by Jasmine Walt
The others filed out of the room, leaving Iannis, Fenris, and myself behind. As the double doors closed, Fenris changed from wolf to human form. He leaned his hip against the desk casually, as if we were in the study or in the Chief Mage’s private chambers rather than the more formal audience room.
Iannis arched a brow. “I assume you have something to say?”
Fenris nodded. “I would like to conduct a parallel investigation myself, with Sunaya’s help.”
The Chief Mage’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not certain that is an appropriate use of my apprentice’s time,” he said. “We already spent a significant amount of time investigating last night.” His eyes flickered as he slanted his gaze toward me. Heat curled in my belly as I remembered how casual he’d been, and the way his body had felt against mine. I broke contact before the warmth spread to my cheeks, not wanting him to know I was still affected by the memory.
“Perhaps, but we both know this situation has been weighing on her mind since before she got here, and her knowledge and connections could be useful,” Fenris insisted. “I will be with her the whole time, so it is not as if she’ll be without protection.”
The Chief Mage pondered this for a long moment before he finally spoke, looking at me. “Give me your hands.”
My pulse spiked. “Why?”
He didn’t answer, just held his hands out, palms up, in a gesture that was becoming familiar. Sighing, I placed my hands in his, wondering what kind of magical diagnostic he was going to run on me this time.
A bolt of energy lanced through me, and I gasped as a current of magic passed through us, like an electrical circuit being completed. Iannis’s eyes glowed as he looked down at me, and I imagined that I was glowing too – the amount of magical energy emanating from my center was so great I could probably power an entire grid block.
Eventually the magical surge died off, but the circle within my chest seemed to burn a little brighter. “Did… did you just increase my power level?” I asked, my voice more breathless than I would have liked.
“I did.” He held my gaze for a long moment, then seemed to remember himself and dropped my hands. “You’re ready, and I want you to be able to defend yourself with your magic if need be.” He hesitated. “Come back safely.”
For once, I actually smiled at him. “Don’t worry,” I said as I followed Fenris out the door. “I’ll make sure to come back in one piece. Someone needs to be around to keep you on your toes.”
As I closed the door behind me, I could swear I caught a glimpse of a smile on his lips.
“I am not getting on that thing.”
I stared in amazement as Fenris folded his arms across his broad chest and tucked his chin in. There was no other word for it – the man was pouting.
“Yes, you are,” I said calmly, offering him my spare helmet for the third time. “It’ll be faster if we take the steambike.”
His boxy jaw tightened as he glared at my steambike, his yellow eyes scouring every surface of the gleaming black and steel frame as if hoping to find some grave flaw. “Those things are dangerous,” he snapped. “I don’t have any problem taking a few extra minutes between destinations if it means my life.”
I rolled my eyes. “Quit being such a baby.” I shoved my spare helmet into his chest, and he grabbed it instinctively before it fell to the ground. “I’m an excellent rider, so you’ll be fine. If it makes you feel better I’ll make like I’m a little old lady, okay?”
“You’re not a little old lady,” he muttered, but he put on the helmet, which did a lot to cover his scowl. Shaking my head, I put my own helmet on and straddled the bike. I waited until he was in position behind me before I started it up and peeled off into the street.
“Fenris,” I snapped mentally as Fenris’s arms tightened with bruising force around my waist. “You’re crushing my ribs here!”
“You said you were going to drive like an old granny!” Fenris whined as I careened around a corner where a stately villa perched. A female mage in long, pink robes snatched her toddler up from the dirt at the sight of me, her beautiful face pinched in a disapproving scowl. I grinned at her through my visor even though I doubted she could see, and waved at the little girl.
“Clearly you and I have different ideas about what old-granny-driving is like,” I retorted, more to be petty than anything else. But I slowed down a little now that we were approaching traffic and unwieldy steamcars began to clog up the streets.
Ten minutes later, we pulled up outside the Enforcer’s Guild building in Rowanville. I parked the bike outside the tall, stained grey building with its cracked windows, and waited for Fenris to regain his footing before we went inside.
