Bert turned on me.
“What did you do? What did you say to her to provoke this?”
“He has done nothing, aside from providing me the wake-up call I needed,” Queen Für answered for me. “I’m throwing you into the fire, child,” she added, leaning back and regaining some of her composure. “You’ll either be forged into a weapon worthy of your bloodline, or you will break.”
Her attention focused on me and the medallion warmed in my hand.
“Mark Vedis,” she declared, “I offer my sincere apologies on behalf of the Demons of the Badlands. I will do whatever is in my power to make this right. I offer you the life of my son, Volkbert, to do with as you wish, as well as one percent of his financial holdings in exchange for overseeing his spending. In addition, I will lend whatever power is mine to give whenever requested.”
She waved her hand and a contract appeared.
“Will this suffice,” she asked, “or do you wish to take action against me and my realm for breach of contract?”
“Uh…n-no, we’re fine,” I stammered. “I don’t need anything.”
“Unfortunately, you have no choice,” she said. “Your ancestors were shrewd negotiators and required what I’ve stated as a minimum settlement for a minor contract breech. Your attempt to refuse the settlement is noted —though it would be colossally fooling for you to do so —but the terms are set. Do you accept the amended contract or do you wish to take action against us for breach?”
I swallowed hard while looking over at a very shaken Bert.
Fuck.
“Uh…I accept the amendment.”
She waved her hand again. A hologram copy of the contract appeared in front of my hand.
“Please supply your thumbprint,” she stated, seeming relieved with my decision. “It will transmit to the official document.”
This was a lot to take in.
There was much I wanted to ask, but it seemed cruel to go over it while Bert was dealing with having his entire life ripped away.
I limited myself to the most important questions.
“No offense, Queen Für,” I said before adding my thumb to the document, “but this really wasn’t Bert’s fault. I should have respected his wishes when he said he didn’t want to help. He’s absolutely right. I had no right to pull him back against his wishes.”
“No offense, to you, Mister Vedis,” she replied without inflection, “but your opinion is meaningless.” She shook her head slowly. “We are all bound to the agreement created by our ancestors, and I would happily sacrifice all three of our lives rather than break that agreement.”
“Damn, I didn’t know it was that serious,” I rasped. “Can you at least send me a copy of the compact so I can see what I’m supposed to do.”
“A wise request,” she said, cracking a businesslike smile. “I’ll have a copy sent to you through the Netherworld police courier system.”
I nodded my thanks.
“So, what happens now?” I asked as I shoved my thumb into the hologram.
It disappeared, but I saw the print show up on the document in Queen Für’s hand.
“That’s up to you,” she said. “I would be pleased if you were to stay alive and work to restore the good name of my people…and your own.” For the barest instant I thought I saw tears in her eyes too. “I’d really rather not have to execute my son.”
With that, the medallion went cold in my hand and Lucy’s presence faded.
I looked at Bert, who was wiping tears from his face with his bare arm as he collected his clothes. They’d fallen to the ground when we merged, but looked to be in good shape. They must have been made of some special rich-people fabric to survive all the abuse they’d been through.
When I picked up my bracelet and put it on, I caught sight of his hat nearby. It was a pink derby cap with a peacock feather sticking out the top. I picked that up too, and handed it to him.
“I’ll meet you at the Netherworld PPD at 7am,” he said, not quite snatching the hat out of my hand. “Don’t bother me until then.”
“But what about the time limit for our bracelets?” I asked.
He ignored me, walking out of the club with his head hung low.
7am was about five hours from now. Hopefully that wasn’t too much. I couldn’t imagine the magic needing us to be close while sleeping, but I wasn’t sure. I guessed we’d find out soon enough if I’d be shopping for bunk-beds.
Mira emerged from the bathroom, looking even more attractive than before.
“What did I miss?” she asked.
“Just some paperwork,” I answered, not wanting to provide too much information. “Did you just go and fix your make-up?”
“Of course,” she said. “The night is still young. Care to buy me a drink?”
I smiled as I reached my hand into a pile of Nathan goo and walked over to the restroom.
“Sure,” I said as she grimaced at my hand. “Give me five minutes. I’ve got a promise to keep.”
Chapter 19
The Netherworld PPD showed up a little later, but left us alone after we gave our statements and Mira showed them her badge. I kept my statement vague and asked them to contact Stone if they had any questions.
Let him deal with the forms, I had a date.
We went back up to the VIP area, which had escaped all the devastation. It was booked for the whole day, so I didn’t feel bad about using it.
Mira sat down on the couch while I explored the minibar. I’m not great at making drinks, but I managed a few juice and rum drinks and threw a handful of umbrellas and fruit in each.
“Fancy,” she said, taking a long drink.
“Yeah,” I replied, taking a small bow, “I’m great at throwing things together and hoping for the best.”
I took a sip from my own. Not bad. Hard to mess up juice and alcohol.
“What were you doing here with Bert earlier anyway?” I asked. “No offense, but you don't look like the type.”
I mentally slapped myself as I waited for Mira to deliver the real thing. I had to get better at talking to people.
