Chapter Fourteen
Kavon breathed a littleeasier when he parked the SUV in the parking garage of the FBI office. This place and his apartment were the only places where he felt protected. His shields might not stand up against Anzu, but they would warn Kavon if that monster or any of his durance cousins showed up.
“Will White be in the unit?” Darren asked.
“Doubt it,” Kavon said. “Other than asking us to come in for witness interviews with Unit Three, he’s been working with Coretta.” Kavon suspected that Coretta would make him pay for that.
They headed up the back stairs without seeing anyone. Since the Talent unit was tucked into a little-used corner of the building, it was usually quiet, but Kavon had an eerie feeling. His bull appeared at the top of the stairs and snorted a challenge to the universe. Kavon wished he knew whether the bull had found a threat or whether it was reacting to Kavon’s unease.
Kavon rested his hand against Darren’s back as they headed for the Talent unit.
“Is Unit Three coming to us?” Darren asked. It wasn’t standard to allow witnesses to set the place for the interview, but the other rooms didn’t have the same shielding against Talent.
“Yep.”
Darren chuckled. “You and your immovable object impressions.” He shook his head.
“It’s logical for them to come here,” Kavon said. He pushed the double doors open.
Les jumped to his feet. “Bruh, it is so good to see you unbroken.” Les grabbed Darren in a tight hug. “Damn. Stop getting injured.”
“So sorry I worried you,” Darren said with a touch of sarcasm, but he also hugged Les back.
Rima got up. Her desk was on the far side of the room, now the half officially designated for Kavon’s agents. “You look good for somebody who just got blown up. I agree with Les, you can stop trying to curve our agent injury statistics for the year. We’ve won the pool, several times over,” Rima teased.
Joe, the new shaman, stood, his lanky frame unfolding with grace as he moved to sit on the edge of his desk. “This unit is a little heavy on major injuries. Looking good, Oberton.”
Darren gave him an easy smile, but Kavon moved between them. Joe was quick with a smile, and that made Kavon’s skin itch. He preferred open hostility or reserved suspicion to Joe Kaslov’s sort of gregariousness.
Ahtisham crossed in front of Joe before holding his hand out for Darren. “You need to stop having such an interesting life. My mother would accuse you of looking for metal chickpeas to gnaw on.”
Les wrinkled his nose. “That sounds bad for the teeth.”
The bond sang with Darren’s pleasure. “Well, you know, I like to make sure Anita has enough business to keep her busy.”
“I’d suspect that you were trying to hook up with her, only I happen to know you are stupidly in love with someone else,” Les said. “I’ll call Coretta and let her know you’re in.” He grabbed his desk phone, and Joe retreated to his chair. Anne Peters continued to type, but she watched with poorly hidden curiosity. If she had any sense, she’d worry about the number of injuries the team racked up.
“Call Brown over in Unit Three,” Kavon said. Since he was in the office, he wanted to check on his cases. As recent history had proved, adding new members to the unit could reduce efficiency. Like Traci Frane, Anne was an older agent who had transferred in from a less active division, but this time Kavon had managed to avoid hiring another saboteur. Maybe. “Any movement in our cases?” Kavon asked Anne.
“You mean in the half day you took off before blowing up a DC street?” Anne asked with an overly sweet smile.
Kavon shifted his gaze from Darren to Anne. She continued to type, and Ahtisham snorted before he returned to his own desk. Only then did Anne focus on Kavon. “We haven’t had any major breakthroughs, and if we do, I trust Coretta will handle them well.”
“I trust her without reservation. I still want an update.” Kavon loathed being questioned.
She studied him before saying, “We still don’t have any movement on the Sanchez kidnapping. Milton is trying to track financials in the Taylor case.”
“I thought the finances were a dead end.” Kavon didn’t like the thought of one of his people getting sent on a wild goose chase, and their witnesses had said Taylor kept all his betting records in his notebook. They needed a warrant and a pickpocket, not a hacker. Anne shrugged, but her expression suggested she hadn’t liked the assignment either.
Kavon headed for Milton’s desk. He had pulled it up against a wall and then used a spare bookcase to arrange an impressive array of computer guts and crystals. Kavon didn’t know much about crystal magic, but Coretta was impressed with his speed and accuracy, so Kavon trusted Milton to know his way around a spell, and he preferred Milton’s open insecurities and nasty attitude to someone like Joe who seemed to hide behind a quick smile.
“Milton, I need you to find a list of everyone who was at the scene yesterday,” Kavon said.
Milton looked up and his glasses, which had been perched on the top of his head slid backward. He grabbed them before they could fall. “I didn't think we were working that case.”
“Put in the request,” Kavon said. If they couldn’t stop Anzu, they would have to find his human partner. Since Anzu had grabbed the SUV and swept a tree out of his way, he saw Earth. That implied he watched through the eyes of his shaman partner.
Milton swiveled his chair around to face Kavon. “But if it's not our case, what right do I have to be requesting information? I’m sure someone else has the case.”
