The Fox and The Hunter

Jonathan had left things poorly. Dick wasn’t answering his calls, which wasn’t surprising, and if he called Gareth now, he’d be pulled back into work. He couldn’t just—

He shouldn’t have kissed her. He just didn’t want to talk to her. Then she used that name, which Jon never wanted to hear after kissing a woman.

He’d kissed her. He still wasn’t processing how stupid it was that he’d kissed her. Then he’d abandoned her because he didn’t know what the fuck to do, and now he was sitting in his hotel room like a lonely weirdo, not that he hadn’t been one before, but he’d felt fine about it.

He picked up the phone, dialing unconsciously before putting it up to his ear.

“Calico Detective Agency,” Val said in a disturbingly perky voice, “What do you want?”

“Do you want to hear about something stupid I did?” he asked.

“I’m guessing it involves Viktorya Renfield.”

“Yeah, actually it does. I kissed her.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

“Are you going to explain anything else or is that all I get?” Val finally asked.

“I drove her to see her dad, and she made a comment about if we met under different circumstances, and I froze about it.”

“How bad did you freeze?”

“Hit the brakes on the car and then didn’t say a word above two syllables.”

Val made a wincing noise.

“Yeah, I know. Then she wouldn’t drop the subject when it came up later in the day, and I called her stubborn, which I was right about, and she made a comment about having to kiss me to get off her back, so I said fine and kissed her.”

“Wait, she kissed you before?”

“Shit.” he hadn’t planned on sharing that information with anyone.

“Which kiss was better?”

“I’ll go with the one I stayed conscious for the whole time, not that it was good. Remember when you mentioned breaking Randy Bowen’s glasses in grade school?”

“She wears glasses?” Val asked.

“Yeah, they make her eyes smaller, frame her face well.”

“Uh-huh.”

He didn’t care for his sister’s tone.

“Point is, I would have broken them if she hadn’t pulled away.”

“She pulled away?” Val asked, surprised almost.

“Yeah, and she said a name.”

“Was it your name?”

“No,” Jon said, “It was Dick’s.”

“Gross.”

“Not the real one, Chamberlain,” Jon said, “The name she was hired under.”

“Shit.”

“I don’t know if Dick’s actually involved. Anyone could use that name, but Dick was wearing the gold suit he mentioned, not that we found anything on him.” he didn’t like how much sense this made.

“You had him searched? When?”

“At the New Year’s party, where the pendant got stolen. He was there, and he claimed Viktorya passed the package to someone in a gold suit, which she never corrected. Actually—”

He closed his eyes and checked for movement in Viktorya’s apartment, which he found.

“I’ll ask her about it.”

Jon knocked on the door, watching it like a hawk. Viktorya didn’t respond.

“Hey, Viktorya. I’m sorry I abandoned you in the park, I just needed to contact people about the name, but I need to talk to you.”

No response.

He checked inside, watching whoever was in there—not Viktorya.

The door was unlocked and the intruder was out the window. Jon followed, hard stopped by the fire escape railing as they ran down.

He waited until they were almost at the bottom before tossing himself down, grabbing them before they could run back up.

“What were you looking for?” he asked.

“My friend owns the apartment!” they claimed.

“Then why did you run when I said her name?”

They kicked his leg, with a nasty snap courtesy of already taking damage from the fall. The bone wouldn’t heal fast enough for him to follow.

“Dammit.”

He kept focus, preparing to follow them as far as his sense would allow, but Viktorya blocked the alley-way before the intruder made it out.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

They pushed past her, and she just watched them go before running over to Jon.

“What did you do to yourself?” she asked.

“You shouldn’t have let him get away,” Jon said, keeping his weight off the broken leg. He could feel the bone setting itself, always uncomfortable.

“He wasn’t going to say anything. How did you hurt yourself?” she checked his forehead with the back of her hand.

“I’ll be fine. You should check your apartment for what he stole.”

“I can do that at any time. We should get you somewhere you can rest.” she lifted him up, holding one arm around his waist, and using the other to keep his arm draped over her shoulder. “My apartment’s closer than your hotel room, and I so rarely get to use the elevator.”

Jon couldn’t really object when the perpetrator was already gone. At least this way he could help search the room.

They were silent as Viktorya’s neighbors stared, and offered awkward smiles to their fellows in the elevator.

By the time they reached Viktorya’s apartment, Jon’s leg had finished setting, which made it potentially walkable, but Viktorya leveled a glare at him the moment he tried to set his foot down.

“I’m stronger than I look, Jon.”

“Since when are we on a nickname basis?”

“You’re not in a position to question that.” she started fumbling for her keys with the shoulder arm.

“It’s unlocked,” Jon let her know.

“Shit.”

She opened the door, moved Jon to her bed, then went back and locked it.

Jon adjusted himself, back to the headboard.

“So why did you insist on your apartment instead of a hospital?” he asked as Viktorya sat on the bed next to his leg.

“Because this is faster.”

She pulled his pant leg up, placing her hands on the break. Jon was too focused on the contact to back away. Orange sparks seemed to come out of the spot under her hands as Jon felt the bone heal faster than normal for him. She turned what would have been a few hours into two weirdly intimate minutes.

