Page 16

Chapter Sixteen

T he car was mostly wheels and a tiny cockpit. I climbed in next to the goblin girl, and then we were rolling, literally, and that thing had hooks in the wheels so it could climb up stone walls. Which it did. She drove fast, and in only a few minutes, we were pulling into a tunnel beyond the city cavern, headed for the exit. Hopefully. We came up against a wall that split open the second before we hit it, then we were out, coming up a ramp past the small hut that was the people's entrance to goblin town.

She stopped the vehicle a hair’s-breadth away from my mother, who held her sign and glared at the cockpit.

I clenched my fists as the emotions bubbled up. She’d humiliated me in front of everyone. She’d never accept that I was my own person. I hated disappointing her, but I was done pretending to live the life she wanted for me. Finally, I took a deep breath, smoothed my palms on my gray slacks, and opened the cockpit. I got out, climbing over the tire to land in front of my mother.

“What seems to be the problem?”

She sputtered and then threw her sign in the air. “What’s the problem? My daughter is stolen away by the goblin king after being corrupted by one of his henchmen, and you’re asking me what is the problem?”

She grabbed me into a hug that surprised me. It also hurt my shoulder, but I was frozen in place from shock, so I didn’t move until she pulled away and peered at me.

“He really let you go?”

I brushed down her hands, one of which was digging into my wound, while my emotions roiled around from angry to relieved. She was worried about me even though I’d lied to her?

“Yes. I mean, he didn’t try to stop me. I asked him for a place to stay until I figured out housing. I need to move out, to live my own life and not rely on you forever.” Really? But I loved my family.

“You pay rent.”

“I need to live somewhere closer to work.”

She flinched. “In the growl district? Really? You want to live and work there?”

I glanced back at the entrance to Goblin Town. “It’s a shorter commute than from here. It’s good to see you. But you should go home. I’m not being held prisoner. I just needed a place to stay for a little while.”

“And this business with the courthouse? With your boss being in a coma in the hospital? That could have been you! Your car was ripped apart! Why would you choose such a dangerous job? It’s like you want to die! You’re so careless!”

I held onto my anger. This wasn’t the time. And she was right. I’d stupidly, carelessly written to the Goblin King so I could save my brother. I’d also worn that cursed dress to a ball, defying my boss in the process. “That’s right. I was. I am. I’m going to work now. I hope that my boyfriend’s sister can give me a ride so I don’t have to find a cab.”

My mother blinked at me. “Just like that? This is your new normal?”

“I’ll give you a ride, sure thing,” the goblin girl called.

I shrugged and had a hard time meeting my mother’s eyes. I felt so guilty. Was she manipulating my emotions, or had I just gotten used to these feelings? “Look, mom, I love you. Thanks so much for caring about me. Now it’s time for me to take care of myself.” I gave her a delicate hug that she finally returned before pulling away with a frown.

“I don’t like you staying in Goblin Town. Can’t you ask Gabby? Or you could stay in a hotel if you must run away from home like a child. Libby’s place is available.”

“I’m staying with my boyfriend. His place is large, quiet, and he doesn’t mind sharing with a feral raccoon. I never asked for a familiar.”

“No, you didn’t, but when the magic grows, so does the connection to the natural world around you.” Her face was still worried. “And he really let you leave?”

Not exactly, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. “I’m not a holograph projection, if that’s what you’re asking. Look, I’ve really got to get to work. Why don’t we all go out to dinner sometime and you can voice your worries in a really reasonable, respectful way, all right? If we do go to dinner, you’re going to show me beforehand every question you want to ask. I don’t want you to hurt his feelings.”

She snorted. “Hurting his feelings? The Goblin King?”

“Yes. Well, the Goblin Authority. That’s his propaganda, and I’m respecting it. By the way, the compulsion at the ball was from the dress I was wearing. Clary gave it to me. I don’t think she knew it was a compulsion dress, but that’s what that was about. I didn’t even realize at the time, the spelling was so subtle.”

