A Handful of Skulls (Here Witchy Witchy Book 9) Read online

  “Whatever it is, I’m sorry to shatter the illusion, but we have a problem,” Merick’s voice broke the pleasant daydream.

  I opened my eyes and looked at him. “How big of a problem?”

  “A package was delivered for you today.”

  I tried to think if I had ordered something, but nothing came to mind. “Please don’t tell me it’s a body part.”

  “No, no body part. A doll.”

  “A doll?”

  “A cursed doll.”

  So Hannah was at it again. “Do I need to deal with it tonight?”

  “No, it’s safe and warded with the cult, but I want you to see it before we attempt to take the curse off of it.”

  I stared at him. I had no real words, except, “I’m going to bed.”

  Merick followed me up the stairs. “I thought you were going to find something to help protect you in your sleep.”

  I sighed. “You’re right. I should do that first.”

  He held his hand out. A small silver charm of a cat wearing a witch’s hat was in his hand. “The cult offers you their protection.”

  I frowned at it. It was such an unassuming little charm. The Egyptians worshiped the cats, so the cat charm made sense, but the hat? I smiled. “I’m glad to see that cult has a little bit of humor. What kind of charm is it?”

  “Eventually, Abigail, your magic is going to be stretched so thin that people are going to start getting through. Asking for help with protection spells will help you. Looking at everything skeptically will also help you.” He laughed. “The charm is to help protect you from threats that others see and you do not.”

  I ran my finger over the little charm. A small shiver ran through me, but not one that meant to harm me. No, it ran warm and spoke to my magic. “Who created this?”

  He shook his head. “I swore I wouldn’t say. You know you can trust me. It’s not meant to harm you at all.”

  “I know that.” I took my pentagram necklace off and added the cat charm to it. When I put the necklace back on, it was almost as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I closed my eyes and welcomed the new magic, a small smile dancing on my face.

  Merick chuckled. “Now, go rest, Abby. You have a long day ahead of you.”

  Wasn’t that the truth.

  I crawled into bed, hoping for a dreamless sleep.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  My phone rang in the darkness, and I grasped around for it. My sleep hadn’t been as dreamless as I had hoped, but at least Hannah hadn’t been trying to kill me. Either way, the sun was not up, and the phone was already ringing.

  I finally found it and swiped the icon to answer. “Special Agent Collins speaking.”

  “Good morning, Agent Collins,” said an unfamiliar voice on the other end.

  I sat up and tried to place the voice. My alarm clock read five am. A bit early for my taste. “Who is this?”

  “I go by many names, but the one you’re most familiar with is Vlemeinheil.”

  I was awake now. “You’re a hard man to find Mr. Vlemeinheil.”

  “I like it that way, many people are looking for me. Some who wish to simply chat and some who wish to harm me. Which are you?”

  It sounded like a riddle. “It all depends. Did you murder Agent Thompson?”

  “If I had murdered him, Abigail, you wouldn’t have seen me on the screen. You know that. Your instincts are better than that. Come, meet me for breakfast, we have a lot to talk about.”

  That was putting it lightly. “Name the place and give me an hour.”

  “Bagel World.”

  I had been expecting him to name some top tier place, so the commonness of Bagel World threw me off. “I’ll see you in an hour.”

  “See you then, Agent Collins.” The phone went dead, and I pulled myself out of bed with a groan.

  It was early. I needed coffee and a gun. Just in case. Vlemeinheil was a warlock. A powerful one at that. I didn’t want to risk being without a non-magical weapon. I got in the shower and dressed. I added another gun from my safe to my belt before going down and finding Merick already awake and at the coffee pot.

  I raised a brow. “Do you sleep?”

  “I’m pretty sure we have this conversation once a week. I was up with a phone call. My dad has told me you haven’t reached out to any of the contacts he’s given you.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not true. You got me in contact with Geb.”

  “And he said he wanted to wait until things calmed down a bit. My father just wanted to make sure you weren’t running into problems.” He raised his cup. “Coffee’s fresh. Why are you up?”

  “Got a call from Vlemeinheil, he wants to meet this morning. I don’t want to miss my chance.”

  “Hopefully, you’ll have time for a nap later.” He sipped his coffee while I went to make my own. “Tonight, we need you to come and look at the creepy doll.”

  “Okay, I will make time to come look at the creepy doll,” I promised. “I’ll let you know if I’m heading to work or back home after this meeting.”

  “Much appreciated.” Merick went to the living room with his coffee.

  I took mine to the Hummer with me and started the car up. I gave it a moment to warm up and flipped through my phone and my emails. There on my PIB email was the enhanced photo I had asked for. I clicked on it and studied the doorway. Someone was sitting at the desk. A vampire. The only way I knew was because he was smiling so wide I could see his fangs.

  It wasn’t one I knew. I hadn’t expected it to be a vampire because we assumed magic was used to silence the gunshot.

  I frowned and called Liz. Her phone rang while I backed out of my driveway and headed toward the highway.

  “It. Is. Early,” Liz’s voice grounded out.

