Chapter 17
Itoss the paper bag from Lyra’s into the passenger seat and close the door behind me. Pulling the seatbelt over me, I feel calmer and clearheaded after having coffee with Gemma. This having friends thing just might be all it’s cracked up to be after all.
I drum my fingers on my steering wheel, deciding what to do.
Going home and taking a nap—and making sure Jac hasn’t cracked more—sounds nice.
But going into work and taking a stab at this case sounds more like me.
Sitting around waiting for the sun to set will make the time go by slower than it’s already going, and honestly, being alone with my own thoughts makes me a little anxious.
Even though I called in and said I had food poisoning, no one seems too surprised to see me.
Work has been my whole life pretty much since I started here.
After meeting with the other officers working on the investigation and going over the evidence found on the victims’ social media accounts, we start to put together a profile for our suspect.
I leave at exactly five o’clock, feeling more like my old self. The confidence in solving this case is back, but I don’t have tunnel vision blocking out life around me. I’m worried about Jacques. If something did happen to him, how would the others take the news?
The guys feel like protecting and serving me is their job, but keeping them safe is mine. I woke them up. I’m the reason monsters will attack. They’re bigger and stronger than me, but I’m the one with the magical powers.
I make a detour to an electronics store on the way home, picking up just one camera for the time being.
A good security camera costs more than I expected.
My knowledge of hooking stuff like this up is limited to what I can learn from a YouTube tutorial, and I give up almost as soon as I start, realizing this old house isn’t wired in a way that I can easily hook up the camera to Wi-Fi from the outside of the house.
I’ll have to go back out and get what I need to attach it later.
Going back inside, I lay out everything I need for the concealment charm.
I have everything I need except the actual medium to carry the charm.
The spell calls for a necklace to be worn, and while basically anything will do, a quartz amulet would hold in the power the longest. The quartz necklaces Lyra had are pretty and on a delicate chain, which isn’t practical and could easily break.
I got them anyway, knowing a quick fix is all I need to make them work.
I take the quartz off the chain, removing the decorative pink beads, and string it through a leather cord, tying it with enough length to easily slip over my head.
Then I get supplies ready just in case Jacques wakes up bleeding.
My fingers tremble as I lay gauze and bandages on the coffee table in the sitting room.
I add a couple towels, wet rags, and a blanket too, preparing for the worst.
Feeling restless, I change and go for a run, then clean the bathrooms when I get back. With time left before sunset, I shower, change into shorts and a T-shirt, and get started on dinner.
My sunset alarm goes off on my phone two minutes before the actual sunset, and I drop everything and run outside, grabbing the first aid supplies on the way. I look from the horizon to the clock on my phone over and over, counting down the seconds until the official sunset.
Thomas and Gilbert wake up first, stone crumbling away as they emerge. Gilbert jumps down, shaking out his hair, and lets out a breath of relief when he sees me.
“You’re alive.” He strides over, putting both hands on my waist, and looks me over.
“I am.”
Thomas walks behind me, playfully smacking my ass. “She looks good from this side too.”
I reach behind me and take his hand, heart thumping. “Guys, I have to—”
Hasan swoops down, looking just as relieved as the others to see me. They turned to stone right after we fought off the ghouls. My fate was as uncertain to them as Jac’s is to me.
We all look up, wondering why he hasn’t changed yet. Tears well in my eyes, and I turn to Thomas. “He got hurt. Right before he turned. There was one more ghoul and…and…” I break off, squeezing my eyes shut. Tears roll down my cheeks, and Thomas tugs me forward, cradling me to his chest.
Gilbert and Hasan take off, flying up to the roof. Thomas places a hand on the back of my head, gently turning me away so I don’t have to see.
“What happened?” he asks.
“There was one hiding out. It threw a spear at me but Jac took the blow. It hit him in the chest.”
Thomas tenses, and I pull back, looking up at the roof. Hasan’s back is to me, blocking Jacques from sight. He’s not moving, not saying anything. This isn’t good. Gilbert jumps down, face sullen and shoulders hunched forward.
“Is he dead?” I ask, voice trembling.
“I don’t know,” Gilbert responds, brows furrowed.
“It’s my fault,” I choke out. “I should have moved or stopped him or—”
Gravel rains down on us, and we take a step back and watch Jacques break free from the stone. He pitches forward, and if it weren’t for Hasan, he would have plummeted right off the roof. Hasan grips his arm and brings him down. Blood drips down Jacques’s chest, but it’s not nearly as bad as before.
