them, their smallish eyes watching as I walked down the hallway. Their features were similar, like they might have been cousins related by common grandparents. All had slightly porcine faces, upturned noses, and apple cheeks.
On my way back to the office Catcher shared with Jeff Christopher - an adorable shifter with mad tech skills and a former crush on me - I passed a large table of fruit: spears of pineapple and red-orange papaya in a watermelon bowl; blood orange slices dotted with pomegranate seeds; and a pineapple shell full of blueberries and grapes. Snacks for the office guests, I assumed.
"Merit!" Jeff's head popped out from a doorway, and he beckoned me inside. I squeezed through a few more men and women and into the office. Catcher was nowhere in sight.
"We saw you on the security monitor," Jeff said, moving to the chair behind his bank of computer monitors. His brown hair was getting longer, and nearly reached his shoulders now. It was straight and parted down the middle, and currently tucked behind his ears. Jeff had paired a button-up shirt, as he always did, with khakis, his shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows, presumably to give him room to maneuver over his monstrous keyboard. Jeff was tall and lanky, but what he lacked in mass he more than made up for in fighting skills. He was a shifter, and a force to be reckoned with.
"Thanks for finding me," I told him. "What's going on out there?"
"Open house for river trolls."
Of course it was. "I thought the water nymphs controlled the river?"
"They do. They draw the lines; the trolls enforce them."
"And the fruit?"
Jeff smiled. "Good catch. River trolls are vegetarians. Fruitarians, really. Offer up fruit and you can lure them out from beneath the bridges."
"And they prefer not to leave the bridges."
I glanced back. Catcher stood in the doorway, plate of fruit in hand and, just as Mallory had said, rectangular frames perched on his nose.
They were an interesting contrast with the shaved head and pale green eyes, but they totally worked. He'd gone from buff martial arts expert to ripped smart-boy. The Sentinel definitely approved. I also approved of his typically snarky T-shirt. Today's read I GOT OUT OF BED FOR THIS?
"Mr. Bell," I said, offering a small salute to my former katana trainer. "I like the glasses."
"I appreciate your approval." He moved to his desk and began stabbing the fruit with a toothpick.
So, Catcher was a sorcerer, and Jeff was a shifter. Vampires were also represented, at least partly. Because Chicago's Masters were pretty tight-lipped about House goings-on, my grandfather had a secret vampire employee who offered up information - a vampire I suspected, largely without evidence, was Malik.
"Do they live under the bridges?" I wondered aloud, returning to the trolls.
"Rain or shine, summer or winter," Catcher said.
"And why the open house? Is that just maintaining good supernatural relations?"
"Now that things are escalating," Catcher said, frowning as he used the toothpick to push out the seeds from a chunk of watermelon, "we're working through the phone book. Every population gets a visit - an evening with the Ombudsman."
"Things are definitely changing," Jeff agreed.
"Things are getting louder."
We all looked back as a broad-shouldered river troll with short, ginger hair looked into the office. His wide-set eyes blinked curiously at us.
He didn't have much neck to speak of, so his entire torso swiveled as he looked us over. A light breeze of magic stirred the air.
"Hey, George," Catcher said.
George nodded and offered a small wave. "It's getting louder. The voices. The talk. The winds are changing. There's anger in the air, I think."
He paused. "We don't like it." He shifted his gaze to me, a question in his eyes: Was I part of the problem? Making the city louder? Adding to the anger?
"This is Merit," Catcher quietly explained.
"Chuck's granddaughter."
Awareness blossomed in George's expression.
"Chuck is a friend to us. He is . . . quieter than the rest."
I wasn't entirely sure what George meant by "quiet" - I had the sense it meant more to him than simply the absence of sound - but it was clear he meant it as a compliment.
"Thank you," I said with as much sincerity as I could push into those two words.
George watched me for a moment. Thinking.
Evaluating, maybe, before he finally nodded.
The act seemed to carry more significance than just an acceptance of my thanks - like I'd been approved by him. I nodded back, my act just as significant. We were two paranormal