Breathless Ch. 03

"Goblins are the one ones who like houses like that. Vampires like 'em tall and grand, werewolves prefer stuff with more open spaces, and elves are like vampires except they want their houses further apart."

"What about humans?"

"Humans like trappings on the outside. They like porches and barbecues and things that let everyone else know how much stuff they have. A little bit egotistical, but kind of refreshing. The reasons for things like porches and barbecues is so that you can invite people over to share your bounty. They can be close minded sometimes, but humans are more likely than other races to cross social boundaries." Sadie glanced around. "These neighborhoods are so species-centric . . . has it always been like this?"

Devlin shrugged. "Kind of. Well, maybe not quite like this. When the mayor started rezoning in his first term, the vampires started shifting to West End. Something about tax breaks."

"Tax breaks that only vampires can take advantage of?"

Devlin pursed his eyes. "Elves too. Some humans. It's one of the swankier areas in all of Midian now."

"Shame," she replied. Then the radio started to squawk at them.

*We've got a 10-103f with multiple perps at the corner of Londonderry and Sage, (click)*, the dispatcher said. *That would be the Bygone Cafe, (click)*.

"How close are we?" Sadie asked.

Devlin grabbed the radio. "Roger that. This is car 0105 and we're just a couple of minutes out."

There was a pause. *Copy. We've got two other cars that'll just be a few minutes behind you. Be careful. (click)*

Sadie floored the gas and hit the lights and siren. Devlin was quick to give directions and they arrived in hurry. Sadie hopped out of the SUV and grabbed her shotgun (known as Hooters) out of the rack.

"You think that's necessary?" Devlin asked.

"Probably not, but I'd rather have it with me and not need it than need to and have to come back for it." She was striding towards the front of the cafe when a goblin came stumbling out the door. Goblins weren't particularly good brawlers and tended to fight in groups, and this one was looking pretty battered. Devlin got on his radio and called for an ambulance, trying to get the goblin to get down on the ground at the same time. Sadie stood next to the window at the front and glanced in, and there was chaos. There was at least a dozen combatants inside.

"Dispatch, what's the ETA on backup?" Sadie shouted. She didn't wait for an answer, since she heard multiple sirens approaching. "Never mind." Then she heard crashing from inside and a second form came flying out the window, spraying her with glass in the process. "Crap!" She glanced inside, able to get a better look without the glare from the glass. There were some larger humanoids towards the back and a shorter humanoids.

The taller ones seemed to notice they had a visitor and took off through the kitchen.

"In pursuit!" she shouted, jumping into the room.

"Arbiter, wait! Wait for backup!"

"They can catch up!" As she bolted through the building, she took note of the people who were down. Lot's of bruises, minor bleeding and maybe some broken bones, but no one was dying. The place reeked of blood and testosterone, so she couldn't make out the races of all involved.

She tore through the kitchen where a frightened staff pointed towards the swinging back door, so Sadie made her way out onto the street. She heard their footsteps before seeing them as the fleeing combatants made their way out of the end of the alley. They had a good head start on her but to Arbiter Sadie Hewitt, the chase had just started. She vaulted any number of trash bags, cans or alley flotsam as she struggled to make up ground. Hitting the edge of the alley, she saw them weaving through traffic.

"This is Arbiter Hewitt," she said into her radio as she hurtled a cute little VW Beetle, "and I'm in pursuit of suspects heading west on . . . Flair Ave.," she added, looking around for a street sign. "Vamps!" She shouted this after one of the chased turned to look at her. Even if she couldn't smell them, there was no way she would mistake the creature and the arrogance behind those eyes.

"Stop!" she shouted, mostly out of a sense of obligation. She really didn't expect them to comply, which they didn't. She was gaining on them, and she wondered if they knew it. Sadie had spent twice as much time on obstacle courses as anyone else at the Arbiter Academy, just because she loved to practice. She weaved around and jumped over cars until she got to the sidewalk, quickly turning a corner. A ways down the street, she saw her quarry piling into a car.

