Tales of London #5

Jenna had no choice. Jail, she wouldn’t even mind that much. She knew she was tough enough to last, and the thought of pissing off her father on a gigantic scale made her smile. But everyone sentenced for a crime committed by magic got also branded with a permanent Signum, cutting them off magic forever. It was a barbaric method, borderline fascist, but it did have results. Only, Jenna didn’t want to be a number in those statistics. She couldn’t imagine her life without magic: it was the only thing she was good at, the only thing she could always count on.

So after Jenna got home from the office, she started to get ready. She decided to show up in something classy, yet sexy: she didn't think that there was a possibility to flirt her way out of this mess, but better safe than sorry. Plus she remembered how Robert Montgomery stared at her the other day and thought it would be funny to mess with him, too.

After some serious consideration, she chose a grey, long-sleeved top that she found at the bottom of a drawer. It wasn’t familiar and she was fairly sure it wasn’t hers, but it fit and had just enough cleavage to make every man look. With this, she put on a simple loose black skirt, which ended under her knees. She almost went with high heels but then decided to put some bad girl attitude into the mix and chose a pair of ankle boots with her usual oversized leather jacket. Considering the limited amount of clean clothes she could pick from, she was satisfied with the outcome.

Jenna didn't bother with makeup, only used eyeliner and some red lipstick. Her hair was messy, but in a very attractive, "I wanna put my fingers through it"-way, so she didn't touch it at all.

She didn't know whether they will check her for weapons, magical objects being free to carry at any time by law. She still had a feeling that it might be wise not to show up with an arsenal on her so she removed everything from her jacket. That took up a couple of minutes.

Then she searched the big pile of weapons and whatnot in front of her and picked up a hand fan. It had several Runes on it, visible when it was open and she didn't mind losing it in case she’d be searched at some point. She also selected a custom-made coin, with a Rune on each side, but she put that into the secret pocket of her skirt, just in case. Of course, all that will be pointless if they want to put a temporary Signum on her. With that, she would be almost defenceless. Even her shadow dog would be out. It would make sense, though: the Commissioner invited a handful of powerful sorcerers into his office, people who proved to be dangerous. He might want to restrain them before he tells them off. Jenna would have done the same.

It was time to go. She grabbed a big, dark blue umbrella from the valet next to the door, Another item left behind by a guest who never returned. She checked the umbrella after any kind of Runes but it was just an umbrella, nothing more. Off she went, down the stairs.

It was raining outside with tiny, cold drops, and it looked more like fog than rain. The umbrella did come in handy: she was safe from the rain that was dancing around in the light wind.

It was a long walk to the nearest underground station, at least long in the cold rain. But ten minutes was a small sacrifice for a quieter neighbourhood to live in. Jenna liked it there, mostly because it was almost like a suburb without actually being one, so she could have all the perks of living far from the city while she in reality never left Zone Two, right next to the historical City. A nice and cosy neighbourhood a few stops from the heart of London; everybody's dream. Sometimes she wished that her rent was more suburb-like, but what can one do? Not like she couldn’t afford it. A good demon hunter was always needed.

Her almost peaceful mood was ruined at the very moment she reached the Underground station and got on the Northern Line. The train was so crowded that even breathing was hard, let alone moving. Even though she was a big fan of the occasional cuddling with strangers, this was not her cup of tea. For one thing, she liked to hand-pick the person who was allowed to grab her ass, but some people on the Tube took upon this responsibility for her. Usually, she would have said something, but that could have led to an argument, and she tended to close those with a curse. The Commissioner probably wouldn’t be pleased if Jenna would curse someone on her way to being punished for cursing people. So she just pursed her lips shut and inched away, gritting her teeth.

At least she didn't have to change between lines, so once she bullied out enough space for herself, mostly using her elbows, she was all set for the ride. She made sure that her back was against a wall.

She emerged from the belly of the city a little after half-past five. While she was travelling, the sun went down, which London being London wasn't that big of a change. Everywhere she looked there were lights from the traffic, shop fronts and even gigantic neon adverts. New York might have been the city that never sleeps in theory, but London was, in fact, its insomniac granddad.

