TAYRA

WOULD YOU LOVE A MONSTER GIRL?

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 CEBELIUS

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 CONTENTS

1. Tayra
2. Tony
3. Tayra
4. Tayra
5. Tony
6. Tayra
7. Grace
8. Tony
9. Tayra
10. Tony
11. Tayra
12. Tony
13. Tayra
14. Tony
15. Tayra
16. Tony
17. Tayra
18. Tony
19. Tayra
20. Tayra
21. Tony
22. Kristine
23. Tayra
24. Tony
25. Tayra
26. Tony
27. Tony
28. Tayra
29. Tony
30. Tayra
31. Tony
32. Tayra
33. Tony
34. Tayra
35. Tony
36. Tayra
37. Tony
38. Tayra
39. Tony
40. Tayra
41. Tony
42. Tayra
43. Laura
44. Tony

Afterword

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 1

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 TAYRA

T he rain was coming down in Oolytau.

Not light rain either. It was a hard, relentless rain that hammered on the
pavement, the awnings, the piled up garbage. On everything and everyone
with all the rage and frustration of a crying child unwilling to accept solace.
It was raining in all the subcities of Daytau, but the rain in Oolytau was
different, just as the character of the subcity itself was different.
Even the hard rain in Daytau proper wasn't so bad. Daytau had clean,
broad, well-maintained streets.
Oolytau did not.
A ball of amorphous sludge wobbled by to fall into one of the drainages
with an all but inaudible slurp. There was no telling what it had been, what
made it up. It didn't matter and no one would miss it. It simply vanished,
like so much else. Oolytau was the poorest of Daytau's subcities and was a
brutal place rife with opportunity and danger. For some it was a beginning.
For many more it was the end.
Summer was over and the heat was fading, but enough lingered to make
it a humid rain despite the fact that the sun had set an hour ago.
When the rain stopped the streets would steam and the whole city would
stink like nothing else on Earth, but right now there was no smell. During a
hard rain was the only time Oolytau didn't stink ... but it was always worse
afterward.
Tayra walked down the sidewalk with her hands shoved deep into her
overcoat pockets to keep it pulled closed. Likewise, she kept her wings
cocked above her head to keep off the worst of the rain. It mostly worked,
but there was always a trickle of water that slipped down the middle and
dripped straight onto the back of her neck. She could feel it, but her feathers
caught and directed the flow to her coat where it slid down and away.
A car sped past and she stopped just behind a wave of water that
sprayed up to cover everything for ten feet in front of her. It gave her time
to scan around.
Most of the lights on under the awnings were red, and most of the
people idling there were pimps, dealers, johns, and junkies. Smoke drifted,
clinging in stubborn clouds before gusting wind funneled down narrow,
claustrophobic streets and cluttered alleys tore them to shreds.
Here and there she saw someone whose coat was a little too nice, or
someone who hadn't given up on being soaked and was fighting with an
umbrella.
No one who lived in Oolytau owned an umbrella.
She started walking again, passed an entry to a club and felt the thrum
of bass for a few seconds before the rain washed it out.
Eyes found and followed her as she passed, but no one said anything.
No one ever did, whether it was raining or not.
She was used to that.
Tayra walked another few blocks. As she approached her building the
red lights gave way to white and became increasingly intermittent. Many of
them buzzed audibly, but with the pouring rain she couldn't hear that. She
simply knew it was so because she'd walked this route many times.
Apartment high-rises flanked the street here and cars were parked in two
solid lines on either side. Most of them were old, but there were a few
flashy rides. Not everyone who lived in Oolytau was broke, and those with
money were quick to prove it to anyone who cared to look.
Tayra passed one with a window cracked and a practically solid wave of
smoke rolling out to be shredded in the rain along with some weird staccato
noise she was sure someone would have called music.
She couldn't make out the figures inside through the roiling cloud and
didn't try. Instead, she took the cracked concrete stairs two at a time with a
heavy, even tread and pressed through a glass door with a long line of duct
tape across the face that squealed against cheap green-and-white tiles
already grooved and scuffed by a door that hadn't been fixed in years.
A bank of metal boxes set in the wall to her left got a bare glance from
her before she passed them by. She wasn't expecting mail and if she had,
she wouldn't have it delivered here.
She also passed an open elevator on the right with a sign on a cone that
said 'Out of Service.' It'd been there for at least a month, but even when the
elevator wasn't broken she didn't use it. Virtually everything in the building
was falling apart and Tayra wasn't comfortable in tight spaces. She wasn't
afraid of tight spaces, she just didn't like them.
There wasn't much she was actually afraid of. Fear didn't really come
naturally to her kind, and the lack of it had gotten her in trouble more than
once.
She reached for and yanked open the heavy metal door to the stairwell.
It required a good tug to get open because the jam was warped. The hinges
protested rather loudly, but she ignored them and started up, not bothering
to close the door behind her. The only time the door was closed was when
someone wanted to do a deal of some kind and needed the warning.
Chances were the deed was done and the people who did it were long gone.
As she ascended the stairs, she wondered if she'd run into a body. She
couldn't smell anything, but then, that was no guarantee.
Not in this town.
She pulled her phone from her pocket, turned on the record function as
she'd been taught, then slipped it into a strap on the front of her coat. The
back of the phone was the same color as the coat, and while that didn't hide
it, it did make it less noticeable.
Thirty stories of nothing, but she stopped when she reached the landing
just under roof access and watched impassively as a pair of men turned to
face her.
Both were human. One had a head like a concrete block with eyes and
was powerfully built, wearing a colorful silk button-down open over an A-
frame undershirt and leather pants. The other man was slim and dressed in
cyberware — augmented clothing. When turned off it was skintight and
skin-colored, but his was projecting a neatly tailored suit that literally
glowed on his body. His hair was black, slicked back, and Tayra knew them
both.
"Oh, FINALLY someone comes up!" the man in cyberware said,
smiling an oily smile as he looked down. "Rent's due. Me an' Rod are here t'
collect."
"If anyone past that door owed you rent, Mr. Marco, you'd have the
key," Tayra said quietly, her voice low and even.
 The man made a show of checking his illusory pockets then spread
hands that glittered with rings on every finger — including thumbs — as he
said, "Wouldn't you know it, key's in my other pants. But we came all the
way up here. I figured, 'why not just wait for one of the residents to come
let us in?'"
"That'll be a long wait," Tayra said quietly, then turned to walk back
down the stairs as she added, "I'll let anyone else I see know you're here. If
they feel like paying rent tonight, I'm sure they'll come on up."
The man snapped his fingers and pointed. 'Rod' leapt easily down the
last flight of stairs to land next to Tayra, who turned to face him as he
straightened, a gun in his hand.
She was six feet tall, but he was taller by at least three inches. For a
human he was a truly formidable specimen, but even with his greater
height, she easily out-bulked him. The gun, however, made their relative
physical strength a moot point.
Or so Rod believed.
"You know the rules," Marco said with a broad smile. "A non-human
gets involved, they go down. You'll let us in, or you can cool to room temp
right there."
Tayra's eyes lowered slowly to the gun aimed at her middle, then up to
gauge the look into Rod's eyes. The man was smiling, relaxed. This wasn't
the first time he and Marco had been sent to shake down the non-humans in
the building. Everyone knew the drill, and he wasn't expecting trouble.
He had no idea.
She swept a taloned right hand across her body, knocking the gun to one
side as she rolled her right shoulder forward with the move. Her wing-
knuckle slashed down and caught Rod squarely on the temple as his gun
discharged. He collapsed to his knees and hung from his arm for the
moment it took Tayra to carefully pull the weapon from nerveless fingers
before stepping over the body as she let it collapse.
Marco's eyes showed whites all around as he said, "What do you think
you're doing!? You'll be charged! Arrested! Non-humans can't attack
humans in this city!"
She didn't say anything until she reached the landing, then turned
toward Marco, looking at him for a long moment before she quietly said,
"Pull out your phone, Mr. Marco. Make the call. Put them on blast ... I'll
wait."
 Fool that he was, he actually did it, and Tayra watched him like a hawk.
She wasn't pointing Rod's gun at him. She didn't need to. The gloves were
off, and they both knew it.
"Five one one what is your emergency?" came the voice through the
speaker.
As she heard it, Tayra held one talon up in front of her beak in a gesture
Marco obviously recognized because he remained silent, eyes wide with
fear and apprehension. She said, "This is Officer Tayra Manes, badge
number six one six, Oolytau Non-Human Investigative Corps. The man
calling has been caught in the commission of attempted robbery and is a
known extortionist. He has an associate that will require medical care after
discharging a firearm during an attempted murder at this location. Aerial
transport will be required as the elevator is out of service and the
unconscious man is on the landing of the top floor stairwell. Please access
my phone for the relevant video record. It is still active and recording."
There was a momentary silence, followed by the dispatcher, who said,
"Officer Manes, I have confirmed your identity and have access to your
feed. It will be submitted for review. An armed medivac will be dispatched
from Yakut Hospital. Continue recording until medivac is complete. Do you
require additional assistance?"
"No. That'll be all. Thank you."
"Stay safe, Officer Manes."
The call disconnected. Throughout its duration, Tayra never looked
away from Marco. She didn't even blink as she lowered her finger from in
front of her beak.
"But ... how?" Marco asked. "Everyone knows the Nick is humans only,
and when did you become a cop?"
"You should watch the news more often, Marco. As for me ... I've been
attending the academy for the last three months. I got my permanent
assignment today."
She didn't smile. She couldn't. She doubted Marco recognized the slight
ruffling of her feathers for the satisfied expression that it was. Humans were
always unnerved when they talked to her because her face was dominated
by her beak. Even most non-humans had a hard time reading her moods.
The only people who tended to read her well had birds as pets, which was
vaguely insulting.
 She waited with him for almost thirty minutes before her phone gave a
cute chirp, a message notification she knew signaled the approaching
medivac.
She very deliberately reached out, gently wrapped her taloned fingers
around Marco's throat, and pressed him to the wall. She shifted her thumb
up, and her talon was just long enough to prick the skin next to his eye. She
shifted his head deliberately away as — with her other hand — she pulled
her wallet out and held it near the door sensor, then entered a brief six-digit
code.
There was a sharp buzz as the sensor read the key card, the magnetic
locks disengaged, and she shoved the door open.
"Looks like the rain's stopped. Lucky you," she said quietly as she
pulled Marco off his spot on the wall and walked him backward out of the
stairwell and onto a roof that had four apartments including hers along with
a small pad for aerial vehicles as required by city code.
Moments later the regular police officer dispatched with the VTOL
ambulance had Marco in magnetic cuffs while the paramedics hauled the
still unconscious Rod out of the stairwell.
Tayra watched until both men had been bundled into the aircraft and it
flew away. She then disabled her phone's record function and pocketed it as
she turned her attention to the apartments closest to her, from whence four
harpies had come. They were all female, all young, and all rather irritated
for having been woken from their sleep.
"What was all that about?" the eldest of the four and their nominal
leader asked. Her feathers were tan as was her flesh, though she wore a
loose-fitting t-shirt at the moment that depended to her middle thighs. She
had a human-looking face that Tayra could only envy and golden eyes. Her
name was Kris.
There was no love lost between griffins and harpies, but Tayra always
made a point of being polite until someone demonstrated they weren't
willing to play along.
"Marco and Rod," Tayra said shortly.
"They came to collect?" Kris asked.
At Tayra's nod, she said, "And you had them arrested?"
Tayra shrugged and said, "Rod pointed a gun at me. Seemed the right
thing to do."
"How?"
 "I graduated from the academy. I'm an NHIC officer," Tayra said as she
turned to head toward her own apartment, one of four, which took up a
corner of the rooftop.
"They're only going to make more trouble for us now!" Kris called after
her.
Since Tayra knew that was probably true she didn't bother to reply. If
she were around she'd handle whatever else the small-time bosses
controlling this block of Oolytau chose to send. If she weren't, well, it
wouldn't be her problem to solve.
She'd spent the last several years ducking confrontations with humans.
Now, finally, she had a badge ... which meant she wouldn't be running from
them anymore.
Realistically, she knew she'd spend most of her time hunting other non-
humans. That didn't bother her. It wasn't as though she had an actual
vendetta against humans. In fact, she had something of a fetish for them,
which was why she'd chosen to apply for the NHIC when the Sallesin ruling
came down.
She'd never admit it, but Tayra dreamed of saving a human one day; a
man who'd be grateful, be willing to overlook what she was in favor of who
she was. It was the whole reason she'd moved to this city against her
parents' wishes, living hand-to-mouth working two jobs for five years to
scrape together enough to pay the application fees or bribes — depending
on who you asked — take the test, and go to the police academy.
It was all for a fantasy. Still, she was who and what she was, and in her
own way pursued what she thought was her best shot at making her dream
into reality. Five years of living in Oolytau had done a lot to dampen her
enthusiasm, but it had yet to extinguish the fire that had brought her here.
Tayra unlocked the door to her apartment and stepped inside, eyes
flicking around in their usual pattern. Nothing had been moved. Her small,
private space remained hers for another day. Everything was as it should be
save for the smell of wet fur, which she couldn't help, having had to walk
the better part of ten blocks through the pouring rain.
She unbuttoned the pins holding down the shoulder flaps and slung the
coat off as she gave her wings a brief shake that spattered water droplets
across the closed door and wall behind her. The coat went on a hook,
followed shortly after by the speedsling that kept her shotgun in place along
the line of her spine, then the rest of her clothes made a trail from the front
door to the sonic bath in the back corner. It wasn't terribly comfortable
given she had to keep her wings elevated, but it would clean and warm her.
It was a tank that, once she stepped into the coffin-like space and closed the
door, flooded, submerging her to the upper chest. The heavy thrum as it
then scrubbed her fur with sound was a quick one, after which the entire
contents drained and a perfunctory blast of air swirled around her, taking
her from soaked to damp. The door opened, and less than sixty seconds
later she was working a heavy towel through the fur that started at the top of
her chest as she said, "Play audio broadcast."
"Channel?"
The voice of her apartment's computer was that of an urbane male taken
from the default register. She could have paid for another voice, but it
would have been a waste of money.
"Oolytau 1."
"-keen interest to both the front-runners for the mayoral election. One
hundred eighty-seven graduates have just entered the police forces,
disbursed throughout Daytau and its six subcities, including twenty-four
new recruits for the Non-Human Investigative Corps under interim Chief
Inspector Jaime Gutiérrez, who is uncontested in the special election that
will make him the permanent replacement for dark horse mayoral candidate
Andrew Bremmin, who was himself a replacement for the late Philip Mann
before announcing his surprise candidacy. Of those twenty-four new
recruits, six are non-humans and represent the first such ever to enter
regular service as officers of the NHIC in compliance with the Sallesin v.
NHIC ruling. One of those, a young griffin named Tayra Manes, will be
entering service through the NHIC department here in Oolytau under an as
yet unnamed replacement for the former Deputy Inspector, Jaime Gutiérrez.
Tayra is a top-floor resident of Morvo Towers building 1, having lived there
for-"
"Audio off."
Tayra fluffed her feathers, then patted them down with the towel before
tossing it over the bar of her squat rack as she sat on the edge of her bed,
shaking her head as she muttered, "Well ... fuck. That was quick."
She snapped her beak in annoyance, then stared around at what little she
had as she said, "Now I have to move."

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 2

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 TONY

T ony P latz hauled himself out of his personal vehicle and closed the
door with the gentle hand of a man tired of breaking things by accident as
he looked around. The lot was filled with other PVs along with a line of
identical police cruisers. All of it was surrounded by a barrier of concrete
and concertina wire. The central feature of the parking lot was a small steel
frame tower flanked by poles which had cameras and motion sensors
mounted. Atop that tower was a fully automated turret tied to the camera
system.
Vandalism of police property was practically a sport in Oolytau. It was,
however, strongly discouraged by the parking lot defense system.
Unfortunately, while the guns did a very good job protecting police assets,
they weren't without problems. In the month Tony had been at the police
station, two people had been thrown over the fence. The automated system
did issue a verbal warning, but both men had apparently been under lethal
threat from their assailants still outside the fence, so it was a given they
would die. It was a Hobson's choice: they could be picked apart by
handguns, or blown apart by the automated weapon system. Both men had
chosen the sentry system.
Oolytau was not a nice place.
It also stank. The rain last night had soaked absolutely everything and
there was steam rising off the streets with an odor like a horrible mix of
urine and rotting Cantonese takeout.
Wrinkling his nose absently, Tony strode across the pavement and up
the stairs leading to a skybridge that connected the parking lot to the actual
police department.
At the Justice Center in Daytau the Nick had their own floors and
facilities, but here in Oolytau they were bundled in with the regular police.
Tony didn't mind that; he'd never had a problem with the blueboys. It was a
bit of an adjustment because — as he'd quickly discovered — Oolytau
police had their own way of doing things, and not a lot of space to do it in.
The inside of the police station was a study in loosely controlled chaos,
and most of that control came in the form of bulletproof transparent barriers
rather than any kind of conscious direction.
The door Tony used was already behind the desk sergeant so there was
no one to challenge him, the logic being if he'd come in through the patrol
parking lot and survived the sentry system, he was allowed to be there. No
one stopped or questioned him on his way across the floor either. He
ignored the arguing, the frantic communications chatter, and the screams of
someone demanding help to find her missing son.
It was always a hard walk to make. He didn't envy the people who had
to work in that space every day, soaking in a state of constant emergency for
the duration of their shift. It was a hell of a wake-up call for a man who'd
once been handpicked for the best department in Daytau proper.
Tony wasn't on the fast track anymore, and he wasn't in the best
department. His career was stalled. Whether the engine on it was dead or
not remained to be seen, but a one-month transfer intended to let him cool
his heels after his partner caught a bullet that dumped her into both a
hospital and divorce proceedings that had turned into what was beginning to
feel like a permanent reassignment.
Bremmin was shooting for the mayor's office. McCreedy had his hands
full doing a DI's job with a captain's rank, and Gutiérrez was sitting in city
hall as the interim chief inspector with no replacement at his desk and two
captains — one gray, one blue — who both had way too much on their
respective plates to worry about a leftover like him.
Or so he thought.
"Tony!"
He'd just found his desk — one hastily pulled out of storage and set up
in what was supposed to be an interrogation room — when he heard the
rough voice of a lifelong smoker calling his name before he could manage
to get the door closed.
 Turning, he offered a salute that Lieutenant Marty Crenshaw lazily
returned before he got straight into it.
"Captain wants to see you."
"Which one?" Tony asked as he reached back without looking to pick
the coat he'd just laid down back up off the chair.
"The gray one," Crenshaw said with a gritty smile that fit perfectly into
an unshaven, sallow face marked by sunken eyes and a receding hairline.
Marty Crenshaw was 'a blue one' that had twenty years in and no
apparent desire to go any higher. He also somehow made everything in the
police station run just a bit more smoothly. He knew everyone, had just
enough knowledge to point most people in generally the right direction, and
was often relied on to get things done in an office where getting anything
done was cause for a celebration no one ever had time for. After almost two
months working around the man, Tony still didn't know quite what to make
of him other than that he smelled vaguely like the cigarettes he smoked and
his uniforms were so old they were just short of threadbare.
"Any hints?" Tony asked.
Crenshaw just chuckled darkly and said, "Naw. I wouldn't dare ruin this
surprise."
"Well, that means it's not a transfer out so you've narrowed it down
thanks much," Tony said with a sigh as he stepped out of his office, turned,
and walked to the far corner of the building with a cube farm on his left and
other actual interrogation rooms on his right.
The 'gray one' was Captain Luke Harding, a big black man with a short,
sharp temper and an 'I get shit done' look perpetually glued to a face made
out of old leather and razor burn.
Word was he'd been on a soldier of fortune team in his younger days but
had entered the academy, then the regular police force after most of his
team got checked out in a drake attack on a convoy passing between cities.
As a policeman he'd quickly certified as a Special Weapons and Tactics
officer and earned a reputation as a driven leader willing to take calculated
risks and execute successfully. He'd eventually transferred into the NHIC
under circumstances no one seemed to know much about before moving up
the ranks to captain, which he'd pinned on last year. Rumor had it he'd been
offered the DI spot and refused, which was why that chair stayed empty.
Tony hadn't spoken much to Captain Harding, and he was always busy.
 Tony had read his file, thinking he'd be getting his marching orders from
the man, but in all the time he'd been in Oolytau they'd done little more than
trade salutes.
Harding's door was closed and the frosted glass gave no hint as to what
was on the other side.
Tony stopped, knocked twice, then waited.
"Come in!"
He glanced back at Crenshaw — who just stood there grinning — then
opened the door, took a step in, and closed it behind him with his left hand
as he saluted with his right.
The captain returned his salute without getting up and it was still crisper
than the one he'd gotten from Crenshaw. He said, "Officer Tayra Manes, I'd
like you to meet your new partner, Corporal Tony Platz."
Tony had noticed the griffin, but as the captain's words sank in his smile
was decidedly plastic as he said, "Sir, I'm a temporary assignment to this
division."
"Son, I don't have any free agents wandering around with no case load
who can take on a partner. I do have you, and that temporary assignment
you mention happens to be open-ended. Do the math."
He raised an eyebrow as he bent his head toward the griffin. Tony
— with no way out — turned and offered his hand.
Tayra Manes was approximately his own height of six feet. She was
also approximately his size, which was quite a bit more notable because
Tony Platz was a big man. He had eighteen inch arms cold in the morning, a
deep chest and bowling ball shoulders framing wide traps. The rest of him
was just as solid.
The hand he shook was scaled and reminiscent of a bird of prey's foot,
save hers had four complete fingers and a thumb, each of which were
capped by thick black talons that looked like they could rip the guts out of a
grizzly bear. Her upper arms and shoulders were hidden by what had to be a
specially tailored gray coat, but her wings were thick, sizable, and brown
feathered.
Her face was entirely that of a hawk. Her beak was a pale yellow at the
nostrils that trended to black at the tip, and her eyes were golden with round
pupils.
Most of the rest of her body was obscured by her long coat, but her size
was obvious, and griffins were known to pack serious muscle. Under that
coat would be either leonine or tigerish fur. Just as he wondered which, her
tail swished into view. The orange-and-black stripes with no tuft gave away
the game.
As he took in his new partner, the captain said, "Officer Manes is fresh
out of the academy, but don't let that fool you. She's already made her first
arrest. Quite neatly done too."
"Tell me about that," Tony said, looking at Tayra.
Her voice was quiet, but strong and certain. He noticed that while her
beak parted a bit, her tongue wasn't moving as she spoke and was reminded
that griffins didn't have a larynx, but a syrinx. Their voice and its
modulation came entirely from their throats. She said, "A petty extortionist
and his muscle were waiting to ambush someone at my apartment complex.
They chose me."
"She cracked a skull disarming the gunman and made the other one call
the police himself," Captain Harding said with a quiet chuckle. "Which
leaves us with your first assignment together."
Tony let Tayra's ... claw, go as he turned to face the captain.
"Which is?" he asked, keeping his voice even and his thoughts on his
new partner to himself.
"Less than an hour after calling in the arrest, Officer Manes' home
address was openly broadcast on Oolytau 1. You've been with us long
enough to know what that means," the captain said, his tone dry.
Tony did know what that meant. It meant Tayra was a marked woman.
Oolytau media was famously in the pocket of a variety of crime bosses, and
if a personal address was put on blast, it meant the person living there had
earned themselves a bounty.
"It means organized crime wants to make an example out of her," Tony
said, putting the pieces together pretty easily. "So we'll have to move her."
"Right in one. We've already removed her personal belongings so you
don't have to go back to her old place. What you do have to do is help find
her a new one. Somewhere secure. She's been living here a while. She
knows where to go, just make sure she gets there."
"Sir, anywhere she goes, they'll know immediately," Tony said, making
a serious effort to not sound like he was making a complaint. "She's literally
the only griffin wearing gray in this city. Anyone in Oolytau who heard that
broadcast will refuse to sign a lease with her."
 "That sounds like a problem below my pay grade, Corporal," Captain
Harding said as he gave Tony the long, steady look of a man who didn't
give two shits about problems below his pay grade. "Get moving."
"Yessir."
A few seconds later Tony was outside the closed door of Captain
Harding's office with a griffin standing next to him.
He shook his head, blinking, then glanced at Tayra and said, "Come on."
"Where are we-"
"My office. Such as it is."
Tony opened his door for his new partner, then closed it behind her and
said, "Take a seat."
Since there was only one seat on the far side of the desk and it was far
too flimsy a chair for Tayra to sit in — a fact he realized as soon as he made
the offer — she said, "I think I'll stand."
As he took a second to look both at a chair and Tayra, he said, "Yeah,
fine, so will I."
He leaned back against a wall and had another long, slow look at his
new partner.
She turned and gave him the time. He couldn't really tell anything about
what she was thinking because looking her in the face was like staring
down a hawk, not a person. Her pupils were round and neither her eyes nor
what little of her face that wasn't beak gave much away.
Tony had very carefully not given any conscious thought to the fact that
he was now partnered with a non-human. He didn't like non-humans much.
It was why he'd joined the NHIC in the first place. It was easier to chase
down monsters when they actually looked like monsters. Yet here he was,
standing four feet away from a creature the same size as he was, and likely
three times as strong, with talons designed to shred and a beak strong
enough to sever his spine.
And it was his job to make nice.
What the fuck did I do to deserve this? he silently wondered.
The question didn't help him and he buried it as he said, "Well, welcome
to the NHIC, such as it is. Thoughts?"
"The captain is doing the bare minimum required to look like he cares,"
Tayra said quietly. "I don't think he does."
"And here you are, first day on the job."
 Tony shook his head and glanced toward his closed door, then back at
her. She hadn't moved. It didn't look like she'd blinked.
"Well, there's one thing I can say for sure," Tony said. "He doesn't care
about me either."
"No," Tayra said, shaking her head side to side once in a gesture that
looked learned rather than natural. It was the kind of gesture that said she
wanted him to read her right. "It doesn't look like he does."
Tony closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then let it out slowly as he
asked, "Is there anywhere in Oolytau-"
"No."
"Fuck," he muttered.
For a long few seconds, no one said anything. Tony didn't know what to
do. He didn't know what to say. He didn't know much of anything. All his
'assignments' since arriving at this station had essentially amounted to
helping serve warrants and rolling out when SWAT got called. NHIC agents
never answered a call alone, he'd been given no actual long-term
assignments, and he suspected he now knew why. He'd been earmarked as a
babysitter.
He held up a finger in a universal wait gesture, then walked around his
desk, sat down, and unlocked his system.
With a few typed commands he pulled up a video and watched quietly
as Officer Tayra Manes ... walked up stairs.
A lot of stairs.
Tayra moved around his desk to stand behind him.
After a while he asked, "How many fucking floors does this go on for?"
"Thirty."
"Every day?"
"Every day."
"A thirty floor walk-up? You must have legs like fucking pistons."
"Are you asking to see them?"
The question made him blink and chuckle bemusedly as he said simply,
"No."
At last, the video got to the good part, and he watched his new partner
smoothly, cooly take two low-rent criminals to school.
Once the 5-1-1 call was done he paused the video and swung around in
his chair to look up at the strangely stoic creature standing behind him, long
coat hiding everything but her face and arms, which gave nothing away.
Those arms were folded cross-body, talons hooked over scaled elbows.
While he didn't like non-humans generally, the way she'd handled what
was apparently her first hostile encounter as an officer left him seriously
impressed, and he said, "You're just a bit of a bad ass, aren't you."
"Are you asking for my opinion?" she asked.
"No, not really. I wanted to ask you how the hell you could do
something so stupid on your very first day, but after watching this I've got
no real questions. You did right, I'm glad they're gone, and where the fuck
am I going to put you?"
The feathers at her neck tightened visibly, then relaxed as she said, "I'm
not luggage. I don't need you to put me anywhere. I can find my own
place."
Tony took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair as he looked up at
her and said, "Will it be a safe place?"
"This is Oolytau. There is no safe place."
"Then why move at all?"
"The other residents on the top floor might have gotten caught up. If it's
not about me it's not my problem, but this would be about me. I had to get
out."
"Tayra, you're a cop now. Your job is all about solving other people's
problems."
"Are you suggesting I should have stayed?"
"No," Tony admitted. "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that."
"Do you have a problem with me?" she asked.
When all he did was raise an eyebrow, she said, "If you do, we should
solve it before we do anything else."
His eyes narrowed a bit, then he asked, "Are you always this quiet when
you make threats?"
"I can be loud if I have to be," Tayra said. "It's just not my first choice.
Big dogs don't bark."
Tony chuckled at that and felt his opinion of her steadily increasing as
he showed his hands and said, "Fine, and no, I don't have a problem with
you per se."
"Per se?"
"Why did you join the Nick?" he asked.
 "It's what I wanted," she said, and he noticed as she did it that her pupils
rapidly expanded, then just as rapidly shrank down, pinpointing briefly
before they evened out again. It was far too quick an adjustment to be
anything but an emotional reaction considering the light in the room was
stable.
He filed it away as something to look up later as he asked, "Why did
you want to join the Nick?"
"I don't think that's any of your business. I'll do the job."
"Which right now is finding you a place to stay."
"Yeah."
Blinking as he shook his head and turned to his terminal, he asked, "Got
any ideas?"
"Not really. Finding a place in Oolytau isn't easy for someone with my
... needs."
"What do you need?"
"Height."
"A top floor?"
"Preferably a roof."
Tony's eyes flicked to her wings, but before he could ask she said, "Yes,
they work. They also need exercise. I know a few city griffins that can't fly
anymore. I don't intend to let myself go like that."
"You can actually fly?"
"When I'm not carrying much, but I can't go far now that I'm full-grown.
We use them to get up high, then drop down on prey. They aren't for long
distances. From the top of my apartment building I could usually get here
without touching the ground, depending on wind."
"How far is that?"
"Ten, almost eleven blocks. Mostly gliding. The height just happened to
work out."
Rolling his head on his shoulders as he thought, he took a deep breath
and said, "So a roof apartment within say ... twelve blocks of here?"
"That'd be best, but at this point I can't exactly be picky."
Since that was true, Tony didn't bother to reply. Instead, he pulled up a
city map, switched to an aerial view centered on the police station, and
zoomed it out as he said, "All right. I don't know this town for shit so you
pick out some likely looking places and we'll start from there."
"I don't need your help to go apartment hunting," Tayra said.
 He glanced back up at her, got nothing from her hawkish face, and said,
"Yeah, well, apparently the captain thinks you do and I have nothing on my
plate, so if you don't need my help you'll just have to put up with my
butting in because I'm not about to disobey a direct order."
He waved a hand at the map he had pulled up on screen as he said,
"Now start pointing."

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 3

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 TAYRA

T ayra leaned against the wall behind Corporal Tony Platz, one foot up
under her butt, wings spread and relaxed as he made calls. As she watched
him, she tried to get a sense of the man.
Her first impressions were physical, and as far as that went she was ...
impressed. He was every bit as big as she was. He might be the strongest
human she'd ever seen in person. His arms were, at least compared to the
typical man, massive. Every part of him was thick in a way that would
ordinarily have her more than a little enthusiastic to know more, and see
him wearing less.
Unfortunately, he was a Nicky. As such ... the best she could hope for
was a working relationship that wasn't openly hostile.
NHIC officers were monster hunters. They tracked down and either
captured or killed non-humans as their primary function. Most of them
entered the NHIC because they had a grudge against all non-humans, or a
score to settle with one or more of them. Even if she hadn't known that
going in, her time at the academy had given her more than an education in
law and tactics.
From the very beginning, Tayra had known when she put in for a
transfer to the Nick that her partner would likely be the biggest problem she
had to solve in order to make the rest of her career a success. She'd been
hoping to get paired with a woman, someone who wouldn't mind the extra
muscle.
She'd gotten precisely the opposite.
 She had to earn respect somehow and that usually started off by not
being an active burden, but now she had to wonder how they were going to
even work together when they both filled the same ecological niche. They
were both powerhouses ... so what was she supposed to do? How was she
supposed to earn respect when she had nothing unique to offer and their
first assignment was essentially proof that she was a burden?
Instead of an actual case load the captain's only orders were to move out
of her old apartment — something she'd intended to do on the down low.
She'd then been dumped in Tony's lap as though he were her literal
babysitter.
Not the best start.
For his part, Tony hadn't given her much of a read early on and she
suspected he was burying whatever feelings he did have about what he was
being asked to do under a professional veneer. 'This is my job, and I'm
going to do it,' was the impression coming through most clearly.
That could be good or bad, depending. It might be good if that was
simply his approach to life and he planned to keep it up whenever he was
with her. It would at the least let her do the job she was being paid to do
with a minimum of friction. It might also be bad if he was hiding
resentment or worse behind his professional mask. If that were true it might
manifest in some unpleasant — or fatal — ways.
Since she was a direct sort of girl, she'd asked, but his answer had been
... complex, and it hadn't left her much of an opening for clarification. She
wanted to try again, but knew she'd just be making things worse if she
pressed too hard. So instead, she kept her throat quiet as she watched him
glance up at the ceiling, sigh, then look in obvious irritation at his phone.
"For people who supposedly have rooms to rent, these guys sure don't
like answering calls," he said, clearly irritated.
"'Oolytau operates on a handshake,'" Tayra quietly declared.
"What?"
He turned to look at her as she said, "It's a local thing. Everything that
goes online stays there forever. All calls can be traced, recorded, and 'used
against you in a court of law.' So, most of the time, when something gets
done it's off the books. That's everything from ordering a hit to rental
agreements. Once a renter signs an official lease, they can't be kicked out
without muscle. Unofficial renters can be treated as squatters and booted
without resorting to illegal methods. Most of the time the building owner
just cuts off water and power. If that doesn't work, they remove the doors
and windows. If we want to see about these apartments for real, we're going
to have to actually go there in person. No matter where I go, I won't be
getting an official lease. That'd show up in the records and it'd be like a
neon sign that says 'Easy Hit' blinking over my door."
"I hate this shitty city," Tony said with a roll of his eyes.
"So does everyone else that lives here ... at least some of the time."
"So why live here?"
"It's still better than wherever we came from," she said.
"And where did you come from that this place is better?" Tony asked.
"A literal cave," she said. "In a mountain range a few hundred miles
south of here. As far as I know, my parents still live there."
He let his breath out in a short, sharp rush, then said, "I'll bet at least it
didn't smell like the chuck of a thousand drunks every day."
"No. Nor could you get as much food as you could possibly want
delivered to your door with a few voice commands," she said. "Like
anything else, it's a trade. Here, bad as it is, is better. If that weren't true, the
city would be empty."
He flicked his pointer finger at her as he shook his head and said, "I ...
really wish I could disagree with you there. Have I mentioned I hate this
city?"
"Twice now, and I've known you less than an hour. Where did you come
from anyway?"
"Daytau proper."
Tayra blinked, then cocked her head slightly as she said, "Why are you
here then?"
Tony got up and grabbed his overcoat as he said, "Apparently, I'm here
to get you a new apartment. I've got the addresses for your three top picks."
He pulled his phone out and held it toward her as he said, "Contact."
She pulled her phone from her jacket pocket and held it toward his as
she gave the authorization. Once contact information was exchanged, Tony
nodded and said, "Let's go."
"I don't fit in a normal patrol vehicle," Tayra said as she followed him
out.
He chuckled wryly and said, "I don't either — at least not comfortably
— and the last vehicle I'd take for this little outing is a cruiser. I'm in a jeep.
You'll fit."
 "What's a 'jeep'?" she asked.
"Don't ask questions patience will answer, just keep them in mind," he
said without looking as he paused at the elevator bank, then turned to head
for the stairwell.
Tayra followed, unsure why he wasn't taking the elevator but quietly
grateful for the shift.
Five minutes later they were in the parking lot and she knew what a
'jeep' was.
"Is this thing even legal to drive?" she asked.
The vehicle was boxy and the top was made of some sort of cloth. The
windows were all transparent plastic save the two in the doors, which she
knew at a glance would tear off if she looked at them wrong.
"I haven't been pulled over yet," Tony said as he opened the driver's side
door and touched a pair of buttons. The cloth atop the vehicle went rigid
with current, then pulled itself back into a roll that disappeared behind the
rear seat, which had a low back that her wings would fit over.
He gestured and said, "See? You fit. Now get in."
"This can't be safe," she said as she grabbed the roll bar and hopped
over the side to slide into the back seat. The entire vehicle slewed her way
as she did it, and she settled dead center in the middle, staring at him with
pinpointed eyes and feathers pulled tight to her skull as it rocked back and
forth.
He waited for the vehicle to stop shaking, then looked at her with a
raised eyebrow as he opened his door and said, "You joined the Nick, and
you live in Oolytau. You have seen the shit show that is their traffic grid.
You do not get to complain to me about safety."
"I simply don't like vehicles," she said as he turned the engine over and
backed out of the space.
"Better buckle up then."
Reminded, she hunted up the lap belt and managed not to tear the fabric
of the seat digging it out and getting it secured, though she did have to let
the slack on the belt itself almost all the way out because she was using one
half from the right belt, and one from the left so she could stay seated in the
middle.
She took a spread-out grip with both hands on the roll bar and caught
him glancing back. She saw his eyes widen when he noticed her talons
touching around the wide body of the metal bar and inwardly cringed.
Ordinarily, she liked the fact that her natural weapons were so intimidating,
but this wasn't someone she wanted to scare.
The stench of the streets hit her in bursts as they made their way
through traffic toward the nearest of the high-rise residential towers. While
no neighborhood in Oolytau was what anyone from Daytau proper would
call nice, this tower at least seemed to stand on more than rust and wishful
thinking.
By the time Tayra managed to get the belt off, Tony was out of the
vehicle and had thrown a police placard up into the dash. Once she was out
he touched the controls that restored the roof, then closed the door.
"This will not last long on the street here," Tayra said quietly, glancing
around.
She watched him take in the streetlife all around them. More than a few
sets of eyes were turned their way. The sun was out and it was still mid-
morning, but there were clouds of steam billowing up from every sewer
grate as the city systems worked to dispel the surplus water. She wasn't
certain exactly how it worked, but apparently a heat sink system tied to the
city power grid ran through the sewers. While not always active, they
tended to get used to minimize flooding after a rain in Oolytau.
Just in front of the entrance to the tower they wanted was a food cart
with a crowd of people gathered around, but no one was buying or eating.
Their attention was focused on Tayra and her partner.
"You serious?" he asked, glancing back at her and returning her
attention to the immediate problem.
She nodded.
"You think you can find whoever you need to talk to then? I'll wait out
here for you," Tony said. "I'd just as soon not lose my ride."
Her feathers fluffed a bit, then resettled as she nodded again, pleased.
His willingness to let her handle her own business was a sign of trust that,
while small, she nevertheless appreciated. The captain may have assigned
him as a babysitter, and he might know that, but at least he wasn't treating
her like she was helpless.
That being the case, she might as well do her best to be helpful.
She said, "I'll be as quick as I can. If anyone talks to you point at the
police placard on your dash as you wave them away. Don't smile, don't
speak, and make sure whoever it is has a clear view of your pistol. Keep the
vehicle between you and them if practical. Glance behind you at least once
a minute at random. If you spot a goblin, even one, call me. If you see more
than one, call me and draw your pistol."
"That reminds me. What kind of heat are you packing? Your hands don't
... well."
He was looking at her hands and obviously still preoccupied with her
talons. She kept her feathers as relaxed as she could as she said, "I have a
modified shotgun under my coat, nestled between my wings. It's on a fast
sling and I can put it in play in one point eight seconds, well within the two-
second limit defined by NHIC protocol."
Her eyes pinpointed with amusement as she said, "Relax. I'm at least as
competent as you are."
She watched him process that, but after a moment in which he
apparently decided not to engage, he waved her toward the front door and
said, "We're not lucky enough to get this done on the first try, but do your
best to get that handshake or whatever anyway."
Snapping her beak in idle acknowledgement, she turned and walked up
the concrete steps and into the building.
The lobby was lit by florescent tubes hidden behind crown molding and
the bank of mailboxes took up most of the far wall. To the left was the
elevator bank and to the right was a security window that she approached.
The security window had intelligent glass, which was a fancy way of saying
it was blacked out unless the person on the other side wanted to show
themselves.
She touched the button on the intercom and waited.
She didn't wait long.
The glass didn't change shade as a male voice said, "No room for the
dead here."
Tayra turned and walked away without another word. The man was
referencing the audio broadcast. 'No room for the dead' was neither subtle,
nor open to negotiation. She stepped outside in time to see Tony glance her
way, then pocket his phone as he jerked his head down the street.
She looked, and there was a goblin loitering under an awning. He wasn't
looking at them, but he was talking on a cell phone. Goblins weren't all
criminals, nor were all criminals goblins. That said, many if not most of the
spotters used by criminal syndicates and even small-time groups were
goblins. They were known for their keen senses, quick wit, and ability to
escape pursuit.
 "Strike one?" Tony asked as he retracted the roof of his vehicle.
"It's shaping up to be a long day," she said as she stepped up onto the
back bumper, getting in slowly and carefully this time.
"Yeah," he said as he slid into the driver's seat and turned the engine
over. "That's kinda what I figured."
As he drove by, Tayra made eye contact with the goblin.
He blinked, then grinned, showing all his needle-like teeth as he reached
out with the hand not holding the phone and squinted at her, making a
gesture reminiscent of crushing a bug between his thumb and forefinger.
"Not at all subtle," Tony remarked, clearly also noticing the gesture.
"No," she agreed. "Not a bit."

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 4

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 TAYRA

N oon came and went . As evening approached, Tayra became more and
more disheartened. After their eighth abortive attempt to find her a new
apartment, Tony leaned back and asked, "You hungry?"
She shook her head and said, "No. I only eat once a day. If you want to
stop for food, go for it."
He glanced at her in the rearview mirror, then just shook his head and
said, "I don't think we're going to find a place today and honestly, I'm about
ready to call it quits."
Tayra couldn't disagree, but she didn't know where that left her. She
thought a moment, then said, "I could sleep in your office if you don't
mind."
"What?! No. I mean yes, I mind. No fucking way."
She ground her beak in irritation, then said, "You can't be that attached
to it as your personal space. It's an interrogation room. They essentially did
the cop equivalent of stick you in a broom closet."
Tony burst out laughing as he said, "Okay, first off, you're right, and that
was funny, but you totally missed my point. That room doesn't even have a
couch and the PD runs full blast twenty-four hours a day. You can't even
pretend to me you'll get any sleep there."
"My alternative is the street."
"Your alternative is my place."
Her eyes pinpointed and her feathers ruffled a bit, then she controlled
her surprise and tempered her enthusiasm as she said, "You just met me-"
 "Aaand you're my new partner, yes. Well spotted. I'm not going to put
you out on the fucking street, okay? We'll find you a place tomorrow, or the
day after that. Until then, you can crash on my couch."
"And where do you live?" she asked.
He glanced back at her, then shrugged and said, "I got a place."
"That's remarkably unspecific."
"I have a place with a couch, on which you may sleep."
"Don't ask questions patience will answer?" she quipped.
He just raised a finger and flicked it without looking at her, then put his
hand back on the wheel.
Still annoyed, she ground her beak idly as she did her best to relax.
Even with her wings pulled in tight, the feel of the wind screaming by
overhead had begun to grate on her nerves. It wasn't in her nature to
complain, so she simply bore with it and kept her head down as they turned
onto one of the main thoroughfares, and from there it was obvious where
they were headed.
"You live in Daytau?" she asked.
"I did say that," he said as he raised an eyebrow at her in the rearview.
She snapped her beak in annoyance — mostly at herself — then tilted her
head away in embarrassment when she saw his look melt into one of
nervous concern.
"Sorry," she muttered.
Either the wind roaring past them was too loud for him to hear, or he
decided not to answer.
When they got to the tunnel entrance they slowed and swerved into one
of the checkpoint lines.
As they crept forward, Tony said, "Ah shit. I'm gonna have to put the
roof up. Can you get those wings in?"
Tayra hunched as much as she could and swept her arms down and
back, then up, pulling in her pinions before she said, "Go ahead."
The roof closed over her head and she stifled the abrupt surge of
annoyance at being enclosed along with the strong desire to rip her way out
again.
She put her hands carefully on her knees and squeezed as she quietly
asked, "How long until you can take the roof down again?"
"Tunnel transit takes six minutes. We're two from clearance. You okay?"
 She simply ground her beak and said, "I'm fine. I just don't like tight
spaces."
"Claustr-"
"I'm annoyed, not claustrophobic."
"Okay okay! Got it. Sheesh," he said, briefly holding up his hands.
They reached the checkpoint. Tony showed his face to the camera to
match his identity with the vehicle and confirm both it and he were allowed
to transit, then the jeep sank several inches as it was dropped and clamped
to automated treads that would accelerate them through the tunnel. Because
it was critical infrastructure, drivers weren't allowed to control their
vehicles inside.
On the flip side, the automated system averaged just shy of a hundred
miles an hour, so the ten miles between walls went pretty quick.
Tayra had transited before, but always on a train. This was the first time
she'd gone in a personal vehicle, and she couldn't say she liked it much.
There were no lights in the tunnel nor were headlights allowed, so the only
illumination came from the vehicle dash. As it had been explained to her,
any maintenance in the tunnels was done using goggles that operated
outside the visible spectrum, or by species with darkvision. Periodic flashes
of light from passing traffic would only distract.
So it was both dark and enclosed. The dark didn't bother her by itself,
but it did make the fact that she was packed into a tight space more
oppressive.
At least Tony didn't make it awkward. He didn't say anything until the
conveyor released them at the far end, and even then he lowered the roof
first.
"Better?" he asked.
Tayra took a deep breath and stretched her wings all the way out before
pulling them in as she made the conscious effort to nod.
"Yeah. Better. I'll grab my covers out of storage tomorrow though. The
wind pulling at my feathers all day is making my wings sore."
She watched him process that, then nod after a moment as he said,
"Sure. We'll stop by lock-up before we head in tomorrow."
They turned off the main thoroughfare almost immediately and Tayra's
feathers fluffed with surprise as she realized they were headed to a pretty
nice suburb, one with not only grassy front lawns, but actual trees and other
ground cover.
 "I didn't know you were rich," she said.
He chuckled absently as he said, "Damn, I didn't either. Wish someone
had told me."
The streets got less and less crowded, until finally it was a narrow two-
lane road winding gently between garden homes of a type that simply didn't
exist in Oolytau, and which she'd only ever seen in vids. The breeze brought
fresh scents that seemed even more poignant as it cleared the lingering
stench of Oolytau from her nostrils.
Tony pulled into the driveway of a single-story house. The grass was
green if a bit long and there were a few cracks in the pavement of the
driveway, but the house otherwise looked as though it were well
maintained. There was a picture window almost the size of the whole front
wall framed with wood slats and shaded by an arbor, though she couldn't
see inside as the heavy drapes were pulled closed. The garage door opened
at their approach and Tony pulled smoothly in.
"Home sweet home," he said as he killed the engine and got out. Motion
sensors turned the lights on as the garage door closed behind them.
Tayra noticed that while the garage was large enough for two vehicles,
the rest of the space was taken up by a rather complete set of gym
equipment that made her own meager set look like the ratty secondhand
crap that it was.
"So ... you aren't rich, but you own a house in the suburbs?" she asked
as she carefully undid her lap belt and stepped out the back.
"Inherited," he said briefly as he paused to take his boots off, then
opened the door and walked inside, lights coming to life as he went.
"Do you want me to-"
"Yes!" he called back over his shoulder. "Take your boots off. The last
thing I want in my house is Oolytau street shit gumming up my carpets."
"Can't say that's unreasonable," Tayra muttered as she slid talons into
the zip pulls at the backs of her boots and pulled them down, then stepped
out of them and into the hallway. There she paused and lifted each foot,
carefully flexing her claws out and stretching each as she listened to her
bones pop.
That done, she followed a brief tile hallway into a dining room with a
heavy wooden square table large enough to easily host six people, but
which had only four chairs. Beyond was a breakfast bar separating the
dining area from the kitchen. Off to her right was a lowered living room
done in light colors and, yes, carpet.
As she looked around, Tony picked up a heavy wooden coffee table
made out of the cross-section of a tree trunk and set it down next to a wall
before shifting two of the couches that'd surrounded it so they were
adjacent, facing one another.
That done, he glanced up at her, then jerked his thumb to his left as he
said, "Sorry. I used to have a guest bedroom but I converted it to an office a
few years back. Bathroom's at the end of the hall. Towels on the rack are
clean and nothing's wrong with the toilet. If you need instructions for the
bidet they're in the top drawer under the counter. I realize you don't have a
change of clothes, but we'll pick that up along with your ... wing covers?
tomorrow. If you need to use the laundry it's right next to the bathroom. You
hungry? Thirsty? I have water, milk, and beer, but if you want anything
other than brauts, bacon, eggs, steak or potatoes I'll have to put in a drone
order."
Tayra laughed and her feathers fluffed a bit as she said, "Thanks for the
offer, but I usually eat in the morning. Your diet sounds a lot like mine ...
other than the potatoes."
"Yeah, well, no one gets to a twenty-inch pump eating what food eats,"
Tony said with a wry grin.
"I noticed the equipment in the garage. You've obviously put in the
reps."
"Everyone needs a hobby. When I was a kid I wanted to be a superhero.
Hah!"
He glanced away with a wistful smile, then shrugged as he said,
"Looking like one is the closest I could get."
Tayra's feathers fluffed and she pinpointed, but glanced away before he
noticed. Or maybe he did. She could never tell which humans knew her
body language and which didn't until they made it obvious. She knew that if
she were a human, the blush would have been impossible to miss.
Lock it down. You just met this man, and he still hasn't even really ...
The thought trailed off and she glanced around again, then at him as she
asked, "Why are you doing this?"
He'd found his way to the kitchen and glanced at her absently as he
reached into his refrigerator and pulled out a beer, which he cracked as he
said, "What about this doesn't make sense to you? It's not like you're going
to wreck my place."
"Do you like me?" she asked, then her beak clicked shut and her
feathers flattened tight to her skull as she realized what she'd just said, out
loud.
He was giving her an odd look, then shrugged and took a long drink,
then gasped in satisfaction as he said, "Ahhh! That's a weird question to
ask. Is it a griffin thing?"
"I'm a bit off-balance here is all. You just met me and you're inviting me
to sleep in your home."
"You're my partner."
"So it's typical for people with a work relationship to sleep in each
other's houses? That's a new one on me," Tayra said.
His brows drew down and he crushed the can absently as he opened one
of the cabinets with a foot and tossed it into the garbage can there before
flicking the cabinet closed again. He gave her a long look, then said, "No,
it's not typical, but neither is anything else about you, this job, or our first
assignment. You want the truth? Fine. Here it is. You know Oolytau because
you've lived there. I haven't, and I don't want this shitty assignment to be
my last. So I have to trust your judgement when it comes to the streets, and
you need a good night's sleep so that judgement isn't compromised. If the
price of your good judgement is six by six in my living room and a big
breakfast, I'd have to be a special kind of stupid not to pay."
With her feathers flat, she nodded once and quietly said, "That makes
sense."
"Good. Go take a shower and get some sleep. I wake up early. Earlier,
now that I have to go through the tunnel every damn day. And don't break
my fixtures, all right? Those talons of yours are ridiculous, but since you
didn't tear up my seats I imagine that won't be a problem as long as you're
careful. I'd just ... feel really dumb if I didn't say anything and you wreck
my bathroom."
He rubbed a hand over the top of his head as he walked by, shaking his
head.
"Sleep well," she said, turning her head to watch him out of one eye as
he walked down the hall to open a door she presumed led to the master
bedroom.
 "Yeah, see you tomorrow," he said absently, then closed the door behind
him.
Tayra didn't move immediately. She just stood still, eyes flicking as she
accustomed herself to the feel of the house. Beyond Tony's door she heard
indistinct sounds, then water running, and reasoned he was taking his own
shower.
She found herself imagining what he looked like not just with no shirt,
but no fur or feathers to obscure the view. She shook herself abruptly before
striding past his door to the end of the hall.
The lights came on, revealing a modest but sufficient bathroom with a
real walk-in shower that was more than big enough for her, wings and all.
She stripped off her coat, then freed the sling holding her shotgun and set it
carefully aside before tugging at the velcro straps on both sides of the heavy
armor plate she wore over her chest. A normal vest wouldn't fit her, and the
plate she wore left her back completely exposed. It was a risk, but one she
took for the sake of being able to use her wings freely. She knew it must
cost a fortune, but fortunately for her it had been paid for by the city once
she'd passed the second to last exam and her graduation was all but assured.
Her undershirt and uniform pants were actually both cyberware, though
not of the sort that projected illusions. Hers was a durable elastomer
managed by a small control set she wore on her belt. With the touch of a
button, seams across her shoulders and down her right side detached as the
fabric retracted into tight rolls above and below her belt. The shirt and pants
would put themselves on in reverse, and Tayra needed it because trying to
deal with normal clothes was a non-starter given her wings and talons. The
elastomer clothing not only conformed to her body, it also did so in line
with her fur and feathers, minimizing her discomfort.
It also cost her a month's pay, though she'd pay every penny again if she
had it to do over. It was self-washing, self-repairing, fire resistant, and
while it didn't project holograms it could change colors, which was why it
could serve as both uniform and off-duty clothing. The best part was that it
came off with the touch of a button. It was the sort of thing anyone from the
mountains she'd come from would quite literally kill for.
Once her clothes were properly rolled she unbuckled and set the belt
aside, looking herself over in the mirrors. There were two: one over the sink
and a second on the door just across from it, allowing for a good look front
and back.
 Her feathers covered everything from her elbows to her upper chest, but
gave out to reveal cream fur in front framed in orange and black down the
sides. She had awesome hips and cocked them idly as she looked at herself,
feathers fluffing with self-satisfaction. Even with a coat of fur the faint
outline of her abs was visible, and her legs were a study in both power and
grace. A glance in the mirror gave her a pretty good view of her butt, which
she considered her best feature. Despite the fact that she was practically a
tower of power, her ass still had a rounded fullness to it even when she
flexed. Her tail wove pleasantly across the view, but a look forward killed
her enthusiasm.
Her chest was huge, but it was all muscle. She had nipples, but no
breasts to speak of. Given she'd come from an egg and her species had
beaks, she'd had to ask about the nipples. Her mother's answer was what
eventually brought Tayra to Oolytau.
'If you want to know what those are for, you'll have to get a human
mate.'
It was all backward. Most men liked breasts, and they all had
preferences, but she was screwed either way. Men who liked them big didn't
want big slabs of muscle, and men who liked them small didn't want ... big
slabs of muscle.
She'd flown away when she was still small enough to make the long
distances. It was that or stay home another year and have to make the same
journey on foot. She'd arrived at Daytau because it was the first city-state
she'd seen from the air. She hadn't known what to expect, but it'd still been a
shock when they'd just looked her over, let her in, processed her application
for citizenship, then promptly shipped her to Oolytau.
From there, life had been ... interesting. Even in the shittiest part of the
city basic education was free, as were the city-run dormitories she'd been
allowed to live in until she completed that education. She'd learned quickly
what the nipples were for, and just how truly unfair life could be at the
same time. Most mammalian sentients had breasts they could use both to
attract a partner and feed the resulting young. She would have to attract a
man first. If she succeeded, the breasts would come afterward.
She raised her taloned right hand and looked at it absently, then lifted it
to gently touch her beak. Griffins were powerful. They had great
physicality, could fly — at least for short distances — and lethal natural
weapons. In the old world they'd had no problems capturing humans to
strengthen their bloodlines.
Here though ... all that was for nothing. The Spite made it almost
impossible for griffins to add human blood to their lineage. Without it,
virility dropped until fertilized eggs simply stopped hatching. Without
human breeding partners, griffins as a species had no future. According to
her mother, their whole race had been created by human wizards on the old
world to help them fight their wars. It was only through the infusion of
human blood that they could continue, and apparently that was to ensure the
griffins would never betray their masters. It hadn't worked. Eventually,
griffins had fought free and made prey of their creators. It was a glorious
story, but in achieving victory against the humans they had been tragically
short-sighted. Here ... all that prowess meant next to nothing. Griffins were
made for close combat, something firearms and technology had rendered a
poor backup skillset at best.
She had been born to fight but if she wanted a family she had to find
another way ... and on the battlefield of love Tayra was at an incredible
disadvantage.
Even the ugliest goblin could smile, after all. Even the most monstrous
arachne could kiss.
Tayra didn't even have a recognizably humanoid face. While she was
healthy and strong, she knew no human man would ever look at her and see
sex appeal. She'd long ago reasoned that her only real hope of finding a
human willing to be her mate was to be his hero. That reasoning sustained
her, held her up when nothing else would, but it was a forlorn hope at best
because even if she did manage to achieve her goal, she knew she would
have to settle, to compromise. She had no hope of finding someone truly
worthy to be her mate, a warrior that didn't need saving.
Tony had just proven that. He was a beast of a man that exactly met her
personal tastes, but it was clear he didn't see her as anything but an
associate — someone he worked with because that was the assignment.
She let out a gusty sigh and turned away from the mirror.
At least he's treating me fairly, she thought as she stepped into the
shower and turned the water on. More than fairly. He said he's relying on
my judgement. Maybe we could at least be friends.
She wasn't accustomed to real showers and took her time under the
water. To her pleasant surprise, there were three bottles present, one of
shampoo, one of body wash, and one of conditioner. She ignored the body
wash and used far more of the shampoo than a human would, then eyed the
conditioner before deciding against it. She'd never used such a thing and a
tentative sniff told her it was scented in a way she didn't like. What was the
point of smelling like flowers?
Her feathers were easy; a rinse was all they needed.
She went through three towels before she felt dry, and as she hung them
up realized that while water showers were luxurious, sonics had definite
advantages. Her fur was still a bit matted and itched all over, something
only a good brush would fix.
"Shit," she muttered as she realized she didn't have a brush.
She glanced around in frustration, then looked down at the drawers
beneath the sink. Her head tilted, then she took a shot and opened one.
A curious mixture of emotions washed through her as she picked up a
brush.
It was exactly what she needed.
It also had long brown hairs in it that clearly didn't belong to Tony. That
thought led to another, and she glanced back at the shower stall she'd just
left.
She was pretty sure she now knew why the conditioner smelled like
flowers.
Tony had a woman.
Of course he has a girl. Why wouldn't he? He looks good. He's got a
house. He seems nice enough. He has everything a woman could want and
he's human, she thought, though she couldn't help the feeling of annoyance
that came with it.

