Instead of just hacking the two weres to pieces and feeding the rats in the sewers, I called the number Johnny Nivo had given me to arranged the pickup. Owing your life to the Chicago mob wouldn’t be fun for them if they lived. The one I had shot twice in the head would most likely die soon. But this favor balanced my account with the Outfit somewhat. Not that it came close to settling the score. But it made me look like someone to be reckoned with.

  Johnny Nivo had not seemed that surprised at me surviving. It was obvious that someone was giving him information. Probably the Outcasts. It didn’t make much difference, because I couldn’t really keep me being a...were a secret. But it did add to my already less than sunny disposition.

  Four people were dead because of me, and it felt like I had crossed more than one line this time. I had become a killer. I didn’t like it, not because what I had done felt wrong, but because it had felt good.

  I guess that dying came as easy in this new world that I had become a part of as it was in the criminal world. Aggression, dominance, hierarchy seemed to be more instinctive and harder to ignore than in the real world.

  The real world was far, far away. Here, everything was a nightmare and I was chasing things living in that nightmare.

  At least I had gotten some new information and perhaps a way to make them pay for what they had done. I knew a little more than I had before, but I was so on the outside of the - what had Gemini called them, or us, again? the Cursed? - and this was a hard club to get in. They were paranoid to begin with and nothing I had done could have changed that to the better.

  I was getting really tired of my dark mood swings. Oh, look at me, I’m so angry! I am death – no, I’m death, bath, and beyond! I was such a downer.

  Maybe Johnny Nivo would get something out of the weres I dumped in his lap. If so, I would hear from Mr. Nivo again. I really wasn’t doing the weres a favor, keeping them alive. Because a debt to the mob was always expensive and often came with a price you would rather not pay. I was sure it would apply to supes as well, now that I knew there were supernaturals running with the syndicates.

  A couple of blocks from home, just when I thought I was about to get me a good day’s sleep, Wilson’s car braked in front of me and blocked my way.

  Oh, goody...like that would cheer me up.

  “I want to talk to you, Maria!” Wilson barked. “You’ve been giving us the slip for hours. You’re coming downtown!”

  “Do you want my lawyer’s card again, Wilson?” No need to let him know that I was really annoyed with him right now. “I have another in my wallet. And do get me a solitary cell, until he shows up. I need to catch up on my sleep.”

  Wilson’s eyes seemed to bulge out of his skull. “We're trying to solve the murder of your friend, Maria! Perhaps you don’t care? Not much of a friend, eh?”

  I rounded on Wilson, staring at him. “Don’t bring up Tony’s death with me, or this is the last time I talk to you!” It took everything I had not to growl at himHe was getting on my last nerve with his accusations. I had nothing to say to him, and I sure as hell didn’t need to listen to his bullshit!

  But Wilson being Wilson, he just continued. “I bet you got your ‘friend’ killed, and now – “

  “We. Are. Done!”

  I bit out the words one by one because I wasn’t sure I could get them out without growling. I saw that Wilson understood that he had crossed THE line with me. No matter what, Wilson would not have believed me a danger to him, but right then I was so close to killing the bastard. Instead, I turned around without a word and stepped into the car.

  Wilson wouldn’t get anything more out of me – not a word! He had crossed the line and gone from annoying to a place on my shit-list.

  Again, the anger rose like molten lava inside med, threatening to drive me over the edge. I knew he just itched to have me brought up on charges. Assault or resisting arrest would do nicely for him. It was possible that he thought that locking me up would protect me. And since he was the kind of person who would do what he thought was right no matter what, he could live with me hating him.

  That’s what he thought.

  But this was the last straw for me. I wasn’t sure I could forgive him for trying to play me like that. It didn’t matter that he was a cop trying to solve a case. It didn’t matter that he was doing what he was trained to do – I hated him for being right! But him being right was no excuse for acting like he did. Not in my book.

  Wilson knew I was holding back. He even suspected that I knew the identity of the killers, and he sure as hell was not going to let me off easy. If this had been your normal murder, I might have given Wilson some clue. But this wasn't normal. Werewolves, shifters, vampires, ghouls, even psychics – nothing about this was normal. And Wilson would be dead before he could raise his gun. While I felt like I wanted to kill him, I did not want him dead.

