by Ann Macela
“I’m about to run out,” Jim gasped in her ear.
CHAPTER FORTY
Jim was so weary. He’d wasted some of his power earlier on that miserable excuse of a flamma to set Ubell’s coat on fire. With Ubell out of the room, he’d almost managed the strength spell he and Johanna had been working on, when Leroy hit him again and broke his concentration. The beating hadn’t helped his reserves, either.
Somehow he had to keep going, keep supplying Irenee with energy. Where in hell would he get it? He could feel her power diminishing, and his bucket was almost dry. Nobody had ever explained what happened when a practitioner ran out of energy. He probably would need a transfusion of some kind—or he might simply fall over.
If they both ran out, Ubell and his Stone would kill them.
What could he do? There had to be something!
He looked around wildly. No ammunition. Nothing to throw. Where was a good rock when he needed one? Or even better, a cannon.
His eyes fell on Leroy collapsed behind the column.
Oh, wait. Could he get to the guy?
He threw the last of his power into Irenee. At this point, what did he have to lose?
“I don’t have any more energy,” he told her, “but I have an idea. Cover me.”
She didn’t reply, only nodded, and sent another beam from her sword at Ubell.
Jim let her go, took two running steps, and dove for Leroy. He slid on his stomach across the stage, ending up behind the stout column and almost on top of the thug. A chunk exploded from the column plaster just after he reached its protection.
He grabbed his gun out of the man’s belt and stood up, keeping his back against the column. He made sure a round was in the weapon’s chamber and braced himself, ready to turn and fire. When he looked at Irenee, she was looking back at him. He leaned enough to peer around the column at Ubell. “Ready!”
“Ready!” she answered.
“I love you!” he shouted.
“I love you!” she yelled back to him. “One, two, three!”
On three she threw a brilliantly violet beam at Ubell’s head. He yelped and ducked, and his sharp movement jerked the staff and the Stone’s face to the side.
Jim came out from behind the column. His first shot missed because Ubell was moving to the side, dodging Irenee’s beam. He aimed at Ubell’s head and fired, just as the man swung the staff his way.
CRACK!
His bullet hit the Stone dead center, and crystal shards flew from it in a black cloud.
“AAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHH!” Ubell clutched his head and collapsed. The smoking black staff fell over by his side.
When the walls stopped shaking and silence returned, Jim took three steps to Irenee and caught her as she threw herself into his arms and held on tight. They only raised their heads when someone yelled, “Irenee! Jim!”
Swords blazing in their hands, Baldwin and Johanna, with a bunch of Defenders behind them, threw open the ballroom doors, only to stop abruptly at the threshold.
“Nobody move,” Baldwin ordered, staring at them and the collapsed Ubell. “Are you two all right?”
Jim had only the strength to nod, and Irenee did the same.
“That was gunfire we heard? You shot the Stone?”
Jim nodded again.
“Were either of you hit by the splinters?”
“No,” Jim and Irenee said together.
“Well, it’s one way to kill the thing.” Baldwin cancelled his sword and put his hands on his hips while he surveyed the room.
Jim also looked around, now that he had the chance. Ricocheting energy beams had gouged hunks of plaster out of the walls, and yellow and white bits lay scattered in clumps about the room. The ruts in the floor had stopped smoking, and the surface had buckled in places. Obsidian shards were stuck in the floor, walls, and doors in about a ten-foot radius around Ubell’s body. Miraculously, the crystal chandeliers had hardly lost a single prismatic drop and those not covered in soot still reflected rainbows.
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” Baldwin said. “Jim and Irenee, you stay there until we get the Stone fragments out of the way. Healers, see if you can reach them by the side door. Everybody, be careful where you step.”
He pointed at the obsidian shards. “Defenders, get the removal kits and start collecting every piece of the Stone. Every little bit. Watch out for those big chunks by the staff. Use extreme caution with them. Remember, the pieces are still evil and hold power, so use tongs or pliers to pick them up. We don’t want any evil rubbing off on anybody. Looks like we’ll be able to give every Defender team in the country a chance to destroy several of them.”
