The Flame Game

by R. J. Blain

  “I took the liberty of teaching Sunny how to detect the rabies infection by scent. She will sit and bark twice if she detects the scent. Should she detect gorgon dust or bile, she will sit and bark three times.” My father handed me the leashes, claiming two of the cindercorn stuffed animals from the SUV and tucking them under his arm. “I will return shortly.”

  He disappeared.

  “Do you think my tendency to be excessive comes from my father?” I asked.

  “There is no thinking involved on this one, my beautiful. I know it comes from your father. Your mother is the one who blurts embarrassing things, too. It seems you somehow managed to inherit many of their mannerisms.”

  “Parasite!” I sang out, and I rewarded my puppies with kisses on their noses.

  “Symbiont.”

  “I’m definitely a parasite. I’m the best parasite. I managed to steal from the good parents, too.”

  “Symbiont.”

  We argued over which type of thieving organism I was until my father returned. Ra listened to our debate, which mostly consisted of reciting our opinion at each other while our pets watched in bemusement.

  “You are both parasite and symbiont,” my father announced, gathering up the bags of goodies we’d purchased at the gift shop and filling his arms before he disappeared again. It took him three trips to gather everything we didn’t need so the puppies and kitten could fit in the SUV with their supplies. “You have made a good choice leaving your children in the care of a strong hive. They will be safest there. Should you contract rabies—”

  I stared into my father’s bright eyes. “You mean when, right?”

  He sighed. “When,” he agreed. “When you ultimately manage to contract rabies again, seek out alternative treatment methods. You do not wish to switch off your children’s immune systems so early in their development. Make use of that archangel or his brother. Both can handle that situation without testing them so early in their lives. I recommend the highest grades of transformatives for your general transformations, as that will ease the way for your children and adapt them to shapeshifting while in the womb. By the time their nervous system develops, the process will no longer be painful for them, should you indulge several times a week for the next few weeks.”

  Score. “We’re going to need to hit up the CDC for more pills, Quinn. I’m out of the good ones.”

  “Okay. Anything else we should know about her diet moving forward? How about my snakes?”

  “A wise man does not interfere with a pregnant woman’s desire for conquest. This is an ancient truth. Their venom will not hurt your children, and it will help them develop their immune systems. Variety, however, is encouraged. As my daughter enjoys checking on gorgon snakes, issue invitations for gorgon children to visit. This way, your children can socialize while my daughter is bitten by the various serpents of the visiting hive. That will satisfy those requirements. I have already handled speaking to the CDC regarding the appropriate napalm to be dispensed to her. Do not be alarmed when she seeks out snowbanks to nap in.”

  “Me? Snowbanks?” I blurted.

  “You will find pregnancy is full of adventures. You have already seen evidence of this. Were you not outside with little issue?”

  “This early?” I poked my flat stomach. “You two are trouble.”

  My husband laughed. “As long as I don’t lose my ability to coddle my wife, I don’t mind adventures.”

  My father chuckled. “I will leave you to your work. Try not to create more trouble than you can handle.” Without another word, he vanished.

  “I like that he didn’t even bother telling us not to create trouble, he just asked that we keep the trouble manageable.” I herded the dogs into the back, and Avalanche climbed over the center console to join her canine friends, snuggling against Blizzard’s side. The husky went to work grooming her, and I took pictures of them before they could grow up on me. “Where do you think we should start?”

  “With some harebrained speculations and making use of some contacts. I’ll make some phone calls. Listen and take notes on your laptop. You’re about to get your first real introduction to gorgon subterfuge.”

  “Gorgon subterfuge?”

  “Yep. With the gorgons being targeted for eradication through rabies, they’re not going to sit still and let it happen. Now that the gorgons are aware it’s malicious rather than natural, they will defend themselves. I’m going to attempt to manipulate how they defend themselves to benefit our investigation.”

  My eyes widened. “Is this what you do at work all the time? You manipulate people?”

