Chapter 6 #2
“I won’t ghost you,” I promise. After this is all over, I’ll come clean about my real identity and see if she wants to keep in touch. “How did everyone else get injured?”
She opens her mouth to reply, only to be interrupted by a knock at the door right before Doc P enters. “I’m afraid that’s all Dhiren has the energy for today.”
Talk about bad timing. Still, he’s not wrong. As if to prove his point, my body decides that’s the time for me to yawn so wide they can probably see what I had for lunch.
She gets to her feet. “Yeah, sure. Get some sleep, and message me when you feel better. You and dragon boy can come over for dinner at ours. We can bitch about work and how Far Out Freight needs a health and safety inspection before anyone dies, for fuck’s sake.
Later, boys.” She leaves the room with the same furious energy she entered it with.
Doc P crosses to the window. “I apologise for interrupting when I did, but Ayo let me know that Skye has run out of patience and is about to arrive any—ah, here he is. I thought it best if Felicia was gone first.” The doctor opens the window for a familiar golden eagle who lands on the windowsill.
Skye hops inside and immediately shifts before rushing over and hovering next to me, completely unconcerned with the fact he’s naked. His eyes are wide and he reaches out to scent me but stops short without making contact. “What the fuck Raj, you look like pure shite.”
“Sorry.” I yawn, my jaw cracking.
“It’s safe to scent Raj anywhere except his legs and head. I’ll get you something to wear, Skye,” Doc P says before slipping out of the room.
Skye scents me on the side of my neck immediately, then takes my hand. “The others’ll be up as soon as the waiting room’s clear. The entire pack are going bananas not being able to get to you when you’re hurt. How are you feeling?”
“I’ve had better days.” My blinks are getting longer, but I don’t want to miss out on time with Skye when it’s been so long since we’ve seen one another. “I’m glad you’re here, little one.”
He brushes a hand over my eyes, encouraging me to close them. “Sleep, ya daft eejit. I’m not going anywhere.”
I force my eyes open. “You’ll stay?”
He smiles gently. “Aye, I’ll be right here.”
“Absolutely not! I can’t quit now! There are more reasons than ever to investigate the company.” I give Ethan my you’re being overprotective, calm the hell down stare. It’s one I’ve perfected over years of missions together.
He glares at me, his muscular arms folded across his broad chest. “You can investigate from a safe distance.”
“And what about all the people who work there? They can’t retreat to a safe distance.
” Some of the workforce could quit if they can find alternative employment, but what about those on the mandatory work programme?
They literally can’t leave until their six months are up. Bryn has several months still to go.
I haven’t been allowed to see him yet, and it’s driving my tiger nuts.
He’s no longer supernova hot, but Harley is now in with the Draig brothers and my pack don’t want to let me out of their sight.
They’d be too much of a giveaway of my real identity, especially because Ayo and Harley vaguely know each other.
There’s already a chance Harley will recognise Ayo’s scent in the waiting room when he leaves, but that can be explained away as the task force questioning me about the explosion.
Skye, true to his word, was sitting in the visitor’s chair when I woke up, fully clothed this time.
Cal has been standing silently behind him since the pack arrived.
Ayo is sitting on the end of my bed, Jet dragged in another chair from the waiting room and made Kit sit in it, and Ethan’s in full alpha-with-an-injured-pack-member mode.
Jet leans on the back of Kit’s chair. “What if Ayo sets you up with a personal shield? Is that a thing?”
Ayo’s brow furrows. “I’ve never put a shield on someone else when I’m not inside it with them, and I’d have to consider how to anchor the spell so it stays active when I’m not there.
I guess it might be possible to make it into a type of charm?
Hmm, I’d need to find a stable enough element to handle that much power. ”
“Fae can sense magic just like you can, right? So that would potentially blow my cover. We can’t risk it.” I mirror Ethan’s pose—arms folded, glare fixed in place. It’s less effective from a hospital bed, admittedly.
“We don’t want to lose you,” Cal says quietly.
“What he said.” Skye’s Scottish accent is still thicker than usual, but at least he’s calmed down enough to stop insulting me.
I sigh and relax my arms. I can stand my ground without being so confrontational about it. They’ve had a hell of a scare.
Kit has been quiet the entire time they’ve been here. I understand why—they’ve been through a similar, albeit far worse, experience, and me being injured in an explosion must be reminding everyone of that hellish time, Kit most of all.
