Texas Charm, Chapter 4 (Patreon)

They’d put the couch cushions on the floor but Zach still ached from sitting cross legged on the floor. “We could have stayed,” Zach said as he took Art’s offer to help him to his feet.

Art walked over to the bedside table next to the twin bed and switched the lamp off. “Yeah, but then I would have been more annoyed. That was my limit for human interaction for one day. Besides, Salma lives for this bureaucratic shit.” 

Zach followed Art out into the small living room and checked the clock. It was only seven, which surprised Zach. He’d thought it would be much later. “But some of those people—I don’t think they’d make good council members. Vinson came off as an ass, and don’t even pretend he’s not because I saw your face. You hate the guy.”

“Yep,” Art agreed. He pulled Zach down onto the couch with him. “He’s an arrogant ass who once pinned me down and explain all the ways the police department wastes taxpayer dollars. However, he’s not the sort to embezzle.”

“Can you say that about everyone else who plans to challenge for a seat?”

“Nope. Some of them are probably as crooked as hell.”

“Which is why you would be a perfect leader for the council.”

“I would never have a moment's peace again,” Art countered. “Between being a cop and being a lover and being a human being who wants to occasionally hang out on his couch and drink beer in his underwear, I don't have time to run a magical council.”

“The Talent community needs a moral center to rally around.” This made perfect sense to Zach, but from the look of revulsion on Art’s face, the argument wasn’t going well.

“Zach, I love you, and I would do anything for you, but there is no way I'm going to run for council. Never. I am proud of you for organizing this peasant uprising, especially while hiding your guide. I thought it was a crazy idea, but in hindsight I'm willing to call you brilliant.” Art held up a hand to stop Zach from interrupting. “I am not willing to give my life to the magical council so that I can serve people who didn't want to protect themselves until you made them.”

Zach frowned. “That's a cynical way to look at it.”

“Well I'm a cynical guy.”

Zach knew when he had lost a fight. He sighed. “We should have at least stayed to make sure the right people won.”

Art’s voice was dry as he said, “So you’re going to be the great dictator of El Paso?”

Zach grimaced. “I hate it when you do that.”

Art ran a finger over Zach’s forehead, brushing his hair back. “When I do what? Stop you from trying to rule the universe?”

“Point out the truth.”

“Ah.” Art nodded. “I’ll work on ignoring reality.”

“I could give you lessons,” Zach offered. 

Art chuckled before heading to the kitchen. Before Zach had moved in, Art had remodeled the kitchen, removing the wall that divided it from the rest of the house. Most of the house was a hodgepodge of styles, but the kitchen was the shining exception. It had escaped from the pages of a decorating magazine. White granite streaked with black and silver topped white cupboards, and glass mosaic tile in shades of gray and red made it look like a jeweled box.

Art pulled the crockpot closer to the counter’s edge. “I started Tejano beans this morning.” Art pulled out a cooking knife and slapped it on the counter. “Make yourself useful while I put together a pepper sauce.”

“What am I making myself useful doing?” Zach asked got up to help.

“Pambazos in the cupboard, last night’s steak in the fridge.”

While Zach went to get the leftovers, Art stirred the sauce. “That bird of yours can do a lot of damage. We’re lucky you didn’t ask him to get more involved today.”

“Pochi isn’t interested in causing havoc. If anything, he thinks Agent Oberton’s guide is too reckless. He didn’t understand the conflict, so he wanted to stay out of it. I made him stop the violence.” Zach finished thin slicing the steak and went to get the pambazos. “There really should be a spiritual restraining order or a way to press spiritual assault charges.”

“Yeah you can have fun running that. Personally, I plan on getting a beer, relaxing, and possibly ravaging my lover later.”

“Cool. Sounds kinky. Is this someone I know?” Zach wiggled his eyebrows.

“I thought I might go to a bar and pick up a random gay guy.” Art’s voice was desert dry.

“That's extra special kinky. Now I want to watch.”

Art snorted. “If you develop a kink for voyeurism, I'm trading you in on another lover. And if you put those pambazos in the microwave, I’ll kill you and hide the body.” Art pointed his spoon at Zach.

“No you won't. No one else will put up with your dirty socks.” Despite that, Zach dumped the loaves on the oven rack. As far as he was concerned, it was a waste of electricity to heat the oven and the whole kitchen for a couple of oversized Kaiser rolls, but he’d learned to not get between Art and his food.

“That’s the pot calling the kettle black, Mr. Stinks-A-Lot. For the sake of my poor nose, I have banned cauliflower from this house. I was afraid I was going to have to declare our bathroom a toxic zone.”

As they sniped, Zach felt the stress fade away. “That's why God made guest bathrooms.”

“Yeah, and it be great if you used it.”

“Hey. You're the one with the ultrasensitive nose. You use it.”

“Or I can just keep throwing out all the cauliflower.” Art grabbed a couple of plates and started dividing up the food. “Seriously, your intestines are thanking me for it.”

“Fuck you.”

“I'd rather be the one fucking you, but if you wanted it the other way around tonight I am totally okay with that.”

Zach took his plate. If there was going to be fucking, he wanted to eat his meal first. “I’m up for either.” Zach was always ready for sex with Art. “But I have an honest question for you. I’ve seen you donate time to build homes for the poor and hand out meals to the homeless, so I know you’re not as committed to watching TV in your underwear as you pretend. Why are you so determined to avoid shamans?”

