raised by wolves

All in all, they’re even more confused about this case than they had been before talking to Ella, nothing particularly helpful for giving them any more clarity, only just making it all seem less and less certain. Half of them thinks it could be the truth, that there’s another vampire or creature out there causing these problems, but half of them is still fairly sure that it’s Edmund, and he’s just lying to pretty much everyone about it all. Then again, there’s still the distinct possibility they’re being fucked with, no way to know that until they talk to the vampires.

They’re glad that Jal seems to be on the same page that at the very least, they’re not going to get anything better from Ella herself for now. At some point, depending on how this all goes, they know someone will need to circle back to her, them or another department, especially considering how she’s talking about the coven, but that’s got to be put on the back burner just now.

“Right…well, we’re headed to them next, so I’m sure we’ll get it all cleared up and taken care of soon. Thanks for all your help, we’ll let you know if there’s anything else,” they offer, a little awkwardly, before turning and heading back down the walkway.

Next step seemingly clear, and the coven’s house itself not altogether that far, and even better, apparently hidden pretty deep in the woods, perfect for a mini hike mid-case, Lex starts off in that direction without bothering to debate the next stop.

“Well, all that’s pretty damn strange, and not entirely helpful,” they sigh, glancing over at Jal as soon as they’re far enough from the house, and the door is firmly closed behind Ella. “She’s clearly into something she doesn’t realize the severity of, either way. Doesn’t really help our case, though…Never heard of vampires living off of animal blood, so I’ve got a feeling they’re not going to be exactly normal, one way or another. Wouldn’t be surprised if there’s something they’re hiding, but at the very least I don’t really buy the random vampire story.”

.

He follows off after Lex easily—there’s no need for conversation, no need to stand around and debate where they’re going. It’s one of the best things about getting a case with Lex, the way it’s as easy as instinct to follow one another’s lead, to get on the same page without words. Part of it’s experience, the many years now they’ve known one another, worked together. More of it is just that the day Adam had decided that Lex was important to him, Jal had done the same; Lex was family, was pack.

     “Pretty damn strange is one way of putting it,” he says, shaking his head. It doesn’t make much sense, but he has a hunch that actually seeing this Edmund guy will make a difference, will somehow make everything Ella’s told them make some kind of sense, whether it clarifies it as a weird truth about a weird guy, or total bullshit through and through. “I feel bad for her, you know? She’s really wrapped up in this and she’s got no idea...” 

It’s about twenty minutes to the Cohen’s remote mansion in the middle of the woods, even at the brisk pace the two of them easily make. And the fresh air does him some good, clearing his mind a little from the thoroughly confusing conversation. But the fresh air only lasts so long, as they approach the house and the scent of vampire makes itself clear in the air, strong, definitely an entire coven from the scent of it, and one that’s been here for a long time. 

He knows werewolves who would gag at the scent of one vampire, let alone what his best guess says is six or seven of them, but it’s never bothered him all that much. Like the smell of fresh mulch in the spring, it’s the kind of thing that context makes comfortable enough not to bother him.

She feels awful the moment her eyes meet Jal’s, because of course this case is going to hit him a lot harder than it would her. While she was excited about the prospect of heading down to see Marleigh, and have them see her in action, Jal was having to work through his own complicated feelings on all if this, she’s sure. 

“I wonder if it might have something to do with the fact that this is extending a transformation,” she replies, her mood sobering up more as she thinks about the grittier details of the case. “It’s not trying to stop the transformation from taking place at all, it’s just making it last longer.” 

She wonders how long the collars could even do that, holding onto a transformation may be easier than stopping one, but she figured there had to be some point where either the transformation had taken too much of a toll on the body within it, or the magic in the collars simply faded over time as it was used up. 

“We could stop by Magical Species first,” she offers as she looks over to him, wanting to get a better read on just how he wanted to go about this case. She may have been the lead here, but she knew Jal would be more the expert on most of this stuff than she was. 

“We could see if they’ve seen anything like this before, if so, maybe give us a better lead on the kind of person that would have access to these collars.” 

He can see the shift on April’s face as her mood falls, the shift from excitement to seriousness, and he feels bad, he does, but hopefully he’ll be able to make it up to her somehow along the way. Her idea is interesting, about what the runed collars might actually be doing, about extending the transformation being easier than preventing it, but either way, he doesn’t really want to think about it any more than he has to. Though, yeah, okay, he’s going to have to think about it if they’re going to get through this case.

     “Sounds like a plan,” he says, giving her a nod, and the best smile he can muster. It was as good a place to start as any, especially to get an idea of what they were going to be walking into from the people who had actually been there and investigated it the last time. He’s not much of a leader, usually happy to go along with whatever his lead auror decides is their best course of action—one of several reasons he’s never really bothered to try to get promoted even though he’s been an auror since his late 20s. If she thinks it’s the right place to start, well, she’s April. She’s smart, and good at her job, and she’s probably right. 

