Hypnos

by RJ Blain

  “Why the hell not? Maybe I can get a few more swipes at the damned warlock before we’re blasted out of existence. Let me out of here, Hypnos. And remember what I said about your scales, because I mean it.”

  “You are a very strange human.”

  “Compared to the warlock?”

  “He is a simplistic creature made of ambition.”

  “Good to know. Hurry up, Hypnos. I wouldn’t want to miss my date with a nuke.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  The bomb clunked onto my head, but it didn’t detonate.

  Had I emerged from Hypnos’s sea as a human, the nuke would’ve crunched right through my skull. As it was, it bounced off my draconic head and infuriated the part of me that was no longer quite human.

  Returning to the real world in time to have a bomb dropped on my head wasn’t my idea of a good time, but I had to give the military credit for its aim. My draconic ass made a good, large target, and they’d hit their mark dead center.

  Eating the bomb hadn’t been a part of any of my plans, but the inhuman part of me had enough of being jerked around, pummeled, and otherwise abused, and it took control, dove for the offensive object, and went to town.

  Would a nuke cause indigestion? In stunned horror, I observed while my draconic body crunched through the metal on its way to the radioactive core.

  Hypnos floated in the air beside me, observing with interest. “Are you supposed to be eating that?”

  No, I wasn’t, but the draconic entity in control had zero interest in listening to the fish. I also didn’t mind avoiding incineration, but I had zero guarantees the government wouldn’t find a second bomb to drop on me.

  Euthal, still chained to the kraken and floating in the air to keep out of the reach of the leviathan below us, gaped at me. “You ate it.”

  While I disliked having lost control to the shell I’d created for myself, I approved of her decision to spit twisted metal fragments at the warlock. Then, as she seemed equally irritable with the warlock as me, she swiped out with a claw, snagged the chain and severed it before shaking him like an eager child with a rag dog.

  Euthal screamed, and the dragon liked the sound enough she shook him again.

  Unfortunately, Euthal wised up and realized he was a few seconds from being eaten by a dragon. Without the chain binding him to the kraken and holding him in place, he teleported away.

  My dragon screeched her fury over being thwarted. When she wavered, I regained control, which I discovered to be a double-edged sword.

  Eating a nuke was terrible for my digestion, and while my human body was buried deep within a water and silt shell reinforced with magic, pain sliced through my abdomen as though I’d actually gnawed on the damned bomb.

  I plummeted into the ocean and landed on the kraken.

  I couldn’t blame the kraken for taking offense to being smacked with a dragon. After having experienced being clunked on the head with a nuke, I understood why he’d wind up and bat me around with his arms.

  The first blow drove the air out of my lungs. The second blow shattered my draconic form, and ice, water, and silt burst away from my body along with the remnants of the destroyed bomb. The third stunned me.

  I had no memory of the fourth.

  The next time someone offered me an easy out, I would seriously consider it. The kraken must have gotten bored with me, as it had left my bruised and aching body on the ocean floor. Silt covered me like a second skin, and every bone and muscle in my body ached. I considered just staying at the bottom of the sea until everything stopped hurting, but I figured it would take months for everything to stop hurting.

  At least nothing seemed broken. I could work with bruised but intact. While I ached, my magic kept me alive.

  Hypnos glowed with a faint light, bobbing in the water in front of my face. “I had nothing to do with your sleep.”

  “I’d say the kraken with a temper issue was more to blame than you for that one. I’m surprised it didn’t eat me.”

  “You taste bad.”

  Bastard kraken. “He took a nibble? That’s so rude.”

  “If he’d nibbled on you, he would have bitten you in half.”

  What a pleasant thought. “Okay, so he spit me out whole. That’s not much better.”

  “Better than being bitten in half.”

  “I’m not going to argue with that. Only an idiot would argue with that. Why are you still here? How long have I been out?”

  “The sun has set six times. I’m not hungry right now.”

