Forbidden War (The Intern Diaries Book 3)

by D. C. Gomez

  “That’s a great start, Shorty,” Katrina told him sweetly.

  He grinned, and I thought he might fly away under her praise.

  “Are you up for a little detour?” I asked Katrina.

  “Best lead we’ve had,” Katrina answered. “It’s not like the vamps are planning to do any sightseeing during the day.”

  “Wait. We have vampires in town?” Shorty asked, looking around nervously.

  “Yes. They are staying at the other convention center,” I told him. “Make sure to warn everyone you have in that area and pull back at night. I don’t want any accidents happening.” I really didn’t want any of our people to fall for their tricks and end up becoming someone’s dinner.

  “Boss lady, that’s too easy.” Shorty grinned. “Anyone we need to worry about in this one?” He pointed at the hotel.

  “We got elves in that one,” I told him. “They are just as dangerous as the vampires. Make sure people watch, but do not engage. Got it?” Most people never paid the transient population a lot of attention. I didn’t want them to become collateral damage in case a war broke out in town. For the Reaper team, they were family.

  “Boss-lady, are you going to be okay?” Shorty asked, concern etched into his tone.

  “I got super soldier with me.” I pointed at Katrina. “I’m pretty sure she can take them.”

  Katrina gave Shorty another million-dollar smile and he took a step back.

  “If the boss-lady is looking at you for back-up, it means you are a bad ass,” Shorty told Katrina. “Cause the boss lady is as tough as they come. I can’t mess with you. You could kill me with a spoon.” He gave Katrina a quick bow and headed back to his truck. “Call if you need me boss lady,” he yelled right before he took off.

  “I knew you were pretty tough, but how bad ass are you?” Katrina asked me. “If being told that I’m tougher than you makes me hard to date, you are the Queen B.”

  “Get in the car before I leave you here,” I told her, and she started laughing.

  If she could make jokes again, I knew she was at least in a better mood. However, I wasn’t sure I liked the jokes when they were at my expense.

  The drive to downtown from the Hilton’s convention center was an easy one. At this time of the day, most people were at work or school. Texarkana also didn’t have a traffic problem. We just had crazy drivers that refused to follow traffic signs, and Shorty was the main culprit. The way people were driving today, I wondered if Shorty had opened a driving school in town and nobody told me.

  I had Katrina call Bartholomew for me on our way to the City Hall lofts. I wanted him to check the records of the building for anything unusual and find out who the current residents were. I was pretty sure Noah didn’t have friends or family in town.

  It took us less than ten minutes to get to the loft. The building was located right behind City Hall on the Texas side. I wasn’t sure why anyone was nervous of downtown. That part of town had more cops roaming the area than anywhere else, a fact that made me jittery. Last thing we needed was to get arrested for trespassing.

  Since Ladybug stuck out a little too much for me to park in front of the loft, Katrina and I parked behind the TRAHC building and walked over. We made our way to the building as casually as possible. Katrina looked around, pretending to be a tourist. I knew better, and I could tell she was memorizing the area in case a quick escape was needed. We made it to one of the side doors of the loft building, hoping we hadn’t attracted too much attention.

  “Boss lady,” a male voice I didn’t recognize called from across the street. Katrina and I had to struggle to see him. The guy came from the shadows of the building and made his way towards us.

  “He is good at camouflage. That boy should be in the army,” Katrina told me under her breath.

  I had to agree with her. Our informant was great at hiding.

  “Hi. Do you have anything to report?” Shorty had given me a specific script to follow when I interacted with his team. I made sure to stick by it. It made them feel better. I thought it was a bit crazy, but who was I to judge.

  “Our guy came in last night,” our informant said after he crossed the street and joined us. He was average height and build. Nothing distinct to make him stick out in a crowd. I knew the dirty clothes and greasy hair were a disguise since he smelled of Dove soap. Bob had very strict rules for those who worked for him. “I have been watching this door on and off. We were supposed to get more people to watch the other side, but right now we are short due to the new mission.”

