by Tee, Marian
Middlemarch, AGNEX's day shift sentinel, glanced up at hearing the revolving doors start to spin and was unsurprised when he saw Zari Baltimore enter the vestibule. Petite and coltishly slim, the girl was in her early twenties, with ash blonde hair she always had twisted up in a fuss-free bun and smoky gray innocent-looking eyes that belied the trapper's murderously good skills with a blade.
"Sup, Mid." Zari absently gave her arms a brisk rub as she spoke, thinking that the building's antechamber felt more somber and colder than usual. Even with its vintage Art Deco chandelier, stained-glass cathedral windows, and a mosaic installation depicting the Garden of Eden spanning an entire wall, its beauty struck her as soulless and empty, like a fancy mausoleum that had somehow found its way into the heart of Manhattan.
"You need a life, kid." The hell was she doing, coming to work early when she wasn't ever gonna get paid for the extra hours?
Zari simply wrinkled her nose in response. "I don't like sleeping in." Not anymore, at least.
"The way you look," Middlemarch remarked, seeing the half-moon shadows under the girl's eyes, "doesn't seem like you sleep at all." When the trapper only shrugged, he knew he had guessed right, and sympathy momentarily softened the older man's weathered features. "One of those nights again?"
"It's always one of those nights." A lopsided smile curved over the girl's lips, but the trace of pain in her eyes didn't go away. "Anyway, I gotta head up. Micah wants to see me. I think I might be in trouble again."
Middlemarch only grunted, thinking that the trapper was a little too optimistic for her own good.
Might be in trouble?
The girl's missing-lover-slash-vampire-Master was one of the most powerful half-demons in living history, and here she was, working for an agency best known for exterminating demons.
Being a quarter vampire himself, Middlemarch was sufficiently familiar with the role pets played in vampire society. It was considered a great honor for a human girl to be handpicked as pet, and there were even "Legacy" families whose greatest pride was to have their womenfolk serve vampires generation after generation.
Here in New York, however...
Zari being a vampire's pet was bad enough. Most thought this no different from being a glorified slave, but that the girl's Master also happened to be one of the world's most notorious half-demons...
Something's gonna give, Middlemarch thought as he watched Zari walk away. It was just a matter of time, with the whole fucking thing like a ticking time bomb. Sooner or later, there'd be a day of reckoning, and once that happened...
Either Zari Baltimore had the smallest brain in the planet...or the biggest set of balls, for thinking she could single-handedly take on all of the city's demon-hating bigots.
UNAWARE OF BEING THE subject of Middlemarch's worries, Zari was busy warding off the onslaught of another headache as she headed for the French doors that opened directly to the stairwell. Here, the cathedral windows were tall, narrow and plain, its transparent panes allowing sunlight to filter through. But even with golden rays cascading down medieval tapestries and carpeted steps, its warmth just wasn't enough to dispel the cloud of melancholy that had chilled shivers running down her spine.
A mausoleum, Zari found herself thinking again. Once a mausoleum, always a mausoleum, and no amount of makeovers would change this.
It was a long and rather tedious climb all the way to the top, and Zari felt particularly proud to find herself still breathing normally by the time she finally made it to the seventh floor.
See, Master?
Eighty-four steps total, and she wasn't even panting.
Back when she was still studying in LSL, which was basically a training school for aspiring pets, her stamina had been a complete joke. Ten minutes into her weekly dancing class already had Zari wheezing, and what made it even more pathetic was how they had only been doing warm-ups at that time.
Now, however...
I've changed for the better, Zari couldn't help emphasizing in another attempt to tap into the blood bond she shared with her Master. I can even kick other people's butts without breaking a sweat. I'm stronger in every way there is, so please...
She closed her eyes.
Please come back.
And despite everything, Zari still found herself hoping and waiting for Alexandru to answer.
Found herself whispering one last time—-
Please.
She waited and waited, but only silence rose in response, and she eventually had to force herself to return to reality. She was already raising her hand even before opening her eyes, intending to knock on her boss' door—-
"Shit!"
Zari jumped back in shock and managed to pull her fist back in time. One second more, and she would have ended up knocking on his face, with its exceptionally handsome features and exceptionally irritating smirk.
"Sorry, Z," her boss drawled. "Didn't mean to surprise you."
"Yeah, right," Zari muttered. Micah might have angel's blood running through his veins, but his demeanor had always been more devilish than beatific. Looked it, too, with his blond locks tied back in a half-up pony, tattoos all over, and his penchant for leather jackets and ripped jeans.
The only thing marginally angelic about him was the blueness of his eyes, but considering how he was staring at her now...
She lifted her chin, not wanting her boss to think he had her under his spell for even a second. "You said you wanted to talk to me?"
"I do want that, along with many other things—-" Zari glowered, and her boss chuckled. "Alright—-" He held his hands up in mock surrender. "No more teasing, little Z."
"Stop calling me that."
The half angel didn't seem to hear this, however, and said instead, "I wasn't expecting to see you this early." He stepped back to pull the door wide open, adding, "Not that I'm complaining, of course."
