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

  “I know that the building exploded, and there was a second blast.” I slowly sat up and cringed. My entire body was still sore, and I felt weak. “I was hit by something before I could put my circle up.”

  “You were hit by a brick, Abigail.” He didn’t sound amused. “You’ve been out for a week. We thought you were going to die.”

  “Just one brick did that?” I raised a brow.

  “No, the blast after that one, and the one after that.”

  I paused for a moment, and panic filled me. “Where’s Liz?”

  “She’s okay. She was released yesterday.” Oliver stood and put a hand on my shoulder. “I can’t heal you without suspicion here, but when they release you, come see me.”

  “There were three cadets with us that night.” The dread still curled in my stomach. I knew the answer.

  Oliver just shook his head. “Abigail, whatever case you were on, it was dangerous, and I’m sure you’ve been taken it off it due to your injuries.”

  He was probably right. There was nothing like being unconscious for a week to get you pulled off a case. “I need to talk to Mason,” was the only thing that came to mind. “This was planned. We need to figure out what happened to Boss Man and Trent.” I flexed my wrist. “What’s the damage report?”

  The doctor walked in as if on cue. “Ah, you’re awake.”

  “Yeah,” was all I said. My brain was spinning. I needed out of the hospital, so I could figure out who was on the case now. “When can I leave?”

  “Ms. Collins.”

  “Agent Collins, or Abby, please.” I blinked a few times, trying to regain some focus. What the hell was going on in my head.

  I was drugged. I glanced at Oliver, and he nodded. “Pain killers and muscle relaxers, Abigail. They are keeping your pain level down.”

  “I don’t like them. How much did they give me to keep me from thinking clearly?”

  “The correct dosage for a witch,” the doctor assured me. “You’ve been through quite the trauma. You’re awake now, which is a step in the right direction, but you’re looking at around another week’s stay and a few weeks of physical therapy.”

  “Damage?”

  “Your leg is healing well, but a few of the muscles received damage. Walking will be difficult. Dislocated shoulder, some burns, some cuts, those are all healing well.” The doctor looked at his chart. “Head damage that we need to keep an eye on, no internal bleeding, you’re lucky there. You stopped breathing on us a couple times. We’ll reassess your position in a couple days, but I can’t release you today.”

  I looked at Oliver, and he nodded in agreement with the doctor. “Okay, fine. I stay here for a couple days.”

  “Good to hear it, Agent Collins.” The doctor put the clipboard down, and I crossed my arms, wincing at the pain in my shoulder. “Heal me so I can get out of here.”

  “You know I won’t do that in public.” Oliver shook his head. “Besides, I promised Levi I’d keep you here.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Why?”

  “Because you’re safer here than anywhere else right now.”

  I leaned my head back. “Who’s in town?”

  “Samuel.”

  I cringed. “Shit.”

  “That was my thought too. Have you heard again from your mysterious caller?”

  “I’ve been out for a week, you tell me.” I reached for my water with a shaking hand. I clenched my teeth, determined to get my water without help.

  Oliver leaned forward and handed it to me. “A week on nothing but IV fluids, you’re bound to be weak.”

  I cupped my hands around the cup.

  “Small sips,” he reminded me.

  I’d never really seen a nurturing side to Oliver before, but now I was getting a glimpse of how kind he could be. Typically he pushed me, or pushed against Levi for protection, but I’d never really seen a gentle side of him.

  “Thank you.”

  He took the cup from me and sat it down. “Your phone and bag were in your dorm. So they survived. I had PIB bring them here. I suggest you call Liz. Merick and Simon will be here later to watch over you, and Mario will be here in the evening.”

  “Maybe he’ll sneak me out.”

  Oliver shook his head. “I doubt that. Please, Abigail, you’re a witch, you’ll heal quick enough. But please, take this time to rest.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  There was a knock at the door, and Oliver went to answer it. There was a bit of soft talking that I couldn’t decipher, but then he and Liz came around the corner.

