At First Sight (Persephonii Waters Book 1)

by Melanie Brown

  So the two, wrapping up their investigation and Para-biology debate headed for the conference room and the free coffee from Pete’s which the department had delivered in large quantities especially for the meeting. Bypassing the plethora of glazed, sugared and chocolate covered confections, they picked up a caffeinated hot beverage a piece and took seats near the rear door to the conference room, ready to make a quick exit.

  Sipping slowly, hands wrapped around the Styrofoam cup, trying to both hold in and absorb its warmth, Persephonii people watched. Many of the Local P.P.D. had worked with her but they had called in a few team leads from as far away as Olympia and Seattle. She’d worked with a few of the detectives and investigators from the larger cities, who smiled or waved at seeing her unmistakable white blonde head, sitting in the back.

  Friendly greetings didn’t extend from Parker Vaughn and Lance Finnegan, the lead Para Consultants on the Fischer case, who along with the F.B.I. team were sitting up front, claiming the meeting as their own even before it had officially started. If Chase were here, he would have been glaring at what he considered their ‘Rivals’. Persephonii could say that the other team had a certain polished demeanor that the Argent Waters team lacked, the reason for which she could put quite firmly in her corner.

  The two teams were similar in some aspects, but very different in the majority of things. The other two consultants tended to seek out media coverage, gunning for more face time, and were beginning to have a reputation as attention mongers. Though Ms. Vaughn lead the media push with her larger personality, Finnegan was a tech savvy private investigator who tended to be overshadowed by his partner. For the Argent Waters team, Chase handled the media so that Persephonii could work freely, as she preferred to hang back in the shadows, where she could do the most good.

  It didn’t help that Vaughn had firsthand experience with Chase’s Casanova tendencies, since things had turned sour she seemed to turn an increasingly evil eye on Persephonii. At first, Persephonii had thought it jealousy, although how anyone could have thought Chase and her were a ‘thing‘ was beyond her. Their Handler-Consultant association had progressed to business partners and friends which now was a more cousins-like relationship. She had hoped Vaughn would have started to ease up by now, but the weight of the stare directed her way said otherwise.

  Parker Vaughn’s Para knowledge had come from school texts and an apprenticeship with a rather average Para-consultant, only the last five years had seen the team, Premier Investigators Inc. gain its own name and publicity. Persephonii occasionally wondered if that was a large part of the contention Vaughn had for her. With an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the supernatural and natural world, combined with an exceptional way with wards, Vaughn’s limited gifts, mainly a slight form of Intuition and an over abundance of self-confidence, just didn’t compare to Persephonii’s natural gifts. All of which had taken her years of sweat and tears mixed with study and hard work to try and understand, let alone master.

  Her talents had made a name for both herself and her business as a highly competent freelance consultant, now part of the Argent Waters Firm for both private and institutional parties. Something that despite Vaughn and Finnegan’s media prowess, the 'Rivals' could not seem to match. In spite of having less of a media presence, the Argent Waters team continued to get the harder but higher paid cases. When you wanted something done right the first time, you hired Argent Waters. They had a plethora of unique abilities on their resume, everything from; exorcising unwanted entities, hunting down mythical beasts kidnapping wayward citizens and helping to solve a number of crimes for both private clients and supernatural law enforcement, including the big guys like the C.I.A and the F.B.I. Even the Paras knew the team and hired them for in-house problems.

  Chase often said that her cunning got her in the door, her name got her an audience and her skills got her paid. The Argent Waters reputation was to be envied, solid, dependable, knowledgeable, but still humble, one she had worked hard to distinguish and set apart from the Waters family authority. She loved her family dearly, their business did a lot of good, their name meant something, but it had taken many years to carve a reputation for herself, separate from Waters International.

  Although this was merely conjecture, Vaughn’s behavior was pointing more and more in the direction of jealousy, but due to what she could only guess. On top of that, was the stress and hurdles they faced merely from being a woman trying to navigate a highly male oriented occupation. Most Para-investigators were male, it didn’t matter that the top four teams of which the major two were now sitting in the same room, were half female. At first, Persephonii had thought such similarities would have given them common ground on which to bond, instead Vaughn looked at her as the rival Chase named them. Another, larger and more likely reason for Vaughn’s dislike was that few people in the field had the connections that the Waters had amongst the Para communities, especially in those areas still hidden from the human world.

  Fifth child of nine, in the middle of an exceptional family, Persephonii had always felt like the odd one out. While each member of her large close knit family possessed amazing supernatural gifts, everything from a strong empathic tough, pyrokinesis, healing, and even a few cases of true Sight, Persephonii had been left with bits and pieces of gifts, resulting in one big headache. Though supportive, she felt her differences were little help for the family business and drove her toward forging her own path away from the family. The Waters ran a large incorporated front that monitors and bridges the mundane and supernatural communities. Everything from lawyers, to Hunters, to healers, all highly gifted and well known in both worlds.

