Black hat 8 gray seas, p.4
Black Hat 8 - Gray Seas, page 4
“Yes.” I smothered a laugh. “His wigs will still fit him.”
Using my thumbs, I smoothed a section of what remained of his forehead then taught Colby the shem. It shouldn’t have surprised me she was better at drawing it than I had ever been. Originally, we had used gaming to improve her manual dexterity after she became a moth and struggled with coordinating her extra limbs. That was before I realized what a valuable social outlet her online community provided her.
The sudden influx of air whistling through Clay’s lungs indicated her penmanship had done the job.
“Clay,” she said softly. “You’re safe now.” She snuggled into his neck. “I’ve got you.”
Experience had taught me consciousness was slow in coming, so I settled in to wait with her.
CHAPTER THREE
I was sitting in the exam room, heart in my throat, when a wide-eyed Marita wheeled Asa in.
Without his piercings, dressed in a hospital gown, he looked…frail. And it made me want to scream.
“Well?” I shot to my feet. “How did it go?”
“Loud.” He let me help him from the wheelchair to the table. “And unexpectedly cleansing.”
“Cleansing?” I ran my hands down his neck and across his shoulder. “How so?”
“The MRI ripped three pieces of metal out of his stomach,” Marita blurted. “It was amazing.”
A wobble in my knees almost sent me crashing to the floor, but Asa caught me under my elbows.
“Ah.” Dr. Vandross let herself in without knocking. “I see you’ve heard the good news.”
Had Marita been a hair slower, I might have succeeded in mauling the doctor with my claws and teeth.
“Bad, Rue.” She pulled the same rolled-up pamphlet from her back pocket and popped my nose. “Bad.”
“I’m not a puppy,” I snarled. “Quit hitting me with that.”
“Hey, if I had a squirt bottle full of water, I would have gone with that. But I don’t. So you get this.”
“The foreign bodies have been removed from Mr. Montenegro.” Dr. Vandross placed a lot of faith in Marita’s ability to protect her from me. “He should begin to heal naturally and fully recover within the week.” She dared me with the curve of her lips. “Faster if you continue your daily sessions.”
“Don’t let her yank your tail.” The nurse bustled into the room. “The procedure was augmented by magic.”
“Wait.” I held myself very still. “Are you saying she didn’t rip chunks of metal out of Asa?”
“Oh, she did.” The nurse passed him a paper cup full of pills and a glass of water. “But it was precise.”
“Any magnetized metal,” Marita added, “would have turned his guts to hamburger meat otherwise.”
A bitter taste flooded my mouth, and I had to swallow to keep from vomiting. “Thanks for that.”
“I got curious after he removed all that face bling, and boy did the internet deliver.”
“This day keeps getting worse.” I slumped in her arms. “What else can go—?”
“Nope. Nah-uh. No way.” She slapped a hand over my mouth. “We don’t tempt the universe.”
As far as I was concerned, the universe deserved a swift kick to the junk, but I nodded so she let go.
“You need to wait here for thirty minutes,” Dr. Vandross informed us. “Then we’ll reexamine and release him.”
While Marita ran interference in case I got any ideas, the doctor and nurse made their exits.
Calmer for their absence, I crossed to Asa and took his trash from him. “What did they give you?”
“Ibuprofen.”
Closing my eyes, I counted back from ten then opened them and set my hands on him. “Hold still.”
With Clay groggy and vulnerable, Colby had refused to leave his side. Like the sucker I am, I caved faster than a house of cards when she begged to stay with him. Even warded in the SUV, she was close enough to draw from. As I reached for our familiar bond, her bright magic rushed into me, and I pushed her light into Asa. An exhale passed his lips that betrayed the amount of pain he had been in up until that moment.
“Oh.” Marita patted her pockets. “I almost forgot.”
The tiny envelope she produced jingled and understanding dawned. “His jewelry.”
“Would you like to do the honors?” Asa took the packet. “I won’t make you do my mouth.”
