"Where is she?" is the first thing that comes from Cecil's mouth. I show him to the living room where Rachel is laying on the couch. She stirs a bit when Cecil kneels beside the couch.
"Heeey, brotha," she rasps out. "Took you a while."
"Sorry I'm late, I had preparations to take care of," Cecil says, smiling weakly. "Do you know what happened to you?"
Rachel blinks and drifts off again. She hasn't been conscious much of the night. Cecil shakes her shoulder slightly and she opens her eyes.
"Sorry," she says and frowns, trying to focus. "He used a spell on me. I think it could've been a sleepy spell because I am very sleepy. But I don't wanna be sleepy anymore. Can you make me not be sleepy?"
"I can try," Cecil says and pets her shoulder a few times. Then he turns to me and asks, "Could you make some coffee? Rachel's going to need it, and I think we could all use a little extra boost."
I nod and go to the kitchen as he turns back to Rachel, pulling out a book from the bag he has with him. Leea follows me soon after, giving Cecil and Rachel some room. Neither of us say anything.
Fifteen minutes later Cecil comes into the kitchen.
"I found the counter curse," he says quietly and takes the green mug full of coffee I offer him. "She's out cold for a few minutes and then she should be fine."
"Good," I manage, but my voice breaks. I lean back on the kitchen counter for balance and take a deep breath. And another. And another. There's a tight pressure in my throat.
Cecil's hand lands on my back and I break down crying.
~x~
"We can't stay here," Rachel tells us once she's up and has finished her fourth cup of coffee. "Wasp knows who you are now, he could easily find us any minute."
"But," Leea says, exchanging a look with me, "we've been here for 16 hours and we haven't seen him yet." Rachel looks surprised.
"I put a concealing spell on the house yesterday morning," Cecil says. "Only people who have already been here or are explicitly invited in can find the house."
"Huh, that's pretty smart," Rachel says and pats him on the back. "Good thinking."
"But it does last for 24 hours only. Which means we have," he checks his watch, "some two hours before it can be found again."
"But two hours is a good amount of time, right?" I say. "We have time to make a plan. I mean, we should have a plan, right? How do we stop Wasp?"
"We don't," Cecil says.
"What?" Leea shouts. "What do you mean we do nothing? I can't believe this! After all this time, you're just going to let Wasp come here and take Flame?"
"Of course not!" Cecil shouts back. I don't think I've heard him raise his voice before. I suppress a shudder. He corrects his glasses and continues with a much calmer voice, "I called Dublin, explained the situation. They're dispatching a few men who will take Wasp into custody."
"Why didn't we do this before?" I ask. "If arresting him for trying to kidnap an elemental is a possibility, why didn't we call for backup earlier?"
"We didn't have proof," Rachel says.
"I looked into his background after he first insinuated that we could get good money for something as rare as a white elemental, and it turns out that there have been complaints about his "unprofessionalism" in the past," Cecil explains. "He's been suggesting poaching for other NALMC members as well but because no one has had proof he's never been charged. But now we have proof." Cecil turns to me and grins. "We have a witness."
"That's right," I say, the events from the forest rushing back to my mind. "He said he wanted the elemental and when you said it's illegal to kidnap elementals he said he didn't care."
"He also hit me with an illegal sleeping curse," Rachel points out.
"That is also true," Cecil says, rubbing his hands together. "So, all we have to do is wait for backup and this nightmare will be all over."
"Question," Leea says and we all turn to her. "When did you get in touch with Dublin?"
"Well, there wasn't actually anyone at the office when I called, but I left them several messages and I know the HQ secretary, she always checks the messages first thing when she comes in."
"Which is when, exactly?"
"Well, it's Sunday, so..." Cecil's eyes widen. "Ten o'clock, fuck."
"Add to that the time it takes her to alert personnel and for them to get to the Dublin transportation center, transport to the local transportation center and get from there to aaaalllll the way here it will be way over 11 and Wasp will be through that door the second in appears in front of him."
A small feeling of dread is nagging in my chest. I look at Cecil, who is rubbing the lenses of his glasses, frowning. Then he puts them back on and pushes them along his perfectly straight nose.
"Okay, looks like we will have to be on the defensive for a while," he says, surprisingly calm. "Do either of you know combat magic?"
"I do," Leea says. I raise my eyebrows, although I can't say I'm too surprised. "I was in a dueling club in my second year of secondary school. I got kicked out because apparently I "played too dirty"..."
"Well that's a good thing now, because combat is far less refined than dueling. So... play dirty," Cecil says and then turns to me.
"I don't know magic, sorry," I say. "I mean, not any magic that would be useful anyway."
"That's okay. You and Rachel can take care of Flame, while Leea and I hold off Wasp." I nod and Cecil sighs. "Hopefully the NALMC realises the direness of the situation, sending someone over asap. We just need to make sure Wasp doesn't get Flame until then."
"Seems simple enough," Leea says. "How good is Wasp in magic anyway?" Cecil adjusts his glasses.
"...very."
"Brilliant," I mutter.
Flame, who has so far been curled on Rachel's lap where she's sitting on the kitchen island, gets up and stretches. Then she jumps onto me, climbing on my shoulder and letting out a high pitched sound. Her flames burst slightly bigger until returning to their normal size and she grins, bearing her pointy teeth. She looks ready to finish this.
The next few hours go by practicing spells and planning escape routes, arranging rendezvous places and making back-up plans. We go through every possible scenario we can think of and by eleven we couldn't be more ready.
At eleven o'clock there is a loud bang and a green flash as the front door slams open. Wasp is standing in the doorway.
He has a gun in his hand.
__________________________________________________________________
I don't even care anymore. I was gonna write the whole finale scene and leave you with just the aftermath but fuck that I'm tired and I'm gonna sleep for a few hours now mmkay? Mmkay. Good night.
Your topic is.... Ball. Bye.
Pie out.
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