Thaumatology 12: Vengeance (13 page)

‘At least you know you’re drinking too much.’

‘And I know it’ll be hard to stop. Carter has told me he’s putting me on a detox regimen when the conference is over.’

Ceri grinned. ‘How are you explaining being away for the meeting over there?’

‘I said I would be attending a small conference on aquatic thaumatology to help with the Australian project.’

Ceri’s grin shifted to a giggle. ‘The Aquatic Thaumatology Conference? Okay. Ophelia, it’s got a name.’

Ophelia tucked tip money into her dress and handed the rest of the cash across to Alec. ‘I’ll get it put on the invitations.’

Battersea Park, April 7
^th
.

Ceri spotted Jenny Li sitting with a small group of wolves as she walked around the edge of the lake with Lily and Michael. She had not seen much of the half-Chinese girl recently and crossed the grass to talk to her. They were early for the meeting anyway.

‘Ceri! Hey, how’s things?’ Jenny asked as they approached. There was also a yip from the brown-fur sitting beside her: Lee, her mate in the pack, her boyfriend out of it.

‘Busy, stressful, but I’m still alive, so that’s a plus. You?’

‘Still unemployed,’ Jenny replied, slumping. ‘The new Ambassador is a bit of an arse. I got dumped and I haven’t found a new job yet.’ Ceri’s eyes narrowed and stayed that way until Jenny said, ‘What?! I’m looking!’

‘How many languages do you know, Jen?’ Ceri asked.

‘Uh…’ The ex-translator began ticking them off on her fingers. ‘English and Mandarin are the main ones, Dutch, French, Low Fae, Devotik, and Werewolf, of course.’

‘You know Devotik
and
Low Fae?’

‘I’m not that great. Studied them out of curiosity, really. From textbooks. I’m actually better at reading Devotik than speaking it, I think. Not a lot of people to practise with.’

‘Would you come back to High Towers with us after the meeting? I might have something for you.’

‘Uh… sure?’

Ceri grinned at her and set off again toward the boats.

‘Assistant for Ophelia?’ Lily asked as they walked.

‘Jenny’s good with people as well as languages,’ Ceri replied.

‘Have you considered starting an employment agency?’ Michael suggested.

‘Sounds like a lot of paperwork. This way, I get to hand out gold coins and they get to deal with the tax issues.’

Donal and Sharon, Alphas of the Marshwallers, were getting ready to cross when the trio arrived and there was a boat just about big enough for everyone, including Grant, their Captain, so they went across together. Ceri did not know the Marshwallers well. In fact she knew Dolf and Freya of the Dog Boys better, and that was not saying a lot. They seemed to know her though, giving her smiles as their Captain rowed across the short distance between the boathouse and the island.

They were the last to arrive, and Alexandra smiled warmly at them while pouring tea. Dolf, a thuggish sort of man who had mellowed a lot in the last year, was sitting beside his mate, Freya, and looking a little impatient. Whatever was on the Dog Boys’ Alpha’s mind, it seemed like he was in a hurry to get it out, but Alexandra had seniority and she was going to make sure things started with the niceties.

‘I hope no one has any objections to Ceri and Lily being here,’ Alexandra said. ‘Dolf asked for them to come, but it is a slight deviation from usual decorum.’ Catherine, the Royals’ Alpha and sister to both Freya and Anita, just smiled. Donal and Sharon voiced their pleasure at having the guests; Sharon, Ceri decided, was an import from Essex. ‘Excellent,’ Alexandra went on. ‘It’s a beautiful day and I’d like to get on to more pleasant discussions, so… Dolf?’

The big man gave a grunt. ‘And I’m sorry to have to drag the mood down,
and
drag you two over from Kennington, but this came up and we thought you should know.’ He produced a small, plastic bag from his leather jacket and tossed it across to Ceri.

There were two dull, pale-brown pellets inside it, obviously manufactured. They looked like a type of alchemical preparation meant to be burned. Ceri popped the zip-lock and used a hand to waft the scent at her nose. There was a faint, generic chemical scent. She handed the bag to Michael.

‘It’s got the same sort of odd chemical smell that Oblivion has,’ Michael growled.

‘It’s alchemical,’ Alexandra agreed, ‘but it’s not Oblivion, or a derivative I think.’

