Courts and Cabals by G.S. D'Moore (best e reader for academics txt) 📕

fine when they broke the lease. The UN bean counters weren’t going to like that.

“Wait, I’ve got something!” the second tech announced.

The UN team was only two people. The gruff older agent, and a bouncing-off-the wall youngster with big glasses. The young woman seemed to scratch her eyewear every time she put it up to the compact telescope they were using to keep a look out for anything unusual. She practically smashed her glasses into the eye slot as they watched a small group emerge from the dorm.

“On it,” a click click click echoed through the apartment as the state-of-the-art camera took a dozen pictures a second.

The camera was attached to a computer. Becky jumped behind it and watched as the pictures loaded. She’d been granted limited access to the UN’s databases, and she used that access to bring up facial recognition.

“Positive ID on Dupree, Danielle Underwood, and Lilith Venitas,” she informed. They’d started building dossiers on the people they were watching. Aside from Dupree, those were the other two students involved in the attack on campus.

Becky studied the other images coming in. They’d seen the other three individuals around the campus, but never at a great angle to get a good ID. Now that they were heading right toward them on their walk into town, they had dozens of good shots.

A positive beep returned a hit. “We’ve got a ninety-five percent match on a school ID out of Scotland for a . . . Xamira Venitas.” She pulled up another window and entered the name into the database. “Age twenty-four . . . registered as an imp with ties to the Venetian Cabal . . . with a master’s in hacking,” that made the surveillance team do a double take.

“They brought in more muscle after the attack,” the older agent replied as he continued to snap pictures.

Becky had never dealt with an imp before, and felt the surge of competitiveness in her core. She wanted to test herself. In reality, she wanted to test herself against Vernon, but the big wolf wasn’t here. She didn’t like how that made her feel. She had no clan, tribe, or pack. She was a loner, and had made her life as such. Suddenly finding herself wanting companionship, outside of someone to make her cum, was foreign and unwelcome.

As if the universe was rubbing it in, a new voice popped onto their comms network. “What do you have, Wood?”

Vernon’s masculine voice sent a thrill through her, but she pushed down the desire. “Dupree’s on the move with friends,” she relayed as the computer gave another affirmative beep. “We’ve got an eighty-eight percent match that the tall guy is Aden Venitas.”

A database search started by blinking a warning at her. There were no charges pending against the man, but there was still an armed and extremely dangerous icon attached to his data. It went beyond him being an incubus, and the effect that automatically had on women. There was a list of suspected, and confirmed involvements, in incidents dating back to the turn of the century.

“And not the twenty-first century,” she whistled. Aden Venitas was over a century old, and that type of age, on top of being a high-tier supernatural, made him extremely dangerous.

“Don’t engage,” Vernon was clearly reading the same data she was, and she heard the worry in his voice. Part of her hoped that was for her safety, while the other part told her she didn’t need his help.

She was a cop, the supernatural sheriff of this county, and she would do her duty. “Agreed,” she replied anyway. Just because she was sworn to serve and protect didn’t mean she was suicidal.

Unless someone started shooting, she was going to watch what happened next.

***

I grinned as I saw the neutral, third-party location that Aden picked out. It was Joe’s pizza joint. As probably the only supernatural-owned business in town, this made the most sense. Aden saw my grin and leaned in close.

“Always stack the deck in your favor as much as possible.” Those were words of wisdom if I’d ever heard them.

The sign on the door said it was closed for a private event, and the shades were drawn. The light crowds walking the downtown street of Vincent’s Hollow numbered under a dozen, but they all watched the formally-dressed group closely. I waved to a few people I knew, but that didn’t seem to put them at ease. There was something in the air tonight. Something the small town wasn’t used to.

Aden knocked on the door and it immediately opened. Joe, in his sabretooth tiger form, stood a few heads taller than Aden, but the big shifter gave the incubus a small bow.

“Sir,” I saw the shotgun secured to Joe’s hip like it was a simple pistol. “Welcome.”

“Thank you, Master Joseph,” Aden returned the bow and entered after Joe stepped aside.

I followed Lilith in, and my breath caught again. At this rate, I was worried I’d get sleep apnea or something because of all the time surprises messed with my respiratory system.

The room had been cut in half by an invisible line. The pizza grease-stained tables were gone, and what was left of the original old-school furnishings had been given a good scrubbing. A large chair had been erected behind the counter, and it didn’t take a genius to know Joe was the only person large enough to fit in it. Sitting on the counter in front of it was a large gavel, so Joe was the arbitrator for this shindig.

“That’s a point in my favor,” I silently thanked Aden for getting the judge on our side.

As for the rest of the room, half of it had been overgrown by bright green moss. A quartet of boulders sat in a rough circle behind a stone slab. It wasn’t the onyx black of the sacrificial