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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nPlease follow me on Twitter<\/a> for updates on where you can find it! In the meantime, enjoy this excerpt from the new edition:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n They were too busy screaming like\nidiots to notice us as we rolled in. Lucian blared the sirens to give them a\nshock. All of a sudden, the once unruly crowd opened up like the Red Sea and\nallowed us to coast through. The few who stayed close to the car beat on our\nwindows while we calmly rode by, the rest migrating away as though they\u2019d started\nto fear the backlash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it didn\u2019t faze the man on stage,\na fellow with no apparent respect for our unorthodox lights. It just made him\nscream louder while his blood pressure visibly rose. His eyes were practically\nready to pop from the back of his head, his face turning a shade of red the\nvisor reserved for the mentally disturbed, and he screamed, \u201cHere comes the\nlong arm of the Fang law<\/em>!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I grimaced at the phrase and looked\nto see what Lucian intended to do from there. I only saw the back of his head\nas he climbed out of the car right into the lion\u2019s den. A thunderous roar rose\nfrom the crowd as the man continued to scream through his megaphone, \u201cAnd\nhere\u2019s the Fang!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They sounded like a group of chimps\nsurrounding the ever-calm Lucian. From my position in the car, it was like\nlooking at a zoo behind glass. But Lucian took it in stride as he walked ahead,\nacting without a moment of doubt, beckoning me to join him without a word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The man watched me get out and\nbellowed, \u201cAnd his Fang-bitch!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instantly, I knew where we stood\nwith this man. It was one thing to use Fang in a chant: it was short and rolled\noff the tongue like any good slur. But yelling it like that, three times, there\nwas no question we encountered someone who would\u2019ve picked up a pitchfork and a\ntorch in another age. It made me feel better about the idea we were stomping\nall over his little demonstration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sure, I\u2019d known there\u2019d be a few of\nthem by the nature of their protest. But it\u2019s hard to identify whether it\u2019s\npart of the rhetoric, mob mentality or personal character until someone\u2019s\nscreaming the right words with such conviction. The Fangtowns may try to\nembrace the labels, try to take some of the power away, but it\u2019s just a defense\n– a scab over a wound that hasn\u2019t quite healed. After all, we were standing in\nfront of a man willing to scream at a tall, silently pissed off Vampire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I waited for an explosion that never\ncame as Lucian merely smiled. It was a strange smile, not showing his teeth and\nyet being too broad to be a simple smirk. It was like he was trying to stifle\nback powerful laughter and yet not making a sound. In fact, I could see more\nactivity in his aura than I could in his body-language as he stood almost\nperfectly still with that strange grin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It bothered our bald, screaming\nfriend almost as much as it disturbed me. Voice straining, he shouted one last\ntime, \u201cYou have no jurisdiction here!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was right, we had no reason to\nbreak it up and the US laws have always sided with the right to protest. We\nwere just rattling our sabers to let them know that we were watching. They knew\nthat as well as we did and started to smirk right back at us, mocking the fact\nwe were even standing there in the rain with them. But Lucian knew what to say\nand, like the news had been pointing out, it never really stopped us before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the calmest, eeriest tone I\nimagine they\u2019ve ever heard, he spoke loud enough to hear over their own\nchuckles and the rolling rain, \u201cOne, you\u2019re protesting about Alters, so it\u2019s\nwithin our rights to make sure you don\u2019t do anything stupid. Two, there\u2019s\nAlters in the crowd, so we have to make sure you don\u2019t turn on each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The crowd fell silent under the\nsound of the rain, the river and the sea. A quiet, uneasy murmur rose among\nthem. It didn\u2019t take long before one of them cried foul from the back of the\ngroup and the ringleader tried to scream us down again. Unfazed, Lucian raised\na hand to wave off their objections and turned to me with a question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d he asked.\n\u201cDwarf?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had no clue what his angle was at\nfirst. Looking at the faces around us, though, I realized his motive: divide\nand conquer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell, he\u2019s short, broad shouldered\nand has stubby fingers,\u201d I said, gesturing at the loudest man before trailing\noff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut?