Month: December 2013

Anne

Anne woke to a light tapping on her door. She looked over to the clock. She’d been asleep for maybe an hour and a half. She rolled out of bed and walked over to her door. She scowled as she saw Kurt’s apprehensive expression. She tapped her foot impatiently.

“I’m sorry to wake you up after the events of last night, but Samantha would like to meet with you today to go over these murders,” Kurt said. There was genuine contrition in his voice, and Anne felt her anger with him dissipate like an ice cube on a hot stove. Damn it, she did not need this right now, whatever it was.

“Where? At the safehouse?” Anne asked.

“No, I told her you had not eaten yet, so she suggested Barron’s,” Kurt said with a surprising nonchalance. Barron’s was one of the city’s most exclusive restaurants. Rumor was that the only thing on the menu under $20 was the dinner mints. Not to mention getting a reservation took six months – if you were lucky.

“I believe that there is a standing reservation that we are using,” Kurt said, smiling at the shocked look on her face. “If it is alright with you, I told Samantha that we would meet her in two hours. That should give you enough time to fret about and figure out something to wear.” Anne’s shocked face twisted to a scowl at Kurt’s humorous tone. A smile broke across the German’s face.

“So, do you have a suggestion, or are you just going to stand there looking pleased with yourself?” Anne asked. Where the hell did that come from? She was supposed to be angry with this man, not bantering with him.

“That gray suit you wore to court two weeks ago would do nicely,” Kurt said. Anne’s jaw hit the floor. “What? I thought that was a lovely outfit.”

“Y’know what? I don’t want to know exactly how close you’ve been keeping me under surveillance,” Anne said, with a resigned tone. She shut the door and went to get ready.

“The reservations are under Hunter,” Kurt said as he pulled up to the door of Barron’s. “I will join you after I park the car.” Anne stepped out and looked up at the building’s dual spires. The restaurant was actually an old cathedral from the pre-Civil War days built to resemble the Notre Dame. An colorful awning covered the area between the street and the restaurant’s entrance. A well-tailored valet escorted Anne to the door and handed her off to the maitre-d. She gave the perfectly styled man the name Hunter. The maitre-d gave a pleasant smile and motioned for Anne to follow him.

What had been a sanctuary was now a wide dining room. Small semi-private alcoves lined the left wall, while the right was dominated by a large and exquisite bar. Even this early in the day, there were a few people drinking exotic-looking cocktails. Tables with rich, dark red tablecloths and elegant place settings were spaced throughout the floor. It was mesmerizing enough that Anne almost missed the maitre-d motioning her to an empty alcove. As she stepped into the box, Anne realized it wasn’t empty. It took everything in her not to yank her pistol from the holster at her side. Arem, the elf from last night, smiled pleasantly from the table.

“Please Detective Hearst, join me. This tea is so much better than anything those Avalonians can manage,” Arem said, motioning to a silver tea service and bone white china cups. His melodious voice seductively tugged at her mind.

“I should just shoot you, but from what I’ve heard, you’re supposed to be dead already,” Anne said, stamping down hard on the feelings Arem was stirring in her. It didn’t help that Arem was model-gorgeous. Long brown hair perfectly framed a long face. Smoldering dark eyes watched Anne with an interest that could be uncomfortable – or exciting.

“The Avalonians had every reason to believe I was dead. After all, they had just detonated a nuclear device,” Arem answered casually, “Please sit down. There is much we have to talk about.”

“What is there to talk about? You tried to abduct me last night,” Anne said. Arem gave her a curious look.

“Is that what Jaegar told you?” Arem asked with just enough subtle hint of injury. “That fool doesn’t understand who and what you are. He just assumes that because my people have an interest in you, that you must be dangerous and killed.”

“You were the one who told him to ‘give me the woman’,” Anne said, making air quotes for that last part, “That sounds like abduction to me.”

