by Jeff Hale
I could see Kat hesitate for a moment. She’d gone to Alex’s defense in Germany, and she had almost gone after the woman in the woods. But she hadn’t really been forced to commit that final act, of taking another person’s life to save one she valued above it. She bit at her lip and then finally said, “No! Of course not.”
“Uh-huh. You go ahead and lie to yourself. If you could hurt, and kill me, and you knew that I would kill Kris given any chance I got, tell me you wouldn’t kill me to end the threat to her,” Aerick challenged. Kat sat back down and crossed her arms, refusing to answer him. “See, humans need to be protected in a more extreme fashion. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass if Henry wanted to attack me once a day, every day. I can protect myself from him. I wouldn’t have to kill him because I would know that he couldn’t kill me. But to threaten a human life? Well they can’t protect themselves from our kind. From Aetherics.”
Much as I agreed with him that humans were weaker and probably needed protecting, that wasn’t my job. Most shifters had humans that they cared about, and they Marked them as a show of protection so that other shifters wouldn’t mess with them. But we couldn’t worry about every single human out there; the rest were on their own. Shifters were rare enough as it was. “Well, a human life isn’t worth as much as a shifter’s,” I pointed out pragmatically. “There are thousands of humans for every shifter. Every shifter life is precious.” I had a sudden cold flash of Sasha cradling a dead child, my child, in her arms. “You do know that our birthrate is extremely low, don’t you?”
“Really? You sit there and tell me that shifters are people, but yet you turn around and claim that a shifter’s life is worth more than a human’s? Keep it up, you smug bastard. I’ll turn this whole trial around on you,” Aerick grated out, and I could tell he was having hard time keeping himself from attacking me.” I’ll have the fae persecuting your entire worthless species until you’re all extinct. All I have to prove to them is that you are a threat to humans in general, and I guarantee they will wipe you out. By the way, proving to the fae what they already think about your kind won’t be hard.”
He was right, the fae did tend to look down on shifters, but they didn’t involve themselves unless it was absolute necessary. “They wouldn’t do that. They wouldn’t blow their precious neutrality,” I said.
“Yeah, they would, if they thought you were truly a threat to the humans as a species. Hell, just ask the guard there!” Aerick flicked his chin towards the fae standing quietly against the wall. “He’s already broken his neutrality, and I’ll tell you another thing! I will not sit here and be framed for this horseshit of a trial! Sixteen?! I killed one not counting the ones I killed when they attacked me at the Circus Circus!
“You are all working for Baba Yaga and I am being taken out of the equation because she knows I’m a threat! You even have an imposter royal fae to corroborate your accusations! What I can’t quite figure is how you got Kat in on this, but I know that that bitch Hag has been after her for a little while now! Now I know why!
“You are all pathetic pawns, and what’s more, if you think I’m going to fucking sit here and not eradicate you all, and Henry’s entire pack at this point, you’re wrong! Well, let’s just see how powerful your little fae bitch is!” Aerick stood, conjuring his fire and ice blades. Kat and Alex and I all stood at about the same time, pushing our chairs back to put distance between us and Aerick, but Aerick wasn’t intent on us. He was giving the fae guard a murderous look. I wasn’t going to relax though, not until Aerick was sitting and with those blades gone, so I watched him cautiously, Alex doing the same. Aerick just pointed at the guard and made a taunting motion with his hand, causing Kat to shake her head and give Aerick a look like she thought he had possibly lost his mind.
“Wait. Aerick. What makes you think that this trial has anything to do with Baba Yaga trying to get you out of the way?” Lucien interjected, trying to get Aerick’s attention.
“I saw him!” Aerick gestured at the guard. “Check his Aetheric Visage, Luce. He’s one of Baba Yaga’s servants! Obviously, Darien and his pack are in on this whole thing with Henry!” he accused, swinging one of the blades to point at us.
