by Izzy Shows
“No, that one does not go there, it goes on the other side. Gods, Finn, can you not follow a simple order?”
“Shut up, I am helping you, you would think that would make you just a wee bit kinder.”
“I wouldn’t be me if it did,” I said with a smug grin. I was just so happy that he was alive to tease me, to help me. I had thought for a moment that I had lost him as I’d lost Aidan, and I hadn’t been able to live with the idea of it. I would never have been able to forgive myself for foolishly allowing him to partake in the battle with me. But here he was, alive and in one piece, and I had nothing but thanks to give for that.
It was awkward going down the stairs, but we made it to the living room, then through the kitchen, and finally down to the basement again. Sara and the man were huddling in their corner, terror on their eyes, and they darted their respective gazes from the corpses that remained there and then back to me.
“You’re alive!” Sara shouted, jumping up and running over to me. She wrapped her arms around both me and Finn, sobbing and making sounds that I couldn’t quite understand but they sounded a bit like words of happiness. Maybe. In some sort of language. I think it was English.
“I am indeed alive, as promised. Sara, meet Finn, who also deserves a fair amount of credit for your survival,” I gestured with the hand that was wrapped around Finn’s shoulders up at his face before flopping it down on his shoulder again.
She pulled away from me, her previously just grimy dress now covered in blood, and kissed Finn on either cheek. “Oh, thank you.”
I grinned, looking up at Finn, fully expecting him to make some sort of pass at Sara, but his eyes were riveted on the man in the corner. I raised a brow, nudging him with one hip and coughing.
“Yes, sorry, you’re welcome. Who’s your friend? Is he OK?” Finn asked, a little distracted as he glanced back at her for a moment before returning his gaze to the man.
I hadn’t bothered to take in his appearance before, so distracted had I been with getting myself ready for the fight. I thought that was a fair reason to mostly ignore a person. But he cut a dashing figure, thin though he was from the time he’d spent down here likely without proper food. His hair was a shaggy mess of black curls, his eyes a blue that I thought would brighten once he remembered what it was to laugh. His white skin was a ghostly pallor, having gone for so long without seeing the sun. I understood what had captivated Finn, though, it wasn’t any of those pieces alone but the sum of their parts, and the core within them. In his eyes was the spirit of a man who’d wanted to believe in a good world and had that belief torn from him.
Finn had once had the same hopes for his world.
“Michael?” Sara prompted him. “Aren’t you going to thank them?”
Michael stood slowly, like a skittish creature, and walked towards us with an awkward gait. My eyes darted down to his leg and I saw that it was swollen, something I hadn’t noticed before. Had it been broken by the vampires? Perhaps Shawn should have a look at him as well.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice hoarse, and he was staring at Finn as well.
“Do you two know each other?” I asked, tentatively.
“Once,” Finn said.
My eyes widened.
“A long time ago,” Michael continued the sentence Finn had abandoned.
I looked at Michael then at Finn, then back again. “Awkward,” I said, trying for a laugh. No response. Awkward, indeed. “Well, I continue to be the hero of the day, then!”
Sara smiled at me, shaking her head. “You deserve true accolades, not to laugh at yourself. You saved our lives. I can never thank you enough, and I cannot begin to think of how to repay you.”
“Just don’t make me do it again, and we’ll be square,” I said. “Come on, let’s get out of here. I can’t imagine either of you want to spend any more time here than is necessary. Michael, you should come with us back to the house. We have a doctor friend who can examine that leg of yours.” I glanced at Finn as I spoke and watched as his face tightened. What was going on there?
“I wouldn’t want to impose on—“
“No. Come,” Finn said immediately. “Please.”
Michael glanced at me, then nodded at Finn. “All right, then. Let’s go.”
“Cool. Oh, but you can’t mention…any of what happened here to him. He doesn’t know about this part of the world.”
Michael nodded solemnly. “I would never take that away from someone.”
