by Voss Foster
"You're so cute when you think you've got the upper hand. But unfortunately, we have a job to do. And you're in our way." She pressed forward, nicking the front of my shirt and jabbing a little bee sting of pain against my chest. "Humans are wild."
"Humans also have guns." I shifted again, and I finally got a decent view of Gutt. The troll and the elf were on him, both opting for magic instead of brute force. He still had the glowing ring out to the side, but they seemed unconcerned, and he seemed unwilling to make a move. All of that set my stomach to roiling. There was something in that magic that Gutt didn't want to deal with.
Which meant I was the one who would have to make an ass of himself. "You have one chance. Drop the knife, hands behind your back."
"You are being given another chance." She didn't budge. "Give us the Class-A and all of this is over with."
"I warned you." And I angled the gun down, gritted my teeth, and banged off a shot into her thigh. The blade pulled away from me, she staggered, people screamed. The blood and the ringing echo of the shot flooded out all the other sounds. We had seconds to do something with this moment of chaos.
I whipped around to see the other troll distracted, eyes darting between me, Gutt, and the ice elemental. The elf was already nowhere to be seen.
Gutt shot off the golden ring. It burned past me, over my shoulder, and I turned to see it snap tight around the ice elemental, pinning her arms to her sides as she struggled to get up. With one bum leg and no hands, that didn't seem likely.
The troll roared and tackled Gutt straight down onto the pavement. His fists made sickening thuds against Gutt's middle, and bright magic sparked around his fingertips. They rolled, Gutt on top, flinging close range magic, but the other troll squirreled side-to-side to avoid it, and his knee thrust upward, right into Gutt's crotch. FBI training or not, magic or not, Gutt's grip slackened just enough.
I took aim as the other troll rose. He said nothing, just rushed at me, all four-hundred plus pounds. I fired. He didn't deflect it with any sort of magic. I watched the bullet bite into his chest. But he kept coming, either pure rage or sheer momentum.
Four-hundred pounds of muscle? That shit hurts when it slams into you. Huge hands wrapped around my shoulders, slamming me against the window of the diner. The back of my skull met one of the framing bars. Light and heat erupted through my brain, clouding my vision, and for a second, I went totally numb. I hoped that was magic, not just a blow to my gray matter.
My vision restored just in time to watch a grayish leg disappearing through remote transport, and Gutt's golden ring smashing a crater into the wall where the elemental had lain. But they were gone, and any possibility of trying to follow them dried up as the portal vanished.
I struggled into regular function, everything still throbbing. My spinal column had also rammed up against solid steel.
Gutt pushed to his feet and marched over. "You all right?"
"I mean, no foreplay like you got, but I guess I'm not too offended."
"Suffice it to say, I won't be calling that lovely water elemental for a good time until this all recovers." He bent down and picked up the one remnant left behind. The knife, frost disappearing from the edge of the blade as Gutt grabbed onto it.
But I couldn't help noticing the tiny smear of blood on the very tip. I looked down at my chest, and sure enough, a slight trickle of red came from that puncture mark she'd left. "Honestly didn't think she broke the skin."
"I think you did more than that to her."
I nodded and checked the wall and sidewalk where she'd been standing. No bullet hole. No bullet. Point blank, a Glock would have easily gone through, especially given how slender she was. But nothing. That bullet was in her. And the same had happened with the troll. A bigger body to be sure, but still. That bullet should have cut all the way through.
The crowds were beginning to move in, now that the big scary folks were gone. Or at least now that nobody was shooting a gun. "Gutt, calm them down." My thoughts weren't focusing as well as I was used to. "I'm going to sit."
Gutt's brow furrowed as I marched my way back into the diner. Guess he was more worried than I was.
Probably not a good sign, but I pushed it aside. The same water elemental waitress eyed me as I came in, but everyone gave me a wide berth as I settled back into the booth we'd been in. Our tip money and our plates were still there. That crew had been just waiting for us to walk out. If it had gone well, they could have gotten us without a lot of notice. My head throbbed as I attempted to put pieces together into something that made sense.
