The Merging Read online

  When the energy finally dissipated, the only word I could mutter was a shivered “fuck.”

  “You can say that again,” Rachel agreed, dragging me to my feet. “I’m starting to think that getting a Desert Eagle may not be such a bad idea after all.”

  “Yes,” I concurred, fighting to regain control of my body. “Besides, we are in the desert, so…”

  “Yeah, right.”

  A mass of people poured out of the room that the fae had gone into, and they looked to be running for their lives.

  Thankfully, it was a supernaturals area.

  Every hotel had one. Normals weren’t allowed in, unless they were specifically invited, were on the executive team, or were acting in the role of servant. Any unauthorized normal who tried to enter would sound off an alarm, which would result in them having their memory rewritten to think that they’d accidentally walked into one of the many offices littering each casino on the upper levels. It’s not all fun and games working in Vegas, you know.

  “Looks like she’s playing again,” Rachel said, running toward the source of the pain in direct contrast with the others who were trying to get away.

  “Yes,” I said, wincing with each step. “Let’s run toward her. That’s a great plan.”

  To be fair, that’s how it went in the PPD. Our job was to face the pain so others didn’t have to.

  Chapter 13

  My body was still hating life as the last of the people left the room that contained the giddy fae. That she remained so sinisterly cheerful was a testament to how warped she was. I could only guess that my gunshot hadn’t fully connected.

  Rachel jumped to the other side of the entrance and glanced around, and then shook her head. I did a quick survey of the area and found nothing either.

  “Window?” I asked, but Rachel merely shrugged in response. “Who knew that fae-hunting could be such a hoot.”

  “Yep.”

  “Cover me,” I said as I dived into the room, rolled once and came up into a crouched position. My equilibrium wasn’t at full yet, so I overshot the landing a little and bumped into a wastebasket that fell over in response.

  “Idiot,” said Rachel before rolling in the opposite direction, coming up expertly with hands aglow.

  “Sorry that some of us are deemed more dangerous than others,” I retaliated, regaining my footing. “Maybe if you were as threatening as me, you’d get the energy spells thrown in your face instead of the simple wind ones.”

  Rachel glanced in my general direction. “Keep talking, flyboy, and I’ll give you an energy spell you’ll not soon forget.”

  “Promises, promises,” I said while continuing to scan the room. “She’s not here.”

  “Or she’s hidden.”

  “Right,” I said, standing up but keeping my gun at the ready. “A seven-foot chick who looks like a wrestler is hiding in the middle of a mostly open room.”

  “You’re a seven-foot chick who looks like a wrestler,” Rachel snarked while slinking down the side wall.

  “Real mature.”

  I’d gotten over to the curtains and started kicking at them, when Jasmine spoke through the connector.

  “Chief,” she said, “it looks like the fae is scaling the outer wall.”

  We threw back the heavy curtains to find none of the windows were broken, and it wasn’t like they could be opened either. Most of these buildings were made so people couldn’t easily jump should the pressure get too much for them.

  “Well, that’s a mystery,” I said both to Rachel and through the connector. “How the hell did she get outside?”

  “Morphing spell,” Rachel answered.

  “Yep,” agreed Jasmine. “Fae do morph when they want to.”

  “I’m well aware of that,” I replied. “I took all the same courses you guys did. My point is that all the windows in here are intact, so what exactly could she have morphed into that would allow…” And that’s when I looked up and saw that a grate on the ventilation shaft had been torn off. “A mouse or a rat,” I said, pointing.

  “Terrific,” said Rachel. “So how the hell are we supposed to get her off the side of a building?”

  “I don’t suppose we have any dragons in the area who are willing to give us a hand?”

  “None registered,” Jasmine stated. “It was the first thing I had Lydia check when we saw the fae climbing around outside.”

  I stuck my gun back in its holster and started back out the way we’d come in. People were asking questions but I held them off, explaining that we were still trying to catch the damn fae and didn’t have time for chitchat. They didn’t look pleased with that answer, but my first priority was apprehending the bad guys, not managing customer support.

  “Do you still have eyes on this thing?” I asked as we took the spiral staircase back down to the main floor.

  “Yes,” Jasmine answered. “She’s almost around the back of the building. Should be at ground level pretty soon.”

  “Good. Everyone get down to the back area and unleash everything you’ve got into this damn fae’s head. I want her stopped before she can fire off any more of those blasted energy spells.”

  “On our way,” both teams replied.

  “Lydia, requisition me a Desert Eagle immediately, and get Turbo to build me bullets for it.”

  “You got it, baby,” she said in a sweet voice that was in complete conflict with the fact that I’d just ordered a weapon meant for mayhem. “Did you want the forty-four caliber or the fifty?”

  “Get him the fifty,” Rachel answered for me. “And get me one, too, while you’re at it.”

  “I shall comply, Miss Cress,” affirmed Lydia, without the same tenderness she gave to me.

  “Ugh,” Rachel said as we exited the back of the building.

  I ignored the irritation in my partner’s voice.

