by Rain Oxford
“Finally,” a harsh voice on the other end said. “If you had let it ring for ten more seconds, I was going to set off the second bomb.”
I pulled the phone from my ear and checked the number. Private.
Bastard. I stood up, propping myself against Henry’s truck so I wouldn’t put pressure on my calf, and pushed the officer away.
“Not too fast now, Devon” the voice said warningly. “You wouldn’t want to spook me and cause me to accidentally push the button.”
“What do you want?”
“Henry, obviously. I could just kill him now, but that seems like such a waste. Now that his kid is dead, I should have his attention.”
“Well, not until I tell him who did this. What did you say your name was again?” I glanced around for a person who was on the phone. There were several concerned pedestrians who were on their cell phones, but none of them were looking at me. Most of them were just gawking at the debris and fire.
“Now, now, Devon. Don’t tell me you forgot about me.”
I didn’t let it bother me that he knew my name. I never left a case unfinished. There were some I passed to others and there were plenty of people with a grudge against me, but I didn’t think I was dealing with a paranormal here; I had never seen someone with magic use a bomb.
Well, there was Bob, who worked for Gale, but he was eaten by a dragon.
Then again, Felicity was eaten by shadows. “You’re not part of Gale’s crew, are you? Because I’m getting sick and tired of that man.” To be honest, I would prefer if he was working for Gale over Krechea. Or worst of all, working for Gale and Krechea.
The man laughed and I waved away the officer who was trying to talk to me. “Bring Henry to me by one o---”
“Can’t you see I’m on the phone?!” I interrupted him to bark at the cop, who was still trying to talk to me. “I’m not going to the hospital, so leave me alone.” Instead of letting him argue, I used my power to force him. I put the phone back to my ear. “Why would I bring Henry to you? You’ve already lost your card with him.”
I spotted a couple of street cameras pointed at me and the building. It was a good thing Scott went underground. At that time, Henry and Darwin emerged from the library, still looking very worried.
“Don’t let on that you know Scott escaped. This wasn’t an accident and the person responsible is watching us,” I told them in their minds.
“We figured as much,” Darwin responded. “Libraries don’t blow up on accident.”
“You’re sure he’s safe?”
“Completely. He got out through an underground tunnel.” I shook my phone at them as if to tell them I was talking to the bad guy. They were intercepted by a police officer, but it only took a moment for them to get past him, after which they joined me and I put the phone to my ear.
“Stop getting distracted,” the man on the phone snapped at me. “You’re going to bring Henry here or your friend will die.”
“Which friend? I have several of them.”
“He’s lying! It’s a trap!” I heard Marcus yell in the background. I then heard the man smack my friend. Marcus tried to scream something else, but it sounded like he was being gagged.
“If Mr. Lycosa isn’t home by one, Marcus’s blood and brains will paint the walls.” He hung up.
I checked my watch. “We have half an hour to get to your place.” They got in the truck without arguing. My calf was still sore, but it wasn’t bleeding anymore. Those healing potions were fantastic. “The guy on the phone blew up the library with the intention of killing Scott. It sounds like the guy who broke into your place and attacked you wasn’t happy with you getting back up,” I said as we started heading back to Henry’s place.
“How did he know Scott would go there?”
“I don’t know. There are cameras around the town, so I’m assuming he’s been watching. Come to think about it, I doubt this is the first time Scott has gone to that tower. I’ve had several cases in which foster kids would run away. Most of the time, the parents go to the police. When they come to me, it’s because they have something to hide.”
“Like they were abusing the kids?” Darwin asked.
“Sometimes, but I’ve always turned those people down. In one case, a boy didn’t know he was adopted, he just knew his parents were lying about something. Once, a young woman came to me because she wanted me to kidnap her child from his abusive father. The man planted drugs in her apartment and got her arrested because she threatened to call the police when he beat their daughter.” Many of my clients were high-profile, paranoid, rich people who didn’t want word getting out that they were afraid. I’ve dealt with a lot of stalkers.