It’s a quick elevator ride to the familiar Magical Species offices. He’s spent plenty of time here on other cases, especially in the corner of offices dedicated to Werewolf Relations. He waves to a few people as they make their way towards Marleigh McMahon’s office. But McMahon is making their way over to him and April before they get near the office at all, big grin on their face, and before Jal can even say anything, they’re pulling April into a hug, holding here there for a few long seconds before pulling away, hands on her shoulders.

      “Told Harbird they’d better send you,” they say, grinning brightly at her. “Whose your friend? You got another werewolf you like better than me? Too cool for your old man, now?”

They look over at Jal, and he lifts a hand in greeting.

They can’t help the way their eyebrows shoot up when they hear her casually slip that in, and the glance that Jal gives them tells them he’s thinking the same thing, the same concern there. There’s a whole separate issue here besides the attacks, that’s for sure, but they’re not exactly sure what they can do about it just now, when they’ve got actual physical harm that’s already happened to another no-maj to deal with first. This whole thing keeps fluctuating between absolutely ridiculous, and genuine concern from one moment to the next, it’s already starting to give them a headache, and they haven’t even spoken to any of the vampires yet.

They’ve never really heard of vampires surviving off of animal blood before, not sure if that’s something that actually happens and works. They wish that their father had heard of that when they were a kid, would’ve made everything a lot easier, would’ve maybe stopped some of the hangups they still have that they don’t really like to think about. It could be a load of bullshit that these vampires are passing around to keep themselves looking innocent and harmless, to everyone except animal rights activists at least, though. But either way, that, along with the fact that Edmund’s been refusing to drink from her, seems to be a tick in favor of someone else being the cause of these attacks. 

She seems to be genuinely trying to remember if Edmund had said anything before about another vampire being around, and the fact that she doesn’t remember him mentioning it before the attack seems a little suspect to them, along with the note that they said that other vampire must’ve come in hungry, contradicting the bite pattern, and the fact that the other girl is alive.

“Your friend who was attacked, has she mentioned anything to you about what she remembers? Does she know Edmund, or any of the others?” they ask.

“We’re not, like, best friends or anything. She’s just talked about not remembering much, but she just thinks it was a wild animal. And I mean, everyone knows them, it’s a small town. But they’re not close, they’re not friends, either. They keep their distance from other humans…” 

“Except for you,” they can’t help but fill in that blank clear in the way she trails off.

She shrugs a little, looks a little pleased with that. “Yeah, except for me. It took a lot to get to the point where they all let me come hang out at their house, though, it wasn’t, like, a simple thing, no matter how close Edmund and I are,” she explains.

.

There’s... a lot weird going on, here. Jal knows he’s not the sharpest tack in the box, was always middling at school, never cared much for, like, intellectual pursuits, but if there’s one thing he’s good at, it’s understanding the sort of emotional reality of things, people’s relationships to one another, their body language, understanding how people feel, and how that effects what they do. It’s the thing he’s best at, in this job, coming into a situation, seeing how people feel and react, figuring out what might have happened based on that.

But Ella is sort of incomprehensible, here, at least when it comes to everything she’s saying about this vampire family she’s found herself imbricated with. This whole mess. Whatever weird set-up Edmund’s family has, here. None of it makes any fucking sense, not from what he knows about vampires, and not from what he knows about people either. For a half a second, he finds himself wondering if Edmund and his family really are vampires, or if they’re totally normal people making shit up, and Ella, with know way of knowing any better, has fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. 

There are probably three dozen other questions he can ask, here. They could probably spend all day here, really. But other than confusing, they aren’t getting anything the case file hadn’t already given them, and it doesn’t seem like Ella’s going to have anything more enlightening that actually answers any questions, so assured in her role here, so thoroughly seduced by what her vampire boyfriend has told her.

     “Well, Ella, this is been really helpful,” he says, even though he’s not sure it has been. “I think we’ll be able to find whoever this was, and get your boyfriend’s name cleared so he and his family are safe,” he goes on, even though he’s definitely nore sure that’s true. The promise of a quick case and a nice long hike in the mountains is starting to feel a little like a naive fantasy, now. 

His heart swells a little bit, watching Jal –– the way he interacts with the dogs, the way that he scoops Cerberus up in his arms. He has nice arms. Strong. Well. Jal has a nice everything, it seems like, as if there wasn’t a single atom in his body that could be anything but lovely. Riley feels bashful with it, the softness that blooms up in him, familiar now after a long year sharing a desk and looking at him every day. There’s an extra softness, as he glances at the house. The big, lonely house. Lonely shouldn’t be a word that Jal has to use.

Riley hadn’t planned on staying for long, just enough to drop the dogs off and chat a little bit, before he went on his way again. He hadn’t planned on taking up too much of Jal’s time. He should have expected Jal to offer, though, because Jal is always kind and thoughtful like that, because he always, somehow, genuinely seems to want Riley around. It makes him feel soft, and small, and cared for somehow. In a small way. 

“Oh,” He says, half surprised. There’s no reason he couldn’t decline, head on to his destination and begin his covoted break, his day and a half of isolation. But he offers a smile, instead, a sweet one that spreads across his face. Jal and soup, sounds like a good start to a weekend like this, sounds like it might unwind something in his bones and kick start the relaxation. “Yeah. Sounds good. I could eat.” 

