More Than Meets the Eye

  Mel strolled back to the three figures, and shook hands with each, his warm smile out of place on the hard cut features of his face. “Thank you for your assistance,” he said, as he placed an oversized hand on Tasha’s shoulder. He was clearly three feet taller than she was. “Girl, you did fine, but you should train.” Tasha held back a snicker when she saw the scowl that crossed Jake’s face. To Jake he said, “You bring her to my place, I will teach her how to handle monsters.” Before Jake could answer, he turned and hopped into his cab, his nimbleness for one so large stunning to Tasha. With a loud growl the engine turned over, and a groan of a transmission shifting into gear, the big monster hunter roared off, leaving Tasha, Jake and Avery in a flurry of dust and exhaust.

  The three silently walked towards Avery’s car. A sudden wave of exhaustion over took Tasha and she stumbled slightly.

  Jake took her by the arm. “You okay?”

  Tasha waved his concern away. “Fine, just experiencing an adrenalin let down. I don’t see how you werewolves do it, up all day, out all night. I’m exhausted.”

  Avery stifled a yawn. “Me too.”

  “Even werewolves need their rest. I’m about done in.”

  Tasha had managed to crawl into the back passenger seat of Avery’s car and shut the door, when a large, black sport utility vehicle with darkly tinted windows pulled up next to Jake. Five people in dark army-like fatigues stepped out, one directing the other four to begin their duties.

  The one who directed the four was a tall, pale man with closely shaved blond hair. He approached Jake and Avery, shaking both of their hands before leaning over to take a quick look at Tasha in the back seat.

  “Here for clean up, I see,” Jake commented.

  The other man smiled, a rather impish looking grin that Tasha thought rather alluring. “If you’d quit makin a mess, I wouldn’t have to clean up.” The man sobered. “So what’s down there?”

  Jake leaned back against the car, folding his arms under his chest. “Well, we got here too late, so by the time we got down there, that hellhound managed to tear up, oh, what do you think Avery, a dozen gangsters?”

  “Yeah, hard to tell, but about that. There were lots of body parts. That hound had a grand ol’ time.”

  The dark man grimaced. “Well, that limits our options. Any survivors?”

  Jake shook his head. “Nope, just the hellhound. When we got down there, he was just kind of, resting, like it was just waiting for a ride home.”

  “That’s exactly what it was doing,” confirmed the man. “What about that hole up the street?”

  “His exit.”

  He motioned towards Tasha. “And the girl?”

  “She’s fine. Helped to trap the son of bitch as a matter of fact.”

  “Huh. All right, that pretty much answers all my questions. I’ll call you if I need any more details.”

  The men shook hands again. Avery got in and started his car, while Jake climbed into the back seat with Tasha. She was frightfully cold now, her teeth shattering. Jake wrapped his arms around her, which helped to fend off the cold that had settled down into her very bones. She rested her head on his shoulder, grateful for his comfort.

  As they pulled out onto the main thoroughfare that would eventually get them home, a large explosion rocked the dock behind them.

  Chapter 10

  It was just before dawn when Tasha was finally able to drag herself up the flight of steps to her apartment. It was handy living in the apartment above her place of employment. It was also part of her compensation; free room and board. And having her apartment just above her office allowed Tasha to sleep just a tick longer as she wouldn’t have to allow for drive time to work. Too bad a tick longer was no more than a total of four hours of sleep. Tasha drug herself out of bed and after a quick shower, headed downstairs to open up shop.

  When she entered through the front door, she could smell the wonderful aroma of brewing coffee. As she flipped the sign from closed to open, she realized something else; there was a homemade sausage biscuit sitting on her desk. Jake had made her breakfast.

  Jake came out of his office, his own sandwich in hand. He raised it in salute and walked to the small kitchen area to grab a cup of coffee.

  “Morning,” he mumbled around his sandwich.

  “Wow, you’re up earlier than I thought you’d be. I know I am.” Tasha tried to stifle a yawn without succeeding.

