Your Money's Worth: Seattle Elementals, Book 1

by Connie Suttle

  "I'll find something for you," he grinned and rose from his bedside chair. "Cliff is back in Tuscaloosa, so he can go to work tomorrow. We'll straggle in later."

  "Straggle. Probably a good word for how I look," I closed my eyes.

  "You're fine. Stop worrying about nonsense," Rob said and walked out of the room.

  * * *

  Parke

  Cassie's phone rang five times before the call was answered. A male voice said hello.

  "Where's Cassie?" I demanded.

  "She's asleep again. I assume this is her husband, the Chancellor?"

  "Who the hell are you?" I demanded.

  "Robin Newbourne, earth sprite," he replied. "You've been ignoring your wife, Chancellor. It upsets her."

  "How the fuck do you know that?" I almost shouted.

  "When I stand upon the Earth, I know a great many things. Especially if I reach out to touch the one in question. She thinks you don't want her. If you don't want her, at least have the courtesy of saying so. It's causing her a great deal of pain and anxiety."

  "Fuck," I breathed. "Look, when will she be awake? I'd be on my way there if an emergency hadn't cropped up here."

  "Right. I'll be sure to tell her you called and said that."

  "I'll call her in the morning," I said. "Without fail."

  "I'll tell her that, too. Make sure it doesn't turn into a lie, Chancellor."

  * * *

  Cassie

  I saw the healer for the first time after Rob brought clothes for me in the morning. He then pulled me from the bedroom where I'd slept and into a kitchen down the hall.

  "Yes, I'm a half-demon," she said, indicating two chairs at the small table. "The other half, as you can probably guess, is were-leopard. Georgina Small," she held out her hand.

  "You're one of the rare ones," I whispered, staring longer than was necessary at the dark, spotted patterns that covered her skin.

  "Some people don't see it that way," she hmmphed and set a plate of bacon on the table. "Some think I'm a mutant."

  "I don't think that. Thank you for your help," I said.

  "I hear you're a fire demon. Also rare," Georgina smiled for the first time. "How do you like your eggs?"

  "Scrambled sounds great," I replied, realizing I was hungry.

  "Mine, too," Rob said. "Need help?"

  "You sit right there," Georgina pointed a finger at Rob. "I'll do breakfast since you're banged up. I'll take barbecue sometime, when you pay me back."

  "You're on," Rob grinned and helped himself to bacon.

  "Georgina, I can pay, too," I said.

  "You've paid enough," Georgina said while cracking eggs into a bowl. "You saved Kent, Rob and Cliff. That's more than enough. Call me Gina," she added. "All my friends do."

  * * *

  Parke

  I had someone from the secretary pool sitting at my assistant's desk when I walked in. "Mr. Worth, I'm Jonathan Wrigley," he held out a hand.

  "Jonathan?" I asked. "How long have you worked here?"

  "A year and a half," he said. He'd stood to greet me when I walked in, and I shook hands with him. Nearly as tall as I am, Jon had a thin build and light-brown hair.

  "Are you efficient?" I asked.

  "As efficient as possible," he replied. His handshake was firm enough, although he expected to be sent back to the pool the second I found a female to sit in my assistant's chair. He was also telling the truth about his efficiency.

  "Ever been written up while employed here?"

  "No, sir."

  "Good. Get Frank Hillman on the phone and make sure I'm not disturbed while I'm talking to him," I said.

  "Of course, Mr. Worth."

  "You married?" I nodded at the ring he wore.

  "Yes. My husband works as an administrator for a nursing facility."

  "May I call you Jon?" I asked.

  "Most people do." He smiled for the first time since we'd met.

  "Great. Jon, I'm going to hire you temporarily as my personal assistant. If I find your work satisfactory, you'll have a permanent position, if you want it."

  "I so want to hug you right now, but that would be awkward," Jon grinned. "Is there anything I can do for you, other than seeing you're not disturbed?"

  "If my wife calls, let me know. She's the only thing I want to be disturbed about. Wait, that didn't come out the way I wanted," I winced.

  "I know what you meant," Jon waved off my gaffe. "If she calls, I'll let you know."

