Wingless (The Lia Hunter Chronicles #1)

Present Day...

If you’ve never jumped between two bitching Pyro’s you’ve never truly been in danger. Their hot tempers are well known world-wide, so putting two of them in the same room is never a good idea but add alcohol and a cheering crowd to the mix and a disaster is all but guaranteed. I wanted nothing more than to be curled up on my couch, preferably nursing a bottle of cheap wine but duty called.

As Tess, my partner, and I strolled up to the front door of the nightclub the bouncer raised a questioning eyebrow. A flash of the badge gained us instant entry, one of the major perks of working for the Bureau of Magic as a PeaceKeeper or as the common-folk lovingly called us as dogs of the government. Inside the nightclub was packed full, the heavy beat of the music vibrating through the air. My gaze focused on the small crowd of people in a circle on the dancefloor and I knew without a doubt that was our target. The saying ‘if you see a PeaceKeeper, run the other way’ wasn’t passed around for nothing. We handled the shit nobody else wanted to touch with a ten-foot pole. Which usually meant you’d find us in the middle of a bar-fight. At 2 am. On a Monday.

“You bitch! You slept with Johnny!?” the outraged cry was somehow carried across the club and the crowd jostled tighter together, eager for blood.

Sighing I tapped Tess on the shoulder I jerked my thumb at the crowd. She nodded and started off towards them, her freckled face creased in determination. I watched as her distinctive blue hair disappeared into the crowd. At five foot five Tess didn’t exactly intimidate many. Coupled with her waif-like frame the girl looked like she could be knocked over by an overzealous high-five, but I had seen her in action enough times to know looks can be deceiving.

Not wanting to miss out on all the fun, I took off after her, shoving my way through the crowd. I pushed my way into the circle just in time to see crazy chick number 1 bitch slap the shit out of crazy chick number 2. The crowd cheered in excitement at the development. Drunk idiots.

With the eye of an expert, I watched as number 2′s hands clenched tight and began to glow an ominous orange. Unlike most bitch fights where the extent of the damage was a few pulled hairs and a chipped nail, this was about to get ugly fast. I’m talking fireballs and melted body parts ugly. So before things escalated any further I disengaged from the crowd and walked up to the both of them flashing my badge.

Please, please come quietly so I can go home and sleep.

At the site of my badge sneers creased both of their pretty features and they glared at me. So PeaceKeepers weren’t universally loved, who would have guessed?

Tess emerged from the crowd on the other side of the circle and quickly surveyed the scene. I heaved a sigh at what I knew was coming. See Tess was the ‘let’s talk it out’ type whereas I preferred a ‘stop now or I’ll make you stop’ method.

“Okay, what seems to be the issue here ladies?” She shouted to be heard over the music.

Number 1 crossed her arms across her amply displayed chest and glared at number 2.

“This bitch slept with my boyfriend.” She hissed.

Number 2 rolled her eyes sharply, tossing her hair. “Puhlease Sarah. You didn’t even consider him you’re boyfriend till you found out we were fucking.”

Totally wrong thing to say. Apparently number 1, aka Sarah, also thought so because she stomped her foot like a three-year-old.

“That is so not true Amber! We had something special!” she whined.

Amber grinned. Uh oh, that can’t be good.

“Apparently he didn’t think so seeing as yesterday he told me he loved me.”

Shiiiiiit.

Like a woman possessed Sarah sprang across the room, her hands burning bright with white hot flames. The two crashed to the floor while the crowd sprung apart in fear, just now realizing this wasn’t your ordinary fight. About god-damn time. Humans had a bad habit of winding up dead whenever Jaxai were involved.

Hoping to intervene before anyone got injured I reluctantly jumped into the fray. Gripping Sarah’s shirt I pulled her off her positon on top of Amber. Dragging her away I unsuccessfully tried to avoid her flailing limbs and got a fist to the stomach for my efforts. Maintaining my hold I continued to drag her away from Amber who Tess was doing her best to restrain.

“Let go of me! I’m going to rip that bitch in half!” Sarah screeched.

I ignored her and made my way to the exit, tossing her outside before following. She was just struggling to get up off her ass when I yanked her back up again.

“Look, I’ve had a really bad night. So why don’t you just make this easy and come along quietly?” I said trying to be diplomatic.

Tess would be so proud.

“You’re not the boss of me, dog. So why don’t you go ahead and run home to your master like a good little bitch.” She sneered and shoved me away.

Why do they never pick the easy road?

“Alright then, let’s do this the hard way,” I said, stretching out my muscles.

