Page 3 of Muted Voices (Broken Ashes #1)

B efore I can though, I hear that same voice from last night; it quiets all the others as he growls in a deadly-sounding timbre, “Dead.”

I feel like I might only be getting part of the sentence and not the whole thing but considering it’s only the second time in my life that I’ve been able to hear a single, distinctive voice, it shocks the crap out of me, and I freeze. My gaze darts around the room, somehow hoping that the owner of the voice is nearby and not just in my head, not that I would know what to do if they were. I mean, it’s not like I could just go up to them and say, oh hey, you’re a voice in my head. Yeah, that’s a sure way to get myself thrown into the looney bin or, worse, assessed and poked and prodded by some unknown government entity.

Pausing my thoughts, I briefly frown. Yeah, there is a slight chance I may be paranoid, but then can you really call it paranoia if you’ve seen the shit that I have?

Abandoning my wayward thoughts, I focus back on searching the bar for the person that belongs to the voice; I mean I am kind of assuming that I’ll somehow recognise them even though I obviously have no idea what they look like. As I look around the bar though, no one is looking in my direction, not even Griffith, Ransom, and River, who all seem to be in a pretty intense conversation again, and being the nosey fucker I am, I find myself wishing that I had the heightened hearing of a shifter so I could eavesdrop; unfortunately, I don’t have that talent.

Instantly, I deflate once I realise that the owner of the voice isn’t here, and the regular hum of voices in my mind has picked right back up. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I almost wish that the voices hadn’t decided to switch things up all of a sudden. I had gotten used to their hum in my mind, and now they’ve switched it up, and it’s making me question things that hadn’t bothered me for years. It probably doesn’t help that he has an intriguing as fuck voice.

I don’t even bother to chastise Theo as I usually would; I just want to go home now; I need my shift to be over.

When it’s time to take the guys their food, I only stop for a brief chat just because they somehow manage to lure me in, and I can’t seem to help myself. My voices are back, and I try to focus on my job because if I stay busy, I don’t have to think about the change in the voices and also the fact that I have to walk home at the same time as I did last night, except this time hopefully I won’t get almost eaten by wolf shifter, trust me that is not a pleasant way to die.

Last call was announced not that long ago, and the bar is now empty apart from Bobby, who lives above it, and the three men. They get up, heading toward the door, but pause and look back at me.

“Bye, guys,” I say, thinking that might be what they’re waiting for.

They share a look, and then Ransom steps forward, slightly looking concerned, “Please don’t think I’m a creep, but you mentioned earlier that you walk home. Do you live nearby?”

Now usually, there’d be no chance that I’d answer that, but I’ve got pretty damn good instincts and none of them are going off right now which is why I decide to throw caution to the wind and answer honestly, “No, I live on the edge of town.”

Their worried looks become more pronounced, and River says, “Can we give you a lift home?”

I chuckle quietly, causing them to look at me like I’m the crazy one, and I explain, “Look, you’ve given me no red flags while you’ve been here, but there is no way that I’m getting in a car with three strange men.”

All three of them wince as they realise the logic of my words, and my amusement grows.

While Griffith just watches this all unfold silently, River rubs the back of his neck in an awkward gesture and replies, “Yeah, I really didn’t think about how that would sound.”

“No worries,” I reply with a smile and begin to turn back around so I can put my notebook back in my locker and grab my gun.

“Wait,” Ransom stops me as they share yet another look where the other two look surprised this time.

Turning back around fully, I raise my eyebrow and cross my arms over my chest as Ransom looks around the bar, checking that it is, in fact, empty. Bobby is in the back, so it’s just us in here.

Despite this, he lowers his voice as he explains, “To be completely honest with you, we’re a part of the Supernatural Investigation Division.”

I try not to outwardly react to the damning fact that they are part of SID, Van is one of them now, or at least that was what his file said the last time I hacked it—my ex best friend. We were incredibly close, grew up together, and helped each other through some pretty tough things, you know, all that shit that glues two people together in ways that should be stronger than the average friendship. Then, we went through the testing for the supernatural universities. I knew he’d get in, and I knew that I wouldn’t; there really wasn’t much point in me testing, but I went for him and his family because it was important to them. When the test inevitably came back negative, I smiled when he tried to reassure me it would be fine and we wouldn’t have to leave each other. Of course, the inevitable happened, and promises were made to keep in touch; however, my life took a drastic turn and there was no way he could have contacted me, and it was better that I didn’t contact him. That was ten years ago.

