Diamond and Aziza were at Chris’ desk in the bullpen at the police station and Aziza was sitting down in Chris’ chair while Diamond was sitting on the window sill of the window behind Chris’ desk. After being dropped off at Diamond’s apartment by Anderson, Chris had phoned them and told them he had more about Aziza’s case.
Aziza sighed as she turned the chair around to face Diamond, who was staring out the window, “Diamond, I’ve been forgetting to ask, what are ‘Sons of Sand’ gang?” Aziza asked and Diamond didn’t react at first.
“They are an outsider gang that are from some part of Africa.” Diamond said as she shifted her seating to be more comfortable to talk to Aziza while sitting on the window sill. “They don’t have a strong foothold in the city and belief is ummm…what’s the word…”
“Male chauvinism, they’re a violent group that thinks men are better than women.” Chris said as he walked to his desk and put a file on the desk. “They are called the ‘Sons of Sand’ because their leader is called Sand. His mother named him that because he was her seventh child and saw him as just another grain of sand.”
“So he has mommy issues then.” Aziza said, making Chris chuckle and Diamond return looking out the window. “So what does this have to do with me?”
“Well I couldn’t get anything out of Mr. Wilson yesterday but today a judge allowed us to get his phone records and messages.” Chris said as he opened the file. “His st message was about his st thing he do in his initiation was to rape and ensve a human woman.” Aziza’s gut started to feel twisted and felt like she was going to throw up.
“Initiation? The ‘Sons of Sand’ don’t promote initiation to people outside of Africa.” Diamond said as she got off the window sill and rubbed her chin. “Along with their first belief, they are also xenophobia to people outside of Africa.”
“About that, friends of mine, part of the national moonflower police, the ‘Sons of Sand’, had a major blow to their gang a few months back. Including Sand himself being finally caught.” Chris said as he read from the file. “So their numbers are very low and far spread apart, so I think they are starting to open their doors to outsiders now.”
“That’s not going to go well in this city.” Diamond snorted and Aziza thought she saw a brief smug smile on Diamond’s face. “They would have to deal with gangs like ‘Moonrunners’, ‘The Valkyries’ and ‘Hellfist’, that’s just a few local gangs.”
“There are also the Socials as well,” Chris said, which made Aziza tilted her head like a dog hearing a high pitch sound. “Socials are pretty much clubs run by werebeast with different beliefs that are beneficial for society. I hear the ‘The Daughters of Artemis’ are still trying to recruit you, Diamond.”
Diamond let out an annoyed groan, which sounded more like a growl, and rolled her eyes, “They still send me invites every month.” Diamond said as she gnced at the file and saw something in the file that made her pause in thought. “Hey, is that punk in an interrogation room?”
“Yes, he’s in room 3, that’s the reason why I was te in greeting you two.” Chris said as he was trying to track Diamond’s eyes to see what she saw. “I figure you want to try at him as you would see more than I would with my human eyes.”
“Oh ya, I think I can make him speak or at least make him nervous.” Diamond said as she took off her coat to put on the back of Chris’ chair and walked away from the two. “This is going be fun.” Aziza heard Diamond said quietly as she walked away.
“Come on, this going be good.” Chris said as he closed the file and waved for Aziza to follow him. Aziza got up to follow Chris as he led her down a long hallway with different doors and Chris opened a door with the word ‘Observation 3’. In the room there was only desk with three monitors on it that was connected to the camera and mic in other room and on the wall had one way mirror to the room next to them.
Aziza looked to the other room to see a table with a metal loop in the center of the table and handcuffed to the loop was Aziza’s attacker, Noah Wilson. Aziza felt slightly uneasy and knots in her stomach for a few moments before different emotions flowed over her mind, disgust and rage. Aziza didn’t realize that she was gritting her teeth and letting out a low growl that rumbled from her throat. Noah’s head shifted to mirror with confusion. Chris gently touched Aziza’s back and made her notice her actions.
Aziza was about to say something but the door in the other room opened and Diamond entered the room. Noah’s gaze went to Diamond and made a small scowl as she entered and Diamond quietly sat down in the seat across from Noah. “Still stone face he gave me.” Chris said.
“Stone face? He scowled at Diamond.” Aziza said, causing Chris to look at her confused for a second and then something clicked in his mind. “Am I missing something?”
“No, it’s me missing something, you see werebeast eyes can see details that vampires and humans would miss,” Chris expined and Aziza nodded. “Like the very quick scowl that humans would miss but werebeast would see. Also werebeast often speaks more with scents and body nguage rather than spoken nguage.”
