Chapter Two #2
The word went out among the other agents, and they bent down and started disarming the mercenaries with playful banter. One of the guys had the bright idea to tell one of the mercenaries that he would get a piece of chocolate for every gun he brought them. That worked really well.
The ambulance pulled up, and Vaia started walking toward it. Well, limping. The medic walked toward her and urged her to sit on the ground.
“Can I just walk to the ambulance? These guys are all disarmed, but they might snap loose from my control. They are trained, after all. I don’t want to be here when they do.”
The medic paused. “Why? What will they do?”
“If they can’t destroy me, they will portal home. Either way, I don’t want to be here.”
“Oh, right.”
“Matthias is aware of what is needed. I am registered and in communication with his office. Can we go? Please?” She staggered to the side. “The bullet is moving.”
“Oh, shit. Right. Come on.”
She walked with the medic and got into the ambulance. They started on the way while the medic unwrapped her thigh. “I can’t see the wound.”
She turned her leg, and the puncture was exposed. She said, “Do you have a secure containment for cursed items?”
“Yeah.”
“Get it.”
He quickly got the item, and Vaia focused, moving the bullet back down her thigh and out of the hole it had entered by. “Catch it.”
It was grabbed with forceps and dropped into the vial that glowed blue as it alerted to the curse. Vaia slumped back on the gurney and breathed. “I need to go to Danforth General.”
“Why?”
“Dark energy.”
The driver nodded and glanced at her. “Vaia?”
“Yeah. Hey, Skip. How is life without Nylora?”
“This is my fourth trainee, so you tell me.”
Vaia chuckled and relaxed into the motion of the ambulance.
After an ultrasound to show that the wound track had been climbing up her femoral artery, weakening it, she was confined to hospital bedrest in one of the blue dotted gowns. She would have been able to go home, but she lived alone.
They were giving her meds, and healers were working to strengthen the arterial walls. She was in danger of a life-threatening hemorrhage if she tried to get up and go about her normal activities.
She called her assistant and asked her to reschedule the appointments for the week. This was going to cut a hole in her bottom line. Good thing she had savings.
Things were going well with the private room and the phone charger that she had snagged from the gift shop. An administrator came to her room and said, “Everything is in order. You have excellent insurance, and the overages have been authorized.”
Vaia cleared her throat. “Authorized?”
“Yes, by the policy holder. A Mr. Maximus.” She checked her tablet. “Your husband.”
“Oh. Right. Him.”
“Yes. Very charming. Amazing voice.” The administrator was starting to smell a little hot.
“So I have heard.” Vaia nodded. “Okay, so how long is my stay approved for?”
“As long as necessary.”
“Great. I am going to make a call. Please excuse me.”
She lifted her phone and called her lawyer. “Any response from the other side?”
Dorn growled. “They are coming in for mediation. Can you be here tomorrow morning?”
“Nope. I got shot. I am stuck here until I am authorized to leave.”
“Shot?”
“Yeah. Right after you had the papers served.”
“Oh. What are you thinking?”
“I am thinking that someone sent twenty portalling mercenaries to my home. They shot through my house, and I was struck twice. So, Dorn, what do you think I should do? I hate to say it, but I can’t run.”
His gravelly voice rolled again, “Where are you?”
“Danforth General.”
“Ah, the dark energy thing.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t freak out the other patients here.”
“Does the mayor know?”
“He knows I was shot. Probably knows where I am. It would explain the guard at the door.”
“Vaia, he’s right here, and he didn’t send a guard.”
Vaia looked toward the door, and the guard turned toward her, sliding his protective lenses down to show her sparkling ruby eyes. “Oh, damn. This just got complicated.”
Dorn was shocked. “It was simple before? Matthias is sending someone.”
“Great. This can’t get weirder.” Vaia ended the call and leaned back on the pillows, her injured leg elevated and her gown untucked so they could get at the wound that didn’t want to stop dripping.
She was on the surgical schedule to get it cut out and cauterized in two days.
It wasn’t the danger to her life; the weakened artery was the problem.
Vaia woke up from a doze, and Amy was standing there. “Geez.”
“Sorry. This happened when you went home that night?”
“Yeah. I am guessing that all of the mercenaries were poofed back to wherever they came from.”
Amy smiled, and it was a wrong smile. “Not all.” A knife was held in her hand, and she stepped forward.
“Help!”
Shadows lashed around the fake Amy and squeezed. A grey and black woman was held in the tentacles, and she couldn’t portal out of there.
Vaia said, “Now that you have her, what will you do with her?”
He grinned. “There is a vampire at your door. Call them if you need them. I will be back.”
He pulled the screaming assassin into him and was gone a moment later.
Under-the-bed monsters were creepy. She would never know why her mom chose to have one’s baby.
She saw a message on her phone from Amy. It was a thanks again for the fun night, and when she had a moment, could Vaia tell her why Emmers looked ill when she was mentioned?
Vaia was about to answer when there was a soft knock, and an unfamiliar yet familiar man was standing in the doorway. “Oh, hey, Azreen. Sorry. Mr. Maximus.”
He looked at her, and she knew she looked like shit. Her hair hadn’t been washed in two days, and her body was due for a sponge bath.
She smiled brightly. “Here to sign the papers?”
“No. I am here to ask why you sent them and why you aren’t using our link to heal yourself.”
“Well, since I am in my thirties now, and it has been over ten years since you needed to use me as a dumping ground for extra power, I can go my way, and you can go yours. I read the tabloids; I know you won’t be single long.”
He stared at her. “You think I broke my vows?”
“Uh, you may not have remembered, but you didn’t have any. That was my side of things. Your mother insisted that since we weren’t going to be living together, you would not be bound to any of those fussy particulars.”
