Heather Fleming

“Orpheus, you don’t want to do that.” Tobias resisted the urge to grimace as the clichéd negotiating phrase slipped past his lips before he had time to consciously consider what he was saying.

“Stay back, you stupid fed!” Orpheus shouted. The knife in his hand was none too steady, and Tobias was afraid to make any fast movements.

“I’m not a fed, Orpheus,” Tobias told him. “I’m a professional investigator.”

“I don’t care what you are! Just . . . just stay back!”

“I haven’t moved.” Tobias didn’t have a lot of experience with hostage situations. His gun was still in its holster, and Tobias cursed himself for not drawing it before charging into the auditorium. He could close the distance between himself and Orpheus in about two seconds flat, but he wasn’t sure if he could take down Orpheus before the psycho killed Kelley.

Abdiel had been after Tobias to stop depending on guns and start using knives for a long time. At that moment Tobias wished that he’d listened to his friend. Abdiel could have drawn a throwing knife from his sleeve and sent it into one of Orpheus’ eyes before the bastard could so much as twitch.

The only option Tobias had at that moment was to try to talk Orpheus down. Unfortunately, his experience at reasoning with psychopaths was limited to arguments with Abdiel, Leon, and Natalia, and those had never turned out too well for Tobias.

“I’m staying back,” Tobias said, as calmly as he could. “I’ll stay out of your way. I’m not here to stop you –”

“Bull. You were just trying to convince me not to kill this fed chick.”

“No I wasn’t,” Tobias insisted. “I was trying to tell you that you don’t want to slice her throat and let her blood splatter everywhere. That would be counterproductive to your intentions, wouldn’t it?”

Orpheus stared at him like he wasn’t sure what to make of Tobias’ claims. Tobias took that as a good sign.

“I’m not an expert on blood – err – black magic, but I’ve seen the precision of your work at the other cri – ritual scenes –” Tobias coughed. “Sites,” he corrected himself quickly. “I recognized the pentagram from the St. Jude Tarot. You emulated it perfectly ten times. If you slit Agent Kelley’s throat, blood’s going to shoot everywhere like a geyser. That will ruin your ritual and my study.”

Orpheus narrowed his eyes, like he was puzzling over something. “Study?”

Tobias nodded. “I mentioned I was a professional investigator –”

“A private eye,” Orpheus sneered. “You’re teamed up with those feds.”

“I hate that term,” Tobias said immediately, with a bit more heat than he intended. He caught himself and continued in a milder tone. “And I wouldn’t really say I was teamed up with them. It was more like they turned to me because they knew I had experience with the sort of thing they were currently investigating, and I used the clout they gave me to track you down for my own reasons – which I would like to discuss with you. It might be that we have a common interest.”

“You expect me to believe that you’re on my side?” Orpheus demanded. “You think that you can pretend to be my friend so you can talk me out of killing this bitch?”

“I have no interest in being your friend or saving the bitch,” Tobias said, sounding bored.

“Then what?” Orpheus asked, still looking suspicious.

“I tracked you down because I have a business proposition for you,” Tobias told him. “Or rather, my employer has a business proposition for you.”

“The FBI?” Orpheus sneered.

“The FBI is not my employer,” Tobias sneered right back. “I wouldn’t bother answering the phone for what they pay me, if not for my ulterior motives.”

“What ulterior motives?’

“That’s what I’m trying to get to,” Tobias said impatiently. “I represent a certain party who is interested in what they like to call . . .” his mind stalled for a moment as he searched for a politically correct term for blood magic. “Obscure arts,” he said, hoping that didn’t sound too lame. “I think you know what I mean. In fact, I’m sure you do.”

Orpheus remained obstinate. “Maybe.”

Tobias gave him a dry look. “We’re having this conversation while you’re holding an unconscious FBI agent hostage at knife point and you’re still not willing to admit that you’re a blood mage?” He gave a caustic laugh. “Perhaps it would be best to have this conversation at another time.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that I’m going to leave,” Tobias said, “And let you get on with your little ritual –”

“I don’t think so. If you go I’ll kill her!”

Tobias did his best to mimic one of Abdiel’s common expressions – the one he gave people when he was trying not to look like he thought they were as moronic as they’d given him reason to believe they were. “That’s kind of the point,” Tobias reminded the stage magician turned Satanic murderer.

“I’m serious!”

“I should hope so,” Tobias said coolly. He reached into his pocket.

“Don’t move!”

Tobias slowly withdrew his business card and held it up so that Orpheus could see what it was. “I’ll leave my card, in hopes that you will get back to me so that my trip to this miserable desert tourist trap will have been worthwhile.” He let the card slip through his fingers and drift to the ground, then, keeping his eyes on Orpheus, slowly began to turn.

“Wait.”

