by Jayne Faith
When I reached the mob, I grabbed the shoulder of the nearest kid, pulling him back and breaking the circle. The boys finally looked up.
I pulled out my gun and waved it around for effect. “Go pick on someone your own size, you little apes.” I drew myself up to my full five-foot-ten-plus-boot-heel and glowered down at them.
The big boy, the tallest by a few inches, shoved his hand across his snub nose and gave me a derisive once-over. He glanced at my weapon but didn’t even blink. “We don’t have to do what you say.”
Strong currents of green earth magic swirled around his hands as he curled them into fists. The kid had a decent level of magical aptitude, but he appeared to enjoy using it for the purposes of bullying and intimidation. Great. In a depressing flash, I could practically see his future—Supernatural Crimes would eventually haul him in for gross misuse of magic, or maybe something worse, and he’d either spend time in prison or get stripped of his ability. Maybe both. One side of his upper lip lifted in a sneer that was so exaggerated I might have laughed if I wasn’t so ticked off. I stared at him for a split second, surprised by how brazenly he stood his ground. Then I reached to my belt and pulled off my badge. A faint tingle of magic stirred against my palm as I tilted the charmed object so my credentials illuminated on the sidewalk:
Demon Patrol Officer
City of Boise, Idaho
Gabriella Grey
Badge #889475
One of his little henchmen sucked in a breath. “Oh shit, she’s a cop.”
Snub Nose snorted out a scoff. “Ooo, Gabriella Grey, demon police,” he mocked in a falsetto, further raising my ire. He turned to the other kid. “She ain’t real police. We ain’t breaking the law anyway, don’t be such a puss.”
I pulled out my phone. “You’re out after curfew, and that’s automatic jail time. I’m going to need the names and numbers of your parents. I’ll let them know where they can visit you in prison.” There was a curfew law, but the other part was my own little enhancement for the purposes of getting them to scatter.
One kid shuffled back a few steps and then turned and hightailed it down the sidewalk, his arms pumping hard. Others followed. After a few seconds only Snub Nose, his victim, and I were left.
He lunged at me, and I automatically jumped back, but not far enough to elude the wad of spit he hocked. It landed with a splat on the toe of my right boot.
“Little twerp,” I muttered, trying to shake the saliva off my shoe. Instead of flying off as I’d hoped, it just dribbled off the side.
With a final sneer, the ringleader jogged backward a few steps and then chased after his crew. I watched him go and allowed myself a moment of satisfaction. As I followed his progress, I caught sight of the Nature’s Light sign, illuminated by tubes of blue neon, half a block away and across the street. A card in the glass door displayed the word OPEN.
I faced the girl, leaning in with concern. “You okay?” I asked, clipping my badge back on my belt. “You shouldn’t be out alone at night.”
She was dressed in a too-big pullover sweatshirt and the hood had fallen back, exposing wispy pale blond hair escaping from the sides of her sagging ponytail. Shaking her head once, she stepped forward, and it didn’t take an empath to feel the desperation that seemed to shroud her. It gathered like two rain puddles in her soulful eyes. She took another hesitant step and then reached out as if to grasp my forearm but stopped short of touching me.
“My brother,” she said, her voice already watery as tears began to pool in her eyes, causing my chest to catch in reaction. “He’s in trouble, and I don’t know what to do. That’s why I came out here. Please, Officer Grey, you have to help me.”
I glanced down the block just in time to see the blue neon Nature’s Light sign extinguish. There was movement at the door, and a hand reached out and flipped the OPEN sign over.
Sorry! We’re CLOSED
A colorful string of curses streamed through my mind. For a second I thought about making a run for it, banging on the door before the proprietor left and offering to pay extra for an after-hours aura cleansing. Then I looked back at the girl and my heart clenched. If she’d said anything else, I probably could have resisted, told her I’d help after I’d finished my own errand. But the despair in the way she’d said “my brother” was piercingly familiar and impossible for me to brush off.
Resigned, I felt my shoulders drop. So much for my hopes of getting back to normal before I had to return to work. My aura would have to remain unclean for at least another day.
I gave her a small smile of encouragement. “Where’s your brother?”
“Upstairs.” She pointed to a metal staircase in the alley.
I nodded at her to go ahead and stifled a sigh. I’d missed my chance, and I’d just have to hope the other allowed me a decent night’s sleep. I didn’t relish the thought of finally returning to work only to drag my exhausted ass through the day.
As I went after her, I glanced back in time to see the big dog poke his head around the corner of the building to watch us. But in the next blink, he was gone.
The throbbing in my forehead intensified. It was like a finger tapping against my frontal lobe, a bass drum rhythm that never quite synced up with my own pulse, another new sensation since my accident, and it swelled and receded like a tide throughout the day. Wincing, I pushed the heel of one hand against the side of my head.
“Nathan’s out on our balcony,” the girl said. She was holding the exterior door open, waiting for me. She beckoned with an urgent movement of her fingers. “Please, hurry.”
Don’t miss the Ella Grey Series, the urban fantasy story set in the Earthly realm that brings us to the Cataclysm and begins a new era of magic!
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