There was always a dead body, always some case or other to be dealt with and for the first time since he'd come to New Orleans he'd been called in by the Head of the local Preternatural Investigation Team to lend his expertise on a case. Ash had been working in the field since the early nineties, at least legally working which for an executioner was always an important distinction, and his reputation and kill count had landed him in a lot of the field study books used for training the new recruits who came out of the Federal system. Those new Detectives and Federal Agents were always fresh faced and determined, brains full of useless facts, and most of them had never been face to face with a vampire unless it was a standard morgue staking.
Personally he found the current training methods insufficient. Given the number of recruits who ended up meat for the slab themselves he would have thought some changes would be made, but everything done by the government was ten parts legislation and one part sense. It wasn't a very happy combination. After leaving the meeting with an armfull of files he headed towards where the normies worked. Homicide Division his particular goal since he was interested in seeing if Chapman had gotten any information from Interpol on the Case of the Dead Wolf Pack that he was so curious about. Will's time was running short, but before Ash evicted him from their fair city he wanted to see if there might be an outstanding case dealing with the mans miscarriage of justice.
Stopping at the control desk he gave a nod to one of the men, not bothering to flash his badge since the Federal title and Spook Squad combination tended to be offputting to most paper shuffling members of law enforcement. Asking to be directed to Detective Chapmans desk he let his lightning kissed blue eyes follow the mans back as he went to let Llidya know that someone was there to see her. The pinstripe black and gray suit he wore was tailored perfectly to his tall and muscularly compact form, and it definitely didn't look like something bought on a cops salary. Nor would Ash ever really pass among normal police detectives. There was something too knowing in the gaze, and his blank cop face looked a little too still, more the steely cold expression of a vampire whose face has suddenly gone emotionless.
Leaned casually against the counter while he waited Ash flicked through the pages of the file that had been handed over to him. A little light reading with vivid pictures of vivessected corpses for his viewing pleasure. From within the Dark Passenger smiled, this world, the world of the dead was more familiar than any other. Ash had been in the business of killing long before his beast had come on the scene to join the still cold voice of the Dark Passenger with its own. Pale tattooed fingers flipped over the pages before closing the file and gazing over the shuffling activity of the station house.
The officer spoke to Natalie, and from her position at the copier, she glanced up at the gentleman asking for Chapman while listening to the office in charge of running the counter for this shift. Natalie's mouth moved in an 'ok', then she finished up what she was doing, nabbed the copies and mentally cursed the 'paperless goal' of the precinct. They were dead set on making everything computerized and digitalized in five years. But Natalie still needed hard copies. Maybe someday she'd get out of it, or maybe she would just curse them all and do it anyway. Her own attire a sedate, cop blue suit with a white blouse beneath, sidearm in place, and one stuck in the back of her waistband beneath the jacket. Curling chestnut hair glinted with highlights of honey and caramel. She was mixed Creole and looked it, cinnamon eyes, warm tanned skin, she looked like she had been dipped in a vat of color and came out in varying hues of the same shade.
Approaching the counter, she held the file she was working on, her face impassive, but not unapproachable. Kevin had just called, telling her all about what Tommy was doing to the back porch. She was itching to get home and see it. These days, she never dreaded going home, it was the place she wanted to be above all others in the world. Tommy made it that way for her and Kevin both.
"Detective Delassixe, Chapman is away for a minute if you'd like to have a seat and wait, or is there something I can help you with..?" No discernible accent, Natalie had worked hard to blend. Both in the world of cops and of mainstream folks. She tapped the folder against the open palm of the opposite hand, sizing up the man. He was controlled. Restrained. Had a look that could work on the street or in an office, especially around here, and he had a voice that held command without being loud and obnoxious. A quick sweep without being obvious determined he was fit, and could hold his own in a fight. Damned good thing, because she saw from his ID, he was a Federal Marshal. Ugh. The lines of territory always blurred with these guy. Assessment complete she met his eyes dead on.
The look in the womans eyes was familiar. It was the same look a wolf might get when it finds another lifting a leg in its territory. Pardon the crass comparison but that was exactly how Natalie was eyeing him, as though he had dropped trow, lifted a leg, and began to piss on their control desk. The tight line of his sculpted lips loosened. It wasn't quite a smile but it was at least the unfreezing of that dead expression that he wore so well. The melting facade made him more human and almost a little scary because of that. Humans weren't supposed to think the way he did.
"Preternatural Division."
The words were spoken low in that crisply accented voice, the tone so dry you could spread it with marmalade and serve it with tea. Two words said a lot in this case. One, that anything he would be interested in would be well outside her own department unless Homicide was failing to report Preternatural Crimes to the proper department these days. Two, that based on his apparent age he was one of the Spook Squad Assassins, as they were known to the beat patrols. Grandfathered in, the first few generations of executioners were their own special set, well respected by some, demeaned by others, but at least a trace of fear seemed to follow either of those opinions.
Most cops went their entire career only firing their sidearm a few times. In fact, if they wanted to stay out of Internal Affairs matters they preferred it that way. SWAT went on location armed and ready to fight and control the situation. But only one group of law enforcement had the sole priority of bringing death to the undead and other supernatural ilk. Their purpose was the killing, not just the law and order part of the bargain.
"If you can show me to her desk I can find what I need, or you can put in a call to her while I wait. I'm sure she'd be only too happy to tell you where to find the files yourself."
Accustomed to not being trusted he gave her the option of calling Llidya herself. Ash had a voice and demeanor of authority but he knew when and where the best places were to flaunt that authority, and when patience was the better part of valor. Eyeing the woman behind the control desk he could taste her anxious desire to be on the move. For home or perhaps simply back to whatever she'd been doing before she was disturbed by his intrusion. Hopefully that desire would make her less apt to wait for the phonecall and more willing to simply show him to Chapmans desk.
