I suddenly wanted to change the subject, to hear him laugh. “And she and Mark don’t get along?”
I got my wish; he laughed a genuine, happy laugh. “No, not at all. When they met, she was seventeen, and he was, well, he was Mark. She told him it was impolite to be so aloof and formal, and he told her young women should be seen and not heard. Ever since then they fight like children. She tells him he should forgive werewolves. He tells her she should learn her place. It’s fascinating to watch.”
“I’ll bet.” Mark was slowly becoming more of a person. I couldn’t imagine how unbearable he’d been a decade ago. “Are there others? Other family members?”
“At least a dozen, you’ll see at Thanksgiving, if we accept the invitation,” he teased me, his eyes dancing with delight.
I squeaked. “Thanksgiving dinner with the whole family? I’m not sure I’m ready for that.”
“Neither am I.” He kissed me with a laugh.
****
We made up for most of the night, and when I went into work the next morning, I wore a smile on my face. Unfortunately, Danny had vastly underestimated the amount of paperwork involved in our case. It was nearly lunch time before I had a chance to look up. When I did, the lieutenant was leaning by my desk.
“Can I have a minute of your time, Mors?”
“Sure thing.” I neatly stacked the paperwork on my side of the desk I shared with Danny. The SIU bullpen ended at the large glass doors to the lieutenant’s office. Before that, a small hallway separated two sides of the room that were perfect mirrors, each held two sets of desks pushed together to make a double partners’ desk, making room for eight of us.
I followed Lieutenant French down the corridor between the desks back to his office and shut the door when he asked me to. As I sat down, my eyes wandered over his fishing lures. They were all elaborately tied fly lures each mounted with a label. Someday I wanted to work up the courage to ask him if these were the ones that had made the best catches or the ones that were too good to use. Behind the desk, the lieutenant sat sipping from his coffee mug, the gold Marine Corps emblem shining in the office light.
“We’re going to have a few openings in the department. Rodriguez requested a transfer, and Markowitz wants to retire early. The werewolf case didn’t go well for us.”
I had spent some very long hours handcuffed to a pipe, dealing with a sadistic werewolf. To say the case didn’t go well for me was an understatement. I nodded.
“I’m left with a department that has an image problem and three openings.”
“Three?” He’d listed two, and I could count the number of people in the room outside of us. Where was the third one coming from?
“We’ve got an opening on the night shift no one wants to take.”
I hadn’t even considered the detectives who worked the night shift. They were like another world to me. They sat at our desks, using the set of drawers on the left instead of the right, so everyone had a private space. Most mornings they made a pot of coffee before they left, for us; just like someone on the day shift would start a pot for them around seven, but really, our paths didn’t cross. It was odd to think of it, people who occupied your exact space an hour after you, and yet you barely even knew their name. I could only name one night shift detective, Ben Auster, the air witch who’d saved my butt once or twice. Whenever the two shifts came together, I looked for him and didn’t bother with the rest of them.
Unaware of my mental diversions, the lieutenant had gone on. I picked up his comments and tried to make sense of them.
“—so given all that, it’s been strongly suggested I hire the candidate from that community.” He gave me a piercing look expecting me to respond.
“I’m sorry, what community?”
“A werewolf, Mors, the brass wants me to hire a token werewolf to appease the public. Normally, I hate that sort of thing, but this guy is pretty good. He’s already on the force—”
“Brown,” I said before I had a chance to stop myself.
“What?”
“Lucas Brown, went through the police academy after high school; worked his way up from beat cop to detective in the sex crimes unit. He’s a decorated officer with experience and good standing in the union. The wolves took him in late July.”
“That’s impressive.”
“Not really, I didn’t realize he was still alive.” It was my case. I should have known. Detective Brown had years of experience and training, there was no doubt he’d be better at the job than I was. I was just a death witch, that might be rare, and it might be impressive to the SIU, but no other department would have given me the time of day. Brown, whatever he was, would have been offered a dozen different positions.
“Cut yourself some slack. I’ve read the medical reports, Mors. You were a little messed up at the end of the case.” I spent a week in a coma with a shattered pelvis and two broken legs. If it hadn’t been for some very skilled healers, I would still be relearning how to walk; messed up didn’t begin to cover it.
“And that’s why you’re telling me about Detective Brown?” I asked.
He nodded. “He starts today, I thought you’d want to know.”
“I appreciate the heads up, but I don’t want to be coddled. If I can’t handle working with the community we serve, I need a new job.” I struggled to get my anger under control. Jakob and I had problems last summer because of something similar. I hated being babied, but I couldn’t lash out about it so I added, “And I’d probably need a lot of therapy, since I’m part of that community.”
It was a lame joke, but the lieutenant favored me with a smile. I appreciated it. “I’m leaving him off the schedule around the full moon; the rest of the time you shouldn’t be able to tell what he is.”
“God knows I can’t figure out what Danny is…” I let my voice trail off hoping he’d give me a hint.
“Really?” A smile played across his thin lips for a second. He laced his long fingers behind his bald head and leaned back. “I would’ve expected it to come up by now, especially with the werewolf thing.”
