Jade

by Rose Montague

  James called back a few minutes after that, two vamps had been caught trying to sneak across the border of Pack territory, heading in the direction of the cabin, and had been ripped to shreds by four Pack members guarding the edges of our territory. We definitely had a leak somewhere, they always found us no matter where we went and they were hell bent on killing us.

  At three am, the Captain called to say that the surviving two witches were dead, it was believed that their food was poisoned. An investigation was underway. This made the status of the three vamps in custody even more important. The fae FBI agent had talked to the vamps and concluded that Luca’s two vamps had been under a compulsion. She had discussed this with the public defenders of those two and negotiations were under way. The Captain indicated they had doubled security around the vamps, and any bottles of blood brought in for their feeding were being tested for poisons. He also said he had talked to the FBI agent in charge and after our meeting with the Summer Queen at noon, they were taking us off the grid. They didn’t want to know where we were or what we were doing until the case was solved. He would keep us informed of any new information that would help us and we would do the same.

  I had an idea about this, something that Rolfe was hesitant to consider but after some back and forth, he agreed. Luca had given me his number and I was going to use it. One place they would not expect us to stay, I thought, as I pulled out my cell phone.

  * * * *

  The girls arrived back at the cabin shortly after daybreak, Lily said it had been a successful hunt. Both gave us hugs, thanking us for our efforts. Lily announced that I was officially a friend of the pack. That gave me access to many of the pack’s resources if I ever needed anything.

  The problem for us was first to get to the police station for the noon meeting with the Summer Queen without being attacked and second, get to Luca’s place after the meeting without being spotted.

  There was an additional problem. I would be attending the Queen not as a member of the police force but as a member of the Queen’s personal retinue. Conflicts of interest like this one had long been agreed to by human courts. My status with the fae was acknowledged as priority. I would have to dress for the occasion. I was so stressed by this I snapped at Rolfe when he made light of the problem. He said just to wear the ensemble I had on yesterday, FBI girl chic, I replied that I would stick that outfit up his arse before I would wear it as a member of the Summer Queen’s court.

  Sarah came to my rescue once more. “Girl,” she said. “They have internet access here and if you have an unlimited credit card as I suspect you do, we can work miracles.” She proceeded to go online looking for some high end specialty and designer clothiers in close proximity to the Capitol. I had given her my sizes and told her I wanted a similar look as the gown I had worn to Faerie, it would be unheard of to wear the same gown, even if Kaosium had gotten it cleaned by now. There were three possibilities that came up on her search and on the third call we hit pay dirt. A little place in downtown Winston specializing in very high end formal occasions. The owner had an emerald green pleated floor length said to have been worn by a movie star back in the sixties on Oscar night. He had acquired this gown from a place in California that was going out of business and selling their high end stock to people like him. It was almost my size and he said he could make the alterations and get it to the police station by eleven thirty am for the right price. That was only two hours away at this point.

  Rolfe, with the help of James, solved our other issue. We would take a dirt road to the other side of pack’s territory, switch vehicles, and exit from that side. James knew a shifter that had a beaten up old work van he would be happy to lend us. Chris would smear some grease on his face, wear an old ball cap, and stick a cigarette in his mouth while we would lay low in the back.

  With that we were off, bouncing over what was once a dirt road that could only now be more accurately described as a nature or hiking trail. Even with the jeep, we could barely get through, Rolfe having to get out and push twice when we got stuck.

  We met James and the guy with the van and left with little talk, we would be pushing it to make it before noon and that van didn’t exactly look speedy. As we drove into town people behind us would change lanes and either fall back or pass so they would not have to smell the clouds of exhaust smoke coming out of the thing.

  Quarter til, we arrived and entered the station from the police garage, Rolfe had called the Captain who was waiting for us, saying he was not giving anybody else our plans. I had just a few minutes left to change, the Captain said they were on the way. Driving in a man made metal vehicle was painful for the fae, the Summer Queen was really racking up some points to meet the Captain and Mayor on their turf. She knew that the fae were just as much under suspicion now as the vamps. She was making a public point of cooperation, arriving in a stretch limo, just her, Diocletus, and the Queen’s Blade. I would serve as her retainer, they would be her guards. The Captain had taken the delivery of my gown, he had it in his office and he let me use the office to change. On a formal meeting on another leader’s territory like this, female fae were expected to wear a dagger, including the Queen, the males wore their swords.

  I wore the dagger of darkness, I was almost positive the metal it was made of would not bother the fae or be insulting in the Queen’s presence. The dress had a wide belt and I clipped the sheath on my left side making it easy to draw cross handed. It was slightly longer than the fae girl’s dagger norm but would certainly do. The clothier had provided a pair of shoes in my size, again for the right price, (I think my purchases would put his kids through college) that would match the gown, they were a little tight but otherwise I could not complain. The gown was really nice, not as stunning as the fae gown I had worn, but certainly lovely. I was the last to arrive at the conference room, the Queen’s Blade and two officers were guarding the door, the Mayor, Captain, Queen, and Diocletus waiting for me inside. The Queen’s Blade saw the hilt of my dagger and recognized it immediately. It had not occurred to me, but of course he would, it being one of the most famous, talked about, and photographed daggers in history.

