I limped back into the office, leaning on the shoulder of one of the medics. Tom, James, and Jessica were waiting for me at the elevator. Tom looked to the medic first,

“How is she?”

“She’ll be fine. Going to be really sore tomorrow, though.”

“Glad to hear it,” he punched me in the arm, harder than I thought was really necessary. I winced obligingly.

“And the suspect?” James asked.

“She had a head injury. The containment team took her to the med centre. She’ll live, for now.”

“Thank you, Terry.”

Terry nodded and turned back to me,

“You need to rest and take it easy for a couple of days, Ray. Hot baths and over the counter painkillers should be sufficient.”

“Thanks, doc.”

“Any time, Ray. I’m sure I’ll see you again soon.”

He walked off into the office, leaving me with my colleagues. Which would have been more welcome if they weren’t so pissed with me at the moment. I waited for them to start, they clearly needed to get some things off their chests. After a long moment, James began.

“You want to tell me what exactly you thought you were doing, Rayna?” very calm, even tone. Angry eyes.

“My job.”

“Well, granted it has been some time since I read the employee manual, but I am pretty sure that elaborate suicide isn’t part of the job description.”

“You’re being a little melodramatic, don’t you think? It was a risk, but it was necessary. She would have gotten away otherwise.”

“Did you consider, perhaps, that we could have located her again later?”

“I did. But she would have gone to ground. She was escalating, torturing people for pleasure. By the time we tracked her down again, who knows how many she would have killed? I did what I had to.”

“You took too many risks.”

“It turned out fine, didn’t it?”

“That’s debatable. And what about next time?”

“I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it,” I shrugged, then winced as my shoulder screamed in protest.

Jim rubbed the bridge of his nose, exasperated. Tom jumped in,

“You are crazy, you know that? Certifiable.”

“It was basically a fender bender; you are all overreacting.”

Jessica stepped closer, skeptically eyeing my black eye, split lip and bruised face.

“Just a fender bender, eh?”

“Airbags are a killer. Figuratively speaking.”

“Let me take a look at you.”

“That really isn’t necessary. The medics were very thorough.”

“Indulge her,” Tom broke in. “When she heard about your accident it was all we could do to keep her from going out there to check on you herself.”

“Into the field, with an active, rogue succubus?” I raised an eyebrow. “Now who’s being reckless?”

“She was worried about you.”

Jessica prodded my facial bruise gently; I resisted the urge to bat her hand away.

“Lift your shirt, I want to see your abdomen.”

“Here, in the hall?”

Jessica just scowled at me. I raised my shirt. She frowned at the bruise from left to right running across my chest, where the seat belt had been. She examined my stomach and ribs. Finally satisfied, she stepped away and I lowered my shirt.

“You were lucky. This could have been much worse.”

“That’s me, lucky. I didn’t even get a new scar for my collection.”

“What a shame.”

“Your concern is touching, everyone,” I moved to step past them, they had had enough fun. “But I should really get back to work…”

“No, you shouldn’t,” Jim stepped in front of me.

I gave him a questioning look.

“Go home, Rayna. Take Terry’s advice. Get some rest, recover.”

“I’m fine. A bit stiff, it’s not a big deal. I can take another case.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“No, you cannot. There aren’t any cases for you, right now. You are going to take the weekend off. If I see you back here before Monday, I will have you forcibly escorted out of the building. Do you understand me?”

I scowled,

“No cases? Don’t be ridiculous. We have more cases than we can handle. You can’t afford me taking 2 days off.”

“You are injured. You look about ready to collapse,” I followed his gaze to where my hand was now resting on the wall, propping me up. I quickly dropped it to my side. “How long has it been since you’ve had a day off? Or even a full night’s sleep?”

I paused to think about that for a moment. Which was all the answer Jim needed.

“Exactly. Take a couple of days, get some rest. I’ll give you a new file when you get back.”

“We are too understaffed for that. Who’s going to cover for me?”

“And if I give you a case and you end up dead or in the hospital because you are too sleep deprived to think straight? Too injured to react properly?” Jim frowned at me paternally. “Who will handle your cases then? It is part of my job to keep my people safe and productive. And I would rather do without you for two days than permanently. Besides, this case could have easily taken you another week, or more, if she escaped, consider this the time you bought with that crash. I am telling you this as a friend and as your boss: be sensible, go home. The work will still be here when you get back.”

I sucked my breath in through my teeth, then raised my hands in surrender.

“Alright, Jim. I won’t argue with you anymore.”

“Good, because I would have felt bad calling security to drag you out,” Jim smiled. “I would have done it, but I would have felt bad. Don’t worry so much. I am sure that the rest of us can hold things together for a few days on our own. Somehow.”

“Right,” I shook my head, abashed. As much as I hated to admit it, the thought of going home to bed was a very appealing one. And Jim was right, they could make do without me, even if my ego sometimes insisted otherwise.

“Come on, I’ll give you a ride,” Jessica offered. “I’m done work for the day, anyhow.”

“You don’t have to do that. I can manage.”

“With what car, exactly?”

