Page 40 of Transfiguration
Con sighed at his lover’s comment, hoping Bella didn’t understand. He lovedTian Guan Ci Fu, and the beginning was fairly low in anything but angst as they added little actual blood and gore to the anime. People died, but they died in Charlotte’s Web too. Maybe his kid gauge was broken.
“Let Bella decide.”
Luca turned on the scanner and added the first stack. There was no walking away from the machine, as he’d have to put stuff back in each folder before adding the next to keep it all in order. But the TV was ten feet away, and they had a great sound system. Con picked up one of his earpieces, adding it to his right side, which was closest to the TV. He could listen through the documents while he worked, pausing and highlighting things as he went.
It always sucked to read through thousands of pages of boring intel. He often went through it while working on a project. Busy hands cleared his mind. He got to work, listening, cutting, stitching, while Luca and Bella settled in to watchTian Guan Ci Fu. Con only glanced at it a few times while working. Luca pulled up a chair beside the scanner, feeding everything through in only two episodes. And Con finished his cutting, fusing, and stitched, his brain focusing on all the data he was hearing. If all went well, Bella would have her new backpack to use tomorrow for whatever adventure may come. Would she be in school already? He didn’t know where to start with that.
He sent Kelly a message, but it was after midnight. Con glanced over; Bella was asleep on the couch. He put his stuff aside. He’d finished the bag. The jacket wasn’t done, but he could work on it tomorrow. The days were warm enough that she wouldn’t need it all the time.
Con picked up a blanket from the back of the couch and gently tapped Bella’s hand to wake her. The last thing he wanted was that freaky ass spider of hers jumping out at him, trying to protect her from him putting her to bed. She roused, looking sleepily at him. He held out the blanket. “Bedtime?”
She didn’t let him carry her. She wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and tromped to her room. Con set the new backpack on the floor beside the bed. “It’s pretty,” she said as she curled up under the blankets.
“It has some wards and stuff inside. It can help keep you safe.”
“Magic?”
“Yes. And some strong material.”
“Thank you.”
Con smiled. “Sleep. It’s super late. I don’t know what time kids are supposed to be in bed. Probably hours ago. I already suck at this.”
She yawned and rolled over. He left, shutting her door to give her the dark and quiet. He cleaned up his desk and stacked all the folders of stuff up to transport back in the morning. When he ran tomorrow, he would go through them. That would give him more time to sort through the files for any last usable nuggets of information.
He remembered the picture of the symbol on his burner phone and turned it on to send to Sam. When he dug through his pictures, they were all there except that one. Strange. He pulled up his wall board display, knowing he’d added the picture to it earlier, but it wasn’t there either. Had he accidentally deleted it? And why would it be gone from his burner? He frowned.
Did you delete anything from my phone? The burner phone? He sent to Sam, not expecting an answer. He clicked the TV off streaming and to a news channel, but nothing about Sam appeared. Maybe they’d missed it.
S:No. Why would I? What are you missing?
C:A symbol I found at the site where Bella was. I wanted to research it as I’d never seen it before.
S:Maybe you can draw it for me? Was it complicated?
Con thought about that for a minute. He wasn’t the artist Seiran was, his limit was textile pieces like the jackets and bags he could do, but he did okay with runes. He could probably sort of recreate the image.
Just a minute.
He did a rough sketch of the image, trying to best show the bone and fire idea of it. Then sent a picture with his phone. Of course, the picture hung up, taking more time than it usually did.
C:Sending, but I think the wards are making it slow?
S:Sounds good. I’ll see it when it comes through. Bella in bed?
Con smiled at the phone. Was it stupid to always feel elated by even the simplest of texts? His guys never failed to let him know where they were and that he was on their mind. He did his best to do the same and only struggled when he was retrieving.
C:She is. I’m going through an information drop.
S:Sounds super exciting.
Con could read the sarcasm in the words. Sam hated information drops. He was more of a missile. Aim him at a problem and he took care of it. It was why he was in enforcement. Most vampires were enforcement for that reason. The revenant inside needed a touch of violence, more the younger they were, and Sam was very young in vampire terms.
S:This should improve your night. You’re welcome.The text came with a link to an app. Con frowned and clicked it. Not something he would have done if it came from anyone other than Sam, but it opened to a screen with buttons. What was it? He touched the button, turning it like a dial with his fingertip.
“Holy fuck,” Luca said. He arched half out of his chair. “Warn a guy before you send his prostate to hyper vibration land.”
Con gaped and looked back toward Bella’s door. He hadn’t thought they really did it, but it appeared as though Sam had plugged Luca. Had he been playing with it all night? While Luca sat there next to the data scanner quiet as a church mouse? Come to think of it, Luca wasneverquiet like that. Which meant he really had been edging since Sam left. Holy fuck was right.