Shadowchasers: Something Borrowed

By Mei1105

Chapter 14: Rings

Rain dripped down Bastien's neck, like a cold finger down his spine. The clouds had broken an hour into their stakeout, and now a downpour saturated the sand, slicked the rocks, and stuck his clothes to his skin. The darkness of deep night had saturated the entire beach in shades of black and grey, and it was starting to get very cold from his position, crouched between two v-shaped shards of rock.

It didn't matter. He'd sit there for however long it took, let rain beat into him every which way. They were ending this tonight.

Sat forty feet away in the middle of the soaking sand, Vuyo's red dress stood out in the darkness, open and exposed. She seemed oblivious to the weather, eyes closed, head bowed. Bastien wondered if she was praying, or maybe just attuning her magic in some way. The tide had come in long ago and was still retreating slowly down the beach with every breath. True to Vuyo's words, the sand had smoothed over, leaving no trace of the holes that she had dug.

No sign of the dangers that dwelt beneath.

Through the pounding of rain, he heard a hiss of static. Thando had been twitchy all night, and had insisted on earpieces for this stakeout - he couldn't stop Vuyo doing what she wanted with her own life, but he was damn well going to make sure they had every ability to keep her safe.

"I don't like this."

Bastien could almost recite the words in unison as they came out. Rain trickled into his eyes, and he wiped it away as Vuyo responded in a strange, deep monotone. "Really? We never would have guessed."

"I'm serious," There was a stiffness to Thando's voice that indicated he was talking through clenched teeth. Bastien glanced further up the beach to the grassy outcrop by the steps where he knew his friend had secreted himself with binoculars for better observation of the entire beach. "We've been out here for hours. Vuyo couldn't be a better target. Why hasn't she shown up yet? The tide is going to be completely out in a few hours."

Bastien had been on stakeouts with Thando before. The man had endless patience, and the focus of a lion when confronted with a gazelle. But this was different. Vuyo had never been with them, and she certainly had never sat in the middle of the stakeout as a tantalising piece of bait.

"It's not like the sand is going to go dry in this weather," Vuyo said. "Now hush. I can barely hear our ancestors as it is over this deluge."

That explained the monotone - Bastien recognised it as the one she used when she was listening to spirits. He'd never understood how Vuyo's powers as a sangoma worked. Technically she could talk to spirits whenever she wanted to, but the world was full of spirits, and it was like being thrown into the middle of a football stadium - full of noise, but no real conversation. If she wanted that, she needed special rituals, and the peace and serenity of her imsamo.

Against his thigh, his phone vibrated, and he slipped it out of his pocket, shaking more water off his face. The screen was slick in a second, and he had to jab at it several times before the text message would load. "Hey, Thando? Mikar's asleep. His son just texted me - he ended up prising the third whisky out of his hands and ordering him to bed. He'll check in again tomorrow morning - they're going to take the grandkids out to play football."

Some of the tightness left Thando's voice. "Good. I was worried he might not want to talk about it. No news from Becky - she and Nkhosi find anything?"

"...it's two o clock in the morning. They've gone to bed." Becky had texted him a couple of hours ago, saying that she and Ruan were going through Conall's cloud account and would pick up again in the morning. He was relieved - they were all running on very little sleep after the previous night, and it had been an emotionally draining day all around. His insides clenched as he thought of Fatima's body, still drifting out in the ocean after the setting sun had forced the search boats to stop for the night. As soon as they'd returned from the Stonecutters, he'd made the horrible call to Serena, who had promised to track down the selkies in the area when she and her mother were back from Hermanus. She wouldn't tell them the bad news herself - that was their job. He was not looking forward to the conversation that he would have to have with them. He was looking forward even less to what would await them if her body washed up tomorrow morning.

Maybe it would wash up here.

He gave a shudder that had nothing to do with the rain trickling down his spine.

"I was just wondering," Thando said. "I mean, we are going into this pretty blind. Any information might be useful-"

"Thando, your Umakhulu is here," Vuyo's steady voice interjected. "She says 'stop worrying, stop talking and let your poor lady concentrate'."

Bastien snorted - nothing was safe when you had a hotline to the deceased. He couldn't see his best friend in the gloom, but he could well imagine what his face looked like at being chastised from beyond the grave by his late grandmother through his girlfriend.

"Anything else?" Thando asked tersely, clearly not appreciating the efforts to distract him from his nerves.

"...she says you're too skinny. Eat more food."

"...thanks Makhulu."

"Hang on...she also says you're...unlucky?"

"Oh that's nice! I miss her too!"

"No no no…" Vuyo's monotone was becoming agitated. "Not unlucky…" They both heard a breath being drawn and then a curse. "Damn it! I lost her!" Her voice returned to normal. "Thando flip a coin for me."

