Courts and Cabals 2

by G. S. D'Moore

  Vernon wanted to respond, but it was a rhetorical question. The judge pulled her fur coat tighter around her small body, but there was no evening chill to fight off. It was a comfortable seventy-two in her office. She placed her hands on the warrant for a moment and closed her eyes. He braced himself, but there was no outpouring of magic, just an old woman taking a deep breath and working through the consequences of her actions. That made the wolf inside him sit up.

  From her desk drawer, she took out a pen and scribbled her signature on the appropriate line. “You have your warrant, Agent Dud. You may search Caesars Palace for four individuals you described and bring them in on the appropriate charges. May the Great Spirit have mercy on us all,” she let out a breath, and handed over the paper.

  “Thank you, Your Honor,” he meant it, but he was out the door once he had the documents in hand. Time was of the essence.

  He hurried through the courthouse and out the back into the motor pool . . . where a small army was waiting. Fifty black and whites, a significant portion of the LVPD’s squad cars, and a hundred officers sat mingling around. They were all on the younger side, and full of the piss and vinegar that came with it. When Vernon put out the call, he didn’t want anyone who’d been on the force for too long. There was too much of a chance one of the old salts would flap their lips in the wrong ears. He didn’t need that on an operation this size.

  At the front of the squad cars was a BearCat. The armored personnel carrier had the local SWAT team inside. If the cabal resisted, the SWAT team would need to cover his retreat. Vernon had no illusions of his ability to win a fight in the heart of the cabal HQ, but he was going to make sure he had enough firepower to withdraw, secure the area, and call in the big guns. He’d already radioed the Director, and the nearest Echelon Team was on standby to assist.

  Not to be left out of the fun, three black SUVs, that had FBI written all over them, idled at the rear of the formation. They didn’t have time to get an HRT team in place, like the one Vernon had during the Seattle vamp op, but there were several supernaturals in the local office, and they were all armed for war.

  The rational side of him prayed the cabal would be smart and come quietly, but another part wanted blood for blood. Part of him wanted to take someone out. He resisted that animalistic impulse as he held up the piece of paper to the gathered men. Everything had moved quickly once they reviewed the security footage, but the LVPD had planned for this contingency for a long time.

  “Mount up!” the sergeants scattered among the officers yelled, and people hopped into squad cars. Like a stampeding herd, the vehicles rumbled to life. The BearCat gave a particularly large belch as Vernon hopped into the passenger seat and started strapping on his body armor. His colts were all the firepower he needed, but just in case, he slapped a double layer of wards all over his body. Charging them made him a little woozy, but the adrenaline more than made up for it.

  The BearCat rumbled down the strip with lights but no sirens. It was hard to be sneaky in a metal monster, but he’d take any advantage he could get.

  “Our job is to secure the lobby,” he reminded the SWAT team; even though they’d been rehearsing for the last hour. It was nowhere near enough time, but they worked with what they had. “Secure any guests for vetting, round up the staff, secure the elevator banks, block off the casino, and for the love of the gods make sure we can control a crowd. Weapons discipline is a must. If any of you has an itchy trigger finger and shoots a civilian, I will personally end your career. Understood?”

  “Yes, sir!” the team yelled before going over their final weapons checks.

  The main entrance to Caesars Palace was packed with cars underneath a large overhang. Locals, tourists, and staff gawked as the BearCat maneuvered its bulk right up to the door as quickly as possible. The team didn’t even wait for Vernon’s go; they just went to work. The arriving guests must have thought it was some movie or TV shoot, but when they saw armed officers streaming out of the vehicle; that’s when the screaming started. A flood of bodies pushed away from the entrance and toward the street where the black and whites were already setting up a perimeter. The crowd got caught between the two, but that was Vernon’s problem. He had to trust every arm of the operation to do its part.

  He moved forward with the rest of the team, up the stairs, through the ornate doors, into the opulent lobby, and nearly ran over Cameron Dupree standing by the fountain in the center of the room with his hands up and a nervous expression on his face.

