AM7: Durance, chapter 7 (Patreon)

Darren wasn’t surprised when Les brought Coretta into the text conversation and then Rima, and all of them wanted details and information on how the reporter fit into the durance investigation. Darren loved his team, but they were all nosy bastards. For the first time since Traci had joined the team with the intention of undermining it, he felt like the unit was pulling together, but only the long-term team members. He feared this latest disaster would pull the larger unit apart.

How would Ahtisham react to being left out of the loop? Anne was far too by-the-book and too new to the team to take offense, but Darren got the feeling that Milton wouldn’t handle rejection well.

Normally Darren would consider that a mandate to take the man out for drinks and get him involved in team activities, but these times weren’t normal. And he hadn’t worked with Joe or Jen enough to have an opinion of either. Besides, they were Coretta’s agents, and she would have to deal with any hurt feelings from them.

Darren read from his texts. “Okay, Mason Butler works as a reporter for the Washington Conservative News. They are definitely in the anti-Anti-Talent movement and have published a number of investigative pieces about corruption and abuse of power in government. They seem to take the position that a smaller government has less power to trample anyone’s rights.”

“I’m less worried about the government stepping on my rights than I am a lawless mob,” Kavon said dryly. That was such a Kavon thing to say. 

“One of these days I’m going to get you to play Dungeons and Dragons. You would be a great dragonborn follower of Bahamut.” Hell, Darren was almost sure that whoever had created the game was a time traveler who had based lawful good theory on Kavon.

Kavon stopped at the end of the service alley and took a second to glare at Darren. Despite that expression, the bond sang with indulgent amusement. He was such a faker.

“Let’s see what the staff knows.” Kavon strode down the alley toward a clump of people smoking and leaning against the handrail that led up to the delivery bay. “Excuse me,” Kavon said with a smile. “Are any of you working the NCCP conference?”

Immediately, the employees were on edge. Darren hurried past Kavon since he tended to intimidate without trying. “We’re wondering if anyone has heard anything that concerned them, maybe something that made them wonder if they should call the police or not.”

An older woman with short hair dropped her cigarette and crushed it. “I’m getting the manager.” Once she left, the remaining employees looked to have an average age of about twelve.

“We’re not supposed to discuss what guests might do or say with anyone outside hotel management,” a girl said. Four people all put out their cigarettes.

“We’re law enforcement,” Darren said in the most generic terms possible since he and Kavon had no legal grounds for an FBI investigation.

“Fuck off,” one of the men said. He had a round baby-face, but he was tall and massively built. Immediately, Kavon moved forward. His movement channeled his bull—powerful and with a vague air of “fuck with me at your own peril because I will enjoy stomping you to death.” Darren had seen murderers quail at that look; however, their young punk drew himself up straighter.

Darren wondered if Kavon would have turned out so overbearing only protective if he hadn't been a shaman. Without his bull to reinforce his idea of herd and the need to protect, would Kavon have the same personality? 

“I choose not to,” Kavon said in a dangerously quiet voice. Two of the young women hurried for the door, and three others took out phones and started filming.

So much for subtlety.

“Maybe I’ll make you.” The young man jumped over the rail and landed with his arms outstretched. He wasn’t a shaman, Darren could feel that, but if he were, he would have a peacock guide.

Kavon grew still. “If you choose to engage two armed federal agents, you will not like the results.”

Darren moved to the side so he would have a better angle if the confrontation grew violent, but the man hesitated now. He might want to show off in front of the women, but apparently it hadn’t occurred to him that he didn’t want to attack agents. He looked around as though searching for an out.

Before this guy could make matters worse, Darren redirected him back to Kavon’s question. “Have you overheard anything that the police might need to know about? Has anyone threatened or promoted violence?” 

The man frowned.

Kavon pressed the issue. “Did anyone in the NCCP meetings advocate violence?”

The man took a step back and the tension dropped. “They’re all talk,” he said. “But management says that any concerns go to them—not the police. You’re not worth losing my job.” And with a dismissive snort, he turned his back on them and headed into the hotel.

“So that would be a ‘yes.’ You have heard something.” Darren gave the young women a hopeful look, but they all retreated into the hotel. Darren sighed and turned to Kavon. “Do you want to follow?”

