by Sarah Biglow
“Someone needs to tell me what the hell is going on. And maybe some heavy-duty Advil. Not necessarily in that order,” I grunted through the ache in my skull.
J.T. produced a couple of white capsules and some water and I downed them. I didn’t expect them to take immediate effect, but, then again, he could have augmented them with a little touch of something extra. The throb began to dissipate almost instantly.
“How long was I out?” It had been early evening last I recalled.
“A while. It’s about six in the morning,” J.T. answered.
Nearly twelve hours. The pounding in my head intensified for a moment before receding again.
“What do you remember?” Jacquie asked, ever the detective.
“I think I deserve some answers first,” I replied. “How do you two know each other?” I gestured at Jacquie. “And how do you know about the Order?”
J.T. cleared his throat and made a move toward the doorway. “I’ll let you two hash this out. There’s a call button on the side of the bed if you need anything, Ez. I’ll be back to check on you in a bit.”
My heart sank as he disappeared from view. I’d been so mad at him when, really, we’d both been so young and I had pushed him away in my grief. Seeing him now all grown up tugged at feelings I’d thought had died with my mother. I beat back the rush of schoolgirl questions dancing around my thoughts and turned back to Jacquie.
“Spill it. What do you know?”
Jacquie cleared her throat but wouldn’t meet my gaze. That only made me nervous. Finally, she looked up and said, “I knew who you were before we were partnered together. About the magic and the fact that you were supposed to be this Savior. The Authority pulled a few strings to make sure we were partnered together.”
“Why? What do you have to do with the Authority?”
“It turns out my sister-in-law has magic. So the kids might develop it one day. Your friend Desmond came to me a while ago and brought me into the fold.”
“He’s not a friend. He’s my cousin. Well, distant cousin,” I corrected on impulse.
“Right, sorry. It’s hard to keep it straight. It seemed pretty impossible when I first found out, but even for those of us without powers, it’s pretty damn impressive.”
“Why didn’t you say anything before?”
“The Authority swore me to secrecy. There were so many times I wanted to tell you. But they’d warned me you had trust issues when it came to magic and they needed you to trust me.”
I let out a hiccup of hysterical laughter. “There were so many times I wanted to tell you about magic too. It would have made everything so much easier. I guess the Authority had more influence over both of us than we realized.”
She nodded in silence. “And I’m sorry I had to tell the captain about you acting erratically. But the Authority made it clear they needed you back into the fold before the Equinox.”
“Well, maybe you weren’t wrong about that part. I’ve got shit I need to work out. And maybe talking to Desmond won’t be the worst thing.”
“I do hope you get the answers you’re looking for about your mother.”
There was something else I needed to tell my partner, but the alluring scent of J.T.’s magic tugged at my consciousness, urging me to return to the depths of my dreams where the pain and heartache of reality were just a distant memory. Jacquie finally stood up and moved to the doorway and stepped over the threshold, leaving me with just a silhouette of her body. The edges started to go fuzzy and I gave in to the pull of the drugs. Right now, I could only hope sleep would take me back to my mother’s arms.
Twenty-One
When I woke the next time, the sky outside of my only window was still bright, if a bit dimmed. Damn, I wished I had a clock to keep track of how much time I was losing from sleeping. I didn’t remember any dreams this time, but I did feel a little better. No one came to check on me right away and I enjoyed the solitude, taking the time to assess my body. I reached up with one hand and gingerly pressed the back of my head. The memory of getting clocked came back to me, along with the smell of recently dead human remains and the gag-inducing smell of my attacker’s magic: garlic. It had been Kevin’s accomplice. There was a small comfort in that. Given what we’d seen of the other bodies, I probably wouldn’t have been alive if Kevin had taken a swing at the back of my head. But why hadn’t he stuck around to make sure he’d finished the deed?
Next, I pushed the blankets down to thick sweatpants covering my lower limbs. I pulled the fabric of my shirt up to my breasts, exposing a wide swathe of medical tape and bandages. The ghost of the attack flashed before me, the feeling of the blade slicing through skin and muscle again and again and I couldn’t hold back the bile. Someone had thought to leave a bucket at the bedside and I managed not to make a mess. My whole body shook from the effort and something oozed toward my leg. I groped for the call button and slammed it with my fist.
“How are you feeling?” J.T. asked as he walked in, stowing his phone in his back pocket.
“Ugh,” I moaned.
He took the bucket from my sweat-slick hands and settled me back down against the pillows. His fingers probed at my stomach and he peeled the dressing away to reveal a horizontal line of dark stitches, one of which had torn and was now leaking blood.
He worked without speaking. Donning latex gloves, he pressed a cool cloth to my forehead and snipped the offending suture out, replacing it in a matter of seconds. Even he couldn’t work miracles with magic, not with something so destructive. He eased the tape off the rest of my stomach and reapplied a new dressing before pulling the blankets back up over my torso. He started to leave again when I reached out to him, unintentionally snaring him in a loop of magic. His right hand jerked back in my direction and he looked back.
