“Why do ya need to head toward Chicago, Ashley? It ain’t safe there for someone as friendly as you.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at my Chief before responding. “Because I want to become a detective. I cannot really do that here Chief, not in this small town.”

I saw his shoulders slump slightly as he sighed, placing a hand on his brow. My Chief, Ted Grisco, was a big bear of a man. Balding and pudgy, though you could tell there was muscle beneath that pudge. The perks of being a college basketball star back in his prime.

I felt a little bad. Ted had been my mentor as an Officer, imparting all his knowledge and experience with a patience that no one else would show a rookie fresh out of the Academy. I even understood why he was worried. He was my Father's partner back when my Father was still alive, it seemed natural that he would take me under his wing and worry for me.

I smiled a bit. My life mission appeared to be rushing him toward a worry filled depression. It wasn’t, obviously, but I understood why he cared.

“I’ll be fine, Sir, how can I not be? I was trained by you after all.” he let loose one more sigh before looking at me, a mix of pride, indignation, and frustration filling those old brown eyes….

“Ashley Valdera, Captain Silver will see you now.” The woman who called me in was about my height, 5’3”, though with her heels you needed to add about four more inches. I had no actual idea how she was able to move so smoothly with them either. If I wore them, it’d look like a stumbling drunk cat. She had a casual uniform on that seemed to be designated to the desk jockeys of this Department, she was the fourth I had seen wearing it while I was waiting for the captain. Her hair was a neat bun of auburn colored hair and her make-up was expertly applied.

More or less, she looked like a model and I questioned why the hell she worked here, but everyone had their reasons for entering this line of work. I would try to not judge her on looks alone, or the small female jealousy that tried to rear its nasty little head when I looked at her.

Five feet and three inches, I was average for a woman and I had an athletic build. The jealousy was directed more at her natural movement and beauty. She was the sort that could wake up after an all night bender and look gorgeous, if I did that I’d look like a half dead animal that stank more like a three week old corpse. Luckily I had my hair going for me. It fell in beautiful, natural, ebony black waves down to my shoulder blades. The shine was a sign of how well I took care of my hair. Since I wished to be a detective, wearing clothes most women would was out of the question after all, so my hair was the girly-girl part of me to make up for that.

I watched her walk back toward the rows of desks before shaking myself a bit and taking a moment to get my thoughts straight.

Entering the office that belong to Captain Silver, first name Crispin. His head was bent over some paperwork. One of the first things that I noticed was just how blonde his military styled hair was, nearly white in color with the brightness. It was a stark contrast against the deep brown tan of his skin. It made me think ‘surfer dude’ for some reason, though no actual ocean front was anywhere near Chicago.

“Have a seat Ms. Valdera, I will be done in a moment.” I blinked, a little shocked at his accent. It was a posh and cultured British tenure that had no sensible right being in a Chicago Police Station, yet here he was. I took my seat, after a moment he looked up and gave me the full weight of those clear green eyes.

One of the eyes seemed a bit dull in color compared to the other, but it was still a very vibrant green. His facial features were angular, a scar running just over his brow and along his cheek on the seemingly worse eye. Beyond that he was a very handsome man, the accent was a bonus.

Just when I was beginning to think I’d really, REALLY, like working in this department I had some ice thrown at me.

“I was just going over your transfer files, Ms. Valdera, you are a decorated Officer where you are from. Eighty arrests for minor crimes, twenty felonies, and three Homicide cases. A decent resume considering the small area you came from. However, the largest reason I requested you for this department was hardly because of these, remarkable though they may be. It is due to your involvement in the Black Ridge Massacre incident, I believe you were one of the few Officers that survived that, correct?”

The pain from a few months before I began the transfer hit home, just as fresh as the night it happened. The case he was talking about was the worst known series of murders in my towns history.

It had started with what we believed to be just some kids pulling sick jokes, slaughtered animals left on doorsteps out in the country, sick but nothing to get worked up over. Then people started calling in saying children had gone missing from the further flung farmsteads that had popped up shortly after the initial scare that Supernatural creatures lived among us. The case quickly grew more complicated as the missing children began to show up in the yards at night.

According to the reports taken shortly after the event occurred, the first reported one at least, the family saw their child standing in the front yard. Covered in blood and singing an oddly chilling song. They had refused to go out toward them because the mother, some Witch with minor powers swore they would die.  They had been lucky, because it was later found out three families before them had done just that, however instead of a happy reunion it had turned into those children slaughtering their families.

A lot of trauma had come from that case. When we finally tracked down the cause, we were stunned at the carnage inside what we can only call its ‘den’. The corpses of the families were strewn everywhere, pieces missing, though the true horror was that the bodies were all still alive. At least by how they twitched and groaned. The creature itself, no one knew what the decrepit ancient thing was. It seemed to have a mental power to create puppets from the victims though. Once the first two deputies fell to them we had been forced to open fire.

