The Blue Devil

by Quirah Casey

  “And you.” I turn to Levitsky, knowing that London’s already shared all he’s willing to. “Why were you transferred here?”

  “Confidential.” Levitsky meets my eyes briefly and then looks away, his fingers drumming on his knee.

  “Wow, you two are really opening up. Now we’re starting to feel like a real team.”

  “I don’t see you being too forthcoming,” the agent snaps, and I raise a brow at the bitterness in his tone. Until this point, he seemed pretty hard to rattle, but I guess the day’s events have shaken him up. I think about pushing him for a reaction, but decide against it. I’ll save that for another day.

  “No one has asked me any questions, Agent.”

  Levitsky crosses his legs and props a hand against his chin. “How do you get off—”

  “Typically with a warm body between my legs.”

  “Stop.” Levitsky extends a warning hand as his face wrinkles. “Let me finish my question. Please.”

  “I didn’t take you for such a prude, Agent.”

  “Yeah, mate, I was waiting to hear the rest,” London complains, shaking his head in disappointment.

  “Gods above, please help,” Mel mutters, her hand going to her temple. The corners of my lips start to curl.

  “How do you get off every time you’re charged with a crime?” Levitsky finally asks.

  “I have a hell of a lawyer, Agent.” I smirk. “She really knows how to get me off.”

  Levitsky sighs and shakes his head.

  “Really?” London leans forward, eyes bright. “Your lawyer, too?”

  I shoot him an innocent smile. The truth is that no, of course I don’t fuck around with my lawyer. She’s cutthroat, serious, and not one to mix business with pleasure. And I can’t afford to question whether she’ll turn on me over a tryst, especially since there’s not a better lawyer in existence.

  “Well, I just don’t know what to ask after that,” London says, half-grinning. “Anyone have kids?” His question is sarcastic and rhetorical, and I keep a straight face, but Levitsky’s eyes dart toward me.

  London doesn’t miss the movement. He instantly straightens and turns to me, eyes widening. For someone so highly ranked in the CDA, Levitsky has a fucking terrible poker face. “Holy shit, you have a kid?” London asks, sliding forward in his seat.

  Behind him, Mel’s face stays neutral, but I can see she’s working to keep the panic from her eyes.

  “No,” I respond, which isn’t a lie. I don’t have a kid. I have kids, with a s.

  “I don’t believe you,” London says, but as I open my mouth to argue, my office door crashes open. I stand, preparing for an attack.

  Marie comes running in, her orange hair flying around her face as she stops directly in front of my desk. She reaches out to steady herself and meets my eyes. “We have a hit on one of Tarae’s byurtids in Oltinie. It’s Alftripson.”

  ♛

  “You were just attacked, Mel. There’s no fucking way you’re coming with us.”

  “That’s exactly why I should come with you. Maybe this is all just a trap to lead you away from me. Haven’t you thought of that?” Mel asks as she leans against the wall, her arms crossed over her chest.

  “You’re not going,” I say firmly, opening my desk drawer and pulling out a dagger laced with wolfsbane. London, Levitsky, and Marie are waiting downstairs in the empty club, which my wyryns closed for the night after Mel was poisoned. London is calling his cousin and his sister for backup—there’s a chance we could be walking into some kind of ambush and the extra people could come in handy. We managed to convince Levitsky to hold off on calling the CDA, though. He reluctantly admitted that the bureaucracy would have slowed us down anyway. No point in risking our lead going cold.

  Mel huffs out a breath, snatching a knife from the drawer and tucking it into her left boot. “I’m fine to fight. And I don’t want to be stuck here while you’re out risking your life.”

  “That’s cute,” I say with a chuckle, rolling my eyes. “I’m always out risking my life.” I walk toward the door.

  “Blue.” My name, rolling softly off her tongue, makes me stop in my tracks, and the slight hitch of her breath makes me turn to look at her. She bites down on her lip, eyes wide, vulnerable. “Please don’t leave me.”

  I close my eyes, taking a deep breath. I can’t tell her no, not when she asks me like that, when she looks at me like that. “Okay.”

