Blood and Bone

Chapter Two

“Sapphire!”

“Holy shit,” Ari said, reaching for Eoghan and grabbing both of his forearms as Priest rushed forward through the crowd of onlookers amid gasps of surprise and stunned silence. You could have heard a pin drop in the café.

She came to a stop in front of them as marshals and support staff parted like the Red Sea, making way for her faster than Ari could say Moses.

Eoghan turned and looked up into his face, and Ari read the dismay in his eyes even before he had a chance to open his mouth.

He glanced at Priest as she bent over and held out a hand for Kellen who was grumbling as he ignored her hand and got to his feet unaided.

“Are you okay, McGillis?” she asked.

He stood tall and brushed off his sleeves like he could remove the shame of being knocked on his ass by a man a few inches shorter than he was. He glanced at her and then turned to scowl at Ari and Eoghan before looking back at the chief.

“I’m fine, ma’am,” he said brusquely. “I slipped and fell.”

“I saw what happened, McGillis,” the chief said. She turned and pointed at Eoghan who stood there looking red in the face. “Deputy Marshal Sapphire hit you. Would you like to lodge a formal complaint?”

“That’s—” Eoghan began before she reeled on him, pointing a finger at him.

“If I were you, I’d shut up, Sapphire.” She turned back to Kellen who was standing rigid and tall, looking downright furious as he shot daggers at them.

He turned his attention back to her. “I slipped and fell, ma’am. Sapphire attempted to catch me and failed.”

“McGillis…that’s not what happened. I have eyes in my head.”

“That’s what happened, ma’am. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.” Without another word, he pivoted and walked out of the café.

Priest watched him leave and then spun to face the two of them. “You’d better watch yourself, Eoghan. I don’t know what kind of beef you have with McGillis, but it ends now.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Eoghan replied sheepishly.

“What are you two doing here anyway? I told you Wordy was waiting for you in the armory.”

“We were just getting a sandwich for the road,” Ari said lamely. He grabbed Eoghan’s sleeve. “But I’m not hungry after all. Let’s go, Eoghan.”

“Good idea, Brown,” she said, glaring at the two of them as they stepped out of line and headed for the exit, ignoring stares with their heads down. Behind them, murmurs and the clink of dinnerware started up again as the onlookers went back to eating.

“Quit pulling me!” Eoghan protested, shaking his hand off.

“Then, walk faster,” Ari said. “I can feel her eyes burning into my back.”

“Fine.”

They were silent until they got to the elevator and only after they were taking it to the administrative level where the armory was located, did Ari breathe a sigh of relief. With his back to the elevator wall, he silently watched Eoghan whose gaze was fixed on a spot on the floor. He unconsciously opened and closed his fist and Ari noticed reddened knuckles with a smirk he did his best to hide.

“What did you think you were doing back there?”

Eoghan looked up at the question, frowning at him. His blue eyes were stormy and unsettled. “He pissed me off. I couldn’t let him talk to you like that.”

“He’s a total asshole,” Ari said. “Why did you let him get under your skin? They’re just words, Eoghan.”

Eoghan sighed. “I didn’t like the idea of him talking to you like that. It’s so…disrespectful.”

“And guess what? I’m a big boy.” Ari reached out and squeezed Eoghan’s forearm, noting the rigid muscles. He was wound tighter than a bowstring. He stepped forward and pulled his stiff frame into his arms, hugging him hard for a few seconds before he finally relaxed. As the elevator dinged and the doors swished open, he let go. They stepped out into the busy administration offices filled with desks and cubicles and headed toward the back of the room. “It sounds like he was always an asshole so don’t let anything he says get under your skin. I have a feeling he wasn’t coming on to me so much as trying to piss you off.”

“Well, he succeeded,” Eoghan grumbled.

“And you almost got yourself suspended,” Ari replied. “My guess is that the chief overlooked the incident because you’re such a good marshal and she’s shorthanded.”

“And McGillis has a reputation in the building.”

Ari turned to look at him as they approached the armory. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know,” Eoghan hedged. “I should have known better. There were rumors about what a hound Kellen was before I ever accepted an offer to go out to dinner with him and I should’ve listened. Apparently, he can’t keep his dick in his pants, and I ignored all the signs. It’s my own fault.”

“I’ve learned pretty quickly that marshals in the I.S.R. are on the road all the time, Eoghan,” he said. “I imagine working cases with a straight, female partner wasn’t exactly conducive to healthy gay dating, yeah?”

