by R. L. Naquin
These women were pro-level thieves. I lowered the lid and locked it, then slipped it under the jeans and closed the drawer. As much as I wanted to take the box with me, they needed to be caught with the stolen items in their possession. This was huge. I had to tell Tahm. I had to call Tyrell. Somebody needed to take these ladies into custody.
Petty theft was not something I knew how to handle. I was a soul chaser. I was a reaper. I was only an OGRE as a temporary measure, and even that I wasn’t sure of anymore, now that the real OGREs were in place.
I slipped out of the room and closed and locked the door. Ash saw me and followed me down the stairs to my room, where I told her what I’d found.
“What do you think I should do?” I sat cross-legged on the bed and fiddled with the fringe on the bedspread.
“Maybe we should tell Miss Angelica?”
“Maybe we should.” I sighed. “I don’t want to spook them.”
The door, which I’d left open a small crack, swung wide. “Spook who?” Tahm hadn’t made a sound coming up the stairs.
I waved him to come in. “Close the door.”
He shut it behind him and sat in the chair. “Okay.”
“You know how things keep being...misplaced lately?”
“Sure.”
“We found them.”
He shifted in his seat. “Okay.”
It made me a little nervous that he was only giving me one-word responses. “You’re not going to believe this, but it’s not the leprechauns. It’s the elf sisters.”
He stared at his hands for a long moment, not saying anything. Finally, he pulled his gaze up to meet mine. “Have you told anyone else?”
I shook my head. “We’re talking about that now. We should probably let Tyrell know about it. I guess we’re still OGREs, so we could just arrest them and take them to him, but we can’t exactly fit them in the front of the truck. It barely seats the three of us. Should we tell Miss Angelica first? She’d probably rather we didn’t make a fuss. It wouldn’t be good for busin—”
Tahm held up both hands toward me. “Stop. Kam. Please. I need you to stop a second and listen.”
I closed my mouth and tried to play it his way. “Okay.”
“The first night we were here, I lost a lot of money.”
Ash and I exchanged a knowing look. “I’d suspected,” I said.
“Yeah. Well, I shouldn’t have. I was on fire. The cards were on my side. I was reading the room. I couldn’t lose.”
“But you did.”
“But I did.” He nodded. “I was pretty bummed until Buzz and Finn took me aside.”
“No.” I threw my head back. “Tell me you didn’t trust a couple of leprechauns.”
“You’re pretty quick to judge leprechauns. Maybe you should think about that.” His sober expression wasn’t reflected in the teasing look in his eyes.
“Uh-huh.” I waved at him in impatience. “What did they say?”
“They’d been following the elf sisters for months. Not only are the girls stealing from other guests, they’ve also been running a scam at various games and tournaments run by the Hidden.”
I scratched my head. “So...what’s that got to do with the leprechauns? Why would they care?” I frowned, thinking. “The Leprechaun Mafia sent them, didn’t they? The girls are scamming in mob territory and not paying dues.”
“That’s exactly right. And they asked me to help them.”
“Why would they do that? And why in the hells didn’t you tell us about it?”
“Look, they swore me to secrecy. They approached me because I’d lost so much money and, I guess, because I’m a big guy and they needed a little muscle. They plan to take the girls in as soon as they have enough proof.” He put his hands together as if in prayer. “Please don’t blow this. I was afraid to tell you because they might leave me out of the loop if they suspected you knew. I need to know what they’re doing so I can save the elves from being turned over to the mafia.”
“They’re stealing from the guests. That’s enough for us to get them arrested and taken into custody. You know, by the good guys, where they can’t be touched.” Gods, I hated leprechauns.
“I’m trying to find out where the leprechauns are holed up so Tyrell can raid it with his guys and clear it out.”
“Wait. So, are you telling me Tyrell knows, too?” Heat rose from my skin, and my eyelids burned with the embers building in my pupils.
“I was going to tell you once it was safe.”
My voice was as cold as my skin was hot. “Once it was safe?”
“I didn’t mean that. I meant, once my cover couldn’t be blown.” He held still, as if waiting to see if I’d fly across the room and punch him.
I took a deep breath, counted and let it out. “I understand. You got caught up in all the intrigue and the gambling. You can’t keep secrets like this from the team, Tahm. You can’t keep secrets from me. We can’t be a team if we’re not honest.” I let that last statement settle over him. When I said “team,” I meant the one with Ash and Poor Dead Pete. But I also meant us. I held his gaze a long time so he’d understand.
“You’re right. I’m sorry.” He broke eye contact and looked back and forth at both of us. “Will you keep it quiet until it’s time to arrest them?”
I gave him a sharp nod. “You have my word.”
Chapter Sixteen
As pissed as I was at Tahm for not bringing us in on the leprechaun sting operation, I understood his reasoning behind it. But I couldn’t let him make a habit of going behind my back either in our roles as soul catchers or in whatever our future personal relationship held.
I did, however, intend to give Tyrell an earful the next time I talked to him.
Except, when Tyrell called the next day, it completely slipped my mind. “We have a lead.”
