by Erin R Flynn
“Idiots.” He was quiet a moment. “I was going to bring this up later, but I wanted to say it before risking another misunderstanding between us. I didn’t know you could have an emotional flair with anyone other than fae. Sometimes not even between other fae species. We melded almost that one time, and I thought that was because you’re clairvoyant, but I never thought the rest possible.”
“I’m glad you clarified that,” I admitted. “I was upset I failed you.”
“You never have, Sera,” he whispered. “I have failed you, and I am sorry for my failings. I hope there is a day I can share that with you. I only want you, my love.”
“I want to believe you,” I rasped, covering my head with my arm. “I know we’re doing better, and I want to believe you, Dain. I do. I’m sorry I can’t just switch it back and I’ve got so much baggage.”
“We all do. You have more than most because of all you do, that you do not take the time to heal from so much. You are not that woman who brings old matters up in any fight to win or unable to move on. I agree with Brian that you have so few triggers and pressure points that it’s a fucking miracle with all you’ve been through. I will stand through them all. I was never leaving, and I will never leave you.”
“Okay,” I sighed, wiping my eyes. “Sorry, I feel all over the place. There’s been shit here, now I’m drained on the full moon, and there’s more crazy tonight. I knew this trip would be like constantly being thrown around like clothes in a dryer, but fuck, it hurts to get shot.”
“I know. Come home to me, my love, and I will spoil you as you deserve.” He cleared his throat. “And if Jonik comes with, we will fit him into what we’re building here.”
“I’m not adding men,” I drawled, rolling my eyes.
“I would not mind, you know this. He is a good choice even. His family is horrid, but we know how that is. But he is still used to his nobility ego. I was at court for centuries and locked down some of my impulses.”
It took me a moment to put that together. “Him blurting out why I didn’t want to try with Eugene or upset Luca didn’t try more than a month with me before falling for a panther?”
“Yes, like that. You also lay yourself open a lot more than most fairies would be used to. I found it shocking and overwhelming. In a good way, but I understand how he felt.”
“Why do I feel like you’re explaining him like you’re picking your replacement?” I snapped.
“No, no I am not,” he growled. “If you wish to bring Jonik to your bed or a hundred others, I would never argue against that. I will still be there. I will always be there next to you, Sera. I’m explaining for you, so you understand. Do what you wish with him or never look at him again. I care what you want, and I know that would have confused you.”
“Okay, fine, yeah, I get it,” I sighed, scrubbing my hand over my head. “Maybe keep the talks like that to when I’m by you only. We’re not exactly solid.”
“I apologize. You’re right. I thought to make sure you knew so it didn’t distract you from work, but you compartmentalize better than just about anyone. I should not have brought it up now.”
“Thank you for caring,” I muttered, flinching when the yelling got louder in the house. “I gotta go. I think I’m causing my boss’s divorce.”
“No, that idiot woman will. This is not on you, and you certainly have never acted inappropriately with Galvin. You have flat out told him you don’t touch married men. This isn’t on you.”
“Just everything else. Yeah, I get it.”
“That is not what I said,” he growled.
“I know. Talk to you soon.”
“I love you, Sera.”
“Me too.” I hung up, glad I could at least say that. It was more than I had been. I pushed to stand and almost went right back down, needing to hydrate. I went into the house and gasped when I saw Galvin’s teenage son with a bucket and sponge. “Don’t! I’m a shifter.” I darted over there and waved him back. “Don’t. We’ll get someone to clean it up. Not you, kid.”
“I just wanted to help,” he muttered, rubbing his hands over his head.
“I could use a sports drink if you don’t mind. That would be a huge help.”
“Yeah, we have them in the garage.” He glanced over at the kitchen and then hurried out to the garage.
“Did you hear her? She just warned our son she’s a shifter because he wanted to clean up the blood in our living room, and we’re still in here arguing.” Galvin appeared seconds later and gave me a worried look. “Thomas, you look like shit.”
