Page 7

The sound of his multi-slate ringing tore Calix from a deep sleep. Groggily, he slapped his hand against the end table, blindly searching for the device. “Hello?”

“Detective,” a familiar voice drifted from the speaker, causing Cal to finally blink open his eyes. “Apologies, did I wake you?”

“I—” He sat up. “Aodhan?”

Cal winced, glad this wasn’t a video call. They were hardly on a first-name basis, yet he’d boldly—and rudely—just called him by that. The clock across the hotel room said that it was only nearing midnight. A couple of hours ago, he’d laid down, telling himself he’d take a quick nap before getting back to work.

So much for that.

The lack of sleep the night before, added to the chase through the forest—and subsequent assault—earlier, had exhausted him. By the time he’d come to, the man had been gone. He’d left Cal there, propped against the tree on a bed of moss.

Calix had stood and waited for the aches to dissipate before collecting his blaster and heading out. When he made it to where the head had been discovered, Amory had been waiting for him.

She’d been concerned, especially when she saw the cut on his forehead, but he’d made up some story about being hit. He hadn’t wanted to lie completely and doubted she was stupid enough to buy an obvious fib like saying he’d tripped or something, so he’d gone with a partial truth.

When she’d questioned why his attacker hadn’t killed him, his confusion had been one hundred percent honest.

“Yes,” the doctor replied. “It’s me. There’s been a potential lead, but in order to make it, we have to leave right now.”

“Leave?”

“I’m outside your hotel.”

“You’re what?” Calix climbed off the bed and headed for the window, pulling the thick black shade away so he could peer out at the front of the building. Sure enough, the doctor was standing next to a dark vehicle, staring up at him. “Why are you here? What lead?”

“It’s time sensitive,” he explained. “I think it’s best you come down and I explain on the way.”

“Okay.” He turned and started collecting the few small things he’d need. He hadn’t bothered to change before his nap turned sleep, so there wasn’t much to do other than grab N.I.M. and his coat. Just as he was heading for the door, something occurred to him. “Wait. Why are you the one getting me for this?”

“The Chief of Police had Mitri reach out to me after they uncovered what was hidden in Williams Gorty’s mouth. You should have received a text message from them. Have you checked?”

“Hold on.” Calix strapped the multi-slate to his right wrist and tilted the screen so he could access messages. Sure enough, there were several missed ones from both Bruce and Mitri, the latter of whom had apparently created a group chat that included the three of them and Aodhan. The texts confirmed everything the doctor was saying. “Let me go wake Troya and we’ll be down in five.”

“No,” Aodhan said before Cal could end the call. “Just you. Where we’re going, the fewer of us the better. Not to mention, this last minute I was only able to get two tickets.”

“Tickets?”

“You like to repeat people, don’t you, Detective?” he chuckled, but the sound was off, almost like he was laughing at a joke, only Cal didn’t get it. “Come down. I’ll explain once you’re here.”

The doctor ended the call and left Calix staring at his device a moment before he got himself back into motion. His room was located conveniently close to the elevator, and he scrolled through the missed messages as he descended to the main level, not that the texts were all that forthcoming.

There was a photo of the object pulled from Gorty’s mouth, a blood red wax seal with a leaf at the center. It didn’t mean anything to Cal, but according to the messages Mitri had sent, it was the symbol of some secret society, one that apparently Aodhan had a connection with. Bruce had been the one to suggest bringing him in on things, and from there the conversation had shifted to an exclusive party happening tonight.

Cal checked the time just as the elevator reached the floor, stepping out with a grimace when he saw the party supposedly had started six minutes ago. He picked up the pace, stepping into the brisk night air already searching for the black vehicle he’d spotted earlier.

Aodan was waiting in the driver's seat and Calix let himself in, realizing they really were on a time crunch at this point.

“How do you know about all this?” he asked as they pulled away from the hotel.

“Read the messages, did you.” Aodhan was dressed in a three-piece pink suit a shade lighter than his eyes. There were tiny flowers decorating the left side of the jacket and the right side of the pants. The shirt underneath was white, and he’d gone without a tie, the top three buttons undone to show off the necklace he wore high on his neck.

