“Runaway. But she can see supernaturals.”
“She needs to be in school. Doing normal teenager things.”
“She ran away. I don’t think she wants to be doing that.”
“Since when did anyone give a shit what a teenager wanted? If they had their way, they’d play video games all day.” Bianca had a point. A really good point. She sucked on the top of her pen a bit more thoughtfully. “So what are we going to do with her?”
“I was thinking, maybe, intern?”
“Hello, what you two talking about?” Cristian asked, pushing his desk chair over to join us. About that time, Vivian looked over at us and gave me a scowl. I smiled and waved like I was supposed to do, as an adult, ruining her life.
“How is that you two are never out on cases?” I asked. They were both senior to me, but I behaved like their senior, so they let me sort of be their senior.
“We are. We’re supposed to be. Cristian and I came back to check the database. We got reports of a Loch Ness style monster in the Great Salt Lake. Again.”
“We checked it out, then came here to catch up on the recent research and scholarship.” Cristian sat on the edge of Bianca’s desk.
“Those sightings have been happening since I was a kid.” I moved to open an application on my computer to begin searching through the old database full of newspaper articles from the 1800s.
“More like since our parents were kids,” Bianca said. “Before that even. Our current theory is that there’s a subterranean tunnel from here to the ocean, perhaps, where they hide and breed, then either come this way or go back out to sea. Getting lost. Something like that.”
“Since we’re splitting hairs, that’s not a bad theory. But I think it’s been a theory—for a while.” I swirled in my chair and stopped searching the database. “Sounds like you guys got it covered.”
“In any case, Dred, tell me about the girl,” Cristian said, standing up and bringing a chair closer, which he sat backwards on. He rested his arms across the backrest.
“Found her in Gingerbread.” I filled him in on the details and we discussed what we could do with her. Keeping an eye on her while I ran through it all, I couldn’t help but notice her noticing us, and I felt a pang of empathy for her. I didn’t like this vulnerable side she was bringing to the surface. Her energy reminded me of myself and I wanted to do better for her than was done for me.
“Fua’s not going to let her stay,” Cristian said.
“I’ll talk to him.”
“Ok, well, in that case. Maybe he’ll let you keep her around. If his pet Dred is going to talk to him about it, I’m sure he’ll accommodate her.”
“I’m not his pet,” I protested.
Cristian and Bianca exchanged a look, then laughed.
“What?”
“You’re not his pet. That’s rich,” Bianca said.
“Oh, OK, Ms. 1985 Archie Comic book character. Is it rich, Jughead?” I grinned and cocked my head. “So what, you’re calling me a liar?”
She nodded and inspected her pen, then began chewing on it again. “I wish this pen was a cigarette.”
Cristian cleared his throat and his cheeks went red. From the look on his face, I knew he was thinking of something else and I chuckled softly. Bianca noticed all this and glanced at Cristian, registered his crimson cheeks, then gave us both a dirty look.
“You guys deserve to be eaten by vampires.”
“I’d be into that,” I said. “Cristian?”
“Depends on the vampires.”
I nodded and smirked. “He’d be into it.”
“Good, because I’m sure that’s how you’re gonna go. Painfully. Limb by limb.”
“These vampires are starting to sound more like zombies or something, and we all know those aren’t real.” I was really getting into how clever I was being.
“There are other creatures who’d do it. Whatever the case is, you both deserve it for being total perverts.”
“Very brutal, Bianca. You could at least offer to give us some morphine before we’re brutally murdered.”
“Dred!” Fua’s voice called from across the floor. “Get in here!”
I sighed. I knew it was too good to last, my clever time. Pride goeth before the fall.
I caught Vivian jumping as though startled by the captain’s deep voice. He looked from me to her, and scowled. I guess everyone was going to be an ass to her. Well, they wouldn’t get away with it for long. Because now that they’d all decided to treat her like scum, I was determined to singlehandedly get them to appreciate and possibly even like her. Starting with just not hating her and seeing her as a pest. Then we’d move from that to tolerating her, and on to other more agreeable emotions.
