by LJ Rivers
“You’re not wearing it?” I couldn’t imagine walking around with a knuckle duster on my hand.
“I might have to shift, so no.” She took the piece of metal off and tossed it at me. “I have one more thing, though. Another trinket coming your way, Charlie. It took some time to get it done, but the guy I ordered it from thought the project was so cool, he added an extra feature or two.”
Jen flicked her arm out, and something spun towards the bed. Charlie caught whatever it was in one hand. It looked like a stick to me, though surely Jen wouldn’t give Charlie a stick.
“You’re fudging killing me here,” Charlie squealed.
I shook my head in question.
“It’s a wand, Ru! A super cool wand.”
“You know wands aren’t really a thing,” I said.
Jen jumped off the windowsill and onto the bed with us. “This one is definitely a thing. Try the buttons, Charlie.”
I narrowed my eyes at the supposed wand. There was one button at the bottom and another one on the handle itself.
“The one on the handle is for the flashlight,” explained Jen.
Charlie pressed her thumb down, and the end of the wand lit up with a bright beam of light.
“This could come in handy.” She swung the wand and said a few strange words that sounded like a spell of some kind, which was utterly ridiculous, of course.
“The bottom one opens a panel,” Jen said. “But whatever you do, don’t push the hidden buttons right now. There are three underneath the panel. Pink is pepper spray, blue is for a blade, and the black button—well, that’s high voltage electricity. You know, in case you ever need to tase someone.”
Charlie flung herself at Jen, her arms and legs wrapping around her like a child clinging to her mother. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
I stared at Jen. We had been so worried about Charlie, and short of placing her in a permanent force field, I’d had no clue how to protect her. This would give her an edge, and protection that would make both Jen and me relax a bit about Charlie’s safety. It was genius.
An alarm went off, and I scrambled to shut off the reminder on my phone. “While I hate to break this up,” I said, “we need to leave soon.”
“Better get ready, then.” Jen flashed her teeth at me in a feral grin. “Don’t want to keep Paddock waiting.”
Charlie planted her feet on the floor, flung the cape out behind her and waved her wand. “Your personal digiwitch, at your service. I’ll hold the fort, and see if I can hack a few satellites.”
Ten
“See you, Angels,” Charlie called as Jen and I snuck out of the flat. She had really adopted the Charlie’s Angels’ part. There was a light drizzle in the air, though not enough to get soaked. We pulled our hoods up regardless and bumped our fists together. Paddock had refused to pick us up at campus for fear of getting spotted, so we took the bus to Barnes Station where he would meet us in a civilian car.
We moved stealthily towards the Honda Civic parked on the side of the road, trying to act the part of badass vigilantes. More likely, we looked like a pair of idiots, but when in Barnes, and so on.
I tapped my finger on the windshield, and the window on the driver’s side opened slowly. “Get in,” Paddock whispered. “Ruby in the front, you in the back. Jeannine, wasn’t it?”
“Jen is enough,” she said, and we got into the car.
“You got enough room for your legs back there?” I asked Jen, trying to move my seat forward in the tiny car.
“Just about,” she replied. “I’ll sit sideways, that works.”
Paddock breathed heavily, rolled the window shut, and clasped both hands on the wheel. “There’s food if you’re hungry.” He reached out and placed his finger on a switch, turning on the radio.
Static issued from the speakers. The radio, attached on top of the dashboard, was huge, with a range of buttons and lights. I knew absolutely squat about cars, but that radio was not a standard issue with the Honda.
“Where did you get this greased lightning, huh?” asked Jen.
Paddock twitched his nose but didn’t turn. “It’s my mum’s.”
I stifled a giggle. “Now what?” I asked.
“Fernsby is out on patrol with his new partner, Wes. We’ll listen in, and follow them when something happens.”
Jen stuck her head forwards between the seats. “How do you know something will go down?”
“It always does these days. London isn’t exactly filled with only law-abiding citizens, either side of the fence.” He glanced at the knuckle duster I was wearing, his brows furrowing. “You know how to punch?”
