by Kyrii Rayne
She dressed like a college student in a dark turtleneck and heavy tartan skirt— and there was an open laptop in front of her. Dead giveaway.
“That our girl?”
“What do you mean our?” Darrin asked distractedly, and headed over there, leaving them both staring curiously at his back.
“My weirdness alarm just went off,” Anna sighed as they trailed after him.
The bar was clearly for serious drinkers, with just enough ambient light coming in from the eating area and stage to let people see what they were swilling down. The scents were good, though— high end beers, high end Scotch, good food that didn't smell canned or rancid. Maybe this Carly had some taste after all, despite the unfortunate decor. He let Darrin take the seat nearest the lady in question, then plopped onto the stool on his other side, holding the one next to him for Anna until she clambered onto it. Carly peered over at him with light brown eyes lined with kohl, and he waved hello with a friendly smile.
Darrin wasn't speaking for some reason. Anna gave an awkward hello and was acknowledged with a nod, but the guy who had practically dragged them inside to see her suddenly didn't seem to have a word to say for himself. Jake looked down at him, then idly poked the back of his calf with the toe of his boot.
Darrin jumped. “Oh— uh, hi! Sorry.” He coughed into his fist, his usual gesture of nervous awkwardness. “I'm Darrin. We talked on video.” He offered a hand.
She shook it with a dubious little smile on her face as he continued to completely lose his cool. Jake stared as he managed a little slightly flaily point in their direction.
“Uh, that's Jake, this is Anna. Guys, this is Carly.”
Anna stifled a giggle and Jake rolled his eyes. Oh brother. It looked like Darrin was getting a little carried away.
But... then again. He had just met someone with equivalent skills and interests by chance, out of the blue. And now he was acting like....
Jake's eyebrows headed toward his hairline as he forgot to blink. He watched Darrin awkwardly talk with the hacker they had come to share information with as if he was an eleventh grader trying to chat up his crush, and started to really, really wonder. Coincidence? Or did this crazy adventure just pay off in a way Darrin never expected?
“Hey. So uh, before we get all clandestine-meeting-in-a-brewpub, what's good to eat here?”
Jake kept his tone easy and the topic neutral, hoping to help Darrin pull himself out of being so flustered. Carly shrugged, looking up mildly from Darrin's face with a curious smile still lingering on her lips.
“Pretty much everything. I like the shredded beef tacos pretty good, and they have damn good chili.”
“Let's get the chili,” Jake suggested. Time to ease the mood a little.
“Bad idea,” Anna protested quietly. “I have to share a bed with you afterward.”
Carly snorted and Jake just laughed.
“So? You have a big bowlful too and we can just make it our roommates' problem.”
Darrin shot Jake a pained look, but Carly was tittering.
“You too, dude, seriously. Let's have Mark and Esme wondering what the hell happened.”
Jake gave him a shit-eating grin and Darrin rolled his eyes.
“Ignore him, he's been shut up in a hotel room all day.” He turned back to Carly. “Maybe we should have left him there.”
Carly smiled a little and shook her head.
“It's cool. So uh, what can I do for you guys? And more importantly, what can you do for me?”
Anna spoke up.
“You know how Darrin said that this same group of people sent fanatics after us to kill one of us? Well, that was me.”
She smiled tightly as the woman looked at her in surprise.
“Okay, wait. They sent these guys after a pregnant woman? When they're...” she shook her head, holding up a slim hand. “Okay, I'm confused. You're basically saying that we're both looking into a group of people who sent a bunch of genocidal maniacs after their former associates?”
Genocidal maniacs. Jake searched Carly's expression mutely, feeling a jolt of surprise. He had heard the hatred in her voice when she spoke of Hunters. It didn't matter that she was human herself. He hesitated, then spoke up quietly.
“Look. If we're talking about the same group of people for the same reasons, then I need to ask you something. You said they killed one of your friends.”
“No, they killed my best friend of ten years, when we were both kids.”
She kept her voice low and calm, and the drunks down the bar from them didn't even look up, but Jake could feel the sudden tension in the air as she spoke of it.
He noticed Darrin shift uncomfortably. But his friend, who had been very much in charge until the moment he had laid eyes on her, wasn't saying anything, so Jake plowed ahead.
“Because of her... race?”
She looked up at him, and there was pain in her eyes, and at the sight of it Darrin sucked air as if he had been stabbed.
“You don't have to talk about details if you don't want to,” he burst out hastily.
She turned a sad smile on Darrin.
“It's all right. I can understand why you would ask. With people like those murderers running around you have to be paranoid. That's... just how it is, I guess.”
“But what's your interest in—” Darrin almost said ‘us’. Jake could sense it. He managed to hold back at the last second. “The whole situation?”
“I watch Hunters because they endanger people. Not just your people. All kinds of people. If they'll kill a twelve-year-old kid on suspicion that she's not— like them, well then, we're all in danger from them.”
“That's commendable,” Darrin said softly. “But you wouldn't be watching these three in Denver if that was all you were doing.”
Carly's Scotch and water came, and everyone ordered drinks while she brooded over her glass. Once the bartender went off to work, she spoke slowly, her tone thoughtful and a little sad.
