Hashtag Murder

by brett hicks

  If I played my cards right, I should have this station house convinced I just feel the vibes of magic but am oblivious to the nature of these exotic sensations, by the end of week.

  With a plan somewhat formulated, I felt a smoother gait take hold of my forward motion. I felt a calmness settle on me, a calm I knew as my general operation. Removing excess emotions from my senses, allowing me a clearer and more subtle presence of mind and body. I have heard many ex-military members talk about a sniper’s cool, I would dare to compare this mood or state-of-being to such a description. A girl needs her frosty wits about, lest she wants to cross a stray shifter and wind up with her face redecorated.

  ***

  I moved through the halls and I was flagged through the third floor. The detective’s floor was a live wire even early in the morning. A lot of the ginger and sandy-haired members around me were still guzzling hot tea by the gallon.

  A woman in her mid-thirties came striding over to me with a bounce to her hip motions. Her expression was chipper, and as she spoke, her mellow tone was both inviting and disarming at the same time.

  “Good Morning, Detective Parker. I’m Reline Cawfield, I am meant to be your detective’s aid.”

  Her friendly tone and her swift invasion of my personal space, even if non-sexual, this early was off-putting. Never let it be said of me I am chatty or that I am anything like the typical human-ish being. I felt awkward to the max, and I nodded dumbly to her. At the half-hearted acknowledgement of her role in my life, she let out a gleeful squeal, and she wrapped me in a tight and unprovoked hug.

  I squirmed in her firm grip. Her muscles appeared to be human normal, but her strength was nearly bone-jarring. I felt the slight chill to her skin and my temperature seemed to drop at the cold aura as it splashed across my inner awareness. She was a vampire!

  I stepped out of her vice-like grip without completely tipping her off that I knew what she was. I had never been this close to an actual vampire before, but the sense of coldness and death on her sunny features was unmistakable. She was living death, the aberration of the natural world.

  Reline was about two inches taller than me, and she was darker ginger haired. Her blue eyes were light sky-blue. Her expressive and sunny disposition were at odds with the entire creature-of-the-night vibe.

  “The Boss wants to see you! He said that he would also introduce you to your new partner once you finished a private chat.”

  She said in her chipper tone, and I caught some hint of subtle underlay in her wording, but I did not know her well enough to decipher the subtext yet. She seemed to sway slightly as she talked to me, like she was slightly moving to some unheard music. She seemed to be upbeat and steady on to the max. She did not seem the least bit phased by my disposition or my leery expressive countenance.

  “Which way…” I began to ask, and she waved me in a broad sweeping gesture with her left hand, telling me she was what we called a “south paw” back in the US. I always noted such minor details about people, hence one of the plethora of reasons I had risen to detective. I also noted that Reline appeared to be all sunshine, yet I could see the slightest hint of alertness in her gleaming eyes. She was a huntress below the very real and very sunny persona of her default setting in life.

  “Follow me, lets crack on now!” She said again in her confident and bubbly tone. She swished her very well curved belle hips down the hallway and through the rows of sloppy paper laden desks and conference tables. There was no shortage of males stopping mid-typing just to enjoy the appeal of her sexy curvaceous figure. While I knew that I was attractive enough to land a man, I hardly could have turned heads as Reline could in her bright turquoise pencil skirt and her light blue blouse. She was wearing flats, but I imagine that was not some fashion statement against heels, merely that she needed comfort and mobility this morning. She walked with the supreme confidence of a runway model.

  She deposited me on the door of an office with a rumbling sound ominously in the background behind the door. I felt my hairs all stand at once as I stepped up to the door. Reline just stood there griming all innocence and light, as I hesitantly looked to the doorknob, then back to Reline. This process repeated several times, before I swallowed, and I turned the door handle.

  “KNOCK FIRST!” Came a thundering roar of a voice. I felt lightning and flames dance along my nerves and my senses told me I was in the presence of an alpha shifter. I knew this feeling well; it was impossible not to recognize their auras when felt. What made things worse, was this one was no wolf, but an Ursine. Far fewer, and far rarer than the average alpha or the run-of-the-mill shifter.

