The Flame Game

by R. J. Blain

  I took care with removing her blindfold. “You’ll be all right,” I promised, carefully untying the blindfold and putting the glasses on her. “What’s your name?”

  “I’m Annie,” the gorgon replied in a sleepy voice. “I had a bad dream.”

  I cringed. “Well, the bad dream is over. There are humans nearby, so you need to be careful with your snakes and your gaze, okay? If you feel sick, let me know.”

  Gorgons couldn’t really control their bile production if they were truly startled, but like humans, I’d learned they could get sick, too.

  Their vomit just took a hell of a lot more work to clean up.

  “I feel okay. Better than I should. What a horrible dream.”

  Damn it. I wanted to lie to her, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. “It probably wasn’t a dream, but you’ll be okay now. Were you part of a hive?”

  “Oh, no. That’s when the nightmare began.”

  Okay. If she wanted to insist it had been a nightmare, I’d work with that. I sat down in front of her, and I began the tedious work of removing the tiny blindfolds from her snakes, who joined Annie in her pixie dust haze. “How did the nightmare begin?”

  “Humans stole me from my father’s hive. I was old enough my father no longer kept as close of an eye on me, and I stayed home one day when he took my younger sisters out. I was old enough to stay at home alone. My father hadn’t found a new hive for me yet, but he showed me favor by leaving me alone. It was my first time.”

  Poor Annie, although I couldn’t help but feel relief the tragedy wouldn’t worsen.

  It hadn’t been her hive to die.

  While it wasn’t much, I’d cling to the silver linings I could.

  “Can you tell me your father’s name and where he lives?”

  Annie frowned. “He’s Father. But I can tell you where our hive lives.” To my surprise, the address was in a mid-sized town we’d passed through on the way to the bed and breakfast, a quaint little place I hadn’t expected to be the home of a gorgon hive.

  “Alan?”

  “I’ll inquire,” he replied, heading off to his van.

  “My father will not be happy. I’m too old.”

  I grunted. “Don’t you worry about that, Annie. My husband will speak to your father about making arrangements. Were you old enough to help care for your younger sisters?”

  “Oh, yes. Father taught us early.”

  “Well, that’s perfect. I’m fostering some young whelps this summer, and you can help take care of them until you’re settled and some nice gorgon men have a chance to meet you.” I expected she’d get an offer fairly quickly, as the males would want to garner favor with Quinn regarding Beauty.

  I sometimes hated gorgons as much as I loved them.

  “But you’re human.”

  “I’m immune, and my husband is the son of a rather human gorgon king.”

  Her eyes widened. “You are a bride of the Quinn family?”

  I stood and pointed at the SUV. “You are so much trouble, Samuel Leviticus Quinn!”

  Apparently, the SUV had a window open, as my husband got out of the vehicle and strolled over, and our pets romped through the snow with him, all wearing their harnesses and leashes. “What did I do now?”

  “Does every gorgon on Earth know about you and your wicked ways?”

  “Well, I’d say not on Earth but definitely around here.” My husband chuckled, staying a safe distance away. “Introduce me to your new friend.”

  “This is Annie. She was stolen from her father’s hive. Alan is trying to contact him.”

  “I better go help. Stolen, you say?”

  “She says she was.”

  “That’ll make this easy. Check over her snakes. At least one or two of them need to bite.” Quinn pointed at one of the serpents, who sure enough, had bulging venom sacs.

  “Oh, your poor snakes.” I cupped the serpent’s head in my hands and examined her. “I’m immune, Annie, and we don’t have a kit handy, so it’s okay to bite me. What type of snakes are these? I haven’t seen them before.”

  “Kraits. They’re venomous.”

  “I’m immune, so let’s get your poor babies dealt with. What sort of toxin?”

  “Neurological, which induces paralysis. I’ve only had one test done, but my father was worried because I can kill humans quickly.”

