When I came to, I coughed up the dirty water that I'd swallowed when I hit the ground. After gagging over the taste of oil, rainwater, and sewage mixed together, I flopped over on my back and waited for the world to stop spinning. To say that I was astonished would be an understatement.
My arm had been shattered, but it was mending painfully. The bone shards clicked together, and each piece felt like a cut that was being reopened then sewn together. The torn muscle knitted and pulled, feeling like someone was pinching me from the inside. I groaned as I pulled myself up by using one of the trash bins as leverage.
I took the jacket he'd left and threw it against the wall. Then I struggled to keep from passing out again as my head injury healed. The aftertaste of sewage didn't help to prevent further nausea.
When ten minutes had passed, I was finally in good enough shape to stumble forward, then I took off at a run, reaching the end of the alley in a few seconds. It was the middle of the day in San Francisco, so at least there was that.
Not far was an overweight dog running as fast as he could with the terrible limp he had. It looked like it might have been a russet colored German shepherd, but the dog was too massive to really be sure. It might have been a wolf.
I grew suspicious of the dog and tried to sense if it had a link. When I tried to perceive it, I began to sneeze.
"Thyme..." I snapped. That was what Dom had sprinkled me with. Then I sneezed again. Phoukas had an allergy to Thyme, and it kept them from being able to use the fae's ability to perceive their prey. I could not see my own link, let alone Dom's.
"Very smart, Dom." I wondered who had told him about Thyme?
Thyme is a key ingredient in pizza sauce, but Matt had always ordered our pizzas without it because of my allergy. Dom must have figured out why and had been keeping a jar on him.
I shifted to my dog form, then sneezed three times. My nose was too stuffed up to pick up a good scent, but the overweight dog had piqued my curiosity, so I went after it.
I tore up the distance between us with my large bounds and leaps, until the other canine realized I was after it and put on speed.
Oh, that was definitely Dom. How did he switch?
I would soon unravel that mystery if I could catch him. I was grateful he hadn't bound me. It had been over a week since I had shared the story of how Matt and I first met, but he must not have remembered.
No.
He likely knew that if I was bound up, there was no guarantee he could keep me that way. All I would need to have happen is for him to thank me once, and he'd be Phouka chow.
Humans had the bad habit of saying that phrase often.
Dom careened around a corner, and a short time after, I rounded it.
The dog had disappeared.
I growled and let out a stream of frustrated staccato barking until a pot was thrown at me. Fortunately, it missed. I yelped in surprise and looked up at an angry face staring down at me in a window.
"Shaddup, you stupid mutt!"
I bared all my teeth, and my eyes flashed red as I snarled up at him. Saliva dripped from my jaws. I lept onto the fire-escape and started to climb it, which was a clumsy endeavor without my thumbs. It was enough to scare the face, however, because the window slammed shut.
I growled again, then continued down the street.
A net flew at me from a darkened doorway and fell over my body. Every ounce of my strength fled, and I knew that I was trapped in my canine form. I tried to shift several times, but the net prevented me.
A small hand reached into the net, uncaring about my snapping jaws, and slapped a constraining band onto my left foreleg.
"Yep, that'll do it," a gravelly voice announced.
Mike?
Dominic crouched down by the net to look at me, and Mike crouched down next to him.
What twisted world was I in where Dom and Mike were working together?
"I'm feeling some mixed emotions that you're the one helping me out, Mike." Dominic scraped a hand over his cropped hair, messing it up.
Ah, so it was a surprise that Mike was there.
"But with my leg injury, I'm glad you showed up."
No, Dom. You shouldn't be. I snapped at the net and let go of a series of warning barks. With all the thyme that Dom dumped on me, I couldn't tell if Mike was using magic to lure Dom in, but that had to be the case. We were in no better company with Mike than we were with Joseph.
"Hush, Luis! Yeah, well. I know I have some things to explain, but let's get this idiot back to my store and get you treated first. Howzat sound?"
It didn't sound that wonderful to me. Dom should have said no, but I couldn't tell him that.
"And I need you to help me put Luis in the truck. I don't like touching silver if I can avoid it," Mike grumbled.
Dom took the ends of the net and drew them together until it formed a bag. Then he tried to hoist me. I was dropped to the ground again as Dom groaned. "I can't lift him with this bad leg. Go bring the truck closer and I'll try to figure out how to get him in there."
Mike trotted down the road and brought the truck closer to us. The face that was at that window and emerged onto the street. I discovered he was a tall, burly man. "You guys part of animal control?" he asked.
"Yes, we are off duty, but we saw this guy running around and he looked dangerous. I hurt my leg though while I was chasing him. Could you give me a hand?" Dom asked the stranger.
"Boy, could I! That thing tried to climb the ladder to get me. He almost succeeded! Looks like you banged up more than your leg, poor guy." The man lifted the bag up and dumped me onto the bed of the truck. "Good riddance, mutt!"
