Connor Duffy, at a back corner cubicle, watched me enter. I glanced around, surprised that the place was empty except for him and a disinterested server behind the counter. I slid in opposite Duffy.
“Last time I was here, I found myself with five guns pointed at me.”
Duffy picked up his coffee and took a sip, then put his cup back down. He was a big man, barrel-chested with thick powerful arms and legs. In his early forties, with prematurely graying hair, he was a cop who had long ago decided to straddle both sides of the fence, becoming an influential man in the process. Though, considering he was recently proclaimed as an errand boy and was no longer surrounded by minions, perhaps his power base had eroded away.
“Are you going to get to the point?” Duffy asked. “Or are you just going to stare at me?”
“I had an interesting encounter this afternoon.”
“Is that what you call getting to the point? Let me help you—based on the way you nearly fainted coming through the door, I’d guess you were close to Jeffries Parking Lot today.”
“I didn’t nearly— Wait, how could you know where I was?”
Duffy smiled. “I didn't know it. That’s why it’s called a guess. So it was you behind that JusticeWarrior11 Twitter handle? I thought you wanted to stay away from all this. Actually, you demanded to be left out if I remember correctly.”
“I want to stay out.” I just needed to get Alex under control. “It wasn’t me who was behind that Twitter handle. It was...” I hesitated. “What do you know about it?”
“The Reds are determined to discover the owner of the RedWhiteandTrue Twitter account and put a stop to the leaks. I’ve been helping. RedWhiteandTrue was cautious, but we managed to get into contact with an associated account, this JusticeWarrior11.”
“And you set up a trap?”
“We did.” Duffy suddenly grinned. “Ah. It makes sense now. That JusticeWarrior11 account was awfully interested in the Collier fire. Considering you got involved, I think that means the Collier orphans were behind the Twitter handle.”
There was no point in denying it. “What was the aim of this trap?”
“Jace was sent to capture JusticeWarrior11. We figured we’d get the identity of the RedWhiteandTrue account from him or her.” Duffy nodded to himself. “Him and her as it turns out.”
“Jace? The werebeast?”
“They prefer to be called shifters.” Duffy said. “Jace, the eagle shifter.”
“An eagle shifter.” Alex had also called it a shifter. Everyone knew more than me, and I was playing catch up.
“So, I’m guessing Jace didn’t capture the two Collier teens,” Duffy said. “Otherwise, you’d be much more frantic. So you fought her off. With fire?”
“You couldn’t guess that. This Jace has been in contact with you?”
Duffy chuckled. “She hasn’t. This guessing game is fun. Let me see what else I can figure out.” He considered. “I imagine Jace didn’t try too hard to kill you once she saw what you could do.”
“She tried hard enough.”
Duffy coughed out a laugh. “If she had really tried, one of you would be dead. I’d be willing to bet that she wasn’t even badly wounded.”
I glanced away. “So what?”
“I’ve seen what she can do. Pray she never decides to kill you.”
“How did you know I used fire to fight off the eagle shifter?” My mouth was dry. Even since the Collier Mansion fire, I had avoided the question of what I was.
“I talked to Sammy Williams about what happened that night. I know what you are.”
“Which is?”
“A fire sorcerer.”
Beelzebub. You’re a wizard, Harry. Hagrid’s words floated stupidly through my mind. This wasn’t close to the same, though. Fire magic had killed Alex and Jo’s parents.
“Is there a cure?”
“That’s like asking if there’s a cure for being a man. But, kid, you are lucky. Facing a shade as a human sucks. We humans are so outmatched against them. At least you’re on an equal footing.”
“You said this Jace works for the Reds.” I thought back to the tweets from RedWhiteandTrue. “That means her boss is Hugo Yarley?” For a guy who I’d only just heard about, his name was beginning to crop up with regularity.
Duffy nodded. “It does. And you are lucky. Yarley strongly believes that shades should be united and not fight each other. That’s why Jace didn’t continue to attack once she discovered that you had power.”
