Natural Consequences (72 page)

“We will handle the mortal aspects of this,” Lorelei assured her, stroking her hair and her shoulders. “Do what you must. Know that we are always here for you.”

“This has you shaken up pretty bad, doesn’t it?” Alex observed.

“People died,” Rachel nodded. “Donald pissed all over his duty and his power and that’s horrible to see, but people died. Hauser may never be the same. And he tried to kill you,” she said to Lorelei. “He wanted to come between all of us.”

“He failed in that,” Lorelei replied. “Go and deal with what you must. Come to us when you can.”

Rachel nodded, hugged them close one more time and then turned to walk away. “Oh,” she said, turning back, “Alex, listen, I don’t want you to freak out or anything, but I kinda got carried away with a moment and sorta put my tongue down Drew’s throat. I mean it’s not like I wanna fuck him or anything, I was just all hyped up and… what?”

Alex buried his face in his hands, and then peeked out toward Lorelei. “Okay, so boundary number one…”

* * *

The helicopter made only a couple of passes before withdrawing, moving on to keep watch over the main entrances to the
park. Its spotlight ran over the building and its immediate surroundings only once before abruptly cutting out. The group watched it from the third floor, occupying a large office not quite as shot up as the one used in the fight.

Alex broke the silence between them. “Am I crazy for feeling responsible for all of this?”

“Yes,” came the unanimous answer.

He expected it from the guys. He didn’t expect it from Lorelei, though, which left him grinning a little in spite of himself. “I’m just saying you guys go through a lot of shit because you’re my friends.”

“Shit happens,” Wade shrugged. “Ain’t like you picked these fights. ‘sides, we all hadda eat Gefilte fish that one time ‘cause we’re Jason’s friends.”

“One time!” Jason protested.

“An’ we’ll never forgive you,” maintained Wade. “Ever.”

“We definitely need a do-over on our birthday this year,” Drew
decided. “We couldn’t have been at that party for even two hours before it went to hell.”

“I’m with you,” Alex said, and then paused. He glanced at Lorelei, who merely raised one curious eyebrow. “Wait, no. I can’t back that up. I
missed most of the party and I didn’t enjoy having a psychotic episode or whatever, but past that I can’t complain about how my night turned out.”

Drew rolled his eyes. “Okay, maybe
you
had a good night, but it sucked ass for Wade and I. We need a do-over.”

“I’m sure something could be arranged,” offered Lorelei. She saw the pair of friends smile, but noted Jason’s glum expression. Her hand reached out to take his. The younger man looked back, nodded in appreciation, but said nothing.

Footsteps broke the silence. They looked toward the door to find Nguyen approaching, her weary face set in a frown. “I hate to say this, but I think you were right about Hauser being controlled somehow, Lorelei,” Nguyen began. “Someone sent messages from our captive vampire’s phone to one of the others relaying our location. No one besides Hauser had access to it. The time stamps add up. I can’t confirm it yet, but it looks like he’s the one who told them where we were.” She looked around the room curiously. “Where’d the other two go?”

“Bathroom break,” Jason grunted. “Down the hall. They’ll be back in a few.”

“Where is Hauser now?” asked Alex.

“Handcuffed to a radiator downstairs. He’s still not in good shape.”

“He may recover with time,” said Lorelei, “but he is clearly the victim of crude and clumsy mental domination. The experience usually inflicts some trauma. He was not ready for the revelations he experienced earlier, either.

“Unfortunately, you and the others will likely forget much of what you saw of that angel and rationalize the rest into terms and images you find more comfortable. Written or recorded accounts will become muddied or vanish, as well. You will remember that Hauser was manipulated. You will not remember the details.”

“So we’re just going to forget Rachel?” Nguyen asked.

“No. Rachel is a special case because of the bond she and I share with Alex. I recommend that you not dwell upon her, though. Heaven keeps its distance for good reasons.”

