by Logan Jacobs
“Uh--” Kal raised a finger in the air. “Your door was wide open. Like, I didn’t even have to jiggle the handle or anything.”
“Was it?” the professor sighed and slapped himself on the forehead. “I knew I was forgetting something.”
“Do you have any idea when the flowers could have been taken?” I asked to steer the conversation back to the problem at hand.
“Well, my alarm goes off at ten a.m. every day, so that’s when I do the count,” he began as he started to wander in circles around the pot.
“You live here?” I asked as I tried to understand the professor’s routine.
“More or less,” he admitted. “I do go home occasionally, but I spend most of my time in the office. I would know if someone were stealing from right under my nose.”
I highly doubted that. He hadn’t heard the four of us come in until Maaren scared him shitless after all. But I let the man continue.
It was more likely the flowers were being stolen the few times that he was away. These robbers had proven to be way too smart to do something as stupid as risk getting caught by an ancient dryad. Especially when the dryad in question would be surrounded by tons of magical plants, and could probably just strangle someone with a vine in two seconds flat.
“So probably while I’m in class,” he finished up. “I’ve been--Oh my, that jojoba tree is growing wild! I must trim it. Where did I put my shears?”
The dryad wandered off around the shelf to our left, and we heard his mumbling quiet down for a minute as he retreated. Then, there was a loud crash, and the sound of metal on metal and skidding objects could be heard. The professor, however, didn’t seem to mind.
“There they are!” he exclaimed from somewhere to our right. “My sheers. Now, what did I need these for again?”
“How the hell does this guy hold a job?” Kalista grunted beside me.
“Tenure,” I whispered. “I heard you can come into class dressed in a trash bag, and your job would be safe as long as you had tenure.”
“Aw, come on, guys, I think he’s sweet,” Ariette retorted.
“You think everyone’s sweet,” Kalista replied with a roll of her eyes, “as long as they’re not trying to kill you or annoy you, that is.”
“Anyone else think this thief is going to come back?” Maaren suddenly asked. Her green eyes were fixated on the pot full of yellow flowers, and she thumbed a bright petal absentmindedly.
“No question,” Kalista replied. “They’ve got to keep feeding the phoenix, and this is the only place they’re going to get Moly Flower unless they want to break into the guild… which they won’t do.”
“Or travel way out of the city to that farm we were talking about earlier,” Ariette added. “But that’s also not very plausible.”
“So, then the question is,” I pondered aloud, “who has access to this place?”
“By the looks of it, just about anyone who wants to open the door,” Maaren said thoughtfully, “but they’ve got to know what they’re looking for.”
“And they have to know how to harvest it,” Kalista added. “If you pluck it the wrong way or at the wrong place on the stem, you spoil the whole thing, and it’ll become totally inedible. Plus, if you were to eat the liquid from the stem accidentally, then you’re a total goner according to the professor.”
“We’re probably looking for a herbology student then,” I said. “There’s no way they’re going to be doing their own dirty work, but hiring a desperate college student who’s low on cash? Definitely fits their profile. That’s what they did before, after all.”
“So basically we need to hack into a credit monitoring company and see who in the city has a low score!” Kal grinned excitedly. “Those people would be prime candidates for these people.”
“I appreciate the enthusiasm,” I chuckled, “but that would take days, if not weeks. Let’s just start with what we know.”
“We should get a list of all of his students,” Ariette said before she strode off in the direction the professor had disappeared.
We found Limmer in the middle of a pile of papers and supplies with his back to us. He was sorting through a massive pile of junk on the ground, with piles of paper and empty boxes all around his feet.
“Keep!” he exclaimed from the floor as he chucked a pair of child safety scissors over his shoulder. He didn’t bother to look at what was behind him, and I had to duck so that the scissors didn’t fly straight into my eye.
“Relax, HC,” Kal chuckled. “They’re just safety scissors. The worst they could do is give you a small bruise, no bigger than a hickey. And Ariette gives you those all the time.”
