One Part Human

by Viola Grace

  The female with deep-blue hair that seemed quite natural, based on the colour of her pubic hair glowing through the gauzy gown she was wearing, hissed. “It is still my turn. They are the same lovers.”

  Argyle closed his eyes slowly, and he was obviously counting to ten. “Smith, did you call for medical?”

  “I did.”

  “Have them bring some iron supplements. Those humans need restoration and protection. They are fey locked.”

  Benny stared with her eyes wide. The male fey looked over at her and said, “Hello, beautiful. When this lot is hauled off, would you care to stay and play?”

  His erection tented his loose trousers, and she felt the pull of his glamour.

  His wife caught on and smiled slyly at her. “Yes, lovely. Stay and play.”

  The amount of magic being used on her was obscene, as were the images they were casting at her. She blinked and smiled weakly. “You know, that sounds like so much fun.”

  She steeled her voice. “Except that parasites like you two make me sick, and preying on deliberately chosen, powerless humans throws you right into that category, making you subject to the magical abduction, assault and confinement charges. Seven counts by my guess, because even if they wanted it, they couldn’t legally want it.”

  She flicked their power back at them, and both of them were out cold in an instant.

  The humans collapsed a moment later.

  Smith looked at her in surprise with a grin on his lips. “Can we keep you?”

  She blushed and stood back while they cuffed the fey and carried the humans to the front of the expansive home.

  Tremble came to her side as their backup took away the two fey in the prisoner transport. “We aren’t all like that.”

  She patted his arm. “I know you aren’t. This isn’t the first round of fey I have met. My parents used to socialise, remember?”

  “Ah. You do seem very resistant to mental seduction.”

  She grinned. “They should have bought me nachos and a hotdog. I roll over for that.”

  Smith passed her and made a quick note, muttering, “Nachos and a hot dog.”

  She blushed again, but got back in the vehicle while they completed checking on the humans and making sure that there were none left in the house. Smith did the check.

  Benny sat down and made notes about the evening so far.

  When the medical attendants arrived, there were three ambulances, and they divided the victims relatively evenly, putting IVs in several and urging them into the vehicles. They were on their way in six minutes.

  Her privacy disappeared in the next moment, because the guys climbed into the car, and they were off again.

  She sat for three minutes before asking. “So, what do you guys think of the use of the term extranatural instead of supernatural?”

  Argyle shrugged. “It is more appropriate. We are more than we were.”

  Tremble laughed, “And the fey don’t care. Extranatural, extranormal. We are both.”

  “Extra-ego.” Smith smirked.

  Argyle looked at her in the rear-view. “You have a little extranatural in your nature, don’t you, Benny?”

  She shrugged. “I suppose, but since the great wave two hundred years ago, we all have bits of magical creatures in us, even if we don’t know it.”

  Tremble smiled, “If you had a magical creature in you, you would know it.”

  It took her two seconds to blush.

  Smith shot back, “Not if it was you. She would need an enlargement enchantment and a magnifying glass.”

  Argyle ducked and focused on the driving as Smith and Tremble had a slap fight. A second call broke it up, and Smith had to take it.

  It was amazing to see them shut down and resume their business as agents. They went from teen boys to adults in under a second.

  She stared out the window as they swung from the elegant neighbourhood to one far more middle class.

  Smith turned, “We have been called out for a disorderly werewolf. I suspect first shift, but I won’t know until I meet him.”

  Tremble snorted. “We are doing backup.”

  “Where should I be?”

  Smith sighed, “For this one, remain in the vehicle. We don’t know where he is or how his thoughts are processing at the moment.”

  Argyle was sombre. “I will lock the doors.”

  It was as much of a warning as they could give her. She knew what happened to those who ran afoul of newly shifted weres. They usually ended up in the emergency room with permanent scarring, if someone got to them fast enough.

  She sat in the vehicle with the lights off, making notes. The agents went to the home that the call had emanated from, and Smith and Argyle began tracking the shifter.

  Benny really wanted to be out there with them, because inside the vehicle, she felt like a staked goat.

  Smith shifted his head, and his lion’s mane was glaringly obvious even in the darkness. He took off down an alleyway toward a back lane, and Argyle followed while Tremble stayed on alert.

  Benny froze when a shadow moved close to the vehicle. She heard the light scratching of claws on asphalt and the ticking as it paced closer. Benny had been around enough shifters to know when one was hunting.

  She unclasped the seatbelt as quietly as she could and eased it away from her, holding it so it didn’t make a sound as it rested in place. She shifted herself to the centre of the vehicle while he wasn’t looking, but every time she moved, he lifted his head.

  Tremble hadn’t caught on to his proximity. He was on the wrong side of the vehicle for his patchy and fluffy body to be visible to the elf.

  He sniffed along the doorframe next to her original seat. She was fascinating to some species; it came from her blended family tree. According to her grandmother, many species wanted to get in on that kind of power. They would do what it took to be part of the next generation.

  She watched his half-shifted back hunch down, and then, his head snapped up, his jaws parted and his gleaming tongue came out. The orange of his eyes was hot with a combination of lust and fury. Yup, he was a teenager.

