Chapter 12
YUTANI AND TALIA were waiting for us in the break room. Viktor and Angel came right in after us as we took our places at the table. I glanced up at the clock, startled to realize it was almost seven. The day had passed so fast that I hadn’t realized it.
Talia went first. “While Yutani analyzed the video, I did some digging. I have some information on this Kuveo creature. He’s not actually a demon, but he is a monster of sorts. And he can be summoned with the promise of blood and life force.”
“Okay,” Herne said. “What is he and why would someone summon him?”
“He’s a fox shifter. Kuveo is a carnivorous creature who feeds off of life energy and fear and pain. He’s also known as an interdimensional assassin and he delights in torture. Which means our victims were probably alive when he ripped them to shreds. He may eat chunks of his victims, a bite here and there, but mostly he’s looking for their fear and pain while he’s attacking them.”
Angel grimaced. “Does he normally belong in our world?”
“Good question,” Talia said. “No, but he’s not from the physical realm. At least not our physical realm. He lives out in the Dreamtime, but he can be summoned here to perform an assassination of some great magnitude. He won’t go after just anybody, though. And he requires a total of thirteen sacrifices before he will turn on the target. So, if you want to summon him to destroy somebody, you must provide him with thirteen victims first.”
“And Kevin was our thirteenth. Crap, that means that Kuveo is ready to go after the actual target.” Herne stiffened in his chair. “Is there anything that you came across that says how long it takes after the sacrifices before he’ll attack the actual target?”
Talia shook her head. “I looked, sugar. But I didn’t find anything. However, when Kuveo goes after the actual victim, he’ll track them until they are dead. You get your money’s worth with him.”
“So the Dark Fae summoned him to perform an assassination. The victims were simply payment?”
“It looks that way,” Yutani said. “I did a close inspection of the video Kevin took of the summoning. And I swear that it had to be held in UnderLake. While Castle Hall is abandoned and falling apart, there’s enough of it left to house a number of ghosts. When I examined the frames one by one, it looked as though the summoning spell was done in an underground chamber. Since all of the victims were connected with UnderLake in one way or another, my guess is that they were killed there, and then dumped in other places.”
“What about Kuveo? Once he performs his task, i.e., the assassination, what happens to him?” Herne leaned forward, resting his chin on his hands.
Talia shook her head. “Then he’s free to go do what he wants. And he’s in this realm. That’s another thing I found out. Kuveo can’t enter this realm without being summoned. Once he’s here, he’s free to wreak havoc after he’s fulfilled his part of the deal.”
“That means more victims after he’s assassinated his target. Which means we have to take him out as soon as possible,” Viktor said. “Did you find anything about his weaknesses? Does he have any vulnerabilities that you could discover?”
Talia consulted her notes. “Yes, I did. He’s hard to kill. However, if someone can manage to cut off four of his nine tails, he’ll be sent back to his own realm. He’ll regrow them, but he won’t be over here. And he doesn’t have a heart like we do—literally speaking. He lives on energy. He only takes bites out of each of his victims as a ceremonial rite.” She rolled her eyes, looking disgusted.
“Is there a way to kill him?” Somehow, the idea of fighting a creature that couldn’t be killed didn’t appeal to me.
The harpy nodded, her eyes beady. Talia had a harshness about her that both scared me and yet made me appreciate her. “Cut off all of his tails while he’s in this realm. That will do it. Nobody has ever managed to do so, though.”
Herne was playing with a paper clip. He tossed it on the table. “Wonderful. So have we figured out who his main target is? Was that in Kevin’s files?”
“Yes,” Yutani said, “The answer isn’t good.”
“Lay it on us,” Herne said.
“The Dark Fae conjured him up to assassinate Névé. Apparently, Light took a potshot at Saílle recently, and this is retaliation. Kevin had his nose in everything and he made copious notes just in case something happened. Which, unfortunately, it did.”
Herne groaned and rubbed his head. “We missed a previous assassination plot? Thank heavens that wasn’t realized, but that means that we have to take care of this and pronto.”
“So the Dark Fae are striking back.” I sat back, thinking for a moment. “Is there a way we can just tell the Dark Fae to back off? I mean, if Cernunnos and Morgana have set us on this case, can we just tell them to knock it off?”
“No. We can only intercede and stop things. They can’t argue our actions, but we can’t stop them from trying. It’s a complicated matter and this has been going on for thousands of years. But things weren’t nearly so dicey until the last couple hundred years, when the cities grew and technology became so rampant. Now there’s so much chance for collateral damage that we have to intervene. However, at least we know who we’re fighting and how to stop him.”
