by L M Adams
“Peter downloaded a picture onto my tablet,” I turn it on finding the picture to show Tabari. Matthew Patterson is a nice-looking young man, dark hair, pretty green eyes. He wears glasses, but he’s one of those people that the glasses actually enhance, rather than distract from his features. He looks smart, clean, the kind of boy a father hopes his little girl brings home, if she has to bring home someone at all.
“So are we going to talk about what you’re doing to Jack?”
“No. Last I checked he was my slave, I’m not doing anything against our law.”
“Prolonged bouts of mental torture is strictly prohibited.”
“Someone should have mentioned that to Sheba, but it hasn’t been twenty-four hours.”
“The amount of power you are pouring into him is enough to turn a human into a thrall, Jaevia!”
“More like a couple hundred thralls,” I say casually.
“Why so much, Jae?” he asks in complete shock. Bet you didn’t even know I could hold that level of power inside of me; a lot of things have changed, Tabari.
“I’m sorry, who died and made you the union head of Kindred slaves?”
“My sister would not do such a thing; chained and bound in your room on the floor? I looked, Jaevia, after such screams.”
“Mind your business, and if you say anything else, I will take it out on him.”
Tabari’s eyes swirl with power, he pulls on the EM field so hard I swear I hear a sonic boom come from above.
“You will not!”
“I’m sorry, I could have sworn you are the one that counseled me to beat my slave in the mornings.”
“This is different and you know it. Jack enjoys physical stimulation, it’s an agreeable arrangement, this is pure torture for him and you are loving it,” Tabari’s voice deepens riding the magic he’s gathering in his Chi.
“You are causing him more pain with every word you say on the subject.” I pick up my coffee cup and casually take a sip, I don’t even turn to look at Tabari.
“I will accept the punishment for my words after your warning,” he clears his voice, “whatever you see fit, whatever amount of your essence, for as long as you choose. If you need to hurt someone, it should be me.”
Oh, bleeding heart Tabari now? He was completely willing to let Peter die last night, or at best, leave him in agonizing pain.
“I’m sorry, Tabari, that will not be possible,” I respond without feeling.
“He should not be punished for my words, Jaevia,” Tabari actually pleads.
“You are once again mistaking the nature of this relationship, I am the Grigori. I punish my slave when I choose. I do not care about the fairness of it. Would you like to watch as I punish him for each and every one of your words? It can be arranged.”
Tabari’s body vibrates in anger beside me, the coffee table in front of us actually begins to float in the air a little. Not enough for anyone to notice, but the shameful display of power will not be tolerated.
“Settle down now, or I will collar you, cutting you off from you power supply for a week.”
The Kindred has special collars, made from elfin magics, written collars, spelled. We use them on our supernatural slaves back home; it cuts them off from their powers completely, in essence making them human. No supernatural wants that, it’s torture all on its own.
Tabari lets the table settle with a thud. For once, being the Grigori isn’t a bad thing. It’s not a bluff. I would cut him off, the damn junky. It would be within my rights to punish him for this display of power where humans could see. The Kindred’s most sacred law is to keep our kind hidden. In fact, the Elders would accuse me of being too lenient on him.
“I’ve never known you to be so cruel,” Tabari says, sadness filling his voice. He stands up and moves away from me. Like I have the cooties, or some ridiculous shit like that.
I want to explain everything to him I really do, we cannot. I know, my succubus has been extremely quiet while I torture Jack, we are content to watch.
What shall we do next? He needs to be able to hold more of our power, that is the only way she will believe. I nod my head in response. I will have to force twice as much power into Jack just to make the story somewhat believable. I try not to look forward to it, I really do.
Matthew finally walks through the door, he looks around curiously. When he makes eye contact with me I motion for him to join me. He nods his head once and moves to get a coffee for himself.
He stands almost six feet easy. He’s thin but not painfully so. His jeans are comfortably worn, tennis shoes, and a plain white button-down shirt that is sharply ironed. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they dress.
