Hellfire (Nightfire Academy #4)

Chapter 7 - Talon

CHAPTER 7 - TALON

T hirty minutes and another half a packet of cookies later, Gable’s contact strolled into his apartment, ushered in by the warlock. Hints of ink showed through his designer white t-shirt and on his hands. Ancient letters that looked like hieroglyphs. His tattooed fingers were heavy with biker rings. Thick, curled black hair framed his face. Amber eyes examined us from beneath dark lashes. The bronze of his skin and dark features pinned him of Middle Eastern descent. He was taller than Gable, about six-four, but a few inches smaller than me. No less deadly by the steel in his observant gaze.

Gable did a little introduction, stuffing tobacco into his pipe. “Castor, this is Talon. Castor is the enforcer of the Jackals’ Wrath MC.” He took a drag on the pipe end. “Talon is in charge of security at the Academy.”

Our kind? Hardly. The senior leaders of the Jackals were demigod bikers with shifting abilities. Avatars, I think they called themselves. I didn’t quite understand it. Whatever the fuck they were, the Guild crossed paths with them on our hunt to exterminate forbidden shifters born from gantii breeding with humans, like the werewolves hiding in the region. After the Jackals got involved, warning us not to fuck with them or the shifters they aligned with, we stayed out of their business and they ours. We didn’t need enemies packing the powers of the Egyptian gods. That was four years back, before my appointment as Darnax.

Castor and I hadn’t met before. He must be a new addition to the club. Outwardly friendly, extending a palm to shake, he exuded calm, but on the inside, I sensed a darkness not to cross that made him perfect for the Jackals. I slapped my palm into his, intent on staying on his good side, having seen what the Jackals’ president could do during our last run-in.

“Tell me about this mystery, Talon.” Castor reclined in the one-seater, his gaze raking over Mary. “And get me those cookies you promised, warlock. I need fuel for this brain.”

“That’s my sister. Long story.” Gable brought the plastic bag of them over, set them on the coffee table, and gestured at me to go for it.

I took the seat beside Castor’s, shifting my angle to address him. “We’ve had some recent invasions, made practical by infiltrators who spread Fae dust to send gargoyles to sleep and charm the cameras to not record.”

Castor made a hmph sound and hoed into his cookie.

Gable sat on the arm of the three-seater to not disturb his sister, who curled into a ball, pulling her blanket higher at another stranger’s presence. “Do you think you could do your thing and get my man here his traitor?” He patted Mary’s feet, and she wriggled.

“Don’t insult my ability.” The Enforcer’s eyes glowed golden.

“What’s his thing?” I asked, needing to know the particulars.

“Hacking.” Gable grinned and rubbed his hands.

I lurched to my feet. “No. Tell him to stop.”

Fuck, it was just like Gable not to give all the details to make an informed decision, and I was the idiot desperate enough for a lead to ask.

I moved to grab Castor and shake him out of whatever he did. The Academy couldn’t afford anyone snooping into their security system. Ours was light years ahead of human technology since we had the best scientific minds like Cole onboard, but I wasn’t taking the chance that we had a weakness somewhere in the system that allowed a hacker to search through our set-up to mimic it and sell it to the highest bidder.

Gable grabbed me by my jacket and stopped me. “Whatever security you’re trying to protect, he can bypass it. That’s his god’s function.”

“God? I thought he was one.”

Gable shrugged, backtracking to the kitchen to pour Castor a coffee. “He’s human, doing his god’s bidding, and gets access to all his patron’s power.”

I guess that clarified what the enforcer was then.

The gold faded and restored the amber in Castor’s eyes. “Found it,” he said before I got any more answers.

No one hacked that quickly. I imagined having that kind of talent, being able to solve problems, and I made a note to befriend this guy, get his help again in future.

“What did you do?” I wanted to know how fucked I was and how I would explain this when the Guild’s system detected a breach.

