Chapter 41 — Abuse of Power

  The night went longer than I feared. Chris and Gregory showed up to question us incessantly a second time, the Officers bought time until they arrived by questioning everything and surveying the backyard and house multiple times. I let out a sigh of relief when the local Officers got bored and left us alone with the FBI agents. I swore Officer Vance was hanging around simply because he could and didn’t want to do any actual police work.

  Now able, Gregory and Chris asked for the real story. We told them all we could. I’d barely seen glimpses of the creature through the gunfire and my shield energy. I had no idea what it was, but we let them know it was the threat.

  The most relevant information I could get across was that we had injured it with iron. Chris and Gregory were surprised by that. They hadn’t known iron could be so effective on magical creatures. It was Lana’s telling of what I’d done that made Chris buy it. He trusted her enough that he in turn was beginning to trust my information. I might have been more excited about it, if I wasn’t beaten to a pulp and barely able to stand.

  “If Iron can hurt these things…” Gregory said, looking down at the hardwood flooring. “We need to get that into the files.”

  “Yes, we do. Especially if it works so well against a broad array of enemies.”

  “Anything infused by or crafted from magic. That includes most beings from outside of our world and the Fae. If they have been here for a long time some of that weakness will diminish.”

  “That’s still a godsend,” Chris agreed.

  “I’m surprised your records don’t have it.” I offered, hoping to learn more about the FBI’s store of knowledge on the supernatural.

  “We don’t have access to everything, and it’s not like we have an introductory training course,” Gregory said, tucking a little paper notepad away he’d used for notes. “People just… find themselves in our position from time to time. We’re more adept at it than others and have developed a name for ourselves within the organization.”

  “We have higher backers, but they don’t tell us everything,” Chris said, and I could see the late night was getting to him, his eyes looked shadowed.

  “They should have told you something like that,” I argued.

  “It’s time we were leaving,” Chris said. “Cal, you still owe me an interview, but we can do it another time. Lana, thank you for your hospitality.” He gestured to the drinks she’d brought.

  “Anytime Chris,” Lana said. “It… is good to see you again. I hope you can catch this thing before Cal and I have too.” She said the last in jest, but her usual confidence was lacking.

  I nodded in agreement, but inwardly knew, I was the only person in this town who would have the ability to stop this creature, and I didn’t have much time to do it before it killed again.

  We led the agents to the front door, and they left without another word. While Lana locked and bolted the door I stumbled down onto her couch, not wanting to get up again that night if I could help it. The benefit of being so exhausted and having used so much of my power was that my aura would be much less likely to damage her things. The lights in the room were still working after events of the night. It would take an extreme emotion to for that to change, like it had for Vance’s patrol car.

  “What a night,” Lana said, groaning from the opposite chair in the front room she’d collapsed into.

  The night—morning was well into the single-digit hours. An old standing clock read just after two.

  “Yeah,” I said, feeling forty years older than I was. “We’ll have Fren fix you up in no time.”

  “I hope it’s soon,” Lana said with a sigh. We sat, relaxed and unhurried after having to be so guarded and careful with the Officers and then slightly less so with the FBI. To my surprise, Lana stood and melted into the sofa next to me, snuggling in close. She felt warm and I appreciated being close. Our late-night conversation had been wildly interrupted. She turned and I could feel her breath lightly against my ear for a moment before she spoke, the words breaking through the cloudiness that was my mind.

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  “I decided,” her eyes met mine.

  “Decided what?”

  “You’re sleeping over.”

  I feared for a moment I had already fallen asleep and was simply imagining her words while snoring away on the sofa, but the pain I still felt, and the warmth of her being close, let me know I was awake. “What?”

  “No way either of us are driving right now. And honestly. I’m freaked out that that thing knows where I live. You’re staying the night.”

  The finality of her statement made me grin, “You just want me for my body.” Even those words took an effort of will.

  “You really are stuck at a highschooler mentality, aren’t you?” Lana said with a relaxed smile.

  “If only. I feel like I’m eighty and not going to be able to walk straight for days.”

  That made Lana quirk her lips.

  “Let’s go—get some sleep,” she said.

  “Only sleep?” I asked, unsure of what I really wanted with how injured I was.

