EPISODE 1 

NO REST FOR THE WICKED! 

After taking a moment to admire the deep red liquid filling my glass, I quit messing around and took a swig. Okay, so I took a few, but I had plenty, it was more fishbowl than wine glass.  

The buzz it gave me drowned out the annoying sound of my phone, which was currently dancing across the kitchen counter since I’d clearly switched it to vibrate instead of silent.  

“Kate?”  

I ignored that too, and the knock preceding it. It took all my energy, depleted though it was after a twenty-four-hour shift, but I succeeded in finding my zone. If I’d had a goddamn second to myself, I would have added a do not disturb sign to the door, though it could be argued if someone made it through all the deterrents, they deserved my attention.  

“I know you’re in there. Let me in, Kate, it’s important.”  

Taking another swig, the starting count of finding my calm, I walked towards the front door. It didn’t help. By the time I reached it I was seeing red, and it had nothing to do with wine.  

“Do you know the last time I had any sleep?” I snapped by way of greeting. “Sunday. Do you know what day it is today? Wednesday. I deserve a break, Danny, so unless-”  

“Cool it, Labno, and take a breath. Aren’t you supposed to know how to meditate or something,” my partner, Dan Carter muttered, pushing into the house without waiting for an invitation. “And pour me one of those,” he said, indicating the glass. “I deserve it after navigating the minefield to your door.”  

I couldn’t stop the smirk at the thought of Dan trying to figure out where the new booby traps were. I hadn’t planted a literal minefield, but the path to my door was dangerous to certain trespassers. The kind who’d stepped right out of a nightmare and declared war.  

“I’m not the one who needs to share. Tell me why you’re here.” I said this on the move, still amused I’d put my partner through his paces. He was right. He deserved a little fortification for the return trip. A small glass, at least.  

“It’s about the Miller case, and you may want to sit down.”  

More like lie in a cool, dark room.  

To give myself time to prepare for whatever crap my partner wanted to fill my brain with, I poured him a glass of wine.  

It’s not that I dislike my job, becoming a detective was a childhood dream, but the landscape looks a lot different since the world turned to hell, or more accurately, hell tried to take over the world.  

I remember watching horror movies as a kid, comforted, despite my fear, that the monsters on screen were merely a figment of somebody’s imagination. Bringing those monsters to life was a matter of effects and creative genius. They weren’t real. They didn’t live next door, hiding out until it was time to show their true face.  

Yet now I work within a police force with a culture so diverse it includes officers, not only from different species, but different worlds.  

Handing the glass to Dan, I shrugged my shoulders and squared my stance, like a boxer waiting to kick ass. “Hit me with it!”  

He didn’t delay. “Mrs Miller took matters into her own hands, and she found more than she bargained for.”  

An image of Sahara Miller popped into my brain, a tall willowy woman with white hair she wore long and loose.  

I’d first noticed her as I was walking out of the station at the end of a shift. She’d been chatting to one of the duty officers, Lundy. I approached without thinking, drawn to her, but on the heels of curiosity came irritation. This time it was aimed at the buffoon, also known as my co-worker. And, sure, he might not have been part of the specialist unit, but it was hard to miss the significance of Sahara’s presence. Lundy was questioning her, but he wasn’t taking the report seriously.  

It took me seconds to realise he was too focused on the surface, a judgement he had made that likely stemmed from her appearance. She wore a long black dress, which she had accentuated with a stark fascinator. It covered part of her left eye and made her appear like a woman in mourning. It could have been any number of things, the way she clutched at a long velvet glove like a transitional object, or her quiet agitation. Whatever had triggered his unconscious bias, it meant he missed the important stuff. The details that really mattered.  

I hadn’t missed it, and neither had Dan, so we had opened a case, investigated her concerns about her neighbour’s activities, and were in the process of getting a search warrant.   

Of course, the system has changed a great deal. It tends to do that after war, and even though the bad guys lost – thanks to some pretty hefty players on our side – the judiciary system took a hit. Obviously, Sahara was tired of waiting.  

