Page 38 of Deadly Reckoning (Broken Ashes #7)

Neith

“I ’m going to come in with the body,” Doc says. “He was being controlled by something, that much was obvious in his behavior. I’d like to see if I can find out whether that was a spell or a substance.”

Greg nods, “Sounds good to me.”

Once he’s gone over to the body, Doc turns to look at the rest of us, “Let's head back to the van.”

I get the feeling that his suggestion is because he wants to talk to us about something and not just because he wants to get rid of us.

We all follow him out of the alleyway, saying goodbye to the agents as we go, and then walk down the road to where he has hidden the van so we can disappear without anyone seeing what Doc can do.

When we arrive, River turns to Doc, shifting from side to side restlessly, and he asks curiously, “Alright, what are you thinking?”

“Kar said that he saw Dimitri get shot with something that had an instantaneous effect on him. If I can work out what that is, or even just get a sample of it from the supernaturals blood, then Ransom might be able to do his thing with it,” Doc immediately explains.

Ransom nods, “If it's stable and I have enough of a sample, there is a chance that I could reverse engineer it. We would then know what exactly it is, possibly its origins, since I imagine that at least one of the ingredients is hard to come by, which could help us locate Casimir. I might even be able to create a counter potion to it, which could reverse its effects.”

The guys all nod, while I just stand there and stare at him. That’s insanely fucking clever.

Doc hums in agreement, “I was thinking as well that by studying the effects on the body I should be able to see what the victim experienced and how complete the control was, which would also give us an idea of how completely Dimitri is being controlled.”

“If Dimitri was given the same thing that this supernatural was,” Coen points out. “Dimitri is strong, there is a very good chance that whatever this supernatural was given wasn’t the same as what Dimitri was.”

“That’s a very good point,” Raiden replies. “But it is a starting point.”

“I mean, it’s not like Dimitri is going to give us his blood to study so we can see the effects,” Griff points out.

“I bet he’d give it to Neith, to prove that he has been controlled,” Coen says.

He looks at me, “I know he showed you his memories, but he knows you well enough to know that you would still question it. He would want to give you as much proof as he possibly can to prove that he has been under Casimir’s control. ”

I frown, “I highly doubt that he would give me his blood. But even if he did, his blood can’t get into the hands of anyone else. It can’t go to a lab, or anything like that.”

“It wouldn’t need to,” Ransom says. “I’ve got all the stuff I need at home.”

Evander looks at me, “You could ask. It would help us understand how he’s being controlled and possibly help to create an antidote for it.”

I frown, “I guess I can ask. But the likelihood of him giving it to me is extremely slim.”

Doc nods, “That’s understandable.”

“Ty said he couldn’t let us all in because of protocol. I think on the off chance that Dimitri does decide to give you some of his blood to test, Doc should be the one who goes in with you so that he can take Dimitri’s blood,” Evander suggests.

I nod, “I’m okay with that.”

“Me too,” Doc says. “I'd better get going. I now want to have a sample to compare Dimitri’s blood to if he gives it to us.”

“Good idea,” Reed says.

Climbing into the van, the guys all look at me expectantly as I feel Doc’s magic grow.

“We’re home,” I grin.

“It’s impressive how you can do that,” Coen says as we all climb out of the van and head back to the house.

“It’s later than I thought,” Griff mutters.

“Yeah, and we’ve got to get up early tomorrow,” Raiden agrees. “I’ll get dinner started.”

“Sounds good. I’m going to see if these ingredients work to stabilize the two who refuse to get on in the ward spell,” Ransom says.

“Don’t miss dinner,” I order with a raised eyebrow.

The guys chuckle, and Ransom nods, moving to kiss me gently.

“I promise that I will come down for dinner,” he says. He adds with a smile, “Besides, you said I’m in your bed tonight, I’m not missing that.”

“Deal,” I agree.

He wastes absolutely no time at all in jogging off through the house and to his workroom, making me smile.

It’s not until he’s gone that I realize that the deal was that he wouldn’t work now and would instead chill out for the rest of the day.

I grin. I’m going to leave him to do his thing for now, but I’m definitely going to hold him to it if he doesn’t come down for dinner.

He’s going to make himself ill if he isn’t careful and doesn’t take the time to rest.

“Do you think Doc’s going to be okay?” I ask.

“Yeah, he’s doing what he loves,” Van says with a smile as we move further into the house.

