Chapter 12 #2
Angel snorted. “He wishes. No. Never. Vampires are a messy bunch, emotionally and in general. The ones like Bobby, who have a vampire variant, are a little more predictable. The NHVs like Victor have lived a long time and it makes them cold. That’s why Hanna separated the teams. NHVs treat a lot of us HVs as cannon fodder. ”
“It’s not like we wanted to become variant.”
“Oh, they treat human non-variants even worse. I think it’s more about the human aspect than the variance. I’ve already given him shit to stay out of your spot tomorrow. If he’s still there, I will pick the damn thing up and move it.”
“Can you do that? Physically?”
“I’m not as strong as a vampire, or most NHVs, but I can pick up his crotch rocket and move it a few feet. Wade could probably carry the damn thing and dump it off the roof.”
“Wow. It’s going to take some getting used to.”
“What? Being around shifters?”
“No. Working with superheroes.”
“I don’t think any of us think of ourselves as superheroes. More, mutants, if you’re going the comic book route.”
That made sense. I didn’t feel like a hero, even if I’d seen something everyone else hadn’t.
Being strong didn’t make someone a good person.
“I guess a hero is a personality rather than a power. You work to help people, so that would make you a hero, not a mutant even if we are variants. You run toward the scary, instead of away.” I’d run away.
Fuck, that ate at me, but I shivered at the idea of that shadowy nightmare thing catching me.
The memory of its cackle had dug itself deep into my brain. I knew I’d never forget that sound.
“Do you know what it was?” I whispered the last question, afraid to hear the answer. What if it wasn’t something I needed to be afraid of?
“No,” Angel said after a long moment.
My gaze snapped up to meet his. How did he, who’d worked in the military and now in SED for ages, not know what it was?
“I don’t,” he said again. “And that worries me. None of us, even NHVs, know every creature that exists across the Veil. The other world is vast. It’s why the manual keeps growing.
But I’ve never encountered what you describe.
Is it demonic? Something from another culture, perhaps?
It’s why I added notes and put in a request for review from all NHVs.
They will be all over that building you were in.
” His avatar appeared on my screen again and a little gold star appeared next to the file.
“That marker is a request for review from NHVs. If someone is requesting a review from you specifically, it will appear in your pop up on the right.”
A list of files appeared. Interviews and digital scans of the scene. “Will we get feed from the cameras in the shop and anything surrounding it outside?”
“Yep, though it might take a few days to pull the footage. Most businesses are on older systems rather than fully automated digital stuff. We will probably have all that by the end of the week.”
“Good to know,” I said, clicking through the interview list—all videos with notations from Ezra.
While coming in this morning had been chaos, everything else had been highly organized, though it was strange that I didn’t actually own any cases.
I wondered if the collaboration hurt or helped them solve anything.
Their long backlog made me think it was the former, but SED had a lot of complicated issues that I could see miring the ability to close a case.
“How’s your headache?” Angel asked as I ran through the evidence list from forensics and made notes.
“Better,” I said. “I think the cake helped.”
“The sugar,” Angel agreed. “Overusing your variance often leads to low blood sugar.” He pulled out a drawer in his desk which was filled with packaged sweets with another language written on them mixed with a handful of things like Twinkies, Swiss Rolls, and a bunch of other snack cakes. “It’s always unlocked.”
“Are you saying I’m going to have to develop a sweet tooth at this job?” I patted my belly. “I’ll get fat.”
He snorted. “Not likely. But I’ll make sure Wade sets a workout regime for you to keep your trim little ass skinny.”
Was he admiring my ass? I stared at him and his desk of goodies. “You have an entire drawer full of sugar and went across the Veil to get me cake?”
“Consider it an apology.”
“For what?”
“For leaving you alone at a crime scene on your first day. I should have waved the guys over to tell them about the prints, not left you when you were experiencing an ability for the first time. It’s literally my job to make sure all of my team are safe in the field. I failed.”
I absorbed the words and rolled them around in my head before responding, surprised by his apology. More than a handful of people went out of their way to make my life more difficult because I was openly gay and—in their opinion—“a hotshot who needed to be taken down a few pegs.”
“I appreciate you finding me,” I finally said.
“Though I feel like an idiot since none of you seem all that worried about going across the Veil, and I ran in terror.” Heat filled my face again.
It had been a long time since I’d thought of myself as a rookie.
But here, that was exactly what I was. “I’m woefully unprepared for this job.
I’m sorry you’re stuck with me. I know you didn’t want a guy like me on your team.
