No More Black Magic (2 page)

“If there’s anyone new in town they haven’t contacted me.” She spun around with a package in her hand. Her green eyes searched my face for a moment, as if debating on something. “This is what Levi asked for. Just give it right to him, don’t worry about the contents.”

I took it from her and nodded. “Don’t worry, I know the rules.” I ran my hand over the package and frowned. “It’s something magical.”

“Stay out of it Abby, you know you don’t want to know.” The humor drained from her voice.

She was right, the less I knew about Levi’s dealings the better. I was more likely to live longer if I stayed out of vampire politics. “As long as it’s not harmful to me...and as long as it’s not an arm.” I muttered.

“An arm, Abby? Really?”  She snorted. “Must be a hell of a day if you’re worried about an arm in a box.”

I started towards the exit. “You have no idea. I’ll catch you later. I might need your help.” If I couldn’t figure out the runes, maybe she could. I needed the time to sit down and figure out what coven it might have been from.

I got to my car and looked over my shoulder. Something caused a shiver to go up my spine. Magic, a different one than the one in the barn. Comforting seeing as I didn’t want to see anymore exploded bodies or buildings. It wasn’t a threat, so I didn’t need to address it, yet. If I sensed it again I would worry about it.

I went through a fast food drive through for my meal and glanced at the clock. It was almost four and the sun would be down in just a few hours, fall making the days shorter. Levi would be awake soon and I’d need to deliver the package and see if he had anything else for me to do.

Levi’s complex was south of the city, back on dirt roads, hidden by hills that gave way to mountains. And it was huge. I never understood why he needed such a big place. It was only he and I when I was growing up, that I knew of, and the only thing he did was throw a fancy ball every now and then. Balls I had always been forbidden to go to, no skin off my back. I didn’t like to dance and had no interest in wearing a tightly fitted dress.

By the time I reached Levi’s the sun was sinking behind the hills. The complex was a huge square building with pillars in the front, reminding me of a Greek temple. Behind the main building were a couple of guesthouses that were rarely used. One of them used to be mine, until I started working for the state. Then I insisted on moving out and being more independent.

I threw my SUV in park and picked up the package out of the passenger seat. After stuffing one more fry into my mouth, I got out of the car and went to the door. I put my hand on the scanner and the door clicked open. Levi was the only vampire I knew who was not afraid of technology and the compound was full of it.

Walking in, I shivered as the protection spells I had put up pressed against me. “Levi?”

“Ah, Abigail, I see you’ve brought me my package.” He came out of one of the corridors to my right. He towered over me, his blonde hair had been cut short, but still had enough left for someone to run their hands through. His blue eyes met my gaze. With his looks it was no wonder he had no problem finding female companions. His eyes flashed red for a moment, and I knew he was hungry.

“Of course. I see you haven’t fed for the night.” I handed him the box and then watched as he peeked into it and then smiled, showing a hint of fang. “Anything else you need tonight? If not, I need to get to work on a case.”

“The exploding barn one that I saw on the news? I do hope you weren’t in the barn or near it.” He met my gaze and I shrugged.

“My magic may have set off a magical bomb.”

“Abigail.” He snapped.

“I wasn’t hurt, the detective wasn’t hurt. I don’t see what the big deal is.” I crossed my arms. “I’m not a child and you were the one who told me to work for the state.”

“An explosion can kill you. Guns, swords, shifters, all of those you can take care of with magic.” His eyes flashed again.

Why was he so upset about this? Normally he let me go about my work without his concern. “Don’t worry, I handled it with magic. Back to my task at hand. Anything that you need me to take care of?”

“Simon is in the back room, he’s been going on about magic in his bar. Make an appointment with him to check the wards.”

I curled a lip. He always asked me out on dates. I trusted him; I just didn’t want to date him. “Can’t Simon find another witch?”

“He specifically requested you, Abigail, I suggest that you be nice. He’s one of the strongest—“

“Wolves in the territory, I know, I know. I’ll play nice, but I’m taking my gun.”