“Keep your clothes on, Captain. I’m right here,” I said, referencing him getting so pissy that he changed into bear from.
Captain as a bear was actually quite a bit more pleasant, but the last thing I needed was him shifting in front of Vivian. I doubted she’d seen that much in all her seventeen years, even living in Gingerbread.
“Later, dorks,” I said to Bianca and Cristian. They both made offended gasping sounds. “I mean that in the most affectionate way possible. You lovable dorks. But get back out there and figure out what’s going on with the Salt Loch Monster. I just coined that. Pretty sweet, right? Salt Loch Monster. Has a ring to it.”
“Genius,” Bianca said.
“Heard it before,” Cristian said at the same time.
He’d heard it from me, I was sure. But I was already at the door to the captain’s office. I glanced over my shoulder at Vivian and shot her with my finger.
She flipped me off. Teens were the absolute best. Why was I fighting for her again?
26
“She has to go, Dred,” Captain Fua said before I’d even sat down.
I looked from Hank to the Captain. What the actual…
“Have you guys been sitting in here working it out, without me?” Oh, no they didn’t.
Hank sank deeper into his chair, trying to bury his head between his shoulders.
I was baffled. Betrayed. Baleful. Feeling other b-words, bitchy too, while dealing with bastards, apparently. “Stop playing turtle and man-up, Hank.”
He glanced at me, rose to his full sitting height, then said softly, “Throwing toxic masculinity around are you, Dred?”
“Toxic masc—what? What the heck? Why’d you—? This is—”
“You told me to man up. I’ve only ever heard that used negatively. It pairs well with ‘boys don’t cry,’ ‘hide your emotions,’ ‘avoid intimacy,’ and ‘be a bully.’”
“That’s quite the menu. I’ll have some wine with that. And hey, whatever, you threw Vivian under the bus!” I could barely get the words out. I was too livid to think. “This isn’t cool. Look, you ready to have me forget to keep your back covered out in the field, Hank?”
Hank’s eyebrows shot up and he shook his head in dismay. “I didn’t throw her under the bus.”
“Knock it off, Dred,” Fua growled, sounding surprisingly like he did in his bear form.
I pointed at him. “Don’t ‘knock it off, Dred,’ me, Captain. This feels like a betrayal. We work together. He’s my partner. My partner. We decided together to bring Vivian here. And I wonder, did he . . . ” Two can play that game. I opened my mouth to begin throwing Hank under the bus—about not having his stylus on him when he needed it, when I’d almost died—just because I felt so betrayed.
But I looked at Hank and then I looked at the captain, and I looked inside myself, and I saw the kind of person it would make me if I petulantly threw Hank under the bus out of vengeance.
I’d almost done it. So it wasn’t like I was a saint and I certainly didn’t feel like one, because I was really mad at him. I considered all the other ways I could hurt him in return—stapling his balls to his chair, stapling his bomber jacket sleeves to his forehead, stapling his aviator sunglasses to the bridge of his nose. Why everything revolved a
round stapling, I didn’t know, but men understood things best when their junk was involved. However, I could also use a pool cue in the rec room. Swat him across the back with it. I mean, the sky was the limit, I was just feeling less than creative.
And I was mad, but as I took several deep breaths, I came to grips with the fact that all of my ideas were a bit much. Maybe I needed to cool down.
I bit my lip and collapsed heavily into my chair.
“Keep your shirt on, Dred. Hank was fighting to keep her, but she’s a liability. I’m not keeping a kid around the fortress. She’s seventeen, supposedly. What the hell are we going to do with a 17-year-old? And that’s assuming the kid didn’t lie to you about her age. She sounds like a liar. Not to judge a kid, but come on Dred, you know what kind of kid runs away from home.”
I stared at the captain. “Hmm, well, I don’t know. Maybe a kid who’s misunderstood? A kid who doesn’t understand what she is? Or what she’s becoming? I mean, there are lots of possibilities, captain. And she was living in Gingerbread, with one of my agents.”
