Lin’s gaze never left Kevin. “Got a phone call. Checked it out. They have powers, Kevin. Eyes glowing orange and yellow. What have they been up to lately?”
Kevin swallowed hard. “I don’t keep up with their day to day activities. They’re adults now, out of the home. I’m very proud of them both.” It sounded almost like a challenge.
I licked my lips. The air was charged, lots of intense emotions floating about.
Kevin sat back in his chair and picked up his coffee cup. “Good thing you didn’t need anything, Kia. We may not have ever discovered what was going on with the twins.”
This was an old argument and I refused to rise to the bait. Kevin had always resented my relationship with Lin, and insinuating that Lin would put my needs over the twins was nothing but insulting.
Lin and I were together before him and Kevin. We stayed together after him and Kevin. It’s how we worked and anyone trying to get close to either of us already knew that. We never hid anything.
Like me, Lin ignored the comment completely. “Know anything that’ll help?”
Kevin’s lips tightened and his scowl intensified. It didn’t faze me in the least. He was probably just pissed that we wouldn’t give him the argument he so clearly wanted. “They’ve been hanging out a lot on Front street. I don’t know what goes on there.”
Lin stood, probably coming to the decision that there was nothing more to get out of him. “You’ll know when we know.”
Kevin walked us to the door. Hand on the handle, he looked at me. “Let’s hope you don’t have any unforeseen emergencies before then. I hate to think what will happen to my children if you do.”
He gave a fake smile, then slammed the door in our faces. Like daughter, like father, I guessed.
Lin stared at the closed door for a second, and then started down the steps. “Need to check out Front street.”
I nodded. “Well, I’m going to find my partner.”
The chief called before I made it to Boya. I closed my eyes and answered my phone with a sigh, already sure of what he was ready to say.
“You got twenty-four hours to find this killer, Kia, before the First Families take all succubi and incubi off the street.” He sounded both regretful and helpless. “You know how they are. Doesn’t matter how many of you are innocent, as long as they have the guilty one in custody, and no more murders are taking place.”
“Okay,” I mumbled and hung up the phone.
I could almost feel the hands of the First Families starting to reach down and strangle me, and I rubbed a tensed hand around my neck, even though I knew nothing was there.
Once they turned their eyes our way, there’d be nothing that could stop them.
If these killings had been contained to magical creatures only, they wouldn’t be so bothered, but humans had been killed.
The First Families focused so much on keeping the universe balanced and all things in its place that I wondered if something had happened before, that made them value human life above all others.
Either way, it meant that a resident of Morse town didn’t get killed by one of my kind often. Now that they had, though, it was up to me and Boya to find out who’d done it. If not, then all other succubi and incubi would be in danger.
4
Boya called while I was en route, and told me to meet him in an alley on Lee street. Apparently one of his sources had given him some useful information.
I shook my head in awe of his skills. No one knew how to work a contact the way Boya did. I didn’t tell him about the time limit the First Families had imposed, figuring I’d focus that energy on the case and maybe have a breakthrough before my time was up.
The alley was in Winn town and I was starting to sense a pattern. Remembering what had happened the last time I’d walked unguarded into such a place. I powered up immediately, alert for anything out of the ordinary.
I walked down the alley Boya had specified and immediately saw him leaning up against a building, a black cowboy hat covering half his face.
“Is this you being incognito?” I asked.
Still leaning up against the wall, he slowly turned my way. “I wanted to look all dark and mysterious for you.”
I chuckled slightly. “Really?”
He nodded. “Really.”
I ignored that with the wave of a hand. “What we got here?”
He pointed to a small white house on the left side of the street. From what I could see, it looked decent, but a little rundown. “Word has it that they know something.”
Okay. “Did you want to knock? Or…”
He shook his head and then pancaked himself against the wall, pulling me along with him. “According to my contact. There’s a big meeting tonight.” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder toward the house. “These people are supposed to be going.” He looked at the time on his phone. “Right about now.”
A couple of minutes later a door opened and two figures walked out. One male and one female. The guy appeared to be in his mid-twenties, while the woman looked to be pushing thirty. They were both dressed in black, heads down, they walked at a super-fast pace.
Boya called out before they could get too far. “Hey,” he said, walking up to the pair. “Saw this gruesome double murder the other day over in Morse town. Wanna hear all about it?”
Two heads snapped up, teeth bared, eyes shining orange and yellow. “See you on the other side of the Riverwalk,” the guy sneered.
I took a closer look at him and blanched. The pictures on the Hemsworth’s wall… His hair was black now instead of brown and his nails were long and curled.
Though officers had notified him, Boya and I hadn’t had the chance to talk to him yet. “Daryl Hemsworth?” I asked, mouth hung open a little in disbelief. “Did you kill your parents? Why?”
His eyes flashed again. “They saw something they weren’t supposed to.”
I powered up, knowing that trying to arrest him would most likely lead to a fight.
Boya’s fingertips lit up, flames dancing across his hand. I blew energy out of my mouth, forming it into a ball, ready for one of them to make a move.
Boya took a step forth. “So, they saw you like this and you killed them?”