Eoghan glanced over at him. “Right.”

“It probably got lonely.”

“Yeah.”

“So, your gaydar was off.” Ari smirked which made Eoghan smile.

Eoghan snorted. “I figured you out, didn’t I? Besides, that’s rarely been a problem.”

Ari bumped his shoulder as the armory came into view. “Admit it. You…were horny.”

“Asshole,” Eoghan murmured.

Ari chuckled. “I’m horny right now.”

Eoghan laughed out loud as they stopped in front of the double doors leading into the armory. Ari pulled one open, letting Eoghan enter first. The place smelled like a combination of gun oil and clean, male sweat. He suspected Wordy had just come from the building’s gym where he spent a lot of time. Even though their resident weapons specialist wasn’t very tall, he was chock full of muscle in several layers. If Ari had to guess, he was in his late forties or early fifties, younger than he’d thought the first time he’d seen him, but he kept himself in great shape.

Ari had used the I.S.R. gym several times and liked it. It saved him from paying the monthly fee at an outside gym, and he got the added bonus of working out with Eoghan during their off hours which were few and far between these days. He really hoped the chief would follow through with her plans on recruiting more marshals. They were stretched thin.

“Wordy!” Eoghan called out as they walked up to the counter. Wordy was nowhere in sight. The armory was divided into two sections, one for human tech and the other for alien technology and weaponry. Apparently, there were very few found alien objects that Wordy hadn’t figured out. He was quite brilliant at fiddling with something until he learned how it worked.

“Be right there!” came the response from a back room. A half minute later, Wordy came into view as he turned the corner. He smiled when he recognized them. “Oh, hey there. The chief told me to expect you two. I hear you’re after an opossum shifter family?”

“Yes,” Ari replied, looking between Wordy and Eoghan who was nodding. “Is there some special weapon to use with a shifter?”

“Regular bullets will kill them,” Wordy replied, nodding to his belt where Ari’s Glock sat cradled in his holster. “But Priest wants you to have dart guns.”

Ari frowned. “I thought our whole fleet of vehicles were already equipped with them. I recall you asking me if I’d ever watched Supernatural.”

Wordy grinned. “That’s right, but I got a new model of gun after one of Sterling’s guns jammed when she was aiming at a vamp. She was lucky that Loya was right there by her side.”

“I haven’t met them yet,” Ari said, glancing at Eoghan. “Sterling and Loya?”

“They work out of a satellite office near the Oregon border,” Eoghan said. “They’re closer to Tahoe than we are, and they would have had Riversong Wilkins’ case but they’re dealing with a prisoner drop off in Yreka.” He dragged his gaze back to Wordy. “Anyway, what do you have for us, my friend?”

“Hang on.” Wordy bent down behind the counter and when he stood up, he had two backpacks in his hands. He pushed them across the counter. “New dart guns and cartridges with less lethal rounds.” He smiled. “You’re gonna like these puppies. They weigh a third less than the ones we used to have. Smaller too.” He gestured toward the backpacks. “Take a look.”

Ari admired the tone of Wordy’s voice which sounded like a proud father bragging about a favorite child. Unzipping his backpack, he pulled the dart gun out and hefted it. It was indeed lighter and even smaller than his Glock. He looked at Wordy. “I like it.”

“You tried out the old model, right?”

“Not on a shifter or anything, just at the range,” Ari replied.

“We go to the range once a week,” Eoghan added. “I had to see how proficient my partner was.” He turned and smiled at him. “As it turns out, he really knows how to handle a weapon.”

Ari felt a wave of pleasure rush over him. “Thanks, partner.” He replaced the gun and zipped the pack before looking over at Eoghan. “Ready?”

“Yup. Let’s go.” Eoghan turned and knocked a closed fist on the desk. “Thanks, Wordy.”

Wordy saluted. “You got it. Be safe out there.”

Ari nodded and accompanied Eoghan out the door. They headed down to the garage and spotted Rick and Dick Tooley bent over the open hood of one of the Chargers as soon as they stepped off the elevator. I.S.R. marshals drove Chargers but there were other vehicles in the garage as well. The sanitizing teams drove large vans which resembled hazmat vehicles to disguise their true purpose of cleaning up after alien or supernatural events and there were a couple of those there too.

