by Rhiannon Lee
"It means that I'm going to have to get answers whether or not they like it. Considering what's going on and the gravity of the situation, I don't have a choice."
"Did you find out anything else at all that might indicate that it isn't the Ouphes?" I asked.
"No, I'm sorry. All the evidence is pointing directly at them."
"Do you know the person who's supposedly causing all of this?"
"I just know that his name is Frank, and that they spoke about him with an almost reverence. It's unsettling, to say the least. I agree that we should leave them alone under normal circumstances, but this time…"
Being unsettled was an understatement for how I felt. "Is there anything I can do to help? Maybe I could try going back to the market alone and speak with the elders again. Maybe the other day was a fluke."
"Absolutely not," he ordered. After his face visibly softened, he added, gesturing with an open hand, "Please don't put yourself in unnecessary danger."
I looked down, not wanting to meet his eyes. "There has to be something I can do," I uttered.
"Well, there is one thing if you don't mind venturing to the opposite side of town. There was mention of another name and we dismissed it, but it seems to keep popping up in our reports. I'll send a couple guys with you if you feel like questioning them."
I lifted my head back up and met his gaze. "I thought you said there was no one else?"
"They're not an Ouphe, but a Mimic. I think they have been supplying this Frank guy with black market wares. She may know something to help us about where their hideout is," he explained.
"So, you think this person will talk to save his own ass because he doesn't actually have an allegiance with the Ouphes other than money."
He gave me a lopsided grin. "That’s exactly what I think. You always were clever."
I dismissed his comment with my hand and a pssh. "Bea is far cleverer than I ever was." I shut my mouth in a hurry. I didn't need Bea any more wrapped up in this mess than she already was. "Do you think it's safe?"
He grew suddenly serious. "They have no criminal history outside of some minor non-violent issues. Besides, do you think I would send you if I thought it wasn't?"
"I didn't think you would. I just wanted to feel out the situation," I said. It wasn't entirely true. I was still trying to feel him out too, not just what was going on.
"Speaking of your ward, how is she doing?"
"She's fine," I replied without elaborating. Sure, the idea of Thain being in the same city was beginning to feel like a less than awful idea, but I was still not comfortable enough to share details about Bea just yet.
"It might be better if I go alone. Taking armed guards is going to make people paranoid," I added, changing the subject.
His face took on a hard edge, brows furrowed. "I'm not sending you by yourself."
I went to argue but stopped myself. I almost forgot I told him about my earlier visit to the alleys. Even though it would be different, my nerves were still on edge. People were acting strangely lately. "Alright."
Thain stood and gestured to the man standing silently in the corner. "Franklin, can you find a second and go with Poppy, please?"
Franklin stepped forward and nodded deeply. "Of course," he replied and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
I got up as well and was swept into an embrace by Thain before I could protest. "It's been good to see you again. I know you don't feel the same way but I…"
Instead of pushing him away like he expected, I wrapped my arms around him in return. "I'm still mad at you for leaving me, but I've missed you too." And I had to admit, the feel of him against me was comforting. He smelled as he always had, a deep earthy musk that made him seem more like a creature from the woods than a man.
Franklin interrupted us by clearing his throat. I stepped back from Thain and turned around. He was standing there with an imposing giant who I presumed was the second guard.
"Aaron, ma'am," the giant said with a nod of his head.
"Nice to meet you, Aaron, my name is Poppy," I said.
He nodded again before turning his focus to Thain.
"Very good," Thain said, gaining his composure in a split second. "Franklin and Aaron will escort you to the alleys. The person you are looking for is named Sonia. Our intel has been rather vague about who this woman is specifically other than her dealings in outlawed goods, but she is definitely an associate to this guy," Thain said, filling us in with information that he had mostly already stated.
I chewed my lip at the thought of taking these two with me. It was going to be more of a hindrance than a help, but Thain was right. I didn't need to go alone. If something happened to me, I couldn't help anyone. And where would that leave Bea? Nowhere good, that was for sure.
I nodded at Thain and turned back to the men. "Let's get going. If you'll both take my hands," I directed. Franklin didn't hesitate, but Aaron looked down at my outstretched palm with apprehension. "I'm just going to teleport us to the entrance. It doesn't hurt, I promise."
For someone who looked so aged with battle—his scars and weather worn hands an indicator—I found it odd for him to be so worried about a little thing like a teleportation spell. In that moment, I was reminded that you could never really tell what was going on inside someone's head and heart by looking at their appearance.
He finally reached out and enveloped my hand with his. Satisfied we were ready, I closed my eyes to clear my mind, sucked in a deep breath and pushed out an extra firm note to accommodate the additional people. The world slipped away, and I fought to keep the note going. As my feet slammed into the hard concrete, I knew something was wrong. The bustling noise around us lanced a shot of panic through my middle. My eyes flew open. We had landed square in the middle of the market instead of the alleyway.
My surprise was so crippling that I couldn't do anything as the bodies surrounding us flew into motion. They seemed to move at inhuman speeds while my brain tried to catch up with reality. I tried to lift my hands in surrender, but they didn't get past my waist before a body slammed into my side. My cheek raked across the concrete and my lungs emptied on impact. Another surge of hot panic shot through me as I struggled to breathe.