The bullets were practically useless. By some miracle Ted, myself, and three other Deputies had made it to the creature that had caused this scene. It had been hairless, gaunt, and the eyes...I had never seen such hatred and hunger in my life. We managed to put it down, burned the corpse and gathered the ashes for forensics to identify the thing.

We still had no idea what the creature was, nor did anyone else. At least, if they did, no one was talking. I realized I had lost myself in the memory. Taking a deep breath, I responded to the patient Captain.

“Um, yes Sir. Myself, Chief Grisco, and three other Deputies that have since left the force were the only survivors of the eighteen Officers that entered that Creature's lair.”

He looked at me carefully. His eyes seemed to pierce through me as though they were weighing me, finding my worth. I did my very best to quiet the tremble in my left hand that had begun at the horrific memories, just barely succeeding.

“I am aware of that. I’m after facts that never made it to the report, one of which is how you managed to put the creature down with standard issue bullets?” His voice, so cultured, let on a hint that he knew we had all falsified a portion of the reports. We hadn’t, but we never knew how it worked. Truthfully I only remember seeing it, then the after effects. According to Ted I had taken a hit upside the head at some point. When I came around it was already over.

I told this to Captain Silver. He looked dubious on this fact but seemed to believe I had no idea how it happened. When he was about to continue our conversation on the matter his door burst open, revealing the gorgeous women who told me I could enter in a disheveled and hurried state.

Silver’s eyes turned sharp as he glared at the interruption, though the woman's gasped words made him look concerned. “Sir!! It- It’s a Prideling matter, Sensual Secrets had a shooting. From the scattered reports its utter chaos.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man move as fast as the Captain just did. One moment he was seated, the next he was at the door throwing on an old beat up brown leather coat on. He looked over his shoulder, the angle framing his very lithe and muscular frame almost perfectly.

“Ms Valdera, follow me. Time to introduce you to the SCPD’s emergency response Detective unit.”

I blinked, opened my mouth to speak only to be cut off by that cultured voice, urgency clear in his tone. “Yes, you’re in. Move your arse, we cannot allow this matter to escalate further than it already has.”

I didn’t need to be asked twice. I rushed out after him, hot on his tail. He called over his shoulder in our mad rush to the squad parking lot one floor down.

“We will be going into a hostile environment, the workers of Sensual Secrets are all predatory creatures, many of them very powerful. No doubt their security will try to save the instigators from being killed, as well as prevent further violence. However I fear we are walking into a bloodbath. Please prepare yourself.”

Everything after that was a blur of passing objects, radio traffic, and blaring sirens as we rushed to the location of the shootout.

When we arrived there were already multiple uni’s, uniformed officers, already on scene as well as two ambulances and a slew of medical personnel. The small back alley Sensual Secrets, I came to discover it was a strip club, was located was packed with the normal passersby such scenes gather. Then there were the ones being led out of the club itself.

I honestly had to stop and stare for a moment. There were multiple individuals, human and supernatural, leaving the club. I saw some tiny little flighty beings I assumed were a kind of Fae, they were moving too fast to tell from where I was. Women in skimpy peek-a-boo lingerie and nipple pasties, a big wall of a man that had security on his black shirt and was helping them out of the building in as orderly a file as he could.

I did witness him grabbing a few bloodstained people and toss them toward a few Officers near the line. I noticed the blood was on their mouths, dear God….

I was shaken from my sightseeing when I heard my name called. “Valdera! Stop day dreaming, come over here.”

I mentally kicked myself and rushed over to the Captain. He was standing in front of someone sitting on the edge of one of the ambulances, I couldn’t see his face but just from how the sides seemed to be visible he was a bulky man. I made out faded jeans, and a black shirt that conformed to well defined biceps.

“...Leon, what happened? You know this is going to cause issues for all of us with your kind now. Not to mention the amount of paperwork it gives my department when involved in a Prideling matter.”

I blinked as I came up, Prideling? Like the main military support for our Country Pridelings? I had never seen one before now, outside of our history books. I admit to a little excitement, but the way the Captain was talking seemed like this was, if not a regular, then semi-frequent occurrence.

“Captain, you called for me?” I asked hesitantly. He actually seemed really damn pissed. I moved around him as I asked, getting a look of the man he was speaking to.

He was a large man, not fat, but bulk. He looked like he could bench press a semi-truck, and judging from the information about Pridelings, he most likely could. He had close cropped hair brownish hair, a very strong jawline. The most remarkable feature though were his eyes, the trademark sign of his kind. They were a dark amber color that seemed to take in all of his surroundings, constantly alert. It reminded me of the caged predators in a zoo. Powerful, seemingly tame, but highly dangerous.

“Yes. Leon, this is Ms Valdera. She is the newest addition to my unit and will be working with me on prideling matters while she gets her feet wet. Ms Valdera, this is Leon. He is one of the few known Pridelings that have been cast out of the Pride. He was one of our main sources of Prideling dealings for a time.”

