Author: Derek

Anne

The new uniform felt odd. Her original dress blues had been destroyed when her apartment exploded. She was used to them, to the feel of the fabric, and the weight of the metal of her badge and awards. The one she was wearing had been provided to her by Lady Maritza (and how odd that Anne as coming to think of the woman as Lady Maritza instead of Mrs. Hope). The new uniform fit better and made of better materials. It was smooth and flowed easily around her. Most importantly to the people standing a few yards behind her, it had some subtle magic woven into it that would protect her. Still, Anne missed her old one, which pretty much summed up the entirety of her experiences in the last week. She lost most of her old life violently, gained a new one that was in many ways better, and yearned for the old one.

Anne felt Kurt’s strong hand grip her gloved one and gently squeeze. Of the Avalonians, only Kurt and Samantha had come with her to the funeral. The others were getting her new home ready. Their new home, really. Lady Maritza had turned over an old hotel as their new home. The rooms had been converted to six large suites, but there was a communal kitchen, dining room, and day room. From what Lady Maritza explained, it had been a concept built to take advantage of the gentrification of the Riverside district.

The gun salute startled Anne. Then people were coming up to her. Most in uniform, but some civilians that knew Dale and her. She held up stoically until Dale’s parents finally made their way to her. Dale’s dad had been an old-time beat cop. He gave Anne a sad, knowing look. His mom, on the other hand, glared at Anne. The small, stout woman didn’t say anything, but it was clear that she blamed Anne for not saving her son. Worse, Anne was here with a date. Dale’s dad gave her an apologetic look as he ushered his wife back to their car. Kurt gently guided Anne away from the crowd. He scanned their area and gave her a small nod. Anne let the last of her facade crumble as tears streamed down her face. Without thinking, she grabbed Kurt, desperate for comforting arms, which he gave without hesitation. She looked up into his warm blue eyes.

“Look Kurt, I know–” she started before he placed a finger across her lips.

“Anne, I am not going anywhere,” Kurt said, “We have time for you to come to grips with what has happened and then decide what will happen in the future. Right now, I am willing to be whatever you need.”

“I don’t know what I need,” Anne said, softly.

“Then, I will patiently wait until you decide,” Kurt said, wrapping her in another warm embrace. Maybe this was all she needed right now. The future could wait until tomorrow.

Erik

Erik Jaegar stood in Lady Maritza’s office waiting for his new superior to get done with her petty psych games. He had enough to do without pausing to let the woman indulge in their new relationship. He could feel the waves of smug satisfaction coming off Lady Maritza as she pretended to be perusing a folder of reports.

“The Americans are complaining about your actions,” Lady Maritza finally said, laying down the folder, “Particularly your failure to keep them in the loop, but also little things like using fully automatic weapons in firefights on their soil.”

“Nothing we used was traceable back to us,” Erik said, ignoring Lady Maritza’s tone. “For a nation that professes such love of private ownership of firearms, they are very touchy lot. They don’t even let their civilians have automatic weapons. Kurt had to smuggle those up from Mexico.”

“They don’t have the fae showing up in their cities on a regular basis,” Lady Maritza retorted, “I know you are used to the Saint’s benevolent neglect style of leadership. I run my office in a very different manner. You will conduct no actions beyond the protection of Anne Hearst without my explicit orders, is that clear?”

“That is very limiting, especially in light of Detective Hearst’s career and her other protector,” Erik replied, sounding almost bored.

“I don’t care. I am not having another Commandante Affair on my watch,” Lady Maritza said, with a cold authority, “You have a direct line to me. If something is happening that may require you to exceed your current orders, I expect you to call, and I will give it due consideration. Do you understand me?” Erik suppressed the sigh and nodded. This was why he hated working with normal Imperial Security. Too much micromanagement. Lady Maritza looked back down at her folder.

“She’s coming into town in a few months,” Lady Maritza said, holding up a sheet of paper.

“I saw,” Erik said.

“You are not to have any contact with her,” Lady Maritza warned, “She is not to even suspect your presence.”

“This may come as a shock to you, my lady, but I actually do know how to run a covert operation,” Erik said, his patience finally breaking, “Oh don’t look so affronted. You’re not nearly as offended by my tone as you are pretending to be. We both know that each of us can’t stand the other, but we’re stuck with each other for the foreseeable future. Believe me, there’s nothing you can do that’s any worse than what’s happened in the past six months. I will follow orders and play the dutiful Whiteguard officer when others are around, but let’s not lie to each other in private.” Lady Maritza clamped down on her anger. Her face was neutral for a long moment. Finally, Erik felt her come to a decision.

“I think we have an understanding Jaegar,” Lady Maritza said, with a sneer, “You disgusting little half-breed.”

“The difference between you and me, my lady, is what part of my parentage we think is the detriment,” Erik said before smartly turning about and striding out of the office.

Anne

“She’s coming around,” Samantha said, “Get the others.” Anne cracked her eyes open and saw the pretty brunette’s smiling face beaming over her. “Easy Anne, you’ve had a rough time of it.” Anne looked around. She was in a hospital bed, but the room around her didn’t look like a hospital room. It looked more like one of those bedrooms you saw in mansions. Next to her, Veronica was in a similar bed. The small, dark woman frowned at Anne.

“Where are we? What happened?” Anne asked as a flood of images rushed through her head. On top of that, Anne ached everywhere.

“You almost killed us is what happened,” Veronica said harshly.

“That will be enough, Ms. Patel,” Lady Maritza said, walking into the room. Erik, Jason, and Kurt followed Lady Maritza into the room. “If Detective Hearst hadn’t acted, she would now be in the hands of the Dark Towers and all of you would be dead.” Lady Maritza turned to Anne. “As to where you are, currently you are in one of my guest homes that we use for friends who are recuperating from surgeries. All the amenities of home and all the functionality of a hospital.”

