Between the Lines (Here Witchy Witchy Book 7) Page 9

  "Anything interesting? I'm the librarian," she said and took a chair next to me. "We hardly get visitors here."

  "I was actually looking for history on the town. There's so much magic here. I was wondering what the origins of the people were."

  She gave me a smile. "I've lived here all my life, and when I was a child, this place was nothing more than a handful of buildings and good people. Witches and warlocks who were driven out of their homes because of fear. They raised their children here to be free of prejudices and fear. It was a wonderful place to grow up."

  "What happened?"

  She sighed and looked down. "The Nora coven took over. They forced everyone to either join their coven, be killed, or have their magic stripped from them. There are very few pure auras here, and even the gray ones have started to become black. Riley, my granddaughter, has managed to stay hidden. She helps the people she can, hiding them until they can get out of town."

  "The Nora Coven, Nathan is their leader?"

  She shook her head. "No, Nathan is just the priest here. He has people higher than him that give orders. Nathan used to be a good boy, he grew up here as well, but the Nora Clan slaughtered his family, and that is enough to make anyone turn to Black Magic."

  I had to agree with that. "Do we know who leads the Nora?"

  She shrugged. "A man named Carson leads this particular branch."

  The name struck a chord with me. Carson was the name of the warlock who killed Clarissa.

  "I see you know the name."

  "Any chance you know where I can find him?"

  She shook her head. "Your best chance is to get that information out of Nathan. Now, if you are done with your history lesson, I need to get back shelving books." She smiled at me and stood, walking to a cart near the shelves. I smiled and stood. She had helped me more than she realized.

  My phone rang the moment I got out of the library.

  "Your phone has been compromised." Oliver's voice came over the receiver before I even had a chance to answer.

  "By someone other than you I imagine," I said easily. "I'm currently on leave, in case you need to keep Ira updated." I couldn't keep the sarcasm out of my voice."

  He snorted. "He knows. Someone at PIB has already told him that they have you on leave indefinitely. Until you pass a psych eval."

  "What can I say, I guess PIB thinks I'm pretty much fucked in the head. Anyways, why are you calling?"

  There was silence on the other end. "Do you have a phone that's secured?"

  "Can you run a trace or something on it to make sure? I have one I can call from when I get back to where I'm staying."

  There was a sound of annoyance in his voice. "There is no safe place in Luna Grove."

  I laughed. "Actually, there is one, but I can't tell you where because it'll compromise my safety. Now, if I give you the number, can you check if it's secure?"

  "Yes."

  I gave him Simon's number. "Send me a text if it is, and I'll call you back as soon as I can."

  "What kind of trouble are you in, niece?"

  I debated on my answer. "Let's just say that I'm a lone minnow in a sea of sharks."

  "Oh, Abigail." He was laughing at me, and I rolled my eyes.

  "If you're not going to be helpful, I have shit to do," I snapped.

  "I'll speak to you soon." He disconnected the line.

  He wouldn't have risked calling me unless he had something that he needed me to know. I was lucky to have Simon's phone and knew he hadn't put a passcode on the damn thing.

  I walked back to Riley's shop and waved to her as I headed up the stairs to get Simon's phone.

  When I picked it up from the nightstand, I saw Oliver's text. 'Safe.'

  I was surprised at how little time it had taken him to decide if the phone was safe or not. I wasn't even sure how he did it.

  I dialed his number and waited for him to answer. "So what was so important that you had to interrupt my tiny vacation?" I tried to put boredom into my voice, but it didn't work.

  "I don't believe for a second that you're on vacation. I believe that Levi made you go on leave. You chose to go chasing after something in Luna Grove and got yourself it some sort of magical trouble."

  I paused. "You know, I actually haven't performed any magic here, and your story is a bit off. PIB sent me on leave. I came down here to visit a friend and accompany Simon on wolf business. And then the local Coven kidnapped them both."

  There was silence on the other side again.

  "Oliver?"

  "My apologies, I was trying to figure out how you managed to get yourself into such trouble."

  I laughed. "It's a talent, really. Anyways, can you run a couple names for me? And send me some information?"

  "Don't want PIB to do it?"

  "According to the paperwork, I'm on leave. No one is going to run names for me. So, I would appreciate it if you could help me out."

  "I can, but mostly because I need you to stay in Luna Grove and away from home."

  That made me pause. "For how long?"

  "Someone is going around looking for you. None of your paperwork says where you are at, and the only reason I knew where you were was because of the tracker on your phone. Only I have access to that. Ira doesn't know that it exists. He knows I have your phone bugged, but that is it."

  I rubbed my eyes. "That doesn't answer my question. How long?"

  "Until I can get the assassin taken care of."

  Assassin.

  "Who the fuck is trying to assassinate me?" I screamed.

  "I don't know. It's not Ira this time. No, he wants to convince you to join him now. With a powerful witch like you at his side, there are so many things he could accomplish." Oliver sighed. "Text me the names from Simon's phone, and I'll see what I can do for you."