Storm bounded into the piles of papers just behind the professor and wiggled and scratched her way into the center where she started to go to town. The dog chewed up at least two sheets before I could get to her.
“At least she’s just chewing them,” I tried to keep my tone stern as I laughed at her puppy antics.
“Professor!” Ariette shouted as he squealed over a paper he found. Instantly, the dryad’s head snapped up with a creak.
“Office hours are not today, young lady,” he said sternly before he returned to his pile of clutter. “If you want to talk to me about your grade, you’ll need to come back tomorrow.”
“No, Professor,” Ariette said, clearly exasperated to have to go through this again. “We’re from the guild, remember? We’re here to find out who’s stealing your Moly Flower.”
“Someone is stealing my flowers!” he exclaimed indignantly. “How dare they!”
“Yes, how dare they indeed,” Kalista muttered before she stomped up to the dryad and dragged him to a standing position. “Look, we need a list of everyone who would have had access to these flowers, students, faculty members, janitors, anybody.”
“Oh, no one but my level three students are allowed to interact with the Moly Flower,” he said seriously. “It’s very dangerous.”
“Okay, then, can we get a list of those students, please?” I asked the dryad, who squirmed under Kalista’s sharp violet gaze.
“Oh yes, let me get it,” he stuttered before he trotted back into the sea of shelves.
“I’m going to follow him and make sure he doesn’t forget,” Maaren said before, and then she dashed after the professor.
“What is with this guy?” Ariette asked as she eyed the pile of clutter at her feet.
“Maybe he’s got dementia.” I shrugged as I scratched Storm’s ears on her middle head, and she cuddled into my chest with the other two.
“I don’t know if that’s dementia,” Kalista said suspiciously. “The dude’s a botanist. He’s probably got into his plants a few too many times, if you get my drift.”
“I don’t think he’s that kind of botanist, Kal,” Ariette sighed. “He’s a college professor, for crying out loud.”
“All the more reason to be suspicious!” the dwarf retorted.
“Okay,” Maaren said as she returned with a sheet of paper, “After redirecting the professor’s attention about six times, we now have ten names.”
“I say we head back to the van and run these names, see if anything suspicious comes up,” Ariette thought out loud. “Maaren, do you mind staying here to take a look around, see if you find anything weird? Maybe try to question Limmer to jog his memory. He might have seen something and just forgotten.”
“Yeah, sure.” Maaren shrugged. “But this guy’s gonna be a tough nut to crack.”
“If anyone can get him to talk, it’s you,” Ariette nodded to the hunter.
Maaren put her hand on her chest lovingly. “Aww,” she mused. “That means so much coming from you.”
While the hunter turned back to investigate the room further, the rest of us headed back to the van. On our way, we passed through a huge grassy courtyard. The moment Storm saw the grass, she leapt from my arms and proceeded to roll around in the sea of green. The look of ecstasy on her faces made my heart swell, and then, to my shock, she squat
ted and took a piss directly on the grass.
“Yes!” I hollered out, loud enough that a few heads turned my direction and shot me the snide looks of annoyed teenagers. “Sorry. Potty training business. You’ll understand when you’re an adult.”
“Better on the grass than in my van,” Kalista pointed out. “Even though I don’t think I could even be mad at the little girl if she did.”
“I am so good at this training thing,” I said as pride welled in my chest.
“Maybe there’s hope for Kal yet,” Ariette replied playfully.
“Hey now!” the dwarf protested. “Just because he’s got you wrapped around his pinky doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen to me. I’m a strong, independent dwarf that doesn’t need a man. I do want one though.”
Storm bounded happily back over to me. “Good girl!” I praised as I rubbed her head.
I picked up the adorable ball of fur, and we followed my teammates back to the van.
“Alright,” Kalista said as she sat down in her chair. The dwarf rubbed her hands together excitedly, and then she snatched the paper from Ariette.
The elf and I lounged on the floor of the van and played with Storm while Kalista punched the names into her database and waited to see if anything unusual would come up.
