Infernal Affairs Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  About the Author

  MAGIC SLAYS

  RIVER MARKED

  PRAISE FOR THE OSI NOVELS

  Inhuman Resources

  “I love this series with a passion, and Inhuman Resources is definitely my favorite thus far . . . I love the juxtaposition of modern science (verging on the futuristic sometimes) and weird magic.”

  —The Green Man Review

  “A truly enjoyable urban fantasy filled with magic, romance, and crime fighting that pits semihuman Tess Corday against all that goes bump in the night.”

  —Smexy Books

  “For people who like CSI and its ilk, Inhuman Resources is a good urban fantasy version of the forensic genre. And for all the detecting urban fantasy heroines do, it’s fun to read about one who actually is a member of the magical law enforcement.”

  —The Good, The Bad and The Unread

  A Flash of Hex

  “Wonderfully detailed, easily visualized, and overflowing in paranormal crime scene action. The aspect most likely to capture the reader’s attention is the author’s talent in developing charming characters who are passionate in both their professional and personal lives.”

  —Darque Reviews

  “This procedural murder mystery with a biting supernatural edge is enhanced by the interplay of terrific characters. Battis delivers big-time, so make sure to add this series to your must-read pile.”

  —Romantic Times

  “Author Jes Battis has created a credible mix of science and magic, and the book’s strength is its detail-oriented nature.”

  —Sacramento Book Review

  Night Child

  “Hooks you from the very first line.”

  —Keri Arthur, New York Times bestselling author of Mercy Burns

  “A good old-fashioned murder mystery.”

  —ReviewingTheEvidence.com

  “Jes Battis takes the readers on a tension-filled journey of murder, mystery, and temptation . . . An intriguing story line; easy, flowing dialogue; and fascinating characters all combine to keep readers engaged, but it’s the never knowing what’s around the corner that will have readers coming back for more.”

  —Darque Reviews

  “Battis manages to make the world come alive as a workable universe with infinite complexity.”

  —SFRevu

  “[An] absorbing paranormal detective tale . . . The combo of cutting-edge technology and magic highlights a procedural thriller filled with ominous twists. Telling the tale from the point of view of a stubborn, rule-breaking heroine keeps the tension high and the risk palpable.”

  —Romantic Times

  “Compelling new urban fantasy [that] mixes equal parts forensic investigation, modern science, and down-and-dirty magic to create something new and different . . . a great start to a new series.”

  —The Green Man Review

  “Unique.”

  —Night Owl Paranormal

  Ace Books by Jes Battis

  NIGHT CHILD

  A FLASH OF HEX

  INHUMAN RESOURCES

  INFERNAL AFFAIRS

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)

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  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  INFERNAL AFFAIRS

  An Ace Book / published by arrangement with the author

  PRINTING HISTORY

  Ace mass-market edition / June 2011

  Copyright © 2011 by Jes Battis.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-51523-5

  ACE

  Ace Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  ACE and the “A” design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  EPISTLE DEDICATORY

  For Papas

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks to people who have written to me in order to express any opinion at all about the series, from appreciation to ire. It’s amazing and humbling to think that readers are actually interested in my characters and their stories. In particular, I need to thank Bea for being Bea, Medrie and Heather for being awesome, and the Cathedral Village in Regina for being such an inspiring neighborhood. Both Roca Jack’s and the 13th Ave Coffee House conspired to keep me awake in order to finish edits. Buy the Book sold me four issues of The Spectator for twelve dollars, which is neither here nor there, but still, I’m thankful. The Filipino bakery supplied pork buns, and Mercury kept me in burgers and fries. A lovely dinner at the Fainting Goat helped give me the final push I needed to finish this book. Really, my laptop was the star, though. Thank you, chiquito. Where would I be without you?

  1

  I was in the middle of cleaning out my fridge when I heard growling.

  Great. It’s either a pit bull or a hellhound, and my gun is in the bedroom.

  Currently, I was surrounded by pickle jars and other condiments, along with an impressive pile of soy sauce packets that I’d found hiding in the vegetable crisper. Nothing close to a weapon.

  I heard the noise again. It was definitely coming from the living room. Could it be Mia? I wouldn’t put it past her to be moving furniture at three a.m. But it didn’t sound like furniture. It sounded like something with teeth.

