The Hallowed Hunt

by Yasmine Galenorn

  She shrugged, then shook her head. “At first I was worried that he might go from comforting her, to…well…something more. But he talks about her like a sister so I guess he truly did mean that he would always be there as her brother.”

  “I don’t think Raven’s ready to date again, and I doubt if she’d think of dating Rafé. You’re safe on that score. But having him around must be like having a little part of Ulstair there. A reminder of the love they had. Raven’s Ante-Fae. Remember, they aren’t like us. They aren’t like either humans or Fae.” I popped the corn into my mouth and opened the cola.

  Angel found a rerun of Legally Blonde, a movie we both loved, and we settled in to watch it. Before it was half over, we were both yawning. Finally I held up my hands.

  “I give up. I’m too tired to finish this. My body hurts, I need some help medicating the cuts on my back, and I may sound old but I just want to go to bed.”

  Laughing, Angel turned off the TV. “I’ll make sure the doors are locked. I fed Mr. Rumblebutt when I was popping the corn. You head upstairs and I’ll meet you there.”

  As I dragged my sorry ass up the steps, once again I thanked the gods that Angel was my roommate. I seriously had my doubts if I’d ever be able to live with anybody else, and not end up wanting to kill them.

  Morning came too early, even though Herne had given us permission to come in an hour later. We decided to drive in together. Angel didn’t bother with cooking breakfast. Instead, she slapped together quick turkey sandwiches that we ate on the way in, and we stopped on the way for her tea and my coffee.

  Herne was on the phone in his office as Yutani, Talia, and Viktor had all straggled in. We met in the break room, waiting for Herne. While we waited, Viktor cleared his throat.

  “I have a personal problem and could use some female advice,” he said.

  Yutani snorted. “You think I can’t give good advice?”

  “On this, no. I think I’m better off asking the women.” He set a box of pastries on the table and opened it. “I brought goodies.”

  “You brought bribes,” I said, laughing as I reached for one of the chocolate glazed doughnuts with sprinkles on it.

  “Can you blame me? I know how much you like your sugar and sprinkles.” Viktor laughed and poured himself a mug of coffee. He poured cream in it, and two spoons of sugar.

  “Speaking of sugar,” Angel said, nodding at his cup.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know. No stones for glass houses.” The half-ogre settled down at the table, brushing his hand over his shorn head. “Okay, will you listen to my problem or not?”

  “Of course we will,” Talia said, picking up a maple bar. “What is it?”

  Viktor sighed. “Well, here’s the thing. You know Erica’s my buddy on the force, right?”

  “Right, she’s an informant for us and a damned good one,” I said.

  “Well, Sheila’s jealous. She’s got it into her head that I’m knocking bits with Erica. I’ve told her time and again it’s just a professional friendship, but Sheila’s convinced we’re doing the deed. I don’t know how to convince her I’m not interested in Erica that way.”

  “First, truth. Are you?” Yutani asked.

  Viktor tossed a rolled-up napkin at him, which Yutani deflected with a quick wave of the hand. “What did I just say?”

  “Seriously. Are you and Erica doing anything you probably shouldn’t be?”

  “No. Erica’s got a boyfriend. And…to be honest, even if she didn’t, she’s not my type. I’m not interested in damaging my relationship with Sheila.” Viktor looked almost insulted.

  “Have you used the L-word yet?” I asked.

  Viktor shook his head. “No, though I’ve been tempted. I guess I’ve been afraid that she won’t feel the same way.”

  “Dude, if she’s worried you’re screwing somebody else, then she obviously cares about you.” I sighed. “I think you’d better talk to her about how you feel before she gets it in her head that you don’t care enough to say the words. Lay it on the table.”

  “Agreed,” Angel said. “If I was seeing someone for a while and things didn’t seem to be progressing, and they hadn’t told me that they loved me, I might be tempted to think they were getting some on the side. Just tell her how you really feel and go from there.”

  “What the girls said,” Talia concurred.

  Yutani laughed. “I think you have what is called a unanimous vote. Talk to your girlfriend. Clear the air. And maybe don’t talk about Erica as much as you probably are. It can lead to all sorts of misunderstandings.”

