by B N Miles
Meta Marshal Service 3
BN Miles
Contents
Get your free book
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
About BN Miles
Copyright © 2020 by BN Miles
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Get your free book
Sign up for my mailing list and find out about new releases, giveaways, and more.
Plus, get a free book and other awesome bonus material! >> Click here
1
Jared cracked open a beer and stood alone on his roof deck looking out over the city.
The houses across the street were garbled and grayed out, like he was staring through a wall of ice. The sun was beginning to set, but instead of pinks and blues and oranges streaked across the sky, he saw gray and black and brown. He took a deep breath and let it out before bringing the beer up to his lips.
Wind blew through the wards, ruffling his dark hair. He looked down at the wooden railing under his hands, at the dark wood stained a deep chestnut brown. It was nicked and marked in places from where he’d moved furniture around. Four chairs sat around a small metal table in the far corner, and an umbrella lay on its side next to them.
They didn’t need shade under the wards, sunlight didn’t get through them right. It was like being in shadow all the time.
“View isn’t what it used to be.”
Jared looked over his shoulder as Jessalene stepped out from the door that led back into the house and leaned against the wooden railing. She smiled at him and he took a second to admire her pale skin, tinged slightly green, and her long, dark hair. She wore an old sweatshirt of his that she cut down the front in a deep V slice, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, and tight black yoga pants.
“I know,” he said. “Sometimes I wish Lumi would relax a little bit.”
She laughed. “No, you don’t,” she said. “And half of that’s from you.”
Jared shrugged and leaned his back on the railing. He watched Jessalene run a hand through her hair and tilt her head to him, a smile on her pretty lips. She looked good, healthy and strong, but he could still see the bags under her eyes. She was good at hiding her stress, good at pretending like everything was okay, but he saw through the facade when they were alone.
She was struggling, just like everyone else.
“Still, her wards are something else,” he said. He tossed back the beer can then threw it as hard as he could toward the street. Some beer spilled out from the open tab, and the can slammed into the wards, dissipating into steam and ash.
Jessalene rolled her eyes. “I know,” she said. “You showed me that a hundred times.”
“I guess it’s kind of convenient,” he said. “Good for getting rid of trash.”
“But not great for, you know, going outside.”
“Lumi would drop it for you if you asked.”
“But you know I can’t do that.”
He met her gaze and tilted his head. “I know,” he said, voice soft. “You’re a good friend, you know that?”
She waved that away and pushed off the railing. She walked over and joined him, leaning her body against his. He put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her.
“It’s just not fair,” she said, her voice muffled by Jared’s button-down shirt. He got back from work a half-hour ago and hadn’t changed yet. He still could smell the industrial soap on his skin from when he washed his hands in the bathroom back at the Marshal station. And there was always a little tingle of something stuck in his skull for a while after leaving, like he couldn’t shake the Meta Marshal Service loose.
It had been a month since everything went down with Jessalene’s clan and the Medlar family. One month of torture and confinement. Jared still went to work, and Lumi found some side gigs doing enchantments for some of the minor families that were willing and brave enough to hire her, but otherwise they barely left Jared’s place.
The wards Lumi set up were like iron. Nobody could get through them, not without a ton of power and a load of time. But the inverse was also true, and they couldn’t get out so long as the wards remained up.
Every morning, Jared and Lumi dropped them together. He kissed her goodbye and went to work, a little bit of Need gnawing at him all day, until he could come home, drop the wards again, then find one of the girls to take away the pain for a while.
Each day was the same. A little taste of magic in the morning, a long day of ignoring the quiet but nagging Need in the back of his skull, then a night of relaxed but anxious bliss with Cassie, Jessalene, and Lumi. More and more often, Nikki would show up, but her duties as the Vampire Underlord for all of Philadelphia kept her busy.
“Cassie hates it,” Jared said. “She tries to act like she doesn’t, but it’s driving her nuts.”
Jessalene looked at him. “She’s the most social of all of us,” she said. “If it’s hard for me, I can’t imagine what she’s going through.”
Jared touched her cheek and leaned down to kiss her. He felt the Need then, a voice in the back of his skull that begged him to touch more magic or take his girlfriend right then and there, but he pushed it back. He hadn’t slept with any of the girls yet, but the night was still young.
She kissed him back and sighed.
