The Merging Read online

  Silver, the head of the Vegas Vampire Coalition (VVC) sat on the far left. He was the lurker of the bunch. Quiet, but poignant.

  Next was Zack, the current point of contact for the Vegas Werewolf Pack. He’d held the position longer than most. Probably because he wasn’t the type who would back down from a fight. Doggies were very hierarchical, after all.

  O was the leader of the Vegas Crimson Focus Mages. They were a group considered to be of the more powerful magical class in the world, not just Vegas. All three mages in my little PPD division belonged to his club.

  Last was EQK, who represented the Vegas Pixies. He often snickered and giggled during the meetings, and he would sometimes say things that seemed inappropriate at best.

  While I could make out certain features of each, their faces vanished from memory the moment they entered my psyche. It had something to do with the need for secrecy. I’m sure they could spot me on the street, but I wouldn’t even be able to identify any of them in a lineup.

  “Let’s get started,” said O, followed immediately by a giggle from EQK. “Mr. Dex, we have been informed about two strange occurrences in the area. One involving a werewolf and the other a vampire.”

  “That’s correct, sir,” I said.

  “What have you learned of them?”

  “Nothing yet,” I answered. “I just know that both were far more powerful than anything I’ve ever encountered as a cop.”

  “What was different?” asked Zack.

  I leaned back and crossed my legs. “Well, they were huge, for one. Very strong.” I tapped my finger on my leg. “And they were immune to normal effects. Silver breakers did nothing against the werewolf and woods didn’t stop the vampire.”

  “I heard you shot one in the cock,” said EQK with an uncontrollable giggle.

  “I was aiming for his abdomen, sir,” I lied, but tried to keep a professional visage. “He was just taller than I’d expected.”

  “Was it really necessary to kill them?” asked Silver in a dark voice.

  “Yes, sir. They were tearing things up and acting all sorts of naughty. If we didn’t take them down, there would have been a lot of normals affected.”

  “Seems there already were,” O stated. “The Spin is working on cleaning things up, but this is a tough assignment for them.”

  “I’d imagine so,” I agreed. “We did the best we could with the knowledge we had, sir.”

  “I’m sure you did,” said O genuinely. “That will be all for now. Keep us posted regarding your investigation, Mr. Dex.”

  “Most definitely, sir.”

  Chapter 10

  The crew gathered in the conference room. We were joined by one of our gurus, Warren Lloyd.

  Warren was a wizard who specialized in runes and grandiose spells. He looked a bit like a hippie. Not so much like a Gandalf or anything, but more like a laid-back surfer dude who’d spent a little too much time in the sun during his younger years.

  “Got anything yet?” I asked the room as I took the chair at the head of the table.

  “Well,” started Griff, “we were already aware that the werewolf and vampire were both executives in finance, so we made a couple of calls to see if their bosses might have noticed anything strange.”

  “And?”

  “First, they were more than irritated that we were calling in the middle of the night. Once they realized what had occurred, they were more than cooperative.” Griff looked down at his iPad. “Richard Brenkin’s manager stated that Richard had taken off a little early in the day to attend a finance seminar on the old strip. Bill Preston…”

  “The vampire?” I asked, interrupting.

  “Indeed,” said Griff. “His superior said the same thing about him.”

  “Interesting. So, both of them leave work around the same time, head down to a seminar in Old Town, and end up turning into crazed versions of themselves with powers far beyond their norm.” I sniffed. “Some seminar.”

  “Seems so,” agreed Jasmine.

  “Were there any records as to precisely where this seminar was being held?”

  “Their managers did not possess that information, I’m afraid,” Griff replied. “It appears that executives are attending so many of these events on a monthly basis that they neglect to keep tabs on all of it.”

  That made little sense to me, but we were talking about companies who had so much money funneling through on a daily basis that they didn’t likely care about where it was all being spent. There was probably somebody tasked with keeping receipts, but it wouldn’t be the brass.

