by McKenna Dean
His ministrations were surprisingly gentle. I fixed my gaze straight ahead, unable to watch as he worked on cleaning my injury, pausing every minute or so to wring out the washcloth and run it under the hot water again.
“Well, that’s not so bad.” He inspected his handiwork. “A bit of torn flesh. The bleeding made it look worse than it is. More of a burn than anything. You were lucky, you know.”
Incapable of forming words, I nodded. The rhythmic stroking of my skin with the warm cloth and the nearness of his body in the close confines of the small room, coupled with my state of undress, robbed me of speech.
“This will sting,” he warned, before applying Mercurochrome.
That was an understatement. I’m afraid when the caustic antiseptic touched my wound, I said a word no Bryn Mawr graduate should even know.
Knight found this highly amusing. A faint smile touched his lips as he wrapped my arm in gauze and fixed a bandage in place. “If your downstairs neighbor could hear you now.”
He met my gaze and then froze, his eyes going wide with surprise. “You’re the Bread Girl.”
My skin felt as though sunburned as I realized he’d remembered our first meeting outside the Blue Moon. I tried to pretend ignorance. “The what?”
“The girl. The girl who stopped me from getting run over and then smacked me with a bread roll.”
I pulled the bathrobe tighter around my throat and sniffed in my best Miss Climpson fashion. “I did no such thing. I merely offered you one. I hope you didn’t waste it. They’re quite good.”
“Bread be damned. You gave me something else to think about besides myself that day.” A light of fanaticism glowed in his eyes, which was embarrassing because I had no recollection of what I’d said to him. I just remembered being annoyed he wasn’t grateful to be alive.
I was still thinking of a sharp retort when a sound from the other room made us stare at each other in alarm.
Knight’s gesture was peremptory as he marched out of the bathroom. “Wait here.”
I had no intention of hiding meekly behind the toilet. I wished I hadn’t left my purse—and the ray gun within it—in the kitchen. Nothing to be done about it now. I belted my robe around me and opened the closet. Tucked inside stood the baseball bat every unmarried woman kept in her apartment for just this sort of thing.
When I rushed into the kitchen, Knight stood like a statue facing the window. An eerie glow from the fire escape cast flickering shadows on the ceiling and walls, and for a moment, I thought the building was on fire. Then I caught sight of what held Knight transfixed in the middle of my kitchen.
At the window, a large bird hovered, as big as a man, flapping its wings in a slow, measured beat to keep it airborne. As if the man-sized bird wasn’t startling enough, flames engulfed it. An orange-yellow limbus of light emanated off the bird, extending into a halo of blue and lavender fire. It was both beautiful and terrifying. Together we gasped as it landed on the fire escape and approached the window.
Knight slipped his hand in mine and squeezed tight. I squeezed back and hefted the bat.
Chapter Nine
The flaming bird hopped a step closer to the window and cocked its head sideways, as though to get a better look at us through the glass.
“Okay, now I feel like a worm in the presence of a giant chicken.” The sourness in Knight’s voice made me give a nervous snort, despite the gravity of the situation.
“A giant flaming chicken,” I reminded him.
He snapped his fingers and said, “I’ve got it! Not a chicken—a Phoenix!”
That dowsed the humor in both of us.
“This can’t be good. First, we’re beset by a pack of wolves in the middle of the city, and now a mythological creature is trying to break in the window? We should make a run for it.” Knight tugged my arm as he eased a step toward the door. I inched back with him. The Phoenix shook itself in the manner of a big dog and tapped on the window with its beak.
We froze and then exchanged a wary glance.
“I don’t think the bad guys would knock, do you?” Knight asked.
“Maybe it’s a trap. Maybe he’s relying on our innate good manners to open the window and then he’ll flame us to death.”
The Phoenix gave a heavy sigh and then the flames went out. The body of the bird shimmered and changed into a man. A naked man. One I recognized.
My boss.
“Good heavens!” I exclaimed, rushing toward the window to open it.
“Thank you.” Ryker’s voice was crisp as he climbed in from the fire escape. “It’s chilly out here.”
