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The Department's Resident Dead Expert

Chapter 3

by Draconicon

Aisha poked her head out from behind the police car, eyes wide at the raw destruction that had occurred in a few short minutes. The windows of the car had been all but obliterated, shattered from the frames on the side facing the graveyard, and the doors looked like they'd been through a shootout. The tires had stood up to it - barely - but the rest of the frame was going to need some serious bodywork.

The hyena slowly reached up to touch her cheek, drawing her fingers away with a hint of red on them. A rock had come flying by and scraped her cheekbone, less than an inch from her eye. Just a slightly different trajectory and she would have been blind in one eye.

"Holy...no, nothing holy about this..."

Finlay. The hyena turned to her partner as he stood up, his hand on his gun. She could see the tension in his jaw and knew just where it was going.

"Finlay. Keep that gun in its holster."

"You - you think that - You saw what he did."

"I did, but I don't see him yet, do you?"

"He's -"

"If he did that - and I don't know that he did, but let's say that you're right - then what the hell do you think that a bullet's gonna do?"

"..."

"Keep that gun in its holster and let's not piss him off."

Her annoyance with her partner belied her fascination with the situation. She had always wondered about magic, always had a curiosity for the fantastic. Seeing the mole bring the fly back to life in the interrogation room had been one thing: seeing this was something else.

It took most of her self-control to not pant for breath as she saw the destruction that had been wrought. The trees in the graveyard park were damaged, bark scraped off them, and the tombstones that had marked the burial places of who knew how many people had been uprooted, thrown about like a child throwing a tantrum. They lay everywhere, one of them embedded in a car three spaces down from her own. The damages from this were going to be extensive.

And she had a bad feeling that Jaceb wouldn't be able to pay them.

Worry about that later, she thought. If he's got information -

Information. Information that they were going to present...how, exactly? They were asking him to talk to the dead, and what court was going to believe that such a thing was real? Magic wasn't real, or at least, hadn't been, until today.

Aisha groaned, rubbing her forehead. She could figure that out later. For now, her hopes were that the girl's ghost could at least tell them who killed her. If she could do that, then they could start working backwards from there, seeing if they could find a trail that led from that person to the corpse, or the other way around, or whatever it was that they had to do. She wasn't going to leave a little girl lying dead in the dirt without someone paying for it.

Eventually, Jaceb walked out of the graveyard, and he looked worse than they did. His face was ripped up on one side, a flap of skin hanging off his cheek that he reached up to press back in place. Dark red covered his chin and jawline, and his other arm hung down, limp enough that she could tell that it was shattered. He limped, grunting from time to time, but the mole clearly should have been completely wrecked. The man belonged in a hospital bed, not on his own two feet.

"G-g-got...fur color," Jaceb managed to say, turning to the side to spit out a mouthful of blood. "S-sorry."

Finlay just stared, his mouth agape. Aisha took charge before her comrade could say anything else.

"I'm putting you into witness protection. There's a motel not far from here; we can put you up there for the night, and make sure that you can be safe...and clean..." She winced as she looked him over. "You need a doctor."

"Nnngh...N-no..."

Before she could protest, Jaceb pressed his fingers more forcefully against his cheek. Before her eyes, his skin - running all the way from his ripped cheek down to his arm on the other side - went as deathly black as a corpse rotting for months. It was dead, he was dead, and he gasped for breath -

And then it started healing. The flesh beneath the brown fur went pink, then white, then darkened once more. The muscles changed, pulling back together, and as he pulled his hand from his face, the flesh had knitted back in place.

"How..."

"Magic." He huffed. "Can w-w-we g-go n-n-n-now?"

The hyena nodded blankly. As they all got in the car, she looked in the mirror at the 'witness' that she had taken on. She now had proof that he could raise the dead, heal himself, and talk to the departed. The fact that he was still here, the fact that he hadn't run off, told her that he wasn't interested in running away from the case. He'd found some sort of connection to it, something that made him want to help.

That said, she couldn't deny that her fascination was mixed with fear...and just a tiny hint of arousal as another thought popped into her head.

I fucked that...I dommed that.

It made her smile a shaky smile as they drove off.

#

The motel was one where the rookie cops came to pick up prostitutes to pad their numbers, so she did the fair thing and turned on the siren while they were still down the block. Finlay glared at her as she did. The Catholic sheepdog was always of the law and order mindset, and she knew for a fact that he had snuck down to bust prostitutes at the old by-the-hour motel. Probably still did when she had her days off and wasn't telling him not to.

Still, he didn't say a word. He hadn't said anything since she'd offered Jaceb witness protection, but knowing him, he'd have a lot to say when this was said and done. He was not the sort to just hold back on that.

As soon as they drove up, he reached for his door. Aisha stopped him again.

"We'll talk after he's checked in."

"...Understood."

This was not what she wanted out of her working relationship with her partner, but considering the way that life was going, she doubted that she was going to get anything that she wanted for a while. Shaking her head, she nodded at Jaceb.

