by Trudi Jaye
“I can almost see your brain ticking over. You’re going so slowly I can watch every little thought.”
Henry shrugged. “You got me. I’ll never be able to beat you.”
Fee’s father tipped his head to one side. “You’re not terribly worried by your oncoming demise. Why is that I wonder?”
Henry moved to one side, away from Fee. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. When Fee’s father took a step toward him, he crowed on the inside.
“I don’t like it when my targets are too confident. It means they’re planning something they think will work.” He took another step and another toward Henry.
Henry sidestepped away, and across to the other side of the room, as if he was trying to evade capture by Fee’s father. The older man followed him, more out of curiosity than any real fear of losing his prey.
They were closer now to where the explosion was hidden. Just a few more steps and Henry would have the other man over the source, and be able to press the button.
“Hey! You in there! Lower your weapons and come out with your hands up!” The voice was coming from outside their building, but it was clearly meant for them. Henry looked to the window, and saw the face of Special Agent Franklin glaring at them.
“Duck!” he yelled to Fee, and leaping to one side, he pressed the button. Nothing happened for a moment, so Henry wondered if he was going to have to try to explain his strange behaviour to the agents outside the room.
A gunshot filled the space and he heard Fee scream. Then the world disintegrated around them, and he forgot about anything other than trying not to die.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Fee couldn’t see anything except the dust floating down from the skies. She wondered idly if the light hitting the dust motes meant to make a rainbow of colors. Or perhaps it was just nature’s way of providing a floorshow for her while she died.
The pain in her chest was almost too much to bear. She wished there was some way she could force herself into unconsciousness. Surely, that would be better than this excruciating madness rolling its way through her body?
She could hear someone else groaning, and tried to raise her head. Was it Henry? Or her father?
Her father had managed to get a shot off, which hit her just as the explosion was going off. If she’d understood the conversation earlier, that meant he’d managed to get extra magic that might have helped him survive the blast.
Henry, on the other hand, didn’t have any extra help. He had almost been as much in the firing line for that explosion as her father. The agents outside had forced their hand.
A hand on her shoulder made her jump. She looked up and saw Henry, and tears she didn’t know she had in her, started to fall down her cheeks. “You’re okay,” she whispered.
“It takes more than that to kill me,” he whispered back. He glanced down at her chest, and his face darkened. “We have to get you out of here.”
Fee shook her head. “I don’t think we can. I can’t move.”
Henry glanced behind him to where a door was slowly shifting open. “Then we have to take our chances with the FBI,” he said.
Fee shook her head. “No. You go hide.”
“No. I stay with you.”
“They won’t let us stay together,” said Fee. “You escaped police custody. They won’t take that lightly.”
“I’m not leaving you.” Fee felt his words right at the center of her chest, and she clutched his hand. “I love you,” she whispered. The room faded out, and then back in again.
The door opened and three fully armed and vested up FBI agents entered the room slowly. Henry raised his hands. “She’s been shot by that man over there. You need to help her.”
The first man came straight over to Henry and had him down on the ground with his hands behind his back before he could say anything more. The second man went over to Fee, and the last to Fee’s father.
“This one’s alive,” said the man next to Fee’s father.
“This one too,” said the man next to Fee.
“Call for a medic,” said one of the men to a fourth man at the doorway.
***
Henry relaxed into the grip of the agent on top of him. They would take care of Fee. He wished her father was dead, but perhaps that was asking too much, given how much of their plan had gone completely wrong.
The policeman pulled Henry to his feet, and put handcuffs on his wrists, which were behind his back.
He half-dragged Henry out the door. Henry took one last look back at Fee, who was watching him leave with large eyes. “It’ll be fine, Fee. Don’t worry,” he managed to say before he was dragged outside into the bright sunshine. Henry scrunched up his face.
“Did you really think you could get away?” asked Franklin, coming to stand in front of him.
Henry shrugged. “It was worth a shot. Nothing like being accused of something you didn’t do to give you enthusiasm for your escape.”
Franklin glanced at the agent holding Henry’s arm. “You are excused agent. Go back in and help with the removal of the injured parties.”
Henry glanced back at the man still holding his arm “Take care of the woman. Her name is Fee, and she’s innocent of all of this. That man, the one who’s still alive, he’s the one who shot her.”
The man didn’t reply to Henry, just saluted Franklin, and headed back inside.
“Now, you can damn well tell me where my badge and gun are,” said Franklin fiercely.
Henry grinned. “Your badge is in my back pocket.” He lifted his arms and turned his hips to give the special agent easier access. “The gun is hidden back there, in our bags in the storage room. It might be a little destroyed now.”
Franklin glanced over his shoulder at the chaos behind them. “How the hell am I going to explain that?” he said.
“Don’t explain it too much, that’s the key to something like this. Just say it was destroyed.”
“I don’t need your help to fudge the damn details,” said Franklin fiercely.
