Chapter 9

Outside, I took a deep breath before realizing that I was still clenching the sword in my hands. I stared down at the dark metal, able to see the engravings. On the blade part were words written in Latin, a language I learned in high school, but the translation failed me. The gold-colored hilt was decorated with the engraving of a dragon. In the dim lights of the hallway, I imagined the dragon raising its head and the tail twitching. I blinked and the dragon was still.

Great. Now I was imagining things. I was now a witch walking around with a magic sword and I was imagining things. In the office that regularly burned witches. How close could I cut this without being caught? Someone was bound to notice sooner or later. I’d always hoped it would be later.

I walked into the office that I used to share with Baulder and froze. His desk had already been cleared out; all of the equipment was gone. His rifles, his uniform. There was hardly anything of him left. The only thing there were a few photographs of Baulder and his family. I bent down and picked one up, eyeing the photo of Baulder and his wife they day they were married. I let the photograph go, placing it back in its spot.

I dashed to my side of the office, opening my closet and stashing the sword inside. I grabbed the extra inquisition uniform, since it looked like I was going to be there a while and headed to the bathroom. Each office came with a full shower. Often times when fighting witches, we came back covered in all types of strange goop. So after Leona took her samples, we were required to shower down. I leaned against the cold counter, fighting back tears.

It wasn’t fair. Baulder was a good man. He was kind and warm and funny. Yes, he was stubborn. Yes, he could be a jerk at times, and he was hard when it came to handling cases, but he was the best of the best. The kind of officer most men dreamt of being in this business.

Baulder always searched for the truth though. And if anyone was ever lying, he usually found out and called them on it. He was a good, decent man. With a good, decent family. He didn’t deserve to die. Just another innocent life lost to a crazy battle. We had to find a way to stop it. And soon.

Slowly, I pulled myself off the counter and proceed to change clothes. It takes only a few minutes before I was dressed again in the uniform, finishing the last button. I stuffed the leftover clothes into my desk drawer just as my cellphone rang. Checking the caller ID, I slid over ‘answer’ when I see Leona’s name.

“How’s my favorite patsiyent?” The scientist asked.

I forced out a laugh. “Living.”

“Resting well? Taking your meds?”

“Yeah, doing my best.” I sighed, brushing a hand through my hair.

“Are you at home?”

“No, I’m at the office. I had to come in to take care of some stuff today.” I explained before she could argue.

“Your definition of rest.” She laughed. Metal clanked in the background as she worked.

“Hey you said, relax. You didn’t say I couldn’t do paper work.” I leaned back in my chair, staring across at Baulder’s desk. I really needed to get somewhere that didn’t bring up memories.

“Da, da. True. Since you are here, come see me will you? I have something to show you.”

“Sure. I’ll head down now.” I agreed. I said goodbye and hung up. Thankful for the distraction, I locked up the office, no longer feeling like I was going to burst in to tears. I hurried down the hallway, almost not seeing Wes huddled against the wall, whispering something into Tara Cole’s ear. Almost. Ignoring the pang of jealousy, I barreled past and pretended that I didn’t notice at all.

“Oh Khloe. There you are.” Tara pulled away from Wes mid kiss. “I was looking for you.”

“Sure you were.” And you just accidentally found Wes’s lips instead, I thought. I didn’t bother to pretend to buy her innocent act.

“I was,” She protested, “Mom wants to know where I can drop off our condolences for the Baulder family. Mom baked a few cakes.”

“Oh lovely. Why don’t you ask your boyfriend? He’s so concerned, I’m sure he would know.” I give Wes a forced smile and continued on to the elevators at the end of the hall.

“What the hell is her problem?” I heard Tara ask as the doors close. Thankfully, I didn’t hear Wes’s response.

Instead, I just made the elevator as the pulled up. I jumped inside and pressed the door closed, listening to the clink of the metal doors as they closed.

A few minutes later, the doors dinged open, and I was greeted by a rush of cool air. I sucked it in and let it cool my system, stepping out and across the hall to another set of metal doors. I knocked twice. There was a short beep and the doors swung open. Leonna and Luis were standing over a body on a slab of cement. It took me a second to realize that I knew the face. It was Baulder.

I froze, staring down at the gray-colored face on the slab. Thankfully, his blue eyes were closed and a blanket covers everything but his chest.

"Morning, mi hijo." Luis waves a gloved hand.

"Morning. What's all the excitement about?" I asked, stepping up to the table and forcing myself to look down at my friends face.

"I'm not quite sure myself. I'm not sure what to make of it." Luis shook his head. He wore blue gloves that were covered with blood. I almost lost it there, realizing the blood was Baulder’s. They were still working on the autopsy.

"Morning Khloe." Leona greeted. "Have you been working on your Sector 30 translations?"

"Sector 30?" Louis laughs, "Why should she learn Sector? Is there a transfer happening that I don’t know about?"

“"No. I am not going to Sector 30 any time soon and good morning, Leona. Did you have something for me?” I asked, quickly changing the subject. I wasn’t in the mood for small talk today.

“”Yes, the forensic file on Baulder, I thought that you would like to see it.” Leonna pointed to a folder lying beside Baulder’s head.

I pick edit up. “What did you find?”

“Poisoning.” Leona announced.

“Poisoning?” I looked up in surprise. “By what? There was no poison, Baulder was attacked.”

“We have no idea what it is. Or if it is even contagious. We are doing tests now. We know that it originated from here-” Leonna lifted Baulder’s wrist from under the blanket. She turned it over to reveal the small, strange tattoo of an orange Dragon that I had never seen before.

“Baulder never had a tattoo.” I examined the dragon curiously.

“Si, Senora.” Luis agreed. “We think it’s a signature. Possibly something created by magic.”

“How? From what?” I ran my fingers over the tattoo.

“That, my friend is the million-dollar question.” Leonna noted, “And that file is a copy. The original is down in the vault.””

“So you’re saying if someone wanted to take this copy and do some of their own research, no one would notice?” I smiled at her.

“Precisely.” Louis nodded.

“Fantastic. Thanks guys.” I closed the file and tuck it under my arm.

“No problem Doche’.” Leonna smiled. I hugged them each and stare down at Baulder.

“Would you like to say good bye?” Leonna asked softly.

“I’ll say my peace tomorrow at the funeral.” I smiled thinly before turning on my heel and hurrying out of the Forensic Unit. I did my best to ignore the sick feeling in my stomach. I scurried past two officers in the hall, barely acknowledging them.

I had one last stop to make. One more thing to break out before I would get to rest. And I knew I desperately needed to rest. If I didn’t finish soon, there was no way I was going to finish today, and this was the only chance we would get. To be honest, if I was even able to sneak Lil, it might be my last task as an Inquisition officer. I tried not to think about it. Tried not to think about what would be expected of me if I quit. I had only one of two options, really. Be exiled as a witch if I was caught, or to finally be forced into Society, find a “regular” job path for a woman, and get married. I wasn’t looking forward to any of that if I were honest. So the only thing I could focus on in the moment was my next task and making sure that I wouldn’t be caught. No matter what.