20. Your confidence is going to get you bit one of these days.
TWENTY
Your confidence is going to get you bit one of these days.
Quinn
It took me several tries to figure out how to shift back to being a cindercorn, and when I did, the urge to light something—anything—on fire surged through me. When I snorted, flames roiled from my nostrils, which only strengthened the need to torch anything unfortunate enough to cross my path.
I pawed at the hard ground, tearing at it with my claws until the urge passed.
“Damn, you’re pretty,” Tiffany announced.
I whipped my head around, flattened my ears, and displayed my teeth.
“You won’t eat me, so don’t even posture, Mr. Samuel Quinn. Bailey would get mad if you did that, and you’re certainly not going to eat Janet, either.”
“Your confidence is going to get you bit one of these days,” I predicted.
“Hot damn. Your English is good. Poor Bailey struggles. How’d you pull that off?”
“I had help,” I confessed.
“Okay, that’s fair enough. Your transformations are much smoother than Bailey’s, too. I wonder if you can help her with them. It didn’t look like it hurt you at all?”
“It hurts some, but I’m used to it. I’ve been shapeshifting for a long time.” I shook my head and quelled the urge to snort more fire and try to ignite the dirt. “Janet, do you remember when you were petrified?”
Judging from her attire, she’d been taken—and petrified—shortly after leaving work. I couldn’t sense any of the warmth I associated with a pregnant woman, either, much to my relief.
Janet huffed. “I’d just made it home from work. I was getting out of my cruiser in my own damned driveway; I’d worked a longer-than-normal shift, and my driveway was dark when I got home. Two gorgons caught me by surprise.”
“Males?”
“One male, one female, but I didn’t get a good look at either one.”
“Bailey torched the male. There isn’t much left of him.”
Janet raised a brow. “She did?”
“She reduced him to a pile of ash right before I reversed your petrification. She lost her temper.”
“Damn. I wanted a piece of him. And I can’t get a piece of Winfield, either. I mean, I guess I could go in and shoot his body a few times, but that’s not exactly satisfying. Also illegal. I still haven’t figured out what happened to him.”
“He got rammed by six hundred plus pounds of angry unicorn.”
“That’s gross. Bailey got a hold of him, too?”
“He pointed a gun at me.”
“Death by stupidity. Only an idiot would point a weapon at you with her around. With both of you working the Manhattan circuit, you’re going to be untouchable.”
“That was the CDC’s angle when pitching her transfer to the NYPD.” I flicked an ear back. “It makes me wonder if Clemmends knows something I don’t. I’ve never needed strong security before.”
Thanks to my magic, I made my own security, and when I was in the field, I was usually with several pairs of officers.
Accidents could happen to anyone. While my predecessor had been murdered, and while I often became a target of the vengeful, I’d never really considered any of the situations I faced to be particularly dangerous.
My heritage helped with that. I hadn’t even needed to use any of my natural defenses to protect myself. When my gun didn’t suffice, someone nearby handled the situation before I had to rely on petrifying someone.
I had no doubt I’d one day have to petrify someone while on duty, but I’d enjoy playing at being human until then.
Once the secret was out, I’d have to reveal the entirety of my DNA test to prove I was mostly human with an odd smattering of other species.
Some vanillas, like Bailey’s parents, would pitch a fit about it.
I’d enjoy reminding them that they were at the mercy of people like me to keep them safe as they had few ways of protecting themselves. The laws favored vanilla humans, but the laws only went so far.
If I really wanted, I could give the Gardeners a taste of their own medicine. Unless they did something to Bailey, I wouldn’t, but I’d enjoy thinking about it.
My worries over my wife intensified, and I took my agitation out on the fence, melting the nearest section to a smoking puddle.
Janet whistled. “Remind me never to piss off a unicorn.”
Tiffany laughed. “Bailey’s worse. She cusses while lighting things on fire. Sam’s just anxious because Bailey’s not here right now. Go do your sweep of the building, Sam. I’ll keep an eye out for the tankers and whistle when we’re ready to get this show on the road.”
I stepped over the molten steel and trudged to the dome to start there.
In the time I’d taken Janet to Tiffany and called the CDC, nothing had changed.
Aware of the possibility of disease and gorgon dust in the building, I checked John Winfield’s body, removed his possessions, and dumped them near the fence.