  “Well, don’t you worry at all. I’m a champ at this, and your babies can’t be comfortable.” To encourage her, I tapped my finger to the snake’s snout, and after a few encouraging prods, I earned a bite. “There you go.” I pet the snake with the other hand. Once she let go, I gave another nudge, and the second bite came faster and harder. It took four bites for the venom sac to empty enough for the snake to be comfortable.

  I’d feel that later, although to my relief, her venom didn’t induce immediate itching.

  Most of her snakes needed two or three bites to clear out their venom sacs, and I wondered how long she’d been held hostage without her snakes being able to bite that so many of them were in such discomfort.

  I assigned all blame to Morrison, and I’d add in a few extra kicks or stomps if I ever got a hold of the bastard.

  “That feels a lot better,” Annie admitted after I finished becoming the dumping ground for her snake’s venom. “You are really a bride of the Quinn family? But you do not look like the bride.”

  “Ah. Audrey. Let’s just say she’s a cheating bitch and landed herself a divorce for her inability to stay loyal to a man who cannot tolerate disloyalty.”

  “Vile,” Annie muttered.

  It amused me the gorgon had such deep feelings over loyalty to be cranky over it while under the influence of the best pixie dust on Earth. “I agree, but it’s no concern. Audrey won’t be bothering anyone again.”

  “No? But she…”

  Hello, intel. “But she what?”

  “She had plans. She wanted me to help with them, because I was an unwanted gorgon female. I refused. That’s when the nightmare ended. She ended it.” Annie touched her bare chest, which lacked any evidence she’d been stabbed with a sword. “Oh. I thought she did.”

  No, she had. “Audrey stabbed you? Is that what you’re trying to say? Or shot you?”

  “Stabbed. She had a sword. She said all who failed to do as she wished would fall to her sword. She was a little crazy. She claimed she was the new queen of the Quinn hive.” Annie giggled. “She had no idea the Quinns were even gorgons. She spoke of them as if they were all human. That confused me.”

  “What a fucking moron,” I muttered.

  “I didn’t correct her. She seemed unhinged.”

  “That she was.” I made more of the neutralizer paste and went to work cleaning the pixie dust off Annie’s face. “You were badly injured and turned to stone, which saved your life. One of the CDC’s representatives is trying to get a hold of your father, but I’m fairly well versed with gorgon customs at this point, so you’ll probably go home with me in a few weeks, and in the meantime, I’ll ask one of the Quinn hives to have you as a visitor. Sam and I adopted two whelps, and they’re learning how to survive better, as they had odd schooling. You’ll join them for now.” I eyed the archangel. “Do you accept contracts to teleport?”

  “I can offer you teleportation services as needed for this situation, as it would be uncaring to not make certain the healing has fully restored her. I can also send word to Archambault Quinn about his impending guest and her circumstances so he can make preparations.”

  “If you please could, I would appreciate that.”

  “It shall be as you ask.” The archangel vanished.

  “Did I die?” Annie asked.

  “No, you didn’t die. You were just hurt really badly. Everything will be better now.”

  That much I could promise.

  Every time I thought I understood the depth of gorgons, they managed to surprise me.

  If I were to judge gorgons by Annie’s father, there was no species on Earth mor
e capable of love or grief. I hated keeping them separate while Quinn did his best to comfort the distressed male until they could be reunited.

  Detoxifying her of the pixie dust took time, as did making certain all of her snakes were healthy. Once I finished my work, I wrapped her in a blanket and handed her over to her father, who wept and held her as though she were a child.

  I guessed, to him, she’d always be his little girl despite the culture that demanded he send her off to a new hive now that she’d grown into a woman.

  My husband ignored any potential risk of pixie dust contamination to kiss my temple. “Your left hand looks like it went through a meat grinder.”

  “Her poor snakes all needed at least two or three strong bites, and they were in pain. And they pack a punch, so we’ll have to be careful. I assumed she was infected with rabies, so I gave her the first dose of neutralizer while handling the dust contamination. My hand will be fine in a day or two. You’ll just have to amuse yourself pampering me, as I’m temporarily unable to use my left hand for much.”