  "Thanks. Welcome to the assistant's position. If you bring me a coffee, I'll toss in a bonus for your first paycheck."

  "Coffee coming right up," he said and took off toward the break room.

  * * *

  Cassie

  "Your husband called after you went back to bed last night," Rob told me as we climbed into a borrowed car to drive home. "He said to tell you he called and that he'd be here if something important hadn't cropped up. I didn't want to tell you in front of Gina, in case it upset you."

  "It's fine. At least he called." I huddled into the jacket Rob found for me. I had no idea where the clothes I wore came from and was afraid to ask. They fit well enough and were nice; I just wasn't sure whether I should offer to pay for them or wash them and hand them back to whoever loaned them to me.

  "Are you going to call your husband back?"

  "I don't know." It made me uncomfortable that Parke found something else more important than his wife.

  You've been married for about a month, I reminded myself.

  "You should probably call him back."

  "I'll call him back." I twisted my fingers together. What was I supposed to say to Parke? That I'd gone into shock after killing Ross' brother—the one I didn't know about? Did he know Ross had a brother? Why wasn't I told?

  "Look, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," Rob said. "Just—call him when you get a minute, all right?"

  It took half an hour to get back to the courthouse in Tuscaloosa, another fifteen minutes to drive my car back to my apartment.

  By that time, I wanted nothing more than to huddle on my bed, wrap myself in blankets and hope all my troubles would stop troubling me.

  My troubles concerning Parke wouldn't go away until I called him and straightened things out. I dialed his office number while sitting at the kitchen table and listened while it rang three times.

  "Parke Worth's office, Jonathan speaking."

  I knew that voice. He and I had started working at Gruber, Taylor and Worth the same week. Parke would have to change the name of the firm, now that Gruber and Taylor were both dead. "Jon?" I said, sounding surprised at the familiar voice on the other end of the call.

  "Cassie?"

  "Yeah, uh, Parke tried to call me last night. I'm calling him back." I wanted to ask why he'd answered the phone instead of Pauline, but I didn't.

  "He said to let him know immediately if you called. Hold on, I'll let him know. He's talking to Frank Hillman on another line."

  "How's that case coming along?" I asked.

  "Can't say, just started working for Mr. Worth this morning. Hang on, he wants to talk to you."

  "Oh. Okay."

  * * *

  Parke

  While Frank Hillman was still trying to digest what I'd told him, Jon informed me that Cassie was on the phone. "Frank, I need to get this call," I told him.

  "That's fine—go ahead," Frank said. "I need to think about all this anyway."

  "I'll call you back later," I said and hung up before picking up Cassie's call.

  "Baby, are you all right?" I said.

  "Parke?" Her voice trembled.

  "Baby, I'd be there if I could. What happened?" I asked.

  "Did you know Ross had a brother?" she sniffled.

  "No, sweetheart. I didn't know that. Where is he now?"

  "He's uh, he's dead. I had to kill him. He was trying to kill Rob and Cliff. And Kent."

  I wanted to curse. I didn't. Cassie was crying already and I wasn't fucking th
ere to do anything about it.

  "Who are Kent and Cliff?" I asked.

  "Cliff is the Public Defender. You know—where I intern?"

  "All right. Who is Kent?"

  "He's uh, a werewolf detective in Birmingham. Cliff is werewolf, too. Somebody broke into Ross' old place. We were already in Birmingham, because Cliff knew the judge who was killed. We ended up at Ross' house. Ray—that's his brother's name, was in the cellar. He broke through the floor into the foyer. He was a rock demon. I had to kill him, because he tried to kill the others." She stifled a sob; I gripped the handset harder.

  "Baby, you did what you had to do to protect yourself and the ones you were with. If Ray had good intentions, he'd never have done that. He'd have introduced himself, like a civilized supernatural."

  "I know." Another sob.

  "I'm sorry I didn't call you back. Or call to begin with. I should have," I said. That's when she started sobbing continuously and set the phone down. Seconds later, the call ended. That's when I cursed.

