Chapter 37
Angel tugged me out of the field and onto the side of the road as another three crews arrived, blocking off the street. Our team was the last to arrive. Wade and Ezra got out of a black van and headed our way. Ezra looked pissed.
“Uh-oh,” I said.
Angel took a step forward as if to meet Ezra head-on, but I tugged him back, willing to take whatever the guy had to throw at me. It couldn’t be worse than having my ass kicked last night.
“Not even a week,” Ezra growled.
Was he talking about the bond? I glanced from him to Angel. Did Ezra have a thing for Angel? “Did I step into something between you two?” I asked, trying to keep my voice down.
“Yes,” Ezra said.
“No,” Angel said.
“We don’t keep SVs on our team, and we sure as fuck don’t bond with them,” Ezra snapped at him. “Am I supposed to ignore when he uses his magic to tug your corpse around like a puppet?”
“I would never!”
“Did you or did you not just raise five bodies without even trying?” Ezra said, his voice raised enough to draw attention. Fuck. There was media too. I really didn’t need that on the evening news.
“Z, stop,” Wade said, his tone pleading and soft.
“I watched them slaughter my parents and use their bodies to throw themselves under tanks,” Ezra said. “I’m not going to let that happen to my best friend.”
So, this was personal for him. I got it. But his pain wasn’t my crime. I would never willingly hurt Angel. I’d never asked for this stupid power. Was there a way to de-escalate? He thought me the enemy. Okay, if I’d lived through the war, I might have similar hang-ups.
“What do you want me to do?” I asked. “We bonded. We can’t break it now, right?”
“Xavier could.”
“No,” Angel said.
“It’s only a partial bond anyway,” Ezra said.
“Partial, how?”
“It’s enough for now. He was injured.”
“And you shackled yourself to a spook for an injury? You’ve not been thinking clearly since the second he stepped into our office,” Ezra accused Angel.
“I think that’s the point,” Wade offered.
“Is there a problem, gentlemen?” Hanna appeared at our sides when I was certain she’d been across the field a minute ago.
“No, ma’am,” I said.
“We want Holt off our team,” Ezra demanded. My stomach churned with the thought of being stripped of the team, and worse, Angel.
She stared at Ezra, then turned to look at Angel. “Is that what you want?”
“No.”
“And you?” she asked Wade.
“No.”
“Request denied.”
“We can ask the rest of the team. Call a vote,” Ezra insisted.
“I’m not doing this,” I protested. “Whatever magic, or whatever you think this is. I’m new to all of this. Why is it all my fault?”
“Because you’re a spook,” Ezra raged, shoving me. Angel caught me and put himself between us.
“Take the day, Ezra. Get your head on straight,” Hanna commanded.
“I’m not the problem.”
“Right now, you are.”
“You don’t think the resurgence of witch magic, just as this clueless spook shows up on our team, is at all suspicious?” Ezra demanded.
“No,” Hanna said. “I requested Holt. I asked for him twice before his variance was recognized. Both times over the last year.”
“What?” I asked, stunned. Had I met her before? Ezra stared at her as if she’d sprouted an extra head.
“Your record speaks for you, Holt,” Hanna said. “Don’t prove me wrong.”
“Yes, ma’am, no ma’am. I’ll do my best.”
She waited, unflustered, arms folded across her chest, gaze on Ezra.
He growled and stomped back to the truck. Wade sighed as Ezra left without him.
“Sorry,” Wade said. “I’ve been trying to talk him down.”
“Not your fault,” Hanna said. “We all have our personal demons to fight. Unfortunately, this is not the first time we are finding remnants of spell casting.”
Angel’s brow furrowed. “I’ve not had anything flagged in our case files.”
“We’ve been funneling it higher up,” Hanna said. “The last thing we need is a second war.”
Angel gasped and took a step back. Wade frowned. “It’s that bad?”
“Escalating.”
“Fuck,” Angel cursed. I tugged on his arm, fearing he’d reject me now that something he feared and hated was rising again, even if I was no part of it.
But he slid into me, arms wrapping around me until he could bury his face in my neck and breathe me deep.
Surrounded by a bunch of SED agents and media, it should have bothered me, but it didn’t.
I sank into his touch, enjoying the warmth and calming melding of our magics.
“Holt, can you head to the station?” Hanna asked. “As long as you see nothing else for our people to dig up, I’d like for you to sit down with the animated.”
“Sure,” I said. “Though I’m not sure what I’m doing. Will he just talk to me? Maybe you should call that goddess, Lilith?”
“If you can’t get anything from him, then yes,” Hanna said. “I try not to call the living dead when possible. The more they cross to this side of the Veil, the more likely it is to tear.”
“Which is why we don’t want them casting spells,” Angel said. “They summon shit over here.”
“What were they trying to summon?” I asked.
“That is the million-dollar question,” Wade said.
“I have a practitioner on the way to examine this area,” Hanna said. “Hopefully, they will give us more details. If not, then all we have are one animated corpse and a lot of dead bodies.”
“I’ll take Jude and Wade back to the office,” Angel said as he released me suddenly. I would have stumbled if Wade weren’t right behind me.
“Should I ask?” I asked Wade. He shook his head at me.
“Unless you need Wade here?” Angel asked. There were almost two dozen people with SED vests moving around the field. It was going to be a while before they pulled up all the bodies and cataloged the evidence.
“Go,” Hanna instructed. “See if you can get the corpse to talk.” She waved us off, her expression unreadable.
Angel grabbed my arm, his grip firm but not unkind. As we turned to leave, I glanced back at the field, where SED agents swarmed like ants over a carcass. My stomach churned.