by Riley Storm
There was a tremendous crash, something hit her like a linebacker and she was flung to the side while being pelted with debris. Rachel hit the floor hard enough to hurt, but somehow she survived. Coughing and hacking on the dust tossed into the air, she blinked her eyes, trying to clear them so she could see what had happened. The roof of the building should have killed her; it was filled with heavy timber, metal and more.
Looking around, she saw what had saved her.
“Khove!” she shouted, spying the figure lying still under the wreckage that had been meant for her. “Khove!”
Reaching his side, she went for her radio, about to call in backup and an ambulance when Khove coughed, and began to move.
“Khove, stay still,” she said. “Just don’t move. I’ll get us some backup. Some help to get you out of there. Just stay still for me, okay? Oh God, please don’t be hurt bad,” she whispered under her breath.
The wreckage shuddered, and Khove suddenly rose to all fours. Rachel gasped and shuffled back as timber, metal poles and framing, electrical wire and more all slid aside.
“How are you okay?” she said, gaping as he rose to his full height, shedding the downed roof like it was water in the shower. Debris simply sluiced off him, though plenty of ash and dust remained, turning his skin shades of gray and black, mottled after storm clouds.
“That tickled,” he rumbled, giving himself a shake before turning to look at her. “Are you okay, Detective? I didn’t have time to watch where I flung you.”
“Some cuts and scrapes. Maybe a bruise,” she said with a choked off laugh, reaching out to touch him, but stopping inches short, trying to see where he’d been hurt. “Next time, could you perhaps find a mattress or something first?”
“Not a problem,” he said, then coughed. “Next time we go digging in buildings that are about to fall down, I’ll make sure I bring a mattress in a box.”
The pair of them shared a laugh, then Khove sobered. “Seriously though, are you okay, Detective?”
She nodded, and together they walked out of what was left of the building.
“That was pretty stupid of us, wasn’t it?” she asked, looking back at the caved-in roof that had almost killed her.
It would have killed her, if it wasn’t for Khove. His presence had saved her, and somehow he’d escaped without injury. Major injury, she corrected, looking at his shoulder.
“Khove, your shoulder,” she said, reaching up to pull his shirt away from a gash in his skin at the level of his collarbone. Blood had already seeped into the material, adhering it to his skin, but she pulled it free.
“I’m okay, Detective,” he said, reaching up to taking her hand away.
Giant fingers wrapped around her wrist, and Rachel gasped as electricity shot up her arm and went straight to her heart, stunning it and depriving her of breath.
“Detective?” Khove asked. “Are you okay?”
She blinked rapidly, looking up at him. “You didn’t feel that?” she asked, eyes fixed on where his hand grabbed her wrist.
“Feel what?”
She shook her head, sucking in a huge breath. Had she perhaps just imagined it? But no, there was still a tickling sensation where he touched her. She could feel the heat as well. His grip was so warm. Almost unnaturally so.
“Never mind,” she said with a shake of her head, lowering her hand. “But we should get that checked out.”
Khove dropped her hand and poked at his shoulder with a casualness that she could barely watch. How did that not hurt?!
“Yeah. I’ll get it looked at,” he promised. “But can we please try something other than digging through buildings that are going to fall down on us?”
She started to laugh, then coughed, clearing her lungs of some of the ash she’d likely inhaled when the roof came smashing down and stirred it all up. “Such as?”
“Let’s get cleaned up. Then I want as big of a map of the city as you can find.”
14
“Have we found any pattern to the attacks yet?” he asked, looking over the map of Plymouth Falls laid out on the table in front of him.
It was a huge map, a four-by-three layout of the city that showed him everything in the detail he needed.
“Nothing discernable,” Kaelyn replied, sounding slightly metallic and tinny as her voice came from the speaker on his phone. “The only thing is, and this shouldn’t be shocking, they were some of our largest holdings in town. He didn’t strike any of the small places.”
“Why bother,” Khove muttered, talking both to himself and his Queen. “In a one-for-one attack, hitting the bigger and more profitable enterprises brings him closer to his goal.”
“Exactly.” Kaelyn paused. “How are you progressing with the human police?”
He shrugged, focused on the map.
“Khove?”
“Huh? What?” Oh right. She couldn’t see him. “Things are fine. They have no leads either.”
“We need to find him, Khove. Before he endangers anyone else. We got lucky nobody was seriously hurt last night. That will change if he’s allowed to continue.”
“I’m working on it,” he growled, irritated at his Queen for telling him something he already knew. Stopping Korred’s attacks on Plymouth Falls was his responsibility. It weighed down on him with every passing hour as the night drew nearer. Nobody in their right mind thought the Traitor was through. He would strike again, and again, until he was either caught, or House Ursa caved to his pressure.
The latter would never happen while anyone loyal to the throne still drew breath, which meant that the humans would continue to be in danger. He had to stop him. Somehow.
“Do you have a list of our largest assets in Plymouth Falls?” he asked.
“Of course.” His Queen sounded somewhat bothered, as if he should have known better than to ask.
