Devon Monk - Magic in the Shadows

Stotts blinked once. “Yes.”

“What the hell?” I said loud enough that half the emergency room looked over at me. “You asked me to work for you. Not him. Not Davy. Didn’t I answer you fast enough? You had to go out and find someone else to kill?”

“That,” Stotts growled, “is enough. He was already working the job before you and I talked.”

I glared at him. He glared right back at me.

Sid, next to us, just sighed. “It’s done,” he said tiredly. “Neither of you have ground to fight on. Leave it be and let’s move on.”

To my surprise, Stotts backed down. “Do you know if he has family here?” He was all business and police procedure again.

Sid rubbed at the bridge of his nose, then pushed his glasses back in place.

“I don’t know much about his personal life. He never mentioned family. I always thought he lived somewhere out southeast. Thought he went to PCC. But I’m not sure about that either.”

Note to self: once all this settles down, if it settles down, get some kind of basic information on all the Hounds in the city. If nothing else, it will make it easier for the police to notify the next of kin.

Bea spoke up. “So, who’s taking the first shift?” she asked.

“First shift?” I said.

“Waiting to hear if Davy’s going to be okay,” she said. “I’ll stay for a while.”

Jack motioned to one of the empty chairs. “I’ve got some time,” he said. “You and I can take first shift, all right?”

Bea nodded and sat down where I’d just been sitting. Jack exchanged a look with Sid, and I remembered they had buddied for Sid’s job tonight.

“I’ll get someone else,” Sid said.

Jack nodded and settled down next to Bea, his elbows on his knees as he started a mundane conversation about what kinds of corpses she’d been sniffing lately.

“I need to know what you saw, Allie,” Stotts said.

“I didn’t see much,” I said.

“If you’ll excuse me,” Sid interrupted, “I’m going to the coffee shop in the main lobby. Anyone want anything?”

“No,” I said. “Are you staying?”

He shook his head. “Have a job in a few hours. Just a look-see at the library for some shenanigans with the books. Someone thinks a few books have had offensive passages ‘spelled’ out of them.”

“I don’t care if you’re Hounding a newborn. You need a shadow.” I hated sounding like an overprotective mother, but right now, even the library sounded like a death trap.

“I’ll get one,” Sid said. “I have the list. I’ll see who’s available and give him or her a call.”

He headed off to the coffee shop.

I told Stotts what I’d seen. Well, not all of it. I mentioned Davy, Tomi, the knife, the burned circle of ashes, and the shadowy magic. I did not tell him about the nightmare creatures loose on the street. As far as I knew, Stotts did not know about those kinds of things. About the dead walking among us, the Veiled, the Necromorph, the nightmare creatures. As far as I knew, those were the sorts of things, Death magic things, dark magic things, that the Authority worked very hard to keep out of the notice of the rest of the citizenry.

Including the secret magical police department.

Of course, I could be wrong. No one had given me a damn spreadsheet to keep all the secrets straight.

“And that’s it?” he asked as he wrote down the last of my statement on the pad he’d pulled out of his pocket.

“That’s all I remember,” I said.

“Okay.” He put the pad and pen away. “I have some things I need to take care of. Are you going to be okay here?”

“What?”

“I’m beginning to like this buddy system you have worked out. Do you want me to call someone for you? Nola, maybe?”

Wow, and how strange was that? Mr. Police Detective had Nola’s number and was looking after me like I was trying to look after my Hounds.

“Do you know where Nola is?” I asked.

“She said she was going to do some shopping, maybe catch a movie.” He glanced at his watch. “She might be at your apartment now.”

“I’ll give her a call and let her know I’m on my way home.”

“Do you need a ride?”

“No,” I said. “I got it.”

He hesitated for a second, which made sense, since I usually didn’t have a car. But he nodded. “Call me. Anytime. For anything. Okay?”

“I will.”

Anything I can tell you about

, I thought.

I checked with the nurse on duty but she said they didn’t have an update on Davy yet. This was where a cell phone would really come in handy. Instead I gave her my home phone number and asked her to please call me as soon as they knew anything.

Then I gave my home number to Jack and Bea and made them both write it down. When Sid came strolling back with an energy drink and two sandwiches, I told him my number too.

“I know your home number,” he said around a bite of pastrami. “We’ll call as soon as we know. And if any of us get tired sitting down here, we’ll call someone else to take over.”

“I’ll be back soon,” I said. And I planned on that being the truth. I also planned on hunting down those nightmare creatures and sending them back to wherever they came from.

And to do that, I’d need the help of Mr. Zayvion Jones.

So here’s something I never thought I’d see. My apartment with three people in it, laughing without my being there.

I tried to open the door, but it was locked. And I was glad about that.

I knocked. Who should open the door (after ample time to look through the peephole to see who was on the other side) but Zayvion.

He opened the door wide and stepped aside with a warm, relaxed smile on his face. “Welcome home,” he said.

My heart caught at the sound of those words on his lips.

“You and I have issues,” I said.

“Apparently,” he said.

Nola and Shamus were laughing in the living room. Something about dogs, and Nola going on about Jupe’s disastrous skunk-hunting expeditions.

“What’s wrong?” Zayvion glanced down the hallway behind me, then shut the door.

And when all I could do was shake my head, he took the three steps necessary and wrapped his arms around me. I should have pushed him away. I was still angry at him for hurting Cody. But he held me, my face tucked into his shoulder, didn’t say anything. Didn’t ask anything. Just afforded me a little time to pull myself together for what I knew I had to do.

Nola walked out of the living room. “Allie? I was just going to pour us all coffee. Do you want a cookie?”

That’s what I smelled-homemade oatmeal cookies.

“No.” I pushed away from Zayvion and smiled for Nola. “It’s been a bad day. I found Davy Silvers-he’s one of the Hounds in the group-hurt over in St. Johns.”

Nola’s face shadowed with concern. “Is he okay? Do we need to take him to the hospital?”

“I already did.” I looked at Zayvion, who watched me with a dark intensity. “There’s blood in your backseat. Sorry.”

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Is he?”

“I don’t know yet. Some of the Hounds are at the hospital, waiting to hear if he’s going to be okay.”

“Should we go down there too?” Nola asked. “How was he hurt? Was it an accident?”

“No. It was magic.”

Zayvion didn’t move, but Shamus, who had been sitting in my living room with his feet on my coffee table, stood up and strolled over.

“Well, it’s been a fine afternoon,” he said to Nola. “And a pleasure meeting you, Ms. Robbins.” He shook Nola’s hand. “But it’s getting late, and I see that you have things needing your attention. I hope we’ll get a chance to see each other again before you head out of town. Maybe catch a pint out at O’Donnel’s.”