“How would you feel seeing all your blood all over the room?” I drawled, leaning against the wall.
“Great, now she got blood on the wall,” his wife bitched. “I told you to leave my home.”
I wasn’t the only one who gave her a shit look on that, but I ignored her. “They took in the shooters, but I suggest your family pack and get somewhere else. I’m going to leave the DC team to comb through your office, but we have to get back to New York. Oh, and if you could approve that we used their chopper to get here, that would be great. I don’t have that authorization.” I frowned. “I don’t think.”
“You do,” he chuckled, rubbing his hand over his head.
Sander appeared in front of me and smacked my cheek lightly. “Sera, drink this. You blacked out for a minute. You’re totally dehydrated and need to be full. Not the day to get shot.”
“There isn’t a good day to get shot,” I drawled, taking the sports drink from him and downing half of it in one shot. I glanced around and focused on Galvin’s son. “Thanks for this.”
“Thanks for saving us and my mom even if she won’t say it.”
I winked at him. “I wasn’t busy at the moment.”
“Now she’s flirting with our son,” she bitched.
“Oh god, get me away from her,” I told Sander under my breath. I was seconds from decking her. She was just so, so fucking out there. The kid was like fourteen. No, I wasn’t flirting. For the love of fuck.
I almost felt bad for the local team to have to handle that as the Galvins started fighting again. I didn’t blame the one guy who offered us a ride back to the chopper. Yeah, apparently I was all about getting the fuck out of DC every time I was there.
Well, we picked up a ton of drive thru on the way that I chowed down on the flight.
Then we got the fuck out of DC.
8
“You were just shot,” Brian said again, trying to keep me from leaving the New York office.
“I was. I’m fine. All better.” I rolled my eyes when the others snorted. “I’m hydrating, and I’ll eat some more. I can’t blow off this appointment, Bri. People are waiting and people we don’t want upset. I’ll be back.” I kissed his cheek and hurried towards the elevators.
“Sera, you’ve still got blood all over you!” he called after me.
“I’ll scare the baddies.”
“Or tempt certain vampires,” he snapped.
“I agree with him when he puts it like that,” Carter admitted. He’d switched with the others and was on me for this next fun.
“Yeah, me too,” I sighed, annoyed I didn’t have a change of clothes. We stopped at a tourist stall on the way, and Carter got me an “I heart NYC” sweatshirt. I used the bottle of water and my trashed blouse to clean up on the way to Chinatown. “At least we can get good Chinese for lunch, right?”
“Sure, Sera,” he chuckled, shaking his head at my antics.
We met up with the others a block away from the restaurant the Triad boss owned and everything was run out of. Axel was on me first, fussing over me.
“I’m fine,” I sighed, pushing away from them. “It just clipped my neck.”
“And you cleaned up and changed?” Apollo asked with a frown.
I swallowed down what I really wanted to say. “Yeah, sorry, the dispensary’s closed. I didn’t collect the pints and pints of it all over Galvin’s living room either.” I shook my head and put my badge around
my neck, glad when my ancients did the same. “Everyone wears the gloves. Weapons, electronics, and everything in their pockets goes into bags that get labeled and boxes before they are taken to the airport and transported.”
We headed out, and I made sure I had the warrant visible as we hit the door.
“No one move, this is the FBI serving several warrants,” I announced. I sighed when I saw they weren’t going to play nicely and started reaching for weapons. My power flared out and hit them hard, apparently even my siren tired and not wanting to get shot again. “Fine, we can do it the tiring way. Either way, you’re all fucked.” I read the first name off the list and called him over.
“This is like shooting fish in a barrel,” Carter chuckled as he pulled on gloves.
“No, it’s I already got shot today and I’m fucking pissy.”
“What else happened?” Axel asked quietly as he and his team started writing on evidence bags to help.
