by WB McKay
I nodded in gratitude to the hobgoblins, who returned my nod and backed away a few steps. They waited to see me take flight before leaving me alone. Carefully, I got some height and winged around the surrounding streets, but it was too late. Searching them out wasn't the best use of my time. It could be exactly what they wanted. I knew my priorities. It was time to make sure the apartment, and Owen, were okay.
CHAPTER EIGHT
It didn't take long to get back. Owen was still in his dragon form. He perched on the corner of the roof, watching the alley and the front door. Just in case, I swooped inside the building, but the door and booby traps remained untouched. I returned to the roof and shifted back.
"Ow."
Owen huffed, the sound tilting up at the end in question. He'd turned his back to give me privacy.
"I fell. Well, I was shot out of the sky. My fault. I knew to take the witches seriously, but they were so inept. I put myself in a vulnerable position and got shot out of the sky. No broken bones, and I'm talking so unless this sounds like gibberish to you right now, my brain seems okay. I banged myself up though, and the shift was a little rough." Owen and I both shifted in mere seconds. He disappeared in a ball of fire; I was lost in a cloud of shimmering, thick smoke. It wasn't truly smoke or fire in either case, it was magic. The transition was painless. Sometimes, if I'd been hurt with magic, the shift would undo the damage. Hitting a building and being smashed down to the ground was not one of those types of injuries, and I'd carried the aches and pains into my human form. Stretching hurt, and I imagined I'd be feeling bruised up for a few days. Resting up wasn't a luxury I was going to have on this case though. "All dressed," I told him. "Which way did the witches go?"
His large shoulders shrugged.
"You're pretty cute in this form."
He made a show of throwing his head back when he laughed.
"Oh, I know. You think you're terrifying. Well, you don't scare me, mister." I shook a finger at him. "And that's not a challenge, before you get any ideas." I could just picture him chasing me around with fire balls. "I'm injured, remember." I slumped my shoulders, trying to look pathetic. He threw his head back and laughed again, briefer this time. "How long since you last saw the witches?"
He spread out his claws to indicate five minutes had passed, which meant he'd chased them off roughly after I'd left. There was no one left to give answers. Damn. I'd almost had those two! I tried not to show my displeasure, and instead told Owen, "You did good staying here to watch the apartment." It was the priority until we knew whether the scepter was inside.
I called FAB and got the same agent I'd last spoken with. The backup I'd asked for was almost to me and I had them redirected to search for the witches. She promised that a notice had been sent out across the city and she'd issue an update. "And be sure to let the task force know they can come in now."
"They're five blocks away and on their way toward you as we speak," she assured me.
I realized I'd been nothing but short with her, so I added, "Good job, Agent."
"My name is Enid," she said, venom in her voice.
Even though we were on the phone and she couldn't see it, I worked to tame my smile before I replied, "Good work, Enid."
I didn't remember having met her, but it wasn't like I went out of my way to know anyone at the office. She sounded like someone I could make an exception for.
Owen prowled over and lowered his giant head down to mine. That close, I couldn't look him in both eyes at once, so I put one hand on the side of his muzzle and stared into an eye the same green of his human form. "You keep ending up on jobs with me. Is that an accident? A happenstance of being close to me? Or are you liking this wild life of mine? You did just jump off a building to go after some witches. That could be fun. But it's very different from managing a nightclub, don't you think?" I scratched his snout and his eyes drooped a little in response. "Hanging out in a library reading books, managing a nightclub, and chasing around violent criminals are three very different pastimes, you know. I bet none of the girls you dated before made you jump off buildings." He narrowed his eye at me. "Oh, you go ahead and look annoyed all you want. It's true. We should talk about that sometime when you can talk." I smacked his muzzle and took a few steps away. "Why did it take a fire-breathing dragon to scare away those human witches? And what were they even doing in Volarus? How did they get in Volarus?" I threw my arms out, an invitation for the universe to respond. "That was an organized attack, you know. Did you see how they surrounded us?" I put a hand on my hip and paced back toward him. "What do witches have to do with this? Were they just here? Or did the elves bring them into Volarus? It seemed like they wanted us away from the apartment, but they didn't even try to break in. " I dropped my arms and stopped walking. "All I have are questions." There was a ruckus in the street. I peeked over to see the task force bus opening its doors. They weren't really doors, and it wasn't really a bus. Shaped like a long snake with skin modeled after a dragon, the bus doors popped open under the wings. The bus could travel underwater, slither up the sides of buildings, and take flight on gossamer wings. Currently, it was curled around Owen's car, blocking traffic from entering either end of the street.
