Dim Sum Asylum(6)

He didn’t interrupt me, so I continued, keeping my verbal report as matter-of-fact as I could. “He then fled the scene through the Chinatown warren, forcing me to follow on foot, as the vehicle is too wide to be driven through that area. When he approached the pier, Arnett fired his weapon, killing a civilian and endangering not only the protected species but also other bystanders in the area, sir. I chose to respond accordingly.”

“So you shot him?” Gaines’s eyebrows lifted.

“Yes, sir.” I shrugged. “I was aiming for his knee, Captain, but it was difficult to get a good aim with the dragons on him. Considering I was shooting him for taking the eggs, it didn’t seem right to hit the lizards.”

“You shot your partner in front of the morning ferry and let a pack of dragons ravage his still-breathing body?” he rumbled. “You don’t find anything wrong with this?”

“As I told the officer on the scene, I intended only to slow him down,” I said. “I didn’t think the dragons would eat him, sir.”

“They ate his eyeball, kid. Sucked it right out of his skull, according to the doctors.”

“Arnett took their eggs, sir. He’s lucky they didn’t take his testicles off.” I met his gaze head-on. “They don’t mate often and lay eggs infrequently. Even if only one of those eggs hatched, it’d have bolstered the skein’s numbers. Arnett took his chances and lost. Respectfully, sir, if at that moment the lizards asked me for shoyu and hashi, I’d have given it to them.”

“Respectfully?” Gaines growled. “Kid, you haven’t respected anyone in your damned life.”

“Sir.” I kept my mouth tight, refusing to crack a smile. “Don’t forget the sir, Captain, and I beg to differ. I’ve respected the hell out of you.” I took a short breath. “And my mother.”

“They tell me he’ll recover in a few months. Just in time for a fall court session.” The Captain’s voice was a mix of resignation and disgust. “Sit down, Rokugi. I want to talk to you without having to strain my neck.”

He’d used my full name and didn’t say anything when I flopped down, then hooked my leg over the arm of his visitor’s chair. Gaines was my godfather and had been my mother’s partner until she’d climbed into the political cesspool of San Francisco’s police department. I’d grown up swimming in the backyard pool of the house he and his husband, Braeden, lived in, and Gaines was the one who found me in the middle of the Riots to tell me my boyfriend, John, and our two daughters were killed in the raging block fires. I’d called him Uncle Will until I joined his division. Then he became Captain in public, but we still caught afternoon baseball games on hot summer days, and he was forever telling me to cut my hair. The concerned look on his face was troubling. Those were the kinds of looks Gaines got right before he meddled, and I’d never met anyone who loved to meddle more than my Uncle Will.

“I have to ask this. I’m required to.” He leaned back in his chair, straining its hydraulics. “Was this a fae thing?”

“What?” The question confused me. “What are you talking about? How is Arnett’s eye a fae thing?”

“Would you have used less force if Arnett hadn’t grabbed a fae or called you a splice?” Gaines’s frown deepened at my eye roll. “I’m serious, Rokugi. IA is firm on this. I’ve got to log a response. Did you shoot him because of past insults? Was this in any way a retaliation for something Arnett said or done to you before that incident?”

“He called me a splice. So what?” I snorted. “I’m half fae. It’s not the first time I’ve heard it. That’s not why I shot him. I shot him because he was an asshole and killed an innocent bystander. IA called it a righteous shoot.”

“You’ve met a lot of assholes in your life, Roku. You don’t make a habit of shooting all of them. And I know what IA said. I have their report. I just want to know if you’re okay and that this isn’t something racial.”

It was a valid query. The Riots took a shit-ton from me—mostly everyone I’d ever loved—and IA spent a lot of time sniffing around my ankles for even the barest hint of prejudice in what I did while wearing my badge. I’d have taken it personally if I didn’t know they hounded everyone. The city couldn’t withstand another firestorm like the Riots, and while I had no one left to lose, there were a lot of families who’d emerged intact. I’d sworn to protect them, pledged on a gold badge and a piece of my dead mother’s wing that I’d stop anyone who tried to do harm to the city and her citizens. So I didn’t begrudge IA their digging. I’d be more worried if they didn’t dig at all.

“He could have been a ninety-year-old grandmother with orphans hanging off of her teats and I’d have shot him. Arnett was armed and fleeing the scene of a crime.” I exhaled, shaking my head. “He unloaded a round into a woman. I had to go in front of her parents to tell them that their daughter was killed by a cop. It is not a fae versus human thing. It’s a people thing. If I had any way to go back in time and stop him from shooting that girl, I would do it in a split-second. No parent should have to wear a black star for their kid, and him being a dirty cop? That just makes things even worse.”

“I believe you, kid, but God, you let the damned lizards eat him.” He winced, then rubbed his face, trying to scrub the weary out of his eyes. “IA’s thinking you did it out of revenge.”