“Don’t worry about your system. I left no trace, and won’t abuse it… if you don’t give me reason to.” The twist of his ring said he could fuck up the Guild’s security if we gave him trouble. “I sent you a secure folder with files stored on a private and unhackable server.”

My phone beeped with a message, and I blinked, taking it out.

Castor flicked a finger my way. “The folder’s got copies of texts and calls made from burner phones that ping from the phone tower to the Academy’s location and others that I’ve tracked back to staff or students.”

“Thanks, man,” I got out, clicking on the link leading to a private server hosting a series of about twenty folders.

The enforcer nodded at the mug Gable handed him. “Unfortunately, I can’t solve your dead camera issue and identify your suspect.” My hope slid to my feet as he grabbed another two cookies. “But I got some good images of persons of interests before the network went dead.”

Gable settled back on the armrest, rubbing his sister’s ankle. “Told you he was good.”

Blown away with his talent, I flicked through the folders. This information would take me days to weeks to review, time I didn’t have with the new semester commencing tomorrow and the rollout of new security protocol to prevent anymore “Nelle” type situations.

I thanked him again like a fucking chump, and he clasped my hand and slapped his other down on top of it. I was too stunned to get much more out. My team and I ran into so many dead ends, and this guy gave me my smoking gun within a minute, making our searches look like child’s play. This was someone I wanted on our side if need be.

“The folder has voice recordings of your traitor, so you can narrow it down,” Castor advised. “I’ll keep looking into who he’s been calling as the data leads to a cesspit.”

The suspect was a “he” just like Nelle indicated. What was her role in all of this? Plant and not the culprit? I needed clarity like I needed air.

The enforcer hooked his fingers in his belt loops. “This is bigger than you know. A network of factions working in tandem.”

I met his eyes. “You knew about it?”

“I ran into it last year.” He frowned and sipped his coffee. “I’ve only been with the Jackals a few years. Before then, I didn’t know about the Guild.”

I scraped a hand over my wavy hair. “Why didn’t you tell us? We could have stopped this.”

He tilted his head. “The Guild’s been slaughtering our kind for years.”

His kind. Shifters. Half-breed offspring between humans and gantii. Werewolves were the most prevalent, some fox shifters, vampires, among others. They scattered when they caught wind that our hunters were after them. They went dark after that, using complicated spells overlaid in a grid, and the Guild invested their time in fighting the Brotherhood first, then they’d come after the illegal gantii residing on Earth.

A hypocritical attitude of the Guild, really, when we brought stone gargoyles to life, and they were technically magical beings. In essence, so was I. Luna and Gable, as well. I couldn’t let this extermination continue when it threatened to take away the woman I loved and the man I came to recognize as a friend.

Problems for another day. One thing at a time.

Castor’s arms crossed over his broad chest. “Why would we pair up with you when we haven’t exactly seen eye to eye?”

Fair point. Every reaction had a consequence, and through the Guild’s arrogance and supremacy, they earned powerful enemies who could have helped but stayed neutral to protect their kind.

We really could have used their help to deal with our Brotherhood problem, considering they enslaved gantii to abuse their power, slaughter them, and use their body parts for spells or auction them off to collectors worldwide, willing to pay top dollar.

I scrubbed my hands inwards from my cheeks to the corners of my mouth. “Maybe you can put a stop to this. Make a treaty with the shifters?”

The enforcer’s thumb tapped the top of his mug. “That sort of agreement goes above my authority.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “The information’s a start. A token of my goodwill. If your Guild is willing to cooperate, I’d be happy to supply more.”

I barked out a laugh. “That’s probably above my pay grade, but I can certainly take it to the table.”

Castor jerked his chin in Gable’s direction. “Our debt’s square, warlock?”

“Until you need my help again.” Gable always had to goad.

“One day, you’ll be in debt to me,” Castor muttered.

“Love you too, bitch.” Gable chuckled.

I glanced up from the folder I reviewed. “I’ll put my hand up for a favor.”

The enforcer lifted his chin, his eyes narrowing, willing to hear me out. “What do you need?”

