by Voss Foster
I leaned back and focused my eyes on the chubby white bunny hanging out on the little glass shelf above me. "You're cute, but I hope we don't become best buddies, Fuzz-Butt."
"That's not Fuzz-Butt." Rashem's voice echoed out again. "That's Carrot Breath."
"If you tell me that you've named all these rabbits, we're going to be cleaning up another body." But I smiled. At least Rashem was trying to make the best of this situation. I could do the same.
I wasn't calling any of these rabbits Carrot Breath, though. Stupid, stupid rabbit name.
Chapter Seventeen
Bunny infestation aside, it was shockingly nice to sleep in a bed and actually feel something akin to safety. Rashem was kind enough—or obsessed enough with his work, possibly—to take the night shift, and Gutt and I actually managed to get a full night's sleep. I was still rough from Gelgaath's War Blessing, and Gutt hadn't had a proper night's sleep in several days.
When I rolled out of bed again, it was about ten in the morning. I was apparently really rough from the War Blessing. I heard Gutt's booming voice muffled through the walls. If anyone should have still been in bed, it was him. I stretched out briefly, then walked into the old, white and yellow kitchen. Gutt, Rashem, and Casey all sat around the table, sipping coffee.
I took an empty chair and slid it next to Casey. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his cheekbones looked more pronounced than usual, cut sharper. He was tired as shit and apparently not trying to hide it, but smiling all the same. So I didn't mention anything. I doubted I looked particularly fresh anyway. Pot meet kettle. "What are you doing here?"
"Things are calmed down, now. Everyone else is back in the office now that the War Blessing is cleared out. So Swift wanted me to go do a wellness check on everyone here."
I nodded, filling up a chipped mug with black coffee. It was boiling hot still, and I could smell that it had scorched, but I tossed it back all the same, swallowing quickly to limit exposure to my tongue. Not that it did me much good. Still got a wake-up slap full of bitterness. "How's Vellius?"
Casey shrugged and broke eye contact. "No idea. No sign of her, no word from her. Swift touched base with Ambassador Cyrex to let her know and she took it…badly. Now she's trying to finagle a meeting in here to talk to Lenva directly."
"Veto," said Rashem. "An ambassador comes with a cadre of bureaucrats that I don't need to deal with. There's already too many people here. No offense."
"We don't need any important figures coming to the safehouse anyway. They should all be staying well away from anywhere the action is." Gutt took a slow drink of his water, then leaned back in his chair, almost knocking over a tiny shelf with three more rabbits. The more you looked around Rashem's place, the more rabbits you could spot, even when you were certain you'd found them all. It was a slightly discomforting game of I Spy, except your little eyes always spied a bunny.
"Plus with the communications of the Kingdoms compromised, it's an even worse idea." I took another begrudging sip of the black coffee. "There's no reason for us to think the Hand isn't behind that, and no reason to think that they wouldn't be following the movements of dignitaries in and out of the Kingdoms."
The room quieted. It wasn't anything we didn't all know, but I guess putting the point on it…yeah, it was pretty much a shit situation all around. And just as a topper, we didn't even know if Vellius was alive, or if she'd sacrificed herself.
Rashem sighed, drained out what remained from his mug, then got up. "I need to turn in so I can take another shift being awake. When you're done checking everyone out, wake me up and I'll open the house up for you."
Casey nodded. "I'm probably okay to go now." He glanced over at me. "I don't need to regrow any skin this time, right? No blood scrubbing? No killer fevers?"
"For once, I'm not the one hurting, and I don't think you have a psych degree to help Lenva out."
Casey frowned. "Wish I could help on that one. The kind of magic that would set her right is…questionably moral? And it's beyond what I can do."
"What about Gelgaath's War Blessing? Bancroft found anything on what that actually is, yet?"
"Not that I've been privy to. But he's neck deep in books the size of my head, so he's doing his best." Casey rose. "All right, I'm heading out."
And we all took that as the end of the meeting, filing out of the kitchen. Gutt disappeared to the guest room I'd been occupying, and Rashem led Casey down a dead-end hallway. I noticed him touching rabbits on the way to wherever he was heading.
