Detective Witch (Devil's Witch Book 2)

Yansmen

“Oh come on!” I shout throwing my cards across the small square table. I take another swig of beer watching Heinrich grab all of my money.

Chief needs to lighten up and come join us. Instead, he sits on his leather chair with his feet kicked up on his desk flipping through files.

Heinrich whacks my back with a fly swatter and I growl in irritation. Johnny laughs across the table from us, he’s probably the only other vamp in this department who got sired as young as I. He’s winning so far, but I swear he always wins poker when we play.

“What the hell?” I hiss seeing the police chief pass by me and pick up my beer can. He drops it in the trashcan then strides across his office towards the door.

“Put that away, we have company.” Boss tells us and we scramble to obey hearing the slight edge in his tone.

The door opens just as we fold up and ram the card table behind the filing cabinets. I scramble to pick up the cards off the floor. The warlock storms into the room and the chief takes his time retreating behind his desk. He sits down and nods towards the door. Johnny closes it and stands on the other side. Heinrich and I remain in the office, in case he tries anything with the boss.

“What did you tell her?!” William McCaster yells at the police captain who leans back in his chair, looking lazily up at him.

“What you should have told her a long time ago, Will.” The chief says slowly with a frown. He rests his head against a closed fist waiting for the warlock to regain his composure.

“Patricia didn’t awaken her you lying bastard!” He argues with a yell, slamming his fist down on the chief’s desk.

Noctus listens to the warlock proceed to rant for a good twenty minutes and I start playing games on my phone, thinking his little yelling fit is going nowhere. Heinrich catches me not paying attention and elbows me. I shove my phone back into my pant pocket.

“She is the prime suspect, Mr. McCaster. Until your coven or my unit finds someone else, she is all we have to go off of. Ms. Parway had a right to know what we found and what you kept from her.” Noctus counters looking irritated by William still being here.

Any moment Valerie is going to come in here. My break time is over and she probably finished up our report for today by now. Hopefully, it takes her longer than normal.

As if right on cue, a soft knock comes from the door behind us and William smiles. Boldly, he pushes past Heinrich and I to open it. Parway holds a stack of papers to her chest, looking up at Will in surprise. Guess he didn’t tell her he planned on showing up here.

“Come in, join the party.” Noctus welcomes her in a dry voice.

“Will?” She says looking confused and walking around him. She quickly sets the papers down on the chief’s desk.

“I just wanted to talk to him about what he told you yesterday. I know you haven’t forgiven me, but I did plan on telling you. After you called me this morning I wanted to make sure you were alright with still working here.” Will explains to her and her face hardens.

“Why wouldn’t I be? The police aren’t the ones lying to me.” She says defensively and Noctus stands up slowly making his way over to her. Valerie backs away from William looking disappointed when his face doesn’t change. He wants her to quit now after we endorsed him? Why does he think we endorsed him? It wasn’t because we believe in him that’s for sure.

I can’t wait until we screw him over.

Noctus rests his hands on his waist just as Valerie bumps into him. She quickly steps away from him and the chief crooks his head to the side, stepping towards Will. He gains superiority over the warlock when Valerie remains behind him and I see Heinrich smile beside me realizing it too.

She’s finally changing her mind about the coven and leaning more towards sympathizing with us.

“She has every right to work where she wants. So calm down, Will. There is nothing for you to worry about here, but please take your quarrel outside my office. Yansmen your break is over, back to work you go.” Noctus says mildly and I follow Parway and the warlock into the hallway.

_____________________________________

I had a feeling something was wrong when Yansmen didn’t come back to his desk from break. He had told me he would take the papers to Nick as soon as our break was over. So I thought I would bring them to Nick myself when he didn’t come back.

I had no idea Will was in there too, I could hear him yelling from outside Nick’s office. When he opened the door after I finally knocked, I acted surprised like I heard nothing about what was going on, but I heard enough. He was angry that Nick told me everything that night and blamed him for me getting upset.

Will wanted to take me out to dinner tonight, but I told him I wanted to be alone.