  It was hard to hold back the change with so much anger, but I did it. Just the tiniest hint of claws extended, for a few seconds, only to retract and disappear as I calmed down.

  I can be an obstinate bitch if pushed far enough. I pride myself on being logical and calm in my profession, but I still have feelings. I can take almost any provocation and turn it into an advantage for me – if it is when I’m working. The difference was that this was not work, this was my life we’re talking about! It was my friends that were in danger, not only because of me, but in part because of me.

  I can usually separate a person from what they are saying, but there are some things that make my bad side come out. And Wilson had brought out the worst of me with his comment.

  I had Wilson pegged for a guy being a cop because it was his calling, but I thought he could read people better than that. And I thought that he would do things the right way. Okay, I was one of the few leads he had, and provoking suspects or involved persons is a part of a Detective’s job, but it still made me mad as hell that he tried to do it to me.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  I know the real world isn’t that clear cut and certain, but I do not give a shit. I like being naive; it makes the world a nicer place to live in. In some ways it makes it easier to live even if you know it is all a lie. I also knew that had lost most of my naivety, but damn if I was going to lose it all.

  Not even looking at Wilson, I stepped into the back seat, sat down and closed my eyes.

  Sometimes it is easy to tune things out and sometimes it is not. This time it was easy. Perhaps I was more tired than thought. I just shut everything out and let my mind roam.

  Wilson tried to talk to me, tried to get me to answer anything, but I didn’t even look at him. There would be very few words between us from now on.

  Chicago was turning out to be a very bad city for me to live in. Supes all around, the mob, hitmen, and trigger-happy amateurs on-top of the kidnap-murder case made Chicago very tense place. Something told me it would only get worse, and not necessarily better afterwards.

  I had to admit that Tony’s murder wasn’t that dissimilar from the kidnap-murder case that they called the KM case. Not enough to be definitely the same group, but there were more that a few points that was similar. One big similarity was extreme violence and another was the dismemberment and mutilation of the bodies. But other than that, there were nothing alike. Tony did not fit the victim profile, it was the wrong type of neighborhood, it wasn’t a family, there were no parts missing from Tony, and no items had been stolen. And the last important fact; Tony was murdered because of me. There was no getting around that fact.

  Even if the murders were connected, revenge came first and justice came second. I just couldn’t let Tony’s murder slip for justice – not matter whose justice. My oath burned inside my mind. I had already crossed lines I never thought I would cross. So a couple of more souls to curse me to hell wouldn’t make a difference.

  Wilson processed me in no time and had me sitting in a cell before I could say “Police harassment.” I think he thought I would freak out sitting in a cell. I didn’t, but I needed to get out fast, because too many bad things could happen when in police custody.

  I had noticed several scents on my way to the cell that didn’t fit the human profile, so to speak. But so far nothing that smelled of werewolves. There was some other Breed out there, but no werewolves and no cats. Whatever they were, they would probably be after my blood as well. I couldn’t afford to spend too much time in hold-up and if anyone could get me out fast it was Peter Criss.

  Peter Criss was THE mob lawyer. The one that got could get almost anyone a get-out-of-jail- free card, unless they were caught red-handed or stupid as fuck. And sometimes even then. He was infamous among law enforcement officers, DA:s, and prosecutors. Needless to say, he wasn’t on their Christmas card list.

  There had been several very public arrests of Capos and Capo Bastones in Chicago the previous year and Peter Criss had gotten them all off. Without exception. The journalists were having a field day with the law enforcement fuckup. Several heads in the DA’s office had rolled and other bootlickers were installed itching to get a shot at closing down the mob in Chicago. It would fail like it always did. Mostly because they didn’t understand the mafia.

  After several hours a very nice looking lawyer stepped into my cell. A brunette with blue eyes, nice pin-striped suit, elegant makeup, and definitely not human. Very nice looking and very deadly.

  “Mr. Criss is talking to Detective Wilson at the moment. I need to know exactly what happened!” There was steel in that voice.

  I nodded. “Is this cell secure enough?”

  “They won’t pick up a thing.” She said confidently.