  “Of course,” he exclaimed. “What other dagger would you be wearing now?” he said with a bit of amusement. “I am betting you know how to activate its magic as well?”

  “Another bet you would win,” I smiled. We shared some common interests, and I liked him.

  In perfect English, the Summer Queen greeted me. “Very nice,” she said, looking over my outfit. “You have shown yourself to be very resourceful. Nice dagger,” she added.

  Her accent was pure Ivy League. “Harvard?” I asked.

  “Yale.” She smiled. “The Winter Queen is the Harvard grad.”

  My translation skills were not needed again, it seemed. Introductions had already been made. The Mayor, a short slightly balding older gentleman with a kind face, being the only one I had not met and the Captain introduced us.

  “This is Michael Baxter, the Mayor of our fine city,” he said. “This is Smith,” he said to Michael. “A member of our force, as well as the Queen’s Court.”

  We shook hands. “Call me Jade,” I said. I could see the Captain’s curiosity was up. I had insisted on Smith when we had first met.

  The Queen had already been examining the evidence file, four thick folders, on the conference table. I nodded to Diocletus while we waited patiently for her to go through that stack. He stood on her right side while I stood on her left. Everyone else was seated. We waited patiently and respectfully for over an hour, she was a quick study, obviously, and very smart. At the end she leaned back and looked at me. “Tell me about the glamour you observed she said, describe the colors you saw around the knitting.”

  It is harder to hide a glamour from a fae than humans or other supes. They can see the magic, not in the same way as I can see a spell, but more in terms of a blurring of reality. I went on to describe it as best I could. “Browns mixed with gold and silver,” I said, trying my b
est to recall it perfectly. “As the glamour faded out, a hint of red before it was gone.”

  The Summer Queen leaned back thinking about what I had said. A glamour can be almost a signature for the fae. “There are four that I can think of that this may belong to,” she said. “The level of expertise and the shield make it almost certain to be a member of the inner courts, possibly a fae with royal bloodlines. One in my court and three that belong to the Winter Queen. I will question the one in my court,” she added. “I will send word upon my return to Faerie. If it isn’t him, you will have to see the Winter Queen and I will arrange a meeting.”

  Please let it be the one in her court, I thought. A fae could not lie to a direct question from the Queen, in Faerie or anywhere else. If he ran, was evasive, or spoke in half truths, we would know very soon. The Winter Queen, I didn’t want to think about it, she had a certain reputation for ruthlessness and violence.

  As we concluded the meeting and they prepared to leave, the Summer Queen called Diocletus over and held out her hand. He placed a jewelry box in her hand and she turned to me.

  “A gift for you to wear the next time we meet,” she said.

  I opened the box. Inside was a beautiful jade necklace on a gold chain, the same color as the jade in her signet ring. A matching set of earrings completed the ensemble. Fae workmanship, gorgeous in its design and simplicity, I couldn’t even begin to put a price on this set. The Queen had noticed my lack of accessories. I was speechless, bowing in gratitude.

  When I met with Chris, Sarah, and Rolfe, filling them in on our meeting, I was already wearing the set. I just did not want to take a chance that it would get lost with all the moving around we were doing. For someone to take this from me would be over my dead body, I thought, as Sarah started oohing and aahing when she spotted my jewelry.

  It was now time to implement the part of our exit plan that Chris had come up with and we would make our way to Luca’s second home, in a more modern section of town.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I swear my hair had grown another three inches in the presence of the Summer Queen. Sarah was braiding it up as we waited for the Captain to give us the go ahead. Chris had taken to calling me Rapunzel, my hair was now down to the small of my back, almost to my butt, and Rolfe had to remark that my ears were undeniably pointy now.

  I had been thinking about this and had come to the conclusion that it was me that was causing these changes, not any outside influence. I was fairly sure it was due to my shifter nature. I had been in full fae mode a lot recently, and my shifter side was making changes to my body accordingly. I wondered what I would look like if I went into vamp mode and stayed that way for a while.

  The Captain gave us the word and we went down the emergency stairs to the receiving room. Just outside the big double doors, a prison van was waiting. The Captain had hand selected two men he could trust to carry us in the back of that thing. It is a good plan, I thought. We could exit the van at the prison compound in an area that could not be seen from outside the compound and take a vehicle provided to us by the warden, leaving through the visitor gates.

  Once we arrived at the prison, we quickly switched places to the vehicle the warden had left us, what looked like a brand new Mercedes sport utility still with the temporary tags on it. The others all beat me to the passenger seats. You would think somebody like me could drive, what with great eyesight, super-sharp reflexes, and excellent coordination. For some reason, I was just a terrible driver. My few experiments with driving had resulted in multiple collisions and terrified pedestrians. I hadn’t seriously injured anyone and I didn’t want to. I especially didn’t want to hurt the warden’s car. After several failed excuses I tried to settle on the truth, telling them I had obtained a driver’s license through less than standard means just so I could get this job. I had even had to use a bit of glamour and witch magic to escape having to do my driving training at the police academy. They insisted it was my turn, and that I was a terrible liar. Big sigh.

