“Go, go, go!” I yelled, pushing the mages into the hallway as Chuck, Felicia, Turbo, and I kept on firing.
It was Turbo’s gun that was doing the best job of keeping the orc at bay. Unfortunately, he could only fire it every few seconds because the kickback kept flinging him at the wall.
Noting that, I tucked in Boomy and picked up Turbo, pointing him in the direction of the orc.
I squeezed.
“Ow,” he yelled. “What the fuck?”
“Oh, sorry…shoot him!”
The pixie fired and fired and fired.
I was able to absorb the kick without much fuss and since I was easing Turbo back with each shot, he was able to better manage it as well.
“You two go,” I commanded Felicia and Chuck.
They split and I was right behind them, pointing Turbo back at Trezgel for one final shot.
It missed.
The orc was on our asses as I launched over the rail, falling like a bungie jumper without a cord.
“No!” Trezgel yelled as he grabbed my leg after diving after me.
I had spun and was falling with my back to the ground. The orc was right above me, pulling me closer.
We were a split second from the portal when Turbo unleashed a bullet at point-blank range.
Chapter 45
Trezgel let go as light flashed around me and Turbo, then we smashed into the floor of Charlotte’s art gallery.
It felt like what you might imagine jumping from a high dive into an empty pool might feel like.
The portal slammed shut immediately after I’d cleared.
Trezgel also made it through.
Well, his head did anyway.
The rest of him was likely splattered on the castle floor. After all, it was a long drop from the top of that tower.
“So much for it feeling like you’re landing on a soft mattress,” I said with a groan toward Griff. “That sucked.”
“What happened to the orc?” asked Rachel, getting to her feet and looking like she was ready to fight.
I pointed at Trezgel’s disembodied head.
She grunted and slumped back to the ground. “Good.”
It was all I could do to not yell, “I told you so!” at everyone.
I knew from the start that there was something fishy going on with this Charlotte chick. Yes, I’ll admit I was jealous, but there was something more to all of this and I knew it.
But what would be the point?
They’d all just say I was being petty. It was always my fault, right?
Fuckers.
“So what happens to the orcs in the cage?” asked Harvey, who was returning to his normal self.
“Without that key, they will never be given life,” answered Griff.
I dug it out of my pocket and held it up.
“You must hide that away, Ian. It can never be allowed to enter the Badlands.”
“I know, Griff,” I replied as the key began to glow. “Uh…what’s it doing?”
It was getting hot. Molten hot. I threw it on the ground near the orc’s head.
“Don’t do that!” yelled Warren. “If that’s a gate key, he might be able to use it!”
As one, the entire crew—even Harvey—turned to look at Warren as if he were a complete moron.
“I’m pretty sure he’s more than just a bit dead, Warren,” I stated.
In return, Warren squinted, looked over at Trezgel, and then looked down at his feet, muttering something under his breath.
The room flashed.
I covered my eyes just in time, but it was so bright that I saw spots for a couple of minutes following it. Plus, my head was ringing like we’d been hit with a concussion grenade.
“What just happened?” I asked as my ears began to clear.
Turbo pointed.
The key had melted into the floor.
“That’s it, then,” announced Griff. “The orc bodies we saw in stasis have disintegrated. The key was the only thing keeping them intact.”
“You’re sure?” I asked pointedly.
“Positive.”
If anyone would know, it’d be Griff. Of course, he was also the one who said our portal landing would be nice and cushy. It was not.
I wanted to stand up and get the hell out of here, but since the danger was gone, I just put my head back on the hardwood floor and shut my eyes. There was a lot to come to grips with over what had happened tonight.
“What do we do with the head?” asked Warren.
I probably should have had Lydia get Paula Rose and The Spin down here to check it out, but dealing with my ex right now honestly wasn’t something I found all that enticing. Besides, it wasn’t like anyone on the Strip was any the wiser of what had gone down tonight.
With a small grin, I answered, “I’d say the guy who got us all into this mess should be the one to clean it up.”
“Right.”
Chapter 46
The Directors were in surprisingly good spirits as I sat there before them. It seemed that EQK had been directed to go through sensitivity training after the other Directors had complained. They seemed pleased with themselves.
EQK hadn’t gone already, obviously, but the very fact that it was on his schedule made everyone else happy.
“A dragon is definitely a rarity in the Overworld,” said O. “I’ve not heard of one being allowed up since the breaking of the Badlands.”
“Nor I,” agreed Silver. “Clearly she snuck through somehow.”
“They are tricky,” agreed Zack. “Honestly, though, I’m more worried about the fact that there was an orc still alive.” He hesitated. “Not that I’m fond of the concept of genocide. That’s not my point. I’m speaking specifically in terms of the fact that none were supposed to have remained, and yet clearly one has…or had.”
