Read Not Just Another Fae (Vegas Fae Stories Book 4) Online
Authors: Tom Keller
Not Just Another Fae (Vegas Fae Stories Book 4)
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places
and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or
dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved.
Book Cover design by
Creative
Paramita
Edited by Dee McDaniel
Kindle Edition © 2015 Tom Keller
Las Vegas, NV USA
Acknowledgements
I'd like to thank everyone that helped make this book
possible, especially my wife, Karen. Without her support this book would never
have been written. Once again a shout out to all the fans that liked my author
page and kept those emails and comments coming in. Your support and
encouragement means a lot to me.
A special thanks to my beta readers, Dee, Erika, Richard,
Joe, and all the others that helped me get through the manuscript. As always, I
appreciate your comments and suggestions.
It was late morning and I was sitting in Terminal 3 at
McCarran airport when my cell phone rang.
"This is Robert Hoskins," I answered.
"Robert, it's Martin. Do you have a minute?"
Martin Chibeaux was the Pack leader of the Werewolves in Vegas. He was also a
good friend and ally.
"Sure, but I'm just finishing up a surveillance. If I
have to go, I'll call you right back. What do you got?"
"Two of my Weres are missing. I could use some
assistance if you have the time."
"How long have they been gone?"
"Last time anyone saw them was Friday," he
replied. "They said they were going for a run this weekend, which means
the mountains. They didn't show up for work today. I wouldn’t normally go
outside with this, but there's not much we can do until dark. With last night's
rain, tracking is going to be all but impossible. I was hoping that you could give
us a hand."
There had been some heavy storms that had blown into Vegas
over the weekend. The remnants of a tropical storm in the Pacific that had made
its way into the area. Although they'd kept themselves out of the valley, for
the most part, they had dropped a lot of rain north of town, especially in the
mountain areas and it was supposed to rain again tonight.
"I can try," I said. "I take it this is not
their normal behavior? Missing work, I mean."
"No. Darren and Liz are good kids and never miss a day.
I had someone go by the house this morning. Their car's not there and the place
is locked up. Nothing looks out of place, but Saturday's mail is still in the
box, so I'm concerned."
"Any other problems going on?" I asked. The Weres
usually kept to themselves, but you never know. A while back I'd intervened in
a power struggle between Martin and one of the other Weres that wanted to
contest his leadership. They could be a handful when tempers flared or internal
politics came into play.
"No," he said. "It's actually been pretty
quiet. I can’t think of anything going on that would be a threat to them."
"Okay," I replied. "Like I said, I'm just
finishing up. It'll probably be another hour or so. Will that work?"
"That's fine," he said. "Thank you."
I put away my phone, hoping that it was just a case of too
much weekend fun. Probably not; but one can hope. Things were a little tense in
Vegas these days, so anything could have happened. My daughter, Nikki, told me
that Gaea had warned her that something was up in the human world. That
something was being drawn here. But I'll be damned if I'd seen any sign of it.
Things had been quiet since she had taken the throne; probably too quiet, and I
was guessing the shit was going to hit the fan at some point. I just didn’t
know when. Maybe the missing Weres were part of it, but I still had to finish
up what I was doing here before I could find out.
Like I told Martin, I was on a surveillance, and as most go,
it was nothing exciting. This one was all too human. It was a referral from a
local Fae lawyer who did work for both worlds. One of his L.A. rich and famous
clients wanted to make sure her new boyfriend was behaving while visiting Sin
City. For what it's worth, he had. The team I had following him for the last
three days had seen nothing that would cause anyone any heartburn and I was
just waiting for confirmation that he was on the plane and heading back before
wrapping it up.
For now, I was just people watching. I had a friend on the
force who would let me know when his plane departed, as well as make sure he
was on it since I couldn’t get past TSA without a ticket. Fae or not, sometimes
you have to work within the system. It wasn't much later that I spied a
uniformed police officer coming through security.
"Your boy's on the plane and they just pulled away from
the gate," he said as he walked up.
"Thanks, Paul," I replied. "I owe you one."
"No problem," he said. "You can get the
coffee next time."
"You got it," I said as he turned and walked back
toward security. I still had a few non-Fae friends on the Department and,
although I'd never ask them to do anything that could get them in trouble, it
was nice to know I could still call in a regular favor now and then.