“I would have beaten your ass if you didn’t sucker punch me.” Noah growled, causing Chris and Aziza full focus on the other room. Noah had once been sitting forward but now he was leaning back as far as he could be, like he was trying to run away from Diamond, who was silently staring Noah down. “I would make you my b-” He was cut off when Diamond pced a cuff key on the table then slid it to be in front of Noah.
“Oh boy, be ready if he runs to the mirror.” Chris said as Noah unlocked his handcuff and Diamond stood up grabbing the edge of the table closest to the mirror. Without even batting an eye Diamond tossed the table to the other side of the room like it was made out of paper and Noah froze in his seat with terror on his face. “And that was bolted to the floor.”
“You're talking a big game for disgraced Hellfist.” Diamond said and grabbed Noah’s right sleeve and ripped it off to show a scar on his shoulder. “You must have mouthed off the wrong member to get burned this badly.” Diamond was now right up in Noah's face and this twisted smug face on Diamond’s face and Noah was shaking and gritting his teeth. Diamond pulled away from Noah letting out a sigh, “It was probably one of the female members since you tried to join up with ‘Sons of Sands’...is that reason why you picked Aziza because she was weak and starving werebeast.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Noah said through his teeth. “Or anything about me.” Diamond stared at him down before turning her back to him at the door.
“I know all about your kind…” Diamond said before Noah burst into a run to attack Diamond but Diamond turned on heel just as quickly and threw a heavy punch to Noah’s face. Noah went flying back into the wall and his body slowly went down to the floor. “A coward who waits until their opponents have their backs turned and targets the weak.” Diamond walked towards Noah and squatted down to grab Noah’s hair to make him look at her. “I let you know, I’m the one that gave Gabriel his face scars.” Noah looked completely terrified before Diamond punched his face once more and knocked him out.
“I think he will be more compliant with me now.” Chris said as he watched Diamond walk out of the room. “Don’t worry, this style of interrogation is only for werebeast gangsters. Though I wished she didn’t rip up the bolted down table.”
“Who’s Gabriel and why is it scary that Diamond gave him some face scars?” Aziza asked as she stared at Noah, who had slumped over and was making a small pool of blood from his broken nose and missing teeth.
“He is the leader of the Hellfist and was one of the toughest fighters in the city, emphasis on ‘was’.” Diamond said as she walked into the room as she tossed a tissue in the garbage can in the room. “Chip and Dale will clean up the punk and call you when he is ready. Aziza let's go get lunch now, that worked up my appetite.”
“Alright, thanks for that Diamond, maybe he will rat out some more ‘Sons of Sands’ for us.” Chris said as Diamond turned to exit the room with Aziza. Chris followed behind the two and walked past other rooms but stopped when Diamond stopped at interrogation room one.
Aziza noticed Diamond’s eyes were wide before she rushed to the door and opened it up before closing behind her. Aziza and Chris were stunned and looked at each other before rushing into the observation room attached to that room.
“Get out,” Diamond’s voice hissed before they could get to the mirror and once at the mirror they saw the cop doing the interrogation rush out of the room. The man being interrogated was a middle aged man with a bad rug on top of his head and he was wearing a cheap suit.
“What is this good cop and bad cop…” The man trailed off and quickly stood up causing his chair to fall over. “I-Impossible yo-you died!” The man was completely panicking before Diamond ripped the table off the bolts and threw it into the wall so hard half of it went through the wall.
Aziza felt completely frozen as she looked at Diamond’s face and could only expin it to be pure rage. Diamond rushed the man, grabbing his suit and pinning him against the wall behind him making him scream out of pure terror. “WHERE IS HE! TELL ME NOW!” Diamond yelled and the man only whimpered and tried to cover his face. “WHERE IS KEK! WHERE IS THE BASTARD!”
“DIAMOND BACK OFF!” Chris yelled over the intercom and Aziza’s eyes widened as she saw some of Diamond’s scars starting to open up. The scars opening up were the ones found on forearm, and blood stains also started to stain her legs. Diamond snapped her jaw and her fangs started to enrge but everything stopped when the door opened.
