Arrested in Peace (The Complex Book Series)

by Jason Halstead

  "You must have seen something," Valerie pushed.

  "She had white skin, if that helps. Pale, but everybody's pale around here unless they've got money and time to get artificial tans. Black hair, I saw a little bit of wrapped around her neck. That was it... oh, wait, she had crescent moons and stars on her fingernails. I made a joke about how she'd need to be careful messing with those herbs that she didn't stain her pretty nails."

  Val swallowed and nodded. She didn't trust herself to speak.

  "You all right? You look like you just seen a ghost. Do you know her?"

  "No," Val snapped. She shook her head and offered him a thin smile. "Just thinking about what this could mean if it's what you think. If somebody's creating undead and giving them the ability to heal... this could be very bad."

  Hecta nodded. "Yeah, it could. Hey, do you think this has anything to do with the metas that have gone missing lately?"

  Val's eyes widened. "Metas are missing? I hadn't heard."

  "Yeah, a few here, a few there. No super powerful ones, just elves and dwarves and even a pixie."

  "Pixie?"

  "Yeah, you know, short, wings, fairy magic. A pixie."

  Val swallowed again, relieved that she hadn't been talking to someone that had gone missing earlier. "Okay, yeah, I know what they are. Why do you think they might be related?"

  He shrugged. "Well, like I said, these herbs are substitutes. If you want a more powerful version you need the real thing. Real parts from real people. And since metas have magic in their blood already, they're even more powerful than humans are."

  "Fuck," Val whispered.

  He nodded. "Maybe."

  She shook her head and started to turn away. She glanced back and nodded. "Thanks, Hecta. I appreciate it. What do I owe you?"

  "For helping to stop a necromancer? Nothing. They're bad business for everyone!"

  She offered him another flash of a smile and spun to head out of the shop. All she had was circumstantial evidence, but everything pointed to something bad. And at the center of it was Davina. The stars and moons on her fingernails clinched it. She'd always had a fascination with astrology. She believed that the stars divined that she and Val were meant to be together.

  "Looks like you get to see me again after all," Val muttered as she activated the sub cellular communicator in implanted under her jawbone. She was about to sub-vocalize the instructions to call for a Zipper when she saw someone waving. She turned to get a better look and groaned. Dag'on had found her.

  Chapter 7

  Dag'on smiled as he walked up to her. "I found something! Did you know—"

  Val's glare and quick shake of her head made the words die on his lips. She glanced around before nodding towards the back of Berk's. Dag'on's forehead creased in confusion until she looked back and then gestured for him to follow her.

  "What's back here?" he asked when he rounded the corner and found her standing there glaring at him.

  "Privacy," she said. She turned and glanced at the back door of the shed that had been built on to Hecta's shop. It was closed, but she narrowed her eyes for a moment as she tried to sense if any magic was in use. She turned back to him and nodded. "Go ahead."

  "Okay…" Dag'on said as he looked around. He overcame his confusion as he began to speak. "There have been some disappearances lately. One or two you can account for with that nymph, I'm sure, but those were humans. The others were metas. Six of seven, I believe, over the past couple of weeks. I don't believe the nymph ever attempted any metas before me, and that was only an unfortunate circumstance."

  "Unfortunate for you," Val pointed out.

  He nodded. "True, but I'd just finished a particularly involved appointment with a client and I wasn't at my best, otherwise I don't think she would have fared so well."

  "You had an appointment with a client in the jungle?"

  He smiled. "I seldom pick the location of my rendezvous, that is up to the client."

  Val pushed the glimpse into his work life to the side. "Is that all you've got?"

  "Is… oh, you mean the bit about the metas? I have some details, if that helps. Three elves, one pixie, one dwarf, and possibly one or more goblins. They keep to themselves and don't readily talk to outsiders."