Gutt clomped in and placed a hand on my shoulder, not taking a scene. "You look even whiter than usual."
"That's not great." That numbness wasn't leaving. If anything, it seemed to be spreading. I was pretty sure I should have been afraid, but that emotion didn't penetrate through. "I think I got fucking magicked."
"Casey should still be in." Gutt opened a portal and helped me up. "Apologies. Office of Preternatural Affairs. I know you have a no transport policy."
The cashier behind the front desk nodded, but that was all I saw from him before we slipped through the Technicolor Hidden Kingdoms and back into clean white.
Chapter Seven
We'd appeared back in Casey's office. He sat on a stool at the counter, mixing up something in a small, silvery pot. I just about couldn't stay standing, the numbness now creeping its way into my legs, my arms. This definitely wasn't a good situation I seemed to have gotten myself into.
Casey spun around and walked over. "Oh, sweetie, you look pale."
"I'm white. And from Rhode Island. And it's winter." I let Gutt drop me off on the exam table. And by "let him," I mean that's where I finally couldn't hold myself up anymore. "And I may have a concussion."
"I'd say you may have a lot more than that." Casey sighed and leaned me back on the table, then turned his gaze up to Gutt. "What happened exactly?"
"The three who came in here after Lenva attacked us on the street. Dash shot the woman, but he had a tussle with the troll."
"I shot the troll, too. It just didn't help."
Casey ignored that. Or maybe it came out less clearly than I thought. My lips were starting to tingle with numbness as well.
"Did you notice any magic used against him?" Casey was already rummaging, pulling out vials of various fluids and a smattering of silvery instruments, including the magical X-ray rods I remembered quite well. "It would help to figure out exactly what got used against him. If anything."
"I was…incapacitated."
I couldn’t resist, especially with the fog in my head blocking out my normal filters. "He took a blow in the little Gutt."
Casey smiled and shook his head. "Well, can't expect criminals to fight fair." He slid a hand across my forehead, and his touch was considerably warmer than body temperature, almost uncomfortable. "You can go fill Swift in. Dash is in my capable hands."
"Right." Gutt hovered a moment longer, then headed off, the elemental's dagger still clutched in his meaty fist.
Casey sighed. "Concussion, huh? Big strong guy?"
"Not as strong as the troll."
"Who is?" His fingers moved deftly over my face, around the sides of my head. His blue eyes stayed bright, but his focus was totally off me and on whatever he was doing. "Beyond busted as hell, any symptoms I should know about?"
"Numbness. Started in my middle, and now it's going into my limbs."
Casey pulled his hands back and marched over to the vials he'd laid out on the counter. "Honestly, these people have been working here for years, and they still can't tell me the most important things when someone comes in." He came back with a tiny vial of clear, slightly iridescent fluid. He opened it and placed it to my lips. "Drink this and try not to spill. It'll buy us time in case this is something nasty."
I drank, and unlike most of the concoctions he'd fed me over the last year, this was bitter, oily, and difficult to struggle down. But I didn't dribble like an invalid all ove
r myself, so that was something. "Needs sugar."
"Sugar doesn't mix well with the distilled elven platelets. They release a chemical that…let's just say I don't feel like your situation would be much improved by melting your teeth." He grabbed a familiar, silvery device, shaped like a Jacob's ladder. Much smaller than the magical sensors I'd come across in the past, but the energy moving up the V shape revealed exactly what it was.
Casey passed it over my body, feet up. When it hovered over my chest, the energy switched from gently rising arcs of power into jagged, zigzagging cords of magic. "Gutt didn't know I was going numb, by the way."
"Well, thankfully it's nothing serious. The revivifying draft will take care of the numbness. Basic paralyzing enchantment."
"Paralyzing. Like, if I didn't get taken care of in time, I'd have stopped breathing."
"Would have taken the better part of an hour, but eventually." Casey delivered the news like I'd asked him about the fucking weather. "Just means you can't afford to piss me off."