Nguyen let out a frustrated breath. “That’s gonna make writing these reports a joy. At any rate, local police are cordoning off the area now—hopefully while obeying our orders to stay out and leave this to the Bureau. My bosses have more task force agents rushing out to help clean up this mess, but it’ll be a few hours. We all appreciate you staying around. It looks like we can get you all on your way home shortly.”

“So, that’s it?” Wade asked after the group exchanged a round of glances. “We just go home and call it bygones?”

“That’s how I plan to play it, yes,” Nguyen confirmed. “I’m closing this case as soon as I can. I’ve got concerns and I’ve got questions,” she said, eyeing Lorelei meaningfully, “but in the end, we never had solid cases against you and you weren’t our primary target to begin with. Everything we could reasonably charge you with seems to have been a matter of self-defense. So for the record, I just wanted to say that we’re square here.

“However, I’d love to interview you all on a less adversarial basis,” she continued. “You have experience with supernatural matters that nobody on our task force can match. You might provide a lot of valuable insight for us going forward. That’s not going to happen tonight, though, or tomorrow. We’ll make arrangements, if you’re willing.”

“Seems fair,” Alex shrugged.

“Of the vampires
, the werewolves and some others, I can speak,” said Lorelei, “but my advice on other matters will be sparse at best.”

“Strictly voluntary,” nodded Nguyen. “I’m not talking about subpoenas here.”

“But that’s it, then?” Drew asked. “Just do an interview and it’s cased closed?”

Nguyen pursed her lips. “I need to speak with your other two friends, but they aren’t in any trouble, either. As far as you’re concerned, though? Just the interviews. Nothing more. Move on with your lives and call us if you run into trouble in the future. Maybe we can repay the favor you did us here.”

Drew let out a sigh of relief. Lorelei leaned her head on Alex’s shoulder. Wade sank into a chair.

Jason quietly walked out of the room, his eyes cast down to the floor.

* * *

“I’m sorry I haven’t introduced myself until now. My name is Colleen Nguyen, and it looks like I’m the agent in charge now,” she sighed wearily. Stress and exhaustion showed on her face as easily as all the dirt, but none of it looked likely to put her down soon.

The hallway offered no place to sit, but it beat speaking outside. The three stood under one of the hanging lights. It hardly offered complete privacy, but Agent Nguyen wanted at least a little space from the others for this.

“I’m Onyx,” nodded one of the young women.

“Molly,” said the other. She made a little wave with one hand before folding her arms across her chest once more.

“First off, I wanted to thank you for all of your help here tonight, both with the rescue and hanging around until now. On a less pleasant level, I’m obligated to tell you that this entire incident and everything you know about my task force is one big national security secret. If you tell anyone, by act or omission, you’ll be arrested, tried and probably put in prison. Again, that’s something I have to say. I don’t want to be the bad guy.
We owe you our lives… and that leads me to the real reason I wanted to talk to you.

“You’re obviously talented sorcerers. I’m told that’s the proper term to use in a conversation like this. Anyway, I’ve heard at least a third-hand account of everything you did last month with this crew, and I can see what you’ve done here in this incident. I wanted to ask if you’d be interested in helping us out in the
future?”

Neither of the younger women expected that question. “You want us to join the FBI?” Onyx blinked.

Nguyen shook her head. “No. Well. Not immediately, anyway, but I’m sure the option would be open once you met our recruiting standards. Neither of you have a college degree yet, as far as I know. But like I said, I’m the agent in charge of a very special task force with special rules and resources. I can’t just recruit new agents out of the blue. I can, however, hire outside consultants.”

“You mean the kind you pay money, right?” Molly asked. “Like, paid consultants?”

“Absolutely,” nodded the agent. “You’d have to pass the background check, of course. Do either of you have criminal records? Are you both American citizens?”

The pair snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, we’re good there,” Molly nodded. “What sort of work are we talking about here?”