  As her twin Aunts often said about Percy's gifts, "she doesn't have enough to do her a whole lot of good, just enough to get her into a whole lot of trouble." If Vaughn knew how much trouble, pain and tears she had gone through, how much she had to handle on a daily basis, Persephonii doubted she would covet those talents so fiercely.

  Many would say that Ms. Waters’ talents and family background had left her a little, say.... socially stunted. Her partnership with Chase Argent, started when he was a rookie F.B.I agent, who had been assigned to be her handler on her first official case with the bureau. Once he had decided to go into the private sector, he had been the public face of their "team" ever since. Preferring to let Chase's charm and slick moves dazzle the media since he enjoyed the limelight, he allowed her greater freedom and a small measure of anonymity that her name did not.

  Persephonii almost wished Chase was here now, at least then they would get some witty banter, and Madison's attention would be more focused on him. It was clear to her that Madison had quite the crush on Chase, but the man was for once keeping his distance. Though she did hope the two would do something to ease the tension between them, that seemed to sky rocket once Madison’s divorce was final. Instead Chase gave Maddie a hard time, often to the point of being obnoxious, so much so that she had stopped bringing him into the M.E lab it was getting so bad. The more Madison stretched her wings, the more it seemed to rub Chase the wrong way. She would have liked to give them some advice, but felt this was one area that she had little personal experience and second hand research was little help.

  Chapter 3: P.P.D:

  Your local precinct is likely to house at least a small section of the P.P.D, those with the training to handle incidents of Para-Human conflict.

  Paranormal Police Department building; Lakewood, WA. 10:45pm PST.

  Finally it appeared the crowd was settled as Captain Liam Studwick, who was commonly referred to in whispers as 'Stud' among the female populace, something Persephonii took pleasure teasing him about, was the head of the Paranormal Police Department called the meeting to order. Studwick ran a diverse team of C.S.I., Detectives and consultants, solving Para-crimes for the local areas. A workaholic, he had firsthand experience with the worst both humanity and Paras had to offer. Since they had first worked together, she has been the one Para-Consultant that he relied on to get
the heavy stuff done, and considered her a good friend. The feeling was mutual.

  Studwick met the young Ms. Waters back when he was a detective on the Para-force, the fifteen year old Persephonii had been caught up in a friend's investigation. Far away from home, she had been visiting some friends for a few weeks when trouble had struck. The friend, a boy a few years older than her, was being accused of misusing magic, facing a serious sentence if found guilty. Sure of her friend's innocence, the teen had pestered Liam often getting in his way and pointing out evidence, she used the Waters name and her incredible sight to catch the perpetrator who had been cursing others. Though he had come to trust her abilities, he’d told her to get some schooling and experience under her belt before interrupting another investigation. Liam promised he would think about introducing her to people in the field, even offering to take her on to consult for cases if she was in the area. At the time, the age for consulting positions had just been lowered to 16 with supervision. Persephonii had taken him at his word, now a large move and almost fifteen years later he hadn’t regretted bringing her on.

  Back to the present, she watched Studwick try to work the kinks out of his neck as he sat in a far corner. Tension filled the room, the few females loitered near the doors, looking for a chance to make their exit away from the testosterone contest. Introductions of the big wigs from the other precincts ran longer than anyone would have liked. The explanation of the premise of the gathering was finally stated by no more than three department heads, before Studwick took over the meeting, reluctantly handing it over to the F.B.I.

  “You look exhausted.” Detective Kade Montgomery sat down next to her, rough voice showing that he too would have preferred to be somewhere other than the meeting at that moment. More than likely sleeping, even if it meant at his desk. His large frame settled into the chair next to her with a loud sigh, and a long drink of his coffee.

  “Pot, meet kettle.” She didn’t look over at him as she spoke, but took another slow sip savoring the liquid warmth. Having watched Montgomery and Fitz make a beeline for the coffee and food, they were both deep in their third cups, and second pastry, before they had decided to sit down. At six foot three, even seated Montgomery towered over her, his long legs stretched out into the aisle. His close cropped light brown hair was a remnant from coming out of the army reserves to the police academy. Short enough not to need brushing, it still stuck up in tuffs, trying hard to mimic his partner's notorious appearance. The detectives standard suit and tie showed a full days ware and tare, and he sported quite a few hours past a five-o'clock shadow. In fact, both detectives looked as if they had been putting in more hours, despite the increased personnel in the area, or perhaps because of them.

  Kade Montgomery had been on the P.P.D force for almost seven years, outlasting the usual five years before being transferred. Being the middle child of a set of identical triplets, had done surprisingly well at preparing him for his future career as detective in the Paranormal Police Division of the Lakeshore P.D. Persephonii thought it was due to having to fight for space between his older and younger brothers, discovering who took his cookie and which brother had broken his toy. Born to a family of law enforcement officers, it was expected that one of the three would continue in their footsteps, he had however, put his own spin on things and moved into Paranormal law enforcement. A fact that tickled his brothers to no end. The elder brother, Elric was a lawyer in Seattle with his own law firm, following in the steps of their mother and his younger brother Dayton, was a C.S.I in Tacoma.

