THE RINGING in Chaz’s ears was overwhelming. He tasted his own blood in his mouth, like sour milk left on a counter overnight. He spit it out onto the grass. Each flick of his tongue against his lips seemed to ache as if he’d been sucker punched. He opened his eyes but saw nothing but the arrows from inside the house on the back of his eyelids.
He let out a low groan. His name, his real name, was being shouted. Or is that in my dream?
“Chip? Chip?” The voice came into focus now. Not his real name, but the mask he wore. “Chip, are you okay?”
Chaz blinked until he could make out Jack’s face. The door to the house hung off its hinges, caked in a layer of blackness. The house still stood, but the windows were all broken and the porch was also stained with black and red marks, like burnt meat. The last five minutes played in Chaz’s memory like a film underwater. Water shaper. Acrid blood. Katja telling them to get out. The smell of smoke. Ringing and ringing in his ears.
Chaz jumped to his feet and ran right into Sully.
“Sully,” he said, gripping his arms. His jaw ached again as he spoke. He was sure his skin was still pink with wounds.
“Sit down. I’m fine. Katja is fine. But Ch—” Sully didn’t finish as he directed Chaz to the ambulance. “Your head…. Gah. There’s a lot of blood.”
“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Chaz’s stomach reeled. He ran into the bushes, each step agony, and threw up. His mouth was even more sour than before. When someone stood beside him, he hoped to God it wasn’t Jack or Declan trying to rub his weakness in his face. Or the fact that they’d totally fucked up this scene by not realizing what kinds of bodies they were dealing with.
Instead it was Sully. He placed a hand on Chaz’s shoulder and rubbed it back and forth.
“That hurts.”
“Sorry.” Sully took his hand away. “The fire?”
“The debris. I think it struck me in my back.”
“You were out on that lawn like a rag doll. I’m surprised you’re not broken in seventeen places.”
“Well, I’m not.” Chaz smarted. “If it’s my whole body that hurts, it’s one injury right? Maybe I’m a bit dizzy. Are you okay, though?”
Sully shrugged. He gestured to his slacks, which were now ripped, his bloody knees peeking through. “An occupational injury,” he joked. “I’ve been in this position before. Not the blood explosion, but… I’ve been on my knees a lot.”
Chaz laughed at Sully’s attempt at humor, but his stomach churned. He saw the shriveled vampire body and the water shaper on the ground. The women yelling about the devil. Sully flying through the air, like him. He lurched and threw up again. There was nothing in his system but water, so it felt like acid coming up.
Sully rubbed his hand back and forth against Chaz’s neck and in his hair, careful to avoid the places where rocks had seared his skin. There was still pain, but most of it ebbed away with Sully’s gentle hushing. He was humming too; Chaz was sure of it.
“Sully?”
“Yeah?”
“What the hell are we dealing with here?”
“You mean other than the explosion?”
“Yes. I deserve to hear it.”
“It’s a long story. Even if I told you everything right now, I doubt you’d remember with a head injury like that. You need to get checked out.”
“I can’t,” Chaz said through clenched teeth. “I can’t get checked out. They’ll know all about me. I’m fine. I heal fast.”
“You have a concussion. At least. And your back is covered in burn wounds. I’m still surprised half your arms and legs aren’t shattered. You need something. Anything.”
“It’s not exactly like I can go to a monster hospital.”
“No, you can’t. But you also can’t walk away from an injury like that, like it’s nothing, or they’ll know something is up.”
Chaz was about to argue when he saw Jack running toward them. Chaz took a step away from Sully, limping as he did, and pretending to be in even more pain than he really was. His acting was easy, almost natural. He’d been doing it for so long now, anyway.
“Chip. Jesus. What happened?”
Declan came jogging up to Jack, his face grave. “God. I’d thought you’d died.”
“No, not so easily,” Chaz laughed, then held his side. “Our vic was a water shaper. Mixed with the vamp body and boom.”
Jack stood with wide eyes, uncomprehending. Declan seemed even more grave than before.
“Katja can explain it,” Sully said. “She realized it first.”
