Second Sight: The Rune Sight Chronicles

by Boyd Craven III

  “For the record, that sucks. I don’t ever want to have to do that again.”

  “I don’t think Bossman ever intended you to be a paladin in his D&D team.”

  “Rose,” I chided her.

  “Well, boss, it’s true. She’s really the cleric who hangs back and throws heals and resurrections. Even though you can see the future, you sure get dinged up an awful lot.”

  “Yes, Rose, thank you.”

  “Oh!” Zania said and put her hand on the side of my neck, “Your hip is completely healed.”

  “Yeah, it’s sore,” I admitted.

  “You saw the van coming, yet you still got hit?” Vivian asked me.

  “I panicked,” Zania said.

  They started talking again, and JJ, Rose, and I walked to the body. I used my shoe to roll it over before looking back to see the ladies were hugging Zania one after another. As our youngest member, this was probably the first death that directly resulted from her actions. I remember my first kill, it haunts me. I hope today doesn’t stick with her.

  “Who is he?” JJ asked.

  “Let’s find out,” I said and noted he was wearing street clothes.

  “There’s an aura around something around his neck,” Rose said quietly.

  I checked, and there was an old necklace. It wasn’t silver, pewter maybe? Old iron? I unhooked it and looked into the futures on where I put it on and didn’t see any effect, so I pocketed it to check out for later, then I went through Sebastian’s pockets. I remembered the name from the mage who’d killed himself. After a few moments, I found a wallet in his back left pocket and tossed it up to JJ and finished my pat down. Other than a set of keys, which I assumed belonged to the van, he didn’t have anything else unusual on him.

  “That’s it,” I said, “let’s check the other—”

  “Got it already,” Dana said, walking up, carrying her clothes in one hand and tossing me a wallet from her other.

  Brandon. Sebastian and Brandon Sorenson.

  A siren turned off and on somewhere in the direction of the road, and all eyes turned to look.

  “Get dressed,” I told JJ and Dana.

  “What, am I embarrassing you?” Dana asked.

  “You’re distracting, yes, but I don’t want to explain why a bare-assed naked woman is standing over a corpse. If we’re gating out of here, we need to do it fast, and there might be people where we come out.”

  “Oh alright,” she said, “I was joking anyway.”

  She dressed hurriedly, and Kiersten walked over to us in front of Sebastian.

  “The other one ate a poison pill, this one would be harder to explain to the cops,” she said and put her hand on the corpse.

  Steam started to rise from it, and she stepped back and made a motion with her one hand, a gate opening up in the air in front of us. “Heading back to New York momentarily,” she said, noting my clothing with a disapproving look. “The corpse you shot will be gone before the mundane cops can find it.”

  “Oh okay,” I said, and we all followed her through the portal.

  14

  “We were just here,” Rose said in frustration for the third time.

  “I know,” I told her. “It was a fast gate out of the woods for Kiersten, and she wanted to drop the wallets off so the bureau would be able to start tracking any known associations.”

  “I know how this shizzna works,” Rose said.

  “Then you know we’ll be in Vegas next,” I told her.

  “Thomas,” Dana said, “you’re going to need some new pants.”

  I looked down at the bloody and ripped suit pants.

  The van had hit me in the hip, and part of the bumper or grill had ripped me open. My hip had been essentially broken before Zania could heal me, but now just smooth but sure flesh showed through the tears in the fabric. We’d caused a little bit of a stir coming back in disarray just hours after we’d left. I stayed in the gate room, for the most part, only leaving to find a water fountain and bathroom while Kiersten reported into Rasmussen.

  Zania wasn’t looking at me, she was quiet and silent. That bothered me, and Rose caught the direction of my gaze and flew in front of me, five inches from my nose.

  “You leave her alone right now,” she admonished.

  “I was just going to ask if she was all right,” I whispered, knowing that Zania could hear Rose as she was leaning against the wall less than five feet away.

  “I’m all right,” Zania said. “It’s just… this isn’t how I thought it would be. Lots of boring, then lots of… crazy.”

