by R D Martin
The creak of a door opening barely registered, but the newcomer’s scream got her attention. Turning away for a moment, she saw the landlady, eyes wide and hand covering her mouth as she surveyed the carnage. A battered woman, clothes dirty and torn from being tossed across cobblestones, kneeling next to another unconscious one was not something a person expected to see. A headless corpse, neck cauterized by the flame decapitating it, however, was probably the final straw. The old woman opened her mouth and bellowed a scream so whining it could be confused for a siren.
20
The slow drip of liquid into the line connecting Karina to the bag of saline ticked off the count of seconds as efficiently as a clock. Drip, drip, drip. One second, another, and another. It was amazing, Bella mused, sitting in the chair next to the hospital bed, how things could change in such a short time.
The first thing her landlady did after she stopped screaming was call the police. Not that anyone could blame her. Most people could go their entire lives without seeing a dead body in their yard. Back home, the police would have taken half an hour to arrive, but the men in blue here, they came much quicker.
After the police came the fire engine. She hadn’t been sure why they came, but chalked it up to being a southern thing. The ambulances arrived after that, but she still blamed the fire engine for attracting all the neighbors.
“So, Ms. Flores. You seem to be having all kinds of adventures since arriving in the Big Easy,” Detective Monroe said, leaning against the wall. His rumpled suit and coat made him look much bulkier than when they’d met at the station. “First a mugging, then this, whatever this is.”
He waved at the body at the center of everyone else’s attention. A man in a white coat and blue gloves hovered over the body, poking and prodding it with instruments, taking samples and putting them in small clear bags. There would not be much evidence for him to collect though. At least not about her. Magic didn’t leave fingerprints.
“Do you want to tell me what happened here?”
“I,” she began. Telling the detective the truth was out, but coming up with a convincing lie would be impossible. “I don’t know. We were getting ready to go out, enjoy what’s left of Mardi Gras. I was supposed to meet her down here, I had to run up to grab something. When I got back, I saw her like that, lying on the ground. I shook her, tried to wake her, but nothing worked. I didn’t even see the dead guy until the landlady screamed.” Give enough truth to make the lie seem real, and they’ll believe it to be real.
“Okay, but what about your clothes? You weren’t going out like that, were you?”
Shit. Details, she chided herself.
“No. I, uh, I got hit by something.”
“What, a train?”
“No, I didn’t see it. It just bowled me over.”
“Uh-huh. And did this happen before or after you rushed to your friend’s aid?”
“Before, well after, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“I was going to her and someone ran into me. By the time I got up, they were gone. My friend was still on the ground, so I didn’t care who it was. I just wanted to make sure she was all right.”
“So this guy running into you. It was a guy, right?”
She shrugged her shoulders. Let him fill in his own blanks. Gods, she hated dealing with the police.
“This person of undetermined gender ran into you and escaped. Did you see him carrying anything?”
“Carrying anything? Like what?”
“Don’t know. A bazooka maybe?” he said, eyes darting to the corpse. The medical examiner had finished collecting samples and begun outlining the body with a yellow tape.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t tell. Look, Officer. I don’t know what happened. All I know is my friend is in the hospital and someone knocked me down. You don’t think I did this, do you? I mean, I left my flamethrower back home and wouldn’t know where to get one here.”
She bit her tongue as his expression shifted to a scowl. He might not have magic, but he could still lock her up. Under the circumstances, playing nice seemed to be the best bet.
“I’m sorry, Detective. It’s just ever since coming here, things keep happening to me and I don’t know why.”
“Yeah, that's,” he said, pausing as if to search for the right word. His face softened though, and the knot in her stomach loosened a fraction. “You’ve had a rough few days. The city’s not normally like this, at least not to tourists. Look, why don’t I have an officer give you a ride to the hospital? If you remember anything new, you can call me.”
He passed Bella his card and she slid it into a pocket without looking at it. She had no intention of calling him, but not taking it would seem suspicious.
With lights flashing, the ride to the hospital was a quick one. Trying to find Karina took much longer. As much as she disliked dealing with police, they seemed positively helpful compared to hospital staff.
The first nurse Bella talked to told her to take a seat and a doctor would come out to see her before bustling off. Bella must have been tired because it took her a moment before realizing she hadn’t given the nurse her name.
A short line queued up in front of a harassed looking woman behind a sign saying information, so she stepped to the rear and waited her turn. Over the next two hours, she spoke to the woman, Linda, three more times before being told her friend was being moved from emergency to a room. It was another hour before they could tell her the room number.
Now, sitting next to Karina, wondering if she’d ever wake, Bella couldn’t stop blaming herself and the guilt cut through her like a hot knife. It was her fault she hadn’t taken care of the boy in the alley the first time they’d met. It was her fault she’d brought the artifact to the B&B instead of turning it straight over to Gar. She hadn’t thought to check for tracking spells on the case, though it should have been one of the first things she did after leaving the swamp. Instead, all she’d wanted to do was spend time with her friend.
