* * *
The scorching hot sun beat down on my skin.
Lanore held my waist as we rode on my motorcycle, tailing the drug supplier through Shango District. Nona and Ray hung back in the van.
Orange-bricked buildings rushed past us. Flaming pots topped every light pole for the upcoming Fire festival. The district flooded with the aroma of cooked honey cakes and roasted ram meat.
I wished Lanore and I were on a date instead of a mission.
Every few seconds, her fingers would touch one of the gems embedded in my back. Like my cords, the diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and amethyst in my skin contained a lot of magic. They formed a massive wing pattern that spread across my back and soared to my shoulders.
Supes thought the cords and gemmed wings were all skin decorations, something to show off. It was why I’d bought an old tattoo and piercing shop, rebuilt it with fairy magic, and named it the Inked Guerilla. I hired a Were-hyena named Quinn to be the manager and head body artist so I didn’t have to mess with it.
Apparently the shop got lots of business, not that I cared. I had enough money to be comfortable until an old age.
No. Inked Guerilla’s main purpose was to serve as headquarters to MFE and give Rebel Shifters a place to enjoy, where they wouldn’t be judged for their furry skin and crazy rebellious styles.
“I should get something cool like this done.” She brushed her hands against the tip of my gemmed wings. A lusty tingling hit where she was touching.
I bit down on my tongue so I wouldn’t moan, tasting blood.
The rusty yellow truck moseyed down the road, spitting out black smoke every couple of blocks. We’d been following the truck all day as it dropped off drugs to dealers throughout Oya and Shango District. The truck’s bed was now empty. Hopefully, these guys would lead us to the head honcho.
“What type of pattern do you want in your skin?” I asked as we turned the corner.
“A small lily under my navel.”
I gripped the handles hard. “I’d do that for you, free of charge.”
First, I’ll have to learn how to do it, but it’ll be worth it.
“I was going to have Quinn do it,” she said
“Well, if Quinn is busy.” And she will be. “I would love to do it for you.”
And so much more.
Lanore cleared her throat. “I’ll have to think about that.”
“Are you nervous to have my fingers down there?” I licked my lips, glad she couldn’t see me.
She didn’t say anything.
I laughed. “Well, you should be.”
She pinched my side. “Just focus on the truck.”
It turned on Ram Road, stopped at a dead end, and parked.
I pulled up behind several parked cars in front of a red and gold house. It gave us a good view without giving away our position.
They sat in the car for about ten minutes.
I glanced behind Lanore. “What do you think they’re waiting on?”
“Maybe they’re—”
The two Mixbreeds got out of the car. They wore black jeans and dark shirts. Both had brown hair that peeked out of their black hats. The driver glanced around a few times, pulled out a gray phone, and said something into it. The other Mixie arrived, carrying two big flashlights.
The guy with the phone lifted the sewer cap, looked around some more, and then disappeared into the hole. The second walked up to it.
Lanore jumped off the motorcycle.
I grabbed her arm. “No. I said I would investigate and you would—”
“What? Make pancakes and clean the house?” She twisted out of my grip. “Come on, before the cap closes.”
“Damn it,” I muttered under my breath and signaled for Ray and Nona to come out of the van.
It was daylight. A sewer would be the perfect place for homeless Vampires and Goblins to sleep the sun away.
Lanore began doing some sort of half-back-bended-jog toward the guys as she hid behind parked cars. I dashed toward her in seconds, unhappy. Now I would be worried about her and myself as I checked out the sewer. Not to mention the fact that we didn’t know where the fuck we were going or what was down there.
The last guy jumped in.
I dove toward it, putting my foot between the cap and pavement to prevent it from closing. Lanore and Nona ran up behind me.
“Hey man,” the Mixbreed said, hanging on a ladder. “This is a personal hole.”
“Nona,” I called.
Nona grabbed him by the shoulders in one swoop, lifted him out of the hole, and slung him across the street. His body crashed into a parked car, setting off the alarm. Broken glass shot into the air as a boom thundered. A transparent blue bubble formed around the entire car, swirling with mystic liquid.
I almost laughed at the car’s old security magic system. Almost no one used it anymore.
Nona leaped into the air. Her green body suit ripped apart as fur and muscle pushed through. Her jaw stretched and elongated into a snout. Claws tore out of her fingers.