“Please tell me we won’t be visiting the morgue.” If Sahara’s neighbour was as rotten as she suspected, the danger was real.  

“Don’t underestimate her. She might be a gargoyle and genetically opposed to violence, but she can protect herself,” Dan said, swirling the wine in his glass. “Besides, she didn’t confront her neighbours, she knocked a giant hole in her bedroom wall, and she didn’t find cannabis.”  

This time, the image of a gargoyle, sitting atop a gothic-looking structure with short stubby wings and a spliff hanging from thin, grey lips popped into my brain. Okay, fine, so now my unconscious bias was showing, but I’d had a day.  

The jibe about the cannabis was directed at me. Sahara’s concerns began with a suspicious aroma that started in the hallway and ended in her bedroom. All the hot spots had one thing in common, they were part of the adjoining wall. It permeated the air, such a distinct odour I’d mistaken it for weed.   

“She found bodies.”  

I tuned back in at those words, my feet moving before my mouth engaged. I reached for the glass Dan was tipping towards his mouth and snatched it from his hand. “You can drive. Let’s hit the road.”  

He scowled. “What happened to needing a break?”  

“I’ll catch some sleep on the way,” I said, grabbing my jacket.  

Dan tried to hide his knowing smile. He wasn’t fooling anybody. He’d planned this, and it meant only one thing – he was destined to set off at least one of my traps on the way to his car.   

This cheered me up so much, that I was grinning as I opened the door. The smile died on my lips when I spotted the white feather on my doorstep. “Goddamn it!”  

I knew I should have ignored the door. So close. I’d been so close.   

Bending to snatch up the feather, I wondered if it was too late to double back and fill a travel mug with the remainder of my wine. Those thoughts evaporated when I felt the subtle shift of air and I knew who I would find before I rose.  

“Your timing sucks!” I muttered. 

Rahim shrugged, drawing attention to his wings. The feather didn’t belong to him. Rahim’s primaries are the colour of autumn leaves. Pretty close to the shade of my own locks, so I make a point never to stand too close.  

Great, now I’m making redhead jokes!  

The feather was a baton of sorts. It was my turn to enter the gauntlet.  

“How long?” I asked, squinting up at him. Rahim was wearing his signature wraparound shades. He wore them day or night, and he didn’t apologise for it. Not that anyone would challenge him. Warrior angels are highly skilled in combat; they are natural-born soldiers, created to protect the heavens, or Empyrean. They are also the only angels with wings.  

“Twenty-four hours,” he said, the deep timbre of his voice holding a hint of amusement like he knew I was running on empty with no break on the horizon.  

“Shit!” I glanced at my watch. It was a little after 8pm. 

“Your timing sucks, my man,” Dan pretty much repeated my own words as he stepped out, pulling the door closed.  

“You need your own material,” Rahim said, the humour now pulling at his mouth in his version of a smile. “None of us have time for Eris’s games, but here we are.”  

Ignoring the jibe, Dan passed me a travel mug. I knew better than to hope he’d filled it with the remnants of my glass. He simply knew I needed to fuel up on the way across town. A little shake confirmed the mug was empty. For now.  

When I felt the burn in my other hand, the one holding the feather, I looked down. The stark white was already beginning to fade as the thing morphed into an inky substance that ran down across my palm to my wrist. It settled like a brand into my skin, the feather now a temporary tattoo to remind me of my obligation.  

“I hate that part.” Talk about an understatement. The first time Eris’s baton of choice had burned itself into my wrist I’d scrubbed off a layer of skin trying to free myself of the mark. But that’s what happens when you cut a deal with a god who enjoys wreaking havoc.   

I mean, everyone knows you should never make a pact with the devil, but in my experience, gods are the ones you need to steer clear of. To stop a killer, I’d agreed to participate in seven tournaments within the Phantom Games.  

On the plus side, I’d managed to bag myself some cool gadgets, most of which I’d used on security. People have a tendency to underestimate me, and my bullshit meter is fine-tuned.  

