Page 18 of Muted Voices (Broken Ashes #1)

P redictably, I frown, “Do we have to? In my experience, those in charge are dicks.”

The guys seem to find that amusing, as River says, “I can’t wait to tell him that.”

“Ty isn’t like that at all, and he really should know. I have a feeling that we’re going to need his help and the resources that SID offers at some point,” Van explains, still watching me.

I sigh. I can't help it; my boss at HID was a giant asshole, proven by the fact he had me murdered. I’m a little bit untrusting of those in authority right now, and for good fucking reason, I think.

“We won’t let him talk to you like shit or anything even remotely similar,” Griff offers, which seems to surprise the other guys, although Griff is studiously not looking at them and only watching me instead.

I nod, “Okay, but I give as good as I get, so if he starts something, I’ll finish it.”

Griff smiles, “I know. You’ve already gone toe to toe with me, remember?”

“She did?” Raiden asks a hint of surprise in his tone.

“Oh yeah, within only a couple of hours of meeting him too, and Griff backed the fuck down,” River grins smugly.

Griff huffs and crosses his arms over his chest, “I did not.”

“Yes, you fucking did, my giant friend,” I reply with a grin, making the others laugh.

“Alright, before this deteriorates even more, let’s call the boss and fill him in,” Van suggests, and everyone agrees, even me, although somewhat reluctantly.

Even after all this time, I still trust Van, so if he says that his boss is good people, then I believe him. Sort of.

“Actually, Van, I think before we do that, we should explain to Neith about the hybrid case that we’re working on. She’s worked one before anyway and could possibly have some information for us,” Ransom suggests.

“Good idea,” Reed agrees.

“If you guys tell me what you know, I can tell you everything that I know from the case where I ran into one,” I reply, happy to share what I know with them.

“It’s fairly straightforward, really, although that doesn’t make it any less horrific,” River starts to explain, “someone is trying to create hybrids. Besides the obvious unethical side of experimenting on supernaturals, there’s also the fact that whoever is doing it is messing with nature, and the hybrids that they’re managing to create are unstable; they can’t control themselves, and in a very short amount of time they all end up dead, either because they’ve had to be taken out because they’re a danger or their bodies can’t handle what’s been done to them and their hearts just give out.”

I frown. That’s a fucking horrible way to die, “How do you know that there’s only one person behind it?”

“Because as a kitsune, I have the best sense of smell out of all the supernatural’s, and because of that, I can smell the same chemical scent on all of them. It’s exactly the same composition on all of them. There’s no mistaking that they were all at the same place,” River explains again.

“Right, okay, that makes sense, I guess. Do you have any idea who is behind it?” I ask.

Evander answers me this time and shakes his head, “Nope. We’ve had a couple of leads that we’ve followed. That’s actually what the guys were doing when Griff had the vision of you being attacked. We are wondering if the ‘he’ that those HID agents were talking about is the person that’s creating them.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if they were mixed up in something like that. Wait, so you knew it was a hybrid?” I ask.

Griff shakes his head, “Actually, no. The vision didn’t show me enough to identify him as a hybrid, just a shifter. We were a few hours away as well, following the other lead. We had absolutely no idea there was a hybrid there, and it’s a mystery as to why it was there in the first place.”

“Okay, so it's definitely an area that we need to go back and check out at some point, or at least you guys do. I can’t risk being seen there. Not for a while,” I reply, a pang of sadness going through me before I brush it away.

Since none of them mention the weird and ominous feeling that I get when I walk along the stretch of road where we got attacked, I don’t either. Not right now; if they actually do go back, then I will mention it, but there isn’t much point now.

“Yeah, we’ll put it on our interest list, at least,” Doc replies.

“Can you tell us anything about the case that you worked on?” Reed asks curiously.

“Yeah, I was actually on a missing person case and stumbled across the hybrid while I was in the woods where the person went missing. The hybrid was already dead, and I informed my boss that I’d found a dead supe. I didn’t actually tell them that it was a hybrid. I figured that wasn’t necessary information for HID, and the supe agents would do their investigations and realise that there was something more to it.” I explain.

Van frowns, “How long ago was this?”

My eyebrows furrow as I try to remember. Surprisingly, quite a bit has happened since then, “I think it was around six months ago; I can’t remember the exact time, sorry.”

“That’s okay, but it doesn’t make sense because we were lead on the case then, and we never got put on a case with a shifter in the woods. As soon as any of our guys realised that it was a hybrid, they would’ve called us in.” Ransom frowns.

River looks up from his phone, “That’s because we were never actually informed of a dead shifter anywhere near those woods.”

Reed frowns, “Are you sure?”

“One hundred percent.”

“So that’s even more evidence that the HID is keeping things from us. But what the hell would they want with a dead hybrid? I’m just going to assume that they realised that it was a hybrid.” Raiden asks.

