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The second layer threw me back into the first vision.
If Daniel hadn’t held my hands, I would’ve fallen to the ground. As it was, my knees buckled beneath me. He tried to catch me, but we both ended up on our asses in the snow.
“I can’t do this,” I whispered. “I can’t do this without you, Daniel.”
“Shhhh.” He raised my chin with a finger. “You know I’m right here—” He tapped my chest. “—for the rest of your life.”
I shook my head. “It’s not the same. It won’t be the same.”
“You have to go on.”
I let out a shuddering breath. “How? How can I do that? How can you just be gone?”
He grabbed my face with both hands, and with our foreheads touching, he looked me in the eyes. “Zoë, Zoë, you have to listen to me. Are you listening?”
I nodded despite the ache in my chest and the chaotic swirl of words in my head.
“Death happens. My time is now. Your time is somewhere long in the future, when you’re a white-haired granny sitting on the front porch of your house with a cane and a large glass of sweet tea.”
I shook my head, hands full of his jacket, as if holding on meant he wasn’t slipping through my fingers.
“Listen to me. I have to go. You have to let me go. You have to solve this case, save those babies, and enjoy Esther for me. Tell her heroic stories of her Uncle Danny, okay? But, babe, you have to let me go.”
Ethan cleared his throat. “Zoë.”
“Ethan, please.” Was I begging? It sounded like begging.
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad you two could say goodbye, but Daniel’s right. We still have a case to work on the other side of this vision. What did you tell me?”
“I said we had a small window.” Gods, I couldn’t let go of Daniel.
“Can you come back when we’re done?” He gestured to Daniel.
I looked up at my now-dead ex-boyfriend and grimaced. “No, I don’t get to do a vision twice. Not even this kind.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, the sadness reaching his eyes. “Zoë, I wish we had more time.”
I bit back the cry trying to escape my throat. “I know, Ethan.” I raised my eyes to Daniel. “I don’t want to let you go.”
He cradled my face in his cupped hands, tilted my head upwards and kissed me.
My eyes closed as his lips pressed their heat upon mine, and in that moment, as I remembered everything I loved about this man, my heart broke even more. He would forever be a part of me, yes, but this was definitely a kiss goodbye. I drank him deep, holding the heat of him in a thin line between us, and cried out amid the flood of overwhelming sadness and grief.
His lips cooled against mine and pulled away.
Shivering, I opened my eyes.
“I will always love you,” he whispered. His outline blurred as his body began to fade away. A white light opened up behind him, like a soft incandescent bulb, bright but not blinding, and all the pieces of him separated and poured in until only his face remained—just for a second.
I reached out to him. “I love you, too.”
Then he was gone.
I don’t know how long we sat there, time being relative and all, but I cried in the circle of Ethan’s arms until I had no tears left, and in that newly-dug, bottomless empty feeling sparked an ember of anger that grew into a simmering rage.
I brushed the last remnants of wetness off my face. Anger was good. I understood it, could use it, and it hurt a hell of a lot less than grief.
“Ethan.” I cleared my throat, and he unwrapped his arms from around me. “It’s time to go.”
He looked at me, and his jaw dropped. “Your eyes.”
I grimaced. They must’ve gone all black again. “Yeah, those are a new thing.”
“A new witch thing?”
“Sure, let’s go with that.”
I had a mission. We didn’t have time to talk about the other, furry facet of my life. Though, once everything played out, I owed Ethan that conversation.
I closed my eyes, started a slow ten count in Korean—il, ee, sam, sah—and opened them again. “Better?”
He swallowed. “Yeah, that was strange, to say the least.”
“Sorry about that.” I reached out a hand. “It’s time to go.”
He started to extend his arm and hesitated. “Anything I should know? When we get out?”
“Other than I’m going to kill a motherfuckin’ naga? No.” Then my brain reminded me of something from the scale trip with Mike. “Oh, yeah... Ethan?”
He slid his hand into mine. “Yeah.”
“You’re probably going to throw up. Remember that in the real world, I’m sitting in front of you. Please aim left.”
He nodded. “Let’s go kill some snakes.”
***
The spatter was minimal when we returned to our separate bodies. Ethan moved his head left, as requested, and the entire crime scene stopped while Ethan emptied his stomach.
I leaned down and kissed Daniel on the forehead before standing up.
“Oh, come on, folks, you’ve seen me have a vision before! Let’s get ready to go.”
Mike walked up as the paramedics steered Ethan toward an ambulance. “How are you?”