‘Something new?’ Ceri suggested, looking to Dolf.

It was Freya who answered. ‘One of our people, Marco, found it. I say found it, but he’s still using. We’re trying to clean our people up, but it’s not easy. Marco keeps backsliding, but in this case it turned out useful.’

Frowning, Anita got to her feet from her place between Alexandra and Catherine, and vanished off into the trees around the clearing.

‘One of his sources said he had something new,’ Dolf went on. ‘Amazing new high. You know the crap. Marco bought some and didn’t like the scent, so he brought it to us. Well, to Freya. He knew I’d kick his butt the length of the river for using, but… He did do the right thing, sort of.’

‘We’ve been getting a few reports about something new on the streets,’ Donal supplied. ‘Haven’t been able to nail anyone selling it yet though. What were they calling it, love? Lupo, lipo…’

‘Leper?’ Sharon suggested.

‘Lepor or lepo,’ Anita said as she sat back down. ‘Tina says it’s doing the rounds north of the river. Not much supply yet, but it’s growing.’

Ceri snorted out a laugh, her eyes on the bag.

‘Something funny?’ Dolf asked.

‘Leporidae is the family name for rabbits. The stuff looks like rabbit droppings. Whoever’s making it has a twisted, but very educated, sense of humour. Why bring this to us, Dolf? You could have gone to the cops.’

‘They still don’t like us much, and they ask a lot of questions.’

‘We’re getting our act together,’ Freya said, ‘but it’s still fragile and our people don’t trust the police. If they start poking around…’

‘I’ll let the Greycoats know,’ Ceri said, nodding. Then she smiled. ‘And thank you. I know all this change has been a bit rough on you.’

‘Yeah, well,’ Dolf grumbled. ‘Have to get responsible at some point.’ His lips curled and he added, ‘Especially when you’ve got a pup on the way.’

The clearing erupted into howls of glee and congratulations. Ceri tucked the small bag away into a pocket and tried to forget it was there. Something about it was bugging her, however. Something she could not, currently, put her finger on. She stopped trying and got on with celebrating; it would come to her eventually.

Castle of Bones, Demon Realm.

‘You’re basically asking me to take on an apprentice,’ Ophelia stated.

Ceri gave a slight shrug, her eyes on Jenny and Lee as they stared, wide-eyed, out across the mountains toward Dorilla. ‘You said you needed an assistant, and this way we don’t have to bring in another outsider. Jenny’s bright, good with people, a natural linguist. Lee’s her mate and he’s pretty good in a fight, plus he has a werewolf’s senses. He’ll be your bodyguard when the two of you go over to Otherworld.’

Lee got over his awe enough to glance back at them. ‘I’m only a brown…’

‘Pfft!’ Ceri hushed him. ‘Anita
and
Michael say you’re up to scratch. Greys and browns don’t differ that much aside from colour. If we’re actually expecting trouble I can get some extra people from Alexandra, but you’ll be fine for a typical diplomatic visit. We need to get you some gold to wear, maybe some leather strapping. We’ll make you look as mean as any fae warrior, put the fear of Luperca in them.’

‘It could work,’ Ophelia said, nodding slowly. ‘We’ll need to teach you some Low Fae and Devotik. The fae are arrogant enough to think of you as some sort of wild animal, so they’ll talk around you thinking you don’t understand. The demons will probably think you’re some sort of monster.’

Ceri gave a nod as well. ‘Don’t take any lip from the demons. If you even suspect they’re disrespecting you or Jen, you rip the throat out of one of them.’

Lee blinked. ‘I don’t think…’

‘Demons respect power and force,’ Ophelia said. ‘Ceri regularly threatens to kill or torture them if they don’t like something she’s doing. They
expect
it. If you let them get away with something they’ll think you’re a walkover and we don’t want that.’

‘Oh,’ Lee said. ‘I’ll talk it over with my Alpha. I’ve never… well, had to kill someone before.’

‘Hopefully,’ Ceri told him, ‘you won’t need to, but…’

She was interrupted by a voice coming up the stairs and obviously getting closer. ‘Shivika! Qi fatsho la oshn!’ Hiffy emerged from the stairwell and Lee’s eyes bulged in a valiant attempt to pop out of his skull. The blue-skinned demon-girl was wearing a thin tabard-like shift belted around her waist, which barely contained her expansive breasts. Her tail was looped around the front of the skirt to hold it away from her legs.

