Chapter 5
ANGEL AND I had moved over to the sofa by the time Herne returned. I was doing my best to help Angel keep from losing it. He gave us a weary smile, then dropped into the chair next to the window, staring out at the night.
“How much more is there that we don’t know?” I asked. I wasn’t sure exactly what I meant, but the world seemed overwhelmingly complex all of a sudden, and I felt out of place in my own skin.
“Where should I start? For now, you should rest for the night. I’ve notified Névé and Saílle that you’re on our roster. Both were suspicious as to why I called them so late, but I figure better now than waiting till tomorrow. You should be safe tonight.” He paused, then added, “DJ got off safe. He’ll be fine, and I will make arrangements for you to see him sometime during the summer. Tonight, get some sleep and then meet me down at the office tomorrow around noon. We’ll get you situated away into whatever respective jobs I feel you’re best suited for.”
“I don’t like my job, but I should give notice—” Angel started to say, but Herne cut her off.
“No. Call in tomorrow morning and say unavoidable circumstances have forced you to resign. Don’t worry about picking up your things, I’ll have someone go do it for you. It’s not like you need references to work for me and, as of now, this is your job for the foreseeable future.” He pushed himself to his feet, stretching and yawning. “Sleep. Rest. Cry if you need to. Tomorrow’s a new day, and a whole new world.”
With that, he headed for the door.
“What about my house? My car is still there.”
“Give me your keys. I’ll have your car down at the office tomorrow. I’ll send someone home with you to gather your things. But you really should move over to Seattle. Even though you’re on the clock with me, I just feel safer if you were here, in the city.”
Angel tossed him her car key, and he pocketed it. Then, giving us a wave, he headed out the door, shutting it firmly behind him.
I ran over and locked the door behind him. Turning, I wasn’t sure what to say. I expected to see Angel in tears again but she was staring out the window over Puget Sound. She was breathing softly, and when I walked over to stand beside her, she smiled.
“He’s going to be okay. The worry about him that I’ve had all day? About him being dead or close to it? It’s vanished. I didn’t tell you after you found him and brought him home, but I was still afraid and I didn’t exactly know why. But now, I feel like he dodged a bullet. My brother’s going to be safe. And right now, that’s all that matters.”
“Then you have a good feeling about this Cooper?” I had come to trust Angel’s instincts.
“That’s not his name. He didn’t give us his real name. But it was so that my brother would be safe. I think DJ will finally have the father figure that he needs. Mama J. tried but she couldn’t be both mother and father to him, especially since she wasn’t a wolf shifter. And I could barely be even a substitute mother. But he’s going to have a family now, and they’ll take care of him.”
I knew Angel well enough to know that she wouldn’t say it if she didn’t feel it to her very core. Exhausted, and suddenly feeling like if I didn’t get into bed I’d drop in my tracks, I turned to her.
“We should get some sleep. Are you all right on the sofa? You can sleep in the bed with me if you want—it’s big enough for two.”
“I think I’d like to sleep on the sofa tonight. I like looking out at the city from this angle. I like seeing the water. Is it all right if I crash here until I find a place?”
I nodded. “Of course. But you know, I’ve been thinking of looking for a house. Maybe we should find one together. We make good roommates, you have to admit that. We’ve done it before.”
“That’s a good idea. We can talk about it in the morning.”
I rustled her up some blankets and a sheet and a pillow, and then I took a long hot shower before dropping into bed. I was afraid that I’d toss and turn half the night, replaying what had happened throughout the day. But everything seemed to glide off of me, falling away as I crept into bed. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arm around Mr. Rumblebutt, his purr began to lull me to sleep, and the next thing I knew, the sun was peeking through the window and it was morning.
COME MORNING, EVERYTHING seemed a little brighter. As I was dressing, I glanced in the mirror at my birthmark. The stag’s head and antlers suddenly made sense. How far had my father’s connections with Cernunnos gone?
I brushed my hair back, binding it into a high ponytail. I looked more like my father than my mother. He had had raven black hair just like mine, and green eyes like mine as well. My mother had been a redhead, with bright blue eyes and a voice that could charm the morning birds.