It was Zari's turn to play hard of hearing as she marched past her boss. She could feel his mocking gaze following her as she crossed the room but ignored this as well. Micah only enjoyed flirting with her because she wasn't like the others. He knew she'd never take him seriously, and this unfortunately had him openly favoring her company, much to Zari's annoyance and everyone's else.
A serious amount of teeth gnashing always followed every time Micah - in full view of the others - would oh so casually remark on how lovely she looked or how cute her smile was. He did all of these and more, just slyly adding fuel to the fire again and again, and as the half angel had shamelessly admitted on more than one occasion - he only did so because he enjoyed seeing her suffer.
The memory had Zari do her own gnashing of teeth as she threw herself on one of the chairs.
Whatever.
At the end of the day, what mattered was that Micah had been the only one willing to hire her, and since this job was what she was destined to do...
I owe him, Zari determinedly reminded herself even as she felt Micah's wicked gaze slowly run over her form, almost taunting her to react to his blatantly sexual interest in her. She knew she only had to say a word, and he'd stop doing it, but if she did that, she had a feeling he'd only interpret it as evidence that she wasn't indifferent to him.
Men and their egos, Zari thought grumpily as she watched her boss take his place behind the marbled monstrosity that he called a desk. To be fair, she could see why so many women fawned over him, but the thing was...
It didn't matter if he were the longest-reigning title holder of New York's Sexiest Man Alive.
Girls like her were strictly the fall-in-love-once-and-forever type, and for Zari—-
"How do you feel about taking on another paid case?"
Pointless musings on male egos and true love disappeared all at once, with Zari unable to shake her head fast and hard enough. "Thank you," she barely managed to say politely, "but no." She had her reasons for only taking on pro bono hauntings, but these were reasons she had to keep to herself...for now.
"Why not?"
Za
ri's brows furrowed. "Didn't you read my report?"
"I did."
"Then you know there's a thirteenth boy still missing—-"
"You can work on that later," Micah dismissed.
"But—-"
Blue eyes glinted at her in warning, and she shut up. Micah had never pulled rank on her before this, but she supposed she should have expected it to happen. He had always been known to ruthlessly do away with anyone he considered either a weak link...or in opposition to his goals.
"Does it really have to be now?" she couldn't help asking. "Can't I solve this case first—-" She stopped speaking when she saw the half angel's lips tighten. It wasn't like Micah to act on edge over something this small...
Or maybe it wasn't small at all, Zari realized uneasily, and there was something she had been missing from the start.
Her boss might be a powerful angel in his own right, but as part of AGNEX, he, too, had someone to answer to, and the only one that outranked Micah...
Zari took a deep breath. "It's the Board...isn't it?"
A clipped nod, and her blood turned cold.
"The Board thinks the only reason you haven't signed up for any of the paid cases is because you have a soft spot for demons...and they want you fired for it."
The Demon in The Forest
Chapter Four
ZARI'S HEART HAMMERED furiously against her chest as she raced down the steps. There could only be one reason the Marquis of Sangre would seek her presence in the dead of the night, and uncaring of convention, she hitched the full skirts of her dress all the way up to her knees. In the kingdom of Chalys, it was not a "done" thing for a lady to reveal anything above her ankles in public. But she didn't give a damn. All she wanted was to get to Mihail as quickly as possible, and accidentally tripping on her own gown would only be a pointless waste of time.
Finally, she was past the magical barrier that turned her whole school invisible, but before Zari could call out, the sound of her footsteps already had the marquis swinging around to face her.
NO!
She skidded into an uneven halt, skirts falling loose from her suddenly limp fingers. Mihail's handsome face was so much graver than usual, and it terrified her. "You have news of him," she guessed shakily. "Don't you?"
Instead of answering, the marquis moved forward, and she had the silliest urge to run away. What you didn't know couldn’t hurt you. Wasn't that how it went?
But it was too late now, Zari thought numbly as she watched the marquis slowly open his hand.
A rock.
He was holding a rock.
About three inches in diameter, with jagged edges that pressed abrasively against the marquis' palm.
Just an ordinary rock, except for its bloodstained surface, and she knew, she just knew. Didn't have to have visions to know—-
It was Alexandru's blood.
Her Master's precious blood that this damn rock had been soaked in, and she bit her lip hard when it started trembling. So much blood, she kept thinking. Just so, so much blood that he had to bleed, for this rock to drown in such vivid redness...
"One of our spies found this," she heard Mihail say.
"Where?" She was unable to lift her head, unable to take her gaze away from the rock in his hand.
"Sundown Wild Forest in New York. Our man works as a forest ranger, and he received a civilian report about a strange-looking carcass. Upon inspection, he realized that it was a changeling demon..."
"And the demon had the rock in his hand," Zari finished.
"Not quite." Mihail's lip curled. "According to our enemies, we've found Alexandru's killer and his murder weapon."
Zari was almost tempted to roll her eyes. Her Master, killed by a piece of rock? She shook her head, muttering, "They're idiots, if they think it's that simple."
"Exactly what I was thinking, too," Mihail agreed.
Her gaze drifted back to the rock the marquis was still holding. "So that rock..."