  “What the hell?” Vernon’s mind hesitated, but his training didn’t.

  His colt targeted the novel supernatural; a quick flick of his finger to the appropriate chamber, a little pressure on the fleshy part of his trigger finger, and . . . boom. The lightning round hit the kid dead center. Dupree squealed like a stuck pig before dropping to the ground. He didn’t shit himself, but it was probably a close thing. Lightning rounds carried a hell of a punch.

  “What the hell was that for?” yelled multiple voices.

  “That was uncalled for, Agent,” a man dressed in a suit that cost more than Vernon made in a year managed to sound reproachful while having a gun aimed at his face.

  “Standard protocol for novel supernaturals, sir,” Vernon kept the anger out of his voice as two members of the SWAT team rushed forward with shackles.

  “Standard protocol for a man surrendering himself?” the man who reeked of lawyer raised an eyebrow, and Vernon could already see him building a defense. He didn’t let it get to him. He focused on his task.

  “Xamira Venitas, Dani Underwood, and Lilith Venitas,” his eyes roamed over the three other people he was here to take into custody. “You are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. No form of mind control or alteration will be used against you until you are in the presence of an attorney and advised of your additional rights to privacy. You have a right to an attorney, if you cannot afford one; one will be appointed for you. As supernaturally registered individuals, you will be remanded into the custody of the supernatural courts of the United States of America for arraignment. Do you understand the rights as they have been explained to you?”

  “Yes,” all three women answered, as Dupree groaned on the ground.

  “Secure the lobby,” Vernon ordered, “get LVPD in here, we need to search . . .”

  “I don’t think so, Agent Dud,” the lawyer drew himself up to his considerable height. He was a normal human, but he felt he had the extra power of the law on his side.

  “Like that’s going to save you from my fist,” Vernon scoffed.

  “Excuse me?” Vernon could dismantle the lawyer in a second, but he had to admire the guy’s balls.

  “Your warrant is for the search and detainment of the four individuals before you. One of which you shot without provocation,” money signs practically danced in the lawyer’s eyes. “You are not permitted by law to search this casino, and if you do so unlawfully, you will be legally resisted by trained professionals.”

  The lawyer pulled out a copy of the warrant in Vernon’s hands, which made the werewolf grit his teeth in frustration. Not only because the cabal had paperwork he’d received in person less than ten minutes ago, but because the lawyer was right. Even more so, he could feel ambient magic gathering around them.

  There was a mage, a powerful mage, nearby that set Vernon’s hairs on edge. If he moved forward with the search, he was pretty sure the SWAT team would be turned into frogs. He held his hand up to stop the team, who’d started to move on his order. He could sense their resistance, but thankfully, they weren’t stupid. They knew what they were up against.

  “Detain them,” he ordered instead, and they fell on the kids.

  Underwood and the imp went into a plain set of handcuffs. Lilith went into handcuffs and leg shackles. Dupree was already tied up tight, but Vernon pulled out an enchanted hood and slipped it onto Dupree’s head. He would be able to breathe through it just fine, but what it did was put him into an enchanted sleep. I
t was a great tool to get uncooperative suspects to cooperate. Normally, it required a particular set of circumstances, but with Dupree being novel, a lot of the regular rules went out the window.

  “At least something turned out as planned,” he grunted as he lifted the sleeping kid to his feet. He was heavier than he looked, but nothing the shifter couldn’t handle.

  The three women followed him, each with two SWAT members flanking them. Each was loaded into one of the FBI’s black SUVs; but not Dupree. Dupree went into the back of the BearCat. Less than five minutes after storming Caesars, the BearCat pulled out and took the lead without lights or sirens. The three SUV’s followed in its wake, and a distance back, four black Mercedes floored it to catch up.

  The black SUV’s headed back to the courthouse, but not the BearCat. It headed out toward the desert, and twenty minutes later, pulled through the gates of Nellis Air Force Base. Vernon grinned as the black Mercedes tailing them was stopped and forced to turn around. The Bearcat worked its way through the base to a hanger where a G6 with UN insignia was waiting.

