Kelly Mendig - Three Days to Dead

His hazel eyes captured mine for a moment, as though attempting to see past Chalice’s plain brown irises and into my soul. To see the person I’d once been, who lurked deep inside of the shell of a woman he didn’t recognize.

“On one condition,” he said.

“What’s that?”

He glared over my shoulder. “Hot coffee and a blanket.”

54:15

“Where’s your team?” I waited until we were back in Wyatt’s car, with Rufus wrapped up in a blanket from the trunk, and us well on our way to get some drive-thru coffee, before asking the question foremost on my mind. I twisted around in the front passenger seat to face him.

“No idea,” Rufus said. He’d taken on a bit of color since we helped him limp out of the refrigerator. “I’ve been locked up for the last thirty-odd hours, so they could be anywhere in the city, probably looking for me. My kids are loyal, too.”

The last was directed at Wyatt, but he kept his concentration on driving.

“Could you convince them to help us?” I asked.

Rufus shook his head. “I’m still not convinced I’m going to help you, so how about one step at a time? You really don’t remember anything between telling Wyatt that you were going uptown, then waking up in a new body?”

“I really don’t, and I wish people would stop second-guessing that. Do you think I like not knowing where I was or what happened to me?”

Wyatt grunted. Okay, so he knew what had happened to me, but I still couldn’t bring myself to ask for those details. Instinctual revulsion at those goblins had been enough to hint at the torture they’d inflicted; I didn’t need it drawn out in pictures. And yet I knew that my desire to remember everything for myself was costing us precious time. Time we couldn’t afford to waste.

“Okay, you guys know what happened the night I was found,” I said. “Since I can’t seem to get it together, tell me your side of what happened. Who was there? Who said what? Maybe it will jog something.”

“I got the page in the afternoon and called in, like usual,” Rufus said. “The message said you’d been found, and that my team was needed on the scene. When we arrived, Wyatt, Amalie, and her guard, Jaron, were already there. So was Tybalt, but no one else from Kismet’s Triad. Kis told me later that the others were on patrol down by the docks and couldn’t get there in time. That’s everyone.”

“One of your team was missing,” Wyatt said. A small amount of accusation tinged his words.

Rufus flared his nostrils. “Tully and Wormer were there. Nadia didn’t respond right away.”

I knew the three by name and by the occasional joint operation. We’d met maybe half a dozen times in our careers, which wasn’t unusual in our line of work. Death followed us around, so it was better to maintain a distance. Befriend only your two Triad partners, and keep everyone else at arm’s length.

And Tybalt … I think I punched him in the face once.

“It was a train station on the old track,” Rufus said. “Part of the abandoned passenger line that followed the river over the Anjean tributary and into the East Side. No one was guarding it, so they must have heard us coming….”

“Or been tipped off,” Wyatt added.

Rufus quirked an eyebrow at the back of Wyatt’s head. “Would you like to do the telling here?”

Wyatt raised a dismissive hand, attention never wavering from the road in front of him.

“We found you downstairs in some sort of basement,” Rufus continued. “Old offices or storage or something. Amalie could still sense the immediate presence of others, so I sent Wormer and Tully out on recon, just to make sure we were alone. You were …” His mouth twitched, eyebrows knitted, as if he couldn’t quite reconcile his memory with the woman watching him from behind a stranger’s face. “You were dying. Wyatt went nuts when he saw you.”

Bright spots of color flared on Wyatt’s cheeks. His jaw clenched, knuckles stretching white against the steering wheel. In this new body that desired him and its short-term lease on life that practically begged me to do some stupid things with it, I liked the idea of him going crazy protective. Just not with so much at stake.

“Tybalt tried to keep him back, but we couldn’t … Help didn’t get there in time. You never said a word.”

“But I was conscious?” I asked.

“Conscious, but I don’t know if you were lucid. You tried to talk, but nothing came out.”

“Regardless, I saw the people in the room. You, Wyatt, Jaron, Amalie, and Tybalt.” Wyatt was convinced I’d been afraid to speak in front of someone present that night. Afraid to speak in front of either a respected Council sprite, her aide, a fellow Hunter, or a Handler. None of those thoughts was comforting.

Wyatt loosed his grip on one side of the wheel and reached across the seat. He gently squeezed my knee—a show of support, or an effort to keep me from voicing my thoughts, I don’t know. Either way, I kept those fears to myself.

“Where is Tybalt now?” I asked instead.

“Probably on a routine patrol,” Rufus said. “Kismet’s Triad has kept tabs on the east side of town by the tributary. My team was the only one dispatched to locate Wyatt; everyone else is on regular duty.”

“Locate?” Wyatt snorted. “You would have put a bullet in the back of my head, if you’d had the chance.”

“Bullshit, Truman. Our orders were to bring you in, not kill you.”

“Yeah, leave that job to your bosses.”

“They’re your bosses, too.”

“Not anymore.” He glanced up into the rearview mirror. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I don’t exactly work for the brass anymore. I have a funny feeling my credentials have been revoked. Being labeled a danger to myself and society can do that.”

“I was doing my job.”

“So was I.”

The testosterone levels in the car were reaching a dangerous high, and I swallowed a sarcastic comment about bringing out rulers. It wouldn’t help diffuse the situation, because I was staring at a pair of alpha males. Both wanted to prove their point, but at the moment, I didn’t care who was the bigger man. I needed their collective attention.

“Hey!” I said. “Dead person here, working on a strict timetable. Can we concentrate, please, and save the shit-slinging for my after-afterlife?”

“Evy—” Wyatt started.

I spun in my seat, pointing one finger at him like a teacher berating a belligerent child. “And don’t think I’m ignoring what he said about a freewill deal, Truman. We’ll be talking about that at a later time.”

He clammed up and steered the car into the parking lot of a Burger Palace. The ancient chain never installed drive-thru windows. They were notable for being the only place in town to offer a five-alarm chili cheeseburger and guarantee a refund if you ate the whole thing. Jesse did it once, and then spent the entire next day vomiting it all back up.

“I’ll get the coffee,” Wyatt said. “Anyone want food?”

“Turkey burger with everything, and a side salad,” Rufus said.

I bit my lower lip to hold back laughter. Interesting choice after being locked up for a day and a half. Wyatt looked at me, but I shook my head. Watching Wyatt disappear inside of the Burger Palace’s redbrick walls, I felt an unfamiliar sense of separation. Since that moment we met outside of the pay phone booth, we had not been more than ten feet apart.

I grasped the door handle, overcome by the urge to follow him, to maintain that physical proximity. Keep him close where I could protect him.

I was being foolish. He’d be back in five minutes with coffee and food and a smile for me. And probably a frustrated glare for Rufus, who kept staring at me like I was a particularly fascinating museum exhibit. I picked at the corner of my bandage. The itching had stopped. It finally seemed safe to look.