The loosening of his mouth gave a whole new effect. He wasn't a vampire, after all, Natalie thought. He was pale, emotionless for the most part, but not that she really thought that, it was still daylight. But hell, who knew these days? Supers. Not her thing. Well, except for one and he kept that close to his chest in protection of his world and hers. Natalie studied his face as he talked, if one could call it that. Make no mistake, thought, she was ever grateful for a person who cut straight to the chase without all the niceties that took up time and wasted energy in a world that turned on the next death, the next attack.
She was ready to steel her jaw and call her boss if he was going to complain about Homicide. They *always* had a complaint about homicide. She did her shit right, she didn't mess around. Back in the day, before RPIT, she'd had enough encounters with supernaturals to understand they needed this arm of the law, but she absolutely despised when they bled into one another. Made things messy, complicated and a bitch to put down in a report.
Natalie's area was anywhere she got called these days, wherever there was a death and they needed her and Clark, they were there. But for the past several years her beat had been near the stretch of city that the homeless occupied. She had seen unspeakable things that humans did to one another. She knew if he was what she thought he was, he had seen what humans could not comprehend. It sent a shudder through the petite frame. She shoved back the thick mane of dark hair, tapped the file a few more times on her open palm, then nodded. He was legit. And he'd opted for patience. Authority and command, Natalie responded to from training, but only from those designated at her superiors.
Oh, he was smart. He gave her the option she needed to feel comfortable, There might have been the slightest smile form, the heated cinnamon eyes squinted a little from that, but she turned and walked toward Chapman's desk. She was all of five foot two, but she gave the impression of being taller. Natalie had a presence, but most of the time she was too occupied and distracted to play 'pose me powerful' with anyone. When things got bad, she could pull it out, but lately she was getting a little tired of it all, or maybe that was because the bluest eyes she'd ever seen had been strumming his song, weaving a beginning peace around the lady's heart.
"Her desk is this way..." She tilted her head in the direction she was going, assuming he'd follow and the tap of her ankle high leather boots led them through a line of desks, cubby's and all manner of perches. Paperwork was everywhere, cups with cold coffee, stained from repeated use without washing, a radio blared out 'supermassive blackhole' by Muse somewhere two rows over, and one of the other Detectives nearly ran her over when he came out of his cubbyhole too fast.
"Damn, Belcher, slow it down, you ain't ever gonna get it done anyway, so why sweat it?" Natalie grinned at the Detective then turned a corner and pointed to Llidya's desk. "That's hers..." She wondered if she should wait, make sure he didn't pilfer. Glancing at him, she cleared her throat. He didn't exactly look like the type of man who needed to 'pilfer' anything. She was pretty sure whatever he wanted, stood up, saluted and walked into his tattooed hand.
Clark came rushing out of where his and Natalie's desks where. very quickly with a wild grin on his face. he wasn't rushing so much as moving quickly, but there was an urgency to his movements. he stepped up right next to her and leaned close. speaking very softly to her.
"Me and Bilson. are this close to getting Viv to actually get a desk pop off..." a desk pop being a discharge of a firearm at one's desk. it was sort of a hazing ritual. you didn't actually let them do it. but it was something you did to the new people. just to see how long it took to get them to believe that it happened. "I've got fifty on it... I think if you came in and joined us, it would put us over... I'll split the winnings with you. I know she's your friend. but twnety five buuucks" spoken as if it where the holy grail, he motioned her to follow him; Clark hadn't seemed to notice the other guy there just yet and when he did the detective, wearing an expensive suit, not perfectly tailored to him, but well fitted. offered the other guy a smile and a up nod before he leaned over to whisper at Natalie.
"Who's that?" he was new around here, and they didnt get new people all too often in this department.
The file from Interpol had been easily obtained once she'd put in the call. Of course it was one of those, you didn't get this from me and now we're even kind of deals, at which point Llidya had replied no way, this barely put a dent in it. Miles had laughed and hung up the phone, and Llidya had left to go meet his courier two hours after the phone call, and forty-five minutes before this point in time.
She entered the precinct and felt him immediately, and she couldn't help the smirk that replaced the scowl on her lips. The heat was terrible today, so much so that the 1940s bomber jacket was sitting on the back of her desk chair, and the sleeves of her grey shirt were rolled up past her elbows. The jeans were uncomfortable, even though they were tailored to fit her long legs, but anyone who'd ever worn damp jeans got the idea. Her fiery red waves were held back in that tight French braid and looked darker than usual. It's not the heat, they said, it's the humidity. Screw all those people, it was the damn heat.
Chapman wove her way through the cubicles, wiping her forehead with the back of the hand that held the file. The cold of the air conditioner made her grateful for that win of man versus nature. Her shields were up tight, just like she'd always been practicing, though the wolf wanted to get out and greet the other timberwolf. She spotted the man easily, as they were both taller than everyone else in the precinct, her at 6'2 and him being 6'6.
Her steps were quiet as she moved up behind Delasixxe and Kent, whom she'd heard talking about a desk pop off from the door. She hadn't really met the two personally. They'd seen each other around, and heard about one another, but so far as drinks after work and the like, hadn't happened.
"Shouldn't you be filing some paperwork there Kent?" She asked the man with that grin on her face. The grin wasn't for him, nor was she even looking at him. Her attention was on Ash. He was in one of those damnable suits of his that he always looked so good in, and she wondered how he could stand it. Then she realized he probably wanted to strip down just as much as she did, except his professionalism wouldn't allow even the comfort of losing the jacket.
"Redfern." She said, forcing that grin into a smirk. It was more professional. She lifted the file and moved over to her desk. Llidya sat down in her chair and settled her boots on the corner, ankles crossed. She'd already read the file and found it's contents very interesting.