  I felt the deadly tingles of dread along my spine and the heat swelling in my gut at his sudden proximity. I had nearly, literally, poked a bear this morning!

  Five:

  “Bloody hells lasses, get yer arses inside and close the door!” The grumpy bear shifter sundered out with a tone that could have made military troops stagger and scatter to the four winds. His magicks were oppressive, and his pungent powers were without rival to any shifter I had ever felt, including the alpha wolves I had met in passing.

  I got my ass in and Reline shut the door behind us. She still wore an angelic expression of radiance and pleasantness. I wondered how a vampire was this calm around a shifter alpha. The one thing all the human world gets correct, is the bloody feud of species.

  “Sir, I’m…” I began.

  The bear-man roared out, “I know damn well who you are, detective.”

  His tone was not hostile I noted, only that he was a very terse and short-fuse man. Below the stifling aura of alpha ursine, there was a cagy observant calm. I soon realized that he was not at all mad, he was just aggressive in his calmest of times. I scarcely wanted to learn what this man might be like if provoked! I mean, who else could literally claim that their boss might maul them?!

  “Boss…” I said calmly, not exactly subservient, just a mild attempt to pacify the grumpy bear. His eyes flashed red for the space of a micro-second. The unspoken aggression and not at all veiled wrath expressed in this span could have fueled a thirty- or forty-year war!

  Being an alpha female of my variety, I did not do submissive well. This typically grated on the gears of any shifter in a position of authority. I had never tempted fate by working for a damn ursine shifter!

  “Reline, go, coffee for the lass, tea for me.” He said dismissively. I frowned slightly at him. He had commanded us to come in and shut the door, it would have been more efficient to merely task her while we were out in the hall. It was not lost to me in the least that this was all a show, all shifter posturing. I felt the unveiled probing of my mind. He was trying to figure me out, to disassemble me and see what I was made of. This shifter was no fool, he knew something, or suspected something.

  Reline nodded and her scarlet hair swished around her and she bounced to the door. She was wholly unphased by the ursine male. If anything, she seemed to be happier than she had been previously. I could not figure that loopy vampire out!

  When the door clicked shut behind us, the full weight of his stare pinned me top my spot on the carpet.

  “Four years a guard, and you rise to detective. High marks on all your test scores and a three-digit collar score. You’re also a fully trained martial artist with mastery of your multiple forms of study.”

  He calmly stated, as if he had memorized every detail and facet of my life. Part of me felt even more unnerved knowing how closely this keen shifter had looked at my life, my world, and my existence. While he did not exactly seem the type to suddenly break the laws, I could hardly feel comforted in his profound knowledge of me.

  “Yes, Boss.” I said firmly, as I spotted his expectant eyes on me. Being an alpha, it was easy to tell when he was allowing me an opening to insert a few words.

  “In case you have not spotted my name on the shiny plaque, I am DI Harry Templeton. I am the detective-in charge of your unit. I am also this station’s super intendant, though without the cons
iderable hike in salary.”

  He grumbled the last bit out, almost sulking from the drop in his tone.

  “A pleasure, boss.” I said. I found that the sentiment was actually sincere. My ursine boss seemed to be slightly disarmed by my sincerity, but not enough to take all the growl out of his thundering voice.

  “I will keep you under observation for the next six months. I will assess your progress and your effective policing. I am not here to hold your hand, I am here to make sure you are the best police officer possible, is that clear to you?!”

  He asked, and I saw a flash of red again and I swallowed and cleared my throat.

  “Yes boss, perfectly clear.” I said tersely, and he nodded one stiff bob of his head. His hot amber gaze never lifted from my eyes. I was too stubborn to look down or away, as most being’s instincts would have been demanding of them. While I was sure he could maul me, I did not feel compelled to behave submissively.