“What?” she asked. “You mean I don't look like a high-class prostitute? Should I be flattered or offended?”
“I don’t know. Probably both.” My head dropped. “I don’t usually get this far when I talk to beautiful women.”
She laughed.
“That’s twice you’ve complimented my looks. Are you flirting with me?”
“I’m trying to,” I admitted, the hormones rushing through my body making me uncharacteristically bold. “Is it working?”
“I’m not sure,” she answered. Then, she sipped her drink and bit into a maraschino cherry. “I don’t have much experience with dating, but I’d say you haven’t completely blown it.”
Progress.
She smiled, then sighed.
“I'm just here for the night, though.” She looked around the bar. “It’s my first time out of the Badlands and I wanted to make the most of it.” Her eyes came back to mine. “I start a new post tomorrow.”
That explained why she was here, anyway.
“Partying with a demon was on your bucket list?” I asked, arching my eyebrow.
She laughed again. Fake, but the kind of fake that showed interest.
“I was downstairs when Bert came in waving his money around. He saw me at the bar and said if I came upstairs he'd pay for my drinks. Something about being a wingman for his ugly friend.” She cocked her head to the side as if inspecting me. “Do you think he meant you?”
Hurtful.
She looked at me and swatted my shoulder.
“Oh, don’t get grumpy,” she laughed. “Those were his words. I think you’re cute.”
I felt my face flush. Another area of my anatomy also responded to her compliment. I crossed my legs.
She took another drink.
“It was kind of sweet, and I was looking for an excuse to leave anyway. There were a few guys down there that had a difficult time with the word ‘
no’ and I was glad to get away without having to hurt them.”
“Guys like that deserve nothing but the worst,” I growled.
She grinned, evilly. “Trust in Karma, Mark.”
“Huh?”
“Only one of them had been bold enough to grab me. I stepped over his body earlier.”
Wow.
Hardcore.
She must have seen the shocked expression on my face, because her grin got even wider.
“I didn’t kill him,” she stated, “but that doesn’t mean I can’t be happy he’s dead. Who knows how many other girls he’d harassed, or worse.”
“Good point,” I said, my libido not allowing for an extended conversation about morals.
She set her drink down and took my hand.
“Lucky for you, I seem to have used up all of my ‘no’s’ for the evening.”
She pulled my face to hers and kissed me, deeply.
“We’ve got four hours until I need to leave,” she whispered after breaking away slightly. “Let’s see how many times you can make me say ‘yes’ before then.”
The rest of the night was awesome.
I didn’t know why my entrainment let me sleep with her, but I took full advantage of the loophole. Sorry, I’m not going to give any details, but suffice it to say that by time we finished I was pretty much in love.
We managed to nap for around an hour before the alarm on Mira’s phone went off.
“Oh, crap,” she said, bolting upright. “I have to go.” She started snapping up her clothes frantically. “I’m sorry. I’ll give you my number and maybe we can meet up again sometime.”
“No worries,” I said, playing it cool. “Where are you going, anyway? Maybe we can share a taxi or something?
“Uh, maybe,” she said. “I’m headed to the PPD office.”
“Oh?” I slipped on my shoes. “Me too.”
That was a coincidence, not clinginess. I was headed there. Now, if I’d lied and showed up there anyway…that would be clingy.
“Great,” she said, her tone making it clear it was anything but. “Let’s get going then. I’m supposed to be there at 7am.”
“Yeah, so am I.”
I swear I’m not a stalker.
Traffic going out of the city center was pretty light, so we sprang for a taxi.
Within about twenty minutes we reached the drop-off areas for the police station, which lead to another awkward parting. It was even more awkward when we both walked in the same direction, towards the elevators.
“I swear I’m not following you,” I said.
She looked at me then laughed, way too loud.
“Thank god you said something,” she said. “I thought I was going to have to leave and come back later so you didn’t think I was planning on making curtains out of your skin.”
“Nah, I wouldn’t make good curtains,” I said. “Too many tattoos.”
She grinned, her face flushing a little.
“I noticed that last night. The one on your ass is probably my favorite.”
We didn’t take the flirting any further, but it was nice to let some of the tension out of the air.
“Hey,” I asked as we took the same turn, yet again, “where are you going anyway?”
“The portal room,” she responded. “I’ve been assigned to a special unit that’s currently stationed in Bangkok. How about you?”
I furrowed my brow. “Uh…same place, actually.”
The tension was back, with a vengeance
She stopped walking and grabbed my arm.
“Please tell me you’re just joining the PPD there?”
I shook my head.
“No. I’m leading a team for the Interpolice Defense Unit.”
She pulled her hand back, like I was going to bite her. Funny, considering she was the snake lady.
“Every time,” she said shaking her fist and pacing back and forth. “Seriously. Every freaking time. What is wrong with you Mira?”
I stepped in front of her and put my hand out, motioning for her to stop.
She shook her head angrily and growled. Then, she snapped her arm up, giving me a salute.
“Officer Mira Enchada,” she said, smartly, “reporting for duty, sir.”
Son of a bitch.