Her clawed paws burst the security-spelled bubble. She landed on the car and the guy in Were-dog form, resembling a massive pitbull. The car crashed into itself under her weight. The tires shot out and flattened.
“No. Wait a minute. Who?” the Mixie babbled as Nona hovered over him.
I glanced back at the sewer hole. Lanore was gone. My hands still held the rim.
“Damn it,” I peered down into the tunnel.
A fire blazed up for a few seconds, and then there was nothing but steam.
I yelled, “Lanore!”
I got into the sewer, hooking my hands on the ladder rungs. The blistering metal seared my fingers, but I continued down the ladder into the hot air and steam.
I’m going to kill her for going in here without me.
It took no time to get to the bottom.
My boots sunk into a muddy floor. Murky sewage flowed in a stream on my right, radiating a putrid blend of garbage and bodily waste.
The sewer would have been pitch dark if not for the burning husk of a man that sat at my boots’ tips.
Was this the Mixbreed that went into the tunnel?
I studied the man’s damaged face. Blood bubbled around an X brand. Some of his unmelted clothes looked black, but then, the fire could have done that. Flames spread over him and trailed into a tunnel.
“Lanore!” I roared and raced down the burning tunnel, stepping on cracked flashlight pieces.
She bumped into me, coming out of the shadows, and I immediately seized her.
“Stop yelling,” she whispered and pulled me into a dark, tight corner.
“Stop yelling? You just jumped down here without—”
She shushed me and turned around, pressing her behind into me as she peeked around the corner.
A lusty heat burst at my loins as if I was a horny teenage Shifter going through my Season.
I put my hands to her waist, rubbing the lush skin under her shirt and enjoying the pressure of her curves. “Damn you. I can’t even concentrate.”
She stood up and smacked my hands away. “You better concentrate. There are several Vamps down the tunnel. Some of them look homeless, but the others are wearing suits and guarding the front of a door.”
“It’s daytime. They’ll be slow and weak.” I released her waist and peeked around, spotting the Vampires she was talking about.
“How do you want to do this?” I asked. “Since you’re clearly going to do whatever you want?”
She turned to me. Her lips formed into a smile. “I could probably take care of the Vamps, and you go into the room.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“What?” she asked.
“Did you do that to the Mixbreed by the sewer opening? Set him on fire.”
“Yes.”
I nodded. “I’m impressed, but I don’t want you fighting Vampires, even slow ones.”
We heard movement behind us. Nona trotted up in animal form.
“Ray got the Mixie on the car?” I asked.
The dog moved her snout up and down.
“Get those Vampires over there.”
Nona charged forward and leaped for the first Vampire. He’d only moved one inch by the time her fangs pierced his tough flesh. Blood sprayed all over Lanore and me.
Lanore wiped her face.
I pushed claws out of my fingers and darted for the other Vampire as he slowly moved like an enchanted statue.
He went up in flames before I could touch him.
Did Lanore do that?
My heart stopped beating. I halted in mid-movement, searching the tunnel for others.
Lanore strolled up behind me, grinning.
So she definitely has some sort of fire power.
I wondered how it worked, but I wouldn’t ask. Most Mixbreeds’ survival depended on keeping their powers secret and using them during attacks.
Rat corpses surrounded four homeless Vampires lounging in the tunnel. A few lay on cardboard beds piled with tattered clothes. They looked up at us, and then averted their eyes.
“We aren’t here to bother you,” Lanore assured them.
It was difficult for Vampires to talk or move during the day, which is probably why they remained stiff and just followed us with their eyes.
I opened the double doors, surprised there wasn’t a lock or more secure system than day-comatose Vampires. Maybe the fact that the supply was in a sewer gave the owners a false sense of security.
I snatched the door open. The odor of brimstone hit me first.
Lanore wheezed, immediately covered her face, and appeared as if she was going to gag. She coughed several times and backed up. I rushed over to her, but she waved me away.
“Are you allergic to brimstone?” I asked.
“Mind your business.” She lifted the top of her shirt over her nose and continued into the room.
Interesting.
There were only a few species that had allergic reactions to brimstone. I’d have to look them up to figure out what Lanore was mixed with.
I stepped into the area.
It resembled an old utility room. Dust and spider webs hung on the metal walls. Dingy ceiling lights dangled above four glass tables that sat in the middle of the room. Each table had five goblins focused on their tasks. None of them looked up at us, probably used to only authorized personnel coming in. Their green, scaled fingers separated crimson powder.
