Allure of the Wolf (Seraphine Thomas Book 2) (11 page)

“Then you’re not bitching about me. Just work and I’m work. I can handle it. I wore my big girl panties today and everything.” She wiggled her ass on the bench as if that proved anything.

“Nice.” I sighed when she waved me on. “I’m just getting it from all sides. Monroe’s the one who called in the media, all for the division chief willing to make deals and bets to help her team to push the FBI to give us a bigger budget. But they don’t want to give us the budget because we don’t put in the case closure rate to warrant it. But we can’t
do
that without training. I’m the only field-rated agent in the office. Great. How are we supposed to fucking operate like a real office without training?

“They won’t let you guys in Quantico. There’s a budget for that for agents starting out. Why can’t we get an allowance for that? I get Monroe’s point and needing to prove it, I just—fuck! I’m trying to do a job here. And my old office should be trying to help, not be pains in my ass. We can’t get the tech we need to be a real unit or office. We’re using other labs which means we’re rating somewhere under traffic violations, and everyone wants results or for me to slow down.
How?
”

Davis sighed and set down her Glock. “Look, I don’t know all of what’s going on, and I’m not trying to act like
duh
the answer is simple here…”

“But?” I pushed when she dropped her head and stopped talking.

“But stop trying to get us to Quantico and keep bringing Quantico
here
.” She glanced at me and winced at what I’m sure was not a happy look on my face.

“Would you like me to carry the building
here
or FedEx it?” I drawled, shooting her my most sarcastic smile.

“Yeah, I figured something like that was coming,” she snickered, wrinkling her nose at me. “You got an instructor to come out and give us the shooting class. You got Noah to do hand-to-hand combat. Those are the
hard
ones, Sera. From what I hear the rest is
classes
.” I let out a growl basically saying
get to the damn point
. “They have this new things called
web cams
. They even have online classes that way. Fucking Skype us in the classes,
whatever
.”

I blinked at her a moment and then I think I shocked us both by leaning over and hugging her. “Terry Davis, you’re a goddamn
genius
!”

“No, I’m actually a sarcastic shit,” she argued, hugging me back. “Jennings and I were looking up if there was an online crime scene class or something we could take but they all kind of sucked for the level we needed and I made some snarky comment about bugging Quantico to learn what we needed to and he liked the idea. I decided to mention it to you and then you brought this all up.”

“Don’t disagree with me, you’re a genius and I’m your boss.” I jumped up and pulled out my phone, finally deciding to respond to the messages from Brian Havers asking to talk.

“Sera, I’m glad you—” he greeted, but I cut him off.

“You want to talk, I’m at the shooting range but know I want something, and if
you
want a chance at my forgiveness, you’ll make it happen even though you should anyways because you’re a division chief of the FBI.”

The line was quiet a minute, and I figured it was a fifty/fifty chance he hung right back up.

“I’ll bring coffee.”

6

“I don’t know if I can make
this
happen, Sera,” Brian mumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose an hour later after I’d given him Davis’s idea. “This is new and you know how the bureau hates
new
.”

“
They
do but most of
us
don’t,” I pushed, especially excited for the idea now that he hadn’t immediately said
no
. “You know how many of those instructors, Brian? Either from when you were there, and they’ll still talk to you because you’re not a werewolf, or you worked with them in the field. Talk to
them
. The boys club is always making deals.”

“Actually, Jerome Curtis just sent me a message requesting information about your case,” he hedged, then giving me that over-exaggerated, creepy smile. It was his way of saying
don’t shoot the messenger
.

My head flinched back at the news, the
name
alone throwing me. “Like
what
?”

“Like how you’re clairvoyant and didn’t know Bernard and his crew were shifters.”

“I swear to
god
that man has always hated me.” I let out a few other choice curse words, smirking when I heard Davis laughing while she was reloading. “That sexist ass thought that was the
only
way a woman could ace his interrogation training.”

“Was he wrong?” Brian held his hands out in front of him in surrender when I shot him a nasty look. “I promise you that I will keep my big fat mouth shut. This is work, and even if I’m not your boss anymore, I keep colleagues’ secrets.”

“Just not lovers or ex-lovers fun facts,” I snapped as I crossed my arms over my chest.

“I’m sorry for that, and I’m going to find a way to make it up to you.” He sighed, raising his FBI ball cap and scratching his forehead. “I’ll help you as best as I can with the instructors I know at Quantico, because you’re right, I should as division chief of the FBI and your division’s main support. But I can’t make any promises and I won’t toss my own career down the drain trying to get your forgiveness, Sera.”

“That’s fair,” I conceded. Pushing too hard or fast in the bureau was career suicide. We’d all seen victims of that.

“Will you answer me now?” he muttered, staring into my eyes.

“You still haven’t proved you’re trustworthy, Brian.” He frowned but I smiled. “Will you personally help my team on Saturdays with their tac ops skills and let two at a time start shadowing in your office for a month each?”

“Yes, on the first if we discuss terms, but
no
on the second.” He yanked his hat back on and crossed his arms over his chest as well. “Having a Voodoo priest sit with our techies is one thing, Sera, but there’s a reason the bureau keeps us separate for safety reasons.”

“Brian,
I’m
the most volatile one in that office,” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I have three witches who, believe me, don’t
accidentally
do shit.” Then I smiled and looked over to Davis. “Do you, Davis?”

“No, Chief. All my shit’s on purpose,” she assured us with a smirk.

