“We’ve got to figure this out.” I jerked my thumb at Olivia. “Before she gets any bitchier than she already is.”
Adam laughed and I tried to hide a grin.
Olivia grabbed a rubber band from her desk, loaded a good-sized eraser in it, and aimed it at me, her eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”
“Kidding.” I held my hands up and caught the eraser that Olivia let fly. Her first experience with the paranorm world had been with a nasty Sprite. She’d had no use for them after that and more than disliked the slimy beings.
Almost as bad as I hate Zombies.
No, not even close. Nobody can hate anything worse than I hate Zombies.
Olivia considered the black permanent marker again as I focused on Adam. I picked up the growing file folder from the last week of Sprite-related “mischief.” I groaned. “They’re practically tearing up the city. Manhattan will never be the same if we don’t get them under control.”
“Still can’t believe what they did to Yankee Stadium.” Adam frowned and shook his head as he mentioned the disaster at the baseball park. “Sacrilege.”
“Send them all to Otherworld.” Olivia pulled her slim XPhone out of the holster at her waist. Using a stylus, she started to jot down notes on the phone regarding the Sprite case. “Let the Great Guardian take care of them.”
“Good idea.” I rolled my eyes at her. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Adam shoved his hands deeper into his jacket pockets. “Without starting an extraterrestrial alien panic, how are they going to explain last night?”
Olivia snorted. “That’s nothing compared to what they did to the Met.”
I felt like banging my head against my desk and Adam clenched his jaw. “What’s the point to all this sh—crap that these things are doing?”
Adam always did his best not to use “colorful language” in front of me. If he only knew—when I let loose with Drow curses, they made human expletives sound like making sweet cooing sounds to a baby.
“What we do know is that Sprites despise leadership.” I frowned and concentrated on the problem instead of the crazy things that the Sprites had been up to. “Everything they’ve been doing has to have been organized, though. There must be a reason for all of this.” I picked up a pencil and tapped it on a sticky note on my desk. “Now to figure out what that is.”
“What’s our next step?” Adam got to his feet. “I’m ready to bust these little SOBs.”
“My next step is what happens.” I stood and grabbed my Dolce 香 Gabbana handbag from a cubbyhole in my desk. “It’s time for me to visit the Sprites in lockup again.”
“Why the hell can’t we go to the paranorm lockup with you?” Olivia asked with a scowl. “Who made up that lame-ass rule?”
The Great Guardian, of course. Every paranorm who knew about the Paranorm Center was sworn to secrecy about its existence or whereabouts. The only thing Olivia and Adam knew was that there was a paranorm lockup somewhere in the city.
“Can’t help it.” I held up my hands in a pleading gesture. “Just one of those things.”
Olivia toyed with a rubber band. “We know everything else.”
With a shake of his head, Adam said, “I doubt that.”
“It’s just not like Nyx to keep secrets from us.” Olivia flipped another eraser at me.
Adam looked at me, understanding in his warm brown eyes. “Everyone has to keep one secret or another. Just the way things work.”
* * *
Sunshine warmed my fair skin as Joshua and I walked from the Upper East Side and entered Central Park. We headed toward the Alice in Wonderland unbirthday party sculpture, at the northern end of Conservatory Water.
When I was a youngling in the Drow Realm, my mother would read human fairy tales and fantasy stories to me, and Alice in Wonderland had been one of my favorites.
We were on our way to interrogate the Sprites in lockup. The numerous miscreants were being held in detention within the confines of the PC, which was deep below Central Park.
As a Shadow Shifter, Joshua didn’t make a sound when he moved or walked. That was quieter than I was used to in another paranorm being. Elves and some Fae are completely silent when they want to be. Shadow Shifters can be just as quiet.
The PC housed our version of a legal system, which included the Paranorm Council. I never considered it much of a legal system. It was more like a medieval version of New York City bureaucrats.
