Once Lost Lords (Royal Scales, Book 1) (12 page)

Rain hit towards afternoon. I kept trying my senses while traveling,
checking for food. By nightfall, I was out of lighter fluid, soaked,
angry, and a little unnerved. My mind replayed the most recent events
as I walked. Tracking I remembered. Physically boosting myself was a
familiar sensation from youthful times. Talking elves while I tracked
was odd but within reason. They theoretically saw an entire spectrum
that humans couldn’t. This new thing, calling a wild creature
to me, then killing it. A chance encounter with vampirism in my
childhood didn’t explain that ability or the Lord title.

Hunger, exhaustion, neither one helped me when trying to concentrate
and track the elf. Both things changed my max range. Desperation and
days of wandering in the woods pushed me to poor choices. My mind
stretched out, chasing the ghostly link between the hair and the
person it used to belong to.

Landscape passes by. Trees. More trees. Even more trees. Each
different. Each the same. Wind ripples their tops, an ocean of
spirits sway. Fog looms ahead. Perceptions edge. Ghostly, firm in its
denial. Elven thread goes in. Doesn’t come out. Feels tired.

Should I try to breach the boundary of my mind’s senses? No,
there were enough stories about astral projection gone wrong. My
research into the so-called psychic realms concluded that pushing the
mind was dangerous. While I have never met a human psychic, there had
been plenty of vampires with little abilities. They kept an open
library because anyone with a hint of ability was sponsored for
conversion.

Circular thinking was starting to irk me. This Lord thing. If I
wasn’t an elf, wasn’t a wolf, what else was there beyond
vampirism? Everything else had been killed during the Purge.

I released the connection by discarding possession over the blond
lock of hair. Calling this journey quits felt appealing. There was a
rustle in the trees near me, and a click. Pain lanced through my body
while I jerked spastically. A squirrel chittering sound barely
proceeded the second click. My nerves jangled around and I had no
control. A vicious one on one battle between the ground and my face
ensued.

I lost.

“Rise and shine, Princess.” A mocking voice was repeating
itself. Each time accompanied by a light backhand to the face. I was
starting to hate waking up even more than I already did. “He’s
finally coming to.”

“Check the bindings.” A second voice, from further away.

“They’re solid.” The first one said.

Both arms were bound behind me and my legs tied together. They had me
trussed up, all that was missing was the fire and roasting pole. Both
eyes watered as I tried to speak. Bastards had taped my mouth shut.
There was also a blindfold across my eyes. The open air mixed with
splashes of sunshine told me I was in the back of the vehicle. Our
ride was noisy and bounced around from ditches in the road. Beneath
me, I could feel the rows of bumps that went with a truck bed.

I checked my bearings against home. We were headed south, towards my
apartment and away from my target. That made the last few days of my
life pointless. Hopefully, my stuff was with me. The cross hung under
my shirt, but my duffle bag wasn’t obvious. I would be pissed
if a return trip to the depths of those woods was required.

A firm hand gripped under my jaw, squeezing painfully.

“How’s your hearing, nod if you understand me.” A
male voice said.

I nodded.

“Yeah, he’s awake.”

This whole mess was turning into some sort of karmic revenge. Now I
was being kidnapped. Normally things didn’t work that way.
Struggling was useless with this setup. Maybe they would explain.
Worst case they might hit me with that chittering item again. Even
money said it was a taser.

I mumbled through the tape a bit. Maybe he understood ‘where
are we going?’ in muffled tones.

“He’s trying to talk, what do you think?”

“Remove it, not like he can yell for help out here.” The
man in the back of the truck chuckled, then yanked the tape off,
leaving my face sore. I licked my lips slowly, hoping they hadn’t
cracked. Torn hairs wasn’t an issue, five days of camping had
resulted in zero beard growth. Genetics were against me on that
front.

“Where are we going?”

“You’re being evicted for loitering.”

“Maybe north instead? The elf is that way.” It would be
too much to hope that they would get me closer to my destination.

“Negative, orders are you exit where you came in.” The
other voice, from inside the truck. It sounded like he was yelling
out through a tiny sliding door.