Its a surprisingly easy thing to move, to follow Jal inside, the dogs following after them, tumbling over one another. Titan explores the room, careful eyes, and looks back to Riley far too often. He’s a protective thing, knows how to look out for his dog dad. “Coffee would be good, too. Always good.” 

Riley smiles, and somehow Jal’s little home feels a little less empty, for reasons that have nothing at all to do with the four large dogs, three of whom have bounded up to the porch, nosing at the door to be let inside, the fourth of which moves to follow Riley as soon as he starts towards the door himself.

He loves his home, he does—remembers, so clearly, every hour he spent building it with his own hands, piece by piece, remembers dreaming it up and seeing it come together before his eyes—but it was never a home that had been meant for just him. Even after Adam had moved out to live with Lex, Jal had hardly ever been alone here, Adam and Lex visiting several times a week, the rest of their family dropping by unannounced all the time, his friends coming by for the evening. It hadn’t felt empty until Adam had really been gone, like the house itself knew and couldn’t hold onto all of the goodwill that had been there before anymore. No matter how much of Adam’s stuff is still there, the house feels empty, more often than not.

But he opens the door, and the dogs come flooding in, running around, smelling everything, adjusting to a new place, exploring, and Riley steps inside after him, and he watches as Riley looks around the room, too, the big family room off to one side, comfy couches, TV, Adam’s bookshelves still mostly filled with Adam’s books, and the big kitchen on the other, counters and stools and the big wooden table, and the soup on the stove. 

     “Sure thing,” he says, moving into the kitchen, giving Riley space to explore, too, if he wants. “Coming right up.” 

He puts a kettle on the stove—Adam’s old kettle—takes down a bag of coffee grounds, a small French press, just enough for two cups of coffee. He doesn’t use it much, because his morning run takes him by a little coffee shop down the road aways that he likes, but it gets the job done. And then he pulls down two bowls, brightly colored ceramic, big bowls, his favorite soup bowls, definitely chosen because they’re his favorite and not because they hold the most, not because he thinks the more soup he offers Riley the longer he’ll stay.

It’s easy, surprisingly so, to sit and drive with Jal. He doesn’t feel the pressure he usually does, somehow, as if this is just something easy. Because he knows Jal doesn’t mind if he’s a little quiet while they drive, head buried in his own case file. Because he knows that Jal isn’t something he really has to worry about, beyond the normal level of things. Riley feels a warmth, as always, just being around him.

They start to walk in the direction of the monolith, and the boy –– Carlos –– catches up to them. Riley gives him a smile, almost baffled, and a small wave. His general shyness is outweighed for the most part, by the fact that he’s actually excited about this case. The strange monolith, the chance to see a real thunderbird, being here with Jal. There were zero chance of traumatic visions, no glimpse of trouble from the past that he could imagine getting hit with. He had a strange feeling, for once in his life, that the universe was going to give him some kind of break here, let him just work a case as normally as everybody else usually does. 

“Sure, sure.” Carlos says, enthusiastic and warm. “Course, you’re heading just the right way, follow me.” And he continues down the way they had been walking, falling in to step with them and leading them deftly. “So I was trying to track down one of our babies, you know? One of the Thunderbirds, I call her Nemo, cause she has this hurt wing? She got spooked by something and had flown off, so I was trying to track her down. And I found the monolith while I was following after her.” 

“And she was okay, when you found her?” Riley asks, as they walk, concern in his voice.

“Yeah, totally. She’s a fighter. She was perched on top like a queen. Keeps wanting to go back, too. Weird thing is, though. I’d been hiking through this spot just the day before. Can you believe it? My brother was in town and I was showing him around. And I swear, there was no sign of this thing anywhere. It basically appeared overnight. Totally spooky.”

“Spooky is a word for it.”  

He tilts his head, considering. “How hard is it for people to get here, without being super familiar with the area or the center?” 

There’s something different about Riley, here, than he’s used to—different than the quiet shyness he falls into at the office, different than the awkward bashfulness Jal noticed at the party. He sounds concerned, as he asks Carlos some questions, but he also sounds a little more excited than usual, a little more confident. Jal can’t tell if that’s just what Riley’s like when he’s in the field, professional and all, or if there’s something different about this case, but either way, it’s an awfully good look on him. 

      “It’s not easy,” Carlos answers, glancing back over his shoulder at Riley. “I mean, for one, it’s some pretty advanced hiking around this part of the Park. The monolith is in a kind of, uh, a valley, I guess, with some pretty tough hills on basically every side of it. Between that and the disillusionment barriers we have up nearby because of the Thunderbird preserve, it’s pretty much just expert wix around this area who are already familiar with the place, not a lot of other people wandering around.”

He’s not wrong about the hiking—Jal can see that from here as Carlos keeps leading them towards the site. He’s clearly picking out the easiest possible path for them, but Jal’s glad he’s got his hiking books on. He glances down at Riley’s feet, relieved to see that he seems to be on the same page, shoe-wise, a pair of sensible, worn-looking hiking boots on that should mean this won’t be too bad for either of them. 

