Page 15 of Concluded (The Bureau #13)

A pparently cars and mansions could instantly poof away. Maybe it had something to do with them being created by wishes; Dee didn’t know and was currently in no condition to find out. He needed to concentrate on the much more immediate mystery of how to get to safety.

Had he been alone, he would have jogged to the road, which wasn’t far away, and proceeded as fast as he could back to civilization. It might take him a day or so, but eventually he’d reach a place with some traffic and he’d wave someone down.

But he wasn’t alone. A naked, battered, and unconscious Bureau agent lay at his feet.

Dee wanted to tell himself that Spanos was not his responsibility, but he knew that was a lie.

The guy had been dragged into this mess because of Dee, and until a few minutes ago, Dee had done nothing to help him.

Had, in fact, aided Ashley in her torture.

Evidently Dee had at least the ghost of a conscience and a dusting of ethics, because he couldn’t bring himself to simply abandon Spanos.

That didn’t leave him with many options, however.

Even if the agent regained consciousness, he wouldn’t make it to the end of the driveway, let alone to a main road.

Dee could fetch help, but that might take a day or two, and in the interim Spanos would be defenseless.

Despite that nifty ninja move he’d made on Ashley, she could still be alive somewhere and might return.

Or her pals could show up instead. Those coyotes that Dee heard howling and yipping nearby might decide that Spanos made a tasty meal.

Or hell, the guy could simply die of hypothermia.

Dee shook Spanos, hoping to rouse him enough to make a wish, but got nothing. Not even a moan.

Well, fuck.

Finally, Dee did the only thing he could think of.

He smoothed a nearby patch of soil as best he could, dragged Spanos there, and lay down with him.

Lay down pressed tightly against him, in fact, protectively spooning the agent’s back, Dee’s shirt draped over their torsos.

When was the last time he’d held someone in his arms?

He honestly couldn’t remember, but it had been years.

There are so many stars , he thought. And then he fell asleep.

* * *

He slept poorly, which wasn’t much of a shock considering his bed was the bare desert ground and his arms were full of a naked, mostly unconscious man.

But his wish-giving efforts and recent events had exhausted him so much that he did get some sleep, which was nice.

Also, nobody nasty showed up and nothing came out of the darkness to eat them.

When he opened his crusty eyes shortly after daybreak, his companion was staring at him. “We have visitors,” Spanos said softly.

Dee startled and might have bolted, but Spanos held him with surprising strength.

“It’s okay. Just don’t make any sudden moves.”

Grumbling under his breath, Dee took a cautious look around. Four dogs surrounded them, their stances cautious and curious but not seemingly aggressive. No, wait. Those weren’t dogs. “Wolves?” His voice came out in an embarrassing squeak.

“Coyotes. Big ones. I think maybe….” Spanos cleared his throat before speaking loudly. “Um, hi. I’m with the Bureau of Trans-Species Affairs. We could really use some help right now. Please.”

“What the?—”

“Shh. Wait.”

While Dee watched, baffled, the coyotes exchanged a series of small yips.

Spanos unwound himself from Dee and worked his way into a seated position, an effort that clearly took effort and caused him pain.

Even sitting, he swayed slightly. Dee sat up as well and draped his dusty shirt over Spanos’s shoulders.

“Thanks.” Spanos flashed a ghost of a smile. “My record with shifters hasn’t been great lately, but the Bureau has good relations with the coyote clans.”

Before Dee could ask what the hell he was talking about, one of the coyotes stepped slightly apart from the others and howled, raising the hair on Dee’s nape. The other coyotes joined in. The sound was still echoing when the first coyote rippled, like a heat illusion on a sun-baked highway.

Then suddenly it wasn’t a coyote at all but instead a nude man on all fours, panting.

Dee was paralyzed with shock and fear—even his lungs stilled—until Spanos lightly touched his shoulder. “It’s fine. Chill.”

Although Dee wasn’t much reassured, he managed to take a gasping breath followed by a more normal one.

He watched as the man smoothly stood upright and looked at them, head cocked curiously.

He looked to be in his mid-twenties and a little shorter than average, with a lean, sinewy build.

His skin was light brown, and he had a mop of tawny head hair as well as healthy thickets on his chest, groin, and legs.

