“You’re going up against great evil. It might take more than bullets or brawn to stop them. These little pills,” said Mal, shaking them in the bottle, “will certainly help level things out.”
“How, by turning us into one of them?” Sidney said.
“No,” Mal replied, “by enhancing your senses. Really. No side effects, but temporary. You’ll thank me later.”
“No,” she said, pushing by him. “I’ll put my faith in my wits and the guns on my hips.” She’d heard enough. Seen enough. And now she was ready to get away from this place. Breathe some fresh air and find some normality. Without looking back, she made her way upstairs and passed by Asia, who was once again napping on the couch. Shaking her head, Sid exited the round glass mansion and walked to her waiting car. Shoulders slumped, she set the heavy case of munitions down. She rubbed her neck. Damn, this is going to be a weird commute with Smoke.
CHAPTER 23
Rest. Sleep. That’s what Sidney needed. At 5:03 in the morning she sat up bleary eyed in her bed, contemplating her situation. She’d departed with Smoke the night before last, after leaving Mal’s home. Little had been said about what was going on between them. Instead, they had talked about how they were going to find Mason Crow the minotaur. It was a little disturbing that conversations like this were beginning to seem normal. She flopped back onto the bed.
This is crazy.
She stuffed her face in her pillow and let out a scream. She followed it with an odd laugh she’d never let out before. The FBI had given her this nutsy assignment. It was loose. Dangerous. Mysterious. She had been a rigid by-the-book soldier, but now she was beginning to like the freedom of being a shadow agent. She could tell Smoke was into it too. A fire lit behind his dark eyes when he talked about it.
I wonder what he’s doing now. She put her bare feet on the cool hardwood floor and shuffled into the kitchen. Probably feeding hay to the minotaur by now. She put on a pot of coffee, leaned on the granite kitchen counter, yawned, and rehashed their plans.
She and Smoke had decided to separate for the next few days. Supposedly, Mal was keeping tabs on any activity from the ranch and would let them know if anyone left. She didn’t buy it. The ranch was pretty far out of sight and mind, and there had to be more than one exit. There was the helicopter too. There weren’t video feeds in air space. Hm, but there was satellite tracking.
I hate counting on others.
She took a seat on the sofa, grabbed the remote, and turned on the twenty-four-hour local news. A reporter was on site at a fire scene. Fire trucks and flames were the landscape of the background. She turned up the volume and took her first drink of coffee and listened to what the reporter said.
“There are no confirmations of any casualties, but firemen are still clearing the building,” he reported. “I can feel the intensity of the flames from where I’m standing, a good fifty feet away. Again, no casualties reported so far, and they are a long way off from clearing the building.”
“Probably some bloody arsonist. What’s wrong with the world?” She started to change the channel, but for some reason the reporter kept her attention. She leaned forward, hanging on the concerned tone in his voice.
The man on TV with a Geraldo mustache cleared his throat and continued with a worried look on his face. “I talked to one resident earlier, and she said it all happened so fast. Another witness said flames erupted in one lone apartment and then spread like wildfire.” He glanced back at the burning building and shielded his face from the flames and added, “But it looks like DC’s finest have the fire under control here at Rochester Apartments.”
Sidney almost spit out her coffee. “What?” Her hand trembled. That’s Allison and Megan’s place! She rushed into the bedroom and snatched up her phone. She didn’t have any texts. She punched one in to Allison. Come on. Come on. No response.
She practically jumped into her clothes, grabbed everything she typically needed, and in less than a minute she peeled out of the parking lot in her car. “Oh God, let them be all right. Please!” She dialed her contacts at the local police and fire department, but she couldn’t get through. “Damn.” She voice-texted Allison again. “Are you okay? Please answer!”
The Dodge thundered down the streets, but it was fifteen minutes later when she got there. The blaze was out, but half of the apartment complex lay in a smoky ruin against the day’s first light.
Sidney parked and rushed to the scene, hollering out, “Megan! Allison!”
Two firemen approached and one female police officer. “Miss,” the woman said, “can we help you? Do you live here?”
