A/N: So this is something I wrote when I didn't have my laptop or internet (made me remember how irritating it is to actually have to write things). It's not Valkubus, I repeat not Valkubus. Not sure where it came from, not sure where it's going. I have 6 chapters already written, writing them up on the laptop now so will probably post more than one part tonight. Let me know if you actually want more. Hope you enjoy it. Read, review and enjoy!
Chapter One
There was something different about Tamsin, I knew from the moment I laid eyes on her that there was a lot more to her than there appeared to be. What caught my attention first was, obviously, her looks. She was tall, at a rough guess I'd put her at 5'10", she had blonde hair that came to below her shoulders, ice green eyes that were probably the most stunning eyes I'd ever seen in my life. It was pretty easy to see that she worked out. From the reaction of most of the guys, and some of the other women in the bar that night it was obvious that I wasn't the only one who found her very easy on the eyes.
The moment she and her friends had walked into the bar I had been glad I moved back to Toronto. I'm a profiler by profession, specialising in criminal case, I had worked for some pretty important agencies and had travelled the world by the time I turned 28. My speciality may have been criminal profiling by my passion was the unexplained supernatural cases.
I had been born in Toronto, my mother was English, my father Canadian. My mother had moved back to England when I was less than a year old and she had taken me with her. My father was never mentioned and I had learned from a young age not to ask. When I was 25 I used some of my contacts to track him down, I had found a photograph of him and my mother when I was emptying my mother's house after she passed away. I had given my contacts my father's picture. It hadn't taken them long to tell me he was still living in Toronto. When they sent me photographs I thought they must have mistaken him for his son as he hadn't aged from the picture of him and my mother that I had found. My aunt had confirmed it was my father, but she had warned me to stay away from him, telling me that it was a lot more complicated than it seemed to be. She was right about that.
At a guess I would have put my father in his late 30's or early 40's in the picture with my mother. I jokingly as my aunt if he was some kind of supernatural being that didn't age. She had gone as white as a sheet and told me in no uncertain terms to never mention it again. I think that is what really sparked my interest in all things supernatural.
I had found a ground of people online who believed that there was a secret race living amongst us, they held down regular jobs, paid taxes and raised families just like humans. But they all had supernatural abilities, lived a heck of a lot longer than humans did and in some cases actually fed off humans. The online group called them the Fae. According to them all the stories we read of fairies and other beings as children were based on truth. To them, mythology was alive and well, in the form of the Fae.
I had some kind of gift myself, I was a telepath, I could read thoughts. Not everyone's but the majority of people. I had learned, over time, to control it, I had learned to read specific minds only when I wanted to. My mother told me stories she had been told as a child, our family line contained some pretty powerful witches, and maybe my mind reading was a result of that. Apparently my crazy aunt who was locked away in a mental hospital had the same gift, but she had never been able to teach herself to pick and choose the thoughts she heard and it drove her mad.
Anyway, on my move back to Toronto I had got a job with the 39th Division, the Homicide Unit of the Toronto Police. They hired me as a Detective, partly due to my profiling skills and partly due to the fact that there had only been 3 cases in my career that I hadn't solved. The day after I first saw Tamsin was my first day at work. My new partner was apparently off on sick leave so the chief partnered me, temporarily, with Detective Dyson Thornwood. He seemed as thrilled about it as I was. According to the chief, Dyson's old partner of nearly 10 years had passed away recently, murdered while trying to defend his girlfriend. They hadn't officially caught the guy who did it, but something told me they were no longer looking, which meant they suspected he was already dead. From the passion that burned in Dyson's blue eyes when Hale, his old partner, was mentioned I suspected they were right and the man who had killed Hale had already faced some kind of justice.
While I was sitting at my desk, opposite Dyson, a brunette walked into the station and over to Dyson. I recognised her as one of the girls who had been with Tamsin in the bar the previous evening. Something in her eyes told me she recognised me too. While she was talking to Dyson I kept my eyes on the computer screen in front of me, doing my best to show that I wasn't, intentionally, listening to their conversation. The girl, Bo, kept glancing over at me every now and again, but I did my best to ignore her. After a couple of minutes I let my shields down in my mind, listening to Bo's thoughts. She was amused that Dyson had a human partner and wondered how it would affect their other investigations.
While Bo and Dyson were talking I decided to look up my father address and pull up whatever information the police had on him. I couldn't deny I was curious, and listening to Bo's thoughts about me being human did nothing to quell that curiosity. I found very little about my father on the police database other than that he owned a string of nightclubs in and around the Toronto area, he had 6 sons and was un-married, thought there was a note that said he had been married though his wife was deceased. I knew my parents were never married, they had a very informal 'hand-joining' as my mother put it one day when she drank too much during one of her afternoons out shopping with her friends, but it was never a legally recognised union, so to speak. Which meant my father had either been married before he met my mother, or he married afterwards. I checked on a local map of the area just where my father lived, and the quickest way to get there from the station. I made a mental note of the directions, as I had a photographic memory it wasn't hard, there was an almost mental imprint of the map in my mind. I checked the time, it was 1pm, time for my lunch break. According to my calculations I could go and check out my father's place and be back well within the hour.
