by Jaye Wells
Journalists leapt out of their chairs and waved hands to be called on. Gardner selected a Hispanic reporter I recognized from the local evening news. “Carmen Fuentes, Channel 10, Action News,” she said. “My question is for Detective Prospero.”
I stepped up and nodded, trying not to look like I wanted to run away. “Will you be under any sort of disciplinary action for cooking dirty magic for Aphrodite?”
A pocket of flame erupted in my gut at the gall of the question. Luckily, Gardner stepped in to field it. “Absolutely not. It is only thanks to the quick thinking of Detective Prospero and Mayor Volos that everyone walked away with their lives. In fact, I believe the mayor is working on a special commendation for the detective.”
That was the first I’d heard of that possibility. With cameras on me and Morales at my side, I kept my expression blank. But inside, I was conflicted between embarrassment and dread. I hadn’t spoken to Volos since he’d hauled me out of the theater. I probably owed him an apology for dragging him into that scene, and a thank-you for pulling me out of the shootout. But I hadn’t allowed myself to wallow too much in the fact that I owed him. Again.
“Is it true that Detective Duffy is retiring from the force?” another reporter asked.
I perked up at that one. Duffy looked about as excited to address the press as he’d have been about getting his prostate exam. But he couldn’t avoid the expectant looks.
“Yes, that’s true,” he said. “My last day will be in a few weeks. I’ve already started working with Chief Eldritch on identifying my replacement.”
“What about Detective Prospero?” a reporter shouted.
All eyes turned to me. Duffy looked like he wanted to cry. Eldritch looked like someone had offered him a shit sandwich.
“What do you say, Detective?” someone shouted.
Morales nudged me. My feet felt like they weighed fifty pounds as I stepped up to the mic. “I wouldn’t dream of trying to fill Detective Duffy’s shoes,” I said. “Besides, I’d love to keep working with the MEA as long as they’ll have me.”
Apparently, I said the right thing, because Eldritch visibly relaxed.
“That’s all the questions we have time for today,” Gardner said. “Thank you.”
* * *
After the press conference, I accompanied Morales back to his room. Once the nurses got him settled, I let out a huge sigh of relief at the blessed silence.
He’d been pretty quiet through the conference and the ride up to his room.
“You all right?” I asked.
He’d been looking out the window while I chatted with the nurses, and now he turned his head on the pillow to look at me. The light slanting in highlighted the bruises under his eyes and the paleness of his skin. The doctor said he had at least another week to go in the hospital before he could go home, but he was looking at months of rehab for the arm.
After that? Well, we didn’t talk about that yet.
“Drew?” I prompted when he didn’t immediately answer.
“I was just thinking about Yü Nü,” he said.
I frowned. “What about her?”
“How she jumped in front of you.”
In all the craziness since he got shot, I hadn’t had a lot of time to process everything that had gone down at the theater. But every night, I’d had a dream where I was dying and Yü Nü offered me an elixir. Each time, she whispered that a friend had sent her.
“Maybe it was a reflex,” I said, brushing it off. I rose and busied myself pruning the flowers that lined the windowsill.
The corner of his mouth lifted. “Jumping in front of a bullet for someone is a pretty big deal.”
“Not when you know you’re immortal.”
He lay his head back on the pillow and looked up at the ceiling philosophically. “Duffy’s retiring.”
“Yep.” I threw a handful of dead red and white rose petals in the garbage. As I did, I spotted a discarded newspaper on top. A face in a picture on the front page grabbed my attention.
I removed it and held the image up to the light. The man in the picture looked a lot like the one who’d been meeting with Hung and Volos at the Buddhist restaurant. I scanned the photo’s caption. Senator Thomas Graves (R-NY) visits Babylon for a GOP fundraiser
“I’ll be damned,” I breathed.
“Huh?”
The doctor had urged all of us to keep stress away from Morales to aid in healing. I was pretty sure if I told him Volos had a United States Senator in his pocket, his blood pressure would skyrocket just like mine was.
