Voices pierced the fog of his mind though he couldn’t make out the words.
Victoria.
He felt his body heaved out of the car and into the air roughly, and then set down a few seconds later onto something soft. His eyes cracked open enough to see the blurry back room of Calliope’s shop in chaos.
Papers rustled and flew in all directions.
His sister hovered over him, waving random bottles under his nose. All he could smell was rot.
Time was passing, but he couldn’t quite keep track of it as he slipped in and out of consciousness.
Another voice arrived, familiar, though he couldn’t quite place it. With the voice, came incredible, radiating pain that caused his eyes to shoot open. He tried to scream, but nothing came out.
“I think he’s gonna be alright.” Someone was holding his eyelid open, shining a light inside. More time had passed that he couldn’t quantify.
“You think?” Victoria and Calliope sounded in unison.
A groggy feeling set in alongside the stabbing headache. He grumbled and tried to turn onto his side, but two powerful hands grabbed his shoulders and held him in place.
“Marcus, You’ve got a sigil in your chest,” Victoria’s voice was as unflinching as her grip. “If you can hear me, I need you to stay still. Please.”
His mind flashed back to the tents. The Arcanex quarantine zone. The kid with the stone in her chest. If they’d been able to clear the toxin from his system…Arcanex could do it too. His muscles tensed, and he tried to fight against her hands.
“Doc!” Victoria called out. “He’s waking up!”
Another set of hurried footsteps approached him as he urged his hands to move. They didn’t. He opened his eyes to the blurry silhouette of the voice he now recognized.
“We’ve gotta stop meeting like this, Marcus.” There was a snap of latex gloves as Dr. Monroe knelt down on the other side of him. Her fingers moved around his chest, where he could feel his skin had a strange amount of give. “Research says it needs to stay in place for twenty-four hours. Otherwise, the toxin won’t fully clear. Best to leave it in.”
“Need to go…” His voice was hoarse and hollow. Blinking hard, he lifted his head enough to see the fist-sized stone embedded into his chest. “Stich me up…”
“You need to rest.” Dr. Monroe started.
“No, it was too fast…” He tried to explain, but his brain refused to form complete thoughts.
“Marcus, you need to calm down. You’re okay, but you need to rest.” Victoria spoke, followed by another voice.
“Marcus!” Ophelia slid to a stop beside the doctor and took his hand. “You’re okay! He’s okay, right?”
“Need to…” Marcus groaned as he tried to sit up again.
His sister silhouette was suddenly over his head, soft and angelic. “Sorry baby brother,” she handed a vial to the doctor who glanced at the label and then dumped it into his gaping mouth. “That oughta put him out for a while.”
###
He opened his eyes, vision clear this time. His fingers moved up to his bare chest, finding a bandage instead of a stone. Marcus lifted his head enough to look down at his legs where what he thought might have been restraints turned out to be a passed out Ophelia on his thighs.
“Only time she’s left was when I had to kick her out to open you up.” Dr. Monroe whispered as she sat a chair down beside him, and lifted his bandage with a gloved hand. “Do you get normal injuries?”
Marcus grunted as he couldn’t quite manage a laugh, though a smile crossed his lips. “Try and keep it a little more ordinary next time.” He said as he laid his head back down.
“Blood parasites and toxin from an animal I didn’t even know existed.” Dr. Monroe clicked her tongue. “Somebody is really trying their best to get rid of you quietly. What makes you so special, Mr. Tenneson?”
“Roguish good looks and my devil may care attitude.” He winced as she gave one of the stitches a tug.
“Uhuh…” She peeled off the glove on her hand and replaced it with another before lifting his eyelid. “Bright light.” She warned before flashing the little penlight at him.
“There was something wrong with it.” His eyes closed again once she was done checking him. “The toxin normally takes time to spread through the system. Usually hours.”
“I’m no expert, but I can tell you that you didn’t have hours. By the time I got here, you had minutes before you were septic.”
“How did you do it? You cleared it?” Marcus turned his head as the doctor packed her bag.
“Duct tape, hopes, and dreams.” She quipped before lifting up a few sheets of paper from a nearby table. “Victoria brought a bunch of research. Wouldn’t say where you got it, but considering the letterhead…” She turned the pages to show him. “I’ve got a couple guesses.”
“It’s something you can replicate, then?”
“Under the right circumstances, and with some peer review, sure.” Dr. Monroe looked around and chuckle. “If Callie chose a different line of work, you’d be properly fucked. Given the right materials and time, though...” She shrugged.
Marcus nodded, rubbing his eyes with clenched fists. “I get the feeling we are going to need a lot of whatever you used.”
“Why?” Dr. Monroe peeked over her glasses at him.
“You may not know much about blightshrews, but I do.” His eyes fell on Ophelia again, lightly snoring against his jean covered legs. “If the toxin hit me that fast, it had to have been optimized. I can’t think of many reasons a corporation would optimize a lethal toxin.”