After I shimmied into a pair of jeans, I slipped on a corset top, inhaling deeply as I fastened the busks. I found that corsets supported my boobs better, and they also—if not cinched too tightly—supported my back, especially when I was out on the job, although acrylic boning was a must for being able to move quickly. I wasn’t a tomboy, although I certainly couldn’t be described as prim and proper. I liked makeup and I liked pretty clothes, but I liked my look with an edge.
After I finished dressing, I slipped on a pair of ankle boots with two-inch heels. They were chunky, and had good tread so that I could run in them. I threaded a studded leather belt through the loops in my jeans, and then, after a quick splash of powder, eye liner, and lip gloss, I headed out to the kitchen.
Angel was already up, whistling as she prepared pancakes. I was surprised she seemed so cheerful, but Mama J. had taught her to trust her instincts. If she thought DJ was safe, then he was safe.
“How long have you been up?”
“About an hour. I took a shower, and I’m grateful I packed a bag for a few days. I’ll need to get the rest of my clothes soon. I thought I’d make bacon and pancakes for breakfast. There weren’t enough eggs so I hope you don’t mind going without on those. I’ve already fed Mr. R. and he’s off playing in the living room.”
Mr. Rumblebutt loved Angel because she always brought him catnip toys.
“Mind? Hell, I’m just grateful you’re cooking. My specialties are pizza and toast. But you know that.” I grinned at her. We had gone to community college together, rooming together, and she had done most of the cooking for those two years. I had pitched in with housecleaning. I’d rather scrub the toilet any day than figure out how to prepare dinner. Most nights, I ate sandwiches and opened cans of soup. Or I’d stop for takeout on the way home.
“Ready to start our new jobs?” She flipped three pancakes onto the plate, added five rashers of bacon, and handed it to me. I carried my plate and the maple syrup over to the table. She followed with the butter and her own plate.
“Coffee? Coffee coffee coffee?” Angel didn’t share my obsession with caffeine—at least not with coffee. She had her own raging addiction going in the form of black tea, however.
“I don’t know how to work your espresso machine. So you’re going to have to fix that yourself.” Her eyes were twinkling as she spoke.
“You’re going to have to learn how to use it if you expect to live with me. Just like I know how to make your tea. You like two tea bags in the cup, so strong that you could stand a spoon up in it. I don’t know how you can gag that stuff down.” I wrinkled my nose at her, grinning. “I’m glad you’re feeling okay this morning. I was so worried about you last night.”
“I told you, he’s going to be fine. He’s safe where he’s at. Meanwhile, I have to admit that I’m kind of excited. I hated that job, and you’ve got to admit, this is going to be a whole new way of life. No more drifting. And at least I know DJ will be looked after and that they can afford to take care of him. There were months where I ate ramen for dinner so that he could have a halfway decent supper and breakfast.”
“I wish you would have told me.”
We had very few secrets from each other, but there were matters we were both embarrassed about. Or maybe, too proud. Money was one of them, on Angel’s part.
“There’s not much you could have done. You weren’t that much better off.”
I shrugged. “I could have figured out something to help.” I dug into my pancakes. “Where the hell did you find pancake mix? I didn’t have any in the cupboard.”
“Flour and eggs, baking powder and milk. A pinch of salt. I know my way around the kitchen, girl.”
I frowned. “I don’t remember buying flour and baking powder.”
“My house. You brought them with us last night.”
“Oh! That’s right. I just grabbed whatever I found. I wasn’t paying close attention.” The pancakes were soft and fluffy, and the syrup tasted slightly different but good.
“I know I didn’t have syrup. Your place?”
She shook her head. “I was out of syrup, too. But there was brown sugar and cream, so I made a form of caramel. So you want to be roomies again?”
I nodded. “I’m game if you are. We can look for a house after we go visit Herne. Or rather, after we go to work. I must admit, it will be a relief not having to freelance anymore. It gets scary when the clients run thin. Or when they cheat you.”
She gave me a solemn nod. “While my job was more secure, I got really tired of being cussed at when things went wrong, and watching the guys get promoted right and left. Not to mention having the scuzzball boss hit on me. But if I had filed a sexual harassment suit, he would have found a way to turn it around on me. And I couldn’t afford to be out of work, given taking care of DJ.”
I bit down on a piece of bacon. Several times, I had wanted to pay a visit to Angel’s boss and set him straight on how to treat her, but she begged me not to. And I knew she couldn’t afford to get on his bad side.
