Once Lost Lords (Royal Scales, Book 1) Read online

  She raised both eyebrows for a moment in and tilted her head. Then shooed her daughter off and stood in the doorway.

  “I am, who’s asking?” The woman said.

  “My name is not important, I’m here about a business deal with Ann’s B&G.” My prepared speech citing Julianne’s business name. On some papers it was a bar and grill, on others it was betting and gambling.

  “What about it?” She inquired. This wasn’t the first time a spouse tried to intercept me. Sadly, the nature of my job didn’t come with pictures of the debtors. Maybe we should start requesting snapshots.

  “I may have the wrong home.”

  “No I’ll bet,” Her emphasis was disturbing “this is the right place.”

  Now the mother was angry though her posture said it wasn’t me, exactly. Part of me was giddy with anticipation at being the bearer of bad news. The other part worried that I had mishandled and Julianne might find out.

  “If it is, then I’ve said all I need. Goodbye.” I opted for leaving, rather than deal with Julianne getting mad at me.

  The door closed and a shout issued inside the house. Volume of that level and tone could only be achieved by an upset wife. Hopefully, Julianne wouldn’t count that as violence. I started off their pathway towards the road when screaming turned to snarls and yips. Two canines were fighting.

  Julianne should have put two W’s down on this address.

  A new voice started screaming. Higher in pitch, Francis’ daughter had proceeded to announce her opinion. Their garage was buckling under the weight of something being slammed into it repeatedly. Garage doors didn’t last long against that kind of force.

  My favorite way to deal with wolves was to have them take care of each other. Packs were easy to rile up since each one is basically a walking powder keg of anger. One who was into gambling would probably be keeping it hidden.

  Schools taught what they could. One extreme example was a thirty-minute video explaining how humans shouldn’t have sex with wolves in a nonstandard form. I had gone into hysterics when it occurred to me that someone needed the explanation. The lesson that applied to my current situation was different. Wolves chased running objects. Some girls rather liked that.

  The flimsy garage door crumpled on one side. A panicked male wolf barreled out of the slender opening and took off. A second smaller form wiggled through, nipping the other’s heels. Both had the same dusty brown palette with slightly different markings. I would lay money on the first wolf being the real Francis Sauter. In most packs the males dominate. They’re more aggressive, tuned into the pecking order and obeyed their chain of command with a zealous fervor.

  Then, there were females.

  The formerly happy couple had covered ground fast. The soon to be ex-Sauter was making her feelings known. People stopped taking out the garbage, swerved cars and honked or shouted as they passed. Two wolves with incredible endurance might chase each other for an hour before winding down. Their journey would end in violence or the kind of makeup sex that broke trees. Or both. Shifting got wolves so wired they didn’t think clearly.

  Shiny objects had been left in their wake. The ring I had been eyeing earlier was discarded somewhere during their shift. Wedding rings were too much trouble. A smaller one was easier to pocket, though. I whistled to myself, pleased at how tonight had gone.

  Chapter 4 – Take the Dive

  Hours later, a short stewing bartender cornered me. Impressive, considering I was twice her size.

  "You were out for how long?" Julianne started the conversation where we left off.

  "Only a day or two."

  "Dammit, you hibernate like a bear, Jeff.” We were talking at the back door to her bar. Julianne was in the process of checking for things to be cleaned. Her eyes scanned over piles of cigarette butts, trash bags and stains on the wall. “You were napping for two days down there?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  "Why do you say that?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  "Well, everyone’s got something abnormal."

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

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

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

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

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

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

  "Tomorrow then." My head dipped.

  "See ya." She gave a distracted wave.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  "Man, don't make me be an ass."

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

  "No can do, you and I need this."

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

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

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

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

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

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

  "What the hell, weapons?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  "Checked the normal stuff?" I asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  I grabbed a chair, one that was familiar from the last vision of the fugitive elf. This room had been tainted by dozens of people recently. There was no connection, emotional or physical, between these objects and the elf. Hands fidgeted with the hair and the empty tube. Thoughts slowly spun together. Linking that which I held to the other end. My hand, my items, mine. These were mine, all of it was mine. That which I owned could not hide.

  Consciousness unfurled one inch at a time. The sensation of having more limbs stayed with me for a moment. My mind’s eye could see the room around me and felt everything. Cheap wood sealed tight by a false grain. Lamps were screwed into the wall, dragging down the plaster. Worn threads on the rug. My eyes shifted around, not really seeing, only feeling. There was a thread in my hands connecting hair and tube with something in the distance. Then that mild awareness stuck as another cadence of thoughts chimed in.