I tried to look anywhere except at him when he climbed into my apartment.
Ryker pulled the sash down behind him and straightened, undaunted by his naked state. “Bishop,” he said in a voice still etched with frost. “I take it this is Dr. Knight?”
Knight turned incredulous eyes on me.
“You know the flaming chi—I mean, this man?”
“He’s my boss,” I said in a small voice. “Ryker. Er, Mr. Ryker. Head of Redclaw Security.” I stared off to the left of Ryker’s bare shoulder. “May I present Dr. Knight?”
“Charmed, I’m sure.” Knight’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “Let me guess—you have to shed your clothes when you change into a Phoenix so they won’t go up in flames.”
“Among other reasons.” Ryker fixed a cool stare on me. “I think some explanations are in order, Miss Bishop.”
I winced at the resurrection of the “Miss” when addressing me. If that wasn’t bad enough, the way I was dressed, Ryker could leap to the wrong conclusion as to why I’d brought Knight back to my apartment. “Um, just a minute.”
I bolted for my bedroom, where I pulled on a cheap housedress and returned to the kitchen. Ryker and Knight stood squared off like two alley cats unwilling to back down enough to let the other pass. Unable to meet Ryker’s eye, I held out my bathrobe while keeping my eyes averted. “Sir. If you don’t mind...?”
Ryker snatched the proffered robe from my hand with poor grace. It was too short, but at least I could look at him without blushing now.
“How did you know to find us here, sir?”
He finished belting the robe and folded his arms across his chest. “Imagine my surprise when reports came in of shots fired and a pack of wolves roaming the streets outside the Moneta Bar and Grill this evening. Someone reported a woman matching your description fleeing the scene with a man, which is how I knew to seek you here at your apartment. Since you’ve been out of the office pursuing a lead that ended in an attack, it seemed possible you’d discovered Dr. Knight’s whereabouts and yet failed to share that information. Would you care to explain?”
I did my best, recounting my impression that I’d run into Knight on the street toward the day of my Redclaw interview, and the steps I’d taken to track him down. I felt Knight’s eyes boring holes into me as I glossed over that first encounter, and then again when I fudged over the details of getting Knight to agree to come with me this evening. No doubt, Knight was steamed over the realization I hadn’t been completely forthcoming about who and what Redclaw served. I left out the bit about getting shot—and using the ray gun in defense—when describing the attack and our escape.
“So you mean to tell me you knew where Dr. Knight would be this evening, and yet you took it upon yourself to not only approach him, but to bring him in without telling anyone else? With no backup of any kind?” Ryker’s arms fell to his sides and his nostrils flared in mounting anger. The action was rendered ridiculous by his wearing a frilly bathrobe, but any thoughts of smiling withered and died. Bitter bile rose in my throat and I swallowed hard.
“You asked me to find him. I did.” I didn’t understand why he was so mad with me. I got results, didn’t I?
“You didn’t think she’d find me!” Knight’s sudden contribution to the conversation caught us both off-guard. “You promoted her to field agent, and told her to find me, but you didn’t actually think she
would, did you?”
“I thought she’d have the good sense to report your location to someone with a little more experience in the matter.” Ryker fixed me in his glare once more. “Why didn’t you use the pin I gave you to call for assistance?”
The pin. I’d forgotten about the ladybug pin. I’d attached it to the inside of my clutch, thinking I’d have it if needed, and then, like an idiot, forgot it even existed.
“Everything happened so fast.” Even though I was telling the truth, my excuses sounded weak to my ears. “The attacks happened as we left the bar. First, by armed men in a car, and then by the, er, wolves.”
“Yes, and if it hadn’t been for Miss Bishop here, I’d be an unwilling captive or dinner for the dogs. They were waiting for me—the men with guns, that is. No doubt relying on my known habit of frequenting that bar and taking ruthless advantage of my history. Miss Bishop got shot protecting me, you know.”
Too late, Knight caught sight of the chopping motion I made with my hand.
