by E. A. Copen
I smiled and put a hand on Ed’s shoulder. “Of course I will, Ed.”
Ed offered me his hand and I took it, trading grips with him.
“Paint Rock is going to miss you,” I said.
Ed looked around the graveyard and then up at the sky. “Eh, it’s not goodbye. I’ll be back. My pack is here.” He knelt and picked up a long box from the ground, handing it to me. “See you, Judah. Try not to let Seamus kill you in a few months.”
“Have a little faith.”
Ed gave a weak smile. “I’ve always had faith in you, ever since that night you threw the ball in Chanter’s back yard.”
Ed walked out of the cemetery, head high and shoulders set. He looked a lot better than he had in a long time, even if he’d had to go through Hell to get there.
We’d all been through Hell. Maybe that’s what it meant to be family, to be a pack. When someone you love walks into fire, you don’t let them go alone.
I knelt in front of Mara’s grave to pick the wand up and a shadow fell over me. I thought at first that Ed had forgotten something and turned around, only to find Dick standing over me. He wore an exact replica of the suit he’d been wearing before, complete with the long, black coat, despite the heat. That black coat, though, was covered in little white hairs from the cat he held in his arms. Reed’s cat.
Dick smiled. “Hello, Judah.”
Except he didn’t call me Judah. He called me by my real name, the name I had before I joined BSI.
I narrowed my eyes at him and withdrew my hand from the wand before I stood. “What do you want, Dick?”
He drew a soft-looking hand over the cat’s back. “Just checking in on my investment.”
“Investment?”
The smile he wore faded and his cheeks sagged a little. “I’m sure you have questions still, but I can’t answer everything. Had circumstances not dictated otherwise, I would have preferred to delay your involvement.”
I put my hands in my pockets in an effort to keep them from shaking. Truth was, I was terrified of Dick. He had all the information, knew all the answers, held all the cards. I was a pawn in his larger game and had been for quite some time. If not for the fire that night out near Eola, I might never have known about Deputy Director Dick Richardson at all. Chance hadn’t brought us together; it had only revealed one card in his hand a round sooner than expected. The idea that he was using me made me feel sick.
“Is it true what Warren said? Am I like him?”
“No.” Dick raised his chin. “And yes. You’re far from immortal, and yet you’re more than just some young woman gifted with magick. You were made for this. Born for it. Bred for it.”
“Bred?” I frowned. So, it was true, or at least Dick wanted me to think it was. Someone somewhere had meddled in my DNA to make me what I was today. Just how far that went was still up in the air. The way he phrased it made me think that the changes were fundamental, instituted at the time of my conception.
It wasn’t impossible. I’d been raised by a single mother who was deeply religious. I’d asked about my father only once and my mother was so distraught she couldn’t answer me. Or maybe she was overwhelmed. How do you tell your little girl that she’s some kind of government-engineered freak?
“Why me?” I asked as a heavy wind swept through the cemetery. “Why here and why now? If you were going to make a mutant weapon, why drop her in the middle of nowhere without resources? And why did it take so long for me to realize I had this…this shadow fire?”
“Shadow fire, is it?” Dick raised his eyebrows. “I suppose that’s an appropriate name.”
“Just answer the damn question.”
Dick shifted the cat in his arms. “Paint Rock may be in the middle of nowhere, Judah, but that doesn’t mean no one is watching. The whole world is watching. What happens here will decide the future of this country, maybe even the world. You are here because here is where you’re needed.”
“And what about the other question? Why didn’t I know about the shadow fire before?”
“Some abilities only surface in situations of extreme stress.” He shrugged. “Perhaps you experienced the push you needed at just the right time. After all, it couldn’t have been easy moving across the country, fighting giants and wendigos and ghosts.”
“So Warren was right.”
“Warren was a madman, the son of a madman. A failed experiment in a long line of failed experiments needed to perfect the next step in a very long process.”
“What process?”
Dick smiled and peeled the cat from against his coat, leaving behind streaks of white fur. He held the cat out to me.
Not knowing what else to do, and not wanting to leave Reed’s treasured pet in the care of someone like Dick, I took the cat. “Is it me?” I asked, shifting the cat’s weight as he struggled against me.
“No. Warren came after, just like LeDuc’s experiments, just like Han’s. You’re asking the wrong questions. What you should be asking is what exactly Doctor Han has been trying to make in his laboratory for the last ten years?”
Dick reached out to pet the cat, which took a swipe at him, claws out. Dick jerked his hand away. “Goodbye, Judah. Take care of that cat.” He turned his back and started out of the cemetery.
“Hey!” I called after him and tried to follow, but stopped at the entrance to the cemetery when I saw him get into an armored car.
Mara’s wand lay behind me against her headstone. I’d promised Ed I’d take care of that too and my promise to him was more important than playing a game of riddles with Dick. I turned around and walked back to the headstone where I bent over and picked up the wand. It was lighter than I expected, and balanced oddly, but there was no mistaking the faint hum of magick in the wood. I smiled to myself when I opened the box and found an inscription on the inside of the lid. “Always. Love, Ed.”
I put the wand safely inside and closed the box.
THE END
* * * * *
Judah’s story will continue in Death Warrant, book 5 of the Judah Black Novels, out in 2018.
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Judah Black Novels:
Book 1: Guilty by Association
Book 1.5: Perfect Storm (FREE to e-mail subscribers)
Book 2: Blood Debt
Book 3: Chasing Ghosts
The Judah Black Omnibus: Contains books 1, 2, & 3
The Fairchild Chronicles
Book 1: Kiss of Vengeance (FREE to e-mail subscribers)
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Book 1: Beasts of Babylon