I slam my fist on the tabletop, rattling loose change in the donation jar, and mutter, “Well, at least you have one rule I agree with.”
I excuse myself from Wallace.
Locating the picnic area, I find Cooper sitting at a table with Ella and Riker, who are munching on the remains of an unhealthy lunch of burgers and fries. (Amy and Desmond, I suspect, are somewhere on the festival grounds too, along with many others I see on the job every day, others who risk their lives, time and again, fighting evils they can barely comprehend, but somehow still find it in themselves to enjoy the simple things in life.) Ella waves me over to the table, and I throw up a smile that’s not quite happy, and take on a casual gait that’s not quite genuine, and walk over to join my teammates who are more like family than I’ll ever admit.
And not one of those farces holds any weight—because we’re all liars at DSI.
That’s how we live, and that’s how we die. That’s how we keep the world safe, and how we sleep at night. I made my peace with that fact of my life two and a half years ago, and I’m not walking back on that oath.
So I sit at the table, and I eat a hotdog with chili, and I laugh at Ella’s corny jokes, and I flirt with Cooper Lee until he turns bright pink. And when my captain looks me in the eye, a question written on his face in invisible ink, I nod, ever so slightly, to confirm I have the will to fight another day—because in the end, that’s all that matters.
As I’m munching on a sugar-covered funnel cake, a wisp of déjà vu caresses my mind. I look over my shoulder to find a lone owl flying through the daylight, heading off in the direction where a vampire vanished minutes before. That innate urge of mine, engrained in my soul, that urge to be a hero, flares up, an awful fever, all my detective instincts roaring to life like rusty machinery turned on for the first time in a decade. But I flip the switch to turn them off again before they even start moving. Because I can’t play the hero all the time, can’t hold the whole world up every waking moment of my life. And I shouldn’t try.
Some things are best left for another fight.
One day, we will knock down the leaning tower of corruption that is poisoning the skyline of this city. We. Us. Team Riker. DSI.
One day, we will win this battle. One day, we will win this war.
But not today. No, not today.
Today is for peace, today is for healing, and I won’t let them take that away.
To Be Continued
IN DOOM SAYER
Coming Fall 2017
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City of Crows Books 1-3 Box Set Page 84
