* * *
IT WAS a little like having a bear in the living room.
The following morning, I ate toast and juice at the kitchen table, watching him, waiting for something to happen. In the painkiller fog, did he remember us bringing him here? How pissed off was he going to be when he woke up?
Ben emerged from the bedroom. “He still asleep?” he whispered.
“Yup,” I whispered back.
Ben joined me at the table, where we both sat staring at him.
“This is a territory thing,” I observed. I joked that Cormac was part of our pack, but he wasn’t wolf. He was sleeping in our den. He’d been to our place before, but he’d never slept over.
We watched him. He snored, faintly.
Ben said, “We really need to work on getting a house sooner rather than later.”
“A house with a guest room,” I said.
“Exactly.” Ben stood. “I’m going to make some coffee.”
“Think that’ll wake him up?”
“Dunno. I just need coffee.”
The smell hit the condo’s open living room as soon as the brew started dripping. Not much longer after that, Cormac squirmed and groaned. He tried to sit up, but his stiff muscles didn’t cooperate.
For a moment he lay still, blinked at the ceiling. Then he looked at his arm. “Fuck.”
“How you feel?” Ben asked.
“Stupid,” Cormac said. “Thirsty?” He sounded uncertain.
“Does it hurt? You want some of that medication?” I asked.
He thought about it. “Yeah, I’d better.”
Which surprised me. I expected him to tough it out, broken bone or no. Cormac-in-pain was an entirely new phenomenon. While I fetched a glass of water and the bottle of pills, Cormac managed to haul himself off the sofa and head to the bathroom. I didn’t bother offering to help; neither did Ben. He’d only snarl back. If he collapsed, then we could help. But he managed, somehow, and stumbled back to the sofa where he returned to horizontal and sighed.
I dragged a chair to the sofa to play nurse. Ben brought over another chair, his cup of coffee, and a second for me. With his good hand, Cormac popped the medication and took a drink from the glass I offered. We waited for him to say something; he scowled.
Finally, Ben said, “So. What happened?”
“I fell.”
I would have yelled, but Ben knew him better. “Oh no, that’s not going to cut it. What were you doing at the church?”
He adjusted his arm in the sling, grimacing at the awkwardness. “You know those magical protections? I wanted to see what it would take to set them off.”
“You poked the hornet’s nest,” I said flatly.
“Guess so.”
“And how did that work out for you?” Ben asked.
“Found the hornets,” he answered, grinning sleepily. “Any kind of offensive magic crosses the line, zap. The protections retaliate with some kind of fire-based magic. Anything else, mundane attack or passive magic, nothing. This tells us something.”
“That you shouldn’t poke hornet’s nests?” I said.