  “My worry is that we’re going to see more of this soon,” I said while scratching at the table. “I highly doubt that only two people attended a finance seminar, after all.”

  “Good point,” said Rachel, seemingly on the mend regarding our earlier tiff. I hoped, anyway. “We need to find out where the seminar was held and get a list of attendees.”

  “Agreed.” I turned to our specialist. “Warren, have you something to add to this discussion or are you just listening in?”

  He cleared his throat and shifted in his seat a bit. While he was more chill than most people in the PPD, he was also a bit shy, and he wasn’t gifted with what you’d call grace under pressure.

  “I was going over the information that you guys brought in,” he answered in a somewhat nerdy voice, “and I have a few questions so I can dig deeper.”

  I nodded at him. “Go on.”

  “You said that the werewolf was a fast swimmer, right?”

  “Incredibly,” I replied. “His dog paddle was very impressive.”

  “And he drove your car while in wolf form?”

  Rachel’s attitude returned at the mention of Fido driving her around in my car. I fought to ignore it.

  “Like a pro.”

  “Okay,” said Warren, jotting down notes the entire time. “The vampire was calling out to his minions, right?”

  “Yeah,” answered Chuck. “He looked like a preacher up on a pulpit. It was kind of freaky.”

  “And he didn’t attack you straightaway like the werewolf did, correct?”

  “He held his resolve until Charles engaged,” Griff said, using Chuck’s formal name. “Once we backed off, the vampire went about throwing things again before climbing onto the roof. After that, he ignored us entirely, until the Chief filled his nethers with lead, that is.”

  “Wood,” I amended.

  “Fine, you shot him in the wood…”

  “No, I mean that I used wood breakers, and he looked like he was about to rip me in two, thank you very much.”

  Warren was nodding his head and chewing his lip. It appeared that he was on to something, but he had a tendency of keeping quiet until he was certain. Still, I’d push him where I could.

  “Does this sound familiar or something, Warren?”

  “Huh?” He looked up as if being shaken from a dream. “Oh, I’m not sure. I’ll have to do some study. There are records in the archives that I swear said something about…”

  “Sorry to interrupt, puddin’,” Lydia announced through the room’s speakers, “but we have reports of a fae attacking other supernaturals down at the Wynn.”

  “Dammit.” I was hoping to get some decent insight on Warren’s thoughts. “Everybody get rolling,” I commanded. “Warren, keep after this…well, whatever it is you’re after. We need answers yesterday.”

  “I’ll have to see this creature firsthand,” he said, standing up with the rest of us.

  I hesitated. Warren was good at his job, but he was slow. All wizards were slow. They had to think and plan… and use a wand. I didn’t have time to babysit and I wasn’t about to risk any of my agents having to do it either.

  “It’s too dangerous,” I started, but then stopped when I caught sight of Serena Buchanan, our resident forensics expert. She was standing at the vending machine in our meager break room.

  Serena was one of those vampires who could have played the part of a succubus. Actuall
y, she had played that part a couple of times with me in the past, and she was better at it than an actual succubus I’d once dated. And she was gifted with an hourglass figure that made you want to study the mysteries of time.

  “Get Serena to bring you,” I said to Warren as I fought to keep my mind on business, “but stay out of the way until we’ve subdued this fae, got it?”

  “Got it.”

  Chapter 11

  Fae were known to be decent and helpful, even though they loved playing practical jokes and just being generally tricky. Like humans, they came in all shapes and sizes, though they most often looked like an incredibly attractive normal.

  This thing did not look like an average fae.

  Similar to the anomalies we faced earlier, she was tall, broad shouldered, and muscular. But instead of the typical great looks, she was rather hideous. Her face was contorted into a deep sneer, her eyes were yellow, and there were scars and scales running haphazardly down the sides of her exposed neck.