“I’m taking a cab home,” he snapped as we walked through the thick steel double doors. His tanned complexion had gone a little pale. “That was horrific.”
I slapped him on the back. “Aww, c’mon,” I said cheerfully. “You’ll get used to it.” Truthfully, though, I found his reaction a bit strange – we shifters, as a species, don’t fear much, and even though we don’t all ride steambikes, it isn’t because we’re afraid of them. I wasn’t sure what his deal was.
The Enforcer trainees who’d been stuck on front desk duty glanced up as we entered, their eyes widening as they caught sight of me. I ignored their gaping stares, and led Fenris past them and into the waiting room. Our footsteps rang against the cracked tile as we traversed the wide space, past visitors sitting on ratty couches drinking cups of bad coffee and munching on stale sandwiches. Most of these people were here to see an Enforcer about a case regarding a loved one – others, like the tattooed, emaciated human slouched in an armchair, were here to be questioned.
“We’re going to see the Main Crew?” Fenris asked as I strode up to the bank of elevators and punched the call button.
I nodded. “I’m hoping Nila and Brin will be there, at least.” I wanted to knock them around a bit for not working harder on solving Roanas’s murder, and I also wanted to find out what they’d done with my weapons.
We took the rickety elevator up to the third floor, where the Main Crew’s offices were – and by offices, I meant a huge open space with drab grey walls and carpet scattered with cheap plywood desks and chairs that would turn your ass to stone if you sat in them too long.
Since Enforcers hated paperwork, there were few people at their desks, but the ones that were here lifted their heads to stare at me. Some of the stares were curious, some disdainful, and others downright green with jealousy. The jealous gazes were mostly from the few low-level mage Enforcers – they would all kill to be the Chief Mage’s apprentice, I knew, and it wouldn’t matter to them that I hadn’t asked for the position.
I scanned the desks for Brin and Nila, but there was no sign of them. Bastards were probably avoiding me on purpose.
“Hey Baine,” a blond Enforcer in the back sneered. “Nice of you to join us again. You finally tired of living it up in Solantha Place?”
“Fuck off, Widler.” I paused to glare at him. “I’ve been out like, a day and a half now. Sorry if I bruised your tender little heart by not coming to visit right away.”
“Oh I don’t know that my heart’s the one that’s bruised.” Widler rose from his beat up metal chair and leaned his hip on his desk, a snide grin on his handsome face. He stroked the five o’clock shadow dusting his jaw as he regarded me with sharp green eyes that weren’t at all friendly – but then, he was part of the Main Crew. “It’s the Foreman you’ve really stuck it to. You should’ve known better than to go tattling to the Chief Mage about us. He’s gonna make your life a living hell.”
“Now that’s where you’re wrong, Widler.” I stepped right up into his space, shoving my face into his, and his green eyes widened a little. “I’m here to make his life a living hell – in fact, all of your lives a living hell, for sitting here on your lazy asses instead of getting out there on the streets and finding out who’s behind the drug trafficking and the silver murders.” I held up a hand a
nd let a trickle of magic flow into my palm, which burst into crackling blue-green flame. “Wanna know what your flesh smells like when it’s on fire?”
Widler’s nostrils flared in outrage, his green eyes narrowing on me. “You wouldn’t dare,” he hissed as I gave him a fang-toothed grin, but I could smell the beads of sweat trickling from his pores. “Not in front of witnesses.”
I shrugged. “How do you know I can’t do some kind of magic spell to make them all forget?” I reached out with my flaming hand until it was close enough to singe his sideburns. “After all, I’m apprenticed to one of the most powerful mages in the country.”
“F-fuck off.” Widler stumbled back until his hips hit the desk.
“Sunaya.” Fenris’s hand was on my shoulder, a combination of amusement and alarm in his deep voice. “I think you’ve made your point.”
“I dunno. I think he’s still being a dick.” I shrugged, but extinguished the flame. “Truth is, though, I don’t have time to stand around here and shoot the shit with you, Widler. I’m here to see the Foreman… and you’re coming with me,” I decided on the spur of the moment.
