IncuBUST

The Iron Lance

Octavia replied several minutes later.

OCTAVIA: Oh my god! Are you alright?

ME: Yes, I'm alright.

OCTAVIA: You should have let Burafa turn them into popsicles!

Barapha laughed at the horrendous misspelling of his name and said, "I think she might be growing on me."

ME: That would have been illegal.

OCTAVIA: What they did is illegal!

ME: Which is why Sissy, BARAPHA, and I are at the police station reporting them.

OCTAVIA: I'm gonna kick their asses.

Barapha laughed again and I turned away from him huddling near Sissy-- who was still filling out paperwork--so that he could no longer read over my shoulder.

ME: You will do no such things They might be a couple of punks, but they probably have real muscle behind them.

OCTAVIA: I heard them talking when I came home from school. Apparently there's a neighborhood watch in Watermill and one of them said his dad has been trying to get permission for the watch to carry guns. Do you think their parents are in this iron lance thing?

I stared at the message for several minutes. Guns. There was a group of crazy bigots wandering around Octavia's neighborhood at night and they wanted permission to carry guns. I set the phone aside and set my elbows on my knees cradling my head in my hand and taking several deep breaths.

"Chase, what's wrong?" Barapha asked and I felt his cold hands on my shoulders. I gestured at the phone without lifting my head and he looked at it.

"She'll be fine, Chase. She's human," Barapha said, and I shook my head sucking in lungfuls of air in a futile attempt to stay calm.

"These people don't differentiate between Mythics and sympathizers, Barapha!" I shrieked and several people glanced in our direction. Sissy finally looked up from her paperwork and asked, "What's the problem now?" Barapha handed her the phone and she read Octavia's text.

"Barapha's right, Chase. As long as she lays low, she'll be fine," Sissy said setting the phone in my lap and returning to her papers. I stared at them both like they were crazy. Barapha made to pull away from me, but I grabbed onto his wrist feeling frigid cold seep into my fingers.

"Her cousin Nikolai is a Mythic. If the IL find out they will drag the entire household into the street and crucify them," I hissed, and he looked down at me with concern in his icy blue eyes.

"Alright...we'll try and get her out of there," Barapha said, and I blinked at him in surprise.

"We will?" I asked and he nodded replying, "I may not like her much, but I know she's important to you and you're...you're important to me so I'll help you get her out of there." I stared at him feeling warmth roiling beneath my skin. Even Sissy looked up from her paperwork to gawk at him in complete shock.

Barapha shifted uncomfortably and looked around muttering, "Where's that damn officer?" Sissy and I continued to stare. Barapha rolled his eyes and snapped, "Why don't you take a picture? It'll last--" I sprang to my feet and reached up onto my tiptoes to take his face in my hands yanking him down to mash my lips against his.

Sissy sighed and shook her head as she finished filling out the last of the papers. I felt so warm. It wasn't a suffocating heat, but it was something I was eager to share. I felt his hands on my rear, nearly lifting me off my feet and I tried to remind myself that we were in a public space. The fact seemed less important as he began plucking heat from my skin like fruit from a tree. I curled my arms around his neck tapping the well of seemingly endless energy within him.

"Boys!" Sissy suddenly shouted and I reluctantly pulled away though Barapha fought to keep a grip on me. I saw a female police officers in her late twenties staring at us her face flushed.