“And the blindfold?” Or duct tape. Being electrocuted was
unpleasant. Trussing. Lack of an eviction notice. An endless list of
complaints passed through my head.

“For our protection. No need to let a tracker get anything on
us in case they entertain thoughts of petty revenge.” One of
the men said.

At least they were taking me out the quick way. If they trussed and
blindfolded me through three days of woods I might have to shoot
myself. Fucking elves. Why couldn’t they hide in a run down
apartment a few blocks away? Why did they always run into the deepest
tree line they could find?

“At least you’re civil.” Was my final response.

“Sure, we’re not inhuman.”

I didn’t need the blindfold removed to hear his mocking smile
at that comment. There was another clicking noise and blackness
overtook me. In hindsight, it was probably a good thing that I hadn’t
had much to eat or drink for three days. Coming to the second time
was much more pleasant. They had propped me upright and any traces of
drool I had must have been wiped clean.

Breakfast was the first thing I noticed. The food smelled
overwhelmingly sweet. Buttered up pancakes with bottled syrup
slathered all over them. Next to that was a pile of eggs with melted
cheese and diced onions. A fork full of food was in my mouth before
the man sitting across from me even registered.

He looked familiar, at least from the neck up. The waist downward was
confusing but welcome. This time, the man was clothed. Graying pieces
of hair combined with a sun-worn face had painted an identical
picture of the man from the forest. An older fellow who had held my
life in his hands.

“Keep eating.” He nodded at the food in front of me.

I made it a personal challenge to devour the food. Minutes later a
woefully empty plate sat between us. We stared at each other for a
while before I sighed and shifted in my chair. The man was so upright
in his posture it made me want either slouch as an attempt to
balance, or sit up straighter.

“Eviction?” I broke the silence first.

“I had a few of my boys scout the area ahead and behind you the
entire way. There was no elf.” The older man was calm.

“There was one, trust me, I would never have gone into those
woods otherwise,” I said.

“I don’t trust you, Jay, never have. Never will. Boy like
you works in entirely the wrong business.” He spoke calmly.
From my peripherals, it was obvious this older man was staring at me.

“How do you know me?”

“Know of, Jay, know of. Very few trackers in the world. Just as
rare on both sides of the law.” Daniel had told me before that
the number of trackers in this sector fit on one hand. Out of those
he only had reliable access to one. Go me.

“Mmmhh,” I said.

“The boys can’t handle a man like you in our woods for
long. They get upset.”

I studied the man again, crossed my arms and leaned back. There was
an impression that our paths had crossed at least once. I could
honestly say we had never met before a few nights ago. At least not
to my memory.

“Where are you going with this?” I asked.

“Keep your nose out of my trees.”

“Fine.” The elf was too deep for me. I would have to look
again once I finished with this man. Whatever it was he was hiding,
or protecting, could sit there and rot for all I cared. It wasn’t
worth pissing off a pack of wolves. It also wasn’t worth asking
about, or I might start getting nosy.

The other man stood up to leave.

“Who am I thanking for breakfast?” Now was a good time as
any to fish for a name. The older figure didn’t smile, didn’t
nod, didn’t even give me half a smirk.

“Not me, your money paid for it.”

A twenty laid on the table over the bill, enough to cover the food I
scarfed down, and the orange juice the other man had drank. By the
time I realized what he meant there was no chance of following him.
My duffle bag was sitting calmly by the table. I scanned through it
briefly and found they left my things alone and in one place. Outside
the restaurant was a working pay phone. I pulled out Daniel’s
phone number from the card he had given me. My head hung against the
rain cover for a minute before dialing my friend.

“Agent Daniel Crumfield speaking.” Crisp, no hint of the
surfer accent.

“It’s secret agent Jay Fields.”

“Hey man, hold on.” There it was. Professional Daniel
switched to old friend Daniel in four words.

The phone grew muffled for a moment, but I could hear a softened set
of words. It sounded like he was asking someone to stay still. Maybe,
hard to hear through a hand. There was another noise in the
background I could almost place. A sound that was extremely familiar
to me, but was out of place when I pictured Daniel. The world’s
noisiest door creaked through the phone then slammed shut.