“What else can you hack into?” I scratched the back of my neck. “I have a friend whose powers were hijacked by the Brotherhood by some sort of branding on his skin that we’ve never encountered before.”

Castor scratched underneath his lip with this thumb, showing off a brown, twined leather bracelet. “I got some time in a couple of days. Can you bring him here?” His eyes slid to Gable. “If that’s okay with you, warlock?”

Gable kneaded his fist into the arm of his sofa. “I’ll get more cookies.”

Gold flashed in the enforcer’s eyes, and my phone beeped again. “That’s my number if you need any more help.” He climbed from his chair and stabbed a finger in my direction. “I’ll be calling in that favor someday.”

“I’m not down for murder, just so you know.” Had to put it on the table.

Castor let out a smooth laugh and clapped me on the shoulder a couple of times. “A magical favor that doesn’t involve murder.”

The kind of favor that might get me fired. This lead better be worth the risk.

Gable rose and stood next to him. “If you wanted a magical blow job, all you had to do was ask.”

Castor snorted. “I’ve got a mate now. Don’t you have one too?”

“Is there anything that you don’t spy on?” Gable curled an arm over the biker’s shoulder and saw him out.

“I keep an eye on my town,” replied the enforcer, raising his hand to wave. “Nice to meet you, Darnax.”

Sneaky fucker went digging deeper. How many other Academy secrets did he pry into? Even the best security structures couldn’t keep a demigod out. He better stick to his promise of not snooping further or we’d have a problem. I shook my head and went back to my phone.

Meanwhile, I searched through the folder Castor texted me. Seventy voice messages. Close to three hundred texts and emails. Logs of call times and locations. Mountains of evidence to review. I didn’t feel comfortable taking this back to the Academy and using the network to review the files, in case Dave or anyone kept watch on our system.

Mary sat up on her seat, clutching her blanket tighter, drawing her knees to her chest.

“You’re safe here, Mary,” I told her. “I’m not going to hurt you. I promise.”

Her eyes didn’t leave me, and she didn’t relax, suggesting she didn’t trust me enough to believe a word.

“You okay, Little Bug?” Gable brushed her hair upon his return, and she whimpered and scuttled across the chair. “Hey, hey. It’s me.” He came to crouch in front of her. “Are you hungry? Thirsty?”

Her eyes darted to the plate of cookies.

Gable smiled, leaned back, and lifted the plate in her direction. “Have as many as you want, Little Bug.”

She snatched one and warily took a bite. The poor thing had a long road ahead of her. Nightmares. PTSD. Therapy, even. If therapy could erase a lifetime of living in a cult.

“Water, please,” she mumbled, and he excused himself to pour her a tall glass, setting it down next to the plate.

“I’m going to take a look at some things with Talon. Do you need anything else while I’m busy?”

“A movie, please.” Her voice barely came out a whisper.

What the hell had they done to her? She looked like a ghost walking.

My watch beeped, a signal to tell me I had sixty minutes before sunset and my change came into effect. I had a series of alarms set up. One at half an hour, another at fifteen minutes, and a final at five minutes.

“Do you have to go?” Gable asked me as he moved to the TV and selected a DVD for her, some Pixar cartoon that seemed a little too young for a seventeen-year-old. Living in the Brotherhood probably set back her education and maturity.

“I’ve got an hour before I change.” I squinted at the writing on my damn phone screen, needing a larger one to review the data. “Got a laptop to read these files?” I asked Gable upon his return.

He finished activating the DVD player for his sister, then fished out an Alienware laptop from his TV display unit, bringing it over to me. “This should do the trick.”

Over the next forty minutes, we reviewed the files in numerical order, listening to the voice recordings from the burner phone, two dated days before the elemental invasion and Camus’ invasion. My body shuddered at the haughty voice in those calls. Just the man I had my eye on. Now I had to figure out a way to take him down without tipping off his snakey friends and eliminate them from the Academy so we were free of the dark influence clouding us.