It was a nice, chilly autumn evening, once the rain stopped, and Jenna enjoyed the short walk on the side of the Thames to the New Scotland Yard's building. Across the river she could see the big circle of the London Eye, throwing light onto the dark sky. Not much further stood the iconic clock tower of Big Ben on her side, telling Jenna that she is too early. The whole scene would have been lovely if it hadn't been for the other people around, running, shouting, pushing each other. She stopped next to the grey sign on a pole stating that she reached the New Scotland Yard. She leaned against it, enjoying being out of the rushing pavement.

When bored, everyone's go-to thing is their phone and Jenna wasn't an exception. As she was waiting for the minutes to pass, she scrolled through several social media sites, giving likes to newborn babies of classmates she never talked to anymore, reading about the new, rising star of her favourite sport, Duel. Then she fell into a quick depression about her unsatisfying life, just to forget about it seconds later while watching a cat playing with a ball. After every site told her that she was caught up, which she translated to "go get a life", she put away her phone.

Might as well, as Robert Montgomery was approaching her, and she did not want to be surprised by him. She’d been there and it never end well.

Jenna looked over him, mostly to make him uncomfortable. The man wore a navy blue suit, obviously made especially for him, with a grey waistcoat and a similarly blue tie. Not many men could pull off red hair, but he was one of them, Jenna gave him this much. Although she was sure he could greatly benefit from a beard because his face was too long and narrow. His eyes were blue, and Jenna refused to call them piercing as it would have been almost a compliment. All things considered, Robert Montgomery wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't for the bloodthirsty feud across generations between their families, the inherited despise and hatred, and the brown shoes. She didn't like brown shoes at all.

'Ms Carvelli,' he greeted her in his deep voice. He bent slightly as if bowing. What a clown.

'Mr Montgomery,' she nodded mockingly.

'It's actually Professor Montgomery,' the man corrected her. She scoffed. 'It's a pleasure to see you properly dressed.'

A pleasure indeed, thought Jenna as she caught Robert's glimpse at her breasts and legs. He was gentlemanly enough to pretend he didn't look, which made her smirk.

‘First time I hear that,’ she grinned. ‘People usually telling me the opposite.’

‘I have no doubt,’ the man nodded, and he couldn’t stop himself from looking again. Jenna grinned. A confused Montgomery is a Montgomery beaten easily, and she will use any means necessary to that end.

'How is your arm?' she asked innocently.

'Will be so much better the moment you tell me what bit it,' he answered, but Jenna just shook her head and gave him a cheeky smile.

'You are the professor, you figure it out,' she said, waving towards the big glass door. 'Shall we?'

'After you,' he replied.

The girl didn't move at first.

'You are afraid to turn your back on me, aren't you?' she said with a hint of surprise and much more mockery in her voice.

Robert raised his eyebrow.

'I am a gentleman who knows that ladies go first,' he said proudly. 'And yes, I'm also terrified of you, so you go first. Unless, of course, you are afraid of me...'

She just gave him another grin and walked past him towards the entrance.

As she suspected, there was a search. Right after they entered, they got stopped by a woman behind a long wooden counter. She wasn't alone, and her peer was staring at them, not even blinking. They both carried white batons with Runes painted in black. Jenna saw that there were several nasty spells on them, Runes touching, written together, like cursive handwriting. A spell like that was quick and only needed the energy to use, but on the short side, the Runes did not work separately. Very handy in a fight but completely useless at any other time.

The woman gave them a sheet and a box, so they signed it and gave up their magical items. Robert donated a simple wand, and Jenna surrendered her hand fan but kept the coin. She also had the hound on her, something she wasn't keen to mention, especially not in this kind of company. She liked the idea that Montgomery didn’t know how she did it.

After this, they had to give up their phones. The officer assured them that it’s standard procedure, but Jenna was sure that the Commissioner ordered them to make the most of this visit. She was glad that she had a strict policy against nude photos. She was the last person to be called shy, but there was a principle involved here, not unlike in the case of butt-touching on the Tube. Though the female officer was kinda cute… The other one just looked at her hungry, and not in a good way.

‘What’s on your mind?’ Montgomery asked her, searching her face.

‘You don’t wanna know,’ she answered. The man sighed.