  Benny tried not to flinch as he flicked at the handle of the door, trying to get it to open. He would only work with his human instincts for so long, and then, he was coming through that door.

  She whispered a repelling charm and one to reinforce the door.

  He blinked and stumbled back as the first charm struck him.

  The roar in the darkness was a relief. There was nothing like the bellow of a lion to make a young dog cower.

  The young man submitted immediately. Smith cuffed him and hauled him off down the street.

  Argyle and Tremble met with the initial caller and then returned to the SUV.

  Tremble grinned, and she scooted away from his seat and back to her spot behind the driver.

  “It was your little charm that got my attention. You repelled him very well.”

  Benny smiled weakly. “He was trying to get into the car, so it seemed the best course of action.”

  Tremble put his hand on her shoulder, and Argyle hissed, “No contact, Tremble. Those are the rules.”

  “She’s upset, Argyle.”

  “Rules are rules, and we are on duty.”

  Tremble pulled his hand away with a sigh. “Sorry. Our job does take us to places where a lone female is endangered.”

  “Only because most races refuse to teach their females to hunt and kill for fear of the men being thought obsolete.”

  She buckled up, and they drove the SUV to follow Smith to the house where the young lad had made his escape from. His family was in the yard, and lights streamed out. Smith brought him home as they pulled up, and the youngling was alternately hugged and struck in the head with the back of a hand by other shifters.

  When Smith had finished admonishing the family on how to get their son into therapy for his change, he returned to their vehicle and resumed his human
visage.

  “Well, done, Benny. You kept calm and let him remain next to your window until he tried to get in. That was enough time for me to come around. After this is over, I am going to file a request to get you assigned to us.”

  The other guys laughed, and they were called to their next mission. There was an undead committing petty crimes, and they were now free to chase it down. Argyle was going to have to take point on this one.

  Chapter Three

  Three petty extranormal robberies, followed by a hooker with no actual genitalia and two disgruntled customers.

  Benny had never seen a mer-woman as a hooker before, but she made a convincing argument for never intending to furnish the half-elves with sexual services. She was trading her magic and the touch of her mouth.

  They locked her up for unlawful spell peddling. Magic—you could give it away, but if you wanted to charge for it, you needed a license.

  “Why do you turn your prisoners over to the other agents?”

  The hooker was on her way to booking. Smith entered the details of the arrest into the computer in the SUV, and he grimaced. “We separate it to speed the process along. As agents, it is our job to investigate, not to continue the interrogation. The prisoners will be interrogated at the office and processed according to what they have been charged with.”

  Tremble smiled. “Argyle and Smith are the best agents to do the data entry. I am not comfortable with technology.”

  Smith muttered, “He means he can’t type.”

  Argyle snickered as they rolled out again, “Or spell.”

  Tremble flipped them off and turned to her, “So, Benny, are you finding this ride-along educational?”

  “So far, it is very interesting. I had no idea of the range of the calls you were sent out on.”

  Tremble laughed. “You haven’t seen anything. We also do speeches for the Changeling Guides and Scouts, the newly undead and the Fey Integration Association. We go out, speak and then get back to work.”

  “What about the Mage Guides and Scouts?”

  “They are on their own. Human officers deal with them.”

  She nodded. “Right.”

  She had never fit in in the Mage Guides, but it had been the only option for her. She didn’t appear to be anything other than human, but the magic was in her blood. Her sash still hung proudly on the wall of her parents’ study.

  Smith looked up from his keyboard, “Were you in the Guides?”

  She blinked. “Uh, yeah.”

  Tremble smiled and a wicked gleam came to his eyes. “I bet you looked adorable in that uniform.”

  She gave him a bland look. “From time to time I still do.”

  Argyle’s shoulders shook as he chortled.

  Tremble sighed and smiled blissfully. “Well, my dreams are set for the next week.”

  Benny grinned, and she settled into her place as pervert mascot to this gathering of officers.

  “So, when do we eat?”

  Smith smiled. “Thank goodness. Someone else with an appetite...for food. Argyle, tacos!”

  Argyle muttered about basic human necessities, and he pulled a U-turn, heading for Benny’s part of town.

  Taco! Taco! Taco! was her favourite haunt when she went out with Freddy, but she had never been there in the wee hours. It was after midnight and not yet dawn, so she was on new territory with a bunch of XIA agents.

  Dem-rah was the chef on duty, and he waved at Benny cheerfully, all four arms waving. “Benny, darling. What can I get for you?”

  “Three chicken, two beef and plenty of hot sauce.” She looked over and nodded. “And a coke.”

  He got her order, took her money and turned to her companions with a cold face. “Agents, what can I get for you?”

  Smith and Tremble ordered, their food was served, but it didn’t look anything like Benny’s.

  Argyle sat at a picnic table and sipped at a thermos. Apparently, he brought his own.

  She looked at Dem-rah as she wrestled for a straw. “While the agents seem willing to eat anything, please give them the same calibre of food that you serve to me and my friends.”

  “They are with you?” He raised his brows and snatched the food back before the agents could grab it. Smith looked like he wanted to cry.