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 5

OceanofPDF.com
 TONY

T ony took his time in the shower, letting the water pour over his face. He
felt a bit bad about making Tayra use the guest bath, but given what
Oolytau was like he doubted she'd had a real shower in a long time. Most
people in Oolytau made due with sonic showers and recycled water.
As he scrubbed the filthy feeling of Oolytau off his face, he thought
about the assignment.
It was completely ridiculous. He'd been given SWAT placements with
the regular PD when they went out, which had given him something to do at
least three days a week since he'd been reassigned. He felt he'd earned the
respect of the men too, but that wasn't hard to do when you were willing to
take point.
Now, he'd been saddled with a non-human partner that managed on her
very first day to get a marker put on her head, and instead of a real
assignment, he had to find her new digs.
After an entire day of wandering around the city getting immediately
shot down everywhere they went, Tony was beginning to think the whole
thing was a fool's errand. No one in Oolytau would rent to Tayra. The fact
that she was literally the only griff in the NHIC made her unique and easily
recognizable, while the hit order made her infamous and a risk no one in
their right mind would take on. As long as that hit was out, she wasn't going
to find a place to stay.
At least, not in Oolytau.
It wasn't like she could just get an apartment in one of the other
subcities either. Moving from one to another permanently required
employment in that city. While there was plenty of cross-traffic from people
who were slumming it or who had gotten jobs in one city but for whatever
reason decided to keep living in another, as long as she was stationed in
Oolytau she couldn't apply for a rental agreement in Daytau proper at all.
The other subcities would make her commute at least two hours long one
way presuming she could do the handshake thing she was trying in Oolytau.
While that might work, it was no way to live.
Inviting her back to his place had been a snap decision that even now he
wasn't sure had been the right one, though what he'd told her was both the
truth and perfectly reasonable.
He really did need her judgement.
Much as he might look the part, he knew damn well he wasn't a
superhero. If he wasn't careful Oolytau would rob him blind then feed him a
bullet, or maybe just rip him to pieces. Tayra'd lived there for years. She
might be a griffin, but that didn't mean she didn't know how to get around.
Most humans that didn't deal with non-humans had the idea they were
stupid. Tony'd faced enough non-human criminals to know better. There
were big dumb monsters ... but there were also predators out there that
could put comic book masterminds to shame.
If Tayra was that bright he hadn't seen the evidence, but she wasn't an
idiot either, that much she'd demonstrated over the course of the day.
And she graduated the academy, Tony reminded himself. She's not
dumb and at least on paper, she does know what the hell she's doing. But if
she were a human none of this would be necessary. She just stands out too
much.
He rinsed, shut the shower off, then ran his hands absently across his
chest and thighs, flicking as much water away as he could before stepping
out and reaching for a towel to get the rest. He did a waist wrap, finger-
combed his hair, and glanced at himself in the mirror.
MAN I look good, he thought with a grin. He'd been lifting since his
teens and ten years of hard work and eating right had given him everything
he'd always wanted ... at least, physically.
Yet, as he looked at himself in the mirror, his smile faded as recent
memory crowded in.
"I shouldn't have had that beer," he muttered to himself as he turned
away. That was always how it started, and he knew all the excuses:
Just one beer.
 An extra cheat day.
I'll get back on the wagon next Monday.
It's been three months.
What happened to me?
He turned toward his closet and looked at the mirror there. One beer
wouldn't show, but how many had he had in the last few weeks? The
mirrors weren't there because he was a narcissist. They were there to remind
him how far he'd come, of the rewards that hard work would bring. They
were also there to show it up if he slipped. He'd done that before, and he
was in danger of doing it again.
It was always the same reason too.
Every time he fell off the wagon, there was a girl involved. This time
was no different. The question was, how long was he going to let it get to
him?
No, that wasn't the question. The real question was, what could he do
about it?
Laura Yates had been his work wife for three years. They'd saved lives
together — including each other's — and the whole time he'd watched her
slowly losing the fight to save a marriage that wasn't worth saving. Anyone
with two brain cells to rub together could tell Brendan Yates was a piece of
shit, but Tony'd been the only one with the balls to say so ... and that had
not gone well.
Uncle Nick literally kicking a door down to prove Brendan's infidelity
was a moment Tony'd pay a year's salary to see ... and even more to have
done himself.
Laura was out of the hospital and into a messy divorce now. She'd win
it, and she'd get everything, but that didn't mean Brendan wasn't prepared to
burn through as much of that 'everything' as he could dragging out the
process. The very last thing she needed right now was Tony.
He knew, because she'd said as much the last time she'd come over for
dinner last week, 'just to talk.' She hadn't said 'don't call' but ... Tony wasn't
a cop for nothing. He could read between the lines just fine.
That was probably why McCreedy had stone-walled him, why he was
now stuck in Oolytau. That first month temporary transfer had been a good
idea even Tony couldn't dispute. He'd been hot enough to do something not
just career ending, but life ending. Now? There was time between him and
the stupid. He'd cooled off enough to be in no danger of going off the rails,
but that didn't mean he could prove it to anyone else.
Maybe not even to himself. He was still off plan, and he'd ruined yet
another 'I'll get back on point today' with the beer he'd had less than an hour
ago. It hadn't even been a conscious decision, just something he'd done in a
moment of distraction.
He'd lost his habits.
I need to focus on a problem that might actually have a solution ...
unlike mine.
He closed his eyes and shook his head ruefully, then fell back into the
sheets, staring up at the ceiling.
"Face it, Tony. You spent two years waiting for a woman who never
wanted anything but to make the marriage she already had work," he
murmured to the ceiling. "And now that it's over the last thing she wants is
the one guy who 'reminds her every time she sees him' of everything she
failed to achieve. The one guy who was dumb enough to say, 'I told you
so.'"
Throwing the covers open, he settled in.
"Compared to that, getting a griffin an apartment should be a
cakewalk."
His next thought had to do with stopping an alarm from going off.
Before he really recognized where he was he'd crossed the room to get to it.
Blinking, he looked at the numbers.
Four am.
"Fuck me. What's the point of sleep if you can't enjoy it?" he grumbled,
turning to get into his gym shorts, shoes, and a t-shirt.
While he hadn't exactly been following his food plan recently, he would
never miss his reps. It was cheaper than therapy and always good for an
endorphin boost first thing in the morning.
He opened his door, stepped out, and glanced into his living room as he
walked by.
Tayra was sprawled on his couches. She was still wearing her clothes
too, and he scowled as he realized he'd never thought to give her sheets or a
blanket.
As he looked, the one eye he could see abruptly opened, pinpointed,
then focused on him.
"Did I wake you?" he asked.
 "Not intentionally," she said as she sat up, feathers ruffling and
resettling as she carefully grabbed the backs of the couches and shifted
herself to the edge before setting her feet down, which drew his attention to
them.
They were roughly human-shaped, but big, padded like a cat's, and
covered in orange-and-black-striped fur. He could even see the retracted
claws peeking out.
"I have a heightened awareness for attention," she said quietly. "I'm told
humans have something similar, but mine is much stronger."
"Even asleep?"
"Even then. What time is it?"
"Four ten. Go back to sleep, we've got another hour and a half before we
need to get going."
"If that's true, why are you up?"
Tony jerked his thumb toward his garage as he said, "Reps."
"Need a spot?"
He quirked a brow, then folded his arms across his chest as he said,
"That sounds like a setup."
"For what?"
"For me to get made a fool of by a girl."
She stood, and he watched as she rolled her shoulder and very carefully
stretched one wing out to full extension. It was an impressive display and
the wing tip reached his hallway from the middle of the living room. She
then turned and did it with the other wing as her arms lifted over her head.
As she did, Tony's eyes followed the well-defined lines of her back to her
ass. His monkey brain put the brakes on right there as he blinked and stared,
not at all distracted as her tiger's tail swished through his view. Even with
pants on, Tayra had a butt that could stop traffic.
"So you did notice."
Oh god, she saw me checking her out, he thought, eyes flicking back up
to hers as she turned, her wing snapping back to a folded position as she
faced him.
Wait, did she notice? She wasn't looking at me. So what was I supposed
to have noticed?
Aloud, he said, "That you're a girl? Yes, I did."
He silently added, Just now in fact. That ass is ... something else.
 She was looking at him with ruffled feathers and pinpointed eyes as she
said, "No, that I'm strong, but I'm flattered anyway."
"That I noticed you're female?"
"Most people don't get that far," she said, lifting her hand to indicate a
broad, completely manly chest, then up farther to tap her beak with a long,
black talon.
He looked at her for a moment as her feathers settled back into place
and her pupils broadened, wishing he knew what the hell that meant and
resolving to look up what he could find on it. He also wished he knew how
to respond to what she'd just said, but all he came up with was, "Well, kinda
stuck on how to reply to that. I'm not most people."
"No, I guess not. So ... spot?"
"Do you lift, or does all that," he waved a hand at her physique, "come
naturally?"
"Most of it comes naturally, but I still work out to keep what I've got
looking good and working right," she said as she padded toward him. "I'm
in the habit now, and I like how lifting makes me feel."
"Well, as long as you won't ruin the equipment, you're welcome to do
your own routine if you want to work in."
"What are you doing today?" she asked.
"Shoulders and back. You?"
"Today's a rest day for me."
"Well, I don't usually go for max because I usually don't have a spot ...
and because working our job fatigued is a recipe for disaster. I'm on a
maintenance routine, but if you want to join me you're welcome."
"I think I will."

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 6

OceanofPDF.com
 TAYRA

I didn ' t know a human body could look that good, Tayra thought absently
as she watched Tony doing bent rows.
He was wearing a shirt but it was white, compression fit, and did
nothing to hide all the flexing and straining going on underneath.
She'd intended to work in some minor sets just to warm up a bit, but had
spent most of the last forty-five minutes just watching Tony. The wall next
to the weights was mirrored and she noticed him correcting his form by
sight as he worked. Once he'd gone into his routine he seemed to
completely tune her out, but that was fine.
Not only was he a pleasure to watch, but the scent of his exertion was
beginning to drive her nuts. As she breathed it in she found herself
daydreaming of pinning him down and doing things she'd only seen in porn.
Or maybe ... he'd pin ME. MMMmm, I might not even have to let him.
She watched as he racked his bar and took a long drink from a jug of
water pulled from a shelf lined with more of the same.
"I'll give it a minute before doing some light Romanians to stretch, then
I'm done," he said, glancing at her. "Sure you don't want to work up a sweat
before we eat?"
"If we don't find a place for me today and the invitation to sleep here
remains open, I'll work out with you tomorrow," she said quietly, doing her
best to keep her eyes focused on his. His shirt was soaked through and she
could see everything, right down to the tight waist of shorts that were
depressingly baggy.
 "Well, the invitation will stay open as long as you need a place to sleep.
I've got some thoughts on that, but I'll save it for breakfast," he said before
he grabbed a pair of substantial dumbbells as he faced the mirror and let
their weight carry him toward the ground.
As he bent, his ass tightened in a way that made her pinpoint, and she
couldn't help but stare.
He looks like my dream come true. This is NOT fair, she thought as she
shifted, thighs pressing reflexively together. Thank providence humans
don't have that good a sense of smell; he's making me so horny it's starting
to bleed through my clothes.
"I need to use the restroom," she said, pointing a talon at the door as she
turned to head that way.
His eyes flicked to hers and he nodded slightly but didn't say anything
as he continued smoothly through his reps.
She closed the door behind her and leaned against it, breathing heavily
as she flexed her talons. The sound of her beak grinding was loud in the
stillness, and she forced herself to move.
With the door to the bathroom closed, she rolled up her pants and sat
down on the toilet, wishing desperately that she'd brought one of her toys.
"He's going to drive me right out of my mind," she muttered in
exasperation as she reached for one of the towels she'd used the night
before. She soaked it, pressed it between her legs, and scrubbed rather
harder than she needed to. It was quickly apparent that wouldn't be enough
to satisfy her craving and she stopped before she started making noise.
She glanced toward the shower, but if she used it he'd ask why after she
declined to 'work up a sweat.' What would she tell him? 'Sorry, you made
me horny and I didn't want you smelling it on me?'
"Heh. I wonder what he'd say if I did tell him. This is so messed up. Oh
well. All of Oolytau stinks and he is only human. He won't notice," she
muttered, and finished cleaning herself up as she resolutely put her
daydreams away.
She heard him come in and shout down the hall, "Showering, then we'll
do breakfast. You good with eggs and bacon?"
"As long as there's a lot of it!" she called back.
"My kind of girl!" he said cheerfully, then she heard the sound of his
door closing.
 "I wish," she muttered, triggering her pants to cover her up again before
stepping out into a hallway that was absolutely drenched in the smell of
hardworking man.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me," she grumbled, stepping out into a
dining area which had just enough room to flap her wings in an effort to
clear the air.
When that didn't work she went to the front door and unlocked it,
moving carefully to avoid scratching the wood with her talons, then stepped
outside, deliberately leaving the door open behind her in the hope the scent
would dissipate.
It was still dark. There was a lingering chill in the damp air as she sat
down on the stoop and took deep, calming breaths. Her sense of smell was
keener than that of a human, but the more problematic element was that
what she smelled was triggering responses in her she genuinely didn't know
how to handle, responses she'd never dealt with before.
She'd smelled plenty of sweaty men at the academy, but for some reason
Tony's scent was reaching deep inside her and pulling hard on something
primal, something that cared nothing for propriety, common sense, or the
rules. Her mother never told her anything about this, and the only
experience she had that even came close was when she was hungry and
smelled meat.
Her stomach growled in sympathy at the thought, and she muttered,
"That's it. Just like that. You're hungry Tayra, not horny Tayra. Focus on
that."
Fortunately, she was hungry. Very hungry.
Tayra filled her mind with thoughts of food and absolutely nothing else
until she heard movement behind her and Tony asked, "You okay?"
"Yeah, fine. You stink. Just left the door open to clear the air a little,"
she said, tilting her head to look at him out of one eye. He was wearing his
uniform grays and had a wry look on his face as he said, "Yeah, well, my
dad told me once the stronger a man is, the stronger he smells."
Tayra gave him a long, steady look, and he capitulated with an easy grin
as he slid sheepish fingers through his hair and said, "Sorry. As for
breakfast, I threw two pounds of bacon in the oven and I'm about to
scramble a dozen eggs or so. I usually use the pan for all of it but I figured
this'd be faster given we eat so much, and I'm hungry. You good for half?"
 "I'd be good for all of it, but I'll settle for half," she quietly said,
pressing herself to her feet and taking a last, deep breath of the fresh air
before following him inside.
Thankfully, the smell of bacon was overriding everything else and made
it easy to keep her mind on food until he was dishing everything out. He
paused and glanced at her as he asked, "Um ... insensitive question, but how
do you eat? You need a fork or uh ... what?"
Her feathers tightened at the question and she glanced away, then said,
"I can eat the bacon just the same as you. As for the eggs ... just dump my
half in a glass."
"A glass?"
"That'd be best."
She watched him blink at her, then look down at the eggs, then back at
her. He then flatly declared, "You're just going to dump it all down your
throat aren't you."
She shrugged and nodded, looking steadily away from him as she said,
"Chewing ... isn't something I do."
He blinked at her, then wryly shook his head as he said, "Well, I did tell
you it was an insensitive question."
"It's okay. It's less offensive than trying to pretend there's no difference
between us."
He shrugged that one off and she watched him dump half the eggs into a
coffee mug big enough to hold half a pot as he asked, "Do you even taste
food?"
"Yes, but not as well as you. I'm not a picky eater."
"Anything you avoid?"
"Not really. Honestly I could eat meat rotten if I had to."
She decided not to mention that for a while she'd done exactly that when
money was tight.
"Well ... I won't make you prove it, so no worries there," he said as he
gave her a queasy expression and a plate on which was a mess of bacon and
a coffee mug full of scrambled eggs.
He then set a second cup down, this one filled with actual coffee as he
asked, "How do you take it?"
Hard and from behind.
It was the first thought in her head as she looked him up and down, but
thankfully her filter caught it before the words left her throat.
 She throttled that line to address his actual question as she said, "Black
is fine. Like I said, not picky. The smell is most of what I enjoy about food.
After that it just feeds the beast."
He chuckled and returned to the table with his own plate and steaming
mug as he said, "Well I loves me the smell of coffee in the morning. Dig in
... or I guess in your case, bottom's up. I don't stand on ceremony."
"If you did, who would notice?" she asked as she slid a careful talon
into the handle and tipped her head back, downing the eggs in one go. It
was hot, but that was no problem.
"I'm sorry?" he asked around a mouthful of eggs.
"You live alone here?"
"Ooh, yeah, parents are long gone and I haven't had a girlfriend in ...
quite a while."
"I find that hard to believe," she said, thinking of the flower-scented
conditioner.
"I'll take that as a compliment," he said, though she noticed his eyes
flick left as his smile faded a bit. She wanted to question what she read as
either uncertainty or deception, but realized she didn't know him well
enough and really had no business butting into his personal affairs. If he
wanted to hide the woman putting long brown hair in his brush, she had no
right to question it.
Being irritated about it was something she couldn't help.
"You should," she said instead, then took a piece of bacon along with
the raised eyebrow he was giving her.
His head tipped as his eyes dropped to his plate again, and he resumed
eating without an answer.
"About the search ... what were you thinking?" she asked after polishing
off the rest of her bacon.
She watched as his eyes sharpened and he glanced at her, then at his
food as he said, "Saw a lot of goblins yesterday."
"Scouts and lookouts," she said.
"Yeah. Non-human scouts and lookouts."
"So?"
"So we're the non-human investigative corps. It's pretty obvious after
yesterday that you're not getting an apartment while there's a marker on you
so ... let's find out where the marker came from and make it go away."
 "Saying you want to take on the mob in Oolytau is kinda like saying
you want to drain the ocean with a straw," she said, feathers tightening in
annoyance.
"Don't look at me. It wasn't my idea," he said idly before filling his
mouth with food.
She ground her beak to get his attention, and when she had it said, "It is
absolutely your idea."
"You think? Pretty sure it was you on that recording beating up mob
reps, not me."
"The top guys are all human."
"So?"
"So we don't go after human criminals."
He shook his head with a smile and took a sip of coffee, then said, "The
NHIC has a mandate to investigate crime involving non-humans. That
doesn't mean the non-humans have to be the bad guys."
She stared at him for a long moment before she flatly declared, "You
want to use the fact that I'm a griff as an excuse to go after the mob for
putting a hit out on me."
He clicked his teeth and pointed at her.
"Do you have a death wish?"
"Interesting question, but I've got a better one," he said, then shoveled
the last of his eggs into his mouth.
He'd already finished the bacon.
She watched him deliberately chew, then said, "Okay, Corporal Wiseass.
I'll bite. What's a better question?"
"Do you ... want to be a hero?" he asked, then winked at her and picked
up his coffee and both plates, carrying it all into the kitchen.
Tayra was so startled by the question that she froze, then blurted,
"What?!"
"That's why you joined the Nick, isn't it? To be a hero?"
"Tony, no one goes out looking to be a hero," she said, feathers flat, eyes
dilated despite her best effort. How could he possibly know her most
closely held fantasy after just one day?
Seemingly unaware of her nervousness, he said, "I did. Hell, I told you
yesterday I wanted to be not just a hero, but a super hero."
As he slotted the plates and cutlery in his dishwasher he asked, "Did
you think I was kidding?"
 "Yes! Yes I did," Tayra said, nodding deliberately to make sure he got it.
"Well I wasn't. And I think you joined the NHIC because you want to be
one too."
"Why would you think that?"
"Most of the guys I know who wanted into the Nick from the start
wanted revenge. Some monster or other killed someone. Mom, dad, brother,
sister ... all of the above, take your pick. City natives like to pretend it's rare
but let's face it: it's not. There's a reason they call us 'monster hunters.'"
He came back with the coffee pot and topped up her mug, then his own
as he said, "But you said you came from outside the city. Your parents are
fine, far as you know. But you ... came here. You busted your hump to pay
for, then get through the academy. Police training isn't cheap. Given the
timing, you were going to be regular police, but when the chance came you
transferred to the NHIC so that you ... could hunt monsters. One of just six
non-human recruits to make it in on the first wave, and you were the only
non-human recruit living in Oolytau. You had to know that would paint a
target on your back even if you hadn't given them an easy excuse."
"That doesn't mean I want to be a hero."
"Don't bullshit me. That's exactly what it means. Now, why you want to
be a hero isn't something I'll pretend I know, but you definitely want to be a
hero."
He sat down, took a sip, then cradled his mug in both hands as he stared
pointedly at her before adding, "I'm right. Right?"
"You're crazy," she said, still struggling to get her thoughts back on
track.
"Most heroes are. So? You want to spend all day today asking people to
tell you 'no' again, or would you rather get some real work done?"

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 7

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 GRACE

A click in her ear let her know comms were up, and the voice that came
through after belonged to Hames, a goblin and the other lookout she worked
with.
"Looks like she's headed our way."
Grace looked up, then rolled off her back into a crouch, glancing toward
the edge of the roof she'd been loitering on all day as she asked, "Which
direction?"
"Coming down V Street toward the Dulles towers, and get this, she's on
foot."
"Alone?" Grace asked as she moved to the edge in a crouch and looked
down, eyes narrowed as she scanned the crowd.
"We're not that lucky. That big fucker we've been seeing around lately
looks like he's been assigned to her. They're both rockin' the grays today
too. It's like they're on fuckin' patrol. Can you believe that shit?"
It was a clearly rhetorical question and Grace ignored it as she asked,
"Arms?"
"You know it. He's got the pistol and he's a Nicky so you know he's
quick. As for her? Not sure. We didn't see anything yesterday either but
she's got on a long coat. For all we know she could have a rocket launcher
under there."
"Doesn't matter what they're packing."
That was Lucas, and Grace withheld a sigh as she heard him. He was a
full-blooded werewolf and unlike her and Hames, he was a hitter. The three
of them had worked as a team for almost six months now, collecting mob
bounties just like this one.
Well, not just like this one. This one's a cop ... which is why today'll be
the day I earn my way out of this shithole subcity.
The thought rolled through her mind as she took out her phone and
started texting as she said, "Remember, she's a griff. If she gets in close she
doesn't need a piece."
"You forget who you're talking to? If I get in close it won't matter what
she's got," Lucas snarled. "Or how much damage she can do. I'm at V and
Arturo. Where are they?"
"Somewhere down toward Grace. I don't have a line on 'em anymore.
Good luck."
"You're a chicken shit, Hames," Lucas said.
"You would be too if you weighed sixty-five pounds soakin' wet. I've
done my job. Now you do yours."
"Why do we pay that fucker?" Lucas asked as Grace continued to scan
the street below her.
She noticed a disturbance in the crowd that focused her attention on two
huge figures practically trailing a wake of disrupted foot traffic as they
walked down the sidewalk toward her tower.
Perfect, she thought, finishing her text.
"Because his eyes are sharp and his information is on point. He's the
one who predicted these two would try this block today," Grace said quietly
as she gestured to zoom in. Her monocle did its job and she highlighted the
two NHIC officers as she asked, "You got 'em? They're headed right for us."
"Yeah. They're painted. Keep eyes on."
"They usually split up at the entrance," Hames said. "I just called and
bribed the building supe to let her see the roof so you'll be able to take them
one at a time."
"Perfect," Lucas growled. "Once she's in the elevator I'll hit the first
one."
Grace hastily said, "No no. Griffs don't like tight spaces. She'll go for
the stairs, guaranteed. You'll have to give her a few extra minutes to get
high enough that she won't hear the gunfire and react."
"Rrrrr. Fine, but how do you know she won't come out to get him when
the supe offers to take her up?" Lucas asked.
Grace smiled as she said, "She won't. Griffs are loners by nature."
 "You know a lot about them, it seems," Hames noted.
"Gargoyles and griffins have a lot in common," Grace replied, her eyes
still tracking the two as they reached the mezzanine for the tower she was
perched on. The two paused there, talking.
Come on ... come ooon, she thought. With her zoom she could count the
griff's feathers, but what she was noticing instead was just how fucking big
those two were.
Lucas was a literal beast, but he also only weighed about a hundred
eighty pounds. These two looked like they were easily two twenty each, and
none of it was fat. She couldn't tell at a glance which of them was bigger,
and the fact that one of them was a griffin meant the human had to be pretty
fucking huge.
Our boy has his work cut out if he doesn't get a snap kill, she thought
with dark satisfaction. That Nicky's not going down in one unless it's a head
shot. Even after that, Lucas'll still have her to deal with. His regen won't
save him if she bites his fool head off, which I would pay good money to
see.
Her notification sounded. She checked it, then sent another text as she
kept her monocle trained on the two below her.
The male human pulled out his phone and checked it, then put on an
earpiece and spoke a few words to the griffin. Her feathers flattened down
in what Grace considered a good sign, then she nodded and turned to go
inside.
She paused once and half-turned, but the human waved her impatiently
on and she left Grace's field of view, clearing her paint in the process.
"All right. Lucas, can you see her through the glass?" Grace asked.
"Yeah, I see her."
"Good. Wait until she's been out of sight at least two minutes, then hit
him," she said as she checked her phone, then sent another text as she
watched the human fiddling with his own phone. She tried zooming in on
his screen, but couldn't cut through the glare to see what he was doing.
"Got it," Lucas growled. "She's heading for the stairs ... two minutes."
"Two minutes. Sure you don't want me to drop down and use the net?
Make an easy thing a sure thing?" Grace asked, knowing she'd get shot
down.
"Stay. Put," Hames said.
 "Tch. Fine," Grace said as she searched the crowds, found Lucas, and
painted him.
"What are you doing?" Lucas asked, no doubt seeing himself come up
as a target on his own monocle.
"Relax. I just want to get a clear view of the show," Grace said
teasingly. "These comms are closed, remember?"
Hames sounded annoyed as he said, "Quit playing, Grace. One target."
"Fiiiine," she said as she sent one last text before clearing the paint off
Lucas. "One more minute."
"I'm ready," Lucas growled.
Grace smiled as she crouched, one arm over her knee as she looked
down and thought, Not as ready as I am.

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 TONY

"I saw that same goblin yesterday ," Tayra said quietly as she strode
purposefully down the sidewalk, Tony next to her on the street side.
"You're sure?" he asked. "Goblins all look the same to me."
"I'm sure. He's got a monocle too. He'll be in closed comms with
someone else on this block, maybe a group. This is a dumb idea, Tony.
We're going to get gunned down in public."
"Ye of little faith."
"Religion has nothing to do with this."
"Ye of little faith in me," he corrected.
"I just met you," Tayra snapped.
"What? You accepted an invitation from a man you just met, spent the
night in my house and ate my cooking, but all of a sudden now you don't
trust me?"
Her feathers fluffed, then flattened as she shook her head and said, "You
are entirely too casual about this. You won't be the first target."
"Actually, unless we're getting hit by complete amateurs, I absolutely
will be the first target."
"What, because you're the senior officer?" she scoffed.
"Well, that and I'm the one with a visible sidearm. They'd be signing
their own death warrant to shoot at you first. A street this narrow and
twisted doesn't have long enough sight lines for a sniper even if they just
happened to already be in place, so whatever goes down will go down at
close range. That's why we picked this street, remember?"
 She blinked, having no ready answer to that because it was a good
point.
"See? Have a little faith," he teased. "You told me most of these hitters
work up close and with spots, not other hitters."
"Yeah, but we're cops."
"I'm a cop. You're just a new recruit."
She stopped to glare at him and he paused half a step on to look back at
her as he said, "From their perspective, Tayra. Come on. I saw you. I know
you're cool under pressure and a beast in a fight. I'm not worried."
"I am not a 'beast,'" she snapped, though she did start walking again.
"And I still think you're entirely too casual about this."
"You are too a beast, and coming from me that's high praise. As for
casual ... eh, I've been shot often enough to trust my armor."
"You really do have a death wish."
"What can I say? Apartment hunting sucks!"
He watched her feathers fluff at that, then a second later she tried
unsuccessfully to stifle giggling that sounded really weird coming from the
far side of a beak.
He grinned, but throughout their conversation his eyes never stopped
scanning.
Despite this, he had no idea they were being watched until Tayra said,
"Don't look up. Rooftop of the apartment tower just ahead. She's completely
focused on us and has a monocle. We really are about to get hit, Tony."
They stopped at the foot of the mezzanine leading up into the building
and he scanned the lobby as he said, "Keep calm and look. See anybody
else?"
"No, but they're here. I can feel the attention."
Just then his phone buzzed and as he pulled it he said, "Just keep an eye
out. How likely are they to hit us while we're out in the open like this?"
"Increasingly," she said as she cocked her head, giving him a very
steady look.
He checked the phone. The caller's name was listed as Shiro, no last
name. His eyes widened and he put in his earpiece before accepting the call.
The voice on the other end was smooth, urbane, and belonged to someone
he'd never heard before but had certainly heard a lot about.
"Mr. Platz."
 "How did you get this number, and what do you want?" Tony asked as
he kept his eyes on Tayra, watching her for signs of alarm.
"Listen carefully. You're being targeted by a hitter named Lucas
Donovan. He's a full-blooded werewolf. Do you have silver loaded?"
"Last round in the magazine."
"I'm a friend of your Uncle Nick's and I got this number from him.
You'll be hit in the next minute or two. Good luck."
The line disconnected as Tony said, "That was a tip from a source
Andrew Bremmin uses. He's the-"
"-I know who Bremmin is. What did his source say?"
"That we're due to be hit, and it's a werewolf. Do you have silver?"
"No. Just a standard shotgun load. Scatter, slug, scatter, four slugs."
"Head inside as though you're going to check for an apartment then.
Shotgun blasts on a crowded street are a recipe for disaster. Just do the
usual."
"Are you-"
"I'll follow a moment afterward, make like I need to piss or something.
We'll take him in the stairwell. Go now, while it still looks natural," he said,
staring hard at her. She turned to head up the stairs only to glance back.
Before she could speak he waved her on impatiently, looking at his
phone. Given the nature of the call's content and the fact that he had heard
of Shiro, Tony went with his instincts to trust the tip was legit.
Tayra went inside and he kept her in his peripheral as he made a show
of toying with his phone.
A line of text came in along with an image of a top-down view of the
street. There were two painted targets on that image, and he was one of
them.
The other was behind him, between two food vendors.
The line of text read, 'One minute.'
Tony took a deep breath as he put his phone away and slowly turned,
deliberately scanning the street. Despite what he'd told Tayra, he was really
not all that comfortable with this, particularly since he'd just sent his backup
inside. He had ten rounds in his weapon, only the last of which was silver.
Silver was expensive and only got issued in full magazines when the target
was known in advance to be a full-blooded lycanthrope. Regular police
didn't carry silver at all.
 The other nine rounds were hollow points designed for accuracy,
stopping power, and reduced penetration to minimize the chance of
collateral damage. He would have to fire all nine before he could make a
kill shot, and the street was packed with people. He had a reload magazine
with alternating armor-piercing and incendiary rounds, but that wouldn't
help him. In a fight like this, there'd be no reloading.
He took a long, deep breath without seeming to and put himself at an
angle to the spot between the food carts that minimized the time it would
take him to put his weapon in play without making it seem as though he
were prepared for an attack from that direction.
He spotted gray hair above a face too young to be old and knew he'd
found his man. Abruptly, he turned and ascended the stairs, hunching over
himself as though with an upset stomach. In so doing, he got an angle on
the man now pushing his way through the crowds to close the distance.
All right, he thought. Get him into the building. No civilian casualties.
It was a terrible risk. Half-blood weres, and even full-bloods, COULD
die through massive trauma, but it usually required doing something
dramatic. Something like making their head explode.
Tayra's shotgun could do that, but it would also do it to whatever was
behind the head she was popping. The very last thing Tony wanted was to
wind up giving the NHIC bad press.
The glass door — as he pushed through — showed him the werewolf
just beginning to take the steps, and he deliberately crossed the floor of the
lobby toward the elevator bank and the stairwell that would typically be
somewhere beyond.
He heard the door open behind him and it took every ounce of will to
keep going instead of turn around to face the threat. Instead, he rounded the
corner and put the wall between them, then took a few longer steps before
shortening them again. No one was near the elevators, and when he saw a
shadow in the brushed metal of the firehose cabinet in front of him, he
knew he was out of time.
Spinning as he dropped to one knee and drew, he shouted, "Police! Let
me see your hands!"
Before the last of the words left his mouth, he was already firing as he
saw the other man's pistol coming up. This wasn't a movie. Werewolf or
not, mob hitters used guns just like humans. The fact that it wasn't legal for
non-humans to own guns didn't matter much to people who broke the law
for a living, and at least as many NHIC officers died of perfectly ordinary
bullet wounds as to claws and fangs.
The first shot fired at Tony went over his head, but Tony didn't miss,
firing rapidly to get through his magazine as quickly as he could to gain
access to the one lethal round he had.
Red splashes of color rewarded his aim as he counted his rounds down.
Chest, belly, chest, belly ... the hitter had gone for a head shot, but Tony
wasn't about to take that risk. As his bullets thudded home and he counted
them down a wiry, gray-haired man with wolfish eyes and parted jaws full
of distinctly not human teeth charged his way, firing his own weapon at
practically point blank range. Tony's bullets weren't even slowing him
down.
He fired his ninth round as he felt a slug hit his chestplate, then took an
extra fraction of a second to aim true before putting his last and only silver
bullet through the werewolf's heart.
The body slammed into him a second later only to sag, smearing blood
down Tony's uniform as he collapsed to the floor.
Before the body stopped twitching Tony was reloaded and searching for
targets.
There were none.
His phone vibrated in his pocket and the call auto-connected because he
had his earpiece in. The voice on the other end was coldly professional as it
said, "Gunfire confirmed, status when able."
"No civilian casualties. One perpetrator down. Werewolf male. Ten
rounds fired, one silver."
"Officer status?"
He flexed his chest and allowed himself a smile as he said, "Hit but
uninjured."
"Perpetrator status?"
Still looking warily around, Tony's smile faded as he felt for a pulse he
knew he wouldn't find.
"Dead," he said quietly.
"Footage will be pulled and archived, forensic transport en route.
Remain on scene for hand-off," the dispatcher replied. It was a clinical way
of saying there was a corpse wagon on the way and that he needed to stay in
sight of the body and prevent tampering until it could be analyzed,
documented, and loaded.
 "Acknowledged," he said, then disconnected the call before picking up
his empty magazine and sliding it into its place on his belt. He'd reload it
later.
He straightened, looking around.
There'd been no screams and the foot traffic on the other side of the still
unbroken glass of the lobby was only disrupted insofar as rubberneckers
were trying to see what all the commotion was about.
This was Oolytau. Gunfights weren't uncommon here, and the populace
wasn't easily panicked.
One brave man even stepped in, only to turn and leave at Tony's barked
command. He might not have — given the look of defiance that crossed his
face — but Tony was a big man with more than a little blood smeared on a
police uniform and he still had his weapon in his fist. After a heartbeat, he
turned and left. There was no one else in the lobby.
"That was well done. I came running when I heard you shout, but it was
over by the time I rounded the corner."
Tayra was standing behind him, looking down at the body with her
feathers flat and pinpointed eyes.
"What does that expression mean?" he asked, holstering his pistol as he
tilted his head. "Small pupils and flat feathers."
Her pupils broadened as she focused on him, then pinpointed, then
broadened again as she seemed to make a conscious effort to fluff her
feathers, which then settled naturally as she said, "It means I'm not happy. I
thought you were going to draw him into the stairwell."
"I was on my way ... problem is, the attacker gets to pick the time and
place. At least we got him in here instead of out on the street."
"How many times were you hit?" she asked.
"Once, I think," he said, looking down, then feeling at his chestplate. He
winced at what he found and said, "Uh ... twice. I'll have the plate
examined, but I didn't even feel one of these so I'm pretty sure it's fine. I
know what a compromised armor plate feels like when it takes a round."
Tayra shook her head and said, "Human armor amazes me even more
than human weapons, sometimes."
"You're easily impressed," Tony said with a lazy smile that hid the
adrenaline still surging through him.
His heart was hammering in his chest, but it was excitement, not fear.
After that first shot missed his head, Donovan — presuming that's who the
corpse was — had panicked and aimed for center mass. Anyone would,
getting blasted like he had been, but still, Tony was alive as much from luck
as skill. It was just like the trainers said: you could do everything right and
still die. That's what monster hunting amounted to. Technology could only
take you so far. Pure-blooded werewolves didn't have the worst weapons,
but they were among the hardest of the non-humans to kill.
Still, Tony had always gone to the front. He'd beaten his fear a long time
ago. At least, his fear of battle, of getting shot. It was a good thing too,
because he was a big target and he'd been shot many times.
"Is any of that blood yours?" Tayra asked.
Tony glanced down at himself, winced, then shook his head and said,
"No, but it is an annoying amount of blood. I've got a change of uniform in
my locker but we have to wait for the corpse hauler before we can leave."
"And then you will leave?"
Both Tony and Tayra turned toward a middle-aged man of Asiatic
descent stepping out the door that led to the security offices off the main
lobby.
Tayra took a step past Tony as she said, "Do you actually have roof
space available or did you just send me up there to divide us?"
The man blinked, looked past her to Tony, then back again as he said,
"No, Miss Manes. We don't have any space available for someone with your
notoriety, under any conditions."
"Then you won't see me in that context again," Tayra said quietly. Tony
noticed the feathers at the back of her neck tighten, then relax.
The man hesitated, then said, "I was paid, however, to send you to the
roof in what I now suspect was meant to be a diversion. For what it's worth,
I am glad that you did not die in my building. I have the utmost respect for
the police. If you wish, I will authorize a trace on my account provided the
money remains where it is."
Tayra turned her head, looking at Tony out of one eye. He nodded. She
turned back to what he presumed to be the building superintendent and said,
"We'll get that authorization recorded, and I think it can be arranged. I doubt
that the money was earmarked 'mob hit' so I see no reason you shouldn't be
allowed to keep it ... in the spirit of fostering your continued goodwill.
Perhaps one day that goodwill will amount to an actual warning, instead of
an effort to get off without being charged as an accessory."
 The man didn't even look embarrassed as he allowed Tayra to record his
permission, then added, "Once this trouble of yours is cleared up, come and
talk to me again. Under ordinary circumstances we prefer having officers
lodging with us. I await your success."
He then turned, stepped back into the security office, and closed the
door without another word.
Tayra stepped to one side so that she could look at Tony without turning
her back on the glass face of the building, which was only partially hidden
from her angle to the elevator bank as she said, "He only did that because if
he didn't we'd trace the account anyway and the money would be
confiscated."
"I know," Tony said absently. "I was born at night, but not last night.
Still, it's the little things. His extra bit of testimony might just be the
difference that gets us a conviction, and it adds up. The money isn't
something the NHIC is terribly concerned about. That's what politicians are
for. There's something else you should see though."
He held up a wait-a-sec finger as he pulled out his phone, then crooked
it to pull her in.
She gave him a one-eyed look he could only interpret as suspicion, then
stepped in close and looked at his phone as he pulled up the image he'd
been sent.
"That's ..."
She trailed off and Tony picked up the thread.
"... from the point of view of the roof over our heads, yes," he said.
"Shiro was apparently in contact with someone on this little hit squad. The
watcher you saw on the roof sold them out."
"By now she and the goblin are long gone," Tayra said, her beak grating
with what he could only interpret as irritation.
"I dunno. Once the corpse wagon is out of here, I suggest we check out
the stairwell. See if the snitch left us anything where the cameras can't see."
Tayra didn't immediately answer, and he was frustrated again by the fact
that he really couldn't tell what she was thinking. That wasn't to say she
wasn't showing him ... her feathers shifted. Her pupils widened and
narrowed independent of the light. He just didn't know what the hell he was
looking at when he saw it.
"You make me wish I'd had a bird for a pet," he said with a grin. "Then
maybe I'd know what was going on in your head."
 "Just pay attention, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it," she said, her eyes
shifting to his as they narrowed a bit and the feathers around her neck
fluffed.
"Was that a smile?" he asked. "It seems kinda like a smile to me."
"Close enough," she said, chuckling. "Though, I resent the thought of
being compared to a pet bird."
"There aren't many griffins around I could learn from."
"Take your time, Tony. I'll be here a while."
"I love that confidence," he said with a grin, but the smile faded as he
looked down at the corpse. Tayra's eyes followed his, and her feathers
tightened a bit as she asked, "How long will it take them to come pick this
up?"
"Twenty minutes, give or take. They'll have to get down this street,
which is ordinarily closed to anything but foot traffic."
"So we have to wait at least that long to-"
"Nah. You can go up if you want. I'll wait here. Just look around and see
if she left anything. I'll be fine ... unless you think there's going to be
another attack."
Tayra actually rolled her eyes in an expression that was easy to interpret
as she said, "Unlikely."
"Set and run the recorder on your phone, just in case," Tony said.
Nodding, she pulled her phone out and settled it into a strap sewn into
her coat for the purpose as she turned toward the stairs again, then paused to
ask, "What if I actually encounter her?"
"In that very unlikely event, I trust you to make the right call," Tony
said.
Tayra actually thought about that for a long few seconds, then returned
her phone to her pocket as she said, "If I meet her, she won't want to be
recorded as a sell-out. I'll be back."
Then she left, and Tony had nothing to do but wait for the corpse wagon
to arrive.

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 9

OceanofPDF.com
 TAYRA

S ince there were significantly more than thirty floors to this tower,
Tayra didn't walk the stairs. For the first twenty floors she simply leapt from
one landing to the next, and only when she really began to feel the burn did
she resort to striding up the rest. It was good exercise if nothing else.
At the fiftieth floor landing, just short of roof access, she found the
gargoyle waiting for her.
She was gray-skinned and digitigrade, wearing skintight, bright yellow
pants that stopped at her dew claws and a tight, light blue t-shirt with an
image of a cartoon figure on the front. The shirt was tight enough to show
hints of her abdominals beneath and give away entirely the lack of a bra.
Her wings were bald, like a bat's, and folded over her shoulders, thumbs
hooked over one another in a mockery of a cape. She was not wearing a
monocle, but she was fiddling with her phone and only looked up when
Tayra came into sight on the landing below.
"Hi, I'm Grace," the gargoyle said, smiling through her obvious nervous
tension. Her face was finely sculpted, with a pair of horns that began at her
brow ridge and closely followed the shape of her skull all the way to the
crown where they trailed back into points a few inches out, framing a head
of bright blue hair. Her eyes were also blue and slitted like those of a cat.
"Hello Grace, I'm Officer Manes ... though I suspect you already know
that."
Grace's smile faded as she nodded and said, "Look, I-"
"I already know you sold out your hitter. What I want to know is why.
You looking for an out and figured if you could get in good with the police
they'd boost you to another subcity?"
"S-something like that," Grace stammered. "I mean, check my record.
I'm clean."
"Which just means you haven't been caught."
"Look, are we dealing or not?" Grace asked, frustration showing.
Tayra let the silence hang for a moment, then nodded slowly.
Grace's relief was obvious. She sighed and sagged a bit against the wall
as she muttered, "Thank you. You have no idea-"
"I've lived here most of my adult life, Grace. I have an excellent idea,"
Tayra snapped. "And unlike you, I did my living without resorting to penny-
ante gangland shit. Three jobs, the academy ... it's possible."
"If you came from the Tracts, you don't know what it's like," Grace
snapped. "I'm sure you had it rough out there, but the predators in here get
their due out of Daytau kids like me."
Tayra took her time thinking about that, then nodded. Orphans with no
one to claim them before they were determined to be adults were given the
surname 'Daytau' no matter which subcity they grew up in.
"I suppose that's fair, and like I said, we're dealing. What you get
depends very much on what we get. I need to know which boss put out the
hit."
Grace shook her head and said, "I'll deal, and I can pass information, but
not to you. I need insurance. I'm going through Shiro. Heard of him?"
"Just recently," Tayra admitted.
"Well, he's got an interest, and he's one of the few who looks out for
people like me. I'll let him know what you've said, and he'll call. Probably
your human partner."
"Don't trust me?" Tayra asked.
"I don't trust either of you. I don't care if you're a griff. You're also a
Nicky. Shiro told me you wouldn't try and arrest me today and I believed
him, but if he was wrong I've still got an out."
Tayra looked keenly at Grace for a moment, then nodded slowly and
started ascending toward her as she said, "I'm not going to try and arrest
you, though I probably should. As is, I'm going to pass you to the roof, then
get back down to my partner. I don't need to put you in cuffs to make sure
you come through. You'll hold up your end because that's in your best
interest."
 Grace watched her without moving an inch until she was on the top
landing next to the door, where she turned and asked, "The monocle?"
"Powder. We don't keep them," the gargoyle said, opening one gray
hand. The flecks of composite still stuck to her palm and fingers were like
glitter.
"Stone grip is really something, isn't it," Tayra said as she lifted her
taloned hand and flexed it idly. "I couldn't do something like that."
"We all have our gifts," Grace said with a quiet smile that made Tayra's
beak grate.
The gargoyle heard it and her eyes widened a bit, then narrowed, but
she didn't say anything.
Smart kid, Tayra thought ruefully as she pressed through the heavy
metal door and let it shut behind her. The roof didn't have any apartments at
all, just the pad and a pair of communications towers locked behind barbed
wire fencing with high voltage signs posted to make sure anyone trying to
steal had warning sufficient to satisfy the law before they fried themselves.
She glanced around, then moved to the edge and dropped off, wings
flaring as she began a controlled fall, drifting a block one way, then another.
It was always more difficult in tight streets, but she'd been doing this all her
life and managed to land almost directly beneath her drop spot.
The corpse wagon had arrived and as she ascended the stairs she was
passed by a pair of humans carrying the body in a black bag on a stretcher
between them.
Inside, Tony was talking with a third human, but he paused as he caught
sight of her, then resumed.
"The silver should be in or just past his heart. I'll want it recycled and
sent back to me," he said.
"Yeah, that's standard. You should have a fresh bullet in a few days," the
man said as he too turned to glance back at Tayra. He was a young man
with blond hair and green eyes, and it was somewhat surprising to see
someone so young assigned to corpse disposal. She knew Tony was twenty-
four because she'd read his files, but this man looked much younger, and if
she hadn't known better she'd have said he was a minor. He was wearing a
blue overall with the name Koffman stitched over his left breast, and had a
datapad loose in his left hand. Strangely, he was also wearing a single green
gemstone in his right ear. It was strange because he was otherwise clean-
shaven and his hair was trimmed in a conservative fashion, making the lone
piercing stand out.
"Your new partner, right?" the man asked.
"Yeah. Tayra Manes," Tony said.
"Daniel Koffman," he said as he held out a hand to Tayra. "Forensics.
At least, on paper. Mostly I just get called in to document scenes like this
and cart the bodies off for claim, research, or recyc. Rack up the b-count on
day shift and you'll be seeing me again."
As she carefully accepted and shook the man's hand, Tayra said, "I
honestly hope I don't see much of you then, Mr. Koffman. I'm surprised
someone so young is even doing this job."
"Well, I'm pre-med. The money's good and let's face it, not everyone
can handle doing this sort of thing full time," Daniel said with an idle shrug.
"The dead ... just don't bother me."
His smile was charming as he winked and added, "It's the living that
cause me problems. Take care, you two."
Once Daniel was outside, Tony murmured, "That's a weird guy."
"I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought so. I'm having a hard time
believing he's old enough to do the job."
"His age doesn't factor. Did you see that smile? The man literally just
did a video log of a bloody corpse and he's winking at people. That's ...
macabre."
Tayra shrugged absently as she said, "Well, I was warned forensics
people were often fans of black humor. I have the impression it comes with
the job."
"Maybe. Still. That's beyond creepy," Tony said with a shudder. "That
actually bothered me more than standing guard over the body for the last
fifteen. I'd say let's grab lunch, but honestly, I need to get back to the
precinct to change and ... I've lost my appetite."
"Sure, that's fine," she said, following him out of the building and back
onto the city streets.
As they walked, she noticed people staring at Tony, then giving both of
them a lot more space than they'd gotten on the way in. Some were even
taking recordings or pictures.
"I hate this city," Tony muttered under his breath.
"So you've said," Tayra noted dryly.
 He glanced at her in annoyance and said, "If I'd been thinking right I'd
have gotten a ride back in the corpse wagon, but Daniel's weirdness threw
me completely off my game. Can we call a taxi at the end of the block, do
you think?"
"As long as it's automated, and large. A manned taxi would take one
look at you and keep driving," she said.
"Fine. Call one, will you? My app is still tuned to Daytau proper."
"Are we splitting the bill? I have to get a large," she said.
"You can pay for it out of pocket and I'll keep feeding you," he said,
giving her a wry look.
She laughed at him and said, "No deal. I'd rather just walk. You're the
one upset that people are staring."
"What if I upgrade your breakfast tomorrow with a t-bone to go along
with your eggs?" he asked.
"Now you're talking. I'm a sucker for steak ... though I should arrest you
for bribing a police officer."
"I could get you just as easily for accepting the bribe," he said, rolling
his eyes as she laughed at him.
She pulled her phone and summoned an automated taxi, ensuring it was
one of the larger size categories so they'd both fit comfortably. Despite the
day's events, she felt good. Not only was Tony easy on the eyes, he was
easy to talk to, and he really did seem to want to help. He'd turned this
apartment hunt into an opportunity for both of them, and while it was
foolish, and dangerous, it was also the sort of thing she might have done on
her own if she didn't have a partner to think of.
He's perfect, she thought, glancing at him again out of one eye. She
liked everything about him, and couldn't help but fantasize about cornering
him in the locker room while he was changing to say so.
That fantasy was thoroughly disrupted as Tony asked, "You okay?"
She was so startled that she chirped. Mortified for having made the
sound, Tayra gripped her knees tightly and looked around the cab,
anywhere but at him.
"Holy shit," Tony said quietly. "How is it possible for you to be this
cute?"
Tayra focused on a random spot in front of her and resolutely didn't look
at him as she said, "I am not cute."
 "Well, no, you're not cute now. Now you're obviously embarrassed,
which is pushing the boundaries of adorable. You just chirped at me."
"I did not!"
"I didn't know griffin's could chirp!"
Without meaning too, Tayra started grinding her beak, and he said,
"There it is again."
"There's what?"
"You were grinding your beak. When I asked if you were okay you
chirped at me. Now you're grinding again. What's that mean?"
"It means I'm frustrated," she admitted, knowing if she didn't say
something he'd just keep pestering her about it.
His next question surprised her. She'd expected him to ask her what was
frustrating her. Instead, he asked, "Anything I can help with?"
Oh fuuuck, yes. Yes please. You can help me anytime you want, as often
as you want, as hard as you want, she thought as she finally looked at him,
eyes pinpointed. I want your help sooo much and it is sooo not fair I can't
just come out and say so.
Since there was no way she could admit that the help he could give her
would come in the form of activity requiring genetic treatments, she said,
"Yeah ... once you change and shower, we can stop by the storage unit. I
need to pick up a few things if I'm going to be staying at your place for a
while."
"We can absolutely do that," Tony said agreeably. "Must be something
really annoying, if you're doing the griffin's equivalent of grinding your
teeth over it."
"You have no idea."
"Nope, not one."
She looked at him curiously as he turned his attention to the outside
world, then said, "But you're not going to ask about it?"
"I don't ask questions patience will answer, remember?" he said,
grinning as he glanced back at her.
Her eyes pinpointed even as her feathers pulled tight to her throat, and
he guessed, "So ... you're not happy with that answer?"
"It's complicated," she said, glancing away again.
"We've got time."
"Very complicated."
"That chirp was really cute."
 Her beak started to grind again before she could stop herself, but he
only laughed.
"I am ... really not used to being teased," she said, struggling to find
some way, any way, out of this conversation without admitting to something
that would ruin what she now had real hope could be a good working
relationship.
He was smiling and either oblivious or choosing to ignore her distress
as he said, "Look, it obviously bothers you, so I'll leave it alone. You can
tell me later."
She deliberately opened her beak a bit to keep from grinding and didn't
answer him as she turned to look out at the passing city. Part of her wanted
to just come out and admit it. She was direct by nature. But she'd also spent
long enough around humans to know that wasn't how long-term
relationships started. Since the Spite made one-night stands literally
impossible between humans and others, she had to be careful. Not only
might she ruin any chance at romance, she might kill their partnership too.
I'll pick up some toys along with my covers when we get to storage, then
at least, I won't have to deal with this constant frustration.

OceanofPDF.com
 10

OceanofPDF.com
 TONY

P ersonal storage units in Oolytau were, like so much else in the city, a
vertically challenging affair. The buildings were constructed with broad
halls that tended to narrow as one went higher up. Storage lockers likewise
started out big, capable of handling vehicles along with just about anything
else bulky, while those on higher floors were for more compact goods.
Tony waited idly inside on the bottom floor, leaning against the hood of
his vehicle. Waiting out on the street was an invitation to trouble, but since
Tayra had things stowed here she had a code that let him drive inside, so he
was parked next to the stairs on the bottom floor. Most of the floor was
open, given over to long-term parking, though the vehicles were mostly
junkers stored here because their owners still needed them, just not for
everyday business, and keeping them here was marginally less risky than
keeping them out in the open or in only lightly secured parking garages.
This place, and most other reputable storage facilities, either hired
guards or used an automated turret system, though lethal force wasn't
authorized, so the best they could do was a combination of rubber
projectiles and various types of incapacitating gasses.
Things still got stolen, but the defenses set in place were enough to
deter most attempts at random larceny. Only those who knew for a fact
there was something worth taking and where it was in the building
generally tried.
Tony doubted Tayra had anything anyone in Oolytau would think worth
stealing. She'd told him she was from the Tracts. She hadn't said so, but he
wouldn't have been surprised to learn she'd just walked up to the perimeter
naked and asked to come in. While not an everyday occurrence, that did
happen with fair regularity, and non-humans were usually granted entry. It
was ironic that humans coming in out of the Tracts usually got much closer
scrutiny because there was a much greater chance they were wanted
criminals. They were moved to holding cells while calls were put out to all
the surrounding city-states with detailed biometric information. Only when
all of them made negative replies was the human permitted entry.
As he let his mind wander, he found himself thinking about that
morning stretch he'd seen Tayra do.
He had never seen an ass like that. That it was covered in tiger-striped
fur, he knew, but to his monkey brain that wasn't even a consideration, just
a detail. The shape of it did things to parts of him that were hard-wired, and
he couldn't help wondering what it'd be like to-
"Hey."
Tony blinked as he leaned away from the car and spun on the ball of his
foot. His pistol was in his hand and coming level before he caught himself
and paused.
Tayra had her head cocked, feathers a bit ruffled as she looked at him
out of one eye. There was a sizable gym bag dangling from the claws of her
left hand, and he noticed that her wings were now sporting black covers that
looked like leather. As he relaxed and re-holstered she said, "It's not a good
idea to get distracted like that in Oolytau. I mean, in here it's not as bad, but
still. You must have been deep in thought if your first instinct was to draw
when you heard me. What were you thinking about?"
As his eyes flicked to her hips ... which were pretty awe-inspiring, then
away, he said, "Just daydreaming, and yeah, you're right. That's probably a
bad idea."
Inwardly he added, For all sorts of reasons.
"Daydreaming? Do you have a death wish?" she asked as she strode
forward, then opened his passenger side and dumped her bag on the seat
there.
"I'm a cop in Oolytau, which makes that a trick question," he said wryly.
"Oolytau isn't so bad. You just have to play by the rules. Out in the
Tracts daydreaming will get you killed just as quick. Doesn't make it a bad
place."
"From what you told me earlier, it's worse than Oolytau at the least," he
said.
 She visibly hesitated, pupils dilating slightly, then widening again as she
considered him. Then she said, "For all humanity's technical advancements,
they aren't the only reason non-humans choose to live in human cities. Not
all of them are suited to life in wild places. Goblins, for instance, were
always inclined toward city life. Gels too, if I'm being honest. There's never
a food shortage for them in any city."
"And you?" he asked.
Again she hesitated, tilting her head away to consider him out of one
eye as the feathers around her neck fluffed a bit.
"Uncertainty?" he guessed.
"A fair interpretation," she said. "I don't think that's a fair question for
you to ask me."
"Why unfair?"
"Because I can't tell you that either."
He laughed incredulously and spread his hands, then shrugged and said,
"Whatever. As long as the job is done I don't care why you do it. Get
everything you need?"
"No, but I have everything I need that I could get from my locker."
He tilted his head, narrowing his eyes at her a moment, then said with
an air of speculation, "I'd bet good money if I asked you what else you need
you'd say-"
"That it's not a fair question. You'll make detective one day for sure,"
she said as she stepped around, then used the rear bumper as a step up into
the back seat of the jeep.
As he just rolled his eyes and got into the driver's seat, she asked, "Have
you been checking the cameras at the exits?"
He twisted, laying an elbow on the back of his seat as he looked
incredulously at her.
"Seriously?"
"We've been here twenty minutes, and they know we went in. This
district isn't very populated and since the targets are cops they clearly aren't
worried about that," she said.
Mentally conceding the point, he used voice commands to get his jeep
to pull the security app for the building, then asked Tayra for the code. She
gave it to him, and the small screen on his jeep dash populated with several
camera views, which he filtered for those showing the outdoors.
 There were two vehicular exits for the building — one on the east side,
and one on the west. On the west side they could clearly see a man loitering
in the street watching the garage. There was nothing on the east side. The
exits to the north and south were for pedestrians, and after a moment Tayra
said, "The walk-outs are being watched too. We should leave through the
west side."
Tony thought about it, then glanced back at her and asked, "Because the
guy on the west side is so obviously watching, the real trap is to the east?"
Her eyes pinpointed, then she clicked her beak once and deliberately
nodded. She said, "Because the profile of any exposed firearm
automatically triggers the city cameras to monitor, and if they're non-human
report, the men ready with guns will be inside the buildings across the street
on the east side. If we leave through the west, that guy might make a play,
but if he's alone as a decoy he might not. The longer we wait, the more men
they'll have."
He watched as she pulled her shotgun around on its speedsling, ejected
the first shell, then reloaded it as she said, "Slug first. If he draws, you keep
your hands on the wheel and get us away. I'll handle him."
Tony nodded, turned the engine over and drove toward the west exit to
the building. The sensor near the armored roll-up door caused it to shudder,
then squeal as it began to rise, and they saw the man they were still
watching on the camera feed startle and his lips move. He was wearing a
long coat, and fell into a slight crouch that told Tony the man was ready to
make his play.
"I'll drive straight toward him, then make a sharp left as soon as I clear
the curb. You'll have that time to nail him," he said.
All he heard from the back was the sharp click of her beak.
As soon as the squealing door was high enough to pass him, he gunned
the engine and roared forward. The man across the street pulled up an
assault weapon on a speedsling similar to the one Tayra had, but before the
weapon came level there was a heavy boom from his back seat, and the
man's shoulder splashed. Viscous green goop splattered the wall behind him
and he half-twisted, but didn't go down.
"It's a gel! Go go go go!" Tayra yelled as she fired again, and this time
the assailant's lower abdomen and groin dissolved into green ruin as the
creature collapsed toward the ground, literally cut in half by the scatter of
Tayra's second shot, fired from a distance of not more than twenty feet.
 Tony made the turn as he heard the chatter of fully-automatic fire going
off behind him, then another sharp report from his back seat. The assault
weapon was silenced, and as he glanced in the rearview mirror he saw
Tayra feeding shells into her shotgun as she yelled over the wind, "Got his
weapon with the third shot."
"Think you killed him?" he asked.
"Doubt it. Gels going into a fight usually hide their cores somewhere
non-essential, especially if they're spray-tanned like that one was. It'll have
been in one of his forearms, probably under a heavy bracer. If it were in his
lower body he wouldn't have been able to fire at us after my second shot.
He'll regroup, but it'll take a hot minute. He'll be fine."
"Good. Saves on paperwork," Tony said as his phone began to ring. He
answered it, told the dispatcher calling to ask about the gunfire what
happened, then hung up again.
Gels were notoriously difficult to kill because their only real
vulnerability was a crystalized core that they could move around inside
their bodies. If they were naked that core could be seen, but wearing
clothing and painted to look like a human, the only way to bring one down
was to completely destroy it or get really, really lucky. The goop they were
made from remained viable for a few hours and could be reabsorbed by the
main body, and because they could both isolate foreign material inside
themselves and reallocate their substance to change their shape they were
quite popular as prostitutes ... when they weren't being employed as almost
unstoppable assassins.
There were other, specialized weapons that were effective on them, but
such devices were too expensive and bulky to field unless they were certain
to be useful.
For NHIC officers, facing a gel unexpectedly in close quarters was a
virtually guaranteed death sentence.
Fortunately, they weren't that commonly found on the wrong side of the
law. Taken as a race, gels were known to have easy-going dispositions
because they could — and did — eat pretty much anything and live
comfortably in conditions that would kill most others. Since there was no
survival pressure on them, they tended not to invite trouble by breaking the
law.
Obviously, there were exceptions.
 "Check the city database. How many gels with criminal records are
known to be loose inside Oolytau?" Tony asked.
Tayra pulled her phone from a pocket, then a stylus from the body of the
phone that she could use to manipulate it, her talons being too long
otherwise.
Tony decided that he'd had enough excitement for one day and set his
navigation to take him by well-traveled roads back toward the tunnel.
A few minutes later, Tayra's black-tipped beak entered his peripheral as
she got near his head to be heard over the wind. The fact that it parted but
didn't otherwise move as she spoke was unnerving.
"Five. Three known hitters, a fence, and one that specializes in torture."
"Rule out the last two and see what we have on the hitters. Who do they
work for?" Tony asked.
They reached the line for the crossing into Daytau and were inching
forward when she finally said, "One works for a mobster named Slim John.
He's a skin trader, but there's no photo ID, and no proof it's even actually a
he, or what species. There's just the name. The other two work for the
Morgan brothers. They're mostly brokers. Narcotics, hired hits, fencing,
illegal weapons."
Tony had heard of the Morgan brothers. He doubted that a skin trader
would bother drawing attention by handling a hit, particularly on a high-
profile target like Tayra. But the Morgans might have done it on behalf of
anybody, as long as they were paid.
He and his old partner Laura Yates actually had a few cases grind to a
halt after running into those two. They had a small army of lawyers and a
reputation for disappearing informants — and their families — that had so
far kept anything from sticking to them.
The other bad thing about them was they were never in the same place
at the same time, and if you only caught one, there would be hell to pay
from the other. The other organizations in Oolytau had learned that the hard
way back when the Morgans were still getting established. Now, their
brutality was an urban legend in every subcity.
"Let me guess," Tony said as he pointed, indicating she bring her wings
in for the trip through the tunnel. "The fence and the torturer work for the
Morgans too?"
"Yeah, they do," she said as she drew her wings in and he listened to her
try not to grind her beak too much as the top came up and over her head.
 "So just based on who they work for, presuming that gel wasn't a new
guy, we're looking at an eighty percent chance it's the Morgans after you,
higher if we consider it unlikely a skin trader would go after a bounty," he
said.
"Doesn't mean they issued it necessarily, just that they aim to collect,"
Tayra pointed out. "He could also be freelancing. Just because they're in an
organization doesn't mean some won't do side jobs."
"You make everything more complicated," Tony said, giving her a
disgruntled look.
She returned a steady look, then very deliberately shrugged and said,
"You don't have any clue how complicated this is."
"Do you?" he asked.
"I've got nothing I can act on. For what it's worth, it does sound to me
like the Morgan brothers are our best bet. What we actually do with that
information is anyone's guess, because I have no ideas."
"What about that gargoyle you met?" he asked.
The jeep was dropped onto the track and shot without ceremony into the
tunnel as Tayra said, "She said she'd operate through Shiro. Since I let her
go, all we can do is wait for a call."
"Think we'll get one?"
"If she wants out of Oolytau, and she does, we will."
"I suppose that's good enough for one day's work then. Rome wasn't
built in a day."
"What's Rome?"
Tony frowned at that, because the question reminded him abruptly of
everything humanity had lost over the last few hundred years. He'd seen
pictures, a few movies. The old film and music was slowly being sucked
out of the system as banned materials. They'd been doing it for over fifty
years and most of it was gone. Any attempt to sell or even copy old media
was explicitly illegal, but what individual families owned, they tended to
keep, and he had inherited most of his dad's old drives. 'Rome wasn't built
in a day,' was what his father had told him when he'd complained about how
slow it was to build muscle.
He'd pointed out myostatin inhibitors and stimulus implants to his dad,
but the old man just shook his head and said, "Son, if you give a man
something, he'll abuse it. If you make him earn it, he'll treasure it, even if he
never stops bitching about the work. You'll thank me someday."
 While he'd done so much wrong, his dad had gotten that right.
"Rome is gone," he said at last. "Forget I said that."
Tayra didn't reply, and he was in no mood to take the conversation any
further. All of that happened before he was born. He'd never seen any of it,
but his dad had told him stories, shown him proof. He'd learned a little more
after his first year at the NHIC ... after they knew he was in for the long
haul.
Intellectually, he knew why they were doing it. Why they were working
so hard to make humanity forget. If they didn't, there would never be peace.
The war between humans and non-humans would break out over and over
again until everyone was wiped out. The powers that be had decided the
only choice was to phase out the past, generation by generation. To give
people new objectives, new toys, new distractions.
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
He knew why they were doing it, and he agreed. Revenge was a sucker's
game, and just like he'd never seen the glories of the old world, neither had
most of the non-humans living on Earth today. He was sure there were a
few who knew, who'd been there, been responsible for the Cataclysm. If he
ever knowingly met such a person he'd do his best to kill them, but the rest?
They were just like he was: born into the world and in enough trouble
just trying to live in it.
Knowing how much humanity once had was just poison for the soul
now.
Better to leave the past in its grave.