We sat in silence for a minute, mulling over things. I didn’t know a ton about the history of the Netherworld, but like most people, I knew the highlights.
Orcs were created by the dragons in order to battle against Netherworld Proper. They failed. The dragons went into hiding. The orcs kept coming. The dragons soon found themselves under attack from the very beasts they’d created, and so they teamed up with the rest of the Netherworld and a massive battle ensued. Many lives were lost as they sought to destroy every last orc.
It was a terrible time in Netherworld history.
“You guys are dicks,” said EQK out of the blue. “Just because I happened to call O by his full name doesn’t mean you should rat me out.”
O slammed his hands on the desk. “My full name is not Osshole!”
“It isn’t?”
“Why would you think it is?”
“Maybe your parents saw into the future and determined what kind of person you’d be?” EQK replied, sounding innocent.
“Not only does that make zero sense, EQK,” O said in a tight voice, “it’s insulting.”
“Hmmm.” The pixie was rarely stumped. “Well, then, I…apologize.”
This stunned the room.
We’d just been discussing dragons and orcs and genocide, which should have been sobering enough, but an apology from EQK? That was just downright unprecedented.
“Seriously?” said Silver.
“Yeah, are you being for real?” asked Zack.
O leaned forward for a moment. “Is this an honest apology, EQK?”
“I…” It was clear the pixie was struggling. “Well…” He cleared his throat and coughed a few times. “Ah, fuck it! No, it’s not a real apology! I’ll take the sensitivity training and piss all over the instructor. You guys are the Three Musketeers of douchebaggery! Osshole, Shitvers, and Crack!”
“Shitvers?”
“Crack?”
I tried not to laugh. Seriously, I tried. But it was no use.
“What are you laughing at, Wrong Sex Dex?” EQK snapped.
I sobered.
“Wrong Sex Dex?” I said, confused. “I don’t get it.”
“�
��Cause you’re a woman in a man’s body, dipshit.”
“Clever,” I said back, and then added something I probably shouldn’t have. “That means very little coming from someone named EQGay.”
There was a line that one didn’t cross with their superiors, especially in the Paranormal Police Department. It was an imaginary border that rested between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. EQK crossed it with his peers all of the time, and it seemed he was finally going to be paying a penance for that, but for me to cross that line against the Directors was not good.
The room was dead silent.
It was in a moment like this when EQK was well within his rights to have my job yanked right out from under me.
I was sweating.
And then the pixie burst out laughing.
“EQGay!” he exclaimed through laughs. “I love it, WSD!”
“Who is WSD?” asked O.
“Wrong Sex Dex, Osshole,” EQK said between laughs. “Don’t you ever listen?”
I released a sigh of relief.
The others could reprimand me, but only EQK had the right to put in a formal complaint since my insult was aimed at him.
Just in case, I said, “I’m sorry for my outburst, sirs.” Then I adjusted in my chair and quickly moved to get the subject back on track. “Again, uh…the dragon has been destroyed, and the orcs, I’m told, are no more.”
There was another few seconds of quiet.
“If the key was destroyed,” agreed O finally, “that would be the end of them.”
I nodded. “That’s what Officer Benchley said as well, sir.”
“I guess that’s that, then,” said Silver. “I have another appointment to attend to.”
With that his station went dark.
“Me as well,” stated Zack a moment before his area dimmed.
“Good job, Officer Dex,” O said. “We will meet again soon.”
That just left me and EQK.
“The EQGay thing was funny,” admitted the pixie, “but if you do anything like that again, I’ll have your nuts in a sling. Got it?”
“Got it.”
“You’re all right, Dex,” he said, using my actual name. “These other guys are dicks, but you’re more like me than they are. I dig that.”
“Thank you…sir.”
“Fuck off.”
And with that, his station light went out.
Chapter 47
When I stepped out of the back room and into my office, I found Rachel seated in one of my guest chairs.
She had an envelope in her hand.
“Hey, Rachel,” I said, somewhat surprised at seeing her there. I’d assumed she was still pissed off at me for having gotten laid in the circle of valkyries. “What’s going on?”
In response, she set the envelope on the desk and pushed it toward me.
I opened it, but before I could even unfold the paper, she spoke up.
“I’m transferring to London.”
It felt like someone had just punched me in the stomach.
I sat down.
“What?”
“I can’t do it anymore, Ian,” she said, not looking at me. “It’s been years and I just can’t let go.”
“Of what?”
“You, you idiot,” she answered in a huff. “And it’s clear you don’t feel the same way, so I’m leaving.”
But I did feel the same way. I just couldn’t do anything about it. I was her boss, for crying out loud!
“Rachel,” I said, fighting to keep my voice calm, “you know how I feel about you, but you also know that we can’t do anything about it right now.”