"Oh, come on. Not even a little?"
"With consent. And when I'm not saving your ass."
"You're always saving my ass." The numbness had receded, and with it went the fog in my brain. "And I guess I don't really have a concussion, either."
"Why do you say that?"
"I can think again." I breathed a heavy sigh. "Thank you."
"It's literally what they pay me for." He winked as he grabbed the two thin, silver rods that let him see the state of my body without any invasive surgery. They looked like a pair of knitting needles, but extra long. "But I do enjoy your company, so I might keep you alive even for free."
"You can just say it's because I'm cute."
"But why state the obvious?" He placed his hands on each of my temples, pressing the rods flat against my head, and began to roll them around, moving a little too close to my eyes for comfort a few times. "You don't have any physical damage in your head." He slid the rods down my neck, my shoulders, and onto my chest. "Your spine's not damaged damaged, but your back muscles are in a state. How big was this troll?"
"A little bigger than Gutt."
"Oh. Well then, that numbness was probably doing you a major favor. When your nerves start firing on all cylinders again, you're going to wish you'd been knocked out."
"Have I mentioned how stellar your bedside manner is?" I was starting to feel the remnants of being hit by a goddamn locomotive, especially in my shoulders.
"Hey, tough guy like you, you can handle anything. When I met you, you'd lost most of your legs and half your lung function." He presented a small dose of green, slightly murky liquid and pressed it into my palm. "But don't say I'm not a merciful god."
I downed it, and was met with the usual flavor profile Casey's medicines brought. Slightly vegetal, slightly floral, and slightly herbaceous, but more than anything, just weak. Like the third steeping on a teabag. Definitely a lot more palatable than the revivifying draft. I could still feel the throb in my muscles, but I gritted my teeth and trusted that Casey's alchemy would see me through the other side. "Bless you, oh merciful god."
"Ah, I do thrive on the worship of such attractive gentlemen." He sat back down and leaned in close to my chest, where the hole in my shirt—and apparently in me—sat, thankfully no longer dripping blood. "Did you happen to snatch up the troll's knife?"
"It was the elemental's knife."
"Oh. Well, she really didn't want to deal with you. The paralyzing curse came from this little wound here." He pressed his left hand flat against the slight bit of exposed skin, and for a moment, his eyes darkened, moving from sky blue to a dull cobalt. Only in his twenties, and only a quarter hag, he didn't use direct magic all that often, since he straight up didn't have that much to bring to the table. But I guess whatever I had going on was minor enough.
With a blink, his eyes faded back to normal, and I couldn’t help but flash to Lenva, the way her gaze shadowed when she was losing control of her magic. A hag thing, then.
"That should wipe out any remains of that magic. But make sure you're careful with that knife. If she'd pushed it any deeper than that little nick, you'd have been out in minutes, I bet."
Great. The bitch had tried to for-real paralyze me. "I'll tell Gutt." I pushed myself back to sitting, but the pang of flame through my shoulders disagreed with that course of action. "Jesus, this is on pain killers?"
"I told you he did a number on you. If I had to guess, magically enhanced strength, on top of just being a troll." He peeled back the neck of my shirt, revealing red, swollen skin that would almost definitely be a bruise by morning. "Those, I can't really do anything about until the revivifying draft has metabolized. Those elven platelets are great for a lot of things, but they don't get along with much of anything else. The pain relief you already took will keep things bearable, though."
"That's how I like to live my life: bearable."
Casey chuckled and looped an arm around me, under my armpits, and helped me to standing. Luckily for me, the pain was worst in my upper body, so standing and walking I could pull off. "Remind me why I took this job, again?"
"So you could more easily ingratiate yourself to me and capture my heart?"
I snapped and pointed. "That's it. I knew it was something."
Before Casey could make another flirtation back in my direction, Gutt and Swift walked in. Swift stopped just in front of me, shaking his head. "I feel like I don't pay you enough for the amount of times you get your ass kicked."
"Maybe I should get my ass kicked less."
