Black and White (2 page)

He smiled slightly as he took the beer away. “We are trying out a new microbrew. I figured since he hadn’t specified that I could put that out for the increased price. Sorry you didn’t like it.”

She shrugged. “Can I have more of whatever it was you served me first?”

“Coming up.”

He was very attentive for a bartender at a dive bar, but since he was involved with her companion, there was probably a reason for it. She was being set up.

Ty took the next beer with a smile and took a swig. There was still a chemical tang, but she sighed in relief. “Better.”

The man next to her jolted and he seemed to be confused. “You like that one better?”

She nodded. “Ah. Excuse me. I have to use the ladies’ room.”

She hopped off her stool and went to the assault to the senses that was the restroom. She threw up the beer and shivered. From the pocket of her jacket, she pulled a bottle of water and slugged it back. When it was done, she tossed it in the waste bin and headed back to her seat at the bar.

A cougar was sitting in her spot but it was the human sort.

Ty swayed as she walked toward the young man, but her vision was really suffering, so she continued past him and out of the bar.

Cabs probably avoided the area out of self-preservation. She swayed as she walked and heard the footfalls behind her.

The clicking of heels surprised her. The young blonde was bearing down on her and had a concerned face. “Oh, you poor thing. Did you drink too much?”

Ty frowned. “I don’t think so. I am looking for a cab. I forgot to bring my phone.”

“I will help you.”

The young woman put her arm around Ty’s waist and led her down the street and into a large open building.

“Where are we going?”

“Just a walk through that few use. The main road is on the other side of the building. Just lean on me and I will have you there in no time.”

Ty’s vision cleared and her body recovered swiftly, but she still leaned on the woman, just to find out where she was being taken. If Emery had been dosed like this, he would have been helpless. He loved beer and had little to no sense of taste. Tortoises were not known for their taste buds.

Ty continued to lean on the blonde, but she felt that they were approaching magic. A lot of it.

The young woman shoved her onto a wooden platform and the trap was sprung. Walls of energy flared around her and trapped her in a column of power.

Ty sat down heavily. “What is this? What did I do?”

The woman crouched in front of her. “You are a shifter and an exotic. My brother could sense that much. We will find out what you are and auction you to the highest bidder.”

Ty swayed back and hit the barrier. It was solid but not painful. “I don’t understand.”

“Oh, I think you do. My brother will be here shortly, and we will haul you to a safe location.”

“Why are you doing this?” She wailed it.

“Because there is money and magic to be had, and you are the object of value.”

“I am not an object.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

Ty sat quietly. She could get out of the glyphs on the floor in a moment if she wanted to. Part of being a giant panda meant she could expand her body into her own form and use her strength. She didn’t move fast but very little could stop her from getting out. The wood under her was no match for her claws. Of course, there was always the emergency transport back to the Shifter Council centre. The charm was embedded under her skin, so she could trigger that when she needed to. She was perfectly safe with the kidnapper as long as they didn’t know what she was.

She could avoid their methods to make her expose her other form. She had been tortured before.

Ty set up a meditative pose and breathed deep.

The woman sneered, “You won’t be able to imagine yourself out of this. We have you, and as soon as you are cleared of the restrictor, we will learn what you are and set your price.”

Ty opened one eye. “Why are we waiting here?”

“Oh. You weren’t the only one in the bar tonight. If my brother can get the other one to bite, we will be on our way.”

An hour went by before the young man came in with Alatas held around the waist. “Help me with him, he is damned heavy.”

The blonde assisted and soon Al was collapsed in the same style cage as she was.

They didn’t speak to each other, but his dazed expression told Ty that he had taken in more of the drug than she had. She continued her meditation, even as they lifted her cage with a spell and levitated her out to a panel truck.

She really wanted to know where they were going, but one thing was for certain, they weren’t transporters.

Ty clocked the miles and used her training to measure the distance that they travelled. It was only a few blocks until they stopped and turned left, heading through a gate into a private property.

The moment that the door opened, Ty could taste wild magic, and she had tasted it before. There was a powerful fey nearby, and it seemed that she was about to meet him.

They were unpacked like so much cargo and levitated into a heavily gated garden. Ty watched everything, and Al struggled upright as well.

Despite her horror at what was happening, a trickle of hope ran through her. If other shifters had been kidnapped and hidden, the death count might not be as high as they had anticipated. Emery might still be alive.

It was a bit of hope she hadn’t expected to find, so she tucked it away deep inside and tried to ignore it as she was floated into position in a holding cell. The blonde and her brother made sure that they were secure before they stepped outside and rang a bell.

Ty shifted position and wrapped her arms around her knees protectively. Al crouched in a hostile posture, and she could see the snarl in his expression. If he wasn’t acting, he was rattled. It might be a side effect of the drug.

When the figure appeared, it had the long lines and elegant grace of the fey. There was no mistaking it. The human mages bowed awkwardly.

The blonde said, “Lord Kamian Algar, these are our two catches for this evening.”

He stroked her cheek, and she closed her eyes in bliss. “What are they?”

The brunette stood straight until he was stroked in the same manner. “They are exotics, the charm told me that, but I don’t know what kind. You do so enjoy discovering what they are that we brought them straight to you. If you don’t want them, we will take them elsewhere.”

The fey came toward the cages and looked them over. “They are both very lovely in their human forms. It does bring up the curiosity. Will they be missed?”

The blonde shook her head. “No, Lord Kamian. They are both transient. No one will miss them for days, and there is no way to trace them back to you if you choose to keep them.”

“They both appear to have Asian blood in them. I wonder what lies beneath. Yes, bring them out into their animal states, and I will tell you what I decide.”

The fey waved his hand and an elegant chair appeared. He took a seat and waved for them to begin.