  "Goblins?" Val repeated. Hecta hadn't told her that. Had he held it back, or had he just not known? Dag'on was right about one thing, goblins were withdrawn and isolated. There was no telling how many of them lived in the Warrens beneath the Complex. "What about the list of people I gave you to check on?"

  "I was on my way there when I saw you. I figured I would look into general rumors first, since you weren't telling me anything about the case we're working on."

  "I'm working on," she said. "Not you."

  "Oh? Then what about the people you asked me to check into? Ranielle Marks, Daw Klostenfelt, Kirk Valejo, and—"

  "They're just people that might I needed to check into. All human though, no metas."

  "So they missing metas aren't related?"

  Val hesitated long enough that he picked up on it.

  "They are! Now I'm curious. What's going on?"

  "Why do you care?" Val snapped. "They aren't relations of yours."

  He shrugged. "Somebody targets metas, they might target me. Whatever's going on doesn't appear to be limited to any one kind. It sounds to me more like small groups of people that encountered something. Is there some sort of serial killer on the loose? It wouldn't be the first time that one group of metas got in a fight with another— we don't often live together well in tight quarters— but this is several groups, potentially."

  Val sighed. She glanced at the door behind her again and turned towards it. She reached it before he found his voice.

  "Hey, what are you doing?"

  "You want to know so bad? Come with me."

  Dag'on hurried after her and stopped when she opened the door. A storage shed filled with broken equipment and spare parts awaited them. "This isn't— wait, what are you doing?"

  Val stepped through the illusion and moved to the side of the stairwell that descended into the ground. She turned and looked out, where Dag'on was staring with a blank and confused expression on his face.

  She suppressed her smirk and reached out, grabbing his wrist and pulling him in before he could react. He yelled in alarm and then fell silent when he found himself chest to chest with her. He had to tilt his head up to look at her since she was almost three inches taller than him in her wedges.

  "Oh! Well, if you wanted to get me alone that's not a problem. You could have just said—"

  "Knock it off," Val said. She stepped back and let go of his wrist so she could turn and point at the ground beside them.

  "Oh, right. Stairs?"

  "I hope you're used to thinking with your other head," Val said as she stepped onto the first step and started walking down them. "This leads into the Warrens."

  "The Warrens?" he repeated. "You think the killer is down here?"

  "How many humans live down here?" she asked.

  "I… I don't know. I'm sure some must, right?"

  "A few, but not many," she admitted. "A recent arrival at the Complex never reported to her assigned residence. That was nearly four weeks ago."

  "Another missing person? Human or meta?"

  "Human," Val said. "I don't think she's missing."

  "You don't?" he asked. "So what are we— you think she's behind the disappearances?"

  Val opened the door at the bottom of the staircase and waited for him to walk through into the five foot wide tunnel.

  Dag'on paused in the doorway and stared down the passage. The walls and floor were worn and smooth, although far from uniform and even. Lights were spaced infrequently, providing barely adequate lighting.

  "You've never been down here, have you?" she asked.

  Dag'on twitched and shook his head. "No. I mean, not this entrance, of course."

  "Of course," Val agreed. She studied him for a moment and then st
ated, "You've never been to the Warrens."

  He hesitated and shook his head. "No, never."

  "Keep your eyes open and pay attention," she warned. "This is off the grid down here. A separate culture and economy from what's above. Give everyone their space and stay out of the way, you'll be fine. Nobody wants any trouble except for the ones that do. Avoid them."

  "Uh… that doesn't make sense. Nobody except the ones that do?"

  "Stay close to me and you'll be fine," she said as she started walking down the tunnel.

  "Of course… but why? I mean, why are we down here? Do you think the killer is down here? Where would they go? It's been four weeks, did you check to see if they registered at a hotel?"

  "People live down here," she said. And yes, I think this is probably where she went, unless she hooked up with one of the people I gave to you to check out," Val said, reminding him he hadn't done the job she'd given him.

