The Merging Read online

  “Why?”

  “You gotta see it to believe it, Chief.”

  Chapter 6

  As the Camaro turned on South Casino Boulevard, I stuck my head out the window and glanced at the top of the Golden Nugget. I didn’t see any action, so I was hopeful that Griff was keeping his spells to a minimum. If he was unleashing hell, we’d have seen the glows against the night sky.

  Felicia pulled into the hotel entrance and we all jumped out.

  One of the security staff was at the main door waiting for us. I flipped open my badge and she stepped aside while putting a call in through her walkie-talkie. They’d obviously been expecting us.

  Only those with proper training would see us in our supernatural form, which none of us were currently sporting anyway. Technically, I didn’t have a particular look beyond my standard one, and the mages didn’t change either, unless you counted glowing hands and eyes, of course. The werewolves, vampires, fae, pixies, and so on were a different story completely.

  The one thing that all hotel staff were taught to recognize, though, were the PPD badges. Some knew what we represented, most didn’t. Regardless, they all cooperated with us when we came through. If they didn’t they’d be looking for new employment. This had to do with the layout of the big cities and how the supernaturals interacted with the normals. The majority of executives throughout the world were supernaturals. You could tell who was and who wasn’t most of the time. If the CEO of a corporation was a complete asshole, you could rest assured they were a normal. The execs were the ones who ultimately funded the Paranormal Police Department, and The Spin. It was good business to keep the normals in the dark as much as possible.

  Another guard ushered us through a set of doors that led to a special elevator. He stuck in a key and pressed a button that was hidden behind a small door that had popped open.

  My knees nearly buckled at the speed the lift shot up.

  When it slowed and the doors began to part, I put a hand on the guard’s shoulder and told him to stay back.

  “We’re on the roof,” I said through the connector.

  “It’s about time,” replied Chuck. “We’re on the East Bridger side,” he said, indicating the road that ran alongside the Nugget.

  We padded across the building and jumped onto the connected roof, fanning out as we cleared the choke point. Across the way I spotted Chuck in his black overcoat with the matching brimmed hat. Griff was kneeling on the opposite side, keeping the glow of his hands low while giving off enough light to reveal that he was wearing leathers.

  Mages, I thought derisively with a shake of my head.

  The vampire was facing away from us all, standing on the edge of the roof with his arms pushed out dramatically.

  “Come to me, minions of the night,” he was yelling. “Join the truth, the edge, the life!”

  “What the shit is he talking about?” I asked to nobody in particular, now understanding why Chuck said I had to see it to believe it.

  There stood an overlarge vampire, hands up in the air, calling down to the old strip that he was seeking followers. For what, I didn’t have any clue, but I couldn’t imagine he was seeking friends to join him in starting up a pottery club.

  “No idea, Chief,” Chuck answered. “He’s been doing this since we followed him up here.”

  The vampire was easily as large as Fido had been.

  Where they’d come from, or whatever spell they were under, or whatever infected them… it was obviously having an impact. I could only hope there weren’t many more of them roaming the streets because we didn’t have the bandwidth to handle this sort of mayhem.

  “What’s he done so far?” I asked. “Aside from this ‘calling to his minions’ thing, I mean.”

  In response, Chuck pointed down at the top of the Nugget’s parking lot. There were cars flipped upside down, a few hanging precariously near the edge, and one sticking out of the side of the building.

  “He did that?” I asked with an incredulous look while pointing at the vampire on the ledge.

  “Yep.”

  “Swell.”

  I unholstered my gun and checked the magazine again, just in case. I usually wasn’t this OCD about things, but Fido and Captain Vampire were throwing me a bit off my game. It didn’t help that the ladies on the force were all holding grudges against me at the moment either.

  But I wasn’t worried about them.

  I paused.

  Okay, maybe I was worried about them. Fortunately, they were professionals who would do their jobs before making my life miserable.

  “Get ready, everyone,” I commanded through the connector. “I have a feeling this isn’t going to be fun.”

  Chapter 7

  Once I was sure everyone was in place, I took a deep breath and approached the humongous vampire.

  “Excuse me,” I said, keeping a few steps back. He glanced over his shoulder. “Sorry to interrupt your minion-calling, but I was hoping you might come with us down to the station and step inside one of our fine cells?”

  He turned back away and began laughing. It was a genuine laugh. Much like the one Fido had used behind the Bellagio.

  “You must be Ian Dex,” he said in his deep, booming voice.

  “That’s right,” I said, feeling somewhat confused at how he knew that. “And you are?”

  “Your master, should you choose to follow me,” he replied. “I shall take any vampire who wishes to join me.”

  “I’m not a vampire,” I said. Then I looked at my crew. “Seriously, why does everyone think I’m a vampire?”

  The big vampire spun around and studied me from head to toe. “You don’t give off a werewolf vibe,” he said and then pointed at Felicia, “like that one does.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not a werewolf either.”

  “Well, mages don’t typically carry guns,” he stated with a nod at my firearm.

  “I’m an amalgamite.”

  He squinted. “Sorry?”