The man moved swiftly and soon the trundling sound of something heavy on wheels approached. A crush box was a cross between a cage and a medieval torture device. They were always large enough to hold a human but no larger. The confinement usually triggered the shift, and once locked in place, the shifter could be put into a bladed collar that would stop the shift back to human.

It was a very unpleasant thing, but it wasn’t the first time Ty had faced one. She had learned something early in life—giant pandas couldn’t be collared for long. It would hurt to pull it off, but she could do it in a very short period of time.

Lord Kamian looked from one of them to the other. “Do the female first. I am eager to add her to my collection.”

The blonde looked put out by the offer, but she nodded, and together, she and what appeared to be her brother moved to Ty’s cage. The barrier faded as they touched it, and she was soon gripped by her arms and hauled to the crush box.

“Nononononono.” Ty fought and struggled against the two mages, but there was a frisson of actual remembered panic at the idea of being in that box.

She heard a chuckle from the fey, and he got to his feet, the crunch of his elegant shoes got closer. He stroked her cheek, and she felt the magic run along her skin. If she had been in a more receptive frame of mind, she might have given in to him, but as it was, she bit the finger as soon as it got close enough to her lips.

He hissed and shouted, “Put her in.”

She was guessing that he was a little perturbed, but now she knew what he tasted like. She had tasted fey before and each of them had a distinct flavour.

They didn’t strip her, which was another form of cruelty. Her clothing would bind her tight, but then, they didn’t know what she was. This was going to require fast action.

She flipped onto hands and knees the moment they let her go, and she pulled her strength from her bear, rearing rapidly onto her knees and breaking the bands around the box before anyone could get into position to apply pressure.

Ty went for Al’s holding pen, but he was already out of it, breaking the floor and the glyphs that were in the wood.

The humans shouted and ran, but Lord Kamian Algar smiled at them. “Very impressive. I will enjoy adding you to my collection.” A moment later, he vanished in a whipping of wind.

Tyanna looked around her and at Alatas. “Fancy meeting you here.”

He came up next to her. “Good work with the box.”

“Practice. It isn’t my first; it won’t be my last. I hate those things.”

“Shall we report in?” He moved his hands to trigger his transport.

“It won’t work in here. Can’t you feel all the fey barriers? This place is soaked in magic, but it may explain how so many shifters can go missing without any trace. If the fey are creating personal menageries, it will give hope to a lot of those who have missing loved ones.”

She headed back the way they had been brought.

“I couldn’t believe it when I saw you in the bar. You really seemed to be in place.” Alatas caught up with her.

“I should have been more surprised that we were both sent after the same target. It seems to be a theme.” She shrugged.

“So, you can feel magic?” It seemed he was trying to keep the conversation going.

“Yes. I was fostered by a mage when I was a teenager. She exposed me to magic and told me how to differentiate between the various types. It was a lesson that made me a very good hunter.” She snorted, “Well, good for one of my kind.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I hadn’t realized how strong you were.”

She chuckled. “It always surprises folks that all that roly-poly has a practical application.”

They drew even with the van, and she smiled. She pulled the keys and put them in her pocket. A few feet from the gate, she nodded. “We can transport from here. Shall we?”

He nodded. They stood a few feet from each other, and Tyanna gripped her hand, pressing her thumb into the other palm. In an instant, she was standing in the landing area of the Shifter Council Headquarters.

Across the underground arrival facility, Alatas appeared in his circle. He raised his hand to her, and they met at the door. “Shall we report in?”

She shrugged. “We may as well. I still wonder what Wax was up to. Was he in it with them?”

Al sighed. “A question for another day. For today, I believe we have enough new information.”

As they headed for the elevator, she asked, “Do you think that is his real name? The fey, I mean.”

“I was still dazed by the drugs. I think last of it cleared out with the transport. What was his name?”

“Lord Kamian Algar. Well, we will give his name to the council and I will draw a sketch of him. We have the address, though I doubt anything will be left over when we get more folk in to investigate. The fey are very good at hiding their tracks.”

They got into the elevator and didn’t say another word until they were talking to their handler.

Tamora had taken one look at them and sent for coffee. “You two smell like it was a long night.”

Ty sat and began to sketch on the pad that Tamora kept for such occasions. Alatas watched eagerly as the elf’s features took shape under her pencil. When the coffee showed up, she had a rough outline and was filling in the details.

“All right you two; tell me what you found.”

Ty looked to Al and said, “Go ahead.”

He outlined his time at the bar and the young blonde woman who talked his ear off. Alatas had been drugged at some point, but he wasn’t aware of it. When the woman disappeared, he had followed her but was too disoriented to make much headway. The young man had come up to him and offered him some help finding a cab. Al had gone with him because he had been dizzy and wanted to see where they would take him.

When he arrived, Ty was meditating in one of the energy columns and he was feeling decidedly unfocused.

Ty perked up. “I tasted the contaminant that the bartender put in my drink at the young man’s urging, so he is in on it as well, but I think he is pure human.”

Tamora leaned forward and folded her hands on her desk. “What did the young mages smell like?”

“Magic and the male smelled like hair dye. They are either twins or at least siblings. He dyes his hair so that the resemblance is not as obvious, but they smell and look the same if you go past that.”

She finished her sketch. “Once I let them catch me, I just had to wait until they decided what they were going to do with us. Apparently, they decided that as Al and I are both exotics, they would offer us to a private collector.”

Tamora sat back and her mouth opened in surprise. “What?”

“You heard me. A private collector of exotic shifters. His name is Lord Kamian Algar, though I don’t know if his name was wrapped in a glamour or not, but this is what he looks like.” She slid the image in front of her dispatcher.

Al craned his head. “That is exactly what he looks like, down to the pointed ears and earring.”

Tamora shook her head. “Please repeat that. This fey has a collection of shifters?”