by B N Miles
“Got it.” Cassie moved off, but Jessalene hesitated.
“Do you think they know?” she asked.
He shook his head. “We’ll find out. These guys are fucked if they don’t play ball.”
She nodded once then turned and trotted off after Cassie.
Jared moved back into the room, took out his phone, and called up Wyatt.
“Sir,” he said when Wyatt answered. “I have a room full of Goblins that needs some attention.”
Wyatt chuckled. “Caught them already?”
“Wasn’t too hard, it turns out.”
“I’ll send backup. Text your location. How many we talking here?”
“Eight,” he said. “One of them tried to shoot me.”
“Idiots. Guess they’re going down hard.” He hung up the phone.
Jared looked at the group for a long moment. They glared back, sullen and silent. They were all short, bald, and pale, with sharp teeth and beady eyes. But their faces and shapes were all different. Humans sometimes thought all Metas were the same because of how similar they looked, but that was far from true. At the same time, Metas tended to think humans all looked and acted similarly as well. It was about being familiar with a group of people before their distinctions became clear.
“I’m going to give you all one chance,” Jared said. “Backup is on the way. When they get here, you will all be truly fucked, thanks to your asshole friend over there.” Jared gestured at the Goblin with the bloody nose. He stared down at the ground.
“What do you want?” Mondo asked.
“Wen Bet. The Elf. How are you all involved?”
Nobody spoke. Not even Mondo.
“And Arman,” Jared pushed. “How is he involved with you all? Did he hire you to grab that Elf?”
Again, nothing but glares and silence.
“If you don’t talk, things are going to get bad,” Jared said.
“Sorry, Marshal.” Mondo just stared back at him. “Some things aren’t worth talking about.”
Jared frowned at the group. He’d never known Goblins to be particularly brave. Really, he’d never known anyone to stand up and face down a serious charge like attempted murder before. Maybe they didn’t get it, but based on the way they were staring at the ground, he thought they did.
Which meant that whatever or whoever they were working for scared them more than going to Meta Max Prison for a long time.
He turned and walked back to the doorway just as Jessalene came trotting back. “Nothing,” she said.
“Shit.” Jared clenched his jaw as the Need hit him hard at the sight of Jessalene’s body. “Where could he have gone?”
“I don’t know. But I bet those Goblins do.”
“They’re not talking.”
She gave him a look. “You’re a Magi. Get creative. I bet we could get answers.”
“We’re not torturing them,” he said. “Even if I want to.”
She made a noise. “Come on. Magi do that sort of stuff all the time.”
“I’m not a Magi anymore,” Jared said, anger spiking. He glared at Jessalene and she looked away.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have… I know.”
“Yeah. It’s fine.” He looked away. “Just doesn’t feel good to realize you think of me that way.” He stepped back into the main room as Jessalene stood there for a long moment before slipping away again.
“Lover’s quarrel?” Mondo asked with a sneer.
“Talk again about anything besides the Elf or the Vampire and I promise you, I’ll change my mind and ice you first.”
Mondo grinned but said nothing.
14
Cassie and Jessalene came back a few minutes later, empty-handed and confused. “There’s no other exit,” Cassie said as she sat down next to Jared. “It’s like he vanished.”
Jessalene hung off to the side, glaring at the Goblins, but not speaking. Jared sighed and rubbed his eyes. He had a headache, and the Need was pounding at his skull, making him want to rip off Cassie’s clothes and take her right then and there. She put a hand on his knee and leaned against him.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Fine.”
She kissed his cheek. “We’ll take care of you later.”
He glanced over at Jessalene. “Not sure there’s a ‘we’ right now.”
She followed his gaze and frowned. “What happened there?”
“I’ll tell you later.’”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Jared. I’m not having any sort of discord in our little paradise, so you better make nice with her.”
“I will,” he said with a sigh. “Just not right now.”