Daryl didn’t look one bit sympathetic. “Never really liked ‘em anyway,” he smirked. “Besides, Rome wouldn’t like that. Them knowing what they shouldn’t.”
I didn’t know who this Rome was, but figured he was the one controlling them.
I bounced the energy from one hand to the other. “Or you didn’t want them to get in the way of your ‘Riverwalk’?”
The woman narrowed her eyes and pulled on Daryl’s shirt. “Come on, Daryl. Rome wouldn’t like this.”
“Did Rome order you to kill your parents because they became a threat to your Riverwalk?”
A slight flinch. Slight, but still there and so I kept pushing. “Maybe he’ll have you murder your grandmother next.”
He jumped at me, much like Gull had when he’d escaped from us the day before, and that explained the frog spit that had been left behind at the murder scene.
Chris, didn’t have frog DNA, though, so this had to be the absorbers doing. Why though? I didn’t have time to ponder it farther as I needed to protect myself from his attack. I threw a powerful ball of energy, knocking him against the wall so hard that a few bricks crumbled behind him.
That would have killed a normal man, but Daryl apparently was no longer a normal man. It did stun him, though, but then he was up and lunging again.
The woman looked on, wringing her hands and mumbling “Rome won’t like this.” Repeatedly.
Boya pointed one of his fingers and fire leaped from his nail and wrapped itself around Daryl’s neck. The other man fell to his knees choking and gagging, trying hard to remove the flame.
“Rome says to kill anybody that gets in the way.” The girl’s eye’s flashed, and before I knew it, I was on the ground looking up at the stars. This bitch! I recognized her energy as the
one who’d blasted me in the alleyway the day before.
No way was she going to get me again. I’d made a mistake the last time in trying to search out where she was coming from. This time, I simply laid still and focused.
It only took a second, and I knew she was coming up behind me. I raised my hand and knocked her back with a power blast before she could advance any further.
Knowing how fast she could move, I hurriedly jumped onto her prone body. She’d been stunned, but her eyes flashed the minute I touched her.
Not wasting time, I opened her mouth and proceeded to suck out enough of her life force to subdue her.
I licked my lips when I finished, feeling a powerful sensation that flowed through my veins and over my whole body.
Hmmm. I hadn’t expected this much of a boost. I’d never known a human to have this much power. I wasn’t even sure how her body could contain it, but that spoke to the skill and knowledge of the absorber involved.
That was something to think about later. For now, I cuffed her and turned to check on my partner.
Boya stood above Daryl, who had an impressive rope burn on his neck and whose eyes were fixed and staring.
I gasped at Boya. “Did you…?”
Boya pulled a card and a few other items out of the man’s pocket. “Come on, K. What kind of dragon do you think I am? I didn’t kill the boy. I just stunned his ass.”
Realizing how tired I was, I rested my back against the wall and pulled out my phone. “I’m going to call in a cleanup crew. Me and you, we have to get to Lin.”
He paused in his searching. “Why?”
I punched in the number to our chief. “Cause we are all working the same case.”
He looked at one of the cards he’d pulled out of Daryl’s pocket. “This is marked with today’s date, but the only thing it says is ‘Riverwalk’.”
I advised the chief of the situation and assured him we’d wait until help arrived. “No address?” I asked Boya after I’d hung up the phone.
He playfully tsked at me. “Come on now, babe. You didn’t expect them to do all the work for us, did you? Where’s your sense of adventure?”
I still hadn’t caught my breath yet, so he could keep his adventure. “I think I’ve had enough for one day,” I said dryly.
We needed to talk to the First Families. Riverwalk was where they lived and there had to be a reason that Daryl, Misha, and the others kept mentioning it.
We met up with Lin on Clay street, which was the closest we could get to Riverwalk, without causing the underlings and bodyguards of the First Families to blast us.
I wrapped my arms around myself, a small shiver passing through me. It gave me the creeps being here. I came from a First Family, and even I couldn’t just walk into Riverwalk whenever the mood struck. “How do you want to do this?” I asked Boya and Lin.
Boya looked to Lin and I shook my head, not understanding their dynamic at all. Any other time Boya would have jumped right in with some outlandish plan.
With Lin, it was almost like he was scared of disappointing the other man. I briefly wondered how they were in bed together when I wasn’t around. I could’ve just intruded on their thoughts, their sexual thoughts that is, but I tried not to pry into other people’s minds unless I absolutely had to.
I shook my head trying to clear it. Now wasn’t the time, and no way did I need to know the things they did when I wasn’t around.
Lin turned his attention to the sign that stated where Spray ended and Riverwalk began. “Misha still reads as human. What about the two in the alley?”
I thought about it and realized that’d probably been the reason they’d been able to sneak up on me. “They read human too.”
Lin looked toward the sign again. “We can’t get closer. They can.”
Yeah, they could. Something about this resonated with me. I thought about it for a second, turning the pieces over in my mind. They’d all mentioned Riverwalk, there had to be a reason why.
We all knew that humans could drive straight up to the entrance. They’d be politely turned away, but they were never physically harmed, and those who guarded Riverwalk would never use magic if the person read human.