“Van’s right, he hasn’t gotten the chance to do anything like this for a while, he’s literally in his element,” Reed agrees with a smile.

The conversation continues, and we all end up helping Raiden cook dinner when it turns out that he actually had no idea what he was doing. After the second almost fire, we all decided that we were done leaving him to it.

“Well, it smells good,” Ransom says as he walks into the kitchen. He frowns slightly as he sniffs again, “although there is a slight tinge of fire?”

I grin.

“That would be Raiden’s fault,” River smirks.

“It turns out he had no idea what he was doing,” Coen adds with a wince.

Out of all of us, he was the one who struggled the most just standing and watching Raiden, and it’s actually pretty much only his influence that has made this meal taste good.

I don’t think the rest of us really contributed much at all. As soon as Coen was given the go-ahead to take over, that was it.

It was sexy as hell to watch him cook actually, surprisingly so.

Once we’ve all eaten some and complimented Coen, who brushes off our compliments, I look at Ransom.

“How did it go?” I ask him.

All the other conversations around the table stop as they wait for Ransom to answer.

Ransom frowns, “Not great. It wasn’t the immediate fix that I thought it would be. I think because I’m trying to protect so many extremely strong supernaturals.”

“So it’s not going to work?” Griff asks.

Ransom shakes his head, “I don’t know if I’m being honest. I might just need to tweak a couple of things, and then it could work, or I could be completely wrong. I might have to start this whole thing over again.”

“That would take a while, wouldn’t it?” River asks.

He nods, “Yeah, but if the current composition doesn’t work, then there isn’t much that I can really do about it. It’s annoying because I know that this is the strongest way, if only it would work.”

“You’ll figure it out,” Coen says. “You’re a literal genius when it comes to this shit. Plus, you’ve got the blood that Doc is getting from the supernatural tonight, and possibly from Dimitri, to analyze soon. Maybe mixing it up and focusing on a different kind of challenge will help.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Ransom agrees. “I take it Sully didn’t message about Murray?”

I shake my head, “No, he hasn’t. I’m assuming that it’s because she’s proving to be harder to find than he initially thought, which probably isn’t a good thing.”

“No, probably not,” Reed agrees with me.

After that, conversation turns to other subjects, although I can tell that the frustration of the ingredients not working how they should is really getting to Ransom, and I fall asleep, with my head on his chest, Reed’s legs wrapped up in mine and his arm wrapped around my waist from behind, trying to think of a way to help, which honestly while it is a nice distraction from having to think about going to meet Dimitri tomorrow, it gives me really strange dreams.

∞∞∞

“Are you sure about this?” Griff asks, worry clouding his expression.

I smile and squeeze his hand, “It’s a bit late now, we’re parked outside.” I look around the van full of guys, “You didn’t all have to come, you know that only Doc and I can go in the building.”

“We know,” Reed says, “but like hell are we going to let you do this alone.”

“We’re here for you, if you need us,” River says sincerely. His eyes flash to his kitsunes as he adds, “I don’t care what kind of supernatural he is, if he hurts you in any fucking way, I’ll rip out his throat.”

“I’ll help,” Coen adds.

It doesn’t surprise me. He may have a loyalty to Dimitri, but he holds more loyalty to me.

I fucking love it.

“Thank you,” I say.

“You should know, just in case it goes in a way that we don’t expect, you won’t be able to call on Asael and Betty while you’re inside the prison,” Raiden warns me.

“I’m not expecting it to go badly, but I do know that Betty, in particular, is your emotional support gun, so I wanted you to know that you won’t be able to call on them, so you don’t panic if you try and you can’t. ”

I nod, “Thank you. That was a smart call. I was most likely going to call on Betty at some point, and I would have definitely panicked if I couldn’t.”

“It’s going to be okay,” River says firmly, leaving no room for argument.

“Does anyone want to play eye spy? What about tic-tac-toe? Anyone got any paper? I know, let's have a deep and meaningful discussion about where our relationship is going,” I ramble.

The guys smile at my nervous rambling.

“Neith, our relationship is going wherever the fuck you want it to. We’re in it for the long haul, and that means forever and everything that may entail,” Raiden says in a somewhat matter-of-fact kind of way before adding, “Now stop stalling. You’ve got this.”

My mouth drops open, and I must look like a gaping fish. I have no idea what just happened, but he’s shocked me silent. The guys all nodding in agreement with his words didn’t help either.

They all chuckle as Doc grabs my hand and pulls me gently from the car.