I sat back and thought about that for a bit. What did he expect me to do with it?
I pushed out of the chair and retrieved the flash drives marked for Terric and Zayvion. Terric’s contained one file, filled with pictures, a lot like mine, and several reviews of the art that I guess Terric had once displayed at a gallery. The second file contained some information about some of the greatest Life magic users in the history of the Authority, and an exhaustive history on Soul Complements.
Zay’s file was filled with photos, a few that contained a man and woman that might have been his parents. He’d been fostered out pretty young, and as far as I knew, he’d never looked for his birth parents. I’d honestly assumed they were dead, and realistically, they might be.
The other file looked like Victor’s diary from the day he joined the Authority. Read like a history book of who’s who and what was what.
Neither of them had received a hit list. That he’d given only to me.
Because he knew I would do something about it.
A knock on the door made me jump.
“Mr. Flynn?” the night clerk said. “Call for you. A Mr. Conley.”
“I’ll be right down.” I pocketed the flash drives and turned off my laptop. Pulled on a T-shirt and boots and walked down to the office.
I picked up the phone. “Are you all right?” I asked.
“You said you wanted to be here.” Terric sounded tight, but calm. “I’m at my house. Jeremy’s on the way.”
“You invited him over?”
“No. But he’s coming anyway.”
I scrubbed my fingertips across my scalp, my new Void stone rings warming as they dampened the magic surging through me.
“Shame? You don’t—”
“I’ll be there.”
I walked out into the cold without my coat, without a weapon. But when I pulled up to Terric’s place, I dug through my glove box, then checked under the seat. Found my knife, flicked it open, then walked up to Terric’s door.
Tried the latch. It was open. Walked in.
Heard voices in the living room.
Terric stood by the fireplace, his arms crossed over his chest. Jeremy paced opposite Terric, which put his back to me.
Terric didn’t look up as I walked in. He didn’t have to. He’d know if I were within a mile of him now.
“...it him?” Jeremy was saying. “Whatever he’s been saying, it’s a lie.”
“This has nothing to do with Shame,” Terric said calmly. “This has everything to do with you and me, Jeremy. With how you’ve been using me.”
“Bullshit.”
I flipped the knife up into my fingers. Terric’s eyes flicked over to me, along with a very clear “no stabbing” look.
“Do you want to get your stuff now, or do you want me to mail it to you?” Terric asked.
“Damn it, Terric. Why? We have something. I thought it was important to you. I thought I was important to you.”
“You lied to me, Jeremy. You’ve always lied to me.”
“You just want me out of the way so you can fuck that shithead Flynn.” He had stopped pacing the edge of the room and was advancing on Terric.
Terric’s shoulders tightened and his eyes narrowed. “You and I are over. Leave.”
“Like hell I’m leaving. You need me.”
“No,” Terric said.
“He told you to go,” I said. “I’d suggest you listen to him.”
Jeremy stopped as if an icy wind had suddenly frozen him in his tracks. He turned to glare at me. “You called him?” he accused Terric. “You called this waste of breath to save you?”
“I don’t need saving,” Terric said. Then, a little quieter, “Not from you.”
“Fuck you, Flynn. I know you did this. What did you tell him? What lies did you tell him about me?”
He crossed the room in five hard strides, and I waited, shaking my head. “You really should have left.”
“Shame,” Terric warned.
“I should have killed you!” Jeremy swung for my face. Stupid move. I ducked that and buried the knife up to the hilt between a couple ribs, then yanked it out and stepped out of his reach.
He staggered back, but had enough anger, and whatever other substance in him, that one wound wasn’t going to shut him down.
I’d gotten what I wanted, though: his blood.
He stuck his hand in his pocket, reaching for a gun.
“Stop!” Terric ordered, and a concussion of magic wreaked havoc on the air pressure and my eardrums.
Jeremy was motionless, tightly frozen from knee to neck in the paralyzing Hold spell Terric had cast. “This is out of control,” he said. “Crazy. Both of you. I won’t stand here and watch you kill each other.”
“I didn’t come here to kill him,” I said. “I can do that anywhere, anytime I want. And when I do”—I looked Jeremy in the eye and smiled—“I will make sure there are no witnesses.”
“Shame, you are not helping.”
I dragged my fingers across the blade, catching up Jeremy’s blood, which he was still leaking quite quickly. Before Terric could start arguing with me, I nicked my finger. With his blood and my blood combined, I drew a Truth spell.
The strong scent of cherries filled the room, the unmistakable mark of Blood magic being used.
Jeremy’s eyes widened as the Truth spell spun out from our joined blood, locking us into the binding of Truth, shaped by my hand and will.
“Do you love Terric?” I asked.
“Shit.” Terric exhaled.
Jeremy was sweating. Thing is, a Truth spell is as strong as the user’s will, and I was a very determined man.
“No,” he snarled through gritted teeth.
“Do you care for Terric?”
“No.”
“Were you planning on using him and his magic for customized drugs for the Black Crane?”
He was shaking now, his face gone purple-red. “Yes.”
“Did you ever care for him?”
“Enough,” Terric said. “Shame, break it. It’s enough.”
I broke the Truth spell. It fell around his feet like loose ropes that soaked into the carpet and were gone.
“You piece of shit,” Jeremy said.
“I’m done,” Terric said. “Done with this. If you don’t walk out that door right now, Jeremy, I’ll call the police and have you forcibly removed.”
“Police?” I said. “We don’t need the police for him.”
“Yes,” Terric said, “we do. It is too late at night to be dragging a corpse out back and burying it. Which,” he said as he finally moved away from the fireplace and walked over to stand next to me, “is what will happen if you stay.”
“You think he’s going to kill me?” Jeremy said.
“He wouldn’t have to,” Terric said.
Jeremy finally seemed to hear him. He switched tactics. “Come on, Terric,” he said, pouring on the nice and sweet. “I lost my temper. You know how I get sometimes. I just love you so much I go crazy. If you fix my side, I wouldn’t be hurting so bad. You and I could talk this out. Privately.”
“Good-bye, Jeremy.”
Jeremy looked at Terric, then turned his gaze to me. He was a little pale from blood loss, but he must have finally realized he had lost this battle.
“You know what, Conley?” he said. “You were a lousy lay.”
Then he turned and walked out of the house, his hand clamped tight over the knife wound. Even managed to slam the door behind him.
We stood there for a minute, me staring at the door, Terric looking at the new bloodstains on the carpet.
“What a mess,” he whispered.
“Want me to follow him?” I offered. “Make sure he gets to the ER or something?”
“No. Just. Would you stay? For a while?”
I finally looked over at him. It was like someone had smothered the fire in him. He looked exhausted, pale, and when he spoke, his voice was too soft.
“Just an hour?” he asked.