“How are we going to find Scott now?”
“The same way we just did, but we need to save Marcus.”
“You’re sure he thinks Scott is dead?” Henry asked.
“He said so. Whether he knows or not, I think Scott is already out of town. I’ll read this guy’s mind when we get there and find out for sure.”
With three minutes to spare, we pulled up into Henry’s driveway next to a stretch limo. I pulled my mini notebook and pen out of my jacket pocket and wrote the license plate number down. It was a local plate, but I was pretty sure it was a fake or that the limo was rented under a false name.
“What’s the plan?” Darwin asked.
“We go in there, talk the creep down, and get Marcus. Remember, we’re dealing with a human.”
“A human who was able to shoot me in the head,” Henry reminded me.
“Just try not to kill him. I’m sure once we know what he’s after, we can find evidence to get him locked up. If not, we can take him to the school.”
“To feed to the vampires. Got it,” Darwin said.
I was actually thinking more along the lines of locking him in the dungeon, but I didn’t want to spoil Darwin’s fun. We went up to the front door and I peeked through the window next to the door. It occurred to me I should learn magic that could push the curtains of a window aside without touching them. As it was, I couldn’t see anything but a couple of dark shapes moving.
I pulled out my gun before opening the door slowly. Before I could even see inside, a shot was fired and Darwin grunted. Blood splattered on me, but the bullet only grazed his arm and shattered Henry’s passenger window. Darwin growled and his eyes started changing to a deep red color. I entered the room, saw who had a gun to Marcus’s head, and sighed. “You’re kidding.”
“Sinclair?” Henry asked as he and Darwin came in. His expression was something between shock and disgust. “What did I ever do to you?”
Simon Sinclair was standing behind his son with one hand on Marcus’s shoulder. Marcus wasn’t tied to the chair, but the gun pressed against his temple was motivation enough for him to hold completely still. The small living room was very cramped, because eight other men forming a line had their guns pointed on me and my friends. They were waiting for an order.
So I decided to give them one.
“Which one of you shot Darwin?” I asked, taking a firm hold of their minds. It was almost too easy; the hardest part was leaving Marcus’s and Simon’s alone. When I felt the answer in their minds, I didn’t wait for him to fess up. “You, put your gun in your mouth,” I said. The man’s eyes widened with fear, which was almost amusing seeing as how he was twice my size.
“Dev, it’s okay,” Darwin said. “I’m not hurt. I’ve had worse injuries tripping over wires in my bedroom.”
I ignored him. “The rest of you, aim your guns at Simon. If he pulls the trigger, so do you.” The seven henchmen immediately did as I demanded. All but two of them were as confused as Simon. The smallest one, who was still by no means a small man, actually seemed to be perfectly happy with this change of plan. Although his brother was just as pleased, the older man hid it better.
Mind reading and mind control removed a lot of the guess work in these matters.
“What the hell is this?!” Simon yelled.
And I had no doubt Simon Sinclair would kill his son in a heartbeat.
“Devon, I hope to hell you know what you’re doing,” Marcus said.
I noted that there was no laptop or television, so I could only surmise that someone else was watching the explosion and informing Sin of what was going on.
Sin ignored the men aiming their guns at him and tried to stare me down. “I’m willing to let Marcus go if you give up Henry.”
I glanced at my friends, who were both watching me expectantly. I rolled my eyes. Sin seemed to think I owned Henry, which I could understand. He believed he owned the people who worked for him, so it made sense that he assumed other employers were the same. Henry and Darwin were waiting for me to give them the “kill” order or whatever plan I had in mind.
I really wanted to take the easy way out, which was to give in just long enough for Sin to take the gun off Marcus, and then kill the drug dealer. But no, I had to try to do this without bloodshed.
“Are you okay?” I asked Darwin. Blood had seeped through his fingers, but his eyes had returned to their blue color.
“Tis but a scratch.”
“A scratch?!” Marcus asked. “Your arm is bleedin’!”
