by Viola Grace
Smith leaned forward. “Why?”
The captain grimaced. “It is a demand from the administrators. If you are on active duty and something is disseminated during the inquest, you may be at risk, and if anyone attacks you, the risk will transfer to them. It is to protect the public as well as your team.”
Benny wrinkled her nose. “Didn’t we already do this?”
Captain Matheson chuckled. “We did, and we will do it again if it is necessary. I want you focused on the job. The team is getting amazing results, and it has caused the mages to consider offering a few of their staff members to us while you are gone. I had no idea that you were a member of the guild.”
She scratched her chin. “I had inherited membership. I was a Mage Guide when I was younger, and apparently, that is a gateway to full guild status. I never bothered pursuing it as I would have had to have formal education in the magical arts.”
He gave her a surprised look.
She pointed at her chest. “When it came to magic, I was home schooled. No diploma, so no guild status.”
He nodded. “Right. Well. That aside, you have made enough of an impression in their magical circles to get us additional staff, so we are not going to be shorthanded while you are on leave.”
Tremble cocked his head. “Is there any idea how long this leave will be?”
Matheson shrugged. “That is up to the courts, but I don’t want you back until Agent Ganger’s family is stable in whatever position that they settle. Guilt or innocence will be determined, and we will arrange matters after we know how the public has reacted.”
Benny felt the emotions running through the binding that held them together. She didn’t say anything.
Tremble cleared his throat. “If the public comes out against Benny, what happens then?”
Matheson rubbed the back of his neck. “We will deal with it if it happens. I cannot guess what is being planned for you, but there are options being considered, no matter what the court decides.”
Benny nodded tightly. “Wonderful. Well, I suppose that is that.”
“You are hereby dismissed on suspension of duties with full pay.” Captain Matheson nodded. “Use the time wisely.”
Argyle nodded and got to his feet. He extended his hand to Benny, and the others got up as well. There was nothing else to say.
They headed to the change room and got back into their civilian clothing.
Benny’s mood was dark as they headed to the parking lot, but when Tremble exclaimed in delight, she smiled. Pooky had brought some friends. Pooky was standing in equine form with three horses of the Wild Hunt in full view of all the XIA and two reporters who were nearby.
Argyle smiled and escorted her to her steed. “Well, this will be interesting.”
When they were all mounted and smirking foolishly, the beasts wheeled and galloped across the lot and down the highway in a heady beat of hooves. The number of flashes that had caught them as they rode out meant that they were going to be appearing in some sort of news report in the next day.
Benny enjoyed the wind in her hair and the feel of Pooky under her. They reached speeds that a normal vehicle would have had trouble keeping up with, until they thundered into the wide meadow behind the dower house.
Tremble’s eyes were glowing, and his hair was a wild wave down his back. Argyle looked like a blood king, and Smith’s own gleaming golden skin was alive with the last of the night. Even Benny felt more awake and encouraged by the gallop through the night.
When the steeds pulled up, even with the dower house, Tremble dismounted and walked toward her, putting his hands on her waist and pulling her over his shoulder. Instead of heading toward the house, he strode into the woods, and she only caught a glimpse of the other two heading for the house.
Her clothing turned into a silk robe, and he tore the silk down the centre as he lifted her to a tree. The bark went from rough to silken against her back while he pinned her and moved into her with energy.
Benny surrendered to her senses, and when Tremble shouted his release, her power joined his and spread through the forest in waves.
She was holding tight to his shoulders, and the pearl of his skin gleamed in the last shreds of moonlight. Her heart was thudding in her chest, and she fought to get her breath.
Tremble pressed soft kisses to her shoulder and up her neck. Benny smiled and threaded her fingers through the loose mane of his hair. “You need to go for a ride more often.”
He grinned against her neck. “You will always be my favourite steed.”
Her giggle rippled through the forest, and she heard a laughing answer in the trees.
“Uh oh.”
He raised his head. “What?”
“Why did you pick the forest?”
He frowned. “It was close.”
“Was it, or did something call you?”
She unlocked her legs and tried to slide down his body, but he caught her before she could touch the mossy ground. A silken robe wrapped around him and hers reformed to cover her.
Tremble held her against him so that her feet still didn’t touch the ground. “Why are you worried?”
“I think we may be waking something. The whispers in the woods are turning into laughter. Something in there is excited.”
He smiled and stroked her cheek. “I think that was us.”
She frowned and smacked his arm. “Something else. I can hear it.”
He nuzzled her cheek. “I can hear it as well. Don’t worry about it. It isn’t harmful. The woods here have just gotten old enough to have a dryad. The forest here is in labour. It needs more power to bring her out.”
“Uh, how long is that going to take?”
“A few decades.”
Benny raised her head. “What?”
“What we just did was an early contraction. The labour is just starting.”
“Do you know which tree it is?”
