Page 5 of Briggs (Paranormal Council Enforcers #16)

Briggs

“ Y ou ever feel like you’re in the twilight zone?”

I widened my eyes at Raiden. “Yes. Or maybe we’re suddenly in Roswell?

” I looked around the area. We were just outside of what was considered pride land, and it was…

well, a ghost town. There was a town, but the locals weren’t friendly.

That was, the ones that were around. It had been difficult to find anyone willing to talk to us.

Those that we could, they were all much older.

“I have no idea what either of you are talking about,” Damien said. “But has it come to everyone else’s attention that there isn’t anyone under the age of thirty here?”

I nodded. I’d definitely noticed that. “Where are all of the children? The population of this town is close to thirty-five hundred, but I’ve seen at most five people when walking up and down the streets.”

“Damien,” Carrington said. “Stay with them. I’m going to pop back to the council and discuss this with Master Edison.

” Damien nodded. “There is most certainly something going on here, and although this is a human town, the pride is less than ten minutes away. There are too many flags to not look into this.”

“Will do,” Damien said.

Carrington walked out of sight into an alleyway, and I had no doubt he was back at the council in a blink. I was completely in agreement that something was going on.

“We might as well go back to the hotel. It’s obvious that whatever is going on in this town has everyone wary of talking to outsiders.”

It was so bad in the area that we had to check in at a hotel that was a solid forty-five minutes away.

That should have been our first indicator that there was something going on in the area.

There were two…I wouldn’t consider them hotels, but they weren’t terrible-looking motels.

One looked as if it hadn’t had anyone at it for months.

There was someone at the front desk, but she simply told us that they weren’t full but weren’t accepting new guests at the moment.

We tried the other motel, and although it looked like it was almost new and there was only one car outside, they gave us the same answer.

“I’m thinking about going in tonight and seeing what my beast can sniff out,” Damien said. “The pride is, at the minimum, hiding something. I’d say it’s more than that though, and they are up to something.”

“I can take to the air and see if I can see anything. Maybe the pride has a building they wouldn’t let Carrington or you near?”

“I will join you,” Dimitri added. “My dragon can cover quite a bit of ground in short distances.”

I glanced over at Felix. “Wanna learn how to play poker?” I asked while shaking my head.

“Yeah, I could do that. Do you not want to go with?”

I snorted. “I’d be on foot, which isn’t necessarily the issue.

I don’t mind shifting and joining. But even I know my wolf is the weakest on the team.

I’m no match for a hellhound, and I can’t keep up with Raiden or Dimitri.

” I shrugged. “If we were to encounter a bunch of the members of the pride, I could probably take two before needing serious help. They’re just bigger than I am and have larger teeth and claws. ”

“Oh,” Felix said. He stared at me for a moment before nodding. “Learning poker sounds good. What do we need?”

I chuckled before turning my attention to Damien. “Yeah, we’ll be at the hotel, waiting. And I’m going to use that time to teach young Felix here how to play poker. Then he can go back to the council and kick his fellow faes’ asses at it next time they have a get-together.”

Damien and the others chuckled. “Sounds like a plan. That is, unless Carrington returns and tells us our assignment is suddenly over. It will all depend on what he hears from the council.”

I glanced down the street. It wasn’t a large city, but it was a town that was large enough to have people doing things.

Only, it didn’t. It was eerily empty. “How big do you think Timber Valley is?” I asked nobody in particular.

“Even Treasure Ridge, which we know has a lot fewer people than this place, has more people out and about at this time of the day.”

There was a rumbling in the distance before any of my teammates could comment on what I’d asked.

We all turned toward the sound, and although it appeared to be getting closer, nothing ever arrived.

It was odd and strange, and after several minutes of unidentifiable noise, it died down until it was silent again.

“What was that?” Felix asked, his expression showing exactly how he felt: uneasy.

“I’m not sure,” I said and looked to the others.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Damien said. He gently grabbed Felix’s arm and started walking, pushing the rest of us into the alley that Carrington had disappeared into. One moment, we were walking down the alley, the next, we were suddenly in our hotel room.