  At that moment, Herne entered the room, carrying his tablet and a notebook. “Are we all here? Good.” He paused to give me a quick kiss, then poured himself a cup of coffee and grabbed one of the glazed doughnuts from the box. “All right, everybody good to go?”

  “Yes, though Viktor’s mucking up his relationship,” Yutani said with a grin.

  “What?” Herne glanced over at Viktor, vaguely concerned.

  “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it. What did you find at the crime scene?” Viktor waved him off.

  Herne cleared his throat, stopped to take a bite of his pastry and a long sip of coffee, then dove right in. “Councilman Warris was beaten to death by a gang of vigilantes. Apparently, Warris made the mistake of saying that he empathized with those who might be angered by some of the anti-Fae sentiments going around. He didn’t defend the Tuathan Brotherhood or their actions, but I believe the general consensus was that he couched his comments in such a vague way that they could be misconstrued. And, apparently, the vigilantes either misunderstood him, or they were just looking for trouble.”

  “I hate to ask, but any idea of who did it?” Talia said.

  “There were enough pheromones around—excitement level—that we know at least two different wolf shifters were involved. It’s quite possible they just meant to rough him up and then mob mentality got out of hand, and boom.” Herne sighed. “The cops are looking, but there weren’t any witnesses, and the only blood at the crime scene was that of the victim’s. No clear prints, either.”

  “So where does that leave us?” I wasn’t sure what else we could do at this point.

  “Nowhere, as far as the councilman is concerned. There’s not much we can do about that, but we need to keep an eye out for updates.” Herne shrugged. “The mayor is going to hold a press conference today to ask people to calm down, but we all know how likely that is to help.”

  “What have we found out about Dr. Nalcops? What do we know about him?” Angel asked. “He seems to be our primary point to enter this game.”

  Yutani pulled up a document. “He’s from the Dark Court, originally. He was ousted by Saílle for experimenting with unsafe healing techniques that left some of his patients scarred, and worse. He’s taken up private practice over in Port Gamble, and he seems to have an exclusive but small clientele from what I can see. There have been numerous complaints against him but they seem to have stopped about four months ago, and the outstanding complainants quietly settled their cases and withdrew their complaints.”

  “Who paid them off?” Talia asked.

  “That is unknown. The documents were sealed by agreement of both parties.” Yutani looked up from his screen. “Nalcops’ website states he is no longer accepting new patients.”

  “Can you hack into his computer and see who’s on his patient list?” Herne asked.

  Yutani frowned, leaning forward to concentrate on whatever it was he was doing. After a moment, he shook his head. “I looked up the hosting service he’s using and I’ve done a little digging. The front end of his site checks out. Hosted by InterStellar Hosting. But the back end? It’s on the Dark Web. If I try to hack in, whoever is maintaining it will know and possibly trace it back to me. We’re talking guys who rule the internet. However…here’s something interesting.”

  I glanced at Angel. There was a weird buzzing in the room—I could feel it in the base of my neck. Angel was rubbing her head.
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  “Do you have a sudden headache?” I asked.

  She nodded. “It just started a few minutes ago.”

  I turned to Yutani. “Whatever site you’re on, it’s sending out some pretty nasty energy. I know that sounds weird, but—”

  “No, it doesn’t. And you’re right. Whoever is working the back end of this site is fluent in technomagic. There’s an extremely strong magical energy interwoven through it. I’m not even sure if I haven’t already trigged any alarms.” He licked his lips, tapping another few keystrokes. “Come on, princess. Do this for me… There!” He hit a couple more keys and then closed the browser and brought up a file, opening a folder on it. “I found this little gem when I was poking around Dr. Nalcops’ shadow site.”

  He turned the computer around and we found ourselves looking at the image of what appeared to be a poster. It was for the Tuathan Brotherhood. Under the large image of a hawk were the words, “JOIN THE TUATHAN BROTHERHOOD” in bold letters. And below that, a recruitment invitation.

  JOIN THE TUATHAN BROTHERHOOD!