“Stay with me?” My voice was coarse.
He dragged the chair over to the other side of the bed and sat down with the back of it facing me. Some habits apparently never died. We stayed like that, contemplating one another for a while in silence. It wasn’t awkward like it had been before Jacquie’s departure.
“I’m so glad Jacquie was there to get to you when she did.”
“She was there?”
“Yes, she was.”
I vaguely recalled calling her about the location. “Oh, right. She told me she got pulled into the Authority because of her sister-in-law and her niece and nephew.”
“I’m not sure exactly what happened but, yeah, she’s been working with us for a while now. It’s good to have normal people on the payroll who are in the know. It means you don’t have to try to explain away things that don’t quite make sense without magic as the go-to answer.”
“I wanted to tell her the truth so many times. I just wish she could have told me too.”
He shrugged. “The Council told her to keep her mouth shut.”
Heat touched the tips of my ears. Once again, the Authority was trying to tell me what to do. “They didn’t have that right.”
“I don’t blame you for being pissed at them, but you’re going to have to put a pin in it for now, okay? We need you focused on stopping the Order. We’ve got less than four days before the Equinox and no one knows for sure what the eclipse and the meteor shower are going to do to the changeover in the balance of power.”
“That’s what they’re counting on,” I muttered.
“Which, again, is why we need you ready to fight. You won’t be completely healed, but you’ll be damn close.”
I reached out and grasped the fingers on his right hand. “Thank you for saving me.”
He smiled and for a moment he was that fifteen-year-old boy I’d fallen for all those years ago. “It’s my job, Ez. Besides, you may have forgotten about me, but I never stopped thinking about you.”
“I didn’t forget you.”
“It sure felt like it. I get that you were grieving, but you pushed all of us away. We wanted to be there for you. I wanted to be there.”
“I was s
o angry about losing my mother and the fact they covered it up, I guess I lashed out at everyone around me.”
His lips parted as if he was going to speak, but no words came out. After a shaky breath, he said, “I can’t imagine losing someone that close to you.”
“I had a dream about her, you know. Lots of dreams really … reliving the day I found her, but this one was different. She came to me and told me I wasn’t alone.”
“You aren’t alone. You never have been.”
“Eleanor Pruitt was there too. She said she always knew it would be my line that would bring about the prophecy.”
“No pressure,” he said with a smirk.
I returned the expression. “How much longer do I need to stay here?”
“I know we’re working against the clock, but you still need time to rest and heal.”
“The longer I lie here the closer the Order gets to finishing their grand plan. And I still have an open serial homicide investigation to solve. I think I know where to find Kevin, I just need to get there.”
“Just stay a few more hours, okay?”
“Yeah, okay.” I hated having to surrender to his medical judgement. But, if I was being honest with myself, I didn’t think I could really get around on my own right now.
I pressed my free hand against my stomach muscles, cushioned by the dressing and blankets, and my stomach gurgled. I gave J.T. a plaintive look. “Can I at least get something to eat? I’m starving.” The lasagna and our run-in with Gabrielle seemed ages ago.
“Sure. I’ll have something brought up.”
He pulled his hand away from mine and stood, leaving the chair sitting there with the back still facing me. With one final smile, he left me alone. Except I wasn’t alone. I hadn’t noticed it before—maybe I’d been too hopped up on drugs and magic to feel it—but there was a presence in the room. It tickled the tiny hairs on the backs of my arms, but it lacked any malintent. Whoever or whatever this entity was, it wasn’t going to hurt me.
“Kayla?” I whispered. I didn’t want to see that little purple-haired punk, but she was the only person I knew who could turn invisible on a whim.
No answer. She wasn’t one to hide on me. My brain tried to formulate other options, but magic other than J.T.’s washed over me like warm water, cleansing me without having to make the effort myself. I could swear the lingering scents of Eleanor’s and my mother’s magic were among the flavors working their way into my skin. I touched the exposed flesh of my forearms and electricity jumped from the hairs to the pad of my finger. I expected to jump at the jolt, but something deep within me had kept that response from making the journey from my brain to the nerves in my extremities.
“Ezri, are you all right?” Desmond’s voice pulled me from the moment. I hadn’t heard him come in.
“I think there’s someone else here,” I said in a hushed tone.
He set a tray of soup down on a dresser and looked around. “Where?”
“Everywhere. I can feel them.”
“I don’t sense anyone else here. Are you absolutely sure?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, the warmth dissipated. My muscles still felt taut with the electrical current, but the smells had died. “Maybe my head is still messed up from the attack,” I said.
“Whatever it was, did it feel evil?” He moved the tray to my lap and turned the chair around, settling in at my side.
“No. Whatever it was, it didn’t want to hurt me. It felt almost familiar.”
“Well, this place is rife with magical echoes of those who came before us. I wouldn’t be surprised if we had a few ghosts lurking around.”
“Yeah, maybe.” I spooned soup to my lips and swallowed greedily. Never before had chicken soup tasted so divine. “Is Jacquie still here?”