His amber eyes looked intelligent. “What are you doing here?” he finally asked in an entirely normal voice but with a slight twang.

“Long story,” Spanos replied. “I’m not in any shape right now, but I will share when I can. Please, I need to contact the Bureau. It’s urgent.”

“You’re hurt.”

“Nothing that rest, food, and water won’t cure.”

“Who’s he?” The strange man pointed at Dee.

“Civilian. He saved my life.”

Taken aback by that brief description, Dee blinked. He hadn’t thought of it that way, although upon reflection he supposed it was true. Spanos hadn’t mentioned that Dee’s rescue efforts had come rather belatedly.

The man glanced at the remaining coyotes and then nodded. “I’m Boone of the Gerard Pack. We signed a treaty with the Bureau. We’ll help.”

Spanos briefly closed his eyes as if in prayer. “Thank you,” he said when he’d opened them again. “There are some really nasty types after us. I don’t know if or when they’ll return.”

Dee had been so distracted by the coyotes, by whatever the hell was going on here, and by being called a hero that he’d almost forgotten about Ashley and her cohorts. He glanced around nervously, and although there was no sign of anyone else nearby, he couldn’t bring himself to relax.

Boone and the coyotes seemed fairly calm, however. At least as far as Dee could tell. “How can we help?” Boone asked.

“I need a phone.” Spanos answered immediately, as if he already had a plan in mind.

Maybe Bureau agents always had plans in mind, contingencies for whatever disasters they encountered on the job.

If so, Dee envied them. He rarely had a plan for anything, and even now was just standing there, useless.

Except maybe he wasn’t useless. “You could wish for a phone,” he said to Spanos.

After seeming to consider this for a moment, Spanos shook his head. “It’s best if you didn’t do your… thing right now. Might attract the wrong kind of attention.”

Although Dee wasn’t sure what that meant, he didn’t argue.

Anyway, he wasn’t sure how well his skill would work right now; he felt drained.

So he listened while Spanos and Boone quickly worked out a strategy.

Obviously, neither Boone nor his companions were carrying phones, and even if they were, cell service here was nonexistent.

The coyotes’ home was over the crest of a neighboring mountain, quite some distance away.

It was obvious that Spanos couldn’t walk that far, especially over such rough terrain.

It was decided, then, that the coyotes would head home.

It would take them a fair amount of time to get there, and in the meantime, Boone would take Spanos and Dee to a sheltered location nearby, where they’d wait for someone to fetch them with a vehicle.

Dee was a little hazy about who would be driving that vehicle but didn’t ask.

He’d find out eventually, if everything went as it was supposed to.

The coyotes barked a few times and then trotted away, leaving Dee with two nude companions. “How far to shelter?” he asked, looking doubtfully at Spanos, who seemed ready to collapse at any moment.

Boone shrugged. “About a mile.”

“I can’t carry?—”

“I’ll walk,” Spanos interrupted. “Let’s go.” He tried to stand, fell on his ass, and waved Dee away. When he tried again, he made it upright but swayed in place.

“Lean on me,” said Dee. This time, Spanos accepted the help, resting an arm across Dee’s shoulders.

Boone took the other side, and they began their slow, painful way up the slope.

They stopped after only about a hundred yards because Spanos’s bare feet had begun to bleed.

Dee’s shoes were too small for the agent, so he ended up providing his socks for protection.

By the time they reached a small canyon, Dee and Boone were bearing all of Spanos’s weight.

Dee wasn’t sure whether he was even conscious.

Atop the canyon were two small structures of stacked stone.

One of them was partially collapsed and the other mostly intact.

Boone took them to the latter one, where they ducked inside via a low doorway.

The interior was empty and there was no roof, but the ground was sandy and level. They carefully laid Spanos down.

“I’ll get supplies,” said Boone and was gone before Dee could question him.

That left Dee alone with Spanos, who had curled onto his side and looked like death warmed over.

Dee had to give the guy credit. Judging from the freshness of some of his scars, he hadn’t been in tip-top shape even before Ashley got her claws on him.

Then he’d faced torture, dehydration, and threats of a fate worse than death.

But at least as far as Dee could tell, he’d held himself together.