He turned to Johanna. “You and I will get Ubell and his henchman out of here. Ubell doesn’t appear to have any shards in his face, but I see some in his robe. Somebody bag the robe after we get him out of it and put it and what’s left of the staff in the Hummer. Let’s take the men downstairs to the study where Finster collapsed. You know, some medical problem must run in this family. This cousin seems to have suffered a similar affliction.”
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
After he and Johanna took Ubell and Leroy downstairs, and while the others worked to pick up the Stone fragments, Baldwin came to the stage.
Jim was sitting in the throne, holding Irenee on his lap. He couldn’t let go of her, and she wouldn’t let go of him. Just the way he wanted it.
“The healers say you’re going to be fine,” Baldwin reported. “They applied some quick fixes and will look you over again back at the center. How are you feeling?”
“Tired, very tired,” Jim answered. Now he knew what happened when you ran out of energy. He was staying upright by sheer willpower.
Irenee, her head on Jim’s shoulder, only nodded.
“I have to call my boss,” Jim said and picked up his phone from the table. Except for his weapon and ammo clips, he’d already put the rest of his stuff in his pockets.
“Does it still work?” Irenee mumbled.
“Ubell threw it across the room after you hung up on him. It didn’t seem to work after that” He flipped the lid and punched the on button. Nothing happened. “No, it’s dead.”
“All the magic killed it, not the throw,” Baldwin said. “It would be better—and traceable—to call from the phone in Ubell’s study. Before you do, however, I’d like to ask, are you going to tell him and the agency about us?”
“What good would it do? Even if I did, I doubt he’d believe me.” He rubbed his free hand through his hair and winced when he brushed the bump on his head he’d received in the van.
“Let’s get the two of you to the study. While we were clearing a path through the crystal pieces, I alerted Fergus, Miriam, and Rachel about the situation. They said to tell you both congratulations and thanks. You have done some excellent work here. We also came up with some suggestions for handling the situation concerning your task force.”
In the Finster study, Jim listened to their ideas while he and Irenee ate candy bars for energy restoration, and somebody cast a spell that dissipated the smoky smell left from the fireworks. Feeling more energetic, though still tired, Jim agreed with the suggestions. He trusted Ken Erlanger, but if he himself hadn’t been part of the battle, he’d never believe the tale from someone else.
Baldwin knocked over a chair and did a little more “set decoration,” since the interrogation was supposed to have taken place in the study and the fight with Leroy in the hall. Somebody dragged the still-unconscious muscle out. Ubell was stretched out on the floor in front of the desk—where, John remarked, he had said Finster originally collapsed.
Jim sat in the big chair behind Ubell’s desk and pulled Irenee into his lap. He called his boss from the desk phone and put it on speaker.
“It’s Tylan.”
“Jim! Where have you been? Where are you? We’re about ready to move on Ubell.”
“Hold on, boss. Ubell’s moved ahead of us. He kidnapped me, brought me to the Finster mansion
, and had a thug beat me up, trying to get info on what we’re up to. He tricked my fiancée”—he winked at Irenee, who looked quite startled at the word—“to come over here with the idea of using threats against her to make me talk. When she came in, she distracted the muscle so I could jump him and knock him out. Ubell started screaming at me and then had a fit, literally, and he keeled over. He’s lying on the floor right in front of me. He’s still breathing, and his heart is beating, and that’s about it. We need the paramedics.”
“You stay there. We’ll be right over.”
Jim disconnected the call. “Here they come. Irenee, when they get here, let me do all the talking, okay?”
“I won’t say a word,” she answered.
“We’re headed out the back,” Baldwin said. “Leroy is in the hall, still unconscious, shackled with your handcuffs around one of the newel posts on the stairs. Here’s your gun and one clip. We cleaned and reloaded it, so it doesn’t appear to have been fired. You have your other stuff.”
