Song of Discord

by D. R. Rosier

  Chapter Six

  The weather was scorching hot that day, as we approached the ranch. The sounds of insects filled my ears, as we rolled down the windows to take in the scents and sounds. The sprawling single story house was far from the road, down a long twisting driveway. The front was mostly open field, with just a few copses of trees, behind the house was woods my eyes couldn’t penetrate that deeply into.

  “Do we have a plan, or are we just kicking the hornet’s nest.”

  Lisa smirked, “Let’s just see if we can talk to Sondra, and just remember to keep your eyes open.”

  She pulled off the road onto the long dirt driveway, and then headed toward the house.

  I replied, “Fair enough.”

  As we pulled up to the house, four large wolves the size of black bears ran from the forest, and they surrounded the car. They were all growling threateningly, and Lisa sighed.

  I pulled my gun, the one with the non-deadly plastic bullets that Tony had enchanted with his stunning spells. Then I pulled out my badge signifying I was a government contractor. I heard Lisa’s door open, and I opened mine and stepped out as well.

  The wolves growled and crouched.

  I snapped, “Cut the shit, I’m not intimidated, or impressed. We need to ask Sandra a few questions, about Ted. Then we’ll leave. Unless Ted’s here?”

  Lisa chuckled.

  The front door of the house opened, and a large man walked out dressed in jeans. He was barefoot, and he didn’t have a shirt on. He was a well-built man, with a strong jaw and an attractive face.

  “What do you want?”

  It was a guy, so it was my job to talk. Lisa got the females, I dealt with the males. It was a rule, for obvious reasons.

  “Sorry to disturb your day. I’m Aria Jones, and this is my partner Hannah Camden of Camden and Jones Security. Ted Carver escaped on his way to the courthouse early this morning. We need to know if you’ve seen him, or if Sandra has heard from him.”

  He grunted, and looked me up and down, “I’m Jason Nichols, alpha of this pack. I have not seen Ted, nor has Sandra seen or heard from Ted.”

  His scent indicated he was telling the truth.

  “Can we talk to her?” I asked.

  He shook his head, “She isn’t here.”

  “How do you know she hasn’t heard from him then?”

  He growled, “Because she would have called me immediately. That stupid bastard endangered the pack with his drug deals.”

  That was interesting. It wasn’t an indication of innocence for the rest of the pack though, he could have endangered the pack simply by getting caught. I didn’t read into the words, they were true, but could be misleading.

  “Where is she?”

  He said shortly, “Out.”

  The two wolves near me growled.

  I suppressed a sigh. He was probably mated, which would lessen my influence. Married men who were committed weren’t nearly as easy to manipulate. That went double for shifter men with a mate bond. That was usually a good thing in my opinion, but there were downsides to everything.

  “Do you have any thoughts on where Ted might be?”

  He snorted, “No. He wouldn’t come back here without my permission.”

  I narrowed my eyes, interesting word choices. The alpha hadn’t said he wasn’t welcome here, just that he wouldn’t come back without permission. It could be that Ted even had permission.

  “And does he have that permission?”

  He said coldly, “We’re done here, get off my property.”

  Lisa and I exchanged glances, and then got back in the car. She turned it around, and the wolves paced us all the way to the road.

  Lisa sighed, “Well that was unhelpful.”

  I pulled out my phone, and I started to read over the file again.

  “Well, we know he isn’t there at least. Could he be after revenge?”

  Lisa frowned, “The undercover cop… Emilio Alvarez?”

  I nodded, “Most of the case depends on his testimony.”

  Lisa nodded, “Maybe,” and used the comms charm, “Tony, see if the cops will tell us where Emilio Alvarez is. He shouldn’t be undercover right now, at least not deeply, since he needs to be at the trial. Get his home address from the system too.”

  That was true, the guy should have been at the trial today.

  Tony replied a few moments later with the address, and I plugged it into the GPS.

  “Thanks, Tony,” I said, and winced, while Lisa gave me an amused look. There’d been way too much sultry in my thank you.

