Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
EZRA
His dreams woke him early, just before sunrise, and he lay in bed, face smooshed into his pillow, wondering why he dreamed about that particular event in his past. It wasn’t overly traumatizing, but it was horrible, so it made sense he supposed. Especially after restoring Monica Blevins.
The first and last time he healed a mortal dying was with Lilith, the day he decided to get a familiar.
He was looking for a suitable choice at the local shelter, tired of living alone, when a breeder came in with a litter of unwanted, ill kittens.
The breeder surrendered the cats without qualm, saying they were too sick to sell, then walked out, leaving a handful of scraggly Lykoi kittens mewing pathetically in a cardboard box.
Ezra had been standing at the glass wall of the kitten room in the main lobby, and the staff at the front desk were worried about one kitten in the box in particular—limp, barely breathing, and Ezra had seen the death magic gathering. The kitten was dying.
He was young, stupid, and reckless in his desperation to stop the inevitable.
Ezra at the time was untrained in his necromancy.
He knew he could heal mortal illnesses and wounds, reverse death as it took life, but he had never done it before.
He had no idea what he was doing, but he immediately went to the front desk, took the limp body from the box over the protests of the staff, and closed his eyes.
Knowing that the gods were real meant praying was a dangerous endeavor. One never knew how they would respond to a prayer, if they responded at all.
Hecate, help me.
The phrase was meant more as a means to focus; he did not expect an answer. What care or concern would a goddess spare for so tiny a life, for a halfhearted prayer from a necromancer who never did any necromancy?
He felt the flutter of a failing heart in his hands. The final breath. The tiny blip of living energy converting to death magic as he clutched the small body to his chest and prayed to an ancient deity for the first time.
I don’t know what to do. Please help me.
Death was moments away.
Time stopped.
She came.
Not in a thunderous explosion of power or devastating glory—no, She came with quiet grace, with power unlike anything he’d ever felt before, a flow of energy, dark and beautiful, surrounding him, cradling his arms, his hands.
It felt like his heart was going to stop, his mind frozen in awe, but She enveloped him in power that blew apart his nascent terror and left no room for doubts. She was within his mind, his soul laid bare, every facet of who he was open to Her knowing gaze and perusal.
There was nothing of him She did not see, and She answered his prayer.
“Wake thy grave sight and follow where I lead, necromancer,” She whispered in his ear, so quiet and soft.
And so he obeyed, inner vision blooming as She guided his mind through the steps of restoration, of healing a mortal illness.
He caught the kitten’s soul and put it back in her tiny body, his affinity letting him see the illness that nearly claimed her life, and She guided him on how to heal it, step by step, converting death magics into life.
He did it all under the patient guidance of a Presence so large and encompassing, Ezra could not sense the boundaries of Her power.
It was done in seconds, but felt like an eternity.
“Well done, my necromancer,” She told him gently as he withdrew his mind from the kitten, letting go of his magic.
She left as gently as She came, and Ezra opened his eyes to see himself surrounded by a startled and confused shelter staff, and a tiny Lykoi kitten gnawing on his fingers.
Time resumed.
They were mostly mundane humans and were unaware of the fact that a goddess had moved among them, and the few practitioners on staff knew something happened, but not what. None of them heard the goddess when She spoke.
The healed kitten was proof he’d saved the day. He didn’t mention the goddess who decided to answer a foolishly desperate prayer. He didn’t know how to explain it. He babbled out that he knew some healing spells, and handed the kitten back to the appreciative staff.
Two weeks later, he gladly paid the adoption fee at the shelter and took that same kitten home with him, naming her Lilith. He bonded to her, making her his familiar, extending her lifespan and firmly entrenching her in his life and budding career.
He learned as the years went by how to use his death-magic affinity, his necromancy, from books and research, through trial and error, but that one lesson, from a goddess no less, stuck with him through everything. And it gave him a very healthy respect for calling upon the gods.
They just might answer.
Ezra
Knocking came on his door far too early in the morning.
“Unless you have coffee, please leave and never return,” Ezra moaned from beneath his pillow.
The loud snort of laughter and the even louder subsequent knock had Ezra throwing his pillow at the door, but it flopped to the floor several feet short.
“What was that?” Sergeant Brown asked through the door, more amused than concerned.