  “Sometimes. Other times, I have to figure out what the greatest evil is and deal with it. For example, there are multiple mafia groups operating in New York. Some have been heavily invested in sex trafficking and enslavement. Another group is more involved with your more stereotypical local crimes and crime organizations. Which group do I dedicate the most resources on?”

  “I’d hope the sex trafficking and enslavement group.”

  “Yes. That is one of the simpler decisions to make. Things get complicated, especially with highly established crime operations. Not long ago, we made use of tip-offs from a crime network in a different city to bring down a large portion of one of those rings. That’s definitely a shade of gray in terms of the law, but it essentially meant I could let one fish go to catch more dangerous fish and get those off the streets.”

  I blinked. “Are you saying you cooperate with big-time criminals, Sam?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Every time we take out a ring, a new ring will start operations, and we always have to consider who will do the most evil. While we’d like to catch them all, we simply can’t. And some of the criminals I’ve worked with are fairly ethical.”

  “How can a criminal be fairly ethical?”

  “They pick their targets with care, do not threaten the average civilian, and keep to the spirit of certain laws. There’s a good example of this in a gang in Miami. They essentially target some of the more hardened criminals the cops down there can’t get off the streets. The gang’s actions fit the crimes, so the cops don’t tend to work too hard at taking out the gang. You don’t want to be a serial killer in Miami right now. The gang takes a brutal stance against mass murdering scumbags there. When caught, they turn up. In pieces.”

  Ew. “But they don’t get a trial.”

  “That’s part of why the gang has been left alone. I figure they’re former law-enforcement, pushed out or retired from old age. They’re taking all of the general steps to prove guilt. There’s no trial, but they’re not just slaughtering people. Some of them are registered bounty hunters and mercenaries, too, so if there is a hit out for one of these criminals, the gang will get involved, gather the evidence, and collect the bounty, which funds their activities legally.”

  I got into the SUV, dug out Avalanche’s bottle, and twisted in my seat to give her a drink while Quinn set up her litter box on the floorboard. The ocelot abandoned Blizzard long enough to eat before returning to her furry throne. “I’m sorry I stole your kitten.”

  “I’m not. I view her as a sufficient reward for you. You’ve earned her after having climbed into how many dumpsters rescuing sick animals?”

  “A few too many,” I admitted. “And there will be more. There are dumpsters I have not yet sufficiently explored in my quest to save every helpless animal on Earth.”

  “You can’t keep them all.”

  “I would have to take over the Earth to keep them all.” I considered the probability of successfully taking over the planet. “That seems like a lot of work. I’ll practice with my new job and reevaluate my stance on world domination later.”

  My husband stared at me with wide eyes, his mouth hanging open.

  “Taking over the planet while pregnant might be stressful on the babies, so I have to wait until after they’re born at the absolute earliest. Don’t worry so much, Quinn.”

  “Well, I wasn’t worried b
efore, but now I am.”

  I giggled, wiped out the interior of the bottle, and used the erasable marker to jot a note reminding me to clean it properly before using it again. “You’re so easy.”

  “I don’t know who taught you to be so wicked lately, but keep doing it.”

  “You know, that’s a really good question. My husband, who keeps encouraging me to be more vocal and not worry about when I do stupid shit, couldn’t possibly have something to do with it. My husband, who rewards such behavior using his sinful body, couldn’t possibly hold any responsibility at all.”

  “I have done a pretty good job if I do say so myself. You should reward me for a change.”

  “You are so full of it, Mr. Samuel Quinn.”

  After booking a hotel for us in Maine, one that could accommodate our eclectic collection of pets in exchange for offering the other guests a chance to meet and greet with them, Quinn took over our investigation. He began his share of the work after connecting the SUV to his phone so he could call using the vehicle. “Call Thomas of the Orlando hive,” he ordered.

  The phone began to ring, and the sound came out of the vehicle’s sound system.