‘Hiffy,’ Ceri said, grinning, ‘calm down. You don’t have to come running after me whenever I come here. Don’t you ever sleep?’

At the sound of Devotik being spoken, Jenny turned around. ‘Oh… wow,’ she breathed.

‘I was taking a break,’ Hiffy said, ignoring everyone else for now. ‘Vulsha came to tell me you were here. She’d have come up herself, but she wants to be formally introduced first.’

‘Vulsha?’ Ceri frowned. ‘I don’t remember a Vulsha on the staff list.’

‘Inak decided to bring on six more people when we realised the time difference might be a problem. You could turn up in the middle of the night and it wouldn’t be right if you had no one to wait on you. Vulsha takes over from me and Inak when we’re off duty.’ Hiffy flashed a bright, fanged grin. ‘She’s not as pretty as me, of course, and she doesn’t have a tail.’ The tail in question lifted and waggled itself in Ceri’s direction.

‘Of course,’ Ceri replied. There was no way Hiffy was going to risk another det supplanting her in the Overlord’s affections. ‘I’m not staying long, so don’t worry over it. Since you’re here though, this is Jenny. She’s an old friend of mine and she’s going to be Ophelia’s assistant, so you’ll be seeing more of her. I want you to help her brush up her Devotik. That’s Lee, her mate. He’s another werewolf and we’re going to need to get him fitted up in a gladiator harness.’

Hiffy peered at Lee for a second, possibly trying to imagine a hulking, brutish, wolf-man. ‘I’ll get word to Lord Torn and have him send an armourer. I think pit fighter would fit what you’re after.’

Jenny giggled. ‘Oh… yes. He’ll make a great pit fighter.’

Lee looked between the women, his cheeks reddening as he worked out he was being talked about. ‘What?’ he said, half-grinning in confusion.

‘Don’t worry about it, Lee,’ Ophelia told him in English. ‘We’re just discussing your guard costume. Jenny thinks it’s funny, but she hasn’t realised she’s going to need some new clothes as well.’ Jenny’s giggling stopped abruptly.

‘Oh yes,’ Ceri agreed. ‘We can’t have you running around in jeans. Something involving a lot of string and beads, perhaps.’

‘That sounds good,’ Lee replied, licking his lips.

Jenny tried her best to become invisible on the spot, and failed.

Croydon, London, April 8
^th
.

‘Lepo?’ Kate said, turning the bag of pellets over in her hand.

‘Or Lepor,’ Ceri replied. ‘As best we can tell, it’s being sold mostly north of the river. Almost nothing on the south side. None of the Royals have heard of it yet, though, and there hasn’t even been a hint in the Battersea territories.’

‘Okay, well I’ll hand it off to Vice. They just use us for analysis. Technically they handle drugs and prostitution, even if there’s a supernatural element.’

John gave a grunt. ‘Except when there’s a succubus involved, or anything more than mundanely dangerous.’ He turned off the main road and down a far narrower one with a church on the corner.

‘Did you feel that?’ Lily asked.

‘No,’ Ceri said, looking out, ‘I didn’t… Oh. We must be outside the angel spell’s area.’

‘Yeah,’ Kate replied. ‘What makes you say that?’

‘The church is covered in angels.’

‘Interesting,’ John commented. ‘Ziel’s hall is just up ahead. It used to be another church. A lot younger, different denomination, but a church.’

Ceri leaned forward in the back seat of their sedan and peered out toward the building. ‘You know, I always figured those things hung out on the tallest building they could find, but that’s got that big bell tower and not a single angel.’

‘I’m going to ignore the theological implications of that,’ John said. ‘We’re here to interview Ziel to see what he knows about the cube. But don’t mention the cube. It’s been kept pretty quiet, if he mentions it…’

‘Then it probably means he’s managed to get a sympathiser into the power station. I kind of doubt this guy’s got the skills needed to make that cube.’

‘You’re probably right,’ Kate agreed, tapping her notes up on her phone. ‘Born out of wedlock in… fifty-two in London…’