“They’re expecting rain tomorrow.” I stashed the paper with my jacket before I went back to the bed. Later, I’d have to figure out why Volos, who was a Democrat, had business with a Republican senator from New York, but for now, Morales needed my attention.
I straightened the tray table across the bed, discarding bits of trash to distract myself from the theories popping up about Volos and the senator.
“I saw you,” Morales said quietly.
I looked up, feeling guilty even though there was no way he’d know what I was thinking about. “When?”
“That night. I saw you save Duffy.”
I looked around the room for something else to tidy. “Let’s talk about something else, okay?”
He patted the edge of his bed. “C’m’ere.” His lids looked heavy and his tone slurred a little. The nurses had given him a dose of pain potion before she left, and they were already kicking in.
I perched on the edge of his bed and took his left hand. His grip was surprisingly strong. I turned our joined hands over so I could look closer at the scars webbing across the surface. It hit me then that he’d probably have to relearn how to be a Leftie for a while.
“I told Gardner.”
My stomach felt like it dropped ten stories. “When?”
“Apparently, it all came out when I was coming out of anesthesia.” His tone was rueful.
“And?”
“And we’re going to have a discussion once I get out of here. But it didn’t sound like she was ready to send me to the clink.”
“That’s good.” I smoothed a hand across his forehead. “That’s real good.”
He took my hand and held it in his left. “I can’t change the past,” he said, his words slurring.
“Shh. Let’s talk about it later.”
“Kate?” he murmured. His eyes were barely open now. I placed my right hand on his cheek, enjoying the rasp of whiskers against my palm. I’d been so afraid at the theater. There’d been so much blood and he’d lost consciousness before they loaded him in the ambulance. And for the first time, I had to imagine a life without him as my partner.
“Yeah?” I said, leaning down to kiss his forehead.
“You love me?”
I froze. His eyes cracked open a slit, and he looked at me with dilated pupils.
He was hexed-out and vulnerable, but he was asking me to love him.
“Of course,” I said. “Of course I do.”
“Good,” he slurred. A smiled lifted the corners of his mouth. “I love me, too.”
I huffed out a laugh and kissed him again, this time on the cheek. “Night, Prince Charming.”
His hand went limp as he entered the underworld of magic-induced dreams. I rose from the bed and tried to ignore the ghost of guilt that clung to me as I walked toward the door.
I hadn’t been lying. I did love him.
He was my partner and my best friend.
I loved him. I did.
I reached for the handle but paused to look back. Even in his sleep, he looked intimidating, with his dark whiskers and hard jaw. Losing him would have fucked me up for a really long time.
Yeah, I loved him.
But that wasn’t really what he’d been asking. He didn’t just want me to love him. He wanted me to be in love with him.
But how could I be in love with someone who lied to me?
And how could I claim to be in love with someone when I lied
to them, too?
Before those thoughts could sink their claws too far into me, I threw open the door and marched out.
My body slammed into an immovable obstacle.
“Oh!” I gasped. Hands gripped my arms to steady me. I looked up.
“Kate? Are you okay?”
My traitorous heart whispered: This one.
I gasped and pulled away. “Damn it, John.”
He loosened his hold but not enough to allow escape. “What’s wrong?”
I pushed his hands away and retreated into myself. “You just surprised me,” I snapped.
The warm, chypre scent of his cologne clung to me as tried to put space between us.
He nodded toward the door. “Is he okay?”
“He will be.”
He nodded and put his hands in his pockets. “Good, that’s good.”
“Don’t act like you care.”
“I’ve made no secret about not liking the guy, but I don’t want him dead.”
“Why not? Your life would be a lot easier.”
He was quiet for so long that I looked up at him to see what was taking so long. The fury on his face made me lose my breath. “I am not a monster, Kate. The last thing I want in this world is for anything to hurt you.”