"What?"

"Please - this could be important."

There was a heavy sigh from the other end and a grunt as Thando presumably rummaged in his pocket. "Fine. Heads." There was a long silence, and Bastien wondered if he had lost the coin in the long grass. "Tails. I lose."

"Do it again." Vuyo ordered. There was a sharpness to her voice that Bastien didn't like.

"Okay. Heads again." A pause. "Tails."

"Keep going." Vuyo ordered. "Do it until you get it right."

"...is this your idea of a distraction? Because I'm not amused-"

"I have pot and access to your entire extended family - I have distractions. But this is not one of them. I need to know if I'm right about this."

"Right about what?" Bastien thought it a good point to come back into the conversation.

"Thando's grandmother said he was cursed," Vuyo sounded aghast, clearly kicking herself at the revelation. "I should have realised earlier - the phone, the black eye, the duel disk, the thousands of little trips and stumbles. By anyone's standards, this was too many mishaps for one day."

"Okay this is impossible!" Thando broke in, panic now lacing his voice. "I've just failed ten coin tosses in a row! What is happening here?"

"It must be the tokoloshe bite," Vuyo seemed to be thinking very quickly. "They're supposed to bring misfortune on all of those who cross them."

"So...what? He's infected with bad luck?" Bastien asked, his unease increasing with every word.

"It would seem so."

"Then I need to leave. Right now."

"Are you kidding me?" Bastien demanded. "Vuyo and I can't do this on our own - you're our back up, Thando!"

"I'm unlucky, Bastien! You can't afford to have me here. What if it affects all of us? It's too risky!"

"It's not a cold, Thando - you can't spread it." Vuyo pointed out. "The bad luck will be localised to you-"

"That's not any better! What if I fall into another hole? Or accidentally trigger your trap and injure one of us? What if I make the one slip up that lets you both get kidnapped?

"I can't back Vuyo up from your position, and I can't watch the whole beach from down here!" Bastien objected. "We need you, Thando. If you're concerned about this, then you can stay up there if it all kicks off, but you can't leave us now. We can't afford to be a man down - we're too vulnerable as it is."

He could hear Thando groaning, but his feelings didn't outweigh practical sense, and he knew it. "Alright. But I'm staying up here - I'm not putting you both at risk."

"We're at more risk with you gone," Vuyo put in. "We'll figure this out - I promise. Just stay up there and keep calm for now...and stop chewing your nails!"

"Damn it, does Makhulu have nothing better to do?!"

"That wasn't your grandmother - that was me. I've been your girlfriend for years, love. I know you."

Bastien's chuckle was short lived as he realised that something wasn't right.

Thando was no longer speaking, but he could still hear a groaning.

It was low, but seemed to radiate up through the air in defiance of the rain. A faint tremble seemed to move through his hands, and on the horizon darkness seemed to be rising up as if to touch the stars.

"Thando," he said, squinting into the distance. The hairs were rising on his arms, but he was not sure why. "Are you seeing this?"

"Sort of," the reply was sharp and nervous. That did not bode well. If Thando was having difficulty seeing through the rain with binoculars, then Bastien stood little chance. A low rumble was building in his ears, and as he placed a hand on the nearest rock, he felt the trembling surge through the air.

"Oh fuck!" Vuyo's voice was loud and clear through the sudden roar of waves. "Hit the deck!"

There was no deck to be had on the sandy beach. All Bastien could do was throw himself against the rock and hug it for dear life as the tidal wave reared up like a questing hand, before crashing down into the beach and surging over the sand.

The rock jolted as it absorbed the impact, and for a horrible moment Bastien was afraid that it would crush him. Water was rushing in from all sides, biting at his skin and threatening to shred him and his makeshift shield until finally it submerged him completely. The world was a cloudy green, and sand was yielding beneath his feet. Seaweed and driftwood shot past him like bullets, riding the momentum until finally it stopped, leaving everything hanging suspended as if frozen.

Then the suction began.

The water rushed back past him, the force gluing him to the rock as the water followed gravity's pull back into the ocean. It was like someone had reversed time, as the debris that had shot past him now began to speed off back the way it came. His arms ached, and his fingers were slipping, but he clung onto the rock - if he let go now the wave would sweep him back out to sea with it. His eyes were stinging, and his body screamed for air, but the roar was getting louder again, and just as he thought his lungs were about to surrender, the surface broke over his head, leaving him washed up against his rock, gasping for breath.

Magic flared against his senses and he tore his gaze away from the devastated beach around him, over toward where he had last seen Vuyo. The Incantifier had buried her feet up to the ankles in the sand to stop the wave from sweeping her away. Now she continued to hold her ground as seaweed slithered up the beach like snakes.

