I grab Tom as Alice pulls out her gun. We’re on the floor with a telekinetic field for protection, but something’s wrong with it; there’s interference from the ward. She fires five times, directly at me. The bullets make it through my field, but they are deflected enough only one hits me in the arm. “I’m going to kill you!” she screams as she reloads. “If you couldn’t tell,” I say through the pain, “thing screwed up.” “On our way is the response.” I throw a telekinetic wave at Alice and Tillsley, but they only stagger back. I consider breaking Tillsley’s magic, but I have no idea if Alice would be caught in it. Hemingway was alone when I broke his. Was it a targeted beam? Or an area and he was the only one in it? And badly would the ward interfere with it? Tom fires and the priest staggers bad. “No killing!” “Does he look dead to you? We need to get out.” “Eyes,” I yell as Alice raises her gun. Tom looks away and I let out a sunburst. Alice curses and I rush her. Maybe if I put my hand on her, I can bypass the ward and free her. Tillsley gets in my way, eyes closed. Before I can react, he caught my arm and sent me in the air. The fucker’s stronger than he looks. I crash against the wall. Tom is on a knee, emptying a clip at the two of them. Tillsley shields Alice with his body. When Tom reloads, the priest shoulders the wall and breaks through. I’m on my feet and after them, Tom cursing behind me. Alice fires at me before I reach the hole. I throw myself to the side, feel a graze on my leg, bit back a scream as I land on my bad arm. The world goes almost black, but Tom pulls me up. “I do know I can have Fred lock you in your condo, right?” I shook the blackness away. “I need to get to Alice, free her.” “Maybe you can do that and not give her such clear shots at you? You can help her if you let her kill you.” Gunfire erupted on the floor below. I accessed Frank’s power and felt better. “We can’t let her escape,” I said, starting after her. “Hey smart guy. How about we use the hall instead of the hole?” Tom headed for the door. The rottweiler was nowhere to be found. “Don’t make me come and get you,” he added as I took another step for the hole. “Stephan,” I asked as I reluctantly joined Tom. “Anything?” “I pulled him off the comm,” Okhmhaka said. “He freaked out when the gunfire started. As far as I can tell, he can precog you right now.” “Okay.” “Dent?” a new voice came. “Who’s this?” “Oscar, Martin called me half an hour ago. It took me this long to get out from under my dad’s eyes and grab your link. You’re fuzzy, but tell me want you need and I’ll do my best.” “Alice is in here. Remember her?” “Rabbit, cop, your ex-partner.” “Hare,” I corrected. “She’s with a priest, a groundhog. They are the targets.” Tom pushed me against the wall as gunfire erupted. I reflexively threw a telekinetic field up and bullets hit the wall around us. Screams came from the shooters. One flew by us, flaying wildly. Chimbo was punching another while the ermine had the last on the floor, arms in his back, cuffing him. Tom pulled me along. “Oscar, I missed what you said, things got busy.” “I’m not seeing either a hare or groundhog, but there are many holes in my sight. On top of the ward they have up, some of them are shielded from remote sight.” “Okay, if you see anything let me know.” “I’m following a hare and groundhog toward—” the voice cut off with an exhale of breath. “Anyone saw that happen?” My only response was the sound of fighting. “This is a bust,” Tom said. “I’m taking the cheetah out. I need anyone able to provide cover.” “Tom we have to—” “My job is to keep you alive. So stop arguing. We’ll find her again.” “Let go of me.” “And watch you Chimbo yourself away?” He grinned, “You want to run, you’re going to have to rip my arm off.” I glared at him and accessed Colby’s strength. I grabbed his hand and slowly pulled the fingers off me. He raised his gun and fired three-time at targets behind me. The last shot close enough to my head I felt my eardrum burst, and I lost my concentration, and with that my hold on the strength. “Do you really want to have this argument here?” he asked, “in my playground? Or do you prefer fucking the error or my ways out of me once we are safe?” I heard his yelling only in my left ear. “I am so done fucking you, Marrows.” “Sure you are. What I need to know is if you’re done making my job any more difficult.” I ground my teeth and accessed Frank’s power again. Tom would shoot me in the stomach and carry me, knowing I’d survive it. “Fine. You are so fired after this.” “Right,” he didn’t let go of my arm as he headed for the stairs. “because you think that’s going to keep me from protecting you, all that’ll do is remove any restriction on how I go about it.” He glanced down the stairs and grinned at me. “Just accept it, you’re stuck with me.” The ground floor was mainly Gray Church people in restraints. Tom led me outside, and only once we were by one of the support cars did he let go of me. I turn to scream at him as the garage door exploded and a back car erupted out of it. Alice raised her gun out the passenger window and aimed at me, but the bouncing threw her aim and the window next to me spider-webbed. “I just got a flash of her,” Oscar yelled. “She’s in a black car speeding away from the house.” “Can you follow her?” I asked as I turned to this car. Tom was already getting into the driver’s side. “I already lost them. I’m not sure what caused the glimpse.” I