  “Thomas,” a man with a nasally voice answered.

  “It’s Samuel. My bride is listening in. We have some questions for you.”

  “Good morning. Congratulations on your promotion, Chief Quinn.”

  “Thank you,” I replied.

  “How can I serve?” Thomas asked.

  “We’re technically on vacation, but we’re trying to look into the rabies outbreak and the latest incident of gorgon dust production. You tend to be well-connected, so I wanted you to find out if you could approach the hives about a missing woman.”

  “A woman?”

  “A woman. We have reason to believe that former Chief Morrison, who served in the Hamptons as part of the NYPD, may be involved with the rabies outbreak at a minimum. As I’m of the opinion the dust production and rabies outbreaks are connected, I need to find out more about who he has been working with and why. He has a son—”

  “Michella Hautlin’s boy. Human hatched. She was infected with gorgon dust at the start of her pregnancy, and she fled with her egg to Chicago, where she was taken in by a vampire hive. She’s still in Chicago with her vampires. She’s a propagator, so she can’t mingle with humans. Vampires are immune to infection, as are the older incubus and succubus that work with them, so she’s cloistered with them. From my understanding of the situation, an incubus recovered her egg and helped her care for him until he hatched, but he hatched human rather than gorgon. She has several children now with incubi and succubi in Chicago, although she doesn’t have a gorgon male. We have been building a case to assist in your efforts, especially when word spread this Morrison, the father of the boy, might target your bride. Morrison has several daughters through other women, most of whom disappeared under similar circumstances. I suspect they are statues somewhere, but this is only speculation.”

  “Jesus,” my husband whispered. “Does the boy have a gorgon mother?”

  “We don’t believe so. We are of the opinion she was infected with gorgon dust after the boy’s conception, and the potency of the dust was such it partially converted her boy into a gorgon, in that he was hatched. He is not contagious, and if he can embrace his other nature, we haven’t heard of it happening. I suppose he may be a hybrid.”

  “Alexander,” I said, determined to humanize him despite my awareness he could be his father’s ally. “He was at our wedding. Well, at the demonstration. I thought I recognized him.”

  “He looks similar to his father, an unfortunate enough thing for him. You likely spotted the resemblance. The boy often shows up where there are gorgons in public. It is our nature—possibly his. He would be drawn to a family unit because gorgons are not solitary creatures, and Morrison is not precisely a nurturing individual.” Thomas grunted. “Alexander has not created any trouble for any hives, and he has made himself useful from time to time. He is known to rescue whelps from trafficking rings and returned them to their parents.”

  My eyes widened as the memory of playing with the gorgon whelps flared back to life, and one of the boys had looked strikingly similar to Alexander Hautlin. “He’s the boy from the time my parents tried to dump me with a bunch of gorgon whelps. Traffickers tried to grab them. He was the one who took the lead on petrifying them. But he was a gorgon, not a human.”

  “Perhaps the dust has made him a shapeshifter, and he wisely hides his form, much like you do, Samuel.”

  “That doesn’t match the NYPD’s record on him going to boarding school,” Quinn stated, and his expression darkened. “But the NYPD’s databases have been wrong in the past.”

  I huffed. “Or he wasn’t in school when that happened. Remember, Morrison’s close friends with my parents. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had been in on the attempt to get rid of me from the start.”

  “And then he would have known about your immunities and would have wanted you for his projects. Assuming he’s involved with the dust production and rabies,” my husband speculated. “How does that sound to you, Thomas?”

  “It sounds like your bride is wearing a rather large target on her back.”

  “No kidding. Remember Winfield?”

  “Yes. I heard he came to a rather abrupt end.”

  “He pointed a gun loaded with ambrosia at me.”

  “Well, that was rather stupid of him.”

  “My bride, while in her fur coat, took offense to that. She squished him like a grape. Her words, not mine.”

