Chapter 5

Tamsin was standing outside the Morrigan's office within an hour of receiving her summons. She tapped her foot impatiently, waiting to be admitted, to get this impromptu meeting over and done with. An almost overwhelming craving for caffeine frayed at her nerves. The shrewd blond wondered for a moment what this was about, if the Morrigan were getting impatient again with her investigation into Bo's attack on the Fae that lay in a coma, or if it were something else entirely. Nothing new had popped up on the first front. Bo denied her involvement consistently, and the smitten Dyson backed her unquestioningly. It filled her with scorn whenever she thought of how devoted Dyson was to the Succubus. It was pathetic. Weak. She would harden him to the bitch yet, bring the detective back out in him.

"She's ready to see you, Detective." Anne stepped out of the Morrigan's office, not meeting Tamsin's eyes as she moved aside to allow the Valkyrie admittance. Silently, Tamsin strode into the office and stopped abruptly just in front of Evony's desk. The Morrigan sat in her chair, legs crossed primly and her back straight as a board. She wore a cocky smile on her face and a tight, bright red dress that highlighted her perfect physique. A coffee steamed tantalizingly on the desk, the warm, bitter fragrance teasing Tamsin's yearning for a just taste of the hot, soothing drink.

"I have a new assignment for you." Evony announced without greeting. Tamsin stood at a casual attention. "Not to imply you aren't to continue your investigations on our favorite Succubus." She continued, looking Tamsin squarely in the eye. The Morrigan's hands flattened on the glass surface of her desk. Her hands and nails were immaculate.

"What do you need?" The detective clasped her hands behind her back and stared back at her boss defiantly.

"One of my Seers has gone missing. The information I've been given indicates she was kidnapped. I want you to look into it for me." Evony pushed a manila folder to the opposite edge of the table, which Tamsin reached to pick up. It was immediately opened, and the Valkyrie looked over its contents quickly.

"I thought Seth was on the outs with you?" The question was more of a statement, and the detective continued to busily flip through the papers in the file. Pictures of the crime scene certainly indicated foul play, but that seemed to be all the information presented on the crime scene itself.

"Outs or not, she's my Seer to punish or protect, as I see fit." Evony leaned forward, catching Tamsin's attention once again. "The scene is untouched and taped off. It's waiting for you. Find her, and bring her to me. And find out who's responsible." Evony enunciated every word clearly. Her hair fell in a cascade of loose curls around her face. The Morrigan tilted her head down and stared through heavy lashes at the Valkyrie that stood before her, absorbed in the folder she'd just handed her. Carelessly, she flapped her hand at Tamsin, indicating she was free to go. Understanding the unspoken dismissal, Tamsin flipped the file shut and turned to leave.

"And Tamsin, sweetie," Evony called, "why don't we leave the troublesome Wolf out of this one, hmmm?" A crocodile smile spread slyly across the Leanan Sidhe's lips as she watched Tamsin walk out. The blond only waved a hand in recalcitrant affirmation and marched out of the office.

The tough-as-nails detective tossed her empty coffee cup into the trash just outside Seth's apartment. Black and yellow police tape crisscrossed over the door that opened into the residence. Mud tracked in brown streaks down the polished wooden floors and trailed off on the stairs. Mid-morning sunlight crept through the enormous windows, and a light breeze, just a degree or two warmer than yesterday's, drifted through and billowed the light linen drapery lazily.

Abstract paintings decorated the creamy walls. The solitary couch and love-seat, accompanied by a throw-rug and glass coffee table lent the living room a wide-open feel. The kitchen, all steel and clean white porcelain and plastic, felt similarly modern and airy. The Fae that had lived here had class, money, and the good sense not to attempt to show it off gaudily.

The clean white décor upstairs, however, was fouled. The dirt and dried mud and blood that had tracked through the entrance scuffed the waxed hardwood stairs, and blood caked along the stainless steel railing. The deep, rich white carpeting at the top of the steps was stained brown and black. Blood spattered and streaked the walls and floor, darkest in a spot opposite the bathroom door. Tamsin peered at each end of the hall, at the master bedroom that opened up on her right and the pair of smaller bedrooms clustered, doors almost shut, on her left. The trail of blood and mud seemed concentrated over the spot opposite the bathroom, where blood had turned the plush white carpet almost black, and thinned off on either side of it, constricting the crime scene to that hallway.

