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Murphy looked at the dead body hidden by the red sheet, lying on the ground before returning his attention to the Forensics mage.
“Suicide.”
“Yes. Suicide.” The man stated flatly as he removed the enchanted mask from his face. The expression underneath was as blank as the featureless tool he used in his craft.
“Suicide,” Murphy repeated the word as if somehow the answer would be different this time. As a City Guard, he had no choice but to accept the conclusion of the mage, but at the same time, he couldn’t. His eyes were telling him that this was absurd.
“Yes. That is correct.” The man shrugged while he removed his work robe, picking briefly at the fading bright orange sign printed on the back. “I don’t see what’s so hard to comprehend. You called it in. I investigated and have given you my conclusion for the cause of death.”
Murphy let out a sigh, gently massaging his temple as he felt a headache build inside his skull. This wasn’t a good start to his shift. The day shifts were always a pain, but that’s just how it was in the Capital’s 5th District, or as the locals called it – the Nocturnal Quarter. It didn’t help that this was his third day shift in a row. Sure, working during the day didn’t affect him as much as it did his partner on account of Murphy being one of the few humans at the precinct. Regardless, he was born and raised in the 5th and had more or less adjusted his life to the nocturnal lifestyle of his home.
“I get it,” he groaned. “I’m just trying to figure out the logistics of it. I’ll be writing the report, after all, not you. If it doesn’t make sense, the Chief’s going to bite my head off.”
It wasn’t a figure of speech. There was a good chance that Chief Warg would literally bite him - one of the many hazards of working with lycanthropes. Their kind were the ones tasked with enforcing the Iron Kingdom’s laws in the 5th District since the time of its creation as a temporary prison camp in the wake of the Demon Lords’ Invasion. Nowadays, however, both drakonians and dark elves were almost equally present, and even the occasional Vulpinian was employed within the Nocturnal Quarter’s City Guard. As for humans like Murphy, most transferred to a different District within a year of joining the force, an option he didn’t have.
“It’s simple. This idiot has committed suicide. A light elf venturing this deep into the Nocturnal Quarter without a bodyguard or informing the City Guard is clearly suicidal. If it helps, think of it as nature taking its course.” The mage shoved his robe and tools inside the bag at his feet and produced a thick stack of papers.
“Right, right. This poor sod was quite the acrobat,” the large lycanthrope squatting next to the dead body growled as he stood up. Murphy’s partner was quite the sight to behold in the black uniform of the City Guard, towering over everyone present. The two yellow stripes running down from the left shoulder of his shirt caught the morning sun as he stretched, further emphasising his impressive height. “Somehow, he’s tied his hands behind his back, hung himself from the terrace there and stabbed himself in the back three times in a show of his amazing skills. The thing that has me stumped is if he beat himself black and blue before or after all of this.”
“Look... This is the 5th. Strange things happen every night. Shit, you've seen worse than this.” The mage shrugged again while meticulously shuffling through the stack of papers. “Remember the incident with the Abyssal One? If that thing didn’t admit to turning the orc inside out, the case would still be open.”
“Come on, Stratz!” Murphy groaned. “We’re not idiots. You can’t seriously compare that horror show to this. What’s this all about? And don’t bother with the whole dark elves hate light elves spiel.”
“Night King, give me strength.” The mage checked his watch and began to fill one of the forms, making it obvious he couldn’t be bothered to explain himself to people he thought inferior. “Viertem here was a Day Star employee. The pile of ashes in the bin there were, without doubt, sensitive documents a corporate drone of his level wasn’t supposed to have access to. More than likely, the body of a reporter will surface in the next few days, and I can tell you now that, too, will be marked as a suicide. Connect the bloody dots damn it!”
“I don’t buy it.” The lycanthrope growled. “This ain’t Day Star’s style. Smells more like the work of the Noctis Corporation.”
“Those sun-loving pricks are as dirty as the rest of us.” Stratz scoffed, his face twisting into a scowl.
“And Julius is the embodiment of patience.” Murphy tapped the lycanthrope’s chest with his knuckles as he interjected himself into the conversation before his partner could start fuming. “Day Star might have half the Senate in its pockets, but the laws still apply to it.”
“A stone is more flexible than a member of the Warg pack… Even if they are an affront to the natural order.” The mage spat out the phrase with enough vitriol in his voice for the insult to sting.
