Troublemakers’ Ball: Part One

By Jill Rebryna

Jake Dee is your average private detective. Finding lost items, doing background checks, not getting himself murdered, the usual. Except he’s an independent wizard in a world of Covens that will not tolerate his existence if they ever find him out. One spring day at sunset, he sees an angel fall right in front of him. She’s everything he ever wanted in a leading lady: beautiful, cold and probably dangerous. He immediately elects himself to protect her, whether from demons who want a fight or his best friend, Lucifer Morningstar, the First of the Fallen and a terrible flirt. Finding her shoeless and homeless, he takes her to his apartment. She’s new to Earth and has a lot to learn, and Jake’s the one who’s more than willing to teach her. So what sparks will fly between a boy with a private license and a girl with black wings?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jan 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9781638291503

Jill Rebryna

Jill Rebryna is currently working and living in her hometown of Edmonton, Alberta, with her fiancé and their adorable cat, Serana. When she isn’t writing the continuing saga of the Troublemakers, she reads entirely too much detective fiction, plays videogames and more ideas to write down than she can ever handle. As a university graduate with an arts degree in anthropology, she finds her interest in the subject has only made her writing and reading more fulfilling as time goes on and has definitely made the troublemakers the people they are today and shall continue to be.

Book preview

About the Author

Jill Rebryna is currently working and living in her hometown of Edmonton, Alberta, with her fiancé and their adorable cat, Serana. When she isn’t writing the continuing saga of the Troublemakers, she reads entirely too much detective fiction, plays videogames and more ideas to write down than she can ever handle. As a university graduate with an arts degree in anthropology, she finds her interest in the subject has only made her writing and reading more fulfilling as time goes on and has definitely made the troublemakers the people they are today and shall continue to be.

Dedication

To ACD, RC, DH, and JB – Thank you for the stars I’m fighting to fall in.

Copyright Information ©

Jill Rebryna 2023

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Ordering Information

Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Rebryna, Jill

Troublemakers Ball: Part One

ISBN 9781638291497 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781638291503 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number:2022919662

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 33rd Floor, Suite 3302

New York, NY 10005

USA

[e-mail]

[phone]

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank my fiancé, Randy Bachmeier, and my family for putting up with me as I obsessed over the Troublemakers and the development of their world and the believability of its magic system. For all the times I worked out scenes and troublesome passages out loud because I needed someone to explain it all to.

A special thanks to, my mother, for putting me up for five months as I went through medical treatment and wasn’t working, and so could devote all the time I needed to the rewriting of this book before I sent it out.

To Margaret Sutherland, for always listening to my plot lines and the ridiculous scenarios we worked our way through finding the way I wanted Jake to go. Also to her devoted help to me as an author in the creation of green-winged Angie, a part of the team everyone will be pleased to meet. Her ideas about the cover design were also a great help in letting me decide what I’d really like to see on it.

Thank you to my favorite authors for writing the stories they did and inspiring me to believe I could write something just as true and individual for my own sake.

To, Austin Macauley Publishers, of course, for taking a chance on someone like me, thanks is well deserved.

Finally, thank you, Jacob John Dee, for living in my head and my heart and giving me the courage to do any of this. You’ve always been the braver part of me.

T The Angel and the Detective

Damn it! I growled as I saw my quarry moving ahead of me. It was a late spring afternoon on Jasper Avenue, and there were enough people that I had to shove shoulders and ask pardons as I went around people. Even worse, the form of the demon caused comment, and onlookers who weren’t moving were more difficult to go around. It was really hard not to notice a three-foot-high blob of mucous that could move of its own accord. My pay for this one was good though, and I wasn’t giving up.

Ahead of me, the demon slithered off Jasper, down a tree lined street near 109th. I followed gratefully, not worrying about bystanders any more. I trailed it, not wanting to attack until I was sure we were alone. I followed it past a school, and I really worried, because children were interested in snot demons for some reason. Other than the reason that, to an adult, only a child would call such a demon. Where a child would get their hands on the spells required was not the question I had been hired to answer though, so I left it.

The demon turned from the school and went toward the tram tracks. This was the best place I could imagine tackling it, as the tram had not started running for the season yet, and no one should be down there. It moved toward the bridge over the tracks, but I shot a Magic Shot or two its way to herd it. I followed it down and onto the tracks, and that’s where I pounced.