I thanked him for the warning, ignored his lack of help with Danny’s mysterious heritage, and headed back to my desk. I made more than a few half-hearted attempts at the paperwork in front of me before I gave up and invited Danny out for lunch. I might not want to be protected, but that didn’t mean I wanted to sit around the office waiting for the new guy to show up.
“Why are you buying me lunch again?” Danny asked as we sat down in his favorite Indian lunch spot. He might have grown up in Ireland, but when it came to lunch, he preferred curry, naan, and all things Bollywood.
“There’s a new guy joining the department.”
“The werewolf?”
“You knew?”
“Recognized the name.”
I groaned, of course Danny, who had years more experience than I did, recognized the name. Apparently today was my day to suck at my job.
“Right, so there’s that and…” I scoured the inside of my head for another topic.
“And?”
“And nothing, I’ve got nothing. I’m still not okay with the werewolf thing. Talk to me. What would you do? Say tomorrow a succubus takes the next spot; how do you handle it?”
“I’d do my best to see past the ability to the person.” Danny hated even the idea of succubus. One had eaten his last partner, destroying the man in a way no one could undo. “It wouldn’t be easy. I’d give myself time to get to know them as a person instead of sticking a label on them and filing them away.”
“Sage advice, but how do I put it into practice?” I frowned at my plate as if the mix of leftovers and spice would magically arrange itself into an answer.
“Do your job, let him do his, ignore the rest of it until it goes away.”
“All right then, let’s do our job. Why don’t we touch base with Penny and see what’s changed since our last visit to the Giving Tree?”
“Brilliant idea. But first we’re stoppi
ng by Indigo’s.” Danny grinned.
****
Indigo’s was actually Fantasía Del Chocolate, a chocolate boutique located on the wrong side of town for its decadent wares. Indigo liked it that way. The immigrant population didn’t mind that on certain nights of the full moon he went from being a dark-skinned Latin lover to a dark-furred jaguar. If it seems odd that I have issues with a werewolf on the force but a mild crush on a werejaguar, you’re underestimating the power of his chocolate. Not to mention that once when I’d been really stupid, Indigo had shown up as a mass of muscle, tooth, and claw to save the day.
The picture windows displayed a stunning mix of chocolate skulls, foil wrapped skeletons, and a candy cauldron bubbling with something liquid. Danny asked him about it as we walked inside.
“I have the models for Dia del Muerto; I thought they’d work for Halloween. The windows are really for me these days, most of what I do is shipped out.” His dark eyes glowed with the last fact. I’d set Indigo and Jakob up in July, with Jakob’s money to buy boxes, advertising, and marketing materials Indigo’s chocolates had grown out of the little shop and into the priciest boutiques uptown. Jakob had been delighted to invest in something that didn’t involve lengthy construction delays and permits. My status as “main investor’s girlfriend” was a happy perk. “And what can I get my favorite death witch?”
“Overlooking the fact that I’m the only death witch you or anyone else knows…” I stopped talking as I surveyed my options. The store was designed like an old fashioned diner. A U-shaped counter stood behind a row of stools, and behind the counter were tall refrigerated cabinets displaying more calories than a produce market would ever hold. Standing in the center of the room, I could turn in three directions and see an array of treats I hadn’t known existed until I’d first walked in. “Something decadent, in a truffle.”
He opened the truffle case and named them as he brought them out. “Sea salt caramel” had the tiniest dot of gold on top, “milk chocolate coconut” was decorated with a white swirl, “and last, but never least, extra-dark cherry” whose only marking was a dark X on top. I took my plate with glee while he turned to Danny.
“Do I smell fresh cookies?” Danny asked.
I couldn’t, but Indigo grinned and returned from the back with a plate of three chocolate chip cookies for him.
“And we’ll need a box of brownies to go,” Danny said.
“We will?” I asked, my mouth filled with sweet goodness.
“Yup, for the new guy.”
“I thought we were treating him like everyone else?”
“Nope, you’re treating him like everyone else. I’m being nice.”
Indigo smiled at our exchange and handed over the box while I got out my wallet. I couldn’t really invite Danny out to lunch and then not buy dessert, could I?
“I can see I need to change the subject,” Indigo offered. “Give me a list of cool places to take my daughter when she visits.”
“You have a daughter?” I let my jaw hang open a bit.
“I have two, and a son. The one who is coming is my youngest, she’s only twenty-four.”
Indigo was dressed as he usually was, in skintight faded blue jeans with a white undershirt. His dark curls were pulled back into a stub of a ponytail for cooking, but there was nothing about him that looked his age, eighty-three. He’d mentioned it to me once, but Danny was completely unprepared. “Twenty-four?” He gulped.
“Twenty-four.” He leaned back a bit against the wall and closed his eyes. “Dios Mio, when did she get so big?”
“It’s a gradual thing, probably snuck up on you. Take her to Haroku’s for sushi. She’ll think you’re the embodiment of cool.” I named one of my favorites for dinner.
“Be careful with some of the men in there. I’m hoping it’s a lot less cool by the time any of my girls find out about it,” Danny warned.
Indigo laughed. “I haven’t had a word to say about any of her boyfriends since her Quinceañera. I just don’t want to get written off as old and boring yet.”