I stood up, causing both Bo and Dyson to look at me.
"Is if okay if I go for lunch?" I asked Dyson.
"Yeah, sure," he replied, "be back in an hour."
"Okay." I replied with a polite nod before turning to leave.
As I was leaving I heard Bo talking to Dyson.
"So, how's the human partner thing working for you?" Bo asked, I could hear the amusement in her voice.
"It's temporary, and I'm not sure she's as human as she appears." Dyson replied.
"What?" Bo asked.
"There's more to her than just a simple human." He said.
I didn't hear any more of their conversation as I made my way to the elevator.
x-x
My father lived on a gated estate. There was one big house and 7 slightly smaller houses, plus a few other smaller houses dotted around the grounds. I was parked up on a disused driveway opposite the gates, watching. I saw a guy walk out of the main house, two small children with him, a boy and a girl. I knew from the photo I had that he wasn't my father, but he had enough of the same facial characteristics for me to guess they were closely related, his son maybe. The fact that I had more family, half-brothers, didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. I had often wondered if my father ever had other children, I guessed he would have. A quick look down at my phone let me know it was time to head back to the station.
x-x
As soon as I got back Dyson had left to go for his lunch. I was sitting at my desk catching up on on-going cases when I caught sight of a blonde walking towards the desk. I looked up properly to see Tamsin. As Dyson knew Bo and Bo had been at the bar with Tamsin it only stood to reason that Dyson knew Tamsin.
"I'm looking for Dyson." She said.
"Erm," I replied, swallowing and trying to get my mind to remember where Dyson was, "he's… out to lunch."
"Okay," Tamsin said, her amusement at my stuttering clearly written on her face, "can you let him know I stopped by?"
"Sure." I said.
She turned to leave before turning back.
"Didn't I see you at the Q Bar last night?" she asked.
"I was there, so yeah, maybe," I said, falling over my words again, causing Tamsin to actually smile, this wasn't going as we as I'd hoped, "I'm new in town, obviously, and it looked like fun."
"You're British right?" she asked.
"No, technically I'm Canadian," I said, "I was born here in Toronto, my mum took me to England when I was a year old."
"What brought you back?" she asked, seemingly genuinely interested.
"Curiosity." I answered honestly.
"Good answer," she said with a smile and a nod, "I'm Tamsin by the way."
"Aeryn," I said, "nice to meet you."
"Likewise." She replied, with another soft smile.
"Tamsin, stop chatting up the fresh meat and let's go!" Someone called from the doorway.
I looked over and saw another of the girls from the previous night. Tamsin laughed.
"I'll see you around." She said to me.
"Possibly." I replied
She walked towards the door.
"Thanks for that meat-bag." She said to the girl.
"Well standing around here while you make friends isn't going to get me those new shoes." The girl replied.
Tamsin looked back once more, smiled again, then she and the girl left.
It wasn't long after they left that Dyson returned from lunch.
"Tamsin was here looking for you." I said as he sat down.
"Did she mention why?" he asked, taking his phone out of his pocket.
"Nope, she just said to let you know she stopped by." I said.
"Was she alone?" he asked.
"No, she was with another girl," I said, trying to recall what the other girl looked like, "dark hair, stunning blue eyes."
"Kenzi," he said, "Hales girlfriend."
I didn't know what to say, thankfully Dyson didn't leave the silence hanging, he dialled a number on his phone.
"Hey… Got told you were looking for me earlier…" he said into the phone, obviously talking to Tamsin, "Okay… Will I see you at the Dal later, I missed our games of pool last night… Right, okay, well if you get the chance… Sure, will do."
He hung up the phone and looked at me.
"Tamsin told me to tell you she said hi." He said.
I nodded a little before focusing more intently on my screen.
Something in the way Dyson had talked to Tamsin on the phone let me know he cared about her, a lot, possibly more than just a friend, passing on the message had irritated him a little. I decided to test out his mind, find out what it would tell me about not only Dyson but his relationship with Tamsin.
Dyson's mind was strange, I was getting two very different brain patterns, that of a man and that of an animal. As if he could sense what I was doing he started looking around the room. As his eyes settled on me I was reading through a file in front of me. I looked up at him.
"Are you okay Dyson?" I asked, feigning innocence, "you've gone a little pale."
"I'm fine." He said in a huff, forcing himself to look at the file on his desk.
I made a mental note to do a little checking into Dyson when I was away from the station. The phone rang and Dyson answered it.
"Yeah…" he said, "Bo… I'll be right there."
He hung up and I looked at him, questioningly.
"Someone broke into Bo's house while she was out." He said.
"So let's go." I replied, standing up.
"I can deal with this one." He said.
"Dyson, like it or not," I said, putting my leather jacket on, "we're partners, for however short amount of time, no matter how much neither of us a liking it, your jobs are my jobs. So let's go."
I could swear I saw him smile a little as I turned toward the door.
