Detective Witch (Devil's Witch Book 2)

“You probably don’t trust me now either, I wouldn’t. There are things I’ve done, unspeakable things.” Colin says abruptly and I walk over to him.

“Just tell me, I’ll listen.” I reply to him, wishing there was someone I could have to tell about my issues. How quickly Nick was prosecuted without any real trial scares me. If they knew I was dealing with black magic they would have probably killed me right there in the courthouse. They saw all the fire, I’m sure some witch probably caught on to it being my magic that started it.

From the first time Colin met Nick at the ice cream parlor to a couple days ago when he came forward to tell Will about everything, Colin admits to me everything. Him shooting me because Nick wanted to test my witch blood, him hiding my dead body from the coven, being forced to donate blood to the police and a bunch of details about their secret meetings and what went on in them.

I thought he was possessed, but now he’s making it seem like he was being blackmailed by the vamps. I hate to think like this, but either he’s lying or the devil was. In a way, the devil is kind of all-knowing and the devil told me Colin was possessed. At some point, Colin must have gone to the vamps on his own account. Which is surprising since he’s dating Stella, I thought he would have stayed far away from the vampires and making deals with them. He told me he did it for his own protection too, but that couldn’t have been the only reason he would get involved in something that risky.

Something just isn’t adding up.

It’s not that I don’t trust Colin, but I can’t afford to blindly believe anyone anymore.

He may have cried while sharing what happened and what went on, but it doesn’t stop my heart from racing. I’ve never seen him so emotionally stricken before and it’s disheartening, he needs comfort from Stella. She should be with him right now, not with me cooped up in this cabin.

“Oh are you finally scared of him now?” He asks suddenly in a chilling voice and my heart freezes when a strange look passes over his face.

“You know, I’ve sacrificed my relationships and integrity in your name. I’ve done what was asked of me and now I’m no more use to them. It’s all because of you...” He mumbles to himself while wiping the blood smears from his knife.

“No...” I argue weakly, but isn’t he right? It is my fault. With dread, I watch him stand up with a faraway expression. What is wrong with him?

“Oh yes. It’s all because of you. You’re the reason the coven isn’t dead yet, but I’ll make sure you burn too when it comes time for them to fall.” He tells me as if talking about the weather and I jump up from the couch, away from him.

The cabin is too small for the two of us and only one of us is holding a weapon right now. I won’t be able to use my magic in a ward like this, I already tried using it earlier to start the stove. Will must have crafted an anti-magic spell around this cabin just in case a witch might manage to get in through the ward.

“Stella told me how bad you wanted to be human. Really the only difference is the fear, something your kind aren’t kin with. You supernaturals all got your powers. Humans, we don’t got anything!” He screams while dashing towards me with the knife and I bolt out the door.

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Yansmen

Apparently, the court meeting didn’t go so well today. The chief came back to the station with a bunch of the lousy coven members barking at his back like little dogs, guess they tried to pull some crap about him to protect their headmaster. Good thing we got the governor there, he pardoned the chief’s actions and the coven was forced to keep its mouth shut and accept it. Humans sometimes can prove useful, especially ones in high positions.

Everyone in here knows the boss is a hybrid, including me. I was the one who taught him the concealment spell to begin with being a vampire hybrid myself. After its success, they called me up and hired me as a private investigator to help keep Parway safe from the coven.

When I’m not in here, I’m watching Parway’s home like the chief tells me. Some call him the savior or god, but I just call him boss or chief. Only the oldest among us actually call him by his real name, someone my age would probably get slapped silly for calling him Noctus.

Apparently, the coven headmaster summoned our witch somewhere to hide her from his own people. Well, that’s what William McCaster told the public when the news got there. We know he’s really just hiding her from us.

So now we have to do a search and rescue. We weren’t able to track Parway’s phone, but we were able to track William McCaster’s. We found it laying in his truck parked outside his apartment. I figured he went to wherever he summoned her, boss is taking my word for it so I hope I’m right. Wherever that would be, we don’t know yet.

It’s pretty much like looking for a needle in a haystack though. It’s unsettling to watch even for a vampire hybrid, but what needs done is done. He doesn’t have the witch sight and neither do I, so we have to resort to other methods to find the traces of her magic. He’s already cut open his arms and wrists at least twenty times.

To find traces of her magic, that all witches leave, the chief has to use an older method. It’s all thanks to him conjoining their magic. He tasted her blood once too so that helps, but not much. Really, I guess we are searching for objects she’s around a lot. Kind of like how when someone walks through perfume they carry it around with them. Magic works like that too. It can stay in some areas for a bit before fading into nothing.

We can’t go in her house unfortunately, that’d be the easiest way. Her roommate is home and that’s another problem in itself. So the chief’s been pouring his blood on her desk, her chair and a bunch of junk in her work desk drawers too. Still, no luck. What should happen if the object has enough of her magic on it is his blood will move a little in the direction she is currently in. That’s where I come into play, I’ve dealt with this kind of searches before up north. I have a keen eye for blood tracing, the slightest shift in blood and I can pinpoint us in the right direction. Depending on how quickly the blood moves is how far away she is too.

Brought my magnifying glass too, just in case chief doesn’t believe me. He’s going to have to get her a new desk, her computer is even soaked in his blood now too. I hover over the crimson liquid, magnifying glass in hand. None of it is tracing to her.

“Now if you could sneak in her house, the bed would be a good choice to try tracing. However, bringing two of us there and doing the procedure would take too long. Maybe a personal belonging, like a hairbrush?” I mumble while straightening up.

“Here, look now. I find it in courthouse, ya?” I hear the foreign vamp gloat while plopping Valerie’s designer tote down on the blood. What an idiot, it will be ruined and she will notice unless they buy her a brand new one!

The chief smiles looking pleased and pats Heinrich on the back.

He takes one of his wounds that’s still bleeding and lets the blood fall down from his forearm to her purse, getting everything else inside it ruined too. We all wait a silent minute and then I hunch over and scan the blood splattered purse.

Finally!

On one of the handles, a small trickle of blood flows unnaturally upwards over the purse handle.

In approximately .32 seconds, I read on my stopwatch. The direction of its flow was headed northwest. I type in the formula I use to find the exact direction into my map software on my laptop then plug in the new data.

The pinpointer on the map traces around the perimeter of our state then zooms in on Wixton, Alabama. Slowly, it comes to a stop landing on her exact location and I jot down the coordinates for them to use on the GPS.

“I come with you?” Heinrich asks.

“No.” The chief tells him curtly.

I start to plug in the coordinates on the chief’s GPS too, following the both of them outside. Heinrich stuffs a sandwich into his mouth, loading his pistol and then concealing it in its holster. I finish plugging in the coordinates on the chief’s GPS and hand it to him. After reading the location, he makes a clicking noise with his tongue then hands it back to me. The moment I take hold of the device he disappears out of sight leaving me with the beefy Heinrich who I’m still secretly unsettled by.

The officer always looks at everyone like he’s ready to smash them with his giant fists.

“You help find William now...” Heinrich tells me and I scoff, why can’t we just wait for the chief to return to do that? After a moment though, Heinrich pulls out a stack of money from his wallet and waves it in my face teasingly. How does he know the warlock isn’t with Parway?

There’s no way that warlock would have formed any kind of blood oath with a vampire at this place, but something tells me Heinrich already has an idea of where he is.

“Bonus, if find him before goddess return.” The vampire adds in his thick german accent. Now he’s speaking my kind of language. I snatch the money out of his grip and give him a toothy smile, one only a vampire would understand.