Storm Of Magick Part 2

I looked around the dark room. The man couldn't be far away; maybe I would recognize something. The scent of wet dog, sweat, and pennies came with the vision. However, it was over as quickly as it started and I was left blinking at the steering wheel. Paris too was trying to gather his senses.

"Did you recognize him?" I asked, still a little dazed.

"That was Rafe." He was p.i.s.sed off. Anger and heat filled the van, and it was better than the heater - but dangerous. At least Paris wasn't a new werefox. He wouldn't lose control and s.h.i.+ft.

Paris recovered physically faster from the experience than me, but his anger still hovered over us like a storm cloud. Without another word, we switched seats and were off again. Another vision behind the wheel on an icy road would be a bad combination.

I picked up my warm Styrofoam cup. It felt good on my cold hands and I hoped that it had cooled enough to drink. I tipped the cup up to my mouth and felt the heat against my lips. The warmth travel down my throat to my stomach. Yummo.

"Do you know anyone who would kidnap and hurt Rafe?" I asked because the question needed to be answered. And, things weren't going to get any easier without answers.

"There are people who would like to get rid of Rafe, but I don't think any of them have the b.a.l.l.s do the job. He's our King because he's the most powerful. Who could beat him like that?" Paris asked, watching the road and squeezing the wheel, voice rising.

"I have no idea," I answered.

I let the subject drop for now because I really didn't want him to pull my steering wheel off. I told Paris the address and we rode the rest of the way in silence. The wind picked up, blowing the snow around the road and making it hard to keep the van steady. Large bare trees lined both sides of the road, creating a strange skeletal effect. It took longer than I expected to get to Buck Road, but we were going only twenty miles an hour. The snow made it hard to see anything more than a few feet ahead.

Through the snow in the distance, I saw red and blue flas.h.i.+ng lights. The van moved at a crawl so we could stop without sliding into anyone's vehicle. Paris parked next to the other cars. I sat there for a moment, just watching, before clipping my little badge onto my coat. It said Supernatural Special Unit Department Expert, and of course, it had my picture and name.

We got out and I immediately put my hands into my pockets. The wind was so gusty that I had to squint so the snow wouldn't go in my eyes. Doyle and Evans stood at the edge of the tree line. They seemed to be comparing notes. The men around them worked with a purpose, collecting evidence in the snow. Their efficiency was probably to get them the h.e.l.l out of the freezing temperatures.

"Glad you could join us," Doyle said in an aggravated voice as we approached. His blue eyes were angry.

"It's nice to see you too," I said. I really hoped he wouldn't start yelling. I was starting to get a painful headache.

"Evans will take you to the murder scene. I want to know what did this, Logan. When you're done the coroner will load the body," he said, finis.h.i.+ng his cigarette and flicking it into the bushes. Evans moved towards us, turning up the collar on his long black wool coat.

"I can move the body?" I asked, starting to sway. The only good thing about the snow was it made everything smell fresh and clean.

"Yeah, everyone else has done their job," Doyle answered, retrieving his pack of cigarettes and lighter out of his pocket.

"Great, we'll follow the leader. After you," I said to Evan with a quick nod of my head.

"Could your jeans be any tighter, Wolf?" Evans asked a huge grin on his face.

I glanced down at my jeans, and then gave him the one finger salute. "Kiss my a.s.s," I said, blowing him a kiss.

"Anytime, anywhere!" Evans said a serious look in his eyes. I rolled my eyes and kept walking. I don't know why I encouraged him.

Detective Jake Evans is a pain in my a.s.s. He's a little too stuck on himself, but he's a good cop really. And, he's well built too. He stands six foot two with hazel eyes and sandy hair with blond highlights. He could've been a model.

"I bet you get a lot of girls with that line," I said with a grin. Paris grinned too.

It had taken a long time for Paris to get used to Evans' joking around with me. He'd wanted to kick his a.s.s for a few s.e.xual comments he'd made.

"You know you want me, Logan," Evans said, winking. The statement struck me as funny; I started to laugh and couldn't stop. Maybe it was all the nervous energy before seeing a murder. "What ... what's so funny?" he demanded, faking as if he was offended.

We joked until we reach to the murder scene, then we went quiet. We trudged to the edge of the tree line and I slipped down a small slope. The snow was deeper away from the road. I was glad I wore my hiking boots. I slid a little and almost fell, but managed to stay on my feet after doing a ridiculous little dance. At five foot seven, I really didn't have far to fall.

"This scene has made even the strongest of stomachs lose their lunch today, Logan. I've never seen anything like it," Evans said. He stayed back about ten feet with a grim look on his face. He'd seen enough and didn't care to see it again. Not a good sign.

