00 Mayan Thief (The FBI Paranormal Casefiles) Read online

  I would have to reel Scott in my super web. No one else would be able to do it because they didn’t recognize the madness that dwelt within him, but I did – he was insane. Not in the way that would put him in a mental institution, but in a way that would lead him to make grave, terrible mistakes. He had grandiose plans – and he was willing to do anything to achieve them.

  So was I.

  I was just as mad as him.

  Maybe a little bit more.

  As I drove, I kept my gaze away from Special Agent Bryan. Losing him was a blow I couldn’t quite deal with as yet. He showed confidence in me when I didn’t have it, and now he was also leaving me.

  How would I manage this alone, without any help?

  I had to.

  The car came to a stop next to the bus stop. For a moment, I expected him to say something – anything – but he merely opened the door and stepped out. The blast of fresh air hit me. Before I could say goodbye, he closed the door and walked away.

  Shit.

  The pain in my heart was agonizingly sharp.

  I wanted to stop him, but there was no way I would be able to convince him. After all, I’d no proof, no evidence, and it wasn’t fair to expect him to put his job on the line just because I had a hunch that Scott was evil, that he was guilty as hell.

  Oh hell!

  Now what?

  Despite not having anything to go on with, I turned the car around and headed for the temple. I wouldn’t dwell on Agent Bryan. He and I were done. It really wasn’t meant to be, and I was glad he went away before he got hurt. This wasn’t something he was equipped to deal with anyway.

  Oh yes, I was so glad he wasn’t here to bore me anymore.

  Grr.

  Whom was I kidding?

  I missed him already.

  But hey, I wasn’t going to waste my time thinking about him. On a mission like this, I couldn’t afford to lose my focus.

  After parking the car in a copse of trees, I hiked up to the temple. I chose the same spot from which we’d earlier surveyed the place. Bryan’s absence was all the more obvious here, but I steeled my heart against the pain that infiltrated my heart. I would have to learn to go on without him.

  I was prepared to do so.

  People moved in and out; all of them giving the impression that they had nothing more on their minds than obtaining peace. Hmm. I wouldn’t fall for this lousy illusion. Something was seriously amiss in this place. Twice more, I observed the same concentric circle ritual. The power sharing scared the hell out of me.

  No one should have access to such a great reservoir of the gift.

  Perhaps I was wrong.

  Perhaps Scott was only guilty of manipulating the emotions of vulnerable people, and while it might be a morally reprehensible thing to do, it wasn’t a crime. And yet, I couldn’t pull myself away from the place. This was the last lead; if it didn’t pan out, I had nothing else to go on to. As day turned into dusk, I moved around to relieve my cramped muscles. Shit. I should have brought some food, but all I had was a couple of bottles of water and a few candy bars. I could go and have dinner, but I was scared to miss something important.

  The phone vibrated in my pocket. It was Jones. I gulped. Had Bryan told him what I was up to? Maybe he did it to save his own ass. “Yes, sir?”

  “Cleo, I might have a new case for you in a couple of days. We’re looking into it right now to see if it warrants your attention.”

  For a moment, my mind was blank. He didn’t know that I was still working on this one. Bryan didn’t tell him anything. “Ok, sir.”

  He cleared his throat. “I do feel bad about taking you off this one so unceremoniously, but I felt that you were too close to be objective. But we’re still following all leads.”

  Translation; they didn’t have jack shit.

  “Sure, sir.”

  “Good. I’m glad you understand. I’ll call you soon regarding details.”

  After he hung up, I stared into the distance. Why didn’t Special Agent Bryan tell him that I was still on this case? Was it because he wanted to protect me, or maybe he didn’t want to get into trouble by letting the boss know that he came here with me? Whatever the case, I was grateful for the reprieve. The idiot did leave me, but at least he didn’t betray me.

  Maybe he wasn’t that bad.