Bastien had never seen Vuyo fight before. In fact she had never struck him as the fighting type - she seemed far too mellow. So he was astonished as he jumped out of his hiding place to help her, when she pulled her pipe out from the folds of her dress, held it aloft like a wand, and slashed through the air at the seaweed. A wave of flames scythed their way through the air, slashing at the grey tendrils and bathing the beach in a golden haze. Through the smell of seasalt and rainwater, a herby aroma wafted up through the downpour to join them.

Rain flew into Bastien's eyes as he sprinted over the sand toward the Incantifer. More seaweed was creeping up the beach, with waves bubbling up behind it. His earpiece screamed, but there was nothing legible in it - the water had frazzled it completely. More of Vuyo's strikes were flung through the air, carving through the seaweed like a knife through salad. A fresh roar was building from the sea. With a wave from Vuyo, sand shot dramatically into the air, packing together tightly to form a protective wall against the next tidal wave. The water slammed into it before sweeping away as quickly as it had come.

"This isn't working!" Vuyo was just in hearing range, as she whirled to attack another wave of seaweed which had been creeping up to her ankles, and Bastien knew that she was right. Her strikes were cutting through the weed, but it was far too wet for flames to take hold.

"What kind of creature does this sort of magic?" he demanded. Not being able to answer chilled him in a way that the rain could not manage.

"How the hell should I know?!" Vuyo demanded. Her eyes widened. "Hit the deck!"

The command was instinctive now - Bastien dropped to the sand, feeling the heat from Vuyo's attack as it passed over his head. It hit its target with a wet hiss and as he scrambled over to see what had snuck up behind him, seaweed slid over the sand and wrapped his limbs in a cold, slimy embrace. He struggled, but the plant refused to break.

In the corner of his vision, the sea witch shook singed strands of weed off her arms where Vuyo's strike had hit her. She paced across the sand, her steps heavy with malice and intent. Koka had been right, Bastien realised in a horrified instant - her movements and the way she stared at Vuyo with such focus were nothing but hatred. The incantifer's eyes locked on her opponent, and she freed her feet from the sand, bracing herself for an attack.

She shrieked in alarm as a handful of tokoloshe jumped her from behind.

"Vu!" Thando had finally scrambled down from the road, but his efforts to be heroic were wasted. Water leeched up from the sand around him with a sucking noise, and ballooned around the Shadowchaser, leaving him flailing in a perfect sphere that rippled as the raindrops hit it. Bastien strained again, but the seaweed held him firm in its chilling grip. There were rips and screams as the tokoloshe dug their claws and teeth into Vuyo's clothing and skin, and as the sea witch approached, a milky white glow appeared in her left hand. Bastien saw pale waxy fingers, and bruised fingernails, along with a band of silver metal wrapped around the ring finger.

It could have been any ring in the world.

But it wasn't.

And he knew it.

"Oh get off!"

Beneath the scrabbling limbs and sharp claws of the tokoloshe, Vuyo finally lost her patience. With a burst of magic, the creatures went flying through the air, jabbering and shrieking as they hit the sand. Seeing her enemy only a few feet from her, the incantifer yelped in fright and forgetting all about her pipe, tossed a ball of magic in the other woman's face.

The curtain of seaweed turned to ash and crumbled under the strike as the witch cowered away with a shriek. Vuyo recoiled in horror at the sight, and Bastien felt his heart twist. The surprised scream was angry, vicious and terribly human. The face was anything but. Frighteningly pale. Scaly in places. Dark hair and seaweed were indistinguishable from each other, and her lips were blue and cracked. Worse still, water seemed to ooze out of her skin, giving the appearance that she was permanently crying.

Maybe she had been.

Bastien felt his breath catch.

"Thera?"

The hateful gaze hit harder than any tidal wave.

Vuyo dug her fingers into the sand. Energy exploded across the beach, illuminating the area in a pale blue glow. Thera froze, back arching as electricity raced up and down her body. This time she did not make a sound, her mouth open in a wordless scream, and it chilled Bastien to his core.

"Vuyo stop! Stop!" he shouted. Frightened by the rawness in his voice, the incantifer cut the spell off, leaving their target to crash to the ground, breathing heavily. The nearby bubble of water burst, leaving Thando's body heaving on all fours as he vomited up water. Picking her way over the now crispy tokoloshe, Vuyo hurried to his side. Around his own body, Bastien felt the grip of the seaweed loosen, and he wriggled free. He was shaking as he crawled toward the twitching body of his wife.

Wife.

His wife.

His mind closed in on itself against a million questions.

"Bastien," still thumping Thando between the shoulder blades, Vuyo watched anxiously. He waved her off. He knew that he should be containing her. He knew he should be wary of the tokoloshe beginning to stir. But he couldn't. Not until he knew for sure.