  “I popped him like a grape. But he was also squished. He deserved it. It was his fault. If he hadn’t threatened you, he would have survived for at least five more minutes. And that gorgon. Well, maybe not. He looked at you wrong.”

  “My bride becomes very offended when rival males look at me wrong. It makes enrolling her into challenges quite difficult. We try to leave the other contenders alive,” my husband said in an amused tone.

  “I better get to fight at least once, Quinn.”

  “Not until the twins are born and you are no longer breastfeeding.”

  I shrugged, as I couldn’t see myself seriously fighting when worried about their milk supply. “That’s reasonable.”

  “You are expecting twins?” Thomas asked.

  “We are. Fostering your children won’t be a problem. The chances our children will inherit her general immunities or my general abilities are rather high. Beauty and Sylvester are currently with my grandfather learning how to socialize with other gorgons. Their education has been unique. If you can, begin teaching yours how to read a little early, as our whelps are voracious readers. You may want to inquire if your whelps would like to learn how to cook, as Beauty will be starting as soon as we move into a new home. Ours is not sufficiently sized. We’ll also have pets in the house, so we can work with your whelps on that as well. Sunny, my wife’s wolf, should be capable of handling defensive whelps, but our other pets are mundane in nature.”

  “I will begin their lessons immediately. When would you like to begin their fostering?”

  “Bailey?”

  “As soon as we have space for them is fine with me.”

  Quinn smiled at me before focusing his attention back on the road. “I’ll get back to you on that as we start our house search. Do you have a contact we can reach in Chicago about Miss Hautlin?”

  “Yes, of course. I will text you with the information, and I will warn him you will be calling. I have a relationship, as he sought out my advice regarding her. She misses humans.”

  ‘Bailey?”

  “There is no reason we can’t take the kids to visit her and her family, especially if she can help us sink Morrison.”

  “I think you will find her an eager participant in your investigation. She hates him with a burning passion. She only gave up her son because she was terrified she would infect him.”

  That poor woman. “But he’s already gorgon enough
he won’t be infected, will he?”

  “It would be a mercy for him to be infected. He straddles two worlds without being welcome in either.”

  Damn it. No wonder he had looked annoyed. The poor man likely wanted what we had, a caring family and a sense of belonging. “The chances he’s allied with Morrison? There are pictures of him with his father and Quinn’s ex-wife.”

  “His hatred for his father is an equal for your love for your husband, I suspect.”

  Huh. “Damn. He’d light him on fire while still alive and screaming, and he’d take his time about it while roasting marshmallows, then.”

  My husband snickered. “I love you, too, Bailey.”

  “I can help him with the fire part. I’m really good at making fire, and my father said I need to transform several times a week to keep the babies happy and healthy.”

  “Your father?” Thomas asked. “Surely not that Gardener man?”

  Sam laughed. “No. Ra. Her other father. She’s the daughter of a quartet. It might be worth informing the hives that her divine parents are very protective. Her mother is Menily, a moon goddess. A guardian divine from a tribe somewhere in the western United States, from the little I know about her.”

  “I will pass the word. Her father being Ra explains much, especially about her willingness to engage in challenges for whelps. It is her nature.”

  “She does like conquering. Mostly me, though. Oh, well. So much tragedy.”

  Thomas laughed. “Continue your conquests without fear, Lady Quinn.”

  “Oh, look. He thinks I’m a lady. Boy, do I have him fooled.”

  My husband snickered. “What can you tell me about the Chicago vampires?”

  “Ernesto Saven.”

  With a low groan, Quinn took one of his hands off the wheel and rubbed his temple. “You have got to be kidding me.”

  “I’m sorry, Samuel. I know you dislike when you must deal with him.”

  “Do you know what happened the last time I had to talk to him?”

  “I believe he asked if you would work his brothel for a few weeks, to overcome the grief of your divorce from that woman. He sent you flowers and a succubus, although he did not request the succubus seduce you, from my understanding of the situation.”