Dirty Little Misery (Miss Misery) Read online

  “Nope, no one knows the files have been copied. And this is important—no one can ever know what’s on them except for me.” He was in a chair, so I lowered my head until we were face-to-face. Through the bond connecting us, I concentrated every drop of my power. I’d never tried something like this before. I’d convinced people to forget my face or forget that we’d met, but this was far more complicated. “You cannot tell anyone else about me, these files or what you might find. Understand?”

  His eyes were glassy but focused. “No one but you. I get it.”

  “Good.” I broke the connection. Ben’s glasses had slid down his nose while he’d fixated on me, and he pushed them up. “Now how much do I owe you for this?”

  I wanted to keep his mind busy so he didn’t figure out what I’d done. Usually, after bashing someone over the head with my gift, I got to hightail it away, but not this time. I had to make sure, as best I could, that my trick had worked.

  Thankfully, Ben proved easily distractible, and after discussing a price—half of which I paid up front, the other half due if he could actually crack the encryption—Steph and I left.

  I could sense a storm brewing in her, but I’d been too focused on talking with Ben to pay it much mind. Once we stepped outside and I decided the heat called for ice cream, I had Steph’s cayenne anger flooding me instead. “What?”

  “What? What, Jess?” Steph stuck her hands on her hips, her eyes wild. “Are you really asking that? You magically assaulted him. Don’t think I can’t recognize when you’re using your gift. I’ve gone hunting with you enough times.”

  I gaped right back at her, then stepped off to the side to let a group of girls in sorority shirts walk by. “Yeah, you have. Exactly. What I did is no different than what I’ve done hundreds of times. So I’m not following your outrage.”

  Even dressed in her mundane work clothes, Steph could be kind of scary when she got angry. It had to be something about a woman of her height with a voice that deep. She pulled me by the arm onto an empty section of sidewalk. “You’ve done it to criminals.”

  “If he cracks those files, he is a criminal. I thought the whole point of you finding this guy was because we needed someone with flexible ethics.”

  Steph stuck her sunglasses on, sparing me from her glaring. “You are missing the point by miles.”

  “Maybe you’re not being clear enough then. I mean, Ben’s not a violent criminal like the people I usually go after, but it’s also not like I mind-fucked him to steal his soul. I just needed to put a suggestion on him so he wouldn’t screw me over later. You were the one reminding me how risky it is to let anyone else see what’s in those files.”

  Down the block, a train pulled up to the stop in a terrible racket. Damn. Now we’d have to wait for the next one.

  Steph took out a cigarette. Her anger was fading, but she was on edge and most definitely unhappy with me. “Ben is doing something risky for you. Yes, you’re paying him, but you want what he can do—that makes him one of the good guys. Yet you just treated him like he’s one of the bad guys. Like there’s no difference.”

  “Of course there’s a difference. I’m not hurting him.”

  “But you are. It’s coercion.”

  “It’s minor. It doesn’t affect him in any other way.”

  Steph turned away to blow her smoke downwind. “It’s using your gift to bend another innocent human to your will. That’s pred-like, Jess. You know it. Or have you been spending so much time in your other friends’ company that you’re starting to think like them?”

  Her words were a slap to the face. A wrongly deserved slap, but a slap nonetheless. They stung. “That’s not true.”

  “No?”

  “No. I used to use my gift all the time to get us into clubs, or buy alcohol when we were underage. Remember that? So how is this different?”

  Steph wet her lips and started toward the T stop. “I was younger and dumber. Same reason I used to do all kinds of illegal hacking before wising up. ’Sides, I was never exactly comfortable with you using your gift that way, and I was happy when you finally stopped. You decided it wasn’t right, and you were only going to use your gift to help people. Do you remember that?”

  I hung back at the edge of the crosswalk because more people had gathered for the train. I had said that once, hadn’t I? “This was a one-time deal. Getting into those files is helpful, or might be. I’m not going to make a habit out of this. I’m an almost-Gryphon now.”

  Steph took a long drag, assessing me through the smoke she exhaled. “Please don’t. It creeps me the hell out when you do it for a good cause, but I let it go because I know your heart is in the right place. You’re my best friend. I don’t want my best friend acting like a pred.”

  She smiled, and I smiled back, but inside I felt vomitous. I was not acting like a pred. Of that I was confident. But what was I going to do if Steph found out that the reason I had the potential to act pred-like because I really was part pred?

  She and Lucen were all I had for confidantes these days. Suddenly, I was on the edge of losing them both.

  My mood was bad when I left Steph and headed to the Gryphon’s building. The upside to our argument was that I had a bottomless well of energy to draw from. Thus, I might not fall asleep during my meeting with Andre and Brian.

  I set my coffee down, booted up my computer and checked my email. After telling my meeting reminder to go away, I froze as I read the subject line on my sole message. It was from Anna.

  BLOOD ANALYSIS: Jessica Moore results

  Hadn’t I just been worrying what Steph would do if she discovered the truth? I might be one step closer to her finding out. Her and everyone finding out.

  Bracing myself, I clicked on the email, which was brief and not useful, then opened the attachment containing the actual analysis.

