by WL Flinn
“I know we said we were the ones to call when you didn’t know who to call, but this is way beyond our ability,” I agreed.
Ashe pulled out her phone and dialed 911. “I was just walking by a building and I heard girls screaming and crying. The address is 955 Clematis.” She hung up the phone without give her name or address.
We walked back to the building staying in the shadows. About half an hour later a black and white cruiser pulled up to the front door. A uniformed cop got out and knocked on the front door. None other than George answered the door. He sported a black eye and his nose was flat and red. The cop went to shake his hand and George waved him off cradling his right hand. At least I know I hurt the bastard.
The two men talked for a couple of minutes, and George went back inside. The cop waited until George came back out with something in his hand. The cop took it, slapped George on the back and left.
“You have got to be freaking kidding me,” I nearly screamed. “George bribed him? The cops are on the take? What do we do now?” Ashe grabbed me by the sweatshirt and hustled me back to the car. She threw me into the passenger side and Penny jumped up on my lap. She looked me in the eye. “You can’t flip out here,” she said to me. “This car is not big enough for you to turn horsey.”
Ashe slipped into the driver’s seat and peeled out. If we were going for stealth, we missed it. I looked over and her skin was glowing and her nails pointy. At least I knew her reflexes would keep us safe while she was driving like Mario Andretti.
We pulled into her driveway in no time. “Okay, Penn, you need to get off me,” I wheezed. “I can’t breathe. I am thinking maybe you need a diet.”
Says the woman who has the soft, cushy lap, she replied.
“I think we need to hit up some of my contacts and call in some favors,” Ashe started.
“How can the police not care?” I put my hands in my head. “You used to work for them. I helped put that type of guy behind bars. Now they are the ones that should be in prison.”
“Let me make a couple of calls. We need to get some equipment.” She stalked into the kitchen for a little privacy.
I booted up the computer and went to Grimoire. I checked the messages for the office. There were a couple of cases more to our style: checking for cheating spouses, even checking for signs of magic. One message caught my attention. The handle was BlackHats.
We hear good things about you. You seem legit. Let’s talk someplace safe. People need us.
Ashe walked back in to the dining room. “I have calls in for some weapons. I can’t leave those girls there.” She put a glass of water in front of me. I nodded my thanks and pointed to the message.
“What do you think of this?”
We stared at the computer screen like something would jump out at us or it would begin speaking.
“A girl can never be too careful,” I told Ashe. “We don’t want to seem too interested.”
We checked out BlackHats on Grimoire. It came up with nothing. Ashe rested her head on her hand. “Look up vigilante.”
We sat back as stories of magicals who couldn’t get help were helped, sometimes violently be a group or individuals wearing black hats. “Don’t the bad guys wear black hats?” Ashe asked. “The Lone Ranger wore a white hat. Darth Vader wore black.”
“I think you have to take that up with them,” I mused.
We played around with different messages, but both of us were too put off by the cop. We didn’t trust anyone to help us.
Ashe’s phone buzzed. She looked at it. “Okay, we can pick up a little firepower.” She sounded relieved. “You do know how to shoot a gun, right?”
“I have never shot at anything alive before, but I am not sure these guys qualify for being alive.” I said. Penny put her head on my lap. I rubbed her ears and checked my watch. “I guess we need to get home.”
“I don’t want to leave those girls there any more than you do. But we can’t go in there guns ablazing without a plan. And if we can get it, some type of backup.”
I agreed. I was tired and angry. That would only lead to mistakes. Impulsively I gave Ashe a big hug. “We will find a way to help them,” I said. We both knew the cops and the state attorney could never promise a victim they would succeed in finding a perpetrator or convicting him. Neither one of us would make the promise to save those girls, but we both knew we would try our hardest.
The sun shining in my eyes woke me up. I threw a sweatshirt on over my tank top and wandered downstairs for some well-deserved coffee.
“Coolest mom ever,” SallyAnn crowed.