Talia cleared her throat. “You have to kill him, completely. You can’t just send him back to his realm. Once Kuveo has been set on track and the sacrifices have been made, there’s no pulling him back. Not even the Dark Fae could stop him, not even if they begged, although they were the ones who started this matter in the first place. It’s like setting off a bomb that you can’t disarm.”
“Lovely,” Herne said. “All right, the question is, how do we find him?”
“Should we warn Névé about the attack?” I still didn’t fully understand how these matters worked.
“We can’t. That would be intervening directly. We can stop the attack, but we can’t bring it to light. The Fae courts have been warring since time began. But it’s an underground war. It’s understood on both sides that attacks will be made, but if we were to overtly warn Névé that her life is in danger, then she would have no choice but to declare open war on the Dark Court. That would start a catastrophic cycle of destruction.”
“How so?”
“If the Fae were to openly declare war, they’d involve the entire world instead of just a few sacrifices. There would be no hiding from the destruction.”
I groaned. “The politics are more complicated than just about any nation on earth.”
“Actually, I’ve seen worse,” Talia said, slipping a piece of gum in her mouth.
“Then what do we do next?”
“Did you find out anything else?” Herne asked.
Yutani shook his head. “If you could give me a couple hours, I can probably pinpoint the area in which we need to look. I was getting close but not quite there yet.”
Herne slapped the table. “Then we’re all on the clock tonight. We’ll meet back here at 9 p.m. Angel, you don’t have to come in if you don’t want to. You won’t be going out in the field.”
She gave me a long look, then turned back to Herne. “No, I’ll stay here. There’s still enough here to do that I’ll just stay and organize more files.” She motioned to Viktor, Talia, and Yutani. “Anybody want pizza?”
While they decided on what toppings they wanted, Herne and I walked out to the main waiting room.
“I suggest we put off our cheeseburgers till later,” I said. “Pizza sounds fine to me.”
Herne glanced back at the break room door, which was closed. He smiled, then drew me toward him and leaned down to press his lips against mine.
It took everything I had to not pull away, even as the fear of what might happen was ricocheting through my body. But so was his kiss, and I leaned into it, the warmth of his lips warming mine, the warmth of his body flaming my own desires as he pressed himself to me. He was gentle, yet his arms held me firmly. I felt like I was swimming in a woodland pond, under a lazy, sunlit afternoon. The room was sparkling, and so were his eyes, as I gazed into his face.
“I need to tell you what you’re getting into,” I said.
He shook his head. “Shhh. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that, and I won’t again if you don’t want me to. But I had to kiss you, Ember. I couldn’t not kiss you. Was it so wrong of me?”
As the break room door opened, I quickly pulled away. But I glanced at him with a shy smile.
“No. No, it wasn’t wrong at all. My heart’s racing.” I paused. “Ever since we met, there’s been something…” I paused as the others emerged from the break room. “We’ll talk later.”
As we chimed in with our suggestions for pizza, my body was still resonating from the strength of his kiss. But all I did was ask for sausage, extra cheese, and mushrooms, when what I wanted to do was to drag him into his office and rip off his clothes.
WHILE WE WERE waiting for Yutani to finish his analysis of the video, Viktor and Herne went over their weapons, making sure everything was ready. They were in the armory, polishing blades and making sure that arrow tips were sharp. Talia was helping Yutani, and I returned to the waiting room with Angel to help her sort out some of the file folders.
“I’m sorry you can’t go on your date,” she said, eyeing me closely.
The kiss had disconcerted me as much as it had aroused me, but right now I wanted to focus on the matter at hand.
“Well, I’m sorry you can’t go car shopping tonight.”
“Touché.” She handed me a stack of file folders. “Here, can you put one of these colored dots on each of these files? If you put it on the top right of the folder. There,” she said, pointing to where she wanted it. “I’m color coding things to make them easier to find. Blue for closed cases, green for open, red for problem cases, and yellow for cold cases.”
“What color are you using for cases like the one we’re on now, for the ones that Cernunnos and Morgana send us on?” I started sticking the brightly colored dots on the file folders.
