A Mate Worse Than Death (14 page)

“Come here,” Phil told her.

Startled, she just glared at him for a moment. He shook his head and added, “Come look at the data that I have here.”

“Oh. Of course,” Tony said. She went around the desk and stood next to Phil.

“Would you like the chair?” he offered innocently.

She looked at it, padded black leather with thick arms and a high back. “That’s okay. I’ll stand.”

Phil stood up and turned to her, suddenly very much in her space. “No, I insist. As you know, I am a little old-fashioned. I would feel terrible if I had this comfortable chair and you were left standing.”

Tony arched a disbelieving brow, “If memory serves me correctly, women weren’t usually allowed to sit with the men when you were a sweet young thing, right? So can the bullshit already.”

“Ah, but I have become far more civilized over the centuries,” and he gestured to the chair. “Please, take it.”

She had
an inkling that this was a bad idea, but she was still pretty tired, so she sat. The chair was so soft that she felt like it was hugging her. She almost groaned out loud.

Phil, who was dressed down in $300 dollar designer jeans and an artfully ripped and sewn t-shirt that probably cost as much as the chair, leaned across her to open the file on the displayer for her. Suddenly, she saw her tactical mistake. Phil loomed over her, invading her physical space with his ridiculously enticing scent. She sat back as far as she could while he leaned over her and pulled up a double view of the two women’s records. When the two views appeared before them, he leaned back and rested one hand on the back of the chair and the other on the desk, all of which kept him in her space, corralling her into the chair on one side. He turned to her and spoke, so close to her face that his breath t
ickled her skin.

“As you can see,” he murmured smoothly, “both Beings have been on several dates since registering.”

Doing her best to focus on something other than Phil, Tony stared at the views, “Holstrom has been on more than several dates! That’s an impressive record for just five years.”

Phil looked again. “She averaged five different relationships a year. I suppose that could be considered impressive.”

Tony looked at him, “If you’re about to share, save it for, like, never. Okay?”

Phil grinned at her, his thin, dark face all angles and planes in the light from the viewer, and she tried very hard to think, “Older than dirt, older than dirt, seriously, older than dirt.” Sadly, it wasn’t stopping her from yet another wave of lust. She turned back to the screen just to stop the internal rant.

“You’re ex’s record is a bit more sketchy. Whoa--she definitely swung more than two ways, huh?” Tony muttered with admiration as she looked at the shorter, yet more eclectic list of Lilith’s dates. She pointed to one profile on Lilith’s list. “That particular type of nymph is a hermaphrodite, yeah?”

“I believe so. Again, remember that with some of the older beings, there would be more...variation in taste,” Phil reminded her diplomatically.

This time Tony grinned, realizing that Phil thought she was prejudiced. “Well, anything would be better than losing interest altogether, like old Aggie mentioned yesterday.”

Phil gave her a confused look.

“Agrat Bat Mahlat?”

He gave a shout of laughter, then shook his finger at her, “Nev
er call her that to her face. In fact, never let her see your face,” and that time he looked serious.

“She that bad?”
“You have no idea.”

“Hey, you dated her, buddy.”

“Buddy?” He tried to look offended, but found the term encouraging. “Huh. I was very youn
g then, and, well, you saw her.”

“She’s a looker,” Tony agreed cheerfully, then added, “Thinking with the wrong head, huh?”

“Perhaps we should--”

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Okay--there are no common denominators in the profiles of their dates over the years. So what did they have in common?”

Phil leaned forward again to wave a hand at the control feature of the viewer and this time he brought up a different screen.

“These show their original applications to become clients,” he told Tony. “Hmmm. They signed up the same month of the same year. So they have been with M and M for the same amount of time.”

“How could that be significant?” Tony pondered, and then she started an answer to her own question. “They could have met other clients whom they didn’t date at some of the singles events. What did you do at the mixers then?”

“Five years ago, I didn’t have anything to do with M and M. I was...” he looked at Tony and change
d his wording, “working in a different capacity in Mundania at that time.”

“Nothing vague about that statement,” Tony muttered, then said louder. “I know it wasn’t you then. I meant ‘you’ as in the company. Who was running things here at that time? Aphrodite?”