He waved toward the upper floor. “Upstairs is clean—still damaged, of course, but with no trace of you or Irenee, including the bullets you fired and their shell casings. After your people are finished here, we’ll be back to check for any pieces of the Stone we missed. I’d like to find its hiding place, too. We’ll see you later at the HeatherRidge.”
“Thanks,” Jim and Irenee said in unison.
“You two did real good,” Baldwin said with a grin and left.
Almost immediately, Jim heard sirens.
He held Irenee close, swiveled the chair, and glanced up at Otto Finster’s portrait. “You know,” he said, “I think the old man is mad as hell.”
Irenee stirred and tilted her head to stare at the painting. “I think he looks crazy, as crazy as his grandsons.”
Jim leaned to see it from her angle. Finster’s eyes seemed to glint with deranged malice. “You’re right. A psycho if there ever was one.”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
The sirens died outside the house, and for the next several minutes, people were everywhere. One set of paramedics hauled Ubell away. Another set separated and checked over Jim and Irenee. When they wanted to take Jim to the hospital, he refused, saying he’d see a doctor later.
At the beginning of the invasion, Ken Erlanger made sure Jim was all right and left to investigate the rest of the house. When things were organized, he returned. Erlanger was a big, burly man with dark brown skin and a deep voice, which reminded Jim of James Earl Jones. He could sound like a jovial, kindly man one instant and the wrath of God the next.
He walked straight up to their chair—Jim had her on his lap again after the paramedic exam—and held out his hand to Irenee. “Ken Erlanger, Ms....”
Irenee sat up straight, smiled, and shook hands. “Irenee Sabel.”
Erlanger’s eyebrows shot up. “Of the Sabel Industries Sabels?”
“Yes.”
“I understand congratulations are in order.” He looked from Jim to Irenee and back with a smile. Jim could see Ken was still surprised by the news. Hell, so was he.
“Thank you. We’re very happy,” Irenee said with a big grin before Jim could say anything. She pulled Jim’s arm tighter around her.
He winced. “Careful, honey”
“Okay, what exactly happened here?” Erlanger asked, all business again, as he pulled up a chair and sat down.
“I spent the night with Irenee and went back to my apartment early to get ready for the meeting. Four of Ubell’s guys jumped me there and knocked me out,” Jim explained. “When I woke up, I was here. Ubell tried to question me about our plans. When I wouldn’t talk, the one piece of muscle still here—Leroy—beat on me for an incentive. When I still wouldn’t talk, Ubell called Irenee on my phone and told her he’d kill me if she didn’t come here.”
“So, I came,” Irenee put in.
“Yeah, even though I told you not to.” Jim frowned, gave her a “keep quiet” squeeze, and continued, “I figured he was going to threaten to beat her—or worse—to get me to talk. While she was on her way, Ubell left the gorilla with me and went somewhere. I don’t know where. When Irenee came in, her entrance distracted Leroy, and I was able to take him down. Ubell came back and started yelling and screaming—something about killing both of us. I told him he was under arrest for assault, and he turned white as a sheet and fell over, shaking like he was having a seizure. After a few seconds, he went limp. I made sure he was breathing and called you.”
“You didn’t hit him or struggle with him?”
“I didn’t lay a finger on him.” And that was the God’s honest truth.
“What happened in the big room upstairs?”
“The ballroom?” Jim shook his head, did his best to look puzzled. Better to offer no explanation. “Why?”
“It looks like somebody fought World War Three up there.”
The best defense being a good offense, Jim said only, “I thought we had people watching this house. They didn’t see a ruckus?”
“We pulled the surveillance to put more people on the increased drug sales last night. It paid off because we caught a couple of the major distributors in the warehouses. One of them is so mad at Ubell for moving too fast that he’s willing to give him up as the guy behind the scheme. If I had any notion we were going to capture them, I’d have had you come in when I called you. I know how much you want those guys.”
