A Longer Fall (Gunnie Rose #2)(74)

“Felix?” Eli’s voice was weak.

“Yeah. Felix.”

“I think he killed the doctor this morning.”

“He did.”

“Why?”

“He says the doctor was going to kill you.” I kept my voice going right down the middle.

“I had no idea,” Eli said, and his tone was the same.

“You see Felix in the front seat? He said we need to get out of Sally now that our job is done.”

“Felix?” Eli said.

“I’m right here, Eli.”

“Why are we leaving town? I was supposed to stay to see what happened after the arrival of Moses the Black.”

“I had to get you out of there as soon as possible. That’s what I am doing, with the help of your charming friend. You knew she could resist magic spells?”

If Felix was trying to be casual, he missed his target.

Eli had not told anyone. He had kept a secret I had not even dared to ask him to. With a lot of neck-twisting, I looked him in the eyes.

“Are you sure?” he said now, looking back. “Maybe she is just lucky. Gunnies often are.”

“Or else they’re dead gunnies,” I said, making myself sound cheerful and stupid.

“I have to get out and relieve myself,” Eli said, sounding like he was apologizing for something.

“Sure.” I scooted out, reached in to help him.

It took some shifting around to get Eli out of the car. Felix didn’t offer to help. Whether he knew I’d seen all of Eli (who was still in the hospital gown) and that wouldn’t bother me, or whether he planned to steal the car while we were out of it, something was going on, and I didn’t understand what it was.

“The car,” Eli gasped as we moved a few feet away behind a tree. He was in pain.

“I got the keys,” I said. “And I got my guns.”

I lifted Eli’s hospital gown for him. When I saw it was all he could do to lean up against the tree without aid, I held his dick. With a sigh of relief, he let go. When he was done, I took the opportunity to squat and do the same. Eli eased around the tree to keep an eye on the car.

Since Eli remained silent, I took it that Felix was behaving. Of course, maybe he was behaving because I had the car keys. Or an invisible someone might have snuck up and stabbed him while I was holding Eli’s dick.

I couldn’t help but think that would solve a lot of problems.

When I was put back together, I tucked myself under Eli’s arm and we began working our way out of the woods and back to the road. Eli was already tired after that short side trip into the trees.

“Hey, I even said the healing spell on you about a million times while they were operating,” I said, trying to sound cheerful. “Guess I am not such a good half-grigori after all.”

“It’s bad that Felix knows,” Eli said.

“I don’t know what I did to make him suspect, except not get killed by Moses the Black. Oh, I didn’t fall under the singing spell. Do you want me to kill Felix?”

Eli kissed the top of my head as we moved slowly onto the road. He was shaking all over now. “You are wonderful to offer,” he said. “But we’ll keep on as we are, until he wants us to do something we know will lead to our imprisonment or death.”

I had never thought of imprisonment. The idea made my stomach curdle. I hadn’t been in jail before, much less a prison. Take that back—I’d been in jail once, overnight, due to a case of mistaken identity. More or less. Being locked in a cell, unarmed, with people I didn’t know… I was a good fistfighter, but I was small with a short reach. Size matters, in a fistfight.

“Have you always fought with magic? Or have you been in any kind of brawl where you had to use your hands?” I asked Eli, just as we got to the car door.

“I hit other boys when I was small,” he whispered. “Before I found that I had magic ability. Are you asking if I can still do that?”

“Yes.”

“Some days there is nothing I would like better than to hit someone square on the chin. But then I think of what we were taught, that magic users should think it below them to use their bodies to fight.”

“Don’t you ever think any form of fighting is below you,” I said seriously. “You weigh in there with whatever you got.”

“All right,” he whispered.

Eli was about to fold up, so I opened the rear door—thinking a little help from Felix would have been welcome—and got him in. But I looked at Felix as I was about to close the door. “Eli,” I said. “Felix is dead.”

Eli was so done in it took him a minute to gather up the idea. “Shake him,” he said. “I didn’t do anything to him. You didn’t do anything?”

“No. You’re the boss, and you said not to.” I opened Felix’s door and looked in. “He’s absolutely dead,” I told Eli. Just for form’s sake I put my fingers to Felix’s neck. “Shit,” I said with disgust. “I had twenty questions I wanted to ask him. When he felt better.”

“He was ill?”

“He said he’d been unconscious last night because he used so much magic in resurrecting Moses the Black. And then turning him into a statue. Maybe this morning, killing Dr. Gimball and putting everyone at the hospital to sleep so we could get you out… maybe that was too much.”