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I raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t aware we distinguished for incarcerative purposes.”
“That’s not a word, Hart,” Doc rumbled.
“It fucking is now,” I retorted.
Raj shrugged. “It’s hard to keep magic wielders in conventional prisons,” he replied.
“So wheredoyou send them?”
Raj’s lips twitched. “I’m not supposed to tell you that,” he replied.
“I’m not going to drop this,” I told him. “You know that.”
He nodded. “I wouldn’t expect anything else from you, Hart.” Then he turned to Ward. “Edward, this was… I could not have asked for better,” he said, changing his mind mid-sentence. “I can’t explain how impressive your abilities are.”
Ward nodded, his expression a little skeptical. Probably because he thought Raj was going to ask him to do something else, which I could tell he totally was.
“Would the FBI be able to call on you again?”
Ward raised both eyebrows. “Would the FBI be able to pay me again?” he asked.
Apparently the FBI were paying him for this appointment. Good.
Raj smiled back, the expression friendly. “Naturally.”
“Than you know how to book me,” Ward replied easily.
Raj stood up and leaned over to shake his hand. “And I will.”
10
Taaviand I were headed out the door of the precinct the next day—on time for once in my goddamn life—when a voice stopped me.
“Detective Hart!”
I frowned, but turned to see Mays jogging down the sidewalk towards us. Taavi sat down at my feet, watching him approach.
“Mays, what can I do for you?” I tried to sound friendly, but I was also a little annoyed. I wanted to go home, make dinner, and bake some fucking cookies because I actually had the time to do so. Except now I mightnothave the ability to do that, and it wasn’t bringing out my sunshine side.
“Um.” Mays looked down at Taavi, then back at me, then held out a folder. “The tox screen came back.” I took it from him, wondering why he looked so nervous. I was about to flip it open to see the results when he spoke again. “Detective. Um.” He seemed to come to some sort of decision. “You—you know what he really is, so, um, why lie about it?”
Shit.I sighed. I’d been hoping to avoid this kind of a confrontation. “You ran DNA,” I guessed, resigned.
“Um. No. I just…” He shifted back and forth on his feet, running a big hand over his messy blond hair. “My twin caught Arcana when we were little. So I know how to spot the differences between shifters and normal animals.” He shrugged. “Anubis just… doesn’t quite act like a dog, is all, and you… Well, you’re an elf, so you kinda have to know.”
I nodded, then sighed again. I might as well make the best of it and try to convince Mays not to tell anyone else. “Let’s take a walk, Mays.” I didn’t want to have this conversation this close to the precinct. I might like and trust Mays, but most of the rest of my coworkers I considered just one step this side of enemies—and the remainder were firmly on the wrong side.
Taavi hobbled between us, looking back and forth as though uncertain about something. Probably about whether or not Mays or I was about to create a problem.
“I almost told you back at the crime scene,” I admitted when we’d gotten a few blocks away, “but Doc stopped me.”
“Why?” Mays asked, and I could have sworn he sounded hurt.
“Probably because if I said it out loud, it could get out in general, then everyone would know, not just you,” I replied. I trusted Mays—but Doc didn’t know him like I did. Not even I was tactless enough to say that out loud, though. “And I think he was probably right. Someone is hunting our little friend here, and it seems like the fewer people who know what he is, the safer he’ll be. That, and he’s stuck.”
“Stuck?” Mays asked.
“That fucking beta blocker? I think that’s what’s keeping him from shifting back.” I waved the file in Mays’s direction. “So I’m hoping this will help us figure that out.”