  Here, alas, I was at a bit of a loss since I had only the barest idea how to read the graphs and numbers Anna had supplied. Fortunately, she’d written up her interpretation, and that’s what I focused on, discovering two relevant paragraphs.

  The first came at the beginning: As you can see from the insoluble magic, JM’s blood doesn’t fit the typical human profile, although that was expected. The third and fourth lines on pages 5 — 7 are suggestive of a pred profile, most likely a satyr, but that’s not a clear match either. (Not surprising!)

  Her ability to sense emotions… Here Anna went on about a bunch of technical stuff that didn’t mean much to me.

  Then there was this gem: I’ll search the database to see if we have anything similar on file, but rec taking up Agent Kassin on his suggestion to obtain a sample from Aubrey for cross-reference once he’s clean.

  My mouth went dry. My brain didn’t know what to fixate on first, and my blood pressure didn’t care. I could practically hear my blood thumping through my heart over the din of the AC.

  On one hand, this was a relief. Anna could see a suggestion of satyr magic in my blood but couldn’t actually pin me down as being part satyr. An older, more knowledgeable Gryphon might have come across a similar profile before and recognized the signs, but then again, perhaps not. I could only hope Gunthra was right when she’d told me how rare I was. I might not yet have my darkest, ugliest secret exposed.

  But that brought me to the last paragraph. The Gryphons did have someone they could compare me to in the form of Victor, although I wasn’t sure what good that would do anyone. Unless Victor knew he was part pred—assuming he was part pred, which I couldn’t be sure of—then it only meant the Gryphons had two confusing blood analyses instead of one.

  Yet there must be something to it, or why would Tom Kassin have suggested it? And for that matter… I checked the names listed at the top of the report. It had been sent to me, Olivia Lee and Tom. Why the hell was he privy to my blood analysis? He was supposed to be here investigating the furies.

 
“So, you ready for the meeting?” Andre smacked his hand against my cube wall, and I almost fell out of my seat.

  I closed down the report. “Yeah, meeting.”

  He cocked his head to the side. “You all right?”

  “Fine.” I grabbed some paper and a pen, then remembered to snatch my mostly untouched coffee too. “Lost track of the time while reading my blood analysis.”

  “Ooh. So what does it say?”

  “That I’m weird.”

  “Like we needed an analysis for that. What is Anna getting paid for if that’s the best she can do?”

  Frankly, I was quite happy the Gryphons were not paying her more to go digging any deeper. But that said, she might have some other answers for me, and I intended to ask.

  Anna was part of our meeting, but I didn’t have time to question her before it began. Brian started the discussion immediately once Andre and I arrived. We had to update him on everything we discovered—or not—since the weekend.

  Andre did most of the talking since collecting that information was mostly his responsibility. I listened, but my attention was largely devoted to collecting my excuses for not having discovered who the satyrs’ F dealers were yet.

  Brian took copious notes while Andre talked and questioned both of us on what happened at Purgatory. “It’s disappointing you didn’t discover anything, but I’d have been surprised if you did. I wouldn’t expect the satyrs’ lieutenant to be sloppy. If Devon knows about the dealing going on there, he’d make sure it couldn’t be traced back to him.”

  I coughed. “Isn’t it possible that if dealers are using Purgatory, that it would be beneath Devon’s notice? How much say or knowledge would he have in the F business to begin with?”

  Andre quit biting his pen cap and turned to me. “No one making F in the area is doing it without their Dom knowing about it, and no one deals F without being protected by a satyr, so the deals can’t be traced back them. Anything a Dom knows, her lieutenant should know.”

  “So Devon should know.” I sipped my coffee. I hadn’t expected him to be clueless, but that gave me an idea. Maybe I had something to talk about after all.

  As if reading my thoughts, Brian raised a finger in my direction. “Have you found us anything?”

  I swallowed. “Nothing concrete, but I did overhear Dezzi’s number two and number three talking about the F.” Buying time, I took another sip of coffee and searched for the right words—ones that were accurate without giving away my part in the conversation. “They sounded concerned and said something about ‘if the F supply was tainted’. It seems to be causing some worry on their end. I don’t think they know what’s going on either.”

  “You’d think they would by now,” Anna said. “If they got wind of our suspicions, they’d know who makes F and would talk to that person.”

  “Exactly. Which suggests the F might be tampered with down the line.”

  “But they know who the dealers are. They’d be addicts.”

  “Right.” I leaned forward in my seat because it seemed like we were getting somewhere. “So assume they were looking into it and didn’t find out anything. What could it mean?”

  No one had a good answer, and Andre and Brian tossed around a lot of speculation, including the idea that Lucen and Lucrezia were merely misinformed. I doubted it but kept my thoughts to myself. My opinion of Lucen’s intellect was higher than their opinion, but it was also not something that needed to be revealed.

  “Have you had any other leads with the satyrs?” Brian asked.

  That was the specific question I’d hoped to avoid by sharing my overheard conversation. “No. Shockingly, working for the Gryphons means no one wants to talk to me anymore.”

  Andre chuckled. “First they protect you, now they won’t speak to you.”