When Katja came over, she looked as if she’d only been caught in a windstorm. She spoke rapidly about the events, what happened, and what to do next. Jack grew paler and paler. Chaz swore he saw his hair go gray.
“I’m going to lose my promotion,” he murmured.
“Hey, no you’re not. How were you supposed to know?” Declan said. “It was a trap, obviously. Maybe one of the women did it?”
“Not likely,” Sully said.
Too many people spoke at once and it made Chaz’s head ache. When an EMT showed up and started to shine lights in his eyes, he stepped away.
“No, no, I’m fine. Maybe a wrist brace and I’m good to go.”
“Nonsense,” Jack said. “You need to be checked out. Protocol. And my job, yet again, is to make sure there are less explosions and death. Not more.”
Chaz shook his head, but the action made him want to throw up again. He definitely had a concussion. As he swayed on his feet, Sully stepped in to support him.
“I can take him home,” Sully said. “He drove me here tonight, so it won’t be a big deal. I’m also trained in first aid, so if he gets really bad, I know a doctor that can make house calls.”
Jack eyed Chaz and then Sully again. “You’re sure?”
“Double sure. There’s a lot for you guys to sort out. I don’t want to get in the way.”
“Thank you,” Jack said. “Can we send some files over to you when you have a chance? And the 911 tapes?”
“Sure, that’s okay.”
“What’s your address? Do you have an office you work out of?” Jack asked.
Sully’s face went white with panic.
“Send them to me,” Chaz said. “I’ll be out on desk duty for a while, right? I may as well work on them with Sully. If that’s okay?”
“Yes, that works,” Jack said.
When Sully nodded, Chaz was steadier on his feet. There were another couple rounds of back-and-forth discussions, trying to pin down exactly what happened, while Sully draped a blanket over Chaz’s shoulders and filled in the blanks where Chaz couldn’t remember. Sully lied for some of it; Chaz now knew his tells of touching his left ear and blinking too fast. When it was all over, Jack told Sully to submit his paperwork to join the force since he was a “natural” under pressure. Sully laughed, but Chaz knew Jack was serious. And the idea of having Sully as his partner warmed his heart more than he thought possible. The investigation tonight, as much as it had been botched, had felt good. They worked well as a team. And maybe, when they were alone, Chaz could know the truth about everything that had passed him by tonight.
“You ready to go?” Sully asked.
“Yeah. But… the elemental. Is he…?”
“Gone.” Sully bit his lip. “I heard Katja talking about getting soil samples so she could complete some kind of tox screen. I’m sorry. There was nothing you could have done.”
“Maybe.” Chaz allowed Sully to lead him to the car, his body feeling as if it had been through hell and back. Maybe the devil really did do this.
“So,” Sully said after he started the car and drove away from the scene. They were at an intersection. Chaz blinked in and out of consciousness, desperate to stay awake. “I’m driving you home right now, and that involves me needing an address.”
Chaz told him and Sully nodded. “I know the area. Nice. I’m going to stay with you for a while too.”
“You can’t. I’ll be fine.”
“I know you’ll be fine. But I still need to tell you what the fuck happened in there and what I’m worried about.”
Chaz nodded, but he was still too tired to process much of anything. They were ten minutes away from his place when he said, “I can pay you for this, if you’re staying. I don’t mind.”
“I know you don’t mind. But maybe this time, I owe you.”
“For what?”
“You grabbed my hand when we ran.”
“So? I would have done that for anyone. I need to do that for everything. Protect and—”
“I know, I know. Protect and serve, whatever. But I really do have first aid experience. So now you need to let me protect and serve you.”
“Okay, thank you.” Chaz smiled, but it was short-lived. He wanted to sink down into darkness and forget about tonight, this killer, and everything else that seemed to be going wrong. “Hey, Sully?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I go to sleep? I know that’s not always good with head injuries, but I’m really tired.”
“That’s an old myth,” Sully said. “You can actually go to sleep with a concussion. I’ll check on you every two hours, though I suspect that since you’re a vamp, you’ll heal faster and I won’t need to check in on you that often.”
Chaz tried to nod and say thank you, but he was already gone.