OceanofPDF.com
 11

OceanofPDF.com
 TAYRA

"F orget I said that ."

Tayra leaned back, as best she was able, and turned her head away as
she looked at nothing.
Her parents had told her all about the Cataclysm. Of the glorious war
that had ensued against a human race unexpectedly orders of magnitude
stronger than anything anyone had ever seen. Dragon and wyvern flights
decimated by ordinary humans in supersonic jets. Armies of goblins,
minotaurs, and lycans charging across fields littered with dead into
withering machine gun fire, artillery shells screaming down from on high.
Cities filled with soft targets. Plunder beyond anyone's wildest dreams.
Clouds of poison, acid rain, and explosions that sundered the Earth, turning
everyone and everything for miles around into shadows and dust.
Yet in those days, the Council of Fire had not been without its own
recourse. They had opened portals behind enemy lines and into the hearts of
supposedly impregnable human strongholds. Introduced leviathans into the
deep waters to crush ships and submarines. Raised the dead to march again,
rained fire from the skies.
For almost fifty years, war raged across the Earth. Defeat began to seem
like an inevitability. Unlike the Council's magic, human technology had a
very broad base of requirements. As facilities and specialists were
destroyed, that base narrowed until finally it teetered on the verge of
complete collapse.
Then, the Spite.
 A splinter group of geneticists unleashed a plague not on the monsters,
but on mankind. The Spite's results were unspeakably cruel, but undeniably
effective at refocusing everyone's priorities.
The war petered out, but the damage was done. In one of their few
lasting victories, humanity managed to close the portals in a raid that also
claimed the lives of several key members of the Council, leaving the
remainder incapable of restoring the link. There was nowhere to retreat to.
Humans and non-humans were stuck with one another.
Forever.
'Rome wasn't built in a day.'
It had probably been a city, perhaps a country. Obviously, it had not
survived.
Tayra never saw those battlefields, and neither had her parents, though
they had seen the violent aftershocks of the first generations after the war,
still full of hatred for one another. Yet, while she understood on a primal
level the vain yearning for glory in them, she had grown up knowing that
war simply could not win her the prize they wanted. Her parents had been
unwilling to find another way, choosing instead to live out their lives in the
wilderness.
She had not been their only successful hatch, but she alone among her
siblings wanted more.
She focused again on Tony. He was staring straight ahead into the dark,
obviously seeing something far away, something only he could see. He
hadn't been alive to see those times either, and neither had his parents. Yet,
she wondered what they had told him. Obviously something.
When Tayra had first come in out of the wilderness she had been given
a long series of lectures, one of which had included a startling requirement:
the Cataclysm was not to be discussed. The knowledge was out there, but
was actively suppressed in all human cities with which Daytau had contact.
It was made very clear to her that if she were discovered teaching anything
she might know of those events to anyone, she would be killed.
Tony knew something, but she dared not ask what. She knew that
— despite graduating the academy — her education wasn't complete, and
wouldn't continue until she had survived at least a year on the job. It was
only reasonable to assume what they had yet to officially teach her had
something to do with the Cataclysm. The idea they'd withhold that sort of
information from the very people most likely to be sent after those abusing
it was absurd. It would be an invitation to sedition and rebellion.
Her thoughts were redirected as they cleared the tunnel and the roof
retracted, sending the wind whipping over her wings. With her covers in
place, it no longer tore at her feathers and was, if not entirely comfortable,
at least not actively painful.
She spread them as much as she could while keeping them inside the
pocket made by the vehicle, then shifted as her eyes flicked around.
Tony abruptly asked, "How likely are they to follow you out of the
subcity?"
Tayra thought about that, and after a long moment said, "Not very. Most
of the hitters would have to go to a great deal of trouble to infiltrate Daytau
proper, and they know I work in Oolytau. I'll be there most days. Going
from one city to the other just makes the job riskier. They would either have
to use something other than firearms or have some other way to escape once
the city computer detects gunfire and zeroes in to track the source. Daytau's
sensor and camera grid is a lot more comprehensive than Oolytau's. Even
the ones without official records would have to be crazy to try it."
"Yeah, I kinda had the same thought. Good. I really don't want my
house shot at, blown up, or burnt down."
She was quiet a moment, organizing her thoughts, then asked, "If you'd
be good with it, you could rent an apartment here in your name and ... I
could sublet from you."
"Doesn't solve your base problem and makes you more vulnerable if
anyone is crazy enough to try something. Unless that's really what you
want, I don't think it's a good idea," Tony said, speaking with the air of a
man who'd already given the idea serious consideration.
Tayra also couldn't help but note that the idea of doing a deal with her
hadn't been one of his objections. That made her feel warm inside, right up
until her stomach grumbled at her.
What she'd told Tony was true. She did typically only eat once a day.
The problem was that breakfast had been woefully inadequate, and now she
was very hungry.
Abruptly, he asked, "Can you roar?"
"What?"
"You know, like a tiger? Griffins are like, half-bird half-cat, right? So
I've heard you make bird noises, can you roar?"
 She met his eyes in the rearview mirror, startled by the question and
wondering at its origins as she said, "Yes? I mean, yeah I can roar, but I can
sound like almost any animal I want. I'm a really good mimic."
She adjusted her syrinx, then, in a virtually pitch-perfect imitation of
Tony's own voice, said, "I can sound like specific other people too."
Tony shook his head, grinning bemusedly as he said, "That is so cool."
"Want to hear it?" she asked.
"Hell yeah!" he said, then laughed and pumped his fist as Tayra parted
her beak and cut loose with her best roar, which was loud enough that a few
porch lights turned on in the houses behind them and dogs frantically
started barking. She then growled, hissed, and purred just to keep him
laughing.
The grateful smile he gave her, the way his eyes twinkled with
amusement and fun ... it made her feathers fluff up and she pinpointed as
she gazed back at him.
"You're kinda awesome, you know that?" he said as he turned down
another residential street, headed toward his house.
"Thanks Tony. I do know that, but you're the first human to say so," she
said.
Inwardly, she added, I wish I could show you just HOW awesome.
Her beak started to grind before she could stop it, and his eyebrows shot
up as he gave her a look of concern.
She shook her head and glanced away. He apparently decided not to
pursue it, because they drove the rest of the way in silence, and he didn't
speak again until they were parked in his garage and the door was coming
back down behind them.
"I know you said you only eat once, but are you hungry?" he asked.
"I could eat," she admitted.
"Can you give me a rough calorie count for your daily intake?" he
asked.
She gave him a steady look, then glanced away as she admitted, "About
fifteen thousand calories a day minimum."
"Are you kidding?" he asked, eyes wide.
She shook her head.
"Uh ... can I ask the obvious, insensitive question?" he said.
"'How am I supposed to feed you?'" she asked, mimicking his voice as
she tilted her head to look at him out of one eye.
 Clearing his throat awkwardly, he said, "Yeah, uh ... that."
"You don't have to. I'll enter your address in my home delivery app.
Once you approve it, I can order my own food," she said, quietly praying he
wouldn't ask for details which, of course, he immediately did.
"Do you need refrigerator or freezer space?" he asked.
"No."
"What then?"
"Do you really want to know?" she asked, hoping her tone would
convey her frustration with the line of questioning. Whether it did or not, he
pressed on.
Tony nodded, eyes wide as he said, "Yeah, actually. Gotta admit I'm
really curious. I'll find out anyway. You may as well tell me."
She ground her beak, then said with an air of resignation, "I usually
have about ten pounds of tripe delivered from whatever slaughterhouse is
closest. It's cheap, satisfies, and ... to me at least, tastes great."
His mouth opened a full second before any sound came out, then he
said, "Tripe. Animal guts. The leftovers."
She gave him a long look, then, because he'd pressed her on it, added,
"Dog food. Which I eat raw. Happy?"
He blinked at her, thought about it, then pulled his phone out as he
asked, "After you eat that shit, I have to assume you wash your face and
gargle, right?"
"Yes, Tony," she said in complete exasperation. "I'm not a savage."
"Well ... okay. Set up my address and I'll confirm it when the notice
pops. I do have a few caveats though."
"Like what," she asked, not bothering to control her beak grinding this
time.
Tony jerked his thumb back toward the house as he said, "Don't ruin my
appetite eating it, and save enough room to have a civilized breakfast with
me once you clean up."
"I'm not sure how to frame why, but that seems terribly bigoted," she
said.
Tony shrugged easily and said, "My house, my rules. Incidentally,
bigotry has to do with differences of opinion, not activity. This has more to
do with hygiene, and my own personal inability to handle unnecessarily
gross shit. I don't want to see that, because I get enough blood and guts at
the day job."
 "I suppose that's fair," she said as she pulled her own phone out, and a
few minutes later the order was in with delivery starting at four thirty am
the next day.
As she put her phone away, took her boots off, and followed him into
the house, she clicked her tongue against her beak — which was a fairly
loud sound — as it came to her. She said, "It's because you called it a
'civilized' breakfast. There's nothing uncivilized about what I do. It's just
practical for me. If I called you uncivilized for peeing standing up, you'd
laugh."
"Yes I would, but I've actually heard that argument made," Tony said
with an easy grin before adding, "Sorry if it bothered you."
"Nah. I heard shit from the other girls at the academy that was way
worse than anything I've heard from you yet."
She gave him the side-eye as she said, "I wonder if that's because you're
just nice, or because you're on your best behavior thinking I'll report you?"
He opened the refrigerator, pulled out a beer, then hesitated. Tayra
watched his expression shift to something she couldn't read, then he put the
beer back and grabbed a gallon of water instead, which he opened and slung
back across his forearm, drinking straight from the jug.
That done, he lowered it to the counter and looked her in the eye as he
said, "Bit of both, I suppose. I'm not on a revenge kick like a lot of the
others, but I'll be the first to admit I think the integration of the NHIC was
and remains a mistake. That said, no one asked me, and I'm not about to
quit over it. Whatever I may think about the policy, I've got no complaints
about my new partner."
Her head cocked to one side as she asked, "Why do you disagree with
the policy?"
"Most non-humans are subject to what is politely called 'involuntary
behavior.' They're known weaknesses that can be easily exploited, putting
both the non-human and his or her partner at unnecessary risk. You, for
instance. Your sense of smell is keen enough that bleach or ammonia can be
used to make you immediately physically ill. You're also more easily
disoriented by loud noises coming from multiple directions, and while
you're wings might give you glide and brief flight, they also make you a
huge target."
"Speaking of," she said, staring steadily at him.
 He rolled his eyes and said, "Yeah well. Big as I am, your profile is
probably twenty percent bigger. Not to mention the fact that all your gear
has to be custom, and those talons mean you'll never be able to draw as
quickly as most human officers. Sure, that sling lets you get a weapon in
play barely under the required time, but I can have bullets in all my marks
in one point two. I'm done before you finish bringing a rifle to bear, and you
have to rely on scatter to hit all four targets."
Since that was true, Tayra didn't immediately reply as she thought over
what he'd said. Eventually, she asked, "Yet you don't have any problems
with your current partner?"
"Not one. You're cool under fire, hit what you aim at, sharp-witted, and
street-smart. We'll work around the other stuff."
She thought for another moment, then said, "So you oppose non-
humans not because you think they'll be better at the job, but because they'll
generally be worse?"
He shrugged and nodded.
"NHIC officers have to be all-rounders. That's what humans do better
than any non-human. Technology and training make up for the
shortcomings we might have against any individual monster we face."
"So ... what do you think my biggest vulnerability is?" she asked.
She watched him look her up and down, then say, "I couldn't tell you.
I'm tempted to point to your limited draw speed, but you passed muster so I
won't call out on that. Plenty of humans in the NHIC have comparable
times. I won't say I'm worried about you either, because that's talking down
and you certainly don't deserve that. You're a warrior and I'd never say
otherwise, to you or anyone. You're smart, and you've got guts. Honestly, I
think if you survive your first year you'll be on the fast track. You'll make a
great officer."
Tayra thought about that, then poked a talon at him as she said, "You
won't say you're worried, but you are."
"Don't pin a man like that, it's rude," he said with an easy smile.
"Oh, If I pinned you it'd be ..."
Her beak snapped shut and her feathers snapped tight to her neck as she
shook her head and said, "Sorry. That wasn't a threat."
She stared almost fearfully at him, feathers tight, watching his face
carefully. She hadn't meant to say that. It might ruin everything if he took it
the wrong way. It might ruin everything if he took it the right way. There
was no good way for him to take that.
She shouldn't have said it. How could she have been so careless?

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 TONY

H oly shit . She's totally into me!

Tony blinked as he looked at his new partner in a new light, though he
realized almost instantly that he had to deal with this ... unexpected turn. If
he didn't say something, he was leaving her in limbo.
The question was, how to react? There were no good options. He
couldn't even play dumb because unless she thought he was an idiot she had
to know he knew what she'd really meant.
Since he didn't want her thinking her partner was an idiot, that was a
non-starter.
His natural instinct was to laugh it off, but he'd caught her in some
oddly vulnerable moments, and if he laughed it off he didn't think that
would go over well either.
As he stood staring at her, frozen with indecision, she blurted, "I'm
sorry, Tony. I wasn't trying to harass you, honest."
"I'm not offended," he said. "It's fine. Just caught me by surprise, that's
all."
"So, now you know," she said, and he watched as her feathers fluffed,
then tightened visibly again as she focused on him. Her stare was — quite
frankly — disconcerting in its intensity.
"Ah, yeah. Now I know."
"And?"
"And what?"
"This isn't going to make things awkward between us, is it? I mean,
when your girlfriend comes around I'll make myself scarce."
 He blinked, then laughed and said, "Girlfriend? What girlfriend? Why is
it no one ever bothers to let me know about all these good things in my
life?"
"Oh come on, don't bullshit me, Tony. Flower-scented shampoo? Long
brown hair in the brush? Hair ties and clips in the bathroom drawer? I'm not
stupid. I read your file. I know you haven't got any siblings."
"All that crap belongs to my ex-partner. She's visited and stayed the
night before. That doesn't mean we were a thing," he said, and it hurt to say
it.
"If she wasn't with you, why would she spend the night here?" Tayra
asked.
"Usually it was to avoid the temptation to shoot her now ex-husband,"
he said quietly.
It was apparently her turn to blink, then she turned her head to look at
him sidelong as she said, "That sounds like a healthy relationship."
"It ended recently. It's the reason I'm in Oolytau in point of fact. My
bosses thought I might go find the other guy and do something ... unwise."
"Would you have?"
"My partner gets shot on a raid and her husband can't be bothered to
stop fucking his side-piece long enough to go see her at the hospital? Yeah,
I probably would have. Not anymore."
"Why not now?" she asked.
"Because I like my job, and spending the rest of my life in Iso for ten
seconds of personal satisfaction that still wouldn't get me the girl isn't
exactly a smart purchase."
"So you were into her."
"Yeah, I was. I carried a big torch for her and I think she knew it. I
wanted her to leave him, get a divorce. He was obviously a lying sack of
shit, but she wouldn't leave him. She stayed faithful until he was caught red-
handed, at which point he served her papers. Nothing happened between
her and I, and I wasn't about to try and seduce another man's wife. Life's
just that way sometimes. Now she's on desk duty while she sues the little
shit and I'm in Oolytau paying for a sin I didn't commit. Life sucks
sometimes."
"So, let me get this straight. You were hot for another man's wife, never
made a move even though she stayed at your house, and now that she's
finally divorced you're not chasing her down?"
 "It's complicated."
"Sounds stupid to me."
"Yeah, same thing. She doesn't want to hear from me."
"She doesn't love you back?"
Tony took a deep breath, then let it out slowly as he said, "I don't know
... but if I had to guess, I'd say the last man she wants to hear from is the one
most likely to say 'I told you so.'"
"You don't seem the type to say that to a woman you love," Tayra noted.
He gave her an even look and said, "You see clouds you think rain,
Tayra. I don't need to say it. She'd hear it every time she looked at me. It's
my fault. I shouldn't have fallen for another man's wife, and now you know.
We've both spilled a secret. I know you've got the hots for me, and you
know I wanted to steal another man's wife. We're even."
"You really think so?" she asked, taking several steps toward him.
She stopped when she was within a few feet, and though they were of
equal height she bulked larger than he did, which was an unusual
experience for him. Her wings were still in their leather caps, and her eyes
were golden as she gazed intently at him out of an utterly inhuman face.
"What else do you want to know?" he asked. He wasn't afraid of her, but
he was apprehensive. This was not a woman he could just walk away from,
or give a free shot. He'd seen what she'd done to the thug in the staircase.
For the purposes of a brawl, she had two wing-knuckles the size of
baseballs and ten talons long enough to reach his spine through his
bellybutton.
"Tony, I honestly didn't want you to know that I'm attracted to you, but
now you do and I'm not the type of girl to leave things hanging. Do I have a
shot? I'm not asking for an answer. You barely know me, and that wouldn't
be fair. I know humans are slow with this sort of thing. But ... a shot? Have
I got a shot, Tony, that's all I want to know."
"I ... have, never been with a non-human," he drawled, stalling for time
as he thought frantically about what he should say.
She waited, watching him in silence. Her beak was parted just a bit, her
feathers were tight to her neck. He noticed her talons twitching, but that was
obviously nerves. She wasn't threatening him. In fact, she seemed intensely
vulnerable to him in that moment.
What's the harm in telling her she's got a shot? he wondered silently as
he watched her. It's not ... a lie, is it? I mean, she's got an aMAZing ass.
She's ... definitely the kind of girl I could hang out with at least, and if I say
no I have a feeling everything from here on out will be uncomfortably
professional.
"Sure," he said at last. "You've got a shot."
"You aren't just saying that because you want things to stay smooth
between us at work?" she asked. "Don't bullshit me, Tony. You're human,
I'm not, I get it. I'm a big girl. I can take hearing that you're not at all into
me."
"I'm serious, you've got a shot!" he said, holding his hands up, palm
toward her.
"Why? What makes you think you could go for a girl like me?" she
asked, leaning in a bit closer.
In the time it took her to ask the question he almost facepalmed. It was
an obvious trap, and he'd walked right into it. Of course she'd challenge
him. If he was bluffing she wanted to find out before he had a chance to
make something up.
Now a little annoyed, he lowered one hand as he pointed at her with the
other and suspiciously asked, "We're way past the point of sexual
harassment claims now, right?"
"There are some lines I'm still not crossing and that you better not cross,
but yeah, generally," she said with a wary nod. "Say what's on your mind."
"You've got the best ass I've ever seen. Like, amazing. When you
stretched this morning, holy shit woman, I was stunned. I thought you
caught me staring."
He watched her carefully, noting that her eyes were pinpointed. Her
feathers were fluffed all the way, from her shoulders to the top of her head
as she turned it to look at him sidelong, beak down, and the impression that
came through most clearly was ...
"Wooow, you are totally blushing right now," he said. "That is so cute."
She chirped like a startled bird, turned abruptly around, then strode out
of the kitchen and out of sight down the hall, waving with one hand as the
words came out in a rapid, almost panicked patter.
"You pass! Great, I'll flirt with you later! Sleep well, Tony! See you
tomorrow!"
The bathroom door at the end of the hall slammed, and Tony leaned
against the counter, bemusedly taking another long swig from the water jug
as he thought about what had just happened. A moment later, he heard the
shower turn on.
He could almost hear his old man tsking, and knew what he'd have said.
'Don't stick your dick in crazy, son. You never know if you'll get it back.'
"Yeah, fuck you old man," Tony muttered to himself. "Situation might
be crazy ... but I don't think she is. Besides, we're a long way from sex.
She's gonna take her shot. I just have to decide if I want her to miss ... or
not."
It was only as he put the water jug back in the refrigerator that he
realized they hadn't eaten, and she obviously wasn't in the mood to talk to
him again tonight.
Chuckling wryly to himself, he strolled down the hall, opened one of
the cabinets to pull out a set of linens and a blanket, then dropped the folded
pile on the edge of the couch before heading toward his bedroom.
He had a lot of thinking to do.
Just as he opened the door, Tayra called out to him.

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 TAYRA

T ayra slammed the door and did her very best not to keen in absolute glee
as she leaned over, opened the glass, and turned on the water for the
shower, getting it running as she took off her coat, speedsling, and
breastplate, then poked at her control pad to get the rest of her clothes off.
Her heart was beating so hard she wondered if it would explode.
'I'm serious, you've got a shot!'
She stepped into the shower, shut the door, then sank slowly onto her
butt, letting the water pour down on her as she hugged her knees and
rocked, trying in vain to temper her excitement. It was too soon to be this
happy. He hadn't said he loved her. He hadn't even said he liked her that
way. She only knew that he'd noticed her, sexually noticed her, and he
wasn't saying no.
Her head thumped the tiles behind her as she stared up at the ceiling,
beak grinding as she watched the steam roil above her. It wasn't healthy.
That's what any normal person would say. She was being unreasonable.
She'd push too hard and he'd hate it, say no, then her whole world would
fall apart. She needed to go slow, take her time, let him get used to her.
And she didn't want to do ... any of that. She wanted to get him out of
his clothes and do absolutely everything she could to get him to cum as
hard as he could ... as often as he could, in her, on her, every chance she got.
Just the thought of it made her flex and writhe.
It was obsession, and that wasn't going to win her the man of her
dreams.
 Her thighs squeezed tight as her beak grinding got so loud it all but
drowned out the shower for a moment.
I want to fuck him so bad it ACHES, she thought despairingly. It took
every bit of willpower I had to walk away. I'm going to get myself killed if
I'm not careful!
She realized she wanted, needed, one of her toys, but her duffel was still
in the jeep and there was no way she could go out there to get it now.
"Tony!?" she called, then winced as she realized what she was doing.
Hopefully he hadn't-
"Yeah? What?" he asked, his voice just on the other side of the door. "I
got you sheets and a blanket this time, left them on the corner of the couch.
You still hungry?"
That reminded her of her stomach, but her excitement had completely
killed her appetite for food. She said, "No, but I really need my duffel. Can
you grab it for me? I'm already in the shower!"
"Sure, just a moment."
She whimpered, gently thumping her head against the tile at the back of
the shower as she waited. The fire burning in her pussy was so hot that just
rubbing her thighs together had her most of the way there, but it wouldn't
finish her. She needed a big, thick-
"You want me to leave it out here?" Tony called.
"No!" she said, quite a bit louder than she intended. "The door isn't
locked! Um, just, open the door and toss the bag in along the wall toward
the shower so I can reach it, please?"
The door opened, and she could only stare toward it as she saw her
duffel slide in, saw the hand holding it. She imagined that hand covering
her mound, imagined those fingers sliding in, and quivered. Tony swung the
bag once then let go. It thumped to the floor just next to her as he asked,
"Are you okay? Are you on some kind of medication I need to know
about?"
"Um, yes and no," she said. "I'll tell you later, it's nothing big, thanks!
Goodnight!"
"Ookay, goodnight," he said bemusedly, and shut the door behind him.
As soon as the latch clicked, it was all she could do not to simply rip the
bag to shreds to get what she wanted.
When she had it, she slid the glass closed again, opened her legs, and
the feel of her toy sliding in made her practically dizzy with relief. Her beak
fell slack as her ass clenched. Then, without any warning, her orgasm hit
her hard. The whole lower half of her body spasmed and shook.
She pressed the toy so deep it bottomed out as she groaned and
muttered, "Fuckfuckfuckfuuuck yesss! ... Oh shit, oh fuck ... haah! haa...
fuck. Thaaat's good. Damn."
Panting fitfully, legs twitching, she left the toy buried inside her and
gripped the edges of the tub she was in as she shuddered with relief. Yet,
beyond the physical sensations, she felt a rising panic. There was definitely
something wrong with her. Her mother had never mentioned anything like
this. Neither had anything she'd read about her own kind.
Her horny had hit her like a truck. It was as though she'd been drugged.
Maybe it wasn't obsession. Maybe ... there really was something wrong
with her. She'd been lonely for so long, but that was no excuse to absolutely
lose her fucking mind over a compliment.
'You've got the best ass I've ever seen.'
As the words echoed around her mind Tayra came again, pulsing around
the toy still buried in her body. It wasn't as big an orgasm as the first, but it
was definite and she whimpered as she stared at the ceiling and wondered
what the hell was wrong with her.
She leaned forward, wrapping her knees and hiding herself with her
wings as the water beat down on them. Tiny noises slipped out of her throat
and she couldn't stop them. If she couldn't get this ... whatever this was,
under control, she'd lose her shot.
She might even lose her life to the Spite.
It was the despair that eventually drowned out the last of her lust, and
she pulled the toy out with a whimper and began to take a proper shower.
Her orgasm had been so powerful that the muscles of her sex ached with the
memory of it, but she forced herself to think.
By the time she got out of the shower and toweled off, she knew what
she had to do.

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 TONY

"W e ' ve got to make a detour today," Tayra said as he walked by.
Tony shrugged as he strode around the end of the hall and into the
kitchen to make breakfast. Tayra hadn't joined him for a workout that
morning, choosing instead to go for a run around his neighborhood. By the
time he got done she was in the shower. She was dressed and ready for
work before he stepped out.
It was twenty past five in the morning.
"Where to?" he asked as he got the pans out.
"Bartau."
That brought him up short, and he looked her way.
She was standing at the border between the dining area and living room,
gazing fixedly back at him. Her pupils seemed of normal size and her
feathers were relaxed, but it was obvious her full attention was on him. As
he looked at her, he noticed she had a nasal filter in place. It was
unobtrusive, but the thin metal band that connected the filters across the
bridge of her beak was a slightly different color of gold and caught the light
in a different way.
"That's not a detour. That's a day trip," he said, then asked, "What do
you need out there anyway?"
"There's a griff I need to talk to that lives there. It's important, Tony."
"We'll have to get a sign off from the captain," he said as he salted and
peppered the t-bone he'd promised her yesterday. "Traffic to Bartau is
restricted. Without a waiver or a warrant they won't even let detectives out
there. Could you get that griff to meet you somewhere else?"
 Tayra glanced away, feathers pulling tight around her neck as she said,
"I don't know. I've never met her. I left a message for her last night but
haven't heard back yet. If we need a waiver we can talk to the captain about
scoping out a place to hide that gargoyle, Grace."
"But that isn't what this is actually about," he said, not really phrasing it
as a question.
She shook her head.
"This have something to do with you needing your bag last night?" he
asked as he flipped the sizzling bacon, then the steak before dropping
another pad of butter in along with some rosemary sprigs and thyme.
She nodded, but didn't speak.
Rather than press her, he turned over what he knew in his mind as he
waved a hand absently and said, "Well, have a seat. Breakfast in about ten
minutes. How do you like your steak?"
"Yes."
Chuckling, he said, "Okay, in that case, breakfast in five minutes."
Tayra gave him a wry thumbs-up, then stared fixedly at the table, lost in
thoughts of her own.
He dropped her steak on a plate, poured the butter and herbs from the
pan on top since they hadn't even had time to burn, and let the meat rest as
he worked on the bacon and eggs. The coffee maker finished its business
just as he was plating. He glanced over at her and said, "Come bring the
dishes in while I grab the coffee."
She startled, looking up at him with pinpointed eyes, then stood and
rounded the table. He watched her come on, then turned and crossed to the
other counter to grab the coffee. As he was pouring, he snatched a glance at
her. She was walking the plates back to the table, but it was her backside
that caught his attention. He knew her uniform was cyberware. Regular
clothing would be an incredible pain for someone who had her various
traits. Some fur, some feathers, a tail ... trying to put on and take off pants
would be a nightmare. That said, her pants seemed more like they'd been
painted on this morning, and he knew that had to be deliberate given their
style had been straight-legged yesterday. He could see every curve in
complete detail, and if she bent over the only question he'd have left would
be the color of her lips.
Her tiger tail swished across his view and it wasn't until he'd gotten an
eyeful that he noticed her looking his way.
 Their eyes met, and she said, "I just wanted to be sure you had a good
view. Worth it?"
"We're still past the point of sexual harassment, yes?" he asked.
"Far past."
"That ass could change a man's religion."
Her eyes pinpointed for a moment, then she said, "I like what I see too,
Tony. Thanks."
At ten to six they were wrapping up breakfast. Tayra's phone chirped,
then she chirped in startled embarrassment as Tony gave her an incredulous
look. She said, "What? You think just because I'm a cop I can't have a cute-
sounding alert?"
"Depends. Did you record that?" he asked.
"No?! It's a golden oriole."
When his eyebrow stayed up she flatly declared, "You have no idea
what that is."
"It sounds like a flavor of cookie."
"Well it's a bird, not me, now hush," she said as she unlocked her phone
and checked the message.
Tony watched her eyes flickering and waited patiently. Most non-
humans were shit at reading, and it took her almost ten seconds before she
looked up and said, "We're in luck. She's willing to see me if I go to her, and
she's not actually in Bartau right now."
Skeptical, he asked, "Where is she?"
"She's in Rectau visiting her daughter, who apparently just started
university there."
"Rectau is literally on the opposite side of Daytau. Still a day trip."
"We're waiting for Grace to call with a lead anyway. Come on, Tony. I
really, really need to talk to this woman and please don't make me tell you
why. I will, just not right now. Trust me, it's important."
Taking a deep breath and letting it out slow, Tony considered. He wasn't
a detective. He clocked in and out with the grunts and if he no-showed
there'd better be a damn good reason. The lieutenant in charge of the
schedules would be asking some very pointed questions about what he was
doing with his time. If he did go and check in, then drive to Rectau, the sun
would be going down before they got there.
"When does this chick want to meet us?" he asked.
"Noon, at the Beau Lac."
 "This griff's not hurting for cash if she's putting her daughter through
university in Rectau and staying at a five-star resort," Tony said.
"No, she's not. We can get it all done if we leave your jeep at the station
and take a bullet. It'll drop us at the Rectau station at half past ten if we
catch the nine o'clock."
"Awww man! I hate trains," Tony said, scowling. "Everything in them is
too damn small and upgrading is too damn expensive!"
"Yeah? Think how I feel. Tony, please."
"Can't you just call her?"
She stared at him without answering for a long moment, and he finally
said, "Fine. You can go. It's not like you'll be in much danger over in
Rectau. I'll stay and cover-"
He trailed off as Tayra shook her head and said, "You need to come
too."
He leaned back in his chair and gave her a hard look as he said, "Tayra,
give me a break. My career is already on thin ice. You're asking me to ditch
my responsibilities to go see someone who has nothing to do with what
we've got going on for the sake of you won't tell me why. That's bullshit."
Tony watched Tayra's head moving around as she looked at seemingly
everything but him. The impression that she was looking for a way out was
unmistakable, but this wasn't something he could just let pass. He loved his
job, and he didn't want to lose it just because his new partner was wigging
out over something personal.
Finally, she said, "Tony ... there's something wrong with me. Something
that started last night. This griff is the only one in all the subcities of Daytau
that has a human mate. She's the only person who can tell me what's going
on with me. I did as much research as I could, but I still don't have an
answer and it's not just figuratively driving me crazy, okay? You get it? You
reading me on this?"
Narrowing his eyes as he sipped his coffee and thought about it, he set
the cup down carefully and drawled, "Sooo what you're telling me ... is that
you think you're experiencing some ... involuntary behavior?"
She nodded.
"Related to us."
She nodded again.
"And that's why you want me along."
"Tony, please."
 He raised an eyebrow and jokingly asked, "Is it kinky?"
She caught him flat-footed when — without batting an eye — she said,
"I want to tear your clothes off and have you pile drive me right through
that couch over there. As a warm-up. So ... please, come with me to see this
griff and don't say anything else remotely sexy, before I lose my fucking
mind."
"Why did you show me your ass if-"
"Because I want you!" she said in just short of a yell. "Didn't I just tell
you not to make this any harder? I'm going to lose more than my job if you
don't help me out here!"
Tony took a moment, gazing steadily at her as his thoughts churned. If
he wanted it, Tayra had just handed him a gold-plated excuse to get her out
of his hair. At the very least, this was the sort of thing that would warrant
her transfer to a new partner, presuming it didn't get her canned for baseline
inability. If her libido was really that strong ...
That was kinda hot.
Granted, he wasn't exactly attracted to the face he was looking at. And
he'd only had a few days to get to know her. He didn't know what she was
really like. He did know that if he took this opportunity to ditch, he'd never
find out.
If he did take this to the captain, there was no guarantee she'd get let go.
The civil ruling that made her job possible was still fresh, which meant
there was a lot of political will behind ensuring the people backing it
weren't made fools of when the first wave of non-human recruits got either
killed or shit-canned for stuff just like this.
For all he knew, Tayra might be bulletproof for a while, at least,
politically. She'd probably be assigned to a different partner ... which would
annoy the captain, who wouldn't be able to take that annoyance out on
Tayra. So instead ... he'd catch all that hell.
So his partner was compromised, and if he ditched her he'd not only
never find out where this rabbit hole would go, he'd only make things worse
for himself career-wise.
He had himself a real Hobson's choice. Get in trouble for ditching a
politically invincible partner, or get in trouble for ditching work to help her
handle personal issues.
Personal issues that had to do with him.
 She just said she wants me to fuck her senseless, and I'm thinking of
cutting her loose. That's one helluva disconnect, he mused.
"Tony, I don't mind saying the fact that the gears are still turning
between your ears is making me really nervous here," Tayra said quietly.
"Oh, I'm just trying to decide which condiment I want on the shit
sandwich you're serving me, that's all. Besides, if I jumped all in to help
you right away that'd be sexy, and you asked me not to do that," he said
absently, then shook his head and made his decision.
"Fine. We'll go see this griff out in Rectau. And it had better be worth
it."

"S o where are we at , C orporal ?"

Tony was standing across the desk from Captain Luke Harding. The
man was seated with a datapad in one hand and a mug of coffee in the other.
"She's got a bounty," Tony said quietly, choosing his words with care.
"Getting her a place to stay that isn't under a bridge somewhere is going to
take some time. She's limited to handshake deals until the bounty is dealt
with."
"And?"
"And we're working on that."
For the first time, Harding lowered his datapad and gave Tony direct
eye contact. "Oh you are?" he asked. "Just what kind of work are you doing
to get rid of a bounty?"
"We've been trying to pinpoint where the money's coming from," Tony
said. "Right now we aren't sure, but we're eyeing the Morgan brothers."
"Where's this intel coming from?" Harding asked.
"One of the hitters that tried yesterday was a gel. There are only a few
working for the syndicates, and most of them work for the Morgan brothers.
All but one, in fact," Tony said. He almost went on to tell Harding about
Grace, but decided not to. That particular avenue had yet to be explored,
and if it turned out to be a dead end he didn't want it in his reports that he let
someone who was known to have scoped out a hit get away.
"How do you intend to follow this up? Right now it's just a hunch," the
captain said.
 "We're looking into it."
"Looking into it, how?" Harding pressed.
Tony hesitated a moment, then said, "If you've got any ideas, I'm all
ears, Captain."
"Huh. That's what I thought. You're both new on the streets here. Tell
you what. I'll ask around and see if I can set up a meet with an informant
who might have something for you. Come talk to me again tomorrow
morning. What are you going to do today?"
Tony hesitated a moment, then decided to go for broke and said,
"There's a griff out in Rectau with a lot of pull. She lives in Bar most of the
time but she's available today and we're going to see her, ask her if there are
any options she can sort out for us."
Harding's eyes narrowed fractionally and he said, "Why not just call her.
Going all the way out there in person will waste the whole day."
"Getting shot at hasn't been terribly productive so far either. When we
contacted her she said she wanted to meet in person ... sir," Tony said,
tacking on the honorific at the end mostly to cover his ass in case Harding
got chafed.
"Mm, yeah, I heard you took out Lucas Donovan. Nice shooting."
"At that range it would have been harder to miss."
Harding chuckled and said, "That's true. I watched the footage. I've
heard good things about you from the boys too. Get Tayra settled and we'll
see about getting you reassigned. I know you've been itching to go back
where you belong."
"Yessir."
"Dismissed."
Tony closed the door behind him a moment later and turned to look at
Tayra, who was staring intently at him. She'd been specifically excluded
from the meeting and stood a good ten feet down the hallway with
Lieutenant Marty Crenshaw.
The man looked like he was jonesing for a cigarette, bouncing on the
balls of his feet and looking everywhere but at Tayra.
Tony joined them and said, "Hey Marty, you know any informants with
information on the brothers Morgan?"
Marty reached up and scratched behind his left ear as he said, "Maybe.
I'll ask around. This about the bounty on her?"
 He jerked his head toward Tayra without looking at her and Tony
nodded, then said, "The captain said he might have something as well, but
right now I'll take all the help I can get."
"Sure," Marty said, then added, "Where you off to today?"
"Rectau, maybe got a lead on some digs with another griff."
"Oh yeah? Must be nice. Helluva commute from there though. Good
luck."
"Thanks."
He and Tayra watched the lieutenant stroll away, and once he was out of
earshot she said, "I don't like him, and it's obvious he doesn't like me. I'm
not sure I'd trust any sources he tips us off to."
"Just because you don't like someone doesn't mean you can't work with
them, and there's a big differences between dislike and conspiracy to
commit. Relax. I got us permission to go see this griff out in Rectau. Just be
sure to ask her when you're there if she's got any rental options available
and we're covered."
Tayra looked at him sidelong for a second as her pupils contracted, then
expanded and she turned to walk with him as she said, "That was clever."
"I have my moments. Just don't forget to ask."
"There's no way she'll have anything."
Tony stopped, and when she did likewise he stared pointedly at her until
she said, "All right, all right. I'll ask."
He grinned, nodded, and reached out to pat her shoulder.
Before he could, she chirped in alarm, took a step back, and said, "No
touching. Right now that'd be a bad idea."
"Ah. Right. Weird, but okay. Is it really that bad?"
"Tony?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't ask me questions patience will answer."
He chuckled all the way to the stairs, and most of the way to the train
station. Tayra's glare only made him laugh harder.
Once at the train station they purchased day ride tickets to and from
Rectau and showed their IDs for registration before they were allowed to
board. Passage by train was even more closely monitored than by individual
car, because putting people of various species in confined quarters was a
recipe for disaster if not handled with the proper caution.
The ride to Rectau was, as expected, miserable.
 Train seats were designed for humans by and large, and with their gear
and Tony's overall size, neither of them really fit in the hard-mold plastic
seats. It was worse for Tayra, and they had to spend almost twenty minutes
looking before they convinced a couple to give up seats that had space
behind them for her wings.
Rectau was the smallest of the subcities by far and the only one that was
completely enclosed. It housed recreational facilities of almost all kinds.
Gambling and the sex trades were both forbidden, but practically any other
kind of entertainment could be had, from premier sports complexes to
themed amusement parks, to five-star restaurants and hotels. There were
several colleges, trade schools, and universities in Rectau as well. The city
was uniformly upscale and very well monitored and patrolled.
Assignments there were widely considered to be cake, and very difficult
to obtain.
Tony had never even looked into the place because for an NHIC officer,
Rectau was where careers went to die. Oolytau might be a shitshow, but at
least it provided opportunities to turn things around. Rectau was too quiet.
The dome projected the image of a perfect blue sky with high-flying
clouds and a bright sun. The temperature was a perfect twenty-two degrees
Celsius, with a light breeze and low humidity.
The boulevards were lined with palm trees and well-manicured flower
beds. Most of the vehicles were of the hovercar variety and automated. It
was unusual to see hovercars because they required special road surfaces to
function, but were incredibly smooth rides and amazingly fuel efficient
even under extraordinary load. By and large they were toys for the very
rich, or owned by companies that did business treating people to a taste of
the good life. The tarmac was freshly painted and clean. It didn't even have
skid marks, and the sidewalks were weeded and had side rails.
The whole place was obnoxiously well-maintained, and after Oolytau
the clean air and bright, fake sunshine were almost offensive.
Almost.
Tony ordered one of the larger cabs, wincing at the cost, and they made
it to the Beau Lac fifteen minutes before noon.
The lobby was white-and-pink marble with the light of the artificial sky
shining down through the grand panes of a vast skylight that broke it into
beams of color that shifted subtly through the spectrum.
 The people in that lobby were well-heeled and obviously there on
vacation. Children of all ages were with parents, all smiling and laughing.
The two hulking NHIC officers were both starkly out of place and found
a spot near the three huge revolving doors that comprised the entrance.
There they watched the crowds and waited for the woman they'd come to
see.
Tayra was visibly fidgeting and while Tony might have ribbed her about
that under normal circumstances, the train and cab rides had been marked
by an increasing tension in his partner that had begun to make him
genuinely nervous.
By the time they'd come into the station, Tayra wasn't looking at him
anymore and her responses to his questions were limited to monosyllabic
grunts and beak grinding.
It was obvious that what she was experiencing was a real problem, and
Tony had to wonder how to feel about that.
How often did a guy find out he turned a woman on so much she
literally couldn't look at him without risking a loss of control? It was a
serious ego boost.
Too bad it isn't Laura, he thought wryly to himself.
Yet as he thought that, he realized how reprehensible the thought was.
Whatever was going on with Tayra was all but beyond her control, and that
wasn't how things were supposed to happen. Sure, it was a head rush to be
the subject of that kind of intensity, but it was also juvenile. It wasn't the
sort of thing that healthy relationships of any kind were built on.
More usually, that kind of attraction put people in Iso ... or under the
ground. For a non-human attracted to a human it'd be the latter. The Spite
would see to that.
Tony found himself quietly hoping this griff they were here to see
would be able to help his partner.
Then he saw her, and his jaw dropped.

OceanofPDF.com
 15

OceanofPDF.com
 TAYRA

S he couldn ' t even look at him.

Just a glance at his face was enough to kick off the sorts of fantasies she
couldn't afford to entertain. She'd thought being in public, in uniform,
would be enough to curtail her irrational urges, but it made no difference.
Her desire was absolutely out of control, and there had been moments when
the only thing that kept her from attacking Tony on the way here was the
firm realization that if she took him, the Spite would take her.
Unprotected sex with an unaltered human was a death sentence for a
non-human female, no exceptions. Only a gene-splicer could solve that
problem, and those treatments weren't cheap, nor were they lightly agreed
to. Tony had made her no promises, and she couldn't even continue that line
of thinking because the thought of him making that promise brought her
right back to doing something unwise. So she had to focus on the Spite, on
the gruesome snuff videos she and the other immigrant non-humans had
been forced to watch shortly after being admitted to Daytau.
The Spite didn't just kill. The death it inflicted was an agony of pain and
humiliation. Those thoughts just barely kept Tayra's hands off him. Kept her
from taking him.
As the image of her riding him in the middle of the hotel lobby flashed
through her mind, Tayra's beak started grinding and she was on the verge of
shoving her talons through her biceps just for a distraction when she finally
caught sight of the griff she'd come to see.
Her name was Nadine Fitzpatrick, and as she strode out of the hotel
hallway, spotted them, and turned their way the sight of her finally gave
Tayra a crucial distraction.
Nadine was gorgeous. She had white plumage edged in black and a
golden, sharply curved beak. Her lion's coat was immaculate, her eyes were
bright, and her tufted tail wove with unmistakable swagger behind her. But
the thing that caught and held Tayra's attention was the one thing Nadine
had that Tayra didn't.
Tits.
The griff crossing the lobby had quite a set that swelled out below her
plumage, protected and pushed together by a bikini top that held her like a
prison guard, albeit one in white-and-red floral print. The sarong on her
awesome hips was a match for the top. Her belly was bare and soft. While
Tayra had a well-defined six-pack visible through her fur, Nadine had a
matronly look to her that somehow only made her body even more alluring.
The thought was unavoidable. This griff was made to fuck. Tayra would
have paid good money to see her at it too. She was hot.
As she stopped in front of them, Nadine asked, "Is this him?"
Nadine's voice had just a hint of a drawl to it, but when Tayra nodded
she turned her full attention to Tony and in a no-nonsense tone said, "With
all due respect, officer, I need you to leave. Right now. Don't say a word.
Don't say hello to me. Don't say goodbye to her. You'll be contacted later."
Tayra felt Tony shift next to her, then Nadine abruptly pointed as her
beak parted a bit further than usual with her intensity, "Ah! Not this way!
That way. Don't cross her line of sight. Go on, git."
Turning to Tayra, Nadine added, "And you, you come with me. Hop to;
my room is down the hall and Ah! Don't you dare look at him!"
Taloned fingers caught Tayra's beak and jerked her head around before
she could look after Tony. Nadine's gaze bored in as she said, "Eyes on me.
Glue 'em to my butt when I turn around and follow it if you don't want to
embarrass yourself."
She let go, whirled, and strode back the way she'd come.
Tayra couldn't help a low keening sound as she did as she was told. The
desire to look after, to run after Tony was almost overwhelming, but she did
as she was told.
The hallway was carpeted in red with ornate faux marble pillars
embedded in off-white walls hung with bland paintings of lakes and
sailboats, but the only thing Tayra focused on was a very plump, sarong-
covered butt, and the lion's tail that swished across her view of it.
 When the door to Nadine's room closed behind Tayra, Nadine said, "All
right, there's a toy in the bathroom if you didn't bring one of your own. Get
in there and use it, then we'll talk."
Raising her eyes to Nadine, Tayra chirped in surprise, then her feathers
tightened as she said, "I'm not about to-"
"Tony told me he loves you and he wants to fuck, your, brains out,"
Nadine said, smoothly interrupting her. "He wants to bend you in half and
make you scream his name as he fills you to the brim with cum. Now, what
were you about to do?"
Tayra's entire body clenched and her eyes squeezed shut as she keened
in raw frustration. Her sex was so swollen and sensitive that it felt like she
would cum just hearing those words. It didn't even occur to her that what
she had just been told couldn't possibly be the truth.
"The toy is on the counter," Nadine said quietly, and Tayra was in the
bathroom with the door shut behind her in the next moment, fumbling
frantically at the belt control to roll up her pants.
It was there, anchored by suction to the edge of the counter. It was a bit
bigger than hers, but the details were immaterial. She didn't care, she just
needed it inside her.
Right now.
Throwing her greatcoat to the floor, not bothering with her armor or her
shotgun, she twisted, tail lifting, and thrust back on the toy, taking it to the
base without any preamble. She let out an ear-splitting shriek as the
penetration finished her. Her orgasm was so immediate and powerful that
she didn't even get to enjoy it as the color faded out of the world, followed
by the light.
The next thing she knew, Tayra was lifting her head off the cool white
tile floor, wondering what just happened.
"Are you okay?" Nadine asked from the far side of the door.
"I ... fell," Tayra said. Her knees told her she'd fallen on them hard, and
the base of her beak throbbed, though a quick check in the mirror confirmed
it wasn't chipped.
"Mind if I open the door?" Nadine asked.
"Go ... go ahead," Tayra mumbled, twisting around and sliding up to put
her back on the thick glass of the shower panel, not bothering with her
pants, wings spread as she looked at the toy. It was glistening and
underneath it was a little puddle that wasn't water, and hadn't been there
when she walked in.
As the door opened, Tayra looked up at Nadine and asked in near panic,
"What the hell is wrong with me?!"
Nadine stepped inside and turned to put her butt against the counter as
she leaned back on her hands and gazed down at Tayra. For a moment, she
didn't answer, and Tayra felt as though she were being judged.
"Please, this is going to wreck everything if I can't get it under control,"
Tayra pleaded.
"Swear to me this conversation is just between us," Nadine said. "I
could be killed for talking about this, depending on who hears it, and you're
NHIC."
"I swear. I swear on everything I ever loved I won't tell anyone no
matter what you tell me, just please, help me," Tayra moaned, the very
thought that she might not get the answers she needed adding a desperate
edge to her plea.
"All right, I can see just how on the edge you are. I'm going to trust you.
How much do you know about griffins?" Nadine asked. "Just the broad
strokes. Where we came from? Do you know that?"
"The old world. We used to fight for humans."
"You know we were made by humans, right?" Nadine asked.
"Human wizards," Tayra said.
"That's right. They literally created us. We're a chimera species. I won't
pretend to you that I know everything, but my gran told me enough to tell
you what's going on now. In the old world, they called it 'the yen.' In a
nutshell, it's how humans ensured our loyalty. When a griff, male or female,
takes a shine to a human, it isn't just an emotional thing. We go all in. All in.
I know you noticed my tits. Saw you staring as I walked up. Did your ma
tell you why griffins have tits?"
"She told me I'd have to find a human to get them. When I got here I
was told they came after sex," Tayra said. "They're for the babies."
Nadine tilted her head, feathers fluffed, then she chuckled and said,
"Half right. How long have you known this guy, and don't say his name.
Don't even think about him. Just answer the question: how long have you
known him?"
"A ... a few days."
"Days? Damn, girl. You got it bad."
 "Half wrong?" Tayra prodded.
"All your eggs will hatch as griffins. We don't make hybrid babies with
humans like most other races. Griffins beget griffins, full stop, even if the
griff is the male ... which is something I've always wondered about
personally. All human blood does is strengthen our blood. Whenever we
breed with each other, no matter how distantly related we might be, our
blood gets weaker. We all have beaks, honey. We're born with them. What
does that tell you?"
"That ... they're for him?"
Tayra watched Nadine nodding. She said, "Male, female, doesn't matter.
If a griff has sex with a human, they get tits. The reason ..."
Nadine trailed off for a moment as her eyes wandered, then she sighed
and went on, "The reason is to feed their partner in the field. My gran told
me back in the old world we were bred to fight alongside humans in war.
Armies on the march often got their supply lines cut, or didn't have access
to food humans could eat. But griffins ... we can eat damn near anything.
Our bodies turn that into everything our human partners need to sustain
them, keep them going, keep them fit to fight. That's what our tits are for."
"So what do I do?" Tayra said as she put her head in her hands. "This is
my life! My job! As is I can't do my job!"
"Well, you've obviously got it for him. Has he given you any signs he
might have it for you?" Nadine gently asked.
"He said ... well ..."
"The truth now. You lie and it could cost you your life. The Spite's no
joke, and you only have to make that mistake once."
"All he said was that I had a shot. He ... he really likes my ass. We can
joke together, and he's so hot!"
"Focus! Not on him, on me. I know he's hot. Biggest damn human I've
ever seen. But that's not the point. If you don't think it'll work out then you
need to leave. When did the ... the want, really start to mess things up?"
"Yesterday."
"Then you don't know him. This is new. If you get away and stay away
from him, eventually, maybe, it'll go away. Not gonna lie, this is the part I'm
not sure about. Breaking the yen's hold was how non-humans managed to
get griffs to swap over. It was called a liberation and it was, but we paid a
sick fucking price to be free. In order to keep our numbers up we took
humans we didn't like, forced them, and laid our eggs that way. But
breaking the yen ... a lot of griffs died. Over half. They just quit eating and
died. We were made by humans, for humans, and we can't help but love
them best, even if it kills us. Whether that's fair or not, that's the way we
are, and because of the Spite griffs are dying out fast here on Earth. Today
the Spite kills more of us than any other non-human because unlike the rest,
we just can't help ourselves. Since all this comes from magic, and the
humans here don't understand magic, they don't acknowledge it. They treat
it like if they ignore it, it'll go away ... like a bad dream. They're kinda right,
because we are going away. You come from the Tracts, yeah?"
Tayra nodded, and Nadine asked, "Second generation?"
Again, Tayra nodded.
"You're it, then. If you don't get a human you're the end of your line. But
it doesn't have to be him. If you don't think he'll accept you then you need
to get away from him right fuckin' now ... and stay away forever."
Tayra's talons pricked the back of her scalp through her feathers as she
murmured, "It's not fair! He might ... with time. But he's a Nicky! We just
met! It can't be like this! I need more time!"
"I'm sorry. That ain't how this works. I never had the yen for my
husband. He hired me because he needed strong help on the farm. I
respected him for the hard work he put in, and he felt the same about me.
My man wasn't exactly spoiled for choice out in Bartau. We made a deal,
got married, and we've done well together. I love him now ... he's been good
to me, but I never got the yen. From what I gather, griffs are predisposed to
pick the strongest humans. Fighters, you know? My husband is a big man,
and he's strong, but he's no fighter. Hates violence of any kind. I wish I had
more to tell you, but I don't. Maybe the human pharmacologists can come
up with something ... but that's all I got for you. I'm sorry."
Tayra clutched her head, unconsciously sheltering herself with her
wings as she stared at the puddle on the white tile in front of her and quietly
began to sob. It was the first time in her life that tears welled up in her eyes.
She hadn't even known griffins could cry.
For a while, Nadine didn't say more. Then, with an air of decision, she
said, "Tell you what: you give me his contact and you stay here. I'll go talk
to him. Then, when I get back, maybe I'll be able to help you make your
decision. Okay?"
"Okay," Tayra whispered. "My phone's in my coat."
 She heard Nadine moving around, then the older woman said, "Gimmie
your thumb."
She did, felt it press to the phone. Some distant part of her knew she
was breaking the law, knew they'd throw her in Iso for handing a civilian an
unlocked phone with access to police applications, but she couldn't bring
herself to care. She was crazy about a man she just met. It felt like destiny
... but it also felt like he was about to slip through her fingers and be gone.
Forever.
"Okay now. Stay here. You can use the bed out there if you want to rest,
but stay here and don't call no one. I'll be back. Promise me."
"I promise," she whispered.
The door opened, closed, and she was alone.
Please ... please ... please ...
The word just kept echoing around in her mind, and she didn't even
really know what she was asking for.
All she knew was that what was happening to her wasn't fair. She'd
come so far, done so much ... it was fundamentally unjust that for all her
hard work she was being punished, beaten by too much of a good thing.
At last, she forced herself to finish the thought.
Please ... don't turn away from me.