Stella fell asleep on the couch downstairs and we had pizza for dinner. I ate too many slices and I know it’s all because of my nerves. Will texted me five messages since I got out of work, but I know if I read them I’ll never be able to go to sleep. The best I can do is hope tomorrow I can move on from today. I’ll have to.

With that thought, I turn off my lamp and pull my covers up to my chin.

“Come on, hurry!” Colin yells ahead of me in the woods. I race after him, pumping my arms harder knowing the warlock is right behind us. This time, he’s wearing a creepy black mask with white chalk powder all over it. His black cloak flutters behind him and I hope he trips over it on his way down the mountain.

It’s dangerous running this fast downhill, but we have no choice.

Suddenly, Colin runs around a big boulder and I make the sharp turn to keep up with him. When I run around the boulder though he’s gone.

“Down here!” Colin yells and I look to the forest floor. The doors of the portal to the other realm are open and by the sound of it, he’s gone down there. No other witches have activated it so it’s just a cellar now.

We shouldn’t risk going down it though in case someone in the coven plans on using it while we’re in there, like the warlock!

“Colin! Get out of there, hurry!” I yell, but he doesn’t answer.

Hesitantly, I peer down into the darkness of the cellar and summon a flame of light. I will it to rest in an old hanging candle holder as I descend the stairs. I can hear droplets of water hitting the floor as I go lower and reach the bottom of the cellar. It’s small with just shelves for food and the walls are stone, old and musty.

The air smells like mold and copper.

Colin walks up the steps and closes the doors to the cellar, shrouding the room in dim lighting. I stay by the light I summoned down here and glare at him.

“What? We can’t run forever.” He says defensively and I sigh in defeat looking warily up at the doors.

“He’s here...” Colin adds in a whisper when the sound of crunching leaves comes from above us. My heart races and dread floods into me as the crunching of leaves gets louder. I want to hide, but there’s nothing to hide behind down here.

Colin looks at me expectantly and I shrug my shoulders in defeat not knowing a spell to make us invisible or get out us out of here. I’d need another witch for the latter. There’s no more time to think of anything else though as the doors to the portal open.

Colin’s closer to the stairs and the warlock slowly descends the steps, I feel frozen in place. It’s like he’s the embodiment of all my terror and my mind screams for help, but down here if I scream no one will hear us. No one will know what happened.

The warlock uses his magic to lift Colin up and smash his head into the ceiling. His body falls, landing so hard his head bleeds and I whimper. I’m powerless, I already tried using my magic the moment I got down here. I tried distinguishing my flame on the wall, but it still glows as if on its own accord.

There’s nowhere to hide. Why did Colin have to come down here?

Step by step, the tall masked warlock approaches me and I press my back further into the wall. It’s like I can hear the screams and cries of his victims down here, warning me I’ll be next. The warlock’s body trembles with rage. The anger of having to chase us through the entire mountain. The hunt just about over, he steps closer to me.

I shiver under his quiet stare, he’s only a foot away now. He knows I’m too afraid to move and takes his chance and clenches my throat, strangling me. The uneven rock wall painfully collides against my back as I wheeze against the warlock’s hold. I make a sharp choking noise as he steps closer and lifts me by the neck off my feet.

I pull desperately at his hands, but it’s no use.

He clenches his grip tighter with a grunt and I sob, pain exploding in my chest. Choking, I reach out weakly towards him to remove the mask from his face. My hand grabs the edge of it and it slides off him, falling onto the ground.

I make another strangled wheezing noise seeing it’s Nick. His eyes are wide as if just seeing me for the first time and his hold on my neck loosens slightly as he lowers me back to the ground still choking me. He draws his face nearer to mine, slowly loosening his hold on my neck more and I wheeze.

I tremble like a leaf against his touch seeing him still facing some kind of emotional struggle as he looks from my lips to my forehead as if confirming it to really be me.

Looking rigid, Nick closes his eyes and inclines his head forward. Resting his forehead against mine. He inhales sharply, parting his lips with a heavy shaky gasp. A breathless smile forms on his face, but it quickly falls back into a hard line.

