by TJ Nichols
Carefully he dressed and then opened the curtain. He strode out of the room, collected his shoes and jacket and found Leonaris was waiting at the front. He was wearing something like a kilt, and teeth of different sizes and species were hung across the front. He’d been a soldier once and wore his trophies with pride.
“Not official tonight?” Leonaris said with a smirk.
Edra inclined his head. He stank of sex so strongly that even a human would notice. He’d wash tomorrow and enjoy it tonight.
“I need to see you officially, Knight.”
Why couldn’t Leonaris let him have a good time without bringing the real world in? He came here to forget for a little while. “Monday?”
Leonaris shook his head. “The church has been harassing satyrs again, and I’ve replaced three windows in two weeks.”
He was about to give his usual line about not much he could do, but he stopped. He was supposed to be liaising with the human cops. It was time he put them on the spot and made them act.
“I know you can’t do much.”
Edra ran his fingers through his hair and brushed the sweaty strands back. “Actually, I might be able to do something this time.”
“Really?” Leonaris’s gray eyebrows shot up.
“Maybe. Don’t get too excited.” And if he was going to bring in human cops, he needed to make sure everything was legal. “You’ll need to keep this place human-free for a few weeks.”
Leonaris winced.
Edra shook his head. “I don’t want to know.”
But Leonaris was already ushering him toward one of the front rooms. He opened the door a crack, enough for Edra to see people Blissing out and the satyr sitting and watching to make sure they were safe. “The blond… we call him the Elf, but he’s human.”
He was pretty enough to almost pass for an elf, but his shoulders were too wide and his ears lacked the points. Elves kept pretty much to themselves, and they certainly didn’t dabble in Bliss. This man was deep in the throes of ecstasy, his cheeks pink and his lips parted.
“Who is he?”
“We don’t ask. That way if we’re raided, we can give no names.” Leonaris shut the door.
“He a regular?”
“We have a few who come once a month, sometimes more. I can’t tell them to stay away. They might report us for letting them in in the first place.”
Edra stared at the ceiling. Even if Leonaris had refused, the humans might have still made a false report. “How many?”
“Ten.”
And no way of contacting them. “You need to stop letting the curious in.” Edra fixed him with a glare. “Tell me they don’t go out the back.”
“Never. But I have heard that some satyrs are….” Leonaris looked at his hooves. “Hooking up with humans off premises.”
“That will piss off the church and the anti-integration mob.” They hated the idea that mythos and humans might get together. Most of them probably felt inferior, because most men were smaller than a satyr. But it wasn’t illegal for humans and mythos to get together outside of a den.
“I’ll come back on Monday, officially.” But already the afterglow had dimmed. Leonaris wouldn’t pick up a phone to call him. He didn’t trust the technology.
“And the Elf?”
Edra shrugged. “Leave him for tonight.” Humans, even those who liked to think they were pro-mytho, were only pro-mytho on the surface.
Chapter 4
EVEN THOUGH it was spring, the mornings were cool, and the back of Jordan’s head wasn’t used to being so exposed. While he’d left his hair as long as he could and still meet regulations, it was too short after what he was used to.
“Nice work on the d’Angelo case.” David waved as Jordan made his way to his desk.
Jordan nodded. He was more worried about what he’d be working on than what he’d finished working on, at least until the case went to trial. Then he’d have to front up and answer questions.
David leaned on the partition. “Did you hear about what happened with the satyrs last night?”
Jordan’s heart twitched and gave an extra beat. There were other dens. But the idea that there’d been a raid, and he could’ve been cuffed and dragged out to spend the night in jail, made his stomach want to toss his breakfast onto his desk. “No?”
“They were having some kind of rite at that temple in the Presidio. The A-Is turned up, and it all went to hell.” David shook his head as though it were a big joke.
“What were the A-Is doing at a mytho temple?”
“Their usual rant about immorality or something. Some of the satyrs were naked, and then there were arrests for public indecency.” David lifted an eyebrow. “If you’ve ever seen a male satyr, that’s a lot of indecency.”
The temple had arrived during the collapse. All kinds of new landmarks had appeared, including Atlantis and Lemuria, and apparently the Greek gods actually did live on Olympus. Jordan ran his fingers through his hair. It wasn’t a den raid. He could breathe easy… this time. “Aren’t they allowed to be naked in their temple because it’s their religion?”
There were restrictions, but they were allowed to follow their faith.
“Rutting is not a religion.”
Maybe not, but there was a moment when it did feel very spiritual, even if it was only for about three seconds. Or longer on Bliss.
“Feds would say differently.” In the last year, mytho religious practices had become protected. Most states were already turning a blind eye, so it didn’t really matter. But now they were supposed to protect those rights.
“Satyrs are glorified goats. Goats don’t have religion.”
They weren’t goats. They were sentient beings, capable of running businesses. They just happened to have goatlike legs, but Jordan wasn’t about to let on how well he knew satyrs. “So arrests were made for public indecency… and the A-Is were arrested for…?”
David shrugged. “Nothing.”
Jordan blinked and stared at him. The anti-integration humans were still walking around? “They started the incident.”
