Flesh and Fury (U.S. Marshals I.S.R. (Interspecies Response) #3)

Chapter One

EOGHAN

“Sapphire…Brown…please wait in my office. I need a debrief on that last case,” the chief said.

The second Eoghan opened his mouth to ask what the hell she was talking about, Ari grabbed his elbow and pulled him away from the crowd.

“You got it, boss,” Ari said, directing an exaggerated eyeroll in his direction.

Eoghan frowned at him but he allowed Ari to tow him away from the others. When they were headed toward the chief’s office and out of everyone’s earshot, he stopped.

“What was that all about? We already debriefed her on the last case…at length, I should add.”

Ari rolled his eyes again. He tugged on his arm, getting them moving again. “Man, you really don’t know how to take a hint, do you?” They walked into her office and headed over to the chairs in front of her desk.

“What then?”

Ari turned and pointed at the desk, miming the listening device planted under it. When Eoghan nodded, Ari replied, “I’m sure the chief is going to fill us in on a new assignment.”

“That makes sense,” Eoghan said, sitting in one of the two chairs as Ari eased into the other. “I wonder if she hired any new marshals. I know she said she was going to try.” He knew making small talk to fill the silence until Priest came would be expected it anyone was listening in. And talking about work was safe…anything to avoid a conversation about something of a personal nature.

“The chief said something about that,” Ari said, shrugging when Eoghan shot him an eyeroll. “Where do you think those little samurai insect guys came from?”

“Well, they’re definitely alien so, who knows?”

“You think they’re alien, huh ?”

“That’s a joke, right?” Eoghan asked, only half kidding as he frowned at his partner. “You don’t really think there are twelve inch praying mantises on our planet who carry miniature samurai swords to fight each other, do you?” Both of them looked up as Priest walked into the office. “Oh, thank God,” Eoghan muttered under his breath.

They both started to stand but she waved them back down. “Keep your seats,” she said, walking around the desk and taking her own chair. “Thanks for making it in early. I hope you had a restful weekend. I know the driving is a lot.”

“We’re good, boss, thank you,” Eoghan said.

She nodded. “Good. First, I wanted to congratulate you two on a job well done. With Champayne back at Folsom, the vampire mating ceremony over with, and the Riversong Wilkins case dealt with, you two were very effective in Northern California. I’m only sorry you had to deal with Invictus and Severin. They are very unpleasant, but I thought as long as you were up there near Shasta, it might be good to drop in on them…as it were.” She cleared her throat.

“Yes, ma’am, they’re not the easiest shifters to get along with but once we broke the ice, they were forthcoming with the population numbers you were curious about,” Eoghan said.

She nodded. “Yes, well, at least where Invictus and Severin are concerned. I’m sorry you had to deal with them because they haven’t been forthcoming about anything with the Agency for many years. But I suppose some good came out of it. We had no idea Invictus’ family was destroyed and knew nothing about a previously unknown dragon clan. An unknown shifter clan of any kind which isn’t under the Agency’s purview is unnerving, but considering how dangerous fire-breathing dragons are, knowledge about them is critical. We’re going to have to figure out how to bring them into the fold.”

“Sorry, ma’am, but are you sure you want to do that?” Ari asked. “One of them attacked Invictus while he was carrying me in his claws. That doesn’t sound like a dragon who wants to cozy up to a human.”

“Yes, I read that in your official report, which is why it’s more important than ever that we figure out a way to approach that band of dragons. We can’t leave them out there where they can prey upon humans and expose themselves to the human population. We need to bring them under Agency control and get a solid count of their numbers. We were of the impression that Severin and Invictus’ clans were the last of the dragons in North America. There’s one other clan in Russia and one in Germany from my understanding, but clearly they’re not under Agency purview.”

“Invictus said their enemies came from Russia originally,” Eoghan said. “He thought they’d migrated to Alaska and lived there for centuries until the glaciers started to melt. That’s when they moved southeast into California, settling in Mount Shasta.”

“I wonder if it’s the same clan or an offshoot,” Priest pondered. “I’ll put a call in to the Agency so they can reach out to our Russian counterparts. They’d know the status of the Russian dragons, although they might not be terribly forthcoming about it. Russians are like that.”

