Chapter 57

We seemed to have made it to the precinct in record time, either because we were driving way over the speed limit and my stomach was back at the condo, or because I was just still out of it.

I'll give you a hint… I never thought that you could go that fast in New York given the amount of traffic on the streets.

I showed Viktor my parking spot, expecting him to just drop me off, but I was surprised when I saw him getting out of the car with me and escorting me into the building. It was a nice feeling to be treasured like this and I was going to take full advantage, including making him open all the doors for me. Hey, chivalry might be dead to the humans, but us monsters still had standards.

I walked him through all of the areas between the back door and the homicide unit, and there were more than a few heads turned our way. If it had not been that most of the looks were from the women staring us down, I would have assumed that someone was going to call me out for having a civilian in the back offices. As it was, I just assumed that they were admiring the view.

We quickly made it to my bullpen and noticed that Mike's door was closed. Knowing that he never closed his door unless it was important, I was prepared to wait.

I was about to get comfortable over by the entrance when Mathew stood up waving us over. I sighed and took Viktor over to where our desks were.

"We need to talk about the Gypsy house," he started. I was not looking forward to where he was going to go with this, but I had to at least pretend to be a professional.

Sitting down at my desk, Viktor taking a spare chair to the side, we waited for what Mathew would say next. "There doesn't seem to be any cause of death for the 18 bodies found," he continued. Huh, I hadn't realized that there were that many. "The most disturbing part was the additional 25 dismembered corpses found in the basement."

And there, my friends, you have it. Proof that you never, ever, go into the basement of a strange house. If the spiders don't give you the chills, the dismembered bodies just might.

"What happened to them?" Viktor asked, leaning forward in his seat.

"We think that the 18 who died when Nads was there were trying to perform a spell of some kind and needed parts or blood or something from the 25. If I thought that they had started practicing the dark arts in order to curse Nads, I was seriously wrong. It looked like there had been spells and other stuff practiced for at least decades... if not centuries."

Both men turned to look at me and all I could do was shrug my shoulders. I had nothing to do with the House Gypsy since my first death in the 1800s so I had no idea what could be going on with them. But to practice the dark arts? No one in my bloodline would have done that, there was no need to.

"We don't deal in dark magic," I said, trying to think about what might have happened. "And I don't understand why any Gypsy would turn to it. It was more of a witch thing, right?" I would have to do some research to understand why they would have incorporated magic of any kind into the House.

"Could it be that that's what they thought Gypsies were?" Asked Mathew, trying to figure things out himself. "After all, you guys were known for curses and that sort of stuff."

"That sort of stuff?" I scoffed. "We could no more practice that type of magic than you could turn into a housecat. Just because it is somewhat along the same lines, does not mean that the lines cross." I looked him in the eyes and slowly said the next part, hoping he would understand. "We are more along the lines of fate, what we speak will come true. You want the man you are in love with to fall in love with you? All we have to do is utter a few words and it is done. You want someone to die a slow, lingering death?"

I looked back and forth between Mathew and Viktor, "All we would have to do is say a few words, and their suffering would be like nothing they ever experienced before." Leaning back into my chair, hoping that they now understood the power of Gypsies better I continued. "Yes, we do do potions and a few other things like that, but we don't need rituals to use our magic, we don't call on any Dark Lord or demon. We are magic. They are just wannabes."

"So?" Asked Mathew, still not completely convinced.

"So, those people in the House Gypsy were not actual Gypyies, but rather humans with a lack of understanding. And chances are, it was Jenny or her predecessors that started the whole charade."

"Why would they do that?"

"For power," said Viktor, understanding where I was going with this. "They wanted the power that the House Gypsy had, and its connections to the other Houses."

"Exactly," I replied. "But at some point in time, they were going to have to prove their power. That must have been when the rituals began."

"Do you think they will find more bodies?" Mathew asked, looking at me.

"At the house? Probably not, not many people will shit where they eat. But they must have a manor that would act as the official House, one that is probably out in the middle of nowhere with a really big backyard. I would start looking there."

"You don't know off the top of your head?" Asked Viktor, somewhat surprised. I shook my head. "I was not welcome within the community after everything that happened so I would have no idea where it could be."

Viktor nodded his head in understanding and pulled out his phone. "I'll ask the Monstru, she seems to know where all the old Houses have been located in this area."

I smiled and stood up, Mike's office door was open so I was going to finish the task I had assigned myself before I was dragged any deeper into the mess that was House Gypsy.