Thief: X

by E. I. Jennings,

  “We were young.” Short and blunt. I probably shouldn’t bring that up again or he might just shoot me. “That’s not the point though. Clockwork has his dirty fingers in so much illegal activity he seems to have blended into the background. A week ago I found out he was leaving the US and bringing cargo with him…”

  “You think the cargo was the girls?”

  “I know it was. I have an acquaintance on this side of the pond who emailed me classified documents stating that carbon dioxide was detected from the crates but the shipment was waved through with no questions asked.”

  “Is this friend reliable?” Adram piped up and for once, it was a good question,

  “Very. He put me in touch with your Detective friend…” I winced. This was why I didn’t work with people because one way or another my name always came up, “…he put me in touch with Kibble and I flew out to meet you. I was hoping you’d help me but obviously I was mistaken.”

  “Well, you weren’t exactly forth coming were you?”

  “I think you’ve both already established this so can we crack on?” Adram said fiddling with his tail feathers,

  “Do you think he could be strange? Like supernatural strange?” I had to ask the question because neither Marshall nor the Major had given me anything to say Clockwork was anything but human.

  “I have no idea. Until I saw that…” he pointed to Adram, “…I didn’t think any of this weird stuff existed.”

  “I assure you I’m not stuff!” Adram decided to get right into Marshall’s face so I plucked one of his feathers. “You bitch!”

  “Adram if you can’t behave, go harass someone else.”

  “Fine!” And poof. Marshall looked on in horror as I watched his brain process a demon’s disappearance,

  “I can’t process anymore of this.” Marshall stood at the same time I did, inches away from me,

  “Ok, let’s sleep and we’ll reconvene in eight hours? Things are going to change for you now, whether you want to accept it or not Marshall and there’s no going back. I just hope you’re ready for me?” I grabbed my glass and the bottle of vodka from the kitchen and headed up the stairs,

  “Are you ready for me?” He sighed, and wasn’t that the million dollar question?

  Chapter Six

  Mine. It was a whisper that jolted me awake. I was getting so tired of my dreams being haunted by a man I’d never met. Damn Cain to hell! My eyes were crusted but my nose picked up the smell of bacon and pancakes. That had me up and out of bed in no time. I just hoped it wasn’t my mother cooking, but then again she had servants for that sort of thing. I staggered down the stairs in my pj’s and stopped dead at the open kitchen door. I think my ovaries exploded at the sight before me. Marshall was standing in a pair of stonewash jeans, no shirt and was cooking. My brain was already naming our first child together when he turned around,

  “I hope you don’t mind? I’ve not eaten properly since I landed and I thought I would cook us breakfast.” Make that our second and third child. My brain was in complete agreement with my ovaries and it was only when the morning sun reflected off his wedding ring that the sexual fog lifted,

  “Of course I don’t. I suppose while you’re here you can do whatever you need to, as long as you don’t make a mess.” And you pay me in sexual favours. Oh God, my brain had switched into slut mode.

  “I didn’t know what you liked so I grabbed bacon from the store and whipped up some pancakes.” The truth was, my breakfast usually consisted of a Bloody Mary and I really, really needed one.

  He’d even set out the table with plates and cutlery. I shuffled my feet to the fridge and started my morning ritual of mixing the tomato delight that was Mary with Marshall watching me like a hawk as I grabbed a new bottle of vodka from the cupboard.

  “I wondered why your fridge consisted of tomato juice and celery.” He flipped the pancakes onto the plate followed by the bacon as I slumped onto the chair staring my Bloody Mary with the celery stick.

  “Hey it’s two of my five a day!” His laugh made my ovaries swoon and with those unconscious I could think clearly again, “You know if you need to wash your clothes I don’t mind. I don’t think I have any washing powder but you’re welcome to use my washing machine.” His eyebrow rose, “Sorry, detergent…”

  “It’s fine. I was just a little hot when I woke up and I didn’t expect you to be awake this early. Let me just go grab a tee.” He walked into the living room and returned wearing a black t-shirt. He’s married, he’s married, he’s married!

