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  “Yeah. Maybe before you moved here?”

  “Yeah, I was still out east if it was five years ago. It obviously wasn’t a big enough case to hit national news.”

  I shook my head. “No we try to keep cases like this out of the media because it can cause a mass panic, we don’t want that. Especially over demons. Then people start throwing salt and holy water on each other, or people start killing other humans saying that they swear the other one was a demon. It’s just not a very good thing to happen.”

  I folded my hands on the computer. “So tell me, what did forensics turn up?”

  “Well, it looks like the guy was impaled.”

  That would explain all the blood. I raised a brow. “With what?”

  “From what Jason can tell, a rusty spike, old school style. Think Vlad the Impellor, slowly.”

  I cringed. “Do we know if it was done at the scene?”

  “Nothing was found near the scene, and judging by the amount of blood and lack of evidence of any sort of clean up, I’d say no. What we don’t know is if that’s what caused his death.”

  I didn’t want to imagine what else could have caused his death. “Okay, what else?”

  “Anything else will come back in Jason’s report. We’re working on getting an ID on him; he didn’t have a wallet or anything with him, so we’re hoping to canvas the area and turn something up.”

  I nodded. “Do I need to call someone for a ride?”

  “No, I can take you back to the office, if you’re ready?”

  I put my computer back in my bag and downed the last few sips of my coffee. “Yep, let’s get going.”

  I tossed my cup in the trash on the way out and followed Mason to his car. A shiver went down my back, and I turned to see someone standing outside the coffee shop staring at me. I tried to take in their appearance but it seemed to shift ever so slightly with each detail I tried to drink in. A subtle change of color to the hair, or the shirt. An odd change in height. Nothing was the same after a moment.

  I shook my head and blamed exhaustion and grief. Magic could be used to mask things, but I’d never seen it do something like that before. The question though, if someone were masking themselves and watching me, why? I climbed into the car and closed my eyes trying to push the thought away. It was just pure exhaustion; it wasn’t anything to worry about. Right? Maybe I should have taken some time off.

  “You doing okay, Abby?”

  I glanced at Mason debating on what to tell him. “Yeah, I just think lack of sleep is catching up to me.”

  He snorted. “Maybe head home and take a nap?”

  “Can’t, too many things to do for work.” I shook my head. “Clarissa’s case needs my expertise, and we need to figure out if we’re dealing with one or two demons or multiple people who are stupid enough to summon demons.”

  “Pass the case on if you need to.”

  I shook my head. “I’ll be fine. I’ll take something tonight to help me sleep, and I’ll be better in the morning.”

  He looked like he didn’t believe me, but started the car and headed toward the office anyways. After a few minutes of silence, he reached over and turned the radio on, letting us just sit and listen to the music.

  I got back into the office and looked at my desk. Not long ago I would have expected to find my uncle sitting in my chair, but he’d decided to step out of my life lately and pursue something other than bugging the hell out of me. Though, I was starting to miss him.

  I sat down and pulled out my notes from the coffee shop and reached for my phone. Before I could unlock it, it started ringing. I looked at the unknown number, debating on answering it. Jack had already called about Clarissa’s memorial, Levi and Mario were both tucked in bed for the day, and I hadn’t contacted anyone about the case yet.

  I answered it. “Special Agent Collins speaking.”

  “Special Agent Collins…they promoted you.”

  I knew the strangely accented voice on the end of the line, and it took every ounce of control in my body not to scream at him. Ira. “Not that it’s any of your business, but yes they did.”

  “Could it have something to do with the elemental ability? Or was it that you killed all those vampires six months ago?”

  Just the thought of it made me want to throw up. “What do you want Ira?”

  “To make sure that we were still on for our little truce meeting at the end of the week. I know that you’ve had your hands full, but I wanted to make sure you weren’t planning on backing out.”

  I locked my jaw and tried to keep calm. “I won’t be backing out. I’m assuming Levi has all the details?”

  “Yes, and I can’t wait to see how well you play the vampire political games.” He chuckled and hung up. I knew that some vampires could be awake during the day, hell I’d seen it with Levi before. But I hated the fact that Ira had my number now.

  I didn’t even want to know how the bastard got it. I took a deep breath and called the number for Detective Lance.

  The phone rang a couple times before someone finally picked up. “Hello? Steven speaking.”

  “Steven Lance? My name is Special Agent Abigail Collins, and I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about an old case.”

  There was silence on the other end of the phone.

  “Abigail Collins, you said?”

  “Yes, sir.” I tried to keep the question out of my voice.

  He cleared his throat. “Yes, which case is it? Would you like to meet for coffee to discuss it? I’m on my way out of the house for a meeting.”

  “Whenever you have available, please.” I wanted to know what it was about my name that had caught him off guard, but now wasn’t the time to ask. Right now I needed to make sure that he was willing to meet. “It’s the case that had the demon involved, about five years ago.”

  He drew in a sharp breath. “That was a very nasty case.”

