The Merging Read online

  "Hey, Turbo," I said while rubbing my chin, "could you make mini versions of these bullets for the smaller guns? I hate having to worry about moving from silvers to woods all the time.“

  “Great idea!”

  Felicia, Chuck, and I spent the next half hour firing the things into gels and models of werewolves, vampires, zombies, and all sorts of beasties.

  I could have stayed there for many hours, but as fate would have it, that wasn’t an option.

  It was time to update the Directors.

  Chapter 27

  It was the same routine as before. The same as always. I sat in a chair while the Directors asked questions. Sometimes they fed me information; most of the time they didn’t.

  “You’re certain that this is happening due to a merging?” asked O.

  “That’s what my lead wizard suspects, sir,” I answered. “Honestly, I haven’t any idea since magic isn’t one of my strong suits.”

  “It’s not as weak in you as you may believe.”

  “This isn’t time for a lesson, O,” Silver pointed out while leaning forward. “How were the demons destroyed?”

  “Warren used some type of black liquid on them, sir. Said it had something to do with a void.”

  “Permanent death,” Silver said, leaning back again.

  “What does that mean?” asked Zack.

  Silver whispered, “Exactly what it sounds like.”

  The panel grew quiet for a few moments. That happened now and then. I guessed they used a cone of silence or something so I couldn’t hear what they were talking about. This time, though, I could make out the rhythmic tapping of Zack’s hand on the table.

  “Sorry,” I said, unable to contain myself, “but you’re saying that whole ‘permanent death’ thing like it’s a negative, sir. We are talking about demons here, right?”

  “Just because something is a demon does not make it inherently bad,” O answered.

  I squinted. “But they’re… demons.”

  “And on the panel before you is a vampire, a werewolf, a mage, and a pixie. Are we not bantered about in standard texts as being evil as well?” O then coughed. “Okay, maybe not the pixie as much, but they never had to contend with one like ours.”

  He had a point. Every piece of mythology pointed out the negatives regarding the supernaturals. To be fair, usually when a normal had the unfortunate experience of meeting a supernatural, things didn’t go so swimmingly. Still, criminals were the minority. Most supernaturals were just trying to get by, make a living, and raise their own little vampires and werewolves and such.

  “Fair enough,” I said.

  “You can both stick it up your own asses,” EQK retaliated. “Or each other’s asses, for all I care.”

  “Um,” I replied, squinting in his general direction. “Ew.”

  “How many are left?” asked Zack.

  “Asses?”

  “No, EQK,” Zack said with a hint of menace, “I’m asking Mr. Dex how many demons remain.”

  “Six, sir,” I replied before the pixie could blurt something else out. “We believe that two of them are already merged and the other four are acting as a battery for Reese.”

  “A battery?” said Silver.

  “Rachel said that he’s drawing power from them somehow.” I wiped my forehead with my sleeve. “The guy is already way more powerful than my crew, sir, but at the rate he throws out energy, he should be exhausted in less than a minute. The demons funnel strength his way. It’s like he’s got no end to his supply.”

  Another round of silence followed. I was starting to get the feeling that I was the one on trial here. Did Paula from The Spin get in touch with these guys and tell them to open a can of whoop-ass on me or something? Besides, why weren’t they doing something about this themselves? I mean, sure it was my jurisdiction and I was the chief here, but they knew damn well that I only had a handful of officers to deal with this sort of thing. We were meant for managing the occasional werewolf tearing up the town or guys like that vampire who, through a moment of weakness, bit into a normal’s neck. Dealing with someone like Reese and his ubernaturals was on the edge of our capabilities, regardless of our collective genetic make-up.

  “How are you planning to stop him?” Zack asked.

  “Honestly,” I said as my ire continued to climb, “I have no idea.”

  “This is unsettling,” said O.

  “Ya think?”

  The panel silenced, letting me know I’d overstepped my bounds. This happened now and then. But this time there was more to it than me just being me.

  “Look, I’m sorry,” I said, sitting up and placing my elbows on the table, “but this Reese character is tough to tackle. He kicked our butts like we were nothing. One of him using demon batteries against my entire team and we didn’t even have a chance.”

  They were still silent. Pompous fuckers.

  “I honestly expected a bit more out of you than ‘This is unsettling.’”

  “Such as?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, letting it all out. “How about stepping out from behind that pedestal of yours and giving us some goddamn help? You guys are supposed to be big and powerful. I know that we have enhanced capabilities as part of our deal with being members of the PPD, but you guys are the cream of the crop.” I crossed my arms in the hopes of solidifying my point. “Honestly, we could use some muscle here.”

  I guess one of the major aspects of maturity was taking your time to think through your words before blurting them. The panel always sat in silence after I went on a rant, signaling that their level of maturity far exceeded mine.

  “We are incapable of coming to your aid, Mr. Dex,” O said softly.

  “Why?”

  “Because we’re nowhere near you,” Zack answered. “You’re not the only precinct where we sit on the board.”

  “Oh.” I’d honestly never considered that. “Where are you?”

  “All over the place,” said Silver. “I’m in St. Louis, O is in New York, Zack is in Boston, and EQK is in Seattle.”