  Tony’s you’re welcome sounded a little strained…

  Detective Emilio Alvarez lived in a simple three-bedroom ranch house with a wife and two kids. It was on maybe a quarter acre, and it was white with light blue shutters and front door. There were two bikes, one with training wheels, and various other toys on the lawn.

  “He’s in there. So is Emilio’s wife and two kids.”

  “You’re sure?”

  I shrugged, “There’s a male wolf shifter in the house, and an adult human female, a girl and a boy. Songs don’t lie. The family is sitting together, probably on a couch, and at a guess, being held until Emilio gets home.”

  Then I added over the comms charm, “Tony, you got a location on Emilio yet?”

  Tony replied, “The cops are giving me the run around.”

  I sighed, figures. I guess we didn’t need him anymore anyway, our mark was in the house. I checked my gun, and ensured I had the right load in it.

  Lisa said, “You take the back door.”

  I frowned, “You breached last.”

  Lisa nodded, “True, but I’m faster than you are, and he has three hostages. I’ll take down the mutt so fast he won’t know what hit him.”

  That was still true, despite my dragon strength, and my very well-fed siren’s speed, she was still faster. Probably always would be. I still had some growing on my dragon side, but my siren side was fully mature. I was faster than most vampires, but Lisa was ancient. The only race faster than Lisa were the elves.

  “Point.”

  I slipped out, and then rounded the house. It almost seemed pointless, but it was procedure and on the off chance he sensed something before Lisa made her move, and he ran, I’d be there to intercept.

  The sounds of the front door being turned into splinters and the gun shots were practically simultaneous to my perceptions. I pictured Ted going down like a human being tasered, from the enchanted plastic bullets.

  A second later, there was a loud boom, and I was surrounded by flames, wood, and concussive force as I went flying into the backyard. I tucked and rolled into the fall as I hit the ground. I could barely believe my eyes, as half the house was gone, and the other half was on fire.

  What the fuck? How did that idiot get explosives after breaking out of jail and before coming to the detective’s house?

  My gray pantsuit and peach blouse were mostly gone, leaving me wearing nothing except the skin tight black armor. My brain was frozen in thoughtless fear for Lisa, as I jumped up and ran into the burning house. I was also filled with horror. Emilio’s family were dead, snuffed out, and Ted himself had been at the center of the explosion, all their songs were silent, gone. So much for bringing him in, but suicide wasn’t something we could control.

  Lisa’s song was faint, she’d been standing by the door, and a lot closer to the explosion than I had been. She was also a vampire, and her greatest weakness was fire. The only reason she was still alive, was because of the protective enchantments of our armor.

  I tasted bile in the back of my throat at the scents, and my worry, as I raced through and ignored the flames of the empty space that used to be a living room. I ran toward the front door, and to the left. I could see a Lisa sized hole in the burning wall, and I jumped through into a bedroom.

  Lisa was plastered against the wall on the other side of the room, her clothes were gone too except for the armor, and her hair and face were badly burned.
She groaned, as I grabbed her and pulled her out of the wall, and then ran for the exit. She was listless, and unresponsive, when I put my arm against her lips.

  I growled, gently laid her on the grass, and pulled a silver knife and slashed my wrist. I’d have healed way too quickly from a steel wound. I pressed my wrist to her lips, and pulled her mouth open carefully by her jaw. My heart raced, and I felt sick at the idea of losing her.

  She was my life.

  I massaged her neck, and she swallowed the blood. That seemed to bring a response, and she latched on with her mouth and sucked.

  “Tony, call the police, and the fire department. Ted blew up Emilio’s house, and family.”

  Tony replied, “On it. That sounds bad, are you two okay?”

  The genuine and obvious concern in his voice calmed me, or maybe I was just going into shock.

  I replied, “I’m fine, and Lisa will be too, thanks to her armor.”

  She would, I already heard her song recovering and strengthening from my blood. She could take as much as she wanted or needed, my dragon nature and magic would replenish my blood quickly.

