The director's office only shared the floor with the office of other top agents like me, Quen, Fresco, Rachel, Mateo our resident shapeshifter liaison, Cassandra our vampire liaison and Lincoln our witch liaison. Everyone was away on one mission or other, other than the secretary and assistant we all shared no one else was on the floor. I was going to look at the file more when I got home. Everyone top agent kept flexible hours, Oh didn't require we stay in the office our full work duration. All you had to do was give her a report every day, better if you didn't repeat things. As long as you did that you could work from home, which was what I was going to do today.
First, I needed to go to my eyes and ears in this city and start putting feelers out about the disappearances. Groups disappearing at once like that was not something that went quietly, the people who ran this city in the shadow would never let such mysteries go unsolved I needed to know what they knew. And maybe get a little shopping done.
The store was called Lin's groceries. Located a few miles away from my old apartment, it carried mostly organic and fresh produce, coupled with some processed stuff. I liked them because they took custom orders, what other store would help you find those rare Vegetables that your dish absolutely needed? It looked innocent enough. Just a regular store. Until one noticed the heavily tattooed men that often loitered at the doors. Their ethnicities ranged from light to dark, but one thing united them. The detailed tattoos, identical in some cases, that were proudly displayed on almost every inch of them. And also the softly pointed ears and noses that belied their witch ancestry.
Today two familiar ones watched me park my vehicle and power towards them. They stood from their chairs and blocked the door into the store as I approached. Both of them were average height but the one on my left was Chinese and the one on my right was pleasantly mixed that you couldn't figure out if they were Brazilian or from the numerous Caribbean islands.
I smirked and folded my arms, cocking my hip and fixing the them with in an unflinching, unblinking glare. After a few terse seconds the one to my right blinked and curse, widening the growing smile on my face As I stretched my hand for the money.
He pulled out five dollars from his pocket and slapped it in my pal as did the other, both of them cursing as they did before smiles lit up their faces and we went in for a group hug.
"'Sup Doze, sup Diaz, how have y'all been these days?" Diaz shrugged as we separated.
"You know how it is, we do as the lady says." He looked to doze who nodded in agreement.
"The neighborhood's not been the same since you left." Doze furrowed his brows in faux consternation and I rolled my eyes.
"I have been gone for three years now and you say the same thing every time we see each other," I shook my head, and tucked a strand behind my ears. "Not buying it."
They both laughed. "Come on, you should visit more, Isa says you ask for home deliveries all the time these days, you don't wanna hang with your pals anymore?" Diaz chucked at Dozes words.
"Don't minds him," his smiled sobered. "You're here yourself today, anything up?"
"yeah, I need to see her." I looked at my watch. "And I need to get some stuff from the store.
They looked at each other, "We don't really allow non coven members to be around during this period, mind waiting till we confirm you're allowed in?" Diaz asked and I nodded.
"Sure, I'll wait."
He went inside leaving me with Doze, "When are you gonnabreak up with that nancy boyfriend of yours and come date me?" He smirked and I rolled my eyes. Back when I lived in the neighborhood him asking me out every day used to be some sort of ritual between us. He'd ask and I'd turn him down. Things got interesting when I started dating Quen, he didn't spare any chance to ridicule me for dating him.
"I'll break up with him when you stop sleeping with every willing femle."
He sucked in air through his teeth and faked a stab to the chest that had me smiling with a shake of my head. "Ouch, you really hate me that much? Don't you know I was put on this planet to love?" He had a convincing heartbroken look on his handsome face as he quoted the lines to the classic love song.
"Let me guess, 'and love is what you do'?"
"You know it, I-" Diaz poked his head out and waved me inside.
I patted his muscled arm as I stepped into the interior. Seeing as it was barely midday, outside was already hot even when it was autumn like this. Inside the store was colder and therefore my coat began to feel useful again.
We walked through isles of greenery, past the refrigeration rooms where dozens of skinned animals hung, through a dark hallway and into a hidden elevator that took us down. It opened into a well-lit, beautiful foyer with red carpeting and art on the beige walls. We walked down a hallway with doors on the left and a series of windows to the left. Windows underground? One might wonder. When you dealt with witches, anything was possible.
The view outside was night, a field lay beyond the window and I could even see cows penned in the distance. I often wondered if it was real, id never been invited to see.
We finally reached our destination because Diaz motioned me to go ahead and open the doors which I did, I stepped in and he closed the door behind me.