I shrugged. “Right now, I’m good and angry, and I want to pick a fight with the goddamn naga who killed our partner. Did you get the knife wound looked at?”
He nodded and patted his chest. “Yes, Mom. Hurts like hell, but it’s all bandaged and under a Kevlar vest. They’re en vogue now, you know. I’d give you one, but I have a feeling you’re not in the fragile woman state of mind.”
His attempted levity made me smile. “Yeah, I’m feeling a lot ‘rawr’ and not so much ‘bullets hurt’. I’m itching for this ambush we’re about to walk into.”
Mike frowned. “Daniel wouldn’t want you to go off and get yourself killed, y’know?”
I shook my head and smiled wider. “Oh, I fully intend to live a long life in a pair of snakeskin boots.”
He clapped me on the shoulder. “There’s my little fighter.” He blinked. “Hey, seriously though, anger is good. It’s a great way to focus, but it’s also a great way to find yourself with tunnel vision. When we go in there, we need to go in as a team, not just a pissed-off were-witch with a vendetta.”
He took a deep breath. “It’s going to get nasty and it’s going to get there fast. Are you prepared for an entire squadron of cops to see you furry?”
I stepped back. “What?” I shook my head and raised my hands. “I already did that today, in front of a bunch of strangers, and then I flashed a SWAT team. It’s not going to happen again.”
Mike sighed, a slow exhalation that reminded me of my father right before he put me in my place. “You’ve seen the vision. You’ve seen this guy twice. He’s a big, badass motherfucker. Yes, you’re a stronger witch now. Yes, being a werewolf helps you in human form, but if you go in as one of us, he’s going to kill you.”
He shook his head and turned away for just a moment. “This isn’t like last year where they wanted you to be some crazy-ass figurehead to their spooky coven madness. This guy has been gunning for you from the get-go. He set up all that magick in your sister’s house, and it followed you to yours. He wants you to come with a grudge, and he wants to put you down. Hell if I know why. We’ve not been on this case long enough for him to be pissed that we’re ruining business, but he wants a fight as badly as you do, and we’re about to storm the castle and give it to him on a damn silver platter.”
“Ahem, I may have an answer to the ‘why’ of it.” Seth rounded a nearby tree holding a raised pointer finger.
I frowned. “Earlier you said you had no clue.”
He tsked at me. “No, earlier I said you must have done something to get Simon’s attention.”
I crossed my arms. “Now you magically know what it is?”
“Smartass.” Seth shook his head. “No, not ‘magically’.” He made air quotes. “I had time to think while you wandered off in other people’s heads. My condolences, by the way. Lovers should live a lifetime.”
My frown deepened. “You’re a nice guy and all, Seth, but what’s your point? Simon’s not after me because I’m well-loved.”
“You have real power and real strength of character. You can’t be bought. He can’t own you. He can’t bribe you. With that power, in his eyes, you’ve done nothing. You’ve raised others up with no possible gain for yourself. You help the weak, those in need, indiscriminately. Again, without reward for you.”
I grunted. “So, he wants to kill me because I’m a good person.”
“Is she ever not a smartass?” Seth asked Mike.
The cop chuckled. “You’ve not spent enough time with her. She grows on you.”
I shot Mike a dirty look. “Traitor.”
He threw his hands up in surrender. “Just calling it like I see it.”
“Anyway,” I scowled at the currently-not-so-good doctor. “Let’s get to the point.”
“Do you still have that picture I made you?”
“I do, but it’s in my purse in the car.”
Seth smiled. “Two minutes.” He disappeared in a blur of color and a flurry of leaves and vegetation. Apparently, being a naga gave him extra speed in his human form.
Am I faster as a human because of my furriness? Hmm.
It didn’t take him two minutes. Mike timed him, and it was roughly a minute and twenty seconds before he was standing in front of us again, slightly winded but no worse for wear.
He had my purse slung over one shoulder. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.” I took it from him and rummaged for my makeup bag. “I tucked it away in my compact. Bad guys never think to look in there. A-ha!” I produced the round case and opened it carefully. The bundle of magick sat atop the pressed powder, a little dusty but intact. I offered it, presented on the compact to Seth.
He opened his hand, and it zipped across the space and began to unfold itself. “Are you worried about people watching us do magick?”
I looked at Mike, who shrugged.
“She took down a hell of a snow elemental thing last year when we were hunting a serial killer” Mike said. “All in front of a group about this size. Heck, most of them are here now, and they pretty much took it in stride. A few crossed themselves, but no one seemed to care. They’re pretty used to stuff like that.”