  “Yeah, I know. I’m heading to meet Vlemeinheil right now, but we also got the email with the enhanced picture. A vampire is sitting at that desk. We need to run facial recognition on it and figure out how this all connects.” I merged on to the nearly empty highway.

  She was quiet for a moment, probably shaking the sleepy fog from her brain. “You’re meeting with Vlemeinheil alone?”

  That’s what she had gotten out of the conversation. Not that there was a vampire that popped into PIB, not that our killer probably wasn’t Vlemeinheil, but that I was going to go meet him alone. “Do you want me to pick you up?”

  “Yes. This is a fabled warlock, you’re not going alone. I want the opportunity to meet him too.”

  And here I thought she was worried about my safety. “Okay, I’ll be there in twenty to pick you up.”

  I swore she made a noise of glee before hanging up. I rolled my eyes and focused on getting to her house. Vlemeinheil wasn’t the killer, but he had to have seen the body. I could think of a million reasons why he wanted to avoid it, one less thing on the record at PIB, but he did choose to be seen on our cameras, and for some reason, that didn’t make sense to me at all.

  I turned up the radio and headed to Liz’s house to pick her up. She had to be distracted because she was going to let me drive. The thought made me laugh because I remembered she didn’t have a car either, which made me wonder what she was borrowing while the cars were being pulled out of the giant hole.

  When I pulled up to her house, I got my answer. There was a PIB issued SUV sitting in her driveway. She was sitting on her front porch, sipping a cup of coffee, waiting for me to pull up.

  I waved to her and got out of the Hummer. “Ready?”

  “I’m driving, let’s go.” She jumped up. “You don’t have time to argue,” she reminded me as I made a face. I thought I was going to get away with it, but I rolled my eyes and grabbed my coffee out of the Hummer before I climbed into the black SUV. “If you were going to drive, you could have just met me there.”

  Liz nodded. “That’s true, but then I can’t fill you in on something interesting.” She started the car and backed out of her driveway.

  “Describe interesting. The sun’s jus
t now coming up, and I’ve already had my fill of ‘interesting’ for the day.” I sipped my coffee and looked out the window.

  She took a deep breath. “The images of Vlemeinheil are gone from the records.”

  “What?” I looked at her. “Which images? All of them?”

  “No, just the ones from the security tapes. I don’t know how he managed it, but they’re gone. The file is corrupted right near the point that he entered the building right up to when he leaves.”

  I thought for a moment. “Because he knew we’d gotten the message. He’s good.” I sipped my coffee. “Really good.”

  “Corrupted files are easy to do.”

  “Can they repair them though?”

  She hesitated. “They are trying to.”

  “I bet if they get them repaired that there’s no sign of Vlemeinheil on them. I bet they’re scrubbed clean and replaced.” I shook my head. “He certainly knows how to cover his trail.”

  Liz sighed. “Did you ever figure out where you had seen him from?”

  “No, I didn’t ask Levi last night either, because there was a lot of other things that needed to be discussed.”

  She exited off the highway. “Case related?”

  “No, family related.” It was the best way I could put it.

  Not long after pulling off the highway, Liz pulled into the parking lot at Bagel World. “Let’s go meet our mystery warlock, shall we?”

  I nodded and got out. We both walked in together and looked around. Vlemeinheil was sitting in the back. He looked just as he did in the video, just a bit more rested than before.

  Liz and I sat in the booth across from him. He looked up at us both. “I wasn’t aware you were both coming.”

  I shrugged. “We’re kind of together on this case.”

  “Of course, I should have known.” He smiled, and his words rolled out with an accent that was one part German and one part something else “Ladies, I know why you’re looking for me. Please go on with your questions. I have a busy schedule.”

  I glanced at Liz, and she nodded for me to take the lead. “A man name Cornelius Davenport was looking for you. Do you know him?”

  “A lot of people look for me, Agent Collins. Cornelius was one of many.”

  “Did he find you?” I corrected myself.

  He nodded. “He did. He was searching for the truth behind my claim of immortality.” His lip twitched in a little smile. “He didn’t like the truth, so he left with great sadness in his heart.”

  It made no sense. “What is the truth?”

  “That it’s not true, Agent Collins, not even the vampires are truly immortal. They can be killed, they have no souls, they’ve already moved on. Some have created living vampires, but even they are not immortal. Everything in this world dies, Abigail, eventually.”

  I felt like he was talking specifically about me. I pushed the feeling off and continued with the questions. “Cornelius had a secret as well.”

  “He did. His search was for immortality for another. Not him.”

  “Who?” I asked. “His family had said they hadn’t seen him in years.”

  “Not them. No, someone else. A child he said.”

  “Why did you come to visit Thompson?” Liz asked. “Was he also looking for you?”

  “He was. I’ve met with him before, but he had a particular case file he wanted me to look at.”

  The case file that he had in his hand. “Did you take the case file from the office?”

  He bobbed his head from side to side. “Perhaps I did.”

  “We’re going to need that file back. Please.” I added the ‘please’ because it never hurts to be polite.

  He shook his head. “I’ll give it back to you when I’m ready. Until then, I’m sure you have the case file number. You’re both smart agents. Thompson wanted me to look into that case. That’s all I know. You found me, you learned the truth about immortality, so now, I must be going. I did not kill Thompson, the creature who did, he’s out for you, Abigail.”