"The task force is here. You've been blocked in," I told Owen. "We can ask them to move if we need to."
He huffed.
"Well I need to get down there and talk to them. If you plan on staying in this form, you'll have to wait here." I knew before I said it that he wasn't going to have that, but I didn't know he was going to lower himself and tip toward me. I looked into his eye and could just hear him say, "A ride, m'lady?"
"Are we flying this time, for real?" I wasn't interested in traveling on the sides of any more buildings. He nodded, confirming his wingspan would fit in the street. "All right then." This would be the first time I'd actually flown on a dragon's back. He waited until I patted his neck, confirming I was ready, and gently rose into the air. Muscles flexed in his wings. He was built differently than a crow, and it changed the way he flew. The way his wings manipulated the air was like magic, but in truth was just his body. I ran the palm of my hand over his right wing and he twitched and made a sound. I pulled my hand back, until I realized I'd been tickling him, and reached out to do it one more time for good measure. He chuckled his dragon laugh and teetered back and forth, making like he was going to knock me off. "You can't get rid of me that easy."
He righted himself and closed in on the street. We'd gone a little higher, and a little further down the road, than we strictly needed to. I wasn't complaining though. I hoped we'd get to do that again some time.
The task force bus not only blocked in Owen's car, it blocked access to the street beyond the sidewalk. I assumed we would land a block over and walk, but that wasn't good enough for Owen, of course. He swooped down and, with the center of his body tilted toward the sky so I was level as possible, clung to the side of the building so I had a four foot drop to the sidewalk below. My stiff body wasn't thanking me for it any time soon, but I jumped off and it didn't hurt as much as I thought, just a few twinges here and there. I offered Owen a bow of appreciation. I'd barely backed away to give him room when he shoved off, taking flight. Again, I assumed he'd fly a back over, and again, I was wrong. He went up and across the street, turned back toward me, and flew faster than I thought advisable down and at me.
I flinched. I mean, of course I flinched. A dragon was flying right at me, too fast to stop.
He shifted in midair, a ball of flames rolling toward me and disappearing before washing over me. Then he was Owen, landing like he'd just walked through the sky, and bounced on two legs the last couple steps to me.
"Show. Off."
"Come on, that was good."
"Your smile is so wide you could almost fit your big head inside of it."
His eyes went up, like he was picturing it. "Creepy."
"Did it ever occur to you to fly one block over and then walk like a normal person?"
; "Never," he answered honestly.
"I am not surprised."
"Seriously." He took both my hands. "You loved it."
"That is the not the point."
"Then what is the point?"
"You have a big head."
"I'm good with that, and so are you."
"Until you hurt yourself hitting a wall."
"You just hurt yourself hitting a wall."
"On accident!"
"If you didn't chase dangerous criminals it wouldn't happen."
"That's my job."
"Right," he agreed. "And being awesome is mine."
I could not stop laughing. "Okay, Mr. Awesome. I am supposed to be working."
He nodded sagely. "Best get to it. You're the one out here distracting us with your giggling."
It took me another minute--turned away from Owen--to school my face into something serious enough to face the task force agents. Once I got in the building, they were already walking back out.
"Where are you going?"