The person to open the door was the chief of police and he was in simir uniform as Chris, but his tie was deep red. He had salt and pepper hair and facial hair to match, and Aziza thought he looked like Sam Elliott when he acted in Road House. “Dia, stand down.” His voice was stern and calm. “You’re bleeding.” Diamond looked over her shoulder to the Chief and there was a long pause before Diamond let go of the man. “Go down to Nix, she’ll fix you up, alright?” Diamond was silent before walking out of the room and the Chief moving out of her way. “Officer Quinn and Miss. Smith, my office.”
“Yes, sir.” Chris said over the intercom as the Chief left the room and other officers went into the room to check on the middle aged man that Diamond went off on. Aziza felt stunned as this was the first time in her life seeing such pure rage come from anyone but snapped out of it when Chris gently touched her back. “Come on, best not keep the chief waiting.”
“R-Right,” Aziza said with a shaky and quiet voice and she would follow Chris to the Chief’s office, where he was sitting behind his desk reading from a folder. There were two seats in front of the desk and Chris sat down in one of them and Aziza followed his lead by sitting in the other seat.
“The man that Dia scared is a drug dealer boss, Vince Brown, that blew into this city a month ago. He’s also connected to the Jasmine Teller case, he was one that tasked one of his dealers to kill her.” The Chief said as he closed the folder he was reading.
“Right, I had to hand that case over to the drug department as it seems the dealer didn’t know Ivan was a werewolf, just that Ivan was a junkie that needed his fix.” Chris said as he rubbed his temple. “So do you know why Diamond freaked out on this guy?”
“The Kek case, mainly the death fighting ring.” The Chief said and Chris sighed as he heard that. “Officer Quinn, I suggest you stay focused on Aziza’s case and the gangster Dia has softened up for you.” Chris nodded in agreement as the Chief waved someone to come in. “Aziza, you and Dia will be escorted back to Diamond’s apartment by Officer Hiver.”
Aziza looked behind them as they heard someone enter the pale skinned woman with simir ptinum hair as Diamond but her eyes were rich blue eyes. She stood at least six feet without the heels she was wearing and she was wearing the same police uniform as Chris, though she had added suspenders instead of a normal belt. “Hello there, I’m Belle Hiver but you can just call Belle, Aziza.” She said as held her hand out to shake Aziza’s hand and Aziza did take up that offer, also finally noticed a scar run across her nose bridge. “We should get out the Chief and Chris’ hair and wait at my desk for Dia.”
“Alright.” Aziza said as she stood up before turning back to Chris and the Chief, “Thank you for everything so far.” Aziza noticed the name pte on the Chief’s desk and the name on it was ‘Houston Churchill’. Aziza turned around to follow Belle out of the office and waited at Belle’s desk in the bullpen.
The ride to Diamond’s apartment was in a heavy silence and Diamond sat in the back seat of the car instead of the passenger seat. Aziza wanted to ask questions, though she kept her mouth shut and would gnce in the rearview mirror to look at Diamond, who was just staring out the window. Even with the heavy silence it was a short drive and Belle parked in a parking spot that had Diamond’s name in front of it.
The walk up to the apartment was just as quiet with Diamond in the lead and once unlocking the door and entering the apartment Diamond slipped off her coat to have it fall to the ground. Before it hit the ground Belle caught it and hung it up without missing a beat and Aziza noticed from the neck down Diamond was wrapped in bandages and her right forearm was wrapped up too. Diamond walked straight to her bedroom and pushed out of the room a cork board on wheels that had a light bck bnket over it.
Once the board was out of the bedroom Diamond closed the door and Aziza noticed a shimmer was coming off the bedroom door a second ter. “That is an isotion spell, normally used to prevent sound coming out but the one on Dia’s is inverted, sound can’t enter and we can hear in just in case.” Belle expined. “After an event like today Dia likes to be alone in silence. Would you like some tea?”
“Uh…sure.” Aziza said as she watched Belle move around the apartment as she lived there. “This isn't the first time you’ve been here.” Aziza sat down at the dining table as Belle pulled out a kettle from the kitchen cabinet closest to the oven top.
“No, it isn’t my first time and probably not my st.” Belle said she filled the kettle with water and put on the oven top once finished filling it up. “I bet you have lots of questions you want to ask.”
“Is it written on my face?” Aziza joked and Belle chuckled as she walked towards the cork board. “I have a feeling that’s going to fill in a few things?” Belle took off the bnket from the board and rolled it into the kitchen/dining room.
“Before we start with this, some things need to be expined, for werebeast giving birth takes a lot out of them.” Belle expined as she pulled out some mugs and tea bags from another cabinet. “Amaris had it rougher as she gave birth to twins, and after giving birth she went into a three day coma. Anderson was unfortunately out of the country and the two put their trust in the wrong maid to help Amaris.”