We walked out of there, and I had the distinct desire to set the place on fire.
45
Finn and Michael assisted me in getting out of the car, each of them had an arm looped under and then around a shoulder, supporting my weight so that I didn’t have to use too much energy or move too much. I still stumbled several times, and almost fell flat on my face despite their help when I looked up and saw Shawn sitting on the steps in front of my door.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “It’s almost dawn, how long have you been here?”
He powered off and pocketed his cell phone. “A few hours. Finn told me he was going to get you from a fight, and I figured you’d need my help afterwards. You don’t look so good, Blair.” There was concern etched into the lines of his face, and I sighed. I knew I didn’t look good, I didn’t need to be told that.
“Better than the first time you met me, though.” I tried for a joke.
“That’s true,” he said, grinning. “Let’s get you inside and down on the couch.” He stepped away from the door so that Finn and Michael could bring me to it.
I lifted one of my arms from Michael’s shoulder to grab the door knob so it would look like I was unlocking it, muttering the spell to remove the wards under my breath. I pushed the door open and looped my arm back around Michael’s shoulder, and together the three of us limped in and deposited me on the couch. I groaned and leaned back into the worn cushions, rejoicing at the feeling of relaxing for the first time in a while.
I’d done my job. I’d taken care of the monsters, and now I could rest for a moment. I shifted my weight and leaned down on the couch, gesturing with my fingers. “Servo finis,” I muttered and felt the spell dissipate around my abdomen. Immediately the pain intensified and I lurched forward in a crunch, gripping my stomach as the blood began to seep again, barely managing to hold back the scream that jumped to my lips. “Shawn. I’m going to need immediate assistance on this one.” I gasped out the words through gritted teeth.
With eyes wide and paled skin, he rushed over to me, a medic bag at his side. He placed it on the ground next to the couch and knelt in front of me. “What the fuck just happened? You were fine a second ago.”
“Must have been the process of sitting,” I said. I gingerly lifted the edge of my t-shirt, bringing it up to expose my abdomen and leaving it rolled up just below my breasts. I looked down to see three angry, deep gashes there. “Ah, so that’s what that looks like.”
He swore, opened his bag and started pulling out medical supplies, placing a large square bandage on top of my stomach and pressing firmly with it while he dug about in the bag with his other hand. “I’m going to put you over my knee if you keep this up, Blair.”
“Heh, promise?” I grinned at him, though I felt faint from the blood loss.
He glared up at me, his face dark and promising punishment.
“This is going to hurt,” he said as he pushed the bandage to one side, so that it was still covering two of the three wounds. He had a cotton swab in one hand and rubbing alcohol in the other.
I flashed a smile at him. “Go for it.”
He dabbed rubbing alcohol onto the cotton swab and began to clean around the wound, his movements as gentle as was humanly possible. Shawn was a great medic, that could not be overstated, and I was grateful that he’d been willing to patch me up for so long without running into any issues with him. Guilt flashed through my mind, and I briefly wondered if my slip up was going to impact his willingness to help me out, once we ta
lked about it. I couldn’t lose him as a medic, I would probably die if he walked away from me, and that wasn’t something I wanted to handle.
Pain flashed through me as he pierced my skin with a needle, beginning to work on the wounds in earnest now.
“So how do the two of you know each other?” I directed the question towards Michael, trying to distract myself from the pain in my gut. It wasn’t as bad as when I’d been wounded, but it was enough that I was in extreme discomfort.
Michael glanced sidelong at Finn and I saw the jolt go through Finn as if lightning had struck him just then. I had never seen him behave so strangely. Finn was a bit of a fiend when it came to his lovers, he took them and left them with little time for a romantic relationship. He wasn’t picky about who he chose for his bed, didn’t discriminate when it came to the sexual identity of his lovers, but there was one constant no matter what—he didn’t keep them around, he didn’t develop feelings for anyone. But there was a tint of pain to his face right now, and I couldn’t help but think that it was romantically related.
