by Lil Hamilton
“Maybe. Had I known anything for certain which I didn’t.”
Hanson raised one bushy brow. “If you were hunting down this witch, Ray, then you knew she’d mated up. I hardly think it was surprising to you when one was bound and sent after gangs nearby. I understand lacking evidence to point to the slavery ring, but you could have dropped some hints my way on a murder of an entire coven.”
“Not at the time. I barely had any information to go on myself. It would only have confused the issue.”
“You and I are going to have to have a chat about this. I know you work for the Accords, but sometimes our paths cross and we need to share information.”
I found that so funny I laughed and ended up choking on the sip of whiskey I had taken. His face got flush, likely thinking I was mocking him. “I know. You’re right. I just find your words so very funny, because that is exactly what I was telling the Alpha of the local werewolf pack. Trust me, Hanson, I will not be nearly as stubborn.”
Hanson stood. “I would like to trust you, Ray. You don’t play the games the fae do. And I know you protect us from them playing their games. Unfortunately, you stretch your loyalties.”
“I chose this realm to bide in, Hanson,” I said honestly. “I’ll do what is best to keep the border realm safe. Trust me on that. But, being as I am, sometimes that means making deals with demons or fae for the greater good. Or damage control. So the witches you tagged, are they secured by your coven?”
“They are. What they will remember will be an attack by another black coven. None of them, including those who escaped, should have any real idea who infiltrated them or why. They will be riled up for sure but confused at where to retaliate. We triggered the spell over the whole area and we believe they were all caught in it. We are as secure as we can be. The House shouldn’t be on high alert.”
“Good. Second line of attack is a set of time dampening illusions. Cast it over the block and they will feel time is moving slower, clocks will move slower… and if they did get a heads up, they will not have time to bolt. That’s the best containment of the situation that can be managed.”
“A spell that will encompass an entire area will affect regular citizens as well as witches. We cannot authorize that,” Doug said.
I scowled. “Damn you make things so morally conflicted. It is a mild perception spell. Nothing harmful about it. Never mind it then. I’ll get it done myself before you all get here.”
I knew damn well Myra would have given them a heads up, but a time dampener, while hard to produce would mean the coven would not have time to act on that information. It was a fantastic trick that most witches completely missed. I had worked the spell out with Chera for just such situations. Given the way Faerie was, I was used to time being very observer relative.
After Hanson and Doug left I had Dill coordinate getting the coven witches to my place. Lan left little to chance and while everything was being organized he arranged for some of the demi from the Warrens to watch the borders of Nihilo and the Gutters for all movement and to report to him. If they made any move to get out of dodge we would know about it. Myra likely already hit the road and we were just cleaning up the mess she left behind. The coven trickled in while I prepped and cast the time dampening spell. I then prepped a few more spells while I was at it. It was going to be a long night. By the time I was done they were all gathered downstairs playing the Wii.
The coven men were all swagger and boasting as they played one of my boxing games. Craig was young, blond and had the body of a sleek swimmer and a careless grace about him. If he were only a few years older I wouldn’t feel so guilty for eying him up. He was so damn pretty it was hard to take him seriously. Sort of like a young Brad Pitt pretty. He sat in the mocking section, alternating his heckling equally between Marcus and Brian. Marcus was a big bear of a man. Scruffy, barrel-chested and full of testosterone and ambition which I thought made him great to play these sorts of war games with. Not the sort you would box with in reality. Then there was Brian. Shy, loyal, brilliant but tall, lanky with features too irregular to be attractive. He was kicking ass in the game. Go nerd power!
I leaned against the wall and watched. You’d think someone my age would be way beyond wanting to play video games. Most court Seelie would think it was so beneath them, but in reality technology perplexed them in many ways. It advanced far too fast for them. As a race we were a slow changing bunch and when you only touched the mortal realm every fifty years things moved like lightning. The masses of lesser Seelie were game for any amusements and those of us who dwelled here for longer spans of time sort of indulged more freely in these sorts of things. The fact that I played a few hours before bed was nothing to be ashamed of. I figured it made me a better ambassador really. I comprehended humanity by keeping up to date with all its new gadgets. After the culture shock of my arrival had worn of that is and things back then were nothing like now. Chera said until I had a Twitter account, a blog and Tumblr I was really not up to date with the age. She insisted all the faelings were doing it and my spy network would be vast if I just engaged with the masses in social media. There was this fae mischevious side of me that wanted to but the boring serious side of me wondered when I would find the time.
“We’re never going to get down to business now,” Samantha said. She was a slightly overweight and curvy woman, who was in her mid-forties, let her gray hairs stay gray and looked like a soccer mom. She encouraged, she cajoled and she had the brightest, most fluid fake smile I had ever seen. She threw that smile on and almost anyone, who didn’t notice the ice of her eyes, would think she was sincere. She sat next to Mary, who at thirty was skilled and solid for a witch and looked like she starved herself, but really just didn’t eat enough to keep up with her mojo. I wondered if there was such a thing as magic anorexia. Mary was a cop at heart, often burning herself out to do her work for Inter.