Water flooded his vision as the bubble enveloped him in its embrace. The howl of rain and the roar of the waves vanished into tight silence, and his stomach swooped as he went instantly weightless in the murky prison. Frantic he pounded his hands against the surface to no avail. He had to get out. He had to see.

Magic was crashing across the beach - Vuyo was shocking her again. Was she fighting back? Was she hurt? He screamed into his prison. Only bubbles answered back. His vision began to blur at the edges. He was going to die in here, and he would never know-

Something slammed into the side of the bubble, bursting it and sending him skidding out onto the beach. Sand scratched his arms raw and water stung his lungs as he accidentally breathed in. Finally he slid to a stop and cleared enough of the water to focus properly.

She was gone. The beach was empty save for Thando and Vuyo. His colleague was squeezing his ankle tight, and Vuyo's body was covered in scratches from the tokoloshe. But they were there.

She was not.

The twisted knots of seaweed were gone. The waves beat softly against the sand, as though they had never roared in anger. In the distance a seagull was calling. There was no sign of her.

How could she have been real?

"Than?" Vuyo was breathless, and clearly exhausted from throwing so many spells around.

"Ankle," her boyfriend was gritting his teeth.

"Let's get you home." Ever practical, Vuyo slung one of his arms over her shoulder and helped him to stand. "Bastien get his other side – we need to get off this damn beach."

Why?

"Bastien!" Vuyo got his attention this time, her voice sharp and firm. His head snapped toward her. Her eyes were narrowed, torn between understanding and grim determination. "You need to get up. We'll figure this out, but right now, I need you to help me move him. Okay?"

He got up, shaking his head, feeling hollow inside.

Vuyo needed him. Thando needed him.

But he was not okay. Nothing about this was okay any more.

OOO

After twenty years in the business, Ruan had encountered nearly everything.

He'd encountered murderous spouses. He'd even encountered people presumed dead who had then turned out to be alive.

So as horrible as it was to admit, a part of him was relieved when Vuyo called them both at six thirty to update them on what they had discovered. After a week of witches, demons and malevolent water spirits, this was a breath of much needed air. Finally, something I know how to deal with!

Admittedly, the idea of her being 'undead' was new to him, but it didn't matter. This was familiar. It was a lead - something tangible that they could pull on to start unravelling this whole case.

Becky did not share the excitement. Across the table, with a steaming plate of leftover bunny chow in front of her, she was staring at the phone like it had morphed into a tokoloshe before her.

"Is Bastien okay?" she finally brought herself to ask, as Vuyo paused on the other end for a breath. Ruan's excitement evaporated as he remembered the cold hard details in Bastien's file, currently tucked away in his desk drawer.

She went off the edge of the coast road and straight into the sea. Even the vehicle was never recovered, never mind her body. Perfect conditions for said body to turn up alive again. The question was what could do something like that?

"No, he is far from okay," Vuyo cleared her throat, dry from retelling the evening's events. "He didn't say a word all the way back to the house. Just shut himself in his room. He won't talk to me, he won't talk to Thando...not that I'm letting him climb the stairs with a broken ankle." She qualified before continuing in a quiet voice. "I've never seen him like this. Not even when Thera died…"

Becky's head disappeared back into her hands. His train of thought derailed, Ruan felt his own gaze pulled towards the bedroom, where Marina was getting dressed. He didn't have to think too hard to imagine how he'd react if Marina died - she had come so close the other night at The Oracle and the memory was still fresh. If she had died and then come back hell bent on kidnapping and hurting people…

He couldn't do it. He couldn't begin to imagine what Bastien was dealing with right now. His whole world must be falling apart.

He looked at the table. Between him and Becky were two laptops, the combined information networks of both their law enforcement agencies, every victim file, every piece of information from Conall Duru's research, and two large cups of coffee. He could feel bits and pieces of the puzzle clicking to this new information. We're so close to putting it all together…

He placed his hands on the table and felt the familiar rush that accompanied diving in. "I don't want to sound insensitive, but it doesn't sound like he's in the right state of mind to be of help right now."

He'd seen what happened when cases suddenly became personal to officers. Sometimes it could be the drive that you needed to get answers. But only when the shock wore off. He remembered all too vividly the sight of the microwave shattering against the break room wall when Sipho had learned that Marko had had a hand in his best friend's death. But the determination that had pounded through him from then on had been game changing. Give Bastien a few hours, and he would be driving this entire investigation by himself.

"I'd agree with that." Vuyo clicked her tongue, clearly dry from talking so long.

"And you said Thando has a broken ankle?" he checked.

"Sprained and fractured," Vuyo confirmed. "He'll be doing desk work for a while."