  Was it my fault that everyone treated Lydia like a computer instead of like a person? No. They acted like she was nothing but an informational tool, and so that’s how she replied to them. I used her for intel too, obviously, but I would occasionally throw in a personal gem to let her know that she was more than that to me. She was a member of my team. Besides, maybe someday she’d be integrated into a super-hot android body and I’d be the recipient of much affection.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Rachel said with a glare. “You’re a freak, you know that?”

  “You have no idea,” I replied, grinning.

  “Sadly, I do.”

  The fae dropped down onto the street and took a look around, spotting us and exhaling hard. She began backing away while squinting. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

  “You just don’t give up, do you?” she said as she formed another round of energy in her hands.

  “Wait!” I called out, holding up my gun as a thought hit me.

  “What are you doing?” Rachel whispered.

  “Buying us time for the others to get here. I hope.”

  The fae tilted her head but kept the energy flowing between her hands. It was clear that she was curious as to why I was holding my hands up in surrender, but she was obviously not stupid.

  “I probably shouldn’t tell you this,” she said in a helpful tone of voice, “but you’d be smarter to have your gun pointed at me. At least you’d have a chance that way.”

  “That’s exactly why I’m not pointing it at you,” I replied while taking things a step further and dropping the gun on the ground. “It’s clear that we can’t defeat you. You’re just more powerful than the werewolf and the vampire we faced earlier.”

  “That’s true.” She kept the energy rolling. Then she nodded toward Rachel. “What about your wizard pal over there?”

  “Mage,” Rachel corrected, her eye twitching.

  “What?” asked the fae.

  “I’m a mage, not a wizard.”

  “So?”

  “Just ignore the mage, baby,” I said, hoping that the fae would be even more confused if I hit on her. “She’s no ma
tch for you anyway.”

  The fae raised an eyebrow. “Baby?”

  “What can I say?” I said with a shrug. “There’s something about a”—this was difficult—“rambunctious fae with the ability to do energy blasts that gets my motor running.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah,” agreed Rachel, “seriously?”

  “Of course,” I answered, turning briefly to give Rachel the stink-eye. “Power is intoxicating.”

  “Right,” said the fae. She then cleared her throat. “I’m flattered and all. I truly am. But I think you’re missing a few things.”

  “Like what, my princess?” I said, batting my eyelashes as best I could.

  “One, I’m not into dudes.” She cracked her neck from side to side. “Two, I don’t dig vampires. And, three, you can’t trick a trickster.”

  With that, she unleashed another ball of energy right at my chest as I yelled out, “I’m not a fucking vampire!”

  Chapter 14

  Mimicking the fae’s list of three, the following things happened at that moment.

  The first was me crying like a baby as the energy pulsed through my body, threatening to fry me from the inside out; the second was that my hand landed serendipitously on my gun as I hit the ground; and the third was that the rest of my crew jumped out into the clearing and began firing like mad at the damned fae.

  “Give her everything we’ve got,” commanded Rachel.

  All hell was breaking loose as projectiles ripped through the beastie. Fireballs smacked against her chest and ice shards pattered her legs. She was catching and throwing back what she could, but Griff had apparently put up a one-way shield to hold off her attempts at retaliation.

  “Tar…tar…” I tried yelling but I couldn’t stop convulsing.

  “What?” said Rachel.

  “Her…hea…head,” I yelled. “Shoo…”

  “Aim everything at her head,” Rachel called out, finally catching on to what I was trying to say.

  I got only one shot off myself before my brain could no longer manage the exquisite pain I was experiencing. The gun fell from my hand and I blacked out for a second. Light came in one moment and went dark the next as my consciousness was fading in and out. I wanted it to leave my brain’s power in the off position until the energy of the fae’s spell had run its course, but that was one of the problems with being a fast healer—without some pretty heavy sedatives, you got to enjoy the agony of healing in real-time.

  During one of my awake moments, I saw the fae drop to one knee. She was clearly being overwhelmed. There was only so much damage a head could take, after all.

  I struggled to grab my gun again, but my hands just wouldn’t cooperate.

  That’s when a black leather boot stepped next to my head and a stark-white hand reached down to grab the weapon. Shots rang out, catching the fae from another angle, dropping her into finality.

  I rolled onto my back, shuddering.

  Standing above me was Serena. She was holding my gun with a malevolent look on her face. This wasn’t the first time I’d seen her like this, gun and all. As I recall, I had been in a fair bit of pain back then, too.

  I grinned as she looked down at me and winked.

  “She d…d…dead?”

  “Most definitely,” Serena answered, kneeling to help me to sit up. Once I was propped up against her, she said, “Stay still.”

  Her hands were magic, in more ways than one. While she wasn’t a spell-caster, she had the ability to dissipate the effects of spells in rapid fashion. It only took a couple more seconds before the agony dispersed and I was left feeling the general ache of having been encased in electricity.

  “Thank you,” I said genuinely. “That wasn’t as much fun as it appeared.”

  “You should have used your safe word,” Serena said as she helped me up.

  “She knows about your safe word?” said Rachel, shaking her head.

