by E. A. Copen
I grabbed the blanket off the bed and stuffed it firm against the bottom of the hidden door. My knuckle brushed the doorknob, and I came away with several blisters. The fire had to be right outside the door for it to be that hot.
“Can you get the door open?” Creven asked as I stumbled back away from the door, cradling my burned hand. He stood with the back of his hand against his mouth, ducking just beneath the growing ceiling of smoke.
I shook my head. “It’s already too hot. Nobody’s getting that open without severe burns, and even if we did, we’d be walking into fire.”
“What about a window?” Creven turned and ran to the window, pulling it open.
Something warm brushed my leg. I shouted and almost jumped out of my skin before I realized it was Reed’s cat. Had he followed us in? No, I would have seen him. How the heck did he get in? He meowed at me and paced to the window. The cat stopped, turned back to look at me, flicked his tail once, and then jumped out the window.
I turned to look longingly at the door. We could get out, but we might not be able to get back in to help Abe and the others. What if they were trapped or injured?
“You’re thinkin’ of rescuing them, aren’t you?” Creven asked from halfway out the window.
“Can you make enough water to flood the fire?”
He sighed, looked out the window. “My focus is outside. I’ll be useless without it, lass. Come on, let’s go. Maybe they all got out?”
I stepped back to the door. The smoke pouring through it was more intense now, burning my eyes and scorching my lungs. Even with my shirt over my mouth and nose, I couldn’t get to within a few feet of the door. Creven was right. Without focusing his magick through his staff, it could go haywire and make things worse. If we hurried, we might still be able to come in the front. Maybe the fire hadn’t spread that far.
I turned and ran to the window, feeling blindly for the far wall. Creven grabbed my hand and pulled me through.
We landed on a slight hill at the back end of Reed’s house. The air above me was painfully hot on the back of my neck. I could hear fire crackling and see glowing debris and smoke floating in the air. I tumbled down the slight slope before standing on wobbly legs to look up at the house.
It was engulfed in flames that shot ten feet in the air. The sirens and horns of a firetruck drowned everything but the loud crackling of the fire, but they didn’t have any water going down on the blaze, at least not that I could see. I jogged back up the hill alongside Creven and came around the side of the house to the sound of shouting voices. Two members of SRT stood there and turned their weapons on me when we came up on them unexpectedly.
I threw my arms up in a surrender gesture. “Easy, boys.”
They lowered their guns but eyed Creven with suspicion.
“This is my friend,” I explained. “What happened? Is anyone still inside?”
“Fire came out of nowhere,” the one on the right reported. “I thought I saw someone walking through the fire and let off a few rounds, but it got too hot too fast. The lieutenant and your partner stayed behind to try to get to you. We tried to go back for them, but we can’t get through the front door.” He turned away.
“Stay here and secure the scene,” I said, nodding. “We’ll handle it.”
“Aye,” Creven added. “Just let me fetch my staff. I’ll be right back.”
We broke into a run back to the front of the house. Before I saw it from the front, I was certain I could create a small bubble of air around myself or use my shield to get through the fire and get the three men trapped inside. When we came around the front, however, I had to reassess my chances of success. The fire had raged out of control. Huge arms of it flashed across the doorway, which stood behind a wall of heat that stretched to where we stood. The wood groaned under its own weight. Inside, we could hear beams cracking and falling. Even in full protective gear, the firefighters had decided it was safer to stand back rather than attempt a rescue.
My tiny little shield wasn’t going to be enough.
A new commotion made me turn around. Creven was trying to push his way past the line of other spectators who had gathered, and the firefighters were pushing him back. “Let him through!” I shouted. The police stepped aside and Creven rushed to my side.
“Stick close,” he said, shifting his staff. “If Luck is with us, we should be able to manage a rescue without becomin’ a barbeque ourselves.” He didn’t say anything else, just turned his staff sideways and marched toward the burning building. The bright blue hue of a semi-circular shield enveloped us on three sides.