“Demon work, sounds like. When witches work with demons, bad things follow.” Her eyes were concerned, and after last night, I had to agree. Internally, so she wouldn’t know and have the opportunity to gloat and press her own wisdom over mine.

“Do you know much about demons?” Like what kind of demon was incorporeal like that, and why it would be able to control people into killing themselves?

She frowned at me as her face soured further. “They’re to be avoided, like goblins, like werewolves, and all the dangerous creatures that you seem so fond of.”

“Point taken.”

“And discarded.”

It hadn’t been a very useful point. I turned to climb back over the tire and into the cockpit. I waved at my mom before the glass closed and we were once more jolting on our way, through the undercity and towards the circular road that wound around and around until we came out in Sing.

“You’re used to overprotective overlords. That’s good,” Sashimi’s sister said.

“Do you have a name? I keep thinking of you as Sashimi’s sister.”

She snorted. “You can call me whatever you want. Sashimi calls me Trata, which means?—”

“Mischief,” I said, cutting her off. I looked at her carefully. “Trata it is. Should I call him Corcarn? Is it disrespectful or something to call him sushi? It probably is, but it’s how I’ve thought of him for a decade.”

“You’re publicly declared as his girlfriend. You can call him whatever you like.”

“Mm hm. That wasn’t really an answer. What did you mean about overprotective overlords? You called his house a vault.”

“I did. Goblins are possessive and protective of what they consider theirs.”

“And he’s been my protector, so naturally he’d be overprotective. He isn’t, though. He didn’t stop me from anything I wanted to do, not like my mother would have tried to.”

“But he did put your life above his, or he wouldn’t be asleep while you’re awake.”

I frowned at her and absently touched my shoulder. “You’re saying that I should be more protective of him?”

“I’m saying that if you’re going to put yourself in danger, you’re putting him in double danger. Because he’ll take the brunt of the fallout. It’s fine. He’s practically indestructible, what with the curse.”

“The curse where he has to marry a human?”

“The curse where he has to have a son, and can’t die until that’s accomplished. So, maybe after you have a baby, you can be more careful with your life so you don’t end his. Changing goblin kings is a hassle.”

“I’m sure.” I felt my shoulders rise from her talking about such incredibly personal things, but it’s not like it was true. “I’m not going to have his baby. Wow, that’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever said. He’s using me to protect him from the curse, to keep from falling in love with a human.”

She made a weird gurgling sound. “Oh. That explains so much. You’ve known him for a decade. That means he’s known you for a decade, which means that he knows exactly what makes you tick. He manipulates his world. He can’t help it, it’s what he is.”

“Ergo, he’s manipulating me? I know. I just told you that I know.”

“Ah. But has he told you everything?”

“Of course not. He’s a goblin who doesn’t trust anyone. He can’t even trust dresses not to kill him. I don’t want or need him to tell me his ultimate secret plans. I’m not a goblin, and I don’t expect him to ever trust me.”

“Dresses? I have got to hear that story. No, pretty Rinny, he’s let you into his vault. He definitely trusts you the most. Well, he has this person he calls ‘uncle,’ who fathered his brother, his mother’s illegitimate child like I’m his father’s. How egalitarian, right? Sashimi trusts him way too much. When you have that family dinner, I should come. Mostly because I want to watch him try to look civilized. I adore watching him try to look civilized.”

“He is actually incredibly civilized.” I wouldn’t mention him eating the dress.

She snorted. “He’s a goblin.”

“He’s more than half human.”

“The goblin king doesn’t work that way. His half-brother, he’s half human, but Corcarn is entirely one hundred percent goblin.”

“Whatever that means.”

“It means that he was raised on a battlefield eating the bodies of his enemy. Sometimes his own men, when they irritated him. Am I not supposed to mention that? I wouldn’t want to put a fly in the ointment of your platonic love.” She batted her dark green lashes at me.