"Okay, so we're two men down," Ruan sorted through his list of resources. "Thando could probably sort through some of Conall's resources, if you're happy for him to still be involved."

"Sure - it'll keep him from getting off the sofa."

In the background, Ruan and Becky heard a voice shout. "I don't care how much rest I need, I am not pissing in that mixing bowl!"

"Go back to sleep!" Vuyo shouted back, and there was the sound of a door being closed before she sat down again with a huff. "Honestly, even if he could walk, I'd ask Jalal to bench him right now. It's just too risky with his bite."

Ruan was not suspicious in the least, but even he found himself nodding. Whether bad luck was real or not, tokoloshe were, and there was no sense in messing with something that they didn't understand. "Is there a cure?" He still felt a little silly saying 'counter curse'.

"None that I know of," Vuyo admitted. "I'm going to reach out to some other sangoma who might know better, but right now I'd say killing the witch is our best bet."

"Okay, all I know about Bastien's wife is the information I got from the police records." He could feel his mind moving again. This was just like any other case at its core. He had a mystery to solve, and he needed data. "Was there anything magical about it? Anything that wouldn't have shown up in the official reports?"

"No, it was exactly as the inquest found it," Vuyo sighed. "RTI, with poor road conditions as the cause. Her parents requested the inquest to see if it was suicide, but there wasn't enough evidence to support it - antidepressants and marital problems do not automatically mean suicide, and there was plenty of evidence supporting the glass on the road instead."

Ruan had seen as much from the report, and there was a part of him (the part that had been doing this job for twenty years) that knew that hadn't been the point of the inquest. Bastien's reaction in the custody cell the previous day had proved that. Her parents didn't ask for the inquest because they thought it was true. They did it to punish him - to make him see how miserable she had been.

"It might not have been suicide, but she was in the grip of very severe depression. A depression caused by someone." He muttered, pulling his thoughts out one at a time for examination.

"Don't blame Bastien for this," Becky was sharp. "He was doing a job that he could never explain."

"I'm not blaming him," Ruan had seen the defensiveness brewing in her eyes as he had spoken, and he placed a calming hand on her arm. "I understand why you don't share it with everyone, but I doubt Thera ever did. All she probably saw from Bastien was secrets and lies, and no explanation." Like we did until The Oracle.

"Then why didn't she target Bastien specifically last night?" Becky asked. "She had every opportunity, but from what Vu said she was more focused on her."

Ruan shook his head. "Because Bastien was only part of the problem. The secrets were what caused her unhappiness. He kept magic from her."

"You think that's why she's been going after the Shadowkind?" Vuyo was quick to see his line of thought. "She blames our existence for Bastien's work and his distance in the marriage?"

"I'm saying three years is a long time to obsess about those who wronged you," Ruan said.

"A motive is useful," Vuyo agreed. "But I'm more interested in how it happened. Gelehrin said she thought Thera was like her, and after seeing her last night, I agree. The circumstances of their deaths match, along with their current state of animation."

"So she went off the cliff and into the sea." Unable to pace, Ruan tapped the edge of the table. "Couldn't get out in time - maybe she was knocked out, maybe her seatbelt jammed, maybe the water pressure was too heavy on the doors. The car fills up and she drowns. Then she hears a voice saying…" he paused, reaching for the interview transcript. "...ah, yes. That it will save her in exchange for a favour."

He set the papers back down. "Any ideas?"

"Still none." He was not surprised - Vuyo would probably have opened with them if she had. "Like I said last night with Gelehrin, there are plenty of things that can animate the dead. The fact that Thera is here too just extends our timeline from eight months to three years."

"Do you think there are more of them?" Becky felt the need to ask. "Like you said, three years is a long time, and people end up dead in the ocean all the time..."

Ruan didn't need to ask to know she was thinking about Fatima.

Vuyo shook her head. "Animating dead bodies is easy, but making sure their souls stay put? That takes a lot of power and skill."

"I'm no expert at this," Ruan put in. "But I'm guessing that raising the dead also draws more attention to you."

"That too. Based on Thera and Gelehrin's circumstances of death, and the dead whales that we've had recently, we definitely seem to be dealing with something that dwells in the ocean. I suspect whatever it is might be confined to it - Thera acts as its agent on land, capturing Shadowkind for it."

"So if Thera wants Shadowkind for revenge, what does the thing that brought her back want them for?" Becky asked. "People don't usually spend energy reanimating dead strangers out of the goodness of their hearts, so it must be getting something out of this too."

"We probably won't know until we find out what this thing is," Vuyo admitted. "I still have no ideas. I'm hoping some of my contacts might."

Ruan looked from the transcript beneath his hand, to the hundreds of tabs and PDFs open on his laptop. Everything - the kidnappings, the tokoloshe, Thera - linked back to this one creature. The linchpin of the entire case. What are you? What do you want? And why do you need magical people?

