Jaspar spent most of his life hiding because of his power. He should have listened to the warning not to go to the dark side of the city he was visiting but what's life without a little excitement? In this city, a little excitement can get you into...
John appeared in the doorway behind the bar, wearing an expensive grey suit and a matching bowler hat. The fae lord kissed Justice on the cheek before walking through the bar hatch and over to Elison, confidently, his eyes glancing over at Leo absentmindedly. "The little seer okay?" John asked politely, glancing at Justice and giving Elison a look which clearly said he was seeing what was happening with his boys.
"His eye sockets are fine. Doctor Green took his bandages off. I will warn you, he looks like someone has punched his face to pieces but apparently, that's normal after having your eyes removed. The muscles aren't used there being nothing there," Elison commented, giving John the warning partly because he didn't want to be accused of abusing the poor man. "She wants to come back in a week for a final check up and then in six weeks she wants to come back to talk about fake eyes and such," Elison explained.
"I'm unfortunately aware of the side effects of someone losing an eye Elison. I have been around the block a few times," John said dryly, Elison almost blushing as he remembered just who he was talking to. Justice appeared next to them, helping John out of his coat and taking it and John's hat to a coat stand in the corner only used by John.
John, in many ways, was a friend of Elison's. He was also, however, the oldest immortal in the city and the one who actually owned the land the city was on. He had given Calder's grandfather regency over the land and simply not taken it back yet. Calder lived under the knowledge that John could technically remove him from power if he so chose to and as such John got away with a lot more than most of the strong powers in the city. At the same time, Calder did enforce the rules with John quite strictly, much to the fae's amusement.
"Yes, well. I haven't," Elison commented dryly. Personally, he had been shocked at the bruises which were around Jaspar's beautiful face now. "Jaspar fell asleep after the check up and I've put him in bed. He's a little fragile at the moment but he did well during dinner." He acknowledged. For the most part, Jaspar had gotten through the evening without letting anyone really know how scared he really was.
"Did very well," another man commented from the side, four double whiskies into his evening. "Scared Bill good, he did," he chuckled deeply amused by this fact. "Hopefully the clues will be enough to save his neck then."
"The little seer is still definitely a seer then?" John said thoughtfully, sitting down in the armchair next to the fireplace. Not particularly happy or unhappy about this fact, just simply thoughtfully. Elison's demon growled at this but Elison kept his face neutral.
"Yes. Jaspar caught Bill's hand by accident and had a death vision. Shook him up a bit and he spilt the details of the vision pretty fast," Elison commented with a touch of exasperation. "Bill's going to die by wolves apparently," he sighed, "With something to do with lavender."
"Interesting," John hummed, gratefully taking a drink off Justice as he appeared with his scotch on a tray. "Have you informed the Regent?" he asked calmly, rubbing a hand down Justice's back fondly. Justice smiled before leaving him to it.
"Not yet, no. I will do soon. John, may I ask a favour of you?" Elison asked, his demon scratching at his mind impatiently. As much as he wanted to stay there and guard their new charge, he also needed to go talk to his grandfather and clan elder. Something was off about how fast he was becoming attached to the little human and it screamed something to do with his demon side. Something which was going to cause trouble given Jaspar currently hating him.
"I can," John nodded. "I swear on my word no harm will come to him in my care," he swore in the true language before switching back to common tongue. "I'll keep him safe and happy, don't worry. I'll treat him like one of my own," John grinned.
"Right," Elison nodded, "I appreciate it. We can talk payment afterwards. I'll be gone a few hours. Unfinished business you see."
"Of course, I understand," John nodded. "Good luck with it," he smiled broadly. Skin crawling slightly, Elison said his goodbyes before leaving the Rook. He could trust John to look after Jaspar, the man would never let any harm come to him, but he couldn't shake the feeling that John had something planned for the innocent young man. He just wished he knew what, but if he asked straight out, chances were John wouldn't actually tell him.
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Maria flew over the dark city, following the flow of traffic lights to where she knew the west warden's office was. The port city was technically split into three districts and the wardens were stationed in each section. Officially once a month they met for a meeting to discuss what was going on in their district but it normally happened more like once a week. The port city was not an easy city to manage, even with three wardens.
She landed on the roof of the building, her wings fading and her hands and feets morphing back into human size. Her scales on her cheeks took a moment to recede into her skin. Lit by the city lights below, she lit a cigarette and took a long drag. Maria was not in a good mood. She had managed to get a few hours of sleep before being dragged from her bed to deal with some interspecies bullshit which really should have been a lot simpler than what it turned out to be.
"Warden Maria," a voice greeted.
Maria glanced at the man, dimly recognising him as one of the west warden station interns but not remembering his name. He was rugged, the type who always looked like he had been dragged through a bush backwards. He had dark shadows under his eyes which weren't from the lighting of the roof and his tie was half undone.
"That's my name. I guess Tim is not going to bother to come up to see me?" Maria said almost darkly, blowing smoke as she sighed to calm herself from yelling at the poor man.
"No, I'm afraid Warden Maria," the man said slightly embarrassed. "It's probably best if you just come and see why rather than me explaining," he admitted.
Sighing, Maria finished her cigarette, letting the stump fall with the other cigarette stumps which littered the rooftop. Like most legit businesses, the police didn't let their workers smoke in the building anymore since the rules came in. Unlike John's establishments which let their customers do what they wanted. She followed the intern into the building and to Warden Tim's office. He paused outside the door, waving her to it.
Wondering just what she was about to find, Warden opened the wooden door. Her reaction to what was inside was to simply blink and closed the door again. "Right," she sighed, running a hand through her long black hair. "How long has he been like this?" she asked the intern.
"A few days," the intern admitted. "We were debating calling you for help. Isaac wouldn't be any help and you're the senior warden."
Maria closed his eyes and counted down from ten. "I better go try to calm him down then," she sighed, really not needing this in her life.
The intern nodded at her with grateful eyes before disappearing elsewhere. She took another deep breath and entered the room again, this time entering, minding the papers on the floor. The room was covered in paper, more exactly reports from cases. Tim was in the centre of the room, clearly trying to link them together. Maria kept her breathing calm and debated mentally just how to sort this situation out.
