Once Lost Lords (Royal Scales, Book 1) (8 page)

"Unless it's an April Fools’ joke," Which was four
months too late. None of my friends enjoyed the long setup for this
kind of joke anyway.

"You don't normally get that tired do you?" Now she was
starting to sound like a pack mother.

"No. But I had an unwanted interaction, hired help."

"Normal or..?" The question hung for a moment and I tried
to consider which way to go with this. Julianne took my silence as a
reason to change venues while shaking her head, we went inside while
she flagged down one of the employees.

"Vamp, two partials." I could have pumped up the story a
bit, added a broken arm, made it seem like I was some sort of badass,
however, it was only lucky circumstances that had helped me win. My
turf, a cross, being aggressive, a pounding heart. The list went on.

"Guess I should start paying you more when you're working here,
huh?"

"Not a big deal, I remember being better at that sort of stuff,"
I said.

"You're just out of practice," She protested, but it was
true. I had been quite good at roughing people up, and that sometimes
required wading through more than one person. Maybe I was getting
old. Julianne gave her employee a list of chores and some
instructions before we continued talking.

"I don't mind one on ones," and I truly didn't in most
cases "but she wasn't out to kill me." I regretted what I
said right away.

"Wait," I could hear the gears clicking into place like an
old time slot machine. "She? Vampires? You're kidding me! You
pissed Kahina off enough that she tried to bleed you?" Julianne
wasn't angry or even upset. She was smiling intensely with teeth and
everything.

"She succeeded." I wanted to smile too but kept it under
wraps. Other wolves I didn't mind pissing off, but she was worth
keeping happy.

"Damn, she doesn't seem that far along. Guess she still likes
you," Julianne was almost laughing.

"Why do you say that?"

"She would have moved onto someone else if she wasn't locked
onto you,” Julianne jabbed me in the middle with an elbow.
“Going after your blood, but not killing you, it’s
practically an invitation back into the sack."

"Not sure why tasting my blood means she's still hot for me."
Vampires who drank blood did so because of compulsions. They also
tended to focus on people they wanted to convert.

"You know how it works, blood thirst is proof that girl’s
still pining for you, even after your shit," Kahina had barely
skipped a beat when it came to trying to get us back together, and
four years was an eternity to humans. "So two of her helpers
tried to take you on, and you survived with...what?"

"Bruised ribs and a scratched set of knuckles." I said.

"Real or those pieces of crap you imitate claws with?" She
snorted at my hands. We had made it back to the bar counter where I
grabbed a stool and sat down. Julianne started inspecting the latest
location for anything out of place. She was as bad as I, in her own
way.

"I do what I can with what I was given." One shoulder went
up in a shrug.

"Man, you should take the dive one way or the other. I'm sure
someone could sponsor you." The dive she was talking about
involved switching from human to one of two species, wolf or vampire.
Both came with downsides and registration with the Western Sector’s
government.

"That's alright. I get by as a normal person," I said.
Julianne ran some water onto a rag and handed it over. Fine. I could
clean a counter top.

"No offense, Jeff, you ain't exactly normal, never have been,"
She said once I got to wiping.

"Well, everyone’s got something abnormal."

Julianne stared at me for a moment. I tried not to think too hard
about my own comment.

"Got a spot for you for the rest of the week if you need it."
She offered.

"Please. Door gig again?" I nodded while inspecting the
counter. There, my corner of the bar looked much better.

"As long as it stays quiet." She confirmed and reached out
for the rag.

"You're covered tonight, right?" I had seen the Hispanic
wolf wandering around last night.

Often we were glorified door watchmen. Friday nights and weekends,
especially payday weekends, were the busiest. They usually got out of
hand. Julianne didn't have the normal bar scene, she tended to
attract the other races in almost equal numbers. There was probably a
bar that could boast that sort of claim in every city. Normal
establishments would have one or two non-human patrons at a time.
Julianne's would have dozens pass through in an hour."We're
covered. Go finish your nap and show up tomorrow."

