“SO WHAT WAS that about a request?” Kaleb asked again after he’d given me a moment’s solace to drink my coffee in peace.
I glanced up from where I had almost finished Romeo’s case file. “Cole said that we can’t enter Darkwood without some form of a request order from the Consilium. He reckons the vampires will clam up without it and cause us more problems.” I placed my empty cup down firmly. “This annoys the hell out of me,” I fumed. “Why give us a badge when he’s going to block us every time to suit those in power? It’s starting to piss me off.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Kaleb leaned back, placing his booted feet upon the desk. “Rules are rules, even if they’re not policy. But you know what I say about rules …”
“It’s a word you can actually spell?”
“Think you’re funny, don’t you?” He threw a piece of scrunched up paper at my head. “I was going to say that rules were made to be broken. Or skirted around. We could always speak to the vamps who work in the city. Some of them live in Darkwood but still commute here. Others can’t stand the hierarchy of the vampires and choose not to live among their own kind. We could start with them.”
Kaleb’s suggestion was a good one. But his suggestion also caused my vampire friend to come to mind. A slow smile crept across my lips as I locked eyes with my partner. “We could do it your way, but I think I have a better idea.”
“Why have I just got the scary shivers?” He shuddered with exaggeration.
“Bernard Vostreux may have fangs, but he’s not that scary.”
“Isn’t he on Earthside right now?”
“Yep. But I know a lot of his old haunts. If we could get Cole to sanction the papers, I could travel to Earthside and bring him back. Bernard would be a great liaison to have on the case. He’s still respected in Darkwood, even if he chooses not to be a part of it.”
“That should be fun. Watching my brother sanction a business partnership with your ex-lover. I wouldn’t want to miss that.”
“Shut your mouth. There is nothing between your brother and me. And Bernard and I drew a line in the sand with what we had a long time ago.”
“Whatever.” A light chuckle left his lips. “Mayra told me you still go there with him sometimes. Under the sheets. Having a roll in the hay. She says that you’re friends with benefits.”
I was so going to kill that witchy friend of mine. I know that she is Kaleb’s friend too, but that doesn’t mean she has to blab everything about me to him.
“We’re friends. End of,” I asserted. “And he would be an asset to the agency if they hired him to help us on this case. You said yourself we don’t have any other leads on the others, and Cole said that this needs to stay between the three of us for now. That means no help from other agents, or from any Ground Patrol firms who could go door knocking with queries. Cole could hire Bernard as freelance support.”
“I’m not arguing with you,” Kaleb stated as he dropped his feet to the floor. “I just really want to be there when you ask Cole.”
“So I’m asking, am I?”
“Your idea. Your ass. I’ll make sure to get the popcorn.”
“No,” was the first word out of Cole’s mouth once I’d pitched my idea to him.
“What the hell do you mean no?” I demanded. I could tell from the hesitancy in his reply that he had nothing viable to use in justifying his decision.
“I told you I didn’t want anyone else to know about this case outside of the three of us,” he replied, latching onto his last straw. “End of.”
Gritting my teeth I grated, “Chief Cipher, please consider how much of an asset having Bernard on side with us will be. He knows the vampire world inside out. He knows the hierarchy of the vampires and how to play the game. He’s respected within the vampire community. That means he could potentially have contacts there able to help us either directly or indirectly. That, in turn, would speed up the request. He may even have some background on this Romeo Lovejoy. And I know we can trust him not to say anything to the vampires. Please think about it.”
Cole shifted his gaze to Kaleb. “What are your thoughts on this?”
It irritated me that Cole looked to his younger brother to get a rational perspective on the request, but I held my tongue.
“We don’t have any other leads to go on if the Consilium are adamant this is to remain under the radar,” Kaleb explained. “We have twelve dangerous prisoners who have escaped and we have no way of knowing where they’re hiding out without checking under every rock. If you want me and Terra to do that, then fine, but it will waste valuable time.”
“Why are there no other leads?” Cole demanded from his brother, a frown eating into those very nice features of his. His frustration was evident.