  I slip
ped off the pair of latex gloves that I’d been wearing and placed them gently on the counter. The bulb in the fridge needed to be replaced, and it flickered as I closed the door. Now the kitchen was dark.

  I walked slowly down the hallway. The hardwood was cold on my bare feet, but I preferred it to carpet because the wood was more conducive to drawing materia. With each step I tugged a little at the strands of earth energy below me, unsnarling them, convincing them to flow upward into the reservoir that I was building. If I drew too much too fast, I could crack the floorboards, and I didn’t have the money to replace them.

  The growling returned. I didn’t sense anything particularly demonic, but higher-tier demons could cloak their essence. I couldn’t imagine why something that powerful would be here, but if it was, I had about three seconds to act before it vivisected me.

  It seemed unfair, though. I was wearing an old pair of Derrick’s boxers and my UBC sweatshirt. So much for a dignified departure.

  The living room was dark. Nothing but shadows and corners.

  I inched forward. I’d drawn enough materia by now to raise a bit of hell, but I still wasn’t sure what direction to go in. Earthquake? If we survived, the repair bill would bankrupt us. A kinetic wave might knock the creature for a loop, but it would also blow out the windows, and we’d just installed new storm glass. There was only so much I could do without my athame, which I’d left on the nightstand. I really had to stop using it as a bookmark.

  I moved my hand slowly along the wall, searching for the light switch. The growling started again, and my stomach clenched. The earth materia was buzzing in my ears. It was now or never. Time to look death in the face.

  I turned on the light.

  The room was empty. I swallowed. Something invisible? I couldn’t feel anything. Why the hell couldn’t I feel anything?

  I took a step forward. I heard the growling again, this time closer. It seemed to be right next to me, but there was nothing there.

  Don’t freak out. Don’t lose the power that you’ve drawn.

  I took another step, until I was standing next to the coffee table. Silence. Something caught my eye, though. A winking green light. I looked down, and this time the low growl made me jump backward, it was so close.

  I swore.

  My pager was inching across the table.

  I’d left it on vibrate, and it was growling as it moved, inch by inch, about to fall off the edge. The message light blinked green.

  “Christ.”

  I took a moment to let the adrenaline dissipate. Then I released the power that I’d been gathering, and it flowed back into the ground, warming my feet and the tips of my toes as it returned to its source.

  I picked up the pager and looked at the screen, There was a 911 page from Selena Ward, my supervisor and the director of the forensics lab. I was in no mood to answer it, but I didn’t have a choice. Working the night shift meant being perpetually on call, and we were short-staffed. It took so much effort to hide our investigations from the general public that we were always spread thin.

  I walked back down the hallway and ran into Lucian, frozen in the act of putting on his shirt and stifling a yawn. The white lily tattoo on his neck seemed to glow slightly, as always. He handed me my athame, holding it gingerly by the handle, since the blade was hot.

  “This woke me up,” he said. “Then I felt the power that you were drawing. Was the fridge really so messy that you had to attack it with materia?”

  I took the athame, which calmed down as soon as my fingers touched it. I didn’t want to admit to Lucian that I’d nearly exploded my pager.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Fair enough.” He kissed me lightly on the cheek. “Time to go to work?”

  “Looks like it.”

  “I’ll make myself scarce, then.”

  “You don’t have to leave. Just be quiet while I’m on the phone with her, and then you can go back to sleep.”

  “I was dreaming about you.”

  “Oh, yeah? What was I doing?”

  “Building a model airplane. I think. Isn’t that weird?”

  “I never know what’s weird anymore.”

  I passed him and ducked into the bedroom. My cell was on the dresser, and I dialed Selena’s number while struggling into a pair of jeans. She answered before the phone could even ring.

  “What took you so long? I paged you five minutes ago.”

  “My pager was in the other room.” And I thought it was a hellhound. I decided to omit that. “Where do you need me?”

  “Not just you. I need everyone.”

  I heard the door to Derrick’s room open.

  “Okay. Where are we going?”

  “To the lab.”

  I blinked. “Someone died at work?”

  “No. I need you all here for a debriefing. Get here as soon as possible. Do you know where Sedgwick is? I sent him a Teletype instant message.”