An evil grin spread across her face and white hot fire ignited in both her hands. Raising one hand she tossed a fireball aimed right for my face. Dodging to the side quickly I just managed to miss getting brained. Glancing over my shoulder I saw the brick wall she had hit now sported a large charred dent.

Grinding my teeth I charged her, going in low and tackled her to the ground. Already unsteady on her high heels she went down easy, her hands scratching at my leather covered shoulders for purchase. The smell of burning leather and charred hair filled the air and I mentally cursed. Using my enhanced strength and years of training I flipped her over and pinned her arms down. Flames started to crawl further up her arms and I cursed mentally for forgetting my flame retardant gloves. Sacrificing my hold on one of her hands I pulled out the sedative all PKs keep on them and injected it in her neck. The flames go out and her struggling slowed before she finally slumped on the ground unconscious.

“Really, you had to sedate her?” I turned to see Tess guiding a handcuffed and unhappy looking Amber through the back door.

Huffing I pushed off Sarah’s back and showed her my red and blistering hands.

“Look what she did to my hands!” I waved them in her face, wincing at the pain.

Even though they’ll be healed within the hour courtesy of the magical alien blood running through my veins, they still hurt like shit. As usual, I received no sympathy from Tess.

“Sedation still seems a bit much.” She said with a sniff.

Partners for four years and she still turned down her nose at my less than peaceful methods. Rolling my eyes I unhooked the silver infused cuffs from my pants and slapped them around Sarah’s wrists. The small amounts of silver in them ensuring that when she regains consciousness she won’t be able to fry my brains with her powers. It was considered the discovery of the century when humans discovered that silver weakened Jaxai powers.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said and tossed Sarah over my shoulder, another perk of the alien blood.

Too bad I didn’t know how to use it when I’d needed it most. My back ached with phantom pain and I gritted my teeth. Striding off without Tess, I made my way to our parked van. I got a few curious looks from passer-by’s but they’re smart enough not to get in my way. Our little white van remains untouched on the side of the road where we left it. A small miracle considering this neighborhood is well known for the scavengers that strip vehicles clean the moment they’re left unattended. The Bureau logo on the bonnet probably helped scare possible scavengers away. No-one wants the BoM after them.

Propping open the back doors with one hand I jostled the sleeping Sarah into a better positon with the other. She mumbled under her breath and I knew the sedative must’ve already been fading from her system. I’d give her another twenty minutes before she was fully conscious. Sedatives never last as long on Jaxai or hybrids, a major inconvenience when you’re in my line of work.

Strapping Sarah into one of the seats in the back, I wait and help Tess with Amber, who sniffed and glared at us like she’s royalty. For all we know she could be, the Jaxai had their own governing systems that contained four different leading families. Not that it would make much of a difference, the BoM operated outside of both the human and Jaxai governments. We could go wherever we pleased, and bring down the law on whoever was breaking them. However that also meant that we were a solo operation, we couldn’t count on anyone else to have our backs if things went to shit. So for the sake of good relations, we tried to stay on everyone’s good side.

“Get your hands off me, dog.” Yeah, you could tell it was really working.

Ignoring Amber I continued to strap her into the seat. Jumping out of the van I slammed the doors shut and tossed the keys at Tess.

“You’re driving, my hands are total shit right now,” I told her and she caught them without comment.

Dropping into the passenger seat I grabbed the burn ointment from the glovebox. Propping my feet up on the dash, I started to apply it to my hands.

“Feet down,” Tess said and I ignored her like always.

She sighed and focused on the road. As a Gaian hybrid, the offspring of a human and an earth based Jaxai, it goes against her nature to cause conflict. It made her somewhat of a rarity amongst the PK’s as most either belonged to the three other types of Jaxai: Seraphim, Pyro, and Hydro who were all well known for their combative natures.

“So what’s going on with you and Tom?” I asked in my best casual voice.

The Hydro, a Jaxai with an affinity for water, and Tess had been circling each other for months now and there was a betting pool on how much longer it will take before they finally get together. I’d put twenty on two weeks from now and I wasn’t averse to using our friendship to help win the bet.

“The same as usual,” she said with a sigh, “he told me I should quit my job and I told him he was an idiot and it pretty much devolved from there.”

Hydros were notoriously overprotective of their partners, to the point where it could be suffocating. For Tom who was more Hydro than most, watching the girl he’s been in love with for the past year and a half consistently put herself in danger must be driving him mad. Despite that, I knew that Tess would rather die than quit her job, even for Tom. It was a totally crappy situation and I did not envy either of them.