  “Good call on the pixie dust, by the way. If she’d been distressed when her father showed up, it would not have ended well.”

  “I may have some intact skin still on my left hand if he needs to bite to work out his nerves.”

  “He’ll be fine. He’ll take her home for a week, and then we’ll take her to be with Beauty and Sylvester until we’ve handled our business here. I’d rather send her to my grandfather now, but she’s her father’s first born.”

  “Oh, that poor hive.”

  “He learned the hard way why we take the precautions we do. He gets the right kind of closure, which you’ll find is a rare enough thing in our line of work. Normally, we do not adopt every victim, so don’t get into that habit.”

  I scowled. “I don’t see why we can’t.”

  “Bailey.”

  Damn. I loved when my husband growled at me.

  “We need to deal with that other woman. Kendra,” I said, determined to give the gorgon some time to comfort and protect his daughter. “How long do you think it’ll take before he calms down enough he can be approached?”

  “At least an hour. The CDC can handle him. This is more familiar territory, as the CDC is often who rescues gorgons from trafficking situations and handles reuniting them. Of course, this is different from normal, but it’s familiar enough territory for them.”

  “All right. I’ll start with her, and we’ll see where we get. I bet she didn’t want to cooperate with Audrey, got exposed to gorgon dust, and joined the statue garden when the dust didn’t infect her.”

  “I’m not making any sort of bet, mainly because we’d be betting on the same thing, and that doesn’t make for a very satisfying wager. At least she’ll be easy to deal with.”

  “Really?”

  “I wasn’t really friends with her, but she was sensible enough. At least she had been when I’d known her. Had I known she’d disappeared, I probably would have started looking through Audrey’s files to see if I could find anything, though.”

  “And ended up Audrey’s gorgon plaything,” I muttered.

  “However much I love your jealousy, you don’t need to be jealous. Even if she’d snorted gorgon dust and become one before our divorce, I still would have divorced her. And because gorgon law is far stricter than human law, she probably wouldn’t have survived the divorce proceedings, because gorgons do not cheat. Not in that sense. Gorgons are polyamorous, but they’re loyal to their multiple partners. I just can’t handle that sort of lifestyle, especially because gorgons will change loyalties fairly often.”

  “They’re loyal while engaged in a relationship, but they’ll shift relationships often.”

  “Right. That doesn’t really work with me.”

  “You don’t say?”

  My husband glared at me.

  I smiled.

  “Okay. You win. I love you, my beautiful. Try not to turn our house into a menagerie more than it already is. Remember, for every species we bring into the house, we have to be certified and trained in their care.”

  “That’s so weird. Like, we can produce humans, gorgons, cindercorns, or possibly others, and we don’t have to be certified for them, but the instant we adopt a wolf, we need to be certified. Wolves are easier than humans or cindercorns. Feed them, don’t let them eat people. Treat for rabies as appropriate. Cuddle or avoid cuddling as required.”

  “It does bother me, at least a little, that we are somehow qualified to care for young, defenseless tiny humans, gorgons, cindercorns, and some others without certification, but wild dogs with a domestication problem require certification.”

  “It’s the domestication problem.” I shrugged. “I like certificates. I have many. I collect them. And for some reason, people keep putting me in classes and expect me to collect yet another certification. I am the queen of certifications.”

  “You really are.”

  “I’m not certified to be a cop yet, yet here we are. For some reason, people expect me to go to work and do cop stuff starting in January. You should make me flash cards to teach me how to be a cop. I’m not ready to be a cop. Unless you’re putting me on the bomb squad. I was born ready to be on the bomb squad. I get so many delicious explosives when I work on the bomb squad.”

  “You also get shot. From my understanding of the situation, in the ass.”

  I frowned, thought about the times I’d gotten shot, and realized I had stopped a round with my rump at least once. “Right. They give me fancy gear to protect my head and important bits from bullets. They didn’t have a lot of spots left to shoot me after that. I mean, somewhat. If a bomb went off, the gear didn’t last long. But that usually didn’t happen.”