Tabari decides to stop being childish and sits back down beside me. Matthew takes the chair across from us, taking his first sip of the coffee, his facial features actually relax a bit. I guess he is an appreciator of the magical things known as coffee beans as well, it makes me like him for some asinine reason.
“Hello Matthew, thank you for meeting us.” I smile warmly, letting my power gently trickle to my hand as I reach out to shake his hand, just the slightest speeding of his pulse, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down as he swallows. Those are the only signs to the reaction of the enhanced pheromones I’ve released into his system. I’m not above using any tool in my arsenal to get answers. Desire is not a bad tool when you want something from someone.
“I’m happy to… Janice, right?”
“Yes Janice,” I smile taking a sip of my coffee. He doesn’t even look at Tabari, his eyes only for me. The attraction will wane easily out of my presence, it is nothing permanent or earth shattering.
“Brandi,” he says after a full minute passes of him just staring at me, like he’s forgotten the poor girl’s name. I see him chastise himself for forgetting. It makes me like him even more.
“Yes, we are looking into her disappearance for her uncle.”
“Yeah, I’ve talked to him. He didn’t sound so worried. But I guess I misjudged if he’s hired private investigators.” His eyes look at my breasts and then down at my knives. I let him assume whatever he like.
“Can you tell us what happened?” I ask after letting him have his fill. He acts like I’ve screamed in his ear, actually jumping a little.
“Yes, um yes.” He shakes his head a little and looks at the coffee; his face turns up in disgust and pushes the still full mug away from him. Damn it I’ve committed an egregious sin if I’ve turned the man against his coffee. I hope he doesn’t actually think the coffee is causing the speedy pulse, the sweat, the loss for words. Nope just good ol’ fashioned succubus mind fucking.
Humans are so susceptible, it really is quite sad. He would be fun for a snack. My succubus whispers, that’s right a snack, I could bleed his Chi dry with a blowjob. He would die a very happy man. I can’t help the hum of agreement and smile in reaction to her suggestion. Tabari clears his throat. I turn to look into very angry human blue eyes. He’s glamoured the wolf away. The pointy ear tips too. Fine brother fine, I won’t take him.
“Can you tell us what happened?” I ask finally. “Everything you remember.”
“She goes to the University of New Baltimore. She’s worked hard for that scholarship, Biology major, you know it’s a very competitive program.” I nod my head. I know how hard it is for a fringe kid to go to college.
“She was on her way home from class, she always catches the bus, she sticks to the well-lit streets, she carries pepper spray. She tries to be safe. I’ve… I’ve been trying to save enough money to, you know, get her a car so her travel back and forth to school would be safer. Usually I would meet her at the bus stop; it’s still six blocks from our apartment. But we got a late delivery, I work up the street in the textile store. Anyway, I had to stay. I called to let her know; it’s not the first time she’s had to walk home alone. It wasn’t really late, the sun had just set.”
He blames himself, he should have been there; the one time she needed
him and he wasn’t there. Classic survivor’s guilt, sadly the not-wolves would probably have just killed him, he wouldn’t stand a chance against them. Unless of course he’s trained in the ancient martial arts and carries a katana about. Looking at him, I seriously doubt that’s the case.
“She wasn’t there when I got home. I called the CNAE immediately. I walked the streets that night, most of the morning. You know you can’t get the CNAE to do anything if you’re a fringe rat.” The disgust is heavy in his voice, I can’t blame him. The population is very neatly split into the haves and the have nots. There is a lot of resentment and unrest growing. Something will have to be done. But it isn’t my problem, I can’t save the world.
“Any idea who may have taken her? Anyone watching or following her, anything that had made her uncomfortable?”
“Other than the werewolves, no.” He says it so casually it takes me a moment to react.
“Wait, the werewolves?” Both Tabari and I sit up in our seat. Matthew is pure human, I’m pretty sure. He has no business knowing about the wolves.
“Yes? Do you know about them? They are fucking real. I found out completely by mistake, I overheard an argument Brandi had with her uncle. He wanted her to join the pack. I didn’t want to believe, but she broke down crying when I confronted her about what I’d heard. She told me everything.” He shakes his head.