“Uh, my sister and niece do,” Sidney said. Her heart was pounding. Her thoughts racing. “Did you get them out? Did you get them out?”
“Ma’am, it’ll be fine.”
“Is that where the fire started?” Sidney said, pointing. “Oh my, oh my!” Allison and Megan’s second-floor apartment was nothing but charred remains. “Did it start there? Did it start there?” She rushed toward the remains.
The two firemen grabbed her and pulled her back. “Ma’am!” said the female officer. “You can’t rush in there. Our people are on the scene. Let us handle this.”
“Let me go! I’m FBI!”
“Then you understand standard protocols.” The woman made sympathetic gestures. “Just trust us, and I’m sure everything will be okay.”
Sidney’s body slackened, and she eased out of the grip of the men. “Okay.” It was torment. She couldn’t stop visualizing her family being burned to death. In her gut, she knew something was wrong. She could feel it. This can’t be happening. Please don’t be happening because of me.
“Come on,” said the female officer. She was a veteran lady with silver-black hair showing underneath her blue ball cap. “Guys, get her a blanket. She’s shivering.”
Sidney didn’t even realize she was trembling. The firemen put a blanket over her shoulders, and she sat back on the hood of a black and white squad car. A stiff breeze kicked up, blowing the smoke into her face and stinging her eyes.
“Phew,” the policewoman said, covering her nose. “I can’t stand the smell of melted plastic.” She squeezed Sidney’s shoulder. “It’s gonna be all right, uh—”
“Sidney.”
“I’m Kate McFadden,” the woman said, offering her hand. “I’ll stick around, if you don’t mind. Besides, I could use the overtime. When things like this happen, they need a little crowd control anyway.” Her head swiveled around, and her eyes locked on a pair of reporters sliding through the police barrier. “Oh, no they don’t. Excuse me.” She darted away. “Hey! Hey! You two better get back behind that barrier. I’m not warning you again.”
Sidney checked her messages again. Nothing from Allison. She sent another text out anyway and remained seated. She couldn’t fight the fear swelling up inside of her. At this time of day she couldn’t imagine Allison and Megan being anywhere else. All she could do was hope that maybe they escaped the fire, and Allison lost her phone in the process. Of course it wouldn’t be beyond Allison to ignore her calls, especially after the fight they’d had earlier.
She said a prayer and started walking around the lot, searching the faces. Families and children were scattered all about. Tears streaked down a lot of faces. One woman was wailing. A man was arguing with the firemen and police officers. If Sidney had to guess, the apartment complex housed about fifty people, and judging by the looks of things, everything was gone. Her little thread of hope turned to despair as another section of the building collapsed in a whoosh of smoke. People started screaming.
A voice of authority caught her ear, and a handful of firemen gathered on a section of steps that hadn’t burned in the fire. They vanished into the building with a pair of hand-carried gurneys. Teeth clenched and nails digging into her palms, Sid watched for them to emerge again. The female officer, Kate, stood by her side, humming. Sidney eyed her.
Kate stopped humming and said with a sympathetic look, “Sorry, but I
get nervous sometimes.”
“It’s all right.”
The second-floor fire exit door opened, and a group of firemen carrying two loaded gurneys made their way down the stairwell. Sidney started forward, but the officer grabbed her arm.
“Sidney, stay put, and let me take a look. It could be anybody.” The woman ducked under the barrier tape and headed straight for the firemen.
Sidney felt her heart pounding inside her chest. Please don’t be them. Please don’t be them. Her keen hearing caught the brunt of the firemen’s conversation. One said, “Pretty sure it’s a woman and a little girl.” Sidney leapt the barrier and charged over. Kate cut into her path, but Sidney slipped away. She jerked the blankets off the gurneys and choked out a sob at the sight of the lifeless charred remains.
CHAPTER 24
Sidney swayed over her buckling knees.
Kate caught her beneath the arms and steadied her. “Come on now. Come on. You don’t know that’s them for sure.” The policewoman turned Sidney away as the firemen covered up the bodies again. “Just walk away. Walk away.”
