Jenna did not want to attend the meeting with the Commissioner, but she had no choice. She knew that if they sentenced her to jail, they would have marked her with a permanent Signum, which wouldn’t have let her use magic at least for five years. She was tough enough to survive some time in prison and could have been fun to see her father’s face, but she knew that she cannot live without magic, let alone doing her job.
So after Jenna got home from the office, she only stopped for a quick coffee after which she got a shower and 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, with just enough cleavage to make every man look, and just a tad too short so when she moved the top showed some skin around her waist. 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 big leather jacket.
Jenna didn’t bother with makeup though, only used an 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 the 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 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 to lose it if the officers at the entrance wanted to keep it. 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 at arriving, but she already decided that she wouldn’t let that happen. She was invited, as a guest, after all, as no charges were pressed against her so far.
When there was nothing else to do, she grabbed a big, dark blue umbrella from the valet next to the door, an item one of her night guests left behind and “never returning” being the keyword of Jenna’s relationships, never returned for it. Then off she went.
It was raining outside with tiny, cold drops, and it looked more like fog than rain. Thankfully, her umbrella must have been some kind of a family model, which wasn’t entirely a nice thought, but on the bright side, she was completely safe from the rain that was dancing around in the light wind. It was a long walk for the nearest underground station, a small sacrifice for a more quiet neighbourhood to live in, especially this close to the city. She hasn’t even made until half-way and was already thankful that she chose the boots instead of the heels.
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, the immediate area of the historical London. Sometimes she wished that her rent was more suburb-like, but what can one do?
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, and even though she was a big fan of the occasional cuddling with strangers, this was not her cup of tea. Fortunately, she didn’t have to change between lines, so once she bullied out enough space of the other passengers, mostly using her elbows, she was all set for the ride.
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 so much further stood the iconic clock tower of the 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.
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 the magical martial art called Duel, who was only 19, and falling into quick depression about her unsatisfying life then forgot about it seconds later 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 on the sidewalk, and she did not want to be surprised by him. He wore a navy suit, obviously made especially for him, with a grey waistcoat and red, almost crimson 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. And for the brown shoes. She didn’t like them at all.
‘Ms Carano,’ he greeted her in his deep voice.
‘Mr Montgomery,’ she nodded mockingly.
‘It’s actually professor Montgomery,’ the man corrected her. ‘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 gentleman enough to pretend he didn’t look, which made her smirk.
‘How is your arm?’ she asked with a sweet smile.
‘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 grin.
‘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 at me, aren’t you?’ she said with a hint of surprise and way much more mockery in her voice.
Robert raised his eyebrow.
‘I am a gentleman who knows that ladies goes first,’ he said proudly. ‘And yes, I’m 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 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.
After this, they had to repeat the whole procedure, only this time with their mobile phones. Jenna was glad that she had a strict policy against nude photos. With her lifestyle naked pictures of her on the Internet wouldn’t make a big difference in the number of people already seen what was there to see, she thought with a big portion of self-irony, but still, there was a principle involved here.
They both got a laminated ID-card 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 on 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 them at once, and the one they rode smelled like disinfectant and urine implying that someone must have had a very bad day.
The Commissioner’s office was at the top of the building. It was more than one office: there was the room for the secretary, and opening from there the waiting room and then the office itself. The policeman left them in the waiting room alone, which was unwise in Jenna’s opinion, who was sure that this was the longest time she ever spent with a Montgomery without cursing them. Robert might have thought the same because he was tapping with his foot nervously and checked 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 at 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 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 let in the room intentionally. She saw all of these little details because there was a direction she did not dare to look, and when she did nonetheless, by the corner of her eye, she saw that Robert did the same. They both turned their head quickly, then Jenna couldn’t help it, started to giggle.
‘God, this is awkward,’ she said.
‘It is, indeed,’ he agreed. He spoke with posh, yet not all that bad British accent and Jenna realised that she 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 s*** 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,’ retorted Robert.
‘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, 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 gave concussion to him, too!’
‘Ah, well… Whoops.’
‘Water under the bridge,’ waved Robert. ‘So what do you reckon, why are we here?’
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, and a great tool to teach us not to f*** up everything,’ she said.
‘People don’t like the Commissioner or his SRU, but they like us,’ he explained in a voice of a teacher. ‘We are, coming from very powerful and rich families and we are kind of famous, or rather, popular. Even you. So there is no upside in arresting us, but if he can say that we work for him, and together, no less…?’
‘I see,’ nodded Jenna. ‘ It’s a PR stunt. Also, f*** you.’
Silence wrapped them, as they both pondered about what they heard. It was six o’clock sharp, according to Robert’s watch, and looked like the other guests were running late.
‘Do you think we can, though?’ asked Jenna after a minute.
‘What, f*** me?’ he asked back surprised.
‘Working together, moron,’ she laughed.
‘Oh, that. 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 steps. Two pair of shoes, one of them possibly high heels. The last one turned out to be Rose, and the other arrival was Benjamin. The boy wore jeans and a brown knitted jumper over a white shirt whilst Rose, almost like if she took out a page of Jenna’s book, brought in her sexy self 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’s 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. She decided to sleep more and drink less in the future. 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 feeling 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. Benjamin, 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 start flying.
‘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 in his pockets.
‘Sooo… This is kinda weird,’ said Benjamin, 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 Benjamin 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 the drop of the mood, but also literally as someone started to collect energy for a spell. The adrenalin started to pump in her blood. She measured the whole room in a heartbeat. She already knew that Robert isn’t unarmed, and neither Teodore nor Benjamin could have been as they both had Rune-tattoos. Robert jumped on his feet, but he didn’t attack, 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 Benjamin’s arm.
In 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…’
