Of Life and Death Read online

  Clarissa’s bubbly self always greeted me like it’d been years since we’ve seen each other. Even though we’d talked on the phone the day before, her enthusiasm for seeing me was never gone.

  I hugged her back and tried to escape her tight embrace. “Hasn’t been that long.”

  “A month since we’ve seen each other face to face,” she chided. “And now I hear I’m going to be sharing you with your new beau soon.”

  I tried not to cringe. “Levi told you about that huh?”

  “I think that it’s going to take a lot of work to convince people that you and Mario are actually dating. Especially if you’re going to trap him in a magical circle every time he pisses you off.” She stepped back and put her hands on her hips. “Levi is only trying to make sure you’re safe.”

  I wondered for a moment what other information she had about the situation, but I let it go. I didn’t want to think about vampires or work tonight. I wanted to enjoy some good food and company.

  She hooked arms with me and led me into the dining room where she had already set the little red and white square containers on the table. “And yes, I already ordered food, and I made sure it got here before you did.”

  I smiled and sat down at the table and examined the containers. If there was one thing I could count on Clarissa for, it was to keep things as normal as possible. I found my orange chicken and fried rice in front of where I normally sat if I came to visit, and I knew there was chicken chow mien in her container. It was how things worked; it was normal for us.

  I picked at my chicken with my chopsticks. “How is the shop doing?”

  She sat down across from me and pulled a noodle out of her chow mien. “Slowing down a bit since tourist season is almost over, but I’ll have enough of my regulars come in to make ends meet for the slow season.”

  “That’s good. I was hoping that this season was good for you because I know the protests have been slowing some things down.”

  She nodded. “They have for some stores, especially those who are something other than witches and warlocks.”

  The protests were humans that were trying to take away the rights of shifters or other creatures who couldn’t pass as human. They’d slowed down in the last three months, but they hadn’t disappeared altogether yet. “It’s a shame that they are affecting the local economy.”

  “How’s work for you going?”

  “Same as always, people killing each other, mysteries to be solved.” I laughed. “There’s never a dull moment at PIB; they’ve even put me on two cases.”

  She laughed. “Kind of like the good old days? Working it alone, getting to test out your skills?”

  I knew she didn’t mean anything harsh by it, and she was right, the good old days I did work things alone, there were very few PIB agent interactions. Just Mason and I, and Mason was just there to make sure the case stayed on track and provide resources and insights I may not have. “Yep, like the good old days, and it looks like it’s probably going to stay that way.”

  “Yeah, no other partner?” She sounded a bit sad about it.

  “Yeah, they moved his desk out.” I shook my head. “I’m okay with that; I didn’t want a partner in the first place. And this is one of the reasons why.” My tone was a bit sharper than I had wanted it.

  She nodded. “Yeah, good old Abby, keeping everyone and everything at arm’s length.” Her tone matched mine.

  I wasn’t sure what had gotten into her or how to even respond. I had come for a good evening of food and conversation, not bitterness. “Something going on?”

  “Levi was only forced to tell me about Mario because you trapped him in a circle. I have my suspicions that you were going to keep me in the dark about it too. There was a time where we could tell each other anything, and now you’re hiding things from me.” She wouldn’t meet my eyes.

  Not too long ago I was sure she was hiding things from me as well, but now was not the time to bring that up. “It isn’t my choice. I don’t want him hanging around me, and a second ago you agreed with it. At least it sounded like it.”

  “I agree that it’s about time Levi starts taking some interest in your safety, I’m upset that it took that case in Romania to get him to that point.”

  Clarissa was older than me, but she was normally bubbly and happy all the time. I wasn’t used to serious conversations with her. “Levi protected me in his own way, and now those ways are changing, but this isn’t what this is all about is it?”

  “You’re right, it’s not, but you’re not going to like what’s coming next.” She set her chopsticks down. “The Coven wanted me to talk to you about some things.”

  She was right. I wasn’t going to like this. “And this has you upset?”

  “You’re an elemental, Abby. You hid this from me.”

  My stomach dropped. How had they found out? “You know exactly why I hid it from you. Now someone is trying to expose it. They sent a video to Boss Man a few months back.”

  “They sent a video to the coven too. They asked me to convince you to go to a housing location for elementals. They don’t want the coven to be responsible for anything you might do. There are reports of you losing your control…” She sighed. “Abby, why didn’t you come to me for help?”

  I stared at her. “I’m not going into a housing location; they are government run. They study people like me.” My heart skipped a beat. “I haven’t lost control.” Except I had, a couple times, but the people who were there wouldn’t have exposed me to anyone. At least I didn’t think they would.

  She pulled out her phone and showed me a video. The image was grainy, but it showed me trapping a hundred blood-starved vampires. I turned away because I knew exactly how it ended. I killed each and every one of them with a motion of my hand.

  “You killed them, Abby. Every single one of them.”

  “I had no choice. I was in complete control.” I tucked her phone into my pocket and stood up.

  She stood with me. “You can’t just take my phone.”