"Oh, hey Morrigan," a tall nymph said with enough ease that I probably should have known who she was. "We don't have all the charms we need. We called it in and they're bringing us the missing pieces. It's going to be fifteen minutes."
"Seriously?" I shook my head. "I told the person on the phone to make sure you guys were ready." Next time I need to make a bigger fuss, I thought. That'll teach me.
"I know," she said with some significance. "That was me."
"They're making you work the field and answer the phone? Cheapskates."
"We're shorthanded, and I'm an intern. I've been floating between departments."
"None of that is an excuse for being incompetent."
"Is that what you said when you revealed FAB presence in the Paw Paw market?"
I gave the sea nymph a once over then. Her magic smelled strongly of seaweed and faintly of fish, but once those initial scents rolled out, an aftertaste of figs, and then lemon, coated my throat. Nymphs were tightly linked to locations. I'd never smelled her magic before, so she wasn't from the west coast of North America. Volarus linked to Earth locations the world over, so that wasn't unusual. She seemed strong; her backbone was definitely in place. "I was chasing down a witch bent on killing everyone around me. It would have kept our cover better if I'd let her run out, but I'd been thinking of the people she was going to kill, so I made a scene. I still back that choice." Hammond had yelled at me after, and I'd felt awful. He was still grumpy at me because of it. And I had messed up. I should have called when I first met Clarissa to confirm she was assigned to my case as she'd claimed. I'd messed up, and pixies had died, and Ava had been kidnapped and was still recovering. But those things happened, they happened while I was trying my best to do what I could to help, and I had to live with that. People throwing it in my face on a regular basis wasn't going to break me. "You were reminded to come prepared to a scene, and didn't. Are the two situations related? Would you have followed those simple instructions if I hadn't chased the witch through the market?"
The sea nymph swallowed hard, but the tensing of her throat muscles was the only tell that I'd rattled her. "We did bring more than the regular arsenal, targeted toward elves as you specified. I hadn't anticipated some of the work they've pulled on this place. This is an unusual case. Once they arrive with the supplies, however, I do expect this won't take long."
"We'll see," I told her.
She spun on her heel and rejoined her colleagues, giving them orders. They scrambled to perform their tasks as she called them out.
"You like her," said Owen.
"I think I might. Hey, how did you know that?"
"You paid attention to her. It's how I knew you liked me."
"Oh, please. When have I ever paid any attention to you?"
A griffin arrived with their supplies before Owen was able to say something embarrassing about that. I'd really set myself up for one there. Saved by the bell.
I followed the task force around, both to irritate Enid and to see what they did. If I was the type of person to admit such a thing, I would have confessed that I only followed half of it. The elves had wrapped the apartment in trap after trap. I might have gotten someone killed trying to do it myself, and the task force did it with relative ease. As I watched them work, my excitement grew. Would we find the scepter? Rubies? Emeralds? Charms so rare we'd spend months figuring out what they even did?
As a crow, I had a covetous nature. I wasn't a dragon, but sometimes, it got away from me. I took several deep breaths, focused on calming my excitement. Whatever we found, it wasn't like it was mine. I was already preparing myself to wrap up the treasures and get them out of my sight before the desire got out of hand.
"The scene is clear," Enid announced. "You are free to search, Agent Morrigan."
"Twenty minutes," I observed. "Nicely done."
She raised her chin.
"It was a pleasure working with you, Enid." I walked away while she was still working on figuring out if I was one of the fae who could lie or not. I wasn't.
The task force cleared out, possibly seeing the intense look on my face. Even Owen gave me some space, starting in on the kitchen cupboards.
"I don't sense magic anywhere in here," I observed. Not that it meant anything. The elves who pulled off the booby traps on that place could have easily masked the magic well enough to hide the scepter from my senses. "I expect some kind of dampening container. Be careful searching though. Give me anything suspicious to open, okay?"
He gave me an exasperated look, but when I stared back at him waiting, he gave me the nod of assent I'd been waiting for.