"Come on."

The mole slowly stepped out of the car, clearly favoring one leg over the other. He pulled his robe a bit tighter around himself and followed at her side.

"W-w-will I b-be here all n-n-night?" he asked.

"What, you hoping for a repeat of earlier?"

He blushed and looked away. A bit of a pity; he'd been fun to tease, and she wouldn't have been opposed to seeing just how far they could take it next time.

Or at least, that was what she was telling herself. In all reality, some part of her wanted to take control to remind herself that she could be in control. The mole was cute in a sort of nerdy, small way, someone that she might have teased and playfully bullied before apologizing to in school all those years ago, but knowing that he carried that much power...

She didn't know if it was terrifying or a turn-on. The fact that it spoke to her long-time fantasy of magic and the fantastical probably tilted it a little more towards the latter, but only a little.

The raccoon at the check-in desk knew her, and she knew him. They barely had to exchange a glance before they had an understanding, and he passed her a key.

"Room 24. Right around the corner, past the first flight of stairs," the raccoon said.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

Jaceb was quiet as they went to the room, and Aisha wondered what was going through his head. He hadn't spoken much, not at all during the drive to the hotel, and not since she'd teased him, either. Was he angry? Upset? Was he going to be jealous that she wasn't sharing her bed so willingly? Or -

"People died here."

Aisha whipped her head around just as she was about to step off the stairs. The mole turned to her slowly, his shadow not quite matching his movements, and he rubbed his head.

"Murders...arguments...all over th-the place..." He shook his head. "Remembered, t-too."

"...Yes."

"S-s-so...n-not g-g-going t-to b-b-b-b-be lonely."

He took forever to get to the last word, giving her what he probably thought was a reassuring smile, but to her, it was just a testament to the strangeness of this little mole. Everything he said was another reminder of everything that was different about him, a little nudge that she had to keep in mind that he was not the sort of prisoner or witness - or lover, for that matter - that she was used to. He had power. He had a lot of power, and she didn't know how it worked.

But as much as she wanted to figure it out, she knew that it wasn't just self-preservation that made her want to know about it. This was a nightmare, but even a nightmare had a figment of a dream at its core.

She put it out of her mind, rounding the corner and tossing the necromancer the key. He almost dropped it, his too-thick glasses shining and reflecting back at her as he desperately played catch with himself until he got hold of it. The hyena bit back a chuckle, shaking her head as he clumsily unlocked the door, stepping inside with his head down.

How does he go from terrifying to adorable at the drop of a hat? she wondered.

The motel room wasn't very large, no more than three-hundred square feet, if that. The shower was grimy, and the sheets were stained, but there were no signs of bedbugs or any criminal acts of late. The room didn't smell of weed, either, which was a change.

"You'll be alright here," Aisha said. "I gotta settle things with the station, make sure that Finlay doesn't have a fit about it, and make sure that we get the paperwork ready for chasing up whatever leads you found, but that'll be done by tomorrow."

"...T-thanks."

"Hey. I made sure it's worth it."

"...W-wasn't."

"Huh? Did you just insinuate that I didn't give good head?" Aisha teased.

"I - you - I - I - I -"

"Hey, hey, calm down," the hyena said, dropping her smirk as she saw the rips growing along the mole's neck. "Breathe, kid, breathe."

And he did. Slowly. And she was 'privileged' to see his skin stretch, leaving holes for a moment before they were sealed up again. Such holes would have been death wounds for anyone else, and she shook her head.

"Did you...did someone else..."

"K-killed me...y-y-yes."

"...Who the hell did you piss off to get that many wounds?"

"Didn't...th-they w-w-were angry...w-wouldn't listen...Every t-t-t-t-time."

Every time. This had happened more than once. Well, it explained the wounds, but Christ on a bike, this mole was the picture of helpless terror, a complete contradiction walking on two legs.

"I'll b-be okay," Jaceb said, the mole sitting down at the foot of the bed. "Just n-need...t-t-time."

"...Yeah. You take care of that...and you make sure that you're ready to come down to the station tomorrow. I still need that info from you, you know."

"..."

"And don't make me have to bribe you too hard; I know how good I am, heh."

He blushed, and she smirked. At least with flirting, she had the upper hand, even if it was a bit of a cheap trick to hit the mole with something like that. He clearly didn't know what he was doing, or how to accept it, but at least it helped her feel like she was still in control.

Giving him a wave goodbye, she left him and walked back through the motel. The raccoon at the front desk gave her an odd look, then shrugged. Probably had expected that she'd sleep with the mole before leaving, considering all the prostitutes in and out of this place. She shrugged back and walked out.

Finlay was waiting in the driver's seat, keeping a white-knuckled grip on the wheel. She sighed as she slid in on the passenger's side.

"Look -"

"He's possessed."

"Oh, come on."

"Or he's a demon. Or whatever. He's something wrong."

"He's also what we need right now."

"You think that he actually talked to the dead girl? He tried to kill us."