  “Okay,” I said, “Seat-belts please.” I barely missed the little gate house where you exit the prison and didn’t quite stop in time at the crossbar and nudged it just slightly, fortunately not breaking it. The guards looked at me through our tinted windows, just shaking their heads as I painstakingly jerked the car back a few feet so they could raise the gate.

  “You are a terrible actress as well,” Rolfe said, as I weaved across the road leading from the prison, heading into town. Chris and Sarah were in the back, Chris had his phone out and they were trying to give me directions.

  “Can you just tell me to go north, south, east, or west for right now?” I asked. I was having trouble focusing on the directions and concentrating on not hitting anything at the same time.

  As soon as we had reached the outskirts of town, a black Explorer came out of nowhere and rammed us, hitting at my front right side and sending me spinning. Instinctively I had turned the wheels in the other direction and pounded the gas resulting in us doing a 360 and I was heading back in the same direction, pedal to the metal. I screamed, and for some reason decided punching buttons on the console would help. Born to Be Wild started blaring out of the stereo system, volume cranked to the max.

  Two more black Explorers came towards me from ahead. I had built up some distance from the car behind us. I screamed yet again, although I doubt anyone could hear me over the stereo and jerked the wheel to my right, flattening a mailbox and sending somebody’s trash can airborne. Some poor dog in front of me took off. I barely missed running him over. I tore through the front yard of about five homes, one had a really nice picket fence, now with a Mercedes-sized hole in it. I could see some kids in the next yard ahead, staring at me, eyes big, frozen in terror. I jerked the steering wheel to the left this time, still with my foot all the way down on the accelerator, I was probably going to punch a hole in the floor, I was pushing so hard. The drivers of the two Explorers flanking me looked at me as if I was crazy as I accidentally clipped the lead one in the rear and the back one in the front, somehow going between them, heading for what looked like somebody’s living room across the street as I bounced over the curb, the rear end coming three feet off the ground before slamming back down. The two Explorers I had hit went spinning, with the one that had hit me originally crashing into them both, pieces of metal and glass flying everywhere. A lady was looking out her front door, only yards away, staring straight at me as I headed towards her . I screamed again this time jerking the wheel to the right, running into a thick row of hedges between that house and the next. That must have done the car no good because the motor cut off, my foot was still pushing on that pedal. The song ended and Rolfe reached over and turned it off.

  We got out of the car, guns at the ready. The three Explorers were a tangled, smoking mess and there was no sign of movement from within.

  “Great driving,” Rolfe said.

  * * * *

  The Captain was not pleased. Despite our precautions, we had been attacked again. Sarah was convinced that we were being tracked via some serious magic, going off the grid wasn’t going to change that. We had our clothes tested for bugs and Sarah cast a group spell designed to confuse and deter tracking spells. The attackers this time had been human, a group of thugs associated with some rather unsavory criminal elements. They had a team of lawyers already and were not talking. It seems I was a road menace, deliberately trying to wreck them. Several had suffered broken bones and concussions. Threats of lawsuits were made and the witnesses to the pileup seemed to confirm a few things they were saying about me. The fact that they were armed to the teeth and had pictures of us in their cars confirmed what we were saying about them. Rolfe decided that staying at my place was probably the safest way to sleep in peace. I tended to agree; it was one reason I had selected that as my residence.

  I called Luca to give him the bad news. I knew he was looking forward to seeing me. It turns out a deal had just been made with the DA on his two vamps and they had given us the i
nformation that the third vamp, the one that seemed to be in charge and not under a compulsion, belonged to one of the other vamp masters in town. That vamp, despite knowing that the other two would be testifying against him, was not talking. Luca suggested I go with him tonight to see his vamp master. She was known as London Jane and was the most powerful vamp in town.

  Vamps are even more regulated than shifters. The road to becoming a vamp is either through an indentured system as a human servant, very expensive for the sponsoring vamp, or through the Union of Prostitutes, commonly known as UP. It seems that the Union, through various lobbying efforts, had at one point in the past convinced some powerful people to pass laws giving them somewhat of a monopoly on providing vamps with humans to drink from. They were protected from being killed by the threat of cutting off any vamp that went too far with a Union member, causing harm. A lot of former UP members had eventually elected to be turned, one of the perks of being an UP member. A lot of the newer vamps were former members, as with the shifters an occasional “accident” still happened, however. Some of the older, more traditional vamps, coming from such accidents, or as a human servant, or before regulation, were not too happy with the arrangements or the company.

  A master had to be very rich to pay the Union enough to support their vamps, drinking bottled blood was a last resort for vamps. Power and politics, Rolfe had said. On the surface it would make sense that the Union was very interested in this case, hoping it would be solved soon. Somebody was not only providing kidnapped humans to the vamps, but letting them be killed as well, something that a vamp really enjoyed. It was in their nature to be both predator and killer.

  Jane was having a party tonight, all the vamp bigwigs would be there. Vamps, their human servants, and a plethora of Union members would be in attendance. Humans and other supes would not be allowed. I could go as Luca’s escort, but it would have to be in full vamp mode, otherwise it would be an insult to the host.