Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Next morning, I dressed in a lightweight dress that had a built-in corset top. It was hunter green and black, and would be cool in the August sun, while still looking good. I added breathable net stockings, and then a pair of ankle boots with platform soles.
“Ready?” Kipa said, handing me my purse. “We can stop on the way to grab breakfast.”
I turned to Raj. “Does Raj remember the times when Raven and Kipa had to leave for a few hours? How Raj promised to behave and Raven expected him to keep his promise?”
Raj thought for a moment, then burped. “Raj remembers.”
“Well, Raj needs to promise to behave again, now that we’re home. When Raven is out, Raj will behave himself. He can catch up with his TV friends. Raven will turn on the TV and put on the shows she recorded for Raj. And Raj…”
Raj broke into a grin that only another gargoyle—or someone who knew them—could love. It looked like he was ready to attack, but instead, he was just smiling.
“Raj promises. Raj won’t worry Raven.”
During the time we’d been away, Raj had learned that the warriors of Kalevala, who attended V?in?moinen, valued honor above anything. He wanted to be like them because they treated him like a little buddy. He’d started minding the rules more, and in turn, I’d given him a little more leeway.
“All right. Raven isn’t sure how long she and Kipa will be gone, but if it’s too long, Raven will let Raj know by talking to him through the Home Guardian camera.”
One of the first things I’d done before moving back was to contact Vixen and have them install a set of security cameras in the house, ready for when we got back.
Now, I could see what was going on in the living room and a couple of other rooms of the house.
If I needed to talk to Raj, I could just use my phone like an intercom.
He couldn’t handle a telephone—he didn’t have the dexterity with his paws.
Kipa armed the security system, and we headed out to his car.
He had bought a new hybrid SUV, and it suited him.
Rugged and rogue, but with a conscience.
As we pulled out of the driveway, discussing where to stop for breakfast, a flash of déjà vu washed over me—memories of driving into the office to help out Herne and Ember after I first met them.
I suddenly realized two things. One: I had never expected to be doing this again.
And two: I had missed it. Inexplicably happy, I settled back and stared out the window at my beloved Seattle.
So much had changed since the dragons destroyed part of it, but the city was recovering, and I thought it might be even better than before.
The morning was busy, as usual, with gridlock everywhere you looked. We avoided the freeway, which was packed, and stopped in at a drive-thru stand run by Sarina, a were-puma. She did a double-take when she leaned out the window and saw us.
“You’re back!” Sarina looked delighted. While we weren’t buddies, every time I had stopped in we had managed a quick, friendly chat.
“We’re back, and probably for a long while,” I said. “Four sausage-cheese muffins, please, and I want an iced double-shot vanilla latte. Kipa, what do you want?”
Kipa gave Sarina a little wave. “Double mocha, please. How’s business?”
“It’s going,” she said, shrugging. “The economy is so rough right now that I cut the menu by a third and I’m focusing on the most affordable foods. I had to raise prices anyway, but at least I think it’s still manageable.”
“Add a couple dozen assorted doughnuts to the order, please,” I asked.
“You don’t have to do that, Raven—” Sarina started to say, but I waved away her protest.
“We’re headed to a meeting and I want to take something since it’s our first time back in a long while,” I said.
We paid for our order and I added a generous tip. While Kipa didn’t worry about money—and while we were together, neither did I—times were rough for too many people, and I tried to show what support I could.
As we reached the new building, the temperature climbed. August was the hottest month of the year, and we were looking at a few days in the nineties.
I gazed up at the new Wild Hunt Agency. Herne had rebuilt it after the old building took heavy damage during the dragon attacks.
Not only had he bought the land, but the entire building—two stories now instead of five—belonged to the agency.
He had added underground parking to protect visitors and staff from the weather.
He had eliminated any traces of asbestos, and the elevator actually worked, but I hadn’t been back to visit since it had been rebuilt.
“Well, here we are. Again. How do you feel about this?” I asked.
“Herne needs us. We’re here,” Kipa said. “At first, I balked at working with him, especially since the incident between us when we were younger. But he’s gotten over it. He knows I’m sorry about what happened. He knows I’m not out to steal his wife, and we’re good now.”
We hustled out of the car and into the building.
The inside of the new Wild Hunt Agency was bright and shiny, as opposed to the rickety feel of the original building.
The lobby was just that—a lobby with no way to access the upper floor without keys to the stairwell.
The windows that looked into the main reception area started at the ceiling and extended down to a short wall three feet from the floor.
One look at the glass told me it was bulletproof.
Inside, Talia was at her desk, looking no different than she had a couple of years ago.
A harpy who had long ago been stripped of her powers, Talia looked like a woman in her mid-to-late sixties; well-groomed, stylish, and still vibrant.
Truth was, she had known Herne for centuries.
The rest of the office looked quiet, but everyone was probably gathered in the breakroom, waiting for us to get there. I pushed through the door with Kipa following me as he carried the doughnuts.
Talia glanced up, her eyes brightening as she saw us. “Raven! Kipa! Welcome back. It’s so good to see you.” She jumped up from her chair and circled around the desk to give me a hug. “Come on. Herne’s in a state and they’re waiting for you.”
She hustled us down the hall, past a staircase leading upstairs.
“Wow, you really have upgraded,” I said.
“Oh, we’re fancy now,” she said, laughing. “We even have a gym, a locker room, and a laundry room. Those are upstairs, along with the storage room and the armory. The offices are all downstairs, along with the breakroom. Speaking of which, here we are.” She pointed to an open door on the right.
Kipa and I followed her in.
The breakroom was larger than before, with a full kitchenette, a large free-standing whiteboard, a projector and screen, and a huge built-in wall of shelves and drawers.
