“You said you saw a man having his throat slashed?” Kaleb asked me, breaking the silence yet again. He had felt the need to fill it every few freaking minutes over the past hour and a half.
“Yes,” I replied, trying to shut him up by restricting my answers.
“Then why haven’t we found a body?”
“Maybe because the man isn’t dead yet. You know how my visions work.”
“Or they could have dumped the body. The grasslands between the city and Darkwood would be the best place to do so. Vampires don’t hover in daylight and those who aren’t vampires rarely go anywhere near the place. There would be less chance of being caught dumping a body there.”
“Huh-huh,” I muttered noncommittally.
“And if you think about it, maybe Cole would lay off you for a while if you stopped getting into trouble all the time. I mean, it’s becoming a daily occurrence. I’m having to cover your ass every day.”
That sparked the reaction he’d been poking for as I stopped walking and glared at him. “You do not have to cover my ass all the time.”
He grinned in satisfaction then raised a finger to mark off each incident. “The wendigo. The rogue shifter. Rudolf.”
“Hang on,” I interrupted, “you didn’t need to save me from Rudolf.”
“He was being disrespectful and you looked like a scared, little girl.”
“A scared, little girl? Are you kidding me?” I turned to hit him in the stomach but he ducked back, so I went for a double whammy on his shoulder. He laughed at my attempt. “You’re an idiot, Kaleb,” I told him between punches and then he started to scuffle with me.
“Now that’s the Terra I missed,” he said as he caught me in a headlock. “Say ‘I love you, Kaleb’ and I’ll let you go.”
I continued to punch at his arms in an attempt to make release him me. “We’re supposed to be on our way to the warehouse, you idiot. Now let me go.”
He rubbed at my head. “Not until you say, ‘Kaleb, I love you so much’.”
No way in hell was I saying that. Instead, I felt around his crotch area and fed my hand in through his legs, grabbing hard.
“Ow!” he shouted, releasing me. “That was a low blow.”
“Low blow was right.” I laughed as I patted down my hair. “You should have covered your crotch, Wolf Boy.”
“Well, you know what they say when you have to fight dirty.” He scrunched up his nose and rubbed himself better.
“That you’re more likely to win?”
“No. That eventually you’ll slip in the mud.”
“That is so not a saying.”
“Yes, it is,” he said with indignation. “It’s a popular one in the shifter world.”
Shaking my head, I continued our descent down Cottontail Street and Kaleb fell into step beside me again. “Every piece of bull crap you recite, you tell me it’s from the shifter world because you know I can’t contradict it. That’s why I’ve taken the philosophy of not believing anything you say.”
“You’re cynical.”
“I’m not cynical. I’ve just been ‘Kalebed’ one too many times. And I know you—” I cut off as I saw a person heading our way along the opposite side of the street. It was a man dressed all in white.
“Kaleb,” I whispered as I took hold of his hand in a silent message for him to be discreet. He linked his fingers with mine.
“I see him. Act natural.”
We slowed our pace, and I noticed the man in white glance at something in his hand. A smile crept across his face before he hurriedly shoved whatever it was into his pocket.
A flash of the vision I’d had at The River Blue club entered my mind. I remembered it hadn’t been long after seeing White Jacket Guy’s smile of satisfaction that someone had slashed his throat. And I’d seen a rabbit. Cottontail Street. We were on Cottontail Street. Rabbits. Cottontails. His death had happened along here.
“We need to move now,” I said with urgency, releasing Kaleb’s hand. I didn’t wait for him to stop me or try and talk me out of it. Instead, I crossed the street and stepped into the man’s path. “Hey,” I smiled sweetly. “Don’t have the time on you, do you?”
The man stopped walking and took a step back as if ready to run. “Sorry,” he replied, as his eyes flitted over his shoulder. He took another step back. “I don’t know what time it is.”
As quick as a flash, he took off in the opposite direction. But Kaleb was quicker as he reached out and grabbed the man’s collar. A few seconds later, the man was lying face down on the ground while Kaleb was snatching elf-made ties onto his wrists. He’d have a tough time getting out of those.
Metal was easy enough for some species to get out of, and it also hurt or repelled others. The Elven cuffs looked like a vine stem, or a green rope, if you looked closely enough, and they latched on nice and tight. They also needed a password whispered into the fabric to release them and each agent had a pair with their own unique word to use. Mine was ‘sparkles’ because the administrator who’d assigned mine back in the day thought he was hilarious.
“Get off me!” the man yelled, flailing on the cobblestones in vain as Kaleb finished tying the cuffs into place. He then yanked the stranger up from the ground and started to march him off in the direction of where we could hail a carriage. “I haven’t done anything!”
Pausing to reach into his pocket, I pulled out a small pocketknife and a pack of blue pills that had the letter ‘R’ printed on them.
“A weapon and possession of an illegal drug for starters,” I told him as I held the items up for him to see.
“They’re not mine!” he shouted as he writhed against Kaleb’s hold. “You planted them there.”
“Oh, shut it.” I checked his other pockets and found his citizen badge. “Jimmy Rone. You’re under arrest by the PCA.” I glanced at Kaleb. “Purple band. He’s an Amethyst Citizen. Human.”