“That creepy dwarf,” Hank added.
I glanced at him. Maybe he was on my team still, but he avoided eye contact with me.
“Who’s the creepy dwarf?” Fua asked.
“Grygg. You know him.”
“Oh, Grygg,” the captain said, putting his feet up on his desk. “Grygg’s not creepy. You think Grygg’s creepy?”
“He unsettled me,” Hank said.
“Dred, Hank filled me in on the girl. I know what happened, but that doesn’t change the fact that she can’t stay here.”
“Fine, she won’t stay here. But she’s got a place here. Intern. We need one.” I crossed my arms so hard I actually sent a lightning bolt of pain through my breasts. I inhaled sharply.
“You alright?” Hank asked quietly.
“Don’t talk to me, traitor,” I said.
“We’ve never needed an intern, Dred. This is a position you’re creating just for her.”
“So what? She can see supers. She’ll manifest her power one day, if she hasn’t already, and she’ll be an asset. We’ll have fostered loyalty in her. She could be a natural, here.”
“And what if her powers manifest and all she can do is summon peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?” Fua asked, looking between Hank and me. “Sorry. Is it lunch? It must be if I’m thinking of sandwiches.”
“That’s not going to happen. She could be a shifter. Or a witch. A mage. Anything. She needs us, otherwise she’s out there, a wild card, wild magic, untrained and unguided. And captain,” I said, leaning forward, feeling the acme of my speech screaming toward me, high pitched and fast as a leopard chasing a rabbit. “Isn’t that worse than having an intern you think we don’t need?”
27
“Spare bedroom. Which will be your bedroom, for now,” I said, opening the door and flipping on the light. I hadn’t planned on having company, so there were boxes stacked in one corner and the room smelled a bit musty.
Vivian wandered deeper into the room, looking around. She turned to gaze at me, her eyes defiant. “I’d rather just go home.”
Oh, thank goodness. “Oh yeah? Great. I can take you wherever that is right now.”
I wasn’t planning on guests, and to be honest, I wasn’t excited to be babysitting a rebellious kid, either. She folded her arms and cocked her head to the side. “I can just get an Uber or something.”
I guffawed. “Yeah right. And then hitchhike back to Gingerbread? Not happening, sweetheart.”
I leaned against the doorframe. She stamped her foot.
“Are you sure you’re seventeen? That move reminded me more of a twelve-year-old.”
If a gaze could have lit my clothes on fire, hers would have done so right then.
“This is inconvenient, I know. You want your freedom. But you don’t even know what you are, entirely. You see supernatural beings. You hated church, your family, maybe lots of other things. And you’re running from something. A person can only run so long. You’ll never actually escape from yourself. Time to turn around and face these things.”
Vivian rolled her eyes. “Pretty speech.”
“I know. I’m putting it in a Ted talk later.”
“I was lying. It was dumb.”
I narrowed my eyes. “And how often do you do that? Lie?”
She scoffed and shook her head like a dog with an itchy nose. She shrugged out of her backpack and sat on the edge of the bed. I thought for a moment that she’d given up her rebellious attitude, that things were about to get real and I’d find out the truth about her. I was ready for the heart-to-heart we were about to have.
“If this is my room now, can you please leave it?”
Ah, I was wrong.
“Sure,” I said, biting my lip before I said something snide. “Get comfortable. Make yourself at home. Bathroom’s just down the hall. Anything in the fridge or pantry is yours if you’re hungry. I’ll be out here if you need anything.”
I shut the door and let go of the breath that had been building, and walked away.
Later in the evening, Vivian hadn’t come out of her room since we’d gotten home. But I knew she’d not snuck out, since I’d remained in the kitchen most of the time and the kitchen and dining area afforded a view of the backyard through huge bay windows. So, unless she could pass through walls, the girl was in her bedroom.
I’d never seen anyone do that—pass through walls. That would have been a cool power for her to have.
The summer night glided toward us and before long, I glanced at the clock. It was ten. Time for my lesson with Orrin.
