Chapter 51

If I thought that I had frozen when I heard the screams, it was nothing compared to now. When I opened up the only door in the attic, I saw ten bodies laying in a circle. A pentagram was drawn in chalk underneath them and they all lay at a very specific point in the circle.

I wasn't able to tell who they were, how old, or even what they looked like. In fact, I was kind of pushing the fact that they were bodies. All I could see was ten long lumps, each one covered in a black cape, on the floor.

In the middle of the circle was a glass jar with a poppet in it surrounded by rusty needles and a powder that I could only assume to be poisonous.

At this point in time, I think I would have preferred spiders to tell you the truth.

I rolled my neck as the stress hit me hard. I could not take a step forward, no matter who I was. As a police officer, I could not contaminate the crime scene and as Head of the House Gypsy, knowing that people in my house were using dark magic to cast a curse on a person with the intent of causing harm… my neck would be on the line then too.

Considering that the person who they were trying to curse was me… I figured I was screwed no matter what I did. I let out a big sigh and closed my eyes. When I had collected myself I shut the door behind me and went to sit on the top of the steps to wait for whoever would show up first.

You know, as far as the first day that my monster and I were one went, it was a pretty crappy day.

Could I just crawl back into bed and have a complete do-over? I rested my head against the wall under the railing and thought about what I had seen.

Gypsies had magic, we were magic, to a certain extent. We could hex people and put curses on them like the best of them, but we did not practice dark magic. Take Mother, for example, her oldest daughter was killed and by only using her words, she managed to curse every person in five separate families until the end of time.

That was some serious skills.

She didn't need to use a poppet, or nails or poison. Her words were enough. Elena was not as powerful as our mother was, but she could still hex and curse with just her words and a drop of blood. Nicholas? Not so much. Gypsy powers tended to be passed through the woman's bloodlines. Honestly, I don't think that he was ever upset over that fact.

Me, on the other hand, couldn't curse myself out of a wet paper bag. I will fully admit it. And it sucked. Between my eyes being the wrong color and my inability to curse anyone, I was not… I was just not…

Not Gypsy.

Not strong.

Not a descendant of Pandora.

Not worthy.

Not.

Not.

Not.

And it sucked. So when I became more than… not… when I became the only person to inherit the Ribbon Girl's legacy, there were a lot of people that were not impressed. My mother was at the top of that list.

I was knocked out of my head when I heard the front door open and someone calling out my name. The lucky winner to deal with all this crap was…. Mike!

I was impressed that the humans managed to beat the Van Helsings, but at the end of the day, I didn't care who was here, as long as someone was.

"Up here," I called out, not leaving my position. I watched as Mike, my Beta, rushed up the stairs as fast as he could. He would have had to ignore all the dead bodies between me and the front door, and for a Staff Sergeant of a Homicide Unit to do that… that was a big deal.

The fact that he came himself touched me even more.

"You ok, Sweetheart?" He asked, looking up at me from the bottom of the stairs.

"Honestly, not too sure, Bossman," I replied, my head still against the wall. I would move when I had to and not a moment before.

Mathew came up behind Mike, not as fast as he could, but I was pretty sure he was checking out the bodies before coming to check on me.

"Dare I ask what you were doing here?" He asked, clearly daring to. I chuckled at my thoughts and looked down at him from my perch.

"House business, so none of yours, wolf. But if you are asking as a Detective, then I was here to visit Jenny to discuss a few personal matters. I was turned away at the door by someone that I can only assume was the butler. By the time I got back down the steps, the screaming started. I ran back into the house and everyone was dead," I said in as much of a monotone voice as I could.

I needed to detach myself from this mess, both mentally and physically. Because what was going on in the room had shaken me to the core.

"But between you and I," I started with a half grin on my face. "I'm pretty sure that they didn't like me."

Mike chuckled at my sense of humor, understanding that I needed it. "Oh, and why do you say that?"

"They were trying to curse me to death. Really mean of them if you ask me."

Mike and Mathew looked at me startled and began walking up the stairs to see what on Earth I was talking about. Stepping around me, Mathew opened the door and in a low whistle, closed it again. "Yeah, I would say that you weren't on their Christmas card list, that's for sure."

I nodded solemnly, "Yup, I had that assumption too."