“What? You did get injured in the line of duty tonight. He saw the bandage before you covered it up.” Knight thrust his chin forward belligerently.
“Are you all right?” Ryker lifted an eyebrow in my direction.
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
“Well, if that’s the level of concern you have for your employees, I’m not certain I want to work for you.” Knight folded his arms over his chest in an insulting manner. “What’s got your knickers in such a twist, anyway?”
“Knight,” I cautioned, shooting him a small frown.
“Am I supposed to be frightened because he can morph into a giant self-combusting bird that might turn me into a charred cinder? In the last hour a secret organization has offered me a job, someone tried to kidnap me, I watched a little slip of a girl coolly drop a man in the alley with Buck Rogers’ blaster, and I got chased by what is, in all probability, a pack of supernatural wolves.” He wiped a hand over his mouth, looking somewhat dazed. “Really, I don’t think I’ve had enough to drink tonight.”
“You took the ray gun out of the office?” Ryker’s head snapped in my direction before he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as if he were counting to ten. When he opened his eyes again, I saw little flames banked within. “I thought I made it clear to you Redclaw’s purpose and the nature of our mission. What possessed you to remove a dangerous artifact from storage and take it back out on the streets with you? Really, Miss Bishop, I am most disappointed.”
“Am I fired?” I blurted out.
Ryker inhaled sharply. “I don’t know. It seems I made a serious mistake in sharing confidential information and technology with you. This is a grievous strike against your record.”
“Did you forbid her to remove the weapon from your place of business?” Knight asked in a deceptively mild tone.
Scowling, Ryker stared at him a long moment before speaking. “No.”
“So let me get this straight. You didn’t give her exact parameters for finding me and bringing me in, and after showing her this advanced technology, you never explicitly said she couldn’t use it. In other words, you left her to wing it. Under those circumstances, I think she did quite well, don’t you?”
I wheeled on Knight. “I don’t need you to fight my battles for me.”
He took a step sideways, hands up in the air in a gesture of peace. “Given the way you took out the men attacking us this evening, I’d heartily agree with that sentiment.”
Ryker narrowed his eyes at Knight and then flicked a glance in my direction. For a moment he had the oddest expression on his face, and then he wiped it away, to replace it with furrowed brows and stern authority. “It’s late and none of us are at our best at the moment. Dr. Knight, I’ve arranged for someone to meet you downstairs and take you to a safe place overnight. I’ll wait with you until they arrive. Bishop, I want to see you in my office in the morning.”
Knight gave an audible sniff. “I’m not so sure I want to go with you people if this is the way you run your organization.”
“I assure you, the mistakes Bishop made—”
“As far as I can tell, she’s the only one who did anything right.” Knight cut Ryker off with a dismissive gesture that caused Ryker to raise an eyebrow in response. “And rest assured, she didn’t give any of your secrets away. You did that when you appeared on the fire escape. So tell me, why should I leave with you and go to work for this Redclaw?”
Ryker frowned, though at Knight’s attitude or question I couldn’t tell. “What did Bishop say to persuade you to come with her?”
“That’s between me and Bishop.” Knight had the effrontery to wink at me. “I’m asking you. Why should I come work for you?”
“You may have noticed there are several groups interested in your services.” Ryker’s manner was as stiff as a poker.
“If we’re assuming the people who came after me tonight aren’t the same ones who tried to recruit me two years ago, and if the—and I can’t believe I’m saying this—wolves who chased us belong to an unknown third party, then yes. Your statement is correct.”
“Then it should be obvious to a man of your intelligence you’re in danger. Redclaw can protect you, among other things. But equally important, we need you. Though I hadn’t intended to demonstrate the fact in quite such a fashion, you’ve seen the ray gun. We’re collecting and cataloging such technology every day. We need someone of your background to help us understand how this tech works and what its ultimate purpose might be.”
“The appeal to my vanity is a nice touch.” Knight cocked his head sideways. “But I daresay this technology is beyond anything I’ve ever worked on.”