  “Wait a second,” I said, choosing not to answer directly. “You know my name is Ian Dex, but you don’t know that I’m an amalgamite? Are they only providing basic information in the bad-guys pamphlets these days or something?”

  “It’s rather elementary, my dear Mr. Dex,” he said with a voice so calm and condescending that it made me feel like a schoolchild who was about to be taught a lesson. “You are from the PPD, yes?”

  I squared my shoulders. “Obviously.”

  “And you are the head of the PPD, true?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “And how many times in the last seven years have you been on SN-50 News to talk about supernatural crimes against normals?”

  “Oh,” I said, feeling somewhat sheepish. How was I supposed to know this guy watched the news? “Well, okay then.”

  “Feeling better now?” he said with a dull look.

  I shifted but kept my gun low. If this didn’t need to turn into a firefight, all the better. My gut told me there wasn’t much chance of this going easy, but at least it was obvious that this vampire hadn’t had any blood recently. He was too clear-headed.

  “Much. Thanks.”

  “No problem.”

  “Anyway, pal,” I said while trying to act like I was just doing my job, “you made a bit of a mess here and we’re going to have to run you in.”

  He nodded slowly as he scanned each member of the squad. They all had their weapons drawn or their hands glowing, except for me. I was trying to be the voice of reason.

  “I think not,” he said finally before turning back to summon more of his flock.

  I could only hope that none of his followers, assuming he had any, were actually heading this way. Just in case, I glanced over the side of the building and saw nothing but a few onlookers who were pointing and laughing. They likely assumed it was just another silly performance being attempted in the middle of the night. With the number of times The Spin used that particular explanation, it was a wonder anyone would think supern
aturals existed at all in the heart of Las Vegas.

  “All right, buddy,” I said in a commanding voice, “I really don’t want to have to resort to violence, so if you wouldn’t mind…”

  He turned around again and took two giant steps toward me until we were standing face to face. More accurately, we were face to chest. My face, his chest. Like I said, he was a big dude.

  “I will give you one chance to leave here, Mr. Dex,” he whispered in a voice laced with menace. “If you choose to bother me again, we will learn what it takes to kill an amalgamite. Are we clear?”

  I slowly raised my eyes up until they met his. It wasn’t easy acting tough in situations like this, but part of my genetic make-up apparently had an issue with being bullied. I just didn’t like it.

  “Oh, we’re clear,” I said as I emptied my gun into his groin.

  Chapter 8

  The look on his face was priceless as he dropped to the ground, clutching the spot his manhood used to call home.

  I jumped back as a scream of pain bellowed from deep within his soul. His visage was a mix of rage, hate, fear, and murder. It reminded me a bit of the look Paula Rose had on the night I broke up with her a few years back, with the difference being that she was clutching my manhood and I was the one screaming in pain.

  “Damn, Chief,” said Chuck with wide eyes as I continued backing away, “you just shot the dude in the cock.”

  “That was rather unpleasant to watch,” pointed out Griff.

  “You haven’t gone one-on-one with one of these things yet,” I shot back in my defense. “You’ve been hanging back. Trust me, blowing his dick off was a smart move.”

  “That sounded wrong,” noted Jasmine.

  “If what you say is true, hotshot,” Rachel chimed in, “why does he look even bigger than before?”

  She was right. It was like the opposite of the Samson story. Where Samson lost his power after getting his hair chopped off, this guy looked to be gaining power at getting his pecker blistered with wood breakers (which seemed rather fitting).

  “Damn,” I said as I struggled to reload my gun.

  With a ferocious yell, the vampire launched through the air at me, swinging a menacing fist at my head in the process.

  Magic knocked him away before he could rock my world.

  Again, the ladies on my team may have been holding an underlying grudge against me that it’d take weeks to live down, but they were good cops.

  The vampire’s hand snaked out and caught hold of my ankle, ripping me off my feet. I landed with a thud as he began dragging me to the edge of the building. I could survive a lot of things, but I wasn’t immortal. A fall from this high up would make for one of those naps I didn’t wake up from.

  It was Griff’s turn to join the fun. He unleashed a shock spell that shook the vampire and me to the core.

  The vampire let go of my leg before reaching the edge of the building, but the pain that convulsed through my bones made me wish he’d been able to drop me. It hurt so damn bad that I couldn’t even groan. Imagine having a tooth pulled by a proctologist, using the standard entry path proctologists were known for, and you’ll get the general idea of the kind of pain I’m talking about here.

  Shots were firing and magic balls of light were crushing the vampire as I lay there in anguish, waiting for the contractions to stop.

  As soon as things died down, Griff came back to me and cast a small incantation that stopped the shock spell. Then he leaned down and looked me over.

  The tiredness on his face indicated how much effort he’d expelled in saving my life.

  “Thanks,” I said as another wave of pain raced through my body, “I think.”

  He obviously noticed my discomfort. “It’ll pass in a few minutes. I apologize, but there was no other way.”

  “Is he…” I groaned as my back spasmed. “Is he dead?”

  “Quite,” Griff answered.

  My breathing was gradually returning to normal. I pushed myself up on one elbow.