They both got laminated ID cards with their names on them, the purpose of their visit and photos printed on them in very unflattering black and white style. When those were in place, a young copper guided them to the elevators. Fuzz, uniformed and civil clothed, were hanging out in the lobby talking and sipping tea, seemingly randomly, but somehow always with one hand around their weapons and an eye on the two of them. Robert's smug little half-smile told Jenna that the man noticed it as well.

Each elevator was as big as the ones at some underground stations for dozens of people to use at once, and the one they rode smelled like disinfectant and urine implying that someone must have had a very bad day. Six or seven officers happened to have things to do right then and right where they were going, too.

The Commissioner's office was at the top of the building. It was more than one office: there was a room for the secretary, offices of other high-ranking coppers, a meeting room and such. The policeman left them alone in the waiting room, which was unwise in Jenna's opinion. This was the longest time she ever spent with a Montgomery without cursing them. Robert might have thought the same because he was tapping his foot nervously, checking something in the inside pocket of his navy blue jacket. Another wand or something similar, no doubt.

The room was big and probably full of light in the daytime, given the huge windows that made up one of the walls. The other three were white, with modern artwork on them, something made Robert snort at the sight. Jenna was expecting victorian style furniture or something like that, given that the Commissioner was like 400 years old or so, but everything was new and state of the art from the shining wooden floor to the led lights sunken in the walls and the tall ceiling. There were no plants or a fireplace or anything to make the place less sterile. Jenna and Robert sat on a big sofa, as far from each other as physically possible, both leaning on their armrest. In front of them stood a glass coffee table with boring glasses and a jar of water. The slice of lemon in it was probably the only vivid colour in the room.

Jenna saw all of these little details because there was a direction she did not want to look, and when she did nonetheless, from the corner of her eye, she saw that Robert did the same. They both turned their head quickly, then Jenna couldn't help it and started to giggle.

'God, this is awkward,' she said.

'It is, indeed,' Montgomery agreed. He spoke with posh, yet not all that bad British accent and Jenna realised that she had barely heard him speak before. 'I almost wish you cursed me. You know, just to break the ice.'

'Do not tempt me, Montgomery,' she answered keeping a straight face, fighting off a smile.

'Soooo,' lengthened the word Robert. 'Do you have any hobbies? Apart from beating the crap out of me, mind you.'

Jenna laughed.

'No need to be so modest, Professor. You have beaten the shit out of me just as many times. Remember when you broke my leg? It was fractured. Pretty neat job.'

'Yeah, well, once you gave me a concussion,' Montgomery retorted.

'Lost a tooth,' replied Jenna.

'Broken nose!' said Robert triumphantly. 'Aaand it stayed crooked, look!'

'Nah, you can barely see it,' she said, leaning towards him, frowning, although she could definitely see it. 'And hey, it's not my fault that you don't have a decent healer when you go to battle…'

'I had! You hit him in the face with a brick wall.'

'Ah, well… Whoops.'

'Water under the bridge,' waved Robert. ‘He came out of the coma a few days later.’

‘Oh, okay, then. Which bridge, though? I seem to remember one you collapsed under me…’

‘That was an accident,’ the man raised both his hands defensively. ‘Spell got out of hand. I was a little drunk.’

‘You know, come to think of it, it’s a miracle the old man didn’t have enough of us a long time ago.’

Montgomery nodded slowly.

'It would have been understandable. So what do you reckon, why are we here now?'

Jenna shrugged.

'There is a remote possibility that this is a trap and they might try to arrest us, but I'd like to think that the Commissioner is smarter than that. Would be a shame to destroy this nice room,' she said blandly. 'What's your guess?'

'I think they found something we actually could do together, as a team. Something the MET cannot do by itself or won't because it's too menial or time-consuming.'

'Or dangerous,' added Jenna because she felt that Robert had way too much faith in the police.

'Or that,' he nodded. 'But the point is to get us to work together.'

Jenna's forefinger was tapping on her red lips as she considered this.

'Why not arrest us instead? Way easier solution, if they can manage, and a great tool to teach us not to fuck up everything,' she said. ‘Plus if they find us guilty and we get the Signum, we won’t be a problem ever again.’

Montgomery had an answer ready.