It was a brave thing of Stratz to say, considering he was within the striking range of Julius’ claws. Sure, the Warg family were pedantic and inflexible to a fault; however, they were also proud and loyal servants of the Iron Kingdom. But more than that, they were Murphy’s family and adopted or not, Zorya and Lynia considered him their child as much as Julius and Irna. His new mother had gone out of her way to learn to cook, something with which she struggled to this day if his last visit was anything to go by. By the Great Dragons, he loved the woman, but a chicken being burned and raw at the same time was a mystery better left unsolved. The only reason Murphy didn’t make the Forensics mage eat his words was because Stratz belonged to the dark elf upper cast. As part of that strange quasi-noble part of society, the dark elf didn’t have enough sway to make his life a living hell, but just enough to ruin Murphy’s chances of moving into the private security sector.
“Care to repeat that, pointy ears?” Julius’ low rumble made it painfully obvious he didn’t worry or care about the consequences.
From the corner of his eye, Murphy could see that the lycanthrope’s claws had extended, and the joints of his fingers were locked. This wasn’t a simple show in order to scare the dark elf. Julius was planning to either maim or kill the mage for the insult. On instinct, Murphy stepped between them, triggering the rune of his shock baton with his thumb. Using the non-lethal weapon against a normal lycanthrope was the smart thing to do. The problem was that his adopted brother wasn’t a normal representative of his race. Like every member of the Warg family, Julius was affected by the Blood Curse placed on their line, binding him forever to his werewolf form after his first transformation. As a result, the shock spells wouldn’t force him into a human form. And with the lycanthropes' heightened resistance to magic, the weapon was as potent as using a sturdy stick. However, it gave Murphy a fighting chance if it came to subduing his partner.
“He’s not worth it, Jules. Let it go.”
“I’m tired of people insulting you just ’cause you’re a human. You’re family, Murph.” There was restrained fury in Julius’ snarls.
It wasn’t enough for him to let the insult slide but enough for Murphy to have a chance to de-escalate the situation. Although he had developed quite an impressive and intimidating figure, thanks to Zorya’s training and Lynia’s nurturing, he was still dwarfed by his adopted brother. That’s why the human focused his attention on the frozen-still dark elf.
“Stratz, why don’t you go get us some tea? Looks like we’ll be here a while cleaning this mess and logging everything for the report.”
“Why would I… Oh!” Murphy let out the breath he was holding as realisation appeared on the mage’s face. “Sure. Yeah… I’ll do that.”
“And a gammon joint! Warm! And fatty!” Julius howled at the sprinting dark elf.
“Really? A gammon joint? What happened to your diet, Jules?”
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“Shush now, little brother. If that prick’s paying, I’m getting something good.” The large lycanthrope licked his snout as thick saliva dripped from his opened mouth. He tapped his stomach with both of his hands when he continued in a conspiratorial voice. “Besides, that diet thing was all Sheela’s idea. Irontooth, I love her, but that woman has a bag of restless, crazy cats for a brain if she thinks a single boiled chicken a day is enough food for me. Seriously, brother, I’ve got no clue what she’s thinking. For some reason, Sheela’s got it in her head that she needs to lose weight. She’s all skin and bones as it is!”
“I mean…” Murphy shrugged while unfolding a body bag on the ground next to the dead elf. “Don’t get me wrong, man, but she looks just fine to me. At least in her human form. I mean, what did you expect? She’s a model… of sorts. That’s what they do – go on diets and complain about their weight. And let’s be honest: have you been dating for what now? Two months?”
“Forty-seven days. But that’s not the point!” Julius let out a low growl of frustration. “A good female needs to be big, strong, and meaty and needs to have the strength to chew through a beef bone in one go. And Sheela… She’s none of those things. Well, she does look good, and her coat is really nice and fluffy all the time, but it’s just not the same. Your female needs to be able to challenge you. You know, go for the throat and pin you to the ground.”
Murphy stopped what he was doing and looked up at his adopted brother. This was the longest he had ever talked about his tastes in females, and the human was unsure if he was being taken for a ride. Such a lycanthrope simply didn’t exist. Well, technically, there was one female who fit the description, and that was Irna, which was kind of worrying. Then again, he had a slight idea where those delusions were coming from. He still had nightmares from the first time Lynia tried to set him up with one of the female lycanthropes from her church group. Chomping a beef bone in as few bites as possible was turned into a rather important selling point. To this day, he didn’t have any idea why his adoptive family was so obsessed with that, and he preferred it to stay that way.
“Jules, you know mum and dad told us that story about her pinning him to the ground when we were little ‘cause we caught them having sex. Right? It’s not true.”
