Air of Darkness

by Rose O'Brien

  Next she brought up a series of what appeared to be bank statements.

  “I was able to track his financials down and I noticed a payment from a shell company that had come up in connection with Jimmy Medina’s operation.”

  She highlighted the payment on the screen. Apparently, for the low price of ten thousand bucks, you could have your very own FBI agent, delivered in whatever condition you wanted. Alayna shuddered to the think what might have happened if Alex had been a little slower on the draw. Word was, Medina was ruthless with those who crossed him.

  Alayna spoke up. “So we have a connection between the bruiser and Medina. Great. But that doesn’t get us any closer to finding Medina himself.”

  Ellie held up a finger and then started clicking away on her keyboard again. More documents appeared on her screen. And photos of three warehouses.

  “I was able to connect that shell company with property tax records for these three warehouses,” she said. “That’s where he slipped up.”

  Alex rose from his seat and moved to the screen to study the photos.

  “Where are these?”

  “Different areas of the city,” Ellie replied. “All of them are located close to the interstate and set up to load and unload eighteen-wheelers.”

  “How is all of this connected to our victims?” He asked, turning to look at Ellie.

  “I’ve been looking at what financials I can find on Medina’s companies, and I’ve got a bad feeling,” Ellie said. “The figures don’t add up, and you don’t have the level of shell companies that I’m seeing if your operation is legit.”

  “What are you saying?” Dumeril asked.

  “I’m saying that we likely have multiple layers of illegal enterprise here,” she said. “This network gets bigger the more that I look at it. And he’s moving a lot of trucks, particularly close to the border.”

  Alayna watched as Alex processed this. It was good to see him diving in, making himself a part of the team. He wasn’t holding himself back like he had before.

  “Are we talking drugs? Coyotes?” he asked, using the slang term for people that smuggled illegal immigrants across the border, usually for huge sums of money.

  “I’m not sure what those trucks are moving, but I think it’s a good bet that all of our victims, except for Blanca, got too close to whatever it is,” Ellie said.

  Alex straightened, his eyes brightening for a moment.

  “Stakeouts,” he said, looking to Alayna for confirmation. “We need to stake these warehouses out.”

  Alayna nodded.

  Ellie cackled and began rubbing her hands together as she reached for a tablet computer.

  Lu leaned over to look at the screen. “You said the magic word, dude. She’s ordering new GPS trackers online.”

  While Ellie sang softly under her breath about new toys, Alex said, “Three warehouses—we’re going to have split up.”

  “Lu is the recon expert,” Alayna said. “She can coordinate.”

  “Dumeril and Burdock can work as a pair on the north side warehouse. Ellie and I can work the east side warehouse,” Lu said.

  She turned to Ellie. “You can do your computer stuff remotely, right chica?”

  Ellie waved at her with one hand, her eyes focused on her tablet. Lu nodded.

  “Alayna, you and Alex should take the south side warehouse,” Lu said, a big smile on her face.

  Alayna didn’t particularly like that smile. Lu was up to something.

  “It sounds like a good plan,” Alayna said. “Lu, get your equipment sorted. We’re going to need trackers, recording equipment, scopes, thermal imaging if you’ve got it, power sources, and secure communications.

  Lu nodded and started making a list on her smartphone.

  Alayna turned to Alex.

  “Have you ever run across smuggling cases when you were with the FBI?”

  “I worked as part of a team on a couple of drug and gun running cases,” he said. “It was always as part of a joint task force, though, so I was handling mostly low-level stuff.”

  She nodded, processing that.

  “I’d like you to run over the files Ellie has come up with and see if you find any markers or indicators from your previous experience. Anything that stands out. I’d like to know what we’re dealing with as soon as possible,” Alayna said.

  Chapter 15

  Across town, Alayna popped another cold French fry in her mouth, trying to stave off low blood sugar. Alex sat beside her in the passenger seat of the SUV, sipping what was no doubt equally cold coffee.

  They had already placed wireless cameras on the roofs of nearby buildings and now they were logging license plates, makes and models of the trucks that came through. She should have been bored, but Alex was good at making conversation, telling her funny stories from his childhood.

  “And that’s how I learned that snipe hunting is not a real thing,” he said. “Never quite forgave my cousins for leaving for leaving me in an empty field in the middle of the night with a bag and a flashlight.”

  “How long did it take you to figure out that it was a trick?”

  “About three hours.” At her stunned look he said, “Oh, come on. I was eight.”

  At eight, she’d already been a year into her Academy training, learning how to swing a sword and fight hand-to-hand. She was once again reminded of how very different their worlds were. It was possible Alex didn’t belong in this one, no matter how much she wanted him to.

  “Don’t suppose you have a spell for X-ray vision. Would make this a whole lot faster and easier if you could see what was in those trucks,” Alex said.

  “I wish I had that kind of juice, but a spell like that would drain me in minutes.”

  “Drain you?”

  “Yeah. Mages carry around a lot of energy, but it’s finite. If I weave a spell that requires more energy than I have, it can knock me out, even stop my heart. Luckily, we can recharge, given enough time, but if we ever hit zero, it’s game over.”

