by Erin R Flynn
“Fine, but bulletproof charms are always worn. We know how people can act when pushed into a corner.”
“Agreed.”
I adjusted the circles and went to work on the barriers as Kate took off her charms and got to work with the ones who were able to fit in the circles. When I saw her start to be overwhelmed, I nodded to Tommy to help her. There was no need to push so hard, and if we were going to do this for real, we had to be smart about it.
“Are you okay?” I checked when I went over to her, the barriers in place.
“Yes, thank you,” she whispered, rubbing her head. “Tommy’s right that it’s stupid to go so far. It’s what I’m used to though. I’m used to doing it that way for the entertainment value and showmanship. I take a few days after to recover normally, but I have to be smarter now, pace myself.”
“It’s not my best area either, but yes, this is a distance race, not a sprint,” I agreed, noting the looks I received from others, most humored by my phrasing when the truth was I had no patience at all. I took off my necklace and handed it to Tommy, sighing in relief when the barriers held and held well. I went to the banishing circle and blocked them. “If any of you have information I need or will want, move out of the circle.
“I will send you in the next trip, but if you are just talking, shut it. This is hard enough.” One moved out of the circle, not happy when their place was immediately taken. “Speak with Kate, she will handle this.” The soul basically let out a huff that he was being sent to my assistant instead of getting the boss. Whatever, I doubted it was anything much as souls didn’t lose their egos in death.
I didn’t think anything could make an egotistical person lose that… Myself included.
I went over to the circle, kneeling down and slapping my hand onto the edge of it, activating it with my power and launching the souls to where they should be. It immediately filled again, but I ignored that, checking on myself and how I was doing after sending twenty-five souls at once.
My stomach was a bit shaky. It definitely wasn’t something I’d think to do for fun like other magic, but it was doable.
The first soul took the place of another soul that had information for us along with three others that left the circle. They were being less pushy now that it was clear we were setting up a system, not ignoring them.
However, what wasn’t doable was activating the circle too many times. After the fifth time I turned and puked all over the place, Tommy hurrying to put my necklace back on me.
“Shut it down,” I managed in between rounds of getting sick. The barriers would still pull their energy even if I wasn’t using the circle. They made sure Kate had her charms back in place and then stopped holding the barriers. When I was finally done throwing up, I glanced over to her. “You good?”
“Yeah, and there’s a lot of information to work,” she informed me with a sigh. “A psychic and caster that are pulling souls here, and news of my parents scorching the ground looking for me. I could have told you that. They’re about to make it public I was abducted, lining up an interview about it all. I would have thought it would happen sooner, but the delay was getting a room set up for me that would befit their princess they make it seem I am instead of the cell.”
“The lawyers are all over it,” Tommy promised before I could even interject. “We’ve got this and her. I promise, boss.”
“Good, thank you.” I focused back on Kate and gestured to the circle. “Do you know how to use power to sear a circle? Make it permanent and unable to be messed with?” I waited until she shook her head. “We’ll go over that tomorrow. I’m going to sear this one besides what allows so many souls in. That I’m going to change depending on the day. I think it best to do more and twice a day instead of round after round.”
“Makes sense,” she agreed. “I’m going to head back to the apartment you’re letting me use and start getting into this information. They brought my stuff and gave me extra to set up an office in the spare room. We’re sort of using that as the base for all of this.”
“No, bring Helen into the mix and have a section of PI set up for this. We’re going to need more help.” I met her confused gaze. “There may be more like you out there that have nowhere to turn to, and as this is now an issue with sides, we need more on our side, as I felt too much energy for the other side on the souls I sent back.”
“I understand.”
And she did. The look in her eyes clearly said she fully understood that now we’d tripped into this rabbit hole by wanting to help, we were free falling into something much, much bigger than we’d expected. If we didn’t get a grip to slow our descent, hooks and lines or whatever, we’d be in big trouble.
I preferred to save my big trouble for more solo endeavors when there was no other choice. I might be the most impatient woman around, but I was smart and I surrounded myself with smart, capable people.
3
I was just about to sit down to a huge bowl of chicken and rice soup that Tommy had asked the cafeteria to make for me since I’d been sick when that tingle up my spine happened. I sighed, making my phone appear and switching my bowl to a very large to-go container.
“Yes?”
“Sorry to bug you, boss, but we have a problem,” the dispatcher informed me. “Possible wolf killing and a bad one, lots of coverage before we were on the scene.”
“Damnit, okay, send me the address.” I hung up and winced when I saw it was local. That meant Hunt and his Alpha would be pulled in.
Crap.
I promised Tommy I would come back and eat the rest of the stomach easy foods they’d want me to have and let them baby me. Then I made my jacket and bag appear, popping over to the address that was texted to me.
And into a madhouse. The killing was right by Buckingham Fountain, which was a Chicago landmark and had tons of foot traffic even in the winter. I pulled out my phone and texted Helen for help, knowing I’d need it to not push myself too hard. I was pretty drained and still somewhat queasy after what I’d been up to.
She appeared, and after we shared a look she nodded, backing everyone up and throwing a barrier around the scene.
