“Nobody ever smuggled drugs before the Kings started last year.”
“Good point.”
“So you don’t know anything?”
“I know what you do. Just the rumors flying around Parata and the Smugglers’ Society.”
“Have there been any rumors about the Kings trying to recruit out of the Society?”
“Not that I’ve heard of.”
“That’s weird, isn’t it? We have this not-so-secret society dedicated to smuggling and this gang doesn’t think to try to use it?”
“Maybe it’s too established for them?”
I frowned. “Maybe.”
“Sorry, lass. Tracking criminals is your area. I just am one.”
She gave him the chuckle he was looking for. “Thanks anyway.”
“Of course.”
There was a pause and she heard mumbles.
“Try some vampires in the Society,” he said a moment later. “Maybe the Kings would be more keen on using them.”
“I already asked James and he’s got nothing. Laurel’s the next on my list to call, but I’m not so sure. I mean, the Kings’ve used and paid off agents. They’re not exactly afraid of getting up in the Agency’s face.”
“One moment.” More mumbles. “I’ve got Karen Timber here and she says she hasn’t been approached, or heard anything about the Kings in the Society.”
“Shit.” Karen was the gossip queen of the vamp underground. She was going to be Zee’s call after Sampson.
“She says no one in her circle knows anything,” Sampson said.
“That takes out most of the vampires in the Society. And those guys are most of the powerful ones.”
“Try Laurel?”
“Yeah, she’s next. But I think I’m missing something. They aren’t hiring the usual suspects. They aren’t even trying. Anyway, tell Karen thanks for me.”
“Will do. Good-bye, Sarah.”
“Bye.” She hung up, swearing under her breath. Why would the Kings recruit straight from the Agency, but leave vampires out of it?
She checked the clock. Still too early in the morning to call. Vampires could be awake during the day, and even go out in sunlight, but Laurel wasn’t a morning person. Calling before noon wasn’t advised.
Zee dialed the familiar number at the university instead.
“Professor Marlow,” a stodgy New England accent greeted after a moment.
“Hey Professor. It’s Zee.”
“How is my favorite delinquent?”
She smiled. Carl Marlow, i.e. Professor, was the head of the Criminal Justice department at the university. He was the one who took Zee in at seventeen, helped her get through the rest of high school, and housed her when she started college. When she got her powers, she told him. Even though witches weren’t ever supposed to tell normal people.
“I’m at the beginning of a case and I need some help,” she said.
“Tell me.”
She gave him the quick version. “So here’s my problem. The Kings have been known for about a year, but everything is secondhand. They wipe the memories of everyone who has worked with them… at least the ones who are still alive. The Kings have hired agents, but, and here’s the weird thing, they haven’t hired any known smugglers or tried selling their stuff at the Smuggler’s Society. So, why?”
“Is there anything similar about the agents who were hired?”
“One second.” She checked the file. “Different countries, races, genders, backgrou...”
“Ages?”
She paused, reading the specs on the arrested agents. “Huh. They’re young. None of them have been agents more than two years and the oldest was twenty-six.”
“That’s the why. These gang members are obviously intelligent. When they need to subcontract or someone to help them through the Agency’s magical borders, they choose people in a position to be helpful, like agents, but make sure to grab ones who aren’t experienced enough to pose too much of a threat. If these Kings had hired or tried to blackmail you, what would you have done?”
“Agreed, and set up a sting to catch them.”
“Exactly. These Kings don’t want to have to worry about being tricked, so they go after pups.”
“So I need to look at students and junior agents.” This was why she called Professor. He saw things she didn’t. “Thank you, Professor.”
“Anytime. You’re still coming to dinner tonight, right?”
Fuck. She’d completely forgotten about their weekly dinner. “Yeah, I’ve just got to get a few things done first.”
They hung up and she pinched her nose.
Why did she have the feeling it was going to be a long night?
CHAPTER FOUR
Zee focused on her store for the rest of the morning, letting the Jarred problem percolate in the back of her head, and called Laurel after noon.
“Hey, Laurel-leaf.”
“Hey, Princess.” She sounded fully awake. Good.
“You know I hate that nickname,” Zee said.
“Which is why I use it.” Laurel was Irish and still had a thick accent. Her and Sampson had been friends since he was a first-year witch. Zee still thought it was weird to look at Laurel and know she’d been in her twenties for a few decades. It’d probably be weirder when Zee was older like Sampson and her vampire friends were still the same.
“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I was wondering if you’ve heard anything about the Chaos Kings?”
“Nothing you haven’t. Why?”
Zee gave her the quick version.
“Jarred Krentz?” Laurel asked when Zee was done.
“Yes.”
“He was at Yuri’s club last night.”
“What?” Adrenaline buzzed through her blood and she sat up straight. A lead? An actual lead? “Did you see him or did you hear he was there?”
“I saw him. He’d been hiding at Yuri’s for the past two days. He said he was falsely accused and on the run. He’s trying to prove he’s innocent and he had to get out of the reality, without setting off any Agency alerts, to get proof. I helped him get out.”