  Shit. I’d been taking a six day nap? I’d likely gone from the missing-in-action list straight to the presumed dead list, and both lists made a general mess of my life. I couldn’t just show up. People freaked out when I became an entry on either list and just showed up. I had to ease them into the idea I wasn’t actually dead. If I didn’t, a lot of crying happened, and I couldn’t handle the crying. I hurt too much to handle crying, especially if my old man was the one crying.

  My old man didn’t cry often, I took the top prize as the person most likely to make him cry.

  “I’m not hungry, and I didn’t hurt anyone feeding.”

  Ugh. Hypnos reminded me of a child seeking approval, which annoyed me almost as much as having lost six days thanks to Euthal, a kraken, and using too much magic in a desperate gamble. Technically, my plan had gone off without a hitch. I’d lured Euthal safely away from San Francisco, I’d kept him out in the open long enough to have a nuke dropped on my head, and I’d taken Hypnos away from the warlock.

  All in all, I considered it a screaming success.

  Success hurt, and I considered going back to sleep for another week. “Good job. Keep doing that.”

  “You might want to go back to shore where humans belong.”

  Great. The fish was now offering advice. “It’s one of the perks of being a water elementalist. I can sulk at the bottom of the ocean if I want to. Give me a few minutes. I got tenderized by a kraken, and that shit hurts.”

  “You’re rather durable for a human.”

  “Thanks, I think.” I loathed the idea of moving, and I doubted I could scrape together enough magic to help without compromising my ability to breathe underwater. I’d have to hike—or swim—back to shore. Neither option appealed, but I couldn’t survive in the ocean forever.

  I’d reached my threshold for do or die scenarios for one lifetime.

  “Hey, Hypnos?”

  “What?”

  “Which way to shore?”

  The fish turned. “That way.”

  “Thanks.”

  The only way I’d make it was if I got off my ass and moved, but I cursed about it the entire trip. I thought I’d earned the right to bitch and moan about the situation.

  I’d drifted at least a hundred miles south of San Francisco, much to my dismay. I blamed the kraken. Something that large could drag me a far distance in a short period of time. Even mundane giant squid could swim up to twenty-five miles per hour. I bet the kraken shamed most aquatics in the speed department.

  Hypnos had only mentioned the kraken taking a taste, not how far it had carted me off before determining I wasn’t suitable for its dinner.

  Unfortunately, south of San Francisco put me along the cliffs, which mean I’d have to hike along the shore for the first realistic trail up to the Pacific Coast Highway. With my luck, I’d landed between the tiny blips of civilization along the route.

  I wasn’t up for a climb, but if I wanted to give someone a call, I needed to get moving. Still muttering curses, I eyed the sheer cliffs and debated my options. With a little luck, the cliffs would make way and I’d land in Monterey. From Monterey, I could start making phone calls. I checked my pockets, relieved my FBI badge had somehow survived along with my wallet.

  My wallet and badge equaled the ability to return to San Francisco on my own if necessary, although I could likely call my boss and have him deal with the fallout of my reappearance while I felt sorry for myself.

 
I started my hike at noon and, after dodging a few towns too small for my purposes, reached the outskirts of Monterey at sunset. Without a phone, my best option was to head to a police station. I found a gas station, hoped I didn’t resemble a murder victim, and went to the counter. The cashier stared at me, her eyes widening.

  “Can you give me directions to the nearest police station, please?”

  She spluttered, pointing down the street and mumbling something incoherent.

  Yep. I likely resembled a murder victim, and I’d be very surprised if she hadn’t hit her panic button. “Thanks.”

  I turned to leave, when she asked, “Are you all right?”

  “I’ve had better days, but I’m good. Thanks for asking.” I smiled since that’s what Americans did to reassure each other everything was fine. My mother found the custom odd, just like she found the lack of bowing and use of last names as ways of addressing each other odd. She’d started smiling more to fit in. To her, smiling was done to bargain, and she saw no need to smile for strangers unless she wanted a better price for something.

