by Maia Starr
I knew I could do the work and solving puzzles came easy to me, but I was not expecting to be given a walking distraction in the form of Detective Katiama. I had expected to work on this case with my team, not with an Earth partner. But because Katie was so high-profile, the Earth Council insisted they had one of their own on the team searching for Katie and the other vanishing women. They too suddenly felt a need to solve the crime and put a stop to it. But I knew as soon as I took a deep breath and inhaled the pheromones of Detective Katiama that this mission was more complicated than it needed to be. After she stepped off the elevator and pushed narrowly past me, I was hot and heated. It didn't help that I had to step into an elevator full of her lingering scent, but at the time, I did not know that I would be forced to be around her scent for at least a month.
Now I sat across from her, trying to keep my eyes on my notes and briefing as I soaked in all the information that I could while being distracted by this feisty female. All I could do was continue to be as mean to her as I possibly could in order to stop any bond from growing between us. I was already engaged to another, dammit! I pounded my fist on the table as I thought about this.
"What the hell was that? Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" the feisty voice said to me.
I grinned at her and said, “If a sudden burst of sound would give you a heart attack, then maybe you should not be in a career where gunfire is normal. You could quit this assignment; I am sure they will find me another," I said, crossing my arms in front of me, waiting to hear if she would back out.
"Just shut up already. Are you ready to work? I have many questions," she said to me.
"Fire away," I said, waiting to be bored with her analyses of the case information.
"Why do you think the lieutenant thinks that the vanishings are being controlled from Sala? Is that not a military post planet next to Mooreah? That would make no sense to me if I were a criminal," she asked. I arched my eyebrow at her, surprised by her good question.
"That is true. Sala is a military post and a landing port, but that is only one side of the planet. The other side is dotted with small outposts with high criminal activity."
"I have never heard that. We are led to believe those outposts are trading outposts, not outlaw outposts" she said to me.
"Yes, I'm sure there's a reason why Earth is led to believe that. Just as I'm sure that Earth is not one hundred percent honest with everything about Earth when they speak to the Drackon Council or to King Jarith Rykor. It is on a need to know basis, and there's no reason for Earth to need to know about those outposts."
"I see."
"Do you?"
"Yes, I see that the facts I have in front of me are not facts, and I should work knowing that. That all is not as it seems, and it is important to take that into consideration with each morsel of information I am fed. That is the type of case this is," she said.
My mouth fell open just a little. Holy shit. I was not expecting such a smart analytical answer from Detective Katiama. She was staring at the wall and thinking, so she did not even notice that she had shocked me into silence. She didn't care if I was in the room at all. Damn, she was hot. I cleared my throat that had begun to thicken with lust as I fought myself to keep from walking over to her, scooping her into my arms, and planting a hard kiss on her. One that would probably get me slapped afterwards. It was obvious that she despised me, probably even hated me. Good; it would be easier to keep my distance from her if she was disgusted by my behavior. So instead of congratulating her on a well thought-out observation, I criticized her.
"Facts are what make a case, Detective Katiama. Please don't feed me any of your misinformation," I said to her as I stood up from the table.
"You're misunderstanding me, Commander Handor. I merely meant that—a”
"No need to explain yourself. If you'll excuse me, I would like to see the port where Katie was last seen," I said to her.
"I'll go with you. We should retrace the last twenty-four to forty-eight hours of her being here on Earth. Everyone she came in contact with. Maybe there is something at the port that the authorities missed. Wouldn't be the first time," she said as she walked ahead of me and out of the conference room. She didn't even give me time to tell her not to accompany me; she was already a detective in action. Shit. She kept on talking aloud about the steps that we should take and I hated to admit that I had not thought of doing half of them. Perhaps she would be a good asset to this investigation after all.
When we arrived at the port, we met with the last person on Earth to see Katie Cormick. His name was Michael Spencer and he was a guard.
"Mr. Spencer, you said in your statement that you were blacked out when the women went missing. Could you elaborate on that?" Detective Katiama asked him as soon as she walked up to him. She was not messing around. She didn't bother with greetings other than a flash of her badge, catching the guard off guard.
"I already told the detectives yesterday everything that I could remember," he said, looking at both of us nervously.
I could feel that he was lying and the way that Detective Katiama turned and looked at me let me know that she thought it too. She pressed on, “Yes, but what I don't understand is how you blacked out? What do you remember right before blacking out? Did you feel a sharp pain, as though you had been knocked on the head?" she asked.
"No, it was more like fainting. I was standing over there by the ramp that leads to the launch pad where the women were boarding and the blonde woman was hugging them and saying goodbye. I was facing them and before I knew it, I felt faint and fell to the floor. When I came to, another guard was waking me up. The women were gone."