  “I need to trace the video and see who it is that’s trying to expose me.” I shook my head. “I’ll give it back as soon as I’ve got the information.” I was going to my uncle and have him trace it. I couldn’t trust IT at PIB to do it, and now my entire coven knew that I was an elemental.

  Panic crawled through me as I headed towards the door. I needed to get this taken care of, and I needed to do it now. Clarissa followed me. “Please sit down and finish dinner and talk to me about this.”

  “You invited me over for dinner to get on my case about hiding secrets that would put me at risk if exposed. Then you want to talk to me on behalf of the coven. Now you want me to sit down and talk to you about this? I have to get to the bottom of this before someone decides to use this against me more than they already have.” I shook my head.

  She grabbed my wrist, and I turned around to yell at her, but I saw tears in her eyes. “Abby, I’m so worried about you. All of this going on and I did a reading.”

  That made me pause. “What did the reading say?”

  “Change, huge change is coming,” she whispered. “I saw you dead; the reading was strong enough to give me a vision. Dead at the hand of a vampire.”

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “We can talk, but I don’t know how much I can tell you without putting myself in more danger, or giving away other peoples’ secrets.”

  “Just tell me what you can about you and let me see how I can help you. Please.” She moved her hand down to mine and squeezed. “I just want to help.”

  And I wanted to know who was trying to expose all my secrets. Who had taken that video? I could see Levi, Mario, and Oliver in it, so it wasn’t either of them. “We’ll talk, and then I’ll need to take your phone, so I can see who sent the video. Deal?”

  “Deal.” She wiped her tears with the back of her hand. “Thank you.”

  I wasn’t sure what she was thanking me for because I knew she wasn’t going to like what I had to
say. I went back to the table with her and sat down. “I found out that I was an elemental after the barn case. I’ve been working with someone to control the ability because I knew I had to hide it. My magic…” I shook my head. “I’m under control, but it’s not the same. There have been changes in it.”

  I didn’t look at her, but instead, I poked my chicken around. I wasn’t sure how else to explain it. “After Nick died, I lost control doing a trace spell, and since then I can conjure either red or purple circles. The red ones like the one you saw in the video, or you saw last night with Mario.”

  “You killed all those vampires, and yet your aura is still clean.” She finally went back to eating. “How?”

  “They’d lost their human minds; they were really nothing but…monsters.” I shook my head. “I’m not guiltless in it. I still have nightmares about it, and it torments me. I’ve worked since to make sure that my magic stays in complete control.”

  She nodded, but it was slow, and it didn’t seem like she believed me. “So who are you working with to control it?”

  “I can’t tell you that.” I shook my head. “Look, if it helps, I’ll make sure that I unregister from the coven and then they won’t have to worry about me. I don’t like them anyways.”

  “I’ll talk to them, and I’ll try not to give much away, but they all got the video of this and you trapping some guy in a circle, one with fire.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, that’s the one that was sent to Boss Man, the man in the circle was a suspect.” I finished my chicken and leaned back. “Now that it’s with the coven I don’t know what I’m going to do about that.”

  “They aren’t thrilled because they had no idea. They wouldn’t have—“

  I snorted and cut her off. “Wouldn’t have registered me? I only found out a year and a half ago. It’s not like I knew growing up.” Because I needed something else to worry about growing up.

  “Did anyone else know it was a possibility?”

  “Levi did and so did the person I’m seeing to help. Don’t worry about it. I’m not going to s lose control suddenly and burn everything down. The coven can kiss my ass.” I chuckled. “They’ll be happy to have me out of the way, one less member to worry about.”

  She looked at me a little bit speechless. “Abigail, community—“

  “Clarissa, I love you, and you know that, but you’ve been feeding me the bullshit line about community since I was ten and you had just joined the coven. They’re only there for me when it suits their needs, except for when they removed the hex. I’ll give them that, that is the one good thing they’ve done for me.”

  Clarissa nodded slightly as if she was thinking about something. She poked a piece of chicken around and finally looked up to speak. “They won’t be able to help you if you pull out of the coven.”

  “I know that.” Part of me felt hurt that they didn’t want me around just because I was an elemental, and the other part of me didn’t care. I’d spoken the truth when I said that they weren’t that helpful. A couple times one of the coven members were wrapped up in my cases, and the priests and priestesses just never let me live it down.

  I sighed and crossed my arms. “I’m sorry if I’m getting you in trouble with them.”

  “You’re not; they’re just using me as a messenger.”

  Like they hand once before when one of the priestesses tried to bind my magic and use Clarissa against me. The memory hit me harder than I thought it would. Levi had once taught me that everyone could be used against you, and one day it will happen, it was inevitable.

  Of course, I thought he was just being paranoid, but as I grew older, and this last year or so, I was learning, he was right. There was knock at the door, and I looked at her, trying to keep any accusations out of my eyes.

  She stood. “That would be Mario.”

  I let out a groan. “Really? We can’t even have a night alone to hash things out?”

  “I think we’re done hashing things out, don’t you?” she called behind her as she walked to answer the door.