  She’d probably charmed the bankers with her smile, the sneaky woman.

  “It’s not far; head down the street that way and cross the intersection at the second light. You can see the sign from there.”

  “Thanks. Appreciated. Have a good night.”

  Ten minutes later, I strolled into the lobby of the station, which was quiet. I drew everyone’s attention, and I pulled out my badge, went to the nearest counter, and tossed it onto the pristine white surface. “I need to make a phone call.”

  The cop, an older gentleman, pointed at the secured door leading deeper into the station. “That way, ma’am.”

  I scooped up my badge, shot him a salute, and strolled over to the door, which another cop opened. “Thanks.”

  “You look like something the cat dragged in.”

  “It’s been a very long week.”

  “I’d say. Nice dragon form, Special Agent Abrams.”

  I sighed. “Someone caught that on film?”

  “Sure did.” The cop gestured towards an elevator and walked with me. “I’m Lieutenant Jeffreys.”

  “If I’m on a presumed dead or missing persons list, don’t tell me about it.”

  “How about if you’re the subject of a very intensive manhunt?”

  “I definitely don’t want to know about that. I’m too tired to deal with a manhunt right now. If I’m on a shortlist for a shower and a nap, you can tell me about that.”

  “Would you like your shower before you make your phone calls?”

  “Can I shower while you make the phone calls for me?”

  “I’m sure we can figure out how to notify the right people you showed up,” he replied.

  “You’re my favorite person today, Lieutenant Jeffreys.”

  The cop chuckled. “Glad to help. The ladies’ locker room is this way. Are you armed?”

  “I have my wallet and my badge, and that’s it.”

  “I’ll ask the ladies if anyone has some spare clothes that’ll fit. What size do you wear?”

  I told him, although I got the feeling the clothes would hang off me, as going a week without eating after busting out some serious magic tended to turn me into a near skeletal mess. When I finally got around to eating, I’d need an army of helpers to keep the food coming.

  “Also, were you aware there is a fish following you around?”

  “Yeah. Don’t worry about him. He’s mostly harmless.”

  “All right. I’ll make some phone calls for you and have one of the ladies check in on you. Do you need a paramedic?”

  “I’m all right. If that changes, I’ll let someone know. I managed to hike across the coast, so I’ll probably be fine.”

  Probably.

  A shower did me a world of good, and I wore the clothes of a cadet with a yoga hobby, who promised she’d been looking for an excuse to get a new outfit. She refused my offers to pay her back. Once tolerably cleaned and clothed, Lieutenant Jeffreys took me to Captain Cortez’s office. The cop eyed me with open suspicion.

  I yawned, closed the distance between us, and thrust out my hand. “Sorry to be a bother, Captain Cortez.”

  He shook with me. “I’d like to say you’re not a bother, but my station is going to be crawling with FBI types within an hour.”

  Since blaming the kraken would land me in a mental institution for evaluations, I shrugged. “This isn’t my idea of a good time, either.”

  “Nobody wants to have a nuke dropped on their head, and in your case, literally. That said, your reaction to the bomb hitting you on the head made for some of the best news I’ve seen in years. Add in the trouncing you gave that warlock, and I say you’ve earned being a bother.”

  That was something. “The government told the public it was a nuke?”

  “It went out over the emergency broadcast system before it was dropped to warn the unaffected areas there might be fallout. Nobody was expecting the bomb to come to a destructive end without detonating. That worked out well, as it wasn’t needed.”

  “Can I claim that was my motivation the entire time rather than being pissed off it hit me in the head?”

  “I think that’s fair. Please have a seat, Special Agent Abrams.”

  I dropped onto the nearest chair with a groan, and Hypnos followed, hovering over the captain’s desk.

  “What is that thing, if I might ask?”

  “He’s a koi. Don’t mind him. He’s mostly harmless.” I figured telling the cop the tiny death fish had been the reason San Francisco had almost faced a nuke wouldn’t do any good. “Can I get a brief recap of what I’ve missed?”