“Janet, when the tanker arrives, have someone scan these for contaminates. They’re from John Winfield’s body, and they might have evidence on them.”
“You slobbered on the evidence,” she complained.
I glared at her. “The evidence will survive, and it’s not like we need fingerprints from the corpse’s possessions. We know exactly what killed him, we know he was involved, and there might be intel from his stuff. It’s not like I can drag his body out here.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t think he’d stay intact,” I admitted. “That plus he might be contaminated.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“That’s what happens when a large and angry unicorn crashes into a human at full throttle. Honestly, I’m impressed she didn’t go through the wall.”
“Don’t tell Bailey I said this, but the next time I have a questionable shift, I want her to be my partner.”
“I’m thinking about partnering you with Perkins and Nilman. That’s not quite as good as Bailey, but they’ll take care of you.”
“Chief, that would be three of us working together. What happened to us working in pairs?”
“You’d have to work with Bailey and I directly, so having three of you makes sense. If you three are used to working together, we won’t have issues in the field.”
“Sounds good to me. Manhattan is a major upgrade to the Hamptons. Hell, truth be told, that’s enough motive alone for me to think Morriston’s being a dick.”
“I really hope Morriston is not that idiotic. There aren’t enough people with the right ranking to lose a chief to blatant stupidity.”
“With Bailey working directly with you, Manhattan could absorb the Hamptons’ turf with no difficulties.”
“Except location, location, location,” I reminded her. “That’s a hell of a long drive. And Long Island doesn’t have enough chiefs in the first place. I am not up for managing Manhattan and Long Island, Janet.”
“Nonsense. You’d handle it with grace and dignity.
It’s not like the Hamptons are a hotbed of magical crime.
It’s mostly mundane shit and the overly wealthy crying that they might be targeted by someone who isn’t as well off as they are.
” Janet shook her head. “Manhattan would be a major upgrade for him, but he’d have to get rid of another chief elsewhere to get moved—because the Hamptons can afford to go without a chief and use a network of captains. ”
“I’m thinking about making you do detective work with Perkins and Nilman when I don’t need you, and you three whiners will like it,” I announced.
“I can’t tell if we’re being rewarded or punished,” she admitted.
“Both,” I promised. “As you’ll get bored if I don’t give you something to do, bump heads with Tiffany and put together as much intel for me as you can, aware we’ll see the information in the investigation.
Tiffany, no spicing up the evidence, no making it sound cooler with embellishments, and for fuck’s sake, no collecting misdemeanors. ”
Tiffany tossed her head back and laughed. “I’ll let you off the hook just this once, Sam. I think we’ve all had enough excitement for one day.”
No kidding.
Bailey
The grassy plains made way for desert. An endless sea of sand stretched out before me, and the sun blazed overhead.
A yellow haze filled the sky, as though it burned.
The heat embraced me, and I picked up the pace.
The sand and gently rolling dunes gave way to hard-packed ground, which in turn rose into craggy hills.
A hole in the stone led underground, and my magic illuminated the way.
“Oh, that’s clever,” Anubis said.
I snorted, having forgotten the divine accompanied me. “How clever?”
“Technically, all planes of existence meet at nexus points. If there wasn’t a connection point, we couldn’t teleport.
View it as a hall with many doors, except the nexus is just a place of energy.
And light. I suppose a little light from your world would reach this one at one of those points, but you would have to wait for dawn to return without the help of additional magic. ” Anubis grunted. “I think.”
“You think?”
“It didn’t occur to me you might have magic enough to use the nexus. I didn’t think to check. I made some assumptions based on what I know of your lineage.”
“It nice to know even di-vine mess up.” I swished my tail, lowered my head, and delved into the cave. “This world weird.”
“The universe is a weird place, yes. But an interesting place. A world without amusing little beings like you would be rather dull.”
“I have question.”
“Ask.”
“If I have four par-rents, why only know two?”
“We divines aren’t the brightest at times—and I don’t think it occurred to either one of them that a possession could lead to them having children.
I doubt it even occurred to them to check if they had produced a child.
And even if they had thought to check, they would assume the child was of human nature.
Divine doesn’t mean we’re infallible. We have to have the presence of mind to look into the past—or the future.
It’s much easier to look into the past than it is the future. It’s usually not worth the hassle.”
“But you do look into future?” I asked.