Chapter 88 Caravan to No Avail
Abigail sat with her hands folded, in the back seat of a police car.
The sky was lightening fast and daylight was almost upon them.
A dirty vodvod sat next to her in the back.
‘Sally Sunshine’ sat up front and a dirty vod drove.
There were more vod and mates in vehicles in front of them and behind them.
The only one Abigail cared about was ‘Sally Sunshine’.
The female turned in her seat to stare at Abigail, projecting power at her.
The power swarmed her, meaning to keep her from using her magic, but it was clear that ‘Sally Sunshine’ did not know how to control it, especially since they’d left ‘Biker Chick’ at the Templum.
She wasn’t nearly as strong without her sister.
Abigail tested the edges of the power and found it had started to unravel in places. The poor girl was weakening.
They followed Blue River Way until it met Twilight Boulevard, then curved right to follow it, taking a left at Renway Street, which dead-ended at the police station. The lead car turned into the parking lot and the other cars followed, parking in a line in front of a building.
A big male in uniform with a single gold bar on his shoulder—lieutenant rank—stepped out of the lead car. Another big male with two silver stars on his shoulder exited the building—Wade Lombard, a Citlali. He locked eyes with her from across the parking lot.
The lieutenant ordered vod out of cars and arranged them in a circle, then came to Abigail’s vehicle. He opened the back door. She looked at the ground, trying to appear meek, saying nothing.
His voice was gruff. “On your feet.”
She swung her legs out to the ground carefully. The big vod put a hand under her arm and helped her to her feet, not roughly, then two other vod moved in and took her elbows, directing her to the center of the circle.
Wade Lombard came to face her. She dropped her eyes.
He dug into her mind, then attempted to bind her. She stayed quiet, not letting on that he couldn’t. He grunted suspiciously and walked around her.
“Witch,” he growled. “What do you want? What is your goal?”
Abigail said nothing. No answer would appease this male.
He stared at her for a long time, then said, “Take her inside.”
She remained silent, keeping her eyes on the ground and her hands clenched together.
“This way,” the lieutenant called. “Move as a unit to fingerprinting.”
Abigail shuffled down the hallway with the vermin on all sides of her, plotting her escape.
***
“Your thumb,” the vodvod said, taking Abigail’s thumb and rolling it in ink.
‘Sally Sunshine’ was in the room close by, watching. Her power had shrunk more, revealing something interesting. She was with young. Power pulsed around the young in her belly, protecting it, but ‘Sally Sunshine hadn’t protected herself.
On Abigail’s shoulders, her stole jumped in the air.
Dear deae, no.
She surreptitiously clutched its little mouth, squeezing it together, mentally whispering, ‘shhhhh, quiet, sleeeeepp’.
The body of the stole jumped again, independently of its head, its little belly bobbing. The vodvod took a step away from her, his face suspicious. He snarled, seeming ready to shift.
A ripping sound rent the air, spewing panic through Abigail.
Her cask, one of her most important magical items, parted down the middle like a piece of wet paper.
Balls of color and light flew everywhere, disappearing into the walls.
Two orange balls and a black one unfurled into animal-like shapes, running up the walls and diving into the ceiling like it was an inverted pool.
A small whitish lump hit the ground, and two leather-like scraps fluttered to lay beside it.
“Noooo!” Abigail cried, trying to catch her possessions as they flew out.
“Holy shit!” Beckett shouted. He threw his arms over his face, then stood in front of Cerise. “I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark! Don’t look, Cerise!”
‘Sally Sunshine’ thrust power at Abigail, and Abigail siphoned some of it, but found it difficult to work with. She deflected it back onto the cur-lover, wrapping her in a ball of her own power.
The door slammed open and her favorite vodvod, Harlan Mundelein stood there, his broad chest puffed out, his eyes taking in the room. “What in the hell?” he yelled.
“Don’t look at the fox spirits!” The other vodvod yelled. “They’re everywhere!”
Harlan growled for a moment, then fell silent. Abigail dropped to her knees and gathered up the tooth and the renqua scraps, hiding them in her fists, gathering up her split cask and pretending to cry.
“Open your eyes, Oswego,” Harlan snarled.
The vodvod squinted, cracking an eye open to check. “Ah shit. They’re gone.”
Abigail stood, using vvyst to help her look strong.
“Now that nothing remains hidden,” she snarled, “He comes. I suggest you prepare yourselves.” She backed against the wall and cast vvyst behind her, summoning colors and light and sound, pressing her body into the wall.
Dimmmm, she instructed her body. Deeply dim, completely dim, entirely dimmm, she told her cells, using every ounce of power she had, her senses dimming with her physical form. She heard the males’ startled exclamations, as if from a distance.
“She fucking disappeared!”
“Right into the wall. I saw that shit. Evie!”
Even more distant, she heard a female shouting, “Harlan! We need you at Vice’s cellblock!”
Abigail, lighter and faster than normal, moved with the vod out into the hallway. She followed them into another section of the building and saw Conri Bloom. He was in a cell, holding on to the bars, shouting, ‘What’s going on?!’
Abigail moved further into the room, spotting Harlan and the halfling, Eventine.
“It came out of his ear!” the halfling shouted, pointing behind a locker in the corner.
Harlan yanked the locker away from the wall. A memory thread placeholder, used to insert false memories, slithered across the floor. Harlan ran after it and caught it, smashing it with the heel of his boot. Crimson vvyst puffed up in Abigail’s form.
“That thing was controlling Conri!” Harlan shouted.
Abigail retreated back the way they had come.
She needed a way out.
***
Eventine watched Harlan cordon off the area and call the rank on his phone, telling them what had happened. She sensed something near her in the shadows. The witch?
“Eventine!” Beckett shouted from fingerprinting. “I need help for Cerise!”
Eventine sprinted that way, down the hallway, into the fingerprinting room. Cerise sat on the chair sideways, one leg bent awkwardly, her arms askew and her neck bent, staring at the floor.
Eventine rushed to her side and touched her arm. “Cerise, what happened?”
“Ugh, it’s all my fault she got away,” Cerise said, not sounding in pain. She jerked and pulled against nothing. “She did it—I’m wrapped in something I can’t see.”
“I’ll find Rowan,” Eventine said. “Maybe she hasn’t left yet.” Rowan had left Boeson’s side long enough to help them escort Abigail down the bluff.
Eventine hurried to the back parking lot. Trent and Rowan were near Trent’s truck. “Rowan!” she shouted. “Cerise might be hurt! We need you.”
The couple ran over and Eventine showed them to fingerprinting, then she ran back to Vice’s cellblock, where the snake-looking thing had come out of Conri’s ear.
Eventine checked on Harlan first, who was kneeling in the corner where he’d smashed the snake thing. He looked up at her. “There’s no trace of it left,” he said.
She put her hand on his shoulder. “I’m going to release Conri into Bruin’s custody,” she said. “He shouldn’t be in a cell.”
Harlan nodded, then sat heavily against the wall.
Eventine wound her way through desks and entered the cellblock area. Bruin and Willow were standing there, next to the cell with Conri inside. Eventine grabbed a key from a lockbox.
“You’re released,” she told Conri. “Into your brother’s custody.”
Bruin nodded, his face grim. “Thank you.”
Conri nodded slowly, his expression bewildered.