“Hopefully, that’s something that we’re going to figure out. I really think we should talk to Ty now,” Doc suggests.

“Agreed, let's go,” Van replies.

I am thoroughly confused when everyone grabs their coffee cups and starts to get up, heading out of the room. I follow because I’m incredibly curious and because otherwise, I’d be sitting at the dining table by myself, and there isn’t even any leftover food that I could help myself to, so there would be very little point in staying behind.

It turns out the extravagant bastards have a meeting room, complete with a large-screen TV that I assume is what they’re going to call their boss on.

“Everyone take their seats. I’m making the call now,” Evander orders, and we all take seats around yet another big table.

“Hey guys, I wasn’t expecting a call today. Is everything okay?” Ty, their so-called boss, looks as though he’s only around ten years older than us, but that doesn’t really mean anything since supes vary on how they age depending on their species, and there’s no way to tell his species.

“We’ve got a situation,” Evander starts.

He gets interrupted though, as Ty’s eyes find me in the room. They fill with surprise, which I expect, but what I don’t expect to see is recognition.

“Neith?” he questions.

“That’s me, which I find curious since we’ve never met before?” I question with a slight smile and a raised eyebrow.

He smiles back and then frowns, his eyes filling with confusion, “I’ll get to how I know who you are in a second first, though; you’re supposed to be dead.”

“Ah shit,” I curse, my body tensing, this can’t be good.

“Who told you that?” Reed barks, his voice snapping out through the room and making everyone, even Ty, who is not actually here, wince slightly.

“The head of HID, her boss,” Ty replies, and then looks back at me, “I have to say he didn’t seem to be too broken up about it.”

I can't help my reaction, and I snort, rolling my eyes, “Of course, he didn’t; he’s the one that ordered I’d be killed after all.”

A dark look crosses Ty’s features as he says, “I think you’d better fill me in on exactly what’s going on. They are under the impression that you’re dead.”

I take a chance and assume that they haven’t told him exactly how I died since it would be difficult to explain the circumstances, and I tell him the same story, including what I overheard as I told the guys.

“You don’t look as surprised as I thought you would,” Griff points out observantly.

Ty sighs, “Unfortunately, I’m not. We’ve long suspected that there’s been some corruption within their ranks, but due to the nature of their agency, we’ve never got any proof.”

“Yeah, I can imagine that would be difficult,” I reply drily.

Everyone knows that HID is full of prejudiced fuckwits; there’s no way that any of them would go to the SID with information that could pull the human investigation division apart. They only ever communicate if they really have to.

“So, what’s our next step? For obvious reasons, we can’t let anyone know that Neith isn’t actually dead,” River asks.

I interrupt before Ty can reply though, as my previous thought process from before River asked the question catches up to me, “One second, HID will do absolutely everything not to communicate with you guys, so why did they tell you that I was dead, I’m just one, not even official, agent. That’s weird.”

“She makes a good point,” Griff adds.

“You’re right, but the reason they told me ties in with how I recognized you even though we haven’t officially met.” Ty starts, and my interest is piqued even more, “I’ve been following your achievements with them for a while, and I’ve requested twice now that you come to SID to be employed as one of our human liaison agents. As you are aware, when humans are involved in cases with supes, they are very reluctant to trust them when they’re a part of the rescue team, which is why we have human agents that can help in those situations.”

“What?” I ask, completely shocked and yet unsurprised that I had no idea that SID wanted me. I would’ve taken them up on the offer immediately.

“They weren’t keen to let you go,” he replies.

I pull a face of disbelief, “They hate me, and I think it's obvious that I am not overreacting, considering they had me murdered.”

“They may have hated you, Neith, but you had the best success rate out of all of the agents at HID,” Ty tells me, causing the guys to all glance at me, impressed with my credentials.

“I knew I had a good success rate; it’s something that I pride myself on, but I had no idea that it was that good,” I reply honestly.

Ty smiles, “I’d be willing to bet that was one of the reasons that they took a disliking to you.”

“That sounds about right,” Doc agrees.

“Well, at least that’s one thing solved,” I reply, utterly unsure about what I should say in this situation.

“Before we go forward, I think it might be a good idea to see where you stand on accepting my job offer. I can have a contract with all the details sent over immediately if you are interested?” Ty shocks the fucking shit out of me as he offers me the job. He continues, “Obviously, take all the time you need to think . . .”

I interrupt him, “I don’t need to think about it. I’d love to work for you. Helping people is what I do, and hell, you can’t be a worse boss than my last one.”

Ty chuckles, “I’m going to take that as a compliment, and I’m glad that you’re on board. We’re lucky to have you. Now . . .”

Again, he gets interrupted, but this time it’s by Evander.