As they started to walk across the garage, Ari spotted Charlie Turner walking out of the door which led to the tombs. It was their name for the jail complex which temporarily housed their fugitives until someone from their tribe, clan, or planet could come and collect them. There weren’t very many cells down there. The Agency insisted that tradeoffs were to happen quickly at the I.S.R. unless it couldn’t be helped. In the case of Carmine, the twelve-foot-tall silver serpent-like alien who’d been a resident of the tombs for two years, the tradeoff couldn’t be made until someone from the alien’s home planet could make it to Earth. That was expected to be sometime around 2028. Charlie raised his hand and waved, smiling at them when he saw them.

Rick straightened from the Charger, ducking his head so he wouldn’t bump it and pivoted to put a wrench in a tall, red toolchest with several drawers. He wiped his greasy, black hands on his coveralls, and acknowledged them with a nod when he saw them coming toward him.

Talking to him was always fun because along with Rick, came his identical twin Dick—the other Richard Tooley. Ari still laughed every time he thought about the brothers who shared a name. According to Eoghan, both men were as dumb as a bag of hammers on the cerebral scale and nothing he’d witnessed so far, disputed that fact. But they definitely knew their way around a motor. He had to give them that.

“Hi, Sapphire. Hi, Brown,” Rick said, greeting the pair as they walked over.

“Brown,” Dick echoed from beside his brother.

Ari bit his lower lip to keep the smile off his face as he noticed the same identical blank expression the brothers wore.

“We need to check out one of the vehicles, Rick,” Eoghan said.

“Okay, that one is all gassed up and ready to go,” Rick said, pointing to a metallic, dark blue car.

“Ready to go,” Dick echoed.

“Good,” Eoghan said.

Rick nodded. “Keys are under the driver’s side visor.”

“Driver’s side visor,” Dick echoed.

“Thanks, guys.” Ari turned and walked away from them with Eoghan at his side. They got into the car and he turned to Eoghan. “What do you think causes that?”

“The thing where Dick echoes everything Rick says?”

“Yeah.”

Eoghan shrugged. “Low oxygen at birth?”

Ari snorted as he watched Eoghan grab the keys and put them into the ignition. “Do you think he’s a little slow?”

“A little?” Eoghan asked, laughing. He started the car and then pushed a button on the vehicle’s dash, making the tall double doors to the tunnel begin to roll open.

“Don’t laugh,” Ari chided. “You don’t know what’s wrong with him. You should put yourself in other people’s shoes.”

“Ugh. Other people’s shoes smell like other people’s feet.”

“Harsh,” Ari chided. The doors opened to their limit just as he managed to snap his seatbelt into place. Eoghan gunned the engine and the car shot into the tunnel, rapidly gaining speed as Ari held onto the grab bar with everything he had. They were silent for several minutes as Eoghan drove through the underground tunnel, finally shooting out into the light of day. He turned and watched the tunnel’s hidden doors slide closed as soon as the car was out. In seconds, their egress was camouflaged by the mountainside where they’d just come from. He leaned his head on the headrest and rolled it until the side of Eoghan’s face came into view. “I didn’t get my breakfast sandwich or a second cup of coffee. You’re gonna have to stop.”

Eoghan frowned but kept his eyes on the road. “So, all that stuff back at the café about not being hungry was bullshit?”

“Yeah. I just wanted to get out of there. Do you blame me?”

“Not really, no.”

“So, please find somewhere to stop.”

“Hmm…fast food, or convenience store?” Eoghan asked.

“You’re the healthy one. You pick,” Ari said.

Eoghan shot him a quick glance before looking back out the windshield. “Convenience store it is then, but you have to promise me to get only healthy snacks. We’ll stop halfway there for lunch, so you’ll have to tide yourself over until late afternoon.”

Ari groaned. “No Fuego flavored Takis?”

“Oh, God, no. Are you kidding me right now? You do know how much sodium is in those vile things, right?”

“Yes,” Ari teased. “So, no Takis. Okay, I can make do with a hard-boiled egg, black coffee, and a banana if I have to.”

“Good. I didn’t want to be forced to push you into traffic,” Eoghan said.

Ari chuckled. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Of course not.” Eoghan glanced over and made a kissing moue as he reached for his leg and squeezed his knee.

“So, not to change the subject from my stomach or anything but I have a question that’s been on my mind. I thought of it again when you mentioned the two marshals doing a prisoner drop off in Yreka.”

“Okay, we have a long drive. Shoot,” Eoghan replied.

“You said the marshals worked out of a satellite office up there.”