“Oh, god, please don’t,” I said.
“No, it isn’t,” Darwin said, his accent suddenly more English than Australian.
“Well what’s that then?” Marcus continued.
Darwin moved his hand and let more blood spill down his white hoodie sleeve. “I’ve had worse.”
“Can we gag him?” Henry asked. As if waiting for the chance, Sinclair pulled a cloth out of his pocket and stuffed it in Marcus’s mouth. “I meant Darwin.”
“What did you do to piss Sin off so bad?” I asked Henry.
He shrugged. “I stole a painting. He had lots of money, but my mother just wanted the painting. I’ve only seen Sinclair in pictures. That’s why I recognized his scent at your office and Marcus’s house; I had smelled it when I took the painting.”
“That’s not all you did!” Sinclair yelled, pressing the muzzle of the gun harder against Marcus’s temple.
“I don’t even know what…” Henry trailed off as it dawned on him. “I stopped those sex traffickers a few weeks before I was attacked.”
“Do you know how much that cost me? Not just in losses, either! I had to kill half of my men to keep the feds from catching them and tracing them back to me!”
The guy with the gun in his mouth was even more terrified than Marcus, who just closed his eyes and waited. Marcus had been running for years, always knowing his father would find him some day.
I opened a mental link between Henry and me, purposefully excluding Darwin. “Can you take a bullet?” I asked.
“In my jaguar form, as long as I’m not shot in the eyes.”
Still controlling the minds of the eight men, I directed my order into the one who had shot Darwin. “Take the gun out of your mouth and aim it at Simon.” He did with visible relief on his face. I addressed my next demand to the rest of the men. “Do not shoot if you might hit anyone but Simon. Only aim your weapon at Simon Sinclair and don’t shoot unless he moves his gun away from Marcus.” Their guns all inched a little higher.
If I tried to induce a vision, it would slow my reactions. I had learned to defend myself during them, but not my friends. In fact, if I did anything Sin didn’t expect, he was liable to shoot, so I had to rely on my instincts alone. Marcus wouldn’t survive a bullet to the head.
Henry has once before.
“If it’s Henry you want, why don’t you shoot him?” I asked.
“Because I plan on torturing him for a long time.”
“Then aim your gun at him so you don’t accidentally hit Marcus.”
“I’ve already sent three of my best men after you,” he said to Henry. “How are you still alive?”
“Because Devon’s best men are better than yours,” Darwin said.
I overheard several of the hit men making assumptions about me being a cop. “If you shoot Marcus on accident, you’re dead, so aim the gun away from him.”
He glared at each of his eight men and then at Darwin, me, and Henry. “Move this way,” he said to Henry. “You’re going to take Marcus’s place and I’m going to cuff you.”
Henry glanced at me to make sure this was part of my plan. I nodded and he started forward without hesitation. When he reached Sinclair, he didn’t make a move. Sin grabbed Marcus by the arm and pulled his son up to let Henry sit, but he kept Marcus in front of him like a shield. Henry put his hands behind him in the chair, completely at ease and obviously expecting to be cuffed.
Marcus took the gag out of his mouth. Sin looked at me expectantly. “What?” I asked.
“Cuffs,” he answered.
“I don’t have handcuffs. I’m not a cop, nor kinky.”
Darwin nodded. “Yeah, Devon’s not a kinky cop.” As he spoke, he pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his hoodie pocket.
“What the hell?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I’m not a cop. Here.” He tossed it across the room.
Instinctively, Sin tried to catch it and his gun hit the floor. Before the drug dealer even realized what happened, Henry’s elbow slammed into his nose. The force of the blow alone threw Sin a few feet, where he landed on his back with a painful grunt.
I expanded my magic to control Sin’s mind as well and couldn’t hold back a grimace. He was very much as evil as John had been. I was extremely glad I had learned to distance myself from the minds I controlled, because I didn’t want to see his deeds for myself. If he had any magical abilities at all, he would have followed the same path as John. Only for the fact that he was human did I let him live.