I took my wand from my pocket in readiness. It was about a foot long, black with a couple inches at the top in white. There was a magic goods supplier I bought them all from when they inevitably ended up broken in another disaster. There was no cover, so the snot demon was struggling to get off the tracks and away up the far hill. I threw a Magic Shot at it to herd it down toward me again. I ran straight for it to finish things, but it had a surprise for me.

Shit! Shit! Shit! I looked down at my shirt. A glob of yellowish green demon snot was dribbling down my chest. When I looked up, the demon was hightailing it up the hill again. I ran toward it, throwing another Magic Shot just ahead of it. It stopped, turned around, and I took the next projectile in the face.

Before I was conscious of what I was doing I raised my wand and shouted at the top of my lungs. The fire blazed from my wand and the snot demon began to melt. I kept going until it had completely burnt away. All that was left was a wet stain on the concrete, burnt around the edges, and all manner of small items that the fiend had swallowed. I pawed through car keys, cell phones, pop cans, cigarette butts, paperback books and what looked like a Saturday Night Special before I found what was wanted.

I put on my gloves and got the plastic baggies out of my messenger bag. I carefully pulled several coins from the wreckage, sifting them from the loose change of the streets. These were worth far more. In not recognizing them, I was sure they were the coins wanted. Also, there was a queen on them that was not Elizabeth the Second. It was good the protoplasm of the snot demon itself had protected them from my flames. When they were all bagged and in my own bag, I wiped sweat off my brow and remembered it wasn’t sweat.

I cast Mum-Proof, and my cheeks hurt with the sting of a facecloth applied until my face was glowing and clean. I could stand my mother’s scrutiny now, I knew. Which meant no one else would even notice me. The spell had taken care of any solids left on my shirt as well. Protoplasm did come out, as long as one washed the shirt quite soon after contact. I had completely destroyed the demon’s body, so it would not be coming back to this realm unless it was summoned again. I wondered, briefly, by whom it had been summoned. It hadn’t seemed to be under any sort of control, but why release something like that into the world then? Wouldn’t you want to use it to steal for you?

What had my client said about the coins? It hadn’t been a break – in, not exactly. The snot demon had come in the door she’d said, when she opened it to get the paper. It had completely defeated her attempts to shoo it with a broom, and proceeded to eat the coins her father had dropped from a table in shock and then leave. So the next thing she did was went for a phone book and called the only private detective in it who dealt with demons. She came to my office, and I took the case. I patted my bag. These coins should be going home, now the demon was dealt with.

star

When I reached the home of the man who hired me the sun had finally begun to go down. The sky in the west was golden as I knocked on the door. A woman answered, maybe my age or a year older. She smiled and welcomed me into the house. Her father came into the entry from the hall, looking haggard and older than his years. I remembered him from some jobs I’d done for the museum a while back. They consulted him on anything to do with coins. He looked up to see who was come to his house. Seeing me, his face lit up as though the brightest light you could imagine was turned on.

Mister Dee. The coins? Did you find them? He came forward quickly, his daughter barely sidestepping out of the doorway. There was a strange light in his eyes.

Absolutely. I took the coins out from the messenger bag at my side. I handed them carefully over.

And each in their individual bags! A pity the sciences have lost your gifts! he toddled away in the direction he’d come, hugging his bounty to his chest.

I’m sorry! his daughter looked after him and blushed. Daddy’s been so anxious since it happened! I can get the cheque for you now. She walked quickly out of the room and came back in a couple minutes with the cheque. You really are wonderful, Mister Dee. I love to see Daddy so happy. There’s so little left for him really, since Mum… thank you so much. You’re my hero. Her smile was sad somehow, as though I was seeing a sunset with clouds. For a second, I wondered about the truth to her, but that wasn’t anything I needed to know. She had been the one who came to me and explained it all. This was the place she wanted to protect, even though it caused her loneliness and pain. She was the hero, really.

Don’t go using that word, Mistress Mary. I really hate it. I’m just a hack with a bit of skill. This is my job. I do it for money, not love. I like to eat. That’s all. I stepped out the door and onto the stoop.

Oh…but! she came out onto the stoop herself as I stepped to the bottom stair. I looked back up as the sun hit her full on. She shone gold for a moment, the light reflected in her big glasses. Even though I couldn’t see her eyes, I could sense the sadness.

Yeah?

Mister Dee, you are wonderful. I simply can’t believe you aren’t the hero who did what I couldn’t. I won’t believe it! I smiled up at her in the sunset, but I’m sure she couldn’t see how ironic that smile was.