  "You can also try to find out why there's an assassin out for me at home. Because I would like to go home at some point. I can't just stay holed up here." Especially while Nathan was alive.

  The thought startled me. It wasn't while Nathan was here, or Nathan was free, it was while he was alive. I was apparently set on killing him.

  "I'm doing my best, Abby. Levi will not allow me into his territory while I work for Ira." The phone went dead, and I sighed and stuck it in my pocket.

  I couldn't just sit in the cafe and wait for something to happen. Xavier had told me to come to them to get Simon back. I was going to go in blind, but that didn't matter. The alpha had already given up on Simon, but I wasn't going to.

  ∞

  I walked back to Xavier's house. I wasn't stupid enough to step on the property this time. I rather liked my magic where I could reach it. "Xavier. Come out here and talk," I called out, but there was no answer.

  I growled. The little chicken shit. I called again, and this time the door opened, and Xavier stepped out on the porch.

  "He's not here, Abigail. He's with Nathan, and if you want to see him, then you need to go to the coven's meeting place tonight. I've washed my hands of this situation. I've done everything that man has asked of me, and soon my family will be safe."

  I sighed. "Is Simon safe?"

  "He will be if you go tonight, after dark." He shut the door, and I closed my eyes and whispered a prayer to the goddess that Simon was going to survive this. I needed him to survive.

  I sent Oliver an update from Simon's phone and included Nathan's name, Carson, and the name of the coven. Maybe he could turn up something. I didn't tell him about the runes, because I really didn't want him looking into something that deadly and have it end up in Ira's hands.

  Checking Ana's car was next on my list. I wanted to see the rune with my own eyes. My phone rang, catching me off guard. Liz's number flashed on the screen, and I answered it.

  "Pretty sure me being on leave means you aren't supposed to be calling me." I let out a fake annoyed sigh.
>
  "I just wanted to give you an official update on your car, since it's in PIB custody right now."

  I took a moment to process what she said. "Wait, you took my car after it blew up?"

  "It had a rune on it, and I thought it safer if we took it into evidence to see what we could make of it."

  It was a perfect excuse to contact me. "Okay, that's fair, less for me to deal with when I get home. What's the update?"

  "It's the same rune base that we've had on recent cases."

  I knew what cases she was talking about, but she was trying to talk to me like a civilian. "Okay, any idea of who put it on there?"

  "Seeing as security around your house is super tight, I doubt it was done there. I've been checking security footage of places you've been. There's one person who was near your car while you were signing paperwork at PIB."

  I held my breath. She might give me a key piece of evidence that I would need to crack things here.

  "It was Carson, the warlock that Melody Grace had been working with."

  Melody Grace was a shifter who had it out for me. She had been on the Black Magic Taskforce for a little bit and for some reason had tried to become my partner. Turned out that she had a few screws loose in her head, and we were pretty sure that Carson had killed her.

  "Interesting, I hear he has some connections here as well. Thanks for letting me know, please let me know if you catch the bastard so you can press charges." I disconnected the line. So Carson had put a rune on my car, which told me that he wasn't expecting me here. Any normal time, I would have been in my car at the time of the explosion. I basically lucked out, and I was really tired of my car blowing up.

  However, I was not tired of my luck being so good.

  I walked toward the warehouse to see if Ana's car was still there. They didn't have a PIB division in Luna Grove, and I doubted anyone here would have called PIB over a car mysteriously blowing up.

  No one bothered me during my walk to the warehouse. I couldn't spot anyone following me, and it made me question if maybe Simon was paranoid.

  I walked up to examine the car. Scorched metal and melted plastic were all that was left of the vehicle. I tried to think where one would put a rune. It had to be in a place where no one would see it until it was too late, or someplace no one would expect or notice if someone stopped by the vehicle. I looked at what was left of the bottom of the frame. There was one spot that the charring had barely touched, a circle of ignition.

  I bent down to examine it and saw the rune scratched into it. I took a picture of it to compare later to the runes in my database. It was different than the one Ana showed me, which led me to believe she knew more about the runes than I did, and she was trying to throw me off. If it matched the one on my car, then I knew that somehow the rune was linking the two. The question was, which one blew up and which one was the copy.

  I stepped back from the car and put my hands on my hips. Was Ana the intended victim? No, Carson and Nathan probably both knew that Ana would be at the coven meeting.

  It had basically been a magical bomb with the ability to trigger it from anywhere. I cringed at the thought. What the hell had I done to Carson that he wanted me dead.

  Oh yeah, I had screwed up his demon raising plans and kept him from getting his hands on the information he needed to use life magic to bring people back from the dead. I guess that would do it.

  I ran a hand through my hair and walked into the warehouse. There was no sense of magic now. It was still too early for any of the coven to show up, which meant that I could perhaps work some tricky magic of my own before they got here.

  I smiled at that. No one thought to put a watchdog at the warehouse, which meant that someone screwed up. I closed my eyes and summoned a circle around me. When I opened my eyes, I watched the purple and red swirl around me. If I could create a spell similar to what Xavier had on his house, I could easily control the circle tonight and be able to stop whatever it was that Nathan was up to.