“I’m not talking about full-time responsibilities, and I don’t want to put you in the line of fire. I’m talking about a case-by-case relationship. It may only come down to providing expert advice. But we pay for that,” she added for Molly’s benefit.

“How much of this has to do with keeping track of us?” Onyx ventured.

“That’s a concern,” the agent shrugged, “but outside of you turning up here to save our asses, I don’t have much to pursue with you two. I plan to wrap up this case and put it to bed. I’d be a lunatic to try to charge any of you with much of anything after all that’s happened. At any rate, it’s too late to keep our task force a secret from you. I’d rather have you on our side. I’m more than willing to show you two that we answer to actual judges and real courts. This might be a big government secret, but it’s also under strict supervision.

“So, what do you say?” asked Nguyen. “Should I give you a call in a couple days?”

Neither Onyx nor Molly needed to look at one another to know the answer, but they shared a grin anyway.

* * *

“I am not drunk! I am not high on some drug! As I have already said, hooligan teenagers hijacked my automobile at gunpoint and left me marooned here! I simply need to return to my lodgings.”

The pair of police officers watched and listened to the protest with skeptical frowns.
The lights of their patrol car offered enough illumination for the gathering, but everything else around them was still dark. “Sir,” said the one called Murray, “I’m gonna ask you again. Reach out with both hands, close your eyes, and touch your nose with your right hand.”

Wentworth stared daggers at the presumptuous mortal, but held his wrath in check. After all he’d been through tonight, he did not need further violence. He
had to find shelter before dawn, and he needed to get far from this scene as quickly as possible. Bad luck put him in the path of these cretins as soon as he’d made it from the Magnuson park property to a major street, but at least the police officers had a vehicle.

Letting out a grumbling breath, Wentworth acquiesced. He touched his nose with one finger. “Are you quite satisfied?” he asked. “Or must I recite the alphabet again?”

“Well, sir, I’m satisfied that you aren’t drunk,” Officer Murray shrugged.

“Excellent. Now
take me to my lodgings downtown
,” he urged, staring deeply into the officer’s eyes.

Murray blinked. He shook his head a bit, looking toward his partner. “Yeah,” he murmured, “I think we can give you a ride.”

“Thank you,” huffed the vampire. He tugged his filthy and disheveled shirt into place.

“Kevin?” asked the other officer.

“We can take him downtown, right, Tyrone?” Kevin Murray shrugged.

“Well,” frowned Officer Johnson, “we need to pat you down before we put you into our car. Put your hands on the roof of the car, please.”

“I—wait, what?” blinked Wentworth. “You already checked me for weapons! I’ll not submit to another such search!
Take me to my lodgings downtown
,” he urged the other officer, employing a similar stare.

“Yes sir, we’ll be happy to,” Murray told him. Now behind Wentworth, he took hold of the vampire’s shoulders and pushed him into the side of the car.

“Now, see here—!” Wentworth protested, but his words fell on deaf ears. The pair worked together seamlessly, overcoming his great strength through teamwork, leverage and swiftness as they each took hold of an arm and swept one of his legs out from under him. His knees landed painfully on the pavement. Before he knew it, Wentworth was in handcuffs.

“Shit,” grunted Murray, “this dude’s really strong.”

“Double-cuff him,” said Johnson. “Grab mine. We’ll get his ankles, too.”

* * *

They left shortly before dawn with little in the way of fond farewells. Nguyen offered a lift to Lorelei and Molly’s cars, which lay across the many acres of parkland and through the police cordon. It seemed the only decent thing to do.

Alex and the others followed Lanier out to a minivan in the parking lot. Not too far away, Bridger and Amber worked to photograph all the remains from Rachel’s battle with the werewolves. Amber looked up only once. Alex thought she made eye contact with Jason, but then she turned her back on the group. Jason kept walking, though his head bowed somewhat. Alex thought to pat him on the back or something, but it seemed patronizing.