I kept as close as I could. The porch creaked as we stepped up onto it. Fire leapt off the railing dangerously close to my unprotected arm and I jerked back. Creven steadied me with a hand. “Don’t fear it, love. It’s not a normal fire. This fire is something else.” He shifted his staff, tipping it so it would fit through the door. The shield narrowed, forcing me to press right up against him to keep from being burned.
The inner hallway was an oven of distorted wood. The fire licked at the walls here and there, but hadn’t yet taken hold in the center of the house. Heat and smoke were their own problems, though. It made the air almost unbreathable. Every gasp felt like swallowing hot glowing ash.
“Where?” Creven shouted over the sound of breaking glass and roaring fire.
“Straight ahead.” I hoped Espinoza and Abe were in the living room. Anywhere else, and we’d lose valuable time searching for them. Creven broke into a run, and I worked to keep up with him.
The living room was in full blaze, with fire leaping from the sofa to the chairs and the wall. The bookcase was a charred black inferno. I scanned the room, frantic to find Espinoza and Abe. “There!” I shouted and pointed to two still bodies curled up under the broken coffee table. “Let’s get them out, Creven!”
“Let’s do something to make the room a little more bearable first. Hold your breath, love!” Creven spun his staff once and slammed the end of it into the floor. The floorboards splintered, and water sprang up out of the hole he’d made with the force of a geyser. Hundreds of gallons of water flooded the room all at once and slammed into the fire, which went out with a hiss.
I scrambled forward to pull bits of wood and glass off Espinoza and Abe. With a little magick, I found the strength to hoist them both up with a grunt before the flood swallowed them. Creven waded through the water to help me fight my way to the window on the far side of the room. He shattered the glass with his staff and rolled the bulbous end around the frame, knocking out the rest of the glass before helping me hoist Abe through the window to the firefighters on the other side.
We picked up Espinoza and had him halfway through when a fresh blast of fire struck the wall beside me. I let go of Espinoza to dodge and he fell out the window, hopefully not breaking his neck when he hit the ground. I tried to grab the wall but slipped on the torrent of water still rushing into the room and went down on my back just in time to see Reed close on Creven. Creven brought up his arm, ready to call his protective shield, but he wasn’t fast enough. The sword bit into the meat of Creven’s forearm and came away bloody. Creven stumbled back, his shield flickering into place as he hit the ground on his back. The water around him ran red.
“I told you to stay away from me,” Reed said, turning his attention to me. He raised the sword again. I scrambled away from him toward the hallway but couldn’t beat his advance. In just a few strides, Reed stood over me, the sword pointed at my throat. “Now I don’t have a choice.” He gripped the sword with both hands and drove it down at the center of my neck.
I rolled out of the way just in time. Reed pulled the sword free of the warped wood and hacked at me. Without a weapon, all I could do was try to stay out of the way. I rolled and slid, all the while doing my best to scoot out of his range. As he swung at me and I repeatedly moved out of the way, I lost track of where I was in the room and let him back me into a corner. Reed closed on me and readied a killing blow.
Just as he raised his sword, there was a loud whir followed by a thunk. Reed staggered on his feet, grabbed at the back of his head, and turned to snarl at Creven, who stood on the other side of the room, poised as if he’d just thrown a javelin instead of his staff.
“Pick on someone yer own weight class, padre,” the elf said and smirked.
A loud hiss carried through the room, followed by a rattle, and a snake reared up out of the water. It struck at Reed, who swung his sword, but the snake was too fast. It bit deep into Reed’s arm.
He jerked the snake out of his arm and threw it at Creven. When the elf caught it, the snake stiffened and transformed back into his enchanted staff. Reed charged him with the sword. Creven blocked his advance with the staff.
I jerked my gun up from the holster and aimed it at Reed’s back. I should have pulled the trigger. Every muscle in my body screamed for me to squeeze it, to defend Creven by shooting Reed. Three shots. Stop the suspect with deadly force. Save your friend, your partner. No man left behind.
But Reed was my friend, too. He didn’t deserve to die. Something else was going on. Killing him was wrong. My hands shook.