I squinted my eyes and tried to figure out what she was up to. Darn these 40 something eyeballs. They just didn’t focus like they used to. I went over and ruffled her hair and gave her a kiss on the top of her head.
“Mooom,” Rusty whined. “Either put a bra on or put on more layers.”
I didn’t even respond as I poured the first of hopefully many mugs of the black goodness. SallyAnn didn’t even seem to notice the bags under my eyes or my lack of being awake.
“This new job is so cool,” she said. “You are gone all night and sleep all day. It is the best.”
Suddenly on high guard, I casually looked for empty beer cans, pieces of stray clothing or anything to indicate the kids had not been angels while I was out. But everything seemed terribly, normal. I almost burst into tears.
“Are you okay, Mom?” Rusty asked. “You don’t look so hot. Well actually you look cold, but you already knew that.” I looked for something I could throw at him and pulled my sweatshirt off my chest. It isn’t like I had anything to flaunt.
“It was just a rough night,” I said. I sat heavily at the dining room table and Penny came over and put her head in my lap. “Ashe and I might have found some people who are hurting teenage girls.”
SallyAnn’s head shot up. “Do I need to worry?”
I thought about telling them the whole truth, but I didn’t want to expose them to the new dangers of my world yet. Maybe they could stay kids a little longer. “Just be careful, both of you.”
“Did you call the cops?” Rusty asked. His mind was so analytical, just like his father’s.
“I did.” I took a swallow of coffee. “But I don’t think they are going to get involved. It seems some of them are actually either helping or turning a blind eye.”
He looked at me in the eye. “Mom, you know that means you have to be extra careful. If any cops are involved, they might hurt you so they don’t get indicted.”
“That was exactly what Ashe and I said,” I told him. I didn’t tell him we were still planning how to get the girls out, just without getting caught.
“Maybe you can find good cops,” SallyAnn said. “Ashe used to work there. Maybe she knows someone.”
“Don’t you worry,” I said as I grabbed her hand. “We are already looking into who we can trust.”
Ashe and I settled into chairs around the computer. She had already poured me a coffee and added a dash of Kahlua. She already had a glass of wine. She had the keyboard in her lap and said, “Okay, what do we say?”
I took a deep breath. We weren’t really happy about this, but we had run out of time. We had to help these girls, and we couldn’t do it on our own. “Tell the BlackHats we are ready. We need to meet. Where and when?” She typed a quick note and hit return. She barely had finished typing when the reply came back. ‘Let’s meet now at the park at Royal Palm at the gazebo. 1 hour.’ Ashe raised her eyebrows at me, “Do they know where we are?”
“It looks like they know more about us than we thought,” I said. “Might as well go with it.”
We finished our drinks and hit the bathroom before we left. I figured I didn’t need to have to leave the meeting in the middle to pee. That would probably leave a bad impression. Penny grabbed her leash and met us at the door. Ashe and I looked at each other. “Can’t hurt to have a watch dog,” she said. “Come on, Pen.”
We pulled up to the park. I jumped out an
d grabbed Penny’s leash. Ashe turned into her semi-vamp form. She looked the same to most people. She kept her fangs hidden. This would give her extra speed plus we would be able to talk through Penny.
Penny sneezed. They are here, she said. I smell sparkly, and fire and water.
“Does that mean magical with fire and a magical with water?” I asked. Penny just wagged her tail.
In the gazebo were two shapes, men from the size of them. We walked up to them and took seats across from them. “Hello, ladies. Thank you for coming.” Like good dog lovers, they both held out their hands for Penny to sniff.
I looked them over. The older one was in his thirties with dark brown hair. He had broad shoulders and a trim waist. He partner was in his mid or late twenties with light brown hair. His hair fell into his eyes. He was tall and lanky. Both were well muscled and had very little body fat. I am pretty sure when they looked at me and Ashe we didn’t measure up to their expectations.
“Where are they?” I asked. The two guys looked at me.
