Page 6 of The Hive Queen

“And whatever he was doingbeforeit happened involved having his pants off.” I take in his open mouth and closed eyes, his face frozen in his final seconds. “That doesn’t look like pain.”

“No, it does not.” Pen ducks back inside and peers up at the ceiling of the car. “And those are not human handprints.”

Before I can check it out, Bailey joins us.

He exudes smug satisfaction, meaning he must have gotten the backing of our superiors, the boot licker. “Your time is up, Sharpe. There’s nothing definitively Other about this case, so I’m taking over the crime scene. You and yourgirlfriendget out before you muck things up anymore.”

I square off with him. “There are non-human handprints in the car that say thisismy crime scene.” I don’t need to verify Pen’s findings before making the claim. She knows better than anyone else the difference between a human and an Other. “I will also need the file and all evidence from the case two months ago delivered to my office within the hour. While someone is doing that, you’d best get your ass in front of explaining why you put the wrong woman behind bars.”

“How dare you!” he blusters.

“How dareyou?” I take a step forward into his personal space and drop my voice. “The world of sweeping the paranormal under the rug ended five years ago. I should have been called in two months ago when that poor woman first said a monster killed her boyfriend. Now we have another person dead because you were too busy chasing accolades over doing your job, just like always.”

“You know what your problem is, kid?” Bailey jabs a finger against my chest. “You never knew when to toe the line. You were too busy chasing windmills to see that you were bringing down the rest of your team.”

“The dragons are real, Captain Bailey, and someone has to be brave enough to chase them, since you obviously aren’t.” I glance down at the finger still resting against my chest. “Now, are you going to leave peacefully? Or do I need to arrest you for assaulting a fellow officer?”

“You’re burning bridges, and you don’t even know it.” He turns to his wide-eyed underling. “Come on, you heard the man.CaptainSharpe wants this scene all to himself. Move out.”

Pen leans in. “My offer is still on the table.”

I’m tempted. God knows I am. But Bailey is the evil I know, and if he suddenly vanished, there’s no telling who they’d put in his seat.

“I don’t need him gone. I need more people.” I lift a hand for Johannsson’s attention, calling him over. “Can you do anything about that?”

She shakes her head. “You’re an unfortunately rare breed.”

“My mom always said I was special,” Young pipes in. “I don’t think she realized just how special until I joined your division, sir. Family dinner hasn’t been the same since.”

Rare, indeed, and dying out by the day. What the government doesn’t know is that those who are magic-resistant, like Young, have traces of fae blood. Somewhere in her human family tree, one of her ancestors went dancing in the moonlight, or stepped into a fairy ring, and now witch and demon magic can’t touch her.

But there aren’t more people like Young being born. Not with the fae locked away on their own plane of existence. I’ve only met one other full-blooded fae like myself, and she didn’t look like the type to go around making babies.

If something doesn’t change, the JTFPI will be absorbed back into the human police force simply because we don’t have the manpower to function on our own. People like Bailey will be there with theirtold-you-so, and I’ll be out of a job, because there’s no way I’d work under the likes of him again.

Which means we need this case to run smoothly. Good PR for my squad means more media exposure and a high chance of pulling in new recruits with stars in their eyes and dreams of hunting monsters.

I just hope, when those new recruits arrive, that the monsters don’t eat them.

directing the directionless

- Flint -

I movebooks on the shelf to make room for the new haul that came in over the weekend.

“Can you believe these were being sold as novelty books?” I say to my familiar.

The red fox cocks her head to the side, her gaze inquisitive.

“If someone with even a spark of ley line magic had gotten their hands on these, it could have been a disaster.” I grab the one on top of the stack and hold it up. “How to empower weapons! Imagine someone with a plastic wand suddenly firing lightning bolts at people.”

“Hey, that better not be a dig at me.” Reese’s voice drifts from deeper within the library. “My wand is badass.”

“It’s really not,” I whisper to my familiar before sliding the book onto the shelf.

“WhatIcan’t believe is that we have enough dangerous books to have a restricted section of the library.” Xander grabs a thin volume and cracks it open. “This is such an upgrade from our pantry library back in the day.”

“Some of those books are in the restricted section, too,” Reese calls out. “Tally didn’t want them in the house after Slater blew up the stove.”

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