The Partner

Chapter 9

Kenai walks into the meeting room and everyone's present. Kristofferson is at his post at the front of the room, sitting at his desk. Raven and Caul are by him, talking while Kyra, Elwood, Gunner, and Deck are spread out on a couch and two chairs. Kristofferson looks up as Kenai approaches. "Good, he's here. Let's get this started."

He takes a seat next to his sister on the couch. "Where did you go? I didn't think there were any missions tonight." Kyra asks.

Elwood elbows him from his chair. "There wasn't. He had a date with the wraith. Right, Kenai?"

Instead of denying it, he just goes along. "Jealous, Elwood?"

"Freshly fucked is a look you wear well, so yes. I'm extremely jealous, especially when I've been hanging around these losers all night." He gripes, motioning towards Kyra and Deck.

"Hey," his sister defends, "you're free to leave at any time, Elwood. No one said you had to hang with us."

He shrugs. "Next slow night we have, I'm heading to Vegas, for anyone who's interested."

Their captain interrupts their side conversation. "Okay, listen up you guys."

Caul clears his throat. "So we went up to New Hampshire and looked over the dead adhene. It took all damn day and night, but we found the trail. The adhene broke into a fellow adhene's room at their colony and stole the soul from there. That adhene claimed to have been given the Overseer soul along with three humanoid souls from his boss to protect them until they were needed for some adhene sacred ceremony. The boss got them from a trader who got them from a masked reaper, same description from the bartender in Jacksonville basically. The adhene hiding the souls in his room swears he didn't know it was an Overseer soul or he would have turned it in."

"Do you believe him?" Kyra questions suspiciously.

Raven shrugs. "I don't know. He seemed honest enough and freaked out when we told him he had the soul so...I think he's clean."

Deck stiffens beside his partner. "What colony was the dead adhene from?"

"Relax, she was from the colony Serenum Terra." Raven responds. "I checked in with Oceanum Ventosa, and all of the adhenes over there are fine."

Deck visibly relaxes, but his expression remains distressed. "Why do you say it like that?"

Raven frowns. "Because I know you care about-."

"-I don't give a shit about Oceanum Ventosa." He replies plainly, his face an emotional mask, as usual. Kenai can't tell if he's angry or sad.

"Why you arrogant asshole! How can you say that? If you're gonna act like a paranoid psycho, at least admit you-!"

Deck cuts her off. "I am neither acting paranoid nor psychotic, Raven. You're delusional."

That does it. His friend fists her hands and yells back "I'm delusional? Are you fucking kidding me, Deck?"

"Hey! Break it up!" Kristofferson gets in the middle of the cat fight.

"Girls, you're both pretty." Elwood jokes.

"What is wrong with you two? What's going on here?" Caul asks.

"Nothing." Deck answers too quickly.

The captain sighs in annoyance. "Look, I don't care what your deal is, you two. Now please let Raven and Caul finish debriefing, and then you all can get back to your drama."

Raven lets it go, obviously not happy about it. She flips her hair and takes a deep breath. "Bottom line is we have the same thing. A masked male reaper selling the stolen soul. It might be a different reaper or the same one, but either way, same person or people working with the female reaper who's doing the killing."