\u201d Lucian interjected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell,\u201d I continued, crossing my\narms to try to look even the slightest bit more confident, \u201cwhile the nose says\nDwarf, the eyes tell me Leprechaun. Notice the way they\u2019re sparkling like\nemeralds in the dark.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The crowd found new life after that\nlittle accusation. They roared and balked at the idea that one of their own\nwasn\u2019t \u201cone of their own\u201d. But the reaction of the bald man \u2013 that was the best\nof all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever made\nsomeone so angry that they lost the ability to speak coherently for a while. It\nwas awkward but amusing to watch the man stutter over himself as he seethed. If\nthe red aura coming off him was heat, the rain would have rolled off in clouds\nof steam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHow dare you?\u201d he finally screamed\nat us, \u201cI\u2019m a good Christian man! I\u2019m not one of those monsters!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I nearly burst out laughing. I\ncouldn\u2019t tell you the number of people I met who believed the stories of Alters\nand holy ground. Never mind that genealogy studies show that three of the last\nseven popes were Alters. If that doesn\u2019t prove crosses and funny hats don\u2019t do\nanything to them, nothing will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lucian, a Catholic himself by some\naccounts, ignored the silly comment and snapped right back at him, \u201cSo you\u2019ve\nbeen tested?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bluster and rage faded away from\nthe man\u2019s face as he stammered, \u201cW-well, no.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHave any of you been tested?\u201d\nLucian cried out to the crowd. \u201cIf you haven\u2019t, you might be protesting\nyourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It didn\u2019t sway them much, an angry\ngrowl swelling under hushed voices. Still, Lucian was undeterred by the sound\nof the pack sizing him up. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to do it, we\u2019re going to need to\ncheck all of you to see who is and isn\u2019t in our jurisdiction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following a cue I was never given, I\ngrabbed a blood monitor from a pocket and raised it for the others to see. It\nwas too good to pass up. Looking at me, he gave an approving nod and pointed my\nway. \u201cJust present yourselves to Devotee Leone and let us get this sorted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A voice rose to protest, \u201cTesting us\nlike that is a violation of our rights! You can\u2019t do that!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUnfortunately,\u201d Lucian replied to\nthe confused faces of the crowd, \u201cI\u2019m legally required to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of a sudden, that riled crowd\nbecame a timid brood of chickens. I lifted the monitor and waved it around like\na crucifix in an old movie. It was like we\u2019d asked them if they had an STD and\noffered a free public screening for everyone. For all of their boisterous\nattitudes they became gun-shy awfully fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The crowd started to thin and move\naway. Lucian had played some half-truths and assumptions in our favor and used\nthat \u201cone in four\u201d chance to turn the crowd around. I wondered as I watched\nthem if that might have been my lesson for the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell,\u201d I said with a touch of hope,\n\u201cthat was interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Lucian looked at me, smiled and replied, \u201cThat wasn\u2019t even what we came here for.” Sitting in the dark, watching the\nnew workers pile in, it was hard not to think about why Lucian would break up\nthe protest. A lot of personal reasons came to mind off the top of my head but\nnone that felt quite right. Lucian\u2019s usually had a reason beyond being petty.\nIt was more important that we maintained balance and supported the local laws\nin the long run. So I found myself wondering why exactly I\u2019d just helped scare\noff a screaming bald man and his minions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wouldn\u2019t have my answer for\nanother few hours. After the workers reported for their shift, Lucian took our\ncar to the far end of the island and shut it down. Our lights, all the\nidentifying digital markers and everything that could be used to spot the car\nwere off, leaving us sitting silently in the dark. We\u2019d gone into stake-out\nmode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stake outs have never been enjoyable\nto me. They\u2019ve always been like an endless mind-numbing road-trip. You sit in a\ncar for hours on end but there\u2019s no listening to the radio, no new scenery and\nno bathroom breaks. Instead, it was just me, the sound of the rain and a\nVampire humming show tunes for three hours. By the time he\u2019d gone over \u201cSeasons\nof Love\u201d for the third time I was slowly fashioning my coffee cup into a sharp\nspike. I wasn\u2019t sure what I was going to do with it, but whatever it was I was\nprobably going to do it