“I’ll put the condo up for sale. I should be able to find a little house on the outskirts of the city for not much more than I paid for this. Mortgage shouldn’t be too steep, and you can rent a room from me. That work for you?”
She nodded. “All right. I’ll give thirty days’ notice on the house, it’s not on a lease so at least I’ve got that going for me. The only thing I ask is that you don’t buy anything near a frat-boy hangout or party house. The one thing going for the neighborhood I lived in was that it was quiet.”
“And dangerous. We can ask Herne for some recommendations.” I paused, glancing sideways at her. “Am I the only one who thinks he’s pretty hot?”
Angel let out a laugh. “You better watch yourself. Getting involved with a god could be dicey.”
“Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had sex? After what happened with the last couple guys…” I fell silent, my giddy mood suddenly vanishing. “Thank you, by the way. For explaining to Ray. I just couldn’t tell him.”
“I thought you might be mad, but I felt he deserved to know. He deserved to know that you weren’t being a bitch. You did what you could to save his life.”
“Well, thank you anyway. I still can’t talk about it very easily. I don’t know what happened, and I don’t know if I ever will. The first time I thought it was a fluke, but after Leland I knew it was just being in proximity to me and my work.”
I closed my eyes, trying to keep away the images that kept running through my mind. First there was Robert, who tried to help me on a job putting a stop to a batch of will-o’-the-wisps, but they lured him away when I wasn’t watching and drained him of his life force. I blamed myself, and it had taken me months to regain my equilibrium, and a couple years before I felt strong enough to date again.
And then I met Leland, and I had fallen in love with him. He was a cougar shifter from Mount Rainier. We dated for several months before I would even let him kiss me, and then slowly, I let the relationship move forward. He was a gentleman, waiting for me to give the okay. Finally, I took him into my bed, made long slow love to him, and in the middle of our tryst, he had a fatal heart attack. The doctor said it was too much rich food—and Leland did love his expensive pastries and carb-rich pasta dishes—but that kind of put a damper on things for me.
Then Ray showed up. He almost made me almost change my mind, but the closer we got, the more flashbacks to Robert and Leland I had. And then, Ray was attacked by the goblin I was going after. He hadn’t died, but the scar was a nasty one, and I decided that I liked him too much to chance him getting killed because of me.
“So you’re thinking, maybe because Herne’s a god, that he won’t fall under whatever curse you think you carry that killed Leland and Robert, and almost killed Ray?” Angel smiled. “Just make sure that you really like him first, okay? I know you’re hard up, and trust me, I understand. But don’t jump your employer’s bones just because you’re horny. That could be bad in so many ways, and I’m not just talking about finding him dead on the bed.”
“I suppose you’re right.” I gave her a wry grin. “It’s been so long since I worked for anybody else that I’ve forgotten the nuances of social interaction on the job. I guess it would be like sleeping with one of my clients. Not such a good idea.”
I hated to admit it, but she was right. I also didn’t like owning up to the fact that I found Herne absolutely gorgeous. I had a thing for the biker boys, especially the bad ones. Pushing lascivious thoughts away, I finished my breakfast and stood up.
“I suppose we better go find out what our new lives are going be like.” I paused, then added, “I’m glad you’re okay. Last night was harsh.”
Even though Angel insisted she was all right, there had to be a place deep inside where she was devastated. She took her responsibility for DJ so seriously that I couldn’t imagine that everything was quite as hunky-dory as she said. But I wouldn’t push matters. Angel would deal with this in a way that was easiest for her. If that meant pushing away her own feelings of loss, that was probably what she needed to do. At least, for now.
We carried our dishes to the sink. Then, grabbing our jackets and purses, we said good-bye to Mr. Rumblebutt and headed for the elevator. It was time to go to work.
ON THE SURFACE, Seattle was a beautiful city. Over the years it had grown into its nickname—the Emerald City. Set on Puget Sound, it was a major port for the country and an international hub, airport-wise.
A mix of old buildings amidst gleaming new ones, the city was as diverse as a box of crayons. It was a high-tech magnet, and yet there was a startling level of poverty in the city. Rents were steep, and for every penthouse owned by some computer guru, there were two-bedroom apartments filled with families of eight or nine people, trying to make ends meet.