  “I like you Cal, but… I don’t want our first time to be when were exhausted, beat near to death, and wounded.”

  That really made me perk up, my body trying to scream, I’m not exhausted, or injured, not me!

  When I nearly missed a step walking up the stairs to her room for the second time on the same day, I had to agree were weren’t in the best shape. I grabbed the rail to save myself from another fall which sent a lancing pain down my side that doubled me over. Lana was right. Sleep was in order.

  “Fine, sleep only,” I groaned in clear answer to the discussion we’d been having downstairs, “But Fren is going to fix us both up soon—tomorrow.”

  “I can agree with that,” Lana said, reaching down to give me a hand. We shuffled into her room, and she flicked on the light. Her bed looked more inviting than anything else I’d ever seen in my life.

  “That piece of shit,” she growled, standing taller as her eyes searched the room.

  “What?” I asked, blinking and trying to find what had raised her ire.

  “That bastard—Officer Vance—it had to be him.”

  “Huh?” I said, my perusal of the room showing nothing out of place or unexpected.

  “He searched the house earlier, right?”

  “Yeah,” I answered. “I think a few of them did, a few times if I recall.”

  “Well, he left one drawer in my room half open.”

  I followed her glare and saw one of the top drawers in the waist-high dresser left open. Inside lay piled lacy bits of clothing, panties, and bras all tossed and moved aside as if someone had been digging through them looking for something.

  A part of me growled in frustration and indignity at the blatantly abusive Officer. Another part growled in hunger and desire to know exactly how Lana would look in each of those items.

  She slammed the drawer shut and swore again.

  “I’m sorry,” I said glumly. “I dragged you into his bad graces.”

  “Police Officers shouldn’t have bad graces. They should be respectable, honorable. That’s what my father always projected—Yes, he was in the military, but it’s still a position of public service. It just annoys the hell out of me when people abuse their power.” She stood, hands on hips, glaring at the dresser.

  “Yeah, his rookies not too bad though,” I said to lighten the mood. “Hell, the rest of the force is great.”

  “Right. He’s already a better Officer, yet he’s tied down to dead weight. You saw how quickly the female Officer jumped in; she knows Vance is scum.”

  I agreed. Darron was the worst of them. But I was too tired to jump on the band wagon and didn’t know how to help Lana with her frustration. So, I reached out and grabbed her shoulders from behind while she glared at the dresser. I rubbed them, digging my thumbs into the tight muscles from her neck to her shoulders and back. It hurt my side a little, but not enough to stop.

  This was the first time I’d really initiated close touch with her. Her shoulders easily fit in my hands. Her skin and muscles were tight, but in moments that tension began to wane. She rolled her head to one side, letting me work the other harder, eyes closed.

  “That feels amazing,” She crooned.

  I kissed her lightly from behind on the right side of her jaw where it met her neck. She smelled wonderful even though she also carried the faint scent of smoke from the fire and grass from the tumble through her yard.

  She turned and we kissed. Gently, then another single passionate kiss before she stepped back, putting one coy finger over my lips, “No more tonight.”

  “I agree with that plan,” I said, exhaustion making me believe my own words roughly ninety percent.

  “But…” Lana said, unbuttoning her pants, “I do need to get into pajamas.” She bit her bottom lip, then slowly slid them off.

  Her legs were incredible. Like, freaking incredible. My ninety percent resolve to just go to sleep, crashed faster than… well any computer in my personal sphere would have in that moment. The light above flicked and with a small pop, died.

  Lana laughed and I let out the most annoyed sigh of my life as the room settled into absolute darkness.

  “Sorry about that,” I said, as I began undoing my belt and pulling my own pants off.

  “I have spares,” she said, as I heard the bed move as she lay down. My heart raced, but the moment I lay down my mind calmed. Exhaustion flowed over me, though Lana did cuddle in close. Her bed smelled like her and was much softer than mine. The blankets were thin, the same way I liked them, and the air in the room was cool, a window left open a crack all night had cooled it more than the rest of the house. I held Lana close, her back to me, one of my arms resting over her, feeling her skin and the way her ribs rose and fell with each breath. Sleep claimed us both in moments.