Dirty Magic (31 page)

“Where are the others?”

“Shadi’s helping the BPD.” Morales shared a tense glance with Gardner. “Mez is back at the lab.”

“Has the BPD been able to identify any of the other people who attacked us?” I said.

Gardner’s expression went tense, like she’d hoped I would have forgotten about that. “Not yet.” Her tone was subdued. “They’re hoping some of the fingerprints taken off the deceased will provide clues to their identities.”

“What’s taking them so long?” I demanded.

“Kate, listen, maybe we should talk about this later—” Morales began.

I swiped a hand through the air. “Later? You mean after Bane’s gone totally underground and we lose all hope of finding him?”

“There are some complications,” Gardner said. “The media got wind of the raid and Mayor Owens is crawling all over Eldritch’s ass.”

“Fuck the mayor!”

The words hung in the air like a black cloud.

“Kate.” Gardner’s voice was quiet but steely. “I understand your frustration, but there are procedures we have to follow. If we go after Bane through improper channels, we’ll never make a case against him.”

“Won’t need to make a case if he’s dead.”

“Stop right there,” she snapped. “Haven’t there been enough casualties already?”

The word “casualties” made the eggshell veneer of calm begin to fracture. Danny wasn’t a fucking casualty. He was just a kid who had become another tragedy in the war on magic.

Tears burned the edges of my lids. I pointed to Danny’s gray face. “That bastard did this to him.” My voice cracked. I cleared my throat and took a deep breath. If there was one thing I hated more than crying because I was sad, it was crying because I was angry. “You know it and I know it. And if you won’t arrest him, then I will personally hunt him down and gladly do the time.”

“Stop it.” Gardner’s expression didn’t change, but the air around us tightened, hardened. “That won’t fix Danny.”

“Nothing will fix Danny,” I whispered.

Her head tilted. “What? Is that what the doctor said?”

I swallowed the fist-sized lump in my throat. “He has to stay in the coma until an antipotion for Gray Wolf is found.”

Morales cursed under his breath.

Gardner’s face softened a fraction and she came forward into what probably counted as a comforting distance. “Let us worry about all this. If I know Mez, he’s already two steps ahead and working on an antipotion. Shadi’s handling the BPD and Morales and I will be working other avenues to track down Bane.” She bent down so I was forced to look in her eyes for the vow she was about to deliver: “And we will find him.”

I hesitated, but I knew she meant what she said. They might be federal agents, but they were still cops. And cops took care of their own. At least these cops did. The same couldn’t be said for any of the BPD officers since none had even showed up at the hospital to show their support. My conscience rose at the uncharitable thought. Hadn’t Gardner just said Shadi was out with the BPD looking for Bane? That was the kind of support I really needed. Finally, I nodded. “What can I do?”

“You’ve got your hands full here. Focus your energy on Danny and taking care of yourself. Leave the rest to us, okay?”

“If you need anything,” Morales said, coming forward, “you call us. Seriously. Anything.”

I looked up at him and a new wave of emotion rose up in my throat. This time, though, it wasn’t despair threatening to drown me. It was gratitude and something like hope. “Thanks,” I whispered.

Two big arms suddenly wrapped around me. I started to pull away, but the support was so appreciated, so needed, that I surrendered and accepted the comfort offered.

I held on for all I was worth. His muscled arms and shoulders seemed as though they could hold the weight of the world, which was good because my worries felt like just that.

Gardner cleared her throat. Morales pulled back reluctantly and looked me in the eye. “I mean it—anything.”

I forced a weak smile and nodded.

He grabbed my hand and slipped something inside. “Mez left this for you.”

I frowned and looked down. The item in my hand was a round leather amulet hanging from a braided leather cord. In the center, a small bubble of glass was filled with an iridescent green liquid. “What is it?”

