by Lil Hamilton
“Oh yeah. Not for help mind you. Why would they right? I’m not a witch. Hanson said he wanted confirmation on what attacked the coven. He bloody well knew it was a demon and he knew of the demons in town, in specifically the ones lingering around me. He didn’t come out an accuse them but he was digging.”
She rolled her eyes. “Figures. Then I figure we can rule out the Blacks. They have the knowledge, but they are far too political to be openly breaking the Accords.”
“Right, far too blunt for the likes of them. Which leaves the suspect list far too long for me to whittle down. Makes me wonder how Vincent lost. Maybe Viv can have a chat with him after all. There are only two other major players and both those run pretty grey.”
Chera rolled her eyes, so I could only assume witch politics had distracted her. Good to get her thinking on something else. “Because they are the only big players in the city. Please. They are the international players. They have a Coven here each and wield a good amount of political punch. In the underworld, things are a little different. In this city, there is always a brutal rivalry.”
“I know. And I can’t keep up with all their shifts in power. That’s what Inter is for. You practically need a doctorate to keep up with the changes in territory. They have a whole department to keep tabs on all the little covens running amok in this city. Like a little plague of locusts if you ask me. Do you know which covens are big in the black these days?”
“That depends on the territory I guess.”
“Mid town flats. They were the target and they run right along the Gutters.”
“Ah, very witchy in the grey. I know a few down that way. It has kinda slid last few years.”
I chuckled. If she thought it had gone downhill in the last few she should have seen how it had been a couple decades ago. It had been one of those new build neighborhoods for middle class folk. Olde Towne was all fae constructed, but it hadn’t taken much time at all for humans to add onto the existing city. At least we had building codes this side of the river and, thusly, no humans would destroy my aesthetically pleasing city nor taint it with too much metal. Then the economy flat lined and people lost their jobs. Property values dropped. Next thing you know people are selling drugs on the side, doing a little darker grey magics to make the mortgage payments. More witchcraft meant more covens vying for power, leading to coven battles. I was pretty much all in favour of making witches live in areas reserved for them, like the fae were. People made a huge mistake assuming they were the most human and benign.
Chera tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Really, territory wise there are only three covens in the black that are of any major significance at this time and I’m assuming it has to be a big player if they have enough money to hire in Warren and muscle into the Gutters. So between Main Street and the strip the Whites hold is where we find the predominately black witch coven territories, excluding the vamps Eastfalls. Riverside, of course, is black and has been since before my birth I expect. Now it is held by Talismen. Then in the Sheets, that would be Majik, but they are more brawn and hype than high levels. Like their blood mojo for sure, but don’t have the strength to leach let alone call forth a demon. They are like eighty percent into drug manufacturing and pushing. Then in the Flats would be the Nihilo Coven, who oddly enough doesn’t believe in karma so having a pitch black aura is kind of a badge on honor for them. Both Talismen and Nihilo have other covens, but you’d have to ask Inter about what they push and how many cities they run. I don’t stray into their territories.”
“The Flats is right by the gutters, so it would make sense for it to be Nihilo.”
“Yeah, but you can never assume proximity has anything to do with getting their hate on for another coven. But you could be right, Talismen was never into people pushing or even the drug trade, as with the name, they have always been into the amulet and charm trade. Most of them black market stuff, but enough legit to make a substantial profit that they need not branch out. They make a seriously wicked profit, legit and not so legit on their stuff. Totally skilled workers.”
“Three main covens then, with Nihilo being our primary. Well, damn good start. I can locate their main houses and then I can try scrying it.”
It was going to be tricky. Knowing territory lines would be easier than finding a coven House. Working as a unit they could mask a building or two almost as well as the fae could.
“Sure, if you can. But you don’t have much time to be doing that sort of Intel if they have a demon on a leash. And no help from other covens either. That is why most witches, especially the dark ones, are keeping their mouths shut. No one wants a dark coven after them.”
