Page 37 of Grave Beginnings
“How’s your headache?” Angel asked as I ran through the evidence list from forensics and made notes.
“Better,” I said. “I think the cake helped.”
“The sugar,” Angel agreed. “Overusing your variance often leads to low blood sugar.” He pulled out a drawer in his desk which was filled with packaged sweets with another language written on them mixed with a handful of things like Twinkies, Swiss Rolls, and a bunch of other snack cakes. “It’s always unlocked.”
“Are you saying I’m going to have to develop a sweet tooth at this job?” I patted my belly. “I’ll get fat.”
He snorted. “Not likely. But I’ll make sure Wade sets a workout regime for you to keep your trim little ass skinny.”
Was he admiring my ass? I stared at him and his desk of goodies. “You have an entire drawer full of sugar and went across the Veil to get me cake?”
“Consider it an apology.”
“For what?”
“For leaving you alone at a crime scene on your first day. I should have waved the guys over to tell them about the prints, not left you when you were experiencing an ability for the first time. It’s literally my job to make sure all of my team are safe in the field. I failed.”
I absorbed the words and rolled them around in my head before responding, surprised by his apology. More than a handful of people went out of their way to make my life more difficult because I was openly gay and—in their opinion—“a hotshot who needed to be taken down a few pegs.”
“I appreciate you finding me,” I finally said. “Though I feel like an idiot since none of you seem all that worried about going across the Veil, and I ran in terror.” Heat filled my face again. It had been a long time since I’d thought of myself as a rookie. But here, that was exactly what I was. “I’m woefully unprepared for this job. I’m sorry you’re stuck with me. I know you didn’t want a guy like me on your team. But I promise to do my best to catch up and be useful.”
Angel studied me. “Hanna separated the teams at the beginning of the year,” he said. “After one team got overrun across the Veil and half of them killed, she pushed to expand, but also for the separation, because NHVs are hardcore. They can have a building land on them and keep going. Don’t ever think the Necropolis is harmless. Whatever instincts made you run away from that thing saved your life. SVs are like candy to a lot ofsupes. Your blood can supercharge a vampire, and most of the fae.”
“Creepy to sound like I’m suddenly a supernatural juice box.”
“It’s probably why you got put with us, under Hanna. She’s fiercely protective of her teams. Especially for a dark fae.”
“And Kerry, who wanted to pull some demon magic out of me?”
“Yeah, that’s an added pickle,” Angel agreed. “DVs are unheard of, as NHVs hunted them to extinction during the war.”
“But no one can predict what we will be, right? We just wake up one day… different?”
“There are theories that family lines have similar variance. I don’t know anyone with variant siblings.”
“My brother is variant,” I said. “I never asked what his variance was. He’s a kid. Sixteen, maybe?”
“Do you remember what color his armband was?”
I shook my head and wondered if Grandpa knew. “I don’t remember. I’ve only met him once. He was sort of my replacement. My folks had him after kicking me out. Sorry.”
“No reason to be. This is all new to you. I’m the old cat having a hard time learning new tricks. It pissed me off at first, when I thought you were some rich kid sent to keep an eye on us,” he admitted. “We’re understaffed, and Hanna has been promising me help for months. We’re backlogged and can barely get notes caught up on one case before there is another popping up.”
“I’m even more sorry you got stuck with me, then. You should have gotten someone with experience in all this.” I waved my hand around, as if the entire place were the complication of supernatural context I had existed most of my life without understanding.
“I’m not, actually. Sorry, I mean. I wonder if your perspective, coming from outside, newly changed, will give us a better chance at fixing some of the crap we’ve been saddled with. We wouldn’thave found the handprints or even the book without you.” He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “I really hope it’s not witches again.”
“They aren’t variants? Just people who can do spells? I’m not sure I understand.”
“They barter their lives for power. Usually with demons or something equally dark but powerful. A handful of gods backed witches in the last war. They went into hiding when all their human puppets died. It’s hard to find the humans because they aren’t variant. Their power is fueled by the being that bargained with them. There isn’t really a better word for them. I’ve met soothsayers who were fine, and some spellcasters that can raise magic without a bargain, though I suspect they might have an unnoticed variant, but those we categorize as witches have some sort of connection with something nasty from across the Veil.”
“Are there any reliable books on the war? Something more detailed than the three-line summary I had in high school a few decades ago?” I arranged the icons on my desktop in order for the case, from interviews, reports from the forensics team, to evidence review.
“I’ll see if I can dig up a few things,” Angel offered. “Mostly, I read manga these days as an escape, instead of the gory details of what I lived through.”
“Sorry,” I said again, feeling bad for reminding him of terrible things. “Maybe you’ll show me to this bakery and I’ll buy you something as an apology for being so lame.”
“We’ll probably leave venturing into the Veil for another day. I think you’ve probably had enough chaos for one day,” Angel said.