by brett hicks
I looked at my feet and Nodded, “I know that, I just am use to men treating me one way. I am something disposable to them, a pretty, little freak, nothing more. I should not have taken my trust issues out on you and you’re right, I broke the law and I am damn lucky to have my job now.”
I finished the last of my juicy steak sub and I was sipping on some fresh java when Jon finally said, “Chérie, just know you can come to me if you ever have a problem. I will never betray you Kayla, you are much more than you give yourself credit for in so many ways. As much as it irks me to admit this, I do not know how we solved any supernatural crime without all the insights you have brought.”
I blew out a long breath and said, “Jon, I don’t wanna fight with you again,” he nodded and said, “Nor I chérie, nor I.”
Chapter: 7
Ten hours of foot patrol in the early June heat had me feeling a little soggy in my blue uniform. My TO had risen hell this morning, he stated that I was, “being pampered and I needed to earn my way.” My captain had relented to his complaints, since there were only a few things I could do personally to move the witch murder forward. I was now on foot patrol on the sweltering streets of the French Quarter.
I had not eaten today and I was starving. My personal blood supply was depleted and I forgot that I needed to order more. Sally had offered me a vein, to which I very adamantly declined. I have never bitten anyone, except the one time in the middle of my fight with Sally’s dad, when he was under a voodoo charm effect.
Mike stalked back up to me with a smug look on his face. It took no small measure of control to keep my eyes their human shade of grey. He had been silent most of the day, but he did get in a few digs at my species, or at my gender here and there. Mike was not exactly a sexist, but he did believe I was fucking my way into early detective ranks already.
“McQueen, I heard you got into it with that little red haired witch.”
I inwardly cringed at the mention of Jade. I clenched my jaw and shrugged.
“Hey, you should be thanking your lucky stars that the captain did not write your ass up,” he said it in a condescending manner, not unlike how the witches talked to me.
“Damn mundanes,” I muttered to myself.
“You have to stop acting like the tiny, blonde John Wayne. This is not the Wild West McQueen and you are not The Lone Ranger.”
I gave him a sassy look and said, “That was a terrible mixed metaphor sir, John Wayne was the Duke.”
He growled like a damn shifter and said, “You don’t have a single ounce of respect for anyone do you?”
I kept my face even and kept walking and watching the many civies around me. I would not let him distract me from keeping my eyes on the public.
“I believe I have shown you great restraint, considering you have been nothing but hostile to me sir. I get it, I am a dyamphyr and I drink blood to survive, but that just does not explain the level to which you take this.”
I felt him tense next to me, I could smell his anger, and I could feel it like hot waves rolling off a fireplace.
“All things considered, I have been quite pleasant with your half cocked behavior. You ran off two nights ago and do not wait for me, just so you can play with another vamp by yourself.”
I snorted and said, “Sir, if I waited for you to catch up the woman would have been drained and discarded like a piece of trash. By the way, I am a D-Y-A-M-P-H-Y-R, not a vampire.”
My tone had lost all of its false kindness now and I was spelling my words out to him as if he was in pre-school. I thought back to my hot-headed behavior with Jon the day before and it was like ice water on my open flames now. I was about to cross a line and Mike was baiting me into it.
I took a quick glance at him and underneath the layers of rage were something else, triumph. Exhaling a long breath I swallowed all my pride and said, “Sir, I’m sorry, this is disrespectful and I should have dropped this conversation long before now.”
I saw his jaw tighten and all the underlying triumph drained from his eyes now. He really was trying to get me in trouble, probably as much trouble as he could. I should probably assume he knows I am starving right now. He always comments on when he does not see me eat, but he had not brought it up today. He was not a stupid mundane, just a narrow-minded one.
****
Royal Pain was a local sup watering hole, it was not a large club, but it was a highly trafficked one. The club was all of two huge oak bars and fifty square feet of dance floor. Keeping in tradition with the common perception about sups, it has a bondage themed design and some S&M in the back rooms. They also served fresh blood here, which was the main reason I insisted on coming.
The bartender was a local werewolf, he knew me from all my time at the pack compound, before Sally left the pack. He gave me a polite smile, thought I could smell his anger and said, “Whatcha drinking tonight?”
“You got fresh Type A?”
He nodded and said, “How much?”
“Pint, no make it a pint and a half please.”
He blinked a few times and said, “Coming right up, you sure you can handle all that?”
I smiled sweetly and said, “Girl’s gotta eat?”
“Personally, I think you need to try some O negative, hear it helps fill out your chest.”
I turned to the source of the snarky voice to my left and I pulled Sally into a tight hug.”
Sally rubbed my back affectionately and said, “Damn, that must have been one hell of a day, you never do the hugging first, you typically make me work for my physical contact more.”
“Oh god, I missed you today. My TO was actually trying to bait me into anything he could, just to get me in trouble.”