There was a sector of homeless transients, as well. Tent cities cropped up here and there, some by the freeways, some under the numerous overpasses that connected suburb to suburb. For a long time, people had protested their existence. But when the recession continued, the arguments faded and the transitory neighborhoods became just one more fact of life. The rich moved to the suburbs on the northern outskirts, or over to the Eastside, and the core of Seattle—its heart—was left to the lower classes.
I took Greenwood Avenue, southbound, until it turned into Phinney. Then I followed Phinney until we hit Thirty-fourth, where I turned left. From there it was an easy hop onto Fremont Avenue and over the bridge to the Queen Anne area. Another fifteen minutes of stop-and-go traffic saw us down to First Avenue, where I pulled into a parking garage across from the address Herne had given us.
The streets in downtown Seattle were wide, riddled with potholes, and notorious for their awkward placement. But the city felt like home, and the multitude of beautiful old brick buildings and tree-lined streets were in direct juxtaposition to how gritty the city could feel on bleak days in midwinter. As I eased into the parking garage, I grimaced when I saw the rates, but the skies opened and a hard spring rain began to pound down and I was grateful we weren’t parking on the street three or four blocks away.
“Well, at least we’re only across the street from the Wild Hunt. We won’t have far to walk in this mess.” I eased into a parking stall, and pulled out my credit card. “Let me pay for the afternoon and then let’s get going.”
Now that we were actually here, some of my excitement had worn off. I was more nervous than anything else. I kept telling myself that if it was really bad, we could nullify our agreement and take our chances.
Angel and I dashed through the rain, weaving through the pedestrian traffic that filled the sidewalks. A lot of the small boutiques that used to line the streets were gone, and now a profusion of neighborhood markets and delis took their place, along with the brothels that had become so popular. They catered to the fetish personality, each one offering a specialized service. I averted my eyes from one with the name of “Spank-o-Rama” as we passed by. I had my own kinks, but that wasn’t one of them.
The Wild Hunt Agency was in a five-story brick walk-up. There was an elevator, but an out of service sign was plastered across it.
“Wouldn’t you know it? He’s four flights up.”
“Of course.” Angel grinned. “Quit complaining and start climbing stairs. It’s good for you.”
The Wild Hunt Agency took the entire fourth floor.
As we got off the elevator, we found ourselves in the lobby of a spacious waiting room. There was a desk in the center, facing the elevator, and a seating area to the right, with a leather sofa and several upholstered chairs. A water cooler sat in the corner, along with a couple large plants in vivid blue porcelain urns.
There were two doors on the wall behind the desk, a window that overlooked the city streets to the left, and against the right wall, a hallway led further back into the agency. The brick walls were clean, and the lighting was bright, giving an airy feel to the reception room. It was a pleasant surprise, considering how old and grimy the building had looked outside.
We crossed to the desk, but there was no one behind it. Instead, a bell sat on the edge, with a sign propped next to it that read, please ring for service.
I glanced around. There was no one in sight, so I reached out and tapped the bell. A loud chime reverberated through the room, louder than I expected.
“I’m surprised there isn’t somebody waiting for us.” I craned my neck, trying to see around the corner down the hallway, but we were too far from it. I decided it wouldn’t be polite to go snooping just yet.
Just then, the door directly behind the desk opened, and Herne entered the waiting room. He shut the door behind him, and when he saw us he broke out into a smile.
He certainly didn’t look as messy as he had the night before. His hair was smoothed back into a ponytail, and though he still had the closely cropped beard, it looked like he had trimmed it. He was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a suit jacket with leather patches on the elbows. Beneath the jacket, he wore an olive green sweater with a V-neck, and he had a bronze necklace around his throat, but from this distance I couldn’t tell what the pendant was. He looked just as good as I remembered him looking last night.
He was carrying a file folder, and when he saw us he closed it. “Welcome to the Wild Hunt. I’m glad you actually showed up.” His eyes were twinkling as he said it, but there was a serious note to his voice.
“Has anybody actually not shown up who said they would?” Somehow, it had never occurred to me to stand up a god.
“Actually, yes. Several people. They were in similar situations as you, and unfortunately, they decided to bail on me.” He sat on the corner of the desk, dropping the file folder by the laptop.
