I’d thought maybe he was borrowing Captain Reese’s office for privacy, but no. Captain Reese was seated at her desk, which was sturdy, wooden, and rustic compared to the modern desks we used.
She had her prosthetic leg off and was using a can of compressed air to clean out a part of the joint. Her steely blonde hair was back in an orderly braid, and today she was dressed in uniform. She looked up when Sarge nudged me deeper into the office and smiled. “Ahh, Blood! Here you are. Just one moment and I’ll be done—I was down at one of the beaches today to look into an incident; the sand is killer on the joints of my prosthetic.”
“Of course,” I said, confused. I looked from Sarge to Captain Reese, then back at Sarge, trying to make sense of the meeting.
“In your text you said that you were requesting a meeting to inform me about something having to do with Ruin,” Sarge said. “I thought Captain Reese should be included in the conversation.”
Captain Reese nodded as she set the can of compressed air down on her desk. “Any news about Ruin is… well …ruinous?” She laughed at her play on words as she removed her prosthetic from her desk and set it on her lap.
I shifted uncomfortably. “Wouldn’t it be best to follow the chain of command and—if you think whatever information I have is important—you take it to Captain Reese?”
“That’s how the humans do it on their shows, but that’s not very efficient,” Captain Reese rolled her eyes as she picked up a glass of water that was leaving a ring of moisture on a paper and put it on a wooden coaster.
Sarge acknowledged Captain Reese’s words with a nod but set his eyes on me. “I wanted to bring Captain Reese in on the conversation because it was safe to assume the information is important—you don’t lightly broach topics. Now. Tell us.”
Sarge stood with his hands behind his back, his shoulders squared, his feet spread hip width apart.
I automatically started to mirror him, then realized I was facing him and not our commanding officer so I awkwardly turned to face Captain Reese.
She pointed to a sturdy chair. “Sit.”
I shifted uncomfortably.
“Or stand,” Captain Reese amended. “It makes no difference to me! Do whatever feels best—personally, I’d rather be running around in a park than stuck in a stuffy office.” She made a face, then switched back to her warm infectious smile. “So, what’s going on, Blood? Did Ruin do something to you?”
“April and Binx both included notes on your interaction with Ruin last night,” Sarge said. “Is there something they missed?”
“No.” I hesitated and wondered just how I could phrase this without 1） making them angry that I’d waited to tell them and 2） keeping anyone from getting upset that I’d used vampire slayer resources for an open case.
Ruin technically isn’t a case. He hasn’t done anything we can investigate since, strictly speaking, we don’t care if he beats other supernaturals unconscious as long as he doesn’t involve humans.
I bit my lip, then belatedly remembered I wasn’t wearing my mask so Sarge and Captain Reese could see my expressions.
I better just start talking—I’ve been practicing at home. I can do this.
I took a deep breath and stared at the wall behind Captain Reese, which was painted a soothing forest green color and was covered with framed photos of her Pack. “I believe Ruin is actually the vampire elder Considine Maledictus.”
Sarge and Captain Reese stared at me.
“Okay,” Captain Reese eventually said. “I guess that’s good to know.”
I gaped at them, and I’m ashamed to admit I questioned their reaction for a moment, until it occurred to me that Sarge was a naiad and Captain Reese was a werewolf so it was perfectly normal that neither of them would recognize the name of what was basically the vampire bogey man, who hadn’t been officially sighted by slayers in decades.
“Considine Maledictus is one of the oldest vampires alive,” I said. “He was changed in the Archaic or Classical period of Greece, though we don’t know precisely when—he changed his name multiple times.”
“Oh.” Captain Reese grimaced with the news. “That does change things.”
Sarge pressed his lips together. “We?”
“Vampire slayers,” I supplied. “I used a slayer resource to research Ruin after he helped me kill the fae snake. He showed off a skill that only the oldest of vampires have. That significantly narrowed down who he could be, so I thought I would check with slayer resources and see if I could figure out who he was.”