Boreal and John Grey Season 1

by Chrystalla Thoma

  Rage was building inside her chest, which was much better than the cold pressing so hard it felt like it could shatter her ribs. Her ponytail whipping her back, she marched down the dim corridor under the flickering lights, her boots thumping on bare concrete. Her heart boomed. Reaching Dave’s office, she rapped on the door, managing not to smash the glass — but only barely — and entered without waiting for permission.

  David Holborn looked up from a document he’d been reading and pushed the glasses back on his forehead. His desk was neat as always, every surface clean and polished, his folders stacked. “Seen Simon, I presume.”

  She stood by the door, hands clenching on the hilts of her knives. “What the hell got him?”

  “Have a seat.” She didn’t budge. Dave waited, then sighed and flipped the file closed. “Or not.”

  She gritted her teeth and stepped closer. “What was Simon doing there last night? He had no business in that part of town.”

  “Ella...”

  “His girlfriend didn’t know about it, we didn’t know either. What does that tell you?”

  “Absolutely nothing. A private call? Maybe he was on his way somewhere.”

  “Yeah, where?” She threw her hands in the air. “When did Simon get a secret life?”

  “Look, Ella.” Dave steepled his fingers on the desk. His hands were calloused; he still headed out regularly with the agents, especially with so many of them gone missing. Or dead. “We’re looking into it, okay? And you need to be careful.”

  Ella rolled her eyes. “You’re going to tell me again that I need a partner.”

  “It may sound harsh, but it’s for your own good. Simon was alone when he was attacked, and so were the other agents who got killed. Our strength lies in numbers.”

  “And knowledge,” she bit out. “Tell me about the Gates, Dave. Are they opening?”

  “I don’t think so. We’d have seen the usual signs.”

  “Which are?”

  Dave hesitated. “Elf circles. Fairy rings. Moving lights.”

  “Maybe in the city it doesn’t work that way.”

  “Ella, Simon was killed by the Shades. Stop looking for other explanations.”

  Simon was a cold body in the morgue above their heads, and he was... “Whatever got Simon wasn’t a Shade.”

  “Fine, if you say so.” Sarcastic as hell. “I assume you know what it was?”

  “No, but I bet you do. I need to know what’s going on. I suppose the overlords are keeping a tight leash on you, but all this business with Simon getting killed,” she swallowed, “and with the Shade attacks getting more frequent...”

  “The Veil seems to be getting thinner,” Dave said flatly, and it grated on her jangled nerves.

  Was he kidding her?

  “Dammit, Dave, stop dancing around the topic!” She slammed her fist on the desk, rattling cups and pencil holders, shaking the computer screen. Hell if it calmed her. Fiery sparks jumped behind her eyelids. “I’m one of your best, aren’t I?”

  Dave hadn’t even flinched, damn him. He observed her, his face blank. “You’re the first one I call when things go haywire. You know that.”

  She sucked breath after breath, trying for calm. “Then let me in.”

  Moments trickled by. Would he report her? She’d never gotten into Dave’s face like this before.

  “What do you want me to say?” He sounded tired. Not as tired as Ella felt though. “The disturbances in the Veil are unlike any we’ve seen. The oracles report increased volume in Noise. The Shades are becoming stronger, more varied and organized, and the name John Grey keeps popping up. But you know all this.”

  “Who’s John Grey?”

  “The name is mentioned in an old Norse epic — well, John Grey is the translation of it, of course.” Dave sneered. “Beware of John Grey, that’s all we know.”

  “And Aelfheim?”

  “Well, if the Gates ever open again...” He shrugged. “That’s where they opened to last time, more than five hundred years ago. Elfhame. It’s the world closest to us.”

  “I know.” She waved her hands in the air, exasperated. “What separates us is only...”

  “...the Veil.” Dave nodded, opening his hands palms up. “That’s all I can tell you. Don’t give me that look, Ella. Would I hide anything from you?”

  “Of course you would.” Half truths and lies. She thought of the code on Simon’s paper. “I’ll find my own answers.” She looked at her watch — a gift from Simon, dammit — and turned to go. “Oh, and tell Detective Morgan to pack his bags. Simon’s case is mine.”

