Raised in Fire (Demon Days, Vampire Nights World Book 2)(2)

“Reagan, we got something.”

I turned my head without raising it from the back of my chair. I wasn’t even slouching at this point—I was trying to lie down without actually dropping to the floor.

Clarissa, the healing witch employed by the Magical Law Enforcement office, or MLE, filled the entryway of my cube. Her frizzy blond hair had long since escaped the bun in which she’d tried to contain it. “We got something. Wanna come?”

“What is it? ” I asked, my tone flat.

Her blue eyes blinked within black-framed glasses. She grinned and shook the sheet of paper clutched in her hand. “A partial beheading. They have no idea who did it.”

A jolt of fire ran up my spine, but I didn’t let it push me to sitting. Not yet. I’d been fooled one too many times by promises of magical mayhem wrapped in mystery, only to arrive on scene and discover the MLE agent had embellished the situation. More often than not, it would take all of fifteen minutes to solve the case, and then I’d have to loiter off to the side while the agent did paperwork. It was annoying, especially when the car ride was long and the agent was unnecessarily chatty. Like Clarissa.

Using the papers that Darius, the vampire whom I’d worked a case with a while ago, had made, saying I was a legal—though completely fictitious— person, I’d gotten a full-time job in the MLE office as a peacekeeper. I’d figured I would be out running around, dodging spells and fighting for my life.

Instead, I sat in this boring cube with a mountain of paperwork and an uncomfortable chair. Occasionally I got to get out of the office, sure, but we were encouraged to use our words to pacify the situations, not our fists.

What did I know about using words? That wasn’t my style at all.

What a bunch of hooey.

If it weren’t for the regular paycheck, which kept me from dipping into the stash of cash I’d earned from completing the job for Darius, I would’ve walked away by now.

Well, that, and getting my chance to show up Garret the douche, the single most annoying peacekeeper in the MLE. It was going to happen. I wanted to be the rightful king of the office, the agent everyone thought was the best.

I just needed that chance.

“Who was beheaded?” I asked, watching Clarissa for signs of lying. She was a wily one when she wanted someone else to do her work.

“An older witch. The human police on scene thought it might’ve been done by a sword.”

“What else?”

She hesitated. “What do you mean?”

“What else is there to the case? A sword attack is pretty tame. Was the victim held by a hook in his navel over a simmering pot of mysterious potion or something?”

Things I’d learned about myself during the two months on the job: I got really gruesome when routinely bored.

“Or maybe the aggressor is still on scene somewhere, waiting to strike again?” I continued. “Because that could be a good time.”

“Psycho.” My annoying coworker Garret’s voice carried through the gray cube wall separating our desks. It was my boss Captain Lox’s terrible humor to put our desks so close together.

My hands curled into fists despite my best efforts to remain calm. “I wasn’t talking to you, Garret.”

“Good. I don’t want your crazy rubbing off on me,” he said in an elevated voice. Someone in our cube farm of an office snickered. “You should just shove off. We don’t need your kind around here.”

“And what kind is that, Garret? Competent?”

“Vampire lovers, that’s what kind. You should go back out onto the streets where you belong.”

“I am not a vampire lover, you donkey. I am stalked by the buggers. Not my fault.”

“Whatever, freak,” he said.

“Sticks and stones, Garret. Sticks and stones.” I rolled my eyes.

“Speaking of sticks, did you take my advice and head to the gym? I worry about you. One wrong move and a leg might crack. Feebleness has a cure, my dear boy. Movement. You should try it.”

“I move plenty, or hasn’t anyone told you who reigns as king around these parts?”

See? He always had that on me. It instantly invalidated every rebuttal.

“Anyway,” Clarissa said in a slightly shaking voice. The office personnel got a little on edge when Garret and I disagreed. Our past was fraught with…

incidents. “There isn’t any potion or anything, no. But he might’ve shown signs of struggle.”

“Might’ve?”

“Well, he was sitting in a chair when it happened—”

“Nope,” I said, turning my head back toward the ceiling.

“They think it was a magical sword that holds power—”

“Nope,” I said again. “I was hired on for the more dangerous, robust cases. This was assigned to you for a reason. It sounds pretty tame. You don’t need me.”

“C’mon, Reagan, please? It’ll take you two seconds to solve the case. It’s girls’ night out tonight. I don’t want to miss it. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve gotten out of the house without kids? Please. I really need this.”

I hated sob stories that involved missing a party. They pulled at my heartstrings.

The slide of my boots across the clean desk surface preceded the thunk of them hitting the ground. No clumps of dirt flaked off. Yet another sign that the job was too slow.