  Hell’s door was starting to affect our information flow.

  “Did you see anybody else with him?” I asked our stealth informant.

  “Nobody, boss lady,” he answered, his eyes roaming. “A few of the ladies saw him walking down Texas Boulevard yesterday afternoon, but he was alone then, too. Should we be looking for someone else?” he asked me in a concerned tone.

  “Yeah. He should be traveling with a pretty girl, probably blonde, maybe around my height,” I told him, and he studied me carefully. Those were vague descriptions, but I had no idea in what condition the princess was in.

  “I will pass the word around, boss lady,” he told me.

  I knew the whole underground would be looking for the girl hanging out with Noah. At least they only had orders to observe, otherwise poor Noah would be going down. He had better pray we don’t tell them to attack.

  “Thank you. Great work,” I told the informant. “We are going in to check it out. If you see anything strange heading our way, call me.” Last thing I wanted was to be trapped in a loft downtown with creepy demon-worshippers.

  “Will do, boss lady.” Our informant crossed the street and disappeared back into his hiding place.

  “Oh yeah. That takes skills,” Katrina told me. “If he needs another job, I’ll take him. And I mean that, too.”

  “Good luck taking any of them away from Shorty,” I told her. “He is a better recruiter than the cigarette companies,” I admitted.

  It was true. Shorty had a talent like nobody else to get people to follow him into crazy schemes. Which explained how he managed to get people to volunteer to guard the gates of hell.

  “I can take him,” Katrina joked.

  I had to smile. I would pay good money to see a fight between those two. Shorty was a tricky one.

  That got me thinking. I pulled my phone out and called Bartholomew, hoping he had some good news for us. “Bart, we are here,” I told him when he answered. “Please tell me you got something.” I was hoping our boy-genius extraordinaire wouldn’t let me down.

  “You have one apartment empty right now, 2C on the second floor,” Bartholomew informed me. “Everything else has been filled for over six months. Nobody has any supernatural connections and nothing unusual in their homes.” That was a good sign and helped narrow our options.

  “Sounds like a great place to start. Thanks Bart,” I told him.

  “Okay. Call me back and let me know what you find,” Bartholomew said before he hung. He didn’t even wait for me to agree. I really needed to talk to him about manners.

  “Well 2C is our destination,” I told Katrina. “The door is all yours.” I pointed at the door handle.

  “Too easy,” Katrina replied.

  Katrina walked over to the door and pulled out her little pouch of tools. I followed her and then leaned against the wall, looking as innocent as possible. I wondered how many doors Katrina had picked in her life, because she was really good at this. In less than three minutes, she had the door unlocked and was heading inside. I followed her like we were on our way to her place.

  Katrina rushed up the stairs and headed straight for 2C, but I took my time inspecting all the other doors in case someone decided to join us in the hallway. By the time I made it to Katrina, she had the door unlocked and opened.

  “Has anyone ever mentioned to you that you are a menace to society?” I told Katrina jokingly.

  “My soldiers tell me that e
very day,” she replied.

  I followed her inside and found a pretty nice size loft. Unfortunately, the place was deserted other than a single sleeping bag shoved against the far wall and an empty container of food from Abuelitas.

  “That’s odd. Where is the rest of the food?” I asked Katrina.

  “What food?” Katrina asked me, looking around the large room.

  “Angelito told me Noah had ordered enough food for five people,” I told her. “This container is just for one. Why would he keep this and not the others?” I asked her, pointing at the container.

  “Isis, I don’t know if I want to know what you are thinking,” Katrina told me, scrunching her face when she looked at me.

  “It’s just curious,” I said, holding back a little. I would hate to scare her with my theories.

  “Go ahead, tell me. I’m afraid I’m thinking the same thing,” Katrina finally said.

  “You do agree this is odd, that mousy, little Noah can be man-handling a trained soldier by himself, right?” I said, hoping Katrina would confirm my suspicion.