For the first time in her life, she had a friend who accepted her as she was, not as the picture she presented to the world.
The worst part, the part that twisted her gut so much it hurt, was realizing she could have kept Karina safe from this long ago. One call to the Imperium would have solved it. They’d swoop in and Karina would be whisked away to some secret compound to train in magic. Instead, she’d let her selfish desire to keep her close cloud her judgment. She’d failed to follow the rules, and Karina paid the price.
Closing her eyes, Bella opened her mind to the world of magic. As usual, the verdant colors swirled around and through everything, but they seemed muted somehow, washed out like a chalk drawing on cement after a light drizzle. The only thing still solid was the black spot on her friend’s neck. Under her gaze, the spell pulsed with a life all its own, undulating like waves on a dark sea, daring her to do something about it.
Crushed beneath the guilt, she formed a thread of magic to explore the darkness, letting it weave itself from the fog of power. She had power, more power than any normal human could hope to wield, and she refused to sit and do nothing. With her strength, she could lance through the spot, destroy the weave if she gave it enough power. Maybe, she thought as her mind raced with possibilities, she could kill it fast enough to stop it killing Karina. If she flattened the magic, made it thinner than the blade of the sharpest knife, she could slice it away.
The tip of her weave changed, forming an edge capable of sliding through the spaces between atoms as it moved closer. The darkness quivered and shook as her magic drew nearer, almost as if it waited to welcome the attack.
Sighing, she released the weave and let the magic dissolve back into the swirling mist. The spot’s movement slowed to its normal undulation and continued sucking the life from her friend.
She couldn’t do it. It was her fault Karina was in this situation, stuck in a hospital bed with her life draining away. What good was power when it couldn’t be used to help the people she loved
?
As she thought of the people she loved, Bella’s heart gave a pang as the image of her boyfriend floated in her mind. What would he think of her when he found out what she’d done? Would he leave her too? Afraid she would put him in danger as well?
Waving away the thought, she stood from her seat. No, that was impossible. He’d grown up in the same world as she and knew the risks too well for that. But even so, while he could protect himself, would he want to be involved with a woman who seemed to kill people everywhere she went?
She could almost see the blood on her hands as she paced back and forth. Every death resulted from protecting those she cared about, and on some deep level, she understood they weren’t her fault, but this was different.
The knots in her stomach twisted harder. She needed to do something, but what? Magic only hurt Karina, and medicine couldn’t cure a magical malady.
Her stomach rumbled, reminding her she still needed to eat. There was probably a vending machine on the floor somewhere.
Leaving the room, ready to ask the first nurse she ran into for directions, she stopped in her tracks, mouth agape.
Seeing Gar in public was shocking enough, and she could understand people accepting him being a regular human dressed in costume when everyone else did the same. But standing in the middle of the hall wearing a set of blue scrubs and a white coat like a doctor, hair poking out of cuffs and collars, was a sight she’d never forget.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, shooting glances at nurses and orderlies who seemed to ignore the seven-foot hairy creature walking their halls.
“I’m here to,” he said, but stopped when a nurse shoved a clipboard between them.
“I’m sorry, Doctor. The patient in 404 is complaining of pain.”
Gar took the clipboard, flipped through its pages, handed it back to the nurse.
“Tell him to stop being a baby and give him a healing spell,” he said in a voice sounding bored with such mundane matters.
“Doctor,” the nurse said, her voice reproachful, but the smile on her face belying her sternness.
Bella’s shock grew. The nurse was flirting with him. Couldn’t she see he wasn’t human?
“All right,” Gar replied, giving her a grin displaying his too sharp teeth. “Tell him I’ll be there in a minute.”
The nurse nodded and shuffled off, looking over her shoulder once as she walked with an exaggerated swish of her hips.
“What are you doing here? Why did the nurse call you a doctor? What’s going on?”
“Calm down,” Gar replied, pulling her to the side to let a gurney pass. “They’re calling me doctor because that’s what they think I am.”
“Why? Why do they think you’re a doctor? Why are you here?” Even she could hear the hysteria in her voice as she hissed her questions at him.
“Didn’t I say calm down? Really, I’d think you’d have some common sense at least. Do you see anyone running around like maniacs screaming about a giant creature attacking patients?”
“Why aren’t they?”
“Because they don’t see me. All they see is a tall, roguishly handsome doctor, doing his rounds. Why would they panic at that? Though, between us, these outfits still leave a lot to be desired. I never understood why you humans insist on wearing such uncomfortable clothes.”
“It’s better than naked,” she retorted out of habit. They’d had that conversation before. “Don’t change the subject. How are you here? It can’t be a glamour, unless you put one on every person in the building.” While she wouldn’t put it past him to try, casting and holding such a huge number of spells would be impossible for even him.
“Oh for the gods’ sake,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Here, hold still.”
Reaching out with both hands, he put one palm in front of her face and the other in front of his own. As he pulled his hands down, his hairy visage disappeared, replaced by smooth skin, emerald green eyes and a smile bright enough to make TV actors jealous. Moving his hands back up, he returned to normal.