  “What do you know?”

  “Absolutely nothing. Reception is shitty under the sea—and I lost my phone in San Francisco.”

  “May I ask why you were under the sea for so long?”

  “Wiped out my reserves and took a nap,” I admitted with a shrug. “What I was doing probably didn’t look like much on the cameras, but it was pretty draining.”

  “According to the limited information we have on you, you’re not a shapeshifter.”

  “I’m not.”

  “But you were a dragon.”

  I pointed at his paperweight, a round, clear globe placed on a stack of papers. “Can I borrow that for a moment?”

  He reached over, picked up the paperweight, and handed it to me.

  I held the paperweight over Hypnos. “Pretend I’m the koi. The dragon you saw is nothing more than solidified magic I wrapped around myself. Consider it like this paperweight, except instead of me holding it over the koi, I was inside.”

  Hypnos figured out what I wanted, and he slipped into the paperweight.

  The captain’s eyebrows rose. “Your fish just went into my paperweight.”

  “Don’t worry about it. He’s only semi-corporeal. As I said, he’s mostly harmless.” I tapped the paperweight. “The dragon was a useful defense mechanism, but it took a lot of magic to create and control.”

  He didn’t need to know that the dragon had a life of its own and had done some of the controlling. I’d have a bad enough time when the FBI got a hold of me for questioning.

  “Ah. Yes, we have a few stronger talents in the force, and they have similar issues. I suppose it makes sense for you to recover in your element.”

  I decided to ignore his skeptical tone. I’d have to deal with more skeptics once the FBI arrived. Then again, I expected to be scolded for eating the damned bomb rather than letting it blow Euthal to smithereens.

  It pissed me off the bastard had gotten away, but I’d stopped him from his goals and had a pet fish to show for it. I lifted the paperweight and tapped on the glass until Hypnos swam out of it. “It’s not like I had a choice in the matter.”

  “I suppose you wouldn’t. And the warlock?”

  “Took a beating, got away, but lost his power play ploy. I’m sure he’ll be annoying somebody soon enough. Where and why? Don’t ask me. I
don’t know.”

  The captain sighed. “I was hoping that wasn’t going to be the answer, but the general consensus is that after he got slapped around, he teleported away. Nobody has seen him since.”

  “Who got the video recording?”

  “There was a small fishing boat not too far away, and the owner is a nature photographer. He happened to have his good camera with him.”

  I hadn’t noticed a boat on the water. Then again, I’d been busy. “I bet he had a blast with that.”

  “Especially when the squid showed up.”

  Well, at least I hadn’t hallucinated the kraken. “I dubbed it the kraken.”

  “As did most of the United States.”

  “Leviathan, too.”

  “That’s also a popular one.”

  I managed a laugh at that. “It’s scarier up close and personal.”

  “Special Agent Abrams, if I were in the water with that thing, I doubt I’d be able to do more than scream. You, ma’am, have balls of steel.”

  “Thank you, Captain Cortez.”

  “Is there anything I should know before my police station is turned upside down by the FBI?”

  “My father is Commissioner Abrams of San Francisco, and if he comes along for the ride, expect chaos.”

  “I did know that, but thank you for the warning. Anything else?”

  “I get cranky when I’m hungry.”

  “How does pizza sound?”

  I grabbed my wallet and retrieved a hundred dollars, sighing over the dampened state of the bills. “Put as much meat on mine as the pizza will hold, set them nearby, and escape while I eat. It’ll be a slaughter.”

  He reached over his desk and took the bills. “You want a hundred dollars in pizza?”

  “That should take the edge off.”

  “That’s an incredible amount of pizza.”

  “Be glad I’ve already slept most of it off. If I hadn’t, I’d probably eat twice as much and have room to spare.”

  “Preference on crust?”

  “Thin.”

  “If you’ll excuse me for a few minutes, I’ll get someone to run down the street to the pizza joint and bring something back for you.”