Marked By Lies: A Reverse Harem Series (The Marked Series Book 1)

by Paige Orr

  “I can get that, but that doesn’t explain why you think a human can do any better than a Fae. You have to admit that I wouldn’t usually be a choice to help out one of the supernatural factions since you guys have people that are skilled with these things. That’s not to say I won’t do what I can, I just don’t think you should get your hopes up that I’ll find anything new.”

  “At this point, we’re willing to try just about anything. If word gets out to our people about this, it’ll cause a panic that we can’t afford. Fuck, we’re even working with the Seelie to find this fucker, which is unheard of.”

  “Alright, I need any information about the people who have gone missing. Their home addresses, where you think they were taken, and lists of any enemies. As I said, I won’t promise anything, but I’ll try.”

  “That’s all we’re asking, Miss Greene. Anything you can find out will be more than what we’ve managed.”

  With that, Zaphyr and Morpheus begin to fill me in on any information they have on the situation, and we spend the next hour talking about different theories on who could be behind it. Before they leave, Morpheus writes down a list of the missing Fae from their side along with their home addresses and promises to send me the information on the missing Seelie Fae as soon as Cailean sends it to them.

  I walk them to the door, promising to get in touch if I find anything before walking back to my desk. This shit is far from simple and already I can tell that it’s going to be a long day. The fact that they’ve kept things quiet when so many of their people have been taken or worse is beyond me.

  Knowing that I’ll never be able to do this on my own, I decide to call Nika and ask her to come over so we can see what can be done. If anyone can dig up any dirt on these Fae, it’s her, and finding out their secrets hopefully will be the very thing that leads me to their kidnapper. I just have to hope that they’re still alive, I would hate having to tell Zaphyr to tell their families that they never made it. Nika answers after a few rings, her relief clear as day.

  “I see you’re still alive! I’ve been worried sick waiting on your call.”

  “Well, you can call off the lynch mob. In fact, I need you to come over. This shit is bigger than we ever could have imagined and I’m never going to be able to do it alone.”

  “Shit, how big exactly?”

  “Forty missing in all from both sides. I don’t want to say too much on the phone, I’ll fill you in properly when you get here. You’ll need to do some super sleuthing because if the fucking Prince can’t find a thing, I don’t see me having much luck.”

  “Right, I’ll be there in thirty. We’ll figure something out, you know I wouldn’t leave you to deal with something this big on your own.”

  With that, I hang up and lean back in my seat. I don’t even know where to begin with this shit. What I do know though is that if those Fae are still alive, they most likely won’t be for much longer, which means I don’t have a lot of time. This is why I hate Fae and their stupid sense of pride. If they had just got outside help before now, then maybe they could have stopped this shit already.

  It’s still early afternoon, but with how long the list sitting on my desk is, it’ll probably take me well into the night to thoroughly search these houses. I slide the paper across the desk to study it and decide to group the addresses that are close to each other together to save some time and make things easier on myself.

  I have no idea what I should be looking for but maybe that’s the whole point of hiring me. Maybe a fresh set of eyes that isn’t so close to the case will be able to find something, even if it’s only small. I remember the ghost and an idea comes to mind and I turn towards him. As soon as my eyes land on him his face lights up with a grin making me feel like shit for ignoring him for so long and he makes his way over to the desk, jumping up and floating just above the surface.

  “So, what’s your name?

  “Call me Grey, that’s what my nickname was when I was still alive.”

  “Alright then, Grey it is. You said last night that you wanted to help me, right?”

  “Yup! Believe it or not, but floating around when no one can see you gets boring real fucking fast. There is a reason I’ve been drawn to you so I might as well have some fun, help bust some bad guys while I figure out why.”

  “Yeah, I have no fucking idea why ghosts are drawn to me so I can’t help you there. What I wanted to ask you is, do all you ghosts like to speak to each other, or do you have any other ghosts that you trust?”

  “Well, just like you meat bags, we make acquaintances while wandering endlessly. Why?”

  “Would you and a couple of your… acquaintances be able to check out some of these addresses and see if you can find anything out of place? It could be something small but maybe there is something that links the properties together.”

  “Sure thing boss lady, just leave the list on your desk so we can check we’re going to the right place. We’ll take the top ten, you take the bottom.”

  “Alright, sounds good to me. Thanks, Grey I know I haven’t exactly been pleasant to you but once I finish with this case, I’ll find out more about why I have such a connection to ghosts for you.”

  “It’s okay. It couldn’t have been easy having me pop up all the time. I’m going to get started on this list, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

  With that, he fades away, disappearing to go talk to his little ghost friends, and I sit back and wait for Nika to get here. Hopefully, we’ll be able to find something that can link the victims in any way. There has to be a reason why the attacker has chosen these specific Fae, and I intend to find out exactly what that is. I pull my laptop closer to me, waking up the screen, and decide to check through social media to see what I can find out about our victims.