  “I see.” I licked my lips, feeling a bit foolish at the moment. “Well, my apologies then.”

  “No,” said O after a moment, “your frustration is understandable.”

  I nodded. “Thanks. Okay, so aside from the standard ‘do your best’ advice, would you have any concrete suggestions?”

  “Shoot him in the cock?” blurted EQK, demonstrating yet again that I wasn’t the only one in the room who suffered from immaturity. “It worked last time!”

  Chapter 28

  Night had finally rolled in, signaling the action was going to start soon, assuming Reese had survived his own tantrum at the morgue.

  I dispatched Chuck and Griff to Old Town to search for Jeffrey Case, who happened to work at the Downtown Grand. Felicia and Jasmine headed to The Mirage where Brittany Miller worked. Financier by day, succubus by night. My kind of woman.

  Rachel and I canvased the main strip, looking for anything unusual.

  While we had the basic stats on the two remaining seminar attendees, we still had no idea where and when Reese was going to turn up. We had a bit of an edge because he likely assumed we were dead. Unless, of course, he had an informant somewhere.

  Serena and Warren had gone with Felicia because the wizard preferred the Camaro over my Aston Martin. I had the Rapide S, so there was a back seat, but he claimed there was more room for him to prepare in the muscle car. How he could prepare for anything while sliding around in the back of that thing was beyond me. My guess was that he had a thing for Jasmine. Couldn’t blame him since I did too. Of course, I also had a thing for Rachel, Felicia, and Serena.

  “What did the Directors say?” Rachel asked off the connector.

  “Same thing they always say. ‘Do your best’ or some shit like that. Now and then they’ll give me a solid piece of help, but mostly it’s just me providing status reports and feeling like I’m being judged.”

  She nodded as I turned left o
n West Tropicana and past the Hooters Casino Hotel. To my credit, I didn’t look at the girls standing outside.

  “I was talking with Warren while you were in the meeting,” she said. “He’s got an idea that may just work, but it’s not going to be easy for him to manage.”

  “Is that why Serena’s with him?”

  “She’s good at keeping his emotions in check.”

  “She’s good at a lot of things.”

  Rachel shook her head. “You need help.”

  “Probably,” I replied, feeling like a heel. “Listen…”

  “No, thanks.”

  “Seriously, just hear me out.”

  She uncrossed her arms and groaned. Then she motioned me to go on.

  “You guys all got genetically enhanced when you joined the PPD, so you got the horny gene just like I did. But there’s something different about me.”

  “That’s true.”

  “Play nice,” I warned. “I’m trying to open up here.”

  “Go on.”

  “Well, it’s just that you hit level eleven mage overnight, just like Jasmine and Griff. Warren is slow as crap, but his abilities as a wizard are pretty ridiculous. Felicia can control her werewolf side better than most any werewolf out there, even those holding the highest seats. Same with Chuck and Serena with their vampireness.” I swallowed. “But I’m different than you all. I never got direct enhancements.”

  “Could have fooled me,” she said.

  “I’m not talking about that,” I said irritably. Wasn’t I supposed to be the juvenile one here? “I’m talking about the fact that I’m an amalgamite. I’m different. Vastly so. My genetic splicing was across the board. Yours was directed at a single facet of your abilities. Where you got one magnitude of rowdy plaything added to your genome, I got ten.”

  “Okay, okay,” she said. “Fair enough.”

  “Wait, I’m not finished.” This took some effort. “When you have a mage issue, you have someone to talk to. For example, when Felicia is having her monthly thing—”

  “What?”

  We stopped at a light and I gave her a look. “I’m talking about the full moon event, Rachel. Werewolf stuff.”

  “Oh, right. Sorry, I was…” She coughed lightly. “You were saying?”

  “My point is that you all have someone to turn to whenever you’re confused, lost, or just need an ear to bend who understands what you’re going through.” The light changed and I cut left on Swenson in order to circle back toward the strip. “I’ve got nobody.”

  Neither of us said anything as I continued driving along. I drove past the sports fields of the University of Las Vegas until finally taking a left on East Flamingo.

  “Honestly,” she said, “I’ve never thought about it that way.”

  “We’ve been partners for seven years, Rachel.”

  “And you’ve been a player that entire time.”

  “True,” I said. “Again, though, I’m kind of built that way.”

  “Yeah, I know.” It wasn’t said with malice, which was something new. “I guess in some respects we’re all a bit jealous of you.”

  “Of me?” I couldn’t help but laugh at that.

  “I’m being straight up here, Ian. You’re kind of like a jack of all trades.”

  “Master of none.”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “You are pretty damn good at one thing.”

  “Hard to argue that,” I said, giving her a quick wink.

  “I’m talking about leading this team.”

  “Oh, right.”

  We passed the Silver Sevens and began creeping up on the Tuscany Suites.

  It was a nice night on the strip. The sky was clear and the air was just warm enough to feel good without pushing into sweat territory. I was tempted to put down the windows as Fido had done the night before, but I knew that Rachel would just get irritated at me. She was an air conditioner kind of woman.