I was getting ready to head for my car when a young couple
caught my eye. They were saying goodbye to each other. He was in the military
and it was a tearful event. It didn't take much to figure out he was being deployed.
What caught my attention wasn't actually the couple, but their little girl.
She must have been about seven, with long dark hair, wearing
a pretty floral dress. Tears flowed as she clutched a dying rose in her hand.
Her daddy picked her up and hugged her for what had to be the umpteenth time.
I'd heard her mother tell her to throw the dead flower away but it had been a
gift from her father and it meant too much to her to let go.
Military folks had a hard job and leaving your family behind
was tough. I'd spent a lot of long nights away from home back when I was a cop,
but at least I was never gone for more than few days. Never for a six month or
year deployment. Of course, there wasn't much I could do about that, but maybe
I could, at least, make her day a little brighter.
One of the paramount rules we live by is to never let humans
know we exist. The Fae that is. Let's face it, we don’t need those kind of
headaches. It also means you have to be really careful with magic. Especially
in public. Of course, the bad guys don’t seem to give a damn. But the rest of
us do try and keep a low profile, for the most part. But sometimes, magic is
all you've got, especially when it's for a good cause. Besides, this barely
qualified, and it's not like anyone was going to notice; not here in this busy
airport.
She was standing next to her parents, who were still
hugging, as I walked by. Stopping, I turned toward her and looked down. I
winked and cupped my hand, raising it to my face and blew just a hint of magic
into the air toward the rose. She gasped, her eyes wide, as it changed; its
petals turning red and opening as it sprang back to life. She gazed up at me in
wonder and her frown became a smile. Then, with another wink, I was gone and
out of the building. My last vision, that of a little girl tugging on her
father's uniform holding up a budding red rose, brought a smile to my face. Surveillance
done, except for the paperwork, of course…. brought a smile to a little girl's
face… let's hope the rest of the day went as well.
I called Martin back as soon as I was the parking lot.
"I was just getting ready to text you," he said as
I opened the driver's door. "We found their car up near Corn Creek. I'm
headed there now if you want to meet us."
"Okay," I replied. "But I'm coming from the
airport, and I still have to change, so it's going to be a while before I can
get there."
"No problem," he said. "They probably went
out to the Sheep Range to run, so we're going to start there. It's probably
pretty messy out there. How about I have somebody pick you up at your place?"
"Give me an hour," I said before disconnecting. My
car wasn't good on more than a packed dirt road and I had already decided to
take Charlie with me. The rain may have washed away any scent trails, but it
never hurt to have a Fae hunting dog at your side when you were going trekking
in the mountains.
Corn Creek is a small wetlands area just north of Vegas, and
the Sheep Range was a mountainous area northwest of there. They were all part
of the Desert National Wildlife Range, which is huge. I'm talking millions of
acres huge here. The terrain could be rough. Miles and miles of desert and then
the mountains. There were dirt roads and trails to follow; but if they'd left
their car behind, that meant they were on foot. I wasn't sure how far a Wolf
could run in a day, but if they were lost or injured out there they were going
to be a bitch to find.
Charlie was sitting on the grass when I pulled into the
driveway. He was my dog. But he was a lot more than that. You see, he's a
descendant of Fae hunting dogs bred by the Greek God Pan especially for Artemis.
He has this uncanny ability of knowing when something's going on. Even as a Fae
dog, he never ceases to amaze me.
"Gotta go search for a couple of missing Weres," I
said as I got out of the car. "I'm going to go change. Someone is picking
us up."
"Wolves?" he asked.
Oh, he can talk too.
"Yeah," I replied as I headed toward the house. "They
haven't been seen since Friday and they just found their car down at Corn
Creek. Is Alf around?"
"He has not returned," he answered.
Alf was an Imp that the Garden Faeries had found hanging
around the house. He'd been confronted by them and brought to my attention. Truth
was, they'd captured him, thinking he was a spy. Turned out he'd been waiting
for Bernd, the Dwarf, who had gone missing. There was a feud going on between
two of the Dwarf factions that was causing problems in the Fae lands, and Bernd
and his followers had gone into hiding. At least that's what I hoped.