The doctor’s eyebrows rose, lips forming a thoughtful frown. “You’re suggesting a magitech company is going to introduce a virus to the public and sell it only known cure?” She sat back down in the chair and faced him.
“I’m not suggesting…” He paused and considered for a moment. This woman had no skin in this game. She could get out right now after saving one life, feel good about herself, and never be the wiser. “Look, Doc, I can tell you what’s going on. Where we got that research, what was happening there…If I do, you’re in it. This is your chance to get out.”
She stared at him through skeptically lidded eyes for a moment, then flicked her ponytail over her shoulder. “You gonna tell me where the parasites came from?”
“Sure,” he shrugged. “It’s tangentially related, I guess.”
“Alright, I’m in.” She said without hesitation. “But I’ll have questions.”
Marcus chuckled and sighed. “Wouldn’t expect any less.”
He started with Norah. The memory haunted him to this day, but he let it flow. The brush with the rabid blightshrews in her enclosure. Their abduction and consequential NDAs, to which she had questions.
“How did you break a magical contract?”
Marcus winced and scratched his head. “I don’t know the logistics of that, my mom did it.”
That seemed to be enough of an explanation, so he continued with the experiments in London, and he and Victoria invading the quarantine.
“I’d heard about that one the news. You just walked through a quarantine zone like you belonged there?” She asked.
“Sort of,” Marcus shrugged. He didn’t think it murdering an arcanex guard was information she needed, and frankly didn’t want to live through the experience again, so he kept it general. “We tried to get rid of the blightshrews first, but we got found out. So we ducked the guards and invaded one of the tents to get the research.”
“You’re a keeper at an animal reserve?” Dr. Monroe pursed her lips and squinted at him again. “Not like a spy or secret government asset?” She hooked her thumb over her shoulder. “Victoria I get, she’s got that rough, don’t give a shit militant look. You obviously work out, but…I get a big ‘likes to play with puppies’ vibe from you.”
Marcus’ mouth turned into a thin line, and he shook his head. “Can I continue?”
“Please.”
He finished off with her personal request, invading the arcanex facility, fighting Yuri Volkobor, and obtaining the contracts.
“Blood magic.” Her eyes widened, and there was a strange fascination in her grin. “I’ve only heard stories about it. Was his blood diseased? Or maybe they were magically enhanced parasites in his blood already and he’d just acclimatized to them, but when they got into your bloodstream, it was a feeding frenzy, or…”
“I don’t know how,” he interrupted her rambling. “And I get you’re fascinated by it, so feel free to research it, I don’t really want to know though.”
“Oh…” She looked at him like he were insane for a moment, before her expression softened and her mind refocused on the current problem. She was silent for a long time, letting it all sink in, he assumed, before speaking again. “This sounds like an evil plot from a spy movie. You realize how ridiculous it is, right?”
“I’m very aware.” Marcus nodded. “Doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
The door to the shop proper opened slowly, and Calliope poke her head in. “We’ve got a problem.” She said, stepping inside once seeing he was awake. She moved around him to grab the remote and turn on the television mounted to the back wall.
“…appears to resemble the recent emergency event in the UK. Symptoms have been spreading through several US cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Seattle. There is good news on the horizon, however. Arcanex CEO Walter Harris had this to say just this morning.”
The scene cut to Ophelia’s father standing behind a podium. “I am deeply saddened to hear that our brothers and sisters in the United States are now facing a similar crisis to what we experienced here in London. The loss of life was truly a tragedy, but we here at Arcanex are here to help. When illness spread through my home city, our researchers worked tirelessly. I’m proud to say we’ve developed an effective cure. We are working with our friends in the US to get FDA approval fast tracked, and it should be available in hospitals across the country soon.”
“Turn it off.” Marcus hissed, stitches tugging as he sat up. He placed his hand on Ophelia’s shoulder and gently shook her. “Hey, wake up.”
Ophelia grumbled a moment, then her head shot up at the sound of his voice. Her arms immediately swung around him, squeezing him tight. “You’re okay. I was so worried.”
He caught the accusatory look Calliope gave him but chose to ignore it. No time for the relationship drama right now. He hugged her, patting her back softly.
“I’m good. I’ve got work to do, though.” Marcus spoke with pained determination.
“You’ve got recovering to do.” Calliope corrected him. “He’s not ready to do anything yet, right?” She looked over to the doctor for help.
Dr. Monroe shrugged, half-smiling. “Doesn’t seem like he cares much.”
Marcus shook his head. “I’m done.” He took a deep breath, bringing himself to his feet. “I’m done being the victim. I’m done reacting. People are going to die if I don’t do anything.” He swallowed, grabbing his shirt hanging on the wall and pulling it on. “Plus, I’m dead now. Nobody suspects ghosts.”