  “We’ve got a client meeting at 10:30. Figured I could at least get the coffee started. Besides, when you turn on the shower, it makes a little whistle in the lines. It woke me.”

  “You can hear that all the way down there,” Tasha pointed towards the basement apartment.

  “High pitched noises tend to get my attention,” he said with a smile.

  “I can call someone. That has got to be annoying.”

  “I’ve got a guy. I’ll give you his number.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything sooner?”

  “I felt kind of awkward about it. I didn’t want you to think that I was hanging around your door, listening to you from the outside.”

  “Point taken. I’ll give your guy a call later today then.”

  Tasha had walked into the kitchen area while they were talking. The kitchen was the area behind the front office proper. It consisted of two counters set parallel to each other, connected by a shorter counter containing a double sink. The counter facing the door was taller than the one behind it, hiding the coffee maker and a microwave. Under the counter sat a small fridge. The cabinets underneath the counter held most of their paper supplies. And a weapon. Just in case.

  Tasha drew a cup of coffee for herself and leaned against the opposite counter from Jake, both chewing and drinking in a companionable silence. The silence was broken by the arrival of Avery.

  “Hey,” Avery said as he shuffled half awake to the coffee pot. He tossed the morning paper onto the counter and began sipping from his mug. “Did you see the front page?”

  “Not yet.” Jake picked up the paper. “’Quick Death; thirteen killed in explosion.’ Now that’s a tacky headline.”

  Tasha grabbed the paper from her boss and began to read. “’A gas leak is to blame for the explosion in an underground facility that took the lives of thirteen people, including the lives of George and Paul Quick, Gregory Quick’s two youngest sons. Mr. Quick was not available for comment.’ Wow, that’s tough even for a bad guy.”

  “Duggan wanted his pound of flesh and got it.”

  Avery agreed. “We’ve got cops trying to get a location on Quick and keep an eye on him, though I doubt that will keep him from trying to take out Duggan again.”

  “Do you suppose any of the remaining three kids will try taking revenge on Duggan?” asked Jake, his words muffled.

  “Naw. Quick is a real SOB of a dad, has always pitted one kid against the other. Gregory Jr. got sick of it, and moved to South America about ten years ago. He’s working on some oilrig down there, and from what I hear, stays out of trouble. His daughter disobeyed Quick by not marrying one of his cronies. Instead, she ran off with her college roommate. They are currently backpacking through Europe or something like that. I guess he can’t find her, and she’s not inclined to be found. Truth is, she hates her dad, loves her lover and wants nothing more to do with Gregory Quick. The youngest girl is his baby, only about sixteen or seventeen I think. He’s kept her isolated from his business dealings, so she doesn’t know just what kind of a man her father really is.”

  Tasha swallowed a bite. “What about the rest of the organization? Won’t they attempt to get back at Duggan?”

  Avery shook his head. “Quick only has loyalty from his people because he pays them. He’s also a tight bastard and won’t put out the extra cash for anyone else to hunt Duggan or his guys down. He thinks his people should just do it for him out of loyalty.”

  “Wow, with friends like that,” Tasha trailed off, taking a sip of coffee.

 
“Quick’s organization is rotten from the top down. I’m surprised it’s taken this long for Duggan to bring him down.”

  “Because Duggan,” Jake wadded up and threw his paper towel away, the sandwich that was in it now gone, “up until his son was killed, bowed to the authority of the Fae Council. Well, bowed to a certain extent anyway. The Fae Council said NO to taking out Quick.”

  Avery nodded. “Well, I’m guessing his number is up too. From what I hear, the Council is plenty mad at him for bringing a hellhound into this dimension.”

  Jake agreed. “No kidding.”

  Tasha stopped drinking and stared. “You mean they are going to kill him?”

  “Well, this time, yeah. Now, before you get all indignant, remember that Fae rules are a little tougher than human rules. There is more power involved, so the rules have to be absolute. Especially when dealing with something from another dimension. The rules are in place to help protect fae and human alike. And Duggan broke them big time. The Council may have been more lenient, maybe, if this was his first offence, but it’s not.”