“My dignity,” Ezra mumbled. He spoke up, Lilith grumbling from her spot on his lower back. “What are you doing here so early?”
“Time to get to work, sunshine,” another voice called through the door, and there was nothing Ezra could do but moan in complaint when the door to his room was opened and Sergeant Chase Owens strode inside with all the excitement of a fifth grader going on a field trip to the zoo.
Lilith hissed, claws pricking at Ezra’s lower back, and Chase stopped in the middle of the room, holding two large to-go cups of what smelled like the world’s best coffee. He took one look at Lilith and promptly melted into a pile of baby-talking goo. Or well, it sounded like it.
“She is so cute! Hello sweet baby, aren’t you so fierce protecting your daddy!
What’s her name, can I pet her? Has she had breakfast yet?
Can I feed her?” Chase spoke rapid-fire, but the cooing was clear enough.
Lilith relaxed and stood on his lower back, balancing flawlessly before she launched from his back to the floor, and began winding around Chase’s ankles, meowing for more adoration.
She went from protective and standoffish to friendly and sweet super-fast when she sensed a willing devotee to dote upon her majestic self.
Ezra squinted at the once-shy sergeant, barely lifting his head from the bed. Brown loomed in the background, taking up the entire doorframe, sipping his own coffee and not saying a word.
“Her food is over there,” Ezra gave up attempting to care about the intrusion and flapped a hand in the general direction of his bags, her travel bag on top from last night when he fed her before he crawled into bed around eight.
He had slept the entire day after leaving the breakfast briefing with Grendel, and only Lilith tapping his face with her dainty paw woke him when she wanted supper.
Chase quickly set the two coffees down on the tiny nightstand next to the bed and hurried over to the bags, Lilith chasing him the entire way, meowing louder.
Ezra sat up in bed, glad he wore clothes to sleep the night before. A simple pair of boxer-briefs and a tank, but more than enough to preserve his modesty with two handsome strangers filling his room. Neither of them was his type and yet he could still appreciate the early morning eye-candy.
“Is one of those mine?” Ezra asked as he brushed hair back out of his eyes, chuckling when Lilith pounced on the diligently selected raw meal that Chase tipped into her bowl. “Coffee I mean, not the cat food.”
“Oh yes, sorry, got distracted by the adorable little queen,” Chase said with a big smile. “Your name is on it.”
“Yay,” Ezra cheered softly, just a smidge sarcastic as he reached for the coffees and found one indeed had his name scribbled on the side of the paper cup from a local cafe chain.
He pushed up and leaned on the headboard, sipping his coffee until he felt awake enough not to topple over to the floor.
Ezra squinted at Chase, then Brown, and realized they were both in civilian clothing, nothing on them to suggest they were MERS officers.
Chase wore slim gray slacks, elegant black suede ankle boots, and a gray and white knit sweater over a white tee.
Brown wore dark-wash jeans, heavy black boots, and a dark-green t-shirt that stretched over his broad chest and a leather jacket that accentuated his upper arms and lean waist. He saw the reason for the jacket in summer when Brown moved enough to reveal the firearm under his shoulder.
He wasn’t used to having help, instead doing most of his work alone during contracts. Only his occasional interactions with MERS on difficult assignments in Canada had him feeling a bit confident he could survive having two babysitters while he was working. It would be weird, though.
“Chase, let’s give the man some space to get cleaned up and dressed,” Brown said, gesturing with his coffee toward the hall. “Cat will still be here when he’s ready to go.”
“Grumpy,” Chase grumbled, and Brown chuckled.
“C’mon babe, let him get dressed.”
Chase blushed at the endearment but followed Brown out of the room, waving goodbye to Lilith, who of course paid him no attention whatsoever as she ate her food.
Brown shut the door and Ezra heaved himself out of bed, heading for the bathroom.
Ezra
When he stepped out of the bedroom after a shower and getting dressed, his two keepers were flirting quietly at the end of the hallway. Chase was cozied up to Brown, who had both hands around his waist, nuzzling behind his ear while Chase grinned like a cat in the cream.
Chase saw Ezra first, and he blushed hot, turning to whisper in Brown’s ear as the bigger man kissed down his neck. Ezra felt like a perv watching something so intimate, and he looked away, making sure to carefully close the door after Lilith joined him in the hall.