“James okay?” I asked.
“Kid’s good,” replied Angela. “Back at his mom’s. Patricia’s gonna swing by today.”
“And Bart?” I asked. They both looked at the floor, which was never a good sign.
“ICU,” said Lester. He sank into his chair. “Punctured lung, ruptured spleen. He barely made it to the hospital. He’ll live, but...”
“Retirement?”
“Possibly,” said Lester. “He’s been sleeping off and on.”
Lester looked to his crutches and scowled. Pushing up with the chair’s arms, he hopped the three feet over to my bed and sat down near my feet. He winced but then grinned at me. I returned it half-heartedly
“There was a photo in Terry’s collection of trophies,” Lester said. “It was James’ father. James’ father... with a bullet hole in his head. Shades of the memory from Terry’s mind flashed through my brain.
“I know. Don’t ask. Magic tends to travel through bloodlines,” I said.
“Why were they different, then?” asked Angela. She moved forward in her seat, resting her elbows on her thighs.
“Robert Masters was a wizard,” I explained. “Terry didn’t get the same power. Robert ran away from home, probably joined the Assembly. They trained him. His brother hated him for it. Whatever Terry might have been withered under his grandmother’s abuse.” I tried to sit up, but my ribs told me lying back down was the best course of action. “What about the warehouse? Anything?”
“A burned-out husk,” said Angela. “Found a piece of charcoal that used to be Terry Masters, though. Outside there was a trail of ashes leading away from the building.”
My eyes widened. “Bitch,” I said.
Lester gave me a quizzical look. I started to speak, but the stabbing pain in my chest stopped me.
“Magdelena,” said Angela, picking up where I was about to start. “She survived.”
I found a control device on my bed with a button on it. I pressed the button, hoping it would be exactly what I needed at that moment. Within a few breaths, sweet relief washed over me. After I had properly medicated myself, I told the deputies about Terry turning on his partner, his mention of someone higher up directing her, and how the warehouse had gone up in flames. Well, that part was truncated and mostly bullshit about combustible elements used by Terry.
Angela and Lester kept their cop faces on during my recollection of events. Angela seemed to take my explanation at face value. Lester looked suspicious, then nodded. My eyes began drooping. Lester gave me a soft pat on the leg. Angela gave me a wink. I was asleep before the door closed behind them.
* * *
When my eyes opened again, it was night. A well-dressed Latino gentleman sat to my left where Lester had been. His suit was silver. He wore a dark blue tie that matched his shirt. I reached out with my magical senses and felt a distortion to my right. I chose to ignore it for the moment.
“Hello Manny,” I said, my throat raw and scratchy. “Come to kill me?”
Manuel smiled, but it wasn’t the predatory vampire look I’d seen him use. It was warm, even.
“No, my friend,” he said.
“We’re back to being friends?”
His smile remained in place. “We’ve never stopped being friends.”
I laughed hoarsely. My ribs flared up again. I pressed the pain killer button. “Does that mean I’m under your protection again?”
The vampire lord shook his head. “That will not happen. I trust you can defend yourself.”
“And if I take down some of your burdensome rivals, so much the better?”
Manny shrugged. His expression still did not change.
“Why are you here, Manny?” I asked
Manny stood and buttoned his suit jacket. “I wanted to see you like this,” he said.
“Drugged up and injured?”
“Asleep and peaceful. It won’t happen again.”
For a few moments, his stoic mask faded. Beneath it was concern mixed with regret
As he made to leave, I stopped him with a question. “CeCe was your plant, wasn’t she?”
He didn’t respond, which was all the answer I needed.
“You knew Magdelena was staging a coup,” I said, my mouth making the words as quickly as they formed in my brain. “You figured by selling her out to me, I’d take care of her. Remove a troublesome upstart. And maybe, just maybe figure out who’s backing her.”
My sometime lover looked back at me. He turned and walked over to my bed. He stared into my eyes and gave me a small, approving nod.
“You know she’s not dead, right?” I said.