  Dupree was still out like a light, so Vernon threw him over his shoulder and stomped toward the plane. Becky was standing at the bottom of the stairs talking with the pilot. She gave Vernon a satisfied grin when he ascended the stairs and tossed Dupree onto the plane’s couch.

  “You got him,” she stood in the door with her arms crossed over her chest. She looked down at the bound and gagged kid with mixed emotions. One thing was for sure, he’d been a royal pain in the ass.

  “I got him,” Vernon replied, and was practically bowled over when the mountain lion shifter kissed him.

  “Thank you,” she whispered when they finally came up for air.

  Dupree had been part of the incident that nearly killed her, and that was something she wasn’t going to forget anytime soon.

  “You’re welcome,” he felt the small plane jerk beneath them as they started moving, so he took his seat across from Dupree.

  The Director was probably getting a bunch of hate mail about depriving Dupree of council yada, yada, yada; but the UN had things it needed to do. First and foremost, they needed to figure out what the fuck he was. After that was ascertained, then they could put him on trial.

  “I won,” he couldn’t stop the shit-eating grin that split his face.” I got the bad guy, got the girl, and no one got hurt.” In his book, that was the perfect day.

  When they were airborne, and Becky started to undo the zipper on his pants, he amended that statement. “Now it’s perfect.”

  Chapter 18

  “Where’s Cam?” Lilith tried to look dignified as she shuffled down the hallway in her wrist and ankle shackles; all while ignoring the cat calls and dirty comments about the new girl with the nice ass. If they really knew who and what she was, or what she was capable of, they wouldn’t be talking; they’d be screaming.

  The guard leading her didn’t answer as they stopped at her cell. He inserted a glowing, golden key into a slot and pulled open a door. She felt a burst of cold air as the cell unsealed, and it sent a shiver down her spine; not because it was cold, but because she was about to be locked up. Despite everything she was, everything her family did, and everything she’d been through, she was still only eighteen; nineteen in March. She’d never been to jail, the pokey, slammer, clink, or whatever the hell else you wanted to call it.

  Actually, setting foot in this place had already informed her of reality over fantasy. In her mind, she had some type of western/Alcatraz impression of jail. She had a vision of a lot of iron bars spaced so no one could squeeze through. Someone turned a mechanism and the doors would all open, and if you were wily enough, you could use that to escape. That’s how Sean Connery did it in The Rock.

  In actuality, a prison is a mass of concrete and solid metal doors with little slits of reinforced glass that people could look out of. The door the guard led Lilith too looked like it weighed about a hundred pounds. There was a little opening for food trays to be passed through, but even from where she stood, she could see the shimmering, magical force that surrounded the door’s only weak point. The room beyond had no windows, an uncomfortable looking bed, a stainless-steel shitter, and two pairs of yellow circles; one on the floor and the other on the wall. It looked lonely, uncomfortable, and designed to breakdown a person’s spirit.

  “Stand on the yellow dots,” the guard ordered. He’d been silent so far, unlike the other inmates they’d passed, and she could feel his unease. He knew what she was, and what she was capable of.

  She could also feel the powerful wards on his person to protect him from her charms. If she gave it a good, college try, she could have broken them, but this wasn’t the time. Instead, she did as she was told and went to stand on the yellow dots. Most men would try to cop a feel of her ass as they removed her restraints, but this guard tried to touch her as little as possible. She even arched her back a little and thrust out her ass to see what he’d do. It was like she stuck a hot poker in his eye. He jumped back, panicked and sweating, but she didn’t capitalize on it. She just stood there with her hands on the yellow dots and waited.

  He approached her like a jackrabbit ready to bolt, and carefully removed the restraints. She kept her hands on the wall and didn’t move until he’d nearly backed out of the room.

  “I . . . I’m gay, so don’t try anything,” he stammered.

  “It doesn’t matter,” she knew a person’s sexual orientation wasn’t a defense against her, but she didn’t say that. She had no idea what her situation was, how long she would be here, or where her family was in the process of getting her out. It was best to keep the guards off balance as long as possible.

