Page 1 of Shadow Dreaming

CHAPTER ONE

“Benny, I know you’re here,” I whispered. “Come on out and face the music, you dimwitted goblin.” I was down near the docks, creeping through a back alley, looking for the little runt I knew was hiding behind one of the dumpsters.

I’d been supposed to meet Benny, one of my snitches, half an hour earlier, but then I received a text telling me that he couldn’t meet up. I knew he was lying. He’d figured out that I knew his secret. He was playing both sides of the fence this time, and I wasn’t about to let it slide. I glanced around. If I was a sneaky goblin, determined not to let a half-demon put me in a headlock, where would I hide?

And then I knew. I caught whiff of garlic from a nearby pizza joint. Garlic was to goblins, what catnip was to cats. They didn’t get all goofy after eating it, but the fact was most goblins couldn’t resist the allure of anything heavily spiced with the herb. With a silent thank you to Gino’s Pizza for their help, I dashed around the corner of the alley, where the first building on my left housed the pizzeria.

I sauntered in, ignoring the looks as I glanced around the room. I was in leather pants, a leather bustier, and knee-high platform boots, along with a leather jacket. I looked like some character out of a fetish movie, but I didn’t care.

Sure enough, there, in the corner, tucked away in a booth, sat Benny, inhaling a large pizza. He was so immersed in the food that he didn’t even look up when I came through the door. I raised my finger to my lips when the man behind the counter started to speak, and silently strode over to Benny’s booth. As I stood there, hands on my hips, he finally noticed me.

“Kyann!” The look of pure fear on his face made me smile.

I bared my teeth, still smiling. “Benny, so, where were you tonight? We had a meeting planned, if you’ll remember.”

“I…I…I was hungry and you know me—I lost track of the time because…garlic!” He scrambled for words.

I didn’t give him the comfort of relaxing my stance. Instead, I moved so that he was hemmed in the booth and couldn’t get out, unless he slid beneath the table. Then he’d still have to crawl out from below, and I was blocking the exit.

“Benny, my man. For someone who risks lying to a half-demon, you seem to be losing your touch. There was a time that, garlic or not, you would have been halfway across town by now. You’re going soft, Benny.” I narrowed my eyes. “How about we have our little talk right here? You’re a lucky goblin. We talk now, and I can’t remind you about what playing double agent gets you for a prize.”

I slid in next to him, making him slide over. He stared at the table, and I could smell the fear on him. Over the past month or so, I’d started to smell strong emotions on others. According to Seton—who was helping me as my demonic powers began to emerge—that was one of the abilities: A heightened sense of smell, especially when it came to emotions.

“You’re afraid of me, aren’t you?” I asked, again with a toothy smile.

Benny swallowed—probably a lump of fear—and nodded. “Please don’t hurt me, Legs.” He called me Legs because I was five-eleven, quite a bit taller than he was. “I know what you can do. I’m stupid, I admit it. I’m greedy.”

“Yeah, you’re both stupid and greedy. What’s your excuse, Benny? While I wouldn’t call us friends, and you’ve always been a weasel, I’m surprised that you’d go this far. You’ve been feeding information to a few of the suspects my agency’s been going after. Why?”

Shadow Blade Investigations was my detective agency—well, mine and Dante’s. My business partner and one of my best friends, Dante—a wolf shifter—co-owned the agency. I had the final say on matters, but I always listened to him.

We investigated all sorts of magical and paranormal cases, from rowdy goblins to demonic home invasions. And Benny? He had helped us track down some of the suspects over the past few years. For a goblin, he was as trustworthy as they could get. That didn’t mean much, but I paid him well for his efforts and we could usually count on him. I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on.

“I know,” he said. “I know what I did was wrong, and I’m sorry. I owe you a big one, Legs. If you promise not to kill me, I’ll stop double-dealing.”

“But why did you do it in the first place? If you needed more money, you should have said something. You know that I’m not a pushover, but I’m fair,” I said.

“I know, but…” He paused, then said, “It’s a matter of pride. I’ve always been at the bottom rung of the ladder and I started listening to a couple self-help podcasts. I thought maybe I could build up something of my own.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve been listening to Tony Robbins?”

“No…Yes.”

I stared at the goblin. His leathery skin looked like he’d been out in the sun far too long, and his olive-green coloring with long angular ears made him look like a wacked out Yoda.

Goblins didn’t have much in the hair department, and they were short, but they were fast and strong, and wickedly cunning. Benny was wearing distressed blue jeans and an AC-DC T-shirt stained with melted cheese from the pizza. All in all, he didn’t come off as the target audience for self-help books and motivational gurus.

“I see. Maybe you should take a business class if you want to better yourself. Ambition without the knowledge of how to direct it isn’t going to do much for you,” I said.

He snorted. “You’re telling me. I thought I could blackmail them into paying me so I wouldn’t tell you about them, but all they did is rough me up and threaten me.”

“How many of our suspects have you tried this with?” I asked.

He sighed again, this time looking more like the Benny I knew—down and out, but less maniacal. “Three. I’ll tell you what I know about them. I promise. I’ll give back the money you paid me, if you want. I don’t have it on me, but I can get it.”

“By stealing it from somebody else, I imagine. No,” I said.

I decided to give the little worm another chance. Why, I couldn’t say. He was annoying, crass, and frustrating to work with. But beyond all of that, there was a little soft spot in my heart for him. Benny had stolen from me, lied to me, hid from me, but there was one incident in my life where he’d actually helped me out. When I was fourteen and on the streets after my mother died, he’d done me a good deed. And that…that I remembered.

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