“Where are who?” the older guy asked.
“The black hats? You guys aren’t wearing any hats?” I knew I sounded stupid, but I really did expect them to be wearing black hats either beanies or western hats or something.
The kid laughed. “Damn lady, next time I will wear one for you, okay? I’m Jim. The grumpy guy is Cal.”
“I’m Ashe and the wannabe comedienne is Sienna.” I stuck my tongue out at her. Penny sat next to Jim and he immediately began petting her. Okay, I guess he is trustworthy. This is the one that smells like water, she said.
So, Cal can manipulate fire. Grumpy and can manipulate fire. Great combination.
Ashe looked at the guys, “What have you heard about us?”
Cal looked over and said, “We hear two women have been helping out the little people, and magicals have a place to turn when the cops won’t help.”
“It might be true,” I said trying to be casual. Had we really started to get a reputation that quickly? Was that a good thing or a bad thing?
“There is more,” he said dropping his voice. He looked over his shoulders to verify we were still alone. I knew we were, or Penny would have told me. “We hear one of you is a vampire.” He barely suppressed a shudder at the idea.
“Really?” Ashe said. “You play with fire, and you are grossed out by a little blood?” She let her fangs drop a little. Jim stared at her lips and couldn’t move.
Cal shook his head. “I didn’t tell you I was a fire elemental,”
I smiled. “We have our own reports.” I put my hand on Penny’s head. Thank you so much, girl, I said to her privately.
Penny dropped her ears and started to growl. Ashe cocked her head listening to something I couldn’t hear in this form. “We have company.” Cal didn’t react. “Those are my guys. I have several wolf shifters who are wandering the area to make sure we don’t get disturbed.
“So, let me get to the point,” he went on. “I think we can help each other. We know something is going on with magicals, but we don’t know what. We think we know who, but our sources are limited. Our firepower is not.”
Ashe and I shared a glance. This is what we needed. We had information, but no firepower. “Okay, here is what we know,” I began. “Teenage girls are being taken. They have all had the Sickness, that we know of. They appear to have magical powers. We think they are or were being held in a warehouse-type building off Clematis. But when we called the cops, they just went over and George gave them something and they went away. Nothing happened.”
“Who is George?” Jim interrupted.
“Well, all we know is there is George, who seems to be a mid-level guy. Shawn is a twenty-something low-level guy. They report to a guy named Mr. Carlotta. They seemed scared of him.”
Cal asked us both questions about the layout of the building and the guards. We answered as best we could, but we didn’t know much.
“I think we need to get over there, now,” he said.
“That works for us,” Ashe agreed. “Just the thought of those girls chained in that room for one more minute has been eating away at me. We want action.”
We piled into his big SUV and he didn’t even question it when Penny jumped in. She looked at me and confirmed, “The wolves have been in here before. A little more hair won’t matter.”
“Will your guys be following us?” I asked. As much as I wanted those girls out of there now, I didn’t think four of us were any better off than the two of us to take on the guards.
“This is a reconnaissance trip more than anything,” he said gruffly. “But if we can get them out, we damn sure will.”
The four of us stayed to the shadows around the warehouse. The building was dark and lifeless. Penny sniffed the air. No one is here.
“I think they are gone,” I said.
We split up into pairs and walked by the front door as if we were friends on a night out. Jim ran over quickly and grabbed the door handle. It was locked. Ashe locked her arm in his dragged him around the corner to the window she had seen earlier. I watched her skin get the shine of her vampire-self and her fingernails turned into sharp claws. She used them to help climb up to the window she had peeked into before.
“You know, you could have just asked for a leg up,” Jim whispered.
“I don’t see anything. I think they are gone.” She jumped back down.
We walked down the back of the building to a double door. Cal looked around and took a run and broke into them. I guess there were advantages to being a big, beefy guy, I thought. The screech of broken wood and strained metal would make it clear we were there. We were definitely not subtle.
