Half Past the Witching Hour (Paranormal Personnel Saga #3) (4 page)

‘Jennifer—she is dead,’ I repeated.

‘Murdered, if we want to be more precise,’ Kate muttered, scanning the production room, probably searching for any clues.

‘The police are on the way. Do you think your dad will show up?’ Kelsie asked, staring mesmerised at Jennifer. I swallowed a few times, stopping myself from throwing up. Kelsie didn’t get that Kate and I knew the victim.

‘Probably,’ I said quietly.

‘Hey, girls. I don’t know why you’re both so shocked. It’s a body. Your father works with the police, so you should be used to it.’

‘Kelsie, give us a rest,’ Kate said through gritted teeth, shooting her an angry stare. ‘This is our ex-coworker Jennifer. Julia and she were kind of close.’

‘Coworker? Oh wow. I’m sorry.’

‘Kelsie,’ I sighed. ‘It’s fine, Jennifer was a nasty piece of work, but I don’t think she deserved to die like this. It’s better if we cover her up.’

I’d rather do this without Grandma. She always makes me nervous.

My stomach kept writhing and cramping when the Paranormal Unit arrived at La Caz Corporation. Lucinda was taken to the hospital. She was in shock, but the healers were optimistic about her condition. Dad showed up half an hour later with a forensic team.

‘Let me guess, you were here purely by coincidence?’ he asked, pursing his lips in frustration.

‘I came here for a meeting, Dad. Ask Kate if you don’t believe me,’ I mumbled back, shoving my sweaty hands into my pockets.

He shook his head and went to look at the body. I urged Kate and Kelsie to keep their mouths shut about my mini seizure and screams from earlier on. Dad didn’t need to know that all of the sudden I was afraid of a corpse. I was tough; everybody were aware of that, but I lost the plot twice already in front of Kate.

Later on I managed to learn from Dad that Jennifer had been dead for about six hours. She wasn’t charmed. No one used magic on her, although the air around the body was soaked with it. My heart fluttered in my chest when Dad informed me that Jennifer was killed between one and three in the morning.

After that, he had requested all the CCTV cameras from security and wanted to question a few people that were working in the building yesterday. I sat on pins and needles wondering how long I had to wait before a warrant for my arrest would to be issued. The evidence was against me, but I didn’t remember anything.

‘You girls should leave. We will be here for a while and if I need any of you, I’ll contact Julia,’ stated Dad, walking through the door to Lucinda’s office. I didn’t have the chance to ask him more questions because he was called by another officer and vanished shortly. I exhaled loudly wondering if he could find anything that would lead him to the killer.

‘This is bad, really bad,’ Kate said, once we got into the taxi.

‘Jennifer was closely tied in to McGregor,’ I said.

‘It seems like maybe McGregor had enemies who are cleaning up after him, maybe taking over his business,’ Kate said.

I didn’t want to say more, thinking about my lack of memories from last night.

‘I’ll call Rufus and let him know what’s happened,’ I said, clearing my throat and hoping to avoid further conversation about Jennifer and my overall state. I had to figure all this mess on my own. Kelsie was asked to stay in the factory to deal with the crisis. She seemed pretty excited about her new role.

I told Kate that I had to get to the hospital to pick up Quentin. It was actually another lie. The truth was that I needed to stay away from the office for a while. Alexandra agreed to cover for me. I called Quentin to see if he needed anything, then I went to the gym and stayed there until evening came, searching through my memories, having that bad feeling in my gut that the dark side of my magic that was slowly taking over my life. When I got home I didn’t check if the knife I dreamed about was in the drawer; I was too scared to find out if I had something to do with Jennifer’s murder.

The next morning, I shot straight from the bed, running to the bathroom, examining myself in the mirror. To my relief, I woke up without blood on my hands, but that didn’t help. I was worried and anxious that my life was getting out of control and that my mother might be in danger.

Later on I went to the office. I sat at my desk staring blankly at the computer screen. My brain seemed inactive. People expected me to be all right, but deep down I was falling apart.

What if I did it? What if I was a murderer? My power hadn’t been off since the breakup with Nathaniel.

Some people in my family believed that I was cursed, but no one had ever had the guts to speak out about this. I’d seen the way my other long-distance cousins looked at me when I was much younger. I also read my grandmother’s case studies. She believed in a legendary curse, the dark magical gene that I was supposed to inherit. My auntie kept telling her that I might have been carrying the gene as my magic never obeyed me. Once the dark gene took over whoever was carrying it, that person wasn’t in control anymore. If my auntie was right, if I carried the gene, then I had to be very careful who I was around from now on. That was why I had to keep my father and grandmother out of this mess.

