Two SUV's arrived thirty minutes later. By then the place was crawling with more police, the alpha arrived just as the FBI pulled up in similar looking vehicles. Fresco chuckled beside meand I had to work hard not to do same. This was going to get badvery quickly if I didn't stay professional.
It is said that in the early days when the denizen had made themselves known to the world, the FBI had created a taskforce to try and control them. The denizen had been around longer than humans, which was to say, the FBI failed woefully. This started a cold war between the two. Over the years, those that didn't like how other humans treated the denizen stopped applying for the job when they realized what it had become. Now, the FBI was filled with every trigger happy idiot that hated the denizen.
They did their best to hide it of course, but as someone who was on the front line everyday advocating for humans and denizen alike I'd clashed with the FBI more times than not.
I sighed when I recognized the silver haired agent heading myway, Agent Mulholland was not my favorite person, which was putting it lightly. The man was one of the religious zealots that believed the rapture had come two hundred years ago and the denizen where the demons the bible had prophesied.
They still took the 'thou shalt not suffer a witch to live' thing seriously. As an agent of the only organization enforcing the seven laws of the new world, chief of which was the Law of right to life, it was my job to make sure anyone that took a life whether human or denizen got what they deserved according the laws that governed their society.
I often crossed path with Mulholland, always on opposing sides. Turns out when a trigger happy human killed a denizen, the FBI was called in to clean it up before my organization got there and made a lot of noise about it.
I faked a smile when he got closer, the Alpha was conferring with her people and had not yet come towards where I was beside the ambulance the kids were huddled in. I noticed a much younger man following behind him. Both of them wearing well ironed identical black suits, although the other man's tie was a dark red and not Mulholland's black.
"Agent Hagarova," he mocked. Did I mention he was also one of those backwards people that hated seeing a woman out of the kitchen?
"Agent Mullet, how's it been."
"It's Mulholland," he said through gritted teeth and I snorted.
"Sure," I folded my arms and cocked a hip. one would think that with the amount of times I got his name wrong he would've stopped correcting my but he must've though I was as dumb as my bronze blonde hair seemed to imply. I leaned to the side to wave at the other agent sarcastically while looking at Mulholland, "Who's your friend?"
He sighed and looked to the side, "This is Agent Barnaby, Barnaby this is Hagarova, an agent of the BDHA," he said the name of the agency like someone had given him the sourestlemon in the world. The other agent did nothing but nodded at me.
"What brings you in?" I asked as I copiously looked at my nails, flinching inside at how rough and dirty they were. Damn, I needed to treat myself to a manicure. Couldn't do anything fancy but at least I could clean up the mess.
"I am here on official business; my agency will be taking over the investigation." He raised a silver brow and challenged me.
"Oh, on what grounds?"
"The deceased is a former state senator and there is potential for security risk in the course of the investigation so we will be taking over as you and your team are not cleared to view classified information." He pulled out an envelope and waved it in my face and I pushed it away and leveled him a look. At six feet two he was only two inches taller so they were almost eye to eye.
"Your informant must not have informed you that the minors in question are of the denizen, and any investigation with a denizen connection is handled by the Bureau of Denizen and Human Affairs," As I spoke, I could see the shifty look in his eyes shook my head in dismay, did he honestly expect me to forget the most basic rule to her job?
"Come on now, I have known you for six years, how do you still need me to educate you like this." I looked at Barnaby. "They do teach you these things right?" I infused as much incredulity in my tone as possible and he'd just opened his mouth to rebut, when we got interrupted a deep voice.
"Elina?"
We all turned to look at the six and half feet tall female bearing down on us. My mouth dropped open before I pulled it close, Icouldn't embarrass myself now. The woman was tall. Not the tallest I'd ever seen as shape shifter women tended to be as tall as their male counterparts. But the alpha had added brawn to her height.
Her skin was dark brown, and lined with age. There was strength in her walk. The fact that wrinkles showed at all meant she was no less than a thousand years in age. I could feel the weight of those years grating on me. I had to clench my teeth at the feeling. At the back of my mind, the part of me that was becoming more and more aware of the denizen world whispered I shouldn't have been able to feel that, but I ignored it and pasted on a smile.
"Yes," I finally replied after swallowing, looking up at her. Her hair was in dreadlocks tied up in a surprisingly feminine bun with tendrils falling across her face. She wore a simple pair of jeans, a gray t-shirt with a leather jacket and steel toed boots on.
"I am Lucinda Tate, Alpha of the Stonewall pack." She continued before looking down at the kids that had perked up the moment she got close. "Are these my charges?" she asked leaning down to their level as Mulholland was pushed away from his spot.
"Yes, this is Mati," Elina said and pointed at the older boy. "I don't know the other's names."
"Hi," she looked at the kids and raised her hand carefully to them. Huh, so she wasn't wrong to do that? "I am a wolf, like you." She smiled and lengthened her nails into claws as the kids looked wide eyed but stayed quiet. "Do you want to come with me to my pack?" she asked quietly and there was a moment of delay where the kids looked at each other before the older girl spoke.
"Will there be bad men there? Lily wants to know." She asked, no question whom she was referring to.
Lucinda looked at the smaller girl, "Honey there are bad men everywhere," the little girl shrunk behind the bigger boy. "But," she continued. "We are not men, we are denizen. And I promise you, you will be safe where we are going." The little girl nodded carefully and looked at the older girl. She really needed her name.
The older girl nodded at her and she hesitantly reached out to Lucinda who carried her and placed her on a hip.
"Now wait a minute," Barnaby finally cut in. "You cannot take them away, they are witnesses, and child protective services needs to handle their placement with a foster family." He said quickly and tried to stand in her way as she looked down at him.
I rolled my eyes at his stupidity. "Human law doesn't apply to the denizen. If a crime has been committed they are punished according to the law of their specie or whatever aw the criminal decides to be judged by. These are minors and since they cannot make that choice for themselves they will automatically be taken by their own kind" His mouth gaped open, while she looked at Mulholland. "What the hell are you people teaching the new ones? Are you even bothering to tell the truth anymore?" He glared at her while Lucinda watched the argument with a strange glint in her dark eyes.
"We still cannot allow you to carry out an investigation into the senator's affairs." Mulholland insisted and she sighed with a shake of head and went to reply when Lucinda interrupted.
"You do not need to worry about your paltry secrets being revealed, Agent Mullet." I choked on air and had to cough profusely to disguise the augh I very much wanted to laugh.
Mulholland's entire body was vibrating with barely held anger.
"There will be no investigation." She stated as Mulholland and I turned to her.