Levi rolled his eyes. “It would not hurt you to go out on a date with him.”

“Says you.” I rolled my shoulders. “He makes my magic itch.”

“I’m starting to think anything with a penis makes your magic itch.”

“Just because I’d rather work than fuck, doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with me.” Though let’s face it, magic made it hard to have sex. Especially magic like mine. My aura didn’t mix well with others and most people’s auras set mine off. Too much of that and my magic could become unstable. It’s the downside of being a powerful witch.

“You might loosen up a bit if you did.” Levi waved me away. “Go talk to Simon. I need to take care of this.” He motioned to the package.

Yeah, whatever that was. I took a deep breath and marched through the hall that led to the back room.

L
evi had set the room up with a couple of pool tables and a mini bar that was rarely used. Simon leaned against the bar and swirled his drink around in the glass. I assumed it was scotch since that’s what he always drank at the bar.

“Levi said I needed to make an appointment with you.” I stopped out of his reach and crossed my arms. “Something about the magical wards in your bar?”

Simon nodded and ran a hand through his perfectly caramel colored hair. It fell back into place when he was done and his green eyes met my gaze. He was handsome, with the strong line of his jaw and his toned body. His white shirt tucked into his faded and torn jeans reminded me of a fifties punk. “I think someone broke them.” Simon had been trying to court me on and off. Some days we got along better than others. He was one of the strongest local werewolves, and honestly if I chose to date someone, I’d want him to be less complicated.

“You don’t break wards.” I shook my head. “It doesn’t work that way, someone would have to modify them or deactivate them.”

“Okay, well someone fucked them up. Can you fix them? I’ve got all kinds of weird shit coming into my bar.”

I raised a brow. “Describe weird.”

“Humans.”

That jarred me a bit. “The wards are supposed to make the building seem abandoned to the humans.”

“Exactly my problem. It’s dangerous for them to be there and then if word gets back to the PSD, they are not going to be happy to have an unregistered and non-human friendly business in their city.”

The Paranormal State Department was established to help register all businesses owned by paranormal creatures. The problem was they tried to tell them how to run it and all businesses were supposed to be human friendly. There were of course people who didn’t agree with that and therefore went out of their way to hide the businesses from the human eye. Simon was one of them. I did the wards on his building and could lose my job if someone found out, but I felt that supernatural creatures and humans should have places to hide from each other. It was just courtesy.

“I can be there tomorrow.” I rubbed my eyes. “What have you done in the meantime?”

“Closed it for a few nights. Can’t come tonight?”

I shook my head. “No, I have a case with the state to deal with and if I don’t have something by the morning Detective Morgan will have me at the stake.”

“Aw, who would want to burn a pretty thing like you?” Simon took a couple of steps forward and I stepped backwards. “Can I interest you in dinner?”

“Sorry, I ate on the way up here. Tomorrow night, for the wards I mean. About eight?”

I could see the disappointment in his eyes, but I thought he would have learned by now that I wasn’t interested in anything more than friendship. “Yeah, I’ll see you then, Abby.”

He walked by me and luckily for me, didn’t try to brush a hand over my shoulder or anything. The behavior was unusual for him, normally he’d stay and flirt, or finish his drink, but tonight he respected me. Weird.

I stood in the empty room for a few minutes, debating on what I wanted to do. I could drive all the way back to the city, or I could stay here and work out the runes that I had.

Home didn’t have the magical equivalent of a bomb shelter. The mansion did. Levi had the basement modified when I was a child and learning to control my magic. It kept me from hurting myself and from blowing up the mansion by accident.

First stop though would be the library. All of my parents’ research was there and there might have been something that could help me. I peeked around the corner to see if Simon was gone and if Levi was lurking. No one there, perfect. I went back down the hall, but turned left before I hit the main room, tucked back there was the library. I walked in and took a deep breath.

The smell of books washed over me and I smiled. I used to spend hours curled up here reading books, anything I could get my hands on from magical practices to vampire history. Fiction of all kinds, journals and research—anything I wanted was here. I’d read late into the mornings, and Levi swore my addiction to books was one of the reasons I was so powerful.