He caught Calix staring at the bubblegum pink leather and gold chains and grinned when Cal noticeably dropped his gaze.

“It’s a martingale collar,” Aodhan explained, even though he hadn’t been asked. “If you put your finger through this center loop here,” his right hand lifted off the steering wheel so he could demonstrate, “and tug, the chain tightens the leather around my neck.”

“That’s…” weirdly erotic, “interesting.”

Aodhan barked out a laugh and let go.

“I’m underdressed,” Calix pointed out, and then, as though drawn there of their own accord, his eyes made a beeline back to the collar. “Do I need to wear one of those?”

“That’s not my call,” he answered cryptically, then motioned toward the back. “As far as the outfit, I got you covered. You should change now, we’re less than ten minutes away.”

Since there was no reason to be embarrassed about the guy seeing him in his underwear at this point, Calix didn’t argue. He undid his seatbelt and reached back to grab onto the garment bag. Inside, there was an almost identical suit to the one the doctor wore, only in a darker shade.

“This matches your eyes,” Cal said. “And your collar.”

“It’ll help sell that we’re together if we arrive as a matching set,” Aodhan replied. “This isn’t the type of event that takes kindly to uninvited law enforcement, Detective. It’ll be better for the both of us if we blend in while there. Which leads me to my next warning, whatever you see, just act normal.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Calix pulled his jacket off and tossed it into the back before making quick work of his gray t-shirt. “What kind of party is this?”

“The illegal kind.”

“And you were able to get tickets to an illegal event, how?”

“That’s a secret, Detective.”

“I don’t like secrets, Doctor.”

“How unfortunate for you.”

Seeing that he wasn’t going to be able to get him to talk, Calix shifted gears. “What’s the symbol mean? The one found inside of Gorty’s head.”

“It’s a grapevine leaf,” he told him. “It’s a symbol used for one of the more notorious underground criminals of the city. The public knows him only as Baccus. Not much is known about him despite there being many attempts by both the police and the press to identify him and bring him to justice.”

“What kind of crimes does he commit?” Cal stripped out of his pants, trying not to notice when Aodhan’s gaze greedily swept down his bare legs.

There was no way the other guy was attracted to him, not after what he’d witnessed at the reunion. It had to be all in his head.

“All kinds,” Aodhan said. “You name it, he’s probably done it a time or two. Take tonight, for example. The invites were kept vague to help prevent a leak, but anyone who’s been around long enough will understand the subtext. Everyone has their own…vice, so to speak. What works for some won’t work for others.”

“Just get to the part where you tell me you’re special and know all about it.”

“Someone’s getting snippy.”

“These pants are too damn tight,” Calix complained, pulling the pink monstrosity up his body and fastening the button.

“They’re a perfect fit,” he disagreed.

“What, did you hack into my personnel file and find my measurements or something?” Cal joked. “Come on, Doctor, what should I expect tonight?”

“Blood,” he replied without flinching. “Whatever is happening tonight, the main event has something to do with bloodshed. That could mean anything really.”

“Because you’ve attended lots of these things and it’s always something different?”

“Do I sense a hint of accusation in your tone, Detective?”

“Just doing my job.”

“I wasn’t aware investigating me was a part of that.”

“I’m here to solve a case. Everyone is a suspect.” Calix sighed and smoothed out his clothing, now fully dressed. “Don’t take it personally.”

“Your boss doesn’t seem to think I need to be looked into. He trusted me to bring you here, after all.”

“Bruce isn’t my boss,” he reminded.

Aodhan sighed and seemed a bit annoyed. “If you must know, I saved the life of one of the club members. In return, he invited me in. I’ve only ever gone to a single party and realized it wasn’t my thing. But I can’t tell you who the patient was—I took an oath—and the reason I never blew the contact and kept in touch was for this exact reason. I’ve known Bruce for a couple of years now. He’s a good man. Works hard. I told him if he ever needed to infiltrate the club, I would lend a hand. Which is what I’m doing now, with you.”

That added up, and really, if Bruce wasn’t pushing for a name from Aodhan, Cal didn’t really have a right to insist. He was an outsider here. It didn’t matter that he was born and grew up on Emergence. He’d never belonged and he never would.