Lucien’s shape flared for a moment, then the outline of a huge fiery bird formed around him. He looked closely at the fae guard, and then a gout of white-hot flame burst from one of Lucien’s hands and struck the guard. The guard didn’t even have a chance to react. His whole body ignited in an instant, disappearing in a flash of ashless flame that left a shadowy outline along the wall behind where he’d been.
“You were right, Aerick. I saw his true self, and he was a fae of the Twilight Court. And I saw the Iron Hag’s connection to him, but Darien’s pack has no such ties. You can relax, they are really only here to see to this trial. And the fact remains that you did kill several shifters, so this trial must happen,” Lucien informed Aerick. He indicated that Aerick should retake his seat.
Aerick looked our way, as though asking us to confirm Lucien’s words. It was Kat who nodded at him, hands out in a calming gesture, and Aerick finally extinguished his blades and dropped into his chair. He glanced at us again and I realized that Alex and I were still at the ready to attack if necessary. We both relaxed and sat back down along with Kat. She took a breath and did her best to pretend nothing had happened.
“Let’s get to the matter at hand. Are you pleading innocent or guilty?” she asked Aerick calmly.
“He pleads neither at this point.” Lucien shook his head. “We must get to the bottom of this infiltration of the trial proceedings. If we do not, the entire thing could be thrown out by the local fae court.”
I stared at him a moment. I had no intention of going and riling up the fae by pointing fingers at them in regards to their loyalties. “And how do you propose we do that, Lucien?” I asked him. “There’s no way my pack can stand up to the fae.”
“Well, I have a contact among the fae, I could get her and see what she knows, or if she has a way to contact the fae court here,” Aerick offered up.
“Oh great. Raven,” Kat said, disgruntled.
“Yes. Raven. What’s wrong with Raven?” Aerick wanted to know.
“How she treats… people in general. Like we’re, I don’t know, objects for her amusement and nothing more,” she answered, frowning.
“Well that’s how the fae can be, they have alien minds, we can’t even begin to fathom why they do what they do,” Aerick said. “We’re lucky they don’t just turn us all into pets, but for some reason, they like humans and are trying to protect them. For the most part.”
But I didn’t trust Aerick. For all I knew he might try to leave Las Vegas. “No. Absolutely not,” I argued. “Aerick needs to remain incarcerated. He’s dangerous, and he’s a flight risk.”
Lucien flashed me a look of irritation, then gestured for the three of us to follow him. He led us out of the room and closed the door behind us.
“Look, Darien. I know you have no reason to believe Aerick about anything and that the two of you have this… grudge… between you that you both really need to just get over. But he’s right. If Baba Yaga has her claws in this pack, and she’s placed fae loyal to her within the Embassy, then there is no way he’s going to get a fair trial. She wants Aerick dead, and having you do it, or Henry do it, just saves her a headache.”
I sighed. I didn’t want to agree, especially since I believed Aerick was guilty, but if I was going to be an adjudicator I needed to put my personal bias aside. “Who is this Raven person?”
“She’s a nosey bitch,” Kat answered, making a face of distaste.
“Katelyn, dear.” Lucien gave Kat a paternally patient look.
She put up her hands as though to surrender. “I know, I know. ‘Valuable ally’. I just feel like she has something against me.”
“Maybe she does. As to who she is?” Lucien turned back to me. “She’s a princess in her own right, and she has contacts that would probably dearly love to know that Baba
Yaga has been dabbling locally. Contacts that could ensure Aerick gets an untampered trial. It would be in everyone’s best interests to allow Aerick do to this.”
“And you promise me that Aerick won’t run?” I asked tightly.
Lucien’s expression was stern. “I will make sure he doesn’t run.”
“I guess. Hopefully, he won’t make me regret this,” I conceded.
We went back into the other room, where Aerick was waiting impatiently.
“You can go,” I told Aerick. “But if you try to leave the city, Lucien will know and he will inform us, and we will track you down with his help.”
Aerick stood and nodded soberly. “Thanks, Luce. I’ll get Raven and come right back,” he said as he left the room.