  “No, you can’t—”

  “It’s mine, Dave, or I quit.” She hadn’t intended to say that and wasn’t sure she meant it — the Bureau was her life — but now it was out, so she clamped her mouth shut and waited.

  He chewed on that for a long moment, his eyes hard and angry. “So that’s how you wanna play it. Fine, you can take on the case. But only if you find a partner.”

  Fuck you, Dave. But she didn’t say it, didn’t dare push his buttons more. She nodded. “I’ll bring you someone. A temporary partner. And you’ll approve him, no questions asked.”

  “Now wait a minute.” Dave rose from his seat and planted his fists on the desk. Anger radiated off him in waves. “You’re not calling the shots here, remember. I’ll decide if I approve of him and I will ask questions. There are rules for this sort of shit. I’ll need his transfer files.” When she shrugged, his eyes narrowed to slits. “Don’t tell me he’s a civilian.”

  “You can find a loophole and get him into the system,” she said, matching him glare for glare. “You’ve done it before.”

  “Damn.” He straightened, snorted incredulously. “And why him?”

  “Because he saved my life more than once.” She sighed. “Come on, Dave. Desperate times, desperate measures. He’s the best I can find on short notice and I can’t let you hand Simon’s case over to someone else. He was my partner, goddammit.”

  “And that should be reason enough not to give you the case.”

  Her nostrils flared as she sucked in a breath through her teeth, chomping on the curse that hovered on the tip of her tongue.

  “I want you safe,” Dave said.

  “And I want to find out the truth.”

  He sat back down and dipped his chin to his chest. He hummed under his breath and tapped his fingertips on the desk in a quick rhythm.

  “Dave...”

  “Fine.” He grunted. “As long as you trust this person. I’m guessing this isn’t the end of trouble.”

  Was he kidding? It looked like the trouble was just starting.

  ***

  “You want me to be your partner?” Finn arched a pale eyebrow. “I’m not police.”

  “No need to be.” An open door showed her an empty office. She stepped inside and after a moment he followed, a frown on his face. She closed the door behind them. “Look, I need a partner or I won’t be allowed to investigate on my own, what with agents going missing and turning up dead.” She swallowed. “I need someone who can see and fight the Shades. Someone like you.”

  “I hunt alone,” Finn said, his voice flat.

  “You saved my ass twice, fought the Shades time and again,” Ella said. “This won’t be much different.”

  Finn limped to a desk and leaned against it, holding his swollen wrist to his chest. “I can’t.”

  Shaking her head, she sank in a chair. Maybe she was crazy to propose such a partnership; she barely knew Finn. But he’d proven he was a good fighter, and although he still moved cautiously and his leg gave him trouble, he healed well. He already looked much better since last night. And he’d shown he cared enough to protect others.

  “Listen. I know you’re somehow involved in this,” she said. “You’re searching for answers, aren’t you? And you know about Aelfheim. You found something out and it’s turned your life upside down.”

  He bowed his head, didn’t answer. But she caught a glint of bl
ue under his white-blond hair; he was looking at her. Listening.

  “You follow the thinning of the Veil, you said so yourself. Fighting the Shades. We could work together.” She gestured at the desks and shelves around them. “You’d get a salary, papers, weapons. Something really bad is going down and maybe together we could find the end of it. What do you say?”

  He shook his head, jaw clenched tight. “I’m sorry.”

  Dammit. “We keep meeting where the Veil thins anyway,” she said. “I wouldn’t have to worry about you and you about me.” If Finn worried about her. Which she couldn’t know, but he didn’t open his mouth to correct her, and he’d insisted on coming along to HQ to ‘have her back’, so... “We both win.”

  It wasn’t to keep an eye on Finn, make sure he didn’t do anything suicidal, that he had warm clothes and a place to crash and to see that look in his eyes when she covered him up. No, that’d be ridiculous. Her hands clenched where they rested in her lap. She had Simon and...