  I’m nowhere near as computer savvy as Nika, but it doesn’t hurt to give it a try. You never know the answers might be staring us right in the face and the Fae didn’t even realize it. I start at the top of the list, making my way done and getting a feel for each individual, but what I find leaves me feeling frustrated.

  The victims don’t run in the same circles; they aren’t connected on social media, and from what I can see they are each loved member of their communities. I suppose I was pushing my luck, thinking that it would be so simple to solve. I could always visit Adelaide to see if she can help, but I hate making her feel used like that. Lately, it seems like I only turn up to ask her to do something and leave again. I wish I could just go visit her like I used to and spend all day talking about the latest gossip.

  I know I’m probably just thinking too much about it, especially since the last time that I spoke to her she told me that this journey would be filled with hardships. Which can only mean that she has seen more of my future than she wanted to admit?

  Sure I don’t want to know if the Grim Reaper will be coming for me soon, but if she can even give me somewhere to start my investigation, it would be a huge help. Having a plan in mind, I decided that once I speak to Nika, I’ll head to Adelaide's shop to see what she can tell me before going to search the properties on my half of the list.

  Just then a knock comes at my office door and Nika struts through without waiting for my reply. She’s lucky I fucking love her because I’ve had about enough of people just barging in. I shoot her a tired smile as I motion her to the chair across from me and wait until she’s settled. Sliding the list across the table, we both get started to see what we can find out about this mystery.

  Chapter Ten

  Cailean

  Another one fucking gone! I can’t believe this shit. Whoever the fuck is behind this is upping his game, and whatever that means can’t be good. On top of that, I still haven’t heard a word from Zaphyr about if his little helper is willing to help us or not. Every second that ticks by with me sitting on my ass doing nothing is another second that this sick fuck could be hurting our people.

  Zaph was always rather self-absorbed, but surely even he understands how impor
tant it is to act quickly in this situation. The longer we take to pull our heads out of our asses and get a move on, the less likely we will bring anyone back alive. Already it’s highly unlikely that the first ones taken are still alive. Depending on different factors, they will either be dead from starvation, or on death's door because of malnutrition.

  I know the gossip that goes around the rumor mill about me. I’m an uptight bastard who never takes a moment off, but those are the types of sacrifices that have to be made to protect my people. So sitting around twiddling my thumbs and waiting on someone else is fucking driving me stark raving mad.

  All we’re doing is wasting time and giving this bastard every opportunity he needs to take more of our people. With each new report, it’s like a giant fuck you, and I just know that the fucker is laughing at us chasing our tails for answers. None of it even makes sense. Why would anybody want to take over forty Fae, and what the fuck could they be planning to do to them.

  Maybe I’m looking at this all wrong. Since one person was being taken at a time up to three times a day, I’ve been working on the assumption that only one person is committing the crime. Over the years cults have popped up around the world, but their main goal has usually been to wipe the Fae out completely.

  They’ve never gotten very far with their absurd plans, but it’s another avenue to look into. If it’s a larger group of people, then that could explain the excessive number of kidnappings. I hate to say it, but if the numbers had stayed on the smaller side, then we probably wouldn’t have even noticed that something was wrong. I hate to be thankful about any of this shit, but at least we know what's happening because of how many have been taken.

  Now that I’ve got another avenue to explore though, I can look into previous books we have recovered from cults that we had to disband in the past. Just maybe I’ll be able to find the reason behind why this is happening. From there, I might be able to figure out why these specific Fae are being taken and stop it from happening to anyone else.

  It doesn’t do much for those who have already been taken, but I’ll deal with that hurdle once I have more answers. This could be the very breakthrough that we’ve been needing, and at least I’ll have something to do that could help. Mind made up, I reach forward picking up my phone and calling Eli. thankfully it doesn’t take him long to answer and he’s close enough that he can be in my office in the next ten minutes.

  Finished with the call, I pull the files that have taken over my top drawer out and place them in front of me. I go through each file with a renewed sense of hope, and I’m so lost in what I’m doing that I don’t hear Eli until he clears his throat. I jump in my chair, swinging my wide eyes up to him, and give him a sheepish grin.

  “What’s up Cail, did you find something on the disappearances?”

  “Nothing concrete, but what if we’ve been booking in the wrong place this whole time?”

  “What do you mean? There's not exactly been anything left behind that could give a clue about where to look.”

  “That’s exactly what I mean we’ve been too narrow-sighted in our investigations. We keep thinking that this is one person acting alone, but what if it’s not?”

  “You mean you think that it’s a group that’s doing this?”

  “Not just a group, but a cult. We haven’t always killed all the members of these cults, so what if they’ve banded together and brought even more people in? Think about how many Fae are missing and tell me it’s not a possibility.”

  I give him a moment as he seriously thinks over what I’m trying to say to him. I understand why he’s so hesitant to think that it could be true, but that’s exactly why I think it could be. This is just about the only thing that we haven't looked into, and we won’t know if it’s something we can discount until we look into its property.

  “Alright, I can see why you think it could be important to look into. So what is it you need me to do?”