“Those get orange. My least favorite color.” She grinned at me. “If someone had told me a week ago that I would end up the secretary for a divine PI, I would have laughed in their face. But you know, I may have a knack for this. I worked an office at my last job, but they really didn’t respect me at all and I felt underutilized. Here, I feel like I can actually participate in what’s happening instead of just be directed around. Although,” she looked up at me soberly, “I really wish it hadn’t come down to having DJ sent away. But Herne talked to me today, and he said he’ll set up a video conference with DJ this weekend. So I get to talk to him for an hour then.” The smile on her face told me all that I needed to know.
“He’s a good sort, Herne is. They all are, actually.” I realize that I really did like Viktor and Yutani, and even Talia, even though she still made me uncomfortable.
“Yeah, that I can agree with.” She paused, then handed me another stack of files. “These all get blue dots. You know, I was having a talk with Talia earlier today while you were out with Viktor and Herne. She’s had a rough life. She told me that Herne took her in when nobody else would touch her. Apparently she is not popular among her own sort anymore, especially since she lost her powers. She said it was okay to tell you.”
“I guess we’re all just a bunch of misfits, aren’t we?” I snickered as I stuck more dots on more file folders. “Well, at least we get to hang out more together now. Speaking of which, this weekend let’s go house hunting.”
She nodded. “If you’re sure about it? I could find my own place, but honestly, I’d rather live with you.” She rolled her eyes. “Gas leak, my ass.”
“As you and I always suspected, the cops are on the take. I just didn’t realize it would be from the Fae. If anybody was paying them off I would have expected it to be the vampires.”
“Really? The vampires don’t have to pay off anybody, do they? They’re so damned powerful. In fact, I’m surprised they aren’t vying with the Fae for control.”
I laughed and handed her back the stack of file folders, accepting another in its place.
“Think about it. The vampires are more interested in monetary power and financial empires. I have a feeling that they are buying their way into power in a different way. The Fae are probably too disorganized to see it. I doubt anything good can come from it, either way, but I have a feeling that by the time the Fae realize just how much control the vampires have, it’s going to be too late.”
Angel frowned, thinking for a moment before she said, “Maybe, but if the Fae are as chaotic as Herne says, will they really care? Though I still see the potential for an interspecies war looming large.”
“If that happens, I think I’m going to give up the city and move out to the country and start a pig farm and find Mr. Rumblebutt a buddy.” I stopped as the door opened and the pizza delivery man entered. He was carrying a stack of five pizzas, and Angel opened her desk, pulling out an envelope. She paid him out of it, and asked him to take the pizzas into the break room. After he left, she locked the front door, and motioned for me to go let the others know that food was in the building.
I glanced into the room used as an armory.
“Come on, guys, food’s on.”
Sticking my head into Yutani and Talia’s office, I told them as well, then went on back to the break room, my stomach rumbling. Angel had opened all the pizza boxes and brought six plates over from the cupboard. I rummaged through the refrigerator and found two large bottles of sparkling water, carrying them to the table.
“Somehow, getting coffee for the guys doesn’t seem like such a big deal here like in my last job,” Angel said with a grin. “At least they don’t take me for granted.”
“Nor will we ever,” Herne said as he entered the room. “Pardon me for eavesdropping, but I couldn’t help hear your comment. I value every single employee of this agency. We all have our duties and we all add into making it a success. And that success is integral to keeping peace. So thank you both for doing your best to fit in.” He paused at the table and rubbed his hands together. “Ooo, pepperoni.” He looked up, a gleeful expression on his face. At that moment, his gaze landed on me, and once again, I felt a ripple through my body as his gleeful look turned to desire, and he blew me a silent kiss.
“I saw that,” Angel said. She glanced at me, then at Herne. “Just be careful, you two. I can see the connection between you two. I could from the beginning. Just do me a favor and if you have a fight, leave me out of it.”
Chastised, both Herne and I stared at the food, making no comment. The next moment, Yutani and Talia entered the room and we all set to eating, Yutani still tapping away on his laptop.
“So, do we know any more than we did before?” Herne began passing around plates. Given there were six of us and five pizzas, I piled my plate high. I liked to eat, and there were very few things that I wasn’t willing to try.
Yutani hit enter, and set his laptop down, letting whatever program he was working on compile while he got himself some food. After a moment, a map popped up on the screen. Leaning forward, he studied it as he bit into a slice of pepperoni and sausage pizza.
Talia accepted a cup of tea from Angel. “I’ve found out something else about Kuveo. If you can get a silver collar on him, it’s like bottling the genie. He has to obey, regardless of his prior commitments. Trouble is, getting close enough to fasten a collar around his neck isn’t easy. And it has to be silver”
“If somebody can hold him down, then we should cut off his tails and destroy him for good,” I said.
