“IT WASN’T A NIGHTMARE…”

“NOW, where would we be sleeping?” She moaned suspecting every shadow. It was dangerously late and she had the feeling someone would be here any minute.

Starting the engine she looked to her right at the pathetic bird she had also helped with some Band-Aid and began to drive.

The morning light hit the Jeep’s windscreen with its warm presence, Our young detective’s eyes squinting as she’s reluctant to start the day’s work. The air cool but not that heavy moved through the partly winded Jeep windows, the vehicle was parked somewhere down a hill and it was facing the river below. Thick trees manned both sides of the green-struck hill, there was a fairly crooked pathway large enough to take a truck through, and the ground was covered with thick white sand, the Jeep was perfect for this type of environment.

She was far from home, not like there was much to come to other than her little apartment and work back at the Homeland Security Agency. She had a crazy encounter yesterday, she found herself treating an actual werewolf. ‘A case of theft huh? This place is crazy, how the hell would I report this’. What more was Devin, her partner missing. She hadn’t paid much attention to the case, she let him handle the fact and now she had to focus on finding him. To do that, she need to figure out who took him. She told herself that there was little need to worry. ‘Devin-Paul Bieler is a strong man, he would be just fine’.

Mainly, she was determined to work on this case because she wanted to investigate her father. Her father, Detective Lake Riegel had gone missing fifteen years ago in this same City. She thought a lot before she could finally fall asleep, she couldn’t feel elated to investigate her dad when Devin was missing. To begin with, she was clueless on where to start for either missions.

The first years without her father were gruesome, she had to work hard to get rid of the nickname she acquired ‘witch girl’. The night her father was reported missing, she had her neighbor drive her over to her grandparents but they wouldn’t let her in, it was the first time her grandmother spoke to her and her words were. ‘I abhor you, you witch! Give me back my son.

That was all for her mentality, she was just nine and clueless as, to why her grandma would never look at her. A rumor that she killed her father spread like wildfire and she locked herself up at home. Strangely, her school didn’t even bother to reach out to her.

Two years after, she was taken in by a Church care center and stayed till she was sixteen.

At sixteen, she escaped through a scholarship to the Vingerton junior military camp. Yeah, it was a thing and the care center gladly gave her up.

Back at the care center, she still had the name ‘witch’ and had gone through several baptisms and deliverance, this mostly occurred when she got returned a month after being adopted.

Luckily, Iva grew into a fine woman, single, hard-working but with only one purpose in life. To find her father, all she had were the shoes he wore when he went out on his mission. Her father was everything, her best bud, her crime partner, her magic man. They had so much fun together and he never scolded her. She missed him, she missed his stories. She would find Devin and solve this case, but she wasn’t going back to Vingerton without recovering what she could about her dad.

From that she knew the Court was divided into four, Yuwan, Ide, Alhana, and Tin, all having private territories that she would have to investigate.

Priority now was Devin, she would need to interrogate the speaking beast when he was up.

The view was lovely, the brightness of day would start at the other side of the ocean, casting beautiful lights on the not-so-still waters, with birds Iva couldn’t identify running over the dock, the storks chittered noisily as their yellow feet made steps in the sand. They made continuous gawking as the sky got brighter and then they set up in the sky seemly in no direction.

Iva-Lois stared dry-eyed at the sky, before jerking as one of the storks crashed into the windscreen. Shutting her eyes, she muttered a curse and stifled a yawn, she was up this time and her subconscious kicked in, slowly she took her hands to her belt and had it undone, reaching into her pants she took out her handgun and turned over to the back seat.

She stared at the sight, obstructed by dashing white lashes were silver-colored eyes. His stare was strong as though it could engulf her soul as he scrutinized her countenance. Ahe had never encountered such, she wondered if they were contacts. Staring unperturbed at her, his white hair in tussled bangs covered his forehead but not so much to avoid his white brows. Olive-like skin and deep red lips. The man in the back seat would be the beast. His perfectly shaped jawline was slim at the chin and his cheekbones were eye candy. His pointed nose was interrupted by dark brown freckles that covered his entire mask.

“Eik!” Iva made an unintelligible sound as she took in his beauty, her eyes ran over his broad shoulders, his toned arms, chest muscles, his rock-hard abs, and the bones on his waist leading down his legs. He had helped himself with Paul’s coat to cover his groin but other than that, the beast was naked.

He appeared quiet and a bit unrefined, she was certain of his aggression through their fight yesterday. He didn’t really say anything about her taking advantage of his weakness, talk about a bad first impression. His face spoke studying, she knew from his frown, he didn’t like her. She had so much she wanted to know, but what sank in her chest was the fact that he was a potential killer, an enemy.

“You are…” she croaked and leaned away, she had never seen a man this attractive in her entire life and there he was in handcuffs, a Cupid pendant on his neck, and not-so-professionally-done first-aid dressings around his skin. “You’re…”

“Hungry” his husky voice rumbled causing her heart to leap to her throat, her hazel-colored eyes bulged at his reply and she could notice her jittering. She swallowed, he hadn’t fully recovered and was of no harm to her, taking her hands down, she looked towards the sit by her sight.

“I got the bird…” she managed without stutter and watched as his expression turned dead and as though he would rip her open. She shook her head “ I got your bird…it’s still alive!” Slapping on some confidence she looked into his eye. “From now on, you are my prisoner and you’re to tell me all you know about the court”. She stared at her gas tank and then continued. “You either comply or I’ll kill you”. She lifted her gun to clear her point and then stared at him, he was fuming and snaring at her the entire time. Of course, she wouldn’t kill, she felt it would be a waste of beauty.

“Humans are not trustworthy”. He made this statement as Iva turned to start the engine, she paused at the wheel and stared at him through the rare view mirror.

“We are heading to the gas station, I’ll get our breakfast there”. She declared even though she was super worried about everything that had gone on the last few hours. The young detective and her partner were assigned a case beyond their district. She lived in Vingerton, the capital city of Tesles. The land she was currently upon was a land struggled between Vingerton and Yules a neighboring city. They had rivaled for millennials over this city and after several feuds, both cities had abandoned the land.

Two thousand years ago, however, a civilization had formed in that city, and not long after was its name given Court, It grew its repute on crime so much so that the neighboring cities attempted to curb it but it soon after went out of control. All nations closed their borders against the Court except Vingerton and while Vingerton tried their best to regulate the Court’s affairs for mutual benefits, the crime also seemed to be involving none Court members, and citizens of Vingerton.

Iva-Lois had no idea that the so-called Court was a den for humanoids like werewolves and any other creature that would exist in this messed-up district, did they have an organized distribution of power like she had read about, or was it a barbaric society everyone said it was? She wanted to know everything.

It took 50 minutes to reach a town, the road was tarred with tall Republican-styled buildings on both sides. Behind the buildings to the left were what looked like a valley, they would probably be a road down there. The other side had tall timbers that span a large acre, Any structure within those areas... Iva suspected would be where most of the crime had occurred.

“There’s a bar, stop there” the beast declared, he had been silent the entire journey while Iva had been questioning him non-stop throughout the drive.

“Oh now you talk” she sneered, as she rolled to a stop. She opened the pigeon-hole of the Jeep and took out a brown wallet, it had a passport photo she had taken in her uniform, the wallet had 100 dollar bills, receipts, some random papers, and a credit card “you're staying in the car…” she ordered as she took out two notes.

“Rum and coke, burgers and chips,” he said and crossed his feet daringly between the two front seats.