Phil turned from the screen to look at her, “No. That was the first month that Adonis took over, after Aphrodite requested a change of job here in Mundania and the Powers That Be granted her wish.”

“Adonis?” Tony felt her pulse quicken. “As in the guy who was such a screw up that he got his job taken away from him and given to you?”


Phil nodded, grim. “I don’t see how he could be behind all this, however.”

“Why not?”

Phil turned around and sat on the desk top, facing Tony, who was below him in the chair. “He did, as you say, screw up. Badly. Detective, he not only slept with his clients, a very large number of his clients, which was ethically questionable, though not surprising, he also abused a few of them.” Phil stopped for a moment.

“How did he abuse them?” Tony asked, trying to get a feel for what Phil was getting at.

“He was also an old Being, and one of the variations,” Phil all but spit the word, “that he began to enjoy involved pain--invoking physical pain and drawing blood. Sex by itself wasn’t enough. From what I understand, even orgies, which are what the ‘mixers’ he organized became, weren’t enough. He began to take his pick of clients home with him, willingly and finally some of those who were not, and he hurt them. That is when the Geas stepped in--because some of his partners were unwilling, but also because he was causing problems with the Supernatural community. He broke up romances when he targeted some clients for his own...use. He hadn’t killed yet at the time the Geas removed him, or he’d be dead. But,” and in the weirdly purple light of Phil’s office, his face blanched to a corpse-like hue, “the Geas took away his ability to take part in any sexual pleasure. It...gelded him.”

“No shit,”Tony murmured. “I did not know that was an option here.”

“It is not one that I want to think about,” Phil shook his head, “but it is what happened to Sammeal. I did not know until we traveled to Fairie that the Geas affected its origin realm as well as this realm. I am not even sure it was designed to do so.”

“That sounds like something we need to remember to follow up on, but for now, let’s concentrate on you not dead or gelded, huh?” Tony told him.

He looked down into her face and gave her a smile so sincere that it made her catch her breath. “I shall do my best to keep all my parts, just for you.”

And instantly she went from touched to ticked. “I’ve got my own parts just for me, thanks, and I don’t need yours.” She instantly heard everything she shouldn’t have said but just shook her head as his smile turned to a lascivious smirk. “One word from you, wise-ass, and any worry you might have about being gelded by the Geas will be redundant.” She continued in a rushed voice, ”I need to report to the Lieutenant. We may not know how he could be doing this, but I’m liking Adonis for the puppet-master behind the vamp kills.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Ogres are tough creatures, there is no doubt about that. Within a few hours of having Newman, Berthell was ready to go home. The hospital staff had been ready for her to go hours before Newman was born, so everyone was happy when the largest wheelchair currently on the market rolled up, pushed by Cal. Behind him the Newman family and the rest of the Kellys followed along.

“Hey, we look like a pa
rade!” Freddie told his sister.

She rolled her eyes, but at 21, she was doing her best to come across as one of the grown ups, so she patted him on the ba
ck. “Sure we do,” she told him.

He gave her a look for full minute, “Yeah, so like, that’s not patronizing or anything.”

“Whatevs, punk!” She moved up to Angel, who, though actually Freddie’s age, was the closest to her age of the Kelly brood. “Are you excited about having a little brother?”

Angel nodded. “I mean, like, I have one already and all, but they are so cute when they’re little.” She and Amelia both looked over at the large, hairy bundle in Berthell’s lap. Newman was fast asleep,
but he was managing some world-class snores already, at less than a day old.

Melly nodded, her face inscrutable as she realized that cute really was in the eye of the beholder.
She had gotten out of most of her classes without being counted absent by telling her professors exactly where she would be, and she was getting extra credit in one of her cultural anthropology classes, Contemporary SuperNatural Family Life, for writing this up in a paper. Adding to a perfect day, she finally got to meet the Kellys and watch her parents as they got a clue about how cool Tony’s partner and family were. “Score,” she trilled under her breath.

“What?” asked Angel.

