|
|
|
Chapter 2
Lian stared at him, strangely. The Agency building had always been a safe haven for them. Why would it be dangerous? What could possibly hurt them in there? “David… why do you think that?”
“I don’t know, Li.” He said, shaking his head. “I just, have a bad feeling.”
“I trust your instincts, David, I do, but I don’t feel any impending doom.” She paused, scenting the air. “And nothing looks or smells out of place. Could you be mistaken?”
“It’s possible, I have been wrong before, or interpreted signs wrong. But something… something tells me it would be a really bad idea to go in there right now.” David peered at her, at the expression of worry on her face. “Maybe I am mistaken. I’m probably just shaken up from before… still seeing monsters everywhere…” He chuckled mirthlessly and started back up the stairs.
Lian hung back a minute, frowning. Maybe he was right. Maybe they were walking right into something big and dark and bad. In that case… Lian would be right beside her partner when he faced it. She followed him up the stairs.
David opened the big double doors heading into the lobby and walked through fearlessly, head held high, no sign of his earlier distress. Lian followed him as quickly as she could.
The lobby was the lobby of any office building around America, polished floor, some chairs, a few potted plants, and a receptionist’s desk at the far end of the room, with two shiny silver elevators to the left of it, and a large ebony door to the right. The floor was made of midnight blue stone; with veins of silver, and the furniture was black leather, the plants some nondescript fern.
The receptionist was a werelynx, a timid young blonde despite the power of her animal form. She ducked her head in greeting to them, never once making eye contact as she opened one of the elevators for them and told their handler they were coming.
The elevator opened again on the thirteenth floor, to reveal rows and rows of black ebony desks upon a white marble floor. On the west side of the room was wall to ceiling windows, looking over the city, and on the other side were the doors of private offices, with windows peering out into the “agent pool”. Everyone in this room was either a handler or an agent, all working on various cases.
They strode over to the door at the far left of the room, and David knocked gently on the door. Lian found that her mouth was dry, and that her stomach was knotted in anticipation. The door swung open, revealing the familiar office of Jack, their handler, or boss. The office had powder blue walls, and a sand-colored carpet. His desk was sprawling mahogany, and was covered in papers.
The sight of Jack made Lian smile automatically, even as her stomach knot tightened. He had short black hair; his suit was rumpled, as if he had pulled an all-nighter, again. His tie was colorful and looked like a clown threw up on him, not surprising, given Jack’s fondness for strange looking ties. His face was pale, nondescript, nothing out of the ordinary. He had one of those faces that was neither ugly nor handsome, just… forgettable. He greeted them warmly enough, his dark brown eyes sparkling.
Jack was a were-wolf, beta in the local pack, second to only the Alpha. His familiar, musky scent greeted Lian as well, and it was that scent that started to ease her mind. Jack wouldn’t allow anyone, or anything, to harm his favorite charges.
“Winchester, Johnson.” He said, a slow smile spreading across his face. “Before we talk business, there is someone I’d like you to meet.” He gestured to the chair across from him to a woman. Lian blinked. She had looked around the room the minute they had come in, and she had not noticed this nameless woman across from her boss. Meaning this woman had not only masked her sight, but her smell and the sound of her heart beat as well. This meant she had to be a witch, fey or demon of some sort, in order to create a glamour that advanced.
“This is Maureen Skylar, an old friend.” Maureen was a woman in her late twenties, with deep, almost endless green eyes. Not just green, but a thousand different hues of green, dancing with a kind of mirth, the dominant one depending on the light. Right now it was the color of pine trees, a kind of forest green. Her hair was a luscious honeyed blonde that shimmered in the artificial light of Jack’s office. Her lips were full and red, and her face was that of a supermodel’s, to go along with the supermodel body. Her sweater was angora, and colored the same as her eyes. Under that was a pair of black jeans and boots bedecked her boots.
David felt the same dread in the pit of his stomach as he had before, but he didn’t show it. He didn’t trust her, and he wouldn’t give her a chance to harm him. He put up all his mental shields.
For Lian, it was something else entirely. Instinctively, at first, she liked Maureen, which was strange because she never liked anyone right off the bat, not even David. This made her suspicious. That, and the scent of magick that surrounded her like cheap perfume, the scent of blood, burning roses and cinnamon. A scent so thick, it coated her tongue, refusing to leave her. Maureen was very powerful.
“Maureen, dear, I proudly present the NPIB’s two finest agents, the Lioness and the Angel, Lian Winchester, and David Johnson.” Jack finished, and Maureen nodded to each of them before holding out her hand.
“It is a pleasure to meet both of you. Jack has told me so much.” Her voice was clipped and her accent smacked faintly of Oxford English.
Lian eyed the hand suspiciously, and looked into David’s eyes, conveying her feelings with a look. He also looked vaguely suspicious, but more disturbed then anything. Of course, you’d have to know him really well in order to tell he felt anything at all. Nevertheless, he took her hand.
