Stars pricked the sky over the industrial estate, indifferent to the trauma we’d endured. A fox skittered in the shadows, stopped, blinked at us, then trotted on, unfazed by our presence.
Maktel slipped something into my hand as we crossed the cracked tarmac: a cloth handkerchief, old-fashioned and clean. When I looked at him, he tipped his chin to the blood smears on my fingers. Blood from Hunter or blood from Beeks. Either way I wiped it away. The cloth came away sickeningly red, but I still didn’t regret my actions. Maktel took the dirty cloth back without flinching and folded it into his pocket.
‘Inspector,’ Maktel said after a moment, ‘who were our captors?’
‘Beeks, Hunter and Kerr. Anti-Crea assholes. One of my cases spilled over. Sorry it got you both involved. Got you both hurt,’ I corrected.
Hanlon shrugged, then winced. ‘If they were Anti-Crea, then they were no friends of ours anyway. They were prepared to hold ogres,’ he pointed out. ‘You can’t get seer-imbued chains at the drop of a hat. They were planning to capture and hold other ogres. I’d rather it was us. Besides, we were supposed to guard you, keep you safe. His Excellence won’t be thrilled with the turn of events.’
‘His Excellence will get over it. I keep myself safe. This was my work, not yours. Our captors were killers who knew I was closing in on them.’ I shrugged. ‘I finished the job.’
Hanlon nodded. ‘Justice.’
‘The permanent kind,’ I agreed – apparently that was my line now. And wasn’t Faraday going to love that? I’d gone against his explicit orders, but I’d spin it. It had been Kerr’s life or mine. ‘Anyone got a working phone?’ I asked. I didn’t want to use Beeks’s phone. If I turned it on, the Domini could use it to track me, and there was no point risking that when I might not be able to get the contents off it right now. That would need Ji-ho’s skills.
Both ogres shook their heads.
‘Smashed or taken.’ Hanlon shrugged as if it didn’t matter which.
‘We don’t need it anyway,’ Maktel said. ‘Look.’ He pointed to the moon, which was obscured by flickers of black wings as a murder of crows headed our way. We watched in silence as they flew closer, changing from specks to larger fully-formed birds.
They settled around us, eerily silent. One let out a single caw. The hair on my neck stood up.
Maktel was looking towards the road and rightly so. Moments later ten or more black Land Rovers rolled up, brimming with ogres. Before the front car had even stopped, the door opened and Robbie was out, storming towards me, a sad-looking Loki cradled in his hand.
‘Pigdog,’ Loki greeted me, relief in his tone.
‘Hey Bird. How are you?’
‘Broke wing,’ he admitted.
‘We’ll fix you up,’ I promised. After all, I had the Crone all but on speed dial at this point, and she’d be very interested to know about Beeks’s tattoo. We could do a little quid pro quo.
Robbie drew me into his arms, saying nothing as he cradled me gently.
‘Fractured ribs,’ I warned.
His hold on me softened further, but he didn’t let go. He pressed his nose to my hair, inhaling my – probably disgusting – scent.
‘I’m okay,’ I promised.
He nodded against me but made no move to withdraw. Then he let out a long shuddering breath and, with visible effort, stepped away from me.
‘Kærasta,’ Robbie belatedly greeted me, his words calm even though his eyes were wild. ‘You had an adventure.’ His lips tightened with concern as he looked at my scrapes and bruises and the blood covering me.
‘Just a small one.’ I shrugged, then winced at the movement through my sore ribs. ‘I know you won’t love this, but we need to call the Connection. This is my current case, albeit it’s blown up in my face. You can’t cover this up.’
He sighed. ‘Little Miss By-the-Book. Fine. We’ll call your colleagues.’
Good. Because I had questions. Like why the hell had Elvira and Bland not been on Beeks and Hunter?
The answer to that, it transpired, was Faraday. Kerr Senior had been stamping his foot loudly, talking about the disrespect to his associates, and in the end, when Elvira and Bland had ended their shifts, Faraday had cancelled their replacements. His judgement call had enabled Beeks and Hunter to kidnap me, and that set my teeth on edge. Bloody politics. I took no small amount of satisfaction in calling in a report, and as anticipated, it wasn’t long before Faraday arrived on scene.
‘This is a mess,’ the vampyr snapped, eyeing the burning building.
‘We’ve requested fire elemental backup on SPEL. Estimated time of arrival is ten minutes out.’
He grimaced but nodded. ‘Talk me through the events.’