The bartender came back, he quivered noticeably at Sally’s proximity and gingerly sat my huge pitcher of blood down, and then he sat down a wine glass for me.
“What can I get for you apex, ma’am?”
Sally rolled her green eyes; they still refused to accept that she had left the pack. She was supposed to be their future leader, but she had ditched the pack and joined the police force with me.
“Three stout, dark ales please,” he nodded and quickly went to fill her order with a level of enthusiasm that he had never shown me.
“Three, are you trying to get drunk?”
Sally shrugged and said, “Buzzed, but we both know that your blood high will last longer than my buzz.”
“Did you and Ben find anything?”
She shook her head and said, “Nothing, but I did manage to find a few vampires to question. They did not know where their master is hiding apparently. The king’s court seems to be quite and James has not shown up to court in a while; he is lying low.”
After taking a long swig of my type A, I rested my cheek on Sally’s shoulder. She had a smirk on her face; I did not often initiate physical contact, even with my best friend. She was eating this moment up with a huge spoon right now.
“Sometimes it gets exhausting, be what I am Sal.”
“Just sometimes,” There was amusement in her tone, but I could feel her concern just beneath it.
Sigh…”You know I go to work every day and I am never allowed to forget what I am.”
“You want me to start biting people for you,” she only sounded like she was kidding, but I could tell it was a genuine request. Being an apex alpha female made Sally very defensive of her females and that seemed to include me somehow.
“Sal, I just get the feeling that the mundanes are waiting for us to screw up, well more waiting for me to screw up. They seem to be talking to you better, but wolves have been more integrated into society for like fifty years or more.”
Sigh…”Kay, they just play nice when you’re around me. I guess they don’t wanna see how pissed you will get, if you knew how they behaved around me too.”
I whipped my head in her direction and I gave her a look of shock and sadness.
“Sally what’s been happening?” She shrugged and said, nothing too much, just jokes abou
t dogs, or stabs at my libido.”
She pat my cheek before I could finish being worked up and said, “Kay, I have been out of the closet my whole life. I am used to the way mundanes view supernatural beings. It is really not any different than the problems women or African Americans faced a few decades ago.”
“It still sucks, they act like it is their god given right to hurt me all they want Sal.”
“Some of them really do think it is, some think that they are doing a good thing by putting you, ‘in your place,’” she air quoted the last bit.
“So, how do you manage to stay so damn Zen, despite the intolerance?”
“Multiple orgasms from a very well-endowed stranger typically, but that is not gonna help you is it,” She said it matter-of-fact and seemed to be in deep thought now.
“My mom once told me, ‘If we bit every hand that was raised against us, then there would be less humans with two hands, then one.’ You might never have seen it, but I used to get very angry and I would snap at anyone who was rude to me, because I am a werewolf. We cannot change the people around us, however, we can prove them all wrong.”
I leaned in and took a long sip of my blood and then I said, “So you are telling me to be on my best behavior and just show them I can be a good cop?”
Sally nodded and said, “Hun, that is all you can do most of the time, but if Jaden takes another bite at your flank, the bitch is as good as mauled.”
Her green eyes lit with a ferocity, which would have shaken a lesser being, but it was just a sweet sentiment to me.
“Common hun, let’s just go dance. It is the secret cure for all things that trouble your mind.”
With that, Sally pulled me onto the dance floor, well after I drained the rest of my type A that is. The electric techno metal provided the perfect beat to shake our butts and just cut loose. Sally’s bright red hair shook all around her; the blonde color she had put in earlier this month seemed to have vanished now. Werewolves healed fast and that apparently extended to hair dye too.
The effect of her perfectly timed swaying and twisting to the beat was nearly hypnotic. We giggled as if we were just schoolgirls once more, no care and no murder investigations. Did my job stress me out? Yes, it did, but I still wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Chapter: 8
Buzzing, Buzzing, Buzzing, my ears rang with the noise, yet it would not have bothered a mundane at all—doesn’t wake them from a dead sleep. I pick up my phone and I looked at the time, 4:56 AM. Letting out a grunt, I thumb it to life and I dial the number calling me profusely.
“McQueen, this is your captain, we have an incident that we will require your assistance on immediately.” Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I swing my feet off the bed as I feel Sally stirring next to me.
“Sir, what is going on?”
“Come down to the back alley behind the station, it is just across the street from the back entrance to our precinct.”
“Right away, sir. Um… Sally is awake too, do you need her?”
“Yes… we could use all the keen senses we can get. McQueen, this is about to turn into a shit show between the humans and the witches now.”
“I will be on my way with Sally in tow, perhaps bringing my mom in for magical forensics would be suggested sir. No one can track obscure magic like her.”
“I actually already have her, down here, she was delivering her finding to Detective Divichi when this murder happened.”
“OK, on my way, sir.”
He hung up without any further prompting. Sally had probably just heard everything that he said, she was already grumbling about humans and their reliance on us.
“Sal, you gonna be good to go in five?”