  “Not by half,” Avery added.

  “Yeah, I get it. But I forget. Is Duggan a human dealing in the supernatural, or is Duggan a fae?”

  “No, he’s a fae,” Jake said matter of fact.

  “Right, okay, so a fae broke the fae rules. Brutal, but I get it.” Then she paused for a moment. “But what if he were human?”

  Jake shrugged. “It all depends. Now, there’s something you’re gonna have to understand now that you officially know about the fae.”

  “Yeah, I know, I’m to be held to the same standard as the fae.”

  “Right, and since you have accepted to live by those rules, you will be held accountable should those rules be broken.”

  “Got it. I already said I’d sign the document when the time came, remember. I just wanna know if, he were human, what would happen?”

  Jake shrugged. “Depends on the infraction. The Council would convene, consider the evidence and act accordingly.”

  “Almost like a trial?”

  “Very much like a trial. Human or fae, once you break fae rules, there are no human courts to take this to. The fae don’t exist remember? So, they will protect their own. In this case, he brought a supernatural being from another plane. That is serious beyond serious. And so are the consequences.”

  “What about the man who acquired the hellhounds?”

  Avery shifted. “Big Jim’s already in fae custody. Has been since the night we found that hound in his warehouse. He’s already been in trouble, so I’m not confident with his well being.”

  “Can I ask you another question?” Tasha asked a little timidly.

  “You can ask anything you want, but I may not answer,” Jake answered with a smart assed grin.

  “When you, ah, do work for the Council, does that include, er, taking care of someone like Duggan?”

  “You mean, am I the one who’s going to take out Duggan?”

  “Yes, that’s what I mean.”

  “No. I will hunt down an individual and if there’s no other way, well, yeah, because it’s them or me. Or mine. But I am not an assassin. That’s someone else’s job.”

  Tasha wasn’t sure if that made her feel better or not. She could understand the “you or me” mentality, but she’d been able to work this long with a werewolf because she didn’t see him as a cold-blooded killer. Not that “you or me” was cold-blooded. But, she reminded herself, he was still more than capable of killing.

  “Tash, you okay?” Jake asked, watching her closely.

  Reluctantly she raised her eyes to meet his. Jake’s golden, green flecked eyes were all the reassurance she needed. He defiantly was not a cold-blooded killer. He would do what needed to be done, and if that meant death, then that’s what he’d do because he needed to. Not because he wanted to. Big difference. She could live with that.

  Tasha held his gaze steadily and smiled. “Yeah, Jake, I’m just fine.”

  She was fine for about as long as it took for Avery’s fellow detective, Gil Masters to walk through the front door with news of his own.

  “Hey, Peaches!” Gil called as he entered, flashing his most charming grin. He had wavy, sun-kissed brown hair, brown eyes and a brilliant smile bracketed between dimples, all set in a tanned face. He wasn’t so much handsome as he was adorable, adorable as in that Shirley Temple kind of way, all dimples and teeth and mischievous eyes. Combined with his charm and youthful exuberance it made him hard to resist. Tasha often wondered if his mother was ever able to tell him “no” once he locked that smile on her.

  “Hey Dimples,” Tasha returned the customary greeting. “What’s up?”

  Gil sauntered through the front and parked himself on the edge of the counter next to Tasha. “Avery here showed me a picture of the guy from the van. This guy right?” Gil handed his smart phone to her. There, on the screen, was the man who had walked into the office and had later followed her to the casino. It was, indeed, Mr. Creepy.

  “Yep, that’s the guy. You know who this is?”

  “Why yes, Ms. Tereshkova, I do. His name is Richard Roberts.”

  “Sounds harmless enough,” Tasha scoffed, but her stomach started tensing up.

  “Yeah, well, this guy’s a real piece of work. I had dealings with him before I came into Homicide.”

  “Well, at least it’s not been since you’ve been in Homicide,” Jake offered encouragingly.