"Let us know when Bastien is ready to...talk. We'll send some of the research to Thando. Hopefully between the three of us we can find something." He considered suggesting that they go to the station and try to get more answers out of Gelehrin and Conall while they were still in custody, but he doubted they'd be successful, and they had far more potentially useful leads in Conall's research. Still, as he hung up the line, he met Becky's eyes and saw the forlorn look there. It was a lot of research to go through, and there might not even be anything at the end of it.

"Right, I'd better get to the hospital, before Mum takes the catering staff hostage," Marina's appearance was all too timely - clearly she had been listening at the bedroom door waiting for them to wrap up their call. Curious, Ruan picked up his phone. The string of grumpy messages that already filled the family chat indicated that his future mother in law was most displeased with the porridge. They lifted a smile to the corner of his lips.

"Be safe," he tried to smile reassuringly as she gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Text me when we know she can leave." In theory Lihle was supposed to be discharged that afternoon to recover at home, but nobody believed for a second that she would be relaxing. They were supposed to be driving up to Paarl that evening and Lihle had made it very clear that the wedding was still going ahead tomorrow as planned, no matter how many bullet holes there were in her chest.

"Good luck," Marina took Becky by surprise, kissing her on the cheek too. "I know you've both got this. I'll tell you if I see any more tokoloshe in Mum's room."

Humming, she stepped into her shoes by the front door before leaving. Becky watched her leave, turning to face him as the door slammed closed, her face alarmed and suspicious.

"...you told her?"

With a deep breath, Ruan felt himself brace unconsciously against the table. "Yeah."

"...about all of this?" she gestured to the table with all their papers and screens on it, but it was clear that she wasn't just talking about the case.

"Well, yes," Ruan didn't regret his decision, but he was starting to sense that he had disturbed something deep in Becky's fears. "I had to tell someone - just to get it out of my head. I saw what all this secret keeping has done to you. I never want that with her." He didn't want to add that he couldn't think of anything worse than lying to the woman he loved. Official secrets was one thing, but this directly affected them both and the rest of the family.

"And...is she…?" Becky seemed to be struggling to put the words together, and Ruan felt a tinge of hurt in his chest, before he realised that that was slightly hypocritical - after the way they'd all behaved towards her, she had even right to be wary.

"She's fine, Becky. Just like she was fine with you being a Shadowchaser, and almost being shot by a demon the other night."

"But...she…"

"Trust me. If she didn't bat an eye when your grandmother and her friends were caught stargazing naked on Table Mountain, she can handle this." Actually, Marina had taken the whole story rather well. She didn't want to believe tokoloshe were real - nobody in their right mind would wish them upon the universe - but she believed him without question. She knew he wouldn't lie to her about something so important, and she knew what liars looked like - her first marriage had trained her well in that skill. The sense of relief he'd felt when she had accepted it straight away had been immense, like someone had snapped the bands of stress that had been tightening around his head all day.

He knew he wouldn't tell anyone else though. He had got so lucky with Marina - in this, and in life - and he didn't want to push it.

Across the table, Becky sighed heavily, leaning back in her chair and rubbing both hands over her face. "How can we throw a wedding tomorrow knowing that this is still hanging over us?"

If Ruan was being honest, it bothered him too. Typically it wouldn't be an issue. When an officer went on leave, any open cases were handed over to the next senior investigator in the department - in his case, Thombi - but he was in so deep now, he wasn't sure how he was going to do that, especially with all the magical elements now involved. "We do what we can to resolve it today. And if we don't, we do enough that someone else can."

"My someones, or your someones?"

"I don't think there is a me and you any more. Our someones." That would have to be his goal. The police didn't have the magical expertise that the Shadowchasers did, but with Thando benched, and Bastien too personally connected, the police had the necessary manpower. There would have to be some kind of working collaboration, and he had to make sure that it was in place before he clocked off tonight. "Doesn't really matter. As long as everyone is safe and the perpetrator behind bars."

She went silent, her eyes going back to the transcript on her screen, but not really seeing it.

His phone buzzed on the table. Seeing the caller ID, he got up and hurried to the kitchen before answering. "Nkhosi."

"Boss," it was Harriet, and she was unusually somber. "Thombi's heading to the waterfront. They found a body in the harbour…"

OOO

Watching Ruan head into the kitchen, Becky wondered how he could seem so calm. He wasn't unconcerned - it was plain to anyone that he was burning to get to the bottom of the case, not for himself, but for the sake of the families and the safety of the public. But there was no hint in him anywhere that it was proving difficult, or that they were on a time crunch.