Ryker’s posture relaxed. “It’s beyond everyone’s experience. That’s why we need someone like you. What did Bishop tell you?”
Knight shot a quick glance in my direction. I gave a little shrug.
“She said you—that is, Redclaw—find things. You’re some sort of secret investigative firm.”
“I never said it was a secret organization. You’re the one who leapt to that conclusion.”
The look Knight gave me was one of profound pity for my stunted intellect. “My dear, you didn’t have to spell it out. I knew the moment you sat down. Besides, your boss turns into a flaming chicken.”
“Not a chicken.” Ryker was indignant. “I’ll have you know—”
Knight cut him off with an upraised hand. “Yes, yes. You change into some kind of mythological beast. No doubt from a proud and distinguished family of the same. My point being, nothing about this evening has been what you would call normal. I’m still not convinced I won’t discover in the morning this is all the result of too much bad whiskey.” He rubbed his temples. “However calmly I seem to be taking this situation, know it results from my astounding intelligence and the desensitizing power of overindulgence.”
“Keep overindulging and soon your intellectual capacity will be on par with the rest of us mere mortals.” I’d had enough. “If you don’t go with Ryker, I doubt you’ll last twenty-four hours on your own. It’s your funeral.” I turned toward my boss. “You’ll have my full report in the morning. I’m making myself a cup of coffee. You may both leave now.”
The two men gaped at me in astonishment, as though a cocker spaniel had spoken a coherent sentence. Ignoring them, I crossed to the counter and filled the percolator with coffee. My actions were mechanical, working in the low lighting by feel and habit. I dumped coffee granules into the pot with a little more force than usual and then flung the measuring spoon into the sink with a clatter. My unwelcome guests seemed to take the hint.
“As I said earlier, we should shelve this discussion for the evening. Are you coming with me or not, Dr. Knight?”
No doubt Knight attempted to burn holes in my back with his glare, but I refused to turn around, instead busying myself by taking a cup and saucer out of the cabinet. Hopefully, neither man noticed the tremor in my hands. My injured arm started to thro
b, pounding with every heartbeat.
“Bishop has pointed out I shouldn’t go back to my apartment.” Knight spoke as though considering his options aloud. I doubt he even noticed he’d adopted Ryker’s name for me. “But I don’t trust you.”
I turned at this.
Knight pointed at me with an index finger. “Her, I trust.” He met Ryker’s gaze head on. “Not you. I don’t know you.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” I started to place my fists on my hips, but the action woke the sleeping dragon of pain, and I hastily dropped my arms to my sides. “I trust Ryker, even if you don’t. If you trust me, then you should trust him. Just go, will you?” To my horror, my voice broke on the final words. I would not burst into tears in front of either of them.
“Are you going to be all right?” The concern in Knight’s voice almost undid me. The last thing I wanted was sympathy right then. I gave a short, sharp nod instead of replying.
Ryker went to the window and lifted the sash. Sweeping one arm with a mocking flourish in front of him, he said, “Dr. Knight?”
Knight heaved a much put-upon sigh. “Very well. It’s clear you need someone of my intelligence in your research and design department.” He joined Ryker at the window.
“What do you mean by that?” Ryker asked as Knight climbed out onto the fire escape.
“If you had someone with their wits about them working for you, someone would have solved this ‘I can’t change form without running around naked’ problem long ago. Not that it seems to bother you. Still, it can’t be convenient to wind up miles away from your clothing.”
“I see.” Ryker seemed to recall he was wearing my bathrobe and started to take it off.
I shook my head vehemently. “Keep it.”
“My office.” Ryker reminded me as he crawled out the window, the robe parting to show a greater degree of bare leg than I was comfortable seeing of my employer. “First thing in the morning.”
After he closed the window, I crossed to the sash and locked it. At least he didn’t take the ray gun, which I sensed hiding in my clutch on the counter. Its presence was small comfort. I had a terrible feeling that ordinary bullets wouldn’t stop the kinds of people who’d attacked us this evening. Worse, I’d hung a big bull’s eye on my back with some pretty nasty customers.