“What happened to them?” Angel asked.
“They vanished. Unfortunately, people who make enemies of the Fae often do.” He shrugged, then stood and straightened his jacket. “So are you ready to get to work?”
I nodded. “I guess we’re as ready as we’ll ever be. But you haven’t told us what we’re going to be doing.”
“Well, as you can tell there’s nobody manning the reception desk. Our last receptionist left the agency to have a baby and she’s decided to stay home. Angel, I thought you would be best suited at being our new receptionist. Your ability to read people will be a great help.”
“How did you know that I’m able to read people?” Angel gave him a suspicious look.
He snickered. “Being the son of a god has its perks. I knew right away that you have precognitive abilities. I’m able to sense such things. But when I was doing research on Ember, you came up as her best friend.”
She let out an exasperated sigh. “So of course, you researched my background?”
“Of course. And given what happened with your brother, I’m glad that I did. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to move so quickly on getting him into a sanctuary house. By the way, over the next few weeks, I need both of you to acquaint yourselves with all the sanctuary stops around the city. And that includes the Eastside as well. You’ll have to have that information at the tip of your fingers should the client need it—and that goes beyond the scope of our dealings with the Fae. But we can go into that a little later.”
I was beginning to realize that we weren’t just going to be poking our nose into the skirmishes between Light and Dark. It sounded like the Wild Hunt dealt with a number of life and death situations.
“So, Angel, this will be your station. Ember, I’ve decided to put you out on the front with us. You’ll be assisting us with cases. Your background as a freelance bounty hunter will fit right in for that. You already know how to research and track. You’ll have to learn our procedures, of course, but that’s just a matter of memorization. For now, come meet the rest of the team.”
He motioned for us to follow him.
I wasn’t sure why, but I hadn’t expected there to be a “team”—which seemed ridiculous, when I thought about it. He couldn’t work alone, not and run an agency like this. But for some reason I hadn’t gone so far as to wonder who else we’d be working with.
He led us around the corner, into the hallway that I had been curious about. It ran back about fifty feet to an end wall, with three doors on the right side, and one door at the end on the left, near the end. He led us to the first door on the right. The frosted glass pane in the upper half of the door was stenciled with the words break room on it. He turned the knob, and led us in.
THE BREAK ROOM was about a third of the size of the waiting room, with a long table in the center, a small range and refrigerator on one side next to a counter, and on the other side, another counter with a small sink, several drawers and cupboards beneath it, and a microwave. A sofa sat against the end wall, with a pillow, and a couple blankets neatly folded over the back. The lights were fluorescent, and there was a glare to the room that made me feel alert. Definitely a working room, not a hangout space.
Three people sat at the table, two men and another woman. One of the men was burly, and looked like somebody you might meet in a dark alley. He was bald, with a Snidely Whiplash mustache. Dressed all in black—black jeans, black turtleneck—he looked muscled and fit.
The other man was thin and tall, with wire-rimmed glasses and long brown hair that reached his ass, pulled back in a neat braid. His eyes were deep brown and right off the bat I pinned him as Native American. He was wearing a striped polo shirt and blue jeans.
The woman must have been in her mid-sixties, with a narrow nose and a hawkish face. She was busty, with a narrow waist and curved hips, and she was wearing a neat, brick red, linen pantsuit. Her long silver hair was pulled back away from her face by two thin braids on either side, and I had the immediate sense that she was Crypto. What kind, I couldn’t tell, but one look at her eyes was enough to tell me I didn’t want to mess with her.
All three of them looked up as we entered the room. Herne sat at the head of the table. He placed the file folder he was carrying in front of him, but left it closed.
“Meet Ember and Angel, our two new employees. As I told you this morning, Angel will be taking over the receptionist desk, while Ember will be joining us on the investigations team. I’ve told you about both of them, but they don’t know who you are yet. So, introductions.”
He motioned to the woman. “This is Talia, our head researcher. She does all the legwork. She prepares the dossiers, finds out all the background information on people and places. Basically, anything I need information about that isn’t of a technical nature, I turn to her.”
Talia looked us over carefully. “Hello, girls. Welcome to the agency.”