OceanofPDF.com
 16

OceanofPDF.com
 TONY

B eau L ac was named after the artificial lake to which the resort was
adjacent. Half its rooms were actually under the water, which gave guests a
view of the fish ... and the swimmers.
There were actually warnings issued to those who booked underwater
rooms that the swimming area above them was often used for trysts after
dark. Some people booked the rooms for just that reason. Apparently, the
swimmers were warned as well, but whether that made them more or less
inclined to frolic was open to speculation.
Tony learned all this as he read up on the resort, seated at a table under a
sizable umbrella that rippled in the steady, artificial breeze. The table was a
few feet from the end of a rock-tiled patio adjacent to a tiki bar. Beyond
was a perfect white sand beach dotted with low chairs and scattered shelter
mostly composed of frameworks filled in with palm fronds. Beyond that
was the perfect blue water of the lake, which butted the back wall of
Rectau. Tony had no idea of the technical aspects of it, but the wall blended
so seamlessly into the view that it looked like the lake was a hundred times
bigger than it actually was. The only way he could tell where the water
stopped and the wall began was a distant series of buoys to keep boat traffic
from slamming into it. Close by he could hear the screams and laughing of
children playing in and near the water.
From long habit he scanned the crowds, but though there were hundreds
of people on the beach he could see there wasn't a single non-human.
That wasn't unusual, but it did make him nervous for reasons he couldn't
really put into words. He was used to looking for non-humans. For
monsters. When he didn't see any, he always got a little nervous. Monsters
were always around, always close. Not seeing any just reminded him that
some of the monsters were human.
The document auto-scrolling on his phone gave way to a call
notification, and he put his earpiece in and accepted despite it being a
number he didn't recognize. He felt confident he knew who it was.
"Platz here," he said.
"This is Nadine. Where are you?"
"I'm at the tiki bar, table by the-"
"Stay where you are. I'll be there in a minute."
The line disconnected. He looked bemusedly at his phone, then set it on
the table and leaned back with a sigh to gaze out over a relaxing scene that
made him tense, wondering what the hell he was doing here.
He hadn't been happy to get saddled with one of the new monster
recruits, but he'd done his job and things had been going well. Tayra was
good people. He'd gotten that impression pretty immediately, and it had set
him at ease. It was easy to overlook the rest, and she was in trouble. A
woman in trouble was a hook he always fell for, which usually got him in
trouble. While it annoyed him, he'd long since realized that he was the sort
of man who needed problems to solve. If he didn't have any of his own, he
found someone else that did.
It might not be the reason he'd become a cop, but it was the reason he
kept at it.
This time turned out to be no different. First it was the apartment. Then
it was the bounty. Now it was ... whatever the hell this was.
It was more trouble than he bargained for, but he'd bought it, and he had
a feeling the griff on her way to him now was about to show him the bill.
"I should have just stolen a couch from somewhere and let her sleep in
my office," he muttered ruefully to himself, knowing even as he said it that
he'd never have gone through with the idea.
He caught sight of her a few moments later, striding confidently his
way. Unlike Tayra, Nadine had an eagle's head and a leonine fur pattern.
She was still visibly muscular, but there was a motherly softness over it that
Tayra didn't have. Not to mention she had a serious rack to match that
mountain of an ass he was beginning to suspect was a racial trait.
She was holding her wings fairly high behind her, and their black
feathers ruffled lightly in the breeze as she stalked toward him, lion's tail
lashing rather more violently than he liked behind her. Given her avian face,
the high wings and lashing tail were his only clues to her mood, and what
they said wasn't what he wanted to hear.
Tony watched her come on, but didn't stand to greet her. He thought
about it, but something in her bearing suggested to him that the last thing he
wanted to do was come across as deferential. She'd steamrolled him in the
lobby, and he wasn't about to let that set the tone for this second meeting.
She stopped at the edge of the shade cast by the umbrella and waited,
staring intently at him. After a moment, he waved a hand at the chair about
a quarter of the way around the table, and without a word she grabbed and
spun it around, laying her forearms across the back as she sat.
"So?" he asked when she still didn't speak.
Nadine asked, "What do you know about what's going on?"
"She's hornier than she should be and confused about why," he said,
cutting out all the shit and keeping his tone short. "I know she should be
reassigned, probably to another department, and if this is going to be a
persistent thing she needs to find another line of work."
Her head twisted as she looked at him sidelong, then said, "Okay, I can
see we got off on the wrong foot earlier. I copped an attitude with you and
I'll apologize for that. I'm sorry."
Tony considered that, then nodded slowly and said, "Accepted. Now tell
me what's actually going on. You wouldn't have come at me like that unless
you knew something I don't."
"First I need your word that whatever's said here goes no further. And I
fuckin' mean that. She trusted me, but you're a different case. If you want to
help her I've got stuff you need to know, but I'm not about to stick my neck
out to give it to you. I've got a life, a husband, kids. I want a guarantee."
"Were you born here?" Tony asked.
She shook her head and said, "Raised in the Tracts."
"So you know shit you've been told not to talk about, and that bears on
this?" he asked.
Nadine nodded.
Tony picked up his phone, selected a police application for filing
affidavits, and set it to record. He showed her the application, then said, "I,
Corporal Tony Platz of the Non-Human Investigative Corps, hereby do
swear under penalty of perjury that the interview I will conduct at the
present location, proceeding the entry timestamp and ending before
fourteen hundred hours on the present date, will be without legal
consequence or official record save its occurrence, and that its contents will
remain confidential to myself, Nadine Fitzpatrick, Officer Tayra Manes, and
no other. I understand that this constitutes a complete abrogation of the
option to include as testimony any information obtained from this interview
in any future legal process unless I can demonstrate I obtained said
information by means not provided in this interview, and will proceed under
that understanding. Mark."
A urbane feminine voice from his phone declared, "Affidavit filed."
He then sent a copy — along with a hash Nadine could use to confirm
its authenticity with the city database — to the number she'd just called him
from.
Nadine checked her phone when the notifications sounded, then looked
him in the eye as she asked, "What's the penalty for perjury?"
"Ordinary citizens found guilty of perjury are stripped of their right to
obtain or hold any public office, go armed in the city or serve as jurors.
They're also typically made to pay a hefty percentage of their total material
value as recompense depending on the specific consequences of their lie. If
that perjury cost a life, theirs is forfeit. For a cop? Presuming I avoid
execution I'd be stripped of my badge and compelled to take the long walk
regardless of the perceived injury."
"The long walk?"
"Exile to the Tracts. A lie under oath is a declaration of contempt for
society as a whole. If I don't respect my oaths to this city, I lose my right to
live here."
Nadine nodded, then set her hand on the table, tapping a talon as she
said, "The first thing you should know is that this isn't her fault. The second
is that it's serious."
"Yeah I gathered that," Tony said wryly. "What's the fix?"
"Well, that depends on you, which is why I'm here. She said she only
met you a few days ago."
"Yeah?"
Nadine looked him pointedly up and down, then shrugged as she said, "I
can see why she'd have an immediate physical attraction. You're a beast.
But you tripped all her triggers, which is a problem."
"How much of a problem?" Tony asked.
 "If you said you wanted to, she would fuck you anytime, anywhere,
even knowing the Spite will kill her for it."
"I'm still waiting to hear the fix."
"There are three possibilities, of which only one is a sure bet. You two
split up and never see each other again, put her on some kind of drug, or
you get spliced for her."
Tony leaned back, gazing steadily at Nadine as he considered what she'd
said.
"So ... you're telling me that the only sure solution is to get spliced?
This won't go away if she does?" he asked at length.
When Nadine nodded, he said, "I'm ... gonna need some context here."
Over the next ten minutes, he listened as Nadine told him a lot more
about griffins than was in the official texts on the subject. He was sure some
of the information she was passing was highly illegal because it involved
magic, which was a taboo subject in Daytau and all surrounding city-states.
Even most explicitly fictional work went through a screening process to
ensure it had no relation to what most people didn't even acknowledge as a
real thing.
That magic was, in fact, real, was indisputable to anyone who knew
about the Cataclysm in any detail. That said, the last thing anyone in
government wanted was for wizards to start popping up who could do some
of the shit purported to have been the stock in trade of magicians.
So to hear that griffins were a created race and that they had this built-
in trigger was a hard pill for Tony to swallow.
When Nadine finished, Tony shook his head and said, "I'm not calling
you a liar, but that's complete bullshit. Her career is ruined."
"Not yet, but it sure is on the brink," Nadine admitted.
"We can't put her on mood-altering drugs. That kind of thing
disqualifies any officer wearing blue or gray from operating in the field."
She was quiet for a moment, then he heard her beak grinding. It
stopped, then parted as she said, "Tony, you don't know me. You barely
know her. But I can tell you like her, or at least that you want her to
succeed. She told me you liked her butt. That true?"
Rolling his eyes, he nodded. There was no point denying that. They
were way past being delicate.
"So are you even considering getting the splice for her?" she asked.
 "Even if I wanted to, I can't afford it. Neither can she," Tony said. "I'd
have to sell my house and don't ask me to do that for someone I just met."
"Let's say money wasn't a factor."
"Money is a factor."
"Let's say it wasn't. Would you ..." she trailed off, leaned forward, and
tapped her claw on the table. "... get the splice for her?"
"Would it let her do her job?" he asked.
Nadine nodded slowly and said, "The yen has a purpose, and that
purpose defines its effect. If you give her what she needs, she'd fight a
dragon for you, and go in expecting to win."
Tony raised an eyebrow as he said, "There is no way she beats a dragon,
or even a wyvern."
"I'm just telling you what my gran told me. Griffins with the yen are
incredibly powerful."
"You just said it: this is second-hand from your granny. How do you
expect me to trust that information when you have no real experience?"
Tony asked.
"You don't have any other choice if you don't want to make a total mess
of this, of her."
"It's a moot point, because there is no money to get the splice."
"I'll pay."
"You'll what?"
Tony stared at her, complete disbelief writ large on his face. "Why? You
don't know either of us."
"You're a cop, try not to be stupid. I might not know either of you
personally, but I'm a griff, and we're dying out. This isn't me being nice.
This is me building a future for my kids, for my race. My husband'll go
along. If you agree to get the splice, I'll pay for it, but I'm not talking pills. I
mean put your dick on the line and commit. It's the safest bet you could ever
make, Tony. She has the yen for you. If you accept her, the two of you will
be legends."
"Unless you're telling me a griff with the yen is bulletproof, you're full
of shit, Nadine. You live out in Bartau. You're a farmer's wife. No offense,
but you have no idea how dangerous the job we do is. Being big and strong
isn't really that big a deal. I know that better than anyone on the force. I'd
have been dead in my first six months if it wasn't for the armor I wear."
 "All I'm hearing right now are excuses, but what I ain't heard is you
sayin' no. So? Put up or shut up, Tony. Say no, and get rid of her. I mean
don't even be in the same city as her anymore. Do whatever you have to do
to get and keep distance, because if you don't the sight of you — knowing
you turned her down — will literally drive her nuts."
"This is bullshit!" he flared.
She reached out, put a taloned hand over his own, and looked into his
eyes as she said, "I know I'm just a stranger and I'm asking a lot from you. I
know this isn't trouble you wanted. But if you can get past that trouble,
Tony, I swear ... she'll be the best thing to ever happen to you. Treat her
right, and you'll never be lonely again."
"I don't need a girlfriend, Nadine. I need my partner."
Nadine leaned forward until her beak almost touched his nose. Her
voice was deliberate as she said, "Then fuck her, and you'll have the best
partner you could ever imagine. Love her, and she'd fly to the moon just to
sign your name where the whole world can see it."
Tony shook his head, waving a hand as he said, "Let's say all that is
true. It still doesn't matter. Romance between partners, or even in the same
department, is forbidden. There are good reasons for those rules too. If we
do this, particularly if I get my code changed, that's in the public record.
The only way for us to keep our jobs is to serve in different departments."
"She'll quit," Nadine said immediately.
"How can you know that's what she actually wants?" Tony asked
incredulously.
"Tony, that's like asking me if food is what you actually want when you
get hungry. She has an appetite you don't have, and you are the only thing
that will satisfy that hunger. Her job ain't gonna cut it and if she has to
choose it won't take her long, I promise."
Shaking his head, he reached for his phone and said, "Nadine, I'm going
to ask you if I can talk to someone above me about some of what you've
said. I'm pretty sure he'll understand, and at the least it won't escalate to
legal proceedings."
"Who?" Nadine asked suspiciously.
"Andrew Bremmin."
"Oh, I know about him! That arachne caught him, what's her name,
Drainheart? He's running for mayor! It's been all over the news."
 Nodding, Tony said, "I really hate bugging Uncle Nick about this, but I
did help him nail down his last case. I figure he owes me."
It was actually something of a point of pride that he had Uncle Nick's
personal number, but as he dialed he felt a stab of uncertainty. He had no
real way of knowing how this would go.
"Andrew Bremmin's phone."
The voice was feminine, urbane, and instantly recognizable.
"Miss Drainheart?"
"Hello Mr. Platz. It must be important if you're skipping one, two, three
... several layers of command to call. What is it?"
"How much do you know about griffins?" Tony asked.
"Quite a bit."
"I was assigned-"
"I am aware. I was the one who arranged it. I trust Officer Manes is
performing well?"
"She has the yen."
"For you?" she asked, sounding neither surprised, nor alarmed.
Tony swallowed, then admitted, "Yeah."
The line was silent for several moments, then Velise spoke, her voice
still very business casual.
"I have your e-signature on record confirming that you read and
understood the Standard Operating Procedures revision 12.1a disseminated
last month. It covers this eventuality. Do remember that Andrew is engaged
in an election and is a very busy man. I suggest limiting your calls in future
either to purely casual matters of friendship or those actual emergencies
that genuinely require his personal attention. As to this specific issue, you
cannot possibly understand the favor I've done you in assigning Tayra
Manes as your partner, but you will thank me when you learn. I do trust we
can count on your support next July, Mr. Platz. Have a good day, good luck
out there in Oolytau ... and you're welcome."
The line disconnected, leaving Tony blinking in frank disbelief.
"You got hold of the spider woman?" Nadine prompted after several
long seconds.
"Uh, yeah! Yeah ... she said to look up the SOP. Said it was in there."
"Well don't keep me in suspense, dude!" Nadine snapped, rolling her
hand as she added, "Look it up!"
 Tony pulled up the relevant document and ran a search for 'griffin,'
which pulled up the section specific to her species.
He skimmed it, then stopped as he found what he was looking for.
He read aloud: "In the event a griffin assigned within the NHIC
announces or displays physical attraction amounting to 'involuntary
behavior' as defined in appendix 37-1b, that griffin is either to be
accommodated at city expense or — should the party of interest be engaged
or otherwise unwilling to accommodate — transferred to another duty
department in a different, preferably non-contiguous, subcity immediately.
As it is acknowledged that griffins so accommodated have markedly higher
performance metrics, accommodation is highly preferred and constitutes an
exemption from the rules on fraternization noted in sections 18, 21, and 82.
In the event of successful accommodation, such griffins are to be granted a
new armor draft no later than two months from initial date of
accommodation as confirmed by the GSO."
Tony kept reading in silence for a moment, then said, "There's even an
appendix with contact information in the event of 'involuntary behavior'
manifesting at odd hours or times."
"Tony?"
"Yeah?" he glanced up from his phone to stare into very intense looking
eagle's eyes. Her beak was almost touching his nose.
She quietly said, "You were assigned a griffin for a partner. Even I know
this graduating class was the first class of non-humans in history admitted
to the NHIC. How in the high holy fuck ... did you not read your own SOP
regarding your responsibilities?"
Holding up his hands defensively, he said, "Hey I've been busy! This
shit was sprung on me with no notice and so far we've been shot at twice in
three days. The fact that she might suddenly go nuts for the D literally
never crossed my mind. I mean, seriously?!"
Nadine leaned back and cupped both her hands over her face as she
shook her head in melodramatic despair, then whipped them away as she
said, "Well! That's at least one piece of good news for me. I don't have to
pay! So the question remains: What are you gonna do? Ditch her, or go all
in?"
Tony showed his hands again and asked, "How do you expect me to
answer that? I've known her less than a week."
 "I expect you to answer quickly, because you don't have any other
choice. Her health and future are at stake. Have you already got a girl?"
Thinking of Laura and their last talk, Tony sighed and shook his head as
he admitted, "No."
"Have you got a problem with a tiger-striped butt?"
"N-not really?"
"Tail?"
"No, those are kinda hot."
"Beak?"
"Yeah. Yeah I have a problem with the beak. That's freaky."
"Eh, three out of four's not bad. Just remember she's still got a very
kissable set of lips. You should take her. I'm telling you, you won't regret it.
She may not have told you, but she's the end of her line. Without a human
male breedin' her, she's sterile. Whether she realizes it or not, that's what
brought her to Daytau. She didn't come here to be a cop. She came here to
find a mate. She came here ... to find you. For you this is just a golden
opportunity. For her, it's destiny. I'm beggin' you man, don't turn her down."
"Nadine, you are guilt-trippin' the fuck out of me right now," Tony said,
annoyed.
Waving her taloned hand absently she said, "Moms do that. It's a thing.
So? She's literally crazy about you, Tony, and in three days you've been shot
at twice, presumably with her. You know what she's made of."
"Yeah ... I do."
"Make the call."
Eyes narrowed, Tony said, "You are really pushy."
"Tayra is really desperate."
"Well ... it would solve her housing issue," he muttered quietly.
"And get you so very, very laid."
"Are all griffin's this horny?" he asked.
Nadine leaned back and growled like a satisfied lioness before she said,
"Ohooh, Tony. You have no idea. But you're a young buck, you're strong.
You can take it ... which is good, because boy howdy is she gonna give it to
ya."
She chuckled, a throaty, deep sound that seemed to fit her as she shook
out her wings and flapped them once, hard, as though to get rid of a cramp.
Resettling, she said, "Mmph! Just thinking about it has me looking forward
to tonight. My man'll be here this evening and uh, yeah, that'll be fun."
 Tony thought for another moment, then started to stand as he said, "I'm
going to go ask her what she wants."
Before he was all the way out of his seat there was a taloned hand
around his neck and the muzzle of his pistol was pressed under her
breastbone. He'd drawn the instant he felt the contact, and both of them
froze.
"Nadine, this is really dumb," he said quietly. "The only reason you
aren't dead is because I wasn't expecting trouble. The NHIC are a 'shoot
first' kind of organization."
"I'd do it again to make sure I got your attention," she said, speaking
very softly. She then loosened her hold and carefully slid her hand back and
away, showing him the palm. They both straightened, and as he holstered
his weapon he said, "So what did you literally just risk your life to make
sure I understood?"
Her feathers were tight and her eyes pinpointed as she stared at him a
long second, then said, "The yen ain't her fault. She didn't cause it, you did,
and you had everythin' you needed to avoid doin' that. All you had to do
was read your manual, which you didn't 'cause you 'been busy.' If you plan
to break her heart then you go straight back to Oolytau right now. Never see
her again. The only reason you have to talk to her here is if you plan to offer
her what she wants. What she needs. So what's it gonna be?"
"I want my partner back," Tony said quietly. "It's pretty obvious now
that my being kept in Oolytau until I could be assigned to Tayra was set up
in advance, and you know what?"
"What?" Nadine asked.
"While I am annoyed, I don't hate it," Tony said with a wry grin to go
with a long sigh. "It's weird, and kind of embarrassing when I think about
exactly why I'm here, but I don't hate it."
"You sure?" she asked. "Ain't no take-backsies on this one."
Tony nodded, and as he did he realized that he was. He had a feeling
similar to the one he often got when he was about to kick down a door on a
raid. On the other side of that door there might be anything waiting, but he'd
never hesitated when the moment of truth came. He went in and got the job
done. If the job were easy, anyone could do it. It wasn't easy, and Tony took
pride in being the man for that job.
Tayra, for whatever reason, thought he was the man for her. He liked
her. He respected her ... and maybe it was his hero fixation getting him in
trouble again, but he'd always been a sucker for a woman in need.
"Yeah, I'm sure. Take me to her."

OceanofPDF.com
 17

OceanofPDF.com
 TAYRA

T ayra lay belly down on the bed, head couched on her arms, wondering if
she could get away with 'involuntary behavior' on the letter of resignation
she'd have to write without going into specifics. Life at that moment felt as
unfair as it was possible to get.
Five years of work, training, privation ... and what ended it all wasn't
going to be a bullet, but her own libido.
"Why did it have to be sexual?" she muttered. "There's no reason for it.
It was bad enough before."
It made perfect sense to her why griffins had defected to the other side.
What had been done to them was beyond injustice. Better to just enslave
them outright than build in a dependency that couldn't be undone.
She wondered what was going on with Tony and Nadine. She'd left over
an hour ago. By now Tony knew everything. Maybe he was on his way
back to Oolytau. Maybe he was making calls, arranging everything so that
all Nadine had to do was come give her the bad news. That would be like
him.
Trying to be nice.
She closed her eyes and tried not to think about it. About him. About
what he could make her feel if he got behind her and ...
She keened in frustration and opened her eyes again. Every time she
shut them her fantasies took over. It wasn't fair! How was she supposed to
live this way?
She'd always had a very high sex drive. Most of the time toys helped her
take the edge off, but the edge had never been like this.
 This was impossible.
Whenever she relaxed for even a second, thoughts of him crept in and
the frustration of it made her want to scream.
She heard the door alert as the lock disengaged, and turned her head
away, facing the window. The drapes were pulled back and the artificial
sunlight pouring in lent a deceptively cheerful air to the room.
"What did he say?" she asked. "Did he call the captain?"
"No, he didn't call the captain."
It was Tony's voice, and her beak ground even as she whined, "Tony!
What are you doing here?! Didn't Nadine tell you?"
"Yeah, she told me."
The bed shifted as he sat down on it, and she whimpered as she said,
"Not a smart move. I don't think you understand just how much willpower
it's costing me not to jump you right now. This is dangerous for me. You ...
you could kill me."
"Refrain for a while longer, and that set of circumstances will no longer
apply."
The voice was strange, and Tayra rolled to her side, looking around to
see that Tony wasn't the only one who'd come in. Nadine was leaning
against the wall by the short hallway that led out, looking on with folded
arms ... but she hadn't been the one to speak.
Standing at the foot of the bed was a human like none she'd ever seen
before.
He had on a silver coat rimmed in black and stood with his hands
behind his back. One of his eyes was golden, the other was clearly a
prosthetic. Its iris was glowing a faint green and the pupil was cross-shaped.
Otherwise, his tanned skin and features were so uniform and symmetrical
they didn't look real. He was apparently hairless, including a complete lack
of eyebrows, which gave him a vaguely surprised look that didn't at all
match his voice.
He said, "I'm Martin Vanzant. I'm a gene-splicer under contract with the
Non-Human Investigative Corps. You are Miss Tayra Manes?"
Her confusion put a damper on the haze of lust that shot through her at
the sight of Tony, and she glanced between the two men before focusing on
her partner as she said, "Tony, what the hell? You just met me! There's no
way you can do this! There are rules!"
 "You're right, there are, and I wish I'd read them. I don't feel so bad
anymore because apparently you didn't either. They're in the SOP under
griffins."
He glanced at her sidelong as he asked, "Why didn't you read them, by
the way? If you had, you'd have known what was going on, at least a little."
"Um ... I am a griff. I should know what's going on. I was more
concerned with all the rest of it."
She watched Tony turn to Nadine and point at her as he said, "See? This
isn't just on me!"
"It's still mostly on you," Nadine shot back.
Before the two could get into it the gene-splicer cleared his throat
meaningfully, then asked, "Miss Manes, as it is obvious why I am here, it is
only necessary for me to ask you if you are willing to allow me to sample
your genetics. Mr. Platz has consented to undergo permanent genetic
therapy, but in the short term, given your current state of near debilitation, a
stopgap measure is called for."
Tayra held up a talon toward Martin in a 'wait one' gesture as she
focused on Tony and said, "Before that, you need to explain to me why
you're willing to do this, and don't tell me it's because you're trying to save
my career! I can get a transfer, or you can. This is a prime opportunity for
you to get back to Daytau proper!"
Tony frowned thoughtfully, then glanced away, not making eye contact
as he said, "Tayra, I've made more than a few mistakes with women in my
life. I'd be lying if I said I was totally comfortable with this and I really
wish we had more time to sort it out, but I'm not doing this just for you. I
like you. I like the way you do things. I like working with you and ... I think
we'd go well together."
He scratched just behind his ear, looking a bit sheepish as he glanced
back at her and said, "I also might be a little impulsive. But yeah. If I have
to pick right now — and I actually do — between never seeing you again
and getting the splice just on the off-chance we could be the real deal, well,
I'm willing to give it a shot. This is mostly about you, I won't lie, but I
wouldn't be offering if I didn't think there was something in it for me too."
"You're serious?" she asked, mostly on instinct, then twisted her head
bashfully as he gave her 'the look' before rolling his eyes toward the still
patiently waiting gene-splicer.
 "Yes," she said, looking at Martin. The welter of sensations flooding
through her was hard to parse, but most of it was an all but overpowering
want. "Take whatever you need."
"I already have the information acquired from samples you submitted
when you joined the academy, but I need to verify that information is
correct, for your sake," the man replied as he took a step forward and
reached out to offer his hand. She took it. He hesitated a moment, then
nodded and said, "Very well. The information remains relevant and correct.
Mr. Platz, I must insist you wait at least thirty minutes before any seminal
contact to avoid killing Miss Manes. An appointment for your permanent
adjustment will be forwarded to you. It should be within the next three
days. On the off chance it isn't, do bear in mind today's adjustment will only
last seven days, and to be safe you should avoid sexual contact after six. Do
you understand?"
"Yeah, I understand," Tony said, standing and offering his hand.
Martin shook it, then said again, "Thirty minutes, Mr. Platz. Given the
nature of Miss Manes' condition, you may wish to wait in another location."
Tony glanced at Tayra, who could only nod, eyes pinpointed as she
stared at the man she would shortly be fucking. It was now legitimately the
only thing she could think clearly about.
Something in her hungry look must have gotten through, because as he
let go of Martin's hand Tony said, "Yeah, that's probably a good idea."
The gene-splicer smiled and said, "Very well. Let not your heart be
troubled, Mr. Platz, Miss Manes. We have preserved the peace. I wish the
two of you happiness."
With that, the splicer turned and walked away. Nadine slid into the room
to give him space to pass as she turned her attention to Tony and jerked a
long-taloned thumb over her shoulder as she said, "Out, you. Either go get a
room of your own or go home because whatever furniture is around when
you two finally go at it is gonna break, and I'm not about to pay that bill."
"Well that's not at all worrying," he said, giving her an annoyed look.
In a stage whisper, Nadine said, "My advice is go home and wreck your
bed."
She grinned, then added with a shrug, "You're going to wind up buying
a new one no matter what anyway. Take before-and-after pictures so you
can brag."
 "What am I getting into?" Tony asked no one in particular as he started
to walk away.
Tayra reached out and caught his hand. When he turned, she said, "A
good thing. Tony, I'm going to take care of you. I can't believe you're doing
this for me but since you are ... you should know that. I'll do whatever it
takes."
She didn't realize she was pulling him back toward her until Nadine's
talons closed around her wrist and his, then forcefully broke Tayra's hold on
the man as she said, "Oh-kay, out, Tony. I mean it, she's seriously about to
jump you and she legitimately can't help herself. Get out."
Tony was out of the room a moment later and as the door closed, Tayra
keened quietly as she sat at the edge of the bed, shivering with reaction.
Nadine sat next to her and wrapped an arm over her shoulder, drawing
her in as she murmured, "It's okay. You'll catch the next train and see him
tonight, well after the half-hour time has expired. It's best not to take
chances with the Spite."
"He won't get a room?" Tayra asked plaintively. "Isn't thirty-one
minutes enough?!"
"Only technically," Nadine said with wry amusement. "I'm happy for
you, Tayra, and a little envious. I always wondered what it would be like to
have the yen."
"It sucks!" Tayra said, folding both her hands in her lap and clenching
them together. "I'm acting like an addict! This is so not fair! I feel like I'm
being forced, and I know I'm forcing him. It's wrong!"
"It's not your fault. You didn't do it, and the people who did are all dead.
You can take comfort in that, maybe."
Tayra shook her head and said, "Nope. Not helping. I want him in me
right, fucking, now ... and I really feel like I'm losing my mind. Is it going
to get better?"
"I don't know," Nadine admitted. "I think it must, because if it were
always this bad you wouldn't be able to do the job you were literally made
for. If you're asking my opinion, I think this ... need, is just to seal the deal."
Tayra dropped her head into her hands as she said, "I hate this so much.
I came to this city to get a man, but now that I have one I can't help but feel
bad about it."
"He's a big boy, hon. He's making his own decision about you."
"What did you tell him?"
 Tayra looked up at Nadine, whose feathers were fluffed as she said, "I
told him you'd be the best thing to ever happen to him."
Tayra lunged into the other woman's arms and clutched at her as she
said, "Thank you ... thank you so much. I don't know what else to say."
"You're welcome, and you can say you'll have lots and lots of kids.
Griffs are awesome; there should be more of us in the world."
Tayra laughed, and clung to Nadine for a while, then said, "Um ... one
question?"
"You can ask me as many questions as you want."
Leaning away to look the other woman in the eye, Tayra asked, "How
am I going to not tear him to literal pieces when I completely lose my
fucking mind with him later?"
Nadine blinked, then gave her the side-eye as she said, "Ah. Well, for
starters, do it from behind for the first few orgasms. As for the talons, you
might want to buy some caps if you don't have them already."
"I've got a set."
"Wear them. You might also consider a beak band, just to make him feel
safe. There are a few toys you could buy that'll make it a bit easier to play
with him too. Human tech isn't just for tall buildings and killing. I'll give
you a list that I use with my husband. I know it's kinda silly for me to say
'take it slow with him at first' but you're going to have to try. I don't think he
really understands what's involved with taking care of a horny griff, but
he'll learn quick. Just do everything you can to make sure he doesn't feel
threatened. I scared the hell out of my husband our first night and didn't get
laid again for a month. That sucked."
Eyes pinpointed, feathers tight, Tayra asked, "Anything else?"
Nadine looked up as she thought, then raised a finger as she said,
"Soundproof the room you use most often ... and maybe get him some
wax."
"Wax?" Tayra asked, blinking.
Nodding gravely, Nadine tapped the side of her head as she said, "For
his ears. You're going to be loud."
"I'll keep it down."
Nadine laughed and said, "Oh you'll think you're keeping it down until
he's complaining of tinnitus. Just be safe and get him some wax. Where are
you staying, apartment?"
"House."
 "Good enough for now."
"It's that bad?"
"Griffs can be heard for miles, honey. To be honest, you'll want to put in
for a transfer out to Bartau ... or at least, your neighbors will want that."
"I am causing so much trouble," Tayra moaned in quiet despair.
"You're worth it. He'll say so too. I'd like to think that the yen wouldn't
put you with the wrong man but I have no proof, and we turned against the
people who set it up, so ... I guess we'll find out the hard way, huh?"
Tayra's phone chirped, and when she checked it she said, "He's going
back to the house."
"Your man's no fool. He doesn't want to risk your health. Stay here
another thirty minutes or so, then go on and catch the next train back."
Tayra nodded and took a few deep, steadying breaths. She said, "The
only reason I think I'll make it is because I know when I get there he'll be
waiting."
"Just in case, the toy is still there in the bathroom. Might want to take
the edge off before you head out," Nadine said after a moment's thought.
Tayra thought about saying no, then her shoulders slumped in defeat as
she mumbled, "Yeah ... I better. This sucks so much."
Nadine laughed quietly and gave Tayra another fond squeeze as she
said, "Yes well, trust me, when he's going full-bore from behind and you're
shrieking fit to wake the dead, you'll transfer all that suck to your neighbors.
And probably their neighbors."
Tayra gave her a despairing look, then shot off the bed for the bathroom
with the other woman's laughter chasing her all the way.

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 TONY

T he train ride back to Daytau was quiet. It was only early afternoon on a
weekday and most of the day-trippers wouldn't start heading back until at
least seven in the evening.
The jeep was parked in Oolytau, but Tony would take a taxi from the
station out to his house. He'd already sent all the relevant information to
Tayra's phone about which station she'd need to transfer at to get on a spur
that would drop her within a few miles of his place. If she got a taxi at the
main station, it'd cost way more than she needed to spend.
He stared at his phone, dreading his next call. Captain Harding had to be
informed. This wasn't something that could wait either. The longer he put it
off, the worse it would be.
That didn't mean he knew how to say what needed to be said. He could
be blunt, but that didn't seem like the smart play. What would Harding say
if Tony led with: 'Sir, Officer Manes has the hots for me. Apparently, that's
somehow cool according to the new SOP because she's a griffin, so in order
to control what qualifies as involuntary behavior I have to take the rest of
the day off for uh ... reasons. But there is good news! I don't have to find
her an apartment anymore. Mission accomplished!'
"He'd fucking shoot me," Tony muttered aloud as he pulled up the SOP,
checked to ensure it was the correct revision, then found the relevant
passage. He cut it into an email addressed to Harding, then sat staring at his
phone as he wondered what else to say.
After a long few minutes, he typed, 'These clauses of the current SOP
are relevant to my partner and I. Will spend the rest of the day helping
Officer Manes move into my residence, which will serve as hers as well
going forward. Please advise on how this should be handled within the
department.'
It took him another few minutes of thought to title the email, 'Status
Update: Officer Manes residency situation resolved.'
Before he could lose his nerve, he sent the email.
Exactly three minutes later, his phone rang.
"Shit," he whispered as he pulled his earpiece and fit it, then accepted
the call.
"You took your partner to Rectau so you could fuck her!?"
Harding's voice exploded like a bomb in Tony's ear as he snarled his
question, then went on before Tony had a chance to answer.
"I assign you the new recruit because I've been assured you're the best
man for the job and now you're going to turn my department into a
laughingstock. You have abused my trust!"
"We haven't had sex, sir, and I didn't take her out to Rectau under false
pretenses," Tony said, managing to get it in as Harding drew a breath. The
fact that he absolutely had taken Tayra to Rectau under false pretenses, but
that they weren't precisely the pretenses Harding assumed didn't play, so
Tony left it out. "This wasn't the plan."
"Oh I know! The plan was talk to a griff about a place for her to stay.
'She'll be living at my house but don't worry, it's cool because the rules say
so,' isn't a deviation, Corporal. It's a disaster. Well you listen to me: you lay
a finger on Manes and I don't care what the SOP says — I'll have IA turn
you inside out. Is she there?"
"No sir. Circumstances required-"
"You will cease any and all contact immediately. No calls, no texts,
don't even think about her. As far as Officer Manes is concerned, you don't
exist. Go home, stay there, and if I were you I'd dust off my résumé. I'll
handle this from here on out. You are not to say word one about this ...
magnificent fuck-up, to anyone. Are we five by five, Corporal?"
"Yes, sir," Tony said quietly. "Loud and clear."
The line disconnected.
Tony's head thumped the back of his chair, then fell sideways as he
looked out the window at the blur of streets and skyscrapers.
His mind ticked through the possibilities, and none of them were good.
He didn't know Harding well enough to guess what the man would do. One
of the first things would probably be to call Tayra.
That idea sparked another. He entered a code on his phone, then
followed the prompts to change his personal message. It wouldn't hold up
informally, but it might in court, particularly if the call logs were pulled. At
the least, he would be following his orders to the letter ... and not one inch
further.
Twelve minutes later, his phone started to ring.
He checked the number, then sighed and muttered, "Well ... here goes
nothing," as he declined the call.

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 TAYRA

T ayra stared at her phone with a mixture of frustration and despair so

poignant that it was all she could do not to crush the little piece of tech.
"Was that your boss?" Nadine asked.
At Tayra's slow nod, Nadine said, "He's a dick."
"What do I do?" Tayra asked.
"Well, all I heard was a lot of angry muttering because you didn't let me
listen properly. What did he actually say?" Nadine said.
"He said that Tony isn't my partner anymore, that he'll be transferred out
of the department. He said to come back to Oolytau for reassignment. He
said that I'd stay in the PD basement until a rental agreement could be
worked out somewhere."
She looked at Nadine with wide eyes and tight feathers as she added,
"He has no intention of letting this happen."
"Call Tony," Nadine said.
"Captain Harding told me not to. He said no contact. If I call, he'll be
able to pull the logs. If I disobey a direct order he can terminate me. I'm still
provisional."
"Then quit!" Nadine said, exasperated. "This is way more important!"
"I don't want to lose my job over this!" Tayra shot back. "I worked too
hard to let it all fall apart! Tony ... might not work out, but I still have a
career to think about."
It was painful to say, but Tayra had to face facts. She'd just met him.
Yen or not, she had no idea if she and Tony were really compatible, and this
whole thing was a giant shitshow. Maybe Captain Harding was right:
maybe it was best to just split them up before either of them got in too deep.
Nadine's beak was grinding as she stared at Tayra, then she said, "Fine,
you know what? Fuck your boss. This is too important to let some
twatwaffle ruin it because he can't have what Tony's getting. I'm not you. I
can call whoever I damn well please."
As she spoke, she pulled her phone out and selected a contact, then put
it on the table between them. In the quiet of the room, the ringing was easy
enough to hear.
A moment later, it played an automated message.
"You've reached Corporal Tony Platz, NHIC. I'm not available at the
moment. If this is a true emergency, press one. Otherwise, leave a mess-"
Nadine pressed one, interrupting the message. The phone disconnected,
but an instant after it did there was a notification ping.
Tayra watched the other woman look at the content of that notification,
then she made another call and set the phone down on the table between
them again. After two rings, the call connected.
"This is Captain Larry McCreedy, Daytau NHIC. Who's calling? I don't
recognize this number."
"Captain McCreedy, you don't know me, but my name is Nadine
Fitzpatrick. I got your number from Corporal Tony Platz, do you know
him?"
"Yes? Why would he give you my number?"
"The short version of the long story is that his new partner is in trouble.
The Oolytau captain is trying to pull a fast one and he's forbidden Tayra and
Tony from contacting each other. Please pull up the current Standard
Operating Procedures document and look up the section on griffins. I have
Officer Manes here if you wanna talk to her once you've read it. I know
you're busy, Captain, but this is really, really important."
"You say Officer Manes is there? Put her on."
Nadine spread her hands, then waved one toward the phone as she
leaned back, feathers fluffed in self-satisfaction.
Tayra was so desperate that she didn't even begrudge the woman her
moment as she leaned toward the phone and said, "This is Officer Manes."
"What the hell are you doing? Do you have any idea how inappropriate
this is?"
"Captain, this wasn't my idea. I swear it wasn't."
 "This kind of stunt kills careers, Manes. You've got about ten seconds to
tell me why I shouldn't hang up this phone, call Harding, and have both you
and Tony up before a board."
"It has to do with involuntary behaviors related to my species, Captain.
The SOP covers it, and Tony and I wanted to remain partners. I can't sum
up the content in ten seconds."
There was a long, long silence on the other end of the line, then
McCreedy said simply, "Stand by."
"Yessir."
Another full minute passed, and Tayra's nerves frayed until she had to
stand up and pace, wings twitching, talons flexing, tail lashing. It was
everything she could do to keep her beak from grinding. She didn't want the
noise to distract the captain.
Nadine watched her, feathers tight to her skull. It was obvious the
woman now realized she may have done more harm than good, and Tayra's
display of nerves was getting to her.
The next words were McCreedy's, and they were not encouraging.
"Are you kidding me?"
Tayra shot back toward the table, leaning over the phone as she said,
"No, sir. I wish it hadn't happened and I have no excuse. I can't help it. I'm
sorry, but I swear I'll do good work as his partner. I-"
"Shut it," McCreedy said, and Tayra's beak snapped shut with an
audible clack.
He said, "I've been notified, Officer Manes. If there are appropriate
steps to take, rest assured they will be taken. In the meantime you are to
follow orders, and that includes not having ... or allowing, an uninvolved
civilian make an end run around those orders on your behalf. Do I make
myself clear?"
"Crystal clear, sir."
"Is T- ... Corporal Platz there?"
"No sir."
The man's sigh was gusty and eloquent, then he said, "Put Miss
Fitzpatrick back on the phone."
Tayra sat bonelessly in her chair as Nadine leaned forward again and
said, "Yes?"
"How the hell are you involved in this?" he asked.
 "I'm a griff. Tayra came to me askin' for help. She didn't know what was
happening to her and it was interfering with her ability to do her job. Since I
have a human husband, she thought I'd have the answers."
"Do you?" he asked.
"Legally speaking?" Nadine shot back.
"Say no more. Don't call me again."
"Do right by Tayra, Captain, and I won't have to."
There was a long pause, then the captain said, "This isn't about Officer
Manes, Mrs. Fitzpatrick. This is about the Non-Human Investigative Corps,
and what's best for the city and citizens of Daytau is that its agents obey
lawful orders. We have a process, and the idea that the relevant parties
wouldn't have been notified in due course regardless of your interference is
one that calls into question our integrity as an organization. Lack of trust
from the public, or our own officers, can cost lives on both sides. All the
partnerships for the new recruits were carefully considered. Whatever
information you may possess, and whatever you may or may not have
shared, also puts lives in danger, including that of Officer Manes. I know
that you're trying to 'do right' by a fellow griffin, but you have to realize that
as far as the city of Daytau is concerned she is an officer of the law first, a
griff second. We don't play favorites; that's the only way this works. As I
said, don't call me again."
The phone disconnected.
"Dickishness must be required to make captain in the NHIC," Nadine
said dryly.
Tayra's head flopped back and she curled her wings around herself in
pure humiliated reflex as she said, "I'm so fucked! Why did this have to
happen to me? I did everything right! Five years to get here, and I'm not
going to last a single week on the job!"
"Oh, calm your tits-"
"I don't have tits and thanks so much for the reminder," Tayra snapped.
"You will soon, whether you want 'em or not. So calm down. You're
forgettin' somethin'."
"Oh yeah? What?"
"Tony gave us that number."
"That's just his answering service!"
Rather than reply, Nadine picked up her phone and called again. It rang,
then they both heard, "You've reached Corporal Tony Platz, NHIC. I'm not
available at the moment. If this is an emergency, please hang up and dial 3-
1-1. Otherwise, leave a message at-"
Nadine ended the call, leaned back, and folded her arms across her chest
as she stared pointedly at Tayra as she said, "He practically told us to call
McCreedy."
Tayra barely heard her. She was staring at the phone.
"He ... he really did that," she said in quiet astonishment. "There is no
way he thinks he'll get away with that. He's not that dumb. Is he that
dumb?"
Tayra looked up at Nadine, who was giggling quietly as she said, "No,
Tayra. He's not that dumb. He did it for you. He was serious, and he just
showed you how serious."
"And I ... am not allowed ... to see him!"
Tayra's talons flexed in raw frustration as she added, "I can't decide if I
want to fight or fuck more right now."
"Yeah ... that's probably not the best feeling. Try not to do either, at
least, not to me."
Tayra hid her head behind her curled wings as she moaned, "I am so
screwed!"
"McCreedy will handle it."
"How? McCreedy isn't in my or Tony's chain of command, and Harding
is just doing what he feels is best for his department. The NHIC was
human-only explicitly because dealing with shit like this is a distraction
from the job."
"'Was.' It's not anymore. The fact that Harding can't deal with it is his
problem. It shouldn't be yours too."
Tayra's wings flared, then drooped a bit behind her as she sat bonelessly
in her chair and shook her head. "The thing is, I get it," she said. "The rags
are going to tear us to pieces over this. Not just me or Tony: the whole
department's going to be a laughingstock. And that means everyone will
hate us even more than they already would because an exception is being
made for fraternization."
"I never understood why that was such a big deal. Partners who love
each other will work harder for each other!" Nadine said, waving a hand
toward Tayra.
"Partners who love each other hide shit. They'll alter or omit details to
cover up mistakes in their reports, take risks they shouldn't, prioritize each
other over civilians ... break the law they're sworn to uphold. All the reasons
we don't tolerate nepotism are even more relevant for sexual partners."
"So quit, or have Tony quit if you won't. Why are you so hung up on
this job?" Nadine asked.
"If I can't have Tony, at least my career will eventually get me out of
Oolytau! If I lose it I'll be back to working two jobs just to feed myself!"
Tayra practically screamed. "And because I worked my ass off to get it!
Graduating the academy was the proudest moment of my whole fucking
life! And now it's all ruined because of something some dead wizard did
who knows how long ago? I shouldn't have to give up my ambition for that!
Maybe you can be happy on the farm raising babies and you're welcome to
it, but I want to be a hero, not some ditzy slut with nothing but her next
good dicking on her mind!"
"I already told you, there's no way the yen works like that," Nadine said,
speaking with the sort of exaggerated care a mother uses with a panicked
child. "This thing you're going through right now can't last, or it wouldn't
have done what that long-dead wizard wanted it to do."
Tayra put her hands close together in front of her as though she were
about to grasp at something as she said, "The yen doesn't exist. Not
according to the law. They obviously know about it somewhere up the chain
because they made the exemption, but not everyone knows, and we can't tell
them either! Everyone will hate us. They won't understand. The whole idea
of equality under the law is built around the idea that you get a level playing
field, not that you get what you want!"
She slumped in defeat, dropping her hands as she said, "If I had that
Sallesin bitch in front of me right now, I'd gut her. Were it not for her
winning that case I'd have joined the normal police, been put in a squad
with other non-humans, and I'd have never had to deal with any of this. I'd
have eventually found someone. I'm sure of it."
"If my husband were here right now he'd say, 'If wishes were horses,
beggars would ride.' So maybe you made a mistake, transferrin' to the
NHIC. But you found someone, and you can't let him go or you will be
miserable for the rest of your life."
"That's not fair."
"Yeah well, this ain't about the law anymore so we ain't talkin' fair, and
even if it were, right now what you want is legal, no matter what that dick
captain of yours wants or thinks. Whether them changing things to make it
that way was right or not ain't your problem. All you can — and should
— do ... is go for the happiness you can get with all the strength you got,"
Nadine said as she leaned across and put a hand on Tayra's knee.
Tayra sighed and set one of her hands on the other woman's as she said,
"Yeah ... I know. Maybe I just needed to hear someone else say it. Am I
being greedy?"
"Yep. Absolutely. Not a bad thing either. That dildo in the john wasn't
made by someone willing to settle for less."
Tayra glanced up sharply as her eyes pinpointed, then her beak parted as
she started to shudder, laughing helplessly as Nadine chuckled along with
her.
Then she stood up and pulled Tayra into a hug she desperately needed.
"I know you care about your job. I get it. Just don't lose sight of the big
picture. Being a hero isn't just about fighting bad guys."
"Heh. Maybe not, but that's the part of being a hero I was made for,"
Tayra said as the two finally leaned away from each other.
"Bullshit," Nadine said as she reached up and caught Tayra's beak, using
it to make her head wobble before letting her go. "Anyone can fight bad
guys, but only a griffin can make more griffins, and this world needs more
griffins. A lot more."
"Ugh. Even presuming Tony and I get out of the shit we're swimming
in, how do you expect me to-"
"I don't care. Send 'em my way. I've got plenty of room ... though you'll
be paying some child support, they'll get put to work when they're old
enough, and frequent visits will be expected," Nadine said with fluffed
feathers as she cocked her head in a way that told Tayra in no uncertain
terms the woman standing in front of her was baby crazy.
"That ... oddly enough, reminds me."
"What of?" Nadine asked.
"Um ... how do I ask this," Tayra said, struggling with a bit of
embarrassment.
"Is it about the tits?" the other woman guessed.
"Yeah. Does your husband um ... actually drink it?"
"Mostly just when we're in the bedroom. He's pretty uptight about a lot
of things, despite the fact I've been working on him for years. The vast
majority gets bottled and sold."
"You sell that?"
 "It's perfect nutrition for humans. By design. There's a very healthy
market for the stuff, though the process to have it certified requires
quarterly trips to the clinic. Look it up if you ever need a side gig."
The idea that she might sell her bodily fluids was one that made Tayra a
bit squeamish, so she only nodded and shoved the idea way into the back of
her mind.
Nadine asked, "So, did your captain tell you that you were supposed to
do anything, or am I going to have to kick you out soon? My husband's
arriving any minute and um, much as I've enjoyed our talk, I've got plans
for him."
"I'm to report back to the precinct in Oolytau."
"When?"
Tayra stretched her wings and flicked them in annoyance as she said,
"'Yesterday.' The next nonstop to Oolytau is at three. I need to head out if
I'm going to make it."
"You have my number, hon. I want you to keep in touch. If things don't
work out with the NHIC I'll bully my husband into hiring you both. That'll
get you out of Oolytau."
"I don't know the first thing about farming," Tayra said dryly.
"I won't tell if you don't, but go on. I understand you have to at least try
to keep your job. Everything that can be done has been done as far as I can
see."
"Thanks, Nadine. I ... I really appreciate your help."
"And my friendship," the other woman said with a flick of her tail as
she spread her hands and wings. "There aren't many of us, Tayra. I'm really
happy you called me. Don't be a stranger."
Tayra nodded, put her greatcoat back on, and said, "I won't. As long as
the captain doesn't just up and fucking shoot me when I walk in."
"If he does, he'll never have a peaceful night's sleep again for the rest of
his very brief life."
"I will ... pretend I didn't hear that. I am a cop, Nadine. Try to watch
your mouth?"
"You joke, I joke. He's not going to shoot you and if he does you can't
act as witness against me. One way or the other it all works out. Now git!"
Tayra was out of the Beau Lac and in a taxi back to the train station ten
minutes later, beak grinding as she considered what she could possibly say
to Captain Harding to get him to change his mind.
 The train to Oolytau at three in the afternoon from Rectau was ... not
crowded. There weren't many people in Oolytau that could afford the trip,
much less the overpriced everything when they got there. Rectau was
artificially perfect, and nothing about that was cheap. Most people who
could afford entertainment in Oolytau weren't looking for 'good clean fun'
either, so she had most of the car to herself. The rumbling silence as first
Rectau, then Daytau proper flashed past in the window gave her nothing to
distract her from her problems.
She was still horny. Nothing about her rage or frustration took anything
away from the fact that all she really wanted to do was go to wherever Tony
was and fade to black for the rest of the night ... minimum.
There was no real target for her rage either. Captain Harding wasn't
being unreasonable. Tayra was less than a week into a job that had been
forbidden to her and people like her for precisely the sorts of things that
were now causing problems. He'd said it himself: how would it look when
the rags got hold of the fact that she was with her partner? Not just working
with him, but with him.
And somehow, just because she was a griffin, that was allowed? What
kind of bullshit was that? How was that fair?
One set of rules, that was the deal. No one was completely happy, but it
was the best system available in an imperfect world. Exceptions only bred
resentment, reminding people that equality under the law didn't mean
equality of circumstance, or success, or ability ... or happiness.
But the exception is there. I didn't put it there, and I'm not going to
pretend it isn't there. According to the regs, I'm in the right.
She held onto that simple truth as a lifeline against the worry and
frustration that crowded in from every angle.
Her phone chirped at her and she pulled it from her greatcoat pocket,
thankful for any distraction.
The text was from Grace, the gargoyle they'd met the other day. It was
short, and to the point:
Can't talk, don't call. There's a hit set up for you at the Oolytau train
station!

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 TAYRA

S he sat for long seconds , frozen as she stared at the words on her phone.
She knew the meaning of each, but understanding came slowly through the
haze of her other worries.
Things with Tony and her career had so taken over her thinking that
she'd forgotten there was actually a bounty on her head. She was headed
back to Oolytau on a nonstop, almost completely empty train.
Of course they'd take the opportunity. They knew where she'd be and
exactly when she'd be there.
Did they also know she was alone?
Tayra reviewed her options, then did the only thing she could: she called
the watch sergeant.
"This is Sergeant Yearly."
The voice was somewhat nasally and belonged to a very bored-
sounding woman that Tayra actually had yet to officially meet. Seeing as
how her first day had started with her assignment to Tony, she hadn't met
most of the other officers in the division, but Sergeant Kristine Yearly was
one of those responsible for scheduling and specific assignments. There
were three watch sergeants per shift, but the org chart put Tayra under
Yearly specifically.
"This is Officer Tayra Manes, badge number six one six."
"Yeah, I can see that from the incoming call notice. Apparently, you're
the new griff working with Tony, that right? Some kinda trouble findin' a
place t'live?"
 "Yes, Ma'am. The trouble would be a bounty. I'm calling because I have
reason to believe an attempt to take my life is being prepared at the Oolytau
train station. I'm on the nonstop currently enroute from Rectau."
"So, what, you're asking for backup?"
Yearly still sounded bored, which was not a good sign. Tayra said, "Yes,
if possible."
"Where's Tony? He's the senior partner. He should be making this call."
"We were split up by the day's events."
"Aand ... Rectau? What the hell were you doing way out there? You're
supposed to be here, and I know there's no way you're affording digs out in
the shine on your salary."
"Ma'am, I'll be glad to sit down and explain everything, and I apologize
for not meeting you yet in an official capacity, but I really do believe a hit's
been set, and I need backup," Tayra said, stretching her wings as wide as
she could, using the feeling of tension in them and her upper back to defuse
her frustration and keep it out of her voice.
"I'll notify the blueboys posted at the station and forward your contact
information to them. When's your train due to arrive?"
"Approximately thirty minutes."
"All right. And where's Tony?"
"I don't know his current location."
"Well that's not good. You two are partners. You're supposed to stay
with him. I'd call him if I were you."
"I ... yes, thank you, Sergeant. I appreciate the help."
"Expect a call from the blue. They'll get whatever details you've got and
work with you from there. Good luck. Let's hope you're wrong."
The line disconnected and she stared at the phone.
Yearly had just told her to call Tony. Could she use that? No. She had
orders from higher up, and the fact that McCreedy was involved already
meant she had to play everything absolutely by the book if she wanted any
hope of coming out of this with her job intact.
She glanced around, but there was only one other person in the train car
with her, a middle-aged human man, and he was seated about as far from
her as he could be.
There was nothing else to do but wait, and hope that she got a call as
promised.
 Twenty minutes later, she did get a call from a fairly upbeat-sounding
Corporal Henderson. Tayra passed on the information she had, scant as it
was, and let them know which train car she was riding in. They said they'd
done a casual sweep of the station already and hadn't seen anyone
suspicious.
Just before Henderson hung up, he said, "Just in case, call an automated
taxi and have it waiting for you. We'll meet you when you disembark and
escort you out of the building."
Feeling better about the fact that they were taking her request seriously,
she said, "I will, and thank you for your help."
"No problem. Blue or gray, we're all on the same team. See you in a few
minutes."
Tayra hung up, summoned the taxi, then got up and half-turned away
from the lone other passenger to check her speedsling and load.
She was as ready as she could be for whatever might happen.
The train station at Oolytau was a grimy, dark place with several rail
lines connected by a railed skybridge. It had stairs to either side all along its
length that gave access to the platforms.
Nonstop trains used the center platform, which had the least traffic and
was on her right as her train coasted into the station and came to a stop, the
automated announcements already playing over the speaker.
The other fellow had also gotten up and was at the far door.
She spotted Henderson and the other officer waiting for her at that door
and hustled over. The man glanced up at her, his eyes widened, and he
looked away as the muscles in his jaw clenched.
Tayra was used to fear responses from most humans and usually didn't
let it get to her, but she was nervous and annoyed. It was an effort not to call
the man out for his fear. She was there to protect him.
The doors opened and the man rushed out, almost running into one of
the officers. He mumbled an apology but kept right on going as Tayra also
stepped out, her head swiveling as she looked for threats, automatically
looking high first.
There were roofs over the skybridge and the individual platforms,
though not over the station as a whole, so there was a lot of space to perch
on up there if anyone were so inclined. There were also sentry turrets
guarding the train station, and the roofs were off-limits and currently devoid
of life.
 Relieved, she began scanning the other platforms she could see.
Henderson extended a hand as he said, "Officer Manes, it's good to meet
you."
Distractedly, she took his hand in her own as she said, "Corporal
Henderson, thanks for doing this. I realize it might be nothing, but I
appreciate you taking me seriously."
Henderson gave her a bemused look up and down as he said, "I'm not
sure how anyone could see you and not take you seriously."
The other officer chuckled and shook his head, but didn't otherwise
speak. He was actively looking around, and the two flanked her — one
ahead, one behind — as they made the stairs and headed up to the
skybridge.
There was quite a lot of traffic as there were other trains both arriving
and leaving, but the three of them were given plenty of space once they
reached the bridge and turned toward the terminal exit.
The first clue that there was anything wrong was when Henderson
stumbled forward and fell into her.
Tayra instantly twisted to help him up and the act of turning probably
saved her life as a line of searing pain scored her lower back.
Henderson's scream of pain registered with her at the same time and his
partner whirled around, reaching for his pistol as he stepped to one side to
get a clear shot.
She finished her turn with her shotgun coming up. She saw a figure
collide with the second officer, who fell away as his gun dropped from his
hands and he clutched at his throat, blood spurting from between his
fingers.
The figure turned and she saw a rather over-painted face that cracked as
it smiled too widely for even the thick layer of makeup it wore to support
the expression. Its limbs were twice as long as they should be and whipping
toward her from both sides as the gel spoke in an androgynous, amused
tone.
"Go ahead, shoot."
The knives were already flashing in from her left and right. She got
another cut on her wrist as she threw her hand up to knock the left knife off
course.
She didn't fire either, realizing she was certain to hit innocent civilians
if she did. The bridge all around them was packed with running, screaming
people. Her shotgun wasn't the right weapon for the job.
Fortunately, she wasn't a human. A firearm wasn't the only weapon she
had available.
Grabbing the knife hand would be useless as the gel facing her could
distort its shape, so instead she released her shotgun and raked her talons
through its substance in a wicked uppercut as she lunged forward.
Another stab of pain flashed through her right side as she bit cleanly
through the gel's left arm. As the limb fell, she swallowed what she had in
her mouth and twisted, staying in close. If the gel gained distance on her it
could simply cut her to pieces with a whip-like limb ten feet long, but in
close it lost the ability to accurately drive the knife home. It could twist and
turn the blade quickly, but had no real muscle behind it, relying instead on
momentum gathered from distance traveled.
So she crowded close, slashing down with both hands, talons tearing
through the front of the creature as she literally bit its face off. Gels could
see, but they had to form specialized structures to do so. It would take time
to shape new eyes, and since Tayra had just eaten the old ones it wouldn't
be getting them back.
With its eyes gone and one limb already cut, the thing apparently
decided it had enough as it abruptly lost tension and fell backward. Tayra
reached out, snagged her talons in the shredded remains of the shirt it had
been wearing and hoisted it up as she gave its still-intact arm another swipe,
taking it off at the elbow and separating it from its remaining knife.
The bulk of the goop its body was composed of slid out the bottom of
the shirt, ran like a water droplet to the edge of the skybridge, and fell off.
Tayra caught only a glimpse of the gel's core as it fell to the tracks
below, and seconds later it was under a train.
She wanted to jump after it, but she had higher priorities.
The first officer was clutching his throat and gagging wildly on his own
blood. He would be dead in moments no matter what she did, but
Henderson was alive, and — incredibly — still on the job.
A long, droning alarm wailed, followed by a loud automated message
that declared, "There has been an assault, please evacuate the southern
skybridge. If located on a platform, move to the northern skybridge to
evacuate. Do not use the southern skybridge. All trains have been notified
and will be delayed a minimum of five minutes. Make way for any and all
emergency responders. Be advised, interference with agents of the city
responding to a crisis is a jailable offense ..."
She did her best to block out the alert as it continued to drone
instructions. Instead, she crouched next to Henderson, who had his phone in
his hand and was giving a report to his dispatch.
"Billings is dead, throat cut. The gel went off the skybridge. I think my
spine is severed and I'm bleeding badly ..."
Tayra couldn't hear the dispatcher's reply, but a moment later Henderson
dropped his head and the hand holding the phone lost tension as the one eye
she could see focused on her and he said, "Hurt bad. Billings has a med kit.
Grab the coagulant."
Amazed that he was still as put together as he was, Tayra twisted and
unclipped the small pouch with the red cross on it from Billings' belt, doing
her best not to react to the fact that the man's body was still in its death
throes. The coagulant was in an aerosol, and Tayra carefully eased aside the
cloth of Henderson's uniform to apply it.
She knew it had a local anesthetic, and Henderson groaned as he felt it.
"I ... fucking hate gels," he grunted a moment later.
Tayra just nodded, but didn't speak. She was conflicted. Were it not for
the presence of these two officers, she would almost certainly be dead. Yet
because she had asked for their help, one of them was dead, and the other
wouldn't walk again for months.
Henderson was breathing fitfully and his eyes were closed. Since there
was nothing else she could do for him, she called Sergeant Yearly, who
answered the phone with a perfunctory, "Well?"
"A gel attacked us on the skybridge. Officer Billings is dead, Corporal
Henderson has a knife wound that severed his lower spine. The gel escaped.
I think it's probably the same hitter that tried for us the other day. I've got a
sizable sample of its substance here, so we should be able to make a
positive ID this time."
"And you?" Yearly asked, all traces of annoyance gone from her voice.
Tayra took stock, then said, "Shallow puncture on the right side, slice
across my lower back, and another small cut on my left wrist. I'll be fine."
As she recited the wounds, their pain began to crowd in on her, and she
applied the coagulant to herself as it occurred to her that was a thing she
should probably do.
As she did, Yearly asked, "No shots fired?"
 "No. I don't think the guy had a gun."
"That makes sense. Probably didn't want to get blasted by the sentry
turrets in the terminal," Yearly said. "Do you need additional support?"
"Henderson already called dispatch. Emergency responders are on the
way. I'll wait with him until they get here, then head in."
"You don't need to go to the hospital?" Yearly asked.
"I probably should, but the captain ordered me to report to him
immediately."
"One moment," Yearly said, and the next thing Tayra heard was the
automatic recording everyone heard when put on hold.
It lasted twenty seconds, then cut out as she heard Captain Harding's
voice.
"A gel? And you let it get away?"
"Well, I did bite its arm and face off," Tayra said somewhat defensively,
adding as a belated afterthought, "Sir. I wasn't about to shoot into a crowd
or through a train to get it and the surviving officer needed immediate
medical attention, so I couldn't chase it."
"You BIT ... nevermind. Do you need to go to the hospital?"
"I need stitches, but I can get those at the precinct."
"The officers present should have coagulant on hand-"
"Already used it, sir."
There was a moment of silence on the other end, and Tayra said, "I'd
appreciate it if you let me call Corporal Platz and let him know what's going
on."
"Platz isn't your problem anymore, and you aren't his. When the
ambulance gets here escort the surviving blueboy to the hospital. Our
meeting is postponed. Get sewn up and presuming they discharge you, you
can head in afterward to catch some sleep at the precinct. I'll see you first
thing."
"Are you at the terminal, sir?" Tayra asked.
"What?"
"You said, 'When the ambulance gets here.'"
"Manes, you have turned my day into even more of a shitshow than
usual. Don't play word games with me, just follow orders. I'll see you in my
office tomorrow."
Apparently he disconnected after that because all Yearly said before she
hung up was, "You have your orders, Officer Manes. For what it's worth,
impressive job surviving. Close in with a gel? That's usually a death
sentence ... you really bit its face off?"
"Gels don't have much of a taste, if that's what you're asking," Manes
said dryly.
The silence stretched, then Yearly simply hung up.
Tayra shook her head and pocketed her phone, then pulled a sample bag
and made sure to get a decent chunk of the goop her assailant had left
behind.
After that she waited with Henderson for the ambulance to arrive.
When it did, the corpse wagon did too, and she saw a familiar figure
running toward her along with the paramedics.
Daniel Koffman was smiling as he stepped aside and waited patiently
for the paramedics to get Henderson on a stretcher and away, then nodded
and waved cheerfully to Tayra as she followed after them.
The coroner's mood was so disconcerting that she didn't even greet the
man as they passed, and spent most of the ride to the hospital trying not to
think about him ... or Tony.
Her beak grinding made the paramedics stare nervously at her, but she
couldn't bring herself to stop. She just couldn't escape the feeling that
everything was falling apart.
She wondered what he was doing. She had no idea what must be going
through his mind right now.