Peacekeepers across the earth Otherworld held the paranorm world together, not the Paranorm Council. The Pit headquartered New York City Peacekeepers. Rodán, of course, served as Proctor over all New York City Peacekeepers. That included Night Trackers, Soothsayers, Healers, and Gatekeepers. Multiple races served as Peacekeepers including Dopplers, Werewolves, Shifters, and Fae.
Night Trackers were some of the few beings allowed in the Paranorm Center since we were the elite of paranorm law enforcement. This was Joshua’s first visit to the NYC Paranorm Center since his arrival from Australia.
When we reached the Alice in Wonderland unbirthday party sculpture, Joshua looked on in amusement as I walked counterclockwise the circumference the characters inhabited. As I did, I recited the engraved nonsensical poem to open the door. “ ‘ ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe.’ ”
Joshua grinned, the first sign of humanity from him that morning. “And what might that mean?”
“No idea.” I walked to the glamour-hidden entrance beneath the toadstool. “Comes from Lewis Carroll’s poem called ‘The Jabberwocky.’ It’s not in any paranorm language I’m familiar with.”
But then I wasn’t exactly familiar with the intricacies of more languages than those of Light and Dark Elves. Olivia was the linguistics expert and spoke several earthbound languages proficiently. She’d been learning Drow from me over the almost two years that we’d been partners. I wasn’t sure if her learning Drow was a good idea or not, considering she’d picked up several Drow curse words too.
When we started down the steps beneath the sculpture, torches flared to life along the walls. The cold of the underground took away the warmth of the sun and cooled my skin.
My long black hair fell over my shoulders as I looked downward at the spiraling stone steps and held my handbag close to my side. Because we were headed to the detention center, I had chosen to wear black jeans and a cashmere sweater, forgoing my usual designer clothing.
We jogged down the steps, which led us almost as deep as the belowground realm of the Dark Elves in Otherworld. When we reached the enormous circular main foyer, we went through one of five archways, then passed the huge chamber used by the Paranorm Council. The Paranorm Center was out of a medieval picture book of a dungeon, only about twenty times larger. Some things never change.
“Security is tight.” Joshua nodded in approval, no doubt recognizing that some of the shadows were not shadows at all. They were Shadow Shifters, Joshua’s race.
I looked at the Dryads who pressed their faces out from their wooden columns. “After the Metamorph incident, they had to come up with something.”
During the Metamorph op, the Dryads, who had previously been the only security, had blown it big-time. Metamorphs were worse than Sprites, and that was definitely saying something. Metamorphs could mirror any human and use it to their advantage. The beings had no redeeming qualities. None.
Well, at least none that any of us knew of. All of the Metamorphs in New York City that we’d ever come across had been seriously bad news.
“There’s another good reason for the higher level of security, too.” I paused as a Dryad in one of the columns partially came out. Like all Dryads her smile was wicked.
I cleared my throat and looked away from her to Joshua. “Archives are kept in another part of the Paranorm Center. Important information that needs to be well-guarded.”
“Such as?” Joshua’s expression and his voice remained even but there was curiosity in his intense eyes.
&nb
sp; “Along with ‘top secret’ events, information is kept on every paranorm species,” I said. “Knowledge that is kept from all paranorms for a reason.”
Joshua looked away from me and stared down the hall. “Our operation in the Catskills would be considered ‘Top Secret.’ ”
My hands suddenly felt dirty, just thinking about the whole case. I wiped my palms on my jeans. “Everything about that op should never come to light.”
Joshua made a grumbling sound of agreement.
I pointed to the council chamber’s closed heavy wooden doors as we passed. “Where the council meets.” It must be in session because of the pair of black-robed Shifter guards standing to either side of the door.
Joshua focused on the door with an intense expression. “How many serve on the Paranorm Council in New York City?”
“Five.” I counted them off on my fingers. “One female represents Dopplers, a Werewolf male represents all Weres, and another female council member, a Siren, serves for every race of Fae.” I wasn’t about to get into all of the Fae races. “Then there’s a male Shifter who—”
Joshua scowled as he interrupted me. “I have heard of this. It is unacceptable for a Shifter to represent Shadow Shifters as well.”