“I can smell him from here.” Kaleb gave Jimmy a hard shake to keep him still. “We’ll take him in.”
“Take me in? No. No way.” He began to struggle again.
“Where did you get the drugs from, Jimmy?” I asked as I shook the bag in front of his face. “Do you want to tell us now or back at the agency?”
“They’re not mine,” he denied. I pocketed the drugs, and gave him a dubious look to make sure he knew I saw through that pathetic claim. I switched on my wrist comms and sent through a transmission request. When the line opened I spoke into the voice piece. “This is EFA Terra Vane, Badge Number SC1243. Please log the apprehension of a suspect of drug trafficking that we will be bringing in under violation code 620.”
“All logged, Agent Vane,” the voice said from the other side of my comms. “A cell and interview room is now allocated to you.”
“Roger that.” I switched off my comms. “Come on then, Jimmy. If you want to keep that mouth of yours shut, then we’re going to have to take a ride.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
In Portiside, the Consilium—with the aid of the law keepers—presided over the sign off of any broken laws that required official prison time. Anything else, the Enforcer Field Agents and, to some degree, the Ground Patrol Officers, had leeway in regards to what they could offer as a punishment for the crime—depending on the severity.
Punishments ranged from warnings, to fines, and then to a few nights in a cell to allow the apprehended to think about what they’d done.
If none of those punishments we could dish out were suitable, then we had to put forth a recommendation for a Reform Evaluation. In the eyes of Portiside Law, everyone had several chances to reform under Evolver Study within the walls of the prison. And if the science proved that it wasn’t possible for the prisoner to be reformed, then the prisoner would be issued a death sentence to keep prisoner populace under control. Throwing them in the Territorial Shifter Hold was a way to do that. One where the prisoner could fight for survival. But also one where they would inevitably end up as rogue shifter fodder. It was bruta
l, but effective.
We had some cells at the agency. And across the city there were a few businesses—and some homeowners—who’d converted rooms to rent out as temporary cells for a fee. EFAs only tended to use those if the agency ones were full, however, as they were mostly utilized by the Ground Patrol Officers.
After hailing a carriage, we’d had to deal with a whining Jimmy the whole way back to the agency. Now he was stuck in an interview room refusing to speak to Cole. I’d been watching through the two-way mirror and finally decided that enough was enough after an hour of silence.
I knocked on the door and a harassed looking Cole popped his head out. “What?” he demanded.
“May I try?”
He raised an eyebrow before stepping out of the room and shutting the door behind him. “Have you got some magic powder in your pocket to make him talk, Vane?”
“I’ve got an angle I can try,” I replied, careful not to overstep.
Cole lifted his hand as if to touch me again, but instead scrunched it up into a fist at the last minute.
“Knock yourself out,” he said with a sigh, pushing the door open to allow me to enter. He didn’t follow, so I presumed he was going to watch the interview from the other side of the mirror.
Jimmy glanced up from the table he’d been staring at when I entered. He smirked a little when he saw me, before returning his gaze to the table once again.
“Hey, Jimmy,” I greeted, taking the chair opposite. “Anything we can get you? Food? Drink?”
“I’m good.” He shrugged then started to tap a hand on the table.
“Alright then. I’m glad you’re settling in here. It’s the safest place for you right now.”
He hesitated before looking up at me in concern. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, where to start.” I leaned my chin on my hands. “Have you wondered, at any point, how I knew who you were from watching you walk down the street?”
“No,” he replied quickly, his eyes flickering to the door. “You’ve probably been watching me or somethin’. Don’t know. Don’t care.”
“Oh, come on, Jimmy. We’ve looked into you. You’re a low-end dealer who dabbles on the illegal side. Most of your profit comes from legit deals where you sell stuff to your users for double the price of what it’s sold for in the Victorian Quarter. You’re not exactly someone who would be on the radar of the PCA.”
“So?” he sniffed. He wiped his nose with his fingers before crossing his arms.
“So, I’ll tell you how I recognized you, then maybe we can sort something out.” He said nothing, so I removed my citizen badge from my pocket. I was conscious and considerate with my moves, being careful to ensure he was paying attention, then I opened my badge and laid it flat on the desk. Using one finger, I slowly pushed it across to him.
“I can’t read,” he sneered, but I didn’t move the badge away.
“You can see colors though, right?” I used my forefinger to tap the blue banding on my badge. “I’m a Sapphire Citizen. Got any clues on how I know you now?”
His face paled a few shades as he realized what I was getting at. I pulled the badge away and tucked it back into my pocket.
“I had a vision, Jimmy. A vision of you, wearing your white suit and walking along with a pack of blue pills in your hand. You looked smug. Happy. And then not long after that, someone came along and sliced your throat. Your pretty white suit became saturated with blood while you bled out on the floor, and I gotta admit. It wasn’t a nice thing to have seen.”
“W-what?” he stammered.
