Declan moved the light up to take in the man’s face. It was definitely Jack, his hair still perfectly combed over his brow.
One of the shifters stepped in and pulled the gun from Jack’s fingers, which Declan now noticed were twitching. Then they went still.
Declan spun around, shining the light on his other attacker. The man lay on the ground, wheezing and motionless. It wasn’t Marlon, though.
“It’s a neurotoxin,” said one of the shifters. “If it’s like other cephalopod toxins,” she looked at Geir for confirmation, “low doses cause paralysis and can lead to death within hours or days without life support to keep fluid from filling the lungs. High doses,” she gestured toward the body that Geir was still kneeling over, “like from a bite, lead to cardiac arrest.”
“So he’s dead?” Declan confirmed.
“If he isn’t now, he will be in a few minutes. That one,” she gestured toward the still twitching one, “we might decide to keep alive for questioning. Right now, he can probably still hear us, but he can’t move.”
“Whoa.” Declan couldn’t think of anything else to say. Jack had been alive a minute ago. Declan had never seen a dead body before, not even at his grandfather’s funeral. And this guy was just… dead.
He must have had family. Friends. A whole history. And now he didn’t have a future.
He’d also been a giant douche who went around kidnapping people’s children, so there was that.
“You doing alright?” the shifter asked kindly.
Declan took stock. The fighting seemed to be over, and the good guys had won. He was alive and safe. His boyfriend was alive and safe and could kill people with his spit. That was actually kind of awesome.
Not to mention that Geir had a whole other partial-shift thing going on that he hadn’t even told Declan about. He looked like an alien, with those giant eyes and retreating beak of a mouth on his human body.
Declan was definitely going to have to get him to pose like that.
“Yeah,” he smiled. He was still feeling a little shaky, but he wouldn’t have missed this for the world. He dropped to his knees at Geir’s side. “Thanks to my hero…”
Geir startled and rolled away from him. He held up both hands, as if warding Declan off, punctuated by a few clicks of his beak.
OK, that was a little scary. He leaned toward Geir, over the body, but that only seemed to increase Geir’s panic.
“Hey,” he soothed. “I know you’re still you. I’m not worried. It’s cool, actually.”
Geir waved his hands back and forth, palms out, warning him away.
Was Geir scared of him now? Was something else wrong? He leaned forward again, ignoring the body between them.
“Don’t touch that!” the shifter who’d been explaining things called out in alarm.
He reeled back, looking for the danger.
“I think Geir’s worried that you’ll touch the toxin. It’s probably on the jacket, and it might be on Geir’s body. I think,” she seemed to ponder for a minute, “that it’s carried in his saliva, but he must have put it on his tentacles to take out the guy who was holding you.”
Geir nodded emphatically. Declan turned to look at the twitching body. That could have been him.
He stood up slowly, picking his way very carefully around the bodies with his flashlight.
A moment later, an engine turned on and headlights broke up the darkness. Another van started, and now he could see at least somewhat.
He stood as close to Geir as he dared. “Alright, what do we do?”
Geir gestured pointedly at the van. Even with bulging squid eyes and an inanimate mouth, he could say a lot with a look.
Declan started giggling. He was standing over a dead body and celebrating that he hadn’t died a few minutes ago… and his squid-head boyfriend was telling him he should have stayed in the van. The giggles became laughs and then he couldn’t stop. “You should see yourself. And I meant to stay in the van, I really did.”
Geir shook his head, and Declan was sure he would have rolled his eyes if he could. That only made him laugh more. The shifters all ignored him, going about their tasks efficiently.
Finally, he calmed himself down. The shifters wrapped the body in front of him and the paralyzed captive behind him in blankets. They threw them both in the back of one of the trucks. Yeah, he would not want to be the paralyzed guy bouncing around in a truck bed next to his dead friend. But again, kidnapping asshole. He totally deserved it.
The shifters guided a child toward the Healers, then another one, then… There were a hell of a lot more than three kids here. And where was May? He spotted four or five children, but he could hear more childish voices coming down the road, along with a baby’s wail.
A small, pale body wearing a giant shirt darted out of the van and clung to his leg. He shone the light downward and made out the face of a little… girl, maybe? A collar with a thick chain rode heavily on her neck. Her leg was encrusted with dried blood, but instead of a gash there was a wide, pink scar. Was this the bear he’d saved?
“Hey, I’m Declan. Watch out for the poisonous kraken spit, OK?”
The girl nodded. “You already told me your name. And I heard about the neurotoxin.”
He suppressed a giggle. She was feisty and adorable, but she seemed like she wanted to be taken seriously even though she was clinging to his leg like a limpet. “Alright, what’s your name?”
“Nina.”
“Alright, Nina. Do you want to ride with me? It’s a long trip back.”
She nodded. She looked to be about seven or eight, now that he could see her better.
“Excellent. We’ll be buddies.” He offered a hand as an alternative to his leg, and she took it, still leaning into him. “You’ll like my friend May. Hang on did you see May? Is she OK?”
Nina looked up at him. “Is she the cat?”
“Yep. Little tiny cat.”
“She was one of the first ones out. I don’t know where she is, but she went through the window before me.”
There was a sharp, clapping sound and Declan looked up to find Geir clicking his beak, the small, squishy arms waving around his mouth frantically. He pointed into the woods.
“Is that where May is?” It was the opposite direction from where Geir had been earlier.
Geir nodded, the little arms finally calming. It must be frustrating not to be able to speak. Declan wondered why he didn’t shift back, but he trusted that he had his reasons.
“Is someone else with her? Is she safe?” He asked instead.
Geir nodded again, then made a motioning gesture. They must be coming back.
Declan stepped forward automatically to hug him, relief flooding through him. Geir waved him frantically away, but Nina squeezed around his waist. He wrapped one arm around her and stroked her hair, but she soon pulled away, distracted by the other action around them.
It was hard to tell, with Geir’s bulging squid eyes with their oddly curved pupils, but Declan thought he was watching both of them with affection. Something had changed for him, Declan thought, though he wasn’t sure what. Geir knew where May was without seeming to think about it, and now he even seemed to be watching Nina.
Declan was looking forward to puzzling it all out. He blew Geir a kiss and got a beaky click in return.