No way is my luck this good. “Which reality?”
She paused. “I can’t. Memory potion.”
Zee slumped. Dammit! “I knew it couldn’t be that easy.”
“Sorry.”
“Did he say anything else? Like what he was on the run for?”
“Nope, said the less I knew, the better. Is he involved with the Kings?”
“Accused of it.”
She hissed. “Poor lad. I wish I knew where those bloody bastards were based. I’d rip out all their throats.”
“You’re not the only one. It’s frustrating. They’re like ghosts. Everyone’s heard of them over the past year. We see Chaos Candy on the streets and have agents admitting to being paid off. But nobody knows who the Kings are, where they are, or even how many of them there are. How can they have gotten so big, so fast, without anybody knowing anything?”
“My guess is it’s a small group. That the Kings are one or two orders at most. They found Chaos Candy in some other reality, realized the profit potential, and subcontracted as needed with very strict blood contracts written up. They know what they’re doing. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were agents.”
“The sad thing is, neither would I.” Zee sighed. “Do you have any way of contacting Jarred?”
“I have his number, and can do a general cross realities spell to get the call out, but if I were him, I wouldn’t pick up.”
“Me neither, but he might text back. Can you give me the number?”
“Sure, but…”
“I know he won’t pick up, but I can text and see if he’ll let me help.”
Laurel gave her the number and Zee sent out a text with a reality crossing spell explaining she was on the case and she wanted to help.
Now she just had to wait to hear from him.
After a morning of dead ends and phone calls, she finally had a lead.
# # #
Zee left Penny to close and went to her foster dad’s place around sunset.
“Hey, Professor!” she called as she walked in.
He came out of the kitchen with a towel over his arm and she gave him a hug.
“Hello, Zee.” He pulled back and held her at arm’s length. “I swear, the only time you eat is when you’re over here. You’re too skinny.”
He always said that and she always laughed. Professor was six three and a scarecrow, all long limbs and skin and bone. He had a thick head of greyin... silvering black hair, naturally tan skin, warm brown eyes, and a charming smile.
She held up the Riesling and slipped off her shoes. “I’ve got a few leads and a long night ahead of me.”
“Which obviously means Riesling.” Professor took it from her and put it in the freezer.
They ate and chatted, catching each other up on the events of the week. It was a nice break from the case.
She should’ve know it wouldn’t last.
Halfway through a dessert of sorbet and Riesling, Zee’s phone buzzed against her hip.
“Sorry.” She picked it up. Unavailable. A lot of witches’ numbers were so there was no reason to think it was Jarred, but her heart rate picked up anyway. “Excuse me.”
She walked into the living room and answered.
“Zee here.”
“Hello, Little Princess,” a voice with a barely detectable east European accent said.
She jerked straight, grabbing the edge of the couch, heart pounding like it was trying to escape through her sternum. Copper coated her tongue and she gulped. That only helped if you had saliva left though.
She hadn’t heard that voice in years.
The ache echoed through her chest.
They said the first thing you forgot about someone was their voice.
She’d never forgotten his.
“Hello, Kostos,” she said. “Can I help you with something?”
“Don’t sound so nervous, Zee.”
She hadn’t heard him say her name in over three years. Parata wasn’t big when compared to the real world, but it was big enough to avoid someone if you wanted to. His voice was a low growl and always hinted at violence.
Or other things.
“I merely want to know where Jarred Krentz is,” he said.
“Why would I know?”
“Don’t be coy. Do you have any leads?”
She sat down, running her free hand over the couch’s buttery leather. How did she play this? Keep pretending she didn’t know what he was talking about, or go with her tough-as-nails bounty hunter image?
“If I knew where he was, he’d already be in Agency custody,” Zee said arrogantly. “And if I had a lead, I wouldn’t tell you. Don’t insult me, Kostos.”
“And stealing our file wasn’t insulting?”
“It wasn’t meant to be. I was hoping you’d never know you were on the case.”
“Why?”
Her lip curled up. “You know why.”
“Don’t tell me the great Sarah Zeewowski’s afraid of me.”
“I’m not stupid, Kostos. And the last time we met, you said you’d skin me alive the next opportunity you got. If we’re both chasing the same guy and we get in each other’s way, then oops, accidents happen, right?”
“I was angry,” he said, voice empty and flat as a soda left open overnight.
“Yeah, I’ve got a couple of scars on my arm and back that can attest to that fact. Nice work, by the way. I still can’t figure out how to heal them.”
“I thought you were attacking my brother.”
“I was. The part you’re leaving out is he needed attacking. And instead of asking me, trying to assess the situation, you attacked me. Kind of sours a friendship.”
They’d had this same fight over three years ago. They’d both done what they thought they had to do.
Apparently time didn’t change that.
It didn’t change a lot of things.
The scars on her body weren’t the only ones he’d left.
She shoved the thought down.
