Saffron Wilds by Kai Butler

CHAPTER THREE

“No!”I yelled, but the bullet was already gone.

I saw it hit Winnie, sending her back half a step as she swung her head from side to side, trying to figure out where the pain had come from. She roared again, her mouth enormous, spittle dripping from her open lips. The sound seemed to shake the ground around us.

“Don’t shoot!” My words were in vain.

At the sound of the bullet, every other cop found their own trigger finger. I reached out into the air, taking a deep breath, and blowing it out, directing a gust of wind strong enough to throw a boat off course.

“Nothing could fly straight in you,” I coaxed the wind.

But what hope did I have in the face of so many bullets?

Green circles sprang up between the cops and the chimeras. “Stand down! King and I have this under control.”

Zahide’s voice was so authoritative it cut through the nervous line of cops. One last bullet was fired, but the green circles caught it.

My shoulders dropped, and I let out a shaky breath. Quickly, I took long steps to catch up with Zahide and Nick, letting go of my control of the air.

“They aren’t harmless,” I said. “But they’re innocent. They’re just animals someone experimented on.”

Zahide grunted. Nick half turned, glancing over his shoulder at me. “We know.”

Winnie was down on all four paws, nuzzling at her shoulder. When she heard Nick and Zahide approaching, she growled again. I remembered the feel of her power mixing with mine, and I hesitantly reached out for her with the thread of my magic.

Shannon had never used familiars, saying that with six foster kids in the house, there was too much of a chance of something going wrong or someone getting hurt. Laurel said she didn’t have time to care for another creature between running her café and her old job as her coven’s head priestess. So I wasn’t sure if interacting with the familiar was supposed to feel like this, like two bodies of water mixing together, just different enough that you could see where one ended and the other began but the same enough that it was all water.

Winnie moaned, turning her head toward me.

“Yeah. Don’t worry, these are the good guys.” I approached her slowly, pushing the magic that swirled between us into the blackberries. Flowers bloomed and became gorgeous, juicy fruit within a few moments.

Using her uninjured paw, Winnie grabbed at one of them and shoved it into her mouth. “Yeah, good girl.”

No sooner had I finished speaking than the blackberry brambles moved, seething and trembling. Frankie Vaughn burst out, covered in bloody scratches, his eyes wild.

“No!” He screamed. “These are mine.”

His eyes lit, and all the surrounding familiars turned to face him. Dark shadows from the ceiling flew down. He had mixed bats with…spiders?

Their wings were the size of my hand, and their bodies bulbous, eight legs scrambling wildly through the air as their wings unsteadily took them over the cops.

They flew over Zahide and Nick’s circles, dropping onto the officers, who immediately began firing wildly.

Winnie, her milky white eyes blazing with magic, turned toward us, snarling. The kitten-falcon broke free and crouched low before launching herself at Zahide.

My heart broke.

Angrily, I twisted the air around Frankie Vaughn’s face, dragging it from deep inside his lungs.

“He doesn’t deserve you. He doesn’t deserve any air. He doesn’t deserve a single breath,” I murmured.

Vaughn fell to his knees, both hands wrapped around his throat as he struggled to breathe. Zahide was distracted by the cat on her face while Nick threw circle after circle on top of Winnie, trying to weigh her down.

Unfortunately, when faced with a thousand pounds of angry grizzly-snake, Nick’s spellwork wasn’t holding up.

Vaughn collapsed face-first into the blackberry brambles, but I didn’t let up. There was screaming all around me, panicked cops behind me, Zahide swearing in French as one of the spiders began climbing her, the kitten digging its claws into her neck.

Vaughn finally lost consciousness, and I saw the magic light go out of Winnie’s eyes. Nick’s next spell landed heavily on her back, sending her flat onto her stomach. She whined unhappily, a keening sound. Zahide was finally able to grab the kitten, holding it by the back of its neck so its legs curled up as though it was being carried by its mother.

Nick sent a targeted spell toward Zahide, knocking the spider free and shoving it into the wall that was becoming a porthole. He winced when the spell landed heavier than he had clearly intended, the spider going flat, its insides spraying out in bright green.

I shook off the feeling of anger inside me and let the air flow back toward Vaughn. I saw him take a huge gasping breath, even though his eyes remained shut in unconsciousness.

Still holding the kitten, Zahide turned back to the panicked cops. Tapping at her jacket, she drew off three spells and sent them flying toward the officers. The circles caught a handful of spiders, swinging back around and bringing them flying back to Zahide.

She directed them to the wall of the ship, next to where Nick’s squashed spider was. They landed considerably more delicately than Nick’s, the circle simply trapping the spiders against the wall.

