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The hum of the S.S Morov filled the lounge car where a handful of passengers were scattered throughout the space. These folk were the kind who’d past haunted their minds. One passenger in particular was a detective in his early thirties. His broad shoulders were hunched over as he made edits to his youngest brother’s thick manuscript kept together by a flimsy binder meant for school work. Beside the manuscript sat a crystal glass with the bottom barely covered by the man’s preferred bourbon. Two phones of the latest Opal model, lay next to the glass. One phone had a sleek black case that aided in making the phone filled with the man’s work contacts look inconspicuous. The other phone’s casing of a custom designed surfboard was a stark contrast to the man’s aesthetic. It was the type of design one would expect from a teenage girl.
The red gel pen hovered over the pages second paragraph as the man’s personal phone broke the wall of quiet with its vibrations. He switched the pen for the phone and hovered over the button as his green-gold eyes took in his screensaver. It depicted the man at sixteen taking a selfie with his twin sister. A board identical to his phone case stood proudly behind the two. With a heavy sigh the man unlocked his phone to call his older brother instead of answering their text.
“Thank you for the reminder of how unreliable you are, brother.”
There was a deep sigh on the other end. “What do you need, Chase?”
“When I called at seven, I was hoping I would be able to stay at yours for the few days that I’ll be in Ezbin for. Seeing as you didn’t get back to me until two in the morning, I secured different accommodations.”
“Why didn’t you ask dad or the twins?”
“I’m working a case that I don’t want dad to know about.”
“Aren’t all cases confidential?”
Chase picked up the forgotten glass and drained the rest of its contents. “They’re supposed to be… but if it turns out the way I suspect it to, then our family has a right to know.”
Chase could hear floorboards creak from his brother’s end as they began to pace. Chase’s brow furrowed as he listened. The creaks felt familiar to him. It reminded him of when he would fall asleep to his brother pacing above his childhood room. Chase scowled, “You’re at dad’s right now, aren’t you?”
They hummed as their mind felt somewhere else “Yeah, I moved back.”
Chase’s scowl deepened. “Shade, what aren’t you saying?”
Shade didn’t immediately answer. Chase took that opportunity to signal the college kid behind the bar for a refill.
“…I think I know who you’re after.” Shade admitted, quietly.
Chase pinched the bridge of his nose, “… Dammit Shade. How long have you known?”
Chase could picture his brother pushing his dark bangs out of his face as his shoulders slumped, “She came into my tattoo shop about a year ago. She has the North’s gold ring. I’ve been slowly gaining her trust but she’s from the streets. So, you can imagine how that’s been going.”
The amber liquid burned chase’s throat as he nursed it. “Do you know why I’ve been sent to track her down?”
“No… I mean, I know she’s keeping a low profile right now but there’s many reasons for that. Chase, she’s a good kid at heart.”
“She killed two cops. It’s being kept under wraps as to why though. Even from me.”
Shade huffed, “Why would they hide that?”
“Whatever the reason, it’s worrisome.”
Shade hummed in agreement before falling silent again. Chase looked over the next paragraph of the manuscript waiting for them to speak.
“We’ve lost so many of our siblings… But there’s a chance to bring one home. But if you go through with the case and imprison her… We’ll lose our only chance of knowing our baby sister.”
Chase sighed, “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“…. Tide would choose family.”
Chase stiffened and a sharp crack filled the quiet train car as a fissure appeared in the glass, spilling the bourbon over Chase’s pants. A few of the remaining passengers stared at him. He kept his head lowered as he pulled his wallet out and placed forty dollars down onto the table before gathering his belongings and strolling out towards his sleeping pod. He knew the humans that sought the refuge of night was far less likely to report a potential cryptid but he refused to tempt fate by sticking around.
Once out of the lounge car he pressed the phone back to his ear. “Do not bring Tide into this. I’m not her and the girl you want me to end my career for is a murderer with an unknown reason to kill.” He growled.
Shade sighed, “We have a chance to save this girl. A chance we weren’t given with the others.”
“Shade enough!” Chase barked, “We aren’t responsible for our family.”
“And yet, you co-signed the twins building and act more like a father to them than dad does.”
“I’m not having this conversation with you again. Good night, Shade.”
“Yeah. Night, little brother.”
Chase ended the call with a finality that weighed heavy on his soul. He flipped the phone over and traced the design.
“Gods… Fine. I’ll talk to the kid first, find out what her reasoning was… possibly try to reduce her sentence.” He murmured before scowling up at the ceiling “Gods, I’m getting soft.” He shook his head and hoisted himself into the bed.
It wasn’t often a case had Chase North needing the local P. D’s assistance. When he did ask for their help, it was for seasoned Crime Lords. Not an eighteen-year-old street kid.