"Can you show us exactly where you were standing?" Detective Katiama said as she moved toward the direction he pointed in.
He walked over and stood exactly where he said he was standing the day before.
“Thank you. That is all for now," Detective Katiama said to him. The guard looked at both of us and walked away.
"He's lying about something, or keeping something a secret. He definitely is hiding something," I said to Detective Katiama.
"Yes, he is," she said as she took out a small flashlight and got on all fours, shining it under the various heavy machinery, ramps, and launching buttresses. With her in this position, I was immediately distracted. I could not keep my eyes off of her plump ass and I could not stop my imagination from picturing myself on my knees behind her, entering her. It was all I could do to restrain myself from smacking her ass.
I grew angry that she was making me feel aroused and distracted. I wanted to be fucking her from behind right in that moment. I felt my cock growing hard. I had to distract myself.
"What the hell are you doing, Detective Katiama?" I asked her, trying to look away from her in that position.
"The guard said he felt faint before blacking out. That means that he was not hit on the head: it was chemical. There must be something around here. There!" she shouted as she moved around to the backside of a large metal cabinet that was an inch off the floor. She reached her arm in under the cabinet and pulled out a blue cloth that I recognized immediately: it was Drackon material. She was pulling it toward her face when I slapped it out of her hand and yelled, “Don’t! It has conmer on it! I can smell it from here," I said as I used my foot to push the cloth away from her. “You need to wash your hands now," I said pointing to a metal sink.
"What? What is it? Conmer?" she asked as she walked to the metal sink and washed her hands thoroughly.
“It is almost like chloroform here on Earth, only one thousand times stronger," I said as I took out an evidence bag and put the cloth in it without touching it.
"I knew it! That must be what knocked the guard out. Let's take it to the lab and have it analyzed," she said, coming over to me.
"No, it is definitely not what knocked the guard out," I said to her.
"What? Of course it is," she said to me.
"No, it is not. If it were, he would still
be out. It is very strong and knocks humans out for three to four days, not hours."
"Oh, I see. Then maybe it was used on the girls, which means there would be more than one kidnapper. They would have to get the girls all at the same time. This one cloth must be one that got away in the struggle. If it is, then there will be traces of DNA on it. Let's go back to the lab," she said, leading the way.
Once again, I was following her around, and she was giving orders. I was blindly following her because it was what I would've done as well, but she kept getting ahead of me and voicing the actions we should take before I had a chance to tell her what to do. I looked at the guard once more; he was just staring at us. He was sweating. There was more to his story, but for now, we had to follow this lead.
Moments later, we were walking back into the agency building. But Detective Katiama did not go to the elevator as I expected. Instead, she walked out onto the first floor, “Where you going?" I asked her.
"To see a friend. Come on," she said to me. Was I even taking part in this investigation, or was I just following her and being her assistant? It sure did feel like that to me. It was a bit emasculating for a powerful weredragon like myself. But a part of me enjoyed it, being put in my place by her, the small, curvy human female with a mouth on her.
"Whoa... who's the giant?" the man said as Detective Katiama and I walked over to him.
"Alfonso, meet my partner, Commander Handor. Commander Handor, this is my former partner, Alfonso."
I nodded my head at him in hello and he said, “You are a Drackon weredragon, aren't you? Man, that's so cool. I wish I could shift into a dragon. What is it like to go flying?"
Detective Katiama cut him off and said, “Alfonso, I have a favor to ask of you."
"Anything. What is it?”
Detective Katiama grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down the words Michael Spencer and said to him, “I want you to follow this guard. You don't need to speak to him or anything, just follow him when you have time. Trail him. He is up to something. I don't know what, but I think over time he will show his cards, but I won't be here to see it. Think you can handle that?"
"Yeah, no problem, Melinda. Does this mean you are leaving? Where is your first assignment?" he asked.
"You know I cannot share that information with you. But yes, I am leaving on a mission. I will try to get in touch with you as much as I can, but it will be very, very, long long distance," she said to him with a wink.
"Right on! That is awesome, and about time. Enjoy this mission and I wish both of you the best of luck. Don't worry about things here; I'll keep an eye on him."
"Thanks, Alfonso," she said as she gave him a hug and then walked back to the hallway to the elevator. “We should hit the lab up with that evidence now," she said as she pushed the button.
Once again in the lead, but I was starting to get used to it. This was her planet, after all. I stood there and then said, “Melinda?"
She looked at me and said, “Yes, that's my name Melinda Katiama."
"My name is Eniv, if you want to be on a first-name basis.