  “I am doing a ride-along for the article. One week for the XIA anniversary.” She smiled. “It is really very interesting so far.”

  She munched one of the tacos and groaned happily. “I might have to start waking Freddy up before dawn and hauling her over here. It is worth it.”

  Dem-rah beamed. “Gratitude for the compliment. It means much coming from you.”

  She winked and joined Argyle at the table. She worked her way through her delightfully spicy tacos in soft shells and sighed happily when she was done.

  Smith looked at the food suspiciously, but Tremble dove in. He moaned and sauce covered his pearly skin. Smith took the hint, and he was halfway through his platter of ten when he picked the mass up and went back to order another ten tacos.

  When he came back, he smiled at his new treasures. “When this is over, do you mind if I wake you up in the middle of the night to act as my food liaison?”

  She laughed. “Probably. Dem-rah is an excellent cook, but his brother had two arms broken by overzealous XIA agents twenty years ago and spider goblins hold a grudge. You were getting the health-code special. It met all the codes...barely.”

  Smith sighed. “It still tasted damned good.”

  Tremble daintily cleaned his face with a napkin. His lips were slightly swollen from the chili sauce, but he looked happy.

  Smith destroyed the second set of ten, and Argyle looked at them wistfully. “I never ate a taco.”

  Benny acted on reflex, and she extended her arm. “Here you go. It is still active in the bloodstream.”

  He blinked. “Are you sure?”

  “Just a taste. I am sure the others would help pry you off if necessary.”

  “They might have to.”

  “I heal quickly so I digest quickly. If you want to taste taco, you had better bite now.”

  He flashed his teeth and bit her wrist. She focussed on providing him with the taste of dinner and downplaying what was all in her bloodstream.

  She counted to five before she tapped his cheek. After that, she clenched her fist and put pressure on her vein to remove the flow.

  He lifted his head drowsily. “So, that is a taco. There was a lot more going on in there than human magic, but thank you. Few folk realise that a little donation does not bind them to a vamp.”

  “I had a decent education. My parents raised me right.”

  She pressed the puncture wounds and tried to get them to stop.

  Smith sighed and took her forearm, licking his tongue across the wounds. They sealed up, and she was soon back to fighting form.

  “Thank you.” She smiled.

  Argyle was looking at her with a sober expression. “Thank you. It was an honour to have tasted you.”

  “I would have to second Argyle’s statement. I could get drunk on the taste of your skin, Benny.”

  “Not an option. We are on business. I was just upset that Argyle had not experienced Dem-rah’s tacos.”

  Argyle looked at her with assessment in his gaze. “You are not afraid of any of us, are you?”

  She shrugged. “Nope. I have met people from most species and guilds over my life. My parents used to entertain a lot.”

  “Politicians?” Tremble arched his brows.

  She shook her head. “No. Academics.”

  He chuckled. “That would explain it. You have a self-contained manner that I usually associate with humans in their fifth or sixth decade.”

  She smiled and inclined her head. “I will take that as a compliment.”

  “You should. A woman who cannot appreciate the past holds little appeal for most men with family histories.”

  Argyle chuckled
and licked his lips again, “Or personal ones.”

  Tremble chuckled. “That, too.”

  Benny clutched her hands to her chest and said on a breathy gasp. “So I might be good enough for a man one day? Oh, joy! I never thought such a thing would be possible. Butt-heads.”

  Smith’s shoulders were shaking as he covered his mouth with one hand. Finally, he said, “Keep your compliments, Tremble. The lady neither needs nor wants your approval.”

  Benny waggled her eyebrows as she finished her soda. With a last slurp, she tossed the cup to the garbage can. A hand shot out and pulled the trash inside.

  Tremble blinked his pretty eyes.

  Smith chuckled. “Trash troll?”

  “Yup. One of the best recyclers in the last ten years. That can probably weigh around four hundred pounds.”

  Argyle turned his head to look over the street. “Anything else lurking around that we should know about?”

  “Nothing out of the ordinary. Same old, same old.” She got to her feet and headed over to Dem-rah. “Any chance that I can get your spice mix recipe out of you tonight?”

  “Ah, Benny, only if you were my wife. So, I am afraid that it will not happen. Your father would kill me if I tried.” He winked.

  “Yes, in an extremely unpleasant manner. Ah well, it was worth asking.”

  He winked and got back to cleaning. “It is always worth asking.”

  She returned to the XIA agents with a series of hand wipes, and she distributed them with a smile. “What happens next?”

  Smith straightened, “We get back in our vehicle and wait for the next call.”

  They got to their feet and headed for their transport. Benny followed along and settled into her spot, buckling the seatbelt and waiting.

  Argyle drove down the street at a normal speed, and when a call came through, they were off.

  Chapter Four

  A pugnacious zombie was refusing to accept last call, so Argyle took their group to The Hyde.

  Benny had been to the nightclub twice in her life, and neither time was particularly memorable. This one definitely made it one for the books.

  Tremble ordered her to stay in the car. “Lock the doors. This time of the morning, most things out here are hungry.”