“How did we get here?” Anne asked, bewildered.

“That big of a magical explosion could be seen for miles by the right people,” Lady Maritza said, “My men were in that hellhole in less than twenty minutes after you set that spell off.”

“Veronica and you were still out from the feedback, so Lady Maritza had the two of you brought here while we cleaned up the site,” Samantha explained. She handed Anne a cup of water. “Here, you’re thirsty.” Anne sipped greedily.

“Cleaned up the site?” Anne asked.

“Made the warehouse conform to the narrative we needed,” Jason said. “Fortunately, the Avalonians are pretty good about doing that.”

“How do you know about the Avalonians? Are you a spy?” Anne asked. Jason laughed.

“Not exactly. Or more to the point, not how you’re thinking,” Jason answered. He handed her a badge. “Agent Jason McMurtry, Homeland Security. I’m part of the federal task force in charge of monitoring the Avalonians and other supernatural forces on Earth. Mainly the Avalonians.”

“You’re a fed?” Anne asked, incredulously.

“Recruited right out of the Army,” he said.

“So you were a spy!” Anne said.

“Well, sort of,” Jason said, “The task force sent me in to find out why the werewolves were in the city. Since homicide usually ends up cleaning their messes, it made sense for me to be ‘undercover’ as a homicide cop. I just couldn’t figure out how you fit into all of this, much less why there was an Avalonian covert team operating.”

“So now you get to go back to being a fed,” Anne said. She could intellectually understand the reasons for Jason being undercover, but Anne still felt betrayed by someone she thought was a friend.

“Actually,” Jason said, and then looked over to Erik.

“Look down at your chest, Anne,” Erik said. Surprised, Anne looked under the hospital gown. A brilliant scar was burned between her breasts. It was just about the size of the knot Arem had placed on her.

“What is that?” Anne said, suddenly scared. What had happened to her?

“You burned that tracking spell into you,” Veronica said, “I don’t even know how to reverse that kind etching.”

“So what does that mean?” Anne asked.

“What it means is that our mission has changed,” Erik said, “We can’t take you to Avalon. The moment you crossed the gate, you’d be transported to the Dark Towers. So, now my team needs to keep you safe on this side of the gate.”

“Which is why they’ve been transferred to my control,” Lady Maritza said, with the tiniest hint of smugness as she looked at Erik. “Your case also has transferred to my responsibility.”

“And since the U.S. government has a vested interest in making sure one of its citizens isn’t pulled into Avalon against her will, I’ve been assigned to your protective detail as well,” Jason said, handing Anne a piece of paper. She recognized it as a departmental memo. “As of now, I’m your new partner. Of course, just like with the Avalonians, you can’t tell anyone else in the precinct about me being Homeland Security.”

“What about Dale? Is he?” Anne asked, hoping against hope she was wrong.

“Detective Dale Melon was unfortunately killed in the line of duty while apprehending the six members of a cult that had murdered three people in rituals and murdered a fourth while trying to murder the lead homicide detective,” Erik said, with a cool detachment. “Or at least, that’s what the rest of the world will know.” Grief, rage, and fear warred inside Anne.

“What bout the werewolves?” Anne said, then turning to Veronica with her rage bubbling up. “And I thought you said there were no werewolves.”

“She didn’t know,” Erik said, “We’ve never encountered them, and had relegated them to myth. All of Avalon thought that they were myths.”

“But Jason knew. He had silver ammunition,” Anne said. “How could he know and you not. Don’t you secret agents talk to each other about monsters?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Erik said, “The Americans thought we knew and didn’t bother to inform us. We never knew the possibility existed, and never asked.”

“So Dale died because of a stupid mistake?” Anne yelled at the others. All except for Erik refused to meet her eyes. His steady gaze met hers.

“Yes,” Erik answered, calmly, “Your friend died because of a simple oversight. It happens. It’s never easy. It’s never a good thing, but it happens. Your friend was not the first to die because of something like this, and he won’t be the last. It’s part of the world we live in. The best we can do is try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Anne wasn’t sure if she wanted to punch Erik, scream at him, or just sink back into grief. He took the choice out of her hands.

“We’ll leave you alone to finish recovering. You’ll be out of here this afternoon,” Erik said, “Dale’s funeral is tomorrow afternoon. We will be escorting you there. We’ve secured some temporary quarters for you until your permanent housing is completed. Samantha will come get you later to escort you.” He motioned everyone out of the room, leaving Veronica and Anne alone in the room.

“There’s something else, Anne,” Veronica said, her voice neutral, “When we get out of here, you and I will start on teaching you magic. I don’t know how you are suddenly able to cast, but you need to learn how to control your ability.”

“Why are you so angry with me?” Anne asked, “I was trying to keep you from being killed.”

“You have no idea what you just did,” Veronica said.

“I almost got us killed,” Anne shot back, “You’ve been saying that since I woke up here. Well, I’m sorry. I did what I could to stop Arem and save us.”

“You don’t understand what happened,” Veronica said, “You opened a magic vortex. You ripped the wild magic right out of those werewolves, leaving only their human part behind. You snapped the very strings of magic. No human has that level of magic power. I don’t know what you are, but it scares me.”

“So why teach me and not just tell Erik to kill me?” Anne asked bitterly.

“I don’t just kill something or someone because I don’t understand it or them,” Veronica said, “You work magic, you deal with a lot of things that scare you. It’s part of the game. What I’m trying to figure out if what you can do is linked to why Arem wants you so badly, and if you’re a threat to my home. In the meantime, I want to make sure you don’t kill my friends or anyone else by accident. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. Let’s get some sleep before Samantha comes gets us.” With that, Veronica turned over and pretended to sleep. Anne laid down and thought about what Veronica said.