“You know how the management is here.”

“Protect the clients at all costs?” Darren said as he remembered their blackmailing maid case. “Yeah, I remember.”

“Then there’s no reason to stick around. Hopefully one of them will start thinking about the potential for violence, but we don’t have a legal reason to push the issue.”

“Text Coretta?” Darren asked. Since he and Kavon were on vacation, she would be the one to handle any FBI follow up.

“With what?” Kavon asked in disgust. “All we have is someone warning us that the NCCP hates those with Talent. That’s not actionable intel.”

Darren had to agree. Everyone knew the NCCP were insane. They were regularly attacked asreligious crackpots, even by other religious crackpots. Darren followed Kavon down the street. Every line of Kavon’s body radiated strength and frustration. His movements were choppy. And the bond remained conspicuously silent. Anyone who looked at him had to know his guide was a bull of some sort. But again, Darren wondered if that personality had existed before Kavon had chosen to become a shaman or if joining his bull had amplified that part of him.

“Thuya did say our suspects like to cause chaos and create interesting conflicts.” Darren stopped short of saying the NCCP members or their legislative allies had spots as prime suspects.

“Don’t jump to any conclusions. We have other magical hot spots to investigate, so our suspect has been several places in the city.”

“Looking for a partner?” Darren mused aloud.

“Or his partner is plotting something. The NCCP could be involved without being the source of the problem.”

That was possible. Darren liked to imagine what sort of person might commit a crime or what a criminal might do next. If he was a newly returned durance who had joined with a shaman, the partner might see the NCCP as a threat. Guns and bombs were just as effective against shamans and adepts and magic users as they were against mundanes. And while the most powerful shamans could still see the mundane world from the spirit plane, that didn’t make them any less dead or any less helpless to change this world.

Given that the durance were driven out of the world last time by the simple but brutal act of killing all the shamans, Darren could imagine they would take steps to protect their human partners this time. But what information and skills would the humans bring to the relationship? Out on the street, Darren searched for any sign of someone watching them, but the only suspicious activity was an older man taking a knife to the magic-soaked tree. 

“If our suspect is partnering up with someone greedy, is it going to make them more greedy?” Darren asked Kavon.

Kavon frowned. “I don’t know.”

“How often do you think the partners aggravate a person's worst instincts?”

Kavon stopped and looked at Darren. “That makes it sound like you're assuming they do aggravate them.”

A patrol car stopped and an officer yelled at the man trying to claim bits of wood from the damaged tree. Darren thought about his own personality quirks. He and Les were famous for flying off on random tangents, and now that he had Bennu, he tended to do it just as much. But when Bennu was around, he had more power to get himself in trouble. Their first act as a partnership had been to blow up a city street. 

Darren’s habit of being impulsive had been magnified, not because Bennu was changing his personality as much as allowing him to be more himself. He didn’t blame Bennu for his flightiness or the bull for Kavon’s stubborn streak and habit of getting obscenely overprotective, but they made it more possible to indulge in bad habits.

“I was always quick to jump on new ideas, I was always quick to start things and sometimes not so quick to finish them,” Darren admitted. “I get the feeling my partner is the same. And sometimes I think that we feed each other’s impulsiveness.” Darren figured that’s why the other ifret in the bird world wanted Bennu to give his obedience to Kavon. Darren was great at hitting the accelerator. He was great at finding new avenues to investigate or inspiring the team to keep going when everyone was too tired to see straight. However, he was horrible at applying the breaks. He had lucked out when he landed on Kavon’s team because he knew how much trouble he could have gotten into on another team.

Kavon rested a hand on Darren’s shoulder. “Our friends choose someone who mirrors their own personality, but I’ve never thought of that as a problem.”

“I’m even quicker to jump at new ideas now,” Darren said. “My partner took the traits I already had and magnified them.”

Kavon took a step back and frowned. “Do you other people for my personality flaws?”

Darren blew out a breath. “I don't know.” Screw operational security because Darren was sick of verbally tap dancing around the real questions. “Do guides make our traits more… I don’t know. More evident? Stronger? Harder to control?”