“Any trail would have died out by now,” Kaleb replied. “That’s the Consilium’s fault for keeping the prison break to themselves for so long. It also means it’s given the prisoners enough time to go underground. Most of them don’t have family or friends. And if they did, they’ve double-crossed them by now.”
“Like who?”
Kaleb grinned at me then took a deep breath before turning back to his brother. “Ceres of the Five Oaks, the elf lord who escaped, has an elf clan who have vowed to kill him if he shows up there again. The djinn brothers have a bounty on their heads across Portiside City. Then the witch, Keeva Honeykiss, is a loner who was orphaned at an early age. She made her living out of stealing from people. I would guess she’s got more enemies than supporters. The banshee, raven shifter crossbreed killed her chieftain. That means she’s on her clan’s most wanted list. The mage killed a load of people to then reanimate their dead bodies in order to take out his enemy. That wasn’t only a breach of our law, but a breach of Karmic law. No one will side with him now out of risk of tarnishing their own reputation. Then there is Torroro of the Dark Hills. He was put away by his own family, so I doubt they will protect him now. And the soul-sucking demon, Lauz Magpie, is a scary son of a bitch. Let’s not forget that demons don’t make many friends. They’re too selfish for that. We then have the incubus. No trail of him feeding. No reports of anyone who has experienced ‘death by too much sex’. That leaves us with the water fairy and the assassin. Banished from the lands of her home, the water fairy is now an outcast without allies. And the wolf shifter assassin, Timber Smoke, has a red alert on him by all wolf packs. You tell us where to start on any one of those, and we’ll put the vampire down on the priority list. But if you’re asking me who is our best bet without waiting on one of them to commit a crime, then I’m down with the vamp.”
My eyebrows raised of their own accord as I glanced at Kaleb. His run down had been pretty impressive. Luckily, it appeared that Cole thought the same.
“Do you think we can trust Bernard?” Cole asked him, showing the first signs of relenting. Kaleb didn’t hesitate.
“I’ve only met him a couple of times. I like the guy. He has enough distaste for vampires to keep his distance, but he’s smart enough to not burn bridges with them. Plus, Terra trusts him. That’s good enough for me.”
A warmth spread through me at Kaleb’s words. Yes, it annoyed me that Cole had turned to him for validation, but that wasn’t Kaleb’s fault. Kaleb was the one who always had my back, as frustrating as he could be, and he was a damn good partner. And a loyal one. Not that I would ever admit it to him though.
Cole tapped the desk with his fingers then glanced at Kaleb before looking back at me. “I can get you a one day pass to Earthside without running it past Immigration Control. But that’s it. And this Bernard Vostreux will need to sign a confidentiality agreement before you tell him anything. Got it?”
“Got it,” I replied, trying to hide a smile of satisfaction.
“You really think one who hunts his own kind is trustworthy?” he asked me, his eyes uncertain.
“He is a freelance hunter who works for the vampires. He hunts who they hire him to hunt. And I would trust him with my life.”
“Then let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I’ll have the papers ready for you in an hour. Be ready.”
We took that as our dismissal, and I followed Kaleb out of Cole’s office.
“Want to go for something to eat while we wait?” Kaleb asked me, and my stomach rumbled in response. It took only seconds to decide.
“Timing is everything. Let’s go fill up on something greasy.”
CHAPTER THREE
“THANKS FOR PLAYING bodyguard,” I casually told Kaleb as we approached the portal.
Located within the Fey Lands, the portal sat nestled in the depths of a place called The Flamed Forest. It was a section of land owned by the Emerald-Fire citizens of Portiside, and it was one that earned its name with relish. With trees harboring leaves of orange tinged with dusky browns and reds, they resembled flames peeking high toward the skyline.
It was a refreshing sight compared to the Victorian Quarter where we’d spent a lot of time during our last case. That part of the city took no prisoners when it came to space and fauna. The industrial innovations blended with an old world infrastructure had little greenery outside of the park situated at its center.