“I smell wolf, but it’s not a wolf kill,” Hunt growled to someone off to the side. “You don’t bench humans when it’s a human murder. It’s bullshit and you know it.”
“Agreed, but this is too public,” someone snapped.
Oh good, politics was going to be the game of the day instead of solving a murder. Multiple murders.
“Everyone needs to stand still and shut the fuck up,” I demanded, using my power to make my voice carry. People settled down a bit, and I swallowed some of my soup while I waited for the rest, making it clear I wasn’t going to jump through their hoops of bullshit. Finally when the last of them did, even the media and onlookers behind the police line, I handed my soup over to Helen and got to work
I chanted under my breath and focused on all the chi, the area lighting up with a variety of colors. “I need who was first on the scene.”
“We arrived first,” one of two patrolmen informed me, gesturing to his partner. “What do you need, Ms. Devil?”
I knew others were waiting to figure out what I was doing, so I made sure my voice carried. “I need to start matching chi to the people so I can peel the layers of the scene back and make the official call. So as unpolite as I’m about to be, I need everyone to go stand outside of the area once I clear them. Helen will keep everyone else here until I’m done.”
“Hey, some of us need to get to work,” someone behind the police barrier, but trapped in Helen’s, snapped.
I shrugged and met their pissed off gaze. “You chose to gawk over dead bodies. Not everyone would do that, but killers like to watch the chaos they cause. That puts you here until I clear you. Bitch to someone who cares.”
He had some very unflattering words for me, and in response I cleared his phone he’d taken pictures of the poor dead humans with. Asshole. Some people were just such fucking asshole
s. People were dead, and all he cared about was getting the pictures up on social media and his shit.
Asshole.
I cleared about ten people and their chi from the scene before I needed a moment and went over to Helen, taking my soup back.
“You good, boss?” she worried. “You were in much higher spirits last time I saw you.”
“There’s been some developments on the plan I was working with Kate. I need PI to officially become part of this and you to talk with Tommy.”
“I’ll get into it.” She also took my empty soup container when I finished and popped away to probably bring me whatever was next.
I worked on peeling away more layers, annoyed so many were all over it and a lot of them were cops. Why did that many police officers need to look at bodies that weren’t going to be their case or something they handled?
A point I brought up to those first on the scene, along with a very lengthy chew out session about them fucking up our scene. I got some dirty looks about calling it “our scene,” but I wasn’t in the mood to let it go.
“You called SPU seconds after you looked at this, yes?” I checked, waiting until they nodded. “Then it’s our fucking scene, as they call us in. You knew that. You know it’s not a regular case, so how about you not fuck up my shit with your gawking friends that are no better than the vultures being held up at the line over there, and I won’t fuck up your shit? Sound fair?”
“I think you’ve got the—”
“I can see all the chi that’s going near the bodies,” I snapped, too tired to even deal with some half-assed excuses. “So can you. Look at it all. I already cleared twenty people, and look at all the fucking chi around the bodies. That’s boots all over the scene that could be carrying away trace evidence or fucking with what’s there. Do you get that? The rule is the moment it’s SPU it gets locked down and everyone back the fuck off, not take a tour.”
“I’ll make sure your complaint is noted,” he told me, making it clear that note would end in the garbage.
“Child, I don’t give a fuck about your notes,” I sneered, annoyed because my complaint was valid. “Helen will speak with the mayor when we’re done here. Maybe you should realize this is serious and you fucked up instead of letting your overinflated ego make you look down your nose at me like I’m bitching about something stupid.” I felt better when he went a bit pale at the mention of talking with the mayor.
But it also irked me that it took that sort of threat to make it through his thick head. They’d fucked up, and it was making my job and the whole situation more difficult. He deserved every second of my tearing into him.
It took another half an hour to peel back more and more layers and chi. Each one I did was glad to get out of the area by then, so slowly there were less and less gawkers that were moved way outside of the police line and kept out by Helen’s barrier. It was almost funny how she looked at them with a bored attitude when some seemed to want to come in as if they were late to the party and she was the bouncer who kept them out.
“Not a wolf kill,” I declared another twenty minutes later, studying what I was seeing carefully. “I have the chi of only one wolf and it’s Hunt, and someone didn’t even let him reach the bodies.”
“Clearly that’s a wolf kill,” someone from CPD argued… And not of the SPU division.
“You don’t get a fucking vote,” I reminded him and turned to Hunt to ask what else was going on here I didn’t understand. I felt the guy brush my energy and turned to see the policeman go flying.
He jumped right back to his feet and went for his handcuffs. “You’re going in for assaulting an officer.”
I snorted, which did not help his attitude. “I didn’t even touch you. You came to touch me, and the barrier I keep up while working reacted to your negative energy.” I glanced at Helen. “He went to grab me, right?”
She nodded. “He did not like you turning your back on him.” She stepped in front of me, blocking the officer from me. “You touch her or try to bring her in on assault, and we’ll have a complaint filed on you before you can even get her to the station along with a private lawsuit, as I heard everything you said about the ‘bitch witch’ needing to be put in her place. I understand you like your chief of police and he doesn’t like us, but too fucking bad.”