  And Simon’s gone. “I need your help,” she muttered. “Please.”

  She bowed her chin to her chest, swallowing hard. She couldn’t be like this, she couldn’t break down. Simon might be gone, but she needed answers. Besides, if not Finn, then Missy at least depended on her. She had to keep going.

  “Okay,” he muttered.

  “Hm?” She looked up at Finn who was rubbing the bridge of his nose. “What?”

  “I said okay.”

  “You’ll be my partner?”

  Finn nodded, his brows drawn together in a frown. He didn’t seem overly happy about it, but she could live with that.

  Simon’s case was hers. The wave of relief was dizzying.

  “Great.” She jumped to her feet. “I’ll have to present you to Dave to get the stamp of approval first, then off to make you a temporary badge and to get you weapons. Afterward we’ll buy you some pants that actually reach your ankles and boots that fit, and maybe replace that dirty bandana—”

  He reached for his bandana, a glint of panic in his eyes.

  Ella lifted her hands. “Okay, maybe take it off so we can wash it?” He glared and edged away from her. “Or maybe not.” Who knew the history behind the damn bandana? And besides, let him wear a hula skirt and flowers in his hair if he wanted. All she cared about was the case. “Come on, let’s go see Dave.”

  Finn hobbled toward the door, his movements slower than before. Muscles had probably stiffened, and it wasn’t like she’d offered him any breakfast. Or even dinner last night. She promised herself that would be the next thing on her list after Dave. They’d rushed into HQ with the crack of dawn, to identify Simon... Simon’s body.

  Ella drew a steadying breath and followed Finn out.

  ***

  “So this is the new partner, is it?” Dave managed to loom while sitting at his desk. “Name?”

  “Finn,” Ella said when it became obvious Finn wasn’t about to reply. “Finn, this is the boss. You may call him Dave.”

  Finn arched a pale eyebrow.

  “No papers, you say?” Dave asked. “No ID or driver’s license? Who the hell are you, son?”

  Finn just folded his arms over his chest and glared down at his borrowed boots.

  “Look, Dave, he agreed because I practically begged him for help. Save the interrogation.” Ella swallowed a sigh of frustration when Dave shook his head. “It’s temporary, you said it yourself, until the Bureau sends a replacement partner for me.” The words tasted bitter on her tongue.

  Dave’s attention returned to Finn. “And are you any good?”

  Ella prepared to reply, but Finn lifted his head. “I can see.” As if that explained anything. Maybe it did.

  “Seeing is not enough.”

  “Dave—” Ella began.

  “You fear the Gates are open,” Finn said quietly. “You fear what might come through, as do I.”

  Ella cocked her head to the side. Huh. Now this she hadn’t expected. She hadn’t expected Finn to reply, period.

  Dave’s bushy brows drew together. The silvery stubble on his cheeks caught the light. “How do you know this, son?”

  “It’s Finn,” Finn said testily.

  Ella would have laughed, but the memory of Simon’s bloody corpse was too recent. “Trust me on this, Dave, okay? He’s a good fighter. I told you, he saved my life more than once.”

  “I was rather hoping you’d take the hint and keep away from work for a while,” Dave grumbled. “Keep safe.”

  “Safe?” It was touching that Dave worried about her, but she wasn’t going to sit at home while the world fell apart. “I’m going to find out how Simon died, and what the hell is going on with the Gates. Until the replacement comes, and we both know it won’t be any time soon, I want in the game, so Finn’s in, too.”

  Dave gave a reluctant nod. “At least tell us where you come from. Finn. You don’t have a criminal record, do you? Because that could really put a crimp on an already bad situation.”

  Ella hoped Finn would answer, but he didn’t, just went back to glaring at the floor. Just great.

  Dave shot her a worried look. “You sure you want to be partnered with him?”

  “Yes.” Dave wasn’t taking her off the case, damn him. “We all have our secrets.”

  Dave sighed. “As long as you don’t keep any from me. Go to Celia and get his badge.” He gave Finn a once-over, frowning. “A medical wouldn’t hurt, either. That wrist doesn’t look good.”