“Don’t get me started,” I grumbled. “A male of the Light Elves serves for the Dark Elves as well. The Drow aren’t too happy about it.
“Vampires and Witches have been trying to get on the council, but they have been voted out every time.” I glanced at the doors as I spoke. “Unfortunately the council still needs to work on things like ‘cooperation,’ and ‘working together for the good of the many.’ ”
Yeah, right.
Joshua kept his normally long strides just a little shorter for me. I’m tall at five-eight, but he had me beat by quite a few inches in height. Only the guards were in the great hall as Joshua and I walked through it. The guards and whatever else that might be watching us.
As we were passing the heavy wooden doors of the council chamber, both doors flung open. They slammed against the walls, barely missing the guards who stood on either side of the door.
Instinctively I reached into my handbag for my Kahr as the pounding noise reverberated through the giant hall. My hand closed around the weapon’s grip but I didn’t take the Kahr out of my handbag.
My heart took another leap as a Vampire strode through the archway, fury on his pale but strong, aristocratic features. Behind him, through the great doorway, I caught a glimpse of unrest among the five council members and heard their angry chatter.
The Vamp faced the five paranorm representatives. “You will regret your decision to not allow Vampires on the council.” His words rang throughout the great hall as he repeated, “You will regret it.”
“Volod—” one of the council members started to say.
But the Vampire had already raised one hand. The doors slammed shut so loudly it felt as though the thick stone beneath our feet vibrated and my teeth chattered.
So this was Volod. As far as I knew, he was the last remaining Master Vampire in New York State and he was lord over all of New York City’s Vampires. When every one of the other Masters had been destroyed in the Paranorm Rebellion sometime in the nineteenth century, Volod had taken absolute control.
It had been too late for the Vampires, though. He was practically a king with no people to reign over. His kind had almost been wiped out completely. I wondered how many Vampires had been “made” since the Rebellion, like Chuck.
Volod’s long hair streamed over his shoulders. His black Dockers and black polo shirt stretched snugly across his swimmer’s build as his long strides took him toward Joshua and me.
I almost stepped back but forced myself to hold my ground. Volod’s cold black eyes met mine. For the first time when facing a Vampire I felt a chill roll through me and I barely kept from shuddering.
As a Tracker I was used to dealing with his kind. Not one Vamp had ever made me feel the way I did right then … like he would easily have torn my head off, ripped my heart from my chest, and eaten it while my vision faded in my last moments on this earth Otherworld.
Maybe I felt that way because it was daytime and I was in my human form, without my complete strength and abilities as Drow. My insides quivered as he walked past us. Threads of unease twined in my belly.
Volod left behind the bitter smell of anger and a Vampire’s strong odor of graveyard dirt.
As a Vampire, for him to be up during the day was strange. No doubt he’d ventured out because the council meeting was during the daylight hours—probably to keep Vampires from attending. I didn’t believe any Vampire but a Master Vampire could safely see at least some light of day without damage to them.
Guess that little ruse, to hold a meeting during daylight hours so that Vampires couldn’t attend, hadn’t worked. Likely Volod had taken one of the dank underground passageways that stretched out beneath the city like a spiderweb.
Joshua and I looked at each other after Volod passed. Joshua jerked his thumb in the direction Volod had just vanished. “Who is that?” Joshua sounded more bored than agitated unlike me.
“His name is Volod and he’s the New York Master Vampire.” I started walking and Joshua fell into place beside me. “The way he just stalked out of the council meeting can’t be a good thing.”
FIVE
Definitely not a good thing. The Master Vampire had stalked out of the council meeting in a way that left no doubt in my mind that he was serious about the Council regretting their decision.
My skin crawled, like grubs wiggling on my body.
I looked up at Joshua, mentally shook off the creepy feeling, and shrugged. “I should take into account that the Council fights regularly and pretty much accomplishes nothing. Rodán and the Night Trackers are the ones who take care of business.” And we did.