Finn cleared his throat. “We knew each other in university. He was in a few classes of mine, used to be a bit of a wally. No clue if he still is,” he said with a tight smile.
I frowned, narrowing my eyes. That didn’t jive at all with the body language the two of them were putting out.
“I’ve been told that I am as much of an arsehole as I’ve always been,” Michael said with no indication that the declaration had hurt him. That was surprising; most people would defend themselves. “I was rather cruel to Finn in those days, so you’ll have to forgive him if he doesn’t appreciate my presence. It is not a mark on his character, but on mine.” There was so much formality to his speech, his accent quite upper crust. I was intrigued, and wanted to know so much more about the relationship that was obviously between the two of them, romantic or otherwise. Maybe I’m just a nosy person, but I couldn’t help myself.
“I’ve never seen Finn not get along with anyone. What about you, Shawn?” I asked, turning my head to look at him.
His eyes were narrowed, and his face hadn’t regained any of its colour, so focused was he on the task at hand. “No,” he said, a single syllable.
“Hmph.” I rolled my eyes. “Well you won’t be any help then.”
“Nope.”
“As I said, it’s my fault entirely.”
“We can agree on that, at least.” Finn shot it back at him.
I winced as I felt the alcohol dabbing at the final cut on my stomach. “Could someone bring me some water? I’m not feeling so hot.”
“She needs food,” Shawn said without looking up.
Finn nodded his head. “I’ll make you a sandwich. Michael, could you bring her the water?”
“Of course,” Michael said, inclining his head slightly.
He limped into the kitchen and brought me back a glass of water, while Finn busied himself in the kitchen making a sandwich for me. I sipped at the water at first, then greedily drained the entire glass as soon as I realised how thirsty I was.
“It doesn’t seem like you’ve given me the whole story here, Michael,” I said, lowering my voice so that Finn couldn’t hear me.
Michael smiled, not quite as tight as the one Finn had given earlier, but nowhere near a true smile. “You’re not missing out on anything, I promise.”
“I should be allowed to be the judge of that.”
“Please,” he said, his voice tight. “I owe you my life, ask something else of me.”
My eyes widened. Oh Gods, but I wanted that story. I wasn’t willing to push him more than he was willing to give me though, so I backed off. “All right, then, you’re spared again.”
I glanced at Shawn, a little nervous now that I realised what Michael had said. Shawn’s face was a little tighter than it had been before, his lips set in a firm line. He finished the last stitch and stood up.
I started to protest—the gashes on my stomach were decidedly the worst, but I had other wounds that I would have liked him to take care of—but he cut me off with a wave of his hand.
“That’s it. I’m not sewing another bloody stitch until you tell me what the fuck is going on here. I’m well and truly sick of being left in the dark here.”
Finn walked in with the sandwich just then, and he and Michael shared a look with me that only served to further enraged Shawn.
“Are you fucking kidding me? So, he knows what’s going on and I don’t?”
“Shawn,” I said, trying to be gentle. “He was there.”
“And I’m the one who puts you back together every time you go off and do something stupid as all hell. Tell me.”
I sighed, shifting myself into a sitting position. It was his turn to try and protest, but the glare I sent him quelled it. I stood on shaky legs, aware that too much movement would rip out my stitches. I raised both arms at my sides.
“Glacio,” I said. A mere whisper, locking eyes with Shawn the entire time so that he could know exactly what was going on. I knew I shouldn’t have done it, knew that I should have at least tried to explain it to him first, but I went for the simplest option. The burning pain spread across my entire body as ice prickled out along every inch of skin that was exposed. I took the few steps required to reach Shawn, who was staring slack-jawed at me, and kissed him. The frost transferred from my lips to his, and I giggled at the sight of it. “Ignis,” I said. Heat flared across my skin, melting the ice so that it pooled off me in little drips. It served a purpose I hadn’t intended, washing off much of the blood that had caked onto my skin.