Carlos keeps chatting for a while as they make their way up the hill and then back down again, into the valley—though they can see the distant monolith once they crest over the top of it. It’s tricky getting down into the little valley, takes most of all of their concentration, to the point that even Carlos falls silent for a few minutes to focus on his footing as they head down. And once they’re down there, Carlos stops about twenty feet from the monolith itself, holds a hand over his eyes to block the sun as he looks up towards the top of it—currently Thunderbird-free.

They can practically hear Jal having to hold back a laugh at the implication that he’s a vampire, and it makes them have to keep themself from a smile, too, the ridiculousness of the whole situation setting in again. And the fact that this girl can’t tell probably says something about how much she actually knows, too, maybe not as deep in with that coven of vampires as she thinks she is, to take both of them at face value. But at least it makes things easier for them.

Jal easily helps the situation, turning it around instead of accusations, into something like concern for Edmund’s safety, and it just makes them even more glad that it’s him on the case with them, his way with people, and always striking ability to inspire trust with such ease a godsend, especially in this case. And Lex nods gravely along with his assertion that he is in danger, no matter what he did or didn’t do.

“Definitely. Seen it myself plenty of times,” they say seriously, crossing their arms over their chest. “The things some people do when they hear there are vampires around, and see a problem happening around town that might not even be related, I mean, I don’t know if you’ve heard of the  Great New England Vampire Panic, but let’s just say historically there’s a reason vampires are safer flying under the radar. Figuratively and literally.”

And it’s not wholly an exaggeration, even if it’s not really the concern on this case, but what matters is her eyes go wide, with concern, fear.

“I don’t…no one else knows. They’ve never told anyone else, before me,” she insists, looking between them.

“I hope you’re right, but unfortunately there’s no way to know that’s the case, so we have to assume the worst, for everyone’s safety, which is why it’s important for you to tell us anything you might know about these attacks. Why you think it’s another vampire, for example” they nod.

She shakes her head. “It has to have been someone else, because Edmund and his whole family only hunt animals, none of them…you know. I’ve offered, too, I’ve told Edmund he doesn’t have to worry with me, but he always refuses, so it couldn’t have been any of them,” she explains.

He glances over at Lex when she says I’ve offered, a hint of concern in his eyes—it’s great, that this Edmund guy, whether he’d attacked the other girl or not, seems to not be letting his teenager girlfriend offer him her blood, but the fact that she’s a kid and she thinks it’s a good idea to even offer is worrying. To each their own and all of that, people can do whatever they want with their own blood, but sixteen or whatever seems a little young for the whole thing, and she really doesn’t seem to have any idea what she’d actually getting herself into by offering it, seeing as she only just found out vampires exist and all of that. He’s known people to get addicted to the whole thing, to having their blood sucked and all of that.

So maybe this Edmund guy can’t possibly be that bad if he’s refusing to let her get wrapped up in that kind of thing. Jal doesn’t know much about what only hunting animals would actually do—if it would actually work, with the whole vampire physiology, he’s not an expert at all and he half wishes they’d thought to ask Maia about that before leaving. But it’s a start, at least, sounds plausible that Edmund really might not be the cause.

     “And did Edmund say anything about there being other vampire around here, before the attack?” he asks. He could probably figure it out himself, once he met Edmund and the rest of the family—identify their individual scents and see if there’s anything that stands out as different, once he had them, instead of just the general scent of vampire that hands over this whole house, and probably most of the town. But surely the vampires in the area would know if there was another one around, especially a stranger. 

He’s been needing a break. That much has been clear –– he gets like that, needs to get away, remove himself from the world and find a spot of perfect silence. Perfect silence has been harder, since the puppy came into his life. It had been strange, but a blessing, to do something like bring down a new dog after a case. But it was something that had planted a whole new level of love into his heart, the attatchment hitting hard and fast until there wasn’t any question in his mind at all. Cerberus, from what Riley could tell so far, was a little menace. Echo was barely out of her puppy phase –– really, would probably always still be in it. So he was a chaotic thing to mix into the little pack that Riley had built. 

Definitely too chaotic to bring on a fishing trip. Riley had tried him out by the lake on a walk, and he had spent over half an hour running up and down, barking at the gentle lapping of the waves. It was adorable, but definitely not something that would help Riley catch anything. He couldn’t bring some dogs and not all of them, though. And he definitely couldn’t leave Bear alone.

It was lucky then, that Bear technically had another father. That was one of the warm things that had grown in the last few months. A slight feeling of closeness, in the air between him and Jal. A shared thing to care for. He knew that Jal loved the dog, almost felt bad that he had taken it home instead. But it meant that they had more of a reason to talk to each other now, meant that Riley had an excuse, something to default to when he felt shaken and shy and unsure of himself. They had found the dog together, and they both cared about him. Their Cerberus, their Bear. 

