Chapter 15 Teddy
Teddy
“Can you turn Trace’s radio on?” Teddy asked Wren when they were halfway home.
“Of course he has a police radio.” Wren clicked the button and listened as a barrage of calls came through. “Talk about stereotyping.”
“It comes in handy,” Teddy said, his thumb brushing Wren’s pulse point and his heart feeling like it was beating properly for the first time since he’d left Nexus.
“What are we hoping to hear?”
“I have nothing specific in mind. Just good to stay informed. Maybe they’ll spot a van tearing around the city.”
It was unlikely but not impossible.
They lapsed into silence, stealing glances and trading soft smiles as if they were on their first date.
And yet everything about them felt so familiar and comfortable, like they had been together the whole time.
Teddy had always known Wren was it for him.
Physically there or not, there would never be anyone else.
But being with him again had just solidified it.
Wren was the other half of his soul, now finally slotting back in where it was always meant to be. By his side.
“I love you,” he whispered into the darkness between them, and Wren squeezed his hand in response.
“Dispatch to the closest unit,” a voice said over the radio. “There has been an armed break-in at a pet store on Hickram Street. Suspect was wearing a mask but eyewitness description matches the suspect in two similar crimes from earlier this month. Approach with caution.”
“A pet store break-in,” Wren said, turning to look at Teddy. “Not exactly a source of riches.”
“And they never said what was taken,” Teddy said.
“Wanna bet it’s a venomous animal of some sort?”
“No bets. I can do you one better.” He pulled out his phone and dialed, putting the call on speaker.
“It’s nearly dawn, Damir, what the hell?” Spencer’s voice came through.
“And yet you picked up in seconds.” A smile stretched Teddy’s lips. “You working right now?”
“Yup,” Spencer said. “Blessed with a night shift where everyone and their mother decided to do crimes. Why can’t people pick up hobbies? Knitting is fun, I hear.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Teddy said. “But I do have a favor to ask.”
“Of course you do. God forbid you call just to ask how I am.”
“I asked how you were once and your husband nearly took my vocal cords right out of my throat.”
“We did have a very fun night that time,” Spencer said, and Teddy felt Wren stiffen next to him. He shook his head at him and winked. “What do you need?”
“The pet store break-ins,” Teddy said. “Can you tell me what was taken?”
“Isn’t this Saint’s domain?” Spencer asked.
“You know me. I like to be helpful where I can.”
“I could get in trouble for this, you know,” Spencer said, but Teddy heard him clicking away.
“Yes, but isn’t that what you like?” he said, lowering his voice. “Trouble is just your vibe.”
“You do have a point,” Spencer said with a tiny moan before falling silent for a few seconds.
“This is so boring. First break-in: a vampire bat. The fuck is a vampire bat? Second break-in: a slow loris—I swear these animals have the shittiest names—and then tonight a snake of some sort, no specifics yet. Legit just happened.”
“All venomous,” Wren whispered.
“Thanks, Spence,” Teddy said. “I owe you one.”
“You owe me several, cursebreaker,” Spencer said before hanging up.
Teddy saw Wren inhale to speak so he beat him to it.
“He’s married to the police chief and they have a VERY weird dynamic in which Spencer aggravates him and then gets punished for it, which he loves,” Teddy said.
“The husband is jealous, so in exchange for intel, every once in a while I show up and chat with Spencer. He is an insolent brat but very useful to have on your side.”
Wren deflated, picking at his nails and mumbling, “I wasn’t gonna say anything.”
“Yes, you were,” Teddy said, smiling. “Or if not, you would have stewed in silence like you did about Saint. I don’t want that. I want you secure in the knowledge that you’re the only one.”
“Okay.” Wren nodded. “You could try and be less handsome though. And less charming. You know, to anyone but me. It’s just a thought.”
“I’ll take it under advisement,” Teddy said with a small laugh, parking the car in front of their house.
The sun was already peeking above the horizon, painting the road in front of them in warm pinks and oranges. Wren was right. He didn’t want to get out of the car. He didn’t want to rejoin the world and share Wren with anyone.
“You okay?” Wren asked.
“I wish I could stay here with you. Away from everyone else.”
“Let’s solve this case, and then we can hide,” Wren said and Teddy smiled, leaning over to steal a brief kiss from his lips.
They walked into the house and rounded the corner into the living room, where Trace and Saint were already sprawled on the couch.
They both jumped up when they saw them, coming to meet them in the middle of the room.
“Thank fuck you’re okay,” Trace said, clasping Teddy’s shoulder while Saint looked torn between looking at Teddy and inspecting Wren’s disheveled appearance.