That’s your choice, lady. Good night.

I turned around and left her standing on the stoop in the sunset. I didn’t think of it, that’s just what I did. I headed back toward Jasper and my office, to drop off my things and pretend to do my paperwork. Really, I shoved the cheque and invoice in the desk and left the office for the day. I never could get my head around it. It takes a week every month to get it all in order, and still at tax time it’s a bitch.

star

It was only a walk of a few blocks to reach the apartment from my office. My sister Trista and I lived in a high-rise on the river. There still existed there the silence that came with living near nature. It was an expensive place, but that was the luck of family fortune. Not that I used any of my inheritance for myself. We were well established now and needed nothing from the family that never understood us or our power. My parents had taken my young sister to an asylum as a child, because her empathy became active and they knew nothing of how to control it. I had been studiously ignored whenever magic made its appearance. I had used to think these things very cruel, but with experience came growth, and I realized the wisdom of these actions on the part of my father. We had grown up as we needed to, with the training we required to live in the real world, and we knew we could do it together.

I was nearing home now, when I became momentarily dizzy and had to grab a nearby tree to keep my feet. I pushed myself off and immediately went back the way I’d come. The convenience store was back that way. When I had used my magic on the snot demon I must have used too much power. I was exhausted, and the magic at the center of me was running on empty. Many wizards will say that this is not how a wizard should live their life, giving everything they have all the time. They should live with the magic at their call, rather than with it as part of what they were. I know of no other life, and I think they are the ones in the wrong.

I went straight into the store and to the coolers. I picked out two energy drinks and paid. When I left the store, I immediately popped the top of one can and drank it down right there, so I could throw the empty in the recycling bin. I’d learned years ago, that there was only one energy drink I could stomach without unpleasant side effects, so it was the one I always bought. I used a lot of my energy studying in university and perfecting many of the spells I’d created in my youth. I started chugging energy drinks to make it through the day, with varying effects. Some put me to sleep, some caused me severe stomach cramps, and some I threw up shortly after they went down. I couldn’t afford that now, when my life and the lives of others might hinge on my ability to use my power.

With the drink in me, I put the other one in my messenger bag and headed back toward home. I was considering opening the other when I saw a white feather fall onto the sidewalk in front of me. I bent to pick it up, trying to remember what birds around here had white feathers of such quality. It was perfect, soft and supple, everything a person could imagine a feather to be. I looked up, wondering at the bird who could have shed it. That was when the other feathers began to fall around me like snow.

Above me, an angel was descending from the sky. Night was coming down behind her as her feathers fell. I could see black feathers growing to replace them, controlling her downward motion. Hair as black as a country night was becoming a glacial white as I watched. Her clothes were ripped and torn, perhaps from her careen off of Heaven. She wore no shoes, and had lovely feet, from what I could see above me. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I’d never seen an angel fall before, and it was entrancing.

She landed silently on soft feet, her wings arcing above her as she touched down. She folded them neatly behind her back, and the leading feathers just touched the sidewalk. She was standing in a field of her own white feathers. She looked around at them, blinking, and then turned partially and lifted an arm to the sky. She let loose a string of invectives in such a cold voice I didn’t know whether to blush or remain still so that she wouldn’t see me.

And fuck you all! she said, with a finality that made my spine finally relax. I’d understood only some of what she’d said, as it seemed she knew several languages, and not all of them earthly. What I had understood was not what I expected women as beautiful as her to ever say. She turned away from the sky then, and noticed me. I was a deer in the frosty blue headlights of her stare. How could anyone look and not lose themselves?

Hi, I said, like an idiot.

Hi, she said.

I’m Jake. Jake Dee. I remembered my name, so that was something.

I’m…ahh… she paused here, and a look of intense embarrassment came over her face. She shook her head and wiped it away. You were not supposed to witness that. I am sorry. Please do not speak of what you have seen. Her wings fluttered a bit, as though she were a bird surprised on its perch and trying to get comfortable again.

All I saw was a very foxy lady yelling at the sky. I smiled. Your vocabulary is vaster than I would have figured. I mean, how many languages was that? I’m sure I heard Latin and French and Japanese… I would have gone on, but the glare she gave with those icy eyes took the breath right out of me.

My vocabulary is none of your business!

No, maybe not, but that fact that you’re here might be.

What is that supposed to mean? Are you trying to pick a fight? I warn you; it is a combat you will not win! she was quick to accuse and cold still, her eyes never inflamed by passion at all. Angels who didn’t grow angry in the way of humans were dangerous. A human had a difficult time reading cues in their body language and voices, and so never knew when to stop before going too far.

