Page 7 of Blood and Bone

“I don’t know,” Eoghan hedged. “I should have known better. There were rumors about what a hound Kellen was before I ever accepted an offer to go out to dinner with him andI should’ve listened. Apparently, he can’t keep his dick in his pants, and I ignored all the signs. It’s my own fault.”

“I’ve learned pretty quickly that marshals in the I.S.R. are on the road all the time, Eoghan,” he said. “I imagine working cases with a straight, female partner wasn’t exactly conducive to healthy gay dating, yeah?”

Eoghan glanced over at him. “Right.”

“It probably got lonely.”

“Yeah.”

“So, your gaydar was off.” Ari smirked which made Eoghan smile.

Eoghan snorted. “I figured you out, didn’t I? Besides, that’s rarely been a problem.”

Ari bumped his shoulder as the armory came into view. “Admit it. You…were horny.”

“Asshole,” Eoghan murmured.

Ari chuckled. “I’mhorny right now.”

Eoghan laughed out loud as they stopped in front of the double doors leading into the armory. Ari pulled one open, letting Eoghan enter first. The place smelled like a combination of gun oil and clean, male sweat. He suspected Wordy had just come from the building’s gym where he spent a lot of time. Even though their resident weapons specialist wasn’t very tall, he was chock full of muscle in several layers. If Ari had to guess, he was in his late forties or early fifties, younger than he’d thought the first time he’d seen him, but he kept himself in great shape.

Ari had used the I.S.R. gym several times and liked it. It saved him from paying the monthly fee at an outside gym, and he got the added bonus of working out with Eoghan during their off hours which were few and far between these days. He really hoped the chief would follow through with her plans on recruiting more marshals. They were stretched thin.

“Wordy!” Eoghan called out as they walked up to the counter. Wordy was nowhere in sight. The armory was divided into two sections, one for human tech and the other for alien technology and weaponry. Apparently, there were very few found alien objects that Wordy hadn’t figured out. He was quite brilliant at fiddling with something until he learned how it worked.

“Be right there!” came the response from a back room. A half minute later, Wordy came into view as he turned the corner. He smiled when he recognized them. “Oh, hey there. The chief told me to expect you two. I hear you’re after an opossum shifter family?”

“Yes,” Ari replied, looking between Wordy and Eoghan who was nodding. “Is there some special weapon to use with a shifter?”

“Regular bullets will kill them,” Wordy replied, nodding to his belt where Ari’s Glock sat cradled in his holster. “But Priest wants you to have dart guns.”

Ari frowned. “I thought our whole fleet of vehicles were already equipped with them. I recall you asking me if I’d ever watchedSupernatural.”

Wordy grinned. “That’s right, but I got a new model of gun after one of Sterling’s guns jammed when she was aiming at a vamp. She was lucky that Loya was right there by her side.”

“I haven’t met them yet,” Ari said, glancing at Eoghan. “Sterling and Loya?”

“They work out of a satellite office near the Oregon border,” Eoghan said. “They’re closer to Tahoe than we are, and they would have had Riversong Wilkins’ case but they’re dealing with a prisoner drop off in Yreka.” He dragged his gaze back to Wordy. “Anyway, what do you have for us, my friend?”

“Hang on.” Wordy bent down behind the counter and when he stood up, he had two backpacks in his hands. He pushed them across the counter. “New dart guns and cartridges with less lethal rounds.” He smiled. “You’re gonna like these puppies. They weigh a third less than the ones we used to have. Smaller too.” He gestured toward the backpacks. “Take a look.”

Ari admired the tone of Wordy’s voice which sounded like a proud father bragging about a favorite child. Unzipping his backpack, he pulled the dart gun out and hefted it. It was indeed lighter and even smaller than his Glock. He looked at Wordy. “I like it.”

“You tried out the old model, right?”

“Not on a shifter or anything, just at the range,” Ari replied.

“We go to the range once a week,” Eoghan added. “I had to see how proficient my partner was.” He turned and smiled at him. “As it turns out, he really knows how to handle a weapon.”

Ari felt a wave of pleasure rush over him. “Thanks, partner.” He replaced the gun and zipped the pack before looking over at Eoghan. “Ready?”

“Yup. Let’s go.” Eoghan turned and knocked a closed fist on the desk. “Thanks, Wordy.”

Wordy saluted. “You got it. Be safe out there.”

Ari nodded and accompanied Eoghan out the door. They headed down to the garage and spotted Rick and Dick Tooley bent over the open hood of one of the Chargers as soon as they stepped off the elevator. I.S.R. marshals drove Chargers but there were other vehicles in the garage as well. The sanitizing teams drove large vans which resembled hazmat vehicles to disguise their true purpose of cleaning up after alien or supernatural events and there were a couple of those there too.

As they started to walk across the garage, Ari spotted Charlie Turner walking out of the door which led to the tombs. It was their name for the jail complex which temporarily housed their fugitives until someone from their tribe, clan, or planet could come and collect them. There weren’t very many cells down there. The Agency insisted that tradeoffs were to happen quickly at the I.S.R. unless it couldn’t be helped. In the case of Carmine, the twelve-foot-tall silver serpent-like alien who’d been a resident of the tombs for two years, the tradeoff couldn’t be made until someone from the alien’s home planet could make it to Earth. That was expected to be sometime around 2028. Charlie raised his hand and waved, smiling at them when he saw them.

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