I emerged from the subway feeling a little shell-shocked. At this point in my life I had killed a pretty large number of vampires and a handful of humans, but those had very clearly been my enemies. Agent Philips was the first person I killed that I should’ve been able to consider an ally, at least on paper. That fact was not resting too well with me. And I had a sinking suspicion he would not be the last supposed ally I would have to face in the coming days.
A possibility that did not sit right with me either.
The instant the sun hit my cheeks, my comm crackled back to life.
“... you can hear me, Ryan, please respond. Tabitha and the prisoners are safe, I’ve got medical personnel that I trust en route to rescue them now. I repeat, if you can hear me Ryan, please respond.”
“I read you, Io,” I announced.
She immediately started gushing about how glad she was that I was okay. I squinted my eyes at the harsh sunlight reflecting off all the reflective skyscrapers in the metropolis. By the looks of it, I was walking up into a construction site just south of Eastport Central Park. Guess that explained why so many of the bodies wound up over there. Or maybe it didn’t. I had too much on my mind to play detective right now, my head was filled with thoughts of the Signal and many layers of secrets which made up the Keeper’s Bureau.
Waiting for me was a single cop car.
“Tabitha is en route to your location now. Three minutes out, tops,” Io promised.
“Copy. I might have a situation with local law enforcement brewing, stand by.”
As I stepped out into the sunlight, probably looking more than a little bedraggled after three gunfights and a sword duel, a pair of uniformed officers emerged from the vehicle. One was a portly guy with a mustache. The other was a pretty, fit girl around my age, maybe a little older, with a jet black ponytail. Something about her seemed oddly familiar.
“Ryan?” she asked, sounding stunned. With a calming wave to her partner, she broke away from her vehicle and approached me. “Is that really you?”
For a second I was lost, unable to place her beautiful face to anyone I might know. I was mesmerized by her dark hair, pale skin, and hazel eyes. Then I saw her nametag.
“Oh wow,” I said, an old memory floating back to me from long ago. “Selene?”
Selene and Hannah grew up together. They were inseparable back in the day but I had only met her once twice before. Hannah used to joke that if anything ever happened to her she wanted me to date Selene instead. A joke that was not funny back then, and was even less funny after Hannah died.
“How’s Hannah’s old beau doing? Please tell me you aren’t still working over at Hilltop.”
I hesitated for only a moment before embracing the weird and rolling with it.
“No, no. That job went up in flames. Got run off by some dinosaur. I’ve recently found a new gig though. It’s got a pretty killer benefits package, not gonna lie. The people I work with sort of seem like monsters at first, but they’re pretty alright once you get to know them.”
Officer Selene smiled wide. “I’m so glad to hear that! Nice to hear things are looking up for you,” she closed the distance to me in seconds, reaching out to place a steadying hand on my arm. Her grip tightened a little around my bicep and a flash of something crossed over her face. “Damn,” she muttered. “Are you alright? You kind of look like you got mugged…and then spent the night in the sewers. You’re not on any drugs, are you?”
Glancing down at my clothing I had to admit I did look like I had been through the ringer. I guess I had not dodged quite as many of Blitz’s slashes as I thought. “Eh,” I said casually, “you should see the other guy.”
“Wait, really?” Selene’s expression became businesslike as she looked over my shoulder into the darkened recesses of the abandoned subway tunnel. “If you’ve been assaulted, my partner and I can protect you,” she said defensively.
I didn’t mean to laugh, really. Just the way her hand went to her gun and she moved to place herself between me and whatever danger she was imagining still lurked behind me was so endearing. If I was not utterly convinced that I remembered Hannah talking about how Selene was always into girls, I would have thought she was into me.
Had cute girls always been this eager to get on my good side, or was it a side effect of my awakening ‘champion’ powers and all that monster blood coursing through my veins?
More importantly, did I care?
Sadly, Selene misinterpreted my laughter and her eyes narrowed.
“Don’t laugh, Ryan, I’m serious. Who hurt you? Was it a drug thing? People grieve in different ways and I know you and Hannah were soulmates. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. We have people who can help you get clean.”
I gently lifted my hand to forestall any further offers of assistance and immediately set out to reassure her. “Easy, Selene. The strongest drugs I’ve ever taken were whatever the hell they gave me after the accident. It’s not like that. I’m sorry, I was laughing because you are offering to protect me when I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be the other way around.”
Selene frowned. “I don’t remember you being sexist. I’m a cop, Ryan. ‘Protect and serve’ is in the job description. Are you a cop?”
“As a matter of fact,” I unclipped my Keeper’s badge from my belt and showed it to her, “I am. And the kind of danger I was taking care of down there is a little beyond your typical muggings and gang violence. It’s my job to protect you from that.” From the way Selene’s eyes widened when she spotted the badge, I assumed she recognized it. Though to what extent she was on the up-and-up about the whole monsters-and-magic situation going on here in Eastport, I was unsure.
“You’re with the Bureau? Damn, son. You’re really moving up in the world. Did Hannah know you were going through the training? She told me you were trying to be a firefighter, not a damn Keeper! Is that where you got the fancy prosthetic? I hear they’ve got all kinds of cool gadgets and shit over there.”