“Mrs. Galvin is fucking nuts,” I admitted, taking a long drink from the huge bottle of water I snagged from the restaurant’s fridge. I’d leave money for it. “She never even thanked me. Just called me a whore and accused me of trying to steal her husband. How can people be so blind to when they’re being assholes like that?” I called over the next five when the first were done being searched and restrained.
“Go get the vehicles to help with this,” Apollo told a few of his guys. “Apparently she handled it all.”
“They were going for weapons. The last thing we need is some innocent bystander or little old lady being shot because the mean FBI went after criminals.”
“You need to feed,” Axel muttered. I agreed and kissed him, thanking him when I was done. “I like your sarcasm and snark, but you tend to go extra dark when you need to feed and don’t realize it because there’s so much going on.”
“Yeah, that and Galvin’s so normal, such a good boss. I’m shocked he was married to someone like that. I figured a few comments, fine, every woman gets a bit jealous now and again. Okay, so she’s a bit judgy on shifters because she doesn’t get it. I didn’t get it, but I wasn’t judgy, but still, understandable. This was just—she be nuts.”
“I’m not excusing it, but it was probably seeing you in the flesh,” Eugene said as he started collecting evidence bags into a box. His lips twitched when I gave him a confused look. “Any picture of you doesn’t do you justice, Sera. You are way more gorgeous in person.”
“Oh, thanks.” I finished the bottle and twirled it. “So where are we getting food from? There’s gotta be like a good dumpling place in Chinatown not run by the Chinese mob, right?”
“Yeah, around the corner is an awesome place,” one of Eugene’s guys assured me.
One of the council vamps went and put in a huge order as I called the next five as vehicles started arriving to load them up… And NYPD. The others seemed shocked by that, but I wasn’t, heading right to greet the guy who seemed boss.
“Division Chief Thomas, FBI,” I greeted, holding up the warrant. “Sorry for not giving the heads up and shitting all over any open case files, but it happened fast and there’s some dirt on the situation.”
“With us?” he checked, taking it from me and looking it over.
“Not that I’ve been told, but there’s also a lot of balls in the air.”
“So this isn’t the only raid you got going on,” he surmised, sighing when I nodded. “Not going to tell me though, are you?”
“No, sorry. I don’t know you and I’m not local.” I kept my game face on when understanding filled his eyes, but luckily he didn’t push. “If you got some guys to spare who can fill in some of mine on everything we should be looking for, I’d appreciate it. Our warrant is pretty wide, so I’d hate to miss something.”
“I’ll say,” he muttered, glancing back to it. “All these guys aren’t FBI.”
“No, they were doing some very bad things to endangered shifters, so they go to the council and they’ll get everything from them. A lot less time for your DA to handle it and still get the baddies.” He opened his mouth to argue. “I give good credit though. There will be enough to go around, I promise. I’ve only got so long to get the drop on people, so if you want to tear this place apart, please, have at it.”
“The council doesn’t care about the seizures and photo op,” Axel explained as he joined us. “I thought you called DEA and ATF though?”
“I did, but the guy Atkins knew here and trusted transferred. ATF was more interested in me last time I played with anyone other than the Chicago team, and I really don’t want a repeat of that. We can still do it all as FBI. I’m sort of hoping Havers can direct all of this with NYPD and their local teams when we start clearing them.”
The NYPD guy held up his hand. “I get it. It’s a clusterfuck. I can have my team here help and we’ll go from there. You need to clear them, right?”
“Finally, something to do,” one of the council vampires sighed. “Tell me who to question.”
“Sorry, there are rules and you’re not FBI,” I reminded him.
He nodded he understood and went with a few others to clear the NYPD team. Thankfully they were clean and were a huge help. We were still missing nine guys when we finished with the restaurant… And the NYPD knew where to find them.
The best was when they found a huge hidden safe and were talking about going to get gear to open it. Eugene walked right up to it and punched each of the hinges so the door fell off.
“That was hot,” I told him, smiling when his lips twitched.
