Demigod Down (24 page)

“Indeed I am.” I wished Jerry was still here.
I trusted him. I was undecided if I trusted old violet eyes.

I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing the guy
at the phone store was terrified of us or not, but it made getting
in and out very efficient.

We walked over to the mage’s shop, which
advertised itself as a herb emporium, according to the sign painted
across the glass window. Everything looked delicate as Blake and I
crossed the threshold and I was slightly worried about touching
anything. I was also instantly captivated by all the shiny
objects.

“Blake,” the mage greeted, coming out from
behind a beaded curtain in the back as the bell announced our
presences. “I thought I would be seeing you again.”

“Mae, this is Olivia. We were hoping to ask
you a few questions regarding the shackles you freed me from,”
Blake stated professionally.

Mae smiled and said, “Please come into my
office.” She turned around as the beads rustled against each
other.

Blake and I shared a look before I shrugged
and we followed her. It was far darker in the back room. There was
a small circular table with a crystal ball elegantly adorning the
pristine white table cloth.

“Sit,” Mae said and pointed, with a hand
glimmering with rings as she took a seat across from us. Pushing up
her purple sleeves, she asked, “The shackles are what bring you
here?” she asked, knowledge and mirth dancing in her eyes.

“Yes,” Blake answered, shifting
uncomfortably. “We were hoping they might give us a lead on whoever
organized the rogue vampires.”

Mae steepled her hands, looking over at Blake
for a long time before speaking, “That is not the question you
heart wishes to have answered.”

I watched Blake tense up, his jaw clenching
as he stared back at the mage.

“I already have my answer to the other
matter,” he gritted out.

“As you say,” Mae taunted him before
returning her gaze to me. “The shackles were poorly done by someone
with a limited knowledge of our ways, a new witch perhaps, but not
a mage.”

I nodded. Mages prided themselves on their
crafts and typically were specialized. They also didn’t believe in
covens as witches did.

“Is there a way to track the magic used?” I
asked.

Mae thought for a moment, tilting her head
from side to side before answering, “Had they not been as used as
they were I would say yes, but given all the pain and suffering
energy they absorbed I would think not.”

I nodded again looking to Blake if he had any
additional questions, but he was silent and I could see the
conflict on his face as he debated asking Mae what he really wanted
to know.

“Perhaps it is best you if wait out front,”
Mae said to me gently.

I nodded, taking myself out of her office and
back into the shop, perusing the endless items for sale. I kept my
mind on my current case and not on what Blake was asking and the
anger on why I yet again had to leave.

Blake pushed out from the beaded curtain a
few minutes later and rushed to the car. I followed him, yelling,
“What the hell is going on?”

“You need to take me to the airport. I have
to get back to St Ann,” he bellowed at me, running to the car. Hot
on his heels, I tried to keep up and thankfully he waited for me
before speeding away from the curb.

“You want to tell me what happened?” I asked,
holding on to the door handle for dear life.

“I can’t,” he grunted, slamming me into the
side of the vehicle with his next turn.

I was silent for the duration of our
journey.

Slamming the car into park and grabbing his
bag, he gave me a quick kiss and dashed off. I was certainly glad
that I had convinced him to follow my usual routine and pack
everything back up.

I watched him for a moment, disappointment
swelling inside of me. Our time together on this case was brief,
but enjoyable as I scooted over to the driver’s seat. It was time
to go to Vinita and see what the brothers had dug up.

I stifled a yawn as Darren, Logan, and I
waited for the detective in charge of the investigation into the
shifter ring I had busted up. Taking a lazy look around the room, I
had decided Vinita, OK was designed and decorated by the same
person with the same miserable taste as in St. Ann. Dull colors and
unimpressive decorations. Personally, I was amazed the thin metal
chairs under Darren and Logan hadn’t collapsed.

“Why are we in an interrogation room?” Darren
hissed under his breath, hardly moving his lips.

“They don’t trust us,” I told him, kicking my
legs out under the table, my back to the double glass window where
I was certain they were watching us.