“When you're tiny and you meet your best friend when she's even tinier, and mewing for help down in a storm drain because she just changed the first time and got lost, your life changes. You start to realize that what grownups say— that there's no wonder in the world, and magic isn't real— isn't actually true. They just need it to be true because they're scared.” She took a drink. “Well, I'm not scared. Not of you or anyone like you. I just miss my friend, and I miss that feeling. So, I... don't hunt. I investigate. And when I run across Hunters when looking for you guys, I try and drop a note to whoever among you I find.”
Jake watched Darrin watch her, and saw the way some of the tension drained from the set of his shoulders. He himself had little doubt of the woman's sincerity, even if it might be a little misguided. But Darrin seemed very invested in making sure she wasn't some kind of enemy in disguise. Maybe because he couldn't take his eyes off her, not even really when he was speaking to Jake or Anna. In a situation like that, Jake would want to trust her too.
Is this what I think it is? He wondered again. If so, he prayed she really was trustworthy. If she turned out to actually be a Hunter trying to draw them out, and Darrin had recognized her as his destined mate... he would not only die, he would die with his heart smashed to bits.
That's not happening. If it came down to it, Jake would tear off her head and live with Darrin hating him to save his life. But he didn't feel like that would be the case. He was braced for the shock of some kind of betrayal or other wrinkle of some kind, but, so far, he had seen no evidence of it.
“Okay,” he ventured, “But that doesn't explain why you were dug deep into those guys' email accounts and locking everyone else out.”
“I'd just found a hot lead I didn't want anyone messing with or knowing about,” she admitted to Darrin.
Jake and Anna looked at each other and she craned around to look at Carly directly. “A hot lead. About these three? How much would you want for it?”
She didn't particularly mind volunteering Jake and Da
rrin's money for this, considering the two of them lost more cash between their couch cushions than she saw in an average year.
“I don't want cash as much as information,” Carly replied, and downed the rest of her drink. “I've lived on the very edge of something my whole life, and I don't know why it has to be this way. I'm not one of you, can't be. But I want to know about the world that Maggie came from. I want to know that there's...” she looked down. “Something left in the world of those these bastards keep trying to extinguish.”
Something clicked in Jake's head.
“They did it in front of you, didn't they?”
She turned a look on him that was full of pain and rage, and so guileless he knew the emotions had started in the mind of a very young girl, and simply held on since, whenever she was reminded.
Like Darrin, she was living with a survivor's trauma, and probably survivor's guilt.
“Yeah,” she said finally, and he heard Darrin take a shuddering breath.
“Only reason I got away is that the guy was using a sniper rifle instead of being in grabbing range. I guess he hesitated, because I'm still here. I ran, I hid, I stayed away from windows for days. I don't know if her family even dared to retrieve the body. They ran, left town. I never saw them again, and there was no funeral.”
“We can't... do funerals for the ones Hunters kill. At least not ones we can let any outsiders into, or publicize. Otherwise they show up, and then they track everyone who went to it. Some of them will just pick off all the attendees without even bothering to see if they're one of us, or one of you.” Darrin's voice was soft. “That's how it was for my family. Don't feel bad because you weren't invited to her funeral. You weren't shut out. But right now, even this conversation, this is a risk a lot of us wouldn't even think of taking.”
“So why are you taking it?” she turned to Darrin fully and looked him in the eyes.
Jake felt an awkward silence stretch between them, and opened his mouth to fill it— only to find a small, soft hand on his forearm. He looked down into Anna's eyes and saw her smile, and the little shake to her head.
Then his double bock and Anna's cream soda arrived and he took a long swallow, watching as Darrin's two fingers neat of Glenlivet got left ignored on the table.
Darrin struggled for the right words, looking down and fidgeting slightly with one of his cuff links. Finally, he said, “Because if none of us ever did, things like this would happen more often. You don't even know us, and you're trying to look after us all anyway. That's what you say.”
“I guess I can't expect you to just take me at my word.”
She peered out of the bar area at the chalkboard list of the day's specials, drawing a few deep breaths. It seemed like the conversation was getting a little intense for her.
“No, but I'd like to give this a chance. If we have information to trade, we could really help each other out.”
She sat quiet for a little while, then said slowly.
“You should know that those e-mails discussed a lot of really private things really openly— including with some guys who are probably Hunters.”
“Shit.” Jake sat back, rubbing his face. But Darrin stayed quiet, only the set of his shoulders tensing again. “Okay look, just my two cents, but I think we should go over those emails in private, and soon.”
Darrin nodded, and then lifted his head to look at Carly again. “What kind of information do you want in return?”
“I want everything you have on Hunters,” she replied softly. “I can't ask you to give details up about yourselves, not until you know I'm good for keeping secrets of that kind. But right now, anything that will help me track those bastards and keep them from killing any more kids is good for me.”
She went quiet as the bartender walked past, dropping off her refill.
“I think we can do that.” The warmth and a little flirtation had crept back into Darrin's tone, and Jake relaxed a little.