“Oh, yes, I can tell you’re very sensitive about my feelings. Pull up right here, please.” I pointed to the building across the street and down a ways from the police station.

“Why? You don’t want anyone to see your connection to goblins? It’s a bit late for that.”

She pulled up directly in front of the station and flashed me a smile as she rolled those wheels up on the sidewalk, taking up half of it. “Go get ‘em tiger.”

“Thanks. You too.” I climbed over the wheel, grabbing my briefcase, aware of how incredibly unprofessional I probably looked, and everyone was looking.

I nodded at Lewell as I approached the door. “Any updates about Lieutenant Joss?”

“He’s unconscious at Bells, last I heard. Were you there? Someone said…”

“Yes. Unfortunately, I was too late to stop the demon entirely.” I pulled out my phone as we walked inside. Gabby hung out with all kinds of high-level magic users. One of them probably knew something about demons. I stopped, surveying the scene, when I saw the mess inside the police station. Papers were everywhere, computers overturned, the lab on the side where we ran fingerprints had a shelving unit sticking through the window.

“When did this happen?” I asked, aware of Lewell at my shoulder.

“You didn’t know?”

“No. My partner had to get treated.”

“Your partner’s a goblin now?” Brannigan asked, looking up from the chair he was on, feet up on the desk strewn with chaos while he drank his coffee like he was at a resort.

I knocked his feet to the floor. “That’s right. When I want someone who will back me up, I go to the goblin. And he did a phenomenal job, saving my life and the Lieutenant’s. How’s your coffee?”

He looked at me, blinking, uncertain what was going on with me. “It’s bad, as usual. Do you want a cup?”

I smiled at him sweetly. “I want you to enjoy your coffee. And then you’re going to start filing, like everyone else here.” I looked around, meeting the eye of every cop there. “We need to find out what was taken. This mess is a distraction, and we need to clean it up or we won’t know what it’s covering. Lewell, forget about the door. What’s coming already came and went. Work these files. If you need help, ask Nills. Is he here?”

“Yes, Sato. He’s in the basement, filing the mess down there,” Lewell said, shuffling closer with a frown.

So the entire place had been searched. Terrific. “I’ll be in my office. I need to break down the case.”

“Ah, maybe you should use Jossy’s office,” Brannigan said, standing up and frowning down at me.

“Should I?”

“Your office got charbroiled. Apparently, the demon didn’t appreciate you messing up murder number three. I heard it’s probably a demon summoning circle. That would look bad on your resume.”

I glared at him. “My resume?”

“Sure. You’re taking charge, right? That means you take the blame.”

I pressed my lips together instead of sputtering at him. How was someone so annoying still alive? “As always, your phenomenal support is appreciated.” I thrust a handful of files at him. “Take care of it, grunt.”

He grunted with a gleam of amusement in his eyes. Yep. He wanted to die. But someone else would have to take care of it, because I had things to do.

I checked my office. Yep. Charcoal. Someone had taped cardboard over the window. For a second I stood there, heart pounding, shoulder throbbing, but then I shook off the panic and headed to Jossy’s office, which was only moderately scuffled. I set the chair upright and then started working on the board, drawing out the blueprint I’d memorized from Sashimi’s wall. The other two points needed to be heavily guarded as soon as possible. Just because the demon had struck at night didn’t mean that would continue.

I called Gabby. She answered right away.

“Are you okay? They say you were at the courthouse during the last attack!”

“Hey. I’m good. Do you know anyone who specializes in demons?”

She snorted. Loudly. “Are you kidding me? After your mother shook me down to find out where you were, like she thought my bestie would tell me where she’d moved to or something, you want to know about demons? Where are you staying? Are you okay? Don’t give me, ‘I’m good,’ because that’s a lie you tell your mother, not me! Also, demons? Are you kidding me? Demons are so dangerous, Rynne. Not like skating without a helmet, like jumping off a cliff into the jaws of evil. What? No, I don’t know what kind of demon. Apples, I’m having a conversation.”