  With that, Vlemeinheil stood and walked out, leaving Liz and me speechless. After a couple minutes, Liz looked at me. “Do you want to tell me what is going on?”

  I pressed my lips together. “Okay, well…” I sighed. “This has to be off the record.

  She sighed and held her hands up. “Off the record. Damnit Abigail, what have you gotten into?”

  “Ira was working with a vampire named Hannah. Well, it turns out that Hannah works for Ira’s maker…and well, she has a hit out on me.” I sighed. “It’s really not that big of a deal. It’s not the first time I’ve had a price on my head.”

  She stared at me. “Ira and the King have the same maker. You not only know who the king is, you know who his maker is. How deep into this are you?”

  I cringed. “Deeper than I want to be.”

  “This is a mess. The vampire world drama is starting to bleed into PIB. We have no Boss Man at our branch right now and a lot of dead bodies.” She looked at me. “And you’re in the middle of some of it.”

  I laughed. “My life is never boring.”

  “How can you be so calm about this?”

  “Really, I’m just getting used to people trying to kill me. If I just learn to expect it, then I can just move on with my life.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think that’s how it works.”

  “I’m not sure, but that’s what I’m going with until proven wrong.”

  She stood. “Come on, let’s go look into that case file.”

  I wondered if she was going to press for more information, but the car ride was a peaceful quiet that neither of us seemed to want to break. I closed my eyes and dozed in the car while she drove.

  We pulled up to the office. Caution tape was around the giant hole in the parking lot. Liz looked at it then to me. “That wasn’t because someone was trying to kill you, was it?”

  “Are you going to question everything now? Because I think I already do enough for both of us.” I shrugged. “I don’t know what that was. But I don’t think it was an attempt on me. A distraction, maybe.”

  “From what?”

  “I have no idea at this point.” I walked into the building. “What I do know is that Vlemeinheil has a PIB document that should have never left the building. And I have a feeling that it was the case that Boss Man was working on when he disappeared.”

  We took the stairs together to head to my office. “I think you’re right. Which means we’re on the right track to figuring out who killed him.”

  “And Trent,” Liz added.

  We got into the office, and I logged into the computer. I typed in the case file and waited for it to load.

  It popped up with a restricted note. I glanced at Liz, and she shrugged. “See if we have access to it. If not, we’ll talk to our new friend in internal affairs.”

  I double-clicked on it, and over half of the file was redacted. “Damn it. And I’m betting that Vlemeinheil has the original.”

  Liz leaned forward in her chair. “I’ll call Agent Landry and see if we can get clearance or if she can get us a copy of it.”

  “Thanks.” My phone rang, and I looked down at the number. Simon. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

  Liz nodded as she pulled out her own phone. I answered the call. “Hey, what’s up?”

  “So, you know how you’re the pseudo-alpha of the other half of the pack?”

  I had forgotten for a moment because I had pushed it back on my ‘deal with later’ burner. “Yeah.”

  “Tonight’s the full moon.”

  “I know that. That’s why I was going to wait to address it with you until tomorrow or the next day.”

  “Abby, you’re the alpha, and it’s a full moon.”

  His words finally sank in. “Simon, I can’t run with a pack of wolves. They’ll eat me.”

  “Well, you really don’t have a choice until you hand the pack over to me.” He sighed. “You don’t have to run with us. Just be there.”

>   I glanced at my watch. It was barely ten. “Okay, I’ll be there before sundown.”

  “Can you make it around dinner time?”

  “I can try. We might hit a break in this case today.”

  He laughed. “Try your hardest, Abby. This is important too.”

  He disconnected the call, and I walked back into my office. Liz looked up at me. “She’ll get a copy and bring it down to us.” She motioned to the phone in my hand. “Good news?”

  “Not exactly. I have to be somewhere tonight.” I sat down at my computer. “And it’s not exactly negotiable.” I shoved my phone back into my pocket. “Did Agent Landry say anything about the third building?”

  “Yeah, she said she’d bring those results too. She didn’t want to share them over the phone.”

  That never boded well in my experience. “Okay. Until then, I’ll make some notes and see if we’re actually making progress or if we just feel like we are.”

  My phone rang again, and I groaned when I looked at the screen. Levi. I answered it. “A little bit too early for you to be up, isn’t it?”

  “Have you seen Stephanie’s tabloid today?”

  No pleasantries, I must be in trouble. “No, I’ve been a bit busy.”

  “Look it up online. Now.”

  I sighed and opened a browser on my computer. “A please wouldn’t hurt.”

  “There is no time for manners, Abigail.”

  He was starting to sound like Mario. I let it go as the website loaded. There on the front page was a picture of me with some photoshopped magic in my hand. That wasn’t what the problem was. It was the title.

  Abigail Collins: King Killer?

  The subtitle

  Did this little witch kill the King of Vampires? The underground thinks so.

  “Fuck,” I breathed.

  “Now you see why the rush. Abigail, if the underground thinks you killed the king, then you know what’s going to happen?”

  “The underground is going to rise up. Nick said that they thought Ira was the king.”