Chapter 2 #3
“Thanks.” I smiled, touched by his concern, and held out my arm so he could fasten the bracelet around my wrist. Electricity buzzed up the nerve endings in my arm as his long fingers brushed against my skin, and from the way Comenius’s pupils dilated, I could tell the same thing had happened to him.
Which wasn’t exactly strange, since we’d tumbled together in the sack before, but it was pretty awkward with Noria sitting right there watching us, so I settled quickly back into my chair, breaking the contact as soon as he was done.
“So,” Noria said. “What now?”
“Now we look at this.” I unzipped my jacket and pulled out the file. Com and Noria’s eyes widened, and they both leaned forward.
“Is… is this a case file?” Comenius said.
“Yep. From Roanas’s house.” It had taken me quite a while to find it, so I hadn’t had a chance to do more than stuff it down the front of my jacket before Brin and Nila arrived. “He told me to get it before he died.”
Comenius looked like he wanted to say something about stealing evidence, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.
I flipped open the file, scanning the notes and various newspaper clippings.
My eyes smarted at the sight of Roanas’s handwriting – it was a painful reminder that he would never write another word again.
But I blinked away the tears, knowing I couldn’t afford them now – there would be time enough to grieve after the killer was caught.
“Naya? Isn’t this about one of your own?”
I glanced down at the article Noria was pointing at. My eyes widened as I took in the photo of the beautiful woman depicted at the top of the article, dressed in leathers and armed with a short sword. It was Sillara, one of the more competent Enforcers, and one I’d been quite fond of.
“I had no idea she’d died of silver poisoning,” I murmured, tracing the outline of her face with the tip of my finger.
She’d been part of a crew, whereas I was a solo mercenary, so our paths didn’t really cross.
But she’d always struck me as frank and dedicated, one of the true diamonds amongst a sea full of rhinestones. And now she was gone.
Comenius said nothing, simply laying a hand on my shoulder as I read the article.
It said that she’d been found in her apartment on a Friday night, dead on her living room floor.
The Mage’s Guild was conducting an autopsy, but there was no conclusive evidence pointing to a cause of death, murder weapon or killer, for that matter.
“They wrote her off,” I muttered, my fingers curling so tightly around the edges of the paper that it started to shred.
“I remember now. The Guild said she’d died from some kind of fucking heart failure.
” Which was incredibly rare amongst shifters, especially one who was as healthy and in shape as Sillara had been.
Magorah, why hadn’t I seen it? I should have questioned it, should have suspected something…
but of course, I’d been too wrapped up in my own problems, and I hadn’t.
“I’m sorry,” Comenius said gently, rubbing his thumb along the edge of my shoulder. I wanted to lean into him, to sink into the comfort he offered, but I couldn’t – someone was killing off shifters, and I needed to find out who.
“Do you think the mages might be in on this?”
I glanced up at Noria, who’d spoken. “You think the Mage’s Guild is responsible for the murders?”
Noria shrugged, lines bracketing her mouth as she scanned another one of the articles.
“I can’t say for sure, but it seems like someone’s definitely trying to keep all of these hush-hush.
I mean, usually the papers are quick to connect cases like this, and yet we have six issues here, spread across three months, and not a single peep from the media. What gives?”
“But this is the Shifter Courier,” I argued. “These stories aren’t published by the Mage’s Guild.”
Noria shrugged. “Race doesn’t seem to matter when someone shoves a pouch full of gold in your face. They probably bribed the editor or something.”
Even though as a hybrid I wasn’t fully part of the shifter community, my gut still twisted at the idea one of us was a sell-out. Sure, I’d had to take down my fair share of shifter bounties, but it was still tough to admit we were just as susceptible to the same weaknesses as any other race.
A gloomy silence descended as we all pondered the possibilities.
So far, the beginnings of our theory suggested human involvement with mage cover-up, which didn’t make a whole lot of sense because there was no reason I could think of that the mages would want to cover up for humans.
I’d searched Roanas’s house for clues while I’d been waiting for the Enforcers to show up and hadn’t found anything helpful, but that didn’t mean nothing was going on.
I had a feeling that even if we were on the right trail, we were only scratching the surface, and things were going to get a whole lot messier the deeper we went.
“What about your cousin Rylan?” Comenius asked. “He might have heard some rumors about this underground.”
“Huh.” I hadn’t thought of that. “I haven’t heard from him in a long while, but I should ask.
” Rylan was a member of the Resistance, a ragtag band of humans and shifters who lived on the outskirts of civilization and worked tirelessly to overthrow the mages.
He was the only one of my cousins I was close to, which was ironic considering that I worked for law enforcement.
Unfortunately, his way of life meant I didn’t get to see him much.
“I think that’s a good idea.” Comenius paused. “Are you going to be alright?” he asked, his voice gentling. “I mean, if you lose your job at The Twilight –”
“I’ll be fine,” I cut him off, not wanting him to worry. For all of his self-preservation instincts and tendencies towards conservatism, Comenius could become a freaking mother hen when it came to keeping his friends safe. “I’ll figure out a way to make ends meet.”
“You haven’t come to me for amulets in a long time,” he said quietly. “Which means that you haven’t been going after any new bounties. That Talcon fellow has been giving most of them to the Main Crew, hasn’t he?” His brow darkened.
“Com, stop.” I rose to my feet, agitated now.
Most of the Enforcers Guild was made up of small crews – eight to ten people, usually – but there was always a Main Crew of at least forty people who got the best bounties.
Unfortunately, since the Main Crew didn’t have to work so hard to get their bounties, they were also pretty half-assed when it came to their job – and Brin and Nila were part of them.
“There’s no need to worry about this, because I’m going to change it. ”
Comenius sat back, skepticism written all over his face as he crossed his arms and looked up at me. “And just how are you going to do that?”
“By solving these poison murders,” I declared, jabbing my fist in the air like a torch.
“If I can show up the current Main Crew by catching this murderer, Galling will add me to the Main Crew roster and I’ll get access to better bounties.
Then Talcon will have to show me some respect.
” The thought of pressing a proverbial boot to Talcon’s neck brought a fierce grin to my face.
He wouldn’t dare mess with me if I was on the Main Crew.
“Hmm.” Comenius appeared to give the matter serious thought. “The idea definitely has merit.”
I was about to roll my eyes when a loud buzzing sound filled the room as my Enforcer bracelet, a tiny bronze shield charm threaded through a brown cord, vibrated against my wrist. “All nearby Enforcers to 228 Garden Street,” a tinny voice blared, projected by the bracelet. “Rogue shifter out of control.”
“Well, shit.” I patted my legs down to make sure my weapons were still strapped on me – chakram pouch on the right leg and crescent knives on the left. “Sounds like there’s trouble in Rowanville. Gotta go!”
I sprinted out the door and down the pier toward my bike, the thrill of the hunt racing through my veins.
Emergency calls paid high, and were first come, first served, so if I took down this guy there was no way Talcon could skimp on paying me the bounty.
Jumping on my bike, I started up the steam engine and raced out of the pier.
My wheels screeched as I skidded onto the main street and blew past two mages coming out of a shop.
I laughed as their robes flew up around their ankles and flipped them the bird as they shouted after me.
I didn’t care about them, didn’t care about any of my other troubles right now. All I knew was that I had a bounty to catch, and I was going to cash in on it even if it killed me.