“If we let out guard down now,” Jared said, “it might be exactly what the Medlar want.”
“But how long can we do this?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Jared said. “As long as we need to. They won’t need her forever.”
“But what if they do?” she pressed. “Come on, Jared. You know this can’t be an indefinite solution.”
He tensed his jaw and looked away. They’d had this fight before, and he really didn’t feel like rehashing it. He turned away from her and leaned against the railing. He stared at the gray film that hung over the world, making the street below look like it was in black and white.
That was the only thing protecting them from the Medlar family, the most powerful Magi family in the world.
“They still want her,” he said. “I don’t know why, but I’m working on it. Nikki’s working on it. We’ll figure i
t out, and when we do… we’ll do something about it. But for now, we have to hold tight.”
Jessalene leaned up next to him and shook her head. “I don’t know how much longer Cassie can take it.”
“Don’t worry about Cassie,” he said. “Cassie’s a big girl.”
She glared at him. “I know that.”
“Then worry about yourself.” He shook his head. “This is hard on all of us.”
“At least you get to go to work,” she said. “At least Lumi gets to leave the house sometimes. You two are Magi, so you can protect yourselves. But me and Cassie? We’re just stuck.”
“You can go visit your family whenever you want,” Jared said, his voice low.
“I know, you keep telling me. But then I’d be leaving Cassie alone.”
“What more can I do?” Jared asked. “I can’t just leave the Marshal Service. They’re our best connection right now.” He felt the Need get louder as he felt his control begin to slip.
“I know,” she said. “I know. I’m just… I’m frustrated.”
He clenched his jaw and took two deep, calming breaths.
He wasn’t mad at Jessalene. He had to keep reminding himself that this was not their fault. He was mad at the Medlar, at the bastards that wanted to take his girl from him and use her for some mysterious, likely horrifying purpose.
Jared grunted and leaned against Jessalene’s shoulder.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go see what Cassie and Lumi are doing.”
“Probably starting on dinner,” Jessalene said.
“Maybe we can distract them a little,” Jared said. “Try and cheer Cassie up a little bit.”
“Got something in mind, Magi?”
He shrugged. “Got a body full of magic and a girl in need of some cheering up. I can come up with a few ideas.”
She snorted and shook her head. Jared pushed off the railing and stepped toward the door that led inside, but before he could pull it open and head down, he felt a ping go off in his skull like lightning.
The perimeter alarm. Someone was at the back door, pushing against the wards. Not hard, just a few little taps. He closed his eyes and called up his magic as he reached out with his senses.
“Jared?” Jessalene asked.
He let out a breath. He recognized the pattern, the way she pressed against the wards.
“Nikki’s here,” he said and dropped his power.
Jessalene perked up. “I didn’t think she’d be back until tomorrow.”
“Guess she’s early.” Jared stretched and tilted his neck. His muscles felt tired and sore, like he’d been working out hard. But really, he’d done nothing but sit at a desk all day, then come home and spend time with his girls.
Just stress, eating at him slowly.
He hated sitting around while the world continued to turn, not doing anything to help their situation. Even after using the resources of the Marshal Service, he still hadn’t been able to figure out what the Medlar wanted with Cassie, and what their overall plans were for all the land they were buying up all over the world.
“We won’t need to cheer Cassie up now,” Jessalene said. “Nikki will do that for us.”
Jared laughed. “Good point.”
“You know, I’m glad you brought her into this,” Jessalene said and slipped a hand through Jared’s arm. She hugged him tightly. “I think she’s actually good for us.”
“I wasn’t so sure at first,” Jared said. “But she’s grown on me.”
Jessalene rolled her eyes. “More than grown on you.’
“Jealous?” He grinned and leaned down to kiss her cheek.
“Not even a little,” she said then paused. “Okay, maybe a little. I mean, she’s an immortal gorgeous Vampire Underlord. I’m a teeny bit jealous.”
Jared laughed and pulled Jessalene tighter against him. He kissed her neck then her lips.
“Don’t worry,” he whispered. “You’re still my favorite Dryad.”
“Better be.” She kissed him back.
They lingered for a moment before he took her hand and led her back downstairs.
2
Jared found Lumi standing in front of the back door with her hands raised in the air. He could feel the priori flow from her body as she worked to bring down the wards to allow Nikki through. Jared lingered for a moment and admired her, admired the depth of her Magi mark, how dark and shimmering it was splotched across her petite body. He admired her tight denim shorts, her vintage Metallica t-shirt, her black hair pulled back in a tight bun.