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 TONY

A t just that moment , Tony was pacing behind his couch with the
television on, thankful that Tayra was alive and just about ready to storm his
captain's office to get her back. Without permission to directly contact her,
he'd opened a site on the public city net that monitored police activity
throughout the subcities. All of the information on it was crowd-sourced
and so was spotty in some places, but for Oolytau it was disturbingly
accurate and up to date. The police petitioned to get it shut down but city
hall had categorically refused on the grounds that nothing about the site was
actually illegal. If people chose to track police movement while those police
were in public, that was their prerogative.
If they chose to report that there had been a brutal assault on the police
at Oolytau station resulting in two wounded and one dead, they had that
right. If they also noted that one of the wounded was Officer Tayra Manes
of the NHIC ... well.
Tony could only hope she got to the precinct before any more hitters
looking at the same site he was looking at decided to take a shot at her. He
knew she probably wouldn't go to the hospital considering she'd been okay
enough to render first aid to the other survivor.
As he paced, he kept glancing at the city map displayed on his tv. At the
gray dot that represented Tayra, still at the Oolytau station. He wanted so
badly to call her, but if he did things would only get worse for both of them.
Harding was probably making things hard just to 'catch' them
disobeying orders.
 He wondered if his gamble with McCreedy would pay off. He'd known
the man since he'd joined the NHIC. He was affable, smart, and fair. If
anyone could make sure this unholy shitshow turned out right, it was him.
Bremmin had done right by his old department, leaving McCreedy in
charge.
An update on the site told him that Tayra had gotten into the ambulance,
and was headed toward the hospital.
"What the fuck?" he muttered, staring in consternation at the now
moving dot, its exact route projected because its destination and traffic
patterns were both known.
Tayra was alone with the paramedics and a disabled blue officer.
"Why did you go to the hospital!?" he shouted at the screen as though
she'd hear him. "Oh my god! You have a death wish!"
Tony pulled out his phone and after a brief search called the hospital
and wound up listening to a cheerful automated female voice say, "Thank
you for calling Rosedale Medical Center. Please select from the following
menu options. Please listen carefully, as our menu options have recently
changed. To schedule an appointment, say 'Appointment.' For Pediatrics,
say-"
"Operator!" Tony said, interrupting the recording.
"Before we transfer you to an operator, we need just a little information
regarding the nature of your call, please tell us-"
"Police Emergency. Operator!" Tony said.
"I heard, 'Obese Emergency.' Is that right?"
"Poe-lease, E-mer-gen-see ... OPERATOR," Tony snarled.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand. In a few words, please describe your
reason for calling," the automated, endlessly patient and artificially friendly
female voice said.
One eye twitching as he stared hard at his ceiling and spent every ounce
of willpower he had to keep from screaming at his phone, he said with
artificial calm, "Operator."
"Before we tran-"
"Operator," Tony said, then repeated four more times before the
automated system apparently gave up.
"One moment while we transfer your call."
Several seconds passed, then he heard a cheerful male voice say, "Thank
you for calling Rosedale Medical Center. Please select from the following-"
 Tony hung up, then stared at the tv, watching in real time as the
ambulance with his partner continued to move at a rapid clip toward the
hospital. He had his orders. He wasn't to talk to anyone about Tayra. If he
didn't follow those orders, he was going to lose his job.
If he did follow those orders, Tayra might lose her life.
"Fuck it," he said, then called Sergeant Yearly.
"There you are," Yearly said as she picked up. "I've been wondering. Do
you know-"
"That Tayra's in an ambulance headed for the hospital and is almost
guaranteed to be attacked again because she isn't going to the precinct for
treatment? Yes, I know," Tony said, glancing at his tv again. "I have her
exact route from 'watchcops.ot.' I tried calling the hospital but couldn't get
through their automated system. Do you have a direct line to the blues
stationed there? Are there any blues stationed there?"
"Watchcops? She didn't call you?"
"It's a long story, but the short version is that I'm not allowed to,
captain's orders. That doesn't mean I want to stand by while she gets shot,
or her presence causes someone else to get shot. Can you redirect her? How
badly hurt is she?"
"She's got gashes and a shallow stab wound. She needs stitches at least.
She was sent in the ambulance to escort Corporal Henderson, the one who
survived."
"To escort him!? Why the fuck does he need an escort? She's the one
with a bounty on her head! Putting her with him puts them both in more
danger, not less!"
There was a pregnant pause on the other end of the line, then Yearly
said in a soft, overly reasonable tone, "Captain Harding told her to go, so
she went. I was on the line when he gave the order. Once she's discharged,
she's to come back to the precinct to sleep."
Using the same soft, reasonable tone she'd just tried on him, Tony said,
"Sergeant, the captain has had a long day. I know. I'm largely responsible.
But is it possible that he got this one wrong? Would you give that some
thought? If I call her, my ass is grass. I don't have a direct line to the
hospital and if I call the blueboy dispatch I'm going to get the runaround,
but she is alone, she is wounded, there is a bounty on her head, and every
hitter in Oolytau is probably on their way to Rosedale right now for an easy
score. If you can't help her, no one can. Please. Get through to whoever is
on station at the hospital and let them know what's going on. Put her ass in
a cruiser as soon as she gets there and send her straight to the precinct under
guard. She can get stitched up there."
There was a pause, then Yearly asked, "Are you going to lose your job if
I don't-"
"I'll probably wind up in Iso if you don't," he quietly interrupted.
"Tony, I'll do everything I can. I promise. If you've been ordered to stay
out of it, stay out of it. If the captain asks, this was my idea, but I expect the
full story when this mess gets sorted."
"My word on that. Thanks."
Yearly hung up.
Tony looked at his phone for a long, quiet moment, then dropped it onto
the couch and stared at the tv as he fought the urge to grab his coat, some
heavy hardware, and get his ass to Oolytau. Most of the reason he didn't
was because he knew whatever happened would be over before he got
there.
"I should never have left her," he said quietly to no one. "I should have
stayed where she was."
As though in answer, his phone rang.
He blinked, then picked it up and checked the ID before accepting the
call.
"This is Corporal Platz," he said.
"A mutual acquaintance of ours requires shelter. You'll shortly get a
notification from an unknown phone number requesting confirmation of a
personal invite without which that acquaintance will not be permitted to
board the train out of Oolytau. Considering her warning very likely saved
your partner's life, it would be highly ungrateful of you not to confirm the
invitation and shelter her, at least until she can gain some traction."
"Is she compromised?" Tony asked.
Shiro said, "Yes, I'm afraid she is. While that's unfortunate, it may allow
you to glean certain details from her, provided you treat her well. I see that
your partner survived, but seems to have taken an unnecessary risk."
"I've already done what I can to cover her from where I am."
"I'm rather shocked you aren't with her," the vampire said. "She will be
increasingly compromised the longer she is forced to deny her ... inclination
toward you."
 "She's a professional. She'll do her duty," Tony said, resisting the urge to
question how he could possibly have known what was going on with Tayra
so quickly.
"Of that I'm aware. What I do not know is why you aren't with her,"
Shiro said, obviously fishing.
"While I appreciate your putting us in contact with our mutual
acquaintance, that doesn't give me leave to discuss internal police matters
with a civilian," Tony said flatly.
Shiro said, "Andrew would have told me."
"I doubt that very much," Tony wryly replied. "Andrew Bremmin might
be a hero, but he's also a stickler for the rules."
"With good cause in most cases, but he obviously knows how to play
the game when called upon to do so."
"Or Velise does," Tony said without thinking.
The vampire chuckled softly, then said, "Very well. As I said, expect the
request to come within the hour, and fear not. As long as your intentions are
true you should prevail, but be aware that there is opposition. Since the
information is freely available but I suspect you've been rather distracted,
you should know that Officer Lucius Macklevoy was killed today
responding to a call in Rustau, as was his partner, Corporal Jemma Verne.
Lucius Macklevoy was in Miss Manes' graduating class. He was also an
ogre. Whether the killing was targeted or not is unclear, but it seems likely
considering the callout appears to have been fabricated. You should reunite
with your partner at the earliest opportunity, and remain with her."
"What do you know about all this?" Tony asked.
"Quite a lot. That's a conversation best had in person, and do remember
that I'm not in business to give information away for free. I've been of
service to you and have demonstrated my good will to literal generations of
the NHIC. Perhaps you might benefit from that good will as well in the near
future. You have my number, Mr. Platz. I suggest, when things calm down a
bit, you make use of it. I'll be waiting for your call."
Tony hung up and looked at his tv as he said, "House, show me
corporate news relating to non-humans in the most recent police academy
graduating class that chose to work in the NHIC."
Four articles appeared, quartering the screen. Two dealt with the killing
of the ogre, Lucius Macklevoy. Another was a piece from Oolytau that
mentioned the bounty on Tayra Manes. The fourth was from a Rectau
gossip rag, and the picture was of Tony and Tayra entering the Beau Lac
together.
He walked around the couch to stand by the tv, shaking his head as he
stared at the article. Not only did it speculate that the two had gone to the
resort for other than professional reasons, it even cited the new Standard
Operating Procedures — which were publicly available — relating to
griffins to support the 'juicy' claim that Tony was banging his new partner
on the taxpayer's dime.
"Slow fucking news day in Rectau," he growled, then added, "House,
clear and show me unincorporated news, same search criteria."
There were too many blog posts to show them in a legible format.
"Narrow scope to Tayra Manes, post graduation," he said.
Thirty-two articles met the search criteria, and Tony took a few minutes
to read them all, flicking his fingers either up or left every few seconds as
he scrolled and dismissed the articles one by one. Most mentioned the
bounty. Six explicitly wished for her death, eight others didn't do so
directly, but did provide her old home address. Most of the rest showed
varying levels of support for her bravery in breaking new ground inside the
NHIC, and two particularly well-researched articles noted that she'd made
her first arrest less than sixteen hours after the conclusion of the graduation
ceremony and was thus off to a running start.
"House, clear. Display 'watchcops.ot.'"
There were no new updates on Tayra Manes. According to the last
report, the ambulance she was riding in should have reached Rosedale, but
since then, nothing.
On the one hand, that was good. The people hunting her had no new
intel, at least not from this source. On the other hand, Tony now had
legitimately no idea what was going on.
He sat slowly on the couch, taking deep breaths as his mind churned,
searching for something else he could do, something more he could
manage. Unless he disobeyed a direct order, there was nothing.
With a resigned sigh, he turned off his tv and went into his bedroom,
swapping into his workout gear. He was too keyed up to sleep and if he kept
surfing for intel he'd just give himself gray hair.
There was nothing to do but train and hope that if his phone rang, it
wasn't bad news.
OceanofPDF.com
 22

OceanofPDF.com
 KRISTINE

S ergeant K ristine Y early got out of the patrol cruiser and looked up at
the imposing black block that was the Rosedale Medical Center. It had been
named after the family that contributed the bulk of the funding to get it
built, and was a no-nonsense twenty-story tower that offered the most
complete medical care there was to be had in Oolytau. It also had the best
trauma unit in all of Daytau, to the surprise of no one who actually spent
more than a day or two in the subcity.
Rosedale wasn't in any way affiliated with the city either — as such it
maintained its own private security force. Sergeant Yearly hadn't had any
more luck than Platz getting through to anyone useful and all her other
officers were either out on calls or out of pocket, so she'd left her desk and
gone to pick up Officer Manes herself.
Not the best circumstances to meet the new guy, or girl as the case
happened to be, but Yearly knew Tony just well enough to realize that he
wasn't bluffing, and she liked him. He stuck his neck out without a second
thought, and the gossip around the station was that he was a straight shooter
who delivered on the promises he made. She knew he was a supposedly
temporary transfer to their department, but his 'temporary' status seemed in
question, as one month had turned into two with no end in sight.
Given his partnership with Tayra Manes had come straight from the
captain, Yearly put two and two together and figured him for a permanent
post. As long as the griff was on the force in Oolytau, Platz would be too.
Today's events cast doubt on those assumptions, but Platz had a good
opinion of Manes, was obviously worried about her, and his concerns were
valid. Kristine had no idea why Captain Harding had ordered a lone officer
with a bounty on her head to do an escort detail, particularly when that
escort — if it was warranted at all — was necessitated by the fact that the
officer had gone down in the first place protecting her.
All these thoughts carried Kristine to and through the front door, which
buzzed angrily at her and brought the attention of a black-uniformed
security officer armed with both an electric baton and a specially designed
rifle she knew fired tranquilizers. The magazine was a drum, and the rifle
had a sensor that could identify the target and load the proper formula in
under three seconds. As far as non-lethal weaponry went, it was state of the
art.
The door had a display next to it that showed an outline of her body
with several red dots indicating either weapon shapes or chemical sources.
Her mace and her extra magazine showed up along with her pistol and
taser.
Kristine was in uniform, and presented her badge.
The guard was apparently well-paid, well-trained, or both, because he
scanned her badge and did a proper check before permitting her into the
lobby. Yearly had often been passed with casual disregard simply based on
her uniform, and was quietly pleased that wasn't the case here. She was also
reminded by the display of professionalism to shift her phone, placing it in
the slot in her armor for use as a body cam. She was about to do an escort
for someone who'd already been shot at once today. No sense in not being
thorough.
As she stepped out of the range of the security cordon around the front
entrance, a translucent blue hologram of a pretty yet deliberately
nondescript human woman materialized in front of her, hands folded as she
dipped her head slightly and said, "Welcome to Rosedale Medical Center.
What is the reason for your visit?"
"I'm here to pick up Officer Tayra Manes. She was brought here not
long ago by ambulance," Kristine said.
The hologram bowed again, then half-turned and spread a hand as she
said, "I have Officer Manes currently located in room 3106. Please
accompany me, and I will take you there by the most efficient route."
"Lead on," she said, then followed the hologram.
After ten seconds, she said, "Increase speed by half, please."
 The hologram's image shivered, then its movement through the halls
sped up markedly and Kristine nodded in satisfaction as she strode after.
She wanted to get Manes back to the precinct without clocking too much
overtime today.
They made the elevator bank and rode in silence to the third floor. The
nurses at the desk noticed she was accompanied by a hologram and didn't
stop or question her as she passed. She made it without incident to the
proper door, where the hologram said, "Would you like me to wait outside?"
"Sure, that's fine," she said as the door — which had no knob or lever
— clicked and slid aside to admit her.
A nurse looked up as Kristine stepped through, and on the table before
that nurse was Tayra Manes.
Griffins were a rare sight in Oolytau and this was the first time she'd
had an opportunity to see one up close. Her first impression was that Tayra
was huge. Given she had the same impression of Tony, it made her wonder
how the two could walk side by side down the same hallway. Tayra was
laying on her stomach on a table with her shirt and armor removed, and the
nurse was obviously in the middle of sewing up a long cut across her lower
back. There was a thick bandage already secured to her right side, and
another on her left hand.
The nurse said, "What are you-"
"It's all right, this is my watch sergeant, Kristine Yearly," Tayra said,
interrupting her.
The nurse frowned at Kristine in disapproval, then turned back to her
work as Manes asked, "What are you doing here?"
"I came to pick you up," she said. "With the bounty and your partner
being AWOL, someone has to look out for you, and everyone else on shift
was busy."
"We were separated but he's not AWOL," Tayra said automatically. "It's
complicated."
Kristine thought about that, lips pursed as she considered the griffin.
Brown-feathered wings were spread somewhat to get them out of the way
of the nurse, who was working on the far side of one of them. Her body
below the chest was furred and tiger-striped, but from her shoulders up she
had the look of a gigantic hawk.
"Well, we've got time. Tell me about it," she said, her eyes returning to
Tayra's, which expanded a bit, then contracted again as her feathers
tightened against her head.
"I was told not to say. Captain's orders," Tayra said. "I'm sorry,
Sergeant. I would tell you more, but I'm on thin ice as is."
"What were you doing out in Rectau?"
"There was a well-to-do griff out that way we thought might give us a
lead on finding permanent accommodations."
"How did that pan out?"
"It's ... complicated."
Kristine folded her arms across her chest as she asked, "Is it really?"
"No, not really, but it falls under the captain's orders, same as the rest."
"You may not know this, but taking up so much of the captain's time
and attention in your first week is not a great career start," Kristine said.
"It's kinda like when the teacher knows your name by the end of the first
day."
Tayra glanced away, feathers fluffed, then said, "I'm aware. Trust me,
this wasn't how I thought my first week would go."
"Speaking of, nurse, what's the damage?" Kristine asked, knowing
better than to ask Tayra directly. She either wouldn't know or would
downplay her injuries.
"Well, the worst wound was the stab to the right side, but she's so thick
that it's essentially superficial. The gash here and on her hand are likewise.
Since the contract with the city only allows for basic emergency medical
care, stitches and sanitation are what she's getting from us. If you want a
doctor to see her about pain medication, that costs extra," the nurse said in a
tone of professional boredom and without looking up from her work.
"Wait, so you're stitching her without anesthetic?" Kristine asked.
The nurse looked up at that, giving her a venomous glare before
returning to her work as she said, "We aren't savages, Sergeant Yearly. The
cost of anesthesia is included in basic emergency care. The last thing we
need is for patients to be thrashing around howling in pain while we're
trying to work."
"I think the shots they gave me hurt worse than getting wounded in the
first place, but I don't feel anything now," Tayra put in.
"You can thank your old friend adrenaline for that," the nurse said
before adding, "Now hold still — I'm almost done."
"Once you are finished, will she be good to go?" Kristine asked.
 "As far as I'm concerned, yes. The scans have already confirmed there's
nothing to worry about internally. She'll just verbally consent that treatment
was given and you're free to take her out. In fact, if she doesn't leave, we'll
have to start charging her rent."
"How much per month?" Kristine and Tayra asked at almost exactly the
same time before exchanging a glance.
The nurse took a deep breath, then gave them a put-upon sigh. It was
her only response.
Twenty minutes later the nurse was gone and Tayra was gingerly putting
on her greatcoat so as not to disturb the bandages while Kristine looked on.
They'd spent most of that time in silence since the nurse was juuust short of
openly hostile, but as the griffin straightened and checked her speedsling,
Kristine said, "Ready to go?"
"Yeah. Thanks for coming to pick me up."
Once out the door, the blue hologram reappeared and asked, "Is there
anything else you require, Sergeant Yearly?"
"No, that's it."
"I will escort you out then."
As the hologram started to move away, Manes said, "If it wouldn't be
too much trouble, can we use the stairs?"
"The stairs?" Kristine asked, glancing back at her. The hologram
stopped and turned, waiting patiently.
"I don't like tight spaces with only one entrance and exit. We're only on
the third floor," Tayra said, sounding somewhat sheepish.
Kristine gave her an acerbic look and the griffin half-turned and
dropped her head in what was clearly embarrassment, looking at her out of
one eye.
"Are you claustrophobic?" Kristine asked.
"No ma'am."
"Did you take the stairs up here?"
"Yes ma'am."
When she didn't immediately answer, the griffin added, "I can't move
well in elevators. In stairwells there's always cover."
"No one's going to attack us here, Manes. This is a hospital."
"In Oolytau," Manes answered. "And if you really thought it was out of
the question you wouldn't have come to pick me up."
 Kristine opened her mouth with a sharp breath for a retort, then caught
herself. Manes was obviously on edge, and someone had already tried to
kill her once today. Besides, at least tactically, she was right. Stairwells had
way more options than elevators.
And she had a point. This was Oolytau.
"You're lucky we're only three floors up. You, take us to the stairs,"
Kristine said as she glanced at the hologram, which simply turned around
and moved the other way down the hallway.
When they reached the door to the stairs which — unlike most of the
doors in the hallway — had a crash bar for a latch, the hologram turned and
bowed as it said, "I will meet you at the lobby entrance for the stairs, as
projectors do not exist in the stairwells of this building. Please be careful,
and keep one hand on the railing at all times."
It winked out. Manes reached for the crash bar but Kristine stopped her
and grinned as she said, "Since we're taking this seriously, I go first. You're
my escort. I'd feel pretty damn bad if you open the door and get popped."
Manes' feathers tightened, then fluffed as she raised both her taloned
hands in a gesture of surrender and took a step back.
Kristine chuckled to herself, slammed her hip to the crash bar to open
the door, and died.

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 23

OceanofPDF.com
 TAYRA

T ayra blinked as Kristine's head twitched, then dove through the slowly
closing door as her sergeant's body collapsed in the hallway, swinging her
shotgun up and firing once, twice, a third time before her body struck the
hard cement of the landing.
The reports of the big gun were deafening in the stairwell, which
immediately took on a bloody hue as the lights flashed from natural to red
light and a klaxon started blaring, doubtless set off by the discharge of
firearms.
Her first chambered round was buckshot and its effect on the two men
on the landing below was immediate and grim. A man in a black uniform
lost his face and most of his skull, though his armor did an ironically good
job protecting his torso.
The second man was kneeling with his rifle raised and out of the
immediate area of effect. Tayra's second shot was a solid slug aimed at him.
Unlike his partner, this man was wearing a full set of black armor and the
slug struck him center mass as he straightened, but all it did was slam him
back against the wall as his rifle discharged high, showering Tayra with
chips of concrete from the wall behind her.
Tayra's third round was buckshot again, and she sent the full load at the
man's head, slamming him against the wall again. Part of his helmet was
blown off.
Then she bounced off the concrete, which threw her aim off for a
critical fraction of a second and her fourth shot missed.
 Before she could get off a fifth, the surviving assailant was racing down
the stairs.
Tayra shifted, twisting to put her feet against the wall before shoving
herself out over the stairs.
She spun adroitly, wings flaring as she caught the damaged and gore-
spattered wall with her feet, then dropped, shotgun tracking for targets, but
the last man was already down past the next landing.
She showed the barrel between the railings but jerked back before she
got a chance to sight as a burst of fire came up from below.
The fact that she had to check her corners and had no grenades meant
she had no hope of catching the man, so she leapt back to the third floor
landing and stepped through again into the hospital hallway to check on
Sergeant Yearly, though it was a vain hope.
Blood on the ceiling is never a good sign.
Kristine Yearly had caught a shot between the eyes, and the back of her
head was gone. She'd been dead before she hit the floor. As Tayra leaned
over the body, blood dripped onto Yearly's chest. Tayra lifted a hand and
brushed it across her neck, wincing as it came away wet.
"Oooh, that was closer than I thought," she muttered. She couldn't feel
pain from the wound, and wondered if the hospital nurse had given her too
much anesthetic.
"That's her!"
Tayra's head whipped up to catch sight of two men running toward her
wearing the same black uniforms as the one she'd blown away in the
stairwell. Both were raising rifles, and the only rounds she had left were
slugs. She was crouched and out of position; she'd never be able to get them
both.
Instead, she twisted backward, slamming through the stairwell door and
out of the line of fire as she shouted, "POLICE! Drop your weapons or you
will be shot!"
"We know better! It was called in, this is Rosedale security! You have
nowhere to go! Slide your weapon out into the hallway, then come out with
your hands up! If you don't, we'll give the order to gas the stairwell!" a man
shouted back at her.
"You fucking moron! I'm NHIC! Officer Tayra Manes! I was just
treated here! We were attacked when we opened the stairwell door by one
of your men along with a second assailant in full tactical armor! He should
be at or below the bottom floor by now!" Tayra called back, knowing better
than to show herself, but keeping the door nudged open with the toe of her
boot.
"You have ten seconds to come out with your hands up or we're gassing
the stairwell! Ten! Nine! Eight! ..."
"ASK THE HOLOGRAM!" Tayra screamed, out of ideas. Having just
been shot at by a man wearing the same uniform as the two outside, she had
no intention of giving up her weapon and surrendering. If they were legit
security, they should at least be willing to check her story while they had
her at their mercy.
"I'm not going anywhere!" she added, noting that they'd stopped
counting. "There's got to be footage of me, ask the damn nurse! Her name
was ... uh, Sheryl! Sheryl something! Brown hair, human caucasoid, maybe
five foot two, bad attitude!"
"You stay right there! If that door closes, you get the gas!" the man
called back.
Just then, Tayra's phone vibrated in her pocket. She answered it and
heard dispatch.
"Gunfire confirmed, status when able."
"Officer down, one assailant down, one escaped. Currently being held at
gunpoint by Rosedale Medical Center security," Tayra said.
"Are you in immediate danger?"
"No, but if hospital security can't identify me, they're threatening to gas
me. Right now it's a stand-off. I'm waiting for them to check my story."
"Who is down and what is their status?"
"Sergeant Kristine Yearly. She's dead."
"You're sure?"
"Half her head is gone."
"Can you identify the escaped perpetrator?"
"No. They were wearing tactical ballistic armor. It took a shotgun slug
center mass and a round of buck which broke the helmet, but I don't think
the wearer is injured. Whoever it is, is humanoid. Armor looked like high-
end kit, matte black with red accents, no visible insignia or other identifying
traits."
"Leave this line open. We've activated your camera and are recording. It
appears Sergeant Yearly's body cam is also still on — we're checking the
feed now. Stand by."
 "Acknowledged," Tayra said as she slid the phone into the strap on her
greatcoat, then called out to the men still in the hallway, "Well?!"
"We've confirmed your story, Officer Manes. You can come out."
Tayra carefully opened the door wide enough to peek out, and saw the
two men standing about fifteen feet away with their weapons pointed at the
ground.
"I'm coming out, don't shoot," she said.
"We won't," one of the men said.
Tayra opened the door and quickly peeked to the left and right, where
she saw four more security, two in each direction of the t-junction, and they
had their weapons up.
"Come on, guys. I'm not playing, and I am NHIC! I'm on the phone with
dispatch right now! They're recording. Do not shoot me!"
A pneumatic hiss sounded behind her, and she turned, shotgun coming
up out of reflex, but before she got a bead her vision blurred, spun, then
went black.

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 24

OceanofPDF.com
 TONY

T ony P latz stood at rigid attention in front of Captain Harding's desk and
waited for the other man to speak, something he seemed in no rush to do.
It was the morning after the attack, and he had no idea where Tayra was.
All he knew was that there'd been a second assault at the hospital in which
Sergeant Yearly had died, and he'd been called to the carpet he now stood
on, waiting for word.
Harding looked like he'd had a rough night too. There was a thick gauze
bandage that ran the length of his jawline on the right side, and another at
the base of his neck.
The man was staring at Tony as though he would like nothing more than
to put a bullet in him.
When at last he did speak, his words were clipped and precise.
"You were invited here to cool your head, and over the last few months
you've been a competent addition to our team. I would never have thought
you would pull this kind of bullshit stunt. What do you have to say for
yourself?"
"For myself, nothing," Tony said quietly.
"Nothing?" Harding asked. "You'd better say something, boy. Or you're
going to wind up checking in that uniform before you leave this building."
"I did what I thought was right, sir. I followed the regs. If you think it
necessary I will defend myself in front of a board of inquiry."
"What about fucking your partner seems like a good idea, Mr. Platz?
What about sex with a god damn monster seems like the right thing to do?"
Harding snarled, coming half out of his chair as he slammed his desk with
his fist before stabbing at Tony with an accusing finger.
"You're fresh off a transfer because you couldn't keep your cool where
your last partner is concerned, and now you're keen to jump in bed with a
chimera? Are you out of your mind?! Just what is your major malfunction?
Whether there's an exemption in the rules or not, this is the absolute
textbook definition of compromised judgement! I want your badge and your
weapon on this desk, right now! You're suspended pending that inquiry you
wanted. And good fuckin' luck there, son."
Tony took a deep, steadying breath. With his heart in his throat, he
slowly drew his service pistol, ejected the magazine, and racked the slide.
He then set the pieces, along with his badge, on Captain Harding's desk
before stepping back.
Harding's lips were curled in an expression of complete disgust as he
snapped, "Dismissed!"
Closing the door to the captain's office behind him, Tony squared his
shoulders and strode down the narrow corridor between the cubes and the
interrogation rooms, headed for the elevator bank.
Lieutenant Crenshaw was waiting about halfway there, and fell into step
as he said, "So?"
"Suspended," Tony said shortly.
"For?"
"Following the rules."
"Does not compute," Crenshaw said dryly.
"Take it up with the captain," Tony replied. "I'm going home."
"Tayra's in the hospital."
"Still?"
Tony stopped and half-turned toward Crenshaw, who leaned against the
wall as he folded his arms across his chest and nodded. He said, "She blew
the face off one of the guards there. The city and the hospital are having it
out over what happens to her. Apparently, the hospital wants her exiled or
they're threatening to release footage proving she's a murderer."
"How the hell do you know this?" Tony asked.
Crenshaw smiled with half his face as he said, "I've got an in with
Rosedale security. They're hot over this, and they're looking to pin blame."
"What's the city got?" Tony asked.
 Crenshaw shrugged, then said, "Obviously something, or Tayra'd
already be butt naked and out the gates. If you want more, you'll have to do
your own digging. Now, why were you suspended?"
Tony looked up at the ceiling, then back at Crenshaw as he sighed and
said, "Tayra's got some involuntary behaviors. She fixated on me and I ...
did not turn her down."
"You fucked her? How is she not dead?"
"I did not fuck her, Marty. I just didn't turn her down. It's in the regs,
read up if you're interested."
"Does not compute," Marty said a second time. "If you didn't turn her
down, and you didn't fuck her, what then?"
"I'm on track to get spliced for her," Tony admitted.
"You're joking," Crenshaw drawled. "Really? She doesn't even have a
human face!"
"Funny that, most of the people I hate do. I'm going home, Marty.
Thanks for the tip."
"Yeah, sure. See you around ... maybe," Crenshaw said, giving him a
dubious look as he walked away.
A few minutes later he shut the door on his jeep and stared at the
steering wheel, drawing a complete blank. He wanted to hit something but
whatever he hit broke, and everything in reach belonged to him. He wasn't
eighteen anymore. He couldn't go whaling on stuff he'd immediately have
to pay to replace.
Fortunately, he had a heavy bag at home.
With that thought firmly in mind, he said, "Navigation: Rosedale
Medical Center," and drove out of the lot, not heading for home like he was
supposed to.
"I'm being an idiot," he muttered to himself. "There's nothing I can do
for her. I don't have my badge. They probably won't even let me in."
As he berated himself, he drove, and at length pulled into the visitor's
lot of the squat black tower that was Rosedale. He'd never been there before
personally but it was notorious, or famous, depending. It had the best
trauma center in any of the subcities of Daytau and the lowest prices, but
also a reputation for being unbelievably cutthroat. There were more than a
few stories about patients being allowed to die out on the sidewalks because
they had neither medical coverage nor the money to pay for treatment.
 If you could pay, it was absolutely the best place to go to get patched
up. If you couldn't, you were better off taking your chances practically
anywhere else. The city had very specific agreements in place for the
treatment of their civil servants, but the security and even the power
generation facilities for Rosedale were owned by Rosedale. While it was
technically all above board, the place gave off a sinister vibe that — now he
was looking — Tony completely understood.
And somewhere in that chunk of a building was his partner.
Maybe his former partner.
Tony sighed, shut off the engine, and got out, shoving his hands in his
coat pockets as he walked toward the front door, still with absolutely no
idea what he was going to do or say when he got there.
As he approached the entrance, he remembered that he was still wearing
his tactical belt. Since that belt had at least three different items on it that
would definitely trip the security alarms and prompt the guard inside to ask
for a badge he no longer had, he swore bitterly and turned around to put the
belt in his jeep.
When he did, he almost ran into another man coming up behind him.
Blinking, he backed up as he instinctively said, "Excuse me, sorry."
"You're Corporal Platz, right?"
Tony took a second look, then nodded, somewhat dumbfounded.
Standing in front of him was the former deputy inspector for Oolytau,
Jaime Gutiérrez. He was a big, swarthy man with a well-trimmed goatee
and distinguished-looking silver streaks in his hair. He was also the de facto
chief inspector of the NHIC. It was an interim position until the special
election was concluded, but since there was no one else running it was a
non-election election.
Jaime Gutiérrez was the man in charge.
"Uh, yessir, sorry. I'm just startled to see you here," Tony finally
managed.
Chief Inspector Gutiérrez nodded gravely, one eyebrow up as he
glanced past Tony at the building behind him and said, "Yes. This is one of
the last places I ever want to go, but as you know, your partner is in there,
and I need to get her out. Why did you turn around? Weren't you going in to
see her?"
"Yessir, but Captain Harding suspended me this morning. Since I don't
have a badge, I can't carry my tactical belt in. I was going to put it back in
the jeep," Tony said, doing his best to say it in a level tone.
"Suspended? What on earth for?" Jaime asked.
Doing his best to be concise, Tony laid everything on the line. Since he
was already suspended he had very little left to lose, and this man would
hear everything anyway if it came to a board. Given Tayra was a high-
profile new recruit, there was no way the head man in charge wouldn't be
involved.
When he was done, Jaime just stared at him for a moment, then glanced
around before tipping his head toward a bench on a greensward across from
the entrance as he said, "Why don't we go have a chat before I head inside?"
"Yessir."
"Don't be so uptight. You're already suspended, just call me Jaime for
now," the man said with a slight, professional smile as he clapped Tony on
the back.
Tony didn't trust that smile, but knew better than to call him out on it
and simply said, "All right."
The two crossed over to the green and had a seat together. The cloud
cover was intermittent and there was a fitful breeze that gave occasional
breaths of — if not fresh — then at least not putrid air. It was just enough to
remind Tony that air didn't have to smell like rotting garbage, and he
wrinkled his nose unconsciously as he caught a particularly pungent whiff.
"Still not used to it yet?" Jaime asked.
"I'm not sure I'll ever get used to it. It's like the sewers don't even work
here."
"Hah! The truth is they work better here than anywhere else," Jaime
said with quiet amusement. "All of the sewage from every city but Bartau
comes here for processing. The system here isn't overloaded because
Oolytau is nasty — not that it isn't — but because we deal with everyone
else's filth as well. The trade-off is that Oolytau has the cheapest prices for
power, clean water, and disposal services. That's just the nature of the
game."
"I thought the sewage that came in from the other subcities was part of a
closed system," Tony said.
"That's a campaign promise, not a reality," Jaime said. "But we aren't
here to talk about the fact that Oolytau smells like month-old kitchen
garbage. We're here to talk about the fact that you seem to have a fetish for
romantic entanglements with partners. It's not healthy, Tony."
 Tony winced and sighed as he said, "I kept it professional with Laura."
"Sure you did. You may not have done the deed with her, but you were
so hard up for her that when her marriage finally collapsed, they sent you to
me to keep you out of trouble, and you were, or so it seemed. I might be the
provisional CI, but the fact is most of my deputies know how to run their
departments just fine. This place doesn't have a replacement for me yet, and
I've been combing the personnel files. Your name came up a few times
because you were flagged to receive one of the non-humans from the first
graduating class. The blueboys say you're solid gold, and Lieutenant Banes
has made no secret of the fact he wants you to swap uniforms."
"He's good people," Tony said quietly, but kept it short. When the boss
was talkative, it was better to let the man talk.
Jaime sighed and said, "I wasn't quite sure what was going through
Bremmin's mind when he tagged you for Tayra Manes, so I asked him last
month. Do you know what he said to me?"
"If I did, I think you'd have some hard questions for me," Tony said
wryly.
Jaime licked his lips and showed his hands as he said, "Okay, that's fair.
We'll skip to the punchline. You were set up."
Tony blinked, then said, "To fail?"
Jaime shook his head and said, "You were set up to catch Tayra's
attention. I hate to say this, son, but her presence and future in the NHIC are
a helluva lot more important than yours, politically speaking. That said, we
did not throw you to the wolves. There's a reason the SOP was amended to
give you this loophole. We won't talk about why or how we knew ... or
figured we knew, that Tayra would go for you, but the fact that she did is
actually a pretty big relief."
"Intending no disrespect, but I wish someone had let me know this in
advance ... failing that, someone should have dropped Captain Harding a
line."
The chief inspector winced and scratched at the point of his goatee as he
glanced away and said, "Yeah. We didn't see that coming, but we should
have. Harding has a long and ... checkered history. He was a brilliant soldier
and mercenary, and in many respects he's just as exemplary as a law officer,
but he has certain ideas that don't translate well, and he's one of those that
joined us after some pretty hard experience with non-humans."
"He hates them."
 Jaime shrugged and nodded as he said, "Yes, he does. Considering they
wiped out his command as a mercenary, I'm not entirely sure I blame him.
We were concerned about putting Tayra in his department, or any of the
non-humans really, but while the others could be quietly transferred out of
Oolytau, Tayra is one of the more 'monstrous' breeds. Honestly, no one
wanted her, not even with you thrown in to sweeten the deal."
"What?"
Chuckling, Jaime flicked a finger at Tony as he said, "You were tagged
as her partner from a month before she graduated. It didn't matter where she
wound up, you'd have been there waiting for her."
"Gee, it's so refreshing to know my career and prospects are a matter of
personal merit," Tony said dryly.
"They are, you just aren't seeing things in the proper light yet. You think
we'd have given such a difficult case to just anyone?"
"I think you figured out whatever would trip Tayra's trigger and
matched that up with your list of five-years. I just happened to top that list,"
Tony said.
"I won't lie and tell you that's not true. I will add that it presents you
with the literal opportunity of a lifetime. There are some things going on
with Tayra that we as agents of the city aren't allowed to talk about, but that
have to be acknowledged as reality at least when it comes to writing policy.
Besides," Jaime paused, giving Tony a meaningful sidelong look.
"You could always have turned her down. The fact that you didn't is
entirely on you. You can blame the profiling on us but the results speak for
themselves and I had nothing to do with that splicer showing up in Rectau
yesterday, though I was notified."
"So why wasn't Captain Harding?" Tony asked. "If you guys set all this
up, why am I suspended?"
Jaime's lips pursed and he glanced briefly away in mild frustration
before looking back as he leaned in and said, "Because Harding is off his
leash at the moment. Just between you and me, you are not suspended. It
won't go on your record and there'll be no reprimand. I'm aware how sudden
Officer Manes' ... craving, probably was. That said, dealing with matters of
authority is delicate and Harding has historically been one of my best
assets. Since his problems with the new regs are understandable and quite
frankly in line with what most of the department will think, I can't call him
to the carpet without tanking morale and causing a public relations
nightmare if he doubles down and goes to the rags."
"Okay, so if I'm not suspended, what do you want me doing?" Tony
asked.
"Depends on whether I can get my officer out of hock or not," Jaime
said as he tipped his head toward the hospital. "The evidence from Yearly's
body cam is pretty conclusive and we have everything from the dispatch
call to Manes afterward. The hospital is stonewalling security footage; we're
pretty sure the reason is one of their staff got bought off. Neither they nor
the soldier of fortune company they have on retainer to do security want
that going public."
"So it's a standoff?"
"At the moment. I'm about to break it. When it comes to who the rags
will side with in a fight, I'm a golden boy and while they might be the best
hospital by the numbers, they aren't exactly winning any humanitarian
awards. Want to watch?" Jaime asked with a wry smile.
Tony grinned and said, "It would be a privilege, and instructional, Chief
Inspector."
Jaime chuckled and said, "All right, for the next hour or so, you're my
shadow. My silent shadow. Are we clear?"
"As a bell."
"Come on then. Let's go rattle this cage and see if the lock pops."

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 25

OceanofPDF.com
 TAYRA

W hen T ayra woke up , the first thing she noticed was that she was
absolutely drenched in Tony's scent.
The second thing she noticed was that she was practically paralyzed,
both in actuality and by the fact that what little movement she could
manage was painful. Extremely painful.
She opened her eyes and noted that she was in a bedroom she didn't
recognize, in a bed she'd never slept in, and it wasn't at Rosedale Medical
Center.
They must have ...
The thought trailed away into nothing because she had no idea what had
happened. Her last memory was of being hit with a tranquilizer dart by the
hospital security staff.
Now she was in Tony's bedroom.
"Tony?" she said, though when she tried to move her head she gave up
almost immediately.
Her eyes gave her the full view of the room to either side, but she
couldn't see the foot of the bed or the door from where she lay.
There was a click, and his voice came through a speaker to her left: "I'm
out in the garage. I'll be there in a few minutes. How do you feel?"
"Like shit."
"Yeah, that happens when you get worked over. What's the last thing
you remember?"
"Getting shot with a tranq, then waking up here."
 "That's probably for the best. We had you checked out at Mercy after
arranging for your release from Rosedale. You've got a few fractured ribs
and your body is essentially one big bruise. No one will admit to it, but
apparently the security detail beat the ever living shit out of you."
"How come I don't remember that?"
"Drugs if you're asking me to guess. Hard to testify about what you
don't remember. Are you thirsty? Hungry?"
"Yes."
"I'll be there in a few and I've got your favorite: tripe."
Tayra groaned, then said, "It's not my favorite. I don't want you seeing
me eating that."
There was some muffled laughter on the other end, and she snapped,
"What's funny!?"
She immediately regretted the outburst, because moving her head even a
little bit as her muscles flexed with her annoyance sent shards of pain
through her neck, upper back, and the base of her skull.
A few moments later, the door opened and Tony walked in wearing
workout gear, reeking of man, holding a dinner tray in one hand and a
literal trash bag in the other. He unfolded the tray, plopped the bag down on
it, and raised his eyebrows as he looked down at her and said, "Because
there's no way you're going to be able to eat this on your own in your
condition. The staff at Mercy assured us that if we gave you pain meds, they
might stop your heart or drop you into a coma. It'll be three days before
whatever shit they put in you at Rosedale works its way out, so until then
your world includes two things: pain ... and Nurse Tony Platz. A role I have
plenty of time for since getting suspended day before yesterday. Something
about doinking my partner. I told them I didn't do it, but ..."
He trailed off and shrugged, then pointed cross body at the bag on the
tray next to him as he said, "So how do you eat this anyway? Do you want
me to drop chunks down your gullet or just poke a hole in the bottom of the
bag or what?"
She looked him up and down in dismay. He was wearing a compression
fit shirt that showed her everything but how deep his bellybutton went, and
she wanted all of it. He had a good pump with a great sheen, and the smell
of him was driving her up the wall. Or it would, if she could move.
"Please go shower," she said quietly.
 When he blinked at her, she added, "You have no idea what it's like to
be hungry, thirsty, hurt, and horny, all at the same time."
"Tayra, you were beaten to within literal inches of your life; how in the
hell can you be horny?"
"Ask some long-dead wizard. Please go shower. After opening all the
windows, doors, and just get out of here, please? You're torturing me. Put
on a raincoat. Or trash bags. Buff Nurse Platz is not something I can take
advantage of right now."
They stared at each other a moment, then Tony made a throat noise.
She narrowed her eye at him and warned, "Don't you laugh. There is
absolutely nothing funny about this!"
The throat noises got louder as he turned toward the window, threw the
drapes back, and opened it.
"I mean it, Tony! I will have vengeance and don't you oh my gawd. Are
you wafting at me?"
Tony quit waving his hand past his shorts at her, but by the time he got
the second window open he was laughing so hard Tayra wondered if he'd
pass out.
Her fingers twitched, but the tendons screamed at her to stop, and when
she tried to grind her beak that just brought her more pain.
"You are hurting me," she quietly said.
Tony's laugh cut out like she'd pulled a plug, and he looked genuinely
concerned as he said, "I'm sorry. I know you've been through a lot. I'll turn
the fan on and get a shower. It was ... good to laugh, though. I hope you
don't think I'm laughing at what happened to you. I can't say my last few
days were anything as bad as yours, but they weren't a vacation either."
She shut her eyes and tried to relax despite the fact that even through
the whole body ache interspersed with sharp pains, she had to resist the urge
to squeeze her thighs together. It was a thoroughly miserable feeling.
"I know you're not," she said without opening her eyes. "But it doesn't
change the fact that I need you, you're right there, and I can't have you.
Please go shower, put clothes on, then we'll figure out this food thing."
"Is she awake!?"
Tayra's eye rolled toward the door, then back up to him as he winced
and ran a hand through his hair, which flicked his sweat on the bed and ...
and ...
 "Go. Go now, before I tear something trying to get to you," Tayra said,
grateful that — as a griffin — she didn't have to move any part of her face
to speak.
"Grace is here," he said over his shoulder as he turned toward his
bathroom door.
"So I gathered," Tayra said dryly.
The door closed without any kind of response from Tony, and the
shower came on seconds later.
Tayra's eye flicked back to the open bedroom door to see the gray-
skinned, blue-haired gargoyle standing there, one hand on her cocked hip
and wearing a deliberately too-tight t-shirt. Her wing-thumbs were hooked
together over her collarbones, and without conscious thought, Tayra said,
"He's mine."
Grace held up both hands as she said, "Woah, hey, easy tiger. Trust me, I
got that part. I'm not chasing. Tony's just giving me a couch until the NHIC
figures out what to do with me for, you know, saving your life?"
She held up two fingers as she pointedly added, "Twice?"
Tayra stared at her as feelings she couldn't control went to war inside
her. Tony belonged to her. She'd been through so much, woken up to his
scent, he was right there, and this ... female, was able to move while she
could not. The feeling that she was there to steal him away from her was
one that had no rational basis. It made no sense, but that didn't matter.
"Go away," Tayra finally managed. "The sight of you pisses me off."
Grace sucked her teeth and gave Tayra a long look, then held up her
hands in idle surrender as she turned and quietly shut the door behind her.
It was only after she was gone that Tayra realized the gargoyle had no
scent. None at all.
Or maybe she did and Tayra's brain was just so short-circuited that Tony
was the only thing she could smell.
"Come ooon. I've been beat to shit already, can't you just give it a rest?"
she pleaded to no one in particular.
Apparently, there were no plans for cutting her any breaks because
Tony's scent was like the smell of slow-roasted prime rib tickling her
nostrils. It seeped into her and made her thighs tighten, which hurt.
The fan was going, the windows were open, and he was in the other
room hiding his scent with soap, but it was still in her head and she couldn't
get rid of the overwhelming carnal desire that destroyed every thought not
based in something that had both lewd and Tony squarely in focus. The fact
that she wasn't physically capable of most of what she imagined seemed to
have no weight at all. She wanted what she wanted, she wanted it bad, and
she wanted it now.
The only thing that kept her from pouncing Tony in the shower was the
fact that she really couldn't move much, and what movement she could
manage hurt like hell.
When he finally came out of the bathroom with damp hair wearing a
fluffy robe that left a deep 'V' of chest exposed, she shut her eyes and said,
"Do me a favor?"
"Anything."
"Remember you said that as you go get my bag, bring it in here, and
close the door."
She didn't open her eyes, but she did hear the door shut a few seconds
later, then his voice from just beside the bed as he said, "All your stuff is
already in here."
"Did you look?" she asked.
"At you?" Kinda couldn't help it. The paramedics set you up in the bed,
but your cyberware belt is on the dresser over there."
"At what's in my bag."
"Oh. No. That'd be creepy as fuck."
Tayra felt a twinge of gratitude, then sighed as she said, "Well, now I'm
giving you permission. This is important, Tony. You need to do something
for me, and it's going to hurt like hell but it's got to happen."
"Okay?" he drawled as his voice orbited the bed, then she heard a zipper
as he asked, "What do you need?"
"I need you to grab one of the toys in there and get me off," she said
quietly, absolutely refusing to open her eyes. She didn't want to see his
expression. She wouldn't be able to take it if ...
"Under any other circumstance I'd ask if you were joking, but at this
point I'll just ask: are you sure?"
"I can't think straight. I know human men get this thing called 'blue
balls?' Think of it like that, except in my case it's about a hundred times
worse. When a girl says she aches for you, that's usually supposed to be
sexy. This isn't sexy. It's the literal truth, and it's agony. It's not healthy, and
I need you to help me take the edge off," she said, trying to keep the despair
out of her tone. This was about as unsexy as it could possibly get, but if she
didn't get him to do this she had no idea how she would get through what
came next, even if what came next was just being fed.
She heard him rooting around in her bag, then the mattress shifted as he
sat down on the bed. He was right next to her, and his presence made her
ache intensify. She groaned and said, "Please. Just shove it in. It won't take
long, I promise, but I need to cum so bad. I'm sorry you have to see me like
this. I wouldn't ask you if I had any other options."
The covers were pulled away, exposing her to him. Her wings were flat,
one stretched across the other side of the bed, the other drooping somewhat
off one side. She had no idea what she looked like, but she was thankful
that her tiger-striped fur would hide most of the damage from him.
It was her one consolation.
Tony said, "It's all right. I can't say it's sexy considering you're an
invalid and you're right, this is going to hurt no matter what I do just
because of how banged up you are. Just, try and imagine that I'm the man of
your dreams, settled on top of you, and your arms are draped across my
shoulders. Stare into my eyes as I slowly, lovingly ..."
She felt the toy nudge at her swollen labia, parting the folds. Her hips
shivered just a bit and she suppressed her whimper, filling her mind with
the image his words painted. Then she felt him press slowly, steadily into
her, filling her with himself.
Everything after that went white, then faded to black.

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 26

OceanofPDF.com
 TONY

T ony looked down at the unconscious griffin in his bed, trying to process
what he'd just seen. Tayra had cum so hard on the first stroke that she'd
fainted.
She hadn't made a sound as it happened, but the toy had flexed against
his hand as her body gripped and squeezed it, and his hand was dripping
wet.
There'd been nothing sexy about what had just happened, and Tony felt
a pang of sympathy for her as he withdrew the toy and took it into the
bathroom, setting it in the sink as he grabbed a hand towel and took it back
out to soak up the sex juice pooling underneath her. He set the towel in
place, then went back into the bathroom to wash his hands.
As he turned the water on he absently sucked on a finger, and was
pleasantly surprised by the taste. Her flavor was like the juice off of a good
steak, and it actually made his stomach grumble.
"Wow," he muttered to himself as he rinsed off the toy and set it upright
next to the sink as he soaped up his hands.
He dried them off with his shower towel and walked back out to find
her conscious again. Her eyes were open and focused on him the instant he
came into the room.
He asked, "Feel better?"
"You have no idea. I still want you, but I can at least feel hungry again.
Grab some water for me, will you?" she said.
He nodded as he slipped the now damp hand towel out from under her
and took it to the bathroom where he dropped it in the hamper as he
grabbed the glass next to the sink. He made sure the water was lukewarm so
it wouldn't shock her throat, filled the glass, then brought it back to her.
She didn't say anything, just slowly parted her beak.
He looked into her gullet, saw there was plenty of room, and just poured
the water in.
She swallowed it all in a single gulp, without moving her beak at all,
then said, "One more. Same temperature."
"Sure."
He did it, then said, "Food?"
"You're going to want to lay some towels or something on the bed or
you'll get blood all over. Grab some nitrile gloves from the first aid kit too.
It's not like this stuff is pasteurized," she said, obviously trying for a tone of
clinical detachment.
Tony nodded thoughtfully. He had a pretty good idea what must be
going through her mind. She probably hadn't been hand-fed since she was a
baby.
He turned and untied the bag to see what he'd actually be working with.
The smell hit him in a rush. He winced and said, "Woof! That's ... pungent."
Inside the bag were assorted bits of stuff that most people who don't
work in a slaughterhouse never see. Pieces of intestine and assorted chunks
of meat and organs sitting in a gooey mess.
Glancing back to Tayra, he said, "All right. I'll be back in a minute."
Rolling her eyes away as the feathers around her neck tightened, she
said, "Take your time."
He wanted to reassure her, but she'd probably appreciate the food more
than anything he could say. He stepped out and got more trash bags
— towels wouldn't do the job — along with gloves, a pair of grill tongs, a
cutting board, and a cleaver.
Then he came back in and set up, putting bags on the tray, under it, and
over the quarter of the bed he'd have to move over to get to her. When he
was almost done, she said, "Lift my head up and get one of those under me.
It'll hurt, but it won't suck nearly as much as having to sleep on meat juice."
He nodded, slipped his arm under her head from the crown down to her
upper back, and lifted her all at once, supporting the angle of her neck as he
slid the trash bag under her with his other hand before laying her back
down.
 He noticed as he slipped away that her eyes were closed again, her
feathers were tight, and her beak was wide open. The message was clear.
She was humiliated, and didn't want to talk to him.
He had a pretty good idea what needed doing by this point anyway so
he set to his task, spending the next half an hour emptying the bag of tripe
down her gullet. He simply cut things into convenient chunks, provided
them, her throat worked, then he did it again.
When all the bits and pieces were down, he said, "That's it."
"The juice too. Just poke a hole in the bag with your knife," she said.
With a nod, he set the tongs aside, spun the bag closed, pressed
everything into a corner, then put it over her mouth and very carefully
poked a hole in it before squeezing as much as he could of the liquids into
her mouth.
When he was done, he crushed the bag into his fist, pulled the glove on
that fist over it to cover it up, then did the same thing with his other glove
before gathering up the trash bags and setting them aside — he knew he'd
have to do this at least a couple more times before she'd be healed up
enough to feed herself.
He went into the bathroom and soaped up a washcloth, bringing it out to
gently clean the sides of her beak and the few spots that were inevitable
during this sort of thing, then said, "Think I've got it all. Going to lift your
head to get that last bag off the bed."
"Yeah, thanks," she quietly said.
When it was done, he asked, "Want me to get the bed pan?"
Her eyes shut again and in a completely humiliated whisper said, "Yes,
please."
He leaned down and set a hand on her head and her eyes shot open,
pinpointing as she looked at him.
"Hey. It's okay. I know you feel like this isn't a good look for you, but
maybe think of it this way: I'm happy to take care of you. I left you, and you
wound up like this. I feel guilty as hell about that and doing this for you
makes me feel better. So don't sweat it, all right? We made our choices and I
don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to when you're feeling
better. My gene therapy session is scheduled for the day after tomorrow."
"You're still going through with it?" she asked, sounding like she
couldn't believe it.
 He nodded as he said, "Yeah. So just relax. I know if our situations were
reversed, you'd be doing this for me. Think nothing of it."
He grinned encouragingly at her and added, "You're my partner."
She didn't answer him directly, but squeezed her eyes shut and he saw a
sheen there as she quietly said, "The next few days are going to suck so
much."
He chuckled and turned to get the equipment that'd been left with him
for her as he said, "You're not wrong, but we'll get through it."
Twenty minutes later, Tayra was sleeping again and Tony was out in the
kitchen cooking a meal for himself and for Grace, who was seated at his
kitchen table watching him with the wary eye of a teenager staring at an
untrustworthy adult.
"How old are you anyway?" Tony asked as he flipped the steak on the
pan.
"Like, in human years? Twenty," Grace said.
"As opposed to what, dog years?"
"Gargoyles don't age like humans do. I have existed for about forty
years now."
Remembering what he'd learned about gargoyles from his academy
days, he said, "So you don't count the time you spend as a statue?"
Grace shook her head, though her eyes never wavered from him as she
said, "However long we're up, that's how long we have to freeze. We can
build up time that way too, so if I froze for twice as long as I needed, that's
like credit. So we age at about half the rate of a human if we keep a normal
schedule."
"That's kinda cool," he said, then asked, "How do you like your steak?"
"Well done," she said. "Matter of fact, you could cook it until you set
off the fire alarm and that'd be delicious. For me, the char is the best part.
The more of it there is, the better it tastes."
"I feel like I should apologize to the meat for the sacrilege I am about to
commit," he said wryly as he pulled his own steak and left hers on to burn
as he turned the oven hood on high.
"Don't. I still get a taste of the quality and the spices, trust me. I'm a
connoisseur of burnt food. It doesn't do me any good otherwise."
"So the char is what you're actually eating?" he asked, glancing at her
curiously.
 She nodded and said, "The carbon's what I really need. I actually mostly
eat charcoal."
Tony rolled his eyes as he looked at the steak practically screaming for
help on his skillet, then went to a cupboard and grabbed a bottle of vodka.
He showed it to her, then waggled it toward the steak.
Her eyes widened as she nodded enthusiastically. He glanced regretfully
down at the steak, then crossed himself and poured the alcohol, setting the
meat on fire.
"Rest in peace," he muttered as he flipped it, then poured a bit more
accelerant on.
Then he opened the pot with his green beans and fished about half of
them out, dropping them in with the steak to burn before going to grab
himself some iced tea.
"To drink?" he called over his shoulder.
"Water's fine. I don't want to put you out."
"Do you drink?" he asked, still staring into his fridge.
"Yeah? Why?"
"I've got beer here that I don't drink anymore."
"What kind?"
"BDA."
"Bad Dog? Sure, I'll drink that. You have good taste."
He pulled a couple cans out, poured his tea, then put the pitcher back
and brought the drinks to the table along with his steak as he tried to ignore
the smell of burning meat.
She reached out, snagged one of the cans, and cracked it open as she
said, "That's sweet, you being willing to burn the meat for me."
"Ah, well. I'll add a bag of briquets to the food order tomorrow. Any
kind of wood you prefer?"
"Anything that isn't made with chemical accelerants. Added coal is fine,
that's like spice to me. Best bet is to search 'lump charcoal' and just take the
cheapest option. I'm not about to be picky seeing as how you're giving me
free digs and food."
He nodded, then took a deep breath to steel himself before he went back
into the kitchen, waving through the residual haze caused by the fire he'd
set on his stove.
A minute later he was back, his own mouth-wateringly perfect steak
somewhat ruined by the fact that'd he knew he was also responsible for the
still visibly smoking chunk of ruin on Grace's plate along with myriad little
black bits that used to be beans.
"Bon apetite," he said wryly as he tucked into his own meal.
Grace was openly laughing at him as she said, "Kinda hard to get the
presentation right when you've turned 'good' meat into a chunk of crispy
rock, isn't it?"
"Don't rub it in. Just eat your 'food,'" he said as he gave her an
exasperated glance.
She closed her mouth, which turned her laugh into a throat noise, but
she did at least demonstrate good faith. She scarfed her meal and
complimented him so much he was beginning to think she was being
sarcastic.
When it was done, he dropped the plates in the dishwasher and started
the cycle, then poured himself a fresh glass of tea. He sat down as she was
cracking the second beer, then decided to go ahead and dive in.
"Is it the Morgan brothers?" he asked.
"How'd you know?"
"Well, the werewolf was a free agent, but a gel has attacked Tayra twice
now. Filtering for active criminal gels, that narrows the possibilities down
to two, and one of those doesn't make a habit of murder."
She nodded and took a deep breath, then said, "Yeah. The Morgan
brothers are holding the stake for this hit, but it didn't originate within the
organization."
She leaned forward on her elbows and said, "Get this: the hit was put on
her before she made her first arrest."
Tony blinked, then his brow furrowed as he plowed through the
possibilities.
"So this is explicitly a hate crime?" he asked.
She shrugged and said, "You're the detective. Figuring that out's your
job."
"I'm just a cop, not a detective. Beginning to think I need one though;
another of the new recruits was killed out in Rustau. Starting to look to me
like the new non-human members of the NHIC have all been targeted."
His wandering eyes returned to her as he asked, "Do you know who's
going to pay the mark?"
"Yeah right. Like anyone would tell me that. I shouldn't even know
when the hit was offered, but the gobbo I work ... used to work with has a
big mouth."
"Relax, you're not on trial. I'm pretty sure whatever deal you wind up
cutting will involve immunity and I personally have no interest in whatever
else you may have been involved in. I just want to protect my partner."
"She's like, super into you," Grace commented, dropping it like she was
looking for a reaction.
"I know. I have therapy day after tomorrow," he said blandly, then
grinned and took a sip as her eyes widened until he could see whites all
around.
"No shit?" she breathed. "She doesn't even have a face!"
His head dropped to one side as he gave her 'the look.'
"Well, she doesn't!" she cried. "I mean, seriously? Are you a freak or
what?"
Tony took a deep breath and let it out slow as he scowled. This wasn't a
conversation he really wanted to have. Yet if he refused to answer, she
might not be very forthcoming when he asked his questions. And he did
have questions. He said, "No, Grace, I'm not a freak, and neither is she."
She blinked disbelievingly and glanced away as she said, "Wow. There's
no way I could fuck some dude that had an animal head. That's just weird."
"You are burning through your stock of goodwill real fast. Just so you
know," Tony warned.
"Oh come on, it's not like you didn't think you'd have to answer these
kinds of questions. I'm a 'monster,' same as her," she said, putting air quotes
on the title. "I get to say things humans can't. What about her appeals to
you?"
Tony leaned back, folding an elbow over the back of his chair as he
looked at Grace, who stared at him with an air of expectation.
He considered how to answer for a long few seconds, then said, "Not
having a humanoid face is ... weird. But just like any animal, that doesn't
mean she doesn't have expressions. She's also very clearly not an animal, at
least, no more than I am. She's an adult. Not to mention her personality and
interests appeal to me."
"Okay, great, you can be friends. That wasn't what I asked, Mr.
Personality. Just because she passes the Harkness test doesn't mean you
aren't a freak for wanting a piece of that," she said, raising a gray eyebrow
as she continued to stare at him.
"Have you seen her ass?" Tony asked.
 Giving him a weirded-out look, Grace shook her head.
"Well I have, and to put it bluntly, I'm into that shit," Tony said with a
shrug. "The personality and all the rest of it is why I think a relationship
might be possible. That ass is the point of strictly sexual appeal, if you must
know. It is like the Mount Olympus of buttocks."
Grace cracked up and belly laughed as Tony watched with a raised
eyebrow, then fell to giggling, took a sip from her beer, and said, "Okay, fair
enough. I'm pretty proud of my chest, but yeah, not much on the back end
with me."
"No offense, but you'd have no shot," Tony said wryly.
"Hey! That's mean!"
He just stared at her steadily for a long few seconds, then she caved,
rolling her eyes as she said, "Okay, fair."
He nodded, then sipped and pointed at her as he asked, "What do you
know about the Morgans?"
"They're mean as shit, that's what I know," she said flatly.
"What do you know about them that might help me nail one or both of
them down?" he asked.
Her expression grew wary as she said, "I'm not sure that's the kind of
question I can answer in a healthy way."
"I'm pretty sure no matter what you do or don't say, it can't get any
worse for you, Grace. You flipped your coat. As a recent acquaintance of
mind put it: there's no take-backsies now. Not like you have any family they
can threaten and if you didn't trust us you wouldn't be staying at my place,
so spill it. I want everything you've got on those two."
For the next ten minutes, Grace gave him what he wanted. The brothers
were Chris and Will. Will was the older of the two, but neither one seemed
legitimately in charge, and they were never in the same place at the same
time. That much he knew already. What Grace added to the picture was the
fact that both brothers had some fairly regular haunts. Chris liked to spend
his time at a number of cat houses, and any given night that's where one
could find him. Will — on the other hand — had a taste for gambling and
was often seen in the southside sector of Daytau proper, playing Baccarat
with the high rollers. That meant of the two, Will would be easier to
approach without a shooting match, but that wasn't necessarily what Tony
wanted.
 Another thing he didn't know was that Chris apparently had several
illegitimate children by the prostitutes throughout Oolytau; children he
apparently supported. That didn't help Tony unless he wanted a hostage, and
he didn't play that way. It might get him more information if he got one of
the prostitutes to talk, but if Chris was supporting them he doubted he'd get
any of them to flip.
"Any major deals going down soon? Shipments? Meetings?" he asked.
Grace thought about that for a moment, then slowly shook her head as
she said, "Not that I've heard. You have to remember that I'm just a spotter.
I get my jobs one at a time, and usually secondhand. That gobbo I
mentioned just calls me up and gets me my cut. Honestly, I've told you all I
know."
Tony nodded thoughtfully, then took a deep breath and let it out as he
leaned back, thinking.
"What's your angle?" Grace asked.
"The Morgans didn't put the marker up because Tayra busted one of
their dealers. Someone hired the hit. That changes things. My
understanding of the way that system works is that a marker is put up, and
an individual or organization claims the rights. The money doesn't actually
move until there's a body cooling and proof it was done by the claimant.
The best way to get a marker pulled — at least in the short term — is to
freeze the account the money's supposed to come from, or deplete it so that
there isn't enough money to pay. If that happens the marker gets cleared: no
one in Oolytau works for free."
He glanced at her with one eyebrow raised as he asked, "Sound about
right?"
She nodded, and he shrugged as he said, "So all we have to do now is
find out who put up the marker, and freeze their accounts. How much is on
offer, do you know?"
"Three hundred fifty thousand, less the ten percent the Morgans will
take as brokers," Grace said. "Two is usually the bare minimum to kill a
cop, but while she's low-ranking, she's high profile and dangerous, so it's
more for her."
"Any chance the Morgans will drop the marker now that they've failed a
few times?" he asked, ignoring for the moment the fact that Grace's words
may have just revealed an unpleasant truth about her prior activities.
 She shrugged and said, "If it were one guy maybe, but this is a whole
organization. The Morgans aren't going after it themselves, it's just on offer
through them. There's usually a time limit on markers, but I don't know
what it is for this one."
"And I can trust that you aren't going to try and collect on that marker
because ...?" Tony asked.
"Because if I make Shiro look bad in front of the police, my life won't
be worth a spent shell case," she said immediately.
"Shiro's not a criminal," Tony said, one eyebrow up.
"Shiro doesn't have to be. He's done a lot, and I mean a lot, for non-
humans all over the city. If he says he isn't happy with me, I'd last maybe
four hours, tops. I'd have to fly out into the Tracts, and that'd be my life."
She shuddered and said, "No thanks. I'm a city girl. Even if I convinced
the Morgans I was running a con and claimed the marker somehow, I either
wouldn't live or wouldn't be able to spend it."
"Thought it through, did you?" Tony asked, giving her a level look.
Grace rolled her eyes, then stared pointedly at him as she said, "It's a lot
of money. Of course I thought about it. Let's don't pretend I'm a good girl
all of a sudden, okay? I won't jack you and I won't kill her. I want NHIC
protection and a fresh start, even if they have to shift me to another city. All
I want is out of Oolytau. I'm fucking sick of that place."
Nodding thoughtfully, Tony got to his feet as he said, "Getting late. You
need anything?"
"Nah. I'll just go make like a statue in the garage."
She grinned as she crushed her empty can down to the size of a pebble
and tossed it to him, then got up. "Gargoyles are low maintenance. It's one
of our many charms."
"Sure, long as you like sleeping alone," Tony said wryly, snatching the
can from the air and looking at it bemusedly, then back to her.
Her expression had fallen, and she was looking away from him as she
quietly admitted, "Yeah. There's that. We aren't great cuddlers. Night,
Tony."
"Sleep well," he said, feeling vaguely bad for having taken that shot.
She left the kitchen and the garage door closed as he finished washing
up, then went back to his bedroom.
Tayra was dead asleep and didn't even twitch when he walked in, and
that was just fine. He closed up the windows and pulled the drapes, then set
the door brace, cranking it tight. Grace might have a good story for not
wanting to try taking the hit herself, but Tony knew he'd be a fool to trust
her, and his bedroom door didn't have a normal lock.
That done, he got a cot from the closet, set it up, and laid down with a
blanket and pillow.
He was out in seconds.

