AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Three
ALASTOR
Iignored the curious glances as I strode down the sidewalk towards my destination. The beating Las Vegas sun might have set, but the heat didn't really start to die down until well into the night, and my long black leather trench coat was attracting some shocked attention. I didn't care. With my size, I tended to draw attention wherever I went, and having spent several hundred years living in Hell, the desert heat barely affected me. Some glances were more approving, and as I stood aside to allow two young women to step out of the shop door I'd stopped at, they were blatant in looking me up and down. They weren't unattractive, but I had better things to do with mytime tonight than entertain human women. I simply nodded and stepped past them into the shop.
I’d been to various Concordia branches all over the world during my time. Sometimes they moved, other times they masqueraded as certain things. London, for example, had two branches. One was two streets away from the prime minister, while the other was fronting as a sex shop in Soho. In Las Vegas, the main office was located behind a tacky souvenir shop just off the Strip. Dave, one of the guards permanently posted, stood at the counter wearing some lurid tropical shirt in pink and orange. He looked up as my shadow fell across the desk, his eyes flicking past me at the three tourists down one of the aisles.
"Alastor, it's been a while. How did your... holiday in Kenya go?"
I nodded down at him. "Straightforward and relaxing, Dave. Had to drop a couple of things off in the desert on the way back, but other than that, couldn't complain."
Dave grinned. "Glad to hear it, mate. Sometimes the people you meet overseas can be a downright irritation."
I shrugged. "A few flies needed swatting, nothing more. Brought you a souvenir back."
I dropped a small carved wooden elephant on the counter and Dave's grin widened. "Ah shucks, man, you're the best.'' He picked the elephant up and studied it, before placing it carefully on a shelf behind the counter that already displayed tiny artefacts from various countries.
"Is he in already?"
Dave nodded and repositioned the elephant slightly. "In the back, you know the way. Grab a couple of beers from the fridge on the way back out, man."
I headed through the shop, pushing my way through the beaded curtain that hung in the doorway to the office and storeroom. Dave might come across as cheerful and harmless,and he might be half my size, but he was the front man for our branch and as such had particular talents. If he decided you weren't getting in the back, then you didn't get in. Best to keep him sweet. Plus, Dave's presence on earth came with a stipulation that he was only allowed to stay within the borders of this city. I knew how jealous he was of us field agents getting out in the world. It was only decent to bring him something back.
I squeezed down the narrow corridor and into one of the storerooms at the back of the shop. A battered fridge stood against one of the concrete walls with boxes of stock stacked around it. I stepped up to it and opened the temperature display panel to tap in the access code. A quiet click came from inside the fridge, and I pulled on the handle, opening the door. Ducking down, I squeezed inside and headed down the concrete steps. Red automatic lighting flickered above me as the fridge door swung shut. The door at the bottom opened into Concordia’s main office. I remembered when we had four admin staff, and this place was quiet every day. Now, we had something like fifteen full-time admin staff, and that wasn’t counting the six teams that were out patrolling the city and assigned to investigate cases.
I passed through the desks, avoiding people scurrying to printers and whatever else the paper pushers did. I knew in a physical fight, these guys and girls would topple in a heartbeat, but at the same time, we couldn’t do our jobs without them, and they were as much a part of the fight as we were. I had a lot of respect for Concordia members that had to deal with all this shit. Give me a tussle with a werewolf over a stack of paperwork any day.
I had barely tapped on Branson’s door before it swung open to reveal a flash of bubble gum pink. An agent in training, Lily had been working with me before I'd gone to Kenya to track down some hunters who'd not just been after live game in the parksbut were knowingly targeting lion and elephant shifters as well. I had my normal crew, but I had to admit, it was never dull with Lily around.
“Well, it’s about time, boss. Stop off for a drink on the way?”
“Fuck off, Lily,” I growled, moving past her into the office and stopping in surprise just as I passed her.
"Boss?" No Branson, but my eyes widened at the two men who sat on the black leather couch opposite Branson's desk. They stood up as I walked into the office, and I stepped forward to shake their hands. “Amadi, Alex. It’s been fucking forever.”
“Alastor, great to see you.” Amadi flashed me a blinding white smile, and I pulled my half-brother into a hug.
“You look good, man,” I said, looking him up and down. When all the shit went down with the watchers breaking free from Tartarus, he’d spent months being possessed by the lord of the watchers, a particularly nasty fallen angel known as Shemyaza, and he’d barely survived. I’d gone over to see him a year or so later, and he’d still looked pretty rough. Now, though, he was back to being all muscle and sinew.
“How’s my niece?” I asked. “Still raising hell?”
Amadi had spent two hundred years with just Alex as his companion, but five years ago, he’d met a woman who had changed his life. He was now in some kind of poly setup with her, Alex, a wolf shifter, and two fallen angels, and in the thousands of years I’d known him, I’d never seen him happier than when he’d announced the birth of their daughter.
He pulled out his phone, grinning, and handed it to me. The screen saver showed a blonde-haired little girl grinning up at the screen, her mouth covered in chocolate ice cream, her dark eyes crinkled with laughter. I smiled and handed the phone back.
“Not bad, man, not bad.”
Amadi grinned. “She’s a handful but worth every moment of trouble.”
Alex rolled his eyes. “Speak for yourself. She didn’t spill coke all over your computer system.”
“She was watching YouTube,” Amadi argued, holding his hands up.
“It was a state-of-the-art hacking system I’d spent fifteen years designing and upgrading, and she destroyed half of it because she got distracted by someone making slime,” Alex countered, but I could see he was just as smitten by the little girl as Amadi was, and I laughed.
The door opened behind me, and Branson came into the room. He nodded at everyone, and we fell silent at the serious expression on his face. He gestured for us all to sit, which we did, and then he leaned back in his chair.
"Alastor, thanks for coming in. I know you've just got back from Kenya, but something's come up. Have the guys filled you and Lily in?"