got in the car and Tom sped off. “Can the ward around the house have interfered with their personal ones?” “Ask Fred,” Oscar replied. “Can see the car, if you can stay close to it, I can guide you.” “If I’m close enough you see it,” Tom said, “I see it too. I don’t need a navigation system.” “Tom, he’s trying to help.” “Does he have a way of tracking anyone back there? Where people are injured and it might help the incoming teams to know what’s going to be needed?” I sighed. “Tone aside, Tom makes a good point. Call Jeroen with an update on the situation. Someone’s bound to find the ward’s origin point and destroy it.” “I will,” Oscar replied stiffly. I muted my earpiece and lowered the volume. “Mute yours, we need to have a talk.” “I’m busy.” “You have Adam’s gift?” “Of course.” “Then you can drive and listen to what I have to tell you.” He did a turn that slammed me against the door and I buckled up. “Look,” Tom says, “I don’t care what you say, your safety is—” “Shut up Marrows.” He did, executing maneuvering to keep the black car in sight. I tried not to be impressed by his driving and stoke my anger. “You had no fucking right talking to Oscar that way.” “He was wasting time and you know it.” “I don’t fucking care. He isn’t a soldier or another killer who can take being screamed at. He’s a friend, and he was trying to help. I don’t know what’s going on with you, but since you came back from San Francisco, it’s like you’re looking for ways to piss people off.” Tom snorted. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He wedged the car between two others and the made the left to followed our quarry. “You damn well knows the gift the Orrs grant come with side effects.” “You seem to have them under control. I haven’t heard you go motormouth like Kevin.” “I’m over fifty, and for most of my life I’ve been involved in crime. I wouldn’t be alive today if I hadn’t learned to control my impulses. It helps deal with what the Orrs added.” He slammed the breaks on, fishtailed and sped up again. I looked around for where the car had gone to. “Maybe you never noticed that before, but I deal with my impulses by redirecting them. Sex, fighting, moderately risky behaviors. Anything that gets the stuff out of my system. Then I can be calm and composed when I need to be.” “How you acted with Oscar—” “I’m fucking adjusting, okay Brislow? Not only am I back to the horny guy I was before we first met, but I have to deal with a predilection for punching people who annoy me, and a desire to scream at the same people. The running at the mouth was easy to deal with, it gets you killed fast in the circles I used to run in. On top of everything else, I can’t go to my usual hookups in law enforcement since I now look like the kid of the guy they used to bang.” “I hadn’t realized it was tough on you.” “I’m not the sharing kind, so don’t feel too bad. When this is over I’ll apologize to your friend and let him do whatever he wants to me. But you need to give me some leeway while I figure out how best to deal.” “I can’t have you disrupt the company Tom.” He made a hard right and the black car was in front of us again. How the fuck had he kept track of it. He was quiet for two minutes and four turns as the black car tried to lose us. He grinned at me. “Tell you what, you fuck me hard any time I need it and I should be able to keep the rest under control.” I glared at him. “That sound a lot like a protection racket. Pay me or I’ll have to cause disruption.” “It is, but it help you too. You need the sex as much as I want it.” “The problem is that I have a company to run and a son to raise. You’d have me fucking you twenty-four-seven.” “Half the time then?” “Let’s just get those two and figure rest after, okay?” “That works.” The next three turns happened too fast for me to talk. “Who else fucked you? I figure Alex at the very least.” Tom shook his head. “I showed him what I could do, and he said he wasn’t making me anymore deadlier than I already was. Arthur did something, said I didn’t have to worry about my health. Anakin, obviously. Oh, when it come to angry sex, you’re going to have to up your game, Arnold is on another level entirely.” “I can imagine,” I said with a chuckle. “I thought about getting the whole set to do me, but signing didn’t seem worthwhile, or an eye for art.” “Georges said it’s a lot easier for him to tell real from fake now.” “Forgery isn’t a thing I do, so still no point. Might have them fuck me later, just to say I’ve done all the Orrs.” “They have two uncles.” Tom grinned. “Even better.” The black car turned into a building, and Tom gunned it, driving to the back; there was no exit. Back in front he parked so we could see the black car’s rear lights. “I’m thinking they’re in there.” “Let me check.” I stepped out of my body halfway through his protest. I saw no magic, and no one, marked or otherwise. I returned to my body. Tom rolled his eyes at me. “So? Did you see them? Through their personal wards?” Fuck. “No, I didn’t.” “Let’s call the location in and get back up here.” “No time.” I got out of the car. “Brislow.” “There’s no magic going in there right now, but there’s no telling how long that’s going to last. It’s only the two of them against both of us. What do you think they can do?” “Oh, spring a trap comes to mind. The hare wants you dead.” “I have access to nineteen powers, I can deal with anything she throws at me.” Tom sighed. “Famous last words if I’ve ever heard them.”