by Logan Jacobs
Chapter 16
“It’s okay!” I hissed as I gently laid my hand on the blonde elf’s wrist. “We can’t fight here.”
“But she is Uns--”
“Look,” Maaren interrupted with a sigh, “can we take this outside? I’m not in the mood to keep dancing around like an idiot while we try to come up with a plan and you get your panties in a knot.”
“Yeah,” Ariette replied gruffly as she took her hand off her sword’s grip.
She spun on her heel and threw a hand up in the air to motion to Kalista, who stood against the wall awkwardly.
As soon as we made it back out onto the dirty street, Maaren turned to the left and headed down a dark alleyway. It reminded me of the kind you see on television, the one where some poor unsuspecting soul would walk down the alley right before a murderer chopped his head off.
Kalista, Ariette, and I shared a glance before we followed her. I nodded my head to them and motioned for everyone to go in front of me so I could bring up the rear.
Maaren stopped halfway down the alley, in between a smelly dumpster and a pile of rotted pallets. She peeked under everything and looked around to make sure we were absolutely alone before she leaned back against the dirty brick wall and surveyed our faces.
“Nice of you all to join me,” she quipped with a half-smile.
“And who exactly are you?” Kalista questioned. “Hasen said you were a special agent, but he didn’t give us any more details.”
I was surprised at the lack of suspicion in her voice. I figured out of everyone, the tenacious dwarf would have been right up in Maaren’s face to demand answers to all sorts of questions. Instead, Kalista stood there with her legs apart and her hands shoved into her pockets as she watched Maaren. Her question wasn’t an accusation but genuine curiosity.
“Maaren Euphry,” she replied. “I’m half Fae.”
Suddenly, a flash of white light enveloped Maaren’s entire form. If I had blinked, I would have missed the ripple, but the moment it was gone, she looked slightly different. It took me a second to put my finger on why she looked odd since the glow of the street lamps hardly gave any light.
But then it clicked.
Her hair was now white, and her skin had a dark blue hue to it. The color could have been mistaken as an effect of the street lamps above us or a trick of tired human eyes, but it was clear to me thanks to the Fae blood that now ran through my veins. Even if I hadn’t seen it, the gasp that rose from both Ariette and Kalista would have been enough to tip me off.
“You’re Unseelie!” Kalista whisper-shouted, and then Ariette took two steps forward and placed herself squarely in Maaren’s personal space. The half-Fae didn’t shrink back at the elf’s presence, but she did put two hands up calmly.
“Half Unseelie, actually,” Maaren replied in an even tone, “and I was raised by a human. So really, I’m not Unseelie at all.”
“But your skin and hair--” Kalista started again, but then she stopped abruptly like she didn’t want to be rude.
“... are an unfortunate consequence of genetics.” Maaren shrugged nonchalantly.
“Why put on a glamour?” Ariette questioned harshly. “If we can trust you, why not just come to us looking the way you’re supposed to?”
The elf waved a hand up and down Maaren’s body to indicate the way she was “supposed” to look, and then she cocked a hip as if she’d won some sort of battle. Ariette’s hatred for the Unseelie was stronger than she had hinted at before.
“And would the reaction have been any different?” Maaren questioned with a raised eyebrow.
The other women stayed silent as Maaren nodded.
“That’s what I thought,” the half-Fae said proudly. “At least this way, I’ve already gained your trust.”
Maaren looked pointedly at me as she spoke, and I could tell it was my turn to interject.
“She’s right, you guys,” I defended her as I stepped forward.
Ariette shot me a glare but moved back a few feet as her resolve began to crack.
“Maaren’s given me a lot of really helpful information,” I continued as I made eye contact with each woman in turn. “She knows who’s making the creatures. And Hasen sent us to help her.”
“Why would Hasen allow an Unseelie to work for the guild?” Kalista questioned doubtfully.