“I’m not sure.”
I downed a few more mouthfuls before asking, “Did you know she knew everything?”
“I knew they had someone else in the department who was helping to guide you back in our direction, but I didn’t know for sure who it was.”
The skeptical part of me wanted to distrust him, but with everything facing us, the time for dishonesty had passed. He’d done his part because the Authority had told him to, just like Jacquie. As, I’m assuming, had J.T.
“When I was unconscious, I had a dream. Or maybe it wasn’t a dream. Whatever it was, my mother was there and so was Eleanor. She told me something that you should know.”
Desmond’s eyes lit up at the mention of his ancestor. “I’m listening.”
“She knew something about the prophecy that she never told anyone. It was always going to be Theodora’s lineage, not hers, that fulfilled the prophecy.”
“Why would she put her own lineage in danger?”
“I don’t know. As a distraction maybe? If the bad guys were going after both of their descendants there was a chance Theodora’s heirs would still survive.”
“That’s insane. She was going to her death the night she made the prophecy. So, in a way, she was getting out of it. She didn’t have to see her family die,” he said, a hint of bitterness in his tone.
“Sacrifice doesn’t make sense sometimes. I remember when I was younger, you told me how you wished it had been you. Now we know it never could have been. Lucky me.”
He didn’t say anything and I concentrated on finishing the soup. It wasn’t a huge energy boost, but it was enough to keep me going a little while longer. And there was something I needed to do before time slipped away too fast. “Desmond, I need you to do something for me. Two things really.”
“Okay.”
“I need you to find Kayla. Show her Kevin Ellery’s photo and tell her to see if she can find him. Start in the Public Gardens. He’s a gargoyle so she needs to check all the statues.”
“Done. What else.”
“I need you to find Jacquie and get her back here. I was at the last scene when I was attacked. We need to figure out who it was and arrest their ass.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Do you need anything else?” He gestured at the tray.
“No. Thanks for sticking with me … and I’m sorry I’ve been such a bitch to you for so long.”
“It’s what family does, even if you’re stubborn as hell sometimes. And thanks for not dying on us. It would suck to be down a Savior when we need her the most.”
I laughed and my muscles tightened against the stitches. I winced and tried to relax. “Don’t make me laugh.”
“Now I know you’re going to be fine.”
He leaned over and gave me a gentle, one-armed hug before spiriting the tray away. Left alone again, my thoughts turned back to the case. I still had a problem to solve and I wasn’t going to let being nearly sliced and diced stand in the way. Kevin and the Order may have made all of their innocent sacrifices, but they were still waiting for the Equinox. There was still time to win this fight. The first priority was finding Kevin and my would-be killer. Then we’d find where the Order was planning to conduct their creepy resurrection and I’d get to kick some magical ass.
Twenty-Two
Jacquie didn’t materialize until the sun was well on its way past the horizon. At least a couple more hours were gone. She looked a little worse for wear, dark circles ringed her eyes. I sat up as much as the stitches in my belly allowed.
“I want to apologize again for lying to you about all the magic stuff and putting your job on the line,” I said before she could speak. “If I could go back and do it again, I’d tell you everything up front.”
She leaned on the foot of the bed. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty. I’m sorry too. By the way, The captain knows you were attacked. I had to make up some half-ass excuses why you weren’t in a hospital.”
“Damn, I’m sorry you had to lie for me.”
“Something tells me it won’t be the last time. I know you’re still recovering, but we need to find out what you remember. Get the ball rolling.”
“That’s exactly why I needed to talk to yo
u. I want to do a cognitive interview with you and see what we can piece together. Besides, J.T. said I have to stay here for another few hours at least.”
She smiled at me in an almost motherly way. “You hate being cooped up, don’t you?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe. For a cop, I don’t like being told what to do.”
“So I’ve seen.”
“That day I went running off from the scene, I was chasing Kevin’s magical signature,” I confessed.
“Oh. I guess that makes sense given everything we know about the case now.”
“I have someone tracking him down,” I said, trying to sound reassuring.
“At this moment, I’m more concerned with who attacked you. I’m not a fan of almost losing partners to serial killers.”
“I’m not sure it was a serial killer.”
“You just said—”
“Kevin’s magic was all over the bodies. Every one that I examined. He’s definitely the one doing the dirty work. His partner, whoever it is, has been handling the surveillance. It was that person’s magic I’ve been dealing with.”
“And what exactly does dealing with their magic mean?”
“The reason none of the video picked up what happened is because our second suspect has been using magic to corrupt the files.” I brushed my fingertips against my throat. “I took copies of the videos and was trying to undo the spell. It … fought back. I may be the Savior, but I guess taking my training on myself at fifteen wasn’t the best move. I’m strong, but not indestructible.”
“So that’s why you looked like shit.”
“It’s being handled by some people here. Hopefully they’ve had better luck than I did. Anyway, the point is it wasn’t Kevin’s magic that I sensed before I got turned into a human pincushion. It was the other guy’s.”
