Kelly Gay - The Better Part of Darkness

“Uh, yeah. Everyone can stop babying me now.” She rolled her eyes. “Although, I’m cool with the extra junk food and later bedtime.”

Rex shushed her with a hand over her mouth, but she just giggled and shoved him away. “C’mon, kid.” he said “Let’s go tell the doctor she’s awake before you rat me out some more.”

She gave me a happy eye roll that said, Daddy has lost his mind, but I like it, and then hopped off the bed.

As they left, I sat there stunned for a long moment, unsure how I felt about him taking care of my kid for the last week, or the fact that he, we, were lying to her. I’d have to tell her. Sooner rather than later.

“She’s been well looked after, Charlie,” Aaron said. “Hank’s been sleeping over at Bryn’s, too. Rex seems to have taken on the role of father like he was born to it.”

The doctor came in, so we shelved the conversation as he listened to my heart, checked my blood pressure and the bandages on my arm and back. He gave me another day in the hospital before I could leave, which I immediately objected to. I wanted to go home. My bed. My clothes. My life to get back to normal as soon as possible. We finally settled on me leaving mid-morning tomorrow if everything still looked good.

Hank woke during the exam, shell-shocked to see me sitting up and speaking. Watching him try to wake up and digest it all was an amusing distraction. His hair was ruffled and one side of his face held the pattern of the checkered pillow he’d been sleeping on. The voice-mod was still stuck on his neck, but I tried not to let my gaze or thoughts dwell on it and ruin the moment.

After visiting for a little while and keeping things light, Aaron and Hank left, followed a few minutes later by Rex and Emma. She had school in the morning and homework to finish.

“Amanda came by a few times to visit you,” Bryn told me once we were alone. “They let her go home yesterday. Cass fled the country. He left the lab and everything in it, so Titus had all the samples he needed to study the drug.”

I turned more to face her. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m awake,” she said as though it was one step above a No, I’m not okay. “I don’t like the fact that every other day I have to take a small, regulated amount of ash to keep my system from shutting down. And if you want to know the truth, I feel like a fucking drug addict.”

I winced. Bryn never cussed like that. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She shrugged. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat.” An air of depression settled around her, and for a long moment she didn’t speak. “Rex is good with Em,” she finally said, changing the subject. “I don’t think you need to worry about him. But there is one other thing … He, um, sort of rescued a pet. It’s living in your backyard.”

“Why do I have a feeling this is not going to be good?”

“It’s the hellhound. Brimstone. Once he found out Animal Control was going to euthanize it, he had a fit. He and Aaron broke into the pound and stole him.”

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply.

“He bought him a reinforced kennel and is working with him, training him.”

I nodded. Great. Just great. Now I had an illegal hellhound living in my backyard. “That hound gets anywhere near my kid and I’ll shoot it.”

“Yeah, I told him. So did Hank. But you should see it, Charlie. Anytime Emma goes out to visit him in the kennel, he becomes completely docile. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

This was the first time since I woke that she sounded like the old Bryn. “Thank you,” I said, knowing our fight had cost her far more than she’d ever admit. “For what you did. Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”

An ache blossomed in my chest. Bryn always wanted to talk about things. That was—had been—part of her personality. Now she was different. Changed. Like me. Like Hank. Like Will. Tears stung my eyes, but I blinked them back before Bryn could see. But it didn’t really matter. When I looked over, she had fallen asleep.

Waking up to two giant forms hovering over me wasn’t exactly the best way to start the morning. I gasped and sat up as one of the forms reached over and hit the lamp switch.

The chief and Hank stood on either side of the bed. Hank with his hands shoved deeply into his front pockets, in dire need of a shave and haircut, and the chief, folding his big, leather-clad arms over his chest. I suddenly felt very small and very under-dressed.

“What is this? ITF’s version of a wake-up call?” I asked, voice groggy and scooting up. I went to adjust the bed’s angle with the control, but the loud burst of sound made me stop; I didn’t want to wake Bryn.

But then I noticed she wasn’t exactly in the room. Her bed was made. Her table cleared off. I continued to raise the bed.

“Where is Bryn?” I asked.

“She was released about three hours ago,” Hank said. “Aaron picked her up. She didn’t wake you?”

What the hell? She left without saying good-bye, just snuck out without a word? Granted, I knew she was seriously troubled and still physically suffering from her ordeal, but to just leave like that … “Guess not,” I said, feeling confused and hurt and a whole lot concerned. Maybe she was worse off than I thought.

The chief cleared his throat, obviously seeing my mind wandering. I focused on him. The last time I’d seen the chief, I’d shot him with a stun gun, and I still didn’t feel bad about it. “How’s your leg?”

“It hurt like hell, Madigan,” he barked and then shook his head. “But it worked. No one blamed your little escape on me, except Otorius, but that was no surprise. Listen,” he began more quietly and a hell of a lot more uncomfortably, “about that … I just want to say … well, I’m sorry for keeping that whole DNA thing a secret. Titus had a chance to save you, and I don’t regret giving him the go-ahead.”

I absorbed his words, knowing that, in a roundabout way, I owed him my life. But I still wasn’t ready to let him off the hook for keeping the details from me. I dipped my head slightly and changed the subject. “So, one of you going to tell me where we stand?”

“We’ve got Interpol looking into Cass’s whereabouts. We’ve been cleaning and processing the lab. Your friend Carreg has dropped out of sight. And if there was a connection between Mynogan bringing ash to the city and his plan to call the darkness, hell if we can figure it out.”

“And Tennin?”

The chief’s dark face went blustery. “Well, let’s see,” he said growing more perturbed by the minute. “That string I pulled at Deer Isle for you ended up getting Lamek Kraw killed by his visitor. Murder-suicide. Yeah. It was a hit. Feeling a little used yet?”

My lungs deflated. Shit. “What else?” I knew there was more.

“Oh, it gets better, Madigan. I went and raided the Lion’s Den. And you know what? Didn’t find a goddamn thing! Held that bastard in cold cell for three days while we searched! And you know what all it’s gotten me?”

I was afraid to ask. But I didn’t have to.

“Fired! That’s what it got me!”

Hank and I winced at the same time.

“So what about us? The department knows now that I was attacked, that Mynogan was behind the kidnapping.”

A sharp laugh jiggled the chief’s angry cheeks. “You’re not off the hook! Neither one of you is. You can’t just go renegade and run around the city killing off-worlders, even if they are bad. What you both did should land you in jail.”

“Should?”

The chief’s indignation diffused somewhat, and he relaxed into the chair by the bed. “I’ve been offered a new job.”