“She might not have intended for it, but I decided that fair was fair.”
“Well, you were sixteen. You had a burning sense of justice.”
“I have had a boner since they showed me your file. It gave a certain glaze to my eyes.” He moved closer to her.
Vaia winced as he pursed his lips, exhaled, and fire moved down her body.
“There. Not your normal glory but better. How were you injured?”
“Twenty mercenaries portalled into my front yard and one opened fire into my living room, where I was standing.”
“So, your thigh, and...”
“A graze across my ribs that won’t stop oozing blood.”
“Hmm. And your thigh?”
“The bullet walked up my femoral artery. The wall is weakened, and there is some flex that shouldn’t be there. So, I have to wait for healers in doses.”
He snorted, and some fire emerged.
“Calm down, Azreen. Mr. Maximus. Sorry.”
“You are entitled to use my first name, Vaia.”
“Um, your mother hates that.”
“I don’t care. I want to hear my name on your lips.”
“Wow. That sounds so creepy.” She blinked.
He grinned. “I have been told I am rather attractive.”
“Sure. Right number of features appropriately arranged.”
He chuckled. “My voice is particularly nice, or so I have been told.”
“People tell you a lot of things. They should stop that.”
He smiled. “It seems you grew up when I wasn’t looking.”
“You, too. You seem twice the man you used to be.”
“Well, there was a reason that my family acquired familiars for our growing youth.”
“Yes, and they usually release the familiars that don’t explode when your family member is stable.
Is there something I should know?” She looked at him, taking in the black hair, deep blue eyes, and impressive physique.
His business coat hung to his knees, and the suit he was wearing beneath it probably cost as much as her car, and she had a nice car.
“So, what brings you here?”
“It appears my wife wants a divorce.”
“Well, I have a life to live, and I can’t look to find a partner if I am legally tied to you.”
He sighed. “This arrangement has worked so well.”
“For you.”
“What?”
“It has worked well for you. Don’t get me wrong, the dowry money I got was handy, and I have managed to get myself nice and stable with it, but I have to hunt at least once a year because I don’t have a partner to bond to.
It was very apparent that I was extremely hungry this year, and though I got what I needed, it is embarrassing to have to hunt that way. ”
He frowned. “I don’t understand. You are a mage.”
“I am half mage, half under-the-bed monster. I’m a registered psychic vampire. It is in the marriage contract. Well, my copy has it listed. But it doesn’t have your mix listed.”
“I am half djinn, half dragon.”
“Oh. That’s... quite the combination.”
“Isn’t it? Now, what do you mean about the dowry coming to you? There were monthly stipends sent as well.”
“Not to me. Maybe they were sent to my family.” She shrugged.
“I don’t like that you didn’t have it. How long were you in the family home after the ceremony?”
“An hour and a half? I had my house waiting. Well, my first house; it was small, but it was mine. I was comfortable there until I got myself stable.”
He snorted fire again.
She looked at him. “Stop that.”
His gaze got sly. “Make me. All you have to do is pull some of my rage into you.”
“No. And that is how I eat, by the way. I pull the extra emotion in and use it. I am ten years away from you now, and I am not going to lock myself into another ten.”
“Why not?”
“There is no benefit other than social confinement. I still have time to find a guy and have a family. The Depfords won’t help, so this time, I will have to find one on my own, and I need to start looking now.”
“Why?”
“I am thirty-three. I want to raise a family, play with my kids while I am young enough to chase them. I have homes in a number of good areas now, with schools and high schools available.” She looked at him. “I am stuck in limbo with you. The divorce is me leaving limbo.”
“I will fight you on it.”
“You can’t. You abandoned me.” She spoke seriously.
He froze. “I sent money.”
“I don’t know where it went, but it didn’t come to me, and if my family got it, feel free to sue them.
You can’t provide one call, one text, a letter, an email.
Nothing. That is the definition of abandonment.
You were gone, and there was no contact.
There is also the other aspect of what constitutes a marriage, and we never did that either.
I know you were too young back then, but I wasn’t, and I have needs that have never been met. Frustrating as hell.”
His eyes flared black.
“Oh, stow it.”
He blinked rapidly. “What?”
“I said stow it. I waited. I waited, and now I want out. My lawyer is pushing through the paperwork, and I have talked to the mayor about it. He isn’t going to let outside parties get in the way.”
“He seemed perfectly charming when I spoke to him yesterday.”
“He is perfectly charming. Was his assistant there?”
“No, he said something about her mentioning her bat, so we had a private audience.”
She grinned. “Nice. Leo’s a sport.”
There was a soft knock. “Miss Vaia? I am here to take you to your MRI.”
“Oh. Great.”
The male orderly smiled. “I will have to lift you. Is that all right?”
“Yup.” She adjusted her bed to sitting.
Azreen scowled. “I will lift you.”
The all-plastic chair was pushed into the room, and the brakes were engaged.
The orderly smiled and explained precisely how to lift her up and out of the bed, including her putting her arm around Azreen’s neck on her good side.
Her leg and side twinged, but he moved her fairly smoothly around the bed and onto the chair with the leg extended.
“How long will she be?”
“About an hour.” The orderly got her settled.
“Very well. I will return.”
Vaia nodded. “Figured. Sign the papers, and you will be on your way.”
He touched her cheek. “We will talk about it.”
She grimaced as she was pushed out. “I don’t know you, but that sounds like a no.”
The soft laughter rang behind her.
They were in the elevator when the orderly asked, “So, is that your husband?”
“Soon-to-be ex.”
“He doesn’t seem to understand that.”
She grunted. “I know.”
The orderly laughed, and when the doors opened, they made their way to the MRI. Time to see her damage.