"If that was trying to kill us, he's pretty bad at it." She shook her head, looking at her side of the cop car. "I mean, seriously. All he had to do was aim up and he'd have gotten either one of us multiple times."

"I can't believe that you're even thinking of working with...that."

"I'll do whatever I have to do to close this case."

And put whoever the killer was behind bars. That was the key part. That was the big part.

She leaned against her hand as Finlay drove them away. The day was running late, their shift was over, and her place was on the way back to the station. The sheepdog wasn't going to do anything stupid - she was fairly sure of that - but he was not happy. Not happy in the slightest.

But Aisha let the silence linger. There was no point in engaging with him when he was like this. He'd always been one of those that got angry too easily, who believed that anyone that didn't slip into the right niche of 'normal' should and would always be the first suspect. Jaceb was too easy for him to slot there, particularly after what had happened at the graveyard.

Her hand shook at the thought, but she, at least, could remind herself that there was more to it than met the eye. Jaceb had warned her that something might happen, and he hadn't been kidding about that. If anything, he had underplayed the peril of reminding the dead of their moment of death.

Maybe I should have asked him to bring her back instead...

After all, he said he was a necromancer; why wouldn't bringing her back...

Aisha chuckled, and Finlay grumbled.

"What?"

"Just thinking."

"What?"

"Just...with all the things that he can do. He could put us out of a job."

"He traffics with demons, if he is doing anything at all."

"...Right."

Back to silence, then. Finlay wouldn't do anything without someone higher than she was clearing him in the action, and she'd be calling the precinct the minute she was out of the car. He wouldn't get anything from the commissioner or anyone further up the chain of command, not if she had anything to say about it.

She was not risking her only resource on someone else's vengeance quest.

#

With a goodbye to Finlay at the door to her apartment and a phone call to the chief that thankfully went straight through, everything was arranged. The paperwork would be emailed to her account, she'd get them done tonight, and tomorrow morning, they'd be turned in when she brought Jaceb in for further questioning. Witness protection was easy to arrange, and the fact that it happened to be for the protection of other cops rather than the witness didn't have to be brought up just yet, as far as she was concerned.

With that arranged, she closed her phone, put it back in her pocket, and stepped into her apartment.

Heh...glad that he didn't notice all the other stuff around...

Aisha shut the door behind her, shaking her head as she adjusted some of the old things on the walls. A couple of upside-down five-pointed stars, a couple of tapestries that had fallen sideways of old goth fantasies, a little poster of Baphomet on the hallway wall leading back to the bedroom: they were all things that had been a powerful part of her growing up. Fantasies, wishes, hopes for things that went well-beyond the aesthetics that most girls fell in love with, they represented a massive hope for the impossible that she had been starting to slip away from.

Now, however, she had confirmation that it was real. For some, at least, it was real, and it was oddly more amazing and more terrifying than she had ever imagined.

She shucked off her jacket, letting it hit the floor as she sat down on the foot of her bed. Her phone pinged, signaling that the paperwork had just popped into her inbox, but she didn't reach for it yet. Instead, she leaned back, staring up at the ceiling as she went through the events of the day. Finding out about the mole visiting the graveyard, arresting him, blowing him -

Didn't see that happening when I woke up this morning...

She still didn't know why she'd done that. He'd seemed charming enough, she supposed, in a damaged but cute sort of way. She'd honestly excused it at the time of being more interested in getting what she needed out of him and being as pragmatic as possible about it, but now that she wasn't rushing forward in a desperate attempt to get something so that she could close this case, she had to admit that there'd been something else.

He was a combination of two things. First, he was the thing that embodied all the wishes she'd had about magic growing up. He had power, he had the ability to keep things from fading away, and - most of all - he was smaller than her, something that could be controlled and put to use. Second, he was smaller than her, and she'd always had a thing for smaller guys. When he asked her for his little price - to sleep with her in exchange for helping her - it had been all too easy to accept it.

If anything, the harder part had been playing off that she'd only done it for the deal. She chuckled, rubbing her lips, feeling a memory of the pressure she'd exerted on his cock. He'd been so cute getting blown, and...

"Mmmph..."

Well, she was getting a little riled up from the thought. She shook her head, reaching for her pants -

Then...the room went cold. She stiffened, sitting up a little straighter as the temperature of her bedroom dropped, and fast. It went from barely warm to freezing in the space of a few seconds, and the edge of the window started to fill with frost. Her breath caught in her throat, puffing and steaming in front of her face.

"What..."

Aisha looked up just in time to see herself in the mirror...and something else behind her. A ghostly, silvery thing sat on the bed behind her, and it was reaching out for her neck with a transparent hand.

The End

Summary: Aisha reacts to Jaceb and Alice's moment, and takes him to a motel for safekeeping. She also has a fight with her partner.

Tags: M/F, No Sex, Flirting, Teasing, Femdom, Fear, Power, Necromancy, Blood, Series, Patreon, Hyena, Mole, Sheepdog, Religious, Police,