I nodded. Neither did I. The Whites didn’t even mess with the Blacks. Most of the Whites were Wicca, and really, they kept to some precepts that didn’t allow for destructive magics. They had some great protection magics, but that basically just kept the enemies at bay. They played a completely different game.
“Well we had better find them soon. They have already used my cousin to kill other witches and I doubt they will stop now, knowing how much hate the covens have for each other.”
It was beginning to make some sort of sense to me. Lily had been on the down low, protecting herself with wards and glamour, masking herself to appear a lesser witch than she was. Too many rogue gigs for Matt caught the attention of Vincent, so he begins to snoop around. His attention had Warren scrambling to get her first, because he was already in town scooping up people for his new employer and since his new employer was carving was out some space in the Gutters, having a new demon toy came in damn handy. So the only thing that bothered me was how Vincent had lost competition. If the covens were like gangs then vampires were like the mob and mob bosses didn’t generally take no for an answer. Vincent didn’t just leave things to chance. He had to have had Lily watched. He had to have known the first snag attempt failed and why. So he had to have had been there when Warren swooped in. Yet… he let that go down. Possessive vampires who claimed bait for the turn didn’t just change their minds; in his teeny vampire mind Lily would be considered his property. I was damn surprised there wasn’t an outright brawl about it and that would be pretty noticeable.
“We’ve never gone after a coven before,” Chera said. “A black one as well.” She took another puff off her joint and frowning thoughtfully. I thought it was very unhealthy that Chera had no fear. With the jobs I had for her, she was never at risk anyway. Yet she would put herself in danger with no care of the consequences. It was obvious she had a death wish or at least toyed with the idea. I had no idea how to shake that out of her. I thought mortals were born with the fear of death in them. Perhaps a near death experience would do it, but then Viv would go loco on me. The girl needed counseling. The human mind couldn’t take all that abuse she had suffered and turn it aside into another area of her mind. It just lingered and tormented. I may be her boss and protector but there were things I couldn’t help her with considering my solution to pretty much anything was getting wasted and having a party. Or killing things.
“I suppose I could dig a little into the weasel’s slimy mind and see if he knows,” I pondered.
“Can’t. His memory was spell blocked solid. You try and you’ll fry him for sure. It‘ll be like a minefield in there.”
“Ah. So an option then.”
Chera smiled slightly. “You shouldn’t say things like that, Ray. You know you are on Inter’s watch list. You of all your kind can’t stray from the rules.”
“What a bother,” I said and meant it. In a city where all the Others commingled it was really hard to say who had authority over what. “Still, my oath says I cannot kill or intentionally cause crippling damage physically or psychically… not accidentally. Mind you, no point if we can’t get the information. But I’ve my bets on Nihilo, just from what you say about the other covens business, unless we are looking at an out of town coven or a smaller up in coming coven. Even though proximity wouldn’t much matter for revenge and such it does make a difference in
business matters and I’m thinking if their putting all that effort to carve themselves a little business space in the Gutters they have to plan on holding it, which means they have to have people running the streets regularly and the only coven running the borders is Nihilo. Or, the gray area, and I cannot exclude one of the gray covens in an internal conflict going at each other. Not like it is unheard of for one of them to bind a demon and go black.”
Chera gave me a cautious look. “I know this is going to suck but maybe we need a bit of back up on this. A big coven like this is huge trouble. You have great magic skills but you’re not a witch and you don’t think like one. We could get some serious help and information from the Inter coven. Even if informally.”
I pondered that a moment. Yes, I needed to find my nymph and Lily, both who had fae blood and therefore I was authorized to do what was needed, but I couldn’t take down a witch whorehouse where they enslaved the prostitutes. I couldn’t save all those faelings, while at the same time finding and freeing all the other faelings and demi demons taking to be sold. “Problem is Inter wouldn’t do a damn thing without evidence. Straight up. And we don’t have any.” I explained the missing faelings had been reported and nothing had been done. Chera cursed.
