Kellie hated flying. Not that she held a fear of flying, nor did she believe in the slightest that a terrorist would pick the plane she’d be in. No, she just really hated airports, crammed full of tourists and business people coming and going, security guards and people who were supposed to be in Customer Service, overly loud and somewhat garbled announcements, screaming children, sounds that often started to overwhelm her. Toronto Pearson International Airport was no different from any other airport she’d been in. Really, there were days when she wished she could actually fly on a broom like her ancestress’ were accused of doing.
Never mind dealing with Customs. If the slender and delicate blonde wasn’t with the organization she was, she’d have long ago been placed on a No Fly list simply due to her impatience with Customs. It hadn’t been that tiresome this time around, thank the Gods, but she was tired, jetlagged from the time jump between Edinburgh and Toronto, and more than a little concerned by the cryptic text message she’d received from Beverly, her direct superior.
Return to TO immediately. Services required. Situation is critical.
That worried the young witch to no end. When she’d left for assignment, the vampire Drake and his coherts had been relatively contained, quiet. God’s Gate had the situation under control, and firmly believed they were cutting off several of the centuries old criminal mastermind’s avenues.
Apparently he’d tricked them. Really not an unusual situation. All one had to do was look into his file to realize how many times he’d lulled someone into a sense of complacency only to strike like a viper.
“Kellie!” a soft masculine voice caught her attention, and Kellie quickened her step towards the paunchy man who’d called her.
“David.” Kellie smiled, releasing her suitcase to hug the psychic, relishing the human touch of an old friend. She’d worked with the soft spoken Scot many times, and had idly wondered that he hadn’t been sent with her to the Scottish city. “I understand that there’s something going down?” she whispered the question in his ear, dying of curiousosity, but not really wanting to know either. Sometimes she wished she’d never been born with the powers she had so that she could live a normal life. She liked to morbidly joke that her hair was such a pale white blonde due to the things she’d seen in her line of work, never mind she’d been born a Nordic Blonde.
David’s hug tightened slightly, all but crushing Kellie’s slender frame in his embrace. “You don’t know the half of it.”
“Well, I have been out of town.” Kellie quirked an eyebrow, the silver hoop pierced through it catching the harsh florecent lights of the terminal. “Care to bring me up to speed?”
“We don’t exactly know the half of it either.” David grabbed her suitcase, leading his fellow investigator out of the airport, even at 2 am the place was bustling with tired travelers, and that made it impossible to discuss what they did know about the situation. “Wait until we’re in the car and I’ll bring you up to date.”
Kellie followed the stout Scot, beringed hands stuffed into the pockets of her jeans. “Sounds alright. I need a Timmies. And my bed.”
“No bed for a while I’m afraid.” David’s voice was slightly regretful. “Although I do have a nice double double for you. We have to go downtown.”
“Bev is that insistant that she has to brief me at this hour of the morning?” Kellie was aghast. Normally Bev would let her get some sleep before the briefing and debriefing, despite the fact that the two women were usually at loggerheads with each other, dancing around like a pair of cats determining territory and status.
David shook his head. “No, we aren’t going to see Bev right now. A call came in from the Homicide squad, and you and I are the ones going to the scene.”
“Homicide?” Kellie shook her head, the fringe of pale blonde hair dusting across her violet eyes, a few strands catching in her eyebrow ring. “David. What the hell is going on? It was quiet when I left. The only activity going on had nothing at all to do with Drake. Were we wrong?”
“No, we were right about that. This is something else altogether.” The pair had reached the parking lot now, and Kellie realized just how hot it still was. She’d heard there was a bit of a heat wave in Toronto, and they weren’t kidding. David was already starting to sweat, and it was past 2 in the morning. “It appears as if Drake has declared war on the Society of the Dragon, or if not him, his enforcer Red has.”
“Red? What the hell happened to Kent?” This sudden change in the heriarchy of the city’s vampires threatened to give Kellie a headache. Red had been a non-entity as far as God’s Gate was concerned. The vampiric child of Thomas Kent was still in her own mortal lifetime, and why on earth would Drake choose what amounted to an infant to replace one of the most dangerous men in the city?
Something was very strange.