I grabbed his ear and dragged him across the room, ignoring his yelps as I made my way to the Crew Foreman’s office – the only real office on this floor, a corner room encased in concrete walls that were newer than the actual building and featured a long, glass door. The blinds were open, so I could see the Foreman was in there, his dark head ducked down as he hunched over his desk, poring over some report. I kicked open the door, and he jerked up, splashing coffee from the mug in his hands all over his desk.
“Baine!” he barked, his swarthy features contorting with fury as he grabbed for a tissue to mop up the spill. His eyes narrowed as he caught sight of Widler, whose ear was still firmly in my grasp. “How dare you show up in my office like this!”
“Oww, oww, oww, oww, oww!” Widler finally yanked his ear from my grip, and scurried to hide behind his Lord and Master. He glared daggers at me from behind the Foreman’s black leather chair, which was a hell of a lot nicer than any of the other chairs outside his office. His desk was solid wood, too, and he had some nice-looking weapons displayed on the walls, along with several paintings of half-naked women in provocative poses. I twisted my mouth at the sight – each time a new crew foreman took the office, they got to redecorate it however they liked, but this definitely crossed a line.
“Foreman Vance.” I propped my hip up on the corner of his desk – something I would have never had the balls to do before. I jerked my thumb to the largest painting on the wall, of a dark-skinned Sandian lying on a bed of rose petals. Her sari was half undone, exposing her nipples, and she stared provocatively out of the painting through long-lashed, half-lidded eyes rimmed with kohl. “This what you jerk off to on your lunch break every afternoon?”
The Foreman’s face turned bright red, and his jaw flexed. He rose slowly to his feet, all six foot two inches of him, and I had to remind myself I had nothing to fear as his imposing bulk filled the space. His position as the Crew Foreman didn’t endanger me anymore, and even though he was huge, he was still a human and I could kick his ass.
“You put my job on the line,” he growled, his meaty hands clenching into fists. “And now you come strolling in here like you own the place, hauling my crew mates around and criticizing my decorations?”
I snorted. “Decorations? Seriously?” The painting hanging to his left was of two half-naked Garaian women kissing each other, draped in nothing but the ivory sheets of the bed they were sprawling on. “I think the term you’re looking for is soft-core porn.”
“Perhaps we’re getting a little off track here.” Fenris, who’d been standing just beyond the door, stepped into the room, drawing all eyes to him.
Foreman Vance raked his black gaze over Fenris’s simple brown tunic. “And just who the hell are you? If you’re looking to get an Enforcer’s license, this sure isn’t the way to do it.”
“My name is Fenris, and I am a close friend of the Chief Mage.” Fenris folded his arms over his broad chest, pinning Vance with a stern gaze. “One of my primary occupations is to serve as eyes and ears to Lord Iannis. I am acting in that capacity today.” His gaze flickered to the paintings on the walls.
Foreman Vance’s ruddy cheeks blanched. “I’ll get rid of those right away –” he began.
“Save it.” I slapped my palm against the desk to get his attention. “I didn’t actually come here to harass you about these paintings – although if you want to keep your job I really suggest you get rid of them.” I smirked, already envisioning the look on Iannis’s face if he ever saw this place. I half hoped Foreman Vance wouldn’t take my warning seriously, just so I could have the pleasure of watching him piss his pants when the Chief Mage came to visit. “We came to question you and your crew about the murders and the drug trafficking.”
Vance sat down in his chair again, lifting his square chin. “Aside from myself and Widler, everyone involved in that is out on assignment. I can’t pull them back in just because you decide to waltz in here unannounced with questions.”
I leaned in and bared my fangs at him. “You all have bracelets, the last time I checked. Call them back.”
“I won’t!” Foreman Vance slammed his fist against the desk, rattling the half-empty coffee cup and the typewriter that sat there. “Captain Galling ordered us to scour the city for information. If he finds out I’ve brought them all in without anything decent to report, he’ll have my hide.”
