Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
During the ride back to the station, Parker was almost completely silent. Nick could practically hear the thoughts in his head rolling around, tumbling on top of each other.
Nick loved his husband more than anything, and one of his favorite things about him was the way Parker put together puzzle pieces in his head, turning each piece until something shook loose or two pieces fit together.
“Are we sure it’s alchemy?” Parker asked finally. “Is it possible that it’s just something that looks like alchemy?”
“Like what?” Nick considered the options. “Like something from one of the thousand realms?”
He considered it. What if there was a creature that looked exactly identical to alchemy but existed as a parasite, jumping from host to host?
“Maybe it’s possible that it just developed and it looks identical to alchemy.” Parker looked over at Nick, his face going hopeful. “You know, they say that if you give a monkey a typewriter and immortality, eventually it would type out Hamlet.”
“Actually, scientists tried it,” Nick said, turning on his blinker before making a right-hand turn.
“What?” Parker asked.
“Scientists. They gave monkeys computer keyboards instead of typewriters.” Nick smiled, even though it didn’t quite match the situation.
“And?” Both of Parker’s eyebrows went up, and he waited for the punchline.
“Lots of poop between the keys, but no Hamlet,” Nick said.
Parker blew out a breath.
“Okay.” He shook his head. “So, if an alchemy spell that walks and talks and looks like a duck is actually a duck, but we still don’t know where it came from or how it works, we do know one thing.
” Parker waited a beat, and Nick glanced over at him at the next red light.
Parker’s face was dark, brows drawn together, unhappiness written into every wrinkle in his brow. “We know how to get rid of it.”
Nick thought about the woman’s hand, completely obliterated, gone in a puddle of blood and shattered bone.
“That shouldn’t be an option,” Nick said.
“I think it’s our only option.” Parker’s words were cold, and if Nick didn’t know him well enough, he would assume that was the fae part of him, the chilliness that was able to make a decision so unsympathetic to the life it would affect.
But Nick knew better. After years, he knew that it was the part of Parker that wanted to save a life, that wanted to save everyone’s life, even at the expense of himself.
Parker would make that decision, would choose the option that broke his own heart, if it would save one person’s life.
Nick drove up to the station security gate, typing in his code before pulling into the underground parking lot.
“Alright.” Nick looked at Parker.
He didn’t know why they had been called back, but it couldn’t be a good reason. “If Gile is still alive, we move the parasite to one of his extremities. I’m better prepared this time, so I’ll have a spell ready that should stop the bleeding until he can get to a hospital.”
“Hand or foot?” There was a flash on Parker’s face, a line of gold Summer magic, and a shimmer of scales across his cheek. It was as though he was hardening his own heart, convincing himself that he was fae, that he could make this decision, make this choice, and not have it matter.
“Foot,” Nick said immediately.
Nodding, Parker opened his door. His expression was still hard, the hint of fae magic gone from his skin.
Nick reached out before he could move. He grabbed hold of Parker’s hand, clasping it tight.
“You’re right. We’re under a time crunch, and this is the only thing we know. The only decision we can make.”
Parker’s face crumpled, his mouth going soft, his eyes turning down in the corners. He shook his head. “It’s not fair. It’s not right.”
“But it’s our only choice,” Nick said.
“Yeah.” Parker’s exhale was a sigh, a long breath that left his body.
They rode the elevator up in silence, finding Captain Tate with the other captains on the top floor.
“So. You two boys went off book.” Rios didn’t look happy, but he kept his words flat.
“Convenient how you two didn’t go to the location we directed but managed to find a new victim.” Falk’s words were an accusation. “Almost like you made it happen.”
“Since Durkavic was the first victim, I just wanted to check some of the locations from yesterday,” Parker said. “Nick only came along to make sure I didn’t do anything stupid.”
“Stupid like blowing up a woman’s hand,” Falk said.
“We found evidence of the parasite on her. If we hadn’t wrapped a protective spell around her arm, she likely would have blown up, spreading the virus to everyone in the building.” Nick swallowed. “Sirs.”
“Tell us how you found her.” Tate leaned back in his chair, hushing Falk with a stern look.
Nick ran through what they had learned about Durkavic and the virus. He kept out any mention of the Far Realm, and when he finished, there was silence in the room.
“Lucky for you, the woman is somehow still conscious,” Rios said. “And her statement almost exactly matches yours. Now the question is, where do we go from here?”
“What about the other teams? Did they find anything?” Nick asked.
“Not yet. But it’s difficult to check for the virus.” Rios raised an eyebrow, the slightest smile playing in the narrowing of his eyes. “Not everyone is as efficient an alchemist as you and Detective Zahide.”
“Based on what we know, we would like to see if we can communicate again with the alchemy spell inside Gile,” Parker said. “The other spell didn’t seem to want to hurt anyone. If we can talk to it, maybe we can convince it to give us more time.”
Rios was already nodding. “Go. See if it does give you anything more on the locations. If the woman you saved was one, that still leaves eight more.”
Parker kept his lips closed, his teeth biting the inside of his mouth, the flesh going white as he resisted saying anything else. Nick took his elbow, guiding them out of the room and back to the elevator.