I looked at Nick, and he winced.

“She’s showing you up,” I said. “Where are the vaunted King talents now?”

Nick shot me a betrayed look and pointed at the massive bear still trapped by his spells. “Giant bear.”

I made a face and shrugged. Zahide tapped her jacket again, but Nick had gotten competitive and drew two quick circles on his notepad. Between the two of them, they had collected a dozen spiders within a few minutes with me keeping score.

“Zahide has eight, Nick four.” When Nick glared at me, I said, “No, we’re not making it five. One of yours is squashed.”

Nick muttered under his breath but caught two spiders with one spell and three more with another. Not to be outdone, Zahide captured the remaining two with a narrow-eyed look of victory.

“Nick nine and Zahide ten,” I said.

“I technically captured ten,” Nick grumbled.

Tate came over a microphone from somewhere among the sea of cops. “Zahide, King, is it safe to enter?”

I glanced around. Winnie was still trapped. Zahide was cradling the kitten. The lion-lizard was ensnared in Nick’s circle. The poor pig-snake was still struggling to get any traction. I would need to release it at some point, but the last thing we needed was something else trying to attack us.

“We’re clear, Captain,” Nick called out. Zahide took down the spells she had put up to protect the cops and to keep the bullets from hitting the chimeras.

A SWAT team filed in, their black tactical gear soothing me. These weren’t guys with nervous trigger fingers. The fact that at this point I knew most of them by name helped ease my anxiety.

“Start with him.” I pointed to where Frankie Vaughn was still collapsed on the blackberries.

One of the officers looked at Nick, and he nodded. Zahide nudged me forward with her elbow, and I stumbled down what remained of the porch steps to where Captain Tate stood.

“So. You want to tell me what horse manure you want in the official report?” Tate crossed his arms.

“Frankie Vaughn built his house this way?” I tried.

I turned, looking back at the carnage. From Tate’s perspective, it probably looked even more bizarre. The houses in the neighborhood were uniform in the way that only California tract housing could be. Vaughn’s house had clearly turned itself into a boat. Not some afternoon sailboat that someone bought, used twice, and promptly forgot about, even though they kept paying their harbor fees every month.

The house had become what looked like an ancient schooner and likely would have been completely seafaring if there had been enough wood in the house to begin with. A blackberry bush grew so large it encompassed the entire concrete pad of the house and seemed to pulse with power. Bullets from the cops’ guns caught in my momentary wind tunnel were embedded in the wooden fence and a nearby tree.

“I came looking because I heard Frankie Vaughn dealt in illegal familiars. Some people said he was a breeder, and what he couldn’t breed, he took.” I pointed over the blackberry brambles toward the room where all the familiars had been. “Somewhere back there is a room full of illegal familiars. I accidentally activated a security alarm, and he attacked me with chimeras.”

“Creating chimeras is a federal offense,” Nick said. “He’s looking at federal time.”

“Meaning we have to contact the Bureau of Paranormal Threats.” Tate’s lips went tight, and he shook his head. “Why is his house a boat? What happened with the berry bushes?”

“I’ve been working on some new spells,” I said carefully. “After the case with Hartwell Monroe’s people, I was curious how Clayton Cross managed to turn his building into a tree.”

“You’ve been practicing fae magic?” Zahide’s voice cut through the surrounding noise, and everyone in the vicinity went still.

Nick’s eyes were wide, but he didn’t say anything.

“No. No,” I lied through my teeth. “Of course not. That would be asking for trouble. No. Instead, I wondered if transmutation could have the same effect.”

“Transmutation.” Tate chewed on the word, drawing out each syllable.

“It’s a form of witchcraft that uses the mass of one object to become another. I figured the amount of wood in the house was the same as a boat. I’m pretty close to magic depletion right now, but it seemed to work.”

“Transmutation. Where’s the spellwork for it?” Tate gestured to the wreckage.

“Somewhere inside the boat.” I shrugged. “I drew a couple of spells, and once it got going, it kind of snowballed in a way I didn’t expect.”

“This isn’t fae magic?” Zahide asked suspiciously.

“Just a form of witchcraft I have no plans to practice ever again. What are we going to do about the chimeras?” I gestured to Winnie and the kitten-falcon Zahide still cradled.

“I guess we’re going to have to call Animal Control.” Tate crossed his arms, watching as Zahide wiggled her free hand in front of the kitten, and it batted at her fingertips.

“There’s a chimera rescue organization in Wyoming,” Zahide said. “I’ll call my contacts.”

One of the cops searching what was left of the house shouted, “We found familiars!”