“Hmph.” I sat back, part of me wanting to push him on it more, but my nose didn’t lie – he was telling the truth about this. “Fine. Then you two need to tell me what you know.”
Vance pressed his fingers to his left temple, his eyes briefly fluttering closed. “Tell her, Widler.”
Widler’s face flushed, and his eyes shifted around the room, looking everywhere but me. “Tell her what?”
I grabbed a fistful of Widler’s shirt and yanked him forward. “I have a pretty good nose,” I snarled, “and it’s especially good at sniffing out rats.”
“I’m not a rat!” Widler growled, yanking himself from my grip. “It’s just… I don’t want to share the gold on this bounty with anyone else.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t care about the money, Widler. Just tell me what you know.”
He scowled, shoving his hands into the pockets of his vest. “We caught a deer shifter chewing on the remains of a raven shifter in an alleyway,” he admitted. “She was pretty fucked in the head.”
“What?” Cold horror curled in my gut, and I stared at Widler in disbelief.
“A deer shifter?” Fenris echoed, shock and disgust evident in his tone as well. “Are you certain?”
Widler snorted. “I’ve been on this job for a long time. I know my shifters, and I know how crazy it sounds, but it’s true.” He shrugged. “Whatever shit she’s on must’ve really fucked with her head. Guess drugs affect shifters differently than humans. I never heard of drugs turning us into cannibals or anything like that.”
I decided not to point out that a deer shifter eating a raven wasn’t cannibalism, mostly because there wasn’t any point – this was just as awful in its way.
“You found drugs on her?” I demanded.
“Yes.”
“I want a sample.”
“This is our investigation –”
“A sample, and I want to question the suspect.” I pinned Foreman Vance with a glare. “Or I take all your porno paintings down and burn them to ashes, so you can’t even enjoy them from the comfort of your home.”
The Crew Foreman blanched again. “Fine.” He shoved up from his chair, and Fenris and I followed him out of the room. Looked like I was calling the shots around here after all.
17
“Well shit,” I muttered as we trotted down the steps of Enforcer’s Guild HQ. “That was a total bust.”
“Not a total bust,” Fenris argued, holding up a little silk bag of powder between his thumb
and forefinger – the sample we’d threatened out of Widler and Vance. “We got this, didn’t we?”
I sighed. “True… but I was hoping the suspect would have been more helpful.” She wasn’t, not even remotely. When the guards had brought her into the interrogation room, she’d been limp and glassy-eyed, her body trembling from withdrawal. Hearing about it from Widler and Crew Foreman Vance had been one thing, but seeing it was another, and it shocked the questions right out of me at first. Not that it had mattered – she couldn’t seem to remember much of anything except that she’d gotten the drug from human dealers hanging around the border where Shiftertown and Downtown met.
Part of me itched to go downtown – the slums and the Black Market were located there, and if ever there was a likely place to find drug dealers that was it. But the other part of me wanted to get this drug to Com and Noria, so they could get it analyzed along with the cerebust I’d given them earlier.
“Oh well. At least we managed to get one of these.” I held my wrist up to the light and grinned as my Enforcer bracelet gleamed. I was happy to have that little bronze shield back on my arm again, even if half the Guild did hate me right now. It meant my life was one step closer to normal.
Fenris grinned. “True. Guess it pays to be the Chief Mage’s apprentice.” The grin faded as he noticed we were approaching my steambike. “No. Not happening. I’m calling a cab.”
“Not yet you aren’t. We’ve got one more place to visit.”
Fenris groaned.
By the time I parked the bike outside Comenius’s shop, Fenris’s tan was tinged with green. “Don’t worry,” I said, gingerly patting him on the shoulder – I didn’t want him to hurl all over Com’s storefront. “Comenius’ll fix you right up.”
The shop was crowded, Comenius working double-time by himself to service the customers, so Fenris and I hung off to the side while we waited for the rush to subside. Nearly half an hour passed before everyone finally filed out of the store. By that time Fenris’s nausea had passed, and he was across the room rifling through a basket of handmade bath salts.