On Gile’s floor, they got out, members of the CDC still wearing thick protective suits as they buzzed around the rooms. Nick waved at Lawless, and she nodded at them.
Then he moved to Gile’s door, unzipping the clean room before closing it behind them. He and Parker stared at each other, both of them knowing they were about to do something terrible.
“There is no other choice, is there?” Parker swallowed, his eyes searching Nick’s face.
Nick shook his head. “Let’s go.”
When they opened the door, Gile barely turned his head. He stared into the one-way mirror, and a smirk spread on his face.
There was a knock on the other side of the glass, meaning Captain Tate or Captain Rios was on the other side. They wouldn’t have much time. Quickly, he flipped open his notebook, touching the spells he had used back at the escape room to keep the doors closed.
There was still a flash of green left in them, and he powered them up with one motion, throwing them on the door quickly. The circles spread, bracing it shut.
Gile turned, his bright green eyes flashing with interest.
“God killer. Have you come to kill me, too?” His voice was still strange, a dead thing dragged over dry earth. “I felt you kill my sister. I could hear her scream. I could hear when it was cut off, when she died because of what you did.”
“Sister, huh?” Parker tried to step between Gile and Nick, but Gile ignored him.
“She died. How does it feel to have the death of two great things on your hands?” Gile’s smile was grotesque, peeling up his lips, revealing his back molars.
“She didn’t want to kill anything. She was begging to be stopped.” Nick leaned forward earnestly. “The same way I think you are begging to be stopped. You don’t want to kill anyone. You don’t even want to kill me. You want this to end.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Nothing is going to end.
Nothing ever ends. We are endless. We exist because there is magic in us.
We will always exist, even when we die. My sister is me, and I am her, and all of us are the same and different and the same.
” Gile’s smile dropped off his face. “Do you understand now?”
“Let me tell you what I understand,” Parker said. His voice had taken on a coaxing tone, and in a different person, Nick could see it convincing someone to jump off a cliff.
That was the thing about Parker. His power wasn’t simply in his magic.
His power was his voice, his words. In the wrong person, Parker’s powers could be terrible.
If Parker had let himself become bitter, become someone terrible because of his experiences, because of how he had been treated in his childhood, then the world would be a much darker place.
Instead, Parker was himself. Parker was good, or trying to be, just like the rest of them. He left dirty bowls on the kitchen counter. He forgot his towel on the floor more often than not.
But he was Parker. And Nick loved him.
“I understand that you can’t live on these bones.
You keep sliding off them. They are oil, and you can’t keep hold.
” Parker’s eyes glowed, and Gile looked down at him, as though he was forced to.
He had to look at Parker; no one could avoid Parker’s voice, not when it went sweet like that, pulling at his attention.
Someone pounded on the glass, but Nick ignored it, drawing a quick circle in his notebook and flinging it at Gile.
The parasite didn’t seem to notice, and his body lit up. Nick could see the circles dripping off his skin, flowing down his bones.
The interrogation room door jerked, but his magic held firm. His alchemy was flawless, and no one except maybe Zahide would be able to break it.
“That’s right,” Parker coaxed. “All the way down. It’s so interesting how you layered on top of each other on his foot. You can’t touch anything else on his body, just his left foot. It’s fascinating to watch. You must be so talented, so beautiful.”
Nick watched the other alchemy circles go out one by one, the green flickers disappearing as the circles on Gile’s foot got brighter and brighter.
Nick wasn’t sure he would have enough time, but he drew three circles in quick succession, linking them with two bridges and an arc.
Zahide would curse him if she could see what he was doing, but he knew it would work.
Something to protect him and Parker. Something to contain the explosion, something to stop the bleeding.
All of it needed to work together, and it would.
When he saw the last alchemy circle disappear from the rest of Gile’s body, he grabbed the spell from his notebook, powering it on. He could feel the drain in his body, as though he was in the middle of a raging river, the water flowing through him.
He pressed it onto the spell, then threw it at Gile’s leg. The explosion shook the room.
For a second, all he could see was red inside his spell. Gile began to scream, collapsing down, staring at his leg.
The Mehmud Circle still lit up his skin, and Parker bent, grabbing Gile’s face between his hands.
“You are fine,” Parker said in that honey-sweet voice of his. He was convincing Gile to jump off a cliff. “You are fine.”
Nick was sweating, and the pounding on the window was like a drumbeat. He reached his hand up, drawing the spell off the door, and it burst open. Two CDC doctors followed behind Rios and Falk.
“Have them arrested!” Falk shouted, gesturing at a cop behind him. “They are going to prison! They are going to—”
“Get him to the hospital.” Nick stepped back, gesturing to the green alchemy. “When you have a way to staunch the bleeding, let me know, and I’ll take the circle off.”
The doctors had a quick discussion, and then one of them grabbed a tourniquet from a pouch at her waistband. When it was tight, she nodded at Nick.
He brushed his fingers across the circle, drawing the magic back into himself, freeing the circle. It rolled across the floor, containing what was left of Gile’s foot and blood.
Rios was staring at both of them as the doctors removed Gile from the room on a gurney. “I think you two gentlemen had better come with us.”