I don’t want to fight you! I held my hands palms out at shoulder height. The truth is, angels get noticed, especially when they fall.

Hmph. She put her hands on her hips. If I want not to be noticed by more like you, I should do something about these. I assumed she meant her wings. I really wanted to know what she meant by ‘like you.’ Did she not care if other people noticed her? She reached a hand back over her shoulders. Was she about to glamour her wings away?

I didn’t know what to do about it. I had the experience to know angels and demons came in fantastic variety, much like humans. You could not judge them by their species. I’d never met an angel who made me feel this way before. I didn’t even know what I was feeling. My face was hot, and so were some other parts of me that didn’t need mentioning. She was probably the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, but she had an anger management issue that made mine look like child’s play. Also, she had just fallen from Heaven. What had she done?

As she turned to try and look over her shoulder to assist her glamour, a shadow appeared behind her. First a hand touched her shoulder, and as she began to turn with an angry snarl to confront it, her wrist was gently held. Out from behind her came Lucifer Morningstar, the First of the Fallen, smiling a genial smile. I knew I shouldn’t trust him, but I smiled back. Damn it. I didn’t need this.

Tsk, tsk, he said to the angel. Fallen angels shouldn’t glamour. Gets the Old Man all prickly when his sacred powers are used by those he’s thrown out.

Wh… she said, practically ripping her wrist from his hand. Let go of me! Who the fuck are you?

"Why I am the First of the Fallen, of course, come to see who might be Falling this time." He bowed to his waist, cordially greeting the newly fallen angel. Always a flourish for a lady.

First of the Fallen? Please. She turned away and began to walk down the sidewalk. I stood there like a slack jawed yokel, and Lucifer’s hair blazed with a cascade of green fire. We turned to each other in surprise. When I’d first met him, asked by a drinking establishment to investigate the new supernatural customer that was coming in, I’d never doubted he was who he said. Everything about him seemed to confirm it. His raven hair, his sable wings, his anger and frustration at the God who rejected him. Who would ever admit to being the First of the Fallen? It wasn’t as though it was an honor.

I still don’t know why we did it. Both of us stepped forward in concert, and reached out for her hands. We had different reasons, but the lines of our lives were inextricably linked. I grabbed her arm just before Lucifer, and gently turned her around to face us again. He crossed his arms over his chest and slowly rose until he was about fifteen centimeters off the ground, his wings fanned out behind him to keep him there. Or make him look imperious, with him, I’m never sure. As she turned around, the angel reached out her free hand and slapped me across the face.

Let go of me! I’d automatically dropped her arm when she was turning around anyway. I used that hand to hold my cheek, which had received the bulk of her fury. It hurt so much it burned. This girl was not going to do well in the world unless she learned to control that awful temper of hers. I mean, slapping a guy just because he doesn’t want her to get herself killed her first day on Earth is harsh! Just what do you want?

Fallen angels need to learn some lessons immediately, Lucifer said. I don’t have time for posturing. That was new. The Lucifer I knew was always up for posturing. Lesson one: you can’t use your angelic magic on Earth. No glamour, no shields, no elements. None of that. If you use any of that magic, the Old Man will send down his Heavenly Host for your head. That will really ruin the good thing I got going here, and I don’t need that shit.

Why should I believe you? Her pouting face made her look a child, and it was adorable.

I told you already. First of the Fallen. You’d think I’d know, hmm? He knew, and he’s also been down here long enough that his God no longer bothers when he uses angelic magic. I think he just tired of it after all this time. Lucifer says he’s becoming a god himself by all rights, a trickster of the pantheistic school.

You keep saying that. Do yours even believe in blasphemy anymore? Isn’t that an insult to the First of the Fallen? Is not the Light Bringer your twisted god? Wouldn’t he be angry you’ve absconded with one of his titles? Lucifer ground his teeth so hard I heard it.

Let me explain this again, slower this time… he pointed emphatically at his chest, to make his point extremely clear. I. Am. Lucifer. The pretty angel just stood there, hands on her hips now, ice blue eyes unchanged. Lucifer’s feet hit the sidewalk again, sending a shockwave into the Magic that felt like water lapping gently at my feet.