“Sorry for not asking, but it seemed like the least I could do after you broke it on my account. You may want to wait a minute before putting weight on it again, though.”

She left him alone, staring at his own leg.

“How did you do that?” he finally asked.

She pulled her hair back to reveal her ear, holding her finger behind a slight point it made at the top. Jon wouldn’t have noticed it if she hadn’t pointed it out.

“Not prominent, but still elven. My mom and uncle are similarly… stocky? In the ear department.”

“Elves can heal people?” Jon asked.

Viktorya laughed.

“I guess I didn’t think about Gareth Shepherd being a wild mage. I assumed because you work with him, you’d know about ancestral Magek, but he probably doesn’t know. But yeah, Elves heal people.”

She kept watching him.

“This is actually the second time I’ve healed you,” she admitted.

“When was the first?”

He didn’t remember any kind of healing.

“When I stole shit. I handled your stab wound, didn’t want you irritating it and getting damaged. Did you think that disappeared on its own?”

He’d just assumed he’d lost more time than he had. Stab wounds, even deep ones, didn’t take longer than an hour most of the time.

“I must have forgotten about it.”

“About being stabbed?”

“Who knows what that kiss knocked out of me?”

She tensed. Kissing probably wasn’t the subject to bring up right now.

“Forget I said anything,” he said, “Do you have any idea what they might have wanted to steal?”

She turned away to scan the apartment, leveling her gaze at the trash can, which had several crumpled papers beside it.

“The note.”

“What note?”

“For the original job. I didn’t tear it up, so it was intact in my trash can, and now it isn’t there.”

“How do you know that?” Jon asked.

She gave him a look.

“Oracle, right, got it. What was in that note?”

“My instructions, and confirmation I didn’t give you a bogus name.”

“I don’t think you would have chosen the time you did if it was a made up name.”

“That’s exactly why you shouldn’t trust it. I would’ve chosen that time if I’d planned ahead.”

“You seemed a little too surprised to have planned for it.”

“My father believed he’d managed to plan perfect surprise parties for several years. I’m a good liar.”

“Why tell me that?”

She sat down on the bed, close enough for either one to grab the other.

“Because I like the idea of you trusting me, as unlikely as that is.”

She was right. He couldn’t trust her, not in this situation. It didn’t matter since he was going home soon.

Right after she’d had a home invasion.

“I can’t go back to my hotel room.”

She shrank back.

“Why not?”

“Because I only came over here to ask you something. The burglar was an accident. It’s too far away to actually make sure you’re safe, and since you were so easily invaded, someone has to.”

“I can take care of myself,” she reasserted.

“I’m sure you can in most circumstances, but right now, I don’t want to leave you in danger. I’ll be out of your hair by tomorrow night, don’t worry. I’ll call a friend to keep an eye on you for a bit longer.”

“Wait, why tomorrow night?”

“I already booked a flight, and I need to look into Chamberlain anyways. It’s best for all involved parties if we resolve this as fast as possible,” he chanced a hand on her arm.

“Of course.” Viktorya looked down and away from his hand.

“I’ll take the couch,” he said, “I’ve had worse.”

“Hell no, you’re injured.”

“I can’t invade your apartment and make you take the couch.”

“Then we can just share the bed. It’s large enough.”

It was his turn to recoil.

“Am I that repulsive?” Viktorya asked, with laughter in the tone.

Jon shook his head.

“Repulsive isn’t the issue.”

Her smile turned mischievous as she leaned in closer.

“So the kiss wasn’t just to get me out of your way.”

“It was mostly that,” Jon claimed.

She rolled her eyes.

“Fine, prude, take the couch. I’ll find you a blanket. While I get changed, go back to your hotel room and grab what you need overnight. I assume you don’t sleep in the nude.”

Jon shook his head.

“Definitely not.”

“Shame.”

She handed him a set of keys.

“My landlord’s pretty lenient about overnight guests. Don’t lie too much if anyone asks you about it.”

The night was uneventful, and Jon woke awkwardly nearly an hour before Viktorya. She was closed off at rest, turned away and balled up. He took it as a reminder of how much she had to hide.

He found her phone and called a familiar number.

“Who is this?” A French woman asked.

“Glad to see you got your accent back, off the clock?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes,” Camille said, “Why do you care?”

“I need a favor,” Jon said, “And I happen to know you’re close enough friends with this person to call them by a nickname. She seemed fond of you as well.”

“Who?”

“The Fox. I’ve been keeping an eye on her lately, and I need someone to keep that up while I follow a few leads.”

“Oh…” The sound of mirth in Camille’s tone was a bad sign, “How closely have you been keeping an eye on her?”

“That’s irrelevant.”

“Are you in her apartment right now?”

He rolled his eyes. If he managed to intrigue her, though, Camille might come by faster.

“I don’t kiss and tell.”

“What does that—”

“I leave tonight, try to be here by tomorrow morning.”

He hung up before Camille could ask another question, then denied the call that immediately came.