“Does that mean this Yarley will leave us alone now?”
“You don’t know who is behind RedWhiteandTrue by any chance?”
“Not a clue. I only found out about it yesterday, which makes me one of the last people in Lusteer to know, it seems.”
“Which means that Alex and Jo Collier are our only lead. I’m not sure you can protect them from Yarley.”
“I will protect them. You can count on that.” Alex had said he didn't know who was behind RedWhiteandTrue, but I wasn’t sure even I believed that, so how could I get Duffy and this Hugo Yarley to believe it? There was something else I had to ask Duffy about. “You helped get me the job in Transkey. Did you know it was run by the Whites?”
“Of course. How do you think I had the influence to help you? Transkey has always been run by the Whites. They channeled their legit business through it, keeping things low key. It’s under new management now, and Harriet Ashley is going a different direction with two page spreads in the Gazette.” He shrugged. “The Whites have frozen me out, so I don’t know much more.” He took another sip of coffee then bit into a doughnut.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. “Excuse me.” I took it out and when I saw that the caller was Alex, I immediately answered.
“It’s Jo,” Alex said. “Get here now.”
Chapter 9
Tuesday 16:15
When I rushed into our attic bedroom, Jo was thrashing on the bed with Alex holding onto her shoulders, trying to keep her down.
“What’s going on?” I demanded.
A wild flail from Jo threw Alex off her and he went stumbling back, colliding with me. I grabbed Alex, preventing him from falling.
Jo sat up in the bed. Her body was rigid and her eyes were black. “We are coming.” The words came from Jo’s mouth but it was not her voice. “We will destroy all before us and remake it. Remake it in our image.”
Alex clutched me. “What’s going on, Rune?”
“I have no idea.” I was pretty sure it was my doing though. I had known the danger of using magic. “Jo.” I released Alex and moved forward. “Jo, come back to us.”
The tension left Jo’s body and she slumped back down onto the bed. I rushed to her side. Her eyes were closed and her face was pale. I touched her forehead—it was burning up. “Jo,” I said.
When she opened her eyes, I flinched back but it was her again. Blue-eyed, sweet Jo.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “I feel weird.”
Alex crouched down beside me. “She’s been feverish ever since the taxi ride.” He reached his hand into a bowl of water by the foot of Jo’s bed and pulled out a cloth. He used both hands to wring the water from the cloth, then handed it across to me. “That’s the second time she has changed. Should we call a doctor?”
I touched the cloth to Jo’s forehead. “I don’t think a doctor will be able to help.”
“You knew something like this might happen, didn’t you?” Alex said. “You said to get away from you. That you were dangerous.”
“I didn't know. I feared.”
“Then you should be able to undo it,” Alex said desperately. “If you could shoot fire from your hands.”
The last thing I wanted was to use magic again. But even if I dared, I didn’t have any idea how I would be able to help.
Jo suddenly sat up in the bed and gripped my arms. “From smoke, I was born!” she screamed. “And you will burn upon your own pyre.”
Her eyes were black once more. Chills
ran through me. “Jo, come back to me.”
Her fingernails dug into my flesh. “I will destroy you utterly, fire demon.”
“Please, Jo. Please fight whatever this is.” Duffy had told me I was a fire sorcerer, and whatever was inside Jo saw me as a fire demon.
I wasn’t sure if she heard me or not, but she collapsed back into the bed once more.
“That isn’t Jo!” Alex shouted. “I want my sister back.”
“I’ll take care of it.” I lifted Jo into my arms and carried her toward the door.
Alex sprang to his feet. “I’m going with you.”
“I’m going to take her on the scooter. Just wait here.”
“I’m not leaving her. Not when she’s like this.” Alex leaned over and touched Jo’s cheek.
Jo caught his hand. “It’s okay, Alex. Rune will take care of me.”