Oh, right. My car was currently a twisted hunk of charred metal.

“Thanks, Jess. Just let me get my things.”

We drove in silence for a time, which was welcome, because I didn’t need any more lecturing today. Maybe I had taken a few risks, but they worried too much. Nothing gets accomplished without a little bit of risk. At least I could understand Jessica and Tom, they weren’t out in the field, didn’t understand how things were. You got it done, whatever it took. Jim should know that, he had taken his share of risks, in his day. Now that he was in charge, though, he fussed too much. Worried about all the people under his command, about keeping them safe. I supposed if I was honest with myself, that I could understand that too; it was one thing to risk yourself, quite another to risk others. To send them into danger. I wasn’t sure I could handle that responsibility. I did what I did to keep other people safe. Maybe I should try a little harder not to worry him, take fewer chances. Or at least try to make sure he didn’t hear about the risks that I did take.

“What are you thinking about?” Jessica broke in.

“Being more careful,” I summarized.

“Good. You should be more careful. What inspired this epiphany?”

“If I had been, I could still be at work right now.”

“I suppose that is as close to learning your lesson as I could expect,” she huffed.

“Oh, don’t sulk,” I leaned back in the seat, stretching my stiff back.

“So, what was she like?”

“Who?”

“The succubus.”

“Why?”

“Professional curiosity. I saw her victims, wanted to understand the being who did it.”

“Don’t try to understand. She was… She brought lighter fluid to that hotel to meet me. She was planning to burn that man alive, to taste him while he suffered. As much as she hurt people, it wasn’t enough. It would never have been enough for her.”

Jessica shivered,

“But you stopped her.”

“I did.”

She nodded solemnly.

“I think I get it, then. But I would still prefer that you not get yourself killed.”

“I’ll do my best. But only because you asked nicely.”

Jessica cast me a sidelong glance,

“Gee, thanks.”

“Anytime.”

We pulled up out in front of my building and I got out of the car and stood at the window.

“Thanks for the ride.”

“I want to see you go inside.”

“Is that why you offered to drive me?”

Jessica shrugged.

“I promise, I am going to go home and get some rest. No tricks.”

“Alright. I’ll see you in a couple of days. If you experience any new pain, especially head or neck pain, call me, any time. Keep an eye out for any swelling or bleeding. I can get you muscle relaxers, if you need them.”

“Thanks, Jess. I know the drill. This isn’t my first rodeo, after all. I’ll see you Monday.”

She watched me until I went into the building, then I saw the car pull away. I hadn’t been lying, though, I really was too sore and exhausted to do anything but go to sleep. Maybe for a week. I even took the elevator. Stairs were not in the cards today. I locked the apartment door and was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

The alarm clock by my bed and some groggy arithmetic informed me that I had been asleep for 16 hours. I groaned and pulled a pillow over my head, blocking out the afternoon sun. Going to sleep immediately had been a mistake. Now, every muscle in my body had seized up. I wasn’t even sure I could get out of bed. So, I didn’t. I lounged around for most of the day, read a book, dozed on and off. When evening rolled around, I finally swallowed some painkillers and dragged myself into a hot bath. It helped. By the time I finished and stretched out, I felt almost normal. I dropped onto my couch and turned on the TV. The evening news was interesting. A woman, Vicki Carter, had been killed in a single car accident, driving on a road just outside of Toronto. She had lost control of her yellow Ferrari and gone into a tree. There had been a fire. The woman had been the girlfriend of a millionaire industrialist; he had bought her the car. He made a tearful statement to the media about how much he was going to miss her. I wondered if he knew about her extracurricular activities. Doubtful. She wasn’t actually dead, of course, but even if Vicki, or Carla or whoever, wasn’t executed for what she had done, she would never be allowed into human society again. She might as well be dead, as far as he was concerned. This was cleaner than a missing person’s report later. Further into the broadcast, there was a quick blurb about a small fire at the Hilton. A bus boy dropped a candle, as it turned out. The Organization was very good at covering their tracks. I flipped away when the sports guy appeared. I wasn’t that interested. I flipped channels for a few minutes before deciding that there was nothing on. So, what was I going to do now? No case to work, no file to read. Too late to go out and run errands. And Jim had seemed pretty serious about me not going into the office until Monday. I checked my watch, under 24 hours to go, technically, but I doubted that James would appreciate me showing up at midnight tomorrow. Nothing to do but sit back and relax for a day and change, then. The only problem was that I was terrible at relaxing. It was an occupational hazard. Spend enough time wound tighter than a Swiss watch, and eventually it became difficult to loosen up, without coming apart. A little bit of chemical assistance was usually called for. I checked my cupboards, retrieved a bottle of whiskey and cracked the seal. I dusted off my PlayStation 4 and dropped onto the couch. Liquor and video games sounded like a great idea, at the moment. If I was going to be wasting time, I might as well go all in. I took a swig from the bottle and reloaded an old game. I didn’t get to play much, maybe today I could finally make some progress. I picked up the controller. Time to drink until I started to miss my shots.