I grabbed my stomach because there was just something about hellhounds and their magic feeling heavy when compared to warlock or fae magic.

“What was that?” I asked before I shivered. “Seriously, that, combined with the creepy empty town…”

“Why did it sound as if something was going by, but there was nothing there?” Felix asked.

“Because something was,” Damien said. He pulled out his phone and started typing. A few moments later, Atticus was suddenly in the hotel with us.

“How many?” he asked, confusing the rest of us.

“From the sound of it, I’d say at least five, but they were cloaked,” Damien said.

“Umm…what’s going on?” Raiden asked the question the rest of us were wondering about.

“Guys, I’m going to send you back to the council.

I’m sorry,” Atticus said. “I know we’re all enforcers, but there are certain things that only some of us can deal with.

” Atticus nodded at us, then my stomach did that roll again, and then we were all standing outside the council building. Well, all but Damien and Atticus.

“Anyone else just as confused as I am?” Dimitri asked.

“Yes,” we all said. We didn’t get to say more because Warwick came out of the council building, followed closely by Augustus and Dante. They nodded at us before they all disappeared.

“Yeah, so who wants to bet that the ookie noise had something to do with their world?” I asked. Why else would Atticus suddenly appear, and there was no way that the other three weren’t joining them?

“I would say that’s probably a good guess,” Raiden said. “I’m not upset about being home, and Alexander isn’t going to complain either. But I feel bad because we didn’t really get to fulfill our assignment.”

We nodded in agreement. “It is difficult to do a job when we can’t even gain access to the location,” Dimitri said.

“What now?” Felix asked.

“We go into the building and find out what we need to be debriefed on,” Raiden said. “I’d guess absolutely nothing since we couldn’t even gain access to the pride’s compound.” Raiden looked over at Felix. “Do you think you can bring our luggage?”

Felix nodded. He disappeared before reappearing about a minute later. With him were all of our bags.

“Thanks,” we told him. Each of us picked up our bag, and after slinging mine over my shoulder, I started toward the council building. Felix quickly caught up, and I smiled over at the fae. “What’s up?”

“Do you think you’d still be willing to teach me poker? I’ve heard some of the other enforcers talking about it, but I don’t know how to play.”

“Sure. I can teach you all kinds of card games.” Felix smiled.

Just last week, I was feeling bad about not having spent more time being friendly with the fae enforcers.

Maybe this would be a way to hopefully help him feel more welcome.

He was often quiet when in the office, but we’d all just assumed that was who he was. Maybe not though.

At the door, I swiped my badge and punched in my pin.

The door clicked, and Dimitri held it open for us.

We all filed in, and although we used to have to all swipe our badges, it had been brought to the council’s attention that if we were arriving in multiples, it was a bit overkill.

Sure, security was important, but if you were with another enforcer, it was hoped that the enforcer would realize if they were with an impostor.

Not only that, but everyone’s auras had been mapped, and when someone or something new arrived on the mountain, the council was alerted.

We all lined up at the desk, Slater giving us a confused look. “I thought you guys were on assignment. But Carrington came back a bit ago, and now you’re here.”

“Things changed,” Dimitri said. He handed Slater his badge, and after he scanned it, he handed the card back, and Dimitri moved to the side.

The rest of us did the same, and then we were headed toward our hallway.

Our phones all chimed at the same time, and I had to chuckle.

There was only one person who could do that, and that was Master Edison.

It had been tested. Other created ones had tried to send a text to multiple enforcers at once, and they always came in staggered a bit.

Dimitri was the first to read his message. “It says we are to return to the council and meet in conference room four.”

“What do you know?” I said sarcastically. “We’re already here, and conference room four is just down that hallway.”

Raiden chuckled, and Felix looked a bit confused. It took us less than a minute to arrive at the designated spot, and although Alpha Sergei and Master Edison were already there, it seemed as if neither were actually expecting us to arrive so soon.

“We were already in the building when we received your message,” Dimitri said.

“Come in and sit down,” Master Edison said. “Unfortunately, we do not have a whole lot of information for you as of yet, but I will say that we appreciate your work on this assignment.”