Last Stand of Dead Men

Myra stood. “Oh, God.”

“Now, Myra …”

She shook her head. “It’s fine. You don’t have to … I’m not asking you to say it back to me, I’m just saying it because I’m feeling it and sometimes when you feel something you have to say it so … I’ll go check on the muffins.”

She hurried into the kitchen and Fletcher stood. “Myra, wait, come on.”

The doorbell rang.

“Could you get that?” Myra called.

“Don’t be upset with me. I’m in shock right now, that’s all. I don’t know what I’m—”

The doorbell again.

“Fletch, please, just answer the door.”

Cursing himself for his stupidity, Fletcher went to the door and pulled it open. A pretty girl stood there, brown hair tied back, wearing jeans and a leather jacket. Behind her stood a Maori in a ripped T-shirt and with a tattoo on the left side of his grinning face.

“Kia ora, bro,” said Tane Aiavao.

Hayley Skirmish pushed past Fletcher, into the apartment. Immediately she began snooping around. Tane came in after her, shutting the door behind him.

“Don’t worry about her,” he said. “She’s just doing her I have no social graces thing. How’ve you been? You’re looking good. Are those muffins I smell?”

There was a scream from the kitchen and Myra came running out, Hayley walking behind her, gun in hand.

In the blink of an eye Fletcher was standing between them. “Put it down, Hayley.”

“She’s got a gun!” Myra screeched.

Hayley almost looked bored. “I walked into the kitchen to find your girlfriend brandishing a weapon.”

Fletcher turned to Myra. “Weapon?”

“A spatula!” Myra cried. “It was a spatula!”

“In the hands of a trained killer,” said Hayley, “a spatula can be deadly.”

“Or a really bad chef,” chortled Tane, but everyone ignored him.

Myra clung to Fletcher’s arm. “Who are these people? Are these magic people? You said you weren’t going to bring magic people over here.”

“I didn’t,” Fletcher said, trying to calm her down. “I don’t know what they’re doing here, but I’m sure they’ll tell us. Myra, the girl with the gun is Hayley. The big guy is Tane.”

“Pleased to finally meet you,” Tane said, smiling. “It’s weird, we’ve been spying on you for so long it feels like we already know you.”

Myra’s eyes widened. “You’ve been spying on me?”

“Yeah,” said Tane, then he looked worried. “But not in a creepy way. Tell her, Hayley.”

“The way he spied on you was a little creepy,” Hayley said, “but we were just doing our job. We were assigned to act as your invisible bodyguards in case all this war business got out of hand.”

Fletcher frowned. “So what’s happened?”

“It got out of hand.”

“We’ve been told to bring you both to the Sanctuary,” said Tane. “As the last Teleporter, Fletcher here could be a target and, if he’s a target, then you’re a target.”

Myra’s mouth dropped open. “Someone wants to kill me?”

“Maybe. Or maybe they’ll try to kidnap you and use you as bait. We don’t know. We only know what our Sanctuaries told us. Or rather, what Hayley’s Sanctuary told her. The Sanctuary in New Zealand has gone all quiet.”

“They might be plotting against us,” Hayley said to Fletcher. “We might not be able to trust Tane. We should hit him until he loses consciousness.”

Tane sighed. “Any excuse …”

“How long will we be gone?” Fletcher asked. “Myra has college and a job, and I … Myra has college.”

“We’ll sort all that stuff out when we get to the Sanctuary,” said Hayley. “Grand Mage Karrik said we should waste no time, so … Ready to teleport?”

Myra blinked back tears. All things considered, she was handling this pretty well. “But I have to pack,” she said quietly.

“No time,” said Hayley.

“We’ll wait,” said Tane, giving Myra a smile.

Myra hurried into the bedroom, and Hayley glared at Tane. “You’re just delaying to give yourself more time to strike.”

“I’m not going to strike,” he responded. “I’m way too scared of you.”

She glowered. “Secure the door.”

He frowned. “How?”

Fletcher left them to their squabbling and went into the kitchen. He turned the oven off and took the muffins out. They weren’t done yet. With a heavy heart, he dumped them in the bin.

He took his phone from his pocket and stood there, leaning against the worktable, looking at it. Finally, he dialled, and held it to his ear.

“Hi,” Valkyrie said when she picked up. “You’ve heard, then.”

“Hayley and Tane have just come over,” he said. “Karrik wants us taken in. Sounds like protective custody or something. Myra, too.”

“Makes sense. Everyone’s going nuts.”

“So there is definitely a war, then?”

“Apparently so. You’d probably be better off with us, to be honest. I mean, it wouldn’t be safer, in fact, it’d be a thousand times more dangerous, but you’d be of a lot more use here than there. I mean, that’s if you wanted to get involved, like.”