catching up (Vincent )

Del had a hangover and a dickens of one. He was a yat for sure ain’t no night can’t be made better without a little do juice. He certainly could use it. He had tracked the outbreak he had chased it like a Tennessee coon hound and yet it could not be found. It seemed to simply appear. He’d rousted the gangs that ran the docks he’d rousted the high and low and yet no one could pinpoint how Dark-Horse came into the town. Yet it was being replenished and he was at a loss for how. The conference was today and while he loved the topic of today’s lecture he knew he wouldn’t be making it. He would be nursing a doozy of a dogs hair.



Luckily even as he was done in he was the topkick and most would never question his seclusion. He breezed in avoiding the shift sergeant’s desk and slinking upstairs via the perp walk. The back stairs from the second floor leading from the detectives desks to the cells in the basement. It was a more circuitous route but well worth it. He didn’t have to hear any messages or get flagged down by a case of mistaken werewolf. The problem with the law was that many nuisance complaints came through claiming that one or another neighbor was a lycanthrope and disturbing the peace. Sadly and luckily most of those calls were in fact hoaxes and just plain out and out nuisances.



He would never tell anyone how many nights he spent with those who could shift forms. He hadn’t pegged what flavor Arnaud was but he knew sure as shit stank that he was a lycanthrope. As he made his way to his office he stopped as his door was open he looked towards the bullpen asking a question with his eyeglass shaded eyes of no one in particular. Turning back he went in with a smile painted on his face he was surprised that here was the one and only Detective Davis. His smile brightened a hair as he closed the distance. Ignoring the handshake he brought her in for a hug and kissed her cheek. Laughing out loud and to himself at the strange peppery scent about her skin.



“Ya look really good Rambo what gets you in to ta see lil ole me?”

Taking his seat behind his desk he kept his glasses on as he rifled through his desk he knew he had a bottle of pain pills in here somewhere. For the life of him he couldn’t find them now to save his life which they very well just might do if the headache that was threatening set in fully.



"That seems about right if you’re talking about this goddamn super drug that makes folks as strong as vampers and as wild as a two year old on a sugar high. Of course not much I can tell you we rounded up as much as we could and tested it to oblivion. Unlike most vamp blood it wasn’t inert and it was mixed through with three different strains of neutered lycanthrope strains. Stuff is grade A high quality work and yet the clockers are able to get their hands on it for a song and a dream. "


Nodding as that about summed it up save the parts where even some lower ranked vampires had proven able to become addicted to it. He thought he’d save that bad news for when he got to the worst of it. They couldn’t track down how it got into the city it didn’t come in through any of the normal channels and as such it was even harder to get a handle on.


Giving up the search he leaned back in his chair cursing his luck and preparing for the hurt.

The ‘Head’s up,’ was more warning than he needed so he waited as the promise of help sailed through the air towards him. He snatched the bottle out of the air with far more speed than he should have. He wasn’t vampire or lycanthrope fast but he was faster naturally than most men on the force. There was a desk jockey in forensics that could give him a run for his money when typing but aside from that it was one of the many reasons he found it hard to stay at his desk and be the good politician the upper brass hoped he would be. That and the fact he’d given the department a black eye upon his release.



The cost of doing business was he was thanked for his actions with a spike in cranial pressure and a sharp lance of pain from the nights liquid refreshments. Today was definitely shaping up to make him as angry as a swamp rat cornered in a cage by a hungry alley cat. Fumbling with the child safe cap he finally got to the pills he so desperately craved. Dry swallowing two he took himself a belt of water from the bottle in his top drawer then took two more. That should buy him a few hours of relief. Which he hoped was enough time to get his self either some hair of the dog or more pills. Either would work though if what Monica was saying the latter would do better. " Monica you are a life saver and a real pal chere."



He know she hated when he got too southern for her so he held back on the euphemisms when she was around. “Giving himself a moment to check the validity of the pills efficacy he went on. “ So tell me where’d ya think the big bad super drug is coming from?” He wouldn’t dare ask her source as they would be a step too far. The only thing cops protected more than each other were their CI’s. Even as she was a guest to city he would never ask that of her. Jealous though he may be considering he’d waited at the airport for the flight she was scheduled to be on only to find that she wasn’t on it nor at the hotel where she was slated to be. It was funny he didn’t like when others went off the reservation even as he was usually so far off book as to be in an entirely different library to most of the other cops.



He’d worked Arnaud last night and found out a few things he couldn’t wait to drop on his team but for now he was all about Monica.