  He held a solid outlook on Para/Normal relations, and was one of those upstanding guys who were not out to blame the Para's for all the bad in the world. Montgomery truly wanted to find the bad guys, be they human or Para. Persephonii had grown to like the somewhat brisk man, who was part of one of three detective teams for the Lakewood area. Overworked and underpaid, the detective teams tended to be stretched thin as they carried the work load for a large area that extended outside of the city limits and back into the wilds.

  Having gotten to know each other over a long case a few years back, Persephonii had found out that his mother had been a lawyer, but had given up her practice to be a house mom when she found out she was having triplets. She died of pneumonia when the boys were nine, since then they had been raised by their father who was a retired detective. He had retired a few years ago from the force after he got shot in the knee by a stray bullet in a robbery at a gas station and never recovered fully from the injury. Retiring together with his old partner and best friend, the two had started a diner, which served black coffee and old fashioned-homemade food including a selection of pies that were truly scrumptious. The majority of his customers were friends from the force, along with the other local departments who came in for the food and talk.

  Roderick Fitzhugh or Fitz, was a character and Kade’s older partner, who could be anywhere from sixty-five to a hundred and five, and didn’t seem to age. Chase was sure he had some sort of gnome or troll blood in him, as every picture of Fitz looked exactly the same since the seventy's. Same wizened countenance, same thick gold-wire rimmed aviator glasses, same bushy graying hair that looked like it had been cut by a three year old. Fitz held a lot of respect on the force, and every year threatened Studwick he was going to retire, but Persephonii knew he liked putting the monsters, be they human or Para away, only slightly more than solving interesting and new crimes.

  A gruff half-cough, half-laugh followed Persephonii’s statement, slightly turning her head she made eye contact with Fitz who winked at her. Standing with his back along the right side of the door jam and the farthest corner away from the F.B.I. team, Fitz watched the meeting with about as much interest as Madison. The two detective’s focus quickly became centered on the F.B.I. lead, Agent. Corbin Savage. From scuttlebutt around the precinct, the three men had worked together on a case not too long ago, while Persephonii had been brought on as the consultant, she had been on the edges watching. The F.B.I had trampled all over the detective’s jurisdiction and pride. There was no love lost between them.

  The meeting was finally about to get underway as the hour grew late... or early depending on how one looked at it, and tensions were rising from everyone, who merely wanted to get back to their respective desks. Persephonii just wanted to finally make it to bed. The flat screen TV hung high on the conference room wall had been running the local and nationwide news. Though the volume was turned down, currently it was featuring an update from their area, Persephonii’s hearing easily picked up the anchor's voice.

  “No new leads have been presented at the last update from F.B.I Agent and team lead, Mr. Corbin Savage who has been assigned the Fischer case.” The screen changed to show footage of the latest press meeting which had been yesterday morning.

  “As you know, Mr. Fischer was a rising star in politics and had just returned home to Seattle from Washington D.C. where he was lobbying to have the Para rights reevaluated with the intension of having them revoked.” Images of Mr. Fischer’s Anti-Para campaign followed, including a nasty run in with Pro-Para press.

  “Mr. Fischer’s Anti-Para mentality was at the forefront of a growing movement in the U.S. to separate ‘normal humans’ from the Para Communities.” She went on to rehash a few incidents and show rather blurry footage, obviously taken on a cell phone by a bystander, of the incident and Fischer’s public suicide.

  “Mr. Fischer’s apparent mental break and subsequent rampage killed nine people injuring over twenty more, before he committed suicide. The ongoing investigation has revealed little insight into the events leading up to the incident. Both Mr. Savage and Ms. Parker Vaughn, the leader of the Paranormal Investigation Team, Premier Investigations Incorporated, who has been hired to consult, have yet to find additional evidence to explain the tragic event.” At her name Parker looked rather excited to be on national news, until the news anchor continued to call into question their abilities. It was a subtle snub in Parker’s direction as they had been on the
case for over two months and had yet to come to any specific conclusion. It was a case that was stumping the professionals, and leaving the world in a panic.

  “We will continue to update the public as new information becomes available.” The News anchor signed out as Agent Savage, finally having found the remote, turned off the T.V. He looked far from happy at being reminded the team had no new leads.

  For all intents and purposes the meeting was needed if not entirely wanted. The recent gruesome incidents, including that of the prominent lobbyist and rising politician Norman Fischer, preceded a rising trend of violence resulting in Anti-Para outbursts and growing trouble for the local P.P.D.s. Seattle based Fischer, who a little over three months ago had let loose at a Pro-Para rally, killing a number of bystanders before finally killing himself, was a nationally covered story. The fact that the local P.P.D. and later F.B.I. teams were no closer to finding out exactly what had happened, left the Northern Pacific Coast especially on edge.

  Though Persephonii and Chase had been on a number of cases both out of state and out of the country, she had been monitoring the rise in Para cases and worried what that would mean for the Wyr and Vampyre communities. It also left her looking for familiar faces as she was sure the rise in tensions would bring in at least one if not more of the Waters to the West Coast. But they had yet to show, leaving Persephonii to wonder what bigger troubles were keeping them.