Grim and Bear It

Jake

Paris knocked on the door to my room at the SHAP medical facility. I motioned for her to come in. "Came with an update." She closed the door behind her and hit her watch, checking the room for hidden creatures.

"Please." I had been locked in here for two hours as they examined me. They had rotated heat and ice on my leg, and finally determined I had just bruised myself pretty good. No torn ligaments or sprains. Sadly, like a regular human emergency room, it took hours to escape.

She read her watch. "Clear. Okay, your family, Mina, and Carma are en route to a cabin Jim owns in Grand Haven. They'll arrive in a few hours."

I nodded. "I can't believe Mina agreed to go."

Paris grimaced. "Jim bribed her. Told her she and Carma could remodel."

I laughed. Mina hated remodeling, but this was on brand. "Good for her."

She smiled quickly but got back to business. "I already called your guy in Hayvenwood. Loren, the ex-HQ agent." HQ was to SHAP what the U.S. Navy SEALS were to the human military. "He's in. There's only one road from the highway into town, and they've got a drone watching for Fletcher."

"Did he know about the warehouse?"

"Not that he said, but no way to tell if it was a secure line."

I tapped my fingers against my thigh. "We're walking into a trap, aren't we?"

She nodded. "More than likely. But I don't see another option at this point."

"Okay." I swung my legs off the bed. "Get me out of here and out of these scrubs." I tugged at the too-tight shirt I had borrowed, since my clothes had been soaking wet.

She checked her watch. "I had Sebastian put together an overnight bag for you. It's in the car. We have a plane to catch."

"You said plane, Paris. Plane," I reiterated. "Why are we standing in front of a helicopter?" I wondered if Poppy would be able to find me if I died in a crash. Would she be able to track me outside of Applechester? Was she tied to me or the town? I wished there was a way to ask her.

She sighed. "Because if I said 'helicopter', you would've been upset. Like you are right now."

"Why did you book a helicopter?"

"Because you wanted to keep SHAP out of it, and I had access to one. Can't fly under the radar on a plane."

"Planes are safer."

"There's not much difference."

"Not-not much difference?! There are an average of 7.28 crashes for every 100,000 hours of flight compared to " The blades started whirling, cutting off my sentence and drowning out all other sound. I gestured to them to make my point. Paris reached out and took my hand. "Remember to duck!"

Once we were harnessed in and put our headsets on, we were lifting off the ground. I kept my eyes closed. I had only passed out twice in my life-the first time when I got the news about Poppy, the second from blood loss-and I was not going to do it again. My heart was beating so fast, it probably could've powered our trip.

"You look like you're going to faint," Paris worried.

"If I do, leave me be until we land." I sighed.

"Get it together," Paris warned, pulling out a binder. "We need to get familiar with the town. I've shrank down some maps for us to study, along with the names and backgrounds of the people we'll be meeting. If I had a photo of them, I included it. We have just over two hours."

"When did you have time to do this?" I asked.

"You were busy sitting in the hospital. Plenty of time."

I flipped through the paper. "I know Eliza calls you an unfeeling robot, but you're fucking great at your job."

Paris's cheeks were red, and she deliberately avoided eye contact. "I appreciate the compliment on my work skills."

We were silent as we reviewed the information, and I was grateful for the distraction. Hayvenwood, Michigan, was fifteen miles northwest of St. Ignace in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Inhabited by a plethora of witches, shapeshifters, and ex- SHAP agents apparently. Maybe even a dragon.

And a warehouse of Vixen.

I looked up and found Paris staring out the window and not at her map. "Hey, you okay?" I asked.

She startled and turned to face me. "Just been a big day."

I studied her face, the pinch between her brows, the purse of her lips. "Care to elaborate?"

Her teeth worried her bottom lip for a moment. "I wasn't prepared for how...terrifying it is to worry if someone is going to live through the workday."

I nodded slowly. Her eyes moved to me and then back out the window, and I suspected this wasn't just about me. "To be fair, things aren't usually this volatile. This case is definitely baptism by fire."

"I can see why you want to leave and mentor your niece. This is exhausting."

"It definitely is."

She checked her watch. "Okay, enough feelings talk. Time for a pop quiz."