by Abby Blake
“Basically watching, observing, reporting back to Tory when he can. I let him believe that his reports are making it to you.” Dyson rubbed the back of his neck, hoping he didn’t sound like a fool for trusting Jason’s story. “Ben, I truly believe he is innocent in all of this. He even tried to contact Cassandra once. He thought as our PUP squad supervisor she would know where he was and why, but instead she completely freaked out on him. He’s not sure why Cass is being left out of the loop, but Jason said it seemed obvious that she believed him to be a traitor.”
“Does he know what the warlocks are planning?”
“He confirmed what we suspected. They’re gathering an even bigger arsenal. Some are even talking about nukes. Jason is trying to convince them that such devastating human weapons would draw attention from the human governments. Fortunately, the only thing warlocks and witches fear more than the Oracle’s receptacles is exposure to humans. They honestly believe that humans would hunt them down and destroy them all, so there are at least a few voices trying to dissuade them from that course of action.”
“Rather ironic that they’re doing to a group of humans exactly what they fear humans would do to them.”
“Very little of it seems rational. Jason reckons someone is feeding their fears. A couple of the senior council members—previously peaceful men—are now calling for blood.”
“You think they’ve been infected by fireweed as well?” Benjamin asked. He was looking more and more disturbed as the conversation went on. Dyson knew exactly how he felt. Until recently, their missions had been rather straightforward—protect the paranormal communities from human discovery. The sort of conspiracy they were now dealing with was nearly beyond comprehension.
“It’s possible fireweed is a part of it. They wouldn’t even need to write it into a warlock’s DNA the way they did with the pixies. A small capsule inserted under the skin could affect a warlock for weeks, maybe months.”
Benjamin looked as tired as Dyson felt. “I don’t think things could get any more complicated.”
As if the universe was out to prove him wrong, the phone at his elbow started ringing. Considering it was the middle of the night, it didn’t bode well.
“It’s Cassandra,” he said as he read the caller ID.
* * * *
“Hang up the phone,” Dex said as he stepped closer to the administrative supervisor for PUP Squad Alpha. Cassandra had grabbed for the phone the moment he entered her office, but he didn’t give her a chance to call for help. She paled considerably but did as she was told. He heard the vampire’s voice answer at the other end just before she cut the connection.
“W–What do you want?”
“I want answers,” Dex said angrily as he stalked toward her. “I want to know where my wife is!”
“I don’t know where your wife is,” Cassandra said, her eyes darting around the room as if she could find someone to help her. The building was completely deserted. He knew that for a fact.
“PUP Squad Alpha is protecting her.”
Cassandra shook her head. “No, they’re not. I’d know if they were protecting the pixie queen. They’re…they’re required to report all of their movements to me.”
Dex watched the witch closely, but all he saw was a frightened woman. She didn’t try to use magic to make him leave. Hell, she could almost pass as human.
“But they haven’t been doing that, have they, Cassandra? In fact, even the CO of Alpha Squad doesn’t know where half of his team is.”
“Th–that was n–necessary, but it’s fixed now. Tory said it didn’t matter. That it was fixed now so we wouldn’t need to bring Benjamin up on charges.”
Dex watched the woman shake like a leaf in a hurricane. It didn’t make any sense. The supervisors of PUP squads were usually retired operatives, or at the very least ball-breaking, overconfident assholes. Cassandra didn’t seem to have the skills, confidence, or abilities required to do this job at all.
He decided to try and take a different approach. He might actually get more information from her if he tried to help her figure out what was going on.
* * * *
Dyson waited for Benjamin to answer the phone, but as he said hello, the line disconnected. He glanced at his watch. “It’s two in the morning, should we be worried?”
Benjamin stared at the phone as if willing it to ring again. “To be honest, I’m not sure. Cassandra doesn’t seem to be coping with the job very well. She’s been ringing me at all hours. Maybe she noticed the time and decided to call me at a more appropriate hour.”