“I’ve done your mouth plenty.” I kissed him to swallow his laughter. “Your tongue and I are old friends.”
A blush heated his cheeks, and he almost fumbled the lapis hoop he had been wearing in his septum.
“Aww.” Marita clutched her hands to her chest. “You guys are so sweet.”
Had Clay been here, he would have gagged, but Marita was immune. Probably because she was worse.
To pass the time, since Asa’s eyes were heavy and his fingers clumsy, I replaced his earrings, nose ring, and tongue piercing. The act was surprisingly intimate, and I almost wished for privacy from Marita.
“Are you sure they only gave him ibuprofen?” She cocked her head to one side. “He’s about to fall over.”
I might have given him a hit of magic along with the healing burst that worked particularly well on him, leaving him as drowsy as the delicate tea blend I perfected for Hollis Apothecary.
Peppermint, chamomile, lavender, and catnip.
A twinge in my chest reminded me how much I missed those simpler days, and the girls.
“He’s fine.” I got him comfy. “What’s the ETA on Derry?”
“Ugh.” She rolled her eyes. “He’ll be here in six hours.”
“The way things are going,” I hated to admit, “we could use the backup.”
“I do have these.” She held up a baggy stained with blood. “And a medical horror story.”
“Are those from the MRI?” I studied the contents. “How can something so tiny cause so much damage?”
Three pieces of iron, each about as long as my thumbnail and thin as a hair curled in spirals.
“I often wonder the same thing about silver.” Her expression pinched. “What do you think they are?”
“Stavros wore brass knuckles forged from cold iron during the fight. I figured it was from that.”
“A chunk, maybe, but these guys are tiny.”
Now that she mentioned it, I had to agree it was peculiar. “What are you saying?”
“The general guy gave Stavros his personal weapon, which meant he knew how to manipulate it better than anyone.” She gave them a shake. “What if he ordered strands to peel away from the whole and work their way throughout Asa’s body? Makes for a heck of an insurance policy if Stavros had lost.”
The metal threads would have kept Asa weak, and weak kings don’t last long.
“True.” I forced myself to look away from the blood. “Are you sure Dr. Vandross got them all?”
“Between the magnet, and the magic she was throwing around, I feel confident he’s cold iron free.”
Not long after that, Dr. Vandross returned to examine Asa and sign off on discharging him from her care.
After collecting my signature, she ditched us, leaving Marita and me to wrangle Asa into the wheelchair.
We reached the lobby before the nurse rounded her desk and thrust out her hand for the visitor’s pass.
That was it. No sticker. No lollipop. No toy. I felt insulted on his behalf.
Back at the SUV, Marita and I loaded Asa—still in his hospital gown—into the passenger front seat.
A soft yawn caught my attention as Colby shook off sleep and glided onto his shoulder.
“You look rough.” She poked his cheek. “What happened in there?”
With great enthusiasm, Marita launched into a play-by-play that popped Colby’s eyes wide as moons.
“How’s Clay?” I asked brightly, shoving Marita in beside the woozy golem. “Looking better?”
As much as I wanted to crack open the trunk and put eyes on him, I couldn’t shake the creeping sense of paranoia that stemmed from having a wounded mate in an SUV, in an empty parking lot, while an unknown threat stalked us.
I didn’t take an easy breath until we were on the highway, and then I hit a mental roadblock.
Leaning forward, Marita braced her forearms on the backs of the front seats. “Where are we going?”
“To a hotel.” I watched the GPS queue up directions to a location Colby must have booked for us. “From there…” I puffed out my cheeks. “We’ll see.”
A call lit up the screen, interrupting the map view of our route, and I recognized the number with dread. “Agent Hollis.”
“An attempt was made on your life,” the director announced, as if this should be news to me.
The big boom was my first hint was what I wanted to say, but I was determined to play nice.
Be the cat to his mouse, I reminded myself. Be ready to pounce when he least suspects.