“Yes it did,” Arem said, “I do apologize for those words. Jaegar, unfortunately, brings out the worst in me.” The elf took a long sip of the steaming liquid. “His people have taken what belongs to my people and committed horrific atrocities in the course of keeping it from us. It makes what happened to your own Native American people pale in comparison.”

“They were defending themselves from your people,” Anne shot back, not sure why she was defending the Avalonians. After all, hadn’t they been tracking her to kill or snatch her back to across this gate thing?

“When the barrier came down, our armies went forward to claim the lands we won in our war with the Cairen, who also stole it from us,” Arem said, calmly, “We find humans occupying the Kel’tel’Cairen, and because our soldiers look monstrous to them, the humans slaughtered the lead forces. Even after my brethren tried to talk to them, the humans continued to fight. We understand that they were in the Cairen lands against their will. We could’ve made peace. Instead, their king insisted it was their land and that he would kill any of my people that stepped a foot into his territory.”

“That’s an interesting twist of the tale,” Anne said.

“It’s the truth,” Arem said, “I’m not the one who came to this world to kill you. I came here to show you your destiny. To explain exactly who you are and how the balance of our two worlds lie in your hand.” Anne was about to pull her pistol and put two rounds into the elf’s chest. His next words froze her.

“I can tell you the truth about what happened to you and your sister.”

Anne

“I’m fine, Dale. The docs said I might have a light concussion, that’s all,” Anne told her partner as they walked out to his car in the hospital parking lot. Dale Melon shot her a skeptical look. He’d been her partner for the last two years and knew better than to try and convince her to take it easy. That was what captains were for.

“What happened to the guy who picked me up?” Anne asked for the fourth time that morning. The police officers that had been with her at the hospital had been circumspect about Kurt’s whereabouts.

“His story checked out, so we let him go this morning,” Dale said grudgingly. “Can’t you remember anything more about last night?”

“No. If I had, I’d’ve told you the other twenty times you asked last night,” Anne snapped. She took a deep breath. “Look, I’m sorry. I should have told you where I was going last night, but I honestly can’t remember what happened after that SOB clocked me.” Dale’s rugged features softened into a warm smile. She hated lying to Dale, but Anne was sure that he shouldn’t be dragged into last night’s insanity. She was having a hard enough time dealing with what happened. Anne wasn’t sure if Dale would survive.

“I’m just glad you survived. From all the brass we collected, there was one hell of a firefight,” Dale said, driving towards her apartment.

“But no bodies?” Anne asked.

“No bodies, no blood, no DNA,” Dale confirmed, “It’s as bizarre as our murders.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t someone just letting loose with some homemade full autos?” Anne asked, “That would explain why someone would knock me out to prevent me from telling.”

“That’s what we’re telling the public, but Jason doesn’t think so,” Dale answered. Jason McMurtry had been Army CID before joining the department as a homicide detective. From the few conversations Anne had with the intense detective, it was clear he’d investigated more than one nasty battle scenes.

“Any more leads on our murders?” Anne asked.

“Just a setback,” Dale said. “Those DNA samples from the first two crime scenes came back as contaminated. We didn’t get anything.”

“All of them?” Anne asked. “How is that possible?”

“Believe me, CSU is having to answer that question right now,” Dale said, “The field people are saying they followed procedures and the lab screwed up. The lab is saying the field people screwed up the collection. Whatever actually happened, we don’t have anything to run in CODIS. Anyways, you don’t have to worry about that for a few days.”

“Paid administrative leave. Yay,” Anne said flatly.

“You discharged your weapon. That plus your medical means you’re benched,” Dale said. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep you posted if anything breaks.”

“Thanks,” Anne said as he pulled into her apartment complex. Dale put his hand on her arm as she started to get out.

“Listen, try and get some rest. Please? I don’t want to have to explain to your mother why you’re in the hospital. Again,” he said, with a smile to soften the last word. She couldn’t help but return the smile.