Because he's been doing this longer than you have. A voice that sounded like her grandmother reminded her. This has been his life for two decades. You've been doing this two minutes. This is your first mission since graduating and you weren't even supposed to be doing it - you're supposed to be on holiday with your family, and instead you've hunted down a gang leader and watched a girl kill herself.

There was nothing like the voice in the back of your head to put things into perspective. She pressed her fingers into her forehead, as though hoping it would push the answer into her brain. Her eyes flicked over the photos on the screen, but she wasn't really seeing them. That's all I need - to burn out right now. Part of her was acutely aware that she was supposed to be resting and recharging, but it just wasn't happening. Maybe when she got home she would suggest a trip with Judy and Emily. Cricket season wasn't until May, but maybe there was something else they could do...

"That looks nasty."

She felt like her bones were going to tear free of her skin. Screaming in fright, she yanked her head out of her hands. Her mother jumped too, recoiling back in her seat as though afraid that she had broken something.

"Don't do that!" heart racing, she glared at the older woman, embarrassed to have been caught off guard. Some magical police! She slumped back in her chair, as her mother shrugged apologetically. Okay I do need a break.

"Your uncle got injured like that once," she nodded to the screen, and Becky realised she had stopped scrolling on Gelehrin's booking-in photo. Her wig was absent, and the wound seemed to glisten under the florescent lights in a way that made her feel queasy.

"You told us," she remembered. To hear Lihle tell the stories, Marina had been the daredevil of the three siblings and Jeremiah had been the one to pull her out while Elize stood on the sidelines fretting that they would all be in trouble. "Marina borrowed your neighbour's skateboard and was grinding along a wall, and she told Jeremiah that if he was so cool why didn't he do it?"

Elize nodded. "No one told me head wounds bleed like that - I really thought he was dying. I had visions of him being taken away in an ambulance and never seeing him again. It felt like the world was ending."

But it hadn't. Becky knew this. An ambulance hadn't even been required. Their father - her grandfather - had given Jeremiah three stitches and the teenager had sulked that he wasn't going to get a cool-looking scar. She folded her arms thoughtfully. "You must have had a heart attack when he went into the police."

As the words came out of her mouth she was hit with a sudden surge of insight. Her uncle had joined the service at eighteen, spent the next few years in basic training, and quit after ten years to become a ranger. He never talked about his time as an officer, and now that she thought about it, she was curious why.

No wonder her mother worried about her being in a dangerous job - she'd been here before.

"That's putting it mildly," her mother sighed. "I was more vocal about it at first, until he accused me of treating him like he was already dead." She looked pained as she caught her eye. "I can't help worrying, you know. I know what you and your sister think, but it's not something I can just stop. Between your Nana and her cancer, your uncle getting bitten by lions and your Dad getting set on fire at work, I feel like we tempt fate too much in this family. Even you when you had your bike accident…"

Instinctively Becky's hand went to the knot of scars on her side. Her mother didn't know half of what had happened that night - as far as she was aware, Becky and her friends had been drawn into a Turbo Duel on their way back from a night out, with both parties losing control of their bikes at the end of it. The truth was far less wholesome.

"You were never the same after that. It was like you grew up overnight. Suddenly you had something to focus on. And then you said you'd applied to train with a security firm, I realised it was happening again. Only this time it was my little girl getting taken away in an ambulance where I might never see her again-"

She broke off, swallowing hard. Becky could feel an uncomfortable lump in her own throat. She could not remember her mother ever speaking to her so honestly.

"I just don't understand why everyone is so keen to put themselves in harms way," she said. "It's like you all want to shake hands with death."

"We're not shaking hands with death, Mum." Steeling herself, she took a deep breath. "We're just living. I know you don't understand it. I know it seems insane to you. But me, and Ruan and uncle J...we're all the same. We'd rather live five years knowing we made a difference in the world than live fifty not doing anything at all. And every time we help someone - every time Ruan saves someone from being kidnapped or when I stopped Marko from shooting Marina - we give that person years of their own life back that they nearly lost. That's worth it."

She saw the look on her mother's face. The crushing disappointment. The despair. The feeling of injustice. She knew Becky was right and she hated it. Becky tried not to feel vindicated by it - that wasn't the point.

"Would you think more or less of me if someone I loved was kidnapped and I didn't try to help them?" she asked.

"I'd rather you left it to someone else." Her mother looked uncomfortably at her lap. "And I really don't care if that makes me a horrible person. You're my baby. I will never be okay with you being in danger. Fearing for you every day is only natural."

Disappointment stung Becky, but she pushed it away and tried to think about it from her mother's point of view. She felt disadvantaged - she didn't have children, and she couldn't begin to imagine that 'mothering instinct' that people spoke about that drove women to lift trees off their downed infants. She only had her family and she hadn't hesitated to jump into danger for them at the club. The idea of one of them taking a role like hers was hard to reconcile - none of them were the type like her and Ruan. Even with her friends, she didn't fear for them. She had first hand experience of their capability.