  “Yes, well you may not think so,” Gil winced as he looked over at Jake. “You’ll remember this guy. He fancies himself a monster bounty hunter extraordinaire.”

  Tasha looked up in alarm. “Uh, oh Jake. Do you suppose he knows about you?”

  Jake shrugged. “I don’t see how.”

  Avery shook his head, “Oh, hell no.”

  “What?” Tasha asked, dread spreading through her bones.

  “I remember this guy. I didn’t recognize his face, he’s changed quite a bit in the last few years. But that name is one I’ll not soon be forgetting. He caught an actual tree sprite, oh, about five years ago.”

  Jake nodded. “Yeah, I remember.”

  Tasha looked from one man to the other, considering the fact that they were all taking openly about fae with each other in front of Gil. “Wait, Gil knows about tree sprites?”

  “Uh, Yeah,” Gil said. “I know all about this guy too,” he pointed the phone towards Jake.

  “He saved my life once, so it’s kinda hard to kill a guy when he does something like that.”

  “Life debt kind of thing?” Tasha asked.

  Jake smiled. “Not quite, but close.”

  “But you’re not fae? Werewolf? Wizard?”

  Gil Shook his head and smiled. “Nope. Just plain ol’ ordinary human.”

  Tasha shook her head. Jake had kept her isolated for just over two years from his world, but now that she knew, all kinds of things were coming to light.

  “Okay, okay,” Tasha said, getting back to the subject. “So, what about this Richard Roberts guy? If he actually caught a sprite, shouldn’t he be, I don’t know, dead or mind wiped or something?”

  Jake crossed his arms over his chest. “An accidental death couldn’t be done cleanly, mostly because he’s got this crazy bunch of followers that would start making even more trouble than Roberts ever could. And a mind wipe was attempted but he is one of a very limited number of the population that can’t be wiped. He’s got some kind of wild talent no one can explain. Doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.”

  “That wild talent allows him to see the fae runes as well,” Avery added.

  “He’s been trying to decipher the few symbols he has seen, but he can’t figure them out. And no one believes him, cuz no one else can see them,” Gil gave a wicked little smile. “So, he’s been disgraced instead. Long story short, the sprite got away. He had no proof, after his irrevocable proof had been proven to be revocable. Not even the Enquirer would touch him after
that. He even spent some time in prison. Anyway, he can’t get a real job, so he’s been chasing monsters ever since. He’s got a blog and some group of kids that call themselves his disciples, but he’s never gotten close to anything since.”

  “How’d he get the sprite in the first place?” Tasha asked.

  “Accident,” Avery shrugged. "See, it's like if you shoot into the dark long enough, you’re bound to hit something. You better be extra careful, Jake.”

  “Yeah, but two things are buggin me. First, how did he get a line on you? And second, I’m wondering why he’s following Tasha here instead of you,” Gil said while accepting a cup of coffee from Jake.

  “I don’t know,” Jake said, frowning, “We’ll just have to be extra cautious. Got anything else?”

  “No, but I’ll let you know if I do. Want me to harass him a little, Tash?”

  “No, not yet. So far, he’s just being creepy, and as long as he doesn’t know that we know about him, maybe we can find something out about what or who he’s looking for, and why.” She looked up at Jake for confirmation. He was slow in giving it, but he finally confirmed with a nod.

  “For now,” Jake murmured around his coffee cup.

  “You’ve got my number, Tash. If anything changes, give me a call. If you feel like you’re in danger, get someplace safe and call,” Gill lectured.

  “Call me first,” reminded Jake.

  “Yeah, okay,” Tasha tried to sound nonchalant, but it didn’t translate very well. She was moved by their concerns and was concerned by the fact that someone that unpleasant had her in his sights.

  Avery’s phone rang. “It’s headquarters. We gotta go,” he said to Gil.

  ####

 

  Jake handled the morning appointment while Tasha ran some errands.

  She had decided to walk to the post office. She was feeling cooped up and restless and wanted to move about. Anyway it was only a few blocks away from their location, and while the autumn air was crisp and cool, the sun warmed her as she walked.