  Liz was sporting a nice purple bruise under her bloodshot eye. She looked awful, but she gave me a smile. “Glad to see you’re awake.”

  “Didn’t get enough of the hospital and had to come back?” I tried to smirk, but even my face hurt.

  She snorted. “As if. Agent Tight Ass asked me to come see you. Said we need to get back on the case.”

  “Oh well, Agent Tight Ass is going to have to come sign my release forms and say he’ll take all responsibility for me,” I admitted. There was a part of me that hoped he would.

  She took the seat Oliver had abandoned and sat next to me. “I told him that you could do some research at best right now. He said if that’s all you could do from the hospital, then fine.”

  “The cadets?”

  “You know the answer, Abby. Don’t make me say it out loud.” There was grief in her voice.

  I closed my eyes. “I’ll do what I can from here, but being unconscious for a week, I don’t even know what’s going on.”

  “I’ll fill you in after the PIB meeting tonight,” she promised. “I just wanted to make sure you were alive.”

  I gave a small shrug. “It takes a little bit more than that to kill me. I’m glad to see you survived.”

  “Yeah, you took most of the damage.” She looked a little guilty about it.

  “We would have both been dead had you not gotten us out of the building.” I shook my head and instantly regretted it. The world spun a little bit. “Thanks for checking in on me.”

  She pressed her lips together. “You know how we felt Boss Man in the building?”

  “Yeah.”

  “They didn’t find his body. He’s still missing. That much, I know.”

  “Then why blow up the building?”

  “I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I’ll be back after the meeting tonight to let you know what happens. If we’re lucky, maybe Tight Ass will let me video chat with you during it, since he expects you to work from the hospital.”

  “You know, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve worked from here.” I motioned to my bag. “Can you grab my phone and my laptop?”

  She picked up the whole bag and set it down on the bed. “It was pretty lucky that you left these in the dorm.”

  “Yeah, must have been fate.” To be honest, I didn’t even remember leaving them there, but I was just going to be grateful for it.

  She gave me one last smile and then looked at her watch. “I’ll see you later.”

  I unzipped my bag and found my phone inside. I flipped it on and waited for it to boot up. Notification after notification popped up. A lot of them were news headlines about the bombing, a couple voicemails, and a couple text messages.

  I dismissed the news notifications for now. If I needed to, I could go back. The first text was from Levi.

  ‘Saw the news, are you safe?’

  The next couple of texts were from Mario and Simon, asking the same thing.

  I thought it interesting that Merrick hadn’t joined the questioning. But maybe he had known before the others. I stopped at the last text message, an image.

  A creepy porcelain doll stared back at me, a crack running down its face. The text under it read: Are you sleeping, are you sleeping?”

  I jumped as the door opened, and Oliver walked back in.

  He looked at me. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  I turned the phone around so he could see it. He to
ok it from my hand and studied it for a moment. “This looks like it was made in the 1800s.”

  “An expert on dolls now?”

  He shook his head. “No, I know just enough to see the value in them. I studied some of the ones from Loraine’s shop. I learned a lot going through it all.”

  “I didn’t know you’d gone through her shop.”

  He went quiet for a moment. “I did it while I was working for Ira.”

  I didn’t push anymore. I imaged that his time working for Ira wasn’t pleasant. “Did you learn anything that might be helpful?”

  He shook his head. “No, I’d send this to Mario and see if he knows it.”

  I really hope it didn’t belong to Keira. “Okay, thanks.”

  He handed me the phone back and studied me for a moment. “You scared us all, Abigail.”

  “I didn’t mean to.”

  He hesitated in saying something else, but he shook his head and squeezed my hand. “I need to go. Merick and Simon will be here soon.” He walked out and shut the door behind him.

  I sighed and tried to move my knee up to hold my laptop and cried out in pain. Ah shit. There was that muscle damage the doctor had talked about.