“Wait, does he know about demons?”

“Of course he knows about demons, but…”

“Hey, Rynne,” Gabby’s husband said, apparently somehow confiscating his wife’s phone. “Can you give me a description? We’re all really interested in hearing details.”

I heard Gabby’s voice in the background. “If this wasn’t ‘protector of humans’ business, I’d be seriously upset right now, Sweetheart!”

I took a deep voice. “Yes. It was incorporeal, but capable of acting on objects, such as a goblin bomb he threw at me, and a sink he exploded. He grappled with goblin magic, and it appeared as a wave of red light. He could fade at will, and of course controlled Lieutenant Joss’s mind, not entirely, because he was crying as he fought the compulsion to shoot himself, but in the end he pulled the trigger.”

“Sounds like you had a fun time. A goblin bomb? Did you get your injury looked at?”

“Yes. It’s just a scratch. All the shrapnel got pulled out right away.”

“Don’t scratch it.”

“I wasn’t going to. I’m not unaware of the effects of goblin bombs.”

“Of course you aren’t.”

“Who do you have guarding the other summoning points?”

“Gargoyles.”

“Oh.” Usually no one admitted there were gargoyles.

“Yes. The Gray Society is heavily invested in preventing the summoning of greater demons in Singsong City.”

“Glad to know you’ve got it handled.”

“Somewhat handled. The demon you’ve blocked isn’t a nice guy. He should be locked up in a special dimension created by angels for the purpose, but somehow he got out.”

“You think there’s an accomplice?”

He said, “Of course. That’s why they dragged the Representative in there along with your boss. Otherwise, it’d be the cleaning crew and the night watch that would have gotten killed. And they’d all be finished in the same night. You need to find whoever released the Coratta demon, because that host is its weakness. Probably its only weakness. Do you want to stay with us? We have an extra room, and I promise not to let Gabby be too affectionate with me. I know it makes you uncomfortable.”

I groaned while Gabby grabbed the phone, hissing at him. “Like saying that doesn’t make her five times more uncomfortable. Your people skills have somehow gotten worse. Sorry about that,” she said to me. “Anyway, where were we? Oh, right! Yes, definitely come stay with me, or my mom, although her PDA with Vincent is downright scary. Also, she forgets to wear pants. But you know that.”

“I’m fine. I’m staying with Sashimi.”

“The Goblin Authority? Sorry, but how is that a good idea? I mean, you said you were dating him, sort of, but moving in together after one date?”

The way she said it made it feel weird. She didn’t understand about the whole protector thing since I was ten. “My mom found out I’m a cop. I needed some space. Anyway, I’ve got to get to work. Thanks for the help. Sorry I didn’t tell you what was going on.”

“No, you aren’t. You’re a secret keeper. You always have been. But you aren’t turning into a goblin anymore?”

“Not noticeably.”

“Good! Not that I wouldn’t think you were the best, even if you had green skin. And pointed teeth. I’m saying that the shape of your teeth doesn’t define you.”

“Thanks. That’s always good to hear. I really appreciate the help, Gabby. Tell Apples thank-you for me.”

“Oh. You don’t want me to punish him for stealing my phone even though he was so rude at the end?”

“Nope. It’s amazing the kind of information about demons he has in his head.”

“He has a lot of things in his head. Manners, no, but he really knows trivial details about some interesting things. Fine, I won’t punish him, although he likes to wash the cabinets. Call me if you need anything, and if you need a place to stay, promise to let me know, okay? Goblins aren’t your only options.”

I snorted. “Thanks. Bye.”

“Bye!” She hung up violently, leaving me to look up Coratta demons.

Terrifying. They could throw their aural energy away from their host. They always had a host. Someone really must have released the creature from its prison. Coratta demons possessed people. Thus the forcing the suicide victims to its will, but they could only do that to a corrupt person. So Jossy was corrupt.