“The Russian Agency counterpart probably has similar thinking to the humans running the Kremlin,” Eoghan said. “They hold things close to the vest so their Agency counterpart might also. I guess we’ll soon find out.”

Priest nodded. “It would sure as hell simplify matters. I don’t fancy the idea of you two or any of my marshals trying to get anything out of a bunch of uncooperative dragons.”

“Yeah, that was really un-fun, Chief,” Ari said.

Eoghan chuckled, and the chief just smiled.

“Anyway, the reason I called you in here wasn’t to discuss the dragons. I wanted to discuss another thing.” The chief pointed under her desk, waiting for them both to acknowledge that someone was listening. “There’s a pack of werewolves who have asked for our help.” When Eoghan opened his mouth to tell her he wasn’t going anywhere near a wolf pack, she held up both hands to stop him. “Listen, Sapphire. I know how much you detest werewolves. You have every reason to, but please hear me out. If you really can’t see yourself going out there to meet up with them after I tell you why they’ve asked for our help, then I’ll completely understand, okay?”

Eoghan chewed his bottom lip and shot Ari a glance. He was frowning at him but when he lifted both hands in an “I don’t know” gesture, Eoghan sighed and turned back to the chief. “Yes, ma’am. Of course I’ll listen to my chief.”

She smiled. “Good. This pack of werewolves live on an Agency designated reservation which shares a border with the Paiute Reservation in Bishop. We simply call ours the Bishop Reservation.”

“In Bishop,” Eoghan reiterated.

“Yes, that’s what I said. Bishop.”

“Where’s Bishop?” Ari asked.

“Central California, not that far from the Nevada border.” Eoghan didn’t look at Ari when he spoke, but simply kept his gaze focused on the chief. “The last time I was through Bishop, I remember it being not more than a blip on the map. Their whole claim to fame is a guy by the name of Jack Foley. He was a sound effects specialist in the early days of Hollywood who lived there, a teeny weenie town in the Owens Valley. It was a pleasant, small town then. Foley worked in a hardware store and it was a nice life.

“However, farmers in the Owens Valley saw the writing on the wall when L.A. came knocking. They were told that the Owens River—which was the source of water for their farms—would be diverted to the L.A. Aqueduct. So, many of them sold their farms and moved away. It nearly killed little Bishop off until Foley suggested the town as being perfect for westerns, so a lot of them were filmed there.”

“Wow, that’s some serious Bishop trivia there, Eoghan,” Ari said with a smirk.

Eoghan snorted quietly. “What can I say? Gladys and I stayed overnight in Bishop during our drive toward Mammoth Lakes for a case. There’s not a whole lot to do there but read travel and tourist brochures in the motel lobby. Remember that case, Chief?”

“How could I forget someone reporting a sighting of Sasquatch at a popular ski resort?” Priest asked. She chuckled. “ Ah , good times.”

Eoghan grunted. “I remember it a little differently, boss. I guess that’s because I was thrown to the ground and pinned there by a big, stinking, hairy thing who almost ripped my head off.”

“He apologized later,” Priest said with a smile.

“Yeah, well, all I can say is thank God Gladys was there with a dart gun. She shot him right in the ass…then again it was a pretty big target if I’m remembering correctly.”

This time the chief just laughed. “Fine. You made your point. So, yes, anyway, you know Bishop.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good, because I want you to go there and talk to the Bishop pack leader, Alvin Walters. He’s going to introduce you to his son and daughter-in-law who have just been informed that a werewolf pack in Hawthorne, Nevada, has kidnapped their seven-year-old son.”

“Why was his grandson kidnapped?” Ari asked.

“The Nevada pack kidnapped him to force the family to have the boy’s older brother follow through with a promise. Before his birth, the two families were friendly, so friendly in fact that Walters promised his oldest grandson to the Nevada pack leader’s oldest granddaughter,” Priest said.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Eoghan said.

She shook her head. “I’m not. They were formally betrothed prior to each being born. When the boy from the Bishop pack reached his majority at eighteen, he asked to meet the girl and when he did, he refused to marry her.”

“Why?” Ari asked.

Priest smiled at him. “Because she was already pregnant.”