  “I’ve been up early going through my notes again.” He piled bacon onto his fork and looked at me as he chewed. My hormones needed a sedative around this guy.

  “We need to set up an incident room because I really have no idea where to start. Maybe if we find what all these girls have in common and why Clockwork has come to the UK we can gain some ground.” Oh dear heavens above these pancakes were unbelievably good. I think I may have moaned a little. In fact, by the look on Marshall’s face, I think I had.

  “The link is the prom…”

  “I don’t think it is. I mean there’s gotta be thousands of girls attending proms all over the US. What we need to do is establish why he chose these specific ones. There has to be something more than a prom.”

  “I’m not stupid!” Marshall pushed his plate away and glared at me,

  “Never said you were, but I’m good at this sort of thing. You know I am or you would never have tried to hire me. I’m not here to piss you off but I need to know everything, even the smallest of details. You’re too attached to this Marshall; too focused on finding your daughter so maybe you may have missed something.” His head looked like it was about to explode. I finished off my breakfast and knocked my Bloody Mary back. I could see Marshall being a stubborn, pig headed male over this. “Grab your notes and anything else you’ve got.”

  “Where we going? We don’t even have a lead yet!”

  “I’m taking you somewhere I don’t usually let people into, so go get your notes.” Marshall sighed and pounded up the stairs.

  When he finally appeared, I was still sitting at the kitchen table and he had his arms full. Apparently, his bags hadn’t been full of clothes.

  “Where do ya want me to put them?”

  “Follow me.”

  “You’re still in your pyjamas.”

  “Don’t worry we’re not going far” We were actually going about six feet behind him and down.

  I turned him around, pulled him towards the cupboard under my staircase and stopped.

  “Are you kidding? There’s no way we’ll fit in there.” I rolled my eyes. Even after he’d started to believe enough to see Adram he was still blinded by what he took at face value,

  I ran my finger around the doorknob and hit it with Latin, “Aperire dolor.”

  “Did you just say open sesame in Latin.” He looked surprised that I even knew Latin.

  “Very good young Padwan, now step back.” I pulled the door open and pushed him inside before he could even comment.

  “It’s bigger on the inside…”

  “Yeah it’s my very own Tardis.”

  “What?”

  “Not a Doctor Who fan?” He just looked puzzled and probably thought I was crazy. Little did he know, I probably was.

  He looked around stunned and all I could do was smile. I had a few tricks up my sleeve. After all, I was half demon. Everything I needed was here. It served as my armoury and panic room all in one. One side of the wall held my weapons; guns, daggers, swords, rocket launchers. I had the lot. I also used it as a base in case my house got raided by the police. It had never happened, but never say never. There were still blueprints attached to the boards from my attempt at stealing Dorian’s picture and a few files of reported paranormal activity thrown in piles on the table. Marshall was still looking around, obviously stunned at what he was seeing.

  “I didn’t think anything like this was possible. Where are we?”

  “
You really wanna know?”

  “I suppose you better hit me with it.” He smiled.

  “You know when I told you about Adram being a demon?”

  “Well, I couldn’t exactly miss him.” He placed his armful of files onto the table,

  “And you may have heard me say I was half demon…”

  “Yeah, but you don’t exactly look like one.” He actually looked mortified. I wanted to lecture him about not judging a book by its cover but we need to crack on,

  “Being half demon allows me some, how can I put this, privileges. This is my own personal plot of hell.”

  “Right, ok. You’re trying to tell me that I’m standing in hell?”

  “Only a little piece of it, and it’s only the first layer but it keeps all my sensitive things safe.”

  “Like rocket launchers? I’m not sure what disturbs me more; the fact I’m in hell or that I can tell you’re missing a rocket launcher.”