“I’d like to request that she be the liaison for our team,” he asks.

The request seems to shock Ty more than anything else that has been said in this meeting, and he looks around at them all, “Are you all in agreement?” my heart soars as they all nod, with absolutely no hesitation, “Okay, in that case, Neith welcome to your new team. They’ll fill you in on anything that you need to know, and I’ll have your contract sent over to you, with your ID and information on how much you’ll be paid, etc.”

“Thank you,” I grin. I had definitely not expected this to come out of the phone call, but I’m so excited that it has. “What about the fact that I’m technically dead?”

“That’s easy enough to figure out. I’m putting Evander’s team in charge of getting to the bottom of the corruption at HID, although I’m aware that case is going to take a long time to get to the bottom of. We’ll use your insight to help us slowly weed them out, and as usual, Evander, you’ll have the other teams that you can use to help. In the meantime, you’ll work the hybrid case with the team, and there is very little chance that the HID will become aware that you aren’t dead, and even if they did, they won’t be able to touch you. You are now under SID protection.”

“That’s fucking awesome,” I reply without thinking and without putting my professional filter in place.

Fortunately, Ty just laughs.

“I think we also need to try and figure out why they wanted her dead specifically. It can’t have just been because they were jealous,” Doc suggests.

Ty nods, “Yes, I agree. I think there’s something else there that we need to try and get to the bottom of.”

“Great, so what’s our starting point?” River asks.

Before he can answer, Ty looks down at his phone and frowns, “There’s been another Hybrid found. Agents have cordoned off the area, but as soon as they realized what they were dealing with, they called me. They’re waiting for you. I’ll send you the coordinates now.”

“Dead?” Reed questions.

“Yes,” Ty replies, “I guess this is where you start.” He looks at me, “Nothing like being thrown into the deep end. Welcome to SID.”

“Thanks,” I grin.

Ty promptly hangs up, and I hear Evander’s phone ping, I’m guessing with the coordinates.

Everyone looks at each other for a few moments. A lot happened in that phone call that we hadn’t actually planned for.

“Alright, Neith, I imagine that our protocols are fairly similar to yours, so just do your thing, and if you have any questions, ask,” Van says with a smile.

“Will do. It will be a learning curve working with a team, so bear with me.” I reply with a smile.

“You worked alone?” Doc asks.

“Yeah, no one wanted to work with me, and I actually worked better alone anyway,” I reply with a shrug.

“I, fuck,” Van stumbles, “we’ll get into that and how wrong that was later. Right now, we need to gear up and head out.”

I nod. I don’t really feel like there’s a need to get into it later, but there is something that we do need to talk about later, so I bring that up instead.

“We need to talk about Winston later as well,” I say.

“Yes, we do,” Raiden replies for all of them, and he’s clearly still confused about Winston’s presence and what it means, considering that he’s a Reaper and should know the most out of all of us about the spirit realm it’s concerning that he doesn’t know what his presence means.

“I have a feeling that’s going to become complicated and confusing,” River points out.

“It would’ve been really handy if he could’ve just stuck around and let us know exactly what it means,” Ransom adds.

“That’s something that I do know about spirit guides; they won’t tell you anything unless they deem that you should know it,” Raiden tells us.

“Great.” I reply, and then add, “Let’s go and take a look at this hybrid that, in a weird turn of events, is actually the simplest thing we’ve got going on.”

“You’re right.” Evander agrees as he pushes back from the table, “Everyone go and gear up.”

I watch as they all leave, wondering how I’m going to gear up since I have nothing but what I’m wearing. I’d really rather not do my first official job with SID in leggings and an oversized shirt and with Betty as my only weapon. Showing up to a crime scene with a shotgun is never a good idea. It doesn’t fill anyone with a reassuring vibe, which is why I tend to leave her in my backpack.

I’m pulled from my thoughts when Doc approaches me.

“What’s up, Doc?” I ask and then immediately giggle at my terrible joke.

He chuckles, “Yeah, because I haven’t heard that one before. If you give me an idea of what you usually like to wear on a job, then I can conjure them up for you.”

“Oh yes, please, I was dreading going dressed like this,” I reply gratefully and then quickly reel off what I wear.

It’s nothing special, just black jeans, a black tank, my docs and my leather jacket that I describe in great detail and actually get a bit sad about, it’s at home. I don't know why I forgot it on my bed when I left for my last ill-fated job, but I’m actually quite glad because it would’ve been destroyed. It’s been through a lot and actually has some slices and marks from various weapons, but that’s why I love it.

Doc obviously picks up on this because he asks, “It’s important to you?”

I nod, “Yeah, it is. It's been on every job with me except my last one. On second thoughts, I’d rather you didn’t try to conjure me a new one. It wouldn’t be the same.”