He’d calmly devised a plan when the coyotes showed up.

And when it became clear that he still had a miserable walk ahead of him and would have to wait even longer for real help, he hadn’t complained.

If Dee had been in his shoes—or lack thereof—he would have bitched nonstop.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” he asked. He waited a moment, and when Spanos didn’t answer, Dee cleared his throat. “You could wish?—”

“No.”

Dee didn’t blame him. Look where the fucking wishes had gotten both of them so far.

It was still chilly out, and now that they weren’t moving, Spanos had begun to shiver again. Well, at least Dee could address that without magic. “Do you want me to lie next to you?” he asked. “Body heat?”

“Yes.”

The ground in here was only marginally more comfortable than where they’d spent the night. But it felt oddly good to lie with Spanos’s back pressed to Dee’s front and Dee’s arms wrapped around him. The shivering faded away.

“You’re warm,” Spanos murmured.

“My normal body temp is slightly over a hundred degrees. Always has been. One of several metabolic quirks. I don’t often get medical care, but when I do, I always have to tell them about the weird shit—uh, not the wishes part—and they act like I’m nuts until they see for themselves.

Once when I was in jail, the doc was talking about studying me, and I really didn’t want that.

Luckily, I got released before he did anything. I’m no guinea pig.”

Dee wasn’t normally a babbler; he rarely had anyone to babble to, in any case.

But now, rambling felt like a good way to distract Spanos from his miseries and distract both of them from worries about Ashley and her pals.

Also, Dee very much needed to not notice that a man’s naked ass was nestled tight against his groin.

If there was a Hell and he wasn’t already bound for it, getting turned on by helping a person in distress was surely a ticket to eternal damnation.

Damnation . He snorted. He’d never known whether his name was his mother’s idea, his father’s, or a joint decision.

It had earned him scorn and jeers from teachers, classmates, and various authority figures, which wasn’t fair.

He hadn’t chosen it. He’d occasionally toyed with the idea of having it legally changed, but that would involve interacting with legal types and a court, neither of which he was eager to do.

He used to wonder whether his name had been intended as an omen, or a warning. Maybe it was a comment by his parents on being saddled with a kid; neither of them ever said so, but he’d always had the impression that he wasn’t wanted. Maybe his parents just thought the name sounded cool.

“Do you have family, Agent Spanos?”

Spanos gave a rattling laugh. “Might as well be Achilles at this point. And no.”

“Why not?”

“Attrition and disinterest.” Spanos—no, Achilles—didn’t explain what that meant, or whether the disinterest was his own or other people’s.

Dee decided to change the subject. “That guy, Boone… he’s not, um, human?”

“Coyote shifter.”

“Is that like a werewolf?”

That brought another weak chuckle. “That term’s considered rude. But yeah.”

Objectively, Dee shouldn’t be shocked to discover that creatures out of horror films truly existed—not after what he’d seen, and not considering what he could do himself. But it was still deeply weird. “It’s not a full moon, I don’t think.”

“That part’s bullshit. And you won’t turn into one if they bite you. That only works with vampires. Some kind of virus, I guess.”

“Vampires? ” Dee looked to the sky, as if Dracula might suddenly flap down through the open ceiling despite the sunshine.

“Gnomes. Dragons. Demons. Merpeople. Harpies. Sasquatches. And hundreds more, most of whom you’ve never heard of.”

“And your job is to kill them.”

“No,” Achilles said with more strength than Dee would have thought he could muster. “My job is to protect everyone from monsters—human and otherwise. I’m not doing too great at it right now, though.”

“Well… you’re not dead. And you didn’t give in to Ashley.” As pep talks went, it wasn’t great. But Dee had never given one before and it was the best he could do.

Achilles laughed again, coughed, and sighed. “I guess that’s something.” Then he went quiet, his breathing uneven. Dee wasn’t sure whether to continue talking or let the guy rest. Hell, he wasn’t sure of anything .

That wasn’t true. He was sure that freeing Achilles had been the right thing to do, even if it got both of them killed.

At least if he ever got a chance to face himself in a mirror again, Dee wouldn’t turn away.

He was weird at best and had more than his share of flaws, but he wasn’t the kind of person who would help torture someone else.

That was good to know.