“What do you think?” I ask them.
Kit blows out a breath. “Honestly? I thought starting fresh here in Birchester would mean an end to life-or-death missions. It’s even been a couple of months since I had a nightmare or flashback.”
Jet perches on the arm of their chair and puts his arm around them.
They lean into him. “That said, I’m concerned about the implications of what happened today, and what your friend Felicia said. What are Far Out Freight transporting that’s resulting in so many injuries?”
Jet tightens his grip on them. “From the amount of destruction Doc P described, there’s a real possibility it was some sort of weapon that caused this afternoon’s explosion.”
Ayo sucks in a sharp breath. “Like a bomb?”
Jet shakes his head. “Not that large. It had the impact of a hand grenade, although magical in nature.”
I reach up to rub my mildly aching head, but Skye snags my hand and guides it back down before I make contact.
“Leave it,” he says.
I frown. My head injury is more or less healed at this point, but whatever. “Doc P mentioned foreign magic earlier.”
Ethan rubs his beard. “The question is, what kind of weaponised magic would our mysterious doctor consider foreign?”
“I think he meant foreign to Bryn, but it’s a good question.” I was a bit out of it at the time and could have misunderstood. “We need to ask him if he meant fae or earth magic.”
“Or demonic magic,” Ayo says, looking between us when we all wince. “You’ve dealt with demonic objects before?”
“Worse,” Ethan scowls. “We dealt with a fucking lesser demon in Venezuela a few years back.”
“None of us want a repeat of that nightmare,” I say, shuddering at the memory.
“There is another possibility,” Cal says evenly. “It could be something not actually intended to be a weapon.”
“How do you figure that?” Kit asks, their perfectly manicured eyebrows raised. “Because it certainly seems like it from where I’m sitting.”
“Although fae artefacts are now illegal in most countries, there was a time when laws were different. Fae coming to earth often brought along items they considered precious, particularly those religious in nature.”
“What’s that have to do with explosions?” I ask.
Cal’s mouth turns down infinitesimally. “The magic in many of those artefacts reacted badly with Earth’s atmosphere.
It was often delayed and unpredictable, the same way an old Second World War bomb can explode decades later.
Many people were killed or injured before the BSG—along with most supernatural governments—outlawed all fae artefacts. ”
I meet Ethan’s hard eyes. “Whether Far Out Freight are shipping spiritual or historical artefacts intended to be harmless, or whether there really are weapons of some sort involved, both options are potentially dangerous and definitely illegal.”
Jet’s expression is grim. “The most concerning part is that this is a global company. Artefacts ending up in private collections are one thing, but if we’re talking weapons or explosives, where are they being delivered to? Are they ending up in war zones? In the hands of terrorists?”
“We’ve definitely risked our lives for less.” I give Ethan a pointed look.
Ethan growls, and it’s difficult not to lower my gaze and tilt my neck in submission. I don’t like being at odds with my alpha.
“Kit, I want you to search the dark web for any evidence of this,” Ethan says.
They nod immediately. “Yes, Alpha. Although keep in mind that many immortal supes still aren’t that tech-savvy. The dark web is more the domain of magic-users, shifters, and humans.”
“So Far Out Freight might not use it. Fuck.” Ethan scowls at me, his posture still tense.
“Fine. I’ll let you remain undercover for the time being.
Far Out Freight have given you and Bryn the rest of the week off, so once you’re back, your top priority is confirming which option we’re dealing with.
Whatever you and Kit find will inform our next move, because if these particular fae are arms traffickers, we’ll need to involve the BSG Counter-Terrorism Unit at a minimum. ”
I nod, torn between relief that my alpha has agreed to let my investigation continue, and concern over how far-reaching the problem could be.
“Knowing that might also give us clues about the maybe-missing. Have they been injured and experienced complications after they moved away? Maybe disfigurement that’s keeping them off camera from their loved ones?
Or is it like we originally suspected, and they’ve been killed because they witnessed something during their accidents that would give away whatever’s going on? ”
Skye’s hand tightens on mine, his hazel eyes hard. “Cal and I are staying with you until you’re fully recovered. We won’t let those bastards get you.”
Kit leans forward. “And I’m sorting you out with a new Dhiren phone as soon as possible. With facial recognition still giving me no hits on our maybe-missing, I want you contactable and trackable at all times.”