Detective Witch (Devil's Witch Book 2)
Chapter 2-Power Outage

“Huh, the security guard isn’t even here,” Yansmen murmurs from behind me.

I hear him put the building’s keys back in the lockbox underneath the front desk. Then I cut through the lobby and head back into the main room to my desk. By the time I power on my computer, a few other cops have trickled into the station. They stand over by Yansmen offering him leftover store-bought coffee cakes, doughnuts and other stale looking food.

They must have had a big meeting last night to have so much more food leftover than usual. The police unit have their daily meetings sometime after Yansmen and I leave-when they all get back from their rounds. The other detectives, like myself, are not given the luxury of having such nice treats to munch on during the day.

They usually keep the leftover food in the fridge behind the locker room in the break room area. I’m not big on sweets so I never have tried their food anyway. Plus, I’ve been putting on more pounds than I’d like to admit.

I’m spoiled because Stella cooks a lot and I do eat when I’m nervous, and lately, I have been very nervous. Self consciously, I pat my stomach and frown at the plump pocket of food still lingering in there from pasta night.

“Work, work, work,” Yansmen sings, sitting down in his computer chair with crumbs already covering his shirt.

I didn’t want to come in here this early, but this report isn’t going to write itself. Yansmen actually is quite the early bird, he normally comes in at this time.

A few minutes go by and I glance absentmindedly at the windows across the room, giving us a beautiful view of the brick building neighboring ours. Well, since I can actually see the building’s wall now, it must be at least passed five am. When I look up from my workbook and slide my stack of papers away from my phone, I see it nearing six in the morning.

Perfect, we have found no leads and soon everyone will be here. Curious, I look over my shoulder to check on my partner’s progress. Sure enough, he’s watching football. Just like yesterday and the day before. Fed up with his antics, I scoot away from my computer and head over to the lobby to get myself a cup of water from the drink station.

After I toss away my empty cup, I glance out the window and my jaw drops. There’s a giant mob of witches grouped right outside marching down the streets. With new interest, I go closer to the windows to get a better view of the weird destroyed puppet thing the witch in the front holds propped up on a giant stick.

It’s raised above their heads, reminding me of a scarecrow. Only it isn’t a scarecrow. If my guess is right, it’s their representation of the white witch. Why it is smashed up...well my guess is they were probably pretending it was me. Just when I thought they would be off my back with Colin’s case going public, how can they not see I’m innocent? Someone else is messing with me and Colin’s possession proved them all wrong. There really is someone else still out there and I don’t want anything to do with the legend or them!

Still, I have to wonder what got them all so upset all of the sudden. Someone must be leading them around. Luckily, they clear away from the station. The only reason they do is because of the wave of cops passing by me and running outside. The vamps don’t bare their fangs or attack the witches, instead they force the witches to disperse using megaphones and the blaring sirens of their police vehicles that are swarmed around the coven mob.

Watching the chaotic scene unfold outside, I hug myself and step back from the window feeling like someone punched me in the gut.

“Hey? You okay?” Yansmen asks me, handing me a packet of freshly printed pages.

He actually finished it? How could he have managed to finish the report?

“I am now, how did you finish it so quickly?”

“I don’t have much of a social life yet. So after I went home I got right on it. By the way, you’re welcome,” he boasts.

I smile as we walk down the hallway leading to our desks.

“Hahah, guess I came in early for nothing then. Well, at least we beat the crowd out there. Can you believe the mess outside?” I ask him wondering how he feels about the witches and knowing I’m one.

However, someone steps out in front of him and I almost run into his back. Officer Heinrich holds his hand out expectantly to Yansmen and Yansmen gives him our latest replaceings.

The high ranked big vampire officer skims through the pages then looks down at the two of us.

“Good,” he says shortly, but with an aloof grin that sends Yansmen over the moon.

Getting such a remark of approval from Heinrich is rare, especially one with a smile. Without another word, Heinrich goes into his office and we both get back to work.

I continue doing my own research about a missing pair of werewolf teens a month ago. After a couple more minutes though, I get bored and open up my desk drawer in search of a mint. I do replace a mint, but I also replace my police hat too. The one we are required to wear at all times. I think the rule’s kind of ridiculous, especially since it’s not even my job to patrol.