“I’m well aware of the circumstances,” she replied. “It’s no longer worth discussing.”
“If this is about me getting laid in the—”
“It has nothing to do with that, Ian,” she replied and then groaned. “Okay, it has something to do with that, but not completely.” She shut her eyes and took a deep breath. “It used to be okay because we were only fighting against other supernaturals. There’d be a rogue vampire here and there, or a werewolf who crapped on someone’s yard, but now there are ubernaturals and you’ve been damn near next to dead more than once since they’ve come on to the scene.”
“So have you,” I replied. “Everyone has.”
“I know that.” Her response was heated. She held up her hands and repeated it more softly. “I know that. But this time we got separated. This time I was going through that hidden tunnel while you were all alone going through the nine levels. I couldn’t do anything to help. I couldn’t do anything to protect you.” She was clearly on the verge of tears. “I can’t allow that to happen again.”
I flicked the edge of her letter.
“And so you think that by transferring to London you’re going to somehow be able to better protect me?”
“No,” she said, “but going there means that there is no more chance of us ever being together. That means I can start a new life. I can find someone…someone else.” She looked away. “I can put what we had behind me.”
I wanted to fight her. I wanted to tell her that this was all a bunch of bullshit. That none of this mattered.
But she was right.
“Have you told the others?” I asked after a few minutes of silence.
She stood up. “Yes.”
I nodded as she walked from my office.
Chapter 48
The drinks weren’t quite strong enough tonight at the Three Angry Wives Pub. I had the feeling not much was going to quench my angst at the moment.
Rachel was gone from my crew.
I could have rushed after her, but I didn’t. I needed to think about everything. There had been plenty of time over the last five years to figure out a way to make things work between us, but I never did it. Doing so now in some mad rush to save things made no sense.
Again, I needed to think.
“Ah, Mr. Dex,” said Gabe as he took a seat across from me. He was the vampire who had brought the wonders of things like Flashes and Time. “Having a few extra drinks tonight, I see?”
“Rachel left the team,” I replied.
He raised an eyebrow. “Officer Cress is gone?”
“You heard me, pal.”
“Where did she go?”
The way he asked the question seemed a bit gruff. I regarded him for a moment, but he never broke eye contact.
“London PPD,” I answered. “Why?”
He looked to be in thought for a moment.
“No reason,” he said. Then he clasped his hands together. “Rumor has it your team was able to take down a dragon by the name of Charlotte.”
“How would you know that?”
“So the rumors are true, then,” he said while signaling the waiter to bring him a drink. “That’s a difficult task.”
“It wasn’t a lot of fun.”
“Did you use Time to assist you?”
I squeezed down the rest of my whiskey and nodded.
“Used it twice, actually.”
His head jolted. “Twice?”
“Yeah, once while boning my psyc—” I paused and looked up. “I mean, I used it during sex with this chick I know. Extended her orgasm in my world.” Then I shrugged. “The other time was to stop the dragon from tearing a hole in the fabric of reality or some shit.”
The waiter dropped off two more drinks, one for me and the other for Gabe. The vampire sipped at his. Mine didn’t last long.
“You do realize that you only have three uses of Time?”
I glared.
“No, Gabe,” I said pointedly, “I didn’t know that. And you wanna know why I didn’t know that?” I didn’t wait for a response. “I didn’t know that because you never fucking told me that!”
“Calm down, calm down,” he said, waving his hands at me. “Just be super careful with how you choose to use it the last time.” He then took another sip and added, “Sorry about losing your partner.”
I grunted in response and put
my head on the table.
Usually I talked to Rachel about things that went bad in my life. Who was I going to talk to now? Gabe? Nah. I barely knew the guy. Dr. Vernon was an option, but only if I stopped boning her. Seeing that I had the valkyries at my disposal now, I could go back to keeping my psychology appointments professional. That probably wouldn’t go over very well, though.
Man, my dick sure did get me into a lot of trouble.
With a groan, I said, “Why are you giving me these special abilities anyway?”
He pushed back from the table and stood up.
“Until next time, Mr. Dex,” he said. Then he paused. “Please be more careful with the items I give you to work with. They are not to be used recklessly.”
I sat up and gave him a sour look.
“Also,” he added, “I believe that you will somehow Sniff your way out of this predicament you have with your former partner.”
Sniff?
“That sounds wrong, dude.”
He paused and chewed his lip. “Yes, I suppose it does. Regardless, use it wisely.”
As I sat there pondering life, thinking about what was next, and wondering what the hell Sniff would do for me, I blew out a long breath while allowing my lips to vibrate.
“I guess I could take Harvey under my wing for a while and teach him the ropes,” I said to the empty glass of whiskey in front of me.
My mind drifted back to Rachel and I signaled for another shot of pain reduction.
It was going to be a long night.
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