That’s not the only reason why I have to control my reaction; the SID and HID, human investigation division, notably don’t get along, and there is bad blood from both sides, although I don’t have a problem with them and I’m not even a proper agent with the HID, it does make me slightly wary.

Pulling myself from my thoughts, I realise that they’re waiting for a response from me, “Well, I figured that it was something like that. However, before I believe anything else that you might wish to tell me, I am going to ask to see your ID?”

Griffith’s eyes spark with interest, something about my demeanor intriguing him, but as I’ve already come to expect, he stays silent. One by one, they all reach into their jeans pockets and pull out their IDs. They obviously expect me just to be happy with a quick glance, but I’m not going to be comfortable carrying on this conversation until I have a proper look. So, I hold my hand out to River, seeing as out of the three of them, I figure the laid-back, bouncy man is more likely to hand his badge over to me rather than the giant, silent lumberjack or the stoic and knowing leader.

River frowns slightly and looks to Ransom who nods once, letting him know that it’s okay to hand it over to me. River shrugs, completely unbothered, and gives me his badge. Instantly, I start to inspect it, taking it out of the little leather pouch that he is keeping it in so I can make sure that it’s the real thing. The whole time that I’m inspecting it, I can feel their gazes on me and getting more curious until finally, one of them speaks.

“What are you looking for?” Griffith is the one who surprisingly cracks first and asks.

Looking up at him, I momentarily get lost in his eyes which are so dark that they resemble seventy percent cocoa dark chocolate, damn those things are dangerous when they’re entirely focused on you. I’m reasonably confident he could get me to agree to anything with that stare. Will you kill this person for me with no background information? Yes, of course. Dance naked while singing I’m bringing sexy back, absolutely no problem, let me just grab Betty; she makes an excellent microphone.

Let’s hope he never figures out the things he could get me to do with those eyes.

Thankfully, I’ve only tuned out for a couple of seconds, so I don’t look like a complete weirdo when I reply after only a brief pause, “I’m looking for a small black dot near the date; it’s only visible on the IDs that they’ve redone this month, and the forgers haven’t caught on to it yet. Ironically enough, the fakes are too perfect.”

They stare at me in shocked silence as I hold up the ID and point to the tiny dot; before River can take his ID back, Ransom grabs it and holds it close to his face.

“Well, I’ll be damned.” He mutters and then looks back up at me, his eyes narrowing slightly in suspicion, “I never knew that was there. How did you?”

I shrug and then change the subject entirely, “Now that we’ve confirmed that you are who you say you are, was there a reason why you were telling me that you were a part SID?”

Ransom stays quiet, the others looking at him curiously, no doubt wondering if he’s still going to tell me whatever it was now that it's apparent that I’m not everything that I appear to be.

When the pause goes on for just a bit too long, I sigh, “Look, it’s been a long day; I’ve been here since nine this morning, I have a long walk home, and I want to get going so I can at least get a few hours of sleep before I’ve got to come back and do it again tomorrow.”

Before I can turn around and walk away, Ransom speaks up again, “No, please. Just hear us out, and if you want to walk home afterward, we will respect that.”

“Okay, I’m listening?” I reply, instantly intrigued.

They all look varying degrees of relieved, although the only way I can tell that Griffith feels relieved is by the ever so slight lessening in tension around his eyes. He’s tricky to read that one.

“We were nearby when we got a call to see if we could come and check out a report of a wolf shifting and attacking someone on the back roads where you’ve described that you walk home, and I really can’t in good conscience let you walk that route while there is potentially a dangerous shifter on the loose.” He explains.

Not only can I hear it in his voice and feel it in the air that he’s not telling me the complete truth, but I also know, because I was the one attacked, that there is no way that they could possibly know that someone was attacked. Not unless there was a witness that I wasn’t aware of, which is unlikely since I make it my business to always know my surroundings and what could be lurking in them. I highly doubt someone was there that I didn’t notice. Of course, the other theory is that the shifter itself called them and gave them a tip, which is weird, to say the least, and equally unlikely.