  This was going to be a long recovery.

  After much trial and error, I managed to find a comfortable position for my laptop and my phone. I was going through report notes of the explosion when there was a soft knock at the door, and a nurse walked in.

  “Good evening Abigail, I’m Nurse Becky, and I’ll be your attending nurse tonight.”

  “Hey.” I closed my screen and looked at her. “Any chance I can get up and try to walk tonight?”

  She looked at my chart and then to me. “I can let you walk to the bathroom.”

  “That would be a lot better than using the wheelchair.” I smiled at her. “I’m just getting restless.”

  She gave a small laugh. “I’m sure. You’re used to being out there, and now you’re stuck at the hospital.” She came to the bed and started taking my vitals. “As a witch, you’ll be healing in no time.”

  I nodded. “I hope so. I’d like to at least get back to the office.”

  She motioned to the computer before removing the blood pressure cuff from my arm. “Not getting much done here?”

  “The only thing I’ve done is research on the event that put me here.” I looked at her. “Okay, let’s take a walk?”

  She nodded and helped me untangle the sheets from my legs. “What’s your pain level?”

  “Oh, probably a six, maybe a seven.”

  She helped support me as I slowly rose to my feet. We were off to a good start. I took one step, and my knee tried to give out. I locked my jaw and held tight to her as the pain shot up my leg, I shuffled my right foot forward and then tried to step again. The knee buckled, and I cried out.

  Luckily for me, the nurse was strong, and she helped me back to the bed. “You’re not ready.”

  “Give me a couple days, and I will be.”

  “The physical therapist will be here tomorrow to start helping you.” There was something in her voice that sounded sad, and I wondered what it was.

  She handed me a small medicine cup with a couple pills. “Take these.”

  “Thank you.” I took the pills with some water. “And can I have more than broth for dinner?”

  She chuckled. “Yeah, something easy on the stomach, alright?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She smiled, wrote something on the chart, and walked out of the room. I pulled the table with my laptop close to me again and went back to the article I’d found.

  There had been five known casualties, three of which were the cadets we were working with, one professor, and one unknown person who had been at the center of the first blast.

  Three buildings had blown up.

  There were at least twenty injured.

  I rubbed my eyes as they started to sting. The door opened, and Merick walked in with Simon. I closed the laptop again. “You look like hell,” Merick stated.

  I resisted glaring at him. “You survive three buildings blowing up and tell me that you’d look damn good.”

  Simon rushed past Merick and sat on the bed, pulling me into a gentle hug.

  “I’m okay, Simon.” I leaned my head on his shoulder. His warmth felt good against me, and I slowly wrapped my arms around him. “I’m going to heal.”

  “You had three buildings blow up, and you were unconscious for a week, Abby.” He nuzzled my neck. “I couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen if you died. How much I’d miss you.” He pulled away and cupped my face gently before laying a kiss on my lips.

  I smiled at him and squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry, I never meant to worry anyone. I also never thought the case would be that dangerous.”

  Merick tapped the lid of the laptop. “Still working it?”

  “Yeah, just research. Trying to catch up on what I missed. Liz is supposed to come by or call after a PIB meeting. I’m assuming she wasn’t given permission to video call me during it since my phone has been silent.”

  “You need to be resting, not working.” Simon crossed his arms. “The case nearly got you blown up, someone else can handle it.”

  I met his gaze. “We both know my job is dangerous. Right now, it’s just research, and it’s not like I can go anywhere, so I might as well do something useful.” I knew my voice was a bit sharp, so I let out a little sigh. “Seriously, Simon, I’m going to go crazy sitting here.”

  “I know you will.” He didn’t sound happy about it though. His phone rang, and he looked down at it. “I’ll be back in a moment, it’s Travis.”

  Travis was his second in command, the man who watched his back in the werewolf pack. Merick watched Simon walk out and then looked at me. “Has your uncle been by?”