“Not really. Looks good though, right?” I waved my fist in the air.
“Not really.” The corner of his mouth jerked upwards a fraction, and I was pretty sure he was mocking me, so I squirmed in the seat a little. The knuckle duster was no more than an accessory, and wouldn’t do me much good. Besides, a fireball beat knuckle dusters any day. I shook my head at my own vanity and took the wannabe weapon off my fingers.
“If push comes to shove, I’ve got some other tricks up my sleeve.”
“Try not to torch anything,” Paddock said tightly, turning eyes front again, though there was nothing much to see outside.
We sat quietly and listened as time passed. I had imagined a stakeout to be more fun. Jen and I helped ourselves to the burgers and sodas Paddock had offered while we waited.
“So, there was this bloke.” The sound of Paddock’s voice in the silence made me jump, and I almost dropped the burger in my lap. “At the Academy,” he continued. “He was top of the class in all the complicated investigating and legal subjects. Not so much in the physical aspects of the training.”
I guessed Paddock himself was the opposite.
“I always figured he’d move up the ladder and one day become a hotshot in the Justice Department or something.”
“Did he?” I asked.
“He’s on the ladder, at least. Yeah, he’s climbing it fast. At Scotland Yard. Met him at a seminar at a fancy hotel on Bayswater Road. Big deal with lots of high brass. We had a beer afterwards. Turns out he’s in this task force at the Yard. Mag-related cases.”
I stopped chewing.
The beams from a passing car flashed over his face for a moment, highlighting the furrows on his forehead. “He was never one to break the rules at the Academy. See, when the rest of us went out drinking and messing about, he was always studying and preparing for an assignment or exam. We, and by that I mean especially yours truly, to be honest, always got in trouble. Once I stole—well, never mind that. Point is, whatever happened, Travers never said nothing. Kept his gob closed always. We became good friends, and I guess you could say we influenced each other. He helped me with the theoretical stuff, and I pushed him in PE. And we always had each other’s backs.”
“So, you’re saying you trust him?”
“As with you two, I had no choice. But yeah, Travers is clean, and I do trust him. I—” He nodded at me and then back at Jen. “We can’t do this alone. So, I sent Travers some info, and he took it to the Yard to look into it.”
“What do Mag-related cases mean? For the task force, that is. Busting Mags?” I asked.
“Nah, they don’t go after Mags in particular. They look for things that are out of the ordinary. A Mag stealing a watch at a jeweller’s isn’t going to raise their attention.”
“But a gang of Mag-bashing coppers might?” Jen said from the back seat.
Paddock inhaled sharply. “Something like that, yes.”
The silence returned as we all mulled over what this could mean. Time started slowing down again, and the monotony took over. When the burgers were gone, I attacked the chips. I was ten seconds from falling asleep when the radio crackled.
“This is Zulu Zero. Possible Ten-Ninety-One or Ten-One-Oh-Three at Chiswick skatepark,“ a female voice said. “It’s old Mrs Claymore on the phone again. Probably nothing, but got to check it out regardle
ss,” the voice added.
“This is Zulu Two Zero responding,” a gravelly voice replied. “We’re two minutes out. Heading there now.”
“That’s them,” Paddock hissed. “Fernsby!”
“Affirmative, Zulu Two Zero. Report on site.“
“Affirmative. Zulu Two Zero out.“
The engine roared, as much as a prehistoric Honda Civic could roar, when Paddock hit the gas.
“We’re five minutes away, at least.” Paddock grabbed the wheel. The tyres screeched surprisingly loud as he made a U-turn, speeding down the road towards Hammersmith, then onwards to Chiswick. Five minutes later on the dot, he turned off the headlights, and we pulled up slowly on the far side of the skatepark.
Jen rolled her window down a half-inch, sniffing the air. “Man, this place smells rank.”
Paddock frowned, but his eyes were watching the skatepark, and so was I.
A police car had pulled into the park and two figures stood against it, having what looked like a heated discussion with three teenagers. The scene looked eerily familiar.
I gasped, the images of my vision from Monday flooding back. My inner voice protested to the improbability of it all.