As I watched, I saw tiny veins of power sparking momentarily when he touched various bunnies, rotating them, shifting them onto empty shelves. It was like catching monofilament when you had a single LED. Fleeting glances of this whole array of magic that covered the hallway, and ostensibly the entire house. And the fact that this much magic never gave off a single antiseptic whiff was ridiculous. Rashem really did know his shit.
The final rabbit, a little black bunny standing up on its hind legs, released a pale glow and Rashem nodded. "You can freely traverse."
But before Casey could respond, footsteps hammered down the stairs. I instinctively reached for my holster, only to be met with Lenva. Rashem must have provided her with some clothing, because she currently wore an Atlanta Braves sweater and some baggy black cargo shorts. Her eyes were bright. "Someone's tracking us."
Rashem stiffened. "I only barely lowered the defenses. Just to let him leave."
Lenva nodded. "I understand that. But I promise, they have our location now."
Shit. For them to get a lock on us like that, they had to have been on the lookout for a while. "Do we know who?"
She shook her head. "I assume it's whoever was in control of Vois, but I can't know for certain."
Yeah, that was a safe assumption. Probably didn't love that we'd ruined their little plan. Plus it would have been easy enough to snag a hook into one of us, or track some remnant of Gelgaath's War Blessing. Then it was just a matter of getting enough of opening. Maybe this time around, the defenses were just a little more down than previous transports in and out, or maybe they'd simply needed it open a few times before they could track properly. I didn't know, and it frankly didn't matter. Whatever path it took, we'd been found. Rashem could work out how to improve his defenses later.
Right now, we needed triage. Fast. "Close it down, Rashem," I said. "No one's going anywhere until we're out of the woods. Gutt, get to Ixel. Casey, just try to stay back."
And they all nodded. Seniority didn't matter. We needed to get moving. Besides, someone had to talk with Lenva, and I was best-suited for that task. I locked eyes with her, giving as much sincerity and openness as I had to bring. We needed honesty and clarity, and we needed it PDQ. "Is this something you can fight off, or is it better to just let it go and wave at our spectator?"
She sighed heavily, rocking her shoulders. "I don't know. We know they're strong. If I use too much power and lose control, this house, this neighborhood…Solvar and Darthenal again."
Right. Had to keep that in mind. "Then don't try. Rashem will get the house protected again. You rest and stay safe."
She opened her mouth to say something, but got cut off. "Damn it!" Rashem yanked back from that little black rabbit, the last one he'd touched to open things up for Casey. His fingertips were red and blistered. "I've never seen this before."
"Just let me in!" A second, warbling voice issued from somewhere, though I couldn't place exactly where. High. Feminine, if I had to guess, but the distortion made that unreliable at best. "I've been trying to get back for a day."
The walls shuddered slightly and I swept myself in front of Casey, Glock in hand. "Rashem, what the hell?"
"What the hell is exactly the question to be asked. I don't know."
The walls shook yet again, and a strangled groan filled the house. I tightened up my stance, not sure where I was supposed to be watching, supposed to be aiming.
Then a slim hand appeared, jutting out of the wall of the
hallway next to Rashem. Then another shot from the floor, easily three feet from the first.
I fired. The bullet passed straight through, and the hand remained unaffected, but that groan turned into a screech.
Then snakes whipped up from the floor. The arms struggled their way together, toward the snakes. Familiar snakes. Tiny and all in a cluster. "Vellius."
"Yes, Vellius!" Her voice—as the arms came closer to the snake cluster, the distortion eased and it became more clearly feminine—bit outward. "Let me in before I tear myself apart, damn it!"
And then her hands snapped together. The air shimmered. Vellius crumpled out onto the floor, bringing the strong, burning clean scent with her. Whatever she'd done to get here, it was a hell of a lot of magic.
Apparently Casey agreed, pushing past me and kneeling next to her, immediately straightening her up to sitting and pressing his fingers against the side of her neck. "Your pulse is way too fast and you're cold."
