“I need you to be quiet now,” he said.
“Make me,” Black said and to Wren’s surprise Cyrus rose to the challenge. He wrapped his arm around Black’s neck and covered his mouth with his palm. “If you lick me I’ll make you walk home,” he said, and Black slumped against him, rolling his eyes but remaining relatively still.
“Feral raccoon,” Cyrus prompted.
“I arrived at the house and this absolute raging bitch had locked the poor, struggling thing in her shed. It ended up being freshly cursed and scared out of its mind,” Wren said.
“But raccoons aren’t venomous,” Cyrus said.
“Nope,” Wren said. “But I found a syringe in there that had traces of a curse in it, and her husband looked like he was tweaking out of his mind when he jumped out at me in the middle of the night.”
“Shit,” Cyrus said. “But that sounds exactly like the cases we’ve had so far. You said you found a syringe?”
“Yup. Wrapped it up and took it with me.”
“And it didn’t occur to you to report it?” Cyrus asked.
“I did report it,” Wren said. “To the PD. Not my fault you guys don’t know how to communicate. You should talk to Hart. Or I can train a few pigeons for you.”
“The syringe, Wren,” Cyrus said. “You didn’t report the syringe.”
“Ah. I didn’t think you’d be into that kinda thing.”
“It’s a PUMA case.”
“It wasn’t even a case,” Wren argued. “The raccoon was. I just found the syringe by accident.”
“You should have reported it,” Cyrus retorted.
“I should have done a lot of things in my life but didn’t. It’s just how the feathers shake out.”
“I’m gonna request a transfer.” Cyrus pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, his other arm still around Black, who was keeping himself busy by twisting the hairs on his forearm into little spikes.
“Every town has a cursebreaker team.” Wren shrugged. “Not like you can escape.”
“Sure, but I learned recently that some of them are fucking sane and cooperative.”
“Lies,” Wren said. “Cooperative? Maybe. But none of us are sane.”
“Would you bring what you have to the station?” Cyrus asked tiredly. “I have two cursebreakers from Arcstead coming in to consult and it would help to compare notes.”
Arcstead.
Where…
“No,” Wren said.
“It’s not a request.” Cyrus glowered at him.
“You can’t force me to come down unless you arrest me. I can give Black what I have and he can bring it to you.”
Black gave him a thumbs-up.
“Black can’t answer questions about the case or consult on the cases the other team has had,” Cyrus said. “You’ll have to come in.”
“No,” Wren said again.
“Don’t make me do this, Wren,” Cyrus said tiredly.