  The vampire was a mess. He was riddled with enough holes to make me wonder if he was Swiss. His eyes were dead, but seeing that he was a vampire, that wasn’t surprising. This was a different level of dead, though. It was the kind of dead that even vampires couldn’t transcend.

  And that’s when he started losing his size, returning slowly back to his original state.

  Another suit.

  Jasmine reached into his pocket and pulled out his ID. She stepped away and called it in.

  I could only imagine the bruising that a normal would have suffered at the hands of the two ubernaturals we’d faced tonight. If it weren’t for my ability to heal so quickly, I would be looking at a solid month of recovery. A couple hours of rest would be good enough to get me back on track again.

  “Lydia says this guy is one of the main players in the finance department here at the Nugget,” Jasmine announced.

  “Hmmm,” I said, gently pushing myself back to my feet. I shook my head to clear the mental fog. “So we’ve got two finance types from two casinos turning into a big bad wolf and a naughty vampire. Coincidence?”

  “Never seen anything like it,” Rachel said. “We’ve been walking this beat for a long time. This is a first.”

  “Lydia,” I said through the connector, “are there any records about supernaturals getting this powerful in the past?”

  “Accessing, honey,” she said. “Nothing listed in the primary records, no. There have been a number of collaborative power plays over the years, but nothing recent. Even then, it was groups, not individuals.”

  “Anything on the non-primary records?” asked Rachel.

  “I only have access to primary records,” Lydia replied studiously.

  “Thanks, Lydia,” I said. “If you could let The Spin know that we’re finished here, that’d be super.”

  “You got it, sugar. I’ll also tell the finance department at the Nugget what’s going on, so they don’t expect this particular executive in the office tomorrow.”

  Chapter 9

  By the time we arrived back at base, I’d received word that my Aston Martin was towed in by our clean-up crew. They’d have the window replaced in no time and a new set of tires in place, balanced, and shined. I never understood why Felicia refused to use their services on her Camaro, but I assumed it had to do with her desire to be an automotive purist. She wanted authentic parts.

  I followed behind Jasmine as she pushed through the main door to the PPD.

  The configuration of the interior was interesting. It ran a semi-circle that allowed everyone to have their own windowed office. Stairs went up on the left and right, landing on a walkway that led to each office. Under the offices sat a conference room, a small break room, temporary holding cells, the access area to the clean-up crew’s section, and the engineering bay. That’s where Lydia was housed, which was also the office of our resident hardware and software hacker, a pixie by the name of Turbo.

  “Welcome back, honey,” Lydia said as I climbed the stairs to the second level. “The Directors want to see you.”

  “Figured they might.”

  The Directors were members of the various factions in Vegas. They didn’t represent all of the supernatural races, but they covered the most dominant ones in Vegas. Other cities, like New York and London, had additional Directors added to the ones we got.

  “Keep your ears open for us, Lydia,” I said as I stepped into my office. “I have a feeling we’re going to have more trouble with this new kind of monster.”

  “Of course, love.”

  Where some chose simple over extravagant, I was one of those who enjoyed the good life. Hence the Aston Martin. People like Rachel had a flat desk with a basic office chair. I opted for a crescent mahogany with the high-back leather. It wasn’t a power play; it was just that I liked nice things. Nice suits, nice cars, nice desks, and so on.

  The department didn’t buy any of it for me. That would be a misappropriation of funds. I used the money fro
m the trust fund my parents had set up for me. They’d died in a plane crash when I was two. I never really knew them, though now and then the blur of a face would pass my memories. There were no relatives either. I’d been left at two years old with a bundle of cash that would ripen by the time I’d reached 18. That meant a life of foster homes. Since I didn’t change forms like a vampire or a werewolf, and since I didn’t go around casting spells when I got irritable, the state assumed I was just your average, everyday normal. I got placed with multiple families over the years, but it never worked out because my abilities far exceeded the average parent’s capability to contain me. By the time the state figured out that I was something different, I was already in my late teens. So they took me out of the normals’ system, studied me a fair bit, stuck me into an immersion program with supernaturals, and taught me the ins and outs of how to be a cop. When my trust fund hit, I figured the universe owed me one and thus began my indulgence with the finer things. I blew a lot of cash in the first couple of years, but soon got a finance manager to help me take care of it so I wouldn’t have to wait for early retirement, should the desire ever come.

  And as I looked at the door sitting in the back of my office, I started thinking that now would be a good time to retire.

  “Going in,” I announced to Lydia. “Lock down my office, please.”

  “Have fun, sweetie,” she said moments before the clanking sound of locks closed my office and the windows darkened.

  “Sure.”

  I opened the door and stepped into a room that was probably only the size of a closet, but it felt much larger. It was a connectivity portal that allowed the Directors to engage in questioning while never leaving the confines of their own offices.

  There were four of them seated in congressional-hearing fashion, all facing me while I was relegated to taking the chair of the guy being questioned.

  Typically these were only done every couple of weeks as standard protocol, but whenever something interesting happened, they were more frequent. Seeing as how we’d just dealt with two ubernaturals, I completely expected they’d be anxious to learn what the hell was going on.