  We head downstairs in silence. The other Stendahls have arrived; they’re standing with London, Marie, Levitsky, and Dina.

  “Marie, you’re not coming.” I tell her.

  Her lips part in surprise as she narrows her eyes. “What? But—”

  “No. I’m not having this argument again tonight,” I snap at her. Whatever small talk the others had been making quickly dies down. “I said no, and I won’t say it again. I need you to do something else.”

  I growl softly in warning and Marie’s shoulders sag, her lips pressing into a firm line, but my mind can’t be changed on this. Unlike Mel, Marie knows better than to argue with me. I pull her past the staff doors, into a soundproof break room.

  “I need you to go get Quest and Journey and take them to Ru’s, and then I want you to stay there with them. If anything goes wrong, you call me instantly. I don’t want any of you back in town until I find out who’s doing this shit and have their head on a platter.” I pause. “Don’t tell Ru what’s going on. The last thing I need is that hardheaded brat coming here trying to be helpful.” Marie nods sullenly. “If I could convince her, I’d send Mel with you, but that woman is stubborn.”

  Marie finally cracks a small smile. “I wonder where she picked that trait up from.”

  I shake my head. “Give my girls a kiss for me, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  ♛

  I rejoin the others, finding an intense debate underway.

  “I say we fly.”

  “I think we should drive.”

  “Fly.”

  “No.”

  London and Levitsky are locked in a standoff, and while I’d love to see who would come out on top, we have more pressing matters to attend to at the moment.

  “We’re driving,” I say, siding with Levitsky. “We don’t want them to see us coming. Plus, if we shift, we’ll be naked. Do you really want to fight with something swinging wildly between your legs?” I don’t wait for a response, gesturing toward the door. “We need to get going, now, or we’ll lose our lead.”

  We divide into two cars, parking a mile away from the place Alftripson was spotted, out of hearing range even for a wolf.

  According to the tip, Alftripson was seen outside an abandoned warehouse in the heart of Oltinie, and it doesn’t take us long to get there. I can hear him speaking before we even make it to the building. It sounds like he’s standing in an alley nearby. Wordlessly, we split up as prearranged, one group going to the rear of the building and the other taking the front. I hold up a hand for my team to pause when we draw close to the head of the alley.

  Alftripson hasn’t stopped speaking since we’ve been within hearing distance, prattling on and on. I can hear him saying, “...and this opportunity would provide you with endless possibilities.”

  I call the shadows over me, peeking around the corner of the warehouse. I see a tall, skinny, tan man with long hair addressing a group of pixies, mothoms, and more, all of whom bear the markings of byurtids. Alftripson is gesturing wildly as he tries to persuade the group. “It'll bring you back your freedom, freedom that was robbed from you—” He holds up a finger, pulling out his phone and glancing down at it. “Ah, shit.” He whips his head around, and if I weren’t positive I was invisible to his eyes, I would’ve sworn he looked directly at me.

  “I am sorry about this,” Alftripson says, almost nonchalantly, turning back to the group, “but it seems we’ve run out of time.” Then he pulls out a pistol and all hell breaks loose.

  I drop the shadows as the other team charges i
nto the alley from the back end. Alftripson lets off a couple of shots, forcing the team to duck and stop advancing. He turns back to the group of byurtids and guns them down, a dozen shots in less than two seconds. The wolf turns, his gaze landing on me. His mouth stretches into a wide grin as he points the gun in my direction.

  In the hail of bullets, one grazes my shoulder. Immediately, I feel the familiar burn, the bubbling of melting skin and muscle. I swear through the pain. “Get down!” I yell at the team behind me.

  Everyone else takes cover while I give chase. No one else can make an attempt to stop Alftripson, not without risking a terribly painful death by chemical bullet.

  Alftripson turns, gun pointed directly at my head. I run even faster. I can get to him before he pulls the trigger.

  I know I can.

  A body crashes into mine as the gun goes off. We slam against brick in a tumble of limbs and curses.