Kate quit asking me if I was okay, but she kept glancing back and forth, probably trying to use her internal magic to see what I was hiding from her. I also had a phone call from Quentin asking about his pet frog Gomez and stating that he’d had enough lying in the hospital bed and was getting discharged tonight. I offered to pick him up and nurse him until he was well enough to get back to his apartment.

Clients came and left. My day was moving at a snail’s pace. I picked up the phone three times in the past ten minutes wondering if I should call Dad and ask him if he had any suspects, but I knew that it was too early.

It was after three o’clock when I finally had a chance to get the hell out of the office to grab something to eat. The absence of my magic was bringing me down and my internal agitation grew. The images of the knife and Jennifer’s dead body kept flashing through my mind. I came back to the office with a headache. There were a few people on the sofa in the waiting area. I noticed an older elf who looked at me when I walked back to the office.

Kate called me to her desk and whispered, ‘This elf is here for you. He didn’t say what he wanted. He insisted on waiting for you.’

I had no idea who he was. The paranormal dressed in a perfectly cut, possibly tailor-made suit. I could see he was an elf, a pure-blooded one. His aura was striking, strong, intense and the most powerful I’d ever felt. His hair had a slight silver glow, but in his younger years his hair was probably baby blond, like mine.

I placed my lunch on my desk and walked up to him.

‘My colleague mentioned that you’re here to see me?’ I asked with a polite smile.

The guy took his time. He folded the paper he’d been reading, and when he finally looked at me I was flexing my fingers with impatience, rudely sighing and puffing.

‘Miss Taylor, can we move to more private room?’

I stood in front of him, looking at his deep blue eyes and feeling like my magic was slowly waking up. The familiar tingle rolled over my back and the usual feeling settled once again in my stomach. Electricity filled the air, and I was sort of relieved that my energy had returned.

‘I’m sorry, but could you please tell me what is this about? I don’t think we met?’ I said, digging for any memories that would indicate why I should have known this odd paranormal. He didn’t respond straight away, but he continued to stare at me, his eyes beaming with curiosity.

‘We met a long time ago. I don’t think you would remember because you were a little girl back then. Miss Taylor, I insist—we need to have a one-to-one conversation, in private. I can’t do this in any other way.’

His voice was deep and enigmatic. My magic was surging through me, igniting my fingers that I was hiding behind me.

‘Fine, whatever. Let’s go then, but I don’t think that’s really necessary.’

Kate was trying to pin down the stranger with her eyes, but I doubted very much that this could get her anywhere. The older paranormals seemed powerful enough to turn any spell around.

I took the stranger to the interview room, trying to figure out what was happening to my body. All morning and half of afternoon I felt useless and now all of a sudden my energy returned, jetting through me fast, heating up my blood.

The older elf sat down on the chair and nodded for me to sit opposite. As I took a closer look at him, my wild power settled down and my fingers stopped sparkling. The elf was now smiling and looking around the office with even more curiosity. His eyes stopped on the hole in the ceiling. Last year Nathaniel had come here, hoping that I would sleep with him, and my magic had gone out of control, pulling part of the celling down.

‘Your magic is still strong in this room. Did something happen here?’ asked the stranger, narrowing his eyes on me. My anxiety flared up and hot and cold airwaves pulsed through me.

He is a stranger; he doesn’t know anything about me.

‘Can you tell me who you are, first of all?’ I asked in high-pitched tone, losing my patience. I didn’t like his ambience and the fact that he knew more about me than he would share.

‘My name is Tron Hendrixon, and I’m one of the eldest elves that still live amongst humans. I’m here to help you with your hmm… how to put it right … oh yes—incidents with magic. I want to help you to control it.’

I took a deep breath and looked away, thinking fast. He couldn’t be serious. No one knew about my ‘incidents,’ not even my father.

‘You’re losing me, Mr. Hendrixon. I don’t know what you are talking about. I’m half elf and I’m magical like you. I don’t have any incidents or problems with my magic,’ I insisted. I wasn’t prepared to talk about my lethal outburst with a stranger who was dressed like he was in the wrong century, although I was curious to ask him about visions where I’d seen my mother dying.