The half-Fae shot a sharp look at Kalista. “I’m a hunter. I was raised by my human grandmother, and Hasen found me about ten years ago after she died. He gave me a job and a purpose, and my loyalty is to no one but the Seelie. Unseelie is just a part of my blood. It’s not who I am.”
“A hunter?” I questioned. This was new information. “What’s that?”
I shared a look with Kalista and Ariette, and the curiosity in their eyes told me they had no idea either.
“We’re, well, kind of like assassins,” Maaren started with a wince. “We work alone, and we get sent on the most difficult missions. It’s supposed to be a secret.”
“The Unseelie are known for having assassins,” Kalista whispered into my ear. “It’s not a Seelie thing, or well, it’s not supposed to be a Seelie thing.”
“I’m supposed to be tracking the Seelie scientist who’s been making the creatures and creating the dark portals,” Maaren said in a way that made it clear that she wasn’t going to respond to Kalista’s comment.
“It’s a Seelie?” Kalista questioned, and I could see the wheels turn in her head. “Of course. That’s how he can make dark portals.”
Maaren smiled at Kalista, relieved to have at least one person instantaneously on her side. “Blood doesn’t always determine whether a person is good or evil.”
“And intelligence doesn’t always determine whether a person overlooks the obvious, apparently,” Kalista joked at her own expense.
“We all missed it, Kal,” Ariette soothed her. “No one ever wants to think it’s someone who's supposed to be on their own side.”
“So what makes you think you can stop this scientist if the highest trained operatives haven’t been able to do so?” Ariette asked as she directed the conversation back to the immediate problem.
“Because the most highly trained operative hasn’t actually tried yet.” Maaren shrugged with a smirk.
Ariette raised her eyebrows, and her facial expression went blank. Silence hung in the air before the elf let out a laugh.
“Well, alright then,” she chuckled.
“Look, the problem so far is that the black ops teams have all been called in after the attack has started,” Maaren explained. “That does no good. This guy is too smart to be anywhere in the vicinity of the attacks while they’re actually happening. I’ve been trying to predict his movements, establish a pattern, and I managed to triangulate his comfort zone, but it spans half of the city.”
“So, now, you just need help to pin him down like the roach he is,” Ariette finished with a smile.
For the first time, Maaren smiled back at the elf. “Precisely.”
“I think I can help with that,” Kalista said thoughtfully. Her eyes were far away, and she didn’t continue until Maaren cleared her throat kindly. “We have a GPS from a creature that attacked us on the way here earlier. I was planning on using it to backtrack the scientist’s location once I cracked the security.”
Maaren’s brow arched at the mention of the creature attack, but then she nodded firmly and swept her arm to the side as if to say, “lead the way.” Kalista proudly marched ahead, excited to assert her knowledge over yet another person, and took us back to the van where she surveyed her set up with the GPS tracker we had found on the horse hybrid.
“Hold on, the algorithm locked up,” Kalista grunted as she looked over the pixelated computer screen. Deftly, her fingers tapped on the keyboard which caused an error message to flash on the screen. “What do you mean it’s not seated right?” Kalista glared at the screen for a long moment before she reached out and fiddled with the tiny silver tracker chip where it was locked into t
he computer. Then she smacked the whole thing on the side for good measure, and like magic, the pixels disappeared, and a map began to form. “Sometimes you need to show it who's boss.” She glared at the system before typing a bit more, and when a new message appeared on screen, she grinned from ear to ear. “We’ve got him!”
The computer lit up behind her with a satellite view of what looked like a compound in the middle of a grassy field.
“Okay then,” I said as I shot a pointed look at Maaren. “So what do you propose we do? Run in there and tell him to surrender?”
“Not likely,” Maaren replied with a laugh.
She leaned in closer to the computer and analyzed the stronghold. Ariette shifted next to me, and from her stance and the fire in her eyes, I could tell she was unhappy at being told what to do by someone other than Danira. Maaren didn’t seem to notice, or if she did, she just didn’t give a shit.