I clench my eyes shut in terror, whimpering when his trembling hand leaves my neck and he pets my face softly. I’m afraid at any moment he’ll go back to choking me. His forehead leaves mine and I open my eyes with a sob feeling like I’m suffocating in his smoky mint scent. It’s too overwhelming and I shouldn’t want anything to do with it. He nuzzles his head against the side of my face stroking my hair as if to change my mind. I can feel a darkness overcoming him as he submits to his inner emotional turmoil and my heart trembles when he carefully balls my hair up in his fist.

Nick lowers his head to my eye level and I whimper seeing his eyes open, staring into mine with dark determination.

He pulls my hair in his fist, gently tilting my head back and looking indifferent to my fear. Then he cradles my face with both his hands, pulling me with him away from the wall and kissing me deeply on the lips. My face flushes, heating up as he tilts my head back even further without breaking the kiss as he continues pulling me with him further and further back into the darkness and away from the world above who hates us.

Gradually, his breathing becomes more ragged and shallow. I shudder heavily against his addictive touch, moaning like I’m in pain for the brief moments he pulls away. He muffles each sound I make at his own leisure as if taking his time to burn the memory into his mind. Over and over again. His kissing growing more and more achingly slower and sensual with each step back.

Abruptly, he breaks the kiss and pulls away from me. Leaving me feeling cold and empty...

I bolt up in bed with a racing heart. What was that?! I bite my lip feeling flustered, but even more so, mortified at myself for having dreamed something so forbidden. Nick’s not my boyfriend. He would never touch or kiss me like that without feeling revolted when I cursed him and brought my problems onto him. There’s no way he’s still single anyway. Besides, he’s my boss! Why couldn’t I have dreamed about Will instead? It must be because I’m still upset with him and worried about our relationship.

I scoff remembering the crazy dream and how unrealistic it was, laughable. Yet my mind yells at me like it’s my fault for dreaming up such a ludicrous fantasy of Nick kissing me. Well, some fantasy it was with him initially terrifying me and choking me and all.

I check my phone on my nightstand seeing I still have three hours of sleep before I have to get up for work. Grumpily, I slam my eyes back closed.

_______________________________________

Colin

I got a big shipment of blood in last night at the store. Technically, it was meat. I drained most of it myself and repackaged it for Noctus. I’m a little behind schedule, but he told me someone would be around at this hour.

As early in the morning as it is.

“Yo!” I holler casually after walking into the police station with my loaded truck parked out front. I walk to the left side of the front desk hearing a tv on down one of the hallways. Following the sound, I find Noctus’s office door is left open at the end of the hall. The light and sound coming from the tv inside leaks into the hallway.

“Savior? You here?” I call out feeling I’m in some kind of horror movie with the hallway being so dark and empty. When I reach his office, I push the door the rest of the way open. It creaks open wider and I step inside savior’s office seeing the news is playing up on the tv. His feet are kicked up on his desk and his head is tilted forward with his hat hiding his face in shadow. He’s fast asleep.

When I flicker the lights on and off his eyes shoot open.

“Um...” I mumble seeing his face sultry and all flustered like. Clearly, he was in the middle of having some kind of ‘special’ dream with goddess. He must still be a little riled up from the looks of it too.

After a moment, his dreamboat eyes turn cold like usual and for once I’m happy those eyes are cold again. I knew I wasn’t the one he was dreaming about, but it weirded me out seeing those starry eyes gazing in my direction.

His face turns a different kind of red as he adjusts his collar, standing up briskly.

“Never come in here without knocking again or the next time you die, you won’t wake up.” He threatens in a low voice while chucking my delivery money at me. Being a newborn vampire, I’ve not been told much about vampires yet. However, Heinrich did tell me when vampires feel territorial or livid their irises turn red. Just like savior’s are right now.

“Is that understood?!” He screams across at me and I swear the walls shake, must be his magic.

“Y-yes.” I stutter back quickly.

“Go on then.” He tells me in a much calmer voice while sitting back down and I dare not even think about reading his thoughts. Not that I’d be able to anyway, I can only read Heinrich’s since he sired me. Noctus is older though and can read all of our thoughts as most older vamps are able to with their kind.

Not wanting any more trouble, I rush out of his office and start unloading the blood down into the basement of the station.