  The door shut behind her, and she removed her hands from the circles. She took a deep breath, and really looked at the room. Simple concrete and steel, no matter how thick, couldn’t hold a succubus. She walked over to the wall opposite the bed and put her hands on it. Slowly, she started to apply pressure. Nothing happened at first, but then wards inlaid into the concrete itself started to glow. She applied more and more pressure until the whole room was bathed in magical light; some of it her own emerald hue. Her mission accomplished; she removed her hands. She’d felt what the cell had to offer, and found it lacking.

  The wards were clean and professionally done. Her cursory glance revealed no weaknesses she could take advantage of or unravel; but that wasn’t the issue. It was an issue of power. Only so much power could be dumped into the wards, and if she was right, she had enough power to break out. Even more important, she had enough power to step. It would take a lot out of her, but she could do it.

  “As long as I act soon.”

  The meal Fern fed her wasn’t going to last forever, and as she steadily lost the extra strength Cam’s seed provided, she would lose options. She hoped the lawyers worked quickly.

  “Where the fuck is Cam?” a loud voice echoed through her heavy door. “Yeah, I have a great ass, but if you touch it, I’ll bite your dick off you little cocksucker!” Dani raged, and people hooted and hollered. She was already a crowd favorite.

  Lilith went to her door and angled herself so she could see the smaller woman being pushed down the hallway by a large guard. It was like an adult prodding an uncooperative child. He was six-two, two-fifty, and clearly worked out a lot. He was trying to ignore the dwarf, but it was clear from the movement of his eyes that he wasn’t gay. Apparently, that was something they only brought out for the resident succubus.

  “Do I need to spell it out for you?” Dani snapped as the guard brought her to a halt in front of the cell next to Lilith’s. “Where is Cam?”

  The guard continued to ignore her and went to open the cell.

  “Hey, I’m talkin’ to you! Hey . . . oink oink motherfucker,” she made snorting noises through her nose, and that finally got the man’s attention.

  Lilith had never met a cop who liked being called a pig, and this man was no exception. He threw the door open, put his hands on Dani’s back,
and pushed her inside . . . well, he tried to.

  He was human, and Dani was a dwarf. It didn’t matter how much his muscles bulged; he would never be stronger than her. When every action needed an equal and opposite reaction, and his lesser force met a more-immovable object; the result demanded by physics was him comically skidding backward. His arms pinwheeled as he tried to maintain his balance. Dani turned to smirk at him, the rest of the prisoners laughed at his expense, and it looked like the vein busting out of his forehead was about to pop. He went for a nasty-looking baton on his hip. The moment he touched it; electricity shot down its length like it was Zeus’s thunderbolt.

  “Dani,” Lilith said calmly, “please stop antagonizing the man and get in the damn cell.”

  The dwarf heard the command in her tone, but still huffed indignantly as she went into the room. The guard looked from Lilith to Dani for a second before deactivating the stun baton. He reemerged from the cell with the pair of handcuffs and slammed the door closed with a clang of finality. He glared at Lilith for good measure before stomping off.

  “Well shit,” she could hear Dani through the walls. “Now I wish I’d watched Orange is the New Black.”

  Lilith could practically see the dwarf grin as she sat down on the bed.

  “The good news is that if you need one, I can get you a shiv. Blademaster to shivmaster, the story of Danielle Underwood,” the dwarf’s hearty chuckles echoed through the space.

  “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine,” Lilith replied calmly. “They’ve got nothing on you.” That was probably true, but they were still waiting for the arraignment.

  “I don’t know where Cam is?” Dani replied after a few minutes of silence. “They took him in that big wrecker and I lost sight of it. He’s not here, is he?”

  “No,” Lilith had reached out through the mark, but she wasn’t getting a lot through the ward’s interference. What she could tell was that Cam was still out cold, almost like he was in a deep sleep, but the sensation of him was getting fainter and fainter. Whatever was going on, he was quickly moving away from her.