  “And I have one that looks exactly like it.”

  “I’ll drop by your office after my meeting. Is that alright?”

  “Of course. I should be here all evening. I’m at the downtown PIB office, just ask the receptionist, and she’ll point you in the right direction.”

  He said something that sounded like alright and disconnected the call. I leaned back in my chair and decided that maybe I should do a little bit of research on Steven before he came in. I had learned that sometimes even PIB agents have their secrets. The research would also give me something to distract myself with, because the call from Ira was sitting in the back of my head, mocking me.

  My paranoia told me that I was walking into a trap. I leaned back toward the computer and pulled up the database of PIB agents. Typing in the name, a small feeling of dread hit me in the stomach as I pressed the enter button.

  A list of cases pulled up under Steve Lance’s name, but the one that caught my attention was labeled “Collins Case: Hate Crime.”

  That explained his reaction to my name. My mouse hovered over the file for a moment. Levi was always warning me that I didn’t want to go down that road, but about a year ago I had decided to try and solve my parents’ murder. I knew that the answer wasn’t in the database because they never caught the person. They had labeled it witch hunters. Two years ago I had learned the truth. That it was the Cult of Ra that had killed them.

  I double clicked on the file, and the computer shut down, darkness taking over the screen. What the actual fuck?

  Chapter Five

  Two hours on the phone with IT and there was no reason in the software or systemfor my computer to shut down randomly, so they put in an order for a new one. It was going to take them a few hours to get someone into the office since they couldn’t remote in. They suggested that I use someone else’s computer.

  I hung up with them and leaned back in my chair. I had no real clue what I was walking into with Lance. I had a feeling that it was my stupidity clicking on the case file that killed my computer, or maybe it was just coincidence.

/>   I looked up to see through the window an older man with gray hair combed over his balding head standing there with two cups of coffee. He had a little visitor badge clipped to the collar of his shirt. He smiled at me as I stood to go let him in.

  “You must be Mr. Lance.”

  He nodded and handed me a cup of coffee. “A little birdie told me you’d appreciate coffee.”

  “Detective Mason?”

  He nodded. “Good man, I’ve seen some of the cases he’s handled. He called me on the way over here to give me a heads up that you might be calling.” He sat down in the chair in front of my desk. “Said you were a good agent to work with. Stubborn at times, a bit reckless, but you’ve never let him down.”

  That was pretty high praise. “He’s a good man; I’m always happy to have him with me on cases.”

  He set his coffee on the desk and touched the curly hair on the doll. “Looks just like you did as a child.”

  The words hit me hard. “You worked my parents’ case.”

  “A tough case, always bothered me that we never found the culprit.” He shook his head. “But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.”

  Though part of me wanted to ask him some questions, I held off. “Do you think that we could meet another time to talk about it?”

  “I think so. I think you deserve to know about that night. I’m surprised you haven’t looked into it sooner. Now, about the demon case.”

  I nodded. “I don’t have the pictures from forensic yet, and my computer just crashed. But I need to know. How many summoning circles did you find in your case?”

  “We believed that he had summoned two or more times. There was a worn out circle underneath the one at the scene.”

  “Do you recall if it had been broken at all?” I took notes on a small pad on my desk.

  He shook his head. “No, and the demon that was there when we arrived was perfectly contained. She tried to get out, but the circle was strong enough to hold her in.”

  “And how old was the body? I didn’t see that in the notes.”

  “Three days, I remember because my partner mentioned something about the soul being gone.”

  Magic from a person faded in three days; many cultures also believed that the souls only hung around for three days as well. My eyes widened. “Your victim isn’t the one who summoned the demon.” Holy shit, we could be dealing with the same person. “Why wasn’t that detail in the report?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know, that was five years ago. I assume I would have put it in there.”

  “That’s a pretty important detail to be missing.” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of my voice. “Anything else that might have been left out?”

  He leaned forward and met my gaze. “I was damn good at my job.”

  “Never said you weren’t.” But my tone of voice didn’t match my words. I let him know that I doubted his ability, because who the fuck leaves out a fact about how old the body was. “Did you personally put the report in?”

  He nodded. “Five years ago we were still putting in paper reports, very little was done on the computers as far as reports go.”

  So it had been transcribed. This was the danger in transcribing instead of scanning. For some reason, our system had a little bit of both in it. I sighed. “So someone just decided it’d be okay to leave it out. Great.”

  “I can tell you this; demons aren’t an easy lot to get rid of. They like to manipulate and change how you see what’s around you and the world. The stronger ones can make you suffer in illusions worse than any magic I’ve encountered.” He sipped his coffee. “The lady in the picture, the human form the demon took on. That was my late wife.”

  I bowed my head in condolences. “I’ve only personally dealt with one demon, and it was a lower level demon.”

  “Make sure you have protection and don’t give in. It’ll find your weakness, whisper to you that it knows all your secrets and desires, promise them to you. Do not give in. Only hell awaits you.” He stood. “I’m sorry that I’m not much help. When you’re done with the case, give me a call, and I’ll be happy to tell you about your parents’ case. Off the record, of course.”