“I will. Try that is,” Anne said. He laughed as she shut the door. She didn’t let the scowl cross her face until she was climbing the stairs to her apartment. If this Avalon stuff wasn’t bad enough, she had nothing to find her murderer. To top it all off, she couldn’t do anything. She paused for a moment. She couldn’t do anything officially, but the Avalonians said that they’d help her. Veronica’s little touch had made the doctors see injuries consistent with her cover story. Why couldn’t Veronica’s magic help her figure out who was behind her murderers?

Anne paused at her door. That was odd. Delicious smells were coming from apartment. Since she’d talked to her mom before leaving the hospital, that couldn’t be the source. She very much doubted a robber stopped to make himself breakfast. One of her exes? She doubted that, but odder things had happened. The department had taken both her sidearm and backup for the dockyard investigation. Dale had offered his backup, and now Anne was regretting refusing the pistol. She was about to creep back and call Dale when the door opened.

“It’s about time you got here,” Kurt said, “Your food was about to get cold.” Anne froze in the hallway. She was having a hard time reconciling the tall, blond German’s handsome features with the frilly, pink apron he was wearing over his clothes. “I’m sorry, did I speak in German by accident?”

“Where did you get that?” Anne asked, pointing at the apron.

“This thing?” he asked, in a mock seductive tone, “You had it in your pantry. Now, will you come in?” Anne laughed as Kurt led her into the apartment. It was a comfy one-bedroom affair full of hand-me-down furniture from her grandparents. On the table were four covered dishes and a place setting.

“Where did you get those?” she asked, pointing at the table.

“They were in your pantry, in the back,” Kurt answered, surprised at the question.

“I have covered dishes?” Anne asked as she let Kurt guide her to the table.

“Ja. Although, that would explain why they looked unused,” he answered, with a light tone. As she sat, he uncovered a plate of eggs and bacon followed by another of pancakes that looked like they were used in an advertisement.

“When did you do all of this?” Anne asked.

“Well, after your Freunde from the police were done questioning me, I came here,” he said. “Erik told me when you’d be discharged and so it wasn’t hard to have breakfast waiting for you. I very much doubted you’d have anything to eat at the hospital. Fortunately, you had all of the necessary ingredients in your kitchen.”

“What are you talking about? I haven’t done shopping in ages,” Anne said as she took a bite of the pancakes. Damn, they were good. Then, her police instincts finally made their appearance. “Wait, how did you get in?”

“Detektivin Hearst, I am a trained intelligence operative,” Kurt said, “Do you really think your locks posed that much of a challenge?” His tone was joking, but Anne felt an icy pit in her stomach. Kurt read her expression and his own face grew serious.

“Detektivin, after last night’s events, we needed to make sure that Arem didn’t have someone waiting for you when you came home. Since I was already tasked with watching you, it made sense for me to do so,” Kurt said, “Until this is resolved, you may as well get used to the idea that we will need to periodically sweep and secure your apartment.”

“Until this is resolved? You don’t mean helping me with the murders. You mean until I get dragged to this Avalon,” Anne said quietly. Please don’t let him say it.

“Probably, but that will be Erik’s call,” Kurt said, bluntly. Anne cringed at the words. His blue eyes melted into warm sympathy. “It is horrible when things beyond your control destroy your life. Especially when those things weren’t even known to you. I would change that, but I can’t. So would any of the Avalonians. All I can do is promise to protect you as best as I can and do whatever I can to make your life a little better.” Anne fled from the table into her room.

Damn it all to hell, she wanted to be angry at him. She wanted to scream, and rail, and maybe throw things at him. How dare he look at her with those eyes! Why did he have to be so truthful? Anne yelled a long string of curses at the door. Suddenly exhausted, Anne walked over to her bed and flopped down. Why couldn’t Kurt be more like Erik? From what Anne had seen so far, she was pretty sure she could get a hate on for Erik. Kurt, on the other hand, was confusing all of the instincts built up over a decade spent on the police force. At some point in her rumination, Anne fell asleep.