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 TONY

T he next day was a study in patience for Tony. He knew after breakfast
that he'd have to reschedule the gene therapy. Tayra was still completely
helpless, and he could neither leave her alone nor trust her to Grace.
Tayra's presence in his home was something of a secret, having been
arranged by Chief Inspector Gutiérrez when he'd managed to free her from
Rosedale. The only people who knew for sure where she was had a rank of
deputy inspector or above. Her location information had been restricted,
mostly because the CI had wanted time to sort Harding out before he let the
man know where his subordinate had wound up.
Whether or not the man had made any progress on that front, Tony had
no idea. Harding hadn't called him, and still thought he was suspended.
Given he was having to nurse Tayra back to health, the chief inspector
had told him not to contact anyone until she could defend herself again,
which also meant that until then he was stuck with Grace as an additional
houseguest.
She spent most of each day in front of the tv, which was fine as far as he
was concerned. He didn't really have time to entertain.
He ate his own breakfast before Tayra's had a chance to ruin his
appetite, and marveled at the fact that, yes, gargoyles really did eat
charcoal.
And like it.
"You are so weird," he said as he carried his plates to the sink.
"At least I don't look like I was assembled from spare parts," Grace
snapped.
 "Do you have it in for Tayra or something?" Tony asked. "Why go after
her when I'm the one dogging you? If you're going to shoot, shoot at me."
She sucked her teeth and gave him a long look as she said, "What am I
going to say about you? You look like you came off the cover of a fitness
rag."
"Jealous?" he asked, giving her an easy grin.
"Of her? You bet your ass. I don't get it. Some girls have all the luck,"
she said, couching her cheek on her knuckles as she stared absently out the
bay windows into Tony's backyard. "I'm good-looking. I've got a nice rack,
a pretty face, I'm toned ... and I can't get a human to look twice. She has a
literal bird head, no tits, is built like a brick, and in less than a week on the
job has her partner willing to get spliced for her."
"Why not go after another gargoyle?" he asked. "You have a fetish or
something?"
"No, but I certainly don't mind, and while there are gargs around, it's
still like a thousand to one, humans. Besides, most gargs are already
shacked up, and our relationships tend to last a lifetime. Finding a single
gargoyle male in Daytau — nevermind one I could actually get along with
— would be like finding the winning lottery ticket in a dead wino's pocket."
"Ew," he said, giving her a vaguely disgusted look.
"Life is hard in Oolytau, don't judge me," she said, then sighed and
added, "I just hate watching someone else's dreams come true, that's all. It's
happened too many times."
He turned toward her and put a hand on the counter, leaning as he said,
"You're weird and an idiot. You're out. You're not going back either. Getting
out is what you wanted."
"Yeah, but you don't get it. I could handle Oolytau just fine if I weren't
alone. Imagine if you were in my place, and no one wanted you for who
and what you are."
"Maybe it's not that you're a gargoyle, but just that you come with too
much baggage," Tony said. "If a super cute girl rolled up on me but I knew
she was a thug, I wouldn't look twice whether she was human or not. Clean
up your act and I don't think-"
"It costs twenty thousand to get a permanent splice, Tony. Half that if it's
just pills. It doesn't matter if I'm a thug or get what I get honest, who'd pay
that for me?" she asked, glaring at him. "Especially when humans are so
much more numerous and some of them are just as 'super cute'? Not to
mention they don't turn into statues periodically and can't crush your skull
like an eggshell."
She reached toward him with one hand, palm down, and closed it until
her fist made an audible grinding noise as she looked past it at him.
"Yet despite all that and more, that griffin in there somehow, somehow,
gets you? I mean ... what the fuck? So yes, I'm getting out and yes, I'm
jealous as hell. Go feed your girl the guts she loves so much and when you
come back out, I'll be properly grateful again. I'm sorry, but it had to be
said, and now I've said it."
She smiled with radiant insincerity, and Tony couldn't help but notice
how pronounced her canines were.
"That griffin in there worked for years to achieve her dream," Tony said
with quiet intensity. "She busted her ass to get through the academy and
kept her nose clean all the way."
"She doesn't have a nose!" Grace almost shrieked.
Tony's face was hard as he viciously pointed at her and said, "She has
me. And she got me because she's good all the way through, and that turns
me on. So maybe you should take a long look at what's really keeping you
lonely, because if I can go for her, I guaran-goddamn-tee there are plenty of
men who'd go for you if ..."
He trailed off, and she stared at him, obviously waiting despite herself
for him to finish his sentence.
He wondered if he should, then sighed and said, "Grace, relationships
might start with looks, but that isn't what builds or keeps them. I've had my
share of superficial hook-ups because you're right, I'm damn good-looking.
So I know how they end. Something always rips them up. Always. If you
want someone to want you bad enough to dig deep, then you've got to have
something worth digging for, and you're right, looks ain't gonna cut it. So if
that's what you want, you have to be so much better than every human that
man has ever met that they'll pony up for you, and it isn't the twenty large
I'm talking about. When a human gets spliced for a non-human, they're
playing for keeps. I'm not changing my code just to tap that ass. I'm
changing it because I know Tayra will be there for me no matter what ... for
the rest of my life. She'll go to war for me."
He opened the refrigerator and pulled the bag of tripe out, then said as
he walked past her, "Could anyone say the same about you?"
She didn't speak, and he didn't wait.
He already knew her answer.

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 TAYRA

S he watched him as he stepped through the bedroom door and turned to

close it behind.
When he reached the bedside, she simply said, "I heard that."
He blinked, then winced.
"Sorry, she kinda pissed me off," Tony said.
She managed a nod, then said, "Do me a favor?"
"Sure, anything."
"Get in bed with me."
She watched him take in what she'd said. The expression on his face
didn't change, nor did he move. It seemed as though he'd frozen, but that
only lasted a moment.
He turned away and walked to the door as pain bloomed in her heart,
only for it to skip a beat as she watched him put the door brace in place to
keep the door closed. Then he came back to her, and quietly laid down next
to her.
She lifted her hand, ignoring the ache in her bones as best she could,
fighting past the fact that her muscles were so damaged that they barely
functioned. She laid it over his, and said, "Don't ... take this the wrong way.
This isn't about the yen. I just wanted you to lay down with me because ..."
She trailed off because she couldn't think of a way to end the sentence.
She just wanted him there. With all her heart, she wanted to feel him near
her. She knew what the words for that were, but if she said them she was
afraid she'd scare him away.
 "I'm sorry this is so weird," she said instead, trying to keep her voice
from breaking. "I'm sorry I'm a monster and I'm sorry you're having to feed
me and wipe my ass and sleep on a damn cot. I'm sorry, but I'm also so ... so
grateful to you. That you would say those things for me, that you would lay
down next to me even th- ... even though I don't have a face."
"You've got a face," he said quietly. "And there's nothing wrong with it.
I'm getting better at reading your expressions. As for the rest, I won't
dignify it, but there's one thing you should know and I don't want you to get
upset when I say it."
She chuckled, though she did so gently, and said, "Wow, if that's not a
loaded gun, I don't know what is. No promises, but fire away."
"I'm going to put off the therapy. I don't trust Grace, or anyone else, to
care for you, and until you can take care of yourself I'm not going to leave
you alone," he said, saying it all in a rush as though afraid she'd interrupt
him.
She thought about that a moment, realized that while it hurt that he was
putting off the procedure that would let her have him, his reasoning was
sound. After what Tayra'd just heard, she didn't trust Grace either, and she
couldn't defend herself if the gargoyle did something unexpected.
So all she said was: "Okay."
They lay together for a moment that seemed to stretch, and she didn't
want it to end. Inevitably it did, but not in a bad way when he asked, "How
do griffins kiss?"
"We don't," she said, the one eye she could see him with finding his
gaze and locking on.
He rolled his eyes and said, "I know you don't kiss, but, I mean, is there
an equivalent?"
"If there is, I've never seen or done it," Tayra said. "Why, you want to?"
"Yeah, I do."
"Well, I do have lips, you know."
The bed shook a bit with his silent laughter, then he said, "Is that the
yen talking?"
"Not ... really. I mean yeah I'm horny as fuck right now because you're
right there, but to be honest, I've always been kind of a closet perv. You
don't mind?"
"Nah. I think it's hot."
 "Good, because once I'm barely healed enough to move without
breaking or tearing anything you're going to have to up your diet a few
thousand calories a day to make up for what you burn with me."
The bed shook again, and she watched as he shifted onto his side, facing
her. He left his hand under hers, but she gasped softly when he placed his
other on her stomach.
Just the fact that it was his, and that he'd consciously, knowingly
reached out to touch her made her thighs tense, which hurt, and did things
inside her that made tears threaten her eyes.
"Does it bother you when someone rubs against the direction of your
fur?" he softly asked.
"I'm not a fan, then again I can't say anyone's really ... I don't know,
petted me before? Griffins don't invite pets."
"I don't know. I think your fur is soft. It feels good to run my fingers
through it," he said, and she noticed a lazy smile on his face as he glanced
down at his other hand as it began drifting over her belly.
Her breath started to come a little faster as his fingers went lower, and
she barely registered the words when he said, "You don't have a bellybutton.
I mean, why would you, you came from an egg, but still. That's so cool. Just
an unbroken line straight ... down."
As he said the last, his fingers reached her mons and her breath hitched
in her throat. She wanted to say something, to warn him, but she couldn't
manage it because her senses were so overwhelmed. Every ounce of her
attention was centered on his hand, which wasn't on her belly anymore.
"I know griffins have a really good sense of smell, but even as a human
I can smell how horny you are right now," he murmured, and her gaze,
which had lost focus, sharpened on him again.
His expression told her everything she needed to know about what he
was about to do, and all she could manage to say about it was, "Please ...
please!"
She hauled in a deep breath that hurt her chest. Her fingers slid through
his on the hand she still had covered, and it was only the pain that kept her
talons from ripping through the bedsheets as she felt his fingers glide over
the puffy folds of her labia. The slick sound mingled with her quiet moan as
she gasped, "Oh fuck ... Tony. If you put even a finger in right now I'll-!"
He did, and she did.
 The pleasure was mixed with such unbelievable pain that she whited out
and couldn't really enjoy the orgasm.
When she came to he was still there, laying right beside her. As she
focused on him, she watched him licking the juices from his fingers as he
gazed steadily at her.
"Feel better?" he asked.
"It's a mixed bag. Physically, I feel worse. Everything hurts, but the
horny isn't so bad," she admitted. "Emotionally? I feel like I just won the
lottery. Why did you do that?"
"I just wanted to," he said, frowning thoughtfully. "I didn't mean to hurt
you."
"Tony, you didn't hurt me. That's the very first time someone else
touched me sexually just because they wanted to."
"First time sexually?" he asked.
She watched his expression carefully, but saw no judgement there, nor
had there been any in his tone.
She said, "I told you: I've always been horny. I used prostitutes twice.
After the second time I gave up on it, but it's something that happened.
Some people can enjoy them, but if there's nothing but money and skill
involved I'd rather just save the money and do it myself."
He snorted and shrugged as he said, "I suppose that's fair. I won't lie, I
had my fair share of one-night stands, but it got old. I wanted a connection
that would last for more than the moment, you know?"
"Boy, you got it," Tayra said, then chuckled wryly. "At this point you
could shoot me and I'd blame it on the rain."
"Well that's not healthy-"
"No it isn't, but it's what I feel, and I don't think even after the yen
settles down that'll really ever go away. I want to make you happy, Tony.
More than anything right now I want to do that for you, because you're
doing it for me and I want you to feel what I feel."
He waggled a finger at her wrecked body as he said, "Minus the ...
monumental beat-down one would hope."
She ground her beak, but it was faint as she growled, "Yes, ass. Though
I'm not going to lie, you will probably suffer some bruising, because our
first time will not be delicate. It will not be gentle. I want you to fuck this
pussy like it owes you money."
Tony made throat noises trying to stifle a laugh.
 She deliberately narrowed her eye at him as she said, "What's funny is
you think I'm kidding. I don't care if it's so good I pass out, I want your
balls-deep cock to be what wakes me up again."
"I have to say I don't think I've ever met a girl who was quite so open
about what she wants, but I can't say I hate it either," Tony said as he shifted
to put his head on his hand. It pulled that hand away from her grip, but he
slid his other down to hers and intertwined their fingers again.
"It's hard being the quiet one," she murmured. "Especially when my
needs are so loud. I don't want to be quiet with you. I want you to know
everything about me."
"We'll get there. No reason to rush."
"You mean aside from the fact that I really want you to get me off
again?" she asked. "Aside from the fact that I can barely think about
anything else? It might even be worth the pain just to not have to wait
anymore. Would you do that for me if I asked you to?"
She watched his lips compress, then he sighed and said, "I can't say I'd
be into that. Knowing I'd be causing you so much pain and that you couldn't
do anything about it kinda kills the appeal for me. I'm not that sort of man."
Tayra nodded slightly, that being all she could really manage, and said,
"I get that, and I wouldn't ask you to. I don't think I'd have fallen for a man
who could like that. It just ... hurts. It's an ache, deep inside me, and it
doesn't go away. It's an itch I can't scratch."
She closed her eyes and took the deepest breath she could, then let it out
slowly as she said, "But I'll wait. I know you won't leave me and that ..."
Her voice broke and she waited, took another breath, then sighed, "That
means everything to me."
"Get some rest. When you wake up, if I'm not in the room, just call my
name and I'll come running," he said as he leaned forward and kissed her
beak, just behind her nares.
She didn't open her eyes or acknowledge him as he rolled off the bed to
his feet because she knew she'd say it if she said anything at all.
He wouldn't leave her. She knew that, so there was no need to say it, no
need to risk anything.
As the door closed behind him, tears streamed into her feathers.
He'd kissed her ... but she couldn't kiss him back.

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 TONY

T en days later , Tony was sitting at his dining room table across from
Chief Inspector Gutiérrez and a doctor sent from Mercy who specialized in
animalistic non-humans. Tony had looked into the man, and it turned out he
was really just a veterinarian who'd also gotten a doctorate in human
medicine.
His name was Doctor William Murty, and he was a big ginger with a big
nose to match his bushy thick eyebrows. At the moment, he had his hands
clasped together as he sat pensively, gathering his thoughts. The chief
inspector had just asked him for his prognosis, and they were all waiting for
his reply.
At length, he sighed and said, "Honestly, I don't have any idea why, but
I can tell you that she's dying, and not from her initial injuries. Those have
either healed or nearly so. Her body seems to be cannibalizing itself.
According to her last weigh-in at the hospital a few weeks ago, she's lost
close to sixty pounds."
He paused, then took a look at the datapad laying next to his hands as he
continued. "Her bloodwork comes back as typical for a griffin. She's got no
foreign agents in her body nor any detectable chemicals. There's no
evidence of radiation poisoning. She's just ... dying. I could run more tests,
but honestly there'd be no point. You've told me she still has a healthy
appetite. She's eating and drinking and her stool and urine samples don't
have anything unusual in them. If there is some kind of external factor, it
has nothing to do with the science we know."
 "Thank you, doctor. That'll be all," Jaime said, and Tony watched
silently as the man ran his hand through his bushy hair before picking up
his pad and walking out the front door, closing it gently behind him.
Tony's heart felt frozen in his chest as he stared at that closed door. No
matter how gently it closed, it was still shut, and it felt like an omen.
He turned back to the chief inspector when the man said, "Grace is set
up in a new location. It's best if I don't tell you where. Tony, this is a
problem."
"No shit," he dully said. "She's my partner, she's dying, and I have no
idea why."
"It's worse than that. Have you been watching the news?"
Tony looked up at Jaime, then slowly shook his head and said, "Not for
the last week."
"Six non-human recruits joined the NHIC, Tony. Of those six, only
Tayra still lives."
"I heard about the one out in Rustau. What happened to the others?"
Tony asked. He wasn't truly interested in the answer, but since Jaime was
obviously going somewhere, Tony felt obliged to ask the obvious question.
Jaime pulled his phone out, opened it, then slid it across the table
toward him as he said, "Do you recognize this?"
Tony was looking at a suit of very high-tech armor. It was matte black,
with red piping. He shook his head slowly and said, "I've seen similar suits,
but never one that looked quite that slick. Looks like a Dyne model."
"It is, though Dyne has refused to give us the exact specifications
because according to them the model hasn't been put into production yet
and is still under military contract. This ..." Jaime tapped next to his phone.
"Is a prototype."
"So someone wearing this is killing our people?" Tony asked, looking
back up at Jaime, who nodded.
"The rags are calling him the Black Knight, for obvious reasons. I have
no idea how he's getting this armor through the sensors at the city barriers,
but he's been seen in Oolytau, Rustau, Daytau proper, and Subtau. That's
where the latest killing happened."
"How have we not subpoenaed everything from Dyne?"
"The military is blocking us. The mayor's the only one who could sign
off on an IP order but he won't do it — not in the middle of an election it's
beginning to look like he'll lose. Dyne is a huge donor, and they're claiming
one of their prototypes was stolen. Apparently, we're welcome to take it
apart if we can apprehend the criminal. Essentially they want us to do the
work of cleaning up their mess."
"Or they're testing their prototype against the NHIC's new monsters,"
Tony said grimly.
"Keep that thought under your hat, but don't dismiss it," Jamie said.
"For now, don't make your problem any bigger than it has to be. I have
detectives working the Dyne angle. You need to figure out what's going on
with Tayra and fix it. We always hate losing agents, but someone is making
a statement against us this time, a statement that only ends one way. We'd
rather that not happen. At this point it doesn't matter what kills her, only
that she dies. Tony."
Tony focused on the chief inspector, who said, "This isn't a medical
problem. If it were, we'd have found out just now. Something else is going
on. Talk to Tayra, talk to whoever you can. That griff out in Bartau maybe,
but whoever. You've got my authority to go anywhere, and if it's money,
here."
Jaime pulled a black card from his coat pocket and set it down on the
table between them as he said, "That's connected to a city account. Use your
best judgement."
"I'm not a detective, Jaime. I have no clue what to do here," Tony said.
"No one is more invested personally in Tayra Manes' survival than you.
She can eat on her own at least, which means she can pull a trigger, and
there's no one here to bother her. Do your job, Corporal, and maybe you'll
make detective."
Tony chuckled dryly as he pulled the card in and slid it into a pocket as
he said, "All right. I'll start with the griff out in Bartau. I have her number.
If she doesn't pay off I have one other lead I can chase down."
The chief inspector nodded and stood, then offered his hand.
Tony got up and took it, and met the other man's eye as Jaime said, "For
me this is political. I have seen more NHIC agents die over the course of
my long career than I care to admit, and I'd be lying if I said I'd shed a tear
over Tayra Manes. For you, it's personal. Don't shame us, Tony, but get the
job done. We serve the public trust, but we also require it, which means we
have an image to maintain. This Black Knight cannot be allowed to score
points against the NHIC without reprisal. Tayra Manes survives, then we
move to crush the marker against her. The Morgan brothers have been on
my shit list for a long time, and this is the perfect excuse to wipe their
organization out ... but it all starts with you, and with Tayra. Make it
happen."
"Yessir."
For the second time, he watched as his front door gently closed, then
stood still at the boundary between his dining and living rooms, frozen.
"You look like he just sentenced you to death."
His head turned as though on a rusty hinge. Tayra was leaning against
the wall, looking at him out of one eye with her head tilted down, and the
only thing he could think of in that moment was about how wasted she
looked. Even the fact that her cyberware adjusted to her new size couldn't
disguise how much she'd lost.
"How do you feel?" he asked, knowing it was a stupid question but
having nothing else.
Her head wobbled as she closed her eye for a moment, then opened it
again as she said, "I've been better. You want me to call Nadine?"
"Yeah. I have a feeling if I call her she'll want to tear my head off."
"I don't see why. This isn't your fault," Tayra said as she pulled her
phone from her pocket.
"You were listening?" he asked as she dialed.
"Not really. But I know the look the doctor gave me, and I'm the one
living in this body of mine. I heard the last little bit, and I'm sure the chief
inspector saw me on his way out the door. I wasn't hiding," she said as she
put the phone on speaker and let it ring.
It was the middle of the morning and Tony had no idea if she would
answer or not, but on the third ring the phone picked up and in a rush
Nadine said, "Hey! You know I've been waiting for you to call! How are
you?"
"Dying, thanks. Calling to see if you might know why. And don't worry
about what's said on this line. We have a blank check from the chief
inspector. Apparently, he really wants me to pull through," Tayra said
wryly.
"Are you still with Tony?" Nadine asked.
"Yes. There was a dust-up after we left, and I wound up in the hospital.
That's a long story, but at the end of it I was beaten to within an inch of my
life. That's ... better, sort of, but I've lost sixty pounds, Nadine. My body is
eating itself. The doctor says I haven't got much time left and we have no
idea why. All the metrics say I should be healthy."
"Has he fucked you yet?" Nadine asked.
"Did you miss the part where I was beaten to within an inch of my life?
No, we haven't fucked. He spent most of the last ten days feeding me with a
pair of tongs and emptying my bedpan."
"Put him on the phone."
"He's right here, you're on speaker," Tayra said, her eyes flicking back
up to him.
"Tony, this is your fault! What in the hell are you doing!? You need to
fuck that girl! Are you stupid? She's literally dying because you won't do
the deed!"
Tony just blinked, staring at the phone, then up at Tayra, who was
looking at him with pinpointed eyes and sharply tucked feathers. He
glanced at the phone again as he said, "You're kidding."
"Do I sound like I'm kidding!?" Nadine shrieked so loudly that the
phone speaker cut out before it blew out. "This is magic, not science! She
picked you! You agreed! Finish what you started! She'd probably be dead
already if she weren't so damn big to begin with! Now I'm going hang up
before I wind up in Iso for threatening a police officer. Tayra, you picked a
moron after all!"
And then she hung up.
Tony stood staring at Tayra, speechless.
"She's serious," they said simultaneously, Tayra with wonder in her
tone, Tony with incredulity.
"This is a problem," Tayra added a moment later. "I mean, your initial
treatment wore off days ago."
Tony winced and glanced away as he waggled a hand and said, "Yeah,
technically, but I got pills in the interim. So I'm still good. The splicers were
actually really understanding. Kinda weirded me out when I called them
and explained my situation."
When she didn't answer, he looked back to see her staring intently at
him with the air of a hawk considering prey.
"So ... you're still willing?" she asked.
He shrugged and said, "Well, yeah! I've just been waiting until you'd
recovered."
"Now, Tony. I'm not at my best, but I want it now," she said.
 "I don't care what you want, it's going to be gentle," he said. "I cannot
even imagine how I'd write a report that includes the words, 'we had rough
sex and she died.'"
She leaned away from the wall and gripped his shoulders with both
hands. He could feel the prick of her talons at his back and collarbones, but
when she tugged at him he barely felt it, and a little piece of his heart broke.
It was obvious that she'd been trying to yank him toward the bedroom, but
virtually all her once great strength had left her.
Instead, she closed in and put the top of her head on his chest as her
wings draped around them both and she murmured, "Fine. Do it however ...
but Tony, I'm begging you: don't make me wait anymore."
He slid his arms around her hips and pulled her close, kissed the top of
her head, and murmured, "Okay."
She took a deep breath in his arms, then let him go and turned away.
Her wings forced him back a step, but he followed her into the bedroom and
by the time she was halfway to the bed, she was dropping the belt that held
her cyberware controls to the floor.
He glanced down, and swallowed.
Even that magnificent ass he so admired had faded. The curves, the
muscle, it was all a wasted shadow of what had once been. Her fur was dull
and lifeless, and he watched with a lump in his throat as she crawled onto
the bed and dropped her shoulders, wings flaring out to either side before
dropping as she presented herself for him.
It was heartbreaking.
Tony closed his eyes to the sad sight before him and kept them closed as
he stripped off his shirt, then boots, finally his pants and underwear. As he
undressed, he filled himself up with the images he'd stored up of Tayra in
those first days. At the time, he'd thought her little more than a burden or a
responsibility to bear, but she'd proven so much more than that. She was
earnest, hardworking, open and honest. And just like him, she wanted to be
a hero. Together, they could both achieve that dream, and he wanted to
make it happen. She had told him that she wanted to make him happy, but
the truth was that she already had. All he had to do was show her how
much.
So the first thing he did when he got to the bed was reach out, hook his
elbow around her far upper thigh, and sweep her off her knees.
 She landed with a grunt on her side, eyes wide as she stared at him. He
lifted her by the shoulder and gently said, "Move your wings around. This
will be face-to-face."
"But-"
"My way if you want it, Tayra. Face-to-face."
She tilted her head, staring at him out of one eye as she turned her head
down into her shoulder, but she did as he asked, shifting her wing so that
when he laid her on her back it wouldn't cramp.
He had come to know her body well in the week and more he'd spent
caring for her, and once she had adjusted her wings he laid her back and got
on top, looking down into her eyes.
It was a strange sensation, staring into a griffin's eyes with the feeling
that he was looking at a lover. A few weeks ago, he'd felt no kinship with
her, had no sense that she was anything but 'other.' Now, he saw his friend,
his partner, the one he wanted to make happy, and he leaned down and
kissed her gently on the crown of her beak as he said, "I hope you don't
mind me skipping the foreplay, but if this really is what you need, I'd like to
give it to you as quickly as I can."
"You're looking at me," she said in a breathless whisper, as though she
couldn't believe it.
He nodded, smiling softly as he slid a hand over the feathers of her
cheek. "Yeah," he said softly. "And I love what I see."
She wrapped a hand up under his shoulder and he felt her talons as they
hooked over it. She nodded once and said, "Prove it."

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 TAYRA

S he felt something press against her sex, felt it press inside just a little.
Tayra wrapped her other arm over his hip, clutching his ass as she gasped,
"That's not a toy? It's not? Tell me it's not a toy, Tony! Tell me that's you!"
"It's me," he murmured.
"Even face-to-face. Looking at me, you got hard looking at me, and it's
really ... you ..."
She came, but even as she did he grunted and she felt his ass flex hard
under her hand. Her beak opened wide but no sound came out as she felt an
indescribably powerful rush fill her.
The rippling pleasure flooding up and through her body finally tore a
ragged scream from her throat, but her hands loosened and fell from his
body as she lost the strength to keep them there. Her eyes wouldn't focus,
but she saw him, felt him.
He was filling her, and that became her reality. Some distant part of her
knew that this wasn't what sex was supposed to feel like. She'd had sex
before. This was more. This was like a promise fulfilled, like an impossible
wish granted.
The physical component of the pleasure rushing through her body was
tiny compared to the blinding brilliance filling her soul. She had thought the
yen meant that she was made for him. That she was supposed to fall in love
with him and yearn for him, but that wasn't right. She knew that now. She
wasn't made for him.
He was made for her.
 He was the piece of her life that had been missing. Now that she had it,
she was complete.
The brilliance filled her vision even as it filled her mind, then washed
out of her in a wave that left her breathless and gasping.
She had no idea how long it was before she could see again. It was like
living in a moment between, and it seemed to her as though a lifetime of
experience was crammed into that impossible space.
Yet when the light cleared from her eyes, the first thing she saw was
Tony, looking down on her with wide eyes and mouth agape in absolute
shock.
"What? Never seen a girl cum before?" she asked, then paused as the act
of speaking felt ... different.
She reached up and touched her face.
The first thing she noticed when she did this was that she had no trouble
moving her arm. Her weakness had simply vanished. The second thing she
noticed was that her beak was gone, and she pulled her fingers away to look
at them.
They weren't quite human, but they weren't just talons anymore either.
She still had four fingers and a thumb, but they were padded like a cat's.
Her talons weren't as thick anymore, nor as curved, but they were wickedly
sharp.
"What?" she managed, turning her hands over to look at the backs. They
were furred and tiger-striped. She touched her face again with one hand and
reached out with the other to touch Tony's face.
She compared the two.
"My face is like yours," she whispered.
"Only in the loosest sense," Tony managed, still obviously shocked as
he looked down at her.
"What happened?" she asked.
"I don't know. Apparently, you came," he said, giving her an
incredulous, lopsided smile. Then he glanced to one side and nodded that
way as he said, "Have a look."
She turned her head, and blinked at herself, leaning up as Tony shifted
back onto his knees.
Her wings were still there, apparently unchanged, but almost everything
else about her was different. She glanced down at herself, then back at the
mirror as she said, "Wow, I've got tits."
 Tony started laughing and said, "She changes like a freaking
lycanthrope in the middle of sex, and the first thing she notices when she
looks in the mirror is her boobs."
"Well, I've never had them before," she said lifting a hand and giving
one a squeeze. It filled her palm nicely, and she felt a cascade of sensations
that she knew she'd be exploring later.
In that moment, she returned her attention to the mirror. Her eyes had
green irises rather than gold now. Her hair was just past shoulder length and
was mostly black with a few streaks of orange. Her ears were entirely
human-looking, but her eyebrows were made up of tiny feathers.
Her fur was mostly gone from her upper body, though it picked up just
past her elbows and covered her hands, which had pads between each joint
and at the palm. Her flesh was pale, as though she'd never been touched by
the sun. Her old body had been huge and packed with muscle. This one was
muscular — she still had a six-pack which was now completely visible with
her fur gone — but she was not so muscular that she didn't look like what
she was.
A woman.
Her fur picked up again at her hips and her legs were tiger-striped,
though her feet were scaled and capped by thick black talons.
She looked at them for a long moment as she said, "Well, I guess I'll
have to get new footwear. There's no way my old boots will go over those."
Tony shook his head and said, "I don't think anything will go over those
except maybe some rubber caps. Those talons are ridiculous. I thought they
were big when they were on your hands, but that's just ... you could tear
through a ballistics shield with those."
Abruptly she rolled over onto her knees, then breathed a sigh of relief as
her tail, utterly unchanged save that the previously black tip was now white,
wove behind her.
"Afraid it was gone?" he asked.
"I was always proud of my tail," she said as she settled back onto her
haunches and looked at him.
"How do you feel?" he asked.
"Light as a feather, actually," she said, smiling at him.
Her eyes widened and she glanced at the mirror, then back at him as she
said, "I just smiled at you!"
Nodding with raised eyebrows he said, "Yes, you did that."
 "It feels natural," she said, lifting fingers to her lips. "So does speaking.
My throat is different now. I actually need my lips and tongue but ... it feels
like I've been speaking this way all my life."
He pointed idly at her as he said, "This? This right here? It's why our
scientists hate magic. It makes no sense."
She glanced from him to the mirror again and again, then looked him in
the eye as she asked, "Is this okay?"
"What do you mean, 'Is this okay?' You're feeling better, you look strong
and fit. There's not a mark on you, and Nadine isn't going to hunt me down
and kill me in my sleep."
He paused after that last, then looked her up and down as he added,
"Probably."
Tayra reached out and set hands on his shoulders, marveling at how
different it felt with her new, subtly different sense of touch as she said, "I
mean me. Is this ... okay with you?"
"There's no right answer to that question, Tayra," he said, giving her a
quiet smile. "You are okay with me."
She pulled him in and squeezed him hard to her chest, voice quavering
just a little as she said, "I think that was the perfect answer ... Tony? I love
you. Is it too soon to say that? To say 'I love you?' I was scared to say it
earlier but I feel like if I don't say it now I can't say anything else at all. I
love you."
"It's not too soon," he breathed, wrapping her up in warm, strong arms.
"And I won't leave you hanging. I love you too."
Her eyes squeezed shut and she lowered her head next to his. All the
sensations were new. The feelings were raw and undiluted by any sense of
hesitation or fear.
She brushed new lips over his ear as she whispered, "You've had me at
my worst, Tony Platz. Now you'll have me at my best."
Tayra leaned back enough to see his eyes, and noticed their twinkle as
he said, "This is your best? Man ... I was hoping for a workout partner."
She bared her teeth and growled at him, but he defeated her
immediately when he leaned in and kissed her.
Her eyes went wide as she felt his lips on hers, on the lips she needed to
kiss him back.
Unfortunately, the knowledge of how to speak and move in this new
body hadn't come with kissing, and after a moment he caught her head and
pulled her back a bit as he said, "You don't just chew on my lips, Tayra. Tilt
your head just so."
He showed her, then leaned in and she felt the whisper of sensation
across her lips as he spoke.
"If you bite, do it lightly, tug a bit if you're playful, but to kiss is to
share. To taste. Use your tongue."
Her arms slid further around his back as she kissed him a second time,
letting the taste and savor of him sweep her away. Her tongue found his,
slid past, and the feeling was so slick and sensual that she moaned softly
into his mouth as he laid her back.
Her wings spread on their own and he settled over her. She wrapped one
leg around both his and felt him press into her a second time, but she never
broke their kiss.
It wasn't like every time he'd touched her for the past two weeks. She
didn't have an orgasm immediately. There was no burst of physical agony at
the intensity of the feeling. Instead, she felt fulfilled, and was left with room
to want more.
She hadn't realized her eyes were closed until they flashed open again as
he pressed deeper into her. Their kiss finally broke as she gasped, and she
said, "Oh wow. This is ... better."
He grinned teasingly down at her and said, "Better how? I was getting
kind of used to you being a one-pump chump. It was cute."
She bared her teeth again, but only for a second as she settled her
forearms over his shoulders and said, "I didn't get to enjoy that. That was
like getting shot. It was too much, too sudden, and then it was over. Now I
can feel you inside me. I think I can even feel your heart beat as you throb.
That's amazing."
"That's graphic is what that is," he said, leaning down to lay his
forehead on hers. "You really are a dirty bird."
She sucked in a deep breath as he moved, her eyes glued to his, then
gasped, "You have, no right ... to say that buried balls deep in me."
"There you go, making assumptions ... it was a compliment," he said,
grinning easily as he enjoyed the slick heat of her grip. He was settling into
an easy, deep stroke, but that wasn't what she wanted.
Tayra crossed both legs over his and started to pull rhythmically at him
as she said, "I'm not hurt anymore, Tony. I'm not dying. I'm horny, and I
want you to fuck me bowlegged. Save this gentle shit for some other time."
 "I wonder if there's ever going to be a right time for 'gentle shit' with
you," he said as he shifted to slip his forearms under her shoulders, gripping
her that way to keep her from sliding across the bed as he gave it to her the
way she wanted it.
Hard.
Every time his hips collided with hers it sent a heady rush of sensation
rippling up through her body and she didn't have it in her to form words for
an answer.
This was what she wanted. The feel of him rocking her hard,
demonstrating his passion with energy, proving that he didn't just want her,
but wanted her badly.
Her eyes rolled back in her head and she shook with the pleasure of it.
The completely new sensation of her breasts being crushed under his chest
was a spicy accent to the raw, animalistic drive of him as he gave her
everything she wanted.
There was no telling how much time passed but the build up, while not
as violently explosive as it had been the previous weeks, was gratifyingly
quick. As desperately as she had wanted this feeling, as long as she'd
dreamed of having a man do this for her, it was even better than she could
have imagined with a body that actually fit her lover.
Her sex tightened more and more until finally she clutched his ass with
hands and feet and screamed as she came. It was a rippling wave of
absolute bliss that rushed through her and echoed within as she pulsed
around his shaft.
He held himself tight to her, letting her ride it out. When her body began
to relax, he pulled out of her and abruptly flipped her over.
She yelped in surprise, then dropped her shoulders and wiggled her ass
at him, tail arched high over her back as she lowered her wing to give him a
smoldering grin.
Seconds later she was rocking hard, slamming her ass against his hips
and reveling in the way he rode. Tony reached forward and caught her
shoulders, shifting his weight forward a bit to pin her firmly to the bed as he
drove into her.
Tayra's eyes rolled back as she lay beneath him, head twisted against the
pillow as she called to him, spurring him on, begging him for more just to
get him to go a little bit harder so she could feel his strength. His sweat
splashed across her ass and back and every impact rippling through her just
made her want the next.
Abruptly, her body tensed and she cut loose with a vulgar string of
profanity as she came again. In the midst of her climax, she felt a surge of
heat inside her, followed by a second, then more, and rolled one eye back to
look at him, tongue lolling as she showed him her smug satisfaction without
a trace of shame.
With a soft groan, he slipped out of her and sank back on his haunches,
panting. Sweat was dripping out of his hair and off his face and chest as he
gazed at her, and she raised her wing to meet his gaze as she reached back
with one hand and pulled her ass open a bit as she said, "I hope you don't
think you're done."
"It's called a refractory period. Gimmie a few," he gasped, though she
noticed his eyes wandering to her sex and the gooey mess dripping out of
her.
His gaze flicked back to hers as she slipped a hand between her legs,
coated it with their mutual mess, then sucked it from her fingers as she
twisted and reached for him. He didn't resist as she put him on his back on
the bed and mounted him, running her sopping pussy over his shaft with
languid ease as she said, "I'm aware, and I'll be as patient as I have to be,
but you're going back inside me the second you start ... well well. That was
quick."
She smirked at him as she shifted up, her fingers lifting him to the
proper angle before she sank down again. He groaned, "That's cheating! I
hadn't gone down yet!"
"And you won't ... yet," she murmured, settling her hands on his
shoulders and rolling her hips in lazy circles. She stared down at him with a
predatory grin and glimmering eyes. The physical pleasure, great as it was,
paled in comparison to the fact that she had a real partner to share it with.
Tony had done more than just agree to have sex. He had committed himself
to her, and that commitment had given her not one new body, but two.
She had never been so genuinely happy, and she planned to make the
moment last just as long as she possibly could.
The rest of the day, and as much of the night as she could manage,
Tayra planned to work out every ounce of the lifetime of frustration she'd
built up.
 Tony's eyes were closed, his lips parted, and he was breathing hard as
she teased and squeezed him, a completely blissed out expression on his
face that did wonders for her ego.
She slowly leaned in, pillowing her breasts comfortably on his chest as
she gazed down at him, savoring his expression.
When his eyes opened, she simply said, "I love you."
He chuckled and said, "Yeah, I can tell."
Her eyes widened dangerously as he reached up and wrapped his arms
over her hips, then said, "I love you too, Tayra Manes."
She nodded, one eyebrow up as she said, "Yeah ... I can tell. Life might
be more than sex, but that's about all I'm good for today. I will permit you to
get water at some point but other than that, my fine fellow, we are fucking
for the foreseeable."
"I'm glad I didn't get a chance to jack this week," he said with a lopsided
grin. "Sounds like I'll need every bit of that."
"If I ever catch you jacking I will be mightily offended," Tayra said,
giving him a narrow-eyed look, all the while continuing the slow roll of her
hips over his. "I want every single erection you get inside me."
"That's a tall order," he said wryly.
"I'm an ambitious griff. Unless we're in a firefight, I'll make time and
space."
"Are you really that horny?"
"I have been keeping it under wraps for far too long."
"Just remember there's a camera in my office at the precinct. It's still
technically an interrogation room."
"I wonder if they'll-"
"No, they will not give us a copy of the recording. Let's not lose our
jobs over this, yeah?"
She grinned and gently kissed him, then murmured against his lips,
"Okay. Ready to go hard again?"
"You break it you bought it, Tay."
She chuckled softly, then gasped and yelped as he cupped her ass,
squeezed, and gave her more of what she wanted.
It was a good day.

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 TONY

T ony moved like an old man , one hand pressed to his lower back as he
stepped into the bathroom to relieve himself the next morning, though he
was careful to lock the door behind him.
Tayra was asleep, finally, but if she woke up Tony wouldn't put it past
her to try and get him again in the shower. As he turned on the water and
relieved himself, he wondered what Nadine's husband was like. If Nadine
had anywhere near the appetite Tayra did, the man had to be a beast.
"I don't know why I thought she was kidding," he muttered as he
glanced at himself in the mirror. He was a mess. His arms, shoulders, and
hips were bruised. His hips and back also had some shallow cuts from her
claws. His abs and lower back were killing him, and his glutes felt like he'd
just deadlifted a maxed set of twenty ... twice.
She had demanded absolutely everything he had, and he'd given it to
her. It was without question the greatest sexual experience of his life ... but
man was he paying for it now.
Shaking his head, he stepped into the shower and groaned, then hissed
as the hot water stung the shallow cuts and washed the blood away. Once
they were clean he'd touch them up with the first aid kit and no harm done.
They were no more than paper cuts, but if he didn't cover them his uniform
would have bloodspots on it before lunch.
I should probably call the chief inspector, let him know what's going on,
he thought to himself as he lathered up. Not just the CI, but Nadine too.
After the way that call had ended, he wouldn't put it past her to hunt him
down and just ... show up.
 As a member of the NHIC, his address wasn't publicly listed, but that
didn't mean he couldn't be found. One of the hardest lessons for a defender
of the peace to learn was that if someone wants something badly enough
they can usually get it, no matter the precautions taken.
As he pondered that uncomfortable truth, he shut off the shower, flicked
away as much water as he could manage, then stepped out reaching for the
towel rack.
There came a heavy thump on the far side of the door and Tayra's voice.
She sounded amused more than anything as she asked, "Locked, Tony?
Really?"
He took a deep breath, let it out, then opened the door as he raised an
eyebrow at her and said, "I needed a break, and there are some things you
don't need to see me doing, all right?"
She lifted one hand palm up, and he noted that hanging from her index
finger's claw was his first aid kit. She said, "I know exactly what I did to
you. I kinda resent the idea that I didn't get to give you the full aftercare
treatment."
"You passed out," Tony said wryly.
"So did you!" she said, giving him a narrow-eyed look as she brushed
past him and turned the water on again. It took her an extra second to do
that, given her wings. He blinked as feathers brushed past his nose and
almost made him sneeze.
Once the water was running she glanced back at him and said, "It was a
coin toss who would wake up first, but you should have shaken me. We
could have showered together."
"I'm together'ed out at the moment," he said. "Pharmacology will
definitely be involved if we go another round today."
She sighed and said, "I wasn't talking about that. I mean actually just,
together. I wanted to wash your back, and you will let me touch those cuts
up. Just give me five minutes to shower."
"A woman done with a shower in five minutes?" he asked.
"You're forgetting I went through the academy same as you," she said as
she slid the door closed.
Tony always wore a sports watch, and he made a point of lifting it and
starting the timer.
When she heard the beep Tayra gave him a 'really?' look, then pressed
her ass briefly against the glass. He looked, and gave her an approving nod.
 At about four minutes and fifty seconds she asked, "How'm I doin' on
time?"
"Ten seconds."
"Hm."
She hummed and kept right on going, obviously not anywhere near
done. At somewhere just past the nine-minute mark she shut the water off
and stepped out, giving him a look as she said, "Towels are behind you."
He stopped his timer and flipped her a big fluffy towel. As she took it
and began drying off she said, "Just because I can shower in five minutes
doesn't mean I will. We have nowhere to go. And besides."
She grinned at him.
"I think you enjoyed the extra few minutes just as much as I did."
Since she'd been soaping up in a very deliberate manner and he had
been paying very close attention, he just shrugged and said, "Yeah, I'll cop
to that."
She winked at him and wrapped her waist with the towel as she said,
"It's so weird not having fur on my upper body. Getting dry is a cinch now."
"Your wings are still dripping all over everywhere," he said.
"Ah, they don't count," she said, waving a hand dismissively as she
flipped open the first aid kit. "Come on over here and let me have a look at
those cuts."
She knelt on the fluffy mat just next to the shower and he let her dab
antiseptic cream on the cuts as she said, "I won't ask you how you feel, but I
will ask: Was it worth it?"
"Yeah, you're worth it," he said, tracing one of the orange highlights in
her black hair. "You're not still sex-crazed, are you?"
She raised an eyebrow, then leaned forward and very deliberately kissed
his cock as she said, "I could go again, and I suspect that'll never not be the
case, but the need isn't painful anymore or at least, not now. We're in new
territory here so I have no idea what long term looks like, but right now I
just think you're all kinds of hot and that you're the only one for me."
She got up off her knees and slid naturally into his arms. The kiss was
lingering and soulful, and when it broke she looked into his eyes, her own
green and faintly reflective, but beautiful all the same. She said, "I love you,
Tony Platz."
"I love you too. But it's almost noon, I'm starving, and we've got shit to
do. If I don't let Nadine know you're alive she'll-"
 "I'll call her. You just call ... whoever you need to on the NHIC side of
things."
Her eyes shut and she shook her head as she said, "I don't ... think I can
make that call. Not after what happened to Sergeant Yearly."
Tony nodded slowly and set a hand briefly on Tayra's shoulder as he
said, "Yeah ... I heard. We'll get this Black Knight dude. The CI's got his
sights set already, and Jaime Gutiérrez has a reputation. He doesn't let this
sort of shit slide."
"I want him," Tayra said, passion blazing in her eyes as she opened
them again. "I want him bad, Tony. I want to tear him limb from limb
myself."
"As long as he goes down, I don't care who does it. Revenge isn't why I
took this job," Tony said, his hand dropping away. "Keep your head on
straight. We're the good guys. We're a team, and I'm not talking just you and
me."
"Someone else gets him and I'll accept it, but I want him, and that won't
change," she said, watching him as he slipped out of the bathroom and
grabbed his phone off the dresser.
He didn't want to continue to press her because honestly, he wanted a
shot at whoever the Black Knight was too. He was just being a bit more
realistic about it. There was a manhunt on. He and Tayra were just two in a
whole city full of police, and as long as the man was caught, it was their
victory.
Tayra hadn't said it, but she had more immediate problems in the form
of the brothers Morgan.
Tony unlocked his phone and called Jaime, shaking his head at the fact
that he had the chief inspector of Daytau's private number in his contacts
list. He wasn't surprised when, moments later, the call went to voicemail,
and he left a succinct message explaining the current situation. Thirty
seconds later, he hung up and glanced over in time to see Tayra walk past
him and right out the bedroom door, still naked.
Bemused, he followed and watched her step out onto the back porch,
where she spread, then violently flapped her wings. Water misted the glass
panes of the sliding door, and he gave her a quirky grin as she turned and
stepped back inside.
"You did notice that the house on the other side of that fence is two
stories, right? That they can see into my backyard?"
 "If your neighbor saw me, he can be jealous of you all by himself," she
said, giving him a haughty look as she cocked a hip and set her hand on it,
posing boldly as she looked him up and down.
"That neighbor happens to be a woman," he said wryly.
"Even better. She can be jealous of me," she said, then added, "And my
wings aren't dripping wet anymore."
"No, and while I don't mind you wandering around naked, we're going
to have to talk about you leaving water trails all over my house," he said,
grinning.
She laughed and stepped up until she was cheek to cheek with him,
tilting her head a bit as she said, "Don't you mean, our house?"
"Moving pretty fast to claim territory there, Tayra."
"I've already claimed you. The house is just part of your baggage," she
said, touching his nose with one of her claws before slipping past him.
Tony blinked as he watched her go, then had to concede that she had a
point. Tayra wasn't just a girlfriend. They'd skipped most of the process. It
wasn't as though they'd proceeded from a first kiss to a first night together
to an exchange of keys over however many encounters. With a non-human,
there was no such thing as a casual hookup. He'd said yes and was slated to
have his code changed. That was a 'no refunds, no exchanges' sort of deal.
"You could at least pretend you're still aware of my personal space you
know," he called after her.
"I could, but I won't. You don't have personal space anymore, Tony.
You're mine," she called back from the bedroom, then added a moment
later, "Where's my phone?!"
"It's charging out here on the counter," he said after a quick glance
around. "I thought you had eagle eyes!"
"Hawk eyes, which are now apparently tiger eyes. I'm not used to the
differences yet," she said as she stepped out again — still naked — and
picked her phone up off the counter.
"What are the differences?" he asked.
"I can see perfectly well at night now, but I've lost the color red," she
said, glancing over at him. "I can't focus on more than one thing at once
anymore either, and I can't see as far."
"If you don't have full color vision, that's a problem," he said.
"Somewhat," she said, "but not as much as you'd think."
 Before he could question that, she held up her phone, using it to draw
his attention. She then blinked, then frowned as she stared at it.
"What?" he asked.
She rolled her eyes, then met his as she flatly declared, "My fingerprints
have changed. So have my eyes. Get on your phone; I'm going to need a
code from the city database to get back into this damn thing."
Chuckling softly to himself, Tony opened the relevant page on the
NHIC intranet, then handed the phone over and watched in amusement as
Tayra — obviously being very conscientious about her very sharp claws
— worked her way through the prompts to prove she was who she said she
was, then got a code to unlock her phone, which had been issued to her by
the city.
"Remind me not to lock this thing before I reset my biometrics when the
call is done," she said as she dialed and put the call on blast.
As it was ringing, he said, "We'll have to go to the JC to get your
biometrics adjusted city-wide. You get out of a vehicle or land in the
parking lot of the Oolytau precinct without me and the sentry turrets will
probably gun you down."
She gave him a wide-eyed look, then nodded.
Oh well, small price to pay, he thought, and let it go for the moment.
He leaned against the wall, folding his arms and grinning idly as the
phone rang, then picked up and they heard Nadine say in an exasperated
tone, "Well?!"
"He fucks like a champion," Tayra said.
"Yay! Finally! Woohoo! Is he there?" Nadine asked.
"Yeah, he's listening," Tayra said, giving him a wry smile.
"Took you long enough!" Nadine called out.
"Yeah yeah. She beat me up pretty good too."
"I'll bet," Nadine said, sounding smug. Then she added, "Did you let her
take care of you afterward? She'll get pissed at you if you don't. Aftercare is
almost a fetish of mine and I'll bet she's the same way."
Tony met Tayra's eyes as she wryly said, "He locked me out of the
bathroom while he took his shower."
"Dick move," Nadine said.
"Right?" Tayra said, her eyes never leaving his until he rolled them,
deliberately breaking eye contact.
"I let her in when she knocked," he said defensively.
 Nadine shot back, "Good thing too, or she'd have broken down the
door."
"She'd better not, she lives here now too, you know."
"Just do yourself a favor and leave the doors open from now on. It took
a while for me to teach my husband that lesson, but think of it this way:
toilet seats down, doors open, and don't expect privacy."
Tony and Tayra both burst out laughing at that one, but Tayra said,
"She's not wrong! So anyway, Nadine, you ready for this? I didn't just grow
tits. I shifted."
"Shifted how? You mean like a lycanthrope?" Nadine asked.
"Sort of. I look almost human now," Tayra said excitedly.
There was a noticeable pause, then Nadine asked, "Wow. Really?"
"She's not as close as she thinks she is. Her lower half is still fuzzy, her
feet are what have the talons now, and I fear for my flooring. She's also got
feathers for eyebrows. Her arms up to about halfway to her elbows are still
furred and tiger-striped, but the rest of her is skin," Tony said.
"Hair?" Nadine asked with sudden interest.
Tayra answered, "Black with orange highlights."
"Wow, I have got to see this. Send me a picture!"
"She's naked," Tony said.
"Even better!" Nadine shot back.
Tony raised his eyebrow at Tayra, who shrugged and handed him the
phone. He opened the camera app and Tayra cocked a hip and half spread
her wings as she gave him a winsome smile. He snapped a photo and
handed the phone back to her. A few moments later Nadine said, "Damn,
woman. Yer hot! This is great! Once word this kind of transformation can
happen for a griff gets out it'll be a lot easier for others to find human
mates!"
Tony opened his mouth, but before he got a word out Tayra said,
"Nadine, don't you dare make that picture public! I'm still a cop!"
"I wouldn't dream of it, honey. I'm just excited is all."
Tony's phone started ringing, and he picked up and held it to his ear as
he said, "Yes, Inspector?"
"Report to the Justice Center immediately. Bring Tayra with you.
There'll be an appointment waiting at security."
Just that, and Jaime hung up again.
 "What's going on?" Nadine asked, having obviously heard the phone
ringing.
"We need to go, Nadine. Duty calls," Tayra said as she looked into his
eyes, clearly intuiting the message.
He simply nodded.
"Keep in contact! I wanna see both of you again soon!" Nadine said
gleefully.
"Count on it," Tayra said, then hung up as she looked at him and asked,
"Was that CI Gutiérrez?"
Nodding again, Tony said, "We need to report to the JC."
"When?"
"Now."

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 32

OceanofPDF.com
 TAYRA

T he ride from the house to the JC was more comfortable than usual, owing
mostly to the fact that while her wings were still present, they were a bit
easier to manage. She couldn't fold them over her shoulders like a gargoyle,
but she could now at least let them sprawl to either side as she sat in the
middle of his back seat.
Tony had grumbled about not being able to use his rearview mirror, but
it was good-natured and not a real problem as — like virtually every vehicle
on the road — his jeep was fit with cameras.
Her new body had a slimmer profile which made it easier to maneuver
in the tight space. Being enclosed didn't bother her nearly as much as it used
to either, though her greatcoat now fit her as though she'd stripped it off a
vagrant twice her size. She'd had to tighten her speedsling all the way down
to get it to sit right.
When he'd asked if she wanted the top down, she'd told him honestly
she didn't mind, and as they merged onto one of the superhighways that
would take them from the suburbs of Daytau proper into the downtown
area, she leaned forward and asked, "So he didn't say anything but show
up?"
"Just that," Tony said with a nod, neither taking his eyes off the road nor
his hands off the wheel. Apparently, for whatever reason, he'd chosen to
keep manual control of the vehicle.
She watched him a moment, saw his eyes flicking around, then asked,
"You worried?"
 "A little. This is the first time you've been out in the open since you
were brought to my place."
"I look completely different," she pointed out. "No one is going to
recognize me."
"Are you telling me not to be paranoid?" he asked.
She thought about that, then nodded and said, "Not saying take a nap on
the way in, but at least relax a little bit. You're making me nervous."
He glanced at her in the rearview and said, "Doesn't look like it."
"That's because I'm still riding high from getting so thoroughly laid,"
she said, grinning teasingly at him.
His eyes flicked up as he shook his head, but he was smiling as he said,
"Yeah fine. I have to say I miss that magnificent ass of yours though."
She quirked a brow at him and said, "The butt I've got now is quite
excellent thanks, and if trading some ass for the ability to smile at and kiss
you is the worst of the demon's deal, well, I can't say I got the raw end.
Besides."
She leaned in abruptly and pecked him on the cheek, then said, "You
haven't seen everything yet."
"I haven't?" he asked, giving her a curious look.
Tayra just shook her head and said, "No. But the rest will have to wait
until we're done with whatever the CI wants. What I have to show you
needs time and space."
"I sense a theme," he said, eyes once more on the road.
"I'm not talking about that."
"Uh huh."
"I'm not! Really!"
"Well I am, and speaking of, we need to lay some ground rules," Tony
said. The sober note in his voice grabbed her attention and she lost her
smile as she nodded, looking at him.
"All right?" she asked.
"No PDA in uniform or on the clock," he said. "We're professionals and
we absolutely cannot go around acting like we're exceptions to the rules."
"But we are exceptions!" Tayra said, annoyance flaring to life. "It's not
like everyone won't know anyway. I mean, if nothing else my
transformation will give away that something big happened. Anyone who
reads the regs can do the math."
 "I don't care. No PDA while we're doing anything even remotely related
to our work. There's a difference between knowing something is so and
having it shoved in your face."
"I want it shoved in everyone's faces! Do you have any idea how much
shit I've gone through to get this?" she asked.
"No, and neither does anyone else, that's the point. You're not about to
put all that pain you went through on blast, so don't put the results on blast
either. You've got me. Whether anyone or everyone else knows it or not isn't
important."
"It's important to me!" she said, resisting the urge to reach out and take
his arm. She wanted to shake him, pin him and get him to look her in the
eye. But he had hands on the wheel so she could do none of those things.
Instead, she said, "It's incredibly important that everyone know you're
mine. I want there to be no doubts. I'm not going to just pretend it's all
professional when we're in public, Tony."
"Fine. We'll get married. I'll wear a ring that proves I'm yours but we
will act professional in public or there will be problems between us," he
said, glancing back at her.
She blinked at him, then tilted her head as she asked, "You did not just
slip that in there like it was part of a negotiation."
"I think I did."
"You chickenshit bastard."
"No PDA in uniform."
"Don't change the subject! You just ruined your proposal to me!"
"Telling me you won't marry me?" he asked.
"If you weren't driving I'd throw you out the window."
"I'm changing my code for you, Tayra. Getting married is way less
serious."
"Changing your code is all about you, Tony. You decided that would
happen. Me being happy about it doesn't mean I had any part in that
decision. But marriage? Marriage is something we decide on, and there's a
process! Do you have any idea how much time I wasted daydreaming about
getting a proposal? And what happens? It's thrown in as a given while I'm
being told not to kiss my man? Tony Platz, I love you but you are a dick,
and you don't have to worry about PDA today."
"If you're really that mad about it, I-"
 "No! You don't get to dig your way out of this hole. You just took me
for granted, and I don't like it," Tayra said as she savagely interrupted him.
"The relationship we have is so far beyond 'professional' that acting like
we're just partners in public is insulting. But just because I'm not human
doesn't mean I don't want to be treated like an equal."
"Says the woman who not more than an hour earlier claimed me and my
house as personal possessions!" Tony said, half-twisting to glare at her
directly for a moment before returning his attention to the road. "This is out
of nowhere, and I had no clues you put any stock in traditional courtship.
This is some left-field bullshit, Tayra."
Tayra didn't answer him and the silence stretched. Well, the relative
silence. The top of the jeep wasn't terribly good at muting the roar of the
wind at the speeds they were going. It was clearly a vehicle designed to
spend most of its time open.
As the minutes and the miles ticked past, Tayra began to wonder if
maybe she'd gone a step too far. She didn't feel any less indignant. The idea
that any self-respecting man would drop a proposal like that was absurd,
but she had claimed him in a way that left no doubts. The fact that he'd be
permanently changing his code and she now had the ability to shift were
proofs far beyond ordinary marriage that they were together for good.
And he has a point, I did claim him and his house, she thought ruefully
to herself. It had never occurred to her that might come back to bite her in
the ass like this.
Just as she was getting ready to offer an apology, Tony said, "Tayra, I'm
sorry. You're right. No man should just ... throw a proposal out there like I
did. You've been living in a human-ruled city all your adult life and the idea
that you wouldn't soak up some of the culture is dumb. Just because there
are physical differences doesn't mean you don't deserve to be treated like a
lady. Forget I said anything. I was thinking of our ... of my professional
future, not our future together. It's my fault, and I'll eat it."
Her resentment bled away, and she said, "It's okay, Tony, but don't lie.
You were thinking of our professional future, and you've been in this game
longer. No PDA in public ... if I can remember. Just ... don't get too upset if
I forget, okay? Just because I changed doesn't mean I don't need you
anymore, or want you any less. But if being 'professional' is what it takes to
do the job with you, then that's what I'll have to do."
 After a brief pause, she flatly added, "And I will forget that other thing.
Don't screw up again."
The roaring quiet lost its tension, but neither said anything more. Tony
drove into the southside of downtown, and fifteen minutes later they were
parked in the underground garage of the JC. His spot had been reassigned,
so he wound up having to go back to the guest section.
The open air lobby echoed with the sound of boots, heels, and
murmured conversation. It was the middle of the afternoon so the light was
somewhat indirect through the high glass that fronted the building at an
angle, but none of the austere grandeur of the place was on Tayra's mind as
she followed Tony, who walked with purpose as he went to a raised central
dais on which sat a substantial circular security station paneled in the same
dark stone as the rest of the lobby.
Above the desk were displays with long lists of appointments, and Tony
scanned them briefly before he passed the security desk itself in favor of the
elevator banks.
When they got there, he turned apologetically and said, "There's no way
we can take the stairs here. The doors are secured and only open to special
authorization, an emergency alarm, or a power outage."
"That's fine. What floor are we headed for?" she asked.
Basement. We'll be meeting the chief inspector in the armory."
"The armory?" she asked as one of the elevators opened.
She and Tony stepped in and he pressed a button and said, "I assume
your new biometrics will be recorded, then you'll have to repass the fitness
tests."
"They're doing that now?" she said, startled. "But, I just got this body!"
"You're an agent of the NHIC," he said with an uneasy shrug. "If you
can't demonstrate fitness at any time, you're subject to suspension."
"But that's bullshit!" she said.
He just looked at her evenly and asked, "What part of the tests worry
you?"
"Draw speed," she said immediately. "My hands are completely
different! I could fit pistol with a modified grip now, but I haven't trained
with one of those."
He nodded, but didn't say anything reassuring, and she pulled her lip in
and began gnawing on it unconsciously before she realized what she was
doing and stopped. Having lips felt natural as long as she wasn't thinking
about it, but the moment she became conscious of them she was reminded
all over again that not just her face, but practically everything about her had
changed. Only her wings felt the same, but even that was an illusion. They
moved slightly differently. They weren't as stiff or strong as they had been
and while she felt confident, she didn't know she could fly with them. It was
one of many things she'd not yet had time to test.
The doors opened onto a white hallway of painted cinderblock. Unit
insignia and award cases broke up the monotony, but she and Tony passed
these and wound up in front of a heavy door next to a security window. The
door had a brilliant red light shining over the middle of it.
As soon as they got within five feet, the light above the door shifted to
green and a heavy buzz sounded as the magnetic locks disengaged and the
door swung open on its own, letting them into a small room. The far side of
the room was taken up by a counter faced with heavy glass similar to what
one might find at a bank, and waiting for them were Chief Inspector Jaime
Gutiérrez and another man that brought a smile to Tony's face.
Tayra watched him step forward and proffer a salute the other two men
returned, then he offered his hand to the new man as he said, "Captain
McCreedy! What are you doing here?"
As he shook Tony's hand, McCreedy nodded toward Tayra as he said,
"Came to see what all the fuss was about. I've looked at her file and ... is
that really Tayra Manes?"
"Yessir," Tayra said as she straightened and proffered her own salute,
which the still silent CI returned along with the captain, who then reached
out to shake her hand.
"You've been causing quite a stir, Officer Manes," the captain said.
"That stunt you pulled with the griff out in Rectau was ... unwarranted, but
I've since learned that was Tony's fault to begin with so no harm done."
Tayra glanced over to see Tony had assumed the stone features of a
recruit, and smiled slightly as she said, "Nevertheless, I apologize. I should
have had faith in the system."
"Well, that's as may be," CI Gutiérrez said as he finally stepped forward,
looking her up and down.
"You need a new uniform," the man noted.
"My biometrics are all off too," she said, then hastily added, "Sir."
Nodding, Gutiérrez said, "Yes, well. We'll be running you through the
gauntlet before we reauthorize you, so get ready for that. Ordinarily we
might give it a few days, but circumstances demand you be fit for duty or
safely out of the way immediately, so that's what we're here to determine."
"I'm ready," she said, not entirely sure if she was lying or not.
"You had better be," the CI said. "Because things are coming to a head
and your partner is going to need your help. Captain, please escort Officer
Manes into the back to get kitted while the corporal and I have a sit down."
"Yessir. Come on, Manes. Let's get your weapons checked with the
quartermaster, then I'll take you back," McCreedy said as he spread a hand
toward the counter, where a female brown-haired human officer was
waiting.
Nodding, she stepped after the man, though she cast a glance back at
Tony, who was preceding the chief inspector back out of the armory.
With a sudden flash of understanding, Tayra knew if she didn't pass the
gauntlet, she wouldn't be told what was going down, and probably wouldn't
see Tony again until it was all over.
Resolve tightened her insides and she gritted her teeth. Somehow, she
had to pass the trials.