  I shrugged. “Okay. After two very public, very amateurish attempts on my life ,Wilson have been trying to get me either arrested or in protected custody by constantly hounding me, thinking I’ll crack and give him something. That I could handle, but after Tony’s murder, which unfortunately have some similarities to the big Kidnap-Murder case here, he’s gone obsessive on my ass.”

  She nodded slowly. “And you?”

  “Me, I have a problem with the police.” I said in a cold voice.

  “Not what I meant.” She said matching my tone.

  “None of your business.”

  She shook her head. “But it is.”

  “If I won’t talk to Gemini or Dominic, you think I’d talk to you?”

  “What have the Outsiders to do with this?” It came out with a snap.

  “Nothing more than that our goals seem to be the same at the moment.” I glanced at her trying to figure out what she was. “But nothing that you need to know.”

  “It is a very bad time for rouges in Chicago right now. You could say lethal.” There was no emotion in her voice, and she flashed her power trying to intimidate me.

  I just raised an eyebrow. So far only Nahanha had really scared me. “You interfere and I will kill you!” My voice was anything but emotionless.

  She cocked her head and looked at me in that way that so many supes seem to do when they were disturbed in some way.

  Something bugged me about her stare. Her eyes seemed empty. There was something dead about her eyes. She was walking and talking, but there was something not-living about her. She smelled cold and metallic, but she didn’t smell dead dead. But somehow, I was sure that she wasn’t really alive. I suppressed a shudder as I understood that whatever was in front of me was dead. A walking talking dead person. I also realized that it would be a sign of weakness if I showed how much it disturbed me. I suppressed my scent as much as I was able.

  “You think you can take me?” she asked in that same flat voice.

  “I know I can take you. But that doesn’t matter, because if I don’t get out of here there will be a war. The Outsiders can’t let this slide, and the Syndicates can’t let a war or a manhunt get out of hand, and if the syndicates act, the supes will blow up. The same if the Outsiders act. So right now, I’m the only one who can do anything, because I’m the target of both sides. I’m the only one free to act. You might think that the Syndicates are only human, but you know they have resources to make it really nasty for anyone involved. If war breaks out – no one will hold back. So, either you get me out of here or you’re SOL.”

  “That’s not enough!”

  “I thought everyone knew by now.” I shook my head. “But you can go listen to the grapevine because I'm sick and tired of trying to explain. You’re all a bunch of whiners. Blah blah blah...’we want to know everything.’ ‘we don’t trust unknowns.’ Well boohoo, tough fucking luck. I’m not associated with anyone, and I won’t change that for the world. Unless you have a psychic stuffed in your pocket, that’s life – deal with it!”

  “Our Oracles can’t see everything.” She muttered.

  That shut me up. I was just baiting her to get past the whole whiny bit and it had given me another piece of information. And one I did not have to pay for.

  “Anyway, Mr Criss told me to tell you that he should have you out of here in as fast as he can, but the department can make sure it goes slowly.” She stood up fast, but it still looked a bit jerky. “Anything you want me to tell Mr Criss?”

  “Yeah, file a complaint at Wilson and his two dogs. Harassment, or whatever...just keep them away from me for as long as you can.”

  “They will assign others.” Her voice was starting to grate on my nerves. “Especially if you press charges.”

  “Yeah, but it seems that it’s only Wilson that really have the knack of finding me no matter what I do. So just do it, please.”

  She knocked on the door to alert the guards outside. “It might backfire.”

  “I don’t care.” I told her.

  “Don’t expose us to the humans. It will get you killed!”

  “I’m probably dead anyway, so screw you.” I said with almost no emotion. “I don’t care which side you’re on, but right now I’m the only thing that can stop a war from breaking out” I was milking this as much as possible. I would use whatever gave me an advantage.

  “You’ll probably be released in a couple of hours. Having Mr Criss as your lawyer will probably increase their interest in you, so you will be under surveillance for some time.” Her eyes were still empty, and her voice was cold as ice.

  I sighed. I already knew that. “Well, sometimes it can’t be helped. And the heat was picking up anyway. Please, make sure that any further contacts from CPD or the DA, or any other acronym for that matter, go through your office.”

  She nodded. “Of course.”

  An hour later I was stepping out the door waving a goodbye to Wilson with a cheerful smile. He got so angry, I think he got cross-eyed. I had never seen that color on anybody’s face before.