  The main casino floor was awash with fallen bodies. They were all supernaturals, just as the report said, and they were writhing about, signaling that they hadn’t been killed… yet.

  A mass of normals were standing around the periphery with mixed looks of fascination and terror.

  Great.

  “Split up,” I commanded as the fae took notice.

  “Oh, look,” she said, pointing a long-nailed finger directly at me. “Members of the famous Las Vegas Paranormal Police Department have been sent to stop me.” She bowed at the waist and swung her head around from side to side, causing the normals to cringe in fear. “Isn’t that exciting?”

  Nobody said a word as my crew and I kept moving forward.

  “Do you think I should just give up or should I resist?” she called to the crowd.

  “Resist, baby!” I looked over at the drunk normal who was yelling in a slurred way. He was holding up a glass of something. “Woohoo!”

  A number of other normals cheered along with the guy, obviously stepping to the side of the fence that tried to convince them this was naught but a show.

  The fae laughed heartily and then turned back to look at me. She shrugged. “Sorry, baby, but the people have spoken.”

  “Collateral damage is only going to make this worse on you,” I called back, keeping my pace steady but easy.

  “Oh no,” she said, clutching her chest, “we wouldn’t want that, now would we?”

  Why was it that supernaturals who were up to no good felt compelled to make a show of it? I mean, not all of them did. The vampire who’d been torn apart by Fido was at least somewhat discreet with his attack on the normal. But whenever a super decided they were gonna go out big, they really dived in ass-first.

  “Rachel,” I said out of the corner of my mouth, “can you give this thing a taste of fire for me, please?”

  “With pleasure,” Rachel replied, releasing a ball of energy moments later.

  The fae held up a hand and caught the ball. She looked it over for a moment, spinning it around like it was some sort of plaything, and then flung it back with force.

  “Shit,” said Rachel as she dived out of the way.

  The energy ball smashed into a craps table, demolishing it instantly. Fortunately it had been devoid of gamblers, but the dealer who’d been waiting for customers hadn’t been so lucky. He was knocked off his feet, flying across the room until he crunched into a wall with a sickening thud. A smear of blood oozed behind him as he slid down with lifeless eyes.

  “Oops,” said the fae while blinking innocently.

  It was silent for a second until the drunk normal yelled “Woohoo!” again. That elicited another round of cheers from the rest of the crowd.

  Damn sheep.

  “I think they like me,” the fae said, smiling in such a way that made her look even more grotesque. “They really, really like me!”

  “Unload on this bitch,” I yelled and then emptied my gun at her.

  To her credit, she blocked a lot of the shots with magic, but we were sending far too much for her to contain. It seemed that each one of these beasties was getting tougher than the last. Fido hadn’t been too difficult to manage. Captain Vampire had given Griff and Chuck a hard time, but he was taken out pretty easily after I neutered him. That thought made me pause and think how it was almost a shame I hadn’t shot Fido in the sunless region instead of Captain Vampire. The neutered line would have made for humorous conversation at the Paranormal Policeman’s Ball. But now we were faced with a fae who was actually blocking our attempts to take her out.

  This was dicey.

  She dived into one of the concierge stations as the customer service agents jumped out, screaming.

  The normals laughed at this and started to boo us.

  “Seriously?” said Rachel, giving me a ‘what-the-fuck’ look in the process.

  I shrugged at her. The normals had no idea what was going on. For all they knew, this was a new Vegas show that was exclusive to the Wynn. The number of times The Spin had used that little explanation for all the mishaps over the years made it the obvious go-to rationalization for a normal. Frankly, it was for the best that they felt this way, but it did make those of us at the PPD feel like we were the bad guys from time to time.

  “Puddin’,” Lydia said through the connector as I changed out my mag, “you’re not going to believe this, but we have a rogue wizard sticking runes in all of the bathrooms where you are.”

  “You’re kidding,” I said as I motioned the crew to shred the customer service station. “Is it one of these big-bad types?”