“So this,” Maaren said as she tapped the image of the gray building, “is his stronghold. And this,” she swept her finger over a thin white circle I hadn’t noticed before, “looks like a fence around it. It’s probably electric, by the looks of it. Most people wouldn’t be able to get past it, except, according to Hasen, we’ve got a lightning rod.”
Maaren looked up at Ariette, and the elf smiled as she lifted her hand and let sparks dance between her fingertips.
“And it’s a good thing, too,” the elf responded, “but I will need some sort of source, like an electrical box, so I can shut it off.”
“Right,” Maaren nodded, and then she looked back to the map before she pointed to a spot toward the far edge of the fence. “That’s probably what this is. It looks huge, and it’s sitting at the back of the fence, all the way away from the street. So if you and I go back there, you can disable it.”
“And we can come in through the front,” I said as I motioned between myself and Kalista.
“Exactly,” Maaren responded with a smile. “Then Ariette and I can come in from the back too, and he’ll be surrounded. I don’t think we should take this van though. It’s too obvious.”
The three of us nodded in agreement. While the Van of Death was great, it wasn’t exactly made for serious missions in the middle of the night.
“We’re going to have to disable all the tech,” Kalista whispered.
She finally brought her head out of her hands to look at us. When none of us said anything, she rolled her eyes.
“This guy is smart,” she said like it was obvious. “He’s been finding us somehow. No tech, no signal, he won’t know we’re coming.”
“Okay,” Maaren nodded. “No tech. We’ll be flying blind so…” she leveled each of us with a long, hard look, “don’t fuck it up.”
I held up three fingers on my right hand. “Scout’s honor. Cross my heart. I’ll pinky swear if you want me to.”
“Good.” Maaren narrowed her eyes at me, and then she spun on her heel and marched out of the alley.
Kalista, Ariette, and I shared a look, and then we followed Maaren out of the alley and to her own car as quickly as possible. My guard was up the entire time as I searched for any sign of danger. But no one came out at us, and it was now so late at night that everything was deadly silent. My guess was it was around three a.m.
Maaren led us about a half a block away from the bar we’d originally been at. Parked on the side of the street was a sleek, black, two-door sports car. It was clean and shiny with fresh tires like there was always someone to take care of it. Hell, the car looked like Maaren treated it better than most people treated themselves.
The glow of the street lamps was reflected in the side door underneath the dark windows. Maaren unlocked it quickly and pushed the front passenger seat forward to reveal a small backseat. Kalista and Ariette slid inside.
Then I slipped into the passenger seat as Maaren made her way behind the wheel, and I had to stop myself from drooling as I took in the car. It was every guy’s dream car.
The leather interior was soft, and the seat underneath my butt began to heat up as Maaren drove away. The dashboard was full of all the latest technology, from a top of the line navigation to a hi-tech radio system. I could only imagine how the bass sounded when the music was on.
We kept everything off, though, just as a precaution. Maaren didn’t think there was any way the scientist knew about her, but she didn’t want to risk it and get us all killed.
Very soon, we made it out of the city. The headlights of the sports car were the only light source for miles as we drove down a two-lane road in the middle of a bunch of fields.
“It’s official,” Kalista said from the back seat, “this is my favorite mission.”
“You say that every mission,” Ariette chuckled.
I turned to see Kalista shrug as she looked out the window with glee. Ariette wasn’t quite so excited, and I could tell that her mind wouldn’t stop thinking.
“What makes this one your favorite?” I asked Kal, and her violet eyes turned to look at me excitedly.
“I think it’s the car,” she said as her head nodded seriously. “Yep, definitely the car.” The dwarf ran one hand softly over the leather of her seat and winked at me.
“This is it,” Maaren said ominously as the car slid to a silent stop.
She had pulled over onto the dirt shoulder, and I could see the glittery lights of a building about a half of a mile away. Everything else was pitch black, though, which was a good sign. No one could see us, and no one was looking for us.