He moved to working on the dishes like he had before. He needed something to do, and that didn’t seem like it would invade Viktorya’s privacy.

As he got to the bottom of the sink, which also needed cleaning, he sensed movement from Viktorya’s bed. She was stretching her arms out before bringing her legs into the mix. Jon’s eyes were focused on the sink in front of him, but he wasn’t. There was a grace to how she handled this routine that felt out of place with the morning chaos he’d witnessed before.

“You watching me with that sense of yours?” she asked like she’d read his mind.

“You’re the main movement in the area right now, hard not to notice.”

He couldn’t discern her expression, but it probably wasn’t convinced.

“What are you cleaning my sink for?” she asked, leaning on the counter beside him.

“Needed something to do,” he said.

“Well thank you, because I wasn’t looking forward to that task.”

Now in a tank top, she gave a better view of some of her tattoos. She had a matching symbol on each wrist, with something else trailing up her right forearm. At the top of her back was a similar symbol to the wrist ones.

“Those are runes, right?” he asked. He hoped he had the right term.

“Yeah, old mage trick. These babies let me do a lot that I couldn’t otherwise. You don’t tend to see them on proper spellcasters.”

Jon nodded along.

“Right,” Viktorya nodded back, “you don’t know jack shit about Magek, do you?”

“Not a bit. Shepherd’s never been. And I don’t talk to many more mages past him.”

She gave him an appraising look.

“I’ve never actually been either, to Magek I mean. My family on both sides has been on Earth for generations. We’re not quite wild mages, but we’re backwoods to some extent.”

He hadn’t thought about there being mages with the knowledge for runes but not a place in the world of mages. It made sense with how real Viktorya’s problems seemed.

“Not the same,” he said, “But I don’t have much connection to my family history. I’m out of contact with most of my dad’s family, and my mother keeps contact with her family to minimum.”

She made a humming sound.

“Yeah, at least my dad’s family still talks to us on occasion. My mom’s brother sometimes shows up offering to train me, but I've never taken him up on it. We're not close.”

He made a humming sound back.

“What?” she asked.

“You just seemed like more of a loner to me.”

“What made you think that, the messy apartment, or the fact I haven’t had a conversation outside of you, my father, and work the whole time you’ve known me?”

He didn’t comment.

“Well you’re not wrong.” she started drying some of the dishes and putting them away.

He got the sink to a better looking point, earning an approving nod from Viktorya.

“I arranged for someone to come keep an eye on you, like I promised last night” he admitted, “At least until we know you’re safe.”

“Don’t want a lonely retired thief on your conscience, huh?”

“No.”

“Great. I don’t want to be on your conscience either, but like I said before, I can handle myself.”

He believed her, but he needed to know if she did anything suspicious. She wouldn’t let him know that.

“Maybe I also need someone to handle you.”

“One kiss and you’re tossing me to someone else.” she put one hand on her head and the other on her heart as she leaned backward.

Jon froze. His mouth stayed in a frown, and his hands didn’t move. It was just like in the car.

“Are you okay?” Viktorya asked, “I was just kidding. I’m not…”

She lightly tapped his cheek, shaking him enough bring movement back.

“Sorry, I’m not sure what came over me,” he said.

Her eyes didn’t leave his face, searching for something.

“What are you looking for?” he asked.

“This is the second time I’ve made a comment about anything between us and you’ve frozen up. You may want to have someone check you in there.” she poked his forehead, “Because that response doesn’t happen just from nerves.”

He didn’t need her help, didn’t want her help, but he didn’t like the truth of it.

“Shouldn’t you be getting to work?” he asked.

“Shit!”

Jon didn’t change much of what he did that day. He stayed around Viktorya until he had to leave for his flight. Viktorya sat outside the library with him once her shift was over.

“This was weird,” she said, “Like having a boyfriend over for a weekend except that you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you,” he said. He didn’t even dislike her necessarily.

“Well that’s something.” she gestured with her coffee in a cheers motion.

They sat in awkward silence. There hadn’t been much to ruin, but they certainly had.

“I’m sorry,” Jon finally said.

“Sorry for what?”

“Sorry we met under these circumstances.”

Viktorya chuckled.

“I think it’s my fault we met like this, not yours, and I’m not going to apologize for something I didn’t have much of a choice in.”

“So it’s your client’s fault?”

“Exactly.”

Whatever game Chamberlain was playing, Jon would make him pay for it, family be damned.

“Maybe we should have met when you interviewed Gareth.”

She shook her head.

“No… You would have clocked me as suspicious just like you did this time. The book was a cover story for something else, but then I actually liked making it.”

He knew better than to ask what it was a cover for. He didn’t care at the moment.

“I’ll have to finish it then, give you a full review.”

She kissed him on the cheek.

“I look forward to it.”

He held his hand over his cheek for a silent moment.

“Shit,” Viktorya said, “I didn’t mean to—”

“I should probably go to catch my flight.”

“Yeah,” Viktorya said before adding a quiet “Fuck.”

“Should I drive you home first?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“I can handle myself, remember?”

Jon took her hand, touching her knuckles to his lips.

“Until we meet again, Viktorya.”