'People don't like the Commissioner or his SRU. They are afraid of vampires, there are still many misconceptions and superstitions about them. But they like us,' he explained in a voice of a teacher. 'You are a famous demon hunter, protecting the innocent from dark forces and all that. Teodore is a healer and he saved that little girl last year. Even my idiot little brother helped in stopping the tower fire this January. Despite all the fighting we had done, our names are in the news for something positive almost as often. The Commissioner needs our popularity if he is to keep his office.’

'I see,' nodded Jenna, slowly. ' It's a PR stunt.'

‘That’s my guess, yes.’

Silence wrapped them, as they both pondered about this. Jenna wasn’t sure that she wanted to help the Commissioner being more popular; she really didn’t agree with his methods. But she didn’t see what choice she had.

Six o’clock came and go, and looked like the other guests were running late.

'Do you think we can, though?' asked Jenna suddenly.

‘We can what? Working together?’

The girl nodded. Montgomery took a second to answer.

‘Well, we shall see. But we have been here for almost ten minutes now, and we are both alive. I'd say it's a terrific start.'

'It is, I suppose,' agreed the girl quietly.

Jenna noticed the noise of the steps first. Two pairs of shoes, one of them possibly high heels. This one turned out to be Rose, and the other arrival was Bailey. The boy wore jeans and a brown knitted jumper over a white shirt whilst Rose, almost as if she took out a page of Jenna's book, brought in her A game with a very nice and revealing yellow sundress, under a long, open coat. Jenna had to order herself not to stare at Rose's cleavage.

'I thought it was too late for a dress like that,' she said, thinking about the cold rain earlier.

'Maybe for you, darling,' answered Rose, looking over Jenna. 'But I'm still under 30…' She took the seat next to Robert and crossed her legs.

'I'm 26, bitch!' burst out Jenna, feeling offended.

Rose gave her a sweet smile, the type she knew well because she always used it too when wanted to hurt someone's feelings. She couldn't help but feel some respect for the other girl now. It was a professionally executed burn. The men just watched them silently, knowing that it would be unwise to say anything right now. Bailey, who could only sit between Rose and Jenna, decided to stand instead. Probably didn't want to be in the line of fire if spells were about to fly.

'There is nothing wrong with being over 30,' murmured Robert quietly under his nose. Rose patted his back.

A minute later Teodore arrived. His black suit wasn't the sign of respect towards the office or the police in general; he always wore black suits with matching shirt and tie. His long, black hair was tied up at the back of his neck.

He just nodded coldly and leaned towards the wall a couple of meters away from the rest of them, hands crossed.

'Sooo… This is kinda weird,' said Bailey, looking around. 'I mean, not fighting and all…'

Teodore snorted.

'Don't get used to it,' he said. 'Nothing changed.'

'It could, though,' suggested Robert. 'I can't see any reason to fight every time we meet.'

'I can see two reasons every time I visit the graves of my murdered parents,' answered Teodore in an ice-cold voice.

'They weren't killed, everyone knows that!' said Bailey a little too loudly and something started to glow under the sleeves of his jumper. 'It was an accident.'

Every muscle in Jenna's body tensed, and she could feel that the air got colder. Not only figuratively, as in the drop of the mood, but also literally as someone started to collect energy for a spell. Adrenalin pumped in her blood. She measured the whole room in a heartbeat. She already knew that Robert isn't unarmed, and neither Teodore nor Bailey could have been as they both had Rune tattoos. Nothing could be hidden under Rose’s dress, but she still had the coat for that. Three against two, and she had but a few Runes on her…

Robert jumped to his feet, but he didn't cast any spells. Instead, he put a hand on his brother's shoulder.

'Everybody stays calm,' he said with a deep, soothing voice. 'We don't know what happened there.'

'We do,' answered Teodore with anger and hatred in his dark eyes. 'Your father. That's what happened.'

'Even so, we don't have to continue our parents' fight,' said Robert, looking at Teodore in the eye. He returned his gaze. For a moment Jenna was sure her cousin will curse Montgomery, but then he just shrugged and looked away. Jenna let out a very deep breath and heard Rose doing the same next to her. The light died on Bailey's arms, and he shook off Robert’s hand.

At this very moment, the big, heavy doors leading into the Commissioner's office opened up, and Marcus put his head through the gap.

'I thought I heard voices,' he said cheerfully, obviously not reading the room on purpose. 'And everyone is here, wonderful! Come on, come on in, we are already late…'