  “It’s only going to get worse,” I told her. “How were you able to see the man behind the veil?”

  She paused, and Rose gave me a disgusted look then landed on my shoulder and made a disgusted sound.

  “I used my magic,” she said, “I can see somebody’s life force. I realized someone was using those constructs like a puppet. So I followed the strings back to the puppet master. How did you see through it?” she asked me pointedly, pushing away from the wall to stand in front of me.

  JJ and Dana had been murmuring off to the side, but they went silent as they took in the angry look the younger woman was giving me.

  “I checked the futures to see who you were going after and saw the moment you were going to tag the necromancer. He dropped his veil when you did so and became visible to my future self. So I aimed my gun and put two in his heart, already knowing where he was going to be and both bullets would hit.”

  “I had him,” she said.

  “Yes, you did,” I told her softly, “but he almost had you too, and I didn’t have time to run through the possibilities that the knife he pulled out was enchanted or runed, and what it would have done to you. Could you have healed from an ever bleed curse put on an object like that? I didn’t know, so I shot him to try to prevent him from killing you.”

  “Oh, so you didn’t doubt I could get the job done?” she asked.

  “No…?” I said unsure.

  “Oh, well, I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t some of that ageism again. You know, not letting the kid operate because you’re about seventeen thousand years old or something.”

  Rose snickered.

  “No, I saw you get the job done, but I also saw some potential futures where he stabbed you too.”

  “I… where was the knife?”

  “Didn’t find it,” JJ told her. “We tossed the body. Must have dropped it when you tagged him. You know, what you did was pretty badass, kid.”

  “Yeah, it was like you poleaxed him. He was already dead, I could smell it, but you just made him drop,” Dana finished.

  Zania took a step back, and her body shuddered at the memory. She turned to them. “How do you two do it?”

  “I had to fight my entire life growing up,” Dana said. “Otherwise, I was going to be the wife of whatever alpha wanted me. As it was, I wasn’t strong enough to fight off Morrissey,” she said, looking at me.

  I avoided her gaze and looked at JJ, who was the real hero of that mess. Without him, I would have been shredded, devoured, and shat out the next day, and Cindy would probably still be captive or worse. Zania looked at me, following her gaze, then back at JJ.

  “I was born to an Alpha. My uncle killed my father before I turned eighteen, making him the new Alpha. The moment I turned eighteen, my uncle turned me out of the pack, declaring me rogue, but I was the born blood son of an Alpha and was always going to be a threat. I already knew how to hunt, so I could survive the challenges that young pups would have thrown at me later on in life, and being hunted by everyone made me either have to learn fast, or die faster.”

  “What about you?” Zania asked Vivian.

  “I try never to kill,” she said. “I’m not sure I ever have directly. Not a mage or human at least,” she admitted. “Though I’ve tried.”

  This was all kinds of uncomfortable.

  “Like the two or three times she tried to put a cap in Thomas’s ass?” Rose piped up just as I
thought I was going to avoid the mess.

  “Which is why she now works for Thomas, instead of facing a death penalty,” Zania told the faerie.

  “If you’re so smart, why are you asking?” Rose shot back.

  “I like it when she’s not snarking on me,” Vivian said with a wan smile.

  “You want my snark?” Rose said, turning to Vivian. “I could pix your—”

  “Come on,” I told everyone, holding my hands up. “Not now. We’re going to be leaving for Vegas soon, hopefully, to get actionable intelligence and then come up with a plan to capture Vassago.”

  “Okay then, what about you? What was your first time like?” Zania asked me. “I mean, you’re kind of a big deal from what Kiersten told me.”

  Rose snickered.

  “I know he’s all hands and so old school he doesn’t realize he’s oinking like the chauvinist he is,” Zania said to Rose, who erupted in gales of high pitched laughter. “But they really think he can make a difference.”

  “I’m glad everybody has confidence in me,” I said, thinking of Yolanda and Carl, “but last month, I was just playing cards and enjoying the desert air. I’m not anybody special.”

