Past Due, page 53
part #4 of Good Intentions Series
Alex missed most of it. He returned only after doing some damage. Better to make sure he had control of the phone before he got distracted by talking. As he’d hoped, the phone was still unlocked when he’d snatched it away. Even now, he ran through its contents. "God, you are a fucking creep."
"What the—hey, that’s my—!" Mr. Redshirt promptly lowered his voice again as he realized his peril. "What are you doing? That’s my phone!"
"I’m deleting all the creeper pics you took today and wherever else you’ve used this." Alex didn’t look up from his work. "Actually, I’ve already done that. Now I’m looking at other stuff. Is this your website open on the browser page?"
"You can’t fucking do this! What are you, cops? You’re not even con staff!"
"No, con staff couldn’t do this," Alex corrected. "All they could do is throw you out. They couldn’t delete this garbage."
"Delete what? That’s—that’s not mine."
"Lies." The bounty hunter’s grip tightened.
"Yeah, you should try another defense." Alex pulled out his own phone to take a snapshot of the screen on the other one.
"Oh, come on," said Mr. Redshirt. "It’s no big deal. They aren’t even nudes."
The bounty hunter finally spoke above a whisper with a firm, feminine voice. "Consensual porn is all over the internet. You don’t want that. You want to prey upon women. This is about abuse."
"You really are gross, Mike. That’s your name, right? Mike?" Alex handed the phone back. "I know your little webpage. If it doesn’t come down in the next couple of hours, you can explain all this to your boss and your mother. I have their phone numbers now."
"My mom?"
"It’s time to leave the convention, Mike," the bounty hunter advised. She let him go.
Mike didn’t stay to argue or salvage his pride. He turned and fled.
"Thanks for that," said Alex.
"Of course." The bounty hunter removed her helmet. Anyone else would have matted hair and perhaps a little sweat. Lorelei hardly lost any of her sultry beauty to the helmet’s confining effects. Even her pulled-back hair still looked good. "Did you spot him in the act?"
"No. I got a tip on my phone, and then a misfired text from his." Alex rolled his eyes. "Can’t imagine how that happened."
"We have to put an end to this nonsense," said Lorelei.
"Yeah. Had to be dealt with, though, right?"
"That fool? The angels could handle him themselves if they chose. They enlist you because it amuses them. I do not share their entertainment."
"You sure?" Alex glanced over his shoulder. Mr. Redshirt was already long gone. "That was a little fun, wasn’t it? Felt good."
"In isolation, yes. I might even have enjoyed taking things farther than the angels expected. My concern is the ongoing pattern. I don’t know what more they will want of you—and thereby us—and I see little benefit from it."
Alex opened his mouth to speak, but the words caught in his throat at the sensation of friendly hands slipping around his hips and straight to his groin. He felt a familiar body pressed against his back, and with her touch came a rush of vitality. The aches of hours shuffling through the convention center vanished from his feet, though he paid little immediate attention to that in light of the arousing grope at his crotch. "Did I just miss a good deed?" asked Rachel. "I’m horny as fuck all of a sudden."
Lorelei bowed her head in concession. "I see one benefit from this," she corrected.
"Fair." Alex spared a fleeting thought for the concern of onlookers, but let it go. It wasn’t like they’d never been frisky in public before. He grunted as Rachel’s grip got ambitious. "Pretty good benefit."
"One we would share regardless." Lorelei stepped closer, but didn’t do anything to interrupt. She had more of a mind to cover for them. It didn’t pull her off the subject. "Rachel. Your peers are still taking advantage of him."
"Aw, you don’t mean in a fun way?" Rachel frowned. "I’ll put my foot up some more asses."
"Thank you. I would end this running gag before it becomes dangerous."
"Dangerously sexy right now, though." Her eyebrows rose to tease Lorelei. "He’s right, too. You did a good thing and you liked it. Fuckin’ hot."
"Taunting invites retaliation, love," said Lorelei.