And that’s when I knew. “Do you know why Yü Nü protected me?”
He blinked at the rapid change in topic and shifted uneasily in his expensive loafers. “Of course not.”
I raised a brow. “Liar.”
“I said I wasn’t a monster. I never claimed to be honest.” With that, he reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Take care of yourself, Kate.”
The tenderness in his tone stunned me. He turned to go, but before he reached the door, I said his name.
He stopped and turned. “Yes?”
“Thanks,” I said, “for, uh, helping Danny get into the Conservatory. And stuff.”
He waited a couple of beats too long to answer. “Of course.” A little unguarded smile lifted the corners of his mouth. He turned again.
“John?”
He stopped again with his brows raised.
“I’m sorry I pulled you into that mess. At the theater, I mean. I just didn’t know what else to do.”
“Don’t sweat it,” he said. “Turns out all those years cooking dirty pays off sometimes.”
“I guess so.” I’d never thought of it that way. “Anyway, I— Thanks.”
He held my gaze and smiled a smile that I felt all the way to my toes. “It’s always my pleasure, Detective.”
With that, he left, leaving me behind trying to sort through the cocktail of conflicting emotions his deeply spoken pleasure created in my midsection.
It was only once I was in the elevator and out of his sphere of influence that I realized I hadn’t asked him about the senator.
Chapter Thirty
A few weeks later, I parked on the street in front of City Hall and left the engine running. “I’ll just be a sec, okay?”
“Make it fast,” Danny said. “I don’t want to be late.”
I waved to acknowledge the request and jumped out of the Jeep. The sun was still rising over the river, and the scent of green algae rode the wind off the water. I sucked a deep breath in through my nose to try to enjoy the experience of Babylon before all the people woke up and ruined it.
The front steps of City Hall were pretty empty except for the usual winged loiterers. Luckily, the person I’d come to see was an early riser.
Sweet Ray sat about halfway up the stairs. He wore a purple fez that morning with a Sergeant Pepper jacket. When he saw me jogging up the steps toward him, he turned to say something to the pigeons at his feet. I couldn’t quite make it out except for the tone, which sounded pretty bitchy for six in the morning.
“What’s happening, Sweet Ray?” I said.
“Peewee doesn’t want to talk to you,” he said, keeping his eyes averted.
“I’m not here to talk to Peewee. I’m here to talk to you.”
His shoulders twitched in a halfhearted shrug. “What do I care?”
“Look,” I said, perching a foot on a higher step, “I know I left you hanging, but things have been pretty fucked-up the last few weeks.”
The last two weeks alone had been a blur. Morales had gotten out of the hospital and was home, but he had PT appointments several times a week. With him on medical leave, I’d been stuck with all the paperwork on our cases as well as pitching in with Shadi’s. On top of all that, there’d been a scramble to get Danny ready for camp. Without Baba pitching in, I don’t know how I would have juggled all of it.
Sweet Ray half-turned his head my direction. “We saw your picture in the paper. You looked like shit.”
I laughed out loud. “I bet.” I really owed Pen a new dress. I’d practically had to burn the other one.
“Did you really cook dirty for the Hierophant?”
I sobered. “Yeah.”
“Where’d you learn to do that?”
I waved my left hand. “I grew up in the Cauldron.”
He finally looked at me. “No shit? And now you’re a cop?”
“Decided life was better on the other side,” I said. Little had I known when I made that decision how much more complicated better would be. “Anyway, I got something for you.”
He perked up. “You hear that, Peewee? She brought me a present.”
The pigeons at his feet clucked and shuffled, clearly unimpressed.
I pulled the box from my jacket pocket. He looked at it for a moment, clearly not trusting that I wasn’t fucking with him.
“Are you for real with that?”
I shoved the Babylon Mobile box into his hand. “It’s nothing fancy. Just a burner. I put forty dollars on it, though. That should last you a little.”