After confirming who he was, I'd let him stay. He'd kind of
taken up residence at my place since then. I hadn’t quite trusted him at first
but he'd grown on me. Imps and Faeries aren’t exactly close, but I had to admit,
he was a wealth of information about the Fae world. A source that was nice to
have, as he didn't seem to have an agenda. At least not where I was concerned.
Strange little creature, too. Red skin and clothed in brown, he had bat-like
wings that allowed him to fly. One minute he acted like a drunken garden gnome
and the next he was spouting arcane knowledge out of Fae history books. Like I
said, he was growing on me.
"Okay," I replied, and headed upstairs to change
into some jeans and boots. It was starting to get hot in the valley, but after
the rains, you never knew what you'd run into out in the desert. I grabbed my
gun, a Walther PPK that had once been carried by my uncle, and the seax, a gift
from a good friend, Siegfried, Then I stopped in the kitchen for a bottle of
water before heading back outside to wait for our driver.
A few minutes later, a dark blue Tahoe with tinted windows drove
up and parked in front of the house. I clicked the gate opener, closed the
garage, then Charlie and I walked out to the street. The passenger side window
rolled down as I stepped up to it and a pretty gal in her early 40s, wearing
sunglasses, examined me from behind the wheel.
When I think of Werewolves, I usually envision the men I've
seen. Big strong looking guys, with dark brown or black hair, and the
occasional beard. But this gal was lithe and petite, as well as blonde, and
reminded me more of the dancer type. But looks could be deceiving. I'd never
met a Were that wasn't a helluva lot stronger than any human, and I doubted she
was any different.
"You Robert?" she asked as she pulled the
sunglasses down a bit, her greenish-brown eyes peeking over the rim as she scrutinized
me.
"That would be me," I answered.
"No offense, but you weren't what I expected," she
commented as she triggered the lock.
"None taken," I replied as I opened the door. "I
get that a lot"
That's one thing I always liked about Werewolves. They were
direct. Of course, that was what usually got them into trouble in their
dealings with others. But in her case, it just made me laugh. Sometimes a no
bullshit attitude was just refreshing.
"I hope you don’t mind if I bring him along," I
said as Charlie jumped in and squeezed between the seats to get in the back.
"Doesn't look like I have much choice," she
replied, cracking a smile for the first time.
"And you are?" I asked as I got in, pulling on the
seatbelt as I closed the door.
"I'm Jennifer. Call me Jen," she said as she put
the SUV in gear and started down the road.
"Pleased to meet you, Jen," I replied. "My
friend in the back is Charlie."
"Well met, Jen of the Wolf clan. I am Karalos, but you
can call me Charlie," he said, using his Fae name with just a touch of
humor.
"Did your dog just talk?" she asked as she
adjusted the rear view mirror to peek back at him before replying. "Uh,
well met to you as well, Charlie."
"Yeah," I answered. "He's a Fae hunting dog."
"Wow," she replied. "Never met a talking one.
I thought they were all like us. The voice box doesn't position properly when
we shift."
"Like I said, he's Fae. It's the magic," I
replied.
She replied with a "Huh," and we continued down
the road.
Corn Creek was about a 20-mile drive from my place up US 95.
When we reached the turn off, she made a right onto a dirt road, which was
still wet in places, and drove toward the visitor center. There were a couple
of cars in the lot, but she passed it by and went up the road a bit; finally
making a left toward a copse of trees near a wash where a grey truck was parked.
"That's Darren's truck," she said, pulling up next
to it. "Martin's already over the hill with a few others, searching for
them."
"Let me take a look," I said before opening the
door.
She put the Tahoe in park and I got out. Charlie followed as
I went over to inspect the vehicle. Walking around, I noticed the doors were
locked. A few minutes later, I found the keys on top of the passenger side
front tire. Unlocking the truck, I started examining the interior.
"This is really strange," a voice said behind me.
Turning, I saw Jen had joined us.
"What's strange?" I asked.
"Martin thinks they parked here and then headed for the
mountains. He was pretty upset about it. They shouldn’t have done that,"
she continued.
"Why not?" I asked.
"It's too close to the visitor's center," she
said. "Too great a chance of being seen."
"What about at night?"