Erlanger shook his head. “Anyway, no, we didn’t see a fight. The damage upstairs is weird—burn marks and plaster all over the place. On the other hand, it doesn’t appear to have relevance to our investigation. Maybe Ubell had a temper tantrum and beat on the walls or maybe he liked to play games with blowtorches. It’s too bad we weren’t here, though. We might have seen you brought in and been able to spare you a beating.”
“Yeah, and moving in might have brought about a hostage situation and a bigger mess. Ubell wasn’t acting rational. I doubt he’d have given up without a fight.” Jim waved the hand not holding Irenee’s at the room. “Look on the bright side. We’re here now. We’re in the house. Assaulting me is a felony. It’s a crime scene.”
Erlanger smiled, a showing of his predator teeth. “I’ve called in a request for a search warrant for the entire property. We’re not going to let Ubell get out of paying for his crimes on a technicality”
“That has to be Ubell’s laptop,” Jim said, pointing to the one on the desk. “Maybe we can get straight accounting records here.”
Erlanger’s phone rang. After a couple of minutes of conversation, he hung up, a very satisfied look on his face. “Looks like everything is coming together. The computer guys reported they’ve cracked Ubell and Finster’s code on the drive copies you made. We’re going to nail those bastards and their entire operation to the wall. I can’t wait for them to wake up.”
“Assuming they ever do,” Jim said. Whipple, had been right—cut the power and the spells disappeared. “Listen, Ubell said something about knowing I was either DEA or ATF from a source. He didn’t name the guy, but I’ll bet it’s somebody in law enforcement.”
“I’ll look into it. We need to get busy rounding up all their associates and closing their operations. Oh, Leroy in the hall woke up and started yelling for a lawyer. Wait until he finds his boss in the next cell.” Looking extremely satisfied, Erlanger rubbed his hands together and stood. “Jim, you look awful. Get to a doctor. You tend to your wounds and Ms. Sabel this weekend. The paperwork can wait until Monday”
Since Jim’s phone was fried, they gave Erlanger Irenee’s number and walked out of the mansion hand in hand. While they were waiting in her car for the police to move some of their vehicles, her phone rang. She answered, said “yes” a couple of times, and hung up.
“That was Johanna. We’re getting an escort home.” When the exit was available, she pulled out, turned left at the corner, went down the street two blocks, and turned right. A big white Hummer was waiting.
Johanna came over. “Get in the oth
er car, you two. We have some food. We don’t want you driving in your condition.”
Jim was perfectly happy to do so. He knew he was in no shape to drive. He’d been worried about Irenee’s strength also. If she was even half as exhausted as he was, she’d have a hard time staying awake on the road.
On the way to the Center, they ate some chocolate and a couple of apples and drank two bottles of water each, and fell asleep in the backseat of the Hummer.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Johanna roused Jim and Irenee at the HeatherRidge and shepherded them into a private dining room full of Defenders. Everybody gave them a standing ovation. Catherine and Hugh Sabel and Bridget Whipple hugged them both.
All Jim wanted to do was go to bed. He was still hurting in places—the healers’ quick fixes had only done so much. How long would he have to be here? What time was it? He looked at his watch. Fried, exactly like his phone.
“Eat,” Bridget commanded. “You have to replenish your magical and physical energy. That requires food, then sleep.”
So, they ate.
Irenee was certainly recouping her energy faster than he was, Jim noted while he shoveled in whatever they brought him. Sitting next to him and between bites, she gave an avid audience a blow-by-blow account of the battle.
She closed with, “I had no idea what Jim was planning when he dumped all his energy into me and ran over to Leroy, but I had no options left. I was about to run out of power, and I didn’t know if my fortress could withstand too many more bolts from the Stone. Jim’s been in shoot-outs before, and I trusted him to get us out of this one. When I saw the gun in his hand, I knew we had a chance.”
“Here’s to our wild talent,” Hugh Sabel said and raised his glass. Everyone followed suit.
Jim felt his face grow hot. He knew he was blushing as much as Irenee usually did. “Only doing my job,” he mumbled and kept on eating.
“I may have gone up part of another level,” Irenee announced. “I was throwing pure violet at the end.”