Sid shuffled through the parking lot and swallowed back the bile building in her throat. The strong stench of burning flesh hit her nose, and she began to gag. She covered her mouth with her clammy hand. Get a grip, Sid. Get a grip.
“You’re in shock, honey. You’re in shock,” Kate said again, hugging her around the waist. “Just keep walking. Keep walking.”
On spaghetti legs, Sidney managed to make her way back to the squad car. People were commenting and murmuring. Her rattled mind didn’t comprehend anything they said. She squatted down and leaned on one of the hubcaps, huddled up with her head down. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she shook uncontrollably. “Oh Lord. Oh Lord. Why?”
“It’s probably a tragic accident,” Kate said in a comforting tone. “But maybe it wasn’t them. You never know. Hang in there.”
No. Sidney had known something was wrong from the moment she saw the flames on TV. Her instincts had warned her of the danger. Emptiness filled her stomach. “Oh, Megan. Oh, Allison.” She pounded the pavement with her fist. “No. No. No!”
“Easy now,” Kate said, kneeling down beside her and trying to put a blanket over her shoulders. “You’re gonna hurt yourself.”
Sidney pushed the blanket aside and rose back to her feet. She wiped the tears from her eyes. “I need to walk.”
“Sure. I’m right here if you need anything.”
Hands on her hips, Sid took a shuddering breath and made her way through the crowd into the parking lot. What do I tell Mom and Dad? She could hear their hearts breaking. What if this is all my fault? The last thing she’d ever do was put her family in danger. A memory flashed in her mind. The text that had come with a picture of Allison and Megan and the message that read,
Watch your step.
Her blood turned to ice. Wilhelm!
Had Allison seen something? Maybe the congressman was covering up his tracks. Perhaps something worse had happened over the weekend while Allison was gone. What kind of people play these games? She found herself standing on the sidewalk across from the building. A flood of feelings rushed through her. Anger. Sadness. Despair. Maybe the cop is right. Maybe it isn’t them at all but someone else. She closed her eyes and gathered her thoughts.
Be patient.
She’d find the cause in the fire marshal’s report. An autopsy would have to be done on the bodies. There wasn’t any sense in getting anyone upset until everything was confirmed. She checked her phone again. “Come on, Allison. Please. Be alive somewhere else,” she muttered to herself.
“Excuse me,” said a man who was passing by. He was much older, wearing a fedora hat and a brown trench coat. “Did you say something to me?”
“No, sorry,” she said.
“Quite all right,” he said, tipping his hat. “My hearing isn’t what it once was. He gazed at the apartment’s ruins and twisted the end of his grey moustache. “It’s almost a tragedy to see such bad things happen.”
“Almost?” she said.
“Oh, why yes,” he said, without looking at her. His voice took on a sinister tone. “You know, Agent Shaw, bad things happen to those who dicker with the Black Slate.”
Sidney slugged him in the jaw, knocking his hat from his head. He tumbled hard to the ground and lay out, on his back. She pinned him down with her knee and stuck the muzzle of her gun in his face. “Who did this? Who did this?”
The eerie man with a bleeding lip laughed and spat blood. “I don’t know for certain. I’m just the messenger. Hahahaha.”
She punched him in the face again. Whack! And again. Whack!
He continued to laugh. His watch started beeping. “Oh. It seems my time is up, Agent Shaw, but I’ll give you a hint. The Drake send their condolences.”
“You sonuva—”
The man convulsed and shuddered, and then his eyes froze upward to the sky. A foamy spittle oozed from the corner of his mouth.
She checked his pulse. He was dead. She checked his coat and grabbed his hat. They had a very musty smell, and the style looked to be at least seventy-five years old. She found a wallet and a paper driver’s license belonging to Dwight Guilden. It had expired over sixty years ago.
“What’s going on over here?” said Officer McFadden. She had a gun on Sid, and she wasn’t alone either. “What did you do to that man?”
Another cop checked the pulse and said, “He’s dead.”
“Agent Shaw,” Officer McFadden said, “put your hands down where I can see them.”