“What?” I stretched and yawned, trying to get my bearings. With nothing left for us to do but wait for the convention, I’d let the team sleep in. I, at least, had still been asleep when my phone rang.
Tyrell spoke quickly in his excitement. “You know that post office box you found out about? I called Gardenia Appleton to see if she might remember anything about Felicia receiving the invitation. She didn’t know about the agreement with Sister, but she remembered taking the envelope to mail it for her daughter.”
I sat up and ran my fingers through a knot in my hair. “I suppose it would be too much to hope that she has a photographic memory and remembered the box number.”
“Not photographic, no. But she noticed it because it was one number off from her childhood phone number.”
I let out a breath. “Holy moly. That’s lucky.”
“Let’s hope Sister wasn’t as smart as she thought. Or that she just relied on people being afraid of her. She put a real address on the paperwork for the post office box. With any luck, it’s her house.”
I was out of the bed and standing, though I didn’t remember getting up. “You’re kidding me. Are you going? Are we going? When do you want to go?” I spun in a circle, trying to find pants and a bra. I had to pee. And tell Ash and Tahm.
“How fast can you get here? We don’t know what or who she is, so we’ll go together, your team and mine.”
I’d found jeans in the corner where I’d flung them the night before and hopped on one foot to pull them on while I held the phone in place with my shoulder. “Give us an hour?”
“Yep. See you then.”
I zipped and buttoned, then ran into the hall to bang on both doors. “You guys, wake up. We have work to do.”
A moment later, both of them came up the stairs behind me.
“We’ve been up for an hour.” With one hand, Ash held up a bagel slathered with cream cheese. The other carried a cup of coffee. “Thought you might like some breakfast, so we snagged this before Angel c
leared the table.”
“Awesome. That’ll save time.” I took the food from her and led them into my room so I could sit and eat while I told them what Tyrell had said.
Ash clapped her hands. “We’re going on a raid. That’s so cool.”
“And dangerous.” Tahm’s forehead wrinkled in concern. “Are you sure this is a good idea? We have no weapons or training.”
I stuffed a bite of bagel in my mouth and talked while I chewed. “Dude, we’re djinn. We are weapons. When did you get so...careful?” I’d been about to say wimpy but changed my mind. No need to antagonize him so early in the day.
“You’re the boss, I guess.” He looked away.
The I guess part rankled, but I continued to eat without taking the bait. He was so lucky he was cute. And he did have a valid point.
I swallowed and took a gulp of hot coffee. “When we get there, we stick together, understood? Nobody goes off on their own. And we’re the second line. We stay behind Tyrell and his team. I’m excited to be doing this, but I do see we have limits.” I gave Tahm a pointed look. “Okay?”
He nodded. “Okay.”
“I’m going to need a few minutes to get ready, then we can go.” I swallowed the last of the coffee to wash down the last of the bagel. “Okay. Go team! I’ll meet you both downstairs.”
Tahm left the room looking like the parent of a teenager who was out past her curfew. I wanted to tell him not to worry so much, but I knew it wouldn’t help.
Ash grinned at me and gave me a high five. “Finally we’re doing something interesting.”
I smiled, but inside I was nearly as worried as Tahm. “I hope it’s not too interesting.”
* * *
We met Tyrell and his team in the parking lot outside the sushi place. His team wasn’t as big as I’d expected. Or hoped.
An actual ogre—always a good choice on an OGRE squad—named Greta and a yeti named Paul were all Tyrell brought with him. If we counted Poor Dead Pete, our team was bigger than his. But between the minotaur, the ogre and the yeti, we definitely had some muscle on hand.
“I got a call while I waited for you to come out.” He looked like a rubber band ready to snap and hit someone in the eye.
“Not a good one, I assume.” I wanted to hug him or comfort him in some way, but there wasn’t much I could do. SWAT teams didn’t hug before a mission.
“Jyll’s assistant, Tracy, is missing.”
“Oh, no. What do you mean, missing? How long has she been gone?”
He snorted and scratched his ear. “She didn’t show up at work yesterday. And she hasn’t answered any of Jyll’s messages. Nobody’s seen her in two days.”
I rubbed my temples in tiny circles. “You think Sister’s got her?”
He nodded. “Apparently, she was waiting on her costume.”
“So, she was one of them.” I’d been afraid that might happen. The list had been incomplete. It had only shown people who worked at the craft store. I knew there had to be more. Jyll had made the list, but apparently, she didn’t know as much as she thought she did.
“Jyll said she hadn’t known Tracy had been doing business with Sister. The costumes hadn’t been as over-the-top as other people’s were. And Tracy had never breathed a word of it until two days ago. She came clean because she was scared. Jyll emailed us a photo of Tracy, but unless she’s in that house, I don’t know where to begin to look for her.”
With the stakes higher than we’d originally thought, we split up and went to our vehicles. Tyrell’s team piled into their van, and we followed in our truck all the way across town. The three of us drove in silence, none of us wanting to admit we were probably in over our heads. At least Tyrell and his people had guns and massive bulk. That was a little comforting.