But I promise to do my best to catch up and be useful. ”
Angel studied me. “Hanna separated the teams at the beginning of the year,” he said.
“After one team got overrun across the Veil and half of them killed, she pushed to expand, but also for the separation, because NHVs are hardcore. They can have a building land on them and keep going. Don’t ever think the Necropolis is harmless.
Whatever instincts made you run away from that thing saved your life.
SVs are like candy to a lot of supes. Your blood can supercharge a vampire, and most of the fae. ”
“Creepy to sound like I’m suddenly a supernatural juice box.”
“It’s probably why you got put with us, under Hanna. She’s fiercely protective of her teams. Especially for a dark fae.”
“And Kerry, who wanted to pull some demon magic out of me?”
“Yeah, that’s an added pickle,” Angel agreed. “DVs are unheard of, as NHVs hunted them to extinction during the war.”
“But no one can predict what we will be, right? We just wake up one day… different?”
“There are theories that family lines have similar variance. I don’t know anyone with variant siblings.”
“My brother is variant,” I said. “I never asked what his variance was. He’s a kid. Sixteen, maybe?”
“Do you remember what color his armband was?”
I shook my head and wondered if Grandpa knew. “I don’t remember. I’ve only met him once. He was sort of my replacement. My folks had him after kicking me out. Sorry.”
“No reason to be. This is all new to you. I’m the old cat having a hard time learning new tricks.
It pissed me off at first, when I thought you were some rich kid sent to keep an eye on us,” he admitted.
“We’re understaffed, and Hanna has been promising me help for months.
We’re backlogged and can barely get notes caught up on one case before there is another popping up. ”
“I’m even more sorry you got stuck with me, then. You should have gotten someone with experience in all this.” I waved my hand around, as if the entire place were the complication of supernatural context I had existed most of my life without understanding.
“I’m not, actually. Sorry, I mean. I wonder if your perspective, coming from outside, newly changed, will give us a better chance at fixing some of the crap we’ve been saddled with.
We wouldn’t have found the handprints or even the book without you.
” He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “I really hope it’s not witches again.”
“They aren’t variants? Just people who can do spells? I’m not sure I understand.”
“They barter their lives for power. Usually with demons or something equally dark but powerful. A handful of gods backed witches in the last war. They went into hiding when all their human puppets died. It’s hard to find the humans because they aren’t variant.
Their power is fueled by the being that bargained with them.
There isn’t really a better word for them.
I’ve met soothsayers who were fine, and some spellcasters that can raise magic without a bargain, though I suspect they might have an unnoticed variant, but those we categorize as witches have some sort of connection with something nasty from across the Veil. ”
“Are there any reliable books on the war? Something more detailed than the three-line summary I had in high school a few decades ago?” I arranged the icons on my desktop in order for the case, from interviews, reports from the forensics team, to evidence review.
“I’ll see if I can dig up a few things,” Angel offered. “Mostly, I read manga these days as an escape, instead of the gory details of what I lived through.”
“Sorry,” I said again, feeling bad for reminding him of terrible things. “Maybe you’ll show me to this bakery and I’ll buy you something as an apology for being so lame.”
“We’ll probably leave venturing into the Veil for another day. I think you’ve probably had enough chaos for one day,” Angel said.
While I agreed, I hoped he didn’t see me as a liability. “I’ll need to get used to it eventually, right?”
“Sure. But if you were new to homicide, it’s not like we’d dump you in the morgue all alone to examine bodies. Having a learning curve isn’t bad. But I’d rather you not keep silent when you experience something you don’t understand. Ask questions, or tell me.”
“Like the handprints and giggles?” And the shadow beast that made me shudder in lingering fear.
“Exactly.”
“I thought someone was messing with me.”
“Is that something that would happen at your old department?”
“Sadly, yes.”
“If anyone pulls shit here, I want you to let me know. Like Victor’s bullshit.”
“I don’t need a babysitter,” I said, annoyed. I might be new, but I wasn’t a kid, and had handled a lot of crap thrown at me in my life.
“We are a team,” Angel said. “It’s not lip service.
Wade and I already agreed to keep the NHVs away from you.
The entire mood of the fucking building changed when you walked in.
Like they all sensed you and want a piece.
Which is dangerous and pisses me off. I plan to talk to Hanna about it.
I need you focused on cases, not trying to survive the games of supernatural creatures who think humans are little more than cockroaches to be squashed. ”
“Brutal.” What the hell kind of nightmare job was I stuck in? “And not at all reassuring.”
“I’d rather you be prepared and cautious than walk blindly into their bullshit.”
And for that, at least, I was grateful.