“We don’t know for certain I was the target.”
“You’re Deputy Director of the Black Hat Bureau. Of course you were the target.”
As far as Inga knew, I had gone to lunch with Clay, which was what she would tell anyone who asked for me. Between Clay and me, yeah, I was the likelier target. But the real odds were much higher it had been an attempt to collect the bounty on Asa.
“I need to follow up with Jase Isiforos. He’s the AIC.” I ground my teeth. “Thanks for checking on me.”
I mashed the end button with a bit more force than necessary, glad he hadn’t called me out for ignoring him when Marty approached me earlier. Marty hated me. I knew that. Always had, always would. The feeling was mutual. But did he hate me enough to shadow me for the director?
Ha.
Like that was even a question.
The ward on the director’s office door announced that I was in the doghouse with him. He was definitely paranoid enough to sic a brownnoser like Marty on me to ensure I wasn’t spending my hour lunch break meeting with Dad and planning to overthrow Black Hat.
Ordinarily, I would be thrilled he got the shoulder tap. Marty was a mediocre agent with zero interest in doing his job. But his hatred of me burned hotter than his laziness. With official backing, he could be a problem.
“Are you sure you ought to talk to your boss like that?”
Marita was quick to speak her mind, and I liked that about her. “Yep.”
The noise she made in the back of her throat told me she was picturing how an alpha would take it.
“He already wants to use me as bait to lure out Dad.” I adjusted the AC when Asa shivered beside me. “If he can frame this incident as an attack on me, as the Black Hat deputy director, he’ll do everything he can to drag me back to the compound and lock me down until the danger passes.” I snorted at the notion anything was a bigger threat to me than him. “I can’t give him an opening to make it an order, or things will get sticky.”
Thanks to my poking and prodding, I had a good idea what spell he’d used to bar me entry to his office.
All I had to do now was figure out what I wanted to do about it.
If I brought in Luca, he would see me. As long as Clay came too. But I needed free access to the director.
Just in case he wasn’t impressed enough with Luca to forgive me, I required the means to bust in and drag him out of his office by his hair. I would too. Even for an infinitesimal chance at trading him to Calixta for Aedan.
“This is why,” Marita advised, “you should never work for family.”
“Spoken like someone who works for her family.”
“That’s why I’m an expert on why not to do it.”
We reached the hotel, and I slid out to handle check-in while Marita moved into position to protect Asa. As much as I hated to leave him, and as unhappy as it would make Colby, Clay had to stay in the SUV. He was too weak to walk and too heavy for Marita and me to carry between us.
Twenty minutes later, I was back at the SUV with a room key to help Asa into the elevator to our floor.
Marita stuck close to his back, and Colby burrowed deeper into my hair.
To be on the safe side, we didn’t talk on the way to the room, but everything unsaid thickened the air.
Not until after I cleared the room and warded it—and put Asa to bed—did Marita and I speak.
“You think the bomb was meant for Asa?”
“Yeah.” I picked a dry scab of burnt sauce off my cheek. “Probably.”
“The director thinks otherwise.”
“The director had no idea we were meeting you and Asa and Colby.”
“He isn’t wrong that you’re a big deal at the Bureau, and this happened mighty close to the compound.”
“I haven’t done anything to paint a target on my back.”
Wild laughter burst from Marita, who sucked in huge gulps of air as she brayed her amusement.
“Lately,” I clarified. “I haven’t done anything lately.”
“Your definition of haven’t done anything is not the same as mine.” She wiped tears off her cheeks. “You go around kicking ant beds then blowtorching what crawls out of them. You’re always doing something.”
“I have nothing against ants.” I scuffed my heel. “And you make me sound like a homicidal maniac.”
“To be fair, you’re pretty homicidal. Like an eight out of ten.”
“I still think Asa was the target.”
“You’re probably right.” She checked out the windows. “But I think we should keep an eye on you too.”
Colby, who had set up camp in a window to keep an eye on Clay in the SUV, fluttered onto the bed.