“Maybe,” Dyson agreed with a grimace. He’d been pleased for Cassandra when he’d heard about her promotion, but rather surprised by the news. They’d dated for a little while a long time ago, so he didn’t claim to know her all that well, but she’d never struck him as the type to want to be in charge.
Benjamin shrugged his shoulders and gave Dyson a forced half smile. “I guess she’ll call back if she decides it’s urgent.”
* * * *
“Cassandra,” Dex said, dropping the aggression and aiming for sympathetic, “I’m just trying to find out what happened to my wife. She went to PUP Squad Alpha for help and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. I know your job isn’t easy, but I really need your help.”
“I can…um…try,” Cassandra said with a sympathetic smile. The woman really was a soft touch. She fiddled with her pen for a moment before looking at him. “A lot of what I do is…classified, but I’ll try to help you find your wife.”
They began with Cassandra skimming through report after report. At first she tried to hide what she was reading from him, but eventually, she relaxed and let him help her. It seemed that with Dex acting like a friend, Cassandra forgot the meaning of the word “classified.” If that didn’t prove she was out of her depth, he didn’t know what would.
“How long have you been a supervisor here?” He already knew the answer, but he wanted to see how much she was willing to tell him.
“Just over three months,” she said with a tired smile. “Trust me when I say it’s been a steep learning curve.”
“A steep learning curve? How come? Didn’t you want the job?”
“Hell, no,” she said on a deep exhalation of breath. “I was more than happy working in the secretarial pool. I’m not even sure why they promoted me.”
Dex was beginning to suspect exactly why Cassandra had been promoted. She was underqualified, lacked the self-confidence and decision-making skills necessary to do her job properly, and was very easily manipulated. Whoever had moved her into this position had wanted someone they could control.
“What happened to the last supervisor?”
She shuddered before answering. “Turns out he was a serial killer and an imposter. Fortunately, he sent an anonymous e-mail to PUP Squad Alpha tipping them off. It seemed he wanted to get caught after all.”
Or somebody wanted him caught so they could move this sweet, but clueless witch into the supervisor’s position.
“That must have made it difficult to step into his position,” Dex said with a sympathetic smile. “Have you had any help adjusting to your new duties?”
“Oh, yes,” she said with a bright smile. “Tory has been amazing. She’s been so busy trying to protect the Oracle’s receptacles, yet she’s always made time to help me out.”
Oracle’s receptacles? That was the same description Emmallina had used in his earlier dream. He couldn’t remember hearing the expression anywhere before. His wife had also mentioned a witch named Victoria. But that had just been a dream, hadn’t it?
“Tory’s one of the Judiciaries, isn’t she?”
“Yes,” Cassandra said as she finally looked away from the computer screen. “She’s been working tirelessly to find the Oracle’s receptacles. She’s grieved the death of each and every one of them. I’m so glad I was able to tell her that they weren’t—”
Cassandra cut off her words as if she just realized how much information she was
spilling to a man who’d entered her office with the intention of torturing the information from her if necessary. Fortunately, Dex was starting to see the big picture, and this poor excuse for a supervisor had probably just outlived her usefulness.
“Call Benjamin. Tell him to meet us at these coordinates.” He scribbled the longitude and latitude on a piece of paper and shoved it into her hand. “Do it now!”
* * * *
Dyson sighed as the phone interrupted their conversation yet again. Benjamin let it ring two extra times, but this time Cassandra didn’t change her mind.
“Good morning, Cassandra,” he said, apparently hoping that she would get the hint that it was past midnight.
Dyson was able to hear the conversation clearly even though Benjamin didn’t bother to put the call on loudspeaker. “Benjamin, oh thank the goddess. I need help. There’s a man here. He says we have to meet you at these coordinates.” She rattled off the numbers quickly, repeating them three times and asking him to read them back as if he were some junior office clerk.
“Who is the man?” Benjamin asked urgently.
“Should I tell them who you are?” she asked in a whispered voice that came through loud and clear to the fire demon and vampire listening on this end.
