Lisa left Emeraude's place just as the first rays of the rising sun shone through the clouds. She had always been a light sleeper, owing to her werewolf mind that was always half-alert even when her body was resting.

She scratched out a quick thank you note and left it on the table before slipping quietly out the door.

There was a text from Roman, curt, and direct.

You're off the case.

She paused, considered sending an angry inquiry message back, and then thought about it. Roman didn't have the authority to pull her off a case. That came from higher up. She probably had an idea of who it was that had given the order, and a quick call to HQ confirmed her next destination.

A security perimeter had been set up a few blocks around the scene of the incident, but the security was Jupyter, and they let her in. Humans from the investigations department were interviewing the human witnesses right before they were handed over to the supernatural agents. The elves handled the inhuman witnesses, with authorisation to use memory magic to alter recollections of the story. Lisa had been through that once and never wanted to try it again.

Her mind was jumbled enough without having someone rummage through it.

She finally located Andreas, her boss, speaking to two other elves who according to the five stars on their shoulders were Lisa's superiors. The female one, Liara, watched him speak with a hypnotised look in her eyes. It was a look that Lisa had seen on several faces around him more than a few times. He carried the signature pale, almost luminous skin that elven kind were known for, with long white silver hair that fell to his shoulders.

Liara seemed to sense the moment Lisa looked their way and she locked eyes with her. When the fae excused herself and made a beeline for where Lisa stood, she realised that perhaps coming here had not been the best of ideas.

"Agent Kirova," came the cold greeting.

"Commander Liara."

Lisa kept her eyes on the elf's jade ones, which meant she was looking slightly upward the entire time.

It was fun having someone not only disliked you but bested you on every point of comparison. Elves were simply the jack of all trades of the supernatural kind, only that they had eternity to master every trade they took an interest in.

"I see you've made a quick recovery," the elf remarked, amber eyes glinting in the morning light,

"I wanted to return to work as soon as possible," Lisa responded evenly.

"Isn't your work more of preventing crime scenes than hanging around them?"

Lisa wasn't sure, but she thought she heard a tinge of scorn in the elf's voice. She kept her own even as she replied.

"I require information from this scene to prevent the next one. Unless of course, you would prefer to have another one on your hands."

"Is that a threat Agent Kirova?" The fae asked in a low voice, the edges of her lips curling into a sneer. She didn't think Lisa was much of a threat. Older elves had stronger control over their magic, most of which involved mind-related manipulation. Lisa could feel her werewolf rising to the challenge, and she had to force it back down.

"It's a warning. We have an unknown monster running around the city with no one to check its activities. The sooner I find it, the less the chances you have to stay up late to work on scenes like this."

The elf reached out a finger to touch Lisa's neck only to recoil suddenly. A curl of smoke was rising from her singed finger.

"You rabid-"

"Lisa?"

At the sound of Andreas' voice, Liara's features switched to serenity. He came to where the two were standing toe to toe, unaware of the previous conversation, but the tension was visible.

"Anything wrong here?" He asked.

"I was just checking on Agent Kirova's well-being. It would be a great loss to the Jupyter if we lost one of our best." Liara said, her eyes flashing at Lisa in a warning. The elf had natural magic at the beck and call of her fingertips. She could stop the air from going into Lisa's lungs with just a thought.

As Liara walked back to the other elf Commander, Lisa felt like going after her. Assaulting a superior would not only get her suspended or even kicked off the Jupyter but one as powerful as Liara could dish out some serious damage.

"What was that?" Andreas asked. When he spoke, a light musicality underlaid his deep tenor voice.

"Just your girlfriend being a bitch." Lisa told him as she walked closer to the remains of the house.

Andreas chuckled nervously as he went after Lisa. "I'm certain her interests lie elsewhere. And you should know better than to anger her."

Lisa examined the claw prints on the wall once more. Not that she had to. They had plagued her dreams that night. "I assume you're the one who pulled me off the case?"

"I did."

"Why?"

"All werewolves are being taken off the case," Andreas told her, sounding concerned. "We're having to deal with a few cases of mental side effects already."

"I didn't go through years of training to be treated like a pup, Andreas," Lisa said. "I took time off as you said. I healed, I'm fine."

"You can offer support," Andreas said. "But I don't want you getting directly involved with any part of this case. I don't want you speaking to witnesses, going to active crime scenes, or hunting down the culprit."

Lisa was quiet for a moment, then nodded reluctantly. "Uh-huh."

"I'm serious, Vasilisa," he said. "We are friends, but if you disobey a direct order, I will have to punish you accordingly."

Sometimes it slipped her mind that he was her boss. He was different from the other elves she'd met. Calmer, friendlier, and he never looked at her like she was a stain on his shoe.

Would he punish her if she broke the rules? Some gladly would, but as her direct superior, he ultimately had full authority over her as an agent.

"Fine, we do know this thing is probably a human form though. Someone would have noticed a creature of that size."

"And then blended in? I don't think the other supernaturals would have failed to pick up on something like this.."

"Not if they thought it was a Mage playing tricks," Lisa countered. "It's not the first time something this crazy has happened in Kespen."

Andreas swept his hair back much like she had seen him do several times when he was thinking hard about something. "I'll go have a look at the tapes again. We'll also get a Tracker for this. What about you?"

"I've got my own ways to get information."

Andreas knew exactly what 'ways' she was talking about.

"Don't go down there alone Lisa."

"I'm not going to be alone. Roman will be with me."

Andreas smiled, being no stranger to the crazy relationship between Lisa and her vampire friend. In the old days, vampires and werewolves were arch-enemies, but over the years with the development of pro-interspecies factions, that hatred had simmered down to basic animosity. Unless directly attacked, most vampires wouldn't attack a werewolf and vice versa. Of course, there were always those who kept the old ways of thinking, but that was a whole other thing. Lisa and Roman were much that way. They could barely stand each other's presence when they worked together, but sometimes tempers rose and words were exchanged. All in all, Lisa could call Roman a friend.

Lisa realised then that she didn't have her phone with her. "Andreas, could I borrow your phone for a bit?"

Fortunately, and surprisingly Roman answered the phone. The vampire usually never even carried it with him.

"Roman I need you."

"You always find a way to disrupt my day." The fake disappointment in Roman's voice was evident. "What do you want?"

"I've got to visit the darker parts of town and I need a partner."

"I'm not your babysitter," Roman replied gruffly.

Beside her, Andreas was laughing softly.

Lisa glared at him. "Okay Roman, do this for me and I'll owe you."

"Really?" Lisa could almost imagine the wicked smile on the vampire's face at the moment. In the supernatural world owing a favor, especially to a creature that could potentially live forever was never a good thing.

"Whatever you want."

"Meet me at Tusky's."

Lisa sighed as she handed the phone back to Andreas. He tucked it into the inside of his jacket. "You know we have agents trained for this sort of infiltration and info gathering right?"

"I can't just sit by and do nothing."

"Good luck then. Take care of yourself Vasilisa."