“Bet you fifty Brian kicks Marcus’ ass,” Liz said. Liz was an ornery sixty years old, but she looked like she was in her mid-forties, because she was a natural feeder. She naturally absorbed other’s life energy, but she said that was because most people flung their aura all over the place. She was right, even if it was an excuse. If she started to actively spell such a drain then she would enter into that timeless battle to keep herself young and pain free that happened when a leaching witch went beyond their natural life span. As it was, her passive feeding made her feel awesome and sucked the energy from everyone else. A total party killer. She just hovered dangerously close to the edge of becoming a leach as most natural feeders ended up doing. A fine line from the black shroud of an aura she held now to a thick oily one of a soul leach witch. I often wonder what would happen when she did. Would Inter fire her? Arrest her like other leaches when they caught her at it? Or would they just move her to one of their more secret departments and use her as an agent there?
“I’m in on that bet,” I said.
“Course you are,” Craig said. “They have meetings for gamblers like you.”
“Nah,” I replied. “I always make money at it.”
“Fuck that shit. I’m going to punch him so hard he is going to be sucking on his own balls,” Marcus said.
“There is a first time for everything,” Brian said. “Not today, mate,” he added, swinging the remote and catching his opponent with a hard upper cut for the knock out.
I itched to challenge him, but work came before play.
Chera was the last to show, looking a little worse for wear, but somewhat alert. I could tell from the black smudges under her eyes and the slump of her shoulders she had not slept well. With nightmares like hers that was no surprise. This case brought up bad memories for her.
“The ritual went awesome. If they managed to get a warning out, like maybe by a mundane thug, there’s no way they will realize how little time, as they perceive it, they will have to get out of there,” I told her.
“That is awesomest,” she said.
“Still not a word,” I sai
d, reminding her of what she often told me and she cracked a small smile.
Every one of them, even Craig, had pitch black auras. A sure sign they were not mixing up herbal concoctions and love potions. They sat on the couches, chatting and eating chips. But all on the ball. What sort of spells that had prepared that they could use. Which ones would need preparations, and who would get that done. It was all over my head. Hanson looked about as oblivious as I was, but at least by the frown mark between his eyebrows he was trying to pay attention. I didn’t even bother. I trusted them to come up with the right mojo to fit the situation.
“Okay,” I interrupted. “What do we know about this wicked little coven?”
Brian flipped open a folder. “Well, they’re leeches. They have not been caught at it, but they tend to target drug addicts in Mid Town Flats. Hired mercenaries for certain, possibly assassins. The lower coven members start out offering protection and work their way up. Without any concern over their karma taint, they have no problems doing harm and people pay big money for ‘accidental’ deaths. This operation for selling specifically catered slaves is new.”
That had Myra written all over it. Even when she moved onto her next job she would maintain her contacts with the Nihilo Coven and keep that operation going. That witch needed to come down with a good dose of death. Problem was, I had no authorization to take her down and didn’t want to suffer the consequences with the Queen. It would also take more planning to take down such a devious woman who knew more spells than I did types of shooters.
The folder looked as thick as the one Hanson had on me, so it seemed Inter was keeping close tabs on them. Good job. Let them kidnap some woman and call a demon. Bravo. Let them kidnap a warehouse full of people? No freakin gold star for them on this one. Problem was with the wards working against them, they would never be watching as closely as they thought. That is why witches ran the Haven streets. “So then we know it is vampire structure based in hierarchy. One head witch, leeching the most, passing energy down and passing her taint onto them. She’ll be fun to handle if she shows. Any idea who she is?”
“Not really. She has been doing this awhile and so while she looks about thirty, but we have confirmation she has been around for sixty. We speculate her name is Meredith Black, but is likely an alias.”
I shrugged. “Not too long then.”
Liz laughed darkly. “So the immortal fairy says.”
“So she does,” I said, adding in a regal nod. “I’ve encountered leaches quite a bit older than me and even I didn’t want to fuck with them.”
“Oh my god, the fae admits an Other can whoop her ass,” Mary said.
I eyed her bony body. “I could whoop your ass with a light breeze. You know if this cop thing doesn’t work out you could try modeling.”
She flipped me the finger.
“Seriously, eat something. I got a Mars bar with your name on it.”
“She eats five of those for breakfast,” Craig said with a laugh. “She eats more than Marcus and me combined.”
“Maybe Liz is having a snack on her,” I said.
“Wouldn’t be much of a snack,” Liz said.
“Enough already,” Hanson said.
“Anyway,” Brian said. “Doesn’t look like the head mistress is running the operation here. This coven has branched off and our Intel shows she’s in the States.”
“They can have her. What else? How many do they have in the upper coven?”
“Nine that we know of. That would be the main runners at their home House. There are about eighty minors at any given time within this city. They have another well-established House in New York and only began their coven here about ten years ago,” Brian said, flipping through the file. “They are mystical, this group. The sort that believes this world is all illusion and nothing exists.”
“Nothing does exist. And it is all illusions,” Chera chimed in.