  That whole situation was bad, I knew the cops wouldn’t be very happy with us at all. Though in truth, that son of a bitch would have gotten Emilio too, if we hadn’t gotten here first. His family’s death was written in stone long before we’d arrived. We hadn’t made a mistake, there was nothing that would have worked against a suicidal person with a bomb with a Deadman switch. I hadn’t seen any such switch, but I knew after being shot he’d have been unable to press a button.

  Where did he get the bomb? His alpha, or his mate? Or maybe he’d had shit like that ferreted away for a rainy day? Either way I didn’t get it, had he intended on dying the whole time, or would it have gone down differently if Emilio came home? Would he have tortured the man and walked away, or was this about getting revenge and ending the ongoing case against his pack? A sacrifice, a twisted and evil one, but a sacrifice.

  I had no idea, and in the end, it didn’t matter. The job was done.

  My face felt like it was sunburned, and I knew I’d be fine in a few more minutes, sans the clothes I needed to replace. That… was almost normal, I went through a lot of clothes in this job.

  Lisa was getting color back in her face, and healing fast. She always did, with blood.

  That calmed me further. At the same time, I felt guilty about the cop’s family, even if there was nothing we could have done to save them. I wanted to go back to the pack, and thrash them all until I got answers, but that wasn’t our right or responsibility. It wasn’t worth going to jail for and throwing my career away.

  The job was finished, for us anyway. It was time to go back to the office and write up reports.

  Chapter Seven

  The hot water spraying down on my body, and the steam, felt good as I took a long shower. It was a long day. Scott told us there was no fault in our actions, we’d followed procedure, but logic didn’t always help. I wondered how much trouble there might be from our failure and the death of the detective’s family. I also kept going over it and wondered if there was something we could have done.

  There was nothing, but it didn’t help. I wanted answers, wolf shifters weren’t suicidal as a rule. Either he was ordered to do it, or he did it to end or stall the investigation into his pack. The job was over for us, but Scott promised to let us know if he found out anything about it.

  I felt better despite my worries as I dried off, and blow dried my hair. I brushed it out, and I left it down as I walked into the bedroom. I pulled on a pair of short jean shorts that really showed off my legs, and supple rounded ass. It wasn’t often I got to dress that way around Tony, I usually wore armor and professional clothes even in the office, during the workday anyway. Then I pulled on a black halter top, the strap crisscrossed around my neck to a ring, and then to the shirt, which showed a generous amount of cleavage and my whole flat stomach beneath my breasts.

  I looked fit and toned, but I definitely had an hourglass body that drew eyes, with 36C-24-36 measurements. I looked good.

  I studied Lisa for a moment, as I walked into the kitchen.

  She looked amazing, in a very thin and casual peach sweater dress, with a pencil skirt. It clung to her every delicious curve, and it was just thin enough to make out she was braless underneath it.

  She smiled when she saw me, “That’s not slutty enough.”

  I laughed, “Should I just put on lingerie? Maybe that sheer black negligee, and some lacy black panties.”

  She grinned, “Maybe, what about the matching bra?”

  I snorted, “Not slutty enough, he should have free view of my pert C cups through the sheer black fabric, don’t you think?” I asked with faux gravity.

  I was completely joking, and giving her shit, but at the same time the idea intrigued me.

  She snickered, “You actually look delectable already. But… I do like that lingerie set on you.”

  I smirked, “So do you, look delectable I mean.”

  Dinner smelled wonderful, she was broiling two huge porterhouse steaks, and sautéing mushrooms and onions. The scent of baked potatoes and steamed asparagus also reached my nose.

  “Smells delicious.”

  She replied, “Set the table?”

  I nodded, and set the small kitchen table for two, my vampire wouldn’t be eating food of course. I also opened the red wine up to let it breath a while. Dinner wouldn’t be too much longer, and he’d be here any minute. It wouldn’t take him very long to cross the hallway. I felt a little nervous, I had no idea how he would react when he finally realized our intentions. Yes, he wanted both of us, but that didn’t mean it would actually happen.