____________________________________
After Aerick left, I sat back down at the big table. I had copied the statements from Henry and the others and given them to Lucien. Now I just stared at them, trying to make sense of it all. Part of me really didn’t believe Henry, but another part believed Aerick fully capable of the accusation made against him. I heard the door to the room open and close again and I looked up. Alex was talking to Lucien about something to do with Australia, but Kat was gone. I sighed and flipped the file folder shut.
“Is it okay if I raid your kitchen, Lucien?” I asked.
“Of course. There should be staff in there. Just tell them you are here as my guest and they will get you anything you want,” he said.
“Thanks. Alex, you hungry?”
“Sure. Bring me back whatever.” He waved his hand in a non-committal gesture then went back to his conversation with Lucien.
On my way to the kitchens, I saw Kat come out of the hallway that led to the bathrooms. She looked like she had been crying. I changed tack and walked over to her.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, indicating her tear streaked face.
“What do you think?” she shot back, almost angrily.
“What do you want me to do, Kat? Ignore the whole thing? We can’t. This is what an Adjudicator pack does.”
“You just want him out of the way,” she said petulantly.
“Fuck!” I slammed my hand into the wall next to her. She didn’t flinch; she knew I wouldn’t hurt her and she was right. “Out of your life, yes, but unlike your father, I don’t wish the man dead! That would hurt you more than anything else I could ever do to you!”
“So you won’t find him guilty and have him executed?” There was hope in her eyes.
“Kat, if he’s guilty I will have no choice! Neither will you! We are adjudicators, we don’t just get to say, ‘he’s guilty, but because Kat loves him he gets to go free’. It doesn’t work that way, you know that.”
Her lips were pressed together so tightly they were almost white, but she nodded. Then she suddenly slapped me, hard enough to make my head rock to the side. “That’s for your damned callous attitude. I know you were trying to piss Aerick off, but that stuff you said about humans not being worth as much as shifters, you honestly believe that.”
I rubbed my jaw. Kat was starting to pack quite a hit, must be that kickboxing class she was still taking. I stared at her. “Not all humans, Kat. Some of them are, the ones I care about,” I pointed out to her.
“But the rest? Not your problem?” she demanded.
“Because humans worry so much about other humans they don’t know?” I countered.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Let’s say, someone were to murder Celeste, what would you do?” I asked, hoping I could reason with her, get her to see where I was coming from.
“Darien! Don’t even think that! That’s just…”
“All hypothetical, what would you do?”
“I’d hunt the fucker down and kill him, that’s what,” she stated with conviction.
“And I’d help you do it. So, you see on the news that some whack job in New York killed three college girls that you don’t know, what do you do?”
“I…” She sighed.
“That’s right, you don’t go flying off to New York intent on killing him. Oh, you feel upset, you read about those dead girls and you feel sorry for them, for their families, and you hope that bastard gets what is coming to him, but you let the authorities there deal with it.”
“You’re a bit cold hearted, you know that?” she whispered, mouth trembling.
I caught her eyes with mine. “I’ve seen and done too many bad things in my life to not be sometimes. I told you that I wasn’t an entirely nice person, you told me that neither was Aerick. At some point you’re going to have to forgive us both and live with it, or cut us both from your life and move on. You can’t have it both ways.”
She pulled her eyes away, a soft hiss coming from her.
“But enough of that,” I said. “I’m hungry and I was headed to the kitchens for something to eat. Care to join me?”
She scowled at me for a moment longer, then sighed. “I could eat. But I’m still mad at you.”
We took our lunch back to the V.I.P Lounge. Aerick still wasn’t back, and Lucien was still talking to Alex. I pushed a plate piled with sandwiches towards Alex and caught Lucien’s attention, raising one brow in question.
“No, Darien, he’s not back yet. Yes, he will be,” Lucien said patiently. “Just trust him.”
“He’s given me no reason to,” I said.
“What reason has he given you to distrust him?” Lucien asked.
I didn’t say anything, but I couldn’t help my gaze going to Kat.
