"Hello, scum."
Loch barely kept himself from throwing his hot chocolate in the naiad woman's face. "Hello, scummette. Can we speak in private?" He tried to appear sincere, but it had no effect on Lola's demeanor. As much as he did not care whether she hated him, he knew her hatred burned Skye's heart. "Please?" The word made it out of his mouth as a whisper, whistling through his clenched teeth.
The sight of his discomfort brought joy to her hateful face. "Alright. Come upstairs. Try to keep up." She motioned for the lycanthrope to replace her behind the front counter and led the way to the apartment staircase. Unfortunately, Loch did have to try in order to keep up with her much longer strides, but he aided his breathing with a touch of magic to keep her from having the satisfaction of seeing him out of breath.
Once they reached the apartment above the café, Lola turned to face him with a glare. "If this has anything to do with those online conspiracy theories, do tell. I'm listening."
"I – what? What online conspiracy theories?" This conversation was going in a different direction than he had expected.
"Ever since you hit the news for surviving one of the time-stopping attacks, conspiracy theorists have been ranting about how you're some immortal from the sixties. There's an actor that looks like you, but with dark brown eyes and hair." Her tone of voice indicated that she did not believe the theory, but her eyes fixed on his face suspiciously. At least it would serve as a good segue to his confession.
"Right. I didn't know about that, but it does relate to what I was going to talk to you about. I'm a warlock. Skye knows and you know, but that's it and it needs to stay that way." Vivian the murderess knew as well, but that was a topic he was not going to breach with this particular naiad. Loch found himself wringing his hands and quickly shifted them to cross his arms. He could not afford to look nervous. If Lola thought she had the upper hand, she would never stop taunting him. He missed the times when everyone feared him, though he had only begun hibernating because those times had grown boring.
Surprisingly, she did not respond with a glare. "What's your ability?" Perhaps she would be nicer now that she knew he was not human.
"Everything. I'm one of the ancients." Loch hated calling himself ancient. It brought to mind the image of a decrepit old man.
The glare returned just as quickly as it had vanished. "So that would make Skye one among many. Is he just a toy for you? A temporary boyfriend that you're just going to toss away when you get bored?" He had never met someone as protective as her. Skye must have had a lot of bad boyfriends.
"Relax. I've never dated anyone before. Does Trinity know about the conspiracy theories?"
"You've never dated anyone before?" She did not believe him. Wonderful; now he would have to be self-deprecating.
"I don't exactly have a sparkling personality. And I'm lazy. Relationships take effort. Can you please answer my question? Does Trinity know about the conspiracy theories?"
The naiad stared at him, her grey eyes searching his face for a hint of a lie. "Alright. Fine. Trinity doesn't know about the conspiracy theories. She asked me if I had noticed anything inhuman about you after your accident with the demon, and I said no. Not for your sake, but for Skye's. When he keeps a secret, I keep it too. So I'll keep yours." It felt like a weight had been lifted from his back. Loch let out a sigh of relief. "But, you have to put a shielding spell on me."
"What? Why?"
"There's a war on."
He tried to remember everything he had overheard in the last few months, but he only remembered an Other mentioning a war once. "With who?"
"Almost every member of the draconem species and some demons they convinced to fight with them." That was news to him. It explained Vivian's anger towards the Others, though she was technically only partially draconem. "So you'll shield me? And Skye, though he's avoiding the front lines."
"Yeah, sure. Are you fighting the Hancocks, too?" If he was going to have to get along with her, he might as well take advantage of it to gain information.
"The what?"
"The Hancocks. The humans that are hunting Others. Skye knew about them." He had not expected her to know less than her brother. Perhaps Skye was more important to the Others than he had assumed.
"We didn't know they had a name." Her eyes narrowed. "How long have you known about the hunters?"
"I know just as much as you do." Loch began to back away. Holding this conversation any longer would only make things worse. "I have to go." He turned and fled down the staircase. If he was lucky, the war would knock her out of existence, but with the shielding spell he had put on her she could survive a meteor strike.
Skye waited for him by the front door, an ecstatic grin spread across his face. "You told her?"
"Yes. And I'm never speaking to her again." Loch wrapped his coat tighter around himself and stormed down the street. If she had been anyone besides Skye's sister, he would have buried her in the ocean by now, or at least hit her with a personality changer.
"Good luck avoiding her. It's impossible, trust me. So back to the battle plan. Are we going to become Hancocks or what?" He practically skipped with excitement as he walked beside Loch.
"Yes, we are. But you need to keep your mouth shut and let me do the talking. You're a terrible liar. There's nothing wrong with that; it simply isn't helpful when going undercover." Loch glanced at his phone, where he had a GPS app open. It was his favorite part of the modern era; he no longer had to spend hours trying to find places without an address. All he had had to do was look up the organization on the internet and find the address of their local base on their website. It was as if they did not realize that Others could search the internet, too.
"I'll be quiet, I promise. And I can lie to strangers, especially when they're hunting my species." That was doubtful, but they would see the extent of Skye's lying abilities soon enough.
Loch stopped when they reached the office building. Although it was not as well-maintained as the buildings around it, the building blended in perfectly with its surroundings. It was old, like many of the outer-city buildings, but the darkly tinted windows hinted at something more unusual waiting within. He glanced at Skye, hoping to see enough fear in him to give up on the venture, but Skye showed only excitement.
He stepped through the doorway, and found himself immediately surrounded. Beeps and lights bombarded him from every direction, but Skye was behind him so he had nowhere to go but forward. As soon as he emerged from the overwhelming tunnel of light and noise, he realized it was nothing more than a row of machinery. Skye followed him slowly, smiling at the clamor around him.
