Azrael

Thirteen

Lisa left Emeraude's place just as the first rays of the rising sun shone through the clouds. She had always been a light sleeper, owing to her werewolf mind that was always half-alert even when her body was resting.

She scratched out a quick thank you note and left it on the table before slipping quietly out the door.

There was a text from Roman, curt, and direct.

You're off the case.

She paused, considered sending an angry inquiry message back, and then thought about it. Roman didn't have the authority to pull her off a case. That came from higher up. She probably had an idea of who it was that had given the order, and a quick call to HQ confirmed her next destination.

A security perimeter had been set up a few blocks around the scene of the incident, but the security was Jupyter, and they let her in. Humans from the investigations department were interviewing the human witnesses right before they were handed over to the supernatural agents. The elves handled the inhuman witnesses, with authorisation to use memory magic to alter recollections of the story. Lisa had been through that once and never wanted to try it again.

Her mind was jumbled enough without having someone rummage through it.

She finally located Andreas, her boss, speaking to two other elves who according to the five stars on their shoulders were Lisa's superiors. The female one, Liara, watched him speak with a hypnotised look in her eyes. It was a look that Lisa had seen on several faces around him more than a few times. He carried the signature pale, almost luminous skin that elven kind were known for, with long white silver hair that fell to his shoulders.

Liara seemed to sense the moment Lisa looked their way and she locked eyes with her. When the fae excused herself and made a beeline for where Lisa stood, she realised that perhaps coming here had not been the best of ideas.

"Agent Kirova," came the cold greeting.

"Commander Liara."

Lisa kept her eyes on the elf's jade ones, which meant she was looking slightly upward the entire time.

It was fun having someone not only disliked you but bested you on every point of comparison. Elves were simply the jack of all trades of the supernatural kind, only that they had eternity to master every trade they took an interest in.

"I see you've made a quick recovery," the elf remarked, amber eyes glinting in the morning light,

"I wanted to return to work as soon as possible," Lisa responded evenly.

"Isn't your work more of preventing crime scenes than hanging around them?"

Lisa wasn't sure, but she thought she heard a tinge of scorn in the elf's voice. She kept her own even as she replied.

"I require information from this scene to prevent the next one. Unless of course, you would prefer to have another one on your hands."

"Is that a threat Agent Kirova?" The fae asked in a low voice, the edges of her lips curling into a sneer. She didn't think Lisa was much of a threat. Older elves had stronger control over their magic, most of which involved mind-related manipulation. Lisa could feel her werewolf rising to the challenge, and she had to force it back down.

"It's a warning. We have an unknown monster running around the city with no one to check its activities. The sooner I find it, the less the chances you have to stay up late to work on scenes like this."

The elf reached out a finger to touch Lisa's neck only to recoil suddenly. A curl of smoke was rising from her singed finger.

"You rabid-"