“Then, if seems you have the advantage, Ms. Skylar.” David replied, before bowing over her hand to kiss the back of it. Maureen blinked, seemingly put off guard, a shocked expression flitting over her face for half a second before her cordial demeanor was back in place. “For we have heard nothing of you.”
Lian sat down on the arm of the plush leather couch by the door, observing this. Watching this display left her with a bad taste in her mouth, and faint feelings of jealousy. When David came up, he looked at her strangely, and she looked away, remembering one of his secondary powers was empathy, fighting not to blush. It was really hard to hide things around psychics.
“Oh, me.” She said to him, completely ignoring Lian. “There is nothing really special about me. But, I heard that you two were the ones that exterminated the nest down on East Washington. Impressive for ones so young. You are what, sixteen?”
“Eighteen, Ms. Skylar.” David answered just as genially, speaking for them both while Lian stood back, bristling. “And Lian is only seventeen.”
“Impressive.” She muttered to herself. “Very impressive.” Jack beamed at her, and then at his charges.
“Nothing special, you say?” Lian said finally. “Ms. Skylar, how humble you must be. You must be quite special for the scent of magick to cling to you like it does. What are you, if it is not to bold to ask. Witch? Half-demon? Fey?”
Maureen’s eyes narrowed as she considered Lian very carefully. “Ms. Skylar is the Secretary of Preternatural Affairs.” Jack said nervously, actually sweating, trying to undo any insult Lian may have given to their important visitor.
“That still doesn’t answer my question.” Lian said as she crossed her arms over her chest, simultaneously making David laugh and thwarting Jack’s plan to calm Ms. Skylar down.
“Lian…” he said, instead, warning her to stop with the questions.
Maureen held up a hand to stop his words. “It is alright Jack. The girl is just curious.” To Lian she said; “I am a mutt. My mother was a Sidhe lady, my father, a demon. He raped her outside the Sidhe mound, and my mother, in her shame, gave me up when I was born. I was taken in by a young witch and her husband, who found that he was infertile, and they so wanted a baby girl of their own.” She smirked. “Does that answer your question, child?”
Lian just sat there, her mouth drawn into a line, considering Maureen. After a while Maureen turned to Jack. “I must be going now, Jack; there are appointments I cannot miss. Thank you for your hospitality.” She nodded to both David and Lian as she left the room.
As soon as Maureen had left the room, Jack turned on Lian, berating her for her bluntness. “What was that all about?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“I wished to know why I was feeling such vibes around her.” Lian said plainly, not knowing exactly what she did wrong. David just smiled wanly, and fell into the plush couch by the door.
“She was not a suspect; you were not here to interrogate her…” Jack just shook his head. “It seems that you need to learn some tact.”
“But… David had a…” Lian started, but stopped abruptly when David placed a hand on her thigh. She looked down at him and, in reading his expression, shut up. Until we know what’s going on, it said, Until we know we can trust everyone here, we can’t tell them about that. Who knows whether or not they’ve been compromised? It also told her that he didn’t trust Maureen Skylar anymore then she did. It made her feel better to know that her partner felt the same way she did about Jack’s “old friend”. “I was just curious.” She amended.
Jack just smiled and shook his head. “Which, I guess is why you are such a good operative. So, how did your mission go?”
“Quite well.” David said, sitting up straight. “We eradicated all the vampires with minimal loss of civilian property.”
“In other words,” Lian said, rolling her eyes. “We burned up the nest, and a few of the surrounding buildings might have been scorched. Just a little bit, though.”
Jack sighed. “Lian, I told you to be more careful with public and civilian property. We can’t have another Milan.” David sniggered at this, looking duly chastened when she glared at him.
In Milan, Lian and David had been on the trail of an drug smuggling ring, the drug smugglers being fey, and smuggling what was commonly known as Venus’ Laughter, an aphrodisiac that affected everyone, human, vamp, lycan, and fey. Everyone. And could be smoked, thus inhaled, taken intravenously, or eaten if baked into something, or mixed with wine. It caused someone to be taken over by lust, so they would do almost anyone. It’s commonly used as a date rape drug, a quite successful one too, which pissed Lian off all the more. She ran into the run-down apartment where it was being brewed, and Changed into were form, her half-lion, half-human form, and she rampaged, knocking men unconscious and then throwing them into a pile, mercilessly. Then, she placed a bomb in the corner of the basement, threw the men over her broad shoulders, and ran like hell. When the bomb went off, it blew up two and a half city blocks, mercifully empty at ten in the morning. Only one died, and it was one of the bad guys, but many more were injured. After that, Lian had been placed on probation for two months, and almost asked to “turn in her badge.”
“Ah, but Jake, this wasn’t my fault, this time. David set those bombs, David blew it up.” Lian replied, a smirk growing on her face as David glowered at her.
Jake raised his eyebrows at David. “Doesn’t Lian usually do the fighting, and David man the wheel?”
“Yeah, but we decided to… uh, change it up a bit.” David said, his face growing a little red, so one could almost believe he was blushing.