  Oh yes, he was. He was so very bad for me. It wasn’t a good idea for me to harbor any soft corner for him because he wasn’t my type. He couldn’t be. I wasn’t even interested him in that way.

  Oh yeah, then why did I keep thinking about him?

  Damn these thoughts that invaded my mind.

  I hated to have a conversation inside my head with my evil twin who was hell bent on making me a nut case. This job was all that mattered and I was determined to find something here, and that was all I wanted and needed to do. As night descended, I felt more and more frustrated. Maybe this was just another unproductive trip. My muscles were cramped from lying down in the same position. I was tired and hungry.

  Should I quit?

  No way.

  Yes way.

  Maybe it was time to accept defeat and move. My phone vibrated again. Augusta was on the line. “Where are you?”

  “Just out.”

  “Just out?” she shirked. “Cleo, I hope you’re not off pursuing this case when you know damn well that you’re not supposed to be doing anything about it.”

  “Relax. I am just taking some time off…I am entitled to it, aren’t I?” Emotional blackmail worked well with her but only it was applied sparingly. “I’ll be back soon, I promise.”

  “Good, because I could use some help. Colonel Sanders still hasn’t returned, and Jasper doesn’t have a clue where he put the stuff. I’m just at my wits’ end. We need those damn papers.”

  Oh yes, the court case.

  I’d forgotten about it.

  “Can’t you make duplicates?”

  “I’ve already applied for them, but I don’t know if copies of originals would be acceptable, and also the government department doesn’t seem to have records of old deeds. So we may not even find them.”

  Losing the land wasn’t an option. That was our home. By hook or crook, we would keep it. “If you used magic to make copies, they would look like originals.”

  She huffed. “Cleo, please. Don’t think I haven’t thought of it, but…it would be…a complete breach of all that we practice and all that we teach our children. If we start using magic for our convenience every time we have trouble, there wouldn’t ever be any checks and balances.”

  Yeah, yeah. Sure. I got her point. But if push came to shove, we might have to do it. “But…”

  “In any case, I don’t remember the legal jargon in that document. If I had a copy, I could create an original document, but I have nothing. Everything was in that one file, and it’s missing. So I need you to come back and start looking for it.”

  That was important, but so was this.

  “I’ll be back by tomorrow evening, Augusta.”

  “Alright. And listen…I’ve already given the information regarding the spells and the date of 8th February to Jones, although of course, he doesn’t believe your theory, and neither do I. No one in their right mind would attempt to breach that which has been forbidden.”

  For all our sakes, I hoped she was right.

  “Sure, Augusta. Let’s hope you are right.”

  Were they?

  I didn’t think so. But this wasn’t the time to argue, not if I wanted some more time to myself. If she discovered what I was up to, Augusta would take a knife to me, if not her magic. She would flay me if I did anything to put the commune’s main source of income in danger. We relied on the money the FBI gave us. Also, it really gave us an opportunity to sink our teeth into something major and interesting. I would be devastated if I didn’t get this work anymore, but I couldn’t sacrifice the present for the future, and especially not when I believed that the world was at stake.

  People might think
I was crazy to harbor such theories about Scott’s plan.

  But I knew it with a certainty I couldn’t explain. My instincts pointed me in this direction, and nothing anyone said would dissuade me from pursuing this to the end.

  Scott Fallon was up to no good, and I was the only one who could prove that.

  “Come back soon, honey,” said Augusta in a soft voice.

  She probably thought I was wallowing in misery and sulking, but I was on a stakeout and this demanded attention. After she cut the call, I shoved the phone back in my pocket. I hated to deceive her like this. She was more than my mentor; she was part mother and part father and rest of my family rolled into one person. When I was a kid and needed someone to love me and show me the right path, she never took a step back even though it wasn’t really her duty to take care of me. But she did. And she was still doing it.

  I shouldn’t betray her trust.

  And yet, I didn’t have a choice.