  I started to clean up the mess from dinner. Mario walked in and just stared at me. I moved back and forth paying no attention to him and his rudeness.

  He’d dressed casual tonight, which was a first. Jeans and a t-shirt for the Italian vampire. I took my time washing the few dishes and throwing away the trash. By the time I finished, both Mario and Clarissa were staring at me with their arms crossed over.

  “What?”

  “I do believe you should greet me as is appropriate for a relationship.” Mario watched me move through the kitchen.

  Clarissa nodded. “If you’re going to make this believable, Abby, you can’t avoid him.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “A hug, that’s all you get.”

  “Is that how you would great Simon?”

  The question caught me off guard. “Yes, that’s how I greet him now. I’m not one for a whole lot of public affection.”

  “As long as that’s true then a hug would work fine.” He looked at Clarissa., “Is she speaking the truth?”

  She nodded. “She is, you can’t blame her, Levi raised her. He’s not the warmest of people.”

  I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to take that. I opened my mouth to protest, but I didn’t really have the words to defend myself.

  “Then a hug will work.” He opened his arms, and a smirk crossed his face.

  I rolled my eyes and hugged him, trying not to cringe as his cold arms wrapped around me and squeezed.

  “That was pretty convincing.” Clarissa laughed. “This will be entertaining.”

  I glared at her. “This is not entertaining. I don’t want a vampire babysitting me all the time. I feel like it’s just going to draw more attention than we need it to.”

  “I think that you underestimate the danger that you’ve put yourself in,” Mario shot back. “You’ve just entered a world that you know very little about. Going in without backup is suicide.”

  I stopped myself from arguing. He was talking about being my backup in the situation, but there was one thing that he and everyone else seemed to forget about backup. I was supposed to be able to trust them. I didn’t trust Mario at all. “You’re going to have to prove yourself.”

  I turned and hugged Clarissa. “I’m going to head out for the night. Thank you for dinner. I’ll make sure to pull my registration.”

  She gave me sad eyes and squeezed me tight. “Coven or not, you know you can always come to me if you need help.”

  “I know, and we’ll keep up on our dinners. Don’t look at me like this is the last time you’ll see me because it’s not.”

  She gave me another hug, and something in me broke. I wanted to crawl up and cry as my heart started to ache. I was going to blame it on lack of sleep and a busy day. There was no reason for me to react to the situation like this.

  “I’ll see you in a few days,” I promised.

  Mario hooked his arm in mine and patted my hand. “Let’s get going. What did you have to work on tonight?”

  What did I need to do tonight? “I need to talk to Levi about a particular vampire that might be in his territory.”

  “You could ask me about it,” he offered. “Does this have to do with Keira?”

  I shook my head. “No, it has to do with a different PIB case.” I walked out of the house with him still glued to my side.

  “A different one? That means that PIB has heard about the other one?”

  I crossed my arms. “I have no way of knowing if the other case is the child vampire or not, but I was called out to a very particular scene that makes it look like it was a child vampire. So unless there are two of them out there…” I paused for a moment to give him time to answer.

  “No, not that I know of.” His voice dropped a little bit, “May God have mercy on us if there is more than one because we’ll need a miracle to deal with just the one.”

  I didn’t really like his attitude about the situation. I’m sure I had seen worse. I unlocke
d the car and got into the driver’s side.

  Mario got into the passenger side and sat back in the seat. “I could just take you where you want to go.”

  “Nope, I don’t like traveling that way. I prefer to have control over where I’m going.”

  He nodded. “I’ll make a note of that.”

  Now I felt like I was being studied. “It’s just how I am. It’s nothing against vampires.”

  “I know.”

  My phone rang just as I was pulling away from Clarissa’s house. My uncle’s name flashed on the screen, and I answered it. “Fair warning, Mario is in the car with me.”

  There was no real way to be covert about it. Mario was sitting right there, and with my luck, Oliver would say something right off the bat that would get him in trouble.

  “Lovely, I see that Levi has gone against my advice once again when it comes to you.” He sounded irritated. “I promise to be on my best behavior.”

  Mario snorted. “You only behave when it suits you.”

  “I could say the same for you, Mario.”

  “Play nice, boys. What did you need, Oliver?”

  “I wanted to let you know that I was able to get a hold of Drake, and he has agreed to meet you and me tonight at midnight. I wanted to invite you up. He claims he has nothing to hide and is willing to speak to you about Lark’s death.”

  It was too good to be true and almost sounded like a trap. I glanced at Mario who nodded, and I bet he was thinking the same thing I was. “Did he give you his word that he wouldn’t harm us while he was there?”

  “He did, he also agreed to a truth spell being active while he is here. I want you to come help me set it up.”

  Interesting, if it was active for all of us, there could be some interesting information that came out. I wasn’t sure what kind of connections in the vampire world that Drake had, but I was willing to bet that he didn’t know who the king was. “Okay, I’ll be up there. Anything else I need to know?”

  “Yes, but I’ll fill you in when you get here. Don’t worry Abigail; I will make sure that neither one of us are compromised.”

  The line went dead, and I pressed my lips together.