"That would help." Swift shook his head. "I want you sticking here tonight."
"Medically, he's fine." Casey released me, allowing me to stand on my own. "He's hurting, but no major damage. I can get him right as rain tomorrow."
"It's not his condition. These bastards caught Gutt and Dash out on the street, and I don't need any of you getting killed. I'm rather attached." He nodded. "We'll work on something a little more comfortable than a cot."
"I don't need special treatment." I pushed past Casey and made my way forward. Hurt, but I was a lot less likely to show the pain in front of Swift and Gutt than I was in front of Casey. Not like I thought less of him, but our relationship had started with him seeing me naked, literally to the bone. I didn't have much more that I could really hide from him.
"You may not need it, but you're going to get it." Swift rolled his eyes. "Besides that, it'll get me away from Kimiko. She's in a mood."
Casey moved up even with me. "What kind of mood?"
"She's swearing in English and Japanese."
Ooh. That wasn't good news for anyone near her, I knew that much. She didn't often break into her bag of Japanese obscenities, but some forms of anger needed two languages to contain them. I'd heard her slip into Japanese just twice in my year with the OPA, and both had only been resolved by Casey's presence.
Which was apparently the plan this time, as he squirreled past and out of the room without a word.
"Come on, Dash." Swift jerked his head over his shoulder, a gesture out the door. "You can stay in the respite room attached to Lenva's cell. It's still got the protections up."
"I don't need guarding."
"Humor me." He led me into the cell, past King and Rothiel sitting guard over Lenva, and into the room with the cot. And when he closed the door behind us, I knew this wasn't just about trying to keep my stupid ass out of pain.
"So, how dumb am I supposed to play this whole thing?"
Swift smirked. "The whole thing where you pushed the issue about Lenva thie morning, even though we'd already had a discussion about that entire situation?"
"That'd be the one."
He lowered himself onto the cot and crossed his legs. "See, that Master's Degree of yours was worth it after all." He shook his head and sighed. "And actually, I did appreciate the effort. Overriding everything with a psych claim…clever. I wouldn't have thought of it, but then I also would have known it wasn't going to work."
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br /> I leaned against the wall to give my aching back some relief. "Give me some credit. I knew it wasn't going to work too. But I had to try, didn't I?"
"Ah, now see? That's where we're hitting a little bit of a difference of opinion." Swift's smile had actually gotten a little wider, and he leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "I hired you onto the OPA knowing enough about you to expect some nose-thumbing when it came to the rules. I didn't walk into this whole situation blind. But I specifically told you to do your job on this one."
"I'm doing my job." I was too out of it, too sore and too tired, to make any real attempt at subterfuge. "Gutt told me about the Hand over breakfast. He got through to me, so I don't need a head of department lecture on it."
"Too bad. I had one all prepared." He chuckled and leaned back, looking up at the ceiling. "Can you appreciate the irony of you making the same argument as one of the most dangerous and feared terrorist groups in the history of the Hidden Kingdoms?"
"Sure I can. Counterterrorism Irony 102 was my favorite class in college."
Another slight, musical laugh. "Mouthing off to me or Svenson or anyone else here in the FBI, that's one thing. But if you try to stand up to the Hidden Kingdoms, they're going to do more than make you ride a desk for a while. They would not have taken kindly to you trying to finagle some Mundane, legal loophole to keep a Class-A from being sealed again. And they wouldn't have just come after you, either. The whole OPA would have been compromised by a stunt like that." He turned his gaze back to me and, as so rarely happened, I got to see all the age and the wear of this job spreading across his face. Fine lines, deep bags, skin hanging from his bones. He actually looked sixty-five, which was bad news. He was only in his fifties.
"Look, I'm still standing in the same position I was when we talked before. I'll wait and see what information on her gets brought up. Until then, I'm a faithful little pawn."
Swift sighed and closed his eyes. When he looked back at me, the pristine, aloof face I was used to had returned. "And that must be that four-point-oh GPA talking for you to sound that smart. I guess you can stay on the job. Once you're functional again."