Tamsin found Phillip, the Dark's personal coroner and forensic scientist, taking samples from the deep white rug and walls. He turned to face her at the sound of her heeled shoes clicking against the waxed oak stairs.

"Gruesome." She commented in way of greeting. "Fae kill?"

Phillip, a slightly rotund Fae with a greater fascination for dead bodies than living ones, shook his balding head and shrugged his shoulders.

"The blood is certainly not Fae." His voice was scratchy and low, as if out of practice. Tamsin supposed that it probably was. She doubted he ever went out to see the natural light of day, or night, unless ordered to. Phillip knelt on the carpet on his hands and knees and lowered his face to the ground. He inhaled deeply, thin lips parted and his pointed tongue scraping over his teeth as if he were tasting the scent.

"Human secretions. Also mud, month-old chewing gum, and Fae sweat."

A look of utter disgust crossed Tamsin's face for an instant. Phillip rose suddenly and stepped into the bathroom, indicating for Tamsin to follow. Even she could smell the metallic tang of blood in here. A pool of it congealed in the sink, permanently staining the eggshell white porcelain a nasty, rusty shade of red.

"I didn't need the fibers I found in there to tell me it was redcaps."

"Redcaps and a human." Tamsin murmured. The file had mentioned in passing that Seth had kept a human pet for some time. It mentioned something else too, which she'd wanted to pursue first. But crime scenes weren't forever, and this one was already growing stale.

"Any indications of what happened to the Seer?" Tamsin had to look down at the short, squat coroner. He only shrugged again. It took him a moment, as well as an aggressively raised eyebrow, for him to realize that a verbal response was required.

"Her scent is faint. She hasn't been here in the last twenty-four hours. Even her room is untouched." He elaborated, visibly annoyed by having to interact with someone clearly not as intelligent as himself.

"How do you know which room is which?" Skepticism sharpened the Valkyrie's tone. Phillip shrugged.

"I didn't have to. The other two rooms smell like dust. Only the master bedroom smells at all like Fae or human. Both scents are faint enough to indicate the room hasn't been used in the past twenty-four hours, the bed is made, and nothing is out of place. We know the human was here last night. I know the Seer wasn't."

Tamsin wondered if Phillip had ever strung so many words together at once. He looked drained and out of breath from his long explanation, and, decidedly ignoring her now, went back about the business of organizing his samples and getting ready to leave. Tamsin had taken her time getting her cup of coffee, so the photographers had come and gone, leaving only a pair of uniformed guards standing sentry on either side of the apartment door.

"Get the Unis to seal up when you're done. And call me immediately with any developments. Is there anything else?" Tamsin half-turned, just about ready to leave. She'd looked closely over everything while Phillip spoke, and now she was ready to find out if the human involved had lived or died.

Phillip raised a hand, a small evidence bag clasped tightly between his gloved fingers. A long, blond hair glimmered in the bathroom's bright lights between them.

"Human. Seth's pet wasn't a blond, by any chance, was she?"

Tamsin gave a smug grin. Her hunch had just been confirmed.

"Tell me, Phillip. Do you know what a dead Succubus smells like?"

Phillip frowned at Tamsin, utterly puzzled. The Valkyrie snickered as she turned away and left the scene. Let him figure it out.

Tamsin rarely had a reason to visit the Light doctor's apartment before, and those times had all been recent: only since she'd become part of a little peace project between the Dark and the Light. Ever since the acting Ash had decided to move his Seat closer to the Dal and out of the Ash's compound, and ever since the last Ash's death, Lauren had preferred to do most of her work and research in her own home.

This, and the doctor's recently developed relationship with Bo, was the reason the Valkyrie stood in front of Lauren's door now, fist raised and ready to knock once more.

"Come on, Lauren. I know you're in there. How much you wanna bet Succubitch is in there too, huh?"

The door swung open finally, and Tamsin let her hand drop to her side. Her head tilted and she gave a sarcastic smile that didn't even try to reach her eyes. "Pay up."