Apparently, I’m racist. “Get out of here,” I told them. He really did believe Scott was dead. Marcus and Henry joined us and Henry handed Darwin his cuffs. Three of the men who worked for Sin started dragging the bleeding man out through the back door.
I was just about to take a look at Darwin’s wound when my instincts fired up and one of Simon’s goons yelled. Because the living room was still over-crowded, I couldn’t see what the cause of the commotion was. I saw a flash of metal and formed a shield around us, but it was too little too late. I heard the shot at the same time I heard Marcus shout. He crashed into the wall behind us and slid to the ground, leaving a smear of blood on the wall.
Simon had grabbed his gun. By the time I tried to look for him, he and all of his men were gone. I knelt in front of Marcus and tore his shirt open. The bullet hadn’t hit his heart, but it was right next to it. He gasped, unable to catch his breath or speak.
“I’m calling an ambulance,” Darwin said.
“There’s no time. He’ll be dead before you hang up,” Henry argued.
I took the last healing potion I had on me out of my pocket and tried to make Marcus drink it, but he coughed, choked, and spit it up. When his eyes closed, I knew he was seconds from death. He stopped breathing. That wasn’t acceptable.
I took off the scorpion, ignored the protests of my roommates, and pressed it to Marcus’s heart. A second later, he started breathing again. I used what I had left inside me to focus all my magic on my mental abilities. I thought of Vincent’s mind from the vision I had of him. “Vincent, I need help.” I wasn’t sure if I even connected with him at all, because I suddenly felt as if I had run ten miles. My heart beat too quickly and too erratically. Without the healing scorpion, I should have had two or three minutes to live, but I had just burned that up instantly with my magic.
Da
rwin guided my hand to press the scorpion against my own chest and my heart began to settle. I was able to open my eyes, although I was still dizzy. Marcus was still gasping for breath. Only then did I see that Henry had laid him flat on the floor and had a red cloth to the wound.
Oh… the cloth isn’t red, that’s just blood.
Marcus stopped breathing, so I pressed the scorpion against his chest again. Darwin tried to argue, but I wasn’t focusing well enough to hear him. I had nothing left in my reserve after calling to my uncle. I wanted to heal Marcus like I had Astrid and Darwin. My hand slipped and I collapsed next to him. The pressure in my chest was growing by the second and I found myself coughing. I felt like I was drowning, like my lungs were filling even as the pressure made it impossible to take another breath.
The scorpion was back, the pressure released, and my mind cleared very quickly. This time, Vincent was standing over me. I looked at Marcus, who was still dying. “Save him,” I gasped, and then coughed. I realized as more gore was added to my already crimson-soaked shirt, that I was coughing up blood.
“The injuries are too extensive,” Vincent said. “His organs are destroyed.”
“Who can help him?” I asked.
He gave me a pitying look. “A necromancer.”
“Take us to Stephen.”
“You can’t make someone a vampire without their permission. That’s why the vampire society is regarded as low as they are.”
I took off the scorpion, pressed it against Marcus’s chest, and glared at the older wizard. “If he has a problem with me saving his life, he can take it up with me. Take us to Stephen. How long can this scorpion sustain two people?”
“It can’t,” he said.
“Ten minutes,” Darwin interrupted. “Assuming neither person is using magic, which you’ve already done.”
I nodded and ended up swaying awkwardly. The pain in my chest was already returning.
I spaced out for a moment until I felt hands pulling me away from Marcus. When I opened my eyes, we were in Stephen’s library, but the vampire king was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was Cody.
Cody was probably the only person who could have gotten me through the ordeal after Astrid attacked my parents and I shot her. He was infinitely patient, accepting, and open without letting me do whatever I wanted. When I vowed to protect him from Astrid, it was like life spit in my face that he was taken in a car accident because of me. He wouldn’t have been on the road if it weren’t for me. Then, nearly twenty years later, I discovered that Astrid had saved him and he never came to see me once. He never even sent me a letter to let me know he was alive.