  “There you go. Your privilege is back in its place,” Zania said, and this time JJ and Dana snorted as I opened my mouth to ask what she meant.

  It didn’t matter because I knew in ten seconds, Kiersten was going to be walking back in the door. I undid my belt and dropped my pants and started emptying my pockets as Zania’s mouth dropped open in shock.

  “Here you go. Proving my point, I didn’t want to see…” Her words trailed off as Kiersten walked back in, a pair of jeans she’d gotten from a college in her outstretched hand.

  She saw me ready looked away as Dana grinned at her.

  “Saves time,” I told Zania and put the offered jeans on in a hurry.

  They fit a little large, but by the time I’d transferred my holsters, my belt, the athame and the Gerber over it wasn’t bad. I just had to cinch them up a little bit and I rolled my pants up.

  “Thanks,” I told Kiersten.

  “Tighty whities? Dude, you’re never going to get past second base in tighty whities. No wonder you’re still single at almost ninety.”

  “Hey!” I objected, and Zania smiled for real.

  Modesty was all good, but I had been feeling the draught through my torn pants for a while, and I’d figured that I could save some time and break the mood up a bit. Dana caught my eye and dropped me a knowing wink.

  “Las Vegas?” Kiersten asked me.

  “Yes. I have a gate stone or—”

  “I’ve been there a time or three,” Kiersten said, and we stepped away from the back wall as she made a gesture and a gate shimmered into existence.

  “Where does it lead to?” I asked her.

  She made a shooing gesture, and instead of stopping to question her more, I went through. The change in the air was immediate, and it felt great after the humidity I’d been subjected to in Massachusetts and New York. We stepped out into a park area, from what I could tell. It was dusk, and I had to remember we’d just crossed three time zones with one spell. It would be full dark here in Nevada soon like it was in New York City, but we still had some time.

  “I’ve never been to Vegas,” I heard Dana whisper behind me as she and JJ stepped through.

  “Want to get married?” JJ asked, and I heard a smack.

  I turned around and saw Vivian grinning and Kiersten rubbing her hand. JJ was rubbing the back of his head, but he was smiling.

  “I do,” Dana whispered back, “but not right now.”

  “I think I might puke,” Vivian said, making a gagging face before smiling.

  Maybe she did just have a basic crush on JJ. She seemed to have gotten over it quickly.

  “I think I might puke too,” Rose whispered to me.

  “Don’t you dare short stuff. I need you in top shape for what we’re doing next,” I told her.

  “What’s your plan?” Kiersten asked.

  “We find the building the apartment is in. I send in short stuff while I scan the futures. You guys… I am going to try to go in deep in my sight. Zania said when I go in that deep I stop moving. I need somebody to watch my back if we can’t find a place for me to sit down and concentrate.”

  “We can do that,” Dana told me.

  “Where are we?” I asked Kiersten.

  “We came out in a park, across from Hollywood Boulevard,” she said with a smile.

  “Nice. So we just have to walk the strip!” Rose squeaked.

  “You don’t walk anywhere,” I told her.

  “You got that right, now mush!” she said, pointing the way with her wand.

  Finding the apartment was as difficult as crossing the street and walking two blocks. The address was in Hollywood, but the building itself seemed to sit back off the street a ways. It looked like an older apartment building. From what I could tell, it had maybe six to eight apartments per floor. The next part was both easy and hard: find a spot where a big group of us could sit down while Rose did her thing.

  “One problem boss, if he flips over to his life sight, he’ll see me the same way Zania found that necromancer.”

  “Yes, but you can poof in and out. Just try to mask the popping sound when you end up inside his apartment.”

  “So basically verify if he is or isn’t there, and then report back?” Rose asked.

  “Yes, and if he isn’t there, check things out, see if he left any clues.”

  “If he didn’t just pull a fake address off the internet for his fake ID,” Zania said.

  “You never look on the bright side of life,” Kiersten told her.