“When’s she coming to town?” I asked.
“Around Christmas. She’s on her way up to New Haven. She got accepted at Yale for the winter term.”
“Wow, congrats!”
“Is that safe?” Danny asked. I shot him a dirty look.
“Well, there’s a new vampire that’s cleaning things up. He’s gotten rid of a lot of the bad elements, made things safer. He invited all of us up there actually, thinks werejaguars would help keep things quiet.” New Haven needed all the help it could get. The pretty college town was famous for vampire attacks that left blood running in the street while the police force was too lazy or corrupt to do anything about it.
“You wouldn’t leave us, would you?” I did my best to look stricken.
“Never,” Indigo promised. “Now get out of here, and let me get back to work.”
We headed onto the campus to check in with Penny. The clinic was operating out of the temporary quarters we’d seen on Monday. It was hard to believe that was only three days ago. The place was packed and no one in the makeshift waiting room looked happy. Penny barely had the time to give us the name and phone number of someone who’d called looking for Dara. We called the squad room and got someone to use the reverse directory for the address and drove off.
The caller turned out to be a psychologist who worked with the local hospice. Dara had been under his care, and he confirmed she had leukemia. He wasn’t willing to tell us much else, but hospice didn’t talk to people who had a chance for survival.
Danny gloated for most of the ride back to the squad room that my diagnosis had been wrong. I countered that leukemia was a type of cancer and demanded my piece of pie. Inside the squad room one of the desks was now occupied by a man whose picture I’d last seen on a missing person’s file. He was still barrel-chested and heavy, with brown hair and a nose that looked like it’d been broken once or twice. He was still Detective Lucas Brown. He just wasn’t human anymore.
Danny walked over and placed the light blue box on the edge of his desk.
“Welcome to the department. I’m Gallagher, and this is Detective Mors.” He jerked a thumb in my directions.
“Lucas Brown.” The new guy poked at the box. “What’s this?”
“Brownies for Officer Brown, of course.” Danny grinned.
“Don’t let his bad jokes bother you, he does it to everyone,” I offered with a weak smile. His key chain, a small piece of leather with the silhouette of a bear embroidered in brown, orange, and white horizontal stripes, was sitting on his desk. “I thought werewolves didn’t get along with bears?”
“Sorry I must have missed that part of orientation.” He put the key chain away. “And now there’s no one left to teach me. Guess I’ll have to live in ignorance.”
“We’re fine with ignorance here. Really, ask Mors.” Danny laughed as he went back to his desk. I stood there for a minute trying to come up with something to say.
“Don’t. I know his type.” Lucas smiled. “Have a brownie instead. Assuming they aren’t nasty?”
“They aren’t.” I grinned and helped myself.
I finished recounting the details of our day as everyone else began to file out the door. It was a little early, only six fifty-five, but I didn’t want to be the last and risk getting stuck making the night shift’s coffee. I organized the paperwork in my filing cabinet, taking a minute to look at Dara’s file again. There wasn’t a photo of her. The body hadn’t been suitable for one, and we hadn’t found one in her apartment, so when I looked at the folder, the face that came to mind was the angry fire witch. E, I corrected myself, her face with its collection of sharp angles and its too short boyish haircut, but in my head she still had those solid red eyes. I shut the cabinet with too much force, glad that no one in the room called me on it. She was the first witch who’d challenged me; the first one who was willing to match my magic with hers. I didn’t like it.
I was across
the street waiting on the train when my cell phone chirped to life. I checked the call id and instantly smiled.
“Phoebe! Talk to me girl; distract me from my life.” I was delighted to hear from my best friend in the world.
“Distract? What do you need distracting from?” Her question floated through the air to my ear without any static.
“Remember the fire witch from the arson scene?”
“Got in your face over a nearly dead body?”
“That’s the one. She knows Jakob.”
“Knows him how? Like knows him, knows him?” she asked with deliberate emphasis.
“No.” I shook my head even though she couldn’t see me. “Knows him like she’s descended from him, great-great-great something granddaughter.”
“Really? ’Cause the way you said it…”
“Right.”
“Huh.” She took a minute on the other end of the line, processing the information. “He’s how old again?”
“Six hundred and change.”
“You’ve got to expect a guy to have baggage, Mal.”
“Baggage I can handle. Tiny, little, waif-like women who hug him, I have issues with.”
“You didn’t mention the hug,” she pointed out.
“I’m trying to be a grown-up about this.”
“Give up. Be a baby, let him reassure you, and get over it. Now about me, would you be offended by a race t-shirt showing a witch riding a broomstick? I mean, I know we don’t do that, but the graphic looks great.”
“Not offended, not at all. Back to me. I already let him reassure me once, it didn’t stick.”
“Ask him again. New topic—Anna.”
“Anna?” I hesitated, Phoebe and I hadn’t really talked about Anna since I’d found out she was gay. Phoebe was a strong spirit witch, but she couldn’t read minds. Still, I was glad we were on the phone and not in person.
“She’s having Daddy-issues. We’re taking her out tonight; can you come?”
“Just tell me where to meet you.”
Fire in Her Blood Page 5