Raven BoneTalker didn’t work for us, but we occasionally sent cases her way. She was one of the Ante-Fae, and she was a bone witch. She was also a good friend of ours.
“Yeah, and others like her, if she gets inundated. I know that Herne’s looking into a few necromancers we might be able to trust.” I yawned. “How’s Mr. Rumblebutt?” Mr. Rumblebutt was my cat. He was a black Norwegian Forest cat, and he adored Angel, so when I stayed at Herne’s, he was absolutely fine until I came home.
“Mr. Rumblebutt was purring up a storm when I left home this morning.” She frowned, staring at me. “You sure you don’t need a nap?”
“Of course I need a nap. But it wouldn’t be fair to the rest of you if I took the day off.”
“Not fair? Hey, you worked all night. Charlie works at night. You’ll notice that he’s not in here in the morning. Of course, he can’t be, given he’s a vampire.” She pushed a file folder across her desk toward me. “Here’s the breakdown of the expenses on the Quatro case. You ended up spending more on the case than you earned from it.”
I sighed. Vivi Lind Quatro had hired us to do one thing: she had wanted us to eradicate a serious case of garden noles, small but dangerous creatures that liked to hang out in gardens. They had the intelligence of a toddler, the temperament of a badger, and they had very sharp teeth. Luckily, unlike nixienacks, they didn’t travel in packs.
We had taken the case thinking it would be a simple one, but unfortunately, the noles had proven trickier than we expected. It had cost us a lot more time and manpower than we had originally quoted. Herne was always good to his word, so we ended up losing money on the case. I wasn’t sure how much, but I knew it hadn’t been cheap, given the tenacity of the noles.
“Thanks.” I opened the file to me and scanned the figures. We had lost over two thousand on the case. Grimacing, I said, “It’s not like we can’t afford to do pro bono work, but seriously, that was a hot mess.” I yawned again. “Excuse me. I have one hell of a headache brewing.”
“Try to get some rest. Herne’s a god. He can go for days without sleep if he needs to. You’re not a goddess, and even the Fae need to sleep.”
I flashed her a grin. “That’s the truth. Well, I’ll be home tonight. I’m not up for another night without sleep. Besides, tonight’s our meeting with Marilee and she’ll have our heads if we skip again.”
Marilee was my magical mentor, and she had taken on Angel as well. I was learning to actually utilize my magical abilities with water, and Marilee was teaching Angel some basic magical skills. Angel was proving adept, so much so that I suspected she had some magic-born blood somewhere in her background. Mama J. had been adept with the cards, and Angel had inherited her empathic nature.
“True that.” Angel held up the Quatro file. “Are you done with the case?”
“Yeah, as much as we can be. Noles always come back, but we’re not going to make the same mistake twice. If we have to go out there again, we’re charging more.”
“I’ll file it then.” She tossed it in the to-file bin on her circular desk.
I yawned. “I’ll be in my office until the staff meeting. See you in the break room.” I wandered off down the hall, turning to the left at the end. My office was near the end of the hall, on the right. I shut the door behind me. Staff meeting was at nine-fifteen, and it was barely eight. I decided I might as well take Angel’s advice so I set my phone alarm for nine, curled up on the sofa that sat under the window overlooking the alley, and promptly fell asleep.
When I woke up, I felt a little better. I may have only slept an hour, but I had slept deep and the looming headache had backtracked into the distance. I stopped in the bathroom to splash some water on my face, then gathered my tablet and notes and headed for the break room.
Talia and Viktor were there, along with Yutani. Talia had brought a container of homemade fudge. She motioned to the pan.
“I heard you and Herne were up all night, so I thought you might be dragging butt. You want a sugar jolt?” The harpy was wearing a linen pantsuit and looked as fresh as the day was young. She had sleeked her long silver hair back into a ponytail. Something looked different about her. Since we had taken out Lazerous, the liche who had stolen her powers when she was young, she had seemed more carefree. Today she was humming under her breath.
“You seem chipper today, and thanks. I’ll never say no to fudge.” I accepted a piece and bit into the candy, smiling as the chocolate melted against my tongue. “Mmm, good. Peppermint.” The crisp mint filled my mouth. I stared at the pan, thinking I could eat the entire thing.
“I feel good.” She chuckled, staring down at her tablet.
“You’ve got a new beau,” Yutani said, snickering. “I recognize the symptoms. You’re dating someone.”
Talia coughed, then gave him a long look. “What are you doing, spying on me now?”
“No, but I remember the last time you smiled like that. You had started dating Gerard.” Yutani swept his hair back out of his face. The son of the Great Coyote, he was also our main techie. He often left me wondering about the man behind the mask. Yutani was reserved in a way that often left me wondering.
“Oh, Gerard. I haven’t thought of him in a long time. I hope he’s doing well, wherever he is,” Talia mused. “It’s been a long time. And a lot of miles.”
“Well, are you?” Viktor asked. The half-ogre was poring over an issue of X-Treme, a magazine about extreme sports. Viktor and I had shared a common interest in our love of watching all manner of snowboarding, dirt biking, street luge, and other extreme games.
“Am I what?” Talia asked, offering me more fudge. I didn’t turn her down.
“Dating someone,” Viktor said.
Talia threw up her hands, surrendering. “All right, I’ll tell you. Yes, I just started dating someone new and it’s going well. And before you ask, he’s independently wealthy, he’s a wolf shifter, and his father owned a multimillion-dollar company specializing in organic baby food. Tanjin inherited the company.”
“Tanjin? That’s an unusual name, even in shifter families. So he’s a shifter? What’s he like?” I knew full well that Yutani would be logging into the computer, doing research on the guy. We all looked after each other, and nobody wanted to see anyone get hurt.
Talia gave me a smug look. “Before you start snooping, yes, he’s a wolf shifter. He looks about thirty, though I think he’s in his sixties. He spends his days at the office, but he’s set up the organization so his sister runs the day-to-day duties, since she’s vice president. Tanjin is also managing his father’s fortune and he organizes charity drives. His father never donated a dime to anybody, but Tanjin and his sister, Cali, are philanthropists. Tanjin’s never been in trouble with the law, he’s an upstanding member of the Shifter Alliance, and he’s a well-respected member of the Chamber of Commerce.”
Viktor laughed. “Well, he sounds nice, and the fact that you’re telling us about him means it’s more than a casual fling.” He turned to me. “Talia never talks about her boy toys unless they’re a serious item.”