Creven fell on his rear. Reed brought the sword down, and it sliced through the wood with ease. With his back against the wall, there was nowhere else for Creven to go. I saw the realization in his face as he looked at me in a panic. I had to make a decision. Shoot Reed and save Creven, or let Reed kill Creven and hope that I could save Reed.
I closed my eyes, let my breath out, and pulled the trigger.
The gunshot rang in my ears. I stood frozen, too afraid to look at the aftermath for a moment, but self-preservation took over. If I had missed, Reed could still come for me. My eyes snapped open. Reed lay in a puddle, wheezing and gasping, his eyes wide. Creven had jumped up and backed away, only the top part of his staff still in his hand. He pointed the knobby end of it at Reed with a shaky hand.
Reed made a deep, rasping, sucking sound and touched a spreading dark stain on his white collar. “Ju…dah…” he gasped and then fell over.
Chapter Ten
The gun fell from my hands and into the water with a dull plunk. Water sloshed up around my shin as I closed on Reed, my legs moving of their own accord. “Medic!” I shouted as I fell to my knees beside him. “We need help in here!”
The fire was still raging down the hall and wherever the water hadn’t touched. A portion of the ceiling on the other side of the room collapsed. I put my hands up and ducked my head on instinct.
Creven scrambled to his feet and swayed before tugging on my shirt, trying to pull me up. I ignored his insistent tugging and pressed my fingers to Reed’s neck. There was a lot of blood, but he still had a pulse. “Help me!” I shouted to Creven and put my arms under Reed’s, pulling him up.
He was heavy, too heavy for me to move on my own under normal circumstances. If not for the icy feeling of adrenaline still pumping through me, I’d never have been able to get him anywhere. I grunted and managed to drag him a few feet. Creven cradled his bleeding arm and fumbled with Reed’s legs using the other. Somehow, the two of us managed to get enough of him out the window that the guys on the other side could take over.
Creven and I both half-climbed, half-tripped out the same window, and I laid there on the damp grass, staring up at the clear blue sky streaked with gray smoke. Firefighters in full gear hovered in my vision and lowered an uncomfortable piece of plastic over my mouth and nose. Somewhere in the distant, thinking part of my brain, I registered it as oxygen. The fog over my brain lessened, and the full force of all the magick I’d used to hoist three men through a window and fight Reed hit. Every muscle in my body felt like someone had tenderized me with a sledgehammer. The effort of drawing in breath almost felt like too much.
With a small force of will, I turned my head sideways. Half the side yard was a black, simmering wasteland. The firefighters were scrambling to put out the last bits of flame with their hoses. Creven had put pressure on the gash in his arm, but it didn’t look like it had slowed the bleeding much. Blood still poured out from between his fingers. The EMT peeled Creven’s fingers away, and even more blood came out. He shouted a series of orders for supplies at someone and turned back to Creven.
With the charred grass, the smoldering remains of the house, the squad of police, firefighters, and EMTs crowding in around the house, it didn’t look like the house had just caught fire. It looked like a war zone.
A dull thud on the other side of me made me turn my head the other way. Abe knelt next to me and put a hand on my shoulder. He gave me a nod of thanks. “Are you hurt?”
I tried to tell him it was just me overextending my magickal muscles, so to speak, but it came out as a garbled, “Hrumphel.”
“I have seen bomb blasts close up,” Abe said. “Some of them have been less destructive. You did the right thing, shooting Father Reed.”
My hand flopped up to grip the oxygen mask over my face and move it aside. “How bad is he?”
As if in answer, a squad car gave a loud sound of its horn and its siren cut through the cacophony of sound. Abe glanced up. “On his way to the hospital, which is where you should go as well.”
I pawed at the strap that kept the oxygen mask on me and fumbled to pull it off. Abe reached down to help. “Can’t. Hospital won’t help. Too much magick too fast. Just need rest. Be fine soon.”