Inside there were several people, congregating around the old woman holing court on an ornate sofa. She…sprawled. One feet on the ground the other draped on the hand of the chair. She wore traditional Indian pants with a modern sari, in her hands she held a cooing child and my heart froze, as did the rest of my body.
Children were hard to come by for denizen, it was the only reason they had not taken over the wrld. They lived forever but having a child in one's entire life time was considered a miracle. As such, when children did come, they were extremely cherished and valued, raised by the entire community. Strangers did not get to see the children, if a denizen allowed you to see the children, then you were a trusted person.
That was why I froze, I knew I had a good relationship with the Leland coven, I'd saved their matriarch's life a year into mywork for the BDHA, and had been pulled in as an adopted child of the coven. Most of them were centuries old so my measly twenty-eight years old was considered young. Denizen age of consent was forty for witches, fifty for shifters and hundred for vampires. So as far as they were concerned she was a toddling child.
I finally allowed herself to notice the others in the room. All enforcers, protectors of the coven trained in combat magic. I did not doubt that even making the wrong move would have me dead before I completed a step.
I bowed deep and low, shocked and honored by the trust given to me. A fact that nearly brought tears to my eyes seeing as I did not trust anyone.
"Come Elina, come and meet my granddaughter." The matriarch of the coven smiled when I looked up and moved closer. Her brown skin glowing with happiness as she looked down at the child with kicking feet. The enforcers moved out of my way as I approached and I instinctively smiled at the baby, stretching a finger to the baby who took it with a tight hand, trying to stick it in her toothless mouth.
The baby had a black thumbprint on her forehead, there were temporary marks drawn around her. If I remembered my witch culture well the baby would be formally inducted in the coven at a year old. When they were sure she'd survive. At that ceremony the tattoos would ink themselves on her skin and grow with her for the rest of her life.
"What a beautiful baby." I cooed back at her after she garbled at me.
She released me and went back to chewing her grandmother's dress. I moved back finally looked at her grandmother. MadriKapoor. Witch queen of Canaan. She may have been running one of the smaller covens, but she was the dominant denizen in the city.
"Elina, what brings you by?" she fixed all seeing eyes on me and narrowed her eyes. "There is something different about you." Her guards moved a tad bit closer before she moved her head and they returned to their previous positions.
"I came about this." I stretched the list of missing persons, choosing to ignore her second statement.
She frowned as she looked through, "What is this?" she looked at me.
"They are missing persons," she went back to flipping pages, moving them out of reach of the child that tried to grab a few.
"People go missing all the time, why is this different?"
"They all went missing at the same time from the same place."
She froze. Long enough my instinct screamed at me that, "You know something." It wasn't a question and she knew it.
She sighed and handed the paper back to me. "It is not a pretty story."
I tucked the file in my armpit and folded my arms. "I have the time."
She gave me a look and beckoned one of her guards over to whisper in the woman's ears. She nodded and carefully took the baby before vanishing at the spot. One moment he was there, the next he was not.
I swallowed and looked back at the old woman. "Yes?"
"It was a couple hundred years ago. Back then I was an enforcer on a witch coven much larger than mine is currently. We were in a city that has long since been destroyed. People were vanishing left and right, small groups, often from the same place."
I frowned. "Did they find out what was taking them?"
She shook her head sadly, "Unfortunately no, but shortly after,the terrible war between human and denizen was fought, and my witch's intuition was that those disappearances had something to do with it."
I sighed. "Well, do you remember any clues as to what happened to them?"
"No, my best guess? Sacrifice."
I blanched. "What?!"
She leaned back on her chair, "It is the only reason why anyone would need such large numbers of living people at a time. And we know there is only one type of denizen that has refused to give up sacrifice of sentient beings."
"Warlocks," I whispered.
"Yes." She leaned closer. "I don't know if it is the same thing, but be careful Elina. I would hate hear you'd been killed."
I nodded, still trying to process. Warlocks were the boogyemen, and they were all male. They were the true monsters our mothers warned us about, the things that went bump in the night. The only type of denizen that had not signed the Seven law treaty. They were hunted down on sight but they had perfected the art of working in the shadows and doing their things at night. If they were truly involved in this, gods help us.
I bowed deep again. "Thank you for the intel."
"Anytime dear, do come visit again." She smiled and I reciprocated and left the room. Diaz was waiting. I did my shopping in a haze and was already on the road close to home when I came to myself, I needed to tell the director about this.