Wolfe’s world went topsy-turvy for a moment as the car slammed his Subaru. The Subaru was tougher than it ought to be, thanks to modifications, but it wasn’t that tough. Tracy slammed into Wolfe, and something hit his head.

Wolfe shook himself back to full consciousness. His head hurt, and when he reached up, pushing Tracy off him as he did, his hand came back with blood. Even his arm was spotted with little pieces of glass.

Wolfe focused, and saw he had a notification—Tracy was dead, and Wolfe had gained more experience, split with ‘unknown driver ally.’

Wolfe knew that ought to be funny, but everything felt fuzzy. A card fell from Wolfe’s shoulder as he moved, knocking a few more pieces of glass to the ground.

I need to get back to Shel, to get healed. But she already used her healing once on me.

Wolfe glanced up to see the person that had hit him stumbling from their car. The car had both its headlights shattered, and Wolfe counted on the extra anonymity as he put his car into reverse, praying to whatever Divine or Infernal being would help him that the car would move.

With a tortured screech of metal, Wolfe’s Subaru pulled back, and he shifted it into drive. The car was pulling hard to the right, and grinding was coming from multiple places—but it was moving.

“Hey, are you alright buddy?” the man that had stumbled from the car shouted.

Wolfe felt bad for ruining the guy’s day, but if he stayed, he’d most likely end up in prison, and still wouldn’t do anything to help the man.

He drove back down the road at a slow pace, pushing Tracy’s broken body further into the seat. Blood and other bodily fluids leaked onto the passenger seat.

I need to dump the body somewhere they won’t find it, and then hide my car as best as possible.

Wolfe suddenly laughed, gritting his teeth when that hurt.

He turned on the next street, heading for Noimoire—and a certain warehouse that was still in probate court, with a back entrance onto a deep and freshwater-crab-inhabited part of the river.

***

“Wolfe?” Shel asked as Wolfe opened the door to their shared bedroom. “That you?”

Wolfe sat on the bed. It was near to five in the morning and he was supposed to be hanging out with Shel’s family in a couple hours.

“Aren’t you supposed to be asleep?” Wolfe asked his girlfriend.

“I was worried about you. Did everything go okay?”

“No,” Wolfe muttered as he sat next to her in the dark. “Tracy got free and attacked me. Cut my hand up, but that was the least of it. I got in an accident. The car is a near-total loss, and I’m pretty badly beat up. I need the remaining two EMT heals.”

A few seconds later, a soft golden glow lit the room revealing Shel’s face. She gasped, and reached out and touched Wolfe’s head gently with the end of her fingers, then pulled them back.

She touched a card and an EMT appeared, healing Wolfe a tiny bit. Shel dismissed it afterward, then, a few moments later, swiped her deck.

After the next heal, she reached over and pulled Wolfe’s shirt off.

“I’m too tired, and still too hurt,” Wolfe muttered, trying to lie down. “You’ll have to do all the work.”

Shel smiled wryly in the dim golden light, tossing his shirt to the side. “You need to go to the bath. You are, in fact, still busted up… and you’ve got blood and everything else all over you. I’ll take care of you.”

Wolfe remembered the last time he had had a long day with a lot of wounds, and Shel taking care of him then. Nothing had happened, but it had been a very sensual scene—once he’d recovered enough to appreciate it.

He allowed himself to be led to the bathroom, where Shel closed the toilet lid and bid him sit down, which he did. He watched as she started a bath, adding shampoo as a makeshift bubble bath, and then adding some bath salts.

“Alright, c’mon,” Shel said, giving Wolfe a half-smile. As Wolfe stood and stripped his remaining clothing off, Shel’s eyes widened, her smile slipped, and her brow furrowed.

He glanced at the mirror. Dried blood covered half his face, and his entire left side was a bruise—given how the car was hit he wasn’t even sure how or when that had happened—maybe he’d slammed back against the side, he couldn’t remember. His knuckles were still bleeding, his hand was cut—although not as deep thanks to Shel’s healing.

Wolfe was shocked at how much damage remained across his body.

“Alright, well, you lived,” Shel said. “That’s what’s important.”

Wolfe reached down to the pants he had just discarded and fished out Tracy’s deck. It was harder then he would have thought. Weird that sometimes my body just shuts down after a situation. Must be the adrenaline leaving my body, or some shit like that.

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Wolfe passed Tracy’s deck over to Shel. “Here, sell these—except maybe the companion card, which we might want to offer to Miriam first. Tomorrow, after we hang with your sister and Ms. Timo and her rugrat, we’re going to go to that hidden arena our freaky little crime boss was hyping. Get the cash and let’s see if anyone there is selling cards you can use.”

“Sure, Wolfe, but for now, how about you just get into the bath, okay?”

Wolfe stepped into the bath, and Shel knelt down next to him. She grabbed a sponge they had kept in the house in honor of the first time, soaped it up, and began slowly and gently wiping the blood away from him. The water immediately pinked, and small chunks of blood swirled around, slowly dissolving in the warm and soapy water. Shel didn’t freak out, instead continuing her ministrations. Wolfe laid his head back on the rim of the tub and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the stings in the scrapes that remained after his healing. He had noticed, through unfortunately common use, that the cards tended to heal the internal damage first, and the superficial damage second—a good thing, but it did make this process less than perfectly pleasant.

What felt like seconds later, Wolfe found himself being gently shaken awake.

Shel’s voice penetrated the fog of his thoughts. “It’s time to go to bed, Wolfe.”

Wolfe grunted, half-tempted to explain he had been sleeping, but too tired to put the effort forth. Instead, he got up and Shel helped him from the bath. Then she toweled him off and led him to bed.