"Tomorrow then." My head dipped.

"See ya." She gave a distracted wave.

I wandered off and did what she suggested, not showing my face
outside until the following afternoon. Slipping back into old
routines was easy. For the next week I got up, drank water, then hit
the weights. I had everything needed to get into shape. Four years of
traveling had been counter productive to my physique. Inconsistent
workouts, occasional starvation, cold nights, all served to make me
haggard, not lean. These few weeks home had been heaven.

After the workout, I would head to Julianne's and handle a shift.
There used to be other places in need of my services, but thinking
about them now was out of the question. Work typically ended near
midnight. The remaining night was spent roaming the streets. My hands
would be tucked into pockets for warmth. Often I didn't return home
until after sunrise, exhausted but pleased that only some things in
the city had changed.

Occasionally, I caught Kahina quietly staring. Not enough to feel
oppressed, but reminded. Part of me was disturbed at being stalked
like a possession, the other part wondering exactly where we stood.
The strange routine broke when an angry redhead startled me out of
sleep.

"Get up, you're coming with me." Fingers clenched in a
panic. I was vulnerable. Someone had invaded my sanctuary.

"Who..." I couldn’t focus this early. "What's
going on?" Daniel's face was slowly clearing as my mind tried to
establish where I was.

"I lost that damned elf again. He escaped custody two days after
we tracked him down." Upset Daniel worried me. There were
stories, that I may or may not have been involved in, where he went
Biblical when venting his anger.

"Doesn't the Sector government have their own trackers?" I
slowly stood up and tried to regain control of my front room. Daniel
was pacing already.

"They have two contracted, both of which are busy on other
cases. Neither one works as well as you do. They do some dreaming
babble." He said.

"Get in line then. It's just a cold case." I responded
while fighting a yawn. Daniel didn't want the elf, he wanted the rich
kid related to him.

"Not that easy, there's a lot riding on this one." He shook
his head.

"Not for me, Daniel," Anything more for this case would
bring unwanted attention. "Nothing personal, I'm not getting
involved."

"I'm doing this for you!" He snapped and grabbed at his
hair.

"What?" I managed to maneuver myself between Daniel and the
doorway leading to my basement. He didn’t even care. Once I was
awake, the agent had taken to walking the far end of my top floor.

"No, never mind. Forget I said anything," His words left me
confused. "You're going to have to come along."

"What? Why?" My head felt foggy. What was he doing for me?
This? This what? The thoughts slipped out almost as soon as they
passed through. I braced myself using the wall and tried to reduce a
headache that had come out of nowhere.

"Man, don't make me be an ass."

"Then don't, case’s dead. Move on." It's hard being
polite to friends.

"No can do, you and I need this."

I thought about my belongings and the trouble that would occur from
leaving again. Daniel made it out like we would be absent awhile. My
mouth opened to start a stream of protests then Daniel cut me off.

"Plus, you owe me big, always have, who keeps your name out of
the system?" He switched tactics abruptly.

"That's how you're going to do this?" He just had to go for
the low blow and bring up my separation from the rest of the system.
It wasn't how I wanted to live.

"It's for your own damn good, man." Anxiety drained from
his features. The hair pulling he engaged in settled down.

"You're giving me shit choices," I said. He needed to leave
my house soon before things went downhill fast. Daniel was pressuring
me into a verbal corner and it was getting uncomfortable.

"Good. Get some clothes in a bag and come outside, bring
whatever you have for weapons."

"What the hell, weapons?"

"The world’s not a friendly place, man, you know that."
He exited and I sighed with relief. Despite the media's control on
stories, things happened constantly. People went missing, violent
outbreaks, danger was an unadvertised constant. A set of knuckles,
cross, and spare clothes went into a duffle bag.

The rest of my devices had to stay at home. Something had to stand
between my basement full of little trinkets and the would-be robbers.
I grabbed two different choke wires. One coated in acquired silver,
effective, but weak against anything other than a wolf. The other was
cheap iron, not as weak and good for snooty elves. Neither was
designed to kill first. Both were motivational assets that would
hopefully be pointless.