“You should shower.” She twitched her antennae at me. “I’ll log into Clay’s grocery delivery account and have clothes dropped off for you, Marita, and Asa.” Her nose wrinkled. “I’ll see what I can do for Clay.”
Big and tall selections were hard to come by, but if anyone could locate an outfit for him, it was her.
“You can buy clothes at the grocery store out here?” Marita whistled. “Fancy.”
“Nah.” Colby chuckled as she reached for my phone. “The company started out only delivering groceries to people, but now they have listings for all sorts of places. Clothing stores. General goods. Tech stores.”
“Must be nice.” She gusted out a sigh. “We live too far out for that kind of thing.”
Since she had a point about my appearance, I excused myself and hit the bathroom. I stripped off my clothes and tossed them in the too-small can then stood in front of the mirror to examine the damage. I was filthy, and crusty with dried blood, but my wounds had sealed when I channeled Colby’s power.
I cleaned up fast to save hot water for Marita then wrapped myself in a plush towel for my grand exit.
“You clean up nice.” She winked at me, trading places. “Be out in ten. Or twenty.”
When the door shut, I lowered myself onto the bed next to Asa and watched him breathe.
“You used to do that when I was little.” Colby had turned from the window. “You woke me up a lot.”
“It’s soothing.” I bobbed a shoulder. “For me, anyway.”
From my perspective, it comforted, but maybe it was creepy on the receiving end.
Oh well.
“Clay is sitting up,” she reported. “He ought to be mobile in another hour or two.”
Not that she was wrong, but I was curious. “How do you figure?”
“I called him.” She waved to him then sailed over to me. “I worried he would get lonely.”
She must have left his phone out where he could use voice commands if he needed anything.
“That’s very thoughtful of you.” I stroked her fuzzy head. “I’m sure he appreciates it.”
“Do you think Marita is right?” She worried her hands. “Do you think you were the target?”
She and I really had to talk about what was appropriate to say in front of little moths with big ears.
“I’ve always been a target.” I goosed her wing to make her flutter and jump back. “You know that.”
“No one’s ever blown you up before.”
She puffed to twice her original size, in the most adorable intimidation tactic ever.
I had been shot, stabbed, spelled, burnt, and had other various not-fun injuries inflicted on me. But I didn’t understand why one tiny bomb, that we all survived, was freaking her out to this degree.
“Clay looked awful,” she said in a tiny voice. “I know you said he was immortal, but…”
Ah.
This made more sense.
She had never seen the immoveable Clay hurt, and it had shaken her.
“As long as you remember his shem, you can always put him back together.”
“Promise?” Her wings drooped down her spine. “I don’t want to go through that again.”
“I promise.” I kissed the top of her head. “I need to make some calls.”
Now that Asa and Clay were both on the mend, and safe for the time being, I could focus on the case.
The Case of Who Blew up the Deputy Director and/or Former High Prince of Hael.
To better keep an eye on her bestie, she returned to her post and pressed her face to the glass.
The tiny desk and chair combo in the room was laughable, but I sat and dialed Isiforos. “Update.”
“We’ve collected all the bodies and notified their families. We’re conducting interviews now to eliminate the possibility that one of them was the target.”
With me in the mix, and the director already in a huff, he was right to track down every potential lead. No matter how unlikely. “Any luck determining the cause?”
“The burn pattern, source of the ignition, and flow path indicates the origin of the fire was magical in nature. The lack of accelerants or fuels supports that theory.”
Thinking back, I did recall seeing a light before everything went dark, but I couldn’t swear it was magic. “You make it sound like an arson case, but there was an explosion.”
“An explosion of fire magic,” he agreed, “yes.”
Despite how often I cast it, catastrophic magic was rare, but elemental variations were easiest.
“There was a black witch with a spell that incinerated an entire forest after her old flame—” no pun intended, “—got engaged. He was a naiad, but the fiancé was a Laumė.”