A moment later, a voice Benjamin apparently recognized came on the line.
“I’m afraid your administrative supervisor has found herself in the middle of some trouble. I suggest you meet us at the coordinates she gave you as quickly as you can. We have much to discuss.”
“Okay,” Benjamin said in a tone of voice that suggested he was only doing what the man asked because it suited him to do so. “But if you hurt her, Dex, I will find a way to hurt you back. Are we clear on that?”
“Crystal,” the man said sarcastically, “but unfortunately, I’m not the one you should be worrying about. You have three minutes.”
Three minutes didn’t give them enough time. Even driving at reckless speeds they wouldn’t reach the edge of the magical wards that inhibited slip travel. The only way to move inside the wards was via blink travel.
Benjamin closed the line and then dialed another number. “Jed,” he said as soon as the warlock answered, “we need an urgent lift to the edge of town. I’m sorry to ask, but can you wake Lilly, please?”
Jed grumbled a few words, but less than twenty seconds later he, Devlin, and Lilly appeared in Benjamin’s office. “Thanks, Lilly,” Dyson said, smiling at the two men who’d obviously insisted on coming with her.
They made it to the coordinates Cassandra had given them with almost half a minute to spare. Thankfully, Dex and Cassandra stepped out from behind a tree a moment later. Cassandra didn’t seem to be harmed in any way, but she was pale enough to glow in the dark.
“What happened?” Dyson asked before his boss could say a word.
“I’m not sure,” Cassandra said with a shake of her head, “but Dex thinks I’m in danger from Tory. I’m not sure that Tory is behind it all, but he insisted on bringing me to you.”
The pixie king was very obviously annoyed at the conversation going on around him, but he managed to keep his mouth closed long enough for Cassandra to tell Benjamin everything that had happened in her office tonight. Dyson found himself agreeing with the pixie king’s hypothesis. The woman was in serious danger, especially if whoever had maneuvered her into the promotion realized that she was no longer quite so clueless.
“I want to speak to my wife,” Dex said, cutting off anything else Cassandra was going to say.
“Afraid I can’t help you with that,” Benjamin said with a sneer. “Last I heard, you’d signed an assassination order against her. Maybe the PLA can tell you if they accomplished their mission, yet.”
“I know you know where she is. She came to you for help. You wouldn’t have turned her away.”
Benjamin shrugged. “You’re right, if she’d made it to us, we would have helped, but since she didn’t, you’ll just have to go look for her elsewhere.”
“It’s okay, Benjamin,” Emmallina said, stepping from her slip path and into the middle of the conversation. “I need to speak to my husband.”
“Are you certain?” Benjamin asked, apparently not as surprised by the woman’s presence as Dyson felt. Emmallina gave him an unemotional nod and stepped closer to her husband.
* * * *
“Why are you looking for me?” Emmallina asked as she wondered if she was doing the right thing. She’d just confirmed that PUP Squad Alpha was helping her. If she was wrong about her husband’s intentions, she’d probably just brought the attention of one more person likely to try and kill the people protecting her.
“Because I need answers. Why did you betray me?”
“I already explained that in your dream, Dex.” Her husband flinched at her words but didn’t deny knowing what she was talking about. “Do you think the Victoria who poisoned our daughter and the Judiciary who is a threat to Cassandra are the same person?”
“It’s a very real possibility. I believe that Tory influenced the situation to get someone she could manipulate into an administrative position.” Emmallina glanced over at the witch currently sobbing in Dyson’s arms and couldn’t disagree. Cassandra didn’t seem capable of doing the job she’d been given.
“Dex, I need you to look into the evidence against me. Someone set me up. The question is why? Were they trying to destabilize the pixie kingdom, or am I caught up in the conspiracy to kill the Oracle’s receptacles?”
“Why did you leave that night? You did exactly what Cantor said you would do. If you’re innocent, how was he able to predict what you would do?”