Art dropped into his chair and carefully put his plate down, which usually meant he was having fantasies about throwing it. “You never drop anything. Ever. You are such an asshole.”

“Yeah, well, you have a thing for assholes.”

Art pressed his lips together, and Zach wished he had given Art a blowjob before bringing up the subject. Art was always in a good mood after one, and he was usually too tired to argue. After a long and awkward silence, Art sighed. “This is something that is just between us. I mean it. I know you don't get why I'm so private, and maybe I am too closed up sometimes.”

“Sometimes?” Zach challenged him. Art had his gruff asshole act down pat. People only noticed he was a nice guy when they stopped listening to him bitch and started noticing how he would mentor younger cops and volunteer.

“I'm talking you don't tell people about this on pain of torture. Well maybe torture but nothing less, and your sister’s bitching does not count as torture.”

Zach leaned forward. “You're freaking me out here. But if this is important to you I would never share with anyone else. You have my word.” A heaviness settled in Zach’s gut, and Pochi appeared in front of the architectural drawing of the Empire State building. He hovered for a moment before darting around, searching for an enemy.

Art either ignored or didn’t see him. “People with Talent don't often talk because of all of the discrimination that magic has endured over the years, but it's more than that. Shamans from different schools of thought disagree about how magic is supposed to work. The easiest way to avoid getting in huge conflicts is to just not talk about it.”

“So you're saying that magic users are split into Democrats and Republicans and trying to share an eternal Thanksgiving dinner?” That sounded like a level of hell. 

“Sure, if the Democrats and Republicans used to be married and are now divorced and trying to pretend they don’t resent the other one’s very existence,” Art added.

Zach cringed. Years ago, Zach’s divorced parents sometimes tried to do the whole working together for the kids routine, and it had generally ended with a screaming match.

Art continued. “It’s worse around here. If you go up north you're going to find most shamans have trained under the Egyptian system.”

“Would that include our two recent guests from DC?” Zach asked. He’d liked Oberton, and Boucher had come off as eminently capable even if he had all the charm and cuddliness of a porcupine. They’d solved their trafficking case, blown up the local FBI office with discrimination and incompetence complaints, and then run back to DC.

“Definitely. Kavon Boucher has a lot of power, and there is something unique about the way an Egyptian trained shaman feels. But I get the feeling he doesn't exactly toe the line.”

Zach had gotten the feeling Boucher made love to his rules. “Which rules does he break?”

“For the most part Egyptian-trained shamans avoid getting entangled in mundane society.”

“Boucher runs his own FBI unit, so I'm fairly sure he's involved in mundane activities all the time.”

“Yes, but he wasn't throwing his magic around. His team only used magic when they had to counter the suspects’ Talent. That’s the influence of the Egyptian school. They believe shamans should be separate.”

“But you said that this was a particularly divided part of the world. If the Egyptians control up north then what we have south of us?”

“The Vatican. They train shamans see magic as a temptation, and they tend to center their life in the church. They rely on the church to provide a sort of moral checks and balances system to keep them from going off the rails. So they’re integrated in society, but they’re shielded behind the church and viewed as morally at-risk.”

“And we’re caught between them, I'm assuming.”

“Something like that,” Art agreed. “When England dumped the Catholic church, they embraced the Egyptian system as more modern, and in big chunks of the Western hemisphere, that stuck.”

Art hadn’t been inside a church as long as Zach had known him. But he sure as hell didn’t believe in keeping his magic separate from his job. Talent helped them track killers, and Art didn’t make any pretense of hiding that. “So which side are you on?”

“Neither, which is why I would be uniquely unpopular on the council. Eventually, everyone would hate me.”

Maybe Zach was being obtuse, but that didn’t make sense. “Explain the potential for hate.”

Art gave Zach a dirty look. “They’re going to figure out that no matter which side of this divide they’re on, I think they’re full of shit.”

“You think everyone is full of shit,” Zach said. Art would help anyone who wanted it, but he could be a judgmental bastard.

“And people don’t like that.” Art jammed his sandwich in his bowl with such vehemence that red sauce slopped everywhere. “God damn it!” He leaped up from the table and grabbed the paper towels. Zach hurried to help before the mess spread. He was just reaching for the towels when his phone chimed.

A second later, Art’s phone went off.

Well shit. That meant they had a case. And since Carson and Guiles were on call tonight, that meant that it was either something big enough for four detectives or the second major event of the night.

“Grab your sandwich and let’s go,” Art said.

Zach looked at his Tejano beans with regret before doing exactly that.

Chapter 1: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-6-19034447 

Chapter 2: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-2-19050307 

Chapter 3: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-3-19066252 

Chapter 4: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-4-19087127 

Chapter 5: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-5-19132901 

Chapter 6: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-six-19159661 

Chapter 7: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-7-19179823 

Chapter 8: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-8-19190078 

Chapter 9: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-9-19201497 

Chapter 10: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-10-19220764 

Chapter 11, 12: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-11-19228890 

Chapter 13, 14: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-13-19244456 

Chapter 15: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-15-19264338 

Chapter 16, 17: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-16-19276375 

Chapter 18, 19: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-18-19290091 

Chapter 20: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-20-19301548