“Nothin’,” Melly smiled at her. “Just glad we all finally met. I’ll talk to Mom, but we have got to do dinner sometime soon. In fact, we should bring dinner over to you!”

The group finally made it to the front door, and Cal and Anthony went out to bring their cars around. As they made their way to the lot where they were both parked, Cal reached over and stu
ck out his enormous right hand.

“Anthony, I gotta tell ya, we couldn’t have done this without you and Amanda watching the kids last night and staying with them this morning,” Cal told him as he shook the much smaller hand that had gone gingerly into his own. “And Melly and Fred, too, of course! My parents wanted to rush right back from their vacation, but we talked them out of it mainly because I could tell them that Tony’s folks were here!”

“I’m glad we could help,” Anthony told him. “It was quite a day, wasn’t it?”

“You got that right, you got that right. And you know, I’m really glad we named our little one after you,” Cal said to him as he turned, f-light in hand, waiting for his car to signal and remind him where he had parked. In doing so
he missed Anthony’s expression.

Which was probably a good thing.

The shock wore off quickly, and Anthony managed to move from surprise to acceptance. “So you named the little fellow Anthony?” he asked.

“Oh, no, even better,” Cal turned his head and smiled, but just then his f-light beeped to show the car’s position in the car park, so he turned away again. “We name
d him Newman.”
Anthony choked for a moment, quietly.

“Here we go,” Cal said, tromping over to his very large vehicle, a Fjord LSV, or Large Supernatural Vehicle. He continued explaining as he opened the door and checked the baby carrier, “We had planned to
name the baby after Tony, but we wanted to use Newman. Now that we know the whole clan, it seems even more right that we name this baby after the family that helped us get him here!”

By the time Cal was satisfied with the carrier’s placement, restraints, and comfort, and could thus turn around and see his audience, that audience, Anthony Newman, had run through a wide range of emotions all of which came down to resigned happiness. This was his daughter’s partner and friend. Her life frequently depended on him. Anthony Newman was done with being a pig-headed fool about, well, at least
about this Supernatural group.

“It is quite an honor,” Anthony told him in his best court voice. “I know that Amanda and the children will be very happy.”

He tried to hang on to his new resolve to be open-minded when his daughter’s partner and friend grabbed him in a big bear hug that lifted him off the ground. “We’re family now!” Cal told him.

Yes, Anthony had every intention of agreeing. Just as soon as he could breathe again.

Several hours later, after he toted his expanded family home and got everyone settled,
Cal went back in to the Bureau, and he had just checked in with Lieutenant Azeem when Tony arrived with Phil following on her heels. At that point it was around four in the afternoon, and all of them could feel the clock ticking on the case. Cal couldn’t help growling a little as he looked up and saw the two coming in the doors to the main work area, Phil holding the door and gesturing for Tony to precede him, Tony rolling her eyes and laughing at him.

“Detective Kelly,” Lieutenant Azeem purred, “I suggest that you put that attitude somewhere else for now, at the very least until we get this mystery solved. I will be very upset if I lose an old friend to the Geas’ random rendering of justice because you got overprotective.”

Cal unclenched his jaw and rumbled, “Apologies, Lieutenant. But if I woulda hadda a sister, I woulda wanted her to be Tony, y’know what I mean? And that demon is doing his best to make some time with her.”

Azeem turned his back so Tony and Phil wouldn’t see his face. Then he smiled and shook his head at Cal, “You have been trying to set her up with dates for months. Well, there she is, interested. And if nothing else, working very hard on the case.” His voice got very cold. “I suggest you do so as well, or I’ll take you off this one. Am I clear?”

Cal gulped, “Crystal, sir, crystal clear.” He looked back as the duo got to the desk and tried to smile. It wasn’t a huge success, but no one ran screaming either.

“Hey, I think we’ve made some progress,” Tony told them. “We found a connection between our
two victims. Victim two, Engstrom, had a sibling who was a Monster-Mate client, and the sister, Haldis Holstrom, and Lilith both signed up for profiles at Monster-Mate in the same time period. They attended some of the first-timers mixers.”

“How does that help us?” Cal asked, trying hard not to glare at Phil.

