Chapter Twenty-Six – Tammy

  I couldn’t handle the house right now anyway. Scully and Mini – they could wait. The bird was already watching TV again like nothing had happened. He didn’t even look at me as I stumbled up to the door.

  Before there was a knock, I yanked it open and stumbled out, stopping just long enough to make sure I had my key. Not like the magic winged monster lady would let me get locked out – I just needed to drive and be out of here. Training was later, and it would be bad enough.

  Shit. Shit. I was crying and the government lady saw. Whatever she started to say died in her throat, and for a few seconds she just fidgeted in place. I took her moment of indecision to get down the stairs.

  I called back, “If – if you want a ride back, hurry up. I need some space.”

  “Are you ok? You look like…”

  “Look, Lady, no shit. My sister’s with the Fae because I fucked up. I’ve cheated death four times that I know about in the last week, and now I’ve got the government knocking on my door. I’m obviously not great. I have too many commitments right now to deal with you, but I’m not gonna make you walk back to your car in those shoes. Come on, before Scully glitches out again.”

  There was tapping as she typed something into the tablet in her hands, but her feet crunched on the gravel behind me soon enough.

  “You mean the Archivist? We’ve noticed…”

  “Problems. Yeah yeah. I inherited a mess and I’m doing the best I can. She said she’ll fix herself. Just give it time and avoid provoking her. She gets scary.”

  “Miss Aufrey – that’s an understatement. You realize that it could kill millions of people, correct? It’s already…”

  “I know. I fucking know, ok? She acts like she’s known me my whole life, but she keeps mixing me up with Grandpa and Teresa and I guess my fucking mom. She’s getting better and more intact, but something messed her up. Please, just leave her alone. If this gets worse…look, I can’t handle that myself and I definitely don’t think you all could even help. She has a grudge against you right now and not enough brains to think better of stupid orders. I’ll ask for a book and she brings me something that makes my eyes start bleeding, damn it.”

  I slid into the seat, leaning over to clear the passenger one. Again. It was already junked up with fast food bags from after Alyssa stormed off.

  “So yeah, I know that if you push her or push us, it could be Bad. You don’t think I know that? I’m in so far over my head that I’m just swinging from one problem to the next without a single break.”

  There was more typing. Then silence. I shoved the burger wrapper from yesterday onto the floor and ignored the way the brunette woman grimaced as she slid in.

  “This is barely cleaner than my daughter’s car.”

  She was a spook. There had to be an angle. But right now – as I was shaking and holding myself up with the steering wheel realizing that yes, I had just almost died, again, to an omnipresent spirit that shared my house and apparently used to follow me around town – I couldn’t really care less. I just laughed.

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  “Then you get how teenagers are. Sorry I’m not giving the Aufrey hospitality people expect, eh? Grandad had tea with gods while I was falling apart at boarding school, then died. He left us to find things out for ourselves. I’m Tammy, but I’m guessing you know more about me than I do. Care to give me my, I don’t know, third existential crisis this week?”

  “Agent Victoria. Your case is an…interesting one.”

  “You can say fucked up, you know. I’m not a snob. Or immortal. Or anything. I’m just a girl in over my head doing the best I can. Right? Fuck its nice to ask questions, but look. Whatever you came here for – it’s gonna have to wait.”

  I slapped the off button on the radio as we jerked back, tires spinning a bit on the gravel. Then I took a deep breath and tried to relax as she tapped away at her tablet, even with her eyes looking right at me.

  “I see, I see. You’ve been consorting with the Sphinxes, the last report said. Scrying either of you has been quite difficult, you know. There’s an entire team from the Seattle office dedicated to you. Another to your sister. Both of you got bumped up from single agents in the scramble to catch up on your grandpa’s death – but we couldn’t really come up to you until now. Did you really not know anything about magic before this?”

  I let us drift to a stop halfway down the driveway as tears welled up.

  “No. No we fucking didn’t. If we’d known none of this would be happening. And since nobody fucking bothered trying to talk to us this entire mess is going on I’m drowning in it. And Teresa’s…I have these dreams, right? Who knows if they’re true, but I really think she’s doing worse than me. I tried to drink away my fuckup last night and I saw her crying her eyes out, naked.”

  I bit back a scream. It didn’t quite work.

  “All of this shit, every single mistake we made, could have been prevented if you’d just talked to us. This isn’t just my fault. You, the sphinxes, the Belmonts – even if we’d laughed in your fucking faces you could have told us!”

  I was panting at the end, choking back sobs. There was a thunk of a tablet hitting the dash. And then, an awkward pat on my shoulder.

  “Miss… no, Tammy. Look. I’m your liaison. I have a job, and being a therapist isn’t part of it. I know you’re angry. I know you’re scared. For what it’s worth: I agree. And, I think you don’t deserve all of this.”

  She sighed. I stiffened as the pat turned into an even more awkward side hug, up until I pushed her away.

  “We were worried – do you know the kind of things your grandpa could do? We’d be crazy not to be terrified about what teenagers would do with that. You two were our top priority, but every letter we sent vanished. The Archivist threatened anyone that tried to scry directly or even get close. This entire town was pretty much closed off to outsiders, and once you two seemed calm we stopped pushing. It wasn’t worth provoking an incident when it was watching you two wherever you went.”

  I wiped at the tears and pushed her away. A bit too hard, but control was difficult. “Bullshit. She’s only in mirrors.”

  Agent Victoria laughed at that. “Oh. No, no, no. Reflections, Tammy. Do you know how little that distinction matters these days? If you’re in a car, or someone has sunglasses, or any kind of polished metal or even quality plastic? That spirit can be anywhere. Until you pulled it back under control and opened up the Archive, it was tracking your every step. I’m supposed to question you about that, but I can tell this isn’t the time.”

  “No shit.”

  I got us moving again, gliding up next to her car – an SUV that literally screamed ‘the government owns this’ even without any branding on it. She didn’t make a move to leave. When I met her eyes, she sighed.

  “We want to work with you. My bosses might not be happy, but they trust me enough to do this. So instead of negotiating and dealing with oaths and commitments and all that, we can table that for later. I’ll do what your Archivist wants and make an appointment. Until then - you want someone you can ask about anything? I’m your woman. You can come to me and I’ll fill you in on everything I’m allowed to, no strings attached. I swear that on my self.”

  The air thrummed a little. This time, the ripple didn’t leave me feeling like I was on fire. If I was understanding things right – that meant that something was holding her to the promise. I couldn’t help but notice, even addled like this, that the only thing she actually promised was that she’d tell me everything she was allowed to. Nothing saying that she wouldn’t lie.

  Still. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

  “Can you tell me…”