She shook her head and went to argue, but the sound of sirens cut her off. Jared stood and walked back to the front of the building to direct backup while the girls watched the Goblins.
Once the uniforms arrived, things were out of Jared’s hands. The Goblins were arrested and carted off, and the whole building was given a thorough search. They didn’t find anyone, not Arman or anything illegal. As far as Jared could tell, the building was once used as an auto parts store, but it had gone out of business and was empty until the Goblins showed up.
Definitely a safe house. He’d seen enough of them in his time to recognize it. He just didn’t know why it was built, where it had come from, or who owned it.
Too many questions, and every time he felt like he was close to an answer, it danced just out of his grasp.
The Goblins were taken to the local precinct. Jared drove with the girls and parked out front, but before he was able to get out of the car, Cassie put a hand on his shoulder.
“There’s tension,” she said, looking back at Jessalene, who was sitting in the back seat, staring out the window. She turned her head just a bit toward Cassie. “I don’t like tension.”
“Ask her about it,” Jared said.
“Real mature,” Jessalene shot back.
“What’s going on, you two?” Cassie frowned between them. “Seriously.”
Jessalene didn’t speak, just looked out the window again.
“She wanted me to torture the Goblins back there,” Jared said. “Wanted some answers. I can empathize with that, but I told her I wouldn’t do it. That’s when she said Magi do that sort of thing all the time, so I should be fine with it.”
Cassie took a sharp breath. “Jessalene. Did you really?”
Jessalene didn’t speak.
“Jessa,” Cassie said, softer. “Come on. I get you feel cornered, but just talk about it, okay?”
Slowly, Jessalene turned her head at them. “I’m angry,” she said.
“I get that,” Jared answered. “But—”
“You don’t get it,” she snapped. “Those Goblins, these people, they’re directly coming after my clan. They’re stealing our land, and they’re destroying our way of life. I may not have been born in this place, but it’s become my home. This is personal for me, Jared.”
“I know that,” he said.
“So I’m angry, okay? I’m really angry. And I pushed too hard.” She paused, frowning. “I’m sorry.”
“I know you’re angry,” he said, voice low. “I want you to be angry. But I’m not a monster, and it hurts that you think of me that way.”
“I know you’re not a monster.” She looked down at the ground. “I don’t know why I said it.”
“Thank you.” He took a breath and slowly let it out. “It’s just something I’m aware of. The whole Magi thing. And there are things in my past I’m not proud of.”
She looked up and tilted her head. “We all have that.”
“Yeah, we do. But mine are…” He trailed off and looked ahead, out the front windshield. “Cassie, I know you don’t know this, but when Magi come of age in this world, they’re recruited into a semi-military entity called the Fist of Men. Every Magi joins the Fist, it’s the true might of the Magi.”
“Every Meta knows about it,” Jessalene said, her voice low.
/> “All the families contribute?” Cassie asked. “I mean, the Bechtels aren’t part of the big nine families, right?”
“Every Magi family contributes,” Jared confirmed. “It’s a right of passage, but it’s also the way the Magi keep control. Even the families that aren’t part of the nine want to keep the status quo. And joining the Fist is a good way to win prestige.”
“So you served,” Jessalene said. “I thought so. I mean, I figured.”
“Did some things when I was a Fist. Things that weren’t… it wasn’t fighting. Well, I guess it was, but fighting in the way that flying over some rural village and dropping nukes is fighting. We slaughtered.”
Both girls were silent.
Jared closed his eyes for a long moment and felt the Need battling his horrible memories. He could still see the other Magi with him, walking side by side as they torched the landscape in front of them. A tall man named Byron, his fingers splayed, laughed as acid poured down like rain. To his left, a thin woman with long hair flicked fireballs with casual motions of her wrist, a smile plastered on her face. Screams lit up the night. Fire, lightning, ice, and earth ripped through trees, buildings, and bodies. Corpses littered the ground, and he was laughing along with them, a deep belly laugh. He took more priori into himself, felt like he might burst from it, as he floated up into the air. More lightning snapped around his hands, and he watched as a group of huddled shape-shifting Kelpie splintered into mixed gore and ash.