“Red seems to have pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes.” David sighed, reaching the car and unlocking the trunk. “Except perhaps Kent’s.” The sound of her suitcase landing in the trunk was a dull thunk, followed by the distinct click as David closed the trunk and locked it again, motioning for Kellie to move to the passenger side door. “I’ll begin at the beginning as we drive, just permit me to navigate our way out of this godforsaken labyrinth.”
Kellie laughed, although the usually sweet sound was tinged with her own foboding. If Kent had met his final death, and Red was more than anyone had bargined for, things might be critical indeed. Especially if the petite, angelic faced red head was responsible for the death Homicide had called them in to look at. She was silent, yet brooding as David drove out of the parking lot and through the labyrinth like streets that lead away from the airport and onto the 427.
“I do hate driving in and out of the airport.” David griped as he shifted gears once they were on the highway. “Now, to start, someone took out Kent about three weeks after you left for Scotland.”
“That would take balls.” Kellie mused as she enjoyed the Tim Horton’s coffee that David had picked up for her. Gods but she missed the taste of the quintessential Canadian coffee. “Kent was a tough character. Vicious and violent. I didn’t think anyone living….or unliving…had what it took to take him out.”
“Apparently someone did. It was almost ritualistic, as if the killer…or whoever ordered the killing, wanted to send a very specific message to Drake.”
“And how does Red figure into this? I mean, she’s younger than my grandmother, hell, she’s about the same age as my mother! And you’re telling me Drake made her his enforcer? Wouldn’t that be a first? I’ve not yet heard of any of the vampire ‘families’ having a woman for an enforcer, nor someone of her age.”
“Like I said, she took everyone by surprise. We think she figured out who was likely behind the killing, which means that Kent had done more than take her into his bed and give her the Gift. He was training her.”
“And who would that be?” Kellie set the paper cup in the cup holder and gazed at David expectantly.
David sighed. “Well, the Society of the Dragon, as far as we can tell, since that’s who her victims worked for. They had a long standing and binding agreement with Drake to operate in the city, rumour has it they stopped giving him his cut. Kent went to convince them to change their minds. Nights later, he was dust. A week later one of the Vanguard was found in an alley with his chest torn open and his heart missing.”
Kellie winced, her stomach rolling slightly. Even Kent hadn’t perpetuated such a violent act. And yet David seem convinced that the tiny female vampire had done so. “Red did that?”
“Her or one of the boys. Once Kent was out of the picture, the entire rank and file lined up behind her. We think they may have to a man refused to take orders from anyone else but her.” The Scottish psychic spared a glance at the tattooed and pierced witch in the passenger seat as he changed lanes, the exit to the 427 South fast coming up. “I have been to each of her….the crime scenes. Her rage is so palpitable it’s left a near permanent imprint on the areas the bodies were left in. Abe has been monitoring Paranormal forums on the internet, and even untrained sensitives have picked that up.”
“What are untrained sensitives doing in at a crime scene?” Kellie’s tongue snaked out to toy with the silver hoop piercing the middle of her lower lip as she looked at her friend. A transport truck, the driver intent on getting his load to its destination, sped past them, filling the pause in their conversation with the roar of the diesel engine.
“Given the events in the North of the city last summer, the media tends to get on top of all violent activities that occur, either praying that it is or isn’t another summer of violence.” David smoothly slid in behind the truck and then into the next lane, taking the curve down to the 427 South. “And these murders are violent. Each one the same. Young men, members of the Society of the Dragon, found in an alley in Chinatown….blocks from your house by the way, be prepared for that…” David tossed Kellie a teasing grin. “Their chests torn open, and not by any instrument. And their hearts missing. It’s all the police and God’s Gate can do to convince the media to report the facts differently than they are.”
Kellie groaned, picking up her paper coffee cup and closed her eyes against the city landscape that sprung up suddenly along the highway. “Fucking brilliant. A vampire with revenge issues is roaming in my neighbourhood.” David laughed suddenly, and Kellie opened her eyes to glare at him. Technically she wasn’t in Chinatown. She was in Kensignton Market…but nothing really separated the two areas, and they shared a few alleys, the same with the Market and Little Italy. “And she’s fucking sanctioned by the Big Man himself.”
