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The EA used the services of Redrock Protective Services often, calling on us to protect victims. It was how Shelby and Grayson had gotten together. But they also called on me for other work, as I’d spent several years on their force before realizing I preferred working with the Redrock brothers.
I was, after all, an honorary Redrock. I considered them family, if a demon could have such a thing.
I wasn’t on the EA’s payroll, but they brought me in when they needed extra personnel, especially in cases where they had to liaise with the police. There were quite a few demons on the police force, and before the fall of The Wall, when monsters and magic hadn’t been accepted, they’d worked to keep things under wraps.
Officer Cooley, the slim brunette with her hair in a braid, who’d been rubbing at her temples, huffed as she motioned for me to follow her down the hall. Her partner, Hayes, walked next to her. As always, the blonde man with a cop ‘stache looked a lot more relaxed than his partner. The two worked well together. They had to, considering the police tended to throw the pair at anything even remotely magical.
For a pair of magic-less humans, they’d dealt with more than their share of monsters and magic. They’d known about wizards, witches, demons, gargoyles, shifters, you name it, for a long time. Nothing fazed them anymore.
“We’ve never run into much trouble with the vagrants in our city before,” Cooley began.
Like most cities, Darlington had her share of less fortunate people. Those issues didn’t disappear just because the original inhabitants had been magical.
“But starting last weekend,” she continued, “we’ve had an army of homeless and druggies attacking women on the street.”
I frowned. “Okay. And why bring the EA into this?”
She stopped at a door and opened it. “You’ll see.” She gestured for me to step in first.
Inside, sitting on a chair, was a scruffy-looking man in ratty clothing. He didn’t look particularly dangerous and didn’t have that wild look in his eyes that some desperate druggies had.
“Go ahead. Ask him why he attacked the woman,” Cooley prompted.
“Okay.” I turned back to the bum. “You heard the lady. Explain.”
He opened his mouth, but the words that spilled out were not English. They weren’t any language that I knew of. He looked frustrated and confused at the nonsense tumbling from his lips.
“This is what happened the last time those wizard pricks from the Wizard Elder Council sent men after women with magic,” Hayes said. “We’re worried they’re up to something again.”
“Have you tried asking him to write it out?”
Before I could even finish my sentence, Cooley laid out a page of indecipherable scribbles. Many of the scribbles were identical, as if someone had tried to write the same thing several times. The last repeat had angry lines crossing out everything. I could feel the writer’s frustration emanating from the page. So much for that idea.
“I can’t control my hands and mouth,” the man said in perfect English.
“So you can talk. It’s only gibberish when you try to tell us anything useful,” I said musingly. This was magical, indeed. But I didn’t think the WEC was a part of this, though perhaps a single wizard. If the WEC were trying to gather magical sources to attempt to rebuild The Wall, we would’ve gotten wind of it over at Redrock.
“What else do you know?” I asked the two cops.
“All the victims were young women with blonde hair,” Cooley said. “A passer-by mentioned that one of the attackers was asking around for a woman named Dana. Or Danie. Or Diana. Something with D.”
I froze. Danie was the name Tansy had gone by when she’d met Dean. It was how she’d introduced herself that first day in the Redrock office. I kept the information to myself, maintaining a neutral expression.
“So far, they’ve let everyone go. Which is why we’re getting so many reports at once,” Hayes finished for his partner. “It’s all quite baffling to me. We thought we should locate this Danie person ourselves and put her under protection just in case. If the WEC is interested in her, it can’t be a good thing.”
I didn’t want to link Tansy into any of this, even though I was sure this was about her, but if I refused to take this on, the EA would just send someone else. Meanwhile, if Tansy and I were successful in her mission to rid the world of an extra foul spirit, this case would solve itself.
“I will look into it,” I said, mostly to stop anyone from looking into it themselves. I turned to Cooley. “If there are any new developments, let me know.” Then I turned back to the bum and scanned him from head to toe, committing every detail to memory.
We headed back to the duo’s office. The prime real estate was a bonus this pair got for dealing with all the magical shit the other cops didn’t want to deal with. They were also given a lot more leeway. When magic was involved, rules and procedures often went out the window.
“Did you get any usable information from the victims? Where did the attacks take place?” I asked.
“No.” Hayes shook his head. “If we hadn’t gotten all the reports at once, it would’ve looked like just some random attacks. They were all over the city. Some at the college campus. Some downtown. Others, outside the mall. I’ll send you a map.”
“That would help. Anything else?”
“None of the women were related. They were just all blonde,” Hayes continued. “We’d put the first few cases on the back burner because no one was harmed, but then more and more rolled in, and we couldn’t ignore them. It’s almost like they keep getting the wrong girl. Then everyone we questioned was like that guy, incomprehensible.”