“Friendship?” Kostos said. “That’s one way of putting it.”
Something bubbled in her chest and she shoved it down too.
Emotions didn’t have a place in her world.
“I’m only going to say this once, Kostos,” she said. “Find a new case. If I see you on this one, I’m going to assume you’re trying to make good on your threat, and I’ll react with appropriate force.”
“Well then,” he said, warm threat crept into his voice, the thread-weaver once again, “I’d better make sure you don’t see me.”
The line went dead.
“Flying shitballs of death!” She smacked the couch and clipped the phone back onto her belt.
Kostos probably wouldn’t go out of his way to kill her. She’d been trying to take his brother in for a series of rapes and Kostos had just reacted, protecting family before he knew what his brother was accused of.
And once he knew, he had left Zee be.
But still.
She expected a certain amount of risk in her professions, smuggling and other inter reality activities would put her in the crosshairs of the Agency if they ever found out, and chasing down criminals definitely put her on the shit list of some of the more unsavory characters in their world.
But this was different.
Kostos was a good agent. Straight as a razor. Loyal as a sheepdog. The kind of guy she’d want watching her back if he hadn’t already stabbed her in it.
She walked back into the kitchen, shaking off Professor’s questions with a smile, saying the call was about the person she was trying to find.
“It’s nearly ten o’clock at night,” he said.
She shrugged, taking a sip of the wine. What could she say? “I...”
Da, da, daaaa, her phone trilled, indicating a text.
Her heart leaped up her throat and she ripped the phone off her belt. It said unavailable.
Jarred?
She clicked on the text.
“This is above your paygrade. Get that big nose out of our business before we flatten it. Consider this a warning.”
A cartoon crown danced on thin legs at the bottom of the message. The Kings? How would they know she was on the case? Why would they care if Jarred really was innocent?
“Ahhhhhhhhhh!” Professor screamed, his chair scratching the floor as he shoved it back.
Zee looked up just in time to see him stumble to his feet.
A Husky’s head sat in the middle of the table.
It was severed cleanly near the bottom of the neck, the bottom cauterized so it didn’t leak, the thick grey hair neatly brushed. It faced Zee, staring at her with icy blue eyes she’d know anywhere.
It was Sasha.
CHAPTER FIVE
Zee stared into Sasha’s cold, dead eyes, rushing filling her ears. Nick gave her to Zee the week after they became an order because she’d told him she hadn’t had a pet besides strays who came and went since her parents had been alive. Sasha depending on her was the only thing that got her out of bed for the month after her order died.
Whoever did this made a huge mistake.
They just made it personal.
“Zee,” came through the river running over her ears.
She pushed back her chair and stood, every motion slow and precise, like a drunk trying not to fall over.
“Zee?” Professor said again. “Zee!”
She kept staring at Sasha, the dead dog’s eyes cold and confused, like the poor girl didn’t know what she did wrong.
Nothing. She’d never done anything wrong. She’d been a good dog.
“Sarah Lynn Zeewowski!” Professor appeared in front of her, leaning over and snapping in front of her face. “Snap out of it.”
“My dog’s dead.” She could barely hear her own voice.
“I know, and I’m sorry, but you have to focus. What did that text say?”
“Told me
to stay out of it, that this was a warning.”
He took her hands. “You’re onto something.”
“But I’m not.” She shook her head.
She was missing something. If she could think, she could figure out what it was.
Zee could still see Sasha out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head those last few degrees away and Professor moved with her.
“Who knows you’re working this case?” Professor asked.
“Probably everyone in Parata by now.”
“No leads?”
“Nothing besides the one from Laurel, but that’s just to find Jarred. Why would the Kings care about warning me off if he’s not one of them? And how would they know? Laurel would never tell them.”
Professor shook his head and let her go. “I don’t know.”
There was too much bouncing around in her head, too many questions. They were distractions. She had to push t...
Distractions.
Fuck!
She thrust power out without another thought, making a shield around the room it’d take a nuke to break through. It glowed white and sparkled for a few seconds as it set, the low hum of magic making her teeth vibrate. She sent her magic searching around the house.
Three figures popped up on the magical radar outside.
Something flashed across her vision, knocking her shield out.
“Get down!” she yelled, hitting the floor with Professor two seconds behind her.
The spell flew over their heads, smashing into the wall and supernovaing all over it just as a figure appeared next to the table.
Zee grabbed the figure with telekinesis and threw him into the island counter separating the kitchen from the dining area.
“Umph,” the man grunted, flopping to the ground, fully visible. He was nearly as tall and thin as Professor and wore black clothes and a ski mask.
A ski mask? Really?
She was still moving too slow, thinking through molasses. The freeze spell hit her before she realized it and she stopped in place, eyes jerking back and forth as she struggled against the spell.
The man she threw into the counter stood, rubbing his lower back and glaring at her.
He took a step forward.
And his body jerked around, twisting his neck to the side, eyes still locked on her as he fell to the ground dead.
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