He listened raptly and was horribly depressed by her news.Reno. It was a pit of despair and cast off desert glitz from Las Vegas. The sheer balls of anyone from that neck of woods had to be as large as King Kongs. It had half the reported crime as Las Vegas with one third the population. It was a pit of despair that bred inbreeding, violent crime, and rape. The conference that was held there six years ago was a catered affair of bullet proof vest and tactical ballistics training. The sheer logistics of getting anyone honest into whatever was going on there was all but a lost call. There was no way to keep anyone from going native in that soup of sheer death on a stick. Sighing he met her eye through his glasses. "News like that makes me wish I hadn’t taken anything for my headache. You do know anything breeding out there in that insanity can only be stopped in ways that we as officers sworn to uphold the law would be hard pressed to do anything about. Legally."



Shaking his head at the sheer body count needed to make a dint. Not to mention the jurisdictional nightmare of the mess that was Reno and the preternatural. They still had varmint laws even the preternatural used to kill themselves and their enemies out there. " Come on," He said standing up. “When was the last time you had a good meal. Beautimous will be opening up in a minute or two the lines won’t be too long by the time we get there.”



Driving over to Carrolton would give him time to get the bad taste of what she was saying out of his mouth. Damn. Reno he thought as he checked to make sure he had his keys in his pocket.

“The truth and what everyone thinks is the truth aside gonna be a helluva a thing getting the brass here’s head around things. Not to mention dey don’t like me none."



Most wouldn’t notice his one small pause it being less than a full second but he was sure she caught it. He’d heard from Arnaud that Gates was having a private meeting with the one person that met his standards of a human servant. He’d taken over the Inn on Bourbon and kept it sealed for the last week but Arnaud had reliable intel that last night it was lit like the Eiffel tower and the whole staff was in attendance even if they couldn’t remember what took place. He hoped the rumors of her going over to the dark side and getting too close to the perps on their beat were false. He continued their walk to his car in silence staying in lockstep with her. "This ain’t no good food its great Yat food and you ain’t had nothing like it I swear."



He knew she was staring he hoped it was just her usual staring where she seemed to be looking into someone’s very soul. It was unnerving only when one wasn’t accustomed to being seen as different. Though in his estimation she saw everyone differently he’d watched her stare into the speaker a few years ago a Fae teacher of tactics and been nowhere near surprised as anyone when he turned out to be only partially Fae and an outcast from their courts. He didn’t begrudge her her insights and in fact came to appreciate people like her who could see things that most could not.



“I’d love to you tell me something that don’t make me dread tomorrow and the weeks after."

He took her revelations in strie starting the car until she asked the one question he’d dreaded she’d ask. Throwing his car in park he sighed tensed and relaxed twice before answering. He turned in his seat looking her in the eye. His dark glasses obstructing her view he paused removing his glasses so she could get the true view of him. He looked her over smiling to soften his glass removal.



He cautioned himself to speak directly and not let too much emotion into his voice. " Two things one the lion lycanthrope is a big thing here. For some reason we have more lions than anywhere in these parts. Keeping an eye on them is second in headache strength to trying to keep track of the wolf lycanthropes. It’s a mess we never get a hold of whats going on with them until its already happened. The last thing we got our hands on was a chronic indecency violator who screamed something about one of the comfort house owners. That coalition ain’t no small thing in these parts. Second you don’t wanna know whats happened in the years we been apart. Seems I got the lycanthrope bug but nobody can tell me what type and I don’t shift. Its always been there it seems either that or I got something goin on with my family go along way back. Its why I get a chance to play with screwing the pooch as often as I do. It’s a sore subject as I get shit constantly from the brass and even some of the troops about. I hate what I gotta put up with but I take it because I won’t let no one break me."



Realizing he was showing too much and giving too many ways he could be played should she choose he started the car and smiled. “Course last night I was chasing a lead and ran into a liquid wall.”

She raised a few good points and she even made head way against his built up steam enough he knew he would be wrong really venting. Hungover or not there was no reason "You are a hero on several fronts there’s even a fan page dedicated to you." His face was lit up like a Christmas tree as he realized she didn’t know just how much she was touted out as the poster child for the no nonsense in your face righteous New York Police Department. There of course were trolls who targeted her but as no one made reference to her status as a RPIT detective she was more or less an internet celebrity.



Shed gotten looks and most of them dirty and comments galore, so she could for sure understand "That’s the thought. Has been for a while but there’s no reason to prove that Estelle is a lycanthrope. If we do prove she is a lycanthrope everything she does would put her on a kill list." He knew she would be perhaps appalled at southern justice but it was what it was. It was why the brass had the cockamamie idea to enlist some of Gates vampires as agents pro-tem.



The thought foolish though it was, was to have the vampires and Gates by extension help to run the drug out of the city. He knew that nothing short of Armageddon would force that man to change his mind and actually give a damn. As far as he was concerned it was a shit of an idea but what he was piecing together from having talked to the man was something else it was just there out of reach but he knew it was there. He’d crack the nut of it in time he hoped.