But seriously, we were after one person. One very clever person who’d killed a lot of people, but still only one person. The six of us could take her, whatever the hell she turned out to be.
When I pulled up to Sister’s house, I was impressed. All those costumes had provided her with a comfortable lifestyle apparently. Or she was simply loaded and created costumes for fun. Either way, the house was huge. I parked the truck in the circular drive behind the OGRE van and hopped out, since Tyrell and his people had already done so.
Apparently, we were going to bust our way in, stealth be damned. It was all about the element of surprise.
I heard humans had to jump through hoops and struggle through red tape to be allowed to do something like that. We didn’t. Our government was a lot less involved in the process, as long as it got done. And with the possibility of a hostage in there, we weren’t going to sit around waiting for a warrant.
Tyrell, Greta and Paul pulled out their weapons and barreled right through the door without even checking to see if it was unlocked. I admired this sort of quick decision-making. Of course, if we had the wrong house or we were all shot, I might not admire it so much five minutes from now when we were all bleeding to death or being eaten by angry Chihuahuas. Or apologizing to the owners of the house we’d smashed into.
I glanced at my team to be sure they were still up for this. Ash gave me a nervous thumbs-up, and Tahm gave a quick nod. We darted in behind the OGREs into the entryway.
The inside was all faux marble and stark white pillars. Statues of mythical creatures were tucked into alcoves, and blankets with pink unicorns hung from the walls. The faux marble I could understand. This was a big house. Corners had to be cut sometimes. But the decorator hadn’t even attempted to find decent duplicates of the tapestries that would have been a better fit. Instead, the cutesy throws on the wall were what might be found on the back of a sofa for when feet got cold during a movie.
They looked soft, at least.
Further in, we found a spiral staircase. Tyrell nodded to Paul, and the yeti eased up the steps, weapon at the ready.
Past the stairs, the room opened into a more traditional family room, though it was twice as big as what I’d seen elsewhere. Here the statues were taller. A bare-breasted woman held an urn on one hip. Another stood frozen in laughter by the fireplace. A third, on the way into the dining room, kneeled with her hands steepled, looking up to the heavens in prayer.
“Shit.” Tyrell crossed to the kneeling statue and pulled up a photo on his phone.
“What’s wrong?” I trailed behind him.
He turned, sorrow in his eyes. “Does this look like her to you?” He held up the phone.
A mousy girl with narrow cheekbones and thin lips stared out from the photo. She wasn’t familiar. I followed Tyrell’s line of sight. He was staring at the statue of the girl in prayer. Same narrow cheekbones and thin lips.
“Shit.” I pressed my hand over my mouth. “You don’t think that’s actually her?”
He held the photo up next to the statue’s face. Tahm and Ash moved in behind me.
“That’s her,” Ash whispered. “Holy crap. What could possibly do such a thing?”
I covered my face with my hands. “Oh, no.”
Tahm put his hand on my shoulder. “What?”
“Snakes. Statues. Do you see any mirrors in this house?”
Tyrell fumbled and nearly dropped the phone. “Gorgon. Dammit. Everybody out!”
Greta stood across the room, her eyes wide. “Paul’s still searching upstairs.”
Tyrell tapped the screen on his phone. “Everybody keep your eyes down. If something moves, do not look directly at it.” He put the phone up to his ear. “Pick up, pick up.”
A phone rang ahead of us. When we reached the foyer, the phone came tumbling down the stairs. I started to look up, but Tahm covered my eyes and led me toward the door.
With the front door only a few feet away, a deafening crash came from directly behind us. I didn’t need to turn around. The marble face of a yeti I’d only met a half hour before slid acros
s the door and landed at my feet. Paul had gone upstairs to search, and she must’ve found him before he’d found her. She’d turned him to stone and pushed his statue down into the atrium.
As we made our way out the door, the sound of a hundred hissing snakes faded behind us.
* * *
Three hours later, we came back. Tyrell brought four more people, including Marlene the centaur receptionist. This time we were eight, and no one would be wandering off on his own. Tyrell’s team would search in twos. Mine would stick together as a single unit of three.
We piled out into the circular driveway, each studiously looking at each other’s feet rather than at the house. We had no idea if she was still in there. Or if she was lurking outside, ready to spring out from behind a tree and turn us all to granite.
There hadn’t been enough of us the first trip out—especially after Paul the yeti was killed—to keep an eye on all the exits while we waited for backup to arrive. We had no choice but to abandon the house and come back more prepared and hoping she was still there.
Ash was the one who figured out how to protect ourselves. I’d never make fun of her again for carrying around that damn manual and spouting trivial facts from it.
Tyrell nodded at Ash. “Good job with the research.” He opened a plastic bag and held it out to the crowd. “Everybody grab a pair of glasses and put them on. Do not, under any circumstances, take them off.” He turned to me as I accepted three pairs and handed two to Ash and Tahm. “You sure your team can handle this?”
I shot a questioning look at my apprentice and trainee. They each gave me a sharp nod in return. “We can handle it.”