As usual, the dog was full of energy, and she bounded back and forth between Ariette and I, pausing only when she used our bodies as makeshift springboards. Storm eventually tuckered herself out, and she laid down on the floor and closed her eyes.
Meanwhile, Ariette and I snuggled close together and held each other in our arms while we petted the puppy.
“Okay, here’s the deal,” the hacker said after a few minutes. “Nobody has a criminal record. They’re all squeaky clean for a bunch of hormonal college kids. But this girl, Genevieve Adams, had to default on her loan payment twice in the last three months. And then, suddenly, it gets paid off in full.”
“That sounds like somebody stole a bit of flower from her dear old professor and reaped the benefits,” I said from my place on the floor.
“I’m going to hack into the University’s database and see where she lives,” the dwarf replied. “Once I get her address, I think you two should pay Genevieve a visit and ask about that loan payment. Maybe ask her if she’s been dealing, too.”
Within seconds, Kalista brought up Genevieve’s location, and it turned out to be in one of the dorms on campus. Now, we had a dorm and room number at our disposal.
“Can you watch Storm while we go investigate?” I asked the dwarf.
“Don’t worry about us, Milton. We’ll be fine,” Kalista said as I left. “I can’t promise I won’t teach her how to chase Elvira, but we’ll be fine.”
“Again, a double negative,” I joked and then stepped through the door of the van. “Maybe you could teach her how to attack the bad guys while you’re at it.”
Genevieve’s dorm was toward the back of the campus, really close to Professor Limmer’s classroom. Ariette and I stepped into a big brick building, with rows of windows that lined the outside. Each floor had a hallway full of dorm rooms, and Genevieve’s was on the third story.
“Seriously, no elevators?” Ariette complained as we mounted the old staircase.
“This is college!” I quipped. “You have to climb up the stairs to burn off all those calories from the dining hall.”
“That’s part of the college experience?” the elf joked back. “Suddenly, I’m glad I never went.”
Genevieve’s door was the third in a hall filled with identical doors. The only identifying factor on her door was the pink glitter paper that had been carved up to spell out “Lacy and Genevieve’s Room!” I heard Ariette make a soft gag when she saw the girly sign, and she shook her head with a laugh.
“Too girly for you?” I asked the blonde beauty next to me, and she shot me a disgusted glance.
“I’m more of a swords and guns girl over the pink glitter,” she retorted.
“I never would have pegged you for a tomboy,” I shot back sarcastically at the Fae. I smiled at Ariette and wrapped an arm around her waist to caress the soft curve of her hips.
Then, the Fae rapped harshly on the door.
After a moment, a gorgeous young human woman with thick black curls and caramel skin opened the door roughly. She had light brown, almond-shaped eyes, and was dressed in nothing but a purple lacy bra and flowing grey pants. Her stomach was lean and taut, and her breasts strained against the bra as if they might pop out at any moment. The girl was tall and leggy and stared straight at us with accusation in her eyes as if we’d just stolen her wallet.
“Can I help you?” she spat as she appraised us. Her brown eyes fell on Ariette and gave her that withering once-over young women love to give. She tilted her head just slightly, and her black curls fell in a curtain over her smooth shoulders. A small smile twitched at the corner of her lips, and then she turned her gaze on me. Or, well, not me exactly, but the bulge where my cock sat in my cargo pants. Her pink tongue flicked out and licked her lips gently before she brought her hungry gaze up to meet my eyes, quirked an eyebrow, and flashed me a wide, charming smile.
“Um, yes, you can,” I stuttered. “I’m, um, Milton, and this is Ariette, and we’re from the Jefferson Guild.”
Ariette dug an elbow into my ribcage before she stepped just a little closer to the alluring woman. The elf stood about two inches taller than the student, and she drew herself up to her full height to assert her silent dominance in a way that also served as a warning.
“Are you Genevieve?” the elf barked, and I didn’t need to see her ocean blue eyes to know they’d gone hard.