"What the fuck?!" She kept running, wondering what was going on. Had they parked all the way over here? It didn't make sense. And she hadn't seen any of them get into the driver's side door. She tried to get a good look at the plates as pulled her walkie-talkie up. "Suspects are getting into a black . . . Lincoln. License plate numbers . . . Damn it!" The car had a dark protective covering over the plate, making it impossible to read from that distance. She had no idea why those things were legal. The wheels on the getaway car spun out. "The car is heading north on Pleasant Street and . . . no, it's turning right on Concord." She turned and ran through the office building to her right, trying to find a way through to make up more ground. She wound up jumping through a secretary's window to land on the street next to some terrified passersby, but it was too late. The car had vanished. She looked up and saw a sign: "West End City Limits." They had escaped into vampire territory. She saw some Gravestones police cars go flying by, but she doubted they'd have better luck. A bunch of vampires had roughed up a bunch of goblins and they'd had help getting away. It didn't set well in her stomach . . . not at all.

She turned and walked back the way she'd come, stopping to calm down the frightened secretary and leave her card so she could see about the damages. When she got back to the Bygone Cafe, she found that most of the Goblins were being treated or questioned. Vladimir was there and walked over to her.

"It was dumb chasing after 'em on you own," he said, but he really didn't seem to be chastising her. It was more like he was saying what he was supposed to say. "You okay?"

"Just my pride hurt. They had a getaway car, which took them to West End at the very least. Anyone hurt badly?"

"Nah," Vladimir replied. He looked confused. "By all accounts, the vamps just came in the back and started wailing on people. No attempt at robbery or anything. Owner said that one of them shoved a flier in his mouth then knocked him through the dishrack."

"Got the flier?"

The two of them walked over to where the owner was giving a statement to Officer Devlin. The young human looked almost bored, and it made Sadie mad.

"Hello sir," she said as she approached, ignoring Devlin completely, "I was wondering if you had the flier that you were assaulted with." She got down on a knee and looked the goblin in the eye: in their culture, it was a show of respect to meet them on their own terms.

"It's back in there somewhere," he said. "It was one for 'Werewolf Wednesday.' It's a dumb name, I know, but I was trying to get the furry crowd back in."

"What do you mean by 'back in'?"

"We used to get a lot more diverse crowds. It's kinda fallen off this year, and it's a shame. Weres know how to party like no one else."

"You've never seen ME party," Sadie said, patting the goblin on the shoulder. "Sorry I didn't catch them, but I promise you I'll get them some time or another."

"You can't win them all," the Goblin said. "May have to close down after this though. It's hard to keep a place going when you have people making it clear you're not wanted."

"Don't let them win," Vladimir said, following Sadie's lead and kneeling. "Don't let a bunch of bloodsuckers tell a goblin that they can't run a business." It was a good tactic, since goblins had worked longer and harder than other races to earn respect in the workforce, so they tended to be more proud of their accomplishments. "No offense," he added, glancing at Sadie.

"None taken."

"It's always the vampires' fault," Devlin muttered sarcastically.

Sadie ignored him for the time being, taking a look around. She let Vladimir talk to the owner while she looked at the walls of the restaurant. There were a number of different fliers up with discounts for the different races. A young human female with a waitress outfit and a black eye walked over and stood next to Sadie.

"We've heard a lot of grumblings about these recently," she said quietly. "Vamps that use to come in started talking shit to everyone else, and they'd sometimes hang outside on human night or werewolf night just to hurl insults at people. Everront," she said, looking towards the owner, "was trying so hard to get a mixed clientèle. Always thought it was better to keep more doors open than shut."

It had been a long time, but she had been a young girl once. She knew what it looked like when you wanted to cry but were afraid to. She put an arm around the girl's shoulder. "It's okay," she whispered. The girl wept quietly into the Arbiter's should. Sadie didn't figure the girl could be more than eighteen years old, which was a tough age to be. It was old enough to vote and die for your country and think you're invincible, but not too young to find out the world wasn't always flowers and puppy dogs.

"You're a vampire, right?" the girl asked. "I'd heard the new Arbiter was a vamp."

"Yeah, I'm a vamp."

"Why do you guys hate us so much? I mean . . . I didn't mean you --"

"It's okay. We don't. Not all vampires are like that," she said, not sure how much she believed it. "You got someone coming to get you? I'll stay with you until they get here, okay?"

It was a few minute until the girl's terrified parents showed up and took her away, swearing they'd never let their girl work out of human territories again. Sadie ground her teeth angrily, looking around for something to punch. Vladimir showed up, and she liked him a bit too much to unload on him. 'Where's Devlin?' she thought irritably.