The snow started out a crisp white, and then went through several shades before turning a deep red. Around the scene, it looked like a macabre snow cone. I stood a couple feet away from the body; it was the only way to wrap my mind around what I was seeing. This scene was three times worse than the first. I had to forget that this was a person and stick to the evidence. I had a job to do without losing my mind or worse, my cookies.

Paris handed me a pair of surgical gloves. He had gotten better at putting on the d.a.m.n things: it was an art form. We had a routine we followed; I examined the body, then Paris did the same. After, we would compare our findings.

Now was the time to get as many details that we could gather. The body lay on its back, positioned to look just right. It screamed posed. I started at the head then slowly worked my way down the body. The cold had preserved it, but we still could lose evidence due to the wind and snow. I bent down and the scent of copper hit me. It's weird that blood smells like copper tastes. I caught a hint of sewage; the intestine had been perforated. The only good thing was the smell wasn't as strong as it could've been.

The exposed body parts body was a faded blue-gray. The lips were a deep purple and the eyes were frozen open in horror. The lower jaw was bruised and twisted; you can't bite if your jaw's broke. The throat had two deep slashes, cutting through her windpipe and esophagus. The temperature had caused the edges of the wound to roll outward and freeze, and the white larynx bone showed. The deep red muscles glistened with ice crystals. There was a lot of damage.

I looked at Paris to say something about the wound, but something was wrong. His mouth hung open as if to speak, and then he abruptly shut it again, not knowing what to say. Several emotions pa.s.sed over his face. But, grief settled on it. Just because he's a werefox didn't mean the gore wouldn't get to him, although it was less likely to.

"Are you alright?" I asked, not really noticing the cold anymore.

"This is Mary," he said, staring at the body. His eyes had changed to glowing ice green, his werefox eyes. It happened when a shape s.h.i.+fter loses control of their emotions.

"This is the missing werebear?" I asked, looking at him closely.

He nodded, and then shook his head as if he was trying to get past the idea that he knew this person. I had to get back to examining the body. I was sorry this was someone he knew but I had a job to do and this case didn't need his emotional baggage. It needed solving.

"Paris, I want you to go stand with Evans. Don't start any s.h.i.+t," I said, looking at the body.

"I can handle this," he said, starting to get angry.

"I'm not asking, I'm telling! I don't have time for any bulls.h.i.+t. Now go," I said, looking away from him. I wasn't going to back down on this. He was no good to me right now. My night was getting better by the hour.

Paris walked to Evans, looking like I'd put him in time out. I didn't give a s.h.i.+t. I went back to my work, saying a spell so a small ball of light appeared which made examining the body easier. Plus, my flashlight holder was in time out. Murder scenes at night weren't my favorite thing; I'm always afraid I'll miss something important. Me paranoid? Yep.

The skin was cold and hard to the touch. There were bruises and blisters at the wrists, which must have been caused by silver chains. It's the only thing that leaves this kind of damage on a lycanthrope. Both arms were stretched over her head and the wrists still lay on top of one another. Her shoulder-length red hair was frozen and when I moved it, it sounded like Velcro being pulled apart. Her eyes were a cloudy green, as if they'd tried to s.h.i.+eld themselves from the horror.

The pink coat was soaked through with blood and pushed up, revealing the stomach. The top half of her dark blue jeans were shredded, but from the waist down the body wasn't damaged. The blood had congealed and it was cold and sticky to the touch. The main event was the abdomen. A long jagged wound left the whole stomach cavity open. The intestines lay outside the body. They were brownish, the color of old liver. Judging by the scent of sewage, they had been perforated and a greenish-brown liquid seeped out. Thank the G.o.ds for cold weather.

It looked as if someone had put their hands inside her stomach and scrambled everything up. I pushed a couple of organs out of the way. Some killers take a piece of the body for their trophies. The blood on my hand was freezing cold, making them ache. With the weather in single digits, pinpointing the time of death was going to be difficult. I was glad it wasn't my job.

I walked back towards Evans and Paris. "Evans, do the paramedics have any longer gloves?" I asked.

"I'll check." Evans answered, blowing into his cold hands and walked away.

I stood next to Paris in the awkward silence. "I could've handled it. I've seen worse," he hissed at me. "h.e.l.l, I've made bigger messes with my own kills!" What Paris had neglected to mention was his food was animals. The Kitsune didn't hunt humans - it was against their laws.

"I see you're going to take the macho bulls.h.i.+t att.i.tude route. How about we just get a ruler and measure your d.i.c.k right now? Than we can by-pa.s.s all the c.r.a.p, you just handed me! I don't have the time or the energy for your childish s.h.i.+t right now," I said without taking a breath. I could see Evans heading back with the gloves.

I took the gloves without a word and went back to the body. I had a hunch. I had to see if the heart was missing as well, or if it was just the liver. No animals had started scavenging on her yet - well there weren't any tracks - and the bad weather could be the reason why. It was odd for a body to be out in the elements for any amount of time and not be food for something.