"Don't move!" someone yelled from above me.
I pulled my lips together, but I couldn't get enough breath to whistle. I tried a second time, but a hand grabbed my face and twisted it around. My neck cracked at the unnatural angle it was being forced into.
"Try it and die." It was the same voice, this time accompanied by a grim expression and beady coal-black eyes. I heard a scuffle to the right of me, but I couldn't see what was happening. Then I heard someone fall to the hard ground with a groan.
I blinked once in compliance and before twisting my head in defiance to catch sight of my companions. Aaron was laying a few feet away from me. Blood flowed from his forehead and his eyes were closed, but I saw his chest rise and fall. He was still alive. I scanned my limited range for Franklin, but he was nowhere in sight. As I tried to move my head to find him too, a vicious pain bloomed in my rib cage and spread through my entire side, causing me to scream out.
"Move again and the next kick will be to your face," a voice growled.
I heard something scrape on the pavement, but I was afraid to move, so I focused my hearing instead. "Well done," came a voice that did not belong to my attacker.
"I told you the fools wouldn't see it coming. But the boss is getting close to figuring things out, so we need to hurry." The words were like a punch, and they pushed the air back out of my chest.
It can't be…
I was hauled roughly to my feet and forced to stand before the man I now knew was a traitor.
"That's right, you interfering brat. Gotcha." Franklin, one of Thain's most trusted people, was a spy.
"But how?" I wondered out loud. How had we not made the connection from Frank to Franklin?
"How did I mess with your transportation spell?" he sneered with a
laugh that made me nauseous. "It's easy when you have all that magic you could ever need at your disposal."
In desperation, I went for another spell, but a set of hands wrapped a cloth across my mouth and tied it behind my head with a jerk.
There was still a group of Ouphes surrounding us, and I winced when one of them kicked Aaron in the ribs. "This one's out good, boss."
"Bring him too," Franklin ordered.
Then I was yanked around again and shoved in the opposite direction. I screamed out as I lost my balance and landed on my knees.
"Get up!" another voice yelled as they pulled me back into a semi-standing position. I clenched my entire body, ready for a second push. I stumbled a little but stayed upright this time.
An impatient arm came up under mine, and it pulled me toward another alleyway. I tried to keep up, but my scraped and swollen knees were making it hard to go as fast as they wanted.
It seemed to take years as we wound past building after building, before we finally came to an opening in front of small but neat houses. Cold concrete gave way to grass, and more dread welled up inside of me as my feet caught every bump and groove. Aaron still hung limply between two men, his feet dragging carelessly.
My nausea was threatening to overtake me now. Bile swelled in my throat on repeat as I fought to keep it down. I couldn't keep this up, but I was terrified to fall. Scared of what they would do to me if I didn't keep going.
When the man attached to my arm stopped abruptly, my legs buckled, and I landed on the damp grass. I flinched, ready for another strike.
"Don't move!" he yelled while shoving a finger in my face.
All I could manage was shallow breaths through my nose as I waited obediently. A groan rattled from Aaron and they threw him on the ground beside me. His body was still unmoving, but he languidly cracked open one eyelid and looked at me. I rapidly glanced around, making sure no one was paying attention. Luckily, all of our attackers were too enthralled in their conversation to notice. I looked back at Aaron and he gave me a slow wink. I thought he had been unconscious the whole time. It didn't matter, there were too many of them and he was hurt. Blood still trickled down his face from a spot hidden by his hair.
I shook my head quickly, and he blinked again to acknowledge me. When I heard boots approaching, I turned my face from Aaron and looked toward the ground.
"Get up," the man commanded.
I tried to obey, but as I lifted myself; the world spun, and my strength gave out.
Get up!" he screamed again, this time hauling me up by my arm.
My vision was still half black as I struggled to obey. My knees hit a step and more shocks of pain shot through my legs. With all the strength I had left, I lifted my foot and heaved myself up on the first stair leading into the house. I squinted to find my way forward, but my vision was going in and out. When I slipped, another step collided with my shin and tears ran down my cheeks. As the hard feel of the wooden porch landed under my feet, my chin drifted upward, and the world completely fell away.
Chapter 17
Bea
Apparently the Tolve had its hand in everything, including the local government. It made sense. There was no way a large, underground group of supernatural beings could live undocumented without fail safes and help from the outside. I should have realized it sooner, but it took Ellen's explanation of things to connect the dots for me. Combined with her declaration that those who shared secrets disappeared, I was even more concerned about getting involved with anyone who wasn't human. I was still going to do it because my conscience wouldn't allow me to leave Anna to fend for herself, but I needed to stop running around like I was invincible and be a hell of a lot more careful when dealing with these people. Another problem I was mulling over was that even though Ellen was an immense help, she also seemed to come to conclusions based solely on assumptions and fear.
