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There’s a scraping of object against object before a rustling of movement by Emmerson’s head. He tries, in vain, to escape from the handcuffs chafing his ankles and wrists, a bellow of fear leaving his throat as a leathery hand presses against his forehead. The touch is strong and spindly, unyielding as it holds his head in place.
Then the pain starts.
It’s all encompassing, debilitating, and oh so familiar.
It rockets through Emmerson’s skull, blinding and unendurable. His mind starts to waver in consciousness, but manages to hang on.
Then it stops for a moment, the grip on his head jerking his face to the side as something sharp presses against his other eye. His sobs are animalistic at this point, the agony drowning him. Controlling him.
But…
The little cloth over his eyes shifts just slightly, his blurred sight zeroing in on the shadow hovering above him. Bathed in black and only able to make out a vague shape of a figure to say it’s a person at all. A flash of light from a stray streetlight glances off of a shiny, golden surface, pulling his attention to the chest area of the figure before he moves quickly and his vision is cut off completely, another agonizing pain erupting in its place.
I close my connection.
16
KAI ZHAO
Wicked stands motionless, eerily so, as she sees or experiences whatever it is she does when she has her visions. She’s tried to explain it before, but I’ll be the first to admit that it’s anything but simple to understand.
I also never truly noticed how vulnerable she is when she’s in there. She’s unaware of anything going on in the real world. Our touches and assurances go unheard and unfelt. Like she’s not really here at all.
Which I’m kind of glad about at this moment.
“I fucking told you guys to keep her out of this! What the hell are you thinking?” Alan spits at Nic, who stands almost as motionless as Wicked, only the clenching of his jaw and balled fists showing he’s actually aware of the dressing down he’s being given.
I leave them to it for now, keeping one eye on Wicked and Ezra, and one on the fight that’s currently brewing. I hate conflict. I hate confrontation. I’m more content with distractions and making people let their guards down, which I could do to diffuse the situation now, but with recent discoveries on the missing casings, I can’t find it in me to want to.
It pains me to admit that Alan is now a true suspect. I didn’t want to think so before, but I figured–as Wicked did–that it’s better to play it safe than sorry. But now? Shit. It’s time to face the evidence, and some of it is pointing directly at the chief.
“And I fucking toldyou, it’s not going to do any good to keep her out of it now. She’s a damn good detective even outside of her abilities. You need her, and you damn well need us. What headway have you actually made since you kicked us off,hmm?” Nic tries to wrangle his tone into some semblance of calm, but the razor edge of it is still sharp.
It’s good to know he’s finally admitting how highly he thinks of Wicked, though. It’s been a long time coming.
“I ordered you guys to keep her safe, not join her in her rebellions and risky behavior!” Alan is practically shouting at this point, drawing the attention of the surrounding cops and whatever subpar detectives he’s had to resort to hiring after putting us on forced leave.
Hell, I’m pretty sure Jenkins over there was almost arrested a few months ago for the murder of a woman because he contaminated the scene and left his hair everywhere. Alan really is scraping the bottom of the bucket here.
“We are keeping her safe! Don’t you even think about insinuating we’re not! She’s safer than she’s been in years with us around!” Nic starts losing the last thread of his patience and I sigh, kicking off the side of the brick building I was leaning against, my badge swinging across my chest with the sudden movement.
“Let’s take the volume down a notch, boys. Rumors are a swirlin’.” I keep my tone light and jovial even if inside I’m just as frustrated as Nic. It takes a lot of self control to hold the twisting of my chest at bay these days.
Both Alan and Nic glance around at the rest of the cops loitering in the area, their many heads snapping away as if to pretend they weren’t listening in. Stepping closer to each other, they continue arguing and ignore me altogether. That’s fine. I prefer being the one that stays under the radar.
“How can you assume she’s safer now? You’re doing nothing to actually keep her out of this!” Alan sounds disgusted with us, his voice wavering with the strength of his anger, though he does stop yelling. So there’s that.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned about working with Izabella, it’s that you can’t keep her from doing what she loves. You’re far better off working with her and listening to her ideas than you are leaving her out completely. If we weren’t here, backing her at every corner, she would have probably already run off to do something dangerous and get herself killed. If anything, you’re fucking lucky she has us.” My brows hike up as I crouch down and pretend to inspect something on the ground, not wanting to give away the surprise on my face.
I guess Nic really is learning and growing. Ezra was right.
The man in question glances down at me at the same time I look at him, the two of us making eye contact. Then, with a straight face devoid of any emotions, the fucker just winks.Winks!
Well I’ll be!
Something heavy rams into my back as another hits my shoulder, but I saw them stalking me, I knew it was coming. I widen my stance to keep my balance as I flip Gizmo to my front, putting him in a headlock as Snitch tries to bite at my ear. I grin as Gizmo tries to kick at my chest to get away, his squeaks of excitement making me chuckle.
Freeing up one of my arms, I reach up and knock Snitch off of my shoulder, his playful, affronted bark the only clue that he’s revving up to attack again. Before he can land, I spin and face him, staring him down. He stands on his hind legs, his arms coming up as if to intimidate me. Gizmo takes that moment to bite down on my arm, making me reflexively release him, and he takes off and joins Snitch in hiscome fight mestance.
