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pocket full of feathers
- Pen -
The quiet clickof my keyboard fills the office as I make notes on the case I wrapped up yesterday.
Bright overhead lights compensate for the lack of windows in my below-ground office, and the scent of freshly brewed coffee drifts in from the hall outside my open door.
Just a typical afternoon in the Cleaners’ office. If I’m not out solving paranormal problems, I’m here doing paperwork.
Spring had arrived with tension in the air as we scrambled to figure out the meaning behind Mr. Berdherst’s ambiguous threat regarding the Bone Man, but then summer slipped in, bringing scorching heat and still no big, bad monster, so things had returned to normal.
Or a new normal, as the case may be.
As I hit save and close the file on my computer, a husky voice curls through the room, sending a shiver down my spine. “Was that the sound of a case closing?”
I glance up to find Darius—part of the new normal—leaning in the doorway, holding a steaming mug of coffee, and my pulse quickens.
Even after four months of living with him, I’m still not used to him walking around in a corporeal body. His broad shoulders, encased in a ridiculously expensive burgundy sweater despite the heat, fill most of the doorway, and his head nearly brushes the top of the frame.
Just back from a visit to a salon, his buffed bronze skin shines, and his tamed burgundy hair now just brushes his broad shoulders, with a soft fringe around his face. The new cut only serves to highlight the masculine lines of his jaw and high cheekbones.
An impish smile curls his lips, his golden eyes gleaming, and I realize I’ve been staring.
Despite everything we’ve been through, the raw attraction that pulled us together like magnets all those centuries ago still simmers between us, made worse by him having a body again. But I refuse to dive back into his arms, despite having forgiven him for his part in my first death.
Whatever we become going forward, it won’t be based on our past.
Ignoring the flutter in my chest, I hold out my hand for the coffee mug. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you took exactly as long to refill my cup as it took me to finish my notes.”
Fire dances in his eyes as he strides forward to place the mug in my hand, the fingers that brush against mine hotter than the scalding liquid inside. “I don’t know what you mean.”
I pull back from his touch before he tempts me. “You said you wanted to learn the business. Paperwork is part of that.”
“Theboringpart.” He trails his fingers along my desk. “I far prefer the active part of cases where we destroy things.”
I do, too, which he knows, but I roll my eyes, anyway. “Then you should have taken Sharpe up on his offer to join the Woo Woo Squad.”
“And be lower on the totem pole than Johannsson?” He shakes his head. “Pass.”
Johannsson had finally made his lieutenant rank, much to Troy’s annoyance. Troy is now the only one in Sharpe’s core team who’s still a detective, and O’Hara teases him about it constantly.
If Troy hadn’t suffered a broken leg that sidelined him for over a month, Sharpe would have promoted him before the new rules halted rank advancements.
After the summer elections—which I’m pretty sure were rigged—gave Mr. Berdherst a landslide win, it ushered in a change of regime that tightened the city’s purse strings.
The Joint Task Force of Paranormal Investigations was the first hit. Now all expenditures undergo review before a board led by Captain Bailey, Chief Lynch, and the new Mayor Berdherst.
For Sharpe, it means a lot of time spent in a boardroom arguing for funds to solve cases, knowing that they’ll ultimately deny his request.
For the rest of us, it means no more contract work for the Woo Woo Squad.
It’s the first volley in trying to force us to work for the city and one we’ve resisted so far. Only Flint gets a pass as part of the Conservatory’s effort to bring the Hive Queen’s victims back to consciousness.
While we still consult with Sharpe in the privacy of our home, publicly, a line has been drawn.
The JTFPI will either succeed on its own or fail.
“You’re frowning again,” Darius admonishes.