So it made sense, to ask Jal to take care of him. To ask Jal to do the massive favour of taking care of all of them, just so that Riley could have a break and escape from the world. They’re yipping and excited, during the car ride. They know that they’re going somewhere, and they’re hoping its fun. He follows the directions to Jal’s house, and breathes out a small laugh when he finally pulls up and opens the door, all of the dogs hopping out. He gets out himself, a little bit slower, and watches with a growing softness in his chest as Cerberus greets Jal. Echo and Ajax bound around, clearly wanting to explore but waiting for Riley. Titan stays mainly by his side, as he walks up, and Riley can’t help but smile when Cerberus starts nipping at him. 

“No, your directions were. Good, great.” He says, warm. The other dogs –– except Titan, who sits by his feet –– go to greet Jal as well, excited to meet someone new. “Thank you for doing this. I uh, hope they won’t be too much of a handful.” 

“I mean, they’re usually good, but… well, Echo is the problem child.” He says, reaching down to pet at her head. He feels bashful, a little sweet with it, hopeful that she won’t embarrass him. “She’s mostly house trained, but uh, she can still have accidents. So I’d let her out a few times, to be safe. I’ve already told her that if she pees on your floor I might never forgive her.” 

He lets out a bright laugh, at Riley’s comment, a wide smile at the little look on his face as he talks, about Jal’s directions, about Echo. Two of the dogs seem to take it as a cue to leave his side and come over to investigate Jal. The other—the oldest one, missing a leg and a little more subdued than the others—stays glued to Riley’s side as they do, patiently tolerating a head butt or two from Cerberus. 

He gets back down on one knee again, as they make their way over to him, holds his hand out for both of them to sniff, waits patiently for a moment while the assess him, then moves to scratch behind each of their ears. This one must be Echo, he thinks, a little smaller, slighter, younger—and this one’s Ajax, the big dog given away by his very fitting name. He’s seen their pictures what feels like a hundred times, now, and they seem to be warming up to him fairly quickly. Dogs tend to do that—a werewolf thing, he’s always figured, that they can smell the similarities.

      “Hey, you,” he coos softly as Echo turns her face to lick the palm of his hand. And then Riley’s close enough that Cerberus is rushing over again, jumping towards him, and that riles up the other two, gets them chasing each other in circles for long enough that he can extract himself from the big pile of fur, wipe his hand off on his jeans. 

     “I’m sure she’ll be an angel,” he answers, giving her another quick scratch on the head. “And really—I mean it, it’s no problem. Lex is busy this weekend, so it’ll be nice to have something to distract me from the boredom. Right, Bear?” he adds, and Cerberus snaps his head up to look at. the sound of his name, bounds back over to Jal’s feet. “You gonna keep me busy, buddy? Gonna keep me company in this big lonely house?” 

He looks back to Riley, nods his head towards the door of the cabin, and then scoops a wiggling Cerberus up under his arm, kisses him right on the top of the head before putting him back down and nudging him in the direction of the cabin.

It was a no-brainer to offer to dogsit for Riley for the weekend. It had been a no-brainer, too, when they’d found the stray puppy on their case, for Riley to be the one to take him home, give him a home with lots of company instead of Jal’s big empty cabin, but he already missed Cerberus like crazy, no matter how many cute pictures he convinced Riley to show him on his telekit at work. So the dogsitting is half favor, half selfish excuse to see Bear again, half unignorable opportunity to fill up the empty spaces of his cabin with a little extra noise, a couple of extra bodies, wagging tails and little fuzzy faces.

He’d given Riley directions to the cabin before they left work, then come home and gone for a run and showered, put some dinner on the stove in case Riley was hungry when he got here with the dogs. He steps out onto the porch, when he hears the telltale crunch of gravel that means a car is pulling into the driveway, and steps out into the grass as Riley’s car rolls to a stop and he gets out, four dogs tumbling out of the door as he opens it.

       “Bear!” he shouts, gives a little whistle, and the puppy—all clumsy limbs and too much energy—comes barreling in his direction. He crouches down low so he can catch him, scoop him up, scratch behind his ears and kiss the top of his excited little head. “Hey, buddy,” he says, burying his face in Cerberus’ fur for a second. “Hey, my big bear. Hey, boy.”

Cerberus jumps on him for a few seconds, nearly toppling him over backwards into the grass, and then bounds off again, back towards RIley, like he can’t decide whose attention he wants more, and finally Jal can stand back up, give Riley a wave, catch sight of the other three dogs he’s only seen in pictures before, though he knows all their names already—Echo, and Titan, and Ajax. 

     “Hey, Metz,” he calls out fondly, hands on his hips as he waits for Riley to make his way across the lawn, towards the porch. Bear’s nipping at him affectionately the entire way, clearly trying to get him to hurry up, nudge him along. “I guess my directions didn’t suck too bad, you’re right on time.” 

It doesn’t take long to make it up to Forks, and for Jal to guide them to the house listed in the case file. It’s just a gloomy as expected, gray and overcast, but they’ve come to like this kind of weather, the sort that makes you want to light a fire inside, and sit with a good book. Or take a hike in the woods. More motivation to get this taken care of quickly. They make it to the house easily, knock on the door, and are greeted by Ella’s father, who is seemingly unbothered by two strangers asking to speak with his daughter about things. And when she finally comes down, she fits what they were picturing pretty perfectly, moody teenager, definitely the sort they could imagine being interested in vampires.

