“Yeah… what fun, it’s why I joined the police…” Michael muttered sardonically as he took out his phone to take yet another picture of a lovely woman cut down in her prime. It made his blood boil to see something this beautiful dead at his feet. “Well, say what you want about the wolves; at least they have good taste in women.”James sighed. “Keep it in your pants, man; some people would say that it’s bad enough that we’re fucking the undead. No need to make people think we have a thing for the All Dead as well.””Yeah, yeah,” Michael grunted as he took the picture and pocketed the phone. “This one is better than the others. Apparently scruffy here liked them tattooed.””What?” That got James’ attention as the Renegades were particular in their tastes and this was a first. He started making his way over to his partner. “What do you mean ‘tattooed’?””On her thighs and arms here,” Michael pointed out, “Looks like some pale blue scroll work and some snowflakes.” He took a step back. “Ya know, this one isn’t mauled like the other girls; there’s just some puncture wounds around her neck like this dude was trying to turn her while he was raping her. It looks like the transformation didn’t take and she simply bled out right as we were coming in,” he swore under his breath. “Damn it… if only we were five minutes sooner,” Michael was at least glad that his opening salvo missed the front ranks to sail all the way to the back of the den where this wolf was having his way with the girl. Karma was most certainly a bitch. James was now by his side as he looked at the body of the woman. Sure enough, running up and down her splayed out legs, there were the tattoos. “Goddammit!” he snarled, turning on his heel and kicking the hell out of the body of ‘Sparky’. “They nabbed a fucking Snow Maiden. Shit! The Winter Court is not going to be happy about this.””Wait, what?” Michael was confused. “A what Maiden?””Seriously bro, you need to read more; spend more time in Conrad’s library or something. Just being the damn Human-Vampire Liaison is not going to cut it.” James glared at him. He’d been trying to educate Michael on the supernatural for months now. Michael gave him a mocking bow, touching his hand to his forehead. “Sorry, oh mighty Hunter. Please, regale me with your infinite wisdom,” he said, voice dripping in sarcasm.”Fuck off,” James rolled his eyes and sighed. “There’s more to the supernatural world than just Vamps and Wolves, man. Fae, Merfolk, Mages, you name it; it probably exists. Hell, I’ve even heard rumors of some kind of thing living at the bottom of deep lakes that likes to snatch people. Come over to my house when we get back and I’ll show you all of mom’s notes.”Michael nodded. “Alright, so what do we do now?””Other than not go fishing in lakes for a while?” James quipped while his face remained grim. Michael gave him a withering look. “We report in to Conrad,” James said, back to all business, “He’ll send emissaries to the Winter Court to let them know and to take this girl back to them.”*”So when you said that Conrad would be sending someone, you meant us, right?” Michael said sarcastically as they walked into the ice palace that was hidden deep within a glacier in northern Canada. Both he and James were bundled up to withstand the frigid temperatures of walking through ice during late Fall while they were in the presence of the Winter Queen.