“I’m not an idiot, Murphy!” Julius snapped his maw in irritation.
“Just making sure, man,” he lifted his hands in apology before grabbing the corpse’s shoulders. “And are you going to help with this or not?”
“Right, right. Sorry.” His brother bent over and picked the body by the legs. It took them a minute or two to stuff the elf in the body bag.
“Anyway, I’m going to give Sheela a few more days to come to her senses, or I tell her to take a hike. But enough about me. Do you still plan on having this family meet-up?” Julius asked, a playful smile appearing on his snout.
To anyone else, it might have looked like the lycanthrope was baring his teeth, but Murphy was quite used to it to know the difference. Still, this was somewhat new territory for him. Ever since he was adopted into the Warg family, he was taught to fight, to be the strongest, and to hide his emotions in case they were used against him. Of course, it was the same for Julius and Irna before them. There was one slight difference, though, and that was that his siblings considered this natural while he had to adapt.
“Do you still plan on disembowelling Stratz when he comes back?” Murphy asked as he moved away from the body in the direction of the trash containers further in the alley.
“A little disembowelling might dislodge the stick up his ass.” The large lycanthrope shrugged as he followed him. “Might even teach him to mind his tongue. The nerve of that guy! Insulting you like that!”
“It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, Jules, but we aren’t kids anymore. I can take care of myself.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that you’re my little brother. Mum ever hears I didn’t stick up for you; she’ll beat me worse than the poor sod in the bag.”
It was pretty much how things went in the Warg family. Actually, that was pretty normal for most lycanthrope families; they really took helping one another to a new level. What wasn’t normal, however, was how attached his parents and siblings had become to Murphy. Only a handful of months after taking him into their home, they could safely be called overprotective and, shortly after – overbearing. There was so much he was grateful for, but that aspect of his adoptive family was the one thing he truly hated.
“By the way, you’re avoiding my question,” Julius growled softly while they logged the contents of the trash containers.
“It has to happen at some point. Might as well get it over with sooner rather than later.” Murphy shrugged and looked back at the grinning lycanthrope.
“You’re really serious about her! Even after her father tried to poison you! How cute!”
“And Lynia tried to maim her when I brought Tia home. What’s your point?” He sighed. That was about as best as things could have gone when they met their respective parents. Sandor and Poloris were twisted snakes, and Zorya and Lynia were savage beasts. It was actually a miracle that neither he nor Tia had to make an emergency trip to the Healers’ Temple after each visit.
“No point. Just teasing you,” Julius sneered before his voice became serious. “Seriously, Murph, what were you thinking, bringing a dark elf home? Lycans hate dark elves, and dark elves hate lycans. It’s been like that for centuries, and you ain’t about to change it. If she wasn’t lower-cast, our folks would have disowned you on the spot!”
“I get it, man.”
“I don’t think you do, little brother. This enmity between our races – it goes deep. “Julius placed his heavy hand on his shoulder like he always did when he thought he was imparting some hard-learned life lesson. “You’re my brother, Murphy, and I love, and I hate myself for saying this, but at the end of the night, you’re human. You… That’s, I mean… Let’s be honest here for a second. We’ve told you all this and tried to explain it as best we can, but you’re never going to feel as we do.”
A long time ago, Murphy had come to terms with the fact that he would always be an outsider in the Warg pack. However, it didn’t take the sting out whenever a member of his family reminded him of that. They were always kind and mindful of their words, but nevertheless, hearing them say it hurt. It’s why he snapped at the worried Julius.
“So what? I’m supposed to kick the woman I love to the curb? Just give up without a fight? Can’t do that! That goes against everything Zorya’s taught me.”
“That’s not what I’m trying to say!” Julius growled back at him, tightening his grip on his shoulder. “I’m just trying to understand why you’re so insistent on getting the two families together for this dinner massacre. To be frank, it’s a stupid idea because someone’s definitely getting hurt and that someone’s gonna be you.”
“I know that,” Murphy said as his shoulders slumped in defeat. He really wanted to keep quiet, but thinking rationally, it would be best to have an ally for the dinner party. Out of everyone from the Warg pack, Julius was surprisingly the most supportive and tolerant one. “It’s kind of complicated…”
“Oh, come on! It probably isn’t, but you always have to overthink things. Out with it.”
“Ugh… Fine. But you so much as speak a word, Irontooh as my witness, I’ll shave you and tie you to the precinct gate.” Murphy leaned against the metal wall of the trash container and rubbed the back of his shaven head with his hand. “Tia might be pregnant…”
“What! For real?” The large lycanthrope yapped, and his bushy tale began to wag uncontrollably from side to side.