You’re Lucifer? She laughed, and the back of my throat seized. That sound of tinkling ice and chimes was pervasive, threading through me like a song. You are the first to Fall, who was changed with his sin into a monster of enormous cruelty and strength? Where are your dark horns of demon kind? Where is your long tail and cloven feet? Cloven feet don’t fit into those leather shoes you’re sporting, come on! Where the nature sharp in tooth and claw? The eyes red as hellfire? Where the wings bereft of feathers, turned to skin and bone? She came right up to him and pushed a finger into his chest. You? The First of the Fallen? Please. You’re just some poseur for the throne of Hell.

Lucifer looked down at the finger pushed against his chest. The angel’s gaze never wavered on him, those eyes giving nothing and expecting less in return. I began to feel the magical energy around the city shudder, coming into contact with even more magic so outside itself they could not mix. The Magic changed from lapping my feet to hitting me in the shins like a rising tide. It did this all the time when confronted with non-wizards and their power in action. The magic of the world was born of humans living and dying and casting magic, and so was only usable by humans who could sense it. Anyone else caused it to go to the nearest wizard, though no one knew exactly why.

Lucifer’s fists were clenched, and sparks of green fire were lighting the falling night all around us. He was angry, and it settled into me with the Magic around me. It was good fortune for me that most of the people I came up against in my work caused the Magic to support me without my asking for it. Since they were also more powerful than me most of the time, it was a nice bonus. Lucifer was even better, because he got angry in a much more human way than most angels, and I could understand his motivations.

I walked carefully around to the other side of the newly fallen angel, and neither of them tracked me. They were completely focused on each other, which meant I could be a free agent. This was good, because I wouldn’t need to waste time explaining anything. I always felt that’s what slowed up Covens when they went out to cast magic in battle. They have teams, and they discuss everything. Also, they needed to be responsible for their actions not only to their teammates but also their bosses. The only one I have to account myself to is me, and I like to think I’ll do what’s right because it’s right, regardless of whether someone tells me it’s right. I don’t need a nursemaid.

I could see many outcomes of the situation, depending when Lucifer snapped and in what direction he decided to go. I knew it wouldn’t be the new angel. She was an unknown quantity, and it may seem ridiculous that I didn’t consider her actions, but I had seen her eyes. Had been gazing into them quite a bit actually. They were beguiling, as all of her was. They were also unnaturally cold and spoke of rationale I could never understand. They spoke of someone who would kill without anger, without mercy. They spoke of someone more a monster than a man, which describes many angels pretty well. Lucifer was no ordinary angel, because what drove him was no different than what drove me. When he fell, he became less, and more than he had been.

I saw Lucifer’s arm move and moved myself. I grabbed the angel’s wrist and pulled it back, getting myself between them. With my other hand I pulled the wand from my pocket and sparks flared between Lucifer and me, white and dark green. His eyes were momentarily unfocused, but he recovered quickly. He was grinning wickedly; a smile they say he gives those he is about to destroy. His hand slowly continued to rise, and my wand touched his chest just where the angel’s finger had. I was about to say something when another sound distracted me.

I turned my head to see four thugs walking toward us. They came from behind, so the newly fallen angel was nearest to them. I turned completely around to see what they were about, not once worrying about Lucifer at my back. The Magic was still disturbed by the power both angels were generating, but not as violently as before. The tide was slowly flowing out around my legs. Maybe when I surprised him, he was able to reassert control over himself.

The thugs shambled closer, moving in a strange and inhuman way. They carried no weapons I could see, and their size was impressive, but not overwhelming. They were misshapen and lumpy, only vaguely in human form. They were demons. Lucifer told me once that Hell would sometimes send them if an angel Fell to Earth and not directly into Hell, to invite the newly Fallen one to that realm. The Demon Lords have great power, even if they are unable to enter Earth themselves without ripping a hole in the very fabric of reality. Since it takes an uncomfortably large output of power to do this, they don’t very often.

Hmm. One angry angel behind me, four devilish demons before. What’s a private dick to do? Protect the girl, of course. Even when I was a kid the books and black and white movies were very clear on that part. Whether it was the fantasies with knights and wizards or those old Humphrey Bogart movies, I knew what the main character’s job was, even if he wasn’t a hero. Always protect the girl, no matter how much she scares you.

So I looked behind me and up to see that Lucifer was floating again, still steaming. He was frowning deeply, but I could see reason in his eyes. So I walked forward, pushed in front of the angel and cast my defiance in the faces of the demons. They puffed themselves up to look more terrifying as I cast Bullet Proof and pulled my gun. Every private detective should have one, and mine