“Well give me the top ten that haven’t been hit yet. Those will be our best bets,” he muttered, already looking over the map. “Maybe if I cross-reference those with where he’s already hit, we’ll be able to see some sort of pattern emerge. Have you done that?” he asked, in case it would save him time.
“Not yet, no. We’re focused on the Manor, truthfully. Korred was in charge of our magical defenses for so long, we have no idea what sorts of back doors he may have worked into them. Kasperi and Amber are working themselves to exhaustion trying to take down and re-cast the defensive spells, but there are a lot of them, and well, they’re still new.”
His Queen sounded worried. Khove didn’t like that. She was never scared.
“The list, my Queen,” he said formally. “Do you have it ready?”
There was a bit of silence and the sound of papers rustling. Khove needed to keep his liege focused. She was probably feeling helpless. The Magi Kasperi and his mate would be in charge of the magic defense of Ursidae Manor, while the Captain Kirell would be in command of the physical ones. All of which meant that his Queen was probably feeling helpless and trapped, unable to do more than watch.
Kaelyn was a wonderful Queen and ruler of Ursa, and to see her feel so impotent hurt Khove more than he would ever let on. If he could help even the slightest by keeping her distracted, then so be it.
“Right. Got your highlighter ready?”
“Yes.”
He listened to her read off the addresses and business names of various companies within Plymouth Falls. As she did, he tracked them down on the map and put an orange circle around them.
“That’s the ten largest that remain intact,” Kaelyn said as he circled the last one.
Khove nodded to himself. “Thank you, my Queen.”
“Queen?”
His head came up sharply at the sound of Rachel’s voice. The tall blonde officer stood in the doorway, staring at him, her strangely blue eyes not wavering.
He coughed, reaching out and hitting the end-call button on his phone. Kaelyn would understand, once she was done laughing at him, knowing full well he’d have to come up with some i
ntricate explanation for what he’d said.
“Who was that on the phone?” Rachel asked, stepping fully into the room and letting the door close behind her. “Your Queen?”
“What’s up?” he asked with a tight smile.
“Why did you call her that?” she asked, coming to face him across the table, palms flat on the surface.
“Umm, because it’s her preferred title?” He forced a laugh, then cut it off abruptly when he realized how awkward it sounded. “Silly, right? I know. It sounds ridiculous, but I mean, she’s the boss, so I have to play along, right?” He smiled.
Rachel lifted a single eyebrow, clearly beyond skeptical about his excuse. “Right. Whatever. Your silly naming titles don’t matter, Baron von Ursa,” she smirked. “All I care about is finding this asshole.”
He nodded, not bothering to conceal his relief. “Right. Well, here are the biggest properties and businesses we have within Plymouth Falls that didn’t get hit.” Khove gestured at the map for her to see.
“Well, here’s the complete list of places that did,” she said, opening the folder she’d placed on the table.
Together, they spent a few minutes marking the attacked locations out in black pen. There were six of them, all told. Once they were done, Khove stepped back, looking at the map. He walked around the table slowly.
“What are you doing?” Rachel asked as he got close.
“Looking for a pattern, shape, anything of the sort that might clue us in on where he will attack next, or where he might be striking from.”
The latter wasn’t something Khove ever expected to find. With his magical powers Korred could strike from anywhere. Distance didn’t matter to him. But he had to pretend, for the detective’s sake.
“Are you seeing anything?” Rachel asked as he completed his circle.
“No,” he said, looming over the table for a moment before slumping forward in defeat. “Nothing at all.”
“It looks completely random, doesn’t it?” she asked, sounding as dejected and frustrated as he felt.
“Yes.”
The clock was ticking, and already the sun was going down on the horizon. They had precisely nothing.
“Well, there must be something we can do,” she said.
Khove admired her tenacity. Even though her frustration was evident in the tightness of her lips, turning her naturally-full mouth into a thin line, her eyes never stopped moving. Never stopped looking. The brain behind them must be formidable. He wondered if she could be—
Not now, he chastised himself. Focus on the mission. Find Korred.
Once that was done, he could do whatever he wanted. Until then, there was nothing but the mission. No stray thoughts about the detective, her lips and…and nothing.
“Well, we can send units to watch the properties in orange,” he said. “You and I will pick one, set up shop just before dark, wait to see what happens.”
Khove didn’t like the idea of sending humans to watch the sites, but what else was he supposed to do? Rachel would know something was up if he insisted that only he should be out there. This was, as far as the police knew, just a normal criminal they were trying to catch, and as much as Khove wished, he couldn’t disabuse them of that notion.
All he could do was ensure he made the right decision and was waiting at the right scene in time to catch the bad guy.
Rachel was nodding slowly. “You’re positive he’ll wait until dark?”
He nodded slowly. “Certain of it.” After all, he wasn’t convinced yet that it was Korred himself hitting the Ursa properties. In all likelihood, it was either some human goons, or more likely, his Fae servants doing his dirty work, and the Faeries simply couldn’t survive in sunlight. It was the one advantage he had over them for the moment.
