As soon as we entered his office, he poured a liberal amount of the amber liquid into a glass that sat on the low wooden table in front of me. I gestured for Adelade to sit, then stood behind her protectively as the captain poured another glass for Adelade, rambling on as he did so.
“I arrived by way of the Americas.” Even though I knew this already, I nodded and took a small sip. Holy hell it was sweet. By the look on her face, Adelade was also surprised at the taste.
Captain Williams laughed again at the expression on our faces, then poured another liberal glass for himself. “This particular supplier adds more molasses than what’s customary.” He flashed a grin. “And I like it that way.”
He took a large sip, his eyes twinkling in pleasure as it went down his throat. I waited for him to take another before I spoke.
“I would like to renegotiate the deal that Agosto had with you.”
Frowning, he lowered the glass back on the table a little too harshly then he raised his eyebrows. “And which part of the contract would you like to renegotiate?”
I pulled it out of my inner pocket and, leaning over, spread it out on the table. “I would like to add tobacco to our list of goods, among these other things.”
He paused for a moment, speculating. “This would require me to add a stop to my journey. I would have to check and see if I would have the space, plus the men to load them…” He continued to mumble, mostly to himself, but I knew that he would find a way to fulfill my request because the temptation of the added income would overpower any complications. After arranging a price for the addition, we shook hands and left to check on the payment.
Samira was waiting outside of the office and as soon as I saw her, my expression darkened. “What’s happened?”
“Everything is well with the shipment but there’s a problem at the docks.”
“What’s wrong?”
She hesitated, trying to articulate the problem. “Stefano’s sent word that a new group of shifters has arrived and they’re dumping some of the goods into the water.”
I shrugged. “And? They can do whatever they like with their goods, as long as payment’s been made.”
“Salina isn’t with them; they don’t appear to be part of her pack.”
Frowning, I moved towards the stairs to leave immediately, pulling Adelade with me. The Captain followed close behind me, calling to his men. “Men, lower another boat, I’m off to the shore.”
His men scrambled at his direction but I strode towards the boat that brought me in. After helping Adelade down, I jumped into it not bothering to wait for the Captain, and as soon as Samira landed beside me, I ordered the men towards the shore.
5
Detrand
Even from the water, we could see that the docks were in a commotion and the captain’s men rowed quickly towards the shore. As soon as we stepped out of the boat, a brown-haired shifter with a large nose and eyes spaced too far apart sliced open a bag of rice with a large knife. It spilled onto the street as his companion, a small but tightly wired woman, flung bits of rice into the air, laughing shrilly.
Grant, one of the men who worked for Stefano, was chasing another shifter who gripped a small box in his arms. The shifter grinned slyly at me as I approached and I noted that his front tooth was missing and that someone had hacked at his hair with a dull knife. He slipped through Grant’s arms just as they clasped around him, and ducked into the group of humans working for Stefano. Grant roared and barreled through the group and they parted like falling trees.
“Samira,” I commanded and, with the word, she grabbed a protesting Adelade and toted her off to safety as I searched for Stefano. I found him struggling to contain a large shifter. They were tussling but Stefano was winning, holding the shifter’s arms behind his back. In one large movement, Stefano pushed the shifter to the ground, holding him there then looked up at me, grinning.
“Detrand, you’ve come just in time.”
“Who are they?” I looked around at the ragtag group of shifters, a scowl on my face. “Where’ve they come from?”
The shifter stopped struggling and Stefano yanked him up onto his feet with his arms locked behind his back. “Looks like they’ve drifted in from another town.”
I saw Samira return, pulling a sword from her back as she ran after the large-nosed shifter. He yelped when he caught wind of her and shot through the crowd to the streets. I searched the street, my eyes immediately finding Adelade as if my senses knew where she always was.
She was up the street, on top of the roof of one of the taverns, staring down at us with her arms crossed and her lips pressed tight.
Smirking, for I could feel that she was irritated at having to step aside, but knowing she was safe, I commanded Stefano to hold the shifter tight while I took stock of the goods as Captain Williams arrived. His men spread out quickly, working to contain the chaos and to protect the goods while the Captain came to stand behind me helping me assess the damage.
Samira returned with the large-nosed shifter who was holding the side of his head, blood dripping from it. She gripped the back of his raggedy shirt and kicked at his feet, causing him to fall to his knees. Then she threw his ear to the ground at my feet. I frowned, unused to such forms of dealing with the shifters and watched as he looked up at me with fear in his eyes.
Well, at least one of the shifters seemed to have his head, unlike the others who were more like wild dogs than humans with the ability to shift.
It didn’t take long for Stefano and Williams’ men to contain everyone, and as I went over the manifest, comparing it to what was left untouched on the docks, I saw that the destroyed goods belonged to the fae.
Scowling, I went back to stand over the shifter, growling. “King Orin had better have requested his rice mashed with dirt, or someone will die tonight. Tell me, who do you represent?” The shifter didn’t answer me so I stepped closer, gripping his head to force him to look upwards. He scowled, closing his eyes so as to not look into mine. “What’s your name?”
“King Henry!” he exclaimed loudly.
The other shifters, who were in one large group now, surrounded us and cried out boisterously.
“Long live King Henry!”
“Here, here!”
As their obnoxious laughter roared through the bay, I tampered down on my temper even though I wanted to kill this dog and get rid of all of them.
Instead, I stared their leader down, trying to determine what to do. Scum like him could create a lot of trouble, and they should be put down as soon as possible. However, our relationship with the shifters was tentative at best, now that I had killed one of the members of their pack. If I wanted to keep peace between the shifters and the strigoi, I needed to consult with Salina before I did anything rash.
I turned my attention back to the shifter. “I will ask you only one more time, what is your name?”
The shifter merely growled in response but Stefano answered me. "They call him Bane."
I lowered my voice so that the Captain wouldn’t hear me. “Bane, have you checked in with the local pack?”
He looked into my eyes for only a second before looking away again, growling. “I’ve no need. I’m the leader of this pack, and we’re only here to stay for a few nights.” Then, amazingly, he straightened, showing that he was stronger than he let on and met my eyes.