I walked over to the shelf where I knew the research on runes rested. On a small table near the shelf was a picture of a smiling couple and a little girl. My smile had faded over the years and gone from innocent to cynical, but it was still obvious that it was me. My mother had the same brown waves and the bright gray eyes. I’d gotten my height from my father. My heart ached at the picture. I knew it had been taken the day before they were killed by the witch hunters.

“They’d be proud of you.” Levi’s voice caught me off guard and I cringed. He hated when I grieved.

“I know. I just wish they were here to guide me.”

He snorted. “On what?”

“How not to nearly get blown up by magic, how to not get caught and charged with warding a bar from humans, and maybe how to be normal.”

“Normal isn’t an option for you anymore. Are you sure you don’t want to add how to get a date to that list?”

I rolled my eyes and started scanning the tags on the notebook spines. “Nope. I take it you heard me turn Simon down.”

“I did, and he told me that you turned him down again.” Levi didn’t sound pleased. “He’d be able to protect you if—“

“If what?” A terrifying thought went through my head. “Oh no, no, no, no. You are not setting this up as a betrothal thing.”

“If something happens to me. You can’t push everyone away, Abigail.”

“I don’t need someone to protect me, Leviticus.”

His eyes flashed red, but I stood my ground. “The answer is no. I’m not going to force a relationship, just because you think I need one so that I can be protected.”

“You are such a stubborn human.”

“I’m a witch.” I retorted and then went back to the spines of the notebooks. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to get done. I’ll be down in the chamber for most of the night.”

He didn’t say anything, but I knew when he left. I felt the air shift and his presence disappear. I knew I pissed him off, but I didn’t really care. These weren’t the old days, I wasn’t going to start a relationship, be married off, and hidden away like some weak woman.

I finally came across the notebook I was looking for. One my father had put together that detailed the base of many coven languages. It would be a great starting point, as would drawing the runes out in a larger size.

I climbed down the stone stairs that led into the chamber. Brushing my hand over the doorway I activated the protection runes as I walked into the room. I pushed the heavy door shut and saw the purple glow of the main protection rune. This would keep any magic inside this room and keep me safe. It was best to work there since I was working with something that potentially killed someone, even if I wasn’t planning on trying to activate the spell.

I grabbed some paper and a pencil from a drawer on the far side of the room. Nothing special about either, but just something to work with. I sat in the middle of the room on the floor and closed my eyes. I was one of the few witches that didn’t have to draw a physical circle to evoke one. I took a deep breath. Unlike at the crime scene, I had time to focus on what I wanted. A deep purple ring, calm and protective magic, something from Mother Earth, something deep and comforting. I conjured up the image of the circle in my mind and then pushed the magic outwards to invoke the circle.

I opened my mind and saw the faint glow around me; just a mist of purple to prove to me that my magic worked and my circle was solid. I pulled my phone out. I’d be able to get to the photos, but the basement blocked the actual cell reception. I went to the first picture. Taking my time I drew out the rune, trying to imagine what power it held and trying to see if I could get any sense of it.

The only thing I knew was that it was part of a powerful spell that could have killed me and two others and probably killed the man in the barn. No sense of evil or power came from that single rune. Frustrated, I moved to the next and experienced the same thing.

It was possible that I didn’t feel anything because I didn’t know the language. My father was the linguist of the family, not me. I knew enough that if I could find the base, I could figure out where the language came from. Once all the runes were drawn, I spread them all round me and pulled out my father’s book.

Flipping through the pages, I tried to find the base of them, pausing to scan over anything that looked remotely similar. Nothing stood out to me in the modern languages, so an old coven maybe? Older magic, or ancient magic.

Crap. Those were always harder to track down and trace to someone. Anyone who used older magic normally disappeared into the night, never to be seen again. They were normally someone who came in with a mission and were gone the moment it was complete. That wasn’t going to be a lot of help to the situation and if we had someone that old in the territory Levi would need to know, because it could be a threat to him.