Chapter Nineteen
Darren waved at Corettaand Joe.
“What are you two up to?” she asked when she got close.
“We’re checking on a lead.” Kavon’s voice carried a wealth of aggravation, and because emotions were still trickling through the bond, Darren felt the betrayal and anger just under that.
“You’re on vacation. Normal people go to the beach or fly to a foreign country,” she said. “At the very least they stay home, especially when they have recently gotten blown up on a public street.” She gave Darren a sharp look.
Joe muttered, “Yeah, I’m getting the feeling this team doesn’t do normal.”
Coretta turned to him. “Go check at the newspaper office and see if you can find Les or Ahtisham.”
“On it, boss,” Joe said with a bright smile before he turned and trotted away.
A group of tourists wandered by. Coretta nodded to a few who smiled at them, but most just scurried by when the caught sight of Kavon’s scowl. Sometimes Darren suspected that Kavon liked scaring the shit out of people with his glower.
Once the group had passed, Darren moved closer to Coretta and whispered. “Is that a good idea? Sending Joe off alone?” If Anzu’s partner was around, Joe was walking into a potential firefight without any clue about the enemy. And because he was a shaman, he would be visible to Anzu, even if Anzu’s partner wasn’t around. Maybe Kavon and Coretta didn’t trust all the new people yet, but Darren would rather have avoided getting any of them killed.
Coretta turned so her back was to the passing pedestrians. “Good idea, bad idea, we’re reaching a point where it doesn’t matter,” she said. “You can’t investigate the attack on Darren. Neither of you can.” She looked from one to the other, her lips pressed together in a determined line.
“We’re working on the magical sinks, not the assault case,” Kavon said.
Coretta snorted. “White is talking to the Djedi center about them taking lead on this whole mess—the sinks and the attempt on Darren’s life. The dead magic I felt at each scene has the same signature, so he is taking me at my word that we are looking at one suspect. And, thanks to you and this asshole, I now have to assist the attorney general in helping to empirically test the accuracy of magical forensics.”
“What?” Darren was fairly sure he had missed something, because every court had rejected the use of Talent in evidence gathering. Agents and officers could use their Talents to investigate, but prosecution required mundane evidence, so forensics and Talent didn’t ever cross paths.
“Yeah, well I volunteered you two, or Boucher anyway, to help with the shamanic end of the accuracy tests. Next time you go on vacation, tell me so I can retire first. This whole drama is getting out of hand, but the long and short of it is that White wants us both to back off.”
Rage washed through the bond, and Darren slapped the SUV’s hood to keep his balance.
“You know what’s at risk,” Kavon snapped.
“I do!” Coretta said. “And I know this asshole is going to come at us again. However, we can’t burn our bridges here. White is an ally, and if he needs us to back away, then we should.” The light was red, and a few people risked jaywalking a DC street to avoid passing them. Darren tried to offering the fleeing people an apologetic smile.
Kavon shook his head. “You can. I’m not. If the Djedi center is handling this, then I am one-third of the council. I’ll call Halverson and McLean and have them tell White that I’ll work this case for the center. They don’t have the investigators to handle this.” He turned toward the SUV, but Darren stepped into his path and rested a hand on Kavon’s chest. He was so angry that he wasn’t thinking straight. Darren admired Kavon’s ability to plow through stupid people, but this was Coretta.
“As legal would point out,” Coretta said in a low, angry voice, “even if you’re not acting at the direction or for the benefit of the FBI, you are still an FBI agent. You are bound to the rules of probable cause; the Djedi center is not. That's why there is a firewall between our investigators and theirs, and you're on this side of the firewall.”
If anything, Kavon’s anger grew greater. The bond trembled with it as he turned back around. “We can't sit here and do nothing as we wait for that durance to attack again. Darren nearly died last time.”
“Do you think I don't know that? This—” Coretta’s voice had been rising, but now she stopped and took a deep breath. She continued in a far calmer whisper. “This is not what I signed up for. I wanted to help my community, not stand at ground zero of a guide war. Part of me wishes I didn’t know that we are facing the very real possibility that my people would die. That my son would die.” Her voice broke. Coretta was the definition of inflappable, but her expression twisted with emotion.
“Hey, we stopped O'Brien,” Darren said. He didn’t have as much power as a typical shaman without Bennu around, but he threw out a net of reassurance. “We’ve gotten through shit almost this bad.” Even as he said it, Darren realized he didn’t believe it. O’Brien had tried to set himself up as a god, but he didn’t have the raw power inside himself. He’d tried to steal it from others, but the ifrit....
Coretta gave him a dirty look.
Holding his hands up in surrender, Darren leaned against the SUV. Kavon needed to fight this battle, and hopefully he would lose. Coretta was one hundred percent in the right, but Kavon’s back was up and he radiated anger.
Kavon kept his voice low, but there was an undercurrent of fury. “We are not going to dangle Darren like bait for this guide to target him.”
“Then go talk to Salma. Get Angel and his Native shamans onboard. Do something to actually pull your people together,” Coretta said.
If she had tried to get Kavon angrier, those were the words that would have done it. Hell, mentioning Angel was generally enough to get Kavon’s back up, so putting that together with an implication that Kavon couldn’t handle the fight on his own... yeah, that was not going to go over well. For long seconds, Kavon and Coretta stared at each other, and then Kavon turned his back and headed to the SUV.
Darren ran to the passenger side before Kavon could pull away without him, but he half expected Kavon to hit the door locks. Instead Kavon clenched the wheel and stared straight ahead while Darren put on his seat belt. Only then did he accelerate away. “I’ll just text Les and Ahtisham to let them know Coretta will give them a ride back to the agency,” Darren said.
Kavon clenched his teeth. Darren thought about what Dave had said—that Kavon wanted to circle the herd and protect all of them. Quite often Kavon did take lead, using his shamanic Talent as a shield or a battering ram while the magic users used the cover to craft more targeted spells. But this time, Kavon couldn’t shelter them.
