Murphy awoke in his own bed. The first thing he did was to check the date. Then he got up, got dressed, and he made a phone call.
Bambi met him an hour later at a 24 hour back alley strip bar in downtown Mercy. She was wearing a pantsuit and looking at the menu. Neither of them ordered anything immediately and the barman conveniently ignored them even though the only other patron was passed out on the floor. Mercy didn’t have much of a typical nightlife on account of mandated curfews but people still found a way to party. Right now though it was early enough that most of them were probably home sleeping off their hangovers.
Murphy was wearing a suit of his own but it was more casual. Bambi was dressed for a day at the office. Murphy was dressed for a night on the town. Nothing too eye-catching though. Neither would have stuck out in a crowd.
They greeted each other warmly. Bambi was probably reading his mind. Murphy could never be quite sure how much she would read though. She tended not to voice her own thoughts unless she felt it was necessary. Between Bambi’s mindwalking and Stella’s visions sometimes they upset his plans a little but he couldn’t have done this job without them, nor would he have wanted to. He liked their company, especially Bambi’s. It was good to see her again. He wasn’t sure how long it had been since she’d last seen him.
“We need to talk about what you’re doing to Stella,” Bambi started.
“What?” he asked, genuinely unsure what she was referring to.
“You’ve been giving her non-stop jobs so she can’t sit still and get a proper look at the future.”
“Oh, that.” Now he remembered.
“What don’t you want her to see? And don’t say it’s complicated.”
“Wasn’t gonna.” He had been gonna and she knew that.
She raised her eyebrows at him.
He considered his answer, figured Bambi was probably reading this one out of him anyway. She was attached to the girl which was why he hadn’t told her already. “Because we need to kill the child.”
“Lily?”
Murphy nodded. At Bambi’s look he replied, “It’s to save the world.”
She pressed her lips into a tight line and thought about it. “Stella’s going to hate that.”
“Which is exactly why I don’t need her looking ahead and seeing it happening. She’ll mess it up and we’ll all end up six feet under a writhing mass of zombies, and trust me it’s not a nice way to go, I would know.”
“She’s just a kid.”
The last time Murphy had had this conversation he’d had to ask for clarification as to whether she was referring to Stella or Lily but this time he already knew. “A dead kid. She was necromancied and poorly and because of where it was done it’s caused all kinds of issues. It needs to be undone.”
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“I was referring to Stella.”
Murphy narrowed his eyes. “No you weren’t.” But as the words left his mouth and he glanced at Bambi, he could see the faintest hint of a smile. She was toying with him.
Then smile faded and she looked more serious. “You need to let her use her powers. Things won’t work out well for any of us if she can’t. If it so happens she looks that far ahead then I’ll talk her out of it.”
“Hmm.” Murphy frowned. Instead of making a decision he moved on to his next issue. “I need your blood.”
She frowned. “What?”
“Not much. I need mine as well, and also Stella’s and two more, plus one of them does need to be a sacrifice. Not Lily, it has to be one of us, a descendant of the guardians. We could use one of the kids.”
Bambi stared daggers at him.
“Not for the sacrifice,” he clarified. “They just need to give a drop and read a few lines.”
She still didn’t look happy. “Who else have you got?”
“Amanda.”
“The firestarter?”
He nodded.
“How are you going to get her back into the Splice hole and to do her part?”
“I have a plan.”
Bambi drummed her nails on the table. “I don’t want the kids involved at all.”
“Maybe it will work with four.”
Bambi pressed her lips together in thought then replied, “The original spell was five. Reversals are tricky things.”
“Do you think Stella counts as two?” Murphy asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Well, I suppose it’s worth a shot.”
Bambi snorted and gave him a bewildered look. “We’re saving the world and you’re going with it’s ‘worth a shot?’”
Murphy grinned. “Gotta have a little fun sometimes.”
She smiled but she still looked a little worried.
“Unless you’d rather-”
“No,” she replied reading his mind. Decisiveness replaced the uncertainty in her face.
Another beat of silence. It wasn’t an uncomfortable one. The pair of them could have sat in silence for an hour without feeling the need to talk. Perhaps they would have if the entire state of the world hadn’t been in danger. Then again, this wasn’t the first time and there were worse things that could happen.
“You ever pick paths where we don’t have kids?” She asked it quickly as if she were afraid of the answer.
Murphy smiled because that was an easy question for him to answer and he knew she’d like the answer. “Not that I can remember.”
She relaxed.
Knowing she liked logic and wanting to really ease her worries he added. “It’s good that we continue out genetic lines.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. Not quite the response he’d been hoping for and he supposed maybe he should have seen that coming but now that he’d gone down that path it was better he took it to it’s end. He was at least as good at logic debate as she was and besides, she already knew he loved her and their kids. All she had to do was read his mind.
“You know, in case of situations like this. It’s useful,” he explained.
"I'm not a breeding dog Murphy," she replied with a touch of indignation.
He grinned. "No, dogs are awesome. They're loyal. They'll wait for a dead man, never lose hope. Witches have nothing on a dog."
She sat up a little straighter and gave him the side eye but Murphy could swear there was a touch of a smile there.
"I think you missed my point." She raised one eyebrow. Yup, she was definitely trying not to smile.
“You’re almost as good as a dog though.” He said it with a straight face. It was difficult but he pulled it off. To help keep a straight face he thought fondly of his pet dog, Rodger, who had been his best friend growing up. He’d loved that dog more than anything. Truly there was no better being than a dog.
“Just what every woman want’s to hear,” Bambi retorted with an eye roll but she finished the sentence by ducking her face and muffling a laugh with her hand.
Bambi was beautiful when she laughed. And with that Murphy considered the game won. Another moment lived.