He opened them again and looked back at Jessalene. “That’s why I hate being called a Magi. And there’s a reason I turn to shields and ice first. The things I did in their name… I won’t do those things again. I’m not going to be that monster. If I don’t have to kill, I won’t. But I will protect what’s mine.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know.”
“I know.” He forced himself to smile. “It’s okay. When it comes to me and the Magi, there’s just a lot of baggage.”
She smiled back. “I get that.”
“I get it, too,” Cassie said. “I have baggage too. I bet our combined baggage would crush this car!”
Jessalene laughed. Jared smiled and tilted his head toward her. “Truce?”
“Truce,” she agreed. “I am sorry.”
“It’s okay. I know you were just angry.” He reached out and she met him halfway, taking his hand in her own. “I promise we’ll find Wen Bet or whoever took him. We’ll stop them.”
“I know.” She smiled. “I trust you.”
He squeezed her hand then let it go.
“Goddess, what a beautiful moment,” Cassie sighed. “I swear, my heart’s beating so fast right now. You two are so perfect. I want to kiss you both right here, but I’m afraid Jared will burst.”
Jessalene blinked at him. “You’re feeling it?”
“Used a lot of magic back there,” he grunted.
“Oh,” she said then brightened up. “That means—”
“Yes,” he said, clenching his jaw. “Yes, it does.”
She grinned. “Wonderful. There’s nothing like a good, hot, sweaty threesome to solve all our problems.”
He groaned and pushed the car door open. “I swear, sometimes I feel like I’m just a magical fuck boy for you two.”
“Oh sweetie, you are,” Cassie said. “But we love you.”
“We do,” Jessalene said.
Jared got out of the car, shaking his head, and walked to the precinct.
15
“I have to admit, the little guy really doesn’t want to talk.” Captain Wyatt crossed his arms and shook his head. They stood in a small room, dimly lit and warm from the electronic equipment buzzing around them. On a flat screen monitor in front of him, Mondo sat alone in an interrogation room, one leg crossed over the other, looking bored as he drummed his fingers on a metal table.
“He looks comfortable,” Jared said.
“Like he’s been here before.” Wyatt shook his head. “But we don’t have much on him. Speeding tickets, a misdemeanor for public drunkenness ten years ago, but that’s it.”
“Huh. So he’s clean, but he somehow looks comfortable in an interrogation room.” Jared frowned. “How does that work?”
“No clue,” Wyatt admitted.
“Who talked to him?”
“So far, just me and the detective on this case.”
“Who was assigned?”
“Detector Malloy,” he said. “Not a bad one. I’ve worked with him before.”
“I should go in and talk to him.” Jared glanced back at Cassie and Jessalene. “I think they should come with me.”
Wyatt followed his gaze. “They don’t work here,” he said. “Regulations are pretty clear on that one.”
“I know, active investigation, all that. But they’ll help. I think Mondo is a little afraid of them.”
Wyatt snorted. “For good reason.”
“I can deputize them if you want.”
“Fine, go ahead. You’re doing the paperwork.” Wyatt stared at the computer monitor. “It’s odd how little I’m hearing from upstairs.”
“What do you mean?”
He didn’t speak for a long moment. “Well, there’s been chatter this whole time, from the very start. But now that we have a viable lead on the missing Elf, suddenly it’s… silence.”
“That worries you.”
“Yeah, it does. Worries me a lot. Makes me think we hit on something big, and someone’s freaking out big time.”
“Captain, I can—”
Wyatt held up a hand and shook his head. “No. You do your job, Jared. It’s my job to try and shield my people from all the shit up above our heads. I’m the shit umbrella, so to speak.”
Jared grinned. “Never heard that one before.”