My left hand twitched reflexively as her attention shifted to it. “Uh, yeah. This is one of those benefits I mentioned.” Nevermind that the benefit came from sleeping with Tabitha and gaining her healing powers, that was maybe a bit much to dump on this old friend of my dead ex all at once. “For the record, I really was trying to be a firefighter. The accident, losing my hand, all that sort of changed my life’s trajectory in a big way. Working with the Bureau is the first thing that’s made sense in a long while.”
Selene’s expression drifted from impressed to concerned and finally settled on a knowing look. “I understand what you mean. The EPPD has helped me keep my head above water. Hannah was, is, the best friend I ever had. Some days I wake up and I can’t really process that she’s gone.”
For a moment we both grew really quiet, both lost in our own memories.
Then the retrofitted K9 SUV came trundling up beside the cop car and parked. The driver’s side door cracked open and Tabitha stepped down in her combat boots, looking like a fitness model wearing tactical gear. She must have shed the undercover outfit on the ride over because she was back in her usual combo of tight-fitting workout clothes and ergonomic armor that accentuated her ridiculously sexy body.
Fuck, she’s so hot. How did I get so lucky?
Selene took a sharp breath at my side and a part of me wondered if she was appreciating the same parts of Tabby that I was.
“Hey, hotshot! If you’re done making friends with the local hotties, we got places to be!”
I had already taken five steps towards her when I caught sight of a spectral image in the reflection coming off the SUV’s windshield. A ghostly afterimage of Hannah was staring at me, crossing her arms and nudging her chin back towards Selene.
I spun in place and saw the saddened look on the girl’s face, it was enough to make me feel a little like garbage for almost walking away without saying anything. My relief at seeing Tabitha alive had gotten ahead of me.
“Hey, Selene?”
She looked up at me, her chest swelling slightly almost as if she were afraid of what I was going to say next. “Yes?”
“Hannah was…she was everything to me. I was lucky enough to know her just for a couple years and in that time she completely turned my life around. You knew her for her entire life. I can’t imagine how deeply her passing must have hurt you. Your friendship meant the world to her. Something tells me she wouldn’t want me to just walk away without saying something. So I guess what I’m trying to say is, if you ever need anything, just let me know.”
Selene’s fear visibly melted away and she pulled a pen out of one of her breast pockets.
“Give me your hand, please. I probably should’ve done this sooner. Something tells me Hannah wouldn’t want me to take my eyes off of you.” She glanced over at Tabitha, who was watching all of this go down with an unreadable expression hidden behind her aviators. “I sure hope your little brunette bombshell over there doesn’t take offense at me doing this, but I want you to have my number. In case you ever need anything, okay?”
I was about to explain that Tabitha would not be offended in the slightest, but Selene suddenly tapped her ear before I could get a word out. “I copy. We’re en route, chief.” She nodded to her partner and apologized to me, saying she needed to go.
Scant seconds later, the police car was peeling off towards whatever emergency they were being pulled into, and I was moving towards Tabitha as she barely managed to conceal a bemused smirk.
“So,” she began, “who was the hottie? Looks like Io and my double-header really convinced you after all!”
I chuckled. “She’s an old friend of Hannah’s, we were reminiscing. And what can I say, you two can be quite convincing when you put your heads together,” I flirted back. “Don’t get your hopes up with that one though, I’m pretty sure she swings your way, not mine.”
Tabitha pouted her lips. “Too bad.”
“Is it?” I set my hand on Tabby’s waist and kissed her softly. My relief at us both making it out of Club Ouroboros and through those tunnels alive, was quickly overriding the fatigue I felt after my encounter with Agent Philips.
Fuck. I have to tell her about Philips.
Io’s sultry voice cut in all of a sudden, “Don’t get me wrong, you two look great together and all, but would you mind bringing some of that action back to the safehouse where I can get you debriefed and then maybe join in? You can’t leave me on the sidelines forever. A lamia has needs, after all.”
“I had no intention of leaving your needs unattended to, Io. But first I need to share some bad news with you both. Agent Philips is dead. He and Blitz both tried to murder me and I had no choice. I killed him.”
A moment of silence passed between the three of us before either girl reacted.
Tabitha shrugged. “Bastard deserved it. He left me to die enough times as it was. If he was going to try and take out a fellow agent he should have known to go after someone weaker than you. What about Blitz, is he dead too?”
I shook my head, blushing from her praise and surprised at how calmly she was taking the news. “Passed out on the tracks, he should wake up in a few hours.” Satisfied with my reply, Tabitha turned to move to the passenger seat, prompting me to press further. “Wait, that’s it? You’re not going to tell me that killing a fellow Keeper is wrong?”
“Killing a fellow Keeper is wrong, Ryan. But since that’s what he was trying to do to you, all you did was outthink and outfight him. You survived. Nothing wrong with that. Keepers die on missions all the time. Besides, Philips and Blitz had no reason to be down in that club. If Blitz tries to report you to Aleksei, it will be our word against his and he’ll have to explain why he was there in the first place. We were on a mission that Aleksei sent us on himself. But, as Io has just informed me, they were both off-duty when we walked in.”