It can’t be!
One of the figures was tall and lanky, while the other was a chunky, short man I recognized as Fernsby.
“Not good,” Jen whispered.
“What?” I asked.
“They are asking the kids if they have any MagX on them. One of the boys says no, then—wait. ‘No matter,’ one of the officers just said. ‘You’re walking and talking bags of blood.’”
The car seat groaned as Paddock turned to look at Jen. “What is she doing?”
“Shush.” Jen held a finger to her mouth. “He—I think it’s Fernsby—says the kids can provide the blood someplace else. A farm?”
“Harvesters.” The word slipped out, and I couldn’t believe what I was saying, even with what Paddock had told us. It seemed so wrong for a pair of police officers to be harvesting on the side. “What else?”
“The kids are scared,” Jen continued, her eyes wild. She closed them and her ears pricked up. “‘Leave us alone. We’ve done nothing wrong. Don’t touch her—’”
Fernsby grabbed one of the kids, a girl, by the arm. Something reminiscent of my force fields on steroids lit up between them, and Fernsby was hurled backwards. Was she a Fae too? The other kids jumped on their skateboards when the sound of a gunshot pierced the air.
Improbable or not, this was what I had seen in my vision. I had to stop what came next. I gripped the door handle as the girl fell down, and a sparkling blue light caught my eye across from her. The tall officer shoved a stun gun into the back of one of the boys as the third skated off as fast as he could, disappearing down the street.
“That’s it!” I shoved the door open.
“Wait,” Paddock said under his breath, but I refused to listen.
Instead, I ran, and I was pretty sure I could have broken all of my records with this sprint. Barely aware of Jen at my heels, I pushed on. The officers took turns, tasing the boy, his body convulsing at every jolt.
“Leave him alone!” I screamed as I closed in on the police car. My veins were on fire, my insides burning with rage. The sense of magic burst through me, ricocheting through my body, and I was not holding back. Not this time. I sped around the car, held my palms out, and sent a shiny force field to encase the boy, then hurled a second one at the girl, hoping I wasn’t too late.
The officers stopped electrocuting the boy and screwed their heads towards me instead, both carrying a stun gun in one hand, and a regular gun in the other. My skin was crawling with flames as I formed a fireball in my hand while the force fields evaporated around the kids. I lifted my arm, staring at the raised gun in front of me.
A blur of white shot through my vision and the gun hit the ground as the wolf tore at the tall officer’s arm. Blue sparks flew into Jen’s fur, and she let out a feral growl, her teeth sinking into her attacker’s other arm. The stun gun clattered to the concrete, and she continued to claw at the officer, though clearly with more effort than before.
I spun sideways, avoiding the electric charge aimed for my chest. Fernsby came at me from my right. He stumbled, but regained his footing and came at me again. I killed the fireball in my hand, afraid it might hurt Jen, before I tried to summon back a force field. My earlier switch to fire made me strain to make the magic work as I wanted, and Fernsby charged me again before I had a chance to act.
A second gunshot echoed in the night. I stared at the hole penetrating Fernsby’s neck as he dropped to his knees and met the concrete, head first.
Paddock ran up to me, extending his hand while placing his gun back in its holster.
“You ok?” he asked.
“Never better.” I glanced at the girl the tall officer had shot, then shifted my eyes to Jen. That officer would likely never regain breath either. “The kids!” I rushed over to the girl and placed two fingers to her neck. No pulse. The gunshot had gone straight through her heart.
“No, no, no!” I wheezed, my hand stroking the girl’s hair. Maybe it wasn’t too late? I had heard about people being dead for minutes, then suddenly sprang back to life. And though I was certain I didn’t have the powers of a necromancer, if there was even such a Magical, perhaps there was still some life in her to save. With deep breaths, I gathered what strength I had left and reached for that calm, serene feeling, which was where my power to heal resided. A ray of scintillating light flooded over the girl’s body. I held my breath and willed her to live. Gritting my teeth, I sent wave after wave of healing into her. There was no hint of movement, no sudden jerks.