She stepped into the elevator and said, “Call me Detective."
I grinned and walked into the elevator after her. Once again, my senses were bombarded with her overwhelming scent. It was hard to deal with as we went up to the fourteenth floor. She never stopped talking the entire way,
“I have a friend here in the lab that can put a rush on this. He's always doing me favors. Since we leave in two days, he can get us results on that cloth as soon as possible."
"You have a lot of friends here," I said to her.
She looked at me and narrowed her brown eyes in anger as she said, “It's not what you're thinking. They are just friends. It's not like I'm fucking them," she said.
"There's no one like you on Mooreah. You must excuse me for making these assumptions," I said to her. She sighed and stepped out of the elevator and I followed her into the lab.
"Robert, I have a piece of evidence here that I need logged for the Katie Cormick case. I need it analyzed. My acquaintance here says that it is a form of chemical called conmer from Mooreah. It is close to chloroform here on Earth. But could you take a look at it under the microscope and pull any hairs and also check it for DNA samples? Also, test it for this chemical, and be careful not to inhale it," she said in rapid fire that I almost could not keep up with. But the lab attendant knew exactly what she wanted.
"Yes, Detective Katiama, right away. I should have this in a few hours," he said to her.
"Great. I will wait for the ID log number," she said to him as he walked over to a station and began to document the evidence. I was impressed with her. This wasn't helping in trying to keep myself from being attracted to her. She was almost a phenomenon to me as I had not met a female, human or Drackon, that could think so quickly on her feet. I would almost say that she was a match to my own intelligence, but I did not want to take it that far.
"Here you are, Detective Katiama," he said to her, handing her a paper with an identification number.
She filled in the page, giving information about where the evidence was found. I stood silently, hovering over her, watching her fill out the form. She was quick, precise. I had no reason to question her expertise as far as investigation went, but I did not know what she would be like in the field. I didn't know how much experience she had working a case in space and dealing with the enemy. Space was a completely different territory and my home planets of Mooreah and Sala were very different from Earth. I didn't know how it would work with her there, especially because human females were seen as nothing more than an object to own and make into your mate for breeding purposes. I'm not sure any Drackon weredragons would allow a human female to question and interrogate them. If anything, it would piss them off even more, especially the criminal element. Thinking about this only made me want to protect her in that sort of situation. That was dangerous territory, because I would be distracted and wanting to make sure that she was safe above all else. That wouldn't exactly be an equal partnership in the field.
"I'm done. Let's hit the road and retrace Katie's steps," she said, handing the page to Robert and then walking out of the lab.
The next few hours were productive. It was very unusual seeing that she was preparing to move her life to Mooreah and only visit Earth every few years. She was preparing to be a wife, my wife, and it was a very strange thing to investigate that in this way. But as much as we retraced her steps, we turned up nothing. It really didn't give us any more or new information.
"It really does seem like Katie was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Melinda said as she sat across from me eating a hotdog from a street vendor.
I watched her put the long link into her mouth, trying to not think indecent thoughts. I felt my cock growing hard as I watched her eat. Even though she wasn't trying to be seductive and feminine, and kept talking with her mouth full about the case, I was still getting dirty thoughts in my mind.
I looked away from her, around the New York City streets. The modern buildings were so different from the stone fortresses of Cerista. I considered Cerista to be a very beautiful city, one of stone and nature mixed together. I had been excited to go back there with a new bride. I was not expecting this new turn of events, or my alluring partner. It was almost comical to be with her, but there was nothing comical about the vanishing of the human female brides, and I meant to solve and stop it from happening.
Ping! Ping!
"That's Robert in the lab. He's finished; let's head back there," Melinda said, looking at her phone.
"Do you trust your friend to follow that guard?" I asked her. It was something I had been thinking about it ever since she asked him.
"I trust him with my life. He was my partner before I was promoted. He had my life in his hands every time we were out in the field," she said, walking quickly across the courtyard to the department building.
"That is a lot of trust to put in someone. I guess you and I
will have to do the same when we are on the mission in space. It can be very dangerous on Sala. You will have to trust me as well," I said to her.
She stopped in her tracks and looked up at me. She was petite and her head barely came to my chest. Still, she was fierce in her presence as she said,” That goes two ways, weredragon."
Then she walked off. A few minutes later, we were back in the lab with her friend, Robert. He was giving us the lowdown on his results.
"I found blonde hair on this particular cloth it does belong to a female. Since I do not have a sample of Katie Cormick’s DNA, I cannot say whether it is hers or not, but it's definitely human female. The cloth is of Drackon origin, and the chemical is definitely what your friend here said it was, conmer."