"What do you want, Tamsin?" Bo stood in the doorway, arms crossed over her chest, letting her body language tell the Valkyrie just how unwelcome she was here.

"Dark Fae business, honey. That little human the Doc's got hiding back there is now part of my investigation. Dead, or alive." Tamsin shoved past Bo, unconcerned by the dark looks the Succubus gave her. The blond stopped in the middle of the living room and turned a bit to look around. In style, it was very similar to Seth's apartment. Airy, wide open, brightly lit. The doctor was nowhere in sight. But she could hear the steady hum of machinery in the next room. She gestured with her thumb at the door that stood only slightly ajar.

"They in there?" Without waiting for an answer, Tamsin spun on her heel and swaggered to the indicated door. Bo leapt after her, but by the time she'd managed to grab Tamsin's arm, the detective had already unceremoniously shoved the door open and stood, staring, at the blue and green bundle lying in the gurney.

Lauren looked up at the door sharply. She held a paper cup with a straw in her hands, it hovered for a moment just above the patient's eye level, as if she'd been caught just about to offer the beaten thing a drink. A flashlight hung on the edge of her lab coat pocket. Otherwise, Lauren looked like she'd just woken from restless sleep, her hair was mussed, her clothes slightly wrinkled, and her feet bare.

The girl lying bruised and beaten on the hospital bed reached up to grasp the paper cup in her own hands, seemingly unconcerned by Tamsin's sudden entrance. She slurped the water, wincing around the splits in her lip. Lauren blew out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. With a worried glance at her patient, she straightened and strode toward Tamsin and Bo. If looks could kill, Tamsin would have been nothing more than smoldering ashes on the spotless stone floor.

The detective allowed herself to be jostled out of the makeshift hospital room, the door clicked shut quietly behind them. Lauren, agitated and furious, half-dragged the detective and Bo to the kitchen. Tamsin grinned, amused by Lauren's behavior and pleased that she'd found so easily the girl she'd been hunting for. That she was alive was just an added bonus.

Bo and Lauren glared silently at Tamsin, who stared right back, totally indifferent to their mood. Then, with a nonchalant shrug and an exasperated sigh, Tamsin began to explain.

"The Morrigan found out about her missing Seer. She put me on the case. That little bruise in there is vital to my investigation. So, if you'd kindly make with my witness-"

Lauren shook her head sharply. But it was Bo that responded first.

"She hired me to find Seth. And she's under my protection until we do."

"Oh yes, I can see how well you've been protecting her." Sharp sarcasm colored Tamsin's words. "You can't claim a claimed human. Or are we stealing now, as well as killing?" She turned on the Succubus, the playfulness of her tone underlined with poison. "Don't interfere with my investigation, bitch." The blond snarled.

"Both of you, shut the hell up." A tired, broken voice cracked from behind Tamsin. Maia stood, leaning wearily against the doorjamb. The hospital gown she wore hung limply from her bony shoulders, the sling that carried her cast was twisted around her neck and crooked to an odd angle; she scowled at the bickering women with her good eye, the other bulging painfully, uselessly, against her glasses and her face drawn and pale against the effort it took for the severely beaten girl to stand and scold.

Lauren went to her immediately, arms outstretched to support her. Maia only pushed her away, choosing instead to sway on her own aching bare feet and lean against the door frame. She needed to make her point: she was not some weak, helpless human, to be handled and discarded.

"I don't know who you are, and honestly, right now, I don't give a shit." Neither Lauren nor Bo had ever expected such bitterness from the skinny, battered human. And judging by the guardedly shocked expression on Tamsin's face, neither did the Valkyrie.

Maia waved her phone in the air.

"She sent me a message. You can trace that, right? Find out where she is?"

Tamsin strode forward and snatched the phone from Maia's tenuous grip, giving the defiant human an analytical look as she did so.

[-Don't look for me.-] glowed across the screen. The Valkyrie wrinkled her nose at the dried blood that had begun to flake off the phone in her hands.

A cold, vise-like clutch wrapped around Tamsin's wrist, bringing her attention back to the battered, scrappy girl. Tight, chocolate curls clung to her forehead, beads of perspiration stood out against her ashen skin.