  "Oh, right. You could have told me that. Then I'd—"

  Val held up a hand, silencing him. She nodded ahead of them and drew his attention to where a pair of red-haired women with glistening skin and slits for pupils walked towards them. The one in front parted her lips and let a forked tongue slide out and taste the air. Her breath hissed through her narrow nostrils as they passed next to Val and Dag'on.

  They walked several more steps until Val glanced back and saw the two nagas were well out of earshot. "They barely noticed you," she said in a hushed voice. "So much for the stories about the enhanced sense of taste and smell nagas possess."

  "I told you, it only works on the person I'm focused on. That's you, obviously. You've done a remarkable job resisting it," he added. "Not that I'm trying to get you to give in, it's not something I can control."

  Val frowned and walked on, considering what he said. It made sense that he was influencing her, even if it wasn't intentional. There wasn't a single reason she could think of that she'd want to take a civilian into a place like this. Not if she had to keep track of him and keep him safe. Yet she hadn't even put up a real fight. Even worse, she'd invited him to come along!

  "Too late to change that now," she muttered as the tunnel reached a junction room with several other tunnels branching off in different directions. Others passed through the room to head down tunnels taking them to destinations near and far. Val had to fight down her desire to slow and prepare herself as she watched an ogre walked hunched over as he stepped out of one tunnel and turned to another. She wasn't the only one giving him space, a group of three elven men trailed after him and didn't speed up until they saw him take a different tunnel than the one they needed.

  Val turned and picked the second one on her left. She followed a man that wore a hooded robe down the passage, allowing enough distance in case Dag'on was foolish enough to talk. He stayed close enough behind her he brushed her heels once with his toes. He mumbled an apology and said nothing else.

  They felt the warmth ahead of them as they walked and heard the growing noise. The tunnel emptied into a larger room that had been carved from the rock. They emerged on a metal landing. She glanced around before heading towards stairs that would take them down two levels to the ground amidst the buildings built into the walls and floor. Lights were arranged haphazardly across the ceiling on the metal beams that served to support the rock. In spite of their random nature the small cavern was well lit.

  Men and woman of all types were moving down the narrow roads between buildings and coming in and out of them. A voice rose above the others in a grunt, shout, or laugh on occasion.

  "Where—"

  Val stopped in front of him, forcing him to bump into her before he could catch himself. She snapped her head back to look over her shoulder and glare at him. She followed it with a curt shake of her head and then turned back and stared as a massive man was led down the main road in the cavern by two hulking figures. He had manacles that ran from his wrists to the collar around his thick neck. From each wrist the chains stretched out to two of his keepers, one on each side.

  "Minotaur!" Dag'on hissed.

  "Pit fights," Val responded. "Part of the games in the Warrens."

  "Barbaric," the incubus muttered.

  Val smirked and turned away from the direction the minotaur and his two ogre tenders had taken him. "Almost there," she said without knowing why she bothered.

  "It stinks down here," Dag'on mumbled.

  "All I can smell is you," she admitted. She didn't tell him she wasn't sure if she preferred it that way or not.

  "You're lucky."

  "I'm not so sure. Follow my lead and try not to talk," she said as she turned and pushed open the door of a shop.

  Dag'on followed without hesitating. He slowed when he walked into the small bar and then caught himself gawking. Val was already nearing the six stool bar, causing him to hurry through the tight tables and chairs without bumping anyone to join her side.

  "You couldn't find a bar closer to home?" he hissed.

  "Not one with her," Val said as a woman emerged from a shimmering doorway clad in body hugging dress that flickered and flashed a pattern of swirls and colors up from where the slash cut dress covered the top of her black stiletto heeled boots all the way to her neck and ran down her arms to the elbow length black gloves she wore. The colors that swirled across her body included a transparent sheen, giving a glimpse to the sheer beauty of her form that lie beneath before it was swept away in the next wave of color. The transparency also showed there was nothing between the dress and her body.