“Apparently, Adonis was also new to the party then. He had just taken over the business from Aphrodite after her transfer.”

Azeem’s mane quivered a bit.

“Again, how does that help us? What am I not seeing here?” Cal asked.

“We’ve been concentrating on motivation to kill these victims--but what if the motivation is to kill Mephistopheles instead? To discredit Monster-Mate?” Tony asked. “What if the motive is revenge and Adonis is behind it all?”

Cal snorted, “Last I heard, Adonis got his...uhm...y’know...his...uh” he didn’t want to say it, so Tony helped him out.

“He got gelded, essentially.” She watched as all three males got peculiar looks on their faces and then squirmed a bit. Tony managed to keep from laughing, but it was a close thing. “Okay, fellas, let’s move on.”

Azeem cut in, “It is worth exploring, but there is one issue. He’s in Lock Up.”

Everyone nodded thoughtfully. The Lieutenant might as well have said Alcatraz. Lock Up was another effect of the implementation of the Geas. Just as one day violent alpha Supers in Mundania woke to find themselves part of law enforcement, social welfare, fire-fighting, or other branches of civil assistance necessary to a functioning civilization, the world woke to find that a special holding area for Supernatural offenders had appeared, at first, moving magically from state to state. It had settled finally in southern New Jersey. When law enforcement officials beat the Geas to identification of criminals, the perpetrators went to Lock Up. If they didn’t, the Geas took out the perpetrators and anyone peripherally close to them, and sometimes anyone who might have been peripherally involved, hence the worry that Phil might end up very dead if this case didn’t get solved in time. The Geas wasn’t exactly wrong in who it took, but it was generally harsh enough to keep most Beings on the relatively straight and narrow.

Lock Up contained Supernatural criminals of all types. When Adonis went too far in his pursuit of sexual satisfaction, his own, and began hurting his partners, one of those partners had turned him in. No one was sure who it was, but the Powers That Be had gelded Adonis and sent him to Lock Up. And no one got out of Lock Up unless the PTB deemed them fit to re-enter society. That might never happen for Adonis.

Tony nodded to Azeem as they all considered the major issue in viewing Adonis as the prime suspect. “We have to keep in mind though--he’s a love god.”

“What am I missing here?” Cal grumbled.

“A lot, Cal,” Tony grinned, then more seriously reminded him, “Even Lock Up allows some visitation rights.”

“He’s got players on the outside,” Azeem growled.

“I’m thinking he might have some former lover or other who wants to help him or who is enthralled to him and is helping. So, based on all that--I’m thinking about a trip to Jersey,” Tony told the Lieutenant and Cal, while Phil nodded.

“I’m going with you,” Cal told her.

“Seriously, Cal? Brand, spanking, new baby,” Tony reminded him. “I can get up there and back. You need to stay close to home because I also considered a couple of possible suspects for partners.” She cleared her throat. “Remember how Heraphina reacted when we got to the office the first time?”

Cal’s face fell. “You’re kidding me, right? Tell me you’re kidding me. I got family! I got kids! I got a new baby! You can’t ask me to do this!”

“Cal, Cal, Cal,” she patted his arm as high as she could, almost his shoulder, “You can do this.”

He kept shaking his head, “You know I hate witches!” He started touching his face, looking for warts without even realizing he was doing it, a reflex after the last case they’d had involving the infamous Teraphina, who was in Lock Up.

“Cal, you’re the reason I thought of it. Teraphina, Heraphina’s sister, is in Lock Up, Adonis is in Lock Up, Heraphina got her job with Monster-Mate the same time Adonis started, and I checked
her records. She got that job fresh out of Lock Up where she was incarcerated for...wait for it...Magic Harmful to Mundanes, “ Tony looked at her audience. “Coincidences are just piling up around this!”

Cal stood there, looking miserable, until Azeem chimed in. “I will go with you, Cal, as back up.” Cal looked a little more cheerful. Even a witch would think twice about trying to hex the Sphinx. Probably. On the other hand, witches weren’t know
n for their self-control. Or for their good tempers.

Cal slumped a bit. “Ah hells,” he ground out. “I guess we’ve
got this. You go on to Jersey.”