“What he means, is we had it on good authority that the Master of this little nest had an animal to call, but, we didn’t know what. So, instead of wasting time by digging, interrogating and endless stakeouts, you know, everything your supposed to do first, while in the meantime, the bad guy runs away to another town, he decided we should play it safe, and I should wait in the car. I think he just wanted to know what it felt like to blow a building up.” She looked down at her partner, aware that David still had his hand on her thigh. “It’s great, isn’t it?”
With each word, David’s scowl grew darker, until Lian was sure that if looks could kill, she would defiantly be dead.
“I see…” Jake said, staring at the both of them incredulously. “So, David, did you satisfy your curiosity?”
David scowled at him as well. “There was no curiosity involved. That is Lian’s department. I was merely doing what I thought was in the best interests of the mission.”
Lian chuckled. “We know that, David. We’re just ribbin’ ya.” He raised an eyebrow at her in confusion. “You know… making fun of you.”
“Ah.”
“So, all joking aside, please you two, try to keep the property damage to a minimum.” Jack said, settling back into his chair.
“Will do, chief.” Lian replied brightly. “So, do you have another assignment for us?”
“Not at the moment.” Jack said, turning back to the stack of papers on his desk. Lian didn’t bother to hide her disappointment; perhaps they should minimize the property damage. “Why don’t you go home, get some rest, you know, take a vacation. I’ll see you dark and late next Monday night.”
Considering today was Monday, that would give them an entire week off. Lian stared at him, incredulous. “Jack, an entire week? What did we do wrong?”
Jack laughed at that, a warm chuckle. “Wrong? I thought it was a good thing, me giving you a week off.”
“But, what will we do? I can’t sit around my apartment for an entire week! I’ll die of boredom!” Lian said.
“Well, then why don’t you take a vacation, Lian? Somewhere nice, the Sahara desert or something?” David said, giving her an amused glance.
“Ha ha… Sahara desert, lion. So funny, David.” She glared at him.
“Well, I’m not joking. Get out of here, you two. I don’t want to see your faces around here ‘till next week Monday night.”
Grumbling, Lian exited his office, David following swiftly and silently after. “An entire week.” She groaned on the elevator ride down. “How will I survive?”
“Well, you could catch up on all those classes you missed while on the case.” David said. Despite working at the NPIB, they still had to pass high school, just like everyone else, but they were enrolled at a special school, for kids already in the NPIB programs.
“So, you’re saying you’re all caught up, despite being on stakeouts for the past three nights, and despite doing about two full days of research before that.” Lian said, looking at him as if he had just grown an extra head.
“Yes.” Lian gaped at him, not believing his words one bit. “It’s not all that hard, you see…” He went on.
He was interrupted by the sound of a cell phone ringing to the tune of “Eine Kline Nacht Musik.” Lian rolled her eyes at the clichéd song, knowing full well it didn’t belong to her.
Sure enough, David pulled the still ringing cell phone from his pocket, after doing the customary search-rapidly-for-cell-phone-dance. He flipped it open and answered with a formal “David Johnson Speaking.”
An unfamiliar female voice spoke on the other line. “Mr. Johnson.” She said, her voice thick with an undistinguishable accent. “I am calling concerning the origins of your birth. Doubtless, you have been wondering about your heritage, and perhaps have even been doing some digging, most likely to no avail. I believe I have some documents that will help you, if you are willing to do something for me.” David’s expression grew stony, almost expressionless, save for the slight widening of his eyes, the slight change in his heart rate, and the faint sheen of sweat that was appearing at his temples, that indicated surprise or shock, and even dread. His throat grew dry, and he was unable to respond.
“If you do not wish to know, if you believe ignorance is bliss, simply forget I ever spoke to you, and go on with your life. But, if by chance you wish to know about yourself, you will meet my associate, Mikal, at the Dark Sun Café, Thursday night at midnight. Seat yourself outside, Mikal will find you. Be warned, you may not like what you discover. And, do not speak of this to anyone; including your dear partner, Lian, was it? You would not want anything to happen to her.” With that, the mystery woman hung up.
Lian frowned, watching him listening to the woman on the phone. She could only hear the voice; the words were too run together for her to make out. But, it must have been bad news, for his heart had sped up, and he had started to sweat. By all counts, he must have been alarmed. “Hey.” She said, as he hung up. “Is everything okay?”
“Huh?” he said, his voice a little breathy. “Oh, right, everything’s fine.”
His tone clearly said, I don’t want to talk about it, so Lian changed the subject. He was still slightly unnerved by the time they had reached the ground floor.
As he walked to the car he had left in the parking lot last night, she placed her hand on his shoulder, allowing her concern to show on her face, to come across in her voice. “Hey, David. If you need anything, even if it’s just to talk… well, you know my number. Its not like I’ll be doing anything worth bothering.”
He nodded and promised to take her up on that offer before he jumped in his car and got out of there like the devil was at his heels. She stood there, watching him drive off, the knot she thought herself rid of coming back three-fold.
She got into her car and started home.
((I've noticed no one's commenting. Thats okay. I'll put this up anyway.))
Dante Alicheery · Sat Dec 09, 2006 @ 02:23am · 0 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|