I let her handle that bullshit while I focused on Hunt. “What is going on here that I’m missing?”
He let out a heavy sigh. “Apparently there’s been a chunk of CPD that feel there’s no need for SPU and have been quietly rallying to get rid of us and led by the police chief, but now that it’s out he’s not as supportive of paranormals as we all thought, he probably thinks his days are numbered and it’s a good time to make a move.”
It was hard not to laugh, but I did smirk at him. “Sucks to be on the other side of the bigotry, doesn’t it?”
“I deserve that,” he grumbled, scrubbing his hand over his hair. “But they want someone else to take lead since it’s accused as a wolf kill and I’m a wolf.”
“I’ll talk to the mayor. It might be better you step aside, but it’s not a wolf kill. I say we leave it up in the air for now because why work so hard to make it look like a wolf kill and at such a time?”
His eyes flashed shock. “You think this was a move by CPD or someone on their side?”
I shrugged. “I’ve seen worse and many times. You saw how the crime scene lit up with chi. Everyone and their brother was walking all over the scene. That’s a good way to argue findings and try for confusion. Most don’t know I immediately get involved when it looks like a feral kill of any shifter, as that’s normally dangerous and I don’t like my people involved alone.”
“I honestly would have thought it was a wolf kill from the bodies if I didn’t catch the scent of wolf on the bodies but not around them,” he admitted, looking over the three dead. “There’s not a whiff of wolf anywhere but whatever is on the bodies. Someone left it there as evidence.”
“Yes,” I agreed before getting back to work. It took another thirty minutes and a few breaks to finally get to the last layer. I followed it, swearing up a storm when they weren’t there and the trail ended at where a vehicle must have been parked.
“Can’t you just teleport to whoever?” Hunt asked, frowning at me.
“I could, but the case would die and fast,” I grumbled. “It’s not held up in court, and defense attorneys have torn it to shit since I’m the only one who can do it. I almost would understand if it wasn’t bullshit. I might be the only one who could get to them that way, but others can and did see the same chi stain as I did.”
“You were just the way they got there, crap,” he grumbled, noting it all down. “So how do you get around that?”
“We don’t.” I shrugged when he gave me a look like he wasn’t buying it. “Even if I go to them now and it’s not how we say I got there, something of the case will fall apart. Some step will be missed and more shit will be thrown at us because the other side that believes is always shouting at me that it’s something I should do for all crimes because I’m a fucking bloodhound. You get old enough and you learn an important secret, Detective.”
“What’s that?” he asked quietly.
“That you can’t make anyone happy. It’s not that someone will always be unhappy, but that no one is ever happy. You can never truly give them what they want, and they’ll still bitch no matter how hard you try. It’s why I stopped trying and just do what I feel is best.” I turned and left him to sit with that depressing insight. Fine, it was dark, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t true.
Because it was.
I finished up and left the rest to Helen, as she knew how to keep us out of power struggles in police departments but also how to handle things with the mayor as it was in Chicago. All around, it made everything messy, and I tended to make things worse by acting like a bull in a china shop, whereas she had the finesse of the very best dancer to not land in anything bad.
Most might have felt
bad to push it back onto someone, but honestly, she preferred it and loved the challenge.
Besides, it wasn’t like I was sitting around counting my toes. I hurried to load up on a late lunch now that my stomach was better before heading into the next disaster.
I popped over to the hawk elder that I figured would be the one to be most tapped into Russia and the mess there… Only to find pictures of my five hawks up on the wall of the conference room. There was a flurry of activity.
“Missing hawks, Colin?” I purred, sitting on the table right in the middle of it all.
“Did you have anything to do with their disappearance, Soraya?” he threw right back, his eyes flashing power and anger when I simply smirked at him. “Return my hawks this instant.”
“No, I don’t think I’ll do that,” I chuckled, winking at him just to be a shit and instigate him so he did something stupid.
It worked because he launched himself at me, and the second we touched, I popped us back to the coven, landing hard on the lobby floor from the force of his attack. Yes, I normally teleported better than that, but physics was a tricky bitch with momentum and elder attacks.
I rolled us and used my power to hold him as I searched his mind, feeling security moving in. When I finished, I laughed in his face, wrapping my hand around his throat. “The best laid plans always get mucked up, Colin.” Just to taunt the asshole more, I kissed his cheek. “I get it. You’re a new elder, top of the world, and already drunk on the power, huh?
“Yeah, you’re untouchable and you’ve got high ideas for hawk shifters. What’s a bit of world domination along the way? Because that’s never been attempted before. I mean, really, it’s such a novel idea that thank the gods you came along to try it and fuck it up so bad all you’ve done is make a mess.”
“You can’t do shit to me, witch,” he seethed, trying to fight my hold.
“Fucker, you can’t even crack my hold on you, and you still think you’ve got a shot?” I threw back my head and laughed when I saw it clearly in his head. I glanced over at Tommy who had his gun trained on the hawk. “Hey, aren’t you glad I came out of hermit mode? Do you miss the quiet yet?”