Let Bruce and the rest of the people who did worry about their own damn home.

Hell, Cal was the only idiot still running around trying to find his.

Aodhan had brought them to the outskirts of the city where it’d been mostly trees outside the windows for a while. Now, he pulled up to a gated mansion, stopping for a moment. He must have been identified because a second later, the gate started to open for them.

“There’s a box in the back,” he said. “Can you grab it?”

Cal did as he was told, resting the box on his lap before pulling off the lid. Two golden masks with swirls of vines painted light green and blooms of pink and white flowers decorated them.

“Put one on,” Aodhan instructed as he pulled the car around a massive fountain. Masked men dressed in black were waiting for them at the bottom of a set of sandy steps that led up to wide open double doors.

The mansion was huge, but Calix didn’t have the luxury to take the outside of it in, quickly settling the clear strings of one of the masks over his head before handing the other to Aodhan.

“Thank you.” He donned his as well and then paused with his hand on the door handle. “Remember, we’re meant to be anonymous here. No one else will be using real names either, so don’t call me by mine or refer to me by occupation.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, Doctor,” Calix drawled, “but your eyes are kind of a dead giveaway.”

“Would you like me to pluck them out then?” he asked without skipping a beat. “Are you into that sort of thing, Detective?”

“I am not.”

He hummed. “Pity. Just stick close by me and try not to speak unless absolutely necessary.”

“Wait.” Cal grabbed onto his sleeve before he could step out of the car. “You still haven’t explained what we’re looking for here.”

“That’s the problem with last minute planning, we don’t really know.”

“So, eavesdrop and hope someone is discussing all the bloody murders they’ve recently committed?” Calix clicked his tongue, filling his next words with sarcasm. “Sounds simple enough. Bet we’ll be out of here within an hour, tops. Care to make a wager?”

“Games are more my little brother’s thing,” Aodhan joked back. “Come on, Detective. We’re already late.”

They weren’t the only guests still arriving, but the trickle of people into the mansion was decidedly small, not allowing Cal many faces—or, masked ones, as it were—to log before they were ushered through a vast foyer and into a side room equally as massive.

He let out a low breath and leaned in closer to Aodhan as the two of them moved toward a long table out of the way of the doors. “This place is huge.”

“Don’t gawk,” he said. “The people invited to these sorts of things are used to this kind of wealth.”

“That your cute way of saying my orphan is showing?” Calix snorted at his own comment, and when he didn’t get a response, turned his head to catch Aodhan staring at him through the holes cut out of his mask. “What?”

“It’s interesting what you find funny, that’s all. It’s…unexpected. You are unexpected.”

He frowned. “What, did Bruce tell you something weird about me or something?”

“Bruce had never mentioned you before he found out you’d been assigned the case.”

Cal shrugged. Made sense. There was no reason for Bruce to be talking about him with anyone. “So why the surprise then? You make it sound like you know me, but we’ve only just met.”

“It certainly feels like I’ve known you longer,” Aodhan confessed, still staring at him with a hard to read expression that was all intensity and little else. “You’re very easy to talk to. That’s…” he seemed at a loss for words, so Cal helped him out.

“Interesting?” He chuckled. “I’m guessing from your comment, you and I grew up on different sides of the track. You come from money?”

“I do.”

“It shows.”

“I can’t tell if you’re insulting me or not,” Aodhan admitted, but Calix merely shrugged a second time and motioned to the room.

“What’s this?” There were chairs lined up in one half of the room with a glass box set before them like a stage of sorts. Most of the seats were occupied. “There’s got to be like one hundred and fifty people here.”

“More like two hundred.” Aodhan’s hand rested on the small of Cal’s back, and he urged him toward the last row where there were only a few empty seats left. He grabbed a glass filled with purple liquid off the nearby table and handed him one. “Let’s sit before we lose our chance.”

Everyone sat facing the glass box, mingling and chatting with each other. Masked waiters and waitresses roamed about, offering up drinks and hors d’oeuvres on golden platters. The guests were dressed in a mixture of cocktail and grand ball attire, some clearly meant to upstage with their outfits. There was no identifiable color palette, and though Cal could overhear some of the chatter going on around them, none of it was particularly noteworthy.