“Alright,” Maaren said before anyone got out, “comms devices from the hunters’ tech. No one’s going to get a location out of these guys.”
The half-Fae handed us all tiny black balls, and we stuffed them into our ears. Then, she pulled a sleek black tablet from the glove compartment of her car. I couldn’t help but think how they matched each other, and I chuckled to myself.
“Here, Kalista,” Maaren said as she handed it to her, “you can hack into his security system when we get closer so we can get eyes and ears in the building. We need to get a keycard from one of the guards to hack the system quickly, but I think I’ve got a good idea on how to do that.”
Maaren gave us all a slow smile, and then she winked at me as she held out the tablet to our resident hacker.
“Oh, hell yeah,” Kalista said as she took the device, “a Manapod Eight. I didn’t even know these were on the market!”
“They’re not,” Maaren said with a smile and a shrug. “I’ve got an in with the company head.”
“Enton Scine?” Kalista said, and her entire body lit up. “You have to introduce me to him! That guy’s like, my ultimate hero.”
“You get us through this mission, and you’ve got yourself a deal,” Maaren responded.
I looked the beautiful hunter up and down. The way she smiled softly at Kalista made me think that she’d never really had friends before, and she was eager to please as much as she could. My stomach twisted, and I felt a bit sorry for her.
Maaren’s bright green eyes turned on me as if she could read my thoughts, and she inhaled sharply through her nostrils. My eyes landed on her parted red lips before she turned away from me and looked back at everyone else.
“She’s a bit cold, but I think I kind of like her,” Ariette whispered in my ear.
I looked into her ocean blue eyes and nodded in response. “Me too.”
“So, is everyone clear on what we’re going to do?” Maaren asked, almost like a kindergarten teacher.
I saw Ariette’s eyebrow twitch at the half-Fae’s tone, but she didn’t say anything. She wasn’t used to being bossed around, but Maaren wasn’t used to working with a team, either.
“Yep,” I said confidently when no one else answered.
“Alright, then it’s time to go,” Maaren said as she hopped out of the car, and the rest of us followed.
The hunter went around to the trunk of her sports car, popped it open, and reached into the interior. A moment later, she stepped back and l
ifted out a sharp but beautiful axe. It had a carved silver handle that looked like curled ribbon and had elaborate etching on the side of the blade. The weapon looked like it could cut me if I even looked at it long enough.
“Um, that is so cool!” Kalista squeaked. She hovered at Maaren’s side, and her violet eyes were wide and full of excitement.
“Thanks,” the hunter replied with a smile. “This is my axe, Foveros.”
“I want one,” the dwarf muttered under her breath as her eyes ran longingly over the axe, “and no one is allowed to make racist jokes about me being a half-dwarf.”
“You can fawn later,” Ariette said with a sigh. “Come on, we have to go.” Then she turned and strode toward the compound.
We all fell into step behind her and jogged quickly toward the lights. To our relief, not a single car came down the road as we went, and we made it to the perimeter fence without any incident.
Maaren took the lead and crouched down behind a group of tall, thick bushes that lined the side of the gravel driveway. They were large enough that they hid us from view in case any guards came around on patrol.
I took in what I could see of the building from behind the bushes.
The fence was tall and looked like any regular chain-link fence around any regular old house. I wouldn’t have ever guessed it was electrified if Maaren hadn’t said so.
At that moment, a tiny bird pelted through the air toward the fence. It looked like a flying blob in the dark of the night. A stupid blob, apparently, because it flew directly into the middle of the fence. I watched as blue electricity shot out of the metal, and the bird let out a small squeak before it fell to the ground.
“Well, that’s pleasant,” I said sarcastically.
Past the fence was a plain two-story house. There were a few lights outside of it, and their yellow glow let me see that the building was painted a light tan color. Most of the windows were lit up. Anyone who walked or drove by would think it was just a normal residence, probably a farm or someone’s home. This Seelie scientist had made damn sure no one would come by accidentally.