Old Magick

“Pickles? Again?” Morrigan huffed loudly and slumped back in the chair at her desk, staring at the opened wrapper of her bagel. She seemed to glare at it for another long moment, then simply swept it off her desk and into the bin next to it. “How hard is it to understand no goddamn pickles...” She murmured, blowing a strand of her dark hair out of her eyes. Though she had been speaking out loud, there was no one else in the room with her. No one alive at least. It was just her and several cadavers down here in the icy basement morgue. It should have been a little unsettling to be in here alone, but she didn’t mind. It was sort of the family business. Her father had been a coroner, and her mother was an Apothecary like all the women in her bloodline before her. The only downside to the job was how little conversation she did actually get. Morrigan wasn’t an unsociable person, despite what her career of chalice may have people believing.

Alister Northside stared at the twisted corpse lying on the floor of the old woman's living room and shook his head. There was no doubt this was murder. There was also no doubt  how she did it. At least not to him. A simple rat poison would cause that terrible look on her husband's face in death. He saw no reason to get the specialist involved. And yet... He sighed heavily as he picked up his phone and placed it against the heavily scarred part of his face. "Morrigan. We have another." He grumbled.

“And you’re making me come and collect it myself?” Morrigan asked, though her distracted gaze was on her bagel in the trash, wondering if she had been hasty in discarding it. “You know, Alister, all these late night phone calls, and people will start getting ideas.” She teased, enjoying making fun of her grouchy police counter part.

"Oh I doubt it." Alister snorted, already hanging up the phone. Detective Northside didn't joke or laugh. With the scars that covered his face there were rumors he couldn't even smile. The witch hunter had done little to prove the rumors false. 
The rest of the information she needed was done through text. He'd made it clear how he felt about her.

Morrigan rolled her lavender coloured eyes when she saw the messages start buzzing her phone and grabbed the ‘emergency’ chocolate bar she had stashed in her desk drawer before pulled her coat off the back of the door. It didn’t take long for her to reach the crime scene, though it did take slightly longer to convince the rookie at the door that she was the city coroner. “Read the badge, new guy, Dr. Polias,  our coroner.” She told him, her ruby lips curling into a slight grin when she saw the look of horror on his face at the realisation he had just tried to deny the coroner access to her own corpse.

"Don't get cute thinking you won something." Alister snapped as he finally reached Morrigan. It had started raining and it was sliding down his salt and pepper hair and into his eyes. "You're late. Again." He growled. He waved off the others and all but pulled her into the ancient house. "Surprised you didn't already have this address. This old woman seems like a person you would friends with." He grunted as they passed the shivering elderly lady being questioned in the hallway.

“Friend?” Morrigan echoed with a snort. “Surprised you even know what that word means.” She added, jerking her arm free from where Alister had grabbed her. “And I am not late. You just give shitty directions.” She walked ahead of him, surprisingly not even a little bit wet despite having been in the same rainstorm. Inside the room the smell hit her right away; sulphur. While sulphur was a distinct smell to anyone, it was entirely scentless to a normal person once it had been used in magick. Her pert nose was twitching slightly, almost to the point of making her sneeze she was stood very still, looking at everything around her, save for the body. An odd habit for a coroner.

This wasn't the first case Alister had worked with Morrigan. He knew why she wasn't looking at the body and it made matters worse. It confirmed what he didn't want to be true. 
"Goddess be damned. I wanted to get an early start on being alone and drunk. Is that too much to ask?" He hissed at the old man still twisted horrifically on the floor.

“Oh sweetie, you’re alone and drunk every night, this one won’t be any different.” Morrigan responded, patting his cheek in the most patronising of ways before she finally crouched down next to the body. She reached into her field bag and pulled on a pair of gloves before diving back in for a pair of sturdy looking tweezers. “You didn’t let your men trample all over my scene like last time I hope.” She commented as she inspected the airways for anything that may have been lodged there. “Because unlike you... I plan to get laid tonight, and I would hate to keep him waiting while I am forced to distinguish actual evidence from that left behind by your sloppy boys in blue.”