  The Fae Courts have never before banded together, but now we must. There are numerous threats facing our joint races and culture in this modern world. We were once rulers of the countryside, and now we’ve been relegated to taking orders from not only shifters, humans, and vampires, but they have allowed an enemy to our people to join the ranks of government. An enemy who has already tried to strike against us, and no doubt will do so again as soon as they are afforded the chance.

  Join with us, band together in arms, and be proud to work with others of our kind to bring the Fae Courts back to the strength and regality they once held.

  Training will begin on December 17. To apply, visit UnderSurf and fill out one of the online enrollment forms. You must meet our guidelines or do not bother applying.

  You must:

  Be a Fae male, of either Court, under the age of 275.

  Have a standing in your Court of at least “neutral” on the active rolls.

  Be willing to join our recruitment camp for one week, and sign an NDA.

  Be willing to put yourself on the line.

  Strike a blow for Fae Solidarity and join the Tuathan Brotherhood today!

  We stared at the poster for a moment.

  “Well, they’re no longer using the ruse of being a philanthropic organization. I guess that was just to get start-up members into the group.” Herne shook his head. “This is bad.”

  “What the hell is ‘UnderSurf’?” Talia asked.

  Yutani shook his head. “UnderSurf is a site on the Dark Web where organizations can recruit individuals. A data collection site, and also a recruitment/sale site. It records your information and feeds it to the association in question. However, it’s also used to…”

  He paused, then let out a long breath. “UnderSurf is used by human traffickers…not just human but Fae, shifter, whatever the case may be. It’s a sales site where traffickers can record their ‘property’ for sale. In other words, UnderSurf is where the sex slavers and so forth go to list those whom they have for sale. Categories include by race, age, gender, ethnicity, hair color, build—whatever tickles the perv’s fantasies.”

  “So it’s like a warped eBay and SurveyDoll rolled into one,” I said, trying to block out the mental images that were now running through my mind.

  “Yeah, pretty much. There are similar sites where they sell explosives, uranium, guns and ammo, things of that nature. Also one for illicit items—endangered animals, stolen art and jewels, that sort of thing. I think the former is UnderShot, and the latter is UnderWyre. And then, there’s UnderCast. It’s an affiliate site where people can hire dark magicians, sorcerers, whatever they need. Sort of a magical hitman site.” Yutani shrugged. “You can buy or sell just about anything online, including illegally harvested organs, blood, diseases like anthrax. Whatever you’re looking for, it’s out there.”

  My stomach turned a little. The thought of so many people willing to carry out such horrendous acts made me nauseated. Angel looked like she felt just about like I did. Nobody said anything for a few moments.

  “So we have a recruitment for the Tuathan Brotherhood coming up,” Herne finally said, breaking the silence. “We need to infiltrate them.”

  “We need a male Fae willing to go undercover,” I said. “They only recruit men and they have to be fairly young, as far as the Fae go. They’ll spot a shifter right away, and it’s not safe to use a human—they’ll be mincemeat.”

  “Unfortunately, you’re right. And we don’t have anyone here that fits our needs. I suppose I can talk to Cernunnos and Morgana to see if they can help us out.” Herne shook his head. “I’d do it, but they’d know who I am.”

  “You’re not Fae, either. Well, you’ve got Fae blood because of Morgana but I don’t think that’s going to fly.” I let out a long sigh. “So, what do we do? Just wait for them? I can’t help. I don’t have any friends among the Fae.”

  Angel’s voice shook as she said, “We know one of the Dark Fae who might help us.”

  I glanced at her, puzzled. “Who are you talking about?”

  Her voice was so quiet I almost couldn’t hear her. “Rafé.”

  I blinked. Oh crap, she was right. He was Dark Fae. The fact that he was her boyfriend and that suggesting him scared her spitless didn’t escape my notice. I slowly turned to Herne, wanting to shake my head, to stop the suggestion before it went any further.

  Herne caught my gaze. He, too, didn’t look happy, but he let out a slow breath. “What do you think, Angel? Do you think he’d even consider the idea? I’m not about to push anybody into this who doesn’t work for my agency. It’s a dangerous proposition.”

