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...
Leo took it silently nodding. Mimi sat next to him on the sofa and the bouncer left, apparently satisfied with what he had gotten from Leo. He drank the tea slowly, teas occasionally escaping from his eyes, feeling numb and hollow inside. For now, all he could do was wait for news of everyone's fate.
He offered a prayer to the gods that Justice would not die for his foolish actions.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Lord Calder was having a slightly interesting day. The youngest warden, Issac had grown a backbone and was challenging John in his own territory. Calder had been at the casino dealing with some business when the man had arrived with his entire force ready to arrest anyone who fought against the order.
It was an amusing thing to watch as the attractive young man held up a warrant to shut down John's (illegal) casino. John was furious and was trying to delay things as his own lawyers counteracted the warrant. Except someone had given Issac some solid proof this time. The kind of proof which could only come from one person.
Warden Maria had set this up and Calder almost felt sorry for her. John wasn't going to kill her for this but he was no doubt planning something nasty in punishment.
His phone rang and Calder answered it calmly, lifting an eyebrow at the panicked tone on the other side. "Who is gone, Elison?" Calder asked stiffly, his eyes drifting over the police officers who were bagging evidence.
John looked up and him with narrowed eyes putting a hand up to silence Isaac from his righteous speech about the illegal business practices which went on in the casino. Isaac's eyes glanced over to the human as well. "I see," he hung up after the names and walked back over to John.
"We have runaways," John asked, uncaring that there was a warden in front of him who was not under his control. His voice was painfully neutral, the type of tone you knew meant someone was going to die in a very painful way.
Calder hummed positively. "Wardens Tim and Maria have set us up in a ruse," he commented calmly, " I wonder if Warden Isaac was aware of this?" Calder asked, turning to the young man calmly, John following his actions.
To Isaac's credit, the warden didn't flinch back at the glare, instead shrugging, trying not to reveal his growing sense of nervousness. "I could tell Maria had something on her mind, but not what. I figured as long as I was only included in the legal stuff like arresting your corrupt asses, I didn't care," Isaac rumbled.
"Language," John breathed, his reaction to the dark rumble was one of indifference and dark spark of amusement. "This," John waved his hand over the scene, "Will be over in minutes. Our annoyance will not," he commented, his normally cheerful voice dark and dangerous. "Who is making a break for it Regent Calder?"
"Jaspar Tinmen, Justice Savanhu, Li Sying, Fu Fang and Raine Green your grace," Calder listed calmly, his tone clearly one of someone who was angry but understood the power dynamic at that moment. "I will take care of your establishments, Baron John. Please, do as you will."
John nodded, smoke swirling around him and then in a puff of pink petals he was gone. The fae baron not about to wait to recapture the people who were daring to deny him. Calder clicked and his aide was by his side with a clipboard and pen while Isaac began to splutter over what he had just learned.
"John's the fae baron?" Isaac almost shouted, sounding beyond shocked at this revelation.
Calder gave the man a sideward look. "He's the most powerful fae in the city? Whoever did you think would own the baron ship of the land?" he asked dryly like he was speaking to a complete idoit. "Surely your superiors must have warned you there was a fae of some significance in the city.
"Warned? Yes. But they never said a baron," Isaac hissed before paling. "Maria and Timmy..."
"Likely don't know either. True," Calder hummed thoughtfully. It was rare that they managed to keep anything from Maria but it was possible John's true nature had been one of the things they had kept from the warden. "They will learn soon enough the error of their ways." Calder smiled again, his voice full of anger but his eyes full of dark amusement. Four troublemakers were about to feel the entire week of the city open up on them and considering the amount of trouble this caused him as well.
Isaac shivered, a chill downing down the back of his spine, his inner beast wincing. Dragons were powerful creatures which is why they worked as Wardens but there were creatures with more power than them. If John was truly a fae baron, he may be more dangerous than both of the older wardens.
"You can't afford to lose all three of us," Isaac warned softly, knowing that fact to be true. The repercussions would be serious if all three wardens were killed by the dark side of the city.
"True," Calder said lightly, his voice lightening slightly. "I hope John remembers that. Ideally, we need Maria alive out of the two of them. Her transgression can be dealt with easily, she is just being rebellious because we have been forcing her to deal with too much of the underworld. Timmy. Well. It is a shame but we were planning his date to die soon anyway," Calder shrugged uncaringly.
"You're a monster," hissed Isaac, his palms sweating and his dragon shifting forward, his eyes turning orange. Calder's smile remained, chuckling at being able to see the fear in the dragon's eyes.
"Oh look. Your bosses are arriving. Let's go get this all sorted out shall we?" he hummed. Isaac said nothing, watching his bosses already start ordering to release the men in handcuff. Calder put a hand on his shoulder firmly, Isaac's skin shifting into scales as if to protect itself from the touch. To outsiders it would look like a show of friendliness but Isaac knew what Calder was doing. Isaac was being forced into a corner. He could only pray Maria and Tim had been given enough time to succeed in their plan and curse them for not warning him as his very angry boss stormed over to him.
"I think Isaac it's time you were inducted into the family," Calder commented firmly. "Time to make your decision Isaac about how much longer you want to exist," he murmured. "No one in this city can exist outside of John's laws Isaac, not me, not Maria and certainly not you."
Isaac snapped his head to look up at him in surprise at that comment. "Not you?"