“Oopsie,” Eoghan said.

“That’s what all four parents said. Naturally, the girl denied it but with werewolves, a baby, even a very tiny one in utero, has a scent which is discernible to the nose of an adult werewolf. There’s no way the girl could have hidden the baby, even if she wanted to.”

“Who’s the father?” Ari asked. “Clearly, she’s not married to him.”

Priest shook her head. “No and she refuses to tell anyone who he is for fear that someone in either or both packs will try to kill him simply for revenge. That’s the way some werewolves solve problems. Anyway, she says she’s in love with the baby’s father. She’s happy about the pregnancy and doesn’t want to marry a man from another pack whom she doesn’t even know. They met twice, both times when they were small children.”

“Well, I wouldn’t like being forced into a marriage with someone I don’t know either,” Ari said, glancing over at Eoghan.

Eoghan tore his gaze away from the intimate expression and looked back at the chief. “So, the girl’s parents or someone else in her pack’s hierarchy like her grandfather stole this man’s little brother to force him to marry the girl whether she likes it or not.”

“Yes, that’s the gist of it,” the chief said.

“Forgive me for saying it but the girl’s family sounds unreasonable,” Ari said. “Don’t they care whether she’s happy or not?”

Priest shook her head. “I’m afraid happiness doesn’t figure into the equation when it comes to werewolves, Marshal Brown. You wouldn’t know this but arranged marriages between packs are quite common because—”

“Wait!” Ari said. “I do know this!” He sat forward in his chair. “Wolves have to mate with wolves from many different packs because if they don’t, they actually end up having offspring who have genetic abnormalities, right?”

Eoghan grinned at him as Ari looked first at their boss and then at him.

“That’s right, Brown. When you think of a werewolf pack, they can best be likened to small communities which favor similar inbreeding. There are small packs in many isolated places, where a great deal of inbreeding happens, and those communities are rife with genetic abnormalities…the products of kissing cousins as it were. As it goes with those humans, the same applies with wolves and werewolves.”

“How’d you know that?” Eoghan asked. “About the wolves, I mean?”

Ari looked at him, smugly satisfied. “Animal Planet.”

Eoghan chuckled.

“Well, regardless of how you knew it, that is the case. And even if it wasn’t, werewolves take these kinds of arrangements very seriously,” Priest said. “They are a lot like nineteenth century European royalty in this respect. They get very testy if they feel their honor is being impugned in any way.”

“So, you want us to meet with them and try to negotiate something to get the kid back,” Ari said.

“Yes.” She picked up a pen and wrote something. “I’m also giving you the name of two Nevada marshals that might have familiarity or if we’re lucky, even a relationship with the Nevada pack Alpha. The chief out there doesn’t know how close his marshals are to the Alpha but if so, that will help to smooth things over and make it easier. He told me to contact Carly Rusch and Evan Chastain. I’m writing down the phone numbers Deputy Chief Washington gave me. If they think their pack Alpha will be more willing to negotiate than Walters, maybe meet them in Nevada to discuss the way things should go first.” She handed Eoghan the paper with their names and phone numbers on it.

“Will do, boss,” Eoghan said, glancing down at it. “Is the Hawthorne, Nevada pack on an I.S.R. reservation?”

“Yes, which is why I’m hoping Rusch and Chastain can influence the Alpha in some way.”

“Okay,” Eoghan replied.

“And what about facilitating the marriage? Are we responsible for doing that too?” Ari asked. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. I just need to know if we’re dealing with more toe sucking here.”

Eoghan and the chief laughed.

“You’re funny, Brown,” Priest said, grinning as she went on. “In answer to your question, no, I think that ship has sailed with the kidnapping. If you can keep these two packs from killing each other long enough to negotiate the return of the boy and see that it’s done, then I suppose I’d call that a win… That and coming home alive, of course.”

“Yeah, that part is important,” Eoghan said.

“Well, you should get going. I have a lot of paperwork to do this morning,” she said. “In all seriousness, I really need to express how important it is that you two be careful. Stop in at the armory and stock up on less lethal ammunition.” She looked directly at Eoghan. “Rest assured, Eoghan, I already let Alvin Walters know that the I.S.R. won’t be putting up with any nonsense.” She paused and wrung her hands which he never saw her do. “Take special care, you two. I need both of you back here in one piece. I just wish I had more marshals to send with you.”