“What was that?” she asked, an electric jolt running down her spine.
“I wouldn’t be able to do my job if I had to hide all the time, would I?”
“But that spell? What is it? Can you teach it to me?”
“Later, later,” he said, sweeping his wrist as if to push away the questions. “It’s time to go.”
“Go? What do you mean go? Where are we going?” The last time she’d seen him, he delivered a death threat, and now he wanted her to go with him?
“Home, of course. Time to go home.”
“But the artifact. I didn’t even give it to you yet. And what about Karina? I can’t just leave her.”
“Oh, you found it? Good. The master likes to add to his collection. You’ll probably get a bonus for it.”
“But why? Last time you said he’d, well, you’d kill me if I didn’t deliver. Why now? Why does he want me to come home now?”
“Can’t you just be happy he wants you home?”
“Gar. Tell me, please.”
“All right,” he said, his massive shoulder lifting with his sigh. “The truth is, the client died. We’re not getting paid for the job, so he sent me to fetch you back. Satisfied? Can we go now? These clothes itch.”
“No, I’m not satisfied. Who was the client? What happened? What about Karina? We can’t just leave her here.”
“Oh, your friend. Well, there’s nothing to do. We can’t take her with us. I can look at her if you want me to, but my healing spells aren’t much good on humans. Besides, this place is full of doctors.” Looking down at his outfit, he ran a giant hand down the coat as if smoothing it out. “Human doctors, I mean. They’ll take care of her. The Finder will cover her bill, so no worries. She’ll be fine.”
“Fine? She won’t be fine. She’s lying in a hospital bed, in a coma with some kind of leech spell sucking the life from her. Every time I try to look at it, the spell attacks my magic and drains her life even faster.”
“Oh, one of those spells. Yeah, they can be a problem. I had to deal with one once, nearly killed me.”
Blood drained from her face, and cold fingers played across her skin. If Gar, with all his power, almost died dealing with this kind of spell, what hope did she have?
He must have seen the look on her face because he backpedaled like a pro.
“Not that this one will kill her, I’m sure. These things generally run a course then die out.”
“Is there anything we can do?”
“Not, not really. I mean, yes, but…” He shook his great shaggy head.
“But what?”
“This kind of spell, well, they’re difficult. First, find the person controlling it, then you have to get them to release the spell. If the magic is transferring life from your friend to them, they probably won’t want to give it up.”
“So what do we do then?” She knew, or at least believed she knew, who controlled the spell, so that part was easy.
“If you can’t convince them to release it, then there’s only one thing to do. You gotta end the spell yourself.”
“And how do I do that?”
“Kill them.”
“What?”
“And quickest way possible, too. You can’t give the controller time to use the life force gathered by the spell. End it quick enough and the spell snaps, returning the stolen life back to your friend.”
“Okay, so all we have to do is track down the Baron and kill him. No problem. I don’t think he could stand up to your magic, anyway. Thank you, Gar. You don’t know how much—"
“No.”
“This means— wait, what? What do you mean no?”
“Exactly like it sounds. No.”
“Why not? After your speech about being my friend, I think you’d want to help.”
“I am your friend, and I do want to help. But I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Is there a difference?”
“
Yeah. One of those makes you a coward.”
His lips curled and he snarled loud enough to make a nearby nurse jump.
“Listen, Witch,” he said each word underpinned with suppressed rage. “I could tear this building down around your head and wipe this city from the map. I’ve toppled kingdoms and trod humans like you beneath my feet. When I’m free again, I’ll kill you bugs by the thousands, but until my curse is gone and the chain around my neck lifted, I must do as instructed. And that includes not killing any of you meat sacks.”
The venom in his words forced her to back away. His chest heaved with anger and his fingers extended claws designed to rend flesh.
“I’m, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“I know what you meant,” he spat. Gar closed his eyes and breathed deep until his shaking stopped and claws receded. “It’s been a long time since someone’s had the nerve to call me a coward. I’m a lot of things, but that isn’t one of them. And I am your friend too.”
“What’s going on, Gar?” she asked, trying to act caring, though some small part of her wanted to shrink away.
“Nothing. At least nothing you need to worry about. I want to help. Trust me, I do, but I can’t.”
The finality in his voice was as crushing to her as to him. With his help, she had some hope. Without it, she was lost before even starting.
“What do I do?” she whispered, not expecting any answer.
“Do? I just told you what you needed to do.”
“But I can’t. I don’t know how. The magic down here is so different.”
“So? What does that have to do with anything? Magic is different everywhere. It’s not how you use magic, but what you do with it, that’s important. What have I told you? Master yourself and you’ll master magic.”
“What if it doesn’t work? What if I fail and Karina dies?”
“That? You won’t have to worry about that?”
“What? Why?”
“Because you’ll already be dead,” Gar said, laughing at his own joke.
“Funny.”