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 33

OceanofPDF.com
 TONY

J aime didn ' t say anything as they got back into an elevator and rode it up
to one of the highest floors. Since Tony didn't really know where he stood at
the moment he wasn't about to open the ball, so he kept his mouth shut and
waited.
The doors opened onto a red carpet down a very plush hallway done in
dark woods and trim.
The judges floor.
Tony had never actually been up here, but he knew instantly both where
they were, and where they were going.
Shortly after, the chief inspector opened a door and jerked his head.
Tony walked in with Jaime behind, and the door closed.
The room was an antechamber for the office beyond. To Tony's left was
a sitting area with four plush leather chairs around a coffee table. To the
right was an oversized desk sporting three monitors and several datapads,
behind which stood a very regal looking, very large arachne female.
Her carapace was ruby red with black highlights, and her blonde hair
was done up in a rather severe bun that matched her blouse, which was
highlighted by a sizable sapphire nestled atop a very impressive chest,
though her blouse was done up to the neck.
Bubblegum pink eyes regarded him with a sharp curiosity for a moment
before Velise Drainheart took a step sideways and rapped once on the inner
office door. There was no print on that door, though Tony could still see dim
outlines where the former justice's name had been scraped off.
A moment later that door opened, and Andrew Bremmin stepped out.
 Tony looked him over, noting the slightly hollow look in the man's
otherwise sharp eyes. There was a grim set to his mouth that said nothing
good was going to come out in the conversation to come, and Tony steeled
himself for the worst, not having any real idea how bad it could get.
His only consolation was that he'd done what he could to the best of his
ability and he'd stayed as much inside the rules as was possible, at least for
him. Whatever came, he would take it like a man.
He saluted, but Bremmin waved it away as he said, "Stop that. I'm not
in your chain of command anymore. I'm just some schmuck running for
office."
"He's the future mayor," Velise said in a urbane, sharply chastising tone.
"The salute remains appropriate, and you know better, Andy. Gracious and
friendly."
"Tony knows me better than that, I can cut the shit with him," Andrew
said as he cast Velise an exasperated glance.
With that exchange, Tony felt a little better, and said, "You look like
shit, Uncle."
"I feel like it too, but that's neither here nor there. Elections are what
they are. Sit down, Tony. This might not take long, but you probably don't
want to be standing for it."
Nodding, Tony moved over to the chairs and took a seat with his back to
the outer doors. The chief inspector and — according to Miss Drainheart —
next mayor sat across from him, and Bremmin glanced over at Gutiérrez as
he said, "Tell him, Jaime."
"Good news first," Gutiérrez said with a nod. "The way markers work,
we usually don't get a trace for two reasons. The first is that typically we
don't ever really know the marker was set until it's either claimed or
expired, and the second is once either of those two requirements are met,
records are expunged. In Officer Manes' case, we knew the marker was
there and — fortunately for us — the person who placed it didn't know
enough, or care enough, to give it a short time limit. Without going into the
technical details, we found the record for the marker, traced it back to the
originator and froze the accounts. The marker vanished. There's no longer a
bounty on Tayra's head. That's the good news."
Tony nodded slowly. That wasn't good news. That was fantastic news,
but it was obviously also not the whole picture.
 "The bad news is that what we have won't hold up in court against the
Morgan brothers."
"Ah. Yeah, that's a problem," Tony said. "I know you wanted those two
almost as much as Tayra and I."
"I want them way more than either of you," Gutiérrez said sharply.
"They've been a pain in my ass for most of my time in Oolytau. I wanted
them, but if I left the marker open just to get them I couldn't call myself an
officer of the law. Tayra isn't trained for undercover work and neither are
you, nor did either of you sign up to be targets for the sake of my personal
vendetta. The Morgans will screw up someday, and we'll nail them in due
course. That's not the worst of it."
Jaime paused and took a deep breath, then said, "Captain Harding is the
contractor. He placed the bounty. We're virtually certain that he's also the
Black Knight. He has contacts with the SoF group guarding Rosedale and
in Dyne. His accounts, albeit with some effort to disguise them, were linked
to the marker. He's gone rogue, and he's killed five of the six non-human
NHIC officers we recruited in good faith."
The bottom dropped out of Tony's stomach as he thought about that,
then said, "And he's in the wind."
The chief inspector nodded.
"That day you saw him in the precinct after the Rosedale incident, did
you see the bandage?"
"I noticed it, yeah, but I was too busy getting my ass chewed off to
mention it," Tony said as he thought back.
"Tayra gave him that. He must have known he didn't have long, so he
suspended you and took some personal days. We tracked him to his house
to serve the warrant, but the place was cleaned out. His subdermal chips
were left in a coffee warmer to keep them at the right temperature."
"So, we don't even know if he's still in the city-state," Tony said.
Shaking his head, Jaime said, "We're sure he's still here. The psyche
profile we have on Harding says he doesn't quit. He sticks with a job until
it's done, and he's dead set on making a statement by killing the non-human
recruits."
"Which subcity?" Tony asked.
Jaime spread his hands and said, "We don't know. The suit of armor he's
using can fly. He's been going over the walls, but because his suit has the
proper IFF codes, the guns don't target him. The only place we know he
isn't is Rectau, and we're pretty sure he isn't in Subtau either, though that's
technically possible."
"Why would he throw his career away over this?" Tony asked. "I mean,
I can see a lot of people in the NHIC being up in arms over taking non-
humans, but not enough to turn into criminals."
Jaime said, "Luke lost absolutely everything to non-humans. He's got a
veneer of stone-cold professionalism but his job — first and last — has
always been killing monsters, and that's what he does. The NHIC needs
men like that, much as we don't like to admit it, and he did an excellent job.
Oolytau was the right place for him but circumstances change, and he just
couldn't change with them. I personally had a great deal of respect for the
man, but we serve the people, not ourselves. He was faced with that choice,
and he chose himself. Now he has to pay the price, which is why you're
here."
Tony thought about that for a long moment in silence, then said, "You
want Tayra and I to bait him. I haven't read the news lately, but I'm willing
to bet no one outside this room knows who the Black Knight is yet."
"Two people outside this room know," Jaime said. "The agent who
tracked him down — she's not going to talk — and the judge who signed
his execution order. As for the rest, yes. We want you to bait him, and we
want you to kill him."
"Kill him?"
Bremmin nodded and said, "The NHIC has a reputation to uphold,
Tony. We serve the people. We protect them from monsters. If Luke
Harding's secret comes out, it'll put more lives in danger. If he succeeds, it'll
be even worse. We cannot have our people targeted, no matter who or what
they are."
"What about his day in court?" Tony asked.
Bremmin coldly declared, "He doesn't get one. That's for citizen
civilians. He may be a citizen, but he's no civilian. He was an officer of the
law. He took oaths, gave up rights, to serve the people of Daytau. The fact
that he's broken those oaths doesn't mean he gets his rights back. This man
betrayed the will of the people and the city. All that's left is to serve him the
consequences."
"Is that why you're here?" Tony asked. "Instead of the mayor?"
Velise said, "The mayor would oppose this action, and it is not his right
to know it is being taken. He would waive the oaths by this Harding person
and insist on treating him with 'compassion' because that would garner him
support from the vocal segment of society that hates non-humans with little
chance that others would oppose him as strongly. Humans are weak when it
comes to ideas like mercy and compassion, and often misapply them. Those
oaths are, however, very clear. He, like his military counterparts, is
excluded by those oaths from civilian justice. His judgement and sentencing
are the internal affairs of the NHIC."
Tony's eyes fell from Velise to Bremmin as he quietly said, "So you're
telling me that you'll cover me if I'm the one who carries this sentence out."
"You or Tayra, I'm not picky," Bremmin said quietly. "And yes, I'll back
you publicly if it comes to that. Privately, I want him dead and disposed of.
I'm not interested in scoring political points off a dead Black Knight or
making a martyr out of him. I just want him to quietly go away and know
he will never, ever come back."
"Presuming Officer Manes passes the gauntlet, you and she are the
perfect pair to carry this out," the chief inspector added. "Both of you have
excellent reasons to kill this man. This may sound brutal, but it is part of the
job you signed up for."
"Not so common a part that it's being taken for granted," Tony said,
scowling before he sighed and nodded. "But yeah, I won't say I don't want
him put down for what he's done. I also won't say I think he deserves more
of a shot than he's had. If you assure me that this is the conclusion of the
NHIC at large, then I will do what I have to in order to carry out that
conclusion."
"Do you think Tayra will object?" Velise asked.
Glancing up at her with a raised eyebrow, Tony wryly shook his head
and said, "No. In fact I think she'll be thrilled at the opportunity to take him
out, particularly after she hears Harding was the one who got Sergeant
Yearly killed."
Bremmin nodded and stood.
Tony stood as well, and Bremmin offered his hand as he said, "Bear in
mind that I'm not asking you to break the law, Tony. What you're doing is
completely correct and legal, right down the line. It just won't be popular if
it comes out that you did it. But doing what's right and doing what's easy
are rarely the same thing. Killing this man when he's attacking you will be
easy, but you have to remember we want him dead no matter how that fight
turns out. Even if you can capture him ... don't. That, will be hard. I know,
because I've done the same thing myself, more than once. I'm asking you to
bear a heavy burden, but I feel that you're the right man for the job."
"I can't help but wonder why you made a spectacle of Phillip Man, but
you're keeping this quiet," Tony said as he gazed evenly at the man he
idolized.
Bremmin said, "There's a difference between corruption and betrayal,
Tony. We show the world we don't tolerate corruption. Everyone
understands corruption and no one sympathizes with corrupted people.
Traitors, though? We just make traitors disappear. We don't want their
stories told because there'll always be people out there who 'understand' a
traitor. There's an adage prosecutors have, a question they never ever ask
the accused under oath. Do you know what that question is?"
When Tony silently shook his head, Bremmin said, "'Why did you do
it?' Prosecutors never ask why, Tony, and neither do executioners. We don't
ask that question because we don't care. Sob stories don't matter to us. If
you break the law, you pay the penalty. 'Why' just gets in the way. 'Why' is
for hand-wringers, activists, and politicians. We are the enforcers. The only
use we have for 'why' is if it gives us the motive that gets us our man. We
took an oath to serve and protect the people by upholding their laws — laws
they chose for themselves through due process. If you need more of a 'why'
than that to do your job, you should resign. Remember that."
"You're a hard man, Uncle," Tony said.
"It is a great irony to me that I was given a hard job to do so that people
who thus live in ease can criticize me for the choices I make," Bremmin
said with a dry smile. "You chose a hard road, Tony. But it is well-paved,
straight, and true. Stay on it."
"I will, sir. Do you have a plan for this?"
"Not my job, son," Bremmin said, his smile breaking into an easy grin.
"Talk to your boss over there. I'm just a politician."
Velise sucked her teeth in obvious disgust and sighed gustily at
Bremmin as he turned and snapped, "What?!" at her before stepping around
her legs to get at his office door.
"Oh, sir!" Tony asked as a sudden thought occurred to him.
"What?" Bremmin asked again, this time in a gentler tone.
"Shiro's been in contact with me. Not quite sure what to make of him
but if there's no good plan I may use him. The only thing is ... he asked for
compensation. What does he want?"
 "He's a vampire, son. If you want his help, bring him a pint. If you need
a lot of help, bring him two."
"Okay, is there a specific type of blood he wants, and where would I get
it?" Tony asked.
"Did he offer his services to you specifically?" Bremmin asked, giving
Tony an appraising look.
When Tony nodded, Bremmin said, "Then bring him yours. You can
have it drawn at the blood bank on Sixth Street, two blocks from here. I
promise that's better than letting him take it personally. Brown bag it, and
tell him Andy said, 'Pace yourself, it's the good stuff.'"
Jaime Gutiérrez started chuckling softly as the office door closed behind
Bremmin and Velise turned eyes darkening toward red to him and made an
abrupt shooing gesture at them both as she said, "All right, go away.
Andrew has a press conference in twenty minutes and I have to teach him
all over again how to use the filter between his brain and his mouth."
"I heard that!" came Bremmin's muffled voice from beyond the door.
"As intended!" Velise shot back, turning away as Gutiérrez indicated the
outer door with wide eyes and an urgent nod.
Tony took the hint.

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 TAYRA

T argets sprang into view with a clang. Before the reverberation of that
sound faded Tayra's shotgun boomed once, twice, a third time. The first
shot turned the man-sized target furthest to the right into confetti. The
second was a slug and only tore a gaping hole in the neck of the target in
the center. The last shot was again buckshot, and she'd aimed in such a way
as to catch both her last two targets with the spray. Neither target was
destroyed, but both had holes peppering the kill zones.
A buzzer sounded, but she hesitated an extra second before she checked
her time, dreading what she might see.
One point nine eight seconds.
She didn't even try to hide the relieved sigh as she stared up at the
ceiling in blind relief. The female voice that came through the speakers in
her ear protection was dry as it said, "Skin of your teeth, Manes. Skin of
your teeth. Out of five runs, you have one passing score. If your scores
weren't so good in practically every other segment of the gauntlet I'd
recommend you for retraining. As is ... reluctant as I am to say it, you pass."
Tayra twisted to look back up at the observation window to see
McCreedy giving her a thumbs-up, though he wasn't smiling. Standing next
to him was a severe-looking black human female wearing NHIC gray and
lieutenant's bars. It was she who had administered the gauntlet's many tests,
and she looked even less happy. In fact, she looked pissed, and Tayra got
the distinct impression that she'd just been the recipient of favoritism.
McCreedy had probably told Lieutenant Billings to pass her.
 That was the impression she got, anyway, and it made her feel
miserable.
Since that had been her last test and she'd managed it with only three
rounds, she had a single shell loaded. She cleared the weapon and left that
last round sitting on the shelf of her lane as she turned and walked out of
the practice range. When the door slid closed behind her, and only then, she
took her hearing protection off and hung it up on a hook next to several
other sets of the same. Having ears was a novel experience for her, and now
that she had them she certainly didn't want to blow them out.
McCreedy was waiting for her in the hallway beyond. Billings was
nowhere to be seen, but the report from the test was in the captain's hand as
he said, "Your fingers are sized to qualify for pistol use, so you'll be
expected to master one. Billings passed you, as you heard, but you'll have to
re-qualify in three months rather than the usual six. If you want to get good
enough to pass with a pistol, you'll have to practice every day. You up for
it?"
"Yessir," she said glumly.
"Do you know why your time was up by just over a quarter second on
average?" McCreedy asked.
Nodding, she said, "Strength loss. The weapon's much heavier in hand
now."
"That tracks. According to this, you've lost almost forty percent of your
overall mass, and you've had a commensurate drop in strength. On the plus
side, you not only handily passed the three mile, you set a new NHIC
record for it ... which surprised absolutely no one considering you can use
your wings to practically fly over the course. That said, had you been forced
to run the three mile 'properly,'" Mcreedy paused to put air quotes on that,
"as Billings wanted, I'm pretty sure you'd have destroyed the track in the
process. As you're already aware, you passed the obstacle course — along
with the basic fitness tests — with flying colors even with your decreased
strength. Your partial color blindness is a concern, but since you were still
able to identify the various ammunition types we use with complete
accuracy you'll be granted a waiver. You will, however, not be eligible for
explosives training. Ever."
Tayra nodded, and McCreedy turned the datapad he'd been reading
toward her as he said, "If you understand and agree, certify these results
with a thumbprint, and we'll get you back to your partner. Congratulations,
Officer Manes. You are cleared for active duty within the NHIC ... again."
McCreedy finally smiled as Tayra gave the results her biometric
signature and handed the pad back to him as she said, "Thank you, sir. I'll
work hard to improve my time with both the shotgun and the service
pistol."
"Hedging our bets, are we?" he asked, eyebrow raised.
"I've been told it can take up to a year of diligent practice to master the
fast draw with the accuracy required to pass NHIC tests. Most academy
recruits aiming to get in have already mastered the draw to ensure they don't
fail that part of the gauntlet. I don't want to drop off the roster just because I
neglected skills I already have."
McCreedy nodded with approval and said, "That's fine then. As is,
you'll be expected to maintain and carry the shotgun as your primary duty
weapon until you do pass the speed test with a pistol."
As the two walked toward the elevator bank, Tayra asked, "Sir? Why
did you stay for the test? Why are you the one giving me the results?"
McCreedy didn't answer immediately, but once they were in the elevator
and going up, he said, "You're being reassigned."
"Tony too? I mean, Corporal Platz as well?" Tayra asked, panic hitting
her hard at the thought that the NHIC might separate them now that she'd
gone through the change.
"Much as I think it'd be for the best to split you two up, yes. Orders
from on high say the two of you stay together as long as you're both active
duty. That said, you two no longer have separate service records. As far as
the NHIC is concerned, you two are one officer. You succeed or fail as one
person, period."
"We aren't even the same rank!" she said.
"You weren't the same rank, Corporal. You are now, but don't get cocky
about it. Your promotion is a political stunt, not a matter of merit, and don't
you forget that," McCreedy said, humor once more gone from his tone.
"Because there are a whole host of issues with partners being lovers,
unifying your service record and treating you as essentially a corporation
within the NHIC for the purposes of discipline and career was the only way
anyone could think of to defray some of the fallout ... that, and your
transfer. Once your next assignment is complete, you'll be working out of
the JC."
 "You're transferring me to Daytau proper!?" she asked, knowing even as
she said it that she sounded stupid but unable to help herself.
McCreedy nodded, then held up a finger as he said, "Again, I stress, you
are not being transferred on merit, but of necessity. You and Tony will have
to work your collective ass off if you want to earn respect. Tony has some
of that, but he'll lose most of it when people figure out what's going on with
you two, and that won't take long. You won't be cut any breaks because
you've already used up all the goodwill anyone might ever have had for you
with this ... griffin thing. Shit like this is precisely why we previously didn't
take non-humans, and why the blueboys still strictly segregate their units.
As for me ... I'll treat you fairly, and that's all you can expect. I won't lie:
most of the rest of my officers will not treat you fairly, but you'll still be
better off here than in any of the other departments with the possible
exceptions of Rectau or Bartau, and I think Tony'd quit if I sent him to
either of those two."
The elevator doors opened and McCreedy walked out into a brightly lit
hallway that soon opened out into a cube farm. Tayra noted as she followed
him that there was almost no activity, but she soon discovered that was
because most everyone was gathered in an announcement hall on the far
side of the office space.
Standing next to the open double doors were Chief Inspector Gutiérrez,
and Tony.

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 TONY

M c C reedy dropped Tayra off with Tony and the chief inspector as he said,
"Now if you'll excuse me, I need to do this brief. Speaking of, are you sure
you want me doing it, Chief?"
Gutiérrez nodded toward the crowd beyond the doors as he said, "Yeah,
those are still Uncle Nick's people. It won't do morale any good to hear
from me. Maybe once Bremmin is the mayor, but before that, best let
sleeping dogs lie."
Turning to Tony and Tayra, the chief inspector said, "Here's where I
leave you. Congratulations on recertification, Corporal Manes. Good luck."
As he walked away, McCreedy said, "Wait here until I call for you,"
before walking in and pulling the doors almost closed behind him. Even
with that, Tony noted that the rumble of conversations died away as the
captain walked the aisle.
Tony shifted his attention to his partner and offered a smile as he said in
a low tone, "So you passed, great job."
"I also pretty much got reamed on the way up here," Tayra said,
matching his low voice with a glance toward the doors and the vanished
captain. "He was very very clear that my promotion and transfer were not
deserved. He certainly knows how to take the savor out of a flavor and
speaking of which, I'm starving. I haven't had anything to eat since I got
this body."
"After this we'll grab a bite. Be interesting to see if you've got more of a
sense of taste now," Tony said.
 "I should. My sense of smell is way better," she said. "According to
science, taste and scent are pretty much one sense, right? I'm looking
forward to a good meal. Aside from that, what's the deal?"
"I'll tell you later when we're in private. Suffice to say we aren't out of
the shit yet."
"Do you know they plan to unify our service records?" Tayra asked.
Tony blinked, then said, "Uh, no? How would that even work?"
"Don't ask me. I just hope it doesn't mean they expect the two of us to
live on one corporal's wages."
Tony made a throat noise and shook his head as he said, "Yeah, that's a
non-starter with how much you eat."
She gave him an acerbic look, he shrugged and grinned.
She said, "If you think I ate too much before, I have a rather rude
surprise in store for you."
When he raised an eyebrow, she smiled in an almost predatory way as
she said, "I'll show you later, in private."
"Is this a-"
"No, it's not, and get your mind out of the gutter, Corporal. We're on the
clock."
He gave her an open-mouthed, incredulous look and shook his head as
he waggled a finger at her in complete denial, but she just smirked at him.
They stood in silence for the next several minutes, listening to Captain
Larry McCreedy go through a fairly standard briefing, after which he said,
"And now, two pieces of good news. The first, we're getting our own
Corporal Platz back from Oolytau, plus one. Come on in, Tony, and
introduce your partner."
Tony sucked in a breath and pulled open the door, tilting his head for
Tayra to precede him. He noted as he did so that her greatcoat had either
been replaced or adjusted and fit her properly once more, which was
fortunate, because first impressions were important. She'd obviously
showered after the physical trials, because her hair was still slightly damp,
but it was up in a bun that was all business. She put on a brave face as she
stepped through, wings cocked in an attitude of calm readiness.
He followed her and all eyes in the room were on them as they walked
down the center aisle and turned to face the seated crowd.
Tony raised his voice and said simply, "I'm back, and I'd like you to
meet my new partner, Corporal Tayra Manes. To answer the obvious
questions, yes, she's a griffin, and yes, I'm aware you've never seen a griffin
that looks anything like her before. Since I'm not sure what I'm allowed to
say about that, I'll just say that in the weeks I've been her partner she's
demonstrated competence and a cool head in the field. I hope you'll give us
a chance to prove ourselves."
As he spoke, Tayra assumed a relaxed but not sloppy 'at-ease' posture,
and when he finished she added, "I'll work hard, and if you have any
questions, feel free to ask me when I won't be holding up a briefing to
answer."
There was a soft, distributed chuckle, but it was feeble and most of the
expressions Tony could see were blank. These were people he knew, or had
known. He had friends here, but as he looked out over the dayroom none of
that friendliness was on display. He was left to wonder just how much they
already knew about Tayra, and why she looked the way she looked.
Most notably, there was no applause.
"All right, stand by over there you two. I've saved the best for last,"
McCreedy said as he spoke up again from his place behind the podium.
Tony tilted his head past Tayra and the two stepped aside, then turned to
watch as the captain said, "As you all know, Sergeant Yates has been going
through it recently, recovering both from a very serious wound and other
personal matters. Nevertheless, she's been working hard, and that work was
instrumental in solving a recent problem within the NHIC. Due to her
dedication, contributions, and an attitude that exemplifies everything men
and women in our profession strive for, it is high time we here at the NHIC
recognize her capability with the increased authority it deserves. Sergeant
Yates! Pre-sent!"
He hadn't seen her in the crowd because she'd been near the back and
wasn't a tall woman, but as she stood, Tony's heart tightened in his chest.
Even now, months later, she was still obviously not back to fighting fitness.
He could tell by the way she stood, and only slowly straightened to
attention before moving to the end of her row and marching deliberately to
the front. Her brown eyes never even flicked toward him as she came to
stand at attention facing the audience, and waited in solemn silence as
McCreedy conducted the ceremony of pinning on her bars, then went
through the salute and handshake poses as pictures were taken.
For Yates the cheering was thunderous. Tony joined in, genuinely happy
for her. Tayra clapped politely, and that was fine. She didn't know Laura,
and it would seem as fake as it was if she forced her enthusiasm.
Once the cheering and general mayhem died down a bit, McCreedy
said, "Because Lieutenant Yates is not yet certified to resume full duties and
does not yet have a partner, she will be placed in an operations role. I expect
full cooperation from all of you."
There was a somewhat garbled but very definite, 'Yes sir!' from the
crowd, after which McCreedy dismissed them and waited by the podium for
questions. Laura also stayed, but for her it was to accept handshakes,
congratulations, and well-wishes.
As that went on, Tayra asked Tony out of the side of her mouth, "Isn't
that your former partner?"
"Yep, that's her," Tony said, still watching the crowd.
"I guess now I know who the hair in the brush came from," Tayra said.
"Don't tell me you never looked up her record after I mentioned her."
"I never looked up her record because it was just after that you told me I
had a shot. She flew right out of my head and hasn't been back since," Tayra
said, giving him a wry glance.
He chuckled and nodded as he said, "Yeah, I remember that. You fled."
"I was horny."
"I know that now."
There was a pause, then Tayra asked, "Still got it for her?"
Tony knew he should immediately answer but if he did it would sound
like he wasn't being genuine, so he thought about it as he looked at Laura.
She seemed genuinely happy as she shook hands and exchanged words with
her colleagues, but there were bags under her eyes and she'd cut her hair
almost brutally short. She'd once taken pride in her hair, but even with it
short like it was, Tony could tell she wasn't really taking very good care of
it, or herself. She was going through hell, and it showed to anyone who
knew her. Tony knew, and it hurt his heart to see.
Yet as he looked at her, he recognized within himself only sympathy,
and perhaps a lingering regret not that he hadn't tried harder, but that he'd
ever let himself fall for someone who was never meant to be his.
"No," he said at last. "I don't. She was my partner, and if she wants to be
she'll always remain a friend, but my feelings for her are settled. She wasn't,
isn't, never will be my girl, and I'm fine with that."
"Glad to hear it, because I get jealous, you know?" Tayra said, and
though her words were light, there was something in them that warned Tony
she wasn't teasing.
"I'm a one-woman man, Tayra, and you're it," he said. "Talons, feathers,
fur, food bill and all, so help me God."
"Good enough for now," was all she said.
It was almost ten minutes later when the newly minted lieutenant finally
stepped over to them, offering her hand to Tony, who took it as she said,
"Welcome back, Tony."
"Thanks, LT. And congratulations."
He'd almost called her Laura, but thought better of it at the last instant.
It proved to be the smart move because while she smiled, she didn't invite
him to use her first name. She had already made it clear that she didn't want
more from him, and the professional distance felt right.
Instead, she turned her attention to Tayra and offered her hand again as
she said, "Welcome to the department, Corporal Manes. I'm familiar with
the trouble you've been through since joining the NHIC, but your first arrest
and the way you've handled yourself since speak well of you. I expect you
and Tony to rise rapidly once the last of those problems is settled."
"Thank you, Lieutenant. I appreciate the good word. We'll do our best to
justify the faith that's been placed in us," Tayra said, smiling without teeth
at the other woman.
Tony didn't sense any overt hostility, but felt tension anyway as Laura
nodded and dropped Tayra's hand. She glanced again at him, then turned
and walked away without another word as McCreedy walked over and said,
"All right, Tony. You're done for the day. Get out of here and fill your
partner in on what needs doing, then get it done."
Tony straightened up and saluted. He was followed a second later by
Tayra, and McCreedy did likewise, then offered his hand and said, "I don't
know what exactly it is the chief inspector has you doing, but I do know it's
not picking berries in the park. Be careful."
"I will, sir. Thanks," Tony said as he shook the other man's hand.
"Don't thank me. I'm just doing what I'm told. I won't lie, you're going
to need to become heroes real quick or you won't last long here. You're
breaking new ground, and no one around here plans to make it easy," the
captain said as he glanced meaningfully from one to the other, then turned
and walked way.
No one else approached them, nor did anyone else greet Tony as he
walked with Tayra through cubeville toward the elevator banks.
 "This is the department you transferred to Oolytau from, isn't it? Don't
you know these people?" Tayra asked as they were waiting for the doors.
"Yeah. I know pretty much all of them."
"Do they hate you, or is it me?"
Tony looked at her, then over his shoulder at the now bustling office,
then back toward the elevator doors as he said, "It isn't you. It's us. Whether
we're an allowed exception or not, we're breaking the code, and if we don't
come through the captain's right: we won't last long."
"So what do we do?" Tayra asked as the doors opened and the two
stepped inside.
"Simple," Tony said as the doors started to close. "Be heroes."

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 36

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 TAYRA

"'B e heroes ,' is big talk short on detail," Tayra noted as they left the
elevator and crossed the lobby of the Justice Center.
"Well, I only have a vague idea myself," Tony admitted. "Gutiérrez
essentially told me that we need to find and take out the Black Knight.
That's our job. We get that done and we'll have at least earned our shot."
"The one that's killed every other non-human recruit the NHIC took on?
That Black Knight?" she asked. She wasn't scared of the prospect, per se,
but it did seem a little on the nose to her. Either she got rid of the Black
Knight, or the Black Knight got rid of her. The fact the Black Knight was
after her anyway made it seem like the NHIC didn't really care who won,
and that made her nervous.
Nodding, Tony said, "Yeah, and here in a minute I'll tell you why we
have to be the ones to get the job done."
Catching on that he didn't want to say in public, Tayra quietly followed
him back out to the jeep and once they were in and the motor was running,
Tony said, "It's Luke Harding. The captain's the one that put a bounty on
you in the first place, and when he realized he was about to get discovered
he went on the run. We aren't out to arrest him either. We're out to disappear
him."
Tayra sat very still as she processed that. While it had been fairly
obvious to her that Harding hadn't ever liked her, the idea that he'd go so far
as to attempt to have her murdered, to try and murder her himself, just didn't
compute. She asked, "What makes them think it's him?"
 "The armor he's using is a Dyne prototype and he has known contacts
there and at Rosedale. The account with the money to pay the marker traced
back to him, he's cut out his locator chips, and is on the run. There's no
other reasonable conclusion."
"Okay," she drawled. "So presuming that's legit, why are we out to
'disappear' him?"
"Because the NHIC doesn't want it publicly known that one of their
captains turned traitor," Tony said quietly. "And because of the oaths he
swore to join the NHIC he isn't legally entitled to a trial. He'd turn himself
into a martyr for a cause we'd rather people didn't know existed in the first
place. So instead, we simply make him go away. No trial, no headlines, no
copycats. No one tells a story without an ending, so we just ... disappear
him, and let people get on with their lives."
"In order for that to work, almost no one knows who the Black Knight
is then, and presuming we do get him, we can't tell anyone."
"That's right."
"So how is that going to give us fair shake with the Daytau
department?" Tayra asked.
Tony blinked, then glanced back at her as he said, "You make a good
point. Even the captain doesn't know what we're up to here. Only the chief
inspector, Bremmin, Drainheart, and — unless I'm dead wrong — Laura.
The way McCreedy introduced her, it sounds like she's the one who cracked
his identity. 'Instrumental in solving a problem within the NHIC?' How
vague can you get? So McCreedy doesn't know, but he was told she
deserved props, and probably that she deserved a promotion."
"It sounds to me like we're being given the shit job because even though
it's shady we aren't in a position to say no," Tayra said sourly.
"You act like you don't want a piece of this guy," Tony said, raising an
eyebrow at her.
"Oh I do, don't get me wrong. I want him and I'm glad they're giving us
a chance to get him. But I'm also looking at this as a precedent. While I can
see where the NHIC is coming from on this, I don't want us to wind up as
some kind of internal affairs hit squad, cleaning up the messes no one else
wants to touch."
Tony didn't answer her immediately. She had the impression he was
giving what she'd told him some thought, and those thoughts carried him
out of the parking garage to the stop sign outside the booth.
 As he waited to turn into traffic, he said, "I can't say for sure that won't
happen. I can say it won't be all or even most of our job. I've been with the
NHIC long enough to know that most of the people that work with us are on
the up and up. If shit like this were common there'd be no way to keep it
under wraps anyway."
"Whether that's true or not, if we do this job right it goes toward proving
the opposite point, Tony," she said quietly. "It isn't the 'kill him' part that
bothers me. I'm fine with that. It's the 'make him disappear' part that bothers
me. Why don't we just kill him and turn his body over? He's not going to
tell any sob stories dead."
"It isn't what he might say, it's who he is," Tony said. "That a captain of
the NHIC would disregard his oaths to go after one of our own would
undermine public confidence in us as an organization."
"That's fine, isn't it?" Tayra asked. "Confidence in people and services
goes up and down all the time. If we try and create a false image of who we
are, don't we create false expectations right along with that? No one is
perfect, and neither is anything people create."
Tony sighed and said, "I don't have an answer for that, Tayra. All I have
are my orders. The decision is whether or not to follow them. I'll be the first
to admit that the big brain stuff isn't my thing. I'm a simple man and to me,
making this guy disappear makes sense. We don't want him stirring the pot,
alive or dead. The pot's already plenty stirred as is."
"What happened to being heroes? Doesn't a hero uphold the truth?"
Tayra asked. "Isn't that what you want to be?"
She watched him think about that for almost a full minute before he
said, "I think a hero upholds an ideal. Maybe that ideal is the truth, maybe
it's not. I'm not a reporter. I'm a cop. I didn't swear to uphold the truth. I
swore to uphold the law. You and I both know there are truths we aren't
allowed to make public."
"That's kinda what's on my mind," she said quietly. "Things for us are a
lot harder than they have to be because someone decided to keep those
secrets. Now we're being asked to keep another secret."
"At this point our options are do the job we've been given to do, or
resign," Tony said, glancing up to meet her gaze in the rearview mirror. "Is
this the hill you want to die on?"
It was Tayra's turn to think, and she flexed her back, stretching her
wings one at a time as best she could in the cramped space as she did so.
The visceral desire to expose Captain Harding as a liar and a murderer was
an intensely personal one. Beyond simply killing him, she wanted everyone
to know what he'd done, that he'd been caught and punished, that no one —
not even members of the police — were above the law.
Yet that was already known.
While there were malcontents, most of the citizens of the city-state of
Daytau did have faith in the police. The only civil servants more loved were
firefighters.
So which would do more harm? Revealing a captain as a traitor, or
hiding that fact? Either way, he would die. Tayra wanted to kill him, and
that too was a visceral desire.
The same people who changed the rules for my sake are the ones who
want me to keep this secret, she thought.
"I don't like the fact that this is so complicated," she said after several
minutes of agonizing with no resolution.
"That's why I trust my superiors on this one. You're right, it's
complicated. All I can do is look at the people making the decision and ask
myself if I trust them. I do, so that's what I'm basing my choices on," Tony
said. "I have no idea what the fallout will be either way, and figuring that
out isn't my job. We wouldn't even know Harding was our man right now
without others working that angle. You'd still have a marker on your head
without their help. We don't do this in isolation. We just do our little part of
the puzzle, and leave the other parts to the people best suited to do them."
"Yeah, I get that. It's just a little different when I'm being told to do
something the law isn't supposed to do."
"That's the difference between perception and reality. The law is
supposed to do stuff like this, and anyone who bothers to read the fine print
can see it. We just don't advertise that fact. Full disclosure isn't part of the
deal. There are processes for that, but just like being a witness in court, you
only answer the questions you're asked. It isn't your place to figure out
which questions those should be."
"I don't like it," Tayra said, shaking her head.
"I got that," he said wryly. "The question was: will you do it."
"I hate it, but yes, I'll do it," Tayra said.
"What made up your mind?" he asked, glancing back at her.
She smiled at him as she said, "You."
"Me?"
 She leaned forward and kissed his cheek lightly as she said, "Mmhm. I
don't know Bremmin, and I barely know Gutiérrez. You admitted you don't
have any idea how this will go, but you trust them because you do know
them. I trust you, so ... I'll go along. I realized a long time ago that I'm not
living in a fairy tale. I just kinda hoped we'd get to be the gold-plated good
guys on this one."
He grinned and said, "I think we are. We just painted the gold in gray so
we aren't such easy targets."
She chuckled and rolled her eyes, then said, "So, we find him and kill
him. Easier said than done. We have no idea where he is, or even where to
start looking."
"I've got a plan for that," Tony said as he pulled up in front of a marquee
fronting the street that had a long list of services displayed and touched a
key on the dashboard to begin an automated parallel park.
Tayra glanced from him to the list of businesses housed in the
skyscraper next to them and said, "Okay, I give up. Why are we stopping
here?"
"The guy that'll be finding Harding for us has very peculiar tastes,"
Tony said with a sigh. "And I need to get him a couple pints of 'the good
stuff.'"

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 TONY

"H ow remarkable !"

Tony and Tayra sat next to each other in a spacious booth near the back
of a fairly upscale restaurant in downtown two days after Tayra and Tony
had been given their latest assignment. Tony had asked for a meetup that
first day, but Shiro had been unable to attend and so they'd spent most of the
last two days in a frustrating search for a man who apparently knew exactly
how to vanish.
At last, Shiro consented to a meeting. Tony and Tayra both had empty
plates in front of them, and the meal had been first rate. Their host sat alone
across the table, and though he'd heard often of the man, it was the first time
Tony had ever come face-to-face with Shiro, or any vampire.
The first thing he noticed was that the man wore an excessive amount of
white. Everything from his pinstripe suit to the hat he'd left on the rack just
next to the table was white. The only things that weren't white seemed to
have been added simply to accent the style.
His features were distinctly Asiatic, though Tony wasn't familiar enough
with the race to even guess at which of the old countries the man ... person,
had come from. His hair was black and slicked back, his eyebrows carefully
plucked, and he was clean-shaven with a sharp look in his eyes and
features.
His smile was the sort of smile Tony'd grown up associating with the
villain in a movie about to drop his plan on the hero at the climax:
completely self-satisfied and confident.
 A glance toward the windows was enough to confirm that the vampire
had only shown himself after the sun had gone down.
His smile, and his words, were directed at Tayra, who paused in the
midst of a bite of desert cake to ask, "What? The body? I like it, but I don't
think it's that strange compared to the other races."
"No no, naturally not. You're very comely, Miss Manes. It is not your
appearance per se, but the fact that you were able to complete your
transformation at all that is remarkable. You are the first griffin to have
satisfied the yen on Earth, so far as I am aware. This is cause for
celebration."
"Does that mean you'll pick up her check?" Tony asked wryly. "She's
gone through four entrees."
"Naturally. You'll pay nothing for your meal," Shiro said, waving a hand
in absent dismissal, his eyes never leaving Tayra as he asked, "Is this your
only form?"
Tayra froze, then glanced from Shiro to Tony as she said, "I haven't
shown him yet."
"Ah! I am so sorry! I didn't intend to ruin such a wonderful surprise!"
Shiro said, his face twisting tragically. "Think nothing of it! Let us move on
then. To what do I owe the pleasure of your company this evening?"
Tony half-turned to look suspiciously at Tayra, who leaned a bit away
from him with wide, put-upon eyes.
"'Haven't shown him yet'?" he asked.
"It's like he said, a surprise. Don't worry about it," Tayra said, waving
him away with her fork, clearly nervous and not wanting to discuss it.
Tony narrowed one eye as he gazed hard at Tayra, then decided to
shelve the issue in favor of more immediate concerns. Turning back to the
once more smiling vampire, Tony said, "We need help, and since you
offered, I hoped to cash in."
As he spoke, Tony pulled a brown paper bag up off the seat next to him
and set it on the table halfway between himself and Shiro, whose eyebrow
went up marginally as he said, "I see you've been talking to Andy."
"Two pints of the good stuff," Tony said.
Shiro folded his hands primly on the table before him as he asked, "And
what, may I ask, is the service I should render for this?"
"I need to find Luke Harding."
 "Ah, the wayward ex-captain. I had wondered what was planned for
him," Shiro said, his smile fading a bit.
"He's a mess the NHIC intends to clean up. Quietly," Tony said. "In
order to do that, I need to know where he is. If the police could find him we
would have by now. I'm no good at this part of the game."
"Your decision to come to me was wise. I have been rather earnestly
searching for him as well, for reasons of my own. While I can't tell you
where he is, I can tell you where he isn't. Oolytau, Rectau, Subtau, and
Daytau proper have all been searched rather thoroughly by both the police
and my own agents. The security grid within Rustau is so tight that the
chances he would be able to hide there are next to zero, particularly
considering there is nowhere he could actually rest without being
discovered. Ever since it was confirmed that his suit was of Dyne
manufacture, the grids have been updated to alert on any mobile unit of
theirs."
"So, the only place he could possibly be, unless he's gone to ground in
the Tracts, is Bartau?" Tayra asked.
Shiro nodded.
"It's farming, ranching, agriculture. The security grid is only tight
around the outer wall and there are over seventy square miles of uncovered
land. It would easily be possible for him to hide and sustain himself there,
particularly if he has help," Shiro said, spreading his hands.
As he spoke, Tayra suddenly reached for her phone. Tony watched as
she dialed and waited. The wait was long enough that Tony was sure it had
gone to voice mail when she said, "Nadine, this is Tayra. You need to give
me a call back as soon as you get this, all right? You might be in danger.
Call me back!"
She then hung up and began typing frantically as Tony glanced at Shiro,
then dipped his head fractionally at the bag he'd placed before the vampire.
Shiro nodded once and reached out for the offering as he said, "I'll
contact a few people I know within Bartau and have them go and check on
your friend. I'm aware you made contact with her in Rectau, and Miss
Manes is correct: she may be in danger. Is there anything else you'd like me
to do for you?"
"If you learn anything else, you have my number," Tony said as he
stood, slipping out of the booth with Tayra hot on his heels. "We need to get
going."
 "Yes, I imagine you do. For all our sakes, I hope you bring this situation
to its optimal resolution," Shiro said, smiling faintly as he added, "I have
the utmost confidence in Bremmin's successor, but I will still wish you the
best of luck."
Tony pulled his own phone and made a call. When it connected, he said,
"Pretty sure I know where he is. Were you able to secure that upgrade?"
He listened a moment, then glanced at Tayra, who shook her head, a
worried look on her face.
Tony, still speaking to the man on the other end of the line, said, "As
soon as possible. Yeah. Thanks."
He hung up and looked Tayra up and down as he said, "We need to
make a stop before we head off into the boonies."
"Where?" Tayra asked as Tony got in and pulled the roof down to let her
mount up.
"Armory," Tony said as he brought the jeep to live and pulled out. "You,
my love, are due for an upgrade."
"But what if Nadine is really in trouble?" Tayra asked. "Do we have
time for this?"
"Call the Bartau NHIC department and have them use one of the
surveillance drones. Make sure it's a high-flier. By the time we've got you
kitted, we'll have our answer. If it is him, he's wearing a prototype
contracted by Daytau military to be the next generation combat suit. You
put a slug into his chestplate at a distance of less than four yards and he
didn't just walk away, he ran. We're going to need some special hardware if
we want to crack that shell. Doesn't matter how quick we get there if we
catch the short end."

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 TAYRA

T ayra ' s hands were glued to her knees, and she couldn't help but feel
nervous.
She and Tony were closest to the rear door of an armored transport that
was rolling down a road barely wide enough to pass it toward a farm that
showed a distinct lack of activity.
Historical shots had been compared to the camera pass she'd requested
earlier, and it was clear that something dramatic had changed at the farm of
Nadine and Jonathan Fitzpatrick. There was no evidence that the animals
were being tended, and over an hour of direct surveillance had shown no
intelligent activity at all.
It was more than enough to sound the alarm, but the specific nature of
the threat had brought an unusual response.
The NHIC had hand-selected ten officers from across the subcities to
take part in this operation, of which Tony and Tayra were two. As the
transport rolled on, there was no last-minute briefing. Everyone in the
vehicle already had their orders, and once they reached their staging area a
communications blackout was to be imposed on the area. No form of
communication, wired or otherwise, would be permitted within the target
zone.
Tony and Tayra were the only two who would make the assault. The
others were to form a cordon around the area and prevent any escape for
'the perpetrator.'
Tayra didn't know what the others had been told. She did know what her
own instructions were. Tony was her only point of contact. She wasn't to
speak to anyone else, about anything.
Tony sat across from her, and as she glanced his way, he offered her a
smile over the rim of his ballistics shield. His arms were folded across the
upper rim, and he seemed unreasonably relaxed for a man who would
shortly be engaging a highly trained senior officer in a fight to the death.
And Captain Luke Harding was still a captain in the NHIC. The official
explanation of his absence was that he'd taken personal leave to go hunting
in the Tracts, something he'd done several times in the past. Presuming they
succeeded tonight, his failure to return would result in him being declared a
suicide, per city policy. The Tracts were dangerous; anyone who voluntarily
entered them took their lives into their own hands.
That she was being ordered to take this man out with no official record
still galled her, but she had accepted the reasons offered when weighed
against the alternatives. Tony was right: her only other option was to resign.
Much as she might object to what was being done, she didn't so completely
disagree that she was willing to end her career over it. At least Harding
would be dead, and neither he nor his legacy would do further harm. If it
wasn't a complete victory, it was good enough.
Yet she remained nervous.
She had been in combat a few times before. Intellectually, she knew that
once she was in it, she would be fine. But waiting, wondering how it would
go down, frayed her nerves. She was worried about Tony too. She kept
glancing up at him, but he wasn't paying her that much attention. His
expression was relaxed and his posture spoke of comfort. She wanted to ask
about that, but refrained. Just because she was the new guy didn't mean she
had to broadcast it, and aside from Tony she'd never seen any of the other
faces sharing the transport with them.
No one had spoken to her when they'd arrived at the staging area.
They'd simply filed out of the armory and into the transport. She and Tony
had gotten in last, and with a muted cough and a rumble as the engine
turned over, they'd been off.
Again the urge to say something, just to be talking, gripped her. She
glanced at Tony, saw him actually leaning his head against the rest, eyes
closed as though dozing.
Show off, she thought morosely, but the sight of him made her smile,
and her irritation at how easy he made it look took the edge off her nerves.
 Some time later, the transport thumped and rocked as it pulled off the
road, then stopped and the grumble of the engine cut out.
The intercom clicked on, and a voice Tayra didn't recognize said,
"Remember: communications will be offline, there is no backup available.
If you are engaged, send up a yellow flare. If a yellow flare comes from the
farmhouse or environs, close in to assist. Otherwise, move only to assist
adjacent officers. You are to monitor your areas using your deplos and
remain in place. This operation is black. Helmets remain on at all times.
Designated stations and areas of responsibility will be highlighted on your
heads-up displays. You'll have twenty minutes to reach your assigned
positions. Should you see the target you are to engage without warning
using lethal force. Once the target is down you are to remain at a distance
and send up the red flare, at which point communications will be restored
and further instructions will be given. Good luck."
The double doors next to her opened and Tayra stood and leapt out of
the truck along with Tony. The two of them watched the rest of the men file
out.
Cloud cover blocked both the moon and stars, and a distant flash of
lightning lit up the sky to the north, but it was too distant for the rumble of
thunder to reach them. Yet the wind was blowing fiercely, and it was
blowing the storm their way. There was a heavy, electric feel in the air, and
Tayra felt certain that if they weren't quick about this, they were going to
get wet.
As each armored man turned either left or right, small orbs detached
from their armored shoulders, one from each, and hovered along after them.
It was the first time Tayra had seen deplos in use. Short for 'deployable,' the
little machines were mobile sensor suites that had a travel range of about a
quarter mile from their handler. They would greatly enhance the ability of
each man to cover his assigned area, and in combat were capable of
increasing the accuracy of the guided, armor-piercing munitions being
carried by every member of the team.
The NHIC was taking no chances.
Tayra had a similar weapon, and as her eyes flicked to one corner her
heads-up display activated to show her their location relative to the target
area. Her own deplo left her shoulder and was eerily silent as they hovered
near her. The rifle in her hands felt a bit heavy and strange. She'd never
used it during training, but had been given a brief rundown at the armory
and a practice session with both it and the deplo while her measurements
were used to adjust a suit of the armor they were all wearing to her size.
She could lock a target using the reticule of her sight and a small button
just above her trigger guard. After that, every round she fired would home
in on that target until she disengaged the lock, able to alter course up to
sixty degrees depending on the distance. They also enhanced the night
vision capabilities built into her helmet and would highlight possible
hostiles in yellow, known friendlies in green.
As advanced as the armor and weapon she had were, she'd been assured
that the Dyne system being used by Captain Harding would likely be even
more sophisticated. How that could be, or what that might mean, she didn't
know.
All she did know is that if the man had access to the homing rounds she
was using, she'd have been dead at Rosedale. That gave her some measure
of confidence.
The flares were built into the backplate of each suit of armor, but since
her wings hadn't allowed her to wear that piece hers were in keeper straps
sewn into a belt along with a separate pistol to fire them. She wasn't
expected to need them; Tony would fire the flares if needed from his suit.
Unlike her, he wasn't carrying one of the smart weapons. Aside from the
ballistics shield, he had an older style rifle with an abbreviated stock and an
underslung grenade launcher. The smart rifles couldn't fit grenade
launchers, but the trade-off was that Tony could program his grenades to
detonate at specific distances or on impact, meaning he could range cover,
then fire over it for effect.
The map on her HUD gave her three routes to get to the target area, and
Tony said, "C route," and started moving, crossing the road to enter a field
of tall corn stalks with the ears still on.
Once they entered the corn field she couldn't see more than a few feet in
front of her, but her deplo gave her an accurate map and even without Tony
in the lead she'd have easily been able to get where she was going.
They reached their start position less than ten minutes later, and settled
in. The operation would start when the timer in the lower left of Tayra's
vision reached zero. They had about twelve minutes to wait.
"Do you think they're still alive?" Tayra asked.
"I think so ... I hope so. The profile on him suggests that he's sending a
message by targeting the non-human recruits. Killing the hostages would
dilute that message. No one but a full-blown fanatic would side with
someone who murders families, and farmers are well-liked. There's also the
fact that he can't use dead hostages against us."
Tayra nodded but could tell by Tony's tone of voice that he was putting
a brave face on a bad situation, and chose not to press him. The fact of the
matter was, if Nadine and her family were dead they'd have been killed
before either of them had any idea they were in danger. The thought left a
cold ball of hatred in her guts, and she said, "At least we get to kill him."
"Yes. There's no way Harding gets out of this, not even if he gets us
both," Tony said, and this time his tone was one of grim resolve.
Tayra opened her mouth to agree, but paused as she saw a red dot
appear to the right side of the main house across the road from where they
were waiting, along with a warning below it in yellow text:

HEAT BLOOM DETECTED

"M ove , move !" Tony yelled, grabbing Tayra's arm and bodily launching
her past him as he twisted to bring his shield to bear. She staggered four
steps before a powerful detonation and shockwave blasted Tony into her,
knocking both of them off their feet.
Tayra's faceplate was black as she rolled to her knees, and she loosed
the chin strap and yanked her helmet off so she could see. Her eyes adjusted
quickly and she saw that Tony was still on his back nearby. His shield was
black and dented, but seemed to have taken the brunt of the blast.
She looked past him, saw a familiar black-armored figure walking
toward them, and raised her rifle.
The reticule was gone, but she pulled the trigger anyway when she had
a bead.
Nothing happened.
"My rifle's jammed!" she hissed. "Tony! Get up!"
"It's not jammed, it's dead. That was an EMP grenade," Tony grunted as
he reached up and ripped his own helmet off. "I figured he might have
something like that, s'why I brought this old school shit. Drop it and use the
shotty!"
"It won't break his armor at this range!" she said even as she threw the
rifle aside with one hand and brought her shotgun to bear with the other,
cutting loose with two quick shots.
Both hit, but as she predicted neither seemed to have any effect despite
the fact that her loadout this time was entirely rifled, armor-piercing slugs.
"They don't need to," Tony said as he leaned up, used his grounded
shield as a brace, and squeezed off a three-round burst that skittered up
Harding's armor, the last spanging off the helmet even as the man drew a
bead on Tayra with his own weapon.
Harding's burst missed left and high, disrupted by Tony's shots as he
said, "We can't hide here, we have no real cover! Swing wide behind me
and get to that barn over there while I pin him!"
"Pin him how?!" Tayra said even as a heavy thump sounded from Tony's
weapon and the Black Knight disappeared behind a fireball as the grenade
blasted him off his feet.
"Like that. Run. RUN! Find Nadine and save the family!" Tony said as
he cracked the breach of his launcher to reload it.
Tayra ran, wings slamming the air as she leapt for the relative safety of
the building. It was almost fifty yards away, but she made it in just under
seven seconds. She spun into cover then peeked the corner of the building
to see Tony advancing on Harding, weapon couched against the edge of his
shield as he fired steadily. The bullets sparked off the other man's armor, but
he was returning fire with a pistol, his rifle apparently having been
destroyed in the grenade blast.
Her first instinct was to run right back in to support him, but Tony's last
words to her sent Tayra racing around the backside of the barn so she could
get to the house without drawing fire. As much as she wanted a piece of
Luke Harding, saving Nadine, her husband, and their children came first.

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 TONY

T ony advanced at a steady walk , firing controlled bursts into the once
more standing black-armored man before him.
It was obvious his EMP grenade had done much the same thing to
Harding as his had to them. Tony knew that little bit of forethought was
probably the only reason both he and Tayra weren't dead yet. He had no
illusions about what it meant to go up against a trained soldier in a full suit
of military hardware, and he'd seen Harding's service record.
The man was a beast with not an ounce of quit in his body.
Now, Tony wanted to get in close enough to score a direct hit on the
helmet with the explosive grenade he now had loaded. A chest hit wasn't
guaranteed to kill the man, but if he got the head there was no way it
wouldn't at the very least break Harding's neck.
Dyne suits were the most expensive, most advanced, toughest protection
it was possible for human beings to create. They would soak bullets, fire,
acid and explosions. They could protect a man from a hundred-story fall.
Many of them were kitted with boosts that let the wearer jump like a flea, or
lift thousands of pounds, but suits designed for human bodies had
weaknesses and one of them was electromagnetic pulse explosions. They'd
survive any large scale EMP, nuclear or otherwise, but a pulse of sufficient
strength detonated within inches of the suit was something no one had yet
figured out how to defeat.
The fact that Harding could still move and fire spoke to the fact that at
least some of the suit was still online, but he hadn't fired another grenade,
nor had he leapt or flown away. The only question left was whether the
suit's capabilities were permanently offline, or if they were self-repairing.
When he got within twenty feet of the other man, his weapon ran dry.
Tony couldn't reload without compromising his defense, so instead he
charged.
Harding holstered his pistol and crouched, then shot forward, slamming
a black-armored fist into Tony's ballistic shield.
The force of the punch lifted Tony off his feet and sent him sailing to
land flat on his back, but he rolled adroitly to get the shield in front of him
again just in time for it to receive several well-placed shots from Harding.
Apparently, the act of holstering the pistol — obviously part and parcel of
the suit — reloaded it.
It was only when he stood that he realized Harding had also hit him in
the back. His armor had absorbed the shot, but enough force had been
transmitted to make it feel as though he'd taken a kidney punch.
"I never thought you'd go this route, Tony," Luke said as he began to
circle, forcing Tony to turn as well. He knew Harding was an excellent shot
and without his helmet, the only thing keeping him alive was his ballistics
shield. He still had his rifle in hand and he had no doubt he could score a
body shot with the grenade, but a head shot wasn't guaranteed, and unless
the armor was compromised, Tony's pistol was useless.
"I could say the same for you," Tony said quietly.
"You were supposed to let Manes out on her own. That's what I figured
you'd do. She'd have been dead inside the first day. You had to know that all
you needed to do to get rid of her was nothing, but instead you treated her
like one of us."
"She is one of us."
"No she isn't, and you know exactly why. She's a fucking alien, a
monster, and they have no business in human cities at all. I may put up with
that, but I'll be damned if I work with them, and you had such promise. We
wanted to recruit you, but now you're just a monster-loving traitor to your
race. After I kill you, I'm going to kill her. She ruined you!"
Harding surged forward, and Tony knew in that instant he'd never get a
better opportunity. He took a knee, angled his weapon up, and fired.
Explosive grenades require a certain amount of distance traveled before
the explosive itself arms. That distance, Tony knew, was ten feet. At eight
feet, the round impacted Harding's head with a sharp, cracking sound that
sent the armored figure staggering sideways, but the shell didn't detonate,
and because it hadn't been a square hit Harding's neck didn't break.
It was enough to ruin the helmet and destroy whatever electronics were
inside. That much was obvious because as Tony came up off his knees
Harding flung the remnants away to reveal his snarling face. He drew his
pistol again as Tony flung his rifle away and drew his own.
Now he could get a kill shot, but as he took aim Harding fired first, and
Tony winced as he felt the bullet smash into his pistol, ruining the action
and tearing through his armored glove as it ricocheted past.
"I don't need the suit's armament to kill you, Tony," the man said
contemptuously. "I know your service record. I'm the better shot, and I've
always been faster. That shield is the only thing keeping you alive now.
Why don't you call for help? I saw the flare cells on your backplate. Just
send one up and they'll all come running."
"This isn't an arrest, Luke. This is an execution. No trial, no write-up.
You just walked out your front door one day and never came home," Tony
growled as he angled the shield and began to walk forward, careful to give
the other man no shot.
"If that's the way it's going to be, I may as well make sure you earn it,"
Luke said as he twisted the wrist of his free hand and made a series of
gestures that were clearly inputs.
A thin tube detached from Harding's thigh armor and twisted ninety
degrees, revealing it to be a launcher. Before Tony could react twin
explosions fired something out both ends of the weapon.
Tony received the impact on his shield and his eyes widened as he
realized what was happening.
It was a grapple. He had no more than a few seconds before the
adhesive hardened and the launcher's reel either yanked it from his hand or
pulled whatever the other end grabbed very violently into the shield.
Or ...
Tony squared up behind the shield, braced one arm with the other, and
ran at an angle around Harding, bending the line around the other man's
thigh to trap him in the line of fire.
Harding realized almost instantly what Tony was doing because he
disconnected the launcher from his suit, crouched, and leaped straight up
just as the motor engaged. Tony's feet left the ground as the shield pulled
him forward. It's upper edge caught Harding's thighs and sent the man
pinwheeling wildly through the air behind Tony while he landed with a
grunt on the shield as it raced across the ground toward the wall of the main
house almost fifty yards away. The far end of the grapple had adhered to the
brick wall just under a bay window.
Oh this is gonna suck, he thought ruefully as he detached the straps
binding him to the shield, shifted his feet under himself, and leapt, curling
as best he could to defend himself.
The shield embedded itself low in the wall and Tony's momentum
carried him through the window, smashing through the glass and frame to
send him tumbling over a heavy dining room table to slam into a china
cabinet on the far wall, shattering both the cabinet and everything in it as he
collapsed to the ground. What was left of the heavy cabinet, having been
bounced off the wall by the impact, groaned as it fell atop him, crushing
him under a deluge of splintered wood and shattered glasses, plates, and a
rain of silverware.
That he was still conscious struck Tony as a minor miracle as he
groaned, shifting to get his hands underneath him. His right was bleeding
heavily from the gunshot that had torn his pistol from his hand, and his
body was bruised and battered all over. He could feel blood trickling
through his hair on both sides of his head and from a long gash in his cheek.
The rest of him was bruised and battered. A normal man would have likely
broken his neck — or at least several bones — during that aerial tumble, but
Tony Platz was no ordinary man.
He was a beast, and he'd made lifting his religion since he was a
teenager. Muscle isn't just for moving heavy things and showing off to the
ladies. Sometimes, it is the most effective defense there is. Combined with
his armor, it was enough. Tony had come through a bay window into a
dining room at near highway speeds to slam into the far wall battered ... but
not broken.
Tony got to his feet and looked out the shattered remains of the bay
window to see Harding — also already back on his feet — running his way.
Tony had no pistol, no rifle, and no shield. He still had a combat knife, an
asp, a taser, the three flares in his backplate, and one remaining round for a
grenade launcher he no longer possessed. None of that was likely to do him
much good against the other man's obviously still functional — if damaged
— suit.
 Tony gritted his teeth in a feral snarl, pulled his asp with his left hand
and snapped it to full extension, then dipped out into the hallway near him
and into the darkened interior of the house.
He now had only one advantage against the man coming to kill him.
Tony wasn't alone.