Throughout the rest of the day, I text Will back and forth. Apparently, some of the coven members have been going at it since yesterday. He told me he found the ring leader, but didn’t mention anything about reprimanding them for inciting violence. Which I was hoping he would. Instead, they have been shushed. I think he’s starting to be afraid of his own people. If the coven turned against him, he’d be outnumbered.

I know he has to be careful, but I was still hoping he would do a little more to show their crazy behavior should not be tolerated...

Tapping my pen against my notebook, I finally decide to call it a day and turn off my computer. The machine hums loudly then shuts off with a beep. All the other desks around me have already been abandoned. The police are doing rounds now and Yansmen left a little bit ago. I stayed behind to clean out my messy desk.

I open my newly cleaned desk drawer again and pop another mint in my mouth and watch the shiny portion of my police hat. Without me willing it to, my magic moves my hat slightly and it brushes against the numerous amounts of neatly organized clutter in my desk drawer. Out of habit, I look at my shoulder and replace a few strands of my hair are floating. My hat continues rattling against the walls of the drawer, shaking the entire desk now too.

Somewhere down the hallway where the higher-ranked officers work I hear a door close. In a panic, I slam my desk drawer shut and stand up at attention. After grabbing my tote, I haul it over my shoulder looking down the hallway and hoping my magic will settle down.

Seeing no one, I hurry out of the main room leaving my stupid desk behind and into the lobby still feeling spooked.

Back in the workroom, I couldn’t see or hear the noisy crowd of people outside. I thought they had the coven under control. Will told me they captured the ring-leader already, but with witches like them, I’m sure one already took take their place seeing as the mob is right outside again!

This area was cleared around lunchtime today, I’m going to have to call someone. Abruptly, a witch decides to use her magic and send a brick flying through it, at me. With a panicked squeak, I scurry back further into the waiting room of the station like a mouse.

“She’s here! Come everyone, get her!” the evil witch bellows.

Her wild black curly hair flying around her head as she conjures her own spell.

Will said it wasn’t this bad! He promised they wouldn’t go this far. Too bad for me, even if I try using my magic against them they’ll pin me as a demon even if it is still a natural blue hue.

They can’t see it with their sight, they can only tell by its power and movement that it’s truly black magic. I would easily overpower them all, but my energy wouldn’t last because I still don’t have good control over my newfound magical strength. The moment my magic died out they’d have their chance to kill me.

Some sort of bike rack gets thrown into the other half of the windows and now that all of them are shattered, the witches pile into the station like starved animals.

“Leave me alone!” I retort.

It comes off as a warning, I will wait for them to attack first to use my magic if I must. The coven members don’t give my plea the time of day though. After all, they’ve been brainwashed to hate me.

I hear a witch in the back of their crowd start chanting a spell. The sky rumbles overhead outside and the witches one by one join in on the chant.

“Kill her! Great goddess let it be, mark her dead for eternity!” they chant.

I shiver, their words are cheesy, but the intent behind them is all too real as well as the amount of their craft put together. Sooner or later, I’m going to be forced to fight back. Thankfully, none of them have physically hurt me yet, but they have me trapped in here.

Suddenly, the hanging urban light above the front desk begins to shake and the glass covering the floor vibrates in place. This can’t be part of their spell, I don’t see anyone’s magic stirring in here yet. The storm brewing outside rumbles across the town, thunder muting their voices.

A couple witches stop chanting and look around themselves with confusion. The police building shakes slightly like an earthquake is happening.

“Something smells weird. Scatter!” the witch restraining me down in one of the waiting room chairs yells.

Like cockroaches, the rest of the coven members run into the workroom as the lights of the police station flicker on and off. The floor shakes a little more then stops. The shattered glass still jingles against it, rattling subtly.

From my position in the lobby, I can see the witches and warlocks hide under desks and some others go into the bathroom.

“What?” I ask the witch holding me down.

Is there someone else in the building with us?

If this is magic doing this to the building, I’m sure a witch would have announced it by now. To my disturbance, the witch slumps over and onto the ground like a sack of potatoes. I hear other thuds, but it’s a piercing scream that sends me to take cover behind the front desk.

It isn’t a frightened scream either, but an angry one. Coming from the workroom beyond the wall behind me and out of my line of sight. The scream slowly dies down into a sob and I pull my hands away from my ears. Getting a bad feeling, I scoot further back under the desk.

The electricity goes off. It must be from the storm outside because after a long moment, it flickers back on. Then it gets quiet again and I listen for endless minutes, not hearing a sound.