I pulled out the files in my briefcase and started taking pictures of everything, sending them to Gabby in case these files were also destroyed, like everything else that had been in my office. And my car.

I stopped for a second to really process that. I’d been too stressed out with seeing my mother to really let the fact that my car had blown up sink in. I’d really loved that car. I’d had it for years, Tarn keeping it tuned up. Was my family safe?

I shook my head, and I started researching the cases Joss had last touched. I couldn’t focus on the fear and uncertainty, not when I had a job to do.

A pix dust dealer, a suicide, and a summoning circle.

Maybe if I found the dealer, he could explain himself. But how was I supposed to do that? What about that fairy I’d helped pick up a werewolf? That sounded iffy, but what were my other options? Goblins did not like fairies or I’d ask Trata. Or Sashimi. Was he okay? I’d just left him sleeping. Maybe he needed more medical intervention. But how could I get back into his house? The place really was a vault.

I called up the bar where I’d gone a few times to lurk around on various cases, where I’d sent the fairy.

“Sato. To what do I owe the pleasure?” She made it sound like the opposite of pleasure, with a threatening growl on the end, but she’d never actually ripped out my throat.

“Fairy in a purple sequin dress. Remember her?”

She snorted. “Hard to forget that kind of chaos.”

“Do you have a number where I can reach her?”

“A number for the Fairy Queen?”

I frowned at the file in front of me. “The Fairy Queen?”

“Yes. She married the alpha. I can give you his number, and he can get you in touch with her, but I don’t recommend it. They’re trouble.”

“Of course they are. Yes, please give me the alpha’s number.”

She gave it to me, and I thanked her and hung up. I didn’t even hesitate, just called, because what did I have to lose? My car had already been blown up.

“Officer Sato. So good to hear from you.”

I blinked. “You’re at the bar?”

“That’s right. I heard your entire conversation with my good friend. You’re looking for my wife? Why? It’s probably more trouble to you than it’s worth.”

“I’m looking for a pixie dust dealer.”

“Interesting. And you think my wife knows all the dust dealers?” There was a dangerous edge to his voice.

“I know that she can read fairy minds. She might be able to find him for me.”

“Maybe she could, but why would she?”

“I don’t know, maybe because I have three circles filled with blood waiting on two more to summon a greater demon, with a Coratta running around murdering people. Do I have the slightest idea how a pix dealer is involved? No. But I’m following the clues, Max. That’s what I do. So, you can give me her number or not, but if not, I’ll be tracking him down personally, and I’ll ask Sashimi if he knows any goblins that would be willing to help me shake down a few fairies.”

“Pulling the goblin card, hm? I did hear that you and the Goblin Authority were together.”

“You heard right.”

“I’ll ask my wife to call you if she’d like to help stop demons, although are you sure you aren’t in the pocket of the Goblin Authority?”

“I am sure I wouldn’t tell you if I were. Thanks for asking. Do you know what a Coratta demon is?”

“I do. Nasty things. I thought the angels locked them all up.”

“They did, but someone set one free.”

“And you think it was a pixie dust dealer? I doubt it. They’re a self-serving lot, not really for mass destruction, particularly when it involves their own skins.”

“He’s wily. Slips out of everyone’s hands.”

“And you’re sure he’s a dust dealer, not just a wily, slippery fellow that someone wants to use your organization to catch?”

I hesitated. Joss had been controlled by the Coratta demon. Ergo was corrupted, ergo might be involved in something as shady as using the department to catch someone.

“Sato?” he said, voice concerned.

“Yes. Sorry. Yes, I’ll have to look into it.”

“Do you have a description of this dealer? I’ll ask around.”

I exhaled a breath. Max was the most down-to-earth alpha you could ask for, but he was still a werewolf with his own priorities. “Yes, thanks.” I gave him the description, where last seen, and then hung up, leaning back and then stood to my feet abruptly when I realized that the mayor was leaning on my door frame, studying me with a frown. And now my life really was messed up.