“Bastards. What use are they if they are racist pricks? They only ever care if it is a human who is affected. And if it is a faeling with nymph blood who happens to be in the sex trade then it isn’t even worth looking into. No wonder that dryad is pissed. I’d be pissed too. We have Warren though. He’s not even supposed to be here. And he has a history.”
“Yeah but he hasn’t done anything. They will just boot him or arrest him. Or start a long ass investigation. All we have is reports of him being seen in the Warrens. Warren in the Warrens. Big deal. No one saw him commit a crime. Even what you saw in his mind will not motivate Inter enough to investigate a coven.”
“So we help Hanson with his demon angle and lead them into it like the stupid sheep they are.”
“Well, maybe Hanson will be surprised I have found his demon.”
“Pissed more like, but they’re the best ones to narrow your search of coven houses. And that would lead them down the right road at least.”
“Yeah. Maybe we just tell him a coven kidnapped this witch and it happens to be linked to his case.”
“And not that she is half-Seelie fae?”
“Right,” I said slowly. “Can’t get into that either damn it.”
“So no back up.”
I sighed. “Guess not. Or at least not until I have sure fire evidence. Locations and such. So I can leave out Nemnae and Lily.”
“So we do all the fricken work, take all the damned risk and call them in at the very end when we have it all figured out to help us close the deal?”
“Yep. Pretty much. I mean we might be able to snag Nemnae and Lily ourselves but we won’t be able to save everyone. So, yeah, when we figure it all out, have all the evidence, then we call them in.”
“Doing their damn job for them. Awesome.”
“Well, we do have demon back up if needed.”
“Hard to keep their help quiet,” Chera said, draining her beer. “Hanson knew the demon delegate was here to see you, Ray. That means the Queen will know as well. I don’t see this ending well.”
I would have responded with something witty but my cell phone rang. I looked at the call display and frowned. I answered, expecting Vincent, “Yeah?”
‘Ray?’
I grimaced. “Liona. How pleasant to hear from you. How are the little demi-demons?”
‘Never mind the pleasantries. We need to meet.’
“If this is about the demon delegates, I have it under control.”
‘No, you don’t. You ought to know nothing is simple when it comes to fae politics.’
I snorted. As if she knew, when she wasn’t even of the court. As if I really knew myself being as young as I was. “Fine. Your place or mine?” We could be polite as long as we were limited by hospitality rules. Hospitality was a Big Thing to my people. When we came out to humans it had been extremely hard for humans to understand exactly how crazy we were about such things, but they learned very fast.
Liona gave me curt details, like she was ordering a servant. Directions to an area away from our homes and outside of our known territories. How interesting and sneaky. When I hung up I sighed and finished my beer as quickly as Chera did hers. “Liona’s in a snit about something. Maybe because someone else snagged Vincent’s bait. I have never really gotten it into her head that I don’t care about her husband’s problems and will not help with them. Please leave Warren intact. I’ll call in a pickup for him.”
Chera nodded. “I will not kill him,” she said and I was disturbed that she said it so calmly.
“When Dill returns give him an update. I want to keep eyes on the Gutters but tentatively we should try to expand that to Nihilo borders until I can work something up to bypass whatever warning system they have over their territory. We have to find that brothel. If we plan on calling in the troops we need to find the damn place.”
“If we can utilize the Inter coven I will just see who I can get to help me in the grey community.”
“On the down low,” I warned.
“Of course. I got your spell stone thingy that makes the oath bindings. Still good for six more. And I don’t mess with covens. Just fellow students looking to help out. Good people.”
If it kept her occupied I could see no harm in it. If we were not finding the brothel it was very underground and I was thinking snagging a client was sounding like a better idea. Or maybe interrogating Warren about his cohort a little more. “Sure. Can’t hurt.”