“Whatever. Just remember, for me and Lan, this is a grab and run. Once we have the girl and demon boy we are out of there. So you will have no concerns over protecting the victims. Brian, Craig and Marcus, you will follow right on my heels and take out any witch you cross, or any protection they have hired. The ladies will barrier the area and take out guards as they can and dampen spells. We don’t want them to call for back up. Fact is, even though we altered their sense of time and hushed the raid on their compound, they still have a heads up. So Chera, Liz and me, will go scout the area. Make sure the birds are still in the coop. Then you will know what you need for this sort of operation. You can even work at my house; in my storage room I have a work table and most of the usual witchy junk.”
Everyone agreed, which was good because I was winging it. Diplomats usually didn’t do this sort of thing. I ordered other to investigate and strategize. As plans of potential action went it seemed fine. I planned on going in with magical guns a blazin’, which really was not my general strategy for anything but with a limited time frame and Inter Covens help it was doable.
“As for the brothel it makes sense the leaches are going that way. Feeding off drug addicts is easy to do because it’s hard to say whether they die of the drugs, a heart attack or of being leached,” Liz said. “But they’re expanding which means they need more energy to fuel their spells and maintain their own existence. It takes a lot to keep the pain down once you begin to leach. So the next step is leaching from your own kind, witches, and then other supernaturals like faelings and demi. Problem is most Other races sort of notice the drain. Definitely from a coven of any decent size. So most of these sorts of covens set up feeding bars. They kidnap and contain by binding spells. I talked to the Inter witch department and they already suspect they have set up feed bars of witches, but proving it has been damn near impossible. This sort is a little more twisted by adding forced sex into the mix, but the coven needs to make a profit as well and other races feed off energy, emotions and sex. So an all-for-one establishment is a money maker. We have seen it in other cities and Nihilo is just the sort of coven that would turn that way. These sorts of places are high security. The sort of people that feed from them know how to find them but otherwise they are invisible.”
“Fucking foul,” Mary said.
“Those poor people,” Samantha said.
I nodded. There were no words. It was the sort of evil that should be eradicated from the earth. “You’re right, Liz. They cut themselves out a piece of property in the Gutters somewhere to operate the business. Likely because it is neutral territory and in a business area with high traffic. I don’t think they wanted it directly linked to their coven. A lot of covens do have business in the Commons and the Gutters and the fact they pushed someone out to make space for themselves is just normal business practices. The witch they used to open it up and get it going however has enough fae blood to hide it from sight. As you said, makes them damn invisible. So, Liz, you and I are going to take a peek into the harvesters mind and I should be able to see where it is with my fae visions. I would rather go there but if she had fae wards set up then they would all be forewarned.”
“Wait. You have the slave harvester? Here?” Marcus asked.
“Er. Yeah. I needed to interrogate him. I was going to hand him over when I was done. That is to say I was going to call it in, but I got distracted and forgot. And after this… you can have him.”
“By the Goddess, Ray,” Samantha said with a sigh and a shake of her head.
“Kidnaping. Totally epic,” Craig said with a grin.
“I’m just going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Hanson said.
Liz stood up slowly. “Well, let’s see what’s in his grimy little mind then shall we?”
I led her to my storage room and she said, “I felt the wards. How could I not? Such a strong pulse. But had no idea you stashed anyone behind them. I’m quite impressed.”
“Thank you, Liz. Coming from you with your fine Craft that’s quite the compliment.”
I opened the door and let her go in first and c
losed it behind us. Warren was exactly as he was before. Awake sort of. Actually I think the word would be catatonic. Chera having imposed on him his victims suffering seemed to have overloaded his brain. I wasn’t even sure he was going to recover.
“What happened to him?”
“I didn’t realize his mind was spell protected. Must have gone a bit far.”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t you, was it? It was Chera.”
I sighed. “And if it was?”
Liz stared at the man for a moment. “She couldn’t have known his mind was spell trapped,” she said and I released the breath I was holding, because Liz knew Chera had done a psychic attack on him. “Is there anything left in there to use? That is not trapped and warded?”
“Oh yes, because all I want is too look through his eyes and through his memories. Memories that are not blocked at all. The establishment has fae wards ensuring it is not seen, and not only seen but people will see something else and think about something else. They work on me as well you know. But I can put my fae goggles on, a charm I worked up on a pair of goggles, which allows me to see the energy discharge. The parts of his memories where he is going into the place directly and so forth are blocked, but I just need to see where he has been going and see the place at a distance. I may be fooled by many fae glamoured places when I’m not looking, but this half-breed doesn’t have the same skill and I am looking. Besides the witch in her leaks out into her spell work.”
“Yet we’re not going into the Gutters to verify?”
“Not a good idea. I believe the place will be warded up. Your specialized gang coven will have one shot and that will be taking them by surprise. When we get a location they can do all the scrys they want to confirm. Discretely, but not close confirmation. Not until we move on the main House. If we get nothing from him then we will have to work something else out. I can try some more advanced localized fae magic scrys that might be able to filter out all the witch magic static, but it would take time and power both of which I’m going to need elsewhere.”