  “Just give a little whistle,” Rose said in her high sing-song type voice and then started humming the Monty Python song.

  I had to grin as Zania looked at us in confusion. Kiersten nodded in understanding.

  “You guys are so weird,” Zania said after a moment.

  “You’re just so—”

  “Rose, you can trade insults later,” I told her. “We’re going to be in the café across the street.

  “Oh good, I’m hungry,” JJ said, rubbing his stomach.

  Dana and Vivian groaned at once, and Rose flew off my shoulder, gave me a mock salute and then disappeared.

  “We really going to get food?” Zania asked.

  “Sure,” I told her, “and pray Vassago isn’t doing the same thing,” I added under my breath.

  JJ and Dana got their own table. They had to; they ordered a triple of everything. A Were’s metabolism ran hot and fast, but after giving JJ grief, Dana decided she was hungry also. I couldn’t blame them, but I ordered dinner though, whereas they ordered breakfast. Zania ordered a salad, making sure everything was vegan-friendly. Kiersten and Vivian shared a large order of chicken nachos and were talking softly, seemingly to catch up on family stuff. I picked at my fries, already having eaten my burger, and started scanning the futures.

  I walked across the street and up the stairs. Finding his door, I kicked it in and found a surprised Rose, and an alarm went off.

  Try again.

  I walked across the street and up the stairs. I knocked at the door, and Rose poofed out, looking at me cross-eyed. She saw me from the peephole and let me know the apartment was empty of people, but she found some mail that belonged to Tim Curry. The bathroom looked like a dude lived there, but there was hair dye and weird makeup. I told her it sounded like a way to change his look. She thought there were some hair clippings in the sink and trash. Then I asked her to look around some more while I waited. She left and when she came back—

  “You’re getting better,” Zania said, her hand across my wrist. “Just making sure you weren’t gone too long, too fast.”

  “For a kid who thought I was a little too handsy, you sure like to put yours on me,” I said, and mentally high fived myself as she blushed.

  Her eyes narrowed as she squinted at me. “You have scooped me u
p twice now like I was a kid.”

  “Sounds like she has daddy issues,” Dana said from her booth to our left.

  If looks could kill, Dana would have been done away with like Rasputin. JJ wisely stayed silent, sipping noisily on a coke.

  “She might be right,” she said, turning back to me.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hit a sore subject.”

  “No, it’s just… I’m never the one who needs saving. I’m always staying back, being safe. When that van was coming, all I kept seeing was me getting splattered, and I froze up. Then in the woods afterward… You scooped me up and… I don’t like that.”

  “I’ll remember not to do that,” I told her, feeling bad.

  “No, not that. I mean, I don’t like my own reactions to what’s going on. I like to think of myself like some kind of big badass, but I’m not,” she said, throwing her fork into her salad bowl with a clatter.

  “Can I tell you a secret?” I asked her.

  “Sure,” she said, and Vivian and Kiersten went silent, looking at us sideways.

  “I’m not one either. How many times now have you healed me when I got hurt badly?”

  “Two…? What’s your point?”

  “You’re not alone. Everyone goes through this, some of us still do. I wouldn’t have thrown myself in front of that van if I wasn’t 100% sure that you could’ve healed me. I knew you could. You brought me back from getting swamped from a death curse and then using up most of my mojo.”

  “Here we go again,” Vivian said. “Don’t let Rose hear about his mojo.”

  Zania picked up her fork and stabbed her salad like it was to blame for the awkwardness.

  “If none of this bugged you, then I would be scared,” Kiersten told her.

  “Really? So this is kind of normal?” she asked her.

  “Yes, so quit being such a whiney ass and eat your salad. God, girl, I swear, watching you eat that makes me want to feed you double fistfuls of bacon,” Vivian told her.

  I didn’t want to be the one to say it, nor in a way like that… but the ladies could get away with stuff that the guys couldn’t. This was one of those times I guess. I looked over at JJ who had a mouthful, and he shot me two thumbs up and leaned forward so Dana could whisper something to him.