“It feels good being away from the city,” I said after taking in a long, deep breath of fresh air. “Living in the Crystal Quarter is nice but my eyes need a break from the sparkles sometimes. And although the Victorian Quarter is fine in small doses, I like it out here.”
“We could always sleep under the stars when you finally relent and jump my bones,” Kaleb suggested with the usual twitch to his lips to show he was teasing. But with Kaleb, I was never certain whether he meant it or not. Wolf shifters love to sleep around, well, Kaleb did from what I’d heard, and so did many of the other shifter agents.
“How about we put you in a cave so you can rely on self help for a little while?” I patted his arm and he grinned at me.
“This wolf doesn’t need self help. I have plenty of ladies to do that for me.”
“You’re so gross.”
“And that’s why you love me.”
Ignoring him was sometimes easier than engaging in our usual verbal fencing match. He liked to push my buttons and tended to prod them on a regular basis.
“We’re at the portal border,” I said as we neared a sign that read: FAAP - Fire Arch of Atsila Portal. The Fey detested acronyms and always had to explain themselves afterward. Even if it did require a larger space to host it all.
“Then let’s go,” Kaleb said, putting his arm out for me to go first.
Part of the procedure when the papers were issued was to be given a code to get you through the security of the portal grounds. The security around each portal differed, but the Fire Atsila portal had the Tunnel of Flames. Once you stepped across the border, a course of electricity would be felt as a warning sign to tell any wanderers too close to the portal that they were near Immigration Control grounds. If you kept on going, like we were doing, a small bridge would come into view with rules listed on a tree beside it. If we had papers, like I did, then we could continue on our path without worry of consequence. If we didn’t, then a very unveiled threat had been etched in a piece of wood to tell us exactly what would happen if we didn’t leave. And it involved something about being arrested. Or worse—getting very burned in the process.
Pressing the third stone from the left on the small wall to the right side of the bridge, the trees lowered down, linking to form a tunnel in front of us. As soon as we moved over to the bridge itself, the first set of flames came out of one of the trees about a meter in front of my face. Fey magic. And one that burned as good as real fire.
Counting to ten as per the code we were given, we stepped forward ten paces and waited again. Another flame came across our path out of another set of trees. This time we waited five seconds before proceeding, and so on until we got through to the end. The portal gate awaited us there.
“An Immigration Officer will show up soon,” Kaleb told me as he looked up above us once we neared the portal. It was a natural move considering a lot of the officers who worked for Immigration were members of the Fey. And for this portal they would all be members of the Emerald-Fire banding. That could mean anything from a dragon shifter flying down to greet us to a djinn ‘popping in’ to check my papers.
The Fey was a generalized term used to cover over a hundred different species. There were a lot of them, hence the need for them to have a subcategory on their citizenship. Segregated into elements, all Fey were Emerald citizens. The classification of their citizenship was dictated by the elemental power they possessed. A griffin, like my stepdad for example, would be an Emerald-Air Citizen. A fire fairy would be categorized as an Emerald-Fire Citizen, and so on. I was just a plain old Sapphire as I fell under the psychic category. And Kaleb, as a mammal shifter, was classed as an Amber Citizen. We weren’t ‘Fey’ enough to get a double barrel banding.
“I’m just happy that the closest portal is one that takes me directly to Seattle.” I pulled my immigration papers out of my pocket. “Out of the four portals, I don’t have to get a flight the other side with this one and risk jet lag.”
“It’s always baffled me why humans want to climb into a bunch of metal to go against their nature and fly. Imagine only having human made equipment between you and death,” Kaleb shuddered. “I’m happy with my feet on the ground.”
“You would have to go on a airplane if you went to Vegas,” I told him, hiding a smile at the devastated look on his face. He’d been on at me for years that he wanted to end up in Nevada for a few days. He’d seen a few Earthside movies that they showed over here about the City of Lights and had decided that Vegas was his Graceland. “You could drive or take the train, but it would take double the time. That’s if you were ever given access to visit Earthside, which you won’t be.”