“You sure we’re in the right place?” he asked. Aside from the location—a massive mansion in the middle of nowhere—there wasn’t anything all that spectacular about what was going on. Just a bunch of rich people getting together to gossip and play dress up. If there was a murderer amongst them, there’d be no way of singling them out from the rest.

Aodhan wasn’t paying as close attention to him now, however. His eyes were locked onto the glass box at the front of the room. The glass had turned opaque as though to hide something within.

“Remember what I told you in the car,” the doctor said suddenly, eyes still stuck there, as though anticipating something. “No matter what happens next, we aren’t here to make any arrests. We’re guests, just like everyone else.”

Don’t play cop, was what he was really saying.

“This isn’t my first day on the job,” Cal stated, slightly annoyed. “Are you forgetting which one of us is actually in charge here?”

“Not at all.” He pulled his gaze away from the glass just long enough to stare Calix down. “Are you?”

“I—” Gasps from the crowd cut off whatever he’d been about to say, and his head swiveled back to the front to see what had caught everyone’s attention. Only for him to have the same exact reaction. “What the hell is that?”

“It’s a mermaid,” a very excited woman who’d taken the seat to his right moments ago exclaimed. She covered her mouth with both hands, absolutely giddy by this revelation. Her outfit appeared to have been made of spun gold, her yellow hair pulled up in a complicated twist. Nothing about her seemed familiar, but she spoke to Calix as though they were old friends. “They’re so rare, the Intergalactic Conference had them added to the endangered species list almost one hundred years ago. It’s said they’re meant to reevaluate and decide whether or not to change that to extinct.”

“He looks pretty alive to me,” Cal said, and she giggled, her hand moving to rest on his knee.

“Doesn’t he? How fantastic! What a delightful treat! And to think, I almost skipped this month's revelry.”

Month? They got together like this monthly, and yet neither the police or the press were able to identify any of the two hundred some people in here? That seemed odd at best, suspicious at worst.

And Cal was the suspicious sort.

He drained the contents of his glass in one deep gulp, barely tasting the sugary alcohol that passed over his tongue and burned down his throat.

He’d bet money, of which he had very little, that behind some of these masks were the very people who went about their daily lives claiming to try and put a stop to this elite club, or whatever it really was.

Fakers, the lot of them.

He fit right in.

That familiar melancholy threatened to sweep through him and he fought against it, forcing himself to take in the creature currently thrashing on a gurney, much like the one he’d been wheeled into the hospital on just the other day. The major difference was the length of it.

To accommodate the five-foot-long tail, the metal gurney stretched longer than a normal one would. The tail was held down by white straps in two places, with another resting against the man’s stomach and his chest. They’d gagged him, and there was no sound coming from the room even though it was obvious he was struggling and trying to speak around the white cloth.

“Isn’t he gorgeous?” Aodhan asked, and dumbly, Calix nodded his head.

He really was though. His tail was a mixture of glittering blues and yellows and various shades. It sparkled and winked beneath the harsh overhead lighting being directed down upon him. His abs were toned and he had a long torso that led to broad shoulders. His face was a bit harder to make out, due to both the distance and the gag, but his long white hair gleamed like moonlight across the dark expanse of the ocean at night.

“Absolutely breathtaking,” the woman next to him agreed.

Aodhan draped an arm around Calix suddenly, leaning forward to catch her attention. “I wasn’t talking about the fish.”

She followed his gaze when he dropped it to the hand she still had resting on Cal’s knee, and she pulled back as though burned. “Good Light! How rude of me. Please accept my humble apology. I didn’t notice the two of you were together.”

“Really?” Aodhan didn’t even try to pretend to believe her, but she only giggled again.

“There was always the chance you would be open to company,” she said sweetly. “Can’t blame a girl for trying.”

“We’re a complete set,” he stated dryly.

“Oh, well then.” She sent Cal a wink and slipped an old-fashioned paper business card into his palm. “Call me if you change your mind, gorgeous. I like your style.”

The lights in the room flashed, signaling the beginning of…whatever they were about to see, and Calix shoved the card into his front pocket absently, curiosity getting the best of him as his attention returned to the glass box.