My packed bag weighed hardly anything compared to the full gear load
used during my four-year travels. Dirt was still caked along the
bottom from my journey home. The bag was thrown into the backseat of
Daniel’s parked vehicle. Crusty flakes broke off upon landing.
He didn't even look offended."I gotta tell Julianne." I
said.

"I'll be here." Daniel was poking through files on his
laptop.

Julianne wasn't at the bar for once. She wasn't at home either, or
she would have noticed my call from the bar’s phone. I left a
message on her machine.

"Headed out for a bit, not sure how long. Daniel’s got
some work he's decided I need to help with. Watch my stuff please,
I'll be back soon." The back of Daniel's car was crowded. Files
and papers all over. I could barely make out the squiggles and small
print. Everything looked mind numbing anyway.

An hour later, at the border of town, it occurred to me that Kahina
hadn't been informed of my departure. Being attacked by her
bodyguards a second time wasn't appetizing. I borrowed Daniel’s
phone and passed a second message onto Julianne's answering service.
The call barely ended when Daniel snatched the cellphone back.

"Can you straighten those up? They're my secret plans for world
domination and you can't read them." He joked. I rolled my eyes
and closed up his boring files.

"Where we headed?" I asked, shuffling papers into folders.

"Last place he was at, going to have you do a new fix."

"Caesars Junction?" The bright neon light had flashed
annoyingly while tracking the elf.

"Yes. We'd had him sitting pretty and the bastard just
vanished." Daniel sighed. His hands clenched at the steering
wheel.

Only some elves could do it. Illusions. Normally they pretended to be
elsewhere, then stood up and walked off, invisible. Miles down the
road an elf, ragged from carrying iron, would be looking for a
handsaw and a benefactor. The news tried to squash the stories, but
the internet was filled with good deeds performed by elves in return
for freedom. Elven punishments were harder to track due to their
subtly.

"Checked the normal stuff?" I asked.

"Glamour? Illusion? Sure, I know you got your thing, but I do
this for a living, trained for it. Besides, only like one in twenty
can do that." The redhead was being defensive.

I covered my head with the bag and tried to blot out the passing
landscape. Traveling in cars for a long while made me sick and
irritated. Daniel kept right on talking.

"You packed everything you'll need?" He said.

"Like a good scout," I muttered. A hint of nausea could
already be felt. Daniel’s idle motions distracted me, one of
his fingers was rubbing against the steering wheel.

"Don't make fun, man, I was a scout for years. You weren't,"
Daniel said.

"Doesn't mean I'm not prepared." I said. The agent paused
while trying to figure out my implications. What Daniel was trying to
read into my statement was beyond me.

"Alright, we'll be there in an hour," He said. I felt the
engine rev up as he switched focus towards driving.

My bag made a great shade against the world. Sickened by the motion,
I slipped into unconsciousness. When I came to the car was turning
into a gravel covered parking lot. A glance outside confirmed we were
at the same gaudy hotel I had seen in my vision. They could afford
the neon signs but not a paved parking lot. Police tape still
cordoned off a room that looked like a herd of elephants had passed
through.

"Come on, man, site’s barred, but the hotel manager is
gearing up to whine like a firetruck." Daniel escorted us past
the police officer, past the angry manager, and up to the room. "Get
in, see if you can trace him using the hair, getting something solid
this time would help. A direction, anything."

"You dropping me off at home after this?" I pulled up the
bag on my shoulder and glared around the seedy hotel parking lot.
This place looked as bad as it felt.

"Probably not," He admitted as he showed me into the room.
He was paying more attention to the stack of paperwork in his hand
than the room.

"Stand outside." One hand waved him away while I looked
about the room.

"That serious? Good, good." Daniel seemed puzzled at first
but made up his own excuse as to why I wanted him out of the area.
Not that it mattered to the tracking, I was just annoyed at being
dragged out here. He stepped outside with the cell phone already to
his ear.