Bingo. Same spot, same knot holding the pattern together. But how had he gotten it to dissolve the last time? It had happened in a moment of distraction, so without any better ideas, he did the same thing. He allowed his attention to fracture to Walter. The man was sweating and twisting as he tried to maneuver. He was trying to help Cara, but he couldn’t swing close enough. Brave. At this point he could just hang there, well out of the fray, but he was doing what he could to help. And when he couldn’t get close enough, he was screaming obscenities at the animal.
Success! The pin disappeared, the ribbons spun out, and like before, the kangaroo unraveled into a puff of gray mist. This time Bing didn’t watch the show but rushed forward to Cara’s side. She had rolled away from the dissolving kangaroo, but from the pain in her face, he knew she’d been hurt badly.
“Where?” he gasped. He tried to use his special sight to look at her, but living creatures were too complicated for him to figure out. He could only see bright patterns too blinding to understand. So he snapped his attention fully into the present as he dropped down beside her. “What can I do?”
She pulled her leg before her and started to loosen the side laces on her dark leather pants. Even he could see that her knee was swelling. “Nothing to do,” she panted. “I’m screwed until I can get some rest.”
Because she was out of magical healing power. “There are doctors, MRIs, and splints. Nonmagical help.” He squatted down to pick her up, intending to carry her to a hospital if he had to. “We’ll get you—”
She held out her hand and squeezed his arm. “Bing, chill. It’s okay.”
“Don’t be an idiot.”
“You think this is the first time I’ve busted something? It’s not. I know how to deal with it. Though I wouldn’t say no to an aspirin.”
“Med kit in the makeup table. Bottom drawer,” said a strained voice from above. Walter. “Ice packs are in the freezer over there.”
Bing was still reeling from the idea that Walter was here. What was he going to say to him?
He didn’t have time to think about it as he grabbed what he needed. The med kit was an all-purpose drawer of pain relief. He tossed Cara a huge bottle of ibuprofen before grabbing an Ace bandage to hold the ice packs in place. He worked quickly because he knew this drill from his earliest days of kung fu training. While he worked, she murmured into his ear.
“I’ll call for pickup. You figure out what to say to the dangling guy.”
He nodded, steeling himself to lie to any witnesses. Given that he was an actor, he ought to be good at this part. He usually mentioned swamp gas or a solar flare something-or-other. Anything to suggest whatever happened was a hallucination. On a normal day he’d add a little Red Wolf hypnotism and all would be well. But he was wiped out. Chasing phantoms had worn him out physically, and the work with the lynchpins had left him mentally weak. He wanted to curl into bed and sleep for a week. Instead, he straightened up. It was time to go over and lie to his best friend, the man he’d been pining over for weeks.
He didn’t look up until his pulse had evened out and the adrenaline was fading from his system. He needed to be calm to have any chance of pulling off a reassuring story. But the moment his eyes finally connected with Walter’s, he realized the magnitude of his mistake.