“You heard. I can tell from your face you heard every damn word I just said. And I think it’s safe to say that we came along at the right time. As I said before, you’re safe here.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’ve shown you my citizen badge.” I pulled out my EFA one and slammed it down in front of him. “There’s the one that states I’m an Enforcer Field Agent. I’m not here to make shit up and tell you a bedtime story. I’m telling you the truth. That drug that you were going to sell, it’s caught the interest of a few people by the looks of it. Some of those people are good and some, well, not so good. But it’s also caught the interest of the Consilium.” I gave him a humorless smile and tucked the EFA badge away out of sight. “You think you’re going to walk out of here with a caution after what we’ve found on you?”
“I-I haven’t sold anything. I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Yet. But we still have the pills we found on your person. That’s called possession. And if you don’t give me something on the person who you bought those pills off of, then I’m going to recommend a sentence for a Reform Evaluation at Portiside Prison.” Leaning close, I lowered my voice. “The Senates are desperate to keep this quiet, Jimmy. There’s so much more to this drug than meets the eye. And you’re smack bang in the middle of it. What do you think they’re going to do with someone as insignificant as you?”
His eyes teared up as he digested my words. “I ain’t done nothing wrong … I’m not the one who needs to go down for this.”
“Then who does?” I asked, keeping my voice calm. “Who do I need to put in your place?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Jimmy,” I warned.
“I mean it. The people who contacted me did so on the streets one night and they were wearing scarves over their mouths. I didn’t get a name from them.”
“They?”
“There were three of them, all wearing black, with hats and scarves. One of them told me of this new drug about to hit the market. They knew I had a lot of contacts on the street so they wanted me to trial it for them. They called it Blue Rush and said that it gave people a little edge; a little escalation of what they were. They also said that it would make someone like me—a human—feel like a superhero. They wanted me to take a batch, try it for myself, then get it out there to see if people got hooked, you know.”
“Where did you get the pills from?”
“They arranged for me to pick them up from an unused mailbox not far from where you snatched me. Box number 52AI. I didn’t even have to pay them anything up front; I only had to give them a cut of the profits. All they said was that I needed to be discreet and make sure it stayed on the down-low. That was all, I swear.”
“And there’s nothing else? Nothing distinctive about how they spoke, the way they walked …?”
He looked sheepish all of a sudden so I added, “Come on, Jimmy, this is your life we’re talking about. If you give me something that can help take this blue pill off the streets, then I can put a recommendation in for a caution and a ban on your illegal sales. That means you can still make your profits on your legals and keep your contacts intact. What’s it gonna be?”
“I’m not stupid, alright. I always like to know who I’m doing business with. So I had them followed.”
I did a second take at his bright white suit and he shook his head. “Not me,” he continued. “I have plenty of eyes and ears on the street. It’s the only way to survive in—” he hesitated as if he remembered where he was. “It’s the only way to survive in the recreational drug trade.”
“What did you find out?” I pushed and he put his head in his hands as if defeated.
“They went back to a warehouse. One on the edge of Indicium before it hits the border of the Industry Quarter. Redbrick place, green doors. Sign out front that’s old and worn but it reads: Homewell Honey. Place closed down years ago.”
I glanced over toward the mirror. A short while later, Cole was entering the room. “Agent Vane, a word please?”
Nodding my head, I addressed Jimmy before leaving. “If this pans out as a solid lead, I’ll do my best to keep you out of it.”
Jimmy looked at me in silence but said nothing, so I walked outside to meet with Cole.
Cole shut the door behind us and kept his voice low. “I’ve alerted the Enforcer Administrator on call to pull a task force together to head down to that wa
rehouse. Jimmy is going into a cell until we find something more. We may need to question him further. But good job.”
“Wait.” I laid a hand on his arm as he went to move away, and he stopped in his tracks. He looked down at my hand on his arm so I quickly moved it away. “Am I on the task force?”
His terse smile confirmed I was, before he locked the door to the interview room and headed off to go shout at the others to get their gear together.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The warehouse that Jimmy had told us about was floodlit, but there was nothing going on around it.
We waited patiently in the darkness while waiting for Cole to give us the go ahead to pile into the building.
Every agent on the task force Cole had called in was dressed in a black tee with EFA printed in bold, white font across the front. I’d left my black leather jacket at the agency and exchanged the purple shirt I’d been wearing for the same one. Only I wore a protection vest over mine. It was one condition of me being human that I was grown up enough to deal with.
Keeping quiet and hidden around the perimeter, Cole used silent hand signals to instruct us to get into position. Kaleb crouched down to my right and we watched, and waited.
Once in position, Cole did the hand signal for a count down, and after one, he yelled, “PCA!” kicking in the door. We flooded into the warehouse, aiming our weapons around the vast room. Several surprised faces greeted us. There was a brief moment of suspension. Then all havoc broke loose.
Weapons fired. Voices roared. But the agents didn’t hesitate in moving in among their quarry.
Keeping my weapon raised, I assessed the room. Kaleb—in his human form—was ordering two men to lie down on the ground and put their hands behind their heads. His Pulsar weapon hovered above them as he shouted to them to stay down. I noticed a shadow lurking between the two crates behind him, so I decided to investigate further.
Death Be Blue (The Terra Vane Series Book 1) Page 20