Kavon spoke slowly. “I honestly don't know. Dave discouraged me from talking to other shamans about their experiences. He taught me how to negotiate with guides and shamans on the spirit plane in order to gain information or power, but he warned me against relationships or real world interactions.”

The idea of Dave trying to drive a wedge between Kavon and the entire shamanic community was enough to make Darren nearly homicidal. As much as Kavon pretended he wasn't, he was social. He might be slower to trust people, but he needed a group of close friends to watch over. Without the Talent unit, Darren figured Dave’s manipulation would have caused even more harm.

“Have you known people before and after they found guides?” Darren asked.

“No. I’ve never taken an interest in training potential shamans. The risks are too great because some people will not return from their first visit to the spirit plane, and the law takes a dim view on shamans who lose young people during training. Besides, most people these days prefer the magic user end of the Talent pool.”

“I don’t think many people want to confront their own deaths,” Darren said. In Egypt, almost all those with Talent did become shamans, but their culture rejected magic users as evil and families turned young people with Talent over to the authorities. Darren wasn’t sure those kids had a choice about facing death.

“True,” Kavon said. “Let’s check out the other sites. You can use some of that flighty energy of yours to brainstorm possible connections between them.”

“Deal,” Darren said. “You know, if you want my creative, crazy best, we should invite Les over for a brainstorming session. We can include Anita.” Darren wasn’t sure if Kavon’s reluctance to socialize with her was due to Kavon’s reticence with new people or his frustration with some of Les’s more annoying habits. At the suggestion, Kavon walked faster.

Darren stepped to one side of the sidewalk to let a power-walking woman storm past. He was half afraid that if he didn't, she would bowl them over. This part of the city road was filled with more power players and less human decency than most of Washington DC. “If we do find a pattern, are we going to bring the rest of the team in on it?” Darren asked.

Kavon laughed ruefully. “Can you imagine getting the rest of the team to stay out of it?”

“You have a point there. They are a pushy group. Of course, that might be because they've had to learn to deal with you.”

Kavon shoulder bumped him. “Are you insulting my leadership style?”

Darren was about to make a witty comment about the difficulty of handling a cranky Kavon when he felt something drag across to his skin. It was like walking through cobwebs. He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and searched the area.

“Problem?” Kavon asked. His eyes lost their focus and his freckles glowed with a faint blue light.

“I don't know. I thought something brushed past me.”

“Like what?” Kavon’s voice lost all the familiar cadence of Darren’s lover and took on the brisk, impatient qualities of his boss.

“I have no idea.” Darren was about ready to chalk it up to too little sleep and too much paranoia when a shiver went up his spine.

“I felt that.” Kavon caught Darren by the arm and started fast walking them back towards the SUV. It made sense since that was the closest place with magical protections. 

“What was it?” Darren asked. He was trying hard to avoid any potential freaking out, but Kavon’s voice had a sharp edge that Darren associated with firefights and magical explosions.

“I have no idea, but I'm not interested in standing on the street and finding out.”

One man cried out when Kavon practically elbowed him aside. Kavon didn’t even slow. In the distance, Darren heard a bird scream. He turned around, and a form appeared to swoop out of arrest in the sky. 

Darren had a brief impression of something with a massive predator’s body and a face like a skeleton, and then a blast of magic knocked him off his feet. Kavon executed a tuck and roll, grabbing Darren and hiding both of them in the shadow of a large sedan. A barking, atavistic cry filled the air, and Bennu streaked across the sky, his wings stretched out so far that his shadow covered the street from curb to curb. Kavon shouted, and a power shield shimmered around them.

“Bennu!” Darren cried out as Bennu flew straight at the monstrous bird that hovered above them. It had a body that appeared almost feline with wide shoulders tapering down to narrow hips and a multi-jointed pair of legs with heavy thighs. Bennu and the monster met in the air, claws and beaks tearing at each other as magic rained over the street.

Chapter 8: https://www.patreon.com/posts/am-7-durance-8-22684193 

Chapter 9: https://www.patreon.com/posts/am-7-durance-9-22744305 

Chapter 10: https://www.patreon.com/posts/am-7-durance-10-22817775 

Chapter 11: https://www.patreon.com/posts/am-7-durance-11-22905312 

Chapter 12: https://www.patreon.com/posts/am7-durance-22974766