Boundary Born (Boundary Magic Book 3) - Melissa F. Olson Page 0,104
wanted it on Lysander’s neck, and squeeze the trigger with my left hand. Then I propped the shotgun against my body, pumped it again, and repeated.
On the third shot, Lysander’s spinal cord blew apart.
Only then did I let myself fall.
Lysander had a disposable phone on him, so I was able to call Lily. I knew Quinn’s number by heart too, but I didn’t have the guts to call him myself. Lily promised that she and Simon were on the way to help, and I eyed Lysander’s body and asked her to bring clothes, some baggies, and an ax. The last request clearly bewildered her, but she seemed too relieved to hear from me to ask questions. I asked her to get Quinn to send the Denver cleanup crew to the Botanic Gardens right away to begin covering our tracks. I had no idea how they were going to explain the dead guard, the withered plants, or the damaged buildings, but I didn’t actually give a shit. I was done.
As soon as I hung up the phone, I lowered myself onto the sloping dead grass and let my eyes drift shut.
An hour later, everyone had arrived. The Denver cleanup crew, a man and a woman I’d seen a couple of times before, immediately got to work on dismembering Lysander’s body. It sounded grisly, but dismemberment wouldn’t actually kill him—not that I would have been sorry if it did. While they chopped—looking alarmingly well-practiced—Simon got to work bagging up some of Lysander’s blood. Thanks to the tiles and a small Wet Vac he was able to collect quite a bit of it, and he also took some samples for his own experiments. I only watched him for a second, but he had a dopey grin on his face as he labeled sample bags. For Simon, I’d essentially declared an extra Christmas this year. Lysander was an actual conduit, and studying his samples would completely reenergize all the studies Simon had been doing for the last six months.
Quinn hadn’t come with them, but I hadn’t really expected him to. Someone had to stay with Maven’s body and keep it safe in case Lysander had other deputies.
And I’d pressed him not to worry about me.
Lily, on the other hand, came straight over to me, took one look at my wrist and my various bruises, and ordered me to go to the hospital immediately. Since I was covered in Lysander’s blood and there was nowhere we could quickly shower, she dragged me to a garden hose and helped me out of my clothes, casting looks around us to see if anyone else was watching. I didn’t give a damn, myself. Anyone who really wanted to see me naked could have at it.
It was a warm spring night, but I shivered a little in the night air as Lily picked up the spray nozzle. “Are you sure?” she asked nervously. “This water has to be pretty cold.”
“Just get it over with.”
When the icy water had sloughed off all the blood and I was dressed in a set of Lily’s yoga clothes, I went over to Simon, who crouched next to Lysander’s remains, scribbling notes in a small Moleskine. He looked up as I approached and, without a word between us, took off his canvas jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders. I smiled my thanks, and he volunteered to personally clean off my weapons and get them back to me. He was excited.
I stepped closer, hoping no one from the Denver team would overhear. “Si, I need you to take possession of every single one of those body parts,” I said in a low voice. “Get them to your skin beetles, okay?” He gave me a curious look, but I just shook my head, my expression suggesting we’d talk later. “If anyone challenges you, use Maven’s name,” I whispered. “I’ll take the heat.”
His expression grew serious, but he just nodded. “Are you going to be okay?” he called as I struggled back toward an impatient Lily.
“Eventually.”
Lily drove me to one of the biggest hospitals in Denver, where she told the hospital staff that I had been in a tractor accident on my farm. A car accident would have been more plausible, but in that case I would have arrived by ambulance, with the police in tow. A kind nurse did ask specifically about the bruises on my neck and around my eye, which were clearly older than the others. I explained that I had been mugged