I placed my hand flat on her heart and pushed with all my strength. “Come on!” Not a single, faint heartbeat to be found. A hand closed around my shoulder, and I stared up into Jen’s sad eyes, my vision blurred by tears. She crouched next to me, stark naked.
“She’s gone, babe. But the boy is still breathing.”
I sniffled. Reluctantly, I left the girl’s side, allowing the beams of light to linger in my palms. Kneeling next to the boy, I placed my hands over the scorched area of his exposed stomach. The raw sensation of magic sang in my veins as the shimmers of my healing power embraced him, his wound slowly closing, until it disappeared. The boy gasped for air, and I called the magic back inside.
“Thank you, Nimue,” I whispered, offering a thought to the Lady of Avalon.
Paddock stood on the other side of the boy, looking at me. His brows dipped down at the edges and his posture sagged as if all the air had gone out of him. I glanced at Fernsby and the other fallen officer. No matter what they had done, this had to make Paddock feel awful.
He massaged his brow with his thumb and index finger. “You were never here. Go home.”
“But—”
“I’ve already called the ambulance. They’ll be here any moment, and when they arrive, you and that wolf friend of yours need to be gone.”
With shaky legs, I rose to my feet. “Thank you.”
He gestured for me to go. “You did good. Don’t worry, I’ll clean up the mess.”
The mess? Three people were dead, one of them looked like he had been hit by a train. It was a massacre to my eyes, not a mess. But we all dealt differently with grief, and Paddock had to be able to keep his cool when other police and emergency personnel arrived at the scene.
“Keep us posted, ok? And thanks again for—” I waved my hand at the scene.
“Don’t mention it. Please. I’ll be in touch.” Paddock averted his gaze as Jen folded an arm over my shoulders. She was still naked, apart from the clothes she had wrapped up like a shoulder bag and flung over her shoulder.
“Let’s run,” she said. “I think we could both use it right about now.”
She shifted back to a wolf. It was as disturbing to watch as it was awe-inspiring. It took her a few seconds, but the way her skin sprouted fur, and her joints cracked into different shapes
looked painful enough.
I set off at a run, the Jen-wolf speeding steadily next to me. We detoured through as many side alleys and parks as possible to avoid anyone from spotting a wolf running through the streets of London. At the speed we were going, she could be mistaken for a large Samoyed dog or a crossbreed of some kind, but better to stay safe.
It was a long way back to campus, and I took the time to inhale the fresh air. The run doused the pain in my heart. I would not cry for the officers. The Magicals, however—them, us—made the tears gather in my eyes all over again. I let my feet carry me forward, the wind roll over my face and the light rain wash away my grief. If only for a short while.
Right now, it was just me, the ground below my feet, and the white wolf by my side.
Eleven
My legs protested wildly already, and I hadn’t done more than walk a couple of hundred yards from our front door. Still, the best way to get the stiffness out of the muscles after last night’s marathon through the streets was a light jog. I had thought of getting a bike, but I would never feel as free and safe in the city as I did back home on the gravel roads.
The air was crisp, and for once the fog was nowhere to be seen. If any Harvesters or shadows were out this early, I’d at least be able to spot them from afar. Not that I expected to see any of them, but last Saturday’s encounter had me on permanent alert. One safety measure was that I wouldn’t run the same route every morning. Maybe it would be smart to run at different times during the day, too, but I didn’t want to give up these early hours.
The roads and paths through Hampton Court Park were mostly new to me. At barely six o’clock on a Saturday morning, the park was empty, at least along my route. I passed Hampton Court Palace and recalled seeing it in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Too bad Johnny Depp wasn’t around now.
I decided to give my legs a break and turned back towards campus. A quick glance at my pulse watch told me I’d been out only twenty minutes. By the time I started the fight to get my hair dry after a shower, it still wouldn’t be more than seven—maybe ten past. Good, that meant I could catch up on a little reading and maybe start plotting my photo story for the Whisper. It wasn’t due for a while yet, but I had a shift at the cinema later, so whatever work I could put behind me would be a good investment, schedule-wise.