Battle With Fire (Demon Days & Vampire Nights)

He frowned, and I knew that look—there was a puzzle to work out. In the past, I would have welcomed the weird. I would have sat back and waited for the jobs to roll in. Now, however, I knew what the bigger picture looked like. The war of the worlds. These strange occurrences might be related to that, but either way, a few rogue water sprites or whatever were the least of anyone’s problems.

“Okay, so after you ensnared it?” I asked Penny.

“I—”

I gagged Garret with my magic. His eyes bugged out.

“Yeah. I can do that now,” I told him. “Penny?”

“I left it floating there, spitting obscenities at me, as I turned the boat around.”

“Why didn’t you just kill it then?” I asked.

A vein throbbed in her locked jaw. She stared at me defiantly.

I hazarded a guess: “You felt bad?”

“I just wanted to make sure it was guilty,” she responded.

I tore the gag off Garret so he could finish the story, because I knew full well what was coming. “What happened next?” I asked him.

“This is usually my job…” the captain said with a twinkle in his eye.

“Sure, fine.” I waved him away. “Have at it.”

He went back to his clipboard. “Nah. I don’t have the ability to gag with air magic.”

Garret’s brow furrowed, and he glanced at the captain in outrage. I couldn’t help but laugh.

He turned back to finish. “Seeing as she trapped the creature but couldn’t kill it…”

Garret threw that smug smile Penny’s way again. I had unraveled her invisibility spell when I left the boat, so he’d definitely known that she had it handled and was just getting the boat turned around. He’d wanted the prize.

Penny sputtered in indignation. I patted her shoulder to keep her from blowing up his boat. I liked the captain—I didn’t want him to get caught in the crossfire.

Garret shrugged. “I naturally delivered the killing blow when the captain moved us within range and then hauled the beast up onto the boat. I did all the work, so I should—”

I lifted Garret with air and launched him over the side. He hit the water headfirst, his arms windmilling and his legs splayed. Hopefully he’d run into that merman from earlier.

“Captain, come on,” I said, tilting my head. “You know that she had it covered.”

“Honestly, I didn’t see you on the boat and wondered if maybe you’d fallen overboard and she was looking for you,” he replied. “By the time I knew what was what, Garret was hauling the creature onto our boat. I couldn’t chance letting it get away.”

“She fell overboard way back there!” Penny pointed behind her. “You must’ve seen that. Obviously I was leaving her to die.”

The captain stared at her in disbelief, and I left my hand on her shoulder, fighting chuckles and losing.

“Captain, come on,” I pleaded. “Penny closed in on the jengu, snared it, was about to do away with it, and Garret stole her prize. It’s hers. You know it’s hers.”

He shook his head slowly and took a deep breath, glancing over his shoulder to where Garret was sputtering in the water.

“She didn’t even retaliate.” I pointed at Garret. “I did. She is totally by the book on this one.”

The captain put up his hands helplessly. “It was a team kill, Reagan. My hands are tied. The kill goes to Garret, but Penny made it possible. Both of their names have to go in the books. They don’t get anything special for it anymore—no bonuses or anything. We no longer have the budget for it. I’m not sure why it matters so much.”

“It matters,” Penny and I said together.

“It matters because he sucks,” Penny added. She heaved out a sigh and turned toward the front of the boat. “Let’s go, Reagan. I’m sick of these people.”

“I thought she was the nice one,” the captain called as she started the motor.

I threw him a wide smile. “I’m rubbing off on her.”

“Poor thing,” he yelled.

I waved as Penny expertly turned the boat and headed back for shore. I’d wait until the drive back to New Orleans to tell her what I’d seen. And then direct her to the bar, because after a run-in with Garret, a stiff drink was absolutely necessary.

Maybe I’d finally convince her to take her aggression out by chasing around a couple of shifters. There was no telling what post-Underworld Penny would do. Especially once she was on the battlefield in front of a host of non-friendlies.

Roger had gathered all the shifters that he could, and all the fae, and sent a demand to the elf king and queen that they step down. Obviously they didn’t—who was he fooling? So now the whole outfit was resigned to doing as Charity’s visions said they’d need to—stand between the two forces, stop them from killing each other, and reach some sort of compromise.