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“Oh,” Medium-Size Robert blinked. “So, it’s not part of your training?”
Confused, I looked from Medium-Size Robert to my smoothie, then back to Medium-Size Robert. “No?”
“I see.” Medium-Sized Robert slumped his shoulders for a moment. “I thought, maybe, you were doing something to build up your resistance to poisons. In case of… accidental poisoning.” He glanced at Grove’s empty desk, which had a potion sitting on it that had been there since the day I’d arrived. The potion was green, and a highly suspicious orange ring had formed at the bottom of the bottle.
“No,” I said. A moment passed, and I realized I should elaborate if I didn’t want to come off sounding like a snob. “It’s my meal. It’s just green because of the spinach.”
“I understand.” Medium-Sized Robert nodded. “Thank you for taking the time to answer my question, Blood. Ma’am.” He bowed a little, then edged away making for his chair—which was enormous and made of wooden logs that were each as thick as my neck.
I tapped my cup on my desk as I watched him.He’s weirdly formal with me. Calling me Ma’am? I’m one of the youngest members of the squad. I’m twenty-six!
If I asked Sunshine about the Ma’am thing, she’d just tell me he was in awe of me which I wasn’t sure about since he seemed eager to get away from me.
If I was more friendly, he might have been less scared. But it takes me so long to think of questions to ask and ways tobefriendly that I just end up making things more awkward.
I sighed and glanced over at April wondering if I should ask her for help.
The House Medeis wizard was wearing her long-sleeved uniform tonight—the chillier nights despite the warm days were making the humans of the night shift make the swap earlier than the werewolves and vampires would—and was seated at her desk.
Juggernaut’s desk was across from her, and the two appeared to be playing a card game—drawings cards from each other’s hands—though they paused frequently to fill out spots in the reports they were working on.
April was intimidating given her wizard abilities but even as she and Juggernaut played cards together a couple of night shifters from the evidence processing team waved to her as they walked past. Even Tetiana paused by her desk, watching the wizard duo exchange cards with interest.
Maybe I should make getting people to wave to me my new goal since friendship with my squadmates seems out of reach.
“Hey-o, Blood.” Grove swung his legs wide as he duck waddled past my desk, pivoted, then stopped and saluted me.
For a moment I had hope—was Grove stopping by just to say hello?
The fae dashed those hopes when he straightened his shoulders. “We’ve got some more questions for you.”
Ahh, of course. Work. At least that will make it easier to talk.
I stood up and my chair made a low groaning noise as its legs scraped the tile floor. “Questions about the boars?”
“Yep.” Grove did a little twirl and led me to a whiteboard, where Brody was waiting.
They must have just put it together because it didn’t even have the photos that I’d taken of the damage the rampaging boar had done. (I’d uploaded them last night during the meetings Sarge had me sit in on.)
“Any news on if the boar is still loose?” I asked, settling into work like putting on a comfortable jacket.
Brody shook his head, then nodded. “No, or yes?” He scratched the back of his neck, and his blue eyes were so bright they were jewel-like in the bright office lighting. “None of the other shifts were able to find it, either, so as far as we know it’s still loose. All the investigations have hit dead ends—the only good thing is none of the other werewolves or shifters could catch its scent, so at least we know Binx and I didn’t miss something.”
I nodded as I studied the whiteboard taking in photos of the boars we’d killed as well as the scent profile Binx and Brody had created.
“On the bright side, the boar hasn’t done more damage since last night,” Grove said. “Or someone would have seen it. Coffee?” He didn’t wait for my reply, and instead shoved a mug into Brody’s hands.
Brody scowled down at the mug—which had a kitten riding a pink unicorn on it. “Dude, this is so old it’s cold.”
“Yeah, I don’t want to walk it back to a sink to pour it out,” Grove said. “I was told by some weirdo Night Court fae that coffee is as good as tea. That was a lie. It is not.”
Brody rolled his eyes and turned to set the mug down on a nearby desk, showing off twin paw prints—the work of one of his packmates no doubt—on the back of his shirt that he likely didn’t know about. “About the boar,” he said. “Another possibility is that it’s not destroying half the city right now because whoever released them on the city might have found it and taken it away.” Brody made a face. “Which isn’t great, either.”
“Maybe someone poisoned it?” Grove suggested.
Brody rolled his eyes. “You need a new hobby. No—likefivenew hobbies. You’re way too fixated on poisons.”
“Aww, are you concerned for me?”