“Why not?” He crossed his arms over his chest and flexed the muscles I’m certain all shifters were born with.
“Because Cole would never agree to it. He knows you would never behave yourself.”
“Like you do?” he questioned. “How many times have I had to come and save your ass lately?”
It was on the edge of my lips to say, ‘Bite me’, but knowing Kaleb he would take it literally. He wasn’t wrong either. Two times on my count he’d had to save the day over the past few weeks. That number would undoubtedly increase if you asked him. But I only counted the instances when he’d saved me from the hungry wendigo and then the rogue shifter. In my defense, a potential third occasion hadn’t been my doing. I’d been kidnapped instead of throwing myself into danger, so I wasn’t counting that one.
“Where do the other portals open on Earthside?” Kaleb asked, smugness etched into his features at my lack of a response.
“The Barrier of Barth portal that the Earth Fey look after in the north opens up somewhere in England, I think. The Curtain of Vari portal ends up in the water, south of India, where Lemuria was rumored to exist. And the Shu Gate portal, guarded by the Air Fey, opens up in Egypt. The Curtain of Vari is out of the question since I’m not a Water Fey or a mermaid and I don’t want to get wet. The Egyptian portal requires a pass linked to some ancestral reasoning to pop up in a pyramid. That means I’m out there, too. And as I said, it would be a long flight, as it would be with England. So the Fire Arch of Atsila it is.”
“The Fey have some weird-ass names,” Kaleb replied, shaking his head.
“The portal names are a sign of respect for the ancients. Just because they don’t have an arrow saying ‘PORTAL HERE’ doesn’t mean they’re weird.”
“They are weird. Stop trying to be nice.”
“She’s a lot nicer than you, Kaleb Cipher,” a voice said from behind me. I yelped a little at the Immigration Officer’s sudden appearance.
“Oh, hi Drake,” I greeted when I realized who it was. I would recognize that red-tinted, scaled face anywhere. Today, the fire-drake Immigration Officer was wearing his uniform, but he didn’t have on the flowing pants and tunic the Fey
often favored. His uniform resembled the ones frequently found in airports on Earthside.
Both the hat and shirt he wore bore the same fire emblem that all Fire Arch portal personnel had to wear, and his pants were dark and very, very straight. Drake waved a hand in my direction. His pointed nails looking sharp enough to slash my throat.
“No one is nicer than me, Scales,” Kaleb threw in his direction as he addressed Drake with his surname. “You should know that by now.”
Drake flashed his fangs at Kaleb before holding his hand out to me. “Got your paperwork?”
“Sure.” I handed the papers over.
“Thanks.” Drake dropped my papers into a slit carved into the trunk on one side of the arch. Created by two trees where the trunks met in the middle, the portal had an orange tear-drop jewel at its peak. It flashed a few times before turning green. “All legit.” Drake removed the papers and handed them back to me. “Ardella is on duty on the other side today. She’ll look after you.”
“Thank you,” I smiled. He held the peak of his hat as he gave me a nod.
“I’ll let you say your goodbyes. Nice seeing you both again.”
“You, too.”
Large, red wings appeared out of Drake’s back, and then he launched himself into the air, flying back up to the sanctuary of the trees.
“Want to kiss me before you leave?” Kaleb asked from behind, and I decided to surprise him by turning around and grabbing his face. I gave him a quick kiss on the lips and patted his cheek. Surprise registered on his face as I did so, and then he grabbed my arm when I stepped back. He looked serious for a brief second. Not like the Kaleb I was used to.
“What is it?” I asked him.
“Nothing.” He flashed me a grin before letting me go. Then he slapped me hard on the backside just to annoy me. “Behave yourself. The last time you went over to Earthside you almost didn’t make it back.”
“Serial killers aren’t supposed to be a breeze,” I retorted, speaking of when I’d gone over to assist Dan Vasquez on a case the FBI were struggling with a while back.
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