Penny took in one sniff. No one is here.
I looked around. “They are all gone,” I said. I had my little penlight out. Suddenly flames lit up Cal’s hands lighting up the room.
“Nice trick,” I said.
He grinned at me. “I can be handy to have around.”
We walked around and Ashe picked up the shackles attached to the floor. Tears were streaming down her face. “We’re too late. We tipped them off. This is our fault.” She turned and grabbed me by the shoulders. “Do you understand? We caused this!”
I looked at the chains on the floor. “I know,” I mumbled. “We screwed up.”
Jim turned and looked at the two of us. “Are you done with the pity party yet? We have girls to find. This isn’t getting us anywhere.”
Penny had been sniffing around and let Ashe and I know the wolves were coming in. A few came in as beautiful wolves easily twice the size of ‘regular’ wolves, and a couple of guys came in wearing sweats. I guess I wasn’t the only one with clothing issues.
A tall man went up to Cal. “Looks like they left quickly,” he said. “They were organized. There aren’t many clues left. If we run into them again, though, we will know them.” He pointed to his nose. Penny sneezed in agreement.
“Do we think all the girls were magical?” I asked.
Jim turned to me, “After speaking with the parents, we think they were targeting young, female teens who were showing signs of magic. Other than regular trafficking, we don’t know what they wanted with them.”
I worked in the sex crimes division of the State Attorney’s Office. A sinking pit formed in my stomach.
“Hey boss,” one of the shifters called. We walked back to a pile of papers. “Most of these are useless,” she said. “But this one is a website that seems interesting.” She held up the paper and then held up her phone. It reminded me I would have to ask her privately as a shifter where she put her phone.
The site had a date, a time and a phone number to call to arrange for bidding protocols. My heart sank. It didn’t take much to think about what or who we were bidding on. Cal yelled, “Who has a burner phone?” One virtually magically appeared in his hand. He shoved it into my hand.
“They won’t know your voice yet. I am too well known. Agree to everything and find out about wiring instructions or wha
t we need.”
I gulped and nodded. He handed the phone and I called. A brusk male voice answered, “Yeah.”
“I, uh, need to find out about bidding,” I stammered and my voice shook. I definitely sounded out of my league. I took a deep breath and started again. “I need to find out your protocols for bidding,” I said in a stronger voice.
“Who is this?” he demanded.
“A fan. I have a piece of paper stating I am eligible to come and bid, but I need to contact your punk ass to do it. So, what do I need to do?”
He laughed and asked for my bidding bank account number. I gave him my financial info and he gave me an address. He was about to hang up and I stopped him. “Is the merchandise, um, prime?”
He said, “This merchandise is very fresh. Very well cared for and ‘untouched’.” The way he said it sent cold chills down my back. I was pretty sure that meant we were talking about the girls.
“Since this is my first time to one of these auctions,” I said, “I know this is going to sound like a girlie question, but what is the attire? I wouldn’t want to insult our host.”
The voice on the other side acted like this was a common question. “We prefer black tie, but there will be all types there.”
“You have been very helpful,” I said and hung up.
“We’re in,” I told everybody. “Oh crap. We’re in. Now what?” Cal looked me over.
“Now we go shopping,” he said. One of his crew came up and said. “We will finish up here, but I don’t see anything else. If we find anything, I will call.”
Ashe agreed to help me with my hair and makeup. She was going to tail us all evening, so she was dressed in a black silk pantsuit. Her dark hair in a low ponytail to keep out of her way.
I looked in the mirror. She had spiked my gray hair to give me some “style” since usually it was so straight it pretty much just laid there. Cal picked out a light pink shear top with a black lace cami under it and a calf length black stretch velvet skirt had a slit up the side. That way, if I had to move, I could. I really wanted to add a knife sheath to my thigh, but since I was useless with a knife, it wouldn’t help. There was no way to add a gun without the bulk showing. I was painfully aware I really needed to work on my self-defense classes.