"I don't care if it's you or Bo or Jesus that finds Seth. I just want her back." She hissed. Tamsin stared directly into dark brown eyes that seethed with anger. With their faces barely inches apart, she could feel Maia's hot, stale breath on her cheek. "And if you take her to the Morrigan and she winds up dead, so help me God, I will make what the Redcaps did to me look like child's play."

Under any other circumstances, Tamsin would have burst into laughter at the damaged, underweight human issuing useless threats. Instead, she took a small step back and gave Maia an evaluating stare. She felt a begrudging respect manifest for such determined, uncompromising, unflinching strength in such a powerless creature.

With a nod as solemn as her expression, Tamsin pocketed the iPhone.

Maia took a long, shuddering breath, finally allowing Lauren's arms to circle her. She would not be led back to her hospital bed, but allowed the doctor to guide her to the couch instead. She refused to allow Lauren to bring over the IV and hook her back up, insisting she was fine and could heal well enough without the morphine. Tamsin poised herself on the edge of the coffee table, Bo glared distrustfully at the Dark Fae detective from behind the couch.

"This doesn't make us partners." The Succubus clarified. Tamsin ignored her.

"Start from the beginning. Don't leave anything out." The detective focused her attention on Maia. "The quicker you tell me everything, the sooner I can get this message traced. You hear me?"

Maia only nodded in confirmation and told her story for the second time.

Glass and plastic flew across the hard stone floor. What remained of a cell phone crunched under the sleek heel of his shiny black loafer. A cruel smile spread across features that may have been handsome but for the madness lurking behind every expression, every look.

"Well done, Seer." He praised, voice smooth and pleasant. His words lilted with the vaguest implication of an Irish accent. With a graceful sideways kick, he thrust the dysfunctional pile of glass and wiring to the corner of the cell and leaned forward, bending to one knee to be closer to eye level with his prisoner. "Now we just have to wait." He brushed a calloused finger against the Seer's cheek tenderly, then rose and swept the dust off his well-tailored pants.

"She won't come alone." The Seer growled, her words slightly muffled. "She'll bring back-up. She's not stupid."

"I should hope not." The tall, dark, striking Fae preened himself, pulling imaginary wrinkles from his suit and straightening his pristine black tie. "Otherwise we've broken a perfectly good phone for absolutely no reason. I want this to seem as real as possible."

"Torturing me wasn't real enough for you?" She spat.

"Oh no, darling. You seem to misunderstand. It doesn't need to be real for me. Though I have missed the smell of pestilence and burning flesh…" He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, appreciating those smells even now.

"Then who does it need to be 'real' for?!" Seth cried, her voice cracking with pain and exhaustion. Bloody tears tracked down her cheeks, she could taste the salty, bitter mix in her broken, parched mouth.

"Ah. I have read enough novels and seen enough films to be quite familiar with this cliché." He grinned down out her, perfect teeth gleaming sinisterly from behind perfect, masculine lips. A dimple showed in his right cheek and dark eyes glittered with cold mirth. "This is the part where the villain, myself in this scenario, announces his intentions. That never does end well for him, does it?"

"What are you?" The harsh whisper escaped her, despite herself. She shivered in her coarse rags, what was not long ago a fashionable skirt-suit, in spite of the fever that burned through her. He laughed deprecatingly.

"Hasn't your Sight enlightened you yet, my dear? My, my. Such a useless gift." He flexed a hand and raised it to his face, palm out, inspecting his nails. "How does that old chestnut crack…? I'm your biggest nightmare?" He laughed again, a full-throated, bellowing, hateful sound. Seth's eyes blanched with her Sight, as if brought on by his taunts. Her face, already pale, went pallid at the vision that unfolded within her mind's eye.

The Fomor grinned maliciously, then turned and left. The barred door echoed as it slammed shut behind him. Seth could hear his shoes snap a steady beat against the floor, fading as he walked further and further away. The sores along her neck, back, arms and chest broke, blood and pus seeping from the diseased wounds and trailing dirt and stench across her skin. Fever spiked through her again. The dying woman collapsed further into the dank darkness of her cell, shadows guarding features marred by disease and decay.