  “Shit,” I gasp, heaving London’s firm body off my own as I try to get up and follow Alftripson, who’s already almost out of sight. London grabs my wrist, pulling me to a stop.

  “Stop, Blue! You need to save those people.”

  “Fuck those people!” I pull away. I have Alftripson’s scent locked in now; I know I can track him. I’ll catch up to him in a matter of seconds.

  “We need them as witnesses. We need to see what they know.” London stubbornly stands in my way.

  “Move!” I bark out, and when he doesn’t get out of my path, I step forward to make him.

  Suddenly Mel jumps in front of him, hands up, forcing me to halt. “He’s right, Blue. We need to save those people. We need information.”

  “Fuck.” My blood is boiling. I want to get my hands on Alftripson and wring his neck, but I know they’re right.

  I look over at the bodies littering the concrete and have to stop myself from pulling my hair out. I was so fucking close.

  Shit.

  At least I have Alftripson’s scent. I’ll find him, and when I do, he’ll regret ever crossing my path.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Two of the eight byurtids in the alley were able to survive after I fed them my blood. The others were dead before I could get to them, their skin a melted, bloody mess.

  “We need to call this in,” Levitsky says with a frown, pulling out a phone.

  “No.” I snatch it from him. “We need to be as far away as possible when this gets out. If you stay and call this in, you’ll become a suspect.” Levitsky opens his mouth to argue, but I cut him off. “Load those two into the car.” I point to the pixie and faerie, who may have survived but are definitely not conscious.

  I look around at our group, trying to figure out how the mission changed so quickly. We were supposed to capture Alftripson. Instead, we ended up struggling to keep people alive. I should have done this on my own, I think. If London and Levitsky hadn’t been in my office when Marie got the hit on Alftripson, I could have brought him in easily.

  Everyone piles back into the cars at my command. I retrieve the bullets that I pried out of the byurtids, the metal singeing my skin the second it makes contact.

  “Come on.” Mel touches my shoulder, and I follow her to the car. We make it back to The Lair. Paris and Talon Stendahl take off, and so does Dina. It’s nearly six in the morning. The hours since Mel’s poisoning blur in my mind.

  “What are we going to do now?” London asks, taking a seat at one of the empty tables.

  I glance around, looking at the mess. Trash is everywhere, and the air is filled with the raw scents of sex and blood. This isn’t uncommon, and the cleaners will get here in just a few hours.

  “We need to get the faerie and pixie to tell us what Alftripson was saying to them. It was obviously important, seeing as he tried to kill all witnesses.” I pull the bullets from my pocket and find a bag. “Get these to Zyut,” I say to Mel. Hopefully the healer will be able to extract some poison from the bullets, but I doubt it will be enough to create an antidote. Then a thought flashes through my mind, a way to ensure that Zyut will have sufficient poison.

  “Did you see what happened to the other drinks?” The words tumble out of my mouth.

  “What?” London mutters sleepily as he rests his head on the table.

  “The other drinks that the server brought into the club. Did you see what happened to them?”

  His head lifts. “Yeah, I saw one of your people collect them.” His eyes start to widen as he catches on.

  Shit, we may actually be getting somewhere.

  “Which one?”

  He shrugs, frowning. “I don’t know her name. Short, with frizzy brown hair. She’s usually with the girl who came with us tonight.” Usually with Dina?

  “Klara.” I turn to Mel. “Call her and see what she did with the drinks.” She nods.

  “I am completely lost,” Levitsky complains, folding his arms over his chest. “We need to get those bullets to the CDA.”

  I shake my head, holding back a sigh. “Newsflash, Levitsky. The CDA is corrupt. We aren’t taking shit to them.”

  “The CDA is not corrupt,” he argues stubbornly, jutting his chin out.

  I roll my eyes. He seems to believe what he’s saying. “Then tell me how I know all the information in your file.”

  He throws his hands up. “I need a drink! I can’t believe I ever thought it was a good idea to work with a well-known criminal. You don’t want to do anything the right way.”