  “You have a knack for it,” she continued. “And while you also have a tendency of saying the wrong thing most of the time, everybody knows that you’ll do what needs to be done in order to protect us.”

  “Well, of course. You’re my team.”

  “I know that’s how you feel, Ian,” she said, nodding. “Believe it or not, though, there are many people out there who talk the talk without a problem, but when it comes time to walk the walk, they only look out for number one.”

  She was right, of course. There were many kinds of leaders in the world. Some always had your back. They took the heat when you screwed up, and then they gave you a little taste of that heat so you could learn and improve. Some let the heat flow straight through. There were others who did all they could to protect their own hides even if it meant sacrificing everyone under them in the process.

  “I appreciate it,” I said, which was admittedly difficult. “Just know that I’m not likely to change. I like the ladies and I like living somewhat lavishly. It’s who I am.”

  “And you remember that we’re here to point out that you’re an asshole whenever you do that.”

  I smiled genuinely. “Fair enough.”

  With Bally’s on the left and the Flamingo on the right, I knew we’d gotten back to South Las Vegas Boulevard.

  We went south again and cruised down a ways until we passed the CityCenter and started coming up to The Park and New York-New York.

  “It’s getting pretty late,” I said to the entire team through the connector as I got my head back in the game. “I’ve a feeling the shit’s going to hit the fan pretty soon. If you spot anything, don’t engage alone. It’ll be far easier for us to attack those damn things as a team.”

  “I don’t think they’re going to find anything,” Rachel said while leaning a bit forward in the passenger seat.

  “Why not?”

  She pointed to the top of the Excalibur.

  There was a massive light show of magic going on.

  We had found Reese.

  Chapter 29

  Reese hadn’t gotten into full power mode yet, thankfully.

  Felicia and Jasmine had turned up with Warren and Serena, but we were still waiting on Griff and Chuck. They were halfway here and I was itching to go up and get the show rolling. We needed everyone, though, so I held myself in check.

  “What’s the plan, Warren?” I asked, trying to pass the time.

  “I need to study this right now, Chief,” he answered.

  Serena stepped over and took me by the arm. She walked me a few feet away.

  “He’s a little sensitive,” she said in her sultry voice. “His plan is to build a set of runes that will cut the ability for the demons to feed power to Reese.”

  “That sounds good.”

  “Yes, but it will take some time, and he knows how that irritates you.”

  “Only because I’m usually in the process of being killed when he’s doing it.”

  “I know, darling,” she said, running a finger through my hair. “Like I said, he’s sensitive.”

  So was I at the moment.

  Serena loved playing the game as much as I did. In fact, I often wondered if there was more to her alterations than met the eye. Regardless, now was not the time for love. Later, yes. Definitely later. Now, though, I had to focus, which I guess was exactly what Warren was trying to do.

  With much effort, I smiled at Serena and said, “You should probably keep helping him. I’ll stay out of his hair and will try to be as patient as possible.”

  Jasmine and Rachel were discussing their tactics as well. It seemed to me that the majority of what they did was throw fireballs, ice balls, ice storms, and put up shields, but they always discussed their plans anyway.

  I shrugged and moved over to Felicia. At least she was somewhat like me, meaning that she was more physical when it came to fighting. She had that werewolf blood, too. It made her act in primal fashion.

  “Ready for this?” I said.

  The reddish color of her eyes answered before she did. “Yep.�
�

  “Between you and me, Felicia, I’m not sure if we’re going to get out of this one.”

  “I didn’t think we’d get out of the last one either.”

  “We shouldn’t have.”

  “I know.” She leaned in, releasing a low growl. “We have time for a quickie.”

  “Are you serious?” I said, giving her a look that said, ‘Didn’t you want to punch me in the neck not long ago because you thought I was a freak?’

  She provided a look of her own and then said, “Hey, we’re about to die, right?”

  “Probably,” I said, feeling suddenly nervous. “But for reasons that I can’t quite explain, I’m not in the mood.”

  “That’s new.”

  “I know, right?”

  She sighed. “Suit yourself. I’m going to go play some slots.”

  Just as she dropped in a coin and pulled the handle, Griff and Chuck came through the main entrance. Chuck was running as Griff followed him briskly.

  “Sorry,” Chuck said, “we got here as fast as we could.”

  “We wished to verify that the other werewolf hadn’t stayed over in the old strip to create a diversion,” Griff added.

  I looked them both over. “And you’re sure he didn’t?”

  “No,” admitted Griff, “but after a solid look around we felt it more wise for us to be here to assist with Reese. He is quantifiably more powerful than a single ubernatural.”

  “Valid point.”

  I gathered everyone up and started walking toward the main security station. We flashed our badges and were immediately let through to the back areas. A hidden elevator shaft opened up with buttons that could take us to the top floor. From there it would be a quick climb onto the roof via an access stairwell.

  How Reese and his goons had gotten up there, I had no idea. I just knew that they were on top of the tall building that sat parallel to Tropicana Avenue.

  We stepped out onto the roof and snuck around past the massive machinery until we could see our wizard pal, a werewolf, a succubus, and four apparitions that were obviously the demons.