  * * *

  Cassie

  My face was a mess when I finally stopped crying. I'd hung up on Parke because I couldn't talk any more—all I could do was sob. A chasm had opened between us and it wasn't completely due to the number of states and miles between.

  He'd shut me out, as if I were someone he dated for a few weeks and then dropped. Nice words after the events in Birmingham hadn't helped very much. It only made me realize what I missed and what he felt obligated to say.

  Stop this and start studying; class starts at nine in the morning, I reminded myself. It did. There wasn't a soul to talk to about any of this, either. Binita was a friend, but I wasn't prepared to burden her with my problems. Parke was my husband, and I didn't have a shoulder familiar enough in Alabama to cry on.

  * * *

  Cliff Young

  "Kent and two others went back to the house last night to sniff around," I told Rob. We were in a coffee shop down the street from the courthouse. I didn't want to talk about this sort of thing inside the courthouse, in case someone was listening.

  "Find anything?" Rob asked, lifting his latte and saluting me with it. His arm was healed completely and probably didn't have a bruise to show for it.

  "Everything was burned or melted. Some of it may have been on the arcane side, if you know what I mean." I sipped my own coffee and watched Rob's eyes narrow as he considered my words.

  "What the hell would Ross be doing with any of that?" Rob said after several moments went by. "He was an elemental demon. No power to do anything with that sort of thing."

  "Ross knew a lot of people," I pointed out.

  "Who, then? We have eyes on just about anybody who could cause damage with that stuff."

  "But we didn't know Ray was still alive, did we?" I said.

  "There's that," Rob agreed and nursed his latte. "We have a caseload, need I remind you? We can't go haring after every unusual mystery in the state, let alone the country."

  "We may have to bring the Chancellor in on this, and it won't sit well with him."

  "What's there to lose?" Rob asked. "Either he thinks we're nuts and there isn't another Mystic War brewing, or there is another Mystic War brewing and we're seeing the beginnings of it now. Why else would Ross want Cassie under his thumb, unless it was to protect his ass and further his cause with Shakkor Agdah, more commonly known as Black Myth?"

  "A lot of paranormals aren't going to believe it, if it's true," I said.

  "Hmmph. They weren't there during the Dark Ages, or during any of the plague pandemics," Rob muttered. "There are a few who recognize that the plague spread too fast for rats and fleas to be responsible for all of it. They'll never guess that it had help from Shakkor Agdah—especially the airborne part of it."

  "That's depressing," I said, pointing a finger at Rob. "Stop depressing me. We almost died yesterday. Give more bad news a week, at least."

  "I merely want to add this," Rob said. "I lived through that. Stood with my Prince who is now King, to bring them down before they destroyed all humans. That's what they wanted, you know—Earth for paranormals only. Humans were cattle or fodder to them—take your pick."

  "I've read the history the wolves keep," I said. "And you're still depressing me. I thought all Shakkor Agdah were killed by the late nineteenth century."

  "A few could have escaped," Rob muttered before finishing off his coffee and setting the paper cup down with a muffled thump. "It wouldn't be difficult for them to hide within small tribes in out-of-the-way places. I spoke with my King last night. He says the same."

  "Have you had contact with the fire sprites and the air sprites?"

  "We haven't gathered to discuss it, no, but the Kings and Queen are of a mind on this. It may not be only disease, this time, as you surely realize. This time, it could be disease and war, brought on by fomented hate, unrest and then focused annihilation. Once humankind is out of the way, Shakkor Agdah will seek to rule the rest of us."

  "Well, now I'm really depressed. Thanks."

  "Anytime."

  "We have to talk to the Chancellor, don't we? How do you suggest we approach him?"

  "His wife works for us, remember?"

  * * *

  Cassie

  Binita was almost breathless in her concern for me. I should have quizzed Rob on what, exactly, Cliff told her. She thought I'd been at death's door, the way she fussed over me before class started Friday morning.

  "I'm fine, I was just shaken up. They say I was going into shock after it was over, so they wanted to watch me for a few hours. Really, I'm fine," I gazed into Binita's dark eyes as sincerely as I could.

  "You look pale," Binita announced.

  Our professor walked in, hushing the crowd of law students around us. Binita turned away and focused on him. I was grateful.