  If I found something, I would be able to blow apart this case. If my theories were right and they were indeed trying to breach the barrier then I might even be able to save a lot of lives.

  Or maybe I was just getting ahead of myself.

  But whatever happened, I’d see it through, and this was the time to take action. I cleared the area of all my belongings, put them in my car, and walked back to the backside of the temple. The hike took me a good two hours, but it was worth the effort. By the time I reached, it was nearly midnight and all was quiet. The forest was alive with the sound of crickets, owls, and insects and creepy crawlies I didn’t care to identify. Even though I was a mage, I was also just a girl who didn’t like to think too much about insects that could scare the shit out of me.

  Lizards were the bane of my existence.

  And spiders too.

  And those caterpillars.

  I could just go on and on.

  It was best not to think about it.

  Now what?

  Putting my hands on the wall, I searched for magical traps. There were quite a few and they were complicated. Someone had taken great trouble to see that the temple walls were not breached. Much to my chagrin, it took me an hour to divert those lines of magic. If I merely cut them, it might alert Scott. He had a good system in place. So I beat him at his own game; rather than break the magical ties, I merely moved them around so that they wouldn’t get disturbed as I began my climb up the wall. Using an ancient spell, I walked straight up the wall as if it was horizontal. A handy and neat trick that we learnt in school, as did the thieves who were making a mockery of the FBI. Once I was up on the roof, I searched for the way down. The stairs were also protected but with a more conventional CCTV.

  Piece of cake!

  Soon I was downstairs in the main hall. No one was around. It was dark, and the only light came in from the moon that shone through the high windows. Since I didn’t want to run into anyone, it was important to finish my task. The funny thing was I had no idea what I was up to.

  Augusta’s call triggered the need for action. The quicker I solved this, the sooner I could get back home and deal with the problem of the missing papers.

  Oh well!

  This shouldn’t take long.

  I just needed something that would prove that Scott was knee deep in this thievery shit. His office was the first place I needed to check, but of course, the magical protection would be strongest there. After walking through the silent corridors, I reached the area where he’d taken us. His office had to be around here; I couldn’t believe he regularly worked in the room with mats.

  Bingo.

  I found it easily enough as his name was on it, but as soon as I put my hand on the handle, I paused. Much to my surprise, my magical surveillance showed that security was tightest on another door.

  I turned around to face the door that was opposite Scott’s office.

  Why the hell would he put stringer magical security on a door that didn’t lead to his office?

  There wasn’t much time to waste. Making up my mind rather quickly, I headed for that door. After unraveling the magic just enough to creep through the open door, I looked around. It was a store, and there wasn’t much on the shelves. I found a few old bottles, a couple of old antiquities that didn’t belong to the Mayan era, and then in the top right corner, I found a stone tablet.

  Yes.

  It was Mayan.

  Maybe it was a stolen piece.

  I could only hope so.

  Taking out my phone, I took a picture of the tablet. I could take it out, but I had a feeling that the moment I attempted to do so, alarms would ring. It was better to leave it here. If I managed to identify it as a stolen piece, I could come back with a warrant and conduct a proper search, provided they didn’t move the whole lot while I was gone. Setting down the piece once more, I walked out.

  There!

  I was done.

  Easy as baking a pie, not that I was good at baking pies.

  The whole thing didn’t take more an hour, and now at least I had something to show Jones. If I could convince him…

  The lights went on just as I reached the staircase.

  Damn it.

  Rather than wait and see who and what I was up against, I bolted up the stairs.

  “Wait. Freeze,” said a voice.

  Oh yeah, right. Like that was going to work.

  Pushing my limits, I hurried up. Someone let loose a volley of fireballs. Man. These people meant business. They weren’t even making an attempt to take me in as a prisoner. Bursting through the door, I rolled on the floor as the fireballs swished over my head. They lit the sky above me. Without pausing for breath, I ran for the edge of the roof. Maybe I could just fall down and float to the ground, but that would need a new spell, and I didn’t have time to weave it.