“Yeah, it was,” one of the female NYPD agreed quietly. We shared a look and shrugged. Every woman liked a man who just got shit done.
“This is extremely tedious,” Dubois muttered, watching all the hustle and bustle.
“Yeah, it wasn’t my gig. I was bait and undercover. Normally I was arrested with the baddies to keep my cover, so I only did this part as a trainee but limited because they knew they were going to put me undercover.”
“You must have one hell of a fucking resume for that to be how they handled things,” a guy from NYPD chuckled.
“Havers says she speaks thirteen languages,” a voice I knew said. I blinked at Division Chief Sands.
“Not fluently,” I replied, smiling at him. “I only speak nine fluently. The rest conversationally, but I’m okay on a few more.” I reached over and shook his hand. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Well geez, there was a plot to take out Galvin and enough dirt that it reached his security detail. And you got shot. Hell, Galvin called before you even left DC knowing I and my teams were clean and you cleared us. We show up at the main office, and Havers immediately sent us there saying they were still on lockdown so he had no word you weren’t shot again with how the day was going.”
“Yeah, that does sum up the day, but we cleared this NYPD team and they offered to help.”
He bobbed his head, reading between the lines. “But this isn’t your niche. You don’t do all that much with police investigations as division chief of your division and didn’t much before.”
“Nope. I am a damn fine interrogator and much more. I’m boss at working a crime scene.” I smiled when several people snorted at the pun. “Plus, I’ve pissed off enough people today and I’m gonna piss in a lot more corn flakes so, yeah, however you want to roll with this is cool with me as long as Galvin knows. I hate to say we’ll clear the people out and get them gone and you do the clean-up, but… We do take bullets better.”
“If I might offer a suggestion?” Apollo said as he joined us. He smiled politely when I nodded. “I believe the NYPD will need more than one team to help with all the trouble you are causing. If this kind officer would escort some of our people, we can clear them as not being part of any of this. Any found, you can interview later and hand over to their people. The faster you move, the less time anyone has to try and stop this progress.”
“He’s right,” Detective Pratt agreed. He’d already identified h
imself as one of the heads of the gang squad NYPD had. “Yeah, we could do that. I can get you teams from narcotics, vice, homicide, and a whole rainbow of fun.”
“You’re going to need it,” one of the council guys drawled. “We just found enough white stuff that ain’t salt or anything I want near my face to cover the block.”
“You are so much fucking fun sometimes, Thomas,” Sands chuckled, throwing back his head and laughing harder. “I would also suggest NYPD give you any Jane and John Doe information and pictures they have. That was the one thing that would have helped when working with the council since they don’t have access to our databases.”
“I can make that happen,” Detective Pratt agreed. “Let me send three of mine to bring your whoever to clear them so they can get on this.”
“Good, I’m going to head back to the regular FBI and clear people so they can help. How many residences and businesses are we talking for the Triad here?”
Pratt looked at me with wide eyes. “You don’t even know? You just took out a dozen places at least. They have a dry cleaner, a dance club, another restaurant across town, and some super swank apartments and condos.”
I wasn’t the only one who groaned at hearing that. It also meant we needed CSU teams and the labs cleared, as they could help with ballistics and fingerprints. And apparently we were going to have a lot of those.
My day did however start looking up when I arrived at the regular FBI office along with a shit ton of dumplings and really good Chinese food. And a phone call that could help.
“I am bored,” Melicent grumbled. “We are in this horrid place with nothing to do, and it smells as if someone died. The bad wolves have all been sent off, and now that we’ve cleared the rest, there is nothing to do but sit here.”
I bit back a smile, wanting to thank whoever was lobbing me a pitch for once. “I could clear you to come to the FBI office if you want something to do. It’s interesting, but it’s not easy, Melicent. I force them to confess, and it’s entertaining to hear what they also confess, but yeah, I’m going to have to eat and eat some more. I was thinking of making people bring me the best of New York, but really, I’m just going to push my power limits.”