Chapter 4.

I stood, took off the large gloves and walked back towards Doyle. I tossed the used gloves at Evans as I pa.s.sed. He b.i.t.c.hed about how expensive his coat was and how he would send me the cleaning bill.

Doyle was leaning against an unmarked car with his arms crossed over his chest. There were still officers and detectives still milling around looking for evidence while they waited for an order from their fearless leader. But, if you asked me, any of the evidence that could've been collected was either trampled or gone.

"What do you have for me?" Doyle asked standing and s.h.i.+fting his coat. "Can we load the body?"

"Not yet," I said, not at all happy. "We have to walk a perimeter a mile out from the body. Don't you find it odd that it wasn't nibbled on by animals?" I asked him. "There had to be a magick circle cast around the body to protect it. If you move the body it could break the magick," I explained, trying to cover all the bases.

Usually I was better about feeling magick residue, but my system must have been f.u.c.ked up by the vision. I hoped I wasn't going about the situation wrong. Come on Logan get your s.h.i.+t together. I had to see if there was a circle of magick, and then go from there.

Paris and I walked away from the body, about five feet apart. After being outside for a long time, the snow hurt when it hit my face. It was more like pellets then anything. Paris's mood had been somber ever since leaving Mary's body, but there wasn't anything I could say to make things better so I didn't bother. I said a spell and a light the size of a tennis ball appeared and floated in front of us. It was good enough to illuminate about five feet ahead of us. We walked further into the woods in silence.

Many of the trees were bare, except for a patch of Blue Spruce that filled the crisp air with a strong pine fragrance. Only a few dead leaves still hung to the branches, as if in defiance of the winter winds. I walked and thought about the body. A lot was happening all at once and the cold didn't matter anymore.

"Paris, over here!" I yelled, seeing prints in the snow.

He ran to my position, having wandered about twenty feet away. He didn't need the light; his eyes were better than most animals. We followed the prints, hoping to find something, anything that could help. Paris stayed on the other side of the prints so he wouldn't muss up anything. The footprints were far apart - maybe whomever they belonged to was running or very tall. I bent down to get a better look.

"Looks like about a size eleven, wide boot," I said, really looking at it.

I thought maybe if I touched the print, I could get a psychic impression. I didn't know what to expect, but as soon as my fingers touched the snow, my hand started to vibrate. I got a flash of a man in the shadows. I'd become accustomed to the short takes of my visions - I usually never saw enough to help until it was too late. The vision cleared and we started following the prints again. Other than them, nothing else seemed out of place.

"Does anything look weird to you?" I asked.

"The body wasn't dragged here," he said, looking around.

"Yeah, only one set of prints going away from the body. How did it get here?" I wondered.

"It could've been carried to the site. Mother Nature covered up the murderer's footprints with the endless snow and wind," he suggested.

"Could be, but something just doesn't smell right," I said.

"Coincidence? Or someone taking a walk, or again the Mother Nature theory," he said with a shrug, his leather coat creaking.

"I smell trouble and it's bad," I said, starting to walk again.

The snowfall was so bad that it was nearly was impossible to see anything more than five feet away, even with my magickal light. All of a sudden, the tracks stopped. As if the person had just disappeared, s.n.a.t.c.hed out of thin air.

"Where in the h.e.l.l did they go?" Paris asked, searching the darkness through the snow for any signs. And if anyone could see into the night, it was him.

"What could have plucked someone out of thin air?" I wondered aloud, trying to put things together and not getting anywhere.

We stood in the cold and stared at each other with no answers. There was a scent in the air that was so out of place it caught me off guard. It was a hint of fresh lilacs. In the distance, I heard the m.u.f.fled sounds of twigs cracking and popping as if something large and heavy stalked through the woods. We looked in the direction of the sound but the snow was coming down too heavily for us to see anything. I had to try something. Here's hoping curiosity didn't kill the witch.

I stood quietly, focusing to see what I could sense. I hoped the spell I was about to use didn't backfire. I extinguished the ball of light - it's too hard to hold two spells at the same time unless you have someone else acting as a magickal boost.

The spell I was trying would temporarily stop the snow around us so we could investigate the noise properly. Weather control wasn't one of my natural abilities, and most of the time it didn't work. Unless you're an elemental witch, doing a weather spell was dangerous. I guess we were about to find out just how good my luck was.

I raised my hands to the sky, said the spell aloud, the words echoing in the air. And, like someone turning off a switch, the snow just stopped. The problem now was how long would the spell hold?

I ran towards the noise with Paris right behind me, close enough that if I stopped quickly he would've run up my a.s.s. A black flash shot across the clearing up ahead. I ran as fast as I could in the deep snow. I had to try to catch it.