When we got to the shell of the room, it looked worse than I had thought. The panicked animals couldn’t move in their cages, their sounds muffled by the alchemy circles. In the harsh light of day, you could see where their scales and fur had fallen out from the stress.

Tate whistled, putting both hands on his hips and turning to look at me appraisingly. “This is against all sorts of laws. California has a pretty strict understanding of illegal familiar sales.”

EMTs were loading Frankie Vaughn into an ambulance. He was beginning to come to, and Captain Tate sent a couple of officers with him to the hospital.

“He’s being arrested for a lot of things. I’ll have the full charges for you by the time they check him in at Cottage Hospital.” Tate shook his head again. “King, get on the phone with Animal Control. Have them coordinate with the shelter and see what we can do about these familiars.”

“You might also check out missing familiar reports. Even if most of these are from illegal breeding or smuggling, he might have taken some of these from legitimate local witches.” I saw a flash of orange and wove around the officers who were trying to photograph each cage.

Nick followed behind me.

On the bottom shelf, toward the back, I saw orange fur, but the cat couldn’t even turn around, so I couldn’t tell if it was the one I was looking for. When I gestured to the cage, Nick made a face. It was on the bottom shelf toward the back.

“We’re going to have to take care of all these alchemy circles before we even think about moving any of the animals. Zahide?” Nick waved her over.

Zahide approached, still scratching the kitten’s belly. She leaned forward, examining the spellwork on the cage at eye level. “Not too complicated. It looks like it’s mostly silencing and antitheft. I don’t see any tripwires.”

Zahide was the official SAPD alchemist, and she coordinated with other departments on alchemy issues. This was probably more what she was used to than the usual cases we worked together.

“I don’t like how the two spells are overlapping,” Nick said. “There’s too much of a chance we’ll set something off and pay the price.”

Zahide’s lips twisted, and she nodded. “We could try overloading the spells.”

As they got lost in the technicalities, I leaned down and tried to get the cat’s attention. I felt a cold nose press into my arm, and when I turned, the white Lab was sitting at my feet, her puppies trotting behind her on unsteady legs. Absently, I began patting her side, feeling the thump of her tail against my leg as she indicated her pleasure.

Finally agreeing on a course of action, Nick stepped back to let Zahide work the spell. I followed him, the white Lab behind me, her puppies trailing behind her like an exceptionally long tail.

Nick glanced down. “We live in a two-bedroom apartment. We are not getting another seven pets.”

“Hey, the puppies are pint-sized. At best, it’s one actual pet, and six quarter-sized pets.” I scratched behind the Lab’s ears.

“Do you even know how to use a familiar?” Nick bent down and picked up one of the puppies, examining it.

“I promise, Dad. I’ll walk her every day. Pick up all her poop.” Nick looked at me, one eyebrow raised, and I grinned. “No, I’m kidding. I’m pretty sure Runt would lose her mind. And I don’t want to have to deal with an angry not-a-cat on top of puppies.”

We watched Zahide work as she set up a series of complicated spells, layering them on top of each other. Nick murmured under his breath, narrating the process to me. One to protect the animals in case there was any blowback from the spells. Another to protect the officers, sandwiching the difficult stuff in the middle.

The solution she and Nick had come up with was to overload the spells, basically burning them out before they could do anything that would harm either the familiars or us. Finally, Zahide stepped back, and I saw one of the spells begin to move in a slow circle. On the familiars’ cages, the circles began sputtering, green flickers that went out one by one.

When she was satisfied she had disabled all of them, Zahide took down her own remaining spells. “They should be okay to touch now.”

Animal Control had arrived during the chaos, and they stepped forward to begin removing animals from their cages.

When they got to the cat I thought might be my client’s, I got close enough to see the coloring was the same, but the shape of its face wasn’t right. Unhappy, I returned to Tate and the other Paranormal Crimes officers.

“So how much paperwork are we in for?”

But Tate, Nick, and Zahide were looking grim. “You are in for a lot. But King is off the hook.”

“Already on our way, Captain,” Nick gestured to Zahide, and she walked toward the car they had driven.

I frowned after them, and Nick shook his head, already getting into the car. “We got a call about another case. I’ll see you at home later.”

“Does the other case get me out of paperwork?” I asked.

“Ferro,” Tate said, turning his gaze back to the half-boat house. “There are things I can overlook, then there are things like this. If you’re going to be running around my city doing…this, at least come up with a better explanation.”

I stared at him for a long moment, watching the deep lines between his brows, the distant look in his eyes. This was a man who knew all those more things in heaven and earth and had reconciled it with his own philosophy.

“I want your report before you leave the scene.” Tate gestured to a patrol officer who was taking statements from neighbors. “Start now.”