I woke up not long after. It seemed to be just what I needed. I stretched in my chair, yawned, and looked around. Mike was nowhere to be seen, and Viktor was busily writing something in yet another file folder.
"Where did Bossman go?" I asked, taking my feet off the desk and sitting up.
"He went back to Third Street. I told him that I would send you to Central Park when you woke up," Viktor replied as he closed the folder and handed it to me.
Grabbing the offering, I asked, "How long did I sleep for?"
"Only about 22 minutes. The nightmares might have prevented you from having a good sleep. You needed the rest and neither Mike nor myself minded."
I nodded. The nightmares were a bitch, cuddling not included, but I needed the extra sleep.
I opened the folder in my hands and started to read.
"You did some digging on The Specialist?" I asked surprised. I thought that he would not have bothered with that case.
"Yes. Apparently, a human has been able to get his hands on my weapons and sell them. This is clearly a problem that I have to clean up before it affects my – business," replied Viktor as he turned around in his chair and came to my side.
"Now that you are awake, should we get going to Central Park? I feel the need to hunt starting."
Ah, crap. This was not going to be good.
"Alright, let me call Kowalski and get him to meet us there," I said before I realized that my phone was still dead.
"Actually, do you have a charger?" I asked, holding my phone out to him.
Instead of answering, Viktor took my phone back around his desk and pulled out a second cell. Taking out the chip card at the back of my cellphone, he inserted it into the new phone and then handed it back to me.
"Okay then," I said, taking the new phone. Hey, it was nicer than my current one, why wouldn't I take a free upgrade?
Once again, Viktor put his hand on the small of my back and escorted me out of the office and out of the building with all of his employees' eyes on us.
"I'll still have to call Kowalski. He is my partner after all," I reminded him as I got into his SUV.
"No. I spoke to Mike and he will have your new partner waiting for you at Central Park."
"You and Mike seemed to have had a good conversation while I was sleeping," I said, not all that bothered that these two men had rearranged my life for me in such a short time.
Viktor nodded. "You will need to let me know if you are putting him in your House. He will have to be registered."
I hummed in reply and then bolted up straight.
"New partner?!?" I screeched. I was not complaining, but getting a new partner was a big thing. And most of the time it had a negative connotation attached to it.
"Yes. Kowalski was requested by name to transfer to another police station."
Sure he was.
"So, who is my new partner? Do you know?"
Viktor nodded, busily typing on his phone.
"Yes. His name is Mathew White. Mike said that you knew him."
"Well, that is a plus, I guess. White is a nice guy," I agreed. I had only seen White in passing. He had long brown hair that he always wore past his shoulders and green eyes. He couldn't have been more than 28, but he had a lot of solved cases under his belt. Mike seemed to give him the ones that no one else could solve.
"He is. He is under Lucas' House. If the case in Central Park is wolf related, it would be better not to have a human involved any more than is needed."
"Wait! White is a werewolf! How did I not know?" I exclaimed. So I was working with a werewolf all this time and never noticed!
But on the flip side, White had no idea who I was either.
"Yes, apparently your blood is potent enough that it only calls to the Heads of the Houses. Well, except for the Gypsies. I am pretty sure that White has no idea that you are anything other than human," Viktor said as the car pulled up to our destination and he turned off his phone.
I looked out the window and saw White waiting for us on the sidewalk.
I got out of the car, leaving the folder on The Specialist behind, and walked up to him. "Hey, White!"
"Hello Firecracker, I have been told that I am your new partner. Did you scare off your last one?" White asked, putting his arm around my shoulders and pulling me in for a side hug.
Viktor pulled me out of White's arms and closer to his side. "You'll have to forgive him, Pui, wolves are notorious for needing physical contact at all times," he said, his nose scrunching in disgust.
White just laughed in return. "I'm going to assume that it is okay to bring a human into our world if the Van Helsing is the one doing it."
"She is a Tesalor, her family has been part of our world for centuries," Viktor clarified as we entered the Park and headed toward where the latest victim was found. Since I was here just this morning, I led the way, allowing the boys behind me to talk.
"What is a Tesalor?" White asked.
As tall as he was, Viktor was still a head taller than him. With both of them dressed in black, White's shoulder holsters visible and Viktor's suit jacket buttoned up, the two looked like my bodyguards as we walked down the paths.
I could get used to this. I smirked to myself.
"Tesalors were the original Gypsy family back in the Old Country," Viktor clarified.
"Sweet! Can you put curses on people and tell the future?" White asked. "What about talking to ghosts and making potions?"
I shook my head. My mother was the best at all that, but unfortunately, I never had a knack for the true Gypsy legacies. I was a freak after all.
"Too bad-" White started before he lifted his nose up into the air and let out a low growl. "Wolves," he spoke. Since I was staring at him, I could see his teeth start to get longer and sharper.
I gulped. It was one thing to know I was standing beside a werewolf and a completely different thing to see that you were standing beside a werewolf.
"Rogues!" He snarled again.
Viktor flicked his wrists and two long blades came out from his sleeves to settle themselves firmly in his hands.
Seeing the two of them, I took out my service pistol. I wanted to have ribbons in my hands instead, my body was begging for them. But I couldn't bring them out around the other two. My only option was my gun.
I might not know much about the world that I was born into, but even I knew that rogues were not something to mess with.
Now to find out how many there were.