  “Very well, let us crack on.” He said, and about this time, Reline came bouncing back through the door and she swayed over to DI Templeton. She sat a large mug of steaming tea before him, and the damn ursine smiled at her, even if it was a ghost of a smile and it disappeared in the next heartbeat. I did not miss the honey now sitting on his desk, nor did I so much as think about smiling at the amusement playing through my mind about a bear and his honey.

  There was a fine line between being an assertive young woman who does not submit and having a death-wish!

  DI Templeton was a large man, with big bones. He was of a look of mid-forties and his short-cropped sunshine-blonde hair was riddled with strands of gray. He looked much more akin to a bodybuilder, than a police detective inspector. His cunning yellowish-brown eyes were the tipping point though. He could not hide his quick wit and his high IQ from the analytical look that seemed to constantly show up in his gaze. He took in every facet of the world around himself and he did not appear to miss a single iota!

  Di Templeton stood with no preamble and he closed all the space of his small office in one large step forward. His yellowish gaze pinning me down and his oppressive hot aura of migicks nearly scaled me to the bone!

  “Regardless of your past and regardless of any other affiliations in the outside world, we are a family here. You will do well to remember this.” He looked to Reline, as if his mind had drifted to the point I had noted earlier, they did not feud like a typical vampire and shifter alpha pair would. Hell, her body language told me she would ride him if given the chance! Not that it should surprise me, alpha shifters are very desirable sexual partners after all! I am not exactly sure why their super sexy alpha pheromones do not affect me like most women. Trust me, it’s not from lack of interest in the male form! I guess I am just leery of anything that could hold power over me. Whatever I am, I do not seem to be easily influenced by others.

  So, in his subtext, DI Templeton is warning me from allowing any supernatural affiliation from affecting my loyalty to my posting here. I could suppose that to him, this is his pack of sorts and that he seems to include more than just shifters into his extended family. While this was not unheard of nowadays, it was still more common to see the species divides.

  Most races discouraged and even persecuted mixed marriages. Mixed-breed children were glowered upon by most of the supernatural public. It was old-world and backwards, but progress seemed to be even slower in a community of centuries, old men and women. For all its charms, Ireland was still awash with old prejudices, both human and inhuman.

  “Answer me one question, detective.” DI Templeton’s growling tone snapped me back to the here-and-now. I bit softly on my bottom lip as I regarded him alertly. He seemed to note the tiny caution in my eyes. The animal in him must have sensed my slight sense of hesitancy. Not fear, not anger, just a calm weariness and respect of the power and damage he could unleash.

  A flash of something akin to respect or maybe mild amusement flashed in his expression, but it was gone faster than I could properly unravel it.

  “Tell me, did you become a guard, a cop, to prove you are not your father’s child?” He asked bluntly, and I felt as if all oxygen had evacuated my lungs in the next moment. I felt almost like I was under a microscope. My mind flashed back to the hell of his trial and the media circus. My mind drifted to my time on the streets, before my granny had found me and brought me to Ireland.

  I stared at him as if I had lost all my mental faculties, for the space of several long moments. Annoyance ticked on his expression several times, he wanted a much snappier response time than I was giving him.

  I looked over to Reline, then back to Di Templeton. He waved off my unspoken concern and said, “She knows full-well your history. Such is her job.”

  I felt my nerves all firing, and I knew logically that my superiors all knew who I was, and who my father was. However, it was different entirely to have it verbalized by my new boss. Being Avery Parker was as much a scarlet letter, as it was a badge of honor.

  I could lie and say that I did not see how it was relevant, but I was not stupid. I knew that such a lame copout would not cut through any ice between us.

  “My arrest record and my behavior speak volumes for my character, Boss. I am blue-blooded to my very core.” My tone was equally assertive and confident as the DI. He noticed. He looked at me, unmoving, unflinching. He seemed to consider something for a protracted period. He nodded stiffly, and his body language relaxed slightly. I practically exhaled in relief at his sudden calm. I could still sense the predator in the woods, just out of sight, watching, hunting. However, he no longer appeared to be out-right hostile with me. Some of his magicks lifted from my meta-physical body.