  “Ah, it’s not missing. I lost it in a poker game with a dragon. It was my favourite one too but it taught me not to play with dragons.” Marshall was shaking his head but I smiled. “Right. Let’s get organised before you freak out.”

  “I do not freak!” I held back a chuckle and started digging into his files.

  An hour later, we had all twenty girls pinned onto the boards around the room. Every single one had been snatched from a prom, but there was no direct connection we could see.

  “I suppose they all look similar. Brown hair, green eyes, same height.” I was sat on the end of the table staring at each picture. I was missing something and it was driving me crazy.

  “That’s not much to go on.” Marshall sighed. “I’ve gone over all this so many times I have no idea what to do next.”

  I hopped off the table and pulled a white board in front of us,

  “Ok, so let’s look at Clockwork.” I wrote Clockwork in big letters at the top of the board, “What do we know?”

  “He’s a psychopath.”

  “Yeah I know that, but why is he even called Clockwork? I heard that it was because he needed everything to run on time. If one of his minions was so much as a minute late, they were never seen again. Shit like that gets around quickly in the underworld.” I wrote OCD on the board.

  “That makes sense. Not many people would even comment on him because they knew they would be dead. He wouldn’t stop at just killing them. He took out whole families and that’s why he’s top of the food chain now. From the people who would talk, I found that he was in control of drug cartels, prostitution rings, illegal arms deals, slavery and that was probably just the tip of the iceberg.”

  “Could he be trafficking the girls? It could explain why he’s transported them here. Maybe he kidnapped to fill an order? Most of the sickos who want girls like a particular type, and you have to admit they all have similar looks.” I could almost feel Marshall’s anger,

  “I don’t know but if he’s hurt Chloe…”

  “If we’re going to do this then you have to keep your head. You’ve been doing this for months and still haven’t got anything concreate on him. He’s a ghost that hides behind everyone else. Did any of you sources ever meet him, or were they just scared of the thought of him?”

  “He’s real!”

  “He could just be a fake identity that’s being used to scare low lives into behaving.” I knew I had a point.

  “Maybe you should go to the Library?” Marshall nearly jumped out of his skin. Unfortunately, I was used to Adram popping up from out of nowhere. Luckily for him he was holding a pizza box,

  “Shit, how long have we been down here?” I was already creeping towards the pizza. Adram looked at his non-existent watch and grinned,

  “About six hours.” All that time and we still hadn’t got any further,

  “I’m not going to the Library.” I crammed a slice of hot pizza in my mouth and sighed,

  “What good is a Library? We need to hunt Clockwork down by any means necessary. I say we hit the streets.” Marshall was glaring at Adram again. This was not going to be an easy friendship between them,

  “If you haven’t noticed we’re in the countryside. I know every single person in this village and they don’t know anything. If they did, I’d already know. That means we’d have to try one of the bigger cities like London…”

  “So, what we waiting for?”

  “And where do we start? We have nothing!” I was beginning to lose it. Six hours and nothing.

  “Like I said, you need to go to the Library.” Adram looked smug because he knew he was right,

  “But I don’t wanna!” I whined,

  “It’s about time you dropped that grudge because you need all the help you can get.” I pulled a face at Adram but we really needed a starting point and the longer Clockwork had the girls the longer they were being abused.

  “I’ll stay here.” Marshall had turned his back on us and was staring at all the photos again,

  “Sorry cowboy, if I’m going you’re coming with me.” I put my hand on my hip and spun him around,

  “It’s a Library." He scowled, practically spitting in my face, which made me instinctively latch onto a sin inside him. Wow, didn’t he have a big nasty one,

  “It’s a little more than that and as much as I hate admitting it, Adram’s right. It’s not per se the place we need but what and who is inside.” I quickly dipped out of the sin because it was up to him if he wanted to share. I wouldn’t take a sin that big without consent so I’d just have to satisfy my hunger on the people I passed on the way,

  “It’s some supernatural freaky shit, isn’t it?”