  I shrug. “You need me. This is my town, and you know you wouldn’t get anything done without my insight and approval.” I gesture to the empty bar. “Help yourself to a drink, though, by all means.”

  He stomps over to the bar.

  “Bad news,” Mel says, biting her bottom lip as she approaches me with her phone in hand. “Klara says she poured the drinks out.”

  Surely I didn’t just hear what I think I did.

  “What?”

  Mel closes her eyes and blows out a breath before meeting my gaze full on. “Klara poured the drinks out,” she repeats.

  My muscles tense as I try to get a handle on the anger that I can feel rising, spreading heat throughout my limbs. “What the hell? Why would she do that?”

  Mel watches me closely as if she can feel my anger. “Claims Dina told her to. Apparently they wanted to make sure no else drank the poison by accident.”

  “Shit.” I pick up an empty glass and throw it across the room, disappointed but not surprised when the shattering does nothing for my anger.

  “That Dina chick seems to make a lot of mistakes.” I turn to London when I hear his lazy drawl, still seething. He’s hopped behind the bar to make drinks for himself and Levitsky, and he actually seems pretty unfazed by my blatant rage, not looking up even though I know he feels my eyes on him. “If she hadn’t charged so early,” London remarks thoughtfully, “we would have caught Alftripson.”

  “What?”

  “She attacked early.” London yawns before leisurely meeting my eyes. “She drew his attention.”

  I think back to the alley beside the warehouse, remembering how everything went to shit in a split second. It never occurred to me that someone must have broken from the group and attacked early. I sigh, gritting my teeth. I need to have a long talk with Dina, because fuck-ups won’t be tolerated, no matter her rank.

  “I’ll bring the bullets over to Zyut as soon as the town wakes up,” Mel says, and I know she’s trying to change the topic to stifle my anger. I watch as she practically collapses into a chair and rubs at her eyes.

  Despite myself, I forget about Dina and Klara for the moment. “Are you okay?”

  She waves a hand at me. “I’m fine.”

  “You should be at home resting, Mel. It was only a couple of hours ago that you nearly died.”

  Her lips purse. “You nearly die all the time. It never stops you from jumping back into the fray minutes later.”

  “I really don’t like that you think you can use me as a role model.” I shake my head, walking ov
er to the bar and reaching to snatch a bottle out of London’s hands. He lets out a sound of protest. I shake the bottle. It’s half empty. “This was full when you picked it up,” I snarl at him. “Get out from behind my bar.”

  A lazy smile appears on his face. “Just when I thought you were starting to share, Pudding.” He winks at me.

  “We need to decide our next steps,” Levitsky mumbles, and when I look over at him, I see his head resting against the bar, eyes closed.

  “First, you and Mel need to go get some rest. Neither of you are one hundred percent, and we can’t afford any more mistakes.”

  “I’m not a part of your den, Blue. You can’t just order me around,” Levitsky says grumpily, turning his head and opening his eyes to look at me.

  “Agent, you can either go home and get some sleep, or I can forcefully put you to sleep. Or if you prefer, I can report to the CDA that you’re working an unauthorized case…” I look away, pretending to examine my nails.

  “Forcefully putting him to sleep sounds kinky,” London pipes up, as if on command. I flip him off, listening to his soft chuckle.

  “I’m not working an unauthorized case,” Levitsky protests.

  I look at him knowingly. “Yes, you are. I looked at your assignment, remember? You’re only supposed to be questioning people, nothing more. And you’re definitely not supposed to be working with me.”

  His eyes widen.

  “Told you I know everything.” Except why he was transferred here.

  He lets out an exasperated grunt. “Fine, jeez. We’ll decide our next steps, and then I’ll go home and rest.”

  I nod, then turn to Mel and raise a brow.

  She sighs, but I can already see the defeat in her violet eyes. “Yeah, alright. Me too.”

  “Good. And after you rest, I need you to find out who hired that damn server.”

  “We need to question the pixie and the faerie first,” London says. “That should be our top priority.” When we got back to the club, they were still knocked out, so we put them in one of the private rooms. Locked, of course.