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“I’m here!” Lucy announced, door ajar, one arm in the air with my go bag, and a huge smile on her face that faded as she took in the scene. “Oh hell, Zoë.”
I raised my hands in mock surrender. “I can’t help myself.” I looked at Mike. “Give me twenty minutes to get cleaned up and I’ll tell you everything, okay?”
He nodded. “Fine. This had better be good, Zoë.”
“It is, I promise.” I walked to the door, where Lucy gave me a clear berth and the two of us wandered off to the ladies’ locker room.
She waited ever-patiently by my locker, hands crossed in her lap, sitting on the wooden bench while I snagged a quick shower. She even gave me time to don undergarments before she opened her mouth again. “What, by the gods, was that all about?”
“Luce, it’s been a busy morning. You’re going to have to be more specific.”
“Um, let’s start with why you were covered in vomit and go from there.”
I filled her in with the nutshell version of the whole mess while I finished getting ready. “We came back and, yeah, vomit.”
Her face in the locker mirror held no amusement. “He could see you?”
Back to nagas. “Yeah, he looked right at me, Lucy. Have you ever heard of that?”
She shook her head. “I’ve never met anyone who has visions as in-depth as you do, but I’ve never heard anyone say the memory broke the fourth wall before either. I mean, how does a video, for all intents and purposes, talk to you?”
I shrugged. “I’ve been doing this for... like... ever, and I’ve never interacted in a vision unless I brought someone with me.”
“What do you think it means? That you’ve got new powers?”
I grunted. “My luck? It means that nagas are extra special magickal creatures who know how to activate items like a dumbed-down auto-VOIP. Doesn’t work unless you’re gifted, but if you are, it connects.”
“What about the thing with Sera?”
I looked around the empty locker room. “Can’t talk about it right now, but yeah, I think there’s a connection.”
“Do you need/want me to stay?”
I gave her a big hug. “No, you’re a great bestie, but I don’t want you any more involved than you already are. If this is a drug thing, or some kind of creature feature, I want you to be safe.”
“Want me to take Sera home to get some stuff? Maybe I can pick up on something while I’m there.”
I smiled. She wasn’t about to back out of this case if she could help me, no matter how small of an assist. “Yeah, that sounds great. Thanks, Luce.”
She hugged me again. “Please be careful.”
“I’m trying.”
***
“So, you can see how I got there, right?” I said. “Mystery thugs kidnap my niece to support my soon-to-be-deceased brother-in-law’s drug habit, being pushed secretly by the mind-controlling priest guy at the creeptastic Church of Holy Light, who might be the scaly naga boss guy from my vision.”
Mike gave me cop face.
I hated cop face, because whether he thought I was crazy or I was onto something, I could never tell just by looking at him. That drove me a tad bonkers. I needed him to take this leap with me if we were going to make progress in either of my cases.
“Zoë, that’s a lot of speculation.”
Okay, not the answer I wanted. “I hope there’s a ‘but’ coming.”
He smiled, and some of the tension in my shoulders released. “Yes, there’s a ‘but’. What you’ve laid out is circumstantial at best, but I can see how you got there. The problem is twofold: the lack of evidence, and outright accusing a church of being the cornerstone of a drug trafficking and infanticide ring. See my hesitation to charge in?”
I sighed. At least he didn’t think I was nuts. “Yeah, I get it. So where do we go from here, and how do we find my niece before she becomes a drug mule? How do we beat the ever-loving shit out of my brother in-law? Or better yet, how do we stop my sister from killing him? Oh, and by the way, how do we do anything about the naga guys? You know, aside from proving they exist and that they’re involved with so-called Christians who are assisting in the murder of babies?”
The sharp point of a headache bloomed in the middle of my forehead. I leaned forward in my chair, elbows on my thighs, and rubbed the offending spot with one hand, eyes closed. “It’s the little things, you know.”
He grabbed me by the upper arms and shook me hard. “Zoë!”
I flipped my arms upwards and broke his grasp. “What the hell, Mike?” I blinked a couple times and a handful of blurry faces came into focus. “Wha—what’s going on?”
The huddle broke, and an EMT came over with a stethoscope.
I tried to shoo him away, but Mike shook his head. “No, you’re going to sit there and let him check you out.”
“I don’t understand. Mike, what’s going on?”
“You stopped. You just stopped moving, stopped talking. Thank God you were still breathing, but I tried for the last ten minutes to wake you up, bring you back, and nothing until right now.”
“What? I only closed my eyes for a second. Didn’t I?”
He had no chance to answer before a familiar voice broke through the buzz around me. “Zoë? Zoë, are you okay?”
Oh, just great. I raised my arms, pressure cuff still attached, much to the un-amusement of the EMT. “I’m alive. I’m fine.”
Daniel rounded the corner of the table and scooped me right out of the chair in a giant bear hug.
Awkwardness aside, I felt so fatigued that his outpouring of need—even if it was the need to know I was all right—flooded me in a rush of cloying energy that threatened to drown me.
“Daniel.”
“It came over the radio, and I left the crime scene as fast as I could. Threw up lights and everything.”
I wriggled in an attempt to retract from his embrace, but he held on tight. “Daniel.”
“No one would tell me what was going on, and I thought you were hurt again. Or worse!”
Fear and sadness rolled over me in waves, and that need to vomit resurfaced. I threw my shields up and shoved him and all that energy out. “Daniel.”
He leaned back, arms still wrapped around my waist. “What?”
“You’re suffocating me.” I peeled him off one arm at a time. How to say what I needed to say without coming off like a bitchy ex-girlfriend? “I appreciate the concern, but....”
All the warmth slipped from his face, replaced by irritation and anger. “But what?”
Anyone else tired of the drama fest? Yep, this girl. “Daniel, I can’t do this right now. We aren’t alone. I don’t want to be alone with you. Let’s not cause a big scene in the middle of an investigation, okay?”
He pressed his lips into a thin line.
Lovely.
“Well, the next time you might be dying, make sure they don’t call me.”
That stung more than I was expecting, but what did I expect? As he stormed out of the interrogation room like a child, I blinked back the tears. I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry, dammit.
A hand touched me, and I jumped. “Oh hell!”
“Sorry,” Mike said from behind me. “Do you want me to talk to Brooks? Get Daniel off this case?”
“I....” I shook my head. “No, I’m okay. I’ll be okay, anyway. No sense in making a bad situation worse.”
It wouldn’t make Daniel hurt any less.