  It wasn’t like picking up a guy at a club for a one-night stand. There were a lot of complications involved, not the least of which was our boss-employee relationship. I thought we were friends on top of that now, but I couldn’t be sure how he really felt about that on a subtle level.

  Lisa said, “I’m surprised you aren’t wet.”

  She had a point, my siren side had me ready for sex most of the time.

  I bit my lip, “Nervous, and still a little upset about earlier in the day. I’m sure I’ll get there.”

  I gasped, laughed, and felt myself flood. So much for not being wet.

  Lisa gave me a questioning look, obviously picking up the scent of my sudden arousal.

  I shrugged, “He’s… preparing for our dinner. Umm, dumping out any tension so he could relax maybe?”

  In other words, he was blowing a load to take the pressure off. I could hear it in his song. That made me feel better, he was nervous about tonight too. Of course, he didn’t know the stakes yet, all he knew was we were having dinner and talking about what he’d learned about demons. If that was all it was about, I wouldn’t have been nervous at all.

  Lisa smirked, “Slut.”

  I smiled warmly, and said breathily, “Bitch.”

  I’d given up on the idea of finding new nicknames. Apparently, we were stuck with those.

  “Are you happy Lisa?” I asked, where had that come from?

  She froze, and then turned toward me. She walked over, and she gently cupped my face with both hands. My breath was frozen at the soft and loving gaze in my violent vampire’s doe eyes.

  “Never been more joyful in my life, and that’s saying a lot my love slut. I’ll never let you go.”

  I smiled widely, and given how old she was I teased, “That is saying a whole lot.”

  She scowled, and I giggled.

  I said, “I love you too.”

  We chatted and bantered while dinner was finished up. I knew it wouldn’t be too long before he knocked on our door, he’d finished up that task, and I imagined he was getting ready…

  The look of desire in his eyes, as I answered the door in my casual and showing lots of skin outfit, excited me. So much for the effectiveness of his pre-dinner preparations, I loved the effect I had on him, even with Lisa’s compul
sion in place.

  The effect wasn’t one way either. He looked good in his mage robes, and the glint in his dark brown eyes had my heart speeding up. I’d have to be careful not to put too much of a seductive tone in my voice, as I did a lot around him.

  “Come on in Tony, make yourself at home, dinner’s just going out on the table now.”

  He smiled shyly, “Thanks Aria. It smells good.”

  I shut the door when he walked in, and then led him into the kitchen.

  “Wine?”

  He nodded absently, and I held back a chuckle as he surreptitiously checked out Lisa.

  “Dinner smells wonderful.”

  I nodded, “Hannah is a good cook.”

  I waved at his chair, while I sat across from him in mine. Lisa would sit at the head of the table, and at least join the conversation.

  He took a seat, and there was a short pause in the conversation.

  “I did learn a few things about what Jace Milner was up to.”

  I nodded, “Go ahead.”

  He said, “Well, it gave him power for one, enhanced his magic. It’s why it took over twenty swings of Hannah’s sword to get through his protective enchantment. I suspect his offensive spells would have been similarly enhanced, had he been able to finish casting it.

  “As far as the summoning, each demon required a previous sacrifice the first time it was summoned. Once the deal was made he was able to summon them without sacrifices. They weren’t exactly underlings, but the demons crave death and destruction. It’s a foolish risk to mess with them at all, he did it for the power and didn’t care what was required, or what the risks were.”

  He paused a moment.

  “The demons themselves are from different worlds. We call them hell, or hell dimensions, and there are many of them, all with different types of demons. They live to destroy, and want a foothold in other worlds, the worlds of life, which is their motivation for consenting to a deal. A mage would have to be desperate, or completely blinded by ambition for more power, to do what he did.

  “The symbols or glyphs define what hell dimension is being contacted, as well as places bindings on the demons themselves when they come through. I filed a report that defined exactly what Jace’s circle was intended to do. They were slightly different from the circles at the murder scenes, since those demons were already bound to the mage.”