“Right. We have a few in California, one up by the Oregon border in Yreka, one down south near San Diego, another just outside of San Francisco in Fairfield which would probably have handled Oberon and Titania if they weren’t otherwise occupied, and one in Barstow. They each have two marshals and a sanitizing team but all the support and administration are done here in L.A. headquarters.”

“Okay, that makes a lot of sense. I was wondering how the sanitizing teams got out to all the sites in California to contain incidents.”

Eoghan nodded, keeping his eyes on the road as he drove. “Fortunately, our rapid response handles a lot of it and there’s a way IT can help scramble transmissions at the site, they do that from L.A. But as far as the on-site cleanup crews, they come from one of the satellite offices. We’ve also got a second rapid response team in Fairfield. Their offices are located on Travis Air Force Base.”

“Really? You…I mean we…partner with the military?”

“Most of the satellite offices are located on military bases. San Diego is Camp Pendelton Marine Corps base obviously, Barstow is—”

“I can guess that one,” Ari said. “Fort Irwin Army base, yes?”

Eoghan smiled, darting a glance at him quickly before fixing his gaze back on the road. “Right.”

“And you said there’s a satellite office in Yreka, but there’s no bases that close to the Oregon border that I can think of,” Ari said.

“It’s actually in a warehouse,” Eoghan said.

“Have you been to all of them?”

“In the six years I’ve worked for the I.S.R.? You betcha. Multiple times.” Eoghan said.

Ari thought about that for a few minutes before shaking his head. “It’s an interesting setup and it seems efficient.”

“It is.”

“Okay, so back to the case. Do you suspect foul play with this one?” Ari angled himself toward Eoghan to watch him in profile as he drove.

Eoghan shrugged. “I’m not sure. I don’t think she’d take off with her kids unless she felt a real threat, though. She didn’t strike me as someone prone to flights of fancy. I remember thinking that I was impressed by the way Riversong protected her children at all costs.”

“But she voluntarily followed Vandross with her kids, didn’t she?”

“We don’t think so. Once she realized there was a way out when Gladys knocked on her car window outside the grocery store, she gave up without any protest. I honestly think she had no idea how much crap he’d pulled in the past but when she was confronted with the rap sheet Glad showed her, she accepted it right off.”

“She most likely suspected he was a piece of shit,” Ari said. “Most women know what their men are capable of.”

“And yet, she stayed with him and kept popping out babies,” Eoghan said, flicking a glance at Ari. “I just don’t understand that mentality.”

“Once she had the first child, it probably wasn’t easy to leave him,” Ari said.

“You sound awfully sure of that.”

Ari nodded even though Eoghan was paying attention to the road and not to him. “I’m speaking in generalities of course, but I think I’m pretty sure what I’m saying is true. Women and men are different. When a couple first gets together, sex usually plays a big part in the relationship but when there’s a baby involved, the entire dynamic between them changes. The woman goes from being an object of the man’s sexual desire to being the mother of a child. Children are innocent and a healthy woman who’s had a healthy role model probably isn’t going to abandon that child for the man who impregnated her. It’s simple biology.”

“But some women don’t take to the role and they leave.”

“Yes, but that’s a low percentage of mothers. The instinct to protect their child is stronger than anything, I imagine.”

Eoghan glanced over at him and nodded. “Statistics would support that school of thought. So, you’re saying you think Riversong left with her kids this time because she somehow felt threatened again.”

“All I’m saying is that it’s possible,” Ari confirmed.

“Okay, well, I guess we’re going to find out when we get to her place and talk to the tribal police.” He pointed to a 7/11 on the corner, slowing the car. “Is that okay for breakfast?”

“That’s great.”

Eoghan pulled in and parked in front of the store. As Ari started to get out, he reached over and grabbed his forearm. When Ari turned to look at him, Eoghan smiled. “I wasn’t kidding about the Takis.”

Ari groaned. “But the Fuego ones are so good and they perfectly balance out eggs, fruit, and coffee.” He stuck out his lower lip and batted his eyelashes.

Eoghan snorted. “I’ll give you a banana.”

Ari leaned close and pecked him on the lips. “I’ll take your banana anytime.”

Eoghan laughed as he pulled away. “You’re ridiculous.”

“You are.” He struck out his tongue, laughing.

“And you love me for it.”

Ari stared at him for a second before nodding. He wasn’t about to argue with the truth when it was staring him right in the face.