Alister was silent as he watched her with steel colored eyes. "Someone should say a prayer for the poor fool that takes you home." He snorted. He turned his head, as her heard a commotion outside. He didn't see her finding a burnt edge of script paper.
"Excuse me..." The commotion was broken up by a soft voice. It was a slender woman with hair that was plastered to her head in the rain. "Morrigan...you forgot your bag...you forgot to sign out...and you forgot your name badge....you know we switched to those a few weeks ago..." Tabitha Blackwater said as she hovered in the doorway. The tiny woman was from the head office of witch affairs. They got involved when cases were believed to be magical in nature. Not many on the force had ever met this woman outside these two people. One one of them liked her.

Morrigan used the distraction to push the singed paper into her pocket before rising to her feet with a dramatic sigh. “Oh Tabby, you know I can’t keep up with all those rules you people keep coming up with.” The coroner replies with a massive laurel wave of her hand. “But thank you for bringing my bag...” She brushed past Alister, not caring he wouldn’t want her touching him, as she took the wet bag from the other woman. “Aha! I knew it!” She declared after a moment of rifling though it and holding up a bag of gummy bears. “I knew I hadn’t eaten them all!” Despite standing only feet away from a corpse, the dark haired witch was grinning like she had just won the lottery. It was no secret to witch affairs that Morrigan Polias was somewhat of a flake and not wired to follow their rules. Hence, why she was never indicted into their ranks.

Alister closed his eyes as a heavy smell of lavender and summer rain passed over him. A whisper of something passed him; fingers of desire slid up the small of his back. He found himself unable to breathe.
Tabitha gave a dramatic sigh. "Gummies? Really? Who eats those things? I prefer butterscotch. By the way...you haven't registered..." She paused as her own pale green eyes swept over Alister. "Agent Northside are you all right? He's blue, Morrigan..."

“Butterscotch is old lady candy.” Morrigan replied, though soon had several gummies in her mouth as she spun to look at Alister. “Oh shit...” She nearly choked trying to swallow the gummies. “Ali?” Morrigan was stood on her top toes trying to peer up into Alister’s face. “Honey, what are you feeling?” She added, worried by the glazed look in his eyes.

Alister was standing in the center of a raging fire. He'd been here before. There she was, standing with her fingers outstretched, calling to him. His partner was dead...her blood all over him. The witch was mocking him, laughing. 
Tabitha turned her head as she too began to feel an odd presence. There was something else in this house with them. She was not prepared for it.

Morrigan felt oddly warm, and she was never warm. She worked in a morgue, being cold just came with the job. “Hey, you’re kinda freaking me out here...” She whispered, daring to reach up and touch Alister’s cheek. That’s when she felt it. A sudden and searing warmth in her pocket. The same pocket she had stashed the singed script.

Alister gasped oddly, a puff of sulphur slipping past his lips. A little bit of color returned to his skin but didn't last as again he went stiff. 
Tabitha heard the elderly woman's scream of rage too late. The woman was on her, a knitting needle waving like a sword in her face. "Goddess of fire consume you!" She howled.

“Oh for Hecete’s sake!” Morrigan gasped, dragging Alister closer to the door to avoid injury from the old woman. “Tabby! This is your area, not mine!” She exclaimed, though was again rifling through her purse for a small green vial in the bottom. “Spring water! If she’s anything but what she appears, it will strip the glamour!” She shouted, tossing it at the other witch.

"Don't use your...damned... potions...here...!" Alister roared, though he was gasping for air. He somehow managed to catch the vial before Tabitha could and crushed it in his fist. 
The commanding roar stopped the old woman where she stood and she dropped the knitting needle. Moments later she began to wail loudly. 
Alister turned back to Morrigan, his steel colored eyes blazing. "You are not... authorized to use...those items...in that manner. Collect your dead...and go!"