  “Yes. It is almost impossible,” Katrina admitted.

  “What if he had her drugged?” I added. “You heard that creep Ralph mumbling about sleep. It’s the only thing that fits. Noah couldn’t carry a grown woman alone. Who is helping him? Who was he buying all the food for and where are they keeping Genevieve?” The questions poured out of me so fast I couldn’t keep up with them all.

  “You know if we had all the answers to those questions, we wouldn’t be standing in this empty loft by ourselves,” Katrina said, opening her arms wide and gesturing to the room.

  “True,” I told her, rubbing my eyes with my palms. “I just hate this feeling that we are three steps behind.”

  “I agree with you but stressing about things we can’t control is not going to help us,” Katrina told me. “We just need to find him before they move again.”

  I pulled out my phone and called Bartholomew.

  “Any luck?” Bartholomew asked.

  “Besides a sleeping bag, the place is empty,” I told him, my voice pouty and pathetic.

  “Well you better hurry. I got some news from Constantine.” Bartholomew was a little too serious for my taste. “The witches reminded him that the borders between the worlds will be thin tonight due to Halloween. This will make it easier for things to cross over to our world.”

  “Thanks Bart. No pressure at all,” I told him.

  “You got this,” Bartholomew added with way too much energy. At least he had confidence in me. “I’ll keep scanning the police monitors and cameras around town. I’ll let you know if I find anything. Good luck out there.” This time I didn’t wait for him to hang up. Instead, I disconnected the call as soon as he finished talking.

  “More good news?” Katrina asked me.

  “The usual. Supernatural barrier between the worlds will be thin tonight so we need to make sure nothing crazy happens,” I told her, trying to imitate Bartholomew’s voice.

  “Wow. Here I was thinking nothing ever happens in Texarkana,” Katrina told me.

  “As I was told, that was true until I moved in.” That didn’t make me proud, either. For all I knew, I was responsible for the drop in the price of real estate here.

  “I believe that,” Katrina replied, smiling. I was glad she could smile at everything. “Did I ever tell you the last time I was in Texarkana?” she asked me, looking around the loft.

  “Why were you here?” I couldn’t even imagine that.

  “I was inspecting the Depot,” Katrina said, lost in her thoughts. “That was over twenty years ago. The downtown, of course, is still about the same, but everything else has grown and expanded. I never would have imagined that,” Katrina told me.

  “I’m glad it has, and I would like to keep it that way,” I told her.

  “In that case, let’s visit some vamps,” Katrina said, facing the door. “Lead the way, sheriff.” She had jokes today. Heck, I had a feeling she had jokes every day.

  I shook my head but led us out of the apartment. Katrina locked the place back up and we headed to visit our favorites vampire at the Arkansas side convention center. We had too many creepy beings in town all at once. Texarkana was about to have a Halloween they would remember for ages.

  House call number two was Vampires-R-Us at the Holiday Inn Express Convention Center. I had never been to the hotel before. The closest I got was when I had to pick up a few souls that got lost at the attached water park. I didn’t know what had been worse: the kids screaming because of the ghost or the ghost screaming about the kids. They just kept feeding the frenzy. It took me over three hours of chasing the poor souls around the park. It was so loud, I couldn’t command them to stop, so I finally tackled one to the ground. Thankfully, Bartholomew had disabled the park’s security cameras, because according to him, watching me running around in circles had been hysterical.

  “Are you ready for this?” Katrina asked me.

  We had been sitting in the parking lot of the hotel for at least five minutes. I had checked all my pockets ten times. My scythe was inside my cargo pocket for easy access, but I was nervous. I wasn’t sure which part scared me more: facing the dark side of the vampires, or that it didn’t bother me killing them. My stomach churned and I felt nauseous. I had to swallow several times before I could speak.

  “I guess,” I told Katrina, staring at my hands.

  “Here. Wear these.” Katrina handed me her aviator sunglasses.

  “Thanks, I guess,” I told her, not sure why she gave them to me.