Dominic touched his eye. "Yes, he had a friend but that one got away."
He slapped Dominic on the back. "Hope you get that other one too, guy! This one is vicious!"
"Oh, I will." Dom looked at me with such ferocity that it shut up my barking. Then he was back to his jovial self as he shook the stranger's hand. "Thanks, man!"
Dominic and Mike got into the truck, and we were moving. I struggled in the net, ashamed that I was so easily overtaken, not once but twice, by someone like Dominic. I was embarrassed to be called a Phouka. The pixie dust must have still been addling me. That had to be it. Even with his powers, I should have been able to overtake an out-of-shape human. It was the poison from the dust. I probably didn't take enough of the antidote.
We rode for about twenty minutes, then I was being dumped into Mike's shop. All the props, costumes, and magic tricks had been cleared out of the place. There wasn't any dust to be seen, in fact, even the brass grilles on the windows had been shined until they gleamed.
"Okay, take the net off of him. The cuff will keep him from causing trouble." Mike said.
Dom released me from the net, and I immediately felt better. I sat up on my haunches and looked around. Obviously, I had questions.
Dom was looking just as bewildered as me at the clean state of Mike's shop. "Did you have a fire sale?"
"Hah! Sumthin' like that." Mike winced at the bareness of the room. "I had to settle some debts."
There were still a few sticks of furniture in the place, so Dom pulled a chair into the center of the room and sat in it. Mike sat in his specially made armchair.
Dominic released the weariest sigh weighed down by all the frustrations and fears he'd endured over the last two weeks. I had endured them as well, but I wouldn't ever tell him.
Mike pulled a small sack from his pocket and dumped a little vial out of it into his hand. "This is my last bottle of this stuff. It can get you back. But first we need to talk about Matt and what I really need."
Dom eyed the vial with suspicion, "Mike, I've known you for years. I think I know better than to chug down a bottle of anything you provide me."
"So little faith," Mike gave him a hang-dog look.
"And I'm not here because of whatever mumbo jumbo you tried to spell me with either. Yeah. I felt that."
"Tch... well that's a shame. Guess that shield of yours protected you. Makes things easier when I don't have to do a villain speech you know."
Dominic reached down to the cuff on my leg while still staring at Mike. "If you're doing a villain speech, I think I might prefer Luis to be fully present to hear it."
"Psssh... I wouldn't let him go. He's in too deep with Joseph for you to find a friend in that guy."
Dom grimaced as he gave me a sidelong glance. "I know." He bonked me on the head and I yelped. He immediately hissed and rubbed it apologetically. "What about Matt and the link? What about your kid, idiot?"
I realized that gesture was what made Dom a better person.
"You ain't going to get any good reasons from him. He's been tainted, tied up, and stolen from. Would be better to put the mutt out of his misery. " Mike pulled out a huge knife from who knows where.
Dom looked at Mike sharply, "Put that away. I'm not going to kill him. Not yet anyway. And what do you mean about him being tainted?"
"If he's with Joseph there's no other reason for it. No one stays with him voluntarily. Somehow, he got his hooks into Luis."
"Can it be fixed like it was fixed with Matt?"
Mike smirked and shrugged a single shoulder. "Are you sure about that?"
Dom grabbed the cuff again and Mike hollered, "All right, all right! I don't know if we can fix him. Not sure if Matt is fixed. We need that pain in the butt Straif to know for sure."
Dom released the cuff. "Tell me everything and leave nothing out."
Mike nodded slowly. "Fine. You wanna know the real reason why I've been trying to get that sword from Matt? My daughter's a vampire. Yeah, that's right. She's one of Joseph's children. She has been for centuries. And the only thing I want in this world is for her to not get sick like the rest of them."
He took a moment to collect himself, and dashed some tears from his eyes.
"So yes, when all of them started getting sick four years ago, I started to work on helping my baby girl. I'd already been working on trying to cure vampirism altogether, so I'd ingratiated myself with the people in Aleria. It was hard doing it from this side, but Nirumbee are helpful to oak trees. We take care of all the trees on this side of the betwixt. I helped out with Duir getting here and ingratiated myself to her. Worked over that grandpa of Matt's. Made everyone think I was just some dumb sap. But my only thing is getting this sickness done and vampirism cured."
"So, what does that have to do with Matt?"
"Matt's the catalyst. And that sword of her is the key to saving my girl!"
"Everyone says Matt's a catalyst, but what does it mean?"
"It means that she's the only one that seems to be able to activate magic at full power. She's a switch. She builds portals. That sword of hers is part of it, and it's the only way to truly transfer her power to another person."
"She's a Tree."
Mike looked shocked. "No kiddin? Wow... never would have guessed that."
Dom paused a few moments, then narrowed his eyes. "You already knew that didn't you?"
The little man shrugged. "Of course. With what my daughter explained to me about Matt and Joseph. I had a pretty good idea."
"Who is your daughter?"
"Her name's Simone."