  “One of them,” I replied with a weak smile. Then I turned to Warren. “Did you catch the bathroom bandit?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Just a kid playing pranks. I told him to undo everything immediately or he’d be looking at jail time. He’s working on it.”

  “Hopefully it wasn’t anything too bad,” I said, not really caring all that much.

  “Backward flushing toilets, itching toilet paper, splash shields…” Warren said and then stared across at the fallen fae while slowly turning green. “That’s disgusting.”

  Then he puked all over my shoes.

  Chapter 15

  I’d fully recovered from the fae’s energy blast and had used an outside faucet to rinse Warren’s dinner off my shoes. He had gotten control of himself and was busily studying the dead monster, when Paula Rose stepped out of the building, calling my name.

  “Shit,” I whispered as Serena raised an eyebrow at me and wisely walked away.

  Paula did not look pleased as she approached.

  “Paula?” I said, acting surprised. “What brings you here?”

  “Funny,” she said. “Do you have any idea how I’m supposed to manage this fine mess you’ve gotten me into?”

  “First off,” I replied, pointing at the fallen fae, “that’s who you should be yelling at, not me. We weren’t the ones running around and causing all sorts of destruction. Mostly. In fact, I personally only fired off a couple of rounds.”

  Her eye was twitching. “Was that before or after the customer service desk in the center of the casino was blown to shit?”

  “Forgot about that.” I coughed and my ribs pulsed. “Okay, so we had a little bit to do with the light show, but we wouldn’t have been here at all had it not been for that thing.”

  It was clear that Paula was fighting to maintain her cool. I couldn’t say that I blamed her, either. Not that it was my fault this all came down, but having to constantly cover our asses couldn’t have been the funnest of jobs. No doubt it was better than working in something like, say, retail. But then again, what wasn’t?

  “Just say it’s another—”

  “Another show?” she interrupted, glaring at me. “How many times am I going to use that lame excuse before people start getting wise to the bullshit?”

  “We are in Vegas,” I pointed out. “You can probably use that one for a good long time. Already have, actually.”

  “Making me a joke among my peers,” she scoffed.

  “You have peers?” I asked, instantly regretting it.

  Her hand was firmly placed on her hip now. “You son of a bitch. Do you have any idea how hard my job is?”

  “I’m guessing it’s better than working in retail…”

  “I barely ever get any sleep, and even when I do it’s broken up with a constant barrage of dreams involving me trying to figure out clever ways to cover the mayhem that you and your team cause every week.” She kicked a rock that was lying on the street, sending it flying to the curb. “I have zero social life, most of my employees are idiots, and I’m not a supernatural.”

  “I thought you were pretty decent when we…” I stopped. Now, apparently, was not the time for levity. “Sorry.”

  She sighed. “Do you think it’s remotely possible for you and your gang of misfits—”

  “I think you mean police officers.”

  “I know what I mean, thank you very much.” Her foot was tapping now. “Do you think you can maybe just stop blowing up stuff for the rest of the night?”

  I wanted to say that we could, but it wasn’t like I had any control over any of this. The monsters that kept showing up weren’t exactly invited, after all.

  “I can’t promise that,” I answered, “but I could sure as hell go for a few hours of peace and quiet myself.”

  At that admission, she dropped the hand off her hip and quit tapping her foot. It was obvious she was as tired as I felt, and the fact that she was a normal made it even tougher on her. What she needed was a nice back rub, but I knew better than to make the offer right now. Most of the women stan
ding here already thought I was the biggest pig on the planet. Except for Serena, of course, who rather approved of my playful lifestyle.

  “Look,” I said more carefully, “we’ll do what we can to minimize destruction for a while. Just hope that no more of these beasties show up. Maybe that ‘bad things always happen in threes’ superstition will ring true tonight.”

  “I hope so,” she said and then walked back into the building.

  “Chief,” Warren said, helping to take my mind off Paula’s intoxicating form, “we’ve got bigger problems than we thought.”

  “Of course we do.”

  Chapter 16

  Warren was going through his iPad, sharing the details of multiple runes spells with Serena while the rest of us milled around, waiting for the next bad thing to show up.

  The fae had been one Helen Guthrie who, not surprisingly, worked in the finance department of the Wynn. She appeared to be in her late seventies. She had gray hair, steel-rimmed glasses, and a tweed jacket.

  A white van approached and the familiar face of Rick Portman stepped out. He was the coroner for the supernatural community. We brought him a fair amount of business. Portman was one of the few werebears in Vegas. He was a good guy, too. Never gave me crap about his team having to do clean-up.

  “How’s it hanging, Dex?” he said while gripping my hand firmly.

  Not very many people called me solely by my last name. It was kind of a pet peeve of mine. But Portman was different. He did it in a way that wasn’t condescending. It was just how he spoke.

  “To the left,” I replied. “You?”

  “Living the dream, as they say.” He glanced around and saw the body. “Killing little old ladies now, eh?”

  “You should have seen her twenty minutes ago. Not only was she a fair bit bigger, she was also not what you’d consider grandmother material.”