For Chase’s colleagues it would have trampled their ego’s. For chase it ignited an old spark in his tired eyes. The scruff on his jaw had been maintained and oiled. His button downs had been ironed and the fraying laces of his tactical boots were replaced.
Two new files accompanied the girls file in his bag. The thinnest was for a seventeen-year-old boy that Chase was currently tracking down. Tyler O’riley, a runaway from the north point residence. There were petty accounts of arson and theft. Chase wasn’t tracking him down for his infractions. He was tracking him for the rumours that he was friends with Chase’s target.
The stark white of the plastic bag hanging by Chase’s right side stood out against the drab gray of Ezbin City. Beads of water slid down the sleek plastic, onto the already muddied hem of Chase’s jeans. His boots splashed through the puddles gathered on the uneven cobbled stones. Chase ignored the seeping cold and ducked into the narrow alleyway. He kept an eye out for the rust-coloured mop of O’Riley’s hair the school picture tucked into the file had shown. This alleyway was the third he’d gone through in search of O’Riley.
Chase had to backtrack a few steps as he had nearly passed the boy, hidden behind a pile of cardboard that the rain was eating away.
Chase gave a kind smile to the boy, “You seem like you could use a warm meal.”
O’Riley glanced at the large bag Chase was holding. “I wouldn’t want to take your lunch from you, Sir.”
“You’d actually be doing me a favour.” he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “My boss just called. She wants me to meet her at some fancy restaurant. It doesn’t matter that I’m in my thirties, she still insists on spoiling me.” he chuckled, “But that’s grandmothers for you. But because of that I can’t bring this into the restaurant and I don’t have time to go home.”
O’riley frowned and shifted his weight as if about to bolt.
“There’s enough here if you have some friends too.”
he tensed and his brilliant blue eyes narrowed, “Are you a cop?”
Chase laughed, his long canines on full display. “Dressed like this? No kid. I work for North industries as Everly North’s personal assistant.”
Chase could see the kid glance to the exit and he sighed, shoulders drooping slightly and adopting a guilty look. “Ok, you got me. My brother, Shade sent me. They mentioned being worried for a trio of street kids with the winter turning. I figured I’d stop him moping about by finding them and giving them a good meal. You fit the description of one of the kids.”
“So, you’re a shifter then?”
Chase shook his head, “Not quite. Our families mixed. I got dad’s wolven genes like most of our siblings. Only Shade and our late sibling Onyx got our birth mothers shapeshifting genes.”
O’Riley nodded and slowly took the bag. O’Riley’s sulfuric scent burned Chase’s nose though it wasn’t as potent to a pure-blooded hellion. Human’s duller senses would find it difficult to scent it which explained why it hadn’t been listed in his file if the boy was careful not to use his abilities. the most plausible scenario was that whoever had made the file purposefully withheld that information to protect the boy. Chase had lost track of how many times he had changed files to hide cryptids within the system.
Chase bid the boy farewell and exited the alleyway. He found a small cafe to wait for the tracker he had planted with the food to lead him to his target.
He was on a third cup of the in-house dark roast and a new chapter of his brother’s manuscript when his tablet chimed. O’riley had been stationary for the past ten minutes. Chase gathered his belongings and headed out.
Even a block away Chase could hear the thunder of the crowds filling the large warehouse. It was just Chase’s luck that the case had taken him to a fighting ring during the tournament season. It brought back memories of his late teens.
The fighting rings were well known by the P.D. Yet nothing was done despite them being illegal. When questioned, the police hid their discriminatory nature behind the lies of lacking resources. The reality was that the fighting rings and the Trafficking routes they harbour focus on cryptids and marginalized communities and the same officials the middle classes look to for safety are the same ones profiting off the government’s investment of the cryptid trafficking.
Chase shouldered his way through the roaring crowds. His head was on a swivel for the shock of red that made O’Riley as recognizable as he was.
Inside the cage a leopard circled an older teen that had his large angelic wings bound with thick black bands. He leaned on the back of his heels grinning with a casualness that felt foreign in the fighting scene. The scars littering his bare torso made it obvious he was a fan favourite. Chase rolled his shoulders to ease the phantom pains from his time.
Jack Oroitz was the third member of O’Riley’s little trio. out of the three he had the thickest file as he was well known to the local P.D. He spent the majority of his youth in juvie. Yet the ethereal glow of the divine still surrounded him. It was odd for an angel such as he to not have fallen.
Oroitz scanned the crowd and his grin widened when he saw his intended target. he blew a kiss to O’Riley who grinned and pretended to catch it while falling back into a figure behind him. Chase chuckled; the boy’s puppy love had revealed his target. Cedar North.
Cedar shoved O’Riley off with a shake of her head. He grinned at her before turning back to the cage just as the air horn went off.