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 TAYRA

W ith the sound of gunfire crackling in her ears, Tayra raced toward the
back of the farmhouse and took the four steps up the porch in a leap, then
paused to take a brief peek through the windows on either side of the door.
The interior of the house was dark and still. If there was an ambush inside,
she would have to break through it. She had no idea if Harding was alone
out here or not. There'd been no indication that he was working as part of a
group, but there was no way to know whether or not he'd hired anyone to
help him.
A muted explosion sounded from the yard, and Tayra used the sound as
a goad as she set her shoulder and smashed her way through the locked
door into what turned out to be a living room. She slid to the side of the
door so as not to offer a silhouette as she panned her shotgun, searching for
targets.
The house was a sprawling two-story affair and the living room went all
the way up, with a high ceiling and a sitting area overlooked by a railed
upper-story hallway. There was almost no light, but Tayra had a tiger's eyes
and could see perfectly well in the near total darkness. The room and the
hallway above it were empty. There was no sign of movement anywhere.
Frowning, Tayra moved cautiously into the room, then to the hallway
beyond, which led to an open area to her left that turned out to be an
entryway overseen by a breakfast bar adjacent to the kitchen. Across from
that was a walled-off formal dining room with pocket double doors that
were open. That hallway continued and dead ended, but she could neither
hear, see, nor smell anything from that direction and decided to back up and
search the other way. She knew the more time she spent searching, the more
likely it was that Tony would wind up dead.
There wasn't any more gunfire from out front, and she didn't know if
that was good or bad.
She couldn't afford to think about it either because if she did she'd rush
back out of the house.
Past the living room the hallway continued until it reached a stairwell
that led to the upper story, formed a landing with the hallway she was in,
then turned to descend into a basement area which — unlike the upstairs
— was lit.
Tayra looked down, checking to ensure that the stairs weren't concealing
someone hidden beneath or behind them, then cautiously descended with
her shotgun in the lead.
The basement was carpeted and looked to have been turned into a rec
room centered around a pool table. Beyond that was an entertainment center
with a half-circle of theater-style seating before a huge white screen, but
Tayra only acknowledged that with the back of her mind.
Around the room, literally fastened spread-eagle to the walls at
intervals, were Nadine, her husband, and a lot of kids. The human husband
was gagged, but all the rest were griffins, and they all had thick rubber
bands forcing their beaks shut, but were otherwise awake and aware. Their
eyes were wide as they met hers.
Standing on the far side of the pool table with a cue in hand as though
he were about to play a game, was what looked at first glance to be a human
male.
Tayra wasn't deceived for more than that first glance. The makeup was
too thick, and male humans didn't typically wear the stuff.
"I hoped it would be you. The bounty was frozen but Harding paid me
half up front in cash to finish the job, so here I am. You feel free to use that
shotgun, Officer Manes. I don't mind."
The androgynous voice identified him as the same gel that had attacked
her at the Oolytau station.
Tayra glanced at the family taped to the wall all around the room, then
cooly secured her shotgun behind her on its speedsling as she said, "Relax.
Be easy. There's no need to involve any of them."
"Technically true, but it makes my job easier," the gel said, its smile
growing so wide that the face distorted in horror movie fashion, making the
expression impossibly grotesque on its painted face. "I'm not interested in a
fair fight. We had one of those and it didn't go well for me, so instead I'll
keep them as hostages as you disarm, then calmly walk to me and stand still
while I slit your throat. Slowly, in front of the whole family. Do that, and I'll
let the rest of them go. They're Harding's problem, not mine, but you? I've
taken a personal dislike to you. Don't tell him, but I'd have come to kill you
for free."
Tayra began to take off her weapons, starting with the speedsling and
shotgun, then her belt. As she dropped it to the side, the gel said, "The
armor too. I'm curious about how you, a griffin, could wind up looking so
different, but it only matters to me as it pertains to your natural weapons.
Those talons on your feet are impressive, but I must say I'm relieved you
don't have your beak anymore, and you look slim now by comparison. Your
neck will be easy to cut, but I don't want any surprises."
Nodding, Tayra stepped down into the room as she opened the clasps
holding her armor in place and smoothly lifted it up and over her head to
drop it aside. Without being asked, she did the same with her armored
pants, leaving her in little more than a sweat-soaked undershirt and lacy
black panties.
The gel's head tilted as they both heard a resounding series of crashes
and shattering upstairs, but its eyes were glued to her and its exaggerated
expression was amused, one eyebrow lifting until it connected with the fake
hair atop its head as it looked her up and down and said, "Svelt. Come here.
I'm curious to see if your blood's still red."
Tayra turned to her right and deliberately walked around the far side of
the pool table so that when she came to stand in front of the gel, his back
was toward the stairs. She glanced at the entertainment setup. It was about
twenty feet behind her. She looked forward again. Another fifteen feet or so
to the wall. A line of cylindrical metal supports bisected the room at
intervals, supporting the floors above, and there were about twenty feet to
either side. Most of the kids were on the wall opposite her. Nadine and her
husband were taped to the wall on her right, and were closest to her now.
She took all this in, then glanced at Nadine and asked, "Do you mind if
I stay in your house for a little while after this?"
Nadine blinked, then simply said, "Of course. Stay as long as you need."
The gel was staring at her in disbelief, obviously uncertain what the
brief conversation meant. Tayra smiled slightly and said, "I'm sorry about
your stuff."
"It's just stuff. We can always buy new things," Nadine said, voice
cheerful.
Turning back to the gel, who now had a knife out and was staring
quizzically at her, Tayra's eyes sharpened. She stared balefully at it and
snarled, "You've gotten away from me twice. There won't be a third time."
Before it could answer her or strike Tayra shifted, then ate him whole.

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 TONY

A brief survey of the hall he was in revealed a breakfast nook between

him and an open, airy kitchen, and beyond that a living room with a high
ceiling.
There were couches surrounding a heavy-looking wooden coffee table,
and Tony stepped around the couches and hefted the table up, setting one of
its legs on his shoulder. It was almost long enough to reach his feet and
much heavier than the shield, but the wood was almost six inches thick and
it'd take a few rounds at least. It was as good as he was going to get on short
notice.
Glass cracked underfoot as Harding stepped through the smashed
window and said in a singsong voice, "Come out, come out, wherever you
are! If I'd known you wanted to die with the hostages, I'd have invited you
in."
Tony stayed quiet as he lined himself up in the hallway. When Harding
came through the dining room entrance Tony charged.
The sharp bark of the pistol and the cracking of wood as the bullets bit
deep barely registered as he gave a wordless yell and slammed forward, but
he never actually reached Harding.
He didn't realize what had happened at first, only that the wood of the
table abruptly broke, slammed back into him, and sent him tumbling down
the hallway to land on his back.
Tilting his head to look up, he saw Harding lower his foot, saw a hint of
the man's smile from the light coming in through the broken window.
Thunder boomed and abruptly the rain began to pound down on the house,
but it didn't keep him from hearing Harding suck his teeth and say, "That
was dumb, Tony. You should have run out the back. Now you've lost your
chance to get away, such as it was. With you in here, there's no way you can
send up a flare. Your last chance for help is gone."
"My partner will-"
"Your partner'd already be helping you if she could. Look to your left."
Tony did so, and found himself staring down into a basement. He
couldn't see much beyond that, but at the base of the stairs he did see
Tayra's armaments, and her armor.
He was still processing that as Harding said, "I let her get in here,
because I had a surprise for her. She's down there, right now, probably
bleeding out along with that monster fucker Fitzpatrick and the rest of his
misbegotten family. The gel she bit back in Oolytau really had it in for her,
so I recruited him. Just because I hate monsters doesn't mean I won't use
them. She's not here, helping you, which means she's dead. Soon, you will
be too. Then I'm going to escape right through the perimeter guard you have
set, and there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop me."
Tony heard him, but his eyes were on that shotgun. He didn't see any
trace of the Fitzpatricks, Tayra, or the gel down there, but that shotgun was
exactly what he needed.
He twisted on his back, pressed his feet to the hallway wall, and shoved,
sending himself flying out into space above the stairs with Harding's
laughter chasing him down.
He hit the carpeted concrete with a thud, reached out and laid his hand
on the shotgun, then got to his feet just in time for Harding to silhouette
himself on the stairway above.
Tony fired once, twice, a third time as Harding, having taken the shots
on his chestplate, leapt down, firing his pistol as he came on. Tony took a
shot to the chest and another that creased him just below the belt. With his
left, he flicked off the lights using the switch in front of him just as Harding
landed, plunging the room into darkness as he raised his shotgun, hoping to
get a lucky break in the sudden black.
He fired, aiming for where he thought Harding's head would be.
Harding yelped in surprise, then screamed, but the scream traveled halfway
around the room, lit by brilliant bursts of light and sound as he fired his
pistol almost randomly. All the noise ended abruptly with a horrendous
crunch.
 Blinking, unable to see anything and with no idea what was going on,
Tony reached out to flick the lights on again, shotgun pressed to his hip as
he scanned the room.
Harding was half gone.
The other half was clutched in massive talons that belonged to a ...
Tony's mind simply blanked out as he slowly lowered his shotgun and
stared.
Almost the entirety of the far side of the basement was filled with a
creature bigger than any he'd seen in person. He knew instantly that it had
to be Tayra. The hawk's head, the taloned forelimbs, the tiger-striped body.
But she was huge. Her beak was almost as big as he was, and she was an
easy twenty-five, maybe thirty feet long not counting the tail.
She was also tightly penned in by metal support struts that held up the
upper stories of the house. As he took in the sight of her, eyes wide and
staring, she dropped the remaining half of Harding's body and said, "Yeah
... this was not how I wanted to show you the other half of me but ... um, I
guess this works? Surprise?"
"What the fuuuck?" Tony drawled, completely astonished.
From somewhere on the other side of Tayra's massive body came a
muffled, "Hey! My kids are here, watch your mouth, young man!"
Blinking away his shock, Tony glanced around and finally spotted the
many griffin children duct taped to the wall at intervals.
Without conscious thought, he went to work freeing them. None of
them made a sound as they were cut down and they didn't move afterward
either. Most of them seemed in shock. As he worked he said, "I thought
your other body was the old one. I mean, I knew it had to be something, but
this? I mean, holy shhhoot. Tayra, what the ..."
He just trailed off, unable in that moment to encapsulate his shock in
words that wouldn't get him in trouble with Nadine.
Tayra was gazing fixedly at him, and it was disconcerting to once more
find himself all but impaled by hawk's eyes as he moved closer to her,
working his way down the wall. The next person to free was Nadine's
husband, but both he and Nadine herself were essentially blocked off by
Tayra's massive shoulder, and he glanced at her and asked, "I imagine if you
could shift back, you would."
Tayra nodded slowly, seemingly reluctant as she said, "I'm not like a
changeling, able to shift at will. I can do it once, then I have to wait."
 "How long?" he asked.
She shrugged, a massive gesture as she blinked and said, "I'm not
actually sure. I just ... I can feel it, when it's ready. Given how I feel now,
it'll be hours at least. Maybe more."
Tony nodded slowly, then said, "Can you shift far enough away from
these two so that I can cut them down?"
Tayra's head tilted, then she shifted literally inches at a time, twisting
her body around one of the supports holding up the house above them. As
careful as she was, there were still some rather alarming creaks and groans
before she stopped and said, "That's about as far as I can go. Can you reach
them?"
"Tight squeeze," Tony said as he frowned. For all her wiggling, she'd
only managed to open up about half a foot of space. Her body was really
crammed in tight.
He reached up, freed Mr. Fitzpatrick's arm, then put the knife in his
hand as he asked, "Can you get the rest yourself?"
The man's mouth was taped shut, but he nodded and reached over his
head to get at his other arm, then worked his way down. Once he was loose,
he slid to the floor and stepped out, reaching up to grab the tape across his
mouth. He hesitated a moment, wincing as he prepared himself.
Tony felt a burst of sympathy as the man ripped the tape off, taking
quite a lot of his mustache and beard with it.
He was a big, scruffy, red-headed man, with a heavily freckled face and
blue eyes. He had muscle, but it wasn't like Tony's. Mr. Fitzpatrick had the
solid physicality of a man who did hard labor for a living, and what really
stood out about him wasn't his chest or shoulders, or even his legs. It was
that his forearms were huge. Tony would have put money down on the man
being able to crush a walnut with his bare hand.
Well, there's a reason they call it a farmer's walk, Tony mused silently
as Fitzpatrick turned and pressed himself between Tayra's shoulder and the
wall to go get his wife.
Meanwhile, he turned to look at Tayra, who was staring at him with the
tight feathers and pinpointed pupils that told him she was nervous.
"I was hoping the first time you saw this, I could take you flying," she
said before he could get a word out. "As is, this was the only thing I could
think of to save the family. That gel was here."
"Yeah, so I heard. What did you do, eat him?"
 It was a rhetorical question, but Tony's eyes widened when Tayra just
nodded. He glanced down at the spreading pool of gore leaking from what
remained of Harding's body and said, "That armor held up against AP
rounds and a grenade, but you bit through it like it was jerky. That beak of
yours is not normal."
"No, it isn't," Nadine said, grunting as she squeezed out after her
husband.
"I told you she could take on a dragon. Did you think I was kidding?"
"Yes. I did," Tony said wryly. "I also did not believe you when you said
she would be able to fly with me."
"Well, shows what you know don't it?" Nadine said, feathers fluffed as
she shook her wings out and flapped them both once, hard, shimmying her
shoulders as she stretched.
"Is this everyone?" Tony asked, eyes flicking over the griffin children
still huddled near the stairs. All of them were staring wide-eyed at Tayra.
"Yes, and thank you for coming," Fitzpatrick said, his voice deep as he
offered a big hand that Tony shook.
"Speaking of which, I need to go outside and send up a flare. Let the
rest of the unit know we're good," Tony said, looking at Tayra. "Are you ...
okay?"
Tayra rolled her eyes and said, "I'm stuck. Other than that I'm fine."
"You ate some of that Dyne suit. I really, really doubt that's safe for you
to pass," Tony noted.
"I'll hurk it back up once I have a bit of privacy, then just go for the
juicy bits. I'm hungry, and we're supposed to get rid of ..."
She trailed off as her eyes flicked to the children by the stairs.
Nadine took the hint and ushered the whole clan out of the basement,
calling over her shoulder, "I'll introduce you to the family later. It is way
past their bedtimes. It's also pouring down rain out there. I mean thunder,
lightning, the whole bit!"
"The flare doesn't care," Tony called after her. "I'll be up in a minute."
Then he turned and stage-whispered, "You're going to eat Harding's
body?!"
"Can you think of a more effective way to dispose of it? I'm hungry, and
that gel tasted like makeup. It's not cannibalism or anything! Do you have
any idea how many calories I need for a body this size?"
"No, and I doubt you do either. That's not what I meant."
 "We need to disappear him. If this hadn't happened I could have just
flown his corpse out into the Tracts. As is ... well?!"
Tony's lips were parted, but he really couldn't think of a reason why
Tayra shouldn't eat the body other than that it ran against his sensibilities. It
was a practical solution to a practical problem, and if there was anyone who
thought Harding should be given a decent burial they weren't present. Tony
honestly couldn't care less what happened to the corpse, but the idea of his
lover eating it just ...
"And you want to kiss me with that mouth?" he asked.
"This isn't a mouth, it's a beak, and don't get squeamish on me now,"
Tayra said irritably. "I just saved your butt."
"I had him right where I wanted him," Tony protested.
"Uh huh. Right where you wanted him?" Tayra pointed with a talon as
long as Tony's arm at his side as she asked, "Is that hole supposed to be
there?"
Tony glanced down at himself, saw where Harding's bullet had punched
through the meat of his side, and the pain abruptly hit him as he looked up
at her and dryly said, "Gee, thanks for reminding me."
"I'm here for you, Tony!" she cheerfully replied, giving him a ludicrous
thumbs-up as tall as he was.
He looked at her for a long moment, and her fluffed feathers gradually
tightened down as she watched him think.
At last, he said, "I'm going to put the flare up. That body should be gone
by the time the reinforcements arrive and don't tell me how you did it. Far
as I'm concerned, it's fuckin' magic."
"In a way ... it kind of is," she said as he walked toward the stairs, but
trailed off as he turned to regard her.
"Thanks, Tayra," he said quietly.
"Team effort," she said, tilting her head to regard him fondly. "I
wouldn't have gotten him without you."
"Makeup?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It's freakin' disgusting how much paint a gel puts on. I will never
understand why they prefer it to normal cyberware. I think it's a fetish,"
Tayra said, opening her beak and showing her tongue which, despite having
also eaten half of Harding, was still visibly green.
Tony just shook his head and — now having to consciously put aside
the pain of yet another bullet wound — made his way up the stairs. He was
pretty sure the injury really was just superficial. It didn't feel like it had hit
his pelvis, but rather had gone through just above and outside. With luck it
was a through and through. Either way, it wouldn't kill him, so it wasn't a
problem.
His woman being a beast bigger than a full-grown wyvern was a
problem.
Lightning struck outside so close by that even with the lights on the
flash was enough to make him blink.
Mr. Fitzpatrick was standing at the entrance to his formal dining room,
staring mournfully at the ruins. Mrs. Fitzpatrick was sitting on one of the
stools in front of the breakfast nook, leaning against the bar as she looked at
him with a piercing, literally eagle-eyed gaze.
Tony asked, "Was it just the two of them?"
Mr. Fitzpatrick — Tony realized he'd never gotten the man's first name
— turned and nodded slowly, then said, "Far as we saw at any rate."
"Sorry about the dining room," Tony added lamely.
"I have insurance," he replied. "I just hate that not only is everything
wrecked, now there'll be water damage."
"You got a tarp somewhere? Once I send up my flare I'll help you cover
up," Tony offered.
"Mighty nice of you, son. Yes, it's out in the barn. Left of the door in a
row of cabinets beneath the workbench."
Taking the hint, Tony nodded and said, "I'll bring it back, sit tight."
The rain was coming down in sheets as Tony stepped outside and sent
up the flare. He finally stopped to take off his armor and see to the bullet
wound when he was in the barn, and saw that it really wasn't that serious.
He'd have a pair of scars, but the damage was all muscle and skin. There
was also a lot of missing skin between his thumb and forefinger on his right
hand, and that too was bleeding heavily, but was easy enough to bandage.
He covered the holes in his side with antiseptic and gauze held in place by a
compression bandage, put his armor back on, and was just coming out of
the barn with a tarp in his arms when he saw the transport rolling up. The
man driving lowered the window and shouted over the pounding rain,
"Coms are back up, where's your helmet!?"
"EMP took it out," Tony shouted back. "Had to ditch it!"
"Everything handled?" the man asked.
 "Send 'em home, we got it!" Tony said. "I'll have coms once I can dig
out my phone! We're staying to help the family lock down the house! No
injuries there so no ambulance, and no need to send the corpse wagon. I'm
hit but it's minor. I'll be fine until I can get myself to a hospital later. Thanks
for your help!"
The man gave him a thumbs-up, rolled his window closed, and turned
around. He knew, just as Tony did, what kind of operation this was. The less
he knew, the better. He would pick up the rest of the men and head back to
Daytau proper. For them, it had been an easy, if wet, night. Not only was
there no need for their help, but Tony didn't exactly want anyone to see
Tayra. He still had no idea how he was supposed to take that.
Another flash of lightning lit the yard and the boom of thunder made
him jump and glance around. He thought for a moment he saw a figure
standing at the edge of the corn where he and Tayra had been discovered
earlier, but the flash half-blinded him and without its light everything off
that way was a uniform black behind a curtain of rain.
There was no reason for anyone to be there, and he wasn't getting shot
at. If there had been someone, it was probably one of the men that had
come in with him. If his coms had been functional he'd have checked it, but
they weren't, and he put it from his mind as he returned to the house and
helped Mr. Fitzpatrick cover the gaping hole in the front of his house.
That done, he stepped back up onto the porch and stopped there. He was
completely drenched, his boots were heavy with mud, and he wasn't about
to track that back into the house. Besides, he still had no idea what he was
supposed to say to Tayra, or how he was supposed to act around her.
So instead he leaned against one of the posts next to the steps and let his
mind wander.
He didn't have more than ten seconds to himself before the door opened
and Nadine stepped out. She shut the door behind her and stepped over to a
rocking chair nearby, settling into it as she said, "That was gentlemanly of
you, helpin' Dan with the window."
Tony shrugged.
"What's on your mind?" she asked.
"Tayra, mostly," he admitted.
"What about her?"
"Just not sure what to do about her. She's um ... well, let's just say she's
got me a little nervous."
 "She's the same person," Nadine said, turning her head to look at him
out of one eye in that way birds had.
"She is not. You can't put a mind in a completely different body and call
it the same person. She's the size of a wyvern, and right now she's literally
stuck in your basement."
"You had no problems with a different body that brought her closer to
you," Nadine pointed out. "Where was this crisis when she all of a sudden
got a mouth to kiss, tits to squeeze, and hands to jerk you off?"
Tony blinked at her, aghast, then said, "Wow. You ... are ... way too
raunchy to have that many kids hanging around all the time."
"Yeah? How do you think I got that many kids? Answer my question,"
she said, folding her taloned hands under her sizable chest.
Frowning, he said, "That made it easier to see her as a person. This
makes it harder. I never said it was fair, I'm just wondering how I can deal
with it."
Nadine twisted her head to look at him out of her other eye, then dead
on with both as she said, "Oh. Well, that's fine then. Long as you know you
will be dealing with it."
"Sure, it's not like I'm going to leave her or anything. It's just a lot to
take in."
"Literally," Nadine smugly agreed.
"Did you know it would be like this?" he asked.
Nadine shook her head and said, "I had no idea how big she would get. I
just knew she'd be big enough to fly with you."
Tony chuckled and shook his head as he said, "Yeah, I don't see that
happening."
"It better happen or you'll hurt her feelings," Nadine snapped. "If I
could fly with my husband we'd be doin' it at least once or twice a week."
"How come this never happened to you?" Tony asked, looking at
Nadine. "I mean, you've been together with Dan how long? You've got lots
of kids with him, seem fond of him, so what's up?"
Nadine flexed her wings, then shrugged as she said, "I love my
husband, but the yen isn't love. It's need, and it's fuckin' magic. Do I wish I
had it for my husband? Sure I do. But I don't regret choosing him rather
than waiting for some nebulous set of requirements to be met. I made my
choice, Dan made his, and we're both happy."
 She paused, then glanced away from him as she said, "The yen is a
legacy from a different kind of world. A place where life was savage and
short. People in such a world don't think like we do in the here and now.
Happiness was so fleeting that whatever they could get they took. And do
remember, the yen was a form of control. It wasn't put there to benefit us,
but you."
Nadine shook her head wryly as she said, "You only saw a little piece of
it, but Tayra was miserable when she thought you might not accept her and
she was miserable that she felt that way to begin with. She didn't choose
you consciously. I said it before, it's like being hungry for something.
There's nothing deliberate about it. Just, sometimes you want a certain food
and that's the only thing that'll satisfy. The yen is like that, only worse.
Given the way things are now I imagine it ruins far more lives than it
improves. Maybe that's why griffins decided to break away from their
masters on the old world."
Tony nodded and said, "It's going to be a nightmare keeping her fed."
Nadine cackled and said, "Yes, it probably will be. Every relationship
has its challenges. You should probably make a habit of taking her hunting
in the Tracts on the weekends. The two of you could probably make a living
just on wyvern bounties, and with you along to help her finish her kills it
should be safe enough."
Tony gave her a long look and said, "You've got an answer for
everything, don't you?"
"I have a vested interest," Nadine said smugly. "Now take your boots
off, come in, and have a shower. I imagine you'll be spending the night, so
I'll have Dan get a cot out of the attic for you."
"Thanks, Nadine," Tony said as he lifted one foot, wincing as it sent a
twinge through his wounded side.
"Oh! That's right! You were shot! I've got first aid kits, should we call
someone?"
Tony shook his head and lifted his shirt enough to show the bandage as
he said, "This'll have to do until tomorrow, and I should be fine. I've been
shot before. This hurts, but not enough to make me think I can't make it one
night without medical attention. Speaking of which, about the man who
held you hostage tonight. This wasn't an arrest. It was an execution. Do you
know who he is?"
 Nadine shook her head and said, "He never gave his name, though the
gel called him, 'Harding.'"
"Forget you heard that name and when you talk to your kids about it call
him Barding or Harden or something if any of them mention it. Tell your
husband too. The less anyone hears about this, the better. And for God's
sake, don't say anything to the press."
"So this is a black bag thing?" Nadine asked.
Tony nodded and said, "We don't want his story told. No martyr, no
copycats. He just walked out of the world and didn't come back."
"And that's why you're not going to call an ambulance for yourself?"
she asked.
He nodded again.
"Just one more question," Nadine said, and pointed to the tarp the rain
continued to beat down on. "Insurance is going to want an explanation
about digging a shield out of our wall and all that."
"I'll make sure the city gets you a contact that'll clear that up. You don't
say anything to the adjuster except, 'Call this number.'"
"I like it when things are easy," Nadine said as Tony got the other boot
off.
"I try," Tony said, offering her a smile as she got up and opened the door
for him.
As he stepped through, she said, "And Tony?"
He glanced back at her, and she tilted her head so as to make it obvious
she was talking about Tayra as she said, "She might be a little insecure right
now. Be nice."

OceanofPDF.com
 42

OceanofPDF.com
 TAYRA

S he had her forelimbs folded and her head down on them, waiting for Tony
to come back down.
It'd been at least half an hour since he left to send up the flare and she'd
begun to wonder if he'd left to go to the hospital for the gunshot wounds in
his side and hand.
She shifted, lifting her head when Tony came back down the stairs,
followed closely by Mr. Fitzpatrick, who had an old army cot under one
arm and a bundle of bedding under the other.
The man didn't say a word as he set up the cot just next to the pool
table, dumped the bedding on top, and left.
Tony was already out of his armor and looked to have taken a shower
given all he wore was a towel and a compression bandage around his
middle that sandwiched a pair of bloody gauze pads. His right hand was
also thickly bandaged.
He was looking curiously at her as he asked, "How do you feel?"
"Cramped," Tayra admitted. "Fine otherwise. What about you? Aren't
you going to the hospital?"
"I'll go tomorrow. What did you do with the armor?"
Noting that he specifically hadn't asked about the body, Tayra unfolded
one arm and reached halfway behind her, pulling out a ball of twisted metal
to show him as she said, "I figure if Dyne tries to get the city to give up the
prototype, they can get whatever there is to get out of this."
"Hah! I'm sure that'll have them all scratching their heads. At least, until
they see you," he said as he leaned away from the table and stepped over to
her.
Tayra got very still as he came within a foot of her face, though she
tilted her head to look down at him out of one eye.
After a moment of silence, she asked, "Are we good?"
"Sure, we're good. I was surprised, that's all."
"I really wanted to take you flying the first time you saw me like this,
but I was thinking about it and we should probably get a saddle made
before I take you up," Tayra said quietly. "This way we can at least get the
measurements."
"So you do want to fly with me?" he asked.
She nodded, eyes widening as she said, "I'm really looking forward to
it."
He grinned and reached out, setting a hand on her beak as he said, "Well
in that case, so am I. We can go hunting out in the Tracts."
"You mean it!?" she asked, feathers ruffling as she pinpointed.
"Not sure how else I'm going to keep you fed," he said, chuckling.
She rolled her eyes and nudged him with her beak as she dryly said,
"It'll be fun too, Tony."
"Yeah, I figure it will be. Are you okay with this?"
"You mean the whole Harding thing? Yeah, I'm okay with it. This is my
city, but I'm not in charge. I like it here, I like my job, and I want to stay. If
every little detail isn't perfect, so what? I have you."
"And I have you. This is only the start of it, you know? We've got a long
road proving the chief was right to let us stay together."
"I'm ready," Tayra said, rolling the armor ball away with an idle flick of
her talon.
"Hell yeah you are," he said, chuckling wryly.
Tony glanced back at the bedding on the cot, then grabbed the blanket
and pillow, dragging it over as he sat on her foreleg and rolled over it.
"What are you doing?" she asked as he dropped the blanket on the floor
just under her chest.
"Going to sleep with my girl," he said, tilting his head to look straight
up at her.
Warmth suffused her and she shifted around just a little, then lowered
her head to bracket him as she said, "That's so sweet of you. If you're
uncomfortable there you don't have to stay."
 "I've been shot, Tay. I'm going to be uncomfortable no matter where I
sleep," he said ruefully.
"Then go to the hospital!" she said in exasperation.
"Nope. Going to stay here until I can leave with my partner," Tony said
as he settled in, pillow against her forelimb. She could feel his presence, the
weight of his head against her, and wished she had room to curl around.
She said, "We're doing this again later when I can have you against my
belly. This is a little awkward."
"You want me to go-"
"No. I want you where I can reach you."
"Well that's not at all concerning," he said, but it was obvious from his
tone that he was joking.
"I just ... want you within reach," she murmured.
"You said that, but it sounded better the second time," Tony said. "Sleep
well, Tay. Tomorrow we'll head back to civilization."
She shifted a bit, then closed her eyes as she said, "I'm not sure exactly
when I can change back."
"Well, for both our sakes, let's hope it's before you have to go to the
bathroom," Tony said.
"You are an asshole!"
"You reminded me of a bullet wound. Turnabout's fair play."
"Goodnight, Tony."
He chuckled, and it made her warm all the way through when he said,
"Night, Tay. Good work today. You saved a lot of lives and, to me at least,
you're a hero."
"I love you, Tony."
"I love you too. Just, try not to think about waterfalls, or how hard it's
raining outside, or-"
"I'm going to eat you."
His only response was a laugh she knew was subdued because his
wound was bothering him.
She really wanted to curl up around him, but she just didn't have room.
Still, having him near put her at ease and as she dozed off, she wondered
what the future might bring now that she could think beyond the next day,
the next problem.
Tony would stick with her. He'd seen her at her worst, at her best, at her
biggest, and he was still right there in her arms.
 Literally.

W hen she woke , Tony was gone.

She glanced around the basement, then realized she had a more urgent
problem that — fortunately — she could solve.
Tayra shifted back to her humanoid shape and slid into her pants. Her
shirt and panties were shredded, but there was an over-sized white t-shirt
that probably belonged to Mr. Fitzpatrick there next to her armor. She put
the shirt on but didn't bother with the armor as she headed upstairs in a
rather urgent search for a bathroom.
Twenty minutes and a shower later, Tayra walked down the hall to see
Tony awkwardly using his left hand to eat breakfast along with some of the
Fitzpatrick kids at the breakfast nook. She slid arms around his middle and
gently hugged him, mindful of his wounded side as she put a kiss on his
cheek.
He grinned and leaned back into her as he asked, "Sleep good?"
"Yes, though I'm curious how you got away from me without waking
me up."
Tony put his finger next to his nose and winked at her, then nodded into
the kitchen where Nadine was bustling and said, "You're still in time for
food."
"How're your tastes, dear?" Nadine asked, glancing up from the stove
making all the delicious bacon smells. "I can give you your eggs in a
protein puree or actually cook them, just name it."
"I can taste a lot more now than I used to, but the puree is fine; I don't
want to put you out," Tayra said, and her growling stomach was so loud that
it actually cut Nadine off as she started to protest.
Instead, the griff laughed and started cracking eggs into a blender as she
said, "Right. I'll throw a couple scoops of vanilla protein in to thicken it up
a bit and you'll have it in a minute. I'll impress you with my cooking some
other time."
"I'll take all the rest of that bacon too if you're being generous," Tayra
said as she slid onto the stool next to Tony, it having been just vacated by
one of the kids.
 "Like hell you will," Tony said with a grin. "Who do you think asked
her to put that meat on in the first place?"
"Fine, I'll take half," Tayra said, raising an eyebrow at him. It was a
challenge he wisely chose not to accept.
"I shall sacrifice half my bacon to the hungry beast over here," he said
instead, jerking a thumb at Tayra with his bandaged hand as he shoved a
mess of scrambled eggs peppered with jalapeños and mushrooms into his
mouth with the other.
"Smart man," Nadine said without looking at them as she plucked the
bacon off the griddle and dropped it onto paper towels to soak off the
excess grease.
"Where's Mr. Fitzpatrick?" Tayra asked as, moments later, Nadine put a
plate of bacon between the two and a tall glass of pale yellow goop in front
of Tayra.
"He's out in the yard, tending the animals. We've been cooped up for
days and he's got his hands full sorting out the mess," Nadine said as she
wiped her taloned hands with a rag that went over her shoulder as she gave
each of them a once over, then nodded.
"You two look good together," she said.
"Thanks," they said in near perfect unison, and Nadine's feather's fluffed
as she turned to one of the older-looking children and said, "Dane, you go
find Beth and get her in here. The both of you need to load the dishwasher
and clean up. You know the rules. I cooked, you clean."
Tayra glanced down at the griff child just in time to see him cast a
sharp-eyed look her way, feathers plastered to his head. He turned and fled
the house without a word, presumably to look for his sister.
Nadine sighed as she watched him go and said, "Pay no mind. All my
kids are nervous around strangers and being taped to a wall for a few days
didn't help any of them get over their shyness."
She chuckled and said, "In fact, you should probably be thankful, and
get out of here quick. When one of them starts asking questions, you'll get
mobbed and I won't get work out of any of them for the rest of the day."
"Sure, ma'am. Now that Tayra's in shape to travel, I'll call a transport
out," Tony said.
"That's best. Normally, I'd have Dan drive you back to the wall but he
really is busy. I know it might not seem like it, but we are grateful to you.
None of us will ever forget what you did for us."
 Tayra frowned and said, "Nadine ... you know that man was only here
because of me. I'm sorry I dragged your family into this."
The griffin woman just shook her head and said, "No one died, so no
lasting harm done. I do expect regular visits from you two, and to hear
good news soon."
Her eagle-eyed gaze was narrow as she looked from one to the other
and said, "Either of you still in contact with your mothers?"
Tayra said, "No, my parents are both way out in the Tracts, though at
some point I plan to fly Tony out to meet them."
Nadine's eyes flicked to Tony, who just shook his head and said,
"Mom's dead, dad's ... gone."
"Well, I expect to be a godmother by the end of the year and don't you
disappoint me!" she snapped. "I need more help around here anyway."
Tony just chuckled and pulled his phone from his pocket to summon a
transport as he dryly said, "I'll see what I can do."
"If you mean that, get a transfer," Nadine said. "We've got land enough,
we can put a house on some of it."
"Are your parents this pushy?" Tony asked, looking askance at Tayra.
Tayra laughed, grinning from ear to ear as she said, "We'll wait until I've
got chicks to go meet them and let's just leave it at that."
"Ugh. This is going to take some serious mental adjustment," Tony
groaned, then added, "And we are not moving to Bartau. Recent events
aside, nothing happens out here."
"Bah. Tayra can commute to the city and back with you, no problem,"
Nadine said.
"Hah! She'd set off the aerial alarm every time she got anywhere near
the wall, and then what? How's she supposed to go on calls?"
"Do I look like a bureaucrat? Figuring out the details is your job. I'm
just settin' up an 'I told you so' for later. You settle out here now or mark my
words you'll be coming hat in hand askin' for the same when you've got a
few chicks runnin' around squallin' and chewin' the furniture to pieces
because they have nothin' to do."
Tayra smiled, though she tried not to make a show of it as she saw the
look on Tony's face.
At length he just blinked, thanked Nadine for the meal, and stepped out
onto the front porch.
 Nadine watched him go, then turned to Tayra as she said, "That's a good
man, Tayra. You stick by him."
"You aren't making it easy, scaring him with all this baby talk right out
of the gate," Tayra said, raising an eyebrow at the other woman.
Nadine pointed a long talon at her as she said, "You need to set a man's
expectations from the get-go. Has he asked you to marry yet?"
Tayra's expression soured at the memory of that earlier conversation as
she said, "Yes, but I refused to acknowledge it. He needs to actually make a
serious effort. Do you know, he just tried to slip it in sideways like a lunch
plan or something!"
"Hah! That's modern man for you. Still, do us both a favor and don't say
no next time no matter how dumb it is."
"Were you serious ab-"
"Completely serious. If I knew you any better I'd make a demand out of
it but ... well, even I know there are limits. I've spoken to Dan about it. We
want you out here. It'll be better for all of us."
"Well, we'll see. I need to figure out exactly how these transformations
work before we can make any hard decisions."
Nadine nodded as her eyes flicked around, then focused on her again as
she asked, "And the urges?"
"Manageable now," Tayra said, though her smile went a bit quirky.
"Though I was kinda hoping he'd walk in on my shower this morning."
Nadine's feather's fluffed and she leaned in as she said, "Oh he looked,
but when I said he was free he said there were limits to what a man should
do as a guest. I pressed him and he reminded me he'd been shot, then asked
me if I was willing to have him bleed out in my house getting laid."
"You liar," Tayra said, leaning back as she shook her head, chuckling at
the thought.
"Once he's out of the hospital, you be gentle with him," Nadine said,
eyes narrowing. "You only get one like that in a lifetime; don't waste him."
"I won't waste him ... but I do plan to use him up," Tayra said, grinning
openly.
Nadine winked, then made a shooing motion toward the door as she
said, "Go keep him company and maybe drop a hint about how nice my
place is."
Tayra laughed as she asked, "Setting expectations?"
The other woman nodded once, definitively, as she said, "Always."
OceanofPDF.com
 43

OceanofPDF.com
 LAURA

S he barely noticed when the lights throughout cubeville went to half-

strength, and it wasn't until Captain McCreedy knocked at the entrance to
her workspace that Laura looked up from her work, blinking inquisitively at
her boss.
"Late again?" he asked. "You know this isn't a race."
"The sooner I get off mandatory light duty the better. Scheduling is not
what I signed on to do," Laura said as she glanced back at the spreadsheets
open on her side monitors with distaste.
Larry nodded toward her center screen as he said, "Studying hard?"
She nodded and said, "I plan to go for the first tests by the end of the
year and I want to be fully certified by next summer. I know it'll be months
before the next academy class graduates and I can get a new partner, but
that doesn't mean I can't use the time well."
The captain said, "Just don't burn yourself out. I shouldn't need to tell
you that we can't afford to lose you. Are you okay?"
"What, the divorce? It's on autopilot and I'm so thoroughly done with
that man I can't even be bothered to hate him anymore," Laura said, but
Larry shook his head.
He said, "I mean Tony."
Laura frowned and glanced away, thinking a moment before she said,
"Just between you, me, and the wall?"
Larry glanced pointedly around, then nodded.
"I resent the way Bremmin set up his transfer and pinned Manes on
him," Laura said quietly. "You and I both know he was holding back,
hoping. I guess ... I was hoping too, a little bit. Maybe it could have
worked, but that griff ruined everything."
"I heard that project case got settled out in Bartau," Larry said, and
Laura could tell he was fishing.
"You know I can't say anything about that," she said.
Larry sighed and said, "Look, Laura, you know I didn't have anythi-"
"I know. It was all Uncle Nick ... or rather, Velise. She was behind that;
there isn't a doubt in my mind, but while we're on the subject, there is
something you can do for me."
"Name it," he said promptly.
"I don't care what that spider wants, I want a human partner. I will
— and I mean this — resign if you try and stick me with a non-human. You
can tell Uncle I said so."
Larry chewed on his inner lip, then nodded slowly and said, "All right.
Especially considering what happened with the Black Knight killing all the
others, I can't imagine there'll be that many non-humans lining up to take a
crack at the NHIC in the next round anyway."
"I heard Sallesin is in this class," Laura said.
"The succubus? Yeah, I heard that too. Even odds on whether she'll
actually graduate. She barely made the physical qualifications to even start
training."
Laura nodded, then sighed and said, "Maybe I will go ahead and call it a
day. Walk me down?"
The captain grinned and offered his arm.
Laura rolled her eyes, though she was smiling as she grabbed her coat.
She slid her arm through his and they made the short walk to the elevator
bank.
They said their goodbyes in the lobby and Laura walked out the front
doors and down the broad mezzanine steps to street level. She crossed and
began strolling down the sidewalk, her mind ticking through all the things
that needed doing.
Luke Harding had gone off the rails. Getting rid of him had been a
necessary evil, but the thought of deliberately cutting off his support still
pained her. Still, at least she'd been able to use him to advance her own
career.
What hurt more was that the most promising candidate in years had
been snatched right out from under her nose. She'd been grooming Tony
from the day he entered service. The thought of him being so easily turned
into a monster fucker made her seethe.
It was still on her mind when she walked into a narrow, hole-in-the-wall
sort of place called the Railway and took a stool at the bar.
The tender, a young, black-haired man with an affable smile and an easy
manner about him walked up and said, "What can I get you?"
"Snakebite," she said, smiling back. "And don't skimp on the cordial."
"Aye-yo!" he said cheerfully, and turned to make her drink as she
scanned the other patrons.
They were all human, most of them yuppies. The bar had the faint smell
of a party spot, but it was far too early for that. The music was twangy and
just a bit too loud, but it was the sort of place one could talk and not be
overheard.
She was halfway through her drink when a square-jawed man with salt-
and-pepper hair and a long scar down the left side of his face took the
barstool next to hers.
When the bartender came around his voice was deep and soft as he said
without prompting, "A double of the hundred year on the rocks."
When the tender opened his mouth again the man put three hundred on
the table and said, "No change."
The tender's mouth shut with a click and he nodded, swept the money
off the bar, and walked away.
"That is not the sort of gesture a man forgets," Laura said reprovingly.
"The point is to be unobtrusive."
"I'm not in the mood to be unobtrusive. I've been in this game long
enough to know what I'm doing. You on the other hand ..."
He trailed off as the tender brought the drink and left it on a coaster
without a word, clearly having gotten the message that this man wasn't here
to chat up the barkeep.
"I hope your play was worth it. Luke was a good man," he said as he
very carefully poured a bit of his drink on the bar, then took a sip for
himself.
"Luke lost his cool. He got sloppy and took risks that could have
exposed us. As for my play, it's working just fine."
"Tony?"
"Lost cause."
 The big man next to her took a deep breath, then let it out in a long sigh
as he said simply, "Shame."
Laura risked a glance at him, saw his expression seemed genuinely
regretful as he sipped again at his drink.
Returning her attention to her own glass, she asked, "Do you want me to
arrange something?"
"No. He and his partner are too hot; leave him be. I mean it. I even
suspect he's been set up and they'll find your skin nailed to your bedroom
wall."
"I'd be more comfortable about that if I thought you had more control
over your other contacts," Laura said, careful to keep her nerves from
showing.
"I don't think you're a danger. You follow orders and that's fine. I don't
fault your work on Tony either; getting shot was just a bad break. Shit
happens," the man said. "Speaking of which, how's your recovery?"
"Essentially complete. I'll be fighting fit by the end of next month,"
Laura said. "What do you have for me?"
"For now just keep an eye on things in the Daytau office. I might ask
you to arrange schedules in the not too distant future, but you're to maintain.
Just do the job."
"Understood."
"Did you find anything at the farm?" he asked.
Laura nodded and reached into her coat pocket, pulling out a golden
coin that she set on the bar between them. On the face showing was a sword
with a laurel crown wreathing the tip. Around the edge was a simple phrase:
Death to all who oppose us.
The man picked it up, dipped it in the spilled drink, then put it in his
pocket as he said, "Where was it?"
"Buried out in a field."
"He knew he was going to die and hid it beforehand. It's as expected. I
told you he was a good man."
Laura bit her tongue to keep her opinion to herself, then took another
drink to hold that silence.
"Have you got anything else for me?" he asked.
"I've waited long enough. It's time for my ex to disappear. I'm getting
tired of his stalling and I could use the resources."
"Shame about him."
 "It's his own damn fault for getting caught. All I asked was for him to
keep his philandering under wraps and he couldn't even manage that. He's
no longer any good as a conduit, so make him go away if you're in the
mood to do me a favor."
"It shouldn't be a problem. I'll handle it myself."
"So good to me. We done?"
"Talking? Yes. I'm going to finish my drink."
"Well, I hope you don't like that coat too much," she said under her
breath as she stood and loudly added, "Absolutely not, you freak!"
His surprise as she dumped the remainder of her Snakebite in his lap
was comical, and as the tender rushed over she slapped a ten on the counter
and snarled, "No change!" before stalking out of the bar. If he wanted to be
flashy buying expensive drinks, she'd make sure the last impression
everyone had was of him being turned down. That way their meeting
wouldn't look like what it was.
She was certain she'd get shit for it, but it was his own fault and she'd
known him long enough to know he'd laugh about it later. Certain things he
took seriously, but only certain things.
As she stalked away down the sidewalk she shoved hands into her coat
pockets and idly fingered a coin identical to the one she'd handed over as
she briefly considered setting Tony up regardless of her orders.
In the end, she dismissed the thought.
The family resemblance between her handler and Tony Platz was just
too obvious to miss.

OceanofPDF.com
 44

OceanofPDF.com
 TONY

Three Months Later

T ony ' s heart lurched into his throat as Tayra leapt into the air, but he
quickly mastered the panic that assaulted him every time she took him into
the skies. He had learned to trust both his partner and the saddle that had
been made for her, and as she spiraled lazily higher he marveled as always
at the way the landscape fell away below him.
The southern mountain range — never visible from inside the city —
showed itself over the horizon and the smog that covered Daytau. Just
below them was alpine forest, but to the north was a swampland that they'd
found was rich in both danger and the sort of hunting Tayra preferred.
But this time, they weren't going hunting. At least, not today.
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as the heavy beat of Tayra's
wings smote the air beneath him. He felt her muscle flexing between his
knees, even through the saddle, and quietly said, "I never get tired of this."
"Same," Tayra said, having picked up his comment through his throat
mic and responding the same way. According to Nadine, the griffin riders of
old had spoken to each other using a language entirely composed of
whistles. Thankfully, technology saved him the need to learn a new
language or shout to be heard over the often brutal winds.
As they gained altitude, Tony settled back against the brace built into
the saddle as the HUD on his helmet gave him map information.
 Flying in and around the city without getting shot down had taken them
almost a month to arrange. The permits to actually do so had been relatively
easy to get, but getting the wall guns to recognize Tayra's shape had taken
several trips to three different subcities to sort out. In theory, it wasn't
necessary because an IFF chip was embedded in the saddle, but Tony had
insisted on getting her shape recognized by the city-wide defense net and
the military had put up unexpected resistance to the idea of auto-passing an
entire class of creature based on one example.
It was only after the newly installed Mayor Bremmin leaned on the
general that they'd capitulated.
It was good to have friends in high places.
After all that, their first flight had turned into something of a circus.
Bremmin had exacted a promise that Tony would allow the NHIC to make
it a media event in exchange for his support, and there'd been an impromptu
carnival out on one of the massive asphalt lots outside Oolytau as everyone
came out to see what a true griffin looked like in flight.
For the NHIC, it had been a complete coup. For Tony and Tayra, it had
been a nightmare. They'd been bombarded with questions all day and had
been compelled to make several short flights so that everyone could get the
best shots.
It wasn't until their second outing that they actually got to do what Tayra
had been desperate for: go hunting.
Wyverns were her favorite prey. The overgrown lizards were thick with
muscle and almost impossible to shoot down with the sort of small arms
Tony could bring, but in combination with Tayra's slightly larger size and
incomparable strength advantage, they'd had no serious trouble. Tayra often
got minor wounds, but she healed somewhat each time she shifted from one
form to another, and there'd been no serious danger to either of them thus
far.
The city fell behind them as Tayra winged south, and the mountains
took up more and more of the horizon until a vast range lay before them.
Such was Tayra's size that she couldn't fly much higher than two
thousand meters above sea level, and many of the mountains were much
higher than that. Rather than fly over the range, they turned and followed it
east-southeast, and Tony asked, "So how long do you think it'll take to get
there?"
 "I honestly don't know," she said. "I've never been back, and when I
came out of the mountains I had to fly at much lower elevations and rest
often. It took me a week to make it to Daytau ... but honestly I think we
should get there today. I'm still surprised you wanted to make this trip with
me so soon."
"You mean before you lay?" he asked.
"Mmhm. I told you we should wait."
"The doctors said you have a fertilized clutch, Tayra. If that's not good
enough for your parents we aren't going to get along."
"That's a given," Tayra said, sounding a bit apprehensive. "I told you
they don't like humans. They're old enough to remember the skirmishes
after the official end of the war. The last humans they saw were probably
shooting at them."
"I'll manage with your help. It's not like I'll be in any real danger from
them as long as you're with me," he said soothingly.
"I hope you're right. I'm not going to threaten my parents, Tony."
"You shouldn't have to, and I won't either. I'll be on my best behavior; I
promise."
She didn't answer, and the two settled into a companionable silence as
the miles flew away behind them.
Tony was wearing arctic weather gear and despite the slightly below-
freezing temperatures was — if not entirely comfortable — at least not
freezing to death. Tayra didn't like the cold much, but it wasn't a danger to
her and wouldn't be unless the temperature reached something like thirty
below zero.
After almost four hours in the air and two on the ground to let Tony
stretch, Tayra said, "I'm pretty sure it's around here somewhere. I'm going to
go lower and start looking for landmarks."
He agreed and half an hour later she sounded more nervous than excited
as she said, "Okay, I've found it. I'm going to come down a little bit below
the cave mouth and walk us up the rest of the way. I don't want us to look
like we're attacking them."
"Is it really that-"
"Yes, Tony! It is really that big a deal. Life out here is dangerous. When
I was still young, I remember my parents having to fight off goblins, a troll,
and a mated pair of wyverns who wanted their cave."
 "How did they manage that?" Tony asked. "As you were, one wyvern
would have been more than a match for two of you."
"That's true, but my parents aren't the only ones living in these
mountains. They had some help," Tayra admitted.
"More griffins?" he asked, but she was settling on a relatively narrow
ridge of stone and didn't answer.
Once she was on the ground he moved to dismount, but she said, "Stay
on. I'll walk us up."
"I'd rather you shift to your human-like shape so we can walk up
together," Tony said quietly. "I want them to see us as equals."
"I can't shift back yet, and they won't recognize me either way. I want
you out of their reach and where you won't feel you have to draw."
"I wouldn't draw on your family, Tay," he said, though he stayed in the
saddle as she began walking slowly up the ridge toward a high, seemingly
blank cliff that towered over them. There a heavy crust of snow over the
stone, and Tayra's heavy footfalls crushed through with every step.
After a long pause, she said, "If you have to, you should. They were
against my leaving to go find a human mate. When they see that I got the
yen, they're going to be furious."
"They won't be happy for you?" he asked. "Nadine was freakin'
thrilled."
She shook her heavy head as she said, "Remember what you were told
about us. Griffs like my parents see the yen as a curse on our kind. How
would you feel if your prodigal child came back a slave?"
"You aren't a slave."
"That's not how they'll see it. This is why I wanted to wait until I had
chicks to show them."
Tony didn't answer that as he touched his side absently, making sure his
weapon was still secure in its holster. Then, as an afterthought, he patted his
other side.
Tayra didn't press him, and a few moments later they reached the place
where the ridge met the cliff. Tony saw a fold of rock practically invisible
within the sheer face of the mountain.
Waiting there were a pair of griffins so like Tayra that their identity
would have been obvious under any circumstances. They wore heavy furs
against the cold, but the tiger tails of each were visible, and though their
plumage was faded both had the same hawk-like pattern Tayra had.
 Neither spoke, and Tony saw that further back behind the pair were at
least three more. They were so deep in shadow that he might not have
noticed them had his HUD not outlined them for him.
Tayra drew his attention back to the two in front as she started making
bird noises.
Both startled, then began making similar noises in turn, leaving Tony
feeling foolish.
Given what he'd come to do, it would be beyond awkward if neither of
Tayra's parents even spoke a language he could understand.
Something they said must have startled her badly, because she backed
up several steps as she said, "This was a bad idea, Tony. They're telling me
I'm no family of theirs and that they've called Cinder to kill us."
"Cinder?"
Tayra half-twisted her head to look back at him out of one eye as she
said, "She's the dragon patron of these mountains. She's the one who helped
my parents fend off the wyverns."
"Do you know her personally?" Tony asked somewhat nervously as he
set a hand back against the stock of the assault rifle in its saddle holster. It
was the weapon he used to help Tayra finish her kills, and it would easily go
through a wyvern's scales. There was no rating for dragon scales, and he
had no idea if the rifle would do them any good.
"We've met," Tayra said as she spread her wings, obviously getting
ready to take off.
"Does she speak our language?" Tony asked.
"What does it matter!? We're leaving!"
Since the tone in Tayra's voice told Tony she wasn't about to listen to
him and once they were in the air he'd have no say in the matter, he kicked
free of the stirrups and dropped to the ground, the rifle sliding smoothly out
of its holster into a ready position as he landed.
"Tony!" she practically shrieked, but the sound of her voice was all but
drowned out by a furious roar that he could have sworn he felt through the
soles of his boots.
Cinder was huge.
Her scales were mottled, mostly white with slate gray markings here
and there. Her general form was somewhat similar to that of a wyvern, save
that she had forelimbs and wings, and her body was easily three times the
size of the largest wyvern and almost double that of Tayra.
 She landed heavily behind the two of them, catching them with their
backs to the cliff and the two griffins still standing at the cave mouth.
Tony's quick estimation was that his rifle would probably penetrate, but
since that wasn't the impression he wanted to make and he knew he had
only seconds to prevent this from turning into a bloodbath, he raised his
weapon high, showing it to the dragon even as her head reared back, jaws
gaping as a rich yellow glow lit her throat.
Holy shit, she's actually going to breathe fire! he thought, almost too
stunned to follow through with his plan. He might have been — had he not
been exposed to Tayra's own peculiar brand of magic — but he shook free
of his shock and set his helmet to broadcast as loudly as possible as he very
deliberately tossed his rifle to the snow at his feet.
"I came to ask Tayra's parents for their permission to marry her!" he
shouted.
The dragon's head slewed down and left as the flame roared down the
steep side of the ridgeline. An avalanche started, but its high edge was
below Tony, and all he had to do was take a knee to avoid being knocked
off his feet as the snow thirty feet from him slipped away as one piece and
tumbled on down the mountain.
He watched the haze rise in the air below him in shocked awe, only to
turn and see the dragon gone.
In its place was a woman wearing a uniform. She had dark brown skin
and large, golden, slitted eyes set in an oval face framed by straight black
hair that whipped around her in the wind.
When their eyes met, she strode forward and stopped when the toe of
her highly polished boot touched his discarded rifle.
The uniform was white with black and silver trim. It was immaculate,
but there were no rank insignia or awards anywhere. He had never seen a
dress uniform quite like it, and had no idea what her wearing it meant.
Her voice was bold and brassy as she said, "I would have proof that
what you say is so."
Since there was only one thing he had that might prove in that moment
he was serious, he slowly straightened and — with his right hand up and
palm facing her — he reached into his pocket with his left and pulled out
the black velvet box.
Lowering his right hand, he used it to open the box, showing the dragon
its contents.
 "Tony ..."
So focused had he been on the lady in front of him that he hadn't noticed
Tayra coming up from behind. He glanced up to see her looking straight
down over his head at the emerald stone in its platinum setting.
"Where did you get the money for something like that?" she asked.
Tony paused to take off his helmet before he turned to answer her.
"I didn't. This ring has been in my family for the last two generations.
My mother left it for me in her will, requesting that if I ever did get married
I make it three generations."
Turning, he said, "I kinda wanted to make this a surprise for you, but
seeing as how I've got a dragon at my back and your parents want to kill me
... fuck it."
Tayra stared at him, beak gaping as he took a knee in the snow and
looked up at her as he said, "Tayra, I love you, and I want everyone
everywhere to know it. I messed up the first time I asked you to marry me
and I'm not sure this is much better but, this time it's honestly not my fault.
This isn't exactly a romantic venue, but I suppose it's the best a guy like me
can do. Will you marry me?"
"Tony, this is so not fair!" Tayra said, all but whining. "I can't ... I mean,
how am I supposed to wear your ring like this!?"
"Is that a-"
"Yes! Yes I'll marry you but right now I am so frustrated! I can't shift
for another few hours! You're proposing to a monster!"
"I'm proposing to you, and how dare you suggest I would marry a
monster!" Tony said as he got back up off his knee, snapping the box closed
and showing it to her briefly as he added, "I'll keep this until you can wear
it. I used a string to measure your finger and had the ring adjusted. Since
you won't be able to wear it when you're like this, how about we just make
it a ritual and I put it on you whenever you shift back?"
Tayra twisted her head down, looking at him out of one eye as she made
the cutest happy bird noise Tony'd ever heard.
It was loud, but cute.
Tony noticed that both of Tayra's parents and four of what he presumed
to be her siblings were now in view, having come out on the ridge to watch.
Their attitudes varied from shy to interested to angry, with the mother being
the most openly hostile-looking of the group.
 A pointedly cleared throat turned Tony back around, and he once more
faced the dragon woman who — after casting a glance past them both at the
watching family, fixed him with a level gaze as she said, "Your gear and
bearing are those of a military man. Do you serve in Daytau?"
"I'm actually not military. I'm law enforcement. Tayra and I both are,
and yes, we work in Daytau."
"And you are not fleeing persecution? You truly came here to gain the
consent of Tayra's family?"
"Much as I screwed that last part up, yes, and we are absolutely not
fleeing persecution. You must know what was required of me to satisfy the
yen," he said, then added mostly for the benefit of her family, "Tayra's
already got a fertilized clutch."
When she heard that, the dragon woman Cinder looked pointedly back
at the mother, who twisted her head and looked embarrassed more than
anything. The father walked toward them and stopped when he stood in
front of Tayra and just next to Tony.
He looked up at her, then made what sounded to Tony like meaningless
bird noise.
She replied, and there was a brief back and forth before the male griffin
turned his full attention to Tony and haltingly said, "You knelt to my child.
You are giving my blood another generation. I am ... grateful."
Tony opened his mouth to reply, but never got the chance as Tayra's
father abruptly turned and strode purposefully away again.
"Don't press him," Cinder advised, her voice somewhat subdued though
still ripe with authority. "Those two have been through much at the hands of
humanity, and while both of them are perfectly aware that they require
human seed to further their line, neither of them is happy about it, or that
their daughter manifested the yen. Leave them be. What you just heard is
the best you can expect from them right now."
"All right," Tony said, turning his attention back to Cinder, who was
looking at him keenly.
After a moment, she said, "Humanity has shown a remarkable hatred of
magic, and all things magical. Yet now I have before me a griffin rider
— the first to manifest on this world, so far as I know. I have no reason to
doubt what you say. You are accepted by your people, despite the magical
nature of your bond. Perhaps the human gene sages were not so genocidal
as I believed."
 "Well," Tony said, wincing as he hedged, "accepted is a bit of a stretch.
Tolerated is more accurate. Tayra and I are ... something of a test case."
Cinder nodded, then turned, gazing northwest toward an invisible
Daytau. She stared for what felt to Tony like a long time, given he still had
his helmet off and the biting winds buffeting the mountain were beginning
to numb his ears and nose.
"Do you have access to the ruler of Daytau? I believe he is called
'mayor?'" she finally asked.
"Yes, though we're out of range to communicate at the moment," Tony
said warily.
"How close must you be to communicate?" she asked.
"I need to have line of sight with the city skyscrapers," he said.
Cinder turned back to him and gazed at him with what felt like resolve
as she said, "Very well. You will serve me in exchange for my blessing, and
for sparing your life."
"Okay," Tony drawled. "What do you want me to do?"
She smiled, though it was more predatory than pleasant. She said, "I
have three messages. One must go to the mayor, one to the gene sages, and
the third to a vampire living in Daytau named Shiro. At the least, the mayor
will be able to disseminate the remaining messages if you cannot. However,
you personally are to see that all three missives are received by the relevant
parties or there will be much suffering, Tony. Fail me, and griffin riders will
once more be extinguished, though I will spare Tayra until she lays out of
consideration to her family."
He glanced up at Tayra, who shrugged marginally and said, "Sure, I can
take-"
"I will take him. The saddle you wear will be adjusted to fit me. You
will remain with your family. I suspect you have much to discuss with
them, yes?"
"Uh ... you're way too big for the saddle straps to-"
"My size is malleable, and you will make no further attempt to dissuade
me. Remove the saddle and prepare it for me. I want my messages received
before dawn tomorrow," Cinder said, dismissing his objection with an
imperious wave of her hand.
Tony turned back to Tayra, blinking as he asked, "What do you think?"
Tayra glanced from him to the waiting dragon and back again, then said,
"I'll be safe enough with my family. Cinder is the law up here in the same
way Bremmin is the law in Daytau. Best do what she says."
"Should be no problem then," Tony said, turning back to Cinder as he
added, "I've got direct contact with Shiro and the mayor, and several
numbers to reach the splicers."
Cinder nodded and her tone was somewhat softer as she said, "It is well,
and you need not fear me so long as you intend to obey. I am actually quite
pleased at this turn of events, and provided your service is satisfactory
you'll be well-rewarded for your effort. Now move."

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 AFTERWORD

And here we come to the end of the second book in this most unexpected of
series. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for indulging in this story, I
hope you enjoyed it, and that if you did you’ll continue to allow me to
entertain you in the future.
The observant among you may have noticed that the first WYLAMG?
book didn’t even HAVE an afterward, and that is for two reasons. The first
is that I did a stupid and forgot to put one in. The SECOND is that I decided
not to go back and amend that error because I really didn’t know what to
say.
WYLAMG wasn’t my usual style of book. It was a departure in a
variety of ways from anything that I’d done before. In that case, should I
really include all the same information that I put in my other books,
considering the audience might be wildly different?
But now here we are at the end of book 2 and I figure I ought to at least
say SOMETHING.
The Would You Love A Monster Girl stories began as a vignette that I
posted to my Patreon. Specifically the bar scene at the beginning of Velise,
where a hard-bitten detective meets an arachne. It was just a curious little
tale that I had in my head and decided to get out as a bit of a writing
exercise, only to have several of my patrons say — and I’m paraphrasing
here — 'Yo, Ceb. You need to turn this into a novel.'
I thought about that, turned it over for a bit, then decided to make it a
serial for my Patrons. They were paying me, they told me they wanted more
of this, and I like to give people what they pay for.
 Thus, Velise came to be.
Once it was done I put a cover on it, using a new artist who’d done
drider work in the past and going with a style of cover that I thought looked
like an old Americana movie poster that would fit with the hardboiled
theme, and figured whatever money it made would be gravy since the
people who’d asked for it already paid for it.
Well.
It never went best seller, but it DID sell well. So well in fact that I
figured I’d go ahead and make a series of this experiment, and start writing
Monster Girl Romances as an actual thing.
Each of these books is designed to be self-contained, telling the story of
two lovers in an ever-expanding world of mystery and conflict. Since
you’re here, reading my afterward, I have to presume you’ve at least
tolerated my efforts so far, and for that I thank you. I shall continue to do
my very best to hone my craft and bring new and interesting stories, all the
while building on this world that I’ve created.
I hope you stay with me to enjoy these further adventures.
If you did enjoy, please take the time to leave me a review on Amazon.
Ratings are great, but even a few words are enough to give real weight to
what is otherwise a fairly obscure system. That, and I read every review, so
if you want to tell me directly how you feel, a review is a great way to do
that, and it helps.
Of course, there are other ways to get in touch with me. Several in fact!
After you’ve left me a review, you might be inclined to join my discord
server or my mailing list so that you’ll be notified whenever I have new
stories to tell.
You might even be inclined to join my Patreon where, for a few dollars
a month, you can get early access to the stories I tell, read works in
progress, help me prioritize my project list, get samples of art and high-rez
cover images, perhaps even a few audio samples and other such goodies
from time to time.
My Patreon:
Celestine After Dark (https://www.patreon.com/cebeliuswrites)
My Discord Server:
Celestine (https://discord.gg/aQDRmwU6jk)
My Mailing List:
Join My List! (http://eepurl.com/dyLyaT)
 Or, if you just want to shoot me an email, you can:
cebelius@cebeliuswrites.com
At the last, I want to thank you, once more, and from the bottom of my
heart. You make my dream a reality. You let me make stuff up for a living,
and I will never, ever take you for granted. What you’ve given me is a
priceless gift, and you have my deepest gratitude.
Until next time.

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