  I nodded. “Of course. Thank you, Mr. Lance, you’ve been more help than you think. I look forward to our talk later.” I stood to walk him out of the office. I shut the door behind him and sighed.

  I had no computer, a case file with holes in it, a possible demon on the loose, and mysterious runes.

  I went back to my desk and grabbed my coffee. I had a moment of clarity. I still had my laptop that could access the databases; I’d avoid the same file in case there was something in it that fried my desktop, but I could at least look up some details online about the demon attack and other cases.

  There hadn’t been much information on the demon case other than the report in the database. Everything in the media was rumors of a serial killer. There had been two similar cases in other states, but no suspects. I couldn’t imagine why someone would wait five years to continue their pattern, but I guess it was a possibility that I was looking for the same person.

  The sun had gone down, and I knew that I needed to make my way home or to Levi’s to talk to him about the runes. I wasn’t looking forward to the lecture I was going to get about being near the case, but I couldn’t just let it go. Liz had no one else to turn to.

  I grabbed my bag and headed out of the office, only to find Liz in the hallway with a stack of books. “What on earth?”

  “I found some of those manuals that you mentioned. The archives still had them.” She lifted the stack of books just a little bit as if to make her point. “I thought we’d order some pizza and compare them to what we found at the crime scene.”

  Part of me hesitated while the other part of me wanted to jump on it. In the end, curiosity got the best of me. “Sure thing, let’s go to the conference room to spread out. I’ll put an order in, and we’ll make a night of it.” At least this time I wasn’t going to be spread all over the living room floor falling asleep over demonology books.

  She nodded and continued down the hall with the stack of books and I followed. I pulled out my phone and texted Mario that I was working late and not to bother coming to the office. I had expected him to respond right away, but nothing came through so I could only hope that he would respect my wishes.

  I opened the conference room door for Liz, and she put the books on the big round table in the middle of the room. Putting her hands on her hips, she looked at me. “Pizza, cheese, olives, and bacon bits.”

  I laughed a little. “Okay.” I looked up the phone number to the closest pizza place and waited for them to answer.

  Liz busied herself with organizing the books while I put the order in. I watched as she concentrated, looking at little sticky notes on each book before putting them in piles. “You’ve already gone through them?”

  “Kind of, I made notes on which ones looked similar, but I don’t know the bases like you do. I was hoping we could work together on matching them up. Do you have your notes?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I have some of them on my laptop from when I was doing the research.” I pulled my laptop out of the bag. “Is this your only lead right now?”

  “No, Clarissa had a security camera in her shop, so I have a couple other leads. Sadly the crime wasn’t caught on tape.” She shook her head. “I’m following up with people at the shop, but that’s all I’m telling you. I don’t want you too involved in the case.”

  I sighed and pulled up the file on the images. I needed to stop prying, but I wanted to know how the case was going. “Okay, so here are the runes broken down to their bases.”

  “Do you know which ones mean what yet?”

  I shook my head. “No, because I can’t find a language that fits even the bases or is even close to it.”

  “Any idea how these ended up in the training books?”

  The fact that she asked meant that she hadn’t seen my dad mentioned or hadn’t put tw
o and two together. After all, Collins was a pretty common last name.

  “I do. Tobias Collins was my father, and the first training book mentions that he based them on a tablet of some sort he was translating. I looked in his library to see if I could find the notes and had no luck.”

  “That was the lead you mentioned following up on.” She opened the first book and glanced through the text. “So your original theory about someone trying to frame you or draw you out could be true.”

  “Clarissa was just cannon fodder.” My heart ached again, and I refused to let the emotions get to me. “If we can figure out what the runes are, then that will give you a lead. I can’t think of anyone I know who would be able to use these.” The Cult was out of the question since they were also looking for answers to the same runes. I also had to consider that most of the people after me currently were vampires. Thoughts of Drake Moll went through my brain, and I cringed. He was a special case of warlock turned vampire, and I didn’t want to deal with that level of crazy again. Ever.

  “Let’s get to work then.”

  We poured over the books, matching the runes to the ones at the crime scene, the only difference again being an extra curve or tick mark on the ends. We pulled out the books that matched them and stacked the other ones in a pile.

  By the time the pizza got there, we had an organized layout of books and runes drawn on computer papers; we’d taken precautions to make sure we didn’t accidentlaly blow anything up. We sat back in the chairs munching on the pizza.

  Liz motioned to the work we’d done. “Not bad teamwork.”

  “Not at all.” I laughed. “I’m glad you were able to hunt down more of the books. I only had one.”

  She raised a brow. “Where did you get one?”

  “Family heirloom,” I joked, and she actually laughed. “You know, I should clean out my family’s attic and see what else might be up there. You never know, maybe I’ll find the long-lost tablet.”

  “I’ve read the case on your parents.”