“We were hoping to talk to you about your friend, Edmund, and everything that’s been going on around town,” Lex starts carefully, not knowing how much her father might’ve heard, if he’s going to be on the list of no-majs to be obliviated later.

Her eyebrows raise sky high, and she crosses her arms over her chest, but they can tell she’s nervous, her heart speeding up noticeably. “And who are you?” she asks.

They pause, realizing they didn’t really think that part of it through in regards to Ella, a strange case herself. A human, who doesn’t know about magic, as far as they know, but who knows about vampires. They can’t introduce themselves as aurors, but they also can’t play at no-maj law enforcement, given they need to talk about vampires. So they go with the first thing that comes to mind, an elaborate lie they’re sure Jal won’t have a problem going along with, since they’re fairly certain that at some point they’re going to have to send in obliviators to erase everything from Ella’s memory anyway.

“I’m Corporal Luxford, and this is Cadet al Jalasi. I’m, ah, sort of like your friend,” they explain vaguely. “We’re here about the attacks, to get to the bottom of them, make sure no one else gets hurt, and no one’s breaking any of our rules.”

She frowns, then glances back into the house, before stepping out onto the front porch, closing the door behind her. “So you’re like the vampire police?” she asks, voice full of skepticism.

“Well, not just vampire, but essentially, yes. There are laws, and agreements, that people like us have to follow, for our own safety as well as for the safety of people like you. It’s important––”

“My dad’s a cop, I don’t need two more trying to keep me safe when I’m capable of taking care of myself, and everything is fine, anyway,” she rolls her eyes. “Besides, it’s not Edmund. It’s someone else, another vampire, not anyone in his family.”

Lex’s vague non-answer to Ella’s question seems to get the job done—at least, she seems to believe it even if she still doesn’t seem to want to go along with answering their questions. The vampire police, it takes every ounce of control he has not to bark out a laugh at the idea. Still, he’d probably be a pretty good vampire cop, if that meant a cop that finds vampires and not a cop who is a vampire. He can smell it on her, this Edmund guy’s scent, all the way from here, strong enough that he wouldn’t be surprised if Edmund had just been here,  or... or possibly was still here, somewhere around the house, inside or out. 

     “Nobody’s saying it’s your boyfriend,” he says, hands out in a reassuring gesture. “We’re just trying to get all the information we can, get to the bottom of this before anyone else gets hurt. Edmund included. It’s a dangerous world out here for vampires, you know? We’d hate for anyone to wrongly assume that it’s him and have him get hurt because of it.” 

That seems to help her lower her guard a little bit, the annoyed look on her face shifting into something a little closer to worry as she listens to him, her eyebrows raising again at the mention of the possibility that Edmund could be in danger, like she hadn’t considered that could ever be a possibility before.

     “What do you mean, he could get hurt?” she asks, voice lower now, wary. “Who would hurt him? He hasn’t done anything wrong.”

The idea of it gets caught in his head. Him and Jal, waiting this case out. It taking just a little bit longer to solve than was normal, the two of them tucked away somewhere watching a movie. Riley sharing something that he loved. Jal watching it –– Riley would be so nervous to see if Jal liked it, would be on the edge of his seat, would probably watch Jal more than he watched the movie, just to see the thoughts cross his face as the story developed in front of them. He feels warm at the idea of it, feels like he’d give a lot to have a night like that. “Maybe, yeah.” He agrees, with a nod of his head, delicate with the fact that he wants that. “If we get the downtime.”

He shifts slightly, and another smile blooms on his face, another of those hard won things. Jal really gets more than anybody else, with the gentle way he goes about things, with the crush that Riley has been harboring for really far too long. He thinks about it, this case together, and he hopes suddenly that it gives him the courage to feel more real, to feel like he can talk to Jal and not have to worry about anything at all, any embarrassment or strangeness that might drive Jal away. 

Riley nods, and looks away, shy with the smile now. “Sounds good.” He agrees, an easy thing, and he’s endlessly grateful that Jal didn’t want to just apparate them there. The act of it always made him feel sick to his stomach, made him feel uneasy and squeezed too tight. Paniced with it. He could cope, but he was glad that he wouldn’t have to today, that there was an alternative. “Yeah, let’s go.” 

He gets up, and it doesn’t take long for the two of them to gather their belongings and head out. The floo station comes with that slightly smokey smell of the magic that could transport you miles and miles away. He gives Jal another soft look, as he gathers some of the powder in his hands, ready to take the trip.

It’s a quick and easy floo trip, and Riley looks more at ease on the other side of it than he usually does after he gets stuck apparating back to the office—always a little woozy, when he gets back to his desk, Jal’s noticed—and it only takes a minute or two to ask the Las Vegas division chief to lend them one of the division’s cars so they can drive it back across the border into California to the National Park itself. He tosses Riley the keys, once he has them—he can drive just fine, but he also knows that Riley likes driving, and it gives him some time in the car to go over the case file again a few times, making sure he’s got everything in it straight, and also to pick the music for the hour and a half the drive takes, on gorgeous wide open roads.