“Why?” she said, holstering her weapon.
“Because you’re going downtown until we get this all sorted out. Bart, cuff her.”
“What? For what?”
“Assault and suspicion of murder.”
“I’m a federal agent! I didn’t kill this man.”
“Then why’s his face bleeding?” Kate took out her taser. “Now, Agent Shaw, don’t make me use this.”
“Have you gone mad? My family just got burned alive in there.” Seething, Sidney took a pleading step forward.
Kate pulled the trigger on the stun gun.
Zzzzzzap!
Sid’s body twitched, her teeth chattered, and she collapsed hard on the ground. She couldn’t move her shocked and numbing limbs, but she could still see and hear.
Kate pulled out a card and read the Miranda rights to Sid. “You have the right to remain silent…”
CHAPTER 25
Sidney nibbled on her nails. For the past eight hours she’d been in the local PD’s lockup while the FBI got everything sorted out. Cyrus Tweel had picked her up, and it had been a long trip back to headquarters.
“You can’t cut loose like that, Sid,” Cyrus said, pushing his spectacles up onto his nose. “It’s bad for the agency, and you know we hate attention in the papers.”
She sneered at him. One thing the weasel of a man lacked was compassion. He was all image. All agency from day one. If they made you walk around with your hat on fire, Cyrus would do it. “I don’t need an academy lecture,” she said, facing the passenger window. “And you don’t know what the hell is going on either, so don’t act like you do.”
“Why don’t you explain it to me then, shadow agent?”
She didn’t miss the venom in his voice when he said it. “Ah, that’s it, isn’t it? You’re jealous, aren’t you Cyrus? They picked me over you, and it’s just bugging the crap out of you.”
“I could not care less about the Black Slate and your little ghost chases. Doesn’t mean a thing to me at all. But as for you? Well, you’re an excellent agent, but this assignment is a joke. Everyone thinks so.”
“Everyone who, and how do they know about it?”
“Your special little assignment isn’t a secret. Do you really think a bunch of special agents don’t notice when someone like you,” he glanced at her legs, “goes missing from time to time? The Slate is nothing but snickers at the water cooler.”
“
Oh, I see, so I’m making you look bad, huh Cyrus? I’m sorry.” She reached over and patted his leg. “I really am sorry, little Cyrus.”
“Geez, cut it out. Even you are above such mockery.”
She dug her nails into his thigh. “Do you even give a shit about Allison and Megan? How can you sit here and act like you don’t even know them?” She jerked her hand away. “That’s your problem, Cyrus. If it doesn’t help you and your career, it doesn’t matter. You don’t care if your fellow agent’s family just perished in a fire. Jerk.”
“You know I’m not like that, Sid. Look, I’m sorry.” He steered the car to the exit ramp. “An autopsy revealed that those bodies were not your niece and sister.”
She straightened up in her seat. “What? And you’re just now telling me this?” She wanted to pound his face in. Instead, she punched him in the arm.
“Ow!”
“You’re a rat, Cyrus. Just a little rodent who gets off toying with other people’s feelings.”
“No, I don’t. I just have my orders. Chief Howard was going to brief you at his office.” He rubbed his shoulder. “Geez, you hit like a dude.”
She snorted. “You know Cyrus, this was one of the reasons why our relationship couldn’t go any further.”
“I beg your pardon.”
“I never could put my finger on it. I mean, you do and say all the right stuff. But between us, I always knew the agency would come first.” She sighed. “You would choose them over me. I could just feel it. And I think the agency, and the authority that comes with it, is how you get away with some bad things you like to do.”
“Like what?”
“Like shooting people. Keeping secrets. Manipulating a situation. You thrive on it. I see that spark behind those icy eyes of yours. You delight in it. It disturbs me.”
Cyrus turned on his blinker and turned into the headquarters garage. His face was stone cold. The brakes squeaked as he brought the SUV to a stop. He turned and looked at her. “I’ll keep that perspective in mind.”
The Supernatural Bounty Hunter Files Collector's Set: Books 1-10: Urban Fantasy Shifter Series Page 37