“We’ve faced the nasty ones before, Chief,” Eoghan said, offering her an encouraging smile. “We’ll be careful. I promise.”

“Do you think there will be trouble, Chief?” Ari asked.

It was at times like this when Eoghan worried about his partner. This time, he worried for himself. He’d been in some really hairy situations with Ari, and he’d seen the man perform better under pressure than he should have expected, but he freely admitted to himself that werewolves scared the shit out of him. He hadn’t been afraid of them until one attacked and nearly killed him. Although Gladys as well as the chief, had explained that not all weres were like that. The wolf who’d attacked Eoghan had been raised by an evil man who’d abused him. Still, the kind of mental and physical trauma that Eoghan had endured at the hands of that wolf, had terrified him. Even after a hell of a lot of counseling, he wasn’t sure how he’d behave when he came face to face with one again.

“I don’t expect so. Mr. Walters wants this handled quietly. I think he’s afraid if the rest of his pack learns of his grandson’s abduction, some of the younger pack members will be interested in challenging him as Alpha.”

“Wait,” he said, sitting forward, “the rest of the pack doesn’t know about the abduction?”

“No, but I already told him that once you two start poking around up there, there’s a good chance they’ll figure out something is wrong. No one from the Agency has been out to visit the Bishop pack’s reservation for a very long time. I’m pretty sure another I.S.R. marshal hasn’t even driven through Bishop since the last time you and Gladys were there. In any case, I want this handled as quickly as possible, so you’d better get on the road.” She made the universal call me hand gesture at her ear as she mouthed the words.

Eoghan and Ari nodded and stood. Clearly, she had more to tell them on the burners, what with a bug in her office and all. “We’re leaving now, Chief.”

“Stop in and see Wordy on your way out and get a hold of those two marshals.”

“Will do,” Eoghan replied as they headed for the door.

As soon as they were through it, Ari looked at him. “What?” Eoghan asked.

“What? What?” Ari replied.

He wasn’t smiling or joking for that matter. Ari was such an easygoing person; it was really hard to see him so serious. Eoghan had a feeling he knew what was on his mind but if he guessed wrong, he didn’t want to be the one to bring it up.

“Nothing. You just look so…I don’t know…I guess you look deep in thought, that’s all. Are you worried about the werewolves?” Eoghan asked.

They got to the elevator and he pushed the button.

“To be honest, I’m a little worried, yeah,” Ari admitted.

“Well, if Priest was right about Alvin Walters, he wants us to help with negotiations, that’s all. It’d be even better if the marshals in Nevada could orchestrate a sit down with the Nevada pack. I’m even more worried that they’re gonna tell us it’s a totally futile exercise.” The elevator arrived and they stepped in.

“That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it, Eoghan,” Ari said.

Eoghan blew out a long breath. He really didn’t want to admit to the fear which was twisting him up inside. The last thing he wanted was to bare his soul by opening that door. He turned to look at Ari and almost reeled back when he recognized the expression of love on his face. He’d been expecting worry, sympathy, or worse, pity but the hazel eyes he adored were watching him with something much more than warm affection; it was as clear as the nose on his face. His own feelings of love suddenly rushed in, nearly swamping him. He was a heel for thinking he should hide his worries from his lover. They were more than partners and the man he shared a bed with. In less than six months, Ari had become his best friend and the man he was crazy in love with. He opened his mouth to admit it when the elevator stopped, and the doors slid open.

“You’re right,” he said. “I’m sorry.” He smiled and nodded to one of the IT guys who got into the elevator as they were getting out, and then headed to the armory with Ari by his side. “Let’s talk about this later, okay? It’s not that I don’t want to talk to you, but I’d rather do it once we’re alone.” He nodded and smiled at Night as she walked by them.

Ari grunted. “Fine, but we will talk once we’re on the road, Eoghan.”

Eoghan sent him a tiny smile and continued on his way to the armory. He knew there was no way of avoiding his feelings about his partner now…

…and he wasn’t sure he wanted to.