He grinned. “Not yet. We will all be invited when it is time.”
“So, I am guessing that we are now tied to the land.”
He swung her fully into his arms and carried her across the meadow. “You manifest as a forest lord in your demon form and you are only now accepting your tie to the land? I thought you were smarter than that.”
She smacked his chest, and he chuckled all the way to the house. The sounds of clanking weights told her what the other two were up to. While Tremble had worked his invigoration off with her, they had chosen the ancient method of physical exertion.
Tremble carried her up the stairs and cuddled with her in the bizarrely large bed. It was still going to take some getting used to, but when he curled around her and held her against him, she was willing to try.
A few hours later, hands on her body and a blindfold over her eyes wakened her. She tried to determine who was touching her by the temperature of their skin. After a few minutes, she gave up trying to figure out what was who, and she simply enjoyed it.
If this was what suspension had in store for her, she hoped that her parents took up a life of petty crime after the inquest.
Chapter Thirteen
“Harcourt Emile Ganger, we are here to determine whether charges should be laid on you for the soul interference with eight infants thirty years ago.”
The occupants of the chamber murmured, but Benny sat with her partners in silence. Her mother was sitting in the row ahead of her, and her father was in a separate section, under guard.
The judge finished the explanation of why everyone was there and sat back. “Prosecution, proceed to make your case.”
The prosecution stood up and outlined the case. Benny had been born and her parents had been worried about her. Her father had crept to the nursery and copied her aura and soul on to the other baby girls.
It was that selfish act to defend his own daughter that had led Harcourt Emile Ganger into the path of endangering the newborns that were next to her. That danger had come to roost in the last two years, resulting in seven deaths.
Jennifer was called as a witness to the assault due to her imprint of Benny’s patterns.
“He grabbed me and I don’t remember much after that. The energy felt weird and greasy. I vaguely heard shouting, but I didn’t wake until I was in hospital. I had no idea why I had been marked for death until I was briefed by my parents’ counsel.” Jennifer looked more rested than she had the last time they ran into each other.
The prosecutor nodded. “What did you think about what had been done to you?”
“I was shocked. I have always enjoyed a normal if oddly successful life. To hear that the way I think was a copy of someone else...it was a shock.” Jennifer swallowed.
The prosecutor nodded sympathetically. “Understandable. Has it impacted your life?”
“Before, I don’t know. But after the imprint was removed, I definitely felt different. My brain has changed.”
“So, the trauma has sent you into a downward spiral?”
Jennifer sat up and blinked. “No. It just changed my direction. I am doing much better now.”
Benny tried not to crack a smile, but she felt her lips twitch. Her smirk faded as the prosecutor listed the names of the dead women.
Each of the women had lived full and vibrant lives. None had a husband or child and all were at the top of their field.
Finally, the prosecutor pointed out that even Harcourt’s wife was willing to speak against him. He couldn’t bring up the demon issue as Benny’s dad was firmly in control of his human form once again.
The prosecutor rested their petition.
“I now call the defense to make the case to deny a court date.” The judge nodded.
The defense counsel got to his feet and cleared his throat. “I call Beneficia Ganger to the stand, as per my client’s request.”
Benny got up and sat in the witness box, facing the families of the deceased and her parents. Her mom smiled weakly and waved briefly. Benny inclined her head.
“Beneficia Ganger, do you swear to tell the truth in this matter?” The gargoyle snapped his wings, and she focused on him.
“I do so swear.”
The counsel brought out a glowing orb. “Do you agree to hold this orb for the entire portion of questioning?”
She knew that orb. It would sting like hell if she lied. “I do.”
The orb was placed in her palms, and she balanced her hands on the edge of the box in front of her.
“What is your relation to this case?”
Benny blinked. “Oh, I am Beneficia Ganger, the daughter of Harcourt and Lenora Ganger. I was the baby that they made the copy of.”
The orb tingled.
“That they copied the signature of.”
“Why did they do this?”
She inhaled and exhaled before stating it for the record. “I come from a family with demon bloodlines, and my mother’s bloodline had its own power. My parents wanted to protect me, so since they couldn’t hide my birth, they hid my location.”
The gargoyle smiled. “Your father doesn’t seem like a demon.”
“We have only recently cut the ties that bind our family to the patriarch of our bloodline. It has caused a ripple effect in all of us, but now, my dad looks like he did when I was little.”
“What do you mean? How did he change?”
Benny twisted her lips. “Which time are you referring to? I want to be precise.”
“The first time. When did he change and why?”
Benny cleared her throat. “He changed when my mother died. He had to take on his demon form to bring her back. He didn’t regain a human form until recently.”
The gargoyle nodded, “So, the statement from the nurse that a male demon came into the nursery and bewitched her could not have been an accurate statement of events from three decades ago.”
