The first room was dimly lit. After the California sunshine, I had to let my eyes adjust for a second. I nearly bumped into Grayson, who’d stopped cold. I stepped to the side to see what had stopped him in his tracks.
Empty. The entire room was empty of people.
Normally, the whole space filled, the homeless trying to escape the strong sunlight of a California spring. This early in the morning, there should have been at least twenty people.
But everyone was gone. Their stuff still was arranged in different areas, left behind. Backpacks, folded tents, sacks that most likely held clothes. Stuff people didn’t leave behind.
“This ain’t good,” Grayson said.
I had to agree. “Should we call for backup?”
“And tell them what? We got a bad feeling about this? We don’t have the manpower. They won’t send anyone unless we give them a reason.”
“Okay then. I guess we’d better clear the place, or find a reason.”
The screaming stopped. We exchanged looks. It stopping abruptly probably meant something bad. We picked our way forward, through a tunnel connecting sections of warehouse and into another room filled with empty boxes and trash. Skylights above let light trickle through the dust and grime, but not enough to help much.
Moving in slow circles, Grayson and I watched each other’s back. I’d been working with him a year, since my first day as a rookie, and it showed in how well we knew what the other was about to do.
We cleared two more rooms similar to the first one. With each step, my pulse beat little louder in my ears.
Something scuttled in the next room. I signaled Grayson and he nodded, honing in on the slivers of people we could see through some old crates.
There were two of them, male, 30s, wearing strange clothes, beaten and bloodied. Though neither of them seemed to notice their injuries as they faced off, aggression in every movement.
No weapons. I let a breath out my nose. No dying today. At least probably not with this call.
The men were arguing quietly enough that I couldn’t make out what they were saying.
After taking in the room for a moment, Grayson stepped out of the shadows. “Hands where I can see them.” He held his handgun in a neutral position giving the illusion of being relaxed, but could have it pointed in the right spot in less than a second. “We got a call that there was something going on here.”
Neither of the men answered.
“Is something going on here?”
I circled around to the side, letting him take all of their attention while I checked the room for other threats. Something about the vibe the men were giving off made my anxiety about the situation tick up.
They looked so calm. So unworried. It was weird.
“Nothing you need to concern yourself with,” one of the men said. He was tall, handsome. Dark hair, with dark eyes that bored into Grayson. Even though he never looked my way, I got the distinct feeling that he knew exactly where I was. “You can move on through.”
The redhead didn’t say a word, just watched us with a predatory gaze.
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The feeling that something wasn’t right ratcheted up a notch. My hands started to sweat. I’d been in a lot of bad situations. What about this one was bothering me so bad?
Either Grayson didn’t feel it, or he was better at hiding it than I was.
“Might I ask what caused this altercation?” Grayson said.
“No,” the other man answered. He had a strange accent, one I couldn’t place.
I’d nearly cleared the room when something caught my eye. Clothing. No. A person, huddled in the corner, not moving.
“Grayson,” I said. I didn’t need to say any more. He circled between me and the men, giving me the barrier I needed to check the woman and see if she was still alive.
“Hello?” I said as I inched forward. Behind me, Grayson and the men were discussing something, but their tone of voice was still civil, so I concentrated on the woman.
She didn’t move.
“Ma’am, is everything okay?”
She turned to face me and I almost stepped back. Her eyes were a brilliant pink, skin white almost to the point of illness. “Help me?” she asked.
Fae. She had to be fae. I took a real step back this time. Innocent until proven guilty. This woman needs you. “You’re safe now, ma’am. Are you injured?”
She slowly sat up, raising a trembling hand and pointing at the men. “Help me.”
“Yes, I’m going to help you. Are you hurt?”
“No. I am not hurt.” Her voice sounded odd. Not her pronunciation exactly, more her tones.
“Jay!” Grayson shouted.
I jerked around to see what had him so freaked out, just in time to see one of the men being lifted off the floor by some invisible force. He clutched at his throat, his feet kicking in the air as he moved higher and higher, easily five feet in the air by now.
The sight of a floating man was strange enough on its own. But he was dying silently. Gasping for air, no thrashing, just pulling at his neck.
I’d holstered my weapon to keep from scaring the fae woman, but I jerked it free now. I tore my gaze away from the man in the air, searching for the cause.
The first man stood perfectly still, a slight smile on his face as the other died above him.
“They’re all fae!” Grayson shouted. He squeezed off a round at the man standing on the ground. Red bloomed across his shirt and he snarled, letting the other man go.
The man in the air dropped like a rock, falling fifteen feet to the warehouse floor. He didn’t move.
The bleeding fae with the weird powers turned and ran.
“I got this one!” I shouted, taking off after the running fae. I couldn’t tell if the other one was dead or unconscious, but Grayson would know what to do either way. He’d had a lot more first aid training than I had.
Full on speed without thinking would get me killed. Obviously we needed to get this guy off the streets, but Kenzie needed her mom too, no matter what Kevin said.
I slowed a little.
The fae ahead of me rounded a corner, and I skidded up to the wall, stopping to look around without exposing myself to extra danger.
This guy had some kind of ability. I wasn’t taking any extra chances. Grayson would have called for backup by now. I only had to keep the perp in sight.
I peeked around the corner. There, on the far wall, a large ring glowed blue, at least six feet tall and four feet across. Hazy light leaked through, making it impossible to see what was on the other side.
A portal. I’d seen one on the news enough times to draw one in my sleep. How in the world was there a portal here, and no one had ever found it? If the fae went through, could he come at go at will? If he returned to Earth and killed again…
Something clinked over to my left, and I moved around the corner, slipping behind some boxes, gun raised. “L.A.P.D. Come out, hands where I can see them.” Maybe staying quiet would have been the better plan, but instinct had won out.
The fae from the other room walked out from the shadows in the other corner. “No need for that. I could have gone straight through the portal, but I needed to grab a few items. Let me go.”
His voice held authority. He was used to being obeyed.
“Not a chance. I just saw you seriously injure or kill someone.” My voice stayed steady thanks to the last year of training for intense situations. But my heart? It was about to burst.
“Brave of you. Courageous even.” His voice turned to a hiss. “But foolish. I gave you your chance at life. But you choose death.”
I raised my gun in time to fire one shot. It nicked him in the shoulder, but he hardly seemed to notice. He sneered at me, and something grabbed me around the chest. I tried to shove it free, but couldn’t see anything causing it.
The hand holding my gun was forced down, and the shot I tried to get off in his direction ricocheted across the cement. My heels left the ground, and I dangled in the air with only my toes touching.
An invisible hand clamped across my mouth and nose, and I struggled, fighting to scream. Spots danced in front of my eyes as my brain burned through the oxygen I had left in my system.
Kenzie.
My body went limp, and my gun slipped from my hand.
My daughter’s face played on the back of my eyelids, and I passed out.