“That’s because it just came from my brain. Now go talk to our Goblin.”
Jared nodded and gestured at the girls. They followed him out into the hall, and he led them to the interrogation room door. “Okay, here’s the plan,” he said. “Jessalene, you’re at the table with me. Cassie, you stay by the door and look menacing.”
Cassie smiled, her big, round eyes sparkling. “I love looking menacing.”
“She’s terrible at it,” Jessalene said. “I should be the menacing one.”
“No, you need to be there to ask questions,” he said. “You two are the bad cops and I’m the good cop. Understood?”
“Do I get to cuff you later?” Cassie asked. “You know, abuse my authority.”
Jared sighed. “Anything you want.”
She laughed as he pushed the door open and stepped through. Mondo looked up, but he didn’t seem surprised as Jared walked over to the table and sat down. Jessalene joined him, and Cassie lingered near the door. Jared glanced back at her and she was standing there, her arms crossed, looking stern.
It was the least intimidating thing ever. He almost wanted her to shift instead.
“All right, Mondo,” Jared said, turning back. The Goblin looked at him for a second but didn’t speak. “How many guys work for you?”
He frowned. “You picked them all up.”
“That was your entire crew?”
“Sure. Like I said.”
“Interesting.” Jared leaned closer. “My understanding is a Dryad worked for you sometimes.”
“Ah, he comes and goes,” Mondo said. “He’s not part of the crew, not really. Just picks up some hourly work, you know?”
“Sure, but why would a Dryad want to do landscaping?”
Mondo laughed. “I can’t tell if that’s a serious question.”
Jared drummed his fingers on the table as Jessalene leaned forward. “You don’t get this at all, Mondo. You and your people are in deep shit. You all assaulted an officer of the law. That means jail time, and a lot of it. That means Meta Max.”
Mondo blanched slightly at that, which was interesting. Jared knew Meta Max had a reputation, but most Metas never really thought about it. Mondo seemed to have some intimate kno
wledge of the place, just based on his reaction alone.
“Meta Max isn’t so bad,” Jared said. “You might get a cell with only two or three other Metas. Can’t say if they’ll be friendly, but the guards won’t let you get killed, at least.”
“I’m not afraid of prison,” Mondo said.
“You might not be,” Jared agreed. “But I bet your employees are. How into this whole thing were they? Did they know you’re working with the Medlar family?”
Mondo looked surprised. “Medlar? I’m not involved with any damn Magi family.”
“Sure you are. We both know it. You’re really going to try and defend some Magi?
“I’m not kidding around,” he pressed. “I’m not involved with any Magi. Never talked to no Magi, never got paid by one.”
“But you are involved with someone then,” Jessalene said.
He shut his mouth and glared at her.
They sat in silence for a minute. Jared watched his posture and had a feeling he wouldn’t last much longer. The tough-guy act was just an act, after all. Mondo was scared about his future, just like anyone would be.
“We can help,” Jared said softly. “I’m the officer you assaulted. My word will hold a lot of weight. You want to avoid the worst of Meta Max? Give me something useful.”
“What do you want?” Mondo asked, and his voice sounded resigned.
“Wen Bet. The Elf. How are you involved? Why were you on the Dryad land, why were you at his house?”
Mondo closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. “I want assurances.”
Jared glanced at Jessalene.
“What kind?” he asked.
“I want to make sure my people don’t go to Max. You can send me there if someone’s gotta go down, but none of my employees do hard time.”
Jared sat back, a little surprised. He expected something more self-serving from Mondo, but maybe he had misjudged the Goblin a little bit.
“You want to take the fall for them?” he asked.
“I’m willing to do what’s necessary,” Mondo replied and put his hands flat on the surface. “But you gotta make assurances.”
“Okay. I’ll do my best to keep your guys out of prison. At the very least, they won’t go to Max. Can’t say the same about you, unless you tell me something good.”