Despite the fact Ransom hasn’t told me the whole truth, my instincts aren’t telling me that they’re going to hurt me, and I really don’t want to walk home now, this late at night with that shifter on the loose that was too close last night to capturing me. I don’t want to see if I’m lucky enough to escape for the second time because, in my experience, I won’t be. Their badges are legitimate as well, and if I have to, I have a couple of tricks up my sleeves that I can pull out so if it turns out that they have something unsavory in mind and my instincts are wrong for the first time in my life then I should be okay, and I might get a good work out in fighting them off, it is also always amusing when I fight supernaturals, and they realise I’m not as easy to take down as the average human, I train and work out hard.

I shrug, “I’m not getting into a car with you, but you are welcome to join me on my walk home.”

Ransom and River share a look, but before they can reply, Griffith answers for them all, “We will accompany you.”

“Thanks, my giant friend,” I reply with a smile that widens when he looks utterly bewildered by my sentiment. “I’m going to grab my shit, and I’ll meet you out the front.”

As I walk away from them, I hear them start to mutter quietly to each other, and I once again find myself wishing for super hearing. That thought instantly gets dismissed when I get to my locker, and I’m presented with another issue. Depending on the kind of supernaturals that they are, there is a strong chance that they will be able to smell the fact that I’ve got silver on me, which wouldn’t be a big deal apart from I won’t have smelt like silver before and that could put their backs up.

I’m not willing to leave it behind though, just in case the shifter does make an appearance, so I figure I’ll either plead ignorance if they ask or say that one of the locals gave them to me, and I thought they were normal bullets. Once I’ve grabbed everything, making sure that my ponytail is still in place well enough to hide the giant slice on the back of my neck, I head back to the guys, finding them in much the same position as they were when I left, although they do look up and greet me.

As I thought, when I step closer to them and then move through them to get out of the door, I see River sniff the air as I walk past, his expression becoming confused. He clearly decides not to question me though, as they all follow me out of the door.

“Thank god it's not raining anymore,” I mutter out loud. I have to admit that I spend so much of my time alone that I’m used to talking out loud to myself and inanimate objects all the time, so when one of the men replies to me, it shocks me slightly.

“Do you always walk in the rain and this late at night?” River asks curiously, his stride shortening to match mine as we head toward the edge of town and my house.

Glancing over at him, I smile, “Yes, I don’t have a car, so there’s not really another choice.”

“Couldn’t you get a lift with someone?” Ransom asks, a thread of concern in his tone.

I chuckle, “I live too far out, so it’s out of most people’s way.”

I don’t really want to explain that I live an isolated life, and I don’t actually have friends, at least not here, nor do I have anyone that I would be comfortable enough to get in a car with or want to know where I live, for that matter. I don’t think even Bobby knows where I live and I’m not sure how I got away with that, considering most employers insist on knowing their employees addresses.

“It’s not very safe,” Griffith’s rough voice comments, and if it weren’t for the fact that when I glance over to look at him, he seems genuinely concerned, I would usually give him a piece of my mind, but because he looks so worried and then confused that he looks worried I answer him somewhat honestly instead.

“It’s okay, my giant friend. I’m harder to take down than I look,” I tell him honestly, not worrying that they’ll read too much into it because I am, after all, human.

As I predicted, they all smile like they think my words are cute, and I let them believe that because it’s better for me in the longer run. I mean, I’ve already let them closer than I really should have. As we leave the town limits and start the long walk back to my place, I’m happy to see that the stars have decided to make an appearance and the moon is lighting our way.

“You’re quite observant,” Ransom says, and since he didn’t phrase it as a question I don’t bother answering it like one, that is, until he adds, “Neith?”

“Didn’t sound like a question to me, but you have to be, if you plan on being a woman living alone,” I point out, and they all hum in agreement. “So, how long are you guys in town for?”

River grins as he skips ahead of us and then turns around so he’s walking backward while he answers me, “Just until we can find this shifter, the last thing we need is to have a rogue one running around, especially in a town as small as this.”

Ransom shoots him a warning look like he’s said something that might offend me, but all I do is reply, “Tell me about it. It would be far better off with you guys than if the townspeople here decided to go all hunting season on it.”

Griffith tilts his head slightly as he studies me, and I pretend not to notice as I start to worry River is going to fall over.

“You know, that’s a pretty unique view to have. We told you it hurt someone, and yet you would still rather it was taken in by us? Why?” Griffith asks me, his voice coming out harsh even though I don’t think he meant it that way.