“I take it since you’re passing the baton, you won your latest round?” When his brows winged up above the shades, I had my answer. Rahim probably cursed the day he’d joined my team. The delights of interagency working. Had he lost the tournament, he’d owe Eris a marker. Not exactly the deadliest of consequences, unless you accounted for the fact you owed a favour to a god.  

“If you’d been in the crowd, you would have witnessed my victory.” There was arrogance in his tone, definitely, but there was also disappointment. We had an informal agreement to attend each other’s games, and I had let him down.  

“I’m sorry, Sunny-G, but we’re juggling some pretty big cases right now. I’ll be at the next one, I promise. I’ll even bring pom-poms.”  

Rahim looked perplexed, even with shades covering his eyes I knew they would be swimming in confusion.  

“She’s saying she’ll be there to cheer you on,” Dan said, losing patience. “And as much as I’d like to stand around celebrating your victory, the clock is ticking, and we have somewhere to be.”  

“I know. I’ve been assigned to the cleanup crew, given what was discovered!”  

I turned to glare at Dan. “You said she found bodies!”  

“Now look what you’ve done, you’ve ruined the surprise!” Dan said to Rahim, who just grinned as he spread his large, beautiful wings, the orange tone shimmering like a flame as he rose into the air. Then Dan turned to me with a cajoling look “I never said what kind of bodies, and I knew you’d want in on the action.”  

“Don’t take too long,” Rahim said. “Or I might just steal all the fun. I deserve it after the last five hours.”  

In response, I turned my back and felt the powerful draft caused by his retreat, the laugh carried close on its heels.  

“Change of plans,” I told Dan, slapping my palm on the biometric pad so I could duck inside for the keys. “We’re taking my car.”   

Dan looked towards the lean-to attached to the house and groaned.  

My car was like everything else on the property, it had been fitted with security features and didn’t much resemble its original shape. It was an Audi – on steroids.  

I didn’t pause for discussion when I stepped back outside. I simply pinned him with a glare. “Start talking.”  

“Admit it, if I’d told you the RDU were invited to the party you wouldn’t have been so quick to jump in and it’s our case.”  

The Realm Defense Network or RDU was brought in at the beginning of the war and was now an external team we collaborated with on high-profile cases. Technically, we were part of their unit, thanks to restructuring and interagency collaboration.  

“All I’m saying is you could have let me get in a little shut-eye first.”  

“No time for that, we have twenty-four hours!”  

“Oh, we have twenty-four hours. I didn’t realise you were taking part in the tournament with me.”  

I missed his comeback, no doubt a good one, when I climbed into the driver’s seat and contemplated setting off one of my booby traps. Then I watched Dan trying to squeeze his large frame into my passenger seat and decided it was punishment enough.  

While I waited, I looked out across the land and tried to find the calm it usually instilled in me. The place had been a steal; a two-storey bungalow sitting squarely in the middle of three acres. People tended to stick to cities, especially after the war, but the small village of Friendly suited me just fine, and I’ve created some pretty inventive ways to keep out the vermin.  

A call came through a second after I started the engine, so the navigation console lit up to display Gibson, another member of the team, and he didn’t look happy.   

“We’ve lost Mrs Miller,” he said, without preamble.  

“How the hell can you lose her?” Dan growled beside me, so pissed the energy in the car turned dangerous.  

“We were escorting her to a safe house, and we were ambushed.” As he spoke, his camera panned out so we could see the wreckage behind him. He was lucky to be alive.  

“Send me your current location,” I said, shoving the car into drive before turning to Dan. “Do you think you might have missed a few things out. Like what the fuck is going on?”  

“Stop the car,” Dan ordered, still growling.  

I knew what that meant. My partner was done with being confined inside a box, and because I could literally feel his energy pushing against me, I hit the brake.  

“Can this day get any worse?” I said, stupidly tempting fate, and watched Dan explode from the car.  