Benny chuckled. “No. He looked just like he does now. We have family pictures, school pictures and articles from the universities where he used to teach. His green and scaly form didn’t manifest until after my mother’s illness.”
The judge was making notes and he asked the prosecution, “How did the nurse identify the defendant?”
The prosecutor scowled. “From a lineup of demon photos.”
The judge nodded. “Thank you.”
The defense attorney nodded his head and asked, “You said you had demon blood. How does it manifest for you?”
“I am strong, fast and can access magic across all boundaries.”
“Do you have a demon shape?”
“I got one recently, yes.”
“May we see it?”
“I do not see how it is pertinent to what we are here for.”
The judge nodded. “Please oblige.”
Benny shrugged and she shifted. A few humans and mages recoiled, but far more leaned forward, fascinated. There were not many chances to see a demon in public.
“Now, can you tell me what you did when you came upon the form of Jennifer Langstrom?”
“After we drove off the murderer, I removed the template on her mind. I had just learned of the serial murders and had located Jennifer via my ride along with the XIA.”
“Were you with them when they figured out she was in danger?”
Benny bit her lip. “I was the one who figured out what was going on once my parents told me about the other babies. I told the XIA, and we all worked to track and find the remaining woman. We found her just in time.”
“Who was hunting her?”
Benny had to be honest. “No one. They were hunting me. My great-grandfather, the demon king Yomra had manipulated a human into killing the women in an effort to concentrate my power.”
The gargoyle blinked. “What? What do you mean?”
“The spell that was cast on the babies wasn’t a demon construct, it was a soul split. The girls each became part of me, and when they died, those parts came flooding back.”
“Didn’t you notice?”
Benny blushed. “I thought I had finally finished puberty.”
The courtroom erupted in laughter and snickers. Even Harcourt laughed.
When the room was quiet again, the gargoyle asked, “Your mother offered her testimony against her husband in this case and received full immunity for it. Do you know why that would be?”
“Because she knows he didn’t do it.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I know who did.”
The prosecutor got to his feet. “Objection.”
The judge tapped his desk. “This is an inquest, not a trial. Object all you like, we are still hearing it.”
The gargoyle smiled. “Now, Miss Ganger, who did this terrible deed?”
Benny looked at her mom and smiled. “My mother.”
Lenora gave her a thumbs-up.
The courtroom was in an uproar again, and the gallery shifted restlessly. The judge called a halt to the inquest, and a recess with the public banned from the resumption of the proceedings. It didn’t sit well, but the courtroom was cleared via a herding spell. She handed the gargoyle the orb and returned to her people.
Benny was wrapped in Tremble, Argyle and Smith as the crowd pushed in. She belatedly shifted back to human and held onto Smith’s back as he used his broad shoulders to keep them from the crowd.
Tremble whispered, “How long have you known?”
“The binding spell. My mom put a confession between the pages of her potion book, thinking that she would be dead before I ever found it. Dad never brews potions, so he wasn’t able to destroy it. When she came back from hospital, she was missing a few months before her stay there, so I am guessing she never knew that she confessed.”
The defense counsel met them outside the doors and escorted them to a small waiting room with guards to make sure that no one spoke to the attorneys.
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The break was only fifteen minutes, but it was enough time for Benny to cuddle up to each of her partners and relax in their embrace.
Argyle whispered, “You are doing great, Benny.”
She smiled, and when the bell chimed, they filed back to the courtroom, which was now exceedingly empty.
The judge gestured for Benny to retake the witness box, and the orb was back in her hands.
The attorney fluttered his wings and cleared his throat. “You had just stated that your mother was the one who had cast the spell in the hospital nursery.”
“I did.”
“Why should we believe that you are not simply trying to save your father as you share your demon nature with him?”
She held up the orb. “This object was created to shock anyone who is telling what their mind acknowledges as an untruth.”
“Demons lie.”
She cocked her head. “They don’t actually; they simply act in their own best interests and pursue their own pleasure. They lack a conscience, not common sense. And I am only partially demon. I have far more fey in me than I do demon blood, but no one is commenting on the rainbow eyes.”
“Why do you think that your mother cast the spell?”
Benny quirked her lips. “She wanted to hide me and to keep my power at a reasonable level. The splitting of my power managed it. With only a trickle of demon energy, all of those girls grew up with bright minds and a drive to learn and succeed. It defied their upbringing in several cases.”
“How are you so aware of them?”
She blinked. “After I learned they existed, I wanted to find their points of commonality. I researched them after they had passed on. Jennifer is the only one I have seen in person.”
He nodded and checked his notes. “You mentioned that your mother had passed. Is this your stepmother?”
“No. She is the one who bore me, wiped my nose and applied first aid when I did something stupid. That happened a lot.”
The orb remained stubbornly quiet, and Benny settled in for a long interrogation.
Chapter Fourteen
Benny filled in about her parents and home life growing until the moment her mother got ill.