Morrigan’s left eye twitched slightly. It was a sign she was extremely annoyed, and something people rarely saw, given how easy going she usually was. “With a little more time, YOU will be the next dead I am collecting!” She hissed, and while it wasn’t her threatening him directly, it did sound that way. She had simply meant he had been in serious danger only moments ago.

Alister shook his head. "Try not to screw up my crime scene." He purred, copying her earlier jab at him. Making a show of it he tapped his badge as he passed Tabitha and left the house, taking the old woman with him. 
"She wasn't a witch." Tabitha sighed wiping off the dropplet of blood the knitting needle cut had left her with. "There was something else here."

“Let me see that...” Morrigan breathed as she turned Tabitha’s face to the side slightly. “You’re lucky... if she had been a witch, that needle would have been poisoned.” She warned, her lavender eyes seeming much sadder than they had been when she first got here. “You should be more careful...”

"That's why I work head office, Morrigan. I have no interest in fighting evil witches. I want to make sure the policies are followed and my cat gets fed. The rest is for bullies like Alister." Tabitha snorted, already wondering what her cat was doing in that moment. "Do you think she killed her husband like the lady I got my cat from?" She asked.

“Alister isn’t a bully... he’s just an asshole.” Morrigan replied with an amused snort. “Now the guy I met in the bar last night... I’d let him bully me all night.” She added, grinning wolfishly at her friend. “And for the record... your cat is weird. I’ve never seen a cat bring home chocolates after being out hunting all night.”

Tabby nodded. "The woman's diary said he is an old tom with strange habits. But even I have to admit bringing home an emerald necklace is really strange." She took off the jewel to show her friend. "Are we going out tonight when we get done here?"

Morrigan was staring at the necklace, not liking the feeling she was getting just by looking at it. “You don’t sleep with that on, do you?” She asked uncertainly, refusing to touch the deep green stone. The young witch found herself almost unable to blink as the stone pulled her in before she finally shook herself free of the thrall and smiled weakly at Tabitha. “Of course we’re going out! You think I’d let a jerk like Alister ruin our night? I just need to get the body back to the morgue, then we’re home free!”

Alister frowned at the sleek black cat that passed him on the side walk outside the house. He kicked muddy water at it as he got into his patrol car. He was going to have to deal with the earlier reminders of his partner. It was going to be a night at the bar for him. 

Tabitha placed the necklace carefully back around her neck, already forgetting her friend's warning. She was excited about going out. It was a full moon. It was a good night to do something crazy. At least...she hoped so.

The cat didn’t seem to flinch when water was kicked at it, it simply remained sat where it was, almost smiling at the surly police officer before standing up and turning it’s behind to face him and sauntering away.

“Brad called these... zombie headshots.” Morrigan declared as she set down two fizzing glasses in their table, the contents neon green with red liquid dripping through the layers, the edge of the glasses dipped in popping candy.

Tabitha's pale green eyes widened at the strange liquid Morrigan had sat down. It smelled wonderful. She didn't even stop to consider who Brad was as she tipped back the drink. 

Across the room Alister leaned against the bar, drinking from a bottle of whiskey. He'd already given the bartender his keys and was looking forward to the moment he no longer knew his name. Because of his deformities, most people didn't even bother to talk to him. That made it even better.

Morrigan hadn’t yet dipped her own drink, though was sliding a finger around the edge of the glass before lifting w finger to her lips and licking off the popping candy. This witch certainly had a sweet tooth.

“Wow, I’ll bet that pissed off look has the ladies just dropping at your feet.” A young man with green feline eyes and jet coloured hair that was styled to be just the right amount of messy remarked as he stepped up to the bar.

Brad stepped away from the bar and seated himself between the two women. He slid his arms around their shoulders, winking at the darker haired of them. "Did I make it the way you like it, Morrigan?" He purred.

"You think? I've been practicing." Alister snorted. "Do you need me to teach you a trick or two, boy?"