That’s troubling. “What the hell were they doing there then?”
Tabitha shook her head. “That’s what we need to find out. C’mon, let’s get back to the safehouse for a debriefing.”
We loaded up and started driving towards the hotel.
The various pieces of this puzzle were swirling around my head like an angry swarm of bugs. The Signal, Keepers going rogue, underground monster-fighting pits, Philips’s suggestion that Aleksei was not as in charge as we believed he was, Boris’s determination to ‘put down’ every Feral monster despite knowing that the Signal was making them go Feral…I was no mathematician but some things were starting to add up to a conclusion I was not sure I liked.
Io set a pair of ice-cold beers in front of us as Tabitha sat down in my lap. My werewolf girlfriend curled her tail around my shoulder and leaned back against the overstuffed couch cushions. My lamia girlfriend then draped herself luxuriously across the rest of the couch and started fiddling with her tablet, making a holographic wall projection suddenly flicker to life and begin displaying a bunch of digital files.
“So I’ve been digging into Philips and Blitz’s records and I’ve come across a few factoids I think are a little suspicious.”
“Suspicious how?” I asked, taking a sip from Tabitha’s beer bottle and enjoying the way her eyes traced over my neck and jaw as I the sip turned into more of a gulp. Nothing like a life-threatening adventure and a sexy woman on your lap to make a cold beer taste better.
“Both of them were recruited by Boris, for starters. Philips came from a poor family in the south end, about as far from the nice part of Eastport as you can get. Boris brought him in and took over his training personally. Same with Blitz and about a dozen other agents besides them. All men. All with some trace of demonic heritage in their bloodlines, same as him.”
I blinked. “Wait, Boris is a demon?”
Tabby and Io glanced at one another and then at me.
“Did you not know that?” Tabitha asked incredulously.
“Four weeks ago I didn’t even know werewolves or lamias existed. Gimme a break.”
“Fair enough,” Io replied. “Yes, Boris is a demon. He and his kind come from the World of Anguish. Or, Hell, as you know it. People like Philips and Bianca are direct descendants of some of the demons that have slipped through into the other worlds over the years, they likely had a great grandparent who was a demon and so they have some unique powers. Bianca’s a succubus so a lot of her powers revolve around sex magic, and Philips was similar but as an incubus it was less about the act of sex and more about exerting power over people. The sex was more of a byproduct of that. People like Blitz have only trace amounts of demon blood in them, and are lucky if they get some extra strength or something out of the deal. From what I saw of his records I think he mainly just got sharper-than-human reflexes. Boris, on the other hand, is a half demon and thus is way more powerful than any of the others. He’s been the Bureau’s direct liaison to Anguish, er, Hell, for the better part of a century.”
“Okay. So he’s the ambassador to hell, it sounds like,” I summarized.
Tabitha sighed. “More or less, yeah. On top of being a powerful-as-fuck literal demon, he also has this little thing called diplomatic immunity. He can pretty much get away with whatever he wants so long as the Bureau’s Director doesn’t request a replacement.”
I winced. “And Aleksei came up through the organization with Boris as his partner.”
“Exactly,” Io said, snapping her fingers and pointing towards me in agreement.
“So chances are they’re in this together. Before he died, Philips scoffed at the idea that Aleksei was the one calling the shots. That didn’t make sense to me at first but now it does. Boris is calling the shots from the shadows and Aleksei is showing up as the face of the Bureau. It sounds to me like Boris and Aleksei are plotting together to wipe out all the monsters in Eastport. But why?”
Io grew very quiet.
“Well, we don’t actually know that that’s their plan. Or if they are even in cahoots. All we know is this Signal is making monsters go Feral and Aleksei has raised everyone to high alert. Boris seems to have a group of Keepers at his beck and call and he’s certainly up to his usual murderous antics, but I see no evidence that my…that Aleksei is behind any of this. In fact, it was his orders that sent us to Club Ouroboros in the first place. Maybe he was trying to get us to uncover the truth!” Tabitha said, hopefully.
Io and I exchanged a nervous glance. “Girl, I think we need to consider that maybe Aleksei isn’t the kindly old man you want to believe he is,” Io suggested as gently as possible.
Tabitha rose from my lap in a huff and pointed at Io angrily. “You have no evidence of that! Where is your proof?”
“My proof is currently locked behind clearance levels I don’t have access to, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. We just need to find a way to bypass the clearance and find it.”
“Then we go back to HQ and prove Aleksei’s innocence. Tonight!” Tabby said.
“Or his guilt,” Io allowed.
“He’s innocent,” Tabby insisted.
“Prove it.”
Both women rose up to their full heights, preparing to duke it out.
The budding catfight was interrupted by a sudden knock at the door.
All three of our heads spun around to face the door of our top secret safehouse, that no one besides us should have had access to, in stunned silence.
“Housekeeping!”