On the outside, she seemed friendly enough. But there was a reserve beneath the pleasant demeanor. It would take time to get to know her, and if we pressed, I sensed she’d slam down a wall so fast it would smack us in the face.
The burly man went next. “I’m Viktor. I’m head of security, and you need my okay before you check out any weapons from our armory. I’m also here as backup and muscle.”
“Don’t let Viktor fool you. He may be the muscle of the agency, but he’s also one hell of an investigator and he’s got an IQ of 180. Brains and brawn in one package.”
“I just wish my family felt that way,” Viktor said. He glanced over at us. “You’ll find out soon enough, so I might as well tell you. I’m half-ogre. My family disowned me because I took after my human mother. If I’d been a girl, they wouldn’t have cared, but men in my race are expected to be brutish. And by brutish, I mean big. Really big.” He grinned as he said it, shrugging. “You do what you can, and hope it all falls together in the end.”
I blinked. I’d heard of ogres but had never met one. “You look plenty big to me,” I said before I realized that I was actually saying the words aloud. I blushed, but that broke the ice and everybody laughed.
Viktor slapped the table. “From your mouth to my father’s ears, I wish. But it is what it is, and at least I have a good job, thanks to Herne.”
“I wouldn’t have anybody else on my team,” Herne said. He motioned to the other man, who looked younger than any of us. “And this is Yutani. He’s our computer programmer and all-around tech guru. He’s also one of our investigators.”
Yutani saluted us with two fingers. He was leaning back in his chair, staring at us with an unreadable expression. But he didn’t seem angry, or unfriendly, just observant.
“Welcome to the company. Before you ask, and because you probably should know, I’m a coyote shifter. Great Coyote dogs my heels, so fair warning in advance. Sometimes his energy splashes over onto the other people I run with.”
I rubbed my forehead, trying to suppress a groan. The last thing we needed was Coyote’s energy running rampant in our lives. It felt like we already had enough chaos as it was.
“That’s the same look my last girlfriend gave me when she found out who I’m bound to.” But he laughed, and motioned to the chair next to him. “Brave enough to sit near me?”
Angel snorted. “Dude, don’t ever dare Ember. Trust me on that one.”
I grinned at him as I took the chair next to Talia. “I’ve got enough chaos in my life, thank you.”
Angel sat next to Yutani. Viktor pushed back his chair and headed over to the coffee pot, which was sitting next to the small sink.
“Care for some coffee?”
I raised my hand. “I never say no to caffeine. A splash of milk and a spoon of sugar, please.”
“I’m a tea girl myself,” Angel said. “Black tea, two teabags in one cup, as strong as I can make it.”
“I think we can rustle up some tea.” Viktor put a teakettle on the burner, then opened one of the cupboards and pulled out a box of teabags. When he returned with our drinks, Herne cleared his throat.
“I expect everybody here to help Angel and Ember as much as possible. Before we get to our new case, which is a doozy, I’m going to reiterate the rules for the girls.” He glanced over at me with a frown. “I don’t mean any disrespect by calling you ‘girls.’ You’re both women, but you’re both young compared to most of us. But if it bothers you, just let me know.”
I shrugged. “I’ve been called far worse. So long as you don’t ask me to get you coffee.”
Angel shook her head. “Trust me, where I was working before, I had far less respect. And as receptionist, I suppose coffee is one of my jobs?”
“Whoever gets here in the morning puts on the first pot. But yeah, I may ask you to grab a cup for me now and then.” Herne cleared his throat and opened one of the file folders in front of him. “The rules of the agency are simple. You are both required to sign an NDA. Trust me, if you break them, I will find out. Punishment is up to my father, and you do not want to get on the bad side of Cernunnos. You will discuss the cases and events in this office with no one except those in this room. Understood?”
“Understood,” I said. “I had confidentiality agreements with my clients. For me, the ability to keep quiet meant that I had returning clientele.”
Angel just nodded. “Understood.”
“All right, next: we begin work at eight a.m., generally. You’re expected to be on time. Some cases will take us into the nighttime hours, and we adjust as necessary. You’re both on salary. Angel, you’re required to be here from eight a.m. until six p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. You get an hour lunch break, and of course, two coffee breaks. One in the morning, one in the afternoon. As long as you man your desk and get the work done, I don’t care if you sit there playing video games afterward, though only on a private laptop. Absolutely no visiting sites with the work computers where you might download a virus. When in doubt, ask Yutani.”
