Magic In the Blood

    I heard Love walk away, heard him talking to someone else-Davy, I thought.

    “Zayvion Jones,” Detective Paul Stotts said. “You’ve been a difficult man to find. I’d like you to step away from her and let the paramedics take over.”

    “Do any of them know how to set a Siphon?” Zayvion asked. “Because she needs one, and so does the boy on the floor over there.”

    What boy? A memory floated through my mind. Anthony? Davy? Someone else?

    Okay, I was getting tired of not seeing what was going on.

    I worked hard to open my eyes again. Looked up. Saw Stotts and Zayvion sizing each other up. Stotts had a coffee cup in one hand, and the smell of dark roast was pure heaven. Both of Zayvion’s hands were on me, one on my torn-up thigh, one on my breastbone. That was also pure heaven.

    “I think she was used for a Proxy,” Zayvion lied. Lied, because even though the exact order of recent events were sort of fuzzy to me right now, he had been here for enough of it to know I hadn’t been used as a Proxy. I’d been used. Used by Frank. For something. Dark magic? Something about opening something.

    I reached for it, but the memory skittered away, like there was someone on the other end of an invisible string, purposely pulling my memories out of my reach.

    That was weird.

    “Hey,” I said, my voice quavering and weak.

    Both men looked down at me. Even though Zayvion was trying hard to pull off the I’m-just-a-harmless- street-drifter bit, those burning gold eyes were a dead giveaway. That man was more than capable to cast magic. A lot of magic. What had Frank said? The guardian?

    I wondered what kind of trouble Zayvion was in with the police.

    “You’re going to be okay,” Zayvion said. “The paramedics are here.”

    Stotts nodded. “They’ll set a Siphon if you need one. Just rest, Allie. I want to know everything that happened once you’re on your feet again.”

    He shifted a little and an EMT, a woman about ten years older than me with a round, concerned face, stepped forward.

    “M’okay,” I managed.

    “Good to hear that,” the woman said. “My name’s Lori. I’m going to shine this light in your eyes.”

    She did. She did that and a lot of other things, like pressing on my cheekbones and the bridge of my nose, both of which hurt like mad, and cleaning off the blood magic cuts I seemed to have everywhere, and pushing my filthy hair out of my eyes and pouring something in my eyes that made everything go blurry but stopped my eyes from scratching so bad. She spent some time doing stuff to my thigh, and then I think she put an IV in my arm, but I wasn’t sure.

    What did you know? I could hurt so much that I didn’t feel a needle.

    Zayvion didn’t move away until another man, who had a wide, easy smile and was tall enough to be a basketball player, came over.

    “So we need a Siphon set? Let’s take a look at you.” Zayvion stepped aside. The tall man placed his hands on my chest, and his fingers were so long they reached from my shoulder to shoulder without a problem. “My name’s Marvin. I’m the medic with the magic, and I’m gonna take care of you.”

    He was joking, right? A soothing wash poured over my body, like water over all my stinging wounds.

    Marvin the medic with the magic was very much not joking. I’d never had a Siphon set on me before, but I could feel the gentle lessening, ever so slowly, of the pain in my body-different from Zayvion’s touch. Marvin was good. Very good.

    “That your boyfriend?” he asked.

    And it was such an utterly normal question, the kind of question you asked in an everyday sort of situation, not in a warehouse full of bloody, dead, and dying people situation, that I smiled, even though it made my mouth hurt. “Think so,” I said.

    Marvin leaned in a little closer. “Well, just so you know, he looks really worried about you,” he said in a conspiratorial whisper. “But he doesn’t need to be. I got you covered. What’s your favorite flower?”

    “What?”

    “I’ll make sure he brings you some when you wake up.”

    “Oh,” I said. I was already feeling drowsy, but not in an overwhelming way. Just a soft, comforting, it- was-okay-to-let-go-now-way. “Roses,” I said, even though my favorite flowers were iris. “Pink roses.”

    And then sleep-real sleep-found me.

Chapter Nineteen

    I didn’t remember getting to the hospital, but when I woke, I was cleaner, wearing a hospital gown and hospital bracelet, and was tucked into a hospital bed. An IV line ran to my arm, and the soft blue lacework of Marvin the magical medic’s Siphon spell hung from a special glass and lead glyph-worked arm of the IV stand. Threads of the Siphon spell ran alongside the IV tube to my arm and then spread out to settle over my chest.

    Marvin had done a great job on the spell. It pulsed with my natural heartbeat and made my injuries hurt a whole lot less. Even my head felt clearer.

    But apparently Marvin had forgotten to tell Zayvion to bring me flowers.

    Or Zayvion hadn’t wanted to. There wasn’t a single pink rose in the room.

    From the light coming in through the small window, I guessed it was morning. Still? I glanced at the clock on the wall. Seven o’clock.

    Wow. I’d slept all the way through the day and the night to the day again.

    I still ached-inside and out-but the combination of painkillers and Siphon kept it at a distance. I did, however, really need to pee.

    I pushed the blankets off, got a glimpse at my legs-still covered in fingerprint burns with some kind of cream that smelled like a diaper rash ointment smeared over them. I pulled my IV stand, IV bag, Siphon, and all, with me as I walked on feet that were still a little swollen into the bathroom.

    I made use of the facilities, and as I was washing my hands in tepid water, I heard someone come into my room. Hopefully a nurse. I wanted to go home, take a real shower, and crawl into my real bed.

    I walked out of the bathroom.

    It was not the nurse.

    Davy Silvers stood uncertainly in my room. He had on clean clothes-jeans and a denim jacket with a hoodie beneath it. He had both his hands in his pockets. But even though he’d had a chance to take a shower, the dark circles and bloodshot eyes told me he had gotten less sleep than I.

    “Hey,” I said as I limped over to my bed. “What are you doing here?” I felt stupid wearing a hospital gown in front of him, so I pulled the covers back over me again.

    “Came to see if you’re okay. You know.” He shrugged.

    “I’ve been here all night, haven’t I?”

    He pulled a chair away from the wall, sat. “Yes.”

    “Have you been here all night?”

    “Not all night.”

    “Davy,” I said. “I appreciate you watching my back when I Hounded for Stotts. And… and yesterday morning. With… Pike. But you don’t have to do that any more.”

    He leaned the length of his forearms on his knees and clenched his fingers together. “Pike told me to look after you.”

    “For one night. One night, Davy, no more.”

    “Hounds stick together,” he said stubbornly. “Watch each other’s backs.”

    “Sure. When we’re Hounding.”

    “That’s not what Pike said. And it’s not what he would want.”