"Hell yeah, it does." Rachel slipped away. "That’s the point."
"Can’t stick around?" asked Alex.
"Nah. I’ve got other people to look in on. Besides, I don’t have a badge. Wouldn’t want to break the rules, would I?" She planted a kiss on his neck before slipping around him to do the same for Lorelei on her way off. "Catch you at home."
The two stood alone in the crowd. Lorelei noted her lover’s gaze with a raised brow. She knew how he felt about her. She always knew, but wanted to hear it, anyway. "I think you’re a little taller than me in that armor," said Alex. "It’s kinda hot."
"This costume is hardly designed for sex appeal," Lorelei scoffed.
"You could’ve gone the other way. You have before."
"I considered going far in the other direction, yes. Then I learned of the crowds and decided not to cause a traffic problem."
"That was thoughtful," said Alex. "Considerate."
"You’re teasing me."
"Only because you’re so intimidating and dangerous in that outfit. And for real."
She stepped closer. "I have had you in crowded spaces before, too," she mused. The touch of her breath against his skin had his body right back to the same sort of excitement Rachel gave him. "This armor would make that more difficult, but I believe we can rise to the challenge."
"Uh-huh," said Alex. "Somehow I feel like it’s not the angels who lure me into danger."
"Some dangers are more worthwhile than others."
* * *
"The family is dead. Plunder the scraps of their empire as you may or abandon it entirely. I advise the latter." Matthias glanced up from the desktop monitor to a new arrival in her dark office. Her servant closed the door and remained silent. "They were rivals as often as allies. Now they are gone, and we remain. As it should be."
Faces glared back at her from a series of panels on the screen. Several had enough experience or coaching with this technology to present themselves with reasonable competence. Two of her "peers" continually fussed at servants off-screen to change the lighting or the sound or who knew what. Only one vampire in the impromptu council was young enough to have been mortal during the rise of this technology. Naturally, that one kept her microphone muted and tapped away at her keyboard as if she wasn’t paying attention to this conference at all.
Matthias suspected that one was either playing games or looking at those insipid "cat memes" the mortal youth talked about. She also suspected it was the right idea, given the alternative.
"You are quick to advise the acceptance of loss and defeat, Your Grace," said the Earl of East Australia. She tried not to roll her eyes at the thought of his title—again. "We gathered to discuss ambitions for the future. You would throw that away and run?"
"I attended to hear them out, with every expectation that matters would dissolve into old feuds and infighting as such ambitions usually do," said Matthias. "Your higher hopes are adorable, but they require a naivete I no longer possess."
"Naivete?" The earl let out a pompous snort.
"Gathered friends, please—" said another alleged peer.
"We have confirmation their ship returned to port the next morning," Matthias interrupted. "It remained in Vancouver all week. Yet even now, no one among the family answers calls, text messages, or any sorcerous channels we have established. We bore witness to the events of the previous night. I have encountered that mortal and the angel before. The family is dead."
"Gerhardt wounded that angel," pointed out another on the screen. "They fled from the party."
"Yes, and many of their pursuers died. The rest came back with empty hands. Learn from their example instead of following it."
"Her Grace mistakes opportunity for danger," said yet another fool. "The family may be gone, but their little party has shown us the prospects for alliance and power."
At that, Matthias openly rolled her eyes. If anyone noticed, they said nothing. Ambitious voices carried on with speculation and wistful dreams. She glanced again to her servant, still at the door in deferential silence. He held a common manila folder. She beckoned him forward, but turned her attention back to the conference at the mention of names.
"Every demon showed particular respect for this Lorelei," said another. "She is clearly in league with the mortal. On that note, Alex does indeed appear mortal, and he has disrespected us. He has knowledge of us. Such knowledge is proscribed."
"We have been down that road once before," said Matthias. "It is how I encountered them in the first place. As you said, he is obviously in league with several supernaturals. Whatever their relationship, he is no more in violation than every other werewolf or Practitioner or the rest."