  Fine.

  I would just have to run down the wall the same way I came up.

  Lights switched on around me. Bloody hell! They could probably see me on CCTV now. There wasn’t time to throw on an invisibility spell. As it was, they probably knew how to shred it. I would just have to make a quick and clean break for freedom before they got me.

  The edge was right in front of me. All I had to do was reach it and start walking down. I was almost there.

  Bam.

  There was no warning. The magical net fell on me, engulfing me, slowing me down. I sliced it with quick jabs of magic. It was hard to untangle my way out of the web. My foot tripped just as I reached the edge. With a loud crash, I fell down. Shit. My knee banged on the floor and the sharp slice of pain that ripped through me told me that it was bad. But there was no time to think, to try and heal. I leapt up, and the pain was like cold jabs of ice. Limping my way to the edge, I prepared to step down.

  Fear licked my insides.

  It had been a long time since I felt this scared. My veins were on fire from sheer adrenaline. My body tensed as I surveyed the scene once more. A quick run down would take me away from this place.

  I didn’t hear anything, but something told me that danger swept towards me. I looked back and saw the figure silhouetted against the light. He wore an all-white dress, and I was pretty sure that his hair was blond. Scott Fallen? I couldn’t be sure. He raised his hands and red-hot flame of fire jutted out from his hands. The air around him sizzled and burned, and the flames turned into fiery, sharp spears. They hurtled towards me. The moment they hit me, I would be pierced though and might even fall to my death. Even though I tightened the magical shield around me, I knew it wouldn’t be enough. Sure, it would break the spears for now but already Scott was raising his hands to let loose another volley.

  How many would I be able to survive?

  It was better to drop down. Sure, if I hit the ground I would die but if I could put a magical shield in place on the ground before I hit it, I might just be able to survive. It would be all of four seconds to land on the ground and I’d never tried putting a magical net in place in such a short window of time.

  The fiery spear
s hit my shield. It sizzled, repelled them, and they fell harmlessly on the floor – but there were holes in my shield now. Another volley hit me, hard and fast. I felt a nick on my shoulder as one of the spears managed to get through. The pain was excruciating. My skin burned, but the shield held in place long enough to deflect it before it could do some real damage.

  I raised my hands and gusts of winds rushed forward to engulf Scott. “Take that,” I muttered, knowing full well that my magic wasn’t enough to stop him for good. I would either have to take the killing shot in order to get rid of him or else I would have to jump.

  Jump.

  Jump.

  I couldn’t kill the damn man. It would put everyone in the commune at danger from retaliation by his coven.

  Shit.

  Jump.

  He let loose another volley, and I ducked. A spear grazed past my arm. The agonizing pain of the burn swept through me. My shield was all but gone now.

  If only killing the bastard was a real option.

  But it was not.

  I’d to escape now – or else I was dead.

  Scott raised his hands to fire at me again. Just as I leaned forward to jump, the loud shots startled me. For a moment fear sliced through me at this unexpected threat, but then I realized that the shots weren’t aimed at me, but rather at Scott. He dived on the floor – and that moment of his weakness gave me the opportunity I desperately needed. Leaning over the edge, I put my feet on the wall, and ran down as if it was a horizontal floor. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I made my way to the cover of the forest and soon I was away from danger.

  Whoever fired those shots saved me.

  It would be nice to meet my savior, but I didn’t have the time to look around. After hiking back to my car, I opened the door, but just as I tried to sit in, a hand clamped on my wrist. I raised my fist to deliver a blow.

  “Don’t even think about it, not after I saved your life.”

  I froze. “Bryan.”

  He let go. “Are you alright? That was crazy stuff.”

  All I could do was stare at his handsome face. Did he really come back? Did he save me? Oh hell, yes. Of course, he was the one. Who else could have done such a thing? “But I dropped you to the bus station.”