Zombies Sold Separately (9 page)

I glanced at Angel, Joshua, Mandisa, Nakano, and Max, who had all joined us at the beginning of the Werewolf case. The GG had hired them to aid our forces but belatedly as far as I was concerned. Before the new Trackers had been moved to the city, we’d lost too many of our own to Demons. Those losses included one of my closest friends, Caprice.

The pain of Caprice’s death was still fresh and it hit me sharp and quick to my gut. I held my hand to my belly. It wasn’t that long ago that Demons had killed her, taken her away from us.

A reportedly wise, know it all being, the GG is revered by most. With all of her riddles, she drives me crazy. Nadia always said I was doomed for Underworld if I didn’t play nice. I played nice. Didn’t mean I had to like it.

“Do you miss tracking the Upper West Side?” Nadia asked.

I looked back at her and shook my head. “I really like special teams.”

“Changes things up a bit.” She gave a nod.

I’d been selected to lead the Tracker special team when my PI agency took on the Werewolf case. Almost immediately after it was solved, the five of us went on to handle the Sprite fiasco and then the Vampire “situation”—with a little help from our friends.

All went quiet and I looked up to see Rodán near the door that led to the club. When he entered a room I usually felt warmth unfold inside me and today was no exception.

One of the Light Elves, Rodán was breathlessly handsome. Every movement he made was lithe and graceful like all Elves. His crystal-green eyes were filled with intelligence and an almost ancient wisdom.

And mystery … there was always an air of mystery surrounding Rodán. I knew him well in some ways, but that knowledge was only a few leaves in the forest of possibilities that made up the whole of who Rodán of the Light Elves was.

Rodán opened the door and stepped aside. Two beings walked in and both had me catching my breath in surprise.

The first was a Sprite—Penrod, Negel’s younger brother.

Next was the Dragon who’d performed onstage.

All of us—even Ice—remained silent as the two newcomers followed Rodán to stand at the head of the conference table.

With his protuberant blue eyes, misshapen and mottled features, and tufts of blond hair, Penrod was still ugly as Sprites go, but carried himself with more confidence than Negel had when he was alive.

Tall for a Sprite at about five feet in height, Penrod had a slow gait and with his knobby joints had a clumsy appearance. Sprites are Fae, though, and a great number of Fae races are anything but clumsy. Including Sprites.

After watching Colin on stage and being a firsthand witness to him intentionally mesmerizing his audience, I expected him to be a showboat.

Right now he had the exact opposite effect on me. He looked calm and self-assured, but not cocky or arrogant like some of our Trackers. His switch was apparently set from “mesmerize” to “off,” too.

Instead of being bare-chested and in the red leather pants, Colin wore a pair of Levi’s, New Balance jogging shoes, and a sleeveless dark red and black Linkin Park T-shirt. His long golden hair was loose around his shoulders.

A scaled serpent tattoo wound up and around his arm from his wrist to his shoulder. Fire erupted from the serpent’s mouth, the flames curling over Colin’s shoulder. The tattoo moved with the flex of his muscular arm, almost looking like a living, breathing thing. I hadn’t noticed the tattoo before, but I may have been too enthralled by his Dragon magic to have noticed.

“This is Colin and Penrod,” Rodán said in his smooth, calm way as he gestured to each male. “Our two newest Trackers.”

“What?” Lawan said with a sharp intake of breath and got to her feet. “The
Dragon
?”

We all looked at Lawan, and I think to a one our jaws had dropped. For Lawan to have any kind of outburst was almost a greater surprise to everyone seated at the table than having a Sprite and Dragon thrown into our midst as Trackers.

Lawan’s cheeks reddened and she eased back into her seat but she kept her back straight and her head tilted high.

“Yes.” Rodán smoothed over the interruption and nodded to the Dragon. “Colin is originally from Campton, a village in Otherworld, but he has lived here in the Earth Otherworld for some time now.”