The young woman tilted her head again and appraised Ariette for a moment before she seemed to decide she wasn’t in the mood for an argument.
“Nope, I’m Lacy,” she said as her brown eyes flicked back over my body. “What was your name again, handsome?”
“Do you know where she is?” Ariette demanded, completely ignoring her flirtation with me.
“Not a clue,” she responded. “That girl is weird, though. She goes out in the middle of the night and disappears for half the day with no warning. Why do you want to know? Is she in some sort of trouble?”
“Just call us if you see her, okay?” Ariette grunted as she handed Lacy a card with the number for the van phone on it. “It’s very important.”
“Yeah, okay,” Lacy said as her bra-clad form began to retreat into her room. “Hey, does this number also reach you?”
Her eyes were hungry as she stared me up and down, and a million different scenarios played through my mind.
“It does,” I replied. The hint of a smile flicked over her lips before she shut the door abruptly, and my mouth went so dry it felt like cotton. I swallowed hard and summoned up as much saliva as I could to fix my dry throat as Ariette chuckled beside me.
“You really do have a type,” she singsonged as she skipped down the hallway.
“A type?” I asked. “No, no, I don’t.”
Ariette and Lacy looked absolutely nothing alike. I did not have a type.
“Yeah,” she chuckled, “you do. You like the badasses.”
“And the smartasses, and the sexy asses,” I added with a grin. “Really, ‘sexy’ is my type.”
I considered Ariette’s words for a minute. Maybe she was right. It was a lot more attractive to me when a woman didn’t take shit from anybody. Those girls were always far more interesting than the ones who just let people walk all over them.
“Eh, what can I say?” I shrugged. “As long as I don’t attract someone like Arendor, I’m probably good.”
“Ugh,” she groaned. “Please don’t remind me. I’ve gotten really good at pretending he doesn’t exist.”
“I haven’t,” I shot back. “It’s really hard to forget a face as punchable as his.”
We laughed for a moment and then got serious again.
“So, what’s the plan?” I asked her as we exited the dorm.
/> A gangly young man with thick black-framed glasses nearly ran into me as he poured over his notebook with messy words scrawled all over it. I sidestepped him easily and then watched as he crashed directly into the glass door behind me.
“Sorry,” he mumbled to it as he opened the door and dashed up the stairs. He never looked up once.
“I say we watch the flower until Genevieve appears,” Ariette replied thoughtfully as she turned in the direction of Professor Limmer’s office. “She’s got to come back for it at some point. Baby birds don’t just stop eating.”
“Alright,” I said, “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
“A stakeout?” the Fae asked coyly.
“Damn right, a stakeout!” I exclaimed. “But first, I’m going to need Kal to grab us some stakeout snacks. I’m starving.”
Chapter 8
“Food? Hell yeah!” Kalista exclaimed through the radio when I asked about picking up some high-quality stakeout snacks. “We’re about a mile from this bomb sandwich place I heard about from Gregor down in IT. He said their Italian sub is like sex on bread.”
“Like sex on bread?” Ariette chuckled as we approached the door to Professor Limmer’s office. “Well then, we have to try that, don’t we?” The elf shot me a seductive wink.
“You have no idea how much my day has been made,” Kalista answered, and I heard her rev the engine of the van. “Storm and I will be back with the best damn sandwiches you’ve ever had the pleasure of shoving down your pie hole!”
I grabbed the tin doorknob or the professor’s office and turned it slowly. I made sure we were quiet this time. I really didn’t want to scare the shit out of Professor Limmer for a second time that day.
“Maaren?” I called out as Ariette and I peered into the explosion of cluttered papers and boxes.
“Over here,” her tired reply emanated from somewhere toward the far wall.
Ariette and I waded through the boxes and papers on the floor and followed the hunter’s voice. We found her slumped dramatically on the floor next to a pot full of Mandrake roots. Her dark blue skin looked a little paler than usual.