Boya shook his head in disbelief. “So this Rome character figures he’ll get into Riverwalk using these super powered humans? For what? To make a move on the First Families?” He pulled out his phone and walked a few steps back. “I’m going to call the chief.” Which is exactly where my thoughts were going. Of course, they were going after the First Families. The only question was why.
Lin seemed preoccupied with the glowing screen in his hand. “How do you want to play this?” I asked him.
He held up the gadget he’d been staring at. “Put a tracking device on Mitch’s car. It’s stopped between Craighead and Industrial Avenue.”
I shuddered just thinking about it. Craighead was filled with warehouses. The things that went on in some of them was probably better left in the shadows. There’d be hundreds of energy signals there too, too many for myself and Lin to handle alone.
I picked up my phone and begin to punch in numbers. “I’ll call Ninia and Steva and tell them to meet us there.” I only had to talk for a minute for them to understand and agree to help.
Boya hung up his phone. “Chief said not to engage until backup is available.”
I thought that was a good idea. Especially since we didn’t know how many assailants we were dealing with. “Ninia and Steva are on the way. We need to meet them there. Try to at least find where Rome and his crew are. Maybe get some kind of count.”
I opened the car door, ready to get back in, when a powerful signal stopped me cold. I whipped around, powering up, Boya and Lin doing the same.
A man stepped out of the shadows. He was dressed in plain black slacks and a brown shirt, but his eyes were drawn tightly together, his face mean and hard. “You’ve been here over ten minutes. Why?” His voice was brittle and his stance like that of a brick house.
Lin was the first to answer. “Got word of a threat against the First Families. Came here to warn them.”
The man didn’t even flinch. “Leave.”
Boya stood up straighter. “We’re not at the mouth of Riverwalk. What’s the problem?”
The muscle man’s hands turned to claws. “Leave.” He said it just a little more forcibly this time and I took a step back without even realizing.
I tried to reason with him. “Look, just a heads up, there are some humans running around, infused with a whole lot of power. If you let them get close enough they could do some real damage.”
He didn’t look impressed and I didn’t know what else to say to make him understand. I had one last thing I needed him to know. “You can tell the First Families that it wasn’t a succubus or incubus doing the killings. It was just made to look that way. The super powered humans work for a guy named Rome. He’s the one who orchestrated this whole thing. No Cubus hands got dirty this time.”
I knew that probably wasn’t enough to save us from them, not if we didn’t have proof, but at least it was a start. I slipped into the passenger side of the car, my eyes on the muscle man the whole time.
His face gave nothing away, but I had felt a slight spike in his energy signal when I’d mentioned the name Rome.
Whether they knew about this new danger or not, the name Rome wasn’t foreign to them. I raised a brow at Boya and Lin, letting them know that I had something.
Boya hopped into the driver’s seat then changed his mind and sat backwards out of the rolled down car window. He placed his hands on the hood. “Well, I guess we’ll go do your job for you then.” He scooted back in his seat and I shook my head at him.
“You just can’t help yourself, can you?”
“It’s why you love me, dear.” He ran his hand through the back of my hair and pulled me in for a soft kiss. “Come on, let’s go kick this Rome guy’s ass.”
5
Ninia, Steva, and Iscca were already there search
ing when we arrived. Ninia held her hands out in front of her, focusing her energy. “There’s a lot of weird shit going on here, but we haven’t found any yellow-eyed humans yet.”
Steva’s claws twitched at his sides. “Saw an orgy over there.” He pointed to another warehouse. “A wedding ceremony in there.” He hooked a thumb. “Dude has an office set up in that one.”
I reeled at the enormity of it all, but we weren’t vice agents. That was somebody else’s ground to cover. Tonight, my only concern was keeping my kind save from the unfair roundup and persecution of the First Families.
Ninia walked toward the right. “I feel humans.”
I laced hands with her and together we used our powers to reach out and search for the signal that humans gave off. The thing that helped us was that regular humans never really entered Spray, and so if we found any, it had to be the super-powered ones.
Boya walked forward. “Chief said to wait for back up. I’d say you three are back up.” He pointed to Ninia, Steva, and Iscca. “Lin?”
Lin powered up. “Mitch’s there. Probably Misha too. I say let’s go.”
Boya looked at him like he’d just gifted him the moon, the sun, and the stars. Lin’s faced softened under the scrutiny, and without warning, he pulled Boya in for a quick kiss. Their foreheads touched for a moment before Lin pushed him away, both breathing hard and licking their lips.
I watched with interest. These two together were a mystery to me. Boya melted like a stick of butter whenever Lin was around, and even I didn’t have that effect on him.
At least I didn’t think I did. I cleared my throat. “If you boys are finished, I’d like to get this over with.”
We fanned out in six different directions. I’d probably searched for about ten minutes when I came across a large brown warehouse set off in the back, sandwiched between a small tin one and another brown one. The energy signal was huge, a lot of them humans. I think I found it. I communicated to Ninia.
A Magical Reckoning: Magic and Mischief Book 1 Page 23