  “Yeesh. Forget I asked,” he said. “I guess there’s something to be said for doing it the old fashioned way. There’s been more than a few times when watching things carefully gave me insights I never would have gotten with a short cut.”

  Alayna wished more mages understood that, but they had to discover the hard way that magick was rarely the best solution to any problem. For mages that weren’t limited by the Whisperer’s curse, magick was extremely effective in combat. Unless, the opponent you were up against had stronger mojo.

  Some water mages could channel their element into rituals to divine the future. While those visions could be extremely useful, allowing the council’s forces to plot battle strategy and make key financial investments that kept the Corp extremely well-funded, the visions could also be tricky and obscure. More than one team had been lost because a cloudy vision had been misinterpreted by the diviner.

  No, more often than not, it came down to careful planning, meticulous training and solid intel collected with blood and sweat to make sure an operation went smoothly.

  The conversation flowed easily in the dark, close confines of the SUV. They talked investigations and battle strategy. His mind was so sharp and processed things so quickly. It was one of the things she loved about him. Her brain ground to a halt for a moment at that thought.

  That was dangerous territory, and she needed to put the brakes on that kind of thinking. Now. Glancing over, his face was mostly in shadow, the screen on his laptop having gone dark from disuse. She took that stray thought back out and examined it closely.

  Alayna had known that she was attracted to Alex the moment she saw him. If it had been just that, she would have compartmentalized. All her life, she’d been attracted to men she couldn’t have. But this wasn’t just physical. Not anymore.

  They’d spent too many hours, just like this, crammed in close quarters, talking, training. Alex was smart and funny and, under that rigid military discipline and government polish, he was kind of sw
eet.

  She mentally poked that stray thought again. Yup, she was developing feelings for him. Heck, already had. This was bad. It could compromise her as a leader. Would she make the right call if it came down to Alex’s safety versus her duty?

  Her gut twisted at the thought of him being hurt. But her duty came first, had to. Right?

  She’d worked incredibly hard and sacrificed so much to get where she was. Every Whisperer before her had been kept secreted away in the highest security locations. They were like nuclear weapons kept in silos.

  She’d had to fight for combat training. She’d fought for the chance to join a team. She’d fought to be considered for command, even though she’d been the most qualified by far. She’d had to fight to include non-mages on her team. The higher ups in the Mage Corps were sticklers for tradition, and they held on to their role as the police of the magickal races jealously.

  Non-mages in the Corps were rare, and they were usually lone operatives. She had a reformed thief turned hacker, a recovering drug addict, and an exiled Svarturan prince working alongside one of the most accomplished fire mages of his generation.

  Her command, her team, they were everything to her.

  And then there was Alex, a sapien, a lìthseach the rarest creature of all. And his skills were only just beginning to reveal themselves.

  She felt a connection with Alex that she had never felt with another person in her life. Even with the stress of this case, all the questions, the danger hanging over them, she felt the need to keep him close, just for a little while.

  For the duration of this operation, she would enjoy him, and then she would find a safe way for him to get on with his life. And she would get on with hers, what was left of it, and take his memory with her when she went.

  When her number was up, it was up. She couldn’t control when her curse would claim her, but she refused to dwell on it.

  She was going to save as many people as she could before it was time to check out. And if she could save Alex, make sure he could live his life in peace; that would be her greatest accomplishment.

  “What’s with the sourpuss?” Alex asked, his voice intruding on her dark thoughts. “You look like someone kicked your puppy.”

  Alayna turned and tried to paste on a smile.

  “Just can’t stop turning this case around and around in my head,” she lied.

  “Ruminating doesn’t help, believe me,” he said. “Let’s talk about something else.”

  Mentally fishing around for a topic, she landed on, “Tell me about your family.” She almost winced at how lame that sounded.

  “Not a lot tell, really. Mom’s a teacher in San Antonio, even though she should have retired years ago. We’re pretty close. She, along with Blanca, they encouraged me to apply to the FBI after I got out of the Army and my career plans kind of imploded.” He went silent for a moment, swallowing hard. Before she could press him on that comment, he continued. “All in all, pretty boring, right?”

  “Actually that sounds really nice, to have people that care about you like that.”

  “It is nice, most of the time,” he said, taking a sip of his coffee. “When my mom isn’t bugging me to find a girlfriend, get married and have babies.”

  Alayna smiled at that. “So what’s stopping you?”

  “The same thing as you. My job, the horrible hours, the constant threat of danger.” He smiled, poking her gently in the shoulder. “And my boss is real hardass.”

  She smiled back and bumped his shoulder with hers. Silence stretched for a moment. Before there was any more awkward talk of marriage and babies, she grabbed two GPS units and reached for the door handle, whispering a shadow cloak spell. Within moments, ribbons of inky shadow surrounded her.

  Alex whistled appreciatively.

  “My brother Xander taught me this trick,” she said from within the miasmic, twisting cloud. “He can use water vapor to bend light.”

  “Be careful,” Alex said as she slid out of the SUV and moved low and fast over the pavement.

