Durance by Lyn Gala Page 0,33

asked.

“That’s the question,” Darren said. “If there was a shaman, I didn’t see him.”

“I didn’t either.” Kavon wished he had. Most guides had a limited ability to interact with this world without a human partner to act as an anchor. If Kavon could have identified the partner, he could work on severing the connection. That would be a more effective strategy than trying to confront the monster head-on.

“Maybe I didn’t see the shaman, but I sure saw the freaky durance,” Darren said. “At least that's what I assume it was. If that thing was a normal guide, it was clearly having species identification issues.”

“Meaning?” Les asked.

“A little bit of this animal, a little bit of that one, a skeletal face with bone-like armor, wings and a mammalian body. Then add bone plating and big-ass talons.”

Kavon couldn’t believe how casually Darren was handling the fact that Kavon had clearly walked them into a trap. “If it was on earth before the purge, there may be some mythology about it. I’ll call Salma and have her do some investigation.” He hated interrupting her work with the Djedi Center in California, but it couldn’t be helped.

“We could research the mythology,” Anita offered.

“I appreciate that,” Kavon said, “but Salma will probably know the guide immediately, and I couldn’t describe it accurately enough for you to search the Internet. So I appreciate your offer, but we’re fine. I’m sure you have more than enough work here.”

“You’re walking on the wrong side of danger,” Les warned in a sing-song voice.

“Oh, I think Supervisory Agent Boucher knows better than to tell me how to handle patients.” Anita gave them a cold smile.

“I would never question your medical judgment, and I will always be grateful for what you did out there on the street.” He paused as he tried to arrange a diplomatic phrase.

She turned toward Kavon. “But?” she prompted him.

“But a battle zone is dangerous for a civilian. I don’t want you to get hurt. You have no idea how much power these old guides can access.”

For a second, she stared at him. Finally she asked, “Do you know what I did before I took this job?”

Kavon looked at Darren, but he shrugged. He then winced and Kavon felt the echoing ache in his shoulders.

“I was an Army nurse,” Anita said. “I know what it means to shield my patients during a magical attack. Egypt likes to pretend it’s the center of Talent because they have the lore and history—however, you haven’t fought shamans until you’ve gone up against some of the warriors who live in the mountains around Afghanistan. I’m not an FBI agent, but don’t assume I would run into a battle zone unprepared to defend myself or my patient.”

Kavon felt a steady throb of power fill the room, and her chimp puffed up her upper lip and opened her mouth to show impressive lower canine teeth.

“Understood,” Kavon said as the energy took on an aggressive edge. “But realize that you’re putting yourself, Les, and Coretta in a difficult situation if you rush into the fight. If someone found out that you had put a tracking spell on a federal agent, that would raise red flags.” Kavon held up a hand to stop her from interrupting. “And if Agent Gillette’s girlfriend shows up on our scene, someone is going to start asking questions. Dangerous ones.”

“I don’t like it, but I do understand,” Anita said. “However, if I have to choose between saving a life and protecting my position or Les’s, I will focus on my patients, which is the only reason Darren is alive. A mundane or even a low-level shaman would have died out there because the magic was scraped off his soul.”

Cold fear washed over Kavon.

Before he could recover, Anita headed for the door. “Les, come on. They need time to recover.”

Les hesitated, his gaze going from Darren to Anita several times. “But I haven’t gotten the full statement about what happened out there.”

“And you're not going to.” Anita caught his arm and tugged at him.

Les allowed her to pull him toward the door, but he complained the whole way. “If I don't get a statement, Coretta is going to kill me.”

“If you stay to get one, I'm going to kill you,” Anita said. “So decide which of us you are more concerned about.”

Kavon was starting to warm to her.

“That’s a closer call than you probably want to know,” Les said. “But since you’re standing here and she's not, so I'm going to