  “I don’t think so, lover,” she answered. “He’s just being a pain in the patootie… Quite literally, from what I understand.”

  Energy and bullets connected with the customer service station, blowing fragments of wood up into the air. Griff put up a containment wall around the normals so they wouldn’t get impacted with shrapnel, but a number of splinters threatened to penetrate my back as I turned away and crouched. One piece shot cleanly through my earlobe. I’d always wanted to try a piercing, just not like this.

  The fae jumped straight up and cast her own spell of protection. Jasmine’s next blast hit with enough force to smack the creepy creature into the ceiling, but she landed gracefully as the shockwave of her spell blew my team off their feet.

  “This is fun,” the fae yelled out. “Betcha can’t catch me!”

  With that, she spun on her heel and took off through the casino.

  Chapter 12

  I’d told Lydia to put Warren and Serena on the wizard who was playing bathroom pranks. It was likely just some kid who had finally learned enough about spell casting to be annoying. But it was the PPD’s responsibility to take care of these things, stupid or not.

  “You might want to get Paula down here,” I called out to Lydia as we chased the massive fae through the casino. “I think this is going to take her some time to sort out.”

  “She’s already been notified, sweetie.”

  “Great,” I said, jumping a table the fae had flipped over in her wake. “Also, I think we’re going to need our clean-up crew on this one. There’s a lot of damage to the casino.”

  “Sending them along.”

  The fae took to the spiral staircase, bolting up the stairs faster than anyone should be capable of going.

  I held up my hand to stop my crew.

  “Griff and Chuck,” I said while fighting to catch my breath, “hit the back way so we’re not all approaching from the same side.” They nodded and took off. “Felicia, take Jasmine and get that security guard over there to take you through the supernaturals’ area.”

  That left me, Rachel, and a bunch of swaggering drunks who were calling us various names.

  “I’m guessing we’re going to be following that thing directly?” Rachel more said than asked.

  I nodded. “Unless you have a better plan?”

  “Run in the opposite direction?” she suggested.

  “A
s if you would.” I laughed and then looked up the stairs as a few shrieks sounded. Obviously, our lovely fae was still having fun.

  “True,” Rachel replied an instant before she hit the steps.

  I sped along after her. My legs burned from climbing at breakneck speed.

  We got to the top and looked around. The furniture was all intact and there weren’t any bodies on the floor.

  “Where’d she go?” I asked rhetorically.

  “Over here, assholes,” the fae cackled and launched a stream of wind at us, knocking Rachel into me and crashing us both to the ground.

  Rachel had spun before we smashed together, meaning that I was lying on my back and she was on top of me, face to face.

  “Ah, the memories,” I said as she frowned and pushed herself back up. “What?” I called after her while getting to my feet and chasing her down the corridor. “Don’t hide from your feelings, Rachel.”

  She held up a single finger in response before cutting a corner.

  Just as I was about to hit the corner myself, I heard another cackle and watched Rachel’s body fly through the air.

  I dived forward a moment later and fired down at the fae before my shoulder slammed into the far wall.

  “Dammit,” the fae yelled, signaling at least one of my bullets had struck. It wouldn’t stop her, but it had to hurt. “You fucker,” she said as she turned and unleashed a wave of kinetic energy my way.

  I’d be remiss if I didn’t explain how much it hurts to be wrapped in a ball of electric joy. Imagine having your balls sliced open and dipped in lemon juice while someone holds smelling salts under your nose to ensure you can’t pass out from the pain. Now, I realize that this point of reference may not be fitting for everyone, so let’s just say that the misery radiating through my body was more intense than having a needle stuck in your taint (and everyone has a taint). But the needle doesn’t stay still. It gets twisted around this way and that as you wriggle and scream. Of course, if you’re a masochist this may actually be pleasurable for you in some odd way. But being that I’m not a masochist, the pain I was enduring was far less than enjoyable.