“What, get kicked out of Otherworld for pillaging and burning down the villages?” Ice said.

“Yes.” Colin’s expression was completely serious. “And for eating the peasants and a king or two.”

Ice smirked, obviously holding back a laugh. He might be a real jerk at times, but he knew when he’d been upped one.

Although for all I knew, Colin
had
eaten villagers in Otherworld.

“Colin has been in the metalwork trade,” Rodán said. “He is excellent with any weapon imaginable.”

I don’t know why, but we all looked at Mandisa and her poison-tipped arrows.

“Almost any weapon,” Colin said with a smile, as I heard his voice for the first time. Low, vibrant, as smooth and rich as chocolate cream. “Abatwa Fae and Elves are masters like none other when it comes to archery.”

Rodán nodded to Colin. The Dragon gave a slight bow of his head then stepped back so that Penrod was in front. Rodán gestured to the Sprite. “Please welcome Penrod to our team.”

“A
Sprite
?” Kelly sounded like she was going to choke on something. “The Great Guardian chose a Sprite to be a Tracker?”

Only the tiniest flicker of Penrod’s floppy ears told me Kelly’s statement had affected him in some way.

Rodán, a master at taking control, being in command, continued in a way that washed right over Kelly’s words. “You all should remember Negel,” Rodán said, “a Sprite who was instrumental in defeating the Vampires just weeks ago and who gave his life for one of our own.”

A low murmur and a few nods around the table, along with glances my way.

“Penrod is Negel’s younger brother.” Rodán looked at the Sprite before turning back to the Trackers. “Penrod was a professional thief.”

Even I dropped my jaw.

“A thief,” Fere said with a scowl. “You expect us to work with a thief?”

“Didn’t see that one coming,” Nadia murmured from beside me. “The GG never ceases to amaze me with her wisdom.”

At that moment someone could have told me there were two moons in the sky instead of one and I would have believed it. Lawan acting totally out of character, Rodán introducing a Dragon and a thief into our circle, and Nadia making a disparaging remark about the Great Guardian?

I wondered if the two moons that had to be out there now were both full.

“Yes, Penrod was a thief, but that was many years ago,” Rodán said. “He served his time, reformed, and then he served his people using his considerable skills in keeping order. He has proven his character and brings to our table many talents.”

Penrod vanished.

Paranorms can often see through glamours, but no one can see through a Sprite glamour.

It was only moments before Penrod reappeared. Only now he was holding a broadsword.

Fere’s broadsword.

The stunned look on the big Tuatha warrior’s face was truly a joy for me to see.

It was even funnier when seconds later the warrior was holding his sword.

As Penrod reappeared again, Fere growled and surged to his feet, gripping the hilt of his sword. “I will slay you if you touch anything I own again.”

A couple of laughs and a few coughs around the table greeted Fere’s anger.

The Sprite gave a slight incline of his head but there was a glint in his eyes.

“Penrod is a Tracker now.” Rodán’s voice was a little rougher than it had been. “You have only to remember that. What he did in the past will serve us well as a team. Keep this in mind—Penrod is no longer a thief. He is a Tracker. You will treat him as one of our own.”

Fere growled again but sat while he continued to glare at Penrod.

“My apologies.” Penrod smiled which almost looked more like a fierce scowl as he showed his sharp, pointed teeth. “I wished only to demonstrate my abilities.”

“Accomplished.” Rodán gestured to two of the three seats open at the conference table which could seat a total of twenty-six. Colin and Penrod made it twenty-five. Rodán would be the twenty-sixth when he chose to sit, which wasn’t often. “Be seated and we will begin.”

The Dragon took the chair between Tracey and Meryl, the Sprite between Nancy and Lawan. Nancy looked at Penrod and grimaced but Lawan was still glaring at Colin.

“We have a serious problem.” Rodán said before the two new Trackers had even had a chance to settle into their chairs. “Last night a group of paranorms and a group of norms were attacked, murdered, and mutilated. In a way unlike anything we have seen before.”