"You sensing a pattern here?" Koloff asked.

"Yeah. And I got the feeling something's going on besides the regular Halloween jitters." She stomped her foot and walked towards her vehicle. "I can't believe I let them get away."

"Hey, even you can't chase down a car. Hell, I couldn't do it fully wolfed out." He could tell that she wasn't in the mood to be reasonable. He realized that she really thought she was superwoman, or at least that she was supposed to be. "Let's get some statements, get an artist down here to do some renderings and then . . . then you get that drink."

"That would be 'drinks' . . . the plural of 'drink.' Don't go getting cheap on me Vlad," she said, her smile returning. It was hard to keep Sadie down for long.

"Okay," he replied, realizing that he had no chance in hell of breaking her of the habit of calling him "Vlad," "multiple drinks. You got anyplace in mind?"

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At the end of the shift . . .

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Vladimir was probably going to get a headache before he left but, if not, he was sure he'd get one when he got home. Teresa would be able to smell the cheap perfume and lingering aroma of beer and unfiltered Camels on him from across the room, and elves didn't even have a great sense of smell.

"So where'd you hear about this place?" he asked, raising his Coors Light to his lips. Sadie looked at his choice of beverages with some disgust.

"Frankenstein."

"Pardon?"

Sadie was kicked back in the comfy cloth chair, staring at some twenty-something year old girl strutting her stuff on stage in nothing but a bra and thong. "One of the leaders of El Diablo is a friend of mine, and he recommended it.." She had chosen the Cat Scratch Club as the "bar" to claim her bet winnings at. "There he is!" She stood up and waved wildly. She'd called him on the way over, but wasn't sure he was going to make it. She waited until the biker got over, gave him a big hug and introduced him to Vladimir. It was weird introducing a biker who wasn't exactly always lawful to a fellow cop, but once Vladimir saw the Semper Fi tattoo on Frank's arm, everything was good. Marines were marines.

"Actually, can't stay long," Frank said, ordering a single beer. "Just wanted to say hi. Looks like we're going to be pulling out of town soon."

"Why?" Sadie said. "Hold that thought." She pulled out her wallet, got a single and headed up to the stage, shoving it under some the boy-shorts of a pink-haired hard-bodied dancer who had just come up.

"Thanks baby," the dancer said. "I'm Torrie."

"Lap dance later?"

The dancer looked off into a dark corner and then back at Sadie with a sultry smile. "Be over after my rotation. Just need to make sure my girlfriend approves."

Sadie grinned. "I love open relationships." She went and sat back down. "So, where were we?"

Frank shrugged. "Most cops have been getting really friendly in a bad way with my boys. Gravestones is the only place we can play. And the Nightwings rolled in a couple of days ago. My crew's a little young up here, and I don't want any of 'em getting froggy and starting something with vamp bikers."

"Nightwings?" Sadie got comfortable and sipped her drink. "I've never heard of them riding out here."

"Me either."

Vladimir started to say something, but was then distracted by a top-heavy black woman who walked by and traced a finger across his strong shoulders. "Is there some kind of convention going on?" he asked. "I mean, there's a lot of vamps in town."

"I haven't heard anything," she responded.

"Doesn't surprise me," Vlad said. "You go out of your way to make sure they don't talk to you."

"I try, but they keep talking."

"You know, maybe you should try playing nice with them," Vladimir said. "I know you're less than thrilled about the idea, but it might let us know if something is really up or if it's just our imaginations."

"Why don't you get Devlin?" Sadie muttered into her rum and coke. "He wants to be a vampire so bad --"

"But he isn't," Vlad said, putting his drink down. "And he isn't an Arbiter either. Frost is obsessed with you for some reason, so maybe you should consider using that."

Sadie put her drink down and she looked at him with as serious a face as she'd ever worn. "I won't be seen as some vamp Lord's broodling or suckup. Not even if it's for pretend. I'll find a way of looking into it, okay?"

The werewolf looked over at Frankenstein, but the man nearly shrugged. He didn't know why Sadie avoided her own kind so vehemently. 'Except that Terrence guy,' Vlad thought. "Do you think that Frost's bodyguard might be able to give us some information? Nothing sensitive, 'cause I've got the feeling he's the loyal type . . . just if there's a party that we weren't invited to."