The Captain paused a moment to look back at the crowd before turning to me. “Get what information you can out of him, I need to get the paperwork moving with the others on scene.”

I nodded, fumbling for the pen and notepad in my jacket pocket. Captain Silver paused, shrugged, then went on his way. The man, Leon, was watching me from his seated position like one would watch a deer while hunting.

It unnerved me and made me fumble a bit more. When I finally did get it out and open, I began asking questions.

“Mr. Leon, what were the events you saw that led up to the shooting?” Keep it simple, remember you are not food, regardless of how he is looking at you. Ignore the chill running down your spine.

“I don’t know, Detective. I was in my boss's office, getting an ass chewing for punching a Troll. When I went down it was because his Brother, Gary, stated one of the my girls was having an issue. I went down, tried to defuse the situation and then the little fairy fucker pulled a little toy gun and started waving it around. Also, it’s Leon only.My people don’t have last names.”

He added the last almost like an afterthought. His voice was incredibly deep. It had taken me a moment of intense concentration to work through the deepness and the odd tenure he had when speaking, it sounded almost like a growl.

“Alright, we will come back to why you punched a Troll later. What happened after he started waving his gun? Is that when he started shooting? I will also need the name of the woman that was taken hostage.”

He scoffed a bit, acting as though he were doing me a large favor by even deeming to stay here. I ignored the fact that he technically was, I also ignored the fact that his nostrils kept flaring like he was sniffing the air coming from behind me.

“I roared, naturally. You don’t just walk into my territory and take what’s mine. I also had thrown a black human, I think they just took him out, at him when I realized that he was going to shoot. He nicked me in the shoulder. That set Candy, the girl, off. She turned and sunk her fangs into his carotid. He was a Brownie or something, so he survived that but the blood set everyone off.

I had to spend more effort throwing back the other girls, and a few customers than I did taking Candy off the man and keeping his little group safe. Pretty sure two of them got eaten though.”

I shivered a little at the indifferent tone, and restrained the natural bristle I felt at his declaration that the girl, Candy, was his property. We all learned in College how possessive and protective his people were of what they deemed theirs. It normally just meant they had decided to protect the person or persons involved.

“Alright….Let’s move on..”

I continued my questions for another fifteen minutes, oddly enough seeing the wound in his shoulder slowly knit up and look completely perfect through the hole in his shirt.

Leon was set free, though he paused while staring at me, sniffing. Captain Silver had to remind him to leave the scene and stop testing the new recruit. The big bast...Leon actually grinned at the Captain, though it was anything but friendly and went over to the girls to speak to one wearing a schoolgirl outfit for a moment before leaving.

“Did he give you any grieve Valdera?”

I shook my head a little. “No Captain, he answered my questions. Is this a regular occurrence or something? He seemed pretty use to it.”

The Captain looked at where leon had walked off into the night for a moment before answering my question. He actually seemed pretty reluctant to answer it.

“Leon..is a bit of a blacksheep by Prideling standards. He has been cut off entirely from his people and that is not a healthy thing for them. He is also one of the few that were given to the U.S as a child as a sign of good faith back in the mid ninteen twenties. A WW2 Veteran, he’s done a lot of fighting. He’s a bit crass and violence prone as well. Though the latter is common among his people.”

He shrugged before gesturing for me to follow him, the scene was more or less worked over and everyone questioned at the moment. A few of them would be making a trip to the station though for further questioning.

“The reasons why he was removed from the fold are his own, and I don’t truly know them. It was bad though, they only exile a Prideling when it was something detrimental to their people. If it had been more minor, they would have killed him instead.”

I looked at the Captain sharply, sucking in a sharp breath. “What! Why?” I asked fiercely. He looked at me like I was a little naive for not knowing, which pissed me off a little.

“Because to a Prideling, death is far preferable to being denied any and all contact from his people for the rest of his days. A few in recorded history were known to have gone insane from the separation.  Jack the Ripper, for instance, was one that went insane and began killing and eating everything he could. The bodies of those hookers had actually been placed by the Pridelings to shift the blame in a human serial killers direction, but it had been one of theirs.”

“Leon himself has been alone for a little over twenty years, a blink for their species really, but you must remember that they are actually a very social and community driven people. To themselves only, of course, but they grow up knowing they are around those that understand them. He no longer has that, if tonight and the last few months are any indication it is beginning to wear on him as well.”

I listened, refraining from outbursting again. The guy must be very lonely then, if that was anything to go by. I frowned while following a step behind Captain Silver, looking over my shoulder where he had disappeared once more. I wasn’t sure why but I had a feeling I would be seeing him often if the information i was given was accurate. Likely we would have to try and put him down. A mad Prideling was not a notion I enjoyed, they were biological war machines for all intents and purposes.

The Cop in me was thinking of ways to prevent a massacre, the human was thinking about how very sad and lonely those broad shoulders had looked while walking away from the scene, and his place of work...