“You need to take care of Fee,” said Henry urgently. “She’s got nothing to do with any of this. But that man back there, he’s dangerous. You’ll find the gun he’s holding is the one that shot the dead man in the room, and he’s an associate of the other man in the first explosion.”
“Who we’ve identified as David Gardner, one of your friend’s colleagues.”
“And the real person behind the explosion in Tampa.”
“That is yet to be determined. Don’t think any of this will get you off the charges of assaulting an FBI agent and theft.”
“Are you really going to report that you had your badge and gun stolen...twice?” asked Henry.
“You tell me how you did it, and how you escaped at the hospital, and I might consider holding off on those charges.”
“I’ll tell you anything you want to know, as long as you take care of Fee. And keep her out of the same damn ambulance as that animal in there.”
“Deal.”
Medical personnel ran past them in that moment, and raced into the old building. Moments later, Fee’s father was being carried out on a stretcher.
“How is he?” asked Franklin.
“He’s touch and go, sir.”
“Keep him under armed guard. He’s a suspect.”
“Yes, sir.”
Two more paramedics came out, this time carrying Fee between them on a stretcher. She had bandages and a compress on her shoulder, and she was horribly pale. She smiled wanly up at Henry when she saw him.
Henry made a move to go to her, but Franklin held him steady. “Say what you have to say from here.”
“Fee, it’s going to be fine,” he said softly. He glanced up at the grim faces of the medics. He didn’t ask what the men thought of her chances, he could see it in their faces. The medics kept going.
Franklin grabbed Henry’s arm, and led him along after Fee’s stretcher.
A thought popped into Henry’s head. If he
could only touch Fee, he might be able to use their electricity to give her enough magic to help. It was worth a try. “I need to hold her hand. Just for a minute,” he said to Franklin.
“You need to tell me what I want to know first, before you’re going to be allowed to do anything.”
“I promise I’ll tell you anything you need to know. Just let me go to her now.”
“She’ll be fine for a minute or two. The medics need to do their thing first.”
Henry looked desperately between Fee’s retreating body and Franklin’s determined face. “Okay. I’ll tell you how I did it.” He glanced down at his pocket. “Using him.” The little creature hiding in his shirt pocket obediently popped its head up and chittered at Franklin.
Franklin jumped back in fright. “What the hell is that?”
“It’s a little critter Fee made. It’s what she does. Why the Witch Hunters are after her. He’s a bit of a kleptomaniac, so he got into the habit of stealing things from people in the hospital. He also warned me when the Witch Hunters came to the hospital, and helped me get out via the ducting system.”
Franklin shook his head. “There’s no way you could have gotten up to that vent. We made sure to put you in a high-ceilinged room.”
Henry grinned. “There’s no way a normal person would have been able to do it. But I was raised in a carnival, and doing tricks like pulling myself up through a vent is nothing to someone like me.” He shrugged.
Franklin walked along beside Henry for a moment, absorbing the information. “That’s all it was? A funny little robot and your carnival upbringing?”
“Sorry if you thought it might be something different.” Henry frowned. “What did you think I was going to say?”
Franklin shrugged. “There have been some funny goings-on recently. You never know what people are going to say.”
“What? Did you think I was going to tell you it was magic or something?”
Franklin glanced sharply at Henry. “Or something,” he said.
***
Fee lay on the stretcher, trying to remember what was happening. Why there was pain radiating out from her chest. Why these people were carrying her with fast jolting steps that hurt her whole body.
She didn’t understand any of it.
Something chittered close to her ear, and she smiled. They were with her, and that was all that mattered. She wondered where Max was. He must be tidying up in the other room or something.
Was there another room here? Wherever here was.
She closed her eyes again and a face popped into her head: blond hair, an infectious grin, and eyes that marked him for what he was: a golden god. She sighed. It was good to know a golden god just once in your life.
There was some shouting, and then she was laid on the ground. She moaned as pain spiralled out through her body.
“We should get her into the ambulance with the other two,” a voice said.
“No. One of them is the man who shot her. We have orders to keep them separate.”
“I don’t know how long she has,” warned the other voice.
“The other ambulance is on its way. It’ll be here soon.”
Fee felt strange, like she was floating away from her body, and she tried to call out. Her body arched, and her eyes rolled back into her head, but she saw it from above, like it was a movie of her death.
“Sir! She’s going into shock,” said one of the paramedics, as he pushed aside Henry and the agent standing next to him.
“We’re going to lose her!”
Fee watched as her body gasped for breath, and the medic worked on her. It was warm where she was, comforting. She was calm, and unafraid. Then she looked at Henry. He had fallen to his knees, on the ground, screaming her name, telling her to come back. She frowned. Where was she going?
Henry touched her hand, and the blue electricity shot between them and up to where she hovered above her body. She shuddered with the feel of it.
She looked down and saw a cloud-like blue chord connected to her body. She pulled on it experimentally. It zinged down her arm like the electricity she’d become so used to when she touched Henry. But it also dragged her closer to her body. She pulled again, and she was a little closer still.