“Fine, I can agree witches wouldn’t be a problem,” Brian hedged, giving Davis an appreciative look. As much as I wanted to make a comment about him being a dog, when people worked as much as we did—lived the job, work was pretty much our only shot at having a chance to date.

“I’ve got four vampires and all of them have their shit together, no newbies.”

Brian slowly nodded. “I would want confirmation of that from their personnel files, and it’s only fair the team they’re shadowing be read in on their status.”

“Agreed, but I would need to check with them as well.” I bit back a smile, feeling like we were not only getting somewhere real, but working like we used to. That didn’t mean I was ready to fully trust him again or ever. “I have a necromancer, telepath, and psychic on one team, and no, I don’t really know what they all do yet, but they’re not volatile either.”

“Not unless the crime scene is by a graveyard and Remington knows to stay away from the morgue,” Davis added, walking over to us. “
A
dead body, he’s fine, a bunch and there can be a problem. He was kind of a shit to you when you first asked him but basically he reanimates the dead temporarily. They like him. It’s scary and not something he likes to talk about. So yeah, keep him away from more than one corpse and there’s no problem. I wouldn’t walk a telepath into a room full of pissed-off people, but she can handle it in short spurts.”

“We can accommodate all of that, but we might want to borrow her skills from time to time,” Brian replied, smiling now.

“You,
maybe
,” I clarified, crossing my arms right back over my chest again and closing off too. “Not the bureau. You know how they treat telepaths, Brian.”

He visibly shivered and gave a firm nod. “Agreed. And only if we really need some help. We don’t want to rely on a power like that and get sloppy. Besides, using telepathy hasn’t stood up in court yet. Only in dire circumstances.” We shared a look and I knew which ones.

“What kind of circumstances?” Davis mumbled, looking between us.

“Amber alerts,” we answered together. There wasn’t anyone in the FBI or law enforcement in general who wouldn’t do just about anything, willing to break the most basic rules if they could, if it meant getting a child back safely. I hadn’t been on many of those cases, only when resources were low and all hands were needed, but even then, I would have given a few years off my life to have brought those kids back.

She swallowed loudly as she went a little pale. “Oh, okay, yeah, kids, got it.”

“I’m sure she would agree to that.” I glanced at Davis who nodded. “You met the Voodoo priest, I also have a fairy and the rest different shifters.”

“Fairy fine, but the rest have
claws
.”

Davis let out a snort. “I’d be more worried about the fairy. I have to use a spell to work my magic. They just think of shit and it happens sometimes.” She realized her mistake when I shot her a nasty look. “Shaw’s got it under control, it’s cool. She’s like three hundred years old. I’m talking about the younger ones who are just learning. It’s weird when you’re sitting there with them and suddenly something appears in their hands.”

“Yeah, I would think I was tripping on something good,” I chuckled, rubbing the back of my neck and relaxing a bit. “Harris is a cheetah, he used to be a cop. You’ve met him and seen his control.”

“Not his
impulse
control though,” Brian drawled, rolling his eyes but dropping his arms after I did. We really were playing nice now. “He could have gotten himself killed darting off after that assassin.”

“Teach him to be better, but in all likelihood, that’s the only reason we got the guy,” I reminded him. “I’ve got two hawk shifters so really, I think anyone can
duck
if something goes wrong.”

“And the other two?” he asked after he counted up the total in his head, knowing I had a team of seventeen.

I shared a look with Davis and I smirked when she let out a snort. “The other two are non-contagious types. That should be sufficient.”

“Yeah, you don’t have to worry, Chief Havers,” Davis concurred. We weren’t laughing at what type of paranormal they were so much at how worried Brian looked as if we were saving the worst of the group for last.

“Tell me. I can’t not know, Sera. I’ll keep all personnel stuff quiet, I swear.”

“Fine, but I’m
trusting
you with this.” The only reason I was going to fess up was I wouldn’t let strangers around my people without knowing either. “I have a frog and a camel.”

His lips twitched. “Like frog,
frog
, tiny thing?”

“Yes.”

“Man, you could plant a bug anywhere with a frog shifter on your team,” he muttered. The three of us looked at each other, getting the pun at the same time and burst out laughing. It really wasn’t a bad idea if we ever needed to sneak in somewhere to get a listening device in but since he’d said
bug
… Yeah, it was funny.

“So will you do it?” I asked after we calmed back down.

“I’ll push for it and set it up, but I can’t
make
anyone since it’s not regs to do so,” he agreed. “Now your turn. Answer my question.” He glanced at Davis and jerked his head as if saying we should take a walk.

“She knows.” I shrugged when he blanched at me. “Paranormals keep secrets better than any humans I know. It’s how they stay
alive
, Brian. Most humans aren’t fair to them. I’ve told my team lots of stuff trying to adapt to all of this and
none
of it has gotten back to my ears or to anyone else.”

“Your team should have your back like that.” He cleared his throat and glanced away, looking guilty as hell. I wasn’t going to rub salt in the wound, but I was glad
he
understood why he should feel guilty.

“Yes, I’ve always been clairvoyant,” I sighed. He opened his mouth and I held up my hand. “But I’m not a typical one. I’m like
half
of one or something. I don’t get readings from objects, only people and normally when I’m touching them or in high emotional situations. Some people are loud broadcasters so I get a few images. That’s
it,
so I still didn’t cheat in Jerome Curtis’s training, we never touched the
suspects
.”

“That explains
so
much,” he chuckled, removing his hat and scratching his head again. “I just—yeah, you were always
so
good. I mean, god, Sera, I always thought there’s no way anyone would be that good without being able to read my mind like you just knew what I wanted and that thing—”