“We call it the ‘Oh Shit’ amulet. Break the bubble if there’s trouble and it will ward off magical attacks, as well as activate a GPS chip embedded in the disc.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but Gardner spoke up. “If Bane comes after you we’ll be able to track you down anywhere in the city.”

“I don’t—” I’d been in the process of rubbing my arms because I suddenly felt cold. The movement brushed a raw, reddened spot where I’d ripped off the patch.

“Save it, Prospero. I’m well aware of your aversion to using magic.” Gardner crossed her arms, shooting my arm a pointed look. I didn’t have the energy to feel betrayed that Morales had told her I took off the patch. My conscience reared up. Maybe if I hadn’t pulled it off I could have fought harder, smarter. Maybe done something to prevent—

Gardner’s voice cut through my self-recriminations like a blade. “Bane potioned your brother because he knew he was your Achilles’ heel.”

Boom.

Everyone went silent in the wake of that punch to the gut. I glanced at Pen, but she was suddenly very interested in the patterns on the flecked linoleum.

“He will come at you again,” Gardner added, unnecessarily.

“Yeah,” I snapped. “I got it. But if he does it’ll be so fast I won’t have time to activate the amulet.”

“It might help, though,” Pen said. I shot her a disgusted look for siding with them. She of all people understood why I didn’t want anything to do with magic. Especially now that magic had turned my brother into a vegetable.

I placed a hand on the butt of the gun at my waist. “Not if I get to them first.”

“You listen to me.” Gardner’s entire posture changed. It seemed as though she grew six inches. “If I catch you anywhere near Bane or his property, I’ll personally arrest you for obstruction.”

My mouth fell open.

“I won’t have you risking your life or anyone else’s over some personal vendetta,” she snapped. “You let us worry about Bane. You keep yourself busy getting that boy the help he needs and watching your own ass.” She grabbed the amulet Morales still held and thrust it at me. “Put this on and keep it on. If I catch you without it, I’ll surgically implant a tracking device in your ass. Are we clear?”

If I clenched my teeth any harder, they’d shatter. “Crystal,” I gritted out. She raised a brow, signaling she wouldn’t leave until she watched me put on the damned thing. With a sigh, I threw it over my head. The disc was surprisingly lightweight, but on the skin it felt like a lead yoke.

“Good girl,” Gardner said. The patronizing tone made me want to punch her, so I clenched my fists. “Now”—her tone lightened up—“we’ll get out of your hair. I’ll check in on you tomorrow.”

She nodded at Morales, who snapped to attention and followed her out like a good little soldier. The instant the door shut behind them, I rounded on Pen.

“Can you believe that bitch?” Even I heard the petulance in my voice. I hated it, but I couldn’t help but feel as if I deserved a little bit of self-pity, all things considered.

“Honestly?” Pen said, watching the door my boss just exited. “I think she’s kind of awesome.”

I sighed and dropped back in the chair. “Jesus, Pen.”

My best friend came over and grabbed my hands, which felt icy in her warm palms. “We’ll get him better.” She opened her mouth to say more, but at that moment the door burst open and Hurricane Baba blew in.

“Oh, my poor, poor boy!” she wailed. After that, any thoughts of planning revenge or ignoring Gardner’s instructions flew out the window as Pen and I tried to answer questions we didn’t begin to know the right answers to.

T
wo days later, on my way to the hospital, I grabbed a box of glazed donuts for the nurses and a bucket of coffee for me. I only wished answers were as easy to come by as sugar and caffeine.

The night before Baba had shooed me out of the hospital to go home to shower and sleep.

“You smell like a foot and you look like shit,” she’d said in her most loving tone. “I don’t want to see you back here before dawn.” After that she’d tried to press one of her special teas into my hands, and I escaped just so she wouldn’t make me drink it.

Walking back into that silent house had been like entering a crime scene. Echoes of Danny permeated the place—his shoes on the floor, dirty laundry next to the hamper, his toothbrush by the sink.