His hand trembled and the corners of his eyes got suspiciously bright. “A cell-a-phone?” He said it with the reverence one might have for a sacred religious artifact. “For me?”
Suddenly fighting some moisture in my own eyes, I cleared my throat. “Well, you earned it, didn’t you? You gave me some good information. You and Peewee.”
He sat up straighter. “Mostly me, though.”
“Mostly you.” I watched him open the box and pulled out the simple flip phone. “I programmed my number in there. In case you ever see anything else I need to know about.”
He looked up from the phone. “You mean about Mr. Mayor?”
I hesitated, thinking about that day at the hospital. Volos had been off my radar for a few weeks, but I was pretty sure it was only a matter of time until he popped up again. “Sure,” I said finally, “or any coven stuff.”
“What if I run out of minutes?”
“I’ll refill it when you bring me something useful,” I said.
“All right.” He pursed his lips.
“Hey, Sweet Ray?”
“Yeah?”
“You know how you said the eclipse would be death?”
He nodded solemnly.
“I mean, I lived and all, but things were close there for a little bit.” I cleared my throat. “I guess I was wondering how you knew there’d be in trouble.”
He smiled wide, exposing white gums and a few gray teeth set against his green lips. “I told you, Peewee sees everything.”
“All right.” I laughed. “You take care of yourself, okay?”
He waved the cell phone. “Thanks.”
When I got back to the car, Danny looked up toward the stairs. “Who’s that guy?”
I paused before starting Sybil. “That, my friend, is what happens to people who get involved with dirty magic.”
“Whatever.” He rolled his eyes like a pro. “Can we go now?”
* * *
We pulled into the parking lot about ten minutes later. The Conservatory building looked half-baked but full of promise in the golden rays of first light. I chose to see that as a positive portent.
“You can just drop me off.” Danny o
pened the door before I even pulled to a complete stop.
“Hold it.” I threw the car in Park, grabbed my travel mug of coffee, and turned off the Jeep. “You’re stuck with me until that bus leaves.”
He muttered under his breath, but I knew it was all an act. He’d been checking his hair in the visor mirror ever since we left the house, and he kept looking in his backpack to see if he forgot anything. The kid was nervous as hell. He might be able to convince himself that he didn’t need me, but I wasn’t naive enough to believe it. Besides, even if he didn’t want me there, I needed to be there to see him off.
It was the first time we’d be apart this long. He’d spent the night with friends plenty of times, and had a couple of school trips over long weekends. But my little brother had never been out of my sight for two whole weeks before. Even Baba, who’d known him since he was about six years old, couldn’t handle it. She’d refused to come to see him off because she was afraid she’d make too much of a scene. Instead, she opted to stay home to start making cookies to send him in care packages.
“Kate?” His impatient tone dragged me out of my reverie.
“Right. Sorry.” I climbed out with my coffee, holding it like a security blanket.
I surveyed the parking lot for any familiar faces. The only one I spied was Principal Hidalgo. She stood next to the bus, checking kids in against a roster on a clipboard. She spotted us and waved, but then a group approached and she got caught up with their questions.
Around the lot, some of the other parents gathered in clusters to chat, but they didn’t look like people I’d like. The moms all wore full faces of makeup and wrinkle-free clothing. I, on the other hand, wore no makeup and I was packing heat, which I was pretty sure wouldn’t be a great conversation piece in that crowd.
I turned to tell Danny we should go check in with Hidalgo, but realized he was already halfway there. I smiled at his enthusiasm and resisted the urge to call him back to help me carry the rest of his stuff. In addition to the backpack, he had a trunk filled with clothes and toiletries, plus all of the alchemical supplies we’d had to buy for the camp.
Some of the other kids were pretending to look at their cell phones but casting each other cagey side-eyes to size up whether new arrivals were potential friends or foes. While I handled loading Danny’s stuff into the bowels of the bus, he assumed the position near a cluster of two boys and a girl who looked about his age.