***
Chapter 10
Whatever hits the fan, is never evenly distributed
I admit it was foolish of me to expect with Lan in the Hells I would have some peace. The moment I showed up at a shady bar on the Eastside I saw Sebastian pop into existence in a dark corner, wearing sunglasses and a smirk. I could have demanded he leave. It was fae business and he promised to stay away from my charges. However, I was well aware of the family trait of stubbornness and demon protectiveness. My father, it seemed, wasn’t going to let me slide these days. His smothering form of love was going to get me killed. How the hells he had known about my call was beyond me. It wasn’t like demons tapped cell phones when they couldn’t even use the damn things. I suspected he managed to somehow get a minor demon past my wards, likely one in an elemental form, to spy on me.
When I spotted Liona I had to smother a laugh. The elegant fae, statuesque form, full of lithe grace, golden blond hair and emerald eyes had on what I could only assume was a disguise. Snug low ride jeans and a form fitted t-shirt had to have been borrowed from her daughter. A glamour of a woman with spiked orange hair and piercings. The illusion was only one layer deep, imposed on the visual level only, not the mental. So for me it was like she was solid with a ghost image was superimposed on that.
The location was on the border of Eastfalls and actually close to Matt’s blood joint. Generally thugs and fledglings who always trailed the vampire hierarchy lived in the area. In other words, all humans Turned and not true born. So I was surrounded by a lot of pasty skin tones and leather clad bodies. Some of which were human of course, because vampires had a rather large human following. Those who liked the lifestyle, those who wanted to be Turned, some who simply wanted vampire blood at whatever cost it came because they had severe health issues the blood could treat and others that just really liked to be bitten. It was way out of my comfort zone. She was thinking out of her area, the more posh Northside vampire domain Vincent thrived in, but also where her vampire guards would not be seen as unusual. Of course, they did seem unusual since they were the only true born of the lot. I picked them out in seconds like a game of ‘which of these do not belong’.
I slid into the seat across from her and smiled wryly. She had already ordered drinks. Some sort of fruity rum based one, which total
ly clashed with the punky persona she imposed on herself. An Inter investigator was often trained to pay attention to such minor details, since the best glamour didn’t change the little gives that someone simply didn’t belong. Like a hard punk persona drinking a froo-froo drink with delicate mannerisms. Of course, fae usually didn’t thrust the full power of their will to make humans believe their glamour, as they didn’t see the point. The idea of the fae shrouding themselves in illusions and mild glamours was to blend in with humans. If they wanted to control them, all they would have to do is remove it all and release their outer shields; no human could withstand the fae when in true form. Hell, I had troubles with high court Seelie fae, which was why the earthly realm was dandy for me since there were no permanent residents for the high court.
“Hey lovely,” I greeted, giving her a wink.
Liona waved her smoke, her eyes taking in the bar more than me. It made me look as well, scanning for slight stirs in my vision that might indicate a spell making me not see something or disguise something.
“Those things will mess with your magic,” I said, gesturing to the smoke while I lit a more fae friendly herbal smoke.
She gave me an icy glare and I beamed back.
“I’m just saying, just cause you’re not of the courts doesn’t mean you don’t have all the fae sensitivities. You don’t see me smoking those things and they wouldn’t bother me half as much as you. I expect you have a tad weakness in the iron department. Still if we ate or slathered ourselves with half the things humans did our magic would be very wonky. Don‘t you think?”
I drained half my drink because it tasted like juice and then looked around for a waitress. While I waited for her to actually start talking, I flagged down a harassed waitress and ordered myself something a little more sturdy. Three shots of sex on the beach and a nice dark brewed beer. She thought it was some sort of insult to make me wait for her to speak, as though we were in fae court. As though being her babysitter made me lower in rank, when it could not, given my mother was from the high court. The Queen was a big racist when it came to Seelie purity. Since She wasn’t of the court, that meant somewhere along the way someone did something fun with the Unseelie side of the family tree. Not sure what though, since she looked all Seelie to me. I on the other hand, was half court Seelie blood and half High Demon and while they made me impure in the Queen’s eyes, I had title and rank from both sides.