it to the front desk at the Grand, okay? Let me know when you have it!”
My heart jumped in my chest. A police scanner was the one thing my arsenal of skills and tools was missing in Alaska, because of course it was the one thing I hadn’t stuffed into my luggage at the last minute. I gargled some mouthwash and ran down to the receptionist, my grogginess forgotten in the face of this new development.
Maybe now I stood a better chance of staying out of trouble. At least for a while.
I had the nondescript box open on my bed inside of six minutes. The model inside was new and fancy, leagues better than the dinosaur sitting on my desk at home. While I fiddled around setting it up, I dictated a text back to Lian.
“Sorry! No sleep finally caught up to me. I crashed out super hard. But love you for this, thank you so much. Let’s talk soon?” Right as my phone chimed to let me know the message sent, the speakers on the scanner crackled to life. I grinned. “Now we’re talking!”
The mid-afternoon sun poured through the window onto the long desk against that wall as I integrated the scanner into my workstation setup. The audio was crystal clear—the calls might as well have been addressed to me. I wondered if maybe it wasn’t worth it to upgrade my equipment after all. Yeah, I loved my trusty old scanner, but this one I could actually hear.
I was ecstatic, so much so, that I called Lian.
Lian answered, “Hey babe, how’s the scanner?”
“Insanely amazing. I can’t believe you got it for me, but I love you for it.”
She giggled over the phone, which made me smile. “Wanted to make sure you had everything you needed to clean up this town.”
I could almost see her smile at her sarcasm. Places like Anchorage were so heavily infested with supernaturals, I doubted it was ever possible to eradicate them all. “Well, right now I’m intrigued more and more about the partnership between the clanmaster, Orion and a demon and an angel.”
A small gasp come over the phone. “He’s the clanmaster? Shit. Why is he hanging out with a demon and angel?”
“There’s a lot more going on here than I first thought, so I need to spent more time studying them. I think I’ve got one of them on my side who might talk.”
She didn’t respond at first, then asked in a stern voice, “V, please don’t tell me this intrigue is turning into personal interest?”
I scoffed. “As if. You know me well enough. I’m here to stop them.” I was worried I didn’t know myself that well, seeing I just lied to my friend after she hit the nail on the head.
“Okay, just keep me posted, but I gotta go, someone’s calling me. Please stay safe. Bye.” She hung up.
I hated the growing unease in my gut that I was letting myself get too close to the enemy on a personal level.
After that, I stepped out of the hotel just long enough to grab some food and snacks, and then I parked my ass right in front of the snazzy new scanner, settling in for a quiet afternoon of eavesdropping on Anchorage’s finest. And I had to admit, sitting all cozy in the room beat the hell out of cold, rainy nighttime stakeouts. It was probably a good idea to cool it on those for a while anyway, given that the last one had ended with me literally in bed underneath a demon.
Most of the police calls were pretty standard fare for daytime in a small city. Noise complaints, public disturbances, traffic stops, the usual. I spent a little time familiarizing myself with the local codes, and then comfortably let the stream of calls drone on in the background while I organized my notes. As the afternoon moved on toward evening, the reports became a little more serious. Breaking-and-entering, a few thefts, an assault following a fight at a gas station downtown.
“Dispatch to all units in the downtown area, we’ve got an 11-1 called in just now. All available units, please respond. 11-1, all units please respond.”
I snapped to attention, my pen freezing above the page. Dispatch rattled off an address not too far from the Grand Hotel. 11-1 was the Anchorage PD’s code for homicide. In progress or not, I wasn’t able to tell. As I sat stock still at the desk, waiting for details, all other sound in the world