The kettle let out a whistle and Belle took it off the oven top to pour the boiling water into the mugs. “So Diamond has a twin sister?” Aziza asked as she gnced at the bedroom door then back to Belle.
Belle was silent for a second before turning around and putting a mug in front of Aziza. “Averous filled the vampire maid’s heart and took the very rare silver eyed baby twins to a seedy bck market.” Belle said as next grabbed the bowl of sugar and put it on the table. “Where the twins were bought by a death fighting ring that was run by a criminal boss named Kek. For eleven years Dia and Eve fought for their lives in that hell pit.”
“Why couldn’t they be found sooner? As you said, silver eyes are rare.” Aziza asked as she pulled her tea bag up and down in her mug. “Isn’t there some kind of tracking spell.”
“There are tracking spells but there are blocking spells as well.” Belle said as pulled out her tea bag. “The blocking spells were broken by Dia using her cn power for the first time in her life. The Luna cn roar that destroys magic and with blocking spells gone the moonflower tracking spells rang out.”
“I see,” Aziza said before sipping her tea when something came to her mind. “Wait, the drug dealer thought that Diamond had died, what is that about?”
“Because she did, her heart had stopped for a few minutes after using her roar for the first time but her heart restarted itself.” Belle said as she stirred her tea to make a spoonful of sugar mix in better. “To back track a bit before the roar Dia and Eve were forced to fight each other by using an experimental rage drug. It was an unfair fight between a warrior versus a druid in a feral state.” Aziza was about to ask something but stopped as she remembered Diamond’s lesson about shifting. “As you probably figured out, without a clear mind a druid can’t use their magic.”
“While a warrior has access to true form, which is more powerful than semi-form.” Aziza said and Belle nodded to Aziza’s words. “So in a drug rage, Diamond killed her sister…”
“Yes, when the cops got to the fighting ring they found Dia holding Eve’s body.” Belle said as she slowly rotated her mug. “The Chief, when he was a rookie, was one to comfort Dia and returned both girls back to their family.”
“I see why Di-Wait, how do you know all these facts? How old are you?” Aziza asked as Belle sipped her tea. Aziza was examining Belle’s face and trying to find any wrinkle that would tell Aziza her age.
“I’m only two years older than Dia, and I wasn’t old enough to be a cleaner yet when this happened.” Belle chuckled seeing Aziza examining her face. “I’m well read into the case and got all personal notes both from Chief and Dia.”
“Oh…so I keep hearing Cleaner, are they a type of cop?” Aziza asked and Belle blinked in confusion. “Diamond never expined what a Cleaner was.”
“A Cleaner, often werebeasts, that clean up werebeast and vampire messes and threats to keep the secret peace between the races. They work under a company separate from the police, in Wacksqueslia City that company is Nightshade Inc.” Belle said before getting up to put more water in the kettle. “Cleaners like Dia only deal with vampires and werebeasts and are publicly seen as citizens. Then there are Cleaners like me, a cop and a cleaner, I work with all three races and publicly seen as a cop.”
“So what is on this cork board?” Aziza said as she looked to the board and sipped her tea but found she had already finished it. Aziza was the name ‘Kek’ in the middle of the board and all the strings coming off that one name. Few of them stand out to Aziza, one string went to note about Kek either being a human or a werebeast, and the other one being the origin of name Kek being Ancient Egyptian deity of night and darkness and maybe his own origin being egyptian.
“All the known information about Kek and his crime ring information we have.” Belle said and noticed Aziza looking at those notes. “They reason we think he’s human or werebeast because vampires don’t make crime rings this big so fast, they don’t have a ticking clock. Of course that’s all theory as no one has ever met Kek and lived.”
“Diamond’s white whale…” Aziza whispered and Belle raised one of her brows from Aziza’s words. “Moby Dick, the whale that Ahab hunts down…Let’s hope Diamond doesn’t follow Ahab’s end.”
“I don’t see it that way, Ahab was obsessed with the whale. Diamond treats Kek case like an old bone.” Belle said as she took the kettle off the oven once more. “She will chew and gnaw on it but will drop it when given something new to do.”
Belle poured more water into Aziza’s cup and Aziza looked into the water, “Let’s just hope a piece doesn’t break off and she choke on it.” Aziza said as she put her tea bag in the water and Belle nodded from Aziza’s words.