Most of those sitting at the table looked at Rodán with surprise. Only Robert, Tracey, Olivia, and I already knew some of what had happened.

Rodán gave the team the rundown of the information he had to date, including where the incidents had occurred.

“What connects these attacks is the brutality of them,” Rodán said. “Done in such a way that no human could have been responsible.

“In addition,” he continued, “in each case there is at least one missing person.”

Phyllis, a Were from the Lower East Side, leaned forward in her seat. “Just the two incidents?”

“Nyx and Olivia have the case in their PI agency and have been following up, including research,” Rodán said. “They have come across similar incidents on a smaller scale. They include a brutal, fatal attack and a missing person.”

“One thing about those cases,” Olivia said thoughtfully, “is that in each the missing person turned up again.”

“That’s odd.” Bronwyn looked pensive for a Nymph. Somehow this case must really be bothering her because Nymphs generally have a sensual expression and demeanor when not in battle. In a fight they are fierce, especially Bronwyn.

“We’re also looking at a homeless persons angle,” I said and explained why. I went on to add, “We interviewed several individuals on the street and they’ve seen some strange things at night that we’re still sorting out.”

“What do you think we’re looking at?” asked Dave, a native New Yorker Werewolf.

“Vampires?” Meryl, a Shifter Tracker as well as an artist, leaned forward with concern on her attractive features. “Are they back?”

“Vampires have been ruled out.” Rodán’s gaze moved to each one of us as he explained how the attacks could not have been Vampires. “As of now what we face is an unknown threat.”

Lawan was fair-skinned to begin with but seemed much paler, as if she were shaken up over Rodán’s statement. That surprised me because she was always so cool under pressure. “What is our next step?” she asked Rodán, seeming to have forgotten her anger at the Dragon.

“I’m assigning one of our special teams to concentrate on chasing down whatever it is that we must contend with.” Rodán rarely showed even a glimpse of emotion and he stayed true to that now. “Once we know what we’re dealing with, we will determine how we’re going to take care of and end this threat.

“We again have Angel, Ice, Joshua, Olivia, and Nyx as members of Special Team One.” Rodán gave a quick nod to me. “Nyx is leader of that team. Her expertise as a private investigator and her ability to move fluidly between the norm and paranorm worlds makes her invaluable in this capacity.”

Rodán looked at the Dragon and the Sprite. “Colin and Penrod will join the special team.”

NINE

When did I become the clearinghouse for new Trackers?

I watched the others heading off to track their territories or handle other assignments then looked back to my seven-man—or rather seven-paranorm—team, which included our newest players, the Dragon and the Sprite.

Angel, who was a squirrel Doppler, and Joshua, a Shadow Shifter, had been new Trackers when they’d been assigned to the Werewolf case with Ice, Olivia, and me. They turned out to be two of the best I’d ever worked with.

I looked from the Dragon to the Sprite. I hoped I could say the same for the two of them.

Fortunately I was good at thinking on my feet. Or on my butt since I was sitting down.

“We’ll divide up into three teams.” I pointed to Olivia and Joshua—Olivia was less likely to be tempted to kill Joshua than she was likely to shoot Ice. “You two will take section one.”

For situations like this op, Peacekeepers had divided the city into three sections or four quadrants, depending on how many teams were being sent out.

“Angel and Ice.” I gave them each a nod. “You take section two.”

I inhaled and looked from Penrod to Colin. “I’ll take the newbies. Section three is our territory for tonight.”

“What is the plan you wish us to follow, o empowered one?” Ice said as he leaned back in his chair.

I would have loved to have Olivia’s rubber band gun on me. Rodán would have frowned on me using my daggers or buckler.

Fortunately I was getting good at letting comments like Ice’s slide by. “Concentrate on visiting areas where the homeless tend to hang out,” I said. “Those homeless who refuse to go to the shelters at night, no matter how blessed cold it is outside.”