  “For starters, can you get someone to bring any scrolls or books that we have confiscated from previous raids on the cults? Once they are here, I’m going to need help to read through them all. There’s bound to be quite a few to look through, and we can’t waste anymore time.”

  “Okay, I’ll get someone on that right now. And Cail?”

  “Yeah?”

  “We will find whoever is responsible, and then we will make them pay for the hurt they have caused.”

  With that, he turns on his heel, leaving the office to grab the closest person to collect what we need. I knew talking it through with Eli would help me look at everything from a fresh perspective, and I’m glad that I did. Things are much clearer now, and even though it won’t tell us where our people are, it will bring us one step closer.

  When he comes back, he’s trailed by a line of our people with arms filled with boxes. They pile everything up at the side of my office, and to say the amount of shit we have to work through is daunting would be an understatement. I have the thought that it could all be worth it in my mind to help drive me though, so wasting no more time I collect the first box, placing it onto my desk.

  Eli retakes his seat across from me and we both pull something out of the box, getting to work right away. In front of me, I have a book bound in what seems to be a skin of some sort, with symbols that are only ever present around the cults inscribed on the front. With any luck, we will find something useful in these.

  We scour over book after book and scroll after scroll. Getting more frustrated as we go. After an hour, I sit back in my seat, scrubbing my hands down my face. At this rate, we’re going to be here for days and the thought of what could happen in that time makes anger burn through me.

  I pull my phone across the desk, checking it for the fifth time and still having no messages from Zaphyr I decide to give him a call. I don’t know why I agreed to work with this unreliable bastard. I thought that he would have been able to put his grievances aside for the sake of his people, but instead, he’s gone off to do fuck knows what. When he finally answers the phone, I have to take a deep breath to stop myself from screaming at him in my frustration.

  “Yes Cailean, Have you found something?”

  “No, I fucking haven’t! I have a theory I’m working on, but more importantly, what the hell is happening on your side?”

  “You always were so impatient. I’ve only just left my little detective’s office. She has agreed to help us as much as she can, she just needs you to send me the names and home addresses for those who have been taken from your side.”

  “And why the fuck would she need that? We’ve already thoroughly investigated each of their homes and found nothing!”

  “Yes, but having someone with a fresh set of eyes and less of a personal connection might turn up something new. Let her do her investigations, you never know, she might actually figure this shit out.”

  “Fine! I’ll have Eli send you the information that she needs. I want to know who your friend is though, you might trust her, but I don’t know a damn thing about her!”

  “I’ll send what I know through to you. I have to get going now, we have our own theories to work on. We will keep you up to date on what we find.”

  Before I can even answer, he’s hung up and I groan before throwing my phone back onto the desk. That man is fucking infuriating! He better fucking hope that this woman can turn up something useful, otherwise I’m going to need to knock some sense into him.

  It’s bad enough that we are working with an outsider on this, but letting her riffle through these homes is going to be difficult to explain to the worried families. I wish he had spoken to me before agreeing to anything with her, we’re supposed to be working as a team after all! Turning to Eli, I find him looking at me questioningly and start to sill him in.

  “Zaphyr needs a list of all of our people who are missing and their home addresses. Apparently, this detective he has working for him needs to check out their homes.”

  “I'll send it to him right away. You know he has a point t
hough, an outsider might spot something that we wouldn’t. It's worth a try if it helps us find them, don’t you think?”

  “I know that. I just don’t like the thought of someone I don’t know, looking through my people’s private spaces.”

  “Well, let’s just hope that she’s as good as Zaphyr thinks she is.”

  With that, Eli gets all the info that Zaphyr needs together as I pull the book I was in the middle of, back in front of me. Before I can start reading though, my phone chimes with a message and when I open it I find the information about the woman. Sliding my phone across the desk to Eli, I tell him to check her out before finally turning back to the book.

  Time isn’t on our side, and I can’t waste anymore time wondering about something I can’t change. I have to focus for my people, because if I can’t solve this then they’ll never trust me again, and to bring about the change our people need, their trust is a necessity.

  Chapter Eleven

  Melissa

  I stand outside Adelaide’s shop, taking a moment to get myself together before heading inside. I’m not exactly looking forward to this conversation. I know she won’t be surprised to see me, but I also know that I’m in for a lecture after I didn’t take her warning seriously. I should have known better than to ignore what she told me, she’s never steered me wrong in the past, and I doubt she would start now.

  Being a seer takes its toll on Adelaide, which is why I don’t ask for her help unless it’s something that I have no hope of figuring out myself. I’m worried though that getting her involved in this mess could put her in danger. She’s the closest thing to family that I have, and I would hate to be the reason that she got hurt.

  Making my way through the familiar path of her shop, I make my way into the back room and over to the globe. I remember the first time that Adelaide ever showed me this part of the store, and the wonder I felt at her secret passage. At the time I was in love with mysteries, and the fact that there was an entire part of the shop hidden behind a bookcase.