As Proctor, Rodán took direction from the Great Guardian herself. From the first time she interfered—helped—I called her the GG. She ticks me off and has since I lived belowground in Otherworld. I’m probably going to end up in Underworld for my lack of reverence for her.
Joshua said, “Your Council. What does it do?”
“Very little,” I said under my breath. “They don’t accomplish much of anything. Peacekeepers do all of the work.”
“It’s the same where I come from,” Joshua said with a smirk. “Hours behind doors but little results.”
I gave a nod in the direction we were heading. “The Paranorm Task Force is great, though.”
Primarily Dopplers ran the PTF. Somehow the fact that Dopplers changed into one animal form made them less flighty, more responsible than Shifters who tended to shift with whatever mood they were in.
Dopplers had a knack for cleaning up “messes” that we Trackers left behind, as well as hauling paranorms who broke our laws off to elemental-magic-treated jails. Where we were headed now.
We had to walk down a long, expansive hallway to the very end where it was dark with flickering shadows cast by two torches. I wondered if Joshua felt at home around plain old shadows.
Stairs wound deeper belowground. I scrunched my nose at the stench that grew worse the closer we got to the detention center.
“Too bad Dopplers don’t clean the place as well as they handle roping up the bad guys we neutralize.” I glanced at Joshua. He appeared deep in thought, so I didn’t bother to say anything else to him.
Dopplers were also excellent in assisting in making sure magical disasters were erased as best as possible. They sure did a bad job of keeping the place clean, though.
That thought was reaffirmed as we entered what might be considered the administrative office of the PTF.
Crumpled papers surrounded a wastebasket like snowballs on the dirt floor. The basket itself was overloaded with paper plates, plastic utensils, and unfinished meals—and more paper snowballs.
Three scratched and marred wood desks were crowded into the place. One of the desks was occupied by a male Doppler. GREG was
embroidered on his blue jumpsuit. Greg had a big belly, buggy blue eyes, and skin so pale that it matched the paper snowballs on the floor.
“Could really use some Shifter cleaners in here,” I muttered under my breath. It was a useless thought because there’s too much animosity between the races. I would have been laughed at if I even suggested it.
The place smelled of rat poison and stale food along with the stench of way too many paranorms crammed in one location. In a place like this, all the scents of different paranorms meshed together can be knock-you-on-your-butt overwhelming.
I ran my fingers along my collar as I looked down the passageway leading to the cells. I dropped my hand away as I focused my attention on the buggy-eyed Doppler who was sitting behind the smallest desk in the cramped room. I had a feeling his animal form would be something with eyes as buggy as his human ones.
“Nyx Ciar. I’m a paranormal private investigator.” I held out my hand to the Doppler, but he didn’t take it. What a jerk. I gestured with the same hand to my partner for the day. “This is Joshua, a Night Tracker. We’re here to interview the Sprites.”
The Doppler chuckled, his belly jiggling like Olivia’s huge boobs did when she ran. “All of them?” he asked with clear amusement. “Let’s see your creds.”
I kept my expression polite as I showed him my paranorm PI credentials.
Greg grabbed a set of keys and sort of hop-jumped down the hallway. Maybe he was a gray tree frog in animal form. Dopplers could be just about any type of creature, including amphibians.
Species from Otherworld never bothered to keep up with the times. Things stayed as medieval as they could be. Just a few examples were the decrepit stone walls and floor, and the hissing and spitting torches that were interspersed along the passageway Greg led us down.
As we passed cells, I recognized a lot of paranorms that I had taken down as a Tracker, but they didn’t recognize me in my human form. Saved me from hearing what would have been plenty of curses as I walked through.
Instead I was on the receiving end of multiple propositions and comments about my attributes. It took a lot of willpower not to respond to each creep with a good kick or punch.
Vampires Not Invited: A Night Tracker Novel Page 4