“Agreed.” Viktor flexed his bicep. “I have muscles.”
“I have the feeling Kuveo is pretty strong, too,” Talia said with a smirk.
“I agree with Ember. This is one creature we don’t want to leave alive. He’s only bent for destruction, and as soon as he got free of that collar, he’d return to the hunt.” Herne shook his head. “Sometimes total destruction is best. You can’t give a second chance to something that won’t respect it.”
“Given that he’s made a deal, and he has to follow through, we wouldn’t dare send him back to his realm. He would just return to target Névé again.” I took a bite of my pizza, my stomach rumbling. The molten cheese and the tang of the pineapple and the savory flavor of the sausage all went into making me close my eyes and focus solely on the food. Sometimes you had to pay homage to a good meal. When I opened my eyes again, after swallowing, everybody was watching me. I realized I had let out a groan of delight while eating. Maybe a mumbled groan, but a groan, nonetheless.
“Enjoying that pizza, are we?” Viktor said with a laugh. “Don’t be embarrassed. I’m that way about sloppy joes. Give me a good sloppy joe and I’m in heaven.”
Angel piped up. “Give Ember anything from a fast food joint and she’s in heaven. I’m actually glad we’re living together because that’s the only way she’ll get a decent meal.”
“Hey, if I learned to cook then you’d stop cooking and that would be a damn shame. Besides, I live on fast food, and it hasn’t hurt me yet.”
“That’s because you’re Fae. If you were human, you’d be piling on the pounds and greasing up that cholesterol.” She twitched her nose at me, smiling. “You know I’m kidding. Except not so much. I still think you’re better off with me cooking, even though I do love pizza.”
“Everybody’s better off with you cooking. I never understood why you didn’t go into the diner business with Mama J. You cook just as well as she did.”
“Heresy, she’s probably rolling over in her grave at that. But yeah, I learned from the best. I just never had the calling for it. I love to cook for friends, but if I had to do it for a living, I wouldn’t love that anymore.”
I glanced around. The others were watching us.
There was almost a wistful smile on Herne’s face, but he said nothing, just returned to his food. I gave him a sideways glance, wondering how many friends Herne actually had. It couldn’t be easy, being the son of a god. Deciding to get back to the matter at hand, I turned to Yutani.
“What’s the map on your laptop?”
He blinked. “Oh, it’s done? So, I think I figured out the exact location of where they summoned Kuveo. Luckily, there were enough markers in the video that Kevin shot that I was able to get a bead on it. It appears there’s an underground chamber about twenty yards from the Castle Hall ruins. My guess is that we’ll find an entrance in the basement. And I also suspect that it ties in with the underground tunnels that riddle the area.”
“It’s a long series of tunnels if it runs all the way down the Eastside.” It was hard for me to imagine.
“Well, as we discussed before, there were a lot of miners around here, so there are tunnels all over the place. There were mines all the way from Renton up to Bellevue, even over to North Bend. It wouldn’t take much to connect them together into a system like the catacombs.”
Yutani turned the laptop so we could all see it. “Here’s the UnderLake District and UnderLake Park, and here’s the Castle Hall residence. And about twenty yards south is where I pinpoint the underground chamber. It’s possible I’m off by a few yards either way, but this is my best estimate.”
“How do we know that Kuveo is going to be there? Isn’t it likely that they moved him?”
“Well, he’s not going to be found aboveground, at least not between the attacks. There’s no way that creature could walk around in public and not be noticed. And since they think they killed the only person who knew about their chamber, it seems likely that belowground would be the most logical place to stash him.”
“Only, since his sacrifices have been made, he’ll start on the attack for Névé.” Talia polished off her food and pushed back her plate.
“Then we better over there as soon as we finish eating. Ember, what about your ability to talk with the water elementals? How far does that extend?” Herne asked. “For instance, if we find a puddle, could you sense anything from it?”
“That depends first on whether there are any elementals in the area. And second, if they’ve seen anything. Unfortunately, it may be far enough away from the water that I won’t be able to pick up anything. But very strong emotions can be imprinted in the water as well as into buildings and the air, so there’s always a chance.” I finished off the five slices of pizza on my plate and looked around. There were still at least two pizzas left. “Anybody mind if I have some more?”
“Knock yourself out,” Viktor said. “I’m still hungry too.”