“Logan, stop staring at them,” Darren
warned.

“I do not like being kept waiting,” he
informed Darren, not bothering to lower his voice.

“So sorry we are interfering with your busy
day, your highness,” I told him, pulling out my new ringing cell
phone from my jacket pocket.

“Hey babe,” I answered, happy and surprised
to hear from Blake so soon. I had texted him asking for
information, but thought his ‘family problems’ would push it to the
back burner.

“I have that information you asked for,”
Blake said, clearly distracted.

Pulling the random pad of paper to me, I
accepted the pen from Darren before saying, “I’m ready.”

“In a ten mile radius around the camp you
found, missing persons cases have been up by ten percent in the
last six months compared to last year. A larger radius of
twenty-five miles gives an increase of twenty-three percent in the
last six months.”

“Are they all human?” I asked, shifting the
phone.

“As far as I can tell, but vampires wouldn’t
report to the authorities a missing person and shifters well, they
all look the same.”

I couldn’t help but laugh as Darren and Logan
both turned to me.

“They’re with you now?” Blake said, laughing
on his end.

“Yeah, we’ve been waiting for-” I checked my
indestructible watch, “fifteen minutes and Logan is ready to haul
them through the double-sided glass. Can you send the list over to
Logan’s side and we get can verification if any are shifters?”

Blake paused as noise in the background
demanded his attention. He sighed, a very human sound before
returning his attention back to me.

“Done. You good for now?” he asked
strained.

“Yeah. You need me when I get back?” I asked,
worried about what was happening on his end.

“I always do,” he growled, sending heat to my
belly.

I couldn’t help but smile into the phone.
“I’ll be home soon,” I told him softly, ending the call.

Tapping the pen against the paper, I looked
down at the numbers. I forgot to ask the ratio of male to females,
I realized.

Logan had his phone out and I assumed he was
checking the email from Blake. He asked me, “How does he get his
information so quickly?”

“They have an entire room of tech and a staff
devoted to it. It’s quite impressive,” I told him.

Logan grunted and kept staring at the
glass.

“What do you think it means?” Darren asked,
leaning forward to look at my scratch, having heard both sides of
the conversation easily.

“They are a well organized group of sickos.”
I sighed, feeling my stress level increase. “I probably didn’t kill
all of them off.” I realized that more women were being brutalized
and raped. I had failed them.

Clamping down on those emotions quickly, I
shoved them away for another day, replacing it with confidence. I
would figure this out, I would end it.

“This isn’t your fault,” Darren told me
earnestly.

I gave him a rueful smile. No it wasn’t, but
that didn’t mean I felt any less responsible.

“How long are we going to wait here?” Logan
growled at me.

I shrugged and said, “At least another ten
minutes.”

Logan glared at me, drumming his fingers
against the table for the entire seven minutes and twenty-three
seconds until my phone rang. I was having a hard time keeping a
straight face as I answered, smiling at Logan.

“The cops’ missing person system has been
hacked,” Jerry informed me.

“Really?” I asked, sitting up straighter.
Jerry had tagged along with the brothers after hearing about the
shackles we had found.

“The missing person reports that Blake found
don’t even show up on their end,” Jerry informed me. I heard the
clicking of keys in the background.

“That would explain a lot,” I muttered.

“It also means someone is on the take on the
inside,” Logan said, slamming his fist against the table and
storming out of the room.

“He is right,” Jerry said.

I sighed. “Yep, he sure is,” I groaned,
standing. “I’ll be out in a second.” I ended the call following the
hot headed kitty.

Darren followed me out, but we didn’t get far
as Logan was facing off with several detectives and uniformed
officers in the hallway blocking my progress.

A white-faced clerk came up behind us, taking
the scene in. “Hi, is there a way around this?” I asked waving my
hand in the general vicinity of overcharged testosterone.

He shook his head, eyes still glued to the
shifter on the edge.