  “That usually not happening implies it did happen.”

  “Well, explosions just annoy me a little. Don’t make such a big deal out of it. It’s just a few bombs.”

  “We’re going to have to have a talk about your enjoyment of bombs.”

  “I wouldn’t call it an enjoyment. We just have an explosive relationship, and it tingles nicely.”

  My husband sighed.

  Kendra Thames handled her freedom from petrification better than most of the victims. I believed there needed to be limits to how calm and collected someone could be upon learning she’d lost years of her life to her friend’s treachery. She wandered through the gardens while the CDC kept an eye on her and I finished helping the other victims.

  Quinn stayed at our rental, waiting until I finished my dirty work before bringing me clothes so I could change out of the blanket, which I tossed in a pile with other contaminated materials destined to be burned.

  When Kendra spotted my husband talking with me, she approached and said, “You picked a really shitty woman to be your wife.”

  I twitched, scowled, and put my hands on my hips, staring at my husband while waiting to see what he would do.

  “Her shitty behavior played a major factor in why I divorced her. Had I been aware you had gone missing, I would have had this place looked into a lot sooner.”

  Did my husband like or hate the woman? I couldn’t tell. He’d seemed concerned when he’d identified her, but he’d gone icy cold.

  “Really.” Kendra looked my husband over. “Never thought I’d think this, but the years have done you wonders. Damn, Sam. You’re looking good.”

  That earned her a raised brow. “Thank you. Anyway, I’m not at all responsible for what Audrey did, but I would have worked to resolve your disappearance had I known. As you may not have noticed, love had nothing to do with our marriage, which ended in divorce after I gathered sufficient proof she had been cheating on me. Anyway, she’s dead.”

  “Finally bit off more than she could chew, did she? What finally got her? I’d guess one of her jilted lovers—or her main fling. Not you, that is. You’re one of the good chiefs, and you don’t play that game.”

  He did, but unless my husband informed her of his heritage, I’d keep my mouth sh
ut.

  Well, mostly. If she ticked me off, I’d have to start blurting something about his prowess and hope she got uncomfortable enough to leave.

  “She opted to become a gorgon, and she kidnapped someone else’s bride. As such, she was put to death according to gorgon law. Let’s just say she wasn’t bright, and she got a better end than she deserved.”

  Kendra sighed. “I told her not to fuck around with gorgons. Gorgons make our worst laws look like child’s play. She said she’d come up with some way to almost guarantee someone becomes a gorgon, and she wanted to test it on me. I refused. She tested it anyway.” The woman checked her hands. “Well, it doesn’t look like I’ve become a gorgon at least. Not like that poor woman over there.”

  “She’s a natural gorgon. Her name is Annie, and that’s her father. She was taken from his hive.”

  “Oh.” Kendra had the base decency to grimace. “Then that was quite rude of me. I’ll apologize to her later. I thought she was one of the willing experiments. Still, your wife? Well, ex-wife? Pretty shitty.”

  “Yes, she was. You picked a pretty shitty woman to be your friend.”

  The pair looked at each other and burst into laughter.

  I contemplated the various ways I could make my husband pay later.

  “Who is your girlfriend? She looks ready to blow her top.”

  “She’s always a little cranky,” my husband said, and without looking at me, he held out his arm and waggled his fingers at me. I considered biting him—or transforming into a unicorn and sitting on him.

  I heaved a sigh and stepped closer, holding out my hand to Kendra. “I’m the nice woman who fixed your petrification problem, as I’m immune to gorgons and their various tricks.”

  Kendra shook with me, looking me over. “You’re Bailey Gardener, then. I’ve heard about you. Audrey mentioned something about you corrupting her husband. In the next breath, she’d rant about how you’d be the perfect bride for her hive.”

  Wait. I had corrupted him? I considered Sam with a raised brow. “I’m not sure I’m all that good at corruption. She’s not wrong about the perfect bride for gorgons.” I stared my husband in the eyes. “Right?”