“There you are, Shawn. I am magic, and I fight monsters. That’s why you must stitch me up, that’s why I can’t go to the hospital, that’s what I’ve kept from you for so long.”
He gawked at me for several awkward, silent moments.
“Bloody hell,” he said reverently.
46
The next day had been an exercise in busy work, and I was exceedingly pleased to be heading to a bar to hang out with Shawn and Finn again. I’d gone to Dudley’s to confront him about the way things had gone down at Serenity—according to him, Carmen had rushed straight back as soon as she’d realised I was missing and reported the situation. He hadn’t allowed her to go out and locate or help me, unwilling to risk losing her the way he had lost Maria with Aidan. Apparently, there was a limit to what he was willing to risk to prove that he was on my side. I wasn’t entirely certain I bought the story, but Dudley didn’t have any reason to lie in this circumstance. The vampires had gone rogue, turning on him, and had been on the brink of challenging his power in a way that I did not think he would have survived. If Carmen had turned on him, he would have killed her too.
Shawn had patched me up as best he could last night, and I was walking around in one piece, so I had that to be thankful for. I was on strict orders not to get into any scrapes for at least a week—he’d said a month, but we both knew that wasn’t going to happen. I was also supposed to be down and resting as frequently as I could, but I was the restless type. I couldn’t lie in bed and do nothing all day long, no matter how good it was for my body.
I walked into Local House, glad to see that it wasn’t too crowded. It was a Tuesday night, and still early in the night. Hopefully it would stay this quiet, but I suspected it would get a little busier as the evening wore on.
“Blair!” Finn’s voice greeted me from behind, and I turned to smile at him. He’d walked in right after me.
“Hey,” I said, aware that my voice was still painfully hoarse. I had done a lot of screaming back in the vampire manor and my throat had not yet recovered.
“Why don’t you go grab a table, I’ll get your drink. Shawn will be here in a minute, I saw him pull into the car park when I walked in.”
I frowned at him. “I can get my own drink.”
“Come on, Blair, let me buy you a drink. You saved my skin and you took care of the case in one fantastic run. The least I can do is buy one drink.”
; I glared at him for another moment before I relented. “Yeah, OK, you make some good points. I’ll grab the table.”
I walked away from him and plopped myself down stiffly at a table by the wall. I situated myself sideways in the chair closest to the wall, so that I was leaning against it with my legs kicked up in the chair that would have been beside me. I glared at a few people who walked by and gave me nasty looks—they didn’t know how beat up I was, I only had a few scratches on my face and several on my arms, but the deeper issues in my gut and legs were invisible to those passing by. My legs cramped if they weren’t straightened, so they could all suck a dick if they had a problem with me.
“Well you are looking appropriately feisty today. Feeling better?” Shawn appeared in front of me and took the seat across from me, beer in hand. Finn walked up beside him and sat in the last free chair, passing me my regular cider. I took a sip from it and moaned in delight.
“That’s the stuff,” I said. “Yes, quite a lot, thank you, Shawn.”
He grinned. “Glad to hear it.”
“So how did it go at headquarters, Finn? Thanks for not dragging me with you for the explanation, by the way. I did not have the energy to deal with that on top of everything else.”
“No problem,” he said. “Overall, it was OK. The boys didn’t believe much of what happened, but Krista was worried about you. She asked if she could stop in to check on you, and I think she also wanted to ask a few questions about what happened. Ever since she saw you work your magic at the murder scene that day, she’s been a changed woman. She fights with the boys all the time now, arguing more than she used to, generally fed up with them because they don’t believe in you. I tried to explain to her that some people just can’t deal with it, but…she doesn’t get that.”
I tensed for a moment at his use of the word magic, glancing a nervous look about the room. No one seemed to notice, and I realised that ‘work your magic’ was a common enough phrase that could mean as little as me having a specialised skill. Nothing to be worried about.