And then they’re there, parking outside the Visitor’s Center, heading into the park in the direction of where the monolith’s supposed to be, though they don’t make it super far before a guy in the distance waves them down, enthusiastically, and then breaks into a light jog to catch up with them.

       “You guys must be the aurors!” he says, rushing over to them as he talks. “Hey, hi, I’m Carlos, I’m the guy who found the monolith, the California guys told me you’d be coming, and I’ve been sticking around to take care of any more Thunderbirds who end up here, so I told them I’d stay and help out, you know, in case you had questions or needed a hand or anything like that.” 

Jal glances at Riley, and then gives Carlos a smile and a nod, showing his badge and then tucking it back into the back pocket of his jeans.

Jal’s idea isn’t a bad one, the sort of thing that they think would be plausible for someone to resort to if they or a group of people wanted to try to sound the alarm, or maybe if they hated vampires enough. Because it’s all very strange; even if half of the case sounds like a prank, the injuries are very real, whether done in an attack, or to mislead. They don’t really know how easily someone could fake something like that, but they also are hardly an expert on vampire bites, despite the fact that they’ve given plenty of their own, and watched even more happen.

It’s barely ever been like that, though, the sort of thing where the hunger was great enough that more damage might have been done than intended.

So they let out a little sigh when Maia all but shoots down Jal’s theory with the added factor of the strange way vampire bites heal themselves to scar rather quickly, even without the extra help. They meet Jal’s look with a half shrug of their own. Not much of a surprise that they can’t get much helpful out of the pictures, but like he said, it was worth a shot.

“Yeah, definitely. Gotta start somewhere, after all. Thanks, Maia, we’ll let you know if there’s anything else that comes up,” Lex says, biding her farewell and leading them back out of her workspace.

Once they’re out, they look back to Jal. “We might as well head on up to Forks, no point in doing any more guesswork. Should probably check with the humans first. I don’t think I can break an unknown memory charm, but this Ella might be helpful, since at the very least she seems convinced it was a vampire attack in the first place,” they suggest, as they start heading to the elevator. 

“What do you think? Ella, then vampires, then an early lunch and a hike? Circle back to the other girl if needed.”

Jal nods, agreeing with Lex—better to hop straight in, get what they can from the no-majs involved first, see what their other possibilities might be if it really isn’t as straightforward as just a vampire attack. He smiles as they get to the elevator, wait for it so they can head back up and apparate over to Forks. 

     “Sounds like a plan, boss,” he confirms. “It’s a good thing I wore my hiking boots,” he adds, a joke, because he’s wearing the same boots he does every day, Same old pair of worn in hiking boots he practically lives in, mud from all up and down the coast caked into the bottom of them. 

It’s a quick trip up to the office to grab their jackets and then to apparate to Forks, Jal navigating them through the small town to the address listed for this Goose girl in their case file. It’s drizzling, when they get there, overcast, but the kind that seems unlikely to turn into any kind of real, meaningful rain, and he has to take a moment to stop himself from reflexively casting a quick shield charm over their heads for the short walk to stop his hair from getting wet. 

     “It should be that house there,” he says, once they’re on the right street, pointing at a little two story house with a big blue pick-up truck parked outside. The curtains are drawn across the upstairs window that faces the front of the house, but there are lights on downstairs, which means there’s bound to be someone home. When they knock on the door, an older man with a bushy mustache answers, tells them Ella’s upstairs in her room and that he’ll go get her, and a few minutes later a girl who can’t be any older than 16 trudges down the stairs a few minutes later, looking more than a little reluctant to be following her dad’s instructions.

He feels that familiar flush of pride when he makes Jal laugh, like he’s done something right, earning that warm sound from the man across from him. A bright thing, like the gentle lull of the sun when it shines across your skin. Riley feels gently fond, when Jal asks him who Kubrick is, with that genuine curiosity in his voice. He forgets sometimes that not all of his no-maj references are going to translate in to conversations with people who grew up in the magical world, that not everything crosses over. 

“Its…um,” He starts, trying to figure out how to describe it. He’s perked up a little, as he gets the chance to explain something to Jal that no one else has before. Especially because, well. He loves this. He loves these movies, which make up some of the only warm moments from his childhood. He remembers how scared his brother got sometimes, watching them on their old and flickering TV. “Well, Stanley Kubrick. He’s a, uh, director? So in the 1960′s he wrote this movie, directed it too, 2001: A Space Odyssey.” He shifts a little in his chair, half tempted to pull out his phone and see if he can find the trailer for it on youtube or something. “It’s one of my favourites, actually. My dad showed it to me once when he was ––” During one of his nicer moments, and he hadn’t even been shitfaced when they watched it. “Well, anyway. Uh, the point is, there are these weird Alien Monolith’s in it that like… quietly inspire human evolution. From apes to space travellers to…you know, whatever comes after that.” 