  Now it felt merely as if I were moving through waist-deep water and not being flattened to the earth by a metric ton of weight.

  “Your old boss spoke highly of you. Bring that diligence to your job here and I will be a reasonable boss to work under. But, do not muck me about, detective.”

  He said, a flash of red crossed his gaze as he issued the warning. I swallowed and bobbed my head in confirmation.

  “Of course, Boss.” I said firmly. I absently sipped my hot coffee. It surprised me to discover that it was almond and mocha flavored, as was my favorite. My gaze cut in a surprised look to Reline quickly. I did not recall this detail about my preferences being written anywhere.

  “I hope everything is to your liking, detective Parker?” She asked in her chirpy tone. I nodded quickly and mumbled out thanks. About this time the door clicked open, and I felt the world turn into a bonfire around me, as I felt the heat of a second male presence entering the small room. The boss took a single step towards his desk and sipped at his tea.

  “Ah, Jimmy, perfect timing lad. I’d like you to meet your new partner, Detective Garda Avery Parker.”

  He said through introduction, and I felt the world freeze around me as the sexy eyes of the ocean-blue Irish rocker from the pub locked on my pale-green eyes. My lips tingled at the phantom of his kisses, as my mind flew back to the way his hands felt on my body and the way his muscular and firm form pressed against me as we snogged outside the pub last night.

  You always find your way into the deep of it, Avery Parker!

  I thought to myself grimly, as I stared stupidly at my partner.

  Six:

  Typically, I would consider my cop-detection capabilities to be as top-shelf as your average thug. So, I was spun by the revelation that I had my tongue down my new partner’s throat just the night before!

  I am no angel; I have had my share of dalliances in my abbreviated life. However, I found my cheeks were burning with my embarrassment. It was as if my life had reversed a decade in minutes. I felt as gangly and awkward as I had during puberty! I felt every inch as self-conscious. While I knew there was nothing for me to be ashamed or embarrassed of, I could hardly seem to think logically.

  I was glad that I had not followed him home now. How much worse would this be if I had done the deed? My body was alive with th
e heat of my entangled feelings. It took a considerable effort to prevent my feelings from displaying across my flushed face. Being that I was new, I was glad this situation afforded me multiple interruptible reasons for my appearance of mild embarrassment.

  The large ursine seemed oblivious to the true nature of my silence and suddenly discovered self-consciousness. My world had been turned on its ear overnight. I was just struggling to regain traction. This station was filled to the brim with sups. Some of them appearing deadly just beneath their human veneer.

  Magic and wildness flowed around me like an intoxicating perfume. Power seeped into the very air and the inanimate objects of the office, and this building. Part of me felt like I would lose my human-ish mind, but the larger part of me felt like I was being welcomed into the siren embrace of the distant shimmer of some memory. Magiks often made me feel a lost nostalgia, a longing for some never-before-seen yester-year.

  My runic ink had been tingling along my skin since I stepped foot one into the station. My sensitive and hyper-alert ESP were borderline torturous. One drawback to remaining on the fringes of the community, was that my body had never grown accustomed to paranormal entities surrounding me for prolonged periods. I could hold my defenses in place for long periods, but the slightly elevated focus this required from me, was tiresome. I am not all-powerful; I am just a supernatural twenties girl trying to catch some bad guys for a living.

  “Have you two met before?” The DI inquired in his rumbly tone. I cut him a look that I pray remains poker-like. I could lie to him, but shifters take great offense when they catch you in a lie. They are veritable lie detectors.

  “We ran into each other at a pub once.” I said, and I felt my flush go to what must have been crimson red. To his credit, Jimmy apparently had a cooler disposition than I. He looked slightly bemused with me and the indicative evidence of my flustered state.