“Hey!” Murphy grabbed his brother by the shirt with his right hand and pulled him closer while his left one took hold of the beast’s tail. “Get a grip, man! I said might. Apparently, false pregnancies are common for dark elves at the start of a serious relationship. We won’t know for sure for another week.”
Julius looked around to see if any of the other City Guards were watching them. Seeing that everyone seemed busy, he shook Murphy by the shoulders.
“That’s great news! Mum will be beyond herself! She’s been pestering me and Irna for a grandchild for ages now. As for dad… Well, he might grumble for a while, but he’ll be just as happy. Damn it, man! You should be happy the most. So why the sour face?”
“I did my research, man. If Tia’s really pregnant – the chances of that are pretty slim, mind you – there is a high chance the kid will inherit the long life of the non-human parent. And because I’m human, it’ll never be able to learn to use magic—”
“See, that’s what I mean! You overthink things.” Julius snarled at him and snapped his jaws. “All of that doesn’t matter cause any child of yours will be a part of the pack.”
“And that’s why I want to have that family meet-up.” Murphy groaned, feeling powerless. “Tia’s folks are going to say the same thing. They might be a pair of conniving vipers, but they love their daughter.”
“Right…” Julius trailed off as he took a broken piece of pipe and began to sift through the contents of the trash container.
“Anyway, even if I try to ignore all of this, there’s the money issue.” Murphy opened the bottomless pouch attached to his belt while the lycanthrope dumped in it everything that even slightly resembled paper.
“What do you mean?”
“Do you have any idea how much it costs to raise a kid? A lot.” He looked at his partner in disgust as he sniffed a half-eaten sausage. “And the City Guard pays us scraps. Sure, with what I earn and what Tia gets from the casino as a dealer, we manage to cover our bills and, if careful, could afford a tip to Crescent Island in the summer, but that’s it.”
“Unit thirty-nine, come in.” A distorted hissing voice came from the enchanted bracelets attached to their wrists.
“This conversation isn’t over,” Julius snarled and placed his paw closer to his mouth. “Hearing you worse than ever, Charley. Please tell the Chief that the mage would need to have a look at the equipment.”
“Right… Get in line,” Charly’s usually distorted voice sounded ten times worse as he replied. “We got a call from the Black Cauldron Hotel. A group of young warlocks from the Dark Arts Guild are causing a disturbance.”
“Hello, graduation season,” Murphy shook his head and returned the pouch back to its place on his belt.
“That’s out of our area, call Daffy and Tuff.”
“I’ll call the Chief, Warg, if you don’t get moving.” The communications bracelet went quiet for a moment before Charley’s voice could be heard again. “… are responding to a magical circle erasure at Nikka’s charging platform. You guys are the closest.”
“Why do you always have to get family involved, scales?” Julius snarled as he attempted to roll his eyes.
“Mate, half the precinct is made of your relatives! How could I not?”
“Hey, it’s not my fault our line has been responsible for guarding the 5th ever since my great-grandfather settled in these lands.”
“Charly, we’re at a crime scene,” Murphy stepped in before the two got into an insulting competition. “We can’t go anywhere until the healers arrive and clean it up.”
“There’s three other units there with you, Murphy. They can handle it without you holding their hands.” The dispatcher sounded irritated and very tired.
“You’re telling us to break regulations, Chrlamax.” Using the drakonian’s full name normally did the trick to placate him, but apparently, this wasn’t one of those times.
“Don’t you try to site regulations at me! You’re the only human on duty today! Get your asses moving!” Murphy could imagine the dispatcher’s silvery scales turning black as he shouted over the communications bracelet.
“No point arguing with him when he gets flustered,” Julius rumbled as he made his way towards the City Guard’s auto-carriage. “Also, he has a point, you know. Having you around will make entering the Black Cauldron Hotel a lot easier.”
All Murphy could do was sigh as he got into the carriage and made sure to put both of the belts strapping himself as best as he could. There was a hint of madness in Julius’ eyes as he pressed on the power rune, and the supercharged engine roared to life. His partner really enjoyed high speeds, turning Murphy into a pious man whenever he was behind the wheel. A second later, the lycanthrope slammed his foot on the accelerator, and the black auto-carriage with two yellow stripes on the left side of its roof and hood and the emblem of the Guard, jumped onto the busy traffic flooding the boulevard, narrowly missing several other vehicles.
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