Brody straightened, tapping into his senses—which were stronger than mine. “Nice! That’s Sarge’s car.”
Grove grabbed the strap of his satchel, yanking it so it rested against his thigh where he could rummage around in it, which made the sneezing brownie cower in terror. “How can you be so happy-go-lucky when you were late to sense something that should have been easy for you?”
“Because the first person who heard it was Blood,” Brody said, as if that explained it.
It didn’t.
It was just another example of the team’s respect for me, which was frankly much higher than I deserved.
I think they mean it as a compliment, but it’s starting to get uncomfortable. I’m not infallible, and if they fight believing that I am, eventually it will end badly.
Maybe that was a point I could argue in my paper for Sarge. Maybe he wouldn’t be so upset about me taking risky moves if he understood I had to for the good of the group?
Sarge’s car—a much larger SUV—rolled down the street. It was dark enough that it still needed to have its lights on, which cast beams across the park as Sarge pulled into one of the parking spots on the street.
The engine cut, and Sarge and Clarence got out. Sarge raised his hand to acknowledge us as he crossed the park’s lawn—which was covered with dusty frost—and Clarence skulked along in his shadow. The poor guy was probably starting to get nervous with dawn being so close.
“Medium-Sized Robert is coming with the truck to transport the troll.” Sarge’s silvery eyes seemed to shine in the low light of dawn. “They’re not all cuffed?”
“We didn’t carry enough pairs,” April said.
“Our car has some—including an extra-large pair for the troll and hobbles for the centaur,” I volunteered. “But it didn’t seem wise to separate until backup.”
Sarge nodded his approval. “Good. But with Clarence here, crowd control will be easier.” Sarge set a hand on Clarence’s shoulder. The squat vampire had been uncomfortably tugging on his cravat—today’s was a dark blue that matched our uniform, with black accents—and squeaked at the contact.
Interesting…Clarence must be good at using vampire pheromones.
I didn’t work with Clarence much—my existence terrified him at the best of times—so I hadn’t gotten to see him use his skills very much.
Sarge ignored Clarence’s squeak. “One of you should return to your car to get enough cuffs for them.”
Brody turned around. “Not me,” he said.
April frowned. “Why not?”
He folded his arms across his chest. “We had to park a ways back to avoid detection, and I don’t feel like a morning sprint after this fight.”
“You’re a werewolf,” Grove said. “You’re built for stamina.”
“Don’t wanna,” Brody said.
The more time we spend discussing this, the more time the fae have to recover while we still haven’t gotten the cuffs.
“I’ll go.” I double checked that I’d secured all my weapons.
“Here, Blood.” April tossed the car keys at me.
I caught them with my left hand.
“Pull the car around to the street,” Sarge said. “It will make loading them easier.”
“Understood.” I saluted Sarge—who nodded at me without looking away from the pile of disagreeable, groaning (and in the brownie’s case, sneezing) fae.
Instead of following one of the paved paths through the park, I stuck to the shadowy patches—there were plenty as the sun still hadn’t peeked above the horizon. (Staying to a set path was more predictable, and thus dangerous. Which probably wasn’t necessary to think of right now, but I preferred to follow my slayer training to stay sharp.)
The trees were starting to shed their fall colors, leaving piles of crimson-orange, deep red, and brilliant yellow leaves on the frosted park lawn. I had to bat away a few falling leaves that nearly smacked my face as I jogged along, avoiding stepping on any crunchy leaves.
When I reached the end of the park I had to follow the sidewalk, trotting two blocks down and following a street that edged the northern border of one of the lakes.
I reached the car and was just about to press the key fob to unlock it when I caught sight of a clump of people farther up the road.
They were standing on a small bridge, where a tiny tributary river—which was closer to a stream—dumped into the lake.
I frowned, watching them walk up and down the bridge.
I was pretty sure they were humans—I didn’t sense any magic—but they were wearing black beanies pulled down low and puffy winter coats.
It’s weird. And it doesn’t seem quite right.
Split between the gut instinct that screamed at me to investigate the issue, and an equally powerful gut instinct that said I needed to get the cuffs and get back to the team, I gritted my teeth.
Sarge would be upset about me investigating this by myself. I better get the cuffs, move the car, and secure the fae. Then I can ask for backup.
I touched the driver’s door handle, and the car beeped as it unlocked.
This didn’t bother the figures on the bridge, so I was probably just overreacting and it was totally innocent.
I shook my head as I slid into the car and turned it on—even the purr of the engine didn’t bother the people on the bridge, so I probably was paranoid.
I’ll still tell Sarge, just in case, but he’s probably going to dismiss it.
I buckled my seatbelt, then shifted the car into drive and started down the street. It was so cold my breath turned into snowy puffs even inside the car. I paused at a stop sign to adjust the rearview mirror, then rolled on when I confirmed there was no traffic—it seemed like all the humans were still warm and cozy in their homes and hadn’t yet started leaving for work or school.
I really love this job.
I blinked in surprise at the sudden thought, but it resonated deep in my heart.
I really did love my job—even if my teammate’s confidence in me made me nervous.
The work really mattered, and while I had no qualms in putting down threats, there was something about being a defender, about protecting the city, that I enjoyed so much more than my typical family work.
I was happy. Happy with my job, happy with the few—but special—friendships I’d managed to make.
Getting to this point had involved a lot of nail-biting, and lonely moments, but I could feel it in my blood: Magiford was where I belonged.
The following evening, I arrived at the Curia Cloisters in a good mood. I’d gotten some work done on my paper in the afternoon, and then hung out with Connor for an hour. I’d even had time to make one of my favorite fruit smoothies, which tasted like pineapple ice cream!
I waved hello to Emi as I passed through the Cloister’s main chamber—which was crowded with day and nocturnal supernaturals at this hour—and slipped into the employees only lounge, taking the door to the hallway that would lead me to the task force department’s area.
When I entered the locker room I found Sunshine, sitting on the bench in front of my locker, doing the crossword puzzle in the Magiford newspaper printed by humans.