She had no proof that Thain was involved, only that he supervised the area and that some guys she thought to be employees of his had threatened Anna online. It wasn't a secret that I had no love for the man, but I wasn't about to go around accusing him of murder out loud without sound evidence. Sure, it seemed easy to clump all the Tolve people into one group at times—supernatural vs. those who didn't have magic. There were always bad people in every group, but that didn't mean everyone was like that, just like not all humans were bad because a handful did terrible things.
The reality was that she had gone for too long hoping for too much—at least if you went by the statistics of missing persons. I pressed my fingers to my temples upon realizing that I was already jumping to the conclusion that Anna was dead. There had been no contact, no ransom calls, no proof that whoever took her had an agenda other than making her disappear. It was disheartening and something I wasn't ready to share with Ellen just yet. Bless her heart. Besides, those numbers were occasionally wrong, and we were dealing with people who didn't exactly tick off the normal boxes I was used to.
It was almost midnight. Sighing, I mentally ran through the meeting with Ellen again. I'd been at it for almost three hours and had over ten pages of notes about the Tolve, various members, and a few local Tolve run businesses that I wasn't aware of before.
I already had enough to get me off my butt and to head out into the night to look for more answers instead, so I shifted gears and stood up. Once outside my apartment, still clad in pj's, I concentrated on turning into a starling. My shifting was getting a little easier to control now that my guise was gone, but it was still temperamental to say the least. It had happened on command exactly twice since, but most of the time my desire to be a bird was ignored unless I sought outside help.
I squinted and tried again. "Turn into a bird, damn it," I commanded aloud while flapping my arms in one last pointless effort.
I finally gave up, got dressed, and headed out in search of the fat tom cat. Once my feet hit the pavement of the parking lot, I sprinted off toward the side of the building where he usually greeted me.
"Where are you when I need you, cat?" I muttered to myself as I scanned the space around me.
My thought circled back around to the possibility that the cat really was Isaac, so I raced back home.
His muffled "What!?" sent trickles of excitement through me, but I continued to pound on his door, anyway. I wondered if Isaac turning into a cat would be like me turning into a bird. The thought of seeing it in action had me bouncing on my toes. I wondered if it would look as weird as I expected.
"Hurry!" I yelled into the door.
He finally opened it, and he was the furthest thing from amused. In fact, he was glaring.
"Turn into a cat," I commanded. His frown deepened.
"No," he said and turned away, leaving the door ajar.
I followed him inside and shut it behind me. "Please?" I begged.
"Absolutely not."
I groaned and rolled my eyes. "Come on! I want to see what it looks like." I left out the part about me needing to change into a bird, because I was worried he'd ask what I was doing and protest. I wasn't in the mood to deal with it.
"Poppy told me you're really the neighborhood Tom cat, so I know everything," I lied.
"She did not," he replied in a clipped tone.
I sighed heavily. "Fine. She didn't, but I know it's true. Will you please change into a cat?" I begged, changing tactics.
"Bea, I don't feel like it. No. Ask me tomorrow."
The exchange was making me feel like an annoying teenager begging for something I shouldn't have, and I didn't like it. "Whatever," I grumbled and left.
I was back in the parking lot searching for… I didn't know what. Another cat that wasn't Isaac or maybe a fluff of fur he accidentally left lying around? When I turned, a head popped out of the bushes. I stumbled backward, startled. I righted myself as the massive wolf trotted out toward me with a soft woof.
"Darn it Victor, what are you doing here? You need to go home and leave me alone!" I hissed.
He barked again
softly and tilted his head as if to ask what I was doing out here so late myself.
"It's none of your business what I'm doing," I growled.
Victor took a step back but didn't leave.
I was done with this nonsense. "Oh no you don't. If you want to stalk me, you might as well be useful," I said, grinning widely.
He understood my meaning too late and attempted to scramble away, but I had already wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his fur. Even though he pulled away, I had all I needed. My nose tickled as I stood up and waited for the sneeze to hit.
The change hit me just as he began barking like a lunatic. As if that would stop it. No doubt he had been lurking, trying to keep me away from Thain. Served him right for not minding his own business. It's not like he was hanging out because he liked me, the idiot.
My wings pumped furiously as I tried to keep from crashing into the concrete below me. I caught Victor edging closer as I fought for elevation. The thought of him snatching me out of the air again motivated me to push with all my might to get out of his reach. I could finally get high enough that my anxiety settled. Not that he had moved.
I squawked once in his direction, then took off into the night. As the breeze hit my face, all my worries melted away. It was just me wrapped in the glory of the sky's darkness. I let out a long breath and angled one side of my body downward. Maneuvering my tail feathers, I soared higher, playing in the wind currents. Flying revealed how tense my body had grown since the moment I was thrown into this crazy new reality with Thain and the Tolve. It was amazingly liberating just to be alone.
I was still lost in the sensation of being free when a yellow-headed finch flew up beside me. It swooped under me for a moment before leveling out to my left. Uncertain about its presence, I dipped sharply again, and it followed, matching my movements. When I tucked my wing and barrel spun, it fussed at me and then flew off. I trilled in amusement but pulled my focus back to my original goal. As much as I wished I could live in the present with no responsibilities, people were counting on me.