  She leaned her elbows on the table, looking for all the world like she wished she had kept her mouth shut. “I don’t know, to be honest. I don’t like suggesting him, but if we’re desperate…”

  “What does he do? Is he busy right now, or can he come in to talk to us? I’m not saying we’ll send him out, but we need to ask him if he’d be willing, then assess whether he’s capable of handling the risk.” Herne held up his hand as Talia started to speak. “Don’t. Just don’t. I wouldn’t recruit a civilian if we weren’t in deep shit. I’ll go call Mother in a moment to ask if she has a better idea, but unless she’s got a young man in her employ who could do the job, this may be the best way to go.”

  Angel cleared her throat. “Rafé’s an actor and singer. He waits tables during the day so he can attend rehearsals and auditions during the evening.” She glanced at the clock. “He’s working right now at the Oak & Ash & Thorn—a Fae diner out in Woodinville. You want me to text him and see if he can come in after his shift? He gets off around three, because he works the breakfast rush.”

  “Would you?” Herne looked miserable. “I’m sorry, Angel. I’d rather not involve him in this, but unless Mother can think of something, we’re up a creek.”

  “I know,” she said dully. “Let me text him.”

  As she stepped out of the room, looking ready to cry, I leaned forward and hissed. “You just better make sure that he doesn’t end up like Jasper or Menhir. If you break Angel’s heart—”

  “Hush,” Herne said, frowning. “We’ll do everything we can to keep him safe, if we even have to send him in. But you know as well as I do just how important this lead is. We can find out what’s going on in there. And I’ll ask Ferosyn to see if he can formulate something to keep the Ropynalahol from affecting him. If so, then Rafé will be able to remember everything he sees there.”

  “I hope you know what you’re doing,” I shot back at him, still not placated. Angel had made the suggestion without fully realizing the ramifications of where it might lead to, that much I was sure of, and now it was too late to back out.

  Herne gave me a long look, then stood up. “I’ll call Morgana.” He moved to one side, as Angel returned to her seat.

  “Rafé can be here around four p.m. I didn’t tell him why, just that we had an imp
ortant question for him.” She picked up her tablet. “Do you need me anymore? I’ve got work to do at my desk.”

  Herne was on the phone. I nodded for her to go.

  “Go ahead. If he complains, I’ll take care of it.”

  As she left the room, softly shutting the door behind her, Viktor shook his head.

  “I agree we need help, but this is not the way,” he said. “But it’s Herne’s call.”

  Talia wasn’t looking too happy, either, but she kept quiet. I turned to glance at Yutani, but he was completely immersed, studying something on his computer.

  Herne returned to the table. “Where did Angel go?”

  “Back to her desk, and if you’re smart you’ll leave her be. Rafé will be in at four to talk to us, by the way. What did your mother say?” I was hoping that Morgana would have interceded.

  “She’ll look through her staff, but she’s mostly got women working for her right now. She’ll get back to me as soon as possible. She recommended we contact Mielikki, over at Mielikki’s Arrow, to see who’s working on her staff right now.”

  “Send Kipa to ask her,” Yutani said with a snort.

  Herne rolled his eyes. “What a brilliant idea. Got any more, Wile E.?”

  I couldn’t resist a laugh at that. “Oh man, if Yutani’s the coyote, who’s the roadrunner?”

  “Lately, everybody and their brother,” Yutani said. “I’ve been trying to contact the Great Coyote. If he’s really my father, I want to talk to him and ask him why he’s been tripping me into all the shit he has lately. And also to find out why the hell he hasn’t told me that he’s my father.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say to that. It was a thorny subject, and not one that I felt comfortable teasing him about. When Yutani had discovered—quite by accident—that he was the son of the trickster god Coyote, he had come unglued for a bit and just about skipped town. But we had convinced him to come back. Whatever struggles he was dealing with had left him surly and irritable.

  “I’ll call Mielikki today,” Herne said. “As far as Kipa is concerned, I’ve already called him and he’s willing to work with us on this matter once he gets back, though what he can do, I’m not sure. Maybe I can have him go talk to the wolf shifter packs and calm down this vigilante crap.”