“Don’t tell me you’re a Lew-voting mytho hugger.”
Damn straight he was. Lew was pro-integration, and Jordan was sick of assholes getting away with whatever they chose because too many people still thought the mythos should fuck off. The A-Is thought the mythos were little more than talking wolves or two-legged goats, or whatever insult they could come up with. But those people never stopped with just mythos. With more fuel on their hatred pyre, they had begun to turn on anyone who wasn’t a perfectly conforming human.
He’d heard that shit for more than half his life, and it could easily be directed at him. He was sick of it. While he didn’t hide the fact he was gay—that was one of the reasons he’d fled Texas—the rest was no one else’s business.
“Would make our job easier if the law was applied to everyone the same way.”
David leaned in. “You really think they’re people?”
“I think those that talk are. They arrived here as unwilling refugees, bringing with them language and culture that we’d only learned about in myth and fairy tale. We fucked their world and their lives.”
David rocked back. “Think you’ve been in the wild too long if you’re taking their side.”
Jordan’s recent work had nothing to do with mythos and everything to do with a massive fence syndicate, although that sometimes included mytho artifacts.
“We’ve got a Mytho Servo guy out the front. Wants to talk to someone about some arrests and harassment of a shopkeeper,” a woman in uniform said.
“He can talk to his local station,” David said.
“No. He’s the new mytho liaison. He deals with us.” She glanced around at the plainclothes investigators. “Oh, come on. You aren’t scared, are you?”
David grinned at Jordan. “Welcome back. You can deal with it, since your desk is empty.” He lowered his voice. “And you think they’re people.”
Jordan shook his he
ad. “I don’t do property anymore.”
“It’s five minutes, buddy,” someone else said.
Then why didn’t they do it?
“Fine.” He got up and went out the front.
The man at the counter looked human—totally human, from his dark hair to his blue eyes, which had round humanlike pupils. He was handsome… and not human, no matter what he looked like. His ID was on the counter, and he was definitely mytho. A god?
He didn’t think there were any in San Francisco. But the man was definitely not a werewolf, a vampire, or—he suppressed a shudder—a satyr.
Jordan glanced at the ID. “Mr. Tendric, how can I help you?”
The mytho frowned slightly as he considered Jordan. Then he flicked out his long, sapphire-blue tongue. Jordan wasn’t even sure he had seen it. He didn’t step back, though he was tempted to. What the fuck was this man?
“Knight Tendric.” A smile curved the man’s lips.
“Sorry.” Some of the mythos held tightly to their honorifics. Jordan tried to use them. Manners mattered. “Knight Tendric, I’m Inspector Kells, special investigator. Shall we go and have a chat?”
Knight… what type of mytho uses that? He should know. He glanced at Tendric again and wondered if he imagined the tongue. Had too much Bliss messed with his mind? Maybe there were side effects for humans. He needed to stop if they were going to start cracking down on satyrs and making arrests.
Jordan led Tendric into a small office, and they sat on opposite sides of the table. Tendric was a member of the community and part of Mythological Services, which helped assist mythos with housing and schooling and such. At first the city had put humans in charge of that, but it hadn’t worked, because they weren’t trusted. So five years ago, the whole thing had been handed to the mythos. The current mayor had called it a waste of money and tried to shut it down, but he’d failed.
“I was told to come to the SID if I had concerns.” Tendric pulled a notebook out of his jacket pocket. In his suit and tie, Tendric could’ve been a cop. There was something about him that oozed authority. “But I wasn’t given direct contact.”
That would’ve been deliberate. “That depends on what your concern is. We’re split up into—”
“I know how you are split. It’s on your website.” Tendric smiled. “I may not be human, Kells, but I’m not a fool.”
While he said the words lightly, there was something much darker behind them.
“I didn’t mean to imply that.”
Tendric nodded and opened his notebook. “There is an Elvish shopkeeper in your park district who is being plagued by human shoplifters and vandals. They have CCTV, but as yet nothing has been done. Over the weekend all the windows were broken. Again.” He tore off the page and placed it on the table. “I have all the details on file, should you want more information. I assume you will send someone out there this time in the interest of working together?”
“I will make sure it ends up on the right person’s desk.”
Tendric shook his head. “Why not your desk?”
“I don’t deal with property crime.” Though that was where he’d spent the last three years. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad dealing with this. He could do it in his sleep, but going after human troublemakers was not going to endear him to the powers that be while the current mayor was in power. Bye-bye actual promotion.
Tendric considered him for a moment and then glanced at his notepad. “You arrested four satyrs in the Temple of Pan during their spring fertility rite. Their women will come into season soon. You do not want to be messing with that.”
“Why?”
“We have a website too. Maybe you should check it out. Get some facts instead of listening to anti-integration fearmongering.” Tendric spoke as though he were busting a junior officer.
Jordan bristled. Tendric held his gaze. Had he blinked at all during the meeting?
Jesus, what the fuck is he?
Too good-looking was the short answer. Trouble and a pain in his ass if Jordan wasn’t careful. The end of his career if shit went all bad. Fucking David and his work-dodging skills.