  Alayna was able to slip the devices, one onto a trailer, the other on to a truck, and was back at the SUV in less than two minutes.

  She climbed back in beside Alex and let the ribbons of shadow fall away. Her breath came a little quick, and her heart was racing. Controlling water was one of the most difficult things for her. Water and air were diametrically opposed to each other on the elemental compass. Air was east, ruled by the four winds. Water was west, ruled by the moon.

  Simple water spells came to her, and she was a fair healer in a pinch, but she’d never be anywhere near Xander’s ability with the element. He could do absolutely terrifying things with his power.

  “You mentioned your brother taught you that. I’ve noticed you don’t talk about your family much,” he said.

  “Not much to tell really,” she said. “Dad died on a mission when I was eight. Mom threw herself into her work. She’s one of the chief healers and an advisor to the council. I have an older sister and two older brothers.”

  “Are they like you?”

  “They’re mages, if that’s what you mean. But they’re not cursed.” His eyes darkened at that. Alex didn’t seem to like it when she applied that word to herself. How little he understood. “Theron’s the closest in age to me. He’s a fire mage and a Ranger, meaning he works solo and gets sent all over the place.”

  “You mentioned a Xander?”

  “He’s the next oldest. He’s a water mage, also a solo operator.” She very carefully didn’t elaborate on the type of work he did. When your big brother was the deadliest assassin in the world, it was kind of hard to explain that in casual conversation.

  “Kayla’s the oldest,” she continued. “She’s an earth mage. She ran away from the Academy during her last year. It was right after I found out that I was a Whisperer. No one in the family has heard from her since.”

  She tried hard to talk around the lump in her throat, but her words still came out sounding wet. Why did she have to bring up Kayla? It was a subject that never failed to make her tearful.

  “She disappeared?” Alex asked.

  “She left,” Alayna said sharply. “There’s a difference.”

  After a moment her mouth surprisingly kept moving. Why did she feel so comfortable telling him all this?

  “When dad died and then we found out I was a Whisperer,” she said, “it changed everything. It was a one-two punch that tore my family apart. There was just too much pain for any of us to be around each other anymore.”

  Alex shook his head.

  “I don’t understand the problem people seem to have with you being a Whisperer. I’ve seen the things you can do. They’re amazing,” he said. Softly, he added, “You’re amazing.”

  His deep brown gaze, framed with lashes that belonged in a Maybelline commercial, met hers and held it. Alayna’s breath caught for a moment. Here in the shadows, wrapped in the silence of the nondescript black Explorer, it seemed like they were the only two people on Earth. She felt comfortable with him in a way she never really had with anyone else before. Like she could spill all of her secrets to Alex. And for a moment, looking into those gorgeous eyes, she thought that he might accept them.

  Shaking her head, she broke eye contact. “People are frightened of power. Particularly a power they don’t understand.”

  It was also a power that would eventually claim her life, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him that. Alex was the only man she’d ever known that didn’t look at her with pity in his eyes.

  She took a deep breath and continued. “A Whisperer’s life is a lonely one by design and by necessity. We’re able to control all four elements and weave spells that no other mage can. Traditionally, attachments are discouraged. Wouldn’t want one of us going all revenge spree because a lover was killed in battle or something.”

  Really, it was so that going to her death would be easier when the time came.

  “That doesn’t sound fair,” Alex said, a no
te of indignation in his voice. “You can’t help the way you’re born.”

  “No one ever said life was fair, Alex,” she said. “In my experience, life is short, brutal, and full of pain. You take the happy moments where you can and you do as much good as you can before you go.”

  “God, you sound like me when I was in the Army,” he said, a wry smile tugging at his mouth. “After I lost a few friends, I started to keep everyone at arm’s length. It doesn’t work, you know. It took me a long time to figure out that attachments are the only thing we have in this world, the only thing that keeps us here.”

  She met his gaze again, and this time she felt a twisting feeling deep within her. He was too intense, and this space was too small. She was too far off balance. Her thoughts spun back to what he’d said earlier. The words fell from her mouth, and she almost immediately wished she could take them back.

  “Why did you leave the Army, Alex?”

  He took a deep sharp breath. Why, why, why had she asked something that invasive? Clearly it was a sore subject for him.

  “I was tired of the blood and death,” he said. “And it was time to chase other dreams.”

  “The FBI?”

  “No,” he said. “There was another dream first, but it didn’t work out.”

  “What was it?”

  He locked gazes with her for a moment, studying her. Wrapped in the shadows, it felt safe to say things.

  “I wanted to be a doctor,” he said.

  “What happened?”

  He silent for a long moment, staring at his lap, looking like he was picking through words to find the right ones.

  “There was this girl…” he began.

  ***

  Alex took a deep breath and told Alayna about Kelly. The vivacious redhead had been transferred to the unit he was assigned to during his third tour. They were on convoy protection duty running between the base in Ramadi and other nearby outposts.

  It was dangerous work. They hit IEDs, got ambushed, and ran into trouble on a near weekly basis. Kelly had quickly become the life of the unit. She was funny and could hold her own against all of the teasing that came with being in a mostly male unit.