Tobias stopped turning and raised an eyebrow at the other man.

“You’re really not FBI?’

“Would an FBI agent turn his back and walk away while you killed one of his comrades, like I’m doing right now?” Tobias asked and started to turn again. “If this convinces you of my veracity, and if you feel like making more money than the pittance that your magic show earns you, then give me a call.”

His gaze was no longer on Orpheus as he began walking toward the stage, but his hearing went into overdrive. Behind him Orpheus stood motionless. For several seconds the only sound Tobias could hear was Agent Kelley’s labored breathing. Then, Orpheus moved. His clothing gave its telltale rustle as he lowered Kelley to the ground.

Tobias kept walking, as slowly as he could without seeming suspicious. He could feel Orpheus’ eyes burning into his back. The man was waiting for him to spin around and draw a gun. Orpheus was ready to give Kelley an ear to ear grin if Tobias made one wrong move, thus is was still too soon to act.

Then, slowly, Orpheus began to relax. The closer Tobias grew to the exit, the less worried Orpheus seemed to become. Fabric rustled again as he released Kelley and started to stand up. Then there was the soft, hollow sound of a footfall as Orpheus took a step away from Kelley.

Now! Tobias’ mind screamed, even as his body went into motion. He pivoted back around so that he was facing Orpheus, then shot forward. Again, his peripheral vision became a blur as he went from 0 to at least 60 miles an hour in less than the three seconds it took him to cover the distance between himself and Orpheus.

He hit the boy with an open palm strike, and had just enough time to hear ribs cracking before Orpheus went flying backward, into the wall. Tobias moved again and was at the stage magician’s side before he slumped to the ground. He grabbed Orpheus by his jacket and slammed him against the wall again.

“Stupid psychopath, wasting my time with your pseudo-occult nonsense,” he growled, venting some of his frustration from the past few days. “I have better things to be doing than chasing after lunatics.” He shook Orpheus again, making sure to hit the idiot’s head against the wall for good measure.

CRACK!

The noise of bone shattering resounded through the wings, and blood and brain matter spurted from Orpheus’ skull like the insides of a melon that had been struck with a baseball bat. Tobias gaped at the damage to the dead magician’s forehead, and for one horrible moment, thought that he was the cause of it.

Then a voice cut through Tobias’ apprehension. “I got the kill shot. The points go to me,” Leon said cheerfully.

Tobias turned toward him and stared incredulously as Leon lowered his silencer equipped magnum. For a moment all he could do was gape.

“Stop looking at me like that,” Leon chided and holstered his weapon inside his jacket. “That’s what you get for playing with your prey.”

“Leon, what the hell?!” Tobias shouted.

“Don’t be a bad sport,” Leon told him. “If you’d taken him out immediately, like we were taught, I wouldn’t have even had a chance to steal your kill.”

“That’s not –” Tobias broke off and shook his head. He couldn’t believe the morbidity of Matthias’ brats sometimes. After watching The Lord of the Rings movies, Leon and Natalia had made a contest out of killing blood mages, in an attempt to emulate the elf and the dwarf’s orc killing contest. “He wasn’t a blood mage!” Tobias snapped, glaring at the teenager. “He was just a normal human.”

“Who thought he was a blood mage,” Leon said, “and who wanted to be a blood mage. Who tried to be a blood mage, and thus, was executed like a blood mage. Don’t tell me you think he didn’t deserve that.”

Tobias glowered. “That’s not the point!”

“Yeah. I know. The point is you’re pissed that I stole your kill.” Leon smirked.

“He wasn’t a real blood mage,” Tobias said again. “Which means he didn’t know anything dangerous. They could have tried him for murder in court.”

Leon shrugged. “I just saved the tax payers quite a bit of money.”

Tobias shook his head in disgust and let go of Orpheus’ corpse. By hunter ethics, Leon was right, of course, though he’d be damned before he admitted it. Thankfully, there were other problems that needed to be taken care of, that provided a good excuse to change the subject.

Tobias quickly crossed the room, back to the unconscious Special Agent Kelley. He touched two fingers to her throat and found a pulse almost immediately, to his relief. “Kelley?” he asked, giving her shoulder a slight shake.

Kelley didn’t open her eyes, but a groan escaped her lips – a good sign. Tobias gave the gash on her left temple a cursory inspection, then plugged his earpiece back in.

“Irons, I’ve got Kelley,” he announced, “and the blood mage – fake blood mage. It was Orpheus.”

“Is Kelley okay?” Irons asked quickly.

“She took a blow to the head, but I think she’ll be okay. You should call in some paramedics to look at her though – I’m no doctor.”

“And the suspect? You have him in custody?” Irons asked.

“Tell the paramedics to bring a body bag,” Tobias answered. “And try to get your people down here quickly, please. I’ve got another job I need to get to.”