Sadie seemed to be mulling it over. "Might work. I'll talk to him if he comes to help on the deck this weekend."

"You're building your deck? Why didn't --" Vlad started.

"Mary's going to be there. The wraith?" She knew he was going to ask why she hadn't asked for his big manly help, and there it was. Werewolves were more freaked out by wraiths than anyone, due to the lack of any olfactory footprint. "The more help the better, but I figured --"

"I'll be there. Teresa hates it when I'm around on the weekends anyway."

"Why . . . How did you two meet?" Sadie asked, going back into her non-confrontational mode, a bit perplexed that he'd be willing to joined a construction crew with a wraith foreman so quickly. She noticed an immediate souring of attitude. "I'm not trying to start a fight," she added carefully. "Just trying to get to know my partner is all. I can listen to you or to rumors." She watched him breathe in, then out . . . and finally he spoke.

"Quid pro quo," he replied. "I talk about my life, you get to explain what happened in Austin that made your superiors 'let' you come up here to Midian."

"I don't --"

"Then no deal."

Frankenstein was chuckling as he stood up. Not many people could back Sadie into a corner and get away unscathed. "I'll leave you two alone. I'm going to go get the boys and head south and see what kind of hell we can raise in San Francisco."

Sadie jumped up and hugged her friend. "Be good. Don't make me come down there and have to arrest you."

"Will do."

Sadie sat back down and glared at Vlad, who looked monumentally unintimidated. "You tell no one?" She watched Vlad zip his lips shut. "Okay, it was really just a big accident," she muttered. "Things just got a little out of control." She took a deep breath and then launched into her explanation. She had actually just been responding to a disturbance call where someone had reported their neighbor was making too much noise. Sadie had been bored so, rather than just letting a regular flatfoot take care of it, she had decided to take a drive. Turned out that some moron decided to make a ruckus cleaning some of the equipment they used to make crystal meth . . . in their backyard in the middle of the night. They were so out of their brains by that point that it apparently just didn't occur to them that this wasn't the wisest thing to do. She showed up and they actually had the gall to hit on her before realizing that she was both a cop and a vampire. Then things had gotten chaotic.

It had been four of them and one of her, so Sadie thought it would have been unfair of her to call for backup. She only had one pair of cuffs, so she had to improvise. She cuffed one to an exposed water pipe, hung another one from the back porch by his shoelaces and implanted a third in the fence. The fourth wound up being a fake-were, or a human who had been granted the ability to morph into a monstrous creature via a witch-spell. Highly illegal black-market spell, but potentially lethal. She had fought with the guy for a while before he realized that spell or no spell he was no match for Sadie, so he took off running. He was able to make it to his car because --

"My . . . uhm . . . pants got on the barbwire they lined their gate fence with," Sadie mumbled, taking another drink.

Vlad tried not to grin. "Don't tell me --"

"Yep," she replied, "I had to dump the pants and my shoes to give chase."

"Not that you usually mind," Vladimir chuckled, "but please continue."

Sadie rolled her eyes. She got to her patrol car and had pursued the escapee until they both got stuck in Austin traffic. He had gotten out of his vehicle, so she got out of hers intending to pursue on foot. Their dodging through busy streets caused a traffic back-up for a quarter mile in every direction. Then the perp car-jacked an ice-cream truck.

"You're kidding?!" Vladimir was loving the hell out of this. "This is the dumbest chase in history!"

The Arbiter glared at him, though it was pretty damn funny in retrospect. "Well, the only thing I could see that I could commandeer that was facing the correct directions was --" She paused, took a deep breath and then, "-- the tour bus for the Rolling Stones 'Last Time and We Mean It' tour. Hey, it made sense at the time!"

"Had you ever driven a bus before?"

"No," she said, blushing furiously. "I figured it couldn't be hard. Now, the only reason I know how many gears it had was because I stripped them all."

"Okay, so the half-naked vampire Arbiter is chasing an ice-cream truck driven by a fake-were while in a tour bus stolen from a band who will never die."

"Effectively." Sadie went on to explain that she tailed the guy to an abandoned warehouse district where he rushed inside. She managed to get a look inside by standing on the bus and looking through a vent. It was a drug cartel's entire local inventory, and there were a lot of armed men listening to her perp rapidly try and explain why he had led an Arbiter right to them.