A Bone to Pick by Ken Hughes

Author:Ken Hughes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: urban fantasy, urban fantasy male protagonist, urban fantasy action, urban fantasy adventure, urban fantasy action adventure, paranormal urban fantasy, paranormal suspense
Publisher: Ken Hughes
Published: 2023-01-20T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE: GRIP

“What are you doing?” Jason whirled to face me, dropping into a fighting half-crouch.

Alright, if he’d only give me simple, shocked reactions, I’d work with the obvious. “Looking for you.” I kept the tone neutral.

He circled away from me, edging around in the tight hospital room. Drawing me away from the still figure in the bed.

“I know you’re trying to help him,” I said. “This might not work, but...”

I reached over to the victim, with Jason’s eyes on me. Lawrence Neal’s face still looked empty, and touching his arm could have been touching a manikin, except for the give of flesh it had.

Even by touch, my magic felt only that tiny spark of a presence. I pushed, pulled, and breathed confidence and fear and every other emotion at him that might shock him awake. Using fear made the heart monitor give one louder blip, but no more. Like that single spark, blowing on it made no difference when it lay on cold hard wood.

Jason watched me as I worked, when he could have made a run for it. When I drew my hand back, he said “You tried to fix this, and that’s something.” Now he took another a step to the side of me. “But every time I let my guard down with you, you side with those Duvals, and things start blowing up.”

No, tell that to Maya... But instead of protesting, I said “How did you get that cop to leave? Why send him away instead of just talking yourself past him?”

Jason only looked back at me, mouth and face closed off. But the chance to show his work must have drawn him: “Each hospital’s forms—they aren’t as different as they think. All I needed was something to impress him.”

“And you didn’t need to keep him away long? That means he’ll be back.” I grabbed the door.

“Good point.”

I heard his feet shift behind me—I drew on the Pulse to feel for suspicion outside and track Jason at my back, the same position he must have jumped Ian from—

His emotion flared with sudden intent—

I ducked away and spun around, but he wasn’t lunging at me. He’d actually twisted half away from me, and now he was just turning back and drawing his hand from his pocket, empty.

Then he stepped across to the patient again, and he laid his hand and Ian’s ring down and his face wrenched in concentration. One more desperate try to wake the man who’d been shot for standing near us.

And the monitors shifted, from empty beeps to... one feeble louder blip, like a car battery’s useless chugging sound and no more. My magic felt no change from him, and only regret and guilt from Jason.

Jason glanced along the monitors and sighed. “At least he’s still stable. Come on.”

Whatever else he was, Jason seemed to know his medicine. We stepped into the corridor.

As scattered people moved around us, I kept an eye on Jason beside me. He’d attacked Ian once, but the ring he stole could be replaced; it was Jason who might get himself killed if I let him go.

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