“I think she’s showing off,” Jessalene said.
Jared laughed. “I think you’re right.”
Lumi flinched and looked over her shoulder. “I’m busy,” she said.
“Sure looks like it.” Jared stepped up next to her as Jessalene laughed and headed back into the living room. “Need a hand?” he asked.
Lumi let out a breath. “These wards are too good.”
“I know.” He reached for the priori and let some flow through his body. He reached out like he was plucking at a harp, causing the long, thick lines of the spellwork to become visible to him, though on a different plane, etched into reality itself.
He plucked at the strings and felt them begin to unravel. Lumi joined him, and together they managed to pull some of the ward apart, like tugging at individual threads to make a portion of a rug come apart without destroying the entire pattern. It was difficult, but they’d gotten better at it.
“Okay,” Lumi said. “That should be enough.”
“We really need to come up with a better system,” Jared said. “This isn’t sustainable.”
She shot him a look. Her face was passive, her wide, blue eyes almost uncaring. Jared had gotten used to her flat affect; he knew there was a lot more going on beneath the surface than she let on.
He figured she’d learned to hide her emotions while living with the Medlar family. Back before she left them, she was one of their strongest Magi, and might be one of the strongest in the world in terms of raw power. She was their hammer, and they used and used her until they finally broke her.
Now, she was one of Jared’s girlfriends. A member of his little family.
“It’s open,” Lumi called out. “Come on in.”
The door swung open and Nikita spread her arms wide as she swept into the room. She carried two large brown paper bags and wore a short black dress, the neckline plunging down to show off her gorgeous breasts, her long hair down in a long, sweeping arc across her back. She put the bags on the kitchen counter and turned to face them with her hands on her hips. Lumi shut the door and began to restitch the wards.
“Good evening, my darlings,” she said, her head tilted to one side, her teeth straight and white, her fangs pointed and razor sharp.
Jared walked to Nikki, kissed her on the cheek, and nodded at the bags.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Oh, just a little something for my favorite Magi and his beautiful girlfriends.” She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down to meet her lips. He felt a shiver run down his spine, the same shiver he felt whenever he kissed Nikki.
She was the Vampire Underlord for all of Philadelphia and its surrounding counties. She was the most powerful Vampire in the area, at least politically, and she was hundreds of years old. He wasn’t sure exactly how old, and she wasn’t saying, but he knew it must have been significant for her to reach her current position.
Her blue eyes sparkled in the dim kitchen lighting, and she was dressed like she belonged at some movie premiere. Her heels gave her another couple inches of height, but she was still shorter than Jared. She looked perpetually nineteen years old, her tanned skin youthful and glowing, her wide red lips inviting and delicious, her body long and lean. It was just after sundown, and Jared knew her powers had returned, which meant she was probably the most dangerous person in the room.
“My treat is you in that dress,” he said.
She rolled h
er eyes but her smile got bigger. “You’re so corny, you know that?”
“I know,” he said. “But you love it.”
She kissed him again then dropped her arms and strode to the kitchen door. “Come say hello to me, my darlings,” she said.
Jared grinned as Nikki walked out into the living room. He heard Jessa and Cassie greeting Nikki as he unpacked the dinner she’d brought over.
Lumi joined him a moment later, a little sweat on her brow.
“You’re doing the next one,” she said.
“Deal.” He put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “You okay?”
“Fine.” She took a breath. “Need’s bugging me.”
He kissed her neck. “We can take care of that whenever you want.”
“After dinner.”
“Sounds good to me. I’m sure Nikki is eager for a little playtime.”
Lumi rolled her eyes. “Nikki’s here to feed off you,” she said. “And to let you fuck her.”
Jared laughed and pulled Lumi tighter against him. She had a soft body, though she was the smallest of the girls. Jared knew people tended to underestimate her, but when Lumi drew in the priori and began to use her magic, she was one of the most terrifying things in the world.
Lumi could have ripped him to pieces back when they first met. Jared was a lot stronger now, after having trained with her relentlessly for months. His stamina was better, his tolerance was higher, and his spellwork was coming back. It felt good to be using magic again, and even better to be using it with an outlet.