“Is it too much to hope that by devolved you mean you both had crazy fight sex?” I asked trying not to sound too eager.

“No Lia, you are not going to win that stupid bet.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said trying my best to appear innocent.

“Right. Don’t think I don’t notice the way everyone watches our interactions like we’re a ticking time bomb.” Tossing the ointment back into the glovebox I flexed my hands, the redness was already starting to fade and the worst of the blisters were well on their way to being healed.

“It’s either watch you two or listen to Gabe’s weekly conquest stories,” I replied with a shudder and Tess’s nose wrinkled in disgust.

“Good point.”

Gabe, the official sleaze-bag of our rag tag group, delighted in retelling anyone who would listen how or more specifically who he spent the previous night with. If he wasn’t such a good PK I think Captain Hutch would have kicked him out of the group already. The Seraphim hybrid was fast as hell and had no qualms about using his admittedly gorgeous features to calm down crazy Jaxai women.

Tess turned left and our headquarters came into view. The old brownstone building stood on the corner of the street and was a modest three stories high. Unlike the many offices spread around the country our little Manhattan based station was on the smaller side. Despite the fact, New York was teeming with magic and Jaxai we made do with the small numbers we had. Our team consisted of only seven PK’s who were a combination of Jaxai, hybrids, and humans. It was one of the rare instances you’d see three of the four races working together. It was a matter of impartiality but also numbers, not many people wanted to live the lifestyle of a PK and as such we accepted anyone and everyone who passed the exams into our ranks. No matter what you were, if you had your fellow PK’s back then you were accepted into the group, no questions asked. For someone like me who would never be accepted by humans or Jaxai completely, it was both a blessing and a haven.

After the Jaxai’s existence was revealed to the world the shocks just kept coming. Not only were aliens real and they’d been living amongst this whole time but they had magic too. Oh, and all those mythical creatures, you know the ones I’m talking about, unicorns, goblins, Bigfoot, they were real too. When the Jaxai crash landed on Earth, their magic effected the world somehow and as a result, those creatures were born. These revelations proved to be too much too fast for the human population and soon the world was split up into two categories those who had magic and those who didn’t. Tempers flared and people wound up dead. Finally, a tenuous peace settled between the two groups and now we generally co-exist with one another. That wasn’t to say there is no division between the races, but the majority of the general public was won over by what magic could do for them. It’s practically replaced money as currency, with people trading in charms and knowledge all in the hope of gaining more power.

The fourth race, Magics existed outside of all systems. The mythical creatures existed in a gray area, although they were the product of magic they weren’t under the jurisdiction of the Jaxai or hybrids and humans certainly weren’t lining up to claim responsibility for the wild, uncontrollable creatures. Instead, the responsibility of policing them fell upon the shoulders of the BoM. Luckily we were experts in dealing with gray.

Pulling into the special underground parking lot we unloaded our unhappy passengers, the drugs finally have left Sarah’s system, and quickly escorted them inside. We passed by the unmanned reception desk, Travis our night-time receptionist no doubt gossiping somewhere in the building, and straight into the bullpen.

Gabe was the only one still in the office, tapping away at his phone no doubt talking to some girl. He glanced up at our entrance, took one look at my appearance and smirked.

“You’re looking a little charred there Lia.”

Rolling my eyes I dragged Sarah forward, whose attention was glued to Gabe’s face. With blonde hair, baby blues, and eyelashes any woman would kill for Gabe was the very picture of beauty. Like the majority of Seraphim hybrids, he hadn’t inherited wings from his alien parent, meaning his mother or father wasn’t a part of the Seraphim royal court. However, he did receive their angelic good looks on top of their strength and speed.

“Can you process these two for us?” I said jerking my thumb at the two salivating girls.

His gaze moved off me and onto our charges and interest gleamed in his eyes. Rising from his seat with a grace no human could ever manage he strolled towards us.

“Of course and who might these two lovely ladies be?” Amber and Sarah practically melted into puddles as Gabe flashed them his killer smile.

I watched with a frown as they followed him like eager puppies to the processing room.

“And another two fall prey to his charm.” Tess murmured and I grunted in agreement.

“I’m going to hit the showers. You heading home?”

“Yeah, Reggie will be wondering where I am.”

“You and your cat are ridiculously co-dependent.”

“You’re just jealous he doesn’t like you.” And wasn’t that a major understatement. The last time I visited her place her damn cat tried to claw my face off.

“I’m not the one who’s jealous of that thing.” Leaving her with that I turned and headed off to the showers.

“You’re not winning the damn bet, Lia!” I heard her call out and without turning around I flipped her off.