The table in the middle of the room was round, and there, waiting, were Herne, Ember, and Yutani.
Ember swept me into a hug, while Kipa and Herne did the manly clasp of hands, shoulder-hug thing guys tended to do.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” Ember said. “Not only because we need you, but…I’ve missed you.”
Ember and I had grown close over the years. I glanced around. “Is Angel here?”
“Actually, no,” Ember said, sighing. “But she moved back when we did. Sejun came with her. Did you know that she’s pregnant?”
I blinked. “What? They’re going to be parents?”
She nodded. “She went through the Gadawnoin late last year, shortly before Yule. She came through with flying colors. Now, she’s four months pregnant.”
I settled into a chair, trying to take in the news. It fit, though, with Angel’s personality. She had always been more connected to family than Ember. I could see her as a mother.
“I’m glad she has DJ with her. I know she constantly worried about him.”
Angel’s little brother was a wolf shifter, and he was brilliant. But a Black youth in today’s society was still in danger just because of his color, and Angel had been constantly fussing about how he would manage in a foster family.
“Oh, DJ’s doing well. Anyway, we can catch up later.
I’m just glad you’re back,” Ember said. “For one thing, given the triplets and my increased duties with Morgana, I don’t have the time to investigate cases.
And we have a doozy on our hands—” She paused as the door opened and Wager Chance entered.
Wager was an old friend of mine. “Raven! Ember said you’d be coming in.” He started to give me a hug but paused to glance over at Kipa. Kipa just laughed and nodded, so Wager pulled me into a friendly hug and gave me a quick kiss on the forehead.
“Wager, good to see you.” I thought for a moment, then added, “Everybody should just come over for dinner as soon as we’re unpacked so we can all catch up.”
“That’s a good idea,” Herne said. “Right now, even though I’d love to just sit and chat, we have a disturbing case that we’re going to need help on.”
Ember nodded, returning to her seat. “We do. Morgana cut me some slack so I could come talk to you about it. She’s taken me under her wing, so to speak, and I’m leveling up my magic now that I’m a goddess.
Motherhood changed my magic as well, and I’m learning how to adjust the quirks that having kids threw into the mix. ”
“So,” Kipa said. “What’s going on?”
Herne sighed. “There have been three deaths on the waterfront—down on the piers. The mayor asked us to look into it, because they aren’t…natural.”
“Natural? So, murders?”
“Murders, yes. But…no human committed these murders.” Wager shook his head. “So, they found the three bodies within the last week, and their condition was unlike anything anybody’s ever seen—at least as far as the cops, the medical examiner, and us.” He grimaced. “It’s bad. Really bad.”
“What are we looking at, then?” Kipa frowned. “Pictures?”
I grimaced. I didn’t like looking at dead bodies, even though I was pledged to a god of death. It was much easier to deal with spirits than with mortal remains. But Yutani brought up a file on his laptop and turned it so we could all see it.
I managed not to spit out the doughnut I was eating. The video was so disturbing that, for a moment, I was worried I might lose my lunch.
“What the hell?” Kipa said, leaning closer.
I sucked in a deep breath and joined him in examining the chaotic mess that was on the screen. As we watched, it got worse.
Whoever the victim had been, he hadn’t looked like that during life. That much was all too obvious. He, or rather, whatever was left of him, was on the pier, naked, his clothes strung out along the boardwalk. The body looked as if it had been absorbed by a giant jellyfish.
No…
It looked like it was turning into a giant jellyfish. The top half still looked human-ish; I could tell the victim had been a man. But the bottom half…it was dissolving into a pile of amorphous goo, the legs and pelvis no longer visible. And it was dissolving quickly.
Surrounded by long strings of seaweed and a scattering of clams, the body continued to disintegrate until, after five minutes under the sun, it had vanished and the only sign that the man had ever been there were his clothes, a wallet lying on the pier, a watch, a wedding ring, and what I realized were several crowns that had been on the victim’s teeth.
“What the hell did we just watch?” Kipa asked.
“That’s the thing—what did we watch? I don’t know. Whatever happened to that man happened to two other people in the same week. We managed to find video of all three. The cops began filming the moment they came upon the bodies,” Herne said.
“They found each of the bodies in the early afternoon,” Ember added.
“They were protected by the shade, but as the sun inched over the victims, the…melting…seemed to happen faster. All the videos pretty much show the same thing. The medical examiner’s office is analyzing what they could gather up as we speak. ”
I let out a long breath. “This is incredibly weird and disturbing.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Talia said.
“Any idea of who’s behind this?” Kipa asked.
Wager shook his head. “No. I wish Lyrical was around. She has more of a connection to the water than any of us, except Ember. She might have seen something like this at some time.”
“You said she’s off on a road trip?” I asked.
Ember nodded. “She needed it.”
I glanced over at Yutani, who just scowled at the table. He was wearing his usual dark, brooding look. He had been dating the Leannan Sidhe last I heard, but I had the distinct feeling that might have gone south.
“And you haven’t heard of anything like this?” I asked Ember.
She shook her head. “No, I haven’t. But three bodies in a week can’t be a coincidence, and we need to figure this out before whoever’s responsible decides to go for number four.”
“Yeah, I hear you.” I hadn’t expected to be shunted back into the thick of things the moment I arrived home, but shit happened. “We’ll help,” I said.
“Of course we will,” Kipa added.
“Good, because I have a feeling we’re going to need the extra help.” Herne pushed play on the video again, and we watched in silence as the remains of the man vanished into a puddle of goo. “Something big is behind this. I can feel it. And I don’t think whatever it is, is going to be friendly.”
Goosebumps raced down my arms, and I shivered. His words struck a deep resonance inside me, and I could almost hear the whispering of spirits around me. Yes, we were back all right.