  “He’s here.”

  There was a brief silence. Then I could practically sense her wry grin on the other end of the phone. “Fine. Just get everyone down to the lab.” She paused. “That includes Lucian Agrado. If you can reach him at this hour.”

  Lucian was currently standing in the doorway, brushing his teeth. I put a finger to my lips. “Sure. I’ll send him a text. He’s probably still awake.”

  “I’ll bet he is.”

  She hung up.

  It was a matter of debate whether Selena knew about our relationship or not. If she did know, she seemed to have no interest in exposing us. Officially, he and I weren’t supposed to be anything more than “colleagues,” and even that was stretching it.

  Unofficially, we’d been something else for nearly two years. Something largely unclassifiable. I wasn’t sure that I could call it “dating,” although we did see a lot of each other. Sometimes I felt like we were two ciphers trying to solve each other without any measurable success. Last year, he told me that he loved me, but he hadn’t repeated the sentiment since then. We’d been arguing at the time, and I often thought that I’d misheard him. Maybe he’d really said You’re crazy or Get away from me, and I’d merely heard whatever I wanted to hear.

  That was the weird part, though. Of all the things that Lucian might have told me, I love you was never high on my list. I would have preferred to know anything about his past, where he’d been born, what his parents were like, or if Agrado was even his real last name. In retrospect, it was just about the least useful thing that he could have said.

  Not that I wanted him to take it back.

  “Can you hand me a hair elastic?”

  Lucian walked over to where I was standing in front of the full-length mirror. He already had the elastic in his hand. “Here. It was under your athame.”

  “Yeah, that’s where most things end up.” I pulled my hair into something that resembled a lump, purely in order to get it out of my eyes.

  Lucian put his hand on the back of my neck. His touch was cool. I shivered slightly, and paused, one hand raised, the other dangling at my side. I wanted to lean my head back, to settle myself into the crook of his neck. Instead, I turned around.

  “You’re coming with us.”

  “I know. That’s why I was brushing my teeth.”

  “How did you know?”

  He shrugged. “I just did.”

  “I can’t imagine why she needs you there. It’s not like you work for us.”

  “Please. I’m a highly sought-after consultant.”

  “You should be putting out fires in the hidden city.”

  “That’s a job for those closer to Lord Nightingale. I’m only Seventh Solium. Let his favorites deal with whatever crisis is brewing.”

  “You won’t get in trouble?”

  “For what? Spending too much time here?” He put his hands on my shoulders. “Tess, I don’t live in Trinovantum. I just work there. This is my home.”

  The city of Trinovantum was a diurnal melting pot for a number of demons,
exiles, and other marginalized creatures who couldn’t eke out a living (or undying) anywhere else. It was always night there.

  I smiled slightly. “That’s good to know.”

  “Besides. The food is better here.”

  “You don’t miss the black watermelons from the night market?”

  “No. They have a strange aftertaste.”

  Mia walked into my bedroom without knocking. “What’s going on?”

  “Work.”

  She looked at Lucian. “You’re going, too?”

  “So it seems.”

  “What about Derrick and Miles?”

  “Affirmative,” Derrick called from the hallway. “We’ll bring you back something from Timmy’s if you want.”

  “You’d better.” She sighed. “I guess I can study while I’m up.”

  “Have you ever tried just relaxing?” Lucian asked. “I’ve heard it’s amazing. You can just turn on the TV and forget all of your troubles.”

  “I don’t have time for that.”

  “Mia, you’re sixteen.” He spread his hands. “You’ve got nothing but time. Why don’t you try goofing off for once?”

  “I don’t even know what that means.” She walked out of the bedroom. “I’m going to wake Patrick up.”

  “Careful,” I called after her. “He’s all fangs at this hour.”

  “So am I.”

  If someone had told me three years ago that I’d end up taking care of two teenaged vampires—one latent, the other very much active—I would have said they were crazy. But it was amazing what you could adjust to, especially when you didn’t have a choice. I didn’t exactly feel like an occult soccer mom, but I liked to think that I wasn’t a complete failure as a guardian. Derrick provided the unconditional love, and I tried to keep both of them from getting into too much trouble.