When I arrived, there was an e-mail waiting for me from Eldritch. It contained an attached police report detailing the information the cops had gathered about how Bane captured Danny. According to his friend Aaron, they’d arrived at school around seven thirty. Aaron was in the band so he had to go set up for the assembly, which was scheduled right after the first bell. Best anyone could tell, Danny decided to run to the corner store to grab some junk food before school started. The last person who saw him was the convenience store clerk, who reported seeing a tall male with brown hair, about mid-thirties, talking to Danny in the parking lot.

I paused reading and removed the watch they’d found at the scene from my pocket. One of the cops who’d come by the hospital had brought it to me. They’d found it next to the curb where the store attendant saw Danny speaking to the stranger. I closed my fist around the cold metal and squeezed my eyes shut. So much for its bringing him luck. I swiped angrily at the tears I didn’t want to indulge and shoved the watch back into my pocket where I didn’t have to look at it.

By the time the first class had begun and Danny’s teacher noticed he was absent he’d already been abducted. And by the time news of his absence had trickled to Pen and she’d begun leaving the frantic messages I found on my phone later, I had already been fighting Danny in the tunnels.

I’d closed the e-mail with a nagging sensation to go along with the weight in my chest. Why would Danny go somewhere with a stranger? He knew better than that. And the clerk hadn’t reported a struggle between the two. It didn’t add up.

To distract myself from my loneliness and the memories and the theories, I’d called Morales around midnight for an update. He’d groggily informed me that they’d identified some of the Gray Wolf addicts who’d attacked us.

“Shadi ID’d five of them as vagrants who hang out at one of the shelters downtown.”

“Did she go there?”

“Of course.”

“And?”

“And what, Kate?” He sighed. “Did she find Ramses Bane sitting on a cot waiting to be arrested?”

The conversation was pretty much over at that point.

It’s not that I didn’t trust Morales and the rest of the team to get Bane—well, that’s not true. I didn’t want anyone but me to deliver the swift kick of justice directly to Bane’s ass. But I also realized that my hands were tied. As much as I hated to admit it, Gardner was right: Danny needed to be my priority.

He might be unconscious, but the doctor felt sure he could register some of what was happening around him. Even if he didn’t remember everything—and Lord knew I hoped he forgot what happened in the tunnels—when he eventually woke up, I had a feeling he’d know deep down that he hadn’t been alone. That had to count for something.

So, really, I had no choice but to put my faith in the team. Which meant I probably needed to add an apology to Morales to my to-do list for calling him an asshole before I’d hung up on him.

The nurses cheered when I dropped off the box of glazed donuts at the desk. Apparently the Cauldron had hosted a busy night of ODs, stabbings, and assorted other magic-related violence that kept the ER hopping. That meant the nurses in Danny’s ward had had to step it up to cover all the staff who had been commandeered to handle triage.

“We didn’t expect you until later,” Rita, the shift supervisor, said with a yawn. “But we’re sure glad you showed up when you did.”

I smiled. Inside I longed to ask them what kinds of potions were involved, but I left them to enjoy their breakfast in peace. Even if the cases were related to Gray Wolf, there wasn’t much I could do with the knowledge besides harass Morales some more.

“I’ll just go check on Danny,” I said to the nurses.

“Oh! Mrs. Nowiki went down to grab some coffee and breakfast at the cafeteria about half an hour ago, but your other friend showed up not too long after.”

I frowned at her, wondering if Morales or one of the task members stopped by. “What friend?”

“Let me check.” She started rifling through stacks of files on the counter, looking for the visitor log. “One of the other nurses was on duty, so she wrote it down.”

I waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll go see for myself.” I started to walk away, thinking it was probably Pen. It wasn’t until I approached the room and saw that all the curtains were closed to the hallway that my gut told me to worry. I reached for the door at the same instant the nurse called down the hall.

“Oh, here it is,” she called. “It’s Mr. Volos—”

My heart plummeted ten stories. I threw open the door and ran inside.