“Yeah… just not a good idea to poke a sleeping wolf you know.”
I shrugged and said, “We swore an oath and you know it.”
“Yes, and this oath is cutting into my sleep and my sex time.”
I rolled my eyes at her, she was very grumpy if you disturbed her rest and we were supposed to be off for the day. Not likely now that someone was apparently killed a stone’s throw from our precinct.
“Well, the stubborn, hormonal she-wolf before me will make time for both later.”
Now she was grumbling about type A dyamphyr roommates, loath the type A jab as I did, she was not wrong about me…
I pulled on some green cargo pants and one of my Nirvana tee shirts. Trend setter, I was not, but I would be comfy for the duration of this investigation. Thankfully, we had very lax dress codes for detectives here in New Orleans. I was not a detective, technically, but if I was expected to do the workload of one, then I get my civic clothes to wear.
I strapped my left-hand waist holster onto my belt and my leather dagger sheath. My instincts were screaming for more pointy objects, so I quickly took my shirt off and buckled a strap with two more daggers handing close to the small of my back, on either side.
There was something ominous about the way this case was headed, it felt like someone, a James or someone was playing sick games with us. I had not even realized that I had blacked out enough, that I had my fangs sunk into the side of my blood bag already. The type A was already three-quarters drained, by the time I realized I had been eating.
My vampire side requires a lot of control and a very healthy level of blood intake. I looked up and saw Sally looking at me with a bemused expression on her face now.
“Sorry about that, I just kinda lost it for a sec there.”
She shrugged and said, “I am used to broody Kayla mood swings, besides, I totally rolled all over our couch two nights ago,”
My eyes went completely silver now and I said, “You swore that a stray had gotten in!”
Sally just brushed me off and flipped her beautiful red hair over her should in the same motion.
“Kay, I was just having one of those lunar phase ordeals of mine again. Two strong ass supernatural girls sharing space, our instincts say we should be killing each other.”
I nodded, conceding the point and said, “Ok, but you are not going to compare a messy meal to shifting into a five-and-a-half-foot tall wolf and rolling on the damn sofa!”
Sally waved me off casually, her scent did not really bother me, just the whole marking thing was very potent with werewolf hormones—like I did not have enough hormones of my own!
I pointed at her, half-accusatory and said, “You pee in here and I am going to start hitting you over the head with a rolled-up newspaper!”
Sally lit her eyes up teasingly and said, “I am not a damn mutt Kay.”
I shook my head and said, “Nope, just the top bitch and everyone knows it.”
“You really do love to call me a bitch, don’t you?”
I smiled sweetly and said, “Who, me? I just don’t want any more shifting in the house, unless it is in your room.”
“Well, then no more biting into blood bags in front of me like some sorta fanged leech.”
I gave her my best insulted look and held my hand over my chest and said, “Fine, but I can bite into men in front of you then Sal?”
I smirked at her and she rolled her eyes and said, “Please, Kay, you are just going to make yourself look bad now, since I’m the only one getting any of that kind of action around here.”
I screamed out, “You have gone too far Missy!”
She ran out the door, her bright green eyes were alight with levity and amusement. The animal side of me enjoyed play-chasing my best friend to my Civic. I could feel the wolf side of her was also happy to have been chased. I gave her one snarky look as I pulled out of the driveway and I said, “anymore virgin jabs and you shall come home to a chocolate free zone.”
Sally’s eyes went wide and she said, “Kay, fine, I will get you gigolos, just don’t touch my damn chocolate!”
“Sal, I am about to dial my mother, so let’s ixnay on the gigolo talk!”
“Why, your mom totally gets the value of a good firm…”
I cover her mouth with
my free hand and try not to let her see that I am blushing like a tomato now. The damn silly she-wolf is about as playful as my kind is deadly. Wolves really are the most relaxed members of the community of supernatural beings. They enjoy family and friends and a lot of sex, but they like to play too. Everything is like a big game to Sally, but she has a serious streak in her, just buried under all the fun and games.
****
There was no blood, no struggle and there was no color to the magic at the scene. The magic felt so queer, yet nostalgic to me in some way. The same trace evidence was scrubbed away by a secondary spell. It really did look like magical bleach had been doused on the whole crime scene.
My mother was scribbling into a notebook with a ferocity that I had never really noticed before. Jenny McQueen was all about her scientific study of magic. She was like the mad scientist of witches and she had been turning the modern magical forensics division on its head. McQueen eyes were many folds more acute than any normal witch, so we saw patterns within the patterns and my mom was hell bent on unraveling the patterns in this magically scrubbed crime scene.
Sally was standing over to the side, metaphorically shaking her tail for the Tall red-orange haired Ben Radford. He smiled and waved to me, when he saw me looking at him and Sally, so I waved back, if not slightly weakly.
I walked up to Jon, he looked like he had bags under his eyes as dark as his Cajun hair.