  A lustrous mane of perfect red hair framed her face but did nothing to detract from the tiny sparkling crystals that decorated her brow and high cheekbones. Everything about her spoke of glamour, excess, and beauty, even the full white feathered wings on her back that she kept tucked tight against her.

  "Is that—"

  "Been a while since you've been down here, sweetheart," the woman said as she swept past Val and Dag'on and delivered a tray filled with two plated piled high with steaming food and a matching pair of tall drinks. She turned back and stepped behind the bar before she looked Val up and down. "That's a good look for you," she said. "I like it. Who's your boy toy?"

  Val glanced at Dag'on but he was entranced by the beautiful woman. "Dag'on," Val said, causing him to jump and collect himself.

  "An incubus? Sweetie, does that mean you're never going to take me up on my offer?"

  "Offer?" Dag'on asked. His eyes widened. "Is that why you resist?"

  Val rolled her eyes while the winged woman laughed. "This is Brill, she's an angel. And no, I'm not into girls. I resist you because I… well, just because."

  "Her heart belongs to another," Brill said. "And there's nothing anyone can do about it. Besides, I only want her to come and work for me."

  "You couldn't pay me enough," Val said and forced herself to keep her attention focused on Brill and not the metas in her pub.

  "Ah, if only that were the real reason," Brill pouted. She shrugged, the action extending her wings for a moment before she pulled them back in. "So what can I get you, the usual?"

  "I don't drink," Val reminded her.

  "Not true," Brill said with a wink. "But you've never had a drink with me."

  "Wait a minute," Dag'on said. "Angels are supposed to be pure and virtuous beings. Uptight and holier-than-thou, even. You own a bar!"

  "This is only the top level, handsome," Brill said.

  "You didn't catch the name on the way in, did you?" Val asked.

  "What? No, I didn't. What is it?"

  "Fallen Angels," Brill said before she wet her red lips with her tongue. Another crystal stud was placed on her tongue, glinting as it caught the light before she sucked it back into her mouth.

  Chapter 8

  "Sabine, would you please tend the bar?"

  Dag'on spun around, confused as to who Sabine was and why Brill was talking to her. There was no one behind him, other than the people sitting at the tables. None of them showed any unusual intere
st or response.

  He turned back around and made a choking sound as he couldn't figure out if he was supposed to breath in or out. A red skinned woman stepped out of the same shimmering doorway Brill had walked through. Twin horns emerged from her forehead, distracting from her pouty lips, dark eyes, and delicate cheek bones.

  Unlike Brill, the new woman had leathery black wings tucked behind her back. She wore a revealing black halter top and micro skirt that hung low enough on her curvaceous hips it seemed a work of magic that it didn't fall down her legs. The reason for the skirt was obvious when he saw her spade tipped tail coil up and around her bare belly.

  "New hires?" the red skinned succubus asked as she looked Dag'on up and down appreciatively. "He's focused on her, unless they're a team he won't be able to do any work for anyone else until that contract is over. "

  "Mind your tongue, Sabine," Brill scolded. "These are my guests. Although I'd sacrifice a few feathers to get Val working with me."

  The succubus turned her attention on Val. She sniffed and then licked her lips, making them glisten. "Valerie! Impressive, I didn't recognize you! Welcome back. Oh… you're riled up, probably because of the incubus, I bet. What did you do to him to make him so plain?"

  Brilla spoke before Val could respond. "Tend the customers, and remember, no orgies in the common room."

  Sabine pouted. "You're so strict!"

  Val glanced at Dag'on and nudged him to stop him from gawking.

  Dag'on clamped his mouth shut.

  Brill smiled and said, "Please, follow me somewhere more private." She turned and stepped through the shimmering curtain.

  "Come on," Val grunted and followed the angel through the colorful lights.

  Dag'on hesitated and glanced at Sabine, but her attention was on the customers already. He smirked when he noticed her tail had uncoiled enough to slide up under her halter top that struggled to contain her ample breasts. He chuckled and walked through the light curtain.