“A matter of time,” he said. “My sister will return. I’ll deal with her then.” He leaned down and kissed me softly of the lips. They were warm and held a hint of blood. “Rest, my friend. You have a reprieve until you’ve recovered. After that, I cannot protect you. But I’ll make sure you get what you need for more anti-venom.”
He left. When the door closed, I said, “You really need to teach me that invisibility charm.”
On my right side, seated next to the window, was Persephone. She was wearing a flimsy sundress with dandelion patterns on it. In one hand, she had a metal cane. In the other, she had a Crown Royal bag.
“I wouldn’t teach you the charm if you begged,” she said. “What gave me away?”
“I felt a disturbance in the room’s Chi,” I said. I found the other remote and chanced raising the bed up so I could face my oldest friend. “You look tired.” Her complexion was paler than usual. Dark circles had formed under her eyes.
“Getting shot tends to do that. So does being tortured.”
“How long have you been here?” I asked.
“Since yesterday. The charm keeps me invisible and plants the subtle suggestion to avoid this space.”
I grunted. “Cute trick.” My eyes wandered to the Crown Royal bag. “So that’s it?”
“Yes.” Her tone was clipped. “You shot me. You tortured me.”
“You could have killed me in my sleep. Why didn’t you?”
“Why didn’t you kill me? That would have dropped the barrier.”
“You know why,” I said.
A heavy silence fell over us. Seph absently-mindedly shook the bag. The coins inside clinked together like a funeral bell. “I heard your description of the sorcerer’s death. Was that the truth?”
If I told Seph what had actually happened, there was little doubt in my mind James would be given his own pair of coins.
“It wasn’t,” I said. “I torched him.”
Persephone’s eyes narrowed. “You hate fire magic,” she said.
“I don’t like using it,” I replied, adding some snap to my tone. “Big difference. It had to be done.”
“Then you deserve this even more,” she said.
“Terry wasn’t Assembly. Can’t find me guilty if he’s not a member,” I said. I tried to keep my voice level, but the painkillers weren’t making that easy.
“Semantics,” said Persephone. She speared me with a hateful gaze. I could see the weariness from the past few days behind it. But beneath that was something else, something I was beginning to understand. Persephone didn’t see me as the boy she’d grown up with, played with, learned magic with, and shared other firsts with. She saw a completely different man lying in a hospital bed. And I was now, to her, somehow less.
“You’ve earned these,” she said. It took her a minute or so to stand. The knuckles on the hand holding the cane went white with the effort. She gritted her teeth the entire time, but she never made a sound. She didn’t want to show me the pain.
“I’m sorry,” I told her.
She ignored me. “Once, I didn’t want to give you this,” she said. “Now, all I want to do is watch the curse kill you.”
I reached out to her with my good hand and beckoned her to approach. She dropped the bag in my hand. As soon as the velvet touched my skin, an icy sensation rolled up my arm and throughout my body. Goose
bumps stood up all over my flesh. It was like someone had walked over my grave.
“What about the boy? James?” Persephone asked. She walked to stand at the food of my bed.
“He’s my apprentice,” I said. “End of story.”
“Just stop. Stop being a stubborn asshole.” Persephone stared at me as if her withering gaze could break my resolve. “No one has survived more than a year under the Rite. Most don’t make it three days.”
“This will not be my end, Seph,” I said calmly. “James reabsorbed his power after it was released in the ritual. His connection to magic is now what it would have been forty years from now. He’s a teenager who’s been given a Ferrari for his birthday. Someone’s gotta teach him how to use it.”
“I can train him,” she said quietly.
“No. You’ll go back to the Assembly and keep them away.”
“I won’t be able to do that.”
“Yes, you will, Seph. You will keep them away from this boy until I’m in the ground. After that, I can’t do much.”
She didn’t respond. She simply turned and walked to the door. In the doorway, she looked over her shoulder at me. “For what it’s worth, you did a good thing, Nico. How you did it makes you a bastard.”
It was my turn not to respond. Instead, I pressed the recliner button and lowered the bed back in place. I stared at the ceiling.
I did a good thing, but in the wrong way. I squeezed the Crown Royal bag.
Good deeds always pay.
Blood And Stone: A Novel in The Atalante Chronicles Page 21