Ida tied up the cultist and stuffed him in the trunk of the cop car while Alice helped me get in the back. Once the adrenaline wore off, it became very apparent that I had a big piece of fucking bone in my side and I probably shouldn’t be walking around. Alice helped me into the car and got me settled before going over to help Ida.

I was in double trouble, as I figured it, because the bone was deteriorating. I didn't know what kind of residue it was leaving behind, but I knew I didn't want it in my body.

The problem was; we couldn’t just yank out yet. We could hear sirens approaching and we were still being shadowed by half a dozen helicopters. I needed the spike to stay where it is to help keep my blood inside, otherwise, the wound would leak like a broken faucet. So we had to ditch the fuzz before we could find a place to operate.

Normally I’d just draw or cast a hex and kill anything technological within a mile or two and escape in the confusion, but I didn’t want to crash the aircraft. So we needed to get creative.

I leaned over to the window and looked around for a rock big enough for my idea. Thankfully, the hills we were in were a bit rocky, as I spotted one about the size of a watermelon. I grabbed it with my magic and dragged it closer.

Alice came over with a frown, looking at the rock I had dragged over. “What are you doing?”

Sweat was beading my face as I focused my magic to a point, and started the process of enchanting the rock. “Attention ward,” I said. “Going to put it by the truck and it’ll hopefully make it easier to lose the attention.” I gestured vaguely at the sky. The idea was for the rock to attract all the attention it could toward the big flesh truck so that there'd be less focus on us.

Alice nodded, not looking up. We didn’t want to give the aircraft a good look at our faces.

“That’s good,” she said. “I didn’t think my charm was going to cut it.”

“What charm?” I asked.

She gave a small, somewhat pained smile. “Well, the last time we hung out, all hell broke loose,” she said. “So I brought some things in case shit hit the fan.”

She gestured around us helplessly.

I winced. “Sorry,” I said.

“It’s not your fault,” Alice said, then paused. “Well, not entirely.”

I heard some cursing in French and some ruckus from the trunk. I turned and caught Bogo looking at me with the most concerned dog eyes, chipping away at the rage I’d been banking for the last few minutes. We were separated by the cage between the back and front seats, otherwise, I’d give his ears a good scratch. “I’m going to be okay, boy,” I said.

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The trunk slammed shut and a few seconds later Ida appeared, giving a curious glance at the rock that was slowly being covered in runes. Her curiosity drew Alice’s attention to it, who frowned.

“I’ve been meaning to ask; how are you planning on imbuing that?” Alice asked with a gesture.

I hesitated, not sure I understood the question. “What do you mean? I’m doing it right now.”

“What?” Alice asked, surprised. I felt her extend her magical senses over me and the rock. “How?”

I began to shrug but stopped myself, afraid I’d pull on the spike in my side. “I just… kinda do? It’s not that different from doing it with a stylus.”

Alice gave me an incredulous look. “What?” I asked.

She shook her head with a sigh. “When we have a quiet moment we need to have a talk,” she said as he pulled open the driver's door and grabbed her purse. I hadn’t even noticed it on her when I pulled her from the Honda. “Right now, we gotta lose the cops. How long until that rock is done?”

A lot quicker if you stopped asking me questions, I thought but didn’t say. Ida caught my eye though and I could tell she knew what I was thinking. I winked at her but made sure my mental defenses were still up before replying. “Another few seconds. I’m adding a couple of lines to erase the ward in a few hours. You got something to get us out of this?”

Alice nodded and pulled out a thick piece of paper, densely packed with Latin script. “This,” she said. “Won’t stop any determined practitioners from tracking us, but this should basically make any civilian think we’re a family of three driving a mini-van. We’ll need to cover the markings on the car and remove the lights from the top though.”

“I can get the lights once I’m done with the rock,” I said. “Gimme a few seconds to finish it up.”

The sirens were really starting to get loud. I hurried the attention ward and its little self-destruct timer and dragged it with my magic as close to the truck as I could, before giving it a shove and rolling it down the hill in the general direction of the crash. I had also put a slight strengthening enchantment on the rock, so the trip down the hill wouldn’t destroy one of the runes I’d carved on it.

The girls had a little pow-wow on how to cover up the markings of the cop car. A couple of ideas were tossed around, from scraping the paint with a knife to burning the “Protect and Serve” with a road flair. Luckily Ida found some duct tape in the glove compartment and they got to work taping over the markings on the car.

I’m not 100% sure why we were doing it, but it probably had something to do with the mental magic Alice was about to use.

Since I was done with the rock, I felt around on top of the car with my magic to see how hard it would be to remove it. I couldn’t quite “see” with my magic, but I could judge what was there and what wasn’t due to resistance. The closest thing I could liken it to would be telling the shape of a room based on the noise you made, except mine was a bit more precise as the noise and the “ear” were the same thing.

Okay, that was a shitty analogy. I might be losing more blood than I thought.

After a bit of fumbling I simply ripped the lights from their mounting with the help of the Mantle. “Jesus!” Alice exclaimed from outside the car. “A little warning next time!”

“Sorry,” I said. Sweat was beginning to drip off my face and the exertion between the rock and the lights took a lot out of me. I was struggling to stay awake.

“Ida?” I asked. I had to repeat her name again before she could hear me. I must be weaker than I thought.

She appeared at my door, took one look at me, and swore. “Alice!” She said a moment later. “We need to go; now. Colm’s getting worse.”

“This’ll have to do, then,” Alice said as she slapped one last stretch of tape on the side of the car. I tried to pay attention but my vision was narrowing to a point.

“Colm,” Ida said, climbing in next to me. I could hear Bogo making concerned dog noises. Yeah, me too, buddy. “Colm, stay awake. You hear me?”

I’d love to stay awake.

I really would.

I…