It occurred to me that I was running too fast, even for a witch. Maybe it was a weird reaction to my power that gave me a boost. I didn't have time to over-a.n.a.lyze it though, just use it. When we reached the clearing, we slid to a stop on the wet leaves under the snow. The lilac smell was so strong now I could almost touch it. I could taste it on the back of my tongue, as if someone had sprayed perfume into my mouth. I looked around, trying to gather a sense of where we were. All we needed to do was to get lost in the bitter cold and freeze to death. That would be a bad thing.

"Did you see that?" I asked, trying to catch my breath. Running in snow was like running on sand - the faster you tried to be, the slower you went.

"I saw a black blur," Paris gasped. "Problem. I was running full out and I was having a hard time keeping up with you. Now, there's something wrong with this picture," he added between gulps of air. I agreed, but I couldn't do anything about it there was no point worrying.

"I don't know what happened. I don't have time to worry about it right now," I said, waiting for some kind of reaction from the spell, a magickal backfire maybe. However, nothing came. I grew quiet and reached out with my senses.

The spell still held off the snow and I hoped it would at least last long enough for us to find this thing. I turned and stared into a set of gold eyes set in black shadow. There were about fifty feet between me and the creature. I could sense its intelligence, sympathy and knowledge of itself, and the events it had seen. Than it was gone, and at the same time, the snow began again and it wasn't the small pellet snow this time, it was large goose feather size flakes. Nature is a hard force to tame, if not impossible unless it's your particular ability.

"Did you see that?" I asked Paris, still staring at the spot where the creature had stood.

"I didn't see anything. I felt something - a ghostly presence and powerful magick," he said, his hands stretched out, trying to feel the electrostatic wall a ghost would create.

I was close enough to feel the magickal charge but I hadn't noticed it before. The magick had faded quite a bit, but there was still a charge to the air, like right before a lighting storm.

The creature was powerful, and older than anything I'd ever felt before. I've felt many beings' magickal energies. "I think we've seen everything we're going to for tonight," I decided. "So let's head back. We need to fill Doyle in." I said my light spell and the ball reappeared.

We headed back in the direction we'd come from. I hadn't really noticed how far away we were until we started back. We walked in silence, which made it feel twice as long. I couldn't see the creature from the woods any longer, but I could still sense it watching us.

In the distance, I could just make out the body. The snow came down harder than before the spell and the wind had picked up.

"Until we find out what that was, I don't want anything said to anyone." I slowed down so we could walk together. I was going to pay for the display of magick; it was just a matter of when or how bad. I really had to learn how to control my powers when the murder was solved.

Even as I thought it, I could feel a surge of my power growing. I stepped away from Paris. Being so close to, he didn't help silence the problem. I staggered in a snowdrift and out of instinct he grabbed my arm. I quickly stepped out of his reach and fell to my knees. Paris bent down next to me but this time he didn't try to touch me. He knew what the surge looked like; he'd seen it many times in the last couple of months. Grams had been teaching me over the phone to control the magickal surge, but I still haven't gained the knowledge I needed. My control was still limited and quickly reaching its breaking point.

"You can control it!" Paris said in a firm voice. "At least long enough to talk to Doyle. Now, get your s.h.i.+t together like your Grams taught you."

"What do you I'm trying to do?" I asked, gritting my teeth.

I was trying my best. I sat back on my feet, took a couple of deep breaths and focused. I pushed the surge of power deep down inside, into a little box and locked it up tight. It wouldn't stay silent forever and when it did come back, there would be h.e.l.l to pay.

After a few minutes, I felt a little better, but now I was damp with sweat. I got to my feet and we began walking again. My body tightened up as I fought to keep the surge quiet. Until I took care of the surge safely, I didn't dare use any magick.

A backlash would be bad and dangerous, at least for whoever was close to me. I could safely discharge a surge into Mother Earth, in the Shaman tradition of the Honi Tribe, my tribe, but it was a long and complicated ritual and we just didn't have the time right now.

After what seemed like forever, we made it back to the body. It shouldn't have taken so long. I stopped once again, bent down, and stared at Mary. Just one last look before I left. I hoped that she made a quick crossing across the veil.

Doyle and Evans were still standing next to their car but the others had taken up their posts from inside their much warmer vehicles. Both men retrieved the notepads and pens as they walked towards me.

"What do you have for me?" Doyle asked. Their cheek and noses were rosy from the cold wind biting at their exposed skin.

"Well, this is a monster and a very sick one! I believe it's the same killer as the first murder but I can't be sure. A surgical tool could've made the wounds - the coroner will be able to tell you for sure. If not, whatever you're looking for it's very sharp. It also looks like the liver is missing. We did find the residue of a magickal circle. Whoever made it is knowledgeable and has a decent amount of power. I feel this person is just getting started," I said, feeling the surge starting to stir. "A supernatural creature didn't do this. It was a human monster with ties to the occult."