"That's a precaution to check for demons." The whitest of all white people approached them from a desk situated at the other end of the room. It was strange how they could be so pale without a touch of albinism in their blood. "It would have made much more noise if you had been. Welcome to Hancock Enterprises." He held out his hand for Loch to shake.
A few seconds passed before Skye reached forward and shook it for him. Loch did not want to touch the scum that hunted his species. Unexpectedly, Skye spoke first. "It's a pleasure to meet a representative. We've only heard about this... movement from half-friends so far. I'm Duke, this is Wade." He leaned forward conspiratorially and lowered his voice. "He's a bit of a hypochondriac, so don't mind his dislike of handshakes."
Loch was surprised at how smoothly Skye could lie. Perhaps his apprehension really did only apply to family matters. Either way, the human bought it. "Oh, it's fine. I have an aunt down south who's the same way. So are you interested in joining the ranks, or do you just want to learn more about the demons among us?"
"Would both be alright?" Skye smiled, his sharp teeth sparkling. It was fortunate that Loch had increased the shadows surrounding him.
"Of course, of course. Come right this way." The blonde led them to his marble-topped desk and handed them two clipboards and pens. "You'll need to fill these out for our files. Just the highlighted sections – the rest you can fill out after you decide to join. Some people believe in the concept, but balk when they see the creatures themselves, so don't get ahead of yourself and commit to it already." His words were well-worn, as if he had said them many times before. The company had to be growing quickly; they could be more difficult to destroy than Loch had anticipated.
Their escort retreated to his desk while they sat in the lobby chairs to fill out the paperwork. Loch turned to Skye and made a face. "Wade and Duke? Really? We sound like a couple of city cops."
Skye shrugged with a grin and carefully wrote his human character's name at the top of the form. 'Duke Keli'i'. His handwriting was wide and loopy. He whispered so the receptionist could not hear, "Your last name should be Keli'i too, and we could say we're married." He must have seen the horror on Loch's face. "Relax, it's just so they don't split us up into separate jobs." Unfortunately, he made a good point.
"Sure. Wade Keli'i. Is that your last name?"
"Nah, mine's Nalani. Keli'i was my father's old last name." Right, the naiads took their mother's surname. Loch filled out the form as unsuspiciously as he could, stopping to confer again to decide upon an age for the two of them. He finished early in order to adjust government records to show their information.
"Alright. If they ask, we met in grad school at University of Washington. You grew up in the city, I grew up in Spain. I adjusted the records if they look us up." Skye continued to grin insufferably.
The receptionist collected the clipboards and papers from them, then pointed them towards the elevator where a tall woman had appeared. She looked much less eager to see them, but a false smile lit her face as soon as they approached.
"Hello! My name is June and I'll be giving you a tour of the building. We have several facilities, but this one is the biggest and the best." She led them into the hospital-sized elevator and pressed the basement button. "I always show the most interesting part first."
Loch watched the numbers count down as Skye spoke. "I'm Duke, and this is my husband, Wade. We're very excited to join the company." He was getting far too much joy out of this.
"I'm sure you are." June stepped out of the elevator before the doors finished opening. She had done this many times before, just like the receptionist.
The basement did not contain parking spaces like most city buildings. Instead, there were rows upon rows of transparent boxes, each containing living cargo. Loch quickly sent a rapid message to the inhabitants of each: 'Do not react if you recognize us.' He had created a spell to hide himself from any Other old enough to recognize him long ago, but Skye had no such protection.
"These are the best specimens we have captured so far." June removed three sets of technology-laden goggles from the wall by the elevator. "They may look human to you, but with these goggles you can see their true forms."
Though they did not need them, Loch and Skye put on the goggles. They walked along the rows as June spoke. Each row contained a different species; five naiads in a row, then an assortment of dryads, then the warlocks, and on it went. Each had a thin cot to sleep on, a pair of grey pajamas to wear, and a set of machinery attached to the veins of each arm.
"This group is fresh, since we upgraded the goggles just recently. You will notice that we separated the demons by category. Most of them were extremely vicious at first, but at the moment they still have sedatives in their system." Loch did not see anyone he recognized, though most of the Others he could recognize were too powerful to be caught. With the current technology, at least. Skye's twitching mouth, however, implied he recognized plenty.
It was his time to speak. "What are they hooked up to? More sedatives?"
"Great question!" June stopped in front of one of the warlocks, a girl with two-foot horns protruding from her forehead and solid black eyes. Loch had seen many warlocks with the same features; horns were common among the weaker warlocks, though he could not guess why. June continued to speak, pointing at the glaring caged warlock as she did. "Some of them have more sedatives, but some have experimental drugs. Our top scientists have identified where their genetic code differs from ours, so we are attempting to suppress their less civilized traits. If we find something that succeeds, we could completely eradicate the problem. Then the murders will disappear, and everything will be perfectly human again."
"And how do you know these creatures are the murderers?" Loch fluttered his fingers behind his back and the tubes detached from each victim. A new layer of shadowing hid the new development from human sight, and a muffler kept June from hearing the cages click open. 'Do not escape until night.' He could aid their escape from afar once he had returned home.
June smiled. "What else but demons could kill without anyone seeing?"
"That's true. It would be a mess to prove to the government, though." June led them back to the elevator, hanging their goggles back up on the wall.
"Oh, we have lawyers working that out. Right now, however, we have to work on catching all of them, or at least making the public aware of the danger around them." She pressed the button for the tenth floor. "We're heading to the research labs, now. Do either of you have any research experience?"
With the caged Others out of sight, Skye regained his voice. "No. We're more interested in field work if you have any available."
"We can always use more help." Jane smiled as the elevator door opened again. She placed her hand on the shoulder of a woman wearing a white lab coat. "This is Dixie, our chief scientist."
Dixie turned, and Loch finally saw a familiar face. This vampire had much better shielding than her companions in the basement.