The leopard wasted no time in launching at Oroitz. He dropped down and grabbed the leopard’s hind leg. He dragged her down to the cement before springing up and landing a kick to the leopard’s ribs most likely cracking a couple. The feline yelped and transformed into a feminine figure. She growled and after a few more blows, she switched to offense. The sharp crack of Oroitz’s arm was drowned by the cheering crowd.
O’Riley’s blue eyes changed to a fiery orange with black sclera. His hair came alive with flames. The crowd surrounding him backed up so they couldn’t be burned. Cedar squeezed his shoulder and murmured something that got his features back to normal. Tyler sagged into her looking drained from seeing his partner in pain.
Chase took that chance to get closer, he pushed through the last section dividing them. O’Riley tensed and spoke in Cedar’s ear. Her gaze found Chase’s. Her green-gold eyes were a few shades lighter than Chase’s. Her crooked, button nose and splattering of freckles made his chest ache with the reminder of Tide. She was a perfect mosaic of his siblings that it felt like someone had glued Chase where he stood. It was as if the gods hadn’t wanted her to be mistaken for anything but a North. As if the gold circling her pupils wasn’t enough of an indicator.
Her lips curled as she glanced down to the bag in her hand. Chase blinked and she had disappeared into the crowds, escaping towards the back exit.
It took a moment before Chase was able to compose himself enough to follow her.
He found Cedar a few blocks away. She stood on the bank of the fast-flowing river, waiting. He stepped up beside her watching as leaves swirled in the current.
“So, you’re cop.”
he inclined his head, “Something like that. My names Chase North.”
She tensed before stuffing her hands in her pockets. “So, you’re here to kill me.”
Chase’s head snapped to her, his brows furrowed. She met his gaze with a tired acceptance. The scars marring her cheeks and nose shadowed her gaunt features in a way that haunted her appearance.
“What the hell are you talking about, kid?” he asked, gruffly.
“That’s what the message said.”
“What message?” he growled.
she sighed, “When I was abandoned at the fire station, I had a sketchbook with me. The first few pages were illustrations of my birth. At the bottom of the last illustration there was a message. If I sought out the North’s or came into contact with them then I would be killed.”
“Was is signed?” Chase bit out.
“Yeah. C.N.” She chuckled humorlessly, “Whoever named me had a messed-up sense of humour.”
Chase clenched his jaw and didn’t respond for a few minutes.
“I’m not going to kill you. None of the North’s would. Cordelia, the woman that gave birth to you is no longer in the picture anymore.
“She had told the family that you were a still birth. Our dad, Lycaon never even got to see you. Your death was the final straw for dad and he kicked Cordelia out. He believed that your death hadn’t been natural. The reason being is the year prior Cordelia pushed our eldest sibling to the edge and they had taken their life.
“In many ways, your death had saved our family. In a lot of other ways, it shattered it. our second eldest brother, Anubis couldn’t handle the pressures thrust upon him while still grieving Onyx so he ran. Shade lost himself in substances and mindless flings. My twin, Tide and I were only thirteen but dad disappeared into the bottom of the bottle and work. Tide and I kept the family together until Tide got accepted into this elite surfing academy that ultimately cost her life.” Chase ran a hand over his face looking tired. “It’s taken years but we’ve all begun to mend the fractures, enough that you would be welcomed into the family as one of us… if the circumstances had been different.”
Cedar stayed quiet, processing everything he had dumped onto her. She scowled, “Different circumstances? What do you mean?”
“I’m supposed to bring you in for the physical assault of two police officers.”
She sighed, “I’m guessing you wouldn’t believe me if I told you, it had been Self-defense?”
He frowned, “What did they do?”
She shifted her weight and picked at a loose thread. “I get attention no matter what I do so I charge for it. The cops came at me when I wasn’t offering my services. They weren’t happy when I refused. I pulled my daggers and they reached for their weapons. I stabbed one and used him as a shield to get away. The second fired—” She lifted her seater to show the bandages wrapped around her torso. “— I needed to make it back to Jack and Tyler. I threw my knives and killed the second. Is that worth bringing me in?”
Chase sucked in a sharp breath, “No… It’s not. Luckily my grandmother has contents in high places that can expose the truth.”
Chase pulled out his work phone. He dialed his boss. “I’ll be expecting my last paycheque as this is my formal resignation coming into effectively immediately.” He hung up before his boss could respond and threw the work phone into the river.
He turned to Cedar, “My family would kill me if I didn’t bring you home. You can bring your friends if you want. My family is meeting at my little brother, Luca’s bar, The Fern & Oak at seven. His twin, Koda is the cook for the establishment. Koda’s also in the process of writing a mystery book and could benefit from your experience on the streets. Shade and my dad will also be coming.” He gave her a small smile before walking off. He knew she would be joining them in the evening if nothing more than the free food.