 If I hadn’t wanted to follow his lead and explode out of my skin, I might have stopped to admire the sight. Instead, I closed my eyes and prayed for patience. When I popped my lids again, feeling no calmer, I was presented with Dan’s very large, very angry bear form.  

In the beginning, having a changeling for a partner might have phased me. Now with all the interagency work, I’m actually grateful for the extra muscle, so to speak. In human form, he looks capable of pulling a twenty-tonne wagon, but in bear form, he could probably flip it with a twitch of his muzzle.   

Listening to his protests, somewhere between a huff and a growl, he made his thoughts pretty clear. Though, it wasn’t hard to figure out given the uncontrolled transformation. Talk about an emotional response.  

“Quit complaining and head out. I’ll meet you on-site,” I told him, meeting his deep brown eyes, a shade or two darker than his human form.   

In response, the foul-tempered oaf tapped the door with his snout, so it slammed shut hard enough to shake the car. To be fair, he didn’t put any kind of strength behind it, otherwise, he’d have flipped the Audi, no matter how many modifications there were.  

Perhaps it was childish, but as I shoved the car back into drive, I threw him a one-finger salute and hit the accelerator. The noise he made, which carried over the sound of the roaring engine, sounded suspiciously like a chuckle.  

“I take it Danny-boy just went full-on grizzly?”  

My gaze shot to the navigation screen, my annoyance overriding my surprise Gibson was still connected.  

“You wouldn’t say that to his face because he’d probably eat you for breakfast and I’d pass him a toothpick.”  

Aside from the fact changeling bears are much larger than their mortal counterparts, I totally got the grizzly reference; mainly the slight silver sheen to Dan’s coat that, like his hair, was a gleaming black.    

“Aw, don’t be like that!” Gibson said, doing a valiant job of holding back his laughter.  

“Make it up to me and fill me in on what I missed.” Navigating the long drive that took me off the property, I glanced briefly in the rearview mirror. Dan was nowhere to be seen, but that didn’t bother me. My traps wouldn’t do him serious harm.  

“Long story short? I was on duty when Miller called so I went out to see what the fuss was about. Lucky for me I had Drake with me so when he saw what Miller had unearthed, he hit up the RDU.” He visibly shuddered. I was concentrating on the road, and I still caught it. “I’ve seen some things since the world turned to hell but those bodies, that’s some sick shit. They were in pods inside the wall cavity between Miller’s house and next door.”  

“Are we talking dead bodies?” I asked, trying to picture the scene and wondering what had possessed Sahara to take an axe to the dividing wall.  

“I almost wish we were. But, no, they’re alive. From what we can tell, they’re human, and in some kind of suspended animation. Drake almost crapped himself when he saw them. He’s the one who ordered a protection detail for Miller. I only had time to call in a report to Dan and then we were being whisked away.”  

“How did they find you so soon?” I asked, easing my way through the electric gate which was programmed to register the car on approach. It closed the second I cleared the sensor.  

Dan’s jeep was parked in the lay-by to the left. As I drove past it, I had a vague recollection of disconnecting the buzzer on the front gate. Not that it discouraged him. He’d scaled the gate and bypassed my security measures. It wasn’t the first time.   

“I have no clue. I swear, Kate, nobody could have predicted any of this. I mean, we all thought Miller was bored or lonely, or something when she made the report of unusual aromas in her property. Even when you and Dan looked into it, we thought you were just humouring her. But this. This is some crazy assed shit. I mean, we hit a wall of nothing, that’s how they got us. The car just stopped as though we’d collided with an invisible barrier. I’m surprised we didn’t implode on impact or something. As it is, we were flipped in the air like a Tonka toy and when we came to a stop to check we were still in one piece, Miller was gone. How the hell is that even possible, I-”  

“Take a breath, Gibson, and reel it in,” I said because I could hear the delirium in his voice. He was in shock.  

Hitting a button on the navigation console, the map appeared. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Hang tight, okay?”  

“Okay, Kit-Kat.”  

Given what he’d just been through, I let that go, though the nickname grated along my already frayed nerve endings.  

Definitely going to let Dan eat him.