“You need to release the satyrs, issue an apology, and find the rabble that desecrated the temple.”
“Desecrate how?”
“They shat on the front steps.” Tendric’s lip curled. “And you think we’re animals. We’d never do something like that at a place of worship. Does that count as a hate crime? I know you have people for that.”
“Not officially. Mythological status isn’t protected.”
“The right to freedom of religion is.” Tendric tore another piece of paper out of his notebook and handed it over. “The satyr dens have been receiving threats from the Morality For All crowd. I’ve been given the job of stopping humans from getting their hands on Bliss. It’s a crackdown coming from the top.”
Jordan’s heart stopped, but his face remained frozen as a bead of sweat rolled down his back. Tendric gave him the faintest smile and the tip of his blue tongue flicked over his lip. Somehow Tendric knew.
Jordan swallowed and spoke carefully. “What do you plan on doing?”
“Working with the cops, of course, to ensure there are no humans in the dens.”
“You want raids? The satyrs will get arrested along with the humans.”
Tendric shook his head. “I would prefer a police presence that will stop humans from trying their luck. Those who like to cause trouble will also be deterred.”
Jordan exhaled. “The satyrs should know better than to serve humans.”
Tendric placed a business card with the Mytho Servo logo on the table. “I’m sure the humans know the law and the consequences. Call me when you have something useful.”
Jordan watched as Tendric let himself out.
“Fuck.” He dragged his fingers through his hair and then scrubbed his face. He really didn’t need this shit today.
JORDAN TRIED to hand the cases over to the right people because they were all so different, but the captain said they were the same, all mytho-related, and he could run with them. A five-minute conversation with Knight Tendric was already more trouble than he wanted. He already missed working in the property division.
This was work better suited to a uniformed officer… except it wasn’t really, because it all needed investigating. Narcotics wasn’t his thing, but Bliss wasn’t a banned drug, and its only side effect was orgasm. Not their problem—they had heroin and opium to deal with. Mythos had brought opium pipes back into vogue. The Tenderloin now had opium dens run by vampires who really just wanted to drink human blood—they were supposed to get a ration of cows’ blood from the butchers—but dulled the edge with their favorite drug.
He had twenty different pages open on his laptop and a half-drunk beer sweating next to him. The cool evening breeze danced over his skin. This was A-grade political policing, the kind he hated. Yeah, he’d be helping people, but according to some, he’d be helping the wrong people. The only thing he had done right so far was arranging the release of the satyrs who were arrested at the temple.
They hadn’t been happy, and Jordan didn’t blame them. When their women only wanted sex for two weeks out of every year, getting arrested had to be a real downer. No wonder they created Bliss. He was under no illusion about what went on at the back of the den. Open relationships were very much a thing for satyrs.
He typed in mytho knight, determined to work out what Tendric was.
After a few links that went to gaming sites, he found something that looked possible. But that meant Tendric was a lesser dragon. But he most definitely wasn’t a dragon. Dragons were as big as buses and lived out in the hills. There was a breeding pair out there. He’d seen photos.
He sipped the beer.
Lesser Dragon vs Dragon was his next search, and it took him right to the Mythological Services site, which consisted of a main page and separate pages for the cities where they had offices. It hadn’t taken long for the mythos to get on board with technolo
gy. Big dragons were actual dragons and could breathe fire. Lesser dragons were shapeshifters. There was a handy silhouette that showed the size difference. Tendric only got as big as an average SUV if he was stretching his wings.
Big enough to be terrifying. Best not to piss him off.
When Jordan was sixteen and had decided to be a cop, this was not how he imagined spending his evenings. But then, no one could’ve predicted the collapse, except maybe a few scientists who talked about multiple dimensions and black holes and destroying the world. Before the collapse no one had listened to their warnings. They’d been almost right, but it wasn’t the human world that had been destroyed.
Had Tendric warned him about using Bliss? His heartbeat quickened as he picked up the business card and turned it over his fingers. Knight Edra Tendric couldn’t breathe fire, but Jordan was sure he was going to get burned.
Chapter 5
“KNIGHT TENDRIC.” Edra answered his phone and tried to sound awake. No one should be calling him at midnight on a Wednesday.
“It’s Darian, Leonaris’s son.” The voice sounded familiar, but Edra didn’t know which satyr was Leonaris’s son.
Edra frowned and turned on the bedside lamp. It wasn’t a social call. “What’s happened?”
“Dad’s been arrested. They’ve all been arrested. I wasn’t working, but I was told.”
Edra sat up, fully awake. “Tell me what you heard.”
“The cops raided us, and there was one human on Bliss.”
Edra closed his eyes and rubbed his face. There weren’t supposed to be any raids, and if there were, he was supposed to know about them. He was going to tear into Kells the next time he saw him—which would be in just a few hours, when SID opened. “I’ll get down there and see what I can do.”
“I’ll meet you.”
“It’s probably best you stay away.” The mayor was campaigning on hate and stirring up his supporters, and Edra had no doubt that some cops were in his camp. Extra satyrs running around would inflame things. “I’ll call when I have news.”