These lessons always seemed so inconvenient. But, hopefully he’d take a lesson request and would teach me something like levitation or a stasis spell. It was bothering me how little I knew compared to the rest of the team, including Hank, who had way more skills under his belt with his stylus than he ever actually used. But he had them. That was the point. I didn’t.
I went to Vivian’s door. She hadn’t come out yet. I wasn’t interested in neglecting her, even if it did massively cramp my style to now be the guardian of a teenager.
“I’ll be on the back patio, meeting someone.” She shouted something rude about who I’d be meeting and what we’d be doing, which I ignored. “If you’re hungry, remember that there’s food in the pantry and fridge. Eat whatever you want.”
“Oh, so you’re saying there’s food in the fridge? How odd. Thanks.”
I cringed. The little—
“Starve, then.” I smiled. There was enough good humor in my voice to soften that, right? Had she treated Grygg this way?
I put on some casual lounge pants and a tank top and went out onto the patio to wait for Orrin. Vivian’s bedroom was in the back, on the other side of the kitchen, so if she hadn’t closed her curtains, she’d have a full view of the lesson with Orrin. What would she make of me learning from a ghost?
Not that I cared too much. The girl had already had a crash course in the supernatural.
I sauntered around the backyard, checking on the plants and the fountain, pulling dead fronds off the yuccas and clearing off the filter in the water feature. The water lilies looked good and I was just beginning to feel the calm of the place seeping into me, when Orrin’s awful voice pierced the bubble of relaxation.
“Pupil, prepare for your lessons.” The ominous tone came from behind me.
I turned and shook my head as I looked up at him. The ghost hovered above the bench where he always materialized. He wore the same outfit, looking precisely like not a minute had passed since our previous lesson.
“Hey Orrin,” I said, recovering from the surprise of his terrible voice interrupting my Zen moment.
“Are you prepared?”
“No. Give me a minute.” I took a deep breath and exhaled. I shook my head from side to side like the dancer in Flash Dance, hearing that song in my head, suddenly. I wriggled my hands, like jazz hands, and just sort of warmed up.
O
rrin frowned at me, the leaves of the Japanese maple tree behind him showing through his features and making him seem much more ghastly than he was.
“I’m the master here, you will do as I say.”
“Yes, true. You have me there. But I’m warming up. Getting warm and feeling it.”
“I do have you there. Stop warming up. Obey my commands.”
I felt a new appreciation for what Vivian was going through as Orrin talked down to me. My hackles went up, all over my body. Before I knew what was happening, my hands were prepared to cast a spell at him.
He laughed. “Fool, girl, you cannot harm me with your magic.”
Was that true? I’d never tried to engage a ghost with my spells. For all I knew he was wrong.
I took a breath and cast the wind spell Gale at him, which if it worked, would knock him down and partially pin his body for thirty seconds. Used with other spells, it could be really powerful and in a team setting could give my partner a chance to cast another spell at him.
It passed through him, not so much as rippling his clothing. I could have predicted that outcome, but hey, it was good to know for sure.
He laughed.
“Orrin. Look, just—for five seconds—talk to me like I’m a person, not your footstool.”
The aetheric light of a spell hovered over his hands. It glowed blue. He closed them, and clasped his hands behind his back.
“Very well. Unfortunately, my magic won’t work on you either. The dimensions are separated by more than what we see here.”
I supposed I should be grateful for that. I took several breaths. “Thank you. Orrin, I learned something yesterday. My grandmother is a sorcerer.”
Orrin nodded, but didn’t say anything.
“Is that all?” he asked, finally.
“Yeah, that’s all. I know where my powers came from now. My maternal grandmother.”
“Not surprising. But what did you expect me to do with this information.”
“I thought it might be useful.” I shrugged.
“In some way, perhaps it is. Sorcery is thought to pass along the maternal line. This is true of several types of magick. Others are passed through the paternal line.” He began to pace along the bench.
Flames to Free (Dred Dixon Chronicles Book 1) Page 14