five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was only stopped by a glimmer in\nthe dark \u2013 one of the warehouses, a run-down, abandoned hole, was suddenly busy\nwith activity. Something was going on that wasn\u2019t supposed to in a building\nthat hadn\u2019t been used for some time. Before I could even ask, Lucian was out of\nthe car and on his way. I followed his cue and climbed out after him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We crept through the shadows to\navoid being spotted by the people gathering inside the old crumbling heap. The\nconstant drizzle didn\u2019t do much to stop us from seeing the auras from a\ndistance as we weaved through the darkness. They were mostly blue, either\nAlters wanting to avoid detection or possibly regular humans. I couldn\u2019t be\nsure at that distance, but it made me wonder about our jurisdiction again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIs this ours?\u201d I asked quietly,\npeering around a corner at the people marching through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lucian glanced my way and whispered\nconfidently, \u201cI\u2019m sure of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was ready to protest, opening my\nmouth to question him again. He silenced me by pointing at the doormen of the\nlittle gathering. Standing there at the warehouse was a pair of tall, muscular\nmen with the auras of Werewolves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I shut up and followed him around\nthe edges, the dark shades of our uniforms blending with the stormy night.\nAround the back of the building we scaled crates as quietly as possible and\npeered through one of the old dirty windows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was strange and confusing at\nfirst. The crowd of at least a hundred people, both human and Alter\nside-by-side, encircled the entire building. Gazing over them, I saw the old\nfamiliar sight of a cage erected in the center of the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seeing it brought me back to what\nseemed like another lifetime. The smell of blood and sweat washed over me,\nmemories of tape wrapped tightly around my fists, the sound of people rattling\nthe chain-link fence we\u2019d used as a cage. These people were there for the same\nthing I was all those years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They were there for a fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lucian nodded, stroking his fingers\nalong the side of his badge as the center lit up. It linked with the Oracle and\nplaced a mark on the map signaling to the rest that we\u2019d found something.\nWhispering to the badge, he filled them in on the details as the Oracle started\nto sweep the area and signal for backup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wasn\u2019t listening very closely just\nthen, instead watching the situation and wondering just what exactly he\nexpected to see here. The audience was technically our problem, but the best we\ncould get them on would be a few misdemeanors that hardly seemed worth the\ntrouble of removing baldy and the gang. I\u2019d help bust up Werewolf \u201cdog fights\u201d\nunder my previous lancer and the audience usually made it ten times worse for\nhalf the gain. Watching the fight was criminal mischief but hardly the big\nscore of engaging in organized crime and aggravated assault. For a moment, I\neven doubted the tip really paid off. But then I saw the fighters\u2026or at least\nthe reaction to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The audience cheered and parted to\nlet the men through. I couldn\u2019t see what they were looking at, just an aura\nthrough my visor that told me it was huge. Blood pressures rose rapidly in\nwaves through the crowd as hearts started to race and hormones ran wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I finally saw the reason behind\nour visit I could only say one thing: \u201cHoly shit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once, I\u2019d been a fighter myself,\nbefore Lucian recruited me. But not once had I ever run into what was walking\nto the cage just then. They were Giants. Not the Giants you\u2019d picture in a\nfairy tale. No, these were ten foot tall, seven hundred pound modern day\nNeanderthals wearing crude boxing gloves made of old towels and duct-tape. And\nLucian apparently thought we should try to arrest them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This seemed like a silly idea to me…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Continued in\u00a0Shards of Glass<\/a>, available now!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Follow the author on Twitter for future updates!<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When they revealed themselves to the world, they changed everything. Creatures of legend that were thought to be little more than myth and superstition came out of hiding to found a new nation for their kind and those who would be willing to live with them. The Republic of Argyre, founded on an artificial island … Continue reading Shards of Glass Returns<\/span> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/jeremyvarner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/shards-title.png\")
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