His last thought, before the darkness claimed him, was that he had gotten impossibly lucky to get a girl that would take care of him even when she, herself, had been shot not but a few hours ago.

***

“How come your car is all beat up? It looks like it was attacked by one of those Drop Night monsters.”

Wolfe struggled to open his eyes, glancing over at the girl across from him. His eyes slid to the side. The two girls across from him.

Lucy and Sharon were watching him expectantly. He honestly wasn’t sure who had asked the question.

Where is Shel? Wolfe honestly couldn’t remember why Shel wasn’t in the main room with him. Maybe she went outside? Ms. Timo isn’t here either, and she loves to garden…

Wolfe tried to shake his exhaustion and sit up straighter. He stared at the two kids.

Aside from a general height and frame—gangly ten-year-olds—they shared little in common. Lucy had red hair and green eyes to match Shel, as well as a complexion as white as mayonnaise, while Shannon was darker, with black hair and gray-blue eyes. Despite that, they could practically be sisters for mannerisms as they stared up at him.

“I got in a car accident last night,” Wolfe replied.

“Did you report it to the police?” Lucy asked.

“I can’t bear to answer questions about it,” Wolfe said dramatically, then put his hand to his face and pretend sobbed. “It was a traumatic loss. That car was a part of the family. I’m still processing my grief.”

Lucy frowned, but Shannon laughed.

There was a brief pause as they looked at him, then Shannon asked, “Are you working on my family’s case?”

Wolfe frowned. Technically he was, and he had the files in his bedroom right now, but… “I don’t know much, kid. I got some statements from your grandmother for the lawyer. That’s it.”

“But you know what happened, right?” Shannon asked.

How do I exit the conversation without causing the kid to cry? “Look, your grandmother knows everything. Just talk to her, okay?”

Shannon slumped. “She won’t tell me anything. It’s my mom and my dad, and they’ve been gone for months. No one will tell me what’s happening. Did they leave me?”

Wolfe winced. “None of this is because of you, kid. You’re a fine kid.”

“Her name is Shannon,” Lucy said.

“She’s a fine Shannon,” Wolfe replied, overly sweet.

In an almost déjà vu replay of the first time he’d joked, Lucy frowned and Shannon laughed.

But Shannon sobered again quickly. “Just tell me what’s going on, please.”

Wolfe sighed. Someone ought to tell her. It’s crazy, keeping her in the dark like this. But I’m really not the one that should be doing it.

Wolfe settled back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “Look, I think you should know, truly. But I’m not your dad. Ask your grandma.”

“She calls herself Grammy,” Lucy said.

Wolfe rolled his eyes. “Ask Grammy.”

“She won’t tell me anything. She just says that she’s taking care of me now, and that’s okay. But it’s my mother and father.” Shannon stamped her feet.

Gods’ damn it. “Kid, I can’t tell you. I’m sorry.”

“I miss them.”

I miss them too, since if they were here, it’d get me out of this conversation. “Again, I’m sorry. Sometimes, things suck. Sometimes, we don’t get to be with the people we want. Ask about Lucy’s brother sometime.”

“His name is Kevin,” Lucy said.

Wolfe rolled his eyes. “What are you, the name police? Aren’t there more important things to worry about than whether I’m using their exact name.”

“My teacher says calling people by the name they want is very important, and matters a lot to them.”

“Well, it sure as shit doesn’t matter to Kevin,” Wolfe growled out.

Lucy frowned again. “That was mean.”

Wolfe rubbed his eyes. He really didn’t want to be upsetting kids, but he was dog tired, and he had never been the best speaker regardless. “I’m sorry. I’ll try and use his—Kevin’s—name from now on.”

There was a brief pause.

“Can Shannon spend the night?” Lucy asked.

“Yeah, sure, as long as her Grammy says it’s okay,” Wolfe said.

Shannon clapped her hands. “Can we set up a tent and sleep in the backyard?”

Do little girls like to do that? I don’t remember my sister liking any outdoors stuff when I wanted to do it.

“Sure, as long as Shel says it’s okay.”

Shannon clapped again. “Yay! I never get to do stuff like that anymore. I miss camping and hiking and the outdoors and adventure and—”

“Take a breath, kid.”

Lucy coughed.

“Take a breath, Shannon.”

The glass door to the backyard opened and Shel stepped in, followed by Ms. Timo and Malviere. The vengeance orphan trailed silently afterward.

Wolfe glanced at the wall clock. “Is it time?”

Shel nodded. “Yeah. I called an Uber—they’re outside.”

“Where are you going?” Lucy asked.

Shel squatted a bit and hugged Lucy for some reason. “We’re going to an Arena to do our three competitions each deckbearer gets every Drop Night.”

“You smell like dirt,” Lucy said. Then, “Can we come? I want to see you be a deckbearer, and watch Sorenia in battle.”

Lucy’s voice was raw with jealousy when she talked about Shel being a deckbearer.

“Yeah, I want to go!” Shannon chimed in.

“There are going to be a lot of rough characters there,” Wolfe said. “I don’t think it’s for you. I’m sorry.”

“We’ll take you guys to watch some of the fights at the Three Fires Arena,” Shel said. “Okay?”

“Why can’t you take us to this one? Or go to the Three Fires Arena yourself?” Lucy asked.

Wolfe glanced at Shel, raising an eyebrow.

She tapped her fingers together. “We just can’t.”

“When you do that with your fingers you’re worried about something.”

“Everyone ever tell you that you’re too smart for your own good, sprout?” Shel said, ruffling Lucy’s hair.

Lucy ducked away from her hand. “You can never be too smart.”

“Well, you’ll have to figure it out yourself,” Wolfe said. “Because we’re going.”