"I think you already know, milady."
Zari's throat tightened.
"My brother's message is written in his blood, and you alone will be able to read it." Determination blazed from the marquis' gaze, and for a moment, it almost felt as if she was seeing her Master.
Those green eyes...
The same green eyes that her Master had...
"Do your work, soul seer, and show us how we can get Alexandru back."
The Devil and His Apple
Chapter Five
MICAH'S WORDS ECHOED endlessly in Zari's mind as she climbed up the stairs leading to the same station exit between Broadway and Battery Place. Just as her boss not so subtly ordered, she had applied for a paid case, but just as expected...
Zari rolled her eyes as she remembered how things went down this morning at B2. Since the other trappers already hated her guts for being a pet and Micah's so-called favorite, she had decided to apply for the lowest-paying case, thinking that this would cut her some slack.
Unfortunately, it only made the other trappers think Zari was rubbing their noses on the fact that she didn't need to work for money. It was no secret that the Marquis of Sangre considered her family, not to mention the fact that she was also Alexandru's designated heir and thus owner of million-dollar estates and God knew what else.
Maybe she should care more about correcting their impressions, try a little harder at befriending the other trappers so they wouldn't think she was a stuck-up bitch, but...whatever.
The past year had turned her into quite the closet pessimist, and she wondered if her Master would still think she was cute once he realized how much she had changed.
So you better hurry up, Master, Zari thought. Or else it would be all your fault if you come back and find out I'm no longer the Zari you know. So please...
And even though she knew it was plain stupid—-
She found herself standing to the side as soon as she reached the top of the steps, and then she closed her eyes and waited.
Come back now.
But again, it was just radio silence, and in the end all she could do was open her eyes...
Optical peeing for the win.
Zari angrily wiped her tears with the back of her hand even as she forced herself to get moving. Unlike yesterday, the crowd was noticeably thinner outside Bowling Green, and by the time she made it to The Battery, the whole place was practically a ghost town.
Guess that makes sense, Zari thought. A dozen dead kids didn't exactly make the world a better place, and as tough as New Yorkers supposedly were, they were humans still, and thus naturally terrified of things that went bump—-
"This smells like a bad place."
The words, uttered in a singsong tone, had Zari quickly shaking her head. "It's fine, don't worry." She didn't bother lowering her voice, knowing that there wasn't anyone around to think her crazy for talking to herself. "This was a bad place, but not anymore—-"
"You're sure?" A woman's upside-down face suddenly popped up in front of her, and Zari barely managed to keep herself from yelping.
One eye missing, lips a grisly shade of red, and long, dark locks that only covered the left side of her scalp. The other half was bald and completely burnt, and so was the rest of her body, which was a crisp shade of black save for patches of vein-less skin.
"Elsa!" Sheesh, she almost had a heart attack a second ago. "Please stop doing that."
The still-upside-down ghost only blinked her one good eye at Zari. "Truly not a bad place?"
"Yes." Zari nodded fervently. "Truly." Elsa had become rather overprotective towards her lately, and the last time the ghost thought Zari had been in trouble, things had gone way, way south.
Like, dismembered evil men kind of south, and while Zari was grateful for Elsa saving her life, the ghost's rescue attempts tended to be somewhat unnecessarily messy.
So for now...
"It's alright," she said soothingly. "Really." Elsa's hair was basically the ghost's craze-o-meter, and only when the long knotted
locks, currently standing on their ends, gradually settled back into place was Zari able to breathe a little more easily.
After that, she only had to continue distracting Elsa for a few minutes more, and once the ghost was busy playing with her doll, Zari was finally free to examine the crime scene.
Thirteen square meters, according to the police files on the case, and thirteen feet deep. Just the number thirteen all over, and it had her wondering if she was dealing with a satanic ghost.
She took her time circling the still-unfilled grave, its perimeter outlined by yellow caution tape, thinking that there was a clue the police could have missed, never mind if the murders actually happened decades ago.
But there was nothing.
She circled the grave a few more times, trying to look at it from the eyes of a human detective, a user of magic, a vampire's pet...she tried everything, but nothing jumped out.
Okay then.
Zari crouched down and slowly ran her fingers over the soil. She used to have to wait for a vision to come to her, but three years of impossibly hard work under her mentor, Lady Soleil, had changed that.
She closed her eyes.
Come on, now.
Come on.
But all she got was just dirt under her nails.
Shit.
She had been hoping it wouldn't come to this, but if this was what it took to figure out the mystery behind the missing thirteenth body...
Very well.
After taking a slow, deep breath, Zari ducked under the caution tape and jumped into the grave. Goosebumps popped all over her skin, and she gave her arms another brisk rub down.
Part of the job, Zari. Just part of the job.
And so she made herself lie down and tried not to think of the fact that just last night, a dozen corpses had been buried on the very same ground she was lying on—-
Wait a sec.
"Do you smell it, too?"
"Oh my God!" Zari nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw Martin suddenly lying next to her. He was the newest ghost to make his home with her instead of moving on, and just like Elsa, he also had this unfortunate habit of popping out of nowhere and scaring the daylight out of her.