I blinked away tears, wishing I shared Jo’s faith in me.
“He better.” Alex turned to me. “Where are you taking her?” His voice cracked slightly. For once, he looked the fifteen-year-old boy he was, rather than the man he strove to be.
“I know someone.” I exited, pushing the door closed behind me with my foot. There was only one person I knew who might be able to help Jo. I swore I’d never go back, but once again I had no choice. Magic had gotten Jo into this state, and I needed magic to cure her. I could only hope it didn’t turn into a vicious cycle.
Chapter 10
Tuesday 16:35
I carried Jo down the first flight of stairs and was halfway down to floor level when I met Tyler coming up.
“I was just looking for you,” he said. “There’s someone here for you.”
I groaned. “Not a good time.”
He looked at Jo in my arms. “What’s up with Jo?” Tyler, with his shaggy long hair and disheveled beard, was wearing his usual purple crocs and pink dressing gown.
“She has a bit of a fever. I’m taking her to the doctor.”
“The woman says she’s your social worker. She’s hot, dude. You’re lucky. She’s in the living room.”
I hated social workers. “You didn’t have to tell her I was here, did you?” I had deleted myself from the system. They shouldn’t have been able to track me down.
“Dude, she’s hot. I’m going to tell her anything she wants to know.”
“If a hot girl told you to stab a butter knife into the roof of your mouth, would you do it?”
“Dude, I’m not lucky enough to gain such an awesome death.” Tyler glanced back toward the living room. “I better go back. How do I look?” He ran his fingers through his long greasy hair.
“Awful.”
He sighed. “That’s true.” He wandered back into the living room.
I considered continuing straight out the front door, but the social worker would surely see me, and I couldn’t have her knowing about Alex and Jo.
I looked down at Jo in my arms. “How are you feeling now?”
“Stronger.” She smiled weakly. “I’d better hide until this social worker is gone.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
She nodded.
I glanced around the hall and spotted a closet, took Jo there and opened it. The closet under the stairs had been turned into a cliché for bad parenting by the Harry Potter books, and here I was leaving a sick girl in it. “Will you be okay in here for a few moments?” I asked.
“I will.”
“You are such a trooper,” I told her.
“I know. Living with you and Alex I have no choice, just have to grin and bear it a lot.”
It was dusty inside the closet, but no worse than most of Ten-two. I put Jo back on her feet, then pulled the cord to turn on the light. The illumination was faint, but I noticed a big stack of school books on one of the shelves.
“Aren’t these yours and Alex’s schoolbooks?” I asked.
“Old ones,” she said.
Jo wasn’t a great liar. I picked a math workbook from the top of the pile and flicked through it. Alex’s name was written on the inside flap and some of the exercises were dated for this school year. The last date in it was several months ago and the second half of the book was blank.
“Jo?” I held up the workbook toward her.
She snatched it out of my hand. “Someone’s coming.” She pushed me outside and closed the door behind her.
I was about to open the closet door again when a young woman walked out of the living room. “Rune Russell, I presume,” she said to me.
“You’ve chosen a bad time. I was just on my way out.” I walked past her and out the front door.
“We have to talk.” She followed me.
A motorcycle was parked outside Ten-two and I stopped to admire it. A red Honda Shadow Spirit. The woman walked past me and leaned against the bike. She had long hair dyed purple-red, wore leather trousers and a short leather jacket that stopped at her midriff.
Tyler hadn’t exaggerated and, for me, a girl having a motorcycle usually doubled or tripled their attractiveness. Especially one having the good taste to choose such a fine machine. As a known social worker, though, she might as well have had horns coming out of her head.
“So. Eaten any children this morning?” I asked.
“Do I have that look?” she asked.
“You have that profession. No evidence of blood around your mouth so you scrub up better than some.”
“Scrub up better that some. Quite the charmer, aren’t you.”
I shrugged. “I like to think so. Others tell me I have a big mouth.”