Abe sighed, raised one knee out of the mud, and leaned on it. “I did not expect you to listen to reason. Well, if you are going to lie there and refuse treatment like the stubborn woman you are, you might as well tell me about Creven. What is he doing here?”
“Helping.” My throat felt raw, my head floating. I couldn’t tell him Creven had broken into the place to look for something, mostly because I didn’t know what it was he’d wanted. The elf might still have it on him, and I couldn’t let Creven get arrested, not while he was still my teacher.
Abe shook his head at my non-answer and gripped my forearms. “Come on, then. Let us get you up and on your feet where you belong.”
He stood, pulling me along with him. The world turned into a tilt-a-whirl and my stomach lurched into my throat. My legs shook with the effort of keeping me upright. Abe gave me just enough support to stand without holding me up until I finally steadied myself.
“A moment of your time, lass?”
Creven’s voice beside me grabbed my attention and held it. They’d loaded him onto a wheeled gurney in a sitting position and had heavy, bloodstained gauze pads taped over his arm. Beads of sweat dotted his pale forehead. He glanced at Abe and added, “Alone.”
“I’ll be fine,” I told Abe. “Go check on Espinoza, will you? He’s human. He won’t recover as quickly as you did.”
Abe frowned, but let me go without a verbal protest.
I gripped the railing of the gurney. “I need answers, Creven. I’m going to have to explain what you were doing in there.”
He shifted his injured arm and grimaced. “In me trousers, lass. Make sure no one sees.”
My eyebrow shot up. “You want me to do what now?”
“The pocket, Judah. Now’s not the time for flirtin’.”
“What’ll I find there if I go digging?”
Creven swallowed. “Answers to questions you probably never thought you needed to ask.”
“This had better not be some kind of trick.” I sighed, lifted my right arm, and reached across to his pocket.
Creven grabbed my wrist with his good arm. A grave shadow crossed his face as he warned, “Make sure no one else in BSI knows. Not even your new partner. Promise me. Swear it.”
I swallowed the scratchy steel wool feeling in my throat. Such promises carried a lot of weight, especially when they were made with a fae. Creven had never used my word against me like most fae. The seriousness with which he spoke set off alarm bells in my head.
“I swear it, Creven. I won’t show Abe or anyone else in BSI.”
He nodded, his face relaxing, and took h
is hand from around my wrist.
Fishing around in someone else’s pockets is always awkward. Creven was no exception. Considering how short I was, I had to lean across him to do it. Holding myself up while leaning forward proved to be difficult. Luckily, whatever he had hidden there wasn’t anything small. My fingers closed on something thin and metallic. It snagged on the inside of his pocket as I slid it out, but came free with a little wiggling.
The thing I held in my hands was only slightly bigger than a deck of playing cards. It was a metal case with a white label bearing all kinds of technical specs I didn’t understand. I did recognize it, however, from when I’d had to replace one in my laptop a few years back.
“A hard drive?” I asked, searching Creven’s face for answers. “Reed’s? Creven, who asked you to get this?”
He gave a little shake of his head. “Quick, get it out of sight, Judah. Remember your promise.”
The EMTs who had been standing nervously a few feet away had finally had enough standing around and came to collect Creven. I hurriedly jammed the hard drive into my jeans, hoping my clothes weren’t damp enough to damage it.
“There’s one more thing you should know,” Creven said, leaning forward to catch my eye.
“Sir, please try not to talk,” one of the paramedics said, strapping him in.
“What is it, Creven?”
He winced as the paramedics tightened the straps. “It’s Seamus. He’s here.”
“He swore not to harm me for a year and a day.”
“Aye, he did, but that won’t stop him from using an agent to do it on his behalf. This could just as well be him as anyone else.”
“That’s enough,” The EMTs lifted the rails on the gurney and rushed him toward the waiting ambulance.
“What did the elf want?”
My head snapped back to see Abe standing beside me, his head tilted to the side quizzically. “Nothing,” I answered, clearing my throat. “Nothing too serious, anyway. Just wanted to make sure he wasn’t in trouble. He did kind of intrude on a police investigation, Abe.”