“Alright, hard to hear myself think in there.”

“Been there,” I said.

“Anyway, man, welcome back to earth, what’s the word?
You’ve been off the grid for awhile.” He sounded hopeful.
Too bad I was about to dash that.

“Had a lead. Didn’t work.” Admitting to my friend
exactly what happened was out. I’d ditched him to chase an elf,
then failed miserably.

“Anything I can help with?”

“No. Unless you’re willing to take on a pack,” I
answered. There was a pause of held breath.

“Maybe, man. What are we working with?” Daniel said. It
was my turn to pause while I considered exactly to say. Last time we
spoke I had been trying to escape from the agent. My clever brain
said sneaking away to follow an elf would be worthwhile. The whole
Lord prospect had grown rather difficult to look into.

“Not sure. Probably nothing. Your elf has gone a ways north,
over sixty miles or so.” I said. Daniel deserved some
information.

“North?” He asked.

“North. A lot of woods out that way.” There was a clever
comment about needles and haystacks, which wasn’t that hard
compared to elves in a forest.

“No shit.”

My recent experiences had stirred up wariness. This entire thing was
in a realm that felt dangerous. Playing on the freeway scary. Nagging
in the back of my brain said it could only get worse. One hand
scratched at a wrist absently.

“I’m going to catch a bus home,” I said.

“I’ll be done soon if you want a ride back.” There
was a snap of rubber in the background, like gloves coming off.

“You sure?” My words were hesitant.

“Don’t worry, I can wrap up this job anytime I want to,
man. I’m only working my resources on another case.”
Daniel sounded upset, or pleased. The two emotions were hard for me
to tell apart.

The way he spoke stirred up strange imagery. Spying on Daniel with my
abilities hadn’t been a good idea for years. We had been
friends long enough that he almost knew when I tried. Still, I got a
flash of him standing there, a fresh hand towel in one hand, wiping
the blood off his fingers while sighing.

Nonsense. Daniel worked for Western Sector, but he was a desk jockey,
not a field agent. That scene was more my world than his. Sometimes
people didn’t pay. Sometimes a gentle reminder was needed to
solve things. Julianne hadn’t given me anything big since I had
returned, she seemed to be testing the waters.

I gave the agent my location. Then my bag and I went to find a
bathroom and change out of some well-worn clothes. An hour later
Daniel rolled up and honked. His clothes were as spotless as ever,
and despite my mental ramblings I couldn’t help but check over
for spots of blood. Nothing stood out against the black suit.

“Tell me about elves, because this makes no sense.” I
started.

“You know as much as anyone. We’re all in the same
sector, half of us are raised down the street from a clan.”

“This one isn’t right.” I protested. Daniel paused
to consider a few things.

“Well, it’s not normal, no,” He admitted.

“You got anything on this guy?”

“Maybe. What set you off, man? Then I’ll know where to
start.” He said. Give a little to get a little, right? I mulled
it over from the back seat, the front was perpetually crowded by
files and Daniel’s computer.

“Feels off. Any government trackers ever tried elves?” I
settled on being vague.

“A few times.” He said.

“Problems?”

“A few times.” Came the answer a second time.

“Maybe it’s like those.”

“I’ll have to see if I can get a look at the files, but
management may wonder why I’m looking into tracker files for
this. Your call if you want me to risk it.” Daniel offered. I
could feel his finger rubbing carefully back and forth on the
steering wheel. My thoughts were elsewhere.

If other Sector members thought Daniel had access to a tracker then I
would be subject to undesired attention. That tactic was completely
out. I did not want to deal with any sort of catch up paperwork or
jail time. Not once they started piecing my history together.

“No thanks. I’ll stay anonymous.”

“Thought you might.” I could see Daniel’s smirk in
the rear view mirror. Jerk probably thought my aversion to being
tracked by the government was funny. With my ass sitting in a
government car, with a government agent, on a government case. Maybe
there was some silliness there.