“Which ones do you suspect he’ll attack?”
Khove moved around the table to stand next to her, carefully not reacting as the smell of sandalwood reached his nose. He loved the soft scent, which she’d used while washing off the soot and ash. When she moved her head sharply, her ponytail swished back and forth, wafting more of it his way.
Bending over, she started analyzing each location highlighted in orange. Meanwhile Khove tried his best to concentrate, but his attention kept wandering back to her. He couldn’t help but admire her figure, clad in a normal outfit, a button-down blouse of off-white, black slacks and black boots. It wasn’t anything exotic, and yet the way it clung to her shape compared to her police uniform was…something else.
“Khove?”
Steeling himself, he yanked his attention back to the map with a forceful mental snarl. The detective was a law enforcement officer. That was what she wanted, and it was also how she wanted to be viewed. If Khove simply started drooling over her powerful frame and not her beautiful mind, he would be no better than the others she so despised.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, trying to steer the focus back to the topic at hand, while having a very terse argument with his brain about her.
“I think we should take this one,” she said, tapping a particular orange circle.
Khove considered the location. “That’s not the biggest one. If he wanted to maximize damage, he’d hit us here.” He tapped a three-story office building across town that held the House’s accounting firm, among others.
“You might be right,” she admitted. “But, if he’s going to strike multiple times tonight, odds are he’ll want to start with an easier target. Get himself warmed up. This one is an isolated building. It has a parking lot on two sides, a park on a third, and the road in front. If they come at it from the park and retreat that way, they could disappear down any number of side streets before anyone realizes what’s happening.”
Khove tapped his chin in thought, forcing his eyes to remain on the map, and not the small triangle of flesh exposed at the bottom of her neck where her collar parted.
“Maybe,” he agreed, still not completely convinced. It’s not what he would do.
But this is Korred. He’s not a tactician. He’s a crazy mage, most likely leaving this in the hands of subordinates, at that. If they’re human, they will definitely strike somewhere easy first, get their blood fired up.
“I think you’re right,” he agreed. “It’s also farther from the Sheriff’s office. Longer response time, in case something goes haywire. They hit there, circle around to the north while we race over there, and the next place is left open.” He tapped the accountant’s office. “You should put a heavy response team here.”
Rachel nodded. “We don’t have one, but I’ll see what I can do.”
Khove looked at her and smiled. “Alright. Let’s get to it.”
It was then he felt the pressure on his other hand, the one that had been on the table the entire time. Glancing down, he saw the detective’s hand resting firmly against his.
Rachel coughed, snatching her hand away. “I’ll start preparing the gear,” she said, practically fleeing the room.
Khove held up his hand, feeling the tingling prick of blood as the sensation returned. He frowned. What was going on? First the shock when she’d touched his wounded shoulder, and now their hands touching without realizing it?
Get yourself together, Khove. You have a Traitor to catch. Once that’s done, you can dedicate some time to this mystery.
He watched Rachel go, lost deep in thought.
15
Shifting left and right, she scratched an itch on her back using the rough lip of the building’s roof.
“Everything okay?”
“Just itchy,” she mumbled, pitching her voice both soft and low, so that the sound didn’t carry.
“Oh.” Khove sat next to her, unmoving.
In fact, now that she thought about it, Rachel wasn’t sure she’d seen him move at all since they’d settled against the upraised wall around the roof. How could he remain still for so long?
They’d arrived at the used bookstore across the street from the restaurant that was their target
nearly two hours earlier. Khove had helped her onto the second-story roof, and after they’d lain out some blankets, he’d put his back to the wall and not moved.
“How are you staying so still?” she hissed, irritated as his seemingly infinite patience.
“Training.” His mouth twisted into a smile that she was sure was supposed to be harmless, but just increased her impatience by coming across as patronizing.
Pulling her arms in tight to her sides, Rachel hunched over, working to conserve heat. It was early February, and the temperatures outside reflected it. Even dressed in layers of winter gear with several reflective blankets, and sitting on top of a stack of buildings, she was still frigid.
“I’m just glad the weather is cooperating as much as can be expected,” she half-complained, fighting back a shiver. “I just wish our criminals would do the same and start to act.
Khove didn’t reply. His eyes were half-closed. Was his attention waning already? Rachel looked at the monitor in front of them, but there was no indicator of movement on it yet. They’d rigged up a pair of infrared cameras that pointed at the restaurant from opposite angles, capturing the entire approach both in front and behind. This way, they wouldn’t have to worry about constantly peeking over the top.
“How did you come to work for this company, anyway?” she asked.
Khove didn’t immediately reply.
That’s odd. What’s so difficult about a reply to that question?
“The truth is,” he said at last. “It’s kind of like going into the family business.”
“What do you mean?”
Khove shrugged, the first movement she’d seen from him. “It’s complicated to explain, but there never really was any other way. I was raised up like this, I guess you could say.”
“Right.”
“It’s okay though,” he assured her. “I enjoy it. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
Rachel nodded slowly. “Right. No other…whatever it is you do, positions at other companies were open, in other words?”