  “They think I’m betraying them, but really, most weren’t happy about protecting me in the first place. I told you—I don’t actually have a lot of contacts there.”

  “But you do have other contacts in Shadowtown,” Brian pointed out. “You’re probably not quite as despised as we are. Consider trying them.”

  It took me a second to catch his meaning. “Other contacts? You mean other preds? Would any of them necessarily know something?”

  “It’s possible. Shadowtown is insular, and yet everyone is going to be watching everyone one else because no one gets along. Some races are better at it than others.”

  “Goblins.” Lucen had once explained to me that none of the pred races were truly friends, but satyrs and harpies had an agreement where they’d watch each other’s backs. Goblins had the same arrangement with the sylphs. Which meant if you wanted someone willing to spill dirt on the satyrs, you went to one of those two races.

  While the sylphs struck me as too self-centered to pay such close attention to other preds, goblins hoarded knowledge like they hoarded everything. Knowledge was power, and power was a commodity. If the goblins knew who made the satyrs’ F, they might be willing to part with that information for a price. Unknown to the Gryphons, however, I was already in hock to the goblin Dom for an uncomfortable amount. If they wanted this information, they were going to have to cough up the payment. Assuming I could get anywhere by asking around.

  I mentioned the price.

  Andre rolled his eyes. “Yeah, we’ve dealt plenty with the goblins. The threat of prison has been acceptable in lieu of payment to them before. If you can find out whether they know something, we can find a way to put on some pressure. You don’t have to worry about it.”

  “Good to know.” How might my negotiations with Gunthra have gone down if I’d have had the Gryphons at my back?

  The meeting broke up, and I hung back at the end, hoping to corner Anna. As it turned out, she was the one who approached me as we left the conference room. “Did you see your report? Very interesting.”

  “Yeah, interesting is one word.” Alarming would be another. “Can you tell me why Agent Kassin got a copy?”

  Anna hit the elevator button. “He asked.”

  “So anyone who wants it can get a copy?” I wouldn’t be surprised if I made the news in that case.

  But Anna shook her head. “Anyone with the right clearance who wants a copy. Clearance is the key.”

  I bit my lip. “Did Tom say why he wanted a copy?”

  “Not to me. I’m just a lowly analyst. What Kassin is working on is way above my own clearance.”

  Anna got in the elevator, and I checked the clock. Perhaps it was time to put aside my unease and have another conversation with Tom Kassin.

  It was getting late, but I’d noticed the past few days that Tom frequently worked into the evening. I didn’t know if it was because he was under pressure, or simply the result of being in a new city with no friends and thus not having much of a social life, but it worked for me. I found him in his office, the door half open.

  I knocked, and it swung open farther. “Can I talk to you for a moment?”

  Tom’s head popped up from where he’d been hunching over some book. “Jessica, of course. Come in and have a seat.”

  He sounded way too happy to see me. Probably, he was hoping I was ready to spill some secrets to him. To make it clear that’s not what this was about, I opted to remain standing. “I got my blood analysis from the lab, and I saw you also got a copy. I was wondering why.”

  His blond eyebrows shot up. “You’re instrumental in the case against Aubrey, and the two of you—like it or not—share an unusual ability. The more we know, the better.”

  “But I didn’t think you were directly involved in the Aubrey case. I thought you were investigating the furies.”

  Tom marked his page in the book and shut it. “The Aubrey case and the furies’ behavior are related, tangentially if nothing else. I need to keep a broad perspective, consider all the evidence. You understand.”

 
I didn’t, and for the first time, I caught the slightest taste of Tom’s emotions. Burnt toast. That was why I didn’t understand.

  He was lying.

  I clasped my hands behind my back to hide my excited fidgeting. As interesting as this was, I had to be cautious. Tom would know I could feed off negativity, but I’d been careful to downplay my abilities. The taste of his lie was faint. That either meant it was minor or that he was covered in some serious protective magic—charms much stronger than what the average Gryphon was given. I was starting to suspect the latter, and if that was true, I shouldn’t accuse him of lying. Not only would that be bad for my career, it could expose my gift far more than I cared for it to be known.

  “So do you think the furies going after Victor, and then going after me, wasn’t random?”

  Tom regarded me, his baby face scrunched up in thought. “It’s a possibility, one that suggests the furies were able to tell you both had unusual talents. What do you think?”

  I thought Tom was much better at subtly digging for information than I was. “I don’t know, but I think it’s odd that the Gryphons have no record of anyone with our gifts before, yet both Victor and I were living in the same area. That suggests a connection.”

  “It does, which is also interesting and something I wish I had more time to study. I was hoping that’s why you’d come here. Given our conversation the other day, maybe you’d thought of something.”

  I shook my head. I hadn’t sensed a single outright lie from him since the original. Either I’d chosen to probe badly, or he was far more adept at this game and better magically protected than I could handle. Probably that.

  “I was curious about the report, that’s all.” I forced a smile. “And you answered my question, so I need to get going. Sorry to bother you.”

  “No bother at all.”

  I turned my back on his smugness and returned to my desk. That had been enlightening, though as usual, the more I learned, the more questions I had. Possibly it was time to add another item to my to-do list: poke around Tom Kassin’s office.