"I know that." Sighing she folded her arms, unable to put herself in those shoes. "But, have you ever tried being proud at the same time?"

"I am proud." The response was a little too fast, and Becky lifted an eyebrow.

"Does Uncle J know that? Because I don't." She shook her head stiffly. "We - me, him, Ruan - we don't do this in some misguided effort to make our lives dangerous. This is something we really care about. And it means a lot to us when people understand the value of it. No matter how natural it is for you to worry about us, you treating it like it's some kind of death wish just tells us you don't care about how happy we are."

She had seen this expression before on her mother - when she was being told something that she didn't want to hear. It was the same look she had worn when Becky had announced that she was going to America. Or when she found out that Andi had snuck into an 18 rated movie. Usually it resulted in panic, or a healthy dose of anger. But on this occasion there was something else. Becky saw regret. For the first time, certainly that she could remember, her mother was listening to her like she was an adult. Her lips twitched as her urge to argue against her was pushed back inside, and she let out a breath with a nod.

"You're right. We're family. I should be more supportive...of you all." She looked her straight in the eye. "I am proud, you know. I always thought when you were a kid, after your therapy...well...I thought you'd grow up to be like me. But I guess I was wrong. You're more like your Nana."

Something warm simmered in Becky's stomach and she felt tears grip her throat strongly. "That was the best compliment you could have ever paid me."

No matter how hard you tried to hide it, mother's always knew when it was time for a hug. Elize slid her chair over and gathered her into her arms, squeezing tightly and giving Becky a safe shoulder to hide tears in.

"It won't be easy." She was rubbing her back as she spoke. "But I'll try."

Becky gave a half shrug as she leaned back from the hug. "That's all any of us ask for. And...for what it's worth, I'll try not to give you a reason to really worry about me."

It was a thin smile on her mother's face, but she took it with grace, settling back in her chair with a heavy sigh. "...is there any bunny chow left?"

"I think there's a quarter chicken in the fridge," Becky reported, eyeing her own plate of mushy bread and mutton up and suddenly feeling hungry again. "And pickles...dunno which genius ordered those."

Her mother pulled a face.

"Oh I'm the genius - thanks for the compliment," Violett stuck her tongue out as she entered, raincoat and rucksack in her arms as she tried to wrestle a camera into the latter. "They're our snack for the road. I guess you'll have to bring crackers, Becky."

It took Becky a moment to remember the itinerary. An hour and a half drive to Hermanus followed by four hours trapped on a boat with Andi? No thanks.

"Sorry Vi, I don't think I can join you guys - Ruan and I have a lot of work to do…" she gestured to the pile of papers. Maybe it was her imagination, but she swore they'd doubled in size during her conversation with her mother, who was now creeping as unobtrusively as possible toward the kitchen. She nearly collided with Ruan as he reappeared in the doorway.

"Hang on a second Harriet," Ruan tucked his phone against his chest. "Becky, go with them."

The abrupt and rather forceful request made Becky sit upright, a frown crossing her face. He wants me to ditch the case to go look at whales? "Why?"

"Vi, go get your pickles," Ruan ordered, crossing the room to rejoin Becky at the table. Her cousin made herself scarce, but Ruan still kept his voice low. "Because they're going out on the water for four hours to hang out with whales."

The inference was clear. Four hours with a dead witch who's been attacking anyone linked with this case, and an unknown monster that eats whales for breakfast. It was enough to make the bunny chow turn in Becky's stomach, and she scrambled to get up. "I'll go with them."

"Thank you." Ruan whispered, taking a step back to let her charge past. "Don't worry about all this - I'll send it over to Thando and then I've got something to wrap up at the office. I'll text if anything happens."

Becky didn't reply, already barrelling into the bedroom to look for her own jacket, and trying to ignore the feeling in her gut that told her he wouldn't need to text her. Somehow, she had a feeling that the developments weren't going to be with him.

A Shadowchaser on a boat in the middle of the bay? What could be better bait than that.

She didn't care. As long as it was looking at her, and not Andi and Vi, she knew she would take the risk.

OOO

A/N: Greeting my dears. No, I'm not apologising for this delay, or the shortness of this chapter, nor am I apologising for updating a grand total of twice in 2020. I'm pretending it didn't exist. 2020 wasn't a year - more like an end of season finale for all of mankind.

As I always, I thank 7th Librarian for sitting on me and making me write. We will update Yuanfen soon (it kinda took over our lives for the first half of this year, so its been nice to breathe for a moment), and he will update Nightmare Troubadour soon. It's my turn to sit on him now. I don't even care how you take that.

I appreciate and love all reviews.