“I thought they were forcing her to go through whatever cult rite she needed to do to become one of them and that’s why her Uncle wasn’t concerned, but then your assistant called me, and I knew. I should have looked harder, I should have pressed more. But she warned me that if anyone ever found out about her or her kind, that basically some police force boogeymen would come kill whoever knew. She made me promise to never bring it up again.” He laughs at what he believes is an absurdity, he’s convinced himself that werewolves aren’t real and the pack is really a cult.
Denial is a wonderful coping mechanism. Don’t I know it.
“Well you should have listened to her, Matthew,” my voice is dangerous, “because I’m the boogeyman.”
As I watch Matthew’s entire facial expression go from shock to disbelief to fear. I watch him get up, turn and run through the door like hellhounds are quick on his heels. I realize calling myself the boogeyman probably wasn’t the best course of action.
“Smart move, Jae,” Tabari chides. And we are up chasing him down.
It doesn’t take us long to track him and catch him; he is after all, human. He’d slowed down, thinking he’d gotten away. We walk up to him on each side grabbing him, holding him between us.
“You scream you die,” I say simply. “We just want to talk.”
He looks back and forth between me and Tabari, he looks around for a CNAE officer I’m sure. And then realizes how fucked he is finally. The tension leaves his body as he accepts his fate.
“Good boy, let’s find some privacy.”
We dart down an alley, it’s fairly secluded it will work for a short conversation and this conversation will be short.
“Please don’t kill me, I didn’t believe most of it, I thought maybe it was just some cult shit not real werewolves. You guys are real?” He starts to hyperventilate. Oh goddess, I can’t question him if he’s passed out.
“Matthew please, calm down, or we will have to do unpleasant things to you.”
His heartbeat gets so loud I can hear it clearly; his blood pressure must be off the scale.
“You really suck ass today, Jaevia, just go.” Tabari orders, a magical shield comes down around them, blocking me out, leaving me on the outside.
Well isn’t that some shit? I could make a scene and beat against the invisible force field, or I could take a walk. 99.9% of me wants to beat on the bubble. But I turn and walk down to the mouth of the alley acting as look out.
“I’m the stinking Grigori. Fucking asshole.” I say out loud to no one.
I should go ahead and use my time wisely. I pull up Rabbit’s number on my tablet and call him as I put in my earpiece.
“Janice.” Goddess why does the man persist in calling me that?
“Yes Rabbit,” I can’t help but sound irritated. “You have anything?”
“Yup, still don’t have much, but whoever used the computer logged onto a server stationed somewhere out in the old Towson, Maryland area. Can’t get a better location for you than that right now.” He sounds as if he’s talking with his mouth full. Probably that nasty ass beef jerky.
“Thanks, it’s a help, keep working.”
“Yeah yeah, make sure I get my money.” The line goes dead in my ear. Guess he isn’t one for common courtesies like goodbye before he hangs up in someone’s ear.
I turn to walk back to Tabari and Matthew and their little super-secret-spy-isolation-bubble-bullshit-boys-club-conversation.
Why am I so pissed? You are letting the evil things out, me out.
I nod my head, I have to do this but goddess, I don’t like the woman I’m becoming, you’ve never liked me.
Just another necessary evil.
I rub my neck, I need to get back to Jack, I need to amplify his training quickly. I only have a few hours to pull this off, but first I need to find out where the fuck I’m going.
And if you can’t find out? I’ll take off the spelled gems, she will find me easily then. I will just lose the tactical advantage of returning to her voluntarily which could put my entire plan at risk.
After a few more minutes I watch as Tabari places his hand on Matthew’s forehead. The boy’s body crumbles gently to the ground. I assume he isn’t dead since Tabari is careful laying the boy’s head down gently on the concrete. You don’t really care about causing brain injuries with dead people.
Chapter Forty-seven
With family like you, what do I need enemies for?