  “Yes, but he’s sticking to his weird moral of not healing me until I get out of here.” I shrugged one shoulder. “So if you have a healer on hand, I would appreciate it, because I can’t even walk to the bathroom.”

  Merick cringed. “You really are stuck here.”

  “Yeah. So, Cult healer?”

  He snorted. “Depending on us now?”

  “I guess in a way, I am. Look, from what I can tell, I’m pretty bad off.”

  Merick nodded. “The reports Levi was giving Simon didn’t sound promising. You had a lot of head trauma, a lot of physical damage, and the doctor was worried about mental damage as well.”

  “You know, I don’t think this is the most traumatizing thing I’ve actually been through.” I laughed. “I don’t know if that’s sad or not.”

  The door opened, and Merick disappeared. He must have known that it wasn’t Simon who’d come in. Mario walked in.

  “Talking to yourself?”

  I nodded. “Reminding myself that I’ve been through worse.” I reached for my phone. “I need you to look at something for me.”

  He nodded. “Of course.” He came to the side of the bed.

  I handed him the phone with the picture of the doll on it.

  “The same number as your caller?” His voice was even, blank almost, as if he was hiding something.

  “Yes. Oliver is working on tracking the number.”

  He clicked a couple things on the phone and then handed it back to me. “I sent it to myself, so I can look into it as well. Was that it?”

  I nodded. “I feel like whoever it was, knows that I was in a coma. Judging by the words.”

  “That is a possibility. The news announced that you were thought to be in critical condition. That’s why Levi has been keeping security so tight for you. The council is worried that Samuel might try something while you’re injured.”

  I closed my eyes. “I was told Samuel is in town?”

  “Levi is meeting with him in just a couple hours.”

  I wish I could be there, but there was no way I was going to go in front of Samuel while I was this weak. “You’ll watch his back?”

  “You’re worr
ied about him,” Mario stated.

  “Yeah, I am. Levi is strong, but he’s terrified of Samuel. Our last meeting with him shook Levi, and I’m worried Samuel is going to blame Levi for Ira’s death.”

  Mario nodded. “I have a feeling that’s the case as well.”

  “Have him call me when the meeting is done. You go back. Simon is here. I’d rather have you with Levi preparing for that meeting.”

  Mario bowed and disappeared. The fact that he didn’t argue struck me as odd, but maybe he was just checking to make sure I had security of some sort.

  A few minutes later, Simon walked back into the room. “Mario leave already?”

  “We both decided he was better at Levi’s side tonight. So it’s you on security detail.” I winked at him. “Prepared to watch me sleep all night?”

  He hesitated. “We have a pack emergency. Someone’s on pack lands. We need to hunt them down and figure out what they are doing there.”

  I hadn’t felt the magic go off, but it was possible I was just too weak. My magic protected the pack land, I should have known if there was a stranger there. “Okay, I’ll be fine. You go take care of the pack.”

  “That leaves you without protection.” He hesitated, but I could see the worry cross his face.

  “Merick will pop back in, and Liz should be by later. It’s okay, really.” Though I really would have liked his company. We both agreed that the pack had to come first, and I think that was what kept our relationship from growing.

  He kissed me and pressed his head against mine. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  “Enjoy the hunt.” I waved at him as he walked out. Something settled in the pit of my stomach, and I didn’t think it was hunger. I grabbed my phone and texted Merick. “I need you back.”

  He reappeared a moment later. “What’s wrong…” He stopped and closed his eyes as if he sensed it too. “There’s something pushing people away from here. Your magic?”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  He nodded. “Give me a few minutes, lay back, and try to get some rest. I’m going to do a sweep for spells, runes, whatever might be giving off this feeling.”

  It also explained why Mario left my side so willingly and why I was more willing to let Simon go. Someone had worked a spell in the hospital. My eyes started to drift shut as a feeling of panic consumed me.