"Yes, well, that's because I'm going into the early stages of magical overload because you wouldn’t let me through." She closed her eyes and leaned back, supporting herself on her hands. "This can't be normal safehouse procedure."
I shook my head. "We're being monitored. Total lockdown." I wasn't about to say it with Vellius in that kind of state, but I felt a hell of a lot better knowing that Rashem's barriers could hold off a Class-B researcher from the Grand Archives. I'd seen Vellius in action before, and she was no pushover.
"Then I guess it's best you didn't open your walls up for me." She closed her eyes again and took a few heavy, harsh breaths that shook her shoulders. "I'll be fine. I just can't do any magic for a few hours."
Casey remained at her side, running his hands down her arms and muttering to himself. He gently pressed his hands against her chest. A pale golden light moved down his arms and into her body, then faded. But so did her heavy panting. She seemed calmer, in spite of the pale cast to her olive skin, the slightly dead look behind her yellow eyes.
"There." Casey swept his hair out of his face and plopped back to sit next to her. "You can thank me later."
Vellius smiled very gently, the gave the slightest nod. "Thank you." And slowly, she pushed herself to standing and moved back into the hallway. Then she stopped dead. "Rashem of Um-Shevat?"
Rashem's eyebrows shot up. "No one's barged into my house and said that in quite some time. Or possibly ever."
"Well, you're something of a legend in the Grand Archives. Responsible for half the containment spells we use around the research areas."
"Still using my magic after all these years?"
Vellius nodded and relaxed slightly. "Personally, I think it's a shame you were let go. Had no idea you'd come to the Mundane, though I don't blame you for wanting to get out of there."
Rashem shrugged, avoiding eye contact, and I definitely wanted to hear the story behind this. Luckily, Rashem obliged. "The Office of Preternatural Affairs cares a lot less about which royal family members I mouthed off to than the Grand Archives."
"Well it was the Emperor of Nedelwald."
And like that, I liked Rashem a little bit more.
He shrugged and grinned slightly to Vellius. "if he didn't want to here what a stupid bastard he was, he shouldn't have been such a stupid bastard." Then he began to reset his rabbits.
Began.
As soon as he reached for the first rabbit, it exploded, shattering into porcelain shrapnel. But it didn't stop there. All along the hallway, little pops and cracks sounded as rabbits blew up, leaving their remains across the hardwood floor.
Rashem stumbled backward out of the hall, muttering under his breath. And around him, the walls and floor warped, flexing and swimming in and out of focus. Difficult to look at without puking. One moment, just the strange, dead-end hallway. The next, a wooden front door appeared at the far end of the hallway. Frosted glass window up top, surrounding the brass peephole. A basic brass-finished knob. Just a door that hadn't been there before.
Bing-bong.
And apparently a doorbell.
Everyone froze, glancing around between the door and each other, waiting. But nothing else came. No one knocked. No second doorbell. Just the one.
Rashem rose and stalked over, tiptoeing around the broken rabbits. He peered through the peephole. "I don't see anyone." His fingers wrapped around the knob, then he turned it and cracked it open.
"That's not great." Rashem shook his head. "If anyone had doubts we'd been found, I believe we can lay them to rest."
I moved up, craning to look around. There was a very familiar face looking up at us. Broff's head sat on the edge of the concrete porch, eyes just as dead as would be expected, face slack, but clean. No blood stains or anything like that. Just a gray troll head looking up at us. Below his neck stump, a message was written in deep blue I really hoped wasn't more orc blood. At least they'd deigned to write in English this time.
Release Lenva and Ixel to us in 24 hours.
Otherwise we strike.
If you flee, you will regret it.
And at the bottom, the circular symbol of the Seven-Fingered Hand.
Chapter Eighteen
Rashem waved his hand, levitating the head inside. Another flick of the wrist sent the head through a portal. "Let the Las Vegas Field Office deal with that." He closed and locked the door, then turned to face me. "I need to set up the security around the door again. Call Swift and tell him what's happening. Let me know when you're finished so I don't interfere with your reception." Then Rashem turned away and started picking up pieces of various rabbits. They floated in the air where he left them, letting him put the shrapnel carefully back together.