“What did you find out?” I ask Tabari as he lowers the bubble and steps away from the body.
We turn and casually walk away. Matthew will wake up soon enough. Hopefully, he’ll be smart enough to keep his mouth closed about werewolves next time. Technically, we should take him into custody and begin a burn file to find out how deeply the knife would need to cut. How many we would need to kill for everything to remain secret. But I am Grigori, and it is my decision.
“After I got him to calm down enough, by the way, promising him I wouldn’t let you near him again, he told me he visited the uncle’s apartment. He mentioned how bad it smelled.”
“Ok dude’s a slob, his apartment was junky.”
“He harped on the smell like there was a dead animal somewhere in the house.”
“Not-wolf,” I whisper.
“The stench is bad enough for a human to smell.”
“We should go visit Uncle Benny again then.”
The evil intent drips from my voice, someone is going to experience pain very soon. Tabari doesn’t object. If not-wolves are involved with what is happening to the wolves and we can prove it, we can justify our actions to the Kindred, finally.
We aren’t very polite as we break into Ben’s apartment. Although I’m not sure if there’s a way you can politely break into someone’s house. He’s on the sofa, he looks in shock at us. Fear fills the man’s eyes. He tries to find an escape, he jumps up and runs to the furthest part of the living room. But there is no escape and as soon as he realizes it, I feel the power of the wolf begin to radiate from him.
“He’s going to try and change!” I shout.
“I don’t have a collar on me, Jae.”
I do the only thing left available to me, I jump him, carrying both of us to the floor, one of my knives already in hand and on his throat.
“What do you think is faster, my blade or your change?’ I ask the non-rhetorical question.
He’s not as powerful as Big Mike or Annette; it would take him time to change, he’d be long dead before he could finish. I press the blade into his neck and watch a bit of blood trickle from the shallow cut.
“Enough Jae, enoug
h. He’ll be a good boy now. Won’t you?”
“Yes, yes.”
Uncle Ben’s voice is very much afraid. I can smell his fear secrete from his pores. I can’t help bending so my face is close to his neck to breathe in the deep, rich, sickly smell. I want to hurt him, teach him what real fear is. Death is a release, I am damnation.
“Jae, back off,” Tabari says slowly.
I turn my head to look at him, my eyes glowing dangerously. I try to control my breathing to control my primitive urges. I turn back to my prey.
“What the fuck is in the old Towson, Maryland?” I don’t move off his lap, or move the blade from his jugular.
“One lie and you die,” I warn him.
He begins to stammer. “The facility, it’s where they are keeping them. It’s all I know. I’ve never been there, I swear it!”
“How could you?” I ask in disgust as I get up. If I can’t hurt him, I can’t get away from him fast enough.
“I just wanted Brandi to be changed. She is the last of our line, I have no children. There should always be a wolf from the Greene family. Our ancestors ran under the moon when the Americas were still wild, we were here at the creation of the country. We must walk through the ages.”
“So you were going to force her?”
“Jesse was asking around about family members that hadn’t chosen to go wolf. He told me he wanted to build the pack and wanted to try and get some of the ones we’ve left behind. Brandi is first generation, wouldn’t take much to turn her. I didn’t know I swear I didn’t know they were experimenting on them. I swear I didn’t know!” he whines out.
“On all fours, dog,” I order him; he moves to the proper position of a traitor.
“Where exactly are they?” I ask.
“The old psychiatric hospital out there, it’s the only place that has so many lockable rooms, and plenty of forest around it. It’s heavily guarded by the CNAE, there're witches and a succubus. She is in charge.”
“Benjamin Greene, you will be transported to the Kindred Palace to answer the charge of inciting a war between species, kidnapping, unlawful experimentation, contempt, and impeding the lawfully appointed Grigori from carrying out their duties. You will be found guilty, your life will no longer be your own and if Brandi Greene is found to be dead or harmed in any way, I will spend every bit of money at my disposal to buy your collar off the auction block. Can you even begin to fathom the depths of hell you will experience as my slave?”