Below her, the people rushed around like ants. The ambulance pulled away, taking her father and David to the hospital. She wondered if her father was sitting outside his body like this.
Pulling again, Fee gathered this second version of herself closer to her body. The paramedic was frantically working over her, trying to save her battered shell. Blood was everywhere.
Fee glanced at Henry. He was staring directly at her. Not at her body, but at the version of herself that was floating over her body. Like he could see her.
His golden eyes were all she could see; there was nothing else. She lifted one hand, and reached out to him. He reached out his hand in response, and they touched. Suddenly the blue lightning flickered between them, up and down her arm, and along his.
With a devastatingly painful thump, Fee returned to her body, and the pain that filled every last crevice. She screamed.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Henry scrambled over to Fee. Her mouth was wide open in a scream that sent shudders through his entire body. He grabbed her hand, and held on for dear life when the medic tried to push him away.
“It’s going to be okay, Fee,” he said. “It’s going to be okay.” He tried to push magic, healing, whatever he could through whatever the hell kind of link they had. The damn blue lightning had better make itself useful now, when it was really needed.
He knew what he’d seen. She’d been leaving her body. She’d been dying.
He felt the electricity in his body and knew she felt it too. He had to believe it would be enough to keep them both together, to help her body heal itself.
Then he felt a stronger force, a heavy warmth that he recognized, flowing through him and into Fee. He looked around, trying to see if Rilla was there. For the first time, he was relieved that she’d ignored him when he said he could handle things by himself.
He didn’t know if the Carnival could heal an outsider through him but whatever was happening, he was grateful. He felt tears coursing down his cheeks and didn’t care. All that mattered was that Fee was alive and had a fighting chance of survival.
“Sir, I need you to step back. I can’t work on her properly with you there.”
“I’m not letting go of her hand,” replied Henry. “So you’ll just have to do what you can with me here.” He glared at the medic, and something in his eyes must have convinced the man, because he got back to work without another word, moving around to the other side of Fee to continue working on her.
He didn’t know how long they sat there, but police cars started leaving, and another ambulance arrived, sirens blazing. The medic talked to the driver, keeping a wary eye on Henry.
“You can’t go in the ambulance with her, you know,” said Franklin softly to one side of Henry.
Henry glanced up at him. “Why not? You could come too. To make sure I don’t do anything silly.”
“It’s against regulations,” replied Franklin.
Henry snorted. “I get the feeling you’re the kind of man who isn’t too systematic about following regulations.”
Franklin’s eyebrows shot down, and Henry thought for a moment that the agent was going to deny it. Then he sighed. “Okay, fine. What if I let you go in the ambulance with her? What happens then?”
Henry shrugged. “I just want to make sure she’s okay. You can arrest me at the hospital. Take me to your cells. Interrogate me.”
“I just want to understand what happened here today. That’s all you have to tell me.”
Henry glanced at Fee. “She’s someone special. Those two you’ve got in the other ambulance tried to kill her. Once in Tampa and once here. That’s all there is to this story. Fee and I are innocent of anything except trying to save ourselves. You have to believe me.” Henry knew he did
n’t exactly look believable. He was covered in dirt, blood, and tears. He probably looked like a damn monster.
But Franklin saw something that made him pause. Then nod. “Okay, you can go with her in the ambulance. But I’m coming with you, and you’re giving me more information.”
Henry nodded. Franklin wasn’t so bad. He’d take that deal any day.
Their original paramedic came back with the driver. “Excuse me, sir, but we need to put her in the ambulance now. You’ll have to let go of her hand.” The driver’s voice was familiar, and Henry flicked his gaze upward... into the face of his brother Jason. He tried not to react, but it was the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life.
“Uh...sure.” He was so surprised he stepped back without thinking. His connection to Fee grew dim. He glanced at the other medic and saw the man watching him with a stunned expression on his face. Glaring, he reached over and grabbed Fee’s hand again. “Actually, I’m going to hold her hand while you load her in.”
Jason and the other medic glanced at each other and shrugged, loading Fee into the back of the ambulance slowly so Henry could climb inside next to her. Franklin followed close behind. Henry looked around the inside of the ambulance, trying to understand what was happening. How had Jason inserted himself onto the medical team?
Henry was so dazed that he almost didn’t notice the small tightening of Fee’s hand in his. He looked down and gazed into her green eyes. “Oh, thank the gods,” he whispered. “You’re here.” He leaned down and kissed her cheek.
She smiled weakly. “Of course, I’m here. Where did you think I was going to go?”
The ambulance took off, and Henry and Franklin had to grab at whatever was closest to keep from falling down.
“Not the smoothest ride in town, eh?” said Henry.
“So tell me why Fee is so special that they’d want to kill her,” said Franklin.
“They belong to a crazy cult,” said Henry carefully. “They believe some strange things about the world and they think Fee is a bad person. So they tried to kill her.”