He feels bashful again, and realises that he may have talked too much, that Jal might not have actually wanted to know. He can feel his cheeks heating up. “Its, uh. Good. You should check it out.” And then, ducking his head back down, he pats the case file. “Just kind of reminded me, you know, with everything going on out there in Death Valley.” 

And then, because he can’t help himself. “Um, there are robots too. Like…AI? Which I’m really hoping we don’t have to deal with here.” 

There’s an energy to Riley that’s rare—not unheard of, Jal’s seen him get this kind of excited animation to him, here and there, treasures it a little bit when he manages to engage Riley in one of those rare conversations where he does more of the talking than Jal does. He listens attentively, taking it all in. A no-maj movie about aliens, one of Riley’s favorites, and it sounds really interesting. He likes a good alien movie, likes Alien and Independence Day and the Men in Black movies, it sounds a lot like he’d like this one, maybe, weird alien monoliths and robots and all of that. 

     “That sounds awesome,” he says, when Riley finally trails off, looking a little bashful about the whole thing. “I’ll have to watch it sometime. Maybe we can check if out, if we’ve got some downtime on our case or something.” 

If it’s aliens, he figures, they’ll probably only show up at night time, which means this might end up being an overnight stakeout or something cool like that. It’ll be a nice excuse, to get to talk to Riley more, to see what else he gets this animated about, see what else he’s interested enough in to get over his shyness.

     “I hope there aren’t robots, though. Between you and me, I don’t think I’d be able to handle them.”

He shrugs, closes up the casefile. Only one way to find out, really, whether it’s robots or aliens or something else behind their mysterious monolith, which means they’d better hit the road and get working.

Jal’s laugh just makes their smile linger, makes them feel a lot lighter, like maybe this day is going to be one of the rare genuinely good days. They adjusted their potions this morning, tried to throw in a no-maj remedy to the mix, see if that might take the edge off without completely dulling them down, and it feels like it’s working. They don’t feel that deep pit of sadness, bringing up Adam, instead they feel a little warm with the memory, with being able to laugh about it with Jal.

“They were truly awful,” they agree with a little laugh, as they follow suit, collecting their things and heading out of the office toward their first stop. 

They feel better about things, which shouldn’t come as such a surprise, given that Jal always manages to make things feel less heavy, that inexplicable natural ability of his to bring out the good in any given situation. And for once, they feel good about going to another floor and asking for any of their other coworkers for help, having ended up bonding with Maia a bit over the childish prank they both nearly were the victims of at Harbird’s party. Which is probably good, considering they know she has a… difficult time with Jal’s whole everything. So they’re willing to take over when they make it to her, and she clearly looks at them for an explanation.

“We’ve got an alleged vampire attack up in Forks, were hoping you could take a look at the pictures. They don’t really look like the usual sort of bites you’d get when all a vampire’s trying to do is feed, there are scratches, too, but no one’s turned up drained,” Lex explains, opening the file and handing the pictures of the injuries over.

She takes the pictures, looks through them closely in silence for a minute with a frown. “You’re right, it is strange. But they definitely seem like vampire bites, and the scratches… not an animal or a beast, probably accidental from the vampire’s grip on the victim. I’d say maybe a vampire who was very hungry did this,” she reasons, looking back at them.

“Except they left the victims alive. Which, in my experience, isn’t what happens when a vampire is starved for blood. You can’t control it like that, when you’re that hungry,” Lex continues with a frown. They’ve seen it, after all, they’ve felt it. That’s not what happens when someone doesn’t have control, those victims aren’t left with a scar and a memory charm.

.

Jal hangs back, for a minute or two, while Maia and Lex talk about the pictures, about the strange injuries, bite marks and scratch marks that don’t look like any vampire bite Jal’s ever seen. He wonders if it’s a coincidence, if the vampire business going on really is unconnected to whatever this attack is, especially as Maia and Lex go back and forth trying to make sense of the scratches on the victim, tossing ideas and complications back and forth. 

     “I dunno,” he says, after a second, piping up from the spot he’s taken up near the door while they talk. “Maybe it was someone trying to frame a vampire? If people around this town know there are vampires and maybe want to... sound the alarm, or something, maybe they’ve faked a vampire attack to try to get people to believe them.”

He’s not sure if it’s a good suggestion or not, but it fits some pieces together, accounts for the fact that Lex is probably right that a vampire who was desperately hungry wouldn’t be able to leave their victim alive.

     “Could someone fake an injury like that, make it look like a fang bite without actually, you know, using fangs? And maybe they just didn’t know enough about vampires to know that the scratch marks would be weird?”

Maia looks over at him, finally, tilting her head a little, letting out a soft hmm like she’s considering it, then takes the pictures again and holds them up, like she’s trying to get a closer look at them. 

      “No— if you look here, at the scarring, that’s pretty uniquely vampire. The healing around the fang scars was rapid, rather than natural, someone trying to fake it who didn’t know enough to forego scratch marks wouldn’t have any way to know or replicate that.”

Jal makes a face at Lex, shrugs. Weird.