Emmallina shook her head sadly. She knew in her heart that her husband still loved her, but as the king his first loyalty would always be to his people. It was what made him such a good leader.
“Cantor knows how much I worry for my children. If he’d had someone watching me, he would have known I would do anything to help Conni.” She stepped forward, placed her hand against her husband’s cheek, and gave him a sad smile. “Conni is alive, but she’s very sick. We believe Victoria used a spell to insert the effects of fireweed into her DNA. It would never have shown up if she hadn’t been reduced to miniature size.”
“Miniature?” Dex asked angrily. “Who did that to her?”
“Someone who was protecting an innocent human,” Emmallina said quietly. Ronan had been protecting the woman he loved from a crazed assassin, so Emmallina felt no anger toward him for the outcome. She blamed only one person—whoever had drugged her daughter in the first place. “Dex, she’s dying. In her miniature form she can’t cope with the fireweed withdrawal. We’ve found a possible cure, but I need your help.”
“What do you need?” he asked without hesitation. Yes, he would always put the welfare of pixie kingdom first, but Emmallina knew he would find a way to help his family at the same time.
“I need to gather every female relative willing to help.”
* * * *
Dyson watched the pixie king and queen talking, but unfortunately couldn’t hear the conversation over the wailing woman in his arms. Cassandra might have been an old girlfriend, but her over-the-top response to the situation was grating on his nerves. It didn’t help that she was wearing a boatload of perfume sickly sweet enough to make him want to gag.
He tried to ease her away from his chest. Maybe if he could get her literally standing on her own two feet, she might manage to do it emotionally as well. But despite his superior strength, she clung tighter, crying louder as he tried to move her away without bruising her.
Benjamin gave him a sympathetic look but didn’t offer to take over.
“Take her back to headquarters,” Benjamin said as they watched the king and queen of pixies hug each other and then continue talking. “I’ll wait for Emmallina and join you there shortly.”
Dyson really wanted to refuse his commanding officer’s order—from memory Cassandra didn’t travel well via slip—but he really didn’t h
ave any other choice. It wasn’t until he reached the outskirts of Sugarvale, with Cassandra moaning and retching thanks to her extreme travel sickness, that he realized he wouldn’t be able to take Cassandra through the Oracle’s receptacles’ barrier until one, or maybe all, of them allowed for it. He grabbed his cell phone, dialed West’s number, and hoped the bear-shifter was in a good mood.
Unfortunately, West wasn’t just in a good mood, he also thought Dyson’s predicament quite hilarious. At least he did until Hannah invited Cassandra to stay with them. Relieved to be able to hand the woman over to somebody else, Dyson cleaned up as best he could, and then waited at headquarters for Benjamin and Emmallina’s return.
As one hour rolled into two, he started to worry that Benjamin had made a tactical error in sending him away. When Lilly blinked Devlin, Benjamin, Emmallina, and at least eight other pixies into the room, Dyson wasn’t certain whether to laugh or reach for a weapon. Ever the soldier, he did the latter, but Benjamin shook his head and smiled as he introduced Emmallina’s three other daughters, her mother, mother-in-law, and three sisters.
“They’re here to try and save Connistanterina,” Benjamin said by way of explanation. He turned to the pixie queen. “If you need anything…”
“I will call you,” Emmallina said, looking hopeful for the first time since Dyson had met the woman. “Do you think Eric would mind being dragged from his bed in the middle of the night? I’d really like to get started straightaway.”
“Eric won’t mind. I’ll call him and let him know what’s happening.”
“Thank you, Benjamin,” she said with an emotional croak in her voice. “Whatever happens, I want you and the rest of PUP Squad Alpha to know that you will always have my respect, and my gratitude.”
Benjamin nodded in understanding, and then the group of pixies followed Emmallina out the door.
“Thanks, Lilly,” Benjamin said a moment before Devlin wrapped his arms around her, and they blinked out of the room. He turned to Dyson. “Where’s Cassandra?”