  And he hadn’t seen the slashes in Finn’s side, although the limp was hard to miss. She glanced sideways at Finn and found him watching her intently. Simon’s paper with the code burned in her back pocket. Secrets.

  “Thanks.” She turned to go.

  “Ella.” Dave cleared his throat. “There’s something else.”

  She froze with her hand on the door handle. “Yes?”

  “A call just came through. In Simon’s hand they found a scrap of organic material.”

  She turned around, excitement building in her chest. “The Shades don’t leave tissue behind. That means... It’s human. We can catch whoever did that.”

  “They don’t think it’s human,” Dave said, his face unreadable.

  “An animal then. Is it because of the claw-marks?”

  Dave shook his head. “No, it’s the material. It’s skin, but it’s white and shiny and unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.”

  A soft thump turned her attention to Finn. He’d slumped against the wall, his face an unhealthy shade of gray. “Finn?”

  “It’s starting,” he whispered.

  Chapter Two

  White

  “It’s my fault,” Ella muttered under her breath, dragging an unsteady Finn along the corridors of the Bureau, past closed doors. “I shouldn’t have let you come. You need to eat, you’ve lost a lot of blood, and...”

  And Simon was dead, not that it was a valid excuse. She kept expecting to see him round the corner, a grin up to his ears, readying some new joke to tell her, to make her laugh.

  Gone. Her heart felt heavy like a stone.

  The elevator door opened and she hauled Finn inside. He stumbled and barely kept his feet. Dammit, he’d looked more or less okay before the meeting with Dave — or maybe she’d been too busy with her anger and sorrow to notice. She didn’t know skin could be so white. The blue-grey of his veins showed through in his cheeks and forehead.

  “Hang on.” She pushed him against the metal wall of the elevator and pressed the button for the ground floor and the officers’ canteen. “You just need something warm in you.” A thought occurred to her. “When did you last eat?”

  Finn grunted. She wasn’t so versed in Finn-speak to decipher that, so she held on, making sure he didn’t fall, and waited out the ride. As the carriage lurched, Dave’s words echoed in her head. Organic material. Non-human. And what had Finn meant, ‘It’s starting’?

  “I think Dave’s right,” she said as she slung his good arm over her shoulders and pulled hi
m out of the elevator. He shuffled along, his lips moving soundlessly. “I should have the doctor look you over, get you some—”

  “No doctor,” Finn snapped, although it came out wheezy.

  Ah, back to the Finn we know and love.

  Their grand entrance into the officers’ canteen garnered them a few curious looks, but it wasn’t the first time she’d entered that way. She nodded at a couple familiar faces from other departments, seated at the old round tables, lit by hanging lamps. Shook her head when they offered to help. They’d probably heard about Simon, and they eyed Finn suspiciously.

  “New officer?” Michael from the robbery/homicide division asked, putting down his coffee and wiping his goatee.

  “New partner,” Ella bit out. “Temporary.”

  Michael nodded, lifting a brow. “Thrown right into the deep end, huh?”

  “Something like that.”

  Reaching a free table, she deposited Finn in a plastic chair — and pushed him back down when he tried to get up. “I won’t be a minute.”

  On the menu, as usual, were soggy bacon and eggs, bread rolls and strong coffee. She got an order for Finn and carried the tray back to their table.

  He was shivering. Fuck. Was he going into shock? She dropped two cubes of sugar in his black coffee, and on second thought added two more for good measure. She stirred it and pushed it into his cold hands. “Here, drink. It’ll do you good.”

  He sipped so obediently her worry went up a notch. No glare, no snappy comeback. He had to be feeling like shit.

  Ella rubbed a hand over her face. He’d be fine. Liquids and iron tablets; that should put him right. And some multivitamins with minerals.

  “I must see the skin,” Finn muttered.

  “Hm?” She looked up from her contemplation of the yellow Formica of the floor. “What did you say?”

  “The skin.” He placed the cup on the table with careful movements, his hands steadier now.

  “Eat first. You look like hell, Finn. I’m not taking you anywhere in this state.”