  * * *

  "Kate, I'm fine. Really. Just—emotional, that's all. I didn't feel this way Christmas night after all that happened," I stumbled through my conversation with Parke's mother. She'd called the minute I'd made it home after classes that afternoon.

  "Because you had people with you, sharing that experience and supporting you," Kate's assessment was more than shrewd. "This time, you were forced to act on your own and it was a shock, in addition to leaving you to feel as if you'd been abandoned."

  "I really can't talk about it without crying," I admitted. "I was scared, but the three I was with would have died if I didn't do something." I wiped tears away. At least I wasn't sobbing, like I'd done with Parke.

  "I know, dear. You did the right thing. The Prince of Alabama has already spoken with the detective—his name is Kevin?"

  "Kent," I said.

  "Yes. That's it. Blake got a clear enough account from the detective, so there'll be no need to ask you questions about the incident. You've been cleared, as have the others, and Ray Diablo is now listed as irrevocably dead."

  "Do you think Ray was trying to take over Ross' empire? All of Ross' allies are dead, aren't they? I thought he brought everybody to Seattle for the war," My voice quavered.

  "I don't know. I think he merely wanted whatever he could steal from Ross' house before disappearing again," Kate speculated. "I think Ross had plenty of valuables inside the house, and Ray has been missing and on the run for a very long time."

  "How do you know that?" I asked.

  "I read the report Blake forwarded to Parke. It's protocol to send a copy to the Chancellor, to eliminate wrongdoing and maintain the records."

  A part of me wanted to read the report. Another part wanted to be as far away from the details as I could get. I let my shoulders sag. There was so much I didn't know about elemental etiquette and protocol that it embarrassed me.

  Yes, Ross and Daddy hadn't given me appropriate information regarding the rules and laws, because they were too busy breaking them. I'd have known they were running an illegal operation if anyone had bothered to tell me what the actual laws were.

  Everything I knew came from Aunt
Shelbie, and I think she was too afraid to tell me some of those things. People could have died—well, people had died, Shelbie among them.

  "Cassie?" Kate's voice broke into my thoughts.

  "Sorry, I'm still here," I spoke into the phone.

  "Do you want me to talk to Destiny?" she asked.

  "About this? No way," I said. "She has enough to worry about. This could bring back bad memories, too. She hardly talks about how Ross treated her after he kidnapped her in California."

  "I know. We'll wait, then, until she's had some time. It's crazy, isn't it, how last Christmas seems a lifetime ago, instead of a few weeks?"

  "Yeah."

  "Don't let this trouble you. You should concentrate on your studies instead of this," Kate said. "Louise called earlier—she says her classes and internship are going very well."

  "That's great," I said. Louise, Parke's younger sister, was studying veterinary medicine in Oregon. She would be an amazing vet; she was attending her last semester of school and scheduled to graduate in June.

  I, on the other hand, had two excruciating semesters left, after which I had no idea which way to go. Louise already had a job lined up; I would go back to Seattle to deal with a husband who'd become a stranger, almost, from the moment I boarded a plane to return to Alabama.

  I'd already whined to Kate once because he hadn't called me back. I'd called him the last time, after Rob insisted.

  Parke hadn't tried to call me back after I became so upset I couldn't talk any more. I had studying to catch up on over the weekend; I almost wished I could work on the files sitting on my intern's desk at the PD's office, just to take my mind off my personal agonies.

  * * *

  Dalton King

  "I got a call from Claude Ullery this morning," I told Morton over the phone. "He says Ray left a package at his office for us. He also says there's a rumor going around that Ray's dead. Whether he is or not may be irrelevant; Ross' house was burned to the ground on the same day Ray left the package with Claude."

  "You think he found what we wanted?" Mort asked.

  "I sure as hell hope so. We don't get it, a few people will be mighty pissed."

  "That means one of us will have to go back to Alabama, or stay in one place long enough to have it mailed."

  "I'll go back; nobody will recognize me, son," I said. "Besides, I want to see Ross' place for myself. See what kind of damage was done and if anything can be salvaged. You know Ross had a lot of stuff our friends might be interested in."