“You going to be difficult?”
“Not if you leave me alone.”
“Can you confirm you are Rune Russell?” she asked.
“Can you confirm what children’s blood tastes like?” I remembered that Pete had mentioned a person on a motorcycle asking about me earlier. It had to be her.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” she said. “I was beginning to think you were a myth.”
“The myth. The legend. The one and only.” I bowed my head. “At your service.”
“It’s the strangest thing. Looking through the paper files, you crop up as normal like other seventeen year olds in the system, except your present location wasn’t listed. Searching through the computer system, you don’t exist. A complete ghost.”
“Paper files. What kind of Jurassic system still uses them?”
She shrugged. “They come in useful some times. My name is Florence Lynn, and I’ve been assigned to you.”
I lifted my left foot. “See this.”
“What am I looking at? Dog poop?”
I lifted my right foot. “And this?” Then I stamped both feet on the ground. “And look at this. I can stand on both of them. At the same time.”
“How cute. You think you are grown up. You are still only seventeen so still under the care of the system.”
“I’ve held one of those—what do grownups call them—jobs for nearly a year. A respectable company called Transkey.” She didn’t need to know Findley might fire me at any moment. “And I’ll be eighteen in a month.”
“So steady employment and a regular living situation? Can I inspect your quarters?”
“It’s a bit of a mess.”
“You need to hide your drug paraphernalia before I look in?”
“Something like that.” Two runaway orphans, one of them possessed by a dark power. “Listen, you’ve gone beyond the call of duty. The city of Lusteer applauds you. Five stars. Yadda yadda yadda. You’ve found me and learned I’m fine. Can’t we both get on with our lives?”
She considered. “Transkey, you say. I’ll check out that job of yours.”
Inwardly, I groaned, but I just needed to get rid of her, so I faked a smile. “Great, wonderful, fine. Looking forward to it.”
She swung her leg over so she sat astride the bike, then retrieved the helmet from where it hung on the left handlebar. She tilted her head back, shook her hair out of the way, then pulled the helmet on.
“See you soon.”
Why did that sound like a threat? Blasted social workers. Her motorcycle roared to life. It had a nice throaty sound. Sorry about your owner, I mentally sympathized with the bike as it departed, then darted back into Ten-two, rushing over to the closet door.
“I hope you’re—” I stopped, startled. It was empty.
Before I had a chance to consider where she could be, I heard a yelp from the living room and ran in there. Pete was crowded in the corner of the room, and he was holding Tyler in front of him. Before them stood Jo.
“Dude, your sister’s gone crazy,” Tyler said. “And not in a good way. In a scary way.”
I ran for her and reached her just as she collapsed in my arms. “Jo,” I said.
She opened her eyes and the real Jo was back. “Sorry, Rune. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t mean to.”
“I know you don’t. Don’t worry, we’ll get this sorted.” I helped her to her feet.
Pete came out from behind Tyler. “What’s going on?”
“Just a prank. Ha. Ha. We scared you good.” I couldn’t even make a good fist of a story so I just left it at that. “Can you walk, Jo?”
She nodded and I guided her out, stopping in front of the Vespa. “Perhaps we should get a taxi.” That would cause another delay though. Taxis didn’t pass down Fenster Street often.
“I’m feeling stronger,” Jo told me. “I’ll be fine on the scooter.”
“Don’t go all demon on me while I’m riding,” I said, then immediately regretted it. “I didn’t mean...”
She twisted both her fingers into fake-claws. “Raarrrr,” she said. “You won’t have Tyler and Pete to hide behind when I do.”
That she could joke about what was happening to her was great, but I could see her terror behind the humor.
I opened up the seat of the scooter, took out the helmet and strapped it on her head. I then sat down and helped her into position in front of me. Normally, I put passengers behind me, but I couldn’t rely on her keeping a firm grip on me, considering her state.
Fire Sorcerer (The Sentinels Book 1) Page 4