Why did shit like this always happen to me? I’d argue Karma wasn’t fair. I was a nice guy. I bathed.
Well, so much for relationship potential. And I really liked this one, too. Maybe more.
But even I knew this couldn’t go any further at this point. In fact, it had already gone beyond too far. No, we didn’t know the situation before knocking boots, but…shit.
I took a deep breath, held it, and counted to ten to calm myself before returning the salute.
“Welcome to the team, Officer Enchada,” I said, doing my best to sound less miserable than I felt. “I’m thinking we should go talk to human resources now.”
We padded down to the H.R. department and had a closed door meeting with one of the officers. They were cool about what had happened…for the most part. As we hadn’t officially started with the IDU, this counted as a pre-existing relationship, though we were both warned of the dangers of fraternization. Mira was quick to let everyone know that I had just been a fling and a momentary lapse in judgment, but she hoped we could be friends and have a close working relationship.
Sad as it is to acknowledge, it was the best breakup I’d ever been part of.
Apparently Mira believed in being early, because even with the slight detour we made it to the portal room on time.
Bert was waiting for us, but he didn’t acknowledge my greeting, staring straight ahead instead.
Great, the silent treatment.
The portal technician looked at the three of us, then addressed me.
“Three for Bangkok, Agent Vedis?”
I nodded.
As we stepped into the Portal area Bert scoffed and shook his head at the both of us.
“I knew you guys were going to fuck,” he grunted. Then, he sneered at me. “You’re welcome.”
Chapter 20
The portal opened into the Bangkok PPD’s receiving area. I know that because there was a giant winking happy face on the wall with text below reading ‘Welcome to the Bangkok PPD.’
We’d been told tourism was Thailand’s biggest money makers, but that seemed a little much.
I looked at Mira, who just shrugged.
“I was told Thailand was the land of smiles,” she said. “It’s nice to have someone happy to see you.”
“Whatever,” Bert sighed, pushing past us as he opened the door to the rest of the station. “Like poor people have any reason to be happy.”
“Bert,” I snapped. “Disguise.”
We’d discovered the charm on Bert’s bracelet also let him disguise himself, tapping into his power to keep up the illusion until he either dismissed it or took off the bracelet. Demons were rare and made people freak out, justifiably.
The only problem was it just changed his features, not his size. This meant he had to either be a tall goblin, or a short member of another race. We decided when we were around humans he’d take the form of a child, but around the supers he could choose whatever he wanted.
“Yeah, yeah,” he said, activating the charm as he walked through the door.
He went with slightly too tall goblin, the best of a lot of bad options.
“Look,” Mira said through the connector, “I know Bert’s upset, but he better get over it. If I have to keep him in check he’s not going to like it.”
That really should have been my job, but I was really digging her take-charge attitude. Always nice to have an enforcer on the team, as long as she didn’t push it too far.
“He’ll be fine,” I said, already suspecting I was wrong.
Every time I’d merged with Bert had been to save lives, but I still felt guilty about the whole situation. Like it or not, we were stuck together and it was my fault.
The door
opened to the officer’s area. There were around twenty desks, but I only saw four of them being occupied.
Maybe everyone else was already out on patrol?
An attractive young woman who was covered in tattoos looked up as we made our way toward the back of the room. I don’t mean regular tattoos, though she had a few of those. These were the magical tattoos of a djinn that fuel their hypnotic powers. They were the kind of tats that normal people couldn’t see.
The nameplate on her desk said “Officer Tranachataraporn Sansuid.”
“Hi,” she said, practically leaping from her desk to greet us. “Can I help you?
“Yes,” I said, sneaking a glance at her nameplate. “Thank you officer Trnnadht…”
She cut me off, still smiling. “First time in Thailand?”
I nodded.
“Our names are a bit difficult for foreigners, but most of us have nicknames. Please, call me Porn.”
Bert laughed.
“Porn? Are you fucking serious?” he smiled, then looked at me and glared, shutting his mouth.
I did my best not to react, but made a note to talk with him. That pouting shit was going to have to stop. Soon.
Porn’s smile never slipped, but I saw her catch herself halfway through rolling her eyes. I was pretty sure she muttered “fucking foreigners.” She didn’t actually say that, but the translator Pecker’d build into my connector sent those words right into my brain.
“I apologize for my teammate,” I said. “It’s his first time in Bangkok, too.”
“There’s no need to apologize,” she replied evenly, though there obviously was. “Porn is a common name here. It means ‘blessing.’”
There was an opening for a joke that was so big a tank could have driven through it. I winced as I prepared for whatever comment Bert would make, but none came.
Looking over at him, it was clear he hadn’t even moved a muscle.
The reason for this became apparent when I saw Mira grabbing him by the arm.
That might not seem like much of a deterrent, unless you happened to know a bit about nagas. I might not have studied much about my new tech or power, but I’d spent some time brushing up on Mira. It seemed like my very short time of brushing against her was over, though, and this was the next best thing.
Bangkok Warlock: A Mark Vedis Supernatural Thriller Book 1 (Southeast Asia Paranormal Police Department) Page 11