Thirty minutes later, and still nothing.
"Garbage, garbage, garbage. Literal garbage!" Food containers, old issues of Volarus Times, ripped articles of clothing. "They live like pigs. They booby trapped their pig sty." Whaaaaat is even happening? "This makes no sense."
"It kind of does," said Owen. "I told you I didn't think elves would live here. Maybe they were here while doing all their stuff, getting the scepter, but now they have it and they're gone. All they left behind was their trash." He dropped the empty box in his hands. "Makes sense to me."
"I want to break something."
"I don't think anyone will notice in here."
"No, I want to break something like elf faces."
He looked around. "Might have to wait on that."
I grunted and kicked some trash around.
"Your phone is ringing," he told me, and sure enough, it was.
Hammond. I did not want to talk to Hammond. I swiped the phone to answer. Ignoring him wouldn't solve my problems. "Yeah?"
"Come back to the office." He always talked like that. He'd say "back to the office" like I was ever there willingly. He considered the Magical Object Division offices to be the center of the universe.
"I'm busy, boss." That was about as polite a response as he could expect to get from me these days.
"The case is over. Get back here."
"What are you talking about?"
"Morrigan. I said back to the office. Now."
And then he hung up on me. Was he getting to be a prick in his old age or what?
CHAPTER NINE
The task force had cleared out so we were able to take Owen's car back to the office. When I got there, the place was buzzing with activity and smiles.
When we found Hammond, I pointed to the busy people and asked him, "What's this?"
"The MOD office."
"I like to think you learned your sass from me, Hammond."
He grunted. Whatever. I'd tried to be playful with him. He never appreciated it. If he wanted to be a pill, let him.
"The scepter was delivered to our doorstep half an hour ago."
"By elves?"
"Elves?" he asked doubtfully. "No. We don't know who turned it in. It came with this." He handed me a plastic bag containing a one word note. "Sorry," it read.
"This job gets weirder by the minute," I said
.
"Well those minutes are over. Case is done. The scepter'll be catalogued and returned to the Kinneys' care shortly. You'll need to go offer them a full report. They'll be expecting you."
"What?" I asked, and then again, "What?" because there was more than one thing I was confused about. "We still don't know who took it," I said, uselessly. I knew that wasn't my job. "And there are witches loose in the city!"
"Not your job," he said. "I heard about it. Don't worry, they're on it."
"But they were guarding the apartment," I said, building my case. "They likely know something about what happened here."
"Or they simply ran into you. They're witches. Who knows how they think? This is still MOD. Go do your job."
"But since I've already run into them, I'm more likely to have luck finding them than anyone else. I should be able to follow up on this."
"Give it up. They're just witches."
"In Volarus!"
"Honestly Morrigan, this happens more often than you think."
"It does?"
Hammond looked at Owen then, who'd been standing inconspicuously by the wall a few yards behind us. When Hammond met my eyes, I realized he appeared stressed, like he regretted saying that in front of Owen. "Make that report to Mr. Kinney's parents, then take the rest of the day off."
It was two in the afternoon. By the time I made that report there'd barely be any day left, not to mention I'd started the day inhumanely early. But yeah. Super. I was so deeply pleased with this meaningful gesture. "Sure."
Hammond glanced at Owen again, and then took off, phone in his hand.
I turned back to Owen. "He took my case away." I pouted.
"Sorry."
"I have to go tell your parents."
He cringed. "I could do that for you."
"Nope, it's on me. Weren't you listening to Hammond?"
"It doesn't seem like you listen to him."
"No, I do." I sighed. "Unresolved cases are the worst." I started for the door and he trailed after me, looking as miserable as I felt. "I mean, hurrah! We have the scepter! The fae are safe from exposure! Yeehaw! Good times! But seriously, what were those elves doing? And the witches? And why did they booby trap that apartment? Ahh! This one is going to haunt me for a while."