‘I didn’t have a chance to talk to your grandmother yet, but if she were here, she would agree with me. Have you been blacking out lately? Have you been experiencing any memory loss?’

‘No, no, and no,’ I lied, feeling more and more anxious about his true accusations. My grandmother would never send someone else to tell me that I needed to gain control of my magic. I didn’t trust him, although he was spot on about what had happened to me in the past few days.

‘You’re lying. I can always tell. You had at least two blackouts and you are afraid that you killed someone last night,’ Tron stated, finally losing that creepy smile. He had fine lines around his lips and a pointed chin. I got up, feeling dizzy, my hands shaking.

‘I think you already said enough. I don’t know how you know all these things about me, but frankly I don’t care. You’re a stranger and you must leave before I call the police.’ I folded my arms together. My breath came short and the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

Tron didn’t move and he didn’t even blink. For about thirty seconds he continued to stare at me. Then I felt him and his power in my blood and my bones. Powerful and enigmatic waves of current lashed through me, pulling me back to my seat. I tried to fight it, but the tingle of heat was so strong that I broke out in a sweat and flopped back on the chair. Dread moved over my spine as I stared at those blue eyes.

‘Your grandmother is stubborn, but you, young lady, you’re even worse than her. We both know that you need help and it’s time to put the fear aside.’ Tron continued talking, stroking his chin at the same time. ‘We need to start the training.’

I laughed nervously, tossing my hair behind me.

‘Training?’ I repeated.

‘Well, we don’t have to, but I strongly suggest that we do. The visions that you’re experiencing, well, those are real. You could hurt people,’ he explained. ‘Do you really want to do that?’

I sat there on the chair, speechless and lost. Anxiety and fear were like my best buddies patting me on the back when I thought about the fire and my mother. Maybe I was cursed and the vision about my mother dying in the fire was real. If that theory made sense, then I had to do anything I could to prevent it from becoming real.

When I didn’t respond, he leaned over the table and added, ‘Julia, stop treating me like I’m your enemy. I know everything about you and I want to help you. Your magic needs to be controlled.’

I needed a minute to gather my thoughts.

‘I heard about the legend, a cursed elf overpowered by the darkness. I’ve seen a vision of my mother burning alive. If I’m the one that my grandmother was afraid to talk about, then help me. I’ll do anything to save my mother. She is a human and doesn’t know about our world,’ I said, determination in my voice. I needed to know if he was able to do anything for me. I was petrified thinking that I had a power that was so dangerous and so lethal that could hurt people. If he was right, then everyone I truly loved was in danger, especially my mother.

Magic had always been there to make my life difficult. My grandmother praised it and loved it, but I hated and despised it. My spells were faint, but when I managed to use my power it was much stronger than anyone else’s in the family, but it seldom obeyed me.

It took Tron a long while to respond.

‘It’s just a legend, but you’re right, these visions are worrying. I can sense that you used a very dark spell last night. You have blood on your hands, but until you reach your full power we wouldn’t be able to fight with your darkness,’ Tron said. ‘Let me train that drizzling power that you are holding within you.’

‘I don’t understand. Why do you want to help me? What’s in it for you?’ I kept asking, looking at his blue eyes. He didn’t believe in the curse, but I had to think about the worst case scenario. I had to consider all the options.

‘I owe your grandmother a favour, and you are unique. I’ve foreseen danger. Many people will die if you leave your magic as it is. Dark wizards, paranormals that are starved for power may take the advantage of you. You’re vulnerable and your loved ones are in danger.’

I started chewing my bottom lip thinking about this more clearly. Memories from my dream during the meeting were fresh and vivid. I couldn’t take that risk, knowing that I could be responsible for my mother’s death.

‘What about the killer? In flashbacks I’ve seen myself killing and I woke up with blood on my hands this morning—in my living room!’ I said, raising my voice, remembering Jennifer’s empty eyes. ‘My father is in charge of this investigation. His career will be in pieces if he has to arrest me.’

‘You need to calm down and leave your father out of this. I can help you to understand what happened last night, but we need to start training straight away. You’ve done something wrong. Maybe you were near when that woman died.’

I pressed my fingertips to my forehead, my pulse racing fast. The knife, if I found the knife in my apartment, then I’d know.

‘So how do we do this? I mean how are you planning to train me?’ I asked anxiously. If I was going to do this, no one could know. Not even my friends.