Seth nodded. “Good to know.” He cupped it in his hands, shook it with a conspiratorial wink, and did a ‘voila’ gesture. The bauble flew into the air between us, at about eye level.
Well, eye level for the guys. Being five-two has its disadvantages.
The magick unwrapped in multiple flashes of light, each one expanding the rectangle until it surpassed my arms’ reach and caught the attention of the onlookers. Nothing like a few dozen hardened cop faces filling with awe.
“You did that on purpose.” I smiled and nodded to our audience.
“Do I seem like a guy who’d do that?” Seth winked again. “Just watch.”
“Is that you?” Mike asked, pointing at the mini version of me.
“Yeah, that’s me. Before, in the hospital, I thought this was a house, but it’s the cave. I recognize the shape from my vision.”
“At the hospital, it was a house, but my data has since changed, so....” Seth shrugged. “Adjustments had to be made. The scenery is unimportant. The scene, however, is quite the opposite.”
Outside the house/cave, a splash of dots popped up between little tufts of green. Mini-Me popped out of the cave and into the middle of all the dots.
“Us.”
Seth nodded. “Them.”
Inside the cave, well over two dozen 8-bit snakes stood in the main chamber, where I’d interrogated the naga and seen the floating lights. My heart sank. “I didn’t know there were that many of you here.”
“If you take a minute,” Seth reminded, “you’ll remember that a week ago, you didn’t even know we existed.”
We had a good seventy-five men in our ranks, and while we had the naga outnumbered, that didn’t mean anything. “Are they all as strong as you, Heath, and Simon?”
Seth shook his head. “No, not all of them. Stronger than humans, yes. Think more gladiators versus super-humans, but that’s not important.”
“I beg to differ,” Mike retorted.
Ethan walked up next to me.
“You said he was a good guy,” Mike said.
I didn’t take my eyes off the scene. “He is. He also happens to be what they are.”
“First thing, ladies and gents,” Seth boomed. “Nagas aren’t human, but more than that, they consider humans lesser, beneath them, cattle. They will have no qualms about killing you, and they prefer that you suffer first, just to put you in your place.”
“Ahem.” I cleared my throat. “I know we’re a bit away from the cave entrance, but aren’t you being a little loud?”
“They know we’re out here, Zoë. Right now it’s a waiting game on their end. They dare not venture out. I’ve also cast an area of effect, kind of like a giant cone of silence. They can probably count all of us, but that’s about it. I promise they can’t hear anything we’re saying.”
I crossed my arms. “Ethan.”
The captain gestured, and a couple officers in black uniforms moved towards the cave. “Will they break the spell if they step out?”
Seth considered Ethan like he’d just done something interesting. “Checking on me?”
“I don’t know you, and while I can appreciate Zoë vouching for you, I’d rather err on the side of caution. I already lost one man today. I’d like to keep the casualties to a minimum, and if the situation were reversed....”
“I wouldn’t trust you as far as I can throw you, even if I’ve got a great arm. Fine, point made. No, they won’t break the spell. Tell them to step past the mushrooms, and they’ll be out.”
Ethan stepped away and talked into his shoulder mic.
While we waited, Seth rearranged pieces on his display.
“This looks like a battle plan,” I whispered. “Don’t get me wrong. If you’ve got inside naga intel, I’m all for it, but it doesn’t explain why he’s got the hots for me.”
Seth smiled. “It will. I promise.”
“I hope your bedside manner is better than this,” Mike gruffed. “Because I’m just not buying it.”
Seth turned to me. “He’s a hard sell, huh?”
I shrugged. “Eh, not all of us get to do the whole magickal-entanglement thing. Mike’s one smart cookie, though. He’s willing to give you a go, but yanno, the whole ‘if you screw us over’....”
“‘He’ll put a bullet in my head’ thing?” Seth made an icky face. “Yeah, that’s rather motivating. I promise not to let you down. I prefer my immortality.”
I cocked my head to the side, hand on hip, when Ethan walked back up. “Did I mention he’s a really good shot?”
“We’re a go,” the captain informed us, his eyes all for the interaction he’d missed. “We good here?”
Mike nodded. “Just clearing up some details, Captain.”
Ethan gave us what I’d come to call his ‘we’ll revisit this’ face, before turning to Seth. “The spell is solid. Good work. Now, let’s see this slideshow.”
Seth smiled and touched the display. “Movie time, folks.”
