The Hag's Blood Incident

Chapter 8

     "Damn it." Ypres growled, as she lay suspended in the hammock. "This is not how I thought this was going to go."

     "How did you think it was going to go?" I asked in a voice thick with irritation. Taking advantage of her incapacitated state, I shuffled through the various pockets of her uniform, removing wallet, car keys, and phone.

     Ypres harrumphed into silence as her personal affects dropped onto the pile with her professional equipment.

     Once I felt she had been suitably disarmed and, in the smallest way, safe to be not continually monitored, I bent down and tried to drag Tam back to either my or Ari's bed to have him rest easier. I gripped his torso below his armpits and struggled to drag him across the floor, but the big man's body just wouldn't budge. My efforts were not entirely fruitless however, I did manage to kick over the flashlight, and it went spinning across the floor on its side.

     "Dammit." I muttered, getting up and chasing after it.

     When it came to a stop, the flashlight ended up pointing directly at the back wall where Ypres lay suspended. "You look like you need help." Came a voice from behind me.

     I turned to look and the beam had illuminated the female cop's form fully, sans where my shadow had fallen across her midsection. Ypres had her face turned toward me, looking through the webbing at my struggles.

     I straightened the flashlight back up on its narrow base and strode back over to Tam, picking up his wrist in the half-light of the reflected beam on the ceiling, to make another attempt to drag him to rest more easily. "You made him this way. Why would I want your help?" I asked, as my grip slipped from around my prone friend's hand and I slumped down on my ass.

     To her credit, Ypres did not laugh at my misfortunes. Her eyes however did narrow shrewdly as if she were adding up all my failures to use against me at a later time.

     Groaning, I stood up again. It was time for me to try a new tactic. I went back over to the pile of gear I had taken off Ypres and picked up her cell phone.

     "Whoever you call is going to be an accomplice to this." Ypres uttered as I flicked the screen on.

     I stopped. The only person I could call for help was Arianna, and she was already angry at the decisions I had made. She wanted me to turn myself into the police. I looked over at Ypres. Turn myself in to people like her? Did I want to involve Ari any further? Could I make her an accomplice to this? Would she ever forgive me?

     Tam made a moaning noise on the floor and any doubt I had evaporated. I needed to get care for my friend. I could call an ambulance, but that would mean that Tam and I would go to jail and Ypres would walk. That couldn't happen. She couldn't get away with shooting my friend in cold blood.

     I started dialing Ari's number.

     "I never had any problem with you." Ypres grunted as she flopped around in the hammock, trying to free herself. "Even your elven partner seemed okay for a monster and a mage. The only one of you that caused me any problems is that savage." It was then that she started a monologue about how monsters were a scourge and unable to be trusted, especially the new species that had been painted as categorically evil before the great catastrophe.

     This went on for a few minutes before I completely tuned her out. I glared at Ypres, trying to will her to shut her mouth. As far as I could tell, she had forgotten that Tam had gone to school with her and all of her categorical assertions were based on stereotypes and fictions. I was obviously dealing with a madwoman. I couldn't tell if she could see the expression on my face or not, but if she did, she didn't seem affected by it as she continued to rant and flop about inside the hammock.