I pulled out my phone and dialed up Swift, heading toward the living room. He answered after half a ring. "Dash. What's happening on your end?"
"Nothing good, that's for damn sure."
"You know, it might be nice to get a call from you with something pleasant. I'm getting old. All this drama can't be doing my heart any favors."
"You're an attractive and competent leader. Is that enough of a cushion to your delicate soul?"
"It'll do. What's the damage?"
"Well, we've been being monitored for God knows how long, Vellius showed up and is now halfway into full-blown magical overload, someone broke through Rashem's enchantments and made his front door appear out of thin air, and the Hand delivered Broff's head to us and gave us an ultimatum: release Lenva and Ixel to them within twenty-four hours or they'll attack. Head just got sent to the field office."
Swift was silent for a long time. I knew he was there because he was breathing, but there was no other sign of life for close to ten seconds. Then he finally came back on. "I don't suppose running for the hills is an option?"
"They also said we'd regret that. And frankly, I wouldn't run, and I don't think you'd ask us to."
"No I wouldn't. But anyone smart would be seriously considering it." He chuckled slightly, weakly. "I suppose anyone smart wouldn't have agreed to be a spook."
"If the pay wasn't so good, probably not. But what's the plan for getting our dumb asses sorted out of this mess?"
"It's flattering you think I have a plan. Our job's the same as it has been. Keep Lenva safe, and now keep Ixel safe. The fact that they don't just want you to open the door and let them run doesn't give me confidence they have their best interests at heart."
"All the murder attempts kind of clued me into that. I think you're slipping, old man. Has Bancroft found anything about the magic they tried to use to off us?"
"Pretty sure he's tracked down the mind control spell. Nasty piece of work. But not the War Blessing. You have Vellius now, so you can ask her directly." He blew out a long breath that filled the speaker with static. "Honestly, I had about 50/50 odds she was dead."
"Well, more generous than my 80/20."
Another weak chuckle. "Go on. Get info and get ready. I'll touch base with Rashem to let him know he's going to need to make room."
; "You heading in?"
"Some of us are going to have to, aren't we? Can't leave you to face the Seven-Fingered Hand alone, can we?"
"Rashem's closing the safehouse down. Incommunicado."
"I have Kimmy and the R and D gals. We'll work it out."
"Well take your aspirin before you show up, old man."
"Yeah, I'll be taking medical advice from you." That gentle, lazy voice remained unbroken, unaffected. "You've been to see Casey more than any other agent since I've taken over as department head."
"Doesn't sound like me." My stomach was still tight at the thought of whatever the fuck was to come, but we could all fake normal pretty damn well. And for what it was worth, it worked to bring on a nice veneer of calm professionalism. Not like rupturing panic would do anyone any good anyway. "I'll let you go. Have a gorgon to interview."
"Good. We'll get there when we can."
He hung up, and I turned to Vellius, still sprawled in the armchair. "I need to talk to Gutt, and then we need to have a chat."
She nodded weakly. "I assumed as much." She looked me up and down, her eyes slightly more alive and focused. "You look awfully healthy for someone who soaked up Gelgaath's War Blessing."
"It takes more than a little deadly magic to make me less hot."
She raised an eyebrow at that. "You need to pay Daniels more."
"I agree. Bring it up when Swift shows up." And I headed upstairs, careful of the rabbits on the caps of the banisters. Gutt was on the left, standing in front of one of the bedroom doors. I nodded to him. "All clear."
His shoulders slumped and he blew out a breath. "Anything to know about?"
"Vellius is here, hand left a troll head and an ultimatum to release Lenva and Ixel to them or else they'll attack. Swift's gathering up some folks to head over for backup."
Gutt massaged the bridge of his nose. "Well, that's all lovely, isn't it?"
"No. it fucking sucks. We also need to pick Vellius's brain about the War Blessing." I shrugged. "Fun way to pass the time."