  “You’ll soon find everything with me is. Look, I could really do with the back up because Adram is absolutely useless in these sort of situations.”

  “Thanks!”

  “You’re welcome. I’m going in armed Adram, and I don’t care what you say or how much it offends.”

  “I suppose I could help.” Marshall knew we needed something, at this stage anything would help,

  “Come on then, chop, chop!”

  “Er, Xan…” Adram smiled and then bit his top lip to stop laughing,

  “What?” I pulled my Glock from the shelf and made sure I had a couple of spare clips of iron bullets. I wasn’t taking any chances after the last time,

  “You may want to think about changing.” I looked down and realised I was still in my pyjamas, fluffy slippers and all. I felt the blush bubble from my toes up.

  “Ok, I’ll change if I must.” I winked at Adram to try and cover my embarrassment, “But that bitch owes me a favour and if she smack talks me again it’ll be the last thing she does!”

  Chapter Seven

  Marshall was laughing at Betty my VW Beetle. She was my chosen method of transport when I didn’t have to be discreet. I loved her to bits. She was an original 1960, yellow convertible and in pristine condition. I fell for her the moment I saw her and most people didn’t even realise it was me when I drove along in her. I smiled at my bumper sticker saying ‘My other car is a Hennessey Venom GT’. Marshall was still in hysterics,

  “What?” I shrugged my shoulders, “Adram are you getting in or are you gonna meet us there?” Adram pouted weighing up his options,

  “I’ll meet you there, love.” Being his ever so dramatic self he poofed out.

  “I never expected you to drive something like this.” Marshall was still smiling and it looked really good on him. Brooding was sexy as hell but his smile nearly made my underwear melt.

  “No one ever does. Get in because you really won’t be laughing when I introduce you to the bitch who owns the Library.” We both opened the doors and got in, the suspension creaked at the weight. I really needed to get poor Betty to the shop after I drove her through a shit-filled field last week. I must still have some crap in her axel.

  I started her up, and in her own way, she purred. If she was a person, she probably sounded like she smoked a hundred cigarettes a day but she always started. Marshal
l started laughing again,

  “Shut up, you’re hurting Betty’s feelings!” I rubbed her dash,

  “Yes Ma’am.” He said trying to control himself. He really wouldn’t be laughing at the Librarian and neither would I if she decided to eat us.

  The journey wasn’t far but the twenty minutes being cooped up was making me itch. Small places were not my friend, but if I let Betty’s top down the Great British weather would probably freeze my nipples off. I hated driving to the city. London was too big and way too noisy for my liking but luckily I was only scraping at its outskirts. There were so many supernatural things in London that, in parts, they outnumbered the norms. I didn’t want to be a supernatural buffet quite yet, although that might happen if the Librarian held a grudge. Hence why I was pulling out a shotgun from under my seat.

  “Is that really necessary?” Marshall slammed his door and looked at me loading it, “It’s the middle of the day and you’re loading a shot gun in broad daylight!”

  “Adram’s useful for something. No one can see it because he’s hexed them.”

  “I thought my ears were burning.” Adram whispered in my ear from behind.

  “I will cut you!” I yelled in his face. You’d think I’d learn by now and not jump out of my skin,

  “Won’t people see him?” Non-believers made me laugh.

  “Same principle. Come on, I really need to get this over with.”

  I looked at the building in front of us and from the outside it didn’t look like anything special. It was a single story building that was probably built in the 1960’s. Its pebble dashed walls had seen many years and was cracked in places. If it wasn’t for the hanging baskets and flower displays it would have looked like something out of a horror film. Someone had painted murals of children playing on the windows, which anywhere else would have looked quaint. But that’s how Thralls drew you in. They were rogue vampire Thralls whose master had been staked. They liked to live in graveyards, but groups had a thing for dark buildings. The lack of a master gave them an insatiable hunger for brains and I warned them last time that they couldn’t have mine.