"Their knowledge is an unfortunate reality, not an agreeable exception," said the Earl.
"And so is this one."
"You would so easily accept this affront?" asked the Earl. "This challenge? This blood of ours that has been shed time and again?"
"I would walk away from it all," said Matthias. "I have given my counsel. Farewell." She tapped on the mute button. The reassuring red line appeared over the little cartoon microphone on her screen, but all the faces remained. "How do I hang up?" Matthias asked, and then began pressing buttons.
"Your Grace, if I may," said her servant.
"Yes. Do." She didn’t stop pressing random buttons. A cat meme appeared over her screen, advising her to "Hang In There!" Her eyes narrowed. "Have I returned to the base internet?"
"I don’t…Your Grace, I don’t know what that means," said the servant.
She gestured to the cat. "Is it not this at its core?"
The servant tapped a button, and then another, and seemed dubious until he finally pulled the plug from the camera mounted on the monitor. Whether he was dubious about the technology or his liege, Matthias could not be sure, but she had her suspicions. "What have you found?" she asked, if only to change the subject.
"His full name is Alex Carlisle." Her servant opened the folder on the desk, revealing papers and a handful of pictures. "He is twenty years old, attending the University of Washington as a full-time student with no side employment and his tuition paid directly. That’s unusual these days," he added for her benefit. "I believe his residency records are false. His mother and maternal grandparents all live in the city. Mother and father divorced some time ago. Of the demon and the jinn, I could find nothing, and of course the angel is a mystery."
"Of course," Matthias murmured. "But his records are not so mysterious?"
"I would say his profile is carefully kept to a minimum," said the servant. "As it happens, I got lucky. He was arrested recently when a protest at the university turned into a brawl. Some bystander uploaded a video to the internet. I found it in a search and had to read through the comments." He shuddered. "So many comments."
"Do you sense an agenda? Is any of this relevant?" asked Matthias.
"No agenda. His public persona is that of an ordinary student, though conscious of privacy. However, we already have leverage." He beamed with pride before he flipped over the page. On another sheet of personal information, she saw a picture with some resemblance to Alex, but older. "His father works for one of your financial interests. An irregular syndicate based out of Las Vegas, though he sometimes travels."
"Irregular? You mean it is a criminal operation?"
"The operation provides a variety of flexible services, yes."
"Is he aware? Does he know of us?"
"Not at his level, no. The operation is several steps removed from anything in the shadows."
Matthias glanced at the second page long enough to read a couple of names and figures. Then she closed the folder and pushed it away. "Break the syndicate off from our holdings. An optimal outcome would be to sell it to a rival with no one the wiser. Get back to me with options."
"Sell…? As you wish, of course, but if I might ask about the greater goal…?"
"As I told the others on that insipid conference call, I want nothing more to do with all this."
The answer left him blinking. "I thought that was misdirection."
"Ugh. They’re going to think that, too," she considered. "I may have to deal with that later. No matter. The goal is a clean break from whatever nonsense is going on here. Twice, I have encountered these violent buffoons, and twice I have seen the damage done. A connection like this makes another encounter inevitable, and I have no interest in this perpetual debacle. Let someone else have their attention."
About the Author
Elliott Kay is a survivor of adolescence in Los Angeles, service in the United States Coast Guard, classroom teaching, a motorcycle crash, chronic seasickness, summers in Phoenix, winter in Alaska (only one), serial monogamy, and reading comments on the Internet. He resides in Seattle with his girlfriend and two cats.
His military sci-fi novels Poor Man’s Fight and Rich Man’s War are published through Skyscape, with the rest of the series also available on Amazon. His urban fantasy novels Good Intentions, Natural Consequences, Personal Demons, the related short stories in Life In Shadows, and the fantasy novella Days of High Adventure are independently published and available through numerous online vendors.
Email: elliottkaybooks@gmail.com
Website:www.elliottkay.com
Twitter: @elliottkaybooks
Elliott Kay, Past Due