“Katelyn? Because you still believe he stole her from you?” Lucien gave me a disbelieving look.
“Yes. No.” I blew out a heavy breath. “No. That was my own doing.”
“Then give him a chance, Darien.”
I didn’t answer, just sighed and sat down. Kat and I ate in silence while Alex and Lucien chatted. Kat finished before I did, and with a frown she began looking through the file folders containing the pictures again. I did too, Alex joining us after a few moments as Lucien looked through his own paperwork.
Aerick strode into the room a few minutes later. There was woman with him who was so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her. Her skin was alabaster pale, her hair so black that you would expect blue sheens to it, but in her case they were deep purple ones. Her eyes were a dark violet and her pouty lips were a red that rubies would envy. Her face was angelic, in a wicked sort of way, promising untold pleasures, and her figure was in perfect proportion in skintight purple leather shorts and a matching bikini top. It was hard not to just stare. Kat, on the other hand, wasn’t bothering to hide the glare she directed at the woman.
“Well, hiya, boys,” the woman I could only assume was the aforementioned Raven greeted, turning to smirk at Kat.
“Hey. We have better things to do than socialize,” Aerick reminded and I saw Kat give him a nod. “Darien, I’ll need to go to the fae realms to talk with the local court. You going to be okay with that?” he asked me.
“Why do you need to go?” I had to admit, he had come back. But I still wasn’t sure about letting him out of my sight again if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. I gave him a shrewd look. “Can’t she just go by herself?”
“Because I hate the fucking cunt that runs the place, that’s why,” Raven argued, crossing her arms petulantly.
A fae with attitude. And I wasn’t about to argue with her. “Ooookay. So I guess you can go,” I said to Aerick. “After all, you’ll be right where the fae can arrest you if you try to run. I’ll contact the Embassy and let them know that you are fine to go to the court.” I got my cell phone out and dialed the number for the Embassy that was still in my phone history, turning away from them in my chair.
“Las Vegas Embassy, how may I help you?” the bored male voice asked me. From behind me I heard the sound of air popping.
“This is Adjudicator Torre. I just wanted to let you know that Aerick Kerensky has been cleared to visit the Fae Court as part of the trial investig
ation,” I told them quickly.
“Thank you. I will pass this along to judiciary. Anything else?”
“That’s it,” I said. I barely got the words out before they hung up on me. When I turned to tell Aerick, he and Raven were already gone.
TWENTY-FOUR
DARIEN
The next couple of days were spent getting everything else in order for the trial. I contacted Henry and was told that he was still getting all the tapes together. Apparently out of the sixteen dead, seven had been killed at the warehouse and the other nine had all been killed in private homes, either separately or in small groups. Henry claimed he had security footage for the warehouse, both from a previous time Aerick had been there and the time the murders took place, as well as all the separate ones from his packs’ personal homes. As an added bonus, he informed me that he had contacted the Council for his own advocate and that they were sending one to Las Vegas for the trial.
While we waited for Henry, and for Lucien to form his defense for Aerick, there wasn’t much for myself, Kat, and Alex to do. We were Adjudicators; we facilitated the trial, heard the evidence, then made our decision. There were no lawbooks, there was no research on our part, there was no hard and fast outcome for every instance. It was left to the wisdom of the Adjudicator pack to decide the verdict and the sentencing in a way that seemed fair under the circumstances. If the parties involved didn’t like the outcome, they could always appeal to the Council.
I didn’t see much of Kat over that time, although Alex had moved his things and himself out to the house. It wasn’t until the evening before the trial, when I was standing in the kitchen trying to decide if two faded Melamine plates were going to be enough for Alex and me, or if I should do the very unmasculine thing of going shopping for more dishes, when I heard a soft knock at the door.
“I got it,” I heard Alex call from the front room.
Not that I didn’t already know who it was; I had felt her in my head as she had pulled into the driveway. I stared at the open cupboard again, at those two lonely plates and the three plastic Big Gulp cups next to them, and decided I would send Alex out shopping for dishes.