“Thanks,” I responded, turning back to the
scene shoving out the air in my lungs.

Moving around Logan’s crossed arms, I watched
everyone track my movement in my black leathers. “So you guys got
hacked, “I started gracefully.

“Bullshit,” the one in the front sneered.

“I do appreciate the healthy amount of the
fear you boys have for us, but you are currently in my way,” I
finished. I had tried to integrate with Mercer and that hadn’t
ended well, so keeping them fearful was probably going to be a
better solution this time. Unless they shot me.

“You are in our precinct,” said the loud
mouth.

“What is your name?” I asked.

“Travis,” he said crossing his arms lifting
his chin.

“Travis, have you ever seen what a pissed off
shifter can do?” I asked, leaning forward my eyes dancing with
trouble.

“You don’t scare me,” he ground out between
clenched teeth.

Throwing my head back, I laughed holding my
stomach, “That is comical, darling. Really.”

I felt Logan’s anger relaxing behind me.
“Emotions have scents, like sex, and shifters have amazingly
enhanced sniffers, but even I can pick up on it without that
advantage. You are scared, a few of you are terrified. The anger
came later,” I said, tapping my lip with an index finger. “If I
were to guess, someone got you riled up, said we were terrible
monsters, blah blah blah, the demon word got thrown around, and
then he or she left you to stew.” I ended very close to Travis.

Travis’ face paled and I patted his shoulder,
moving him aside, “I am going to need to know who that was,” I
whispered in his ear, moving past them to Jerry.

I found Jerry chatting up a young officer,
who was totally unaware he had been duped. Sitting down on the desk
next to him, I smiled, “What do you have for me?” I asked as the
officer moved away quickly. Yep they thought I was a demon. I
should just start calling myself that, maybe it would gain me more
respect than succubus.

“About damn time,” he muttered, dark fingers
flying across the keyboard in front of him.

“I was busy making friends!” I scolded
him.

His disbelieving look made me smile.

“Where are the other two?” he asked
warily.

I shrugged unconcerned, “Probably still
making friends.”

“I can’t take you people anywhere,” he
mumbled under his breath.

“That’s accurate,” I agreed, leaning over to
see the flashing computer screen.

He sighed, “We are going to need their tech
team to figure out where the hack came from.”

“I’m not sure we can trust their tech team,”
I muttered, looking back down where Logan and Darren were still in
a heated debate. “But I think I know another way to find a
lead.”

Jerry turned to see the high tensions behind
us before looking in disbelief at me, “You are going to need to
bust out the big guns for that one.”

“Just be patient,” I muttered.

It took the rest of the day and part of the
night before Travis left the precinct. Jerry had stayed with me for
the long and tedious stakeout while Darren and Logan went to
interview the family members of the missing shifters.

“Here we go,” I muttered, starting the
SUV.

“There isn’t a guaranteed Travis will do
anything but go home,” Jerry informed me for the hundredth
time.

“True,” I answered.

“And home may have a wife and kids,” Jerry
stated.

“Maybe,” I muttered, “But he doesn’t seem
like the wife and kids type.”

My hunch played out to be accurate as Travis
pulled into a dive bar. Pulling off my jacket, I slipped the dagger
at my back under my shirt before turning to Jerry. “I shouldn’t be
long.”

Jerry shook his head. “Don’t kill anyone,” He
warned.

Quickly, I crossed the darkened street,
fluffing my hair as best I could. I wouldn’t need much to seduce
the information from Travis, of that I was certain. The worn wooden
door creaked in my hand opening to a very small, yet well taken
care of bar.

The actual bar stood along the left wall
decorated with bottles behind it. To my right were dimly lit
booths, worn but not falling apart and at the end of the bar was my
target Travis who as speaking to someone else. My plan had been to
take him head on, but given that there was another party in the
mix, I debated sliding in toward the front so I could keep an eye
on him in the glass behind the bar.

A salt and pepper haired man, worn by the sun
and age stepped up to me and asked, “What’ll it be?”