She jotted down notes. Angel was a perpetual note-taker.
“Ember, you work the schedule that the rest of us work. Investigators work as needed. If we’re on a case, you may be working around the clock. Angel, at times you may be called in as well. You both get sick leave, and after six months you both get two weeks’ vacation a year. After two years, you get three weeks’ vacation per year. Keep your noses clean—we do our best to fly under the radar of the cops. They know we exist, but there’s not much they can do about us, except to make life difficult. We work outside of their jurisdiction, but only when we’re on a case. If you’re speeding and they catch you, you get a ticket.”
He let out a long sigh, scrunching up the side of his lip as if he were trying to decide how to say something.
“What?” I asked.
Herne gave us a long look. “All right, here’s what you don’t know. What I haven’t told you so far. None of this is discussed in public, because if it were, whoever was doing the talking would be in one hell of a lot of trouble.”
“Why do I have a feeling we don’t want to know what you’re about to tell us?” I asked, trying to inject a little levity into the conversation. But Herne wasn’t smiling, and neither were Yutani, Talia, or Viktor.
“This is no laughing matter,” Herne said, and I felt duly chastised. “Are you the least bit curious why the cops wouldn’t even follow up on your parents’ murder?”
I shrugged, “I figured it was because the cops were underfunded and understaffed.”
“That’s true enough, but no. It’s because your parents were Fae. Light, Dark, doesn’t matter. The fact that they were Fae meant that there was never any real investigation, no matter what they told you. You see, Névé and Saílle both keep the authorities’ pockets well lubricated so that they’ll look the other way. Like the vampires own Wall Street, the Fae own the cops. And the governor, for that matter. Anything to do with Fae politics is paid lip service, only. Neither Fae Queen wants interference, and they pay well to keep the authorities out of things.”
“Bribes? That doesn’t surprise me, but what about the United Coalition? Don’t they take exception to what you just said? Both the vampires and the Fae?” That was what the alliance was called between the Shifter Alliance, the Vampire Nation, the Human League and the Fae courts.
“Nothing’s in writing, the money is laundered so well that it’s squeaky clean, and if there were any allegations made, it would lead to all-out war between the factions. The Fae courts and the vampires are so powerful that the other members of the UC choose to look the other way. If either side were to make inroads to control everything, I’m pretty sure it would be a different matter. But neither the vamps nor the Fae are looking to rule the world. As long as they keep out of most personal affairs, the money is too good to ignore, and it crosses too many hands.”
“Essentially then, with the Fae, we have two warring factions who are allowed to play out their internal spats, as long as collateral damage isn’t too high and the payout is worth it.” I had always been jaded, but now I felt even more so. “It’s just lovely, knowing I belong to both sides and yet, to neither.”
Herne shrugged. “And you represent an unacceptable union of opposites to both Light and Dark.” He leaned back in his chair. “Which leads us to the next rule. Under no circumstances are you to accept money from anybody other than the Wild Hunt. Not even a free lunch unless it’s a good friend. No gifts, unless it’s from a good friend, and I’m talking a person you see regularly. No bonuses unless I pay them. Nothing. The cops know we exist. The Fae know we exist. So does the United Coalition. They all know why we’re here, and they stay out of our work, as long as we don’t take sides. We keep the balance. We’ve taken on Light and we’ve taken on Dark. Cernunnos and Morgana have the last word and both sides grudgingly accept that. We’re balance keepers, more than anything else.”
“Then we’re not here to stop this war?” Angel asked.
“Nothing on earth can do that. It’s a continual battle that the gods have long come to accept. We keep it from breaking out into the human world, into the shifter world, and into the Vampire Nation. We keep the members of the United Coalition from taking sides. That means that at times, we take on blood vengeance debts. The Fae know and accept this—both Névé and Saílle.”
“Then we’re not really the good guys,” I murmured.
Talia spoke up. “You’ll come to learn that there aren’t really any truly good guys in this matter. As Herne said, we’re balance keepers.”
The room fell silent for a moment. I glanced over at Angel, who was staring at me. I knew what she was thinking because I was thinking the same thing. The world was a rough place, and it had just gotten a whole lot rougher.