At least she isn't grilling us on Bear secrets or anything. If she wants to take down some more of those goddamned Hunters, or help us fight back against them, I'm all for it.
“I'll make you a deal. I'll forward you half of what I have gathered so far. In return, you send me what you have on the hunters you have dealt with, and whatever else you know about it. If it's good enough for me I'll send you the rest. You don't have enough, we talk other kinds of compensation.” Carly watched Darrin's face as she spoke; Jake, who couldn't see his expression through the back of his friend's head, wondered what she was reading in it.
Darrin slowly reached for his glass and picked it up, swirling the liquid inside briefly before taking a small swallow. “Deal. And once our business here is over, maybe we can talk about doing some further work together.”
Carly looked a little surprised, but smiled. “I'd... like that.”
They ate a surprisingly good pub-food dinner there, while talking through the usual ‘getting-to-know-you’ questions. Carly, as it turned out, was a hacker for convenience's sake more than anything. It was the best way she had found to both gather information, and support herself while she did so. A century ago, she would have pored through back-alley occult bookstores and kept a library that dominated her home. Now, it was computers. For her, all they were was a means to an end. Even her hacker handle, MaggieCat, had less to do with any attempt at cyberpunk coolness and more to do with the friend she had lost, and the memories of her she struggled to keep alive.
Jake noticed how reluctant Darrin was to part company with her, but about an hour into dinner Mark called. He and Esme had a location for them, and even details. It was good news, but when Darrin put his phone down, disappointment was written so clear across his features that for a moment Jake thought it wasn't. But then he realized, watching his friend trail behind to talk to Carly a moment, and turned back to wait.
“Maybe we should give them their privacy,” Anna suggested gently, holding his arm.
He couldn't help but smile a little.
“I wonder.”
“If she's it, for him?”
“Like you were for me. I really wonder. For each of us, for my brother too, it seems you all showed up when we were at risk. Like reminders of why we need to stay alive, and what we're fighting for.” He knew it must sound like mystical gobbledygook to her. He himself had never really believed the whole destined-mate thing, not until it had happened to him. His father had scoffed at it— but his father had also been going slowly mad from the loss of his own mate to a murderer. Realizing that had put the idea in his mind that it might all be real... and his time with Anna had made him a believer.
“That's a nice thought. And I hope it's true. Even with us around, Darrin seems so alone.”
She walked back to the rental car with him, and he kept an arm around her, steadying her on the slippery asphalt.
Chapter 7 -
The Ones Others Fear
“Did everyone have chili while you guys were out or something? Damn.” An hour later Mark came out of the bathroom shaking his head. Anna choked on laughter and Jake did his best to look innocent. But Darrin was the most distracted of them, and barely looked up from his computer.
“Long story. Hope you guys had a better day than we did. Things didn't start panning out until two hours ago.”
“Yeah, well, it was the same with us, basically. Esme trailed the guy out of town and we ended up on the grounds of a mansion deeded to one of our guys. We checked the place out on the Net and physically for a few hours, and it looks like we have a winner.”
“Did you see any of the others there?”
“Oh yeah, all three of them.” Esme flashed a grin around a lollipop stick. “That and at least a dozen guards. I don't know what prompted the three of them to hole up like that all of a sudden, but they are seriously battened down over there. My guess is that the one of them likes to get drunk without the others, or maybe he's looking to get laid and just failing a lot. Either way, this is where he goes back to, night after n
ight. There are cars registered to the other two entering and exiting regularly as well. They always take bodyguards with them, and I suspect they're all carrying too.”
“So what's scaring them?” Jake shifted on the couch next to Anna and settled a hand on her knee, petting it familiarly.
“I don't know. Carly was too subtle for them to notice her intrusions, and from what she said their response to having a falling out with the other three renegades was to send Hunters after them. So I doubt they worry that the other three are coming for them.”
“And shouldn't it be too soon for them to worry about any Hunters coming back at them?”
“It is too soon. Way too soon.” Darrin rubbed his chin and looked around at them. “But then, what?”
Mark flopped into his seat next to Esme.
“You ask me what they're scared of? It's us. They tried to send a large group of Hunters after you guys, and as soon as we pulled it together, we kicked every ass in the place. No survivors, no witnesses, and the only person the Hunters managed to kill was one innocent human in town.”
“But that still leaves us to ask how the hell they knew we were coming for them.”
“Kinda stands to reason,” Mark replied, but a slightly dubious, curious note had crept into his voice. “What else would we do once we figured out it was them?”
“But how did they know we had that figured out?” Jake was catching on to why this had Darrin so concerned.
Darrin's lips thinned, and he hit a few more keys.
“It's obvious. Someone back at the Lodge is feeding them information. Either a Bear that hasn't left yet, a member of staff, or someone similar, is acting the part of a mole.”
“Great. That's all we need.” Anna sighed and got up to look out the window. It was snowing again, thinly, white powder just starting to cling to the road at the far end of the parking lot. Her stomach gurgled slightly; she had settled for chicken fingers with no sauce and it apparently had still turned out too greasy for her. She looked over at Darrin. “Do you have ways of finding out who it is?”