It was Vampire blood. It formed into powder once removed from the Vampire’s body and was one of the main ingredients in the drug Hemo Drop.
The Goblins at the end of each table poured all three powders into pots that held a brown liquid.
Lanore dropped her shirt and whispered to me, “We should probably tell them they’re out of work.”
“I have other plans,” I groaned.
She glared. “We are not killing them. They’re just Goblins trying to make some extra cash.”
A cracking sound came from my left. Nona shifted back into human form. “Me think your breeder is right. Them no mean any wrong.”
“Who is the breeder?” Lanore coughed some more and rubbed her eyes.
I ignored Lanore’s question and said, “I think we should make an example of them.”
“You kill anyone in this room, and you’ll get the same fate that Mixie got at the end of the ladder.” Lanore rubbed her eyes again.
I smirked at her and her little threat.
We’re perfect for each other.
“Nona, can you handle getting the Goblins out?” Lanore sucked her teeth at me.
“Yeah, mon.” Nona stomped over to the Goblins, tapping on their shoulders.
Piles of glittery blue and yellow powder lay in the center of each table.
“Where is the brimstone coming from,” I asked.
“It’s the brown liquid in the pots.” Lanore pointed to them. “They’re using brimstone to bind the Vamp blood to the Pixie poop.”
“Pixie Poop?”
“Yep, that’s the secret ingredient. Freeze-dried Pixie poop. A bunch of college students from the Christianity habitat invented it.”
“At least they didn’t waste their education,” I said dryly.
I shook my head and watched one of the Goblins grabbed a dropper, stuck it in the boiling pot, and then released red drops onto a silver tray.
“We’ll have to figure out a way to destroy the drugs.” Lanore backed up a little more.
Red shaded the whites of her eyes. She blinked them several times and coughed again. She added, “If we burn the place up, the fumes will get all of Shango District high.”
Nona rounded up the Goblins. Each one jerked a little in surprise and then waddled to the wall where she had others lined up. They couldn’t come out during the day. The sun burned their skin. We would have to let them stay down here for now.
They’ll tell whoever owns this place we destroyed the drugs.
A grin formed on my face.
Good.
Lanore had now retreated to the doorway. “It must be over $100,000 worth of drugs in this room.”
“Ray will consume it all.” I walked around, looking under the table and at the walls. “He’s on look out and garbage duty.”
“I don’t understand,” she said. “He’s such a little guy.”
“Trust me. He’ll lick the room clean within minutes.”
“Won’t that get him high?” she asked with concern in her voice.
“His metabolism is too high,” I replied, not willing to give her the real reason, which was that Ray was too big of a monster to get high off such a small amount.
The whites of her eyes were now dark red. She seemed as if she had difficulty swallowing.
So stubborn. She wants to make sure it’s done to her liking even if she passes out.
She stepped back in the room, covering her nose, and peered down at the tiny Goblins, waving her hand in front of their faces.
They stared beyond her with blue glowing eyes.
“They’re all spelled.” She touched one of their necks and examined the bronze amulets hanging from bands of leather. “This has a letter B on it. This one is probably owned by a Vamp family since they love to tag their property with bronze labels.”
She dropped the amulet and checked the other chains. “Another B, two P’s, and several O’s. I’m sure the O is for the Ortiz Vamp family.”
“Nona, grab all of the chains off their necks.”
“Why?” Lanore asked, pulling the shirt back over her nose.
“I have a habbie that could check for fingerprints.”
“Can I take them to my Air Witch first? There may be some spell residue on them. Then we’d have residue and fingerprints to make a stronger case.”
“For who?”
“The habbies.”
There won’t be a trial for these drug mongers.
Nona chuckled. “Your breeder is funny.”
“I’m not his breeder.” She gazed at Nona.
“Nona, have your Rebels check other sewer systems throughout Santeria. I’m sure we can find more drugs to destroy,” I said. “Make sure the Rebels know they’ll be compensated.”
“We still don’t know who’s in control of the drugs,” Lanore said. “Vamps are just my first guess.”
“Leave my business card, the ones without the location spells, on the door.” I stepped in her way. “Maybe these guys will be so pissed they’ll come to us.”
“Definitely much better than the blood message.” Lanore smiled.
“Let’s go,” I said. “You’re dying in here and Ray doesn’t like an audience when he eats. He’ll be down here soon.”
She left the room, staring back at the Goblins every few steps.