“What the hell happened?” Teddy asked. “Saint, you good?”
“Fine.” Saint threw himself back onto the couch. “So much shit went down. It’s wild.”
“Catch us up?” Teddy asked, sitting down as well and motioning for Wren to join him at his side.
He ignored the looks.
“Wren, can you call your PUMA agent?” Trace asked. “He might want to hear this and I don’t think any of us has the strength to repeat this.”
“He isn’t my PUMA agent,” Wren said tiredly. “But yes, I can call him.”
He pulled his phone out and called Cyrus, putting it on the coffee table in the middle of them and setting it on speaker.
“Wren?” Cyrus answered, rustling accompanying his words. “Do not touch that! I told you!”
“Hi, Black,” Wren called, shaking his head.
“Just let me have it!” Black said, sounding like his words were muffled by something.
“Fine!” Cyrus said. “Fucking have it. Just sit down and stay still for five minutes.”
“Best I can do is three,” Black said.
Teddy fought back a smile when he heard Cyrus’s tortured sigh.
“Fuck my life,” he said. “Anyway, Wren, got any updates? Because I love updates at the ass crack of dawn.”
“You wouldn’t have to get up early if you never went to bed,” Black quipped.
“It hasn’t even been a minute,” Cyrus said. “Shush.”
Teddy leaned forward, closer to the phone. “Probably best to go linearly. Saint?”
“Right, okay,” Saint said. “A bit of a background first. The Worthingham family is all mid-level casters. Decent amount of power but nothing to brag about. Their only bragging right is the fact that it’s literally all of them. It’s like they breed to make sure everyone is a caster.”
“But the kid isn’t registered,” Cyrus said. “I checked his background.”
“He wouldn’t be. Like I said, his entire family is mid-level, but he has so little power he didn’t even hit level one, so they never recorded him. He can’t really do anything with the blip of magic that showed up.”
“So why does that matter?” Wren asked.
“He cast something last night.” Saint paused for effect.
Teddy frowned at him, mind already whirring. “You’re gonna have to elaborate.”
“He was chatting me up.” Saint rolled his eyes.
“Bragging about his money, his cars, his connections. I told him point-blank that I had money of my own and I wasn’t impressed, did the whole Eerie schtick.
And that…triggered something. He pulled a vial out of his pocket and downed it before I could see what it was. ”
“Downed it?” Wren asked. “We found syringes before.”
“He drank this,” Saint said. “And then said, watch this, before he started a really strange chant and then the napkins on the table caught fire, someone touched him to get him to stop and then all fucking hell broke loose.”
“He managed to cast something successfully?” Cyrus asked, voice hard and serious.
“I don’t know how, and I have no idea what his intention was, because to me it seemed as if he lost control and blew shit up as a result. It was definitely coming from him though.”
“Shit,” Teddy said, head spinning with the revelation. “What the fuck does this mean?”
“We don’t know if it’s the same drug,” Wren said.
Saint reached into the belt tied safely around his waist. He pulled out an empty vial and held it up.
“I grabbed the empty vial before the stampede crushed it. I have no clue if there’s enough left to analyze, but this can’t be a coincidence. This can’t be unrelated. Right?”
He looked around as if desperately searching for confirmation. None came. They were all just silently staring at the empty vial.
Wren frowned at it for a moment before leaning forward so Saint could hand it to him. He brought it up to his nose and sniffed, closing his eyes as he mulled the scent over.
“Black,” he called out without opening his eyes, and Teddy watched with rapt attention the way his face changed. “Do you have the lizard guy’s case photos?”
“No, he—” Cyrus started.
“Sure,” Black said.
“—how the fuck?”
“I am instrumental in breaking this case. You will not dim my sparkle,” Black screeched before shuffling away somewhere.
“He shouldn’t have those,” Cyrus said to nobody in particular.
“We already examined the body,” Teddy told Wren quietly. “What are you looking for?”
“Confirming a theory. Did you read the report?”
“What the coroner had for now. They were still waiting on some tests to come back. The first round was contaminated at the lab.”
“They hadn’t narrowed down what type of lizard it was?”
Teddy shook his head as Wren’s phone pinged and he opened the file.
It wasn’t any prettier than the first time Teddy had looked, and Wren was zooming in on parts of it in great detail.
“Shit,” Wren said, passing the vial to Saint. “Smell that.”
Saint took a sniff and scrunched his nose. “It’s hardly Eau De Nice. More like Eau De Rot.”
“It’s a Komodo dragon,” Wren said. “There’s not much left here to test, but I am sure this vial held a Komodo dragon’s venom.”