacket with his blond hair tied back at the base of his neck. “Princess?” He laughed. “Oh, isn’t that interesting. That makes Levi king.” Samuel grabbed my hair and yanked my neck back. “Perhaps we should make
it so your title is true.”

  His fangs flashed and struck down into my neck.

  I woke screaming. The hospital machines started beeping, and staff flooded in. I felt like I had been here before…wait, I had. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to force myself to calm down. One of the machines beeping started to slow down, so I assumed it was the heart monitor. After a few moments, I felt like I could breathe again.

  I opened my eyes to see a doctor staring at me. “Hi.”

  “How do you feel?”

  How did I feel? “I don’t know. I’ve only been awake for two minutes. I haven’t had time to assess myself.”

  He smiled. “I think that might be the most logical answer I’ve ever heard from a patient.” He backed up and motioned for a nurse. She started to take my vitals and looked at the monitor.

  “I hate to ask something that should be obvious, but what am I doing here?”

  “Well, Ms. Collins, you were brought in by ambulance, unconscious with internal bleeding.”

  Hm. “Okay?”

  “We were able to get the bleeding to stop, and you’re well on your way to healing. What we can’t figure out is how the bleeding started.”

  I nodded. “I can take a wild guess at that. I would have to say I was magically attacked.” My hand went up to my necklace to make sure it was still there. Luckily it was. “When will I be released?”

  “If you continue to show improvement, twenty-four hours.” He made a note on the chart. “You said you think you were magically attacked?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, it’s a long story. If you could contact Agent Liz Jefferson at PIB for me, I’d like to speak to her.”

  He made another note. “Okay, thank you. You have visitors waiting, do you think you’re well enough for them?”

  Taking a moment, I considered it. “Yes, go ahead and let them come in.”

  The doctor finished writing some things down and walked out. The nurse smiled at me. “Can you lift your sheet? I’d like to take a look at your incision and see how it’s doing.”

  “You had to cut me open?” I lifted the sheet, and she moved the medical gown to the side.