Cheryle noticed me for the first time. She looked up at me with distrust. “Who are you?” Then her eyes slid to my twin. “And you?”
I answered without hesitation. “We’re Bec’s boyfriends.”
Cheryle’s expression lit up. “That’s fabulous!” she exclaimed. She gave Bec a secret little smile despite the tears still rolling down her face. “If you need any thoughts of how best to have fun with two dicks, give me a call. I've had some practice.”
Bec’s face turned beet red. “I don’t need to know, especially if it involves Jim!”
Saying Jim’s name seemed to bring Cheryle back to the present. “Oh, Bec, it’s awful. He was hit on the head frombehind. Now he's having seizures, and they had to put him in a medically induced coma.”
Bec turned to me, and I could feel the question she wanted to ask, but said my name instead. “Danzig?”
“It’s not, um, what we dealt with earlier,” I assured her. “There’s no trace here.”
I didn’t bother pointing out that if Jim was hit by one of the casket druid’s spells, he wouldn’t be in the hospital. He’d be a pile of human-shaped dust.
“Where was the car parked?” I asked.
Cheryle gave me the location near two intersecting streets. “The paramedics found his phone in his pocket and called me from the location. They asked me about heart conditions and such. That was before they realized he'd been hit.
I grabbed Marduk’s wrist.I’ll stay with Bec, you check for any magic at the attack site while it’s still fresh. If it's another magical creature, we might be able to track them to the casket druid.
Good idea,he agreed.It's not far, I shouldn't be long.
Down the hall, two cops who’d been talking to a doctor turned and headed for us.I don’t think we’ll be leaving any time soon. Go before they decide to question you also.
I let go of Marduk’s wrist, and he turned and stepped into a closing elevator, managing to do it so smoothly that he didn’t disrupt the doors.
“Rebecca Stanhope?” one of the cops asked.
“Call me Bec,” she said.
“I’m Officer Hodges, and this is Officer Garcia. We’d like to ask you a few questions about Jim Masel.”
“I’ll answer as best I can,” she said. “But can I see him first?”
“Yes, let me take her to Jim, then we’ll be right back,” Cheryle said, grabbing Bec’s hand and walking her away before either officer could protest.
I gave the officers a little shrug and followed the ladies. The two men let me get a few strides ahead, then fell in step behind me. I put myself in the doorway to keep them from following, giving Bec and Cheryle space and privacy.
I’d only seen Jim from a distance and never met him, but I could feel sympathy for the man. He was laying in the bed, his head propped up on pillows, a tube down his throat, and horribly pale skin.
His aura didn’t look good. He wasn’t dying yet, but I’d seen this type of auras on humans before. He could decline suddenly and quickly. It would be up to Cheryle and the hospital staff to keep that from happening.
It struck me again how delicate humans were. One hit to the head and Jim was fighting for his life.
Being able to stand this close allowed me to see that there wasn’t a smidgen of magic on him. Whoever hurt him had probably been human. Marduk would probably find the same thing at his car, but it was better to check.
Even if Marduk didn't get any trace of magic in the area, I was sure this wasn’t a coincidence. Jim was investigating the man who died from a casket druid spell. Now he was hurt and in the hospital. There was a connection, we just had to find it.
Chapter 19
Marduk
When I got back to the hospital, I found Danzig standing in the hallway outside Jim’s room. I could hear Cheryle and Bec talking in low tones inside the room. I leaned against the wall next to my twin.
“What did you find out?”
“There was only a slight trace of magic,” I said. “It was on the back of the car. It could’ve been from the attacker or a shifter walking by. It was so slight it might have happened the day before.”