  "Really, Abigail? Performing magic on my grounds?"

  I looked through the haze and saw Nathan standing there with Simon by his side.

  ∞

  Simon looked at me, and I could see the exhaustion in his eyes. His arms appeared to be pinned behind his back with what I assumed were silver handcuffs, keeping him from changing and ripping Nathan's head off. They also kept him weakened, which mean that his supernatural strength was going to be no help right now.

  "You okay, Simon?" I asked, not letting my circle down.

  He nodded. "I've been in worse situations."

  I wasn't exactly sure how true that was, but I wasn't going to ask him about it right now. I looked at Nathan. "Where's Ana?"

  "She's with Carson right now. The gig is up, Abigail. We know you're here for PIB, and we know Ana is part of PIB. We had our suspicions, and all we had to do was put a little bit of pressure on Ana's dad. He told us about you two meeting at the academy, not college."

  So I couldn't even keep my cover for a day. "The part about me being on leave is true. Hack their databases. You'll see that I can't return until I have a psych eval."

  "I've checked the databases, and I see that. I really do think that you're down here to find your friend's killer." Something flashed in his eyes and his face softened for a moment. "People do crazy things for those they care for and love."

  "Like join black covens?" I asked. "I know they slaughtered your family, Nathan."

  "I'm not much different from you, Abigail. I've lost so many people in my life that my world came crashing down around me. Carson, he's on the verge of being able to bring all of them back."

  I shook my head. "The spell he plans on using, it's incomplete. He can't bring people back from the dead. He's lying to you."

  "How do you know?" he growled. "You haven't tried it."

  "You're right. My parents are the ones who translated that spell, and they destroyed it because it was too powerful to fall into the wrong hands. Too much of a risk and way too dark to use."

  He studied me for a moment. "Then what do you suggest I should do?"

  "Grieve and move on with your life. They wouldn't want you mourning them forever. They wouldn't want this path for you. Once upon a time, you weren't a black warlock."

  "What do you know about me?" he growled. "I have your lover at my mercy, and you're trying to talk me down." He held his hand up and fire came to it. Of course he was a fucking elemental. He was controlling the fire. "I will burn him in front of you."

  I shook my head and pulled my circle down. "You won't touch him." My voice slipped into a dead zone. I was starting to get used to this place in my mind. It was where my brain went when I needed to react first and ask questions later. "You want to play with fire? Fine."

  I held my hand up and forced my own elemental ability out, extinguishing the flame in his hand.

  His eyes grew wide at my little trick, even though we both knew it was a parlor trick as far as elemental abilities went. I smiled. "Underground didn't explain why I could control fire, did it?"

  "They assumed it was a spell, not an ability." He shoved Simon away and trapped him in a black circle. "Elemental or not, you won't be saving him unless you agree to join the coven."

  I snorted. "I have no intentions of joining Nora Coven. I don't do covens. White or Black. I'm not really a team player." I let my magic reach out and touch Nathan's circle. It wasn't powerful enough to belong to a high priest. It wasn't like the one at the meeting where all my power would have gone into taking it over. No, this was child's play.

  I stayed still, letting my magic slowly take over the circle. Nathan damn near stomped his foot. "Whatever you're doing, stop it."

  "No. There's something the underground doesn't have on me, Nathan. I protect those I consider mine. I have gone through too much loss to even think about letting Simon suffer at your hands."
>
  The black circle around Simon started to crack as purple took over. I smiled at Nathan, and it wasn't a nice smile. Once the purple circle took over completely, I threw my hand out and trapped Nathan in a red circle. I left the fire out of it this time because I knew he could control it.

  "Who's pulling your strings?"

  He shook his head. "No one. I am the high priest of this coven."

  "Oh, you're lying so much right now." I slowly walked up to the circle and met his gaze. "You aren't the strong warlock here. Is it Xavier? Carson?" I raised my brows. "Ana? Are you just a front? Because if you were the priest of this coven, I shouldn't have been able to break that circle so easily."

  I licked my lips as he squirmed. "Your magic is different than what we felt the night we were here. My guess is you haven't performed any real magic alone in front of the coven."

  "Abby!" Simon called a second before something hit me in the back, taking me down. I caught myself right before my face hit the floor and I was glad my circles stayed up. Until I could get Simon out of his cuffs, he was going to be useless, and I needed him protected. A hand grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me up from the ground.

  I grabbed the knife on my wrist and stabbed back, hoping to hit something.

  My blade slid through something, and I assumed it was flesh because the person shoved me away. I spun around as I put the knife back in its sheath and pulled my gun instead.

  Ana stood there holding her side. "I can't let you kill him."

  "Who the hell said I was going to kill him?" I stared at her. "I don't kill with magic. If you people haven't fucking noticed, my aura is clean."

  She glanced at the gun and then to me. "There are other ways to kill."

  "Do you want to tell me what is going on here? You're supposed to have my back, not be shoving me to the ground."