  “They won’t be able to see your eyes through the glass,” she told me. “They will also help you avoid making eye contact with them and going serial killer on their asses.”

  I shrugged, not thinking her theory would work, but I also had nothing to lose by trying it.

  “I hope you are right,” I told her as I put her sunglasses on. I got a quick look in the mirror and realized Katrina’s glasses were stylish. They even made me look good. “Let’s do this before I chicken out,” I said, hiding behind her bad-girl sunglasses.

  We walked in the hotel like we owned the place. The layout of most hotels was easy to navigate, but to make sure we didn’t look out of place, we had Bartholomew send us the blueprints. We walked by the reception desk and waved at the young lady on duty. She gave us a cheerful smile and waved back.

  “Do we need to have Bart disable the cameras?” I asked Katrina as we reached the elevator.

  “No need,” she replied. “I’m pretty sure our buddies took care of that already. They are not interested in having a record of their people coming and going.” Katrina sounded pretty sure of herself and I hoped she was right. The last thing I wanted was to make the front page of the Texarkana Gazette or the most views at the TXKTODAY for going nuts on the vampires. I was sure Death would kill me if the headlines read “Reapers Employee Goes on Killing Spree.”

  “Last chance to change your mind. I can go alone if you want,” she said, giving me an out.

  “I can’t hide in my own town. It doesn’t give the impression of a tough sheriff,” I told her.

  “That’s my girl,” Katrina replied and stepped in the elevator as soon as the doors opened.

  The elevator ride was too short, and we arrived on the last floor of the hotel to find it very dark. I looked around the hallway and all the curtains were shut. Most of the hallway lights were off, and with my sexy-aviator glasses on, everything had a creepy glow to it. We made our way to the exclusive suites at the far end of the hotel. I was hoping to reach the door and just knock. Instead, we found two huge linebackers standing guard in front of the door.

  “At least we know we are in the right place,” Katrina told me before strolling over towards the guards. I followed slowly behind, keeping my eyes low to the floor.

  “Hi boys. We are here to see your boss,” Katrina told them in a bubbly voice as she stopped in front of the linebackers. “He is expecting us.”

&nbs
p; “His emperor is not expecting any visitors at this time,” tall, mean, and muscular on the left said. I couldn’t get a clear look at his face, but his body was huge.

  “Get lost,” the second one added. He was also huge, but maybe a smidge smaller than his buddy.

  “Not without talking to your boss,” Katrina told muscle-tag-team.

  “I. Said. Get. Lost,” number two repeated, this time enunciating all of his words. Did he think we had a learning problem?

  “Oh, cut it pretty face. Your mind tricks don’t work on us,” Katrina told him. “Tell your boss the dynamic-Interns are here, and we are not leaving without talking to him.” She sounded sweet but stern as she came up beside me, raising her brows in question.

  “I’m good. Just busy counting the patterns on the carpet,” I told her with a smile. “Why are they not moving?” I asked her in a softer tone.

  “They can communicate telepathically with their masters,” Katrina answered, not taking her eyes off the twins. “The older ones need very little sleep. Which in turn gives them the power to sustain their children during the day. I’m pretty sure this entire floor is packed with vamps,” she told me.

  I couldn’t help it, I shivered. We needed to get out of there before I flipped out.

  “The emperor will see you now,” linebacker on the left said. “You have five minutes. Don’t make us drag you out,” he growled.

  “You wish,” Katrina replied as we walked in the room.

  The suite was gorgeous. Just as I was about to take my sunglasses off and inspect the room more thoroughly, my eyes were drawn to the two figures sitting on armchairs in the middle of the room.

  “Ladies, what a surprise,” the male on the right told us. I glanced in his direction and my eyes were drawn to his face. Somehow, I avoided the eye contact, but the pull was almost irresistible.

  “I’m impressed, little one. You are stronger than I thought,” the man told me.

  Great, another creep trying to push his powers on me, I thought.