Gilbert rushes over, taking Jacques’s other arm and keeping him upright. They bring him inside, sitting him on the couch. I grab a towel and spring forward, pressing it against the wound.
“Ace,” Jacques breathes. “Did you get them all?”
“Yes. I set them all on fire.”
“That’s my girl,” he says with a small smile. I bring the towel back and look at the wound. It’s small, much smaller than before, and is already healing.
“You’re…you’re okay.”
“Yes.”
“How? Not that I’m not happy, but I don’t get it.
” I trade the towel for the damp rag. Carefully, I clean off his chest. The wound, which was a large gash, is now small and closing up.
His skin is still torn and tender, and fresh blood pools at the surface, but it’s nowhere near as damaged as when he turned.
“I don’t know,” Jacques answers, shifting his eyes up to the others.
“Sleep,” Hasan offers. “Sleep heals.”
“Makes sense,” Thomas says. “Magic turns us to stone, taking away what little humanity we have left. And bleeding and feeling pain is about as human as it gets.”
“I was so scared,” I confess. “I thought you’d wake up dead.”
“You can’t wake up dead,” Gilbert mumbles, and out of the corner of my eye, I see Hasan elbow him. “I know what you meant,” he adds.
I clean up as much blood as I can with the rag and tear open an alcohol swab, doing my best to clean the wound.
“I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to you guys,” I say as I cover the wound with gauze. “You’re…you’re like my family.”
Thomas’s hand lands on my shoulder. “You’re like ours too, and I like this family arrangement much better than the one I had before.”
Smiling at him, I grab a clean rag and wipe the blood off my hands. Jacques sits up, wincing, and rolls his neck. His wing is almost healed as well, and the only evidence it was torn is a small scar.
“How are you feeling?” I ask.
“Sore,” he says, hand going to the bandage on his chest. “And tired, even though I just woke up.”
“Rest,” I say, gently pushing a piece of tape down on a corner of the gauze and noticing his skin is warm. Too warm. I press the back of my hand to his forehead. “I think you have a fever.”
All of the guys tense, and I realize that a fever back in their time could be a death sentence.
“The spear you were stabbed with was filthy,” I add, and stand, gathering up the first aid supplies and pushing them aside.
“Go upstairs and lie down,” I tell him. I have leftover antibiotics from the last time I had a sinus infection.
I started feeling better after I picked up my prescription and never took it, but hung onto it in case I got sick again.
Jacques looks at me, ready to protest that he’s fine and doesn’t need to rest.
“Now.”
With a sigh, he gets up and goes to the stairs.
“I’ll be right up with medicine and food.”
The annoyance leaves his face and his eyes meet mine. “Thank you, Ace,” he says softly, and it hits me that he’s never had anyone take care of him before.
“What’s all this?” Hasan asks, voice coming from the kitchen. I make sure Jacques actually goes upstairs into the master bedroom and then go into the kitchen to explain to the others how I’m going to do the concealment spell.
“I have another spell idea,” I say, opening the book. “And if you guys think it’ll work, we should probably try it first.”
“A separation spell?” Thomas asks, looking down over my shoulder.
“Yes, but I’m not trying to break anyone up. I want to separate you from whatever forces you to go back to the same spots every morning.” I find the spell in the book and cross-reference it to Jacques’s notes.
“I’ll have to tweak it a lot, but in theory, it might work. Right?”
“Right,” Gilbert says. “Not having birds shit on me when I’m sleeping would be nice.”
“That would be, though that’s not what made me consider the spell. I don’t want anyone seeing you.” I go into the pantry and grab a can of chicken noodle soup. “It’s not breaking the curse, but it’s better than nothing.”
“It’s progress,” Hasan says.
I heat up the soup, find Tylenol and the antibiotics, and go upstairs. Jacques is in bed, leaning back on the pillows but not covered up. The lights aren’t on, and I carefully move through the dark to set the bowl of soup on the dresser.
“I hope you’re not allergic to amoxicillin.” I turn on the bedside light and twist open a water bottle, handing it to Jacques.
“What is it?”
“Medicine. It’s called antibiotics, and it kills bacteria—the sickness—inside of you.” I sit on the bed next to him, opening the pill bottle. “And this one will lower your fever and help with pain.” I put the pills in his hand and he looks at them curiously. “You swallow them whole.”