“Just don’t weigh yourself down too much.” Talia chuckled. “I do like a girl with an appetite. Salad just isn’t meant for human consumption.”
“I don’t mind vegetables on the side, but give me a good piece of meat and bread any day. And cheese. And sauce.” I took another two pieces, while Viktor loaded up his plate. “So what’s our plan?”
“After we finish eating, we head over to UnderLake. We’ll search for the secret entrance to the underground chamber, and see what we find. I think we should forget the collar idea, because we need to kill him and subduing him isn’t going to be any easier. I’m going to pull together my gear.” Herne pushed back his chair. “Viktor, why don’t you get a few extra supplies from the armory. Yutani, you’re with us tonight. Ember too. Angel and Talia, hold down the fort.”
As Herne headed for his office, Viktor shoved the last of his pizza in his mouth and took off for the armory. I washed my hands and helped Angel put the rest of the pizza in the fridge.
“Are you afraid?” Angel asked.
I glanced over at Yutani, who was transferring data to his phone from the laptop.
“I can’t lie—yes. I’ve gone up against goblins and their ilk, but never anything like this. My life’s been in danger, but this is big, Angel. This creature thrives on pain and torture. But we’ve got to do something because it’s not going to stop. It’s already killed thirteen people.”
“I’ll say this for the Fae,” Talia said. “When they do something, they go all the way.”
I turned to her. “How long have you worked with Herne? How long has he had this agency?”
“He’s been running the Wild Hunt Agency for several hundred years. But we just came over to the US about one hundred and twenty years ago. When technology started to take off, Morgana and Cernunnos foresaw where things were headed and decided to relocate us, even as some of the Fae were relocating back over the Great Sea. But the lesser queens and kings were scattered around the world and chose to stay where they were.”
“The Great Sea?” Angel asked.
This was something I did know about my people.
“The Great Sea—there’s another name for it, but it is difficult to pronounce in English—runs between the worlds. Originally, both sides of the Fae were from the Lands of Fire and Ice, and they lived in the great cities of TirNaNog and Navane, and others like them.”
“TirNaNog and Navane? Like the districts here?” Angel asked.
“Yes, only they were spelled differently. That’s where the Fae in the two districts took their names from. Thousands of years ago, some of the Fae crossed over to live in this world. They spread around the globe, which is why so many cultures have their own names for the various Fae.” I turned back to Talia. “So, you came over from the UK?”
She nodded. “We met Viktor here. Yutani,” she nodded to the coyote shifter, “came on about what, forty years ago?”
Yutani nodded. “I worked with Microsoft in the early days, and then moved to a startup that folded during the dotcom crash, right about the time that I met Herne. He pulled me into the agency. He had the foresight to see that everything was moving into the digital age, and he wanted to make sure that the Wild Hunt was up-to-date and on track.”
“That’s good,” I said, staring at the laptop. “So if there are other agencies around the world, what are they called?”
“Variations on the theme,” Talia said. She popped a breath mint and held out the container. “Mint?”
I took one, and so did Angel.
“In Norway, their agency’s called Odin’s Chase. And there’s one in Finland called Mielikki’s Arrow. In Italy I think it’s Diana’s Hounds, and so on. Cernunnos and Morgana have connected with a variety of deities around the world to form a worldwide action coalition.”
That sobered me. All around the world, that meant there were groups of people trying to keep the war from breaking out among the Fae.
“The Fae seem to need babysitters everywhere, don’t they? And I know these are my own people. I just don’t like to admit it. It’s embarrassing.” I shook my head, blushing. “We’re no better than a pack of sputtering cats.”
Yutani and Talia laughed. Talia clapped me on the back.
“Honey, if we can’t laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at? But trust me, your people can be incredibly helpful and talented, and you’re magic incarnate, truly. I think someday, you’ll need to make peace with your heritage. I’ve been around for centuries. I’ve seen people run away from themselves, and run away from who they are. You always end up running smack back into the person you left behind until you find a way to integrate that part of yourself into your life. And that’s all I’ll say, because really, it’s none of my business.”
I had the feeling Talia was trying to help me in her own way. I didn’t want to hear it, she was right about that, but one day, I knew I’d have to take her advice. But I wasn’t ready right now, and I wasn’t sure when I would be.
Herne and Viktor returned, laden with weaponry and various other items.
“Let’s get moving. We’ve got a monster to track down and kill.” He nodded toward the door. “Let’s just hope we can get all nine of his tails.”